Share this page!

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
Twitter logo
20 Sep, 4 tweets, 1 min read
Partisan politics literally kill people.
Leaders who govern based on science, who have the humility to truly listen to people with expertise, and who care more about the lives of their people than they do about their partisan political interests are doing much better at keeping their residents alive. That's a fact.
Vermont has the lowest COVID death rate in the nation, with 48 COVID deaths per 100,000 residents.

Mississippi has the highest with 311 deaths per 100,000 residents.

Both have GOP governors.

So what's the difference?
Vermont's GOP governor, Phil Scott, has followed the advice of medical experts far more often than Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, who has often ignored or even criticized health experts.

Unlike Reeves, Scott has relentlessly pushed vaccines.

Fully Vaccinated:
VT: 69%
MS: 42%

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Ashton Pittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @ashtonpittman

Ashton Pittman Profile picture
21 Sep
Geraldo has some really, really good points.
Several things can be true, though. Our anti-Hispanic policies are motivated by racism, and Republicans generally are in the lead on anti-Hispanic immigration.

But when it comes to Cubans, who tend to vote more Republican and oppose leftist policies, Republicans are in favor.
That doesn't mean anti-immigrant sentiment in this country or among Republican politicians isn't racist. It means that, sometimes, partisan preferences come first.

Even under the current administration, systemic white supremacy still controls much of our immigration policy.
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
21 Sep
NEW: Dr. John Witcher has treated hundreds of COVID-19 patients over the past year.

He's unvaccinated and the leader of a small band of Mississippi doctors who are fighting against vaccine mandates, saying they feel "ostracized" and "shamed."
mississippifreepress.org/16136/mississi…
Dr. Witcher: “They’re saying the solution to our COVID pandemic is everybody needs to get vaccinated. ... That’s shaming people like me who don’t want to be vaccinated. It’s ostracizing us. It’s not fair. We want to be treated with respect and dignity."
mississippifreepress.org/16136/mississi…
Mississippi Against Mandates has erected billboards and is using social media to push its message, which includes anti-vaccine misinformation.

At least seven male physicians are part of the organization and appear on billboards.
mississippifreepress.org/16136/mississi… graphic from MS Against Vac...
Read 18 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
20 Sep
NEW: COVID-19 has now killed more Mississippians than the Great Influenza pandemic did from 1918 to 1919.

We hit the milestone a day after Gov. @tatereeves made clear to @jaketapper he isn't changing course.

MS is No. 2 worldwide in COVID deaths.
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…
Pandemic Deaths in Mississippi

Great Influenza: 9,234

COVID-19: 9,270

That COVID total does not include more than 3,000 excess deaths since the pandemic began—many or most of which are likely unconfirmed COVID deaths.
mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…
With 674k confirmed COVID-19 deaths nationwide, the nation as a whole will likely surpass its death toll from the Great Influenza (675k) today, too.

But while Mississippi's population only grew by 1/3 over the last century, the national population tripled.mississippifreepress.org/16073/covid-19…
Read 11 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
19 Sep
Another brilliant lyric hits me every time I hear this album:

"I gave it my all, he gave me nothing at all
Then wondered why I left
Now he sits on his throne in his palace of bones
Praying to his greed
He's got my past frozen behind glass
But I've got me"
Another brilliant lyric in that song:

"When the words of a sister come back in whispers
That prove she was not in fact what she seemed
Not a twin from your dreams
She's a crook who was caught."

Anyway, listen to the whole #Evermore album: youtube.com/playlist?list=…
Note: None of this should be interpreted as a subtweets and it has nothing to do with any of my current relationships in life.

I'm just a writer who has come to greatly admire @taylorswift13's songwriting and storytelling over the course of the pandemic. ☺️
Read 4 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
17 Sep
BREAKING: The board that oversees Mississippi's colleges has voted to prohibit the state's colleges and universities from mandating COVID-19 vaccines.

Today's IHL vote comes after MSU and UM's faculty senates voted FOR vaccine mandates on their campuses.
mississippifreepress.org/16046/ihl-proh…
Today's vote to prohibit COVID-19 vaccines comes a day after I asked IHL about a discrepancy in a prior vote on Aug. 27 and a claim in IHL minutes.

On Aug. 27, IHL voted against implementing a vaccine mandate at the state's college—but not a prohibition.
mississippifreepress.org/16046/ihl-proh…
During the Aug. 27 meeting, Trustee Morgan made a motion not to "impose any requirement on the universities to mandate vaccination."

I asked why IHL yesterday why the minutes claimed the motion was to direct colleges "to refrain from mandating" it.mississippifreepress.org/16046/ihl-proh…
Read 17 tweets
Ashton Pittman Profile picture
17 Sep
Using "BREAKING" at the start of a tweet can either mean:
a) "this is news that's just now happening/developing"
b) "I'm the reporter breaking this story"

What it can't mean is: "This is news someone else reported days/weeks ago that we are now tweeting with no link or credit."
The list of big non-journalistic accounts that have built followers in the hundreds of thousands using "BREAKING" or "NEWS" while presenting someone else's reporting as their own without credit or a link is long. Yes, it definitely includes @OccupyDemocrats, but many others,
too.
I'm not talking about small accounts that do this sometimes. I'm talking about large accounts with 100s of thousands of followers who have made their name with viral tweets that rip off actual journalists—many of them small, local, poorly paid reporters w/1k-3k followers.
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @ashtonpittman has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @ashtonpittman!

Read all threads by @ashtonpittman

:(