LIKE LOUISIANA AFTER KATRINA, FEDERAL AND STATE RESPONSE WEAK IN MAUI!

Monday, August 28^th, 2023

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

LIKE LOUISIANA AFTER KATRINA, FEDERAL AND STATE RESPONSE          WEAK IN MAUI!

 

If you live in Louisiana, we know all about a dysfunctional response to natural disasters. Remember Katrina? Are we witnessing another lackadaisical and dysfunctional response to the wildfire tragedy on the island of Maui in the Hawaiian lands?  So far, news reports cite some 2000 businesses and homes destroyed with over 1000 residents who still remain uncounted for. 

There’s a Coast Guard station on Maui, and 12 military bases throughout the Hawaiian Islands. Yet the military response to this tragedy has been summed up as “underwhelming.”  The Washington Post reported numerous comments of locals, saying: “Where are the uniforms? Where is the military?  Waterman Mel Thoman, known as @wedgemel on Instagram, posted a video that expressed his bewilderment.  “My question is, where is the military? Where are the helicopters? Why are it the locals having to do everything?”

And then there is FEMA. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was authorized by the President to undertake a major federal disaster team effort on the day of the fire, August 9^th.  But the first disaster team did not even open its first center on Maui until a week later on Aug. 15^th.  A week went by, the fires continued to rage, and FEMA was nowhere to be found.

FEMA apparently just doesn’t get it. Back in 2005 when Katrina hit the greater New Orleans area, my brother-in-law was serving as sheriff in Plaquemine Parish. He told me that the Canadian mounted police made it down to Plaquemines before the first federal officials showed up. FEMA back then was headed by a former cattle show organizer.  One can only wonder if improvements for better responses have found their way to the nation’s supposedly top disaster relief agency.

President Biden did go to Maui, but he’s being accused of not being “tuned in” as to just how damaging the fires were. While petting a local dog the President joked about the boots the canine was wearing. "You guys catch the boots out here?" Biden appeared to ask the press watching him. He smiled and said, "That’s some hot ground, man." 

We here in the Bayou State have not forgotten the childish effort of one upmanship between then Governor Kathleen Blanco and President George Bush during Katrina. Blanco dithered for several days after Bush told her the federal government was willing to take over a full response.  She finally agreed, but only after continuing damage was inflicted on Louisianians within the disaster area due to her delay. As Governor Edwin Edwards later, told me, “I would’ve given it to the president in a New York second. Then the pressure would be on him to respond and give the state much more help.”

And just as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagan back in 2005 failed miserably to prepare for the oncoming storm, local officials in Maui were far from the top of their game. The head of Maui’s emergency management agency failed to sound a statewide warning system by saying he was worried their alarms would have sent many residents inland “into the fire.” 

But state Sen. Angus McKelvey – who lost his own home in the fires – blasted agency head’s response as insulting. “I’ve heard the line that ‘people would have panicked and ran up to the mountains because it’s a tsunami siren.’ … It’s insulting to think that people would be that clueless, that they wouldn’t know that sirens blasting was because of the fire,” McKelvey told CNN on Thursday. “These are not tsunami sirens. They’re disaster sirens.”

Even as this column is being written, some two weeks after the blazes began, there are still hundreds of locals sleeping on golf courses, beaches and in cars. A much more robust response needs to be in the planning on both state and federal level.  When hurricanes have a potential to hit land, there is generally a several day window to prepare.  But our country is witnessing an uptick in weather related disasters that give very little if any warning. Brush, fires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and flooding require much more advanced planning. Public officials just can’t wait until the worst happens.

 

We live in a different weather-related world today.  Leadership has been weak following Katrina and is apparently feeble in Maui. One would have thought that we would have learned a lesson or two in the last 18 years. Apparently not.

 

 Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.

 

 

 

WHO DOES DONALD TRUMP SOUND LIKE?

Monday, August 21^st, 2023

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

WHO DOES DONALD TRUMP SOUND LIKE?

 

     When the big issues are at stake, it seems like there’s always a Louisiana connection. The Louisiana Purchase, the Battle of New Orleans, the first shot of the Civil War was fired by a Louisiana Brigade.  So how does all this relate to Donald Trump?  Read on.

 

     We’ve never witnessed a politician quite like Donald Trump.  We all know he’s belligerent, arrogant, cocky, bullheaded, vicious in his attacks, demanding constant loyalty, and only loyal himself to those who continually genuflect to him.  Yet his popularity continues to stay high, particularly in the state of Louisiana.  Yes, Trump is a unique politician the likes of which we’ve never seen in this country before. Or is he?

 

Let’s checkout some words of wisdom that we all have come to hear regularly from Trump.

“Always take the offensive. The defensive ain’t worth a damn.”

 “One day,” he told an audience, “You pick up the papers and see where I killed four priests. Another day I murdered twelve nuns, and the next day I poisoned four hundred babies. I have not got time to answer all of them.”

And then there is this one.  “I have more enemies in the United States than any little man I know of.”

“You sometimes have to fight fire with fire. The end justifies the means.”

“I used to get things done by saying please. Now I dynamite them out of my path.”

     Sure sounds like Trump, doesn’t it. That’s just his way of operating, but would you be surprised to learn that those are not his words? Nope, they come right out of the great State of Louisiana.  They are from the Bayou prognosticator himself, ole’ Huey Long. 

     All the quotes above fit both politicians well.  Just as Huey Long made Louisiana politics all about him, Trump has done the same nationally. Both of them were big personas; they each made themselves the main issue, and the chief dividing line.

     Trump and Long would be defined as authoritarian populists. They both shared a philosophy that they, and they alone truly represented a majority of voters.  They each tapped in to views of their supporters that their voices were not being heard, and that the political establishment was out to get them.  Both Trump and Long were impeached while in office, but both survived.

     A reporter once asked Long if he was a fascist. “Fine,” Long told him in a conversation that took place less than a year before he was killed. “I’m Mussolini and Hitler rolled into one. Mussolini [force-fed dissidents] castor oil; I’ll give them tabasco, and then they’ll like Louisiana.” Then he laughed.

     Trump also quoted Mussolini in his first campaign for president saying: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” When asked if he wanted to be associated with a fascist, Trump said: “No, I want to be associated with interesting quotes. And people, you know, I have almost 14 million people between Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and all of that. And we do interesting things. And I sent it out. And certainly, hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?”

     Politico Magazine had this to say last week about the two towering political figures: “The similarities between the two suggest that to pull this off requires a larger-than-life personality, an us-vs.-them populist view of the world and a mode of communication and operation that, through its outrageousness, underlines the constant conflict with the powers-that-be and their supposedly worthless norms and rules.”

     Long knew the value of publicity, any publicity — without ever dealing, like Trump, with the New York tabloids on a daily basis or starring in a reality TV show. “I don’t care,” he said, “what they say about me as long as they say something.”

     Before he was assassinated in 1935, Huey Long was dealing with numerous investigations and corruption charges. President Trump now faces similar challenges that continue to pile up on him.  Huey Long’s death ended his confrontations in the Bayou State. With indictments in four different jurisdictions, President Trump still has a long road ahead of him.

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.

 

 

 

AUTO INSURANCE RATES SHOULD BE GOING DOWN, NOT UP!

Wednesday, August 16^th, 2023

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

AUTO INSURANCE RATES SHOULD BE GOING DOWN, NOT UP!

     Headlines across Louisiana blared out in recent weeks that automobile insurance rates in the state will see a huge increase.  State Farm, whose rate request was rubberstamped by the Department of Insurance, will increase its rates by an average of 17.3%. Progressive Insurance Company will increase just over 10% while Allstate will jump up 18%, GEICO by more than 19% and, get this, USAA will increase its rates by nearly 34%.

     So what happened to all those reductions that Louisiana policyholders were promised when the legislature took away many policyholder rights several years ago?  The reductions were supposed to be really big.  By 25 % said the insurance commissioner. But when political courage wanes and politicians search for a quick fix to age-old problems, they often seek out a scapegoat to blame. “Passing the buck” on someone else is standard operating procedure at the state legislature in Baton Rouge.  A number of new laws, all proposed by the insurance industry, made it more difficult for policyholders to sue in court. 

     It must be all the lawsuits, say the insurance companies.  But a recent study by the U.S Chamber of Commerce’s Institute of Legal Reform showed that Louisiana is within the national average when it comes to per capita cost of lawsuits involving auto accidents. So lawsuits are a minor part of why Louisiana has such high insurance rates. 

     Anderson Cooper on CNN has done a series of reports (all available online) about how the nation’s top auto insurance companies deliberately drag out jury trials in an effort to wear down — financially and physically — those damaged in auto accidents.  Many insurance departments turn the other way to this calculated effort by the insurance industry to lessen the amount it have has to pay out.

      And here’s what really should concern policy holders across the state.  The cost of insurance actually doesn’t have a lot to do with how one drives their car.  A whole list of non-driving factors figure into just what a driver is charged for car insurance.  Many of the factors are ridiculous. A number of other states, with much lower insurance costs, prohibit the use of non-driving factors. Consumer reports released a study of what a driver with a DWI conviction is paying for auto insurance. With good credit, the driver with a DWI is charged as much as $900 less than a Louisiana driver with a perfect driving record but with poor credit rating. A driver who is a blue-collar worker pays more for insurance than a driver with a college degree. And how about this? A widow pays more than someone who is married. In fact, with some companies, just being a woman gets a driver paying more. Go figure.

     So how did the legislature respond to efforts lower insurance costs in this past legislative session?  Legislation was introduced that would have banned the use of credit scores and occupation in rate-setting. But with strong opposition from the insurance industry and the Louisiana Insurance Department, this progressive change that would have helped Louisiana policyholders who were good drivers didn’t have a chance.

     There are a barrel of reasons why Louisiana leads the nation in high auto insurance rates.  It’s going to take a concentrated effort by legislators, the Governor and insurance officials to put a comprehensive program in place that will cause auto rates to go down.  Looking for quick fixes by blaming lawyers, judges or any one group is disingenuous and will do little to address what has become a financial crisis for many drivers in Louisiana.

     Don’t count on any premium reductions soon ion the Bayou State.  Much more needs to be done. 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownla.com. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MISSISSIPPI DWARFS LOUISIANA IN EDUCATIONAL REFORM!

Thursday, August 10^th, 2023

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

MISSISSIPPI DWARFS LOUISIANA IN EDUCATIONAL REFORM!

 

     To get Louisiana off the bottom of the barrel when it comes to educational reform, nothing is more important than developing a preschool program that builds the foundation for young people to learn.  For a number of years, the leading voice on early childhood education was State Representative Steve Carter from Baton Rouge.  Tragically, Steve passed away in 2021 from Covid complications.  To honor his efforts,  the legislature passed into law the Steve Carter Literacy Program, which was to provide for payments of up to $1,000 per student per year for eligible services intended to improve literacy skills.

 

     But passing legislation is one thing. Getting proper funding for it is another.  After several years of minor financing, this year’s legislature allocated $51 million dollars for this important program.  Unfortunately, these funds will only cover a small number of kids and will supply only one sixth of the funds that are necessary.  There is a need to properly find an additional 130 thousand slots for kids to be in early childhood learning.

     Louisiana ranks next to last for overall child well-being, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2023 Kids Count Data Book, with the state’s ranking being near the bottom for economic well-being, health, and family and community. The 2023 report puts Louisiana at 49th out of all 50 states for overall child well-being, coming ahead of only New Mexico. Louisiana had ranked next-to-last in the 2022 report as well.

     “Expanding access to child care is a uniquely win-win-win policy,” said Jennifer Roberts, CEO of Agenda for Children. “High-quality child care offers lifelong benefits to children, enables parents to work and improve their children’s economic security and strengthens our economy through increased workforce participation. Making child care affordable and accessible for all families will have huge rewards for all Louisianans.”

     For many years, Louisiana has lamented “Thank God for Mississippi.”  This refrain no longer works when  comparing early childhood learning in Mississippi as to Louisiana. The New York Times reported recently that Mississippi “is lifting education outcomes and soaring in the national rankings.  Among children in poverty, Mississippi fourth graders now are tied for best performers in the nation in reading tests and ranked second in math, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.”   Why the improvement? The Mississippi legislature undertook a major financial commitment to educate preschool kids. “Mississippi is a huge success, story, and very exciting,” says, David Deming, a Harvard economist and educational expert. “You cannot use poverty as an excuse. That’s the most important lesson.”

     High-quality early care and education, particularly for children below age 5, is neither accessible nor affordable for many Louisiana families.  That’s why proper funding for pre-K kids is so important.  Yet right now, Louisiana spends less than half of 1% of state dollars on early care and education.  Over $1 billion in this year’s legislative session was allocated for local projects, some considered “pork barrel.” Apparently, adequately funding preschool education was not all that important. In other states like Mississippi, proper funding is extremely important.

     Here's what Louisiana needs to do. The state should offer high-quality full day programs, with qualified teachers paid at the same rate as elementary school staff members.  Many other states are noticing the Magnolia State’s educational success.   Louisiana should do the same, and not settle for anything less than offering pre-K education to all of our kids. We can talk all we want to about higher education, and. business development opportunities.  But until our kids are better educated and start learning at an early age, the Bayou State will continue to be at the bottom of national rankings.  We need to do better. Much much better.

 

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide. You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also listen to his regular podcast at www.datelinelouisiana.com.