Louisiana Voice

Warren J. “Puggy” Moity was a colorful character from New Iberia who, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, ran for – and lost – just about every statewide elective office there was. In the process of campaigning, he threw out charges against his opponents with reckless abandon – one being in the 1971 gubernatorial campaign that US Rep. Edwin Edwards (the eventual winner) was, of all things, gay. (Edwards responded by walking up to Moity at a debate in the old Capitol House Hotel and planting a wet kiss on Moity’s cheek.)

Moity is long gone from the political scene but there is a person in Livingston Parish who seems to be trying to emulate Moity by (a) running for whatever local office is available and (b) trashing other politicians with inappropriate attempts at humor – attempts that fall far short of the mark for several reasons.

Brandon Browning is nice enough person in a one-on-one setting but put him on Facebook where he can register his attacks without having to come face-to-face with his adversary, and it’s another story. He suddenly becomes brash, arrogant, and condescending.

Maybe he shouldn’t be so quick to cast aspersions on others lest his own double standard – and ignorance – be exposed.

Browning has already lost one race for Livingston Parish Tax Assessor. And he lost rather handily at that. But now, he’s running for sheriff against incumbent Jason Ard who, despite having his own heavy political baggage, is expected to dispatch Browning with relative ease. Even the scandal involving Ard’s pal and former head of the parish sheriff’s office’s S.W.A.T team isn’t expected to drag Ard down against a political novice such as Browning.

In case you’re wondering or might have forgotten, that S.W.A.T. team leader, Dennis Perkins and his wife were arrested and are awaiting trial on multiple counts of rape, sexual relations with animals, and handing out cupcakes spiked with Perkins’s sperm at the school where his wife taught.

And yet, even that won’t be enough to push Browning over the top.

But that hasn’t deterred him from one posting a message on Facebook that he was ready for the new Civil War. More recently, he has gone on the attack against the physical infirmaries of President Biden and Pennsylvania Sen.-elect John Fetterman – Biden for his stuttering and Fetterman for impairments from his recent stroke.

Keep in mind that Browning was a dedicated supporter of one Donald “Egg on Legs” Trump who ridiculed a physically HANDICOPPED REPORTER – and then denied doing it even though there was video evidence that clearly showed that he did.

When called out on his trashy attack, he attempted to defend his position by claiming that he was discriminating “against a lack of cognitive ability and function.” Remember, he supported Trump unconditionally despite Trumps demonstrated inability to complete a cohesive thought without wandering off-script.

Someone named DeAnna challenged Browning who replied that he was raising the issue because of the “tremendous amount of responsibility and stress. Cognitive aptitude is indispensable. Communication skills are essential. Furthermore, self-awareness is crucial. I’m discriminating against a lack of cognitive ability and function.”

Of course, Browning offered the ultimate proof that he was not biased when he said, “I’ve hired Democrats before.” Oh, well then, he probably has good friends who are black and gay, too.

The exchange continued in that same vein, so I won’t bore you with the rest of it, except to say that DeAnna reminded Browning that Trump was unable to pronounce Yosemite, Nambia, or diversity – not because of any physical disability but out of sheer ignorance. – and that it was Trump who said the US bombed airports at Fort McHenry during the REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

What Browning has yet to understand is that it’s perfectly acceptable to disagree with someone – anyone – on political philosophy. That’s why we have have Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, etc. But you don’t go after someone over a physical or mental disability. Those are off-limits to all people possessing a shred of decency, particularly political candidates. (Of course, when a politician deliberately dyes his entire body orange and breaks out the knives on opponents, that’s a bit difficult to ignore and all bets are off.) And for that reason, Browning will never elected to any office as long as he persists with his sophomoric attacks.

But the real reason that Browning probably should keep his opinions about cognitive ability to himself stems from a conversation I had with him a few weeks back at a parish council meeting.

I conducted a fake poll at that meeting and at coffee shops in the ensuing weeks with the intention of using the results in my annual April Fool’s column but now, after reading Browning’s asinine assessments of Biden and Fetterman, in which he conjectured about a one-on-one conversation between the two, speculating, I guess, that it would be a taxing effort by both men, I decided to go ahead with his response to my poll.

Remember, it was a fake poll done with the intention of displaying ignorance and prejudice against an individual and political party without benefit of knowing the facts.

My question was: What do you think of President Biden’s announcement today that he was going to ask Congress to mandate that the US use the Arabic numbering system exclusively?

One woman I encountered at the Whistle Stop Coffee Shop in Denham Springs said rather abruptly, “If it’s something Biden wants, I’m against it.” That prompted me to ask her what she did with her pandemic stimulus check. I never got an answer.

When I posed the same question to Browning and Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks, I got nearly identical responses. Each said he would have to study the issue more thoroughly in order to respond.

Yet Browning is eager to post his criticism of other men’s physical disabilities on social media while allowing his lack of mental acuity and basic civics to hang out there for all to see.

From coast to coast and border to border, the Republicans are running in the mid-terms on one issue: the economy.

They are beating Joe Biden and the Democrats to death on inflation and recession.

This despite the fact that he has created more new jobs than Trump ever thought about creating and despite the fact that Biden has reduced the federal debt by more than a trillion dollars after Republicans had sent it hurtling past the unbelievable $4 trillion mark.

Lost in all the rhetoric about Biden cutting domestic production is the fact – and it is a fact – that Trump, before leaving office, prevailed upon OPEC to cut oil production in order to increase the price for the benefit of big oil.

And boy, DID BIG OIL BENEFIT!

Exxon: Record profits of $24.4 billion (with a “B”) for the third quarter of 2022 compared to $19.7 billion for the same quarter of 2021;

Chevron: Third quarter profits of $11.2 billion compared to $6.1 billion a year ago;

Shell: Profits of $9.45 for the third quarter compared to $4.13 for the same period in 2021.

Of course, when oil profits go up, the cost of gasoline and diesel increases and when that happens, the cost of transporting goods must go up accordingly which translates to higher costs for food, clothing, appliances, etc.

And of course, it’s Biden’s fault.

Not so fast.

Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Washington State) authored H.R. 7688, the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act. It had 16 co-sponsors. Oddly enough, all 16 were Democrats. It passed by the narrowest of margins: 217-207. All 217 yea votes were cast by Democrats and 203 of the 207 nay votes belonged to Repugnantcans with five of their number not voting and four Democrats voting no.

H.R. 7688: Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act

May 19, 2022

Totals

Why would officials who were elected exclusively for the purpose of protecting the interest of American citizens (as opposed to corporate citizens) vote against the interest of their constituents?

You might begin by asking the five Louisiana Repugnantcan House members.

To a person, Reps. Steve “KKK” Scalise, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Julia Letlow and Garret Graves voted no. The only yea vote from Louisiana’s delegation was cast by Rep. Troy Carter, a Democrat.

And then there’s H.R. 6833: the Affordable Insulin Now Act. Affordable insulin for diabetics sounds like a good bill, right? Well, not according to the 193 Repugnantcans who voted against it. It passed the House by a 232-193 vote. Twelve Repugs voted in favor. Not a single Dem voted no. Five Repugs and a lone Dem did not vote.

H.R. 6833 Affordable Insulin Now Act

March 31, 2022

Totals

As noted, 12 Repugs voted in favor but you won’t fine any of them in Louisiana’s delegation. Again, all five voted against attempts to keep the life-saving medication affordable while Democrat Troy Carter again voted in support of the bill by Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minnesota). She had 31 co-sponsors, again, all Democrats.

So, if you haven’t already voted, you might want to keep these votes in mind when you head to the polls on Tuesday.

If you can’t rely on your representative to help keep the cost of gasoline and critical medicine down, just what can you rely on him/her for?

You don’t think the voices of the lobbyists for Big Oil and Big Pharma drowned out your voice, do you? Or maybe just plain partisan politics – you know, if the Dems are for it, the Repugs gotta be against it?

Nah. Couldn’t be. They promised when they ran that they would always work on your behalf, remember?

Must have been another reason.

As one Higgins constituent wrote, it doesn’t matter what they do “as long as they vote conservative.” Now, if he could just explain how these two votes are “conservative,” and how they benefit him if he drives or if he’s diabetic, I’d love to hear it.

The Louisiana State Police Commission (LSPC), the Louisiana State Police (LSP) equivalent to the Louisiana Civil Service Board, has a miserable record of accomplishments and an equally poor record of instability of membership.

And now, as the song goes, another one bites the dust.

Historically, the commission has been a rubber stamp for the LSP administration, woefully inadequate at conducting meaningful investigations and inquiries which, by extension, translates to general inaction in conducting hearings on disciplinary matters.

The commission has experienced a high TURNOVER RATE with members resigning over political campaign activity, trysts between members, and outright disgust for the way meetings degenerate into finger-pointing and name-calling.

The latest to exit is Gov. John Bel Edwards appointee Sabrina Richardson, a New Orleans Police Department captain-demoted-to-lieutenant and more recently suspended for 120 days.

Richardson, who was under investigation for possible double-dipping and payroll fraud, has RESIGNED from the LSPC.

Former New Orleans attorney ASHTON O’DWYER attempted unsuccessfully to get LSPC to investigate his claim that he was tased and shot by State Troopers from beleaguered Troop F in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Instead of giving O’Dwyer a fair hearing, or to even offer the pretense of one, the commission dismissed his claims out of hand, illustrating once again that it is a toothless tiger existing only to validate three different discredited LSP administrations.

I apologize for the graphic language on the banners in the photo above but I am posting the image as a reminder that The Repugnant defenders of all that is decent and good continue to pursue their quest to purge all “objectionable” material from the public libraries in Louisiana.

They have mounted their campaigns in libraries in the parishes of Lafayette, Livingston, Bossier, and St. Tammany – and probably elsewhere because they say they don’t want the kiddies exposed to literature that might poison their minds.

Specifically, they appear to be targeting books containing any reference to LGBQT subject matter but they insist it’s about protecting young eyes from all types of smut. Yet, it’s quite doubtful that a Democrat hung these banners.

It’s called a double standard, folks, pure and simple. And don’t for a nano-second think it’s about decency – it’s about censorship with the end-game being control.

And if you’re not alarmed about this attempt to gain control over the libraries…you should be.

I will go on record as saying up front that I’ve never been a fan of Nancy Pelosi and there are two reasons for that.

First, her husband has a history of making some suspiciously timely real estate and stock investments that have enriched them both and I feel she has used her position in Congress in order to accomplish that. Her apparent lack of enthusiasm in pushing a ban on congressional INSIDER TRADING has done nothing to assuage that belief.

Second, I’m not too crazy about lawmakers making a career of Congress. It was designed to be a service to the country, not an occupation. It seems the longer they remain, the more skilled they become at gaming the system. That’s true, I feel, whether they are Democrat of Republican. Pelosi has been a US representative for 35 years. (There are others who have hung around who should have stepped aside years ago, President Biden among them.)

That said, there is something that far overshadows tenure in Washington and that is the vitriol that exists inside the Beltway among men and women who really should be acting like adults as opposed to members of some sixth-grade, name-calling clique ganging up on the class nerd. MAGAt Repugnantcans raised more money for the legal defense of David DePape (Paul Pelosi’s attacker) in 48 hours than they’ve raised to aid the victims of the mass shooing in Raleigh, N.C. four weeks ago.

Take one Clay Higgins, for example (and he’s a prime example of that mindset). Cast in the same mold as those MAGAts, Higgins is an embarrassment. Or should be, but he will probably be reelected by a constituency that appears to share his IQ level. The very fact that this man has already been reelected once and could be headed for a third term would be astonishing to political observers a generation ago. Sadly, it seems to be the norm today.

Higgins was only too happy to jump aboard the conspiracy train following the attack on Nanch Pelosi’s husband last Friday night.

Almost immediately, the conspiracies began circulating on social media. Roger Stone, the Donald Trump adviser with the tattoo of Nixon on his back wrote that there was a “stench” about the “alleged attack” on Paul Pelosi and Elon Musk, the new owner and CEO of Twitter, posted a link to a right-wing website and tweeted, “There is a tiny possibility there might be more to this story than meets the eye.”

But Higgins…

• The man who went into Congress telling his ex-wife, to whom it was claimed he owed about $100,000 in child support, that once in Congress, there would be plenty money lying around to be scooped up so that he could catch up on his payments;
• The man who claimed on national television that as a lawman, he had arrested thousands of people (though his former boss, the sheriff of St. Landry Parish, said he arrested “no more than maybe half-a-dozen.”);
• The man who attempted to cut a campaign video while standing at the entrance to the Auschwitz Holocaust memorial;
• The man who has done nothing to bring federal aid to the victims of HURRICANES LAURA AND DELTA.

Higgins, with all the class and finesse of a pro wrestler, posted a joke on Twitter that depicted Nancy Pelosi with her hands pressed to her forehead and a caption beneath the photo saying “That moment you realize the nudist hippie male prostitute LSD guy is the reason your husband didn’t make it to your fundraiser.”

Though the tweet was soon removed, it nevertheless was a clear illustration that Higgins was capable of making a joke of an attack that nearly killed an 82-year-old man even though there was absolutely no evidence of the conspiracy theory that quickly gained traction that the attack was not an attack, but a homosexual encounter.

Remember now, Higgins is a former police officer and deputy sheriff and as such, should be trained to carefully examine all evidence before reaching an investigative conclusion. Let’s just say I’d hate to have him investigate a crime in my home.

To the voters of Louisiana’s Third Congressional District, I can only say that if you reelect Clay Higgins a week from today, you deserve what you get.