SO THE WINNER IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IS?

Monday, October 28th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

SO THE WINNER IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IS?

My favorite comic strip is called “Pearls before Swine.” I read it in my local newspaper every day. It’s wisdom shared by animal characters.  One  asks: “I’m trying to decide who I should vote for to become the leader of the free world.” Another answers: “You have two choices. Only two.” The response?  “Where has all the democracy gone?”

So we live in an open society made up over 340 million people, with extremely bright and knowledgeable  people in any number professions, and we’re stuck with two choices. One is a foul mouthed narcissus who calls fallen soldiers “suckers” and “losers” and  who is  labeled a fascist by a number of his former employees.  The other is a lady who smiles and laughs continually, but who is unable to articulate what she’s done for the country in the past four years, and what her plans are for the nation’s future.

There should be no way former president Donald Trump wins this election.  He is, for all practical purposes, a schoolyard bully. He is enmeshed in a large number of civil and criminal lawsuits with some 90 indictments against him.  If he wins, he has vowed to come after his opponents, the press and virtually  anyone who disagrees with him. Prosecution and imprisonment for those who have opposed him. And yet, half the voters in the nation support his agenda and have no problem with his rhetoric. Andrew Jackson, who saved Louisiana at the Battle of New Orleans, once said: “I was born for the storm, for the calm did not suit me.” He could not have given a better description of Donald Trump. In  fact, Trump is  the storm. So for diehard Trump devotees, are Trump’s  attacks a reflection of their own feelings, or are they simply picking the lesser of the two evils?

My sense of the race is that a majority of Republicans are moderate conservatives who believe in free trade, smaller government, only legal immigration, and are pro-Ukraine, pro Isreal with a few reservations.  More traditional old schoolers.  They like and were comfortable with George  W. Bush, John McCain, and Mitt Romney. Reagan style Republicans.  Yes there are many die hard Trump Mega supporters, but to all those more conventional Republicans, Trump is all they’ve got.

There should also be no way Vice president Kamala Harris can win this election. Yes, she certainly is a stronger candidate than Joe Biden, but that’s a pretty low bar. And she is stuck  with Biden’s record to defend.  But the main criticism of Harris is that she has no vision, expresses no core convictions, and she offers little clarity about her political identity.  She was given the job of coming up with an immigration plan that made sense and could not step up to the challenge. Harris’ message seems to be that Trump is really, really bad and that “you need to vote for anybody but Donald Trump. And I’m anybody.”  Voters deserve a better missive.

So who’s going to win?  Las Vegas betting odds are heavily  in favor of Trump winning.  And these oddsmakers are pretty good at picking football winners.  But political races?  Not much history here.  The Vantage polling group, headed up  by Jim Kitchens, favors Harris.  Kitchens polled for me in three different Louisiana elections, and was always right on the money.  So take your pick. Reliable oddsmakers or a highly accurate pollster.

Several takeaways here. First of all, American presidential elections are way too long. Voters are exhausted. Congress needs to change the parameters so elections take place over a much shorter period. And finally, we can only hope that whoever wins next week, the rest of the world needs to know that America is still a nation of decency, compassion, morality and humanity.  If this can happen, then it’s a bit of a victory for everyone,regardless, of who you vote for.

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.

 

POOR COLUMBUS. HE WAS JUST A FOOTNOTE!

Monday, October 21^st, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

POOR COLUMBUS.  HE WAS JUST A FOOTNOTE!

 

Did you celebrate Columbus Day last week? ( Ooops,  it’s now Indigenous Peoples Day.) That’s right. We changed the name, and now celebrate those Indian tribes Columbus encountered on his discovery of the Americas, a number of which were cannibals. So let’s give a one hand clap for all those indigenous groups that ate, raped and massacred numerous  explorers coming to  the new world.

 

OK, OK, Columbus was a brutal voyager.  But all sides were pretty much so back in that day. Actually, Columbus himself was a fairly unimportant character as to why there is a national day named for him to begin with. And would you believe that like so many other major events that affected the development of America, the idea of Columbus Day all began in Louisiana.

 

Columbus Day becoming a national holiday was essentially an accident.  Here’s what actually happened. After the Civil War (that by the way was kicked off at Fort Sumter by Louisiana Brig. Gen. P.G.T Beauregard’ and his  Confederate forces), there was widespread immigration into the United States. Large numbers of Italians flocked to New Orleans, the  cosmopolitan city of the south.  These new immigrants worked for low wages and kept to themselves along with maintaining the Italian language, strong family ties, and a resilient Catholic faith. They were resented by many New Orleanians already living there.

 

With all these new immigrants from a number of countries, crime took a strong increase. We’ve all seen “The Godfather.” (If you haven’t, you probably ought to quit reading this as you won’t understand.). The “Mafioso” culture of the Italians grew dramatically for their own protection.  This didn’t sit well with all the other locals.

 

In his recent book “Vendetta,” Richard Gambino describes the situation this way.

“Hatred for Italian immigrants practically became official city policy as the mayor said on the record to reporters, “Italians in New Orleans lacked honor, truth, pride, religion, or any other quality that goes to make a good citizen.”  These immigrants from Italy  took the blunt of widespread killings as Italians were lynched in the streets and hung on lamp posts.  

 

Tragically, half of the country shared this sentiment coming out of the Crescent City. The Washington Post described the lynching as “the peoples justice, swift and sure, visited upon those whom juries in New Orleans had neglected to punish.”  Tensions  grew between the U.S and Italy.  Some in  Washington even talked of war between the two countries.

 

Thank goodness for President Benjamin Harrison, who most of us have never even heard of. He was outraged as to what was happening in New Orleans and put together a federal fund for those families of Italian victims who were lynched. His efforts were not popular in Congress and there was even an attempt to censure President Harrison over what he had done.

 

Harrison then noticed that the 400^th anniversary of the Columbus landing in the New World would take place on October 21, 1892.  So he argued this would be a good beginning point for healing.  He issued a proclamation that declared this date “A general holiday for the people of the United States. On that day let the people, so far is possible, cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”

 

 So it was New Orleans, not Columbus that was the emphasis to have this national holiday. A way to honor Italians after the terrible violence that took place to so many of its citizens in the Crescent city. The name of Columbus was almost a fluke. It could have been any significant Italian.  (Humm! Let’s see. Leonardo De Vinci, Michael Angelo, Frank Sinatra, Pavarotti How about even Tony Bennett day?)

 

There are more than 6000 locations named for  Columbus throughout the U.S., including Columbus, Ohio, Columbus, Georgia, Columbus, Illinois, and Columbus, Arkansas to name a few. We also have the District of Columbia as our nation’s capital, the Columbia river, British Columbia and Columbus Circle in Manhattan. So do we now change all these thousands of names?

 

We have torn down monuments, wiped clean certain history books and now we are ignoring historical events by suppression.  And before we consider more the wiping of our history clean, it might be a good idea to see just what the real story is behind the historical event.

 

Oh, and by the way, my personal choice is Sophia Loren Day.

 

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.

 

 

DON’T COUNT ON LOWER INSURANCE RATES IN LOUISIANA!

Monday, October 14^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

DON’T COUNT ON LOWER INSURANCE RATES IN LOUISIANA!

 

Louisiana legislators are ringing their hands over the increasing cost of property insurance. “How are we going to bring Insurance premiums down? What to do, what to do?”  Will enforcing stronger building codes work? How about giving grants for people to reinforce their roofs? Will any of this make any difference?  Don’t count on it.

 

Yes it’s true that insurance is regulated on a state-by-state basis. But unfortunately, any state actions will be merely a drop in the bucket.  In recent months alone, there have been two major hurricanes along the gulf coast, and now, can you believe, another in the mountains. Hurricanes Francine, Helene and Milton have taken their toll on reinsurance, not just in the deep south, but the whole rest of the country.

 

Here's how reinsurance works. Any storm of $10 billion or less can generally be handled by U.S. insurance companies operating in each individual state. After all, in many states it’s been a number of years since any hurricane caused significant damage. Look at western North Carolina where I happen to have a home. Most folks cannot remember how far back it was that a weather related disaster took place in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Homeowners often pay premiums year after year, and expect their insurance company to save those premiums for a time with a big storm occasionally hits.

 

Of course that’s why insurance premiums are so much higher in states like Louisiana and Florida. There may be a few years in between a significant hurricanes. But as a whole, those of us living here in the Bayou State just know that in every few years, there is going to be a big storm when you will need significant insurance coverage. Quite frankly, we would be lucky if premiums just stayed on an even keel and not take any significant jump. But that also is not going to happen.

 

When people talk about lowering their property insurance premiums, just look at what has taken place in the past four or five years. The cost of rebuilding or replacing a house has jumped considerably. As much as 25% in many areas. This increase has included in the cost of labor as well as the cost of materials. Much of this increase is related to inflation and the cost of importing building materials worldwide.

 

Many homeowners  are underinsured and do not have sufficient replacement coverage. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association did a study that determined as many as 30% of all insured homes need to increase their insurance coverage because of rising building costs. They just do not have enough insurance in case their home is seriously damaged.

 

When major storms cause more than $10 billion in damages, that’s when an American insurance company needs a reinsurance company. Insurance companies buy insurance just like you and I do. Kind of like the bookie laying off part of his bet. To protect themselves, insurance companies buy a portion of what they might owe from  reinsurance companies, primarily located in Europe. There have been major natural disasters all over the world in recent years, and many of these reinsurance companies have taken huge losses. So they are not about to lower their rates. Hopefully, these current rates will not go up too much.

 

Some legislators are proposing giving grants to strengthen the roofs of homeowners, and others want to enforce the building codes. But there is only enough money for a handful of grants to build new roofs, and building codes will face an uphill fight in the legislature from realtors and contractors. So any such changes might offer help in the future, but really nothing of substance in the short term.

 

I know it’s disappointing and bleak to hear these observations. I’m just pointing out my experience of being  the Louisiana insurance commissioner for 12 years. Let’s face it. We benefit here in the Bayou State from a warmer climate and for many good paying jobs in plants along the Mississippi river.  But we all pay a price for a living near coastal waters in the deep south.  

 

The long-term solution is for Congress to create, as this column has been arguing for years, a national reinsurance backstop similar to the terrorism insurance program, which guarantees that the government will step in and help cover catastrophic losses once they reach a certain dollar amount.

These suggestions will not force insurance rates to take a major drop. But they will stabilize a volatile insurance market that has made the cost of property insurance unaffordable for thousands of Louisiana homeowners.

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.

 

 

LOUISIANA CAN RELATE TO DISASTER IN THE MOUNTAINS!

Monday,  October 7^th, 2024

Linville, North Carolina

 

LOUISIANA CAN RELATE TO DISASTER IN THE MOUNTAINS!

 

“Drive Faster. The Mountains are close by”. That’s a bumper sticker I’ve seen on a number of cars throughout western North Carolina. Yes, living in the mountains is special. A lot of people are beach groupies or mountain devotees.  I’d like to think I’m both. 

 

North Carolina has become a second home for us. I graduated from Chapel Hill, home of the University of North Carolina back in 1962. We have had a home in the Blue Ridge Mountains as far back as I can remember. In recent years, we’ve been at our mountain retreat generally from end of May to the end of October. There is nothing prettier than to see the leaves change as the fall season arrives.  It’s like an artist taking a brush and painting each individual leaf a different color. Simply spectacular.

 

And one thing you never had to worry about. Hurricanes. We lived through hurricane alley in Louisiana and concerns about tropical depressions in the Gulf makes us pay close attention. History has taught us well. When the hurricane warnings go out, anyone with a bit of common sense stocks up on supplies, boards up windows and doors, and has a disaster evacuation plan if necessary.

 

Hurricane Katrina was a real learning experience. Don’t count on the government for immediate help. In 2005, both state and federal officials dillydallied for days. Our governor, Kathleen Blanco set on Air Force One with President George Bush, and they argued with each other over who would lead the relief program. Neither could agree, and delays that hampered the recovery effort lasted for several days. Let me tell you how bad it was. My brother-in-law at the time was sheriff of Plaquemines Parish, the lowest part of the state stretching into the Gulf of Mexico. He told me that the Canadian Mounted Police made it to his part of the state before the first federal official arrived.  Simply unconscionable.  We learned some hard lessons about looking out for one another back then.

 

None of those problems affect you when you stay up in the mountains.  Flood insurance?  Who would possibly need it? The occasional heavy rain just rolls down the cliffs and boulders, and into the numerous streams below. Most people carry high deductibles or just bare-bones basic insurance coverage.  Many buy no insurance at all. They roll the dice that nothing damaging is going to happen to their homes, and most of the time they are right.

 

Then the unbelievable, the unthinkable happened. It’s starting to rain. And it rained. And it rained.  This went on for days. Folks in these uplands love to live right by a mountain stream were they can fish and boat ride from their own backyard.  Fly fishing is way of life in the mountains. But those streams began to overflow. And before they knew it, not only with their homes being flooded, but the massive downpours throughout the mountains cause mudslides and huge rocks to come loose and begin plunging down these high cliffs.

 

People that live in most of these mountain areas around western North Carolina only have one road in and out from there mountain retreats. As rainwater kept pouring down and mudslides roared into mountain valleys, roads washed away and there was no way to make a retreat. All the basics shut down. No electricity, no water, no phone service. So many were caught in the crosshairs of gushing water, mudslides and boulders tearing down the mountains. As I write this column, several hundred rural residents are still accounted for.

 

It's too early to judge the federal and state response although criticism has already started. FEMA, the federal agency in charge of disasters, were apparently late in arriving on the scene.  So what’s new? Remember during the Katrina days when George Bush praised then FEMA Director Michael Brown saying: “you’re doing a heck of a  job Brownie.” He was fired a few weeks later for being, with full justification, incompetent. We know all about FEMA here in the Bayou state. They generally have a hard time getting it right.

 

I’m hoping to get up to my Blue Ridge Mountain retreat in the next week. Many of the roads are still impassable, and there’s no utilities of any kind to our home. Here’s what I’ve learned. No place in America is safe from natural disasters. We all need to learn a lesson here and realize the implications of higher insurance rates and protecting our homes.  And none of us are going to be happy about it.

 

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.