FAM 13: How to Protect YOUR Social Security
The Constitutional Crisis Is Here | Short Takes On The News | Soul Classics Mix
There’s a reason Social Security is called the third rail in American politics. Like a subway car where the third rail is the electrified one that powers the train the saying means that if you mess with that one, you die. Or blow up like a Tesla. Either way, your life in politics is over.
And there’s a good reason for that, too.
Social Security is one of the most popular programs in American history. After it was passed in 1935 it radically altered the lives of a vast majority of Americans. Before it, the majority of seniors lived in poverty. That meant no nursing homes unless you were rich. And that meant your parents likely moved in and died in your house. Really. For millions of people. No mom and dad going on a cruise. It was mom and dad laid out in the parlor. Imagine the freedom for seniors when they could afford to downsize to an apartment and go see the Smokey Mountains. And be cared for in retirement homes when the time came. Imagine what that did to the lives of their children.
So, yeah, Social Security is a big deal.
Just in case you don’t know, Social Security isn’t an entitlement or welfare. Basically, it’s a forced 401k or savings account that the government won’t let you touch until you retire. It’s also a generational pact — my taxes are now paying my mother’s Social Security. Sometimes (like now) there are birthrate difference that drain the trust. They call them the Baby Boomers for a reason, because there are so many and it’s taking a toll on the Trust Fund.
You’d think that that would be a major problem, but, in reality it’s not. The trust fund isn’t in dire shape but any problems could go away tomorrow. While it fluctuates a little, everyone in America only pays Social Security taxes on the first $176,000 and that’s it. Raise that number to $200,000 for, say, 10 years then phase it out. Boomer problem solved. Literally, that’s all you have to do.
So, don’t believe Republicans who say Social Security needs to be privatized. It never has and it never will. But, they’ve always wanted to kill it, mostly without admitting it. Now Musk and DOGE seem to be taking a run at it — doing what can only be described as purposefully cripple it as an excuse to make another run at privatization.
Because it still is the third rail this whole thing has been done in fits and starts. Crashing the website with new Musk code, getting rid of offices, then bringing them back, requiring seniors to go to offices, then not. Taking away phone services then giving them back. Maybe. It’s all by design or ineptitude. Wired reports that the ultimate goal is to cut 87% of staff at Social Security Regional Offices.
And what about illegal immigrants you ask? Well, they pay into Social Security but get no benefits. None. So, they actually help the bottom line of the system. Trying to kick them out is not just a way to track down hard-working immigrants keeping our economy afloat, but gut they system so it can be privatized.
Needless-to-say, millions of seniors are freaked out about all of this, as they rightfully should be.
That’s where the “protect yourself” part of the email subject line comes in. I read a great article here on Substack that goes through an easy check-list of things you can do to get your correct Social Security information and have it as proof in case anything accidentally happens.
It also covers Medicare and has all the numbers you need, scripts to use when you call, where to find free legal assistance if you need it, and a bunch of other really helpful information.
It’s called Centered America: Social Security Crisis Plan and you can read and print it HERE.
The DOGE Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Illusion
I’m not even going to get into the truthfulness of Musk on what he says he’s saving and how he might be personally gaining. But, this chart should give you pause if you claim to care about the bottom line and fiscal responsibility.
Any actual DOGE savings are totally eliminated by the lack of funds brought in by the IRS going after rich tax cheats. Because rich people with lawyers cheat a whole lot more than average folks. But, because they have accounts and lawyers and are more savvy than hiding money under their mattress, it takes more (and specialized) IRS agents to catch, prosecute, and retrieve the money they owe.
It’s exactly these IRS agents that DOGE and Trump have eliminated. Not only does it mean less revenue for the government, but it’s virtually a green light for the rich and corporations to cheat and break the law as much as possible.
If and when we get through this we’re going to find that it has been a Golden Age of cheating and white collar crime. Also know that they’re going to try the waste, fraud, and abuse shell game on both Medicare and Social Security.
It won’t work.
Shorter Hot Takes? I’ve Got Em…
Thought I’d do something a little different this week. There’s been so much going on that choosing something to deeply dig into has been nearly impossible. So, I decided I’d just write some shorter thoughts on a number of things throughout the week.
Putting them together kind of shows my ever-changing mood and writing style: From eager and earnest to biting anger and mocking to disgust and exhaustion.
So go all our days under the Trump 2.0 Regime.
Breaking: The Trump Regime Defies The Supreme Court
For those who have been watching we all knew that it was going to happen. Be it by illegal executive orders, or the illegal cutting of Congressionally-appropriated funds, or by issues surrounding deportations, Trump was always going to defy any and all courts.
Now he’s done it, defying both lowers courts and the Supreme Court in bringing back the man mistakenly sent to a gulag in El Salvador. This was an admitted mistake which they’ve decided to make a true Constitutional Crisis — so any idea that this isn’t exactly what they wanted to happen is fooling themselves.
And “illegals” is just the beginning. Now Trump is openly advocating sending anyone he wants to a foreign prison without any charges or any hearings. That’s EXACTLY what he is saying. If that’s not a Dictatorship I don’t know what is.
Can the Supreme Court actually enforce anything? Will Democrats say anything? Will our mainstream media even cover it?
All Of These Things Are Just Like The Other
Click on the photo above and look at the collection of stories from the past few days. What is the common thread?
Dictatorship.
Dictatorships don’t start with Martial Law and troops in the streets. They start exactly like this — pushing and probing on all fronts to collect new powers and stifle and silence opposition. The problem is that it’s happening on so many fronts, and so many other things are dominating the news (let’s tank the global economy!) that we fail to see the commonalities and connections. But they are right there in the open.
Both Democrats and resisters in general and our mainstream media need to establish a commonly-understood template in which all these kinds of stories can be added to when they happen. For the opposition that’s agreeing on language (dictatorship not authoritarianism which the public doesn’t get) and it’s as simple as some Road to Dictatorship ongoing series. We must help the general public connect the dots.
MAGA Delusion on Display
The fact that you could watch this utterly insane, contradictory, unplanned, chaotic, unexplainable series of moves that was bringing the entire global economy to the verge of collapse and MAGA buys that it was some brilliant deal making is one of the biggest tells that these people are utterly brainwashed cultists.
These fucking idiots would lose their jobs, their entire retirement savings, their houses, they’d lose everything, and end up huffing spray paint and freezing to death under a highway overpass wrapped in a MAGA flag made in China and their last words would be some muttering something about the Deep State.
The Real Class Warfare
The top 1%, hell, the top 20% of people in this country are just miles and miles above all the rest of us. And the gulf keeps widening.
First class is for suckers. Gotta have a jet. It’s not a boat, it’s a yacht. Scratch that, a mega-yacht with a boat that tags along. One house, two houses. Let’s go three. Now let’s buy the houses on either side and tear them down.
Prices? They don’t matter. Groceries? Please. And playing the market is just a scratch-off bingo card with some strategy. It’s for fun. These people could never spend all their money. The children can’t spent it. And neither will the grandkids.
And with all that it’s still NEVER enough.
Never enough to realize that sure, maybe you’re smart and worked hard, but you realize that once you got in the club it because it’s almost impossible to fail.
The Joe Biden Depression
I saw a clip of Santa Monica Nazi Stephen Miller on FOX saying with a straight face last week that in December — under Joe Biden’s failed economic policies — that the United States was in a depression. A DEPRESSION. Needless to say, we had the best economy in the world just a few months ago.
Trump was emphasizing how terrible things were. Of course, there’s always misdirection from Trump almost tanking the entire global economy. But, keep an eye out, because this feels like a concerted effort to try to hypnotize the sheeple and use the depression hangover as a justification of coming Republican tax cuts to jump start the economy.
More Infuriating January 6th Brainwashing
The pardoning of the January 6th insurrectionists has to be one of the most un-American acts ever by a President of the United States. But since he took office and the firehose of shit was turned on, you may not have noticed that Trump took the pardons even further since.
First, his personal Justice Department expanded the definition of the original pardons to cover unrelated gun issues. As Politico reported:
The Justice Department now says that President Donald Trump’s clemency for Jan. 6 rioters covers unrelated crimes that were discovered during FBI searches stemming from the attack on the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors revealed the new legal position this week in court papers seeking to drop gun charges against two former Jan. 6 defendants. The guns in question were found at the two men’s homes during the Jan. 6 investigation, but the alleged gun crimes themselves were not connected to the riot.
The two men whose charges are being dropped — Daniel Ball and Elias Costianes — both had been awaiting trial on Jan. 6-related charges when Trump took office. Ball faced charges of assault, while Costianes had misdemeanor charges pending. Those cases quickly disappeared as a result of Trump’s clemency. But in separate proceedings, they also had both been accused of illegally possessing weapons that law enforcement officers discovered in Jan. 6-related searches.
And just last week< Trump took it even further, opening the door for pardoned J6 criminals to get refunded for the money they had to pay for damaging the Capitol:
Jan. 6 defendants whose convictions were wiped out by President Donald Trump are entitled to a refund of restitution payments they made to cover damage to the Capitol, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
The Orwellian campaign to brainwash as many Americans as possible continues. Beyond the chilling Dictatorship playbook part of all this, it’s just utterly disgusting — a continuation of the worst single threat to our Democracy since the Civil War.
Okay, that’s enough of the daily depression and anger. While terrible for America the Republican budget is coming and let me tell you — it’s not going to be popular, especially in the context of this whole tariff debacle.
Culture Club: The Next Big Binge | The White Lotus | Soul Mix
Both Amy and I have had a really busy work week, with a bunch of quality shows queuing up that we haven’t gotten to. The first episode of the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is out. There’s a whole new season of Severance, and Adolescence on Netflix has been suggested by multiple friends. Also have the new Seth Rogan Hollywood Satire The Studio in the mix. We even have three SNL episodes we haven’t watched. Hopefully work and the world stays a little more stable and we get back to the list this week.
The White Lotus Season 3 Finale
If you’ve been hooked on The White Lotus you know that the season three finale came out two Sundays ago. I love the show and loved the first few episode, as you can read in my review here.
But, the show went off the rails a bit as it progressed and the general consensus was that the finale was the worst of the bunch. I agree and wrote down our impressions the next day. Still great performances and sumptuous location cinematography, but some major plot holes and missed opportunities. If you want to read my thoughts, click here.
Tuesday Music Mix: Soul Classics
Because I don’t have a thematic playlist this week I decided to jump on a 60s/70s soul classic playlist inspired by last week’s Hacks mix. Using those more obscure songs as a base I mixed in some more familiar hits to give it some balance. Hope you enjoy!
Housekeeping: I know people probably haven’t been able to sleep wondering about the results of my poll regarding additional newsletters. It took me some time to figure out the math between the two polls (seriously) but the results are: 80% yes, 13% no, 7% indifferent. So, yes, I will keep that option open — but won’t make it a regular thing.
Also, I shortened the email subject line for this Feed After Midnight newsletter. Less characters which is better, especially on mobile.
And, again, would love you to hit the SHARE button — or forward this email to anyone you think might be interested. Appreciate it!