- The Bible pretty much supports any viewpoint.
- Your interpretation doesn’t matter at all to him and his homophobic followers.
I don’t get why you get to pick and choose when you listen to Paul. Might as well just decide to ignore the majority of the New Testament entirely and form a new religion.
Moderating:
Let’s not hijack this thread to debate Biblical meanings and interpretations. Those are discussions that can be had in other threads. This one is intended to discuss the broader implications of a Mike Johnson Speakership. Thanks.
Well said.
No. That was an individual, paying on his own. What is meant by Prayer in schools is a class wide prayer, being led by the teacher.
No doubt a good number of students say a little prayer before a big test or something. Of course you have the right to pray, but not force others.
I thought he was encouraging his football team to join him in prayer, including some Jews.
I was not aware that the guys who prayed the best won. I may have played sports in school had I known.
I wouldn’t think it was private prayer if it were done on the 50 yard line.
God doesn’t hear it unless you make a big fucking show of it.
(Or as the Republicans call it, virtue signalling.)
No it wasn’t. And if you think that the coach didn’t notice who among the students prayed with him and who did not, you have no idea how high school football (or high school in general) works.
Moderating
Drop this sidebar, it actually is off-topic.
This topic was automatically opened after 14 minutes.
Sorry about that. Prayer in public schools is a trigger for me and I lost track of the actual thread topic. I’ll do better.
Just a note to end the hijack. All is good.
What I’ve read:
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Mike Johnson was unvetted. So lots of stuff will come out, starting with his podcast. For example, he thinks mass shootings are a result of no-fault divorce laws and feminism. Homosexuality is unnatural, dangerous, and could destroy the entire democratic system he said, decades before providing a legal framework for overturning a not-that-close Presidential election.
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Mike Johnson is a mild mannered guy which IMHO is a good temperament for his position. What he doesn’t have is a fully built-out network of GOP allies. He is not a big fundraiser and therefore doesn’t have a critical mass of debtors in his caucus.
Will he get a honeymoon from the chaos caucus? I would think so. It will be interesting to see how he fares when push comes to shove.
So, in other words, the dam was leaking so badly they just shoved anything in there to stop the flow.
Any honeymoon is going to be very short-lived. The chaos caucus is already making noises that they won’t support a “clean” continuing resolution to fund the government through January. They’ll insist on including budget cuts and conservative policy riders. Meanwhile, the Rs in Biden districts can feel election day getting closer and closer and will be loath to take votes that will instantly become attack ads.
Maybe Johnson has some special mojo that will let him thread the same needle that McCarthy couldn’t. I guess we’ll see!
It’s interesting that so many lawyers, such as Powell, Chesebro, and Johnson, are down on democracy and elections.
Also, the evangelicals are holding up Johnson (snicker) as one of their own. Are there enough of them to protect him from the Gaetz crowd, or is that a Venn diagram that too closely overlaps? Like, Gaetz doesn’t strike me as too religious.
Matt Yglasias: " Now that it has former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s scalp, the hard right may be willing to let Johnson do what he needs to do to have a successful term in office — even if what he wants to do is eerily similar to what McCarthy would have done."
Specifically, McCarthy wrote a short-term continuing resolution which performatively enraged the Crazy Eight. Johnson announced he was going to the same in his candidacy letter and received nothing but far-right cheers.
This won’t be the first time a Rep from a very safe district (liberal or conservative) becomes speaker and governs from the center. Pelosi was a leading member of the Progressive Caucus. Tip O’Neil hailed from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Good news on the Ukraine front. The new Speaker has said we absolutely should not be cutting funding, not only to stop Russia, but because it would tell China it would be okay to invade Taiwan.
Beau of the Fifth Column just covered it in his video:
And here’s a partial quote from a Wapo article:
Although Johnson distanced himself from the plan of the White House and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for a joint Israel-Ukraine funding bill, he seemed to go out of his way to play up the need to aid Ukraine.
“Now, we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine, because I don’t believe it would stop there, and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan,” Johnson said. “We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them.”
Perhaps most notable, Johnson actually broached Ukraine funding before Hannity did. Johnson mentioned it alongside other immediate concerns, while downplaying other issues.
“We have such big priorities in this moment right now, Sean. We have Israel being attacked. We have unrest. We have the Ukraine situation we have got to deal with,” Johnson said, also mentioning China, Iran, the economy, the border and fentanyl.
Know Your Right Wing Weirdo: