CardinalBacker

My understanding is that voters collectively agreed that young men who flipped their commitments would be considered to not reflect the character off of the field that is celebrated by the WRS. Or the Aggie vote was showing out. I dunno.

My point is this… some of us recognize a dangerous takeover of the Republican Party and conservatism in general by the most extreme members. They want to silence all dissenting opinions and points of view. They’re now opposed to anything from minority chairs, to investigating criminal wrongdoings (but only of members of the most radical group), and on and on… heck, they even stormed the white house when they were unhappy with the results of the last election. They’re trying to take down the Speaker because he had the AUDACITY to not cut the nuts off any Democrat member of the House… I mean, we won, so they need to be silenced, right? That’s how democracies end, my friend. The problem is this-people who would normally be fair-minded and not so short-sighted would normally recognize what’s happening, but they don’t because it benefits their side. Let’s fast forward 10 years when more of the white haired Rs have gone on to their reward and more of those young people and Hispanics that the republicans despise are voting… and Texas turns blue for the first time in 50 years- because that’s a mathematical certainty. Wouldn’t it be nice to have some sort of voice in democracy at that point when you are in a minority position? But like I said…. Fire the most powerful man in the House because he’s not MAGA enough for you, hire a rookie puppet to replace him and see what happens.

Phelan isn’t trying to stop anything… [Hidden Content] This is what makes him a “RINO.” The radical right want to change the rules and do away with committee chairs from the minority party. They’re literally mad that Phelan won’t change the rules to make sure that the wishes of most Texans are ignored. That’s the problem with politics today. We’re cleanly split left and right… then the radical right squeezes out the simplest of majorities amongst the Republican Party, and you end up in a situation where 25.01% (or less) of the population is dictating what happens for the rest of us. It’s funny how you argue that the speaker has no power, then cry that we need to do away with committee chairs from the minority party because a lowly committee chairmanship gives them “too much power.” You need to retire… you’ve lost your edge.

Okay… you realize that if Phelan neglected to appoint dem chairs, he’d be the first to break that long-standing tradition, right? You’re smarter than this, bro. Orange County was the first county party to censure Phelan. Closely followed by Jasper County, which allowed the state censure. Where could Phelan’s opponents be coming from? Orange abd Jasper. The radical right has seized control of the Republican Party. What Phelan did was allow the whole house to investigate and impeach “Our General.” The problem that the right has with Phelan is that he works with. It’s sides to get things like the largest property tax relief bill ever passed. By any estimation, he’s the most conservative speaker that’s ever held the gavel in Texas, but now he’s a dirty Rino because he’s not radical enough for the morons who have seized control.

Big Girl applies for a home equity loan and says that her house is worth $200k. The bank hires an appraiser who agrees it’s worth $200k. The bank lends you $160k (because they’ll only lend 80% of market value) and then you repay the loan. Then the state pops up and says “wait… we looked over your loan paperwork and your home was only worth $175k, not $200k… you lied on your application and you owe us $350k, with interest back to the time you lied on your application. So you’ll actually need to put up $545k if you want to appeal… oh, and you can’t borrow the money in the state of Texas.” Does sound fair to you for “lying on your loan application?”

With the rape thing, i think it is what it is. I think the document handling and election interference cases have some merit, too, with the docs case being stronger BEFORE the DA in Georgia got caught being unethical. I think that she might have actually had Trump, but has potentially fumbled it away with her personal dishonesty. (It’s interesting to hear the right say that having affairs is disqualifying for a DA, but not for a Presidential candidate, lol). But pursuing a bad case and securing an even worse verdict does nothing but hurt those other potentially valid cases and plays into the hands of the people who say “oh, this is proof that it’s all a big witch hunt.”

It’s very different… in the underage girl scenario, a crime was committed. In Texas they’d call that “statuatory rape,” or at least that’s what they used to. Being dishonest on a loan application is a crime if it was done with the intent to defraud the lender, for instance. Using a fake ID on a loan app, a car dealer borrowing money against cars that don’t exist, etc… then the lender gets hosed. In cases like that, you’d expect someone to be charged with fraud. In this case, Trump gave his opinion of the value of the property, the bank appraised the property as well and found that the value was substantial enough to warrant the loan. The loan(s) were then paid back as agreed. Then the state steps in with their OPINION of that the property value would have been, and charged Trump. They can’t even prove that his value(s) were low, the bank did their due diligence and agreed with the values, and the loans were paid back. Add to it that the penalties are absurd for a made-up crime, and it’s an all around bad deal.

That one dude is hogging up six of the teeth all for himself.

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I find it ironic that in 2016 Trump ran on a pledge to do to Hillary exactly what’s being done to him. All of those people at his rallies chanting “LOCK HER UP!” have a new opinion on how we should treat former leaders, don’t they? It’s long since time when our elected officials should focus on doing the business of the people and put an end to the non-stop investigations, hearings, and mud-slinging. Both sides.

To further that thought, the other rape case (and subsequent defamation cases) that resulted in the $90 million or so? It’s different, in my opinion. E. Jean Carroll came forward and alleged a criminal act (rape). They had a trial and he was found liable for damages because a jury was convinced that Trump raped her. There was a vicitm, and they complained. Personally, I didn’t care for the fact that the law was changed to allow people to file suits decades after the alleged wrong occurred, but it is what it is. After a “small” judgment was granted, Trump went public and attacked the plaintiff… that’s when he got sued for defamation and lost. He promptly went back into the press attacking the “victim” once more and promptly got sued again, and that time he learned an $80 million dollar lesson. There was an alleged crime, an alleged victim, etc… Trump then ran off at the mouth repeatedly and got rung up for it. Even if someone thinks that the whole allegation was a fraud, you can’t argue with the fact that Trump shouldn’t have gone after her in the media- there are civil penalties for doing that, and fwiw, he finally shut up about her, lol.

It does matter. What he’s accused of doing isn’t criminal, no one filed a complaint, etc… if you ignore the fact that no crime was committed, there’s still no justification for the penalty that was imposed. The State of New York has decided to take everything he has because they don’t like him, and that’s just wrong. It’s like this… pretend that you own a home. It want to put in a pool. You apply for a home equity loan to borrow an extra $75k against your house. The bank asks what your home is worth, they do an appraisal, give you the loan, the pool gets built, and you pay the loan back. Then the state comes in and says “wait… your home wasn’t worth what you said it was during the application process. You owe us $250,000, plus interest, which comes to $400,000… and we’re going to seize your house if you don’t pay. But you can appeal the finding to our friend the appellate judge… you’re just gonna need to put the entire $400k up to do so…” The bank has an obligation to verify the value of the collateral… they did, and they agreed. Then they got paid back. Literally no one complained-there is no injured party, and therefore no crime. If the argument was made that Trump somehow “defrauded the state” by claiming a higher market value for loan purposes and a lower value for property tax valuation, guess what? We all do it, every day. Following that logic would mean that any homeowner would be guilty of a criminal act if they sold a house for more than the value for which it had been valued by the appraisal district. Trump did some other things that appear to be criminal, and in other instances his actions did actual damage to other parties. Those claims potentially have merit… this one did not, by any professional opinion. And this “bogus” proceeding casts doubt on the credibility of other more valid claims. That’s what gets me in trouble… I try to see things rationally, and even if I can’t stand the guy, this one isn’t right in my opinion.

You know, Orange County is fortunate to have the most powerful man in the Texas House representing their district… whenever I think “there’s no possible way that OC Republicans would fire that dude and send a first timer”, I think out loud…. “That’s like having a hall of fame, multi state champion head coach and running him off so you can hire a rookie HC that’s more your type.” I guess i shouldn’t be surprised.

Y’all might not know this about me, but I can’t stand Donald Trump. But I can honestly say that my opinion is that this particular case is a miscarriage of Justice by every stretch. No crime was committed, no injured party came forth. To get hung with a 450 million dollar judgment like this is just wrong. He’s done plenty of bad things and is probably guilty of some of the charges he’s facing- this particular one is trash, though.

And the Rs were all about the vaccine until the Dems came into power. Point being both sides are two-faced, with neither side being right. Anybody who believes “my side is right and the other guys are demons” is a fool. “B-b-b-but we fought communism back in my day!” Well, apparently you lost because the idea is still around. And America is proving to the world that Democracy is going to be just as big of a mistake as any other type of self governance once the zealots take charge of their parties. That’s if our out of control spending doesn’t do us in first. There are no more conservatives. All we have today is people who believe “hatin’ them Democrats and Rinos” is the definition of conservatism.

It’s no dirtier than the District 18 Race here… except for the terroristic threats by a Covey supporter, followed by Covey supporters showing up at Phelan’s residence to harass his wife. Bailes did the same thing… voted to impeach Paxton and now the Rs are gunning for him. Legal or not doesn’t matter-the only question R’s are supposed to ask is “whose side is the accused on?” That’s how you determine guilt or innocence. I guess my question is this… the FBI was all over Paxton, then he fired staffers who were “disloyal,” then had to settle with those staffers for retaliating against them. The radical right is just mad that some independent thinkers did the moral thing instead of toeing the line drawn by the radical right. In 10 years, when this state is being run by Democrats, it’ll be completely because of infighting like this.

FWIW, there are other versions of the events. The investigation of AG Paxton was already underway when the "Drunk" episode occurred. There's no evidence of said drunkeness, by the way. The bad blood goes further back than the May of 2023. It goes back to when Paxton wanted to use state funds to pay settlements to whistleblower staffers who Paxton had wronged. Long story made short is that Paxton supposedly broke the law, people in his staff reported it, then Paxton retaliated against those staffers. When the full House of Reps reviewed the evidence, Paxon was impeached by a majority of the Republican-controlled house. When the impeachment made it to the Senate, they acquitted Paxton. The feds are still investigating, supposedly. Phelan had the audacity to NOT look the other way for a crooked fellow Republican, and therefore he must go according to the powers that be. Long story made short is you can break all of the laws that you want, but you'd better stay true to the Far Right or they'll turn on you. If you look deep, you'll see that every hotly contested race for a House Seat in Texas has an incumbent that disagreed with the Abbott/Paxton Cabal and now finds themselves facing a heavily funded "yes man" or "yes woman." FWIW, Phelan didn't need any help getting Dem votes to impeach Paxton... it's the Republicans that voted to impeach Paxton that required the heavy lifting, and it got done. I know it's hard to find unbiased sources regarding politics, but this one seems to give facts without embellishment or opinion. [Hidden Content] to the whistleblower lawsuit,of the affair in 2019. The long story short is that Phelan didn't go along with the radical right and now he's paying the price. What are the five articles that they used as a basis for censure? 1. He went along with the impeachment of Paxton (who was under federal investigation and paid settlements to people as a result of his behaviors that led to the impeachment. He is against "educational freedom" because he doesn't support vouchers that would take money from public schools and give it to the parents of dropouts and for-profit private schools. He appointed Democratic Committee Chairs, which breaks no rule, ever, anywhere, and has been a long-standing tradition in the House... he's bad on border security, since, you know... we have a border patrol, detention facilities, etc... They neglect to mention that he also passed the largest property tax cut in history, kept DPS troopers on the border non-stop, and on and on and on. I don't care if you like the guy or not, just admit what it is... He wasn't radical enough for the Republicans that run things. FWIW, only four House members have ever been censured. The first was in 2018, and the rest have come since. What else happened in the same time frame that we started censuring our own for inner-party disagreements? It's almost like some seismic shift in politics occurred around 2016, but I just can't put my tiny orange finger on it. At first it was just a Rep here or there, then the Rs got big enough stones to go after the Speaker himself. [Hidden Content]

Simple question, for which you don't have to answer. Are you on Medicare or Medicaid? I'm going to guess "yes," because the situation as it currently is benefits you. My coworker purchases insurance through our company for her and her entire family. The premium that she pays is roughly $1000/month. In the last two months both her and her husband have had an annual wellness visit (free) and the provider wanted bloodwork which is fairly routine with an annual wellness visit. The provider billed THOUSANDS for each of their visit(s), then the insurance company scored the bills down to a "manageable" $400 for him and $500 for her... the entire $900 of which came out of her pocket. When one of her kids needed tubes in his ears last year, it was out of pocket close to $4k.... after an insurance company markdown of the provider pricing. The birth of her last kid cost however much her annual deductible is... something like $6k, after markdowns and contribution by the insurance company. Comparing socialized medicine to communism doesn't change the fact that the current system is broken. But some people like yourself don't care, so long as it works to your benefit. IF you made an average of $50k per year for 45 years and contributed 3.3% towards Medicare, there would have been $74,500 paid in by you and your employers over your lifetime to cover your healthcare after you turned 65. The average cost of a knee replacement is $30k, btw. Every single retiree is receiving more benefits (Medicare) than what they ever paid in. What do you call it when every single old dude takes in more than he ever contributed? I'll give you a hint... it's socialized medicine, lol. You're just happy to be enjoying the benefits of others' labors and the capitalist in you doesn't want to share. When somebody says "I don't care! I paid for it! It's MINE!" what they are really saying is "I'm a socialist, I just don't want to admit it."

You're not wrong... but some of their ideas aren't as dumb as I used to believe that they were. Single payer insurance, for instance. For years I worked jobs I didn't like and made the choices to NOT start a business, partly because I needed health insurance for my family. Now they tell me that everybody has right to the healthcare for which I've sacrificed? I disagree. Or disagreed. When my company bills me a thousand dollars per month for health insurance, then the providers ask for tests to be run, then my insurance says "well, those will count towards your $5000 deductible" and at the end of the day I'm getting stuck paying for premiums, just so that I can over pay for services out of pocket... the system is broken and maybe we SHOULD be looking for a system that will put the health insurance companies and providers that over-bill them out of business. Obamacare brought us a provision that said that you could no longer deny health insurance coverage for a pre-existing condition. The insurance companies HATE that, but it's been a pretty good deal for anybody from any party that is trying to get health insurance coverage. Every person that I know who buys insurance privately is doing so through the exchange, too... People in private practice like therapists, lawyers, etc... My guess is that you are on Medicare and your beliefs are more like mine used to be. The point that I'm trying to make is that if you, a conservative, disagree with any single part of the party line... you're out. Don't think Trump is the best choice for President? Be gone. Maybe you have a gay kid and don't understand why he can't marry the guy of his dreams? Be gone. Maybe you agree with every single thing in the platform, except maybe people shouldn't be able to buy a 30 round mag for their AR out of a bin at Academy for less than ten bucks, considering how they're usually the weapon of choice whenever somebody shoots up a school? RINO! Be gone! They want Dade Phelan gone.... he committed two cardinal sins. First, the didn't sideline anyone with a "D" next to their name. You know, who cares about their ideas, skills, experience, expertise, or whatever. They should be silenced in the legislative process. The second thing that Dade did wrong was that he refused to overlook "Our General's" criminal activities... not because he didn't do anything criminal, but because he's our guy and agrees with us, so he should get a pass. The Republican party is under the control of radicals. And people who call themselves conservatives don't understand what that word means, or they wouldn't vote for a guy who cut taxes without the corresponding spending cuts thereby exploding our debt, and handed out trillions in PPP loans with little to no supervision. People complain about being forced to take a vaccine while simultaneously re-nominating the guy who shoved it down out throats via "Operation Warp Speed." The problem is that the voting public is enamored with big personalities who tell good jokes or insult people like we wish we could do in real life. There's no difference between somebody saying "Obama was the best president we've ever had" and somebody else saying "Trump is the best president we've ever had." None. Neither were the best, they were just your favorite. Find some principles and stick to them.

I think this is the problem with us politics… this is wrong. Representative government is a means of negotiating our differences and finding solutions that we can all live with. BOTH camps now believe that the entire goal is to gain a single vote majority and then force every one of our citizens to capitulate to what WE want. And if that single vote majority can’t be found, then our goal is to obstruct at every turn. And as far as Republicans go, we do it to ourselves, too. If you don’t agree with every single plank in the platform, you’re just a RINO and no better than those dirty democrats. Or dimocrats. Or Demoncrats. That’s why D’s keep handling the R’s in every election, in my opinion. The Rs don’t want anyone around that doesn’t agree with every single item, from A-Z. I heard somebody admonishing Babin in 2022 to “get back to Washington and don’t give an inch!” And that belief from both sides is why our country will implode if something drastic doesn’t change in the way our political parties act.

They’re not knocking him out, they’re using the courts to galvanize the trump voters around him. They WANT him to be the Republican nominee. Trump is in a dead heat vs Biden, but Haley is up 13 points on Biden. The Dems need Trump as the Republican nominee, and attacking him motivates trumps followers to stay the course. The media keeps cackling, “every time trump gets indicted, his ratings AMONG Republicans go up! Let’s do it again!”

Where have you seen Biden attacking members of his own party the way that Trump attacks republicans? When have you seen Biden publicly attack his own staff?

Well, for starters he failed to repeal and replace Obamacare like he (and everybody else) promised. He also cut taxes without any cuts to spending that led to huge increases in our debt. He spent like a liberal… no one can point at a single program that had spending cuts during Trump’s term. Trump basically proved that a terrible leader with pro- business policies could spur the economy- basically doing the opposite of Obama. But he was a complete embarrassment as the commander and chief and executive in general. The mean-spiritedness from him towards EVERYBODY was just too much for me. President is supposed to be a Unifier. He fights everybody. The democrats, foreigners, other republicans, his own staff, the media… he’s the worst possible person to lead anything, regardless of his policies.

I won't... or any other Democrat, for that matter. Those same objections that I can't overcome regarding voting for Trump exist when it comes to voting for a Democrat, too, lol. I was standing in a group with two other intellectuals the other day (ok, that was purely to get a response, lol) and all three of us apparently voted Haley last week. Trump's gonna carry Texas, no doubt... and I really don't care a whole lot for her. But at least she's not Trump. I mean, if we wouldn't even vote for Cruz in 2016, Haley's not gonna take the Lone Star state this time.