Notices by Matthew Sheffield (mattsheffield@mastodon.social), page 8

Mike Johnson also worked as an attorney for ADF and another far-right Christian group on court cases trying to block same-sex marriage.

The Federalist Society controls the judges on the courts and the ADF controls the lawsuits that make it to the courts.

Mike Johnson is so extreme that he is even trying to take away divorce rights for straight couples. In fact, that was how he first got on to the Christian right's radar: https://www.ktbs.com/news/arklatex-politics/u-s-rep-mike-johnson-molds-republican-messaging-as-5th-highest-gop-member-of-congress/article_e3a1f6b2-6fdb-11ed-b2b5-ff7d70d9bef4.html

ADF is the group that took down a national abortion access by providing legal help to the plaintiffs in Dobbs v. Jackson.

It's spending millions of dollars finding and fabricating plaintiffs to take away birth control and LGBTQ rights.

Mike Johnson was their spokesman before starting his electoral career.

As an extremist in tweed, Mike Johnson is very valuable to the far right because some people naively associate sartorial skill with political moderation.

Even now, after the nazis in suits of the former "alt right," many journos have failed to learn the lesson.

Soft-spoken people who dress like dandies can be just as extreme as a guy in overalls.

A fascist in a nice suit is still a fascist.

Once he jumped to the U.S. House, Mike Johnson made it his priority to give support to Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election in the House.

He spearheaded a brazen attempt to throw out millions of Biden votes based on no evidence.

It would have caused a revolution in the streets had Johnson gotten his way.

But that's who he is: a Christian supremacist authoritarian

Luckily, it was rejected out of hand: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/mike-johnson-january-6-house-speaker-nominee-rcna122081

Mike Johnson is also very enthused about cutting Social Security and Medicare. He wants a national abortion ban and also a national "don't say gay" law.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/us/politics/mike-johnson-house-speaker.html

As he moved up the ranks after Republican extremists systematically canceled comparatively more sane people like Tom Emmer, the radicals let it be known that Mike Johnson would have leeway on budgetary matters that Kevin McCarthy never had.

Why? Because Mike Johnson is a Christofascist like them. Because he agrees on the court tenet of mandatory Christian nationalism, he has the freedom to do anything else.

This is exactly how things work for Trump, who of course endorsed Johnson.

Thanks for reading down to the end here! I may add a few more items.

If you're interested, my friend @kaliholloway and I will be discussing Mike Johnson and what he represents on our podcast "So This Just Happened."

You can subscribe here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-this-just-happened/id1703405570

Please share this thread if you could. There is no algorithm in the fediverse so I need your help! ❤️

More: Mike Johnson filed court briefs in support of keeping homosexuality a felony.

Years later, he wrote that legalized same-sex marriage would “doom even the strongest republic. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/25/politics/mike-johnson-gay-sex-criminalization-kfile/index.html

In his first official speech as speaker, Mike Johnson claimed that God had made him the speaker of the house.

He was referencing a disturbing evangelical appropriation from the Hebrew Bible in which they claim to be God's personal servants. Details on the theology here: https://flux.community/matthew-sheffield/2021/02/why-do-republican-elites-keep-talking-about-dying-jesus/

Later, Johnson tried to backpedal and claim that all members were there by God, but a reporter needs to ask him: Did God make Joe Biden president?

Stuff like this is why it's more accurate to say that Republicans are a collection of Christian warlords than a political party.

The majority of Americans, including Republican voters, have supported same-sex marriage for a long time. But this majority opinion gets you canceled in the GOP House.

Republican former Florida legislator Joe Harding, known for creating "Don't Say Gay" bill, sentenced to prison for fraudulent covid loan scheme https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/19/ex-florida-gop-lawmaker-who-sponsored-so-called-dont-say-gay-bill-sentenced-to-prison-00122618

Joe Biden gave an important speech today about MAGA fascism, but this was the most crucial line:

"Democracies don't have to die at the end of a rifle. They can die when people are silent, when they fail to stand up or condemn threats to democracy. When people willing to give away what's most precious to them because they feel frustrated."

#Fascism has always been unpopular. It can only win when the majority gives up in disgust. Don't let the bastards grind you down.

h/t @atrupar

It's official: Google has committed to turning Chrome into spyware. Even more disgusting is that it's trying to brand unavoidable surveillance as a "Privacy Sandbox."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-opposed-ad-platform-the-privacy-sandbox-launches-in-chrome/

Don't use Chrome. Go to Firefox or Vivaldi.

@ZachWeinersmith Stoicism = Right. Epicureanism = Left

"Moms for Liberty" chapters have extensive ties with militia groups, the Proud Boys, and even a gun-worshipping religious cult https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d93qd/moms-for-liberty-proud-boys

As the right-wing voting coalition ages out, Republican elites are resorting to dangerously stupid lies to juice voter engagement, lies that have and will endanger innocent lives:

💣 Top Trump adviser Roger Stone talks of "demonic portals" at the Biden WH.
💣 "Satan himself" supported Democrats per Glenn Beck.
💣 Daily Wire religious fanatics routinely pretend demons possess #trans people
💣 Fox's hosts are copying Alex Jones's rhetoric of demonic possession

Much more:
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-figures-prepare-spiritual-war-2024-claiming-their-opponents-are-demonic

🧵 Secular mainstream media reporters are so ignorant of Confederate Christian ideology that they really do not know how to cover them correctly.

This Daily Beast report from inside the recent convention of the Christofascist group #MomsforLiberty is a good example.

These people are maniacally obsessed with forcing their religion on everyone else. Yet that is not how the article works. Instead, it's more of a "I went to this convention of weirdos." https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-moms-for-liberty-summit-in-philly-we-saw-ron-desantis-furry-panic-and-lots-of-trump-merch

@atomicpoet I think you mean 'step' instead of 'stop?'

?One holiday tradition I could do without is the annual Dennis Prager column raging at "leftists" for supposedly being meanies.

I'm going to engage with it this year, however, because Prager is the quintessential right wing grievance monger and his behavior is very emblematic.

Oh my.

@Mediaite conservative writer Isaac Schorr misread the Twitter account @joinmastodon as "John Mastodon," and said that the open source social media software was named after this imaginary person. https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/hypocrisy-and-fear-all-the-way-down-at-twitter/