In which we yet again post yet another ten thousand plus interesting or amusing -or neither- tweets

That means we'd need about 240million voter ID cards to launch such an effort.

If it costs about $100/card to process and issue, we are talking $24billion to start the effort to issue them. But there's also the complication that elections are state-run, so there'd have to be a serious coordinated effort to standardize voter ID.

And then you'd have to replace lost IDs, issue new ones for new arrivals, and those who age into election age. That would probably cost several $100millions/year.

If you don't issue and replace them for free, then you are essentially creating a poll tax.

 

But if you had a green card or other lawful status other than citizenship, you could have, and unless you live in one of those states (New York, Vermont, Michigan, Minnesota, Washington), they don't give you the option to get one that proves citizenship.

 

I'm not countering anything you said. Just going through the thought process of what a voter ID would actually look like.

 

How many babies have starved or died of HIV in Africa because of Elon Musk shutting down USAID? pic.twitter.com/V2Fsg8lJIj

— TheRealThelmaJohnson (@TheRealThelmaJ1) February 18, 2026

 

Grok 4.20 is BASED.

The only AI that doesn’t equivocate when asked if America is on stolen land.

The others are weak sauce. pic.twitter.com/KEz4MPy2YB

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2026

 

I guarantee you could show Elon a passage from The Divine Comedy and convince him it's part of the Bible. Goes for a lot of other so-called religious sorts.

 

Jonathan Alter (@jonathanalter) has learned that Trump will kill Netflix’s bid for Warner Bros. and help Paramount win, giving the president control of Fox, CBS, CNN, and TikTok.https://t.co/mBBa8gvOnR

— Washington Monthly (@monthly) February 17, 2026

 

Weird AF

I’ve teamed up with @KidRock to deliver two simple messages to the American people: GET ACTIVE + EAT REAL FOOD. pic.twitter.com/PkK8IfkPU4

— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) February 17, 2026

 

There are dozens of us! Dozens!

What kind of a psycho TAKES A BATH IN JEANS is he a Never Nude or…? https://t.co/vwxxMsAyAz pic.twitter.com/elrcZ3zPZQ

— Liz Mair (@LizMair) February 18, 2026

 

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Matthew 19:23-24

 

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” -James Baldwin pic.twitter.com/Uwm7Xf7zfj

— Rev. Benjamin Cremer (@Brcremer) February 18, 2026

 

There’s an interpretation of that Bible verse that says the “eye of a needle” was a gate into Jerusalem, and was sized so that in order for a camel to pass through, all of the cargo had to be taken off of the camel.

Which is in essence a more literal meaning for the same basic point.

 

Rev Jesse Jackson playing basketball with Marvin Gaye. (NOT AI!) pic.twitter.com/HNR2vYmMWR

— Danny Kelly (@dannykellywords) February 18, 2026

 

The gaslighting is pervasive. Because not long ago there was the Schrodinger’s Truth with the Obamas as apes.

WHITE HOUSE: "When you see it on Truth Social, you know it's directly from President Trump."

TRUMP 2 WEEKS AGO: "Somebody posted, a staffer posted ... somebody slipped. I didn't do it. This was done by somebody else." pic.twitter.com/Z5ThT2484C

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 18, 2026

 

Trump openly states that he’s imposing a “humanitarian threat” to force regime change in Cuba

“There’s an embargo. There’s no oil. There’s no money. There’s no anything.”

A straightforward war crime confession. pic.twitter.com/XdP2TbdKbe

— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 17, 2026

 

pic.twitter.com/3yT9oxUDVD

— JS (@johnstrong_ham) February 18, 2026

Wasting taxpayers' money. What's next? The battleships? pic.twitter.com/JwKT809j0I

— Joanne (@cockermom5) February 17, 2026

 

!!!!!!!

Sounds like something a rapist would say

— The Saurus (@TheSaurus831) February 18, 2026

 

Trump: "Herschel Walker, speaking about loyal. How good a football player was Herschel? Now he's ambassador to the Bahamas. I don't know. Bahamas. Bermuda. Is he Bahamas? Whatever. It's a nice place." pic.twitter.com/tKL866VBhg

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 18, 2026

 

This doesn't make sense, first because similar sayings were in use before Jesus' time, and second because when is the unloading supposed to take place? If it's the gate between Earth and Heaven, then they didn't really unload it, did they? There's plenty in the New Testament about rich people enjoying Earth and not enjoying the afterlife that's totally incompatible with simply leaving your wealth when you die.

 

I've also heard that it was originally "a rope [kamilos in Greek] through the eye of the needle" instead of a "camel" [kamelos in Greek], but if I remember right somewhere along the way there was a scribal error that then became fixed into the text. But this is dismissed by conservative evangelicals because it implies the Bible is not inerrant.

edit: Here's a site that discusses it, suggesting the Persians had a saying about an elephant through the eye of a needle that was then adapted into Hebrew as a camel. It also has the dismissal I mentioned above.

 

There's no reason to rationalize the Bible.

You're either a person who will believe it without any evidence or you're a person who won't. If you need evidence and consistency then you should get out while the getting is good.

 

But there is an academic reason to understand it, as opposed to believe it. The texts were written at particular times and places by certain people and have merit for portraying the worldview of the culture(s) that produced them. This is of interest to historians, anthropologists (including archaeologists) and others. One doesn't have to ascribe anything "sacred" to the writings to take an interest in them.