Weekly Review
In a 230–199 vote, the House of Representatives stripped Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene of her committee assignments after statements she had made years earlier on social media about QAnon, 9/11, mass shootings, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories drew newfound attention.1 2 “I want to tell you: any source of information that is a mix of truth and a mix of lies is dangerous, no matter what it is saying,” said Greene, a former blogger for AmericanTruthSeekers.com.3 4 The day after the vote, Greene, who inherited her father’s multimillion-dollar construction company, tweeted that “the Democrats (+11)” are “morons” for “giving some one [sic] like me free time,” adding, “This is going to be fun!”5 6 MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Absolute Proof, a three-hour documentary about fraud in the 2020 presidential election, aired on One America News Network with a disclaimer that it was “opinion only.”7 Parkland activist David Hogg, whom Greene was recorded harassing on the street in 2019, announced plans to found a pillow company to rival Lindell’s.8 Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is estimated to have increased by 79.8 percent during the pandemic, announced that he will step down as chief executive officer of Amazon, citing a desire to focus on “other passions” such as Blue Origin, a company that aims to make space travel cheaper by reusing rockets.9 10 GameStop’s stock price fell by nearly $165, and one television show and four movies, including one based on a book that has not yet been written, have been optioned about r/WallStreetBets and the stock’s impact on Wall Street.11 12 Super Bowl LV, held in Tampa Bay, Florida, was attended by 25,000 fans who were separated by 30,000 cardboard cutouts.13 “They are pretty cool looking,” an NFL spokesperson tweeted about the cutouts.
In Myanmar, tens of thousands of protesters, some of whom made a three-fingered salute like that from the Hunger Games series, rallied against the military coup and the detainment of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.14 15 “Protest against the coup,” Suu Kyi urged in a letter published on the Facebook page of the country’s pro-democracy party.16 17 At least 23 people were arrested in Haiti after an attempt to overthrow President Jovenel Moïse, who has held office for five years and whose administration has been accused of employing gangs to violently suppress the opposition.18 19 The United Poland Party has proposed the creation of hospices that would include a separate room dedicated to crying for the use of women who, under the country’s abortion ban, will be forced to give birth to fetuses with fatal defects; according to the spokeswoman for the Polish justice ministry, the women would also be given “advice on what to do next.”20 The Turkish government has been accused of rounding up Uighurs living in Turkey and deporting them to China in exchange for COVID-19 vaccines, and South Africa has suspended its rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine after a study revealed “disappointing” results against the South African variant.21 22 A new study showed that human activities such as surfing and drilling have caused baby clown fish get lost on their way home, condemning some fish to forever wander the seas alone.23
“While I’m not familiar with your work, I’m very proud of my work on movies such as Home Alone 2, Zoolander, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps,” Donald Trump wrote in his resignation letter from the Screen Actors’ Guild.24 The Texas Department of Public Safety has apologized after sending three Amber alerts about Chucky, the possessed doll from the Child’s Play horror film franchise.25 A police commander in Bellwood, Illinois, was charged with three counts of possession of child pornography, and police officers in Rochester, New York, were suspended after pepper-spraying a nine-year-old girl.26 27 An Ontario couple were caught playing Pokémon GO in their van by police and fined $880 for nonessential travel.28 The chair of New Hampshire’s House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee requested via an intermediary that Representative Anita Burroughs keep her pet cats out of the room during committee Zoom meetings.29 The chair later explained, “I simply asked the ranking Democrat, ‘Do we really want to have cats parading in front of the legislator’s computer? Let alone stopping and getting petted so that someone may assume the cat is sitting in for the legislator?’”—Annie Geng
