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senseandsensibility

(24,251 posts)
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:13 PM Mar 2025

I kind of think this actual threat to shut down Social Security

should be receiving at least as many screaming headlines as the anonymous "Joe Biden too Old" ones that we were subjected to for months.

It was a real threat. Made in public. By someone who has the power to do it.

Break the glass moment if you ask me.

73 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I kind of think this actual threat to shut down Social Security (Original Post) senseandsensibility Mar 2025 OP
Absolutely! SheltieLover Mar 2025 #1
Haven't seen it senseandsensibility Mar 2025 #2
Thx! SheltieLover Mar 2025 #31
It would be great if BonnieJW Mar 2025 #37
We've got our own problems coming Laha Mar 2025 #54
For the heck of it I went to Fuxnews web site and could not find any mention at all about an hour ago. LiberalArkie Mar 2025 #5
That was a pretty safe bet, hu? SheltieLover Mar 2025 #32
They could have at least been warning their viewers how Biden was shutting down SSA to hurt the seniors voting for Trump LiberalArkie Mar 2025 #36
I don't think they care at all about elders SheltieLover Mar 2025 #44
Just proves like Trump FOX doesn't give a shit about their viewers. Bengus81 Mar 2025 #56
Right! Faux will tell them homelessness & starvation are good for them SheltieLover Mar 2025 #59
That bucket or rancid turds... GiqueCee Mar 2025 #38
I agree with everything you wrote, except AverageJoe Mar 2025 #41
Ah, but that's what they call themselves... GiqueCee Mar 2025 #42
Agreed AverageJoe Mar 2025 #43
I agree! SheltieLover Mar 2025 #50
If I understand 3auld6phart Mar 2025 #53
Heavily covered angrychair Mar 2025 #20
Glad to hear, so long as they aren't attempting to normalize this. SheltieLover Mar 2025 #33
Oh they are. They cover the admins response not their actions. FDRFTW Mar 2025 #66
Gawd... sickening SheltieLover Mar 2025 #67
+1 dalton99a Mar 2025 #28
I find it speaks volumes that we need to look to Canada & SheltieLover Mar 2025 #34
Of course they are... reACTIONary Mar 2025 #47
Thanks for the links flamingdem Mar 2025 #49
Can you give us further information about... reACTIONary Mar 2025 #69
Here you go! flamingdem Mar 2025 #70
Thanks!!! (nt) reACTIONary Mar 2025 #71
It's called blackmail...... Butterflylady Mar 2025 #55
If I try to steal a stereo I go to jail MadameButterfly Mar 2025 #3
The goose and the common Cirsium Mar 2025 #16
A little more recent... rubbersole Mar 2025 #19
brilliant! MadameButterfly Mar 2025 #30
You are right canetoad Mar 2025 #4
This is a tactic of what Applebaum calls Autocracy, Inc. lonely bird Mar 2025 #25
The "news" are not going to publish anything that will make trump look bad Blue Full Moon Mar 2025 #27
I wonder if Schumer KT2000 Mar 2025 #6
right? Skittles Mar 2025 #15
Probably not Bettie Mar 2025 #39
If there ever was a question of "Is Trump trying to destroy the U.S. and put us into a depression?" LiberalArkie Mar 2025 #7
People disregard the effect this will have on everyone! Nt Hope22 Mar 2025 #14
Do this if they cut off the checks Captain Zero Mar 2025 #26
How do we "force" the "free" media to cover this threat to Social Security? elocs Mar 2025 #8
Why in the world do you think this went unreported? The original reporting was from... reACTIONary Mar 2025 #68
Kicking Mike 03 Mar 2025 #9
feels like I'm in a movie stillcool Mar 2025 #10
It's a nightmare. BarbD Mar 2025 #46
Agreed Baron2024 Mar 2025 #11
Massive theft threat from millions of Americans. Hope22 Mar 2025 #12
We're in a Tony Soprano reality TV show; surfered Mar 2025 #13
What's the threat? Tickle Mar 2025 #17
Just google Trump administration threat to Social Security surfered Mar 2025 #18
I just checked all mainstream news sites except FOX (CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC & MSNBC) Wiz Imp Mar 2025 #21
Wow. senseandsensibility Mar 2025 #22
I think this will happen monthly to keep people afraid. Turbineguy Mar 2025 #23
All part of the psyop. rzemanfl Mar 2025 #24
But for what? Other than to force Powell to decrease rates, that's all I can think about why these guys are tryna ... uponit7771 Mar 2025 #29
This is what Steve Bannon called... GiqueCee Mar 2025 #40
Think they will smarten up? Gary 50 Mar 2025 #48
The hard-core MAGAts... GiqueCee Mar 2025 #72
I think Dems should run with Martin O'Malley's message malaise Mar 2025 #35
I do find it a little perplexing that other Dems senseandsensibility Mar 2025 #60
Agree malaise Mar 2025 #61
Yup. Martin68 Mar 2025 #45
In all due respect, and to point you in the right direction... IthinkThereforeIAM Mar 2025 #51
And didn't musk just say civil war is inevitable because his cars were burned Eliot Rosewater Mar 2025 #52
The same 100 million who didn't bother to vote because they were busy on TikTok Eliot Rosewater Mar 2025 #57
It was a screaming headline in my morning newspaper (the paper version) - Ocelot II Mar 2025 #58
If Biden or Democrats had tried to B.See Mar 2025 #62
Absolutely senseandsensibility Mar 2025 #65
He CAN'T shut it down, but he's trying to hobble the SSA anyway he can FakeNoose Mar 2025 #63
Provoke them to act on every threat they make. AmericaUnderSiege Mar 2025 #64
The problem is, trump is a clown. A carnival barker. So people don't understand the danger ecstatic Mar 2025 #73

BonnieJW

(3,081 posts)
37. It would be great if
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 07:52 AM
Mar 2025

A Canadian news outlet reported it. It wouldn't shame felon or the ketamine kid, but it would shame senators and reps.
How do we get Canada to report this?

Laha

(433 posts)
54. We've got our own problems coming
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:05 PM
Mar 2025

I just saw an American style very Naziesque attack ad against our income tax agencies, claiming much like they do against Social Security, that many people are receiving returns that they shouldn't.

It's coming here too.

I'm worried. I'm not entirely confident our elections here in Ontario were totally above-board with the machine vote counting and bizarrely large skew towards conservatism.

Many of us see the stupidity behind Rump's attempt at reverse psychology in saying he would prefer liberals to win.

But not all of us.

The roots of our Maple Trees are infested with Magats.

LiberalArkie

(19,314 posts)
5. For the heck of it I went to Fuxnews web site and could not find any mention at all about an hour ago.
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:48 PM
Mar 2025

SheltieLover

(76,806 posts)
32. That was a pretty safe bet, hu?
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 03:57 AM
Mar 2025


Thx for sharing. One never knows how they will spew bs to cover up for rethugs' behavior.

LiberalArkie

(19,314 posts)
36. They could have at least been warning their viewers how Biden was shutting down SSA to hurt the seniors voting for Trump
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 06:53 AM
Mar 2025

This seems to me (in my feeble mindset) that they want a massive civil and economic disturbance when we do not get our checks.

But then again maybe the people in power do believe that the Social Security payments are just spare change to all the people and that we really rely our trust funds, pensions and stock portfolios.

SheltieLover

(76,806 posts)
44. I don't think they care at all about elders
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:55 AM
Mar 2025

Surely they've heard it enough times to grasp fhe fact that not everyone has money coming out their ears & that many do depend upon their SS deposits just to exist.

They do not care.

Bengus81

(9,826 posts)
56. Just proves like Trump FOX doesn't give a shit about their viewers.
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:12 PM
Mar 2025

Betcha there's 35M Republicans on SS and Medicare. We LOSE,they LOSE just as big. But,they'll never hear it on FOX.

SheltieLover

(76,806 posts)
59. Right! Faux will tell them homelessness & starvation are good for them
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:21 PM
Mar 2025

And they'll buy into it.

GiqueCee

(3,410 posts)
38. That bucket or rancid turds...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 07:55 AM
Mar 2025

... couldn't tell the truth about the time of day. The very existence of Pox News is testament to the malignant obscenity of conservatism in general, and Der Republican Party in particular.

AverageJoe

(2,424 posts)
41. I agree with everything you wrote, except
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:25 AM
Mar 2025

your use of the word, “conservatism.” There is nothing conservative about MAGA or even the GOP in general. They are reactionaries, grifters and fascists. If anything, it’s the Democrats who are conservative, in that they are at least in favor of conserving the constitution and democracy.

I’m not trying to be a smart aleck or a jerk. I just truly believe we need to stop calling the bad guys conservatives. They are anything but conservative.

GiqueCee

(3,410 posts)
42. Ah, but that's what they call themselves...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:29 AM
Mar 2025

... and that is a classic example of perverting the meaning of a word or symbol. Remember, the swastika was once a symbol of peace and continuity. Now, not so much.

AverageJoe

(2,424 posts)
43. Agreed
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:39 AM
Mar 2025

I just think we need to take back the veneer of normalcy they wrap themselves in with that word. For my money, the GOP hasn’t been conservative since 1980, when Reagan lurched the party to the far right. When we allow them to use “conservative” to define themselves, we let them hide their true nature from gullible voters.

Anyhow, that’s my way of looking at it.

3auld6phart

(1,670 posts)
53. If I understand
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:02 PM
Mar 2025

That faux noise was never given a licence to broadcast their crap in Canada… I could be misinformed, correct me if I’m wrong….Don’t let the bastard pukes grind you down, . Damn I can’t fathom what is going on down there….Make noise and stay strong..

SheltieLover

(76,806 posts)
34. I find it speaks volumes that we need to look to Canada &
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 04:00 AM
Mar 2025

Europe for real news coverage.

I love the Guardian!

flamingdem

(40,793 posts)
49. Thanks for the links
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:41 AM
Mar 2025

I guess people hope for it to be the first story on the nightly news.

Not yet.

But that's why we need people at the social security offices protesting, etc.

Big march on Washington DC April 5th is happening

MadameButterfly

(3,746 posts)
3. If I try to steal a stereo I go to jail
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:26 PM
Mar 2025

Last edited Sun Mar 23, 2025, 12:54 AM - Edit history (1)

but threaten to cut off the livelihoods of 70 million Americans and you get a paycheck? When are they going to arrest these guys?

Cirsium

(3,363 posts)
16. The goose and the common
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 06:54 PM
Mar 2025

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
But turns the bigger robber loose
Who steals the common from off the goose.

The law demands that we atone
When we take things we do not own,
But leaves the lords and ladies fine
Who take things that are yours and mine.

The poor and wretched don’t escape
If they conspire the law to break.
This must be so, but they endure
Those who conspire to make the law.

The law locks up the man or woman
Who steals the goose from off the common,
And geese will still a common lack
Till they go and steal it back.

Anonymous 17th Century lyric

rubbersole

(10,990 posts)
19. A little more recent...
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 07:13 PM
Mar 2025

"Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you king"
Bob Dylan
From "A Sweetheart Like You"
"Infidels" album - 1983

canetoad

(20,221 posts)
4. You are right
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:26 PM
Mar 2025

Why no screaming headlines? Perhaps folk are exhausted, resigned, intimidated or unbelieving. Or they actually agree with the plan.

lonely bird

(2,773 posts)
25. This is a tactic of what Applebaum calls Autocracy, Inc.
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 08:07 PM
Mar 2025

They want people worn down.

Unfortunately, for this country, Trump is one of them at worst or at best a useful, completely utter idiot.

Bettie

(19,283 posts)
39. Probably not
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:02 AM
Mar 2025

he's waiting though....still waiting.....some day, maybe there will be that moment.

The perfect moment, but I suspect it will be right after we've truly lost it all. You know, when there's nothing left to save.

LiberalArkie

(19,314 posts)
7. If there ever was a question of "Is Trump trying to destroy the U.S. and put us into a depression?"
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:50 PM
Mar 2025

The economy would come to a screeching halt if he did do it, even for a month.

SSA Pays out about 1.6 trillion a year, so about 133 billion would be lost in the economy for that stunt for the first month

Captain Zero

(8,744 posts)
26. Do this if they cut off the checks
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 08:59 PM
Mar 2025

Unfortunately so many people will have no money, they won't be paying anyone anything.

But they are counting on those with enough other Pensions to use those pensions, or assets to make their payments.

If you are one of those people,

DO NOT PAY ANYTHING. DO NOT PROP THESE PEOPLE UP IN THEIR THIEVERY. Make THIS SHIT KEEP ROLLING ALL The Way Down and BACK UP AGAIN.

I could keep going a little while but then what? So I'm not paying for anything from the get go. Let them see it hit full force.

 

elocs

(24,486 posts)
8. How do we "force" the "free" media to cover this threat to Social Security?
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 05:59 PM
Mar 2025

They are, after all, "free" and so they don't gotta-have-to cover this if they choose not to do it. It appears as though we've been all fired up to protect freedom of the press when many of the press didn't really want it anyway if it suited them.

reACTIONary

(6,977 posts)
68. Why in the world do you think this went unreported? The original reporting was from...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 09:20 PM
Mar 2025

.... Bloomberg, with follow ups from WaPo and NYT. I'm sure other outlets reported it also.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220163299#post47

Mike 03

(18,690 posts)
9. Kicking
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 06:04 PM
Mar 2025

I also acknowledge that this might be the battle they know they will lose, deliberately fought to shift attention from the equally dangerous cuts they are making elsewhere, or so that when they give up trying to wreck social security they can make the (disingenuous) argument that they can be reasonable and look like great guys and heroes.

But it's too dangerous to assume that, so we should both fight it and use this to animate others to wake up and get engaged.

Hope22

(4,468 posts)
12. Massive theft threat from millions of Americans.
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 06:50 PM
Mar 2025

If we had a press it would be the story of the century. This one act will change the life course for most Americans. Grandma will be living with the family. Homes will be lost. Self sustaining people will become indigent. People once receiving their money that they paid into the system will be unable to purchase most things including groceries , travel and medical care. The stories write themselves!

surfered

(11,535 posts)
13. We're in a Tony Soprano reality TV show;
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 06:51 PM
Mar 2025

Nice little Social Security system you have here. Too bad if something should happen to it.

Wiz Imp

(8,984 posts)
21. I just checked all mainstream news sites except FOX (CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC & MSNBC)
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 07:23 PM
Mar 2025

And none of them mention it anywhere on their websites at all. The one media outlet I found with a story on it besides Rolling Stone was Bloomberg.

https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-21/doge-ruling-shouldn-t-stop-social-security-payouts-judge-says?embedded-checkout=true

DOGE Ruling Shouldn’t Stop Social Security Payouts, Judge Says
Maryland judge rebuffs US official’s response to her ruling
Order restricted DOGE access to Americans’ personal data


A Maryland federal judge pushed back on speculation that her court order restricting Social Security Administration data access for Elon Musk and his cost-cutting team may threaten benefit payments by forcing much of the agency’s operations to shut down.

In a letter released Friday, US District Judge Ellen Hollander said the order she issued Thursday didn’t apply to nearly all of the agency’s employees, only to Musk and and affiliates of his Department of Government Efficiency. “Any suggestion that the order may require the delay or suspension of benefit payments is incorrect,” the judge said.

Hollander’s 14-day temporary restraining order prompted the Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek to say that the judge’s references to “DOGE affiliates” could apply to any agency employee and that he would follow Hollander’s order “exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems.”

In her letter Friday, Hollander said Dudek’s claims were “inaccurate.” A DOGE “affiliate” was “a person working on or implementing the DOGE agenda,” she said. “Employees of SSA who are not involved with the DOGE Team or in the work of the DOGE Team are not subject to the order,” she wrote.






senseandsensibility

(24,251 posts)
22. Wow.
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 07:27 PM
Mar 2025

That's really bad. However, I am watching Chris Hayes show on a delay and he says he will cover it. So that's good. Still not thrilled that he isn't leading with it.

uponit7771

(93,491 posts)
29. But for what? Other than to force Powell to decrease rates, that's all I can think about why these guys are tryna ...
Fri Mar 21, 2025, 11:54 PM
Mar 2025

... crash the economy.

GiqueCee

(3,410 posts)
40. This is what Steve Bannon called...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 08:23 AM
Mar 2025

... flooding the zone. It's also analogous to convicts killing a fellow inmate. They stab him so many times that it is impossible to treat all the wounds at once, any one of which is potentially fatal. That is the principle at work here.
And it is a mistake to focus attention on one wound to the Body Politic. Every miscreant responsible for this treachery has their own motives, but ALL of it, whether intentionally or not, is in service to Vladimir Putin's psychotic obsession with destroying America from within. So far, it's working, and Republicans are just fine with it.
Maybe when MAGAts find themselves in the crosshairs – and make no mistake, they will – they'll smarten the fuck up, but don't count on it.

Gary 50

(478 posts)
48. Think they will smarten up?
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:38 AM
Mar 2025

A few might but most will be like the lady whose daughter died from the measles saying the disease wasn't that bad, but the vaccine is dangerous.

GiqueCee

(3,410 posts)
72. The hard-core MAGAts...
Mon Mar 24, 2025, 07:45 AM
Mar 2025

... would carve their own eyes out with a rusty spoon before they'd ever admit that der Dear Leader was not sent by their twisted notion of an omnipotent Sky Daddy. But there are already some who are experiencing an "Oh shit" moment. Half of fixing a mistake is admitting you made one.

malaise

(292,802 posts)
35. I think Dems should run with Martin O'Malley's message
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 05:54 AM
Mar 2025

Stop.the Steal of So ial Security

Musk and Trump want to wreck Social Security’s ability to function so they can rob it. Rise up and stop the steal of your Social Security.



senseandsensibility

(24,251 posts)
60. I do find it a little perplexing that other Dems
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 01:10 PM
Mar 2025

in leadership are not rallying around MM and following his lead here. I mean, until recently he ran the ssa and he is a very well regarded Dem with an excellent reputation. I mean, what do they want, an engraved invitation before they join in with his message? (Engraved invitation was a favorite of my late, great grandmother's).

IthinkThereforeIAM

(3,279 posts)
51. In all due respect, and to point you in the right direction...
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 11:56 AM
Mar 2025

... contact RT network.

on edit: My emphasis is on the "Biden is too old" flood(s). We need to reach the same ones that the RT/Russian trolls do.

Eliot Rosewater

(34,282 posts)
52. And didn't musk just say civil war is inevitable because his cars were burned
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:00 PM
Mar 2025

Which is another way for him to say his followers should start a civil war. Can someone confirm that please?

Eliot Rosewater

(34,282 posts)
57. The same 100 million who didn't bother to vote because they were busy on TikTok
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:14 PM
Mar 2025

Is paying no attention at all to what’s going on, this is how you lose a democracy.

Ocelot II

(129,076 posts)
58. It was a screaming headline in my morning newspaper (the paper version) -
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 12:16 PM
Mar 2025

both the threat and the walkback. The later online version, which doesn't do headlines as such, put it in the politics section. The big news in these parts was the state senator who got busted for soliciting a minor for prostitution, and that kind of overtook everything else.

B.See

(7,775 posts)
62. If Biden or Democrats had tried to
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 02:51 PM
Mar 2025

pull shit like this, there'd have been troops in the streets already.

FakeNoose

(40,184 posts)
63. He CAN'T shut it down, but he's trying to hobble the SSA anyway he can
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 02:56 PM
Mar 2025

There's no question that Chump is deranged and he's taking orders from someone else. Take your pick - Putin, Musk, the evil trolls at Heritage, or whatever.

And I agree that this should be the primary headline in all the newspapers and news programs in the country.

 

AmericaUnderSiege

(777 posts)
64. Provoke them to act on every threat they make.
Sat Mar 22, 2025, 03:34 PM
Mar 2025

The worse, the better. If they back down, they look weak and are weak. If they act, they look and are out of control. Only the state of suspension and public fear benefits the occupation.

ecstatic

(35,012 posts)
73. The problem is, trump is a clown. A carnival barker. So people don't understand the danger
Mon Mar 24, 2025, 08:03 AM
Mar 2025

he poses until it's too late. But even then, excuses continue to be made on his behalf. The media still doesn't know how to deal with him. It's sickening.

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