CardinalBacker

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.

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

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Double post

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.