Here are a couple of new things to read on Social Security. One, see Why DOGE is struggling to find fraud in Social Security, a WaPo piece republished at Yahoo News. It’s an article of faith on the Right that Social Security is rife with fraud and way overdue to be audited. In fact, it gets audited up the proverbial wazoo. “Social Security is among the most scrutinized and audited agencies in government, with frequent probes by its 500-person Office of Inspector General. It pays outside auditors to examine its books,” the article says. So there is not a lot of fraud to be found.
Then see Paul Krugman, Social Security: A Time for Outrage. He makes the point that what Trump/Musk et al. are trying to do to Social Security will devastate a whole lot of people who voted for Trump, who for the most part are not that wealthy. And then there’s the breathtakingly out of touch comment by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
This could well be one of the dumbest things ever said by a federal U.S. official. “And the attack on Social Security is something that should both inspire outrage and offer an opportunity to connect with working-class Americans,” Krugman writes.
Well, some of the Democrats are trying. Some of them aren’t. And Lutnick hasn’t yet issued a “clarification” or walkback of his comment that I’ve seen.
Wowzer of the Week, so Far: Jeffrey Goldberg, a smart guy who is editor in chief of The Atlantic, inexplicably was invited into a super-secret encrypted chat group for high-level Trump Administration operatives. Goldberg writes,
I had very strong doubts that this text group was real, because I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans. I also could not believe that the national security adviser to the president would be so reckless as to include the editor in chief of The Atlantic in such discussions with senior U.S. officials, up to and including the vice president
The group discussed plans to bomb Houthi militants in Yemen. And then, the Trump Administration bombed Houthi targets in Yemen, exactly as the people in the group chat said they would. Maybe it wasn’t a hoax. You need to read this.
Trump is having another bad day in court:
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is hearing arguments over the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act last week to deport more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador with no due process.
“There were plane loads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,” Judge Patricia Millett said. “Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act.”
Judge Millett noted that alleged Nazis were given hearing boards and subject to established regulations, while the alleged members of Tren De Aragua were given no such rights.
“There’s no regulations, and nothing was adopted by the agency officials that were administering this. They people weren’t given notice. They weren’t told where they were going. They were given those people on those planes on that Saturday and had no opportunity to file habeas or any type of action to challenge the removal under the AEA,” Judge Millet said. “What’s factually wrong about what I said?”
“Well, Your Honor, we certainly dispute the Nazi analogy,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign said, arguing some of the men were able to file habeas petitions.
Ensign compared a federal judge’s order temporarily blocking the deportations to a judge directing a carrier group from the South China Sea to the Persian Gulf — an analogy that drew an immediate rebuke from Millett.
Trump’s lawyer is arguing that the courts are intruding on Trump’s “war powers.” Um, what war?
In fact, Trump appears to be trying to perpetrate the fiction that the U.S. is at war with Venezuela.
“Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse. Therefore, any Country that purchases Oil and/or Gas from Venezuela will be forced to pay a Tariff of 25% to the United States on any Trade they do with our Country,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump claimed, without evidence, Venezuela has “purposefully and deceitfully” sent criminals, including violent individuals and members of gangs like Tren de Aragua, to the United States.
Obviously he’s saying this to justify use of the Alien Enemies Act, which was written to apply only in times of declared war or invasion by forces of a hostile nation.
And finally — Donald Trump, Snowflake-in-Chief, had a screaming tantrum over a portrait of him hanging in the Colorado capitol building. If anything it makes him look less ridiculous than he usually looks, IMO, but he demanded it be removed. It hasn’t been removed, as far as I know.
We'll see what the appeals court decides but based on the Q & A session, there wasn't a process (due process) to determine which (if any) of the people sent to El Salvador were in fact, gang members. Trump's people are waxing Nixonian – "if we say they are gang members, that makes them gang members." Judges eat, drink, and breathe – evidence. Facts. Testimony. Precedent. I don't think "because we say so" will fly in court and with a lot of judges, it's not.
Lutnick is proving just how "elitist" this White House is. A billionaire, he's tone deaf to the needs of the plebes. I rely on SS – damn few Americans who get SS will not notice if the deposit isn't there on time. Lutnick thinks that he can intimidate the poor old folks into not complaining by suggesting they will be immediately suspect of defrauding SS just by complaining, and put under a microscope by DOJ if they make wauves. But if he and Musk become poster kids of slashing SS, it will make the case that billionaires in government are there to squash the working class more effectively than Bernie and AOC can.
Wall Street went up on rumors that Trump kinda-sorta won't do tariffs. Trump will do enough to drive the market down by the end of the week. Over the long term, the uncertainty will (high probability) continue to drive the market down and unemployment up.. I plan to take time off from work Sat to attend a Tesla rally. I'm considering a sign that says "Muck Fusk." Open to better ideas – I wish Gulag could offer his.
Could somebody in CO replace Trump's portrait with a framed picture of Bozo the Clown, notifying the press to ensure the insult gets proper publicity.
We have done it twice now, once in Kansas and once on the national level. The results of both experiments are the same. We have shown that if you elect a critical mass of idiots and incompetents that government falls to pieces and real grass roots organization of the citizens begins to occur. We know it here in Kansas as the Brownback effect. Almost none of the big players in the Kansas experiment are even on the public stage anymore. Good riddance to bad rubbish we hope.
I am amazed that a large-scale replication of this experiment was even attempted as the smaller one was such a dismal failure. Oh well, there are always those who think it was not big enough. Not enough subjects. The outcome we think is there just needs a bigger sample for it to show up. Rarely if ever is this true. Most of the time the truth is that your thinking was off, and the experiment failed because of your faulty thinking.
What faulty thinking. That electing incompetents and idiots for political office was plenty good enough. Some call it the Sarah Palin illusion. Now she pales in the shadows of the like of Marjorie Taylor Green and the discredited and discarded George Santos.
I had trouble remembering George Santos by name. It is amazing how quickly one forgets. I had to look him up. Time to put him back in the forgotten pile. I have many more I hope to add soon. Idiots, incompetents, criminals, and assorted other rabble.
Righties simply can't grasp that tax and spending cuts don't grow the economy. They've been on that crusade for more than 40 years, since Reagan. They so fervently believe that if you cut government spending and give out lots of tax cuts that the wealthy and the corporations will reward us with big economic growth. And it never happens, no matter how many times they try it.
"They so fervently believe that if you cut government spending and give out lots of tax cuts that the wealthy and the corporations will reward us with big economic growth"
I don't think they believe that at all maybe they did in the old days? That's the line they use to reward the big money campaign donors, themselves and their rich friends. They know damn well the trickle down is just pissin in the wind, but they got to feed the rubes something!
It's not just that Goldberg was included in the war plans, it's that the dopes were communicating on Signal, instead of some internal military, super-secure channel.
You haven't even touched on how Kristi Noem wants to disband or "reform" FEMA, which also disproportionately affects the poor red states. Just ahead of tornado and hurricane season.
Nationwide Protest on Sat April 5. Find an event near you and show up.