Of All The Heinous Things Trump Has Done . . .

A but of humor (and truth) from Andy Borowitz (The Borowitz Report): 

Of all the heinous things Donald Trump has done, by far the most unforgivable is making me agree with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

For as long as I can remember, the Georgia congresswoman has been a reliable firehose of assclownery. Lately, though, I’ve been subjected to the unsettling spectacle of Marge behaving in a sentient manner. It’s like enjoying a new song on Spotify and finding out it’s by Kid Rock.

I’d come to count on Marge to educate me, in her addled, QAnon-marinated way, about how the world really works. In October 2024, as a ferocious hurricane headed for Florida, she posted on X, “Yes they can control the weather. It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” (Of course, as everyone knows, the only thing that can alter the course of a hurricane is a Sharpie—also useful for creating pornographic birthday cards for that special sex trafficker in your life.)

Putting her money where her free-range mouth was, one year later Greene announced a plan to make “weather modification” a crime. “I am introducing a bill that prohibits the injection, release, or dispersion of chemicals or substances into the atmosphere for the express purpose of altering weather, temperature, climate, or sunlight intensity,” she declared on X. “It will be a felony offense.”

This, of course, was not the first time she accused supervillains of exploiting the skies for nefarious ends. In 2018, she famously proposed that California wildfires were being ignited by “lasers or blue beams of light” emitted by “space solar generators” financed in part by the Rothschild banking family. This majestically loony riff inspired the phrase “Jewish space lasers,” a term she didn’t invent but probably wished she had.

(Full disclosure: I love the concept of Jewish space lasers. I’m flattered that anyone would consider me capable of operating one—I can barely mute myself on Zoom. And space lasers would have come in so handy for my Jewish ancestors, especially when they were running from the Gazpacho.)

Yes, I’ll admit it: I adored Marjorie Taylor Greene in all her crackpot glory and eagerly awaited every pearl of paranoia that spewed from her piehole. But, alas, this highly entertaining wackadoodle version of MTG seems to be a thing of the past, supplanted by a shockingly rational MTG who’s no fun at all. I am not a fan of this reboot.

I’d been pondering the mystery of MTG’s transformation, but then, on Instagram, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cleared the whole thing up. She revealed that Trump blocked Greene’s bid for the US Senate and that “she has been on a revenge tour ever since.”

So that explains it! Marge isn’t a new person after all—she’s just been wreaking revenge on Trump by doing the thing he hates most: making sense.

The first stop on Marge’s revenge tour involved the client list of Trump’s erstwhile BFF Jeffrey Epstein, which Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed was sitting on her desk before her own DOJ declared the document as nonexistent as Trump’s healthcare plan. Greene smelled a conspiracy worthy of the Illuminati—and, much like the proverbial stopped clock, she was right.

In September, she openly defied Trump by appearing on the steps of the Capitol in solidarity with a group of Epstein survivors. “If they want to give me a list, I will walk in the Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women,” Greene vowed. “I can do that for them, and I’d be proud to do that.”

But her revenge tour was just gearing up. MTG broke with Trump on immigration, stating, “As a conservative and as a business owner in the construction industry, and as a realist, I can say we have to do something about labor. And that needs to be a smarter plan than just rounding up every single person and deporting them just like that.”

And when Republicans plotted to let Obamacare subsidies expire, Antifa Marge cried foul. “I’m carving my own lane. And I’m absolutely disgusted that health insurance premiums will DOUBLE if the tax credits expire this year,” she posted on X.

Although I was bewitched by her coinage of the phrase “carving a lane,” it was clear that the unhinged MTG who had earned a special padded cell in my heart was no more. All across the nation (and probably on the Alitos’ front lawn) QAnon flags flew at half-staff.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Is About To Embarrass Herself

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) thinks she is a leader in the current Congress. And she is the self-appointed voice of the radical right in it. 

She was in the tiny group of GOP radicals that ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That resulted in a period of time when Congress was in chaos because the Republicans couldn't agree on a new Speaker. The radical fringe finally convinced other Republicans to agree to accept one of their own, and Mike Johnson became Speaker.

Greene evidently thought with a radical in the Speaker's chair, she and other radicals could force Congress to go along with their own crazy ideas Like shutting down the government and cutting off aid to Ukraine).

Greene was wrong. While Johnson is on the far right, he was not willing to shut down the government or cut off aid to Ukraine. To keep the government open and send needed aid to Ukraine, he reached out to Democrats - and Democrats, combined with many Republicans, passed both bills.

Greene blew her top, and filed a motion to kick Johnson out of the speakership. But she didn't ask for a vote, wanting to hold that possibility over his head to force him to meet her demands.She thought she was in control. She was wrong again.

Most Republicans are unhappy with her action, and don't want another vote on the Speaker. They know it would just create more chaos for Congress and their party.

Last week, I said Democrats should stay out of this GOP fight, and should just vote "present" on a vote to oust the Speaker. While Johnson is not a good Speaker, we don't need more chaos in Congress.

But Hakeem Jeffries (Democratic Minority Leader) had a better idea. He said if Marjorie Taylor Green ask for a vote to oust the Speaker, Democrats would move to table her request. If the motion to table won a majority vote, Greene's motion would not even get a vote.

The motion to table would win by a landslide (with most Republicans and all Democrats voting for it. I doubt if Greene can expect more than a dozen votes in her favor. She is about to be embarrassed, and shown just how little power she has in this Congress.

Most Republicans (and all Democrats) are sick of her insane kind of political theater! 

Why Do Georgia Voters Support This Ridiculous Woman?

American voters have the right to send any person they want to serve in the House of Representatives. But I have to wonder why the voters in the 14th District of Georgia elected Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Her mission seems to be to cause trouble in the House. She was one of the people who kicked Speaker McCarthy (a fellow Republican) out of office, and she is threatening to do the same to Speaker Johnson (also a fellow Republican).

Why? Because he is going to bring a bill to provide more aid to Ukraine up for a vote. She opposes aid to Ukraine, and has ridiculously accused the Ukrainian government of being Nazis who are fighting against christianity. She supports authoritarian Putin's invasion of Ukraine's democracy. 

To delay the aid to Ukraine bill, she has introduced three amendments to the bill. Here are those amendments:

WHY DOES SHE HATE DEMOCRACY? Do the voters of Georgia's 14th District also hate democracy and support the Russian dictator?

The House Resolution To Censure Marjorie Taylor Greene

 

Stupid Woman Compares Trump To Mandela & Jesus

Marjorie Taylor Greene put her incredible stupidity on display recently. Here's what Steve Benen had to say about it at MSNBC.com:

After Donald Trump indicated that his indictment was imminent, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said the former president’s supporters “don’t need to protest.” The Georgia Republican added, “I’m not going to New York. ... I don’t need to protest.”

The right-wing congresswoman soon after changed her mind for reasons unknown, announcing via Twitter last week, “I’m going to New York on Tuesday. We MUST protest the unconstitutional WITCH HUNT!”

As it turns out, Greene probably should’ve stuck with her first instinct. The GOP lawmaker showed up at a pro-Trump event in Manhattan, complained for a short while mostly to a group of reporters, but her voice was soon drowned out in part by a Trump supporter who was handing out free whistles and who didn’t realize the congresswoman was there.

My MSNBC colleague Zeeshan Aleem wrote, “I’ve seen a lot of rallies in my life, but the pro-Trump rally featuring Marjorie Taylor Greene just now might have been the biggest flop I’ve ever seen. ... The entire thing was a non-event.”

But while the Republican’s comments at the pro-Trump “rally” — I’m using the word loosely — were largely ignored and difficult to hear, there was something Greene said before the former president’s arraignment that was even more notable. USA Today reported:

“Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today,” she said during an interview with Right Side Broadcasting in New York. “Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus — Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government.” She said Trump joins the ranks of people who have been arrested and persecuted by “radical, corrupt governments.”

In case there are any doubts, Greene made the comments likening Trump to Nelson Mandela and Jesus on camera, and she did not appear to be kidding.

The comparison is stark raving mad, but let’s briefly pause to note the nature of the cases against the three men. Mandela was arrested for his fight against South Africa’s apartheid system. Jesus was persecuted for, among other things, starting a religious movement.

Trump, meanwhile, is currently facing a series of criminal investigations, but he was arraigned yesterday after allegedly falsifying business records related to the hush money payments he made to a porn star who claims they had an extramarital affair.

Imagine the perspective of an elected lawmaker who sees these three men and draws a parallel between them. Then imagine the perspective of a political party that puts such a congresswoman in a position of influence.

The Best Friends The Virus Has Are Republicans

 

The following post is by Ja'han Jones at MSNBC.com:

The Republican Party is a pro-infection party. From their support of lax Covid-19 safety measures to their tantrums over social media crackdowns on misinformation, Republicans have shown they believe the unfettered passage of dangerous material — be it viral content or a literal virus — is their right.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made that clear once again Monday with his statement supporting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., after Twitter banned her personal account for violating its Covid misinformation policy.

“Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of our democracy,” claimed McCarthy, R-Calif. “And yet that fundamental American value is under assault by Big Tech — entities that have amassed more power and more control over more speech than any other institution in history.”

In typical fashion, McCarthy was merely shilling for an extremist in his party who was rightly punished for misconduct. Greene, of course, wasn’t banned for sharing “diverse” opinions — she was banned for sharing harmful misinformation. Specifically, she falsely tweeted about “extremely high amounts of Covid vaccine deaths” and shared a misleading chart designed to make the vaccine seem dangerous.

Twitter told the true story in a statement to NBC News:

We permanently suspended the account you referenced (@mtgreenee) for repeated violations of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We’ve been clear that, per our strike system for this policy, we will permanently suspend accounts for repeated violations of the policy.

A day later, Facebook also banned Greene — this time, temporarily — for peddling Covid misinformation. The suspensions clearly weren’t about free speech, contrary to McCarthy’s claim. Greene wasn’t sharing her food recipes (which I'd assume are unpalatable in their own way). She was sharing dangerous misinformation despite repeated warnings.

But Republicans reject these efforts to curb misinformation in the same way they reject efforts to curb the spread of coronavirus: with a fundamental belief that their personal freedoms should trump public safety. 

The "Triple Crown" Of Crazy In The House of Representatives

Who is the craziest person voters have sent to the U.S. House of Representatives? Early on in the current Congress, one might have thought it was clearly Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). But there are a couple of others that want to wrest the crown for crazy away from her -- Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Andrew Clyde (R-Georgia).

Here, from his column in The Washington Post, is how Dana Milbank sees this horse race for the crazy crown:

It’s a real horse race to determine who will be the looniest House Republican of 2021. 

Much as in real horse racing, there will be no Triple Crown winner this year. Medina Spirit won the Kentucky Derby, but the victory was marred by evidence of doping, and Medina Spirit then lost the Preakness to Rombauer. Rombauer’s reign was brief, falling to Essential Quality at the Belmont.

In the House of Representatives’ crazy stakes, likewise, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-QAnon) made an early Run for the Roses with talk of Jewish “space lasers,” stalking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez(D-N.Y.), and claiming that mask mandates are tantamount to the Holocaust. But Greene fell back into the crazy pack after Churchill Downs, and, in a surprise development, Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), a perennial also-ran, took top honors at Pimlico by calling the Jan. 6 insurrection a nothingburger and by attending a QAnon conference at which the violent overthrow of the U.S. government was discussed.

But the final leg of crazytown’s Triple Crown has just gone to a dark horse, Rep. Andrew S. Clyde. The first-term Georgia Republican put himself on the map with his notion that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol “was a normal tourist visit.” And now, with an assist from Gohmert and from former Virginia attorney general Ken Cuccinelli (a crazy horse long ago put to pasture), Clyde has filed a federal lawsuit on a matter of the most pressing constitutional importance.

“This is a direct assault on a foundational legal principle of our republic and it should cause great alarm in all of us,” Clyde, wearing a tie clip in the shape of an automatic weapon, announced to reporters outside the Capitol Monday.

Furlongs of grave allegations raced from his lips. “Unconstitutional!” “Authoritarian conduct!” “An active ongoing attack on our democracy!”

What existential threat to our country had Clyde uncovered? The Chinese? The Russians? The Proud Boys?

No. Clyde is mad about magnetometers.

Since the insurrection, he and all 434 of his colleagues have been required to walk through metal detectors to get to the House floor. Clyde, a former gun shop owner (in which capacity he fought the IRS), is along with Gohmert one of a small few who have refused to cooperate with the Capitol Police’s efforts to keep guns out of the chamber. His refusal cost him $15,000 in fines.

Now, Clyde is suing because he wants “to do everything within my power to expose House Resolution 73 [the magnetometer rule] for the danger it poses to our Republic.” Apparently, the danger it poses is mostly to Clyde and Gohmert. . . .

With logic on par with 20th-century political scientist Bluto, a.k.a. John Belushi (“Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?”), Clyde complained to reporters Wednesday that the House Ethics Committee, which isn’t a court of law, failed to give him his day in court.

“A person cannot be fined and have their salary forcibly taken away without due process of law,” Clyde proclaimed. “In any normal court, anything else than a unanimous verdict would be cause of a mistrial or a hung jury and no fine would be levied.”

Clyde was baffled by the bipartisan ethics committee’s practice of requiring majority agreement to uphold a member’s appeal. “In baseball, a tie goes to the runner,” Clyde reasoned.

The committee also isn’t a baseball league.

Gohmert, trying to keep pace with Clyde, howled: “You have a formula for a third-world theocracy, oligarchy. This is insane!” He said the courts must act “before the Constitution is completely obliterated by the speaker.”. . .

I asked Clyde and Gohmert who was paying Cooch. Turns out the Republican Party is bankrolling the lawsuit, and the fees are “between attorney and client privilege,” Clyde professed.

So the lawmakers used federal property to announce a Republican Party lawsuit that should cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to redress $20,000 in fines? Now that is some thoroughbred crazy.

The Party Of Subversion Doesn't Want An Investigation

Republicans in Congress don't want a committee to investigate what happened on January 6th. I don't blame them. Such an investigation would embarrass them. It would expose them as being anti-democracy -- the party of subversion.

Here's how Jennifer Rubin sees it in The Washington Post:

The Republican Party refuses to investigate the most violent act of insurrection since the Civil War because it might make the party look bad.

Think about that. It would look bad because it would be obvious that their cult hero (not antifa, not tourists) incited a MAGA mob — and because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who pleaded with the president to call off the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, would be compelled to testify. He might then have to explain why he still takes direction from someone who betrayed his oath.

A commission would look bad for the GOP because it would short-circuit the “big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen, confirming that this effort at subterfuge was intended to assuage the ego of a dangerous man-child. The “optics,” as they say, would be bad because the GOP’s continued refusal to renounce its disgraced former leader would affirm its willingness to open the country up to another violent insurrection. It would also look really bad if some members of Congress were shown to havecommunicated with the Jan. 6 attackers. We get hung up on Republicans’ refusal to endorse the commission, but we should remain focused on their original sin: subversion of democracy.

With or without the commission, the Republican Party is a danger to the republic. And that gets back to the central question as to why any respectable patriot remains in the party. The GOP of Ronald Reagan, of John McCain, of Mitch Daniels does not exist. But don’t take my word for it.

Former defense secretary Robert Gates said on “Face the Nation” on Sunday that “the values and the principles that the Republican Party stood for” under five Republican presidents are “hard to find” in today’s GOP. Well, that’s one way of putting it. Another is that the GOP is no longer a political party with the aim of democratic governance, but a cult that spews lies and hatred to rile up its White base and retain power. Simply because McCarthy and his henchmen sound less loony than Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is no reason to treat them like normal politicians.

Greene is a quintessential Republican — not an outlier — in her resort to nutty conspiracy theories. When she recently declared that covid-19 restrictions were akin to the Holocaust, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called this “evil lunacy.” Cheney is right, but she might also acknowledge that this is an apt descriptor of a party that tolerates MTG, as Greene is known, and spreads its own hateful falsehoods (e.g., the rioters were tourists, not scary like those Black Lives Matter protesters). It is evil lunacy to try to bring down a democracy by resorting to lies about elections. . . .

MTG is not an aberration, but a distillation of today’s GOP.

Cheney and other Republicans who ostensibly remain in the party to save it from itself need a rendezvous with reality. In their futile effort to preserve a GOP that no longer exists, they risk putting back in power the menace to the rule of law and democracy that Cheney and others recognize. When confronted with evil lunacy — in colleagues who are in a position to subvert the country’s most cherished values — the only moral choice is to defeat them. Only after their electoral wipeout can America be saved. And that, not the GOP’s salvation, must be the highest priority.