Louisiana Voice

I know all the lies, exaggerations, embellishments and misrepresentations by the Lard of Mar-a-Largo all tend to run together, often making it difficult to keep them all straight in your head, but there’s one that really stands out after first hearing him utter it 10 years ago:

“I hire only the best people.”

Wow. Perhaps the biggest whopper of them all and there have been soooo many!

Like when he said he would unveil his healthcare plan to replace Obamacare “in a couple of weeks.”

Or when he promised to release (a0 his tax returns and (b) the Epstein files, neither of which has yet transpired.

And of course, he is currently desperately trying to buy time by promising an end to a way he said would only take a “couple of weeks.” He’s now promising it’ll end “after the elections” in November.

But let’s go back to his hiring the “best people,” because that lie is so current even as I write this.

Item: Police investigate deaths of two Ole Miss students – Mississippi Today. Two students the University of Mississippi were found dead in separate incidents on Monday, both of which are believed to be the result of Kratom overdoses.

Item: The Livingston Parish council considering a parish wide ban of Kratom ack in April but decided to wait to see what the legislature did with a similar bill to ban the drug statewide.

Item: The House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice UNANIMOUSLY PUNTED on HB 778 by Rep. Beryl Amedee (R-Houma) which would have done just that.

For those unfamiliar with the plant, indigenous to Southeast Asia, it is a stimulant that has an opioid-like effect and which has been cardiac arrest, liver toxicity and other serious side effects. FDA Cracks Down on Kratom, Issues Warning Over Opioid-Like Substance

Item: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin holds up to a $1 million stake in a kratom company. DHS Secretary Mullin Holds Up to $1M Stake in Kratom Company Botanic Tonics — Kratom News Today.

That’s correct, boys and girls. The U.S. President who has ordered the bombing of fishing boats off the South American coast, killing more than 60 Venezuelan citizens in the name of drug control, has appointed a man who profits off what is perhaps a dangerous drug responsible for the deaths of two students at Ole Miss and which is termed “unsafe and ineffective” by the Mayo Clinic.

Oh, but campers, that’s not all.

We, of course, know about the Epstein files and Trump’s steadfast refusal to discuss them—even to the point of starting a war as a distraction.

But did you know Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), one Brendan Carr, was for a decade affiliated with an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group known as the Midtown group, an organization based in the Washington, DC, area, a cult that a former member called the “EPSTEIN OF AA” for the manner in which the lives of underage girls who went there for treatment of alcohol problems were controlled and abused sexually.

Care is Trump’s hatchet man who has gone after Jimmy Kimmel and who has threatened the broadcast licenses of various TV networks who offend Trump with their news reporting.

But it is his 10-year association with the Midtown group that has some more observant critics buzzing. With all the loud noise over the Epstein files, the Washington AA group has basically flown under the radar and because of that, Carr has received scant attention.

Until now. Admittedly, it took a while. Newsweek, after all, called attention to the group way back in 2007, before Trump as President ever entered the conversation. Critics Say Washington AA Chapter Is Cultlike – Newsweek.

So, does Trump even vet his appointees? It certainly doesn’t appear so. The stories were out there for everyone to see. Trump’s FCC chair spent nearly a decade in group accused of exploiting teen girls.

And did Louisiana’s two senators who consistently have voted to confirm each of Trump’s nominees, no matter how distasteful (see Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy Jr., Kristi Noem, etc.), all of which begs the question of why the hell John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy weren’t a little more dedicated to doing their homework and standing up as men of principle rather than kissing Trump’s ass?

I’ve seen my share of weak-kneed, milquetoast-willed men serving in elective office but for sheer consistency, I’ve never in my 83 years beheld two cowards of the magnitude of these two men. Neither one has ever—not once—voted no on or objected to any of Trump’s abominable appointments, no matter how crazy (RFK Jr.), corrupt (Noem), dense (Tulsi Gabbard) greedy (Elon Musk), uncaring (ICE Director Tom Homan), just plain stupid (Pete Hegseth), sleazy (Matt Gaetz) or cruel (Stephen Miller).

As far as any realistic evaluation of John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, one can only surmise that theirs is an endorsement of autocracy by collusion.

I mean, a man with a $1 million stake in kratom as DHS secretary and an FCC chair who hung out with an Epstein-like manipulator and abuser of underage girls for a full decade? Seriously?

Is this what we’ve come to as a nation?