How can he be even on national security after alienating all of our allies?
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Allies = foreigners.
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Trump’s done plenty of objectionable things, but it might be a legitimate win to get NATO to contribute more to security than they have been.
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Agreed. Are they really allies, or are they just giving lip service while the US foots the bills? I think they’re taking advantage of us, and it is time they started paying their share. Same with the UN. The US pays about 22% of the UN regular budget, and over 25% of the peacekeeping budget. That’s got to change.
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The value of having the other NATO countries increase their spending would be to allow us to decrease military spending. Instead, proposed FY 2027 military spending is $1.5 trillion, vs $900 billion in 2026.
That would certainly be a reasonable result, but you are setting expectations pretty high for the Trump administration to let a win be a win.
14 point D win in a district Trump carried by 17.
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My understanding is the Texas legislature doesn’t convene again until January 2027, and Rehmet would need to win the seat in this November’s election to serve in that session.
If so, I wouldn’t consider the voter turnout in a meaningless election to be indicative of voter sentiment.
As a non-American I wonder, why doesn’t it convene for a whole year?
As a non-Texan, I could ask the same question
Most state legislatures are only part-time bodies. Once upon a time, most state legislatures met every other year. (MT, NV, NJ, ND, TX and VA still follow this practice.)
There’s a perception that legislatures are corrupt bodies, and therefore should be in session as little as possible to minimize the shenanigans they can engage in.
It’s been an interesting but of culture shock for me. Living in Louisiana, people often called in to local talk radio wanting the legislature to be closed. In Canada, people complain because it isn’t open enough.
Thanks, seems so strange to me
Yep. The state legislature is in session for 40 days a year here.
AI Overview
Texas state legislators receive a base salary of $7,200 per year ($600 per month), a rate unchanged since 1975, plus a $221 per diem for every day in session
. They also receive mileage reimbursement and retirement benefits after eight years of service. These figures apply to both Texas House and Senate members.
These don’t look like full time jobs.
It also looks like an office that that unless you are rich, or self employed, or rely on a spouse’s income, would be difficult to manage.
In particular, the Texas legislature is only in session every other year, and typically just for the first half of that year (barring continuing sessions which can extend it a bit).
The attitude seems to be “they can’t get up to nonsense if they aren’t in session”, but it sure seems to just concentrate the nonsense to the brief periods when they are in session.
[My state (New Hampshire) pays its state legislators even less than Texas does, with the net result that they are largely grifters, retirees, and wackadoos. Even at just $100 a year (unchanged since 1889) we aren’t getting our money’s worth.]
why can’t blue be anything under 50%
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I think the shades of Red are states Trump won in 2024 and shades of Blue are States Harris won. But your idea would look better and be easier to read.
Right, that is the outcome, but it could also just be the way the color gradient works because everything shifted in parallel by ~10 points since the election.