CardinalBacker

My opinion is “no.” But once it was proven that there was no voter fraud and he continued to push that narrative…. Corrupt. I read the other day that 62% of Republican voters believe that Trump won in 2020. That’s a lot of faith in things unseen, lol.

“This is false. This resulted from an error where Steve Garvey was mistakenly shown to have received 1,039,044 votes instead of 103,904 in Orange County, a difference of 935,140. The mistake was then corrected, causing the totals to recalculate.“ Or at least that’s what I read directly under the tweet that you posted.

Ah… Sammy the Bull. If anybody could be an expert on being corrupt, it’s Sammy. Trump is corrupt, in his own special way. I haven’t forgotten when he trotted Rudy out for a quid pro quo with Zelensky. Much less trying to perpetuate voter fraud in Georgia, etc, etc….

You missed the point. On one hand you have people saying “who cares about the vp pick? What do they really do, anyways?” But then they turn around and swear that Mike Pence is a traitor because he wouldn’t certify the fake electors. Thats my favorite question for anybody that says Pence is a traitor… “really? So what you’re saying is that Kamala Harris, alone, is going to select the next President?”

Because she still can’t. A voucher won’t cover rides to school (wherever that may be), uniforms, the entirety of tuition, they don’t have free lunch programs, etc, etc… A voucher won’t help a mom in a rough place get her genius into a a private school that doesn’t exist in that area. But it will help that guy in river oaks with the tuition bill on his three kids that he’s already paying. You just have to ask yourself “why?” Why are they fighting so hard for this program? What’s the motivation? We all agree that anything that strips money from public schools is a bad thing, right? If the schools lose 5% of their students to private schools, they’re going to have their funding cut, right? But their expenses won’t go down. The only way for this to work is if we raise local taxes to subsidize them for the funds that the state is redirecting to the voucher program… that’s what no one wants to explain. You just have to ask yourself “why are they fighting so hard,” and the answer is this… everybody complains “why should I have to pay school taxes? I don’t even have kids in school!” The fat cats got somebody to listen, and “school choice” became the cause that politicians have to get done.

I think the real purpose of the legislation is out there. We keep thinking in terms of kids getting better educations, avoiding liberal-leaning teaching, etc… and we’re focusing on middle class kids. What I think it’s really about is higher income families with kids in private schools… people whose annual tax bill looks nothing like yours or mine. Let’s say that I’m a wealthy family man with three kids in private school AND I pay 8k a year in school taxes on my homestead… it’s appraised at $500k. But I’ve also got a business and a handful of rental properties as well…. What’s more annoying than paying $30k a year for tuition to send my 3 kids to private school (so they don’t have to attend with “those” kids), then having to write another check to cover $30k to cover my school tax bill. So I call my good friends (I’ve got their cell numbers because I also contribute to campaigns) and we cook up a scheme whereby rich guys like me can get a break on my school tax bill by way a school voucher that I can use for tuition for my entitled brats. It’s not about quality of education, it’s about a break for rich people (who make generous campaign contributions) to send their kids to private schools and get an offset. That struggling single mom still won’t be able to send her kids anywhere. If the powers that be really wanted better educations, they’d force all schools to accept all students. People could send their kids wherever they wanted and bad schools would be forced to get better or close because the kids all went to better schools.

You obviously weren’t paying attention, lol.

The problem is, it’s not their money. The cost to educate a kid is around 10k per student. The typical family MIGHT be paying 2000 in school taxes, but taking 16-20k of tax funds away from public schools.

For people who really hate income redistribution, it’s remarkable that the Rs want to tax the public, then hand that money to other people to spend as they see fit.

I do like conservative politics… I’m a conservative on fiscal and social issues… but i also realize that my opinions are just those… “mine” and “only opinions.” The problem with us today is that we’re all convinced that we are right and everybody else is wrong. God is on our side, right? Once again… the purpose of representative government is for us to iron out our differences in a manner that we can all live with…. But in 2024, it’s not just Rs not agreeing with Ds, it’s the most extreme Rs consolidating power and not even being able to compromise with moderate republicans, much less democrats. Have a different opinion on “school choice?” You’ll get a letter on your desk from the governor saying “you’ll vote yes on this or we’ll get somebody elected who will.” It looks like Abbott and company will have taken down 5 of the 8 that were targeted. They’re starting to sound like the Taliban at this point.

46-43 Covey and headed to a runoff. The Radical Right is in full control. The rep that won District 18 had 0.03% of her last 30 days worth of donations coming from inside the district. The four-term incumbent that beat her soundly last time made two mistakes. He didn’t back school choice (nobody calls it a voucher program anymore) and he voted to impeach Paxton…. That’s enough to get you run off in Texas in 2024. Both races were competitive because a tsunami of MAGA money flowed in, along with endorsements from Abbott, Paxton, Cruz, Patrick and even Trump himself… despite the fact that Trump has no idea who either candidate is, other than somebody saying “sir, could you say something nice about ______, please?” Do you remember when Presidents and former presidents kept their noses out of the primaries? Not anymore. Nobody will argue that both districts are taking massive hits in the quality of leadership in the House, and guys like yourself who are smarter than the average bear know it. It’s what Dr Parigi used to call “The Great Unwashed” being led around by their noses and it’s killing us. At least the radical few got their way.

Actually, what I said was something along the lines of “I still like coming on here and checking scores, so I’m not trying to get banned. But rest assured, I’ll be back to take victory lap in November when trump is not elected.” Or something to that effect. Lucky for y’all, I got bored.

Yeah…. It was republicans. [Hidden Content] It makes sense because the suit was to keep Trump out of the primary.

I’m 97% sure that the suit was brought by Repubs, not Dems.

I've got my money on Trump/Lake 2024. It doesn't matter who Trump picks, he's going to burn them at the stake before it's all over with... just ask any former cabinet member, etc... Trump's VP is facing career suicide. Not from Trump's enemies but from Trump himself.

That's not true... the VP is who decides the next President. Pence is a traitor, remember? If Trump hadn't muffed on that pick for VP, he'd still be the President.

I think you're missing the point... The state's opinion is that he lied. His own opinion, the opinion of the bank, and the opinion of whatever appraiser looked over the loan thought that the values were adequate. Like I said earlier... a lie is "I make $100,000 a year" and providing forged pay stubs is a lie. If someone tries to borrow money against a property that they do not own... a lie. If somebody says "I think my property is worth $200k," the independent appraiser believes (in his/her expert knowledge) that the property is worth at least $200k, the bank agrees with the applicant and the appraiser that the property is worth $200k, the loan is then paid back...... Don't let your hatred of the man cloud your judgment. Like I said... how would you like to be hauled into court over a home equity loan that you'd already paid back because you, the appraiser, and the bank all agreed on the value of the property, but then the state provides their "opinion" of the value of the property back then and files suit against you? There was no crime.

The odds on favorites would have been Smith from Jasper on D and Miller from Silsbee on O. Both young men committed to Texas A&M, then decided to accept better NIL deals elsewhere. My insinuation was that either voters were turned off my these young abandoning their commitments, or just bitter Aggie fans. ‘Twas a joke.

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.