Louisiana Voice

“The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop. President Obama did not have the power to unilaterally rewrite immigration law with DACA, and President Trump does not have the power to unilaterally rewrite the payroll tax law.“

–Nebraska Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, in criticizing Donald Trump’s executive orders Saturday that extend unemployment benefits, suspend payroll taxes, and offer federal eviction and student loan relief.

“Our Constitution doesn’t authorize the president to act as king whenever Congress doesn’t legislate.”

–Libertarian Rep. Justin Amash of Michigan, on Trump’s executive orders.

“He is laying out his roadmap to cutting Social Security. Our seniors and millions of Americans with disabilities are under enough stress without Trump putting their hard-earned Social Security benefits in doubt.”

–Joe Biden, warning that Trump’s executive order cutting payroll taxes is “a reckless war on Social Security.” [Just as his gutting the USPS budget, the deployment of federal troops into Democratic-run cities, and his suggestion that the election be delayed were attempts to undermine the electoral process, so too is his payroll tax cut aimed at doing precisely what he has hinted at for four years: destroying Social Security and Medicare.

“The American people desperately need relief. Instead, the president decided to defund Social Security and Medicare.”

–Rep. Val Demings (D-Florida), on Trump’s executive order.

“This is all a stunt—cutting unemployment benefits and threatening Social Security and Medicare only deepen the pain people are feeling.”

–Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), on Trump’s executive order. [As I have always said about politicians of all stripes: Don’t listen to what they say: listen to what they don’t say and watch what they do. Okay, I know that’s not particularly profound, but it’s good advice nonetheless.]

“I just think there’s a code that leaders have to live by, especially when you’re leading the largest Christian evangelical university in the country.” 

–Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.), in calling for the resignation of Jerry Falwell, Jr. as president of Liberty University after photos were posted by Falwell on Twitter showing him and a female companion with pants unzipped and bellies showing. [Not to offer any sympathy for Falwell (who has taken indefinite leave from the university), but isn’t it ironic that these are the same Republicans who unconditionally support another president who likes to grab women by their p***y? Boys and girls, can you say “double standard?” Can you say “hypocrite?”]

“They heard you were coming up, and they know the news is fake. They know that better than anybody.”

–Donald Trump, explaining that a crowd at his press conference at his New Jersey club was a “peaceful protest” of the media and thus exempt from wearing masks. [The nation is in the grips of a pandemic, an economic recession brought about by widespread unemployment, schools are afraid to reopen and people are being evicted from their homes. Yet, Trump must make everything about him.]

“[W]e have plenty of (Latino) janitors who are paid to do it for us.”

Trump white supremacist adviser Stephen Miller, speaking to his high school assembly while a student in California, on why students should not be expected to pick up after themselves. [From Jean Guerrero’s book Hate Monger, about Miller.]

“Anything that’s going on social media that’s negative or alike without permission, photography, that’s video or anything, there will be consequences.”

–Principal Gabe Carmona, in an announcement to students of North Paulding High School (Georgia) after suspending two students for sharing photos of a school hallway packed with maskless students. [You can fill that under “What the hell was he thinking?” The students were reinstated after only one day because of public reaction.]

“Under that law, the officer who transformed a short traffic stop into an almost two-hour, life-altering ordeal is entitled to qualified immunity. But let us not be fooled by legal jargon. Immunity is not exoneration. And the harm in this case to one man sheds light on the harm done to the nation by this manufactured doctrine. Just as the Supreme Court swept away the doctrine of ‘separate but equal,’ so too should it eliminate the doctrine of qualified immunity,”

–U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves, in dismissing the lawsuit of a Black man detained for nearly two hours while his Mercedes was torn apart by a White Mississippi police officer who subsequently found nothing in his vehicle. [Driving black in a white Mercedes in Mississippi….Damn, man, what were you thinking?!]

“This man’s life sentence for a failed attempt to steal a set of hedge clippers is grossly out of proportion to the crime and serves no legitimate penal purpose.”

— Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, in her dissent after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied a request to review the case of a Black man who received a life sentence for stealing a set of hedge clippers 23 years ago. [Meanwhile, Clay Higgins is allowed to fall behind in his child support payments by $100,000 – and he’s elected to congress. A former Louisiana State Penitentiary official was sentenced to five years’ probation in 2017 for stealing nearly $116,000 from a nonprofit committee that provided recreational opportunities for prison employees. A former state senator received four years’ probation earlier this year for making false statements in order to receive money from the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. What’s wrong with this picture? (Of course, Gov. Edwards could do the right thing and commute this man’s sentence.)]

“Women are raped at levels that have never been seen before”

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.

And yesterday, it came out where, this journey coming up, women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before. They don’t want to mention that.

— Donald Trump (at different times), expressing his deep and abiding concern for all the women in the US raped by Latinos entering the US illegally.

“They are dying, that’s true. And it is what it is.”

–Donald Trump, expressing his deep and abiding concern for the current death rate of more than 1,000 Americans per day from COVID-19 in an interview with Axios reporter Jonathan Swan, Aug. 4, 2020.

Well, at first Trump’s minions were gonna ask him to discuss Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. But they figured that might be a tricky one so they went with Yosemite…”

—Alexander Nazaryan, on Quora, in response to Trump’s butchering of the name “Yosemite.” [In case you haven’t heard it, here’s the link:]

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-President-Trump-just-refer-to-Yosemite-as-yo-Semite

“BIG NEWS!! The Political Crime of the Century is unfolding. ObamaBiden illegally spied on the Trump Campaign, both before and after the election. Treason!”

–Donald Trump tweet on Wednesday, Aug. 5. [Someone tell this stupid S.O.B. that 156,000 Americans have died from a coronavirus pandemic that is killing a thousand people per day. Tell him that 32 million people have lost their jobs and that millions are facing eviction from their homes. So, why is he still obsessing about these debunked claims?]

Random

“Wearing a mask is a non-partisan issue. The advice of medical experts shouldn’t be politicized. My father ignored medical expertise and now he has COVID. “lease listen to medical experts. It’s not worth following a president who has no remorse for leading his followers to an early grave.”

–Caroline Brooks, daughter of Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Texas), who caught the coronavirus after refusing to wear a mask until he had already caught the virus..

“I can’t help but wonder if by keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, if I might have put some … of the virus on the mask and breathed it in. … But the reports of my demise are very premature. If somebody feels strongly about everybody should wear a mask, then they shouldn’t be around people that don’t wear masks.”

Rep. Louis Gohmert, refusing to admit his stupidity, claiming he caught the virus from his mask. [You freaking idiot, it’s pretty difficult to avoid all those with oatmeal for brains out there walking around without masks. Read the comments below to understand how difficult it is to avoid the maskless morons.]

“There is a general fear that saying anything critical of the current office policy — or lack of policy — will lead to retaliation. Our office has been required to be fully staffed since session resumed at the end of June (including an intern). While mask use isn’t banned, it’s also not encouraged, and has been derided on several occasions by the [chief of staff] and the member.”

—Comments by congressional aides following Rep. Louie Gohmert’s testing positive for coronavirus, which he claims he contracted from his mask. [And headline-hungry preachers and belligerent barbecue joints take their cues from idiots like Clay Higgins and Gohmert.]

“It never was about safety. It was about taking away our freedoms.”

—Prophet (or should that be Profit?) Tony Spell on the mandate to wear masks to inhibit the spread of a virus that has killed almost 155,000 Americans, some of whom were probably subscribed to such nonsense as Spell’s claim that requiring masks is “tyrannical.” [Perhaps its worth noting that in 2011, only 30 percent of white evangelicals thought an elected official who committed an immoral act in their personal life could behave ethically but by 2016, when Trump ran for president, that number had increased to 73 percent. Apparently, it was “never about” morality. It was about political expedience and convenience.]