Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
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Carl Billdt, the former Swedish premier, has criticised US efforts to achieve peace, claiming that Donald Trump's administration has given too much ground to Vladimir Putin
March 2, 2025
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/02/ex-swedish-pm-slams-amat
eurish-peace-talks-of-non-rules-based-us
The US administration is destabilising, against the rules-based order, and its unwillingness to confront Vladimir Putin makes President Trump’s attempts to broker peace ‘amateurish’, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has told the BBC in an interview.
He said that in recent weeks the US had made “U-turns and concessions, and giving up positions”, but “Russia hasn’t changed one millimetre on its demands”.
“They [Russia] continue the military offensive, they make clear that all their demands, the capitulation of Ukraine, remain on the table. To believe that to say to Mr Putin: ‘Please give up,’ is in my opinion amateurish,” Bildt said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? It just so happens that the answer is NO. It is Not a Ponzi Scheme, except most Trumptards insist, crazily, that it is. Ask an American if SS==Ponzi Scheme. If they answer it is a Ponzi Scheme, you know their answers to many other questions without needing to ask because they are Trumptards.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, have you ever considered NOT sounding like a broken record?
And BTW Social Security IS a Ponzi scheme. The people who are paying into it now are paying for current retirees, NOT paying into their own accounts. It's a better-funded Ponzi scheme... the fund actually makes money by buying Treasuries ... but it doesn't operate like most people think.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
https://www.google.com/search?q=Is+Social+Security+a+Ponzi+Scheme%3F
Signym, you are crazy to write that falsehood about Social Security, but then you also refuse to correct your signature which includes only the clause of a conditional statement and totally reverses the meaning of the original Kissinger full quote:
"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
Kissinger said this in late November 1968 after Nixon was elected president, but before Nixon was inaugurated.
It wasn't a public statement, just a statement to William F. Buckley Jr. in a phone call, with Buckley taking notes, so it isn't verifiable beyond Buckley (author of United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey).
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/56470/did-henry-kissinger
-say-it-may-be-dangerous-to-be-americas-enemy-but-to-be-am
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Social Security Payments Could Be Interrupted For First Time In 80 Years
By Douglas A. McIntyre | March 2, 2025 9:20 am
https://247wallst.com/income/2025/03/02/social-security-payments-could
-be-interrupted-for-first-time-in-80-years/
Social Security, the bedrock of safety net payments to 61 million Americans, could be interrupted by personnel cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It could create an economic catastrophe, at least for those who rely heavily on the funds.
The 61 million people who receive Social Security payments include retirees, people with disabilities, and their dependents and survivors. Last year, total annual costs were $1.6 trillion, making it the largest expense of the federal government.
The average payment to retirees, 52 million recipients, is just short of $2,000 a month. These payments make up about a third of the incomes of Americans who are over 65. The number is much higher for some. According to the Social Security Administration, “Among Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older, 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.”
According to CNBC, Social Security has not missed a payment to Americans in eight decades. Former commissioner and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley told the TV channel, “Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits. I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.” He suggested that recipients start to put aside money in case this happens. The primary reason for the possible interruption is that the Administration plans to cut 4,000 Social Security Administration jobs.
Social Security payments are already under siege. It is estimated that it will run out of money in 2035. SSA recently forecasts that “Currently, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects the program cost to rise by 2035 so that taxes will be enough to pay for only 75 percent of scheduled benefits.”
It is hard to imagine what the cuts would do to the US economy, but they are bound to be significant for tens of millions of people. Eventually, this will ripple across GDP.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? It just so happens that the answer is NO. It is Not a Ponzi Scheme, except most Trumptards insist, crazily, that it is. Ask an American if SS==Ponzi Scheme. If they answer it is a Ponzi Scheme, you know their answers to many other questions without needing to ask because they are Trumptards.
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, have you ever considered NOT sounding like a broken record?
And BTW Social Security IS a Ponzi scheme. The people who are paying into it now are paying for current retirees, NOT paying into their own accounts. It's a better-funded Ponzi scheme... the fund actually makes money by buying Treasuries ... but it doesn't operate like most people think.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
https://www.google.com/search?q=Is+Social+Security+a+Ponzi+Scheme%3F
Signym, you are crazy to write that falsehood about Social Security, but then you also refuse to correct your signature which includes only the clause of a conditional statement and totally reverses the meaning of the original Kissinger full quote:
"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
Kissinger said this in late November 1968 after Nixon was elected president, but before Nixon was inaugurated.
It wasn't a public statement, just a statement to William F. Buckley Jr. in a phone call, with Buckley taking notes, so it isn't verifiable beyond Buckley (author of United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey).
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/56470/did-henry-kissinger
-say-it-may-be-dangerous-to-be-americas-enemy-but-to-be-am
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Just because it hurts your feelings to call a Ponzi Scheme a Ponzi Scheme, that doesn't mean that it's not a Ponzi Scheme.
I'm calling it one and I just flat out admitted that I won't be able to survive retirement at all without it.
It's still a fucking Ponzi Scheme.
If it doesn't break now, it will eventually break. It was designed to fail from the beginning.
ETA: And if you still don't understand what I'm getting at, maybe you should talk to one of the people in California who had lost their homeowners insurance due to failure to be able to pay the increases right before their houses burned down...
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/california-faces-insurance-crisis-as
-homeowners-lose-coverage-amid-extreme-weather
Our entire country is run on Ponzi Schemes.
Fortunately for the Baby Boomers, I think we can probably keep it together long enough that it doesn't come crashing down before the last of their generation dies off.
I'm pretty sure that one way or another the rest of us are fucked though.
Buckle up.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Is Social Security a Ponzi Scheme? It just so happens that the answer is NO. It is Not a Ponzi Scheme, except most Trumptards insist, crazily, that it is. Ask an American if SS==Ponzi Scheme. If they answer it is a Ponzi Scheme, you know their answers to many other questions without needing to ask because they are Trumptards.
Originally posted by second:Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
SECOND, have you ever considered NOT sounding like a broken record?
And BTW Social Security IS a Ponzi scheme. The people who are paying into it now are paying for current retirees, NOT paying into their own accounts. It's a better-funded Ponzi scheme... the fund actually makes money by buying Treasuries ... but it doesn't operate like most people think.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
https://www.google.com/search?q=Is+Social+Security+a+Ponzi+Scheme%3F
Signym, you are crazy to write that falsehood about Social Security, but then you also refuse to correct your signature which includes only the clause of a conditional statement and totally reverses the meaning of the original Kissinger full quote:
"Word should be gotten to Nixon that if Thieu meets the same fate as Diem, the word will go out to the nations of the world that it may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."
Kissinger said this in late November 1968 after Nixon was elected president, but before Nixon was inaugurated.
It wasn't a public statement, just a statement to William F. Buckley Jr. in a phone call, with Buckley taking notes, so it isn't verifiable beyond Buckley (author of United Nations Journal: A Delegate's Odyssey).
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/56470/did-henry-kissinger
-say-it-may-be-dangerous-to-be-americas-enemy-but-to-be-am
And yet ... you won't explain how Social Security works and how its different from a Ponzi scheme...
Quote:
The FICA tax income collected from current workers’ paychecks supports the payment of the benefits to the retirees.
That is one element of a Ponzi scheme.
If you look at the FULL definition of a Ponzi scheme, you can niggle on whether Social Security is "fraudulent", or whether the contributors are technically "investors" expecting a "profit", but IMHO except for the fact that Social Security actually enages in "money making activity" (lending the govt money by investing in specialized treasuries, https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/110614/how-social-security-tr
ust-fund-invested.asp which I mentioned already) Social Security runs like a Ponzi scheme.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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Quote:Working-class Trumptards constantly bring up "Ponzi Scheme" as justification to re-imagine how Social Security could be financed with income tax, or tariffs, or the magic of bitcoins, which are three easier ways for Upper-class Trumptards in Congress to kill Social Security by switching away from the excruciatingly simple FICA to something Algebraic and complex that your typical sneaky and dishonest working-class man can cheat on without fear of being caught cheating. They can't cheat, can't do a complex tax avoidance scam, on FICA because it is so very simple.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
That is one element of a Ponzi scheme.
If you look at the FULL definition of a Ponzi scheme, you can niggle on whether Social Security is "fraudulent", or whether the contributors are technically "investors" expecting a "profit", but IMHO except for the fact that Social Security actually enages in "money making activity" (lending the govt money by investing in specialized treasuries, https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/110614/how-social-security-tr
ust-fund-invested.asp which I mentioned already) Social Security runs like a Ponzi scheme.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
The Trumptards at work are upset every two weeks because they now pay a FICA tax that keeps Social Security and Medicare going. It's one of those taxes that does not have a bunch of complex loopholes (like the income tax has) rammed through by Congressional Trumptards to cut the tax to zero.
Dumbest. Idea. Ever.
Reported by the Wall Street Journal on March 2, 2025:
Crypto prices surged Sunday after President Trump said he would move forward on a U.S. crypto strategic reserve (CSR) that will include bitcoin and ether, as well as three smaller and riskier tokens.
“A U.S. Crypto Reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden Administration,” said Trump in a Sunday post on his social-media platform Truth Social. “I will make sure the U.S. is the Crypto Capital of the World.”
Questions abound. How big will the CSR be? Where is the money coming from? I don't recall Congress passing an appropriation. How can it make sense to create a crypto reserve out of deficit spending? Why does the US need a crypto reserve? It's not something we'll ever be short of.
https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/crypto-prices-jump-after-trump-
announces-five-tokens-for-strategic-reserve-636f31d7?st=iLbGRS&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Why So Many Crypto Leaders Hate Trump's Meme Coins – The Wall Street Journal
President Trump’s cryptocurrency meme coin $TRUMP has already earned him billions of dollars on paper, but this is one of the most controversial investments ever made by a commander-in-chief. Trump has a long history of cashing in on his personal brand through products like shoes, guitars and bibles, but to many in the crypto world, his meme coin ventures are his most naked and predatory money grab yet. Once a bitcoin skeptic, Trump has promised to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the planet.”
WSJ explores why the Trump meme coin and Melania meme coin are so unprecedented and why they’re so controversial to the crypto industry.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The US promised to protect Ukraine in exchange for giving up its nukes.
Marco Rubio should re-watch his old speech now that he could keep that promise while Secretary of State.
Start at 6:30. Rubio Delivers Senate Floor Speech On The Crisis in Ukraine (Mar 25, 2014)
“In the early 1990s Ukraine was left with the world's third largest stockpile of tactical nuclear weapons and strategic nuclear weapons on the planet but they signed this agreement with the United States, the United Kingdom and Russia that basically said if you give up your nuclear weapons -- we these three countries that signed this -- will provide for your defense and assure you of your defense and so Ukraine did that. They gave up these weapons. Well now this was signed in 1994. 20 years later one of the three countries that signed that agreement hasn't just not provided for the defense they actually invaded them.” – Senator Marco Rubio
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Republicans terrified of crossing Trump due to physical threats
“I have a lot of friends who are Republicans. They are terrified of being the tallest poppy in the field, and it’s not as simple as being afraid of being primaried and losing their job. They know that that can happen.
“It’s more more personal. It’s their personal safety that they’re afraid of, and they have spouses and family members saying, ‘Do not do this, it’s not worth it, it will change our lives forever. We will have to hire around-the-clock security.’ Life can be very uncomfortable for your children.
“That is real, because when [Elon] Musk [Trump’s most powerful ally] tweets at somebody, or Trump tweets at somebody, or calls somebody out, their lives are turned upside down.
“When he tweets at you, people make threats, and you have to take people at their word. And so that is a real thing that my colleagues struggle with.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/27/republicans-trump-thre
ats
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Elon Musk’s satellite business Starlink may not have officially taken over Verizon’s $2.4 billion contract with the Federal Aviation Administration yet to upgrade the systems it uses to manage America’s airspace. However, on Friday, FAA officials ordered staff to begin finding tens of millions of dollars for a Starlink deal, according to a source with knowledge of the FAA and two people briefed on the situation.
The sources note that these internal directives have mostly, if not entirely, been delivered verbally — which they say is unusual for a matter like this. The source with knowledge of the FAA tells Rolling Stone that it appears as though “someone does not want a paper trail.”
Musk asserted last week, without evidence, that “the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly,” before correcting himself to say that Verizon’s system is “not yet operational.”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/elon-musk-star
link-faa-officials-find-funding-1235285246/
Corrupt? Sure. But also directly dangerous? And how! FAA has done careful, long testing/study of new tower-communication system. Now a rush to switch to system that *just happens* to be owned by Mr. Efficiency himself, Elon.
In boardrooms around the world, airline executives are discussing what will be more harmful to their share prices: sounding the alarm on this, or the inevitable plane crashes
Everyone involved in aviation KNOWS FOR SURE that reckless/rampant changes of past six weeks will, *for sure,* make airplane crashes more likely. But no airline exec wants to be the first to say this in public.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Social Security Payments Could Be Interrupted For First Time In 80 Years
By Douglas A. McIntyre | March 2, 2025 9:20 am
https://247wallst.com/income/2025/03/02/social-security-payments-could
-be-interrupted-for-first-time-in-80-years/
Social Security, the bedrock of safety net payments to 61 million Americans, could be interrupted by personnel cuts made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). It could create an economic catastrophe, at least for those who rely heavily on the funds.
The 61 million people who receive Social Security payments include retirees, people with disabilities, and their dependents and survivors. Last year, total annual costs were $1.6 trillion, making it the largest expense of the federal government.
The average payment to retirees, 52 million recipients, is just short of $2,000 a month. These payments make up about a third of the incomes of Americans who are over 65. The number is much higher for some. According to the Social Security Administration, “Among Social Security beneficiaries age 65 and older, 12% of men and 15% of women rely on Social Security for 90% or more of their income.”
According to CNBC, Social Security has not missed a payment to Americans in eight decades. Former commissioner and former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley told the TV channel, “Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits. I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.” He suggested that recipients start to put aside money in case this happens. The primary reason for the possible interruption is that the Administration plans to cut 4,000 Social Security Administration jobs.
Social Security payments are already under siege. It is estimated that it will run out of money in 2035. SSA recently forecasts that “Currently, the Social Security Board of Trustees projects the program cost to rise by 2035 so that taxes will be enough to pay for only 75 percent of scheduled benefits.”
It is hard to imagine what the cuts would do to the US economy, but they are bound to be significant for tens of millions of people. Eventually, this will ripple across GDP.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME