Originally published at: The Tip Of The Birthright Citizenship Iceberg Floats Towards The Supreme Court
Hello, it’s the weekend. This is The Weekender 
The Supreme Court on Thursday will hear arguments related to President Trump’s executive order that purports to white out the guarantee of birthright citizenship from the Constitution. These arguments will focus on a narrow facet: whether district judges properly issued universal injunctions against the order, or…
1 Like
Happy weekend from Newfoundland
Many houses in the old part of town, near the harbour, are painted bright colours with some odd juxtapositions. They are called Jelly Bean houses.
I’m staying at the Jelly Bean B&B. The original owner of the house, built in 1894, is famous around here for inventing the Cod Trap; William H. Whitley the third.
57 Likes
Shorter Santos: Hey! It was just campaign money I stole. Why am I being sentenced as though I were a purse snatcher?
28 Likes
Too bad we can’t go back in time and send Donnie’s mother back to Scotland.
22 Likes
What Santos didn’t get is, you are suppose to be nice to your fellow thieves and not make it so bad they can’t ignore it.
13 Likes
The First Felon has little to no use for Santos. I will put good money that no one in the administration believes Santos to be important enough to waste oxygen on.
24 Likes
C’mon, one convicted felon to another…
Not to worry George. He will get you out if it takes ten years.
10 Likes
Reminds me of the climate change argument.
Something we get to have while they sell more and more oil.
6 Likes
By catapult.
3 Likes
Things are so depressing these days, I turn to nature for trying to calm down and get away from all the dark thoughts. Here’s a spot of color for you: a migrant Hermit Warbler perched on an ocotillo blossom in SE Arizona this week. Eye level view- amazing when you consider that they nest over 100 feet up in tall conifers.
61 Likes
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” ― George Orwell, 1984
16 Likes
Today’s Heather Cox Richardson and Paul Krugman:
16 Likes
The conservatives on the court cannot bring themselves to hammer Trump with a definitive loss on any of the various policies he proposes or pursues. We saw it play out with the vague “facilitate” Garcia ruling, and he’s still sitting in prison. They want to appear decisive, but they either issue vague rulings, or give Trump partial victories seemingly contrary to any laws or statutes legal scholars deem supportive of Trump being wrong on the issue.
Trump will get a partial win on the birthright citizenship question. The Constitution means whatever SCOTUS says it means. They’ll carve out a class of people exempt from the 14th Amendment. Not sure what that might be. The most obvious and impactful class to exempt would be people born on U.S. soil wherein both parents were here illegally.
Trump will get something for his efforts. That’s a lock.
11 Likes
US district judge Susan Illston in San Francisco sided with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments in blocking large-scale mass layoffs known as “reductions in force” for 14 days.
“As history demonstrates, the president may broadly restructure federal agencies only when authorized by Congress,” Illston said.
“The court here is not considering the potential loss of income of one individual employee, but the widespread termination of salaries and benefits for individuals, families and communities,” Illston wrote in her ruling.
36 Likes
I read Ozturk’s article in its entirety. It’s pretty anodyne stuff. I have seen more inflammatory letters to the editor. Sez Israel did bad things to Palestinians.
Pee-wee German must be spending a lot of time hunting up students with funny names to have found her.
And Ozturk had three co-authors; my guess is they are citizens and, for now, untouchable.
36 Likes
Trump is waiving a law that protects them, in order to clear the way for a new condominium and golf complex.
6 Likes
Don’t give him any ideas
9 Likes
To Fat Nixon there are three kinds of birds: pigeons, seagulls, and those other birds.
12 Likes
By my observation, It’s almost entirely geared towards males with a shallow understanding, or none at all, of how government works.
The embrace of viral far-right culture has nurtured a parallel information ecosystem through pro-Trump outlets enjoying a significant growth in influence, access to power and financial investment. It is helping the president dominate the “attention economy” and reshape narratives around the economy, immigration and other policy issues. But it also alarms critics who warn that insults and lies are going unchecked.
Tara Setmayer, a political commentator and former Republican communications director on Capitol Hill, said: “Donald Trump has always understood mass communication and the power of propaganda and his rise and success politically will go down in history as one of the most successful propaganda operations ever. He has completely upended any semblance of decency, of class, of gravitas when it comes to presidential communications.
“It’s literally turning presidential methods of communication into the WWE – the imagery, the immaturity, the outrageousness. All of those things seem to be more important than truth or respect for the office and what it means to use the power of the bully pulpit to speak to the American people and the world.”
We’ve noticed. For some time now. Perhaps since 2015.
45 Likes
Some are very slow on the uptake
14 Likes