As your next U.S. Senator... I would work to reform immigration to provide better pathways to legal citizenship and ensure that never again are children put in cages. (My father below, he immigrated to the U.S. post WWII)
As your next U.S. Senator... I would lead by example and show up for communities experiencing hate and violence. We loudly denounce white nationalists and extremism, and would work to fight the real emergency in our nation.
As your next U.S. Senator... I would be the first scientist on the U.S. Senate scientist committee, and I would advocate for facts, reason, and progress.
Taxing the rich isn’t radical — what’s radical is asking average Americans to pay more in taxes than billionaires.
Gun safety laws aren’t radical — what’s radical is accepting gun deaths as the #1 killer of children in one of the world’s most highly developed nations.
Addressing climate change isn’t radical — what’s radical is leaving the next generations worse off than we are.
Trump’s 2016 Cambridge Analytica leak is exactly the insidious political microtargeting we’ve been up against for years, including @SenCoryGardner’s 2014 upset win. Here’s how Republicans & foreign ops have manipulated American politics for years — a thread. #cosen#copolitics
First, extreme political microtargeting (what I call “dark tech”) is when personal data is collected & aggregated to create detailed user profiles. Profiles are then categorized for targeted advertising to manipulate for political gain. More @NewslineCO👇
These tactics can be employed for short & long-term gain. For example, it can be used to win a specific election, or to seed long-term turmoil & instability via disinformation campaigns. We’ve seen this with Russian interference — make no mistake, this is 21st century warfare.
In light of Elijah McClain, I’d like to share a story.
About 1.5 years ago my rental car was broken into & items stolen. My friend & I called the police. While he wrote the report, I gave my Colorado ID to the cop. He replied he used to live & work in Colorado, too. 1/5
Looking for sympathy, he went on to say his friend was the cop being targeted for the racial incident in Boulder, CO, where a black man was asked for ID at his own house. I noted I was familiar with the incident & replied blatantly it was absolutely racial profiling. 2/5
The cop proceeded to defend his friend, saying as a cop their job is to keep the community safe, & since “black ppl commit more crimes they are obligated to act accordingly”. He said if a black man was wearing a hoodie, for example, “he’d 100% follow him for safety concerns”. 3/5
When I was a kid, I was taught I lived in the best country in the world. As a 1st generation American, this is where my family sought refuge after WWII. They were proud to come to America, the nation that had helped defeat fascism & gave them freedom. 1/7
You see, my family fought their own country in the Italian resistance. My blonde hair/blue-eyed grandfather helped fight Nazis & was captured as a traitor. Placed in camps, he & his brother escaped months later, weak & malnourished, & fled home in bare feet over mountains. 2/7
After they returned to find their small town in Northern Italy in ruins, & many family/friends dead including their mother, my Nonno decided to build a new life with my Nonna. A woodworker & seamstress by trade, they fled Italy to start anew. 3/7
Our team has been fielding a lot of questions on coronavirus, so here’s a thread with FAQ so you can stay up to date:
(1/n)
Q: Where do I find reliable information about coronavirus?
A: Public information is available at @CDCgov and @WHO. You can also check your local gov’t for local updates. (e.g. In CO @GovofCO has instituted local plans at colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/…) (2/n)
Q: Why is COVID-19 worse if flu has killed more ppl?
A: Unlike flu, COVID-19 is a new virus that seems more contagious/deadly & has no vaccine. It wasn’t sufficiently contained early on, so COVID-19 is expected to infect up to 70% of pop this year which worsens death rate. (3/n)
Background: I teach behavioral neuroscience @CUDenver which is simply the biological structuring of the brain & how it works to produce/modify behaviors (eg brain disease, hormones, sleep/wake, drugs/addiction, learning, emotional regulation etc) 1/8
Appreciating the biology of behavior means acknowledging the brain, like all of the body, is biological & symptoms (behaviors) appear when hurt/sick. In the 🧠, symptoms expose neurological pathways that have been impacted/reshaped. Notably these pathways are honed over time. 2/8
As behaviors are biological, including emotional responses, this inherently confirms the biological underpinning of mental health with relevant symptomology, which is therefore better defined as brain disease, like heart disease or autoimmune disease. 3/8