Louisiana Voice

“That’s the way it is.”

—Donald Trump, responding to a question about climate change and the growing intensity of hurricanes, while touring areas devastated by Hurricane Laura. [Goes right along with his “It is what it is” comment on the soaring numbers of coronavirus victims.]

“I asked myself, what are the things that matter to you? It mattered that this president has openly said to us, I’m not going to accept the outcome of this election if I don’t win. It matters to me what he’s done with the Postal Service to prevent Americans from accessing the ballot box. I see this is the time for choosing, and the choice that unfortunately many in my party, particularly in the party leadership, have made is that they choose Trump. They choose winning an election at all costs over the country and I think, as an American, I should be bigger than that. So, the fact of the matter is they need to explain why they allowed Donald Trump to crap all over their plans to build out the party after they lost the 2012 election. They have to explain why they capitulated on Russia and deficit spending and allowed Donald Trump to put children in cages and they remained silent.”

—Michael Steele, former the first Black chairman of the Republican National Committee, on the party’s capitulation to Donald Trump. [Steele should prepare himself to being labeled “a loser” by the Insulter in Chief.]

“There’s a man that’s an incredible leader, Lou Holtz. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s been a friend of mine.” 

—Donald Trump, announcing that he will award the Medal of Freedom to former football coach Lou Holtz. {Yep, nothing like giving it to the likes of Holtz and Rush Limburger to cheapen the award to the extent that it’s devoid of any honor or significance. After washing out an NFL coach (3-10 record), Holtz had a college coaching record of 249-132, which would be the equivalent of going 7-5 every year. No LSU or Alabama coach would survive such a performance. His bowl record of 12-8 is even worse.]

“[W]e Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of another’s actions, we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that person’s heart.”

—Statement by Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, on Holtz’s claim that Joe Biden was a “Catholic in name only.” [Maybe Holtz should take a page from Laura Ingraham and just “shut up and coach.” After all, Ingraham is of the mind that athletes have no right to open their mouths about politics and she must surely feel the same way about coaches.]

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“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

—Retired Gen. Jim Mattis, in the wake of The Atlantic magazine’s story about Donald Trump’s refusal to visit a military cemetery in France to honor American soldiers killed in World War I, calling those killed “losers” and “suckers.’

“The phrase: ‘shocking if true’ is getting worn out. Lack of denial from my friends Generals (John) Kelly and Mattis suggest the shock is well placed. [I]f they do have firsthand knowledge of such quotes, will step up and affirm or deny the story.”

—Tweet by retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, on the possible source of The Atlantic story.

“Who the heck does he think he is?” How would you feel if you had a kid in Afghanistan right now? How would you feel if you lost a son or daughter, husband, wife? How would you feel, for real? But you know in your heart, you know in your gut: It’s deplorable.”

—Joe Biden, on the quotes attributed to Trump in the story.

“It’s a hoax … just like Russia, Russia, Russia,” 

—Trump denial that sounds vaguely familiar.

“I get along with him, but every once in a while, he’ll come up with one that I say, ‘Where did that come from?’ I inherited him. He was here. He was part of this huge piece of machine.”

—Donald Trump, apparently preparing to dump Dr. Anthony Fauci, Aug. 31, 2020. [Oh, like we didn’t see that coming…]

“To the notion that there’s opposition research and that there’s Fauci versus the president couldn’t be further from the truth. Dr. Fauci and the president have always had a very good working relationship.”

—White House Precious Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, July 13, 2020. [From July 13 to Aug. 31 – 49 days. Even money says Fauci will be gone before election day.]

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Day 4 or our September fundraiser and we’re nowhere near our goal of $5,000 to keep solid investigative reporting going until April, the date of our next scheduled fundraiser.

I know times are tough. Most of us know someone who has contracted he coronavirus even as our president continues to proclaim it a hoax. Some of us know someone who had died from the virus. Others have lost jobs and health insurance. Businesses have closed, unemployment numbers have surged.

I am specifically asking those who have suffered financial hardships to disregard the fundraiser. You have other priorities and those should be addressed before you consider supporting a blog.

But for those of you who have the financial resources, I humbly ask that you contribute what you can so that we continue to travel the state and to meet our own expenses which from time to time, involve legal costs as we are forced to go to court to pry public records from reluctant public officials.

To pay by credit card, click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post. It looks like this but the one I’ve posted here doesn’t work; you have to go to the column on the right and click on that one. If you prefer to pay by check, our mailing address is:

LouisianaVoice

P.O. Box 922

Denham Springs, Louisiana 70727

We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, so your contributions are fully tax-deductible. Also, those giving $100 or more will receive a signed copy of my latest book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption.

As always, your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Tom Aswell

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60 Days

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers. Who were the good guys in this war?”

—Donald Trump, in 2018, rejecting the idea of a visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery where more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives while stopping the German advance toward Paris at Belleau Wood in 1918 are buried. [If Trump’s attacks on John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, his ridiculing the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004, or his insistence that wounded veterans be barred from military parades because “Nobody wants to see that (amputees),” fails to temper your enthusiasm for Trump, I don’t expect this will because you are either complicit in his contempt for this country or you’re too stupid to understand the significance of the above quote from The Atlantic magazine on Sept. 3, 2020.]

“I think there are some situations where statistics would suggest that they are treated differently, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily racism.”

—Attorney General William Barr, in interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. [Words fail me.]

“Kim Jong-un hit on you!” He did! He f**king hit on you! Well, Sarah, that settles it. You’re going to North Korea and taking one for the team! Your husband and kids will miss you, but you’ll be a hero to your country!”

—Sarah Huckabee Sanders in yet another (yawn) Trump book. [It’s difficult to feel sorry for Sanders after her countless lies on behalf of such a crude man. And now that’s she’s trying to capitalize on her tenure, it’s even harder. She stayed on long after her shelf life had expired.]

“In my view the American voter needs to know as much about this as can be revealed. They need to know if someone is attempting to influence their vote or manipulate them.”

—John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, on the decision by John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, that he would no longer provide in-person briefings on election security.

“So, send it in early and then go and vote. You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot . . . you send it in, but I’d check it, follow it and go vote.”

—Donald Trump, urging voters in North Carolina to test his theory that vote-by-mail is fraught with fraud. [In other words, vote early and often.]

“It is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”

—Donald Trump, ordering an investigation into the possibility of withholding federal funding where violence is permitted. [Of course, that would have to include the entire district of U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, who has certainly promoted violence on Facebook.]

Interview that went awry:

Laura Ingraham: “Let’s say for the sake of argument you have a deficit among female voters who may be in some cases, you’re too aggressive, your tone or your tweets. What do you say to them directly about what you’ll do in a second term?

Donald Trump: “Okay. I have to be aggressive, because I’m like standing here in a sea of incompetent people, stupid people, and violent people — very violent people.”

Ingraham: “But that’s the kind of language, stupid people, a lot of women don’t like that.”

Trump: “Well, where are we? We’re in the White House I see,” he said. “See? Okay.”

[And Trump claims Biden has dementia.]

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More B.S. on Facebook (another reason I’m not on social media; this story had my B.S. needle all the way into the red part and wrapped around the meter post).

In typical Trumpian fashion, a message posted on Facebook today will probably come full circle when Trump reads it and then goes on Fox News claiming it to be fact – like that ridiculous claim by Mr. Sweet Potato Head that “someone” saw sinister-looking thugs and looters dressed in black and armed to the teeth and “this and that” board a plane bound for Washington, D.C. “looking for trouble.” (Question, Tangerine Toddler: if they were able to board a commercial plane fully armed, then they must be law enforcement personnel. Otherwise, don’t you think TSA might’ve stepped in before they got that far?)

That same claim was posted by an Idaho man who said he saw those same thugs and looters on a plane bound from Seattle to Boise but no “this and that.” No matter, Trump just adopted the story as his own – for his own political agenda.

The latest Facebook post, like the thugs and looters on the plane, also turns out to be pure meadow muffins put out there by someone with an IQ approaching 3 who’s been smoking too many mushrooms.

Now that I have your curiosity burning up, here’s the message involving hurricane recovery efforts in Southwest Louisiana:

“Governor Edwards refused to let linemen in from other states because of Covid19 (sic). Trump overrode him. Trump trumped him and let them in! We have workers from all over (the) U.S. working on our power. Thanks to OUR president! Y’all need to remember that when y’all go vote!”

This mouth breathing, booger-eating moron even writes in redneck.

A quick call to Gov. John Bel Edwards’ office was all it took to dispel this rotgut bit of fabricated fertilizer that would require a dozen gold-plated porcelain toilets to fully flush.

“There’s all kind of misinformation floating around out there,” said the person who answered the phone at the governor’s office before transferring me to Chief of Staff Mark Cooper’s office.

Chancely Coursey, assistant to Cooper, was quick to put the kibosh on the report. “We’re trying to get people in here to work,” she said. “We’re not turning anyone away.”

She said there was another story that probably gave birth to that one. “There was another report that we were quarantining everyone from out of state for two weeks,” she said. “That’s not true, either. We do require that they wear masks, but we’re not quarantining or turning anyone away.”

The immediate question is where in the world do these wild-eyed stories originate? Why don’t these idiots conduct a minimum amount of verification before putting it out there for all to see when it’s so easy to check out?

And what’s worse is Trump will probably see that post and adopt the story as his own and go on Fox and Friends to say that he overrode the Louisiana governor, a Democrat, who didn’t want to allow outside assistance in hurricane recovery. And his base, so dependent on someone doing their thinking for them, will take it as gospel.

“Y’all need to remember that when y’all go vote!”

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