Trump Threatens SSA Shutdown Over DOGE Ruling

[integral]

https://www.perplexity.ai/page/trump-threatens-ssa-shutdown-o-FVuonDY2QaSXR_Wh7f6o0Q

Basically the court restricted DOGE from accessing sensitive Social Security data for millions of Americans.

So the Trump administration has threatened to suspend Social Security payments in response to a federal court ruling.

🤦‍♀️

Basically if he doesn't like something he just threatened to destroy everything until they give him what he wants. Like a child having a temper tantrum.

Edited Friday at 11:27 PM by integral

[Leo Gura]

That's an easy bluff to call. If Trump cancels SS payments there will be riots at the White House.

I hope he cancels them. But he's too chicken-shit to do it.

Edited Friday at 11:51 PM by Leo Gura

[Hardkill]

1 minute ago, Leo Gura said:

That's an easy bluff to call. If Trump cancels SS payments there will be riots at the White House.

I hope he cancels them. But he's too chicken-shit to do it.

But couldn't he get away with blaming it on wokeness and the radical left for cancelling SS payments just like how people will not feel or notice climate change or butchering of medicaid, given that we can't win this battle on facts?: 

On 3/18/2025 at 3:12 PM, Leo Gura said:

Do not equate this to Covid or inflation.

People will not feel or notice climate change or butchering of medicaid.

This is an optics game. Even when Trump screws thing up the ignorant social media will scapegoat wokeness and blame the wokes.

You can't win this battle on facts. It's all about people's perceptions. Most importantly it's about the perceptions of the more ignorant people.

Ignorant people don't understand climate change, medicaid, government agencies, nor institutions. They don't care! They care about guns, Jesus, and Joe Rogan making fun of women with dicks.

Can you crack a good woman-with-a-dick joke? Then you got the right vibes.

In politics, you're dealing with children. Children want candy, not a policy lecture about climate change and systemic racism.

[Leo Gura]

In the end Trump cannot escape responsibility for the clusterfuck he can't help but create.

Bullshitting only goes so far.

People will eventually feel the economic pain personally. That's where the train hits the wall. You can bullshit people all day long about wokeness and ideology, you cannot bullshit them about egg prices and lack of paychecks.

Edited yesterday at 12:03 AM by Leo Gura

[Daniel Balan]

@Leo Gura Guys!! Romania is basically a 3rd world shithole. Yet we annuled presidentian elections because a candidate publically expressed fascist views. That candidate being clean and not even being charged with anything. And in the redoing of elections which are taking place in may this year, that fascist loving candidate was banned from running all together.

So I ask you, how in the world a convicted fellon, responsible for a failed attempt at a coup d' etat on jan 6 was able to run for president?? How on earth Romania has a stronger and healthier democracy than you guys have? 

Edited yesterday at 12:09 AM by Daniel Balan

[Leo Gura]

2 minutes ago, Daniel Balan said:

So I ask you, how in the world a convicted fellon, responsible for a failed attempt at a coup d' etat on jan 6 was able to run for president?? How on earth Romania has a stronger and healthier democracy than you guys have?

Europe understands fascism first-hand. America does not. Historical memory is a big deal. Don't take it for granted.

Edited yesterday at 12:11 AM by Leo Gura

[Daniel Balan]

Just now, Leo Gura said:

Europe understands fascist first-hand. America does not.

Not so much. The election was canceled because that fascist candidate was expected to win in a landslide. The citzenry in Romania is extremely pro fascist. The only thing is that the constitutional court thankfully annuled the elections because that fascist candidate expressed his intention to take Romania out of EU and Nato. Undermining the membership of EU and NATO is a direct attack on the constitution, that's the only way the elections got cancelled.

[Raze]

It looks like we are heading for a constitutional crisis. He and his ally’s are attacking the courts and testing the waters for ignoring them. Polls show most Americans don’t care about the institutions and violating them and more on their own situation so there won’t be enough popular pushback if he goes ahead.

[Hardkill]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

In the end Trump cannot escape responsibility for the clusterfuck he can't help but create.

Bullshitting only goes so far.

People will eventually feel the economic pain personally. That's where the train hits the wall. You can bullshit people all day long about wokeness and ideology, you cannot bullshit them about egg prices and lack of paychecks.

Yeah, that's what I thought too—that's basically how Biden and the Democrats defeated Trump and his party in 2020. I also remember you mentioned this earlier in one of my threads about propaganda used in the Soviet Union.

However, year after year after year, we continue to underestimate just how conservative and frankly how stupid most Americans really are combined with how stuck numerous people are in so many of these brain-rotting echo chambers/epistemic bubbles in this day age. 2 to 4 years ago, we didn't think that Trump had any real chance of winning the presidency after he lost in 2020 and his party suffered a humiliating loss in the 2022 midterms overall.

I mean even if his presidency ends with having failed to govern the country well including having an economic disaster, widespread civil unrest, very unpopular and bad policy changes made, and scandals like in 2020 under Trump, how we know that the majority of the people won't just be like "Yet, I know Trump is horrible, but the Democrats are still worse because they are too far to the left for me culturally and come off more phoney. So, I'd rather him or another Republican party him again running the country?"

Edited yesterday at 01:49 AM by Hardkill

[Lyubov]

Keep in mind we had a Trump presidency before and he was defeated. I know the pure lie the right likes to live by about the election being stolen. But he was beaten in an election in 2020 and people were really sick of his shenanigans especially form his mishandling of COVID and all the racial tension. It can and will build up if he ends up tanking the stock market. 

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Lyubov said:

Keep in mind we had a Trump presidency before and he was defeated. I know the pure lie the right likes to live by about the election being stolen. But he was beaten in an election in 2020 and people were really sick of his shenanigans especially form his mishandling of COVID and all the racial tension. It can and will build up if he ends up tanking the stock market. 

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

At this point the only thing stopping them from installing a dictatorship is themselves. There are no checks at all any more. The only question now is how low will they go? What is their personal bottom? Are they okay with shooting protestors? Are they okay with imprisoning democrats?

Edited yesterday at 03:38 AM by Leo Gura

[Hardkill]

10 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

That's another worry. If the election gets rigged by 2028, then wouldn't he be able to escape responsibility for ruining the country including the entire economy by then?

Then again, our country went through both the American Revolution and the Civil War and the victors of those wars ultimately defeated those forms of tyranny in America.

Edited yesterday at 01:57 AM by Hardkill

[Lyubov]

24 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

At the point the only thing stopping them from installing a dictatorship is themselves. There are no checks at all any more. The only question now is how low will they go. What is their personal bottom? Are they okay with shooting protestors? Are they okay with imprisoning democrats?

All possibilities. At the same time there are some checks like our constitution and elections. There’s plenty to fight back with. Not trying to downplay the situation but I also don’t want to be so fear based. Got to find some balance in the face of adversity. 

[Hardkill]

4 minutes ago, Lyubov said:

All possibilities. At the same time there are some checks like our constitution and elections. There’s plenty to fight back with. Not trying to downplay the situation but I also don’t want to be so fear based. Got to find some balance in the face of adversity. 

I wonder how much the courts and the entire law enforcement want America to be governed by a true authoritarian regime like in Russia.

[Yimpa]

[Joshe]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

At this point the only thing stopping them from installing a dictatorship is themselves. There are no checks at all any more. The only question now is how low will they go? What is their personal bottom? Are they okay with shooting protestors? Are they okay with imprisoning democrats?

I think he’s planning a 3rd term. I saw a commercial on TV today that was painting Trump as a strong, driven leader whose doing everything in his might to deliver a better country for the American people. It seemed like a campaign ad. 

I think they’re gonna attempt to propagandize the citizenry in hopes of getting enough support for a 3rd term. Their reasoning will probably be something like “The 2-term limit rule is only fair if the terms are consecutive. Trump didn’t get two consecutive terms, so he should get a chance to see how he can turn things around with two consecutive terms because that’s only fair”. The American people can definitely be manipulated into accepting this if they’re properly propagandized for the next 3.75 years. 

[Inliytened1]

4 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

At this point the only thing stopping them from installing a dictatorship is themselves. There are no checks at all any more. The only question now is how low will they go? What is their personal bottom? Are they okay with shooting protestors? Are they okay with imprisoning democrats?

Self deception. 

[Leo Gura]

29 minutes ago, Inliytened1 said:

Self deception. 

Dude, check yourself before you wreck yourself

[Elliott]

Republicans don't support fascism, only a minority do, they don't support tyranny, they don't support a third term, they support free elections, they barely support the republican party. Republicans just want to cut the debt, bring back industry, and quit giving handouts, a minority want project 2025.

https://thehill.com

Nearly half of Republicans want someone other than Trump in 2024

Jul 12, 2022 — Close to half of Republican primary voters want someone other than former President Trump to run in 2024, according to a new poll that

www.kff.org

KFF Health Tracking Poll March 2024: Abortion in the 2024 Election and ...

Mar 7, 2024 — About four in ten Republican voters (43%) say they think abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

[Breathe]

12 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

The problem is that Trump 2.0 is another beast. They will eliminate all checks and balances so that by 2028 it won't be clear what remains of democracy.

At this point the only thing stopping them from installing a dictatorship is themselves. There are no checks at all any more. The only question now is how low will they go? What is their personal bottom? Are they okay with shooting protestors? Are they okay with imprisoning democrats?

Exactly.

12 hours ago, Hardkill said:

Then again, our country went through both the American Revolution and the Civil War and the victors of those wars ultimately defeated those forms of tyranny in America.

But right now, even the Democratic party is rife with corruption. The dems knew this was coming and did nothing. They still remain silent except for a few brave souls. I'm just not sure how long they will be able to keep this up before they are silenced, jailed, killed, etc.

The illusion that most people hold is that there is someone that can or could have saved us. We have lived in an oligarchy for some time. What we really needed was to find a way to get corporate interests out of our politics. But, we saw what happened to Bernie. A Bernie would have been bad news for "democratic" donors. The reality is that both parties have a many of the same donors. That's who has really run this country.

There is no one that can save us from this mess because they don't exist.

Something radical is going to have to happen in order for the US to re-emerge as a democratic country.

11 hours ago, Lyubov said:

All possibilities. At the same time there are some checks like our constitution and elections. There’s plenty to fight back with. Not trying to downplay the situation but I also don’t want to be so fear based. Got to find some balance in the face of adversity. 

I heard a professor of political science say, "The constitution means whatever he majority of the supreme court says it means." With the current judicial system, it doesn't hold much weight anymore given that it consists mainly of Trump loyalists.

We are headed to a future where the constitution means whatever the prez says it means.

11 hours ago, Hardkill said:

I wonder how much the courts and the entire law enforcement want America to be governed by a true authoritarian regime like in Russia.

I don't think it's that people love authoritarian regimes. They just want someone in power that' espouses similar values. Or, they are looking for some kind of savior, or someone to keep them safe.

And if it's an authoritarian regime, so be it.

But the thing to keep in mind, Russia actually holds elections to give the appearance of democracy. It's called an "Electoral Autocracy".

 

Edited 21 hours ago by Breathe