Mitch McConnell Campaign Posts Images of Opponent's Name on Tombstone, and White Men Sexually Assaulting AOC

Sen. Mitch McConnell's campaign posted
 an image of his electoral opponent's tombstone
hours after the El Paso massacre at which
dozens were killed and wounded by a
racist Trump supporter.

McConnell campaign spokesperson mocks objection to icon of dead opponent in wake of racist mass killing

 

Updated - Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky) campaign is off to a roaring start.

Hours after the El Paso massacre committed by an emboldened Donald Trump fan, Trump's ally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky), and his campaign sent out its response in images from Kentucky's annual political event, the Fancy Farm Picnic held last weekend.

The Mitch McConnell campaign tweeted out a mock graveyard of grave markers that included McConnell's 2020 election opponent, Marine Amy McGrath (D).

"RIP Amy McGrath, November 3, 2020," reads one tombstone.

Writes the Marine, Amy McGrath (D): "Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging."

Ms. McGrath's tweet is below:

Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging. pic.twitter.com/2x5kO5jwPi

— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) August 5, 2019

In case Kentucky voters did not get the message what Republicans stand for, six Mitch McConnell volunteers dressed in Team Mitch t-shirts posed for pictures of the young men groping, choking and assaulting an image of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).

One young man grabbed Ms. Ocasio-Cortez' mouth in a simulated act depicting violent control over a woman prevalent in rape culture in which a woman is ordered to 'suck it.'

The image and Cortez' response is below:

Hey @senatemajldr - these young men look like they work for you.

Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch?

Thanks. https://t.co/ysRJuwonUx

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 6, 2019

The McConnell's campaign's response made light of the simulated assault and mocked criticism: Team Mitch "in no way condones any aggressive, suggestive, or demeaning act toward life-sized cardboard cutouts of any gender," (Huffington Post).

Sexual assault and aggravated assaults are crimes now normalized in the Republican Party.

Reports Huffington: "Some of the same men also appeared in a photo on the official "Team Mitch" Instagram account for the Fancy Farm picnic, holding aloft cutout faces of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch."

Kavanaugh was exposed as a rapist during his Senate confirmation hearings.

In the faces of the young Kentucky Republicans in Team Mitch's photos, it is easy to see a young Brett Kavanaugh, and other violent youthful Republicans who don't know enough not to treat fellow human beings as less than human.  

Sexual assault, mass shootings and other violence do not come from nowhere.

Today, these crimes are legitimatized by a major American political party, the Republican Party, that  mocks the idea that cultivating dehumanization of political opponents is unacceptable and indecent.

Emanuel Cleaver Warns Ocasio-Cortez to Be Silent, Stop 'Humiliating' Herself in Stunning On-air Display of Patriarchy and Condescension

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Kansas, MO) appearing
on the Weekends with Alex Witt show, attacked and
condescended the progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
in open display of patriarchy that is at once pathetic and
destructive, (YouTube, 21:40-minute mark).

Why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can't be silent and just listen to old congressional hands
--- Where is this woman's husband?

National Democratic Party mucks appear primed to listen to their betters — progressives.

But dead-enders remain.

Witness Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Kansas, MO) appearing on the Weekends with Alex Witt show, (MSNBC).

Asked about intentions of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to help with progressive primary challenges against some Democratic incumbents, Cleaver's response is not merely patriarchal and condescending towards Ocasio-Cortez, the 75-year-old Cleaver is pathetic.

Cleaver said Ocasio-Cortez is alone in speaking against corruption and is going to "humiliate" herself, if the youngest member of Congress keeps speaking out against money in politics.

Urging acquiescence to corrupt congressional members, (one of whom Ocasio-Cortez defeated), Cleaver said, "If you've been around Congress for awhile—give advice. If you're just coming to Congress—consider it."

Cleaver is an old man in Congress accruing $six figures annually and building his pension in an attempt to achieve personal financial security while betraying a mobilized base of progressive activists working for change.

Ocasio-Cortez is right on the politics, right on proposed policy of the Justice Democrats, and personally embodies the brilliance, dedication and charisma of a progressive movement during a period of maximum peril.

Cleaver of-course, fawning and long obsequious to corporate power, is a supporter of Hillary Clinton.

Misogynist on @AlexWitt: @repcleaver (D) says @Ocasio2018' is "humiliat(ing)" herself speaking against corruption: "If you've been around Congress for awhile—give advice. If you're just coming to Congress—consider it." @realDonaldTrump-worthy. @DavidCornDC , @MaddowBlog

— Michael Leon (@mal644) November 18, 2018

This morning, in a profile in The Atlantic, Ocasio-Cortez is paraphrased in the headline: ‘If We Pass Medicare for All, I’m Going to Be Silent as a Lamb.’

Below is a video of Weekends with Alex Witt show.

Cleaver's segment on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez begins at the 21:40-second mark. Watch this:

Time for a Political Revolution in New York, Wisconsin, and Everywhere

Lessons from the Bronx and Queens for Wisconsin Dems.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is new face of Democratic Party.
(Scott Heins/Getty Images), (In These Times)

Madison, Wisconsin — Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just knocked off a leading corporatist House Democrat who did nothing for mass incarceration, social justice and human dignity during his tenure in Congress.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did not come out of nowhere.

But much of corporate media and the Democratic Party can't figure out what to make of the New York congressional primary results this week.

And if you think about it for even a minute, you'll see how incredibly condescending & dismissive is this now-widespread attempt to reduce @Ocasio2018 to nothing more than demographics and an aberrational district. She ran a highly ideological campaign vehemently critical of Dems

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 29, 2018

The Democratic Socialist, which is to say the FDR-Eisenhower-LBJ Socialist, Ocasio-Cortez came from the community.

One hopes Wisconsin Democrats electing a candidate to face Gov. Scott Walker (R) listen to the community as well. Not to the Molochian call for sacrifice to the police state, and character assassination of reformists, not to a small group of people in Madison oozing slime into the political terrain because they know what's best for voters who get to ratify their typically ill-considered decision.

Listen to the community.

Miles Kampf-Lassin reports on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez' win for the community, dumping the Democratic Party machine:

"Economic, social and racial dignity for working-class Americans, especially those in Queens and the Bronx. We were very clear about our message, we were very clear about our priorities and very clear about the fact that, even if you’ve never voted before, we are talking to you," (In These Times, quoting from MSNBC, Morning Joe).
---
If Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were an unknown to most of the nation, she was well-known to readers of In These Times, a good and decent woman who wants to help.
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In Wisconsin, Caleb Frostman (D-Sturgeon Bay) won a special state Senate election earlier this month after Scott Walker and Republicans went to absurd lengths to block the election in the northeastern Wisconsin peninsula.

Frostman was sworn in yesterday in Sturgeon Bay. Here's what Frostman had to say.

From WLUK-TV (Green Bay):

I am ready to serve and represent the people of the 1st State Senate District and look forward to meeting with constituents across the six counties I now represent. Our shared values will guide me in my work as a State Senator, and I will fight every day to expand opportunities and help everyone in our area succeed. I look forward to hearing from community members and encourage everyone to reach out to me for assistance or to talk about how we can improve our local schools and roads, protect access to clean drinking water and our natural resources, and strengthen our local communities.

At the end of a bad two weeks for America leading into the mid-week holiday, Frostman and Ocasio-Cortez offer hope for old-fashioned democracy and decency.