Though the current project started as a series of posts charting my grief journey after the death of my mother, I am no longer actively grieving. Now, the blog charts a conversation in living, mainly whatever I want it to be. This is an activity that goes well with the theme of this blog (updated 2018). The Sense of Doubt blog is dedicated to my motto: EMBRACE UNCERTAINTY. I promote questioning everything because just when I think I know something is concrete, I find out that it’s not.
Hey, Mom! The Explanation.
Here's the permanent dedicated link to my first Hey, Mom! post and the explanation of the feature it contains.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2467 - When did you forget right from wrong? Threatening to kill is WRONG! The Gosar "animé" video
A Sense of Doubt blog post #2467 - When did you forget right from wrong? Threatening to kill is WRONG! The Gosar "animé" video
Death threats are not protected "free" speech.
Making a mock-up anime video that shows you killing another person is not a joke, a lark, or some prank that we should sweep under the rug with the usual "OH boys will be boys" bullshit.
Worse, you cannot make such a video about someone you work with, post it on social media, and laugh about it with your cronies.
Much worse, if you're a man, you cannot make such a life-threatening video showing you killing a WOMAN.
This is a crime.
Even worse than that, if you are a sitting and duly elected representative of the Congress of the United States of America, you cannot make, post, and yuk it up about your violent and threatening video about ANOTHER MEMBER of Congress, male or female, and not be censured.
Hell, you should be ARRESTED for assault.
You know, "assault" occurs under the law any time a person feels that their life is in danger because of the actions or words of another person.
Showing yourself killing a colleague in a video is a form of assault, and if the victim of the video killing feels that her life is in danger because of your little video, then you should be prosecuted for assault under the law.
Joe Schmoe working at the Farm and Fleet in Podunk, America would surely be prosecuted for this heinous crime.
But since Paul Gosar is a member of the FEDERAL CONGRESS he just gets censured and has the temerity to feel that this censure (as opposed to censure and then arrest and prosecution) is UNFAIR.
What crazy world are we in?
This behavior is not okay. It's criminal.
And then to have only TWO REPUBLICANS vote to to censure him AND then after he is censured (because there's more democrats), these soulless ghouls that were some how elected to office as "republicans" circle him, pat him on the back, console him, you know, "atta boy," Those Democrats sure are unreasonable and unfair.
This is grotesque.
All the mothers of these people are deeply ashamed.
And of course, Gosar's video targeted AOC -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- because she scares the piss right out of small-minded people like Paul Gosar. The propaganda Fox News and other networks of hate have been all enraged the entire time AOC has been in office. She is a bad ass. A smart, beautiful, educated woman, who actually puts effort (and money) into HELPING PEOPLE while elected officials like Paul Gosar use their time and staff members to threaten AOC's life with criminal video on Twitter.
This is Gosar's response to being taken to account (though not the full extent of the legal consequences that should be applied) for threatening the life of another human, let alone a colleague, let alone a woman, a woman who receives probably more death threats than any other reprenstative because of the fear-stoking by the right-wing propaganda machine.
I am trying to be reasonable and not stoop to his level and suggest that he has a little dick or that he's a colossal asshole, so colossal he's re-defining what "asshole" means.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the House floor Wednesday to condemn Republican Rep. Paul Gosar, as well as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other party leadership for their reaction to an anime video Gosar posted online edited to depict her murder.
The House voted today to censure Gosar for the video. Only two Republicans—Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger—joined Democrats in voting to formally rebuke Gosar. Ahead of the vote, McCarthy gave a speech in which he called the move to censure Gosar the “definition of abuse of power.”
“Let me be clear. I do not condone violence, and Rep. Gosar had echoed that sentiment,” McCarthy said, chalking the whole response up to a partisan attack. “The video was deleted, but Democrats won’t listen because they will do anything to distract from the failures of one-party rule in one year destroying a nation.”
Ocasio-Cortez then gave her own speech.
“In response to the Republican leader’s remarks when he says that this action is unprecedented–what I believe is unprecedented is for a member of House leadership of either party to be unable to condemn incitement of violence against a member of this body,” she said.
“It is sad. It is a sad day in which a member who leads a political party in the United States of America cannot bring themselves to say that issuing a depiction of murdering a member of Congress is wrong, and instead decides to venture off into a tangent about gas prices and inflation,” Ocasio-Cortez continued. “What is so hard? What is so hard about saying that this is wrong?”
AOC: "What I believe is unprecedented is for a member of House leadership of either party to be unable to condemn incitement of violence against a member of this body ... what is so hard about saying that this is wrong?" pic.twitter.com/99Gavn8a34
After facing backlash for the video online, Gosar claimed that those who took issue with it were overreacting, that it was just a harmless cartoon. And it is a cartoon, but that doesn’t make it an acceptable thing to post about a colleague or about a member of Congress.
“Now, this nihilism runs deep,” AOC said about this just a joke attitude. “And it conveys and betrays a certain contempt for the meaning and importance of our work here. That what we do, as long as we claim that it is a joke, doesn’t matter. That what we say here doesn’t matter. That our actions every day as elected leaders in the United States of America doesn’t matter!”
After Gosar posted the video, Rep. Ted Lieu responded online, tweeting, “In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired.”
AOC echoed that sentiment in her speech. “Would you allow depictions of violence against women, against colleagues?” she asked. “Would you allow that in your home? Do you think this should happen on a school board? In a city council, in a church? And if it’s not acceptable there, why should it be accepted here?”
“Lastly, when the Republican leader rose to talk about how there are all of these double standards and lists a litany of all these different things, not once did he list an example of a member of Congress threatening the life of another,” Ocasio-Cortez concluded. “This is not about a double standard. And what is unprecedented and what is tragic is the descent of transgression in this body.”
The big story in both Politico Playbook and Punchbowl's morning newsletter is the scheduled House vote on censuring Rep. Paul Gosar for the infamous video he tweeted on November 9. It featured the opening credits from Japanese anime series "Attack on Titan," with Gosar, flanked by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert, stabbing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the neck and preparing to murder Joe Biden. By no stretch of the imagination is this okay, and it is of a piece with the increasingly unhinged and violent rhetoric that permeates every aspect of the GOP.
And it's not just rhetoric, as we all witnessed on January 6.
According to the Book and the Bowl, Gosar apologized to his Republican colleagues at a caucus meeting yesterday, although he has yet to apologize to Rep. Ocasio-Cortez herself. Most but not all of the Gippers rallied around him and agreed not to vote for censure.
Rep. Liz Cheney, whom Republicans recently stripped of her position as conference chair as punishment for her support for Trump's impeachment, is also expected to vote in favor of censure, describing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's refusal to sanction Gosar as "indefensible, morally and ethically, and it's crazy politically."
Having agreed that they would do nothing to reprimand a congressman for threatening a colleague, the Republican caucus moved on to more important business: deciding how to punish their own members for the grievous sin of voting with Democrats on the infrastructure bill. Moderate New Yorker John Katko, who voted in favor of impeachment and the BIF, has been in the sights of the GOP fringe for a while. He appears to have saved his position as ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee by promising not to vote in favor of the Gosar censure, although he did vote to strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments back in February.
"What's a guy up in New York have to do with Homeland Security? Shouldn't it be someone down along the border?" Georgia's savviest pol said yesterday. She's also, like, really good at geography.
Playbook and Punchbowl can be forgiven for analyzing this censure resolution through an entirely political lens, since Kevin McCarthy's every move is dictated by his personal dream of regaining the speakership in 2023, and he has to keep the crazies on side if he wants to win.
From Playbook:
MCCARTHY'S BALANCING ACT — You can't watch all this drama without also asking how this plays into House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY's bid for speaker. On Tuesday night, MTG told reporters that if McCarthy doesn't punish Republicans who voted for BIF, she might not back him for the top post if Republicans retake the House next year. On the other side, moderate members are frustrated that he hasn't done more to rein in the far-right members coming after them.
Well, fair enough. But there's no honest discussion of this without acknowledging that only one side is deploying violent rhetoric, even after its followers invaded the building shouting "Nancy, come out and play!" and "Hang Mike Pence." And yet, here's how Playbook describes the censure vote itself:
The House will vote on a resolution to censure Gosar and strip him of his committee assignments, an extraordinary move by Democratic leaders. But it perfectly demonstrates what we're talking about — the anger, the deep distrust and lack of decorum or civility between members on many occasions.
Really? The censure resolution embodies the "lack of decorum or civility" that's eroding congress? Not the fact that a member publicly fantasized about killing someone, and his own party leader won't even make him call her up and apologize?
This isn't a game. These threats lead to real-world violence, as we saw less than a year ago. Here's some language from the bill describing what's really at stake here:
Whereas the Speaker of the House made clear that threats of violence against Members of Congress and the President of the United States should not be tolerated and called on the Committee on Ethics of the House and law enforcement to investigate the video;
Whereas depictions of violence can foment actual violence and jeopardize the safety of elected officials, as witnessed in this chamber on January 6, 2021;
Whereas violence against women in politics is a global phenomenon meant to silence women and discourage them from seeking positions of authority and participating in public life, with women of color disproportionately impacted;
Death threats are the new normal for too many "republicans."
Republicans Are FURIOUS That FBI Will Now Monitor Their Threats Against School Board Members
Nov 19, 2021
The Ring of Fire
803K subscribers
The FBI has now setup their system to track threats against school board members across the country, and Republicans are furious about this. They have been showing up at school board meetings for months to harass members about mask mandates, critical race theory, and now about books with LGBTQ themes. Some have gone as far as to show up at the homes of members or issue death threats against them, prompting the FBI to get involved. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening and why Republicans are so upset.
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2111.19 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2331 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
No comments:
Post a Comment