Louisiana Voice

I know all the lies, exaggerations, embellishments and misrepresentations by the Lard of Mar-a-Largo all tend to run together, often making it difficult to keep them all straight in your head, but there’s one that really stands out after first hearing him utter it 10 years ago:

“I hire only the best people.”

Wow. Perhaps the biggest whopper of them all and there have been soooo many!

Like when he said he would unveil his healthcare plan to replace Obamacare “in a couple of weeks.”

Or when he promised to release (a) his tax returns and (b) the Epstein files, neither of which has yet occurred.

And of course, he is currently desperately trying to buy time by promising an end to a war he said would only take a “couple of weeks” in the first place. He’s now promising it’ll end “after the elections” in November. That’s a desperate lie in an equally desperate attempt to hold onto his base for another six weeks or so.

But let’s go back to his hiring the “best people,” because that lie is so current even as I write this.

Item: Police investigate deaths of two Ole Miss students – Mississippi Today. Two students the University of Mississippi were found dead in separate incidents on Monday, both of which are believed to be the result of Kratom overdoses.

Item: The Livingston Parish council considering a parish wide ban of Kratom ack in April but decided to wait to see what the legislature did with a similar bill to ban the drug statewide.

Item: The House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice UNANIMOUSLY PUNTED on HB 778 by Rep. Beryl Amedee (R-Houma) which would have done just that.

For those unfamiliar with the plant, indigenous to Southeast Asia, it is a stimulant that has an opioid-like effect and which has been cardiac arrest, liver toxicity and other serious side effects. FDA Cracks Down on Kratom, Issues Warning Over Opioid-Like Substance

Item: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin holds up to a $1 million stake in a kratom company. DHS Secretary Mullin Holds Up to $1M Stake in Kratom Company Botanic Tonics — Kratom News Today.

That’s correct, boys and girls. The U.S. President who has ordered the bombing of fishing boats off the South American coast, killing more than 60 Venezuelan citizens in the name of drug control, has appointed a man who profits off what is perhaps a dangerous drug responsible for the deaths of two students at Ole Miss–a drug which is termed “unsafe and ineffective” by the Mayo Clinic.

Oh, but campers, that’s not all.

We, of course, know about the Epstein files and Trump’s steadfast refusal to discuss them—even to the point of starting a war as a distraction.

Item: But did you know Trump’s chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), one Brendan Carr, was for a decade affiliated with an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) group known as the Midtown group, an organization based in the Washington, DC, area, a cult that a former member called the “EPSTEIN OF AA” for the manner in which the lives of underage girls who went there for treatment of alcohol problems were controlled and abused sexually.

Care is Trump’s hatchet man who has gone after Jimmy Kimmel and who has threatened the broadcast licenses of various TV networks who offend Trump with their news reporting.

But it is his 10-year association with the Midtown group that has some more observant critics buzzing. With all the loud noise over the Epstein files, the Washington AA group has basically flown under the radar and because of that, Carr has received scant attention.

Until now. Admittedly, it took a while. Newsweek, after all, called attention to the group way back in 2007, before Trump as President ever entered the conversation. Critics Say Washington AA Chapter Is Cultlike – Newsweek.

So, does Trump even vet his appointees? It certainly doesn’t appear so. The stories were out there for everyone to see. Trump’s FCC chair spent nearly a decade in group accused of exploiting teen girls.

And did Louisiana’s two senators who consistently have voted to confirm each of Trump’s nominees, no matter how distasteful (see Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy Jr., Kristi Noem, etc.), all of which begs the question of why the hell John N. Kennedy and Bill Cassidy weren’t a little more diligent in doing their homework and standing up as men of principle rather than kissing Trump’s ass?

I’ve seen my share of weak-kneed, milquetoast-willed men serving in elective office but for sheer consistency, I’ve never in my 83 years beheld two cowards of the magnitude of these two men. Neither one has ever—not once—voted no on or objected to any of Trump’s abominable appointments, no matter how crazy (RFK Jr.), corrupt (Noem), dense (Tulsi Gabbard) greedy (Elon Musk), uncaring (ICE Director Tom Homan), just plain stupid (Pete Hegseth), sleazy (Matt Gaetz) or cruel (Stephen Miller).

As far as any realistic evaluation of John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, one can only surmise that theirs is an endorsement of autocracy by collusion. By their unfailing support of his appointments, we can only conclude that they concur in Trump’s assessments of these bottom-feeders as the “best people.” And if Cassidy and John Kennedy are that easily misled, then the only logical conclusion is that by extension, so are those who elected them.

I mean, appoining–and confirming–a man with a $1 million stake in kratom as DHS secretary and an FCC chair who hung out with an Epstein-like manipulator and abuser of underage girls for a full decade? Seriously?

Is this what we’ve come to as a nation?

A Jackson Parish resident has filed multiple complaints with state officials about what he perceives as harassment and other illegal or ethical activities on the part of the Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office.

The state’s response?

His concerns were turned over to “the external auditor for the Jackson Parish Sheriff.”

In other words, the state, rather than initiating its own investigation into the validity of Tommy McDougald’s complaints, has more or less directed the sheriff to investigate himself.

An “external auditor” may either be the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office or a local independent certified public accounting firm as mandated by state law. Local independent CPA firms may serve as an alternative to the state auditor.

In McDougald’s case, he was notified by email on Wednesday (Sept. 23) that his file was being sent to the “external auditor” without specifying if “external” mean a state auditor of an independent CPA but it would seem to imply the latter.

“If the auditor finds any merit to the complaints, there will be a finding in the audit report due to our office December 31, 2026,” the three-sentence email concluded.

McDougald, a resident of the Jackson Parish Town of Chatham, began having problems with the sheriff’s office when two of his pet cats disappeared about the time the sheriff’s office was capturing cats and sending them to unknown locations. He never found his cats but soon after he lodged his first complaints, he said he felt deputies were stalking and surveilling him.

He even provided video evidence of two sheriff’s vehicles parked outside his home but a deputy later explained the office was “investigating” a burglary in McDougald’s neighborhood.

McDougald has also filed complaints about Sheriff Brent Barnett’s illegal use of a departmental vehicle for campaigning for office, of his hiring an executive administrative assistant who is a convicted felon for the theft of public funds while working in nearby Bienville Parish. He also has accused the department of “intentional database manipulation.”