Trump and Musk are crashing Social Security and its elderly customers are panicking

 

 The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. ...

The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and legal immigrants who need Social Security cards with less access or shut out of the system altogether, according to those familiar with the problems. ...

Leland Dudek — the accidental leader elevated to acting commissioner after he fed data to Musk’s team behind his bosses’ backs — has issued rapid-fire policy changes that have created chaos for front-line staff. Under pressure from the secretive Musk team, Dudek has pushed out dozens of officials with years of expertise in running Social Security’s complex benefit and information technology systems. Others have left in disgust. ...

Alarmed lawmakers are straining to answer questions from angry constituents in their districts. Calls have flooded into congressional offices. The AARP announced on Monday that more than 2,000 retirees per week have called the organization since early February — double the usual number — with concerns about whether benefits they paid for during their working careers will continue. Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans. 

Trump has said repeatedly that the administration “won’t touch” Social Security, a promise that aides say applies to benefit levels that can only be adjusted by Congress. But in just six weeks, the cuts to staffing and offices have already taken a toll on access to benefits, officials and advocates say. ...

More.

This should be good for election turnout in November 2026.

Ukraine should just surrender to Putin and join the East, given Trump's immoral treatment of Ukraine

 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard for The UK Telegraph:

Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold

Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations

 

Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.

The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.

The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. ...

Trump said the US had spent $300bn on the war so far, adding that it would be “stupid” to hand over any more. In fact the five packages agreed by Congress total $175bn, of which $70bn was spent in the US on weapons production. Some of it is in the form of humanitarian grants, but much of it is lend-lease money that must be repaid. ...

Talk of Ukraine’s resource wealth has become surreal. A figure of $26 trillion is being cast around for combined mineral reserves and hydrocarbons reserves. The sums are make-believe.  ...

Ukraine cannot possibly meet his $500bn demand in any meaningful timeframe, leaving aside the larger matter of whether it is honourable to treat a victim nation in this fashion after it has held the battle line for the liberal democracies at enormous sacrifice for three years. Who really has a debt to whom, may one ask? ... 

[Zelensky] has to pick between the military violation of Ukraine by Putin, and the economic violation of Ukraine by his own ally.

Secular bear Rosie not throwing in the towel . . . again

 Rosie was on the wrong side of the trade in April 2011 when the bear went bullish. Is he again now?

He uses the same phrase, too, "not throwing in the towel", lol.

In April 2011 he claimed he wasn't throwing in the bear towel after the S&P 500 had already recovered from the 2008 debacle. Then the market slid 20% all the way to October 3, 2011, with the index falling to 1099 again, right where it was exactly three years earlier on the very same date.

It was . . . spooky!

If you had followed his take that April, you'd have lost 20% again. On top of all your losses in 2008. Ouch. Ouch.

Many of us who had kept our powder dry couldn't believe it in October 2011. We thought we were headed back to the depths of March 2009 again, too, just like the last time the market fell to 1099. I mean, that was a free-fall from there in 2008. TARP got signed in a panic that week to stop it, to no avail.

But October 2011 turned out to be more of a retest than we realized, one of the last great buying opportunities of the period. It was a brutal, crushing period of doubt, which some of us still live with.

Now it's the reverse, with unbelievable euphoria everywhere, with the S&P 500 at 6075.

A period of euphoria seems to me like a damned strange time to throw in the bear towel again, after missing out for two years by his own admission. I have no idea if Rosie is the contrary indicator he appears to be.

But the valuation of the market is pre-1920s crazy right now. It is literally not on the charts of our experience in the post-war, or even from the roaring '20s. We have GDP of $29.354 trillion, meaning a valuation of 207, when fair value has been 81 since the Great Depression.

I'm not in it, and I intend to keep staying out, because I can.

Good luck out there to those of you who go where angels fear to tread.

Just a reminder that way back in February Emerson College Polling showed Democrats had no options other than Joe Biden or Kamala Harris, with Trump beating Joe by one point and Harris by three

 

 

 The Nancy Pelosi/Barack Obama/Jane Fonda-Rob Reiner cabal which ousted Joe Biden deserves all the scorn it has received, and more.

In February 2024, when 2023 articles from this cabal about dumping Kamala Harris were in the rearview mirror, Harris was under-performing Biden v Trump by just one point, and Harris v Trump was doing 7 points better than Gavin Newsom v Trump and 10 points better than Gretchen Whitmer v Trump. There was no alternative to Joe but Kamala.

Emerson here.

 

 

And Joe always knew that, which is why he immediately endorsed Harris on the Sunday of the July coup. He knew she was weak, but he knew her Democrat competition was weaker.

In the end Trump's win over Harris was by only 1.61 points, half what Emerson had predicted, and almost the one point by which Emerson had predicted Trump would beat Biden, the stronger candidate.

Democrats should never have dumped Joe Biden.

They panicked, and the panic lost them The White House. Had they rallied around their president, he might have survived. Instead they lost their nerve and abandoned him to the predator.

Democrats have too many herd followers, not enough leaders. And had Harris truly been a leader, she would have rallied the troops to her president, and she did not. And the pressure from the herd is also what made Joe Biden drop out, signaling his weakness.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, got bloodied by a gunman but defiantly got up and continued to fight, just as he's done all along, rallying his followers by himself to himself, the simple elemental difference between winning and losing.

 

 

The scandal of Pete Hegseth is that HE THINKS the encounter with Jane Doe was bad enough to threaten his job at FOX NEWS but not at the Department of Defense

Trump’s Pentagon pick paid woman after sex assault allegation but denies wrongdoing, his lawyer says

  Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News. ...

The person who reported the assault — whose name, age and sex were not released — had bruises on the right thigh, according to the city’s statement. ...

At the time of the 2017 accusations, Hegseth, now 44, was going through a divorce with his second wife, with whom he has three children. She filed for divorce after he had a child with a Fox News producer who is now his wife, according to court records and social media posts by Hegseth. His first marriage ended in 2009, also after infidelity by Hegseth, according to court records.

 

Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick for defense secretary, paid accuser to save job at Fox News, his lawyer says

 Fox News host Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump's pick to serve as defense secretary, paid a confidential financial settlement to a woman who accused him of sexual assault out of concern that the allegation would lead to his firing from the cable news giant, his lawyer told CBS News. ...

The city of Monterey confirmed the 2017 investigation into Hegseth and said in a statement that investigators found the woman had "contusions" on her right thigh. No charges were filed, Parlatore said. 

The Washington Post, which first reported the financial payment, obtained what it referred to as a memo that was sent to the Trump transition team by a friend of the accuser alleging Hegseth raped a conservative group staffer in his room after drinking at the hotel bar. According to the Post, the memo states that the day after the incident, the accuser "had a moment of hazy memory of being raped the night before, and had a panic attack."

Toilet paper shortage blamed on Hurricane Helene demand and/or panic over the port strike which lasted three days, either way we're sol so to speak

Walmart releases statement after seeing increased demand for paper towels, toilet paper

 A spokesperson for Walmart said there has been “increased demand in some communities on items like bath tissue and paper towels - especially in areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.”

 Port strike 2024 triggers toilet paper 'panic buying' at Costco locations

The rush to buy is in response to thousands of dockworkers going on strike Tuesday, shutting down 36 ports along the East and Gulf coasts. ...

Jennifer Lee, of our sister station FOX 29 Philadelphia, spoke with Dr. Subodha Kumar – a professor at the FOX School of Business at Temple University – who says the port strikes won’t have much of a short-term impact on consumers, and absolutely none on the supply of toilet paper.

Trump and Harris agreeing on ending the filibuster rule reminds me of McCain and Obama agreeing on something inadvisable in 2008

 

They both interrupted their campaigns to vote for TARP on October 1, 2008, which became law on Friday, October 3, but did nothing to stop the panic.

On Monday, October 6 Jim Cramer came on the Today Show at 7am and told people who needed their money in the next five years to sell their stocks.

The S&P 500 fell from 1099 to 848 by October 27th, almost 23%, on its way to the March 9, 2009 closing low at 676 (there was an intraday low of 666 on March 6).

Over 500 bank failures marked the era fueled by these events, and more than 6 million lost their homes.

And no one went to jail.

Nothing good will come of ending the filibuster, either, not with the country this divided.

 

The panic in Democrat circles this afternoon is palpable, showcased by Trump judge Juan Merchan postponing Trump's sentencing until Sep 18th, which gives them time to figure out what the hell is going on

 

DNC chair Jaime Harrison and Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez gaslight DNC committee members in Saturday conference call, disable chat function and disallow questions

Here:

Multiple committee members on the call, most granted anonymity to talk about the private discussion, described feeling like they were being gaslighted — that they were being asked to ignore the dire nature of the party’s predicament. The call, they said, may have worsened a widespread sense of panic among elected officials, donors and other stakeholders.

Instead, the people said, Harrison offered what they described as a rosy assessment of Biden's path forward. The chat function was disabled and there were no questions allowed.

“I was hoping for more of a substantive conversation instead of, ‘Hey, let’s go out there and just be cheerleaders,’ without actually addressing a very serious issue that unfolded on American television for millions of people to see," said Joe Salazar, an elected DNC member from Colorado, who was on the call. “There were a number of things that could have been said in addressing the situation. But we didn’t get that. We were being gaslit.” ... “This should not be a close race,” Salazar said, pointing to Trump's criminal record and long history of falsehoods. “They’re the ones who should be looking for a new nominee, not us. And unfortunately for us, because of our president’s performance on Thursday night, that is now an open discussion.”

Supremes overturn 1984 "Chevron deference" to federal agencies, forcing Congress to either give teeth to regulatory ambiguities and so pay the political consequences they otherwise avoided, or defer to judges deciding for them from now on

 

 My guess is they'll tend more to let the judges decide, because Congress is, in fact, timid, lazy, phony, tiny, and small, same as Obama.

It's complicated, but it's a good thing because it restores accountability to the political sphere. No one elects the agencies. But that will cut both ways, seeing how politicized the judiciary has become.

It's also a BFD. The New York Times is in a panic over it.

An attorney for the commercial fishermen said Chevron deference "incentivizes a dynamic where Congress does far less than the Framers (of the U.S. Constitution) anticipated, and the executive branch is left to do far more by deciding controversial issues via regulatory fiat."

 

More.

The panic is real: You'd think Democrats would at least wait for the Supremes to rule on Trump presidential immunity tomorrow before giving up like this

 

Ukraine didn't target the beach in Crimea where Russians were collateral damage of Russian defense operations

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Video shows panicked beachgoers fleeing from falling shrapnel after Russian air defense intercepted the U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Don't sun on the beach in a war zone, unless you enjoy that sort of thing.

More.

NeverTrump Bulwark is in a panic that Biden has already radicalized moderates

 Majorities now approve of Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans—including 42 percent of Democrats—as well as a border wall. And while violent crime has fallen dramatically since the Trump presidency, voters see more disorder. Drugstores didn’t clear their shelves and lock up merchandise because of widespread looting until Biden was in charge. Videos of open-air drug markets and mayhem on subways don’t just make people scared, they make them angry. 

There has been record inflation too, and high prices contribute to a pervasive sense of anxiety in the electorate. But Biden would be far better off politically if high prices were the sole challenge he had with voters. Disorder is a drain on the American psyche. And it’s threatening Biden’s re-election, as it leaves voters receptive to the kind of harsh law-and-order appeal Trump prefers. ... look at the polls ... There is bipartisan fury over protests and immigration. Trump is running to restore order, and voters have given him a lead.

The column is devastating for Biden.

Antifa's anarchist dream comes to Haiti: Bullet ridden bodies in the streets of the safe part of town

Haiti violence: Residents see no end to crisis as capital city reels from gang warfare

12 hours ago

By Will Grant, BBC News, Cap-Haitien, Haiti

Reuters

 

Violence has engulfed the streets of Port-au-Prince

"Port-au-Prince is in panic mode," a friend in the Haitian capital texted me.

Residents of Petionville, a wealthier area of of the city, are shaken after their most violent day so far in the country's spiralling security crisis.

More than a dozen bullet-ridden bodies lay in the street - the victims of the latest gang rampage.

As well as the early morning killing spree, the home of a judge was also attacked - a clear message to the country's elites vying for power.

All this in what is supposedly the safe part of town.

Unicef's executive director, Catherine Russell, has called the situation in Haiti "horrific" and likened the lawlessness to the post-apocalyptic film, Mad Max.

Certainly the latest violence in Port-au-Prince is a reminder, if any were needed, that Haiti remains closer to anarchy than stability.

In that malaise, the UN has also estimated, because of the closure of so many hospitals in the capital, some 3,000 pregnant women were at risk of having to give birth with no maternity care.

More here.

 

Remember the $13 billion poured into Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake?

 

Money is no match against guns, which are strictly prohibited in Haiti, so the vast number of law-abiding people there are completely defenseless against the gangs.

John Kass: Illegal alien invasion replacing blacks began with Joe Biden's 2020 campaign invitation to illegals to storm the border

Remember kids. White replacement is a racist trope. But Black replacement, that's the real deal lol.

 

Here:

At least 8 million illegals have come into the U.S. invited by Biden that are savaging the Democratic cities. ...

Black Democrats are so angry about Biden’s millions of illegal aliens crowding them out of the blue cities, and feeling betrayed by Biden, Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon “Panic Attacks” Johnson, that they’re publicly talking about leaving the Democrat plantation. They can see what he’s doing. He’s replacing them. ...

Remember how this all began.

It began with Joe Biden putting out the call to all illegals everywhere, to storm America’s borders and demand asylum and he would let them in.

A number of people stated emphatically in the last year that Biden would drop out, maybe after today he will have to

Dems Panic Over Hur's Report on Biden’s Mental Fitness

Peter Nicholas, NBC News

  

 

LOL here come the Democrats-in-panic headlines from Democrats

 

Don't Panic When You See New Trump-Biden Poll Numbers

Paul Waldman, MSNBC

 

An Antidote to Democratic Panic Syndrome

Heather Parton, Salon

 

Progressives and liberals are in a panic over Ron DeSantis because he's tapping into a huge shift in public support for law and order and against LGBT

 Gallup shows the huge shifts in 2023 from 2022.

Support for the death penalty is up 5-points nationally. Support for LGBT is down 7-points. Those are massive changes.

And on most of the issues tracked, which are barometers of libertinism in the United States, support is also down, from birth control to fornication, to teenage sex and divorce.

Win or lose, DeSantis represents the backlash against the left which is sweeping the country.

 

Besides their bad character, what do Trump and Obama have in common in 2009 and 2020?

 Trump and Obama signed off on the two most fiscally irresponsible periods in post-war history, and Biden two years in looks set to join them.

The Executive is supposed to be a check on irresponsible spending. But both Trump and Obama went right along with it instead of vetoing the outrageous spending of the periods.

What else do they have in common?

Two crises, both of which plunged the country into hysteria.

The Great Financial Crisis did not begin to end until March 2009 when the FASB signaled its intent to suspend mark-to-market rules. The stock market bottomed almost immediately, but as with all cases of mass hysteria it took time for the panic to pass as other sectors recovered "one by one". 

The Pandemic Crisis gripped the country in March 2020, sending millions home from work, stocks plunging, toilet paper into shortage, businesses into bankruptcy, and on and on. With just about everyone vaccinated who was going to be by the end of 2021, the country gradually started to come out of it in 2022, eschewing jabs, masks, and social distancing as it became clear that the Omicron variant was infecting tens of millions despite all those measures.

2020 was the single most fiscally irresponsible year in the post-war since 1953. Federal expenditures, bloated by panicked bailouts, outpaced tax revenues by a whopping 216%.

Only 2009 comes close, at 210%, the second worst year on record.

Third, not shown, was 2010 at 196%, and fourth, not shown, was 2021 at 176%, each a part of the respective crisis periods.

Do you know what else those two years share in common?

Spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives.

In 2009 and 2020 its Speaker just happened to be the same person, as she was in 2010 and 2021.

Nancy Pelosi owns the four most fiscally irresponsible years in the entire history of the post-war. Her two speakerships literally busted out all over. 

Now, our whole pot-pickled city is that campus

 I gave a guy at Pret a Manger a $20 bill for an $8 cup of soup. I asked for a bag. He took the $20 and promptly forgot the soup, my change, the bag — and me. He wandered off, inexplicably waving my Andrew Jackson like a flag, until I appealed to his colleagues.

I haven’t seen so much pot-induced lethargy since my Vietnam-era college days, when so many fellow students were high that their panicked weed-flushing during a rumored police raid overwhelmed the campus pipes.

More.