Louisiana Voice

“I haven’t been dealing with him for a very long period of time. I don’t like that project. I thought it was being done for showboating reasons.”

—Donald Trump, disavowing (Mission Impossible-style) any connection to the private funding project run by former adviser Steve Bannon and claiming (Donald Trump-style) that he hardly knows has had little contact with Bannon.

“[P]rivate enterprise at its finest. Doing it better, faster, cheaper than anything else,”

—Donald Trump, Jr., speaking at a symposium hosted by the group in New Mexico in 2019. [Oops. But like daddy, Donnie will try to weasel his way out of tight spots. Read on.]

“His previous praise of the group was based on what he was led to believe about their supposed intention to help build the wall on the southern border and if he and others were deceived, the group deserves to be held accountable for their actions,”

—Donald Trump, Jr. spokesperson Amanda Miller, in trying to distance Donnie from Bannon’s scheme. [Have you ever seen cockroaches scramble for cover when you turn the lights on in a room?]

“Why in the world would the president not kick Q’anon supporters’ butts? Nut jobs, rascists (sic), haters have no place in either party.”

—Jeb Bush (R-Florida) tweet, Aug. 19, 2020.

“QAnon is a dangerous lunacy that should have no place in American politics.”

—Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), on Thursday. [But don’t you see? They love Trump and that makes them “very fine people,” just like those white supremacists in Charlottesville.]

“You don’t want to live with them either.”

—Donald Trump, in deposition during Justice Department’s 1973 lawsuit against Trump Management Co., alleging racial bias in housing. The lawsuit was later settled by consent decree signed by the Trump Management Co. [But how can that be? Trump’s “the least racist person in the world.” He said so.]

“She was over her head, and frankly she should’ve made the speech live, which she didn’t do,” Trump said during a White House event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage. “She taped it. It was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths. She didn’t even mention the vice-presidential candidate in the speech.”

—Trump, on Michelle Obama’s speech for the Democratic virtual convention. [Rather ironic that Trump would cite “the wrong deaths,” given that they all occurred on his watch.]

“Someone find me Michelle Obama’s VOTE necklace immediately please; I need to wear it every day for the rest of my life.”

—Amanda Litman tweet, Aug. 17, 2020, 9:49 p.m.

“I’ve heard these are people that love our country and they just don’t like seeing it. So I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me and they also would like to see problems in these areas, like especially in the areas that we’re talking about, go away.”

—Donald Trump, on the fringe group QAnon’s support of his presidency after several QAnon supporters won their primary elections for congress.

“Well I haven’t heard that, but is that supposed to be a bad thing or a good thing?”

—Trump, on being told that QAnon’s theory that he is “secretly saving the world from a Satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals” that Democrats are a child-selling cabal, that JFK Jr. faked his death to help Trump (someone please explain that one to me), that school shootings and the 9/11 attacks were all faked (that the victims were actors), and that online retailer Wayfair sells children along with its furniture. [Have we lost all perspective in this country? These people are serious and they’re no longer wearing tin foil hats; they’re running for and winning elective office. Have we gone mad?]

“From the moment President Trump took office, he’s used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, tried to weaponize the Justice Department to attack his enemies and protect his friends.”

—Former acting attorney general Sally Yates, speaking at the virtual Democratic National Convention on Tuesday.

A little change in format today.

There certainly is no shortage of priceless quotes from the most moronic president in the history of this country and I’m building an interesting backlog for inclusion here.

But today, I’m just going to attach a Youtube clip from The Young Turks, a male-female duo who offer a series of frighteningly hilarious observations on Donald Trump.

The essence of this clip is to provide you with a handful of Trump’s most puzzling/amusing/embarrassing utterances in the form of a “contest” to pick the most absurd quote.

To view the clip and to review the seven finalist quotes, go HERE.

(Spoiler alert: My personal favorite is the stealth bomber that you “literally” can’t see.)

Southeast Louisiana Legal Services (SLLS) told online legal news service Louisiana Record this week that it expects a “tsunami” of EVICTIONS around Labor Day.as tenants who have lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are no longer able to pay their rent since the federal CARES Act expired on July 25.

Congress, in it typical way of addressing a crisis head-on, allowed the CARES Act to expire and then they went on summer vacation – vacations their constituents could not afford.

Louisiana landlords have been able to file 30day eviction notices in court to get tenants evicted from rental units, according to Laura Tuggle, executive director of SLLS,

Federal law protected half of Louisiana’s tenants from evictions since the COVID shutdown but with federal protection now lost, eviction notices are on the rise and SLLS has experienced a 300 percent increase in people seeking assistance with evictions. Under Louisiana law, sheriffs can lock tenants out of their apartments or houses within about 40 days of the court filing.

“We’re bracing ourselves for a tidal wave or a tsunami – whatever you want to call it,” Tuggle told LOUISIANA RECORD.

Last week, I was paired with conservative Republican Scott Wilfong on the Jim Engster Show (you can hear the entire show by clicking HERE). (That’s me, arms crossed in the red Hawaiian shirt and “Nope” Trump mask and Wilfong in his tacky “Make America Great” or “Keep America Great” – or maybe it was “Grated” – mask on the left).

Besides minimizing the number of coronavirus deaths by noting that the then-total of some 150,000 was such a small percentage of the population as to be statistically insignificant, Wilfong also appeared amused that at the recent Republican confab Lenar Whitney was elected Louisiana National Committeewoman by a single vote – but that only 140 people participated while 141 votes were cast.

I couldn’t help thinking that had that occurred in a Democratic event, like say, the Iowa Caucus, the Repugnicans would’ve been all over that like white on rice. Oh, wait. They were. But to Mr. Wilfong, it was amusing.

What was not amusing to Wilfong, however (besides his assertion on the show that Hillary Clinton had an ambassador murdered and that that Dr. Anthony Fauci is an atheist – as if that somehow renders his qualifications as an epidemiologist null and void – was the idea of an eviction moratorium for those landlords wanting to kick families to the curb.

His complaints about the inability to evict tenants were restricted to off-microphone conversation but basically, he said he was a landlord himself and the system was patently unfair to him. “I have a mortgage and my banker expects payment,” he said. So, how is it fair to say he can’t evict his tenants when they can’t pay the rent?

As best I understood him, he apparently can’t make his mortgage payments because his tenants lost their jobs, their health insurance and they’re unable to pay their rent, pay utilities or buy food because they have no income.

So, again, as best I can grasp what Scott was trying to say, his problem will be solved if he kicks his tenants out, leaving them homeless.

But wait. Doesn’t he still have an empty apartment/rent house? People aren’t exactly lining up to move in because others out there don’t have jobs or health insurance and they can’t afford food, much less rent, either.

Seems to me he’s only added to the growing homelessness problem.

But that seems to be the Repugnican way.

“We have to win the election. We can’t play games. Go out and vote. Do those beautiful absentee ballots or just make sure your vote gets counted. Make sure, because the only way we are going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”

—Donald Trump, in campaign appearance in Wisconsin on Monday.

“The Postal Service is going to be just fine. We’re going to make sure that the ability to function going into the election is not adversely affected and I don’t share the concerns that the president … has mentioned.”

—Sen. Mitch McConnell, to reporters in Kentucky on Monday. [Easy to see politicians who are in a contested race for reelection.]

“One day in February 2019, when congressional leaders were waiting for an answer from the White House on a pending deal to avoid a second government shutdown, the president demanded a DHS phone briefing to discuss the color of the wall. He was particularly interested in the merits of using spray paint and how the steel structure should be coated. Episodes like this occurred almost weekly. It is more than a little ironic that Trump is campaigning for a second term as a law-and-order president. His first term has been dangerously chaotic. Four more years of this are unthinkable.”

—Miles Taylor, former chief of staff for the Department of Homeland Security (2017-2019), in Washington Post op-ed, Aug. 17, 2020.

“Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can: Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”

—Former First Lady Michelle Obama, speaking at the Democratic virtual convention.

“He has tried to prevent people from voting, undermined the U.S. Postal Service, deployed the military and federal agents against peaceful protestors, threatened to delay the election, and suggested that he will not leave office if he loses. This is not normal, and we must never treat it like it is.

—Sen. Bernie Sanders, on Donald Trump, Aug. 17, 2020.

“You have the most destructive, hateful, racist president in the history of the country who is tearing apart the fabric of the United States.”

—Former congressman Beto O’Rourke, Aug. 17, 2020.

“[H]is only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that he paid with his life.”

—Kristin Urquiza of Arizona, whose Trump-supporting father died of coronavirus, Aug. 17, 2020.

“Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Trump golfs.” 

—Bernie Sanders, Aug. 17, 2020.