Brian Behrend

@bhrnd.fun

Texas ex. UX and mobile product guy. Sports and tech dork. Proud dad.

We commemorate the 250th anniversary of this nation by carrying on the American tradition of dissent. Challenging those in power is woven into the very fabric of our nation.

Blue graphic with white text reading "dissent is patriotic" and red columns with white stars on the right and left sides

For years, originalists have lectured us that they no longer look to "the Framers' intent," but to the "original public meaning" of the Constitution. Here, Kavanaugh throws all that out the window to lash the citizenship clause in his subjective guess as to what its Framers intended it to do.

First, significant illegal immigration into the United
States is a new circumstance that was largely unknown as
of 1868 and that the Framers of the Fourteenth
Amendment could not have fully anticipated. And the
Framers likely would not have anticipated (and presumably
would not have intended) the odd result of granting a
substantial birthright citizenship benefit to (i) those foreign
citizens who violate U. S. immigration law and illegally
enter or overstay and then have children in the United
States over (ii) those foreign citizens who follow U. S.
immigration law and have children in their home countries
while seeking to lawfully immigrate to the United States.
Nor presumably would they have wanted to grant
constitutional birthright citizenship to children of foreign
citizens unlawfully in the country while simultaneously
denying constitutional birthright citizenship to children of
tribal American Indians. So too, the issue of temporary
visitors who give birth in the United States presents a new
and different circumstance than in 1868 given the
significant changes in immigration laws and travel.

People say America can't accomplish anything, that we've stopped dreaming big. Well, today, after *years* of work, the combined resources of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches (as well as the media) came together to prevent some girls in Idaho from playing high school softball.

The three players in this photo: 1. Nigerian heritage, grew up in England, and is only a citizen thanks to birthright citizenship. 2. Born + raised in Holland, has a dad who immigrated to the US from Suriname. 3. Said he wanted to “make people who look like me proud” while playing on Juneteenth

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Quick movie is about to start… someone remind me what happened in season 2 and 3 of the The Mandalorian. And those Boba Fett episodes.

Tonight with the last Last Show with Stephen Colbert, I'm reminiscing about 2009 when we had a week to throw together a Mr. USO microsite for The Colbert Report when he made a surprise trip to film 4 shows in Iraq. Complete with silly Flash animations & intentionally bad Chuck Norris photoshops.

Cropped screenshot showing Stephen Colbert as Mr U.S.O. MrUSO.com site screenshot circa 2009.