Opening Arguments

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Topics of Discussion:

• Breakin’ Down The Law: How Election Desks Call States
• T3BE Answer

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is episode 435, and, uh, if you’re a non-patron and you’re listening to this that means its election day.  It’s election day, Andrew, how are you doing?

Andrew:         Yeah!  I’m nervous.  Are you nervous, Thomas?

Thomas:         Yeah.  Well I’m a patron so that means I’m hearing this on Sunday.

Andrew:         [Laughs]

Thomas:         Currently I’m fine.

Andrew:         Yeah.  [Laughs]

Thomas:         Totally different!

Continue reading “Transcript of OA435: Why Your Vote Matters in EVERY State!”

Listen to the episode and read the show notes

Topics of Discussion:

• Breakin’ Down the Law – “Ascertaining” Who Won the Election
• Trump Election Lawsuits Update – Michigan
• Trump Election Lawsuits Update – Pennsylvania with Morgan Stringer
• T3BE Question

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         [Singing] Hello Andrewww!  It’s episode 440!  Opening Arguments, A-440!  Music joke.  How’s it going?  It’s Opening Arguments, it’s episode 440, I’m Thomas, that’s Andrew, how’re you doing?

Andrew:         Was that a 4/4-time joke?

Thomas:         No, A-440 is used for tuning, it’s a reference note for tuning, but not all music is based on 440, I guess it would be Hz?  Sometimes people tune a little differently, they’ll tune A to something a little lower, a little higher.  But A-440!  If you’re tuning your guitar while listening [Sings] Dooooooo!  It’s something like that.  Okay.  Anyway, how’re you doing, Mr. Fantastic?

Andrew:         Well, I learned something here today, Thomas. 

Thomas:         Oh, that’s what the show’s for.

Andrew:         I’m doing even better than fantastic.

Thomas:         [Laughs] I’m not sure how I’m doing until you explain what’s happening.  That’s been true many weeks, I assume Trump’s still trying to steal the election?  I think they’re like – technically they’re like 1 for 30 or something on the lawsuits.  I actually don’t remember what the one is?  I wanna know, that’s gonna be my first question.  But we got more legal shenanigans to cover. 

Andrew:         We do.

Continue reading “Transcript of OA440: Rudy’s Literal Meltdown”

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Topics of Discussion:

• Breakin’ Down the Law – Election Updates
• Trump-Free Tuesday – Andrew’s Bad Prediction
• T3BE Answer

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is episode 439.  I’m Thomas, that’s Andrew.  How’re you doing, sir?

Andrew:         I’m fantastic, Thomas, how are you?

Thomas:         Are you fantastic because this is Trump Free Tuesday?

Andrew:         [Laughs] This is almost entirely Trump Free Tuesday.

Thomas:         Almost, I love it! [Laughs]

Andrew:         [Laughs] I blame you-

Thomas:         Hey!

Andrew:         -for not letting me record for two plus hours on Thursday’s show.

Thomas:         Yeah, and I blame you for putting in something like ten bullet points in a show-

Andrew:         It’s true.

Thomas:         Which I know!  I could’ve told you this, I could’ve spared you.  You’re not gonna get to more than five bullet points in a show like ever.

Andrew:         [Laughs] Well, we have five leftovers for us to cover in the A Segment.

Thomas:         [Laughs] So this is actually gonna turn into entirely a Trump episode?

Andrew:         [Laughing] No!

Thomas:         We’ll push off the other stuff.

Andrew:         No no no.  I really do wanna cover the case because it’s in the news and I think it’s really perfect.  It’s a classic “this is why we started OA.”

Continue reading “Transcript of OA439: The End of the Lemon Test?”

Listen to the episode and read the show notes

Topics of Discussion:

• Breakin’ Down the Law: Supreme Court and Obamacare
• Yodel Mountain: Attempted Coup?
• T3BE Question

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is episode 438 and it’s named for the amount of votes that Gore lost by in Florida in –

Andrew:         [Laughs]

Thomas:         No, that’s deep, weird joke.  Anyway, how’s it going, Andrew?

Andrew:         I am so much happier after your deep weird joke!  I’m fantastic Thomas, how are you?

Thomas:         [Laughs] I bailed out halfway through it, didn’t even really make sense.

Andrew:         That’s okay.

Thomas:         I’m doin’ okay.  Not in love with how things have developed.  Your North Carolina optimism was euthanized [Laughing] pretty quickly right after you said it.

Andrew:         Yeah, we’re gonna talk about that.

Thomas:         Andrew was like hey maybe a good thing?  And the world was like, nah, sorry. [Laughs]

Andrew:         Nope!  [Laughs] Look, you know, we can no longer say definitively that we are in the worst possible timeline.

Thomas:         Oh, that’s true.  Yeah, we’re not in the wor- unless there’s some – hold on!  I’ll find a way! [Laughs]

Continue reading “Transcript of OA438: This Coup Shall Pass”

Listen to the episode and read the show notes

Topics of Discussion:

• Election Update
• Breaking Down the Law – Trump Lawsuits to Stop the Count and Keep Counting Why not Both?
• T3BE Question

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello hello hello hellooooooo!  And welcome to Opening Arguments, episode 436!

Andrew:         [Laughs] Well you sounded happy there.

Thomas:         Well I went really big because we have nothing to talk about, so it’s all downhill from there.

Andrew:         Yeah.  [Laughs]

Thomas:         How’re you doing, Andrew Torrez?

Andrew:         I am doing fantastic, Thomas, [Laughing] how are you?

Thomas:         Well, funny story, that.  Here’s what I will say: I had a rough election night, as anyone who follows me on social media and watched our livestream would see.  Not very happy.  I wasn’t all doom and gloom like we were gonna lose but, you know, as I just put it on social media, yes, we can maybe barely defeat a Nazi death cult.  Barely.  Like eke out a slight victory.  That’s my mood currently.  I’m glad things are going well currently but there was a grief period for me and, don’t worry, I’m getting to a point that I’m sure for many of our listeners who are not Mr. Fantastic himself, Andrew Torrez, always positive. 

Continue reading “Transcript of OA436: It’s a Runoff!”

Listen to the episode and read the show notes

Topics of Discussion:

• Breakin’ Down the Law:  Counting Votes in North Carolina
• How to Handle a Senate Minority
• T3BE Answer

[Show Intro]

Thomas:         Hello and welcome to Opening Arguments, this is episode 437.  I am Thomas, that is Andrew.  How are you doing?

Andrew:         I am fantastic, Thomas, how are you?

Thomas:         Well … I don’t know.

Andrew:         [Laughs]

Thomas:         This is a weird one to record ahead of time.

Andrew:         [Laughing] That’s right.

Thomas:         Look, this is what we do.  The cat’s out of the bag, you all know the magic behind the show, we record on Thursdays, we record the rapid response and then we record the Tuesday episode.  This one is a weird one to record early because we don’t know what’s gonna happen between Thursday and when you’re hearing this but this stuff, the stuff we’re talking about, still needs to be covered and I assume if anything absolutely crazy has happened we’ll do an emergency episode.  There you go, we’ve got a lot to talk about still and it’s time to play some hardball with … not Chris Matthews.

Andrew:         [Laughs]

Thomas:         Hardball with Joe Biden, or us.

Continue reading “Transcript of OA437: How to Play Hardball if We Don’t Win the Senate”