Louisiana Voice

Crow must leave a bad taste in one’s mouth.

Remember the hysteria over library books in Livingston Parish and the outside interference that prompted a book and national recognition for a local librarian whom certain people tried their best to destroy?

Remember how the Livingston Parish Library Board of Control members were all removed and some replaced by hand-picked parish leaders – new members who probably haven’t read a book in years, much less actually visited the local library?

Remember how the newly-appointed board held an illegal meeting and removed the head of the parish library system and how the Louisiana Attorney General came down on them for holding that illegal meeting?

Remember how a self-appointed head of an outfit calling itself Citizens for a New Louisiana barged into the parish thinking he was going to make Livingston part of his statewide campaign to initiate widespread book censorship?

Remember how Michael Lunsford and his Repugnantcan band of censors even tried to invade the library in Lincoln Parish only to be told the citizens there to butt out?

Best of all, remember how that Livingston Parish school librarian, one Amanda Jones, decided she wasn’t going to be victimized by these people and filed a lawsuit against a local citizen, a guy named Ryan Thames, for posting on Facebook that she advocated inappropriate reading material for 11-year-olds and that she advocated anal sex?

She didn’t ask for outlandish monetary damages in her lawsuit; she asked only for one dollar and a public apology.

Guess what?

She got both.

Thames (pronounced Tims) has posted his apology on Facebook and agreed to pay Jones one dollar as a settlement of her litigation. Here’s what he had to say:

“My name is Ryan Thames. I want to publicly apologize to Amanda Jones, a school librarian.

“I said that she advocates giving age-inappropriate to children. I said that she advocated to the teaching of anal sex to 11-year-olds. Those statements were not true. Ms. Jones has agreed to settle her lawsuit against me for $1 and an apology. I am grateful for the opportunity she has given me to resolve this issue. I genuinely apologize for the mental and physical pain my statements have caused her or her family.”

Boy, that must’ve hurt. If you care to actually watch and hear his apology, go HERE.

Funny thing is, Thames could’ve done this at the outset, three-and-a half-years ago and probably saved himself some legal fees, but chose to dig his heels in.

Today is the final day of LouisianaVoice‘s October fundraiser. I detest begging but if you deem you cannot contribute to our efforts, I would respectfully request that you at least consider a generous donation to your local food bank.

As much as we could use your financial assistance, with the expiration of SNAP benefits looming, it is far more critical that children be fed. There are two things I cannot stomach seeing hungry: children and animals. Each is dependent upon others for nourishment and it is imperative that that they not be ignored as we go about our holiday shopping.

If you are so disposed, go HERE, scroll down to the YELLOW DONATE button in the right-hand column and follow the directions to make a one-time contribution.

If you feel you’re unable to do so, then please make an attempt to help feed children.

I have a great idea to save the State of Loozianner a little money. I’m pretty sure it’s not an original idea because it’s too logical for it not to have occurred to someone else, too. At any rate, here it is:

• Call off the search for a new LSU president.
• Forget about hiring a new athletic director to replace the departing Scott Woodward.
• Abolish the LSU Board of Supervisors altogether.
• Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. Rebrand Gov. Jeff Landry’s title to Governor/LSU Coach/Athletic Director/President/Board of Supervisors.

Think of all the money it would save. Why, Woodward’s salary alone is more than a million dollars a year. And by now we know what a football coach goes for and college presidents ain’t cheap, either. With all the Board of Supervisor members gone, think of what could be clawed back in terms of complimentary tickets to football, basketball, baseball and all other sports. Why, with those increases in ticket prices, just imagine how much revenue could be generated. And premium parking for those events…Why, they could be money producers for the university as opposed to freebies – especially since those prices are also going up.

By naming Landry to all three positions, he could then drop all pretense to just being an interested onlooker and become far more overt (if possible) in picking coaches, selling tickets, doling out passes to favored politicos, and generally throwing his bantam-weight around like a real-life coach/athletic director/college president.

God knows, he certainly wants to play a role in every aspect of decision-making at LSU. He’s made that quite evident even though officially, he has to pretend to only be concerned about the purse strings.

If you think for one nanosecond that any search committee appointed by a Landry-controlled Board of Supervisors is going to have a scintella of independence to negotiate with and hire a coach, I have some leftover Trump steaks I’ll sell you at a discount.

Landry should know one important fact. If he waltzes in and takes control of administrative matters at LSU, some quality coaches still there are gonna start looking elsewhere. Jay Johnson isn’t going to tolerate interference in a baseball program he has guided to the very top. Same for gymnastics coach Jay Clark and women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey.

There’s an old adage that says if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

One might argue that the football program is indeed broken and folks would be correct in that assumption. But by driving off an athletic director who is responsible in large part in bringing six national titles in six years to LSU, it would be a tragic mistake to try and revamp the entire athletic program – and that’s just what Squeaky Toy Landry is doing.

In short, he thinks he’s a lot smarter than he really is.

Okay, campers, here’s all you need to know about who suffers and who doesn’t after one full month of the governmental shutdown.

About 730,000 federal employees are working without pay.

About 670,000 workers have been furloughed.

• Two million active-duty and reserve members of the military were paid on Oct. 15 because about $8 billion in Pentagon R&D funds was used but there isn’t enough to meet today’s payroll.
• Federal contractors, including personnel who provide security and clean offices are laid off with no guarantee of back pay. (The exception here might be the contractor who’s constructing Trump’s $300 million grand ballroom.)
• Senate staffers won’t be paid for the remainder of the shutdown after missing their Oct. 20 paychecks.
• Essential staff in the judicial branch are working without pay while other court employees are furloughed.

Moreover, to pile insult onto injury, Chief Yellow Feathers said he is thinking about a new interpretation of the law which will allow him to not provide back pay for furloughed employees once the shutdown is over.

BUT…El Presidente, Hillbilly Boy Vance, members of the Supreme Court and members of the House and Senate have not missed a penny since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.

Here are their numbers:

House and Senate members – $174,000 per year, or $476.71 per day. That comes to $14,778 each for the first 31 days of the shutdown – for doing nothing. Bear in mind, if you will, at the $7.25 federal minimum wage, a worker would have to work 40 hours a week year-round to pull down $15,080. Multiply that $14,778 by 530 members (after excluding the Speaker and the four majority and minority leaders – they get paid a tad more) and you find that as a group they have been paid $7,832.383 since Oct. 1.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who steadfastly refuses to call the House into session so as to keep from releasing the Epstein files in order to protect a pedophile: $233,500, or $529.86 per day. He raked in $18,982.23 for sitting on his ass during October.

The majority and minority leaders in both chambers (4 altogether) receive $193,400 per year each. That’s $529.86 per day each, or $16,425.66 per day each. Multiplied by four and we see that altogether they raked in $65,702.64 for staying home.

That comes to a grand total of $7,867,753 and change for just the members of Congress during the first month of the shutdown. (And after 3,226 days in office, Sen. John N. Kennedy still has not held a town hall meeting.)

It’s not altogether fair to go beyond those 535 individuals because the administrative and judicial branches have continued to work (work being a relative term), but just for fun, let’s toss in Trump’s $33,972.60 for the same 31 days, J.D. Vance’s $19,967.39, Chief Justice John Roberts’s $26,965 and the $206,281.64 for the remaining eight associate justices and that grand total is bumped up to $8,154,938.

Also continuing to receive pay are members of the FBI (including Director Kash Patel), all political appointees who are confirmed by the Senate, federal judges, 70,000 personnel in the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Secret Service.

Funny, but from this perspective, it appears that priority is being given to those with authority to keep the rest of us in line and to enforce whatever Trump says the law is while rank and file workers who actually get things done are being given the ol’ shaft.

Not sure, but I think that’s called a police state.

Tom, my new illustration of Landry