Louisiana Voice

Why the urgency to can Dr. Brian Salvatore at LSUS?

I mean after all, he’s not the only faculty member at the school who is outspoken on political matters. Associate political science professor Jeffrey Sadow has been far more vocal in defending all things Republican and attacking all things Democrat on the Hayride blog for years now, which apparently gives him free rein to pontificate – in contrast to Salvatore, who has made the school’s administration a tad uncomfortable with his criticism of toxic chemical disposal and open meetings violations.

Now, why would LSU find it intolerable for Salvatore to discuss toxic pollution of the air, land and water? I mean, aren’t we all concerned about that?

Well, when you’re a major university that receives mega-funding grants from corporate interests that are directly involved in the business of the toxic poisoning of the air, land and waterways of this state, or of malfeasance, then you become a bit sensitive to such criticism, any criticism actually.

This heavy-handed method of dealing with free speech goes all the way back to the firings of Drs. Fred Cerise and Roxanne Townsend for the sin of SPEAKING OUT against proposed policy.

Jeff Landry, when he was still attorney general, attempted to get Bob Mann FIRED from his professorship at LSU after Mann was critical of the way Landry had dispatched a “flunkie” from his office to the LSU Faculty Senate meeting to read a letter attacking covid vaccines.

Then, we have the story about the LSU School of Dentistry’s sacking of Dr. John Kent, the firing of STEPHEN HATFIELD who was erroneously implicated in the mailings of anthrax envelopes in 2001 – and Hatfield’s boss, Stephen Guillot, director of the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training and the Academy for Counter-Terrorist Education.

And most of us remember the firing of Ivor van Heerden for his CRITICISM of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over the levees that failed during Hurricane Katrina, causing extensive flooding of New Orleans. Well, van Heerden sued LSU and prevailed in a multi-million-dollar settlement.

Actually, the Hatfield and van Heerden episodes pre-date the Cerise and Townsend kerfuffles.

So, why was LSU so uber-sensitive to criticism on the part of its professors – or in Hatfield’s case, so eager to rid itself of a possible suspect in a terror attack before the first shred of evidence was present, and indeed, never was?

Because LSU receives millions upon millions of dollars in grants from the Corps of Engineers, federal law enforcement and the medical community. The last thing it wanted – far more than say, protecting the rights of its employees – was to jeopardize the continued money flow from cash cows. So much for justice and fairness being top priorities.

Having said that, let’s now take a deep dive into the LSUS administration that so desperately wants to destroy Salvatore, who has fought the proposed outdoor burning of toxic CHEMICAL WASTE at facilities in MINDEN and Colfax and in the process, accused of LSUS of possibly contributing to the problem with its own chemical wastes.

So, what about the guy who is behind the effort to show Salvatore the door?

That would be Chancellor Robert Smith who hand-picked the ad-hoc committee which heard Salvatore’s case and who has now taken the committee’s termination recommendation up the chain to LSU system President William Tate who will almost certainly uphold the committee and Smith for fear of antagonizing dictator Gov. Landry.

Having said that, let’s take a look at Smith’s curriculum vitae.

Smith recently joined LSUS after leaving his position as Provost at Valdosta State University last July. While at Valdosta State, his claims to fame were hiring a dean of science and mathematics without receiving the consent of the faculty.

That dean, Keith Walters, was arrested as a SEXUAL PREDATOR who was accused of soliciting sex online from 13-year-old children. After Walters was arrested, Smith appointed a new dean who subsequently “violated the academic freedom of VSU biology professor LESLIE JONES who was teaching her students peer reviewed science about the biological basis of gender, ‘woke s**t’ in the words of the PARENT of a student who called the university to complain,” according to an article in The Spectator.

Professor Jones subsequently sought legal assistance from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).

Smith, at LSUS, hired a human resources director who, for the past eight years, has maintained a Facebook profile cover photo of his fraternity that included a simulated lynching. Did I mention that he’s the HR director at a public state university?

Smith, of course, didn’t see the photo as racist, but simply “poor taste,” according to the post below that was supposed to be “confidential.” Smith added that he attended church with the HR director, Robert Lindsey and that Lindsey was also “close friends with Chief of Staff Kim Ramsey.”

Well, then, that certainly clears up that little lynching photo issue.

So, it appears that controversy is no stranger to Smith – just as pandering to corporate interests at the expense of faculty members is no stranger to LSU.

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Jeff Landry’s long-term strategy is becoming more and more apparent with each passing day of the 2024 legislative session.

By ramming through grooming courses for Louisiana public school students, mandating the posting of a single version of the Ten Commandments in each school classroom, stacking the State Ethics Board, gutting necessary social programs while committing untold millions to private school funding, and other similar legislation, it’s become obvious that he wants a gaggle of lawsuits filed against his administration. I mean, he’s begging for ’em; that must be his game plan.

It doesn’t matter to him if he loses; he’s void of any real political philosophy other than to stick his finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

But by setting up a series of lawsuits, he has guaranteed members of the bar, attorneys in good standing, that the state money machine will keep pumping out financial payback for all the lawyers who contributed to his campaigns. Those barristers will be retained through the attorney general’s office (which he conveniently controls through his proxy, Liz Murrill) to defend his programs. It’s simple, really: an attorney contributes $5,000 or $10,000 – or more – to his campaign and receives cases from the state that may well enrich his office by as much as $100,000, or more – of taxpayer money. It’s a dandy return on investment.

It’s the circle of life in Louisiana politics.

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The Republican party has its collective drawers in a wad over those predator Democrats and their grooming of children. If you don’t believe it, all you have to do is google “Republicans, grooming” to see for yourself. They’re beside themselves: Marjorie Green Taylor and Matt Gaetz, side-by-side (and that, friends, is the best illustration of Republicans being “beside” themselves). I mean, who better to speak against pedophilia than those two?

But I digress. News broke (perhaps “news oozed” would be more accurate) late Wednesday that PragerU had been ACCEPTED to show “edu-tainment” videos to Louisiana public school children.

Talk about grooming! Are you kidding me?

To view one of the “edu-tainment” videos offered by PragerU, go  HERE.(You’ll need to click on the speaker icon in the top left corner to hear the garbage this spokesperson spews out as if it were gospel. The name of this particular clip is “The Inconvenient Truth About the Democratic party.” The lady, in all apparent sincerity, ties today’s Democratic party to the Democratic party of the mid-19^th Century and paints the Republicans (of that same era) as the good guys who wanted only what was best for America’s slaves. That, of course, is accurate – again, for that time period. But she neglects to point out that the roles have reversed dramatically in the last 160 years – especially since the Republicans adopted the so-called “SOUTHERN STRATEGY,” which dates back to passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Lewis Powell MEMORANDUM to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce five years later.

But don’t stop there. On the right side of that video clip is a menu of other “edu-tainment” video clips that offer a decidedly politically-biased take on American history. That, folks, is what real grooming looks like and it’s got nothing to do with drag queens.

The headline in the Baton Rouge Advocate said it all: “Louisiana will let public schools show right-wing group’s ‘edu-tainment’ videos, sparking outcry.”

Outcry my butt. This decision by Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley (and I’m certain, endorsed by Gov. Jeff Landry) makes Louisiana the sixth state to link up with PragerU, which, despite the clever name, is not a university at all, but a content provider.

But PragerU boasted in its own news release that its deal with Louisiana is “more expansive” than in other states because the Louisiana Department of Education has approved an “extensive list” of PragerU videos for social studies. The link provider earlier provides a sampling of those social studies videos which are nothing but propaganda tools with which Republicans may “groom” impressionable children.

Here are two sentences from the Advocate story today: “Founded in 2009 by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, the nonprofit produces slick online videos that the group says have been viewed billions of times and are hosted by conservative media figures, including Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens. Geared for young adults, its videos frequently attack liberal causes, including gender-affirming care for transgender youth, climate change, the Democratic party and teachers’ unions.”

Again, quoting from The Advocate story, here’s what PragerU’s 2023 annua report said: “PragerU Kids is serving families, schools, and young Americans through edu-taining, pro-American content and undoing the damage of leftist teachers’ unions.”

Other states that have accepted PragerU programs on history, civics, financial literacy, the Bible and other topics for public school children are Florida (the first to do so), Oklahoma, Montana, New Hampshire and Arizona. It should come as no surprise that the other five states have adopted propagandized programs from this outfit. The only outlier would appear at first blush to be New Hampshire until we realize that Republican Trump supporter Chris Sununu is governor there. And while Arizona’s governor is a Democrat, the rest of the state is of a deep red hue.

Now, the question must be asked: just who is really doing the grooming here?

Folks, that’s real cojones when you can claim with a straight face that your opposition is grooming kids even as you’re infusing pure political propaganda into public classrooms.

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Nineteenth Judicial District Judge Beau Higginbotham fell back on the classic legal maneuver of “splitting the baby” in his decision over the LSU-Shreveport committee’s illegal decision to conduct the TERMINATION HEARING of Dr. Brian Salvatore in closed session.

Salvatore attorney J. Arthur Smith slapped LSU with a lawsuit over the open meetings violation and the good judge did indeed rule that LSU had violated the law in closing the doors but in doing so, he failed to assess any damages against LSU, a move certain to gain political favor in the eyes of dictator Gov. Jeff Landry who has successfully gutted the State Ethics Commission for its sin of finding a campaign violation against him.

Without any penalty being imposed, the judge’s decision renders the Open Meetings Law meaningless and makes any attempt to enforce ethics on Louisiana political figures nothing more than a running joke. Hell, they don’t even let expired auto inspection stickers off that easily.

What’s next, a “tsk-tsk” should the governor wander astray of the Public Records Law? Probably. After all, Landry has already tried unsuccessfully to shield “public” records from public scrutiny. What’s to stop him from simply ignoring the law knowing that there will be no significant penalty imposed as a deterrent?

At the risk of pissing off a judge, his milquetoast decision reduces the law to a piece of paper devoid of any real meaning.

But, were armed guards really necessary at the LSU committee hearing on the ouster of Dr. Brian Salvatore? Well, when you’re violating the law, do so with an appropriate show of force.

Dr. Salvatore, you may remember, had requested that his hearing be conducted in open meeting, as is his right under Louisiana law. But an ad hoc faculty committee, hand-picked by LSUS Chancellor Robert Smith, had other ideas, much like that ignoble hearing of four fired professors at Southern University.in which a similar scenario played out with the public – and the four professors – being barred from a hearing on their fate.

In the SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY case, the four professors and LouisianaVoice sued over the blatant violation of the state’s open meeting laws. Southern’s brilliant legal team argued to no avail that the committee was not a public body and the four professors and LouisianaVoice were awarded $1,000 each – an award yet to be paid five years post-ruling.

The LSUS rubber-stamp committee issued a recommendation that Salvatore be terminated. Smith has already made the recommendation for termination leaving the only remaining step is the decision by LSU system President William Tate who has long since shown his propensity to knuckle under to political pressure to the detriment of the university. Tate himself has violated the open meetings law in the past, including a closed meeting in Shreveport in 2022 to discuss the fate of the LSUS campus.

Of course, Salvatore’s unforgivable sin was to speak out loud, clearly and often against pollution of northwest Louisiana air, land and water by corporate and university interests. That kind of rhetoric is verboten in the eyes of university administrators terrified of losing grant money and of Republicans who have taken over every phase of government in the years since 1980.

Don’t believe me? HERE, HERE and HERE are three takeover stories just from today.

The dots aren’t really that difficult to connect.

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