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Not At My Table - Political Discussions => National & International Politics => Topic started by: joiei on July 26, 2017, 02:00:47 pm



Title: James Lankford
Post by: joiei on July 26, 2017, 02:00:47 pm
I just received this message from our senator.  My response to him was which insurance company wrote his reply and how much did they pay him for that space?  The debate on healthcare has started.


 

On Tuesday, the Senate started the official debate to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The ‘motion to proceed’ procedural measure was only a vote to start debate, it was not the actual final vote on a healthcare bill. As I have said before, I want to support healthcare reforms that will lead to more affordable and practical options for Oklahomans of all socioeconomic levels and all health conditions. Republicans and Democrats both agree that the Affordable Care Act has major problems. We cannot let the extreme voices of fear and hyperbole prevent a substantive conversation about how to protect families in poverty and ensure greater choice for everyone. Congress’ intention is not to take healthcare away from Americans, it is to help create access to more options, lowers costs, and ultimately more freedom. Our office has received some questions about this process, so I wanted to explain what’s going in this video. Below the video are some additional facts about Obamacare and healthcare.



CLICK HERE to view my video message.

Affordable Care Act and Healthcare Facts:

Healthcare insurance premiums have increased 76 percent on average for Oklahoma residents on the Obamacare federal exchange. Oklahoma is one of five states to only have only one insurer on the exchange —Blue Cross Blue Shield—in 2017, joining South Carolina, Alaska, Alabama and Wyoming.
Since 2013, health insurance premiums have risen 105 percent, from an average of $2,784 in 2013 to $5,712 in 2017 on the federal exchange (an increase of $2,928), according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In Oklahoma, the situation is much worse, with premiums skyrocketing by 201 percent—$4,968 higher —since 2013.
At least 44 counties across America are projected to have no exchange insurer in 2018. That number will likely climb higher in 2019, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Most Americans receive their healthcare insurance through their employer. Although a much smaller percentage of Americans receive insurance through Obamacare exchanges, the law created regulations and taxes that impacted most employer-based insurance plans. CLICK HERE for a summary of where most Americans get their healthcare insurance.
The Affordable Care Act individual mandate was designed to force healthy people to buy insurance coverage, however, it has not accomplished that goal. Many healthy people have decided they would rather pay the IRS penalty than buy Obamacare coverage. According to the IRS, for 2015, 6.5 million people paid the individual mandate penalty and another 12.7 million claimed one of the various exemptions from paying the penalty. In fact, 95,910 families paid $20.9 million in Obamacare penalties in 2014, with the vast majority of these households making incomes of less than $50,000 a year.
Members of Congress and their office staffs have to buy health insurance through the Obamacare insurance exchange.
The first amendment after Tuesday’s ‘motion to proceed’ was a vote on an updated version of Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). I voted for the amendment, but it failed by a vote of 43-57. CLICK HERE to read some information on the BCRA. This week, there will be many, many more amendments voted on and offered by both Republicans and Democrats.
For updates as the debate continues, please check my social media: Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

 



 

 

 

 

Stay Connected!

If you would like more information on these topics, please do not hesitate to call my DC office at (202) 224-5754. My Oklahoma City office can be reached at (405) 231-4941 and my Tulsa office at (918) 581-7651. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram for updates on my work in Congress.

Notice: If you wish to stop ALL electronic communications from my office, visit this link to opt out permanently from this list. If you have any questions about this Notice or your right to decline future electronic mail from this office, please contact us at United States Senate, 316 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510.


 (http://The debate on healthcare has started.


 

On Tuesday, the Senate started the official debate to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The ‘motion to proceed’ procedural measure was only a vote to start debate, it was not the actual final vote on a healthcare bill. As I have said before, I want to support healthcare reforms that will lead to more affordable and practical options for Oklahomans of all socioeconomic levels and all health conditions. Republicans and Democrats both agree that the Affordable Care Act has major problems. We cannot let the extreme voices of fear and hyperbole prevent a substantive conversation about how to protect families in poverty and ensure greater choice for everyone. Congress’ intention is not to take healthcare away from Americans, it is to help create access to more options, lowers costs, and ultimately more freedom. Our office has received some questions about this process, so I wanted to explain what’s going in this video. Below the video are some additional facts about Obamacare and healthcare.



CLICK HERE to view my video message.

Affordable Care Act and Healthcare Facts:

Healthcare insurance premiums have increased 76 percent on average for Oklahoma residents on the Obamacare federal exchange. Oklahoma is one of five states to only have only one insurer on the exchange —Blue Cross Blue Shield—in 2017, joining South Carolina, Alaska, Alabama and Wyoming.
Since 2013, health insurance premiums have risen 105 percent, from an average of $2,784 in 2013 to $5,712 in 2017 on the federal exchange (an increase of $2,928), according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In Oklahoma, the situation is much worse, with premiums skyrocketing by 201 percent—$4,968 higher —since 2013.
At least 44 counties across America are projected to have no exchange insurer in 2018. That number will likely climb higher in 2019, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Most Americans receive their healthcare insurance through their employer. Although a much smaller percentage of Americans receive insurance through Obamacare exchanges, the law created regulations and taxes that impacted most employer-based insurance plans. CLICK HERE for a summary of where most Americans get their healthcare insurance.
The Affordable Care Act individual mandate was designed to force healthy people to buy insurance coverage, however, it has not accomplished that goal. Many healthy people have decided they would rather pay the IRS penalty than buy Obamacare coverage. According to the IRS, for 2015, 6.5 million people paid the individual mandate penalty and another 12.7 million claimed one of the various exemptions from paying the penalty. In fact, 95,910 families paid $20.9 million in Obamacare penalties in 2014, with the vast majority of these households making incomes of less than $50,000 a year.
Members of Congress and their office staffs have to buy health insurance through the Obamacare insurance exchange.
The first amendment after Tuesday’s ‘motion to proceed’ was a vote on an updated version of Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA). I voted for the amendment, but it failed by a vote of 43-57. CLICK HERE to read some information on the BCRA. This week, there will be many, many more amendments voted on and offered by both Republicans and Democrats.
For updates as the debate continues, please check my social media: Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

 



 

 

 

 

Stay Connected!

If you would like more information on these topics, please do not hesitate to call my DC office at (202) 224-5754. My Oklahoma City office can be reached at (405) 231-4941 and my Tulsa office at (918) 581-7651. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram for updates on my work in Congress.

Notice: If you wish to stop ALL electronic communications from my office, visit this link to opt out permanently from this list. If you have any questions about this Notice or your right to decline future electronic mail from this office, please contact us at United States Senate, 316 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510.)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Hoss on July 26, 2017, 02:20:59 pm
Well, it didn't take long for that to die.

https://twitter.com/dylanlscott/status/890301746521796609

Repeal and replace has 9 Republican senators opposed; straight repeal has at least seven opposed.

I'm waiting for the inevitable Twitter rage-fest coming from the Orange Clown soon.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: swake on July 26, 2017, 03:19:37 pm
Langford is a tool.

He need to go back to choosing if the dining hall will have fries or tator tots with lunch and which bunk house does the morning prayer.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on July 26, 2017, 03:27:52 pm
Another set of his lies/distortions.  He is learning "The Inhofe Way" very quickly.

My insurance - totally outside of Obamacare - has gone up more and faster than what he is talking about.  Intellectually dishonest to keep spreading his BS.  Morally bankrupt to take away insurance from 20+ million.  


So the question for him is why isn't he going to try to do something to fix any problems that are present?  That is, after all, his job!


And no, it is not "major problems" - mid-course corrections are needed.  They have had more than 8 years to put together a plan!  Where is it??



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on July 26, 2017, 05:02:37 pm

 They have had more than 8 years to put together a plan!  Where is it??


The only "plan" was to dig into Obama.

Just change the title from ObamaCare to TrumpCare, and mission accomplished.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on July 27, 2017, 08:04:14 am
The only "plan" was to dig into Obama.

Just change the title from ObamaCare to TrumpCare, and mission accomplished.


Yep.  

And at that point we will have come full circle to what the Republicans said they supported in the first place, and actually helped implement as a proof of concept in Massachusetts under Romney.

Much like their spinning on cap-and-trade.









Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on December 29, 2019, 12:34:02 pm

GOP Senator James Lankford says he doesn't think Trump is a role model for young people

Washington — Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma criticized President Trump for his tweets and language, saying he doesn't believe the president is someone who young people can look up to.

"I don't think that President Trump as a person is a role model for a lot of different youth. That's just me personally," Lankford said on "Face the Nation." "I don't like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says, his word choices at times are not my word choices. He comes across with more New York City swagger than I do from the Midwest and definitely not the way that I'm raising my kids."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-lankford-on-face-the-nation-gop-senator-says-he-doesnt-believe-trump-is-a-role-model-for-young-people/



"The President of the United States has, today alone, retweeted 2 QAnon fan accounts, a Pizzagate account, an account that compared his following to a cult, and an account that described Obama as 'Satan's Muslim Scum.' And this insanity isn't even a blip on the news radar."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/28/politics/trump-ukraine-whistleblower-twitter/index.html


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on January 08, 2020, 08:46:22 pm

GOP Senator James Lankford says he doesn't think Trump is a role model for young people

Washington — Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma criticized President Trump for his tweets and language, saying he doesn't believe the president is someone who young people can look up to.

"I don't think that President Trump as a person is a role model for a lot of different youth. That's just me personally," Lankford said on "Face the Nation." "I don't like the way that he tweets, some of the things that he says, his word choices at times are not my word choices. He comes across with more New York City swagger than I do from the Midwest and definitely not the way that I'm raising my kids."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-lankford-on-face-the-nation-gop-senator-says-he-doesnt-believe-trump-is-a-role-model-for-young-people/



"The President of the United States has, today alone, retweeted 2 QAnon fan accounts, a Pizzagate account, an account that compared his following to a cult, and an account that described Obama as 'Satan's Muslim Scum.' And this insanity isn't even a blip on the news radar."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/28/politics/trump-ukraine-whistleblower-twitter/index.html


Just noise from him.   He is still fully inserted into the Trump Sun Don't Shine Zone.   As shown today by his comments about the Iranian "attack".




Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 02, 2021, 09:39:32 pm
.
Officer Brian Sicknick is laying in state in the Capital rotunda tonight.  The ceremony started a couple of hours ago.  Covered by REAL news organizations.  While Fake Fox News continues with their verbal vomit of lies that helped T**** get us to this point.

I have listened to the Traitors talk for years about "supporting our police"... "the thin blue line"...."Blue Lives Matter".... 

There are at least 45 who literally have the chance right now in this time to step up and PROVE the bleating sounds they have been making are in fact REAL and TRUE!   In particular Inhofe and Lankford.   Anyone wanna make a bet on how that will go?

They will go along with the T**** Lie Machine.  They will prove their absolute disrespect for the officers that literally put their lives on the line to protect those two, along with all the rest.  And they will continue to put T**** over the man, along with at least two other officers, and several others, paid the ultimate price! 

None of the T**** apologists and 'Fellow Travelers' are fit to lick the bottom of the boots of that man, nor any of the others who died due to the T**** Treason!   And their ongoing complicity!


.




Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 09, 2021, 08:40:36 pm
Rep Jamie Raskin gave the introductory speech today in the impeachment trial in the Senate.  In spite of all the evidence.  All the personal experiences.  All the videos showing the root cause of the Treason.   

44 of the current crop of Vile and Disgusting, voted to say the trial was unconstitutional.

In spite of the fact there is NO time limit written in that document.  And there is precedent.  But people who can actually read already know this.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 10, 2021, 07:29:26 pm
.
Immoral and unethical are to be expected of Jim Inhofe - would never expect anything else.

Now, from a guy who claims to be a Baptist preacher, James Lankford, we will see if he will follow in the Inhofe steps and abandon all pretense of any decency, morals, or ethics.  And go along with his "base", who have shown what they are for many years.   Or will do the right thing and vote to convict and prohibit future Federal office.

Would be very curious to know if he, or Inhofe, even bothered to sit in on the impeachment trial proceedings today, and once again see what he went through on 1/6.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on May 28, 2021, 05:06:53 pm
U.S. Sen. James Lankford's office confirmed Friday he has left the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission over what it says was a shift from the organization's original goals.

Lankford's office said the commission was becoming increasingly partisan and he did not think it appropriate for him to continue.

Lankford's questioning of the 2020 presidential election results in some states caused some to call for his removal from the commission in January.


https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/lankford-steps-down-from-race-massacre-centennial-commission-citing-partisan-shift-in-goals/article_7d65fff4-bfe9-11eb-9d4c-c3b1cc86e083.html


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on May 28, 2021, 09:49:20 pm
U.S. Sen. James Lankford's office confirmed Friday he has left the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission over what it says was a shift from the organization's original goals.

Lankford's office said the commission was becoming increasingly partisan and he did not think it appropriate for him to continue.

Lankford's questioning of the 2020 presidential election results in some states caused some to call for his removal from the commission in January.


https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/racemassacre/lankford-steps-down-from-race-massacre-centennial-commission-citing-partisan-shift-in-goals/article_7d65fff4-bfe9-11eb-9d4c-c3b1cc86e083.html

I hope "you Democrats" can nominate someone i, as a Republican, can vote for.  I got a phone call today for my father (deceased in Jan 2001) asking for my support for some wacko supporting Donald Trump.  I told whoever it was that I will NOT support anyone continuing to support the "Donald". I continue to be a Republican trying to support someone not a right wing religious wacko that is still basically a conservative.  The Republican party needs to divest itself from the right wing religious wackos and Donald Trump.  There is room for a conservative party but not Trumpism.  Whew!


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: tulsabug on May 29, 2021, 07:09:02 am
I hope "you Democrats" can nominate someone i, as a Republican, can vote for.  I got a phone call today for my father (deceased in Jan 2001) asking for my support for some wacko supporting Donald Trump.  I told whoever it was that I will NOT support anyone continuing to support the "Donald". I continue to be a Republican trying to support someone not a right wing religious wacko that is still basically a conservative.  The Republican party needs to divest itself from the right wing religious wackos and Donald Trump.  There is room for a conservative party but not Trumpism.  Whew!

The Republican party is ONLY right wing religious wackos and Donald Trump. Oh and Nazis. It's good you don't support them but honestly if the Dems were doing what the Repubs are doing right now I would leave the party and vote for anyone running against them.

It should also be noted that the Republican party hasn't been conservative on anything fiscally in a long time unless it's a spending program Democrats put forward. Like the Monty Python argument clinic skit - there is no Republican platform other than doing the opposite of whatever is proposed.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on May 30, 2021, 11:46:22 am
The Republican party is ONLY right wing religious wackos and Donald Trump. Oh and Nazis. 

The broad brush attitude you present is a major contributor to the divisiveness in our country.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: tulsabug on May 31, 2021, 03:33:38 pm
The broad brush attitude you present is a major contributor to the divisiveness in our country.

okay - they're that and a side of Susan Collins who is always sooooo concerned but that then just falls in line with the rest of them. Most of the Republican party is just Trump and religious zealots who only want rights for white America and then only for straight white rich evangelical Christian Americans - the remainder are independents who just whine that "this isn't the party that I remember" but are too lazy to change their registration. The percentage of registered Republicans who won't acknowledge Jan 6th was an attempted coup or that Joe Biden is the legitimate President is in the single digits. The divisiveness in this country is the Republican party - full stop. Let me ask you - you seem like an intelligent lucid individual - is the current Republican party representing both your personal interests and also your hopes for our country and if so what are your interests? And if not why are you still a Republican?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on May 31, 2021, 08:50:13 pm
I hope "you Democrats" can nominate someone i, as a Republican, can vote for.  I got a phone call today for my father (deceased in Jan 2001) asking for my support for some wacko supporting Donald Trump.  I told whoever it was that I will NOT support anyone continuing to support the "Donald". I continue to be a Republican trying to support someone not a right wing religious wacko that is still basically a conservative.  The Republican party needs to divest itself from the right wing religious wackos and Donald Trump.  There is room for a conservative party but not Trumpism.  Whew!


You missed that boat...Obama was almost a decent representation of a moderate Republican along the lines of Reagan (without the criminal activity, though.)  He even advanced an idea supported by Reps that Dems jumped on the train over...it's called Obamacare in some circles.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on May 31, 2021, 08:51:58 pm
The broad brush attitude you present is a major contributor to the divisiveness in our country.


How about an example of one that isn't what tulsabug said.   Romney maybe...



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on May 31, 2021, 09:31:17 pm
How about an example of one that isn't what tulsabug said.   Romney maybe...

Maybe Liz Cheney who just got booted by the idiot Trumpsters.  I kind of liked the Gov from Ohio in 2016, Kasich.  He never endorsed Trump.
Paul Ryan has come out against Trump.  https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/05/28/ex-speaker-paul-ryan-to-republicans-reject-donald-trump-2nd-rate-imitations/



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on May 31, 2021, 10:23:39 pm
You missed that boat...Obama was almost a decent representation of a moderate Republican along the lines of Reagan (without the criminal activity, though.)  He even advanced an idea supported by Reps that Dems jumped on the train over...it's called Obamacare in some circles.

No boat missed here.  Obama was a decent human being but I would not call him a nearly moderate Republican. At least he wasn't a Bernie Sanders or Liz Warren. He did a few things that Bush II was trying like cash for clunkers which created an artificial demand for new cars which resulted in a sales slump later and reduced the pool of used cars for the economically disadvantaged.  I admit he inherited a bad situation but "his" plans led to a slow recovery.  Keep in mind that I lost a job due to the turn down in manufacturing at the end of the Clinton regime.  I think Obama was a bit naive on foreign policy but not as abrasive as Trump. Trump was correct that some of our trade policies were not in our favor but his "solutions" were not the great deal that he thought they were.  At best, they were marginally better.  Obamacare.... You gotta pass it to find out what's in it (Pelosi) and you can keep your doctor.  I don't have a problem with mandating health care but Obamacare did not reduce the cost of healthcare in the USA, at least not my employer sponsored healthcare.  (I am now retired and on Medicare.) Trump was wrong to remove the mandate for healthcare coverage. Everyone needs some skin in the game.  That's how "insurance" works.  I joked about voting for Bernie so I could get free stuff... but I never really believed in it.  If we want a single payer system in this country, it will have an awful transition.  Medicare is barely funded, in yours and my case, in spite of having paid into the system for about 40 years or more.  That implies that younger folks will need to pay for single payer under age 65 while paying for Medicare for when they are over 65.  All the get your $144 back ads for Medicare Advantage plans involve "network" doctors.  My experience with my mother's situation, first after her insurance changed plans, second after her doctor retired, is that I NEVER want to deal with "network" health plans.  That also includes my personal experience with Aetna and doctors not being in-network.  Plus, one of my mother's friends who is in the healthcare business told me she would personally come and shoot me if I enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan.  OK, a bit of an exaggeration.   Final thought, you cannot make the "rich" pay for everything.  I haven't checked for a few years but if you take everything (100%) of everything the excessively rich make, you still cannot pay for everything the "Democrats" want to do.  The money just isn't there. The middle class is going to take a hit.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on May 31, 2021, 10:52:36 pm
okay - they're that and a side of Susan Collins who is always sooooo concerned but that then just falls in line with the rest of them. Most of the Republican party is just Trump and religious zealots who only want rights for white America and then only for straight white rich evangelical Christian Americans - the remainder are independents who just whine that "this isn't the party that I remember" but are too lazy to change their registration.
Not lazy.  I cannot align with the Democratic Party and changing to Independent is essentially throwing away my vote.  I believe in closed primary elections as the parties nominate who they want for their party.  Maybe not so popular anymore but I don't care.  Do the Democrats want a bunch of Republicans nominating someone in the primaries the Democrats know cannot win?  I am NOT talking about voter fraud, just an organized effort to tank an election by legitimate cross party voting.  I cannot change the Republican party back to what it was decades ago by deserting it.
Quote
The percentage of registered Republicans who won't acknowledge Jan 6th was an attempted coup or that Joe Biden is the legitimate President is in the single digits.
 
Have a credible link?  I don't feel like researching that.  I'm sure the number of Trumpsters are significant but you will have to come up with something other than a partisan statement.
Quote
The divisiveness in this country is the Republican party - full stop.
If you really believe that, there is no reason to continue this conversation.  You are drinking the Liberal/Democratic Cool-Aid.
Quote
Let me ask you - you seem like an intelligent lucid individual - is the current Republican party representing both your personal interests and also your hopes for our country and if so what are your interests? And if not why are you still a Republican?
The current Republican Party has some difficulties, no doubt.  I believe that, for the most part, the GOALS of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are similar.  The difference is how to get there. With the exception of Trump and the religious wacos, I believe the Republican Party still has better ways to achieve common goals than the Democratic party.

For example: In the mid-70s, my father had the opportunity to hire day workers for more than just minimum wage.  He had a difficult time finding workers since they were making benefits while unemployed almost (within a few $/hour) as much as working.  We are seeing a similar situation now that Covid is declining of people needed for jobs that won't work for only a few $ more per hour than not working.  I TOTALLY supported helping these folks during the pandemic but it's time to get back to work.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Hoss on June 02, 2021, 06:17:23 am
Not lazy.  I cannot align with the Democratic Party and changing to Independent is essentially throwing away my vote.  I believe in closed primary elections as the parties nominate who they want for their party.  Maybe not so popular anymore but I don't care.  Do the Democrats want a bunch of Republicans nominating someone in the primaries the Democrats know cannot win?  I am NOT talking about voter fraud, just an organized effort to tank an election by legitimate cross party voting.  I cannot change the Republican party back to what it was decades ago by deserting it. 
Have a credible link?  I don't feel like researching that.  I'm sure the number of Trumpsters are significant but you will have to come up with something other than a partisan statement.If you really believe that, there is no reason to continue this conversation.  You are drinking the Liberal/Democratic Cool-Aid.The current Republican Party has some difficulties, no doubt.  I believe that, for the most part, the GOALS of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are similar.  The difference is how to get there. With the exception of Trump and the religious wacos, I believe the Republican Party still has better ways to achieve common goals than the Democratic party.

For example: In the mid-70s, my father had the opportunity to hire day workers for more than just minimum wage.  He had a difficult time finding workers since they were making benefits while unemployed almost (within a few $/hour) as much as working.  We are seeing a similar situation now that Covid is declining of people needed for jobs that won't work for only a few $ more per hour than not working.  I TOTALLY supported helping these folks during the pandemic but it's time to get back to work.

My biggest problem with the Republican party in the last 20 years or maybe a little more is their social stances and wanting to regulate how women police their own bodies.  Their obsession with overturning Roe v Wade has always been a little concerning.  Does that mean I approve of abortion.  I don't.  But, for the party who claims to be the party of small government they sure don't have a problem with the government regulating how women along with their physicians make decisions about what is best for them.  And now the voter restriction bills that so many states are passing or are attempting to pass is another thing.  Fiscally, I line up kind of in the middle.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on June 02, 2021, 11:51:51 am
My biggest problem with the Republican party in the last 20 years or maybe a little more is their social stances and wanting to regulate how women police their own bodies.  Their obsession with overturning Roe v Wade has always been a little concerning.  Does that mean I approve of abortion.  I don't.  But, for the party who claims to be the party of small government they sure don't have a problem with the government regulating how women along with their physicians make decisions about what is best for them.  And now the voter restriction bills that so many states are passing or are attempting to pass is another thing.  Fiscally, I line up kind of in the middle.

I don't like abortion but I accept that it will happen.  It happened before Roe v Wade. It will continue if Roe v Wade is overturned.  Maybe allowing sex education in junior high school is a better alternative to repealing Roe v Wade. (Remember, I didn't grow up in the Bible Belt.)

I have no problem with proving who you are when voting as long as it is no $ cost.  Your free, non-photo, voter ID is good enough and accepted in OK.  If you vote absentee in OK, the Notary is not allowed to charge to verify who you are.  You can deliver your ballot in person if you want to save the postage to mail it but that would probably cost more than the postage.  I have not investigated options for the disabled.  The recent, blatantly obvious attempts at voter restrictions in other states are unacceptable.

Fiscally, I believe I am a bit right of middle but still basically in the middle.  I believe a person should have some responsibility for their well being.  Government help should be available for extenuating circumstances beyond reasonable control.  Here is some interesting reading on the US Income Tax of 1913: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revenue_Act_of_1913  The minimum wage needs to go up but if you are happy with a skill set of flipping burgers, it doesn't bother me if you have to work more than 40 hours per week.  People in the food industry that get sub-minimum wage because they get tips, need to be bumped up to full minimum wage.  What about the people living on Social Security?  There are some income tax advantages for Social Security income but the $1543/month average is only about $8.90/hour based or a 40 hour work week. https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/COLA/colaeffect.html


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on July 07, 2021, 11:47:42 am
The Republican Party’s unflinching loyalty to former President Donald Trump is facing a fresh test in Oklahoma, where the state GOP chairman has endorsed a primary challenge to Sen. James Lankford, one of the most conservative members of the Senate.

The state chairman, John Bennett, who before securing the top party post in April was best known for anti-Islamic rhetoric and suggesting that Hillary Clinton be executed, is backing Jackson Lahmeyer, a Tulsa pastor and political newcomer, over the incumbent Lankford.

It's an unusual alliance that has left some GOP operatives aghast because party chairs typically stay neutral in primaries, especially those involving established incumbents. But it comes as Lankford has refused to repeat falsehoods about the 2020 election and support Trump's claims that the election was stolen.

The endorsement also offers the latest example of how Republicans are grappling with their view of the former president and whether fidelity to him should be a litmus test.

“We have to have men and women of courage, men and women of integrity,” Lahmeyer said in an interview with NBC News. “Unfortunately, right now in the state of Oklahoma, we’re lacking that.”

Lahmeyer, who is 29 but will be the constitutionally-mandated age of 30 to serve in the Senate before the election, said Lankford embarrassed the state on Jan. 6. Lankford announced that day that he would object to the counting of Arizona's votes, but then reversed and withdrew his objection after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the Capitol to try to stop the certification that Biden won the election.

The final straw, Lahmeyer added, was when Lankford later apologized to Black constituents for questioning the outcome.

In other states, the threshold for challenging or rebuking a Republican deemed as disloyal to Trump has been higher — a vote to impeach or convict Trump. Lankford voted to acquit Trump during the impeachment trial.

In Oklahoma, Lahmeyer’s campaign comes as Bennett's state party continues to consider a resolution to censure Lankford and the state’s other GOP senator, Jim Inhofe, “for failure to delay the certification of fraudulent electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.” The resolution, advanced by the Osage County Republican Party, is on the agenda for the state committee’s July 17 meeting.

Lankford, 53, declined a request to comment. Even with the state party chairman actively campaigning for his opponent, he has endorsements from dozens of top Oklahoma Republicans, including Gov. Kevin Stitt. Lankford’s supporters note his wide margins of victory in a 2014 special election and 2016 campaign for a full term and are confident his reliably conservative policy principles will outweigh any shortcomings he has with Trump die-hards.

“Receiving over 900 votes of Republicans in the state convention to be chairman is not equivalent to the hundreds and thousands of votes that James Lankford won in a Republican primary and the hundreds of thousands of votes he won in general elections,” Chad Alexander, a past Oklahoma GOP chairman, said.

Besides Bennett, Lahmeyer also boasts an endorsement from Michael Flynn, the former Trump national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and later was pardoned by Trump. Flynn is one of the most vocal promoters of election falsehoods, going as far as suggesting a military coup to overthrow the Biden administration — remarks he walked back after criticism. He recently appeared at a Lahmeyer event.

Several Republicans familiar with Oklahoma politics said the state party is unlike those in other states where a governor or senator may install their pick as chair and, as a result, their goals are not always aligned. Stitt, the Republican governor, has not been involved in party chair races.

One senior Republican operative said Bennett’s ascension to party chair and backing of Lahmeyer shouldn’t be seen as evidence of a change in the state’s voters, but more of a political fluke indicative of internal party dynamics.

“I don’t think there’s any grand change in the Republican Party, per se, in Oklahoma."

The operative, who requested anonymity to speak openly about a sensitive intraparty conflict, is among those who believe Bennett’s endorsement is inappropriate.

“I never got involved in primaries,” Alexander, the former state chair, said. “No state chairman should get involved in primaries. When you start with divisiveness, you’re never going to bring unity, and the party should support whoever the Republican Party voters nominate.”

Lahmeyer argued that Bennett was open about wanting to change the party.

“Some are calling it a hostile takeover,” he added. “I don’t see it as a hostile takeover, but we are taking the party back. Keep your eye on Oklahoma. There’s a storm brewing down here.”


https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/fight-over-trump-loyalty-okla-gop-chairman-endorses-sen-lankford-n1273269


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on July 08, 2021, 12:18:57 pm
Just when you think this state can't get any more ignorant, they pull one of those "Hey, y'all...hold my beer and watch this..." moments.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on July 26, 2021, 11:58:13 am
U.S. Sen. James Lankford kept up his attack on the Biden administration’s immigration policy on Friday, this time with Tulsa County Sheriff Vic Regalado at his side.
Lankford reiterated several points he covered in Washington earlier this week, and Regalado talked about the dangers of smuggled illegal drugs and the “hypocrisy” of COVID-19 recommendations and restrictions.
Regalado replied that it is hypocritical to “implement some of the most stringent COVID policies on our citizens, yet we will not be enforcing them on people coming into this country illegally.”

(https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com/tulsaworld.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/3/e7/3e756c6c-ebf4-11eb-8620-a3e2e56ea190/60fb25edb5920.image.jpg?resize=1000%2C600)

https://tulsaworld.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/watch-now-lankford-regalado-call-biden-immigration-policy-hypocrisy-in-double-team-on-president/article_4e190d86-eb1d-11eb-ad1d-d3cf7ef4b8d7.html


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on July 26, 2021, 01:55:10 pm



The minimum wage needs to go up but if you are happy with a skill set of flipping burgers, it doesn't bother me if you have to work more than 40 hours per week.  People in the food industry that get sub-minimum wage because they get tips, need to be bumped up to full minimum wage. 




The problem with that take on minimum wage is that corporate America has been hard at work driving down the minimum wage for decades!   It peaked in 1968 in real   buying terms.  Since that time it has decreased more than 40% in buying power - that is a real cut of 40+%.   That is where the $15 an hour we keep hearing about comes from.  If you adjust the numbers from 1968 until now - it comes out just under $15 an hour.

Even people in the middle and upper middle class have experienced very small wage growth relatively speaking - Engineers certainly didn't increase much over those years!  Yeah, the absolute numbers were bigger, just like min wage, but the relative increases were pretty much stagnant.  And MOST of the people in this country have experienced cuts to real pay.

While CEO's and officers of companies have accelerated in compensation by many times the speed of light!  Plus HUGE tax cuts to boot!  Hundreds of times as much in real terms as they got over that time.








Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on July 26, 2021, 04:49:50 pm

The problem with that take on minimum wage is that corporate America has been hard at work driving down the minimum wage for decades!   It peaked in 1968 in real   buying terms.  Since that time it has decreased more than 40% in buying power - that is a real cut of 40+%.   That is where the $15 an hour we keep hearing about comes from.  If you adjust the numbers from 1968 until now - it comes out just under $15 an hour.

About $2.71 under at $12.29/hr.  $31,200 per (2080 hour) year at $15/hr vs. $25,563 at $12.29/hr.  Difference of $5636/year or about a 22% increase over 1968.   If 1968 was so great, let's make min wage $12.50/hr.  Target at 101st & Memorial has a sign on the door indicating they are hiring new associates at $15/hr.
https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/items/1968-united-states-minimum-wage

This inflation calculator has $1.60 in 1968 as worth $12.75 now.
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm


Quote
Even people in the middle and upper middle class have experienced very small wage growth relatively speaking - Engineers certainly didn't increase much over those years!  Yeah, the absolute numbers were bigger, just like min wage, but the relative increases were pretty much stagnant.  And MOST of the people in this country have experienced cuts to real pay.

I cannot disagree with that.

Quote
While CEO's and officers of companies have accelerated in compensation by many times the speed of light!

Yep, they are paid WAY too much.

Quote
Plus HUGE tax cuts to boot!  Hundreds of times as much in real terms as they got over that time.

Percentage cuts work that way.  You can't give a $50,000. tax cut to someone making $25,000 per year.




Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on July 27, 2021, 10:21:36 am

About $2.71 under at $12.29/hr.  $31,200 per (2080 hour) year at $15/hr vs. $25,563 at $12.29/hr.  Difference of $5636/year or about a 22% increase over 1968.   If 1968 was so great, let's make min wage $12.50/hr.  Target at 101st & Memorial has a sign on the door indicating they are hiring new associates at $15/hr.
https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/items/1968-united-states-minimum-wage

This inflation calculator has $1.60 in 1968 as worth $12.75 now.
https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm


I cannot disagree with that.

Yep, they are paid WAY too much.

Percentage cuts work that way.  You can't give a $50,000. tax cut to someone making $25,000 per year.





Ok, start with $12.75 then.  And since everyone else that counts, meaning CEO's and Officers of Corporate America, have made hundreds of times those increases, the lowest should start to gain a little, too!  After all, the big pay guys got it riding on the backs of the little guys.


We are not talking anywhere NEAR $50,000 cuts for those guys - it is nowhere near percentage cuts.  We are talking $$Millions and for 700 or so, Billions, in tax cuts.  Has been going on for decades.  Even some of the richest of the rich have conscience enough to say it is wrong and they should be paying much more!   Reagan was supposed to be the "gold standard" for business type stuff - just go back to what the levels were when he left office.  ALL the deficit problems would be solved and the debt would actually start to be paid off.  Like when Billy Bob was President....


You said, "Percentage cuts work that way.  You can't give a $50,000. tax cut to someone making $25,000 per year."
We could go back and do what Richard Nixon proposed - the one and only good thing he ever talked about, but didn't follow up on - If someone makes less than the poverty level, take the difference, divide by 12, then send back to employee in monthly payments through the year.




Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on July 27, 2021, 11:15:10 am

Ok, start with $12.75 then.  

I wouldn't fight that.


Quote
We are not talking anywhere NEAR $50,000 cuts for those guys - it is nowhere near percentage cuts.

Surely (not Shirley) you can understand that was just an illustration, not an actual example.


Quote
Reagan was supposed to be the "gold standard" for business type stuff - just go back to what the levels were when he left office.  ALL the deficit problems would be solved and the debt would actually start to be paid off.

As I remember, Reagan had the incremental rates lowered but he eliminated a lot of deductions.  Federal revenue actually went up but spending went up even faster.


Quote
Like when Billy Bob was President....

Billy Bob was lucky enough to ride the dot-com bubble.  Manufacturing was declining near the end of his 2nd term.  I lost an engineering job in manufacturing due to lack of business at that time. I almost voted for Algore so the Dems could take credit for the failing economy.


Quote
We could go back and do what Richard Nixon proposed - the one and only good thing he ever talked about, but didn't follow up on - If someone makes less than the poverty level, take the difference, divide by 12, then send back to employee in monthly payments through the year.

We will have to agree to disagree here.  Are you (presumably) talking about a single job (per household) at 40 hours per week?  I would be willing to help support them if they were pursuing an education to increase their skill set.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on August 16, 2021, 10:48:13 am
Probably not a better place to put this - some of the descendants who are deployed in Iraq/Kuwait, etc are watching the sh$t show from their front row seats!

Memes are already propagating - as of this morning, the Taliban now has more Blackhawk helicopters than 175 other countries in the world!!  And drones!!   They have drones aplenty!



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on August 16, 2021, 03:27:47 pm
Probably not a better place to put this - some of the descendants who are deployed in Iraq/Kuwait, etc are watching the sh$t show from their front row seats!
Memes are already propagating - as of this morning, the Taliban now has more Blackhawk helicopters than 175 other countries in the world!!  And drones!!   They have drones aplenty!

We should be able to destroy the equipment after our personnel are safe.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on August 17, 2021, 07:55:46 pm
We should be able to destroy the equipment after our personnel are safe.




But we won't.   Haven't previously.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on August 17, 2021, 11:47:53 pm
But we won't.   Haven't previously.

I hope we at least remove any classified equipment.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on August 19, 2021, 09:56:04 am
I hope we at least remove any classified equipment.


They got our drones.   Two descendants have been under attack repeatedly this year in Iraq.  Now they have good chance of being attacked by their own tools!  (Probably not so much - they should have the means to override hostile takeover of a drone.  Blackhawks are another issue.)



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on September 01, 2021, 12:22:04 pm
..

This news is pretty hilarious, no matter who you are.  You know how Putin has been laughing his a$$ off at us since 2016...?   Well, I am laughing the same way at the Taliban right now!! 


https://forbesalert.com/news/usa/taliban-fighters-upset-feel-betrayed-that-us-military-left-non-working-helicopters-report/



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 01, 2021, 07:13:21 pm
This news is pretty hilarious, no matter who you are.  You know how Putin has been laughing his a$$ off at us since 2016...?   Well, I am laughing the same way at the Taliban right now!! 
https://forbesalert.com/news/usa/taliban-fighters-upset-feel-betrayed-that-us-military-left-non-working-helicopters-report/

I kind of remember something similar with the F14s we left behind in Iran after their revolution.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 01, 2021, 08:44:00 pm
I kind of remember something similar with the F14s we left behind in Iran after their revolution.


That's why when the F14's were retired in 2007 AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson shredded all of them.

https://tucson.com/business/local/swift-deadly-f-14-tomcats-being-shredded-into-bits-at-d-m-boneyard/article_d35ff8bc-7642-51d0-8fe5-449da680a0a2.html (https://tucson.com/business/local/swift-deadly-f-14-tomcats-being-shredded-into-bits-at-d-m-boneyard/article_d35ff8bc-7642-51d0-8fe5-449da680a0a2.html)



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: tulsabug on September 02, 2021, 06:10:49 am
We destroyed or disabled to the point of never being usable again what equipment we had that was left (which was primarily just in Kabul). What the Taliban "captured" was Afghan Army stuff which, yes, is a lot of Humvees and some Blackhawks and so on. Good luck keeping any of that crap functioning in a desert environment with no parts for more than a few months (plus very  few techs to work on it). The lifespan of military equipment in a war zone is already pretty short - even more so in a desert. In the end the Taliban is going to have what they've always had - lots of Chinese-made Kalashnikovs and Toyotas - just like the Trump seditionists.  ;D


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 02, 2021, 10:17:27 am
That's why when the F14's were retired in 2007 AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson shredded all of them.

https://tucson.com/business/local/swift-deadly-f-14-tomcats-being-shredded-into-bits-at-d-m-boneyard/article_d35ff8bc-7642-51d0-8fe5-449da680a0a2.html (https://tucson.com/business/local/swift-deadly-f-14-tomcats-being-shredded-into-bits-at-d-m-boneyard/article_d35ff8bc-7642-51d0-8fe5-449da680a0a2.html)



I don't like having to destroy all that equipment but agree is was necessary.  F14s were brand new when I was in the Navy in the early to mid 70s.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on September 03, 2021, 03:07:18 pm
I don't like having to destroy all that equipment but agree is was necessary.  F14s were brand new when I was in the Navy in the early to mid 70s.


Got job offers from Boeing and GD to work on avionics systems for B-52 and F-16.  Very tempting jobs but meant I would have to either go to KS or TX.  And as everyone knows, TX sucks and KS blows.  In the winter - summer, it reverses!



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 03, 2021, 04:25:47 pm
Got job offers from Boeing and GD to work on avionics systems for B-52 and F-16.  Very tempting jobs but meant I would have to either go to KS or TX.  And as everyone knows, TX sucks and KS blows.  In the winter - summer, it reverses!

New equipment upgrades?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 03, 2021, 06:30:22 pm
Speaking of B-52's, here's a couple of articles about two B-52 H models that were brought out of the AMARG Bone Yard and had maintenance and upgrades at Tinker.

Quote
The only two B-52H “Stratofortress” bombers to be resurrected from the Arizona desert have been undergoing programmed depot maintenance at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex.

Ghost Rider, the first of the bombers to be brought back to life, returned to service in 2015 after being mothballed for seven years at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group’s National-Level Airpower Reservoir located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. Wise Guy spent 10 years in the desert before being resurrected late last year.

Ghost Rider, tail number 61-007, is currently undergoing routine PDM. This is an intensive process where the team inspects, repairs, modifies and restores the aircraft to ensure serviceability and prolongs its service life. According to Dan Frey, 565th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Production Flight chief, each B-52 in the fleet undergoes PDM every four years.

On Dec. 30, 2020, Wise Guy, tail number 60-034, finished the process of regeneration that formally began in 2018 with an in-depth structural analysis and logistics support review completed by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s B-52 System Program Office to bring the aircraft back to active service. When Wise Guy rejoins the fleet, it will join Ghost Rider at the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, North Dakota, and will bring the number of B-52 bombers mandated by Congress to full strength at 76 aircraft.

https://www.businessinsider.com/only-two-b52-bombers-ever-pulled-from-air-force-boneyard-2021-1 (https://www.businessinsider.com/only-two-b52-bombers-ever-pulled-from-air-force-boneyard-2021-1)

https://www.tinker.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2463897/two-b-52h-bombers-regenerated-to-active-service-undergoing-simultaneous-mainten/fbclid/IwAR0lXdWadCrYg3uOD48EC8b28475SS1ycacGs4NFZZ_sMhG9xdzWiShPoyI/ (https://www.tinker.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2463897/two-b-52h-bombers-regenerated-to-active-service-undergoing-simultaneous-mainten/fbclid/IwAR0lXdWadCrYg3uOD48EC8b28475SS1ycacGs4NFZZ_sMhG9xdzWiShPoyI/)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on September 04, 2021, 10:55:34 am
New equipment upgrades?

Right.  But now those upgrades have been upgraded.  Probably several times.  That was a long time ago.

But I did get to crawl around the fuselage of the B-52 in Wichita!   That was the coolest airplane experience ever for me!   Not as big as one would think....




Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 04, 2021, 10:35:51 pm
Right.  But now those upgrades have been upgraded.  Probably several times.  That was a long time ago.

But I did get to crawl around the fuselage of the B-52 in Wichita!   That was the coolest airplane experience ever for me!   Not as big as one would think....




In 2013 I stopped at the entrance to Edwards AFB to see "Balls 8" registration #0008, the B-52 that carried a lot of the Xtype aircraft.

For scale, my Miata is about 30 feet from the B-52.

(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-JQSvfNq/0/6038c17f/M/i-JQSvfNq-M.jpg) (https://kevinallsop.smugmug.com/Miata-pics/n-gvJD8F/i-JQSvfNq/A)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-Ps4DL2C/0/52f30f83/M/i-Ps4DL2C-M.jpg) (https://kevinallsop.smugmug.com/Miata-pics/n-gvJD8F/i-Ps4DL2C/A)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-g2GGZSw/0/02510eb5/M/i-g2GGZSw-M.jpg) (https://kevinallsop.smugmug.com/Miata-pics/n-gvJD8F/i-g2GGZSw/A)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-t3GJdqP/0/daf2428e/M/i-t3GJdqP-M.jpg) (https://kevinallsop.smugmug.com/Miata-pics/n-gvJD8F/i-t3GJdqP/A)

(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-GDxDhgS/0/ba179c48/M/i-GDxDhgS-M.jpg) (https://kevinallsop.smugmug.com/Miata-pics/n-gvJD8F/i-GDxDhgS/A)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: tulsabug on September 05, 2021, 06:47:27 am
Great pics! Also nice Gen 2 Miata ;)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on September 05, 2021, 07:49:31 pm
In 2013 I stopped at the entrance to Edwards AFB to see "Balls 8" registration #0008, the B-52 that carried a lot of the Xtype aircraft.

For scale, my Miata is about 30 feet from the B-52.




We went on vacation to NM and CO and on the way through the OK panhandle, had a flight of 7 B-52's fly over doing very low level runs of some sort, all in a single line.  Probably between 500 - 1,000 ft up.  Could see rivets!  Sounds amazing!   (I like loud noises and bright flashes!)



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 05, 2021, 09:41:08 pm
We went on vacation to NM and CO and on the way through the OK panhandle, had a flight of 7 B-52's fly over doing very low level runs of some sort, all in a single line.  Probably between 500 - 1,000 ft up.  Could see rivets!  Sounds amazing!   (I like loud noises and bright flashes!)
Recently?

In the early 80s, I was driving in southern CA or northern AZ (I forget exactly where) and had a few F4 Phantoms fly over really low.  A friend who was a F4 pilot told me a usual low level run was 360 ft AGL and 360 Knots.  Pretty awesome in person.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on September 06, 2021, 11:17:12 am
Recently?

In the early 80s, I was driving in southern CA or northern AZ (I forget exactly where) and had a few F4 Phantoms fly over really low.  A friend who was a F4 pilot told me a usual low level run was 360 ft AGL and 360 Knots.  Pretty awesome in person.


No.  About 1990-ish.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 07, 2021, 02:45:15 am
It's not uncommon to get buzzed by low flying USAF fighters on the stretch between Tonopah AZ (just west of Phoenix) and Indio CA. The area between the Colorado River on the west and Arizona 85 on the east and I-10 on the north and I-8 on the south is largely the Goldwater Bombing Range, and also a Marine testing facility for the Marine base in Yuma. It's not uncommon to se F-16's, 18's, 22's and 35's out there on training exercises. They also conduct mock dogfights with those, T-38's and French made Dassault Mirage's.

I was out near Ford Dry Lake in CA and thought I saw some strange windmills until I realized they were V-22 Ospreys doing low level flights. They also do a lot of training flights around the Salton Sea area.

Someone has been doing a lot of flying of a Airbus Zephyr (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html)) over the area of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. I found it on Flight Radar 24 website with the tail numbers N467TN and N469TN.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 07, 2021, 11:39:21 am
Someone has been doing a lot of flying of a Airbus Zephyr (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html (https://www.airbus.com/defence/uav/zephyr.html)) over the area of the Kofa Wildlife Refuge. I found it on Flight Radar 24 website with the tail numbers N467TN and N469TN.

The FAA lists the registered owner as: BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 12, 2021, 10:34:42 pm
The FAA lists the registered owner as: BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE



Quote
Bank of Utah holds thousands of aircraft in trust as owner trustee and has hundreds of active security trustee accounts. Globally, the FAA is a preferred aircraft registry for many reasons, but primarily because the FAA maintenance standards allow for ease in appraising the aircraft for future resale.

https://www.nafa.aero/companies/bank-of-utah-corporate-trust-services (https://www.nafa.aero/companies/bank-of-utah-corporate-trust-services)

Something else I 've noticed is that a lot of the medivac helicopters in the southwest are all registered in Greenwood Colorado.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 12, 2021, 11:32:14 pm
Something else I 've noticed is that a lot of the medivac helicopters in the southwest are all registered in Greenwood Colorado.

A lot of "corporate" aircraft are registered to corporations based in Delaware.  There is a tax thing there somewhere.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 13, 2021, 06:23:54 am
A lot of "corporate" aircraft are registered to corporations based in Delaware.  There is a tax thing there somewhere.


Delaware, where businesses go so they don't have to pay corporate income tax.

Quote
Delaware as a domestic tax haven. At present, the state of Delaware is home to approximately 1,000,000 businesses and more than 67.8 % of Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, in 2019, 89.9% of U.S.-based businesses with initial public offerings chose Delaware to be their corporate home.

https://www.millionacres.com/taxes/articles/why-is-delaware-considered-a-domestic-tax-haven/ (https://www.millionacres.com/taxes/articles/why-is-delaware-considered-a-domestic-tax-haven/)

Quote
NOTHING about 1209 North Orange Street hints at the secrets inside. It’s a humdrum office building, a low-slung affair with a faded awning and a view of a parking garage. Hardly worth a second glance. If a first one.

But behind its doors is one of the most remarkable corporate collections in the world: 1209 North Orange, you see, is the legal address of no fewer than 285,000 separate businesses.

Its occupants, on paper, include giants like American Airlines, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway, Cargill, Coca-Cola, Ford, General Electric, Google, JPMorgan Chase, and Wal-Mart. These companies do business across the nation and around the world. Here at 1209 North Orange, they simply have a dropbox.

What attracts these marquee names to 1209 North Orange and to other Delaware addresses also attracts less-upstanding corporate citizens. For instance, 1209 North Orange was, until recently, a business address of Timothy S. Durham, known as “the Midwest Madoff.” On June 20, Mr. Durham was found guilty of bilking 5,000 mostly middle-class and elderly investors out of $207 million. It was also an address of Stanko Subotic, a Serbian businessman and convicted smuggler — just one of many Eastern Europeans drawn to the state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thrives-as-a-corporate-tax-haven.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/01/business/how-delaware-thrives-as-a-corporate-tax-haven.html)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 18, 2021, 09:56:07 am
Great pics! Also nice Gen 2 Miata ;)

I do a bit of my own flying in my Miata

https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y (https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 18, 2021, 02:26:46 pm
I do a bit of my own flying in my Miata
https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y (https://youtu.be/0UZHpH3Wr1Y)

Looks like fun. The car sticks pretty good in the corners per the G meter.  Where is the track, what's the track length?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: dbacksfan 2.0 on September 18, 2021, 07:08:18 pm
Looks like fun. The car sticks pretty good in the corners per the G meter.  Where is the track, what's the track length?

Inde Motorsports Ranch in Wilcox AZ. We were running what they call the Main Circuit which is 2.75 miles with 21 turns. There is a group of us that go to four or five events a year. Twice to Inde, and once each to Arizona Motorsports Park, Chuckwalla Valley in Desert Center CA, and a track that's a combination of two tracks at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park.

The organization that puts on the events is called Pro AutoSports also just secured dates at a new track south of Phoenix called Apex Motor Club.

I'm planning to next year over Labor Day run an event at Hallett called Miata's at Hallett so I can run where it all started for me back in highschool back in 1980.

The events are ~$200.00 per day and membership is is $40.00 per year.

https://proautosports.com/ (https://proautosports.com/)   

https://indemotorsports.com/the-ranch/track/ (https://indemotorsports.com/the-ranch/track/)

https://apexmotorclub.com/ (https://apexmotorclub.com/)

https://racewildhorse.com/location-map/ (https://racewildhorse.com/location-map/)

https://arizonamotorsportspark.com/ (https://arizonamotorsportspark.com/)

https://chuckwalla.com/ (https://chuckwalla.com/)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on September 18, 2021, 08:28:03 pm
I'm planning to next year over Labor Day run an event at Hallett called Miata's at Hallett so I can run where it all started for me back in highschool back in 1980.

I worked some corners at Hallett with the TU Sports Car Club in the late 70s.  Great track.

Would you drive the Miata to OK or trailer it?

One of my college friends calls this place his second home: https://summitpoint-raceway.com/track-information/summit-point-circuit/
He owns/drives a Boss 302 Mustang and frequently does pace laps in for SCCA races in a Lotus Esprit.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on December 06, 2023, 10:51:23 am
A classified briefing Tuesday on Ukraine devolved into a shouting match about border security as senators described a tense meeting that did little to break the Senate’s stalemate over whether to include tighter immigration policies in the aid package.

The meeting came as Republican senators have warned they are prepared to vote against advancing a more than $100 billion supplemental national security package unless it includes major border policy changes, casting doubt on whether the aid will pass this year.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer gave his description of what unfolded and said the fight over the border erupted when Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, asked GOP Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma to present on the border instead of asking a question about Ukraine to the briefers.

“It was immediately hijacked by Leader McConnell. The first question instead of asking our panelists, he called on Lankford to give a five-minute talk about the negotiations on border,” Schumer said. “Then when I brought up the fact that they could do an amendment and have the ability to get something done on border, they got stuck … they didn’t like it.”


https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/politics/senate-classified-briefing-devolves/index.html

Maybe he will sell T-shirts of his screwup like Mullen did?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on December 10, 2023, 10:24:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with changes to America’s immigration and border policies.

After the Democratic president said this past week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest proposal, from the lead GOP negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday afternoon. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats will seriously oppose, throwing new obstacles in the difficult negotiations.

https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-ukraine-6bdcc5dde4dadb48b43ace75b5a55242

In a nutshell, the lives of countless Ukrainians and Gaza civilians are being used to force the U.S. to toe the Trump line.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on December 13, 2023, 11:29:28 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — A deal to provide further U.S. assistance to Ukraine by year-end appears to be increasingly out of reach for President Joe Biden. The impasse is deepening in Congress despite dire warnings from the White House about the consequences of inaction as Republicans insist on pairing the aid with changes to America’s immigration and border policies.

After the Democratic president said this past week he was willing to “make significant compromises on the border,” Republicans quickly revived demands that they had earlier set aside, hardening their positions and attempting to shift the negotiations to the right, according to a person familiar with the talks who was not authorized to publicly discuss them and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The latest proposal, from the lead GOP negotiator, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., came during a meeting with a core group of senators before they left Washington on Thursday afternoon. It could force the White House to consider ideas that many Democrats will seriously oppose, throwing new obstacles in the difficult negotiations.

https://apnews.com/article/congress-border-immigration-ukraine-6bdcc5dde4dadb48b43ace75b5a55242

In a nutshell, the lives of countless Ukrainians and Gaza civilians are being used to force the U.S. to toe the Trump line.




Not really difficult negotiations at all.  Either they are for Putin or against him.   And the Republicontins are showing daily their deep support of Russia.






Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on January 18, 2024, 12:25:02 pm
Republican Senator James Lankford is facing backlash after the alleged details of a sweeping immigration bill he worked on leaked over the weekend.

Republicans, who have been sharply critical of President Joe Biden's approach to immigration, are pushing for policies to tighten border security, while some Democrats are aiming to streamline the immigration process for asylum-seekers. Congressional leaders are trying to strike a deal that could pass both the Republican-led House of Representatives and Democratic-led Senate.

The conservative-aligned Immigration Accountability Project on Saturday leaked the alleged details of the immigration plan, sparking a MAGA uproar over policies viewed as insufficiently conservative.

The organization alleged that the plan would include an allowance of 5,000 migrant crossings per day into the United States, grant work permits to the adult children of H-1B visa holders and automatically grant work permits to undocumented migrants as soon as they are released from custody.
Oklahoma Senator Lankford, a Republican who has been engaged with Democrats in negotiations on the immigration deal, has denied the leak.

Amid backlash from conservatives over the leak, one Oklahoma lawmaker is warning that Lankford may face a resolution condemning him if the Senate moves forward with the deal.

Oklahoma state senator Dusty Deevers shared the text of the resolution in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, early on Thursday morning.

"Senator Lankford is in the driver's seat. Should he choose to protect the American people by enforcing the law, and rejecting this deal, then this resolution will not be submitted. Time will tell," he wrote.
He said he stands "ready to submit" the resolution, which would condemn Lankford if he "strikes any deal with Senator [Chuck] Schumer in which any amount of illegal entries are permitted, work permits are issued to illegal aliens, or any amnesty is granted to illegal aliens."

Meanwhile, conservative influencer Charlie Kirk said he would have "no choice but do a series of events and rallies across Oklahoma" if Lankford "continues his open border betrayal."

"We will primary and remove anyone remotely associated him. We will make him the least popular senator in America. You have been warned, Jim," he posted to X.

However, Lankford responded to the leak in a post to X, writing that people should not "believe everything" they read on the internet.
" I encourage people to read the border security bill before they judge the border security bill. I also advise people not to believe everything you read on the internet....," he wrote.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, signaled he would not support this legislation if the leaked details are accurate. He posted a photograph showing key parts of the bill to X with the caption: " Absolutely not."


https://www.newsweek.com/senator-james-lankford-backlash-republicans-leaked-border-proposal-1861850


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on January 28, 2024, 06:01:28 pm
Oklahoma GOP votes to censure Lankford over Senate border talks

The Oklahoma Republican Party approved a resolution Saturday condemning and censuring Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) for his role as a chief negotiator in the Senate border security talks between Democrats and Republicans.

The resolution — a copy of which was posted on X, formerly Twitter — by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) said, “Senator Lankford playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger.”

Senate negotiators have been working for weeks to negotiate a compromise on border and immigration policy that is meant to address the number of migrants who come across the U.S. border with Mexico.

“It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,'” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“And now, it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year,'” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4434317-oklahoma-gop-votes-to-censure-lankford-over-senate-border-talks/


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on January 28, 2024, 11:52:05 pm
.
Republicans have become so warped and twisted that they can't even take yes for an answer.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: tulsabug on January 30, 2024, 07:48:31 am
Oklahoma GOP votes to censure Lankford over Senate border talks

The Oklahoma Republican Party approved a resolution Saturday condemning and censuring Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) for his role as a chief negotiator in the Senate border security talks between Democrats and Republicans.

The resolution — a copy of which was posted on X, formerly Twitter — by state Sen. Dusty Deevers (R) said, “Senator Lankford playing fast and loose with Democrats on our border policy not only disfranchises legal immigrants seeking citizenship but it also puts the safety and security of Americans in great danger.”

Senate negotiators have been working for weeks to negotiate a compromise on border and immigration policy that is meant to address the number of migrants who come across the U.S. border with Mexico.

“It is interesting, Republicans, four months ago, would not give funding for Ukraine, for Israel and for our southern border because we demanded changes in policy. So we actually locked arms together and said, ‘We’re not going to give money for this. We want a change in law,'” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“And now, it’s interesting, a few months later, when we’re finally getting to the end, they’re like, ‘Oh, just kidding, I actually don’t want a change in law because of presidential election year,'” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4434317-oklahoma-gop-votes-to-censure-lankford-over-senate-border-talks/

Also - no one uses 'disfranchise' anymore - 'disenfranchise' has been the accepted version of the word for a long time now. Maybe the GOP is using some sort of 1950's AI?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on January 30, 2024, 11:03:23 am
.
Wonder why anyone would expect a Republicontin to know very much about the English language anyway?  Just trying to impress by use of arcane, obsolete, irrelevant.  Just like them.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on January 30, 2024, 09:05:36 pm
.Wonder why anyone would expect a Republicontin to know very much about the English language anyway?  Just trying to impress by use of arcane, obsolete, irrelevant.  Just like them.

I've given up on hearing correct grammar anywhere.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on January 31, 2024, 11:39:47 am
I've given up on hearing correct grammar anywhere.




It's a real word, just not the proper word for the circumstance.  He feels like he is smarter than anyone else so must impress with his erudicityness!   (Not a real word, but describes his verbage perfectly.)


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on January 31, 2024, 10:31:32 pm
It's a real word, just not the proper word for the circumstance.  He feels like he is smarter than anyone else so must impress with his erudicityness!   (Not a real word, but describes his verbage perfectly.)

Some of my gripes are regional.  Some are more just being sloppy.

I was thinking along the lines of:
"I could care less"
To which I reply,"Oh really, how much less?".

"He graduated High School" rather than "He graduated from High School".

Having griped about that.... the grammar correctors on MicroSoft and other software shows how poorly educated some of our software programmers are regarding the (US) English language.  Keep in mind I am a (retired) engineer, not a language specialist.



Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on February 01, 2024, 10:00:33 am
Republicans have become so warped and twisted that they can't even take yes for an answer.

At times I almost pity Lankford as I believe he has a fundamental desire to do the right thing, yet keeps retreating to the MAGA base for his political security... only for them to repeatedly throw him under the bus despite his loyalty.
Is there such a thing as being too conservative for "conservatives"?


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 01, 2024, 09:01:38 pm
Some of my gripes are regional.  Some are more just being sloppy.

I was thinking along the lines of:
"I could care less"
To which I reply,"Oh really, how much less?".

"He graduated High School" rather than "He graduated from High School".

Having griped about that.... the grammar correctors on MicroSoft and other software shows how poorly educated some of our software programmers are regarding the (US) English language.  Keep in mind I am a (retired) engineer, not a language specialist.




Ha!  Bet it chaps you sometimes to know we are so much alike!!!  Lol...!

I say that to people a lot...the how much less thing.

And that would be graj-eee-ated....

If you ever want to kinda play around with "Okie" dialog, put a couple marbles between cheek and gum (on the bottom) and just start talking kinda garbled.  That's how I talked quite a bit growing up.  When you are surrounded, it rubs off on ya.   See!   There I lapsed into it again!  "ya".   Have worked hard to speak proper "Kings English".  Whatever that is.  Guys I have worked with from Wisconsin say it is that mid-west-north accent that the Yankees from WI and MI have.






Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: Red Arrow on February 02, 2024, 09:23:06 pm
Ha!  Bet it chaps you sometimes to know we are so much alike!!!  Lol...!
Nah, we've been pretty civil to each other for the last couple years.

Quote
Have worked hard to speak proper "Kings English".  Whatever that is.
I doubt many of us in the USA speak the "Kings English".  I'm sure I don't.
But... I probably speak it closer than folks who grew up around here.  Suburban Philadelphia, PA was what it was. Don't know about now.  I do believe the public schools (in the 60s) were better there than here.  Can't speak to actual City of Phila schools.  My sister started 9th grade in Bixby and was bored $hitless as 9th grade here was mostly a repeat of 8th grade back east.

Oh well.


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 03, 2024, 02:37:44 pm
Well Lankford is once again showing the true depths of his ignorance and total lack of understanding of the real world.  (And by proxie, that of the voters in this state who support him and MarkWayne.  And Inhofe before them.)

He was trying to make a case against illegal immigration - you all know...the same illegal immigration that corporate America has been promoting, encouraging, and inviting, for the last 10 or 11 decades....he wanted to do was say something about the southern border.


What he did say; "“All of the 9/11 attackers were present in the US illegally,” wrote Lankford. “We shouldn’t wait until the next horrific terror attack to realize that our wide-open southern border is a national security risk.”

Just how stupid do you have to be to have totally missed somewhere over the last 22+ years that 9/11 was in no way related to illegal immigration.  Over the southern border or any other border?   Answer;  James Lankford Stupid is what that takes!

Every.  Single.  One.  Here legally.  15 of the 19 from Saudi Arabia.  The citizens that Baby Bush whisked out of the country while the entire planet was on lock down, so he could protect his good buddies, the Bin Laden family.  The same family the Bush family had received over $1 Billion in 'consulting fees' from over decades.    Gee, I wonder where the extremist right wing indignation for all that is and was?   Oh, yeah.... I remember...!









Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: patric on February 06, 2024, 11:52:41 am
What he did say; "“All of the 9/11 attackers were present in the US illegally,” wrote Lankford. “We shouldn’t wait until the next horrific terror attack to realize that our wide-open southern border is a national security risk.”
Just how stupid do you have to be to have totally missed somewhere over the last 22+ years that 9/11 was in no way related to illegal immigration.  Over the southern border or any other border?   Answer;  James Lankford Stupid is what that takes!
Every.  Single.  One.  Here legally.  15 of the 19 from Saudi Arabia.  The citizens that Baby Bush whisked out of the country while the entire planet was on lock down, so he could protect his good buddies, the Bin Laden family.  The same family the Bush family had received over $1 Billion in 'consulting fees' from over decades.    Gee, I wonder where the extremist right wing indignation for all that is and was?   Oh, yeah.... I remember...!



In 2022, former President Donald Trump called Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the three main negotiators of a sweeping immigration overhaul and foreign aid bill now in the Senate, ”Strong on the Border.”

On Monday, Trump said incorrectly that he had not endorsed him and that the border bill would be bad for Lankford’s political career.

“Just to correct the record, I did not endorse Sen. Lankford. I didn’t do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with right-wing commentator Dan Bongino.

Except Trump actually did endorse Lankford, who won in a walkover of a reelection contest.

In his Sept. 27, 2022, statement endorsing Lankford, Trump called him “a very good man, with a fabulous wife and family, loves the State of Oklahoma, and is working very hard on trying to Save our Country from the disaster that it is in.”

“James Lankford is Strong on the Border, Tough on Crime, and Very Smart on the Economy,” Trump’s statement said. “It is my great honor to give James Lankford my Complete and Total Endorsement!”  (https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109072732920924008)

None of Trump’s glowing 2022 enthusiasm is apparent now that Lankford has emerged as the leading GOP voice to get a deal done on overhauling immigration and asylum procedures in the wake of an influx of undocumented migrants showing up on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But though many Republicans had endorsed at least the concept of a deal to toughen up border security in exchange for aid to Ukraine when negotiators began meeting months ago, that tune has changed as Trump has made it clear he opposes the border bill.

Trump made that clear again in his interview Monday with Bongino.

“This is a very bad bill for his career and especially in Oklahoma,” Trump said of Lankford. “I know those people. They’re great people. They’re not going to be happy about this.”

Lankford, in an appearance on CNN, brushed off Trump’s comments.

“He has a different job than I have right now. His job right now is running for president. He’s trying to be able to manage that, and obviously a chaotic border is helpful to him in the process on that,” Lankford said.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-denies-endorsing-gop-senator-he-endorsed_n_65c16221e4b0dbc806adcb67


Title: Re: James Lankford
Post by: heironymouspasparagus on February 06, 2024, 04:18:28 pm


In 2022, former President Donald Trump called Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), one of the three main negotiators of a sweeping immigration overhaul and foreign aid bill now in the Senate, ”Strong on the Border.”

On Monday, Trump said incorrectly that he had not endorsed him and that the border bill would be bad for Lankford’s political career.

“Just to correct the record, I did not endorse Sen. Lankford. I didn’t do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with right-wing commentator Dan Bongino.

Except Trump actually did endorse Lankford, who won in a walkover of a reelection contest.

In his Sept. 27, 2022, statement endorsing Lankford, Trump called him “a very good man, with a fabulous wife and family, loves the State of Oklahoma, and is working very hard on trying to Save our Country from the disaster that it is in.”

“James Lankford is Strong on the Border, Tough on Crime, and Very Smart on the Economy,” Trump’s statement said. “It is my great honor to give James Lankford my Complete and Total Endorsement!”  (https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/109072732920924008)

None of Trump’s glowing 2022 enthusiasm is apparent now that Lankford has emerged as the leading GOP voice to get a deal done on overhauling immigration and asylum procedures in the wake of an influx of undocumented migrants showing up on the U.S.-Mexico border.

But though many Republicans had endorsed at least the concept of a deal to toughen up border security in exchange for aid to Ukraine when negotiators began meeting months ago, that tune has changed as Trump has made it clear he opposes the border bill.

Trump made that clear again in his interview Monday with Bongino.

“This is a very bad bill for his career and especially in Oklahoma,” Trump said of Lankford. “I know those people. They’re great people. They’re not going to be happy about this.”

Lankford, in an appearance on CNN, brushed off Trump’s comments.

“He has a different job than I have right now. His job right now is running for president. He’s trying to be able to manage that, and obviously a chaotic border is helpful to him in the process on that,” Lankford said.


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-denies-endorsing-gop-senator-he-endorsed_n_65c16221e4b0dbc806adcb67



We have a lot of gullible people who actually are not at all interested in participating in a democracy.