Ruth's Report: Louisiana's problems just get worse

Have you ever been to Louisiana? I have visited that state three times. Shortly after we got married, we visited New Orleans back in the sixties (my late husband and I). I liked the state, I loved New Orleans. We also Baton Rouge and Shreveport -- visited those cities -- and drove through and past We went again in the 90s and it was depressing.

The roads were torn up, it was poverty row. New Orleans was still New Orleans. But everywhere else looked awful. We went again in early 2001. It had only gotten worse.

And there has been no uptick in the last 23 years. It is one of the poorest states in the country. The crime rate:

What is Louisiana ranked in crime?

Louisiana consistently ranks among the states with the highest crime rates in the nation. It often finds itself in the top ten for both violent and property crimes, according to various reports and statistics published by law enforcement agencies.

What city has the highest crime rate in Louisiana?

New Orleans typically has the highest crime rate in Louisiana. The city faces significant challenges with violent crimes, including armed robbery and aggravated assault, making it a major crime hotspot in the state.

What is the safest city in Louisiana?

Pollock is often cited as one of the safest cities in Louisiana. With its low crime rates and strong community safety initiatives, Pollock offers a secure environment for its residents compared to other parts of the state.

What are the risks of living in Louisiana?

Living in Louisiana comes with risks, such as higher violent and property crime rates, particularly in urban areas. Residents must be vigilant about personal safety and property security to mitigate these risks effectively.

What is the most committed crime in Louisiana?

The most committed crime in Louisiana is property crime, which includes theft, burglary, and motor vehicle theft. These crimes are prevalent across the state and contribute significantly to Louisiana’s overall crime rate.

So the state has a ton of problems. The state's citizens really need to work on reforming their useless government which does everything but protect and serve their interests.

And the problems continue to pile up. Greg Owen (LGBTQ NATION) reports:

Officials in Louisiana held a series of meetings in October and November, telling Department of Health staff that the state would no longer allow them to promote COVID, flu, and mpox vaccinations.

The new policy would be implemented quietly and would not be put in writing, four health department employees told NPR. They asked to remain anonymous.

The directive was shared by two lower-level officials in the department after the state’s surgeon general was unable to attend, the staff members said.

Employees were told they could not send out press releases, give interviews, hold vaccination events, give presentations, or create social media posts encouraging the public to get vaccines. They were also barred from putting up signs at the department’s clinics announcing COVID, flu, or mpox vaccines were available on site.

“I mean, do they want to dismantle public health?” one health department staffer asked.

This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Friday, December 20, 2024. Donald Chump and his new fellow Elon work to wreck Christmas for millions of Americans as they demonstrate their incompetence, if Mike Johnson's in the closet is it a closet with glass walls, War Crimes in Iraq?, and much more.

MAGA only knows how to destroy. They represent the worst part of the Republican Party. Michael Williams and Leinz Vales (CNN) report this morning:

Shutdown looms: The US is just hours away from a government shutdown unless a funding plan is passed to avoid it. The House failed Thursday to pass a new Donald Trump-backed GOP proposal to fund the government into March, intensifying the threat of a shutdown ahead of the Friday night deadline.

• Debt limit suspension: The GOP inserted a two-year suspension of the debt limit into the legislation after the president-elect demanded that any deal also address the looming debt limit.

• Democrats firmly opposed: Nearly all Democrats and 38 Republicans voted against the new bill after Trump sank a bipartisan deal and Republicans scrambled to find a plan B. Ahead of the vote, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told members in a closed-door meeting, “I’m not just a no, I’m a hell no,” according to a source in the room.

Chris Stein and Fran Lawther (GUARDIAN) add:

By a vote of 174-235, the House of Representatives rejected a Trump-backed package, hastily assembled by Republican leaders after the president-elect and his billionaire ally Elon Musk scuttled a prior bipartisan deal.

Now lawmakers face a last-minute scramble to secure a new deal before the Friday night deadline – or all nonessential government functions will pause.

Thousands of federal government employees would be put on furlough, meaning that they are told not to report for work and go unpaid for the period of the shutdown, although their salaries are paid retroactively when it ends.

Other government workers who perform what are judged essential services, such as air traffic controllers and law enforcement officials, continue to work but do not get paid until Congress acts to end the shutdown.

A shutdown just before the holiday season hits its peak, could be disastrous for millions of Americans.

MAGA smash. MAGA break.

They don't know to fix things and they don't know how to govern. Last night, on MSNBC, Lawrence O'Donnell explained how imbecile Donald Chump and non-American born Elon Musk destroyed and harmed the country.

Yesterday, Robert Reich noted:

Musk went on a daylong rampage yesterday against the continuing resolution drafted by House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team to keep the government going.

Musk posted nearly nonstop on his social media platform X about how lawmakers must kill it. “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!” Musk wrote in one post.

Musk — the richest person in the world — was joined in his posting spree by another billionaire, Vivek Ramaswamy, whom Trump asked to partner with Musk in an effort to slash government spending and reduce the federal budget deficit.

Republicans gauging support for the legislation said they were bleeding votes as a result of Musk’s barrage.

Then, after Musk spent the day telling Republicans not to support the bill, Trump weighed in against it, too. That put the bill on life support.

If this isn’t oligarchy, I don’t know what is.

You may not get access to services you depend on just before the holidays because an unelected billionaire shadow president wanted it that way.

A government shutdown right before Christmas. Do we realize how many people -- how many families -- that would harm. Chris Hayes notes:

Mainly, the drama just exposes MAGA.

It exposes them as an uncaring, anti-family mob that doesn't care if people are put out of work.

It exposes Chump as an idiot fool who has already been wounded in the public eye with each ridiculous nominee he has tried to push for his administration is exposed as a loser -- a big loser that's either a sociopath or a threat to national security.

It exposes apartheid boy Elon Musk as the non-American that the South African born racist truly is.

It exposes Mike Johnson and conversion therapy as a failure.

Conversion therapy was supposed to allow Mike to run with all the boys -- in a non-sexual way.

That's not happening.

This is Washington -- This is how -- uh -- lawmaking is done.

Did you catch that -- and his delivery of it --- and the way he coyly tried to be fetching with a head move - in Lawrence's video? If not, pay close attention to him in the MEDIASTOUCH NEWS video below.

Look at him in those photos. Grasp why Marjorie Taylor Greene's been whispering for over a year and a half that Mike's a closet case.

He certainly reads that way and that's the thing, MAGA notes the obvious. And MAGA -- for all its pretense -- isn't anti-gay. It's anti-equality. Those closet case MAGA men are lusting after one another in bondage and discipline fantasies.

Let's note this video about the protesting Mike Johnson.

Kat noted last night "MAGA a cult of closet cases" and that is so true. But it's not just the subs. It's the bullies. And they're going to pretend the straight the same as the timid Mike Johnsons. But they're going to get off on bullying.

And when you look at photos of Mike with other males, he really doesn't come off well. The others in the photos are comfortable in their skin. He never comes across that way. Instead, he always looks subservient to the other males. And bullies -- I assume straight bullies or gay bullies -- are like sharks and start to circle when they smell blood in the water.

MEDIASTOUCH is counting the days that they feel Mike Johnson has left as US House Speaker. Senator Rand Curly Locks Paul began calling yesterday for Elon Musk to replace Mike as Speaker of the House.

Chris Walker (TRUTHOUT) notes:

Lauding Musk’s actions against the bill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) suggested on the social media site X (which Musk owns) that the billionaire should take over the speakership from Johnson.

The U.S. Constitution stipulates that the House of Representatives “shall choose their speaker and other officers.” But it doesn’t require a person to be a duly-elected member of the House before becoming speaker.

If Republicans move forward with this plan, it will be the first time ever that a speaker of the House was not also a representative within the House.

“The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress,” Paul said, adding that he believes Musk would be a good choice to “disrupt the swamp.”

Far right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) agreed with Paul’s assessment, saying she could “be open to supporting @elonmusk for Speaker of the House.”

No one took Mike seriously. Again, Marjorie's been calling him a closet case for over a year and a half now. Markwayne, what's his name, the one from Oklahoma compares Mike to a KING OF THE HILL episode where the Cowboys play the Saints. But the one in the episode that Markwayne and others compare Mike Johnson to is Gilbert Dauterive.

They giggle and they laugh at him. Not the Democrats, mind you, but his own MAGA 'peers' mock him and laugh at him. And the world recognizes him for what he is.

As for Elon, Ruth noted:

We all get that Elon Musk is not an American citizen, right? He was born in South Africa and loved living there until the end of apartheid meant Black people had rights so that is when Mr. Musk fled. He should have gone to his mother birth country of Canada. Instead, he came here on a visa that did not allow him to work so he worked as an undocumented worker -- something he says is "breaking the law" when other people do that.

Because he can buy so much, he thought he could buy citizenship here and we were corrupt enough to let him. So he has three citizenships. He is a third American. On the trashiest side of our family, you can be sure.

Now he appears to think he is the president of the United States. Miles Klee (ROLLING STONE) reports:

Elon Musk, self-described "First Buddy" of President-elect Donald Trump, went all out to thwart a last-minute funding deal to avert a government shutdown. The move was a direct challenge to Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who rolled out the sweeping plan on Tuesday night.

Now, it appears Musk has successfully killed the stopgap measure in its cradle - before it was even brought to a vote.

In a manic posting spree on Wednesday, the world's richest man bombarded his platform X, formerly Twitter, with attacks on a proposed funding bill, which would've kept the government funded through March 14 and had bipartisan support. He also amplified misinformation about what's in the 1,500-page bill - as did his non-governmental commission, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is recommending cuts to government spending and regulations to the incoming Trump administration.

Trump himself signaled Wednesday that he opposes the resolution, according to a joint statement shared by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. Various hard-right GOP representatives also vowed to vote against it. Should Johnson fail to get a spending plan passed by Dec. 20, the federal government will enter a partial shutdown ahead of the holidays. But that apparently sounded ideal to Musk and his social media clique.

All of this happens as the American people watch. All of this unfolds and we're reminded yet again what a chump Trump is.

Chump and The MAGA Cult are making fools of themselves as the American people watch. Danielle Moody's right that this is just time to watch the nutty idiots. In fact, it's hard to believe that Stan wrote "A new daytime soap opera" this week and was not talking about THE DONALD CHUMP SHOW (Stan was covering CBS' upcoming BEYOND THE GATE).

David McAfee (RAW STORY) explains that The Idiot Chump can't grasp how bad this looks for him:

Donald Trump on Friday welcomed a potential shutdown of the government before he takes office.

Trump risked a shutdown when he pressured GOP lawmakers to reject a bipartisan spending deal, which resulted in a second deal which died after being rejected by almost all Democrats and some Republicans.

Trump has already tried shifting blame for the result over to President Joe Biden.

We'll wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:

“DoD has repeatedly misled the public about what has come to be known as the Haditha Massacre.”

New photos from the scene reveal Iraqi civilians killed in their homes by U.S. Marines; Marine Corps Commandant bragged about keeping photos secret.

Text of Letter (PDF)

Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Representative Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, sent a letter requesting the Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General investigate reports that the DoD mishandled a case involving U.S. Marines killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq, and DoD’s continued efforts to cover up the alleged war crimes.

In November 2005, as U.S. Marines patrolled the Iraqi town of Haditha, an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded, striking their convoy, killing one Marine and injuring two others. Immediately after the explosion, eight Marines moved through nearby Iraqi homes to pursue what they described as “the continuing threat” and “armed terrorists who fled the IED site.” Afterwards, the Marine Corps failed to conduct an investigation until three months after the incident, violating then-existing policy and law that required prompt reporting and thorough investigation.

A recent New Yorker story revealed several disturbing photos of Iraqi civilians, including women and children, who appear to have been killed in their homes by U.S. Marines. The graphic photos from that day appear to reveal a much more sinister, deliberate, and cruel execution of civilians, and not the accidental chaos and misidentification of civilians described as armed combatants in previous reports. General Michael Hagee, the Marine Corps Commandant at the time of the Haditha killings, “bragged about keeping the Haditha photos secret.”

“We seek to understand whether DoD improperly withheld information from the public regarding this incident, and whether current DoD processes can ensure timely and complete investigations in response to reported instances of civilian harm,” wrote the lawmakers.

In 2013, the Defense Legal Policy Board reviewed investigations into civilian deaths and prosecutions of DoD personnel accused of war crimes and published a report on military justice in combat zones, which provided several recommendations on how to improve and increase training at all levels and make other institutional corrections. Specifically, the review called for the appointment of a joint commander to “have a central role in the administration of military justice in a theater of operations” who is “ultimately responsible for the conduct of his force,” including “all forces, from every service.”

Yet, even after that report, senior DoD leadership appeared to continue to cover up evidence of the massacre. Following the Haditha killings, the DoD denied New Yorker reporters’ Freedom of Information Act requests for DoD records of alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan since September 11, 2001. The DoD also claimed it would not release the photographs due to concerns about the surviving family members of the Iraqis killed that day, even though those same family members ultimately assisted the New Yorker in obtaining and finally publishing them.

“We expect and require the U.S. military to uphold the law, rules, and ethics code that service members swear to obey,” continued the lawmakers. “Ensuring fair and swift justice for any violations of the rules of war supports good order and discipline in the armed forces while also building trust with the American people and the international community.”

The 2013 DoD review included several recommendations for changes to DoD’s policy on military justice for war zone investigations. The lawmakers seek to understand DoD’s implementation of the 2013 recommended policy changes, DoD’s current practices to investigate and report civilian harm, and whether they are equipped to better hold military personnel accountable.

The lawmakers are requesting answers by December 30, 2024.

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