Tag Archives: Mike Johnson

Remembering August 26

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August 26th was the day of the disastrous withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. Thirteen American servicemen were killed on that day. Somehow most of the media chose to ignore that anniversary. August 26, 2024, was the day that President Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery and laid a wreath in memory of the servicemen who died that day. The families invited him to come, but because of the pettiness in Washington these days, it took the Speaker of the House to intervene in order for the President to go there.

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller reported:

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had to intervene to get former President Donald Trump into Arlington National Cemetery for the third anniversary of the Afghanistan withdrawal with Gold Star families, a family told the Daily Caller.

The Gold Star families, who lost their children during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, invited Trump to Arlington National Cemetery. He laid a wreath there for the 13 servicemembers who were killed serving their country in Afghanistan. However, a Gold Star family told the Caller that Arlington National Cemetery was trying to make it difficult for the former President to appear for the ceremony to honor their children, something the families requested.

Arlington National Cemetery told gold star families that they could only be there for a specific time that did not work for everyone’s schedule and were also told the president could not join them at their children’s gravesites, the family told the Caller.

Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Rep. Michael McCaul explained to the Caller that he was contacted by Gold Star parents Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, the parents of SSGT Taylor Hoover. Hoover and Barnett told him that Arlington Cemetery was giving the Gold Star parents of the U.S. servicemembers killed at Abbey Gate a hard time about coordinating a ceremony with Trump on the anniversary of their deaths.

McCaul immediately reached out to Johnson to ask for his assistance with the matter and the Caller is told he continued to track it until it was fixed.

The article concludes:

The Caller reached out to the Biden White House for details on why these families were having trouble with Arlington National Cemetery on agreeing to terms for a Trump visit. The White House referred the Caller to Arlington National Cemetery, saying: “This is a matter between the Arlington National Cemetery and the Trump campaign, not a White House matter.”

The Caller also contacted Arlington National Cemetery about these claims. The cemetery did not immediately respond.

The pettiness of the Biden administration is unbelievable.

As Steve Bannon Prepares For Jail…

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Steve Bannon is preparing to go to jail on July 1st on charges that he defied a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee. Peter Navarro is currently in jail on contempt of Congress charges. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has stated that it will not press charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for defying a subpoena from a Congressional Committee. I guess contempt of Congress only matters if you are a Republican.

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

The Justice Department won’t prosecute Merrick Garland for contempt of Congress over the Biden audio tapes.

The House of Representatives on Thursday voted to hold Merrick Garland in criminal contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena.

Last month two GOP-led House committees passed resolutions recommending US Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over audio of Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur.

Merrick Garland has reportedly “classified at the highest level” the audio tapes of Joe Biden’s embarrassing interview with Special Counsel Hur. The tapes have been locked away in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), according to investigative journalist Paul Sperry.

The White House has already admitted that the transcripts of the tapes were slightly altered, and the transcripts have already been released, so what are they hiding?

The article concludes:

It was revealed that during interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur, Joe Biden struggled to answer even basic questions, such as when he served as Vice President or the year his son Beau passed away from brain cancer.

The Justice Department said Merrick Garland did not commit a crime when he defied a congressional subpoena and refuse to hand over the Biden audio tapes.

The AP reported:

Attorney General Merrick Garland will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress because his refusal to turn over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview in his classified documents case “did not constitute a crime,” the Justice Department said Friday.

In a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Justice Department official cited the department’s longstanding policy not to prosecute officials who don’t comply with subpoenas because of a president’s claim of executive privilege.

So why is Peter Navarro in jail and why is Steve Bannon headed for jail?

Moving In The Wrong Direction Rather Than Solving The Problem

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Antisemitism is currently a problem in America and around the world. It isn’t something that can be fixed by laws, although Congress is trying. Censorship of free speech is NOT the answer.

On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

The Democratic Party is engaged in civil war over the Israel-Gaza conflict, and Republicans can’t help but take a bullet for their supposed political enemies.

It comes in the form of H.R. 6090, a freshly-passed bill by the U.S. House of Representatives aimed at curbing antisemitism on university campuses. Antisemitism on American soil has indeed grown loudly since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel. However, House Speaker Mike Johnson has been unable to step aside and allow Democrats to expose themselves as radicals on the issue. Instead, he’s held multiple press conferences, including one where he was drowned out by protestors on the Columbia University campus, putting an unnecessary bullseye on the Republican party.

…Johnson’s apparent belief that tackling antisemitism is the key to uniting the GOP is doing the exact opposite. Sources in both chambers of Congress told the Daily Caller that members are frustrated with Johnson’s handling of H.R. 6090, known as the Antisemitism Awareness Act, and the target that’s now on their backs.

The dilemma, multiple GOP aides told the Caller: either back down on free speech, or be slandered as an “antisemite.”

“This botched antisemitism resolution is just the cherry on top of the crap sundae Mike Johnson has served Congressional Republicans for six months,” one senior GOP Senate aide told the Caller. “Whether through incompetence or malice, he is a worthy successor to Nancy Pelosi.”

The article notes:

“The Antisemitism Awareness Act will require, through the Department of Education, which has enforcement authority, institutions to crack down constitutionally protected speech. The Antisemitism Awareness Act, however well intended to provide institutions with more tools to address antisemitism on campuses, is overbroad and unconstitutional because it polices constitutionally protected speech,” lead counsel of government affairs for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), Tyler Coward, told the Daily Caller.

Anti-Semitic speech is not a good thing–but it is protected by the First Amendment. In truth, we need to change people’s hearts. Limiting what people can say is not a step forward.

In Case You Doubted “The Plan”

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On Wednesday, The Daily Signal posted an article about some of the information being given to the people who are illegally crossing our southern border.

The article reports:

The “vote for President Biden” flyers found at a center for migrants in Mexico constitute foreign meddling in U.S. elections, congressional Republicans say. 

Amid the ongoing crisis of illegal immigration at the southern border, the lawmakers decried flyers posted at the migrant services center near Brownsville, Texas, that tell illegal aliens: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States.”

“Joe Biden has sacrificed our nation’s safety and security in his pursuit to get as many people here as possible. Why? Because he believes these are future Democrat voters,” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told The Daily Signal. 

“This is election interference orchestrated at the highest levels. We have to get our hands around this—Americans have to have complete confidence in their elections,” Marshall said. “Any NGO receiving federal funds and pushing illegal get-out-the-vote efforts for Joe Biden should be stripped of their funding immediately.”

Translated from Spanish, The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project notes, the flyers posted at the nongovernmental organization Resource Center Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas say: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open.” 

“Democrats want permanent power and they are willing to import a new electorate to get it,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., told The Daily Signal in a written statement after his office was asked about the flyers. 

The article concludes:

The discovery of the “vote for Biden” flyers in Mexico is more evidence of the need for voter ID laws, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said.

“Like Iowa, every state in the union should require IDs and proof of citizenship in order to vote,” Ernst told The Daily Signal. “American elections are for Americans, not whoever manages to show up at Joe Biden’s open border. We must secure election integrity and secure the border.”

The pro-Biden flyers, discovered by Muckraker and shared with the Oversight Project, were found throughout Resource Center Matamoros, including on the walls of portable toilets, a video shows. 

The city of Matamoros in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas borders Brownsville, where Biden spoke in February about the crisis of illegal immigration at the southern border that has grown since he became president in January 2021.

Federal law bans foreign nationals, or non-U.S. citizens, from voting in federal elections. On Friday, former President Donald Trump endorsed proposed legislation by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections.

It is long past time to make sure that the people who vote in our elections are the people who are legally entitled to vote in our elections. Any illegal vote cancels out the vote of a legal voter.

This Is Called Changing The Subject

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A lot of us are very unhappy that the law allowing warrantless surveillance of Americans was extended. FISA stands for Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Most of us would be okay if the act was strictly used to surveil foreigners, but history tells us that it has been used illegally to spy on innocent Americans. The fact that many Republicans voted to extend the act is unfortunate. That is not what they were elected to do. Unfortunately, according to the list of people who voted for the extension that I have seen, our own Representative, Greg Murphy, voted for the extension. I can only assume that these Representatives were told that if there were a terrorist attack and the bill was not extended, they would be held responsible by the media. Knowing the intelligence community’s ability to stage false-flag events and the media’s ability to mislead the public, this might have been the tactic used. That is simply my opinion.

President Trump, who did not support the extension but wanted to save the day for the Republicans, held a press conference with Speaker Johnson at Mar-a-Lago.

On Friday, The Epoch Times reported:

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and former President Donald Trump are urging support for a bill aimed at preventing non-citizens from voting in federal elections.

At a Friday, April 12, press conference at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago residence, the Republican leaders announced the bill as part of larger efforts to bolster election integrity.

“What we’re going to do is introduce legislation to require that every single person who registers to vote in a federal election must prove that they are an American citizen first,” Mr. Johnson said.

This is a great idea, but will create some problems. What will be required of voters in order to prove their citizenship? I was talking to someone today who does not have a birth certificate–the person was born at home in rural America and the birth was recorded in the family Bible. How can that person prove that they are an American? How many elderly Americans do not have birth certificates, passports, or documents to prove they are Americans? Does your social security card prove you are an American (those can be counterfeited)? It will be interesting to watch what happens to this plan as it moves forward.

Congress Actually Listened To The People!

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The text of the border bill crafted by the Senate was released Sunday night. People who read the bill quickly pointed out that the bill did not secure the border and it provided more money for Ukraine than the annual budget of the Marine Corps. The Speaker of the House Mike Johnson declared the bill dead on arrival (as it should have been).

This was Stephen Miller’s Twitter post:

Well, the uproar has had an impact on Congress.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made the shocking decision to recommend Republicans block the advancement of the Senate pro-migration border bill.

That first procedural vote was set for Wednesday. It is unknown if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) will forge ahead, although that is likely.

McConnell cited the overwhelming number of Senate Republicans planning to vote against the measure either on substance or because they wanted more time, according to Punchbowl News.

The longtime Republican leader has spoken in favor of the deal and did not express any personal hesitations about the legislation to his colleagues.

According to Punchbowl, McConnell said the political mood in the country has changed since negotiations began months ago. At that time, McConnell and Democrat leaders agreed to pair foreign aid to Ukraine, of which McConnell is the Senate’s greatest champion, with a border compromise.

If you believe McConnell’s explanation, I have a bridge to sell you. The real reason McConnell changed his mind is that it is February of an election year and McConnell is afraid that the voters might remember his support for this awful bill. The sole purpose of this bill is to legalize as many illegal aliens as possible before November so that they can be Democrat voters. Why McConnell was willing to go along with that, I don’t know.

The Push For Amnesty For Illegal Immigrants

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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson posted the following on Twitter:

This is the first step toward granting voting rights to all of those who have entered our country illegally. They will not be required to go through the process of becoming a citizen, they will have no understanding of America and its Constitution. They will be a group of totally uneducated voters easily swayed by the lies of the mainstream media. They are here to replace the votes of the Americans who have become aware of the lies of the mainstream media. If amnesty happens, we will not recognize our country within three years.

An Important Letter

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The media has long since abandoned any pretense of objectivity, but when they attack traditional values that many Americans still believe in, they need to be called out. On Tuesday, Newsbusters posted an article about a letter that MRC founder and president L. Brent Bozell III sent to ABC News after they did a hit piece on Speaker of the House Mike Johnson after he took his daughter to a purity ball, which celebrates the idea of delaying sex until marriage.

This is the content of the letter:

We write to object to an article attacking House Speaker Mike Johnson and his daughter Hannah for engaging in “notoriety” when he took her to a “controversial” event when she was 13.

At issue was a “Purity Ball,” a common celebration within the evangelical community to honor the ideal of chastity. The father aims to model how a Christian husband and father should behave. The daughter often signs a pledge to remain chaste until marriage. The daughter wears white to symbolize purity.

ABC could have, and should have, praised Speaker Johnson for his strong Christian faith. But you chose to go in the opposite direction. “This looks like a wedding,” your reporter Will Steakin wrote, quoting a news reporter from a German news segment in 2015. “But they are not bride and groom — but rather father and … daughter,” implying they are engaged in something dark. In that same dark tone, ABC projects as extremist Johnson’s wife Kelly stating “We don’t talk to her about contraception. Sex before marriage is simply out of the question.”

ABC could have, and should have, found Christian leaders to explain why many Christians believe in the importance of chastity and the beauty of the Purity Ball. But you chose the opposite. ABC selected as its expert someone who wrote a book touting how she “broke free” of “purity culture,” and argued Christian parents who teach their children to pursue abstinence are pushing “eternal girlhood” within a patriarchy.

Continuing the attack, ABC found another ex-Christian author who “sparked” the purity movement, but then “pulled his once-popular book from circulation and has apologized for any role it may have played in causing harm.” This article is pure religious bigotry. 

We call on ABC News to retract this story and apologize to Speaker Johnson, his wife Kelly, and their children.

Only a society that rejects virtue views the pursuit of chastity and holiness as controversial. Perhaps that is why no society on Earth endorses ABC’s world view.

Somehow I believe that we would have a much more stable society if more people endorsed the view celebrated at the purity ball.

More Shenanigans On The FISA Renewal

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On Monday, The Washington Examiner reported the following:

Neither of the two bills to reauthorize and reform a powerful spy tool used by American intelligence agencies will be voted on this week after the Rules Committee pulled the legislation amid intense backlash.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who sits on the Rules Committee, confirmed to the Washington Examiner that neither the House Judiciary Committee nor Intelligence Committee bills to reauthorize and reform Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act would be voted on this week.

…Now, with the bills being punted until next year, it theoretically gives committees the time to work out the differences. The House is also expected to vote on the National Defense Authorization Act on Thursday, which includes a short-term extension of FISA until April 19, 2024, something certain members also oppose.

“I’m really disappointed that we’re talking about a four-month extension in the authorities of FISA,” said Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who helped author the Judiciary Committee bill. “So we should be laboring through to get this thing done, in my opinion.”

Under Section 702 of FISA, the federal government can surveil foreigners without a warrant for national security purposes. The collected information becomes part of a vast database of foreign intelligence that incidentally includes information about U.S. citizens who may have been communicating with people overseas.

There have been documented abuses of FISA. Because of this, most members want reforms but disagree on what those reforms should be.

I personally think that we have seen enough abuses and misuses of FISA to want it to go away. Obviously Washington politicians and bureaucrats do not have the maturity to use it wisely.

On Monday, The Conservative Treehouse reported:

For those confused. There are two bills to modify the FISA702 reauthorization in the House.  (1) HR 6611 from the House Intel Committee and (2) HR 6570 from the House Judiciary Committee.  The intel committee bill expands domestic surveillance authority under the modifications; the judiciary committee bill requires the DOJ to get a search warrant before they can look at the incidental collection of American citizens.

Both bills came out of committee and were scheduled for a floor vote tomorrow, which has been cancelled due to public outcry (good job).  Speaker Mike Johnson initially planned to let both bills get voted tomorrow and the bill with the most votes advances to the Senate.  😬That’s a hot mess.

The House Intel Committee bill organized by Chairman Mike Turner is absolutely horrible. It expands FISA702 surveillance and makes things much worse.  The House Judiciary Bill organized by Chairman Jim Jordan is not structurally that much better, but it does put strong curtailments on the 702 surveillance authority by forcing the DOJ to get actual court approved search warrants on American citizens.

It should not come as a surprise to see a panel of 46 experts in Deep State weaponization come out in support of the Intelligence Committee bill, and then decry the insufferable 702 limitations put into place in the Judiciary Committee bill.   The bad guys want the House Intel version.

As I stated, it’s time for FISA to go away.

What Are They Thinking? 

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Author:  R. Alan Harrop, Ph.D

The recent expulsion of U.S. Representative (R) George Santos was only the sixth time a person was ever expelled from the House of Representatives. The question is why? Is he the only person in the House that has ever been suspected of questionable integrity? Obviously not! He is also the only one of the six who was expelled without being convicted of a crime. What is particularly troubling, is that over one hundred of his fellow Republicans voted for his expulsion. Would the Democrats ever vote to expel a fellow Democrat? Not only no, but hell no! Proof? Democrat Senator Menendez of New Jersey is accused of far worse, such as taking bribes from foreign countries, and has not been expelled–nor will he be.

So what did George Santos do that was so terrible? We do not know yet, since he has only been charged and not convicted by a court of law. He is accused of misspending campaign funds and lying about his background.   Does not sound that terrible to me. Look how many politicians have become multi-millionaires on a government salary that makes that impossible. Can you say:  Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid? to just name a few.   Another disturbing fact is that the House Ethics Committee that examined his actions did NOT recommend expulsion. Further, the Republican leadership, including Speaker Mike Johnson, all voted not to expel.

This is a perfect example of why voters get angry at Republicans who want to play by some “holier than thou” rules rather than focusing on what needs to be done to save this country from a Leftist takeover. The GOP razor thin majority just got thinner. There will be a special election to replace Santos but his district usually votes Democrat.

Not only is this one of the dumbest things Republicans have done, but it sets a dangerous precedent for the future by lowering the bar for expulsion.    What happened to the principle of innocent until proven guilty? The fact that Santos is being charged by Democrat investigators and corrupt DOJ does not seem to bother them.  At the same time, the Republicans voted not to impeach Alexandro Myorkas who is clearly violating his oath of office and threatening the security of our country with his unwillingness to enforce the immigration laws

This is very disappointing to say the least.  I am also disappointed that our Congressman Dr. Greg Murphy voted to expel Santos!

 

Finally A Promise Is Kept

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One of many reasons Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was shown the door was broken promises. One of those promises was to release the video tapes of January 6yh that the public was not allowed to see. Finally, the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has begun to release those video tapes. You can view them here.

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit reported:

House Speaker Mike Johnson has recently made the first batch of January 6 footage publicly accessible through the Committee on House Administration website.

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson has declared his intention to release thousands of hours of surveillance footage from the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol.

“Today, I am keeping my promise to the American people and making all the January 6th tapes available to ALL Americans.”

…“Follow the link below to view the January 6th tapes for yourself. To restore America’s trust and faith in their Government we must have transparency. This is another step towards keeping the promises I made when I was elected to be your Speaker. This website will be updated continuously with thousands of hours of footage,” Johnson wrote.

It’s time Americans got to see what actually happened on January 6th and not what the mainstream media wanted them to believe.

The Political Spectrum Has Significantly Shifted

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Our Founding Fathers had a very different political spectrum than the one commonly referred to by the media. Today’s media has a spectrum of right wing (conservative extremism) and left wing (what they endorse). Our Founding Fathers had a different political spectrum–it had anarchy at one end and tyranny at the other end. Their goal was to create a government midway between the two. Today the tyranny of the left wing goes mostly ignored (lawfare against political opponents, suppression of free speech, censoring information, etc.). but any standard held by a conservative is regarded as a threat to our democracy (we are a republic–not a democracy).

On Saturday, Newsbusters posted an article that illustrates how ridiculous our media has become.

The article reports:

Washington Post associate editor and New York Times columnist freaked out on Friday’s PBS NewsHour at the news that Republicans selected Mike Johnson to be the new Speaker of the House by portraying him as a “far-right” religious extremist out to impose “Christian nationalism” on the country.

Noting Johnson’s relative obscurity, Capehart (Jonathan Capehart at The Washington Post) predicted, “And the more information we find out about him and the more information the American people find out about him, the more I think they’re going to be uncomfortable, from his pushing for a national abortion ban, to introducing legislation for a federal so-called Don’t Say Gay Bill, his comments on homosexuality and same-sex marriage.”

Just for the record, as a Christian, I do not support a national abortion ban. Legally, a national abortion ban would be no different than Roe v. Wade–it would be unconstitutional under the 10th Amendment.

The article concludes:

Brooks (David Brooks, writer for The New York Times), again declining to live up to his billing as Brooks and Capehart’s conservative half, agreed with his liberal colleague, “You know, for me, the bad news about Johnson is the wing of the evangelical world he emerges from.”

Elaborating, Brooks explained, “And so, for example, one of the people he’s praised is a pseudo-historian named David Barton. And Barton has been — has a powerful bloc in a subculture of the evangelical world that has been arguing, falsely, that our founders never believed in separation of church and state, that Thomas Jefferson was an ardent Christian who wanted to make this a Christian nation.”

One doesn’t have to defend the anti-historical view that Jefferson, who cut portions out of the Bible he didn’t like, was an ardent Christian to defend the larger point. As for Johnson, Brooks proclaimed, “he is coming from a world where Christian nationalism is very much in the air. And so that’s got to be concerning if he’s coming from this world.”

Nobody who freaks out about “Christian nationalism” ever seeks to define it. Is it just being pro-life or forbidding elementary school teachers to talk about sexual orientation and gender ideology as Capehart mentioned earlier? Mostly, it is just a phrase people like Brooks throw out to scare voters.

John F. Kennedy, Jr., would not have been welcome in today’s Democrat party–he would be considered radically conservative!

The House Of Representatives Has A Speaker

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On Wednesday, The Conservative Treehouse reported that Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson has been elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. That is good news. On the same day, The Conservative Treehouse also posted an interview of Representative Matt Gaetz by Steve Bannon. During that interview, Representative Gaetz explains the backroom deals attempted by Representative Kevin McCarthy to regain the speakership.

This is the video of that interview:

I realize that this is a long video, but there is a lot of insight in it about how the  Washington swamp works.

We are about to find out if Republicans are capable of governing according to their platform and principles. They only have one branch of government, but they have the power of the purse!