9/11 Denialist and Insurrectionist Marjorie Taylor Greene Assigned to Homeland Security Committee
By: Prem Thakker (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
9/11 Denialist and Insurrectionist Marjorie Taylor Greene Assigned to Homeland Security Committee
The Georgia representative who pushes conspiracy theories on the 2020 election is now responsible for homeland security.
Nearly two years ago, the House, including 11 Republicans, voted to strip Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments just weeks into the Georgia freshman's first term. The resolution followed Greene's racist and antisemitic rhetoric; her parroting of conspiracy theories on the 2020 election, 9/11, and the 2018 Parkland shooting; and her repeated indications of support for fatal violence against Democrats.
Fast forward two years, Greene is now being elevated to the House Homeland Security Committee—despite having incited plenty of threats herself against the homeland.
Greene, a key provocateur of the rhetoric that led to the January 6 Capitol riot, had encouraged people in 2019 to "flood the Capitol" and resort to violence "if we have to." Greene expressed support for executing Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. After announcing her run for Congress, she posted an image on Facebook of herself holding a gun next to images of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib. "We need strong conservative Christians to go on the offense against these socialists who want to rip our country apart," she wrote in the caption.
Insofar as Greene displays any "concern" for protecting the homeland, it nearly always consists of racist fearmongering and lies. "They want to conquer America, and we're not going to do it," Greene previously said about Muslims. "We don't need gun control! We need Muslim control!" a 2018 comment read on Facebook. Greene liked it.
In 2018, Greene wrote a theory that California's deadly wildfires were a result of space lasers possibly controlled by the Rothschild investment bank. Greene also called George Soros—a businessman, philanthropist, and notable Democratic donor—a "Nazi" and "a piece of crap that turned in his own people over to the Nazis." Soros is a Holocaust survivor.
The Homeland Security Committee has jurisdiction over the border. House Republicans have said they aim to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as part of their perennial focus on the border. Greene is one of 32 Republican co-sponsors of recently introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas. (The last and only time a Cabinet secretary was impeached was in 1876, when Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached by the House and subsequently acquitted by the Senate.)
All that is to say, beyond conducting impeachment hearings and trafficking conspiracy, it does not seem likely Greene's new assignment will lead her to pursue much constructive policy to keep people safe.
Unfortunately More on MTG The GOP Has Sunk So Low That Marjorie Taylor Greene Is the Establishment NowMost Recent PostTori Otten/ January 17, 2023/7:56 p.m. ET
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Taliban Members Get "Verified" Blue Checks on Twitter Thanks to Elon's Genius Idea
One Taliban member thanked Elon Musk for "making Twitter great again."
Members of the Taliban were able to temporarily subscribe to Twitter's pay-for-verification feature, adding blue check marks to their accounts that appeared to confer a degree of legitimacy on the extremist regime.
At least two Taliban leaders and four prominent supporters were able to subscribe to Twitter Blue, the BBC reported Monday. They included Hedayatullah Hedayat, head of the Taliban's department for "access to information"; Abdul Haq Hammad, head of the media watchdog at the Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture; and Muhammad Jalal, who praised Twitter owner Elon Musk for "making Twitter great again" after acquiring a blue check.
As of Tuesday, two of the officials mentioned in the BBC's report had lost their blue checks. Neither Twitter nor Musk has publicly commented on why that happened.
UPDATE: Two of the Taliban officials in my report have now lost their blue ticks.
Not clear though if they voluntarily deactivated the feature, or Twitter clamped down.
Would be nice for Twitter to confirm because a third official gained a tick this morning via @TwitterBlue
— Abdirahim Saeed (@AbdirahimS) January 17, 2023
"The main goal of the Taliban regime is to receive recognition," Joseph Azam, board chair of the Afghan-American Foundation, told The New Republic . "For all of its current challenges, Twitter is considered to be a place where people are platformed. And so, for them to get verified would be a significant platforming of them and would give them some legitimacy that they haven't been able to get through other more formal, historically relevant channels."
"It puts them on par with other governments, in a way, which is what they want," Azam said. "That matters. When you can't get a seat at the U.N. … the next best thing are these informal channels."
Musk unveiled plans for Twitter Blue shortly after his chaotic takeover of the platform in October, arguing it would help bring in revenue. Subscribers pay $8 a month for the blue verification check mark and, crucially, priority visibility on the platform. The subscription plan initially launched in November but was halted due to people verifying fake accounts to trick other users. Twitter Blue launched again in December, this time in earnest.
Experts have warned that Twitter Blue would increase the spread of misinformation. They have also said that Musk's various plans, which included firing Twitter's content moderators and rolling back disinformation policies, would allow hate speech and extremism to spread unfettered on the platform.
The Taliban receiving Twitter verification, even temporarily, is a chilling example of those warnings coming to bear. Twitter's blue check mark, once highly coveted, still conveys a level of credibility and legitimacy to a bearer.
"Unfortunately, Elon Musk-controlled Twitter has allowed Taliban officials to commit their violence through online discourse as well, where they offer false narratives about the situation in Afghanistan," said Halema Wali, co-director of Afghans For A Better Tomorrow.
Azam explained that verifying Taliban accounts portrays them as "the one true source of information on Afghanistan."
"Once that credence takes hold, what it does for everybody else is it makes their realities less relevant."
"It makes it harder for people who don't agree with them, and who don't have the platform or reach, to be heard."
As the Taliban continues to tighten its grip on Afghanistan, including a huge crackdown on women's right to education and work, any degree of credibility given to it only strengthens its position on the global stage. Twitter verification, even temporary, further isolates the people still in the country.
"Afghans have run out of allies. They've run out of avenues for redress, they've run out of platforms, they've run out of ways to be heard," Azam stressed. "The private sector and nongovernment, it's actually one of the most important remaining tools that 40 million people in Afghanistan have. The governments have turned their back on Afghans. So the responsibility that companies like Twitter have … is to try to offset that, or not make the same mistake. And I think that's the part of this that's really disappointing."
This post has been updated.
A Gun Trade Show Is Advertising the "JR-15," an AR-15 Rifle for Kids
This, just weeks after a 6-year-old shot his teacher
Just weeks after a 6-year-old shot his teacher, a gun trade show in Las Vegas is hosting a manufacturer promoting its "JR-15," a child-size AR-15 rifle.
The JR-15 was first launched last year by gun manufacturer WEE1 Tactical. The launch sparked outrage as the company promoted the J.V. death machine with cartoon skulls and crossbones stylized as boys and girls. The presumed boy skull had a blonde mohawk and green pacifier, while the girl skull sported blonde pigtails and pink bows and a pink pacifier. Both cartoons had one eye patched with a rifle sight.
Screenshot/Wayback Machine
The company's website from last year claimed that the JR-15, while smaller, "operates just like Mom and Dad's gun." The site also boasted "SWAG for Adults and Young Shooters" that matched the cartoonized promotional materials. "The BRAND is meant to be EDGY," the site read.
Now, as WEE1 Tactical heads to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas, where the deadliest mass shooting by an individual in U.S. history took place, it is preparing to re-promote the same gateway gun with a more muted tone. The company's latest flyer skips the "edgy" branding to focus more on the product specifications of the JR-15. One page is dedicated toward explaining the company's "tamper resistant safety" switch that "requires strength and dexterity to release."
Instead of lauding the gun as "just like Mom and Dad's gun," the company focuses on the "American Family Values" to be had by buying its gun, which helps "introduce young enthusiasts to the shooting sports."
"WEE1 Tactical has adopted this supposedly kinder, gentler marketing approach because it knows from experience that most Americans are shocked and disgusted by the idea of manufacturing semiautomatic assault rifles designed for grade schoolers," said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center.
AR-15s or similar rifles were the primary weapons used in some of the deadliest mass shootings in recent American history: the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shooting, the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.
Just among this handful of American shootings, three were at schools. Most might recoil at a gross push to get even more weapons into people's hands, especially young people's. (After all, there's an estimated 120 guns for every 100 people in America.)
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, however, responded to the tragic Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde by suggesting they would have been safer with JR-15s.
The kids at Uvalde needed JR-15s to defend themselves from the evil maniac that didn't care about laws.
At least they could have defended themselves since no one else did, while their parents were held back by police.
"Give the guns to the government" & they'll protect you. pic.twitter.com/E4lQom1QbB
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) July 29, 2022
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that nutcase doesnt even belong in Congress at all let alone sitting on an important committee
the rest of the world is laughing at us
The lunatic is also getting appointed to the House Oversight Committee, so she will be on two very important committees. That's about as bad as it gets.
This is how far we have fallen politically. Any honest person would say this woman has no business being anywhere near the rings of power, especially one who engages in conspiracy theories as often as she does, and even less business being anywhere near sensitive intelligence material.
A sad commentary when a nutcase like her is even allowed in congress much less on a committee like DHS.
Perhaps she can protect the US using a Jewish Space Laser.
She can always call on the Gazpacho police to go after the wonton killers.
Have to agree with you on this one. That crazy witch should never ever have been elected to public office to begin with.
Well, at least now is a good time to see if Homeland Security is worth all of the taxpayer money it wantonly consumes. Homeland Security must immediately arrest and turn over to the FBI Rep. Greene and all others of her ilk that currently infest the government of The United States.
If the Republican Party wants to do whatever it can to commit suicide, my thought is that it should be permitted to do so before it causes the United States of America to join it.
We know what she was promised for her vote...
Can't wait until she takes sensitive information and causes a serious breach of our security. She better have a good lawyer but I don't think that will help. She is moving on her own private agenda and it isn't going to end well.