Louisiana Voice

Are our legislators always this thorough in reading – and comprehending – bills that they pass? Unfortunately, this is all too typical. Actions have consequences and this is a classic example of herd mentality and of kneejerk reaction to the urges of a few who would dictate to everyone else how they should live their lives.

The way this is worded, “I AM the Lord thy God” certainly reads like a commandment.

Not convinced? Read the entire (Act 676) by clicking HERE and scrolling down to page 3 of the bill as passed by a 79-16 vote in the HOUSE and 30-8 in the Senate.

Perhaps legislators – and Jeff Landry – should give a little more attention to learning basic math themselves before attempting to inflict their religious beliefs on children.

Only in Louisiana, folks, only in Louisiana…

CORRECTION: Sen. Alan Seabaugh has correctly pointed out that the 17-0 vote originally attributed here was not the final Senate vote. That was on the co-author page. We own our mistakes and readily admit when we’re mistaken. The actual Senate VOTE was 30-8 with one senator not voting. Sen. Seabaugh seems to have taken umbrage at the idea that we (and apparently anyone else) should dare “lecture” our elected officials. Interesting concept.

So, I guess we should never have pointed out that “coincidence” of your law partner and State Rep. Michael Melerine (R-Shreveport) having attempted to reduce payouts in personal injury cases with his HB 423 while your firm just “happened” to be representing a dozen or so insurance companies, several healthcare providers and a few assorted energy-related corporations. No ulterior motive there, right, Senator?

After all, that might be considered “lecturing.”

we’ll have to get back to you on that one, Senator.

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Well, it’s now official: public officials are for sale.

Of course, we’ve known this for some time but yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court all but cleared the way for officials to accept bribes. Oh, they were careful to call them gratuities, but anyone not living under a rock understood that virtually all definitions of bribery are officially out the window.

It took 20 pages for the opinion, authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, to rationalize that so long as gifts to officials are given after some official action is taken, it’s considered a gratuity and not a bribe. It took another 24 pages for Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to write her dissent. Concurring were Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito (no surprise), Neil Gorsuch, Amy Comey Barrett and Clarence Thomas (now there’s a real shocker!).

Joining Jackson in her dissent were justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

The decision arose from the conviction of former Portage, Ind. Mayor James Snyder who was convicted of bribery for accepting $13,000 from a local trucking company after the city purchased five trash trucks from the business for $1.1 million back in 2013.

Snyder, who was mayor at the time of the purchase, claimed the payment for consulting, leaving unanswered the question of how a sitting officer-holder could legally – or ethically – be working a side gig as a consultant for a potential vendor for the agency he represents.

That murky ethics question aside, the ruling leaves the door wide open – and I mean WIDE open – for all manner of backroom deals to enrich politicians at the possible – and probable – expense of taxpayers.

Vendors, just be certain that you don’t give the gift, cash or vacation trip in advance. Be sure that the package (official decision or action) is done and wrapped in a pretty bow first. THEN, it’s perfectly okay to shower the politico with those tokens of appreciation for a job well done (for the vendor, that is).

Let’s just say, for example, there is a major case pending in a state or federal court against one of our petro-chemical plants. Or some entity wants a multi-million-dollar contract to construct a jail for some sheriff. It could even involve some company striving to land a lucrative contract to say, perform maintenance at the Superdome. Maybe someone would desire to land a hefty contract to perform consulting services on something like a feasibility study on a new state constitution.

All that is necessary to grease the right palm – legally, of course – is to wink at the decision-makers and promise that the right decision “won’t be regretted.” And then all the principals need do is wait until it’s a done deal and the write the check, give the motor home or provide transportation and lodging for an elaborate vacation to some dream spot.

In the eyes of our Supreme Court, it would then be all nice and legal.

Of course, a furtive agreement ahead of time isn’t always necessary. Let’s say you have a decision to make about some unfortunate victim of some corporate misdeed. Who’s in a better position to award you a “gratuity,” someone with little or no resources or someone with a virtulally unlimited budget?

And don’t worry about the nosy press snooping around for public records that might expose your duplicity. Jeff Landry has already taken care of that by all but aboloshing Louisiana’s public record laws, making it difficult if not impossible to follow any paper trails.

And you can count on the Repugnantcans and their apologists to put a smiley face on the decision – if they mention it at all. But you can’t really make a silk purse of a sow’s ear. Put another way, as Fraser Crane once said, “Just because a cat has kittens in the oven, it doesn’t make them biscuits.”

Of course, with the wrong decision, those “gratuities” could vanish. It all harkens back to Sen. Simon Cameron who also served as President Lincoln’s secretary of war, who once said, “An honest politician is one who when he’s bought, stays bought.”

Folks, it turns out all the hoopla over abortion rights and immigration, important though they certainly are, might have simply been a smokescreen to divert our attention away from governmental ethics. I mean, it’s not like a couple of the Supreme Court justices don’t have dogs in that fight.

With the complete gutting of any ethical barrier between business and government, all vestiges of purity and good government have vanished from the Republican agenda because this issue most assurably occupies the top rung of the GOP ladder of priorities.

It began, probably, with the 1976 Supreme Court Buckley v. Valeo decision that said limits on the amount of money individuals could spend to benefit politicians were unconstitutional, that purchasing the allegiance of public officials with cash is a variant of protected free speech.

Unless, of course, you might happen to be a lowly civil servant. A person I know who worked for the state received – unsolicited – a Christmas ham from a vendor one Christmas. The ham was sent to the employee’s state office and she was ratted out as having accepted a gift from a vendor and the ever-vigilant State Ethics Commission popped her with a $250 fine.

Had she been a powerful bureaucrat or elected official, that gift would never have been raised as an issue.

The question now is with the latest Supreme Court decision, will the new rules be applied equally across the board? Will they be applied to elected officials and civil servants alike?

Don’t count on it.

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Events these days move so quickly that the next sensational headline tends to obliterate the current political scandal. Memories are short, so we move on to the next lurid account of political or sexual chicanery without so much as the blink of an eye.

Anyone even remember how Donald Trump elevated a Miami U.S. attorney to the position of labor secretary after the federal prosecutor approved a plea deal that let serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein off the hook with virtually no punishment? Anyone remember that Epstein reached financial settlements with dozens of one-time teenage victims?

Anyone happen to remember that Donald Trump’s name was linked to trips to Epstein’s Island hideaway – along with several other prominent people, including Bill Clinton and England’s Prince Andrew, among others, and that Trump himself was accused of having sexual relations with a 13-year-old girl in Epstein’s presence? Ever really wonder about Epstein’s “suicide”?

For that matter, does anyone recall the name Steven Hoffenberg, the man who, until Bernie Madoff came along, ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history ($450 million)? He was sentenced to 20 years in prison back in the 1990s and upon his release, he (a) got MARRIED (for the third time) in a ceremony conducted in front of Trump Towers where he had lived prior to his arrest, (b) pledged $50 million of his own money in an effort to raise $1 billion on behalf of Trump’s 2016 candidacy, and (c) launched “Christ Card,” a special “Christian” credit card he tried to peddle to some 700,000 U.S. churches.

Hoffenberg died in 2022 and the “Christ Card” appears to have died a quick death as well; we could find no references to any such card today.

He very well might have gotten away with that huge Ponzi scheme a lot longer had it not been for the herculean work of publisher of a tiny weekly newspaper up in Ruston.

The late John Martin Hays, editor/publisher of The Morning Paper, which started out as a tabloid scandal sheet written on an IBM Selectric typewriter was the object of scorn and ridicule when it debuted back in the 1970s, but Hays and wife Susan stuck with it and the paper would up being nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his work on the Hoffenberg story.

Though much about Trump and his connection to Epstein and Hoffenberg has been forgotten in the crush of stories since then, LouisianaVoice first told you about the connection and Hays’s journalistic expertise five years ago. Thought you might like a refresher. If so, go HERE for the details. Want more? Try this LouisianaVoice STORY from eight years ago, on June 21, 2016 or THIS ONE from just two weeks later, on July 6, 2016.

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The headline from The Christian Post jumped out at me this morning.

“Trump tells Christians their ‘religion will be in tatters’ if Biden wins: ‘We answer to God in Heaven'”

Sure, it’s a classic Trumpian scare tactic. But coming from him, that audacious claim literally drips with irony.

And if you are a true person of faith, it would seem to be more than a little blasphemous, perhaps even sacrilegious.

This grotesque utterance, after all, comes from a man who cheated on his pregnant wife with a porn star, sold autographed Bibles, bragged about grabbing women “by the p***y,” cheated students at his “university,” stiffed contractors, bankrupted every business venture he ever launched, stole top-secret government documents and refused to return them, committed bank fraud, lied about the 2020 election (don’t bother trying to rebut that; he lost some 60 challenges in court – some before judges he himself appointed) and God knows what else.

So, the man who never attends church, holds Bibles upside-down for a photo-op and promises “retribution” against all whom he perceives to have harmed him (the true Christian spirit would be forgiveness, would it not?) now invokes the will of the Almighty in wooing the evangelical vote.

What’s even more puzzling is how any person, capable of thinking form himself or herself, could ever fall for such claptrap. How could anyone who proclaims to possess a grain of faith twist their beliefs into rationalizing that this man is their salvation? It literally defies all logic. The man represents every one of the so-called seven deadly sins which a real believer abhors: greed, lust, pride, wrath, envy, gluttony and sloth. To insist on supporting this man, one must first lie to oneself.

Having said that, here’s another headline that caught my attention this morning:

“Paula White says Trump asked her what God thought about his presidential run”

I suppose Rev. White, a florida televangelist, communicates with God on a regular basis on elections. Maybe it’s to learn the odds in order to lay a heavy bet on the outcome of the election – all to benefit her City of Destiny Church, of course.

You see, she is one of Herr Trump’s “spiritual advisors.”

But then, so was Robert Morris, a founding pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas.

Well, he was the pastor until…well, I’ll let this headline from The Guardian explain it:

“Pastor and ex-Trump adviser resigns after admitting to child sexual abuse”

This occurred back in the 1980s and the church learned of it in 1987, it took a mere 37 years for the guilt-ridden Rev. Robert Morris to step down.

The child? She was 12 at the time.

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“I don’t care what they write about me as long as they spell my name right.”

That quote, or variations of it, have been attributed to such notables as Mae West, P.T. Barhum and Earl Long. It could just as well apply to Jeff Landry.

Landry knows, or should know, as most personal injury lawsuits say, that his Ten Commandments law isn’t going to fly once it gets into court. It’s in clear conflict with the First Amendment which says Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

The issue of displaying the Ten Commandments has already been firmly established by the courts and good as the commandments are in setting out the rules of society, this law is nothing more than grandstanding by a governor who seems to thrive on publicity – any publicity.

Yes, it’s a law sponsored by a legislator, Rep. Dodie Horton (R-Haughton), and passed by the Louisiana Legislature but make no mistake, this was Landry’s bill all the way. Just as he has signed on to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, it is a typical move that a publicity whore would embrace.

There is one other possible motive: as a reader opined, it could be a smokescreen, a diversion, to obscure 16 other laws concerning public education in Louisiana that our esteemed legislature just passed and Landry eagerly signed into law.

Besides the Ten Commandments law and yet another version of “don’t say gay,” some of the more controversial bills pass included that of Sen. Rick Edmonds (R-Baton Rouge) which created taxpayer-supported vouchers, known as “education savings accounts (ESAs) to pay for students to attend private schools and another that prohibits teachers from asking about a student’s vaccination status.

Simply translated, it transfers public tax dollars from public schools to private schools. That’s a dream come true for all those private schools that popped up back in the 1970s as a frantic effort to avoid desegregation of previously lily-white schools. The law was ballyhooed as a wonderful statute to improve education in Louisiana but it failed to address how local school systems will cope with what is certain to produce a financial shortfall.

And never mind that it was vaccinations that eradicated measles, polio and smallpox; our clown car of lawmakers and our idiot governor don’t want required Covid-19 innoculations while ignoring the fact that 1.2 million Americans died from the virus.

In other words, these are just more examples of the legislature’s tendency to pass kneejerk laws to cater to the prevailing political winds with no thought to the negative effects.

Oh, and speaking of legislators doing their jobs and seeing a task through to the finish, whatever happened to that probing legislative committee’s “investigation” of the Ronald Greene death at the hands of Louisiana State Police? Just askin’.

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