Not Consumer Friendly Tort Reform

As we approach a new legislative session in Baton Rouge our Republican legislators have made it very clear that one of their  major agenda items will be tort reform in our state.  Particularly as it relates to automobile accidents.  They want to limit one’s ability to sue insurance companies, and claim that such measures will lead to lower auto insurance premiums.

However, what all supporters of tort reform intentionally failed to address is there is NO guarantee that such reform will lower auto insurance rates.  Supporters outside the insurance industry just assume that the big state auto insurers will out of the kindness of their hearts lower their rates as a reward for hindering one’s ability to bring a legal suit against them.

Despite what these companies would want you to believe, one of their biggest money makers is auto insurance.   Why would anyone be so naïve to assume that any change, that would allow them to make even more profit by limiting law suits, would be offset by them lowering their insurance  premiums?

Let’s see how supportive the auto insurance companies and the Louisiana Association of  Business and Industry, which is also pushing for change, would be of auto insurance tort reform if it was tied to a  mandated across the board 25% decrease in premiums charged.

This is the only type of tort reform that would actually benefit the consumer.  As tort reforms are now proposed, only the insurance companies benefit, and that’s just the way they want it.

Political Profiling

It’s pretty sad where we are today as a society regarding our obsessive needs to catalogue people based upon their perceived political beliefs.  And we follow this up with a complete dismissal of these individuals from our lives if their beliefs differ from ours.  Because of political beliefs we curtail contacts with family members, end memberships in organizations, break off long term friendships, and in extreme cases even end marriages.

A perfect example of just how damaged we are as a nation is the recent Garth Brooks’ concert which took place in Detroit.  Garth came out on stage wearing a football jersey with the number 20 on it and the name Sanders printed across its front.  Pictures of him wearing this outfit quickly made their way to social media where condemnation comments lite up.  They included such statements as “Brooks is a f..king liberal socialist,” “He needs to stop mixing his music with politics,” “I’m never buying anymore of his music”, etc, etc, and so on, and so on.

Actually Garth Brooks was honoring one of the great running backs of football, Barry Sanders, No. 20 of the Detroit Lions.  It was not a political endorsement for Bernie Sanders for the 2020 election!

Sadly, more and more of our everyday actions model what occurred at the Garth Brooks’ concert.  Our   behavior and speech are judged solely in political terms.  Coupled with this is an obsessive need to lump individuals in a “for” or “against” paradigm as it relates to our political schema.

We no longer care about the overall worth of a particular person as a total being , but instead simply cast him/her aside from our shared world based upon political beliefs.

When I once stated to a friend that I was friends with a certain individual, I was immediately questioned as to how I could interact with an individual that was so opposite from my political beliefs.  It was abhorrent to this individual that any such interaction could even take place.  He seemed shocked and totally confused when I replied that this person was a good individual and enjoyable to interact with in my life.  He was always somebody who I could count on to “have my back.”   We just don’t discuss politics.  Regrettably, this was beyond this questioning individual’s comprehension.

Stop obsessively reading the garbage on social media and stop “politically profiling” individuals to judge whether they are worthy to be in your life.

Family, friendships, and spouses are forever.  Political figures will come and go, and in reality almost all could never even remotely be considered your friends.

What Will It Take?

As the accusations of wrong doing continue to mount up concerning  our Commander–in-Chief, I can’t help but wonder just what it would take before his supporters take pause and consider that perhaps he is no longer worthy of their continued, unwavering support.  So far the accusations have run the gamut from adulterer, Stormy Daniels comes to mind, and sexual assaulter, victims Temple Taggart McDowell, Jessica Leeds, Kristen Anderson, Jill Harth, Cathy Heller, Karena Virginia, plus eight more; to swindler, Trump University and the phony non-profit charity, The Donald J. Trump Foundation, to cite just two examples.


In all 14 accusations of sexual assaults President Trump has chosen to put forth the defense of denial of any knowledge or contact with these individuals, which has served as an acceptable defense for his supporters.  Additionally, most just shrug off and attribute all these sexual assaults simply to “boys will be boys” and “we all make poor decisions during our life” even though some of Trump’s escapades, involving adultery, could be interpreted as counter to the teachings of the Bible; but then again, “boys will be boys.”


Sadly, his supporters also readily dismiss any accusations made against President Trump by rallying around the old and tiresome political propaganda mumbo jumbo that these accusers are all just a bunch of “anti-Trumpers and sore losers hoping to avenge their loss in the last election.”   I couldn’t care less about the last election for I voted for neither candidate, and felt all those who ran in both primaries were unqualified for the job, and that included Hillary, Bernie, and Donald.

However, a new twist has recently been added to the list of accusations against of our current president.  Lawyers representing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, have accused President Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s and are asking for a DNA sample, seeking to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress she says she wore during the encounter.

Carroll’s lawyers served notice to a Trump attorney last Thursday for Trump to submit a sample on March 2 in Washington for “analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress.”

Now most males accused of rape unanimously adopt the defense that the encounter was consensual, and sadly, usually prevail.  Ironically, President Trump has chosen to use his standard defense that he has no knowledge of this individual and never met her, and of course is refusing to comply.  Actually, this is a very clever move on his part because to use the consensual defense would be admitting to adultery.  Additionally, he is quite aware of the Department of Justice’s opinion that a sitting president is immune from criminal prosecution.

However, one has to wonder why, if truly innocent, President Trump doesn’t just provide the DNA anyway which could once and for all end the accusation and support his defense that he never even met the woman.  Why let it proceed in the media and the courts which obviously will impact him financially?   I guess the legal reasoning here is just to drag it out and ultimately, quietly pay off the accuser in an out of court sealed settlement which has been Trump’s mantra in so many other cases.

Either way as this case proceeds, I assume that President Donald Trump really has nothing to worry about, for as he once stated while campaigning for office, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue (New York City) and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”

Besides, it’s like one of my friends keeps reminding me, “I didn’t vote for Trump because he was a choir boy.” So true, and the economy is doing great and our guns are safe so why should we concern ourselves about the ethical and moral character of the one that occupies the highest office in this nation?

  

But, then again, aren’t these the qualities we preach in our churches and try to instill in our children?

Let Majority Rule

The other day I was thinking about how during most of my life lots of decisions are made by majority vote.  I remember school class presidents, junior and senior prom kings/queens, school committee chairpersons, and sport team captains being elected by all the individuals associated with those entities.  Local school superintendents, school board members, city mayors,  city council members,  state governors, state officials, state representatives, federal legislators, and various state constitutional amendments are all voted on by the entire voting public.  I think you get my point.


Sadly, the majority approach doesn’t apply when we choose the highest office in our nation or when we have what I term “hot button” or major influential issues affecting our nation.  Just think of all the rhetoric, Facebook comments, and Tweets we could eliminate and instead have time spent time on actually accomplishing positive things in our daily lives.
  

If the ‘majority rule approach’ were adopted universally, we wouldn’t have Donald Trump as president, nor some presidents of the past.  And just think we could settle this impeachment issue once and for all.  The latest polls indicate that the majority of Americans favor impeachment of our esteemed leader in a survey conducted beginning Friday, one day after senators were sworn in for the trial, with 47 percent of voters in favor of Trump’s removal, and 45 percent opposed.


However, this is only a sample poll and we should settle the issue once and for all by letting everyone vote on it and instructing our legislators to simply abide by the majority’s wishes. 


Taking this approach a step further we could settle the gun control issues, pro-choice/pro-life issues, gay rights issues, transgender issues, etc.  The list goes on and on.


Obviously, if you haven’t caught on by now I am writing this with tongue in cheek, and have not completely lost my mind.   I am fully aware that my suggestion can’t be implemented.


But just consider how much wasted anguish, stress and emotional energy we could eliminate.  Think about it, what if maybe we could change some of the rules and implement some of it.

Hard Rock Building Collapse-What was City Hall's Responsibility?

I find it interesting to note that the Mayor of New Orleans has skirted the issues about the actual involvement of the city in the recent Hard Rock building disaster.  While it is difficult for the general public to get accurate information regarding the construction process of the building, it does appear that there was some city involvement with it.


Apparently some structural changes were made along the way that required approval by the appropriate department at City Hall.  It would also seem logical, that during the construction of such a massive building in the downtown historical section of the city, that city building inspectors would make random on-site inspections to insure the construction plans were being followed and up to code.


Yet, to date, the only information we have is that the actual workers in the building questioned some of its construction.


What was City Hall’s actual involvement in this ongoing construction?  Did they have any responsibility at all, or were they simply paper pushers blindly issuing permits and approving change orders?  Is this how ALL major construction is handled in downtown New Orleans?


It would seem prudent to get all the facts surrounding every entity’s involvement in this tragedy, including City Hall’s.

Do Republicans Really Exist as Part of Trump's World?

As we approach a new year, and a presidential election, one of the center pieces of the Trump campaign will be the successful booming economy. This is indeed a noteworthy occurrence, but unfortunately Republicans had to sell their souls in supporting this achievement because it was accomplished at the expense of raising our national debt.

As long as I can remember Democrats were branded by Republicans as the spend, spend, spend, party.  Republicans continually lambasted Democrats for what they termed was “fiscal irresponsibility” which continually led to escalation of the national debt.  This was most recently readily apparent during the Obama years.  Republicans prided themselves as the fiscally responsible party guarding the fiscal wellbeing of our nation, vowing to lower our national debt.

Well it’s interesting to note that, thanks to President Trump, Republicans are now totally in tune with Democrats when it comes to, what they termed, “fiscal irresponsibility.”  The Trump administration has now exceeded the Obama administration in terms of the size of the national debt and is on course to be the proud sponsor of highest debt in the history of our nation.   

Contributing to this momentous accomplishment has been Trump’s bailout of the soybean farmers which was necessitated by his tariff war with China.  As a matter of fact this bailout will now exceed the auto industry bailout during the Obama administration which was so vehemently ridiculed at the time by Trump and his fellow Republicans as a “waste of tax payers’ dollars.”  Trump even vowed that no such bailout would have occurred if he was the president.  

President Trump also just signed wage increases for Federal Workers, coupled with one year paid maternity leave, after lamenting in 2017 that they deserved no such raise or benefits because it was to quote fellow Republicans “a waste of taxpayers’ money,” and “fiscally irresponsible.”

Another point of Republican soul sellout is the recently negotiated North American Free trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada. The previous agreement was relentlessly ridiculed by President Trump and Republicans as the “worst trade deal ever” when Trump was running for office.  He promised to rip it up and start over with a totally new agreement if he was elected.

But instead of tearing the agreement to shreds, Trump mostly just patched it up.

The new US- Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as the USMCA,  that is supposed to replace NAFTA, is in many ways similar to its quarter-century-old predecessor. In fact 60% is actually the same. It is almost exactly what Democrats proposed and was again a sign that Republican ideology, as espoused by Trump, was now totally in step with their arch-rivals regarding this accomplishment.

It is interesting to note that while some of our fellow Republicans fill the airways with messages about how the Democrats have lost their way and question just what they now stand for, the Republicans are no better.  Republicans, like Democrats, are so immersed in power struggles that they have lost the values that have defined them for years.

Maybe this is a good thing, but it is certainly worth noting that individuals chose the Republican Party based upon what they thought was in tune with their beliefs.  However, it is obvious that the Republican Party can no longer be defined by its past ideologies.

Trumps supporters need to stop referring to themselves as Republicans and instead face the reality that they are now members of a third party known as Trumpians.

Now if only Steve Scalise, John Kennedy, Bill Cassidy and Mitch McConnell would face the reality and acknowledge that, they’d sleep better at night.

Our Esteemed Legislators' Hypocrisy

Monday was a noteworthy day for Louisiana, and in particular L.S.U.  It was proclaimed a special recognition day, “L.S.U. Football Day,” by our Secretary of State, Kyle Ardoin  to acknowledge the Tigers winning the S.E.C. Championship game, Coach Ed Orgeron being named “S.E.C. Coach of the Year,” and quarterback Joe Burrow being named the second Heisman winner in L.S.U.’s history.

Obviously our state legislators, many of whom are L.S.U. alumni, were very proud of this joyous occasion and some were seen joyously celebrating it.

Ironically, most of these jubilant legislators were the same ones that 4 years earlier repeatedly voted to cut L.S.U.’s operating budget by almost 40%.

Thank God the L.S.U. Football Program is self-sufficient because if it had to rely on our esteemed legislators to lend financial support, as the academics do at L.S.U., there would have been no “L.S.U. Football Day.”

While I am very proud of our L.S.U. football team and the glory it has brought to the university, I wonder if we will ever have an “L.S.U. University Day” to celebrate the full fiscal funding of the university by the state.

One can only dream as the hypocrisy of our esteemed legislators lives on.