Marjorie Taylor Greene
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Earlier this week Kanye West made political headlines when it was reported that he had re-hired notorious far-right white nationalist, Milo Yiannopolos to be his campaign manager, but now it seems like he’s also in bed with another loathed political figure who hails from the darkest corners of MAGA land.
According to The Daily Beast, Marjorie Taylor Greene is apparently supporting Kanye West’s political ambitions as her credit card is being linked to a transaction between Milo Yiannopoulos and Kanye West. This past November, Yiannopoulos used Greene’s campaign credit card to buy an internet domain for West’s still unannounced Presidential run for which he was reimbursed by the West campaign the same exact day at almost $3,000 above what he spent.
Locking down “ye24.com” before Kanye has officially announced his 2024 Presidential bid, it seems like some laws might’ve been broken by Milos and company in the name of Yeezus.
The Daily Beast reports:
The receipts match Federal Election Commission filings from both campaigns. Those filings show that on Nov. 22, the Greene campaign reported a $7,020.16 expense to the GoDaddy hosting service for “domain registration and hosting.” That same day, the Kanye 2020 committee reported paying Yiannopoulos $9,955 for “domain transfer.”
Legal experts told The Daily Beast that the transactions raise a number of questions, including about possible theft and conversion of campaign funds to personal use.
While Milos (who used to intern for Marjorie Taylor Greene) used MTG’s campaign credit card to help Kanye’s White House aspirations, it’s unclear if Greene was aware of the transaction or even if Milos had access to the funds. Should it turn out that Greene gave her blessings to Milo for the transaction, that could turn out to be “an excessive and unreported in-kind contribution to his campaign.” On the other hand, if she didn’t know what was going on, Milos “may have committed a range of serious violations—including, potentially, causing Greene’s campaign to file false reports with the government.”
Either way, we hope they all get their comeuppance for what they’ve inflicted on this country and society in general with their idiocy, racism, and divisiveness. Yes, that includes Kanye as well.
Yiannopoulos for his part is claiming the entire situation was an error made by a low-level staffer saying, “The truth is a junior staffer made an error with the stored credit cards on a third-party vendor GoDaddy account, picking the one ending 2032 instead of 2002,” the statement said. “The accident was quickly rectified and the correct card charged. I have apologized privately to Marjorie for the mixup.”
Asked on Monday when the payment had been “rectified,” Yiannopoulos would only tell The Daily Beast that “I can tell you that it has been refunded.” If he had refunded the money before March 31, however, that transaction would appear to have gone unreported in the campaign’s FEC filings.
Regardless the whole thing looks hella suspect especially given that Greene is rumored to be trying to establish herself as Donald Trump’s running mate for the 2024 Presidential election. Why would she want to help Kanye West become his competition come next year? The entire situation is as weird as it can get, but then again everything that goes on in MAGA land seems weird and out of touch with reality. Just sayin.’
Either way we feel like someone’s getting thrown under the bus and if we’ve learned anything from Trump world it’s that they’re quick to shift blame to their closes confidants if that means avoiding fines, prison, or public/political humiliation.
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Dr. Dre has a number of notable hits and songs bearing his production that have been used in commercials, stadium events, and more. After Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene used a track of his without permission, his legal team sent a letter asking for the removal of the song from a promo video Greene posted on Twitter.
Dr. Dre, real name Andre Young, filed a complaint via his attorney Howard King asking Twitter administrators to remove a video posted by Greene that featured the track “Still D.R.E.” as its background as reported by TMZ. The video in question appeared to be in celebration of Rep. Kevin McCarthy becoming the Speak of the House.
The letter took a not-so-veiled jab at Greene’s political aims writing, “Mr. Young has not, and will never, grant you permission to broadcast or disseminate any of his music.”
The letter added, “We’re writing because we think an actual lawmaker should be making laws not breaking laws, especially those embodied in the constitution by the founding fathers.”
Deadline added in its own reporting that the Republican congresswoman responded to the video takedown via a statement by way of a spokesperson writing, “While I appreciate the creative chord progression, I would never play your words of violence against women and police officers, and your glorification of the thug life and drugs.”
Dr. Dre has not yet responded to Rep. Greene’s latest written missive but the matter appears to be efficiently settled.
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Lawyers for Dr. Dre sent a scathing cease-and-desist letter to Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday (Jan. 9), threatening her with legal action after she used the rapper’s 1999 smash hit “Still D.R.E.” without permission in a social media post.
Hours after the superstar publicly slammed the Republican congresswoman over the post — he said he’d never license his song to someone so “divisive and hateful” — his lawyers formally told Taylor Greene that her post constituted copyright infringement and that she had until Wednesday to remove it.
“You are wrongfully exploiting his work through the various social media outlets to promote your divisive and hateful political agenda,” wrote attorney Howard King in a copy of the letter obtained by Billboard.
The video in question — posted Monday morning on Greene’s social media accounts — features the Republican representative strutting through the halls of Congress in slow motion, grinning at the camera as Dre’s infamous piano riff from “Still D.R.E.” repeats on a loop. By Monday evening, the video had already been disabled by Twitter.
If actually unlicensed, the use of a copyrighted song in a political advertisement would almost certainly constitute infringement. In Monday’s letter, Dre’s lawyers told Greene as much — and then some.
“The United States Copyright Act says a lot of things, one of the things it says is that you can’t use someone else’s song for your political campaign promotions unless you get permission from the owner of the copyright in the song, a step you failed to take,” King wrote.
Top artists have long chafed at the use of their music by politicians, particularly conservatives. Foo Fighters and John Mellencamp blasted John McCain for using their music during the 2008 presidential election, and Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Pharrell, Rihanna and the estate of Tom Petty have all spoken out about their music being used at campaign events for Donald Trump.
Owing to the complex thicket of blanket licenses that govern the public performance of music, it’s actually more complicated than you might expect for artists to prevent their music from being played at political rallies. But the use of music in a video advertisement is far more straightforward; if a politician doesn’t secure a license, a musician has a great case for copyright infringement.
In Monday’s letter, Dre’s lawyers said that a federal lawmaker ought to know that.
“One might expect that, as a member of Congress, you would have a passing familiarity with the laws of our country,” King wrote. “It’s possible, though, that laws governing intellectual property are a little too arcane and insufficiently populist for you to really have spent much time on. We’re writing because we think an actual lawmaker should be making laws not breaking laws, especially those embodied in the constitution by the founding fathers.”
Greene’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Billboard, but she reportedly told TMZ: “While I appreciate the creative chord progression, I would never play your words of violence against women and police officers, and your glorification of the thug life and drugs.”