"I never liked the MAGA Mar-a-Lago sexualization. I believe how women in leadership present themselves sends a message to younger women."

"I have two daughters, and I’ve always been uncomfortable with how those women puff up their lips and enlarge their breasts. I’ve never spoken about it publicly, but I’ve been planning to."

Said Marjorie Taylor Greene, quoted in "'I Was Just So Naïve’: Inside Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Break With Trump/How the Georgia congresswoman went from the president’s loudest cheerleader to his loudest Republican critic" (NYT).

This is a very long article, by Robert Draper. Let me just pull out 3 more things:

A historian weighs in The chief executive of Ish Entertainment uses the work of a historian to comment on the similarity between the U.S. today and France just before the Revolution.

An excerpt from "The Billionaires Have Gone Full Louis XV" by Michael Hirschorn in the NYT. 

The historian Robert Darnton described an uncannily similar moment in “The Revolutionary Temper: Paris 1748-1789,” his brilliant 2023 account of the decades leading up to the French Revolution. The preconditions were all there: suffocating top-down control of the media, rapid technological change, let-them-eat-cake behavior among the courtier class, weaponized religious bigotry, mansions with hideously de trop ballrooms. OK, Marjorie Taylor Greene is not quite Voltaire. But there was a pedophilia scandal involving Louis XV: Public obsession with the king’s many mistresses helped give rise to so-called libelles, cheaply printed, semi-factual pamphlets that speculated on, among other matters, the king’s supposed never-ending supply of teenage girls. It would have fit right in on TikTok. Reverence turned to mockery; mockery begot contempt; and then. …

Libelles ≈ social media. 

REVISION: The original headline was "A historian weighs in on the similarity between the U.S. today and France just before the Revolution," but the historian didn't comment on the similarity. The author of the article Michael Hirschorn, identified at the link as "the chief executive of Ish Entertainment," is the one who picked things out of the history and made the comparison. Thanks to commenter Narr for drawing attention to this.

"Marjorie Taylor Greene Says She Plans to Resign in January."

The NYT reports: "Her announcement came days after President Trump branded her a 'traitor' for breaking with him and helping compel the Justice Department to release its files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender. Ms. Greene, who was elected in 2020 and positioned herself as a die-hard Trump supporter until a series of recent ruptures with the president on a variety of issues, made the abrupt announcement in a video and statement she posted online, filmed from her home in Georgia, her Christmas tree on display behind her."

This is another one of the "certain topics" I was talking about yesterday in "I feel as though unseen readers are leaning on me to write about certain topics that I see out there." Today's news is easy to absorb, and now I don't have to react to what the NYT has been pushing at me for the last few days in things like "The Three G.O.P. Women Who Broke Trump’s Grip on Congress" and "Marjorie Taylor Greene Was Not on Our Bingo Card." 

In the "Bingo Card" conversation, Frank Bruni said to Bret Stephens:

The Epstein Files Transparency Act "requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to publish (in a searchable and downloadable format) all unclassified records, documents, communications..."

"... and investigative materials in DOJ's possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. This includes (1) materials that relate to Ghislaine Maxwell, (2) flight logs and travel records, and (3) individuals named or referenced (including government officials) in connection with the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein. DOJ is permitted to withhold certain information such as the personal information of victims and materials that would jeopardize an active federal investigation."

Says the summary of the bill the House passed today, 427-1.

I'm skeptical about statements like this (from the NYT): "The House on Tuesday approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release all files related to its investigation into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a near-unanimous vote that was a stunning turn for an effort that Republicans had worked for months to kill."

All files?

"Scholars who have studied the earlier age of electric vehicles see parallels in their demise in the early decades of the 1900s..."

"...  and the attacks they are facing now. In both eras, electric cars struggled to gain acceptance in the marketplace and were undermined by politics. A big knock against them was they had to be charged and ultimately were considered less convenient than vehicles with internal combustion engines.... Charging and access to fuel were also concerns a century earlier.... They also had to overcome gender stereotypes. Their benefits like quiet, smooth operation were considered by some men to be too feminine, and, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many models like the Baker Electric were explicitly marketed only to women.... In the fall of 2022, Representative Majorie Taylor Greene [said].... 'There’s nothing more American than the roar of a V-8 engine under the hood of a Ford Mustang or Chevy Camaro, an incredible feel of all that horsepower.' But Democrats, she said, 'want to emasculate the way we drive.'... 'Musk has done everything he could to try to make a Tesla a manly vehicle,' said Virginia Scharff, ... author of... 'Taking the Wheel: Women and the Coming of the Motor Age.'... But, Ms. Scharff added, Mr. Musk may have gone too far... 'Tesla is so associated with a kind of toxic masculinity now...'..."

From "Electric Vehicles Died a Century Ago. Could That Happen Again? Battery-operated vehicles were a mainstay more than a hundred years ago, but only a few still exist — one happens to be in Jay Leno’s garage" (NYT).

Here's Jay with his Baker:

Here's a charming 1910 ad — "Daddy — Get Me a Baker":

She's very feminine but does seem to know about "the business underneath," the "shaft drive."

"Marjorie Taylor Greene, you happen to be here. Would you like to run for the Senate? I will fight like hell for you, I tell you."

Said Donald Trump, quoted in "Awaiting possible indictment, Trump rallies in Waco and vows to 'destroy the deep state'/Trump railed against the government officials investigating him, vowing to remove 'the thugs and criminals who are corrupting our justice system' if he is elected again" (NBC News).

You don't see headlines like that anymore!

That's from March 25, 2023, but I'm reading it this morning because that quote was re-quoted in "As Kemp Bows Out of Senate Race, Is It MTG Time?" (NY Magazine). Sample text: "If nothing else, a Greene candidacy will make the Georgia Senate contest one of the most entertaining of the midterm cycle, ensuring that Ossoff’s low-key demeanor doesn’t sedate the electorate."

It sounds like the idea is that MTG is so exciting, people will be newly energized to vote for boring. I'm giving this my "I'm for Boring" tag not because I'm for Ossoff — it's not my state and I haven't followed him — but because I would like politics and government to back way off. Could we just have competence, professionalism, expertise, integrity, hard work, and good judgment? Long experience says no, but I like to keep a tag on the subject if only to mark that it exists as a subject.

"House GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced that she will chair a new oversight subcommittee in the next Congress that will work with..."

"... the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. House Oversight Chair James Comer 'intends to establish a new Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency (DOGE) for the 119th Congress,' a source familiar told CNN, confirming that Greene will chair the subcommittee.... The creation of the new subcommittee establishes a congressional arm to the broader effort by Trump and his allies to make significant cuts to the federal government. The subpanel will examine the salaries and status of members of the federal civil service and intergovernmental personnel among other oversight measures...."

CNN reports.

A quote from Greene: "Our subcommittee’s work will expose people who need to be FIRED. The bureaucrats who don’t do their job, fail audits like in the Pentagon, and don’t know where BILLIONS of dollars are going, will be getting a pink slip."

Speaking of bureaucrats, I'm seeing complaints about Trump's appointments that are faulting them for not being bureaucratic enough.

"If we're going to dance, let's all dance in the sunlight."

"Malpractice was committed by that campaign. They saw the ad, they knew it was being bought in heavy quantities. Where were they? What were they thinking?"

Said Ed Rendell, a former governor of Pennsylvania and former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who "was so alarmed by the Trump attacks that he called top Harris campaign advisers, pleading for them to respond directly."

Quoted in "Harris Loss Has Democrats Fighting Over How to Talk About Transgender Rights/Kamala Harris left Donald J. Trump’s anti-transgender attack ads largely unanswered. Some Democrats call it political malpractice" (NYT).

Meanwhile, Republicans are not content to stand back and watch the Democrats screw up over the transgender issue. They want attention too: "Johnson pressured by GOP firebrands on trans bathroom access" (Axios)("House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is facing pressure from some of his most outspoken members to restrict transgender Rep-elect Sarah McBride (D-Del.) from using women's bathrooms at the Capitol... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)... even went as far as to threaten to get into a 'physical altercation' with McBride").

"During the coronavirus hearing this week, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene attacked [Anthony] Fauci as she held up a photo of two sedated puppies, their heads placed in mesh cages..."

"... as they lie on a table while being swarmed by sand flies.... [I]t’s silly to personally blame Fauci for the design of research studies... endorsed many levels below the director..... Female sand flies carry a parasite that produces zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL), an often-neglected tropical disease in humans. Domestic dogs are the main reservoir host and sand flies are the main vector.... [T]here is something about using dogs... that make many people squeamish.... [N]early 16,000 dogs in 2019 were subjected to pain in the United States during research experiments — and nearly 400 received no pain medication. The White Coat Waste Project hit a nerve when it publicized the Tunisia sand fly study in 2021, emphasizing the dramatic photo that Greene waved at Fauci. The Post reported that Fauci’s office got 3,600 phone calls in 36 hours.... The emails show that NIH was not fully transparent as it tried to handle a public-relations nightmare...."

Writes Glenn Kessler, the WaPo "fact checker," in "Unpacking the story of Fauci and painful experiments involving dogs/Documents obtained by an animal rights group show that NIH was not fully transparent when the controversy erupted in 2021."

"Do the American people deserve to be abused like that, Mr. Fauci, because you’re not ‘Dr.,’ you’re ‘Mr. Fauci’ in my few minutes...."

"... in my time, that man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked, and he belongs in jail."

Said Marjorie Taylor Greene, quoted in "GOP chair reprimands Greene for refusing to call Fauci 'doctor'" (The Hill).

Contemplate the power that flows from the embrace of negative attention. It has worked for Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Greene has apparently decided to excel in this mode.

The givers of negative attention might want to rethink what they are doing. I will, once again, quote my mother on this subject: You'll only encourage them.

Also, I'm reminded of Barbara Boxer in her "I worked so hard" mode:

MTG owns her "bad-built butch body."

Yes my body is built and strong 💪 NOT with nips, tucks, plastic, or silicone, but through a healthy lifestyle. Soon turning 50 years old, God willing, I will continue to lift, run, swim, play sports, surf, ski, climb and LIVE this life to the fullest and enjoy every single… pic.twitter.com/DSkqJEuEnM

— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) May 20, 2024

"If someone on this committee then starts talking about somebody’s bleach blond, bad-built butch body, that would not be engaging in personalities, correct?"

Said Representative Jasmine Crockett, during a meeting of the House Oversight Committee, referring to Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had just said to her "I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading."

I've seen the video, and now I'm reading the NYT article, "The Ugly Effect of Physical Insults/A recent congressional meeting devolved into a back-and-forth that reflects a changing norm in politics — one that rarely makes anybody look good."

I don't approve of the unprofessionalism, but if we're just comparing insults and taking into account that Crockett didn't start it, I want to say "bleach blond, bad-built butch body" is impressive — with 6 B's in a row and the unforgettable "butch body." And can we analyze the extent to which "bad-built butch body" violates the norms of progressive speech. It's not just body shaming, it's expressing contempt for a woman's failure to have a body in the stereotypical female form. That's transphobic (in the broad sense).

I'm just noticing that Marjorie Taylor Greene is really good at answering questions.

Marjorie Taylor Greene tells a BBC reporter to “f*ck off” after the journalist asks her a bad faith question. pic.twitter.com/MDspxLfrZU

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 6, 2024

Must we commemorate January 6th? Is it going to be an annual occasion for reflection and disingenuity?

I'll just check the front page of The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The Washington Post is  not making an occasion of the 3rd anniversary of the insurrection/"insurrection." Here's the top of the page. There's one story, buried down there between something about Alaska Airlines and the recent doings of Elvis Costello:

If you scroll a little farther, though, you'll see that there's a piece by the Editorial Board, "Three years later, beware dangerous revisionism of Jan. 6."

I'll talk about that in a minute. First, let's compare the NYT front page:

"Republicans Have So Little Hunter Biden Evidence They Shared His Nudes/Instead Marjorie Taylor Greene waved the photos around in a congressional hearing."

Headline at The New Republic.

From the article:

... Greene tried to claim that Biden engaged in sex trafficking and listed payments to sex workers as a tax writeoff. As part of her argument, she held up poster-size prints of Biden’s nude photos, which were taken off his laptop.... 

Not only was Greene’s decision to wave Biden’s nudes around wildly inappropriate for a congressional hearing, but it may also have violated D.C. revenge porn law.... 

"I think the way she referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to other fellow, especially female, members."

Said Freedom Caucus board member Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), quoted in "Marjorie Taylor Greene booted from House Freedom Caucus/The vote occurred nearly two weeks ago, shortly after the Georgia Republican had called then-fellow Freedom Caucus member Rep. Lauren Boebert a pejorative in a verbal fight on the House floor" (Politico).

Greene had called Boebert a "little bitch." 

Are female "fellow members" treated differently from male fellow members? I don't like the name-calling, but I assume members of Congress call each other names from time to time. I just want to know if the standard is different when the slur is gendered female, when the person slurred is female, and/or when the hurler of the epithet is female. Are the males coming to the aid of the female, paternalistically? Does it not matter when the group is right-wing and perhaps presumably comfy with old-time sex roles? 

"A year ago, after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia summoned her fellow Republicans to become 'the party of Christian nationalism'..."

"I began to read books about white Christian nationalists — and discovered that I am one of them."

Writes Kenneth L. Woodward, in "How I became a white Christian Nationalist." 

That's in The Washington Post. I wouldn't click on something with a title like that if it weren't in mainstream media. And Woodward has mainstream credentials. He was once a religion editor at Newsweek. And he's got a mainstream-sounding book: "Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics From the Age of Eisenhower to the Ascent of Trump."

Things conflated by Majorie Taylor Greene.

Now, here's an appropriate use of the word "conflate."

I'm reading "How Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ‘pedophile’ slur made it to ‘60 Minutes’" by Greg Sargent (in WaPo). 

The “pedophile” slur, a companion of the term “groomer,” is regularly applied by Republicans and right-wing media figures to Democrats and others who stand up for transgender rights, including gender-affirming treatment for adolescents. Greene cheerfully flaunted this use of the term on “60 Minutes,” which left [Lesley] Stahl utterly flummoxed: 

"Some left-leaning Jews shy guiltily away from centering any persecuted status, on the logic that other questions (anti-Black racism, issues around Zionism) are more weighty."

"Some right-leaning Jews don’t want to cut into an allyship with the Christian Right and its support for Israel (even if it contains characters like, say, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who once claimed that wildfires in California may have been started by a space laser connected to the Rothschilds).... For younger Jews especially, calling out antisemitism has felt like an outdated habit.... It has been easy to self-soothe by telling ourselves we live in a golden age of ease, because compared to so many other ages, filled as they are with pogroms and expulsions and mass murder, we do.... But this year... the hatred is hitting them where they live — on cultural feeds, playlists, favorite brands, phones.... Now, seeing uncoded antisemitism emerge in usually anodyne pop-culture settings — places like basketball news conferences and Hollywood interviews — another deep cut emerges. We once had a media ecosystem in which obvious antisemitism could end a career.... But today it can be the beginning of a new phase of exposure, the start of a conversation that will contain both denunciation and approval... the dissolving line between a world in which it is not permissible to say hateful things... and one in which people just go ahead and say it.... Finding the humor in the hate isn’t, in the end, so much help at all."

Writes Mireille Silcoff, in "Laughing at Kanye Doesn’t Help/My people have always turned our haters into humor. It still breaks my heart when antisemitism starts trending" (NYT).