Professor (!) John effing Yoo

by Ugh

My former law Professor (!) John Yoo* appeared on Fox News to espouse certain views on what the "framers" (or "founders") would want w/r/t impeachment within one year of an election (shocking conclusion: they wouldn't approve!!!).  I'd say this is blatant nonsense, even for an "originalist." (though judges/justices/lawyers say certain subjects are beyond their expertise (national security comes to mind), and yet they all believe themselves expert historians...).

Prof. (!) Yoo is, of course, infamous for legally approving torture as a member of the DOJ's OLC using the tried and true method of "start with the conclusion my boss wants and reason backwards."  I imagine he thought this would curry him favor with the GOP to obtain an eventual Supreme Court nomination, where he wouldn't have to justify his legal reasoning (he once said in class that he would never want to be a judge, but he'd be happy to be a Supreme Court Justice - balls and strikes y'all).  

Not sure where I'm going with this other than to say that Yoo's legal and political approach as a "lawyer" or "legal scholar" seems to be akin to what someone on unfogged noted w/r/t Yoo after I'd described my experience as a law student with him - as the banality of evil.

In sum: someone needs to end up in prison for abuse of power in the U.S. of A., not that I'm hopeful.

*And of course the paper of record gave him recent op-ed space... (trigger warning: reason link).

Comments

[Snarki, child of Loki]

The Convention Against Torture requires signatories to provide legal, judicial or other mechanisms for enforcement.

Since the USA seems to have been sadly lacking in #1 and #2 mechanisms, it could be said to be an obligation of citizens of all signatory nations to summarily execute Yoo.

Don't like that, fix the mechanisms, and use them.

[grumbles]

The kid-testicle-crushing was probably Yoo's biggest contribution to the decline of the US, but I tend to think this tongue-to-anus nonsense about impeachment timing will be what he's remembered for.

Something about the shockingness of the torture defense, I think, convinced other lawyers he may have been coming from some sort of place of reason, even if it was a terrible place, rather than just him being a craven courtier. There is no way to frame his impeachment claim as anything other than a naked job application with the most pathetic sack of crap ever elected president.

I'm embarrassed to share the Bay Area with him.

[Kenneth Almquist]

The House voted to impeach Andrew Johnson on February 24, 1868, less than a year away from an election. A serious journalist might have asked Yoo whether anybody argued in 1868 that it was too close to an election to impeach. That's probably why Yoo chose to make his comment on Trump TV.

[John D. Thullen]

Ask Merrick Garland about the dainty, tsk-ing pinky finger-raised concern trolling regarding the made-up-of-whole-cloth-one-year-rule.

Conservatives/republicans have the one year following an election rule, the second year following an election rule, the next to last year before an election rule, and the one year prior to an election rule when it comes to any of them taking personal responsibility.

They have all time periods sewn up like kittens in a gunny sack awaiting tossing into the river.

Remember, it's always too soon to talk about the Second Amendment, until it's too late, which it always is.

Their calendars don't include any days for doing anything against their murderous ideological interests.

I think Stalin used that calendar.

Time is always up for their enemies.

[John D. Thullen]

In a few days, I will cede, or at least nominate "grumbles" as my placeholder here.

I like the cut of his/her jib.

[wj]

it could be said to be an obligation of citizens of all signatory nations to summarily execute Yoo.

I recall (can't lay hands on the reference immediately; sorry) someone pointing out to Yoo that he should never again travel outside the US, as he would be subject to arrest for war crimes for having justified torture. As I recall, he got a rather shocked look on his face, having apparently never considered the implications of his actions. One can only hope that, if he does travel, that comes to pass.

[wj]

I'm embarrassed to share the Bay Area with him.

I not only have the embarrassment of sharing the Bay Area with him. I have the rather larger embarrassment of having my alma mater employ him on its faculty.

[John D. Thullen]

The entire country, right down to its lemonade stands on suburban street corners, is a colossal fucking fraud.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/traders-pocket-stunning-profits-after-trumps-comments-on-trade-talks/ar-AAIW1rV

Price discovery?

Eat me.

[wj]

We have reached the point where this level of corruption is totally unsurprising. Almost yawn-worthy even.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-has-awarded-next-years-g-7-summit-of-world-leaders-to-his-miami-area-resort-the-white-house-said/2019/10/17/221b32d6-ef52-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html

One can only pray that Trump is booted out soon enough that it can be relocated. Although just cancelling (absolutely without penalty or other partial payment!) would be sufficient, I suppose.

[byomtov]

Felix Salmon at Slate calls the trading story a fantasy.

I find his piece persuasive.

[bobbyp]

I wonder if a reverse iron butterfly spread strategy (on some index) has been profitable since Nov., 2016?

Also, has the market been noticeably more volatile these last 1,000 days?

[cleek]

We have reached the point where this level of corruption is totally unsurprising. Almost yawn-worthy even.

truly.

it's like developing-nation-level corruption. the kind where i can shake my head a little at how crazy it must be to live in a country where the institutions and traditions and rule of law are all so weak that a person like that could even be elected in the first place. and then, a few weeks later we'd hear that the leader had been ousted in a military coup or forced to flee the country when an angry mob burned down the capitol.

thanks GOP!

[russell]

Meanwhile....

This is basically foreign policy based on Area 51 level conspiracy theories.

Remember this?

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.

We thought it was just hubris, but we were wrong. They actually are insane.

[John D. Thullen]

Paul Ryan on Mulvaney's ascension to OMB on 2017:

"Mick Mulvaney is the absolute right choice. In Congress, he has been a conservative reformer from day one, proposing solutions to fix the budget process and our regulatory system," Ryan said. "Mick is someone I have come to greatly respect and rely on, going back to our time serving together on the Budget Committee.”

Ryan, by the way, after donning the James Brown cloak, Bobby, and faking an exhausted stagger back to his hometown, is back in D.C. with his family (isn't he afraid they will be corrupted this time around?) getting ready to further gut the government and steal social security and medicare.

All of them will be executed. Good to get them all in one place, the vermin.

[wj]

We thought it was just hubris, but we were wrong. They actually are insane.

It's not that I mind so much people wanting to live in their own reality. It's when they insist on making me live in their delusions that it gets irritating.

Maybe we can invent a good conspiracy theory as to why we seem to have more lunatics these days. And so many more of them seem to be getting into positions of power. Not that there weren't nut cases around before, of course. But there sure seem to be more of them now.

[John D. Thullen]

Yes, they are insane. It's real. They've meant every word for 40 years. They are fucking subhuman animals.

Immediately when the Ukraine news hit, p and company suddenly had everyone back on their heels arguing that Nixon was wrongly punished (not) for Watergate, that Congress had no right to investigate and receive evidence.

What!!!?

They are three steps ahead at all times and there is no limit to what they will do, by the hour.

Immediately after throwing an arsonist's incendiary bomb into the Turkey/Syria/Kurd border issue, days later p and Pence are showing up in fireman suits bearing dalmations and doing Erdogan's bidding for territory.

After Erdogan's troops fired on American troops and our allies, the Kurds.

The US command is totally in the dark.

It's so Putin, I expect to see Mulvaney spewing to the press shirtless within a week.

We will see and hear things that two days ago were deemed utterly unbelievable and impossible tomorrow and the next day about the deep republican conservative state corruption in concert with foreign confederates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF-LPsCsdr8

You know, if I was a Kurd of a certain cast, I would be thinking very intently and strategically about those two conjoined Trump Towers in Istanbul.

And watching Trump family travel schedules with interest.

IF.... I was a Kurd.

But I'm becoming Kurd-curious.

Anthropologically speaking.

[John D. Thullen]

Irritating?

"And so many of them seem to be getting into positions of power ..... But there sure seem to be more of them now."

Yeah, it's like some sort of mass psychosis. One day your Uncle is your uncle and then, well, it just isn't him, is it. He's missing something, some human quality, but you can't quite put your finger on it.

I expect it will pass and we'll be back to normal in a few days.

But, I wouldn't go to sleep if I were you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNABSojPbMI

[cleek]

and now ... Rick Perry is resigning, too.

soon, the WH will be empty except for Trump and his ice cream scooper.

[John D. Thullen]

Get the dirt and evidence from Perry (using Yoo's memo as justification for the interrogation methods) and then execute him, something that should have been done years ago.

[wj]

soon, the WH will be empty except for Trump and his ice cream scooper.

If only, if only. But NYC alone has too many cheap hoods who would be willing to put on a polyester suit in exchange for a few hundred a year for doing nothing but say "Yes boss, whatever you say boss". And around Trump, they'd feel right at home.

[russell]

Maybe we can invent a good conspiracy theory as to why we seem to have more lunatics these days.

two words: ontological lapsometer.

but you never heard it from me...

[John D. Thullen]

Dr. Thomas More, Paradise, Louisiana

He's armed, but has three winsome ladies attending to him. Room Seven, the old Howard Johnson's on the edge of town. Vines have hidden the sign by now, I expect.

Watch out for the chimps presenting rearwards on the second floor.

[russell]

That book is now almost 50 years old.

Plus ca change.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

Maybe we can invent a good conspiracy theory as to why we seem to have more lunatics these days.

I have a theory, which is mine (ahem), that Brexit, the rise of Trump, et-fncking-cetera is because the Solar System is passing through a cloud of Dumbfckitude.

The rise of human civilization was possible because we were between such clouds. No telling how long it'll last.

The Dumbfckitude is a primary component of cold dark matter, which strangely enough, constitutes 27% of the mass of the Universe.

Now why does that number seem familiar? Coincidence, I'm sure.

[Tony P.]

Snarki has a lock on next year's Ig Nobel Prize for Astropolitics!

--TP

[John D. Thullen]

I'd peer review that 27% figure if I were you, which I'm not, which is good, because you probably have enough problems of your own as it is.

But that figure is low by perhaps 10% at a minimum.

The cloud of Dumbfuckitude is expanding.

It seems to behave inverse to the shrinking polar ice caps, but it is now mandated that we must takes our chances with Mother Nature and keep hands off and treat the cloud of Dumbfuckitude as protected in its expansion and lobbying strength by the immutable laws of Whateverthefuckitude which now govern our actions.

Money is speech. Corporate entities are people, but they can use either sex's bathrooms. Rudy Giuliani is an attorney.

I don't know quite what to do.

Maybe move to Brooklyn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U1-OmAICpU

[cleek]

rising temps due to climate change have invigorated those dull citizens who previously lacked the verve to get off the couch. now, they've become mobile and are bringing their decade's-worth of Fox News mythology to the masses.

[hairshirthedonist]

Some of them were being interviewed on NPR yesterday. For balance ... or something. It's not like what they were saying was blatantly stupid, unless you consider that it was.

[Snarki, child of Loki]

While Dumbfckitude is 27%, "normal" matter, the stuff that planets, stars and most everything that isn't RWNJ grey matter, is less than 5%.

And people wonder why "intelligent life" is so rare in this Universe!

[John D. Thullen]

One of the President's attorneys fronts a band.

I guess in an attempt to provide a soundtrack for his client's dumbfuckitraitortude, the band covered this Argent hit, which I posted here very recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1E4NwD5_nE

God and Irony: the two birds killed with one conservative stone.

[russell]

One of the President's attorneys fronts a band.

Fncking posers.

[wj]

rising temps due to climate change have invigorated those dull citizens who previously lacked the verve to get off the couch.

And now this:
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/10/florida-gop-regrets-lost-decade-on-climate-change.html

Nothing like rising waters flooding your living room to make it hard to keep up a delusion. If Florida turns blue, will even the Electoral College let the GOP win?