TheMissingBand

Trump got played. He’s a semi-successful hotel developer going up against the former head of the KGB strategically while being advised by a group of “yes men” whose only qualification was that they were unflinchingly loyal to Trump. Experience not necessary. At this point, I’d say that Trump is not a puppet on strings like Pinocchio, but rather the kind where Putin is elbow deep up Trumps rear end like he’s a Muppet.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but other than Bibi, Trump’s pretty much out of friends as of this date. If you still think everything is peachy and going according to plan, with us winning so much we’re getting tired of winning…. You aren’t paying attention. NATO just told the USA that we made this mess, so they’re not sending help. Russian is doing this and providing intel to Iran. China is amassing forces near Taiwan. I’m not saying that it’s about to kick off, but we’re pretty dang close. And one guy can be blamed for all of it.

Big news today… Russia is sending two tankers to Cuba despite our embargo. Should be arriving around April 4th. [Hidden Content] We decided to cut off oil supplies to Cuba when we ransacked Venezuela, then forbid anybody else to supply them, either. When Trump boasted that he was going to “have the honor of taking Cuba,” I guess the Russians weren’t cool with that. You can rest assured that those tankers will be escorted, and it’s going to be really interesting to see what happens in a little over two weeks. It’s all fun and games when we’re destroying things half a world away, but it’s going to get a little bit closer to home, i believe. We’re a lot closer to a global conflict than we’ve been in my life, I’m pretty sure.

It amazes me that nobody understands difference between voter ID and proving citizenship. Voter ID: Look at my ID… “yep… that’s you. Proceed to the booth, sir.” Proof of Citizenship: “I understand that you’ve voted for 30 years. Yes, i see your id. That’s definitely you, but you’re not going to be able to vote because you haven’t proven that you’re an American Citizen. Go purchase the needed documents and try again in two years.” If you don’t recognize the difference between Voter ID and proof of citizenship, you shouldn’t be speaking.

And how you would like to be an election worker when some grumpy old white dude who had to leave his maga hat in the Crown Vic finds out that he can’t vote because he didn’t re-register, and has to come up with a birth certificate or more to be registered for the next go-round?

He’s obviously a traitor.

It’s only rigged when they lose.

Yes… and this will be harder than what you dealt with at the dmv. Why are you okay with the federal government taking away the right to vote as afforded in the constitution?

Okay…. Here’s the scenario. The save act passes and you don’t really care. You’re an American and you’ve been voting for years. You show up to vote and they tell you that you can’t because you’re not registered. And it’s too late to register for this election. Are you happy? Same scenario, except you realize that you’ll need to re-register in person at least 30 days prior to the election. No worries. You show up at the voter registrar and they let you know that you’ll need to prove citizenship… and your TX DL doesn’t prove citizenship. You’ll need a birth certificate or passport. So you and the Mrs head off to vital statistics to buy a copy of your birth certificates at $10 apiece. When you get back to the voter registrar, you’re good to go. Except Mrs Baddog’s license doesn’t match the birth certificate that shows her maiden name. So she has to go to the county clerk to buy a copy of her marriage license that shows her receiving the Baddog Surname. Return to the voter registrar only to find that the marriage license doesn’t have her maiden name, but instead has the last name of her first husband, whose name she kept because it’s the same name as your stepchildren. So she has to find a marriage license and divorce decree that will document those name changes at substantial cost of time and money. By now she’s missed the window to register and can’t vote, even though you can. Are you happy? Repeat after me… proving citizenship isn’t the same thing as producing your ID. Can you find your birth certificate before you register to vote next time?

At your bank, do they require you to prove that you were born in the US or a naturalized citizen? Nope, you need a couple of forms of photo ID. Does the bank require customers to produce their birth certificate? I didn’t think so. And I can speak for women when I say that it requires a court order (usually a divorce) to change their name after having it changed initially by a marriage license. The problem is that in addition to having to find or get a copy of a birth certificate to prove citizenship, they’d also have to prove that they (with new name) are the same person named on the birth certificate since the name doesn’t match the dl. Nobody is saying poor people are dumb, just they they don’t do a lot of international travel, which likely means that they have one fewer means of identifying themselves… unless they’ve got the $175 and six weeks it takes to get a passport. There’s a huge difference between saying “you need to show your id to vote” and “you need to prove citizenship in order to register to vote.” It creates barriers to keep people who can legally vote from voting in the future. Kinda like a poll tax.

There’s a big difference between voter ID and proof of citizenship. I think that a person should be required to provide a photo ID when they show up to vote. I do not believe that it is a barrier to voting. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship before a person can register to vote-and a state issued ID won’t cut it. You’ll need a birth certificate that matches your name or a passport, etc… The argument is that a married person’s birth certificate won’t match their name, so they’ll also need proof of their marriage(s) and divorces to prove that the person named on the ID is the same one that’s listed on the birth certificate. Not a problem for me, but a problem for women. Women who typically vote Democrat. Just a name change? You’ll need copies of that documentation to accompany your birth certificate if they don’t match. A passport will suffice if you have one. Who doesn’t have passports? Poor people. And how do impoverished people typically vote? Democrat. Are you sensing a pattern? My opinion is that Trump is trying his best to suppress the votes of likely D voters. In the absence of his new SAFE Act, he’ll use the supposed lack of safeguards as the reason that the feds will have to cancel (unlikely) or invalidate areas where he suspects “fraud.” Think no further than his proclamation that “democrats can’t win unless they cheat.” He believes it, too. On the heels of an election that was safe and fair (because he won), and suddenly it’s going to be “cheating” if he loses the next one. It’s a toddler ish way of thinking.

He’s a traitor now, too.

Politicians know no shame… the Trumpers don’t have a lock on this one, lol. I still have a hard time coming to grips with the hypocrisy. It’s the “Democrat Shutdown” today, and the Rs can’t believe that the Ds would hold the country hostage. The Rs do it, too… but then it’s okay.

Someone asked her “what does Dr Weiss think about your position on vouchers?” She said “we haven’t talked about it.” I found that hard to believe, and if true, I think I’d ask the Superintendent just to get his opinion. It seems like a perspective I’d want to hear, especially if I had a direct line of communication with him.

I spoke with family member (mom) of a candidate for Texas House Rep in ‘24. This was during early voting, and they were really, really hoping for a Trump endorsement. They’d reached out and been given the price, but just didn’t have the campaign funds to make it happen. Their opponent got the Trump endorsement during early voting and won the race, unseating an incumbent. Did the challenger pay the $400k? I don’t know. But I BELIEVE that Trump’s people asked the incumbent for that sum, based on my conversation with the incumbent’s family member. They also confirmed the story about the Rep receiving a handwritten letter from Gregg Abbott advising that if he, (incumbent, whose wife is a school teacher) voted against giving handouts to rich people who send their kids to private schools, aka “school choice,” they’d make sure that he wasn’t re-elected. Hence the well-funded challenger who could afford Trump’s endorsement. Fun fact… the challenger (now state Rep) that supported stripping money from public schools to subsidize wealthy kids going to private schools? She’s was the president of her local school board at the time, voting against the interest of the school of which she was the board trustee. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do if you want to make it to the top, I guess.

All jokes aside, I heard from a pretty reputable source (but not first hand) that the price for Trump’s endorsement in ‘24 was a $400k donation to Trump’s re-election campaign. It’s not that hard to sell with those kind of success rates. And Trump has the support of a lot of drones.

No, sir. You are mistaken again. I don’t remember Ted Kennedy ever being president, for example. [Hidden Content] Typically speaking, Presidents don’t weigh in on primary elections. Meaning, they don’t select this Republican over that Republican… but once the voters select their candidate, the President will often weigh in. My guess is that your 81 Obama endorsements were for the Democratic candidate over the Republican, not to the democratic candidate that Obama preferred over the other democratic candidates. [Hidden Content] No need to apologize. Let’s just call it a teachable moment for you.

Were you aware that: Trump said that his endorsement would be coming soon, and the candidate who didn’t get endorsed should drop out of the race immediately for the good of the party. Paxton came back and said “endorsement or not, I’m staying in-the voters should decide.” To which Trump responded “that’s not good… that makes me want to endorse the other guy.” Keep in mind that typically party leaders don’t make endorsements during the primary season. That’s a new Trump phenomena. Even locally, you can see the Orange County Republican Party endorsing candidates in the primary election. The party, with whom all candidates are required to file, and whose filings must be accepted by… is calling winners and losers in the primary based on loyalty to Trump. It’s insane.

Just wait and see how it looks when we’re trying to decide who the next President will be… do you think can sit back and let the voters decide? Do you think he’ll wait until the primaries are over to endorse somebody? Especially how he’s trying to pick the senator from Texas in real time. I’ve got a bad feeling that the second half of this term will be craziness like we’ve never seen before.

Don’t forget the fact that they built their civilization on top of our oil.

No, but “America good, Iran bad” isn’t true, either.

Thats the thing… it’s always “Iranian-backed.” Never proven to be them. But what happened over there in 1957?

Do you remember when the Iranians shot down that US airliner in 1988, killing all 290 people on board?

They can’t secure the Strait of Hormuz from behind computer screens. It’s going to take some people over there with guns. I read that the Marines are being sent to secure the oil shipping facilities on Kargh Island. Because that’s the end goal of all of this, much like Venezuela. Trump wants their oil. The only question is whether or not the world is going to let us keep seizing the resources of other nations.

It’s funny that the Trump Presidency is turning out to be exactly what the Democrats said it would be, and exactly what the Republicans said it would not be. The Iranians won’t be able to compete in the World Cup in the USA because they’re being bombed by the FIFA Peace Prize Winner. [Hidden Content]