TheMissingBand

If you forget the facts before gushing your love for anything Trump related, that’s okay. Those are simple questions. For which the answers are uncomfortable for you. It’s okay.

Are you talking about the kickbacks that Trump sent Rudy to collect? if the war wouldn’t have started under Trump, why is he impotent when in comes to stopping it?

Somebody help me understand my we sit back and watch Ukraine get destroyed by Trump’s buddy Putin, but preemptively attack Iran so they can’t hurt anybody in the future. I like the way that Rs are cool with a President having unilateral authority to topple regimes anywhere he wants without even consulting Congress. Anybody want to guess how many billions of dollars worth of munitions were spent today? How many trillions of dollars this war in Iran is going to cost? And the sad part is what will happen next. We just removed a bad guy so that the next bad guys can swoop in and take over. If we don’t have another “caliphate” in Iran in two years, I’ll be shocked.

Does this mean that he’s only ended seven wars now?

Just riding in the truck this morning listening to the Drive-By Truckers cover of “Mama Bake a Pie” and waiting for the photos of flag draped coffins to start trickling in.

Well, according to you he’s a sorry lawyer that doesn’t even know about attorney/client privilege. Which makes you wonder why in the world someone dumb enough to hire him is now advising Trump.

I’m going say for the record that I suspect the attorney is going to be like “she wasn’t my client” and there will be no evidence provided by Wiles to substantiate their attorney/client relationship… just the fact that he’s an attorney. He wouldn’t put his license in jeopardy over something so obviously wrong, I strongly suspect.

Same, brother…. 16 years and nary a warning.

Do you have a source? This looks like a cut/paste from a blogger or something. The news reports that I’ve found don’t have nearly the detail that your blogger gives. The one linked on drudge just say that Patel claims the FBI subpoenaed his records “using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.” But there’s nothing illegal about subpoenaing someone’s phone records if that person is a subject in the investigation. Both he and Wiles were private citizens at the time of the alleged crime, not in their current roles as Trump’s SS troopers.

You have to admit that it’s a little bit comical that you guys are on one thread crying that Boykin wasn’t investigated “because he’s part of the good ol’ boys club,” while starting a different thread that talks about how FBI agents should lose their jobs for daring to investigate someone who is a member of the good ol’ boys club.

You guys don’t understand how the legal system is supposed to work. When someone claims that an illegal act has occurred, it’s the job of law enforcement to investigate that accusation. I don’t remember anybody going on trial for their dealing with Russia… as in, the investigation yielded no conclusive evidence. The system worked. The argument now is that investigating the claim is a fireable offense. A LEO should not examine the evidence or look into the clues. He/she should instead look into the political background of the accused and use their political leanings to determine guilt or innocence. Attorney General gets accused of impropriety? Even allowing the investigation to move forward is the act of a traitor, in Texas anyways. Not every allegation is true, but neither is every allegation false. They should be looked into, and prosecuted when the evidence warrants a prosecution. Should we imprison police officers for investigating a crime because the trial didn’t result in a conviction? Or just fire them? What if the investigation didn’t lead to a single arrest? The cops should be disciplined? That what the right believes.

It’s a sad day for America when doing your job gets you fired once a new leader takes office. Their job is to investigate crimes… they shouldn’t be punished for doing so. Maybe that’s y’all’s opinion. Trump should fire everyone who investigated reports of wrongdoing, even though refusing to investigate would have lead their firing. This is another reason why partisan hacks shouldn’t be in the ranks, much less leading, these types of organizations. Instead we reward partisan hacks with leadership positions in these very organizations. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when the next admin fires everybody who looked into Biden and hires Antifa/blm members as FBI special agents. Instead of having young men/women who typically served in the military, then developed skills that lead to a success career as an experienced agent, we can just fire everybody and hire a bunch of new zealots every 4 years. That’s dumber than DEI.

It doesn’t matter… if he’d been born a Trump instead of a Boykin, everybody would be busy blaming the victims, like they always do. My suspicion is that this young man has good counsel, and the first thing that they do is stall. It’s going to be interesting to see if a jury will eventually do anything or if he takes a plea deal. My understanding is that the DA and Judge that handles criminal cases in Hardin County are both set to retire at the end of ‘28… if that’s true, I doubt that there will be a big rush from the state or the bench to push this one to trial on their way out. edit… I just checked the inmate roster in Jeffco and he’s no longer a guest in their jail-I thought he was being held without bond down there, but I guess not.

Yeah… wild exaggeration and whole lies. I’ve lost track of how many people have been disruptive. I can remember a few years ago when the Republican rep yelled “you lie” at Obama. Since then it’s just been one escalation after another. MTG wearing her MAGA hat during the 24 presidential race, Justice Alito disagreeing with Obama, Pelosi ripping up Trump’s speech and democrats protesting during trumps speech last year and again this year. I just don’t see how we avoid violence.

I think my biggest problem is with him, but a close second is with people who still support him in spite of everything. It’s EXACTLY like those people that were saying “Barack Obama is the best President we’ve ever had!” No, sir… you just like him the most. The Trump effect on local politics has been disastrous. The Republican Party of Orange County now loudly endorses the Republican candidates that they support, to the detriment of the other candidates who are seeking to be Republican candidate in November. It’s just wrong, and it comes back to Trump weighing in on Republican races across the country. Trump should not be selecting our local representation based on who can provide the largest donation to Trump’s own campaign. The price for a Trump endorsement in the local race for state rep in 2024 was $400k, according to someone I know personally whose donors couldn’t afford it. They lost, btw. Paxton is angry right now that Trump won’t endorse him over Cornyn. He says it’s because Cornyn is squandering R resources in the primary, when in fact he’s just mad that he’s already made his contribution, but Trump is trying to get donations from everybody before he anoints the guy who will face off against the Dem senate candidate in November. But mostly I hate what it’s done to the way that campaigns react to one another, and the way that the supporters of candidates act towards other candidates. The name-calling, insults, hateful rhetoric, and outright lies are just on a completely different level in the last ten years. It’s not all on Trump, but he certainly started it. Every county around ours has at least one race that’s a complete disaster of horrible behavior, mud-slinging, name-calling, etc. Every political post made by a candidate is immediately besieged by his opponent’s supporters. Charges of corruption, etc, fly around with no regard for the truth, only in being hateful to their “enemy.” And the nutty thing is that this is in the primary, when we’re all supposed to be on the same team, just trying out for the same position… but people today see it as a blood sport. It’s always been unpleasant under the surface, but now it’s pure hatred on public display. The DOJ hung a giant banner on their building last week that featured Trump with an angry scowl. In the past, Presidents and the DOJ at least tried to to pretend that there wasn’t any interference between the White House and the DOJ. They were supposed to be independent… not anymore. A CNN correspondent complained that the act of hanging a trump banner from the DOJ headquarters strongly indicates that the DOJ serves Trump, not justice. Trump didn’t deny it, he retweeted the CNN story as if to say “yeah, I did it … and there’s nothing you can do about it.” What the right forgets is that things WILL go back the other way. It always does. And when it does, everything that is being done now will be turned around on the Rs and done even harder. And with trumps approval ratings hovering in the mid thirties, it’s going to be a nasty. I’m afraid that a lot of people are going to find out that the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze.

There’s never been a less dignified president. There’s never been a president that displayed the boorish behaviors that Trump does. There’s never been a more divisive president. It’s not a surprise that people keep trying to kill him… he exhibits and invites hatred at every opportunity. There’s never been an outgoing president that tried to stop the transfer of power like he did with fake electors and baseless claims of election fraud. He’s no longer even trying to hide his racism. Does anybody expect tonight’s state of the Union to be anything less than a banquet of wild exaggeration, outright lies, and hateful speech? Plus I don’t like him.

Well, I saw Trump appear in a commercial for this on Fox News, so… I guess he’s got nothing better to do [Hidden Content] I’m trying to be objective, even though I can’t stand the guy. I think I’d give him a solid “D,” mostly because we haven’t had any of our boys coming home in boxes, yet. Also glad that he stopped the flood of “asylum seekers” that the Dems were letting flood through the Southern border. The stock market is performing very bubblicious, too. Otherwise, I think it’s been a disaster. Coverups, masked agents killing US Citizens, a disastrous tariff policy, ballooning debt, hostile actions towards other countries sovereignty (Venezuela), promising to take Greenland, filing lawsuit after lawsuit against his “enemies,” political prosecutions, pending invasion of Iran, but more importantly he’s being more mean, ugly, childish, petty, etc, etc…. He’s a rotten person and good people shouldn’t continue to overlook his flaws because “he’s on our side.” I’m firmly convinced that the corruption uncovered after he leaves office will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen.

IEEPA tariffs were found to be illegal, not the others. But the others weren’t the basis of the suit that was before the court. I’m curious if subsequent suits will prove that the others weren’t legal either? The best part of all is watching people like Reagan celebrate how tough and cool Trump is when he’s just raising the cost of so many things that you need or want. “Higher prices!!! Yeah!!!”

The sad thing is that the best Dem candidate (Talarico) won’t face the best Rep candidate (Cornyn) in November because the parties are both being ran by the extremists on either side of the aisle. There’s nothing more ironic (and moronic) than watching so called evangelicals line up to support candidates like “Our General” Ken Paxton who have a complete lack of morals and decency. Intelligent people realize that figures like Paxton and Trump are simply saying what the morons want to hear in return for their votes. My left boot is more ethical than Paxton.

That’s an overreach… but i do like having a health department around to make sure that things are sanitary around those restaurants… food temps, extermination schedules , etc. But I doubt the guy who’s forced to buy a permit, then gets fined/shut down by the health department feels the same way.

Are construction costs different in Port Neches than they are in Port Arthur?

That was exactly my scenario. Same exact house. Greatly differing values, same tax bill.

Here are the problems with your scenario… I’ve got a friend that just looked at a 1.8 acre lot in Evergreen, Texas yesterday morning. New subdivision, concrete streets, underground utilities, HEAVILY restricted. The price for this 1.8 acre lot is $149k. If I give a 1/4 acre off of the east end of my place on a dirt road that floods to my kid and he builds the same exact house as my buddy, they’d be taxed the same under your plan, even though my kid’s house is literally worth a fraction of what my buddy’s would be worth. Not to point fingers, but a small, remodeled, frame house in the city of Groves would have the same insurable value as one on the west side of port Arthur that hasn’t seen a coat of paint in 25 years and sits in the middle of a few abandoned, burned down structures. Homes in Lum sell for completely different prices than houses in Kountze, despite their relative closeness. Neighborhoods matter in terms of affordability and value… your model calculates value on the price of lumber used to build the thing, while ignoring the actual value of the entire property. It’s not fair or equitable in my opinion. if your value is too high, file a protest with the CAD this spring. Round up your documentation as to what you believe it’s worth, and see what happens. Unfortunately, most people realize that homes in their area are going for much higher prices than they believed. One of my gripes is that the values are set based on sales prices… but that final sales prices usually includes thousands in repairs/upgrades to make the thing marketable, plus the 6% that’s going to pay the real estate agent(s) and often times it still includes the closing cost assistance that sellers give to buyers. Why are we all being taxed every year based upon sales prices that include the costs to market/sell the properties that sold down the street? It’s a legit gripe. My opinion is that a number that exists about 8-10% below the final sales prices of comparable sales should be used to establish appraised values for homes that haven’t sold in a couple of years. When you buy, your taxable value would stay static until your market value as determined by the Cad rose was 10% higher than your purchase price… then you’d start the ride upwards. Quite simply put, I don’t believe that the scenario you described occurs. Nobody is being taxed and fee’d out of their houses so that cities can improve their tax base. Municipalities move at the speed of glaciers. If some urban planner got the bright idea to raze a whole neighborhood and put in new housing, it would take years to get approval, legal fights, etc. What it sounds like to me is that your kinfolk had a property that wasn’t very well-maintained, while others around it were… subsequently they sold for ever-increasing prices while your kinfolks’ property sat needing paint, a roof, etc. Unfortunately those comparable sales are what is used to establish property values (and subsequent taxable values). Cities do have ordinances that require you to maintain your property. If you neglect your property, one of the last tools that the city has is to levy fines for violating city ordinances. There was a news story about two weeks ago about a house on 32nd street in groves that’s finally about to be cleaned up after years of neglect, complaints, etc… the entire yard is covered in used tires, appliances, etc. Some people would argue that the property owner has a right to do whatever he wants on his/her own little slice of Heaven. But I also bet that they wouldn’t want to live next door to the guy, either, based on the sight, smells, vermin, fire hazards, etc…. It’s an imperfect system, but to my way of thinking, it’s better than most of the alternatives, but it could use some tweaks.

It might seem that way, but it’s not. It’s actually a criminal act for anyone to try and influence values, upwards or downwards… on a single property or on all of them. There’s a formal protest process for property owners to use, and anything other than that process isn’t permitted by law. There are limits to how much a taxing units other than schools can increase their taxes. Long story made short is that they’re only allowed to increase the total amount of taxes collected last year by 3.5 percent without triggering an election. So if everybody out there has an increase in value of 20% this year, their taxes won’t go up by 20%… the max that the total amount of taxes can grow is 3.5% across the board. Now, if everybody else’s value stays the same and yours doubles, you’re in trouble. There are lots of caveats, but that’s the basis of it. If your CAD doubles everybody’s values this year, it doesn’t mean your taxes will go up. In fact, almost every taxing unit out there has lower tax rates than they did ten years ago because of the growth in values. Here’s my thing. Old people get incredible breaks. If their value is less than $200k, they pay nothing for school taxes. I just checked my dad’s. His bill for 2025 was $795. The bill would have been $4075 if there were no exemptions. Thats a hell of a break. But if you were to ask him, he’s getting robbed. The problem is that everybody has a solution that results in them paying less, or none at all, and the costs being passed on to everyone else. To answer your question, the elderly and disabled can defer their taxes and it stops any collection efforts until the property no longer has a deferral in place. No elderly (or even disabled people) should ever lose their home. But should people who aren’t elderly or disabled also not have to worry about paying their taxes? Well, we told people that they were entitled to healthcare whether chose to pay for it or not, and now our healthcare system is in ruins. Simply put, tax auctions are a last resort when people refuse to pay their taxes. Should I pay mine if nobody else pays theirs? Tax sales aren’t about punishing someone for not paying theirs… it’s about putting that property in the hands of someone who’s willing to actually pay the taxes, and a reminder to everybody else that there are repercussions for not paying your taxes. The reason that the American experience is doomed to fail is the same reason it was created. People don’t want to pay taxes. Americans have realized that they can elect leaders who promise generous gifts from the treasury. Those gifts come in the form of direct payment (EBT, food stamps, housing, free health care, etc) or in the form of tax cuts that we quite simply can’t afford. Either way, we just head further down the road to ruin. We can argue that no one should go hungry, healthcare is a human right, or old people shouldn’t have to pay taxes. Either way, it’s all about making sure that we pay less, regardless of what effect it has on the survival of our communities or the nation.