The mass shooting in Maine may be one of the rare examples of a shooter who really is mentally ill. All information about him seems thin at this point, so we may yet learn otherwise. I am gratified, at least, that so far not even Gateway Pundit is claiming the alleged shooter, Robert Card, is part of Antifa or in the employ of George Soros. But it’s early yet.
We’ve had a few hours to study up on the new Speaker, Mike Johnson of Louisiana. And he’s a hard-right Christian nationalist. On any issue you can think of, especially culture war stuff, Johnson sits at the farthest right of anyone in Congress. But by all accounts he has a low-key and sociable demeanor and hasn’t pissed anyone off, yet.
The larger issue with Johnson is that he hasn’t been in Congress all that long — he was first elected in 2016 — and he hasn’t had anywhere close to the kind of experience needed to do the speaker’s job. A whole lot of people think he will soon find himself in way over his head.
He also is a leading election denier. This is from the New York Times, October 2022 —
While most House Republicans had amplified Mr. Trump’s claims about the election in the aftermath of his loss, only the right flank of the caucus continued to loudly echo Mr. Trump’s fraud allegations in the days before Jan. 6, The Times found. More Republican lawmakers appeared to seek a way to placate Mr. Trump and his supporters without formally endorsing his extraordinary allegations. In formal statements justifying their votes, about three-quarters relied on the arguments of a low-profile Louisiana congressman, Representative Mike Johnson, the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.
On the eve of the Jan. 6 votes, he presented colleagues with what he called a “third option.” He faulted the way some states had changed voting procedures during the pandemic, saying it was unconstitutional, without supporting the outlandish claims of Mr. Trump’s most vocal supporters. His Republican critics called it a Trojan horse that allowed lawmakers to vote with the president while hiding behind a more defensible case.
In a quick google I couldn’t find a clear rebuttal to the charge that changing voting procedures because of the pandemic was unconstitutional. Apparently there is old case law that discourages changing voting procedures within a certain amount of time near an election. This was part of the basis for Texas AG Ken Paxton’s infamous December 2020 lawsuit against battleground states, which SCOTUS tossed because Paxton didn’t have standing. I personally think it’s a bogus argument regarding 2020, but as you know I’m not a lawyer.
Anyway, the real challenge is going to be when Johnson has to choose between absolute obstructionism and passing nothing or compromising to pass something and thereby pissing off the MAGAts in the House. And I believe the one-person-challenge rule is still in effect. However, it appears that the demands for a CR in November to keep the government funded won’t be too extreme, since Johnson is new at the job. We’ll see.
He's a smarter version of Gym Jordan, a former leader of Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal arm of the Christian nationalists, who've had too much success for my tastes. He's not some rustic from Ohio reliably making a fool of himself, he's much more dangerous than that.
So, apparently, the RepubliKKKLANs looked around at the collection of freaks and geeks who are their party's other House members, and decided to choose the least freaky, most geeky, member: Mike Johnson.
Apparently, when it comes to "Christ"ianity, Conservatism, and whacky conspiracy theories, Johnson's a true-believer in the ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!!! He
HE BELIEVES IN ALL OF THE BULLSHITE INVOLVED!!!!! ALL OF IT! A REAL TRUE-BELIEVER! Can you believe it?!?!?!?
According to people who know him, whenever he's out the public eye, he has a very soothing countenance, demeanor, and tone. And that's what the Republicans saw in him, and chose him to be their – our – Speaker of the House.
And so, based on that, I'm proactively going to give Mike Johnson the nickname, "The Velvet Assassin."
And if it's true that he's that smooth, we'll find out that when after he hugs you, you never noticed you've been stabbed – until it's too late!
If he's as smooth as they say, The Velvet Assassin should easily be able to pass hard-core conservative legislation, and then have it signed.
If he can get horrible laws passed, mad as that'll make me, I'll have to give him credit for being a smooth operator!
He legitimately be, "The Velvet Assassin!"
Until then, he's just another bigoted, misogynistic, KKKonservative, "Christ"ian wuck-fit*
" Wuck-fit" should be easy to figure out! 😉
Re: the Constitutionality of voting: the Constitution says that the states' "legislatures" shall set the rules for voting (except when overridden by Congress).
The claim is, this means that only the entity in the state called the "legislature" has any power at all to affect elections. Judges have no power, nor do governors (or the rest of the executive branch, like an election authority).
If a state legislature passes a federal election law that flagrantly defies both the state and federal constitutions, a state judge has no right to strike it down. And, of course, the governor doesn't even have to *sign* it – it doesn't say "rules made by the legislatures, and signed by their respective executives."
That is what the Republicans claim, and it's called the "independent state legislature dickishness." Sorry, dickheadedness. No, Donkey-brained mess? No, no, no… DOCTRINE! See also "turd, insofar as it was pulled straight out of someone's ass."
The independent state legislature "doctrine."
Each and every time you see it, you'll know someone's smearing pig poo on a pig's lips and calling it lipstick.
Anyway: if a state elections official changed voting rules, as allowed under the law, the Republicans said "THAT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL <strike>AND MIGHT LEAD TO A DEMOCRAT GETTING ELECTED</strike>!" When a judge ruled that election law would allow additional voting, same thing.
Because the state legislature did not officially make the change, it was unconstitutional – no matter how well supported in the federal and state constitutions – because in the Constitution, it says that elections shall be held under rules created by their "legislatures".
On the plus side, both textualism and originalism are dead letters for any Republican who claimed such ludicrous nonsense.
@gulag – I like "Velvet Assassin". His tagline could be: "What's behind that baby face?"
We were offered varying degrees of bad choices. The least bad choice withdrew when Trump actively opposed his bid. I think a few Democrats would have crossed over and he would have been elected. IMO, he felt he could not survive bipartisan success.
It used to be that bipartisan endorsement of a bill or a person was a good thing. To get a desired result with ANY support from Democrats is like a white conservative girl bringing a new baby with dark skin to her Baptist church. She'd empty the pews around her.
I noticed the last few days that cnn, msnbc, et-al have begun to play unedited footage of the hamas attack on Israeli civilians. IDF started to release this footage as the death toll in Gaza mounts. Me thinks they sense they might be losing some support here as the Gaza civilian death toll mounts, so they release the hamas carnage video. Strange that our corporate media is willing to show the carnage (some of it quite graphic) of the brutal hamas attack but they won't broadcast any footage of American civilians (many of them children) getting gunned down by madmen with assault rifles right here in the good old USA. I wonder why?
Johnson appears ready to lead from the fringe in a way that will increase the misery index for the vast majority of the country. Krugman is a good read about his ideas about economic issues. They might even be worse than his views on social issues. We need politics that is aimed at catering to the majority, not the fringe. Another mistake and a lost opportunity by the republicans. May they pay dearly at the polls.
Five Ways Mike Johnson will help make Hakkim Jeffries Speaker in 2025
I discovered Robert Hubbell on substack, well worth reading. He wrote:
Rudy G was once a smooth operator. When the optics were working. But then the mask fell off and we all saw the oozing hair dye. And then the drunk farty corrupt suckery seemed to just explode out of him. A geriatric version of Ali G, but without the wit.
I think it’s just a matter of time with Mr. Smooth Operator as well. Competency requires too much attention to reality details. And based on his belief systems, he ain’t that.
The new christofascist Church Lady guy is poised to be the upward-trending darling of the GQP, a fresh face to rally around for those Righties who are a bit tired of the antics of Gaetz, Boebert, MTG, and they would of course become more thoroughly enthused by the Left's distaste for the dude. Somebody who thumps the Bible that pervasively always makes me suspect there's some sort of kinky freakiness hidden away in a corner of their closet.
"always makes me suspect there's some sort of kinky freakiness hidden away in a corner of their closet"
Undoubtedly, he goes on about how "gay sex" is the downfall of society, me thinks he's had a take or two and is consumed with guilt. Believing that homosexuality is the ruination of all mankind might be the only thing that keeps him "straight".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jG58b5LWLk
MAGA Mike is just another hate peddler in sheep's clothing. Same old pitch, appeal to a dislike, turn it into a hate, inflame the hatred, sell them guns to "defend" themselves from the hated ones. At the end of the sordid story, they may even turn the gun on themselves after they have committed a horrific crime. Meanwhile, fight for the fetus and thump the bible. Same old con-servative trickery with an emphasis on the con. In the meantime, profit at every step of the way. A person could get a little jaded if they if they didn't watch out. Start calling him Maggot Mike or some other hateful label. See how easy it happens.