DL Open Thread: Saturday, October 28, 2023
Lest You Thought That Dean Phillips Was A Legit Democratic Challenger To Biden…:
Minnesota Representative Dean Phillips received financial support in his run for Congress from Harlan Crow – the same controversial GOP megadonor who lavished Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with expensive gifts.
DailyMail.com can reveal that Crow gave the maximum $2,800 contribution to Phillips’ congressional campaign in 2019, according to Federal Election Commission records.
The Crow contribution will inevitably add to the fodder, with insiders already blasting Phillips’ decision to accept support from a Republican influencer known for mischievously donating to third party candidate Cornel West’s presidential campaign, giving Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni expensive gifts, and for collecting Nazi artifacts including a signed copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
Don’t get me wrong–I’m still convinced, now more than ever, that Biden is more likely to lose to Trump or another R than pretty much anybody who would run instead. But Crow is a right-wing mischief-maker, and uses his massive fortune to take down democracy. Phillips is merely his agent.
Onward Christian Counseling Services. You’re humming that war-mongering tune, aren’t you? But it’s the mom-and-pop shop of, wait for it:
(Mike) Johnson and his wife, Kelly, have long intertwined their political and business lives: They became a known entity in the late 1990s when they went on national television as the face of Louisiana’s new marriage covenant law, which makes it harder to get a divorce. Today, they co-host a podcast, “Truth Be Told,” where they talk about political and social issues from a conservative Christian perspective. Their podcast is up to 69 episodes.
Kelly Johnson features the couple’s podcast on the website of her company, Onward Christian Counseling Services, which promotes Bible-based pastoral counseling. Her website also includes a link to its 2017 operating agreement, which lays out the corporate bylaws for the company ― and embraces a number of socially conservative beliefs about LGBTQ+ people and women’s reproductive rights.
The agreement states that Onward Christian Counseling Services is grounded in the belief that sex is offensive to God if it is not between a man and a woman married to each other. It puts being gay, bisexual or transgender in the same category as someone who has sex with animals or family members, calling all of these examples of “sexual immorality.”
“We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one’s sex, or disagreement with one’s biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God,” says the eight-page business document.
This agreement also refers to “pre-born babies” and says the company is committed to defending and protecting all human life, “from conception through natural death.”
Speaker Johnson’s signature is on the last page. He notarized the document on July 1, 2017. Notaries are not required to read the documents they notarize and are sometimes discouraged from doing so for privacy reasons.
The more you know, the weirder it gets.
Before then, he cut his teeth trying to erode the separation of church and state and abortion and LGBTQ rights as a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund – the Christian right legal powerhouse now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom.
The core of Johnson’s work in the years between his employment at ADF and his ascent to the Louisiana Legislature and then Congress, has been advocating against abortion, for expanded religious freedom for Christians, and against LGBTQ rights. In addition to working at ADF, he was counsel to Louisiana Right to Life, and he started his own legal firm, Freedom Guard, which claimed to “defend religious liberty, the sanctity of human life, marriage and the family.”
Johnson also became the founding dean of a law school established in 2010 at Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist school, which Johnson said would “acknowledge the Judeo-Christian foundation of the legal system.” Although organizers spent $5 million developing the law school, it was never accredited and never opened its doors; Johnson resigned after just two years as dean.
Something tells me these swing-district Rethugs are gonna wish they’d vetted this guy…
Dog Bites Man: Georgia Redistricting Maps Ruled Unconstitutional. Dog Bites Man, Part Deux: North Carolina Enacts Blatantly Gerrymandered Redistricting Maps.
The Supreme Court caused this by eviscerating the Voting Rights Act. The inevitable results are as they intended.
UAW About To Settle Strikes With Auto Companies? Looks like it. While they didn’t get everything they wanted, they got a lot.
- “The agreement grants 25% in base wage increases through April 2028, and will cumulatively raise the top wage by over 30% to more than $40 an hour, and raise the starting wage by 68%, to over $28 an hour,” it added.
- “The lowest-paid workers at Ford will see a raise of more than 150% over the life of the agreement, with some workers receiving an immediate 85% increase immediately upon ratification.”
- The agreement reinstates major benefits “lost during the Great Recession,” including cost-of-living allowances and a three-year wage progression, as well as killing wage tiers in the union. It improves retirement for current retirees, those workers with pensions, and those who have 401(k) plans.
- “It also includes a historic right to strike over plant closures, a first for the union,” the UAW notes.
What do you want to talk about?
I don’t share your belief that almost any Democrat would outperform Biden. The whole problem with replacing him is “With who?” With all the talk of replacement, I seldom hear answers to that basic question.
It boils down to the often-cited problem of the geriatrics hogging the stage and failing to mentor a next generation of leaders. Name recognition has immense value, and nobody else has any.
Your only real chance of getting your wish would be a health crisis, which is well within the realm of possibility. If that happens I think you’ll be sorry you got your wish.
Agree
I’ve floated the name of Gretchen Whitmer a lot.
If Joe were to drop out, perhaps to try to broker a Mideast peace as his lasting legacy, I think she’d generate the enthusiasm that’s not there for Joe.
Maybe Hakeem Jeffries for Veep.
“I think she’d generate the enthusiasm that’s not there for Joe.”
People know what’s at stake in this election, and it’s got nothing to do with Joe. Enthusiasm for a candidate is not necessary, though I understand why people who like to do campaigning think it does.
I think President Coons has a nice ring to it.
/jk
Better listen to those Johnson podcasts on Apple while you can, he’s already deleted their website.
“that Biden is more likely to lose to Trump or another R than pretty much anybody who would run instead“
Specifically, why? Because people are going to parrot this mantra into existence? And to which vapor candidate are you proposing to run? Once you name that person, tell me how they will overcome that antiquated election system we have ( which is the only way TFG or any other GQP has a chance of winning).
ETA Ninja’d by Alby, but I have yet to hear reasoned responses on either talking point I’ll leave it
Name rec’ can be grown.
Name rec’ was cultivated for a no name called Obama, who 4 years prior to ascending to the oval was a rank-and-file Illinois state senator.
And name ain’t everything. Hillary had name, but her baggage was what made the difference.
And Joe got baggage.
Obama was a best-selling author who was attracting 5-figure crowds on a book tour.
Hilary had a cult of personality that generated hate. People might disapprove of Biden, but they don’t hate him.
And you still haven’t named a politician you support. It’s a test. Don’t flunk.
Well. So much to unpack.
Yes. Obama was a best-selling autobiographer. At the time, he was, as I said, a rank-and-file Illinois state senator. And evidently being a rank-and-file state senator rates, not one, but two autobiographies and “5-figure crowds on a book tour”. But you are right. That and some $help$ from some friend$ got him some name rec’. All the same…SMDH.
”People might disapprove of Biden, but they don’t hate him.”
Perhaps you’ve never heard “Let’s go Brandon” on the rive droite but it’s hardly unheard back here.
For example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJWhmsgu7ik
As to what politician I support. Well, to jog your memory, I have in the past, (and on this blog! ) voiced support for Jessica Scarane, Kerry Evelyn Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Cynthia McKinney, Jill Stein to name a few and most recently linked to this person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XEpRjjbokQ
I don’t recall if ever I voiced support for Bernie, although I did vote for him twice and volunteered and contributed to his campaigns. I surmise that my apparent lack of support on this blog for Bernie was my being more banned than unbanned. But I don’t keep close track on my banned/unbanned. Anyhoo … As you can see, I am hardly keeping secret who I support or where my politics lie.
To speak to your “test” and “thou shalt not flunk” admonition….I am not demanding to know who you are (or anyone else is) supporting. No one else (except you) is demanding from me to know who I support. No one is demanding to know who you support. And you’re not demanding to know who anyone else is supporting (except for me.) Obviously, it is me (and only me) who is an itch you just gotta scratch. So just to satisfy my curiosity, tell me why. I’m here for you.
Have a blessed week.
Because I often doubt that you’re a real person. I did not recall you voicing support for any of those politicians; I couldn’t recall you saying anything positive about anyone in the 15 years or so you’ve been doing this.
It was a test to determine if you’re an actual person rather than a provocateur. You passed. All you had to do to pass was answer the question, it didn’t matter how.
About Obama: He was an autobiographer more than a state senator, he had obvious charisma and he was already being talked about as presidential timber. Who fits that description today?
As for “Let’s Go Brandon,” crowd chants are not the metric I use, because “Jews will not replace us” gets chanted about as often. That’s just cult behavior. I’m talking about the size of the cult.
I use the metric of unsolicited vitriol from Democrat-haters, and I hear a lot less of that with Biden than I did with Obama or Hillary. It might be because he’s neither female nor a minority, but I just don’t get the sense of visceral hatred the other two elicited.
The many haters of a certain Starship song will get a kick out of this commercial. Frontdoor is a video app that will talk you through basic home repairs. The jingle is “We Fixed This Toilet” set to the tune of “We Built This City,” complete with dancers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3JiWJbQ7tY
If the new Speaker wants to live his life according to the religious principles he shared, the constitution says “ok”. To make everyone live like that is unconstitutional, no matter how virtuous he thinks his life is.
Politics 101 reminder…George HW Bush was the last president who lost re-election, well, besides Trump…Bush’s demise followed a recession. Jimmy Carter lost after a very troubled presidency including the disaster at three mile island. Especially damaging to Carter was the attack on the American embassy in Tehran. Congress was hostile as well, despite being held by Democrats. Lyndon Johnson was hobbled by the Viet Nam war and domestic violence at home. I see NOTHING commensurate with the current administration…and what was the rate of growth of the American economy just this month? 4.9%…astounding! Trump’s biggest advantage in 2020 was the power of incumbancy. That advantage now belongs to Joe Biden, regardless of what these polls, more than a year out suggest. At this point in the election cycle, it is not uncommon for voters to wonder if the current administration offers the best deal. So, lots of tire kicking…but Joe Biden, while not at all perfect, has been very, very, good for jobs, the economy in general, foreign policy successes, and re-establishing the rule of law. He schools other pols on how to rule within the rule of law. Find someone better? Who? The Republican lying machine is excellent at finding weaknesses in Democratic candidates. Who? Carter, Mondale, Dukakis were all destroyed. 2000 was out and out stolen from Gore…need I mention how Clinton was cheated? Biden stood up to the lie machine and won. His reputation for compassion remains little tarnished save for a couple of moves on the border and the railroad workers strike…People wrote Biden off in 2020 until Jim Clyburn used his magic wand in South Carolina and changed the results of the Democratic primary…so…replace Biden? Not me…
Paul: You’re the victim of run-on paragraphs, like a certain ex-state rep. Break ’em up and you should be fine from now on.
thank you
Respectfully disagree. The economic growth is great if you are fully employed, invested, and own a home. For a young person just getting out of school, they have no buffer between themselves and consumer-goods inflation, high rents/mortgage rate, and student debt. There are strong economic headwinds facing the Biden base, and the youth today are known to be fickle