Insights on new Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson via Glenn Greenwald:
Twenty-three minute interview with Johnson about the testimony of FBI Director Wray. Interview starts at 21:58
We interviewed @RepMikeJohnson in July and - while we had several areas of serious disagreement - he's one of the smartest and most principled opponents of the US Security State (CIA/FBI) and its attempt to control online political speech (starts 21:50):https://t.co/kc4K9bkXPbpic.twitter.com/DLmEicS6g2
Clips of Mike Johnson interrogating Homeland Secretary Mayorkas:
MUST WATCH: @RepMikeJohnson gets increasingly frustrated as @SecMayorkas dodges questions on a judge's explosive ruling that his agency systemically censors Americans online.
Mayorkas says he didn't even read the ruling—then outright lies about his agency's record. pic.twitter.com/JM2kNC4YZw
You and I agree on some things, sharply disagree on others. And this is true broadly if I compare myself to other Americans (many of whom I have far deeper and wider disagreements than I do with you), and between any two given Americans.
Issues and positions are important, but they're not the most important. We can expect that in any healthy society there will be deep, fundamental, and even irreconcilable differences.
What's important is that those differences don't lead to deep, sustained, and irreconcilable violence. And the best way so far we as humanity have come up with to do that is to make sure that societies can change their minds. So long as people can disagree but have a belief that 1) they can change their mind and 2) there's a real way for them to have a shot at getting others to change their mind, then it's less likely they'll decide that the only way to resolve differences is to permanently shut up those who disagree with them.
Trump took direct aim at this. He lost the election, clearly and decisively. He lost both the popular vote and the electoral vote. And in response, he engaged in a months-long attempt to illegally and illegitimately overturn the results, culminating on Jan 6th when he summoned a mob to attempt to use violence to force the nullification of Americans' votes.
Johnson was part of this. Whatever you think about his stance on the issues, whether you find yourself aligning with him on some or none or all of them, he is part of a movement that attacked -- and continues to target -- this most fundamental plank that keeps America more or less working as opposed to being in a state of perpetual ethnic and ideological literal warfare.
Insights on new Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson via Glenn Greenwald:
Twenty-three minute interview with Johnson about the testimony of FBI Director Wray. Interview starts at 21:58
We interviewed @RepMikeJohnson in July and - while we had several areas of serious disagreement - he's one of the smartest and most principled opponents of the US Security State (CIA/FBI) and its attempt to control online political speech (starts 21:50):https://t.co/kc4K9bkXPbpic.twitter.com/DLmEicS6g2
Clips of Mike Johnson interrogating Homeland Secretary Mayorkas:
MUST WATCH: @RepMikeJohnson gets increasingly frustrated as @SecMayorkas dodges questions on a judge's explosive ruling that his agency systemically censors Americans online.
Mayorkas says he didn't even read the ruling—then outright lies about his agency's record. pic.twitter.com/JM2kNC4YZw
I mean, the deep, cynical irony of someone who supported nullifying an election being called a "principled opponent" of attempts to control political speech...
Insights on new Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson via Glenn Greenwald:
Twenty-three minute interview with Johnson about the testimony of FBI Director Wray. Interview starts at 21:58
Clips of Mike Johnson interrogating Homeland Secretary Mayorkas:
Mike Johnson will be leading the charge to focus the American security state on disobedient women and LGBTQ people. Principled opponent of the security state my ****.
Mike Johnson will be leading the charge to focus the American security state on disobedient women and LGBTQ people. Principled opponent of the security state my ****.
There is a type of person who call themselves "progressive", but who only care about government actions which might affect them personally; consequently, if they're not LGBTQ or women then they don't care. They're really "libertarians".
We MUST fight for election integrity, the Constitution, and the preservation of our republic! It will be my honor to help lead that fight in the Congress today.
The statement I drafted summarizes our position and the legal analysis that supports it. https://t.co/JRfV1asZZz
“The reach of radical sexual identity politics isn’t limited to young children. We see this extended to young adults—especially at the university level… Today, nearly one in four high school students identifies as LGBTQ. Whether it’s by scalpel or by social coercion from teachers, professors, administrators, and left-wing media, it’s an attempt to transition the young people of our country.
“Something has gone terribly wrong and today we hope to shed light on what that is and how we can address the problem. Contrary to what the Democrats believe, the scourge of radical gender ideology is very real, efforts to cover up what’s being done to children are extreme, and the science is on our side.”
just so we understand the terminology, do "systemically censor" and "control online speech" generally refer to attempts at stopping the spread of public health disinformation during the pandemic?
and not for nothing but Mike Johnson and his ilk don't really care about free speech. They just want to pretend Republicans are victims of imagined persecution by social media companies.
Greenwald calling Mike Johnson principled just shows how far gone Greenwald is. He has zero credibility as a journalist at this point.
I don't care if Johnson is smart or whatever else. It is all nullified by the FACT he tried to help overturn the election for POTUS. He is a traitor. Period.
I’m as addicted to MOL as anyone, but, my God, please give me a break if I happen to step away for more than 24 hours.
Would you start a thread about a person in the news, with "insights" that arguably were intended to be positive facts about him and his selection for his new role, and then go silent for the next two nights as other posters point out more significant and concerning facts about him?
Since this thread started with "insights" from the Twitter about Mike Johnson, here's some more -
I served on the Natural Resources Committee with Mike Johnson. I worked to strengthen protections for threatened marine species, including whales. He introduced a bill to weaken the Marine Mammal Protection Act at the behest of the oil and gas industry.https://t.co/JToJbnE5hSpic.twitter.com/sDFoLhQBYh
Mike Johnson in 2016: "What’s happened, Alex, over the last 60 or 70 years, is that our generation has been convinced that there is a separation of church and state. Most people think that that’s part of the Constitution, but it’s not.”
Mike is worse than all the others who were nominated before him. He can really be a PITA come next election. We have to vote straight line blue at every election going forward. The madness seems to be another global pandemic…
"Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected House speaker, has repeatedly flirted with what’s known as the 'great replacement theory,' the idea that Democrats are scheming to supplant American voters with immigrants. The Louisiana Republican’s views show how fringe conspiracy theories have gone mainstream in the Republican Party at the highest levels of power. ...
"Johnson employs it regularly. He reiterated the claim in an interview this year with the right-wing outlet Newsmax, accusing President Biden of 'intentionally' encouraging undocumented migration to 'turn all these illegals into voters for their side.' On numerous other occasions, he has made similar charges, even declaring that Democrats’ express goal is the 'destruction of our country at the expense of our own people'."
"Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected House speaker, has repeatedly flirted with what’s known as the 'great replacement theory,' the idea that Democrats are scheming to supplant American voters with immigrants. The Louisiana Republican’s views show how fringe conspiracy theories have gone mainstream in the Republican Party at the highest levels of power. ...
"Johnson employs it regularly. He reiterated the claim in an interview this year with the right-wing outlet Newsmax, accusing President Biden of 'intentionally' encouraging undocumented migration to 'turn all these illegals into voters for their side.' On numerous other occasions, he has made similar charges, even declaring that Democrats’ express goal is the 'destruction of our country at the expense of our own people'."
This all started with people like Paul Harvey and Bob Grant to Mark Levin and Rush Limbaugh et al…it’s decades of conspiracy theories that has poisoned our country. Conservatives really do believe everything they hear on those programs, and it’s driving their paranoia. They will not show or talk about the thousands of Venezuelans being deported back to Caracas every month. In fact our own media don’t show them. Democrats really need to step up their efforts to counter the madness. Really.
I have often thought that part of our border issue has been the repeated daily talking points from Republicans that we have an open border. They have been constantly advertising the blueprint to how people can enter the country legally.
just so we understand the terminology, do "systemically censor" and "control online speech" generally refer to attempts at stopping the spread of public health disinformation during the pandemic?
and not for nothing but Mike Johnson and his ilk don't really care about free speech. They just want to pretend Republicans are victims of imagined persecution by social media companies.
When people show a pattern of defending hateful and harmful speech by citing a principle of "free speech," but then clearly demonstrate their eagerness to suppress free speech - say by writing or supporting laws censoring books available in school libraries, or shielding drivers who purposely run over protestors from liability, or attempting to nullify elections -- you start to think, maybe they don't actually believe in free speech, they're just fans of hateful and harmful speech.
Insights on new Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson via Glenn Greenwald:
Twenty-three minute interview with Johnson about the testimony of FBI Director Wray. Interview starts at 21:58
Clips of Mike Johnson interrogating Homeland Secretary Mayorkas: