An interesting dilemma seems to be arising: MAGA - unnecessary to Trump now that he was elected - versus Musk. Surely these cuts and interferences with Social Security must hit the MAGA crowd, many of whom depend in it. But Musk cares not—he’s only looking out for himself … and chaos.
My guess is that they get the best of both worlds - the ability to vent their anger at Musk while adhering to the notion that trump is not to blame....
Medicaid cuts will affect them. It’s literally getting rid of it by defunding it but leaving a token amount so they can have plausible deniability, will absolutely hit them.
MAGAs don’t have money as a whole. They rely on government services but they are clueless as to how government works, so they don’t get it yet. But boy will they. Especially once our economy is utterly trashed. Which is coming.
I get my healthcare at a community clinic. It took years to get these across America. If you have no insurance, you can get care and get it dirt cheap or even free. These places often deal with patients who have really bad psychological problems. You know how most nicer areas (and let’s be honest, subscribers here aren’t living in a ghetto) don’t have schizophrenics running around? That’s because of community health clinics. They can access meds and care regardless of money.
That’s going to be gone because they are going to defund all of them. They exist bc of grants from the fed gov, and individual states can’t pick up the slack bc it’s too much.
But back to my point - when I was there last week, I saw two truuuucks with trump bumper stickers. Absolute morons with zero clue that they are going to lose access to healthcare. Period.
Voting against their own interests, and they don’t even see it.
Don’t you get it? These people vote the way they do because if they could just get the people of color, women, and perverts under control, their lives will be somehow get better. Suddenly, despite their lack of education, marketable skills, and the ability to get along with people they don’t agree with, they will land that high-paying job that requires no effort at all to do, and the cash will be rolling in. They just need to stomp on the rest of us to get what they are entitled to, which includes hot chicks that currently won’t give them the time of day. I could go on, but I feel like I need to take a shower now…
That Trump voters are terrible people who fell for demonizing “the other”?
I absolutely get who these are. My comment however had nothing to do with that aspect. Just that they’re as fucked as the rest of us, but they don’t care bc daddy Trump would never ever screw them. It’s a cult and it’s pathetic?
These forked tongue GOP are backing themselves into a corner that has no exit when it comes to Social Security. There is not one rep in the House or Senate across this entire country that doesn't have constituents on that program. If they continue with mealy mouth platitudes about what constitutes a "cut", the only cut will be their job.
The incompetence of the Trump Administration and the GOP Senate was so predictable. Since bending the knee to Trump after his January 6th insurrection, the GOP has lied their way to the top on the backs of voters who believed them with the help of mainstream media who refuse to give the facts. It took more than a week to get the Hegseth blunder beyond The Atlantic and GOP senators and congressmen, who screamed bloody murder about Clinton’s private email, respond with a “so what”?!?! We’re talking military attack plans discussed on unsecured private phones using a public app which included an Atlantic reporter unbeknownst to the cabinet officials!!! Where is the outrage of the American people!?!? These GOP idiots are risking the lives of US servicemen!!! Impeach all of these clowns and do it now!!!
Don't be so hard on "The Mainstream Media" they can't help it that MAGAs (and not just MAGAs!) are unwilling or unable to read what they actually do report.
But it’s not just that - the media has capitulated to him, because they don’t want to end up in a gulag, or the owners benefit by kissing ass.
It’s social media as well.
It’s absolutely pathetic. They just rolled over.
This nightmare wouldn’t going as well as it has if other insanely wealthy people didn’t capitulate. The courts are next.
If they all said no more, and the critters who say they are horrified off the record actually pushed back, they wouldn’t have such an easy time. As it stands, they just preemptively decided that standing for absolutely nothing was the best choice. It’s pathetic.
When DOGE forces its way into county election offices in swing districts and armed escorts tell terrified public servants to allow Big Balls to hook up a laptop to the election system those legislators won’t have to worry about losing their jobs.
This is what I fear. Maybe they’re not afraid of the 3rd rail because they’re not anticipating needing their constituents votes. Remember Trump telling voters ‘they won’t have to vote again’…
So here's my question... if they haven't cut the amount a person is supposed to get in their SS payment, what does it mean if the person never actually receives the payment? I call that, not a cut. but abolishment.
Techno feudalism has the word right there. Thats exactly what they want. Desperation, suffering and absolute poverty so they can pay next to nothing wage wise while we starve.
I guess it depends on how one defines 'cut'. To me, a 'cut' means one still gets their SS but there is less money in the payment. If the payment never arrives, as far as I'm concerned that wouldn't be a 'cut'. Others may define it differently.
CLS - the person who suffers that cut will call it a cut. Compared to his interview with Perticone, that's gonna be harder for double-talkers like Sen. Todd ("My vote made Hegseth SecDef") Young to finesse. His hurt Hoosier constituents will be looking for Young's town halls to explain to him what a cut feels like on the receiving end
I just don't see how the Social Security service cuts end well for Republicans. Closing offices, making people show up to the remaining offices in-person (even if they're far away), extremely long hold times because there are not enough staff...this stuff is absolutely going to be noticed by all the older people who are A) on social security and B) more likely to vote. You'd think this is something they'd absolutely want to avoid messing with, but guess not!
I will die on the hill that something fishy happened in the swing states for him to win. The Dems are useless, so they didn’t hold recounts which absolutely should have happened. The Dems lost Wisconsin by .1 percent. That would normally trigger a recount.
But see, if the Dems fought for something for once, they would also get massive shit bc they said our elections were safe and secure.
Trump always lets it slip what he’s done. And he thanked Elon for PA and his “greatness with computers” and little X has repeatedly said some interesting things bc toddlers mimic. Like Trump isn’t the president, and another thing about doing something to screw with the vote.
Trump's Middle East adviser was in MOSCOW whilst participating in this insecure signal "chat" about what, when, why and how the US Military were to attack Houthie personnel in The Yeman.I
Besides he sent the portrait in part because he is in awe of Trump’s masculinity and brilliance and he couldn’t NOT give America’s genius a gift exalting him.
He also told trump that he keeps an identical copy of it in the kremlin, you know, because they’re besties. He has it up there as a motivational tool, so he can strive every day to be as tough and brilliant as our dear leader.
I think people have a hard time detecting it in part because you use tone of voice to convey it. Online you don’t have that context. But also, people are most certainly getting dumber by the day.
I should try that comment out in a Facebook group full of dimwits and see what responses I get!
Amazing how Putin destroyed us from within with minimal effort. He just did the ol kgb disinformation as truth (which is still working), with some good ol divide and conquer for good measure, and a sprinkling of wedge issues that r media gets their viewers to foam at the mouth over.
The playbook is absolutely there if you are educated on Russia, the Soviet Union and Slavic history. Unfortunately that’s a slim amount of us.
Nothing is true, so everything is true.
I would seriously love to know where our alphabet agencies were because we supposedly have a whole bunch of people who do cybersecurity and it’s not hard to spot the propaganda if you know what you are looking for, and these guys get classified information.
It’s wild when I, a layman (who is Ukrainian so I know the history of this thing) noticed it before it ever made a peep in the press.
We absolutely blew it. America still thinks of war in physical terms, when the future of war has been and will be cyber. Russia can cut our power, screw with our nuclear plants, shut down our cars, even. So can China. I think it was the bulwark that had the article on Russia planning on blowing up our airplanes. Why on earth that tidbit was ignored by… all media, even the liberal ones is curious to me.
Putin played the long game. I respect his ability to do that and his tactics, from an intellectual political nerd perspective. We can’t even play the basic game, though the amoral majority also played the long game and now get their fruits. The Dems tho? Utterly incompetent and incapable.
Musk is giving it away because he needs China for his businesses. Mostly Tesla, and hopefully we can collectively tank that to the point of no return, but also starlink.
Hence his meeting for war plans at the pentagon.
Putin also has kompromat on him. Trump has been an asset for Putin since the late 80’s.
Both Trump, Elmo, and Elmo’s brother were friends with Epstein and they all were on the island multiple times. Elmo likes em young (see his grooming of Trump’s grand daughter. She’s going to be next in his harem, just wait), Trump likes em young and he’s a rapist. I think the only thing that could shock the American public to the point that they would be destroyed (prior to all of this w lighting the country on fire) would be having sex with minors who were trafficked. Qanon was on to something with their whole sec trafficking obsession - they just went after the wrong party, by design, I’m sure.
Trump didn’t steal all those classified documents for no reason.
It’s unreal. It’s also blatantly obvious. I don’t get why our intelligence community is mute. National security should trump (ugh) maybe losing your job.
Hahaha—I saw a picture of Elmo and Kai Trump a few weeks ago and thought the exact same thing—next in the babymama lineup. Although he might marry her just to keep it legit—I don’t think grandpa likes illegitimate grandkids.
And when are Republicans going to do something about the terrible socialist Congress? Free healthcare, over-payment for work not done, franking … so much waste!
You know, I wonder if the federal income tax rates will eventually drop, if the reduction in the federal workforce and programs holds for quite some time. If so, then the states will have to raise their income tax rates, or implement income taxes, or some other version of a tax regimen, to pay for the programs that the states will want or need. That will be a tough fight all over the place.
1) “It’s a massive, mindboggling gamble for congressional Republicans, too.” This comment is related to something that I have wondered about for some time. Trump never campaigned on DOGE, and it seems to me that it’s only hurting his popularity. He can’t possibly care about using the “savings” to justify his tax cuts because I’m sure to Trump tax cuts are an unalloyed good requiring no justification. And he can’t possibly be doing it to improve the national debt; otherwise he’d forego the tax cuts entirely. So why is he continuing to do it? Is he so in thrall to Musk that he can’t stand up to him (Musk can’t easily be bullied. Since Trump is really a bully, he can’t stand up to someone who he can’t bully.)? This is an honest question. I really have no good idea.
2) “People are still reading the Atlantic? I thought they were out of business.” The issue is the gross breach of national security, not The Atlantic’s readership numbers. But Moreno has learned well from the master. If you don’t have a good answer, just attack (or denigrate) the source of the irritation.
1. He technically can’t have another term, and he’s absolutely checked out with dementia brain. He just blows $3mil a pop to spend his time golfing, and shows up only when he has to. He never wanted to do the hard job of governing. Hes not book smart.
2. This is his malignant narcissist revenge tour. He can’t handle any sort of slight, so here we are. No one is going to stop him either. He will jail the people on his shit list. It’s coming.
3. DOGE was always going to exist. Yarvin, who is the brains behind what Elmo is doing, has had a hard on for years over destroying the “cathedral.” The cathedral here refers to government (it’s known as RAGE - retire all govt employees) as well as universities/academia. It’s interesting to note that Yarvin’s parents were civil servants, and his education and nice life was because of their jobs. Trump calls himself king bc it’s a Yarvin thing. Yarvin wants a “monarchy” (techno-feudalism) with “shareholders” who make the decisions, and a CEO who runs the country. The shareholders are the billionaires.
There’s no need for elections because Elmo and pals will run the country. Trump is our modern Caligula so he just shows up when he feels like it, tanks the economy, causes starvation, and Hoovers up our tax dollars. He’s really into cruelty too.
Upside though is Caligula was murdered so maybe history will do its thing. When asked who should be CEO, Yarvin replied Elon Musk. (This was years ago)
3. Everyone acting as if there will be another presidential election is naive. Most people don’t know who yarvin is so they don’t have a clue about the actual plan. So all of those critters are absolutely stupid for not fighting back because they will be out of jobs like the rest of us.
4. The “cuts” are about destruction, period. There’s no real savings. It’s just the talking point so they can have deniability. It’s then repeated everywhere so people believe it rather than their own eyes.
Violations of national security are prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Violators are arrested by the FBI. The perpetrators of this breach of national security should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as Pam Bondi has promised to do with violators of other laws and the violators should be arrested by Kash Patel. They promised to uphold the law and prosecute offenders. If the Attorney General and Director of the FBI are unable to fulfill their duties, they should be replaced. Perhaps someone could bring this to the attention of the voting public.
Introduced to the Atlantic during a college English course in the latter 1960's, I've been a subscriber for more than 30 years and counting. So, to respond to Bernie Morono, "Yes, Senator, and it is more a trustworthy source of truth than are you and your fellow R's."
When a CEO announces “cost cutting”, everyone knows what that means: service rollbacks, layoffs, and facility closures. It’s not just a euphemism: to reduce spending, you fire the people doing expensive stuff and sell off the places they work. “No company has ever cut their way to profitability”, as the truism goes, but there’s a codicil: “to make any difference at all, cuts have to be real”.
There are always “cuts for show”: the coffee is cheaper, or they replace the free coffee with vending machines; instead of commemorative leather jackets for the quarter’s top earners, they get a “special exclusive badge” on their intranet directory listing. These ain’t nothing, but they aren’t really anything, either.
But except for grants and direct-payment programs, the federal government under Elon Musk works on the same principles. It doesn’t matter if you have funding to do 3000 surgeries for kids if you fire all the surgeons. It doesn’t matter if you have funding to forecast the weather if there aren’t enough employees to launch the weather balloons. Elon knows that. He’s counting on that. He’s using that, riding on the gross misperception Americans have that the median federal worker is lazy and overpaid. (Rigorous accounting shows quite the opposite: federal workers are willing to take a substantial pay cut for the same or greater work than they’d do in the private sector.)
Like I said before, Don't expect any investigations from the signal chat fiasco. Expect a lot of blame from the Trump people directed at Goldberg. Goldberg needs to realize he better start defending himself. He needs to publish more on this story because Trump/ MAGA will fall on him like on ton of bricks.
Maybe he could send the info to members of a Senatorial committee that has clearance to see classified material. Though exactly how he'd do that by secure means is another question. A personal visit perhaps?
Polio—that was an honest fear (terror, actually) and the rest as you show. l’ll add antisemitism too and, oddly, prejudice against Roman Catholics. I survived hiding in the library … where manly men feared to tread.
What Musk and the Cyber Vandals and the Trump-installed Acting Commissioner and the Trump administration (Russell Vought, JD Vance, Donald J Trump: we're looking at you here) are doing to SSA is criminal. Your invasion of the payment system: criminal. Your breaking of a proud organization's proud culture and track record of customer service: criminal. When Reagan and HW oversaw the breaking of SSA's disability claims process, there was a hard pushback from AARP and other stakeholders and Congress. Here comes another; since you don't remember the past, you will get to relive it. Many GOP politicians will go down in 2026 if you keep this up.
My hubs is turning 62 this year, and we are debating whether he should just bite the bullet and file for his benefits. I’m five years younger than him, so either my retirement age will be raised, or I won’t get my benefits at all. That’s my bet.
I thought that GOP propaganda would subside when their constituents began protesting what is happening at SSA. But, they haven’t softened their response. In fact they have hardened it. This leaves me fearing that even if the worst happens they will stand behind the trump-musk regime and will continue spewing nonsense at their constituents.
Many of them are writing off their so-called constituents' protests as Democratic plants from outside their districts. It helps soothe their concerns . . . .
An interesting dilemma seems to be arising: MAGA - unnecessary to Trump now that he was elected - versus Musk. Surely these cuts and interferences with Social Security must hit the MAGA crowd, many of whom depend in it. But Musk cares not—he’s only looking out for himself … and chaos.
My guess is that they get the best of both worlds - the ability to vent their anger at Musk while adhering to the notion that trump is not to blame....
Nor are they to blame, they tell themselves—it’s them people of color, of (the wrong) religion …Commies!
It's actually Hillary's fault
Or Obama’s. Or, he whispers and peers over his shoulder, me!
And they cozy up to Russia, a Communist Country. It’s just nuts 🥜!
A one-way cozy, it seems after watching Putin delay answering a Trump ‘phone call … with a smirk.
Putin called Trump a moron often, he said it on the calls with the translators.
Zelenskyy also called Trump and Vance bitches, but you wouldn’t catch it unless you spoke Ukrainian.
That make me love him even more.
Medicaid cuts will affect them. It’s literally getting rid of it by defunding it but leaving a token amount so they can have plausible deniability, will absolutely hit them.
MAGAs don’t have money as a whole. They rely on government services but they are clueless as to how government works, so they don’t get it yet. But boy will they. Especially once our economy is utterly trashed. Which is coming.
I get my healthcare at a community clinic. It took years to get these across America. If you have no insurance, you can get care and get it dirt cheap or even free. These places often deal with patients who have really bad psychological problems. You know how most nicer areas (and let’s be honest, subscribers here aren’t living in a ghetto) don’t have schizophrenics running around? That’s because of community health clinics. They can access meds and care regardless of money.
That’s going to be gone because they are going to defund all of them. They exist bc of grants from the fed gov, and individual states can’t pick up the slack bc it’s too much.
But back to my point - when I was there last week, I saw two truuuucks with trump bumper stickers. Absolute morons with zero clue that they are going to lose access to healthcare. Period.
Voting against their own interests, and they don’t even see it.
Don’t you get it? These people vote the way they do because if they could just get the people of color, women, and perverts under control, their lives will be somehow get better. Suddenly, despite their lack of education, marketable skills, and the ability to get along with people they don’t agree with, they will land that high-paying job that requires no effort at all to do, and the cash will be rolling in. They just need to stomp on the rest of us to get what they are entitled to, which includes hot chicks that currently won’t give them the time of day. I could go on, but I feel like I need to take a shower now…
Don’t I get what?
That Trump voters are terrible people who fell for demonizing “the other”?
I absolutely get who these are. My comment however had nothing to do with that aspect. Just that they’re as fucked as the rest of us, but they don’t care bc daddy Trump would never ever screw them. It’s a cult and it’s pathetic?
Yes I fully get it
Sorry. I forgot to add the /s
These forked tongue GOP are backing themselves into a corner that has no exit when it comes to Social Security. There is not one rep in the House or Senate across this entire country that doesn't have constituents on that program. If they continue with mealy mouth platitudes about what constitutes a "cut", the only cut will be their job.
But not SOON enough!
They don’t care—THEIR services won’t be cut.
The incompetence of the Trump Administration and the GOP Senate was so predictable. Since bending the knee to Trump after his January 6th insurrection, the GOP has lied their way to the top on the backs of voters who believed them with the help of mainstream media who refuse to give the facts. It took more than a week to get the Hegseth blunder beyond The Atlantic and GOP senators and congressmen, who screamed bloody murder about Clinton’s private email, respond with a “so what”?!?! We’re talking military attack plans discussed on unsecured private phones using a public app which included an Atlantic reporter unbeknownst to the cabinet officials!!! Where is the outrage of the American people!?!? These GOP idiots are risking the lives of US servicemen!!! Impeach all of these clowns and do it now!!!
Don't be so hard on "The Mainstream Media" they can't help it that MAGAs (and not just MAGAs!) are unwilling or unable to read what they actually do report.
But it’s not just that - the media has capitulated to him, because they don’t want to end up in a gulag, or the owners benefit by kissing ass.
It’s social media as well.
It’s absolutely pathetic. They just rolled over.
This nightmare wouldn’t going as well as it has if other insanely wealthy people didn’t capitulate. The courts are next.
If they all said no more, and the critters who say they are horrified off the record actually pushed back, they wouldn’t have such an easy time. As it stands, they just preemptively decided that standing for absolutely nothing was the best choice. It’s pathetic.
To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on what the meaning of the word “cuts” is.
When DOGE forces its way into county election offices in swing districts and armed escorts tell terrified public servants to allow Big Balls to hook up a laptop to the election system those legislators won’t have to worry about losing their jobs.
It will happen….
This is what I fear. Maybe they’re not afraid of the 3rd rail because they’re not anticipating needing their constituents votes. Remember Trump telling voters ‘they won’t have to vote again’…
So here's my question... if they haven't cut the amount a person is supposed to get in their SS payment, what does it mean if the person never actually receives the payment? I call that, not a cut. but abolishment.
Or ... planned failure.
It’s all planned.
Techno feudalism has the word right there. Thats exactly what they want. Desperation, suffering and absolute poverty so they can pay next to nothing wage wise while we starve.
I'd still call it a cut. Let the GOP try to wordsmith their way out of that.
How about a fuck up? Perhaps a royal one?
I am not particularly opposed to that, but make them defend this, whatever it gets called, and don't let them slink away.
I guess it depends on how one defines 'cut'. To me, a 'cut' means one still gets their SS but there is less money in the payment. If the payment never arrives, as far as I'm concerned that wouldn't be a 'cut'. Others may define it differently.
I can see that. But this is MAGA that we need to inform. Your nuance will be lost on them.
CLS - the person who suffers that cut will call it a cut. Compared to his interview with Perticone, that's gonna be harder for double-talkers like Sen. Todd ("My vote made Hegseth SecDef") Young to finesse. His hurt Hoosier constituents will be looking for Young's town halls to explain to him what a cut feels like on the receiving end
None of them have the balls to show up. They fully know and they can’t justify it nor look their constituents in the eye as they lie.
They should all be fired.
I just don't see how the Social Security service cuts end well for Republicans. Closing offices, making people show up to the remaining offices in-person (even if they're far away), extremely long hold times because there are not enough staff...this stuff is absolutely going to be noticed by all the older people who are A) on social security and B) more likely to vote. You'd think this is something they'd absolutely want to avoid messing with, but guess not!
As IF voting will matter. Why do you think Republicans are behaving like they will never have to face a free and fair election?
I will die on the hill that something fishy happened in the swing states for him to win. The Dems are useless, so they didn’t hold recounts which absolutely should have happened. The Dems lost Wisconsin by .1 percent. That would normally trigger a recount.
But see, if the Dems fought for something for once, they would also get massive shit bc they said our elections were safe and secure.
Trump always lets it slip what he’s done. And he thanked Elon for PA and his “greatness with computers” and little X has repeatedly said some interesting things bc toddlers mimic. Like Trump isn’t the president, and another thing about doing something to screw with the vote.
Trump's Middle East adviser was in MOSCOW whilst participating in this insecure signal "chat" about what, when, why and how the US Military were to attack Houthie personnel in The Yeman.I
WTAF ???
Putin assured Trump he wouldn’t listen in, probably.
And Putin assured him "very strongly", so it must be true.
Would a guy who sent him such a beautiful portrait of himself lie to him?
Never!
Besides he sent the portrait in part because he is in awe of Trump’s masculinity and brilliance and he couldn’t NOT give America’s genius a gift exalting him.
He also told trump that he keeps an identical copy of it in the kremlin, you know, because they’re besties. He has it up there as a motivational tool, so he can strive every day to be as tough and brilliant as our dear leader.
Sarcasm is a lost art. Half the country would take your comment as describing actual reality.
Oh trust me, I know.
I think people have a hard time detecting it in part because you use tone of voice to convey it. Online you don’t have that context. But also, people are most certainly getting dumber by the day.
I should try that comment out in a Facebook group full of dimwits and see what responses I get!
"I should try that comment out in a Facebook group full of dimwits and see what responses I get!" If you do, I'd love to see a screenshot!
They’re great friends, remember?
Amazing how Putin destroyed us from within with minimal effort. He just did the ol kgb disinformation as truth (which is still working), with some good ol divide and conquer for good measure, and a sprinkling of wedge issues that r media gets their viewers to foam at the mouth over.
The playbook is absolutely there if you are educated on Russia, the Soviet Union and Slavic history. Unfortunately that’s a slim amount of us.
Nothing is true, so everything is true.
I would seriously love to know where our alphabet agencies were because we supposedly have a whole bunch of people who do cybersecurity and it’s not hard to spot the propaganda if you know what you are looking for, and these guys get classified information.
It’s wild when I, a layman (who is Ukrainian so I know the history of this thing) noticed it before it ever made a peep in the press.
We absolutely blew it. America still thinks of war in physical terms, when the future of war has been and will be cyber. Russia can cut our power, screw with our nuclear plants, shut down our cars, even. So can China. I think it was the bulwark that had the article on Russia planning on blowing up our airplanes. Why on earth that tidbit was ignored by… all media, even the liberal ones is curious to me.
Putin played the long game. I respect his ability to do that and his tactics, from an intellectual political nerd perspective. We can’t even play the basic game, though the amoral majority also played the long game and now get their fruits. The Dems tho? Utterly incompetent and incapable.
Remember the SNL elf-on-the-shelf skit during Trump 1.0? No more need for the elf, the info gets delivered to Moscow in person these days.
China too.
Musk is giving it away because he needs China for his businesses. Mostly Tesla, and hopefully we can collectively tank that to the point of no return, but also starlink.
Hence his meeting for war plans at the pentagon.
Putin also has kompromat on him. Trump has been an asset for Putin since the late 80’s.
Both Trump, Elmo, and Elmo’s brother were friends with Epstein and they all were on the island multiple times. Elmo likes em young (see his grooming of Trump’s grand daughter. She’s going to be next in his harem, just wait), Trump likes em young and he’s a rapist. I think the only thing that could shock the American public to the point that they would be destroyed (prior to all of this w lighting the country on fire) would be having sex with minors who were trafficked. Qanon was on to something with their whole sec trafficking obsession - they just went after the wrong party, by design, I’m sure.
Trump didn’t steal all those classified documents for no reason.
It’s unreal. It’s also blatantly obvious. I don’t get why our intelligence community is mute. National security should trump (ugh) maybe losing your job.
Hahaha—I saw a picture of Elmo and Kai Trump a few weeks ago and thought the exact same thing—next in the babymama lineup. Although he might marry her just to keep it legit—I don’t think grandpa likes illegitimate grandkids.
And when are Republicans going to do something about the terrible socialist Congress? Free healthcare, over-payment for work not done, franking … so much waste!
I've got a rep and a senator that are examples of waste, fraud and abuse.
Since Trump/Musk has taken over most Congressional duties … think of all the money we’d save!
That we the people save? More likely the more money into the pockets of Trump, Musk, etc.
Shh, don’t reveal the (ill kept) secret.
You know, I wonder if the federal income tax rates will eventually drop, if the reduction in the federal workforce and programs holds for quite some time. If so, then the states will have to raise their income tax rates, or implement income taxes, or some other version of a tax regimen, to pay for the programs that the states will want or need. That will be a tough fight all over the place.
1) “It’s a massive, mindboggling gamble for congressional Republicans, too.” This comment is related to something that I have wondered about for some time. Trump never campaigned on DOGE, and it seems to me that it’s only hurting his popularity. He can’t possibly care about using the “savings” to justify his tax cuts because I’m sure to Trump tax cuts are an unalloyed good requiring no justification. And he can’t possibly be doing it to improve the national debt; otherwise he’d forego the tax cuts entirely. So why is he continuing to do it? Is he so in thrall to Musk that he can’t stand up to him (Musk can’t easily be bullied. Since Trump is really a bully, he can’t stand up to someone who he can’t bully.)? This is an honest question. I really have no good idea.
2) “People are still reading the Atlantic? I thought they were out of business.” The issue is the gross breach of national security, not The Atlantic’s readership numbers. But Moreno has learned well from the master. If you don’t have a good answer, just attack (or denigrate) the source of the irritation.
3) “Schrödinger’s cuts” – I love it.
Why?
1. He technically can’t have another term, and he’s absolutely checked out with dementia brain. He just blows $3mil a pop to spend his time golfing, and shows up only when he has to. He never wanted to do the hard job of governing. Hes not book smart.
2. This is his malignant narcissist revenge tour. He can’t handle any sort of slight, so here we are. No one is going to stop him either. He will jail the people on his shit list. It’s coming.
3. DOGE was always going to exist. Yarvin, who is the brains behind what Elmo is doing, has had a hard on for years over destroying the “cathedral.” The cathedral here refers to government (it’s known as RAGE - retire all govt employees) as well as universities/academia. It’s interesting to note that Yarvin’s parents were civil servants, and his education and nice life was because of their jobs. Trump calls himself king bc it’s a Yarvin thing. Yarvin wants a “monarchy” (techno-feudalism) with “shareholders” who make the decisions, and a CEO who runs the country. The shareholders are the billionaires.
There’s no need for elections because Elmo and pals will run the country. Trump is our modern Caligula so he just shows up when he feels like it, tanks the economy, causes starvation, and Hoovers up our tax dollars. He’s really into cruelty too.
Upside though is Caligula was murdered so maybe history will do its thing. When asked who should be CEO, Yarvin replied Elon Musk. (This was years ago)
3. Everyone acting as if there will be another presidential election is naive. Most people don’t know who yarvin is so they don’t have a clue about the actual plan. So all of those critters are absolutely stupid for not fighting back because they will be out of jobs like the rest of us.
4. The “cuts” are about destruction, period. There’s no real savings. It’s just the talking point so they can have deniability. It’s then repeated everywhere so people believe it rather than their own eyes.
Violations of national security are prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Violators are arrested by the FBI. The perpetrators of this breach of national security should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as Pam Bondi has promised to do with violators of other laws and the violators should be arrested by Kash Patel. They promised to uphold the law and prosecute offenders. If the Attorney General and Director of the FBI are unable to fulfill their duties, they should be replaced. Perhaps someone could bring this to the attention of the voting public.
Introduced to the Atlantic during a college English course in the latter 1960's, I've been a subscriber for more than 30 years and counting. So, to respond to Bernie Morono, "Yes, Senator, and it is more a trustworthy source of truth than are you and your fellow R's."
When a CEO announces “cost cutting”, everyone knows what that means: service rollbacks, layoffs, and facility closures. It’s not just a euphemism: to reduce spending, you fire the people doing expensive stuff and sell off the places they work. “No company has ever cut their way to profitability”, as the truism goes, but there’s a codicil: “to make any difference at all, cuts have to be real”.
There are always “cuts for show”: the coffee is cheaper, or they replace the free coffee with vending machines; instead of commemorative leather jackets for the quarter’s top earners, they get a “special exclusive badge” on their intranet directory listing. These ain’t nothing, but they aren’t really anything, either.
But except for grants and direct-payment programs, the federal government under Elon Musk works on the same principles. It doesn’t matter if you have funding to do 3000 surgeries for kids if you fire all the surgeons. It doesn’t matter if you have funding to forecast the weather if there aren’t enough employees to launch the weather balloons. Elon knows that. He’s counting on that. He’s using that, riding on the gross misperception Americans have that the median federal worker is lazy and overpaid. (Rigorous accounting shows quite the opposite: federal workers are willing to take a substantial pay cut for the same or greater work than they’d do in the private sector.)
Like I said before, Don't expect any investigations from the signal chat fiasco. Expect a lot of blame from the Trump people directed at Goldberg. Goldberg needs to realize he better start defending himself. He needs to publish more on this story because Trump/ MAGA will fall on him like on ton of bricks.
Maybe he could send the info to members of a Senatorial committee that has clearance to see classified material. Though exactly how he'd do that by secure means is another question. A personal visit perhaps?
Link them into the group chat on Signal? Or hey, make a TikTok - China's feeling left out of this debacle
The John Birch Society is “fringe”? Not at all, it had a big voice back in the Fifties—the very “Again” in MAGA.
...back when America was Great! Polio, no Voting Rights Act, gays were officially mentally ill and/or criminal, women knew their place... good times
Polio—that was an honest fear (terror, actually) and the rest as you show. l’ll add antisemitism too and, oddly, prejudice against Roman Catholics. I survived hiding in the library … where manly men feared to tread.
DOGIE: Department Of Government InEfficiency
Well there is a lot of bullsh*t in the department...
What Musk and the Cyber Vandals and the Trump-installed Acting Commissioner and the Trump administration (Russell Vought, JD Vance, Donald J Trump: we're looking at you here) are doing to SSA is criminal. Your invasion of the payment system: criminal. Your breaking of a proud organization's proud culture and track record of customer service: criminal. When Reagan and HW oversaw the breaking of SSA's disability claims process, there was a hard pushback from AARP and other stakeholders and Congress. Here comes another; since you don't remember the past, you will get to relive it. Many GOP politicians will go down in 2026 if you keep this up.
Martin O'Malley: They are wrecking the program, so that they can rob it.
Please stop saying that social security is an entitlement. People pay into the social security program, and receive retirement benefit.
My hubs is turning 62 this year, and we are debating whether he should just bite the bullet and file for his benefits. I’m five years younger than him, so either my retirement age will be raised, or I won’t get my benefits at all. That’s my bet.
I thought that GOP propaganda would subside when their constituents began protesting what is happening at SSA. But, they haven’t softened their response. In fact they have hardened it. This leaves me fearing that even if the worst happens they will stand behind the trump-musk regime and will continue spewing nonsense at their constituents.
Many of them are writing off their so-called constituents' protests as Democratic plants from outside their districts. It helps soothe their concerns . . . .