Marjorie Taylor Greene Gets Fined AGAIN and Other Assorted Antics
Your paid subscriptions to SHERO allow me to continue publishing on critical issues and provide information to the public, so please consider purchasing one today. If you would like to make a one-time tribute via PayPal, you can click this link now for that option. As always, thank you for taking the time to read and support my work here at SHERO and for helping to provide independent journalism for everyone. I appreciate you.
The House Ethics Committee confirmed yesterday that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has been fined another $2,500 for refusing to wear a mask on the floor of the House of Representatives on October 14, 2021. Last Tuesday Taylor Greene proudly admitted that she has accumulated $63,000 in fines for purposely refusing to wear a mask on the House floor, in violation of the Congressional Rule, while confirming that she expected the additional fines levied this week.
"I'm up to $63,000," Greene said, sans mask, while standing in the halls of Congress, just outside of the House chamber. She also confirmed that the fines are automatically "deducted out of my check." The current annual salary of a rank-and-file Member of Congress is $174,000.
Greene also stated that she is not vaccinated against COVID-19 after declining to disclose her vaccination status for months saying: "I'm not vaccinated either. And I won't be getting vaccinated. And that's my own personal choice. Green continued: “I do not want to get the vaccine myself, and I don't need to wear a mask. It's not changing anything."
Apart from the obvious observation that it is effectively changing her income and that her words and behaviors are, in fact, influencing millions in the United States and across the world, these fines are certainly not changing Taylor-Greene’s resolve to continue to use them to garner attention. It also might behoove Congress to consider doubling the fines for repeat offenders, since Taylor-Greene seems determined to be the first elected official to actually owe the federal government money and receive a paycheck with a negative balance.
This is not the only aspect of Taylor-Greene’s behavior that needs to be addressed by the House Ethics Committee. On November 6, following the House vote on the Infrastructure Bill that garnered 13 Republican votes in favor, Taylor-Greene posted the phone numbers of each GOP member who broke rank. “These are the 13 ‘Republicans’ who handed over their voting cards to Nancy Pelosi to pass Joe Biden’s Communist takeover of America via so-called infrastructure,” tweeted Taylor-Greene.
One of the colleagues Taylor-Greene exposed, Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), has received multiple death threats in the days since voting for Biden’s extremely popular $1.2 trillion infrastructure deal. Upton confirmed that an overwhelming majority of the calls came from outside of his own district.
During an interview on CNN on Monday night, Upton played the audio of one of the calls coming from a man in South Carolina. “You’re a f---ing piece of s--- traitor. I hope you die,” the man can be heard saying in the video embedded in the tweet below. The irate stranger then goes on to say he hopes Upton’s family and his entire staff die.
Upton also confirmed that his office has received several threatening calls after Taylor-Greene’s tweet went out. Part of me thinks that The Squad should issue Upton a commemorative “I’ve Been Threatened Within An Inch of My Life” tee-shirt, while another part of me hopes that maybe something will be done this time because a white man is the victim.
Regardless of the fines, nothing seems to be stopping Marjorie Taylor Green from exposing her basic lack of understanding of Civics as well as her minimal interest in common decency. I have attempted to point out her obvious mistakes to her on Twitter, but alas — my advice seems to have fallen on deaf ears (possibly because she has in those earplug things that you use at the shooting range at all times).
I think what bothers me most is the bastardization of the process of calling your representative to voice your opinion on a matter, something which forms the basis of a working democracy. On this holiday week, I thought we could remind Ms. Taylor-Greene about what responsible advocacy looks like by calling her office to leave appropriate messages about her unprofessional and irresponsible behavior.
Here is a script:
Hello, Representative Taylor-Greene-
I am not your constituent, per se, but I do live in the United States of America and I felt you could benefit from a much needed lesson in decency and civility. It is not appropriate to post your colleagues’ personal information on the internet, no matter how angry you are at their choices. This behavior is dangerous and easily leads to criminal activity, such as death threats, like the ones Rep. Upton has recieved. As a woman, I’m sure you have experienced such threats before, and I would ask you to refer to the Golden Rule of “doing unto others as you would have done to you.” Please reform your behavior, that is an ongoing embarassment to all women and the human race, in general. Also, please be considerate of others by wearing a mask, that contrary to what you espouse, is effective in protecting others against any viruses you are likely carrying. Thank you for your time.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s phone number is (202) 225-5211.
Amee Vanderpool writes the SHERO Newsletter and is an attorney, published author, contributor to newspapers and magazines, and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
Paid subscriptions and one-time tributes embedded in each article allow me to keep publishing critical and informative work that is sometimes made available to the public — thank you. If you like this piece and want to support independent journalism further, you can forward this article to others, get a paid subscription or gift subscription, or donate once, as much as you like today.
I never thought that we'd see an elected Member of Congress take such pride in venality, ignorance and stupidity but well, here we are.
The script you wrote is far too nice, IMO. Other than that, it’s a great idea