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The Marjorie Taylor Greene case

. The Electoral College is constitutional gerrymandering at the federal level.

Indeed! And it isn’t clear to me that a federation of states any longer makes for a good structure for a country when the states are so disproportionately populated as they are.
 
Noah Berlatsky : Marjorie Taylor Greene's 'good Christian' abortion meltdown
“You should practice the basic thing you're taught in church: respect your neighbor,” Dingell shouted. Greene blasted back, “Taught in church, are you kidding me? Try being a Christian and supporting life!" Dingell responded, “You try being a Christian... and try treating your colleagues decently!”

Dingell thinks being a Christian means being neighborly and civil. Greene thinks being a Christian means attacking anyone who supports abortion rights. But they both agree that being a Christian is morally good, and that Christianity is virtuous.

For a Jewish atheist like myself, that framework is wearisomely familiar. It’s also disheartening. Despite Dingell’s best intentions, the equation of Christianity and goodness buttresses Greene’s white Christian nationalism and the politics of hate and hierarchy that go along with it.

About two thirds of Americans describe themselves as Christian. So it makes sense that people in public life would frame Christianity as a good thing. Christians may disagree strongly about what the Christian virtues are, but they agree that Christian virtues are, well, virtues. That’s part of what being a Christian means.
bryan metzger on Twitter: "Republican Rep. @mtgreenee gets into a shouting match with Democrats, incl. @BettyMcCollum04 and @RepDebDingell at the Democrats’ “Build Back Better for Women” photo-op (vid link)" / Twitter
- has that exchange about being a good Xian.
 
If there are "good" christians then there must be christians who are not good, logically speaking. I'd put Greene in that "not good" group.
 
Lin Wood, Marjorie Taylor Greene Attack Each Other - Mediate
noting
MAGA QAnon's 2 Biggest Celebrities Are at War - Vice News
Two of the biggest figures in the MAGA and QAnon worlds are involved in an increasingly bitter fight over who is the bigger supporter of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old accused of fatally shooting two people at a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Lin Wood and MTG - LW is a pro-Trump lawyer

LW has been arguing for weeks that MTG wasn't doing enough to have an AZ-style audit of last year's GA elections. But recently went even further.
"In my opinion, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a communist. If Marjorie Taylor Greene is running around saying 'Impeach Biden,' that says that Biden won—he didn't," Wood wrote on his Telegram channel, boosting the conspiracy once again that Trump won the election.
That's a rather silly argument. MTG could respond by saying that Joe Biden is the de facto President, even if not the de jure one, and that impeachment only acknowledges the de facto nature of his Presidency.
Greene, who has until now ignored Wood’s attacks. responded on her Twitter account by referencing allegations by Rittenhouse’s mother that Wood had stolen money from a fundraising campaign designed to fund the 18-year-old’s defense.

“He lifts up his Bible high and lies and lies,” Greene tweeted, referring to Wood constantly referencing his faith. “He’s not one of us.”

...
In attacking Wood, Greene said: ​​”Only monsters hurt innocent people in their greatest time of need.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 on Twitter: "And you have to ask yourself.
If Lin Wood has fought so hard against the election like he claims, even encouraging people to go in the Capitol on J6, why isn’t he a target of the J6 witch hunt?
The J6 committee is only focused on Trump’s biggest defenders.
But not Lin Wood." / Twitter


That committee could consider him a lesser priority, unless its members had reason to consider others.
Wood spent the weekend hitting back at Greene on his Telegram channel but also said he had forgiven the lawmaker and was praying for her.

Greene responded on her own Telegram channel: “Don’t pray for me Lin Wood. We don’t serve the same God because it’s clear you’re serving the father of lies.”
Wendy Rogers on Twitter: "I love @mtgreenee but I would not be hitting Lin Wood. He is a Bible believing Christian. This is something I am certain of. I hope you two can work it out. We need to work together to further God's kingdom and the #MAGA agenda." / Twitter

Sara on Twitter: "Over on Instagram, comments on Marjorie Taylor Greene's post about Lin Wood reveals that nobody really agrees on, well... anything. Notably, this not the first time that people on the right have questioned Lin Wood's intentions. (pix link)" / Twitter
 
"QAnon John" Sabal:
“I have seen this coming from a mile away now. It makes me sad to admit, but there is definitely a MASSIVE divide taking place within our movement,” Sabal wrote “That’s the LAST thing we need right now, but unfortunately, some have made choices that are not too bright or are being purposefully controlled to cause damage.”

nother QAnon influencer, Jordan Sather, was also drawn into the spat when Lin Wood told his followers that Sather was not to be trusted.

“The Mockingbird propaganda has many species of birds,” Wood said, referencing Operation Mockingbird, an alleged CIA campaign to influence media output during the Cold War. “Try to be an informed bird watcher. I have discerned that Jordan Sather is someone I would NOT recommend you follow.”
QAnon John again,
“I can tell there's a huge COINTELPRO network infiltrating the Patriot/MAGA/Q movement,” Sather said without evidence. “Might be the CIA's work, might be Mossad.”

Back to MTG.
Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 on Twitter: "He lifts up his Bible high and lies and lies and lie.
He’s not one of us.
And he used a child being attacked by Marxist BLM.
Read all the way to the end. (link)" / Twitter

noting
Wendy Rittenhouse, Dave Hancock Break Silence About Lin Wood and #FightBack - "Behind #FightBack: Untold Tales of Lin Wood, an Unreported Gun Incident and How Kyle Rittenhouse’s Mother Sees It All"

I think I'll leave off here. What glorious drama llama it is.
 
Trump loyalists like Greene, Boebert and Cawthorn battle infrastructure supporters and see their influence grow - The Washington Post
“Traitor Republicans,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared in a series of tweets where she posted their office phone numbers after vowing that all those in her party who “hand over their voting card to Nancy Pelosi to pass Biden’s Communist takeover of America will feel the anger of the GOP voter.

Others chimed in. Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) promised to “primary the hell” out of any Republican who voted for the measure.

Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) tweeted it was “Time to name names and hold these fake republicans accountable.” And, this past week, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told a pro-Trump podcast that there was never a situation during the infrastructure debate in which Republicans should work with Democrats: “They were going to win it all, or we were going to win it all.”
MTG, MC, LB, MG
Their influence, or the fear of crossing them, has been apparent when Democrats have sought to punish them for violent or extremist rhetoric, with almost the entire Republican conference rallying to their side.

When the House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments in February, only 11 Republicans voted with the Democrats even as some GOP members made clear they rejected her past violent and conspiratorial comments. This past week that number fell to two on a resolution to censure Gosar and kick him off his committees, and this time most members focused their public remarks on attacking Democrats rather than addressing Gosar’s actions.

“I think I have the support nationally, and it’s because I speak what regular people say. I speak what Republicans say at home, and you know, at dinner. I’m saying what they say in their breakfast meetings before work,” Greene said. “I’m saying what they’re saying at church and saying what they’re saying in their Bible studies. I’m saying what these parents are saying, when they’re going to their school boards.”

The Trump loyalists’ influence reflects the nature of today’s Republican Party, which treats the MAGA squad as celebrities — not the fringe they may have represented in the party of Reagan, the Bushes or McCain.
 
Marjorie Taylor Greene lays out demands for GOP House speaker vote if Republicans retake majority in 2022 - CNNPolitics
"We know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference. He doesn't have the full support to be speaker," Greene said on an episode of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's podcast that aired Thursday morning. "He doesn't have the votes that are there, because there's many of us that are very unhappy about the failure to hold Republicans accountable, while conservatives like me, Paul Gosar, and many others just constantly take the abuse by the Democrats."
What does she expect?
Among her demands, the Republican told Gaetz she wants fellow GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming kicked out of the House Republican Conference for serving on the January 6 committee, something McCarthy has so far resisted. She also said she has no respect for current GOP leadership.

...
Greene also wants to see moderate Rep. John Katko, a New York Republican and McCarthy ally, lose his top spot on the House Homeland Security Committee. Katko, who represents a key swing district, supported the bipartisan infrastructure law, voted to impeach Trump and supported the Democratic-led effort to remove Greene from her committees.

"Katko's not a Republican. He's a Democrat," Greene said. "Our conference and the NRCC needs to stop playing this majority-maker game."
 
Marjorie Taylor Greene lays out demands for GOP House speaker vote if Republicans retake majority in 2022 - CNNPolitics
"We know that Kevin McCarthy has a problem in our conference. He doesn't have the full support to be speaker," Greene said on an episode of Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz's podcast that aired Thursday morning. "He doesn't have the votes that are there, because there's many of us that are very unhappy about the failure to hold Republicans accountable, while conservatives like me, Paul Gosar, and many others just constantly take the abuse by the Democrats."
What does she expect?
Among her demands, the Republican told Gaetz she wants fellow GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming kicked out of the House Republican Conference for serving on the January 6 committee, something McCarthy has so far resisted. She also said she has no respect for current GOP leadership.

...
Greene also wants to see moderate Rep. John Katko, a New York Republican and McCarthy ally, lose his top spot on the House Homeland Security Committee. Katko, who represents a key swing district, supported the bipartisan infrastructure law, voted to impeach Trump and supported the Democratic-led effort to remove Greene from her committees.

"Katko's not a Republican. He's a Democrat," Greene said. "Our conference and the NRCC needs to stop playing this majority-maker game."
No. No cancel culture amongst Republicans.
 
No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen on Twitter: "NEW: Dan Crenshaw just blasted members of the House Freedom Caucus, including Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn, and Lauren Boebert, calling them “grifters” and “performance artists.” He praised Adam Kinzinger, saying he is more conservative than them." / Twitter

This conservative Republican just told an uncomfortable truth about the Trump wing in Congress - CNNPolitics
notes
Ron Filipkowski on Twitter: "Wowie! Dan Crenshaw trashes ‘Freedom Caucus’ members Greene, Brooks, Gohmert, Gosar, Jordan, etc, as “performance artists” while defending Kinzinger. “We have grifters in our midst .. lie after lie after lie.” 🍿 (vid link)" / Twitter
"There's two types of Members of Congress: There's performance artists and legislators. The performance artists are the ones that get all the attention, the ones you think are more conservative because they know how to say slogans real well, they know how to recite the lines that they know our voters want to hear."

He then goes on to cite data suggesting that Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an outspoken critic of Donald Trump, was actually one of the most loyal supporters of the then-President's agenda in 2017 and 2018, during the 115th Congress when Republicans held both the House and Senate majorities.

Then Crenshaw drops the hammer, noting that the House Freedom Caucus members were some of the least loyal to Trump's agenda. "All of them," Crenshaw insisted.

"What you hear so often is not true," Crenshaw warned the audience. "We have grifters in our midst... in the conservative movement. Lie after lie after lie."
Performance artists and legislators -- like showhorses and workhorses.

Tracking Congress In The Age Of Trump | FiveThirtyEight has the numbers. I also consulted the ideology scores in the report cards in Members of the United States Congress - GovTrack.us

I checked CNN's analysis. In the 115the Congress, Adam Kinzinger wasn't the second most Trumpiest. He was 99% Trumpie, one of 16 Republicans to vote like that. Five Republicans were 100% Trumpie. In the 115th and 116th Congresses,

Adam Kinzinger IL 99.0% 83.5% 0.70 0.66, Liz Cheney WY 95.8% 92.8% 0.68 0.68

Freedom Caucus members: Andy Biggs AZ 72.9% 93.2% 0.88 0.80, Paul Gosar AZ 77.8% 95.0% 0.96 0.92, Louie Gohmert TX 80.4% 91.8% 0.92 0.75, Matt Gaetz FL 81.1% 89.0% 0.86 0.90, Mo Brooks AL 83.7% 93.3% 0.82 0.73, Ralph Norman SC 83.9% 95.3% 0.95 1.00, Jim Jordan OH 85.1% 92.1% 0.72 0.61

MTG and Lauren Boebert arrived in 2021.

The CNN article is roughly correct about the Freedom Caucus being relatively un-Trumpie over 2017-18, but it was more Trumpie over 2019-20.

Dan Crenshaw TX was 90% 0.78 in the 116th Congress, about where these Freedom Caucus members are.
 
Rep. Dan Crenshaw Blasts GOP Freedom Caucus, Says They’re ‘Grifters’ and ‘Performance Artists’
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) on Tuesday torched some of his most prominent Republican colleagues this week, calling members of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus “grifters” and “performance artists” who only “know how to say slogans real well.”

...
Speaking at a Texas campaign event on Sunday, Crenshaw took aim at Republican critics who have personally called him out for voting for what they’ve described as a “vaccine database” to track and punish unvaccinated citizens. As the conservative lawmaker noted, what he actually supported was a House bill merely allocating state funds to update immunization information systems.

“You heard online that 80 Republicans voted to track you in a vaccine database,” Crenshaw told Republican voters at the Texas Liberty Alliance PAC event. “If it sounds too ridiculous to be true, it’s probably not true.”
 
Lin Wood Claims Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Under Influence of ‘the Devil’
Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood, who’s embroiled in an escalating war of words with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), told The Daily Beast that he believes the far-right firebrand is under the “influence of the devil.” Furthermore, Wood told The Daily Beast that he has placed the congresswoman on a lengthy list of Trumpworld influences that his legal team is considering serving with defamation lawsuits. So far, Wood has pledged to sue Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino, and now he’s added Greene to a growing list of “deep state” right-wing agents working to “destroy” his credibility.
Fruitcake vs. fruitcake. How fun.
 
She is the result of a representative system.

Especially if you ignore the gerrymandering in Georgia.
Oddly enough, the Republicans just added two very liberal areas to Greenes district, but it's not nearly enough to defeat her, unless someone with half a brain runs against her in the primaries and the people in her district are becoming embarrassed by her idiocy. I'm not expecting that to happen. Her district borders on the Tennessee line. And, I've read that she has raised money from crazies all over the country. There is a Black Democratic moderate who has said he is challenging her. Good luck with that Bro. I'll see if I can find any info about him, assuming he hasn't given up yet.
 
Lin Wood Claims Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Under Influence of ‘the Devil’
Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood, who’s embroiled in an escalating war of words with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), told The Daily Beast that he believes the far-right firebrand is under the “influence of the devil.” Furthermore, Wood told The Daily Beast that he has placed the congresswoman on a lengthy list of Trumpworld influences that his legal team is considering serving with defamation lawsuits. So far, Wood has pledged to sue Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino, and now he’s added Greene to a growing list of “deep state” right-wing agents working to “destroy” his credibility.
Fruitcake vs. fruitcake. How fun.
The Republican primaries for 2024 are going to be an absolute fuck stain of a shit show. I guess Republicans really don't believe in anything anymore, not even Reagan's Eleventh Commandment.
 
Lin Wood Claims Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Under Influence of ‘the Devil’
Pro-Trump lawyer Lin Wood, who’s embroiled in an escalating war of words with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), told The Daily Beast that he believes the far-right firebrand is under the “influence of the devil.” Furthermore, Wood told The Daily Beast that he has placed the congresswoman on a lengthy list of Trumpworld influences that his legal team is considering serving with defamation lawsuits. So far, Wood has pledged to sue Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Dan Bongino, and now he’s added Greene to a growing list of “deep state” right-wing agents working to “destroy” his credibility.
Fruitcake vs. fruitcake. How fun.
The Republican primaries for 2024 are going to be an absolute fuck stain of a shit show. I guess Republicans really don't believe in anything anymore, not even Reagan's Eleventh Commandment.
The 11C doesn't apply if the people you're castigating aren't REALLY Republicans.
All those peopel I met when stationed in the South, who can't really know if you can be friends until they find out where your great-greats were during the Civil War? Saying, "If you weren't with us, you were against us."?
Or the people splitting congregations over whether God or Satan sent the vaccine? Using that to define if you're REALLY a Southern Baptist?

Amateurs.

If you haven't gone into debt to support Trump's reinstatement, Hunter's arrest, and buying Dealy Plaza for The Return, you might as well be Nancy Pelosi's Cabana Boy.
 
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