The cage is closed but monkey bars are open*

Didn't want Halloween to pass this year without acknowledging the latest episode in the ongoing saga of Tulane's rage monkeys of terror. They got out again this week. 

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A truck carrying lab monkeys from Tulane University’s research center was involved in a wreck Tuesday (Oct. 28) on Interstate 59 near mile marker 117 in Jasper County, Miss., authorities said.

Officials said the monkeys weigh about 40 pounds each, are aggressive toward humans and require personal protective equipment to handle the animals. Three monkeys are believed to be on the loose, authorities said.

Tulane University was notified and sent a team to help retrieve the animals. The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said three of six escaped primates had been euthanized but three monkeys remained on the loose.

“There are three monkeys still on the loose after the officials from Tulane were able to get inside the truck and get a correct count,” the sheriff’s office said. “Officials from Tulane arrived this evening.”

Tulane issued a statement contradicting a social media post by the sheriff’s office that claimed the monkeys were carrying infectious diseases. 

The response and investigation remain ongoing. 

We here at the old Yellow Blog have been keeping tabs on the Tulane Primate Research Center for decades.  They've got some crafty monkeys there!  The last time I tried re-capped the recorded incidents I'm aware of, it produced this list of escapes occurring in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2008, and 2018. 

As of the last time I read anything about this latest incident (yesterday) there were still three monkeys on the loose somewhere in Mississippi.  

By the way, when the news of the latest escape broke, I lazily tried to use Google to search for my old posts about the monkeys.  But the heavily enshittified tool made that a lot harder than it needed to be.  I did have to read a comment from its stupid AI stating that "the blog seems to have been dormant for some time."  Is that true?  Sort of, I guess.  I thought I had been doing a decent job writing about the municipal elections... although I guess I did get behind a little bit.  I'm crossposting that on Substack, btw. A concluding installment should be up this week.

But anyway, Happy Halloween. Let's just hope, now that Susan Hutson is no longer running the jail, they won't put her in charge of the primate center... although given the standard there, maybe it's a good fit after all. 

* 

The Saltwater Decade

On the bright side, we're all cooking the most lovely pasta these days. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday that it will build an underwater sill to keep saltwater from moving up the Mississippi River, the fourth-straight year in which the structure has been needed to protect upriver water systems. 

The barrier will be constructed near Myrtle Grove in Plaquemines Parish. Due to a deepening drought, the Mississippi's flow rate has fallen and that is allowing saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico to travel north.

The Corps has built the sill every year since 2022. Prior to that year, the agency had only built a sill in the river three times: in 1988, 1999, and 2022.

The decade of magical thinking

Entergy's CEO says they're not quite gonna make their 2030 climate goals after all. Dangit. I know they were always taking that really seriously, too. They must feel awful about it. Or maybe they don't?

In a speech Wednesday to more than 300 energy professionals, policymakers and students at Tulane University’s Future of Energy Forum, Marsh said the huge new power plants, expected to cost more than $3 billion, will improve grid reliability for customers statewide at a cost of pushing back some of its carbon goals.

“It makes it harder to reach our goals in the near term, but I think it has the potential to make it easier in the long term,” said Marsh, who heads the only Fortune 500 company headquartered in New Orleans. “2030 is going to be tough, but I think we still have a good shot at 2050, because Meta can bring its $2 trillion company to bear on this problem and help us clean up.”

How?  It doesn't matter. Magic, probably.  Check back in 2050 to see how it went.  

Boom times for Entergy

The greatest "economic pipeline."

More than 18 months after Louisiana officials began wooing executives from Meta to the state, eventually helping land the Facebook parent company’s massive artificial intelligence data center near Monroe, Entergy Louisiana CEO Phillip May said he sees more economic development potential in the state than at any time in his 40-year career.

“We have the greatest economic pipeline since the post-World War II years,” May said in an interview Tuesday. “We have growth from the traditional petrochemical sector and also a new set of opportunities.”

Sounds amazing. I can't wait to live in the future.  

Should probably remember that he said this, though. I have a feeling it might come up at some point. 

Environmental groups and advocates for renewable energy have criticized the plan and questioned whether consumers will get hit with higher utility bills if Meta bails on the plant after 15 years. May said he isn’t worried that will happen, and argued that Meta investments in transmission infrastructure, resilience upgrades and the plants themselves represent a benefit to customers.

“Louisiana customers will continue to get low-cost power from the plants,” even if Meta were to pull out after 15 years, May said, adding that by then, much of the grid’s infrastructure will need upgrades and that “customers will be paying for that as they would.”

In middle Atlantic and Northern states where large data centers have been operating for years, residential customers have seen monthly utility bills go up by 20% to 30% in some cases. May said he believes that is unlikely to happen in Louisiana, where utilities are regulated.

“Those states are deregulated,” he said. “If you’re in a competitive market like that and prices are at an all-time high, it gets passed along to everyone.”

We'll see! 

Is this good?

Is it good that the one area of your economy where investment isn't falling off is the highly speculative bullshit area? 

I think you can see the consequences of uncertainty come forward in the explosion in corporate stock buybacks; that’s a sign of retrenchment, where money that could be deployed or invested is instead pushed out to shareholders. No wonder markets are near all-time highs while ordinary workers feel miserable.

The only area where this investment retrenchment and uncertainty is not in evidence comes from the insane capital expenditures for AI computing power, which is propping up the economy almost by itself. That’s why municipal pushback to data centers will be one of the more fascinating developments of the next few years. And it’s why we should pay a lot of attention to whether AI is a viable business, whether its gains are accelerating or stagnating, and whether too much of this capacity deployment is on spec and fated to cause a crash. (AI is creating other economic problems, but we’ll touch on those later.)

Louisiana residents probably already know that their Public Service Commission is preparing to approve Entergy's plan to build three new gas fired power plants solely for the purpose of supplying Meta's massive new data center in Richland Parish.  The plants won't benefit Louisiana ratepayers at all. But it will inevitably result in their paying higher rates. 

Okay, well, maybe there are some benefits to developing cutting edge AI technology.  For example, today, Microsoft announced its AI program has created a spreadsheet that is actually bad at math. 

Microsoft notes that you can combine its new AI function with other Excel functions, including IF, SWITCH, LAMBDA, or WRAPROWS. The company adds that information sent through Excel’s COPILOT function is “never” used for AI training, as “the input remains confidential and is used solely to generate your requested output.” 

The COPILOT function comes with a couple of limitations, as it can’t access information outside your spreadsheet, and you can only use it to calculate 100 functions every 10 minutes. Microsoft also warns against using the AI function for numerical calculations or in “high-stakes scenarios” with legal, regulatory, and compliance implications, as COPILOT “can give incorrect responses.”

Nobody knows what the use for any of this is, but it sure is interesting. Anyway, it's where all the money in America is going now so hopefully there aren't any signs of that whole business spectacularly imploding anytime soon.  There aren't any signs of that, right?

On Tuesday, Meta announced internally that it is splitting its A.I. division — which is known as Meta Superintelligence Labs — into four groups, two people with knowledge of the situation said. One group will focus on A.I. research; one on a potentially powerful A.I. called “superintelligence”; another on products; and one on infrastructure such as data centers and other A.I. hardware, they said.

The reorganization is likely to be the final one for some time, the people said. The moves are aimed at better organizing Meta so it can get to its goal of superintelligence and develop A.I. products more quickly to compete with others, the people said.

Some A.I. executives are expected to leave, the people said. Meta is also looking at downsizing the A.I. division overall — which could include eliminating roles or moving employees to other parts of the company — because it has grown to thousands of people in recent years, the people said. Discussions remain fluid and no final decisions have been made on the downsizing, they said.

Best of luck with all that. 

Do the orcas know about this?

Jeff Landry spent his Fourth of July weekend in Bermuda this year.  He sent back a video to tell us about it. 

While standing on the deck of a friend’s yacht last week in Bermuda, Gov. Jeff Landry praised a new Louisiana tax break on boat purchases in a short video he shared to social media.

“Louisiana’s been known as a sportsman’s paradise, but it’s not always treated our sportsmen friendly,” Landry said in the recording posted July 3. 

“This year, we made Louisiana sportsman-friendly by capping the amount of taxes you pay when you buy you a new boat or register your boat in Louisiana,” the governor said as the wake of the multimillion-dollar vessel churned behind him. 

What the governor didn’t mention is the tax break, which took effect July 1, only applies to boats worth $200,000 or more.

The yacht owner hosting Landry, Shane Guidry, is the governor’s close friend, political adviser and top campaign donor. Guidry told the Illuminator he personally suggested the tax break for luxury boats to the governor. 

“I recommended to him a year ago that he should look at them,” he said in a phone interview from the 82-foot Viking yacht he took to Bermuda this month. 

The cool stuff that Landry does with and for his friend Shane is kind of a regular feature in the news now.  Still, this story is worth the little peek into Guidry's boating lifestyle. 

Guidry appears to spare no expense when it comes to his yachts and isn’t shy about showing them off on social media. 

The Team Harvey Fishing Instagram account includes several glamour reels of the 82-foot Viking yacht, which was completed for his team in early June.

One post from June highlights tissue boxes and blankets from luxury fashion brands Hermes and Louis Vuitton decorating the boat’s cabin. Another pans to an ottoman, custom-made for the yacht with Himalayan crocodile skin, according to the post caption. The material is famous because it is used in Hermes’ opulent Birkin bags, which sell for over $50,000. 

Team Harvey Fishing posts are tagged with hashtags like #luxuryyacht #luxurylifestyle #yachtieworld #luxuryliving and #yachtinglife.

#yachtieworld is my favorite.

Time to start coasting

As hurricane season kicks into high gear, and the future of emergency response hangs in doubt, let's check in on Jeff Landry's levee board. 

Gov. Jeff Landry has appointed two new board members to the New Orleans area's flood protection authority, which has been in turmoil after four members resigned in protest over changes pushed by Landry earlier this year. 

One of the appointments is raising fresh questions over whether the most-qualified candidates are being chosen -- a key goal of reforms following Hurricane Katrina.

The two new members are Gregory Marsiglia, a New Orleans attorney, and Peter Vicari, a general contractor from Gonzales who owns a classic car auction business, according to his application materials. Vicari is a business associate of Landry’s handpicked board president, Roy Carubba, who described Vicari as a “very good friend.” 

That's nice that they're all good friends.  But this board performs a vital oversight function.  After Katrina, professionalizing the levee boards became a top priority.  20 years later, Landry's efforts to undo those reforms have already come under scrutiny.  And now, in light of recent reports about levee subsidence, one would think that flood control would be a top priority. Hopefully Landry's friends are taking their roles seriously. 

Vicari described himself as a lifelong resident of the West Bank, who had worked in construction projects “big and small” throughout the New Orleans region.

“I'm at a point in life where I can start coasting and I'm willing to give myself to service,” he said. Vicari said he had nearly forgotten that he had even applied for the position when he got an email notifying him that he had been chosen. 

Sounds good.

"Has attempted"

Is that what they've been doing?

This year, Louisiana state legislators could consider bills that could bring tighter regulation and enforcement to the state’s short-term rental industry.

New Orleans housing advocates say the proposed bills are a step in the right direction in controlling an industry they claim negatively impacts housing stock and affordability for residents by taking homes and apartments off the long-term market and renting them to tourists.

For nearly a decade, the city of New Orleans has attempted to regulate the short-term rental industry through a myriad of local ordinances. The regulations, which have largely focused on short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods, apply to properties that are listed on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO. Airbnb and short-term rental operators have struck back, repeatedly challenging the city’s permitting rules in court, and New Orleans City Council President JP Morrell has subsequently threatened to ban short-term rentals altogether.

As someone who has watched closely each of these "attempts," I guess it's marginally fair to call them attempts "to regulate." But that's not the same as saying they have been in any way good faith attempts at limiting or even mitigating the harm STR rent seeking has done to life in the city. Rather, the city has simply continued to tweak at Mitch Landrieu's original framework for legitimizing (and drawing revenue from) the practice of converting houses to hotels that has gutted New Orleans's most culturally significant neighborhoods during the period of hyper-exploitation some have cynically termed a "recovery" from Hurricane Katrina. 

 

Predictably, this strategy tended to leave people unsatisfied. So much so that, occasionally, City Council has been moved to take on the appearance of trying to do something about it. They never get it right, though. Now state lawmakers are trying their hand at it.  The above article references bills by Barbara Carpenter, Royce Duplessis and Stephanie Hilferty. Carpenter's bill is intended to grant municipalities clearer authority to impose regulations. Royce's bill would allow neighbors to sue operators of unlicensed STRs in their area. Hilferty's bill raises the maximum tax rate that the city can collect.

 

Royce's is the most aggressive here. According to this article, there are as many as 3100 unlicensed STRs currently operating in New Orleans. But JP Morrell keeps promising city council will affect an outright ban on STRs in Orleans Parish someday.  Should we hold our breath? Or do we have bigger worries on the horizon?  According to that same article, for example. 

At the same time, there are signs that demand for rooms — whether in short term rentals or traditional hotels — has been softening. As of last week, there had been about 13.6% fewer short term rental bookings during Jazz Fest than there were by the same time last year, according to AirDNA. 

Tourism groups are expecting a drop-off in hotel stays as well. New Orleans and Co. is expecting hotel occupancy to be between 72% and 89% each night during Jazz Fest this year, based on a survey of hotels that collectively have about 26,000 rooms in and around downtown and the French Quarter. Last year, the occupancy rates were between about 84% and 95%. Hotel bookings were up during Mardi Gras, when occupancy reached 95%. But at the same time, short term rental units were booked for about 8.5% fewer nights, according to AirDNA.

Usually when we talk about Airbnb, the immediate problem is nobody actually lives here anymore.  Now, come to find out, nobody actually tourisms here anymore either. 

Who gets the money, then?

Jeff Landry took another step today toward throwing the state's biggest coastal restoration project into the trash.

Gov. Jeff Landry's administration has ordered a 90-day pause on work on Louisiana's biggest-ever coastal project, the controversial Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, arguing the state cannot afford the more than $3 billion plan and stressing that it must be smaller in scale.

The decision, confirmed by the state's coastal officials, halts nearly all work related to the project, which has been planned and studied for years and broke ground in August 2023 on the west bank of Plaquemines Parish near Ironton. Funds related to the 2010 BP oil spill are intended to pay for it, but state coastal officials say rising costs mean Louisiana will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.

The story goes on to say that there are contingency funds available through NOAA (which *probably* still exists?) to cover some increases in costs, although not increases in costs that directly result from the Governor sabotaging the project with delays.  There's also the possibility of another $744 million from Chevron if that judgment holds up on appeal. But if Landry isn't interested in spending the BP money on the coastal projects it was intended for, then it's unlikely he will apply that appropriately either.  

Which raises the question, what does the Governor intend to do with this money, if anything? It's also possible he's holding those funds and these projects for hostage pending another go at his tax reforms that just failed at the ballot box.  But who knows. 

Circle of Trust

The Louisiana Democratic Party is constitutionally incapable of simply taking the win against Jeff Landry's constitutional amendments. They're much more focused on belittling the various community groups who did the actual work of delivering that win for them.

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana Democratic Party Chair Randal Gaines Thursday called voters’ defeat of all four constitutional amendments backed by Gov. Jeff Landry “a defining moment in Louisiana politics” and attempted to take credit for the display of bipartisan opposition.

“What was determinative was, in my opinion, the messaging of the party,” Gaines told Gambit following a press conference at the party’s headquarters. “Because the activist groups don't have those relationships.”

Gaines went on to claim that’s because “they're not necessarily within a circle of trust of our Louisiana voters. The party is."

It's unclear what Gaines’ belief is based on. Democrats have had increasing difficulty in even fielding a candidate in local and state level races for the last decade, leaving many Republican state legislators to run unopposed for years. The party also lost the statewide election in 2023 badly, handing control of all levels of government to Republicans and leading many Democrats to call for totally rebuilding the party.

Remember Randal Gaines is only the party chair now because of the many failures alluded to in that last paragraph which were presided over by his predecessor. But, because the change in leadership was forced on the party by some of the activist groups Gaines is chiding here, the party is never going to forgive them for speaking out of turn. There's no "trust" left with the voters at all. The only circles in evidence come in the form of zeroes that show up on statewide Democratic ballot lines instead of viable candidates. 

A post-mortem analysis by the Times-Picayune shows several factors behind the demise of Landry's amendments including organized opposition from religious conservatives concerned about taxation of church activities as well as from a coalition of progressive groups detailed here. 

The progressive groups say each of them started out opposing individual amendments, but they ended up joining forces to oppose all four.

“We realized early on that if we got everybody under the same umbrella and had the same messaging, we could be more effective,” said Drew Prestridge, who handled communications for notothemall.org

Added Peter Robins-Brown, executive director of Louisiana Progress: “It all came together to create a pretty overwhelming chorus.”

His group opposed Amendment 1, fearing it would allow the selection of unelected judges by conservative lawmakers to supersede the power of elected progressive judges in big cities. It also opposed Amendment 3, which would have allowed more children to be jailed in adult prisons.

Invest in Louisiana, a Baton Rouge-based group, focused on the anti-Amendment 2 message.

Taking the lead in opposing Amendment 3 was a recently created coalition called the Liberty and Dignity Campaign, led by Kristen Rome of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, Sarah Omojola of the Vera Institute of Justice and Ashley Shelton of the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice.

Gaines's "messaging of the party" isn't even discussed. 

It's understandable that party brass would feel a little bit left out given the size of the victory they slept through.  What it came down to, especially with regard to the absurdly byzantine Amendment 2, is voters correctly perceived that they were being bullshitted by the Landry camp. Shockingly, people don't like to be condescended and lied to. Even the voters who are normally your political allies will turn on you for it.

Jeff Landry, not being particularly known for his humility or his smarts, is having a hard time learning that lesson.  In response to the election results, he chose more condescension saying in a statement that voters are "conditioned for failure." He also has resorted to more outlandish lies with "Soros" insinuations drawn straight from the stupidest corners of the conspiracy forums. 

However, as we noted here, the Governor and his allies are preparing to try again, likely with more brute force; holding more of the state budget hostage, and possibly finding new ways to purge the voter rolls. It remains to be seen how much comfort Randall Gaines' "circle of trust" will be for anyone in the way of that.

Gangster state

David Dayen writes here that the tariffs are really sanctions, in once sense against the entire rest of the world, but most critically against every business and ngo in the country. And, in that way also, they are a demand for ransom. 

I’ve really only seen Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) understand this, that this is just a loyalty test for virtually every business in the nation, a universal attempt to gather protection money. It’s no different than using the leverage of government funding to force universities and law firms into submission. These economic sanctions force businesses to supplicate. “One by one, every industry or company will need to pledge loyalty to Trump in order to get sanctions relief,” Murphy writes. That’s correct, and it could come in the form of campaign support, corporate governance changes, or just raw cash. Anything is possible.

So this policy is an open invitation for corruption, yes. Where you sit in relationship to Trump, what donations you gave and what endorsements you’ve made, will dictate your level of success. America is now a country where proximity to the king matters above any other business strategy. As Tim Wu writes, companies so dependent on government treatment don’t innovate because they don’t have to. Their government relations departments rise well beyond their research and development departments. And as there are only so many favors to dish out, they trend the country toward oligarchy.

Not too different from the crude demand for patronage you find in any given local municipal budget dispute, really.

Similarly, the tariff gambit can be seen as a version of what Republicans have been doing in red states (and repeatedly in Louisiana) where they try to raise sales taxes in order to "pay for" big cuts to (or outright elimination of) progressive income taxes.  And, you know, sometimes, if the person running that scam is particularly clumsy about it, they might fail... at first.  

But the beauty of being the party that holds all the power is you can always try again. 

Louisiana legislators might put portions of a constitutional amendment overhauling state budget and tax policies back on the ballot, even after voters overwhelmingly rejected the wide-ranging proposal in Saturday’s election. 

On Monday, Rep. Julie Emerson, R-Carencro, said she was already working on drafts of new constitutional amendments that would make some of the same budget and tax changes in the failed Amendment 2 from Saturday. 

“I think you will definitely see some of this reborn in the session,” Emerson said in an interview, later adding, “I think it is just how we package it, and how many instruments we have with it.”

And if you follow the Trump plan for this, you try again while applying pressure. 

Gov. Jeff Landry has enacted a hiring freeze for the executive branch of state government in an effort to save $20 million ahead of a projected state budget shortfall. 

The governor signed an executive order Wednesday that pauses hiring for state government departments and agencies under the governor’s control. The order does not apply to Louisiana’s judicial or legislative branches, according to Landry’s press secretary Elizabeth Crochet.

“To ensure the long-term fiscal health of Louisiana and protect essential services for our most vulnerable citizens, we must take decisive action now to address revenue shortfalls,” Landry said in a written statement. “By implementing a temporary hiring freeze, we will reign in spending, saving an annualized $20 million. This is a necessary step to give the Legislature more options, to prevent deeper cuts to health care and education, and to safeguard the future of our state.”

The wannabees at work

The really insidious thing about the DOGE phenomenon, wherein a team of hooligans under the direction of a hostile plutocrat wreak havoc on the basic physical and social infrastructure that makes life possible for most Americans, is that.. in addition to this... the movement spawns hundreds of immitators in state and local governments accross the country.

Last month we noted that Jeff Landry has formed a DOGEesque committee to attack state services. At last notice, they were writing a report. A week ago, we learned that St. Tammany Parish is getting a DOGE committee of its own. With the New Orleans municipal elections right around the corner, it also looks like Pres Kabacoff is having his own Project 2025 drawn up. (Let's keep an eye on that one, yes?)  In January, we caught this profile of Jeff Landry advisor/patron and Harvey Gulf President Shane Guidry where he explicitly compared himself and his role in the administration to that of Elon Musk. 

Today we find Guidry behind a move by Landry to dismantle South Louisiana's flood protection. After Katrina, a grass roots movement of residents succeeded in taking corrupt and negligent levee boards out of the hands of political cronies, de-emphasizing their police powers, and professionalizing their core flood risk management function. This week, three board members resigned in protest of Landry's attempts to reverse those reforms.  They addressed their resignation letters to Guidry. 

The letter was signed jointly by board members Roy Arrigo, Thomas Fierke, and William Settoon. It is addressed not to Roy Carubba, the president of the board, but to Shane Guidry, Landry’s informal adviser in New Orleans, who is not on the levee authority’s board but has been overseeing reforms at the agency.

It alleges the agency's new leadership had diminished “morale, readiness and focus on flood protection.”

Guidry thanked the departing board members for their service. He also stressed that, under his guidance, the agency was “moving in a better direction to make sure that all flood control assets are maintained properly, which they haven’t been, and working properly, which they haven’t been,” though neither Guidry nor Carubba has provided any evidence that the city’s flood control infrastructure is faulty.

And now we're getting wild unsubstantiated assertions about what does and doesn't work from unofficial administrators of dubious legal authority.  Our wannabe DOGEs are rounding into form.

He fell down and hit his head

 I'm sure it was just like this. 

Hammond Police said they pulled over a vehicle on the evening of Feb. 10 near Magazine and Apple Street that was registered to someone with an outstanding felony warrant. 

McCaskey and a passenger jumped out of the car, and officers chased them, police said. 

“The officer says he believes that he was reaching towards his waistband, at which point he tased the subject. Upon tasing the subject, it was Bobby McCaskey," Bergeron said, "Mr. McCaskey hit the ground. Upon hitting the ground, he hit his head.”

I do not like it when, upon hitting the ground, I hit my head. It's happened a few times. It hasn't happened to be while being tased, but I suppose it's probably similar.  It's not nice.  Of course, I don't think I've experienced any of these symptoms.

McCaskey's family said he's had to have multiple surgeries, including facial reconstruction. Plus, the family said he swallowed his partial teeth plate and is spitting up teeth. 

“From the MRI reports, it showed that he had multiple strokes, and his C-Spine was crushed," Hunter said. 

The family doesn't know exactly what happened before they found him in the hospital the night of February 10th, but they believe police used excessive force. 

“The phone call we got was that he was dead," Hunter said. 

The normal things that happen when you fall down and hit your head. 

Jeff Landry is an asshole

 Pass it on. 

The Public Service Commission on Wednesday removed commissioner Davante Lewis as its vice chairman after he called Gov. Jeff Landry an "a**hole" on social media. 

On a 3-2 vote, the commission chose to replace Lewis with Commissioner Eric Skrmetta in that role on the board. The vote followed public comment from a line of people arguing the move violated Lewis' right to free speech.

How thin is the Governor's skin? I mean asshole is not even that out of bounds.  The WBRZ version of the story doesn't even censor it. 

BATON ROUGE — The Public Service Commission voted to remove Davante Lewis as vice-chairman at a Wednesday morning meeting after Lewis called Gov. Jeff Landry an "asshole" on social media last week. 

The commission voted 3-2 to remove Lewis and named commission member Eric Skrmetta vice-chair.

Of course there is also the possibility that this is about a little bit more than just hurt feelings.  It might, for example, have more to do with protecting Entergy and Meta from public oversight than with people using rude words.  

Two environmental and consumer protection groups are challenging Entergy's plan to power a massive AI data center for Meta, Facebook's parent company, in northeast Louisiana. 

 The Alliance for Affordable Energy and the Union of Concerned Scientists have filed a motion asking the state's utility regulators to deny Entergy's request to build three gas power plants at a cost of over $3 billion until it follows standard procedure. If the regulators side with the advocacy groups, Entergy would have to scrap the proposal in its current form and resubmit it after proving the gas plants are the best option available.

The regulator being appealed to here, of course, is the Public Service Commission. And the ousted co-chair seems to have a different approach to the issue than the person who will replace him... on behalf of the Governor's hurt feelings, of course.  

PSC commissioner Davante Lewis said that it was too early to comment on the motion, but that the filing raises questions that the commission should look into.

"Having a review process is important to ensure we are building generation that is needed that is also the most cost-efficient," Lewis said.

Eric Skrmetta, another commissioner, similarly declined to comment on the motion specifically, but said that he believed the concerns over fast tracking the process or massive power needs to be unfounded.

There's no law anymore

He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2025

There are four constitutional amendments that will appear on your March 29 ballot in Louisiana. They're all very bad.  

One of them would allow the legislator to create something called a "business court." In practice, that will likely mean the state can take civil matters out of the hands of locally elected judges and move them into more corporate friendly venues whose scope is defined by the legislature. 

One of them would allow the legislature to greatly broaden the list of crimes for which children under 17 could be sent to adult prison. 

And another one would step up the timeline for special elections to fill judicial vacancies. 

There's no good reason to support any of these. But one, in particular, turns out to be such a mess that a lawsuit has been filed to take it off of the ballot.  Tyler Bridges explains.

During a two-week special session in November, Landry and the Legislature reduced income taxes, abolished the corporate franchise tax, raised the sales tax and kept tax credits used by film productions and developers of historic buildings, albeit at lower spending levels.

The net savings would disproportionately benefit the wealthy and big companies, who, Landry said, would use the money to invest in Louisiana and grow the state’s economy.

At Landry’s behest, the Legislature also passed House Bill 7, which in 115 pages authorized a series of other changes to the constitution if approved by voters on March 29.

The lawsuit says the 91-word question is hopelessly complicated.

“There is no person in the State of Louisiana – including the legislators who passed HB7 – who understands all of the proposed changes to the constitution,” the lawsuit says. “The voters, however, are to be asked to vote on the proposed changes.”

The lawsuit also says the 91 words include only the sweeteners in the proposed amendment – language aimed at drawing favorable votes.

“None of the unappealing changes are included,” it says. “The ballot language is all dessert, no vegetables.”

That article goes on to explain that even the "dessert" part of the menu is misleading.  For example, the ballot language implies that voters would be enacting a teacher pay raise. But what the amendment actually does is pay down a certain amount of debt on the teachers' retirement system to free up enough money to extend a one time stipend for another year. 

The rest of the amendment is incredibly complicated. It lowers income taxes on high earners. It adds a cap to mandatory spending on education and health care. It eliminates the so-called "rainy day fund." It also makes several convoluted changes to multiple taxation rules at once. It really is a lot to put to voters in one ballot item. 

But is it legal? Well that's going to be up to the judges, isn't it. So anyway, about those judges... 

The Louisiana Supreme Court is about to receive a second new member, following a series of moves orchestrated by Gov. Jeff Landry, who has reshaped the court more than any governor in decades.

Cade Cole, an attorney, former prosecutor and tax judge in Lake Charles, will join the court next month after winning election to an open seat because no one opposed him.

The seat for Cole opened up after Landry paved the way for then-Justice Jimmy Genovese to resign from the Supreme Court last year to become president of Northwestern State University.

John Michael Guidry, who had been the chief judge on the Baton Rouge court of appeal, became the other new justice in January after winning his election unopposed.

The seat for Guidry opened up after Landry got the state Legislature to redraw the Supreme Court district boundaries last year in a way that favored a Black Democrat for an open seat that Guidry would ultimately occupy.

Because the map Landry pushed now has two Democrats – Piper Griffin from New Orleans is the other Democrat besides Guidry – the other five districts favor the election of White conservatives in the coming years.

Landry has sought to undermine the influence of Chief Justice John Weimer, a maverick who is a no-party registered voter without a clear ideological line.

Anyway, there's more background on how Landry is working to re-shape the courts in that article.  Suffice to say, though, it's going to become more difficult to appeal his legislative shenanigans there in the future. 

The wannabees

The only thing worse than what Elon is doing to the federal government right now are his pathetic emulators sprinkled across the states... including your very own.

Landry was inspired to create the commission by the federal Department of Government Efficiency headed by billionaire business owner Elon Musk.

“I think we in Louisiana are facing some of the same issues that President Trump is facing with his DOGE,” Hodges said. “We are very aware that the voters who elected us are demanding quick action. And we intend to deliver.”

State legislators, speaking privately, said they believe Landry created the commission to placate conservatives unhappy that they had to vote for a sales tax increase in November and that Landry has made no serious attempts as governor to reduce the state government spending that lawmakers control.

Conservatives are also miffed that Landry vetoed a high-profile bill that supporters said would reduce payouts to car accident victims and their trial attorneys.

Landry issued the executive order creating the government efficiency group on Dec. 12.

“In Louisiana, we always strive to have a government that is of, by, and for the people,” he said in a statement that day. “A government that runs efficiently and effectively is a government that best serves her people.”

His executive order called for Orlando to serve as its chair. Orlando made a fortune by owning an offshore supply company that he sold several years ago. He is a neighbor of Landry’s in Broussard and frequently accompanies the governor on fishing trips.

As far as anyone can tell they aren't monkeying around in the treasury just yet. The state does have an independently elected treasurer so it's not as simple a matter. (The state treasurer is ultra-MAGA sandwich magnate John Fleming, though, so it's not much of an improvement on the situation.)  Anyway, according to Bridges, this commission is just writing up a report for now. It is due at the end of the year. 

 

Someone should probably do something

Seems bad

The U.S. Department of Justice issued a report Thursday evening finding that Louisiana State Police employs practices that violate the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, specifically the use of excessive force, often unjustifiably using Tasers and escalating minor incidents with people who do not pose a threat.

The Justice Department began its investigation of State Police in 2022 after revelations about the 2019 death of Black motorist Ronald Greene at the hands of Monroe-area troopers who beat and Tased him after a high-speed chase into Union Parish.

“We also found that troopers use excessive force to immediately control encounters, often within the first few moments of encountering a person and without giving the person a warning or an opportunity to comply,” the report said. “Additionally, LSP uses excessive force on people who run from troopers, even when that person is only suspected of a misdemeanor.”

The findings were released two days after federal prosecutors said they would not bring charges in the deadly 2019 arrest of Black motorist Ronald Greene, ending a lengthy probe into the white state troopers who stunned, punched and dragged Greene on a roadside following a high-speed chase outside Monroe, Louisiana.

 Hopefully the DOJ has some plan to rectify these abuses? Right?

The Justice Department also examined whether state police engage in “racially discriminatory policing” but made no findings “at this time” as to whether that contributed to the misconduct.

The report recommends — but does not mandate — a long list of remedial measures, while also crediting the agency with making ”much-needed reforms after video of Mr. Greene’s death became public.”

Oh well. Best of luck, everybody 

The pathetic reign of the dumb

This isn't really a post in that there are more notes to share about both of these figures which we'll get to later. But we really need to mark these quotes down right now for future reference.  Louisiana is at a specific conjuncture of profane stupidity right now. But also it is rich with examples of how even under fascist oligarchy, the leadership is still populated by insecure try-hard types who say and do stupid stupid things. 

For example, the hack bureaucrat installed by the fossil fuel lobby to ruthlessly gut the state's Department of Environmental Quality, despite her no-lose situation and guarantee of lavish personal wealth now and forever, is still this insanely image conscious.. and incredibly stupid about it. 

Louisiana's environmental chief is trying out a different spelling for her last name in agency statements — and it seems designed to strike a chord with residents of the Bayou State.

DEQ Secretary Aurelia Skipwith Giacometto changed the spelling of her last name to "Giacometteaux" in recent communications with the public and media because, she said, she loves Louisiana.

The shift appeared recently in a statement issued on Jan. 7 about the state Department of Environmental Quality's efforts to streamline permitting for the oil and gas industry.

Amazingly, the constitutional hollowness extends even further up the hierarchy.  The current King of Louisiana, for example, is "best friends" with the Governor and can buy or have gifted to him whatever he wishes with no responsibility to anybody for anything. But even from that lofty height, he still has a pathetic need to be liked. He even goes so far to compare himself with current King of America and consequently World's Most Despicably Desperate Man to make that point for himself and for us.  

Guidry also said that, though he is not elected or appointed to a position in an official capacity, he was providing his services to the governor and the levee authority pro-bono. He donated or raised $3 million to help elect Landry during his gubernatorial campaign.

“Look, I’m best friends with the governor. We talk ten times a day, seven days a week,” Guidry said. “Look at Elon Musk, right? There’s a reason why he’s doing something free for Trump — because he knows he can help him. And Trump wants that. There’s a reason why I do what I do free for Jeff because he knows I have nothing to gain.”

In a way, the analogy demonstrates remarkable self-awareness on Guidry's part. But it's also just so so sad.

Hooverism

 A few months ago I posted some notes on a couple of semi-recent books, one of which was Ages of American Capitalism by Jonathan Levy.  One of the main takeaways from that book for me was the extent to which Herbert Hoover's ideology of the "associational state" continues to dominate the policy program of both political parties to this very day.  What that entails at its essence is: 1) an accession to the holders of concentrated wealth and their perogative to decide how capital should be allocated. 2) hoping that those decisions will sometimes accrue to the greater good if our elected representatives in government ask nicely.  Here's the same quote I pulled the last time I brought this up. 

On the telephone and at two White House conferences, the president personally pleaded with the corporate executives of the largest, most regulated industries to increase capital investment expenditures. In 1930 railroads and utilities obliged. Yet everywhere else, especially in residential construction, fixed investment kept falling. Hoover recognized that during the 1920s, corporate profits had run ahead of wages, and he believed that high wages would stabilize spending, a good thing. “The first shock,” he declared, “must fall on profits and not wages.” Whether because of Hoover’s promptings or not, the nation’s largest employers agreed not to slash wages, even as they continued to fire their less desirable employees, a pattern that would persist. Proudly, Hoover said the agreements were, “not a dictation or interference by the government with business.” Rather they were the result of “a request from the government that you co-operate in prudent measure to solve a national problem.” The president boasted, “This is a far cry from the arbitrary and dog-eat-dog attitude of the business world of some thirty for forty years ago.” Hoover believed his “associational state” transcended the Jacksonian sphering of public and private, state, and market, which under the banner of equal commercial opportunity, had withered state action throughout the Age of Capital. But he drew one line in the sand. He would not coerce capitalists to invest. 

To make the point about how little things have changed, I highlighted this statement from Joe Biden  shortly after Hurricane Ida. Biden publicly asked insurers and utitlity companies to please not exploit their policy holders and ratepayers in the wake of the disater.  

“I’m calling on the insurance companies at this critical moment. Don’t hide behind the fine print and technicality. Do your job. Keep your commitment to your communities you insure,” he continued. “Do the right thing. Pay your policy holders what you owe them to cover the cost of temporary housing in the midst of a natural disaster. Help those in need. That’s what all of us need to do.” 

Biden also expressed that, throughout the week, he’d expressed that same message to local officials and utility and energy company representatives during virtual meetings.

Like Hoover, however, Biden did not take any extraordinary steps to compel them.  

The reason I bring this up again today is because we read in this morning's news that a "frustrated" Governor Jeff Landry is taking a similar approach with Louisiana's out of control insurance rates. 

Landry, a Republican who took office in January, has convened lawmakers for three special sessions – on redistricting, crime and taxes – but hasn’t convened one for the insurance crisis.

In an interview, Landry said he’s open to holding another special session on insurance, but he has not seen a package of bills that would fix the problem. He called on insurers to offer up solutions that would lead to savings for homeowners.

The article goes on to point out that there are things the state could do in a legislative session to take on the problem. The easiest and least radical of these would be requiring insurers to discount homeowners who take advantage of a state subsidized fortified roof program.  (Those roof grants could be bolstered as well.) Alli pointed out last week that coastal Alabama's success at controlling insurance costs (relative to the rest of the Gulf South) is at least partially attributable to its fortified roof program. 

But so far, Landry would prefer that insurers "offer up solutions" themselves.  He does sound mad, though. 

Landry said he’s miffed that the package of bills pushed by the insurance industry that he signed in the spring hasn’t brought relief yet.

“I feel completely frustrated,” Landry said. “It leads me to believe the things the insurance companies told the commissioner of insurance, told the lawmakers, don’t seem to be coming to fruition.”

He means the package of bills that he himself signed at a high profile press event this spring.  The explicit purpose of those laws was to give insurance companies more power to raise rates and drop coverage without penalty. Could anyone have predicted this program would not produce fantastic results for Louisiana residents?  The Governor sure didn't.  Now he says he's miffed. Maybe someone should do something. Not him, though. Someone.  

While Temple supported bills to limit insurance companies’ exposure to lawsuits, Landry, who has support from prominent members of the trial bar, said insurers wouldn’t get sued if they didn’t delay and fight claims made by homeowners. And the governor said he’s open to a federal solution to the insurance crisis, given the global nature of the business that ties Louisiana premiums to reinsurers in London and Bermuda.

Gonna have to wait until we hear back from President Musk on that one.  In the meantime, we'll go back to asking the insurers to come up with solutions for us.  Maybe if we get them a nice Christmas card or something. 

Political problems

That's one way of putting it. 

Gov. Jeff Landry’s ambitious plan to overhaul Louisiana’s tax structure has largely been pared down to a more modest goal – cutting state income taxes.

 
Lawmakers are working on a way to make sure the state can pay for that desired tax reduction while not having to make damaging cuts to areas such as health care and higher education.

The paring down was part of the plan, though.

The idea here was always solely about affecting a massive shift in tax burden from the richest (corporate and high income taxpayers) to the poorest (people who pay sales taxes on every day essentials.) The feint at lessening the blow by cutting out special exemptions and tax credits was a ploy to establish buy-in to the scheme as various lobbying groups mobilized to save their own privileges. Mission accomplished. 

This week, the Senate declined to fully roll back some of the state’s expensive business incentive programs, such as its movie and television tax credits and historic preservation tax breaks that collectively cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

A plan to eliminate a state inventory tax credit, which covers taxes businesses pay to local governments, has been delayed until 2026, and a proposal to increase a tax on heavy machinery and equipment used by industrial employers has also been scrapped.

And now we're back to where Landry and Richard Nelson always planned for us to be. Legislators will approve a higher sales tax than their own bill originally targeted vs. the prospect of more cuts to health care and higher ed. A win-win for them despite the conventional reporting that posits it could lead to "political problems." 

If he doesn’t find a way to make up for that money, Landry runs the risk of revisiting the same political problems that plagued former Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Jindal also cut income taxes without replacing the lost revenue or finding a permanent way to cut government spending. His policy led to chronic budget problems for years and made the former governor deeply unpopular when he left office.

Bobby Jindal left office after having steamrolled to a second term and launching an ambitious (although comically hubristic) Presidential campaign. You could say he was unpopular, but he never seemed to notice that. He seems to be living well. More to the point, the income tax cut Jindal pushed through (quite similar in nature to the one Landry is proposing now) set the stage for budget cuts and the currently regressive taxation regime that are core elements of the Republican ideological project.

And now they are about to build on that. If those are "political problems" they're not "plaguing" Jindal or Landry so much as they are Louisiana's poor and working classes instead.