I needed a laugh this morning, and even if it’s a grim kind of humor, I’ll take it.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) hit back at Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) after he posted an altered anime clip that showed him killing her, the Washington Post reports.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “While I was en route to Glasgow, a creepy member I work with who fundraises for Neo-Nazi groups shared a fantasy video of him killing me.”
She added: “This dude is a just a collection of wet toothpicks anyway. White supremacy is for extremely fragile people & sad men like him, whose self concept relies on the myth that he was born superior because deep down he knows he couldn’t open a pickle jar or read a whole book by himself.”
One of the more fascinating things about Paul Gosar is that his own siblings consider him extreme and dangerous, and have criticized the Democrats for moving too slowly to expel him from Congress.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is correct when she connects the Arizona congressman to Neo-Nazis and white nationalists. Gosar uses Nazi themes in some of his social media postings, and has an overly intimate relationship with Holocaust-denier Nick Fuentes.
Still, on the biggest issue facing Congress so far this fall, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, Gosar and Ocasio-Cortez both voted in opposition . This put them on the opposite side of the entire Democratic caucus, but also of 13 Republican House members and 19 GOP senators, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who called the legislation “a godsend for Kentucky.”
The bill is a certainly a godsend for New York City, a probably for Arizona as well.
The New York City region will see that investment in the form of projects like the addition of subway station elevators, upgrades to Amtrak–and a revival of the long-stalled Gateway Project‘s Hudson River tunnels. Carlo Scissura, president and chief executive officer of the New York Building Congress, said, “It really does transform the physical part of our region in a way that we haven’t had a federal investment like this in decades honestly.”
The bill will bring funds to the further extension of the Second Avenue subway, updates to the Port Authority bus terminal, a long list of much-needed subway improvements, and bridge and road improvements for Westchester and Long Island.
Over $6.5 billion will be headed to Amtrak’s high-speed rail plans for the Northeast Corridor; $3.6 billion will go to intercity passenger rail grants. The city’s airports will benefit as well, with $295 million potentially available to JFK and $150 million to LaGuardia for repairs and improvements. The state could get $90 billion for upgrades to its water infrastructure and $100 million for broadband improvement. The MTA is expected to receive more than $10 billion.
That’s a lot of nice stuff to vote against, but Ocasio-Cortez had her reasons which are quite distinct from Gosar’s. She didn’t want to vote in the physical infrastructure bill until President Biden’s Build Back Better social infrastructure bill is passed. She doesn’t trust that Democratic centrists won’t water down or kill the former bill not that they’ve secured the latter one. Gosar voted against the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill because it’s a Democratic proposal, and perhaps for ideological reasons.
Still, it was an odd time, when he was in rare agreement with AOC, to post a video of him killing her. It seems like an act worthy of expulsion from Congress. I don’t see how it’s tolerable behavior and it certainly should earn a formal rebuke at a minimum.
Of course, he waddled into the threshing blades a bit by earning such a hilarious series of put-downs from Ocasio-Cortez. Maybe he’ll post a video proving that he actually is man enough to open a pickle jar.
As for AOC, it’s really a shame and not a little frightening that she’s become such a target of the far right. She’s just one out of 435 members of Congress, and she has very little seniority or power. She hasn’t done anything to merit the kind of vitriol that’s sent her way. I think Congress should act to protect her, and that starts by taking some serious action against Gosar.
A few thoughts.
AOC might as well be an 11th Dimensional Being compared to most of her colleagues. She uses Twitter to brutally throatstomp most of the fascists she works with. It’s a beautiful sight to see, and she’s the kind of politician that deserves support and respect from everyone, whether you agree or disagree with her. She is an absolute bootstrapper, extremely intelligent, and clearly cares about people. Clone her and put her in every government position, last week.
The people who use AOC as a punching bag are literally stochastic terrorists. They would love to incite someone to kill her. That is beyond any doubt. The fascist Republicans want their followers to kill for them. Believing otherwise is full-on delusion. They are literally a Death Cult, and already encourage their own members to forsake medical science and die for them. To ignore them whispering to their followers to also go and kill for them is a massive blunder in the long term, nevermind morally reprehensible and likely illegal.
The trajectory we’re on likely includes a “civil war” that won’t be pitched battles. It will be insurrections against Federal, State, City, and Local governments, much like you might see in Iraq or Syria. Who is in control of the Federal Government when those insurrections happens is probably the most important political aspect of politics, in my not-so-humble opinion. This isn’t about LARPing at COSTCO with your discount AR-15 or taking on a squad of US Soldiers rolling down your block. It’s about being in control of the US military so that there isn’t even an initial order to go and murder US citizens protesting fascism…or at the very least an order to go and stop some Red State Governor’s order to go murder US citizens protesting fascism.
Anyway, back to Fascist Republicans and their open embrace of terrorism. The trajectory we’re on with insurrections will be kicked off with political assassinations. And AOC is one of their prime targets. They know exactly what they’re doing. You know how Hillary Clinton was lambasted for 25 years, helping to deprive her of winning the Presidency? The fascists are using the exact same playbook with AOC, only in 2021 they don’t have to rely on some redneck base voters in Dumbfuckistan to hang effigies of AOC, they can literally post a video of a cartoon version of themselves murdering her. Ha ha ha, they’re just kidding or whatever.
Oh, and by the way, Paul Gosar just got himself re-elected in the House, or if thrown out of the House, a possible Senate Seat replacing Senator Kristen Sinema (FOR SALE-AZ).
As always, The Second Amendment isn’t just a right, it’s a responsibility.