Ouster of the House Speaker

[j44ke]

Politicians in Australia are not immune from this sort of behaviour either. But, they are playing with fire (literally, the case of climate change denial - it's still spring in Australia and there are serious bushfires in two states of Australia) as an angry and divided country for the sake of political gain is not a good outcome.

I don't get the anti-abortion thing. Thankfully it is not a major, or indeed minor, political (or moral) issue in Australia, but in 2023 surely giving roughly 50% of the population the choice to have some form of autonomy over their own bodies is a good thing. These knuckle draggers want to go backwards it would seem instead of forwards. The Lord of the Flies photo earlier in the thread is probably misplaced and maybe the ape banging the bone in 2001 A Space Odyssey is probably closer to the mark.

As for the election business...a temper tantrum by Trump, a large number of failed legal actions over electoral fraud leading to an armed insurrection in which people died and people have been sent to prison. If you upend the electoral process and disregard the legal system you are inviting dictatorship. I suppose this might be seen as a 'gain' to some (f*ck the Libs and all that), but for anyone with two working brain cells it will be a complete disaster.

The US was colonized by religious zealots (New England) and pirates (Virginia).

Abortion uses a moral argument to maximize turnout among the zealots so the pirates can rob the country blind.

[thollandpe]

Johnson is also the brains behind the Constitutional argument about state legislatures over. feds on federal election rules, which the Supreme Court rejected 6-3. He definitely feels that states should be free to conduct elections as they see fit (including correcting erroneous election results) and not be subject to constraints like the Voting Rights Act. He views the current administration as unconstitutional and thus all their budget expenditures to be so too, including Ukraine and Israel. And he likes to underline how much he studies Constitutional law and how smart that makes him.

One of my high school English teachers used to say, "Beware the southern gentleman because he is neither one nor the other." We read a lot of Faulkner.

“Same-sex ‘marriage’ selfishly and deliberately deprives children of either a mother of a father. Children need both. Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone.” —Mike Johnson
https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...ile/134019997/

He was a lawyer for the ADF (Alliance Defense Fund, now Alliance Defending Freedom), which brought the recent lawsuit to the Supreme Court that allowed the wedding planners to refuse to work on gay weddings. The ADF also authored much of the anti-trans legislation taking root in many states. They support criminalizing gay sex and sterilizing trans people, it’s literally a hate group: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-h...ending-freedom

[gregl]

“Same-sex ‘marriage’ selfishly and deliberately deprives children of either a mother of a father. Children need both. Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural and, the studies clearly show, are ultimately harmful and costly for everyone.” —Mike Johnson
https://www.newspapers.com/article/t...ile/134019997/

He was a lawyer for the ADF (Alliance Defense Fund, now Alliance Defending Freedom), which brought the recent lawsuit to the Supreme Court that allowed the wedding planners to refuse to work on gay weddings. The ADF also authored much of the anti-trans legislation taking root in many states. They support criminalizing gay sex and sterilizing trans people, it’s literally a hate group: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-h...ending-freedom

Yet another politician who thinks The Handmaid's Tale is a how-to manual. Working to turn back the calendar decades if not centuries. Full speed ahead for male-dominated, evangelical, white nationalism and the prosperity gospel.

Greg

[echappist]

I'm a tad slow, as I thought Johnson was only tabled as a potential option, as opposed to having been voted as Speaker. When did the actual vote take place?

This new guy seems to be super cuckoo (and by that I mean cynically power-grabbing) from what I have read, as detailed by the WaPo (gift link).

To wit,

Weeks later, after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) filed suit seeking to challenge the voting practices in a number of swing states that Biden had won, Johnson was tasked with whipping House support as the case made its way to the Supreme Court.

To do this, Johnson, who had sway as head of the Republican Study Group — a conservative policy group in the House — assiduously allied himself with Trump. He used that connection in writing a Dec. 9, 2020, email with the subject line: “Time-sensitive request from President Trump.”

Johnson wrote that Trump had called him and “asked me to contact all Republican Members of the House and Senate today and request that all join on to our brief.”

The brief said it represented the concerns of members of Congress, “shared by untold millions of their constituents, that the unconstitutional irregularities involved in the 2020 presidential election cast doubt upon its outcome and the integrity of the American system of elections.” Trump had boosted the case, tweeting that it was “very strong.”

Johnson’s role was so central that the brief’s cover page reads: “U.S. Representative Mike Johnson and 125 Other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives.”

The Supreme Court quickly threw out the case, saying on Dec. 11, 2020, that Texas did not have standing. Trump tweeted that the court had “really let us down. No Wisdom, No Courage.”

There's a good chance he sticks around when the Electoral College votes are to be formally tabulated in January 2025. I wonder what sort of malfeasance he might pull then...

[72gmc]

Hooray, it’s Friday.

https://youtube.com/shorts/JfqX_2hz2...j_cMgTQZRcsdHF

[jclay]

I'm a tad slow, as I thought Johnson was only tabled as a potential option, as opposed to having been voted as Speaker.

Snipped

There's a good chance he sticks around when the Electoral College votes are to be formally tabulated in January 2025. I wonder what sort of malfeasance he might pull then...

As a died in the wool Southern, white Republican Cultural Holy Warrior, literally, and tasked with "saving the country" I figure he'll do pretty much anything that will keep his team in power while wrapping himself in the usual "patriotic" accoutrements; and of course speaking more collegially than most.

[vertical_doug]

As a died in the wool Southern, white Republican Cultural Holy Warrior, literally, and tasked with "saving the country" I figure he'll do pretty much anything that will keep his team in power while wrapping himself in the usual "patriotic" accoutrements; and of course speaking more collegially than most.

The only way he is speaker in 2025 is if the GOP retains a majority in the house as the new representatives are seated prior to the electoral college count. If that happens; I think the GOP has probably won the presidential election too.(legitimately).

More importantly, the electoral count is presided over by the vice president not the speaker. So Kam will have to lose control which is totally possible.

[fastupslowdown]

I don't see Mike Johnson as equipped for the job. Freedom caucus may not be beating up on him at the moment but that's only because they view him as one of their own. Reasons I say he's not equipped are that he's only been in the body since 2016, he's not known to institutions, donors and lobbyists(one of his jobs is to raise money) and he's not even well known by his fellow Republicans and that interaction and knowledge of his caucus will be critical in molding and finding consensus.

[bcm119]

If this is all part of the plan to win back the house next year, it seems a little precarious. I think most of the swing voters who will decide next year's elections will make their choices based more on gas prices than what the house R's just pulled, because they have brains the size of walnuts.

[fastupslowdown]

If this is all part of the plan to win back the house next year, it seems a little precarious. I think most of the swing voters who will decide next year's elections will make their choices based more on gas prices than what the house R's just pulled, because they have brains the size of walnuts.

The calculation is Republicans are incapable of leading. I may not be the target audience for this message since I've believed it for several years now but its a powerful argument in my book and Democrats don't need to say anything to prove it.

[TTX1]

"History... is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake."

[vertical_doug]

Mike Johnson's opening move- fund stand alone Israeli package by redirecting IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

A wise person in the government said to me many years ago, 'it doesn't matter how many regulations you have, if the government doesn't fund enforcement, it won't happen.'

I guess Mike Johnson is taking his role as fundraiser for the GOP seriously by appealing to wealthy donors by defunding the IRS.

[j44ke]

Mike Johnson's opening move- fund stand alone Israeli package by redirecting IRS funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.

A wise person in the government said to me many years ago, 'it doesn't matter how many regulations you have, if the government doesn't fund enforcement, it won't happen.'

I guess Mike Johnson is taking his role as fundraiser for the GOP seriously by appealing to wealthy donors by defunding the IRS.

I think most politicians are playing it loose with their tax returns - just look at Clarence Thomas's finances. Tip of the iceberg. Under Trump, Republicans repackaged the IRS (and the FBI and the CIA) as a partisan agency(ies) to fit their view of the IRS as a political threat, not as a financial responsibility. The goal is to keep as much money from campaigns as possible and privatize it for personal aggrandizement.