Sue in her 60s

Michelle Obama attended Rosalyn Carter's service. I don't get the speculation of why she didn't attend other political events. She's not a politician.

Then your uncle was able to take advantage of an exception (and you were a wonderful person for helping him). The new rules as shown on the SSA website don't mention any exceptions.

Much like the mandatory voter ID issue, changing the rules may cut a few instances of fraud, but will cause hardship for many more honest people. How is an invalid in a nursing home supposed to visit the SS office in person? SS must offer exceptions in this kind of circumstance.

We already pay to send mail - it's called a stamp. And even as the cost has increased, it's a pretty good bargain to get home service 6 days a week, no matter where you live. When a corporation takes over, not only will it cost more, they will stop Saturday delivery, insist on more grouping of mailboxes rather than deliver door to door, and many rural residents will be SOL.

A Newsweek article (April 2) said: "On April 14, those applying for retirement, survivor or spousal benefits and those who want to change their direct deposit information will no longer be able to verify their identity over the phone. "This means that anyone unable to prove their identity online must visit a Social Security field office to complete the process." So if someone can't navigate the SSA website, or the internet is not available, starting in two weeks they must visit the local SS office. At the same time SSA is planning on laying off 12% of the employees and closing or merging local offices. No one wants fraud, but has anyone counted how many people are getting the rug pulled out from under them with little to no warning?

Others have already commented, but I'd add a couple things: Joy was first to bring it up and Whoopi agreed. I think they were referencing the proposal (or is it now in force?) to require SS recipients to visit the office in person when they need to make a change to their bank info, for instance. This can be very hard for those who have trouble leaving their homes. It seemed to me that Joy and Whoopi briefly referred to the SS office as the place where checks are sent from, which isn't true.

And solving the Rubik's cube! Phenomenal!

An ordinary chair would have been easier to manage. Did she know she would be sitting in a director's-type chair so tall that her feet didn't reach the floor? Someone on staff should have warned her.

Signal is not approved by the Department of Defense for sensitive/classified communications. There are so many reasons. The members of this chat group are top intelligence officers. They must have been aware of the correct way to communicate securely. If they weren't aware, they are unfit for their jobs. Believe me, the spy agencies of our allies as well as adversaries are unhappy this breach of security was discovered. Undoubtedly they were working on exploiting it, if they hadn't already done so.

The inclusion of Goldberg was inadvertent. Of course it was a failure to include him in the first place and ridiculous to not know exactly who was in on this group chat. But the use of Signal was a deliberate choice that went against orders. Signal is not secure or sanctioned for sensitive government/military communications for several reasons, already stated. We don't know if Hegseth and others were using Signal all along, and whether they would have continued using it if this hadn't been made public. I don't even know if they have stopped using it at all, since they don't want to admit they were wrong to use it. If the journalist had not been on the group chat, we would have never known about the sloppy security.

Alyssa got it right. The issue about the Houthis group chat is not the accidental inclusion of a journalist. The issue is forgoing the use of a SCIF and instead using a texting platform that is not approved for sensitive/classified info. And Joy's point about the vanishing texts on Signal is also important. It violates the Records law.

I've read a couple of articles about Sen. Schumer canceling his book tour for the week and neither of them mentioned he was on The View taking questions about his vote and leadership. The part of his argument that convinced me was when he said that if the government had been shut down by this vote, the Republicans would decide when to open it back up. They are not playing around. They want the government to fail.

From Politifact: First lady Jill Biden joined President Joe Biden’s Sept. 20 Cabinet meeting to discuss updates on the women’s health initiative, a White House endeavor she has headed since its creation in 2023. First ladies, during both Republicans and Democratic administrations, have joined Cabinet meetings in the past.

You are correct, KittyQ, and it's more complicated. According to the NYT, the Biden administration interest in electric armored vehicles was part of the climate change fight. In December, after the election, a planned purchase for Tesla vehicles was made public for 2025. The Cybertruck was not specified in the plan. This week the Tesla name was removed from the document, and the whole plan is now apparently off the table. Electric vehicles are a step too far for Trump. (That's my interpretation anyway.) Edited for a typo