While there’s reason to be depressed over the election of Johnson as Speaker of the House it should also motivate lovers of our Democracy to double down on our efforts to educate in a clear and dramatic fashion our citizens about how their lives will be changed if they allow an Authoritarian, if not Fascist, bent government to evolve in 2024.
I am less depressed and more dismayed and disappointed. As the comic strip character "Pogo" mused years ago, "I have seen the enemy and he is us." The pernicious wolf has taken hold of the House. I fear the average citizen does not grasp the gravity of this moment, and how it threatens the very liberties we hold dear.
So true, I believe it was President Biden who recently said something to the effect that “Democracies are lost more from silent voices than from the point of a gun”. A strong portion of our populous apparently believes that their current situation is so bleak that any Republican would be better than who governs now. Little do they know what it would be like living under an Authoritarian/Fascist bent government. It is our job to do a better job at educating that great mass of our humanity, as vividly and explicitly as possible, as to the horrors possible under a MAGA led government.
I believe I am the last generation to have classes in civics and democracy in high school. That was the late 1960s. We enjoyed energized debates, in which I always was an active participant. As a Military Veteran whose family has served our country since The American Revolutionary War, I am deeply grieved by this current moment in our history.
I'm sure that most people who still value our Democratic Republic and are actually following the real news are putting their bets on the judicial system. The court actions and indictments don't look good for Trump. And it looks like conviction is inevitable. To that I ask, "so what?"
The MAGA's are very strong right now. One sits in the Speaker's chair. His influence in accepting the electoral college count is now going to swing the 2024 election no matter how that count turns out.
Add to all this the MAGA true believers don't care about any criminality that Trump has committed.
They don't care. And they continue their glazed eyed devotion to him even in the face of his throwing every single supporter who has ever come along under the bus. Apparently, it won't happen to THEM, right?
I agree with Mr. Beschloss that yesterday was a fraught day for our government of the people. It was a victory for tyranny of the minority.
If Democrats retake the House in November 2024 (even if by just one seat), the January 2025 Congressional certification process for POTUS will be in the hands of a Democratic Party Speaker.
So, Mike Johnson believes that God is the one that raises up those in authority and that God has ordained each one of us to be brought here, So, why did he try so vehemently to thwart God's will when God raised up Joe Biden to the presidency? GOP, down to the last one, just a bunch of self-serving, hypocritical fascists. To think that there was not even one with the courage to cast even a protest vote causes a sinking hole in my gut. We cannot rest even for a bit if our grandchildren are to enjoy the kind of life we had.
This is a sad day for the USA; a seditious insurrectionist installed as Speaker of the House of Representatives by a treasonous criminal organization, reports the a significant portion of the populous are willing to use resort to violence to “save America,” and another mass shooting in a small New England town.
A very cold day in hell, I mean House. NC GOP has just gerrymandered entire state and nothing feds can do about it. Am so disheartened & angry I cannot even think straight this morn... Somehow, Hakeem and ALL Dems must get it together to make known what a demented donny - trumpian, authoritarian, society would be like. How any GOP could begin to listen to this crooked ex-potus is beyond me. We must work like super-people to assure Dems are elected to House and all elections/voting are monitored and safe. Work to assure Dems are elected to every thing!
Ah,, so in a democracy God decides things, not the voters. With a little help from His friends, of course. The grain of salt here is that Johnson has never had to run opposed for ANYTHING--including at least a couple of primaries.
Who knew God's first name was Gerry, of Mander fame.
Quote: "Johnson also used his first moments after being elected speaker to tell America that he sees his rise in divine terms. No separation of church and state for this theocrat." End quote.
A tight-fisted, anti-freedom with tightly constricted liberty has been the goal of Republican theocrats since the 1980s. The writing was on that wall long ago. The problem was how the majority saw them as a mere "threat" with little staying power; or, raw power to boot. Well, guess what! Here we are, forty-odd years later where the minoritocracy has planted a strong, rigid, and inflexible foothold. Separation of church and state be damned! Those folks are anti-constitutionalists. Simply look at "Alliance Defending Freedom", a "freedom" that is structured with a very, very tight fist with no room for tolerance beyond the margins of what is in essence totalitarianism. And, are you ready: Josh Hawley's wife senior counsel for ADF. Add to the how Moms for Liberty (M4L) is marching onward with a scalpel slicing away freedoms for those who these “Moms” dislike; or, hate. Motherly in the conventional context they are NOT. Terms like "freedom" and "liberty" get us all gooey inside, cleverly diverting our attention away from the real and sinister application of those terms.
Speaker Johnson is a rubber stamp for autocracy sprinkled with a fine coating of fascistic totalitarianism. Johnson will seek to implement as much “Trumpism” as possible. The foot soldiers for tyranny already are well-seated in local governments across the republic. Distraction and deception will be employed at every opportunity and in every quarter. The war for the soul and survival of our great republic has begun.
I'm especially distrustful of Johnson because he make such a big deal of being a "Christian." Real Christians I've known don't make a big deal of it. They live it. Johnson does the opposite. I don't see sunny days ahead for the House or the country.
Mike Johnson is a very depressing person. Holier than thou to the extreme. As you say, a theocratic fascist who will try to burn the house down. I believe the best hopes are with those real Republicans left (unfortunately not that many, but enough) who will cross over on key legislation such as keeping the government open and funding Israel, Ukraine and the border). I also believe (or is it that I want to believe) that there are many folks across the country that are beginning to realizing that what is happening is un-American, regardless of party or whether you think Biden is too old. Our way of life is in peril. WAKE UP!
Mike Johnson’s ascent to House GOP Speaker is a chilling testament to the direction some factions of our politics are taking. It’s a horror that, in this day and age, we’re witnessing the elevation of an individual with such deeply entrenched and harmful beliefs. What’s worse is the endorsement of such beliefs by a whole party, signaling the normalization of such dangerous ideologies.
Every woman, every individual who cherishes equality, and every person who believes in the fundamental right to freedom and autonomy should be deeply horrified. Johnson’s distorted interpretation of religious teachings to suppress women’s rights isn’t just a regression—it’s a perilous pathway that threatens to dismantle the very essence of what our democracy stands for.
So, what do we do now? It’s a haunting question, and the unease it brings is palpable. Is hope is now lost? For as long as history remembers, it’s the people who have the power to bring about change, no matter how insurmountable the challenge seems. We’ve overcome hurdles before, but these, dear God, do seem insurmountable.
I think there is a good chance that along with the fatigue and realization that chaos could not continue forever in the House there were a couple other elements nudging them. One the harassment and threats from magaworld when legislators don’t do the bidding of the chaos caucus. The other, knowledge that this type of speaker is what the maga faction has worked toward during the entire speaker escapade from McCarthy’s votearama to Johnson’s nomination. They were not going to stop. No other GOP member wanted to stand in the breach. They all knew they would be “McCarthyed” sooner rather than later for needing votes from Democrats - and anything else.
The exception might be McCarthy himself who made lukewarm offers of being willing to again hold the gavel. No way, no how was that going to happen. If McCarthy had prevailed against Gaetz’ motion with Democrats voting for him, I strongly suspect we would have wound up here anyway after multiple votarama dramas for weeks on end.
The only surprise is that something has made the House GOP want to avoid discussion of their stolen election lie. The GOP party is trying to give the appearance of softening its stance on abortion. The new Speaker talked about working with everyone. It sounds like the House GOP knows their majority is precarious. The GOP party is feeling uncertain about the much touted polling. The have a year to make that uncertainty a reality.
A Bloomberg poll shows that if election held today, Biden would lose to trump by 40 points in the Electoral College. We can all be optimistic, but that is kidding ourselves. There is not much time left.
The new speaker is a disgrace, a dishonor, a blot on our Constitution, our governance. God made him rise up to the job, sounds sacrilegious. (HE is risen.) Oh, all the Republicans in the House voted for him, just to get the mess over with. There are still some who are moderate, willing to be bipartisan, deny trump is president. Really? A Democrat site asked if I thought Liz Cheney would make a good Rep. candidate for president. H...ll no !! She voted with trump 93% of the time. What do Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney do? Why, they leave, drop out, they write a book or speak out AFTER instead of fighting from within, yelling to high heaven that trump and his minions are wrong, wrong, wrong. Not to be believed, followed.
As for our President, yes, he is a nice man, kind, thinks he still has unfinished work to do. Most of you will probably disagree with me, but he should have been preparing another to take over, continue the work. All politicians have big egos or they wouldn't be in the game. Thing is, everyone is replaceable. People are tired of being led by old, white men who won't leave. Same goes for Ginsburg (leading to Amy Coney Barrett) and Feinstein (at least replaced with another Democrat.) Doesn't matter that Biden is old at 80 but trump at 77 is not. So, hello, Gov. Newsome, 56; Jaime Raskin, 60, Joe Kennedy III, 43. Obama was 47; JFK was 43; Clinton was 46. Age before beauty does not apply here.
Putting aside Criminal #1, we have had 565 mass shootings so far this year. I would love to teach or at least sub again, but I am not going near a school.Poor kids growing up now won't have much to look back upon-transparent backpacks, practice hiding in closets, metal detectors, guards, no being outside after dark to catch lightning bugs, no walking home after dark from the movies. Noone wants to get rid of guns, not even the one -AR 15 rifle. Greene and Boebert flaunt pictures holding them. Big smiles.There has to be a way. Someone must dare do it. Not talk about it, do it. Biggest excuse for gun ownership-safety- is invalid. Suicides, abused women, intimidation, biggest uses of guns in the home. Usually some other form of protection when confronted by an intruder. We are all afraid because of the violence caused by the mass shooters thinking it will happen to us. But the truth is, more injury and death happens in the home where guns are kept. Isn't there someone out there who would like to be listed as a profile in courage?
I just read what President Biden said about the Maine shooting and that he prays for the families. Good. But thinking he can get the Republicans to go along, they who own more guns than anyone else, will never happen. More executive orders are needed.Now.
While there’s reason to be depressed over the election of Johnson as Speaker of the House it should also motivate lovers of our Democracy to double down on our efforts to educate in a clear and dramatic fashion our citizens about how their lives will be changed if they allow an Authoritarian, if not Fascist, bent government to evolve in 2024.
I am less depressed and more dismayed and disappointed. As the comic strip character "Pogo" mused years ago, "I have seen the enemy and he is us." The pernicious wolf has taken hold of the House. I fear the average citizen does not grasp the gravity of this moment, and how it threatens the very liberties we hold dear.
So true, I believe it was President Biden who recently said something to the effect that “Democracies are lost more from silent voices than from the point of a gun”. A strong portion of our populous apparently believes that their current situation is so bleak that any Republican would be better than who governs now. Little do they know what it would be like living under an Authoritarian/Fascist bent government. It is our job to do a better job at educating that great mass of our humanity, as vividly and explicitly as possible, as to the horrors possible under a MAGA led government.
I believe I am the last generation to have classes in civics and democracy in high school. That was the late 1960s. We enjoyed energized debates, in which I always was an active participant. As a Military Veteran whose family has served our country since The American Revolutionary War, I am deeply grieved by this current moment in our history.
Oct 25th, a chilling day for democracy indeed.
I'm sure that most people who still value our Democratic Republic and are actually following the real news are putting their bets on the judicial system. The court actions and indictments don't look good for Trump. And it looks like conviction is inevitable. To that I ask, "so what?"
The MAGA's are very strong right now. One sits in the Speaker's chair. His influence in accepting the electoral college count is now going to swing the 2024 election no matter how that count turns out.
Add to all this the MAGA true believers don't care about any criminality that Trump has committed.
They don't care. And they continue their glazed eyed devotion to him even in the face of his throwing every single supporter who has ever come along under the bus. Apparently, it won't happen to THEM, right?
I agree with Mr. Beschloss that yesterday was a fraught day for our government of the people. It was a victory for tyranny of the minority.
If Democrats retake the House in November 2024 (even if by just one seat), the January 2025 Congressional certification process for POTUS will be in the hands of a Democratic Party Speaker.
Let's make that happen
Right you are.
This is precisely what the right wing has been working toward since the days of Reagan.
The Captain of the Pirates is Not On the Ship
by Lynn Geri,
Found words mostly by Dan Rather
Again.
Again.
Again.
Tears flow. Fire leaps from my eyes.
Wracks my body, my soul with Sorrow.
There is so much to say. And nothing left to say.
There is so much heartbreak and loss.
There is so much trauma. Emptiness. Rage.
A knot of hellish emotions propel
a nation to a sadness, defies attempts
to rationalize these horrors, lack of caring.
In the House they're tired of being leaders.
Poor babies. AND, another mass shooting
while they suck their thumbs.
Accepting the unacceptable
Must never be acceptable.
Thank you Lynn for this perfect reflection of where our country is this morning.
I will NEVER accept the unacceptable. And the battle for the soul of America continues.
So, Mike Johnson believes that God is the one that raises up those in authority and that God has ordained each one of us to be brought here, So, why did he try so vehemently to thwart God's will when God raised up Joe Biden to the presidency? GOP, down to the last one, just a bunch of self-serving, hypocritical fascists. To think that there was not even one with the courage to cast even a protest vote causes a sinking hole in my gut. We cannot rest even for a bit if our grandchildren are to enjoy the kind of life we had.
Vote for democracy. It’s the only path forward.
Women teens & girls will suffer most. @GOP are rouge actors. Disgusted by this new Preacher Speaker.
This is a sad day for the USA; a seditious insurrectionist installed as Speaker of the House of Representatives by a treasonous criminal organization, reports the a significant portion of the populous are willing to use resort to violence to “save America,” and another mass shooting in a small New England town.
Yes a very sad day indeed...no words.
A very cold day in hell, I mean House. NC GOP has just gerrymandered entire state and nothing feds can do about it. Am so disheartened & angry I cannot even think straight this morn... Somehow, Hakeem and ALL Dems must get it together to make known what a demented donny - trumpian, authoritarian, society would be like. How any GOP could begin to listen to this crooked ex-potus is beyond me. We must work like super-people to assure Dems are elected to House and all elections/voting are monitored and safe. Work to assure Dems are elected to every thing!
Ah,, so in a democracy God decides things, not the voters. With a little help from His friends, of course. The grain of salt here is that Johnson has never had to run opposed for ANYTHING--including at least a couple of primaries.
Who knew God's first name was Gerry, of Mander fame.
Clever.
Quote: "Johnson also used his first moments after being elected speaker to tell America that he sees his rise in divine terms. No separation of church and state for this theocrat." End quote.
A tight-fisted, anti-freedom with tightly constricted liberty has been the goal of Republican theocrats since the 1980s. The writing was on that wall long ago. The problem was how the majority saw them as a mere "threat" with little staying power; or, raw power to boot. Well, guess what! Here we are, forty-odd years later where the minoritocracy has planted a strong, rigid, and inflexible foothold. Separation of church and state be damned! Those folks are anti-constitutionalists. Simply look at "Alliance Defending Freedom", a "freedom" that is structured with a very, very tight fist with no room for tolerance beyond the margins of what is in essence totalitarianism. And, are you ready: Josh Hawley's wife senior counsel for ADF. Add to the how Moms for Liberty (M4L) is marching onward with a scalpel slicing away freedoms for those who these “Moms” dislike; or, hate. Motherly in the conventional context they are NOT. Terms like "freedom" and "liberty" get us all gooey inside, cleverly diverting our attention away from the real and sinister application of those terms.
Speaker Johnson is a rubber stamp for autocracy sprinkled with a fine coating of fascistic totalitarianism. Johnson will seek to implement as much “Trumpism” as possible. The foot soldiers for tyranny already are well-seated in local governments across the republic. Distraction and deception will be employed at every opportunity and in every quarter. The war for the soul and survival of our great republic has begun.
I'm especially distrustful of Johnson because he make such a big deal of being a "Christian." Real Christians I've known don't make a big deal of it. They live it. Johnson does the opposite. I don't see sunny days ahead for the House or the country.
Mike Johnson is a very depressing person. Holier than thou to the extreme. As you say, a theocratic fascist who will try to burn the house down. I believe the best hopes are with those real Republicans left (unfortunately not that many, but enough) who will cross over on key legislation such as keeping the government open and funding Israel, Ukraine and the border). I also believe (or is it that I want to believe) that there are many folks across the country that are beginning to realizing that what is happening is un-American, regardless of party or whether you think Biden is too old. Our way of life is in peril. WAKE UP!
Mike Johnson’s ascent to House GOP Speaker is a chilling testament to the direction some factions of our politics are taking. It’s a horror that, in this day and age, we’re witnessing the elevation of an individual with such deeply entrenched and harmful beliefs. What’s worse is the endorsement of such beliefs by a whole party, signaling the normalization of such dangerous ideologies.
Every woman, every individual who cherishes equality, and every person who believes in the fundamental right to freedom and autonomy should be deeply horrified. Johnson’s distorted interpretation of religious teachings to suppress women’s rights isn’t just a regression—it’s a perilous pathway that threatens to dismantle the very essence of what our democracy stands for.
So, what do we do now? It’s a haunting question, and the unease it brings is palpable. Is hope is now lost? For as long as history remembers, it’s the people who have the power to bring about change, no matter how insurmountable the challenge seems. We’ve overcome hurdles before, but these, dear God, do seem insurmountable.
I fear for our country.
I think there is a good chance that along with the fatigue and realization that chaos could not continue forever in the House there were a couple other elements nudging them. One the harassment and threats from magaworld when legislators don’t do the bidding of the chaos caucus. The other, knowledge that this type of speaker is what the maga faction has worked toward during the entire speaker escapade from McCarthy’s votearama to Johnson’s nomination. They were not going to stop. No other GOP member wanted to stand in the breach. They all knew they would be “McCarthyed” sooner rather than later for needing votes from Democrats - and anything else.
The exception might be McCarthy himself who made lukewarm offers of being willing to again hold the gavel. No way, no how was that going to happen. If McCarthy had prevailed against Gaetz’ motion with Democrats voting for him, I strongly suspect we would have wound up here anyway after multiple votarama dramas for weeks on end.
The only surprise is that something has made the House GOP want to avoid discussion of their stolen election lie. The GOP party is trying to give the appearance of softening its stance on abortion. The new Speaker talked about working with everyone. It sounds like the House GOP knows their majority is precarious. The GOP party is feeling uncertain about the much touted polling. The have a year to make that uncertainty a reality.
A Bloomberg poll shows that if election held today, Biden would lose to trump by 40 points in the Electoral College. We can all be optimistic, but that is kidding ourselves. There is not much time left.
The new speaker is a disgrace, a dishonor, a blot on our Constitution, our governance. God made him rise up to the job, sounds sacrilegious. (HE is risen.) Oh, all the Republicans in the House voted for him, just to get the mess over with. There are still some who are moderate, willing to be bipartisan, deny trump is president. Really? A Democrat site asked if I thought Liz Cheney would make a good Rep. candidate for president. H...ll no !! She voted with trump 93% of the time. What do Cheney, Kinzinger, Romney do? Why, they leave, drop out, they write a book or speak out AFTER instead of fighting from within, yelling to high heaven that trump and his minions are wrong, wrong, wrong. Not to be believed, followed.
As for our President, yes, he is a nice man, kind, thinks he still has unfinished work to do. Most of you will probably disagree with me, but he should have been preparing another to take over, continue the work. All politicians have big egos or they wouldn't be in the game. Thing is, everyone is replaceable. People are tired of being led by old, white men who won't leave. Same goes for Ginsburg (leading to Amy Coney Barrett) and Feinstein (at least replaced with another Democrat.) Doesn't matter that Biden is old at 80 but trump at 77 is not. So, hello, Gov. Newsome, 56; Jaime Raskin, 60, Joe Kennedy III, 43. Obama was 47; JFK was 43; Clinton was 46. Age before beauty does not apply here.
Putting aside Criminal #1, we have had 565 mass shootings so far this year. I would love to teach or at least sub again, but I am not going near a school.Poor kids growing up now won't have much to look back upon-transparent backpacks, practice hiding in closets, metal detectors, guards, no being outside after dark to catch lightning bugs, no walking home after dark from the movies. Noone wants to get rid of guns, not even the one -AR 15 rifle. Greene and Boebert flaunt pictures holding them. Big smiles.There has to be a way. Someone must dare do it. Not talk about it, do it. Biggest excuse for gun ownership-safety- is invalid. Suicides, abused women, intimidation, biggest uses of guns in the home. Usually some other form of protection when confronted by an intruder. We are all afraid because of the violence caused by the mass shooters thinking it will happen to us. But the truth is, more injury and death happens in the home where guns are kept. Isn't there someone out there who would like to be listed as a profile in courage?
I just read what President Biden said about the Maine shooting and that he prays for the families. Good. But thinking he can get the Republicans to go along, they who own more guns than anyone else, will never happen. More executive orders are needed.Now.