Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, The Times Picayune and Their Alternate Reality To Facts.

 A Times Picayune article of January 12 titled, "A New Era" by staff writer Tyller Bridges represents a continuation of the Trump-GOP plan of an alternate reality to mask the failures of their own party.  Bridges long article highlights a picture of Landry next to a statement Landry made concerning the country which dovetails with Louisiana in other parts of the article.  The statement reads as follows and I quote:

A VEIN OF POPULIST CONSERVATISM HAS BEEN RUNNING THROUGH THE COUNTRY FOR THE PAST DECADE NOW.  THAT REALLY SUITS THE POLITICS OF LOUISIANA AS WELL.  IT'S WORKING FOR THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE AND THE POLICIES WE HAVE BEEN WORKING TO PUT INTO PLACE.   LOUISIANA IS TURNING THE PAGE ON A NEW CHAPTER THAT'S GOING TO DAWN, A NEW ERA.

That decade that Landry speaks of for the country takes in the last two years of President Obama's administration, four years of the Trump administration and four years of the Biden administration. That is the decade of 10 years Landry talks about.  And those 10 years which covers three Presidential elections, the republican Presidential candidate never received 50% of the popular vote.  So that decade was not a vein of populist conservatism by any means.  The 2024 Presidential election was not even a vein of populist conservatism because Trump, once again never achieved receiving 50% of the popular vote.  

The last decade on the state level covered the last two years of the Jindal administration and eight years of the John B. Edwards administration.  Jindal left office in disgrace, never really balanced one state budget and left a $2 billion deficit for Edwards to deal with.  Edwards balanced the budget for eight years and left the Landry administration a surplus.  Jindal was no fiscal conservative and Edwards was a fiscal responsible Governor.  The idea that the last decade was a populist conservatism time on the state and federal level is a fairy tale and alternate reality pushed by Trump and the GOP.

As of this writing, Governor Landry has not even completed his first fiscal year yet that ends June 30, 2025 and Trump has yet to take office so no one yet knows if there will be "A New Era" and if there is one, what will it be???  The GOP use terms like populist conservatism, woke, personal attacks and plain old lies and misinformation to create their alternate reality.  It is their way to normalize their support for a convicted criminal like Donald Trump and the corruption of their own party.  

A New Era in Louisiana began with the Edwards administration:  Balanced budgets, a record of low unemployment, stable government and sanity in governing with no scandals.  Today's GOP are no conservative party, they gave that up long ago.  There will come a time when the people can make a judgement on Landry and Trump's time in office and compare that time to their rhetoric.

PolitiDose has already answered the question in recent commentary/

This commentary written by Joe Lorio  

The U.S. Economy, Job Creation and The Unemployment for December 2024.

 The month of December 2024 was President Biden's last full month in office that shaped a good economy which has a significant effect on the future of the U.S. economy going into the new year.  The end of December also discredited the negative voices who first called for the start of an economic recession to begin in the 2nd quarter of 2022 and every quarter thereafter.  But there will be no economic recession on the watch of President Biden.

The U.S. Labor Department reported the economy created 256,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate came in at 4.1%, it was 4.2% in November.  Unemployment has been in the 3-4% range for the past 35 consecutive months, the best showing since the 1960's.  The unemployment rate when Trump left office was 6.3%, so unemployment was down 2.2% on President Biden's watch.  It was up 1.6% on Trump's watch (first term) when the economy lost 2.7 million jobs.  The Department also reported the economy has created 16.1 million jobs on Biden's watch for an annual average of 335,416 jobs.  A record of any Presidential term.  The unemployment rate when President Obama left office was 4.7%

And additionally, the Department also reported, "the economy and hiring were able to grow at a solid pace even with interest rates much higher than they were before the pandemic.  Overall, the solid jobs figures suggest the economy is entering a period of steady growth."

With President Biden having only 8 more days in office, the negative voices of doom and gloom will die in their own BS.  So, as of this writing, the only bar to a continuation of a good economy is Donald Trump and his party's failed economic record of the past.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Note:  The negative voices are Trump, the GOP, Maga and those who want to see President Biden fail.

Felony, Felon and Criminal.

 Webster's dictionary defines a Felon as, "A person guilty of a major crime."  "Criminal."  It defines a Felony as, "A major crime."  It defines a Criminal as, "being a crime involving or related to crime."  "guilty of a crime." "a person guilty of a major crime or convicted of a crime."  "having the nature of crime."  So, President-elect Donald Trump is a convicted criminal as a result of being found guilty on 34 felony counts by a jury of his peers.  When one is found guilty of a felony, one is found guilty of a crime.

Yet, the media has failed to call Trump for what he is, a convicted criminal.  They do not even refer to him as a convicted felon.  But they are happy to report Trump's nasty personal attacks against everyone using foul language and even calling V.P. Harris garbage and attacking the court system with lies and misinformation.  The facts are clear, Trump is a convicted criminal, but the media dislikes the facts in favor of Trump's lies.  

It is much past time for the media to shut down Trump's personal attacks, lies and misinformation, and talk about Trump, the President-elect as the convicted criminal that he is.  The chaos that the media helped create should end immediately.  The country has already waited 9 long years.

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Fate, Destiny and Wisdom: The Key To Understanding a Better Life and Progress.

 Webster's dictionary describes fate and destiny as interchangeable, but the very first civilization on Earth, that of the Sumerians that began circa 3800 b.c. said they were taught that destiny, which they called NAM was preordained and un-alterable.  That fate was a preordained course of events that could be altered. They called fate NAM-TAR, TAR meaning to cut, break, disturb or change.

The Sumerians believed man's destiny was only to die, could not be changed or altered.  That man could choose and then alter his fate.  Example:  Man is not fated to be a plumber, electrician, salesman, etc, etc. and can change his fate when he wishes to do so.  The Sumerians applied that to their own philosophy in life.  It went along side their teaching that "the key to a better future is to understand the mistakes of the failed past."  Other wise, the future will be like the failed past.

We in America use the words fate and destiny like Webster describes in the dictionary, but the Sumerians knew better.  Our political leaders do not understand the word fate, and that by an act of fate can change the course of the world for the better.  Their failure to do so has fated man to repeat the same failed mistakes of the past.  Man's destiny will surely take place no matter what we do, so man has to have the wisdom to use his fate in the proper manner.

Donald Trump entered political life 9 years ago and choose a political fate for himself and the country never seen before.  He fated himself, the country, its people and the system to an alternate reality of lies, misinformation, propaganda, personal attacks and corruption.  The media responded with their own fated decision of enabling Trump's alternate reality and allowing Trump to dominate the news cycle.  The media had the opportunity to choose another fate of handling Trump, but instead played into his hand.

Trump's first term in office was fated to fail and it did so.  He will now take office once again on January 20 with a promise of more of the same fate and there is no reason to believe that the media will change its fate as to how to cover Trump in a second term.  Trump and the media's fate will be one and the same again, therefore the future will be like the failed past.  Man's fate will once again be compromised by man himself.    

This commentary written by Joe  Lorio

Donald Trump, The GOP, Terror and Domestic Safety.

 As President and now President elect, Trump still talks tough which represents the GOP's failure to address terror and domestic violence.  Trump's so called tough talk on social media soon after the terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Years morning calling the attacker an immigrant was a big lie and therefor did not address the issue.  

The attacker was born in the U.S., raised in the U.S. schooled in the U.S. worked in the U.S. and served in the U.S. military.  Trump's rage and big lie trying to link the terrorist with immigration, once again demonstrates how Trump is mentally unfit to serve in the White House as President of the U.S.  America needs to be reminded what took place on the GOP's watch concerning terror attacks and domestic violence.

During Trump's first term in office two separate terror attacks took place in New York a month apart early on that killed multiple people.  There was also a terror attack in Florida that took the lives of two military Americans on base led by a Saudi operative.  All toll there were several more terror attacks that took place.  The worst mass shooting and killing took place in Las Vegas in 2017 killing 58 people.  Another mass shooting and killing took place in Southerland Springs, Tex in 2017 killing 26 people; another one in in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people in 2018 and another one in El Paso, Tex. in 2019 that killed 23 people for a total of 124 people killed in mass shootings, all on Trump's watch.  

Then there was Trump's January 6 mob attack on the national capitol that took the lives of several people, destroyed property that ended in prison time for over 100 of the rioters who Trump says he will pardon.  Domestic crime was up on Trump's watch his last three years in office and culminated with a record murder rate in 2020.  And over the past number of years, 7 or 8 of the top ten states with the highest gun violence death rates were governed by the GOP.  

The worst foreign terror attack against Americans on foreign soil took place in Beirut in 1983 on President Reagan's watch while he was trying to talk tough.  Terrorist blew up the U.S. Marine compound that killed 241 Marines and wounded many others.  Reagan never brought any of the planners of that attack to justice.  Reagan's decision to send the Marines to Beirut were opposed by his Department of Defense.  

The worst foreign terror attack against Americans on America soil took place on the watch of President George W. Bush on 9/11 when over 3,000 Americans were killed.  Bush came into the office also talking tough against terrorists but it did not work.  Bush had 7 years and three months to bring Bin Laden to justice for planning the attack but failed to do so.  President Obama did bring Bin Laden to justice because he made it his top priority.  After Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq over WMD that did not exist, it was terrorists who came to Iraq and were responsible for killing and wounding American troops.  Iraqi's army was already destroyed early in the war.

Terror attacks can take place during any administration mainly because America is an open country with freedom.  The best guard against terrorism is a good intelligence policy and plans with a top priority commitment.  So called tough talk does not scare nor is it a policy to stop a terrorist from attacking when the terrorist is willing to kill his own self in the attack.  The big problem for the GOP and the country relates to their ideology of governing.  When you govern by ideology, there are no plans or policy, therefore no real effort on the issues.  Democratic administrations govern with policy and plans to address the issue at hand and therefor do a better job at governing and protecting America and its people.

On January 20, Trump's second term will begin and a mentally unfit for office President will be running the country once again.  Will the future be like the failed past?

This commentary written by Joe Lorio

Note:  All numbers related to terror attacks and domestic violence taken from FBI records, Historical terror records by the Federal Government, from Statista and The Gun Violence Archives.