The Manatee-Sarasota area has many connections to the horrific scene of insurrection in Washington DC yesterday. Want to see? Buckle up for this thread: /1

The Manatee GOP expressed support for Josh Hawley’s objections to certification of the electoral college vote. /2
Josh Hawley’s home-state newspaper says Hawley has blood on his hands for a “Capitol coup attempt.” This is who the Manatee GOP cheered on. /3

https://t.co/ZVU6WcxTjg
Florida GOP Vice Chair & Sarasota County Commissioner Christian Ziegler was at the protest, as described in this @HeraldTribune article. /4

https://t.co/Bpgh2FrSPb
The protest was led by the same people connected to Ziegler who were filming outside the Vern Buchanan town hall at the Van Wezel in Sarasota in 2017, namely Dustin Stockton. Stockton was also part of Steve Bannon's border wall group. /5

https://t.co/NbOxVqbtO4
Florida GOP Chair & State Senator Joe Gruters applauds seditious voices challenging the election results & transfer of power. /6
Several Sarasota-Manatee locals are affiliated with the Council for National Policy, a secretive radical right hub organization. cc: @anelsona /7

https://t.co/MhMrLth4r3
Longboat Key resident Charlie Kirk, a CNP member, urged Mike Pence to overturn the election results. /8

https://t.co/Mpz5nBYXdB
Longboat Key resident Charlie Kirk, a CNP member, & his team sent 80+ buses to the March on January 6. /9
Women for Trump Florida, whose leader is on the Board of Governors for the Council for National Policy, sent a busload to the protest in Washington DC. /10
The leader of Women for Trump Florida has called for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, a way to impose martial law. /11
The leader of Women for Trump Florida has retweeted pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood’s criticism of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts as corrupt. /12
Women for Trump Florida has endorsed a number of local officeholders. Political candidates such as Tommy Gregory & Fiona McFarland sought or touted their endorsement. /13

More from Government

Which metric is a better predictor of the severity of the fall surge in US states?

1) Margin of Democrat victory in Nov 2020 election
or
2) % infected through Sep 1, 2020

Can you guess which plot is which?


The left plot is based on the % infected through Sep 1, 2020. You can see that there is very little correlation with the % infected since Sep 1.

However, there is a *strong* correlation when using the margin of Biden's victory (right).

Infections % from
https://t.co/WcXlfxv3Ah.


This is the strongest single variable I've seen in being able to explain the severity of this most recent wave in each state.

Not past infections / existing immunity, population density, racial makeup, latitude / weather / humidity, etc.

But political lean.

One can argue that states that lean Democrat are more likely to implement restrictions/mandates.

This is valid, so we test this by using the Government Stringency Index made by @UniofOxford.

We also see a correlation, but it's weaker (R^2=0.36 vs 0.50).

https://t.co/BxBBKwW6ta


To avoid look-ahead bias/confounding variables, here is the same analysis but using 2016 margin of victory as the predictor. Similar results.

This basically says that 2016 election results is a better predictor of the severity of the fall wave than intervention levels in 2020!

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