Louisiana Voice

“I just want to do my job…and I’m going to keep doing it.”

—Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“The tempting analogy is to the election of 1932, in the midst of another set of crises. The public barely knew Franklin D Roosevelt, whom critics called an aristocrat without a coherent theory of how to end the Great Depression.

“ [T]he breadth of the anti-Trump coalition is a remarkable testament to Donald Trump’s capacity to inspire disgust.

—Former US Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, writing in Sunday’s The Guardian

“Mr. President, the American people … have a right to protest. You cannot stop the people with all of the forces that you may have at your command.”

—The late Rep. John Lewis, a month before his death.

Donald Trump is correct. Fake news abounds; it’s one of the few commodities which has been and likely will never be in short supply

From McCarthyism to weapons of mass destruction to Rush Limbaugh, fake news beats us over the head every single day. Alex Jones’s Media Wars, QAnon lead the pack with their child trafficking via their Wayfair and Pizzagate wild-eyed hogwash.

You can read about these debunked stories HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Sadly, our president, that “very stable genius,” has dutifully re-tweeted every one of those conspiracy stories—along with others that question Barack Obama’s birthplace, claim that Obama bugged Trump’s campaign, that Joe Scarborough murdered an aide, that Ted Cruz’s father was somehow linked to the JFK assassination, that windmills cause cancer, that the coronavirus is a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats and/or China to lessen his reelection chances, and any other bizarre crap he could imagine in his sick, demented mind.

And while he gives credence to these absurdly-contrived fantasies of the right-wing extremists, he is just as quick, or quicker, to label news stories from such sources as The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, or other legitimate news services, i.e. “lamestream media” as “fake news.’ And of course, he is, by his own humble admission, smarter than all our intelligence agencies and general combined.

He continues to invoke the “fake news” mantra because it’s a convenient dog whistle to his shrinking base that hangs onto every word as though he was some kind of latter-day savior of mankind.

But there is another “news service” that pops up in my email inbox daily that, while flying under the radar, is nevertheless comical in its own ham-handed way of reporting news intended as favorable to the Tangerine Toddler. I say “a” news service, though there actually are two but they are so near in content and appearance they sometimes seem to be one and the same.

The first is an outfit called Patriot Powered News run by some outfit called JKW Enterprises of Moore, Oklahoma.

One of its dispatches features a headline that says “You Won’t Believe Who’s Calling Obama the Greatest President Ever.” Click on that heading and you’re taken to a one-question “poll” that asks, “Would you vote for a Barack Obama 3^rd term?” and then gives you two choices:

Yes – Barack Obama is a great president and better than the choices we had in 2016, or

No – He was a terrible president and I am happy he is no longer in office.

No third choice like, for instance, “No, I don’t believe a president should serve more than two terms, or a fourth choice that says, “No, the 22^nd Amendment put a limit on how many times a person could be elected president.

Another features this headline: Michelle Finally Snaps: Melania Sent Her Over the ‘Edge.’

But when you click on the headline, you’re taken to a page that’s nothing more than an INFOMERCIAL disguised as a news story hyping some kind of skin care treatment that is supposed to make you “look two decades younger.” It even comes complete with “Before” and “After” photos of Melania.

Some news story.

The other so-called news service, which also is heavily pro-Trump, is little more than an advertising medium for such products as an “Ancient Japanese tonic to melt 3 pounds every 3-5 days,” or a “cheap air cooler (that) takes United States by storm,” or Dr. Ben Carson’s “over the counter memory drug.

That news page also has a headline that hypes a “CBS breaking news story” headlined, “Dr. Phil mourns after tragic news…” but when you click on that headline, you are taken to a story about a “revolutionary product” released by Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz that’s “causing outburst in the health community. And what is this “revolutionary product?”

CBD. Cannabinoid oil.

I guess truth is where you find it, folks, sort of like beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

So, with all disrespect to Alex Jones, QAnon, Limbaugh and Patriot Powered News, I’ll just stick with the lamestream media for my news because as opposed to those just cited, sometimes they get it right.

After all, it was Trump himself who recently said, “What do we have to lose?”

“60Minutes & third place anchor, @NorahODonnell, are doing everything in their power to demean our Country, much to the benefit of the Radical Left Democrats. Tonight they put on yet another Fake “Whistleblower”, a disgruntled employee who supports Dems, fabricates stories, &…spews lies. @60Minutes report was incorrect, which they couldn’t care less about. Fake News! I don’t know this guy, never met him, but don’t like what I see. How can a creep like this show up to work tomorrow & report to @SecAzar, his boss, after trashing him on T.V.?….This whole Whistleblower racket needs to be looked at very closely, it is causing great injustice & harm. I hope you are listening @SenSusanCollins I also hope that Shari Redstone will take a look at her poorly performing gang. She knows how to make things right!”

—Donald Trump tweet following the 60Minutes interview of whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright [Yet another person Trump says he “doesn’t know.”]

“It says nothing about defunding the police.”

—Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, to Donald Trump when Trump lied and said Joe Biden wants to defund the police in a 100-page charter that Biden signed with Bernie Sanders. [Finally! A member of the media calling out Trump—and a Fox News anchor at that! Trump never read 100 pages of anything in his life but nevertheless ordered his staff to fetch the charter so he could prove it to Wallace. They did and he couldn’t—because it’s not in there.]

“The president has said unmistakably that he wants school to reopen. When he says open, he means open and full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school. The science should not stand in the way of this.”

—White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. [Sure. Why let science stand in the way?]

“He is going deeper and deeper into a darker and darker place, and he is starting to drive away people who were formerly voters of his.”

—Democratic strategist Steve McMahon, on Donald Trump’s meltdown leading up to the November election.

“I can’t explain Peter Navarro. He’s in a world by himself.”

—Dr. Anthony Fauci, responding to bizarre criticism of him by Director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy.

“He may be out of the loop and in disfavor with the White House, but it’s clear from the numbers, voters would like Dr. Fauci back on call.”

—Quinnipiac polling analyst Tim Malloy, on poll results showing that 65 percent of Americans trust Fauci.

[The op-ed piece by Navarro] “did not meet USA TODAY’s fact-checking standards” because of factual errors with “several of Navarro’s criticisms of Fauci.” 

USA TODAY editorial page editor Bill Sternberg, on Navarro’s piece that the paper ran on Tuesday.

Sources have informed LouisianaVoice that Landry, one day after announcing that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, dined at an exclusive Baton Rouge restaurant with a gaggle other like-minded coronavirus deniers, possibly exposing them, restaurant employees and other diners.

Brent Littlefield, Landry’s political adviser, denied the report, saying that Landry ate at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Baton Rouge a week ago Wednesday—before he tested positive for the coronavirus.

“It’s all over Twitter that Landry’s trying to murder people,” Littlefield said. “He was at Ruth’s Chris a full week before he tested positive. You can check with the restaurant to confirm that.”

But even then, Landy, who says he is asymptomatic, could have been positive and infecting others, which is sufficiently illustrative of the folly of refusing to wear a mask.

Littlefield often serves as Landry’s spokesperson when bad publicity surfaces. It was Littlefield who labeled as bogus a REPORT about the use of the guest-worker visa program by companies owned by Landry and his brother, Benjamin back in February.

He heads up Littlefield Consulting out of Washington and when you go to his WEB PAGE and click on “Our Work,” a series of ads for candidates pop up. But they’re ads for campaigns way back in 2010—a full decade ago. Apparently he’s been too busy to update his page—or he hasn’t been very busy at all.

An employee of the Ruth’s Chris was unable to confirm Landry’s presence at the restaurant on either night, but said the reservations could have been in someone’s name other than Landry.

Landry was said to have been maskless, as were his companions, Republican members of the Louisiana legislature Wednesday night as they enjoyed their repast at Ruth’s Chris just hours after releasing that nine-page OPINION which said Gov. John Bel Edwards’s executive order mandating the wearing of masks in public.

The order also imposed a limit of 50 persons on indoor/outdoor gatherings and ordered the closing of bars across the state.

Ruth’s Chris has long been a favorite place for politicians and lobbyists to meet to dine and discuss state business.