Tag Archives: Mike Johnson

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What is MTG trying to do?

No need to answer the question I have posed in the headline … I believe I know what she is up to.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to make as much noise as possible, to disrupt the legislative flow in the People’s House and to prevent Congress from actually governing, which the Constitution allows it to do as a co-equal partner in the federal government.

MTG is a two-term congresswoman from Georgia who has managed to elbow her way to Americans’ attention simply because she is a certifiable nut job. I am left to wonder: How in the world did she get elected in the first place and then re-elected two years later?

She is calling for a motion to vacate the speakership held by fellow Republican Mike Johnson. Greene isn’t likely to succeed in the motion. It’s not that I really give a damn about Johnson. He is a MAGA cultist, just like Greene. His “sin” is that he has shown a desire to work with Democrats to actually legislate.

MTG will keep yammering, bellowing and carrying on. She will continue to obstruct in that bellicose manner she employs.

She also will continue to garner attention from folks like me who wonder: How does the House fulfill its constitutional duty to govern when it contains wackos like this?

International news

Speaker does his job

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In the Republican Party of 2024, styled in the image of former President Donald J. Trump, a norm-preserving, consensus-driven act — even a basic one — can be a career-ending offense.

So wrote the subhead on a story in the New York Times about the decision by House Speaker Mike Johnson to proceed with a vote to give Ukraine billions of dollars in military aid.

I am of mixed feelings about Mike Johnson. He is far from my idea of a perfect House speaker, yet I do not want to see him torpedoed by the MAGA cult that comprises the most vocal caucus within the House GOP conference.

The MAGAites don’t want to assist Ukraine in its fight for survival against the Russian army invaders. They are beholden to Vladimir Putin, the ham-fisted strongman who pretends to be a BFF of the 45th POTUS. The reality appears to be that while POTUS No. 45 admires Putin, his “good buddy” actually loathes him and sees him as a useful idiot.

Mike Johnson, Like Pence, Does What Passes for Brave in Today’s GOP: His Job – The New York Times (1ft.io)

Well, thanks in part to the speaker’s insistence on doing the right thing and standing tall for democracy, Ukraine is going to get more needed aid from Congress as it seeks to fend off the immoral invasion by Russia.

A large part of me doesn’t want to see Mike Johnson torpedoed because he stood up for democracy.

International news, military news, national news

Nice knowin’ ya, Mr. Speaker

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House Speaker Mike Johnson might not be long for the powerful post he now occupies. Why is that?

Because he has decided to do the right thing by allowing a vote on an aid package for Ukraine, which is likely to piss off the MAGA crowd that opposes sending more aid to the nation fighting forces sent to Ukraine on orders from Vladmir Putin, the good pal of the POTUS No. 45.

“I believe Xi, Vladimir Putin, and Iran really are an axis of evil,” Johnson said recently. There you have it. He’s on the record calling Putin, the Russian strongman, part of a newly formed evil triumvirate.

Did Mike Johnson Just Get Religion on Ukraine? | The New Yorker (1ft.io)

I cannot even begin to wrap my arms around the irony here.

He is speaker largely because he was endorsed by the former Liar in Chief. Now the ex-Moron in Chief might turn on him if the MAGA cultists in the House engineer a vote to remove him.

Jiminy Crickets. My head won’t stop spinning!

He is going to allow a $60 billion aid package to come to a vote. The MAGA crowd won’t stand for it.,

It, however, is the right thing to do. Johnson knows it. So do most Americans. The MAGA cultists, however, march to their own cadence … and it is seriously out of step with the rest of this nation.

national news

House speaker: world’s worst job

There can be zero doubt — none whatsoever — that the worst job in the world has to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Particularly now, in this climate, with a slim Republican Party majority in the House being kicked around by a vocal minority mob of malcontents.

The malcontent in chief, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, has filed a motion to remove Speaker Mike Johnson from his tenuous seat in power. It’s not a done deal, as Greene, R-Ga., said she hasn’t yet called for a vote on whether to kick Johnson to the curb.

You’ll remember that Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was booted out because he had the stones to work with Democrats on a bipartisan government funding bill that forestalled a possible government shutdown. That didn’t suit MAGAites in the House, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who filed a motion, called for the vote and got McCarthy kicked the hell out.

Johnson emerged as a successor. It took several House votes, just as it took the House 15 ballots to select McCarthy, but Johnson got the job. He promised to adhere to the MAGA agenda.

Oh, but wait! He then just recently worked with those dreaded Democrats on another, longer-term funding bill.

Enter the QAnon queen herself, Greene, to fire a warning shot at Johnson.

My goodness, the job is difficult enough, even without the melodrama attached by the MAGA blowhards in the House. It’s a damn important job, too, as its occupant is second in line to become president.

It is aggravating to see this office being held hostage by a gaggle of troublemakers intent on disrupting the so-called “regular order” and arguing against efforts to actually govern … which is what compromise is all about.

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House GOP only worsens its standing

Kevin McCarthy might have gone down as the worst-ever speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives … were it not for the arrival of Mike Johnson as his successor.

There you have it. The MAGA crowd that once demanded that McCarthy refuse to work with Democrats now has installed one of its brethren in Johnson. The mob of malevolent MAGA misfits ousted McCarthy because he had the balls to work with Democrats on funding the government … temporarily.

The MAGA crowd installed Johnson, who has shown no such proclivity. And what has it gotten the GOP caucus? Only more scorn from the rest of the non-MAGA voters out here in the country. Why is that?

Because Johnson, for one thing, refused to back a bipartisan bill that would have strengthened our southern border, something the speaker and his allies insisted on doing. Why do you suppose Johnson scampered into the tall grass? Because the immediate past POTUS who’s running for the office he lost in 2020 demanded it of him. The ex-POTUS did not want President Biden to score any political points prior to this fall’s election.

So, there you go. The speaker of the House works for the former POTUS and not “the people” he purports to represent as speaker.

Johnson is trying to “lead” the House with the narrowest of “majorities” imaginable. He cannot get his GOP caucus to agree on much of anything and he damn sure has no support among Democrats who, these days, are feeling their oats as they gain strength in the House.

And, of course, he faces the same threats of removal that eventually undid McCarthy’s brief tenure as speaker. He dares not do a damn thing to rile the MAGA mob, which I should add comprises a small minority of the total GOP caucus. But, oh man, it is a vocal crowd and manages somehow to outshout the rest of the legislative body at virtually every turn.

Do I wish for a McCarthy return to the House? Not even …

I do wish for a display of guts from his successor, who so far has shown himself to be a gutless wonder.

national news

Speaker In Name Only?

Mike Johnson is likely to have earned a title he wishes he could shed, which would be Speaker In Name Only.

The speaker of the U.S. House is a SINO, given the result last night in the New York special congressional election that saw voters flip that district from Republican to Democrat, as Tom Suozzi, a former three-term congressman won his old seat back.

Suozzi replaces the former congressman — and infamous lying sack of pig dookie — Republican George Santos, who had been expelled from the House in a landmark action.

That puts the Republican “majority” in the House at 218-213. Four seats are vacant. The scant majority status puts almost every piece of legislation pitched by the GOP in peril.

Oh, wait! The GOP-led House is more interested in impeaching Democratic members of President Biden’s Cabinet on made-up phony charges than in doing anything constructive for the nation … such as enacting stronger border enforcement.

This is the body over which the SINO, Mike Johnson, presides.

Nice …

national news

Now it’s OK for ‘partisan impeachment’?

US House Speaker Mike Johnson is on record saying that “partisan impeachment” by Congress sets a dangerous precedent.

Oh, but wait. That was then. The here and now suggests that Johnson has changed his partisan mind. You see, the House yesterday voted along party lines to launch an impeachment inquiry to find something on which to charge President Biden.

Every Republican voted for the inquiry; every Democrat voted against it. The GOP caucus is looking for something. To date, they don’t even have a suspected “high crime and misdemeanor” to allege against Biden.

But, hey, who cares what the speaker once said? He must’ve been kidding when he called for a bipartisan impeachment. The inquiry, for sure, doesn’t necessarily guarantee an impeachment against President Biden.

My hunch tells me that if one comes, it’ll be along partisan lines.

Disgraceful.

national news

GOP gnashes its own throat

What in the world is happening to what passes for a once-great political party? Republicans cannot seem to rally around political leaders of any stripe, or so it seems.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a MAGA darling of the first order, is taking heat from those on the MAGA right wing of the party. Why? Beats the dickens out of me, man!

Former Fox propaganda network blowhard Tucker Carlson has gone after Johnson. According to Newsweek.com: On Thursday night, the House passed a proposal by Johnson that pairs $14.3 billion in emergency funding for Israel with $14.3 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The measure passed 226-196, largely along party lines, with most Republicans supporting the bill and most Democrats objecting.

Carlson is trying to shake something out of Johnson that suggests the speaker is “prioritizing” foreign aid to Israel … whatever the hell it all means.

My point in all of this is that Speaker Mike Johnson says he wants to be speaker for “all Americans,” but he cannot seem to rein in the disparate elements within his own party.

As for the IRS cuts, let’s remember that the more you gut from the budget of the tax-revenue-supported agency, the fewer dollars the government is going to receive to pay for the myriad government programs that Americans say they want and support.

The MAGA cult is learning in real time how difficult it is to operate a government as complex as the machinery that makes the government of the world’s greatest nation.

Then again, the MAGA cultists who call the shots in the House are more interested in making noise than in crafting laws.