Redistricting & voting counsel at @brennancenter at @NYUlaw. Opinions mine. Usual caveats about retweets. From TX, so lots of tweets about the Lone Star State.
NYC/Mohawk Valkey
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Until now, I had never seen the New Yorker’s extraordinary July 1944 cover depicting the D-Day invasion in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry.
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Justice Sotomayor will swear Vice President Harris in using Thurgood Marshall’s bible. abcnews.go.com/Politics/harr…
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Interior Secretary Deb Haaland being sworn in this morning in traditional tribal dress and moccasins
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University of Alabama head coach (and West Virginia native) Nick Saban is among signatories on a letter to Joe Manchin urging passage of the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. docsend.com/view/6f9g9kvwfm4…
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BREAKING: North Carolina congressional map struck down as partisan gerrymander. #fairmaps
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Secretary Haaland putting on her moccasins this morning before her swearing in.
Navajo County Democrats
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N95 masks? They were invented by an immigrant from Taiwan (who came to the US for grad school and ended up staying).
P.S., He was retired but has come out of retirement to help with COVID response efforts, working 20 hours a week for free. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle…
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A happy milestone for NYC today as the city reports *zero* COVID deaths for the first time since March 11.
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Until today, I had never seen Criselda Vasquez’s New American Gothic, which replaces the white farmers in Grant Wood’s famous painting with the Latino immigrant workers who are essential to so much of our economy today. But I am amazed and in awe.
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The editorial board of the Houston Chronicle calls on Ted Cruz to resign. #txlege houstonchronicle.com/opinion…
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He’s 95 years old, a WW II vet, and always votes. But now he can’t get a mail ballot because Texas doesn’t have a drivers license number or SSN on file for him (when he registered it wasn’t required) & it can’t now be added retroactively to his file. click2houston.com/news/local…
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Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Mickey Schwerner went missing in Mississippi 57 years ago today.
To put in perspective how recently that was, Goodman and Chaney - had they lived - would be the same age as Joe Biden today.
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It seems like saying you will use the US military against US citizens domestically should be the big news story or the day.
Trump to Bartiromo on what worries him about election day: "I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within ... sick people, radical left lunatics. And it should be easily handled by, if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary, by the military."
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In a 218-217 world - or a 219-216 or 220-215 world for that matter - there will be no shortage of what if’s.
For me, the most immediate is the failure to create additional Black congressional districts in AL, LA & GA despite court orders holding that the VRA required just that.
if it is 218-217 GOP: the over 700,000 residents of Dem Washington, D.C. being denied all congressional representation will be what clinches the GOP majority.
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Now would be a great time for Justice Kennedy to say that he misspoke and meant to say that he *wouldn’t* be retiring.
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New voter registrations in Minnesota are more than double this same point in 2014. Two-thirds of new registrants are between 18-30. #2018Midterms startribune.com/minnesota-se…
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The Sunday front pages of the Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio papers. #Election2020
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You got me, 2020. I totally didn't see a 4-pack of toilet paper being worth more than a barrel of West Texas Intermediate.
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Some people imagine a natural disaster and imagine people pulling together to help each other. Lindsey Graham imagines this.
"I own an AR-15. If there's a natural disaster in South Carolina where the cops can't protect my neighborhood, my house will be the last one that the gang will come to, because I can defend myself." -- Lindsey Graham
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Today marks 4 months since Taiwan 🇹🇼 had its last COVID death (its 7th overall).
If the US had Taiwan’s per capita rate of coronavirus deaths, 97 Americans would be dead from COVID instead of 191,802.
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There’s plenty of wisdom and insight in Asian philosophy, culture, religious systems, etc.
It would be nice if more people had actual knowledge and appreciation of it instead of relying on made up things like this. 3/
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This map showing Paris’ very extensive Métro system overlaid on the city of Dallas gives a 👀 perspective on how physically sprawling US cities are. The Métro wouldn’t even extend to Dallas’ inner-ring suburbs, much less the exurbs or Fort Worth.
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North Carolina joins Virginia in abandoning touchscreen voting machines. nitter.app/josh_lawson/status/906…
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To paraphrase, encouraging voters to vote “in a legally valid way” is now being defined as “how to steal an election.” 🤦🏻♂️
How to steal an election: “Seeding an area heavy with potential Democratic votes with as many absentee ballots as possible, targeting and convincing potential voters to complete them in a legally valid way, and then harvesting and counting the results.”
theamericanconservative.com/…
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A very subtle yelling Trump embedded in the cover of this week’s Economist. #Election2020
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March 12 was a crowded day at the Brooklyn courthouse, worrying some lawyers. The presiding judge told one, "If you don’t like it, you can leave." Two weeks later he was dead from coronavirus and two other judges are sick. nydailynews.com/coronavirus/…
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Xinhai Chen
Re-upping this thread 🧵on the *long* history of discrimination and violence toward Asian Americans in the United States based on the sense that we are too foreign, too ‘other,’ too perpetually alien. It is important that people know this history.
Today, May 6, is the anniversary of signing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 into law - the first broad targeting of ethnic group in US immigration law (but not, alas, the last). 1/
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Vice President Harris today at the Woolworth’s lunch counter where the 1960 Greensboro student sit-in took place
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Survey of Texas voters: 93% of Democrats, 80% of independents, and 76% of Republicans would support a ban on partisan gerrymandering for congressional elections. uh.edu/hobby/tx2022/reforms.… #txlege
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In the first call of 2018, Guam elects its first woman governor - a D pickup. #Midterms2018 kuam.com/story/39425228/2018…
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See people, this is what happens when you don’t have intercity high-speed rail.
NEW: Texas AG Ken Paxton wanted his mistress to have a job in Austin, which investigators say he obtained for her, so he would not have to drive back and forth to San Antonio to see her, Rep. Ann Johnson said, in setting forth investigative findings.
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This is just wow. Xi’an Famous Foods is closing locations in NYC early because its employees are worried about anti-Asian violence on the subway ride home. nytimes.com/2021/02/25/busin…
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Reports that the Biden administration will unveil a sweeping immigration reform bill on Wednesday, including a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants. politico.com/news/2021/01/15…
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For reference:
If the US had handled COVID as well as Germany, the US would have 34,063 deaths instead of 131,481.
If the US had handled COVID as well as Norway, the US would have 15,337 deaths instead of 131,481.
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Still just stunned by the Supreme Court’s action today in the Wisconsin redistricting case, which was not only bizarre but head-spinningly aggressive in so many ways. 1/
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A 👀 story. A white pianist passed off recordings of a Japanese pianist as her own. A prominent white critic wrote the recordings “flow so naturally” when he thought it was the white pianist but said they were “faceless” & “flaccid” when it thought it was the Japanese pianist.
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Today in 1960, Ruby Bridges desegregated Willian Franz Elementary in New Orleans with the help of federal marshals.
Historical perspective: She is not yet eligible for Medicare.
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Two articles on the front page of today’s New Orleans Times-Picayune. One about a new memorial to the victims of the 1873 Colfax Massacre. Another on how the Louisiana GOP wants to stop colleges from teaching about “inglorious aspects” of US history - like the Colfax Massacre.
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Unnoticed by him, President Trump gave remarks at a young Republicans event on Tuesday in front of an altered presidential seal that had a doubleheaded American eagle holding cash & golf clubs and the words '45 is a Puppet' in Spanish. gizmodo.com/trump-appears-in…
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Texas has a population around 29 million. Taiwan has a population of 24 million.
Texas has had 2296 COVID deaths. Taiwan has had 7 COVID deaths.
Texas has an unemployment rate of 13%. Taiwan has an unemployment rate of 4.1%.
#txlege
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A happy 87th birthday to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg! - who please, please, please should stay indoors today and at least 500 feet away from anyone else.
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Trifectas don’t last forever. Virginia Democrats got a lot done with theirs in the time that they had it. The question for national Democrats is what they will do with theirs in however much time remains.
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Jared Kushner on whether the 2020 election will be held as scheduled: “I’m not sure I can commit one way or the other, but right now that’s the plan.” time.com/5835342/jared-kushn…
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The El Paso Times becomes the third Texas paper to call on Ted Cruz to resign for his role in trying to overturn the election. elpasotimes.com/restricted/?…
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The response from the chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe to South Dakota’s governor is one worth reading: “We will not apologize for being an island of safety in a sea of uncertainty and death.” 2/
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154,500 people registered to vote on National Voter Registration Day in 2014.
In 2018, more than 800,000 did.
#NationalVoterRegistrationDay #BeAVoter time.com/5411948/national-vo…
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(P.S. Being forced to get takeout at Applebee’s instead of dining in is not remotely the same as being forcibly sent to an isolated internment camp several states away)
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With the House now likely to be very close (either way), the effect of the Supreme Court’s decision in Rucho greenlighting partisan gerrymandering and its use of the shadow docket to put a hold on the drawing of new VRA districts in AL & LA just became that much more magnified.
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In short, beware the coming “compromise,” which will involve proposals for various voting restrictions to “reassure” Americans voters about the integrity of elections - needed because the people advocating the restrictions are the very people who manufactured the concerns.
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On Sunday, the anniversary of the march from Selma, President Biden will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to develop plans to expand voter registration and distribute election information to voters. reuters.com/article/us-usa-b…
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Manhattan office vacancies the cover story for the next issue of New York magazine
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The number of households with children reporting that they sometimes did not have enough to eat fell 24% after the first child tax credit payments. politico.com/news/2021/08/12…
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Reports: Alabama Senator Richard Shelby will not run for re-election in 2022. #alsen theintelligencer.com/news/ar…
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In my time, I’ve seen some really brazen redistricting moves, but never something as breathtaking as what just happened in Alabama. Open defiance by a legislature of a federal court ruling that could not have been more clear about what it required.
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Sobering words from the Arnold:
“Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away their guilt over their participation in the most evenly regime in history. Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis. Many just went along, step by step.”
My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol.
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A huge crowd at Auditorium Shores in Austin tonight for the Beto O’Rourke rally with Willie Nelson. #2018Midterms #txsen #txlege
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The less hostile ones are the ones that go something like this:
Then: “Where are you from?”
Me: “Texas”
Them: “No, I mean where are you really from?”
2/
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On this historic day for LGBT Americans, a reminder that we have Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only because of the struggle of Black Americans for equality.
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The great intellectual incoherence on the filibuster is that *lifetime* appointments to the federal courts - including SCOTUS - now take just 51 votes while ordinary legislation, even on basic routine things, takes 60.
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For reference, the size of the ship stuck in the Suez Canal compared to other landmarks 👇
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When your protest sign *literally* is the slogan on the gate at Auschwitz, just go home already.
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A children’s book about Ruby Bridges integrating a New Orleans school is labeled “critical race theory” because its portrayal of an angry white crowd treats white people too harshly and doesn’t show white people being redeemed in the end. Yes, really. 🤦🏻♂️😑
A story about school integration is now labeled CRT and off-limits.
A lot of people pretend they can't see what most of this is really about.
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Spoiler: She qualifies for a disabled veteran exemption. “Duckworth lost both of her legs and some use of her right arm after the helicopter she was piloting was hit by a rocket-fired grenade in Iraq in 2004.”
Democrat Tammy Duckworth hasn’t paid property tax on her Illinois home since 2015, report says
foxnews.com/politics/democra…
Community note
Duckworth lost both legs & partial use of her arm in combat, rendering her over 70% disabled & subject to disabled veteran tax exemptions.
In Illinois, “VA-rated disabilities at 70% or higher are eligible for a full property tax exemption on a qualifying primary residence.”
militarybenefits.info/property-tax-e
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Of all of the photos of Ruby Bridges, my favorite is this one from 2011 of her and President Obama looking at the Norman Rockwell portrait of her, hanging at the time just outside the Oval Office.
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What’s most remarkable about Nikki Haley’s statement is that it stands out mainly because of the otherwise broad silence from Rs.
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With the passing of Harry Reid, thinking tonight about his op-ed in September calling for an end to the filibuster.
Former Maj. Leader Harry Reid writes an op-ed calling for end of the filibuster: “Today, the Senate is no longer a deliberative body, but rather a legislative graveyard where the minority rules and bills that we as a country desperately need go to die.” m.lasvegassun.com/news/2021/…
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🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: SCOTUS in 5-4 opinion by Chief Justice Roberts upholds ruling that Alabama must redraw congressional map to create second Black district. Opinion here: supremecourt.gov/opinions/22…
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Having two anti-Asian slurs thrown at me this evening on the subway ride home from 59th/Lex really, alas, has become pretty much par for the course. I’m alright. One was modestly threatening, one mostly just irritating. But welcome to what seems to be the new norm.
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🚨🚨🚨This morning, the Texas Secretary of State is reporting that 9,009,850 Texans had voted through Thursday, a turnout of 53.1% of registered voters.
💥💥💥With that, Texas is at 100.5% of its **total** 2016 vote (including Election Day). #txlege #Election2020
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I will say that while it is a first to hear words like “originally from” and “go back” from the President of the United States, I’ve heard these and variants my whole life. Sometimes more hostile than others. 1/
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Today in 1966, James Meredith was shot in the head, neck, and back outside of Hernando, Mississippi, on the second day of a 220 mile march to encourage African Americans to register to vote. calendar.eji.org/racial-inju…
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