ES&S downplays problems w/ its voting machines. To know what occurred, we need public records requests. @RGarella did one in 2019 & found that, “‘poll workers & technicians reported issues with the new machines at more than 40 % of polling locations,’...1/

...[in Philadelphia], yet the voting machine vendor ES&S said that ‘it was ‘simply inaccurate’ for anyone to imply there were widespread issues.’” 2/

Although the GOP wants everyone focused on Dominion, it is ES&S that for years has arguably caused the most concern among election-integrity advocates and experts. I wrote about these concerns in detail here. 3/

Stacey Abrams’s group, Fair Fight Action, created this document detailing concerns with voting machine vendor ES&S, which had the Georgia contract before Georgia switched to Dominion. 4/

Look what happened on ES&S’s watch in Georgia in 2018. The situation w/ ES&S & these vanishing black votes was under congressional investigation when a court ordered Georgia to replace its old touchscreens in time for the 2020 election. 5/

THREAD on Robinhood/Reddit/GME: CONGRESS is calling for action, but no one has clearly articulated what they actually want.

We could look back on this as the biggest “Pump & Dump” in history... with the little guys carrying all the water & then getting it dumped on their heads.

It started with a SMART discovery, Melvin Capital (hedge fund) broke the cardinal rule of short selling. They took on way too big of a short position given the size of their fund, how heavily shorted the stock already was and the amount of shares outstanding.

Technically, they were RIPE to get squeezed, but there was virtually no case for anyone following fundamentals (earnings, growth etc...) to want to buy this sleepy, brick and mortar video game retailer.
Short selling is absolutely legal and adds to efficiency of the market.

More often than not, the short seller gets hurt & not the company. But there are many who believe it’s harmful to American businesses and short sellers to use media and unsavory practices to put struggling companies in further distress.

This week will definitely bring back the debate on banning short selling. This is a huge win for Elon Musk who has been battling & defeating short sellers for years and wants the practice irradicated.
He’s been unsuccessfully trying to get lawmakers to focus on this for a while.

Holyrood Elections 2021 – SNP Record on Devolved Areas
A THREAD

HEALTH
- The new sick kids hospital has had many issues including the ventilation and has been pushed back numerous times. Imagine if it had been opened on time and we had been able to treat more covid patienst there reducing strain on our NHS?

- The drug related detahs in Scotland are the highest simce records began. After the SNP govt. cut drug rehabilitation services after being told in doing so would have such consequences. They set up a task force which didn’t meet for the first time until months after being set up

- The SNP keep saying that they need Drug Powers devolved to treat this as a health problem, not criminal. If it’s a health problem use the powers of health? Just a thought. However. As soon as they came into power numbers have increased. Funny that eh?

We don’t need more powers we just need to use the powers we have properly and fund rehab services properly to tackle this.
- The treatment time guarantee was enshrined in law at 100% of patients would recive treatment within 12 weeks. In 2019 it was only at 72%

If you listen to the pundits, you’d think that the @HouseGOP did very well during the 2020 elections.

That’s not quite true.

Here’s what actually happened.

The only state in the country where the GOP had a net gain in House seats since Trump took office in 2017 is Minnesota. The party gained one seat there in 2020.

In the following states, the GOP gained seats in 2020 - but - only gained the same number of seats that it lost in 2018:

Florida
(Lost 2 seats in 2018, gained 2 seats in 2020)

Iowa
(Lost 2 seats in 2018, gained 2 seats in 2020)

New Mexico
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

Oklahoma
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

South Carolina
(Lost 1 seat in 2018, gained 1 seat in 2020)

In the following states, the GOP gained some seats in 2020 - but - not as many seats as the number of seats it lost in 2018, leaving a net loss of seats in the Trump era:

California
(Lost 7 seats in 2018, gained back 3 of them in 2020. GOP now holds 11 of CA’s 53 House seats)

THREAD:
1) I’m a Democrat, running for Congress in 2022 from Wisconsin’s Sixth District. This is (part of) my story.

I grew up in Southfield, a city in the suburbs of Detroit, MI. My brother still lives in the Detroit area, but our parents are deceased.

2) My undergraduate degree is a BA with a major in political science (with an emphasis in political economy) and a minor in public administration, from Albion College, in MI. I got my JD (law degree) from Washington & Lee University School of Law, in VA.

3) I practiced law for nearly 20 years, taking time off now & then for various reasons, including when my grandmother died & I handled her estate, & from August 2018, when I lost my job after being diagnosed w/Stage Four uterine #cancer, which I beat, to the present.

4) My husband was born and raised in this district. We lived here, and got married here, from 2003-10, then moved to Milwaukee for work, then moved back to the district in August 2018, when we bought a house here. We’re staying.

5) I have an extensive skill set, based on a broad range of experience, including: having worked as an attorney, a human resources manager, an administrator, a researcher, & an author.

Absolutely.

A thread on papers that show the positive impact of having #women in #politics.

(1/n)

Women as #Policy Makers: Evidence from a randomized policy experiment in #India

Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo

https://t.co/vVMJosWGEX

(2/n)

Are #Female Leaders Good for #Education? Evidence from #India.

Irma Clots-Figueras

(3/n)

#Health and the Political Agency of #Women

Sonia Bhalotra (@SoniaBhalotra), Irma Clots-Figueras

(4/n)

Powerful #Women: Does Exposure Reduce #Bias

Lori Beaman (@LoriBeaman), Raghabendra Chattopadhyay, Esther Duflo,
Rohini Pande, and Petia

(5/n)

Effect of #political decentralization and #female #leadership on institutional births and #child mortality in rural Bihar, #India.

Santosh Kumar (@santosh_econ), Nishith Prakash

If you are still declaring „how could leave voters have been so stupid?” – you are not just part of the problem – you don’t understand your own country.

Brexit & the survival of the English gentleman.

- A Thread –

2/
Imagine for a moment you’re NOT the type of person that watches Newsnight, regularly reads a newspaper or went to Uni. Imagine you’re a busy person with family.

That is, imagine you're in the majority of the population.
& the governing party offer a referendum with 2 choices.

3/

To the average person why would a govt run by a party thats largely ruled the country since a century offer a choice btwn 2 options if one was stupid, self-harming nonsense?

This doesn’t seem a big point point – but its utterly central to Brexit..& one remainers often miss.

4/

The very fact that leave EU was an option gave it…to the average person - a respectability.

Otherwise you have to face the fact that much of the ruling class are idiots..& didnt think things thru.

Now that might be easy to a cynical, Guardian reader – but again 95% aren’t.

5/

Next problem:
Custom unions, trade blocs & economics.

Again 95% of voters don’t understand these - & judging by their comments this 95% includes MPs.

If Nadine Dorries confuses Single mkt with custom areas (her job!) – why do we expect voters to understand these things?