Louisiana Voice

I’m not sure what Public Service Commissioner Eric Skrmetta’s angle is, but you can bet the farm there is one and Louisiana electric power customers stand to take the hit.

I’ve written about Skrmetta’s BUSINESS TIES  to Jason Hewitt, whose “energy efficiency company” was awarded a $17.3 million contract by the PSC.

LouisianaVoice also did a story about Skrmetta BUSINESS PARTNER Scott McQuaig who was hired as a PSC legal counsel but when his license to practice law was suspended indefinitely, the PSC simply hired him as a “consultant.”

It was revealed here that Skrmetta failed to mention his INVOLVEMENT in a Mississippi casino. All state officials are required to divulge such information on their financial disclosure statements

Likewise, he neglected to disclose an AGREEMENT he entered int with Boomtown Casino to attempt to bring a casino to Harvey.

Now, we have Skrmetta, who represents all or part of 11 PARISHES in southeastern Louisiana, offering up a motion (thankfully, tabled until the PSC’s December meeting) that proposes that the PSC “provide written notice of withdrawal from membership to MISO.”

MISO is the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, a nonprofit association that manages the power grid for 15 states and Manitoba Province in Canada. It oversees the uninterrupted provision of electricity to 42 million people. Louisiana has been a member of MISO since 2013.

So now, Skrmetta apparently wants Louisiana to follow Texas in subjecting Louisiana to massive power outages in the middle of winter – perhaps so Sen. John Kennedy, like Ted Cruz, can take a vacation in Cancun when the lights go out.

Texas is not a member of any cooperative power grid, relying instead on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and went through widespread OUTAGES in the middle of the coldest winter in 72 years, leaving more than 5 million Texans shivering in the dark for six days, leaving the state only minutes away from months-long power outages.

Membership in the MISO grid provides many to Louisiana, including the ability to borrow electricity from other states during times of emergencies, said SIMON MAHAN, executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association. Part of the reason for the power blackout in Texas was because much of Texas is not connected to an interstate power grid, he said.

Membership also allows power companies to broker electricity to and from other states at wholesale prices, which creates competition in areas such as Louisiana that are serviced by only a few power companies, he said. A 2020 analysis conducted by Entergy revealed that Louisiana’s MISO membership saved customers an about $63 million last year and $698 million from 2014 to 2020.

Skrmetta apparently has an issue with MISO’s growing reliance on wind turbines. He indicated he feared taxpayers would be called upon to finance the transmission of power, which he said will cost $130 billion to bring to homes and businesses.

Mahan disputed Skrmetta’s claim, but qualified his denial by admitting that MISO could conceivably change its policy and begin charging southern customers for its projects up north.

But withdrawing from MISO is not an option and should be rejected out of hand by the PSC.

I seldom advocate mass calling projects because unless an issue is particularly controversial, it rarely generates the desired results in terms of participation. Add to that the fact that the PSC is one of those agencies that get little attention from the public, and you have the perfect recipe for a public body’s ability to operate in obscurity.

But this is a critical issue and if you are reading this, you really need to contact your PSC member and give him (all five are male) an earful.

To do so, go back to this link: http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/DistrictMapPage.aspx and click on your member’s name in the lower left part of the page. That will take you to your member’s page and you can go to the gray shaded box to the right to click onto his office’s email.

Get involved!

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So, Michael Flynn has never bothered to read the U.S. Constitution – at least the Bill of Rights, or at least the First Amendment.

It’s pretty simple and straightforward, really:

“Congress shall make no law respecting and establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech…”

I suppose we can excuse Flynn. He is, after all, a very confused man, delusional even.

But the problem is, people still listen to his rhetoric that flies in face of our Constitution and that First Amendment which to me, is every bit as sacred as the Second Amendment that gun-loving NRA types hold so dear.

Last Saturday, speaking at a “REAWAKEN AMERICA” conference in San Antonio, Flynn literally went off the rails when he said, “If we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God and one religion under God.”

What?!!!? Yep, he actually said that while at the same time proclaiming that the indictment of Steve Bannon for defying a congressional subpoena was an infringement on his right of free speech.

I know there are those who will leap to the defense of both Flynn and Bannon, but I defy anyone to explain how a retired Army lieutenant general, a supposed leader of men who took an oath to defend this country and who served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser, could be so ignorant of the language of the First Amendment as to serious suggest that this should be a nation of only one religion.

And while he did not invoke the word Christianity in those 28 words, it’s clear that’s what he meant in his follow-up remarks that compared “Nancy Pelosi to Pontius Pilate, who ordered the crucifixion of Jesus in the Bible.”

There are more than 20 million of the Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim faiths, all of whom enjoy the freedom to worship as they see fit, courtesy of the First Amendment, who might properly take umbrage at Flynn’s arrogance – and ignorance.

Every Saturday in the fall, more than 100,000 faithful congregate to pray to LSU to beat its opponent of the week, especially when the Tigers play ‘Bama. And don’t even try to tell me that’s not a form of religion in Baton Rouge.

This is the same Michael Flynn who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Here’s what National Public Radio had to SAY ABOUT HIM  a year ago:

“He became a security and geopolitical consultant in private life and took tens of thousands of dollars in payments from Russian entities. In 2015, Russia’s state-backed TV network RT PAID HIM $45,000 to attend a dinner in Moscow, where he sat at the right arm of President Vladimir Putin.

“Back in the United States, Flynn became a vocal supporter of Trump’s outsider campaign in the 2016 presidential race. At the Republican National Convention that year, Flynn led the crowd in chants of “lock her up” about Trump’s rival, Hillary Clinton.

“Flynn was interviewed by the FBI in January 2017, just days after assuming his White House post.

“Intelligence and law enforcement officials worried that the Russians’ knowledge about the true facts of Flynn’s discussion with Kislyak could open Flynn up to the prospect of coercion, given the contrast with his public statements at the time.

“Flynn lied to the agents about his conversations with Kislyak, saying he didn’t urge Moscow not to respond to sanctions the Obama administration imposed on Russia in retaliation for the Kremlin’s election interference.”

But then Trump intervened and subsequently pardoned the man who once led the Defense Intelligence Agency. Flynn, in response to the pardon tweeted a Bible verse: “’They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the LORD.”

Given some of his PREVIOUS UTTERINGS, perhaps we should not have been surprised at his latest call for “One nation under God and one religion under God”:

• Last May he called for a Myanmar-like military coup in America.
• In July, when gifted with a new AR-15-type rifle – at a church, no less – he responded by saying, “Maybe I’ll find somebody in Washington.”
• In September he expressed his concern that COVID-19 vaccines were being added to salad dressing.
• Flynn even posted a 53-second VIDEO  in which he spewed a number of phrases and slogans identified with Qanon, prompting more than 10,500 responses, many of which were from self-styled Qanon supporters who thanked Flynn for his comments and used the same QAnon hashtag that Flynn had used.

Kinda reminds old-timers like myself of another general who got crossways with the Constitution. Gen. Edwin Walker got himself fired by the Pentagon – not JFK as many believe – for passing out John Birch Society material to his troops in Germany.

To my knowledge, Walker never tried to trample on anyone’s right to worship as they saw fit.

These are times we live in now, though. A demagogue can spout nonsense like calling for the establishment of a single religion, exclusive of all others, and he’s a damned hero – and the evangelicals will love him for it.

Sorry, but this isn’t the lesson I was taught in high school civics.

I happen to be Methodist but I would never for a nano-second entertain the thought of denying someone of a different faith the right to worship as they see fit. If they feel the need to worship a warthog, it’s none of my business.

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Walt Handelsman, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning editorial cartoonist in the employ of the Baton Rouge/New Orleans/Acadiana Advocate, had a brilliant cartoon Tuesday entitled simply: Dream On…

It was a four-panel illustration with the first three showing an obviously elated husband explaining a sequence of events to his wife. In the first, with hands aloft in obvious glee, he says, “I met with our insurance company!”

In the second panel, he says, somewhat incredulously, “They were super-fast and responsive!”

Then, in the third panel, embracing his wife, he practically shouts, “They agreed to cover all or our damages and cut us a check on the spot!!!”

The fourth panel shows them lying in bed as he explains, “…Then I woke up.”

Unfortunately, that’s just about the gist of it.

The Advocate had an earlier (Nov. 6) story about “slow responses, repeated delays and blatantly low settlements” on the part of insurance companies in dealing with claims of homeowners in the Lake Charles-Sulphur area devastated by successive hurricanes more than a year ago.

LouisianaVoice told you about insurance companies’ reluctance to act in good faith years before Hurricane Laura slammed into Southwest Louisiana on Aug. 27.

LouisianaVoice told you all about the “Delay, Deny, Defend” STRATEGIES   of Allstate, State Farm in dealing with Hurricanes Katrina and Rita back on April 11, 2017, more than two years before Laura struck. Be sure to read the entire post, especially the part about how the insurance companies have two sets of prices for home repairs – depending on whether or not the damage is determined to be from wind or water.

It’s a tried-and-true tactic designed to wear down the resolve of the staunchest homeowner – simply because the Good Neighbor and the Good Hands People have the financial resources and the team of attorneys to first delay as long as possible before they deny the homeowner’s claim (or at best, offer an insultingly insufficient settlement) and then dig in the long haul as they defend should the homeowner be foolish enough to file suit.

Even in the rare cases when they’re taken to court and lose, it’s still a sound strategy, given the number of claimants who do not have the wherewithal to aggressively fight the big insurance companies. The vast number who capitulate and settle for pennies on the dollar make the courtroom losses insignificant that equate to pesky costs of doing business – much like companies that pollute to save the cost of compliance with EPA regulations or con men who rip off investors for tens of millions and receive only token fines.

McKinsey and Co., the only private sector employer Bobby Jindal ever had, introduced the Delay, Deny, Defend strategy to Allstate and State Farm just in time for Katrina. The results should have been a red flag for Gulf Coast residents long before the introduction of Laura. Author Jay Feinman wrote an entire BOOK  about the tactic and there are several other Internet POSTS  about what should, by all that is just, a criminal CONSPIRACY prosecutable under federal RICO statutes.

Those who take advantage of individuals at their most vulnerable times, when they are the weakest and subject to corporate treachery are the lowest of the low.

Rep. Tanner Magee, (R-Houma) pontificated like any good politician, regurgitating the rhetoric expected of him when he said, “If I was in the insurance industry, I would be concerned about what legislation looks like next year.”

Why? Why would the insurance industry be concerned as long as it continues to pour money into the campaign funds of the right legislators, namely members of the House and Senate committees on insurance?

The 16 members of the House Insurance Committee (including ex-officio member Tanner Magee) received $81,000 in contributions from insurance companies from Jan. 1, 2015. That does not include individual agents who may have contributed.

Senate Insurance Committee members received $45,000 from insurance companies over the same period – again, not including individual agents. Do the math and that a tad more than $5,000 per member in both chambers. Add Senate President Page Cortez’s $6,5750 in contributions from insurance companies, and you have a total of $132,845 for the entire committee memberships.

You’d be surprised what $5,000 can still buy.

Did I mention that several members of those two committees are employed by the insurance industry?

Rep. Magee, I hope you are correct in your prognostication but as a realist who has observed the ethics (or lack thereof) of legislators for too many years, I remain pessimistic that we will ever see any positive actions.

To support my less-than-optimistic outlook, I need only refer to the “reforms” implemented following Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008.

Homeowner deductibles, normally around the flat rate of $1,000, were adjusted to a percentage of the home appraisal, initially 2 percent, but adjusted upward in 2014 to an average of 5 percent.

That meant a STATE FARM  policyholder with a home appraised at $200,000 with a 5 percent deductible would be faced with a $10,000 deductible. In Orleans and Jefferson parishes, that rate is 9 percent. In East Baton Rouge Parish, it’s 7.5 percent and in Lafayette, the deductible is 9.4 percent. So much for Good Neighbor Jake.

I’m not sure Louisianans can afford any more help from the legislature.

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What began as a federal investigation into a work-release program ended Monday with his conviction on all six counts of rape, incest and indecent behavior with a juvenile

 A St. Tammany Parish jury of six men and six women returned the verdict Monday following a nine-day trial at which Strain called no witnesses in his defense. Prosecutors, however, called more than two dozen witnesses, including five men who testified that they had been sexually abused by Strain, beginning – when they were about 10 years old and Strain was 16 – in the late 1970s and continuing for a quarter-century.

Four counts were for aggravated rape which carries a mandatory life sentence and two counts were for aggravated incest because the assaults involved two juveniles to who Strain was related.

Ironically, one of the victims, Skip Keen, would go on to become a captain in Strain’s sheriff’s department and would end up pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. Strain lost his reelection bid in 2015 and was arrested for the sexual offenses on June 11, 2019 after at least four persons came forward to claim they were molested by Strain, one of whom said he was raped as late as June 2004. Strain, 56, was first elected sheriff in 1995, serving until his defeat by current Sheriff Randy Smith.

The federal investigation that precipitated his arrest by state authorities stemmed from Strain’s privatization of the parish jail, which he turned over to two of his friends. Those two, Skip Keen and David Hanson, subsequently pleaded guilted in February 2019 to conspiracy to solicit bribes and to commit wire fraud.

Details of the jail privatization scheme as well as reports of Strain’s June 2019 indictment are included in my book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption, available by clicking on the Cavalier House Book Store icon to the right of this post.

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There was a time when the New Orleans Police Department was considered one of the – if not the – most corrupt police departments in the nation. In fact, three individual New Orleans cops were ranked as the worst of the worst in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina for their killing of 17-year-old James Brissette on the Danzinger bridge.

But over the past couple of years, that mantle seems to have been passed on to the Louisiana State Police (LSP), now with its third commander within a five-year span and with more internal problems than its leadership seems capable of handling.

Associated Press and one-time Baton Rouge Advocate reporter Jim Mustian summed the agency up in a SINGLE ARTICLE that, sadly, described a fraternity mentality of racism, abuse and nepotism.

And now, we have Jason Boyet, 42, of Ponchatoula, a former Trooper of the Year, of all things, being sentenced to 210 months (17 ½ years) in federal prison for the distribution of kiddie porn, specifically images of sexual exploitation (child rape) of children as young as 3.

Can it possibly get any worse than that?

We have troopers beating and killing black motorists, troopers having sex in their patrol cars, troopers working second jobs while supposedly on duty, troopers taking underage women into casino (and having to pay a fine for their trouble) and then getting promoted to troop commanders, troopers abusing drugs on duty, troopers doing just about whatever they damned well please – and getting away with it.

And now this.

These were just photos he downloaded from the Internet; they’re photos he took himself of a prepubescent girl with his iPhone between December 2019 and February 2020. And then he shared the photos in a chat room.

This story was so lurid that it was picked up by the NEW YORK POST. The official word of Boyet’s guilty plea was issued in a NEWS RELEASE by the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans

Boyet was named Troop L’s Trooper of the Year in 2018.

Obviously, the entirety of LSP can’t be judged by this single act of depravity and LSP administrators can’t be held accountable for the deviant behavior of a single individual.

It would be understandable if this was an isolated incident. But it’s not. The stories that have come out of LSP over the past five seven years are disturbing and indicate an ugly trend toward a complete lack of accountability and responsibility. For that, LSP administration must take responsibility.

It’s time for someone in charge to initiate changes in the attitudes that have been allowed to permeate the agency. If they have to jerk a half-hitch in some upstart who thinks he’s invincible, so be it.

LSP has long set itself apart from the rest of Louisiana’s civil servants. It even has its own State Police Commission to serve as something of a civil service board especially for troopers. A good start would be to abolish the commission and bring state police into civil service like the rest of state employees. If state police ever deserved special treatment, that time has long passed and there is no logical reason to retain the commission.

The requirement that the State Police superintendent must come from within the ranks of Louisiana State Police is outdated and should be scrapped. The good old boy network needs shaking up by an outsider who will come in and revamp the nepotism and buddy system that has brought ruin on a one-time stellar agency.

And finally, the fealty to the Louisiana Sheriffs’ Association must end. For too long, decisions ranging from appointments of LSP superintendents, promotions within LSP, and appointments to the LSP Academy itself have depended on the blessings of the sheriffs’ association. No one should have that much power.

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