Louisiana Voice

U.S. Rep. Mike Johnson continues to be an embarrassment to Louisiana.

Our extinguished Speaker of the House, that guy who, along with his son, monitor each other’s porn proclivities via some app that allows each to keep tabs on the other, that guy who, while professing to be a devout Christian, has sold his soul to Donald Trump, the very personification of the seven deadly sins. Yeah, that guy.

At the same time that he visibly shines his halo, he piles on an old, feeble man. Where’s the love, man, that Jesus bade us display every waking minute of our lives? Where’s the compassion for the poor, the hungry, the homeless, or more important, those without the financial resources to contribute five- and six-figure dollar amounts to political campaigns and PACS? Where’s the Party of Lincoln that long ago sold citizens out in favor of (read moneyed) corporate interests?

I’m alluding to, of course, Johnson’s statement on CNN that Joe Biden should immediately resign from office.

The exact quote: “If Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President. He must resign the office immediately.”

But wait. Johnson, that man who has no problem whatsoever in abandoning his evangelical beliefs if it benefits the Repugnantcan Party, took it a step further by implying that he would prefer that Biden remain in the race:

“Having invalidated the votes of more than 14 million Americans who selected Joe Biden to be the Democrat nominee for president, the self-proclaimed ‘party of democracy’ has proven exactly the opposite,” Johnson said.

Wait. What? Is Johnson, in the same interview, only seconds apart, saying on the one hand that Biden should resign the presidency and on the other that he should remain in the race?

Apparently so. Bear in mind that Johnson, from up in Benton in northwest Louisiana (when I was growing up in Ruston, we considered that to be part of East Texas), told Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “THIS WEEK” that he thought it would be wrong to disregard the 14 million people who voted for Biden in the Democratic primaries to suddenly have their choice pulled from them.

Of course, being the self-proclaimed constitutional scholar, Johnson said he thought it well might be unlawful “in accordance to some of these states’ rules for a handful of people to go in a back room and switch it out because they’re, they don’t like the candidate any longer. That’s not how this is supposed to work. So I think they would run into some legal impediments in at least a few of these jurisdictions,”

Yeah, well, I can see where Trump and his toadies might want Biden to remain in the race after that abysmal debate performance last month. And truth be told, Biden is obvious slipping – much in the same fashion that Trump has “slipped.” I mean, Trump is the one who wanted to draw a hurricane’s path with a Sharpie. He’s the one who wanted to nuke hurricanes. He’s the one who suggested that we rake forests to prevent forest fires, and he advocated cutting open people’s lungs and pouring disinfectant on them an letting them dry in the sun to cure Covid. He’s the one who praised our Air Force for its heroic work during the War of 1812. He’s the one, during a Pearl Harbor Day observance, who didn’t know the significance of the USS Arizona.

And most recently, when Biden came up with a border security measure that Repugnantcans – including Johnson – found acceptable, it was Trump who called Johnson and directed him and the Repugs to reject the plan until after the election, apparently so Trump could claim the credit. I guess finding a solution to the border crisis wasn’t so urgent after all.

And of course, he’s the one who was going to eradicate the federal deficit in what, six weeks? Instead, he increased it by $7 trillion – that’s trillion with a T. Of course, all those socialism haters are probably ecstatic that he wants to eliminate Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – except those who are benefitting or plan to benefit from the programs, which includes just about everyone.

I have never, in my 65 years of following politics (I developed a keen interest in government around 15, thanks to my high school civics teacher Ervin Ryland) witnessed an entire culture (Repugnantcans) like we now have, from the local level all the way up to Congress and the Supremely Unscrupulous Court, so intend on dismantling the 248-years of our democratic republic the way I’m now seeing.

Whenever I hear Johnson and people like Jeff Landry, those self-anointed paragons of virtue and holiness, motherhood and marriage covenants, speak it reminds me of one of my favorite Earl Long quotes. Speaking of 1947 gubernatorial opponent Same Jones, Uncle Earl quipped that Jones was “the only person I know who can talk out of both sides of his mouth and whistle in the middle.”

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Did you happen to read or hear what our ass-clown of a governor said at the Republican National Convention? H really laid it out there for all to see just how backward us rednecks must really be down here on the bayous and in the swamps.

Talking about the attempt on Donald Trump’s life by Thomas Crooks and defending his absurd requirement that all public classrooms display a copy of the Ten Commandments, this genius in psychoanalysis and theology said, “I would submit that maybe if the Ten Commandments were hanging on [Crooks’] wall at the school that he was in, maybe he wouldn’t took (sic) as shot at the president.”

https://lailluminator.com/2024/07/18/landry-ten-commandments/?emci=e30b8e32-d045-ef11-86c3-6045bdd9e096&emdi=010ad11e-d445-ef11-86c3-6045bdd9e096&ceid=372080

Seriously, Landry? You’re going with that? You sound like those evangelicals who are saying that divine intervention kept Trump from being killed while overlooking the fact that that same divine intervention did not prevent an innocent man, Corey Comperatore, from being killed by the same shooter. Wasn’t his life also worth some of that divine intervention?

But back to Landry. Maybe if the idiots attacking school and public libraries would step back and allow kids to read, maybe, just maybe a few other problems might find a solution.

Some of the books being attacked by people like Greg Abbott and Rhonda Sandis include:

Catch-22 – Well, hell, we can’t be allowing these kids to read about the absurdities of war. They are, after all, the cannon fodder of the future for wars we haven’t even thought about yet.

Slaughterhouse-Five – See above.

Of Mice and Men – Now why would we want to enlighten kids about mental illness when we shut down all the mental health treatment facilities under Bobby Jindal? Or bring the problems of migrant farm workers to their attention with all the illegal migrants flooding the country?

Huckleberry Finn – Jeez, that one’s about the warm relationship between a white boy and a black man. Can’t be having that just as we’re trying to return to the wonderful days of Jim Crow now, can we?

The Pentagon Papers – Why on earth would we teach kids about the rotten politics that leads us into so many frightful conflicts just at a time when we’re trying to re-write the history books with videos from Prager-U?

To Kill a Mockingbird – Listen up. We aren’t going to let you read that claptrap just when our guvner is enacting laws that make it more difficult for a wrongfully convicted person to prove his innocence.

Brave New World – Like A Handmaid’s Tale, this is about grooming. Instead of women, it’s children who are being subjected to unlearn emotions and individuality. Let ‘em read that and they might figure out what Project 2025 is about.

But here’s a thought. Perhaps if Landry had read Huckleberry Finn in school, maybe, just maybe, he’d get on a raft and float on down the Mississippi.

But here’s a better thought:

Force Landry and his Repugnantcan buddies to take a long hard gander at the following and then explain to the rest of us how divine intervention allows this to happen?

Divine intervention and the Ten Commandments don’t seem to be helping a lot in these two photos.

In a nutshell, Landry’s childish 15 seconds of fame was just so much gibberish. The utterings of an adolescent who thinks he’s a grownup.

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“For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America. Clearly, we’ve seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”

–Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who, it should be remembered, was nearly killed by a lunatic gunman and was saved, ironically, by a black lesbian EMT. Yet, Scalise never condemned gun violence or altered his stance on gay rights.)

“Joe Biden sent the orders. The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.”

–US Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia (the same one who loves to post controversial messages on X.)

“Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”                                                       

US Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s pick as his vice-presidential running mate.

“American Patriots are united behind President Trump. The left will not stop MAGA Nation.”

–US Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), apparently of the opinion that patriots and “the left” are mutually exclusive. But then, Higgins is an idiot.

“I mean, when you turn on a late-night show and it’s no longer comedy, it’s a constant 10-minute barrage against a single person. Comparisons with Hitler. That kind of stuff. That needs to stop, too.”

–Scalise again (grab your airsick bags).

Scalise also said there needs to be a “dialing down” of personal attacks.

Oh, really? Let’s turn the clock back to Aug. 9, 2016:

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment, people, maybe there IS, I don’t know.

–None other than candidate Donald J. Trump himself.

And here’s Trump again back on Feb. 1, 2016, when he told rally participants to “beat the hell out of” protesters, and said he’d like to “punch [a protester] in the face,”

Oh, and here’s good ol’ boy Clay Higgins again in 2017, discussing protestors:

“Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

Here he is again, in a letter to a judge asking for leniency for Jan. 6 rioter Ryan Nichols who was videotaped prior to the attack on the Capitol as saying, “It’s going to be violent and yes, if you are asking, ‘Is Ryan Nichols going to bring violence? Yes, Ryan Nichols is going to bring violence.’”

Higgins wrote to the judge, “I submit to you this letter in support of Ryan Taylor Nichols. He is a man of good character, faith, and core principles.”

Keep in mind, that Higgins loves to tout his experience as a former St. Landry Parish sheriff’s deputy.

And finally, this from Reuters:

“Before the shooting, Trump had not ruled out the possibility of political violence if he loses November’s election. ‘If we don’t win, you know, it depends,’ he said when asked by TIME magazine in April if he expected violence after the 2024 election. He’s also refused to unconditionally accept the results of the upcoming election and warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses.

So, just who is actually guilty of dangerous political rhetoric here? For Scalise, Trump, Higgins, Collins, J.D. Vance or anyone else to have the cajones to invoke the word “violence” or harmful “rhetoric” at this juncture is sheer hypocrisy bordering on psychosis.

Now I’m going to stretch a theory to its breaking point. It’s no big secret that evangelicals form the core of Trump’s support. But let’s examine the practices of some of those evangelicals who call themselves fundamentalists. I warn you, what follows is quite distasteful, but factual.

There are hundreds of homes for troubled youth being run throughout this country by fundamentalists whose version of discipline can only be described as medieval, nothing short of sociopathic torture – and I suggest that these people are among the most ardent Trump supporters.

One of those homes was in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana until it was closed down but the stories coming out of it and other homes like it are sickeningly similar.

In the girls’ homes, the girls, ranging in age from 10 to 18, were/are given two squares of toilet paper for urination and four squares for bowel movements and for their periods. Bathroom tissue was never flushed but discarded in an unlined, unsanitary, malodorous tin can. Offenses that draw draconian punishment may be for not saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am;” for not looking down or away in the presence of boys (in church, because that’s the only time they were ever in the presence of boys); for not memorizing Bible verses, for smiling or for not smiling enough.

Punishments include locking girls in a tiny room with no bathroom breaks (only a can to go in). Sometimes they were even handcuffed to their beds for days on end while taped sermons of the minister who ran the facility were played 24/7. Girls were forced to scrub the same pot over and over until their hands bled. Other punishments included scrubbing their bodies with lye soap until their skin was raw and bleeding; forcing girls to hold soap in their mouths, or forcing them to eat their own vomit if they threw up during exercise. When put on “silence,” sometimes for as long as a month, they were not allowed to speak to anyone other than supervisors and then only when spoken to first.

And of course, there was the corporal punishment administered with a wooden paddle with holes drilled in it to cut down on wind resistance. One girl reported receiving 147 “licks” to their buttocks, legs, backs and arms – administered at full strength by a supervisor. That’s one hundred forty-seven licks, folks. How could anyone be expected to endure such abuse? Some girls were permanently crippled by the beatings.

And the rapes. Let’s not overlook those. Another girl said she was told to go to the office for her punishment. Fully anticipating licks with the board, she was told to raise her dress. She did so and the supervisor, a man, told her to raise her slip. She complied, whereupon she said he pulled her panties down and raped her from behind.

Yet, these barbarians call themselves men and women of God. The “reverends” cart a few of the girls around to area churches to sing and give testimonials. The church members obediently respond by hitting the floor with their knees while reaching for their wallets and purses. Meanwhile, the girls are sexually abused at will by their chaperones.

These people, these so-called Christians represent an admittedly small but vocal and influential sampling of the evangelical mindset: they do not think for themselves; they just yell and shout their zealous devotion and send money – to the preacher or the prophet (more accurately spelled profit) without an independent thought of the consequences.

Sound familiar?

(Editor’s note: These conditions described are not fiction. There have even been recorded deaths of children in these homes or ranches. That’s why I am in the process of writing a book about the physical, mental and sexual abuse of children by administrators and members of the Protestant and Catholic clergy.)

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