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.

Kentucky Shows Way Forward on WI Supreme Court Ruin

Update: Recusal Standards: A Partial Solution to Judicial Mess

Updated - In light of recent Wisconsin Supreme Court races that were expensive assurances that the would-be justices will exercise bias over certain classes of litigants, here’s one progressive good government idea from Kentucky to which Wisconsin needs to catch up and follow.

From the Kentucky News-Enterprise: “Three Kentucky Court of Appeals judges will hear arguments on two civil cases at the (rural) Hardin County Justice Center Wednesday (April 16) to offer the public an opportunity to see the appellate court at work.”

From the Kentucky Court of Appeals webpage, a citizen reads:

Cases are not retried in the Court of Appeals. Only the record of the original court trial is reviewed, with attorneys presenting the legal issues to the court for a decision.

In Kentucky the 14 appellate judges (elected to eight-year terms, like the Supreme Court Justices) travel the state to hold oral arguments in various locales to, among other functions, educate the citizens of a largely rural state about appellate procedures.

That type of educational innovation and outreach is needed in Wisconsin where the candidates, third-party groups and much of the citizenry seem to believe the mark of a good appellate judge (such as a Supreme Court justice) is how often the judge will rule against the defendant appellant in criminal cases.

Wisconsin certainly measures up to Kentucky in Wisconsin’s webpage explaining the appellate system.

But this Kentucky initiative to reach out and explain the appellate judicial system, in place “for as long I can remember it,” in the words of a Kentucky public information specialist, demonstrates further how far behind Wisconsin has fallen in the integrity of its judicial appellate system and Wisconsin’s non-existent innovations (and many are needed) to ensure an informed citizenry as a check on the impartiality of justice in Wisconsin.

Show me an uninformed, depoliticized citizenry and I will show you rapacious, self-serving interests who will aggressively protect their interests with any legal means at their disposal.

Public financing is surely needed, but absent aggressive and innovative education on the role of the judiciary, good government initiatives will fail miserably.

Dee Runaas offers this comment:

Wisconsin has had a Court with Class program for nearly 10 years that invites classes of high school students to the WI Supreme Court each term to observe oral arguments and meet with a Justice afterwards who explains the process of the court and answers general questions regarding the WI Legal System. Nearly 2200 students annually go through this program. In addition, the WI Supreme Court also has Justice on Wheels which travels throughout the state each year to make the Court more accessible and understandable tothe public.

Furthermore, each year the State Bar of Wisconsin holds a professional development institute for teachers that lasts 2.5 days and it is entirely on the WI Court System and how it operates. They have held this institute for the past 9 years.

Unfortunately, after the last 2 Supreme Court elections, it is obvious that this is not enough. I fear that until campaigns are publicly funded, this will become the norm and NOT the exception in more states than just little ol' Wisconsin.

Democrat Wins Kentucky Gov Race

Today's Republicans' corruption hitting them in the face.

Post: Good night for Dems.

From the Courier-Journal.

Democrat Steve Beshear, returning to Kentucky politics after more than a decade on the sidelines, won a landslide victory over Gov. Ernie Fletcher tonight.

Beshear defeated Fletcher, a Republican seeking to become the first member of his party to serve two terms as governor, by a margin of almost 20 percentage points.Beshear’s win was a repudiation of Fletcher, who was seriously damaged by a scandal over hiring abuses in the state merit system.
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