Some real soul searching going on here

Turns out Eddie Rispone, despite having spent the past several months scheming and maneuvering and spending a fair amount of money in an effort to become the next chair of the state Republican Party, has suddenly discovered he's too busy.  

Eddie Rispone, the Republican businessman who lost a bid to unseat Louisiana’s Democratic governor in 2019, is suspending his campaign for chairman of the party, weeks after saying he wanted to take over after seeing the party outworked and outspent during the governor’s race.

Rispone said in an interview he has “major obligations” in his personal and business life that would prevent him from devoting enough time to party chair.

Can't even spare them decency of coming up with a convincing lie. Boss move.  

On the other hand why bother when he's got Mike Bayham around to make stuff up for him. 

Mike Bayham, the secretary of the party, said Rispone “got a taste of unfortunately how fratricidal this party is.” Bayham has previously said the party needs a “culture” change, pointing to an attack mailer against him in his race for re-election to the Republican State Central Committee, whose origins weren’t disclosed.

“The guy is a serious businessman,” Bayham said. “I think he didn’t fully appreciate how much herding of cats there would be involved. When you’re chairman of the party you answer theoretically to over 220 (central committee) members.”

See the thing is Rispone, who spent the 2019 gubernatorial election on television cartoonishly praising Donald Trump in front of as many pickup trucks as he could find, is just too good for this party.  And since the "culture change" he's hoping for has more to do with who gets paid to make ads than anything else, maybe he's got a point.

Warped Operation Speed

 Looks like that expanded vaccine distribution isn't happening as soon as we thought. 

When Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would begin releasing coronavirus vaccine doses held in reserve for second shots, no such reserve existed, according to state and federal officials briefed on distribution plans. The Trump administration had already begun shipping out what was available beginning at the end of December, taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.

Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding eligibility for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.

Just yesterday, Louisiana Health Department officials said they were expecting some 58,000 doses in their next shipment as they get ready to ramp up vaccinations.  I wonder if that number is affected by this or if it just means they won't be able to move as quickly as they had hoped.  

Nobody actually lives there

No better indication of what our tourism bloodsuckers have done to the French Quarter than this.  

Louis and his brother John Matassa have long run the grocery together. The store wends across a number of connected buildings, filled with narrow aisles and a small deli known for its plate lunches, breakfast biscuits and po-boys. Matassa's sturdy delivery bicycles have been a common sight bouncing along French Quarter streets, bringing sacks of grocery and cases of beer to customers’ doors.

But Catalanotto said slow business during the pandemic has been “the last straw” for a grocery that had struggled over the years as the French Quarter’s residential population declined and one-time homes were converted to condos and short-term rentals.

“People say this is a great time for the grocery business and that’s true, but not in the French Quarter,” he said. “It’s a different market here.”

Can't "shop local" when there are no locals. There could be a lesson here for what we want our city to look like after COVID. But we all know we're going to double down on turning our historic neighborhoods into theme parks.

In 8 days nobody will remember any of this

If we took it seriously, Trump would already have been removed. Instead he's giving a speech in Texas today while everybody keeps arguing over what the most civil, move-forwady, bipartisan response can be. If we took it seriously, the large majority of congressional Republicans would be resigning today.  Don't expect they're going anywhere. 

If we took it seriously, Jeff Landry would resign in disgrace.  Instead he's going to remain a likely candidate for Governor in 2023, in disgrace nonetheless. But still... 

Anyway the point is, in a week they're going to change the subject. Maybe it won't exactly be a thing where nobody remembers this happened. But it will definitely be digested into the regular theater by then.

The latest shock

Was it a coup? Is it still a coup? Will it be a coup? Who is a terrorist? Should we use that word at all?  What color is the "threat level"?  Are we frightened enough? Who knows? Does it matter? 

At the end of the day somebody is going to make a lot of money building a bigger and scarier surveillance apparatus. That's what's really important. 

Defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton made an undisclosed strategic investment in Tracepoint, a technology startup with Baton Rouge roots. 

Tracepoint LLC, a digital forensics technology startup in New Orleans, was co-founded by Baton Rouge-based disaster response business Plexos Group and several other experts in the field in 2012. 

Plexos Group CEO David Odom said that the investment "affirms the unique value this growing company brings to the cybersecurity industry." Plexos Group develops new companies and invests in startups as part of its market strategy, according to the company. 

Tracepoint conducts background screening for employment, tenants, credit checks and drug and alcohol testing.

The new economy is built on shock-driven paranoid reaction.  Can't do anything to stop the pandemic-depression causing people to lose jobs and homes and descend into despair.  But we sure can invest in keeping an eye on them.

Was he grounded?

Cameron Henry's brother has run into some kind of a problem.  Let's try not to imagine what it could be with so little information available.  

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana lawmaker from Jefferson Parish has abruptly resigned from his elected position.

The House of Representatives clerk’s office confirmed Tuesday that Republican Rep. Charles Henry submitted his resignation to House Speaker Clay Schexnayder on Monday. The resignation from the 105-member chamber was effective immediately.

“As of today, he is no longer a member,” said House Clerk Michelle Fontenot.

Because if we don't give him the benefit of the doubt and it is what we think it could be, then why are Steve Scalise and John Kennedy not resigning as well?

"Beyond punishment"

Jason Williams was sworn in as DA today. We are, as always, prepared to be disappointed in how he actually plans to translate his rhetoric into practice.  But he does know the rhetoric well. 

Williams says he will end the use of Louisiana’s stringent habitual offender laws, never transfer juveniles to adult court and become much pickier about charging cases for prosecution. Underscoring his new approach, his large transition team includes many liberal policy advocates and former colleagues in the defense bar.

"Being more selective about prosecutions will allow us to focus on the crimes that matter most to all of us. We’ve got to go beyond punishment and invest in our community," Williams said in his inauguration speech.

Again, we'll see if those words carry any sort of commitment. We already expect the increase in crime commensurate with worsening economic conditions during the pandemic will lead to new political pressures on every politician to "get tough." That's especially likely to be worse during a municipal election year. 

Speaking of which, the timing of Jason's resignation from City Council means there will not be an additional election just to fill his seat. 

Monday also brought some clarity regarding Williams’ now vacant at-large seat on the City Council. Tyronne Walker, Williams former campaign manager and transition director, said that his resignation of the seat was effective Monday at 11 a.m., meaning his seat will be filled by an appointment by members of the City Council. If he had decided to resign any earlier, there would have been more than a year left in his term. Under city law, that means the seat would have been required to be filled by a special election.

On Monday morning about an hour before the ceremony began, Walker told The Lens that Williams had not recommended an interim candidate for the council to consider. Council President Helena Moreno on Monday announced the opening of applications for the post.

So.. you know.. if you're looking for a job...