Louisiana Voice

[Trump claims that Biden will increase up low-income housing] “at a much higher rate than it was before, and you know who’s going to be in charge of it? Cory Booker, that’s gonna be nice, okay? I know the suburbs, and Westchester, right, was ground zero for what they were trying to do, okay? They were trying to destroy the suburban beautiful place. The American Dream, really.”

—Donald Trump, in an interview with bigot Laura Ingraham on Fox News on Aug. 28.

“I’m a woman living in the suburbs. I live a couple houses from a couple who have Trump flags and 3 Percenter signs lining all parts of their front yard and back yard. I feel less safe living next to these people than I would living next to Cory Booker or literally anyone else.”

—Tweet om response to Trump’s claim, Sept. 1, 2020.

“RECAP, Laura Ingraham interview:

• Trump believes people in ‘Dark Shadows’ are controlling Biden.
• Trump compares police shootings to golfers ‘choking’ while missing a clutch putt.
• Trump thinks Cory Booker will screw up low income housing (because he’s black?)

Trump is nuts!

—Another tweet by someone with a cooler head, Sept. 1.

“Cory Booker came to my father’s hospital bedside and held his hand. They spoke for an hour in soft voices because my father was very weak and dying. Cory is one of the kindest men I’ve ever met. We should all be so lucky to have a man like him in our neighborhood.”

—A tweet that speaks volumes not only about Cory Booker’s character, but Trump’s as well, Sept. 1.

“Was it something I said?

—Corey Booker tweet in response to racist Franklin Leonard, who had tweeted, “Keep Cory Booker, his vegan cookies, and his relentless positivity the hell out of my neighborhood.” [No, Cory, it’s should be obvious this guy just doesn’t appreciate positive attitudes. He must be very lonely.]

“When you have this disinformation and it’s introduced to one side of the forest, for example, it can travel so quickly through so many different communities and does so many unintentional things before you can even do a fact check. He’s able to muddy the waters so thoroughly that democracy wilts on the vine.”

—Whitney Phillips, assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, on Trump’s disinformation campaign [which in reality, has never stopped.]

“…the ability to use technology not only for good but to mislead and manipulate; the willingness of those with political agendas to resort to such disinformation and propaganda; and the way in which America has cleaved into two separate information universes, with a conservative media ecosystem amplifying falsehoods that then take root.”

ALS victim Ady Barkan, in an op-ed in The Washington Post, in a warning of the “ominous lessons” he learned from a video posted by Louisiana’s 1^st Congressional District Rep. Sleazy Scalise which spliced together Barkan quotes to purposely make it sound as if he had persuaded Joe Biden to defund police departments. [a reprehensible, disgustingly cheap shot, even by Sleazy Scalise standards.]

“That’s the way it is.”

—Donald Trump, responding to a question about climate change and the growing intensity of hurricanes, while touring areas devastated by Hurricane Laura. [Goes right along with his “It is what it is” comment on the soaring numbers of coronavirus victims.]

“I asked myself, what are the things that matter to you? It mattered that this president has openly said to us, I’m not going to accept the outcome of this election if I don’t win. It matters to me what he’s done with the Postal Service to prevent Americans from accessing the ballot box. I see this is the time for choosing, and the choice that unfortunately many in my party, particularly in the party leadership, have made is that they choose Trump. They choose winning an election at all costs over the country and I think, as an American, I should be bigger than that. So, the fact of the matter is they need to explain why they allowed Donald Trump to crap all over their plans to build out the party after they lost the 2012 election. They have to explain why they capitulated on Russia and deficit spending and allowed Donald Trump to put children in cages and they remained silent.”

—Michael Steele, former the first Black chairman of the Republican National Committee, on the party’s capitulation to Donald Trump. [Steele should prepare himself to being labeled “a loser” by the Insulter in Chief.]

“There’s a man that’s an incredible leader, Lou Holtz. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s been a friend of mine.” 

—Donald Trump, announcing that he will award the Medal of Freedom to former football coach Lou Holtz. {Yep, nothing like giving it to the likes of Holtz and Rush Limburger to cheapen the award to the extent that it’s devoid of any honor or significance. After washing out an NFL coach (3-10 record), Holtz had a college coaching record of 249-132, which would be the equivalent of going 7-5 every year. No LSU or Alabama coach would survive such a performance. His bowl record of 12-8 is even worse.]

“[W]e Catholics should remind ourselves that while we may judge the objective moral quality of another’s actions, we must never question the sincerity of another’s faith, which is due to the mysterious working of grace in that person’s heart.”

—Statement by Notre Dame President Rev. John I. Jenkins, on Holtz’s claim that Joe Biden was a “Catholic in name only.” [Maybe Holtz should take a page from Laura Ingraham and just “shut up and coach.” After all, Ingraham is of the mind that athletes have no right to open their mouths about politics and she must surely feel the same way about coaches.]

“Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

—Retired Gen. Jim Mattis, in the wake of The Atlantic magazine’s story about Donald Trump’s refusal to visit a military cemetery in France to honor American soldiers killed in World War I, calling those killed “losers” and “suckers.’

“The phrase: ‘shocking if true’ is getting worn out. Lack of denial from my friends Generals (John) Kelly and Mattis suggest the shock is well placed. [I]f they do have firsthand knowledge of such quotes, will step up and affirm or deny the story.”

—Tweet by retired Navy Adm. James Stavridis, on the possible source of The Atlantic story.

“Who the heck does he think he is?” How would you feel if you had a kid in Afghanistan right now? How would you feel if you lost a son or daughter, husband, wife? How would you feel, for real? But you know in your heart, you know in your gut: It’s deplorable.”

—Joe Biden, on the quotes attributed to Trump in the story.

“It’s a hoax … just like Russia, Russia, Russia,” 

—Trump denial that sounds vaguely familiar.

“I get along with him, but every once in a while, he’ll come up with one that I say, ‘Where did that come from?’ I inherited him. He was here. He was part of this huge piece of machine.”

—Donald Trump, apparently preparing to dump Dr. Anthony Fauci, Aug. 31, 2020. [Oh, like we didn’t see that coming…]

“To the notion that there’s opposition research and that there’s Fauci versus the president couldn’t be further from the truth. Dr. Fauci and the president have always had a very good working relationship.”

—White House Precious Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, July 13, 2020. [From July 13 to Aug. 31 – 49 days. Even money says Fauci will be gone before election day.]

Day 4 or our September fundraiser and we’re nowhere near our goal of $5,000 to keep solid investigative reporting going until April, the date of our next scheduled fundraiser.

I know times are tough. Most of us know someone who has contracted he coronavirus even as our president continues to proclaim it a hoax. Some of us know someone who had died from the virus. Others have lost jobs and health insurance. Businesses have closed, unemployment numbers have surged.

I am specifically asking those who have suffered financial hardships to disregard the fundraiser. You have other priorities and those should be addressed before you consider supporting a blog.

But for those of you who have the financial resources, I humbly ask that you contribute what you can so that we continue to travel the state and to meet our own expenses which from time to time, involve legal costs as we are forced to go to court to pry public records from reluctant public officials.

To pay by credit card, click on the yellow DONATE button in the column to the right of this post. It looks like this but the one I’ve posted here doesn’t work; you have to go to the column on the right and click on that one. If you prefer to pay by check, our mailing address is:

LouisianaVoice

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We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, so your contributions are fully tax-deductible. Also, those giving $100 or more will receive a signed copy of my latest book, Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption.

As always, your generosity is greatly appreciated.

Tom Aswell

60 Days

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers. Who were the good guys in this war?”

—Donald Trump, in 2018, rejecting the idea of a visit to Aisne-Marne American Cemetery where more than 1,800 Marines who lost their lives while stopping the German advance toward Paris at Belleau Wood in 1918 are buried. [If Trump’s attacks on John McCain, who spent more than five years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, his ridiculing the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain who was killed in Iraq in 2004, or his insistence that wounded veterans be barred from military parades because “Nobody wants to see that (amputees),” fails to temper your enthusiasm for Trump, I don’t expect this will because you are either complicit in his contempt for this country or you’re too stupid to understand the significance of the above quote from The Atlantic magazine on Sept. 3, 2020.]

“I think there are some situations where statistics would suggest that they are treated differently, but I don’t think that that’s necessarily racism.”

—Attorney General William Barr, in interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Wednesday. [Words fail me.]

“Kim Jong-un hit on you!” He did! He f**king hit on you! Well, Sarah, that settles it. You’re going to North Korea and taking one for the team! Your husband and kids will miss you, but you’ll be a hero to your country!”

—Sarah Huckabee Sanders in yet another (yawn) Trump book. [It’s difficult to feel sorry for Sanders after her countless lies on behalf of such a crude man. And now that’s she’s trying to capitalize on her tenure, it’s even harder. She stayed on long after her shelf life had expired.]

“In my view the American voter needs to know as much about this as can be revealed. They need to know if someone is attempting to influence their vote or manipulate them.”

—John McLaughlin, former deputy CIA director, on the decision by John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, that he would no longer provide in-person briefings on election security.

“So, send it in early and then go and vote. You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot . . . you send it in, but I’d check it, follow it and go vote.”

—Donald Trump, urging voters in North Carolina to test his theory that vote-by-mail is fraught with fraud. [In other words, vote early and often.]

“It is imperative that the Federal Government review the use of Federal funds by jurisdictions that permit anarchy, violence, and destruction in America’s cities.”

—Donald Trump, ordering an investigation into the possibility of withholding federal funding where violence is permitted. [Of course, that would have to include the entire district of U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, who has certainly promoted violence on Facebook.]

Interview that went awry:

Laura Ingraham: “Let’s say for the sake of argument you have a deficit among female voters who may be in some cases, you’re too aggressive, your tone or your tweets. What do you say to them directly about what you’ll do in a second term?

Donald Trump: “Okay. I have to be aggressive, because I’m like standing here in a sea of incompetent people, stupid people, and violent people — very violent people.”

Ingraham: “But that’s the kind of language, stupid people, a lot of women don’t like that.”

Trump: “Well, where are we? We’re in the White House I see,” he said. “See? Okay.”

[And Trump claims Biden has dementia.]