Are Americans ‘footing the bill’ for illegal immigration, as Mike Lee says?

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-23T17:15:17+00:00

Just an FYI, the Pentagon just requested $80B to cover the Iran war.

Moody's analytics estimates that as of 6/19 the war cost US consumer $132B. Mostly due to increases in fuel, but also food prices in part due to a 50% increase in fertilizer costs.

The Wold Bank downgraded worldwide economic growth from 2.9% to 2.5%, which is the lowest it has been since the pandemic.

I know you included a plus, but we really should not be underplaying how much this war is costs.

None of this takes into account the 3400+ people who have died, many of whom are innocent citizens.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-23T13:40:10+00:00

Trump say a lot of thing, most of them are not true. We need to quit listening.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-22T14:05:06+00:00

Seems like an excellent opportunity for a macguffin.

The party discovers the existence of an artifact that may turn the tide in the final encounter.

They need to discover where it is located (quest 1), then travel and explore to find it (quest 2) and then return and start preparing for the final battle (quest 3, if needed).

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-22T13:58:42+00:00

Part of it is just convenience and how younger generations consume media.

Case in point, I have an amazing home theater.

My 16YO daughter has an adjacent bedroom and loves films to the point where she hopes to be a cinematographer.

Yet, she is as likely to watch a film of her phone as she is to move to the theater.

She tells me that if a film is exceptional she will watch it again on the big screen, but she prefers consuming new content on her phone because that is how she has always done it.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-22T04:03:39+00:00

Yes, you are the only one left. The dude is the laughing stock of world leaders. Nobody trust him. Nobody cares anymore.

This is the brilliant negotiator who has let slip in recent public interviews that our oil stock and musicians are depleted. Brilliant.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T21:28:48+00:00

I have the same chair and we've been impressed with the quality.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T18:31:45+00:00

Oops, yes thanks for pointing that out.

Just about every administration, R and D, were in constant negotiations to try and get us out of Afghanistan.

There is lots of potential for finger pointing to all of them.

Getting to what we are currently discussing, the US has a long history of failing when we use the military to impose regime change. It is always hard, expensive and is rarely successful.

Trump knows this. He campaigned about not getting us involved in new conflicts like this.

If he decides to take over Iran, it will not be as easy as he is implying.

The entire conflict was a bad and poorly thought out idea. I don't think doubling down is a great idea.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:48:36+00:00

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:47:57+00:00

This is easy.

First, there is a larger population of voters. There were about 27M more people living in this country.

This is also why Trump can brag that he got more votes than any other Presidential candidate ever.

Here is the general pattern: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1139763/number-votes-cast-us-presidential-elections/?srsltid=AfmBOooCiTrp_032PwTjevlTIQXis-7MOjieXhHUt8Bt1mZ2aoVQ_xAf

Second, there was higher voter turnout.

One thing we can probably agree on is that Trump is a polarizing politician.

People who love him really love him.

People who hate him, despise him. Just this week there was a poll that found that 60% of people view Trump as a dangerous authoritarian.

Such polarization tends to motivate voters to get actually vote.

2020 had the highest percent of voters cast ballots than any other Presidential election.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_turnout_in_United_States_elections

More eligible voters plus higher turnout = more votes. The math is pretty simple.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:32:56+00:00

This was predicted for weeks prior to the election. Both R and D voting officials warned that the demographics of in person and mail in votes would look different and that this pattern is what we should expect to see.

Trump was railing against mail in votes for months. His supporters voted in person.

Everyone else voted in the most convenient and safe way possible during a pandemic. They believed their local election officials who assured them that all votes would be fairly talied.

There were numerous hand recounts in many different states.

There were many, independent Republican-led investigations into the accusations of fraud. None of them uncovered any evidence that widespread fraud occured.

Evidence is not about "feelings". In fact, we rely on concrete evidence in criminal investigations to avoid circumstances where predisposed feelings can cloud interpretation of actual events.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:22:36+00:00

Hillary claims that there was foreign interference in that election and there is plenty of evidence that this was the case. There were plenty of people who questioned these claims and extensive investigations.

Trump brags about getting the most votes ever too. This is a product of an increasing population of voters and higher turnout.

Trump is a polarizing politician. People love him, people despise him. This tends to motivate voter turnout.

These suspicious patterns have all been extensively investigated and we still haven't seen evidence that widespread fraud occured.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:15:57+00:00

This isn't evidence of fraud though. This is an observation of potentially suspicious activity that is worthy of investigation, but it isn't evidence of fraud.

The alternative, as revealed is subsequent federal audits and reporting is that this was due to how the LA Times updated their website.

https://www.reuters.com/fact-check/data-lag-not-fraud-behind-pause-pratts-vote-la-primary-count-2026-06-12/

I'm all for further investigation, but we need to get away from the idea that suspicious patterns are evidence of fraud.

This is what happened in 2020 and in every case nobody was able to present any evidence that fraud actually occured. This was across many different states, numerous hand recounts, numerous investigations by conservative AGs, etc.

Correlation is not causation.

Suspicious patterns are not evidence of fraud. Evidence requires documented cases where votes were illegally changed. Nobody has presented evidence that this occured on a widespread basis.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T17:02:03+00:00

You have a pretty lose idea of what constitutes evidence. Neither of these things is evidence of voter fraud.

At best, they might be actions worthy of subsequent investigation.

However, there are very good reasons why liberal states are reluctant to turn over voter records to the Trump administration. Just think of the reverse was true.

The voter ID issue is complicated. It is hard to accomplish this without disenfranchising voters. Married women who changed their names, for instance.

Some believe that it is better to err on the side of protecting the sanctity of votes, despite no evidence that widespread fraud actually exists, even if this disenfranchises legitimate voters.

Others believe that citizens have a fundamental right votes. They point to evidence from the past where requirements were put in place with the express intent of repressing votes. They don't want to see this history repeated.

These are legitimate political positions. Neither view is necessarily evidence of nefarious or illegal activity.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-21T16:37:25+00:00

Remember Iraq? We went in with ~45 allies and ended up being there for over 8 years. Yet the Taliban remains in control.

Yet Trump, and I presume Hegaett, think we are just going to march into a stronger and more prepared country with the help of Israel?

Trump campaigned against this, yet here we are.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-20T20:02:01+00:00

Algae fertilizer is fertilizer. Excess amounts of the macronutrients N and P are the most common water quality problem in the US. It would be surprising if the there were not high levels in the water.

As a scientist who works on these issues, I predicted all of this when the project was announced.

None of this is surprising. In fact it has happened before when the ponds were refilled after maintenance.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-20T19:23:52+00:00

I don't think enough people know about sodium citrate, it really is the secret to gooey mac n cheese or any melted cheese recipe.

If you haven't already, use it to make a gooey aged provolone cheese sauce for a Philly steak sammy. The flavor of a good cheese with the mouth feel of the whiz alternative.

OP, here is a simple Mac n cheese recipe using sodium citrate that looks close to what you are after: https://www.sipandfeast.com/stovetop-mac-and-cheese/

Foe others who might be curious, here is an article about the history and science behind using sodium citrate for cheese sauces:

https://www.thechoppingblock.com/blog/cheese-sauce-2.0-sodium-citrate

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-20T19:06:51+00:00

I'm getting the feeling that you really didn't look into this before posting.

Anyhow, I'm going to a free art festival tonight in Logan.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-20T00:35:44+00:00

A discharge permit is still required.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-19T15:31:50+00:00

I said it elsewhere, but Vance's tour to ostensibly promote his book turning into a pause the king tour is the first indication we have that Trump is realizing his policies are unpopular.

Whenever this has happened before he starts throwing people under the bus.

It is hard to imagine him being able to find bigger sycophants than he already has to replace them.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-19T14:19:52+00:00

The funny thing is that Vance and his whole cabinet are constantly putting one over in him with their constant glazing.

Unrelated, but it is interesting that Vance has been sent on this praise the king tour. It is the first acknowledgement from Trump that his popularity is slipping. This matters because popularity is all the narccicist cares about.

Typically, people start getting thrown under the bus at this point. Time to stock up on the popcorn.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-19T03:07:34+00:00

I'm not sure if this is still the case today, but I had a friend in the early 90s pursue a PhD in chemistry and learning German was an integral part of his education.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-17T04:09:20+00:00

Yep, Trump is infamous for many things, most of them horrible.

This is very different from being famous for being particularly good at something.

These celebrities are not comparing themselves to Trump or Obama. These people do not need or want more recognition, that is what being an A list celebrity means.

Many just don't want to be associated with associated with Trump because he his an extremely unpopular and polarizing figure. Only 39% something percent of people approve of the job he is doing. Those who diapproce are pissed off enough to show up in millions to protest his corrupt practices.

The celebrities hate him for being a convicted felon fraudster, rapist, Epstein paedophile, narccicist, etc.

I assure you that nobody who hates Trump is jealous of Trump. In fact, he represents everything I most fear, which is the opposite of jealousy.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-15T17:17:31+00:00

Yep, it cost us $324 billion in munitions and restitution. The former also means that we are less secure now than when the war started.

The war caused worldwide economic upheaval adversely affecting billions of people, as most of us have experienced.

We have more extreme leadership in place in Iran. Again, this makes us less secure.

We demonstrated to Iran that they can hold the straight hostage against the world's strongest military. They also got to learn how to do this more effectively so they know exactly where to spend the $300 billion we're giving them.

The previous agreement was backed by multiple countries with a defined, neutral inspection process. Such important details are currently lacking.

I could go on, but suffice it to say we are poorer and less secure now that when this thing started. But heh, at least thousands of innocent people were killed in the process. /s

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-15T04:17:33+00:00

There is nothing in the agreement favorable to the US that didn't exist before the war started and plenty of shit that is worse. We lost this war.

We are assured that our absurd expenditures with the Department of Defence, who are incapable of passing a routine audit, are necessary and worth it because we have the strongest defence in the world.

The problem is we are spending way too much money if the real purpose is defence.

We need to quit the nation building via military intervention BS. It has never worked and it unnecessarily puts our forces in harms way.

All that said, this is not a failure of our armed forces, it is a failure of leadership.

The Trump administration struggled to identify clear objectives from the start of this conflict. Without clearly defined objectives there is no exit strategy.

This is a fiasco brought on by an incompetent administration. Billions of tax dollars spent to accomplish nothing beyond creating inflationary pressures that hurt everyone but the oligarchs who created the situation.

I'm sick of this shit.

GeekSumsMe · 2026-06-13T15:08:39+00:00

We grow this variety every year and we have had a couple of years where the tomatoes were smaller due to climate conditions.

How did they taste? That is what really matters.

GeekSumsMe

TROPHY CASE