Louisiana Voice

“Did you know I was No. 1 on Facebook? I just found out I was No. 1 on Facebook. I thought that was very nice for whatever it means.”

–Donald Trump, in an April 1, 2020 news briefing on the coronavirus. [proving once again that it’s all about him.]

Here is a link to a web page for JOHN SCHRODER STATE TREASURER.

It certainly looks official enough, complete with the state seal and a photo of State Treasurer John Schroder and links to click on for information on:

• A way to check on unclaimed property owed individuals and businesses by the state;
• SBA Business loan program under the federal stimulus plan;
• A resource toolkit for dealing with the coronavirus.
• A paycheck protection program.

All in all, a very thoughtful, considerate way a public servant is expected to perform his duties.

Except…except when you click on either of the links, you are taken not to unclaimed property, information on coronavirus, SBA loans or paycheck protection, but to Treasurer John Schroder’s CAMPAIGN PAGE where you are hit up for campaign contributions.

All in all, a pretty sleazy tactic by just another politician trying to get into your pocket.

Like I said, it looks official. It has all the bells and whistles you’d normally expect to find on a state agency web page. But it’s not a state-designed page. But neither is there any information identifying it as paid for by his political campaign.

So, if you want information about whether or not you’re owed money by the state, or need information on COVID-19, an SBA loan or paycheck protection, you’re out of luck.

But if you want to contribute to Schroder’s campaign, you’ve come to the right spot.

But to most people, this smacks of bait and switch tactics and is certainly not the type behavior we should expect of our elected officials.

But then this is Louisiana…so maybe it is the type behavior we’ve come to expect—and deserve.

“I don’t take responsibility at all.” 

–Donald Trump, response to a question on March 13 about a lack of widespread access to testing for the coronavirus.

“I’d rate it a 10. I think we’ve done a great job, and it started with the fact that we kept a very highly infected country, despite all of the, even the professionals saying it’s too early to do that,”

—Donald Trump, on March 16 in rating his administration’s reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.

Check out this cartoon:

WHIPLASH

“Look, having nuclear—my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School of Finance, very good, very smart —you know, if you’re a conservative Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat, they would say I’m one of the smartest people anywhere in the world—it’s true!—but when you’re a conservative Republican they try—oh, do they do a number—that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student, went there, went there, did this, built a fortune—you know I have to give my like credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged—but you look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me—it would have been so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power and that was 35 years ago; he would explain the power of what’s going to happen and he was right—who would have thought?), but when you look at what’s going on with the four prisoners—now it used to be three, now it’s four—but when it was three and even now, I would have said it’s all in the messenger; fellas, and it is fellas because, you know, they don’t, they haven’t figured that the women are smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about another 150 years—but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us.”

—Donald Trump, at campaign event in South Carolina, July 21, 2015 [for the Trump supporters who keep insisting that Joe Biden is losing it].

DR. DONALD

“What is the medical evidence?”

––Question by a CNN reporter to Dr. Anthony Fauci, about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in treating the coronavirus.

“Do you know how many times he’s answered that question? Maybe 15.”

—Dr. Donald Trump, interrupting before Dr. Fauci could answer.

“The question is for the doctor. … He’s your medical expert, correct?”

––CNN reporter.

“You don’t have to ask the question,”

—Dr. Donald. [Typical adversarial press conference held to provide “information” about the COVID-19 pandemic that is killing people worldwide. And we still haven’t heard the medical evidence of the drug’s effectiveness.]

“Fire him. He continues to contradict our president and hurting his re-election chances.”

—Sunday tweet in response to headline which said, “Fauci says we are struggling to get the coronavirus under control.” [ignore the message, just shoot the messenger]

“The mouths of their rancid features opened like caverns, and sounds like the wailings of damned souls issued there from.”

—Des Moines Leader Review of the singing Cherry Sisters in 1901, which prompted a libel lawsuit against the newspaper by the indignant sisters, from Dan Abrams’s book Theodore Roosevelt for the Defense.  After watching the sisters perform in his courtroom during the ensuing trial, the judge ruled in favor of the paper. [Apropos of nothing—I just thought we could use a good laugh.]