Mike Johnson’s Mysterious Black Child?

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Everytime I dip into our new House Speaker’s past something odd turns up.

For instance, he has tried to show he knows the struggles of discrimination by referring to having a black child that he and his wife “took in” when the boy was 14. “I personally know the challenges he has faced early in his life. I’ve walked with him through discrimination that he’s had to endure over the years and the hurdles he faced”, he said in 2019 at a House subcommittee hearing on race issues. — The (Baton Rouge) Advocate

The Hill’s Elizabeth Crisp wrote yesterday that the black son “isn’t mentioned in Speaker Johnson’s official bio or in family photos. I was told that he’s very private.”

His official family photo certainly shows no black kids…

UPDATE: Last night on CNN he was asked about this: “The reality is – and no one can tell me otherwise – my (adopted Black) son Michael had a harder time than my (White) son Jack is going to have simply because of the color of his skin. And that’s a reality.” ~ Speaker Mike Johnson

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65 thoughts on “Mike Johnson’s Mysterious Black Child?”

  1. more on mike

    The new Speaker of the House is an election denier known for his anti-LGBTQ viewpoints, a new Senate report details secret gifts to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Stephen traces the link between the devastating loss of life in Lewiston, Maine, and years of chronic inaction on the part of our elected leaders.

  2. click here if you want to hear that colbert-santos bit which was described as:

    Congressman George Santos, who was recently indicted on 23 federal charges, joins Stephen to offer perfectly good excuses for his actions. Special thanks to our dear friend Harvey Guillén!

  3. passing tho’t while listening to that interview on the amanpour & co vid with mike:

    shades of dick cheney, with his soothing calm way of speaking, could lull folks into thinking he’s not such a radical after all.  good-sounding sane delivery by a politician or performer goes a long way.   perhaps one of the millions of reasons folks are put off by the gym and the gaetz of hell guys who not only say crazy stuff but they shout, sneer and snivel gobbledygook while doing so.

  4. I’m not in the 11%. Keep going Joe. 
    GDP growth 4.9% last month. (Watch out for overreaction by the Fed).

  5. Pat, Dick Cheney is a very good comparison. It’s the quiet ones we should watch out for.

    Take a look at Wiki on the group he used to build his career, as a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). Scary bunch.

    The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designates ADF as an anti-LGBT hate group, saying in 2017 that, since the election of President Donald Trump, ADF had become “one of the most influential groups informing the [Trump] administration’s attack on LGBTQ rights.” The ADF has taken many anti-LGBT positions: it opposes same-sex marriage, decriminalization of same-sex sexual activity, and anti-discrimination laws, as well as taking an active role in writing model anti-transgender bills for state legislators.”

  6. MAGA Mike on FOX last night:

    “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”

  7. House speaker once won taxpayer funds for employer who hired only Christians

    Working for Freedom Guard, a non-profit proclaiming a commitment to defending religious liberty, Johnson was hired by Answers in Genesis, a creationist ministry, in 2015, after the state of Kentucky rescinded an offer of tourism tax incentives for the project in Williamstown, citing discrimination against non-Christians. … Johnson won the case and the for-profit park – featuring a vast Ark-like structure meant to depict that in the biblical flood narrative as described in the Book of Genesis – received $18m in tax breaks. The park featured dinosaurs, which Creationists believe were on the Ark. Johnson said an ark replica with dinosaurs “is one way to bring people to this recognition … that what we read in the Bible are actual historical events.” — The Guardian
     

  8. ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”

    which parts, mike, the eye for an eye and sacrifice your son parts

    or the love thy enemies, turn the other cheek and don’t boastingly pray in public parts?

  14. “You should not be afraid of someone who has a library and reads many books; you should fear someone who has only one book; and he considers it sacred, but he has never read it.”
    —Nietzsche

  15. Old Berman.

    And Speaker Mike Johnson, Day 2: For a man who spent twenty years advocating for sending gay people to prison for having sex,
    advocating for sending doctors to prison for providing family planning,
    advocating for a national abortion ban, advocating for fewer laws against guns, advocating for more laws against divorce,
    advocating for gutting of the entire societal safety net,
    advocating for disenfranchising minorities and entire states,
    advocating for using the constitution to destroy the constitution,
    advocating for the forced conflation of church and state,
    advocating for a conservative group that makes employees swear an oath to Jesus,
    advocating against transgenderism,
    advocating against men wearing women’s clothes,
    advocating against women wearing MEN’S clothes,
    advocating restrictions against Muslims,
    advocating against federal disaster relief,
    advocating for more oil and gas and against science that has proved we are all going to be KILLED by more oil and gas,
    advocating for that idiot Amy Coney Barrett since he met her in 1988,
    advocating for a limit of three terms in the House and then running for this one – his FOURTH, and advocating for the overthrow of the duly-elected government of the United States throughout the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.
    For a guy who has done nothing but comment on everything, all the time, and always wrong… so far… he sure has been Speaker of The House Mr. No Comment.

  16. what I hear him saying now when questioned about his past statements is a garbled version of “i was being a good attorney and saying whatever my clients hired/wanted/expected me to say on their behalf” — an inflated version of “i was just following orders.” 

  20. david horsey’s version

    A House speaker is anointed | The Seattle Times

    On a scale of likability, the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, ranks several steps higher than some of his House Republican colleagues.

    The last speaker, Kevin McCarthy, has the vibe of a timeshare condo salesman in a seedy resort town. Jim Jordan, the failed Freedom Caucus candidate for the speaker’s job, seems like a guy who would eye your jugular vein while shaking your hand. Johnson, though, exudes the earnest friendliness of a greeter at an evangelical mega church.

    That churchy demeanor is probably well practiced, since Johnson’s legal career centered on representing religious causes, or, as he stated himself in September, “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.”

    In Johnson’s rather magnanimous first speech as speaker on Wednesday, he said he sincerely believed his rise to leadership was not a coincidence. God put him there, he said, modestly adding that, in the same way, God had put every member of Congress in a position to serve.

    […]

    It is tempting to question Johnson’s own commitment to the tenets of Christianity, given that he was a prominent backstage figure in the attempt to deny Joe Biden all the electoral votes he earned in the 2020 presidential election. Johnson proved himself to be an eager enabler of former President Donald Trump’s Big Lie and, now, he has won the speakership largely due to his continued unflinching loyalty to the ex-president.

    The evidence is abundant and irrefutable that Trump’s amorality in business and politics knows no bounds. Evangelical Christians like Speaker Johnson should be doing everything they can to keep such a corrupt human being from returning to the White House. Instead, they continue to fill the seats in Trump’s political revival tent.

    Mike Johnson’s devotion to Trump shows him to be either a dupe or a hypocrite. Either way, being a nice guy will not excuse him from the judgment of history.

  22. Patd

    Small quibble.  An eye for an eye is one of the most misinterpreted biblical references.  It is not meant to excuse revenge.  It was actually an improvement and recommendation for mercy.  Instead of say chopping off a hand for theft of a loaf of bread etc.  the punishment should fit the crime so a fine for the cost of the bread would be more appropriate.  

  26. https://www.businessinsider.com/mike-johnson-covenant-marriage-definition-divorce-speaker-house-2023-10

    “The new speaker of the House is in a ‘covenant marriage,’ a religiously-influenced legal agreement that makes it harder to get a divorce”

    “Louisiana became the first state to pass a law to create covenant marriages in 1997, and Arizona and Arkansas later followed suit. It remains a relatively rare arrangement, with only 2% of Louisiana couples opting into it.”

    “An evangelical Christian, Johnson is also a long-time opponent of same-sex marriage and has championed a bill similar to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law — known to critics as “Don’t Say Gay.”

    Was Gym just a red herring to get the gavel into Johnson’s right-wingnut hand?

  29. Can’t say how accurate this is but if true it is fun.

    The campaign has created a unit called Biden-Harris HQ, which is dedicated to “digital rapid response.” This often means pushing back against falsehoods, or highlighting bad behavior from the opposition, but it also means a fair bit of snarkiness, which is right up our alley.
    As part of the effort to snarkify the world of politics, Biden-Harris HQ created an account on the platform known as Twitter. And, since they’d already ventured onto a social media platform that is overrun by lies, hatred and right-wing propaganda, they figured they would do it again. So, they created an account on… Truth Social. The very first message was: “Well. Let’s see how this goes. Converts welcome!”
    And the answer to that implied question, at least thus far, is: “Pretty good!” The fact that the social media platform owned by Donald Trump is now being used to promote the Biden campaign would be schadenfreude enough. But now, Biden-Harris HQ actually has more followers on Truth Social than… Trump ’24. 

  30. BiD  
    It was the final destruction of the normie Republican, they got down on their knees and geeked for Trumps entertainment. What for? A few more weeks walking the “sacred halls of congress”
    BTW I’m using the carney definition (#3) not the Tech one
    Jack

  32. jack, spot on with “geek” (which when it 1st began to be used in re expert techies i was puzzled what eating chicken heads had to do with IT stuff) since picture does come to mind congress critters running round like chickens with heads cut off.

  33. jamie, quibble away, it’s okay with me.  what I wanted to ask maga mike about was whether he agreed or not with jesus’ teachings.  in particular this from matt 5:38- 42 in his sermon on mount. note verse 40 in re your comment:

    38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

    39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

    40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

    41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

    42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

    43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

    44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

  34. Alexandra Petrie The Problem is the Human Heart 

    Human hearts! That is the problem! In America, we are uniquely badly positioned because of our human hearts. Why don’t we have stone hearts like the French; or efficient, wood-burning hearts like the Germans; or the Teflon hearts that I hear Elon Musk will soon be pioneering to an elite crowd of subscribers? (I, for one, cannot wait! Anything to divert his attention from X!)

     

  35. Pogo – I hope everyone, including media outlets, start referring to “Republican-endorsed” killings.  I hope they put up pics of Booblehead and mtg with their assault rifles alongside the horror felt by these communities (which could just as easily be ours, and probably will be some day), and their AK lapel pins.      And, will they do anything when we offer ~thoughts & prayers~ if they become the afflicted?  Nope.  I mean, just look at Scalice. 

  36. Pat
    Given  that God instructed to Israelites to keep the virgins and kill everybody else when they first took over land of Caanan several millennia ago. Jamie probably has a point.
    Your Jesus quote seems to have little in common with those instructions.
    I long ago decided that the Jews were right when they argue that Jesus can’t be the messiah.
    I think he is Buddha with an Eastern Mediterranean twist. 
    LOL, let the religious wars begin!!!
    Jack

  37. jamie, thanks for linking ms petri.  i got a kick out of this part too:

    The heart is a uniquely American problem. Johnson, I hear, had his removed long ago, which allows him to look on the suffering of his fellow man with equanimity and detachment, because of his serene awareness of the Divine Plan. Some people’s hearts are simply bad (learned too much Darwinism, or too little prayer, or too much bodily autonomy). Johnson has been saying things of this kind for as long as he has been in the public eye. The problem is never guns.

    jack, you’re on to something there about the buddha/jesus connection. perhaps BB, the only known certified minister on the trail, can look into that concept and sermonize some for us.

  38. His official family photo certainly shows no black kids…

    Has anyone made the “who do you think took the picture?” joke, yet?

  39. i’m reading through some of his past statements on issues affecting black Americans issues and frankly, Mike Johnson is “woke”, in the purest sense, as in “awakened to the realities of systemic and institutional racism”
     
    His quote featured in this thread’s original post is an example of that

  40. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Johnson_(Louisiana_politician)

    “Since March 2022, Johnson and his wife have co-hosted a podcast, “Truth Be Told”, where they discuss public affairs and other issues from a Christian perspective.”

    “On his podcast, Johnson said that “the word of God is, of course, the ultimate source of all truth”, and attributed the United States’ success as a leading nation to its being the only nation founded upon a “religious statement of faith”.

  43. I’m usually an ace with the fly swatter but this one has got me beat. I think it’s an Alabama fly that hitched a ride on some flowers we picked from our former back yard. 

  45. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/27/politics/republican-jewish-coalition-trump-israel/index.html

    “GOP 2024 presidential candidates traveling to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual conference are facing a unique challenge this year: how to distinguish themselves from former President Donald Trump on their support and approach to defending Israel as the country’s war against Hamas rages on.”

    “Trump remains extremely popular among Jewish conservatives, but some of his advisers privately have wondered whether there will be any fallout after the former president trashed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, once one of his closest foreign allies, over intelligence failures in the days after Hamas’ initial surprise terror attack on October 7 – a turn sparked in part by Trump’s belief that Netanyahu had been disloyal by recognizing President Joe Biden’s victory in 2020.”

  46. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/26/politics/dean-phillips-presidential-campaign-launch/index.html

    “Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips formally launched his presidential campaign Friday and filed to run in New Hampshire’s Democratic primary, kicking off his long-shot challenge to President Joe Biden.”

    “…Phillips said he felt compelled to challenge Biden – whom he called a “terrific president” – over his concerns that the incumbent would lose a general election rematch against former President Donald Trump.”

    “Phillips and his team have insisted they plan to mount a serious challenge to Biden that will go beyond New Hampshire. Speaking to reporters Friday morning in Concord, Phillips said it would be “foolish” to run just to raise his national profile.”

    “Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota wrote that sometimes people in his state do “crazy things” like “make political sideshows for themselves,” a seeming dig at Phillips’ campaign.”

    “One other thing is true of Minnesota: We love Joe Biden and we’re working day in and day out to get him reelected,” the email read.

    F U Dean Phillips!

    Biden/Harris 2024!

  47. I’m hearing a lot of rhetoric in one-to-one exchanges that have me concerned that the “decrepit Joe” propaganda is taking hold. 

  48. Ivy, are you sure that’s the same fly?  it’s way past it’s expiration date to be a real one.  i’m guessing it’s a fly spy since they can make mighty little drones nowadays.  either that or your original fly laid some eggs upon arriving and they’re mission in their 1-15+/- days of life is to taunt you.

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