The Louisiana Republican's team previously said it returned all the money it received from a company predominantly owned by Russian nationals in 2018.

A group of Russian nationals were able to donate to newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign in 2018 by funneling the money through a U.S. company.

The Texas-based American Ethane company previously donated tens of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of Louisiana Republicans including Johnson, who was voted by the House to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker on Wednesday following three weeks of GOP chaos in the lower chamber.

While American Ethane was run in 2018 by American John Houghtaling, 88 percent of the firm was owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev.

  • Daisyifyoudo@lemmy.world
    103·
    1 year ago

    FUCK THIS GUY AND FUCK THE GOP

    Mike Johnson is…

    • Part of the Regressive Religious Right with close ties to fundamentalist religious groups.
    • Early on in his career he was a senior attorney and spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Conservative christian legal advocacy group that wants to outlaw abortion and suppress the LGBTQ community. Alliance Defending Freedom is designated a hate group.
    • Supports nation wide abortion ban, and an end to legal same sex marriage through the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges
    • Supports restrictions to medical marijuana and refers to it as a "gateway drug"
    • Like Emmer, he supported and signed on to Texas v Pennsylvania in an effort to challenge the election results
    • He voted to overturn those results in Pennsylvania.
    • Supports an end to military aid to Ukraine.
    • Johnson has remarked that his career is dedicated to "defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life, and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault."
    • As a State Rep he sought to put forth legislation that protected people who discriminated against same sex marriage partners.
    • He voted to repeal the ACA
    • Proposed cuts to medicaid and social security
    • Voted for Trump's tax cut legislation that disproportionately benefitted the wealthy.
    • He was 1 out of 147 Republicans to vote to overturn the election results.
    • Voted against a January 6 commission
    • He reportedly does not even believe in climate change
    • One of his committees wrote a statement in support of books on conversion therapy that were recently taken down from Amazon. (So basically a supporter of conversion therapy)
    • He has opposed expanding medical marijuana access in his state and in his defense argued specifically that Marijuana can worsen some health conditions like epilepsy. (The context is important, his views on weed are outdated, he refers to weed as a "gateway drug". He went fishing for whatever he could find and take out of context to support his rigid stance. A study did find some adverse effects with epileptics, however, CBD/medical marijuana is also used in treatments for epilepsy)
    • He voted in favor of Trump's Muslim ban.
    • Has campaigned against LGBTQ rights and anti bullying legislation.
    • He has supported similar legislation to Florida's "don't say gay" bill.
    • Has referred to homosexuality as "unnatural" and a "dangerous lifestyle". He even argued in an editorial in his local Louisiana Newspaper that homosexuality would eventually lead to the destruction of "the entire Democratic system", and the legalization of pedophilia of course.
    • While working for the ADF, he supported criminalizing homosexuality.
    • He has argued in favor of including prayer and religious expression in public schools.

    (not mine, but worth sharing and adding to)

    • qarbone@lemmy.worldEnglish
      93·
      1 year ago

      "defending religious freedom,[…]and biblicial values."

      I am a Christian [agnostic]. Bruv that shit is not how anything work

        • CashewNut 🏴󠁢󠁥󠁧󠁿@lemmy.world
          32·
          1 year ago

          Gnosis and Theism aren't mutually exclusive. Gnosis is knowing and theism is believing. Most people who claim to be atheist are "agnostic atheist".

          Because they don't believe in any gods but they can't fully know for a fact there isn't one. Though Richard Dawkins flirted with declaring himself a "gnostic atheist" many years back (not sure if he settled on it).

          An agnostic Christian would probs be someone who chooses to believe in God and Jesus but not to know for certain. Within that there's varying degrees of how much they choose to follow the teachings.