Here’s the way this depraved offshoot of Marxism is described by the author:

Simply put, it’s the process by which urban socialist Democrats intentionally muck up the basic tasks of municipal governance and create such soul-crushing environments that middle-class taxpayers and voters decamp for the suburbs, thus leaving an electorate incapable of throwing off the political machine.

My theory is that Weaponized Governmental Failure, or WGF for short, was arrived upon serendipitously. At some point in the 1990s, Democrats noticed that some of their worst mayors — like Washington, D.C.’s Marion Barry — were simply unbeatable despite dismal performances.

And, at that point, it became recognizable to urban socialist Democrats that if you governed badly enough, if you refused to fill potholes or police the streets or solve traffic problems or provide functional public education, the middle-class voters who would consider voting Republican and therefore could put your political power at threat would just … leave.

And when they left, what remained would be a thin crust of rich people relatively easy to govern because they provide their own public services in the form of private school attendance for their children, private security for their neighborhoods, and so forth.

Oh, and a mass of urban poor who would also be easy to govern — at least, in the manner urban socialists like to govern. The votes of the poor can be bought cheaply because they don’t know any better. Tear down statues, offer “universal basic income” or free needles or midnight basketball, and you can fleece the poor into believing that you care. They don’t really expect anything better and they wouldn’t even know what that looks like.

So for the last 20–30 years as every single American city dominated by Democrat politicians has decayed into a state of collapse, Democrats have only built their electoral strength in those places.

It isn’t incompetence, though it looks like it is. It’s deliberate. Because federal dollars from things like economic development block grants replace the tax base lost through WGF exoduses.

And when WGF reaches an advanced state, what you get isn’t even something that looks like incompetence. It starts to get brazen.

It starts looking like New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell.

Examples of the Wreckage She Is Leaving in her Wake

It is hard to sum up in mere words the depths to which this woman has gone in what certainly appears to be a deliberate effort to destroy “The City That Care Forgot,” but here are a few recent examples:

• The NOPD needs 2,000 active-duty officers—it is down to 500 and that number is steadily dropping. This problem was graphically illustrated recently when an officer assigned to duty in the French Quarter quit in the middle of his shift as it had become too dangerous and there was little or no backup available.
• The city has only about 60% of its EMS personnel slots filled.
• There are well founded concerns that the ability to provide adequate security for the next Mardi Gras, that universally known and increasingly dangerous street party on “Fat Tuesday” of each year, may impact the ability of the city to put on this function, most important to many in the city, this year.
• She has announced, in her inimitable lawless, in-your-face manner, that she will refuse to abide by the state’s new law banning abortion.
• She hangs out in bars creating televised public disturbances — some just dives and one scene taking place in the lounge of The Windsor Court, one of the city’s most luxurious hotels – including one such pushing and shoving match with a woman in a restroom at a rap concert.
• She persists in going on obscenely expensive foreign trips at a time when the city’s murder rate is on track to be one of the highest in the world— that is, as it really should be repeated— in the world. More on this below.

Nice Work If You Can Get It, Chapter 1

Before turning to the coup de grace of her arrogance and tone deafness, we need to take a closer look at her love of travel to beautiful, exotic foreign climes — who doesn’t, of course, especially when someone else, the taxpayer, is footing the bill— at the most inopportune time possible, as the city she took an oath to serve as its Mayor disintegrates into a steaming mass of junk, potholes, murders, carjackings, etc. To illustrate the brazenness of her attitude with just one fact, the airfare alone for her recent trip to France (via First Class, of course! For her personal safety, she claimed, utterly shamelessly) — cost taxpayers over $18,000! As she took three aides with her, a real royal entourage for a city that is headed for the dung heap rapidly, the trip cost a total of $43,000. But, wait! There’s more!

Nice Work If You Can Get It, Chapter 2

The excursion to France followed closely on the heels of a trip that Cantrell and two staffers took to Ascona, Switzerland, on June 25, to attend that city’s jazz festival and sign another sister city agreement. That trip cost City Hall more than $16,600 for airfare and lodging, records show.

Nice Work If You Can Get It, Chapter 3

Wait! Don’t go away! There’s even more and this one may set the record for everything the word hubris stands for:

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is scheduled to take another trip overseas just days after city council members took steps to restrict her spending on travel.

The mayor’s office says she’s heading to Singapore for a week to attend the “World Cities Summit,” which begins this weekend.

Her office says the summit will focus on challenges facing urban communities, such as climate change.

Last week, two New Orleans council members introduced a proposed ordinance to restrict travel expenses for officials. It would apply to “non-essential trips,” including trips for festivals and sister city agreements.

One is left to wonder, with just cause, whether there will be anything left in the already-diminished treasury of the city if this kind of truly insane spending cannot be curbed by some authority; the City Council seems to be making a lot of speeches and putting out many stern sounding press releases and yet, as the current Beltway buzz phrase goes, “she persists!”

The Coup de Grâce, or Has She Finally Gone Too Far Even for New Orleans?

The most stunning act of sheer, unadulterated arrogance with clearly defined racial messaging, which I say with full knowledge that one is not supposed to say that last part out loud —just one of the many laudable features of having one’s own blog— took place a couple of weeks ago in Juvenile Criminal Court, as described here:

But the piece de resistance, the coup de grace, for Cantrell came last week in a juvenile criminal court.

In an amazing moment, Cantrell showed up to sit with the family of a carjacker who had been found guilty of first-degree robbery. The kid was 13 years old, and he’d been involved in five separate carjackings. Somehow, the district attorney’s office dropped the charges down from armed robbery but secured convictions.

And as the victims, who were mostly (if not all) white women, including one who’s a college student at ultra-expensive Loyola University, read their impact statements, Cantrell looked at them from the front seats.

Then the judge, a Democrat named Renord Darensburg, pronounced sentence:

Three years, suspended. No jail for carjacking and pointing guns at women.

It’s something like a declaration of war, or at least it’s being taken that way by the suburban folks. There have been rumblings about having the state legislature void New Orleans’ home rule charter, inserting the state police into the city to bring it under control, and other actions.

Of course, there is little anyone can do about LaToya Cantrell. Weaponized Governmental Failure is such a smashing success in New Orleans that despite the city’s descent into lawlessness and dysfunction which is so complete that even James Carville, the discredited old Democrat regular who has been afforded status as its unofficial political mascot, has recently bemoaned its poor condition, no one of note ran against Cantrell last year.

She won reelection with some 65 percent of the vote against a cast of unserious challengers.

New Orleans’ electorate has been so degraded by “white flight,” which is a misnomer because the black middle class has hustled out of Orleans Parish just as quickly as the white middle class has, that the city is no longer capable of electing someone any better than LaToya Cantrell.

As I was about to draft the conclusion to this tragic tale of what the Far Left is doing to our once great cities — New Orleans, San Francisco, Chicago, all at one time not very long ago superb cities to visit — I came upon an item which must be added. It so perfectly describes the enormity and terror of the crime this poor little, disadvantaged, under represented, blah, blah, blah criminal  “youth” inflicted upon these victims. It was in the form of a message posted on Facebook by the sister of one of the victims, which gives a rare insight into what it’s like to experience what the victims of the five — FIVE — carjackings this “youth” took part in. I have set it out verbatim without any attempt at editing or modification as these are words of real victimhood. Here it is:

I don’t usually post stuff like this, typically my opinions are kept to myself. After today, I feel it imperative for people to know just how disgustingly distraught our justice system is.

Almost a year ago, my 19 year old sister came home from school at Loyola University, pulled in her driveway, put the car in park, went to exit and looked up to see a gun in her face. She was robbed at gun point by 3 juvenile males. They stole her car and everything in it, then totaled it.

One male was found the other two have not.

But the one that was found was the one whom “technically” robbed her and did all of the dirty work. He was arrested, bonded out shortly after…. This was not his first offense, second, or third….Matter of fact just Madison was his 5th victim of JUST this particular offense.

And a month ago was found GUILTY of all charges that were brought against him. Which were initially Armed robbery but it was lessened to 1st degree robbery. (Yes you read that correctly it was lessened).

The day of the verdict, instead of incarceration, he was given an ankle monitor until today. 30 days in between these court dates.

Today was his sentencing. Today we were surprised to walk in and see our LOVELY MAYOR LATOYA CANTRELL in attendance. Verified by the DA that she was not in relation to the criminal whatsoever and did not know them. She decided she would sit and console the family members of this criminal while she and the rest of the court room listened to not just Madison but 5 other women give their victim impact statements before the court.

Yes, she sat and patted the back of this criminal while the VICTIMS sat on the other side of the room and SOBBED recalling their encounters. The issues these women now have are LIFELONG the damage he has done to all of these women is irreparable. The boy stood up when asked to by the judge, the judge asked if he had anything he’d like to say to these victims before he gave his sentence.

He replied “Nah.”

The judge proceeded to state how he felt like even though it was not his first offense, and even though he robbed all of these women at gun point that he should not be given the maximum sentence and that he’d be better off monitored at home by family. That our youth will not learn their lesson by having to go to jail.

Our ever so amazing mayor happily nodded in agreement with the judge then walked out. The judge proceeded to give his very impactful sentence of PROBATION, with the option of it being lessened if he gets a job, or goes to college…. (Straight out of the judges mouth)

I’m sorry, what?!….. a REPEAT OFFENDER, whom had ROBBED over 5 women at gun point, carjacked them, over hundreds of thousands of dollars in physical damages and lets not talk about the mental and emotional damage he’s caused, who listened to his victims state how he has destroyed their lives and wasn’t the least bit remorseful…. gets PROBATION! And this folks, is called JUSTICE! What in the actual BEEEEEEEP!?! This city is already gone down the drain, and I knew the justice system was bad but THIS…. THIS IS absolutely APPALLING. New Orleans will be a 3rd world country before we know it.

Contempt for the City She Took an Oath to Defend and Protect

The final words of another piece discussing this miserable excuse for a public official best sums up the entire sad, tragic, destructive dilemma facing New Orleans at the present time:

A mayor worth having wouldn’t be going anywhere else right now. A mayor worth having would be doing everything she could to right the ship at the NOPD. She’d be on a crash recruiting program for new officers, trying to poach them from surrounding parishes. She’d be asking the governor to send state police and even national guard to stabilize the out of control crime rate in the city. She’d be trying to organize neighborhood watch groups so folks could protect their homes and neighborhoods from criminals.

And she’d be on a listening tour of small businesses all over the city.

Instead she’s going to Singapore to be wined and dined by Third World kleptocrats and left-wing nonprofit toadies and fraudsters.

Contempt is the only word which describes this. LaToya Cantrell has so much contempt for the citizens of New Orleans it’s breathtaking. She’s the Marie Antoinette of weaponized governmental failure, and she’s got three more years to finish off the Big Easy.

It’s hard to imagine New Orleans recovering.

We can only hope the author is wrong, especially those of us with ties to this place of myth, history, beauty, Mardi Gras, Tennessee Williams and that famous streetcar, Galatoire’s and Antoine’s, and the inimitable French Quarter. But, from all the evidence, his prognosis seems to be spot on.

Mark one more victory for the destroyers of the Far Left and, of course, for LaToya the Destroya.