Good morning.
I'm not going to tell you to keep your chin up because I know how disturbed and discouraged many of you are. I know how disturbed and discouraged I am.
We are in for some long days as a country (I didn't think they could get longer but here we are).
Who do we want to be right now? People who pay attention. People who can share good information and counter bad. People who check and double check their sources. People who know what they're talking about.
What we know right now is that the House Democratic majority expanded. We do not yet know which party will control the Senate. We do not know who will be the president.
We know that every vote should be counted and that counting often takes a long time. A vote cast by mail is not less legitimate than a vote cast in person.
We know that some outstanding people won and lost last night. Some non-outstanding people won and lost. Some people who should be held accountable were not, and that is brutal.
We know that so far Biden leads the national popular vote by 2.5 million votes. We also know that Donald Trump's support has somehow increased. There is nothing I can say to make that less bitter.
Sarah loves it when Biden talks about how his mother had a backbone like a ramrod. May we all have that backbone in the coming days. -b
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We've had lots of questions about what's going on in Harris County, Texas, and I'll be talking about it on today's Nightly Nuance. First, here's what we know as of this morning...
Harris County is Texas's most populous county, and it's quite diverse. It offered voters an opportunity to drive thru polling stations at 10 different locations -- 9 using tents and one, at the Toyota Center, using a parking garage.
Republicans challenged the legality of these locations, and the Texas Supreme Court denied a motion to stop drive-thru voting. One justice dissented saying the locations don't count as polling places under Texas law and impermissibly expand curbside voting.
Today's episode of the Nightly Nuance discusses Democratic National Committee v. Wisconsin State Legislature. With the caveat that any opinion from Justice Kavanaugh makes me act like a disgruntled pelican, let's recap with the Roses to attempt to numb the effects.
6 weeks out from Election Day, a District Court extended the deadline for counting WI absentee ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 to Nov. 9. In WI, you can request an absentee ballot until Oct. 29. With Covid, it takes ~ 2 weeks to return the ballot, so the math is...not hard
Roberts, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Thomas, and Alito voted to prevent the District Court's order from being enforced without giving us a majority opinion.
I think there is value in answering these questions from @OrinKerr, so I will share that I favor expanding and otherwise reforming the court in every scenario below. We are a country of 300+ million people. The Court receives 7-8k petitions for certiorari each term. /1
That's too much for 9 justices and their clerks.The workload seems to be getting to the Court. Some of its most significant decisions are coming with no explanation. One paragraph orders in voting rights and death penalty cases don't cut it. This speaks to the need for reform.
Every time a Supreme Court justice retires, we are suspicious of the political timing. This speaks to the need for reform.
Every time a Supreme Court justice dies, we enter a political power struggle. This speaks to the need for reform.
We recorded tomorrow's show this morning, and I've been thinking about why I had such a hard time getting my words under me (other than, you know, lack of sleep, overwhelming stress, and profound concern for the direction of our country).
We're seeing lots of messages from people that, paraphrased, go like this: Sorry, Sarah and Beth, but I don't have any nuance left.
And you know what? I don't have a lot right now either. I am beyond finished with the Republican Party and its leadership.
Where I preserve my nuance is for the distinction between the Republican Party and its leadership and people in life who adhere to aspects of what the Party or the President say they're about.
The details of this NY Times story are bananas. So let's review, and imagine Kamala Harris reacting, shall we?
2014: "After tabulating all the profits and losses from Mr. Trump’s various endeavors on Form 1040, the accountants came to Line 56, where they had to enter the total income tax the candidate was required to pay. They needed space for only a single figure.
Zero."
America First? "In 2017, the president’s $750 contribution to the operations of the U.S. government was dwarfed by the $15,598 he or his companies paid in Panama, the $145,400 in India and the $156,824 in the Philippines."
This coming week on the Nightly Nuance is RBG Week.
On Monday, we'll discuss at two cases involving women's rights and treatment under the law. US v. Virginia and Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co.
On Tuesday, we'll talk about the dissent that made her a cultural icon, Shelby Co. v. Holder. Justice Ginsburg said that the majority's decision to gut the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act was like throwing away an umbrella in a rainstorm because you aren't wet.