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On Friday April 22, Marjorie Taylor Greene testified smugly in a Georgia courtroom that she “did not recall” many of the speeches she gave or the tweets she liked that advocated for the death of Nancy Pelosi or the violent, guns-drawn overthrow of the US government.
This morning, April 25, she tweeted excitedly about the possibility of getting her personal Twitter account back on the assumption that Elon Musk succeeds in his hostile takeover of Twitter.
I guess she remembers having a Twitter account better than she remembers tweeting about the Democrats she wants to execute.
Greene, who claims to hate pedophiles, and Matt Gaetz, who remains her BFF despite being under investigation for child rape and sex trafficking, are two poster children of the “aggressive” right-wing extremists who now dominate the GOP.
The influence of Gaetz and Greene, along with others like Boebert, Jordan, Gosar and Biggs, has pushed the GOP so far to the right that it now openly supports fascism and claims that the January 6th insurrection was “legitimate political discourse.”
Elon Musk is apparently so committed to “legitimate political discourse” that he is currently trying to close a deal to buy Twitter so that people who routinely abuse a company’s Terms of Service don’t have to be “silenced” and relegated to obscure platforms like Facebook, Gab, GETTR, Parler, or Truth Social.
Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire stepping up to help fund the “legitimate political discourse” promoted by today’s anti-democracy, anti-minority, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women, anti-history, anti-math but decidely pro-gun and pro-Putin Republican Party.
As Ben Werschkul wrote for Yahoo Finance last week:
The richest Americans are quickly coming off of the sidelines as the 2022 midterm elections heat up… through March 31… Schwarzman, the billionaire CEO of the Blackstone Group, spent $20 million in just one day… split(ting) his largesse evenly between a super PAC for House Republicans linked to Rep. Kevin McCarthy and an organization for GOP Senators controlled by allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell…. Citadel CEO Ken Griffin… plans to spend roughly $40 million this year on elections. The hedge fund founder (has already) sent $7.5 million to the House Republican-aligned super PAC, called the Congressional Leadership Fund. He gave another $5 million toward GOP Senators through a super PAC known as the Senate Leadership Fund…. Larry Ellison sent $15 million to the Opportunity Matters Fund, a super PAC associated with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC)…. the Club for Growth Action… has has received nearly $18 million this election cycle from Richard Uihlein, a great-grandson of a Schlitz beer co-founder.
Other big GOP donors hoping to accelerate the forces of fascism this year are Rupert Murdoch ($2 million), Charles Schwab ($1.5 million), Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus ($1.2 million), and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer ($1 million each). So far.
Free Speech For Me, But Not For Thee
We’re already getting a glimpse of what the GOP’s new approach to “free speech” looks like in Florida, where even math books are being banned in case they cause “discomfort” and Disney is finding out that disagreeing with Governor DeSantis on one issue is enough to get a company “cancelled,” even after decades of regular donations to the Republican Party.
The fact that billionaire donors are “leaning in” to their support of the GOP so soon after Trump’s failed coup attempt is disturbing.
And today we also found out that corporations, too, are back to their old fascist-friendly ways. As Judd Legum reports in today’s Popular Information newsletter, Toyota, a company that spoke out against “the horrific attack on the U.S. Capitol” just 15 months ago is once again funneling cash to prominent GOP insurrectionists and Big Liars.
Other major companies throwing their “pro-democracy” pledges into the trash include: Amazon, Citi, GE, and Intel.
Here’s a tweet that sums things up in under 280 characters:
As I press “send” on this article, the New York Times is reporting that “Elon Musk Is Nearing a Deal to Buy Twitter.”
As goes Twitter, so goes America.
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