Louisiana Voice

Yeah, I know I supposedly retired from this column some time ago. I did so because I’ve turned 80 and I’m tired and I feel as though I’ve mostly had my say and someone else can pick up the baton. I also know there are those who vehemently disagree with me and feel I should have packed it in years ago. That’s okay. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion and I understand – and appreciate that, even when they amuse themselves with personal attacks.

But on Tuesday, I received an e-copy of a book written by local school librarian Amanda Jones who wrote about her surreal experience with some very narrow-minded, non-thinking conspiracy nuts who only regurgitate what they are spoon-fed by equally mentally challenged people.

The ones instilling the community with fear and outright lies apparently have an agenda to sow as much discord and controversy as possible – supposedly to detract from real problems like politicians who would capitalize on division to usurp more and more rights from the very ones who keep electing them (keep an eye on your Social Security and Medicare).

Her book, That Librarian, was sent to me by her publisher so that I might review it. Her publisher, by the way, is the same publisher of the best-selling Harry Potter series. So, entrusted with offering my take on her book, I shall attempt to carry out my assigned chore – though, in fact, it is not a chore at all, but a privilege.

But to do so, it must first point out that the examples of the campaign waged against her by Michael Lunsford of St. Martinville, head of some wacko outfit called Citizens for a New Louisiana (of Lafayette), a local internet troll named Ryan Thames and their ilk give ample evidence that when you’re an a$$hole, you tend to talk out of your a$$.

What else could possibly explain an Aug. 14, 2022, email that said in part, “Continue with your LGBT agenda on our children cause (sic) we gonna (sic) put ur (sic) fat evil commie PEDO azz (sic) in the dirt very soon bitch. You can’t hide. We know where you work + live…you have a LARGE target on your back. Click, click…see you soon.”

Several observations must be made at this point. Ms. Jones is a librarian at a public school in Livingston Parish. “We know where you work” would appear to be a direct threat on a school and its occupants. Have we learned nothing of this kind of rhetoric? Threatening a teacher and by extension her students is nothing less than a act of terror. It was an anonymous threat, sent by a coward hiding behind a keyboard, but a coward nonetheless. The sender was also obviously mentally disturbed. No one but a sick, sociopathic person would post such a threat.

The second observation is where the hell was law enforcement on this? Ms. Jones, taking the threat seriously, reported it to both the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office and to the FBI. Neither agency acted on this threat. God forbid, if this threat should turn in the worst-case scenario, then Sheriff Jason Ard is going to have some “Ard questions” to answer regard his inactivity. It’s easy to trace an anonymous email and Ard knows it. Yet he extended no effort to discern if it was a threat to be taken seriously.

And Thames, that tower of intellect, posted this incredible message on his Facebook page (as he hid behind his keyboard), “The reality is they are grooming an entire generation so that ‘they’ can feel comfortable and so children will be less resistant to inappropriate advances. ‘They’…are working in your schools and librarys (sic) to push this agenda.”

Well, Thames, perhaps if you had worked a little harder in your school, you’d know that the plural for library is libraries, not librarys.

As for “grooming” children, what the hell do you call it when Republican politicians pass legislation forbidding the teaching about slavery of blacks and genocide against Native Americans? These people, these online critics, are like a two-year-old who thinks if he covers his eyes, he’s invisible. But I digress.

Let’s talk about Mr. Lunsford, or perhaps his PR flak who posted this on Citizens for a New Louisiana’s Facebook page: “After Amanda’s testimony (at a library board meeting), her school was struck by lightning and portions of it burned down. Not Kidding.”

Well, Lunsford, we’re not kidding either. It was a different school, not the school where Ms. Jones serves as librarian. Talking out of your a$$hole again, are we?

I’ve pointed out only a couple of attacks on Amanda Jones. The hate and the lies spread by Lunsford and Thames were bad enough, but people Amanda had known all her life and parents whose children she had taught (the same parents who had previously praised her), also turned on her, feeding on pure BS spewed out on social media. It’s really amazing – and shameful – how otherwise intelligent people will let some half-assed blowhard influence their thinking as though they didn’t have enough sense to separate the wheat from the chaff for themselves.

Amanda’s book is a 288-page love story – a story about her love for libraries (did you get that, Thames?), her love for books and, believe it or not, her love for the one-time Republican philosophy (yep, she’s a registered Republican).

It’s also a story of just how low some people are willing to go to destroy a person’s reputation and to put her and her students in potential danger. It’s a story of an effort undertaken by a select few to dictate their morals and standards on everyone else.

Whether or not you agree with Amanda’s viewpoint is irrelevant. What you should take from this book is an understanding of how willing people can be to accept what is fed them on social media and how these same people are so eager to read some unsubstantiated rumor and run with it as if it were carved in stone.

It’s sad, really. And frightening.

Reserve your copy ($29.99) by emailing Cavalier House Books in Denham Springs at info@cavalierhousebooks.com

I know, I know, I’m supposed to be retired from this blog after almost 13 years – and I am – but I’m still writing other projects and I just wanted to let you know that I have another book out now. It’s a follow-up to Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption.

I decided to take a look at sheriffs in other states and found my suspicions confirmed: Louisiana is by no means unique. America’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption examines miscreants in sheriffs’ departments in all but three states (those three don’t have sheriffs).

I also updated the chapter on Louisiana to include the Dennis Perkins story that broke after publication of Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs.

America’s Rogue Sheriffs opens by listing the consensus list of the 10 worst sheriffs in America. Surprisingly, Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, did not make the list. Others gems plucked from America’s Rogue Sheriffs:

• One state allowed three convicted felons to not only run for sheriff, but they actually won.
• A meth addict was elected sheriff, serving only two days before he was arrested.
• A sheriff and members of a rogue Navy intelligence office in Arlington, Virginia, attempted to establish a secret military training center in west Texas.
• Sheriffs use asset seizure laws to seize property from innocent drivers who quickly find that the burden of proof is on them to prove their innocence, not for prosecutors to prove their guilt – all under the cover of law.
• Sheriffs are involved in drug and sex trafficking, embezzlement, excessive force, money laundering, extortion, racketeering, prostitution, the unauthorized use of military weaponry, and even murder.

To order your copy of this 502-page book, send a check for $40 (which includes mailing costs) to me, Tom Aswell, 107 North College Street West, Denham Springs, Louisiana 70726 or click on the yellow DONATE rectangular button to the upper right of this post to pay by credit card.

Now, for those who might miss the posts of LouisianaVoice (and face it, judging from some of your comments, whatever your motive, even those of you who hated it still read it), I wish to direct you to Bob Mann’s renewal of Something Like the Truth.

Mann, so infuriated Attorney General Jeff Landry that he tried to get Mann fired from his LSU teaching job and now that he’s poised to become governor, he will have the power to do just that. So, Mann beat him to the punch by announcing he is leaving LSU and resuming his political blog, which is certain to be a much bigger thorn in Landry’s side than had he just allowed him to continue his professorship.

Anyway, Mann has reopened for business through a paid subscription of $5 per month or $50 per year. His observations on the body politic are well-worth the investment and I highly recommend that you give him a look by going HERE and follow the “Subscribe” link.:

For samples of his thought-provoking commentary go HERE and HERE.

Obviously, lying about your job history, education and athletic prowess, theft, using campaign funds for personal expenses, including casino visits, Botox treatments and porn surfing give one unchallenged qualification to serve in the US House of Representatives.

That is, if you go by the vote of 114 members of the House who voted No on the measure to expel miscreant member George Santos.

And if you go by the votes of three of Louisiana’s six House members.

Louisiana’s six members split evenly on the vote with Garret Graves, Julia Letlow and Troy Carter voting to evict and Speaker Mike Johnson, Steve “KKK” Scalise and Clay “Law and Order but Can’t Keep a Job” Higgins voting to give the boy another chance.

Only Julia Letlow, a Trump supporter, was an unknown quantity going in but she came through with her vote in favor of the boot. Johnson, Scalise and Higgins dutifully carried the banner of the neo-fascist sentiment now so prevalent in the Republican Party by voting No in lock-step. They may as well have been holding their right arms straight out, in a palms-down salute.

They are members in good standing of the family values party but lying, cheating, thieving and porn watching are acceptable activities so long as they are “free” to dictate what is taught in schools, what you read at the local library, who can and cannot vote and what you may or may not do with your body – if you are unfortunate enough to be a Handmaid’s Tale woman.

Thankfully, the effort to rid itself of the ugly Santos growth succeeded by a 311-114 vote. It was a rare bipartisan exercise, with 206 Democrats being joined by 105 Republicans to vote to oust the New York Republican. Two Democrats voted no and two more simply voted Present while three Democrats and five Republicans did not vote.

Santos, who is facing 23 felony counts, had survived two previous attempts to show him the door but he has been an open, festering wound almost from the day he was elected when a local Long Island newspaper had the audacity to check his street creds and found him lacking in forthrightness and honesty about his background.

In other words, he lied through his teeth.

The outcome of the Friday – and final vote, as it turned out – was pretty much a given. A House Ethics Committee report was pretty much the death knell for his chances of remaining in the body which has managed to survive the likes of Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Matt Gaetz and Gym Jordan – but not Santos, if indeed, that is his real name.

The House has a pretty low bar of tolerance as evidenced by the likes of the aforementioned quartet, and Paul Gosar, Rashida Tlaib, Scott Perry, Clay Higgins, Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise and Andy Biggs, to name just a few of the more controversial members.

But Santos was just too much, even for a clown car being driven by the likes of the current House makeup. Of those named, only House lightning rod Rashida Tlaib voted for Santos’s ouster.

Bring Back Democracy

Posted by 

Mark Zaborowski

CLAY HIGGINS (R-LA) MAY BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN DONALD TRUMP

There are some similarities between the two politicians. Yes, Higgins is a down home Southern boy and Trump is an East Coast elitist. But they are both salesmen who love the spotlight and would-be hard asses who get off on threatening others. Neither man seems to have much respect for the “sanctity” of marriage; Trump has been married three times and Higgins four times. It goes without saying that both of them spout the Republican “party lines”. They are anti-everything – except guns. Everyone knows about Trump, but maybe it’s time to look into Clay Higgins.

Symbolism: redneck general shot macho promo at Dollar General

The Louisiana GOPer is the Representative of the state’s 3rd Congressional District. He has some college experience, but no degree. Before being elected to Congress in 2016, Higgins had been in the MP force of the National Guard, an automobile salesman, and had a checkered career as a police officer in three different jurisdictions. In his first cop job, he resigned before disciplinary action could be taken against him for police brutality and lying on incident reports. He went on to become a TV spokesman for another police force, where he often strayed from the script to identify and threaten “persons of interest” during broadcasts. He took advantage of his local fame to appear in ads for a security service while in uniform and using taxpayer-funded department equipment to run his own LLC selling shot glasses and T-shirts with his image. He has been sued for unpaid child support and may have hidden certain income from the IRS, though that has yet to be proven. Now that he is in Congress, however, the danger he poses as a violent authoritarian is becoming more evident.

Is the beard a disguise to avoid child support collectors?

When asked what he would do about Black armed protestors, he bragged that he would “drop 10 of them where they stood”. He did assault and physically move one protestor in another incident. As a devoted goose-stepper for the Radical Right segment of Congress, Higgins is a member of the Republican Study Committee and the Freedom Caucus. Consequently, he has been given seats on the prestigious Armed Services and Oversight Committees. As a former lawman, he has shown scant support for the Capitol Police who were assaulted and injured by the Trump-supporting thugs on Jan 6. He actually called for a lenient sentence for one of the rioters who attacked the LEOs with bear spray and shouted on video that they were bringing the violence and that this was “not a peaceful protest!” Higgins has spoken at events sponsored by the Oath Keepers and the Three percenters, even claiming to be one of the latter.

During a hearing, Clay Higgins was questioning FBI director Christopher Wray about some bizarre conspiracy theory concerning “ghost buses” bringing in FBI informants and undercover agents to provoke and promote the Jan 6 insurrection. Not getting the responses he wanted, Higgins threatened the director “Your day is coming”. More recently, he has sent the message to Special Counsel Jack Smith that his “days are numbered” when it comes to his investigation into Donald Trump’s criminality. At the moment Clay Higgins has no more power than any other Congressperson. But if he ever moved into a higher position, say as Speaker or Vice-President, he would be in line for the Presidency itself. Unlike Trump who is all bark, Higgins has proven that he is willing to bite. This is not a man that we want with his finger on any button but his TV remote.

Louisiana Sen. John “Foghorn Leghorn” Kennedy surely got his comeuppance during Tuesday’s attempted ambush of Dr. Megan Ranney of the Yale School of Public Health before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The St. Tammany self-styled scaramouche apparently thought he could browbeat the good doctor, though it was never abundantly clear just what point he was trying to make in his effort to get the good doctor to commit to a barrage of preconceived notions.

It’s admittedly rare that Kennedy, who relies mostly on pithy platitudes to make a point rather than hard statistics but on Tuesday he talked himself into a corner with his only defense being an annoying habit of constantly interrupting Dr. Ranney even as she tried to answer his weird line of questioning.

He really tripped himself up when he attempted to ask her about the gun-related death rate in Chicago. Now, no one is going to argue that gun violence has reached critical mass in the Windy City, but his effort to paint gun violence against the backdrop of those “who lawfully have a gun in their homes for protection, or perhaps for hunting” he suddenly found himself groping to recover the high ground.

Characterizing Chicago as the “LARGEST OUTDOOR SHOOTING RANGE,” he asked Dr. Ranney if she thought the city’s high number of gun deaths was “because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as King Kong’s arm,” She shot back that “Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri have higher firearm death rates, obviously there’s certain…”

She never got to finish her point because Kennedy’s ego will not allow him to hear facts that clash with his opinions. But the fact is, Louisiana, with the nation’s HIGHEST homicide rate, does indeed stand as a more dangerous killing field than Chicago and, get this: Chicago, in 13^th place, ranks well behind number-4 New Orleans and number-5 Baton Rouge in its homicide rate.

Now Kennedy grew up in the Baton Rouge suburb of Zachary in East Baton Rouge Parish and his official residence is now in St. Tammany Parish, which is situated generally between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, so he should have been aware of those statistics before he opened his PLATITUDE-LADEN MOUNTH.

Nevertheless, Dr. Ranney soldiered on, pointing out that she was an academic and not a politician but did manage to say that she thought that contributing factors to gun violence included “easy access to firearms, combined with environmental conditions and lack of great education. There have actually been studies showing that when you green vacant lots and repair abandoned buildings in urban neighborhoods, you see decreases in gunshots and violence as well as decreases in stress and depression in the neighborhoods around them.”

Kennedy’s response? “No disrespect, Doc, but that sounds a lot like word salad to me.”

Word salad? Wow, Foghorn. Way to keep the testimony on a higher plane.

I’ll give you this: you do know how to appeal to the worst instincts of your base.

For your enjoyment (or disgust), I have included a video of the exchange. You can watch it by clicking HERE.