By George Smith

Just twiddling my thumbs…waiting.

I am waiting, waiting all a-twitter, for a reasonable explanation why the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump would sit down for 18 interviews in nine hours total over six months with a reporter and admit he lied to the American people about the dangers of the COVID 19 virus.

Trump didn’t regurgitate truth pellets to the American people about the dangers of the coronavirus in February —at the same time he was going on Twitter and holding news conferences — he was stating emphatically the virus, which was virulent in its global pandemic specifications — was “no big deal and would “magically disappear”.

He lied. Regularly. Repeatedly. He spat in the face of scientists and experts on infection diseases. He pooh-poohed the use of and effectiveness of face masks to put the damper on the virus’ spread and said he was doing a good job as people died needlessly. He preached about reopening businesses prematurely.

President Trump lied. And people died.

Lying about the dangers and watching residents die while continung to spout the lie over and over was abjectly stupid.

Also abjectly stupid was agreeing to interviews with the reporter, Bob Woodward.

Bob Woodward. You do know the name, right? The “Robert Redford” of “All the President’s Men.” The Watergate Woodward. The dismantling of the Nixon Administration. The disgrace and resignation of Richard Nixon.

THAT Bob Woodward.

In the Watergate saga, Woodward and his investigative partner, Carl Bernstein, had “Deep Throat,”
an anonymous source that helped them focus the investigation along a ligical path.

In Woodward’s newest investigative effort, his new “Deep Throat” is … the president.

One has to assume one of two things about Trump agreeing to lengthy taped — TAPED — interviews with the world’s most famous investigative journalist: 1. That President Trump had never read the book about Watergate by Woodward and Bernstein, or seen the movie, or 2. He is so enamored with enhanced his bloviated image he was flattered by the attention.

Regardless of whether it was stupidity (there is no reason to plead “ignorance” in this case) or vanity, Trump can blame no one but himself.

This is the Supreme Gotcha! But in this case, Trump “got” himself. All  Woodward “got” was a money-making best seller and, maybe, another notch in the handle of his presidential pistol.

Waiting, just waiting. Waiting to see how Trumpuppets spin this newest revelation, waiting to watch the president try and explain away his taped words that killed thousands of American residents.

What is there to say?

Trump lied. And people died as a direct result of his lies.

Is he worthy to be president. Not then. Not now. Not in the future.

This newest Trumpisode in ignorance and egomaniacal behavior teminds me of the Dietks Bentley song:

“I know what I was feelin’
But what was I thinkin’”?

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By George Smith

This country must redefine a label, change it, label it for what it is and stop using it in a blurred sense.

The label? Pro-life.

Everybody is pro-life…me, you, them, us!

Those who support Donald Trump, the most corrupt president in this country’s history, are not pro-life…they are anti-abortion.

Trump is only anti-abortion now because of its basic appeal to his base. A life-long chameleon on the issue, he has donated multiple times to Planned Parenthood and donated to candidates who fervently believe that a woman, in cincert with her doctor and God, has singular control over her body. And, according to second-wife Marla Maples, when she informed her then-boyfriend she was pregnsnt, he said, “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

And, then, there’s the issue of the American community making a commitment to assist in taking care of children born in less than ideal conditions. What, then?

The president has demanded cuts to programs aimed at supporting low income families with children.

(From Chikdren’s Defense Fund —April 2020)
President Trump’s 2020 budget request landed with a thud this week, laden with deep cuts to programs that lift millions of children and their families out of poverty every year. In a moment of great prosperity, just more than a year after giving away $2 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy, the President has once again offered a draconian budget that would leave more children hungry, unhoused and uninsured.

“The President has proposed cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) by $220 billion over the next decade, even though SNAP helped 19.2 million children avoid hunger in 2016 and kept 1.5 million children out of poverty in 2017.”

Do not tell me this president cares about children, the embryo or newborn.

He cares about one thing — himself. It’s all about his fragile ego and how tough he can portray himself to be.

He’ll use anything — even the future and fate of children — to fulfill his fantasies of power and complete adulation.

He wants the best of all alt-right worlds: A strong, unwavering anti-abortion stance … AND a just-as-strong stance against so-called “gimme” programs that protect the health and well-being of children.

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By Ron Munden – August 29, 2020

A couple of months ago I was confident that Trump would be defeated by Biden in a close election.

Today I am confident that Trump will beat Biden in a close election.

In my opinion, post-election analysis will show what defeated Biden was “Black Lives Matter”.   Peaceful protests are effective; violent protests are counter-productive.  They work against the cause.  “Black Lives Matters” organizers have demonstrated they do not have the leadership skills needed to ensure the protests are peaceful.  Sadly, there is no Martin Luther Kings in their leadership.  I am beginning to think that there is no leadership in “Black Lives Matter” movement.  A group without a leader quickly becomes a mob.  That is what has happened to this movement.

Democrats are not doing themselves a favor by only giving lip service to the condemnation of the violence and particularly the looters.

No one wants Donald J. Trump defeated more than me.  I think he is destroying the country and he will lead the United States forward an autocratic government if he has four more years.

I also think that he is going to get those four years if the Democrats do not step up an address the “Black Lives Matters” PROBLEM.

In my opinion drastic actions is require NOW.  A recent poll shows that 60% of the people in the poll think that “COVID-19” will decide the election while 40% think “civil unrest”.  If things don’t change, I see that quickly moving in the direction of “civil unrest.”

Here is my advice to Democrats and anyone else what wants Trump defeated.  Raise you voice and condemn the “Black Lives Matters” protests in their current form.  Do not tolerate violence

If I were in change these are some of the things I would do.

I believe looters are hurting the Democratic ticket more than anything.  Each time the news media shows video of looters in stores taking merchandise, Biden loses thousands of votes.  Stopping looters is mandatory for Biden to have a chance of winning. 

So first, I would order the police to use rubber bullets on looters leaving buildings with merchandise. 

I realize to some mayors are whims and won’t take this action, so I have a less effective but more humane option.  I would use a technique that has proven effective in other countries.  I would spray indelible blue dye on anyone leaving a looted building.  I would use drones to video these lootings from multiple angles.  At the first daylight I would begin arresting the “blue people”.  Even better, use option 1 and 2 both.

People that want Biden to win the election should not give aid and comfort to looters.  They are not working with you; they are working against the Democratic Party.  Turn them into the police.

I will stop with item one on my list for now because I believe that unless looting is stopped before voting starts – the looters will be giving the election to Trump.

Everyday people daily accuse me of being a Democrat because I dislike Trump.  I have never been a Democrat because I believe the Democrats have a track record of not acting forcefully at critical times.  Now the time, perhaps the last time, they will have an opportunity to prove me wrong.

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By George Smith

George Smith	Aug 27, 2020, 8:56 AM (2 days ago)
to ron

Sad is a good/bad word to describe the mess weser daily in the news.

Anyone who loots, commits arson or acts of violence should be arrested and locked up. I have written about the obligation of peaceful protestors to turn in criminals who are disrupting the peaceful protests with their own sick agendas.

But there are two sides to every story. The 17-year-old who killed two strangers with a rifle at a demonstration this week was a Trump supporter. Members of the peaceful protest chased after him and knocked him done and two men were killed for their trouble.

I do agree with those who believe “peace” in this time of vitriolic hate speech is elusive. And, yet, the struggle for orace must never crease.

It is a hard fact that there is a pervasive bias against black men and other people of color, that many police officers and ordinary citizens look at black men differently than they do white men. The shootings and deaths of black men under questioning or in custody cannot be justified. It has to stop or the violence and deaths will continue.

I’m not excusing the violence that are offshoots of demonstrations amd protests, just trying to explain the situation.

My son-in-law is black; I have two black grandsons and black cousins.  I sat in while my son-in-law talked to his 16-year-old and 10-year-old about being black in a white-dominated society.

It broke my heart. I never had that talk to my two sons. There was no need.

Regardless of your feelings, or mine, Trump and his policies are supported by neo-Nazis, KKK groups, Qanon whackos and white supremacist groups. Trump does not have to BE a racist if those groups believe he IS a racist.

And they do believe it. And with the president seen as being four-square “on the side” of racism, the boundaries of decency and humanity are not shifted, they are removed entirely.

That’s where we are. It is where we will be until the November 3 election.

Can this country sustain four more years of vitriol, hate and division?

It’s a question we each have to answer. And how we answer it sets the foundation for the future of the United States.

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By George Smith

Every town — EVERY town — has its problems. The picture postcard myth of the “perfect” town in which “I” was raised does not exist, except in people’s slanted memories.

Bill Moyer’s incredible documentary “Marshall, Texas, Marshall, Texas”, tells a tale of two cities; in that regard, it hasn’t changed much.

As publisher of the MNM for a decade, I saw both sides…the goodness of the people, regardless of color, sex, religion, and the crass, ugly underbelly of deceit and treacherous intent.

But, Marshall has a special spirit and I was so lucky to have fed off it for a major slice of my life.

That said, The rest of the story:

Marshall’s sudden spit-fight over a meaningless statute erected about 100 years ago as a head-nod to a “romantic” era that never existed and was part of a southern strategy during a revival of the Ku Klux Klan, is so, well, typical Marshall.

When it comes to anything that remotely has to do with the (shhhhh) black-white divide in the city, residents instantly take sides, mainly by skin color. The concepts of “right and wrong” does not entered into personal equations, decisions or actions at this point.

I marveled 35 years ago at the intricacies of the Marshall’s black-white dynamics. It was no secret that a few white movers-and-shakers would pay black “activists” to distribute and collect ballots for non-ambulatory black voters to ensure “certain” votes were cast in a “certain” way. You know, the “white” way.

The irony that this widely known “secret” was common knowledge on both sides of the racial fence never ceased to amaze me.

I tried to gather evidence for a story on this pay-for-vote scam but the curtain of silence infused with money and power was thick.

Later, via an editorial, the paper backed a move to restructure voting districts to ensure that black residents were given a fair opportunity to gain a seat on the school board.

Gerrymandered school district were changed and the representative for the black community’s first order of business was to push to incorporate the colors of the closed Pemberton school into the Maverick red-and-white color scheme.

A followup editorial lamented that if the the colors red and white and purple and gold were going to be the new school colors, the the sports team name would have to be changed to…wait for it…Clowns.

The result was the first of several NAACP-ordained boycotts of the paper.

The point? The racial division in Marshall was, and in some case, still is, by design. Folks in power want to stay in power and if harmony among races is not in their best interests…it is a bad road to travel.

It’s all perception, folks…all of the division in Marshall and in this nation.
We perceive something is being taken away from us, and we become irate, even if the issue has been a moot point for eons, or should not even been on the horizon of conscious thought.

When I love about Marshall and its people is its people.I think of Marshall and my thoughts automatically turn to Carolyn Abney, Flo Jasper, Audrey Kariel, Diane Gray, George Carter, Dr. Izzy LeMond (sp), Geraldine Mauthe, Sharon Green, Gail Beil and Jerry Stallworth…folks who cared about Marshall, ALL of Marshall, not the slices and pieces they could manipulate and control.

Marshall, Texas is still a tale of two cities, and it is time for the residents of this special community to have a
“Kumbaya, My Lord“ moment and realize its potential… with all residents working together to make Marshall the best community it can be for all residents.

It’s never too late to do what’s right.

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By George Smith

Congress — both houses — is on vacation.

VA-freakin’-CATION!

Both Democrats and Republicans are pathetic images of public servants for leaving Washington-on-the-Deficit to go home and campaign after not agreeing on a stimulus package for American workers.

This cadre of cowards left town without confronting an attack on the Postal Service by an out-of-control psychotic president and his administration of lab monkeys trained to do his bidding, a bevy of executive orders (one of which is an overt attack in Social Security and Medicare) and a jittery populous fatigued by a never-ending pandemic and financial and familial concerns.

Way to go, Elected Officials! Proud of you, we are!

As it has been for almost four years, the blame game starts with President Trump and his Corps of Rump Huggers. Almost to a person, Washington’s Republicans stand in abject lockstep with the whims, dewhims and rewhims of this cock-brained president; time after time they ignore historical perspectives, societal norms and plain ol’ common sense to embrace the will o’ the wisp brain gasses emitted by an unhinged would-be dictator.

Too harsh? Sorry, just getting warmed up.

By his own words, Donald J. Trump admitted to undermining the foundation of democracy — the right  to vote — by, first, naming a new postmaster general who will do his bidding, and, then, denying money and resources to ensure American citizens can be assured that every vote in the November election is accepted and counted.

Trump is using the pandemic as a diversion from his gutting the postal service of internal resources, proclaiming his opposition to an adequate budget to ensure an honest election and to sow seeds of uncertainy to enlarge the abyss between party loyalists.

A news report of contractors picking up remote post office mail receptacles, to cut down on mail drop-off points, created a firestorm of negative comments and resulted in the replacement of the mail drop-off boxes.

Such strong-arm tactics to inhibit voting, a fundamental right of any democracy, should give every patriot, every American, pause. Why would any public official, much less the nation’s president, want to inhibit the right to vote for thus nation’s citizens?

One word: Fear.

President Trump is afraid of the wrath of a majority of America’s citizens voting and expressing their frustration with his juvenile attacks on those who oppose his moronic actions, and who see him as an emotional cripple who believes empathy is a fault and uses the power of his office to force his will on the “unwashed masses”. More and more Americans are seeing his administration’s inability to conceive of a clear-cut national policy to address the COVID 19 pandemic and getting more angry with each absurd statement by administration cheerleaders.

Trump is cracking, afraid of what November 3 will bring.

And, well, he should. But his every off-the-wall tweet, every disjointed news conference, every call to his friendly media outlets and every executive order intended to shore up his Pied Piper-following base, he is simply driving more nails into his political coffin.

He is panicking. His moves are now becoming predictable as his panic over losing the election grows.

That is bad for President Trump. But, in the long run, good for this nation.

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By George Smith

Fraud.*

That is a one-word description that fits President Donald Trump.

His entire life, from his first business dealings back in the early ‘70s, is rift with examples of brazen acts of fraud.

With his father Fred, he fraudulently evicted people of color from family apartment buildings in order to populate the buildings with people of European descent.

Moving on to more recent examples:

— The Trump Foundation was ordered closed, the non-profit was fined and its assets ordered distributed to charitable organizations because of “fraud”, i.e., personal use of foundation funds.

— Trump’s I’ll-make-you-rich business, Trump University, was ordered closed and had to pay $25 million in restitution to former students. The reason? Fraud.

— The New York attorney general just filed financial fraud charges against the president based on a years’-long investigation. The portrait those efforts have painted is consistent: Trump engages in systematic financial fraud,not just aggressive use of tax sheltering, but straight-up criminal fraud, and counts on lax-to-nonexistent enforcement to make his crimes pay.

Last month, ProPublica online news service found huge discrepancies between the figures Trump has cited for the profitability of two Manhattan buildings given to lenders and what he reported to city tax authorities. As you might guess, Trump tells lenders he’s rich and tells the government he’s poor. An accounting professor called it “versions of fraud.”

ProPublica has another report showing Trump has run the same scam for Trump Tower. In 2011 and 2012, Trump told a lender that his rooms were 98.7 percent and 99 percent occupied, but told the city it had just an 83 percent occupancy rate.

Clever? Isn’t that the word one could use for finding a complicated tax shelter, or taking full advantage of what the law allows?  It’s just clever until you get caught, then, it becomes just at criminal fraud.

— Before Trump became president, it was his company’s common business practice to threaten to sue subcontractors after complaining about “sunstandard work” if they didn’t settle for a smaller settlement amount. Time and time again, on projects around the world, subcontractors reported examples of hatchet-job fraud and strong-arm tactics used by Trump.

— To Christians, Trump’s blatant attempt at making himself more appealing to evangelicals by marching to a church near the White House for a Bible-holding photo op should have set off alarm bells as an in-your-face example of religious fraud. Christian values do not exist in this president; he has no empathy, no charity in his heart for others, no forgiveness, he attacks the less fortunate among us and does not exhibit a single characteristic of living a life filled with compassion and love.

—Still on the horizon will be investigations into the president’s tax returns, which, when matched up with subpoenaed bank records, will make for interesting reading.  

Donald Trump is a fraud, in his business dealings, in his administration of his duties as president, in his heart.

The United States of America deserves better.

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By George Smith

I respect the office of the president of the United States. The status of that office and the powers given to it are guaranteed by the timeless words in the Constitution.

That said, President Donald Trump is simply an office placeholder, a fractious hiccup in the spasming of the nation’s inner workings. He is a danger to the security and future of the Unitrd States.

Trump, despite him constantly pushing blame for every negative anomaly toward others, is his own worst enemy. Simply put, he cannot keep his mouth shut; when he opens it, a cascade of malignant ignorance pours out like water in a Rocky Mountain stream after a spring thaw.

In one breath, he claims vote-by-mail in Florida is perfectly acceptable, while having his campaign sue the state of Nevada for gearing up its vote-by-mail efforts.

A creature of strong beliefs (which change as often as Mattress Back Beulah changes sheets), Trump sees nothing wrong with uttering a statement that screams “LIE!” as it slides off his tongue. 

The president cannot be as smart as he proclaims or as smart as his followers apparently believe, if 1. He believes his lies, and 2. He doesn’t think about his statements being checked for accuracy.

If I could pick the next president of the United States, Joe Biden woukd not be my first choice. That said, when it the choice is between  President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the choice is clear…Biden gets a vigorous nod.

This nation cannot stand another four years of abject incompetence, malevolent corruption, constant erosion of the nation’s institutional moral fiber, profiteering attacks on the environment, childish personal attacks and vindictive actions on opponents and the media, open-faced graft and corruption and in-your-face toadyism by appointed officials supposedly representing the residents of this nation.

The president’s intent is to reshape the face of government into an autocracy, democracy be damned. Trump knows best and those that do not agree are targeted to be squashed like  cockroach. 

This is not the picture of the country in which I grew up, nor is it a place I want for my children and grandchildren.

Trump has fostered a climate of mistrust snd division across the nation and far too many people are buying into his my-way-or-the-highway,  pulpit-pounding spiel. It’s a them-vs.-us battleground with the presudent changing the face of the “them” to suit his personal agenda.

If you follow Trump blindly and buy into his I-am-the-greatest-at-everything!  ballyhoo, the nation’s future as a democracy, as the shing beacon of freedom in the world, is endangered.

Trump and his minions are slicing and dicing the United States into tiny pieces. If re-elected, the nation’s future is not just bleak, it is in doubt.

Read. Research. Analyze. Think.

You hold the nation’s future in your hand.

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By George Smith

Do-these-Trumpuppets-ever-think-before-they-speak? headline of the day:

“Mnuchin on $600 unemployment benefit: We can’t be ‘paying people more to stay home’”

Does he ever listen to himself? I agree that $600 a week in unemployment benefits for taxpayers is too much if a worker was making $300/$500 a week before the pandemic hit.

That was the result of a knee-jerk solution to a problem that was not well thought out. Our elected officials from both parties simply blew this crucial stimulus assignment.

Trying to be honest, practical and fiscally conservative, BobJean and I should not have been included in the first round of stimulus checks. We received $1,750; we spent it to help stimulate the economy, but with our Social Security and monthy baby retirement stipends, we could make it fiscally without government assistant.

(Note to those preparing to hurl snark: Yes, we cashed the check and will cash the next one, if it comes. We will spend it to help stimulate the economy.) 

The mere fact we received federal aid showed how ill-prepared the government was in dealing with this pandemic amd how billions in wasted tax dollars were mailed or directly deposited because THERE WAS NO PLAN for equitable and logical federal aid distribution.

And, sadly, in the past three months, no new, more realistic plan has been devised.

Sad. Just sad. And that is as good a one-word assessment of this irresponsible and bumbling administration as can be written.

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