807

A group of Russian nationals were able to donate to newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign in 2018 by funneling the money through a U.S. company.

The Texas-based American Ethane company previously donated tens of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Louisiana Republicans including Johnson, who was voted by the House to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker on Wednesday following three weeks of GOP chaos in the lower chamber.

While American Ethane was run in 2018 by American John Houghtaling, 88 percent of the firm was owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 103 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

FUCK THIS GUY AND FUCK THE GOP

Mike Johnson is...

  • Part of the Regressive Religious Right with close ties to fundamentalist religious groups.
  • Early on in his career he was a senior attorney and spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Conservative christian legal advocacy group that wants to outlaw abortion and suppress the LGBTQ community. Alliance Defending Freedom is designated a hate group.
  • Supports nation wide abortion ban, and an end to legal same sex marriage through the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges
  • Supports restrictions to medical marijuana and refers to it as a "gateway drug"
  • Like Emmer, he supported and signed on to Texas v Pennsylvania in an effort to challenge the election results
  • He voted to overturn those results in Pennsylvania.
  • Supports an end to military aid to Ukraine.
  • Johnson has remarked that his career is dedicated to "defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault."
  • As a State Rep he sought to put forth legislation that protected people who discriminated against same sex marriage partners.
  • He voted to repeal the ACA
  • Proposed cuts to medicaid and social security
  • Voted for Trump's tax cut legislation that disproportionately benefitted the wealthy.
  • He was 1 out of 147 Republicans to vote to overturn the election results.
  • Voted against a January 6 commission
  • He reportedly does not even believe in climate change
  • One of his committees wrote a statement in support of books on conversion therapy that were recently taken down from Amazon. (So basically a supporter of conversion therapy)
  • He has opposed expanding medical marijuana access in his state and in his defense argued specifically that Marijuana can worsen some health conditions like epilepsy. (The context is important, his views on weed are outdated, he refers to weed as a "gateway drug". He went fishing for whatever he could find and take out of context to support his rigid stance. A study did find some adverse effects with epileptics, however, CBD/medical marijuana is also used in treatments for epilepsy)
  • He voted in favor of Trump's Muslim ban.
  • Has campaigned against LGBTQ rights and anti bullying legislation.
  • He has supported similar legislation to Florida's "don't say gay" bill.
  • Has referred to homosexuality as "unnatural" and a "dangerous lifestyle". He even argued in an editorial in his local Louisiana Newspaper that homosexuality would eventually lead to the destruction of "the entire Democratic system", and the legalization of pedophilia of course.
  • While working for the ADF, he supported criminalizing homosexuality.
  • He has argued in favor of including prayer and religious expression in public schools.

(not mine, but worth sharing and adding to)

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

"defending religious freedom,[...]and biblicial values."

I am a Christian [agnostic]. Bruv that shit is not how anything work

[-] Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Christian agnostic? That sounds like an oxymoron, how does that work? (actual question, not being an asshole)

[-] qarbone@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Basically, the belief that there's a lot you can't be sure of, but you choose to believe in the core of Chrisitianity: God and Jesus as extant and important entities, to put it a bit clinically.

Christian agnosticism Wikipedia

[-] cashews_best_nut@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Gnosis and Theism aren't mutually exclusive. Gnosis is knowing and theism is believing. Most people who claim to be atheist are "agnostic atheist".

Because they don't believe in any gods but they can't fully know for a fact there isn't one. Though Richard Dawkins flirted with declaring himself a "gnostic atheist" many years back (not sure if he settled on it).

An agnostic Christian would probs be someone who chooses to believe in God and Jesus but not to know for certain. Within that there's varying degrees of how much they choose to follow the teachings.

this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2023
807 points (98.6% liked)

politics

19148 readers
2875 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS