SHREVEPORT – Registration opens today for Louisiana’s “Shot at a Million” lottery campaign. To enter you must be a Louisiana resident and have had at least one Covid vaccine. Prizes include scholarships for those under 18, and cash for everyone else.
“We need more people to go sleeves up before we can truly end the pandemic,” Edwards said at the press conference. “’Shot At A Million’ is a reward for those who’ve already gotten vaccinated and a fun nudge for others to get the vaccine sooner rather than later.”
The prizes are funded by federal COVID dollars.
This idea of rewarding people for getting the vaccine isn’t new; for months now states have been offering incentives to get the shot which have included free crawfish, burritos, tequila shots, amusement park tickets, and hot dogs.
The concept of rewarding people for doing “the right thing” trickles on down to the school level; positive behavior incentives in schools come in the form of “bucks” or tickets handed to kids who follow dress code, open doors for others, do their homework, that sort of thing. The theory is that everyone will show good behavior in order to get the incentives and be allowed to use those “bucks” in a school store for chips, candy, or homework passes.
Currently, Louisiana is near the bottom of the vaccinated population list with only 33% of our people having taken the shot. Highest ranked? Vermont, with 64%. So in theory, someone in Louisiana stands a 1 in 1,675,152 “shot” at winning a prize in the Louisiana vaccine lottery.
We will literally gamble on anything in Louisiana.
North Michigan Avenue in Chicago last summer after rioting
By John Ruberry
A bit more than a year ago most large American cities were struck by widespread rioting and looting after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.
Of course for the most part the rioting was termed “unrest” by the mainstream media. In case you think reporters forgot what the word “riot” means, the “R” word was front in center in January news coverage after a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed the US Capitol.
Local television reporters across the country–who are generally more credible than their dead-tree media counterparts–brought viewers many scenes of unmasked people emptying out stores. Some of the looters even posted their crimes on social media.
Were these outrages open-and-shut case for prosecutors? Yes, but not in the way you think.
NYPD data reviewed by the NBC New York I-Team shows 118 arrests were made in the Bronx during the worst of the looting in early June.
Since then, the NYPD says the Bronx DA and the courts have dismissed most of those cases – 73 in all. Eighteen cases remain open and there have been 19 convictions for mostly lesser counts like trespassing, counts which carry no jail time.
Jessica Betancourt owns an eyeglass shop that was looted and destroyed along Burnside Avenue in the Bronx last June.
Those numbers, to be honest with you, is [sic] disgusting,” Betancourt said when told of the few cases being prosecuted.
According to the NBC New York, prosecutors are claiming that there is a backlog of cases because of the COVID-19 epidemic. “If they are so overworked that they can’t handle the mission that they’re hired for, then maybe they should find another line of work,” says former NYPD Chief of Patrol Wilbur Chapman. True, that.
There is a similar pattern of prosecutorial malpractice in Manhattan too. The DA in Manhattan is Cyrus Vance Jr, the leftist zealot who is on a Captain Ahab-like quest to charge Donald Trump with crimes.
The primary focus of any prosecutor should be to protect the public. But are prosecutors subject to the “CSI Effect” that plagues trials? That is, short of videotaped confessions of criminals, there is always room for a scintilla of doubt–because cases laid out perfectly when presented in a television drama.
Maybe. But instead I suspect there is an even worse possibility.
During the rioting last summer in Chicago I watched live coverage on WGN-TV of a couple of women calmly loading their car with what must have been looted goods. The license plate of their car was readable. Locating the criminals should have been quite easy. I wonder if Cook County’s state’s attorney, the woke Kim Foxx who of course dropped the hoax charges against Jussie Smollett–since reinstated with a special prosecutor in charge–botherered to investigate those two looters?
Yes, I had to bring up Smollett. As a black man and a gay man–that’s a two-fer–the former Empire actor is automatically a double-victim. And since many of the looters were minorities, they are victims too. Not of course the owners of stores that were looted last year even though many of those shop owners were minorities too. The criminals are the victims here, it’s not the other way around. If this quasi-reasoning makes sense to you then I recommend that you watch less CNN and MSNBC–and cancel your subscription to The Atlantic.
Some in the dead-tree media have called these riots and outbreaks of looting an uprising. Here and here, for instance. Meanwhile, the investigation of the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, which The Media Elect is calling either a riot or an insurrection–is being aggressively pursued by federal prosecutors, and the allegd perpetatrors are being charged with low-level crimes such as tresspassing. Yes, they should be prosecuted. But to call the Capitol Riot, in the words some federal prosecutors, an “existential threat” to the republic is a gross exaggeration. And some of those alleged rioters are being held in solitary confinement in Gitmo-like conditions, including the moron who put his on Nancy Pelosi’s desk and the so-called QAnon Shaman. Yeah, I get it, the feds have jurisdiction over the Capitol attack, not New York or Chicago prosecutors. But the message to the public should be clear here.
Then there is Antifa, which for weeks was violently attacking nearly every night the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon. Where is the dogged federal investigation of those riots?
But I fear some in prosecutorial circles sympathize with Antifa, as I strongly suspect they do in regards to the George Floyd “uprising.”
It seems that prosecutors are taking sides. And that in the right circumstances crime pays well for the criminals.
The Biden regime is working overtime on schemes to deprive us Americans of some of our most important God=given Natural Rights, the right of freedom of speech and our right to bear arms.
The Capitol Hill Riot on January 6th is providing the justification for an all out assault on the First Amendment by Joe Biden and the rest of the Progressives in Washington DC. That is why they have blown that one incident completely out of proportion. This NBC News article discusses the latest deeply troubling proposal White House unveils new strategy to counter domestic terrorisme’laser-focused on violence’
The strategy and an accompanying White House fact sheet call for more scrutiny of public social media posts and better coordination among security agencies.
This entire effort would be a gross violation of the First Amendment which prevents the federal government from interfering with the free speech of all Americans.
The Biden administration’s review of its domestic counterterrorism strategy began with that intelligence assessment. The unclassified version, released in March, concluded that the two most lethal elements of U.S. domestic terrorism are racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists who advocate for the superiority of the white race and anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists, such as violent militia extremists.
Unfortunately Joe Biden and progressives consider any speech or writing that conflicts with progressive dogma to be hate speech and violence. Any individual who is from the right side of the political spectrum is considered a violent extremist. Leftists are constantly and erroneously calling those who disagree with them white supremacists. The founding principles of the United States are very much anti government and anti authority. This is an attempt to criminalize them.
The Biden strategy is based on what it calls four pillars, designed to understand, prevent, disrupt and address long-term drivers of domestic terrorism. Although it involves new government scrutiny of what Americans say on social media, officials say they have been careful to avoid any move that infringes on political speech.
Any scrutiny of what Americans say or write by the federal government is a gross violation of the First Amendment and I believe with 100 percent certainty that the Biden Regime will most definitely infringe on the political speech of those of us who are conservatives and libertarians.
“We are not targeting speech. We are not attacking speech,” Mayorkas said. “We are working with the social media companies to be able to better identify the false narratives, to be able to identify disinformation and misinformation and really educate the American public.”
I call BS on the entire statement by Mayorkas. The Frist Amendment prevents the federal government from playing any role identifying false narratives or disinformation, Progressives consider anything that conflicts with their beliefs to be false narratives or disinformation. The statement about educating the American public brings images of political reeducation camps to mind quite clearly.
A new rule proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) at the request of President Joe Biden would make most firearms with stabilizing pistol braces illegal. Owners would have to register, turn in, or disassemble the guns to avoid federal felony charges. One government estimate found as many as 40 million guns could be affected.
“It will be the largest gun registration, destruction, and confiscation scheme in American history,” Alex Bosco, who invented the stabilizing brace and founded the biggest manufacturer of them, told The Reload.
Today’s proposed rulemaking on pistol-braced firearms represents a gross abuse of executive authority,” said Aidan Johnston, Director of Federal Affairs for Gun Owners of America, in a statement.
Bosco said the rule would outlaw the vast majority of braces on the market and read like it was “reverse-engineered to make braces illegal.” He called it “arbitrary and capricious.”
I firmly believe that any attempt by the Biden regime to disarm the American people will have very grave consequences. It is best that they do not try.
SHREVEPORT – Louisiana’s legislative session has ended and as The Advocate puts it, “the circus has left Baton Rouge.” There is never a dull moment in Louisiana politics. Here’s a quick look.
While legislators did not legalize recreational marijuana, they did legalize sports betting. The medical marijuana program was expanded, and jail time for small amounts of marijuana has been eliminated. Mandatory kindergarten passed muster, but tougher teacher retirement rules did not. Governor John Bel Edwards agreed to terminate federally enhanced unemployment benefits in exchange for raising the weekly unemployment benefit by $28. An attempt to enact closed party primaries failed.
In other pressing issues, women will no longer pay state sales tax on feminine hygiene products or diapers.
At the last minute, legislators passed “a bill that would prohibit government agencies from refusing to issue licenses, permits, and degrees or barring access to public facilities to someone who hasn’t received a covid-19 vaccine until any of the vaccines have been officially approved by the FDA.” Meanwhile, Louisiana State University plans to have a mask mandate this fall when students return to college classes.
The session was not without tension and drama. Louisiana House member Alan Seabaugh came in conflict with Representative Malinda White over terminology in a domestic violence bill. White became contentious over Seabaugh’s proposed changes and reportedly said either “let me get my gun and finish this or I’m going to get my gun and we can finish this.” Seabaugh took that as a threat and has requested the Louisiana State Police follow up on the matter.
I am frankly shocked that Edwards is agreeing to end the subsidized unemployment benefit, however there is no question that he needs to. Businesses all over town are advertising for help, begging for help, and some are having trouble staying open because they can’t get anyone to work.
It remains to be seen which bills will get the governor’s signature and which will meet the veto. Legislators passed one bill that is certain to receive an Edwards veto: residents would no longer have to have a permit or training to conceal carry.
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