Louisiana Voice

“As I have long said, the success of a coronavirus vaccine would only be announced after the election.

“Pfizer and the others probably didn’t have the courage to make this HISTORIC announcement before November 3^rd, because they hoped it would keep me from WINNING BIG.

“The truth is, if Joe Biden were President, you wouldn’t have the vaccine for another four years, nor would the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have ever approved it so quickly.” —Email from Donald Trump today.

No, Tweet Thang, that’s not what you have long said. Let’s keep the record straight on this. What you said and what Donnie Jr. and Eric repeated on numerous occasions was that the virus would magically disappear on Nov. 4, that Covid was a hoax. That, in fact, is what the three of you repeatedly told the American people.

But it didn’t disappear, did it? In fact, new cases now exceed 150,000 every 24 hours. Covid deaths are climbing rapidly to 250,000 and will probably reach that number before Thanksgiving.

I know you have a propensity to lie through your teeth, but let’s not lie about something this important. You first predicted it would disappear by Easter. Then it was as soon as warm weather got here. Then it was Nov. 4. You were incorrect every. single. time.

You said it was no worse than a cold. But a quarter-million people don’t die of a cold in less than 10 months.

You said early on that everyone who wanted to be tested would be. Only problem was, there weren’t enough tests available.

You said we would have a vaccine very shortly. But even with the latest good news from Pfizer, it’s going to take the better part of a year – or more – to get it distributed.

But then you also promised to reveal your income taxes way back during the 2016 campaign but you didn’t, and you repeatedly promised a healthcare plan to replace the ACA would be forthcoming “within a couple of weeks.” That was right after your election and (again) repeated several times since then. But even as you go before the Supreme Court to try to abolish Obamacare, you still have not followed up with a replacement.

And now you claim – without any evidence to back it up – that you won the election. Even with the electoral votes as close as they are, it’s difficult to overlook a popular vote deficit of more than five million ballots.

Fact is, you are a bald-face liar and you just can’t help yourself.

And you’re a loser.

But America is a winner.

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Okay, campers, we have a new game we’re going to play with Donald J. Trump.

As you may know, Trump has launched a fund-raising effort, ostensibly exclusively for Trump’s election defense fund and he is inundating people (including yours truly) with 20-30 emails per day begging for donations.

What he doesn’t tell you is that his defense fund receives only the remainder of any donation exceeding the maximum $5,000 allowed under campaign finance rules.

He also doesn’t bother to explain that 60 percent of all post-election donations are earmarked not for his legal fight over the election results, but to pay off his campaign debts.

The fine print on the campaign, according to THE NEW YORK TIMES, website reads:

60% of each contribution first to Save America, up to $5,000/$5,000, then to DJTP’s (Donald J. Trump for President’s) Recount Account, up to a maximum of $2,800/$5,000.40% of each contribution to the RNC’s Operating account, up to a maximum of $35,500/$15,000. Any additional funds will go to the RNC for deposit in the RNC’s Legal Proceedings account or Headquarters account, up to a maximum of $213,000/$90,000.”

Now, whenever you use your credit card, you are not the only one who pays. In addition to any interest charges that you pay, the merchant, or recipient of the payment, is hit with two separate charges: a percentage of purchase charge and a swipe charge.

It’s the second one, the swipe charge, that is crucial here. Rather than a percentage, it is a flat fee that is charged each time a credit card is swiped, or used, to make a payment. It’s not really important to know what the flat fee is – just that it exists and for the purpose of our new game, it’s a gift from heaven.

If you receive these emails from Trump, just contribute a penny.

Whatever that swipe fee is, it’s certain to result in a deficit transaction for Trump every time it’s used.

I’m suggesting that we go into each and every email and give a penny for each one we receive. Twenty or thirty cents, after all, isn’t going to break any of us and there’s a helluva lot more satisfaction than the contributions will cost us.

I also suggest that you pass this on to your friends in order to get as much participation as possible. I don’t particularly care about helping the credit card companies but any distaste for them will certainly be outweighed by our collective contempt for Trump and by the pleasure of wreaking havoc on his new leadership PAC, “Save America.”

If you haven’t received any of his emails, contact me at louisianavoice@yahoo.com and I’ll be happy to pass them along to you.

It’s the least I can do.

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I received an interesting text yesterday from someone I don’t know but which infuriated me. It was some sort of asinine protest against the wearing of masks to curb the spread of the coronavirus. This is what it said (in all cap, of course, much like Donald Trump’s tweets):

“THE CDC CLAIMS THAT SMOKING IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR 480,000 YEARLY DEATHS, INCLUDING 25,000 FROM JUST SECONDHAND SMOKE. YET THE GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER FORECED ANYONE TO STOP SMOKING TO SAVE A LIFE. SO THEN WHY ARE YOU BEING FORCED TO WEAR A MASK?? STILL THINK THIS IS ABOUT ‘SAVING LIVES’?”

First of all, smoking is banned in public places such as restaurants, theaters, state office buildings and, in some states, inside vehicles when there are passengers under 12 years of age.

Second, I know of no jurisdiction where anyone is “forced” to wear a mask. Yet. I wear my mask to church but I notice that people all around me are maskless.

Third, yes, it is about saving lives, you clueless knucklehead! If you think otherwise, the next time you have surgery, ask the doctors and nurses to leave their masks at the door because after all, it’s not about saving lives so, why would you need that protection?

And next time you embark on a errand or trip in your vehicle, be sure to tell the kids in the back seat not to fasten their seat belts. Don’t worry about studies that have shown conclusively that if you’re in a collision and are ejected from your vehicle because you weren’t wearing a seat belt, you have a 25 times greater chance of dying than if you were belted in. In fact, tell the little tykes it’s cool to sit in the front seat – beltless. And infant carriers? Who needs ‘em? That’s just the guvmint tellin’ you how to live your life – or die trying.

For that matter, why do football and baseball players need helmets? You think that study that found that 110 of 111 deceased NFL players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) a degenerative brain disorder associated with repetitive head trauma was just coincidence?

Think how uneducated and ill-informed you must sound to say masks are not about saving lives.

I have to ask if you are resisting the wearing of masks only because a thick-headed, orange-haired pitiful excuse for a leader eschews them? That’s the example you wish to follow – someone who governs by tweet and would rather play golf than address the problems of this country – instead of someone who has invested a career to fighting disease?

Seriously?

Trump and his minions have been insisting that the coronavirus is (a) only the sniffles and (b) will magically disappear.

Well, we are fast approaching a quarter-million deaths from the “sniffles” and for the past week, we’ve set new records daily for the number of infections. Yesterday, it surpassed 150,000 in a single 24-hour period. That’s not “magically disappearing,” folks.

I said here earlier that the best barbecue I’ve ever tasted was from Fire House Barbecue here in Livingston Parish. Plus, they give generous portions. But when they defied the mask mandate a few months back, I vowed never to set foot in there again. And I won’t. If they don’t have the common decency to protect their customers, I refuse to be one.

It’s not about “freedom.” That’s one of the most pathetic arguments I’ve ever heard on any subject. Thank God, we didn’t have that attitude in this country during World War II when commodities were being rationed to support the war effort. Instead, we came together – at least our parents and grandparents did – for the good of the country.

Do you think those Covid patients on respirators would concur with your absurd argument that masks aren’t about saving lives?

Yes, as a matter of fact, masks are about saving lives, so get over your ego-driven defiance and do the right thing. Trust science, not some advocate of bleach drinking. The virus has not “disappeared,” and Dr. Anthony Fauci is a far more knowledgeable authority on this than President “Tweet Thang.”

Mask up!

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The coronavirus will magically all of a sudden go away and disappear after Nov. 3.”

—Eric Trump, last May. [If you consider 100,000 new cases a day for the past week as ‘disappearing,’ well then, yes.]

Make America Rake Again.”

—Bumper stickers being marketed by the Four Seasons Landscaping Service, where Rudy held that hilarious press conference on Saturday. [Someone, we know not who, booked the place instead of the Four Seasons luxury hotel for the presser.]

Lawn and Order.”

—Four Seasons Landscaping Service T-shirts now being sold along with the aforementioned bumper stickers. [Seriously, could anyone have scripted a presser mistakenly held at a landscaping company’s parking lot next door to a porn store, across the street from a crematorium, on a road leading to a prison?]

The real hero today is whoever answered the phone at Four Seasons Landscaping and offered no clarification whatsoever until it was too late. I salute you, my fellow patriot.”

—Tweet by author Geraldine DeRuiter.

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I have always been committed to working with our President, regardless of party, in order to best serve the people of Louisiana.”

—Gov. John Bel Edwards, demonstrating the way real leadership is carried out […and the reason we elected him.]

I believe the media is (sic) the enemy of the American people.”

—Karl Michels of Walker, Louisiana, among a group of protesters at the State Capitol Saturday. [showing unmistakable symptoms of sour grapes – and revealing, sadly, that we are still a divided nation that refuses to come together for the good of the country.]

So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger Management problem, then go to a good old-fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Donald, Chill!”

—Tweet Thursday by Greta Thunberg, showing that trash-talking really can come back to bite you. [See Saturday’s LouisianaVoice post.]

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