Louisiana Voice

“Wearing a mask is a non-partisan issue. The advice of medical experts shouldn’t be politicized. My father ignored medical expertise and now he has COVID. “lease listen to medical experts. It’s not worth following a president who has no remorse for leading his followers to an early grave.”

–Caroline Brooks, daughter of Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), who caught the coronavirus after refusing to wear a mask until he had already caught the virus..

“I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, if I might have put some … of the virus on the mask and breathed it in. … But the reports of my demise are very premature. If somebody feels strongly about everybody should wear a mask, then they shouldn’t be around people that don’t wear masks.”

Rep. Louis Gohmert, refusing to admit his stupidity, claiming he caught the virus from his mask. [You freaking idiot, it’s pretty difficult to avoid all those with oatmeal for brains out there walking around without masks. Read the comments below to understand how difficult it is to avoid the maskless morons.]

“There is a general fear that saying anything critical of the current office policy — or lack of policy — will lead to retaliation. Our office has been required to be fully staffed since session resumed at the end of June (including an intern). While mask use isn’t banned, it’s also not encouraged, and has been derided on several occasions by the [chief of staff] and the member.”

—Comments by congressional aides following Rep. Louie Gohmert’s testing positive for coronavirus, which he claims he contracted from his mask. [And headline-hungry preachers and belligerent barbecue joints take their cues from idiots like Clay Higgins and Gohmert.]

“It never was about safety. It was about taking away our freedoms.”

—Prophet (or should that be Profit?) Tony Spell on the mandate to wear masks to inhibit the spread of a virus that has killed almost 155,000 Americans, some of whom were probably subscribed to such nonsense as Spell’s claim that requiring masks is “tyrannical.” [Perhaps its worth noting that in 2011, only 30 percent of white evangelicals thought an elected official who committed an immoral act in their personal life could behave ethically but by 2016, when Trump ran for president, that number had increased to 73 percent. Apparently, it was “never about” morality. It was about political expedience and convenience.]

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First of all, let me be perfectly clear: Firehouse Barbeque, located in a strip mall on LA. 16 about halfway between Denham Springs and the unincorporated town of Watson, has the absolute, unquestioned best BBQ I have ever tasted in my entire 76 years on this planet – and they don’t cheat you on portions.

Second of all, I will never enter that establishment again.

They won’t miss be because apparently, every Livingston Parish anti-mask Donald Trump supporter in Livingston Parish – and there’s no shortage of those – is more than eager to make up for the loss of one occasional diner like me.

Shoot, even publicity-hound prophet Tony Spell, he of the Life Tabernacle Church across the Amite River in Central in East Baton Rouge Parish, showed up on Monday to sit at God’s Table, LLC (the corporate name of Firehouse BBQ) to partake of a generous helping of something from the Firehouse menu.

But of course, Spell could be expected to stick his nose into any issue that could conceivably adversely impact the donations that might fall into his numerous offering plates, the issue being a limit on the number of people who might be able to congregate at a given event. He’s already been embroiled with the state over its earlier 50-person crowd limit.

So, Spell knew that the media would be on hand to display his freshly-scrubbed face and perfectly-coifed pompadour on TV and in the newspaper. And he was RIGHT, of course.

Eunice and Danielle Bunch, owners of God’s Table, LLC (and for the life of me, I can’t comprehend why God’s table, needs to organize as a “limited liability corporation”), claim that some of their workers have suffered adverse medical reactions to wearing masks and that they would allow their customers to decide for themselves whether or not to wear them. (Perhaps Rev. Spell could pray those reactions away.)

“The illegal mask mandate has been attempted to be enforced upon our store by harming the income of the business and employees without a hearing,” said a hand-written notice on the door alongside a July 31 Louisiana Health Department document ordering Firehouse’s closure.

Well, that’s fine and dandy and Spell and a few other patrons want to make it an issue of liberty and the right to bear bare faces, a right that could turn noses and mouths into virtual weapons of mass destruction. (Does that make this a Second Amendment issue?)

Spell, after the State revoked the restaurant’s food permit, called the state’s action “tyrannical,” adding, “It never was about safety. It was about taking away our freedoms.”

B.S., pure B.S.

Let’s talk about freedom, Rev. I have the freedom to be assured that some infected employee hasn’t breathed or worse, sneezed onto my food.

I don’t care if one of their employees does also work for Ochsner Clinic just down the road. In fact, especially if one of their employees does also work for Ochsner Clinic just down the road. I have the right not to carry their infections into my home and to expose my family.

Almost as much as contaminated food, I detest grandstanding by some self-righteous preacher who invokes God’s name every time someone pisses him off. Rev. Spell, I’ve yet to see anything carved in stone that informs me that you are endowed with the exclusive hotline to God. You are, in the final analysis, just a man like me. No better, no worse. Your word carries no more weight than mine.

But you’d never know it by reading some of the comments beneath The Advocate story.

While there were voices of reason that supported the use of masks as proven to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus, one reader said Spell was “the only person standing up for our freedom and liberty.”

Sorry, but I lump safety and health in with freedom and liberty. And I can’t make the stretch that wearing a mask is a threat or even an affront to our freedom and liberty. In fact, I don’t even see it as any more of an inconvenience than wearing a baseball MAGA cap backward or a Trump T-shirt—fairly regular sights at Walmart, the dollar store or even Firehouse BBQ.

And I haven’t seen any women offended at the infringement on freedom of mask mandates clamoring to go topless in Livingston Parish.

But that was of little consequence to that reader who somehow managed to morph his comments into someone’s yelling “fire” in a crowded theater as evidence that mask mandates are illegal.

Another reader opined that tyranny from the government is already here and that if you believe the news, “you are already oppressed and ignorant.”

Wow. So, what, exactly, are you supposed to believe? Apparently, Trump news, because that reader also said he has personally used hydroxychloroquine and that it cured him. He must be getting his news from some source. I wonder if he’s ingested bleach?

The same one who championed Spell as the only one standing up for freedom and liberty later actually advocated for a civil war and at the same time, managed to tie those who advocate masks to communism:

“I look forward to civil war. Something needs to happen. Hopefully like what happened in Chile back in 1973. All these communists need to disappear.” (Yeah, that worked out well for Chile: 130,000 arrests, death squads, torture and detention centers, assassinations, general turmoil.)

Now that’s scary and hopelessly irresponsible – and an infringement on my liberty and freedom.

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“So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics. In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!”

–Donald Trump, criticizing Dr. Birx after she said the pandemic is spreading. [First of all, let’s be honest: it’s not the “China Virus,” it’s the T-rump Virus. The big question here is why can’t Trump’s 35% base see that the man is a close-minded egomaniac who cannot stomach any pushback from anyone on any subject, anytime, anywhere? Imagine, if you will, the reaction of an abusive husband when you attempt to intervene when he’s beating his wife, or when you try to let someone know they’re driving the wrong direction in a Walmart parking lot, or why it’s advisable to wear a mask in a public gathering. Got the image? Now superimpose the face of Trump on that person.]

“For the sake of our constitutional republic, he must lose, and lose badly. Yet that should be just a start: We should only honor former presidents who uphold and sustain our nation’s enduring democratic values. There should be no schools, bridges or statues devoted to Trump. His name should live in infamy, and he should be remembered, if at all, for precisely what he was — not a president, but a blundering cheat.”

–George Conway op-ed, Aug. 3, 2020.

“By the way, I have to say, the post office for many years has been run in a fashion that hasn’t been great. … And I don’t think the post office is prepared for a thing like this. How can the post office be expected to handle?”

“Again, absentee is great, it works. Like in Florida, they’ll do absentee, it really works. But universal mail-in ballots, it’s going to be a great embarrassment to our country.”

–Tweets by Donald Trump, who has voted by absentee ballot himself and continues to ignore the fact that absentee ballots are, in fact, mail-in ballots. [Funny how the USPS has suddenly become an issue just three months before the election.]

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“If you’re asking me a hypothetical … we would fill it.”

—Senate Leader Moscow Mitch McConnell, on whether or not he would push for filling a Supreme Court vacancy should something happen to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This is the same Moscow Mitch who held up the nomination of Merrick Garland in 2016 because it was too close (nine months) to the presidential election. [Sorry, folks, I hate to be so blunt but anyone who cannot see a double standard here is blind, stupid, or both.]

“I have been saying now for about three years that this president doesn’t plan to have an election. He’s not planning to give up the office.”

–House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.)

“In no way does the acting secretary condone this practice and he has immediately ordered an inquiry into the matter. The acting secretary is committed to ensuring that all DHS personnel uphold the principles of professionalism, impartiality and respect for civil rights and civil liberties, particularly as it relates to the exercise of First Amendment rights.”

—Department of Homeland Security (DHS) mouthpiece Alexei Woltornist, on July 31, after it was learned that DHS had (gasp) compiled intelligence reports on journalists and analyzed communications between protesters in Portland, Ore. [Translation: You can chalk up DHS Acting Secretary Chad Wolf as just another Trump sycophant who got caught lying through his teeth and that DHS intelligence office Brian Murphy was thrown under the bus for carrying out order from above.]

“Grace is to Trump what garlic is to vampires.”

—Bret Stephens, New York Times, Aus. 3, 2020.

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“Over the past few weeks, my office has been inundated with calls referring to the Jade Helm 15 military exercise scheduled to take place between July 15 and September 15, 2015. This military practice has some concerned that the U.S. Army is preparing for modern da martial law.”

—Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), May 5, 2015. [Gohmert is the same one who claims he contracted the coronavirus from his mask—the same one, apparently, that he refused to wear until he tested positive.]

“The eight-week exercise starting in July and planned for locations in Texas, New Mexico, California and other Southwestern states, (right-wing bloggers and commentators) say, is part of a secret plan to impose martial law, take away people’s guns, arrest political undesirables, launch an Obama-led hostile takeover of red-state Texas, or do some combination thereof.

“…Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive … to Maj. Gen. Gerald Betty, commander of the (Texas) Guard, … that he wanted Jade Helm 15 monitored because it was ‘important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property rights and civil liberties will not be infringed.’”

—The New York Times, May 6, 2015, explaining how right-wing conspiracy mills like Media Wars were claiming that the military was constructing tunnels beneath closed Walmart stores as part of a Pentagon-led takeover. [And some called me a fear monger for my theory that Trump was trying to disrupt the November election. You think maybe Gohmert, Clay Higgins, Jim Jordan and Devin Nunes are drinking buddies?]

REPORTER: “President Trump, you’ve said many times that the number of coronavirus cases is going up because testing is increasing, do you acknowledge that it’s going up for other reasons too, for example, that it’s actually spreading and what are you going to do to stop the spread?”

TRUMP: “Well do you know that we have one of the lowest mortality rates,…anywhere, if you know that Biden and Obama stopped their testing, they just stopped it and you probably know that but don’t want to report it, but uhm, they stopped testing uh, right in the middle, they just went no more testing.”

—A confused Donald Trump, claiming that the Obama administration ceased testing before the coronavirus was ever known. [He apparently was thinking of testing for Ebola, which killed two Americans, compared to 151,000 coronavirus deaths—and counting. But again, he was obviously confused, or maybe just being sarcastic.]

“Scooter Libby found not guilty of lying to FBI investigators.”

—Fox (“we report, you decide”) News crawler right after I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, chief of staff to Dick Cheney, was found not guilty on one count of making false statements, but guilty on four other counts: one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury, one count of making false statements on March 6, 2007, related to the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. [An oldie but goodie because some things never change and while some might reasonably call that “fake news,” George W. Bush commuted his sentence in June 2007, sparing him of any jail time and Donald Trump issued a full pardon on April 13, 2018. Yep, some things never change.]

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