When will enough voters judge Trump America’s first truly anti-American president?
"It would take another constitutional amendment to allow him to run again, and he doesn’t have a Supreme Court pliant enough to wink at some exotic legal theory. Come January 2029, Trump will leave the White House." - Megan McCardle, The Washington Post today
"It is SOOO irritating that the media discusses Trump's "third term" just because he muses about it. He CAN'T run, period. Why doesn't the media focus on his pardoning of all these white-collar criminals because, as he says, they "like Trump?" Or on his mob hit on law firms that opposed him? Or or or... The docile media lets him set the agenda, which is why he was re-elected in the first place.". WaPo comment
Over the weekend Dotard Trump - showing further signs of rapid onset dementia - burped
out again that “methods” exist by which he could attempt to serve a third term in
office.
In a Sunday interview with NBC News, when asked to clarify speculative earlier comments the orange fruitcake made, Dotard yapped:
"I’m not joking. A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker.
Uh, yes he is- joking. Don’t believe his fungal caca for a second. "A lot of people want him to do it"? What people? Those in then densan IQ demographic (below 70), and who never studied American history - well, because their IQs were too low to be accepted into such classes.
Make no mistake this is Trump’s deformed microglial brain cells squealing as they degrade before 0ur eyes. Showing a traitor president unhinged by his mental collapse – claiming he can actually violate an act that is barred by the 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment reads, for those who may have forgot:
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
The amendment became part of the Constitution in 1951, when it was fully ratified by the states. That means- for those keeping track - any effort to try to circumvent it, by whatever means or 'methods', amounts to an additional violation of Trump's oath of office. This renders him subject to a 3rd impeachment.
Pretty clear, no? After all, Trump has twice been elected to the presidential office, in 2016 and 2024. Granted the 2nd time only after bamboozling millions of morons with his lies - and the help of Elon Musk's millions. E.g.
Sad To Say: Low IQ Among Voters Can Play A Role In Crashing A Democracy.
But given this POS felon already sees himself as a "King" of course he'd object to this amendment passed after World War II as a protection against “elective monarchy.”
What about an 'end around'? Could this orange dirtbag skirt the law by being elected VP, then somehow getting the then president (say Vance) to step aside? Nope. (And NBC's Kristen Welker ought to be ashamed for even hinting at such an end around in a recent Trump interview.)
According to the 12th Amendment, “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President.”
So he can't use the VP route to sneak in through the backdoor.
But amidst all the Sturm and Drang the media and too many MAGA goobers seem to be forgetting two other aspects:
(1) The oblate orange doofus is 78 now, and still eats Mickey D burgers and KFC buckets. Does anyone seriously believe he will still be alive and kicking at 82 for a 3rd run? The actuarial tables from insurance companies don't support that - especially given Dotard's diet.
(2) Even if he manages to defy the actuarial tables like he so far defied political gravity- the chances of anything coherent left of his mind are slim and none. It is more and more evident with every chaotic move he makes and word he says, his brain is running on fumes. In four years, assuming he's still alive, it will be on empty. More than likely he will either have been removed under the 25th amendment or be in a family chosen adult facility.
The key takeaways are twofold:
1- Dotard is using his brain farts about a 3rd term as a means of distraction, to take attention away from his impending "reciprocal tariffs" which will crater this economy.
2- As with his 2024 run, which ought to have been prevented by the traitor being disqualified for insurrection under Section 3 of the 14th amendment, he is using this ruse to try to avoid jail time, resurrected prosecutions.
Trouble is the barriers to achieving his fever dream are formidable and will not be as easy to surmount as his bogus executive orders have so far surmounted applicable laws. (Because of our ponderously slow to respond judicial system). Amending the Constitution to abolish the two-term limit would require either a two-thirds ‘yea’ vote of Congress or two-thirds of the states (34) agreeing to call a constitutional convention to propose the change.
Ain't gonna happen in this version of the universe. A NY Times piece probably put Trump's deformed intentions best:
"President Trump’s comments deflect attention from other controversies. And they freeze potential successors who might steal the spotlight from a lame duck."
See Also:
by Elizabeth Preza | March 31, 2025 - 5:36am | permalink
President Donald Trump on Saturday once again floated running for a third term as president, telling NBC News he’s “not joking” when he suggests he might run again despite the Constitution’s 22nd Amendment that says “no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice.”
“A lot of people want me to do it,” Trump told NBC News’ Kristen Welker on Sunday. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
Trump added he’s “focused on the current” administration.
According to a transcript of the conversation, Welker gave Trump a scenario where Vice President JD Vance “would run for office” and “if he won, at the top of the ticket, would then pass the baton to [Trump]."
And:
by Thom Hartmann | April 1, 2025 - 4:57am | permalink
If Putin wanted to kill America, how would he best do it? Exactly like this:
— Install a puppet or ally inside the government; as Lincoln foresaw, a tyrant doesn’t need to invade. He just needs to rise from within. Trump has repeatedly echoed Kremlin talking points, undermined NATO, attacked Ukraine, praised autocrats, and created chaos at home. If Putin picked a candidate, it would be Trump — and the intelligence community has confirmed Russian efforts to help him win in both 2016 and 2020.
— Dismantle American institutions from the inside; Putin’s best move would be to encourage the erosion of U.S. government capacity: devalue science, underfund law enforcement, defund agencies, destroy trust in elections, and sabotage public health. All are happening as you read these words.
At about one-eighth the mass of Pluto, Charon is a satellite
unusually close in mass to the body it orbits. (And also relatively large in relation to the parent body). Since the 1980s, astronomers
have inferred that the binary system formed following the collision of two
proto-bodies. Simulations of the system predicted a formation scenario in which
proto-Charon grazed proto-Pluto, and the system lost enough angular momentum to
match its current state.
Those simulations, however, treated the colliding objects as
fluids. C. Adeene Denton of the University of Arizona wondered whether
that was a reasonable assumption, considering that the proto-bodies that formed
the Pluto–Charon system were smaller and not traveling as fast as other modeled
impactors.
When Denton and her collaborators ran new simulations that factored in the material properties of the proto-bodies’ ice and rock, the colliding bodies deformed less than they did in the fluid simulations. Grazing collisions became hit-and-run events where Charon escaped the system entirely. The simulations indicate that to match current observations of the binary system, proto-Charon would have had to hit proto-Pluto at an almost 45° angle and slightly penetrate Pluto’s interior. Within about 60 hours, Charon would have been pushed away by the angular momentum of Pluto and captured into a close orbit.
Charon (green and purple object) and Pluto (yellow and blue) exchange material following a collision, and the angular momentum of Pluto forces Charon away. The scale bar represents 2000 km. (Figure adapted from C. A. Denton et al., Nat. Geosci. 18, 37, 2025.)
Denton and her team have dubbed the interaction “kiss and
capture.” The formation scenario may help explain when and how Pluto developed
a subsurface ocean, evidence for which has been provided by observations of
Pluto’s surface from NASA’s New Horizons and other missions.
Tidal forces exerted on Pluto by Charon as it retreated from its close
post-capture orbit could have been the source of the heat that melted the ice
and formed the ancient ocean. Data from a future orbiter mission could provide the
detailed understanding of Pluto’s interior needed to support the scenario
suggested by the modeling.
The Kuiper belt contains other bodies in binary systems with
masses that are within a few orders of magnitude of Pluto and Charon’s.
Although no known ones have mass ratios like Pluto and Charon’s, some
scientists have suggested that the binaries share a common formation history.
Denton says she suspects that the kiss-and-capture regime may prove to be a
better fit for their formation than previous theories. (C. A. Denton et
al., Nat.
Geosci. 18, 37, 2025.)
Source: Physics Today, March, 2025, p. 19
See Also:
Brane Space: New Pluto Images Show The World Many Of Us Expected
And:
Brane Space: What's With Pluto's Smaller, Rapidly Spinning Moons?
It now appears that the goofball, amateur hour (and intel violations) of the Signal chat fiasco may dog the Trumpers until the senile, lawless renegade finally leaves office - or is ousted. See e.g.
But leave it to Trump sympathizers, like the WSJ's Peggy Noonan ('A New Administration’s Signal Failure', WSJ, p. A14) adding in a sub-header:
The national-security communications snafu shows a
government in the hands of immature bros.
to try to use 'both side-ism' to assert it is just something that can happen to new administrations, trying to find their sea legs. And after all, JFK also messed up in his early months in office too, right? You know, with the Bay of Pigs fiasco? As Noonan writes:
“The Signal mess is a real mess, not something that will fade
away quickly, because it’s one of those scandals that give the world a picture
of a new administration.
At just about this time in John F. Kennedy’s presidency
(April 17-20, 1961) came the Bay of Pigs disaster, the failed invasion of Cuba
by U.S.-backed and trained exiles who had been assured of American air support
but learned on the beach it wouldn’t be forthcoming. It shadowed JFK for a long
time. The Soviets concluded he was a dilettante and inferred from his actions
an ambivalence about the use of force, which led Premier Nikita
Khrushchev to rough him up at their first summit, that June in Geneva. JFK
wasn’t prepared for such treatment. He confided to the journalist James
Reston that it was “the worst thing in my life”; Khrushchev “savaged me.”
BUT - little known to too many Americans is that a previous Repub Prez (Ike) laid this one on JFK, and with very little wiggle room to get out of it. The truth? (In short supply these days in Trumpland USA ). “Operation Zapata” (aka 'The Cuba Project') was actually initiated and developed during the Eisenhower administration and pushed on Kennedy by telling him it was "in the national security interest” to do it. What young president is going to go against his senior who was also a World War II icon, by challenging the claim? Not many.
Awed by the conviction and national security patter of an elder president with 8 years in the Oval office, JFK took Ike at his word and paid the price. Most of this didn’t come to light until the discovery of an internal CIA Report on the “Cuba Project”, which had been kept hidden for over 35 years. The results were released under ‘The Bay of Pigs Declassified’. It was actually based on the agency’s own internal audit and assessment of its behavior in respect of the event.
According to the declassified report, the Agency committed at
least four extremely serious mistakes:
i) Failure to subject the project, especially in its latter, frenzied stages to a cold and objective appraisal by the best talent available before submitting the final plan to Kennedy
ii) Failure to advise the President, at an appropriate
time, that the mission’s success had become dubious- and to recommend the
operation therefore be canceled.
iii) Failure to recognize the project had become
overt and that the military effort had become too large to be handled by the
Agency alone.
iv) Failure to reduce successive project plans
(dating back to 1959) to formal papers and to leave copies with the President
and his advisers, to request specific written approval, confirmation
thereof.
The section goes on to note (p. 53):
“The timely and objective scrutiny of the operation in
the months before the invasion – including study of all available intelligence-
would have demonstrated to Agency officials that the clandestine paramilitary
preparations had almost totally failed and there was no responsive underground
Cuban force ready to ally with the invaders.”
The commentary is even more critical of the CIA after noting (ibid.) that the United States Intelligence Board, the Office of National Estimates, and Office of Current Intelligence all provided clear warning that a careful reappraisal was needed.
RE: Cancellation (p. 55):
“Cancellation would have been embarrassing. The Brigade
could not have been held any longer in ready status, probably not held any
longer at all. Further, its members would have spread their disappointment far
and wide. Because of multiple security leaks in the huge operation, the world
already knew about the preparations, and the Government’s and nation’s
embarrassment would have been public”
Re: The Choice (ibid.)
“The choice was between retreat without honor and a gamble
between ignominious defeat and dubious victory. The Agency chose to
gamble, at rapidly decreasing odds.”
The consensus position of the National Security Archivists is that JFK was
misled by the Agency’s hubris and incompetence. Depending on the CIA for
guidance as to intelligence about this operation – in preparation for more than
two years- the Agency blew it and big time. JFK took the blame, yes, but
the CIA ultimately was responsible for not advising cancellation when they knew
the near zero chances of success, had the opportunity to do so.
As per a Baltimore Sun piece on the above named Report
findings ('Internal Probe Blamed Bay of Pigs Fiasco on CIA', p. 6A, Feb.
22, 1998), it was noted:
"The 150-page report, released after sitting in the CIA Director's
safe for nearly three decades, blames the disastrous attempt to oust Fidel
Castro not on President John F. Kennedy's failure to call airstrikes, but on
the agency itself."
"The CIA's ignorance, incompetence, and arrogance toward the 1,400
exiles it trained and equipped to mount the invasion was responsible for the
fiasco, said the report, obtained by the Associated Press yesterday."
"The document criticized almost every aspect of the CIA's handling
of the invasion: misinforming Kennedy administration officials, planning
poorly, using faulty intelligence and conducting an overt military operation
beyond 'agency responsibility as well as agency capability'."
In the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco, and learning how badly he’d been
played, JFK fired Allan Dulles – the then CIA Director - and
asserted his willingness to “smash the CIA into a thousand pieces and
scatter it to the winds.” He also fired Charles Cabell, the deputy CIA
director at the time and unwittingly laid the basis for the national security
state to act against him. Indeed, many serious JFK assassination
researchers (including me), are convinced that at least one team of mechanics
for the Dallas hit were comprised of surviving Bay of Pigs Cubans - with axes
to grind against JFK.
JFK then, in the Cuban Missile crisis (of October, 1962), stood toe to toe with Nikita Khrushchev and didn’t blink as he forced the brash Russian Premier and his Soviet ships bearing missiles to turn back – away from Cuba.
By contrast, the Signal blowup - which wreckage is still unfolding - was almost destined to occur. This is given Pete Hegseth - a former FOX News blowhard, loser and drunk - was confirmed as Secretary of Defense, and a host of ancillary clowns like Tulsi Gabbard -were confirmed by balless Repukes in the Senate. So no, there is no comparison to the Bay of Pigs. Zero.
JFK and his administration were misled by a revered, outgoing GOP President and the CIA in Operation Zapata . But in the Signal case, classified war plans were recklessly released by a cadre of arrogant little Trumpers who saw everyone else as pissants to be used and even mocked. (Like "pathetic Europeans"). The worst aspect? The Trumpers even had one of their clown crew (Steve Witkoff) in Moscow when the Signal chat went live. E.g.
https://fortune.com/2025/03/26/trump-aide-steve-witkoff-russia-signal-group-chat-atlantic/
Btw, this same jive turkey Witkoff gave a stunning interview to Tucker Carlson in which he said that Putin was “straight up” and "not a bad guy.” While embracing the Russian claim that people in the seized Ukrainian territory “want to be under Russian rule.”
More and
more making one wonder if this polemic on Trump (“Krasnov”)
doesn’t explain everything we’re seeing in terms of the carnage inflicted on government agencies, education, free speech, the courts and the Constitution.
Even the Murdoch-0wned Wall Street Journal wasn’t swallowing the Trumpsters' spin that "there were no war plans”. In an editorial yesterday the WSJ
editors thundered: “The White House won’t
let bad enough alone when it comes to the Signal app fiasco,”
Then, while conceding the White House’s point about the
adviser’s phone, it blasted the administration’s “defensive insistence that the
chat didn’t disclose any ‘war plans,’ which is a weak attempt at obfuscation.”
Holy reactionaries! Look, when you’ve got even the reactionary op-ed section of the Rupert Murdoch WSJ against you it’s time to pack it in about the gaslighting and lies. Give it up and take the loss.
Don't think the Russkies could gain access? Think again. This was a magnitude 10 clusterfuck and will follow Trump and his clown car of incompetent misfits right up until the latter resign, and Dotard is impeached - a 3rd time.
See Also:
And:
And:
And:
by David Badash | March 27, 2025 - 5:38am | permalink
Highly sensitive information belonging to several top national security officials from the Trump administration—including passwords and cell phone numbers linked to their Signal accounts—is publicly available online. The encrypted messaging app was used in a major breach of classified national security information earlier this month, according to a leading German news outlet, DER SPIEGEL, which concluded that it is “conceivable that foreign agents were privy to the Signal chat group” discussions.
“DER SPIEGEL reporters were able to find mobile phone numbers, email addresses and even some passwords belonging to the top officials,” the news site reported Wednesday. The top officials include National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth—all of whom were part of the Signal chat in which a military attack was mapped out and carried out.
The sensitive information has been used by the three top officials in various ways, and reportedly remains in use.
And:
by Heather Digby Parton | March 27, 2025 - 5:26am | permalink
It took two months, but we finally have our first "gate" of the second Trump administration: "Signalgate" — and it's a doozy. You are no doubt aware by now that The Atlantic has published an article reporting that the top national security officials known as the "Principals Committee" were gathered together in a Signal group chat to discuss the impending bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen and accidentally included the magazine's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, in the chat without realizing it.
In the chat, they discussed policy concerns about the campaign, slagged the European allies, shared what experts say are by definition classified battle plans, which included "precise information about weapons packages, targets, and timing" and even mentioned the name of a covert CIA officer. Goldberg published an article about it on Monday, complete with screenshots of the chat, although he did not publish the classified information or the name of the CIA officer. On Wednesday, the Atlantic published more from the group chat:
ABC is a circle quadrant in the above figure. There is a smaller circle within the quadrant that is tangent to arc AB at point M, and tangent to radius BC at point N.
If the radius of the smaller circle has length 7 units and line segment BN has length 8 units, then what is the length of the radius of the quadrant?
The news yesterday (WaPo) that the Social Security Administration (SSA) is in total crisis, did not come as a complete shock. But aspects of the current crisis did deliver Richter-scale angst.
For reference, this agency delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors, and poor and disabled Americans. Social Security is also the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans.
Recall much of the SSA was already eliminated as part of the DOGE cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk, further undermining the already struggling organization’s ability to provide reliable and quick service to vulnerable customers. The moves by DOGE have upended an agency that, despite the popularity of its programs, has been underfunded for years, and now faces potential insolvency in a decade
However, I had no remote conception of the sheer dimensions of the crisis, which - if allowed to continue unabated, could precipitate its collapse. And also a major societal and socioeconomic calamity.
What was I unaware of? Let me list the major "angst" elements:
- Wait times for callers at the 800 number (800-772-1213, to create an account) have now reached 120 minutes. ( Some callers report being on hold for four or five hours.)
- AARP announced Monday that more than 2,000 people a week have called the retiree organization since early February — double the usual number.
- Immeasurable pain and burdens are now being imposed on millions of recipients disabled or in failing health. This is given direct-deposit transactions and identity authentication, operations that affect almost everyone receiving benefits, will no longer be able to be done by phone.
- Customers with computers will go through the process online; those without will have to wait in line at their local field office. (26 of which have already been shuttered nationally).
- Trump disparagement of SSA employees has so destroyed SSA morale that many no longer give their all to the job. Also, they now come to work in t-shirts and jeans instead of business suits.
The backdoor gutting by Musk's DOGE renegades is cowardly but they know a front door assault is futile, as Gee Dumbya Bush learned in 2005. Then the big boner was to privatize the whole system. ("Shrub" insisted he was intent on using his "political capital" from winning the 2004 election.)
Under Bush's plan, once personal security accounts (PSAs) were established and tied to the stock market, those who opted out were eligible for "the base pension". This would be the maximum monthly allotment one can receive in the absence of any other investment, i.e. in mutual funds or index funds. The amount in 2005 -06 was estimated at $410/month. Figuring in inflation that might be $650/month now. Terrific if you are a senior and ok with cat food and kibbles.
So no, Musk and his DOGE Bros aren't going that route now, they are in the midst of hollowing out Social Security to the point it collapses and "the only option left is privatization". Why do you think Trump appointed a veteran Wall Streeter (Frank Bisignano) e.g.
to take over the agency? Out of fondness for seniors and ensuring their financial security?
And is now in the process of being confirmed - as he dodges one question after another - like he did yesterday.
Social Security was already struggling to serve the public amid an explosion of retiring baby boomers. But now Social Security has been damaged even further by the rapid cuts and chaos of Trump’s first two months in office. Many current and former officials fear that the push is part of a long-sought effort by conservatives to privatize all or part of the agency.
It's self-evident that Musk's cutting (via DOGE) of SSA offices and staff is easily the most reckless and vicious carnage of federal agency. This is because it not only torpedoes the employment of thousands - but also affects the lives of tens of millions of seniors who depend on it for their very survival.
Unless Americans take to the streets in their MILLIONS the destitution of millions may be what we have to look forward to – once the program lays in ruins. And for reference, given 2 of 5 have Social Security as their sole source of income we may be looking at a societal calamity under any privatization. Think 10 million unable to live on any 'base pension' and now homeless, living in cardboard boxes or begging for charity. That was the case prior to 1935 and could be the future if we let the Muskrat prevail.
See Also:
by Alex Henderson | March 30, 2025 - 5:29am | permalink
The Trump Administration, with the help of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Assistance (DOGE), is targeting a wide range of federal government agencies for mass layoffs — including the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA).
The SSA was established 90 years ago when Congress passed the Social Security Act of 1935 and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed it into law as part of his New Deal. Social Security was one of FDR's most important accomplishments, and the programs defenders — including former SSA Commissioner/ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley — are warning that SSA layoffs could lead to delayed Social Security benefits for millions of seniors.
The Trump Administration and DOGE, O'Malley warns, are laying off so many knowledgeable SSA employees that it will be difficult for the agency to function in the months ahead.
While O'Malley is warning about the SSA not having enough workers to function properly, Wired reporter Makena Kelly is sounding the alarm about another DOGE-related SSA problem: a tech problem.
And:
Comparing any political system to Hitler’s Nazi regime is a tricky business and often overstated. One shouldn’t diminish the horrors of the Holocaust or overstate current political conditions. Nevertheless, the lessons gleaned from the Nazi’s Gleichschaltung project are worthy of consideration.
Gleichschaltung is the German word for bringing society into line with a specific political agenda. In the two-+ months since taking the White House, Donald Trump and his wingman Elon Musk’s moves are eerily reminiscent of Hitler’s Gleichschaltung, the process of serving Hitler’s goals by consolidating power and enforcing uniformity across all sectors of society. Trump and Musk are moving quickly to dismantle the federal government and bring whatever’s left of the public sector into alignment with their agenda.
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, “Once Hitler became chancellor, he and the Nazi Party sought to ‘coordinate’ all political, social, and cultural institutions with the Nazi state.” Think: Project 2025. “The ‘coordination’ was done in the name of national unity.” Think MAGA. “Everything was subject to coordination: local government, professional organizations, social clubs, leisure activities – even those for children.”
by Sam Pizzigati | March 26, 2025 - 5:12am | permalink
Why is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, hyperventilating about Social Security? Why is he inventing unhinged tales about “fraudulent” hordes of Social Security grifters? Why is his “DOGE” chopping away staffers at the already understaffed Social Security Administration?
Let’s start with the political reality that most Americans see Social Security as absolutely essential to their future financial security. These average Americans, Musk and his like-minded super wealthy fear, are eventually going to start demanding that America’s rich pay a far bigger share of the revenue Social Security so desperately needs.
What are these rich paying now into Social Security? Peanuts.
Social Security’s basic math: Employees currently pay 6.2 percent of the money they make into the Social Security system. Their employers match that 6.2 percent. Self-employed Americans, for their part, pay 12.4 percent.
And:Social Security
by Robert Reich | March 26, 2025 - 5:20am | permalink— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
Financial services executive Frank Bisignano, Trump’s pick to become permanent commissioner of Social Security, faced lawmakers this morning in a Senate confirmation hearing. He “guaranteed” senators that he would not seek to privatize the program.
Yet almost every lawmaker on Capitol Hill knows that Social Security — the federal agency that delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, or 1 in 5 people in the United States, each month, along with their survivors, and poor and disabled Americans — is now engulfed in the worst crisis of its history.
Why the crisis?
Not because it’s running out of money. As I’ve said, just raise the cap slightly on income subject to Social Security taxes and it’s in good shape forever. Trump and Republicans want to stop taxing Social Security benefits — a tax now paid by higher-income retirees — but doing so would further deplete funds from which the program’s benefits are paid.
Not because of fraud, as Musk keeps alleging. He’s dead wrong. Social Security has a payment accuracy rate of 99.7 percent. None of Musk’s businesses comes close to matching that degree of accuracy.
And not because of high administrative costs. Its administrative costs are only 0.5 percent, the lowest by far of any large program in the public or private sector.
The crisis is entirely due to Trump and Musk....
Trump swore he would never touch Social Security. But by handing the axe to Musk — who deceptively calls the program a “Ponzi scheme” and is moving at breakneck speed to gut it — Trump could be responsible for killing it.
Trump and Musk are:
Lying about Social Security, including false claims of massive fraud — providing a pretext for actions that could undermine eligible beneficiaries’ access to benefits.
Engaging in deep cuts to staffing, new restrictions on phone-based services for the public, and “agency-wide … restructuring” and “massive reorganizations” of SSA that are neither well thought-out nor wise — all of which threaten SSA’s ability to serve seniors and people with disabilities effectively while providing a potential excuse for privatizing key services.
Jeopardizing the reliability of SSA’s systems by sharply reducing staff with technical expertise of systems. After years of underfunding, the Social Security Administration needs more staff — not fewer — to give the nation’s retirees and people with disabilities the service they deserve.
Liberal economists Paul Krugman and Robert Reich are warning that between tariffs, mass deportations and mass layoffs of federal government workers, President Donald Trump may be laying the groundwork for a long and painful recession. Conservative and libertarian economists are worried as well: the late Milton Friedman, a major influence on today's right-wing economists, was a vehement critic of tariffs — which he viewed as terrible for both consumers and businesses.
Friedman famously said, "We call a tariff a protective measure. It does protect. It protects the consumer very well against one thing: It protects the consumer against low prices."
In an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on March 24, journalist Jill Lawrence describes some of the economic pain that Trump's policies may inflict in the months to come — including much higher prices if his tariffs really get going on Wednesday, April 2 as promised (Trump has delayed his 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico more than once) in "Cruelty and Indecision: Trump’s Recipe for Economic Chaos."
