Louisiana Voice

“For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America. Clearly, we’ve seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”

–Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who, it should be remembered, was nearly killed by a lunatic gunman and was saved, ironically, by a black lesbian EMT. Yet, Scalise never condemned gun violence or altered his stance on gay rights.)

“Joe Biden sent the orders. The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.”

–US Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia (the same one who loves to post controversial messages on X.)

“Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”                                                       

US Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, Trump’s pick as his vice-presidential running mate.

“American Patriots are united behind President Trump. The left will not stop MAGA Nation.”

–US Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), apparently of the opinion that patriots and “the left” are mutually exclusive. But then, Higgins is an idiot.

“I mean, when you turn on a late-night show and it’s no longer comedy, it’s a constant 10-minute barrage against a single person. Comparisons with Hitler. That kind of stuff. That needs to stop, too.”

–Scalise again (grab your airsick bags).

Scalise also said there needs to be a “dialing down” of personal attacks.

Oh, really? Let’s turn the clock back to Aug. 9, 2016:

“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment. If she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment, people, maybe there IS, I don’t know.

–None other than candidate Donald J. Trump himself.

And here’s Trump again back on Feb. 1, 2016, when he told rally participants to “beat the hell out of” protesters, and said he’d like to “punch [a protester] in the face,”

Oh, and here’s good ol’ boy Clay Higgins again in 2017, discussing protestors:

“Hunt them, identity them, and kill them. Kill them all. For the sake of all that is good and righteous. Kill them all.”

Here he is again, in a letter to a judge asking for leniency for Jan. 6 rioter Ryan Nichols who was videotaped prior to the attack on the Capitol as saying, “It’s going to be violent and yes, if you are asking, ‘Is Ryan Nichols going to bring violence? Yes, Ryan Nichols is going to bring violence.’”

Higgins wrote to the judge, “I submit to you this letter in support of Ryan Taylor Nichols. He is a man of good character, faith, and core principles.”

Keep in mind, that Higgins loves to tout his experience as a former St. Landry Parish sheriff’s deputy.

And finally, this from Reuters:

“Before the shooting, Trump had not ruled out the possibility of political violence if he loses November’s election. ‘If we don’t win, you know, it depends,’ he said when asked by TIME magazine in April if he expected violence after the 2024 election. He’s also refused to unconditionally accept the results of the upcoming election and warned of a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses.

So, just who is actually guilty of dangerous political rhetoric here? For Scalise, Trump, Higgins, Collins, J.D. Vance or anyone else to have the cajones to invoke the word “violence” or harmful “rhetoric” at this juncture is sheer hypocrisy bordering on psychosis.

Now I’m going to stretch a theory to its breaking point. It’s no big secret that evangelicals form the core of Trump’s support. But let’s examine the practices of some of those evangelicals who call themselves fundamentalists. I warn you, what follows is quite distasteful, but factual.

There are hundreds of homes for troubled youth being run throughout this country by fundamentalists whose version of discipline can only be described as medieval, nothing short of sociopathic torture – and I suggest that these people are among the most ardent Trump supporters.

One of those homes was in Bienville Parish in north Louisiana until it was closed down but the stories coming out of it and other homes like it are sickeningly similar.

In the girls’ homes, the girls, ranging in age from 10 to 18, were/are given two squares of toilet paper for urination and four squares for bowel movements and for their periods. Bathroom tissue was never flushed but discarded in an unlined, unsanitary, malodorous tin can. Offenses that draw draconian punishment may be for not saying “yes, sir” or “yes, ma’am;” for not looking down or away in the presence of boys (in church, because that’s the only time they were ever in the presence of boys); for not memorizing Bible verses, for smiling or for not smiling enough.

Punishments include locking girls in a tiny room with no bathroom breaks (only a can to go in). Sometimes they were even handcuffed to their beds for days on end while taped sermons of the minister who ran the facility were played 24/7. Girls were forced to scrub the same pot over and over until their hands bled. Other punishments included scrubbing their bodies with lye soap until their skin was raw and bleeding; forcing girls to hold soap in their mouths, or forcing them to eat their own vomit if they threw up during exercise. When put on “silence,” sometimes for as long as a month, they were not allowed to speak to anyone other than supervisors and then only when spoken to first.

And of course, there was the corporal punishment administered with a wooden paddle with holes drilled in it to cut down on wind resistance. One girl reported receiving 147 “licks” to their buttocks, legs, backs and arms – administered at full strength by a supervisor. That’s one hundred forty-seven licks, folks. How could anyone be expected to endure such abuse? Some girls were permanently crippled by the beatings.

And the rapes. Let’s not overlook those. Another girl said she was told to go to the office for her punishment. Fully anticipating licks with the board, she was told to raise her dress. She did so and the supervisor, a man, told her to raise her slip. She complied, whereupon she said he pulled her panties down and raped her from behind.

Yet, these barbarians call themselves men and women of God. The “reverends” cart a few of the girls around to area churches to sing and give testimonials. The church members obediently respond by hitting the floor with their knees while reaching for their wallets and purses. Meanwhile, the girls are sexually abused at will by their chaperones.

These people, these so-called Christians represent an admittedly small but vocal and influential sampling of the evangelical mindset: they do not think for themselves; they just yell and shout their zealous devotion and send money – to the preacher or the prophet (more accurately spelled profit) without an independent thought of the consequences.

Sound familiar?

(Editor’s note: These conditions described are not fiction. There have even been recorded deaths of children in these homes or ranches. That’s why I am in the process of writing a book about the physical, mental and sexual abuse of children by administrators and members of the Protestant and Catholic clergy.)

Tracy Hebert just wants to know exactly what happened on Prien Lake that fateful day. After all, it’s been 19 years since her son was killed in a boating accident there.

Questions also remain unanswered as to why then-Sheriff Tony Mancuso told Mrs. Hebert that the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) worked the accident and the sheriff’s office was not at the scene when two separate documents obtained by LouisianaVoice clearly indicate that “several Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Marine units [were] on the scene as well”?

And why did toxicology results reported on July 14 on the victim, 20-year-old Derek Hebert, show traces of cocaine in his system but results on the operator of one of the boats, the son of a prominent Calcasieu Parish attorney who at the time was involved in a campaign for district attorney, were never revealed?

Allie Torres still wonders why officials attempted to place her ex-husband as the driver of one of the boats involved in the accident on May 7, 2005, when he wasn’t even there and was later shot dead by sheriff’s deputies.

Derek Hebert was killed when two boats collided, throwing him into the water where officials said he was struck by a boat propeller. He was with a group of young people who were preparing to celebrate the annual Contraband Days Festival in Lake Charles.

While all the questions deserve answers that have never been forthcoming, the last one is perhaps the most curious of all.

Why would officials place Michael Torres at the scene when his then-wife continues to insist that he was not at the lake, but at his mother’s home at the time? And why did Dan Vamvoras text Allie Torres after the accident to say that he wanted to see that Michael was “taken care of.” He sent several texts, she said, but she did not reply.

Dan Vamvoras was operating one of the boats and his father is Glen Vamvoras, the owner of the boat. The elder Vamvoras was in the middle of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign for election as district attorney for the 14^th Judicial District when Hebert was killed.

Why Torres agreed to admit to being the driver of one of the boats remains a mystery but later, when he was later arrested for DUI, he called upon Glen Vamvoras to make the charges go away, telling Vamvoras, “I committed perjury for you. You owe me,” Allie Torres said.

By June 2020, Michael and Allie Torres were no longer married. On June 20, he appeared at their former home intoxicated and she called the sheriff’s office. Deputies responded, there was a confrontation and deputies shot Michael Torres.

Mrs. Hebert said she attempted to no avail to obtain a copy of the accident report. She said one LDWF agent who was at the scene told her he had never seen such negligence as he did that day.

Moreover, she said she later received an anonymous envelope with 148 photographs, photos she said she’d previously been denied, which she claims “clearly determines he was not struck by a propeller.”

Strangest of all was the settlement Mrs. Hebert received. “My lawyer told me [the settlement] was our only option,” she wrote in an email. “He said that both boats hit my son and we don’t know which one killed him, so we couldn’t hold anybody accountable.”

A retired attorney told LouisianaVoice, “If the attorney advised plaintiff did not have a case because two boats hit at the same time, then he is an idiot. It’s the finder of facts (a jury, if there is one) job to assign percentage of blame to everyone involved. If it’s a tangled mess that has not clear facts, it’s the attorney’s job to come up with a narrative to convince the finder of fact.”

This is an appeal for a different type of contribution.

I am in the process of gathering information for a book and I need input from anyone who may have experience in or knowledge about the subject matter.

The book will be about child trafficking, particularly as it pertains to both private and church-affiliated homes for troubled youth where hundreds of cases of psychological, physical and sexual abuse have already been documented and in some cases, perpetrators prosecuted.

I also will examine the many cases of sexual abuse by members of both Protestant and Catholic clergy.

I would like to communicate directly with anyone who has personal knowledge of any of these abuses. I particularly want to interview victims but I will also welcome input from those who once worked at these facilities.

This book will be a historical novel, meaning it will be a fictional work but will cite actual events – and in some cases, real names. It is not my intent to embarrass any survivors of abuse, so any victim who comes forward will have the option of remaining anonymous if they so choose.

You may contact me by posting a comment to this post or by emailing me at louisianavoice@outlook.com

I look forward to hearing from you.

As much as we’d like to, we should forget about Donald Trump and his asinine pronouncements and promises and Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance.

As bad as both are and were, they are merely distractions from a much, much larger threat to our democratic way of life.

The U.S. Supreme Court is completely out of control and a legitimate threat, wreaking havoc at every turn of our legal system. Basically, the court is six destructionists run amok. In no sequential order, we have:

The 6-3 decision striking down the so-called CHEVRON DOCTRINE, gutting the power of federal agencies to interpret laws that they administer – a clear victory for corporate polluters.

Veterans? Who cares? Used up in fighting America’s seemingly endless wars and conflicts all over the globe, they’re quickly forgotten and ignored when they return home suffering the mental and physical scars of battle. Many end up homeless, the throwaways of a callous, forgetful and unfeeling bureaucracy.

In its GRANTS PASS DECISION, the court upheld the Oregon city’s ban on allowing homeless to sleep on city sidewalks. The cruelest joke of all was that the city has subjected homeless persons to fines of up to $1,250 if found guilt to criminal trespass charges.

There’s no question that something should be done to address the problem of people having to live on the streets, but an impossible-to-collect $1,250 fine assessed against already indigent people? Seriously? With the skyrocketing cost of housing, fed by corporate buyouts of residential homes for investment purposes, more and more Americans are facing the prospect of being thrown to the curb. City fathers would do well to think through the consequences of such laws.

The court also ruled that PUBLIC BRIBERY is, in effect, now legal. Of course, with the earlier rulings on Buckley v. Valeo that abolished limits on the amount of money individuals could spend to benefit politicians, and the 2009 infamous Citizens United decision that corporations are, in effect, people, it has been long-established that money – not principals, not public service and certainly not common sense – now is the grease that turns the political wheels.

Perhaps the late Sen. Russell Long said it best: “Almost a hairline’s difference separates bribes and contributions.”

And how about the SCOTUS ruling to THROW OUT CHARGES against a Pennsylvania police officer who was among the horde that invaded – yes, invaded; we all watched it live on TV – on Jan. 6, 2021?

That decision could well affect charges against more than 300 other Jan. 6 defendants who were among those who were hell-bent on literally overthrowing the U.S. government. That’s not an exaggeration. Had those crazed, frothing-at-the-mouth animals succeeded, any number of sitting members of Congress could well have been murdered that day, including the vice-president of the United States. Scoff if you will, that is the stark realism of what occurred that day.

Finally, we have yesterday’s ruling that the Huffpost says gives Biden the legal authority to have Trump ASSASSINATED. The decision granting Trump immunity prompted THE TIMES OF ISRAELto proclaim in response to the ruling, “The President is now a king.”

As one who has lived through the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the last catastrophe I would wish inflicted upon this already traumatized nation is to go through another of those.

Of course, Huffpost was being facetious. Anyone with half a brain would know that but the point is well-taken. Let’s carry it a bit further.

The court’s interpretation of executive immunity must now, if applied across-the-board, as it must be, filter all the way down to the mayor of the smallest of villages. So long as any otherwise criminal action is taken in conjunction with his or her official duties, no criminal prosecution may take place.

Extreme? You bet your britches it is. But realistically, that’s precisely what the court has now decreed.

Your senator or congressperson, your governor, your attorney general, your insurance or agriculture commissioner, your legislator, any bureaucrat at any level of government and as earlier noted, your mayor – they’re all now given carte blanche to take bribes or to commit virtually any crime so long as they’re doing the deed as part of their official duties. Sexual assault on a legislative or administrative aide? Well, was the legislator/public servant considering some bill or contract at the time? Okay, then, no problem. Fleeing the scene after running over and maiming or fatally injuring a pedestrian? Was he on his way to cast an important vote or trying to get to a committee meeting? Sorry, he’s immune.

You get the drift. We are going to see more and more office holders coming up with that legal defense to avoid prosecution for just about anything we can imagine.

It sets up the inevitable addendum “Do you have any idea what I’m doing?” to the tried and true “Do you know who I am?”

With this opinion in hand, maybe President Biden should issue full pardons for former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who was railroaded by President George W. Bush and Repugnantcan operative Karl Rove.

For the rest of us, though…We’re still the peons and subject to strictest interpretations of the law – and don’t you ever forget it.