Senator Bill Cassidy claims the shutdown will harm Americans needing the National Flood Insurance Program. True enough, but the lame-duck senator overlooks other effects that he conveniently neglects to mention – because it doesn’t fit into Donald Trump’s game plan.
“If Democrats would stop trying to please the fringe of their party and start focusing on the real, immediate needs of the American people—like keeping the government open, maintaining flood insurance, and protecting access to rural health care—we could solve this today,” Cassidy said.
Well, senator when you put 22 million Americans at risk of losing healthcare or of seeing their premiums skyrocket, you’re hardly talking about a “fringe” element.
As a physician, you, of all people, should understand that – if you weren’t so determined to curry the favor of a psychopath and if you were not such a coward yourself.
Or maybe you’re buying into Trump’s absurd AI post of Lara Trump hawking a non-existent “MEDBED CARD” that will supposedly give Americans access to regrowing missing limbs, reversing aging and healing any illness, thanks to technology developed by the U.S. military – with possible help from alien technology.
If that’s not sufficient evidence of a president who has entered the hazy, addled world of a dangerously-clouded and disoriented mind, I’m at a loss at what it would take.
The Livingston Parish school librarian/author who took on the parish council, its hand-picked library board of control and those who would censor literature has added yet another award, this one national, to her impressive curriculum vitae.
Amanda Jones, with 25 years of work as a school librarian, has been named as one of Time100 Next, a recognition of influential people considered to be emerging leaders who are helping to shape the future of business, entertainment, sports, politics, health, science and activism.
She burst into prominence as a mere audience member during heated discussions about censoring libraries in Livingston Parish. An effort by outside agitators brought about the dissolution of the existing library board, replaced by members of the parish council’s own choice and which has since been sued by Attorney General Liz Murrill for violating the state’s open meeting laws.
Jones stood up against backlash from a loud element, people who probably never set foot inside a library but who wanted to be in on any protests by radical right-wingers who were convinced that drag queens were somehow more dangerous to kids than the criminals who traffic them.
Her struggles against the outside influencers pushed her to write a book, That Librarian, that was promoted by Oprah Winfrey and which was recently optioned for a film. It was a National Independent and USA Today bestseller upon its release in hardcover and has been released in paperback.
Jones was also featured in the documentary The Librarians, by Oscar-nominated director Kim Snyder. The executive producer of the documentary was Sarah Jessica Parker. Even before the local library controversy, Jones was named the 2020 and 2021 Louisiana School Librarian of the Year. She also co-founded Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship.
The Washington Independent Review of Books said, “Amanda Jones is a badass because she’s holding down the fort while the fort is under attack. She advocates for social justice and the democratic right to exchange ideas and information. Even though she has endured intense hate campaigns for defending basic principles of freedom, she stands tall and persists … That Librarian is a revelation. But it’s more than an exposé about hate and its effects on principled people. It’s also a gripping memoir… In Amanda Jones, the American public has a bold truth-teller who has given us something important in That Librarian.”
When contacted by LouisianaVoice, Jones said, “I’m Honored to be named to the Time 100 Next list. I refuse to back down from bullies and will always speak out for intellectual freedom and the future of our libraries.Libraries are the heart of democracy—they protect access to knowledge, ideas, and community for all. This recognition is not just about me—it’s the result of the courage and commitment of so many in Louisiana. I dedicate this honor to every resident fighting for their libraries and for the freedom to read. Together, we are stronger.”
Here’s a little hint of how much Congress really cares for those who do the actual work and how they make certain to care for their own welfare:
Hundreds of thousands of federal employees, including members of the military, would go without pay or face potential layoffs during a government shutdown set to begin tomorrow.
If funding lapses, federal employees in critical positions would be required to remain on the job while others would be forced to stay home. Both groups would have their paychecks delayed during a shutdown. Most federal contractors might not get paid at all.
But lawmakers will continue to draw a paycheck even if they haven’t reached a deal to fund the government.
Let’s climb into the ol’ time machine and dial it back to 2023. More specifically, let’s look in on the gubernatorial campaign that year.
That was the campaign in which two-term Attorney General Jeff Landry, the chief law enforcement officer in the state looked around and said there was too much crime which he said was holding Louisiana back. Accordingly, he promised to “make our state safe again.”
He campaigned vigorously against what he described as “soft on crime” policies of the John Bel Edwards administration.
It apparently worked because he was elected easily and in February 2024, he called a special session dedicated exclusively to crime. He signed into law more than 20 bills designed to fight crime by:
Eliminating parole for most new convictions,
Removing incentives for good behavior while incarcerated,
Lowering the age to allow 17-year-olds to be prosecuted and sentenced as adults,
Expanding execution methods.
He even deployed state police to New Orleans to fight crime in that city.
Apparently not of that worked.
Fast forward to yesterday:
Apparently, none of Landry’s reforms worked. In an apparent admission of abject failure, he has requested The Don to deploy 1,000 National Guard troops to Louisiana cities to augment law enforcement.
This despite a downward trend in the New Orleans crime rate because there is always Baton Rouge and Shreveport, he must have reasoned.
Of course, as governor, Landry could have deployed the guard himself but by making his request to the Pentagon and Trump, he gets the feds to pick up the tab – unlike when he dispatched guardsmen to the Texas border to help defend against the hordes of illegals, probably because we don’t have a common border with Mexico and Landry was jealous.
But will any deployment end up like it did in Washington, D.C., with national guardsmen being sent out on trash and litter patrol?
Maybe Landry will don an orange vest and pick up a little trash himself.
So, LSU is establishing a lecture series honoring Charlie Kirk as a way to promote free speech?
Is that what it’s come to? It took the murder of a demagogue for an institution like the Ole War Skule to wake up and say, “Hey, we need to promote free speech in honor of Charlie”?
I was somehow under the impression that institutions of higher learning already supported free expression and the exchange of ideas. But LSU wants to set up a free speech program to honor a man who has said the following:
If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.
The Charlie Kirk Show, 23 January 2024
If you’re a WNBA, pot-smoking, Black lesbian, do you get treated better than a United States marine?
If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?
If we would have said that Joy Reid and Michelle Obama and Sheila Jackson Lee and Ketanji Brown Jackson were affirmative action picks, we would have been called racists. Now they’re coming out and they’re saying it for us … You do not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously. You had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously.
Most people are scared when they see a black pilot flying a plane
Taylor Swift should reject feminism and submit to her husband
No one should be allowed to retire
Leftists should not be allowed to move to red states
British Colonialism was what “made the world decent”
-The guy who assaulted the Pelosi’s should be bailed out
Religious freedom should be terminated
Multiple black politicians
“stole white people’s spots”
MLK Jr was “an awful person”
The Great Replacement Theory is reality
Hydroxychloroquine cures COVID
Vaccine requirements are “medical apartheid”
Guns deaths are acceptable in order to have a 2nd amendment
Women’s natural place is under their husband’s control
Parents should prevent their daughters from taking birth control
George Floyd had it coming, the Jan 6th protestors didn’t
The 1964 Civil Rights Act was a “huge mistake”
Encouraged parents to protest mask mandates
Mamdani winning in NY is a travesty because Muslims did 9/11
Muslims only come to America to destabilize Western Civilization
Palestine “doesn’t exist” and those who support it are like the KKK
And then, there’s this little gem straight out of Kirk’s The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas that Will Win the Future:
“Donald Trump has always been a builder, from hotels to casinos to golf courses—Barack Obama was a community organizer who gave impressive speeches. However, one of the least eloquent points that President Obama made during a speech was his infamous line ‘You didn’t build that.’ It’s no surprise that President Trump understands that businesses and growth are good for the economy and create jobs, while President Obama focused on the government as the solution.”
Left unsaid was that Trump bankrupted each and every casino he “built,” along with several other businesses – or that he’s now using government (read: tariffs) to destroy businesses.
But here’s a thought: While LSU was deifying and beatifying Kirk, it was also delivering a slap in the face to its African American students, including a significant number of outstanding athletes.
What if those athletes responded to those insults by deciding they were no longer going to play? What if they decided they were going to boycott the South Carolina game on Oct. 11? Or the Texas A&M game two weeks after that as a protest of LSU’s worship of a white supremacist?
Football is a huge moneymaker for LSU and such a move would certainly have an impact on the Athletic Department’s bottom line. Would scholarships be pulled? I’m pretty sure Gov. Jeff Landry would at least threaten players with that. But that would literally gut the football season and kill LSU’s cash cow. Can’t let that happen. Such a protest, after all, would merely be an example of freedom of expression, right?
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