Mike Johnson speaker of the house

[hntnhole]

14 hours ago, BootmanLA said:

What kind of father installs an app that tells his teenaged son if Dad is looking at porn?

I think many of us sensed that behind that smiling, "choirboy" facade there was a deep, dark stain he was covering up. 

To the Maganians, he seemed picture-perfect .... and that's as thin as a piece of paper.  How on Earth did you find out all this ??? 

Edited November 6, 2023 by hntnhole

[BootmanLA]

3 minutes ago, hntnhole said:

I think many of us sensed that behind that smiling, "choirboy" facade there was a deep, dark stain he was covering up. 

To the Maganians, he seemed picture-perfect .... and that's as thin as a piece of paper.  How on Earth did you find out all this ??? 

It's big a big story in multiple news sources. I *think* Rolling Stone broke it originally, but as a non-subscriber to that magazine I haven't read the article.

Our local paper has (finally) written an article about it, here: [think before following links] https://www.advocate.com/politics/mike-johnson-son-porn-monitoring 

But I think if you google "Mike Johnson porn phone app" you'll get a long list of stories about it.

[hntnhole]

5 hours ago, viking8x6 said:

I'm looking in my crystal ball...

Please, PLEASE keep an eagle-eye on that crystal ball.  The man seems as phony as a billion-dollar-bill, so it's reasonable to hope that the crystal ball will offer ever-more salacious details !!  

Generally, I don't think it's decent to celebrate the fall of a peculiarly dishonest person, but for this one I'll spring for the fireworks. 

[hntnhole]

3 minutes ago, BootmanLA said:

But I think if you google "Mike Johnson porn phone app" you'll get a long list of stories about it.

Done.  Can you hear me laughing all the way to LA ???

[PozBearWI]

I can imagine dad talking to son and proposing to monitor his sexual habits on the phone (which is not a burner phone) - and putting that up as "you can look at what I don't do". 

The man has a problem though if he needs sexual thought controlled that way.  

[ErosWired]

17 hours ago, BootmanLA said:

has installed this software on his phone and that of his 17 year old son,

That poor boy is going to need psychotherapy sooner rather than later.

[brnbk]

On 11/5/2023 at 10:41 PM, BootmanLA said:

I'm sure this will get some interesting discussion..........So many questions.

1. What the actual fuck? What kind of father installs an app that tells his teenaged son if Dad is looking at porn?

4. Again, what the actual fuck? This is almost Duggar-level creepy. 

Truly creepy but US christian fundamentalism now calling itself Evangelical, has always been creepy when people decide to go investigate it. 

1. i wonder what the Mother i.e. Mrs. Johnson thinks of the whole thing?

2. Mr. Johnson clearly likes to put boy in vulnerable situations: His black "adopted son" who refuses to acknowledge him publicly, or him now sending sexually explicit information to his own son! all show this need and affinity for boys in vulnerable situations. I once read a report about Catholic priests who offended against boys, and one of their primary desire was to find young boys and minors in vulnerable situations. I wish I had read the report fully so that I could offer some more insights but this whole affair, sure sounds creepy as hell. 

What kind of christian is he, if he still struggles with pornography, and if he is such a struggling christian, why judge others especially homosexuals — so harshly? Has he heard of the Master's Words: Judge not, lest ye be judged. 

 

[hntnhole]

12 hours ago, brnbk said:

What kind of christian is he

Last Friday (I think?), that tall, splendid, slim boy out West somewhere explained it well - on the previous page (4).  

Somehow, these folks have come to the conclusion that they not only believe X is true, they know X is true.  It's the assumption that they, and only they, simply know absolute Truth, and therefore anyone who thinks even slightly different is completely wrong.  The part about the adopted "son" is heart-rending.  The part about the porn-patrol is puke-able.  

Since women are already apparently relegated to a subservient role within this religious construct (there is no Mrs. God, to my knowledge), I doubt it would matter much to Johnson.  The wife would either follow her husband's errors, or go - as in the boardgame monopoly - directly to jail (or worse).  

I suppose it's convenient for these people to simply jettison their own ability ability to process ideas, and embrace what makes sense to them.  But when these people proceed to force their perceptions on others, it becomes a dangerous, anti-human construct.  While many of us were raised with restrictive religious notions, most of us smelled the poison pill at some point and simply stepped away when we could.  But folks who weren't merely brain-washed, but brain-scrubbed apparently have no capacity for generosity left;  it's all or nothing with that crowd. 

Thus, it's up to the rest of us to ensure that the latter - nothing - is their fare.  

Edited November 8, 2023 by hntnhole
spellcheck

[tallslenderguy]

"The second-in-line to the presidency informed Americans on Tuesday that their time-honored conception of one of the founding principles of the country was a “misunderstanding”. Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box, he tried to turn the conventional wisdom about the founders’ intentions on its head and claimed what they really wanted was to stop government interfering with religion, not the other way around.

“The separation of church and state is a misnomer,” the speaker said in an interview with the TV channel from the US Capitol. “People misunderstand it. Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the constitution.”

Johnson was referring to Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptists Association of Connecticut, written in 1802 when the third president was in the White House. It makes clear that the founding fathers subscribed to a powerful separation of church and state, which they enshrined in the establishment clause of the first amendment.

Jefferson in his letter quotes the establishment clause saying that Congress should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. He goes on to say that it builds “a wall of separation between Church & State”."

[think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/15/mike-johnson-separation-church-state-misnomer

"In an interview last week on Fox News, the newly elected speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, told host Sean Hannity, “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.’”"

[think before following links] https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/polite-zealotry-mike-johnson/675845/

Edited November 15, 2023 by tallslenderguy

[tallslenderguy]

On 11/5/2023 at 7:41 PM, BootmanLA said:

I'm sure this will get some interesting discussion.

It turns out that there are apps out there (at least one, maybe more) that can be installed on a smart phone that monitor whether you view porn (presumably via a long list of porn domains). You configure the app so that someone else is set to be notified, on THEIR phone, when you look at porn on your device (I assume it works with tablets as well as phones). The idea, presumably, is to keep you from looking up stuff you (as a good god-fearing Christian) shouldn't be looking at.

It turns out that our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has installed this software on his phone and that of his 17 year old son, with each other set up as the one who's notified if the other looks at porn.

So many questions.

1. What the actual fuck? What kind of father installs an app that tells his teenaged son if Dad is looking at porn?

2. Johnson said his son "has a clean slate" - while notably NOT having commented on whether he, himself, has a "clean slate". I'd have to argue that's an admission by omission.

Which means that Johnson's app is very likely sending the names (and who knows what else - links?) to porn sites to his minor SON. (This, by the way, is his ACTUAL son, not the black youth Johnson pseudo-adopted with no legal authority whatsoever back before he married his wife.)

3. Does anyone believe that the son doesn't have another device - a burner phone, a tablet, a chromebook from school, or whatever - that he's not looking up his porn with? Mary, please.

4. Again, what the actual fuck? This is almost Duggar-level creepy. 

"SPEAKER OF THE House Mike Johnson admitted that he and his son monitored each other’s porn intake in a resurfaced clip from 2022.

During a conversation on the “War on Technology” at Benton, Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church — unearthed by X user Receipt Maven last week — the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites.

“It scans all the activity on your phone, or your devices, your laptop, what have you; we do all of it,” Johnson told the panel about the app.

“It sends a report to your accountability partner. My accountability partner right now is Jack, my son. He’s 17. So he and I get a report about all the things that are on our phones, all of our devices, once a week. If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice. I’m proud to tell ya, my son has got a clean slate.” "

[think before following links] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/mike-johnson-son-monitor-porn-intake-covenant-eyes-1234870634/

[tallslenderguy]

On 11/15/2023 at 6:23 AM, tallslenderguy said:

 

During a conversation on the “War on Technology” at Benton, Louisiana’s Cypress Baptist Church — unearthed by X user Receipt Maven last week — the Louisiana representative talked about how he installed “accountability software” called Covenant Eyes on his devices in order to abstain from internet porn and other unsavory websites.

 

These guys live in a different world from the non fundamentalist population.  Most of us, almost instinctively, understand that a father does not make himself sexually accountable  to his 17 year old kid. But that is exactly what Mike Johnson is doing.  Having been raised in this BS, i know it well. 

Here's a sample of what MJ means when he says: "...go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview."  Spoken like a true ethno/ego centric.  His presumption is that anyone reading the bible will come away with the same 'worldview,' despite the plethora evidence of denominations with all their different interpretations of the bible.  I.e., there is no standard "worldview" derived from reading the bible.  

MJ is fundamentalist. That approach to religion is, in my opinion, what makes him and his ilk so very dangerous. Views like the above "War on Technology" and "accountability software" are prime examples of MJ's views that he would impose on the "world" if given the power to do so.  MJ thinks we all need "accountability" to his notions of "God." 

[ErosWired]

42 minutes ago, tallslenderguy said:

MJ thinks we all need "accountability" to his notions of "God." 

Mr. Johnson purports to believe in God, and, perilously, to act in God’s name. But the God he worships does not need software to hold people to account for their actions. Mr. Johnson will discover this, at the last, when his own account comes up for review.

[hntnhole]

Growing up in a Liturgical tradition, I thought I knew what religious repression was.  I knew there were other "types" of protestant churches, of course - like Mission Covenant, for instance - but the world of truly hideous rejection of common sense "churches" was unknown to me.  I even knew there was a Catholic church on the West side of town.  Growing up, I gradually became aware of the wide diversity within "Christianity", but not until I had a lengthy discussion with a guy I know that grew up with these shackles, did I realize how emotionally crippled these folks are.  In that guy's case, he managed to come out the other side of that tent of atrocities, and became a highly intelligent force for good in this world.  

I wonder if Mr. Johnson would even be able to comprehend the journey my friend had to undertake, just to tear that fundamental mess out and become a decent, contributing human being.  

[tallslenderguy]

Editorial excerpt written by Amanda Marcotte in Salon

"I suspect Johnson dodged a government shutdown because he really is, as Gaetz put it, "MAGA Mike." The endless and mostly fruitless battles to force Democrats into budget cuts aren't Johnson's motivation for getting out of bed in the morning. Sure, he claims to want the same spending cuts that Republicans always want. But his heart's not in it, and he's happier dragging the topic back to his personal priority: forcing his rigid religious beliefs on everyone else. He has actually argued, for instance, that a national abortion ban would soon produce enough "able-bodied workers" to "cover the bases of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid."

"It's not that Republicans have entirely given up on slashing taxes and spending. If they regain control over the Senate and the White House next year, we can certainly expect more tax cuts for the rich and further slashing of social programs ordinary people rely on. But by electing a House speaker who is a culture warrior first and a "small government" ideologue second (if at all), Republicans have signaled an important shift in priorities. They're not much interested in investing political capital in widely unpopular government shutdowns. Their energies are shifting towards the cultural preoccupations of the MAGA base: Banning abortion, gutting LGBTQ rights, undermining racial equality, and generally seeking revenge against disadvantaged groups, liberals and people who went to college. The switch from McCarthy to Johnson was never about the budget fight. It was about MAGA's final conquest of the Republican Party."

[think before following links] https://news.yahoo.com/much-small-government-budget-fight-110001807.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00

[tallslenderguy]

15 hours ago, hntnhole said:

Growing up in a Liturgical tradition, I thought I knew what religious repression was.  I knew there were other "types" of protestant churches, of course - like Mission Covenant, for instance - but the world of truly hideous rejection of common sense "churches" was unknown to me.  I even knew there was a Catholic church on the West side of town.  Growing up, I gradually became aware of the wide diversity within "Christianity", but not until I had a lengthy discussion with a guy I know that grew up with these shackles, did I realize how emotionally crippled these folks are.  In that guy's case, he managed to come out the other side of that tent of atrocities, and became a highly intelligent force for good in this world.  

I wonder if Mr. Johnson would even be able to comprehend the journey my friend had to undertake, just to tear that fundamental mess out and become a decent, contributing human being.  

Fundamentalism is truly a mind fuck (not the good kind), it's the essence of cults. It took me 35 years to process out of it cleanly.  i quip: "being gay saved me from 'God.'"  That rankles fundamentalists, but if there is a "God," then that God knows what we went through to try to do it the fundamentalist way.  What saved me was trying for 35 years to be what i was conditioned to believe "God" wanted, and it didn't work. There was no changing the way i am.  I.e., the reality of who and how i am could not be changed by the fundamentalist ideas of what i 'should' be.