I also received that email from the SS administration ......I thought it was spam but didn't delete it, waiting to hear if anyone else received it......what a sad, sorry and disgusting group of of subhuman people we have allowed to infiltrate our american government...where the only thing they do is lie for the betterment of themselves....they all need to be tarred & feathered and run out of town on a rail....I hope we will see that happen soon.....
this does not exist within the tRUMP régime : ALTRUISM : behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense.
You may/may not know but I have been writing about the retirement trust fund since I left SSA, about 1999. If FICA taxes aren't collected, the "default date" of the retirement fund -- now 2033 -- will be accelerated. Add to that that the unregistered who work in most cases pay into the trust fund, but get no retiurn, benefitting beneficiaries. So Trump policy deporting people who ave been pauing into the system is self defeating.
Like I said yesterday, cuts to Medicare start August 1. I think thjat medical providers, especially hospitals will be adversely affected. For inpatient acute care (as opposed to, for example, psychiatric or rehabilitation) hospital services, the traditional Medicare Part A (as opposed to Medicare Advantage, Part C) payment system is called the inpatient prospective payment system, or IPPS. For hospital outpatient department services, under traditional Medicare Part B, the payment system is called the outpatient prospective payment system or OPPS.
The IPPS payment rate is based on the historic costs to provide hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries, trended forward to account for inflation—called the base payment rate. IPPS consists of two base payment rates: one that incorporates hospital operating costs (e.g., labor and supplies) and another for the capital costs (e.g., depreciation, interest, rent, and property-related insurance and taxes) of furnishing inpatient hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries. Thus, Medicare pays an acute care hospital two per-discharge payments for each Medicare inpatient—an operating payment and a capital payment. The IPPS base payment rates—operating and capital—reflect the average cost per hospital discharge for furnishing inpatient hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries.
I assume as I said above, across the board, including Part A. The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) requires automatic spending cuts to offset any legislation that increases the federal budget deficit.
I got this from Google:
House-passed reconciliation bill: A House-passed bill (H.R. 1) could trigger $535 billion in Medicare cuts over a decade due to PAYGO. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this bill could cause a $45 billion cut to Medicare in 2026, increasing to $75 billion in 2034.
Senate-passed reconciliation bill: The Senate-passed version of the reconciliation bill, which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, is estimated to increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion over 10 years, potentially leading to even larger Medicare cuts than the House version.
Automatic cuts (sequestration): If the bill is enacted and Congress takes no further action, the deficit increase would trigger mandatory cuts, or sequestration, under PAYGO. These cuts to Medicare could total around $500 billion over 2026–2034. Under PAYGO, most Medicare spending is subject to sequestration, but cuts are limited to 4%
.
Impact on providers and beneficiaries: These potential cuts are a major concern for healthcare providers and advocates, who worry about the impact on patient access to care, particularly for low-income older adults and people with disabilities. Organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) are urging Congress to act to reverse these potential cuts and stabilize Medicare physician payments.
I laid out how this affects Part A reimbursements above.
In simpler terms, because of previous bill, Paygo, any bill that increases the federal deficit, triggers an offset that causes a decrease in Medicare
Here is what AI says:
In the U.S. federal budget, non-discretionary spending (also known as mandatory spending) refers to government expenditures that are mandated by law, meaning they are required by existing legislation and don't need annual approval from Congress through appropriations bills. These are typically long-term commitments for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Ergo the Medicare spending does not require congressional approval.
The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1913, grants Congress the power to levy and collect an income tax without regard to the population of each state. While the amendment doesn't explicitly define "income," it refers to "taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived". The Supreme Court has interpreted this to mean income encompasses gains derived from capital, labor, or a combination of both, including profits from the sale or conversion of capital assets.
Reimbursement for labor is not a gain. And in fact the original legislation and income tax did not include wages and salaries, These are not income, but the Supreme Court stepped in and declared them income.
The IRS got around the ruse, until SCOTUS, by simply requiring all employers to withhold a tax from their employees, and submit a report of taxes withheld to the IRS, who then matched the W-2, or 1099 with 1040's.
Many people avoided paying taxes by claiming 9 dependents, if no taxes are withheld, then no W-2 or 1099 is issued and thus the IRS remains in the dark.
Back in the 1980's the IRS, then required that you list all of your exemptions by SSAN,
I didn't have an SSAN until I was 14
If you don't file the IRS gets you for failure to file, If your lifestyle is sustained by borrowing against your assets then no W2 or 1099 will be issued,
tThus people like Musk do not pay taxes, because they have no income.
I doubt that he, they, own any property in their own name, it is all owned by trusts and corporations, and most of them are non profits.
Trump himself owns nothing, that I know of, but the Trump organization does
I have received no email from Social Security, The provision that was suppose to exempt Social Security benefits from the tax was modified to a $6,000 per senior exemption.
In essence it is not an exemption. It only lowers the taxable income for Seniors. My mother in law, whom I subsidize, doesn't file a 1040, She lives on her Social Security, $1,000 a month, $12,000 a year
My wife this year received her first social security check. It will raise our taxable income by over$24,000 a year, and thus my tax liability by a god awful amount, the $12,000 exemption will ease the pain a bit, but the extra $12000 puts me in a higher tax bracket.
Unlike the billionaires, the millionaires, the greedy I don't mind paying taxes, or haven't minded it heretofore, as it is the price of living comfortably and safely.
But when I see our resources shifted from the needy, the less well off, to those who don't need them, then I will gladly pay more taxes if the tax breaks to the wealthy are reversed.
I got it, too. Only had to read the headline to know it was BS. But, it's very disturbing that this administration is now using legitimate government communications to lie to the public. Expect many more now that Trump's BBB is law.
Your observation that killer whales show more compassion than Trump is not limited to Trump. That is true of so many of his fellow billionaires. We need to get this understanding into our culture: Excessive wealth corrupts. Too much wealth divorces most people from their humanity.
social security notified me of the lie about my elimination of Soc.sec. taxes. I am 78 years old A former author of MIOSA for high voltage linemen and a certificate from UofM in Labor and Industrial Relations. A student of Fed. Arbitrator David Tansman and his acquaintance as he stayed at my home twice when conducting classes in the Detroit area. I was my prescient delegate 4 years ago ( prescient 27 ) and was never invited to any meetings. my 4 year term was not on last years ballot. The Canton democratic party is all talk and no action. I get rising attention and applause when speaking but only mention of my suggestions minus any action. Members talk with me after the meetings but they too are unable to get action we believe necessary such as have a physical office, paid high school office and phone answering employees and a direct line to local and state democratic and republican elected officials. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also filed a complaint with the Federal Pension Guarantee 9 years ago. Two years ago I and all employees of DTE energy received a check for $2,000.00 cash and a minimum increase in monthly increase in Pensions of $10.00 to me $408.00 a month increase in our pension. This theft of the working class is bigger than anyone imagined. I feel it involves self insured healthcare companies throughout America. Among other corporate plain site programs to divert American workers hourly wages used in negotiations to off set actual dollars per hour paid wages.
WTF are we dealing with Hamas? Why do we recognize them when the PA, Palestinian Authority is ready, willing and could be able to take over. Trump is taking credit for putting the deal together.
MSM is not reporting that the PA has been opposing Hamas and that part of the warfare and the death count is between the PA, some clans opposed to Hamas and Hamas.
Netanyahu does not want to negotiate with the PA, but they represent the erstwhile nation of Palestine, located on the West Bank and maybe in Gaza.
Our state department is completely controlled by white supremacist religious fenatics like the ambassador, Mike Huckabee, who want all Jews to return to Israel to turn us into crispy critters, ala "revelation."
2. Meanwhile our policy on Iran and Ukraine is entirely nutsy koo koo. As I noted previously, Trump is hawking nuclear power to Iran. Thursday, he and Putin had a phone pow wow.
Thom mentioned the 12th oligharch to fall, literally, and figurtively. I watch, among others, Times of London TV that closely follows the Ukraine. They say Russian troops are deserting, that millions have died, that the Russian economy is collapsing, that munition plants, oil tanker are sinking, airfields were bombed over the past few days, Russian generals and an admiral killed. He're an article fom sky news. https://news.sky.com/story/the-russian-deserters-escaping-from-putins-army-13390835
The ruin in Gaza can be laid squarely in the lap of HAMAS, HAMAS is using it's own people and hostages as human shields, even today. This could have all come to an end if HAMAS had laid down it's arms and disbanded.
All of the leadership in HAMAS that started this horror are dead, but their seconds stepped up and took charge, even killing them hasn't stopped them, Yahya Sinwars son Mohammad stepped in to take his place and was killed,and still they truck on, because, and of this the west and westerners are totally ignorant. This is a religious war, the day of judgement will not come until the Jews are eliminated according to the HAMAS covenant and the hadith of al Bukhari.
I don't remember who said it, but one of HAMAS leaders said "we are a nation of martyrs and we will come back again and again, until Israel is obliterated" or something to that effect.
Among Islam, all who died in a holy war are martyr's and the death of a martyr is not mourned it is celebrated, because the greatest thing that can happen to a Muslims is to be martyred, it is get out of jail card, and instant ticket t the 7th level of Paradise.
Westerners,ignorant of Islam, have no idea. They look at the conflict as if it was over territory, resources of politics. It is not.
What is happening in that god forsaken land is a religious war. The biggest affront to the Muslims is the fact that the Jews have control over the third holiest site in Islam, Haram al Sharif, the dome of the rock and al Aqsa Mosque.
Muslims take their holy sites seriously, Makka, where Mohammed was born, Medina where he died are so holy, that no infidel is allowed to tread on sacred Muslim soil..
In fact Saudi Arabia is considered so sacred by the Wahabbiyyah, that the Mufti of Makka had to desacralize the soil on which infidel compounds were built to house infidel workers.
One of the main reasons Osama bin Laden formed al Qaeda was because the King allowed the inifidels live and operate out of Prince Sultan Air Base.
We watch a lot of Yotube. Apparently a number of Gazan clans are fighting battles with Hamas and a lot of the death counts piling up are from both sides. IMHO a lot of MSM is completely intimidated by Hamas.
Need a scorecard. Within the PA, there are opposing factions, but PA hirgharchy started warning Hamas a long time ago and Abbas is vocal.
Harim al Sharif didn't become "holy" until 1948, when the Arab Legion captured the old city of Jerusalem which was about 90% Jewish prior to '48 and Jews had to flee. Was recapturted in '67. .
Within the West Bank there are a few pockets of Hamas and their allies. MSM calls every attempt to get rid of them an attack on Palestinians as if they are innocent.
Meanwhile, inside Israel Arabs live in the only place in the Middle East where they can live in peace, and have due process rights. In Sharia, women are secondclass citizens. Ironically a lot of the Iranian missles killed more Arabs than Jews.
There is no way a self respecting sunni should support any shiite. But Hamas is the exception.
Something I don't understand Daniel is why you keep saying "I keep telling you"
As if I didn't know. For instance I know full well that Christian Arabs felt safe when under Israeli govenance, and that when HAMAS took over it was open season for them
But what has that got to do with the conversation we have been having?
I know that women under Islam are not even second class citizens, they are accorded the same status as most Christian sects, sexual and domestic servants, whose only purpose is it to service the man and be nanny to his mini me's.
I know that the MSM lazily reports all deaths as though they were innocent civilians, that is my main bitch. Is it malice of forethought or laziness and profit driven reporting. Paradoxically Murdoch stepped into a bag of worms, when he complained that the Jewish owned press, wasn't supporting Israel. Although his statement was a full throated support of Israel, he was condemned for making an anti semitic statement. When in fact he was correct. The Redstones, the Newhouses, Robert Iger, Brian L Roberts, Ochs Sulzberger are either the sole owners of the corporations that own the corporations that own the ABC, CBS, NBC,MSNBC, NYT or the major individual share holder. Board Chairman and CEO (Roberts and Iger)
Those are verifiable facts, google them, but just mentioning them can place me in the category of promoting and anti semitic trope.
So why aren't the Jewish owned media, telling the truth about HAMAS, the west bank, Lebanon and Iran.
Iran, since the bombing, is now persecuting their remaining Jews. The Jewish population of Iran was about 5,500.The rest of the Islamic ethnostates either have no Jews,or at most 500.
Here is something else that frosts my ass:
Hundreds fled the West Bank village of Mu'arrajat, abandoning it after years of settler harassment. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said two of its reporters were attacked by stone-throwing Israeli settlers in a West Bank village.
It just isn't the Muslim Arabs, but the Israeli right, the counter part to our MAGA, and even the Jewish version of the AfD.
What a fucking world we live in, bull shit everywhere and from every direction, ideologies,religion, factions, greed and it is all a power struggle, land, resources, cultural dominance.
From a personal perspective, at 86 and in remission from lung cancer (I hope, but will find out in October when I have my P.E.T.Scan) I won't have to put up with this shit much longer. There is solace in mortality, if one comes to grip and terms with it.
Yes Daniel I know about Christian Arabs and the Druze, but you might notice that in my comments I mention Muslims, and when I mention Arabs I always say Muslim Arabs. I know that the ethnic identity of Arab is predicated one's native tongue. There are Christian Arabs, Druze, Black as coal Arabs, blond haired blue eyed Arabs and everything inbetween.
As the rest of your post about Arab Israelis, the Sunni Shia conflict, you are talking to one almost immersed, but well versed in Islam and the middle east.
If your post was for the benefit of others, I applaud it.
I also know that there is at least one faction in Gaza fighting with HAMAS and HAMAS is executing those that they call traitors.
By the way I am repelled by the "casualty count" reported, and unvetted, by the media. It all comes from HAMAS, who as we know has no motivation to lie and inflate (sarcasm, real sarcasm), and the HAMAS casualty count does not include their fighters, at least half of the fighters are HAMAS, maybe more, Same shit in Lebanon, News reports that 12 Lebanese were killed, (facts are that all 12 were Hezbollah, but it is sensational reporting and if it bleeds it leads.
As of early July 2025, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reported "dismantling" the majority of Hamas' 24 battalions in the Gaza Strip. Some reports from early February 2024 put the number at 17 battalions, while others in September 2024 cited 22 dismantled. In June 2024, the IDF stated that they had dismantled most of Hamas's 24 battalions, concentrating on the four in the last Hamas stronghold of Rafah since early May. About half of Hamas's battalions in Rafah have been dismantled during the current military operation there, according to a report in June 2024.
A battalion is 500 men, 24 x 500 = 12,000 so at least 12,000 of the 58,000 claimed were fighters, and if you include the young males, potential fighters, then more.
The rest are victims of HAMAS who has used them as human shields, and propaganda
In March 2024, Hamas and its allied groups in the Gaza Strip criticized Abbas' appointment of Mohamed Mustafa as the Palestinian Authority's new prime minister following Mohammed Shtayyeh's resignation. They issued a statement referring to the changes as "formal steps that are devoid of substance" and questioned the Palestinian Authority's ability to properly represent the Palestinian people. In response, Fatah condemned Hamas as being itself disconnected from the Palestinian people and accused them of "having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza" by "undertaking the October 7 adventure".
Later that month, Hamas accused Fatah of sending security officers into northern Gaza in collaboration with Israel, saying it had arrested six individuals and were "in pursuit" of the others. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement refuting the claims by Hamas.
In March 2025, Fatah released a statement calling on Hamas to relinquish power in the Gaza Strip. Later in April 2025, Abbas issued his strongest condemnation of Hamas yet during a speech to the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah. He referred to Hamas as "sons of dogs", stated the group gives Israel "excuses" to continue its attacks on Gaza, and demanded they "release the hostages and be done with it".
Yep, I know all of this Daniel. And I think that you know that I do as well, so your comment was not for my benefit but for the readers.
HAMAS is the Palestinian MAGA while the Likkud and the settlers are the Israeli MAGA. Fuck all with the culture wars, fuck all with religion. Even Putin is using religion, he has the Russian orthodox Church in his thrall, as it has been since it's priests were KGB agents.
Read my thoughts about the lack of information on the PA and West Bank in general. Bibi wants the visual we are getting to make it look like the "two state solution" isn't possible.
Putin is sounding crazy and making-up his own little world daily, just like TRump (see St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on You Tube). People tended to think the Oligarchs could get or control him. Nope! Vlad has had everyone of them and their money at his disposal for a long time. Sure enough, he knows how to dispose of them and his troops while picking the pockets of every Russian. They are just objects in his little game of war.
Putin, TRump, and Netanyahu are the psychos from Hell---who needs Satan at this point?
Alis look at the effect of a two state solution. This is a religious war, we fool ourselves we don't recognize that.
The Muslim Arabs cannot ever permit a Jewish ethnostate on sacred Arab soil.
If there were a Palestinian state, next to an Israeli state, then Palestinian terrorists would be committing acts of terror daily, like they already were, but Israels response would not be a police action, but cross border invasion, this time a declared war.
And the response of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, (at least) would be to form an armed response. Driven by popular outrage and demand.
Sadly, there is no solution to the problem, so long as it is religious.
There is a solution though, 10 million Jews pack up their possessions, hire shipping companies and migrate to America (north and south) and Europe.
America has slipped into a dystopian nightmare, Most of us can't feel it yet, like a cancer it takes time to spread through the body politic, to the point where we feel it, right now it is only immigrants and trans.
Trumps big horrible bill, has just created the 5th Largest, fascist Army in the world. If not in manpower, then in dollars, Over $100 billion dollars to create an official paramilitary army, that will be used to suppress and arrest not just immigrants but all of us.
SCOTUS has approved Trumps scheme of denaturalization, and here is something that has been overlooked by most in the corporate media, Eli Mystal, has picked up on it, but the hosts he is a guest on at MSNBC gloss over it. If he can denaturalize a child born of immigrant parents, then he can denaturalize anyone including you and I.
And he has his own taxpayer funded, Geheim Stats Polizei, his personal army, the 5th largest in the world, to do his bidding.
And not just the ICE/CBD/DEA/ATF gestapo, but he has his volunteer corps, the brownshirts of the militias, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Aryan resistance, KKK, and all of the owning personal arsenals, while the Supreme Court just made automatic weapons legal.
How do we save ourselves and the country? Parading with signs? Trump has proven that he doesn't care about protests, and Fox doesn't mention them, in fact few do, the only one that even covered them was Rachel Maddow.
Sheldon Wolin was a political theorist with a long-celebrated body of work but his last book Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism (2008) may be his most important. Written during the Bush administration, it describes an authoritarian form of government that doesn’t replace democracy entirely, it uses the mechanisms and symbols of a democratic form of government while separating the dêmos, the people, from the krátos, the power.
Inverted totalitarianism, according to Wolin, is a political technique for achieving a managed democracy, a tool used by corporations, religions, and plutocrats to control the population while allowing for the theatrics of a democratic process to continue, essentially as camouflage.
“Inverted totalitarianism is not a revolutionary movement. It does not require a charismatic leader, a single party, or an ideology. It is, instead, a system of managed democracy where the illusion of popular control persists.”
“Whereas classical totalitarian regimes mobilized the masses to serve the state’s goals, inverted totalitarianism relies on mass passivity and political disengagement.”
“Corporate power has become fused with state power, creating a system where the two reinforce each other while hollowing out democratic institutions.”
“The genius of inverted totalitarianism lies in its ability to exploit the symbols of democracy—flag, Constitution, patriotic language—while undermining their substance.”
“The media play a central role in inverted totalitarianism: not by suppressing dissent, but by framing it, trivializing it, or substituting spectacle for substantive discourse.”
So what now?Non violent protest has no effect, and is a pressure relief valve, a distraction.
The Vote? With the SAVE act and other local measures, not to mention hacking the system and psyops, will the Dems even have a chance in 2026, and if they do, can they stop the juggernaut, with the Republicans controlling the senate (and thus judicial and cabinet appointments), no Democratic bill that isn't blessed by the powers that be will even pass the Senate.
Congress is now impotent, mere window dressing, a facade to legitimize the regime as a managed democracy.
I repeat what I said on Reich's substack.
The word intifada means uprising. Mamdani called for a global uprising, a global uprising is about more than Gaza and the West Bank, it is about overturning the established order.
The established order is psychopathic, a union of psychopaths, theocrats, racists, homo and transphobes and psychopathic wealthy.
They all have one thing in common, a lack of empathy for anything that isn't their own kind.
Do omnivores and carnivores have any feelings about the animals that they eat, do we give a second thought to the chickens and turkeys slaughtered, the sheep, pigs and cattle slaughtered and butchered that we eat. No.
If you aren't a member of the psychopaths club, family, tribe, clan, inner circle then you are no more than animals that either serve a purpose or to be dispensed with when no longer useful.
Among themselves they are loving, gracious, considerate. I lived in the south and am familiar with southern hospitality. A hospitality rendered only to their own kind.
The Big Beautiful Backlash may take a while, but it seems logical that it WILL come. Rural hospitals are already looking at whether to close. People on Medicaid are going to see the writing on the wall. If they live in a Blue state, their governor will be educating them. Mine has already said something in an interview.
Estimates of 20% of the economy failing because of trickle-down effects of trillions not spent but crammed into the money bins of the rich could happen. A bleak outlook will continue to grow---it likely won't be a planned strike, just people buying the basics. There will be more visible poverty, pain, and homelessness. It isn't good for business.
Red hat wearing MAGAs may have an uprising of their own. In the meantime, TRump is spending money on crazy cruel projects and displays. He's more demented and deteriorating daily. How long will it be before Vance and whoever chose him makes their move to "Amendment 25" Number 47?
I will wait for it but not patiently. See you in the streets on the 17th.
Mike Johnson and Thune are clever. The pain associated with cutting Medicaid doesn't cut in until after the 2026 election, and when it does be sure that Fox and the corporate media will blame the Democrats and Biden
Lev Parnas provided an alternative take on Don & Vlad's phone chat. His take is that Putin told him his Kyiv barrage would weaken Ukrainian resolve and they would surrender so Trump could claim HE brought peace to Ukraine. In Trump's sociopathic mind, surrender is peace.
#Thom Hartman The real end game of Project 2025 is being missed. 2026 will be too late to stop it. It is a full-scale plan to destroy the foundations of our democracy—gutting agencies, silencing experts, and handing unchecked power to extremists. Watch this video to see what’s really at stake and why we need to stop it now: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPHbV1xujYTDa-wq9F5/
Too bad the video provided no suggestions on how to "stop it now". We have a non-functional congress and a corrupt SCOTUS that has given a crazy felon carte blanche to do whatever he wants as POTUS. The institutions that were set up to "stop this" have been completely corrupted. By the time the 2026 elections roll around, elections will be no different than Russia's -- The ruling class will win every time, by a landslide. There simply is no way to "stop it" unless one of those institutions begins to honor its Constitutional oath, and that's very unlikely. What is amazing to me is how quickly it has happened.
Have we hit bottom? We will wallow in this morass for 15 months before we can vote to change course. What thawed out from a hard winter at Valley Forge turned out to be men of forged, hardened steel filled with resolve. A forge pounds steel blocks to created hardened steel, and Valley Forge begat the legendary Bethlehem Forge. It was one bad winter. We are there again. We know what to do. Wear them down. Wear them out. Vote’m Out! Block the concentration camps. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/concentration-camping?r=3m1bs
Do you really think that the midterms will turn the ship around? To start with there is the SAVE act which disenfranchises anyone who has changed their name,without a court order, like married women. And then there is hacking, like what happened in the last election, not to mention election interference and psyops.
And if the Dems gain control of the house, what then? Impeach him for a third time, unless the Dems control the Senate that is an exercise in futility.
The House main responsibility is funding the government, do we want ICE/CPB funded?
And any bill that gets past the senate, that threatens Trump and project 2025 will be vetoed.
Has it not occurred to anyone that masked men grabbing women and children off of the streets could also be sex traffickers? If masking is allowed, there are no limits to the types of crimes that can be committed, as long as the men wear "ICE" badges. Am I wrong about this?
Not only should the republicans who voted for this bill never be elected or hold office again, but the voters who put them in office should be shunned and scorned. DD
I also received that email from the SS administration ......I thought it was spam but didn't delete it, waiting to hear if anyone else received it......what a sad, sorry and disgusting group of of subhuman people we have allowed to infiltrate our american government...where the only thing they do is lie for the betterment of themselves....they all need to be tarred & feathered and run out of town on a rail....I hope we will see that happen soon.....
this does not exist within the tRUMP régime : ALTRUISM : behavior of an animal that benefits another at its own expense.
My guess is that it went out to people that set-up their e-account with Social Security. I have not done that, and I have not received an email.
So true chev, they need to be held to account. The minute we get the House back, let the investigations begin!
I hope you're right...I'm worried about the midterms....if there will even be elections.
You may/may not know but I have been writing about the retirement trust fund since I left SSA, about 1999. If FICA taxes aren't collected, the "default date" of the retirement fund -- now 2033 -- will be accelerated. Add to that that the unregistered who work in most cases pay into the trust fund, but get no retiurn, benefitting beneficiaries. So Trump policy deporting people who ave been pauing into the system is self defeating.
Like I said yesterday, cuts to Medicare start August 1. I think thjat medical providers, especially hospitals will be adversely affected. For inpatient acute care (as opposed to, for example, psychiatric or rehabilitation) hospital services, the traditional Medicare Part A (as opposed to Medicare Advantage, Part C) payment system is called the inpatient prospective payment system, or IPPS. For hospital outpatient department services, under traditional Medicare Part B, the payment system is called the outpatient prospective payment system or OPPS.
The IPPS payment rate is based on the historic costs to provide hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries, trended forward to account for inflation—called the base payment rate. IPPS consists of two base payment rates: one that incorporates hospital operating costs (e.g., labor and supplies) and another for the capital costs (e.g., depreciation, interest, rent, and property-related insurance and taxes) of furnishing inpatient hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries. Thus, Medicare pays an acute care hospital two per-discharge payments for each Medicare inpatient—an operating payment and a capital payment. The IPPS base payment rates—operating and capital—reflect the average cost per hospital discharge for furnishing inpatient hospital services to Medicare beneficiaries.
What cuts to Medicare start August 1st Daniel.
Isn't it cuts to Medicaid, that will result in hospital closures, especially in rural areas.Medicaid, not Medicare..
I laid out all of this for you the other day. I pick this up mainly from Kaiser, which tracks it. https://www.kff.org/tracking-the-medicare-provisions-in-the-2025-budget-bill/
I assume as I said above, across the board, including Part A. The Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) requires automatic spending cuts to offset any legislation that increases the federal budget deficit.
I got this from Google:
House-passed reconciliation bill: A House-passed bill (H.R. 1) could trigger $535 billion in Medicare cuts over a decade due to PAYGO. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this bill could cause a $45 billion cut to Medicare in 2026, increasing to $75 billion in 2034.
Senate-passed reconciliation bill: The Senate-passed version of the reconciliation bill, which was signed into law on July 4, 2025, is estimated to increase the deficit by $3.4 trillion over 10 years, potentially leading to even larger Medicare cuts than the House version.
Automatic cuts (sequestration): If the bill is enacted and Congress takes no further action, the deficit increase would trigger mandatory cuts, or sequestration, under PAYGO. These cuts to Medicare could total around $500 billion over 2026–2034. Under PAYGO, most Medicare spending is subject to sequestration, but cuts are limited to 4%
.
Impact on providers and beneficiaries: These potential cuts are a major concern for healthcare providers and advocates, who worry about the impact on patient access to care, particularly for low-income older adults and people with disabilities. Organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA) are urging Congress to act to reverse these potential cuts and stabilize Medicare physician payments.
I laid out how this affects Part A reimbursements above.
Ok got it now.
In simpler terms, because of previous bill, Paygo, any bill that increases the federal deficit, triggers an offset that causes a decrease in Medicare
Here is what AI says:
In the U.S. federal budget, non-discretionary spending (also known as mandatory spending) refers to government expenditures that are mandated by law, meaning they are required by existing legislation and don't need annual approval from Congress through appropriations bills. These are typically long-term commitments for programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Ergo the Medicare spending does not require congressional approval.
Here's a more
I read it. Any benefit is based on income, and we don't qualify.
The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1913, grants Congress the power to levy and collect an income tax without regard to the population of each state. While the amendment doesn't explicitly define "income," it refers to "taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived". The Supreme Court has interpreted this to mean income encompasses gains derived from capital, labor, or a combination of both, including profits from the sale or conversion of capital assets.
Reimbursement for labor is not a gain. And in fact the original legislation and income tax did not include wages and salaries, These are not income, but the Supreme Court stepped in and declared them income.
The IRS got around the ruse, until SCOTUS, by simply requiring all employers to withhold a tax from their employees, and submit a report of taxes withheld to the IRS, who then matched the W-2, or 1099 with 1040's.
Many people avoided paying taxes by claiming 9 dependents, if no taxes are withheld, then no W-2 or 1099 is issued and thus the IRS remains in the dark.
Back in the 1980's the IRS, then required that you list all of your exemptions by SSAN,
I didn't have an SSAN until I was 14
If you don't file the IRS gets you for failure to file, If your lifestyle is sustained by borrowing against your assets then no W2 or 1099 will be issued,
tThus people like Musk do not pay taxes, because they have no income.
I doubt that he, they, own any property in their own name, it is all owned by trusts and corporations, and most of them are non profits.
Trump himself owns nothing, that I know of, but the Trump organization does
I have received no email from Social Security, The provision that was suppose to exempt Social Security benefits from the tax was modified to a $6,000 per senior exemption.
In essence it is not an exemption. It only lowers the taxable income for Seniors. My mother in law, whom I subsidize, doesn't file a 1040, She lives on her Social Security, $1,000 a month, $12,000 a year
My wife this year received her first social security check. It will raise our taxable income by over$24,000 a year, and thus my tax liability by a god awful amount, the $12,000 exemption will ease the pain a bit, but the extra $12000 puts me in a higher tax bracket.
Unlike the billionaires, the millionaires, the greedy I don't mind paying taxes, or haven't minded it heretofore, as it is the price of living comfortably and safely.
But when I see our resources shifted from the needy, the less well off, to those who don't need them, then I will gladly pay more taxes if the tax breaks to the wealthy are reversed.
Yup, I received the bloody email .. didn’t buy it for one second .. lying bastards !
I got it, too. Only had to read the headline to know it was BS. But, it's very disturbing that this administration is now using legitimate government communications to lie to the public. Expect many more now that Trump's BBB is law.
Your observation that killer whales show more compassion than Trump is not limited to Trump. That is true of so many of his fellow billionaires. We need to get this understanding into our culture: Excessive wealth corrupts. Too much wealth divorces most people from their humanity.
We can say “this isn’t who we are” when we prove it.
I saw that SSA email too. The smell of rat was overpowering, to say the least.
social security notified me of the lie about my elimination of Soc.sec. taxes. I am 78 years old A former author of MIOSA for high voltage linemen and a certificate from UofM in Labor and Industrial Relations. A student of Fed. Arbitrator David Tansman and his acquaintance as he stayed at my home twice when conducting classes in the Detroit area. I was my prescient delegate 4 years ago ( prescient 27 ) and was never invited to any meetings. my 4 year term was not on last years ballot. The Canton democratic party is all talk and no action. I get rising attention and applause when speaking but only mention of my suggestions minus any action. Members talk with me after the meetings but they too are unable to get action we believe necessary such as have a physical office, paid high school office and phone answering employees and a direct line to local and state democratic and republican elected officials. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I also filed a complaint with the Federal Pension Guarantee 9 years ago. Two years ago I and all employees of DTE energy received a check for $2,000.00 cash and a minimum increase in monthly increase in Pensions of $10.00 to me $408.00 a month increase in our pension. This theft of the working class is bigger than anyone imagined. I feel it involves self insured healthcare companies throughout America. Among other corporate plain site programs to divert American workers hourly wages used in negotiations to off set actual dollars per hour paid wages.
1. Nobody asked me but I oppose the ceasefire in Gaza. https://apnews.com/article/mideast-wars-gaza-aid-hamas-ceasefire-c263f8ecf5f432f2da2bcbbd0938c623
WTF are we dealing with Hamas? Why do we recognize them when the PA, Palestinian Authority is ready, willing and could be able to take over. Trump is taking credit for putting the deal together.
MSM is not reporting that the PA has been opposing Hamas and that part of the warfare and the death count is between the PA, some clans opposed to Hamas and Hamas.
Netanyahu does not want to negotiate with the PA, but they represent the erstwhile nation of Palestine, located on the West Bank and maybe in Gaza.
Our state department is completely controlled by white supremacist religious fenatics like the ambassador, Mike Huckabee, who want all Jews to return to Israel to turn us into crispy critters, ala "revelation."
2. Meanwhile our policy on Iran and Ukraine is entirely nutsy koo koo. As I noted previously, Trump is hawking nuclear power to Iran. Thursday, he and Putin had a phone pow wow.
Thom mentioned the 12th oligharch to fall, literally, and figurtively. I watch, among others, Times of London TV that closely follows the Ukraine. They say Russian troops are deserting, that millions have died, that the Russian economy is collapsing, that munition plants, oil tanker are sinking, airfields were bombed over the past few days, Russian generals and an admiral killed. He're an article fom sky news. https://news.sky.com/story/the-russian-deserters-escaping-from-putins-army-13390835
The ruin in Gaza can be laid squarely in the lap of HAMAS, HAMAS is using it's own people and hostages as human shields, even today. This could have all come to an end if HAMAS had laid down it's arms and disbanded.
All of the leadership in HAMAS that started this horror are dead, but their seconds stepped up and took charge, even killing them hasn't stopped them, Yahya Sinwars son Mohammad stepped in to take his place and was killed,and still they truck on, because, and of this the west and westerners are totally ignorant. This is a religious war, the day of judgement will not come until the Jews are eliminated according to the HAMAS covenant and the hadith of al Bukhari.
I don't remember who said it, but one of HAMAS leaders said "we are a nation of martyrs and we will come back again and again, until Israel is obliterated" or something to that effect.
Among Islam, all who died in a holy war are martyr's and the death of a martyr is not mourned it is celebrated, because the greatest thing that can happen to a Muslims is to be martyred, it is get out of jail card, and instant ticket t the 7th level of Paradise.
Westerners,ignorant of Islam, have no idea. They look at the conflict as if it was over territory, resources of politics. It is not.
What is happening in that god forsaken land is a religious war. The biggest affront to the Muslims is the fact that the Jews have control over the third holiest site in Islam, Haram al Sharif, the dome of the rock and al Aqsa Mosque.
Muslims take their holy sites seriously, Makka, where Mohammed was born, Medina where he died are so holy, that no infidel is allowed to tread on sacred Muslim soil..
In fact Saudi Arabia is considered so sacred by the Wahabbiyyah, that the Mufti of Makka had to desacralize the soil on which infidel compounds were built to house infidel workers.
One of the main reasons Osama bin Laden formed al Qaeda was because the King allowed the inifidels live and operate out of Prince Sultan Air Base.
We watch a lot of Yotube. Apparently a number of Gazan clans are fighting battles with Hamas and a lot of the death counts piling up are from both sides. IMHO a lot of MSM is completely intimidated by Hamas.
Need a scorecard. Within the PA, there are opposing factions, but PA hirgharchy started warning Hamas a long time ago and Abbas is vocal.
Harim al Sharif didn't become "holy" until 1948, when the Arab Legion captured the old city of Jerusalem which was about 90% Jewish prior to '48 and Jews had to flee. Was recapturted in '67. .
As I keep telling you, I know a lot of Christian Arabs and they say they know as soon as Hamas took over, it was open season on them. Note the date. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/05/gaza-palestinians-tortured-summarily-killed-by-hamas-forces-during-2014-conflict/
Within the West Bank there are a few pockets of Hamas and their allies. MSM calls every attempt to get rid of them an attack on Palestinians as if they are innocent.
Meanwhile, inside Israel Arabs live in the only place in the Middle East where they can live in peace, and have due process rights. In Sharia, women are secondclass citizens. Ironically a lot of the Iranian missles killed more Arabs than Jews.
There is no way a self respecting sunni should support any shiite. But Hamas is the exception.
Something I don't understand Daniel is why you keep saying "I keep telling you"
As if I didn't know. For instance I know full well that Christian Arabs felt safe when under Israeli govenance, and that when HAMAS took over it was open season for them
But what has that got to do with the conversation we have been having?
I know that women under Islam are not even second class citizens, they are accorded the same status as most Christian sects, sexual and domestic servants, whose only purpose is it to service the man and be nanny to his mini me's.
I know that the MSM lazily reports all deaths as though they were innocent civilians, that is my main bitch. Is it malice of forethought or laziness and profit driven reporting. Paradoxically Murdoch stepped into a bag of worms, when he complained that the Jewish owned press, wasn't supporting Israel. Although his statement was a full throated support of Israel, he was condemned for making an anti semitic statement. When in fact he was correct. The Redstones, the Newhouses, Robert Iger, Brian L Roberts, Ochs Sulzberger are either the sole owners of the corporations that own the corporations that own the ABC, CBS, NBC,MSNBC, NYT or the major individual share holder. Board Chairman and CEO (Roberts and Iger)
Those are verifiable facts, google them, but just mentioning them can place me in the category of promoting and anti semitic trope.
So why aren't the Jewish owned media, telling the truth about HAMAS, the west bank, Lebanon and Iran.
Iran, since the bombing, is now persecuting their remaining Jews. The Jewish population of Iran was about 5,500.The rest of the Islamic ethnostates either have no Jews,or at most 500.
Here is something else that frosts my ass:
Hundreds fled the West Bank village of Mu'arrajat, abandoning it after years of settler harassment. German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said two of its reporters were attacked by stone-throwing Israeli settlers in a West Bank village.
It just isn't the Muslim Arabs, but the Israeli right, the counter part to our MAGA, and even the Jewish version of the AfD.
What a fucking world we live in, bull shit everywhere and from every direction, ideologies,religion, factions, greed and it is all a power struggle, land, resources, cultural dominance.
From a personal perspective, at 86 and in remission from lung cancer (I hope, but will find out in October when I have my P.E.T.Scan) I won't have to put up with this shit much longer. There is solace in mortality, if one comes to grip and terms with it.
Yes Daniel I know about Christian Arabs and the Druze, but you might notice that in my comments I mention Muslims, and when I mention Arabs I always say Muslim Arabs. I know that the ethnic identity of Arab is predicated one's native tongue. There are Christian Arabs, Druze, Black as coal Arabs, blond haired blue eyed Arabs and everything inbetween.
As the rest of your post about Arab Israelis, the Sunni Shia conflict, you are talking to one almost immersed, but well versed in Islam and the middle east.
If your post was for the benefit of others, I applaud it.
I also know that there is at least one faction in Gaza fighting with HAMAS and HAMAS is executing those that they call traitors.
By the way I am repelled by the "casualty count" reported, and unvetted, by the media. It all comes from HAMAS, who as we know has no motivation to lie and inflate (sarcasm, real sarcasm), and the HAMAS casualty count does not include their fighters, at least half of the fighters are HAMAS, maybe more, Same shit in Lebanon, News reports that 12 Lebanese were killed, (facts are that all 12 were Hezbollah, but it is sensational reporting and if it bleeds it leads.
As of early July 2025, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have reported "dismantling" the majority of Hamas' 24 battalions in the Gaza Strip. Some reports from early February 2024 put the number at 17 battalions, while others in September 2024 cited 22 dismantled. In June 2024, the IDF stated that they had dismantled most of Hamas's 24 battalions, concentrating on the four in the last Hamas stronghold of Rafah since early May. About half of Hamas's battalions in Rafah have been dismantled during the current military operation there, according to a report in June 2024.
A battalion is 500 men, 24 x 500 = 12,000 so at least 12,000 of the 58,000 claimed were fighters, and if you include the young males, potential fighters, then more.
The rest are victims of HAMAS who has used them as human shields, and propaganda
In March 2024, Hamas and its allied groups in the Gaza Strip criticized Abbas' appointment of Mohamed Mustafa as the Palestinian Authority's new prime minister following Mohammed Shtayyeh's resignation. They issued a statement referring to the changes as "formal steps that are devoid of substance" and questioned the Palestinian Authority's ability to properly represent the Palestinian people. In response, Fatah condemned Hamas as being itself disconnected from the Palestinian people and accused them of "having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza" by "undertaking the October 7 adventure".
Later that month, Hamas accused Fatah of sending security officers into northern Gaza in collaboration with Israel, saying it had arrested six individuals and were "in pursuit" of the others. The Palestinian Authority issued a statement refuting the claims by Hamas.
In March 2025, Fatah released a statement calling on Hamas to relinquish power in the Gaza Strip. Later in April 2025, Abbas issued his strongest condemnation of Hamas yet during a speech to the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah. He referred to Hamas as "sons of dogs", stated the group gives Israel "excuses" to continue its attacks on Gaza, and demanded they "release the hostages and be done with it".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatah%E2%80%93Hamas_conflict
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SswvZ1QNfHM
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hkufagjvex
Yep, I know all of this Daniel. And I think that you know that I do as well, so your comment was not for my benefit but for the readers.
HAMAS is the Palestinian MAGA while the Likkud and the settlers are the Israeli MAGA. Fuck all with the culture wars, fuck all with religion. Even Putin is using religion, he has the Russian orthodox Church in his thrall, as it has been since it's priests were KGB agents.
Read my thoughts about the lack of information on the PA and West Bank in general. Bibi wants the visual we are getting to make it look like the "two state solution" isn't possible.
Putin is sounding crazy and making-up his own little world daily, just like TRump (see St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on You Tube). People tended to think the Oligarchs could get or control him. Nope! Vlad has had everyone of them and their money at his disposal for a long time. Sure enough, he knows how to dispose of them and his troops while picking the pockets of every Russian. They are just objects in his little game of war.
Putin, TRump, and Netanyahu are the psychos from Hell---who needs Satan at this point?
Alis look at the effect of a two state solution. This is a religious war, we fool ourselves we don't recognize that.
The Muslim Arabs cannot ever permit a Jewish ethnostate on sacred Arab soil.
If there were a Palestinian state, next to an Israeli state, then Palestinian terrorists would be committing acts of terror daily, like they already were, but Israels response would not be a police action, but cross border invasion, this time a declared war.
And the response of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria, (at least) would be to form an armed response. Driven by popular outrage and demand.
Sadly, there is no solution to the problem, so long as it is religious.
There is a solution though, 10 million Jews pack up their possessions, hire shipping companies and migrate to America (north and south) and Europe.
And that won't please the Jew haters among us.
America has slipped into a dystopian nightmare, Most of us can't feel it yet, like a cancer it takes time to spread through the body politic, to the point where we feel it, right now it is only immigrants and trans.
Trumps big horrible bill, has just created the 5th Largest, fascist Army in the world. If not in manpower, then in dollars, Over $100 billion dollars to create an official paramilitary army, that will be used to suppress and arrest not just immigrants but all of us.
SCOTUS has approved Trumps scheme of denaturalization, and here is something that has been overlooked by most in the corporate media, Eli Mystal, has picked up on it, but the hosts he is a guest on at MSNBC gloss over it. If he can denaturalize a child born of immigrant parents, then he can denaturalize anyone including you and I.
And he has his own taxpayer funded, Geheim Stats Polizei, his personal army, the 5th largest in the world, to do his bidding.
And not just the ICE/CBD/DEA/ATF gestapo, but he has his volunteer corps, the brownshirts of the militias, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, Aryan resistance, KKK, and all of the owning personal arsenals, while the Supreme Court just made automatic weapons legal.
How do we save ourselves and the country? Parading with signs? Trump has proven that he doesn't care about protests, and Fox doesn't mention them, in fact few do, the only one that even covered them was Rachel Maddow.
https://www.mind-war.com/p/late-stage-inverted-totalitarianism
Sheldon Wolin was a political theorist with a long-celebrated body of work but his last book Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism (2008) may be his most important. Written during the Bush administration, it describes an authoritarian form of government that doesn’t replace democracy entirely, it uses the mechanisms and symbols of a democratic form of government while separating the dêmos, the people, from the krátos, the power.
Inverted totalitarianism, according to Wolin, is a political technique for achieving a managed democracy, a tool used by corporations, religions, and plutocrats to control the population while allowing for the theatrics of a democratic process to continue, essentially as camouflage.
“Inverted totalitarianism is not a revolutionary movement. It does not require a charismatic leader, a single party, or an ideology. It is, instead, a system of managed democracy where the illusion of popular control persists.”
“Whereas classical totalitarian regimes mobilized the masses to serve the state’s goals, inverted totalitarianism relies on mass passivity and political disengagement.”
“Corporate power has become fused with state power, creating a system where the two reinforce each other while hollowing out democratic institutions.”
“The genius of inverted totalitarianism lies in its ability to exploit the symbols of democracy—flag, Constitution, patriotic language—while undermining their substance.”
“The media play a central role in inverted totalitarianism: not by suppressing dissent, but by framing it, trivializing it, or substituting spectacle for substantive discourse.”
So what now?Non violent protest has no effect, and is a pressure relief valve, a distraction.
The Vote? With the SAVE act and other local measures, not to mention hacking the system and psyops, will the Dems even have a chance in 2026, and if they do, can they stop the juggernaut, with the Republicans controlling the senate (and thus judicial and cabinet appointments), no Democratic bill that isn't blessed by the powers that be will even pass the Senate.
Congress is now impotent, mere window dressing, a facade to legitimize the regime as a managed democracy.
I repeat what I said on Reich's substack.
The word intifada means uprising. Mamdani called for a global uprising, a global uprising is about more than Gaza and the West Bank, it is about overturning the established order.
The established order is psychopathic, a union of psychopaths, theocrats, racists, homo and transphobes and psychopathic wealthy.
They all have one thing in common, a lack of empathy for anything that isn't their own kind.
Do omnivores and carnivores have any feelings about the animals that they eat, do we give a second thought to the chickens and turkeys slaughtered, the sheep, pigs and cattle slaughtered and butchered that we eat. No.
If you aren't a member of the psychopaths club, family, tribe, clan, inner circle then you are no more than animals that either serve a purpose or to be dispensed with when no longer useful.
Among themselves they are loving, gracious, considerate. I lived in the south and am familiar with southern hospitality. A hospitality rendered only to their own kind.
Wait for it...
The Big Beautiful Backlash may take a while, but it seems logical that it WILL come. Rural hospitals are already looking at whether to close. People on Medicaid are going to see the writing on the wall. If they live in a Blue state, their governor will be educating them. Mine has already said something in an interview.
Estimates of 20% of the economy failing because of trickle-down effects of trillions not spent but crammed into the money bins of the rich could happen. A bleak outlook will continue to grow---it likely won't be a planned strike, just people buying the basics. There will be more visible poverty, pain, and homelessness. It isn't good for business.
Red hat wearing MAGAs may have an uprising of their own. In the meantime, TRump is spending money on crazy cruel projects and displays. He's more demented and deteriorating daily. How long will it be before Vance and whoever chose him makes their move to "Amendment 25" Number 47?
I will wait for it but not patiently. See you in the streets on the 17th.
Mike Johnson and Thune are clever. The pain associated with cutting Medicaid doesn't cut in until after the 2026 election, and when it does be sure that Fox and the corporate media will blame the Democrats and Biden
Don't count on MAGAs waking up. As Moscow Mitch said, "They'll get over it."
Lev Parnas provided an alternative take on Don & Vlad's phone chat. His take is that Putin told him his Kyiv barrage would weaken Ukrainian resolve and they would surrender so Trump could claim HE brought peace to Ukraine. In Trump's sociopathic mind, surrender is peace.
https://levremembers.substack.com/p/breaking-putin-bombs-kyiv-after-trump
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is saying the Russians are losing so many troops in trench warfare they started to use gas warfare. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdgdE5BIHBk
Russia losing 1000/day so bringing 30,000 North Korean troops. Germany is trying to buy Patriot missles from Trump to give to Ukraine. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-talks-buy-patriots-ukraine-after-us-pause-2025-07-04/
Today, Russia is having trouble with former ally Azerbaijan. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-drones-airbase-trump-zelenskyy-d403d0807e35a64f530d587dbd218aa5
Excellent report Thom..
Keep on writing - more and more people need reminding more and more often...
Who pays when DOGE fires NOAA Weather Forecasters? Mapping the Texas flooding tragedy.
https://thedemlabs.org/2025/07/05/texas-flooding-tragedy-map-noaa-doge-fires-noaa-weather-forecasters/
#Thom Hartman The real end game of Project 2025 is being missed. 2026 will be too late to stop it. It is a full-scale plan to destroy the foundations of our democracy—gutting agencies, silencing experts, and handing unchecked power to extremists. Watch this video to see what’s really at stake and why we need to stop it now: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPHbV1xujYTDa-wq9F5/
Too bad the video provided no suggestions on how to "stop it now". We have a non-functional congress and a corrupt SCOTUS that has given a crazy felon carte blanche to do whatever he wants as POTUS. The institutions that were set up to "stop this" have been completely corrupted. By the time the 2026 elections roll around, elections will be no different than Russia's -- The ruling class will win every time, by a landslide. There simply is no way to "stop it" unless one of those institutions begins to honor its Constitutional oath, and that's very unlikely. What is amazing to me is how quickly it has happened.
Have we hit bottom? We will wallow in this morass for 15 months before we can vote to change course. What thawed out from a hard winter at Valley Forge turned out to be men of forged, hardened steel filled with resolve. A forge pounds steel blocks to created hardened steel, and Valley Forge begat the legendary Bethlehem Forge. It was one bad winter. We are there again. We know what to do. Wear them down. Wear them out. Vote’m Out! Block the concentration camps. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/concentration-camping?r=3m1bs
Do you really think that the midterms will turn the ship around? To start with there is the SAVE act which disenfranchises anyone who has changed their name,without a court order, like married women. And then there is hacking, like what happened in the last election, not to mention election interference and psyops.
And if the Dems gain control of the house, what then? Impeach him for a third time, unless the Dems control the Senate that is an exercise in futility.
The House main responsibility is funding the government, do we want ICE/CPB funded?
And any bill that gets past the senate, that threatens Trump and project 2025 will be vetoed.
Has it not occurred to anyone that masked men grabbing women and children off of the streets could also be sex traffickers? If masking is allowed, there are no limits to the types of crimes that can be committed, as long as the men wear "ICE" badges. Am I wrong about this?
Not only should the republicans who voted for this bill never be elected or hold office again, but the voters who put them in office should be shunned and scorned. DD