2y ago

Mike Johnson's campaign contributions from company tied to Russia

www.newsweek.com /house-speaker-mike-johnson-donations-russia-butina-1838501

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.

70 comments

So, turns out russia is trying to bring down the U.S. from the inside? Isn't this what the intelligence community has been saying for years now, and somehow we keep letting it happen.
- It's ok now that Russia is run by oligarchs - oligarchs don't really have nationality in the sense of us peons. It was only that crazy, communist USSR they didn't like. Seriously: name me a significant Russian policy that doesn't 100% align with US conservatives.
- Part of me thinks, "Yeah, the American Fascist Party rushed Johnson into the Speaker's office so that the press wouldn't be able to assemble all this information in time for anyone to protest."
  Another part of me thinks, "So much of this stuff being reported now happened a long time ago. Why didn't we already know?"
  
  The frontrunner for the republican president is well known to have had ties and been compromised long before 2016 (remember the pee-pee- tape?). And plenty of republicans straight up flew to russia for july 4th a few years back.
  Nobody cares. Their base will still vote for them and the rest of us are waiting for the end.
  
  I suspect, with zero evidence, that the press was more focused on covering the shit show that was the vacancy. To dive deep into all of the candidates was going to be a challenge, especially given that the candidates kept changing day to day.
  So once the speaker was elected, the press could then coalesce around the one person.
  
  We can thank the conservative/corporate media, oops, I mean the "liberal media".
- Hell, they even published a book detailing their plans.
  The book emphasizes that Russia must spread geopolitical anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S."
  Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics".[9] Aleksandr Dugin later recorded himself endorsing the presidency of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, expressing agreement with him and his proposed set of policies.
- DOJ needs to step it up but Garland's a "centrist."
- Because the people they report to are the people on the inside.
- I'm thinking we start by torpedoing the oligarchs' yacts in international waters.
  
  I could use a new boat. Where's me cutlass?
- Yeah, but something something MUH FREEZED PEACH.
  ...or that's what the likes of Elmo and little d say.
- So the problem is obviously American politics. But I think it's entirely possible for a politician to be influenced by Russians without being a Russian plant. I think there's a level of insulation between the politician and their "donors." If there's any kind of overt link, that's bad. But if he can say hey, I just cash the checks, he isn't technically doing anything wrong. Legally. Ethically? Piece of shit. But we're talking American politics.
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)
- "defending religious freedom,[...]and biblicial values."
  I am a Christian [agnostic]. Bruv that shit is not how anything work
  
  Christian agnostic? That sounds like an oxymoron, how does that work? (actual question, not being an asshole)
Of course.
- Wouldn't have it any other way.
Russia Russia Russia.
Every traito’R’ is funded by the same bunch of bad guys.
Maria Butina. Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time.
A long time.
- hmmmm, awkward for him
  One of the men behind the company, Nikolaev, an oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also found to have financially backed Maria Butina, a Russian citizen who lived in Washington D.C. Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2019 after admitting to acting as an unregistered foreign agent to infiltrate conservative political groups and influence foreign policy to Russia's benefit before and after the 2016 election.
deleted by creator
- Catholic here, during my confirmation we had to stay a weekend at a monastery to learn about God. One day a priest is talking about a priest who saw Jesus appear before him telling him that he should kiss the feet he walked on and pray to him as he was the son of God, when the priest heard this, he responded with "Jesus never asked to be glorified as a God, and instead wanted to be our servant, you are not him", he threw holy water at Jesus who immediately caught on fire and revealed himself as Satan just before disappearing. The lesson is that is someone tells you that to follow the footsteps of God, you must cause pain to others and do evil deeds, then that person does not represent God but instead represents the Devil and you should cast him aside.
  
  Exactly, we should cast the bible aside.
  
  deleted by creator
  
  Very based, but according to this the GOP represents the devil, and Christians sure aren't throwing them aside.
  The atheists are unironically better Christians than the Christians are.
- Breathe bro, it's gonna be ok.
Someone fetch my fainting couch.
- Oh Lindsey you're so dramatic.
This is what happens when you let money into politics, eventually whole countries can purchase politicians/political parties to do their bidding.
Then it doesn't even matter if the president is born overseas, if he can be bought with overseas funds.
- And they cheap to buy!
Who's shocked? Anyone? No?
Cool. Moving on then.
Every headline about him just gets worse and worse. Just when you think the last Republican Speaker was bad, they somehow manage to outdo themselves with another, even worse shitbag.
Of course they are. He's the same as the rest of the #TraitorGOP.
We must stomp them out.
Not even a little surprised.
The Russian MAGA coalition must have someone in charge that's accountable to Putin.
- MAGA by starting to execute traitors again
I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you! Well, not that shocked...
Slightly off topic, but I've been wondering: Is the "a single member of the House can call a vote to remove the Speaker" rule still in effect, or did things go back to default after McCarthy's removal?
- Since I haven't heard anything to the contrary, I assume the single-member requirement is still in place.
  That single member requirement is actually the "default", historically. Pelosi had it changed when she became Speaker (with a similarly slim margin) so that you needed a majority from either party to make the motion. McCarthy simply changed it back.
  
  Thanks, I didn't know about that!
What could we say about the massive unilateral view of our politics and media about Israel?
Here you come with that shy, fishy donation to a nobody politician while our government give blank checks, weapon and approval to that racist entity in the middle east.
- What could we say about the impeding calamity that will be climate change in the next decade?
  Here you come with a tiny little conflict that only effects millions of people when there are billions of lives under threat.
  Talk about your priorities!
  
  so people living now (rather dying now) is less important to you than this. Why not, We could totally just stop Israel to go wild, and move on the so called priorities. Or we could stop support Israel and even palestinians (they get nothing anyway), and focus on climate emergency.
  By the way, this Israeli offensives has also incredible ecological cost, if you are just interested by this metric so if you don't care about "arabs" (should I dare call them human?), why not just show your outrage about this..
It's why putin/trump installed him.
Huh.
Here we go again

70 comments