Louisiana Voice

Here’s a real stunner for you:

Louisiana’s two U.S. senators each voted in favor of appointing Markwayne Mullin to be Secretary of Homeland Security to succeed Kristi Noem.

The full Senate voted 55-45 in favor of Diaper Don’s nominee with two Democrats voting in favor and one Republican voting no.

The Dems who supported the appointment were John Fetterman of Pennsylvania (no surprise there) and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, as expected, voted no.

As usual, Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy CHECKED THEIR SPINES AT THE DOOR so that they could continue to serve their lord and master (which, by the way, isn’t the citizens of Louisiana).

One observer noted that replacing Noem with Mullin was “like crapping your pants and changing shirts.”

But the fact is, neither Louisiana senator has showed an ounce of independence by voting against a single one of Trump’s nominees—not even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They continue to align themselves with the bad actors who have followed their deeply-flawed and addled leader into the present crisis of senseless and endless war, inflation and uncertainty.

One would think at some point, one of them would step back and say, “Wait just a doggone minute here. Every one of the appointees we voted to confirm have embarrassed this country in one way or another.” Kristi “Ice Barbie” Noem, Pete Hogsbreath, Pam Bondi, RFK Jr., et al. have given plenty reasons to do just that but to date, nothing seems sufficiently outrageous to cause them to summon the courage needed to stand up to the Clown in Chief..

But no. That would be too much to ask. Kennedy said it best when he said 11 years ago that he’d “rather drink weedkiller” than cross such a fine man as Cankle Ankles.

Cassidy, meanwhile, is increasingly desperate to somehow tie his fortunes to Yam Tits despite Dementia Don’s endorsement of Rep. Julia Letlow.

His licentious obeisance long ago moved past the point of embarrassment.

Diaper Don was correct, it turns out.

All this time, he’s been telling us that mail-in voting is bad for the Repugnantcan Party.

And to prove his point, he voted by mail himself in the congressional race in the Florida House district that encompasses Mar-a-Largo—just to demonstrate what he’s been saying.

Lemme repeat that in case you weren’t paying attention: Donald Trump voted by mail in yesterday’s congressional election.

It is a district ol’ Cankle Ankles won by 17 points in 2024, and in a district won by the Republican candidate by 19 points, Democratic challenger Emily Gregory won yesterday by 2.4 points.

Now, a 2.4 percentage point win may not seem like a mandate but consider this: In Dementia Don’s home district, she pulled off 20-point swing among Yam Tits’s friends and neighbors from two years ago. That is a mandate by all measures.

The results were just the latest in an early series of elections that indicate folks have had quite enough of the Trumpster Dumpster. In fact, it was the 29^th seat (albeit mostly local seats) Democrats have flipped from Repugnantcan control since TACO Don took office.

This was a special election to fill the seat of Repugnantcan Mike Caruso, who, apparently seeing the handwriting on the wall, resigned to become Palm Beach County’s clerk. Maybe he read the tea leaves.

In something of an understatement, Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, said, “If Mar-a-Lago is vulnerable, imagine what’s possible this November.”

Yeah. Just imagine, Louisiana, the state that royaly iffed up.

IF Karen Carter Peterson had not gutted the Louisiana Democratic Party…

IF Louisiana Democrats had dumped her from her chairpersonship earlier and begun rebuilding…

IF Louisiana Democrats had come together to find a strong, appealing candidate to run against Bill Cassidy and the field of Trump sycophant wannabes…

Because, God knows the field of Repugnantcan candidates in the upcoming Senate race makes one wonder, as many of us do every election cycle, is this the best Louisiana has to offer?

IF we only had a real choice…

The TV ad blitz thus far in the U.S. Senate race has come down to two things: which candidate can suck up the most to Donald Trump. One, Rep. Julia Letlow, has Dementia Don’s endorsement while incumbent Bill Cassidy touts his “working with Trump” for the benefit of humanity—but failing to mention the inflation-feeding war with Iran.

The second thing is Cassidy’s political action committee keeps hitting challenger Letlow with all those negative ads about her insider trading, a charge that may or may not have some merit.

Insider trading. It’s an ugly term that implies exactly what one would think it does: Those in key positions, i.e. elected officials, get a heads-up on what the market is going to do and they react accordingly, amassing sudden wealth in the process.

Google any given year and one will find scores, if not hundreds of members of Congress who were confirmed as having used their positions to conduct insider trading. The practice is illegal under federal law and the STOCK Act, but because of loopholes, enforcement is practically non-existent. What Martha Stewart went to prison for is pretty much common practice and business as usual for members of Congress.

It’s an advantage the average person does not have nor will he ever have—and it’s blatantly unfair. These people are elected to represent us, not to smirk at us as they reap a fortune as a result of our putting our trust in them to do the right thing.

Bobby Jindal, for example, entered Congress as a U.S. representative in 2005 as something of an average Joe, financially speaking. Three years later he left Congress to become governor, but with substantially greater wealth, millions, in fact.

Columnist Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College who writes a daily newsletter, today quoted economist Paul Krugman who has called evidence of insider trading by those close to Trump “treason.”

Another online news service, DAILY KOS, also quoted Krugman: “…When officers of a company or people close to them exploit confidential information for personal financial gain, that’s insider trading — which is illegal. But we have another word for situations in which people with access to confidential information regarding national security — such as plans to bomb or not to bomb another country — exploit that information for profit. That word is “treason.”

Apologists for Trump, including some of the LouisianaVoice readers, have been quick to point out that Cankle Ankles takes no salary as president.

But when a series of trades worth about $800 million are made literally minutes before a Truth Social POST from Trump in which he announced he was extending the deadline and was postponing military strikes against Iranian power plants as a result of ongoing talks with Iran, then, KRUGMAN SAY, “People close to Trump are trading based on national secrets.”

There is no nice way to put this, so I’ll let Cox-Richardson say it: “The evidence for such a claim is the sudden and isolated jump in trading volume in S&P 500 and oil futures about 15 minutes before Trump suddenly announced that the U.S. and Iran were in negotiations to end the war—an announcement that turned out to be false.”

“I’d very much like to know exactly who was making those trades yesterday morning,” Krugman wrote.

Yeah, so would we.

“Were they people directly in the know, or billionaires/traders who paid people in the know for tips?” he asked.

It’s pretty much a certainty one won’t find Trump’s name directly involved, but you can bet that being the grifter he is, if there’s a nickel to be made, he’s profiting from it–and it ain’t chump change he’s pocketing.

“When officers of a company or people close to them exploit confidential information for personal financial gain, that’s insider trading — which is illegal. But we have another word for situations in which people with access to confidential information regarding national security — such as plans to bomb or not to bomb another country — exploit that information for profit. That word is ‘treason,’” KRUGMAN WROTE.

All of which kinda makes Letlow look like an afterthought in the grand scheme of things with her alleged insider trading—not that it would excuse her for one nano-second.

And while the ad does its best to tie Letlow to Nancy Pelosi (which is one helluva stretch, by anyone’s measure, considering their respective political philosophies), insider trading is a common thread that runs through both parties with equal aplomb and shamelessness—and even more so with this administration.

…the Dow’s below 50,000; can we talk about the Epstein files now?

Four years after the fact, the Louisiana State Police (LSP) Department has been ordered to surrender a video of LSP Trooper Matthew “No Neck” Clair as he laid one across the face of a handcuffed prisoner at the Avoyelles Parish Detention Center in Marksville.

For four long years, LSP DENIED Baton Rouge TV station WAFB access to the tape of Clair popping the prisoner, who had been booked into jail on a DUI charge. So, the TV station SUED for access to the video.

You’d think LSP would finally learn after losing so many public records requests from members of the media. But noooo, they have to keep going to the well and coming up empty.

Remember how it took three years for video of the Ronald Greene beating at the hands of half-a-dozen state troopers and a Union Parish sheriff’s deputy? Three years of lying about the existence of body cam video that existed all along and now LSP is apparently stupid enough to think it can pull the same coverup again. WAFB’s early requests were met with denials of the existence of video, a denial that sounds eerily familiar to the initial Ronald Greene denials.

This time, though 19^th Judicial District Court Judge William Jorden would have none of it. Today, he ordered LSP to surrender the video depicting what has been alleged as excessive force.

First to break the news of the judge’s order was Robert Burns, owner of the Sound Off Louisiana web blog. He has been following the incident since at least March 1.

Quick to follow with its own story was WAFB, which not only posted the story but also posted the video in question. It’s the third video down in the WAFB story. To watch it and to judge for yourself whether or not excessive force was used, go HERE.

The video was from the Avoyelles Sheriff’s Office because Clair did not have his body cam on (that seems to happen a lot with state police). Clair was initially suspended without pay for 40 hours in 2022 but that discipline was later overturned on appeal when State Police Commander Col. Robert Hodges assumed command. Instead, Clair received only a non-disciplinary letter of counseling—sort of an LSP participation trophy.

State police explained that Clair, who had been a state trooper since 2006, had not received updated training on current techniques prior to the slapping incident—16 years after joining LSP. Well, hell, these things take time.

Burns quoted an unnamed state trooper who called the LSP explanation “B.S.” He told Burns, “They (LSP) train on defensive tactics every year, without fail.”