WHO IS MIKE JOHNSON?

Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected speaker of the House today.  He got every Republican to vote for him.  That was a minor miracle.  Who is he?

• He was born in Shreveport, Louisiana 51 years ago, 1972.

• 
  I was then completing my PhD in biochemical engineering at LSU.  Nearly four years of living in that state was most experienceful.
• Johnson's father was a firefighter, and Mike indicated that he was the first in his family to go to college.  In 1995 he too graduated from LSU in business administration.  In 1998, a law degree from LSU.
• Won a House seat in 2016, and has easily won re-elections.

• 
  In 2021 was one of the architects in a vote to overturn the 2020 election results.
• Voted against forming the House Commission to investigate the 6January2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol.
• Became Speaker of the House today, and has the shortest House membership tenure of any Speaker in 140 years.
• What does he represent?
• Member of the Christian right faction of the Republican Party.
• Is aligned with Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters.

• 

  Is anti-abortion,
• Outspoken critic of LGBT rights.
• Questions the science of climate warming.
• Against wind and solar energy.
• Has received $338,125 from the oil and gas industry.
• For prohibiting immigration from seven Muslim countries.
• Opposes any minimum wage bill.
• Married for 24 years with four children.  Took in a 14-year old African-American boy as part of their family 22 years ago.

Watched his acceptance speech.  Shows promise.  Nice guy.  Seems to be anti-Ukraine funding.  If he compromises on this, and wades through all the controversy to largely pass the Biden $106 billion aid package, plus works out any kind of compromise to keep the government going till the end of the year, that would be minor miracle 2.  If he remains speaker through next year, he could well blossom to be an attractive presidential candidate in 2028.  Could there be a minor miracle 3?

Johnson's victory might well be a sign that Republicans will continue to support Trump as their presidential candidate, dooming the party next year. 

• Trump had a decisive role in making Johnson speaker.  

• 
  At Trump's New York fraud trial, a former lawyer of his, Michael Cohen, yesterday called Trump a criminal and cheat.  Trump was seated nearby, scoffed and shook his  head.

• 
  Today, Trump just got another fine from New York Judge Arthur Engoron for violating the gag order.  $10,000 this time.  Soon thereafter, Trump stormed out of the courthouse.
• I'm losing track, but is it up to five of his lawyers/staff/cronies prematurely flipping to to set Trump up for conviction?

• 
  If not in jail in a year or so, all the evidence about the January 6 coup attempt to whatever is happening in Georgia will be on the minds of Independents for election day on 5November2024.  They will determine who will be in the White House and U.S. Capitol.
• So far, the most foresightful and creative Hollywood script writer couldn't have created what has happened above for the benefit of the Democratic Party.

Today, there is just one important Republican brave enough to keep sounding the alarm about Trump, Mitt Romney.  Award-winning The Atlantic writer McKay Coppins, after a series of interviews with him, published Romney:  A Reckoning, about how he failed to neutralize Trump, and why he decided to quit the U.S. Senate, which will take effect after the session next year.  From a Politico article, referring way back to 2016:

Romney, in Coppins’ telling, considered Trump a “buffoon,” an “unabashed demagogue,” a “manifestly unqualified madman” and a “profoundly depraved and broken person whose election would coarsen America’s culture.” His “number one priority” was to stop him. When Chris Christie became arguably the first major establishment Republican to endorse Trump, Romney sent Christie an email: “He is unquestionably mentally unstable, and he is racist, bigoted, misogynistic, xenophobic, vulgar and prone to violence. There is simply no rational argument that could lead me to vote for someone with those characteristics. I believe your endorsement of him severely diminishes you morally — though probably not politically — and that you must withdraw that support to preserve your integrity and character.” When Reince Priebus, then the chair of the Republican National Committee, called Romney to urge him to endorse Trump, Romney laughed and called Trump “nuts.”

Well, that was seven years ago.  What are his feelings today?  Here, from Chuck Todd:

• He’s (Romney) clearly concerned that Trump’s lack of interest in or reverence for democracy is having a trickle-down effect on the base of the party — and that his cult-of-personality-driven campaigns are spiraling the party closer to either irrelevance (if it continues to lose) or worse, authoritarianism (if Trump gets power again).
• Right now, fear of primary voters is the single biggest driving force dictating why elected Republicans do what they do when it comes to Trump.
• This book, and Romney’s decision to let it all be public, is his attempt to sound the alarm one last time before it’s too late to save the GOP from itself.

Also from Romney about the five Republican families:

• The Freedom Caucus, a hard-right faction made up of lawmakers who formed the Tea Party movement and strongly back Trump.

• 
  The Republican Study Committee, an older conservative group and the largest G.O.P. ideological faction.

• 
  The Main Street Caucus, made up of pro-business Republicans.

• 
  The Republican Governance Group, which comprises many fiscally conservative but socially moderate members.
• 
  The Problem Solvers Caucus, which includes both Republicans and Democrats and focuses on policies with bipartisan support.

Not much happening with the Hamas-Israel War:

• No hostage release today.  There still are 200 or so, and around 20 children, as young as 6 months old.
• Israel is continuing to bomb the Gaza Strip.
• Increased activity in the West Bank.

Victor Wembanyama's debuts at 9:30PM EDT on ESPN.  

• He is a 19-year old Frenchman who is 7'4"" tall. and only 209 pounds.  
• His mother, a basketball coach, is French, while his father, 6'6" tall, is from the Congo.
• Read about this French connection, for, next to Canada, they have sent the most number of foreign players into the NBA.

Super Hurricane Otis made landfall at 165 MPH right over Acapulco, with a population of about a million.  

• 
  Only formed on Sunday, became a hurricane yesterday, and quickly zoomed up to 165 MPH.  
• Eye reached Mexico at 11:25 last night.  This is the first super hurricane ever to make landfall in the Eastern Pacific.

• 
  In 1997 Hurricane Pauline made arrive on shore southeast of Acapulco as a Category 4. 
• Only 6% of hurricanes reach super hurricane strength, and almost all of them lose intensity before reaching land.
• How deadly was Otis?  At this writing, authorities still don't know.
• While a fun city into the 1960's, since 2000 crime worsened to make it the deadliest city in Mexico.  Well, another reference showed that there are deadlier cities in Mexico.  But note the presence of New Orleans.  Well, I just cancelled my return to Louisiana.

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