1. We've got @dananessel, killin' like usual on messaging w @HallieJackson on @MSNBC stating, objectively (accurately) that if SCOTUS were to grant the relief sought by TX & these other states & invalidate the votes of millions of Americans due to COMPLETELY FABRICATED claims of

2. of fraud, it would be the end of democracy in America. PERIOD. It would serve, functionally, as the moment of SC's succession, Dec 20, 1860 & also as a function of anti-democratic, unpatriotic, and TREASONOUS behavior post a presidential election they simply didn't want to
3. accept and spend 4 years living under. So instead, they "invalidated" it by refusing to continue to be part of the U.S. Here, if the Court was to play along (and to be crystal clear, the ONLY constitutional, pro-America position here is a full and unequivocal rejection of this
4. suit and frankly, a "supreme" legal tongue lashing at the ideologues that now control the modern Republican Party and by controlling it, have now forced the United States of America into its first constitutional crisis since the fields of her were strewn with bodies and blood
5. as she ripped herself apart to rid herself of her original sin of slavery, and in that process lost 620,000 Americans which at that time was 2% of the country's population. That Trump & his good squad fabricated a story of trucks in the night sneaking in 100Ks worth of ballots
6. to steal Trump's "rightful throne" is one thing. That people like @tedcruz and @senatemajldr are allowing him to spread it and infect the Republican electorate with it like a disease is entirely another. Yesterday, @GOPLeader Kevin McCarthy allowed 106 of his House Caucus
7. members, including heir-apparent and member of leadership @SteveScalise to submit an amicus to support an act of judicial activism that would literally, LITERALLY unilaterally end democracy in the United States (that is actually more treasonous than backing your state out of
8. the Union!) Yes, that's correct @GOP. At least half of your party is right now, actively working towards or advocating for ending democracy for claims that are, and this definitive, completely fabricated by Donald Trump once he would tell no one was biting on his more modest
9. lies about vote switching machines and mail-in ballots from dead people. That's when Giuliani and Trump & that crazy lady just dropped, out of NOWHERE their new theory, that actually in the dead of the night fake mail-in ballots were dropped off in the cities of the swing
10. states and that how in PA and MI he got trounced even though he got trounced bc there are actual voters casting those 100k+ margins. And the Rep Party, its members, its party leadership, its dignitaries, they can see what god bless him @MittRomney sees. They KNOW ITS CRAZY.
11. But they are spreading it anyway. They are adding to this mental infection gripping the Republican electorate anyway. And where do they expect this to end when they have this voter base that has gone full Jim Jones and has a leader who is willing to send them out into the
12. streets to die for him. BC don't think for one sec that Trump didn't smile that ear to ear creepy ass loony smile he gets when someone shows him Kim Jung Il fealty like this f'd up tweet that the Rep Party CHAIR in AZ posted. If the Rep Party was not fully in the grips of an
13. extremist meltdown, one that is being aided and abetted by three ley principles who are going to be held to account for the actions (or inactions) they are taking RIGHT NOW (@GOPLeader @senatemajldr and @GOPChairwoman) who didn't demand that @kelliwardaz step down IMMEDIATELY
14. who didn't demand that all party chairs conduct themselves in ways that discourage violence, who haven't addressed Biden as president elect, who haven't held a presser to explain to their constituency that the Republican Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Head,
15. Trump's OWN appointee, @C_C_Krebs has pronounced this cycle the most secure ever, AG Barr begrudgingly admits there was no fraud, that random recounts have actually shown us MORE sunlight into the election results than we've ever had & for those that understand the issues
16. you can't help but come out of this cycle more confident in the actual integrity of at least the "ballot cast ballot counted" part of the process. @senatemajldr, @GOPLeader, and @GOPChairwoman need to make this speech bc right now, danger is brewing & if it manifests the
17. blood of the people killed with not just be on Trump's hands. Oh no. Just as responsible will be @senatemajldr, @GOPLeader, and @GOPChairwoman who unlike the rest of us HAVE POWER to prevent this. Have power to save democracy. HAVE POWER to mitigate the damage that Trump is
18. doing to this democracy- damage that may well never be undone. Damage that insults the sacrifice of EVERY solider who has died in her defense Mitch. And I promise you, if you fail in this moment like you have failed UP TO this moment, every American will know the story.

More from Rachel "The Doc" Bitecofer 📈🔭🍌

Yes, actually that's kind of the problem these days.

All the 🔥takes will be shown to be wrong once the voter file data & analysis like this one w the FULL RESULTS get done, which is why I'VE NOT PUBLISHED MY 🔥TAKE IN NYT yet

We'll have to decide if we want it fast, or right


There is ONE STORY in elections right now and its education. Its not rural vs urban, or Black and White, Latino and White

Its educated versus non-educated

And its global

1. I'll add that it's very imp that Ds understand, crystal clear, this fact (that edu is the divide that rules all other divides). After Parscale's success in 2020 the GOP will now double down on their efforts to come after non-college educated, non-white voters bc now they KNOW

2. they're gettable. The 2018 and 2020 cycle were "feelers." No doubt donors and strategists were skeptical. Now they have the analytic proof and the $ will be flowing. This is one reason that I decided that I had to get into electioneering myself. Someone is going to need to be

3. there talking to these voters from the Left (and talking to them with effective messaging- for ex they don't give two shits about insider trading corruption) or you'll see even more erosion in the D's vote share among non-college educated non-white voters, I'm sure of it. Its
1. You also have to give them a landing. It's tempting, I know, to take the pent up rage out on the only ones who respond to you (like @ProjectLincoln!) or Never Trumpers like @RadioFreeTom or @BillKristol bc they were "guilty" in the past or "waited too long" like @WalshFreedom


2. but at each of the big inflection moments where Trump lost support I've begged non-Rs to consider the fact that if Trump supporters see that they have nowhere to go, they will stay w the only people that DO accept them, & the price might actually be the collapse of democracy

3. which, until Weds, some people thought I was being hyperbolic about. I WASN'T! When the MAINSTREAM of a major political party divorces themselves from democratic norms & values & its supporters turn to a fictionalized world to justify their political party's actions, your

4. country's stability is at risk & one by-product of poor messaging on the Dem side is that extremism on the Right was able to not only take root in the Rep Party, it was able to take OVER the R party & become the party's mainstream- pinnacled w the presidential win via the EC

5. of Donald Trump, w/o the GOP paying any electoral price for their extremism. A healthy Rep Party might have found the courage to reject Trump's nomination & accept the short term costs that would have come w refusing to endorse his 2016 candidacy. But the Rep Party of 2016

More from Government

Let me take a stab at this after years of reporting on Marine One, HMX-1, Continuity of Government, etc. None of this is definitive, but it could help explain what folks are seeing:

1.) HMX-1, which flies the VH-3D and VH-60N 'White Top' helicopters used to move... 1/X


the President and VP around, those helos being called Marine One or Two when either is onboard, need to train. The urban landing zones, including WH and VP Residence, are not simple to get in and out of. So, crews need some currency training. They are not just tasked with... 2/X

moving POTUS and VP to get them around the region and to Andrews AFB for long-haul flights, they are essential to Continuity of Government operations. This means that if a threat were to emerge, they need to be ready to snatch POTUS and VP in minutes. This is partially... 3/X

why they have a full forward operating location at Naval Support Activity Anacostia, just 3 miles from the WH. As such, practice is important and considering the state of things, it is critical now more than in any recent memory. 4/X

2.) Considering what happened last week, including mobs of Trump supporters screaming in unison to hang the VP for doing what the constitution states, absolutely despicable in every way, security has been tightened just as it has been all over. Using the helicopters instead.. 5/X
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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