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Judd Legum Profile picture
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23 Feb, 9 tweets, 7 min read
1. @RepJohnYarmuth, the powerful chairman of the House Budget Committee, has recently purchased several cannabis industry stocks while championing legalization legislation that would increase their value

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
@RepJohnYarmuth 2. Disclosure reports obtained by popular.info through @congresstrading reveal Yarmuth purchased shares of @tilray, @CanopyGrowth, and @Aurora_MMJ in November.

A month later he was promoting cannabis legalization legislation on Twitter

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
@RepJohnYarmuth @congresstrading @tilray @CanopyGrowth @Aurora_MMJ 3. The momentum created when the House passed the MORE Act in November has contributed to a sharp rise in all three stocks since Yarmuth's purchase.

@tilray, for example, has increased more than 3x since Yarmuth first bought the stock on November 5

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
4. On February 5, Yarmuth co-sponsored another bill to formally legalize CBD products.

A week later, he increased his holdings in all three cannabis companies.

They all sell CBD products.

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
5. In a statement, a spokesperson for Yarmuth defended the stock purchases.

"Congressman Yarmuth purchased the stocks after seeing four states legalize the use of recreational marijuana in the November elections."

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
6. I found the statement interesting, because Yarmuth seems to acknowledge that his interest in the stock is driven by a more favorable regulatory environment

But as a House leader, he has influence and insight what's going to happen moving forward

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
7. @CBHolman of @Public_Citizen told me that Yarmuth's patter of trading "certainly doesn't look good" and gives the impression that Yarmuth is "using his official office for personal gain."

popular.info/p/powerful-con…
8. Of course, the ethical problems with members of Congress trading individual stocks extended far beyond Yarmuth.

I'll continue to monitor these trades.

For updates and accountability journalism, sign up for the newsletter.

popular.info/subscribe
9. One easy solution to all of this is just to end the practice of members of Congress trading individual stocks.

popular.info/p/powerful-con…

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
22 Feb
1. In January, nearly all corporate PACs stayed away from the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election.

There was one big exception.

@Experian_US

One of the three major credit agencies.

popular.info/p/after-januar…
@Experian_US 2. @SenRickScott voted to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania.

Scott chairs the @NRSC, which supports all 8 GOP Senators that voted to overturn the election

On 1/27, the @NRSC reported receiving a 15K donation from @Experian_US

popular.info/p/after-januar…
3. Why did @Experian_US send a large check to the @NRSC? It didn't respond to a request for comment.

But Experian appears very concerned about a Biden proposal to credit a public credit score that would be a transparent, equitable and free alternative

popular.info/p/after-januar…
Read 7 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
21 Feb
1. Facebook has been pushing posts from Ben Shapiro into users feeds EVEN IF THEY DON'T FOLLOW HIM OR ENGAGE WITH ANY SIMILAR CONTENT

When the issue was flagged internally, Facebook's policy team blocked any changes

buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanma…
2. The argument inside of Facebook is if they stopped pushing Shapiro into the feeds of people who didn't follow him, he would complain he was being "shadow-banned" when he saw his numbers drop
3. This isn't the first time Shapiro has gotten special treatment from Facebook. When I caught the Daily Wire blatantly violating Facebook's rules by paying scummy pages for promotion, Facebook declined to sanction the Daily Wire

popular.info/p/facebook-adm…
Read 5 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
20 Feb
Total COVID hospitalizations are now below 60K overall for the first time since early November. As recently as a month ago, the number was 130K+

With the number of vaccinations slated to increase over the coming weeks and months, we have a chance to continue to drive this down
After a year of this, I think we are conditioned to ignore good news. But there is reason for optimism.

Yes, the variants add another unknown factor, but so far all the vaccines are effective at keeping people ALIVE and OUT OF THE HOSPITAL

That's not a small thing
If our hospitals aren't full of COVID patients and people aren't dying life is going to become more normal.

Stay strong.

This is tough but we'll get there.
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
18 Feb
This is now a factual question. Cruz can prove this is true by showing his original receipt for his ticket, showing a return trip on Thursday.
Cruz’s kids are ten and older, unclear why they needed to travel with more than one adult. And if they do, how are they managing the trip back? The whole thing makes no sense.
This is floating around but I haven’t seen it verified. But Cruz has put his plans to return at issue. He can prove his version — that he always intended to return the next day — is true.
Read 5 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
18 Feb
1. Everyone should know about what @kroger, the nation's largest supermarket chain, is doing to make sure their frontline employees don't make a few extra bucks an hour

This is a company which had $3 BILLION in profit in the first 3 quarters of 2020

popular.info/p/immoral-haza…
@kroger 2. @Kroger ended its $2/hour hazard pay in May. And as the pandemic got worse, refused to reinstate it

So the Seattle passed an ordinance requiring large grocery stores to pay $4/hour in hazard pay

@Kroger RESPONDED BY CLOSING ITS TWO SEATTLE STORES

popular.info/p/immoral-haza…
3. @Kroger also closed two stores after Long Beach passed a similar ordinance.

The "new extra pay mandate" makes it "impossible to operate a financially sustainable business"

Kroger is planning to spend $1 billion this year on stock buybacks

popular.info/p/immoral-haza…
Read 7 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
18 Feb
1. So Facebook banned all Australian news sources from its platform because of PROPOSED legislation that would require Facebook to negotiate compensation for Australian media outlets

It's not even a law yet.

That's important.
2. Facebook's dramatic action to cut off news to Australians (and others) in the middle of a pandemic isn't a RESPONSE to a law.

There is no law passed yet.

It's an attempt to BULLY the Australian government into not passing the law.
3. Facebook's actions today can best be understood as an aggressive lobbying effort.

It's showing Australian government its willing to follow through with the ban.

Tough to square this bare-knuckled approach with the company's supposed commitment to free speech.
Read 4 tweets

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