Rubio Was Right: Communism Doesn't Even Look Good on Paper

Rubio Was Right: Communism Doesn't Even Look Good on Paper

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for July 16, 2026. We open with the debate surrounding Meta's data center expansion in Richland Parish — now growing from two gigawatts to five gigawatts and representing a $50 billion investment in northeast Louisiana before the facility is even fully built. We take on the fear-mongering from the Alliance for Affordable Energy, which is warning that ratepayers could eventually get stuck with higher utility bills — based on what happened in states that tried to power data centers with solar and wind. We explain why Louisiana is different, why Governor Landry and Monroe Mayor Friday Ellis are confident the commitments will hold, why natural gas and nuclear are the right fuels for these facilities, and why the Louisiana Public Service Commission exists precisely to hold Meta and Entergy accountable if they don't deliver. The teacher salaries in Richland Parish have already doubled. That's not speculation. That's a fact. We'll monitor, we'll enforce, and we'll stop pretending failure is inevitable before anything has actually failed. In our Top 3, an illegal alien from Honduras with three prior deportations — including a felony domestic abuse conviction in Bossier — was convicted of illegal reentry in Bossier City after a routine traffic stop flagged a federal warrant. He has been sentenced to a year in prison and will be deported for the fourth time. Then Shreveport Mayor Tom Arsenault fulfilled another campaign promise — opening the city's third police substation, this one at Cedar Grove Park near I-49 and 70th Street, with Chief Wayne Smith calling it an ideal location to mentor young people in the community. And the Concordia Parish School District has been released from federal desegregation oversight dating back to a 1965 lawsuit — the third Louisiana district freed from consent decree supervision this year, following Bossier Parish and DeSoto Parish. Louisiana in 2026 is not Louisiana in 1965. We dig into a ruling that has left us genuinely baffled — a state judge ordered Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrell to pay nearly $245,000 in legal fees to the Caddo Parish Commission after she sued the commission for violating the Open Meetings Law. The violation in question: a minority of commissioners signed a resolution welcoming Bernie Sanders without holding an open public meeting. Judge John Davidson called the lawsuit frivolous. We call the ruling a misreading of the Open Meetings Law so fundamental that a first-year law student should have caught it. If a government body can produce official documents without ever holding a meeting, the Open Meetings Law has no meaning — and neither does any resolution that body has ever issued. We expect this to be overturned on appeal to the Second Circuit. We also cover the IRS migration data showing that the 10 counties with the largest net losses of taxpayers in the country are all located in California and New York — while Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and increasingly Louisiana are absorbing the people, the businesses, the investments, and the tax dollars that blue state policies are driving away. More than 26% of New York City residents were already considering leaving before Zoran Mamdani won. Every moving truck headed out of Manhattan or Los Angeles takes not just furniture but future. In our Say What segment, we play Secretary of State Marco Rubio's speech on the resurgence of political terrorism — specifically his rebuke of communism that we call one of the best we've ever heard. Rubio's argument: communism doesn't even look good on paper. From each according to their ability, to each according to their need — meaning you give everything you have and get back only the bare minimum to survive. The world communism envisions is small, flat, gray, and drained of everything good in the human soul. No creativity, no ambition, no heroes, no God. Russia led the arts in the 1800s. Then the communists took over. The buildings stopped being beautiful. The composers stopped writing. Individual initiative disappears when the government owns everything and all you get for your labor is survival. We play our CNBC cost-of-doing-business game — and even CNBC's left-leaning methodology can't hide the truth. The 10 most expensive states for business: Hawaii, Massachusetts, Alaska, Washington, California, Rhode Island, Maryland, Oregon, Delaware, and New York — nine blue states and one remote red state. The 10 least expensive: Ohio, Indiana, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, Iowa, Tennessee, and Kentucky — eight red states and two purple states, zero blue. The people voting with their feet and the companies voting with their headquarters are all reading the same scoreboard. We also cover the DHS and DOT jointly investigating 75 commercial driver's licensing schools for allegedly helping non-citizens fraudulently obtain CDLs — putting improperly trained, potentially illiterate drivers behind the wheels of 80,000-pound vehicles traveling at highway speed. This isn't a paperwork problem. It's a public safety crisis. And we close with a Memphis pizza restaurant owner who refused to serve Tennessee National Guard troops deployed to reduce the city's murder rate — a rate that has dropped since their arrival. We note that most murder victims in Memphis are Black men, that the National Guard is keeping some of them alive, and that refusing to serve the people protecting your community while claiming to love it is not a political statement. It's cowardice with marinara sauce. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

The Battle for Louisiana's Offshore Billions

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for July 15, 2026. Should Louisiana finally get its fair share? We kick things off with a look at a bipartisan effort to expand Louisiana's control over offshore waters—and the billions of dollars in energy royalties that could come with it. We explain why Texas and Florida have enjoyed a decades-long advantage and why lawmakers say it's time to level the playing field. We also cover the latest headlines from around Louisiana, including flooding in New Orleans caused by human error, a Baton Rouge councilman facing corruption charges, and Louisiana's swift water rescue teams deploying to help flood victims in Texas. Later, we discuss teacher pay raises in St. Tammany Parish, why local economic growth may be the key to better schools across the state, and how Meta's investment in Richland Parish is already delivering life-changing bonuses for educators. Plus, we react to Joe Biden's upcoming memoir, debate whether politics is keeping some parents from taking advantage of new investment accounts for their children, examine the Pentagon's new testosterone screening policy for service members, and discuss President Trump's latest comments on Iran and what they could mean for America's role in the Middle East. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

Louisiana's $50 Billion Bet on the AI Revolution

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for July 14, 2026. Louisiana may be on the verge of a once-in-a-generation economic transformation, and we break down why Governor Jeff Landry says the state is embracing the next industrial revolution. We examine Meta's staggering $50 billion investment in northeast Louisiana, what it could mean for jobs, infrastructure, and the future of AI, and why some critics are sounding the alarm. We also discuss the tragic death of a U.S. Deputy Marshal in Alexandria, Louisiana, new record-breaking employment numbers across the state, and why 50 Cent is hinting he may scale back part of his investment in Shreveport. Later, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill joins us to explain why she's appealing a judge's ruling in the Caddo Parish open meetings case after being ordered to pay nearly $250,000 in legal fees. We unpack what the case could mean for government transparency and accountability. Plus, we debate President Trump's proposal—and subsequent reversal—on charging cargo ships for protected passage through the Strait of Hormuz, discuss Mexico's complaints about U.S. immigration enforcement, celebrate the remarkable longevity of the U.S. Constitution, and react to Senator Raphael Warnock's claim that a Fourth of July thunderstorm was divine intervention. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

CNBC's Worst States Are the Most Popular States — Because People Vote With Moving Trucks, Not Methodology

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for July 13, 2026. We open with a Tax Foundation report confirming what Louisiana families and business owners have lived for decades — Louisiana has the highest combined state and local sales tax burden in America at 10.13%. We explain why the trade-off made by the legislature two years ago — broadening the sales tax base in exchange for cutting the income tax — was the right move philosophically, because an income tax is a tax on liberty while a sales tax is a tax on consumption. But we also make clear that complacency is not an option. Tennessee has zero income tax and the second highest sales tax in the nation — and Tennessee is doing gangbusters. Louisiana's competition isn't theoretical. It's right next door, and Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas are all racing their income taxes toward zero. Louisiana cannot fall behind in that race. In our Top 3, Meta has announced it is expanding its AI data center in Richland Parish from two gigawatts to five gigawatts — before the facility is even fully built — raising Meta's total investment in northeast Louisiana to $50 billion and creating more jobs than originally forecast. Then human error shut down all three water pumps at New Orleans Pump Station 7 during the heaviest rainfall of the weekend, causing water levels to rise six feet in 20 minutes and triggering widespread flooding in Lakeview, Mid-City, and around City Park — which is exactly why Governor Landry is skeptical of sending the city more money. And the race for Louisiana's 5th Congressional District is taking shape, with multiple candidates from both parties beginning to qualify — though the status of Trump-endorsed candidate Blake Miguez remains unclear. We revisit the life and legacy of Senator Lindsey Graham — and play the audio that may represent the highest point of his Senate career. During the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings, Graham stood up among colleagues he called his friends and delivered a speech that stopped the chamber cold — calling the process the most unethical sham he had witnessed in his political career, apologizing directly to Kavanaugh for what his family was being put through, and saying plainly to the Democratic majority: you're looking for a fair process — you came to the wrong town at the wrong time. We also note that Cory Booker's tribute this week — crediting Graham as the colleague who made his criminal justice reform bill possible — says everything about the kind of senator he was. Graham could fight hard and still work across the aisle, and that combination made his Kavanaugh speech land harder than it ever would have coming from someone further to the right. We also discuss Governor McMaster's appointment of Graham's sister Darlene Graham Nardone to fill his seat, the long American tradition of widow's succession opening doors for women in public office, and the photo of Mitch McConnell in his hospital room — which looks staged, which proves nothing, and which still hasn't produced a single quotable word from the senator himself. We cover the New Orleans Decatur Street construction project — where Governor Landry is demanding a full audit after a project to replace 1906-era water mains has stretched on for years, closing French Quarter businesses and driving some permanently out of existence. The city's response to the audit request was to announce $200,000 in business relief grants — roughly $2,500 to $5,000 per affected business, which may cover a utility bill but won't bring back a restaurant that ran out of customers two years ago. In our Digging Deep segment, we go deep on CNBC's ranking of the worst states in America to live in — all ten of which are red states, and all ten of which gained population from other states in 2024. Texas, the second worst state according to CNBC, had the largest net inflow of any state in the country. Tennessee, the worst state in America according to CNBC, added 36,000 new residents. We then examine the methodology — which rewards states for high minimum wages, mandatory union participation, gender ideology in law, abortion access without restriction, and no voter ID requirements. We conclude that CNBC has not produced a quality of life ranking. It has produced a Democratic National Committee platform checklist. The American people are voting with their feet. CNBC is voting with its politics. We also cover a man in Caddo Parish arrested for his seventh DWI — with five of those arrests made by Shreveport Police — and ask the only logical question: why is this man still on the road? The police have done their job five times. The fault here rests squarely with a DA's office that has failed to protect the people of Caddo Parish. We also weigh in on European leaders lecturing President Trump about immigration enforcement while their own streets tell a completely different story. In Germany, foreign nationals make up 15% of the population but 53% of gang rape suspects. In Ireland, 85% of women murdered last year were killed by foreign nationals. Every crime committed by an illegal alien in this country is a failure of government to do its most basic job — securing the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for its own citizens. And we close with Mick Jagger offering what may be the most useful piece of career advice in the music industry right now — that a singer's job is to sing and a performer's job is to entertain, not to lecture a paying audience about politics. Bruce Springsteen, apparently, was not in the room. May your pursuit of happiness bring you joy. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!

Jeff Landry Takes on New Orleans Over $110 Million Budget Fight

You’re listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for July 9, 2026. We open with the growing showdown between Governor Jeff Landry and New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno as the fight over the city's finances reaches a boiling point. We break down why the governor says New Orleans is treating Louisiana taxpayers like an ATM, what the city's budget crisis means going forward, and the latest developments in Attorney General Liz Murrill's legal battle with Orleans Parish officials. We also discuss the largest jailbreak in Louisiana history and the criminal case against former Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson, plus a major federal research grant awarded to ULM and a new Louisiana education initiative that ties tutoring companies' pay directly to student success. Also in today's show: a Baton Rouge pastor sues after being fired over preferred pronouns, a massive Medicaid fraud scheme uncovered in New York, President Trump's efforts to restore safety in Washington, D.C., the naming of a new airport in his honor, and why the president says he's already given instructions for how America should respond if Iran ever succeeds in carrying out its assassination threats. All that and more on this episode of American Ground Radio. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776!