Category: The Current Situation

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) was signed into law back in 1994. Since then, it’s awarded over $8 billion in grants to state and local governments and organizations so that they could develop initiatives, programs, and services to protect and support women who are undergoing or who have survived sexual assault, domestic violence, and stalking.

The law expired in February 2019, and until then, reauthorizing it was a formality. Then it changed.

H.R. 1585, also known as the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019, had a provision to close the “Boyfriend Loophole”. Simply put, this loophole limited the ability of people convicted of abusing or stalking a non-spouse partner to get firearms. Previous versions of the Act applied this limit to abusers who’d lived with or had a child with the victim. (Despite what people will tell you, Christianity isn’t the majority religion here in the U.S.; it’s gun worship.)

The Act passed a vote in the House of Representatives (263–158), but got stalled in the Senate. The National Rifle Association (as I said: gun worship) warned Republicans that voting for it would affect their ratings (Yes, in a nightmare version of Yelp, they rate politicians, and provide them with campaign funds. Again, I say: gun worship.) One NRA spokesghoul described it as “a smokescreen for its real goal—banning firearms ownership”. Because of their actions, VAWA hasn’t been reauthorized since 2019 — until now.

A day after the Atlanta spa shootings (which I’ll write about later), the House of Representatives voted 244-172 to pass VAWA. That’s right, this time even more Republicans — 172 in total — voted to oppose the Violence Against Women Act.

Remember that.

Recommended reading

• The Independent — Outrage as 172 Republicans vote to oppose Violence Against Women Act
• GQ — Why Can’t the Senate Pass the Violence Against Women Act?
• Jezebel — The NRA Is Fighting Like Hell to Keep Stalkers and Abusers Armed

 

 

 

 

At the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that recently took place in Orlando, Majorie Taylor Greene, a.k.a. “the QAnon Congresswoman”, had this to say about foreign aid:

“We believe our hard-earned tax dollars should just go for America, not for what? China, Russia, Middle East, Guam, whatever, wherever.”

Here’s the thing: Guam is part of the U.S..

Let me repeat that, in case it’s news to you. Guam is part of the U.S..

Here’s a video that should give you an idea of what it’s like in Guam:

Since 1898 and with only one interruption — about three years during World War II, when it was occupied by Japan — the U.S. has been in control of Guam. It’s a U.S. territory, with status similr to that of Puerto Rico.

You’d think that someone who ran as a MAGA candidate might remember that time in 2017 when North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un threatened to attack Guam and Trump famously called Guam’s governor to reassure him:

(While the call was meant to provide peace of mind, we would all learn much later how very much the opposite is true when Trump says “We’re going to do a great job, don’t worry about a thing.”)

In fact, Guam is home to one of the biggest U.S. weapons stockpiles, which supplies U.S. forces operating in the Eastern Hemisphere. As Politico put it, there was a reason for Kim to put Guam in his sights:

If Kim can credibly threaten Guam, he threatens the United States’ ability to fight all but a short war on the Korean Peninsula—not to mention the U.S.’s ability to fight another major war elsewhere. As threats go, this one is surprisingly precise, credible and strategic.

What else does the Kooky QAnon Congresswoman think or believe?

 

If you think that Marjorie Taylor Greene’s ignorance about Guam is cause for concern, you might not be ready for what she believes, thinks, or says:

• The American government is a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles that can only be defeated by conspiracy nuts like Greene.^[1]
• Wildfires are caused by secret space lasers that are operated by DA JOOZ!^[5] That’s right, she’s “Jewish Space Lasers” wacko!/li>
• George Soros, whose Jewish family was hunted by Nazis, is secretly a Nazi.^[1]
• Black Lives Matter are also Nazis, somehow.^[6]
• Children that manage to survive school shootings aren’t just Nazis. They are literally Hitler himself.^[6]
• Greene says that if she were black, she would be proud of monuments to slave-owning war criminals.^[1]
• She believes that Barack Obama commands Latino gangs as his personal death-squads.^[7]
• She says Muslim people should be barred from holding public office, in spite of the fact that this would be exactly the sort of anti-religious conspiracy that Greene fantasizes she herself is the victim of. (And it would be illegal.)^[7]
• It is “oppressive” that congress-people like her have to wear masks. Oh, won’t someone please think of the poor, oppressed congresspeople!?!??
• She thinks that transgender people aren’t real, and are also, somehow, an abomination that threatens children. For some reason she films herself yelling loudly about this topic in a public library^[6]. She also had harassed her office neighbor, Marie Newman (IL-D), because she put up a trans pride flag in support of her daughter ^[8]. Rude.
• An anonymous online troll called “Q” is the only person who can save America from all the above made-up problems.
• She believes that the Parkland mass shooting was a false flag.^[9]
• Greene’s Facebook feed included several endorsements of violence against Democrats, including against Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.^[10]
• Greene promoted an anti-refugee and anti-Semitic propaganda video that demonised Africans and Muslims, promoted the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory and promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews for muslim immigration to Europe.^[11]
• Greene liked comments that suggested execution of FBI agents who are part of the “deep state“.^[10]
• Claims that there was no evidence that an airplane hit the Pentagon on 9/11^[12]
• Claims that Obama is secretly a Muslim^[12]
• Claims that the Clintons killed JFK Jr.^[12]

Territories of the U.S.: A refresher course

The United States has five territories with permanent populations, and they’re all in the tropics:

• American Samoa
• Guam
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Puerto Rico
• U.S. Virgin Islands