Thread by @bradbatt

JCP: Six more die in region. Positivity rate skyrockets. NE TN ties single-day record in new cases. Spread continues to increase.

GOP: Let's bring a mask-less COVID tour to East Tennessee.

It is shocking that for 7 months this GOP has done nothing. Even more shocking…

1/

…is that they continue to play pretend, as if our area is not being pummeled by this pandemic more than ever before. Ballad CEO Alan Levine says the surge is straining nursing resources…

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(Side note: Remember when Alan called me an idiot and blocked me for asking how many tests we have, what our capacities were, and what @BalladHealth was doing for people who can't afford healthcare? My questions still stand.)

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https://twitter.com/TheTNHoller/status/1239900396967079937

…and Chief of Infection Prevention Jamie Swift is on her personal Facebook practically begging people to say home.

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And what does the @TNGOP do? Whatever the hell they want. The same party that always champions "personal responsibility" shows up on the Jonesborough courthouse steps to show just how irresponsibly they can act. They're the party of "Do as I say, not as I do".

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They've never taken this seriously because they don't take any complex problems seriously. They ignore things like generational poverty and how 45% of those in Washington County were unable to pay their bills *before* COVID. They ignore the lack of health care…

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…facing so many Tennesseans and refuse to expand Medicaid even though 39 other states have already done so. They promise our teachers raises and then they yank them away, even in a year where teachers are being asked to do more with less than ever before.

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COVID is just another problem that the GOP doesn't want to take seriously and doesn't want to address. Don't believe me? Check out Tim Hick's mailer from August — "COVID tOoK oUr cOiNs" 🙄

Y'all, I can't.

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Tim, people aren't worried about their damn quarters. They're worried about how to pay their bills. They're worried about when they will be able to safely send their kids back to school without having to put themselves and their family at risk.

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They're worried about when they might get some help they deserve from a GOP-controlled legislature that has failed them time and time again. Also, debit cards, you should check into them.

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Tim says he's a "Fresh Start", but there's not a single issue that he doesn't completely agree with Micah Van Huss on. Not a single one. He said so in his campaign. That's not a "fresh start", that's just the same ole' same ole' that the GOP has been shoveling for years.

/end