Louisiana Voice

“This is what happens when a political party allows itself to be hollowed out and wholly defined by one man. When the public sours on that man, the party falls right along with him.”

–Michelle Cottle

“Antipathy toward the president trumped everything else. But for Democrats, winning was the easy part. Memories of this election cycle will be shaped by what Democrats do with their power.”

–Binyamin Appelbaum

“MAGA will end one day. The election results last night suggest that it could be sooner rather than later. Texas elected a Democratic governor. Georgia elected a Black female governor. North Carolina flipped innumerable contested races blue. This repudiation of Trump’s small, racist, profoundly unserious vision of America needed to win decisively. And it did.”

–Tressie McMillan Cottom

The president wasted billions on foreign wars and waged a brutal assault on immigrants here at home. On Tuesday, voters woke up from the delusion that Trump’s an ally of working people.”

–Jean Guerrero

“You can’t lie to people about the price of a gallon of gas or the price of a pound of ground beef or the price of a ton of fertilizer. Tariffs and the lunatic war on Iran have clobbered ordinary people while Trump and his billionaire cronies have lined their pockets.”

–Lydia Polgreen

(Each of the above quotes are from The New York Times columnists)

“As it turns out, not everything has a price tag. Elon Musk spent nearly $190m blanketing the state with ads against James Talarico. But his attempts to depict Talarico as an unhinged extremist wasn’t enough to convince a majority of Texans to vote for Ken Paxton. A similar story played out across the country. Donald Trump deployed hundreds of millions of dollars through Maga Inc. to boost candidates such as Darline Graham in South Carolina, Mike Rogers in Michigan, and Michael Whatley in North Carolina.

“It didn’t work.”

–Judd Legum, founder and author of Popular Information

“One of the big stories of the midterms is that the south is no longer solid Republican territory. The southern strategy has a term limit, and the region’s diversity is now paying political dividends for the Democrats.”

–Charles Blow, author, political analyst and contributing writer to The Guardian

(Charles Blow, a native of Gibsland, LA., is a graduate of Grambling State University)

“Tuesday night – almost exactly 10 years after he won the presidency in an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 – the Trump era effectively came to an end. Now, with a Senate majority, Democrats will be able to investigate the president and his cabinet members, draw public attention to their own agenda items, assert Congress’s constitutional prerogatives, and block Republican judicial appointments.”

–Moira Donegan, The Guardian

“Elon Musk angrily put Ken Paxton on eBay. The billionaire was hoping to recoup some of his $190 million purchase of Paxton, but in the Texan’s first hours on eBay the bidding for him stalled at six dollars.”

–Andy Borowitz and Paul Karasik

Fed up with paying so much at the gas pump? Most of us are but it’s not entirely the fault of the Iran war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

A lot of the high price of gasoline and diesel is just pure greed.

A quick look at corporate earnings of the oil companies tells a graphic story of how big oil is capitalizing on the war and artificially inflating the price of fuel.

Here’s a headline from CNBC that’s almost certain to give you a warm fuzzy:

Chevron and Exxon hit all-time highs as refining profits soar in reaction to Iran and Ukraine wars.

Oil earnings Chevron (CVX) and Exxon (XOM) Q3 2026

The story began, “Chevron and ExxonMobil on Friday reported profits that soared in the third quarter, as their U.S. refineries ramped up production to full capacity to take advantage of high diesel fuel prices.”

Wow. ExxonMobil’s profits actually doubled to $15.4 billion (with a “B”), compared to $7.5 billion for the same quarter of 2025.

It was enough for Pedo-President Trump to exult that U.S. energy companies are making a “FREAKING FORTUNE” just before today’s midterms.

The story was much the same for BP and SHELL, both of which mirrored ExxonMobil in raking in record profits even as consumers paid higher and higher prices for fuel.

Of course, all of this should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.

It was during the 2024 presidential campaign that Trump gathered big oil executives at Ma-a-Lago in April for a closed-door meeting. At that gathering, Trump made a pitch for big oil to kick in $1 billion (again, with a “B”) for his campaign in exchange for $110 billion in savings through the relaxing or outright elimination of drilling regulations, a lifting of the moratorium on gas exports and elimination of automotive pollution regulations.

Trump Asked Oil Execs for 2024 Election Cash in a Deal Worth $110BN: Reports – Business Insider

So, if there were ever any questions as to whose interests Trump held foremost in mind, that should’ve pretty much erased those doubts.

That should also have made today, election day, it crystal-clear that any Republican officer-holder or candidate who did not repudiate that mindset is complicit. Likewise, any Republican officer-holder or candidate who does not insist on releasing the Epstein files, or who otherwise remains silent as this president commits insider-trading, destroys diplomatic relations with old allies or in any way, shows sympathy with people like Putin or Kim Jong Un or who condones attacks on innocent American citizens or who ignores the rule of law is every bit as guilty as the tyrant they continue to prop up through their refusal to act in the interest of the nation.

And every one of them should be voted out of office. That includes people like congressional candidates like Stephen Wagley whose TV ads advocate the BANNING OF ILHAN OMAR FROM CONGRESS.

I’m not Islamic and I don’t agree with that particular religion. Nor, for that matter, do I adhere to Buddhism, Hinduism, or even certain beliefs of the evangelical so-called Christians—but I do very much agree with their right to believe as they do and I will state emphatically that it is not Stephen Wagley’s place to decide who will or will not serve in the U.S. Congress. It may be good dog-whistle rhetoric to the radical extremists but it is a damned poor example of what this country is supposed to stand for.

A couple of weeks ago, KNOE-TV in Monroe aired a fluff piece about the creation of a special fund to reimburse local utility systems for damages caused by the state’s broadband expansion in the parishes of LaSalle, Caldwell, Franklin and Catahoula.

State creates fund to reimburse water systems damaged during broadband expansion

The story by Shahid Evans noted that State Sen. Glenn Womack has been working with the Louisiana Department of Health “to establish the local infrastructure fund.”

His Senate District 32 just happens to encompass the parishes of LaSalle, Caldwell, Franklin and Catahoula (along with all or part of Avoyelles, Concordia, Ouachita, Rapides, Richland and West Feliciana).

Senate District 32 (in red)

Womack also is the owner of WOMACK AND SONS CONSTRUCTION GROUP,  along with several other entities, in Harrisonburg whose Utility Division “consists of underground water, sewer and gas piping,” according to the company’s WEBSITE, though Womack told KNOE his company is not involved with the projects.

The story quoted LDH as saying as many as 300 city and parish government water systems may be eligible to apply for reimbursement for damages to their systems during the broadband expansion from 2022 through June of this year.

Womack said broadband had committed no wrongdoing but rather damages occurred “at such a pace that our locals wasn’t (sic) able to stay ahead of them.”

To apply, each eligible utility system or political subdivision must provide certain damage documentation in order to receive reimbursement for the cost of materials, equipment, labor and professional support provided for eligible repairs the systems made to their public underground utility infrastructure.

Under the program guidelines approved last month, the local system may be reimbursed up to 100% of supported damage cost (or $50,000) when it serves 10,000 people or fewer, or 100% of supported damage cost (or $30,000) when it serves more than 10,000 people.

LDH’s Broadband Damage Reimbursement Program application portal opened yesterday (Nov. 1) and will close on January 1, 2027.  The LDH Bureau of Engineering Services will make funding recommendations by January 31, 2027.

Funding for the program was provided by HOUSE BILL 700 of 2024 by State Rep. Daryl Deshotel (R-Marksville). THAT BILL passed the House unanimously, 101-0 and the Senate, also unanimously, by a 34-0 vote.

While Womack says his company is not involved in the Broadband project, a review of Louisiana Checkbook, the state web page that lists all state contractors, shows that Womack and Sons Construction Group currently holds FIVE SEPARATE CONTRACTS with the state totaling more than $29 million.

They include $11.74 million for the Agriculture and Forestry Wood Products Education and Research Center at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston; $11.557 million for the Athletic Academic Center at Louisiana Tech; $5.2 million for Phase II of Drainage Outfall Project  and Infrastructure Improvements at LSU-Alexandria; $1.9 million for Pond Improvements to the Booker Fowler Fish Hatchery in Forest Hill, and $757,000 for Flood Damage Repairs to the Main Building of Northwest Louisiana Technical College in Natchitoches.