GOP congressman posts violent anime

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Paul Gosar just made the case against re-electing him better than perhaps anyone could. Nothing says "divider" more than threatening violence against one's colleagues, but that's exactly what Gosar did on Sunday, albeit in a creative format. The Arizona congressman tweeted out an altered video of a Japanese anime, in which the faces of Gosar, fellow Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and President Biden are superimposed on the bodies of the characters. Gosar's character stabs Ocasio-Cortez's character in the back of the neck, killing her, before brandishing two swords at Biden's character. Yes, this is how low our politics have sunk, thanks to the dividers in Congress like Gosar, who also has vocally downplayed the violence at the Capitol last January. And that's exactly the problem. With every incendiary meme shared, every act of political violence excused, and every lie told, Gosar and his ilk are methodically ripping
apart the seams of democracy. They are creating the conditions not only for the next insurrection to take place, but for political violence to become commonplace in America. They have no place in the halls of Congress. —Miles Taylor

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** How low can you Gosar?
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Republican Rep. Paul Gosar is facing harsh criticism from House colleagues after tweeting an altered video that includes animation showing him striking and apparently killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword and then preparing to attack President Biden with a similar weapon. Gosar posted the video on Sunday with a note saying, "Any anime fans out there?" The roughly 90-second video is also interspersed with shots of border patrol officers and migrants at the southern U.S. border. ([link removed])
* — Ocasio-Cortez brought attention to Gosar's tweet with her own, in which she referred to him as "a creepy member I work with" and said he "shared a fantasy video of him killing me." She added that Gosar would face no consequences because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy "cheers him on with excuses." Fellow House Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu tweeted, "In any workplace in America, if a coworker made an anime video killing another coworker, that person would be fired." ([link removed])
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* — Twitter attached a warning to the tweet for violating its rules about "hateful conduct." However, the social media platform did not remove the tweet because it determined that "it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible." Gosar's digital director, Jessica Lycos, tossed aside assertions that the video glorifies violence, saying, "Everyone needs to relax." ([link removed])
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* — Gosar is known as an ardent proponent of the Big Lie. He is among the lawmakers whose phone or computer records the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection has asked social media and telecommunications companies to preserve, as they were potentially involved with efforts to "challenge, delay, or interfere" with the certification of the 2020 election or to otherwise try to overturn its results. He has called the insurrectionists "peaceful patriots." —CBS News ([link removed])

MORE: Laurie Roberts: There he Gosars again, this time with an anime video in which he kills AOC —Arizona Republic ([link removed])


** Goldberg: Why schools really mattered in the election
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"As many have pointed out, the reason education was such an incendiary issue in the Virginia governor's race likely had less to do with critical race theory than with parent fury over the drawn-out nightmare of online school. Because America's response to Covid was so politically polarized, school shutdowns were longest in blue states, and Virginia's was especially severe; only six states had fewer in-person days last year." —Michelle Goldberg in ([link removed]) The New York Times ([link removed])

Michelle Goldberg is an author and a
New York Times opinion columnist.

MORE: Right-wing operatives deploy massive network of fake local news sites to weaponize CRT —Popular Information ([link removed])


** Cyber justice
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The Justice Department has charged a Ukrainian and a Russian in one of the worst ransomware attacks against American targets in history. An indictment accuses Ukrainian Yaroslav Vasinskyi and Russian national Yevgeniy Polyanin, both operatives of the hacker group REvil, with conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering, among other offenses. The action follows a slew of measures taken to combat a surge in ransomware that has struck several big companies, including global meatpacker JBS SA and the U.S.'s Colonial Pipeline, crippling fuel delivery for several days. Vasinskyi was arrested in Poland last month as part of an international sweep against key ransomware figures coordinated by the FBI, Europol, and other European law enforcement organizations, with help from private security companies. —Reuters ([link removed])


** Tumulty: Moderates are good—not bad—for Democrats
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"As much as voters want to see action out of Washington, they also want to be reassured that any expansion of government is being done with care, with the potential consequences being weighed along with the benefits. … A political imperative for speed is not an excuse for carelessness. Americans have a right to expect that their leaders have taken every foreseeable contingency into account before they undertake major new initiatives. And they should be wary of any effort to bypass the referees." —Karen Tumulty in ([link removed]) The Washington Post ([link removed])

Karen Tumulty is a
Washington Post columnist covering national politics.

MORE: Election results in Virginia prove things can get worse for Democrats —The New York Times ([link removed])
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** A border crisis…in Belarus
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Thousands of migrants and refugees are camped out in Belarus after Polish security forces blocked them from crossing the border into Poland yesterday. Warsaw has accused Belarus of trying to spark a major confrontation by encouraging migrants and refugees from the Middle East and Africa to cross into Central Europe and the wider European Union in revenge for Western sanctions on longtime President Alexander Lukashenko's corrupt regime. Lukashenko may get his wish, as Polish officials are now warning of a possible armed escalation. Human rights groups have criticized both countries for their treatment of the migrants and refugees, who face subzero temperatures and a lack of food and medical attention. At least seven people have died in the region since August, when the border crisis first erupted. — ([link removed]) Al Jazeera
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MORE: Capitol rioter facing charges for assaulting officers seeks asylum in Belarus —The Guardian ([link removed])


** Focus on the insurrection
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The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol issued six more subpoenas yesterday to top Trump advisers who were active in the ex-president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Those subpoenaed to provide testimony and documents include legal scholar John Eastman; former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik; Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien; senior campaign adviser Jason Miller; national campaign executive assistant Angela McCallum; and former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. ([link removed])
* — All of them participated in discussions about challenging the election results. In early January, both Eastman and Kerik were present at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., which served as a "command center" for the operation. Eastman has become a witness of special interest because of the role he played laying out legal scenarios to deny Biden the presidency, including during an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 with Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. ([link removed])
*
* — At the command center, Eastman huddled with Trump allies including personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, and Kerik to develop plans to pressure Pence to take actions on Jan. 6 that Eastman suggested were within the vice president's powers. Those actions included blocking or delaying the counting of electoral votes from battleground states where results were in dispute. ([link removed])
*
* — They also called members of GOP-dominated legislatures in swing states. Eastman spotlighted Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona in his memos as key states that voted for Biden that could potentially be overturned. The Trump allies reached out to officials in each state to encourage them to convene special sessions to investigate "fraud" and reassign their Electoral College votes from Biden to Trump. It sounds bad. Really bad. Will these potential witnesses comply with the subpoenas, or pull a Bannon? Stay tuned. —The Washington Post ([link removed])

MORE: Trump makes—and loses—overnight bid to block Jan. 6 investigators —Politico ([link removed])


** Kasparov: We can renew democracy—or lose it forever
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"All around the world, demagogues are pushing the same dangerous message: democracy is broken and should be discarded. Their attacks on democracy are only aided—even if unintentionally—by America seemingly losing interest in protecting the liberal, democratic order it helped create. … Democracy is a privilege, and we all have a responsibility to defend it. The American republic may have its flaws, but there is nothing wrong with American democracy that cannot be fixed by American democracy. Today, we can either be the generation that renews democracy, or loses it forever." —Garry Kasparov on ([link removed]) CNN ([link removed])

Garry Kasparov is chair of the Human Rights Foundation and the Renew Democracy Initiative.

MORE: Amy Fried: What unites Americans? —Bangor Daily News ([link removed])

It is the strength and the greatness of America that there are so many Americans who are Gen. Powell's type, and we don't, and never will, know their names.

The high school teacher who comes in early, or stays late, to tutor students who just can't grasp quadratic equations or irregular verbs. The landscaper who takes his snowblower out in pre-dawn darkness to clear driveways for neighbors who can't afford to pay him. The doctor who stockpiles free samples from pharmaceutical companies to give to patients whose prescription coverage is limited. The basketball or football players who walk off the court or field if a teammate's race or ethnicity is mocked. The young lawyer who turns down a high-paying job with a prestigious law firm to work to protect the abused, or prosecute the guilty.

There are probably a million Colin Powells in America who we will never know, meet, or honor. And they are what makes America, US. —Jim V., New York

Melissa Amour's piece on Gen. Colin Powell was thought-provoking. I believe one word that wraps up Gen. Powell is 'integrity'. He was true to his convictions, no matter how hard it was for anyone, including himself. He will be greatly missed. —John H., Minnesota
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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