Darrell Green Fan wrote: Mon Mar 10, 2025 5:32 pm
Simmsy wrote: Mon Mar 10, 2025 2:27 pm
Darrell Green Fan wrote: Mon Mar 10, 2025 10:18 am
Same with SS. You think the GOP who still needs to get votes to continue, will allow SS payments to cease or be reduced? No that's not going to happen either, they are cutting overhead not benefits. Seniors are a huge voting block and no party who wishes to continue will alienate this large group. And stopping SS benefits will definitely do that.
You would think, yet here we are. The GOP is all set to do away with it, they seem to be afraid of their voters, but are still willing to do Trump's bidding. What is Trump's bidding? Kill SS. You seem to think morality, legality or common sense is going to stop the GOP from doing it. Yet, here we are. People need to stop writing imaginary lines in the sand and saying "They'll never cross THIS line!". Yes they will, in fact, they're saying "Watch us!".
I remember all your doomsday predictions on ES too if Trump is elected. I stand by my position, yours appears to be hysterical as it was back then. Nobody's 401 will go to $0, that's just crazy talk. And I do not believe they will stop my social security benefits once they have started.
Peace brother.
You're making a number of assumptions. First, your portfolio doesn't have to go to zero for it to affect your retirement. This is even more true if you're already in retirement or close to it. Unlike someone in their 20's, you don't have time to wait for the market to rebound. Now maybe you get lucky and it does, but how much will that benefit you if you've taken a significant hit due to the market tanking, then seven or eight years later, when it does start to rebound, you've spent another big chunk of that lowered value to survive in the interim.
Your second assumption is that because your check doesn't decrease much or at all, SS isn't affected. You're already getting
your check, great. However, they've recently announced plans to close some SS offices around the country. So what happens when someone who lives a long distance away, or who has transportation issues, or a host of other things that affect access, isn't able to get to the office to apply for benefits or correct a problem with their SS benefits?
You're being hysterical! 
" Am I? Because that's exactly how red states have neutralized numerous programs they don't like, e.g., healthcare expansion. They erect bureaucratic barriers like work requirements that sound neutral or even beneficial but are actually designed to make it difficult for people to get access. So no, they don't kill the program, but they limit it, eventually, making benefits inaccessible for most people. So, they can claim they still have X safety net program, but just try actually getting any benefits.
https://tinyurl.com/nhzd59he This is how these people operate.
Finally, you're also assuming we'll have free and fair elections again. My wife thinks it's mostly a done deal, that it's over, but for once, I'm the optimist. I give it a 60/40 chance that we don't have free elections again, or anytime soon. If that happens, they can kill SS or do anything else they damn well please.
"You think we're headed toward Russian style 'elections'? OMG, you're really out there now! Lol!" Let's examine how we got here, once again with the understanding that things aren't always exactly as predicted, but the outcome is what's important.
First, there's control over mostly social media, but later, much of the MSM mostly bent the knee as well. The Grand Oligarch's Party has long wanted to DX Public Broadcasting because it's a reliable news source, 'er a "biased" news source. It's possible they pull it off with PB and other real news sources. However, even if they don't bother with any of the others, they've already improved their propaganda position just since the election. Combine propaganda from all directions with an at best, lightly educated 'Muricun populace, the ability to make people scared to demonstrate, and the oligarch's have already won.
But wait, there's more. They've packed the SCOTUS and gerrymandered the hell out of a system built by colonial era planters who's primary goals were to maintain a political system built on free labor, cheap labor, i.e., poor whites, and limiting political power to a small segment of the country, then calling that "freedom". So no, I don't doubt we'll have elections again, but the question is the degree to which the Grand Oligarch's Party can increase their ability to rig an already rigged system. Remember, they don't have to get 80% or 90% of a sham vote like Putin. All they have to do is get 51% of voters in a rigged system and they win, no matter how unpopular they are.
https://tinyurl.com/mrxh8wwr
Remember, "It can't happen here" can be deadly. It can, and to some degree, it already
is happening as we watch.
