Summary
Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley warns that staffing and funding cuts under Elon Musk could cause Social Security payments to halt within 30 to 90 days.
The SSA is reducing its workforce and closing offices, prompting concerns from Democrats, who accuse the Trump administration of trying to dismantle the program.
O’Malley predicts a major political backlash if payments are interrupted.
Meanwhile, leadership changes at SSA have added further instability, with no confirmed commissioner in place.
The fact of the matter is it’s still far, far easier to punch sideways than up.
If your child is screaming in hunger, do you plan a trip to Washington? On what time and money? Or do you grab your gun and visit the neighbor’s house to get him some food?
What’s that middle aged lady in the parking lot of the grocery store going to do if you just push her down and grab her groceries from her cart? Or even approaching grandma and gently taking the grocery bag from her hand and hopping into a vehicle before she even knows what happened.
You think your house window is a barrier? Psychological, yes, it is. Actual? Not at all.
This is where things get violent but not for the rich men in Washington because they’re not accessible.
Frankly, as someone who has studied people for 35yrs, I am bordering on an intense fear that could be likened to terror. People go for what’s easiest, in general. You all are thinking of Luigi, but he’s the exception not the rule. Most people grab what’s easiest and closest and pull from their guts, not careful planning.
I think people would aim at corporations, not their communities. In a crisis, people tend to flock together and do what they can to help each other. It is elites who panic and go out of their way to ‘protect’ what they perceive to be theirs.
Behind the Bastards has an episode about Elite Panic.
Elite Panic: Why the Rich and Powerful Can’t be Trusted
Here’s hoping we get the timeline right on that when (not if at this point) it happens.
And yet revolutions happen on a regular basis. Explain that one…
When was the last time revolution happened here in the United States?
For starters most of our young, single men feeling angsty with the world and their existence are behind a screen right now, sans pants, eating/drinking. And that’s just one demographic.
Never underestimate the power of hunger and destitution.
Desperate people who have nothing to lose are known to do things they would never normally do.
Absolutely. No question there. You assume a moral compass like your own though.
What was that detective series? 3 pines? Alfred Molina. Lead detective makes the point of saying everyone, and he meant everyone, is capable of murder, it’s simply a question of finding the right motive, for them. I do believe that’s middle of the bell curve stuff in that bit of writing.
The issue is people typically move like water, path of least resistance. Yes, there are exceptions, I’m taking about the fat part of the bell curve here, not the tails. And that means punching sideways to get what they need.
We need people like you. I appreciate your belief in the moral high ground.