Judd Legum

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

NEW: On December 12, @ATT donated $30,000 to @DadePhelan, the speaker of the Texas House, who pushed through Texas' draconian abortion ban last year These were funds directly from @ATT's corporate treasury — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

NEW: On December 12, @ATT donated $30,000 to @DadePhelan, the speaker of the Texas House, who pushed through Texas' draconian abortion ban These were funds directly from @ATT's corporate treasury — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

7. America has far fewer hospital beds per capita than most other industrialized countries. This is a story of unchecked corporate power. For more independent accountability journalism, check out my newsletter. It's free to sign up --> https://t.co/TfpCItdVSo — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

6. If you running a bagel shop, you don't want to have extra bagels lying around at the end of the day. It destroys your margin. Running hospitals with little excess capacity, however, leaves the country unprepared for a public health emergency. https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

5. As the # of hospital beds declines, the cost savings are not being passed down to consumers. By 2016, "90 percent of all metropolitan areas had highly concentrated hospital markets," effectively letting them charge whatever price they want https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

4. Large hospital networks divert patients from hospitals to other facilities where costs are lower and margins are higher That's not a bad thing in itself. But they are also reducing the # of beds which left the country ill-prepared for the pandemic https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

3. Between 2010 and 2020 there were more than 680 hospital mergers. Over the same time period, "at least 120 rural hospitals have shuttered." This has coincided with a vertical acquisition of other health care facilities and providers by hospitals. https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

2. There are FAR FEWER hospital beds in the US today than there were just a few decades ago. In 1975, when the country had 113 million fewer people, there were 1.5 million hospital beds in the US. Today, there are just over 900,000. What happened? https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

1. There are 150K people in US hospitals with COVID and it put the hospital system into a state of crisis. Yes, more people should get vaccinated. But why don't we have enough hospital beds to deal with this emergency? Follow along for the answer https://t.co/yWjffhFiai — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

RT @JuddLegum: 1. Federal employees are prohibited by law from participating in matters that could impact any company in which they own sto… — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

DC reported 480 COVID-19 cases today. A few days ago we were averaging over 2K cases per days. Still a lot of cases, but trending in the right direction. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@NinaTotenberg .@NPR and @NinaTotenberg are standing by their reporting. Totenberg notes that neither of the statements released today directly contradicts what she reported. https://t.co/CJ2tvVRB7I https://t.co/Hew2mp2OdF — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Roberts is also out with a statement. The original report says that Roberts "in some form asked the other justices to mask up." Roberts now says he "did not request" Gorsuch mask up. We'll see what @NinaTotenberg says https://t.co/jmypYxs1dS — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

And no pushback on two facts: 1. Gorsuch didn't wear a mask 2. That's why Sotomayor had to participate remotely — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Interesting statement as no one reported that "Justice Sotomayor asked Justice Gorsuch to wear a mask." The report was that Chief Justice Roberts asked EVERYONE to wear a mask and Gorsuch refused. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

@Thoe85Tom He did it for other federal judges but not the Supreme Court. That was McConnell — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

McConnell believes people are very dumb. He invents whatever rules maximize his power and then pretends to be an institutionalist. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

If McConnell believes filibuster rules should never be changed, why did he do it for Supreme Court nominees? — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Trump's media company, which only exists conceptually, is now valued at approximately 40x BuzzFeed, an actual company with millions of users and tens of millions in revenue. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Almost all of the revenue is supposed to come from a forthcoming streaming product which will have to compete against all the other streaming products. There is no information on when or if such a streaming product will actually launch. — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

Trump's media company was supposed to launch a social media network in November. Now it might launch in February? But it's worse than that. By the company's own projections the social media network is NEVER SUPPOSED TO GENERATE SIGNIFICANT REVENUE https://t.co/7plrzk5XbB — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

The stock for the SPAC slated to merge with Trump's new media company has almost doubled in price in recent days, giving it an imputed value of $20 BILLION The company has: 1. No products, 2. No customers, 3. No revenue https://t.co/82VacH830w https://t.co/dEIg55iFxO — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

6. Democrats have an opportunity to seize the moral high ground and restore trust in Congress but thus far they have been unwilling to seize it. There is still time. https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

5. The only current limitation on stock trading in Congress is the 2012 STOCK Act. It prohibits members of Congress from trading on "insider information." Perhaps by design, this standard has proven virtually impossible to enforce. https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

4. There is bipartisan interest in legislation that would ban members of Congress from trading individual stocks. It's a policy that is supported by 76% of Americans But, thus far, the legislation is opposed by Democratic leaders in the House and Senate https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

3. Members of Congress are not required to avoid conflicts of interest, actual or perceived, when it comes to stocks. Coincidentally, studies "consistently show that the investments of members of Congress outperform the market." https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

2. While federal gov't employees face a maximum penalty of five years in jail and a fine of 50K, members of Congress are free to actively trade an individual stock while voting on bills that would directly impact the stock's price. And many do just that. https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

1. Federal employees are prohibited by law from participating in matters that could impact any company in which they own stock. But members of Congress, who are far more powerful than most government bureaucrats, are EXEMPT https://t.co/WZu0MyS6fw — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

"On some NFT marketplaces anyone can upload any image, create an NFT linked to that art and put it up for sale, all without having to show any proof they own the original image." — PolitiTweet.org

Judd Legum @JuddLegum

"Booming NFT art market plagued by 'mind-blowing' fraud" https://t.co/eojxHP0QOH — PolitiTweet.org