WASHINGTON — A divided White House staff, anxious corporate executives,
lawmakers and foreign leaders are fiercely competing for President
Trump’s ear this week as he nears a decision on whether to pull the
United States out of the Paris climate accord, the landmark agreement
that commits nearly every country to combat global warming.
Trump has said for ages that he would take us out of the Paris agreement. The administration is already taking policy steps that would violate it anyway. But somehow we're supposed to humor the pretense that a "divided" team of advisors is carefully weighing choices as the President deliberates. Does that sound anything like what these people actually do?
Even the ostensible pro-Paris side of Trump's entourage is a joke.
Mr.
Trump’s daughter, however, has spent the past several weeks making sure
that her father has heard from both sides, according to an
administration official familiar with her efforts.
Ms.
Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, a senior adviser in the White House,
also favors staying as long as doing so does not legally limit the steps
Mr. Trump is taking to move away from the restrictive environmental
standards President Barack Obama put in place.
The Kushners' idea is that hey maybe we can remain a party to the agreement as long as we don't actually have to follow the agreement. That's supposed to be the moderate side of a so-called debate within the White House.
Everyone knows this is bullshit. President Norquist (who is also in this article for some reason) has already made up his mind.
“Everybody who hates Trump wants him to stay in Paris. Everybody who
respects him, trusts him, voted for him, wishes for him to succeed wants
him to pull out,” said Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist who had
earlier posted on Twitter the “Top 5 reasons USA should withdraw from Paris ‘climate’ debacle.”
Anyway, do stay tuned. Try not to spoil the outcome.
Mack is the chairman of the House Committee on the Administration of
Criminal Justice, which has to approve the bills, and has influence over
the fate of the legislation because of his position.
You'd think a guy in Mack's position would have gotten a little more hands-on with this high profile legislation a lot earlier in the process. But no.
The criminal justice package that
has been moving its way through the Legislature is a compromise struck
by Gov. John Bel Edwards and and Louisiana's district attorneys after
weeks of negotiations. Mack said he has not talked to the governor or
district attorneys about his amendments yet.
"He hasn't really talked to anybody about his changes, which is the
frustrating part," said Rep. Joseph Marino, of Gretna, who is carrying
the three Senate bills in the House. Marino, a criminal defense lawyer,
has been involved in many of the negotiations between the governor and
the district attorneys. "The reason we've been having all the meetings
to build consensus is to avoid people doing just this type of thing."
Mack wants to write out the retroactivity stipulations of the bills meaning non-violent and some first time violent offenders currently in prison will no longer have the possibility of seeing their sentences shortened. In addition to the plain cruelty there, Mack is jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in budgetary savings. Walt Leger's proposal to reinvest those savings into various crime prevention, re-entry programs, and victims' services just passed this afternoon. Why? Well, he has tried to run for DA in his district before. Maybe that's where he's headed next. But that isn't for a while. Maybe he just likes the attention.
Neil Abramson's Constitutional Convention isn't going to happen. Can't blow it all up and start over. Still have to fix a budget shortfall and "fiscal cliff" problem. They've got about a week.
Sponsored by Sen. Jean-Paul "JP" Morrell, D-New Orleans, Senate Bill 209 proposes
to create "a special prestige motor vehicle license plate to be known
as the 'Krewe of NYX' plate," priced at $25 each plus administrative
fees for the state. Available only to current members of the krewe, the
bill would require there to be at least 1,000 applicants before the
license plate could be created and issued.
Full proceeds of the $25 "annual royalty fee" would be "collected by
the (Department of Public Safety and Corrections) and forwarded to the
Krewe of NYX," the bill states.
The portion of the bill referring to the Nyx license plate appeared
to be tacked on to Morrell's original bill that proposed to up the fee
for the "Animal Friendly" specialty license plate from $25 to $35. That fee goes to the state for animal population control.
Unlike the "Animal Friendly" plates, the Nyx plates don't even raise money for anything nice. They just send the money right back to the Krewe which, given all of the above, is kind of a shady proposition.
Also, do they really think 1,000 people will buy these? According to the latest numbers, Nyx boasts 2,951 riders. But these are license plates, not throws. (Actually they should have asked about branded brake tags. That would have immediately become the most coveted throw in Carnival.) I guess if they get enough of their number on board with the propaganda campaign, it'll happen.
It looks like they've got some work to do on that front, though. Some of the Senators seemed confused as to just what a "NYX" even is. What's worse, when pressed for an explanation, Morrell didn't exactly describe them as a "Superkrewe."
Morrell then received a couple of good-natured jabs from fellow senators.
"Is this the New York Stock Exchange you're wanting to create a license plate for?" quipped Sen. Barrow Peacock, R-Shreveport. "I just think you're getting very pro-business here."
"Well, I am sure the ladies of Nyx would love to have the kind of
money that the New York Stock Exchange trades on a daily
basis," Morrell replied. "But they're home-grown, they're - well, I
would say a 'little krewe'...but they're not really a little krewe."
In this cautionary tale, Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto slowly realizes he's made a huge mistake by giving Uber everything it wants from in return for nothing besides a momentary claim to being an "Innovation!" guy. Here's a timeline with emails and stuff, My favorite part is probably where Peduto goes on the radio and lectures his critics as though they are children.
The emails I obtained showed that Peduto was both eager to impress the Silicon Valley hotshot and was happy to carry the company's water in public. In May 2015, Peduto and his staff fought hard both in public and behind the scenes to get the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to reduce a fine levied against the company for operating in the state without permission. After we published our story, Peduto railed against us on local radio.
"I have an opportunity to talk to the CEO of Uber on a semi-regular basis. And they're committed to creating over a thousand jobs in this city that are well-paying jobs," Peduto told Pittsburgh radio station WDVE after our story ran. "To say 'Oh my god, he's trying to help this horrible company, he's defending this horrible company. When we are creating an entire industry that brought the White House here to talk about autonomous vehicles, robotics, and everything else and will bring other companies and spinoffs for decades to come … it's unbelievably ridiculous."
Uber goes on to deliver none of the jobs, data sharing or any of the obligations of the "partnership" Peduto imagined they had agreed to because, of course. He seems frustrated about this now but then maybe next time he'll remember that when you're getting to be text buds with a billionaire venture capital creep, you're probably doing the opposite of serving your constituents well.
The takeaway here for politicians is that Uber—nor any other major corporation—is not your friend. The company has shown time and time again that it will ignore regulations, lobby ferociously, promise the moon and stars, and then act as it always has: in whatever manner is best for Uber. Uber has always done this; it's long past time for local politicians to stop handing the keys to their cities to the company.
Or any company, really. Will your local politicians to learn this lesson, though. Not unless there's a slideshow about it at the next Entrepreneur Week.
The State Police is handling the investigation into the shooting,
which occurred just before 11 p.m. on St. Louis Street between Chartres
and Royal streets, said Trooper Melissa Matey, spokeswoman for the
agency.
New Orleans officials are trying to orchestrate an elaborate swap that would turn over the city-owned Public Belt Railroad to the Port of New Orleans, and in turn would give the city the last two working wharves along the downriver end of the French Quarter, according to sources familiar with the talks.
The deal, if achieved, would accomplish two things: It would ease concerns among port officials about the future of the railroad, which is crucial to their operations, and which Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration has been considering privatizing.
And by giving the city control of the last bit of working riverfront between the Central Business District and Bywater, it could potentially open up uninterrupted access for the public to a two-mile stretch of the riverfront in the city's historic center.
Yeah it could open up access for the public or it could open up access to prime real estate for developers looking to drop in more hotels and/or luxry housing we do seem to enjoy building around here. We'll see how that discussion develops if this deal goes through.
Another interesting facet of this story has the Port looking to acquire the Avondale Shipyard to make up for the loss of the wharves. There had been a rumor going around about a long term plan to relocate all port facilities away from the Orleans Parish riverfront to sites in St. Bernard Parish and at Avondale. This development doesn't necessarily confirm that rumor but it does lend it a whiff of credibility. At a recent Dock Board meeting, the Port's CEO did say there are "multiple scenarios" under discussion.
In addition to the project’s likely property seizures, displacement of residents and construction nuisances, Campbell said that if Florida Avenue is rebuilt, the Ninth Ward will be subject to exhaust, noise and vibrations from trucks. Hazardous cargo will be a threat.
Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development has big aims for the project, however, saying it can connect Florida Avenue from Elysian Fields Avenue to Paris Road in a reliable manner. The project can provide an optimal, north-south connection from Florida Avenue to St. Bernard Port. A roadway bridge would be built over the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, adjacent to the existing Florida Avenue Bridge. Area roads would be improved and newly aligned, DOTD has said.
The big picture goal of relocating the Port of New Orleans fits there as well. Just something to keep in mind.
It's remarkable the degree to which things that are evil on their very face get glossed over. As this article points out, the scheme to knock down the St. Bernard Project and build a "golf community" in its place wasn't the only evil housing policy choice made in post-Katrina New Orleans. But it was among the most cartoonishly evil schemes.
Even before the late 2007 city approval of the demolitions (mistakenly referred to by the Times
as happening in 2006), as demonstrators camped out around the St.
Bernard, the Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded a
contract and $120 million in tax breaks to Atlanta-based developer
Columbia Residential to tear down the St. Bernard and build a
mixed-income complex called Columbia Parc in its place. The new golf
course was part of Columbia's pitch, and the package came heavily backed
by local developers and the Bush family, among others.
Construction of Columbia Parc ultimately cost $440 million. While it
was being built, Alphonso Jackson, the housing secretary under George W.
Bush, resigned under federal investigation into that and other
contracts. The projects were bulldozed with former residents’ belongings
still locked inside.
Columbia Parc opened in 2010, its 685 units
home to just 125 of the 920 households who formerly resided in the St.
Bernard projects. In all, 493 units at the new complex are now rented at
below-market rates, including some to tenants with Section 8 vouchers.
However, to qualify for an apartment, prospective tenants must have a
job and pass a credit check and a background check. In the incarceration capital of the world, and in a city with a black male unemployment rate
of 44 percent, a city where inflation has outpaced income gains since
2000, these requirements keep out all but a tiny sliver of the very
poor.
“The amount of people who are back is about one-ninth of what it was
before,” said Evan Casper-Futterman, a Ph.D candidate in urban planning
and policy at Rutgers University and co-producer of Land of Opportunity,
a documentary that focuses in part on New Orleans redevelopment
schemes. “Okay, does anybody give two fucks about the other 800
[families]? No, because they're poor and undeserving, and some of them
are probably not even in New Orleans.”
It's important to emphasize, this wasn't a failed policy. It succeeded at removing the people it was designed to remove. The plan was to replace poor people with golf. How much more blatant could that be? Some of us are actually old enough to have said so at the time. Not that anyone listened then or listens ever. And now, as the narrative is being spun in a way that re-casts the intent in a nobler light, no one will listen the next time either.
All Mitch has to say is that he appreciates the attention his speech received and that, as mayor, he tries to represent the city well on the national stage... blah blah blah. That's close enough to the truth. There's no need to lie about the intended audience, though.
After an impassioned speech over the removal of Confederate
monuments, New Orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu said he was surprised his
words went viral in an interview ahead of his Sunday appearance on "Meet
The Press."
"I commend it to people, I'm surprised ... that the
speech went viral. It was intended for a local audience," he said in a
recorded interview with NBC's Chuck Todd, "but evidently it's an issue
that people across the country are dealing with and I hope they do it in
a forthright, honest manner with each other."
"Evidently, it's an issue people across the country are dealing with..." as if he had no idea. Does he remember the wave of sentiment that (finally) spurred him to action on this issue began South Carolina? Of course he does. He just assumes you don't... or that no one will say anything.
Of course the speech was staged, produced, and distributed with the intent of getting into the national news. Of course Mitch saw it as an opportunity to build his brand. In the process, he ignored years of work by local activists and organizers. Had his speech been truly meant for a "local audience," it might have addressed their continuing concerns. Instead, Mitch's speech addressed locals only by name-dropping some nationally famous New Orleanians, "my dear friend Wynton Marsalis" or by, insufferably, musing on its heavily touristed cultural institutions.
We gave the world this funky thing called jazz, the most uniquely
American art form that is developed across the ages from different
cultures. Think about second lines, think about Mardi Gras, think about
muffaletta, think about the Saints, gumbo, red beans and rice. By God,
just think.
By God, shut up, already. No local who argued and marched to take down the monuments could possibly be subjected to that language without groaning. Obviously the speech was crafted for a national audience. Not that that's entirely a bad thing. Mitch delivered the strongest arguments many of us had been making for years to an audience we weren't able to reach. Sure, he took all of the credit for himself, but at least he did represent our point of view well.
There's no need for him to lie about that. The pretense is insulting and and condescending to both the local and national audiences. But, then, this wouldn't be Mitch if it wasn't. The credit for that is all his.
While players were in shorts and there was no tackling, Peterson
appeared to be fit and largely recovered from knee and abductor injuries
that sidelined him most of last season. He participated vigorously in
the entirety of Thursday’s non-contact practice. Other than a fumbled a
handoff exchange with backup quarterback Chase Daniel, he had few
missteps and saw perhaps more action that he otherwise might have
because incumbent starting running back Mark Ingram was held out for
unspecified reasons.
Take 'Em Down organizer Malcolm Suber said the administration should
hold a series of town halls to decide what will replace the statues.
Asked about his personal preference, Suber said the sites should house
"symbols of liberation" and suggested a statue of former City
Councilwoman Dorothy Mae Taylor, who led the charge in banning parades
by segregated Carnival krewes in 1992.
Make the old line krewes have to roll past Dorothy Mae from now on. This would be perfect.
Same drill as always. The forecast never tells us anything meaningful in comparison to what we actually experience in a given location. All we really know is it will be Hurricane Season soon. A storm might come here. It could be bad.
This is a small matter but it should probably be noted. I'll try to quickly explain the very dry nuts and bolts of it so you'll understand just how small a matter it is. Yesterday the Democrats in the state House voted to hold up House Bill 3 which authorizes bond sales to pay for items in House Bill 2 which is the capital projects budget. The reason they did this, and they freely admit this is the reason, is they needed something they could use as leverage to talk about how bad the Republicans' version of House Bill 1 (the operating budget) actually is.
With two weeks to go in the session, the legislature has done nothing to solve its ongoing fiscal crisis. They have shelved all of the governor's proposed revenue measures, put forth a draconian Republican budget that futher slashes health and social services in favor of TOPS and a 2.5 percent "cushion" just in case currently insufficient revenues turn out to be even less sufficient, and set themselves firmly on course to come back into special session later in the year probably so they can fail all over again.
There are a few things the Senate can do to help but the source of the trouble is in the House so that's a good place for the Democrats to throw a tantrum. And that's what the hold up over HB 3 is. It's a tantrum, probably a symbolic one at that. Everybody knows HB 3 has to pass eventually. The maneuver here is just meant to get some attention. And this is why all of the Democrats in the House voted together on this. They needed to send a signal that they mean business and.... wait.. what? Oh... sure.
HB3 needed a super-majority of at least 70 votes in the 105-member House. It received 56 votes, with only one Democrat voting yes.
One guy just couldn't get on board. I mean, like we said, it's a small thing since there were enough votes to stop the bill and all but isn't it interesting that one Democrat had to sit out the exercise. Let's go see who that was. I'll bet you can spot it.
Voting for HB3 (56): Speaker Barras, and Reps. Abraham, Abramson, Amedee, Bacala, Bagley, Berthelot, Bishop, Broadwater, S. Carter, Chaney, Coussan, Crews, Cromer, Davis, DeVillier, Dwight, Edmonds, Emerson, Falconer, Guinn, L. Harris, Havard, Hazel, Henry, Hilferty, Hodges, Hoffmann, Hollis, Horton, Howard, Huval, N. Landry, Leopold, Mack, Magee, McFarland, Miguez, G. Miller, Jay Morris, Jim Morris, Pearson, Pope, Pugh, Pylant, Richard, Schexnayder, Seabaugh, Shadoin, Simon, Stagni, Stefanski, Stokes, Talbot, Thomas and Zeringue.
Again, not a huge thing, but it's a very Neil thing.
In any case, the fight over the House budget isn't over. This afternoon the governor stepped in and threatened a veto if the final version looks like what the House has passed. It's good to see somebody is playing hardball. Since we'll all be back here in a few months anyway, there's no reason not to.
Stokes’ measures – the first major tax bills to win approval in the House during the regular session – are modeled on one of the recommendations of a task force that spent 2016 studying the tax system.
She noted that Louisiana is only three states that allow the federal tax deduction.
Republicans in the House have been fearful that the Senate might change any House-approved income tax measures to raise more revenue.
State Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil City, won a pledge from Stokes that she would kill the bills if the Senate did that.
Yeah who even knows. My best guess is it's part of the campaign to keep the governor from claiming any success against the budget gap. Or maybe they're just dumb. I'm beginning to see that as the easy answer to a lot of these questions lately.
Take ‘Em Down NOLA opposes Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s “go it alone” attitude about deciding what will happen to the remnants of the former Robert E. Lee, P.G.T. Beauregard and Jefferson Davis monuments.
These sites belong to the citizens of New Orleans and not to massa Mitch. Citizens must be involved in any decision about their future.
If we're not done talking by the time the party comes along, we're fine with that. Mitch might not be but this isnt his project anyway. It never really was.
To date, 29 states and Washington D.C. have minimum wages that are
higher than the federal minimum wage. In Louisiana, 5.3 percent of
workers earn the federal minimum wage or lower. Employees like
restaurant waitstaff and agricultural employees are exempt from the wage
laws. But Louisiana has a higher percentage of workers who earn minimum
wages than any other state in the nation.
Jan Moller, executive director of the Louisiana
Budget Project, said the hike would have given effected workers an
additional $852 per year. He noted that one in three of those workers
are single parents. About 119,000 children live in homes where their
parents or guardians earn minimum wages.
But the Republican
majority of the committee expressed concerns that business owners
dealing with the increased costs would ultimately lay off staff or
automate the entry level jobs creating even less opportunity.
Sen. Jack Donahue, R-Mandeville, said people who feel they're being underpaid have the freedom to seek out another job.
Sure. If you find that you are among the estimated 127,000 Louisianians held in destitution by a degradingly low wage floor, it's probably because you hate freedom or something. There are worse quotes than Donahue's from today's debate. But the Republicans are either operating on a 5th grade understanding of economic policy or they're being insultingly disingenuous. Let's be nice and assume it's the latter. Either way, nothing they said is worth taking seriously enough to argue with.
In any case, they don't care. What they do care about is beating the Governor. And since raising the minimum wage (even this piddling, insignificant amount) was a key campaign promise of his, they're not going to help him accomplish even that.
Costello and members of the Algiers Point Association both said they
would prefer it if the existing terminal remained in place and received
minor upgrades, such as a paint job or new art on its walls.
While
there is little money available for any sort of improvement, the RTA
hopes to attract private dollars under a partnership that would need to
be cleared by the state Legislature, Augustine said. The agency would
issue a request for proposals, then a private developer could agree to
finance improvements or build a new terminal in exchange for receiving
ferry fare revenues or some other form of payment from the RTA.
Similar
private involvement in public transportation projects has had mixed
results elsewhere, ending in failure when costly projects don’t generate
enough fare or toll revenue over the long-term.
Sure the privatization model keeps "failing" if you're judging it by quality of service delivered. But that isn't really the point, is it?
House
Democrats on Wednesday touted unprecedented majority support for a bill
that would expand Medicare to the entire U.S. population, reflecting a
growing liberal consensus behind single-payer health insurance.
Rep.
John Conyers (D-Mich.), who has been introducing single-payer
legislation since 2003, said at a press conference that Democrats must
counter the Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act with support for “Medicare for all.”
“Obviously we’re all united in opposition to Trumpcare. That’s easy,” he said. “People know what we’re against, but we want to promote more what we are for.”
Sounds like somebody has a great idea about how to approach the midterms. It's far from clear the party's strategy will reflect that. The other side is for throwing 23 million people off of their insurance plans. If there were a time to run on a hard contrast, now would be that time.
President Donald Trump repeatedly addressed the possibility of
a U.S. nuclear attack on North Korea in a private call last month with
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Intercept.
“We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like
that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has times 20, but we
don’t want to use it,” Trump told Duterte. (In fact, the U.S. has 6,800
nuclear warheads and North Korea is thought to have about 10.) “You will be in good shape,” he added.
“We have a lot of firepower over there. We have two submarines — the
best in the world — we have two nuclear submarines — not that we want to
use them at all,” Trump said. “I’ve never seen anything like they are,
but we don’t have to use this, but he could be crazy so we will see what
happens.”
The Fox Sports article cited here is just a clickbait list the object of which was to say the snarkiest thing possible about every NFL stadium. So the Advocate isn't helping to clarify matters by highlighting the snark in the headline they chose to run. Even within the context of the list, there are still 11 "worse" stadiums than the Superdome according to the article. By doing that the Advocate is helping to imply that we're supposed to pony up another billion dollars or so for Tom Benson (or his successor) sometime soon.
Anyway, the whole thing is dumb. The Superdome is a fantastic building and should be revered as such. It's the "last of the true domes" for a reason. It was the one that got done right.
It seemed reasonable at the time. But how careless do you have to be to overlook the fact that Billy Nungesser is right there. I mean, there's still time but it looks like Billy is the overwhelming favorite now.
President Donald Trump's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget "robs Louisiana of financial resources promised to us for coastal restoration"
by calling for the repeal of a law that was set to provide the state
with as much as $140 million a year in revenue from Gulf offshore oil
and gas, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday (May 23).
Trump's budget also threatens key health care services for Louisiana
residents, Edwards said in a news release urging the state's
Congressional delegation to oppose Trump's budget proposal, "including
cutting federal funding for Medicaid
patients and health care providers by eliminating Medicaid expansion
coverage and cutting health care for elderly and disabled residents."
The budget also calls for major cuts in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which offers health care to 122,000 Louisiana children, he said.
"In recent years, Louisiana and waters just off its shore have been
the second largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the nation,"
Edwards said, referring to his opposition to killing GOMESA.
"Republican and Democratic leaders from Louisiana have fought to secure
dedicated funding to offset the effects of oil and gas leasing and
production along our coast. Permanent sharing of federal revenues is
critical to ensure Louisiana's coast remains fully operational, protects
vital national infrastructure and provides the necessary barriers to
protect our working coast and citizens."
Keep in mind, though, there's a long way to go and this is not, in fact, the actual budget. Trump isn't even the first President to try and deny Louisiana's share of oil revenue. I guess we should argue that even though the President's proposal is a "wish list" it still sets the parameters of the ensuing congressional debates. But this thing is so absurd and everything is so upside down in Trump world that... well.. how can we take any of this seriously?
However, hospitality workers who attended an RTA board meeting on Tuesday (May 23) said the three RTA representatives who participated in the "Night Owl" bus ride did not get the full experience of the late-night trip.
Lita Farquhar, a member of the Hospitality Workers Committee who was on the ride, told RTA commissioners that the group missed the first bus they intended to take. Then, while they had said they would ride the whole route, Farquhar said that when one of the workers decided to get off the bus and walk home, RTA representatives also got off -- about an hour and a half before the bus finished its route.
"They were paid to be there and agreed to experience the incompetence of the Night Owl, but decided to get off before the end of the route," Farquhar said.
Aside from critiquing RTA's commitment to the full ride, Farquhar also argued against RTA's finding that ridership is low during the Night Owl. She said ridership is low not because demand is low, but because the Night Owl's service is poor.
She and others are calling on the RTA to increase the number of buses, routes, and stops, and to launch a shuttle in the downtown area to bring workers to stops.
Augustine says a few times in this article that "the demand isn't there" for increased late night service. But the complaints of the ridership and event RTA's own numbers provided in the article seem to suggest otherwise. Anyway.. 24 hour town with a workforce that can't afford to live near the 24 hour jobs anymore. Better find a way to get them to work.
So many things Democrats "should" do that they really don't want to do on account of the way their party funds itself. Often, they fundraise themselves.. and all of us.. into a corner on critical matters such as the very existence of public education.
There are plenty of reasons that Democrats should steer clear of the
charter industry. Charter corporations have been repeatedly charged with
fraud, nepotism, self-dealing, and conflicts of interest. Many charters
make money on complex real-estate deals. Worst of all are the “cybercharters”:
mega-corporations that offer virtual schools, with high attrition, low
test scores, and abysmal graduation rates. The biggest cybercharter
chain is K12 Inc., started by former junk-bond king Michael Milken and
listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
But it’s more than a matter
of sleeping with the enemy. School choice doesn’t work, and
“evidence-based” Democrats ought to acknowledge it. Charter schools are a
failed experiment. Study after study has shown that they do not get
better test scores than public schools unless they screen out English-language learners and students with profound disabilities. It’s well-established that school choice increases segregation, rather than giving low-income students better opportunities. And kids using vouchers actually lose ground in private schools.
Support for charters is paving the way for a dual school system—one
that is allowed to choose the students it wants, and another that is
required to accept all who enroll.
This is what Democrats should
be yelling about. And if there’s ever a moment for them to reclaim
their mantle as the party of public education, it’s now. The misguided
push for “reform” is currently being led not by Obama and Duncan, but by
Trump and DeVos, giving Democrats an opening to shift gears on
education—though they’ll lose some of that hedge-fund money. But if 2016
taught Democrats anything, it’s how unwise it was to allow the
demolition of organized labor—including teachers’ unions, once a great
source of money and grassroots energy. The party needs strong teachers’
unions and it needs their enthusiasm.
Right now they're really hoping they can keep after the Russia thing, though. That way they never have to address any of this.
The other day, even as we celebrated the final toppling, we took some time to knock the mayor for his grandstanding. He is cynical and ambitious and takes far too much credit for the decades of work by grass roots activists who actually got us to this point. Still, independent of those facts, the speech itself was good. I did say so, even in that post. It probably could have done without the Sorkinesque "both sidesy" praise of George Bush and the hammy language about jazz and gumbo and the Saints and whatever. But that just comes with the phony Mitch package. Best to look past it.
Considered in a vacuum, though, the speech is a complete and compelling summary of the arguments we've all been making against the monuments. For that reason, I'm glad people are connecting with it. It's getting passed all over the national media this week. And while it's annoying as all hell that Mitch's personal PR campaign is succeeding, on balance, it's a net plus that these arguments are circulating. Here's a passage.
Another friend asked me to consider
these four monuments from the perspective of an African American mother
or father trying to explain to their fifth grade daughter who Robert E.
Lee is and why he stands atop of our beautiful city.
Can you do it?
Can
you look into that young girl’s eyes and convince her that Robert E.
Lee is there to encourage her? Do you think she will feel inspired and
hopeful by that story? Do these monuments help her see a future with
limitless potential? Have you ever thought that if her potential is
limited, yours and mine are too?
We all know the answer to these very simple questions.
When
you look into this child’s eyes is the moment when the searing truth
comes into focus for us. This is the moment when we know what is right
and what we must do. We can’t walk away from this truth.
Maybe that's a little a little heavy handed. It's not even what I'd consider the strongest part of the speech. But its point is undeniable. Every "historic preservationist" writing letters to the editor this week should have to confront this.
Also I had this photo from this year's Chaos parade and this made me think of it.
Ross: I think the other thing that was fascinating to me …
there was not a single hint of a protestor anywhere there during the
whole time we were there, not one guy with a bad placard, instead …
Host: But Secretary Ross, that may be but not necessarily because they don’t
have those feelings there but because they control people and don’t
allow them to to come and express their feelings quite the same as we do
here.
Ross: In theory that could be true. But boy there was
certainly no sign of it, there was not a single effort at any incursion.
There wasn’t anything. The mood was a genuinely good mood. And at the
end of the trip, as I was getting back on the plane the security guards
from the Saudi side who’d been helping us over the weekend all wanted to
pose for a big photo-op. And then they gave me two gigantic bushels of
dates, as a present, as a thank you for the trip that we had had. That
was a pretty from the heart, very genuine gesture. It really touched me.
This week, the Trump administration appointed him as new director of
the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, part of the
Department of the Interior and the office created after the 2010 BP oil
spill to oversee offshore drilling safety. The appointment does not
require Senate approval.
Angelle is the second electoral also-ran
to land a job in the administration; he'll be joining former U.S. Rep.
John Fleming of Minden, who lost out in the 2016 Senate race. Fleming
works at the Department of Health and Human Services.
In a statement, Angelle made it clear he continues to see the industry as ally, not adversary.
“It
is an exciting and challenging time for BSEE; I look forward to leading
our efforts to empower the offshore oil and gas industry while ensuring
safe and environmentally responsible operations,” Angelle said.
Sounds like he'll fit right in. Not that there should have been any doubt that Angelle would be qualified to "empower" the oil and gas industry vis-a-vis environmental regulation. He probably just in his Blue Heron award in lieu of a resume.
But Louisiana's lack of urgency in carrying out death sentences —
which distinguishes Louisiana from other law-and-order states like Texas
and Oklahoma — has been a frustration to at least one state lawmaker.
Rep. Steve Pylant, R-Winnsboro, said he's a proponent of the death
penalty and believes it's an effective deterrent to crime but not if
criminals see the state has cold feet about going through with it.
"We
need to start executing folks," he said. "They say they can't get the
pharmaceuticals — well, then why can other states get them but we can't?
If we don't want to do lethal injections, we got firing squads, we got
gas chambers, we got other means."
Maybe you will have seen a video like this by now. Mine was one of over a hundred cameras pointed at the general when he popped off the column like champagne cork.
The crowd reacted as though they had just seen Tracy Porter return the monument for a touchdown. Some of the assembled had been agitating against these symbols for decades. Here we were finally able to see the result of that work. It reminded us of the value of persistence. A righteous cause is no less a worthy cause no matter how long it may seem hopeless. Those who continue to make the argument may live to see their moment. This is from an Atlantic article by Kevin Levin on the long arc of post-Confederate historiography that finally got us here.
In recent decades, changes in the racial and ethnic profile of local
governments throughout the former Confederate states for the first time
has made possible a more inclusive discussion about what existing
monuments mean to their communities and which individuals and events
deserve to be remembered and commemorated in public spaces. The ongoing
debate in cities and towns across the South over Confederate iconography
is a testament to this dramatic shift.
Shortly after the dedication of the Lee monument in Richmond in 1890, John Mitchell, the editor of the Richmond Planet,
noted that, “He [the African American] put up the Lee monument, and
should the time come, will be there to take it down.” Mitchell’s
protests and those of others throughout much of the 20th century went
largely unheard owing to a Jim Crow system that Confederate monuments
themselves helped to cement. Now a major city is taking the general down
from atop his pedestal. For Lee it represents another chapter in the
slow decline of a once-revered national icon, but for the city of New
Orleans it offers an opportunity for the first time to think carefully
as a community about how its past can inspire it to move forward.
While we were out at the circle watching the general come down, the mayor was not present. Instead he was broadcasting from in front of a row of flags inside Gallier Hall. His talk, the substance of it, the actual words he spoke, was good. Since the day a horrific mass murder in a church in South Carolina thrust attention onto the question of Confederate symbols in southern cities, Mitch has been on the right side of that question. He and his people wrote a good speech. You can see it here. As an argument for taking down the monuments, it is unimpeachable. But this wasn't the sole purpose of the mayor's appearance. The self-serving aspect of his speech is evident in its timing, staging, and most importantly in its removal from the toppling it ostensibly commemorated.
While crowds gathered to watch the Lee statue come down, Mitch Landrieu hid in a little room in front of a carefully selected and exclusive audience and took credit for a thing he was tangentially responsible for simply by virtue of having been the mayor who didn't say no to it. His speech, as good as it was, wasn't intended for the the people who actually advanced and organized and marched for the cause. They weren't even invited. In fact they were in the street watching the fruit of their endeavor at that very moment.
Instead his speech was meant for a national TV audience; people who have little relationship to this city and its politics but are free to project whatever they wish to see onto it without context. Therefore they are easy to impress. Someday some of those people may be in position to give Mitch a job somewhere.* And that's pretty much the only reason he cares about any of this. It suits his purpose for him to. The rest, all of his words, are pure cynicism. In a sense, that's OK. Politicians react when political pressure is brought to bear on them. When people work hard to make the right thing also the opportunistic thing, that's grass roots democracy in action. But it's also important to see it for what it is so that we don't heap too much praise and credit on the politicians themselves who are, after all, merely tools.
There is a tendency in our press to want to rally around him anyway. They are ready for a satisfyingly smarmy conclusion to the local monument story. Some statues came down. Now is the time for "healing." But, by rights, this should be a beginning. No, I don't mean a beginning to more statue toppling. I mean a beginning to a more serious challenge to the existing class and racial power relationships that perpetuate and exacerbate the problems of one of the most unequal, unfair, and fundamentally corrupt cities in America.
I loved seeing the statues come down. But I especially loved this issue because of the way it clarified and called attention to the arrogance, the prejudice, and the latent white supremacist attitudes still active among our city's power elite. But while the statues were toppled, these elites were not. And now they are calling for "healing." Because that's what they always do when they sense that they could be next.
*Some people think Mitch wants to run for President. While I wouldn't be surprised if at least some of his hangers on buy their own bullshit about his potential, I don't think that's the immediate goal. He's still looking to burnish his national reputation, clearly. Mitch definitely is a big time celebrity in his own mind. Most likely he's still angling for a gig with the Aspen Institute or some similar outfit that will get him on TV a lot. State politics is probably out of the question for a few years anyway. So the national spotlight is a good place to be even if direct involvement in national politics isn't.
Ailes has no one but his fast-stiffening self to blame for this
treatment. He is on the short list of people most responsible for modern
America's vicious and bloodthirsty character.
We are a
hate-filled, paranoid, untrusting, book-dumb and bilious people whose
chief source of recreation is slinging insults and threats at each other
online, and we're that way in large part because of the hyper-divisive
media environment he discovered.
Ailes was the Christopher
Columbus of hate. When the former daytime TV executive and political
strategist looked across the American continent, he saw money laying
around in giant piles. He knew all that was needed to pick it up was a)
the total abandonment of any sense of decency or civic duty in the news
business, and b) the factory-like production of news stories that spoke
to Americans' worst fantasies about each other.
This morning an Uptown Lady in the Uptown coffee shop gave me a long and sad "history" lecture. It's not a good day for her.
I stopped by the circle for a few minutes this afternoon. There was not a lot happening yet. The crowd seemed like about 75 or so people. There was some music, some people with signage, at least one person selling T-Shirts. From the looks of things, they're gonna be out there a while. If you're going, maybe bring champagne. Otherwise, follow the action or lack thereof here.
Meanwhile the mayor announced last night that he has some goofy ideas about what to put in place of the statues. We're gonna have to see about all that. Once the monuments are down, Mitch will have outlived his usefulness in the process somewhat. He's in a hurry to turn the Tricentennial into his own personal graduation from office celebration. But he's not turning 300, the whole city is. And these public spaces belong to all of us. So maybe we should broaden the discussion about what to do with them. If that takes us longer than the end of Mitch's term to figure out, then so be it.
The French Quarter street performer known as Uncle Louie has been
arrested in connection with a deadly convenience store robbery that
occurred almost exactly 43 years ago in Jacksonville, Florida.
New
Orleans police helped Jacksonville investigators book Johnie Lewis
Miller, 60, into the city's jail on an out of state murder warrant on
Tuesday morning.
It can always be a little bit more bizarre than you think.
It's been an odd little journey for State Rep Steve Pylant this session. After having co-sponsored a bill to abolish Louisiana's death penalty, he managed to talk himself out of it in time to vote it down in committee. So that's weird. The T-P decided to try and figure out how that it happened. As you might expect, the answer is he's just kind of dumb.
Pylant said Louisiana could be executing more people if officials prioritized it. He pointed out that Arkansas executed four people in eight days in April. Arkansas' lethal injection drugs were about to expire, and drug companies have been reluctant to sell more to Arkansas, Louisiana and other states for capital punishment.
"We say we can't get the drugs to execute with. Arkansas has executed four or five people in the last month," Pylant said. "So something's not right. The powers that be apparently don't have the will to carry out the executions."
The triumph of the will in Arkansas that seems to have inspired Pylant is actually a macabre clearance sale on executions set in motion by Governor Asa Hutchinson. The state's supply of a sedative used in lethal injections is about to expire. Drug manufacturers who no longer want their products used for this
purpose have refused to sell them to the states anymore. Hutchinson's
response is to kill off as many convicts as he can in the meantime. Also, the drug doesn't always work so great as the first of these executions demonstrated once again.
At 7:20 p.m. local time, 52-year-old Jack Harold Jones was pronounced dead in the death chamber at the Cummings Unit state prison. Infirmary workers had spent more than 45 minutes unsuccessfully trying to put a central line into his neck. According to a court filing, during Jones’s execution, he was, quote, "was moving his lips and gulping for air," unquote, which suggests he continued to be conscious during the lethal injection. The controversial sedative midazolam is administered as part of a cocktail of execution drugs to make prisoners unconscious, but it’s repeatedly failed to do so during other executions, leading to painful deaths.
Pylant's wavering on the death penalty seems to have stemmed from his
concern about access to the drugs. Arkansas cruel blundering has reassured him, though. So that's nice.
BREAKING: removed confederate monuments sitting in a maintenance yard next to piles of trash, not in a warehouse like the Mayor said @WWLTVpic.twitter.com/Ay4XIdaPyz
We've covered this dilemma previously, but it isn't really necessary to ask rather John Neely Kennedy is genuinely stupid or just faking. Either way, it's embarrassing for everyone.
Calling Medicaid a "Sharknado-sized health insurance program for 20 percent of
Americans," Sen. John Neely Kennedy wrote in an opinion column today
he would be filing legislation called the “Medicaid Reform and Personal
Responsibility Act of 2017," which would require "able-bodied adult
enrollees" without dependents to work, go to school or perform community
service for 20 hours a week in order to receive Medicaid health
benefits
What does "Sharknado-sized" even mean? How big is a Sharknado? Is it bigger than a regular nado? Or is it distinguished more by virtue of there being sharks in it? No matter, you're still not getting any health care if John thinks you're a slacker.
Kind of a joke in that it's not anything close to a living wage. Also it probably won't achieve final passage. But, hey, progress.. sort of.
The Senate Labor Committee voted 4-2 Wednesday to advance the wage
hike to the full Senate. The proposal made it that far last year before
fizzling when it was diverted to a second Senate committee for review.
It’s unclear whether new support has built for the effort.
If approved, Louisiana’s minimum wage would grow to $8 per hour in
2018 and to $8.50 an hour a year later under the bill by New Orleans
Sen. Troy Carter.
The DA is next up for election in 2020. Chris Bowman, a spokesman for his office, responded to the protest by referencing two shootings that happened on Tuesday shortly after 5 p.m.
"It appears as though while that protest was going on, two people were shot in the city, one of whom was killed. The DA is far more concerned about the violent crime that is spiraling out of control than that small protest," Bowman said.
By the way, House Bill 272 passed last week. Should the Senate concur, that would make the recall process slightly easier to accomplish in Louisiana.
Nobody likes to "erase history," right? So let's come back behind this process and install new monuments to the great and glorious battles to remove the monuments. That should make the history and heritage buffs happy. It will be big for tourism too. Here's a map.
What I like about this Bernstein post is that he spends a paragraph first describing how exasperated he is with the unreality of Trump world before he can even get to the part about how Trump is being exasperating. It's like peeling layers off of a rotten onion. Why are we even doing it?
It's 2017 and our official economic and fiscal policy is still, improbably, voodoo.
I don’t take Trump/Mnuchin’s assertions too seriously, but they do
suggest they’re uninterested in the parts of their tax plan that were in
there to raise revenues, like ending interest deductibility or the
border adjustment tax. They also talked about a tax repatriation scheme
which, if it’s like past versions, also scores as a money loser.
When asked if he was OK with the deficit increase implied by all
that, Trump said, “It is OK, because it won’t increase it for long.” The
tax would trigger growth effects that would offset the deficit.
That’s not gonna happen. Yes, they’ll assume phony growth numbers and
magic-asterisk-spending cuts to make the pools of red ink appear to be
less deep. Congressional Republicans may impose smaller tax cuts than
what I suspect the administration has in mind, though I don’t think they
care much about deficits either. So we’re looking at larger budget
deficits—I’d guess much larger—than are currently forecasted.
By the way, at this point in the interview, the President got into
all that “priming the pump” stuff, but that’s not really their play
here. Keynesian pump-priming is a temporary fiscal boost to offset a
temporary demand contraction. It is designed to boost growth and jobs
during the downturn, but we don’t assume that it will boost the
economy’s underlying growth rate. Trump and Mnuchin, however, are
claiming “supply-side” effects: tax cuts will boost investment,
productivity growth, and labor supply, and thus raise the long-term,
potential growth rate.
In this regard, they’re conflating Keynes, who’s been proven right, and Laffer, who hasn’t.
The exasperating thing here isn't just that Laffer has not been proven correct. It's that he has actually been tested and disproven repeatedly using the entire US economy as a laboratory. Economic theory is loaded with hypothetical, imperfect models. Some are useful. Some are not. But for some reason the most ridiculous of these is the one we keep testing. If there were one macroeconomic theory we could most confidently dismiss as quackery, it would be this one. What reason could policymakers have to try and sell Laffer to you at this point? Fuck you. That's the reason.
If there is one guiding principle of the Trump government, in fact, that would be it. "Fuck you. Why am I even talking to you?" Nothing needs even the appearance of a rationalization anymore. The essence of Trumpist rhetoric is making an argument against having to make an argument. Why reverse the hard fought emerging global consensus on the need for climate action? Fuck you. That's why. Why reboot the widely discredited Drug War and its commensurate policy of brutal mass incarceration? Because fuck you, shut up. Why pretend that "voter fraud" is even a thing? Because... well because we are obscenely racist and we want to suppress the vote... but also because fuck you we don't have to explain anything to you.
Even this week, as cable news makes the Comey affair look all the world like something that could spiral out of control on the, yes, quite dangerously stupid, Trump, it still serves to step back and ask what's actually different. Why are we expecting an explanation now? Does the President have the power and prerogative to unilaterally squash any investigation that might embarrass him? Wasn't Nixon proven wrong about that? Just like Art Laffer, right?
He made his first substantive comments on the matter after the House voted yesterday. And while he wasn't as clear as members of the Legislative Black Caucus were, or as activists in New Orleans and, yes, even Mitch Landrieu have been that the monument preservation movement is really a white supremacist movement, he definitely showed enough skepticism to clue us in about his intent. So can we move on now? Maybe not yet.
The monuments issue has been refreshingly clarifying in local politics. It's shown us just how ingrained old racial attitudes are among some of our city's more powerful figures. It's been especially satisfying to watch erstwhile friends and allies of the mayor grumble under their breath (and sometimes just whine loudly and publicly) at him. I'd like to also be able to congratulate Mitch on having the "courage" to stick to his guns throughout. But that would give him too much credit for exhibiting moral principle where we know it's probably just astute political calculation. However he got there, though, he has been on the right side of a major controversy so there's that. Dole out whatever credit you may think is due.
The bigger story, though, is that we've reached a place where even when the mayor makes a cynical political calculation, the result is positive. It suggests that the next mayor won't have to have old money whites in his or her corner in order to build a successful campaign. That hasn't been true since pre-Nagin days.
Republicans in the Legislature are hoping the monuments issue works differently statewide than it does in Orleans Parish. Everything they've done this session has been about setting up the next campaign against the Governor and this is no different. The idea here is to score a cheap wedge by forcing the Governor to veto a monuments bill. They might be making a mistake, though. There are times when a principled stand on a symbolic issue like this can turn the political calculus in your favor regardless of what the polling and conventional wisdom says at the time. This might turn out to be one of those moments for John Bel.
Chances are the thing won't get to his desk. But political strategists on both sides have a lot to consider before they decide whether or not they actually want it to get there.
Under HB 456, the Legislature would create a 27-member committee of
affiliates from different state associations to meet in September and
determine whether a constitutional convention is even needed. If so, the
committee would provide a written plan. The proposed convention would
then need two-thirds approval of the 2018 Legislature.
If those thresholds are met, the convention would meet in January
2019. It would comprise the committee members and a delegate from each
of the 105 House districts. Anyone could run to be one of the delegates
as long as they represent their House district.
In the meantime there's a fair to middling chance the initial bill at least passes the House. At the very least it gives everybody a ready made excuse for not solving the budget problem this year or next.
Update: Quickly just to add.. this session began with such high hopes. And now look.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — After months of study by a blue-ribbon panel
commissioned to recommend tax overhaul ideas, Louisiana’s lawmakers are
on track to reject most of the big-ticket concepts, sending the
suggestions to the same dustbin as past studies.
Few task force tax suggestions have advanced beyond their first
hearings. Several of the main proposals have been killed outright, while
others haven’t even gotten a hearing as bill sponsors realized they’re
unlikely to gain traction.
The stopping point for many proposals has been the conservative,
majority-Republican House Ways and Means Committee, where most tax bills
must start.
That's Neil Abramson's Committee. Neil said at the outset he'd prefer just to do the constitutional convention. So here we are.
“I don’t know why in a session where we can’t balance a budget,” said
Democratic Rep. Sam Jones, a former Franklin mayor, “we are here today
to refight the Civil War."
Because two lost causes are better than one, obviously.
Also... Where was Neil?
Not Voting (9): Reps Abramson, Broadwater, R. Carter, Connick, Johnson, LeBas, Norton, Reynolds and Stokes.
The deal comes with a $2.5 million signing bonus and base salaries of
$1 million in 2017, which is guaranteed, and $1.05 million in 2018.
The
key for him will be his performance. He can earn earn additional money
by rushing for 750 ($150,000), 1,000 ($250,000), 1,250 ($750,000) or
1,500 ($1 million) yards each of the next two seasons.
Another
bonus will come if he hits six ($250,000), eight ($500,000) or 10
touchdowns ($750,000). The 10 touchdown bonus will only be paid if he
also leads the league in rushing yards.
The Saints were already loading up the roster with Old Broken Guys before they went out and added a bad hamstring and a bad hip in the first round of the draft. Get ready to read a lot of "IF everybody stays healthy..." when training camp comes around.
You know, outside of the horrifying context in which we find ourselves ruled by bullies who are actually proud to brand themselves on belligerent ignorance, this is actually a liberating lesson for us to learn. If we ever learn it.
In
the aftermath of Trump’s election, many sought solace in the thought
that our reality-star-in-chief would delegate such weighty decisions to
the “adults” in his administration. After all, the president is famously
impressionable, forever echoing the sentiments of the last adviser who
filled his ear. And White House “moderates” did capitalize on that
suggestibility last month, when they averted an economic shock by deploying a series of visual aids to convince the president that abruptly exiting NAFTA (in celebration of his 100th day in office) would be unwise.
But the president’s malleability is just as useful to Roger Stone
as it is to Gary Cohn. And “adults” in the West Wing can be just as
immature and incompetent as they are everywhere else — points amply
illustrated by last week’s events.
The lesson should be, let's never assume the people in charge have any idea what they're doing. That way it follows they should be subject to the will and scrutiny of public... you know.. democracy. Unfortunately the #Resistance right now seems focused on identifying the Good Authoritarian to replace the bad one we have right now. But the Good Authoritarians are just as out of touch and clueless as the bad ones. They all have to be watched and actually resisted (sans hashtag) all of the time.
Crawfish season is just about to pass peak. Consider this a friendly reminder if you haven't done your boil yet. We got ours in yesterday just before the weather turned hot again. Just another week at best before the real crap part of the year sets in. Use it wisely.
Edwards also has prompted complaints from Democratic legislators for keeping the dollars flowing for projects in Republican districts that former Gov. Bobby Jindal was funding, rather than killing them in favor of new projects sought by Democrats. The Democrats are especially peeved because many Republicans have refused to support any new revenue measures.
Dont help them until they agree to help you. Republicans haven't been very helpful.
There are a couple of interesting quotes from Kurt Weigle in this story about the re-make of Duncan Plaza. City Council recently agreed to a lease with the Downtown Development District whose plans for managing the park include a redesign. It appears this is being done so that the park can be a better venue than Lafayette Square for hosting whatever Fried Chicken Festivals of the Future may come along.
“Lafayette Square has really taken a beating in the last 10 years or so because it’s such a wonderful space and a lot of people want to use it for events. But it was never designed to be that type of a park,” Weigle said.
Fine, I guess. But just say that. The sidebar rationalization about perceived safety issues is embarassing.
“A definite problem right now is the berms in the middle that obstruct the views into and out of the park,” Weigle said. “It contributes to a sense that the park is not safe, despite the fact that I can’t remember any incident (of crime) in the park.”
Do the berms make the park unsafe? Well, no, but just say that it feels crimey or whatver. That should get us more space to put the vendors' booths. Anyway, it's fine. They're probably correct. Duncan Plaza does seem like a more suitable and open space to fit the crowds drawn by the 8-10 new random food item festivals we're manufacturing every year now.
As long as they're planning to keep the public space there open to the public, there's no reason to complain. Recall that only a few years ago, the city cleared out a homeless encampment from the park just ahead of preparations to host Super Bowl XLVII. Since then, it's become a prominent gathering space for the increasing number of public protests one sees here in the Time Of Trump.
Inauguration Day "J20" Protest
Weigle says the plan is to maintain the status quo there. But let's make sure we keep this quote handy as this process moves along just in case.
“It’s fair to say that this agreement would not be in place if we had not made a commitment to continue to support that kind of activity in the park,” Weigle said.
“Being someone who loves that part of what it means to be an American, I’d never look to curtail that in any way,” he added. “It’s something we’re looking to celebrate along with all the other uses in the park.”
Former Judge Michael Bagneris announced his second run for New Orleans
mayor on Thursday (May 11), becoming the first mayoral candidate to
announce his candidacy in a major event before supporters. His
announcement was held at Dooky Chase's Restaurant in Treme.
This event was more of a formality than anything. Bagneris indicated he was running a long time ago and has remained open about his intentions. In this case, a kick off party is more useful in telling us what the campaign expects it will be about.
That's important because some may recall that this was a problem for Bagneris the last time around. Stephanie Grace called his 2014 run a "campaign about nothing." (The Advocate's site is riddled with link rot so I can't find that column right now.) I later wrote that it had been a campaign by listicle meaning that Bagneris appeared to have just pulled the top two or three issues named in voter surveys, and then mentioned them a lot without forming an overarching narrative. So far he seems to be leaning toward a repeat of that.
The quiet field in the two months before official qualifying in July
gave Bagneris a jump on some early politicking, and he said on Thursday
that he plans to begin rolling out new proposals to flesh out his
campaign message. The early indications were that Bagneris would wage a
heavily crime-focused candidacy, and he spent much of his announcement
talking about either public safety or programs that would help address
the issue.
Inevitably, the survey results say voters are worried about crime. Crime is an easy thing for candidates to talk about without really saying anything besides "Crime is bad." So they say that. They also say, "We need more police," in order to stop the crime although that is not necessarily true. But it's easy to say. In 2014, Bagneris' closing ads promised to somehow put 1600 more cops on the street in his first year. This time he's saying he wants to bring back an unspecified number of retirees.
His first action to build the ranks of the police department, Bagneris
said, would begin an outreach effort to retired New Orleans police
officers.
"The pool of retirees is a fertile ground for recruiting officers,"
Bagneris said. "Many left when they could retire because of their
differences with the administration. With a mayor that they don't have
those differences with, many will be willing to come back, so we are
going to recruit from those retirees first."
So far we're still very much in nothingville. The economic development portion of this talk is equally uninspiring. Here we see Bagneris touching on another issue that must be polling strongly this year and addressing it with basically nonsense.
Bagneris rolled out several economic development ideas, first
criticizing the primary industry in New Orleans, tourism, as a low-wage
industry. He says New Orleans can't be a "one-trick pony," and
questioned why the city hasn't capitalized on more activity from the
Port of New Orleans.
"We import large qualities of steel," Bagneris said. "Why can't we manufacture nuts and bolts?"
It's encouraging to see a mayoral candidate willing to publicly criticize tourism this way. The poverty wages of our service economy combined with our ever-worsening housing crisis should be the central issue this year. But Bagneris's solutions, (The Port! Manufacturing!) such as they are, indicate he probably isn't taking the problem seriously. I mean, I'd be the first to agree that de-industrialization has been a major factor in spurring economic inequality in the U.S. over the past half century. But something tells me the Mayor Of New Orleans isn't going to have a lot of power to reverse those global trends. Maybe I'm being cynical. Maybe we're only a few years away from our dream jobs in Mayor Bagneris's Glorious Nuts And Bolts Factory. Probably not, though. Besides, we produce enough nuts around here as it is.
“Ours is a very noble cause. We are fighting for the very soul of New
Orleans,” he said. “The soul of New Orleans is its people, and we the
people are in peril.”
Holy crap, our souls are in peril! That is some heavy stuff. Although it isn't what one expects from the generally mild Bagneris. I wonder what it sounded like. It's also an odd thing to say if you propose to recover your "soul" through improved relations with Leon Cannizzaro.
He also said he would improve community policing and suggested that
beefing up staffing, rather than the crime cameras that form the basis
of Landrieu’s recently announced security plan, is the way to reduce
crime.
Bagneris also pledged to improve relations between the
mayor’s office and Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman and District
Attorney Leon Cannizzaro, both of whom have clashed with Landrieu.
Still, there is that little bit of criticism thrown in about Landrieu's surveillance plan. That and the knock against the tourism industry suggest this is a candidate who is listening for issues that might distinguish him from the field. Even if he gives no sign of knowing or caring how to actually address any of them.
Armed with the proper resources and consultants, (IDB Chair Alan) Philipson is quite
capable of directing a fair and impartial selection process to identify a
well-qualified developer for the former Six Flags site. Instead of
providing Philipson with the tools he needed, Landrieu has decided to
run the process himself – a la the World Trade Center – and will get one
last shot to give a major piece of New Orleans real estate to his
hand-selected cronies.
Is it a "major piece" of real estate, though? It looks more like a rusting junkyard sinking into swamp. We've had three rounds of questionably financed hucksters trying to make far-fetched plays for it all of which were rejected. Maybe Columbus is right to be suspicious of the mayor's move to expedite matters. But it's just as likely he's motivated by a desire to have this done with as it is nefarious "cronyism."
Unless Scurlock ends up with the property. In that case, yes, something fishy will have happened.
A crowd of a few hundred on-lookers, both pro- and anti-monuments,
watched as workers used a crane to remove the monument from its
pedestal. Those crowds included monument supporters who have kept watch
at the statue since April 24 and those affiliated with Take 'Em Down
NOLA, an activist group that has called for the removal of a wide
variety of monuments and other symbols in the city they say show
reverence for white supremacy.
This comes on the heels of Sunday's Take 'em Down march from Congo Square to Lee Circle where an even better time was had since we personally got to go there and drink beer.
The Monday prior we also had a few watching the Neo-Confederates and Antifa kids shout at one another in front of Jefferson Davis. Here's our report from there. We also talked about that episode on the latest fake radio show which we recorded last week but is only just now available.
Anyway so if you're keeping score, that's three toppling parties so far but only two actual topplings. Plus only last night did a party and toppling occur at the same time and place. Two more to go. Maybe just once they'll announce it with enough lead time to give people an opportunity to plan.
Still, it's hard to complain. It's kind of nice that this is happening now. It gives people something to do now that festival season is starting to wane and the boring part of the year is looming. Anything that keeps us busy until the election starts to heat up is welcome.
