Still, if less and less workers put money into the fund, and more and more recipients seek to benefit from it, exhaustion of the fund is inevitable. The aging population and lower birth rates make this reality an increasing concern. — NOS4A2

Absolutely, and that's exactly why a comprehensive plan is needed- and it will have to include more revenue (i.e. taxes). If Trump removes the income tax on SS benefits, it means even higher taxes on those who are working to pay for the higher outlays.

Recently published:

Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past, Steve Benen.

For as long as historical records have existed, authoritarian regimes have tried to rewrite history to suit their purposes, using their dictatorial powers to create myths, spread propaganda, justify decisions, erase opponents, and even dispose of crimes.

Today, as America’s Republican Party becomes increasingly radicalized, it’s not surprising to see the GOP read from a similarly despotic script. Indeed, the party is taking dangerous, aggressive steps to rewrite history—and not just from generations past. Unable to put a positive spin on Trump-era scandals and fiascos, GOP voices and their allies have grown determined to rewrite the stories of the last few years—from the 2020 election results and the horror of January 6th to their own legislative record—treating the recent past as an enemy to be overpowered, crushed, and conquered. The consequences for our future, in turn, are dramatic.

...Steve Benen’s new book tells the staggering chronicle of the Republican party’s unsettling attempts at historical revisionism. It reveals not only how dependent they have grown on the tactic, but also how dangerous the consequences are if we allow the party to continue. The stakes, Benen argues, couldn’t be higher: the future of democracy hinges on both our accurate understanding of events and the end of alternative narratives that challenge reality.

We had to turn away lots of people yesterday in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, but Comrade Kamala Harris’ Social Media Operation showed empty seats, long before the Rally started, early in the afternoon when, in actuality, we had to turn away 11,500 people! She’s a Crooked Radical Left Politician, and always will be! Everything she touches turns bad, just like California, and San Francisco before it - as is the case with all Marxists. She should have never been Vice President, and had to stage a COUP of Joe Biden, with her America-hating friends, Barrack Hussein Obama, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, Cryin’ Chuck Schumer, and the rest. Comrade Kamala is a STONE COLD LOSER, she will FAIL and, if she doesn’t, our Country will cease to exist as we know it, turning into a Communist, Crime Ridden Garbage Dump.

So here’s my question: is this satire, or is this what the former president wrote on his social media platform?

“Garbage Dump” :rofl:

Back then, he was semi-coherent. In the 20 days since, the press has had to work harder and harder to sanewash his ravings.

rhymes with Trump.

Like holding an ice cream cone up to a fan in Mobile.

I enjoy how quiet this thread had become.

The pedicure of Ozymandias cracks alone in desert sand.

Today in Trumpenfreude 11Sept24

The Clown is so fucked! :clap: :lol:


Roevember is coming! :party:

Up until last night I worried about coyotes eating my dog. Now it seems I have worry about illegal immigrants eating my dog. Or is it all immigrants? Or just those from "shithole countries"?

:sweat:

is it all immigrants? — Fooloso4

Apparently, only Haitian immigrants, and only in Springfield Ohio. If you live elsewhere, you can breathe easy.

The debate was much as I expected. Trump a fire hydrant of mendacity, as always, and Harris lucid and controlled in comparison. But the irksome thing is, that even while most of the mainstream media acknowledge this, they are all obliged to add that it may not matter. He can spout lies, exaggerations and hyperbole for 90 minutes, and everyone can acknowledge that this is what he's done, but it may not matter. Me, I think it does matter, and I think in November the American electorate will have judged that it matters, but this is one real measure of the damage he's doing to democracy every time he opens his mouth: he's persuaded vast numbers of people, and a large number of very powerful politicians, that the facts are what he says they are, no matter how far from the truth.

I find it particularly amusing that this was in response to a question about him tanking a "Ukraine aid for border control bill," termed by the Senate GOP as "the largest border bill in over 30 years." Of course, his failures and recalcitrance, even in terms of what his own base wants him to do, once again get nicely covered up by a debate on how much pet eating is going on in the US.

He can spout lies, exaggerations and hyperbole for 90 minutes, and everyone can acknowledge that this is what he's done, but it may not matter. — Wayfarer

For a large portion of his voters, it doesn't seem to matter. It also doesn't seem to matter that his statements about immigrants is one of the most blatant examples of his racism. Maybe because his core voters are blatant racists themselves? Who knows. I just know that in modern politics, it seems that racism is fine and there's no apparent will or action to get the racists and racism out of corridors of power.

That in itself is a clear sign of how the current structure and system of government is a failure in every form other than playing with authoritarianism under a plutocracy.

I too think it matters, but the question is how much it matters to the voters. Certainly it will to may, but will it be enough in those states that matter most? I would like to think so, but a lot of people have and will overlook everything else if they believe they will benefit with Trump and/or be hurt by Harris. How they might calculate that, if they do calculate it, or go with what their gut tells them, remains a mystery.

I would not be surprised if this escalates. Eating people is next.

That in itself is a clear sign of how the current structure and system of government is a failure in every form other than playing with authoritarianism under a plutocracy. — Christoffer

That is part of Trump's reasoning, and I don't accept it. Believing that it's hopeless plays into his hands.

Anyhow, I'm still convinced that Trump/MAGA is heading for a historic defeat in November. Can't come soon enough.

The very early point which sailed right by, was Trump's apparent belief that if he puts tarriffs on China, that this costs China. He still seem not to understand that the importer pays the tarriff, that it is a form of sales tax. It was the very first item in the debate, and it went right by.

I would not be surprised if this escalates. Eating people is next. — Fooloso4

Laura Loomer, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who flew with Trump to the 9/11 memorial yesterday, wrote on X that the “Biden-Harris regime imported over 20,000 cannibalistic Haitians who are now killing people’s pets and hunting domestic animals on the streets of Ohio.”

The two most-quoted memes of the entire Trump-Vance campaign are now ‘childless cat ladies’ and ‘pet-eating immigrants’. And that’s really the best they can do.

Believing that it's hopeless plays into his hands. — Wayfarer

What I mean and criticize is how someone like Trump is even approved to be running for presidency. That people in democracies play far to loose with democracy and are generally totally oblivious about how to protect democracy from collapsing.

The US is not electing a representative of the people, they elect a king or queen, someone who can be totally incompetent and play into any demagogical scheme they want in order to gain power beyond the laws of the nation that any other citizen is obligated to follow.

Someone like Trump should, in a healthy democracy, be blocked from running as a representative, because people like him are clearly incompetent for the job.

In any other job that feature dangerous operation, you need a license, or be approved to work with said dangerous operation. But not presidents in the US; they can be any level of moron and idiot and use any methods to mislead and fool the population into voting for them. And the people of the nation can only shrug and be forced to go along with it.

‘childless cat ladies’ and ‘pet-eating immigrants’. And that’s really the best they can do. — Wayfarer

With that combo, they really need to protect the childless cat ladies cats from the immigrant pet eaters! :scream:

Someone like Trump should, in a healthy democracy, be blocked from running as a representative, because people like him are clearly incompetent for the job. — Christoffer

I perfectly agree, and so, I’m sure, do millions of Americans. The whole saga has been so totally unlikely from the very beginning. In hindsight, the selection of Hillary Clinton was a disaster. I remember at the time, many of the US contributors on this forum were utterly scathing about her. I never had a strong sense of hostility toward her in particular, but I always thought the fact that she was part of a ruling dynasty and a representative of the Washington élite was a really bad idea. The FBI investigation didn’t help either. AND she won the popular vote. So Trump’s ascension was a fluke, in some ways, but I’m sure he’s never going to win another election.

I think the doddering dotard should now take his very-stable genius brain, with his best words, and drop out of this race.

The obese, 78-year old lunatic should enjoy himself. He’s most likely only running again to avoid court losses anyway— and since he has never had any principles, he can do it. Just drop out that make up a story, say it a thousand times, and his supporters will come up believe it’s true.

The book, along with many others banned by the Nazis when they came to power, was publicly burnt in the Nazi book burnings. Reich realized he was in considerable danger and hurriedly left Germany; first going to Austria (to see his ex-wife and children) and then to 'exile' in Denmark, Sweden and subsequently Norway. Reich was also subsequently expelled from the International Psychoanalytical Association in 1934 for his political militancy and his views on sexuality.[a] This book – and all of Reich's published books – were later ordered to be burned on the request of the Food and Drug Administration by a judge in Maine, United States in 1954.[11]

So which book was banned and burned by both Nazi Germany and the US? "They" do not want "you" to read this!

That's cool, the way to fight fascism is through sexual freedom, and the pure unadulterated enjoyment of it, "harmonious channelling of libido and orgastic potency". Why would anyone ban something so pleasantly childish?

Ironically, young people now are having less sex than ever.

The whole saga has been so totally unlikely from the very beginning — Wayfarer

And thus, it shows that the problem isn't that morons can run for president, but that the guardrails of democracy are non-existent. The solution is not to fight the morons, but to evolve democracy and the ways of how governments works and function in democracies.

Finding a place in which the system itself guards against bad actors, while promoting competence and problem solving for the people that does not play into and promote people's inability to understand what an actual solution is.

This is a philosophical question I'm constantly thinking about. That society today is too quick to just summarize democracy as being the end point of how society is functioning.

It only takes minimal insight into psychology, sociology and media theory to summarize a conclusion that while democracy is the best of what we have, it is extremely flawed as it is used in society today, and a perfect tool for malicious actors to rule as a dictator under the guise of the people's freedom. Essentially giving people a Baudrillardian illusion of reality while living as a king, all while the people fight for things they have been fooled to believe is forth fighting for.

Ironically, young people now are having less sex than ever. — Tzeentch

That's not irony - that's policy!

I was half joking, but not really surprised.

Someone like Trump should, in a healthy democracy, be blocked from running as a representative, because people like him are clearly incompetent for the job. — Christoffer

A healthy democracy would be dominated by a well-informed, rational electorate. There would be no need to block an incompetent, irrational, demagogue who disrespects the criminal justice system.