You have to train yourself to think like a machine.
When Facebook took down today's post, at first I bristled: obviously my courageous anti-administration stand had offended the Zuckerbergians. The boot of repression set upon my neck.
Then I thought more, and realized: "N0 — the letterhead."
I had begun my post with the Illinois Republican Party fundraising scam email sent out yesterday. No doubt, that caught some machine's eye, and I was flagged as trying to pass myself off as the Illinois Republican Party, which no patriotic American would ever do. So let's try again, with a new top illustration, and see if this works better:
This survey showed up in my inbox Monday.
Hmmm...
There really isn't anything more to say, is there? You either immediately understand, having understood long ago. Or you never will.
Honestly, I don't hear from individual Trumpy readers much anymore. Maybe hoarse from cheering. Maybe finally gave up on experiencing the world beyond the four corners of their little shoebox world of Fox News and Newsmax. I couldn't tell you. I don't miss them.
There really isn't anything more to say, is there? You either immediately understand, having understood long ago. Or you never will.
Honestly, I don't hear from individual Trumpy readers much anymore. Maybe hoarse from cheering. Maybe finally gave up on experiencing the world beyond the four corners of their little shoebox world of Fox News and Newsmax. I couldn't tell you. I don't miss them.
When you click on the supposed poll, it turns out to be fishing for your email and phone information so they can hit you up for money. That's what the bottom line of much of America's descent into ruin is — a running grift, putting on a dumbshow of puppet boogeymen to wring cash out of the rubes. The politics are almost beside the point.
Except they're not. Dismantling the government is not just a bad thing. It's a disaster. The wholesale, unpremeditated, chaotic fashion it was conducted. First the disruption of thousands of lives, low level bureaucrats charge with mundane tasks to keep the machinery of governmente running. We'll be left with a broken box of gears and pieces, a shattered government that we'll never put back together. If we were taken over by Russia directly, I don't believe they'd destroy the country's infrastructure in this fashion. Our enemies would be reluctant to do this.
And the Democrats are ... silent, right? Except for Gov. J.B. Pritzker in Illinois, where are the voices screaming bloody murder? Nowhere. It's a nightmare.
There are millions of them.
ReplyDeleteThey're on any number of Trump-hating Farcebook pages, Mr. S..
Which is a lot like screaming into the wind...or pissing into it.
As the days tick by, there's more and more anger, and more talk of "Luigis."
More comments about approaching violence.
And about becoming armed, and about how fascists never leave quietly.
Is it just a shot away?
The clock is ticking. Probably attached to a time bomb.
What will spring and summer bring?
A sad state of affairs indeed.
ReplyDeleteI have seen more mega flags of TRUMP lately flying. It’s as if the chaos and meanness is making people happy to inflict and want more. Bloodlust. Sad to realize that deep down most were always mean spirited.
ReplyDeleteLike the evangelicals and others in the bible belt living in writhing ecstacy for the 2nd coming while dismissing the human earthly horror that is said to presage his appearance. So much for love your neighbor as yourself. Ever wonder how Donald Trump and crew would act if they did that? Tho maybe they already are, severely damaged with self loathing that they can only inflict it on others?
DeleteI wish the people who needed to read this would see it.
ReplyDeleteand once they see it, they would understand it.
but there in lies the rub...
That idiot South African racist keeps claiming he's found new fraud, when all he's found are quirks in the Social Security computer systems he's he too dimwitted to understand. He claims their are SSA recipients that are over 150 years old. No, all it means are that people received SSA numbers but SSA never got a death certificate for them. And then wing nut media, such as the Fascist news Channel blasts this crap all over & the wing nuts eat it up!
ReplyDeleteI overheard a conversation just a few minutes ago that echoed that claim, smugly asserting that people 375 years old were receiving Social Security checks. Next thing, they'll want to put the computer experts in jail for gaming the system, which is an obvious concoction mocking "transparency" and far from the truth.
Deletejohn
john
The SSA currently uses COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language), which is 60-year-old programming language still widely employed in government databases. Old versions of COBOL use May 20,1875, as a baseline. SSA’s computers use that old version.
DeleteSo what happens if SSA doesn’t know a birthdate? That field is empty in its records. Thus that person appears to have a birthday of May 20 1875…about 150 years ago. That’s why Musk’s crack team of young tech bros found 150-year-old people in Social Security getting benefits. It’s all really as simple—and as stupid—as that.
You’d think that those bright young fascists would notice that ALL those 150- year-olds have THE SAME BIRTHDAY: May 20, 1875. But they didn’t. And Elon Musk didn’t. And, of course, STABLE GENIUS Donald Trump didn’t either.
When the SSA SS calculates your age, it subtracts your birth date from today’s date. If your birth date is blank in the database, it shows as 5/20/1875 in the calculation. Thus you’re almost 150 years old. that way.
More than 90,000 people in the US are over 99 years old. More than 50 million people are getting benefits. So those 99 and older getting benefits are two-tenths of one percent of the recipients. There are no “tens of millions” of fraudsters, as Musk has claimed.
Additionally, the SSA has a policy of automatically halting benefit payments to people at age 115. And at the present time, the age of the oldest living American is 114. Apparently, Sissy Space-X and his Krack Kiddie Korps are unaware of any of these facts.. Don't know much about COBOL, either. It's like giving loaded handguns to three-year-olds.
I actually saw an ad in the paper a couple of weeks ago seeking Cobol programmers. I was one in the 1960s and was almost tempted to apply. Btw, my tech support person, ChatGPT, says the default birthdate is Jan. 1, 1875, but this is a government convention, not a Cobol convention. In Excel, is not recognized as a date, but "1" is Jan. 1, 1900.
DeleteVery informative post, Grizz.
DeleteBadda BING! It's laughed at as a search engine, but it works fine for me. Just put "150-year-olds on Social Security?" into it, and you get more links than you ever imagined. Some of the stories are written in language meant for IT folks, but a number of them are in plain English. So it wasn't hard easy to put a post together. Wired, Daily KOs, and a couple of big metro dailies provided more than enough information.
DeleteWe're in trouble.
ReplyDeleteI thought they all moved to Indiana
ReplyDeleteWe are indeed in trouble. But I feel the pushback is building. Maybe too late though. I sure hope the 90 million plus voters who couldn’t be bothered to fill out a ballot and stick it in the mail are happy too, because those trumpanzees are ecstatic. Yes I’m very bitter. And terrified.
ReplyDeleteMe too.
DeleteNeil -
ReplyDeleteThank you for your columns and postings such as this, as it’s necessary for red flags to be raised to draw attention to the actions of the current Executive branch.
I take heart and find encouragement in the ordinary citizens who take a highly principled and deeply moral stance against the actions of the DT administration, such as the US Attorneys and Deputy Mayors in NYC who chose to resign as instead of carrying out or accepting with
fealty the quid pro quo agreements of Eric Adams and the DOJ. Also, the Legal branch of our government has been the battlefield on which actions to oppose the DT administration have take place, and this branch of government must hold for at least 2 years until the mid-term elections in which hopefully the Dems, assuming the old guard stands or is pushed aside, can regain control of the House and possibly Senate.
It’s contingent upon us all to raise our voices, such as done in yesterday’s 50501 protests nationwide. I am in agreement with your feelings that protests result in little productive action, but it’s important that voices be heard and in today’s world, it’s important and necessary to control the media cycle, as DT himself has demonstrated.
The voices and leaders of the opposition will arise, much as they did with the formation of the various underground militias during WW II. Our situation today is much like the introduction of the German army blitzkrieg military tactics during that era, overwhelming, stampeding, and conquering the traditional military tactics of Poland and France. Just as it took time to recover from the initial shock and awe of those tactics and develop counter-strategies, so will the counter tactics arise against the DT administration. The key though is that the Legal branch of government including the Supreme Court must hold until the mid-terms.
The past four weeks have certainly seen shock and awe tactics, but that can only last for so long, before it devolves into a slog and war of attrition, much like the Ukraine - Russian war. The Legal branch, various political and lobbying organizations, such as AARP, of which I’m a member, and those of us who believe in our democracy must hold the line and outlast the opposition in a war of attrition. It’s up to all of us to take a stand and not cower in fear or sit in complacency.
Jim
Careful what you wish for Neil I just got done reading a extensive interview in the New York times wall places of Steve Bannon oh we're in trouble
ReplyDeleteCan someone translate the last section of that sentence?
Delete….an extensive interview In the New York Times, of all places, of Steve Bannon….
DeleteAll I know about Bannon's current opinions is he hates Elmo, but i don't know why!
DeleteI'm getting all my vaccines now while they're still available. Pneumonia shot last week, first shingles shot today. I don't trust anything about this administration. If we keep sliding back in time at this rate, we'll be able to witness to the big dinosaur die-off.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean "Democrats are silent"? They're hosting townhall meetings, in person of via phone or zoom. They're appearing at protests. For several days Rachael Maddow has led her show with current news about the town hall meetings. It's the Republicans who are hiding, silent and complicit.
ReplyDelete22 right-wing news and commentary stations versus 3 left leaning, only 1 being truly left-wing , on our TV's 200+ channels. Not counting conservative and evagelical prosperity religious stations whose first concern are their coffers and not god. Many of their programs also on what used to be entertainment channels daily. Internet is even worse.
DeleteMAGA here. Zeroing out USAID and keeping what is good and cutting what is bad is a good idea. We give free food to countries and local farmers can't compete. Bad for us and bad for them.
ReplyDeleteNext is the Pentagon. We spend more money than the next 200 countries on defense. Isn't there room for a 10% savings in military spending?
Wouldn't all this be good for the United States? After all we do have a debt that is what, 33 trillion and counting.
If you hate Trump fine.
But when he does good thing be sure to say so.
Fox and Newsmax are a joke BTW. Citizen journalism is where it's at. Long form podcasts give us real insight to the people we elect. The idiot hurried 6 minute discussions on cable TV are lame and uninformative.
Give us a chance and if we screw it up vote us out.
The Republicans are becoming a working class party and have ditched the "Billionaires need a raise and will trickle down" bullshit and are getting their hands dirty.
It's cute how he pretends this is rational. First, where does the food USAID gives away come from? Right, US farmers. Bottom line: you've. got your chance, right now, are screwing up, massively, and will be voted out of office, if there ever is another election. We'll see how "working class" you are when the Social Security checks stop coming.
DeleteWorking class? Minimum wage, reduced whenever the businessmen choose, little to no benefits, long hours, firing without any cause but they choose to. No practical alternatives for workers while destroying jobs in favor of technology that fills their coffers while stripping their serfs of privacy, rights and dignity because they no longer have to pretend it will trickle down on the increasing mass of poor. Billionaires do not get their hands dirty unless its playing in filthy lucre.
DeleteAmerican citizen here.
DeleteIs it a "working class" trait to want a criminal, liar and fraud as president? To want people who tried to overthrow an election pardoned for their felonies? To want proven medical interventions and research sidelined in favor of having RFK, Jr. and Elon, who have no medical experience, cutting funding and staff wherever they see fit?
MAGA was given a chance in 2016. After he screwed it up, he DID get voted out. It ended with an attempted coup, after the orange felon had fired practically all the competent people who'd worked for him. At least the ones that didn't end up in jail. The country was reeling. This time around, it's not too surprising that a carnival barker would fill his "administration" with toadies who belong in a clown car.
If you like the orange felon, it's not "fine," but when he does BAD things, be sure to say so. You've got quite a backlog to get started on, going back to 2015, at least.
Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying all those cheap eggs that the working class has been enjoying since "Day One."
USAID became more than just giving aid. https://scheerpost.com/2025/02/13/patrick-lawrence-musk-the-myth-of-usaid/ you can scroll down to the headline Kennedy's idea. It is interesting that Musk and Trump don't say anything abut what else USAID is doing.
Delete