the intent of religious and far right extremists to rule, not govern

This is long but I hope you will read all the way to the bottom.

On my way to SHARE last Thursday morning I passed a guy walking along the side of the road holding a big sign in front of himself that said 'Jesus loves you'. There's also a big cross in the easement of one of the main north/south roads that has 'Jesus Is Lord' written on it. During the last election people put out 'pray for our nation' yard signs. At least one of the people I know thinks Mike Johnson's elevation to Speaker of the House is not just a good thing but a great thing. And that is fucking scary. I have no problem with religious believers for the most part as long as they understand that their religion and beliefs apply only to their lives. Unfortunately, too many think their religion and beliefs apply to everyone's lives and should be legislated and forced on the population as a whole. And that is exactly what Mike Johnson wants and plans to do. And not just Johnson, the whole Trump supporting extremist cabal in the House.

Not only does Johnson et al think he has the power given to him by god to force his religious extremism on the population at large, a member of the Seven Mountain Dominionists, he is also an insurrectionist who was instrumental in trying to get Congress to subvert the election, leading the amicus brief that more than 100 republican representatives signed supporting the Texas lawsuit that sought to invalidate the 2020 elections in Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania even after 60 lawsuits filed by republicans claiming fraud failed to produce one iota of evidence. They support Trump because they see him as instrumental in achieving their goal of getting rid of the separation of church and state and turning our democracy into a religious authoritarian government. If you have any doubt that that is their goal, do a little research into this group.

Mike Johnson wants a national ban on abortion, no exceptions even though it is a life saving procedure for women with ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, dead fetuses, severely underdeveloped fetuses with no chance of life, or other health conditions that make it extremely life threatening to continue a pregnancy and even though the majority of Americans are against banning abortion. Already the maternal death rate and newborn death rate has increased in states with abortion bans. Johnson supports banning IVF and common forms of birth control, he voted against ensuring access to contraception and believes every American woman should be required to have at least one child to insure future laborers for the Hegemony. His wife engages in conversion therapy for gays, a completely discounted and dangerous therapy, and they are busy scrubbing all mention of it from the internet. He would make same sex marriage illegal and blames love between members of the same sex as the source of all evil.

And then there's his financial statements in which he declares neither he, his wife, nor their children have a checking or savings account and declares no assets. How does that work? How does he pay his bills? Does he cash his paycheck at the bank? He makes $174,000 a year and that excludes his wife's income. As long as we're on the topic of suspicious stuff, he claims to have adopted and raised a black teenager though there was never a legal adoption, Johnson just 'took custody', whatever that means, but there is no evidence of this 'son' he claims to have raised, not in pictures anyway, not in family portraits, not on any of their websites.

So far in his tenure as Speaker he has split support for Ukraine from support for Israel, offsetting the financial aid with an equal cut to the new funding for the IRS to go after the ultra wealthy tax cheats which if passed would actually add to the national debt by reducing the amount of money collected. As it stands now, with the extra funding, every dollar spent on the IRS returns two or three dollars in owed taxes but republicans don't like it when their obscenely rich donors have to pay their share of taxes. The House has also voted to cut the EPA budget by 39%, the NPS by 13%; reducing the salaries of the EPA administrator, the director of the Bureau of Land Management, and the Secretary of the Interior to $1 each; and are pushing to eliminate Biden's $35 cap on insulin. What Johnson and the House are not doing is working on funding the government, which current funding expires on November 17. Fortunately none of these extreme bills have a chance of passing in the Senate and I expect their refusal to work on and pass a budget for the government for the coming fiscal year is because they see shutting down the government as a plus, a black mark against Biden, hoping it will erode support for him and enable them to take back Congress and the Presidency. However, this man as Speaker of the House, is second in line for the presidency after the Vice-President. If Trump's constant calls for violence against those who oppose him succeed, Johnson could become president before the next election.

As for Trump, his republican supporters, and their desire for an authoritarian government you need only listen to Trump's own words. They will replace everyone in every agency and the civil service with people suitably loyal to Trump, not the Constitution, and are working to acquire a team of lawyers who are willing to try 'innovative' approaches, read unethical, and are already making lists of names. Trump makes no secret of his intention to weaponize the justice department to punish his opponents, detractors, and those who have testified against him (the list of names is long) and, if he wins, is floating plans to invoke the Insurrection Act on the first day of his second term to allow him to deploy the military against civil demonstrations. If re-elected Trump's supporters plan to move quickly and aggressively to consolidate power in the West Wing with that nazi Stephen Miller playing a leading role. There will be no stumbling and bumbling. All of this planning, Project 2025, is going on now by an outside group. If you are unfamiliar with Project 2025, I suggest you research it. It's the republican game plan for when they get control of both Houses of Congress and the Presidency.

Scary times.

And of course they aren't focusing just on the upcoming national election but every state election from the governor to the school board. Virginia and Ohio have important elections on Tuesday and both republican dominated states have removed thousands of qualified voters from the rolls preceding these elections while tossing out twice as many mail-in ballots submitted by blacks than whites continuing their voter suppression tactics.

Hopefully Trump will be in jail or disqualified though the plan will go forward no matter which republican may get elected. The movement is larger than Trump. If we want this democratic republic to survive, if we want the will of the people to govern us and not the will of the far right white christian nationalists intent on religious authoritarian rule every last one of us must vote and vote democrat. What's happening now is exactly what the founding fathers rebelled against.

If you don't already get Heather Cox Richardson's newsletters you should sign up for them. She's a historian and an excellent source of information about what's happening in this country and how it ties into our history.

Another good source for keeping tabs on the ridiculousness and stupidity of some of today's republicans is Jeff Tiedrich. He is astute and funny and says fuck a lot.