Louisiana Voice

It’s as if there is some kind of mad competition to see who can sacrifice principles the fastest, to be the most subservient to Col. Bonespurs

From Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy to House Speaker Mike Johnson to Clay Higgins and Steve Scalise to Jeff Landry to President William Tate and the SLU Bored of Stupidvisors, the competition to curry favor with a man who has no conscience, no moral compass, no compassion for anyone or anything, is white-hot (with a growing emphasis on the word “white,” if you catch my drift).

ABC News capitulated on Trump’s lawsuit against the network, settling out of court when a news organization with any self-respect left would have fought the frivolous lawsuit to the bitter end. Same with Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta also settled another lawsuit with trump for $25 million and CNN meekly shoved Jim Acosta out the door.

So, thanks to Cassidy, who is more afraid of losing his job than his dignity, we’re probably going to get a certified worm-brained, whale-chopping conspiracist for Secretary of Health – a man who knows absolutely zilch about health care.

And though he’s been relatively quiet as of late – a trait he rarely exemplifies – John Kennedy long ago tossed any hint of self-respect to the curb in favor of guaranteeing himself a job in America’s most exclusive club by consistently kissing the emperor’s ring, the best interests of his constituents back in Louisiana be damned.

And now State Treasurer John Fleming, the good doctor/UPS store/Subway sandwich shop/payday loan entrepreneur and erstwhile U.S. Representative from Minden has voiced his intentions to run against Cassidy next year. I guess Cassidy’s vote of approval of Robert F. Kennedy for Secretary of Health just wasn’t quite enough to overcome his vote in favor of conviction in the ol’ Trumper’s second impeachment trial.

It’s bad enough that Fleming pulled down more than $5 million in 2008, the year he was first elected, but he did so while refusing to contribute to the health care of most of his 500 employees. The precious few who did qualify were forced to pay a $3,300 deductible.

Fleming was critical of LouisianaVoice about a decade ago for what he perceived as our position of favoring “redistribution of wealth.” We responded that the only “redistribution of wealth” we were able to document was the upward flow of wealth to Wall Street, pharmaceutical companies and big oil and gas. It was at that point that Fleming did what he does best: he blocked us from further correspondence on Facebook. So much for public discourse and accountability to the electorate.

We also wrote about his payday loan company. Payday loan companies, which, by the way, our wonderful legislature has refused to rein in, feed on low-income, unsophisticated citizens by charging impossibly high interest rates that only perpetuate the problem of recurring, increasingly high debt for those struggling to survive. (That same legislature has exacerbated the problem by repeatedly refusing to increase the minimum wage in Louisiana.)

When I wrote about his payday loan operations and his refusal to provide decent health insurance for his employees, his public relations flak at the time demanded a retraction to the part about his payday loan company which the mouthpiece said was a corporation set up solely for Fleming’s employees (read: their pay was so abysmal that they were forced to borrow money from the boss at obscenely high interest rates). We responded at the time that we would be happy to print a retraction if (a) he could prove the story was untrue and (b) he would reveal to us how many medical malpractice lawsuits had been filed against Fleming’s medical practice.

I never heard from him again.

So now, LSU, most likely at the behest of Landry, has sent two professors at the Ole War Skule’s law school packing because they supposedly said nasty things about Trump and Landry. (Criticism and insults seem to be a one-way street in that respect.)

And LSU President William Tate, at $750,000 per year (with incentives that could double that number) ain’t about to step in to defend the First Amendment on behalf of his professors. No Siree, they’re on their own. I got mine, too bad about yours.

A state district judge did, however, intervene and ordered law professor Ken Levy reinstated but the First Circuit Court of Appeal reversed that on technical grounds which of course means the lawyers on each side will continue to rake in fees as the dispute winds its way up the food chain to the Louisiana State Supreme Court.

All things considered, the political scene in Louisiana today so far outstrips the shenanigans of previous administrations as to make Huey, Earl and Edwin look like reformers.

With the clown car we have running around this state, why do we even need a Super Bowl for entertainment?

For years, the Archdiocese of New Orleans turned a blind eye to the sexual abuse of some 550 children by Catholic priests and now the archdiocese and its leader, Archbishop Gregory Aymond appear to wants to victimize 400,000 hungry and needy residents in 23 Louisiana parishes.

About the same time that the controversy was erupting over the fate of the CEO and three board members of Second Harvest Food Bank, enterprising reporters from New Orleans broke a separate story about how the New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans became embroiled in apparent attempts to edit a list of priests credibly accused of abuse.

In an abrupt purge, Aymond last week fired the longtime head of Second Harvest Food Bank and three members of the organization’s board of directors – all because Second Harvest CEO Natalie Jayroe refused to pony up as much as $16 million toward the settlement of the class-action sex abuse lawsuit against the archdiocese on behalf of those victims.

The fly in the ointment is a provision is the agreement with national partners like Feeding America. Feeding America and similar organizations provide much of the funding for Second Harvest and their agreements specifically prohibit their grants from being used for anything other than addressing hunger – certainly not to held settle a massive lawsuit to which Second Harvest is not a party.

Aymond seems bent on avoiding the sell-off of any church property in attempts to wiggle out of the litigation. He once assured affiliates that apostolates (individual Catholic churches, schools and ministries within the archdiocese) that they would not be imposed upon to contribute any funds toward settlements. That quickly changed when Aymond dropped a letter on the apostolates that informed them that they would have to bear some of the cost for the priests’ sins.

Obviously, absent a fire sale of assets, that wasn’t enough and Aymond then attempted to dip into the charitable funds of Second Harvest and Second Harvest said nope. Aymond then axed Jayroe and board members Chairman Bert Wilson, Vice-Chairman Kristen Albertson and Past Chair Nick Karl.

Wilson didn’t take the move lying down. He issued a press release that called out Aymond for “months of increasingly aggressive pressure” on Second Harvest to kick in as much as $16 million towards settlement. He said that Jayroe flat-out refused to redirect donor funds intended for the sole purpose of helping to alleviate hunger in south Louisiana.

Aymond’s action was such an affront to decency and tactfulness that several major donors to Second Harvest opened expressed their disgust and one, a well-known attorney, even hinted at seeking a refund of his million-dollar donation.

Morris Bart gave the million dollars in 2022 and Second Harvest’s board promptly named its new volunteer center for Bart and his wife, Cathy Kanter Bart. Mrs. Bart, incidentally, formerly served on the Second Harvest board.

But now, Bart has retained an attorney to explore avenues to get his donation refunded should the church use any of his donation toward settling the sex abuse claims.

The litigation against the Archdiocese of New Orleans over sex abuse by its priests has been ongoing for five years and to date, the only ones to see a dime are defense attorneys, experts and other professionals – all while the victims wait…and wait.

The archdiocese owns about a billion dollars in property, stocks, precious metal and other items that it wants desperately to hang onto, even if it means raiding the food pantry of south Louisiana’s indigent.

It just seems that an organization like the Archdiocese of New Orleans, as the local face of the Roman Catholic Church, would take a step back and think about the Christianity that it professes to adhere to and act, for once, in the best interest of those who have been harmed by that very organization.

At any given time, between 2 percent and 10 percent of convicted persons in U.S. prisons are innocent. With 2.3 million people incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons and jails, that means that anywhere from 46,000 and 230,000 who were wrongfully convicted.

Louisiana, which is in head-to-head competition with Oklahoma for the highest incarceration rate in the civilized world, presently has 58,000 persons in prisons and jails. That means that between 1200 and 5800 could have been wrongfully convicted.

I have just published my 10^th book, 101 Wrongful Convictions in Louisiana that examines how 101 persons got convicted of crimes they did not commit. The costs of these wrongful convictions ae incalculable not only in terms of the hundreds of years in cumulative time spent behind bars unjustly and the shattered lives and families, but the astronomical financial cost, as well.

The 101 wrongfully convicted individuals profiled in this book received more than $60 million in compensation for sloppy prosecutorial work, shoddy police investigations, mistaken eyewitness identification, uncaring judges and junk science that resulted in their convictions. And that doesn’t even count the cost of housing, feeding and caring for the prisoners, the salaries paid cops and prosecutors for inadequate investigative and prosecutorial work, or the cost of trials to put them away. Add to all that the fact that when the wrong person is convicted, that means the state has spent hundreds of millions of dollars for “justice” but the real perpetrator is still out there.

The book sells for $25.00, including shipping. To order your copy, click HERE to pay by credit card. You will see a message that you’re making a donation to LouisianaVoice. That’s because this is a link to LouisianaVoice. DO NOT, however, check the square indicating a monthly donation; that’s for our regular donors. If you prefer, you may just send a check for $25.00 to me, Tom Aswell, 107 North College West, Denham Springs, LA. 70726.

Be sure to include your full name and mailing address so that I may send you the book.

The Sundance Film Festival kicked off last Thursday in Park City, Utah, and will run through Sunday.

Why is this of interest to LouisianaVoice?

Well because this year there is a documentary that features Livingston Parish school librarian Amanda Jones and her ongoing fight with those who would censor reading material available from public libraries.

Those who would swoop into a community like the Lafayette organization that calls itself Citizens for a New Louisiana are not locals but they are insisting on dictating that you can read. Of course, they don’t call it censorship. But neither did they in Texas where a state representative has submitted a list of more than 800 books he wants banned.

But back to Sundance.

Sarah Jessica Parker is the executive producer of a documentary premiered at Sundance that examines efforts to censor libraries – not just in Livingston Parish, but in other areas as well.

Parker recently sat down with several local librarians, including Jones, to discuss the efforts by those who would ban books. To watch the video of their conference, click HERE, HERE  and HERE.

Don’t ever say you weren’t warned. You were. Over and over and over…

You were told that Donald Trump was a shyster, a con-man, a grifter, a buffoon, a clown…well, everything but a statesman. That, he is not.

Today (Jan. 28) der Führer ordered a freeze on all federal grants and loans (an order that was promptly shot down by U.S. District Judge Loren Alikhan, at least until Feb. 3) without so much as a thought about the ramifications of such a move.

Just like the manner in which he issued blanket pardons to even those who assaulted police officers on Jan. 6, he opted out of doing actual work that would entail making surgical cuts of wasteful expenses and instead, just said, “Hell, cut everything.”

That’s also the way in which he offered a buyout of all federal employees, never mind the inconvenient fact that many of those are responsible for collecting taxes and even more bear the responsibility of sending out Medicare, Social Security payments and tax returns for tens of millions of Americans.

But here’s the hidden kicker.

If der Führer le Orange is ultimately successful in stopping federal grants and loans, the repercussions will be widespread and will affect every single living American – including the “poorly educated” MagHats whom he professes to love.

But you were warned.

He fired inspectors general across the board so now there’s no one to keep tabs on the Gang of Idiots he’s appointed to head various departments and agencies. No guardrails to keep these clowns from taking bureaucratic action to enrich themselves – and they most assuredly will.

Cutting off federal grants and loans will adversely affect every victim of floods, earthquakes, fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, train derailments, major industrial accidents and any other natural disaster you can imagine. Remember the flood of 2016? Lots of folks didn’t carry flood insurance. Had it not been for the Small Business Administration and its 1-pecent home loans to rebuild, there would be a lot more homeless in South Louisiana today. Were it not for FEMA, even with all its warts, a lot of hurricane victims in North Carolina, Louisiana, Florida and Texas would be in much worse shape.

Those are the most obvious effects but let’s dive a little deeper.

The federal government invests $149 billion per year in America’s colleges and universities, of which $41 billion is in the form of grants which constitute a form of financial assistance to individuals or organizations to fund RESEARCH AND PROJECTS. Another 65 percent of that $149 billion, or $97 billion, goes to student aid, including scholarships, work-study and student loans.

Now we already know about the skyrocketing costs of higher education, thanks in no small part to Bobby Jindal’s repeated cuts to higher ed budgets. But, unfortunately, that’s the story everywhere. So, with ever higher tuition now comes the very real threat of the elimination of the one lifeline that lower- and middle-income students could grasp: student loans and scholarships.

Take that away, and overnight the dream of a college education vanishes for a large segment of American society. And I’m not just talking about minorities, though they would be among the hardest hit; it also affects the kids of Joe the plumber and Sam the electrician who were counting on that scholarship or that student loan.

Suddenly we will have an exclusive higher education system available only to the elite, which is quite possibly exactly what the Repugnantcans want.

And the most tragic part? It was all spelled out in Project 2025 for us to see.

All these things occurred in just his first week back in office. Imagine what’s in store for the remaining 207 weeks.

I’ll even go out on a limb and make a new prognostication: All these marks (that’s what they call the targets of con-men) will rush to invest in Le Orange Trumpo’s magic cryptocurrency only to one day see it collapse under its own corrupt weight. People will end up destitute, losing every possession because they sunk their hopes in a snake oil salesman but the snake oil salesman will walk away a richer man, having bamboozled the faithful yet again. Can you say Enron?

And now you’ve been warned.