A BAD WEEK FOR AMERICA!

Monday, January 13th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A BAD WEEK FOR AMERICA!

 

A number of current and former public officials took it on the chin this past week. Much of the criticism was justified, but there was overkill in several of the high profile cases. We witnessed continuing political ineptness from coast to coast, as well as an insurance calamity that happened 1000 miles away from Louisiana, but still will have a direct bearing on what policyholders here pay.

First to take place was the trauma in New Orleans. A U.S. Army veteran, who had been radicalized by his views of Islam, zeroed in on New Year’s Eve crowds on Bourbon Street killing 15 revelers at 3:15 in the morning. Could this terrorist attack have been prevented? Many, including this writer, believe so. Few cities in America have a concentration of revelers in one area that draws millions of In a month’s time, a Sugar Bowl, the Super Bowl, and Mardi Gras. If there was ever an area that should been protected with drones, extensive surveillance cameras monitoring 24 hours a day, and street barriers that were supposed to be installed and working in the French Quarter streets, New Orleans was the place.  Yet the city and no detailed plan dealing with known threats.  There were a few temporary barriers that easily could have been (and were) driven around. City officials from the Mayor on down really dropped the ball.

Next came the devastating California fires. When early warnings of possible major wildfires might spread to Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass took immediate action. She flew to Ghana to attend the inauguration of the new president there. She also had slashed $23 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s budget just a few months earlier. A petition to recall her for her gross management has already garnered 56,000 signatures. She will spend the next year dealing with investigations and lawsuits over her poor performance operating the city.

The Governor and the California legislature did no better. One hundred fifty million dollars was recently cut from the California wildfire prevention budget. Numerous wildfire prevention proposals made by firefighting experts were ignored.  Several major reservoirs needed repairs and had been left empty.  It would seem that New Orleans and Los Angeles has a lot in common when it comes to ineptitude.

The insurance claims due to the California destroyed houses will reach well over $100 billion. This will not be just a problem for California property owners. An insurance company needs to “spread the risk,” wherever they are operating. Therefore, what happens in California will directly affect the cost of insurance in the Bayou state. So will the massive flooding that took place in North Carolina. It doesn’t seem fair, but that’s the way insurance works. We will not see any property insurance premium reduction here in Louisiana, at least for the immediate future.  Perhaps even more increases.

And how about New York’s former US attorney and mayor Rudy Giuliani? It wasn’t that long ago where he was referred to by just about everyone as “America’s Mayor.” As a lawyer for President Trump, he verbally attacked two Georgia elections workers, charging that they were complacent in Georgia election voter fraud.  But then the jury ordered Giuliani to pay these two workers $148 million for defaming them. Maybe Giuliani should pay something, but this seems like a ridiculous amount of money. I wonder how many of you readers would let the former mayor make false accusations against you if you could receive $148 million return?  I would.

And finally, there is the criminal case in New York City of President Donald Trump. I’ve written several articles saying how the charges were bogus and never should have been brought. As a lawyer, I see perhaps some misdemeanor under New York law at best. The verdict will certainly be overturned on appeal. But he was convicted as a felon on 34 accounts.  The judge sentenced Trump to “unconditional discharge.” What that means is he was sentenced to nothing at all.  So the system sticks it to Rudy Giuliani, but let’s Trump just smile at how he was treated. Lady Justice covered up her eyes. There is certainly no equal justice in the American court system today.

One week of  ineptitude  and questionable decisions throughout America. Coast to coast. Here’s hoping we can put recent days behind us and pray for better weeks to come.

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.

 

 

 

REMEMBERING MY DEAR OLD DAD!

Monday, January 6^th, 2025

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

 

REMEMBERING MY DEAR OLD DAD!

 

In this week’s column, can I divert from my usual agenda of politics and current events?  If he were still living, my Father would have reached the rip age of 110 this week.

 

In his work The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud describes the death of a father, as “the most important event, the most potent loss, of a man’s life.”  This is true in my case.  What I have discovered is that the older I get, the better I understand my Father, because I find more and more of him in me.

 

My Father was kind and gentle, and rarely raised his voice to me. One of the things I remember most was his sound advice and his continuing presence.  Even though he traveled a good deal as a vice president for the Kansas City Southern Railroad, he rarely missed any of my hundreds of ball games and track meets. In the spring of 1962, I was contending to be the hurdles champion at the Atlantic Coast Conference track meet in Raleigh, North Carolina. As the race was about to begin, I happened to look up into the stands. There was my Dad standing up and ready to watch me run. He had traveled two days by train and over 1000 miles unannounced to cheer me on.

 

During my numerous statewide campaigns for public office, no one campaigned harder for me than my Dad.  He would travel and speak to numerous civic clubs all over North Louisiana, wearing a vest that said: “I’m Jim Brown’s Father.”  Few patriarchs could ever have been more committed and more loving.

 

I could never fulfill his decency, and his family commitment. I’ve tried, but my Father set the bar so high. Oscar Wilde wrote that “I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china.”  He was embracing a view that it was so often difficult to meet the high standard that was is expected of him.  I too have spent much of my grown-up life trying to live up to my Father’s blue china.

 

I’m not one to express my emotions publicly. I don’t cry often. When my brother called to tell me that my Dad died, our family was immediately immersed in the details of comforting my mother and making funeral arrangements. Late in the evening, the reality of his loss came true to me. My Father had died. I said it out loud repeatedly as my wife Gladys tried to comfort me. All the emotion of losing him, someone who had been such an important part of my life, came forth. My Dad had died. I lay there in bed, 

and I cried, and I cried.

 

I still remember a pub song I used to sing while attended Cambridge University in England some 60 years ago.

 

I don’t know where I’m going,

But when I get there, I’ll be glad.

 I’m following in father’s footsteps.

I’m following my dear old Dad.

 

My Father was a deeply religious man. His mother saw to it. She too was quite devout, and attended church services twice a day on Sunday and often on Wednesday evening. Sweetie Pearl (I love her name) was a member of the Eastern Star, a group with strong Christian overtones that also does volunteer work in their community.  Dad was a Third Degree Mason, a group the follows the same attributes as the Eastern Star organization.

 

Dad was also a regular churchgoer, and served as a deacon. He attended church services several times a week, but more than that, he would often watch services on television. He sent checks to televangelists, particularly the Reverend Jimmy Swaggart.  I thought he should concentrate his giving at the church he regularly attended. But I could not say much about Brother Swaggart, since he was from my hometown of Ferriday, and one of my first legal clients.

  

I’ve always been a fan of singer Dan Fogelberg. My favorite of his songs is titled “Leader of the Band.”  I thank you for your kindness and the times when you got tough, and Papa, I don’t think I said I love you near enough. So well said. Thank you Dad. Happy birthday. I sure miss you.

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

TRUMP'S DUMB IDEA TO BUY GREENLAND?

Monday, December 30^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A DUMB IDEA TO BUY GREENLAND?

President Trump stirred up a hornet’s nest recently as he proposed that the U.S. try to buy Greenland. Many political observers rolled their eyes. Buy another country? Has the Prez thrown out another wacky suggestion and is this really a good idea? Actually, yes. America has been acquiring land from other nations for centuries. And often, Louisiana has been right in the mix.

Most Americans do not know that Greenland is owned by Denmark and the U.S. has operated the Thule Air Base there since 1941. The base is America’s northern most defense site located less than 900 miles from the Arctic Circle. It is considered critical for America’s defense giving it a ballistic missile early warning system. So if Denmark is willing to sell, it would be in the strategic interest of America to acquire Greenland.

The Bayou State was right in the mix of the greatest land acquisition in the nation’s history back in 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison, without the authority of congress, cut one heck of a deal with Napoleon. For a penance of $15 million, the size of America was doubled as the new Louisiana territory stretched from New Orleans to Canada and west to the Rocky Mountains, taking in over 828,000 square miles and all or part of what would later become 15 different states.

The Louisiana Democratic Party considers Jefferson persona non grata because he owned slaves. But without his vison and foresight, the Bayou State would be spending euros and kissing each other on both cheeks.

A few years later, General Andrew Jackson won the Battle of New Orleans saving Louisiana from becoming snobby British and having to drink and eat tea and crumpets, rather than Beignets & Cafe Au Lait. Jackson was certainly Louisiana’s greatest hero leading the fight to starve off the yoke of the British, but he too has been ostracized by the Louisiana Democratic Party. Go figure.

After freeing up the Bayou State, Jackson marched into Florida, then controlled by the Spanish and the British, and seized the Spanish forts at Pensacola. He put the Spanish governor on a boat to Cuba, fought off the Seminole Indians, and scared the Spanish into ceding parts of Florida and Georgia to the U.S.

Sam Houston fought under Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans, the went on to combat and win the fight of San Jacinto, that forced General Santa Anna to recognize the independence of a new Lone Star Republic. The U.S. continued to pick away at Mexican land, eventually acquiring the American Southwest, plus California.

And would you believe that Mexico even went so far as to beg the U.S. to buy Baja, California for $10 million but we declined? You can bet congress would jump on such an opportunity today.

Our land grab continued right after the Civil War, as Secretary of State William Seward bought Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Another one heck of a deal. America went on to acquire Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines, spreading our influence worldwide. So is it that far out of the norm for President Trump to want to buy a strategic nation like Greenland? Actually, President Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland, back in 1946, and offered Denmark $100 million. Denmark said no, but they did sell us the Virgin Islands.

There is realignment taking place all over the world. Strategic relationships and landscapes are shifting. It’s not been all that long ago that Russia ruptured into 15 different nations. Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993. Since the 1990s some 35 countries have fragmented, merged or have been sold.

So why not try to acquire Greenland? It has bountiful natural resources and is tactically located with a vital proximity to both Russia and Europe. Don’t sell the President-elect short. He’s on the mark in attempting to acquire Greenland.

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.

 

THE HOLIDAYS OFFER US A SECOND CHANCE!

Monday, December 23rd, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

THE HOLIDAYS OFFER US A SECOND CHANCE!

 

Most of us have been swept up in the momentum of the holiday season. We have passed Thanksgiving, reached the Christmas milestone and are approaching New Year’s Day, the third in the trilogy of holidays. Sure, there is a lot of our attention on holiday shopping, football, and social events. But it is also a time to reflect of what the three holidays can mean to all of us.  A second chance, and maybe even a new beginning.

 

On Thanksgiving Day, we recognized and celebrated the new start of the Pilgrims who made the two-month journey from England to America back in 1620.  They too wanted a second chance.  They were searching for a better life with the freedom to live and worship in their own way, free from the intolerance they faced under King James I and the Church of England.  Their leaders created the Mayflower Compact, which established a new set of laws so that they could be treated equally and fairly as part of their new way of life.  A rebirth.  A new beginning for all of them.

 

The second link in the trilogy, and to Christians the most important, is the Christmas season. The Bible teaches that Christ died on the cross to give believers a second chance. There is one book that I try to read over the holidays every year, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.  In the early 1960s, I had a golden opportunity to study English Literature at Cambridge University in England, where the writings of Dickens were my focus.

 

Dickens was a major literary personality in his day, and newspapers serialized many of his stories.  He initially published under the pen name of “Boz,” and he used this pseudonym for many of his early novels.  He entertained his wide London audience with humor in books like, “The Pickwick Papers” and “The Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby.”  Dickens pulled at the heartstrings of his readers with the drama of “Oliver Twist” and “A Tale of Two Cities.”  But as the Christmas season approached in 1843, Dickens began using his own name, and took on the role of a crusader with the publication of “A Christmas Carol.”

 

Most of us have seen this poignant Christmas story filled with an array of colorful characters like Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit, The Ghost of Christmas Past, The Ghost of Christmas Present, and The Ghost of Christmas yet to Come.  But the real lessons of the spirit that emanate from this special time of year come, not from miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, but from his dead partner, Jacob Marley.  While alive, Marley failed to help others, and in death he is damned to the agony of recognizing the pain and suffering of others, and being unable to help in anyway, and this is his special hell.

 

My attorney friend, Eric Duplantis, who practices law and writes in the small town of Franklin, Louisiana, puts it this way: “In life, Marley’s worst sin was not his venality, but his indifference.  After death he realizes this.  But it’s too late.  Death gave him compassion, but his sentence for a lifetime of indifference is an inability to act on the compassion he feels.”

 

Marley is given a single opportunity to do a good act, after which he must return to his Hell.  The ghost gives Scrooge the greatest gift of all.  Marley gives Scrooge the chance of redemption.  The message here from Dickens is that even someone as lost as Ebenezer Scrooge can be saved if he seizes this one-time gift of a second chance.

 

Here’s hoping that the coming year brings you the opportunity of a second chance if you feel you need one. We all generally do. But whether you do or you don’t, may you and your family have a blessed and healthy holiday season and a very happy New Year.  As Tiny Tim said in “The Christmas Carol,” God bless us every one.

 

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.  
 

 

 

Monday, December 16th, 2024
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

HEALTHCARE IN LOUISIANA AND THE U.S. A REAL MESS!

A vigilante killing takes place in New York City, and the shooter is called by some as a hero. The story of this murder has been covered nationally and internationally for over a week. Unfortunately, this tragedy has evolved into not the killing of a single individual, but a reflection of the major crisis that is directed at the healthcare industry in America today.

Healthcare companies are under assault, and for good reason. I dealt with any number of claims against healthcare companies during the time I served as Louisiana’s insurance commissioner throughout the 1990s. Back then, health insurance companies seldom rejected health related claims. And if a claim was rejected, my office rigorously investigated. United healthcare, the company that was headed up by the recent shooting victim Brian Thompson, only rejected 1.1% of filed claims 20 years ago. In a recent national survey, conducted by insurance consultant Premier, major companies like United healthcare are refusing to pay on average 15% or more of claims that are filed.

Under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) of 2010, the federal Department of Health and Human Resources is directed to study and monitor claim results of individual companies, and make this information public. But they don’t do it. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that some insurance companies deny almost half of all claims. Which companies? You can’t find out. Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, there’s been a failure to follow the law, and the public is left in the dark.

If your healthcare claim is denied, you have the right to appeal. But consumers rarely do. It’s just too cumbersome. You spent hours on the telephone with the healthcare company, fill out numerous forms, have to make your doctor fill out copious correspondence, and the average claimant just gets bogged down in tons of paperwork. If you appeal, yes it makes a difference. Kaiser reports that 41% of claims that have initially been denied are reversed on appeal. What does this tell us? Way too many claims are being denied in the first place.

The bottom line is that there is too much coziness between federal agencies that are supposed to be monitoring healthcare results and the healthcare companies they are supposed to oversee. And you and I pay the price. Unfortunately, state regulators are not doing any better job. Insurance commissioners supposedly collect data of claims have been denied, but with only a couple of exceptions, these regulators do not make this information public. Connecticut and Vermont do, but Louisiana keeps it hidden.

Back in the 90s, I proposed and was successful in getting the legislature to pass laws that outlawed insurance companies from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. Louisiana was the first state in the country to do so, and other states quickly followed. In addition, I created a healthcare bureau of last resort. If a person was not qualified to receive healthcare coverage through Medicare or Medicaid, and could not afford buying it in the private sector, they could turn to the Department of Insurance program that created an agency of last resort. The insurance cost was a little higher than what the average citizen paid, but at least there was a program available to help those who could not find any health insurance.

Here’s what healthcare researcher, The Commonwealth Fund reports about the state of our healthcare in America today. “People in the United States experience the worst health outcomes overall of any high-income nation. Americans are more likely to die younger, and from avoidable causes, than residents of peer countries. The U.S. has the lowest life expectancy at birth, the highest death rates for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest maternal and infant mortality, and among the highest suicide rates.”

Bottom line? Americans are being dramatically shortchanged in terms of the healthcare they are receiving, the quality of the healthcare, the skyrocketing cost of health insurance, and regulators who allow healthcare companies to deny legitimate claims. The system is a real mess. And it’s a nationwide problem. Here’s hoping President Trump and his healthcare secretary pick Robert Kennedy will put finding a way for affordable healthcare on their front burner agenda.

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.

DONALD TRUMP, JESSE JAMES AND REDNECK LOUISIANA!

December 9^th, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

DONALD TRUMP, JESSE JAMES AND REDNECK LOUISIANA!

 

The tough guy outlaw image.  That’s what President Trump has often portrayed himself. He said on a number of occasions that he has been investigated “more than Jesse James,” and call the famous outlaw “a great bank robber.”  There is no doubt that Jesse James and the James gang were colorful characters who liked to think of themselves as Robin Hoods that robbed Banks of the rich guys and spread it among the poor Missouri dirt farmers.

 

And would you believe that my grandmother, who was delightfully named Sweetie Pearl Brown, claimed to me that she had met Jesse himself? Sweetie Pearl was about the most entertaining person I ever knew. She relished telling me yarns about growing up in the Missouri foothills of Clay County.  She swore to me (and I believe her) that her father, William Hull, hid out Jesse James and his gang as the bank robbers crisscrossed the Midwest.

 

 According to Sweetie Pearl, she would hear the James gang come riding up to the Hull farm in the middle of the night, enter their family cabin, and lie down on the floor in front of the fire to sleep a spell.  After they left in the early morning hours, Sweetie would see the spur marks in the wood floor. The gang members kept their boots on in case a quick getaway became necessary.

 

She swore that Jesse James never was killed by one of his own men. This was all a ruse, so she said, to get the lawmen off his tracks. The official version in the history books is that gang member Robert Ford shot Jesse in the back for a big reward in 1882 in St. Joseph, Missouri.  Not true, said Sweetie Pearl. She swears the Robin Hood-like folk hero made his way down to northeast Louisiana and spent some ten years in the small community of Floyd in West Carroll Parish, about two miles south of Poverty Point.

 

I somewhat doubted her version until I read a story in the Bastrop Enterprise dated June 23, 1938, about how Jesse and some of his gang holed up in northeast Louisiana for over ten years after his reported death. One local account is from a Mrs. W. A. Ober, who told the paper: “It happened on a boat on Bayou Bartholomew tied up at Old Lynn Grove. During a card game, a card shark was discovered winning the game and Jesse pulled out his pearl handle pistol with his name engraved on it. The card cheater, in a sharp tone, demanded, “˜To whom do I owe my disgrace?’ The reply came, “˜to Jesse James.'”

 

Could it have been that one of the most famous outlaws in the nation’s history pulled a ruse and spent his final days right down here in Louisiana?  We know that Bonne and Clyde met their just rewards in the northwest parish of Bienville, near the small town of Sailes back in 1934.  There is even a small memorial stone to mark where the shooting took place.

 

So who knows?  Maybe, instead of being gunned down by a fellow gang member as many history books tell us, Grandmother Sweetie Pearl could have been right on the money in both having met Jesse James, and knowing that his final resting place was right here in the Bayou State.  There is no doubt Jesse was a tough guy. So it’s not surprising that President Trump admired the outlaw that might have ended up right here in Louisiana.

 

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.

 

 

EDWARDS AND DUKE – THE RACE FROM HELL!

Monday, December 2^nd, 2024

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

EDWARDS AND DUKE – THE RACE FROM HELL!

 

It was 33 years ago this past week that perhaps the most consequential and controversial election in the nation’s history took place here in the Bayou State. Edwin Edwards and David Duke squared off in a run-off election for Governor. Not only were voters across the nation fascinated by what was taking place down in the deepest of the deep Southern states. There was worldwide interest in a showdown between a controversial former Governor and the former head of the Ku Klux Klan.

 

Incumbent Governor Buddy Roemer was squeezed out of the runoff, as Edwards outflanked him to the left and Duke overwhelmed Roemer among conservative voters. Louisiana is the only state in America that has a convoluted election system where all candidates run against each other the same time, irrespective of political affiliation. It’s been called the “jungle primary,” and was the downfall of Roemer.

 

He tried to run as centralist, and you just can’t do that under Louisiana’s current system. I know this from personal experience as a candidate for governor, as I was cut out in the same convoluted system four years earlier. Roemer was left on the sidelines as the showdown pitted conservative white Louisianans against populist southern democratic voters, with moderates stuck in the middle trying to figure out just what was the least offensive vote to cast.

 

I had an up-close view of the race as I was running myself statewide for Insurance Commissioner. My path would cross with both candidates several times a week as we each crisscrossed Louisiana in our efforts to garner votes. It was retail politics at its best as all the statewide candidates “pressed the flesh” at fairs, parades, festivals and campaign rallies all over the state. Today, candidates try to influence votes by raising money and going on TV. It’s a sad commentary on the current political atmosphere that those who hope to get elected generally ignore the chance to get out and visit with voters.

 

A surreal moment took place for me a week before the election. My wife and I took a break from our own campaigning, and drove over to a large crawfish restaurant in Breaux Bridge with some friends. I felt comfortable that I would win handily in my own race for insurance commissioner, and we just wanted to get away from all the campaigning. Some of the locals recognized me, but our group mostly stayed to ourselves in one of the corners and focused on enjoying the crawfish.

 

Just as we got settled, Edwin Edwards walked in the door. He made a beeline for our table, took a seat, ordered a tray of crawfish, and, in typical Edwards fashion, began entertaining our group and surrounding tables with his Cajun humor. Not 10 minutes later, in comes David Duke. Spotting our group, he too joined us as the whole restaurant focused on our table. The banter and joking went on for a good while between the two candidates. Then they each went to their own separate tables. In the next hour, patrons of the restaurant lined up at the tables of their chosen candidate, either Edwards or Duke, often leaving a cash donation. Just another night on the campaign trail.

 

Edwards went on to soundly defeat Duke receiving 61% of the vote, served out his fourth term as governor, went to jail, ran for Congress, had a new son at the age of 86, and passed away at the age of 93. A birthday celebration  following his release from prison was a sell out at the grand ballroom of a New Orleans hotel, and a recent poll pegged him as the most popular  governor in Louisiana’s last one hundred years.

 

Duke also went to jail, ran for U.S. Senator in 2016, and continued to rant about white supremacy. He was a factor in Donald Trump’s first presidential election as Duke endorsed Trump, and Trump refused to disassociate himself from the former Klan leader.

 

Gubernatorial elections in Louisiana are never bland and boring. But it will be hard to top the Edwards-Duke knock-down-drag-out election of 1991 that will go down in history as “the race from hell.”

 

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