Tag: Rep. Kevin McCarthy

Why are we taking so long to deal with these two?

Stop the normalization of blatant lies and anti-Muslim rhetoric by radicalized legislators.

  • Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines
  • Action #2: Email/Call your legislators and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to censure Reps. Boebert and Greene.
  • Action #3: Email Parag Agrawal of Twitter.
  • NEW – Action #4: Tell your senators to pass H.R.5665 – Combating International Islamophobia.

Update: More than 400 Hill staffers demand House leaders act after Boebert’s anti-Muslim remarks

Why is this taking so long? We’ve seen the damage that Trump’s toxic rhetoric has caused. We rushed in to tell Congress that Gosar’s taxpayer-funded snuff film featuring AOC and President Biden wasn’t acceptable.

Now we need to stand behind Rep. Omar (D-MN) who is the target of Rep. Lauren Boebert’s repeated racist and anti-Muslim lies. Boebert, a serial liar and possesor of a surprisingly long rap sheet, joins Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in the bloodsport of smearing progressive lawmakers of color with derogatory and dangerously inflammatory terms like “Jihad squad” and “terrorist.”

What Boebert and Greene are doing is the essence of stochastic terrorism – “the use of mass communications to stir up random lone wolves to carry out violent or terrorist acts that are statistically predictable but individually unpredictable.” The stochastic terrorist may deliberately incite violence or simply be indifferent to its possibility. In either case, the danger posed is very real, if somewhat intangible (until it is too late).”

Psychologist Valerie Tarico provides a succinct formula for stochastic terrorism, a pattern we are already well acquainted with by having a practitioner as our last president:

  • Demonization – a figure with a platform targets a person or group to be blamed for real or imagined ills.
  • Dehumanization – with repetition of the demonisation, the target loses their personhood in the eyes of the audience, becoming a monster or symbol of evil and depravity.
  • Desensitization – violent language and imagery is used in discussion of the target, and while no direct calls to use violence are issued, violent speech becomes an accepted part of the discourse.
  • Denial – when violence occurs, the stochastic terrorist denies any responsibility, pointing to their lack of direct involvement or instruction.

(Watch the video at the bottom for an example of how the rhetoric of Trump and his right-wing media pets created a terrifying reality for a temporary election worker in Georgia.)

Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines.

Continue reading “Why are we taking so long to deal with these two?” →

Gross-ar by the day – “Everybody needs to relax.”

Quote by Gosar staff member.

Stop the normalization of violence by radicalized legislators.

  • Update 11/11/21: 20 Democratic members of Congress introduced a resolution to censure Rep. Gosar. Not as good as expulsion but it could remove him from his committee seats. Added script!
  • Update 11/10/21: Rep. Gosar has removed his tweet! Taxpayer-funded snuff films are still NOT ACCEPTABLE, thanks to alert citizens like you! We have adjusted the scripts accordingly.
    • Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines
    • Action #2: Email Jack Dorsey of Twitter.
    • Action #3: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland.
    • NEW!!! Action #4: Call/Email your legislators to join censure action and add committee removal to the mix.

The GOP has a history of telling women to “relax” when violence is done to them. Back in 1990, Texas GOP gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams shared an analogy while preparing for a cattle roundup…”He compared the cold, foggy weather spoiling the event to a rape, telling ranch hands, campaign workers and reporters around a campfire, ”If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it.” Meanwhile, AOC, the designated villain in a violent anime Gosar’s staff posted on Twitter and Instagram, is already working under near-constant death threats. Says Yale historian, Joanne Freeman, “Threats of violence lead to actual violence. They clear the ground. They cow opposition. They plant the idea. They normalize it. They encourage it. They maim democracy. And run the risk of killing it.”

Action #1: Flood House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s phone lines.

Minimal script: I’m calling as a voter of [California] to to tell Rep. McCarthy, in his role as House Minority Leader, that I do not want my taxpayer dollars used in the creation of violent materials threatening legislative opponents or the President. Not only was Rep. Gosar’s tweet a gross abuse of public funds, making a video depicting the killing of a coworker in any other job in America would result in firing and a call to the police. That the tweet is gone now makes zero difference. Tell Rep. McCarthy that he needs to join House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in calling for an both Ethics Committee and law enforcement investigations into Gosar’s actions. At minimum, he should be removed from his committee assignments, as Rep. Margerie Taylor Greene was, and officially censured. At best, he should be expelled.

More script if you want it: Rep. McCarthy seems unable or unwilling to control the increasingly unhinged behavior of GOP House members. Maybe, it’s time he steps aside for someone who can maintain some semblance of law and order.

Contact: Ring his phone off the hook at 202-225-2915

Action #2: Email Jack Dorsey of Twitter. Ask him to kick Gosar off Twitter

Jack, I understand that it is Twitter’s policy to remove accounts that promote or threaten violence against other people. However, because Rep. Gosar is a congressman, his violent fantasy of killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and threatening President Biden was allowed to stay up for “public interest,” or because it “directly contributes to understanding or discussion of a matter of public concern.”

Nothing showing a man killing a woman is in the “public interest.” Women already know they live surrounded by male violence – their lives are shaped by that reality 24/7. Additionally, prominent congresswomen like AOC have to somehow manage to live and work under the reality of multiple death threats, which now includes the possibility of violent films from fellow legislators, facilitated by platforms like yours. That Gosar’s tweet, which you admit violates your own rules on “hateful conduct” remained easily available for his followers because he is a powerful man, just made it worse for her.

I understand that after a flood of condemnation, Gosar took down his tweet. Apparently, America is not ready to “relax” over taxpayer-funded snuff films. However, I’m asking you to do better, since he is unable to. If you are truly interested in issues of “public concern,” you would permanently ban Rep. Gosar from your platform as the stochastic terrorist that he is.

Contact: jack@twitter.com

Action #3: Email Attorney General Merrick Garland

Continue reading “Gross-ar by the day – “Everybody needs to relax.”” →