Is it the millions in fake payments or all those useful false SSNs still in play? A pool of ‘valid’ SSNs is the geological substratum beneath an awful lot more fraud than a few hundred thousand misdirected retirement checks. Election fraud, for starters. Call me doubtful that Repugnacogs are any more excited about real fraud exposure than Dimmercranks.
I believe based on anecdotal experience that fraud is a priority for the usual US bueacracy. My cousin is a Federal society lawyer. Worked for Ohio for 6 or so years investigating workplace injury claims. Pretending to be a cop and carrying a piece and paying for his salary in savings to the state we imagine. Why would we doubt that this is the normal state of the arts of enforcememt among the sherrifs deputy class?
No, they're just following the statutes and the administrative code. A lot of the "fraud" Musk's zealous IT idiots reported never existed. They don't understand how the ancient COBOL computer programming system Social Security uses is designed, how it works, or how to interpret its data.
I'm a county employee and work on a state system, which is based on DOS, which was state of the art in the early 1980s. COBOL is even older and weirder.
As for that Federal Judge blocking Musk from SSA records, I knew that was going to happen. EVERY federal, state, county or city employee who accesses ANY Federal data for ANYTHING has mandatory training at least once a year on who can access people's SSNs, dates of birth, addresses, bank information, or anything other personal record held by the Federal government.
Usually, you have to work for the agency and need the data for a specific job-related purpose, or have a court order, to access any of that stuff. Musk and his fair-haired youngsters had none of that. Giving them access violated several Federal confidentiality laws.
Even a Trump-appointed judge would have made the same ruling. Yes, Trump's people can get those records, but they have to follow the law about how to obtain them. They didn't. It makes me question their intelligence, and I already know Musk isn't nearly as smart as his fans think he is.
Okay, okay! I'm busted. The reply is gobbledygook disguise as a joke. But the real joke is the actual result of the equation is a positive number whereas the reasoned number is negative. This response would be an example of what an old friend of mine would call, "Don's early morning sense of humor!"
So one of two things can happen... 1) Please do not post early in the morning, or 2) Get that little corrupt imp President Javier Milei impeached. Getting Milei impeached will leave the Trump Administration butt hurt. But, in true state of the art fashion, the previous President of Argentina, Fernandez de Kirchner is getting impeached. I guess someone in Argentina needs to go to jail.
First and foremost, please do not consider me a Cyber AI Troll. I am really flesh and blood, at least according to my doctor and birth certificate. But, I do have a question:
Since 1948, the American public seems to loose 10 IQ points every National Election Cycle (4 years ). Are we out of IQ points yet?
Here is a sidenote to the above question... Computers are good for two proposes, crunching numbers and repetitive task.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, Ob... So much has the orange one been forced to learn in this episode, courtesy of people who make better engineers than economic analysts. I've taken the violations of free speech to Bernie Sander's Washington office's answering machine, the most recent being to remind him to answer questions and not give the bum's rush when polite Americans interrupt his escape route to a rally. Last time, I started my message with repeating the name that recently made him recoil before fleeing, "Mahmoud Khalil". I always remind him that people gave up their jobs because they believed in him and would help him to the WH in 2016. It ended with informing him how pathetic he'd become.
Oh, and I also linked after one of your links to see that Finland was ranked #1 in Happiness of their citizens, eight years in a row, with other Nordic countries following in that ranking. Hmmmm.... I'd reason that rating, but I'm afraid my IQ is dropping with each passing act of the United States of Stupidity.
Bernie Sanders is the Cuck of all cucks and I no longer hear his words. He'd have to come out and say "Israel must be destroyed!" before I would consider paying any attention to him, and even then I'd accuse him of stealing it from me.
But good on you for giving him some shit.
As for the country, I think Roger Zelazny said it best--Things fall apart. The center cannot hold, but what the hell, it's home.
You know, as soon as that octopus lets go, he becomes lunch. Octopi are not stupid and is hanging on for dear life. In a follow up, my best wishes to that octopus.
Great article OB. Love your stylish wit. I’ve just about had my fill of the orange man and his Musky crony. I knew I was right to vote 3rd party. The Donald is just another warmonger with a red maga hat. He’s just like the rest of ‘em, in love with Israhell and enjoys bombing other countries that have done nothing to harm us. SICKENING! I just hope people, myself included, will still have their social security when it’s all said and done. 😢☮️🇵🇸
I set Monday aside to apply for SS Retirement myself. Everything was going smoothly online, then after Musk's boys messed with the system, all the sudden it didn't recognize my email address. WTF.
I have to call and get in touch with an actual human being at my local office, and maybe make an appointment to go in if I'm lucky. If I'm not lucky, I'm going to have to take another day off, walk in, and hope I'm seen. Thanks a lot, Elon.
I didn't vote at all last November. I was going to vote for the Green, but there was a notice at the polling place that no votes for Jill Stein would be counted because the Republican Sec. of State disqualified her because she changed the name of the VP on the ballot.
The Democrats changed both P and VP on their ballot, but the Ohio legislature passed a law exempting them from Ohio's registration deadline. But not the Greens.
Looks like the voice of reason has reached Ohio! Small miracles do happen.
Those badjudges sure are keen to keep Social Security fraud hidden.
Is it the millions in fake payments or all those useful false SSNs still in play? A pool of ‘valid’ SSNs is the geological substratum beneath an awful lot more fraud than a few hundred thousand misdirected retirement checks. Election fraud, for starters. Call me doubtful that Repugnacogs are any more excited about real fraud exposure than Dimmercranks.
I believe based on anecdotal experience that fraud is a priority for the usual US bueacracy. My cousin is a Federal society lawyer. Worked for Ohio for 6 or so years investigating workplace injury claims. Pretending to be a cop and carrying a piece and paying for his salary in savings to the state we imagine. Why would we doubt that this is the normal state of the arts of enforcememt among the sherrifs deputy class?
No, they're just following the statutes and the administrative code. A lot of the "fraud" Musk's zealous IT idiots reported never existed. They don't understand how the ancient COBOL computer programming system Social Security uses is designed, how it works, or how to interpret its data.
I'm a county employee and work on a state system, which is based on DOS, which was state of the art in the early 1980s. COBOL is even older and weirder.
As for that Federal Judge blocking Musk from SSA records, I knew that was going to happen. EVERY federal, state, county or city employee who accesses ANY Federal data for ANYTHING has mandatory training at least once a year on who can access people's SSNs, dates of birth, addresses, bank information, or anything other personal record held by the Federal government.
Usually, you have to work for the agency and need the data for a specific job-related purpose, or have a court order, to access any of that stuff. Musk and his fair-haired youngsters had none of that. Giving them access violated several Federal confidentiality laws.
Even a Trump-appointed judge would have made the same ruling. Yes, Trump's people can get those records, but they have to follow the law about how to obtain them. They didn't. It makes me question their intelligence, and I already know Musk isn't nearly as smart as his fans think he is.
Okay, okay! I'm busted. The reply is gobbledygook disguise as a joke. But the real joke is the actual result of the equation is a positive number whereas the reasoned number is negative. This response would be an example of what an old friend of mine would call, "Don's early morning sense of humor!"
So one of two things can happen... 1) Please do not post early in the morning, or 2) Get that little corrupt imp President Javier Milei impeached. Getting Milei impeached will leave the Trump Administration butt hurt. But, in true state of the art fashion, the previous President of Argentina, Fernandez de Kirchner is getting impeached. I guess someone in Argentina needs to go to jail.
I wasn't replying to YOU, man, and I should have used Milei as another example of Batshit Crazy.
https://doge.muskwatch.com/
First and foremost, please do not consider me a Cyber AI Troll. I am really flesh and blood, at least according to my doctor and birth certificate. But, I do have a question:
Since 1948, the American public seems to loose 10 IQ points every National Election Cycle (4 years ). Are we out of IQ points yet?
Here is a sidenote to the above question... Computers are good for two proposes, crunching numbers and repetitive task.
Uuuuuuuh.... I dunno! 🫤 I have to go watch Idiocracy to back extrapolate!
By your math, assuming an average IQ is 100 as I was taught, we would now have an average national IQ of -90.
There's a joke there somewhere, but it's not coming to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this one, Ob... So much has the orange one been forced to learn in this episode, courtesy of people who make better engineers than economic analysts. I've taken the violations of free speech to Bernie Sander's Washington office's answering machine, the most recent being to remind him to answer questions and not give the bum's rush when polite Americans interrupt his escape route to a rally. Last time, I started my message with repeating the name that recently made him recoil before fleeing, "Mahmoud Khalil". I always remind him that people gave up their jobs because they believed in him and would help him to the WH in 2016. It ended with informing him how pathetic he'd become.
Oh, and I also linked after one of your links to see that Finland was ranked #1 in Happiness of their citizens, eight years in a row, with other Nordic countries following in that ranking. Hmmmm.... I'd reason that rating, but I'm afraid my IQ is dropping with each passing act of the United States of Stupidity.
Bernie Sanders is the Cuck of all cucks and I no longer hear his words. He'd have to come out and say "Israel must be destroyed!" before I would consider paying any attention to him, and even then I'd accuse him of stealing it from me.
But good on you for giving him some shit.
As for the country, I think Roger Zelazny said it best--Things fall apart. The center cannot hold, but what the hell, it's home.
You, along with a small number of others, keep me sane.
I'm sure it's just an oversight, but there was one important story this week you didn't mention : an octopus riding a Mako shark. Hollywood's next blockbuster! https://www.livescience.com/animals/sharks/octopus-spotted-riding-on-top-of-worlds-fastest-shark
Damn! I'll have to look at that website more often.
You know, as soon as that octopus lets go, he becomes lunch. Octopi are not stupid and is hanging on for dear life. In a follow up, my best wishes to that octopus.
Great article OB. Love your stylish wit. I’ve just about had my fill of the orange man and his Musky crony. I knew I was right to vote 3rd party. The Donald is just another warmonger with a red maga hat. He’s just like the rest of ‘em, in love with Israhell and enjoys bombing other countries that have done nothing to harm us. SICKENING! I just hope people, myself included, will still have their social security when it’s all said and done. 😢☮️🇵🇸
I set Monday aside to apply for SS Retirement myself. Everything was going smoothly online, then after Musk's boys messed with the system, all the sudden it didn't recognize my email address. WTF.
I have to call and get in touch with an actual human being at my local office, and maybe make an appointment to go in if I'm lucky. If I'm not lucky, I'm going to have to take another day off, walk in, and hope I'm seen. Thanks a lot, Elon.
I didn't vote at all last November. I was going to vote for the Green, but there was a notice at the polling place that no votes for Jill Stein would be counted because the Republican Sec. of State disqualified her because she changed the name of the VP on the ballot.
The Democrats changed both P and VP on their ballot, but the Ohio legislature passed a law exempting them from Ohio's registration deadline. But not the Greens.
So I went to the state liquor agency instead.