General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIf they "delete" medicaid and medicare, millions will die. If they "delete" social security, millions will die.
If they suspect fraud they should hire forensic accountants. Eloon is not a forensic accountant. He is a monster who wants endless power and money. He wants to kill us all.
Hellbound Hellhound
(527 posts)Not that your point should be missed, but even the relations of the highest powers of the country are dying due to medical malpractice and corporatism. It's not a "medicade/care" thing, it's a "healthcare" thing and it needs to change drastically.
XanaDUer2
(15,772 posts)Maybe that's for the best
airmid
(526 posts)worry about.
XanaDUer2
(15,772 posts)I'm not ever going to be in that position ever
airmid
(526 posts)And the things I had to do to get off the streets are not somethingI want to relive. I never thought Id be here, in this place.
slightlv
(7,790 posts)four-year-old with me. We lived out of our car. Not ideal, it was a Plymouth Horizon... not a lot of room. But it was better than the streets.
XanaDUer2
(15,772 posts)Farmer-Rick
(12,667 posts)Desperately poor. Some people are going to be hearing from me in person.....no matter if they jail me or whatever.
Katcat
(574 posts)If youre in prison you get fed and bed
slightlv
(7,790 posts)that it could happen with Trump and Musk... that it probably WILL happen in some degree. But to actually realize what it's like to live it?
A few months ago, my husband got phone scammed. He finished "the deal" before I even knew what was going on. He managed to clean out every bank account we had. Luckily, I guess, we didn't have a hell of a lot of money to lose but it was just after we'd had our SS checks deposited and the time when most of the "big" bills like utilities come due.
I cannot express the feeling that came with that rush of adrenalin when he was standing there, stammering to tell me what he'd done, pleased with himself, when I just came out and asked, "you didn't take anything out of the bank, did you?" It really felt like ice water started flowing through my veins. Realizing we had absolutely NO money... not even $1 to our name... and, since it was at the "end of the month" for us, very little food in the house either for us or the cats/dog.
Luckily, my grandson had set some money aside for a concert he wanted to go to, and he dedicated that money to keeping the utilities on. I just this month stopped trying to play "catch up" from falling behind back then.
In one way, we were absolutely lucky... when we bought this house, I used my retirement money and paid cash for it. No mortgage. It needs a hell of a lot of work, but at least it's four walls, a heater/AC, and a mostly good roof over our heads. The idea of being out on the streets so soon after hubby had experienced a widow maker heart attack, and me with my lupus and fibromyalgia was absolutely terrifying. And, after what we experienced, it was made all too real for me.
Because of that experience, and being pretty poor through my youth and young adulthood, I have GAD over money. I take anti-anxiety meds, but they don't seem to help a hell of a lot. Add on to that the fact I think we ALL have some PTSD after living through trump's first 4 years, and all these years when he just wouldn't go away... and now, facing what we're facing with him. I have to talk myself out of panic attacks on a frequent basis. It's damned scary knowing someone could wrench away the only money you have to live on, and you're at a point in your life when you can't make anymore. It's a tough nut to crack, when you've been someone who could always get a job whenever you wanted... even if it didn't pay as much as you'd like.
If I come off screaming and rageful when talking about trump/musk... understand this is the reality from which I'm coming. NO ONE should have the power or the means to terrorize other people like this...
Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)Although I admit there is probably too much focus on extending life for an additional few weeks, often at great cost.
LoisB
(13,028 posts)Lovie777
(22,985 posts)durablend
(9,270 posts)If you think otherwise, you're not paying attention.
We're all "worthless eaters" to them.
TheBlackAdder
(29,981 posts)elocs
(24,486 posts)I have an annuity that runs out this fall. Great timing.
Yes, democracy in the U.S. was broad but shallow and easily drowned in a bathtub. If by some miracle we manage to recover, America will never be the same again as the rest of the world learns they can get along without the U.S.
How did we lose it so easily? Yes, as Democrats we bear a share of the blame for being complacent and not vigilant, convinced it could never happen here until it is quickly on its way in that direction. How many thousands, hundreds of thousands of more Democrats didn't even bother to vote in the election because they were certain that Trump could not win? How many couldn't bring themselves to vote for a woman, especially a woman of color?
Perhaps it is that we have met the enemy and it is us. We certainly underestimated our real enemy. Did we really think for the last 4 years that Trump, Musk, and the Magas were doing nothing, that they weren't scheming? Yes, more vigilance was certainly in order and such hindsight should have been the order of the day and not 20/20.
But I'm an old man and don't have that many years left. I really feel sorry for the children and young people of America. I don't at all feel sorry for the seniors who will get what they deserve and who voted for Trump. That's almost laughable.
DSandra
(1,719 posts)Did our leaders think that there was no possible way that Trump would get back into the White House? This is stupidity on a massive scale. Evil is extremely aggressive, and it is known that if you give Republicans an inch, they will take it a mile.
milestogo
(23,084 posts)He has the moral poverty and technical skills to do this, and he has said that he did it.
DSandra
(1,719 posts)There was evidence that Bush stole the election in 2004, as well as Republicans stealing various other elections.
But yes, when your opponent gets the richest man on earth on their side, and couples that with Russian influence, it is the ultimate ace in the hole.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)What a Frenchman? said, back when we were forming our Democracy:
"A Democracy will last until individuals or groups of individuals figure out they can vote themselves money..."
markodochartaigh
(5,545 posts)Democracy will last until individuals or groups of individuals figure out they can vote themselves money..."
Growing up in red dead Texas I heard this quote often. It was always the assumption that it would be poor people who would "vote themselves money".
In hindsight it seems so obvious that it would be the oiligarchs.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)more so, corporations............
Orwell gave us the impression it was the Government we had to watch out for.
It was actually the Corporations we have to watch out for.....they are all the ones that truly control everything through the government.
DSandra
(1,719 posts)We've been under the control of lords all this time, just in different forms.
Cirsium
(3,943 posts)A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
That was Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee. Or was it? Woodhouselee was a fierce critic of democracy, but it is not certain that he actually wrote that.
The quote is popular among right wing pundits and white supremacists. The idea is that people only vote Democratic in order to get "goodies" from the government. It became popular when it was circulated by Republicans on the Internet during the 2000 election.
It previously appeared in an editorial in 1951 in The Daily Oklahoman and in a 1943 speech at the University of Pennsylvania by wealthy industrialist Henning W. Prentiss, Jr., president of the Armstrong Cork Company and former president of the National Association of Manufacturers. The speech "The Cult of Competency" was an assault on the FDR administration, opposition to taxation of the wealthy ("the competent" in his words), and opposition to helping what he called the "one-third of our population who allegedly are ill-nourished, ill-housed and ill-clad." At other times he expressed opposition to organized Labor and to anti-trust legislation.
birdographer
(2,937 posts)when trump announced at one of his rallies that I dont need your vote; we have the votes at a time when he most definitely did not have the votes. He came right out and told us all that they had already found a way to steal the election. And nobody listened.
misanthrope
(9,495 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2025, 09:36 PM - Edit history (1)
That became a smoldering hotbed of hatred and sedition which eventually spread and gave rise to what is now dismantling the nation. Several historians have written about this in recent decades.
DSandra
(1,719 posts)Both unelected foreigners.
Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)Earlier today I read about a promising new law suit aimed at Musk and his gang. Brought by what I presume was 26 individuals with "Doe" names. Complaint is that the Musk gang is trying to take over the government by breaking a law having to do with appointments.
rubbersole
(11,223 posts)2016 was putin's 1st major espionage coup. We voted for sanity in 2020. We knew what was at stake in 2024. The American people were victims of the greatest fraud in history. And history will show us just how much.
C_U_L8R
(49,384 posts)if they steal our social security
could very well be them.
Do they feel lucky?
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(13,291 posts)Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2025, 03:11 PM - Edit history (1)
As they lay on their beds dying impoverished, they will claim their lot in life was solely Biden's fault.
It gives new meaning to the term, "Dead Right."
Silent Type
(12,412 posts)with roughly half trumpsters. While it's vile cutting funding for parasites and starvation in Africa, trump Americans won't be happy if they have to pitch in for the care of mom, grandma, kids, etc.
They'll play around with coverage, but eliminate just ain't going to happen. So, I keep telling myself.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)wish we had a dollar for every time in the last ten years that we said: THEY CAN'T DO THAT......................
OR, THAT'S AGAINST THE LAW, OR THAT IS UN-CONSTITUTIONAL, OR THAT IS AGAINST FEDERAL/STATE/LOCAL REGULATIONS.
The RepubliCON's ultimate dream is going back to the Gilded Age of Robber Barrons, and making sure there is no FDR to disrupt their dream from becoming reality forever more............
Silent Type
(12,412 posts)Not living my life in fear of something that ain't gonna happen.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)made their fortunes.............as have most BILLIONaires. They can lose their entire business and still make tons more off of investing their money.............Look at the payoff's they have made, just by investing millions in Republican Political Candidates....that returned far greater amounts in tax cuts with more to come........
Recently we have watched them give a chunk to Trump to prevent him coming after them. It's "Protection Money", no different that the mafia..........The RepubliCONs are, and have been, operating as basically a corrupt criminal enterprise using extortion......
Silent Type
(12,412 posts)viability of economy, like out 50 years.
Destroy that by removing huge demand for their products-services and the MFers will be jumping out windows like 1920s.
Wiz Imp
(9,996 posts)and 80 million receiving Medicaid benefits and 41 million receiving food Stamps.
Just shy of half of all children in the US receive benefits from at least one of these programs.
Silent Type
(12,412 posts)Wiz Imp
(9,996 posts)Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - not sure if that is counted in the SS numbers or not
Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP)
Section 8 or the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program
Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly
Shared Housing and Resource Exchange (SHARE)
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
Affordable Care Act (ACA) or Obamacare
And there's many more. Most of these cost relatively little for the Federal Government compared to the help they provide. Thousands to millions are helped by these programs, but they mostly help low income individuals and families so you can bet that Musk would love to eliminate every single one of them.
Dem4life1234
(2,533 posts)And then we are all interconnected in some way, this would have major repercussions for society.
Musty needs to take a rocket to Mars, go conquer there.
LiberalArkie
(19,807 posts)DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)All the matching funds of Social Security and Medicare, as well as workers comp, unemployment, retirement funds, etc etc etc.
That at least has to easily be 10+% more dropping thru to the Corporations greedy little paws.........
Not to mention, No More Over-time, No paid Holidays, No Paid Vacations, No paid sick days, no health insurance, no more safe working conditions, no more Corporate Taxes, much more Corporate Welfare, the list is endless........
LiberalArkie
(19,807 posts)hamsterjill
(17,577 posts)Ill be dead, too.
But if that happens and I have the ability, Ill be taking some of the assholes who voted for this with me.
Yes, it may come to that, and yes, I am mad enough. If Im going to be homeless and starve, then so will they.
Lancero
(3,276 posts)Then again, deleting medicaid, medicare, and social security will just be the latest items on a long list of shit that should have already triggered a general strike so... Yeah. Millions will die.
JoseBalow
(9,489 posts)Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)Their goal is to capture/own the government. At that point their malignant greed for money and power will blossom.
Maybe at some point the Infamous John Roberts Court (that is, the slimy six) will discover decency and humanity inside their greedy, arrogant souls.
wiggs
(8,812 posts)will the public find out about these? Who will study health and environmental data? Who will compile inflation data? Who will report it? And who will do something about it?
The public will not hear bad reports from the federal govt. Think corporate-owned media will do their own investigations and report on it? They have already given in...wouldn't count on them.
I am reminded of the ending of the excellent film 'Three Days of the Condor' in which whistleblower Robert Redford has given national newspapers evidence of massive corruption and secret governments. Redford is counting on the publicity to keep himself safe. Cliff Robertson asks him 'how do you know they'll print it?"
yellow dahlia
(5,877 posts)I have an idea of something bigger involving a website and billboards. It requires building out of a website, which I can't do.
AverageOldGuy
(3,835 posts)Does anyone here believe, if millions die, Trump or Musk or any of their Merry Men will really give a damn?
I don't. They will not and do not care.
Anyone else? Let me see a hand?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
yellow dahlia
(5,877 posts)and they like it in a prurient morbid way. Not that I'm licensed to diagnose.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)has been shown that by Trump's actions/in-actions during the Covid Pandemic.........His ongoing CON job killed AN ADDITIONAL 500,000 just by doing nothing for months on end........And the case could be made, with all the high population Red States reporting the reason for death as, natural causes, Pneumonia, etc etc, no one will ever know how many. But probably 2 or 3 times the 500K.
flashman13
(2,403 posts)And grandpas too. That's where this is headed.
AntiFascist
(13,751 posts)and hopefully undo the damage.
yellow dahlia
(5,877 posts)That is why they are proceeding forward w/ such arrogance.
AntiFascist
(13,751 posts)the rest of the populace will pose a much greater threat to Republicans than their MAGAt infested base.
DENVERPOPS
(13,003 posts)shows them how Voting in Russia works, or voting in NKorea, or China.......
Hitler said: We don't worry about the voting, we are only concerned with who counts the votes......
valleyrogue
(2,715 posts)Enough is enough with these negative posts.
LPBBEAR
(658 posts)underestimating how evil these people are.
Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)We must not give them that win.
Yes, they are evil, and they must lose.
If two creatures are in a fight, and one gets backed into a corner, which one fights the hardest?
anciano
(2,256 posts)Thank you.
LPBBEAR
(658 posts)Last edited Fri Feb 14, 2025, 07:25 AM - Edit history (1)
the effect it will have on personal lives. If Social Security is eliminated it WILL crash the economy.
Social Security is one example where the favorite phrase of Republicans, "trickle down" actually works. The money we millions of retirees get from Social Security is largely spent right back into the economy. Very few of us on Social Security save much from the small amount we get.
Ending Social Security will have a devastating effect on the economy.
misanthrope
(9,495 posts)I need Medicare to have the weekly infusion therapies that keep my body's immune system from further damaging my lungs. That therapy for the rare disease runs nearly $200,000 per year. It also provides me with the daily inhaled medications that keep my bronchial passages smoothed and useable.
Were my Medicare coverage to end today, I wouldn't make it until the end of the year.
But all the Christo-nationalist members of my family would have gotten what they voted for.
Butterflylady
(4,584 posts)yellow dahlia
(5,877 posts)RFK Jr. was confirmed today - people are going to die.
The actions and "policies" of The Fucking Felonious Grifter in Chief and the MuskRAT kill people as we speak.
And don't get me started about how many people have died from Covid due to the Grifter...
They are both deranged narcissistic sadists...(although I am not licensed to diagnosis).
Different Drummer
(9,083 posts)the old saying about birds of a feather flocking together is apropos.
CaptainTruth
(8,202 posts)Wiz Imp
(9,996 posts)But what is really scary is that between SS, Medicare, Medicaid & Food Stamps, basically half of all the children in the country receive some benefits from at least one of those programs.
That's HALF THE CHILDREN IN THIS COUNTRY! put in danger
Trust_Reality
(2,291 posts)Don't give them that victory.
Wiz Imp
(9,996 posts)Baron2024
(1,492 posts)If Musk is behind the theft of $80 million dollars in federal money from New York City he might have committed a crime in the State of New York and so could be susceptible to arrest by state authorities. I have not checked the news on this story yet today as I have been busy with other things. Musk must be stopped somehow.
et tu
(2,387 posts)eloon needs some to send to mars
to set up stuff for when they burn our planet
because of fossil fuels. then the $scum will
follow= [ maybe a "don't look up" ending will
be a just finale ]. mars 1/eloon 0
Blue Full Moon
(3,485 posts)Yarvin suggests that unproductive members of society should be dealt with by humane alternative to genocideone that removes undesirable elements from the public sphere without "any of the moral stigma" of mass murder. A VR prison where individuals are "waxed like a bee larva into a cell."
These morons think that they are Khan Noonien Singh.
Baron2024
(1,492 posts)He looks just like a loser nerd, not some sort of superman. If he had been alive in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s he would have been put into a concentration camp for being Jewish. It amazes me how some of these right wing extremists are not White Christians. I am thinking about Terrio of the Proud Boys, who has African heritage. Don't these people understand that the White Supremacists want them dead too? Why are these people working against their own self interest?
Blue Full Moon
(3,485 posts)GiqueCee
(4,259 posts)... won't. They think they'll get to rule over the ashes. Guess again, assholes.
And to those we thought we could trust, but who voted to confirm demonstrably unqualified nominees anyway, start padding your resumés.
Trump is bad. Musk is bad to the 10th power, and must be stopped by whatever means necessary. Clinging to the tattered remnants of the Congressional niceties that those two, and the entire Republican Party, have trampled into a puddle of blood and bone, ain't gonna save anything. It's time to get medieval on their asses.
Start by busting Musk's pimple-faced punks for jaywalking if you have to, but drag them into the dungeons and squeeze 'em 'til they howl.
There are dozens of peripheral players who can get sweated for what they know. I don't think they can be pardoned for treason, can they? Let's find out.
The time for pearl-clutching is over. We cannot just stand by and let this happen.
EDIT to add: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed for FAR less than this.
markodochartaigh
(5,545 posts)millions of seniors would be forced to sell their homes into a market rapidly spiraling downward in order to get money for their living expenses. The houses would be bought up in bulk by hedge funds for pennies on the dollar in cash. Seniors would lose their homes and the next generation would lose their inheritances.
I've lived long enough to see several similar cycles. Hard times hit and the working class is forced to sell their assets. As we sell en masse the market sinks and we get less and less. At the bottom the wealthy buy up assets for pennies on the dollar. As the economy stabilizes the working class find jobs and begin to save. We then invest our savings, buying assets at increasing prices from the wealthy who bought the assets at the market bottom. Increased buying pressure from workers raises prices as we spend the fruits of our labor. Eventually the market tops and the working class is squeezed. The working class again is forced to sell into the market of falling prices. And the wealthy then use some of the money that they made when they sold the assets to the working class on the way up, and they buy the assets for lower prices. And the cycle starts again.
rubbersole
(11,223 posts)It's working just fine. For now.
durablend
(9,270 posts)Katcat
(574 posts)I got an email several days ago from some company saying that they had multiple offers to buy my house.
Prudential Homes of America has a buyer interested in your home.
Our team has decades of experience in real estate and thousands of homeowners have worked with us to sell their homes without the stress of open houses or the high commissions that many real estate agents charge.
We're still seeing great prices but with higher interest rates, many experts think the home prices may fall so if youre thinking of selling, we can make an offer to you today and you can lock in a price in the next 7 days. All you have to do is a quick phone interview with our team members to get your offer.
Please click here to get an offer for your home.
Mountain Mule
(1,188 posts)Waiting to have cataract surgery. My insurance is Medicaid/Medicare. Without this surgery I may as well be blind. But no worries. I can't afford the $1500 plus per month for my prescriptions they would cost me if I lose my Medicaid insurance, so I'll just go ahead and die and my vision will no longer be a problem. Right.
I already hate Tr**p Musk so much that I don't think I could hate them more. But each new day and fresh outrage proves me wrong yet again.
Be The Light
(154 posts)We are infinatly more powerful then them. We just need to wake up to a certain tipping point.
totodeinhere
(13,688 posts)Health care is a basic human right. It is outrageous beyond words what they are trying to do. If I were religious I might think that Musk is the antichrist.
totodeinhere
(13,688 posts)WestMichRad
(3,255 posts)He and they are trying to amass as much capital as possible, and if people happen to die, well thats too bad. So it goes.
We are just replaceable peons, workers, slaves, for the oligarchs.
Shoonra
(602 posts)There are plenty of stories of dirt-poor parents, of even a single parent dirt-poor, whose child grew up to be a celebrity or a valuable scholar or inventor or artist, prosperous and productive. In fact, there seem to be more productive people raised in poverty-stricken homes (or homeless shelters) than raised in mansions and privileged surroundings. Sentencing the poor to die of poverty, disease, starvation, or neglect means a great resource for the future generation is lost.
NoMoreRepugs
(12,076 posts)must be fed even more.
CousinIT
(12,541 posts)
durablend
(9,270 posts)LS0999
(280 posts)Then it's time to pick up and dispose of the Dogeshit by any means necessary.
bdamomma
(69,532 posts)are facing a monster Elon/the felon as bad as Covid. Millions of people will die needlessly.
I want to see Elon and the felon suffer, for what they are doing to our country and the world. Again, they are making enemies every day.
wiggs
(8,812 posts)saying they are going to 'do something about the New Deal' too.
LiberalLoner
(11,467 posts)Meowmee
(9,212 posts)But they will try to do as much damage to it as possible. They have been trying for years.
rampartd
(4,632 posts)they want the money, and the control that power to pay or not gives.
if we have elections, and if democrats win, musk can still control the accounts of the government, and as those who received energy assistance found out, our accounts.