Texas

Rob Roy

Well-Known Member
"We don't need no damn government telling us how to do things. This is Freedom."


If all people are alleged to be equal, how could anybody in government have a right to do something you can't?

You couldn't possibly have delegated a nonexistent right to another person could you?
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
Report: On Top of Everything Else, Ted Cruz Might Have Broken the Law | Vanity Fair

REPORT: ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, TED CRUZ MIGHT HAVE BROKEN THE LAW
It sure sounds like the senator funneled political donations into his own pocket.

Ted Cruz
is currently in hot water for his decision to abandon Texas for Cancún in the middle of a state of emergency, for claiming the trip was his daughters’ idea, for getting caught in a web of lies over the origins of said trip, and for blaming the whole thing on both the media and the “assholes” who leaked his wife’s text messages which ultimately blew up Cruz’s spot. That’s kept him pretty busy for the time being, but it appears he may soon have to juggle multiple scandals, according to a new investigation concerning a shadow entity that the FEC may have cause to look into.

Salon’s Roger Sollenberger reports that in 2020, a leadership PAC attached to Cruz called Jobs, Freedom, and Security paid $1.2 million, or almost 80% of its entire operating budget, to a company called Reagan Investments LLC for “sponsorship advertising.” Per Sollenberger, “the only other committee to register any disbursements to that company was Trump Make America Great Again, for a fundraising promotion for Cruz’s books in December…However, the Trump group clearly marked the payment for ‘collateral: books.’” In other words, it’s possible Cruz may have bought his own books through this mystery company and then paid himself royalties, which would be illegal. Per Salon:

On Jan. 4, 2021…Cruz traveled to Georgia before the runoff elections, his leadership PAC reported a $240,000 expense for “sponsorship advertising” to Reagan Investments, which appears to correlate with another series of small-dollar donations that poured into the PAC over the next few days. It isn’t clear how much of the funds raised, if any, went to Republican runoff campaigns: Cruz’s PAC only spent a few thousand dollars in support of former Sen. Kelly Loeffler. In fact, most of the contributions rolled in after the runoffs were over and as the events surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection were playing out, while Cruz joined a handful of Republican Senators to object to the counting of Electoral College votes.
Legal experts tell Salon that if the money was for promotional book sales, as the filings may suggest, then the leadership PAC could be using Reagan Investments as a pass-through to allow Cruz to keep the royalties, which are generally between 10% and 15% for hardcover books, and about half that for paperbacks. Political candidates are not allowed to do that through their campaign committees. But the identity of Reagan Investments itself poses a mystery.
According to Cruz’s PAC’s filings, Reagan Investments LLC is located in an Austin office building and matches the address listed for a consulting firm founded by Jeff Roe, who managed Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid and 2018 reelection campaign against Beto O’Rourke. There’s also this:

[Regan Investments LLC] does not appear in Texas business registries. OpenCorporates records, however, show that a company by that name was organized in Missouri on Jan. 23, 2020—two days after the PAC reported its first-ever payment to the company, of about $57,000. The agent on that registration, James Thomas III, was involved with a scheme that unlawfully funneled dark money from a conservative nonprofit to a political committee, resulting in a $350,000 FEC fine in 2018. In a phone interview, Thomas claimed he was simply the organizing agent and could not immediately recall who operated the company, or its purpose.
Roe was also connected to the dark money scheme, and although the FEC did not cite Roe for a violation, Thomas told investigators that he “primarily took direction” from Roe.
more...
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Texas's deregulated electricity market raised consumer costs by $28B: WSJ | TheHill

Texas's deregulated electricity market raised consumer costs by $28B: WSJ

Texas’s deregulated electricity market has raised costs to consumers by $28 billion since 2004, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis published Wednesday.

The analysis found that consumers purchasing power from the deregulated electricity market have paid significantly more than state residents whose sources were traditional electric utilities.

The report comes after widespread power outages in Texas that left millions of residents without power for days amid freezing temperatures. That was followed by many households receiving sky-high electricity bills, with warnings from experts that consumers are likely to be hit with covering the costs for grid upgrades.

The decision to have a deregulated electricity market stems back to 1999 when legislation was first introduced to deregulate the market in Texas. Supporters of the bill said it would create more competition in the sector and lower prices for consumers.

However, households under the deregulated market paid rates 13 percent higher than the nationwide average from 2004 to 2019, according to the Journal. Those who used traditional utilities in Texas paid 8 percent less than the national average during that time frame.

The data used for the analysis came from the federal Energy Information Administration.

Although deregulation in Texas was designed to allow for more competition, mergers in the industry have left Texans with two main retail electricity providers.

Texas is not the only state with some deregulated electricity market, but other states give residents the choice between retail electricity and electricity from a regulated state utility.

When the bill in Texas was passed for a deregulated market, 60 percent of residents were forced to get their electricity from a retail company, the Journal reported.

Investigations into electric companies and the reason for the massive outages during the winter storm are now in the works as part of an effort to ensure Texas does not face similar power shortages in the future.
wait a minute..isn't putin the gas king?:lol:
 

DIY-HP-LED

Well-Known Member
You wish.

The last time Bob tried to cross the border Canadian grizzlies stopped him.

Yep, Trump with his alligator moat on the southern boarder was amateur hour, our grizzly guards were well feed on escaping Americans! Now that Joe is running the show the poor critters will go hungry, hope none of them caught covid! :lol:
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
Couple of three years back the crew from Finding Bigfoot were filming at my local state park. I waited til they were all ferried out to the picnic area before heading back to my primitive camp sight. (All the rangers were chafed at having to run them back and forth with their ATV's on the hiking trails) Right where the blue blaze trail turns into the orange blazed trail I thought I saw a boy in a monkey suit. I figured he was a ringer, and big foot hunters had so many kids they couldn't keep track of them all. But I was pretty smoked up at the time.
 

schuylaar

Well-Known Member
Report: On Top of Everything Else, Ted Cruz Might Have Broken the Law | Vanity Fair

REPORT: ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE, TED CRUZ MIGHT HAVE BROKEN THE LAW
It sure sounds like the senator funneled political donations into his own pocket.

Ted Cruz
is currently in hot water for his decision to abandon Texas for Cancún in the middle of a state of emergency, for claiming the trip was his daughters’ idea, for getting caught in a web of lies over the origins of said trip, and for blaming the whole thing on both the media and the “assholes” who leaked his wife’s text messages which ultimately blew up Cruz’s spot. That’s kept him pretty busy for the time being, but it appears he may soon have to juggle multiple scandals, according to a new investigation concerning a shadow entity that the FEC may have cause to look into.

Salon’s Roger Sollenberger reports that in 2020, a leadership PAC attached to Cruz called Jobs, Freedom, and Security paid $1.2 million, or almost 80% of its entire operating budget, to a company called Reagan Investments LLC for “sponsorship advertising.” Per Sollenberger, “the only other committee to register any disbursements to that company was Trump Make America Great Again, for a fundraising promotion for Cruz’s books in December…However, the Trump group clearly marked the payment for ‘collateral: books.’” In other words, it’s possible Cruz may have bought his own books through this mystery company and then paid himself royalties, which would be illegal. Per Salon:



According to Cruz’s PAC’s filings, Reagan Investments LLC is located in an Austin office building and matches the address listed for a consulting firm founded by Jeff Roe, who managed Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid and 2018 reelection campaign against Beto O’Rourke. There’s also this:


more...
he's canadian and belongs to you.
 
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