Mary Miller won’t wear a mask

I am not wearing a mask again.

— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) July 20, 2021

News reports and photographs suggest that Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) has rarely worn a mask. (Here’s an account of Miller in close quarters with no mask on January 6.) It’s still not known whether she has been vaccinated. If she has been, she’s keeping her (unmasked) mouth shut about it.

On June 7, Elaine and I sent a letter:

The Honorable Mary Miller
1529 Longworth House Office Building
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Congresswoman Miller:

As you may know, the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and the Center for Geographic Analysis at Harvard University have created a map showing COVID-19 vaccination rates by congressional district. The map and supporting data are available from Harvard’s Geographic Insights website:

https://geographicinsights.iq.harvard.edu/vaccineuscongress

The data for Illinois shows our district, Illinois-15, with the lowest rate of vaccination by population in the state: 40.7% of residents with vaccines initiated, and 29.74% of residents with vaccines completed. In other words, only three of every ten people in Illinois-15 are fully vaccinated.

This state of affairs does not bode well for the health and economic well-being of our district. What business will want to locate in an area with such a low rate of vaccination? What student who has other choices will want to go to college in an area with such a low rate of vaccination?

In light of our abysmal vaccination rate, we have two questions for you: What steps, if any, have you taken to encourage vaccination in IL-15? And what steps, if any, will you now take to encourage vaccination in IL-15? Given your dedication to the cause of life, it seems to us that you should have no hesitation about encouraging people to be vaccinated.

Sincerely, &c.

At this point I think it’s safe to say that we won’t be receiving a reply.

All the Miller posts
Chris Miller, pandemic denier : January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : #Sedition3PTruck : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard : Some of Mary Miller’s votes : Illinois-15, COVID-Central : Another Miller vote : The Millers in Esquire : Nuts in Illinois

#Sedition3PTruck

From The Daily Beast, “Three Percenter Truck at Capitol on Jan. 6 Belongs to Hitler-Quoting Rep’s Husband”:

A pickup truck parked at the United States Capitol and bearing a Three Percenter militia sticker on the day of the Jan. 6 riot belongs to the husband of freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who approvingly quoted Adolf Hitler a day earlier.

Researchers on Twitter first noticed the Ford pickup truck with the far-right militia’s decal parked on the Capitol grounds in footage posted to social media and taken by CBS News.

Oh, the Millers, Mary and Chris. On Twitter she’s now called #HitlerLady. And he’s #Sedition3PTruck. She’s “my” representative in Congress. He’s “my” rep in the Illinois House.

*

February 26: Chris Miller has now given two explanations of the sticker. One, in the Daily Beast article:

“Army friend gave me decal. Thought it was a cool decal. Took it off because of negative pub,” Miller wrote in an email late Thursday. He says he “never was member” of the militia and “didn’t know anything about 3% till fake news started this fake story and read about them.”

A different explanation, given to a Nexstar outlet:

“My son received the sticker that was on my truck from a family friend who said that it represented patriotism and love of country,” Miller said. “The original group, which has disbanded, was not a violent anti-government group. They were not involved in the Jan. 6th riots. They have issued a statement distancing themselves from the extremists who have copied their name. I have since removed the sticker. My intention was to display what I thought was a patriotic statement. I love our country and consider myself a patriot. My intention was not to hurt or offend anyone but simply to express what I thought was a statement of patriotism. God bless America.”

*

February 27: The Chicago Tribune reports that the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association has asked for a state investigation of Chris Miller. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R, Illinois-16) also supports an investigation.

February 27: ABC News reports that Chris Miller spoke in front of 3P and QAnon banners last May. You can see the performance on Miller’s Facebook page.

February 27: Here’s Mary Miller on February 22, sans mask, among hundreds of people at a largely maskless indoor event for Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey. You can see her at the 1:10 mark. And listen to what Bailey has to say about masks. Christ, what an airhole.

February 28: USA Today and The Washington Post have picked up the truck story. To its credit, the Post includes Chris Miller’s two explanations of how the decal ended up in his possession.

March 1: From the Chicago Sun-Times :

llinois House Democrats introduced a resolution Monday condemning Republican state Rep. Chris Miller for slapping a decal with the logo of a far-right anti-government militia group on his pick-up truck and accusing him of helping incite the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Here’s the text of the resolution.

*

March 6: The Miller have made it into Vanity Fair: “Were Republican Lawmakers In On the U.S. Capitol Siege?”

*

March 19: The Illinois House has voted to censure Chris Miller, 57 to 36, with no Republican votes for censure.

Related posts
Chris Miller, no pandemic : January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC

Another Mary Miller vote

Mary Miller (Illinois-15) was one of twenty-one Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted yesterday against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. The measure passed with 406 votes.

Among the no votes: Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul A. Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Louie Gohmert. In a tweet yesterday, Gaetz called Miller “Based Congresswoman.” “Thank you!!” she replied. There’s something about Mary.

Elaine and I are waiting on a reply to a letter we sent Miller asking what steps she’s taken and will take to encourage vaccination in her district. Illinois-15 has the lowest rate of vaccination — 31.75% — in the state. The number correlates remarkably well with the 2020 presidential election results in Illinois-15, where the losing candidate received 72.2% of the vote.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard : Some of Mary Miller’s votes : Illinois-15, COVID-Central

Mary Miller on a billboard

In Effingham, Illinois, the heart of Illinois’s fifteenth congressional district, the Illinois Democratic County Chairs’ Association has rented a billboard to share Representative Mary Miller’s words with the world:

“Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

That’s what she said, in Washington, D.C., on January 5, 2021.

From IDCCA President Kristina Zahorik:

Words matter, particularly from those who hold elected office. And when Mary Miller tried to excuse her comments about Adolf Hitler by accusing others of attempting to “twist her words” the IDCCA knew she needed to be held accountable for her finger-pointing defense. The residents of Mary Miller’s Congressional district need to know that Mary Miller thinks it is acceptable to cite Adolf Hitler to make a political point. The IDCCA hopes the voters remember her inexcusable comments, and hold her accountable as a public official and eventually at the ballot box.

You can see the billboard on the IDCCA’s main page.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights

The Millers in Esquire

Congresswoman Mary Miller has now made it into Esquire as a member of the Sedition Caucus. Also appearing in a supporting role: her husband (and Illinois state representative) Chris. The Millers’ ignominious appearance in Esquire joins previous appearances in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.

I have to wonder whether Mary Miller’s infamous “Hitler was right on one thing” was a moment of sheer idiocy, or a moment of sheer idiocy calculated to make a big splash and bring in bucks.

All the Miller posts
Chris Miller, pandemic denier : January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : #Sedition3PTruck : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard : Some of Mary Miller’s votes : Illinois-15, COVID-Central : Another Miller vote

Some of Mary Miller’s votes

My representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), votes with the worst of the worst. You wouldn’t know about most of her votes from reading her Facebook or Twitter posts, which cast her as the defender of guns, “life,” and freedom. Here are a few of her votes since arriving in the House:

~ Miller was one of 139 representatives who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election (January 6).

~ She was one of 206 representatives who voted against H.R. 5, the Equality Act, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation (February 25).

~ She was one of thirty-eight representatives who voted against H.R. 1652, VOCA [Victims of Crime Act] Fix to Sustain the Crime Victims Fund Act of 2021 (March 17).

~ She was one of fourteen representatives who voted against H.Res. 134, Condemning the military coup that took place on February 1, 2021, in Burma (March 19).

~ She was one of seventy-one representatives who voted against H.R. 1392, the Protection of Saudi Dissidents Act of 2021 (April 21).

~ And she was one of sixty-two representatives who voted yesterday against S. 397, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act.

Miller is still best known — if she’s known at all — as the new member of Congress who on January 5 told a “Moms for America” rally that

“Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

She may now became better known as one of ten members of Congress who are refusing to wear masks on the House or Senate floor. Here she is, all smiles, with Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and others. Not clear, at least to me, whether any of them have been vaccinated.

*

CNN has a list (dated May 19) of members confirmed as vaccinated. Boebert, Cawthorn, Greene, and Miller are missing from the list.

*

May 20: As you might have guessed, Miller voted yesterday against H.R. 3233, National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard

[Votes from the incredibly useful GovTrack.us.]

Mary Miller and trans rights

In The New York Times and The Washington Post this morning, news of a new battle in the so-called culture wars. From a Times article:

Lawmakers in a growing number of Republican-led states are advancing and passing bills to bar transgender athletes in girls’ sports, a culture clash that seems to have come out of nowhere. . . .

The idea that there is a sudden influx of transgender competitors who are dominating women’s and girls’ sports does not reflect reality — in high school, college or professionally.

And from a Washington Post opinion piece by Megan Rapinoe:

These bills are attempting to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. Transgender kids want the opportunity to play sports for the same reasons other kids do: to be a part of a team where they feel like they belong. Proponents of these bills argue that they are protecting women. As a woman who has played sports my whole life, I know that the threats to women’s and girls’ sports are lack of funding, resources and media coverage; sexual harassment; and unequal pay.

The Times article points out that these bills are the result of nationally coordinated efforts on the part of socially conservative organizations and female legislators. It’s no coincidence that the first bill introduced by my representative in Congress, Mary Miller (Illinois-15), would require sex-segregation in school bathrooms and locker rooms and on sports teams, with sex defined as “biological sex, not gender identity.” The bill, which Miller calls the Safety and Opportunity for Girls Act, appears to be H.R. 1417, titled “To clarify protections related to sex and sex-segregated spaces and to activities under title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.” There’s a general snafu with the House Education and Labor Committee website, with nothing to read for H.R. 1417 or any other legislation.

H.R. 1417 is likely going nowhere. But that won’t matter to Mary Miller’s supporters. I can already hear the campaign ads next year: “As a mom to five daughters, Miller led to fight to pass,” &c.

Among those co-sponsoring Miller’s bill: Lauren Boebert, Mo Brooks, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder

Mary Miller in The New York Times

Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, IL-15) begins and ends this New York Times article: “For Trump’s Backers in Congress, ‘Devil Terms’ Help Rally Voters.”

Some excerpts:

As Representative Mary Miller embarked on her first congressional campaign, she described herself in salt-of-the-earth, all-American terms: a mother, grandmother and farmer who embodied the “Midwestern values of faith, family and freedom.”

“Hard work, using God-given talents, and loving each other well,” a voice declared over video clips of Ms. Miller, a 63-year-old Illinois Republican, embracing her family, praying and walking on her farm in an ad in early 2020.

“In the world today,” the ad continued, “we could use a lot more of this.”

But there is another side to Ms. Miller’s wholesome image. Since entering Congress, she has routinely vilified Democrats and liberals, calling them “evil” communists beholden to China who want to “destroy” America and its culture. And President Biden’s plan, she seethed on Twitter this spring, is to “flood our country with terrorists, fentanyl, child traffickers, and MS-13 gang members.”

Ms. Miller’s inflammatory words underscore the extent to which polarizing rhetoric is now entrenched among Republicans in the House of Representatives, especially among those like Ms. Miller who voted against certifying the Biden victory, according to an examination by The New York Times of partisan language over the past 10 years.

And:

On social media, Ms. Miller of Illinois regularly quotes the Bible and writes “Happy Sunday” messages to her followers. She posted one such tweet while taking respite from the campaign trail in June, sharing a photo of herself on the sofa with seven of her grandchildren. She wrote, “I am so blessed!”

Five days later, Ms. Miller’s Twitter took a different tone. “The Left tells our children a hopeless message that they do not come from God, they are not born for any purpose, and they cannot obtain salvation,” she wrote, before pledging to defend the right to bear arms.

And:

Last December, Ms. Miller tweeted a picture of a cloven-hoofed sculpture that the Satanic Temple, a self-described nontheistic religious group, had installed near a Christmas tree and Nativity scene inside the Illinois State Capitol. A sign said the state, which is led by Democrats, could not “legally censor” such controversial installations under the First Amendment.

Ms. Miller turned it into a line of attack — tweeting that “the left cheers this” because they “are not only an anti-American party, they are an anti-Christian party.”

“We’re at war for the heart & soul of our country,” she added, concluding, “Christ is on our side and we will prevail!”

And — no surprise — Miller “did not respond to repeated requests for comment.” Nor does she answer questions from local media. Nor does she reply to letters from constiuents, at least not to my letters.

The article explains “devil terms,” quoting Jennifer Mercieca, a scholar of political rhetoric: “things that are so unquestionably bad that you can’t have a debate about them.” Which reminds me: not only does Miller refuse to answer media questions and constituent letters; she has also refused to debate her Democratic challenger, Paul Lange.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

[The link to the Times article is a “gift” link — it won’t count against the paywall.]

In Illinois-15

Representative Mary Miller’s response to mass murder: to retweet Lauren Boebert and Ben Shapiro. That is all ye know in Illinois-15, and all ye need to know.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC

Rep. Mary Miller in The New Yorker

In The New Yorker, Nathan Heller offers “tips for the congresswoman Mary Miller and anyone who might drop an accidental ‘Sieg heil!’ on the lecture circuit”: “You Praised Hitler in a Speech? How to Avoid Those ‘Oops’ Moments.”

Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), a newcomer to the House of Representatives, has not received the attention given to more overtly unhinged members. I think that makes her even more dangerous. Like Marjorie Taylor Greene, she has been appointed to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

Representative Miller is a disgrace to our district. A petition calling for her resignation has 26,000+ signatures.

Related posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble

Mary Miller vs. AOC

My representative in Congress, Mary (“Hitler was right on one thing”) Miller (R, Illinois-15), had the poor judgment to reply in an unimaginatively snarky spirit to a tweet from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D, New York-14). Ocasio-Cortez replied in turn. And Miller got, as they say, ratioed.

Always bet on the Bronx.

Related posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : Mary Miller in The New Yorker

Mary Miller in the news

Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), “my” representative in Congress, has made The New York Times, among other prominent sources for news, after telling the audience at a “Moms for America” rally in D.C. that “Hitler was right on one thing.” The Associated Press also has the story. Don Lemon called Miller out last night on CNN. You’ll have to take my word for that: I can’t find the footage online.

Miller is also in the news in another way: Representative Seth Moulton (D, Massachusetts-6) reports that when he took a photograph of Republican members of Congress “proudly refusing to wear masks” while sheltering in place in the Capitol Building,

a freshman Trump acolyte, Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, ran over and started screaming in my face. Apparently, she didn’t want her hypocrisy on public display, even though earlier today [no, Tuesday] she had no qualms rallying protesters by invoking Hitler: “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.‘”

A petition calling for Miller’s resignation is nearing 15,000 signatures. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D, Illinois) is among the many public figures who have called for Miller to resign. Miller needs to put on a mask, get on a plane, and go home. Or, better, find a new home outside Illinois-15. Miller is a disgrace to her office.

Here’s a brief campaign video in which Miller speaks of her dedication to “the important issues.” First up: “our God-given right to own a gun.”

Mary Miller, still in trouble

Representative Jan Schakowsky (D, Illinois-9) will introduce a measure to censure fellow representative Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15). On January 5 Miller told a Moms for America rally in Washington that “Hitler was right on one thing — that whoever has the youth has the future.” She’s “my” representative in Congress.

Previous Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask

His ’n’ her resignations are in order

I have learned that “my” representative in the Illinois House, Chris Miller (R-110), husband of Mary Miller, attended the Washington, D.C. rally that was the prelude to last Wednesday’s attempted coup. He was streaming from the scene:

“We’re engaged in a great cultural war to see which worldview will survive, whether we will remain a free people, under free-market capitalism, or whether they will put us into the tyranny of socialism and communism and the dangerous Democrat terrorists that are trying to destroy our country.”

Chris Miller was most recently on my radar in August, when he denied the reality of the pandemic. As a photograph in Business Insider attests, he keeps his mask under his nose. Christ, what an airhole.

There’s a petition.

Related posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble

Mary Miller stands alone

The Chicago Tribune reports that Mary Miller (our household’s representative in Congress) is the only member of the Illinois congressional delegation not to denounce Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine:

Freshman U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, a Republican who has embraced the far-right elements of the national GOP and is backed for reelection by former President Donald Trump, issued a statement that neither condemned Putin’s actions nor backed U.S.-led sanctions to his regime.

Instead, she praised Trump for using a “peace through strength” strategy and achieving energy independence during his tenure in the White House as she delivered a litany of what she considered national security failures of Democratic President Joe Biden “and radical leftists in Congress.” She also warned that “gas prices are about to skyrocket even higher.”

“None of this would be happening if President Trump was still in the White House,” Miller’s statement concluded. “I will continue to pray that God watches over the people of Ukraine.”

Mary Miller is a disgrace, locally, nationally, internationally — cosmically, even. Mary is also in a spot of trouble with the Federal Election Commission.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Mary Miller, lying

Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) is a proponent of The Big Lie. But she has lies in all sizes. Analisa Trofimuk of PolitiFact fact-checked one of them: “Rep. Mary Miller says White House is encouraging kids to take ‘castration’ drugs, undergo surgeries.”

I’ll add another: When I called Miller’s office earlier this month to ask why she had voted against a bipartisan resolution affirming support for NATO, the aide who answered the phone said that the resolution supported “nation-building,” which Miller opposes. As I told the aide, the resolution says no such thing, and I reminded him that Miller supports a president — oops, make that a defeated former president — who has repeatedly disparaged NATO. There’s the real reason for Miller’s “no” vote.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Mary Miller, outcast

Chris Welch, the Illinois House Speaker, is in Washington to raise money and meet with members of Congress. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

There are five Republicans in the Illinois congressional delegation. Welch said he will try to meet with four of them — but not freshman Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., whose husband is state Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland. Both of them are strong Trump loyalists. “She’s not on my schedule,” Welch said when I asked if he would seek her out. “With regards to the Congresswoman, I just don’t know if there’s any issues that can bring us together because she’s been focused on such extreme, extreme items.”

Mary Miller has tweeted or retweeted eighteen times today. Her latest tweet boasts about being fined $500 for not wearing a mask in the Capitol.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Mary Miller again

For a third time, Representative Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) appears in The New Yorker (January 31). She’s mentioned in Jane Mayer’s long, revealing article about Virginia Thomas, the hard-right activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas:

Ginni Thomas has her own links to the January 6th insurrection. Her Web site, which touts her consulting acumen, features a glowing testimonial from Kimberly Fletcher, the president of a group called Moms for America: “Ginni’s ability to make connections and communicate with folks on the ground as well as on Capitol Hill is most impressive.” Fletcher spoke at two protests in Washington on January 5, 2021, promoting the falsehood that the 2020 election was fraudulent. At the first, which she planned, Fletcher praised the previous speaker, Representative Mary Miller, a freshman Republican from Illinois, saying, “Amen!” Other people who heard Miller’s speech called for her resignation: she’d declared, “Hitler was right on one thing — he said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Where’s Mary?

From Axios: “Mary Miller missing from IL GOP messaging.” She was missing from a Republican Day rally at the Illinois State Fair:

When reporters repeatedly asked IL GOP chair Don Tracy about her absence at the rally, he responded, “I don’t know where Mary Miller is.”

Given Miller’s Adolf Hitler moment and her celebration of “white life,” it may be that those in charge thought it would be safer not to have her present. Or perhaps she chose not to show up because she might have to answer a question from a news outlet. She doesn’t do that. (She refuses. Sometimes she hides.) Nor does she answer letters from at least some of her constituents. I’ve written four, the first of which had no response but put me on her newsletter list. (They must have had an e-mail address for me from her predecessor, John Shimkus.) I immediately unsubscribed. The other three letters had no response.

Regular readers of OCA will know that Mary Miller is “my” representative in Congress.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Some Miller votes

Representative Mary Miller (R, IL-15) has tweeted thoughts and prayers for Ukraine. Yet she voted last week against H.R. 7691, Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022. The bill passed, 368–57.

Miller has also tweeted about the scarcity of infant formula. (Never mind the reasons.) Yet she voted on Wednesday against H.R. 7790, the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022. The bill passed, 219–192.

Miller has also tweeted about the cost of fuel. (Never mind the reasons.) Yet she voted yesterday against H.R. 7688, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act. The bill passed, 217–207.

Despite what I have read — in reliable sources — about Illinois redistricting, it’s now clear that my household will still be part of IL-15 in the upcoming election, and our representative come November will be Rodney Davis or Mary Miller. The horror.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

[GovTrack.us is far better than house.gov for following bills and votes.]

Is it Christian nationalism yet?

Representative Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), or a staffer writing in her name, has responded to PolitiFact’s conclusion that Miller’s claims about gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary children and adolescents are false. I won’t link to what Miller (or a staffer) wrote, but I’ll quote:

I am unashamed of our Judeo-Christian heritage and the values that most Americans hold to. God created us male and female — this [i.e., gender-affirming care] is nothing but rebellion against God.

And:

Why are we ashamed of our Judeo-Christian heritage and our values? We need to be loud and proud about them. They are the values that bring freedom and productivity to a country, to its communities, and that cause our families to thrive.

Samuel L. Perry, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma offers a helpful ten-point checklist: How can we spot #ChristianNationalism in the wild? I score Mary Miller as an eight, possibly nine, of ten.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Miller vs. Davis

In Illinois’s redrawn 15th Congressional District, Mary (“Hitler was right on one thing”) Miller, endorsed by a defeated former president, is struggling in her primary race against fellow Republican incumbent Rodney Davis:

In the fourth quarter of 2021, Miller raised less than $165,000, bringing her election cycle haul through December 31 to $788,000. Davis, on the other hand, raised more than $1.8 million for his reelection campaign so far this cycle, including about $421,000 in the last three months of 2021.

Rodney Davis is no bargain, but he’s at least a better choice than Mary Miller — which, admittedly, is not saying much. Whatever happens in their primary, our household, in a redrawn 12th district (redder, whiter, and less educated), will almost certainly end up represented by the unappealing Mike Bost, who, like Miller and unlike Davis, voted against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. No, we’ll still be in IL-15.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

The objectors included Mary Miller

The New York Times this morning lists the members of Congress who objected to certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Only two members of the Illinois House delegation signed on to the effort. “My” representative, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) was one of them.

With her objection, Rep. Miller continues to distinguish herself as a new member of the House. Yesterday she made the news for saying, to a pro-Trump* gathering, that “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’”

I hope that Mary Miller’s career in Congress is a short one. There’s already a petition calling for her resignation.

Mary Miller in The New Yorker

There she is, Mrs. America, in Amy Davidson Sorkin’s commentary on the Republican response to the work of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack:

When the committee’s recommendation that [Mark] Meadows be referred for charges reached the House floor, though, the Republican members who rose to debate it barely bothered to engage with the legalities. Several used their time to urge the passage of the Finish the Wall Act. “You know who doesn’t show up for court orders?” Representative August Pfluger, of Texas, asked. “Ninety-nine point nine per cent of the illegal immigrants who are served those papers.” Members spoke about fentanyl, Hunter Biden, mask mandates, “empty shelves at Christmas,” and the unjust treatment of parents who object to “some crazy curriculum,” as if the response to any criticism of Trump is to hopscotch from one of the former President’s obsessions to another.

When the Republican members did address the matter at hand, it was in startlingly vitriolic terms. Representative Mary Miller, of Illinois, said that the committee’s work is “evil and un-American.” Yvette Herrell, of New Mexico, said that it is setting the country “on its way to tyranny.” Jordan called the committee an expression of the Democrats’ “lust for power.” And, inevitably, Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, said that its proceedings prove that “communists” are in charge of the House.

You know what’s really “evil and un-American”? Attempting to overturn an election.

This is Miller’s second appearance in The New Yorker this year. Here’s the first.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Mary Miller, troublemaker

“At the center of it all is freshman Rep. Mary Miller, a member of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus”: she’s hard at work making trouble for her fellow Republicans (CNN).

In office for nearly one year, Miller hasn’t done a damn thing for the people of her district — except make us look like idiots to the world beyond “east-central Illinois.”

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Eww

Our household’s representative in Congress, Mary Miller (Illinois-15), has been endorsed by Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas. Miller will be facing Rodney Davis in the Republican primary for a redrawn 15th district, so she won’t remain our representative for long. Not that she ever was our representative. She has allied herself with the worst of the worst — Biggs, Boebert, Gaetz, Gohmert, Gosar, Greene, Jordan, and Perry, among others — and has done nothing but stunt and cast appalling votes. She already has the endorsement of the defeated former president. And now Cruz. Eww.

From a 2021 post: “Every time I see Ted Cruz, I am glad that I am someone with more scruples. And a better beard.”

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

[I won’t link to the source of the Cruz–Miller story. You can guess why. And yes, “junior senator” is deliberate. And yes, his performance yesterday was a disgrace.]

Chris Miller again

The man who purportedly represents me in the Illinois House of Representatives, Chris Miller (R-110), is in the news again for lying. From Politico :

State Rep. Chris Miller is continuing to promote the false claim that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. “Make no mistake, Donald J. Trump was overwhelmingly elected in this last election cycle,” Miller said at a [July 28] political event to promote state Sen. Darren Bailey’s bid for governor.

Miller’s previous moment in the news: his presence in Washington on January 6, with a truck bearing a Three Percenter sticker.

Miller’s wife Mary (“Hitler was right on one thing”) Miller purportedly represents me in the House of Representatives.

Related reading
All OCA Chris Miller and Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Mary Miller, the veteran’s friend

From Newsweek:

The House of Representatives passed a bill to establish an Office of Food Security at the Department of Veterans Affairs, with 49 Republicans voting against the proposal. The Food Security for All Veterans Act was passed by a 376-49 vote, sending the bill to the Senate for approval.

You can guess who was among the no votes. Yes, Illinois’s own Mary Miller.

In July Miller voted against S. 3373, the Honoring our PACT Act of 2022, described as “a bill to improve the Iraq and Afghanistan Service Grant and the Children of Fallen Heroes Grant.” Every time I see her smiling as she poses with veterans, I grimace.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

January 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller

“This is Trump’s legacy”: Jake Tapper on the madness finding expression in Washington, D.C. today.

“My” new representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) pledged in December to object to what she called “tainted election results” and to fight against what she called “the greatest heist of the 21st century.” Like so many older hands, she too is complicit.

Miller made the news for saying yesterday that “Hitler was right on one thing. He said, ‘Whoever has the youth has the future.’” Here, watch.

Mary Miller, you’re off to a great start.

Yet another letter to Mary Miller

[Click for a genuinely readable view.]

A note for the non-local: Mary Miller’s husband Chris Miller, our representative in the Illinois state legislature, runs a father-son Christian-themed camp with considerable emphasis on guns. But the camp doesn’t allow participants to bring their own weapons: “For safety reasons, please do not bring any firearms or archery equipment.”

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Mary Miller, shilling

East-central Illinois’s Mary Miller (IL-15) was one of the faithful yelling outside the courthouse today.

And someone in the crowd yelled back: “You’re shilling for a rapist!”

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Rodney Davis vs. Mary Miller

The New York Times has an article about their primary contest. One detail I didn’t know about: “At the rally here [Mendon, Illinois] on Saturday night with Mr. Trump, Ms. Miller’s campaign played videos of Mr. Davis wearing a mask at the height of the pandemic.” Shame on him, right?

In December 2020, Miller called the presidential election “the greatest heist of the 20st century.” On January 5, 2021, she cited Adolf Hitler as being “right on one thing.” In July 2021, she declared that she was not wearing a mask again. But really, her mask has been off for a long time.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Yikes

Our own Mary Miller ((R, Illinois-15) made the PBS NewsHour tonight. Miller’s brief moment on camera begins at the 1:22 mark in this segment. An unmasked Marjorie Taylor Greene sits behind her.

I wonder who wrote Mary’s lines for her, and what she thinks a “star chamber” is.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Illinois-15 in The Washington Post

“Political scientists and analysts said that when state Democrats packed so many conservatives into a single district, they created the environment for [Mary] Miller to win despite holding views that are out of step with most general-election voters in Illinois and even with most GOP House members”: The Washington Post takes a long look at Illinois’s gerrymandered fifteenth congressional district.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

[Gift link, no subscription needed.]

Chris Miller, ugh

Chris Miller is my — ahem — representative in the Illinois House (R-110). Some representative. This Facebook post (publicized by a young man we’ve known since elementary school days, and who was aghast — thanks, Nick) has not, as they say, aged well. Our little corner of Illinois is showing an alarming rise in coronavirus cases. And the pandemic has always been real.

I don’t know when Miller wrote that post. I don’t know if he’s removed it. But I know one thing (as Miller is fond of saying): the man who wrote that post is a fool.

Miller’s wife Mary is running to represent our gerrymandered corner of Illinois in Congress. Trust that Elaine and I and like-minded people are doing what we can to support her opponent, Erika Weaver.

A related post
Practicing (Another Miller story)

Plenty of nothing

Champaign-Urbana’s News-Gazette reports that millions in federal money are going to projects in downstate Illinois. But nothing for Mary Miller’s congressional district. Miller refuses to do earmarks.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

Useful reading

A ten-point checklist from Samuel L. Perry, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma: How can we spot #ChristianNationalism in the wild?

My representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), hits on at least eight of ten. I don’t know enough to decide about nos. 4 and 8.

No. 7 seems especially appropriate to consider today. Miller is in the news now as a co-sponsor of legislation to deny federal funding to colleges and universities that provide mifepristone and misoprostol (“the abortion pill”) to students. But also:

Do vaccines work?

This completely undercuts the message to get vaccinated over the last 8 months. https://t.co/hqIm4KSRW7

— Congresswoman Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) July 27, 2021

Here’s Perry on no. 7, “Culture of death”:

This one’s tricky cuz CN will be strongly anti-abortion. But CN will also be pro-guns, pro-military, pro-death penalty, anti-mask, anti-precautions, and anti-healthcare for the poor. The abortion stance is authoritarianism, not concern for the vulnerable.

Shining star, or dim bulb?

“She’s one of the shining stars representing Illinois because of her leadership, intelligence and courage”: thus an Illinois congressional candidate touts his endorsement from Mary Miller. The title of the article offers a helpful reminder: “GOP congressional candidate touts endorsement from Hitler-quoting lawmaker” (Daily Herald ).

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts

Illinois-15, COVID-Central

Here, from Geographic Insights, is a map of Illinois showing vaccination rates by congressional district as of June 6:

[COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Across U.S. Congressional Districts. From the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies and the Center for Geographic Analysis.]

The ungainly pale-green area to the east is Illinois-15, the congressional district represented by Mary Miller. Geographic Insights shows us having the lowest rate of vaccination in the state: 40.62% initiated, 29.65% completed.

When I step into my friendly neighborhood multinational retailer, where more and more people now do without a mask, and where many people have never worn a mask, I remind myself that I live in a place where I can pretty much assume that seven of every ten people I see are unvaccinated. Which, yes, is pathetic.

Who would want to move to Illinois-15? I know: COVID. We’re great hosts!

[Thanks to Elaine for finding the site.]

Postal consolidation

The United States Postal Service is planning to “consolidate” thirty processing and distribution centers. In Illinois, four processing and distribution centers outside of Chicago are slated for consolidation. That seems to mean that all outgoing mail will be processed in Chicago and environs. Snail mail indeed.

The website Save the Post Office has the complete list of locations and more information. If you click on the PDF for a location, you’ll find a link to a webpage for comments from the public.

To her credit, Mary Miller (IL-15) has joined Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) in a letter to Postmaster Louis DeJoy arguing against postal consolidation. I’m a bit addled to find that I agree with Mary Miller about something. I would imagine that Nikki Budzinski might say the same.

[If you’re wondering: “the president of the United States does not have the authority to remove the postmaster general.”]

Two Americas

Writing in The Atlantic, Sarah Zhang says that America’s vaccine future is fragmenting:

Earlier this year, the Biden administration set a goal of partially vaccinating at least 70 percent of adults by Independence Day. The U.S. will narrowly miss the mark; the number is currently hovering around 67 percent. When you zoom in closer, though, we’re doing both better and worse than that, depending on where you look. Our pandemic fates have diverged. The plateauing national case numbers obscure two simultaneous trends: an uptick in several sparsely vaccinated states and continued declines in well-vaccinated ones.

And some states vary widely from region to region. That’s a subject of conversation in our household almost every day. Our congressional district, Illinois-15, represented by Mary Miller, continues to have the lowest vaccination rate in the state.

We sent Miller a letter nearly a month ago asking what steps she has taken and will take to encourage vaccination in her district. No reply. No surprise. She’s busy! Witness her recent trip to the U .S.–Mexico border.

A chart, not especially helpful

The New York Times has created an ingenious scrolling chart (gift link) to sort out congressional Republican responses to the second indictment. The only problem: an ingenious scrolling chart is not especially helpful for anyone who wants to check on a particular member of Congress. There are no names, just small photographs of faces, greyed out until one scrolls to a relevant category of response and some faces turn full-color. Faces are arranged from less to more conservative, though it’s not clear what their arrangment into rows means.

I had no problem finding Illinois’s Mary Miller: I looked at the more conservative end of the spectrum and scrolled until her tiny head turned blonde. There she was, one of just thirty-three members who claim that the indictment signals the advent of autocracy (“BANANA REPUBLIC,” Miller wrote on Twitter), and one of just nineteen members who call the indictment “election interference.”

What would be a much more useful presentation: an alphabetical list of members, with categories of response to the right of their names. That would make it easy to find a given member and see how many categories of response apply to that member’s comments.

I’ll invoke my mantra about technology: Technology makes it possible to do things, not necessary to do them. That one can arrange tiny greyed-out faces into a chart doesn’t mean that one should.

“Back to square one”

The ONLY reason we are back to square one on COVID, is because the @GOP wanted it that way.

They desperately wanted to foil Biden’s recovery, and they succeeded.

Dead people in our wake is just acceptable collateral damage, as far as the @GOP is concerned.

— Pam Keith, Esq. (@PamKeithFL) August 8, 2021

This explanation seems to me, alas, entirely plausible.

The Trump** cult really is, as I wrote in June 2020, a death cult. In its ranks, millions who believe that endangering their own lives and the lives of others equals “freedom.”

My representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), rejects masks, casts doubt on vaccines, and tells her constituents to “Do what’s best for you & your situation!” Meaning?

[Some background on Pam Keith here.]

About last night

In Illinois: we have a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, &c. Voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing workers the right to organize and bargain collectively. (No thanks to downstate voters there.) Two friends of ours were reelected to the county board (the only Democrats). And we still have Mary Miller to disgrace us on the national stage (though her pal Lauren Boebert may be on her way out).

The national news last night was good, at least better than many people expected. Elaine and I stayed up late enough to hear John Fetterman speak. This morning I noticed a tweet from Asha Rangappa:

Maybe the GOP will realize that Trump getting indicted and going to jail may not be a bad thing.

And with Letitia James and Kathy Hochul reelected, there’d be no pardon to await in New York State.

Darren Bailey posted to Facebook

And he said, among other things, “Let’s move on.”

Bailey is the Republican candidate for governor of Illinois. He campaigns with Mary Miller. They’re both endorsed by Donald Trump.

A letter to Dr. Laura Schlessinger

From Letters of Note, a letter from Kent Ashcraft, a musician, with some hilarious questions for Dr. Laura Schlessinger about biblical do s and don’t s. Here’s one question:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Leviticus 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. How should I deal with this?

Context, from Wikipedia:

Over the years, Schlessinger expressed opposition to homosexuality based on biblical scripture, at one point referring to homosexual behavior as “products of a biological disorder.” Her rhetoric eventually prompted an open letter penned in the year 2000 responding to her position that used text of Bible decrees.

I can think of at least one congressional representative to whom I’d like to send this letter, Illinois’s own Mary Miller. She’s already ranting about the Respect for Marriage Act, which she calls the “Anti-Marriage Act.”

[Whatever became of Laura Schlessinger? She’s on satellite radio. And she really has a doctorate, in physiology, from Columbia University. Holy smokes! No pun on the burning bull.]

Getting things done

The Republican House majority got something accomplished yesterday. From the January 3 installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American :

The first thing they did was to remove the metal detectors that were installed after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The removal was one of the things Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) promised far-right Republicans in hopes of winning their votes to elect him speaker. The House has not yet voted on the rules package that ends “Democrat fines for failure of Members to comply with unscientific mask mandates and security screenings before entering the House floor,” but the metal detectors are gone, just three days before the second anniversary of the January 6 attack.

So far, the removal of those metal detectors is the only concrete outcome of McCarthy’s attempt to woo the extremist members of his conference.

The New York Times looks at those extremist members and finds that most are proponents of the Big Lie or members of the (so-called) Freedom Caucus or both. Illinois’s own Mary Miller is, of course, both.

[I watched a lot of news yesterday without learning about the metal detectors. One more reason to read Letters from an American.]

Big news

From Rolling Stone:

As the House investigation into the Jan. 6 attack heats up, some of the planners of the pro-Trump rallies that took place in Washington, D.C., have begun communicating with congressional investigators and sharing new information about what happened when the former president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Two of these people have spoken to Rolling Stone extensively in recent weeks and detailed explosive allegations that multiple members of Congress were intimately involved in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 events that turned violent.

One remarkable detail: Arizona congressman Paul Gosar promised presidential pardons for all:

“Our impression was that it was a done deal,” the organizer says, “that he’d spoken to the president about it in the Oval . . . in a meeting about pardons and that our names came up. They were working on submitting the paperwork and getting members of the House Freedom Caucus to sign on as a show of support.”

That’s a novel premise: a “rally” whose participants are assured of pardons. Pardons for what?

I must point out that though she isn’t mentioned as a member of Congress with whom the planners met, Illinois’s own Mary (“Hitler was right on one thing”) Miller is a member of the House Freedom Caucus.