By George Smith

Are you ready to look at the condition this country finds itself and make a determination based on facts or are you okay with a litany of “alternative truths”?

This column contains information – facts, facts and more facts – that some readers may not want to hear or even believe. Feel free to check them out; I did and if you find any figures or statements are in error as stated, call me out. Some conditions: You have to state your “facts” and source; you cannot divert the message by mentioning Hillary Clinton, President Obama or Robert Mueller.

First, let’s talk about the president: Donald Trump once stated he owned four companies that declared bankruptcy; Clinton countered that in a debate in 2016 and said the number was six. Clinton was correct. Trump’s companies that have gone bankrupt include: Trump Hotels and Casinos, three Atlantic City, N.J. casinos, New York City’s Plaza Hotel and Trump Entertainment Resorts.

Trump stated he counted the three New Jersey casino bankruptcies one as a single filing, even though they were filed separately. Regardless of the number, those bankruptcies left investors and small businesses sucking wind, with Trump declaring more than once that he was just using the existing laws to his advantage.

Trump has repeatedly stated he only hires the “best people.” Yet, he has a turnover rate of 68 percent of his closest White House advisors in only 27 months. Some key positions (chief of staff, communications director, press secretary, etc.) have turned over multiple times. The 68 percent figure is “by position”; if three or more people have held a single position (chief of staff, communications director, etc.), the multiple turnovers are not included in the 68 percent figure.

Now, about draining that swamp: Andrew Wheeler is Environmental Protection Agency director; he is a former lobbyist for the oil and gas industry; Betsy DeVoss, a former fund raiser and unabashed cheerleader for private religious schools, is Secretary of Education; Wilbur Ross, secretary of commerce, and Steven Mnuchin, treasury secretary, are both billionaires who added to their wealth substantially during the 2008 recession, are in charge of creating national economic policy. Ross kept his investments in firms that the Commerce Department oversees;

It’s hard to forget that early in the Era of Trump, 15 women claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Trump before he was president; the White House staff and website have touted First Daughter Ivanka Trump’s line of jewelry; First Lady

Melania pushed her line of jewelry and “timepieces” on the QVC channel; First Son-in-Law Jared Kushner’s sister worked hard to persuade Chinese businessmen to invest in a family development project, touting the fact that Kushner was hot stuff at the White House; Kushner and his spousal unit also received security passes first denied by the White House security clearing house.

The attorney general, William Barr, was named to the post because he was already on record as being in Trump’s corner on whether or not the president could obstruct justice. He fulfilled Trump’s hopes for him with a decidedly less-than-stellar performance in a senate hearing and then blew off the Democrat-controlled House hearing. Barr lied (not “fudged the truth,” not “misspoke’ and not “erred on the side of confidentiality” … but flat-out lied to Congress) about what Mueller’s report and the procecutor’s sentiments about Barr’s interpretation stated.

Meanwhile, the thriving industry of operating private prisons are in an economic boom with the Trump Administration’s affection for tent cities. Coupled with the nation’s zero-tolerance for illegal immigrants, and Trump’s edict of separating children from their families, the figures published for the daily cost of each detainee varies widely from upwards from $133 to almost $800 per day.

Of course, the private contactors charge what they can get and there has been little pushback from any federal official who can make decisions on the unreasonable costs. The Department of Human Services (DHS) estimates the cost of maintaining families (mother and children) together costs $319 per day; separating children from their parents and housing the children (including babies) in “tent cities,” in fenced-in enclosures costs $775 per person per night.

Okay, what is this costing you, the taxpayer? DHS reported that more than 51,300 immigrants, on average, were held in detention centers each day in fiscal 2018.

You do the math, using a combination of the figures above. I did and threw up in my mouth. Just taking the $319 figure, that would be more than $16,270,000.

Why does it cost so much and why is the government doing to keep costs down? The administration could have children stay at the Trump’s International Hotel in D.C. for a measly $575 a night, have room service and still save money.

Shoot, the Day’s Inn in El Paso is only $64 a night and a double room at Super 8 in Brownsville, Texas is only $54.55.

This administration cut taxes bigly on the wealthiest one-percent and corporations, gave the middle class a pittance and then took away certain deductions so the pittance handed out was an enlarged pittance that was so much of a pittance as to not really count for much at all.

As you have probably already figure out, this administration does not care about costs or the working economically wounded – it is not spending its money, it’s spending your’s. And this administration does not care about costs, unless it’s money coming out of the pockets of the Richie Rich’s of the high-dollar crowd.

Drain the swamp? If I was not crying, I’d be laughing.

“First, let’s take stock of where we are: The EPA is run by a former coal lobbyist. An ex-oil lobbyist heads the Department of Interior. Betsy DeVos, funder and champion of private religious schools, runs education policy. Steven Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross, billionaires who profited handsomely from the 2008 collapse, are in charge of protecting the economy. And at the Department of Justice, a top official who recommended that the federal government put more immigrants in privately-run detention centers hopped over to a job at the GEO Group, which pays immigrants $1 for a day of labor but can’t seem to find a way to prevent detainees from dying. No wonder the United States has plummeted in the corruption ranking maintained by Transparency International.”

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By George Smith

Louis Gohmert is an enigma inside a puzzle wrapped in a mystery.

Just kidding. The elected U. S. representative of Texas’ First Congressional District is as easy to read as the kid’s book “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.”

This elected official simply needs to be needed, to be admired, to serve a higher power. He is one of President Trump’s most fervent and energetic public relations soothsayers. Due to his double-jointed ability to religiously bow, scrap and lick boots and posteriors all at the same time, he is a frequent guest on conservative television talk shows, radio and podcasts force-feeding conspiracy theories and right-wing pabulum. Inviting. Rep. Gohmert on a program is like tossing a slow curve to Barry Bonds back in the day…you know what’s going to happen.

In his role as Special Junior Deputy Assistant to the Senior Assistant Deputy Enabler of the President, it’s not surprising Gohmert has myriad opinions; it is no revelation that his opinions  just happen to mirror those expressed by the president. He is, in a phrase, Kellyanne Lite.

Louis Buller Gohmert, Jr., of course, tweets. (Doesn’t everybody?) He mainly tweets support for Trump, liking what he likes and hating what he hates which frequently includes anchor babies, terrorist babies, same sex marriage and, well, you know.

It is rumored that he occasionally has an independent thought but had therapy sessions to squelch those errant missives.. 

Gohmert has long been considered a loose-tongued Republican who is enamored with conspiracy theories and any rumor that is Clinton-related. He has, at various times, been castigated for his mouthings by fellow GOPers like the late John McCain, Marco Rubio, Scott Brown and John Boehner (who beat him like a dirty rug when Gohmert challenged him for Speaker of the House).

Gohment is not, by definition, a laughingstock in political circles, he is an entire season of “Oddball Comics” on the Comedy Channel.

He has at various times let his tongue cover up his eyeteeth so he could not see what he was saying; unfortunately, his words live on in infamy.

Examples:

• Gohmert was on Fox News in a panel discussion about the international influence of Google on world affairs when he popped off with an unrelated and derogatory allegation about Holocaust survivor, philanthropist and Democratic candidate supporter George Soros. Of course, the allegation made right-wingers giddy for days. The fact that the allegation was simply not true created a need for a Fox news apology for Gohmert’s “false allegations” against Soros.
• Three years ago, according to news reports, he said that the U.S. should not use resources fighting LGBTQ equality measures because “We’d never choose a same-sex couple to help populate the moon.” Ooooooookay.
• In a rant about limiting the number of bullets in a magazine, Gohmert said why draw “the line at 10/ What’s wrong with nine? Or eleven? It’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman or four women and one man or why not somebody have a love for an animal.”

This is the elected official that said we can’t have gays in the military because they’d be like the Greeks and give each other “massages all day ready to go into a big, planned battle, then you’re not going to last very long.”

          Rep. Gohment seems to be in a constant state of consternation. He sees liberal bugaboos and terrorists and an undermining of democracy everywhere he looks; followers of his Bizarro World thinking patterns are amazed he doesn’t have whiplash from all the head-snapping.

      Gohmert is a lawyer so it is surprising he never considers he needs evidenced to back up his claims of will o’ the wisp actions by dastardly Demos or terrorist cells ready to pounce. Of course, like his Supreme Leader, making outrageous statements without substantiating evidence is part of their normal workday; they both know that certain elements of Fox News and other conservative outlets will give them a pass and forum to push the story.

How out of touch with reality is he? He once nominated Florida Rep. Allen West for Speaker of the House. The only problem was West had been defeated for re-election.

It’s time for a change, East Texas. I grew up in East Texas in his district and now live in Arkansas. The embarrassment for East Texas that I feel is as strong as pure grain alcohol even 45 mile east of the Texas state line.

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