Lessons of History and Trying To Avoid the Same Mistakes

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Ringo]

Democrats because it is they who are assumed to be the adults in the room.

 

[Sixties Fan]

So why did members who’d never heard of him give him their support? In part, because after 22 days of Republican in-fighting and ineptitude; 22 days of embarrassment, exhaustion frustration, anger, and self-loathing; the Party wanted it to be done. Also, because there is literally no such thing as a moderate Republican in Congress, it would have to be either be an extremist or an ultra-extremist. Once Republicans made it clear that having voted to certify the 2020 election was disqualifying (Tom Emmer, we hardly knew you), it would have to be the latter.

Besides, Johnson looks and acts the part—he’s a bespectacled, suit-jacketed, quiet, and respectful back-bencher who, according to The New York Times, has a “gentle style.” As David Kurtz, at Talking Points Memo, pointed out this morning, though, because of the intense scrutiny Johnson is now under, his days of flying below the radar are over.

And suddenly having a Speaker of the House feels infinitely worse and more dangerous than not having one.

Why? Because the man who is now second in line to the presidency and holds, arguably, the second most powerful political position in America is, among other things (and we’ll get to those), a religious extremist. Please let us dispense with the term “conservative” when trying to describe people like Johnson and his ilk—in the context of this country’s right-wing politics, the word has no meaning.

In his acceptance speech, Johnson sounded more like a Christian revivalist. (I half-expected to hear Neil Diamond’s “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” in the background.) He explained his ascension (irony intended) as having been “ordained by god.” (I confess, I can’t listen to the man speak at any length, but from what I can tell, every third word out of his mouth is “god.”)

In explaining why his wife wasn’t at his swearing in, Johnson said, “She’s spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord. And, um, she’s a little worn out.”

I am so tired of the Republican Party shoving religion down our throats. Zealots like Johnson push policies that ruin the lives of their fellow human beings because they’re convinced that their “beliefs” trump the humanity of the people whose existence they disdain. Johnson, who is in favor of a total, nationwide abortion ban, is a viciously homophobic, misogynistic bigot.
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As recently as 2016, Johnson said: "What's happened over the last 60, 70 years is that our generation has been convinced that there's a separation of church and state. We hear that term all the time, and most people think that that's part of the constitution, but it's not." He also claimed that we live in a “biblical republic” which is not a thing, while completely ignoring the Bill of Rights—and Johnson claims to be a constitutional lawyer.

On the secular front, Johnson:

• wants to cut Medicare and claims Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.”
• described January 6th as a “legitimate protest.”
• claims catastrophic climate change is a hoax.

As for the 2020 election, Johnson didn’t simply refuse to vote to certify the results, he was responsible for giving the big lie the patina of legal legitimacy. In doing so, he relied on the “independent state legislature” theory, which essentially claims state legislatures have the authority to overrule state courts in matters relating to the Elections Clause. (Earlier this year, in its decision in Moore v. Harper, the Supreme Court ruled that the opposite is the case.)

So it wasn’t Italian satellites or Chinese ballots containing chards of bamboo that were to blame for the “stolen election,” it was, according to Johnson, the unconstitutionality of the expansion of mail-in voting during COVID which, while equally false, sounds much more reasonable.

Remember Ken Buck, the guy who said he wouldn’t vote for Jim Jordan because he didn’t vote to certify the 2020 election? He voted for Johnson despite the fact that there is no daylight between the him and Jordan. It turns out Buck’s objection wasn’t to election denialism; it was to Jordan personally.

Which puts the second worst thing we can say about Mike Johnson in an even more disturbing light—he considers Jim Jordan to be his mentor. I can’t think of any one statement that so tidily sums up Johnson’s unfitness and total lack of judgment. The worst thing we can say about Mike Johnson is that he is now Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.



(full article online)

The Quiet One

The disease spreads if you refuse to treat it

marytrump.substack.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Mac-7]

That sounds good to me

It sure beats liberals who seem to prefer Mao’s Little Red Book or the latest porn novel

 

[hadit]

That sounds good to me

It sure beats liberals who seem to prefer Mao’s Little Red Book or the latest porn novel

Agreed. The only sad thing is how totally surprised the usual suspects are when someone actually refers to the Bible in positive ways.

 

[Mac-7]

Agreed. The only sad thing is how totally surprised the usual suspects are when someone actually refers to the Bible in positive ways.

The Bible is totally alien to lib culture

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

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[Sixties Fan]

A vote by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Senate last month to fire the state’s nonpartisan top elections official had no legal effect, and lawmakers are barred from ousting her while a lawsuit plays out, a Dane County judge ruled on Friday.

Administrator Meagan Wolfe will continue serving as head of the Wisconsin Elections Commission pending a decision on whether elections commissioners are legally required to appoint someone for the Senate to confirm, Judge Ann Peacock said.

Senate Republicans voted in September to fire Wolfe, despite objections from Democrats and the Legislature’s own nonpartisan attorneys, who said the Senate didn’t have the authority to vote at that time.


(full article online)

Wisconsin judge rules that GOP-controlled Senate's vote to fire top elections official had no effect

A Wisconsin judge says the state Senate's vote to fire a top elections official last month had no effect.

apnews.com

 

[bripat9643]

Hitler purged communists, socialists, Jews and Democrats.

There were no Democrats in Germany at the time. NAZIs are socialists, moron.

 

[Sixties Fan]