Louisiana Voice

(Full disclosure: I am indisputably straight. In high school I, like others, turned on my friend when he came out, making his life so miserable that he was forced to drop out of school. The fact that I could be so cruel to another human being has haunted me nonstop as I approach my eightieth decade of existence on planet earth. Today, I take enormous pride in having friends who are gay and I have found in them a consistent capacity for intellect, creativity, compassion, and perseverance that could – and should – serve as inspiration for all of us if we’d only let it.)

Having said that, I now call attention to that abhorrent group of individuals in neighboring TEXAS who call themselves Republicans and whom I dismissively refer to as Repugnantcans because on the whole, I find the Republican Party repugnant in every possible way. I make no pretense at journalistic objectivity nor do I make any pretense at apology for doing so. As a recovering Republican myself, it is a deeply personal issue with me.

I simply am at a loss to understand why a group of individuals calling themselves leaders can possibly advocate so strongly for so-called “right to life” and then deny basic human needs to the living – needs such as pre-K, medical care, infant nutrition, a decent living wage (especially for single mothers), education, day care, etc.

I am at a loss to understand why the Repugnantcans, especially those from Texas want “less government interference in our lives” and then adopt an official platform that refers to homosexuality as ”ABNORMAL.” Abnormal by whose standards? The Book of Leviticus? Yes, it does call for the death penalty of gays in Chapter 20, Verse 13. Give me a break. Chapter 19, Verse 19 also prohibits anyone from wearing clothing of mixed threads.

How many adhere that that little directive?

Leviticus also says anyone with a flat nose or who are blind or lame cannot go to the altar of God.

The Book of Numbers? It says, in Chapter 31, Verse 17 and 18, “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones (that would be children, would it not?) and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him” (and just how are they to know that little fact?), and “all the women children (that would be little girls, I do believe) that have not known a man by lying with him (again, how is this determined?), keep alive for yourselves.” (Emphasis added)

Well, that seems pretty abnormal to me.

How about the prohibition against wearing jewelry, found in 1 Timothy 2:9?

And then scattered all through the Good Book are admonitions against divorce. They’re found in Luke, Matthew, 1 Corinthians, Malachi, Romans, Mark, and on and on. How many of either party can hold fast to that “normality”?

And we won’t even talk about adultry, of which I’m quite certain no Texas Repugnantcan is guilty.

That must be why all those non-mixed-fabric or non-jewelry-wearing, straight, once-married, ever-faithful, pro-birth Texas Repugnantcans took such a patriotic stand in adopting their 40-page platform that somehow also included an outright rebuke of the 2020 presidential election in that the party rejected the election of Joe Biden as president and even reserved the right to secede from the union.

But there are a few Bible verses which the Texas Repugnantcans (and apparently, Repugnantcans elsewhere as well) hold dear:

• Slaves must be submissive and obedient to their masters. (Ephesians 6:5)
• Women must be submissive to their husbands. (1 Peter 3:1 and 3:5)
• Women should be generally submissive and should be quiet, never teach or hold any authority over men. They should just be silent. (1 Timothy 2:12)

Now what good Repugnantcan (Texan or otherwise) could possibly argue with such sound logic?

It represents, after all, the best of both worlds for Repugnantcans: a return to the good old days of Jim Crow and to the future of the Hand Maid’s Tale.

Looks like someone didn’t really think this through or ask the obvious question: “Now, how will this end for us?”

Well, there are several things to consider. For instance, if Texas secedes, then US Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, along with some three dozen US representatives, would be placed on the unemployment rolls. Of course, Cruz could simply relocate to Cancun but what would Texas do with all those military bases? They do, after all, represent a lot of civilian jobs.

But do they really think NASA would hang around Houston very long in such a scenario? If Texas secedes, Shongaloo, Punkin Center, or Nip-and-Tuck (real Louisiana communities – Punkin Center is in Jackson Parish, Pumpkin Center is in Tangipahoa) would suddenly appear more attractive.

And what if Texas experiences another of those winter freeze-outs like the one that sent Cruz packing to Mexico the first time? There won’t be any FEMA or federal funds to bail Gov. Greg Abbott out of the next energy crisis – or the next hurricane.

One more thought: If Texas secedes, there would be no more Texas Repugnantcan Party because it would no longer be affiliated with the national party.

I suppose it could rebrand itself as the more appropriate Hypocrite Party.

Folks, I’ve not been able to contact my cousin and thus was apparently not up to date. I finally got through to her (after I posted the previous update) only to learn that her grandson had set up a Go Fund Me account and already has “enough stuff to furnish three houses.”

So, despite my urgent plea of earlier, it appears that they are going to be okay and will get through this ordeal. But….BUT, she said she is so very grateful for the support you’ve shown (and I have received literally dozens of responses). I, likewise, appreciate the generosity displayed by you and apologize for the appeal that, thankfully, turned out to be unnecessary.

To those who contributed cash, I will forward your gift to her because I know she can always use that to buy food for the boys.

Again, thanks so much.

I hate to come at you this way but my cousin in West Monroe is 82 and is caring for four great-grandsons, three of whom are non-verbal autistic. She is a graphic artist and she designed the covers for six of my books.

A couple of weeks ago, lightning struck her home and the ensuing fire destroyed the structure. Everyone got out safely, but the house was a total loss. She lost everything.

The house was gutted

Nothing is left. The plastic goo on the desk is her Mac computer

The house was insured, but not the contents. She is now living in a rent house with no furnishings and is in desperate need of bedding, linens, furniture, appliances, clothing, etc. Anything will help. My cousins in North Carolina are getting her a new computer for her business and her brother is helping with her rent.

For those of you living in Louisiana, anything you can spare would be of tremendous help and would be appreciated more than you could ever know. I can pick up items if you just let me know.

Please, if you can help, contact me at my email: louisianavoice@outlook.com

Thank you.

Tom

We’ve known all along that he was a desperate despot. Even those delusional souls who held fast to their belief that despite against all odds and 62 court decisions that went against him had to know that former guy was not going to be “reinstated” to the presidency.

Except for the Qanon devotees, of course. They still believe a furniture company is selling babies to a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C. so they can start forest fires in peach tree dishes with Jewish lasers.

They had to know deep down that when his own appointed judges and other Repugnantcan jurists continued to throw his cases out of court on five dozen occasions that the election was not going to be overturned.

Yet, it wasn’t until yesterday during testimony before the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot that we learned to just what nadir of desperation Pvt. Bonespurs had descended as he cast about for someone to serve as front man in his quixotic bid to remain at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

It seems that Don of Orange wanted Jeff Landry as his special counsel to investigate election fraud.

Now that’s really grasping at straws.

That little bombshell was dropped during testimony by former UA Attorney General Steven Engel.

Ouch. The Lone DeRanger, the walking tanning bed warning label, the Great Orange Hairball of Fear, actually desired the services – the investigative services yet – of one Jeff Landry, the man who couldn’t even investigate a jailhouse rape in Union Parish. A man who was reduced to hiring a political crony as some kind of “special investigator” even though he possessed no qualifications for the position. A man who hired a woman convicted of felony fraud to head up the AG’s fraud section.

Okay, okay, I admit it, I have a case of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) I’ve never denied that the man left me more than a little deranged and totally perplexed that anyone could support such a narcissistic, dishonest person when there are legitimately honest persons who are willing to put the interests of the nation above their own selfish considerations.

And lest anyone get the wrong impression, let me be clear: I have no tolerance for anyone who would use public service to advance personal advantages or enrichment, be they of either political stripe.

But Der Groepenfuehrer, aka the Tangerine Orangutan, holds a special place in the annals of duplicity and grifting.

Still, if ever there was a perfect match for the Fraud of Fifth Avenue, it would be Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a man who has managed to carry on the great tradition of Louisiana’s unique brand of political chicanery. Rather than list all his transgressions again, I would suggest you read my post of July 14, 2021 by clicking HERE.

Engel testified yesterday that Forrest Trump was “vocal” about the need to appoint a special counsel to investigate election fraud and that former US Attorney General William Barr (Trumpty Dumpty had quite a number of AGs in those final days) sought his (Engel’s) advice.

“The request was whether the attorney general could appoint as a special counsel a state attorney general to conduct an investigation,” Engel testified.

Though Engel never mentioned Landry by name, he did note that “state law, the state was Louisiana, that the state law precluded the Louisiana attorney general from accepting any official position on behalf of the United States government.”

It’s not like Landry didn’t try to help the White Pride Piper. NBC News obtained a copy of a recording that went out as a robocall from the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF), the fundraising arm of the Repugnantcan Attorneys General Association (RAGA) that said in part, “At 1 p.m., we will march to the Capitol building and call on Congress to stop the steal.” (Just for the record, the date of that planned “march to the Capitol” was Jan. 6, 2021.)

Landry was the RAGA chairman for 2020, and on Nov. 10, he announced that the organization was filing an amicus brief endorsing a challenge to a Pennsylvania State Supreme Court ruling allowing up to three days post-election for the counting of absentee ballots.

Also, Landry was listed as a co-director of RLDF, according to 2018 tax documents filed by the organization.

To read details of that RLDF effort on behalf of Tiny Hands Twitter Spitter, click HERE.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has ARRESTED nursing home owner Bob Dean on 15 felony counts of cruelty to persons with infirmities, Medicaid fraud and obstruction of justice.

The arrest is ostensibly for the evacuation of more than 800 residents from seven of his nursing homes in the wake of Hurricane Ida nearly a year ago to a warehouse in the Tangipahoa Parish town of Independence. That warehouse proved woefully inadequate to care for the elderly and frail patients, more than a dozen of whom died.

But the action by Landry, who is an officially unannounced but assumed Republican candidate for governor in the 2023 election, carries deep political overtones. The sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish is Daniel Edwards and the Independence police chief is Frank Edwards. Both men are brothers to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards who has often been at political odds with Landry. The patriarch of the Edwards family, Frank Edwards, for whom the Independence police chief is named, was also sheriff of the parish.

The timing of Dean’s arrest and the certain legal maneuvers to come just as the political season heats up in Louisiana could prove to be a political embarrassment for the Edwards clan.

In early September 2021, only days after Hurricane Ida struck, 843 residents were removed from the warehouse, which had no air conditioning, no electricity, no oxygen concentrators, and no means by which to prepare food for the residents.

Seven deaths were immediately attributed to the ordeal and several subsequent deaths followed but both Sheriff Daniel Edwards and Police Chief Frank Edwards issued STATEMENTS that they did not intend to investigate the deaths, according to Landry.

In a statement to CNN, Sheriff Edwards said the case was “not connected to the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office. It is under the purview of the Independence Police Department under Chief Frank Edwards.” But Police Chief Edwards told the network that his department was too small and lacked sufficient resources to investigate. Additionally, he said his office had been overwhelmed with recovery efforts following Ida.

The Louisiana Department of Hospitals (LDH) came under fire from LEGISLATORS who appeared a little to eager to shift the blame on LDH in their scramble to find a scapegoat for the debacle. And while the governor’s office was not directly involved, it all happened on Gov. Edwards’s watch and Landry obviously was chomping at the bit to embarrass his nemesis, or at least his brothers and by association, the governor himself, as the state moves into another election cycle.

It’s not like Daniel Edwards needed this for his department.

His office and that of the Hammond Police Department were RAIDED by the FBI in 2016 in connection with a federal investigation of a drug task force that saw deputy Johnny Domingue PLEAD GUILTY to three drug conspiracy charges and a single count of abuse of office. RELEASED in March 2019 after being given credit for 34 months he spent in jail awaiting trial, he found himself BACK IN JAIL three years later after his arrest for attempting to smuggle 8 kilos of cocaine into Houston in what was actually a sting operation.

A second deputy, Karl Newman, was sentenced to 42 months in prison in the same case which also took down a prominent DEA agent, Chad Scott.

And only last week, the Tangipahoa Sheriff’s Office came under fire again in a botched rape investigation that eventually saw a state judge award CUSTODY of the child from the encounter to the alleged rapist and the mother, the victim, ordered to pay child support.

It’s shaping up to be an interesting campaign already and nobody has even announced for a single office yet.

Surely, Landry would take the high road and choose not to make all this an issue in the campaign.