(11-04-2026 09:11 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 09:03 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I have been connected to, interested in, or directly involved in politics since I was 5 years old, in 1952. My dad was a rubber worker and union official at Firestone in Memphis from 1938 (minus 4 years in the Navy soon after) until his retirement in 1978. He was a diehard Democrat.

I recall in 1952 that my dad was assembling political materials to pass out at work, to keep all the union workers voting Dem. He stayed a Dem until the day he died. He even had me helping him with it, so I was raised in a solid Dem family, and voted Dem until maybe late 20s or 30. Then I shifted to Repub for a few years, then finally became an independent, and mostly voted third party until 2020.

I never knew what my mom was, but I assumed she voted the same.

My sister, a little younger than I am, is also a die-hard Dem, even though she only has one issue: abortion. But she is so hard over, we can't talk politics at all.

At any rate, with that background, I was thinking today, about how many times a political view or implementation by either party made any kind of difference in my life.

I can't think of a single one.

Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon is absolutely stunning this time of year. Just spent 2 days there, before moving on today. Some of you guys maybe need to loosen up a bit and enjoy life while you have a good shot at it. Just a thought.

I am fortunate enough to be able to weather economic storms, so I take the same stance as you that politics do not affect me in a grand way. I do feel for those who are too employed to get government benefits, but too poor be able to navigate inflation. I try to not forget what it was like growing up in that position when my pops company went on strike and we were eating meatless spaghetti and white bread many nights of the week for a couple of months.

That being said, I booked our flights and places to sleep for a Big 5 trip in Utah this spring last night. Had to convince my wife for at least one night in Vegas to experience the insanity.

You really do have to see Vegas even if you don't do any gambling.

(11-04-2026 10:29 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 05:26 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 05:03 PM)JDTulane Wrote:  Good to see Crimson's checks still getting cashed

Quote:Let me tell you something absolutely BONKERS from last night’s midterms…

Democrat Ericka Lomick just “won” Texas House District 93 despite being a convicted felon who suspended her campaign months ago.

She pleaded guilty in 2011 to federal charges including mortgage-fraud conspiracy, bank fraud, and money laundering. Her sentence? 63 months in federal prison.

On her candidate paperwork, she checked the box claiming she had not been finally convicted of a felony. After her criminal record surfaced in September, she suspended her campaign and stopped running.

But Texas election deadlines had already passed, so her name remained on the ballot for both the regular general election and the special election.

And voters still elected her by roughly 51–49%.

Here’s the kicker: Under Texas law, a final felony conviction generally makes someone ineligible to hold office unless they’ve been pardoned or had their disabilities released.

Meaning she can’t actually serve. Her “victory” simply creates a vacancy and triggers yet another special election.

A convicted federal fraudster who quit campaigning still got elected to the Texas House.

Let that absolutely sink in.

Quote:I served as a poll watcher today and noticed something that struck me as rather odd.

Throughout the evening, I carefully kept a handwritten tally of every voter who cast a ballot. Each time I compared my count with the total displayed on the voting machine, the machine consistently showed one or two more votes than I had recorded.

To eliminate the possibility of an error in my counting, I repeatedly reset my handwritten tally to match the machine's displayed total and began counting again from that point forward. Yet, at the next comparison, the machine was once again ahead by one or two votes.

This happened repeatedly throughout the evening.
I'm not suggesting I know the reason for the discrepancies, but the consistency certainly caught my attention. I would be interested in understanding why the machine totals repeatedly differed from my firsthand count of voters.

Texas 93 is northern suburbs of Ft. Worth.

I paid $5.99 a gallon for regular today in Tusayan AZ, just outside the gate to the Grand Canyon. Elsewhere, over the past 2 months, I have paid from $3.89 to $4.44. $5.99 is ridiculous.

(11-04-2026 09:03 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I have been connected to, interested in, or directly involved in politics since I was 5 years old, in 1952. My dad was a rubber worker and union official at Firestone in Memphis from 1938 (minus 4 years in the Navy soon after) until his retirement in 1978. He was a diehard Democrat.

I recall in 1952 that my dad was assembling political materials to pass out at work, to keep all the union workers voting Dem. He stayed a Dem until the day he died. He even had me helping him with it, so I was raised in a solid Dem family, and voted Dem until maybe late 20s or 30. Then I shifted to Repub for a few years, then finally became an independent, and mostly voted third party until 2020.

I never knew what my mom was, but I assumed she voted the same.

My sister, a little younger than I am, is also a die-hard Dem, even though she only has one issue: abortion. But she is so hard over, we can't talk politics at all.

At any rate, with that background, I was thinking today, about how many times a political view or implementation by either party made any kind of difference in my life.

I can't think of a single one.

Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon is absolutely stunning this time of year. Just spent 2 days there, before moving on today. Some of you guys maybe need to loosen up a bit and enjoy life while you have a good shot at it. Just a friendly thought.

My great uncle was a Democratic mayor of Atkins Arkansas long time ago. As I view growing up in a Democratic family, I noticed that a lot of Democrats have been unfairly labeled one way or the other. A lot of new faces running, and they get labeled by different things from the right. Democrats have Conservative that leans to the right like Hillary Clinton, moderates like Obama and joe Bidden, Progressives like FDR or the far left where some of the crazies are at. Republicans to have some Liberal Progressives like Reagan since he was a Democrat at one point. I studied history and I compare Reagan with today's Republicans, and I find that when they claimed they are for Reagan? Why do the exact opposite of him? He showed compassion, and he never attack the Democrats. Republicans and Democrats passed a lot of issues that Reagan signed into law like the Disabilities Act which Trump and Republicans unfairly called it DEI. This is where I think a lot of people don't understand why Republicans lost? They went too far, and now the whole country is hurting. People want to have it corrected. Look at the Montana's first district house race that went to a Democrat for the very first time? He was a SmokeJumper and had to hold down three jobs to make ends meet. That won the support from the Republicans to win. That is how Democrats can win in Red states. Candidates who are relatable.

(11-04-2026 11:17 PM)TripleA Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 10:29 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 05:26 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 05:03 PM)JDTulane Wrote:  Good to see Crimson's checks still getting cashed

Quote:Let me tell you something absolutely BONKERS from last night’s midterms…

Democrat Ericka Lomick just “won” Texas House District 93 despite being a convicted felon who suspended her campaign months ago.

She pleaded guilty in 2011 to federal charges including mortgage-fraud conspiracy, bank fraud, and money laundering. Her sentence? 63 months in federal prison.

On her candidate paperwork, she checked the box claiming she had not been finally convicted of a felony. After her criminal record surfaced in September, she suspended her campaign and stopped running.

But Texas election deadlines had already passed, so her name remained on the ballot for both the regular general election and the special election.

And voters still elected her by roughly 51–49%.

Here’s the kicker: Under Texas law, a final felony conviction generally makes someone ineligible to hold office unless they’ve been pardoned or had their disabilities released.

Meaning she can’t actually serve. Her “victory” simply creates a vacancy and triggers yet another special election.

A convicted federal fraudster who quit campaigning still got elected to the Texas House.

Let that absolutely sink in.

Quote:I served as a poll watcher today and noticed something that struck me as rather odd.

Throughout the evening, I carefully kept a handwritten tally of every voter who cast a ballot. Each time I compared my count with the total displayed on the voting machine, the machine consistently showed one or two more votes than I had recorded.

To eliminate the possibility of an error in my counting, I repeatedly reset my handwritten tally to match the machine's displayed total and began counting again from that point forward. Yet, at the next comparison, the machine was once again ahead by one or two votes.

This happened repeatedly throughout the evening.
I'm not suggesting I know the reason for the discrepancies, but the consistency certainly caught my attention. I would be interested in understanding why the machine totals repeatedly differed from my firsthand count of voters.

Texas 93 is northern suburbs of Ft. Worth.

I paid $5.99 a gallon for regular today in Tusayan AZ, just outside the gate to the Grand Canyon. Elsewhere, over the past 2 months, I have paid from $3.89 to $4.44. $5.99 is ridiculous.

Farmers and Ranchers had to pay more for Diesel. It is why a lot switched to vote Dems.

$5.99 for regular has zero to do with Trump, or with Republicans, when nowhere else in the country is anywhere close to that number.

It has to do with a gas station in one of the most popular areas in the country taking advantage of the situation.

I hated when President Trump kept saying 'we're the hottest country with the hottest economy in the world' over and over.

American voters voted over the issue of “affordability”- and tragically, just made everything far worse and more expensive.

President Trump did 1,000 great things for the economy. In many ways, the economy is booming. But only for wealthy Americans. Not for the middle class. But the average American isn’t a major stock investor, or “crypto bro.”

The average American is hurting. They don’t see much difference between this Trump economy and the Biden economy. Like it, or not, that’s the bitter truth.

The rate of inflation is low- President Trump is right. But the American people don’t see that. They only see high prices. There is a difference. President Trump needed to explain that to the American people. And explain what he was doing to bring those prices down. That never happened.
To the average American, all that matters is gas prices, groceries, restaurant prices, health insurance, car insurance, home insurance and electric bills. All of those bills are sky-high. Average Americans are struggling. That’s all they see, and feel, and understand.

They elected you to solve that problem. They threw Joe Biden out because he made it all much worse. They feel that you did nothing to make it better.

You lost your focus on “America First.” That was the point- first, before anything else, give the middle class back their quality of life. Make those prices go down. Make middle-class America livable again.

And speak directly to the people every week. Tell them exactly what you’re doing to make their lives better. Give people hope.

But if you ignore the people, keep them in the dark, and they don’t see any difference in the prices, they will vote you out.

Unfortunately, Americans have become spoiled by endless big-government overtaxation and giveaways while ignoring corruption and waste.

Americans have been trained to desire cheap s#it from China and other enemy countries and don't want to wean themselves off it. Americans forget that it was Republicans as who helped close American factories and ship jobs and manufacturing base overseas, and that was wrong.

Democrats and Republicans wanted cheap foreign illegals here for cheap labor, landscaping and lawn services and nannies that wouldn't talk back...until there were too many tens of millions of them here that it greatly skewed the economy.

President Trump didn't have the stomach to pursue the difficult truth that in order to right the economy and help the lower and middle classes that originally voted for him in 2016 and 2024, he would have to bite the bullet and do two things to come clean: Let the real estate market tank in order to bring housing and especially rental prices down to natural levels instead of the artificially inflated values Democrats and RINOs drive them up to, which is but a facade, on the back of the middle and lower classes, and level with the people that illegals were the ones driving up housing costs by squatting here illegally and chain migrating their families here to boot. This was a simple message that low information citizen voters could understand and support. Instead it was 'hottest country' every week. Who gives a crap when a Wendy's single burger is over 7 to 10 dollars just for the sandwich?

And pass legislation to stop government and banks from charging usurious additional fees, especially on rentals occupied by working American Citizens. Stop allowing illegals to send their children to public schools. Stop illegals from being able to get free hospital care. Allow providers to turn away non-citizens for any reason if they wish. Take away the freebies and the economy will right itself. Stop the artificial influx of costs to American Citizens and markets for the enrichment of a few. When the hoteliers came to the White House and asked him not to deport their illegal workers, he should have told the hotel owners they had 30 days to fire them all or they were going to be under arrest.

And lastly, if you're going to fight in the Middle East, you don't half-a$$ it. You either go all in or don't go. These are not Venezuelans, who have been Christianized. These are insane people and no 'deals' are going to be made with them. Ever. And don't tell us every week they want to make a deal. More than half their economy is run black market. They don't care a lick about their own people, and the leader's kids are all living inn Europe and the US and own real estate and drive sports cars and wear short shorts and Gucci handbags. They are liars and hypocrits and are not to be trusted or dealt with.

As to the Democrats that control the Congress: Really curious to see how raising taxes and spending ungodly amounts of money on idiocies like socialized medicine and green new deal stuff is going to male anything more 'affordable'. Y'all were the ones that drove up the prices in the first place and caused this ungodly mess to America's finances. Your only ideas were "Trump sux" and We love illegals, trannies and crazies from s#ithole cuntries and we want to import all those sicknesses here even more than during the Biden and Obissmal miserable years.

Seems those 'ideas' will only make a bad situation worse for the middle classes who got suckered into voting you in because they are hurting. It was bad, and looks like it's about to get far worse for most people. But hey, maybe printing money endlessly and taking away freedoms and socializing everything will work as well as Social Security does as a 'retirement' plan. Oh, and Health 'Insurance' IS NOT HEALTHCARE and never will be. It is a cash grab from the lower and middle classes to finance a bankrupt government and fund illegals and slush funds run by unelected officials. But we knew that already.

Have fun with the six genders in Texas government. Even Ann Richards would have been revolted by these freaks.

(11-04-2026 03:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ...the raises in the minimum wage which have more to do with 6 and 7 dollar hamburgers than the cost of ground beef..

I don't think the data supports your conclusion. Have you seen a study that bolsters this, and if so, can you please share it? I'd like to read it. Thanks.

So, when will I need to take the boards off the windows at my office? When will these damned riots be over?

It’s a pity FDR didn’t index the minimum wage to the cost of living.

Most debates about the minimum since would’ve been nipped in the bud.

(Yesterday 08:49 AM)Gitanole Wrote:  It’s a pity FDR didn’t index the minimum wage to the cost of living.

Most debates about the minimum since would’ve been nipped in the bud.

It's a pity FDR didn't index Social Security eligibility to age expectancy. We would have a solvent system now.

(11-04-2026 10:33 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 09:11 PM)bobdizole Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 09:03 PM)TripleA Wrote:  I have been connected to, interested in, or directly involved in politics since I was 5 years old, in 1952. My dad was a rubber worker and union official at Firestone in Memphis from 1938 (minus 4 years in the Navy soon after) until his retirement in 1978. He was a diehard Democrat.

I recall in 1952 that my dad was assembling political materials to pass out at work, to keep all the union workers voting Dem. He stayed a Dem until the day he died. He even had me helping him with it, so I was raised in a solid Dem family, and voted Dem until maybe late 20s or 30. Then I shifted to Repub for a few years, then finally became an independent, and mostly voted third party until 2020.

I never knew what my mom was, but I assumed she voted the same.

My sister, a little younger than I am, is also a die-hard Dem, even though she only has one issue: abortion. But she is so hard over, we can't talk politics at all.

At any rate, with that background, I was thinking today, about how many times a political view or implementation by either party made any kind of difference in my life.

I can't think of a single one.

Meanwhile, the Grand Canyon is absolutely stunning this time of year. Just spent 2 days there, before moving on today. Some of you guys maybe need to loosen up a bit and enjoy life while you have a good shot at it. Just a thought.

I am fortunate enough to be able to weather economic storms, so I take the same stance as you that politics do not affect me in a grand way. I do feel for those who are too employed to get government benefits, but too poor be able to navigate inflation. I try to not forget what it was like growing up in that position when my pops company went on strike and we were eating meatless spaghetti and white bread many nights of the week for a couple of months.

That being said, I booked our flights and places to sleep for a Big 5 trip in Utah this spring last night. Had to convince my wife for at least one night in Vegas to experience the insanity.

You really do have to see Vegas even if you don't do any gambling.

Vegas is awesome. Absolutely a must see at least once. But eventually, it gets a little old. Too much stimulation, lol.

Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

(11-04-2026 08:17 PM)bullet Wrote:  Laura Broebert is behind in CO with 91% in, but its still close.

Boebert is trailing Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral. Laubacher's father, Vice Admiral Michael Haskins, served in the United States Navy for 37 years, and her grandfather served as a Navy combat diver during World War II. When Laubacher entered the U.S. Naval Academy, her father administered her oath as a midshipman.

(Yesterday 09:20 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

A statement that is almost as outlandish as Bill Fankboner claiming he once delivered "frontier justice" to a quintet of sex-hungry adult entertainment actors (both male and female).

(Yesterday 10:28 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(Yesterday 09:20 AM)Eagleaidaholic Wrote:  Nobody gets paid minimum wage in America except the illegals washing dishes for Chinese Buffets. Raising minimum wage doesn't help with lowering prices. Minimum wage is and should be a penalty for not bettering yourself. If you are lazy and/or stupid you deserve to be poor.

A statement that is almost as outlandish as Bill Fankboner claiming he once delivered "frontier justice" to a quintet of sex-hungry adult entertainment actors (both male and female).

It is for 15 year old kids working a part time job. If you are an adult doing the job of a 15 year old kid, that is on you. This is America. Better yourself. Make better decisions. Raising minimum wage to $25/hr which is what I see is not only a disaster for the country, but also unfair to the people that have bettered themselves to make $22/hr in a trade to then be in the same boat as the guy making tacos at taco bell.

(11-04-2026 11:41 PM)GoodOwl Wrote:  I hated when President Trump kept saying 'we're the hottest country with the hottest economy in the world' over and over.

American voters voted over the issue of “affordability”- and tragically, just made everything far worse and more expensive.

President Trump did 1,000 great things for the economy. In many ways, the economy is booming. But only for wealthy Americans. Not for the middle class. But the average American isn’t a major stock investor, or “crypto bro.”

The average American is hurting. They don’t see much difference between this Trump economy and the Biden economy. Like it, or not, that’s the bitter truth.

The rate of inflation is low- President Trump is right. But the American people don’t see that. They only see high prices. There is a difference. President Trump needed to explain that to the American people. And explain what he was doing to bring those prices down. That never happened.
To the average American, all that matters is gas prices, groceries, restaurant prices, health insurance, car insurance, home insurance and electric bills. All of those bills are sky-high. Average Americans are struggling. That’s all they see, and feel, and understand.

They elected you to solve that problem. They threw Joe Biden out because he made it all much worse. They feel that you did nothing to make it better.

You lost your focus on “America First.” That was the point- first, before anything else, give the middle class back their quality of life. Make those prices go down. Make middle-class America livable again.

And speak directly to the people every week. Tell them exactly what you’re doing to make their lives better. Give people hope.

But if you ignore the people, keep them in the dark, and they don’t see any difference in the prices, they will vote you out.

Unfortunately, Americans have become spoiled by endless big-government overtaxation and giveaways while ignoring corruption and waste.

Americans have been trained to desire cheap s#it from China and other enemy countries and don't want to wean themselves off it. Americans forget that it was Republicans as who helped close American factories and ship jobs and manufacturing base overseas, and that was wrong.

Democrats and Republicans wanted cheap foreign illegals here for cheap labor, landscaping and lawn services and nannies that wouldn't talk back...until there were too many tens of millions of them here that it greatly skewed the economy.

President Trump didn't have the stomach to pursue the difficult truth that in order to right the economy and help the lower and middle classes that originally voted for him in 2016 and 2024, he would have to bite the bullet and do two things to come clean: Let the real estate market tank in order to bring housing and especially rental prices down to natural levels instead of the artificially inflated values Democrats and RINOs drive them up to, which is but a facade, on the back of the middle and lower classes, and level with the people that illegals were the ones driving up housing costs by squatting here illegally and chain migrating their families here to boot. This was a simple message that low information citizen voters could understand and support. Instead it was 'hottest country' every week. Who gives a crap when a Wendy's single burger is over 7 to 10 dollars just for the sandwich?

And pass legislation to stop government and banks from charging usurious additional fees, especially on rentals occupied by working American Citizens. Stop allowing illegals to send their children to public schools. Stop illegals from being able to get free hospital care. Allow providers to turn away non-citizens for any reason if they wish. Take away the freebies and the economy will right itself. Stop the artificial influx of costs to American Citizens and markets for the enrichment of a few. When the hoteliers came to the White House and asked him not to deport their illegal workers, he should have told the hotel owners they had 30 days to fire them all or they were going to be under arrest.

And lastly, if you're going to fight in the Middle East, you don't half-a$$ it. You either go all in or don't go. These are not Venezuelans, who have been Christianized. These are insane people and no 'deals' are going to be made with them. Ever. And don't tell us every week they want to make a deal. More than half their economy is run black market. They don't care a lick about their own people, and the leader's kids are all living inn Europe and the US and own real estate and drive sports cars and wear short shorts and Gucci handbags. They are liars and hypocrits and are not to be trusted or dealt with.

As to the Democrats that control the Congress: Really curious to see how raising taxes and spending ungodly amounts of money on idiocies like socialized medicine and green new deal stuff is going to male anything more 'affordable'. Y'all were the ones that drove up the prices in the first place and caused this ungodly mess to America's finances. Your only ideas were "Trump sux" and We love illegals, trannies and crazies from s#ithole cuntries and we want to import all those sicknesses here even more than during the Biden and Obissmal miserable years.

Seems those 'ideas' will only make a bad situation worse for the middle classes who got suckered into voting you in because they are hurting. It was bad, and looks like it's about to get far worse for most people. But hey, maybe printing money endlessly and taking away freedoms and socializing everything will work as well as Social Security does as a 'retirement' plan. Oh, and Health 'Insurance' IS NOT HEALTHCARE and never will be. It is a cash grab from the lower and middle classes to finance a bankrupt government and fund illegals and slush funds run by unelected officials. But we knew that already.

Have fun with the six genders in Texas government. Even Ann Richards would have been revolted by these freaks.

Don't agree with all of what you wrote, but its a good assessment of what happened.
One point I will disagree with. Trump is bringing back manufacturing jobs. And average Americans (ie not college degree) are seeing greater wage growth than the top half. They aren't seeing much benefit from stock market growth, but are finding jobs easier.

(Yesterday 10:24 AM)bill dazzle Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 08:17 PM)bullet Wrote:  Laura Broebert is behind in CO with 91% in, but its still close.

Boebert is trailing Eileen Laubacher, a retired two-star United States Navy rear admiral. Laubacher's father, Vice Admiral Michael Haskins, served in the United States Navy for 37 years, and her grandfather served as a Navy combat diver during World War II. When Laubacher entered the U.S. Naval Academy, her father administered her oath as a midshipman.

As long as it doesn't tip the House (which it doesn't), I don't mind Boebert losing. She's the Republican AOC. Just a crazy freak.

(Yesterday 07:14 AM)Redwingtom Wrote:  

(11-04-2026 03:36 PM)JRsec Wrote:  ...the raises in the minimum wage which have more to do with 6 and 7 dollar hamburgers than the cost of ground beef..

I don't think the data supports your conclusion. Have you seen a study that bolsters this, and if so, can you please share it? I'd like to read it. Thanks.

Don't believe you would actually read it.

There have been a number of those studies posted on this board. And its basic economics.

So much for the Stock Market rise from yesterday.
The Blue Wave Hangover