The Facts About Sales Tax Increases in Louisiana

I have to pause and laugh when I see the recent political ads concerning the upcoming governor’s election.  While it is not my intent to make any formal endorsement of any candidate, it is necessary to clarify some misinformation in the ads.  All revenue generating bills for our state, as clearly delineated in the State Constitution, must originate in the state’s House of Representatives.

The governor of our state can wish for and propose any revenue seeking desires he or she wants, but has no power to directly implement such revenue generating measures.   It is up to the House of Representatives to propose the revenue generating bill, vote on it, and if passing it, send it to the state Senate for their approval by vote.  If both legislative houses pass the revenue bill, it then goes to the governor for his/her signature into law or a veto.

So while the latest political ads regarding the governor’s race talk about our present governor raising taxes, technically it was the Republican controlled House of Representatives that formulated the proposed sales tax increase bill and approved it, along with the Republican Senate.  Both had to approve the sales tax increases in Louisiana for them to be implemented.  To infer that the present governor of our state single handily raised taxes is an outright distortion of the facts of how revenue generating actions take place in our state.

On another matter, it’s too bad that we don’t hold elections every year, for that is apparently the only time that some of our legislative leaders really try to do their job to help their constituents.

Case in point is the State Insurance Commissioner, Jim Donelon.  Our state has one of the highest automobile insurance rates in the nation and has an absurd hurricane deduction on most homeowners policies written in Louisiana.  Almost all homeowners policies contain a 2 to 5 percent deductible of the total value of the home before any damages are covered in the event of hurricane damage.  For example, if your home is valued at $250,000 by your insurance company, and you have a 3% hurricane damage deductible, the insurance company will not pay for any hurricane damage your home sustains until it exceeds $7,500.  A 5% deductible would increase that out of pocket cost to $12,500.

Our present insurance commissioner has recently risen to the occasion on this issue and issued a “cease and desist” order to State Farm over its practices of hurricane deductibles regarding the recent storm Barry.  However, this entire deductible scam by all the homeowners insurance  companies needed to be dealt with long before Barry, but I guess now that Donelon has a credible challenger to his job he decided to get some press P.R. showing he’s looking out for the consumer.

And let’s not even discuss how on Donelon’s watch auto insurance companies are allowed to get a 10% increases in their rates automatically each year without approval and review by the state insurance commission.  However, I will give our present insurance commissioner one accolade, at least he hasn’t gone to jail like our previous ones.

Each of us now has a great opportunity to change things in our state by going to the polls and voting for individuals that will truly represent us.  Sadly, incumbents have one big advantage, name recognition.  Please do not fall for that trap.  Vote for someone who you think will truly represent you.  Give some of the unknowns a chance based on their qualifications.

Some of our present reps, all the way up to our lieutenant governor, have had questionable ethical improprieties that have been noted in the media.  It’s time to throw them out.  The power is in your hands by voting to change the status quo in our state.

Hollow Words

The level of gullibility of the American voters assumed by President Trump never ceases to amaze me. While we are all astutely aware of his penchant for bending the truth in many of the statements made in his daily tweets, his reactive comments made about societal tragedies, which are becoming more and more rampant in our society, are without doubt the most blatant examples of his untruthfulness.

After this week’s tragedies at El Paso and Dayton, both of which are being labeled as a form of “domestic terrorism,” President Trump stated, “The first lady and I join all Americans in praying and grieving for the victims, their families and the survivors. We will stand by their side forever; we will never forget. These barbaric slaughters are an assault upon our communities, an attack upon our nation, and a crime against all of humanity.”  He also vowed to give federal law enforcement "whatever they need" to fight domestic terrorism.  These comments come as the threat of right-wing extremism continues to grow.  The Center for Strategic and International Studies found that attacks by far-right perpetrators more than quadrupled between 2016 and 2017.

However, while the president was pledging to counter this problem, the federal government under his watch has actually cut the resources needed to tackle this issue.  A division of the Department of Homeland Security is charged with handling the prevention of domestic terrorism.  Two years ago this division was comprised of 16 full time employees and 25 contractors with an operating budget of approximately $21 million.  Today there are no contractors, eight full-time employees, and an operating budget of $2.6 million.  Basically now all that exists is, “some very dedicated government employees still at the office dealing with terrorism prevention and just trying to keep the lights on.”

The other fact that our President failed to relay to the American public is the reluctance of the FBI to pick up the slack left by the defunding of this DHS division. This is because as Dave Gomez, a former FBI supervisor who oversaw terrorism cases noted, "There's some reluctance among agents to bring forth an investigation that targets what the president perceives as his base.  It's a no-win situation for the FBI agent or supervisor.”

Further hindering Trump’s promise to fight and prevent domestic terrorism is the Trump administration’s desire to focus specifically on Islamic extremism versus all violent ideologies, coupled with the DHS systematically shifting resources away from programs aimed at combatting far-right and white supremacist groups. In fact, according to data from the Brennan Center for Justice, of New York University School of Law, at least 85% of "Countering Violent Extremism" monies are expended overtly on target minority groups, including Muslims, LGBTQ Americans, Black Lives Matter Activists, immigrants, and refugees.

So while our president talks about rooting out and ending all domestic terrorist atrocities within our country, he is really only interested  in vigilantly monitoring his bias-defined list of groups and continues to allow right wing extremist such as “white supremacy/nationalists” to fly under the radar.

Just how dumb does President Donald Trump think we are?  It’s time for the President to step up, stop worry about his support base and truly target all domestic terrorists in our society.

When the going gets tough, create a diversion!

If there’s one thing I’ve come to understand about President Trump, it’s his penchant and skill for creating diversions when things get hot about his personal involvement in sticky situations.

Trump in his usual egotistical style has masterfully used his manipulative ways to stage-manage an outlandish drama surrounding four women House Democrats nicknamed “The Squad.”

Some have surmised that he created this drama to energize his base for the upcoming 2020 election.  While others have postulated that Trump is simply trying to make “The Squad” the sole face of the Democratic Party.  A vote for a Democrat would be a vote for “The Squad” and all it represents.

However, in reality I suspect Donald Trump doesn’t care squat about these four Democratic women representatives, but instead is simply employing his usual ‘modus operandi’ to create a distraction to hide his involvement with Jeffery Epstein, world-wide financier, sex offender, and alleged sex trafficker of teenage girls.

One fact that is crystal clear is that Trump wants to distance himself from this predator.  He has denied ever having any recent contact with Epstein, and that any contact in the past was just minimal.  However, numerous pictures of the two engaged in direct social interactions over the years are evidence that both denials are outright lies.  There are even alleged instances reported by the media of Trump and Epstein being the only two males at parties attended by a plethora of young women; some extremely youthful.

 Just what is it President Trump doesn’t want us to find out?  Others in the media have also posed similar suspicion.

Perhaps Trump is up to his eyeballs in this Epstein mess.

 

Guess we will never know about the extent of his involvement because, to Trump’s credit, the Democrats along with the media took the bait.   The Epstein debacle has fallen off the media radar replaced by “The Squad” drama.

The puppeteer of the media rules once again.  President Trump really should be nominated for an Academy Award for the category of “Best Diversion Drama.”  He would clearly win hands down.

Not deserving of any respect

Fat pig, slob, dog, horse face, bimbo, slippery slob, total loser, dumb like a dog, dopey, sleepy eyes,  broken down, very weak, low life, wacko, flakey, very stupid, and fool are quite often the names kids use to bully others in school and on the internet.

However, these terms have risen to new fame through the Tweeting and speech patterns of our Commander-in- Chief. He has included every one of these terms in many of his Tweets and speeches when responding about someone who has disagreed with him or criticized him, or his behavior. 

Unfortunately for our country these childish Trump Tweets go world-wide and originate from the leader of the most powerful country in the free world; one that is becoming more and more difficult to respect by other world leaders.  This was most recently evident in the leaked internal emails of a U.K. ambassador to the United States, who accused Trump of being "dysfunctional."

What is even more alarming is that when people see a leader acting in this manner they feel vindicated in mimicking the behavior.  It's easy to see, look at how many people repeat what Trump says, his slogans, his put-downs. They mimic him like lemmings and they feel good about making other people feel inferior because our president does it and gets away with it. 

However, the sadist part about the presidency of President Trump is the comments he has made and continues to make about women, and their continued support for him.

Let’s look at how he defines women by recalling some of the things he has stated about some well know women:  On Halle Berry, “I love her upper body;” On Carly Fiorina, “Look at that face. Would anybody vote for that?  Can you imagine that, the face of our next president;” On Jessica Chastain, “she’s certainly not hot;” On Cher, “Cher is somewhat a loser;” On Hilary Clinton, “If Hilary can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America;” On Rep. Maxine Waters, “An extremely low IQ person;” On Steffi Graf, “You never get to the face because the body is so good;” On Arianna Huffington, “Unattractive both inside and out.  I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man-he made a good decision;” On Omarosa Manigault-Newman, “A crazed, crying lowlife and a dog;” on Kim Kardashian, “Does she have a good body? No.  Does she have a fat a..? Absolutely;” On Megyn Kelly, “Bimbo;” On Rosie O’Donnell, “If I were running The View, I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell.  I mean, I look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers and I’d say, Rosie you’re fired;” On Lindsey Lohan, “She’s probably deeply troubled, and therefore great in bed.  How come the deeply trouble women-deeply, deeply troubled-they’re the best in bed?” On Bette Midler, “Talks about my hair but I’m not allowed to talk about her ugly face or body;” On Ivanka Trump his daughter, “She does have a very nice figure…if she weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her;“ On women Trump has relationships with, “You know it doesn’t really matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young beautiful piece of a..;” and on the #METoo Movement, “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women.  If you admit to anything and any culpability, then you’re dead.”  Believe me the list goes on and on.

If as a woman  you find all these remarks misogynistic, offensive, disgusting and completely disrespectful, I apologize for writing them, but sometimes the truth is what it is, and this is who many women continue to support.  Sadly, some men and women may not find any of these remarks bothersome. 

However, for both men and women supporters that’s okay because Roe vs Wade might get overturned and the economy is booming.

Hopefully a lesson learned

Well, justice has prevailed and a judge has ordered the Superintendent of the Tangipahoa School District to reinstate one of the Ponchatoula Junior High teachers who was fired from his job for trying to prevent permanent harm from occurring between two students engaged in a physical altercation.

Instead of basing her judgement on the facts of the situation, the superintendent chose to make her decision guided by what would be the most palpable to a sector of our community, and consequently ended up wasting tax payers’ money, and causing damage to the reputation of two of our teachers.

Hopefully this opens the door for reinstatement of the other teacher as well.  That is, if the other individual even wants his job back, after being treated with such disrespect.

What was truly amazing was how the Tangipahoa School Board members disavowed any responsibility for this superintendent’s irrational decision by hiding behind ACT 1 that our Legislature passed during the Jindal era.  This Act gives Louisiana school superintendents full authority for the hiring and firings of all certified employees without Board approval.  The Board disavowed any responsibility in this matter.

While basically true regarding their responsibility in these firings, ACT 1 doesn’t forbid the school board members from jointly sending a formal letter to their employee, the superintendent, to voice their discontent with such a decision.  The superintendent works for them, they hired the individual, and I would hope that they realize that they can formally reprimand this individual if they so desire.

Since I am not aware of any such correspondence, I can only assume that they were on board with this entire fiasco and do bear responsibility by their complacency.   Perhaps off the record disapproval phone calls were placed, but that is not the same as a written, formal complaint.

Sadly, for both teachers their journey is not over because the parents of these students have not realistically conceptualized what could have happened to their children if these teachers had not intervened.  Instead they have listened to the advice of an attorney.   Perhaps they should have a conversation with the parents of a fifth grade student in a South Carolina school who in March was involved in a physical altercation at school and ended up dying from internal injuries.

These teachers should have been commended for de-escalating actions that could have resulted in harm to one or both students.  Instead they were treated like criminals thanks to those in charge of the Tangipahoa School System.

Hopefully everyone has learned something from this situation.  Namely, that interracial interaction can occur without race tainted bias when de-escalation of a dangerous situation takes place.