Louisiana Voice

His missives first began popping up in the LouisianaVoice email inbox. More like a manifest, the messages were far-ranging charges of racism and discrimination within the fraternity more commonly known as Louisiana State Police. The messages first began appearing during the tenure of former LSP Superintendent Kevin Reeves.

The first several messages contained some serious charges that were easy to dismiss as the rants of a malcontent, especially since they were sent out en masse under the moniker Toussaint Louverture, obviously not wishing to divulge his real identity as a black state trooper because to do so would be detrimental to his career path.

Toussaint Louverture, aka Francois-Dominique Toussaint Louverture, Toussaint L’Ouverture, or Toussaint Bréda, was a Haitian general and the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution who helped transform the country’s slave rebellion into a full-blown revolutionary movement, establishing him as the “Father of Haiti.”

LouisianaVoice did make a tentative inquiry early on of LSP brass and the official reaction was dismissive. Surely, things just couldn’t be as bad as this malcontent purported them to be.

But all those were before the beatings of blacks Aaron Bowman and Ronald Greene in TROOP F, Reeves’ old command which includes northeast Louisiana. Greene, of course, died as a result of his beating – and not, as the official report officially said, from injuries sustained when his vehicle struck a tree.

Troop F, sometimes referred to as F TROOP after the 1960s ABC sitcom about an inept calvary troop, has over the past couple of years become synonymous with racism and suddenly, Toussaint’s charges have taken on relevance and some measure of validation, particularly with the recent news that top brass at LSP may have attempted to obstruct the investigation into Greene’s May 2019 beating death in Union Parish and the subsequent cover-up of details of his death, also by LSP’s top command.

If four years of writing about the misadventures, mismanagement and malfeasance of the state’s top law enforcement agency has shown me one thing, it’s that Louisiana State Police is in desperate need of oversight from someone outside the department. Internal Affairs is a joke and the requirement that the LSP Superintendent be selected from within the ranks is no longer sustainable. Gov. John Bel Edwards should forget consulting with the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association on every move involving LSP and bring in someone who can straighten this malignant agency out. It’s long past time that we should stop being embarrassed by our state police.

So, maybe it’s time someone listened to Toussaint Louverture and took him seriously rather than requesting to be unsubscribed to his emails as several recipients did immediately after today’s email went out.

With that in mind, following is his latest email:

We will not waste time saying “we told you so.” If anyone needs to check the validity of what we have been saying, look through our previous emails. 

What’s important now is everyone realizes that Lamar Davis, Chavez Cammon and Kenny Vanburen are the new leaders of the supreme tap-dancing team. No, we do not consider Lamar a “sellout.” He can’t be a sellout because he is performing exactly how he’s performed his entire career. Most of us have known him his entire career and he’s just as lost and ignorant to what’s going on as he’s always been. He made the perfect scapegoat and puppet for that position, so kudos to whoever made that chess move.

Now, we could go on and explain how these other guys are definitely sellouts but we will save that for private convos. Nevertheless, these guys had one job to do when they took office. They just didn’t fail miserably but went a step further and decided to put their freedom at risk by taking a trip to Union Parish in order to continue this murder coverup. 

Lamar came into the Colonel position and right out the gate put his puppet strings on display by saying he didn’t believe systematic racism existed at Louisiana State Police. Chavez entered the Colonel position with doubters already against him due to the fact that he was the head of Internal Affairs at the time of Greene’s murder. Chavez knew all of the dirty details of Greene’s murder and didn’t say a word about it. Kenny wasn’t mentioned in the trip to Union Parish but he seems to show up at the doorstep of every person who wishes to file suit against the department. His weapons of dissuasion seem to always be a Bible, overuse of the word “brother” and prayer.

(Side note: Understand that John Belton is a politician. So, if anyone were to come along and promise him support with his run for attorney general, he would probably sway whichever way he needed in order to obtain AG.)

The question remains, why would the supreme tap dancers, along with Doug Cain and Faye Morrison travel to Union Parish to dissuade DA John Belton from filing charges against those troopers? Several sources who had knowledge of the information say that Doug Cain was the most aggressive out of the bunch. We can’t imagine any man being intimidated by Doug but if it happened, so be it. This current administration has shown their lack of knowledge when it comes to leading this department but they had to know that criminal charges could possibly come from aggressively “coercing” a public official.

We have mentioned it in our previous emails that no one really wants three hots and a cot. There will not be any eyebrow arching appointments included for Doug Cain and the rest of you guys are just simply too old to serve jail time.

Information continues to surface that Governor John Bel Edwards had knowledge of the case and viewed the Greene video at most two weeks after the incident occurred. It is also important to note that Gov. Edwards was the commencement speaker at the University of Louisiana Monroe the next day after the day Ronald Greene was murdered. No one bothered to tell him a murder occurred? Is the Governor the reason why Chavez, Lamar, Faye and Doug are willing to risk their freedom to keep things covered? 

We are guessing the answer to those questions and many others will come out when individuals decide that their freedom is more important than hiding information. 

Until then, it’s fair to say that the department is imploding as John Peters from Troop F mentioned in his pathetic attempt at salvaging dignity prior to retiring. LSP has placed more resources into investigating employees who has nothing to do with the murder coverup than those who actually took part in it. Desperate attempts are being made to find “leaks” within the department. Unfortunately for them we are everywhere. Just ask some members of their divided administrative staff, who decided to stop giving us information after the heat was turned up a bit more. Until you guys do what is right by everyone, we will continue to put information out. 

The implosion of LSP was inevitable due to the foundation and practices it was built on. From nepotism, favoritism, racism and many other “isms” you can think of. Also, for the same reasons a consent decree is also inevitable. Aside from everything that’s now public knowledge, “isms” are alive and well in places like Internal Affairs and the legal affairs department.

Now that Faye Morrison is somewhat out of the picture and awaiting her criminal fate, Michelle Giroir and others are peacocking to be head of the degenerates. We can tie Internal Affairs together with legal affairs by pointing out the unjust treatment of others by both. But first let’s look at the individuals.

Let us take Michelle Giroir for example. Giroir has been, for the past 20 years, the primary advisor for LSP when it comes to issuing disciplinary actions to troopers. Now, one would assume that it would require the person in that position to be considered fair and as unbiased as possible. Well, Giroir has been proven to be one of the most biased and unfair persons who could hold the position. In 2012, a black paralegal, who was working in legal affairs, filed a lawsuit against Giroir. The paralegal’s name is Carla Popularas. Popularas claimed that Giroir discriminated against and harassed her. In 2015 Popularas won the lawsuit and was awarded damages. This should have prompted LSP to remove Giroir from her position but instead she remained and continued with her unfair treatment. In addition to Popularas, Giroir had a few other black employees file grievances and complaints against her. Everything stated here has been brought to Colonel Davis’s attention just as the previous administration was aware of it.

Enters feeble-minded Kevin Ducote from Internal Affairs. Conveniently his close friends are Michelle Giroir and Faye Morrison. Close enough to have Ducote’s daughter, an aspiring attorney, hang around the legal department for a while. Of course, there is nothing wrong with being close friends with your coworkers. But when Morrison and/or Giroir tells Ducote, when it comes to punishing Hollingsworth, he can only consider the flashlight strikes to the head of Ronald Greene, that is a problem. It’s truly a spineless move to allow someone to dictate your actions in an area they have no clue about. Kevin Ducote, as a Master Trooper, if you require someone to hold your hand after all of these years, maybe it’s time to retire or hand out uniforms in the supply department.

Side note: Ted James and the black caucus. Where exactly do all of you stand on this murder coverup. In our previous emails we have pointed out how awfully quiet you all were on this matter. Ted, we were particularly frustrated with you since we knew you viewed the Ronald Greene video long before it was public and long before anyone else had viewed the video. Yes, you stated that it was horrible but you did not follow up that statement with any action. Instead, you all waited, then after everything went public, you all demanded that reeves step down when he was already on his way out. You all then pushed Lamar Davis into the Colonel position and now it is clear that it was the wrong move and instead of demanding that Lamar Davis step down you double down on the mistake with hopes that John Belton changes his story. That letter to the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland was a dog and pony show. What stands out to us is just days prior to that, most of the black caucus members were on the golf course with Governor John Bel Edwards smiling and taking photos instead of pushing the Governor to take real action towards this case. A black man by the name of Ronald Greene was murdered by Louisiana State Police. The “black” caucus’s position on the matter is questionable to say the least. There is a time to play politics and there is a time to put your foot down and fight!! Make your position on the matter clear.

        Continuing with Internal Affairs. Captain Treone Larvadain was heard complaining about being ready to go back to the governor’s mansion. Keeping a lid on all of this corruption could weigh heavy on anyone. It’s said she is only in place as the captain of Internal Affairs to keep her eyes on all investigations related to Ronald Greene. It’s also said that she is to report her findings back to Governor Edwards. To date, we are unaware of any meaningful work being done in Internal Affairs by Treone. Other than transferring Lieutenant Paul Chamorro into timeout for his unwillingness to “get with the program”, or violating policy to get revenge on Trooper Woodward, she just seems to be a listening ear. No, we don’t care for Woodward’s comments about Treone but why violate policy in an attempt to punish him. Besides, getting off that train that will lead to prison should be priority number one.

In closing, LSP appears to approve of murder-on-camera of African American citizens. Both the Reeves and Davis administrations have proven themselves unworthy of the public trust and completely incapable of leadership.

Read Full Post »

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government watchdog group that supports strong enforcement of federal campaign finance laws, has released a 40-page report that breaks down affecting early voting and voting by mail legislation passed by 39 state legislatures, including Louisiana, on or before June 30, 2021, in response to the 2020 presidential election.

While two states, Illinois and Washington, received perfect grades for protecting voting rights, four others that passed restrictive vote-by-mail and early voting laws would have been subject to preclearance if the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was in effect. Preclearance would have required those four states – Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida – to prove to the U.S. Department of Justice that their restrictive laws would not discriminate against voters of color.

“The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) would prevent many states from erecting barriers that have a discriminatory impact on racial minorities,” the report says. “Originally, the Voting Rights Act operated to require certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to get approval, or “preclearance,” from the federal government for all election-related changes. This helped ensure that election rules did not impose racially discriminatory barriers. Since the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Department of Justice has not had the tools it needs to hold states with a history of discrimination in voting accountable for passing election laws that erect barriers to the polls for voters of color.

If passed, the VRAA would restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and provide a new coverage formula to determine which states with a history of racially discriminatory voting practices will be subject to federal government oversight. Specifically, the VRAA’s new coverage formula would require federal oversight for each state that has had a history of freedom-to-vote violations in the last 25 years that would continuously update based on each states’ future conduct.

Under the new formula provided by the VRAA, Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia would likely be subject to preclearance under the VRAA.

In Louisiana, the news was both good and bad. The legislature “took steps backward” in its 2021 session by passing SB 224, which would have required voters to have photo ID to vote by mail, but Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed, a veto the legislature was unable to override. On the plus side of the ledger, the legislature did extend the number of early voting days for presidential elections to 11 days, giving the state an overall 6 of 10 possible scoring points.

Alabama, probably to no one’s surprise, had the worst grade of any state in the country following its 2021 session, finishing with a dismal score of 2. “Alabama did nothing to improve voting conditions,” the report says. “Indeed, Alabama codified its ban on curbside voting, which was the subject of litigation during the 2020 elections.

Mississippi, the only state with a higher percentage of black citizens (38.5 percent to 33.4 percent), made no changes to its vote-by-mail policies during the 2021 legislative session and continues to have some of the worst vote-by-mail policies in the country. It remains one of only three states analyzed without any form of an online ballot-tracking system.

“The Louisiana State Legislature passed a number of restrictive voting bills that were subsequently vetoed by the governor,” the report says. Among these bills was SB 224, which would have required photo ID to vote by mail. Louisiana, graded as Restrictive, is one of the few states that continues to require voters to have an excuse to vote by mail. The governor vetoed this bill, “because it would make the application to vote absentee by mail more stringent than what is currently required to actually vote absentee by mail.” In a subsequent veto-override session, the legislature declined to override the governor’s veto. A new law requiring photo ID for mail ballots would have undoubtedly been subject to preclearance under the VRAA.

“Out of the 39 states in this report whose legislative sessions have adjourned for 2021, two received perfect grades—Illinois and Washington—and no state received a 0/10,” the report says. “Seven of the 39 states changed their vote-by-mail and early voting laws for the worse, while nine states changed their laws for the better. Unfortunately, many of the states that changed their laws for the better still fall short of the suggested best practices for vote by mail and early voting used in this report. The nine states that improved for vote by mail and early voting are Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Utah, and the seven states that passed restrictions are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Louisiana.

“Under preclearance, covered states would have to submit any new voting law to the federal government or federal court system for a determination that the law does not have the impact of discriminating against racial minorities. Many of the voting laws covered under preclearance would include policies related to vote by mail and early voting.”

The nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, a nonprofit government watchdog group that supports strong enforcement of federal campaign finance laws, has released a 40-page report that breaks down affecting early voting and voting by mail legislation passed by 39 state legislatures, including Louisiana, on or before June 30, 2021, in response to the 2020 presidential election.

While two states, Illinois and Washington, received perfect grades for protecting voting rights, four others that passed restrictive vote-by-mail and early voting laws would have been subject to preclearance if the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act was in effect. Preclearance would have required those four states – Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia and Florida – to prove to the U.S. Department of Justice that their restrictive laws would not discriminate against voters of color.

“The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA) would prevent many states from erecting barriers that have a discriminatory impact on racial minorities,” the report says. “Originally, the Voting Rights Act operated to require certain jurisdictions with a history of racial discrimination to get approval, or “preclearance,” from the federal government for all election-related changes. This helped ensure that election rules did not impose racially discriminatory barriers. Since the Supreme Court struck down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the Department of Justice has not had the tools it needs to hold states with a history of discrimination in voting accountable for passing election laws that erect barriers to the polls for voters of color.

If passed, the VRAA would restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act and provide a new coverage formula to determine which states with a history of racially discriminatory voting practices will be subject to federal government oversight. Specifically, the VRAA’s new coverage formula would require federal oversight for each state that has had a history of freedom-to-vote violations in the last 25 years that would continuously update based on each states’ future conduct.

Under the new formula provided by the VRAA, Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia would likely be subject to preclearance under the VRAA.

In Louisiana, the news was both good and bad. The legislature “took steps backward” in its 2021 session by passing SB 224, which would have required voters to have photo ID to vote by mail, but Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed, a veto the legislature was unable to override. On the plus side of the ledger, the legislature did extend the number of early voting days for presidential elections to 11 days, giving the state an overall 6 of 10 possible scoring points.

Alabama, probably to no one’s surprise, had the worst grade of any state in the country following its 2021 session, finishing with a dismal score of 2. “Alabama did nothing to improve voting conditions,” the report says. “Indeed, Alabama codified its ban on curbside voting, which was the subject of litigation during the 2020 elections.

Mississippi, the only state with a higher percentage of black citizens (38.5 percent to 33.4 percent), made no changes to its vote-by-mail policies during the 2021 legislative session and continues to have some of the worst vote-by-mail policies in the country. It remains one of only three states analyzed without any form of an online ballot-tracking system.

The Louisiana State Legislature passed a number of restrictive voting bills that were subsequently vetoed by the governor.51 Among these bills was SB 224, which would have required photo ID to vote by mail. Louisiana, graded as Restrictive, is one of the few states that continues to require voters to have an excuse to vote by mail. The governor vetoed this bill, “because it would make the application to vote absentee by mail more stringent than what is currently required to actually vote absentee by mail.” In a subsequent veto-override session, the legislature declined to override the governor’s veto. A new law requiring photo ID for mail ballots would have undoubtedly been subject to preclearance under the VRAA.

“Out of the 39 states in this report whose legislative sessions have adjourned for 2021, two received perfect grades—Illinois and Washington—and no state received a 0/10,” the report says. “Seven of the 39 states changed their vote-by-mail and early voting laws for the worse, while nine states changed their laws for the better. Unfortunately, many of the states that changed their laws for the better still fall short of the suggested best practices for vote by mail and early voting used in this report. The nine states that improved for vote by mail and early voting are Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Utah, and the seven states that passed restrictions are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa and Louisiana.

“Under preclearance, covered states would have to submit any new voting law to the federal government or federal court system for a determination that the law does not have the impact of discriminating against racial minorities. Many of the voting laws covered under preclearance would include policies related to vote by mail and early voting.”

Read Full Post »

Turns out that Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, Sam Brownback and Rick Scott were just the warmup acts, the amateurs hoping to move up in the comedic pecking order.

The headliner, of course, turned out to be a TV reality show personality with an overblown ego and decidedly short-changed IQ – a kind of one-man Abbot and Costello, Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis act, only not nearly as funny.

You do remember a guy named Bobby Jindal, right? He was the wunderkind who was anointed by Gov. Mike Foster as the future of Louisiana. Rush Limbaugh was so taken with the boy blunder that he gushed that it wasn’t a matter of if he was destined to be president, but rather just a matter of when.

Of course, after he devastated the Louisiana economy, closed centers for the treatment of the mentally ill, slashed taxes for the rich (and even refused to renew an existing tax because, he insisted in some twisted Republican logic, that it was a new tax), gutted the Office of Group Benefits reserve fund, decimated public education in favor of charter schools for the wealthy, cut funding for higher education (forcing tuition hikes that made a college education cost-prohibitive for many in the state), he capped it all off by launching a pitifully inept run for the Republican presidential nomination. He never received more than 1 percent in the Republican primaries and caucuses.

Scott Walker was so controversial in Wisconsin that a recall movement was initiated against him. It failed, and Walker, thus emboldened, led an EFFORT to gut the powers of Walker’s Democratic successor in the Madison statehouse and in what would become a presage to future Repugnantcan efforts to restrict early voting in other states.

Brownback, like Jindal, took a wrecking ball to the Kansas economy – except he did an even more thorough job than did his Louisiana counterpart. But worse, going back to 1996, when he ran for the U.S. Senate to succeed Bob Dole who resigned to become the Republican presidential candidate in an effort to deny a second term to Bill Clinton, he showed anyone who was paying attention just how underhanded the Republicans can be and in so doing, offered a hint of things to come. Fines were levied against the Brownback campaign and against his in-laws for improper campaign contributions. But worse was the tactic ripped from the David Duke playbook by Brownback when his supporters, posing as pollsters, contacted Kansas voters to ask those expressing support for Democrat Jill Docking if they would change their vote if they knew that “Jill Docking is Jewish.” Docking, who is indeed Jewish, lost. Funds for the “push polls” were traced back to Koch Industries.

Rick Scott, who preceded current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, laid the groundwork for Deathantis but not even Scott could envision the path the current governor would take in condemning Floridians to the Delta Death. I mean, all Rick Scott did was take $300 million in stock, a $5.1 million severance package and a $950,000 per year consulting contract from COLUMBIA/HCA, his former hospital company when it was being investigated by the feds in 1997. But while he was taking the money. He said he took responsibility for a settlement the company reached with the government in which it admitted to 14 felonies related to fraudulent billing, practices, and kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referrals – even as he denied any knowledge of wrongdoing. The company ended up paying $1.7 billion in fines (at the time, the largest health care fraud case in the country). And of course, the good people of Florida rewarded him by electing him governor and later to the U.S. Senate.

Those are the warmup acts. The headliner, of course, is one Donald John Trump, the person whom the foregoing men only aspire to be. In the entertainment industry, be it musicians or comics, the warmup, or feature, act always hopes to move up to the headliner spot, mainly because it leads to bigger venues that pay more.

And then there are the wannabes. Again, reference the entertainment parlance, these are the opening acts or worse, the open mic acts who think they have something to offer. Sometimes they do, often times they don’t.

In the political arena, these would be people like governors Deathantis, Greg Abbott of Texas, Mike Parsons of Missouri (he who can’t find the time to address a possible commutation for KEVIN STRICKLAND who has languished on death row for 43 years for a murder that now even the district attorney says he didn’t commit but who fast-tracked the pardons of those gun-waving redneck ST. LOUIS LAWYERS who were so terrified of black marchers that they felt compelled to come outside waving their weapons and looking utterly ridiculous) and Doug Ducey of Arizona; U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew (“they were only tourists”) Clyde of Georgia, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mo (“you can’t sue me”) Brooks of Alabama, Gym Jordan of Ohio, Devin (“I’m suing everybody”) Nunes and Kevin (Trump is moving my lips”) McCarthy of North Carolina, Lauren (“Crazy Lady”) Boebert, Madison (“I can out-lie anyone but Trump”) Cawthorn, Elise Stefanik of New York, Clay (“Super Cop”) Higgins, Steve (“David Duke protégé) Scalise and Mike (Family Values) Johnson of Louisiana, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Ted (Aruba-bound) Cruz of Texas and John (Foghorn Leghorn) Kennedy of Louisiana, and Attorney General Jeff Landry, also of Louisiana.

I’m sure I missed some, but there’s room for only so many backstage, what with all the seltzer bottles, pies, clown outfits and other props necessary for this spectacle.

But I’m reserving a special place in my heart for Ron Deathantis, who has sentenced an untold number of his constituents to an agonizing death as they fight for air that won’t be there as their respiratory systems shut down. A lot of them will be school-age children but Deathantis is determined to keep local guvmint out of Floridians lives by issuing a state executive order that says funds will be withheld from any school system that mandates masks.

It’s somewhat ironic that a Repugnantcan who advocates less guvmint control would be so heavy-handed in his efforts to placate his mentor and fellow Floridian Trump. It’s also more than a little weird that Trump wants desperately to be credited for developing a vaccination for COVID that he didn’t develop and that he can’t bring himself to recommend to his brain-dead base.

“There are really only two places on the planet where it’s (the viral load) higher” – Louisiana and Botswana, DR. JONATHAN REINER, a professor at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said on CNN Sunday.

“It’s so high in Florida that I think if Florida were another country, we would have to consider banning travel from Florida to the United States,” he said

So, now we have the governor of Florida fighting logical efforts to fend off a deadly virus. And Deathantis isn’t the only one. Next door to Florida, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster says mask mandates are illegal and inhibit a student’s ability to learn. That’s a novel argument – almost as absurd as the minister I heard one recent Sunday say that there are political leaders who wish to deny our right to worship.

What a crock. He was referring to Gov. John Bel Edwards and his mask mandate and limits on public gatherings of several months ago which slowed collections attendance at local churches. That in no way was an attempt to infringe on anyone’s right to worship. Edwards is a devout Catholic. It was a sensible approach to a very real problem that posed a threat to the entire population because no vaccination had been rolled out at the time. It was, to be perfectly blunt, a stupid, selfish argument.

And right here in Louisiana, our very own Joke Landry, who likes to masquerade as attorney general, actually filed suit against a small private medical school in Monroe after it mandated the coronavirus vaccine for its students. Landry WITHDREW the state as a plaintiff after a Trump-appointed judge questioned the validity of the state even being a party to the suit filed by three students. Such is life in the fantasy world of Shane Jeff Landry.

But the bottom line here, folks, is the frightening dearth of common sense in addressing a pandemic that is fast approaching the U.S. death toll from the Spanish Flu pandemic of a century ago and which has already matched the death toll of the single most deadly war in this country’s history – the Civil War in which 600,000 Americans died.

It was only 174 years ago – 14 years before the start of the Civil War – that Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis first advanced the preposterous (at the time) notion that the spread of disease could be halted, or at least slowed, by the simple act of washing hands.

The idea of hand hygiene to prevent the spread of germs was ridiculed by the scientific establishment. Some may have even said it inhibited learning or violated constitutional rights and individual freedoms. But the good doctor persisted, noting that during the Black Death of the 14^th century, the Jews of Europe had a far lower death rate, leading to the belief that their religious practice of hand-washing most likely served as protection during the epidemic.

But none of that really matters right now because the show must go on and while the headliner’s act has become stale, there’s a roomful of unimaginative hopefuls who, lacking any semblance of originality, would love the chance to duplicate his Vaudevillian schtick.

Read Full Post »

op·por·tun·is·tic

/ˌäpərt(y)o͞oˈnistik/

adjective

1. exploiting chances offered by immediate circumstances without reference to a general plan or moral principle.

And when there is a chance to use any situation – ANY situation – for political gain, there is always an opportunistic, brazen, fear-mongering politician ready to take full advantage – and to make a pitch for campaign contributions, of course.

Such a person is U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana’s 4^th Congressional District.

“Over 80 migrants were just dropped off in Shreveport, and many more busloads are expected to come in the next few weeks,” read his hysterical, but timely, fundraising letter to a constituent recently. “Not one phone call was made to any local officials to give them a heads-up or any clue as to who these people are, where they’ve come from, or where they’re going.”

He went on to say that Republicans “need to continue our fight to stem the flow of illegal immigration and complete the border wall.

“The only way we can do that is if we rebuild our majority in the House, and I need your help.

Can you help me stand up against Joe Biden’s dangerous agenda? Your $10 today can help me stop the flood at the border.”

That, folks, is unabashed opportunism by a brazen opportunist.

grandstanding

/ˈɡran(d)ˌstandiNG/

noun

1. the action of behaving in a showy or ostentatious manner in an attempt to attract favorable attention from spectators or the media.

Of course, not to be outdone, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy was quick to jump into the fray without learning any of the facts behind the coercion and exploitation and greed.

“The White House cannot dump groups of Haitian refugees into Louisiana communities with nowhere to go, no photo ID, and no money,” Cassidy said. “It appears Washington told ICE to just ‘send them somewhere,’ and apparently gave little to no notice to state and local officials. Horrible mismanagement. Do President Biden and Vice President Harris care about communities, immigrants, and controlling the border?”

“I can’t help but think that the reason they have the problem is because they have an overflow of people in detainment. And they just have to do something with them. And so their normal operating procedure just got busted,” Cassidy told a Shreveport TV station.

What’s even more repulsive about Cassidy’s grandstanding is that he apparently thinks it will negate the ill feelings in the Trump camp following his impeachment vote last January. He should know Trump better than that.

Fifth District U.S. Rep Julia Letlow was just as indignant, adding, “I am deeply troubled by the numerous reports of immigration detainees being released… I am outraged that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security notified my office of these releases and neglected to inform other relevant federal, state, and local officials.”

Yes, they’re all here illegally – just like the ones who pick your fruit and vegetables and do your yard work and perform roofing and carpentry work – jobs that would not be available to them if there wasn’t someone to hire them. Like drugs, if there wasn’t a market, there wouldn’t be a supply. Nothing like a little hypocrisy to keep the political pot boiling.

The surge at the Shreveport depot caused volunteer advocates for migrants to scramble to get them on their way by bus and airplane to their sponsors across the U.S.

Frances Kelley with Louisiana Advocates for Immigrants in Detention says those sponsors are on the migrants’ paperwork. They are usually relatives, but they may also be friends or immigration organizations.

Kelley said the vast majority of the released detainees have claimed asylum. But they are not staying in the Shreveport area, despite Johnson’s hysterics.

Kelley says her group and others have filed a civil rights complaint against ICE for breaking their transportation standards.

“They’re supposed to provide transportation to a public transportation hub for free. And they’re supposed to allow all of the immigrants who are leaving detention to talk to their families before they get out in order to arrange transport to the address that they’re supposed to go,” Kelley said.

But, she added, “In most cases we’re actually picking them up directly from the detention centers because ICE is not providing the transportation that they’re supposed to provide. In many cases they’re requiring the families to pay taxis up to $600 to leave from the detention centers.”

Then there’s State Rep. VALERIE HODGES of Denham Springs. She wrote a bill targeting immigrants and has been an outspoken critic of illegal immigration. Yet, when her husband purchased two flood-damaged rent houses in my neighborhood, who do you suppose he hired to perform the renovation?

But for the worst example of blatant denial of human rights and political grandstanding, one would have to look to our neighbor to the west and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Ass-clown Abbott issued an executive order allowing Texas authorities to stop and even confiscate the vehicles of anyone providing free transportation to released detainees – precisely what the Louisiana and Mississippi volunteers LouisianaVoice has been writing about this week have been doing.

Abbott’s action was something like what Donald Trump might have come up with had he had the ability to put two cognitive thoughts together. Frankly, I’m surprised that Steven Miller didn’t put that bug in Trump’s ear.

At least Federal Judge Kathleen Cardone, a George W. Bush appointee, recognized Abbott’s ploy for what it was – political opportunism – and BLOCKED his executive order after the Biden administration FILED SUIT against Abbott on the claim that the order, a first-cousin to the widely-abused asset seizure law, was “contrary to federal law and cannot be enforced.”

And yes, again, they entered illegally instead of coming through the processing centers the way they were supposed to. But you can blame the former guy for bottling up the system, making it virtually impossible to come into the country legally. But where is it written that we must treat them as something less than human?

Letlow, Johnson and Cassidy, perhaps you would care to volunteer your time, your automobiles, your money, to help these individuals get where they are trying to go, by attempting to help people less fortunate, the same way LA-AID has, quietly and without fanfare.

Or at least, refrain from using these people for political posturing and fund-raising.

It might make you feel a lot better about yourselves if, rather than standing around pointing fingers and begging for political contributions, you would do something constructive for a change. Somehow, what you’re doing and saying is just damned tacky and it smells bad.

And it certainly wouldn’t hurt for the U.S. attorneys in the appropriate federal jurisdictions to initiate an investigation into these sordid practices that prey on the most vulnerable. The fact that the victims are not U.S. citizens has little bearing on the shameful fact that it’s profiteering at its worst that drives such illegal activity – not unlike price-gouging for water, gasoline and other basic human needs in times of hurricanes and other catastrophes, and we know how angry that makes us.

So, where’s the outrage now?

Read Full Post »