Chit-Chat: The Feels

[Yeah No]

An article on the Jeffrey Epstein Tapes on DJT from the Daily Beast last November. In addition to saying he was Trump's best friend for 10 years, Epstein also said that Trump is "functionally illiterate", compared him to "an emotionally challenged 9 year old", that he "liked to fuck his friends' wives", and that "The moral compass is nonexistent" with him. And I guess he knew about such things given his lack of one himself!

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-the-jeffrey-epstein-tapes-i-was-donald-trumps-closest-friend/

[Soapy Goddess]

5 hours ago, Dimity said:

No, because they don't like hypocrisy:

So let's punish the kid, then?? Unbelievable...especially for those that tout compassion. It's not the kid's fault that the Dems hate DJT. 

[SoMuchTV]

10 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

So IOW you're okay with the government giving benefits to "only" 266 scammers?!? SMH

There are known to be people currently alive in the US who are 112 or older. I don’t personally know if they are eligible for or currently receiving social security. I hope the SSA still has sufficient staffing to assign someone to check the records of those 266 people, to determine if everything is indeed correct, if they are eligible but have an incorrect birthdate in their record, or if scammers are taking advantage of the system. Perhaps they already have. 

[Dimity]

2 hours ago, ebk57 said:

Lin-Manuel Miranda is thinking ahead

 

"Hamilton" cancels tour date scheduled to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Declaration of Independence.  I wonder what next season will look like at the Kennedy Center... 

 

 

(gift link to the NYT)

From the article:

Quote

Richard Grenell, the Kennedy Center’s new president, called the cancellation “a publicity stunt that will backfire” in a post on social media.

Lin-Manuel is crying all the way to the bank Grenell.  Grow up.

[Soapy Goddess]

8 hours ago, LexieLily said:

My greatest wish is that we could fast-forward four years when we are done with him.

You're lucky. We had to wait EIGHT years to be "done"....

Correction: TWELVE

Edited 3 hours ago by Soapy Goddess
correction added

[Dimity]

21 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

So IOW you're okay with the government giving benefits to "only" 266 scammers?!? SMH

It's a far cry from the millions Musk pretended to believe were scamming the system.  Millions vs at most 266.  Spare me the faux outrage, IOW.

Edited 7 hours ago by Dimity

[Soapy Goddess]

1 minute ago, Dimity said:

Give me a break.

Ok, I have to make dinner now anyway. See ya later 😜

[Absolom]

Many times the benefits on a very aged person's record are not being paid to the wage earner at all.  Benefits are paid to widows or widowers and also to dependent disabled adult children.  Most of the time when you see a record with an unbelievable or almost unbelievable date of birth, you'll find the wage earner is deceased and the benefits are being paid to a dependent.  I once had a claimant die who left behind a disabled toddler.  The claimant was on retirement benefits and yet this toddler was more than likely going to get lifetime social security.  So if the toddler lived an average life expectancy, by the time he came off the rolls the birthdate of the wage earner would have made him look to be around 130 or more.

[Makai]

19 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

Lovely....do you have any 120+ year old scammers pictures?

Social security payments automatically end at 115. And before anyone claims that is an absolutely absurd age, the current oldest American is 114 years old and the oldest ever recorded was 119 years old. 

GN 02602.578 Termination of Entitlement for Title II Beneficiaries Who are Age 115 or Older

Musk misreads Social Security data, millions of dead people not getting benefits, experts say

I am far more concerned about the millions in revenue that is going to be lost from DOGE’s cuts than a small percentage of SS scammers. Like decimating Yosemite’s budget even though it brings in $10 or revenue for every $1 spent. I imagine that the numbers are even worse for Yellowstone. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Makai

[Dimity]

5 minutes ago, Makai said:

Social security payments automatically end at 115.

My mother lived the last few years of her life in a retirement home and it was heartbreaking how many of the very elderly reached a point where they had basically outlived their retirement income.  Going from an assured extra income from private sources to having to live only on what the government gives everyone meant they needed to leave what, for some, had been home for 10 years or more. 

Edited 7 hours ago by Dimity

[Ohiopirate02]

5 minutes ago, Absolom said:

Many times the benefits on a very aged person's record are not being paid to the wage earner at all.  Benefits are paid to widows or widowers and also to dependent disabled adult children.  Most of the time when you see a record with an unbelievable or almost unbelievable date of birth, you'll find the wage earner is deceased and the benefits are being paid to a dependent.  I once had a claimant die who left behind a disabled toddler.  The claimant was on retirement benefits and yet this toddler was more than likely going to get lifetime social security.  So if the toddler lived an average life expectancy, by the time he came off the rolls the birthdate of the wage earner would have made him look to be around 130 or more.

Yes. I mentioned on here before about how the last Civil War pension paid out in 2020. Men can sire children up until the day they die and for some their social security disability is tied to their parents' social security number. This is why one cannot use computer programs and AI to find "waste" and "fraud" in government especially when operating at warp speed. It takes time to fully understand each aspect of how a particular department runs and then more time to comb the records to find actual cases of fraud.

[tearknee]

1 hour ago, Is Everyone Gone said:

Well ... yeah. But that kind of tracks with her extremely Catholic background. Very pro-life, but more liberal socially when it comes to other issues than the hard-core evangelical MAGA base.

Also, she doesn't really hang with the Alito/Gorusch/Kavanaugh/Thomas conservative motivational speaking circuit crew.

That's why i hate about MAGA and the Resistance at the other end - if you are not 100%, you are the enemy. 

[Yeah No]

11 minutes ago, Soapy Goddess said:

So let's punish the kid, then?? Unbelievable...especially for those that tout compassion. It's not the kid's fault that the Dems hate DJT. 

It feels a little hypocritical for Republicans to get all bent out of shape over this given that Trump/Musk are slashing federal budgets that help poor people and sick kids with absolutely zero compassion for them. And their Republican base is not protesting it. In fact they seem happy about it. Zero compassion from them too for sick kids and poor people. No, they think they deserve it. They're all scamming the system in their eyes. So that's how they justify their lack of compassion. But that is a lie they tell themselves to get out of it.

Trump staged a grandstanding stunt during this speech to trap Democrats just so that they could be called uncompassionate. Meanwhile who is the most uncompassionate person ever? HIM. Everything he and his base accuse others of he and they are guilty of themselves ten times over.

Also, I remember Republicans refusing to stand during Biden's State of the Union address and they looked very bad and uncompassionate under similar circumstances. I forget the particulars but I remember the feeling. So I find it ironic and hypocritical that Republicans would make a big deal out of this when they themselves keep seated over similar and worse. I don't forget that it happened, I just forget the details. I'm hoping someone else here with a better memory can remember them.

[Dimity]

4 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

. I don't forget that it happened, I just forget the details. I'm hoping someone else here with a better memory can remember them.

How Republicans told on themselves during the State of the Union

But on Thursday night, many Republicans refused to stand when President Joe Biden celebrated even the most fundamental American values and accomplishments. House Speaker Mike Johnson was a particularly awkward example of this, as he grimaced in his chair through the majority of the speech. Johnson and his peers refused to stand to celebrate job growth, plummeting inflation, or Biden’s pledge to buy American goods and products. They didn’t stand up to support literacy or increased access to preschool.

They didn’t stand in support of removing lead pipes for clean drinking water, ending cancer or protecting our troops.

They refused to stand for IVF, even though most claim they now support it. They refused to stand up against fentanyl traffickers. Those should all be no-brainers.

Unbelievably, Republicans didn’t even stand in defense of democracy — either here at home, or around the world — and they refused to stand up for NATO, the alliance that has kept the world safe for 75 years.

[Absolom]

38 minutes ago, Ohiopirate02 said:

Yes. I mentioned on here before about how the last Civil War pension paid out in 2020. Men can sire children up until the day they die and for some their social security disability is tied to their parents' social security number. This is why one cannot use computer programs and AI to find "waste" and "fraud" in government especially when operating at warp speed. It takes time to fully understand each aspect of how a particular department runs and then more time to comb the records to find actual cases of fraud.

If you are uneducated in the matter at hand it's always wisest to keep one's mouth firmly shut until you have figured it out fully.  That's why government agencies have or had inspector generals where people who actually knew what they were seeing and how things worked were looking for fraud, waste, and abuse and helping devise ways to both detect it and prevent it.  They even had hotline phone numbers so people could call in and report such things as a putative 120 year old receiving benefits or a neighbor who was taking their grandson's money.

[Absolom]

59 minutes ago, Makai said:

Social security payments automatically end at 115. And before anyone claims that is an absolutely absurd age, the current oldest American is 114 years old and the oldest ever recorded was 119 years old. 

Social security payments will continue beyond age 115 should someone still be alive.  They or a representative just have to respond to the correspondence.  Generally the accounts that are terminated have already been suspended so it's an easy process.  

59 minutes ago, Dimity said:

My mother lived the last few years of her life in a retirement home and it was heartbreaking how many of the very elderly reached a point where they had basically outlived their retirement income.  Going from an assured extra income from private sources to having to live only on what the government gives everyone meant they needed to leave what, for some, had been home for 10 years or more. 

I seriously began to wonder if I was going to have to pay to keep my mother in memory care as she got close to outliving her savings and investments. 

[Is Everyone Gone]

16 minutes ago, tearknee said:

That's why i hate about MAGA and the Resistance at the other end - if you are not 100%, you are the enemy. 

I don't think they're the same. Just today I saw a very gay MAGA guy call someone the f-slur and he made a slur about Kamala being a chimp.

[Dimity]

Fight between bald eagle and Canada goose in Burlington bay 'very symbolic,' says photographer

 

A bald eagle may have thought it spotted an easy lunch in a Canada goose sitting on an icy bay in Burlington, Ont., but according to Mervyn Sequeira — who watched and photographed a 20-minute battle between the two birds — the goose held its own.

During his weekly Sunday morning family hike at the LaSalle Marina, Sequeira and his family witnessed a rare event — a fight between the national bird of the U.S. and the iconic Canadian animal. 

Spoiler - the eagle didn't dine on goose

 

 

 

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Dimity

[Kemper]

As a lifelong Democrat I was embarrassed by my Party last night. Juvenile antics, silly symbolism. There is no excuse for how terribly they are serving us and their country. Always at least one step behind.I hate to keep repeating myself but most all of the blame goes to the leadership; for decades. And it is horrifying to think that this is best they can do and will not change.

We may lose more seats in the mid-terms.  My aged coffee group could do a better job of taking us into some light and showing some grit. I am now drinking camomile tea before bed; I hate camomile tea. 

[Anela]

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/letters/2025/03/05/bernie-moreno-and-jon-husted-have-ghosted-ohioans-letters/80704035007/?taid=67c8475413c5f20001e18e3e

 

Moreno and Husted have ghosted Ohioans. It’s been crickets. | Letters

- - - - -

Republicans - we've found two people who don't want to do their jobs, but are still getting paid.

 

Edited 5 hours ago by Anela

[ProudMary]

2 hours ago, Soapy Goddess said:

You're lucky. We had to wait EIGHT years to be "done"....

For the record, we're now in a fifth year of a Trump administration. This isn't a fresh start. He hit the ground running this time, with years of planning for Project 2025.

EIGHT years you say? So, we're not discussing President Biden here. It's President Obama we're talking about. I'm always interested in getting an answer to this question from those on the right: How exactly did the Obama administration negatively impact your life personally?

Without getting into too many specifics, I can tell you on a micro level that my life and the lives of my family members have been threatened since January 20, 2017 when DJT took office. The continual attacks on my health insurance then through the Affordable Care Act, his criminal mishandling of the pandemic, which took the life of a loved one. There were attacks on Social Security in the first administration too, but not to the extreme level we are seeing now. I'm terrified. And they've already come for Medicare with the loss of telehealth coverage next month.

I'm not the same person I was eight years ago. It's been continual anxiety about important issues that negatively impact people's lives and that's coming from a middle-class, heterosexual, white woman; so I even have some privilege, just not as much as a man. I can't even begin to put myself in the shoes of people of color, or immigrants or LGBTQ+ people. DJT's policies have had long-reaching, detrimental effects on me and on my family, forever changing us. And we are far from the only ones.

So, what were the awful impacts to your own personal life under President Obama? Why were those eight years so tough for you?

[Makai]

I’m sure I will never get a satisfying answer, but I truly wonder how Trump supporters have any level of happiness over the state of our economy. I don’t agree with it, but I can understand that some are happy to see social programs ended, mass deportation, certain groups losing rights and the end of perceived fraud. It represents a very fundamental difference in values from me but I can still understand the train of thought. But I can’t even fathom how anyone could look at what is happening to food costs, the housing market, energy costs, gasoline costs or the stock market and be happy. I can only imagine that it comes from not realizing what is happening but I know smart people who still believe that Trump is going to be good for the economy even as we are watching things get measurably worse everyday. 

[Soapy Goddess]

2 hours ago, ProudMary said:

EIGHT years you say? So, we're not discussing President Biden here. It's President Obama we're talking about. I'm always interested in getting an answer to this question from those on the right: How exactly did the Obama administration negatively impact your life personally?
 

My mistake. I was thinking 12, but typed 8, and I just corrected my original post.  

I was simply responding to someone who said they couldn't wait 4 years for DJT's term to end. It was about time frame, nothing more.

[Soapy Goddess]

6 hours ago, Yeah No said:

It feels a little hypocritical for Republicans to get all bent out of shape over this given that Trump/Musk are slashing federal budgets that help poor people and sick kids with absolutely zero compassion for them. And their Republican base is not protesting it. In fact they seem happy about it. Zero compassion from them too for sick kids and poor people.

You know, it's one thing to approve or oppose Rep agenda at a town hall meeting. But it's completely disheartening and hypocritical to ignore all the victims at Trump's formal Address. Would it have killed the Dems to acknowledge them?

I felt terrible for the Russian hostage and his 95-year old mother too. At least give the guy a hand or quick salute. The spiteful hatred is out of control.

5 hours ago, Kemper said:

As a lifelong Democrat I was embarrassed by my Party last night. Juvenile antics, silly symbolism. There is no excuse for how terribly they are serving us and their country. Always at least one step behind.I hate to keep repeating myself but most all of the blame goes to the leadership; for decades. And it is horrifying to think that this is best they can do and will not change.

I applaud you for seeing and acknowledging what most of us saw last night.

They (Dems) really need to grow up and learn to love our country more than they hate their opponent. It's all-consuming for them.  

Edited 39 minutes ago by Soapy Goddess

[Anela]

 

Macron says he’ll confer with allies on protecting Europe with French nuclear deterrence

https://apnews.com/article/french-president-macron-tariffs-nuclear-206478d8bd7ccb20eb79b60c30af018b

 

Russia-Ukraine war live: Macron says Europe under threat ahead of EU summit

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/3/6/russia-ukraine-war-live-macron-says-europe-under-threat-ahead-of-eu-summit

😔