Speaker of the House Mike Johnson Hates Nearly All of Us

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2023/10/speaker-of-house-mike-johnson-hates.html

I want to thank Ten Bears for the link to this web site. I am going to do the non-WordPress version of follow on it. Here is the link from Ten bears’ page with the links. https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2023/10/29/last-week-in-god-33/ Hugs. Scottie

Liquor laws in Louisiana are a clusterfuck. Because of a state supreme court decision decades ago, they are subject to the whims of a community vote whenever someone can get it on the ballot. So a town can allow alcohol sales in, say, restaurants for a while and then, whenever some opportunistic Christian dickflea gets enough people itching, they can vote to overturn the law and go back to being a dry town or county. Or, you know, parish, as they call counties in the state because Catholicism.

The decent-sized, if generally shitty, town of Minden in the generally shitty Webster Parish was dry in 2003. Minden is 30 miles from Shreveport, which is a decent-sized, if generally shitty, city. The economy of Minden was not doing great 20 years ago, so a group of business owners, with the support of the Chamber of Commerce, wanted to have another vote on allowing alcohol sales in restaurants, hoping that it would attract some chains to town or at least provide a new tax revenue stream. Minden had been dry since a vote in 1974, but after a contentious city council meeting in August 2003, it was decided that the restaurant alcohol sales law would be decided in a special election just a couple of months later.

The people against allowing alcohol sales were straight out of a 1980s movie about tight-ass evangelicals refusing to allow anyone to have fun. Their warnings were like the lyrics of The Music Man song “Ya Got Trouble.” According to one local columnist, “They expanded from simply claiming this was a back-door was to bring about bars and package sales to more extreme connections. They alleged this was an ‘end-around’ to bring sexually oriented businesses, such as strip clubs to Minden. They also pointed out it could be an attempt to bring legalized gambling into Minden.” Churches went into overdrive, with prayer services just to try to get their invisible sky wizard to intervene. They even had round-the-clock prayers just before the election date.

The anti-fun forces, led by five plaintiffs, tried to sue to stop the election, but they filed their lawsuit too late for it to be heard. Their lawyer was a Shreveport attorney who was making a name for himself as a supporter of nutzoid right-wing Christiand causes. And since you read the title of this piece, you already know that it was Mike Johnson, who is now Speaker of the House and second in line to the presidency. That’s right. Two decades ago, he was trying to stop alcohol sales in a town.

The voting occurred that November and over half the registered voters went out to the polls. That’s how much this meant in an off-year election. And, Lord have mercy, they voted 57-43% in favor of alcohol sales in restaurants in Minden. Johnson’s clients considered another lawsuit to question the elections results, but they decided against it, and Minden restaurants and now bars and, yes, casinos can serve alcohol. The nearest strip joint is still about 15 miles away, in the next parish over.

For years, Mike Johnson represented the shittiest fucking people in trying to halt others from having rights or enjoying life in a way that harmed no one. As a dick lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom (motto: “‘Freedom’ should probably be in quotation marks in our name”), Johnson was on the fucked up side of issue after issue in our bullshit culture war. He fought the city of New Orleans to stop it from offering domestic partnership benefits in the pre-Obergefell days. The law had been in place since 1999, and they sued in 2003 in a case they lost in 2005. He opposed the Obama abortion pill mandate, he sued in favor of various school prayer cases, and more. When it comes to abortion and LGBTQ rights, Johnson is the hardest of the hardcore opposing both. And when he was a state representative, in the panicked days before the Obergefell same-sex marriage decision in 2015, Johnson sponsored legislation that would allow businesses to refuse to serve same-sex couples and, going back to his earlier case, would allow a business to deny benefits to same-sex couples because of “religious” reasons.

And perhaps it’s here that we need to pause for a moment and say that Mike Johnson loves God. His version of God, I mean, since, you know, God is made up. But he fuckin’ loves God as intensely and loudly as a newly-out Omaha lesbian loves pussy. He leans Christian dominionist, which is as weird and insidious as it sounds. He says that the United States is a “biblical republic,” whatever the fuck that means. He told Sean Hannity, “Someone asked me today in the media, they said 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, that’s what I believe.” I wonder if that includes all the rules in Leviticus, but I don’t want to ask about beard-shaving regimen.

In his speech before being sworn in as Speaker of the House, he said, “I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night. I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.”

I know they don’t give a shit what heathens like me think, but that shit sounds creepy as fuck. You’re telling me that your imaginary invisible sky wizard contorted all time and space and made everything in the universe move in such a way that you could become the leader of one house of the American Congress. That’s fucking insane because, see, first, you believe in an invisible sky wizard, and, even worse, you have no problem telling me what your invisible sky wizard is doing and saying, and, even worser, you demand that I follow what your invisible sky wizard says. You can say that there are lots of people who believe in your invisible sky wizard, but that doesn’t make it less creepy. In fact, it makes it way creepier.

While Johnson talks a lot about “consensus” and shit, he sure has spent his career, including trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, approaching every issue with the clear-eyed resolution of someone who just loves to make shit worse for everyone except those who also hate nearly all of us. It won’t be some god who ruins the nation. It’ll be a very weird man.

(Quick note about Minden, Louisiana: It sucks as a town. But, man, there are awesome soul food joints there.)

Posted by Rude One at 3:02 PM

Paul Krugman: There Are No GOP Moderates in the House of Representatives

Paul Krugman: There Are No GOP Moderates in the House of Representatives

Mike Johnson Conducted Seminars Promoting the US as a “Christian Nation”

Mike Johnson Conducted Seminars Promoting the US as a “Christian Nation”

The new House speaker called for “Biblically-sanctioned government.”

This is a very dangerous time to have someone like him in such a possition of authority. He really doesn’t want democracy. He is not OK with everyone doing their own thing, living their own lives, worshiping in their own way, being who they are. Nope, he doesn’t favor that at all. He insists on the right, demands it, to force everyone to worship as he does, live as he church doctrines say, have only the kids of sex he wants you to have, raise your children the way he demands, structure your home in a “Christian way” which means wives summit and be submissive to your husbands like good little half humans. Get the point! He wants to force his god down your throat. These same people once claimed gays wanted to force our lifestyle on everyone, but that is what he is demanding to do to the entire country! Think how now the Christians want special rights to discriminate and to be exempt from laws they don’t like because they are Christians. Think how they have screamed about being forced to live in a secular society, but they want the right to force everyone to live a religious lifestyle. Think how they would react if other religions demanded the same special rights or the right to force everyone to live as a devote Muslim? Very scary, these people are. Hugs. Scottie

Mike Johnson is wearing glasses, a dark suit with a checkered pattern, a white shirt, and a bright red tie. He stands in front of the American flag, in front of a microphone, with one finger raised as if making a point or emphasizing something during his speech. He looks earnestly towards his audience, his fellow House members, from the elevated rostrum of the House of Representatives.

“The government has replaced the Creator,” Mike Johnson said in a 2019 seminar appearance. “Government is becoming God.” He is pictured here addressing the House chamber after winning the speakership this month.Tom Williams/Zuma

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Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican House speaker, used to conduct a seminar in churches premised on the idea that the United States is a “Christian nation.” This ministry, as he has referred to it, is yet more evidence that Johnson is committed to a hardcore Christian fundamentalism that shapes his views of politics and government.

The seminar, titled “Answers for Our Times: Government, Culture, and Christianity,” was organized by Onward Christian Education Services, Inc., a company owned by his wife, Kelly Johnson, a Christian counselor and anti-abortion activist who calls herself a “leader in the pro-family movement.” The website for her counseling service—which was taken down shortly after Johnson became speaker—described the seminar, which featured both her and Johnson, as exploring several questions, such as, “What is happening in America and how do we fix it?” The list includes this query: “Can our heritage as a Christian nation be preserved?” There were different versions of the seminar running from two-hour-long lectures to retreats lasting two days.

Mike and Kelly Johnson, each a fundamentalist Christian and culture war battler who advocates adhering to what they call a “Biblical worldview,” launched this initiative in 2019. After one such presentation on February 24, 2019, at the First Baptist Church in Bossier City, Louisiana, where they are members—an event that also featured Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council—a local television news show reported that the seminar’s goal was to “keep God in Government.” Johnson posted the article on his congressional website.

According to a Louisiana Baptist newsletter, the Johnsons intended to first pitch their seminars to Baptist churches in the Pelican State before expanding to other states. The publication reported that the couple’s goal was “to equip churches to take a stand against the cultural attacks now being directed at people of faith, the traditional family and basic freedoms embedded in the U.S. Constitution.” It noted that Johnson said he was compelled to create this new ministry while serving in the US House because he was concerned “that too many believers today feel ill-informed to provide substantive answers to fake arguments.” It quoted Johnson: “Our nation is entering one of the most challenging seasons in its history and there is an urgent need for God’s people to be armed and ready with the Truth.” He was referring to what fundamentalists call “Biblical truth.”

A promotion blurb for the seminar described it this way: “As polls show that Christianity is in rapid decline in America, and the culture is growing more secularized and more coarsened, many believers feel ill-informed and ill-prepared to do anything to reverse these trends. Scripture is clear that we have an obligation to provide substantive answers… But HOW?”

At a “Answers for Our Times” seminar held at the First Baptist Church of Haughton, Louisiana, in April 2019, Kelly Johnson proclaimed that “Biblical Christianity” is the only “valid worldview.” Nothing else, she said, “makes sense.” She contended that guidance to the problems of today can be found in the “simple answers in the Bible.” Mike Johnson referred to the Bible as the “owner’s manual” for “how things are supposed to operate” and called for “Biblically-sanctioned government.” Johnson complained that there is now “total chaos on the street… God’s not at the top anymore.” He added, “The problem is most people” want “the government to take care of us now, we want the government to provide us everything… It will not work because it defies the created order of the Creator… The government has replaced the Creator. Government is becoming God.”

Mike Johnson ran through a quick version of US history, in which he insisted, “We began as a Christian nation.” He pointed out that Christopher Columbus said that he journeyed to the Americas “to bring the gospel to unknown coast lands and people.” Johnson added, “We would call him an evangelical today.” Fired up, he offered a litany of statements from the nation’s founders, government officials, and Supreme Court officials who cited God or religion as essential to the United States. “Is this a Christian nation?” he asked. “Yes, we live in a post-Christian culture. I think that’s beyond dispute. You can’t even argue with a straight face that this did not begin as a Christian nation.”

At this seminar, Mike Johnson groused that few of his colleagues in government abide by or even recognize God’s principles—that is, his view of God’s principles—and he expressed great cynicism about his fellow politicians:

A shocking number of elected officials in this country and state do not have a fully formed philosophy of government. They don’t know what their world view is. They’re just moving around waiting for whatever the loudest voice or the most powerful lobbyist tells them how to vote. God help us. That’s why we’re in the situation we’re in… They poll it. It’s not necessarily what his constituents want. I try to do every day what my constituents want. But sometimes what your constituents want does not line up with the principles God gave us for government. And you have to have conviction enough to stand [up] to your own people in a town hall and say, “I know you feel that way, but this is what you’re missing.” And I’m telling you, there’s a tiny percentage of elected officials who are willing to do that.

Mike Johnson sees himself as part of small band of righteous officials who take on the hard task of governing strictly according to the tenets of Christian fundamentalism. He and Kelly are true believers. He has long associated with Christian nationalism; crusaded against gay rights and same-sex marriage; decried no-fault divorce; and pushed for a total ban on abortion. Her Christian counseling practice has compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest. They share a dark view of the modern world. In a sermon he preached in 2016, Johnson declared, “We’re living in a completely amoral society.” And during a podcast last year with Jordan Peterson, the Canadian conservative provocateur, he said that “sinister” elites were responsible for orchestrating climate change as an issue to achieve global “control.”

In a time of political upheaval, cultural clashes, and war, it’s clear that Mike Johnson believes he has the solution. It’s not government of the people, but government shaped by his fundamentalist worldview. As his wife and partner-in-preaching says, nothing else makes sense. They possess the truth, and now, as he has become second in the line of presidential succession, he has the opportunity to meld power to this truth and serve the goal of making America a Christian nation.

Medical group expands definition of “infertility” to include same-sex couples

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/10/medical-group-expands-definition-of-infertility-to-include-same-sex-couples/

The group hopes it will lead to insurance companies being less restrictive with coverage for fertility treatments.

By Bil Browning Wednesday, October 25, 2023

Photo: Shutterstock

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) Practice Committee has announced they are updating the definition of “infertility” to be more inclusive.

The new definition will include single people and same-sex couples. It will consist of anyone needing medical interventions “in order to achieve a successful pregnancy either as an individual or with a partner.”

“We made it explicit that lack of access to the kind of gametes you need is a condition deserving of treatment,” Sean Tipton, ASRM’s chief advocacy and policy officer, told CNN.

“That is, the reason you may need medical assistance to build your family, it can be because your fallopian tubes don’t work, or it could be because your sperm don’t swim right. But it could also be because you’re single, or because you are in a relationship with a person who doesn’t have the kind of gametes you need. Those are legitimate causes of infertility, and they need to be treated accordingly.”

“It is our hope that this definition removes one of the excuses that insurance companies have attempted to use to deny patients coverage for the medical care they need to have children,” he added.

The previous definition only defined the term as failing to get pregnant after a year of having unprotected sex or undergoing therapeutic donor insemination in women younger than 35, or within six months for women over 35.

The updated definition will be published in about a week as a report in the group’s journal.

Trans sex worker & ACLU sue Tennessee over HIV criminalization law

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2023/10/trans-sex-worker-aclu-sue-tennessee-over-hiv-criminalization-law/

The law turns one misdemeanor into a felony, but only for HIV-positive people.

By Daniel Villarreal Wednesday, October 25, 2023

HIV criminalization lawsPhoto: Shutterstock

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Transgender Law Center have filed a federal lawsuit against a Tennessee law that requires HIV-positive sex workers to register for life as a “violent sex offender.”

The aforementioned advocacy organizations filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state LGBTQ+ advocacy groups OUTMemphis and four “Jane Doe” plaintiffs who were convicted under the law. The plaintiffs, which include a transgender woman, allege that they have faced discrimination and life struggles because of their violent sex offender status. These struggles have forced the trans woman to continue doing sex work, since finding a job can be difficult for someone on the registry.

Another plaintiff said that they were sent back to jail after violating the registry’s requirements. The plaintiffs allege that the law violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by handing harsher punishments to people with HIV, a chronic disease covered by the ADA’s anti-discrimination statutes. Tennessee is the only state with this law, according to the Edge Media Network.

“This statute solely targets people because of their HIV status and keeps them in cycles of poverty while posing absolutely zero benefit to public health and safety,” said Molly Quinn, executive director of OUTMemphis. “HIV stigma is becoming a thing of the past, and it’s time for state law to catch up.”

The lawsuit lists Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN), Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch, and Department of Correction Commissioner Frank Strada as defendants.

While sex work is a misdemeanor crime in Tennessee, the HIV criminalization law turns the crime into a felony. An estimated 83 Tennesseeans are currently in the registry because of it. Tennessee legislators passed the law in 1991 near the height of the AIDS epidemic when over 100,000 Americans had died from the illness, and scientists were still trying to find effective medical treatments against it.

In 2021, Illinois, New Jersey, and Virginia repealed their felony HIV criminalization laws. However, in 2022, Pennsylvania signed a law making it a felony to pass on a communicable disease when they “should have known” that they had it — the law included HIV.

As of 2022, 35 states have laws that criminalize HIV exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Many of the laws were passed at a time when little was known about HIV and millions were dying from the virus.

Medical professionals have said that HIV criminalization laws do nothing to stop the spread of the virus and may even encourage people not to get tested for fear that the knowledge could subject them to criminal penalties.

“Many of these state laws criminalize actions that cannot transmit HIV – such as biting or spitting – and apply regardless of actual transmission, or intent,” the CDC wrote. “After more than 40 years of HIV research and significant biomedical advancements to treat and prevent HIV transmission, many state laws are now outdated and do not reflect our current understanding of HIV.”

A 2018 Williams Institute study on HIV criminalization in Georgia found that “Black men and Black women were more likely to be arrested for HIV-related offenses than their white counterparts.” While 26% of HIV-related arrests were of white males, 46% of HIV-related arrests were of Black males. Additionally, 11 % of those arrested were white females, while 16% were Black females.

What Her “Bodycount” Says About Her?

Republicans in SHAMBLES as Jim Jordan LOSES AGAIN! | Armageddon Update | Christopher Titus

Loads of animals are gay, experts find

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/10/07/loads-of-animals-are-gay-experts-find/

Animals can be gay – and it’s totally normal. (Getty Images)

The study, led by scientists at Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas, in Spain, examined all scientific literature relating to same-sex activity in the animal kingdom and created a database of their conclusions.

The same-sex sexual activity recorded included courtship, mounting, genital contact, copulation (sexual intercourse) and pair bonding. Same-sex animals also raise young together.

Eighty-seven per cent of the interactions involved mounting and genital contact.

The research revealed that same-sex sexual activity has been identified in more than 1,500 animal species, including spiders, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.

Overall, same-sex contact was reported in 261 mammalian species, representing approximately four per cent, belonging to 62 families and 12 orders.

Some penguins are gay, get over it. (Getty Images)

The scientists found that it was more common in mammals than other species, such as birds or insects, with more than 80 per cent of mammal groups experiencing same-sex behaviour in a number of long-term field studies.

The behaviour was recorded slightly more in males, with male-on-male activity observed in 199 species, while for the females it was seen in 163 species.

There were a variety of explanations for this, with some hypotheses suggesting that animals might engage in same-sex relationships as a “consequence of mistaken identity”, “limited availability of individuals of the opposite sex” or “indiscriminate sexual behaviour.”

Same-sex interactions in animals an ‘evolutionary conundrum’

The authors of the study wrote: “Same-sex sexual behaviour is any behaviour that is usually performed at some stage during reproduction with a member of the opposite sex, but which is instead aimed towards members of the same sex.

“Same-sex sexual behaviour as it is used here does not denote sexual orientation (ie an overall pattern of sexual attraction/arousal over time), sexual orientation identity (the sexual orientation that individuals perceive themselves to have), categories of sexual beings (homosexuals, heterosexuals, etc), nor sexual preference.”

The scientists overwhelmingly concluded that same-sex activity can play an “adaptive role” in “maintaining social relationships and mitigating conflict”, but noted that since the relationships do not “contribute directly to reproduction”, it is considered an “evolutionary conundrum”.

However, they warned that their findings should not be used to analyse the evolution of sexuality in humans.

The study’s authors also argued that since the relationship between animals and sexuality has only recently been investigated by ecologists, it is likely to be under-researched, and could benefit from further investigation.

Australia rejects stricter age verification rules for access to porn, shunning global trends

Australia rejects stricter age verification rules for access to porn, shunning global trends

Home » Safety » Regulations » Australia rejects stricter age verification rules for access to porn, shunning global trends

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Australia rejects stricter age verification rules for access to porn, shunning global trends

Jamie F September 4, 2023

0

In the US, UK and across Europe rules around age verification to access porn sites are tightening. But the Australian government has just bucked the trend by saying it won’t force porn sites to implement age verification – yet.

Australia’s Communications Minister Michelle Rowland suggested that concerns about privacy, plus any age verification processes needing to be robust and hard to circumnavigate, meant that it was not currently appropriate to force sites to adopt age verification in the country.

In the US, Pornhub, one of the world’s biggest porn sites, has blocked access in states such as Virginia and Mississippi, in reaction to tougher age verification rules being introduced there. France and Germany are steaming ahead with age verification measures, and the UK’s Online Safety Bill, expected to be passed soon, is designed to make it tougher for minors to access online porn, among a raft of other unrelated measures.

The Australian government said that rather than passing porn age verification laws, it would introduce a new industry code based on educating parents about how to prevent their children accessing porn, including the use of filtering software. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the government agency for online safety, has been charged with working with the porn industry to create the code.

Texas anti-porn bill violates First Amendment free speech laws, judge rules

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/01/texas-anti-porn-bill-hb-1181-injunction/

I wonder what really is driving these ultraconservative republicans? It has to be religion! It can not be conservatism because some of the deepest red states have the highest level of porn usage. The republicans love to watch people have sex, and from the statistics, these red states love trans and gay porn. So it has to be religion and forced control over others to follow their church doctrines, regardless of their own personal beliefs. They seem to want a national Christian Taliban. Hugs

Sep 01

Written by Sophie Perry

A Texas judge has halted the state’s anti-porn bill. (Budrul Chukrut/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A federal judge has ruled that Texas’ anti-porn legislation violates the First Amendment, halting the bill just one day before it was set to go into effect.

The bill, known as HB 1181, was due to be implemented on Friday (1 September) and would require adult websites to use “reasonable age verification methods”, such as government ID, to ensure users who are accessing explicit content are aged 18 or older.

Alongside this, porn websites would have been forced by the legislation to display health warning on their website in 14-point font, which reads: “Pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses, and weakens brain function.”

If adult websites fail to adhere to these regulations set out in the law, HB 1181 would enable the Texas attorney general to sue such sites for $3 million a year.

On Thursday (31 August), however, senior US District judge David A. Ezra of the US. District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a final-hour preliminary injunction against the bill, describing it as “unconstitutional on its face”.

Ezra’s decision comes after Pornhub – alongside several other adult sites such as FakeTaxi.com, BangBros.com and SpiceVids – and the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), filed a lawsuit against Texas over the bill.

The judge described the legislation as “not narrowly tailored” and “chills the free speech of Plaintiffs and adults who wish to access sexual materials”.

“The state has a legitimate goal in protecting children from sexually explicit material online,” Ezra added.

“But that goal, however crucial, does not negate this Court’s burden to ensure that the laws passed in its pursuit comport with established First Amendment doctrine.”

Texas’ defence was based in ‘ideology and politics’

In response to the ruling, Alison Boden – executive director of Free Speech Coalition – said in a statement: “This is a huge and important victory against the rising tide of censorship online.

“From the beginning, we have argued that the Texas law, and those like it, are both dangerous and unconstitutional.

“We’re pleased that the Court agreed with our view that HB 1181’s true purpose is not to protect young people, but to prevent Texans from enjoying First Amendment protected expression.

“The state’s defense of the law was not based in science or technology, but ideology and politics.”

Bolden added: “The ruling rebuffs nearly every argument made by state legislatures, and not only in Texas.

“While Texas presented the most straightforward path to securing a ruling like this, the issues are the same whether in Utah, Louisiana or Virginia. Anyone who attempts to bring a case in those jurisdictions faces little hope of success.

“We are thrilled with the decision and thank our co-plaintiffs for joining this battle and defending the industry. We are confident that the law will ultimately be struck down permanently.”

Mike Stabile, director of public affairs at FSC, told Rolling Stone the ruling would have an impact on other state’s which are seeking to pass similar laws.

“The court said in no uncertain terms that this scheme in Texas is ineffective and unconstitutional, and it rejected nearly every single argument the state made,” Stabile explained.

“Unfortunately for the religious groups pushing this legislation, the copycat legislation in Louisiana, Utah, Virginia and other states suffers all the same inherent problems,” he added.

“There’s been a lot of murmuring on the right that they’d finally found a way to censor adult content online. This ruling shows that their confidence was entirely misplaced, and is unlikely to survive a court challenge.”

Currently, there are a number of anti-porn laws being discussed in states across America, which are copycat bills of each other and seek to restrict access to explicit materials across the board.

In the same week, a judge in Texas blocked an anti-drag bill, shortly before it was set to ban performances across the state.