#NEW
Philadelphia is the straw purchase AND ghost gun capital of the East Coast. We have shootings every day & more gun homicides than any other big city this year and last. Now we've had two cops shot at THE concert of the year.
🧵 #GunViolence #Philly#Shooter #July4thPhilly
The GOP will claim that this cop shooting in #Philly is about "Democratic lawlessness," but it's actually and only about the proliferation of guns and the refusal by any Republican and some Democrats to do anything at all to control this rampant #GunViolence.
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The good news is that no one died in this shooting at the fireworks in #Philly, that it wasn't a mass shooting event like #HighlandPark. But every child at this family event who was told by police to run will be traumatized in a city already beset by too much #GunViolence.
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We keep having the same conversations over and over every time there's a mass shooting like #HighlandPark or an incident like #July4thPhilly. But we haven't moved forward. The gun lobby still controls Congress. Do we have the will to vote against NRA-backed politicians?
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I have been writing about and reporting on all levels of #GunViolence for 25yrs. Been on TV, radio, panels. Been a victim of gun violence myself. I am so tired of telling this same story again and again. It's not mental illness, it's guns. It's not politics, it's the NRA.
🧵5/
Stop both-sides-ing the #GunViolence issue. It doesn't matter how blue the city when the gun lobby and gun laws are set by an NRA-bought GOP. I don't even know what to ask for anymore. I just want all the killing to stop--all the minor altercations ending in shots fired.
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Dr. David Baum talked to ABC News after the #HighlandPark mass shooting. He was there with his grandchild. He tried to help the victims. He described one body "eviscerated," another's head blown apart. He said civilians should not be subjected to seeing war injuries.
🧵7/
A pediatrician at #Uvalde talked about how children's bodies were unrecognizable due to what happens from AR-15 weapon's fire. They could only be ID'd by their clothes. How is any of this acceptable? When did we decide to normalize mass shootings--or any shootings at all?
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I don't know what the answers are, but I do know we have to keep asking the questions and not be complacent. Whenever I write about #GunViolence on here the response is muted. Getting inured to violence is bad. We have an obligation to the victims. Remember that.
🧵9 /
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Only in that they are all GOP, so this is VERY deceptive. Bush v Gore was a Supreme Court decision. What actually led to "this" is Democrats failing to vote in 2000, 2010, 2014 and 2016, which ceded full power to the GOP to deny Obama Garland, elect Trump and stack the courts.
It's tempting to blame these justices for the past two decades, because the reality is so much more disconcerting: Democrats not voting (2010,2014) or voting 3rd party (2000 and 2016) in protest is what got us the Trump Supreme Court. These truths are--or should be--self-evident.
And never forget that 11 million MORE Americans voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016, even after he was responsible for the deaths of a half million Americans.
Incredibly exhausted after The Wife's 1st week of chemo and all that has entailed. Battling insurance, trying to keep essential elements to The Wife's care from falling through the massive chasmic cracks in our broken healthcare system. Having to monitor her every symptom.
🧵1/
Actual hospital care and The Wife's doctors (2 oncologic surgeons, 2 oncologists, an endocrinologist,a radiation oncologist) are all stellar. But after care has been abysmal. I have had to fight repeatedly for nursing care, which has been intermittent and utterly haphazard.
🧵2/
It should not have to be this hard to be very sick in this country. Like how is it possible that she is not approved for payment for tracheostomy supplies? Or for nursing care for the in-home chemo infusion that happens for two days after her in-hospital chemo?
🧵3/
It's alarming that so many Democrats,so many truly educated and otherwise savvy and smart people,so many who really want the best for America, just don't understand--or want to--how close we truly are to losing our democracy if McCarthy gets to be Speaker. The gate to hell opens.
Those of us in historically marginalized communities don't have the luxury of ignoring what's happening. As in 2016 when we warned over and over again about what would happen and we're called "hysterical" and reactive, we see the issues with clarity and want everyone on board.
Paul Ryan allowed Trump and the GOP to run rampant. But Ryan was a weak, passive Speaker. McCarthy is desperate to be Speaker. He dreams of it daily and the power he will wield. Look how dangerous he is in a minority role. Teamed with the MAGA forces who knows how far he will go?
Olympic gold medalist and WNBA all-star Brittney Griner's wrongful detention began 132 days ago. That detention has been extended until December. I've been reporting on Griner since March 5 when her arrest was revealed. New story later today with updates from Russia, State Dept.
Brittney Griner is one of the world's greatest women basketball players. She has been playing for a Russian team in the off-season for years and won 5 championships there. A staunch lesbian activist, she is under threat. Her detention is purely political. #FreeBrittneyGriner
🧵
There are still a few days left to celebrate. Happy #PrideMonth to everyone living their authentic lives and to all those trying to do so in a virulently homophobic and transphobic time. Sending you strength, solidarity and
❤️💜💙💚🧡💛🖤
Here's a thread of stories of mine that provide powerful #PrideMonth reading. I hope you will read and RT this thread and the stories therein. TYVM
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I interviewed Linda Villarosa about her new book about racism and American healthcare. It's a powerful interview and she is a crucial thinker and writer on this vital aspect of deconstructing white supremacy. #PrideMonth
🧵2/ queerforty.com/under-her-skin-
How on earth did this piece pass any kind of editorial scrutinyl? And the thread promoting the story turns the boys into victims. Nevermind that this began when a boy sent out nude pics of a minor girl without her consent, which is deemed a "mistake." Wow.
This story SHOULD have been about how teenage boys are coddled and protected when they do bad things to teenage girls and that teenage girls are pleading for help and getting none. Instead this is about how when girls hold boys accountable, adults attack them. Horrible framing.
And how on earth did this pass editorial scrutiny? Just say "she was hot, so he sent her pics around to everyone, but why'd she get all upset and stuff over it?" Gaslighting 101.