Louisiana Voice

Do you like shell games?

You know, that’s the con game where something is placed under one of three shells and the con artist shuffles the shells (or cups; sometimes it’s cups) and you place a buck down to guess which shell the object is under. If you’re correct, you win money. If not, you lose your dollar and invariably, the sucker always loses his dollar.

Well, in reading two separate news stories today, I see that Don “the Con” Trump is up to his old tricks and the American public, as a group, is the sucker.

The first story, from the BBC poses the question of who will pay for Trump’s gaudy $250 MILLION BALLROOM

The second story, from The Guardian, carried headline that said, “TRUMP SAYS HE HAS FINAL SAY ON PAYING HIMSELF $230 MILLION FOR PAST INVESTIGATIONS.”

Now, let’s run the numbers.

In that BBC story, Trump said anonymous donors would be willing to spend some $20 million on the ballroom’s construction and that he (Cadet Bon Spurs) would “personally” pay for a significant portion of the construction cost.

Let’s see, the estimated total cost is $250 million. “Anonymous donors” will chip in about $20 million. That leaves $230 million for Trump to pay.

Now, how much does he say the federal guvmint owe him for those investigations, Oh, yes, it was $230 million, wasn’t it? My, what a coincidence.

A PBS STORY quoted the Trumpster as saying “no public money will be spent on the ballroom.”

So, where does the $230 he says he is owed come from if not the public?

But perhaps we should ask such questions because TACO Don also said “nothing would be demolished during construction,” yet, we’re already seeing the razing of the East Wing.

AFTER

Welcome to mathematics 101 in Trumpworld. Not as bad as lowering drug prices by “1500 PERCENT”  or the “300 MILLION DEATHS” from drug overdoses last year – but bad, nonetheless.

LouisianaVoice is in the last 10 days of its October fundraiser. It is one of only two fundraisers per year. The other is in April. There is a reason there is no paywall for LouisianaVoice: I want any information I have to be available to all, free of charge other than what some feel they can comfortably contribute twice a year. For a completely different reason, I accept no advertising other than a single ad from Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs. That’s because I (a) support indepentent booksellers and (b) do not wish to be obligated to a corporate “sponsor” the way some news outlets are.

I found the following meme online and thought I’d share it with you. I pretty well sums up my philosophy about my decision to ignore advice to establish a paywall:

So, if you feel you can do so, any contribution would be greatly appreciated. You may make a one-time contribution by credit card. by going HERE and scrolling down to the YELLOW DONATE button in the right-hand column.

Thank you for your consideration.

Journalist Stanley Nelson, known for his fearless investigations into unsolved Ku Klux Klan murders in Louisiana and Mississippi, will be honored Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Old State Capitol in Baton Rouge, 5–7 p.m. The event, hosted by the LSU Manship School of Mass Communication, is free and open to the public.

Nelson, the longtime editor of the Concordia Sentinel in Ferriday, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for his investigations into unsolved Ku Klux Klan murders. In addition to covering regular news and putting out the paper each week, Nelson wrote 150 stories from 2007 through 2010 on Klan violence, including some identifying the likely suspects in murders in Ferriday and nearby Natchez, Mississippi.

Over the years, Nelson, who died June 5 at age 69, also worked with prominent national journalists, and several of them will speak about him at the Oct. 22 event. They include Hank Klibanoff, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and podcast creator; Brad Lichtenstein, executive producer of “American Reckoning,” a documentary that aired on PBS in 2022; Joe Shapiro, an investigative reporter for NPR; and Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter whose work led to the prosecutions of Klan leaders in Mississippi.

Members of the families of two men presumably killed by the Klan—Wharlest Jackson, a civil rights leader in Natchez and Oneal Moore, one of the first Black sheriff’s deputies in the Bogalusa area—will attend the event, as will Nelson’s family. Former Manship School Prof. Jay Shelledy, who started the LSU Cold Case Project to pursue FBI files that could help Nelson, will speak, along with former students who worked closely with Nelson.

Nelson also wrote two books about the Klan and served as an adjunct professor at the Manship School, where he helped mentor dozens of students who have won regional and national awards for their own stories on civil rights cold cases.

“Once Stanley learned about the horrible things that had happened in his area, he could not stop digging into them,” said Christopher Drew, the current director of the LSU Cold Case Project. “He cared so much about the victims, and he did everything he could, including confronting some of the old Klansmen, to provide a greater sense of closure and justice.”

He was a graduate of Louisiana Tech University’s School of Journalism in Ruston.

How can the Speaker of the House, refuse to swear in a duly elected representative, as Mike Johnson is now doing with Adelita Grijalva, especially since new representatives normally are sworn in within 24 hours?

The same way Mike Johnson can continue to refuse any work or negotiations to be conducted, by refusing to have ANY House business conducted unless Democrats kneel down, kiss Trumps ring and allow millions of Americans to get hit with high increases in their healthcare coverage premiums.

I supposed one could ask why Mike Johnson has punted Congressional powers to the POTUS. Powers of the “purse strings” which is supposed to be the Houses power. The power to set tariffs, making taxation policy and, most importantly, allowing the Executive Branch to police itself as opposed to having Congress act as a check on Presidential powers. But I supposed Johnson isn’t fully to blame for that. The cowards in the Senate have a lot of blame to share.

We currently DO NOT have a functional Congress. And not just because of the polarization between the two major parties. But mainly because GOP Congressional members are very content to act as a rubber stamp for anything Trump puts in front of them. They cry all the time “but Biden had an auto pen” while THEY are Trumps “auto pen”. Just passing through whatever Trump wants regardless of how much damage it will do to even the GOP voting base. And then having to spin things to try to say how it’s the Democrats fault that the GOP passed, with 100% support, policies Trump wants. And some of those voters are actually either stupid enough or brainwashed enough to believe them.

Meanwhile, Trump is abusing the powers of the DOJ by having them go after people he hates personally with either malicious or plain ole bullshit cases. Congress is sitting by while Trump has Can’t keep a secret Hegseth direct the Navy to hit ships in international waters with missiles and claiming they are ALL 100% drug dealers. Meanwhile, they only let 2 survive because they were on a drug smuggling semi submersible. Meanwhile, somehow, not a single person has survived in the regular boats they went after. Not saying anything illegal has happened to regular civilians just out on a boat, but I am pointing out that it’s just curious.

Congress has ignored the Emoluments Clause by allowing Trump to accept a $400 million bribe plane from Qatar while his son in law is in talks with the Saudi’s over billion dollar deals.

There’s a LOT people can ask why Mike Johnson is doing or not doing things over. But the answers all come down to one thing. He is a coward ONLY interested in maintaining his position as Speaker of the House and cares nothing about those who voted for him, the Constitution or his responsibilities as a member of the House.

Mike Johnson appeared Friday on his favorite outlet, Faux-News, that the No Kings protests scheduled the following day across the U.S. was nothing more than a “hate America rally” that would attract the “pro-Hamas wing” and “antifa people.”

The House Speaker from Benton, Louisiana, went even further to incredulously call the movement “anti-American” and to snort that some House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event.” To read the full story from Politico, go HERE.

The T-shirt b.s. is an unbelievable criticism, given that his puppet master sells “autographed” Bibles, Trump coins, and anything else to which he can attach his corrupt name and Johnson has managed to make not a peep about. Not. A. Peep. Nada. Nil. Zilch. Zero. Nuttin’. How’s that for being an even-handed Speaker of the House? For that matter, how’s that for being a Christian?

The only response I can make that adequately describes Mike Johnson is to call him what he is: a stupid, Bible-thumping, hypocritical s.o.b.

The sanctimonious little twit in effect is even calling millions of Americans, including my granddaughter (who attended a rally in Colorado) “Marxists.” This from a guy who is unable to speak unless Trump’s hand is up his ass, moving his lips for him.

My granddaughter’s rally sign.

Johnson, once the dean of a non-existent law school, is a man with no moral compass of his own, despite his claim to be guided by principles of the Bible. If he were guided by those principles, he would not turn his back on his own constituents, many of whom are facing draconian increases in health coverage premiums.

He would not be as callous to the effects of higher prices, thanks to Pedo-POTUS’s foolhardy tariffs. Were he truly guided by the Good Book, he would not be so protective of a child-molesting pedophile that he and most of the rest of Louisiana’s congressional delegation insist on shielding.

If he was the true Christian he claims to be (and the evidence strongly suggests that he is not), why would he refuse to seat a duly-elected member of the House? The answer, of course, is that Democrat Adelita Grijalva is the one voted needed to pass the discharge petition that would force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files, which Johnson, Clay Higgins, Julia Letlow, Steve Scalise, John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy want to keep from your view.

Instead, Johnson, in a bizarre abuse of Catch-22, absurdly told JAKE TAPPER: “Let me say this right now though, Jake. Rep. Grijalva should be working for her constituents right now. I don’t know what she’s doing. I keep seeing their political stunt videos. She should be in her office. She should be working or in the district for her constituents.”

Well, Mikey, you very well know that until she is sworn in, she legally has no constituents but meanwhile, you refuse to allow her to be sworn in.

Here’s another thing you are keenly aware of but continue to lie about (doesn’t one of the Ten Commandments say something about bearing false witness?): You insist on claiming that illegal immigrants are receiving Medicaid and Medicare benefits when you know damned well it’s a profound lie. You know it and still you persist in repeating it. Mikey, you’re a damn liar.

Finally, we have this little jewel: It’s a VIDEO that Trump his own self posted Saturday in response to the No Kings rallies. It depicts, in case you don’t have the stomach to watch (it’s pretty disgusting, coming as it does from the presumed leader of the free world), it’s TACO Don as a crown-wearing jet pilot bombarding No Kings rally-goers (that’s right, fellow Americans) with tons of FECES. Nice.

It calls to mind a quote by Boston attorney Joseph Welch during the June 9, 1954 McCarthy hearings. Addressing the Wisconsin Repugnantcan Senator, Welch asked, “Have you no sense of decency?”

I believe we all know the answer to that question as it applies to Cadet Bone Spurs.

The really sad part is that it also appears to apply equally to Mike Johnson and the rest of the Trump sycophants.