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Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

“We went back and forth, then we fell in love. He wrote me beautiful letters, and they’re great letters. We fell in love.”

—Creepy Donald Trump, on his June 2018 meeting with North Korea’s “pretty smarty cookie” Kim Jong Un.

 

“Get rid of them. You don’t have this problem in Russia. We have it, you don’t.”

—Donald Trump, to Vladimir Putin on freedom of the press, June 28, 2019.

 

“He’s the head of a country, and I mean he’s the strong head. Don’t let anyone think anything different. He speaks, and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”

—Donald Trump, on Kim Jong Un, June 2018.

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How much of a threat is the coronavirus to Louisiana’s population?

According to 24/7 Wall Street, the survey company that publishes statistics and trends on just about every known subject of interest to Americans, it depends.

For at-risk adults over the age of 60, the news is pretty good. For those ages 18-60, not so much. For adults at-risk because of age and/or medical conditions, it’s a little on the more high side, compared to other states.

Results published by the nonprofit health care policy organization Kaiser Family Foundation concluded that the data confirm the need to take “unprecedented efforts to minimize the spread of the coronavirus,” according to the 24/7 report.

The study indicates that Louisiana adults over 60 out of all at-risk adults have a 67.2 percent chance of contracting the virus, the second-lowest rate in the nation. Lowest was Arkansas, at 66.9 percent while Vermont was highest at 79.7 percent.

The news wasn’t nearly so good for Louisiana citizens in the 18-60 at-risk age group. While the overall rate of 20.0 percent appears relatively low when compared to those 60 and over, their rate actually was sixth-highest in the nation. West Virginia was highest for that age group at 24.9 percent, followed by Arkansas (22.3 percent) and Alabama (21.6 percent). Minnesota was lowest at 12.4 percent.

For adults at-risk because of age or medical conditions, Louisiana was 19th highest at 43.2 percent. Lowest was Utah at 33.5 percent.

Louisiana’s poverty rate of 18.6 percent was third highest in the nation, exceeded only by New Mexico (second highest at 19.5 percent) and Mississippi (highest, at 19.7 percent). New Hampshire had the lowest poverty rate (7.6 percent).

The data compiled for the report included adults 18 and older and represented adults who reported being told by a physician that they have one of the listed conditions: heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease. Data excluded those living in nursing homes and other institutional settings

Approximately 41% of U.S. adults ages 18 and older (105.5 million people) are at greater risk of serious illness if they become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. An estimated additional 1.3 million people living in nursing homes are not only at high risk of serious illness but also of the virus spreading faster because of their dense, communal living conditions.

An estimated 5.7 million adults who are at higher risk of getting a serious illness if they become infected with the novel coronavirus are uninsured, including 3.9 million adults under age 60 and 1.8 million who are ages 60-64.

 

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“We’ve had a president who dislikes our friends and bows to our enemies, something that we’ve never seen before in the history of our country. The truth is they don’t respect us.”

—Donald Trump, on Barack Obama during a 2016 campaign speech.

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“I’ve known it was a pandemic, long before it was called a pandemic. All you had to do was to look at other countries.”

—Donald Trump, March 17, 2020, after weeks of calling coronavirus a “hoax,” a Democratic “plot” to destroy his presidency, and after repeatedly insisting that “We have it under control.”

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There is a man in Congress who can make Donald Trump appear to be the adult in the room.

There is a man in Congress who can make fellow Rep. Devin Nunes appear to be the voice of reason and restraint.

There is a man in Congress who can make fellow Rep. Lindsey Graham look like a paragon of consistency.

There is a man in Congress who can make fellow Rep. Jim Jordan appear to be a calming influence.

There is a man in Congress who can make just about anyone else seem like a tower of intellect.

That man is none other than Louisiana’s 3rd District U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, aka the lawman who told Michael Cohen he’d arrested “thousands of people.” (His former boss, St. Landry Parish Sheriff Bobby Guidroz, says the number is closer to six. Maybe.)

Clay Higgins is the former used car salesman who once got CANNED by the Opelousas Police Department—or rather resigned in lieu of firing—for roughing up a citizen and then lying about it.

Clay Higgins is the same guy who then was fired by the St. Landry Sheriff’s Department for trying to commercialize his position as a public information officer with videos, T-shirts, a radio production, and, of all things, photo sessions like he was some kind of slick magazine centerfold model.

Clay Higgins is the same guy who then landed a position in the office of Lafayette City Marshal Brian Pope who would soon have his own legal problems.

Clay Higgins is the same guy who fell behind on his child support payments by about $100,000 but assured his ex-wife during his campaign for Congress that once elected, he would have access to all sorts of money.

Clay Higgins is the same one who called for the ERADICATION of all who might have any sympathy for Islamics.

Clay Higgins is the same one who, while tailgating with Trump on a trip to Germany, made a political video at AUSCHWITZ in violation of all manner of protocol and decorum.

Clay Higgins is the same one who ATTENDED A PAIR OF CONFERENCES, one hosted by a hate group and another by climate science deniers.

And while Trump takes his cue from Fox News, Higgins apparently takes his from Louisiana’s version of Rush Limbaugh, MOON GRIFFON.

Apparently taking Griffon’s advice to heart, the Cajun Barney Fife lit into Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday over the governor’s proclamation prohibiting gatherings of more than 250 people—including church congregations.

Higgins, who likely hasn’t seen the inside of a church since the last funeral he attended, took particular umbrage at Gov. Edwards’s imposition of size restrictions on groups, saying in a LETTER to the governor, “…the decision to gather should be the choice of the individual or institution and not a mandate by any government entity. The State has no authority to enforce the proclamation nor any ban on worship.”

For whatever reason, Higgins has not deemed to hold Trump to those same standards even though Trump is calling for restricting gatherings to a much smaller number: 10.

Higgins also ignored is own BLOG POST in which he said, among other things, “All Americans, regardless of ideology, must be united in our effort to combat the coronavirus. We must prioritize the health and safety of American families.”

We couldn’t agree more. But sometimes being “united” means making sacrifices. This is one of those times. There is no question that things are going to get tight and people are going to suffer financially. But people are going to feel the economic effects regardless of whether or not John Bel Edwards imposes restrictions on the size of gatherings.

The proclamation makes more sense than that Florida preacher who urged his congregation to keep coming to services, saying, “If we die, we die for Jesus.” That, folks, is the epitome of selfishness; the preacher didn’t want to lose out on any “love offerings.” What an idiot.

In a nearly incoherent VIDEO, a grubby-looking Higgins, looking more like a homeless man than a member of Congress, ranted and rambled like a New Orleans wino about Edwards’s proclamation. While he called the governor’s action “stupid,” it was Higgins who came across as the poster child for stupid. Stand up comic Ron “Tater Salad” White must’ve had Higgins in mind when he said, “You can’t fix stupid.”

New Orleans Advocate columnist Stephanie Grace, apparently in a more charitable mood, refrained from accurately describing Higgins’s idiotic demagoguery for what it was: boorish grandstanding. She let him off the hook by saying he was “just out of line.”

I would add a couple of questions for Higgins:

  • What would you propose as an alternative?
  • Instead of slurring and mumbling some incoherent insult at the governor, why don’t you try and be a part of the solution to a very difficult situation?
  • Is this how the voters of the 3rd District elected you to represent them? Seriously?

A friend, appropriately offended by Higgins’s verbal mooning of the governor [who, by the way has displayed infinitely more leadership characteristics during the coronavirus epidemic than one Donald Trump], said simply, “If this guy gets re-elected, his constituents are as crazy as he is.”

 

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