Tag: Mike Johnson

So Much for Speaker Johnson

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Well, let’s see how the extreme right-wing Mike Johnson did this week.

With the help of his friends in the Democrat party he passed the Ukraine funding and reauthorized warrantless spying on Americans in the FISA courts.

https://rollcall.com/2024/04/19/rule-for-emergency-aid-bill-adopted-with-democratic-support/

https://rollcall.com/2024/04/20/senate-sends-surveillance-reauthorization-bill-to-bidens-desk/

Oh well done Mr. Johnson.

All I can say is the Republicans are hopeless.  I don’t know if they blackmailed or bribed or fooled him into doing these things but he did their will and so we can expect more of the same from now on.

Might as well have been Pelosi.  The horror continues.

One Last Chance to Make FISA a Little Less Evil

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Even though the House with Speaker Johnson’s vote allowed the FISA laws to remain in force another two years, the House has one last chance on Monday to add an amendment that requires a warrant for almost every kind of surveillance of US citizens.

“House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was among the 86 Republicans who voted against including the bipartisan warrant mandate amendment in the bill to renew FISA through 2026.”

I’m sure the FBI, NSA and CIA put on a very convincing dog and pony show to convince Speaker Johnson that if he allowed a warrant requirement to block FISA surveillance that he would be blamed when the next attack occurs.  Well, it’s time for conservatives to say “We don’t care.”

It’s better to be free in a dangerous world than to be a safe slave.

Let’s hope Johnson has the brains in his head to take this last lifeline to take this one small step to begin undoing the harm that was done to our freedoms after 9/11.

 

Mike Johnson’s Moment of Truth

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The Senate Bill that involves money for the border, Ukraine and Gaza has been declared a train wreck by every conservative that’s read it.  It turns the open border that Joe Biden created into the legal status quo.  It allows for amnesty of untold number of illegals.  And it gives Ukraine another $60 billion.  Mike Johnson says it’s a terrible bill.  Okay, so that should be enough to bury it and anything like it for the duration of 2024.

But this is Washington DC.  The pressure to get the money for Ukraine is going to be tremendous.  The question is what will they be willing to trade for it?  I can imagine the Democrats will be so desperate they will be willing to promise just about anything.

But there lies the risk.  Whatever goodies they dangle in front of Mike Johnson to get him to sign on will need to be inspected microscopically for traps and loopholes.  In addition, as we’ve seen, just because a law says the federal government has to do x, y and z doesn’t mean they will.  Look at the current situation on the southern border.  There are already clear mandates for the Border Patrol to prevent illegals from entering the United States and courts with the power to deport them.  But none of that occurs.  There are laws that empower the federal government to identify companies employing illegal aliens and punish those companies and deport those illegals.  That never happens either.

Basically, if I were Mike Johnson, I’d tell Joe Biden to shut the border down completely, deport ten million illegals and build the wall before expecting to get another penny for Ukraine.  And if he says no, I’d tell him to go pound sand.  Which, come to think of it, he should tell him regardless of whether he does those things or not.  Joe Biden is a slimy lying sack of crap and should be addressed and treated as one at all times.

So, this is a very good test of Mike Johnson’s courage and instincts.  I can only imagine what kinds of threats and pressure will be brought to bear by the usual suspects.  He will be accused of being a traitor and a Putin puppet and all the usual nonsense by every toady and henchman of the Uniparty and by their paymasters at Raytheon and the other defense contractors that feed like vampires directly from an artery of this country’s life’s blood.

What would be victory?  I would say, not sending a penny to Ukraine and not codifying anything at the border that legitimizes a single illegal alien.

I’ve got to be honest, I’m not super hopeful he can stand up to the whole bureaucracy, the White House and the Congress.  But if there was ever a moment when it should be done, this is it.  Holding off that money until November should be enough to end the Ukraine war.  Zelensky will be booted out by his own people and a deal will be cut with the Russians that should end the wholesale slaughter.

The example that will set for the rest of the world will be important.  It will show that the American people can rein in the maniacs that have been running our foreign-policy for decades and show that it’s possible to advance American security and interests without inciting and blundering into wars everywhere we go.

Good luck Mike.  Just say no.

Legitimacy

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I was listening to a dissident right pundit recently.  It was about the new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.  A lot of it had to do with the process the Republican Party uses to vet its members.  Basically, it was said that it selects for those who will follow the orders of the leadership and by extension align with the policies that the donors want supported.  So, for Republicans that means providing legislation that helps for example, pharmaceutical and defense companies.  But it also includes the banks and Wall Street and any other power centers that have lobbyists that Republicans are paid by.

And I can see how a lot of that is true.  Guys like Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell are wholly owned subsidiaries of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and never saw a war they couldn’t get behind.  And during the recent COVID madness Pfizer was spreading all those billions it made on vaccines among the Democrats and Republicans like it was candy corn at Halloween.  So, I can see the point being made by the dissidents.  The system is rigged to keep out anyone but the kind of people who perpetuate its mercenary function.  And with such people the chance of the will of the constituents being honored is non-existent.  So, I grant that.

But then how do we recognize and support the people who somehow manage to sneak through this vetting and could be part of the solution?  Look at Donald Trump.  Trump crashed the Republican presidential primary.  He gutted Jeb Bush and disrupted Hillary Clinton’s coronation when everyone knew it was “her turn.”  Sure, he was hamstrung by Democrats and Republicans and most forcefully by the Deep State but I deny that he didn’t try as best he knew to accomplish the items on his agenda.  To claim he was just another bought and sold member of the Uniparty doing the bidding of Black Rock and the CIA seems completely false.  I don’t claim that he had immense success in reforming the federal government.  What I do claim is that he was a legitimate representative of the people who voted him into office.  He authentically wanted to fulfill the promises he made during his campaign.  He had legitimacy.

So the trick is figuring out who are the other bona fide conservatives who are willing to help us win the battles that we so badly need won.  Let’s start with Mike Johnson.  I heard the arguments about how Johnson was a part of the machine that produces “Christian” lawmakers.  But when I look at the cases that he was involved in and the laws that he fought for I see a very socially conservative record.

In 2003 he wrote an amicus brief in front of the Supreme Court for Lawrence v. Texas which struck down the Texas sodomy laws. And in 2004 he defended Louisiana’s law defining marriage as being between one man and one woman.  To me this sounds like someone whose priorities are in line with my own.  And after the 2020 election Johnson voted to overturn the presidential election results.  That doesn’t sound like someone who just follows the Uniparty to get along.

The only way I think I’ll be able to tell if Johnson is a legitimate conservative legislature is if as Speaker of the House, he shows a willingness to resist the very mercenary and illegitimate behaviors that were mentioned in the dissident essay I was discussing earlier.  For instance, Joe Biden asked for a hundred billion dollars of aid that would mostly go to Ukraine but had Israel getting about ten billion.  Instead of passing such a bill Johnson got a bill passed that just gave the ten billion to Israel.  The sympathy that Israel had among Republicans after the Gaza terrorist attack ensured that such a bill would be passed.  Refusing to tack on a Ukraine payment that is an order of magnitude larger seems what I would expect of someone who is practical and smart.

I’m willing to see what Mike Johnson achieves.  That’s how I’ll decide if he’s for real.  That doesn’t seem idealistic.  It seems pragmatic.