Just One Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, Spent More Than <i>Ten Billion Dollars</i> to Care for Illegal Aliens In One Year Alone

Just One Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, Spent More Than Ten Billion Dollars to Care for Illegal Aliens In One Year Alone

This is just one agency, in just one year.

Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats.

The Biden administration spent tens of billions of dollars on grants to migrants and refugees through one of its government agencies, including over $10 billion in just one year, according to a new watchdog report.
The watchdog group Open the Books looked at grants to nonprofits awarded by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement. Its responsibilities include caring for unaccompanied migrant children who crossed the southern border illegally and refugees entering legally.
The watchdog found that in FY 2021, it distributed $2.4 billion in grants to nonprofits. In FY 2022, it distributed $3.4 billion, then that number skyrocketed up to $10 billion in FY 2023 before being reduced to $4.2 billion in FY 2024.

The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024.

According to the watchdog, the money included spending to help migrants save for car and home purchases, while another gave out business and personal loans, along with other programs for legal aid and cultural orientation.
"We're hurting American taxpayers. People in places like North Carolina, Los Angeles that have lost everything," Open the Books CEO John Hart told Fox News. "How is it moral to ask them to pay the bill for someone who wants to come to this country illegally? That's outrageous."

Can we retroactively impeach Biden? We discussed that possibility during the Clinton years. Strip him of his pension and Secret Service detail. He can get protection from Ukrainian Nazi squads.

Trump: "Social Security won't be touched, other than if there's fraud or something. It's going to be strengthened.

Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched.

Now, if there are illegal migrants in the system, we're going to get them out." pic.twitter.com/Dy3D65HVEu
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 19, 2025

Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1
Foisted upon us by J'Blowme!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) Imprison! Imprison! Imprison! at February 19, 2025 01:30 PM (xG4kz)

2 hey

Posted by: one hour sober at February 19, 2025 01:30 PM (Y1sOo)

3 Firstest

Posted by: Jack Squat Bupkis at February 19, 2025 01:30 PM (dQfJF)

4 $10 billion? Barely an inconvenience!

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (tT6L1)

5 But processes were followed, ace.

Processes. Were. Followed.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (GBKbO)

6 I was robbed

Posted by: one hour sober at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (Y1sOo)

7 AAAAAAKKKKKKK

Posted by: Maxine Waters' Hair at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (c0tJM)

8 $10B? And the illegals still look so scruffy. Major fail.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (Q4IgG)

9 Dang for this update to bump that scary monster down the page

Posted by: Jack Squat Bupkis at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (dQfJF)

10 I was robbed

Posted by: one hour sober at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (Y1sOo)
-

Stickup.

Highway robbery.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 01:31 PM (xF8Ny)

11 Trump: "Social Security won't be touched, other than if there's fraud or something. It's going to be strengthened.

Medicare, Medicaid � none of that stuff is going to be touched.

Now, if there are illegal migrants in the system, we're going to get them out."

========

Well, this perfectly aligns with Trump's rhetoric about SS, Medicare, and Medicaid since...2015.

Probably a lie that his rube fans believe!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (GBKbO)

12 ...and that is literally just a drop in a very large bucket.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (oa1NA)

13 Almost veered into a movie thread.

Back on track with the waste!

These fucking guys...

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (ufFY8)

14 Then: Illegal aliens don't get welfare, free healthcare, SS, or walking around money

Soon: Its GOOD that we've been giving Illegal aliens welfare, free healthcare, SS, and walking around money

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (t0Rmr)

15 I meant thanks

Posted by: Jack Squat Bupkis at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (dQfJF)

16 Thank goodness the tranny Jesus thread is done.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (77rzZ)

17 I stand by my earlier claim that HHS is going to have the largest amount of corruption of any agency or dept.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (l3YAf)

18 Can we retroactively impeach Biden?

Soon the only punishment he'll recognize is when his ice cream runs out.

Posted by: DaveA at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (FhXTo)

19 I know President Trump's tougher border stance will help keep illegals from crossing the border.

Turning off the money spigot, though, will do far more.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (tT6L1)

20 Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats.

...

Well, given to the hospitals etc.

So Documented Democrats.

Also how much was the border wall back when we couldn't afford that? $6B?

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (z/ifB)

21 Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement
......

You're all fired.

Posted by: wth at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (v0R5T)

22 17 I stand by my earlier claim that HHS is going to have the largest amount of corruption of any agency or dept.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (l3YAf)

========

"If you don't fund us fully at 110% of last year's budget, Russians will invade Paris by Spring!"
-The DOD for, like, 80 years

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (GBKbO)

23 >>I stand by my earlier claim that HHS is going to have the largest amount of corruption of any agency or dept.

Hold My Beer.

Posted by: DOD at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (oa1NA)

24 Then: We can't stop these poor refugees from coming - their home countries are just so full of crime, global warming, and trans-deniers

Soon: How can we get more immigrants if we stop paying them to come here?

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (t0Rmr)

25 16 Thank goodness the tranny Jesus thread is done.
Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (77rzZ)

Yes.. Couldn't stand to look at that picture any longer {{{shudder}}}

Posted by: It's me donna at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (VE6XX)

26
$10 billion? Pfft. Chump change.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (dxSpM)

27 I stand by my earlier claim that HHS is going to have the largest amount of corruption of any agency or dept.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (l3YAf)

...
This guy gets it!

Posted by: Dept of Defense at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (z/ifB)

28 NOT ONE MORE LECTURE ABOUT HOW IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO DEPORT AND FINISH BUILDING THE DAMN WALL.

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (Hkcdp)

29 I'm just happy to have a new post so I don't have to keep looking Blacula every time I refresh.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (V9cMX)

30 I want to say this is unbelievable, but it’s sadly very believable.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (pZEOD)

31 Will HHS buy me a Cadillac? I'm asking for a friend who doesn't speak English. Swearsies.

Posted by: Pudinhead at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (pLaQB)

32 16 Thank goodness the tranny Jesus thread is done.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (77rzZ)

So about that tranny Jesus...

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (KbCG3)

33 According to the watchdog, the money included spending to help migrants save for car and home purchases, while another gave out business and personal loans, along with other programs for legal aid and cultural orientation.

-

The government doesn't realize that the majority of Americans are probably probably perfectly comfortable ending ALL immigration for the foreseeable future, and those that aren't outright comfortable are likely 50-50 and could be persuaded fairly easily.

There are probably only 20% or so of Americans who truly believe we need foreigners here, or that there are people who poop in the street that can write code better than Americans.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (OgBsb)

34 28 NOT ONE MORE LECTURE ABOUT HOW IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO DEPORT AND FINISH BUILDING THE DAMN WALL.
Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (Hkcdp)

======

"We can't spare $5 billion for a wall!"
-Paul Ryan, refusing to defund NPR even

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (GBKbO)

35 All the talking heads on the tv tell us that something is a small percentage of the budget and it shouldn't even mattert what the American people's taxes are spent on. How much of the budget are we up to now, one percent at a time?

Posted by: huerfano at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (n2swS)

36 >>Can we retroactively impeach Biden?

He disappeared from Politics faster than anyone I ever remember.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (oa1NA)

37 Seize any and all assets these criminal aliens purchased with our money. Cars, homes, businesses. All of it.

Posted by: Grayman27 at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (pgwxJ)

38 The Chinese appeal was always a lie. China probably stole heaps of IP on digital technology and production processes from Hollywood.

Yeah they basically used Hollywood to learn how to make, edit, and publicize movies then built their own industry. Smart, but hilarious at the same time.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (2VST1)

39 Can we retroactively impeach Biden? We discussed that possibility during the Clinton years.

I assume that was the possibility of impeaching Clinton after his term was done? I don't think one impeaches Senators like Biden. Much as that lying asshole deserved it along with Kennedy.

Posted by: gKWVE at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (gKWVE)

40 The Conference of Catholic Bishops lawsuit that was just filed against Trump basically states the government is required by law to fund their activities, which are in violation of actual federal law.

I can’t wait to read the discovery on that lawsuit.

Posted by: Marcus T at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (+o/ue)

41 Again, I didn't even get a Hunter Biden feces painting....

And money is just flowing out all over the world....

Posted by: Stateless...45% - mental state clawing up from 10% at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (jvJvP)

42 Well, this perfectly aligns with Trump's rhetoric about SS, Medicare, and Medicaid since...2015.

Probably a lie that his rube fans believe!
Posted by: TheJamesMadison
__________

But it's also going to make it tough to find 2 trillion without touching those.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (Dm8we)

43 Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats.

...

Well, given to the hospitals etc.

And this is the point in all this. Yes the left wants cheap gardeners that will make their yards the envy of their neighbors but the real goal in all of this is to create federal spending for salary for federal bureaucrats, NGO bureaucrats, and quasi-government (eg hospital) bureaucrats

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (t0Rmr)

44 North Carolina hurricane victims hardest hit ... literally.

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (qmMUe)

45 What Trump is saying obliquely is that Medicare and Medicaid will be touched if there is fraud or something. Which there is a lot of in both programs

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (KXtU1)

46 I know President Trump's tougher border stance will help keep illegals from crossing the border.

Turning off the money spigot, though, will do far more.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (tT6L1)

Mild punishment, say a year in the stocks, for anyone knowingly employing an illegal might be efficacious as well.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (ExV1e)

47 What is the typical balance sheet order of magnitude for a mid tier fortune 500 company?

In the tens of billions, i think?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (7gPaq)

48 35 All the talking heads on the tv tell us that something is a small percentage of the budget and it shouldn't even mattert what the American people's taxes are spent on. How much of the budget are we up to now, one percent at a time?
Posted by: huerfano at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (n2swS)

=======

$10 billion represents the total, lifetime tax contributions of 18,000 American taxpayers.

18,000 people who could simply not pay taxes at all if this money is brought back.

Their entire lifetime contributions of $550,000 each.

And we can't touch it because it won't completely fix the problem.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (GBKbO)

49 Take it out of Biden family income until it's paid back.

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (kTd/k)

50 No one can be shocked by this.

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (fwDg9)

51 "Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats."

Not really. It was stolen from Americans and given to Democraps and their donors. I'd be surprised if even 5% of this money ever got to any illegals. These funds get passed back and forth between NGOs and consultants and agencies with everyone taking a fat cut.

One of the reasons that illegals, trannies, and education are such hobby-horses of the left is they are highly lucrative for Democraps and their donors. Huge money involved, alleged beneficiaries who won't make waves, and nobody to ask questions.

Posted by: Elric Blade at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (iFTx/)

52 I wonder what the percentages are in terms of direct transfers to illegals and the amounts that remained with the organizations administering the transfers and in-kind services. I'm sure they pocketed a pretty penny or two.

Posted by: Graft and theft at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (yzp7T)

53 Remember when they claimed none of this was happening with the 20,000 Haitians the dropped into Springfield, OH? That the locals and X sh$tipsters were making it all up about all the money, jobs, food and cars given to these foreigners?

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (Hkcdp)

54 Just One Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, Spent More Than Ten Billion Dollars to Care for Illegal Aliens In One Year Alone

Aiding and abetting illegals is a felony.

Arrests & prosecutions.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (pSGcE)

55 $10B?

Pocket change.

Posted by: dantesed at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (Oy/m2)

56

The illegals resided in nice hotels whilst CITIZENS stayed in tents after the storms.

Some people should be jailed in tent cities in bitter cold climates.

Posted by: four seasons at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (3ek7K)

57 Most of the waste will be in transfer payments: medicare/medicaid, welfare, social security. That eas about 70% of fed spending at one point. Defense was 14%.

This is from memory from about ten years ago.
Haven't looked at usspending.com in a while.

Posted by: Deplorable Ian Galt at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (ufFY8)

58 Some people are more equal than others. These people are known as illegal aliens.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (lTGtQ)

59 32 16 Thank goodness the tranny Jesus thread is done.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (77rzZ)

WWTJD?

Posted by: Stateless...45% - mental state clawing up from 10% at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (jvJvP)

60 20 Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats.

...

Well, given to the hospitals etc.

So Documented Democrats.

That's the grift alright. Massive expenditures that in reality are mostly for the benefit of people who are financially better off than the taxpayers being fleeced. Like charities with massive administrative overhead.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (V9cMX)

61 I'd be interested to know what states and hospitals are going to do if it really becomes true that they can't get paid to provide service to illegals.

The scenes in the ER are going to be interesting if they actually turn people away. And if they aren't going to get paid, they're going to stop being charitable immediately.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (z/ifB)

62 The government doesn't realize that the majority of Americans are probably probably perfectly comfortable ending ALL immigration for the foreseeable future, and those that aren't outright comfortable are likely 50-50 and could be persuaded fairly easily.

Saw a static that 65% of heritage *CANADIANS* want to end immigration. I imagine that number is significantly higher for heritage Americans.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (t0Rmr)

63 Why that is more than twice what Disney paid for the rights to Star Wars.

Posted by: Darth Randall at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (hibNl)

64 What the fcuk Why am I paying taxes for the FSA?

Posted by: Mr. Matamoros at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (RgM/c)

65 But it's also going to make it tough to find 2 trillion without touching those.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (Dm8we)
--------------

I think the idea is there's that much waste and fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. The amount of fraud in the DOD is probably startling, too.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (tT6L1)

66 Cannot hate these bastards enough.

Posted by: IC - Cope Harder, Liberals at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (DJ7uY)

67 No one can be shocked by this.
Posted by: Skip

I'm shocked that no one is being arrested or prosecuted.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (pSGcE)

68 42 But it's also going to make it tough to find 2 trillion without touching those.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (Dm8we)

=======

Medicare and Medicaid have been untouchable for decades. They are non-discretionary spending without serious oversight like Congress and the executive gives all of the other departments, and those are rife with fraud, abuse, and corruption.

I think the base assumption that we can't end the deficit without touching real people's benefits in Medicare and Medicaid may be...wrong.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (GBKbO)

69 We need the altar boys!

Posted by: your Bishop, who totally didn't go to McCarrick's parties in seminary at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (gKWVE)

70 DOGE just found $4.7 trillion in mystery money flowed from the Treasury to whereabouts unknown.

Anyone taking odds the stolen and laundered dough will break one quadrillion dollars?

Posted by: callsign claymore at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (Y4qEj)

71 I, for one, wouldn't have a problem with 10 generations of Bidens being impoverished paying it back.

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (kTd/k)

72 Yeah when your strongest claims are "without evidence" and "but its a small portion of the budget" you know you're losing the argument heh

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (2VST1)

73 The last time I was in an ER there was only one other American. Every other bed (and it was crowded) was full of illegals detoxing.

Lesson learned - go to Urgent Care instead

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (t0Rmr)

74 Democrats don't grow on trees. They have to be bought with real taxpayer money.

Posted by: Eromero at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (LHPAg)

75 Shocking but not surprising.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (VbShw)

76 WWTJD?
Posted by: Stateless...45%

Probably what Judas did.

Posted by: ACK at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (gKWVE)

77 "Ten billion dollars. Stolen from Americans and given to Undocumented Democrats."

Not really. It was stolen from Americans and given to Democraps and their donors. I'd be surprised if even 5% of this money ever got to any illegals. These funds get passed back and forth between NGOs and consultants and agencies with everyone taking a fat cut.

One of the reasons that illegals, trannies, and education are such hobby-horses of the left is they are highly lucrative for Democraps and their donors. Huge money involved, alleged beneficiaries who won't make waves, and nobody to ask questions.

Posted by: Elric Blade at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (iFTx/)

DOGE needs to make and present simple, clear charts showing all of these amounts being siphoned off to various leftists and their families that never make it to the stated "cause" of spending. More people need to feel the outrage.

Posted by: Slow News Day Gorn at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (i24o9)

78 going to be serious money at this rate

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (xcxpd)

79 Remember when they claimed none of this was happening with the 20,000 Haitians the dropped into Springfield, OH? That the locals and X sh$tipsters were making it all up about all the money, jobs, food and cars given to these foreigners?

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:36 PM (Hkcdp)

--------------------

That instance was one which really infuriated me. The usual suspects tried to make it out as no big deal. Uh, dropping 20K people in a town of 60K is definitely a big deal.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (tT6L1)

80 Probably what Judas did.
Posted by: ACK at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (gKWVE)

Ruin a perfectly good dinner party?

Posted by: Warai-otoko at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (7gPaq)

81 He disappeared from Politics faster than anyone I ever remember.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (oa1NA)

$50 says he sleeps 14 hours a day and can't remember the names of half of the people around him.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (mWSu4)

82 I think the base assumption that we can't end the deficit without touching real people's benefits in Medicare and Medicaid may be...wrong.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (GBKbO)

The head of Lexus nexus said he could save a T off the top with user verification.

Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (MGB5H)

83 I'm waiting for the media to say it's just an accounting error. No big deal.

Posted by: dantesed at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (Oy/m2)

84 I'm all behind RFK JR as HHS Secretary, but I hope he has an assistant who is a budget hawk. RFK doesn't seem to me to be a guy who cares too much about profligate spending, as long as it is spent where he wants.

Posted by: Frasier Crane at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (bNf8H)

85 The last time I was in an ER there was only one other American. Every other bed (and it was crowded) was full of illegals detoxing.

Lesson learned - go to Urgent Care instead
Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:38 PM (t0Rmr)

Go in wearing an ICE cap.

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (kTd/k)

86 40 The Conference of Catholic Bishops lawsuit that was just filed against Trump basically states the government is required by law to fund their activities, which are in violation of actual federal law.

I can’t wait to read the discovery on that lawsuit.
Posted by: Marcus T at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (+o/ue)

I want RICO actions brought. Civil asset forfeiture and prison time. Send these frocked mobsters and human traffickers straight to prison.

Posted by: Let's beat these bishops! at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (yzp7T)

87 What the fcuk Why am I paying taxes for the FSA?

>1990s: Your taxes are mostly paying for the foreigner FSA

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (t0Rmr)

88 $10 billion is more than the entire box office receipts of all movies in 2023.

But we should ignore it because it's not big enough.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (GBKbO)

89 "If you don't fund us fully at 110% of last year's budget, Russians will invade Paris by Spring!"
-The DOD for, like, 80 years
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (GBKbO)

I would actually guess that there won't be much fraud in Defense spending. The issue there is going to be a combination of over-promotion (too many fucking flag officers), sending munitions overseas without remunerations, deciding that we need to station troops everywhere, and buying really expensive weapons that either don't work, are ill suited to any likely conflict we might face, or both.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (ExV1e)

90 Most of the waste will be in transfer payments: medicare/medicaid, welfare, social security. That eas about 70% of fed spending at one point.
-

Yep, and I'm betting the medicare/medicaid / welfare, SS money wasn't fraud at the individual level that the (R)s would try to complain about but organized cartel-like (and possibly literally cartel) fraud being performed by internal and external organizations.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (OgBsb)

91 82 The head of Lexus nexus said he could save a T off the top with user verification.
Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (MGB5H)

=========

A system with this must corruption was designed to be corrupt.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (GBKbO)

92 Trump: "Social Security won't be touched, other than if there's fraud or something. It's going to be strengthened.

Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched. "

The political reason he's saying this is understandable, but this means that they won't actually be able to salvage the country's fiscal situation until those programs are at their breaking point.

Posted by: deepelemblues at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (QuPxp)

93 DOGE just found $4.7 trillion in mystery money flowed from the Treasury to whereabouts unknown.

Yeah. Its not impossible that this is all valid spending for intelligence and funding stuff that cannot be reported publicly but... does anyone really believe that?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (2VST1)

94 I think the base assumption that we can't end the deficit without touching real people's benefits in Medicare and Medicaid may be...wrong.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (GBKbO)
------------

Excellent summation.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (tT6L1)

95 NOT ONE MORE LECTURE ABOUT HOW IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO DEPORT AND FINISH BUILDING THE DAMN WALL.
Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM (Hkcdp)

This. Every bit. (but punch it up a smidge with a Samuel L Jackson style delivery)

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (q2NNn)

96 Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

https://tinyurl.com/9mrkdxc6

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (xF8Ny)

97 >>$50 says he sleeps 14 hours a day and can't remember the names of half of the people around him.

$50 says he can't take the corpse of John McCain in a game of Connect 4.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (oa1NA)

98 91 82 The head of Lexus nexus said he could save a T off the top with user verification.
Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (MGB5H)

=========

A system with this must corruption was designed to be corrupt.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (GBKbO)

areed

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (xcxpd)

99 That instance was one which really infuriated me. The usual suspects tried to make it out as no big deal. Uh, dropping 20K people in a town of 60K is definitely a big deal.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (tT6L1)

Ya but the mayor and DeWine got their cut so what's the big deal.

Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (MGB5H)

100 10 billion in one fucking year.

Remember when Bitch McConnell pitched a fit about giving Trump 5 billion for a wall?

Posted by: DudeAbiding at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (setIA)

101 Illegal aliens: Doing the job of squandering our tax dollars that Americans just won't do!

Posted by: zombie at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (pMi6S)

102 $10 billion that we know of.

Posted by: tankdemon at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (VSht7)

103 89 buying really expensive weapons that either don't work, are ill suited to any likely conflict we might face, or both.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (ExV1e)

=======

This is where a lot of the fraud is going to be.

"Here's $1 billion for a weapons' system."
"Great. You don't expect it to work, do you?"
*laughs hysterically*

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (GBKbO)

104 >> Also how much was the border wall back when we couldn't afford that? $6B?

Sorry, we don’t have enough money to build a border wall and give free healthcare to illegals. One will have to be cut.

Posted by: GOPe at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (l3YAf)

105 The political reason he's saying this is understandable, but this means that they won't actually be able to salvage the country's fiscal situation until those programs are at their breaking point.

I think that getting rid of the payments to people who have died, fraudulent payments to people who shouldn't qualify, trimming waste and fat can all save a ton of money without touching the program's intent. Mind you the media will sell it as a horrible brutality to poor people.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (2VST1)

106 The last time I was in an ER there was only one other American. Every other bed (and it was crowded) was full of illegals detoxing.

Lesson learned - go to Urgent Care instead

-

Yep. The left wanted a Canadian style healthcare system, and we got it. Two levels of care, with people who could pay for faster service at urgent cares being put at the front of the line if it was bad enough to send to the hospital.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (OgBsb)

107 93 DOGE just found $4.7 trillion in mystery money flowed from the Treasury to whereabouts unknown.

Yeah. Its not impossible that this is all valid spending for intelligence and funding stuff that cannot be reported publicly but... does anyone really believe that?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (2VST1)

I can guarantee that whatever it is spent on is not in our best interest.

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (KbCG3)

108 "The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024."

Ohhh, no -- it didn't "plague" F. Joke's admin. It was exactly what his handlers wanted.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (J2vNu)

109 Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

https://tinyurl.com/9mrkdxc6

Well, he still 100% protected from getting sicker from COVID than if he hadn't gotten the jab

Posted by: Pfizer at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (t0Rmr)

110

Build a wall in a bitter cold climate. Tents and outhouses and air drop the thieves into their new neighborhood.

Posted by: four seasons at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (3ek7K)

111 Why would someone go to an ER to detox?

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (77rzZ)

112 President Trump is the first person in decades to pay attention to fraud and the cost of illegals to this country. To do what he said he would do...and I am unsure about any president prior to Nixon as I was too young. While risking the wrath of whiners and just do it.

Back in the early 2000's I had it to a taxpayer home in the state I was residing, on how much we were paying for illegal's healthcare, education in public schools and holding criminals in jail/prisons. I would send this to senators and the governor and get a form email in return.

Heaven knows what the cost to us is prior to electing, finally, a man who cares. Adding the costs in tens of thousands to 2025.

Thank you GOD for President Trump and VP Vance. Prayers for protection for them both, their families, friends, and the cabinet.

Posted by: ChristyBlinkyTheGreat at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (ScdUI)

113 Medicare and Medicaid have been untouchable for decades. They are non-discretionary spending without serious oversight like Congress and the executive gives all of the other departments, and those are rife with fraud, abuse, and corruption.

I think the base assumption that we can't end the deficit without touching real people's benefits in Medicare and Medicaid may be...wrong.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

We don't have to "touch" them. Just end the fraud, abuse & corruption.

And if we can't end that, then yes, burn the institutions to the ground.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (pSGcE)

114 And this is the point in all this. Yes the left wants cheap gardeners that will make their yards the envy of their neighbors but the real goal in all of this is to create federal spending for salary for federal bureaucrats, NGO bureaucrats, and quasi-government (eg hospital) bureaucrats

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (t0Rmr)

---------------

Much of it recycled back to the DNC and Commie pols, PACs, and "causes" in the form of campaign contributions &: donations ...

Keep rollin', rollin', rollin'
Though The Swamp is swollen
Keep them dollars rollin'
Greenbacks!

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (qmMUe)

115 >>Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

Trust Fall!

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (oa1NA)

116 Illegal aliens are so much better people than the deplorable, irredeemable American citizen. *spit*

Posted by: Chuck Martel at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (5q/qL)

117 But it's also going to make it tough to find 2 trillion without touching those.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (Dm8we)

We simply do not know the extent of the fraud in SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Until we have a firm grasp of those losses, it's all guessing.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (mWSu4)

118 Sparks of the divine
Piles of money burning

It makes sense.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Covfefe Today, Covfefe Tomorrow, Covfefe Forever! at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (L/fGl)

119 It's just so damned offensive--billions and billions for everyone else.

But, Americans freezing in tents after losing their homes to the hurricane get nothing.

I don't want impeachments--I want stockades and public whippings.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (on5o5)

120
The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024.

Here, I'll correct this for accuracy:
The numbers surged amid a historic migrant invasion at the southern border which was brought about at the invitation and by the aid the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024

Posted by: TecumsehTea at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (Eo96p)

121 Well, DOGE has been in the Pentagon since yesterday.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (GBKbO)

122 Just One Agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, Spent More Than Ten Billion Dollars to Care for Illegal Aliens In One Year Alone

You think America is bad---try coming to California. Here, citizens are second-class citizens.

Posted by: zombie at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (pMi6S)

123 This is where a lot of the fraud is going to be.

"Here's $1 billion for a weapons' system."
"Great. You don't expect it to work, do you?"
*laughs hysterically*

One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that American systems are not significantly better then Russian ones in the field even though they cost 10X more.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (t0Rmr)

124 Of course, this whole DOGE thing is the story of my life. I only find out about the money loopholes just as they're closing.

Posted by: Frasier Crane at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (bNf8H)

125 End all the Social Security payments to "people" 120 years old or older, and we would save at least $150 billion a year. Just as a raw estimate.

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (lHPJf)

126 What it sounds like when you scrape a horn against a blackboard:
youtube.com/watch?v=Ts0VSjSyuJE

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (5xgzq)

127 I would actually guess that there won't be much fraud in Defense spending

—

Dude what????

DoD will make HHS fraud look like loose change inside the sofa cushion. How do you think $700 hammers happened? That hammer cost $3 and the other $697 was stolen.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (VbShw)

128 We don't have to "touch" them. Just end the fraud, abuse & corruption.

Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets

Posted by: kallisto at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (dCxaZ)

129 104 89 buying really expensive weapons that either don't work, are ill suited to any likely conflict we might face, or both.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (ExV1e)

=======

This is where a lot of the fraud is going to be.

"Here's $1 billion for a weapons' system."
"Great. You don't expect it to work, do you?"
*laughs hysterically*

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (GBKbO)

Eisenhower warned us about this.

Eisenhower!!!

Posted by: Tex Lovera at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (wtvvX)

130 NOT ONE MORE LECTURE ABOUT HOW IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO DEPORT AND FINISH BUILDING THE DAMN WALL.
Posted by: Lizzy

-

This schadenfreude is still my favorite part of all of this, though.

All it would've taken was the $5B wall (with an impotent Congress that hated Trump) and an honest 2020 election.

Instead the (D)s chose this path.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (OgBsb)

131 What are the actual number of "refugees" entering the country each year versus economic migrants? Dive $10B by that number.

The spending needs to dead stop but so does the bullshit of renaming of people moving for cash and benefits.

Posted by: Grudge Harbor at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (4DY5T)

132 I think that getting rid of the payments to people who have died, fraudulent payments to people who shouldn't qualify, trimming waste and fat can all save a ton of money without touching the program's intent. Mind you the media will sell it as a horrible brutality to poor people.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (2VST1)

You'd save some, but not anywhere close to the tens of trillions of projected shortfalls in these programs over the next few decades.

That's the whole point of why it's hard to cut spending. Somebody somewhere benefits from spending, no matter how ill-advised the spending is as policy, and they'll be sure to raise hell against it. "All we have to do is cut waste, fraud, and abuse" is the right-wing version of the left's delusional "Just increase the marginal tax rate on billionaires and we've balanced the budget."

Posted by: deepelemblues at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (QuPxp)

133 118 We simply do not know the extent of the fraud in SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Until we have a firm grasp of those losses, it's all guessing.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (mWSu4)

========

And since the narrative of the past few decades has been, "We can't get debt under control without touching Medicare, and you're not allowed to touch Medicare," it makes me wonder if the narrative is bullshit from the beginning.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (GBKbO)

134 NOT ONE MORE LECTURE ABOUT HOW IT IS TOO EXPENSIVE TO DEPORT AND FINISH BUILDING THE DAMN WALL.
Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025
*
This. Every bit. (but punch it up a smidge with a Samuel L Jackson style delivery)
Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025

***
In other words, a whole lotta F-bombs.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (J2vNu)

135 Has Congressman Eyepatch been quiet lately?

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (kTd/k)

136 112 Why would someone go to an ER to detox?
Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (77rzZ)

Crippling alcoholism means difficult to get off the sauce. I looked up "kindling" over in reddit's space for that. Fucking scary and is one reason I drink a lot less than I did.
Also, heroin withdrawal is... a thing.

Posted by: gKWVE at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (gKWVE)

137 "The numbers surged amid a historic migrant crisis at the southern border which plagued the Biden administration between 2021 and 2024."

Plagued?!! WTF?

It's impossible to hate the media enough. And this is FOX, the far right wing hate news.

Posted by: Ripley at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (GUOwU)

138 Well, he still 100% protected from getting sicker from COVID than if he hadn't gotten the jab

Posted by: Pfizer at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (t0Rmr)
-

This just in:

https://tinyurl.com/3e6dcska

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (xF8Ny)

139 I would actually guess that there won't be much fraud in Defense spending

-

(waves in Ukraine)

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (OgBsb)

140 Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM

Well yeah there is that

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (fwDg9)

141 All the talking heads on the tv tell us that something is a small percentage of the budget and it shouldn't even mattert what the American people's taxes are spent on.

Since I pay taxes, every penny the government spends represents some portion of my life. Some portion of my life, spent in servitude, so that they can play "look at all the money I can throw around".

Every fucking penny matters. Every one.

https://youtu.be/74BzSTQCl_c?t=10

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (ExV1e)

142 >>>Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

Think how much worse it would have been without the vaxx!!

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (lHPJf)

143 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that American systems are not significantly better then Russian ones in the field even though they cost 10X more.

That's utter nonsense. There's a reason the Russian arms industry is cratering; their stuff sucks.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (xCA6C)

144 Republicans: THE THIRD RAIL. THE THIRD RAIL.
Trump: i touched it and it wasn't so bad.

Posted by: ryukyu at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (M/bod)

145 $50 says he can't take the corpse of John McCain in a game of Connect 4.
Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:41 PM (oa1NA)

He cheated.

Best 2 out of 3?

Posted by: Biden at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (z/ifB)

146 Really need to hear from Gov. Abbott about that 'migrant city' in the middle of Texas. WTF is going on with that?

Posted by: weft cut-loop at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (mlg/3)

147 Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets

Posted by: kallisto at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (dCxaZ)

Luckily we didn't elect a Republican in November.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (mWSu4)

148 No one can be shocked by this.
Posted by: Skip

Actually I am shocked. I always believed there was fraud, waste and corruption IN our federal government. I never even suspected that our federal government is made up entirely from fraud, waste and corruption.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (4XwPj)

149 122 Well, DOGE has been in the Pentagon since yesterday.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison

"What do we need 5,000 nuclear warheads for? Jut one is enough. In fact, considering that we'll never use it, that one could be a dummy bomb anyway."

"Shhhh! It's already been that way since 1958!"

Posted by: zombie at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (pMi6S)

150 We don't have to "touch" them. Just end the fraud, abuse & corruption.

Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets
Posted by: kallisto at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (dCxaZ)

Gotta make money for Raytheon, Halliburton, and KBR.

Posted by: What about OUR people, Bob? at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (yzp7T)

151 Why would someone go to an ER to detox?

-

I think it fast tracks you, although you might be admitted to whatever the crazy people floor it in the interim. Any nurses around?

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (OgBsb)

152 I'm loving how all the judges who have issued TROs to block Trump's executive actions have yuge, material financial conflicts of interest that REQUIRE their immediate refusal from the cases.

Best example, Judge McConnell, the dipshit who ordered the freeze on foreign USAID payments set aside, operates a foundation that has received 128 million dollars from various NGOs in the past 20 years, and as recently as the last 4 years, one of the plaintiffs in the very case he issued the TRO in gave the foundation 25 million bucks. Unbelievable.

He should be impeached immediately, but of course that would require the GOP not to be part of the scam.

I'm all for a complete flush of ALL of Washington DC. Starting with Judge McConnell and finishing with the last corrupt GOP trough-slopping hog.

Posted by: Sharkman at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (BRvvM)

153 Why would someone go to an ER to detox?

I saw cops bring in a few of them...potentially all.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (t0Rmr)

154 "Can we retroactively impeach Biden? We discussed that possibility during the Clinton years. Strip him of his pension and Secret Service detail. He can get protection from Ukrainian Nazi squads."

That (barely) ambulatory potato has got so much $$$$$ squirreled away, he (a) wouldn't have any idea where it all is, and (b) would not even miss his pension.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (J2vNu)

155 Crippling alcoholism means difficult to get off the sauce. I looked up "kindling" over in reddit's space for that. Fucking scary and is one reason I drink a lot less than I did.
Also, heroin withdrawal is... a thing.
Posted by: gKWVE

Yeah, I'm resigned to the fact that I'm probably going to have to give up alcohol entirely in the not too-distant future. I turn 60 in November, so I figure that will be a good stopping point.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (77rzZ)

156 We simply do not know the extent of the fraud in SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Until we have a firm grasp of those losses, it's all guessing.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (mWSu4)

========

And since the narrative of the past few decades has been, "We can't get debt under control without touching Medicare, and you're not allowed to touch Medicare," it makes me wonder if the narrative is bullshit from the beginning.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (GBKbO)
-----------

Fearmongering to prevent people from looking under the hood of government spending. It was a way of keeping people in line because grandma and grampa will wind up on the street if spending is cut.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (tT6L1)

157 Republicans: THE THIRD RAIL. THE THIRD RAIL.
Trump: i touched it and it wasn't so bad.
Posted by: ryukyu at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (M/bod)

No worse than putting your tongue in a 9v battery to see if it's still good.
-Trump

Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (MGB5H)

158 Hunter is sitting at home, watching these trillions get unearthed, and thinking, shoulda got me some of that.

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (v0TzN)

159 I would like to see Elise Stefanik begin to hand out bills to her Third World Sh*thole counterparts at the UN, payable in rare earth elements, to zero out the balance their illegals racked up while staying in America.

Posted by: Curly Shuffle at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (Vyll1)

160 Of $10b is no big big deal then the few tens of thousands in taxes I pay is also not a big deal. Surely the IRS won’t mind if I don’t send it right? Riiiiiight?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (VbShw)

161 I do believe that the chessboard has been upended.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (q2NNn)

162 The Chinese appeal was always a lie. China probably stole heaps of IP on digital technology and production processes from Hollywood.

China stole IP from everyone who ever worked with them. Hire a Chinese engineer, you've given everything to China. Got in trouble at work once, when we were just starting to give China all our IP, for pointing out that China was not our friend. Management didn't want to hear it.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (ExV1e)

163 I've been laughing at this for five minutes.

"CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right? And it's sort of like ... the search for WMD in Iraq."

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (wb1YC)

164 Also, heroin withdrawal is... a thing.

Posted by: gKWVE at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (gKWVE)

Not nearly as bad as alcohol withdrawal, which can kill you.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:47 PM (mWSu4)

165 96 Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

https://tinyurl.com/9mrkdxc6

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (xF8Ny)

Damn. He went down HARD.

Posted by: Tex Lovera at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (wtvvX)

166 That's utter nonsense. There's a reason the Russian arms industry is cratering; their stuff sucks.

Err...you've actually read how the combat is going there right? Russians surging most everywhere - the "miracle" American/Euro systems mostly failed to do anything...right?

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (t0Rmr)

167 But it's also going to make it tough to find 2 trillion without touching those.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 01:35 PM (Dm8we)

How interesting will it be if the Republican talking point becomes "Why did Democrats steal all this SS and Medicare money for seniors and send it overseas or to illegals?"

That third rail may get tied in knots.

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (lHPJf)

168 >>Why would someone go to an ER to detox?

The same reason they go for the common cold and the flu...
It's Free.

They go to the ER for everything.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (oa1NA)

169 Medicare and Medicaid have been untouchable for decades. They are non-discretionary spending without serious oversight like Congress and the executive gives all of the other departments, and those are rife with fraud, abuse, and corruption.

I think the base assumption that we can't end the deficit without touching real people's benefits in Medicare and Medicaid may be...wrong.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (GBKbO)

But I don’t just want to end the deficit, I want to stop being raped by Federal taxes.

As for Medicaid being untouchable, I don’t buy it. It’s a pure welfare program and can be handed off to the states. If blue states want sky high welfare spending, so be it. People and businesses vote with their feet.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (l3YAf)

170 >>Yeah. Its not impossible that this is all valid spending for intelligence and funding stuff that cannot be reported publicly but... does anyone really believe that?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM

Every third spy novel has an unnamed agency for which the hero works.

Posted by: huerfano at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (n2swS)

171 Fearmongering to prevent people from looking under the hood of government spending. It was a way of keeping people in line because grandma and grampa will wind up on the street if spending is cut.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing

-

This is my thought as well. It's one of the only things I ever remember (D)s and (R)s being in lockstep about. I suspect there's a reason.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (OgBsb)

172 And since the narrative of the past few decades has been, "We can't get debt under control without touching Medicare, and you're not allowed to touch Medicare," it makes me wonder if the narrative is bullshit from the beginning.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (GBKbO)

Like I told you, we can grow our way out of debt over the next 40 years.

Posted by: Paul Ryan at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (z/ifB)

173 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that American systems are not significantly better then Russian ones in the field even though they cost 10X more.
Posted by: 18-1
____

The spice must flow.

Posted by: Chuck Martel at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (5q/qL)

174 I touched the butt!!

Posted by: Nemo at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (W2Pud)

175 Strip him of his pension and Secret Service detail. He can get protection from Ukrainian Nazi squads.
Posted by: Ace at 01:29 PM

As long as those Nazi Death Squads do his security with him in Ukraine, I'm all the way on board. I don't want their skeery black asault weapons on my streets.

Posted by: BifBewalski at February 19, 2025 01:49 PM (MsrgL)

176 Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

--

Did he bump into someone in between heartbeats?

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:49 PM (OgBsb)

177 We don't have to "touch" them. Just end the fraud, abuse & corruption.

Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets
Posted by: kallisto at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (dCxaZ)

Gotta make money for Raytheon, Halliburton, and KBR.
Posted by: What about OUR people, Bob? at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (yzp7T)

Hello. *waves* You guys playing cards?

Posted by: Lockheed at February 19, 2025 01:49 PM (q2NNn)

178 Fearmongering to prevent people from looking under the hood of government spending.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:46 PM (tT6L1)

Bingo.

That's is why Trump and Musk and DOGE are vital to the future of America. They are changing the perception of government spending.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (mWSu4)

179 I would actually guess that there won't be much fraud in Defense spending

My guess is that the fraud is real and magnificent. Just ask a soldier or someone in the VA hospital how much of those hundreds of billions every year are reaching them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (2VST1)

180 I wouldn't be surprised that if you added up all jurisdictions across the country that the bill for illegal's healthcare is north of $50 billion.

California and New York are paying in the billions all by themselves.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (6ydKt)

181 "CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right?

Well, yeah. He doesn't have someone to copy it from, you know, like you do.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (xCA6C)

182 >>Why would someone go to an ER to detox?

The same reason they go for the common cold and the flu...
It's Free.

They go to the ER for everything.
Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (oa1NA)

ERs can’t legally turn them away, thanks to commie judges ruling everyone has a right to ER services.

Any other practice can require insurance or cash to treat. So a lot of illegals get their healthcare from ERs.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (l3YAf)

183
Crippling alcoholism means difficult to get off the sauce. I looked up "kindling" over in reddit's space for that. Fucking scary and is one reason I drink a lot less than I did.
Also, heroin withdrawal is... a thing.
Posted by: gKWVE at February 19, 2025

***
I'd never heard of that, though I know some serious alcoholics go through seizures and withdrawal symptoms. See Jack Lemmon's Joe Clay in Days of Wine and Roses, the straitjacket scene. Brrrr.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (J2vNu)

184 I want to see the total amount spent across ALL federal agencies, per year under Biden.

He was sneaky to pull billions from so many places — let’s see how much we’ve been paying for our puente invasion and replacement.

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (Hkcdp)

185 Go in wearing an ICE cap.

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:39 PM (kTd/k)

------------

Las Vegas ice cream truck mistaken for ICE vehicle:

youtube.com/watch?v=U0G3_pXo-hg

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (r2SS9)

186 Jonah Goldberg?? Who?

Posted by: dantesed at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (Oy/m2)

187 @136 saw that eye patch McCain is going to be on Piers Morgan with Mehti Hasan and a couple other guys . Hasan tweeted it would be 4 against 1. I don't think he knows eye patch

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (KXtU1)

188 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (2VST1)

189 "ERs can’t legally turn them away, thanks to commie judges ruling everyone has a right to ER services."

Umm, EMTALA under Reagan.

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (5xgzq)

190 One would have to assume that Defense spending would be where outright government-approved and acknowledged billions in fraud would HAVE to occur in order to maintain secrecy.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (OgBsb)

191 190 That's 12% That 1 year of tax for every 8.5 years you work. Yet, when you get too old - there is always some pencil neck dick, often a Republican and often here - telling you that 12% of your earnings over 40+ years was never meant to be enough to "retire".

Tell me how its not. Show your math.
Posted by: I See at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (ZIwEC)

=======

It's a tax and a welfare program, not a savings account.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (GBKbO)

192 DoD is probably going to have the same sorts of fraud as other departments PLUS the $200 hammer stuff that is just a friendly way to budget black ops work.

And that should be comical - imagine DOGE finds the $200 hammer order that actually paid for destroying Russia's oil pipeline or assassinating Darya Dugina

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (t0Rmr)

193 Shut off the spigot and maybe the majority will self deport

Posted by: redridinghood at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (NpAcC)

194 I'd never heard of that, though I know some serious alcoholics go through seizures and withdrawal symptoms. See Jack Lemmon's Joe Clay in Days of Wine and Roses, the straitjacket scene. Brrrr.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Also Ray Miland in The Lost Weekend.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (77rzZ)

195 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (2VST1)

I don't have to struggle. I know a lot of people who took that crap.

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (lHPJf)

196 112 Why would someone go to an ER to detox?
Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (77rzZ)

I wondered that, too. To get some IV fluids? Some shots? Some drugs to empty their stomach or bowels?

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (v0TzN)

197 "If you don't fund us fully at 110% of last year's budget, Russians will invade Paris by Spring!"
-The DOD for, like, 80 years

The Roooskies are welcome to western europe. It's full of muzzies and smells bad. Especially Paris, the muzzies make that place smell better, but it's still unearable.

Posted by: BifBewalski at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (MsrgL)

198 President Trump, on the campaign trail, mentioned ending the income tax and funding government through tariffs.

President Trump is currently demonstrating his goal may not be all that far-fetched, because he's showing Americans just how badly their money has been managed.

Simply amazing.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (tT6L1)

199 As soon as anyone in Doge goes to look at Medicare the Leftists will howl they want to take it all away.

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (fwDg9)

200 32 16 Thank goodness the tranny Jesus thread is done.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (77rzZ)

So about that tranny Jesus...
Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at February 19, 2025 01:34 PM

--

She gets us.

Posted by: SloPitch Whiffer at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (wzAuc)

201 The health ins company that employs my wife just announce there be 15% reduction of employees. The dept she works under must cut $84 million this year. First time they've done anything like this in the 9 years she's worked there

I’m sure it's just a coincidence.

Posted by: Peter Brady at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (JfxgE)

202 At RCP the three most recent OrangeMan approval polls have him at +6 net approve.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (VbShw)

203 >>Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer?

Everything I eat goes straight to my Tumor!

Posted by: Ozempic User at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (oa1NA)

204 I recall under Obama that the GAO was bad enough with their internal waste that they actually got exposed.

Has DOGE gotten to them yet? I don't expect it's the largest line item but even under Obama we knew they were just partying.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (z/ifB)

205 It's a tax and a welfare program, not a savings account.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (GBKbO)

It's in a lockbox!

Posted by: Horsefaced Kerry at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (q2NNn)

206 Yeah, I'm resigned to the fact that I'm probably going to have to give up alcohol entirely in the not too-distant future. I turn 60 in November, so I figure that will be a good stopping point.
Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025

***
Think of the money you'll save ($50 nowadays for a fifth of whiskey, however exotic????) and the hangovers you'll avoid!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (J2vNu)

207 "CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right? And it's sort of like ... the search for WMD in Iraq."

So wait, is Hotdog Boy admitting here he made up all his reporting on WMDs back in the early 2000s? Because he and NRO were very, very big on that particular angle.

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (t0Rmr)

208 As of Saturday, I will be sober for 15 years. Think I can make it until the weekend?

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 01:54 PM (5xgzq)

209 Billions embezzled to employ their people
Billions embezzled to fund their campaigns.
Billions embezzled to fund their media.
Billions embezzled to prop up their state census.

Everything, from top to bottom, of the Democrats, was funded by the federal government.

Stolen from Americans.
This is the biggest scandal in history and we're just scratching the surface.

Trump needs to place the Democrat Party under a Consent Decree that makes the VRA consent decrees look like slaps on the wrist.
-certify that no funds come from government sources, including union and charitable funds
-certify that no non-citizen is included in the census
-certify that no federal funds are used to GOTV
-certify that no candidate for federal office has family employed by any entity that relies upon federal funds

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 01:54 PM (on5o5)

210 70 DOGE just found $4.7 trillion in mystery money flowed from the Treasury to whereabouts unknown.

Anyone taking odds the stolen and laundered dough will break one quadrillion dollars?

Posted by: callsign claymore at February 19, 2025 01:37 PM (Y4qEj)

++++

They found the cancelled check. It was made out to "Cash".
Amount:
Four trillion, seven hundred billion and no 00/100 cents.

Posted by: washrivergal at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (C53IZ)

211 End Wokeness
@EndWokeness

CBS's Gayle King tries to blame Trump for the plane crashes, is debunked by Delta's CEO

https://tinyurl.com/kkjkcp4y

Posted by: redridinghood at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (NpAcC)

212 191 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (2VST1)

I doubt they care. They'd sell their firstborn for fame and fortune.

Posted by: CaliGirl at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (CMcGo)

213 So when do they vote for Patel ?

Posted by: It's me donna at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (VE6XX)

214 So all the people dancing in the Ozempic commercials are going to get cancer. They'll be less happy

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (KXtU1)

215 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer?

I mean obesity also comes with serious health risks too. I would assume any weight loss drug does as well and then it is a question, if you can't do diet and exercise, which is a greater risk

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (t0Rmr)

216 "CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right?

-----------------

The green-eyed monster hates Trump and Musk.

Unexpectedly.

Film at 11:00 ... same as it always was.

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (r2SS9)

217
Good morning, all. I don't know if anyone has linked it yet, but the NY Times has done our work for us and rounded up a bunch of un-jobbed federal workers to tell their unintentionally entertaining and educational sob stories firsthand. They inadvertently tell you everything they don't want you to know, and leave you wanting to shout follow-up questions at them.

https://youtu.be/UczqHLeRdNg

Posted by: Blonde Morticia's office at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (I87yH)

218 and the hangovers you'll avoid!
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Well, at least I haven't had a hangover in years. I'm at the age where I fall asleep before I can drink enough to develop one.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (77rzZ)

219 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer?

—

Losing 70 lbs in 2 months has side effects? I’m shocked.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (VbShw)

220 191 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (2VST1)

-- --

That's a lot of people with diabetes who have to worry now, too.

The Celebs and peeps using it for dieting are learning the meaning of "caveat emptor" the hard way.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (6ydKt)

221 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.

...

7.5 % isn't it?

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

222 "ERs can’t legally turn them away, thanks to commie judges ruling everyone has a right to ER services."

Umm, EMTALA under Reagan.
Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit

That's stabilize you so you don't die and transfer you to a charity hospital. Not treat you until you thrive.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (pSGcE)

223 191 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
-----------------
Ooo Ooo Ooo Ozempic and Wegovey ads make me laugh. Fat bodies all taking walks together, smiling and such amuses me.

Posted by: Pudinhead at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (pLaQB)

224 @216 tomorrow I believe. Cloture was done yesterday so there is 30 hrs until the vote

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (KXtU1)

225 Does anyone still read NR unironically?

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (VbShw)

226 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.

...

7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

7.65%

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (q2NNn)

227 I'd never heard of that, though I know some serious alcoholics go through seizures and withdrawal symptoms. See Jack Lemmon's Joe Clay in Days of Wine and Roses, the straitjacket scene. Brrrr.
Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius

Also Ray Miland in The Lost Weekend.
Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (77rzZ)
------------
Sounds like I need to up my game.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (6K6Eu)

228 227 @216 tomorrow I believe. Cloture was done yesterday so there is 30 hrs until the vote
Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (KXtU1)

Thanks

Posted by: It's me donna at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (VE6XX)

229 CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right?

...

You all are taking those SS 100 plus age numbers at face value?

Posted by: Jonah Goldberg at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (z/ifB)

230 224 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.

...

7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: Texas

6.2% SS 1.45% Medicare both employee and employer.

SS is capped at a certain income Medicare is not.

Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:58 PM (VbShw)

231 The six imaginary people who subscribe to Jonah's newsletter are cheering right now.

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (wb1YC)

232 It's a tax and a welfare program, not a savings account.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:52 PM (GBKbO)

It's in a lockbox!
Posted by: Horsefaced Kerry at February 19, 2025 01:53 PM (q2NNn)

You asked for it!
https://youtu.be/EPoiEQyYILM

Posted by: Doof at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (9ByDD)

233 7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

7.65%
Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025 01:57 PM (q2NNn)

I'm a structural engineer. In the ballpark is close enough.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (z/ifB)

234 CNN - Jonah Goldberg on DOGE's activities: "Elon Musk is just making this stuff up as he goes along, right?

-

Yep.

Just imagine if he and Trump weren't lazy and stupid.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (OgBsb)

235 So, the little pill with a big story to tell is actually bogus?

I'm shocked.

Posted by: dantesed at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (Oy/m2)

236
I'm a structural engineer. In the ballpark is close enough.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (z/ifB)

That's comforting.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (i24o9)

237 Have The Bulwark and The Lincoln Project been getting government funding?

Posted by: Shy lurker aka Northernlurker at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (kTd/k)

238
Eisenhower warned us about this.

Eisenhower!!!
Posted by: Tex Lovera at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (wtvvX)
He just saw it first hand, while winning WW II with that same military industrial complex.

Posted by: Eromero at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (LHPAg)

239 End all the Social Security payments to "people" 120 years old or older, and we would save at least $150 billion a year. Just as a raw estimate.
Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM

----------------

The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.

Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

240 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.

That's 12% That 1 year of tax for every 8.5 years you work. Yet, when you get too old - there is always some pencil neck dick, often a Republican and often here - telling you that 12% of your earnings over 40+ years was never meant to be enough to "retire".

Tell me how its not. Show your math.

Posted by: I See at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (ZIwEC)

Your mistake is simple. The pay-in is not invested, and is not entirely related to the payout. The first people to receive from Social Security did not pay in. It's a Ponzi scheme originally constructed on assumptions about labor force and lifespan that no longer hold.

12%(originally much lower) is sufficient for something like a 401k, but this isn't a retirement program, it's a vote buying scheme. Person A is paying person B, person A is not saving for retirement here. That's why the tax rate to support it has had to rise over time.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (eYoxG)

241 Investing in T-bills would be a better investment than Social Security, which is not an investment.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (GBKbO)

242 Whenever Lefties complain about US Healthcare being so expensive, or they complain about the long wait time at the ER, I like to remind them of all the illegals that go to the ER for routine treatment, with no intention of paying.

Massive reductions in the illegal population should help lower housing AND healthcare expenses, and raise wages.

Posted by: Intercepted DU Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (JCZqz)

243 Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 01:42 PM (77rzZ)

If you're going to do that get some support and help. Not that everybody needs to use that , but AA can be very helpful and a good support system. No, I m not suggesting that you're an alcoholic- just that youve mentioned trying to give up alcohol several times. Alcoholism runs in both FenSpouses and my family. He can't drink/or doesn'/ because of gout . I try to watch it because I don't want to set a bad example for son.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (yxwuC)

244 The political reason he's saying this is understandable, but this means that they won't actually be able to salvage the country's fiscal situation until those programs are at their breaking point.
Posted by: deepelemblues at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (QuPxp)

The public, by and large, isn't going to accept cuts to those programs until it can be shown that all the money is accounted for AND that all the BS is stopped. Assuming they can actually get rid of most of the fraud in the system, people might be willing to consider different things.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (ExV1e)

245 We didn't really know this, but somebody did. Lot's of somebodies. Now they are going to act like Claude Rains in Casablanca. I'm shocked. Shocked that illegals were getting all this money.

One-way ticket to Gitmo and a date with the executioner.

Posted by: Ex Rex Reeder at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (MZ+PY)

246 191 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

Used to treat diabetes now too. Bowel paralysis as a result.

Posted by: Auspex at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (j4U/Z)

247 7.3 + 6.7 I thought.

caveat emptor?

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (bF7Q5)

248 The six imaginary people who subscribe to Jonah's newsletter are cheering right now.

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (wb1YC)
-

DOGE cancelled those government paid subscriptions.

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (xF8Ny)

249 I'm electrical. If we get the wires in the right room its a win. Get them in the right box ? We go to the bar early.

***

Not sweeping up after yourself saves time too.

:-)

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (wb1YC)

250 "Save Our Precious Bureaucracy!"

Posted by: Mr. Barky at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (Irm2P)

251 So when do they vote for Patel ?

Posted by: It's me donna at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (VE6XX)

------------

Heard somewhere yesterday that it's tomorrow (Thursday) but have not confirmed.

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (r2SS9)

252 Bowel paralysis as a result.

Posted by: Auspex at February 19, 2025 02:01 PM (j4U/Z)
-

No shit?

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (xF8Ny)

253 I'm a structural engineer. In the ballpark is close enough.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (z/ifB)

That's comforting.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (i24o9)

...

I had a prof that actually took of points on exams if you answered with more than 3 significant digits.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (z/ifB)

254 Yeah, it's funny to have confirmation for what "Our Democracy" meant.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (OgBsb)

255 Chump change Jack!

Signed DoD

Posted by: NALNAMSAM at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (k3sUU)

256 I had a prof that actually took of points on exams if you answered with more than 3 significant digits.
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (z/ifB)

Sounds like my kind of guy. Round to nearest 5 call it a day!

Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (MGB5H)

257 You mean the Judge McConnell facing impeachment?

https://tinyurl.com/f2sz8pd2

Posted by: Notsothoreau at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (o5+a9)

258 Still have no idea when Kash Patel will get confirmed, every day just read 1 more step done of 263 I think it takes

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (fwDg9)

259 It's 6.2 + 6.2 now.

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (bF7Q5)

260 I'm a structural engineer. In the ballpark is close enough.
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (z/ifB)

Ha! I endorse the Bob Newhart theory of accounting: As long as it's within a few bucks of it, it's okay. Though this theory doesn't seem to ever catch on.

Posted by: Count de Monet at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (q2NNn)

261 167 96 Is this is becoming more common lately?

Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:

https://tinyurl.com/9mrkdxc6

Posted by: Biden's Dog sniffs a whole lotta malarkey, at February 19, 2025 01:40 PM (xF8Ny)

Damn. He went down HARD.
Posted by: Tex Lovera at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (wtvvX)

I'm going to go out on a limb and propose a mathematical model for this - The number of politicians collapsing in public is directly proportional to the number of politicians over the age of 75 who are still in office.

I know, that's quite a stretch, isn't it.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (wyMQY)

262 The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.

Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

+++

Then who is getting the money deposited in bank accounts every month?

Posted by: washrivergal at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (C53IZ)

263 Looks like with all the USAID cuts Jonah's not going to be able to get a new Nintendo Switch for his cuckshed time

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (t0Rmr)

264 "(VE6XX)"

That's the callsign for a ham radio operator in Alberta. Cool.

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (5xgzq)

265 Ooo Ooo Ooo Ozempic and Wegovey ads make me laugh. Fat bodies all taking walks together, smiling and such amuses me.
Posted by: Pudinhead at February 19, 2025

***
The Wegovy one where the plump dark-haired artist girl joins the walking hordes, and says, "I'm losing weight and I'm keeping it off." If so, dear, you're keeping it very close to you like a pet so it won't get away.

You'd think the ad agencies for these drugs would show us some "after" images. Not pudges who've lost, what, 30 lbs. and still have a long ways to go, but at least a few people who have *actually gotten to their proper and proportionate weight for their height* -- success stories. Where are they?

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (J2vNu)

266 14 Then: Illegal aliens don't get welfare, free healthcare, SS, or walking around money

Soon: Its GOOD that we've been giving Illegal aliens welfare, free healthcare, SS, and walking around money
Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:32 PM (t0Rmr)

Don't forget we set up ngos in foreign countries to find, fund and send them to our southern border with expectation of us legal aid once the get here. We pay for it all.

Posted by: Cuthbert the Witless at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (/yQIm)

267 239 239 So, the little pill with a big story to tell is actually bogus?

I'm shocked.

Posted by: dantesed at February 19, 2025 01:59 PM (Oy/m2)

- -- --

I think that's Wegovy, it's Semaglutide, too, but in pill form.

I guess that could give you cancer, as well?

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (6ydKt)

268 As for Medicaid being untouchable, I don’t buy it. It’s a pure welfare program and can be handed off to the states. If blue states want sky high welfare spending, so be it. People and businesses vote with their feet.
Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director

The states manage it anyway with a mix of Fed and state dollars. It wouldn’t take a tremendous amount of change. That said, state taxes would probably increase.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (p4NUW)

269 You think its only Democrats drinking at the trough ?

I suspect the fact that a "Republican" House/Senate fought Trump tooth and nail in the first term cured most folks here of that idea if they'd ever believed it.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (ExV1e)

270 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that American systems are not significantly better then Russian ones in the field even though they cost 10X more.
Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (t0Rmr)

------------------

We are paying $800 billion a year for about $300 billion worth of military.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (JoAEF)

271 No attaboys for 15 years off the sauce? Cripes, I did it mostly for you.

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (5xgzq)

272 Then who is getting the money deposited in bank accounts every month?

This is the question isn't it? If the government is paying out some significant percentage of the SS budget to people that don't exist someone(s) has been getting rich and we should be able to find out specifically who...

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (t0Rmr)

273 Welp, two back-to-back interviews tomorrow morning with the same company. Y'all wont be seeing much of me around here until the afternoon.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (77rzZ)

274 Jonah IS the whale.

Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (6K6Eu)

275 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.

"Endeavor Air, who operated the Delta flight which crashed in Toronto says their most important priority is DEI"

This next post shows an all women crew bragging about not needing men.

x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1892221868607746219

Posted by: illiniwek at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (Cus5s)

276 caveat emptor Let the buyer beware.

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (bF7Q5)

277 I'm A little tired of just blaming Biden and his unelected cronies and handlers.
Everyone who has been a member of congress over the last sixteen years is also complicit to a various degrees.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (n4GiU)

278 I had a prof that actually took of points on exams if you answered with more than 3 significant digits.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:02 PM (z/ifB)

I guess if you use large safety factor, it doesn't matter.

Sis in law is civil. She f'd up some marker coordinate and cost the developer a lot of excess earth moving costs.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (i24o9)

279 Like I told you, we can grow our way out of debt over the next 40 years.
Posted by: Paul Ryan at February 19, 2025 01:48 PM (z/ifB)

40 years was the estimate for growing out of the deficit and mal-investment caused by zero interest, by some seriously hard-nosed money guys, based on things like debt, growth estimates, and real world debt management metrics, not idiots like Paul Ryan,

However, that was last December and I am guessing you agree with me that last December was a freaking long time ago.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (D7oie)

280 239 The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments.
Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

Link for "vast majority"?

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (v0TzN)

281 >96 Mississippi Lt Governor collapses:
https://tinyurl.com/9mrkdxc6

The first guy up there after the collapse takes the mike and calls for recess. Roberts Rules of Order for the win!

Posted by: J. Frank Parnell at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (eb5mD)

282 Don't forget we set up ngos in foreign countries to find, fund and send them to our southern border with expectation of us legal aid once the get here. We pay for it all.

There was a thread a couple of days ago about Trump firing some of the Biden appointed immigration judges. I looked up one of the named Biden judges on linked in and before Biden hired her she worked for several of those NGOs that were paying illegals to come here.

But I'm sure as a judge she was going to be completely impartial

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (t0Rmr)

283
Cereal Question: do You People consider Back to the Future: Part III a Western?

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (7rn5C)

284 Sounds like I need to up my game.
Posted by: Captain Obvious, Laird o' the Sea, Radioactive Knight, Concertina Czar at February 19, 2025

***
Start with getting the young Lee Remick to marry you.

In fact, that would be a good place to stop and say, "I'm a winner."

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (J2vNu)

285 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer?

Which senator is shorting the manufacturer's stocks?

Posted by: FeatherBlade at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (hB7mE)

286 The most common side effects of Wegovy® may include: nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, constipation, stomach (abdomen) pain, headache, tiredness (fatigue), upset stomach, dizziness, feeling bloated, belching, low blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes, gas, stomach flu, heartburn, and runny nose or sore throat.

Sounds appealing even without the cancer.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (6ydKt)

287 No attaboys for 15 years off the sauce? Cripes, I did it mostly for you.

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (5xgzq)

I'll drink to that.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (i24o9)

288 SCOTUS claims illegal aliens must be allowed or required to attend public schools on the taxpayer dime. Nonsense, but that cemented the grift.

School districts get $$$ phony baloney confetti bucks for every ass in the seat. That’s why they love illegal aliens. Mo’ money. Follow the money, always.

It’s also why nobody gets expelled, no matter what they do. There is a direct line between this and the Marjorie-Stoneman school slaughter. Everyone was notified about this guy. “He’s gonna be the next school shooter”. Nobody did fuck all, because “minorities” would be expelled at a “disproportionate rate”. The fact this guy wasn’t a minority shows what happens- a decline in standards for errybody.

Leftists cannot bear to admit they are wrong about anything, ever. Your kids are sacrificed so they can keep their cherished delusions. “Your Death Before Their Dishonor”.

Stay Safe! Mask Up! Social Distance!

Posted by: Common Tater at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (lyX7Q)

289 283
Cereal Question: do You People consider Back to the Future: Part III a Western?

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (7rn5C)

========

I mostly consider it far superior to Part II.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (GBKbO)

290 The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.

+++

Then who is getting the money deposited in bank accounts every month?
Posted by: washrivergal
-

I think that will be the big disclosure soon.

Huge numbers of Americans have to file their taxes using PINs because their SS#s were stolen. When those dots are all connected I suspect there are going to be a lot of nervous, wealthy government employees and family members.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (OgBsb)

291 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.

...

7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

---------------

I believe it's 6.5% as I pay 13% self-employment tax.

Posted by: ShainS -- The Deep State Dies in Daylight at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (r2SS9)

292 273 Welp, two back-to-back interviews tomorrow morning with the same company. Y'all wont be seeing much of me around here until the afternoon.
-----------
Good luck and good hunting. Don't say anything about the mole on the second interviewer's nose.

Posted by: Pudinhead at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (pLaQB)

293 246 191 Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

Used to treat diabetes now too. Bowel paralysis as a result.
Posted by: Auspex at Februar

Ohhhhhh shhiitt........arrrrrrrrrgh.

Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:07 PM (/yQIm)

294 Jonah, people forgot you existed. Maybe shut up before datarepblican outs you as a recipient of USAID funds.

Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (tT6L1)

295 Yeah, no one is going to touch Social Security and Medicare for existing recipients. Besides the political infeasibility, IMO there's a moral obligation to the seniors who are already receiving it. While the common believe that your social security taxes are "saved" in some way is not true at all, nevertheless providing SS and Medicare was part of the deal... a deal that the seniors were not allowed to refuse.

If those programs need actual cuts (rather than eliminating waste and fraud, of course) then they'll probably need to be wound down over a period of decades.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (W5ArC)

296 This is the question isn't it? If the government is paying out some significant percentage of the SS budget to people that don't exist someone(s) has been getting rich and we should be able to find out specifically who...
Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 02:04 PM (t0Rmr)

and then bury them in a pit under the total amount they have stolen in pennies.

Posted by: Kindltot at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (D7oie)

297 PSA. Don't take anything that interferes with your ability to digest foods.

Posted by: From about That Time at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (n4GiU)

298 The New York Times:
Ozempic Can Curb Drinking, New Research Shows
Some people who take drugs like Ozempic have noticed a surprising but welcome side effect: They drink less.
1 week ago

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (v0TzN)

299
btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (7rn5C)

300 246 Used to treat diabetes now too. Bowel paralysis as a result.
Posted by: Auspex at February 19

The purpose was diabetes, not weight loss. The use for weight loss was off label until it was approved. I haven’t read the article, but wonder if this is for people who don’t have diabetes vs. those taking it to get blood sugar stable? I don’t know if that makes a difference or not.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (pZEOD)

301 Joys of working for a fed funded NotForProfit, feels like 80% of the staff there are skeered they will lose their jobs cuz mean old Trump and Musk just want to fry the planet in peace.

We may well see job cuts. They did have to furlough DEI staff. I of course was thrilled by them being forced to ax the divide, enrage, and promote insanity staff. But I just can't feel too bad for anyone who loses their job. We get super generous PTO, so anyone who is told to go and doesn't have 4 or more weeks of PTO (we can accumulate up to 10 weeks and then its use it or lose it) was either a very new hire or is a slack off.

Posted by: PaleRider at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (CKOCg)

302 The scenes in the ER are going to be interesting if they actually turn people away. And if they aren't going to get paid, they're going to stop being charitable immediately.
---
Michelle Obama is an expert at that.

Worth $300,000 a year, she's so good at getting rid of people who can't pay.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (on5o5)

303 40 years of Doge going full force might make budget manageable

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (fwDg9)

304 Sis in law is civil. She f'd up some marker coordinate and cost the developer a lot of excess earth moving costs.
Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 02:06 PM (i24o9)

...

Yeah, we can cause expensive screw ups too. But when you offset the corner of a large area, ouch. The yards add up fast.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (z/ifB)

305 > Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.

1. How rare is the cancer and how much does Ozempic increase the incidence? If one in three million people get it, and Ozempic doubles that to two in three million, who cares?

2. The VAST majority of health problems in wealthy countries is a direct result of obesity. Heart disease, strokes, diabetes, hypertension, depression, some cancers, etc. If Ozempic can cut that in half, it's a miracle drug, even with some crazy side effects.

Posted by: bonhomme at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (Odg76)

306 do You People consider Back to the Future: Part III a Western?

Sure, its a sci fi western, but yeah. Not my favorite in the trilogy but its been ages since I saw it. Most of part II's appeal is watching how they spliced new footage into scenes from the first.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (2VST1)

307 292 LOL. Thanks, Pudin.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (77rzZ)

308 Good lord, Trump.is going hard against zelensky and the lack of elections in his press conferences. Should ace hold a drinking game for Ukraine elections?

Posted by: ryukyu at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (M/bod)

309 275 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.

"Endeavor Air, who operated the Delta flight which crashed in Toronto says their most important priority is DEI"

This next post shows an all women crew bragging about not needing men.

x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1892221868607746219
Posted by: illiniwek at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (Cus5s)

I've stopped flying essentially anyway.

Making everyone miserable post-9/11 dented my enthusiasm for air travel, and the airlines' complete unreliability -late, overbooked, canceled flights - did for the rest. But the women and minorities uber alles stuff is going to get people killed.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (V9cMX)

310
Critical Drinker just did a 1 hour chat with Biff Tanner. He's a good guy.

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (7rn5C)

311 Prediction: The phrase 'mistakes were made' is gonna get real workout.....

Hard to believe next week is the last week of February.

And...I'm still smilin......

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (QGaXH)

312 299
btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (7rn5C)

=======

1/3 of Part II is correcting the joke that ended Part I. The last 2/3 are a revisitation of Part I, very fun doing it.

Part III is a love story for Doc, and it's really sweet.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (GBKbO)

313 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that American systems are not significantly better then Russian ones in the field even though they cost 10X more.
Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (t0Rmr)

One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that the west has a lot of field weapon systems with corn fiber insulation (Gaia friendly) which mice like to eat thereby incapacitating the weapon.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (ExV1e)

314 I don't think they're going to get what they need out of Medicare/Medicaid on fraud alone. I think being able to cut administrative bloat would lead to far more savings, and that means drastically cutting the laws and regs that lead to those positions.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (Dm8we)

315 If you're going to do that get some support and help. Not that everybody needs to use that , but AA can be very helpful and a good support system. No, I m not suggesting that you're an alcoholic- just that youve mentioned trying to give up alcohol several times. Alcoholism runs in both FenSpouses and my family. He can't drink/or doesn'/ because of gout . I try to watch it because I don't want to set a bad example for son.
Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025

***
AA is very helpful and accepting. I was scared to death to go to my first meeting, but found I had nothing to fear.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (J2vNu)

316
The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.
Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

You know they are not collecting how?

Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (/yQIm)

317 314 I don't think they're going to get what they need out of Medicare/Medicaid on fraud alone. I think being able to cut administrative bloat would lead to far more savings, and that means drastically cutting the laws and regs that lead to those positions.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (Dm8we)

======

It's very possible that this is the end result.

However, I also know that this has been the narrative for years, and I now question any commonly held narrative like it was told to me by an enemy who wants to steal money from me.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (GBKbO)

318 Yeah, we can cause expensive screw ups too. But when you offset the corner of a large area, ouch. The yards add up fast.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (z/ifB)

I forget the specifics - but on the topic of alcohol use - it cannot be dismissed that she could have been sauced at the time contributing to the error.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (i24o9)

319
I heard they filmed ALL Three parts at the same time, which saved them time & money.

So they supposebly had the trilogy planned all along.

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (7rn5C)

320 273 Welp, two back-to-back interviews tomorrow morning with the same company. Y'all wont be seeing much of me around here until the afternoon.
Well good luck, Bulg!

Posted by: Eromero at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (LHPAg)

321 If Ozempic can cut that in half, it's a miracle drug, even with some crazy side effects.

Men who take Ozempic look weird, like a too-hollowed out jack-o-lantern.

Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

I know, I know. I denounce myself.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (V9cMX)

322 Jonah Goldberg really thinks Musk is making this up?

Could he BE a bigger tool?

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (Hkcdp)

323 You know how the left would always threaten cuts to police and fire if the locals didn't vote for another tax increase?

I think that's what was going on with SS and Medicare--they'd cut legitimate benefits if anyone dared touch the fraud.

And Trump has come in and said, "fuck that--watch me."

Yeah, he's going to have over a trillion in cuts by 3/6/25 and he's going to announce a massive tax cut for Americans--funded by those cuts.
You think the left is howling now?

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (on5o5)

324 Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:05 PM (77rzZ)

Will pray for you and have been. Is is so very hard for people and their families when there's long term unemployment. It's terrible that people don't want to hire older workers and you e clearly very smart and would be an asset to any work. My suggestion - and you can groan and roll your eyes -and so so can the other people here perhaps- is that you consciously say if you haven't been doing this ( because you're. A man of faith- is to say, "Lord, I want to get a job not only for helping myself and my family but also to give glory to you through my gifts and talents." Sometimes it helps.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (42Vb+)

325 But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?

Same. I will rewatch part 1 but don't care about the sequels.

The usual suspects are all in vapors over Trump correctly identifying Zelenskyy as a dictator. I mean, the dude jails his political opponents and canceled elections permanently, how else would you describe him?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (2VST1)

326 319
I heard they filmed ALL Three parts at the same time, which saved them time & money.

So they supposebly had the trilogy planned all along.
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (7rn5C)

======

No, they filmed Parts 2 and 3 at the same time.

Part 1 was standalone, and they included the ending as a joke because the two Bobs never thought they'd get a sequel.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (GBKbO)

327 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that the west has a lot of field weapon systems with corn fiber insulation (Gaia friendly) which mice like to eat thereby incapacitating the weapon.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

Same deal with the wiring in various cars now. Rats in DC (the four-legged kind) love to chow down on it.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (77rzZ)

328 Ozempic side effects like blindness are OK?

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (Hkcdp)

329 The new replacement theory is going to be fired former government workers and defunded NGO types doing the jobs that the illegals used to do, after the illegals self-deport.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (z/ifB)

330 320 Ditto.

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (5xgzq)

331 It was/is far more than $10 billion. I'd 3-5 times that number. Then do all the illegal invader healthcare given at the state and local level. We easily top out over $100 billion.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (17s+e)

332 Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

Yeah that's the hard way and everyone wants to do it the easy way, no matter what it costs you.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (2VST1)

333 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.

"Endeavor Air, who operated the Delta flight which crashed in Toronto says their most important priority is DEI"

This next post shows an all women crew bragging about not needing men.

There was a man on the radio, so it wasn't all men. BUT I'm seeing reports online that the pilot was a woman who only just got certified a month ago.

http://tiny.cc/xpma001

When my brother started working at Delta as a pilot, he already had thousands of hours as a KC-135 pilot and as an instructor pilot for the Air Force.

Posted by: bonhomme at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (Odg76)

334 The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.
Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

You know they are not collecting how?
Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (/yQIm)

I think that is likely true, as many (most?) of them are associated with fake addresses. There are many, many uses for SS numbers that have little to do with government benefits.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (wyMQY)

335 Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (J2vNu)

That's great!

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (42Vb+)

336 You don't need Ozempic. Just eat the meat.

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (bF7Q5)

337 No, they filmed Parts 2 and 3 at the same time.

Part 1 was standalone, and they included the ending as a joke because the two Bobs never thought they'd get a sequel.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (GBKbO)

Bob gales response to when he is going to make a part 4 warms my heart. "Never and stop fucking asking"

Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (MGB5H)

338 One of the fascinating things to come out of the Uke war is that the west has a lot of field weapon systems with corn fiber insulation (Gaia friendly) which mice like to eat thereby incapacitating the weapon.

I've seen this pop up locally - apparently Biden leaned on American construction companies to use this stuff and now people are finding squirrels are eating their outdoor wires because the insulation is tasty...

Posted by: 18-1 at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (t0Rmr)

339 329 The new replacement theory is going to be fired former government workers and defunded NGO types doing the jobs that the illegals used to do, after the illegals self-deport.
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (z/ifB)

=======

Industry should end up booming in America in response to the decrease in regulation that Trump paring down the federal register to the bone will do.

They'll easily be able to find jobs in middle management in Missouri for growing companies who expect results.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (GBKbO)

340 PSA. Don't take anything that interferes with your ability to digest foods.
Posted by: From about That Time at February 19, 2025

***
In the '80s there was a fad for something called "starch blockers," which were supposed to prevent your body from absorbing starches and thus to help you lose weight. Before long people found it blocked your digestive system in more than that one way. The product disappeared from the market soon after.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (J2vNu)

341
Ahvocahdoes from Mexicooo ™

Posted by: wth at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (v0R5T)

342 312 299
btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (7rn5C)

=======

1/3 of Part II is correcting the joke that ended Part I. The last 2/3 are a revisitation of Part I, very fun doing it.

Part III is a love story for Doc, and it's really sweet.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:09 PM (GBKbO)

Parts I and III are great - particularly liked seeing the old time actors such as Pat Buttram (Mr. Haney) in the bar scene.

Part II seemed 'awkward' - perhaps because it was set 'in the future'.

Whenever I get ice from the refrigerator ice-dispenser I'm reminded of 1800s Doc's ice machine....

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (QGaXH)

343 320 Thank you, Eromero.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (77rzZ)

344 337 Bob gales response to when he is going to make a part 4 warms my heart. "Never and stop fucking asking"
Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (MGB5H)

=======

Bob Gale is a national treasure.

I like post-Gale Zemeckis, but we lost something when they ended their professional partnership.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (GBKbO)

345 Literally from Newsweek:

"There are concerns that the Ukrainian president could be voted out of office if the country holds an election."

I know right? Newsweek is still being published??

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (2VST1)

346 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.
-------

7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

And when you're self employed, you get to pay both "halves". I had to when I was in business for myself many years ago.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (dgRL6)

347 DoD will make HHS fraud look like loose change inside the sofa cushion. How do you think $700 hammers happened? That hammer cost $3 and the other $697 was stolen.
Posted by: Its Go Time Donald at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (VbShw)

There haven't been $700 hammers and toilet seats for some time now and a lot of of the stuff that people would see as overpriced are that way do to reporting requirements. Back in the day, a small valve intended to go into the nuclear portion of the engineering plant came with 10 pounds of paperwork documenting everything from what the guy who mined the ore had for lunch that day to whether it rained or not when the valve was assembled.

There's a lot of really stupid spending at DoD but it's mostly been authorized by the lawyers who populate Congress.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (ExV1e)

348 Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

-

Also have food be made of food again.

Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (OgBsb)

349 btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (7rn5C)

First was the best, but it tied together as a trilogy pretty well.

Posted by: Tom Servo at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (wyMQY)

350 306 Sure, its a sci fi western, but yeah. Not my favorite in the trilogy but its been ages since I saw it. Most of part II's appeal is watching how they spliced new footage into scenes from the first.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:08 PM (2VST1)

--- ---

A Sci-Fi Western, you don't see that too often.

Firefly, kinda.

Cowboys and Aliens.

Outland (1981)?
The Sean Connery flick where he played a marshal on a space station. It was a western set near Jupiter.

There are probably more.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (6ydKt)

351
Sure, its a sci fi western, but yeah. Not my favorite in the trilogy but its been ages since I saw it. Most of part II's appeal is watching how they spliced new footage into scenes from the first.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

We should discuss "Sci Fi Westerns" here, some time.

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (7rn5C)

352 Forget just cutting spending. Clawbacks. Clawbacks. Clawbacks.

Posted by: Field Marshal Zhukov at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (wBaIH)

353 208 As of Saturday, I will be sober for 15 years.
Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 01:54 PM (5xgzq)

Super cool.

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (v0TzN)

354 To be fair, here in NJ we spent more than that in 1 year on the water to hose off Chris Christie

Posted by: Rbastid at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (8FwGn)

355 > Did everyone see the report that Ozempic greatly increases serious health problems including a horrific rare cancer? I am struggling not to laugh, imagine the panic in Hollywood and among the elites.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor

There are no such reports. IF you have a particular genetic condition that already makes you susceptible to a particular type of thyroid cancer, it MAY cause an increased risk.

This was known before the drug was even approved, and there's been a black-box warning on it about this since Day 1.

On the flip side, besides treating diabetes about a million times better than insulin shots, it appears to be protective against several other types of cancer as well as heart disease (makes sense, as both diabetes and obesity are known risk factors for those conditions).

I don't have to inject myself with insulin every single day any more. In fact, I don't have to use insulin AT ALL any more. And I don't have to worry about losing a leg or going blind, either.

You'll get my Ozempic when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (W5ArC)

356 Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit

Thank you.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (77rzZ)

357 343 Part II seemed 'awkward' - perhaps because it was set 'in the future'.

Whenever I get ice from the refrigerator ice-dispenser I'm reminded of 1800s Doc's ice machine....
Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (QGaXH)

=======

Part II is awkward because that first third set in the future is only there to correct the ending of the first movie and has almost nothing to do with anything. Really, the only part that materially extends beyond that third is the sports almanac, and it's a very small part of 40 minutes of film.

Also, the introduction of calling Marty a chicken was really weird. I'm glad it's in II instead of III. III provides the resolution of that plotline without the awkwardness of introducing it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (GBKbO)

358 Industry should end up booming in America in response to the decrease in regulation that Trump paring down the federal register to the bone will do.

They'll easily be able to find jobs in middle management in Missouri for growing companies who expect results.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (GBKbO)

...

The effect of only two or three points movement from former non-producer (govt) to producer I'm guessing will be monumental on our GDP.

Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (z/ifB)

359 > Ozempic side effects like blindness are OK?

No, that's not OK. But how often does it happen and how does that compare to blindness due to diabetes as a result of obesity?

Any medicine that works has side effect. Even aspirin taken according to the directions on the bottle can lead to increased possibility of brain bleeds.

Posted by: bonhomme at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (Odg76)

360 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.
===

That tells me it was.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (17s+e)

361 349 Also have food be made of food again.
Posted by: Boron Cobbie - Feminism moved women back to unregulated polygamy, forming harems among themselves at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (OgBsb)

Make Food Food Again!

Posted by: m at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (v0TzN)

362 It's very possible that this is the end result.

However, I also know that this has been the narrative for years, and I now question any commonly held narrative like it was told to me by an enemy who wants to steal money from me.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison
___________

It's not just a narrative. It's borne out by the rise of concierge medicine. I can't lay my hands on it, but there was a study recently showing the much smaller administrative staff sizes in concierge practices.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (Dm8we)

363
A Sci-Fi Western, you don't see that too often.

Firefly, kinda.

Cowboys and Aliens.

Outland (1981)?
The Sean Connery flick where he played a marshal on a space station. It was a western set near Jupiter.

There are probably more.
Posted by: SpeakingOf

That's what I was thinking.
I like this genre. Two things I like: Sci Fi & Westerns.

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (7rn5C)

364 DOD spending...

There are multiple programs such as the Constellation class FFG that's billions in the red and not a single ship has been built.

There's plenty of fraud there. And mismanagement.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (Q4IgG)

365 There are no such reports. IF you have a particular genetic condition that already makes you susceptible to a particular type of thyroid cancer, it MAY cause an increased risk.

That reads like "it can increase the chance of getting a particular sort of cancer" to me

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (2VST1)

366 339 329 The new replacement theory is going to be fired former government workers and defunded NGO types doing the jobs that the illegals used to do, after the illegals self-deport.
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 02:12 PM (z/ifB)

=======

Industry should end up booming in America in response to the decrease in regulation that Trump paring down the federal register to the bone will do.

They'll easily be able to find jobs in middle management in Missouri for growing companies who expect results.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (GBKbO)

"...growing companies who expect results."

Ahhh - but there's the rub.....'results'.

Displaced Federal Worker: 'Results? What are these 'results' you speak of?'

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (QGaXH)

367 Prediction: The phrase 'mistakes were made' is gonna get real workout.....

IMMEDIATELY correct them.

"No, laws were broken".

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (pSGcE)

368 363 It's not just a narrative. It's borne out by the rise of concierge medicine. I can't lay my hands on it, but there was a study recently showing the much smaller administrative staff sizes in concierge practices.
Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (Dm8we)

=======

All I know is that Medicare has been untouchable for decades.

Like USAID.

And USAID was found out to be mostly pet projects for the connected.

Excuse me if I don't believe that 90%+ of Medicare funding is essential to the running of the program.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (GBKbO)

369 321 Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

I know, I know. I denounce myself.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February

This is the way, but I do think for those grossly obese, a kick start may be worth the risk as you retrain your body on how to eat. People, in general, wildly underestimate how many calories they consume. It’s a huge, hard, lifestyle change where working out is as normal to your day as brushing your teeth, and your entire way of eating is changed. It is possible, however.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (pZEOD)

370 Apologies if this is a repeat. Coffee and Covid at substack has a great one on the Zombie Democrat army. https substack.com home post p-157318312

64 million strong and growing. I read that some of the states purged dead voters after 2020. I wonder if that's how so many democrat voters went missing this election.

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (jPdyB)

371 367 "...growing companies who expect results."

Ahhh - but there's the rub.....'results'.

Displaced Federal Worker: 'Results? What are these 'results' you speak of?'
Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (QGaXH)

=======

The comic tail to the comment!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (GBKbO)

372 Then who is getting the money deposited in bank accounts every month?
Posted by: washrivergal at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM

---------------.

Very few of the SS numbers are actually getting benefits. It's poor database management that was discovered a while ago in internal audits.

https://tinyurl.com/334pp3zs

Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (1Au9i)

373 354 THANK YOU!

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (5xgzq)

374 Another thing, remember how the old saw was "$1 of government spending would return $1.50 in economic activity?"

And then it was quietly revised to something like $1 now returns $0.76?

Now we know why--then, some of the government spending was reaching the people before: now, none of it is.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (on5o5)

375 That's utter nonsense. There's a reason the Russian arms industry is cratering; their stuff sucks.
Posted by: Archimedes at February 19, 2025 01:45 PM (xCA6C)

That's why the Ukrainians have steadily pushed the Russians back since the war began. They'll be in Moscow by May.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (ExV1e)

376 Will pray for you and have been. Is is so very hard for people and their families when there's long term unemployment. It's terrible that people don't want to hire older workers and you e clearly very smart and would be an asset to any work. My suggestion - and you can groan and roll your eyes -and so so can the other people here perhaps- is that you consciously say if you haven't been doing this ( because you're. A man of faith- is to say, "Lord, I want to get a job not only for helping myself and my family but also to give glory to you through my gifts and talents." Sometimes it helps.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke

Thank you for your continued prayers, Fen. And that's an interesting suggestion. I don't usually connect job performance with glorifying God. That's a powerful insight. Thank you for that as well.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (77rzZ)

377
You know they are not collecting how?
Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM (/yQIm)

I think that is likely true, as many (most?) of them are associated with fake addresses. There are many, many uses for SS numbers that have little to do with government benefits.
Posted by: Tom Servo at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (wyMQY)

Pretty sure these ssn should only be used as an identifier if you plan to work in USA and get free govntm cheese. All the low wage workers using fake ssn are prolly getting rebates on taxes from the earned income tax credit.

Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (/yQIm)

378 If we stop giving this money out to the illegals, who will be able to afford the King Ranch editions of Ford F150 pickups?

Posted by: Ashley Judd's Puffy Scamper at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (k1E2D)

379 I know this - and everyone should be able to grasp this. You pay 6%. Your employer matches that with another 6%.
-------

7.5 % isn't it?
Posted by: TexasDan at February 19, 2025 01:56 PM (z/ifB)

And when you're self employed, you get to pay both "halves". I had to when I was in business for myself many years ago.

Posted by: thatcrazyjerseyguy
==

7.65% or 15.3% if SE.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (17s+e)

380 That's a lot of people with diabetes who have to worry now, too.

The Celebs and peeps using it for dieting are learning the meaning of "caveat emptor" the hard way.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 01:55 PM (6ydKt)

My brother, Thing Two, has been using Ozempic. His diabetes wasn't responding to anything else. It was a "last resort" kind of thing.

Posted by: Madame Mayhem (uppity wench) at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (4XwPj)

381 There are no such reports. IF you have a particular genetic condition that already makes you susceptible to a particular type of thyroid cancer, it MAY cause an increased risk.

This was known before the drug was even approved, and there's been a black-box warning on it about this since Day 1.

Hah. I knew it. Someone's playing games with the stocks.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (hB7mE)

382 Prediction: The phrase 'mistakes were made' is gonna get real workout.....

IMMEDIATELY correct them.

"No, laws were broken".

++++
How about I see dead people?

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (jPdyB)

383
You know what "scifi western" sucked anus?

That dumb movie with dinosaurs, cowboys, harrison ford, and that terrible James Bond actor.

Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (7rn5C)

384 Rogan sock off.

Posted by: Cuthbert the Witless at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (/yQIm)

385 354 -> 353

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (5xgzq)

386 322 Jonah Goldberg really thinks Musk is making this up?

Could he BE a bigger tool?

***

He's still doing less work in a day than a condom machine in the Vatican.

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (wb1YC)

387 Part II is awkward because that first third set in the future is only there to correct the ending of the first movie and has almost nothing to do with anything. Really, the only part that materially extends beyond that third is the sports almanac, and it's a very small part of 40 minutes of film.

Also, the introduction of calling Marty a chicken was really weird. I'm glad it's in II instead of III. III provides the resolution of that plotline without the awkwardness of introducing it.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (GBKbO)

On the other hand, it was heartwarming to hear Doc say they'd eliminated all lawyers in the future.

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (lHPJf)

388 Back in the day, a small valve intended to go into the nuclear portion of the engineering plant came with 10 pounds of paperwork documenting everything from what the guy who mined the ore had for lunch that day to whether it rained or not when the valve was assembled.

There's a lot of really stupid spending at DoD but it's mostly been authorized by the lawyers who populate Congress.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:14 PM (ExV1e)

Yeah, a lot of that overspending on paperwork is a result of the Thresher disaster and focus on reactor safety. Having witnessed government/union workers in action, I can't say it is not a justified level of paranoia about the quality of parts and labor that goes into those things.

Posted by: Comrade Flounder, Disinformation Demon at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (i24o9)

389 Another thing, remember how the old saw was "$1 of government spending would return $1.50 in economic activity?"

Yeah, I never understood why anyone would say that. Government is a burden on the economy -- a necessary one, I would argue, but a burden.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (2VST1)

390 > Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (V9cMX)

Or maybe you could mind you own business and stop being a Karen.

Does that work for you? It works for me.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (W5ArC)

391 All of that stolen money should have been spent on us but we were too busy watching CNN and voting democrat.

Posted by: Old Fart Boomer at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (NAF5O)

392
I think that's Wegovy, it's Semaglutide, too, but in pill form.

Jardiance

https://youtu.be/Aromts0OiHs

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (63Dwl)

393 6.2% and 1.45% respectively.
SS and Medicare

Posted by: MkY at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (cPGH3)

394 "Endeavor Air, who operated the Delta flight which crashed in Toronto says their most important priority is DEI"

They advertised "unmanned flights", with an all-vagina crew.

Posted by: Ian S. at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (2ocoG)

395 That dumb movie with dinosaurs, cowboys, harrison ford, and that terrible James Bond actor.

Yeah I thought it was dumb and annoying. Based on a comic book, supposedly.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (2VST1)

396 btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025

***
I came out of the theatre from BttF jazzed and promptly dragged my mother to see it -- as I had Ghostbusters the prvious year. She agreed with my premise on Future, that it was loaded with satire of our own time. Also that Marty is truly the odd man out in 1955. So many time travel stories cast the hero from our time as knowing so much more than the past people. But Marty kept stumbling. "Give me a Tab." "I can't run you a tab until you order something." "Okay, give me a Pepsi Free." "You want a Pepsi, pal, you have to pay for it."

Finally Marty says, "Give me something without any sugar," and the counterman serves him black coffee.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (J2vNu)

397
It's not just a narrative. It's borne out by the rise of concierge medicine. I can't lay my hands on it, but there was a study recently showing the much smaller administrative staff sizes in concierge practices.

Posted by: Biff Pocoroba at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (Dm8we)

If we just consider the rising proportion of administrative staff in hospitals(and colleges) over time, it's clear that this level of paperwork wasn't always necessary. Some of it was driven by Obamacare compliance which lead to a spike around that time.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (eYoxG)

398 Don’t forget Zelensky shut down Orthodox churches and all independent media, as well as canceling elections.

Because DEMOCRACY!

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (Hkcdp)

399 > That reads like "it can increase the chance of getting a particular sort of cancer" to me
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:17 PM (2VST1)

If you don't have this (ver rare) genetic condition it doesn't "increase the chance" at all.

But sure, whatever, dude.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (W5ArC)

400 Oh, Jonah's calling Musk a liar? Color me shocked.

I don't figure the Bulwark and Lincoln Project are the only state sponsored cuck outlets.

And Goldberg and French received $6M in seed money for the Dispatch from... somewhere.

I bet that fat fraud is feeling nervous.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (BI5O2)

401 361 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.
===

That tells me it was.
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (17s+e)

IF this is true, and it turns out that standards were 'flexed' in order to facilitate fielding an all-female crew, the lawsuits should be epic and business-ending.

Nuke 'em from orbit, it's the only way the others will learn....

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan (ARiK) at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (QGaXH)

402 rebates on taxes from the earned income tax credit.
+++
You mean whole sale stealing. They don't put in they just get. The name is to make everyone feel better about it.

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (jPdyB)

403 "Can we retroactively impeach Biden? We discussed that possibility during the Clinton years."

isn;t that what happened to Trump with the second impeachment?

Posted by: zigggggy at February 19, 2025 02:21 PM (K5Rdg)

404 > Hah. I knew it. Someone's playing games with the stocks.
Posted by: FeatherBlade at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (hB7mE)

Entirely possible.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:22 PM (W5ArC)

405 366 There are no such reports. IF you have a particular genetic condition that already makes you susceptible to a particular type of thyroid cancer, it MAY cause an increased risk.

That reads like "it can increase the chance of getting a particular sort of cancer" to me
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February

This is nothing new, this warning has been on it from the start. More concerning is the attack on muscle- your heart is a muscle. This is where ozempic face and ozempic butt comes from. I can’t imagine it’s fun going through this feeling like you are going to throw up all the time is fun, either. Losing weight through diet and exercise takes longer, but that is also healthier all the way around. But it’s not easy, it’s work, dedication, all the things.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:22 PM (pZEOD)

406 That's why the Ukrainians have steadily pushed the Russians back since the war began. They'll be in Moscow by May.

No, but it is the reason Ukraine is 80% still under Ukrainian control with 1/6 the population.

Posted by: Archimedes at February 19, 2025 02:22 PM (xCA6C)

407 Ace, open up your fucking style book, and reread it. Never ever use the term "undocumented" again. They are illegal alien democrats.

Posted by: Mr Gaga at February 19, 2025 02:22 PM (KiBMU)

408 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.

What's a crashed jet and wounded passengers when it comes to protecting DEI?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (2VST1)

409 Just ask a soldier or someone in the VA hospital how much of those hundreds of billions every year are reaching them.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 01:50 PM (2VST1)

VA is separate from Defense. Even has it's own cabinet secretary.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (ExV1e)

410 > Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

Dr Mike Israetel had a fantastic video on this recently.

https://youtu.be/hPJcpmsKayE

Ignore the click-bait title. He argues the vast majority of people's obesity is due to a combination of genetic food drive and mindfulness.

The short version is, if your genetic food drive is low, you're not going to be fat. If it's medium to medium high, things will depend on your mindfulness. If you're able to talk down your body with your brain and you watch your food intake and calories, you're going to be fine. But then there are people who have a high to very high food drive. Those people will be fat, no matter what their willpower is, provided they can afford the food.

He argues the reason people are more fat today is mostly availability and affordability. In the 40s, if you were on the bottom couple of quintiles of income, you were eating simple, home cooked meals. You almost never went out to eat. You only rarely had treats.

People are wealthier now. Even the "poor," especially with assistance programs, can afford to eat all sorts of snacky food and McDonald's etc.

Posted by: bonhomme at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (Odg76)

411 btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025

Nope, I'm the same way. I loved BttF (and I still like it a lot), but I never had any interest in the sequels. For me it's a self-contained story and I don't need to see anything else with those characters.

Posted by: Ian S. at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (2ocoG)

412 Since we're talking weight loss, I gotta plug The South Beach Diet. Been on it since July. It works.
Atkins-adjacent.
No sugar, very few carbs, slowly losing weight but I'm eating a lot of eggs, meat, veggies, milk, and nuts. I'm never hungry.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (xcxpd)

413
All the low wage workers using fake ssn are prolly getting rebates on taxes from the earned income tax credit.
Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (/yQIm)

Yeah, right. *winks*

Posted by: Immigracion Abogado office in your local strip mall at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (y9nCu)

414 >
Jardiance

https://youtu.be/Aromts0OiHs
Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (63Dwl)

Jardiance works by a different mechanism.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (W5ArC)

415 Losing weight through diet and exercise takes longer, but that is also healthier all the way around. But it’s not easy, it’s work, dedication, all the things.

My brother lost 100 pounds over a year by just not drinking soft drinks any more. One thing given up, and the pounds slowly melted away. Much healthier, just slower and takes more self-control.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (2VST1)

416 Any medicine that works has side effect.

Which is why we should do what is in our power to not be on a medicine, if possible.

Some people definitely need a particular medicine and thus have to risk the side effects. The risk-benefit ratio works for them.

But incurring the risk of side effects just because you want something to be fast or effortless does not make sense in terms of risk and benefit.

We often don't know what longterm effects a drug will have, even in the longterm, due to difficulty of statistically proving relatively small correlations.

The example I always go to is HRT: there were no studies showing a correlation between it and breast cancer for a long time. Until there was.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (V9cMX)

417 361 Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.
===

That tells me it was.
Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (17s+e)

IF this is true, and it turns out that standards were 'flexed' in order to facilitate fielding an all-female crew, the lawsuits should be epic and business-ending.

Nuke 'em from orbit, it's the only way the others will learn....

Posted by: Anonymous Rogue in Kalifornistan
==

I'm sure they all passed the same requirement. Now those requirements were lowered so that the women could pass them but the requirements are now the same lowered standards. You misogynists!!!

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (17s+e)

418 Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets
---
"Budget Hawk" Paul Ryan put on his green eyeshade, oiled and added paper tape to his adding machine, brewed a big pot of coffee while he and his team worked day and night.

And gosh darn it! Not a penny to be found that could be cut!

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (on5o5)

419 Russians when they try to speak english sound like orcs.

Posted by: Boss Moss at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (bF7Q5)

420 Trying to catch up here, it's impossible. Trump, Musk, DOGE and their acolytes are making things happen faster than ace can write. And that's something.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (jj2yx)

421 390; Or maybe you could mind you own business and stop being a Karen.

Does that work for you? It works for me.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February

But he is right- and it wasn’t pointed at anyone in particular, it was in general truth.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (pZEOD)

422 >>Another Libs of TikTok post on X says Delta CEO refuses to say if the flight crew (or the pilot) was all women.

If true...I have to say, I have seen worse Parking jobs.

Posted by: garrett at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (oa1NA)

423 Bob gales response to when he is going to make a part 4 warms my heart. "Never and stop fucking asking"
Posted by: BruceWayne at February 19, 2025 02:13 PM (MGB5H)

---------------

Well they could do a part 4 where they go back from current day to 1984. Which is TEN YEARS further back than the first movie went, bwahahahahaha.

Ken

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at February 19, 2025 02:25 PM (JoAEF)

424 > More concerning is the attack on muscle- your heart is a muscle.

And messing up your heart is how it reduces cardiovascular risk?

Umm... okay.

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:25 PM (W5ArC)

425 Displaced federal workers are in for a shock in the private world. Production is expected not frowned upon. Most of these people will go to blue states and try to latch on to state and local governments

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 02:25 PM (KXtU1)

426 $10 Billion.

That would cover the lifetime costs of 40 F-35A Lightning IIs.

Posted by: mrp at February 19, 2025 02:25 PM (rj6Yv)

427 Who can afford the King Ranch Ford F-150’s?

Heck, it will be a pleating regular F-150s not to worry so much about theirs being stolen. It is the most stolen vehicle at Denver International Airport for many years running. The organized theft ring will load them up on automobile transport trucks and head straight south to the border.

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 02:26 PM (Hkcdp)

428 Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:18 PM (77rzZ)

You're welcome. It's not my insight really. Brother Lawrence whom I've mentioned before was a 17th century soldier and then became a monk and worked in the kitchen. He wrote reflections on this in "Practicing the Presence of God." I's not a very long book, and he wrote for himself. He never intended to for a wider public You're a big reader so you can probably find this on line if you care to, and he said "You can pick up a straw for the love of God." Probably one of the most influential spiritual books I've read aside from the Bible and the works of Francis Fenelon.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:26 PM (42Vb+)

429 This is the way, but I do think for those grossly obese, a kick start may be worth the risk as you retrain your body on how to eat. People, in general, wildly underestimate how many calories they consume. It’s a huge, hard, lifestyle change where working out is as normal to your day as brushing your teeth, and your entire way of eating is changed. It is possible, however.
Posted by: Piper

I wasn't even grossly obese, but losing weight for my Type II was (aside from being a parent) the hardest thing I've ever done. But I managed to shave off 50+ pounds over about 5 years. I'm at the point now where I need to gain some weight back because sometimes I have a hard time keeping my pants up, even with a belt.

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:26 PM (77rzZ)

430 > But he is right- and it wasn’t pointed at anyone in particular, it was in general truth.
Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (pZEOD)

It's also a general truth that people should mind their own fucking business and not be preachy Karens.

But that doesn't stop anybody, now, does it?

Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:26 PM (W5ArC)

431 No sugar, very few carbs, slowly losing weight but I'm eating a lot of eggs, meat, veggies, milk, and nuts. I'm never hungry.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, buy ammo at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (xcxpd)

Be careful you don't lose a lot of fat quickly.

Posted by: Gall Bladder at February 19, 2025 02:27 PM (NAF5O)

432 There is no reason a plane could not be properly staffed and flown safely and effectively by all women. The problem isn't the women, its the push to promote women at all costs without regard to skill and experience. It would be just as bad if they pushed, say, redheaded men to the exclusion of others, regardless of their ability to do the job.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:27 PM (2VST1)

433 425 Displaced federal workers are in for a shock in the private world. Production is expected not frowned upon. Most of these people will go to blue states and try to latch on to state and local governments
Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 02:25 PM (KXtU1)
- - - - - - - - - -
"You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*." - Dr. Ray Stantz

Posted by: Another Anon at February 19, 2025 02:27 PM (QNMaY)

434 ========

"If you don't fund us fully at 110% of last year's budget, Russians will invade Paris by Spring!"
-The DOD for, like, 80 years
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman
----

It's springtime for Putin in Germany.

Posted by: Braenyard - some Absent Friends are more equal than others _ at February 19, 2025 02:27 PM (jj2yx)

435 390 > Maybe Americans should stop looking for miracles and just eat less, eat better, and exercise more.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:11 PM (V9cMX)

Or maybe you could mind you own business and stop being a Karen.

Does that work for you? It works for me.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:20 PM (W5ArC)

If you think having opinions about public health policy is Karenish, you're a crybaby.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:27 PM (V9cMX)

436 417 My brother lost 100 pounds over a year by just not drinking soft drinks any more. One thing given up, and the pounds slowly melted away. Much healthier, just slower and takes more self-control.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025

I lost 80 2 years ago, but it took 2 years to do it. And then I went crazy and bought the fitness studio where my life changing transformation happened, then did the whole nutrition thing and now y’all live with the aftermath every dang day with me. 😂

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:28 PM (pZEOD)

437 But that doesn't stop anybody, now, does it?
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia at February 19, 2025 02:26 PM (W5ArC)

Nope.

Posted by: MADD, SADD, DADD & GLADD at February 19, 2025 02:28 PM (NAF5O)

438 432 There is no reason a plane could not be properly staffed and flown safely and effectively by all women. The problem isn't the women, its the push to promote women at all costs without regard to skill and experience. It would be just as bad if they pushed, say, redheaded men to the exclusion of others, regardless of their ability to do the job

Ginger Air - the no soul plane

Posted by: Taggart at February 19, 2025 02:28 PM (7VIIt)

439 I would actually guess that there won't be much fraud in Defense spending

My guess is that the fraud is real and magnificent. Just ask a soldier or someone in the VA hospital how much of those hundreds of billions every year are reaching them.
---
People who steal $150 million from the their own people's food budget don't give a fuck about stealing billions from Americans.

Half the upcoming population of inmates at Gitmo ought to have "former DOD employee" in their resume.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (on5o5)

440 "Practicing the Presence of God."
gutenberg.org/ebooks/5657

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (5xgzq)

441 Part II is awkward because that first third set in the future is only there to correct the ending of the first movie and has almost nothing to do with anything. Really, the only part that materially extends beyond that third is the sports almanac, and it's a very small part of 40 minutes of film.

Also, the introduction of calling Marty a chicken was really weird. I'm glad it's in II instead of III. III provides the resolution of that plotline without the awkwardness of introducing it.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:15 PM (GBKbO)

-- -- --

I like them all but what you're saying makes sense of it.

II was also weird because you had Fox playing himself at two ages, his son and his daughter.

I think they could have come up with a better plot for "Marty's Kids" than what they did. They half-assed it just to be able to get through the future setting in 20 minutes.

If they'd planned it out right they could've set all of Part II in 2015 with a better plot, ending with Part III in 1875.
Why go back to 1955?

That might have been a better trilogy.

It was fun, though, just to see their vision of 2015.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (6ydKt)

442 Outland (1981)?
The Sean Connery flick where he played a marshal on a space station. It was a western set near Jupiter.

Zardoz.

Posted by: rickb223 at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (pSGcE)

443
Or maybe you could mind you own business and stop being a Karen.

Does that work for you? It works for me.
Posted by: Rodrigo Borgia

RFK, Jr. isn't a Karen.
He's a Ken.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (63Dwl)

444 My wife's first work in a Catholic Hospital went under long ago from just giving away charitable services. You can't survive doing that.

Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 02:30 PM (fwDg9)

445 >> Making everyone miserable post-9/11 dented my enthusiasm for air travel

It’s gotten so bad. TSA Pre-Check used to be a good way to cut down the irritation and shorten the wait in line. Now a third of the people flying have it so you have to wait in line.

So they push Clear, which is the latest way to jump the line. Soon they’ll have to come up with a new way, once more people sign up for Clear.

Last time through the Pre-Check line they made me take off my belt, shoes and jacket. Keeping those on was the whole point of Pre-Check but the TSA drones are committed to making everyone as miserable as possible.

Posted by: Disinterested FDA Director at February 19, 2025 02:30 PM (l3YAf)

446 Noodus deltanio

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:30 PM (J2vNu)

447 Stop eating processed sugar . I have heart issues, and I developed gout. I realized eating candy or drinking non diet sodas was the cause. Haven't had an outbreak since last May when I stopped

Posted by: Smell the Glove at February 19, 2025 02:30 PM (KXtU1)

448 I lost 80 2 years ago, but it took 2 years to do it. And then I went crazy and bought the fitness studio where my life changing transformation happened, then did the whole nutrition thing and now y’all live with the aftermath every dang day with me. 😂
Posted by: Piper

*quietly pushes away the kale smoothie that Piper has sent through the USB drive*

Posted by: Bulg at February 19, 2025 02:30 PM (77rzZ)

449 Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:28 PM (pZEOD)

It's o.k. You want to help folks. You're an evangelical nuritionist and fitness promoter who wants to hear the good news about that.

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (42Vb+)

450 nood

Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (5xgzq)

451 And then I went crazy and bought the fitness studio where my life changing transformation happened, then did the whole nutrition thing and now y’all live with the aftermath every dang day with me.

Its like guys who get swole, all muscular and fit working out in the gym. "Dude look at my muscles! Chicks love it!" Great, you achieved your goal!

Now you have to do it the rest of your life, or lose it.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (2VST1)

452 If I were running HHS there would be no food stamps. People would go to local distribution warehouses to get their free government cheese, rice, and dry beans. More than enough to live. If you want meat get a job.

Posted by: Jukin the Deplorable a Clear and Present Danger at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (17s+e)

453
The vast majority of these "people" are not collecting SS payments. Illegals are using these SS numbers to create fake identities for various other fraudulent purposes.
Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:00 PM (1Au9i)

You know they are not collecting how?
Posted by: Seth Rogan looking svelte on the cover of GQ at February 19, 2025 02:10 PM

----------------------

https://tinyurl.com/334pp3zs

Posted by: Bigsmith at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (1Au9i)

454 I bet there are a *lot* of ConInc chattering class types freaking out about USAID.

Honestly, I've been wondering why Democrats were still willing to keep flushing money down Big Cuck for a long time.

I have my answer. Because it was my fucking money, not theirs

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (BI5O2)

455 Pssst. Carbs are not bad for you- you need them. Especially if you are working out. It’s the type of carbs you eat that matter- a donut v. Whole grain whatever.

Posted by: Piper at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (pZEOD)

456 Here's an easy conspiracy theory. Our previous government and the NGOs gave out our dead's SSNs to massive new "semi documented" illegals.

Posted by: Smellslikevictory at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (jPdyB)

457 Still have no idea when Kash Patel will get confirmed, every day just read 1 more step done of 263 I think it takes
Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (fwDg9)

Should be tomorrow. I think it could be late tonight but it should be tomorrow. All that's left is the final confirmation vote.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (ExV1e)

458 449-meants "wants people to hear the good news about that."

Posted by: FenelonSpoke at February 19, 2025 02:32 PM (42Vb+)

459 22
"If you don't fund us fully at 110% of last year's budget, Russians will invade Paris by Spring!"
-The DOD for, like, 80 years

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:33 PM (GBKbO)
----
It should really be the Germans ... hey it's traditional ... but the Jerries are all pissants now, letting towelheads take over.

Posted by: Ciampino - they didn't stop in Alsace at February 19, 2025 02:32 PM (KjLnc)

460 418 Republicans have campaigned on ending the wastefraudandabuse for decades. When they get elected...crickets
---
"Budget Hawk" Paul Ryan put on his green eyeshade, oiled and added paper tape to his adding machine, brewed a big pot of coffee while he and his team worked day and night.

And gosh darn it! Not a penny to be found that could be cut!
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice at February 19, 2025 02:24 PM (on5o5)
-----

Turns out what they needed was some hard hats with lamps on them and a mine cart.

Who knew?

Posted by: Just Lily at February 19, 2025 02:32 PM (x0jvz)

461 433 425 Displaced federal workers are in for a shock in the private world. Production is expected not frowned upon. Most of these people will go to blue states and try to latch on to state and local governments
Posted by: Smell the Glove

***
I'm still amazed at that one fed employee/lawyer chick whatever saying they should only be fired for bad performance otherwise they can't be let go.

Not wishing her ill but if she closed a car door on her head I wouldn't cry.

Posted by: Azathoth at February 19, 2025 02:32 PM (wb1YC)

462 Pssst. Carbs are not bad for you- you need them.

This. So much this.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at February 19, 2025 02:33 PM (2VST1)

463 441 That might have been a better trilogy.

It was fun, though, just to see their vision of 2015.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:29 PM (6ydKt)

======

Tons of rewrites and ideas, mostly around going to 1965 to see his parents as flower children.

II was the film where Zemeckis got to play most with the technological toys, in particular motion control cameras that allowed the multiple Fox's in one shot with moving camera work to accomplish.

I've always kind of assumed that's why II mainly went back to 55 and didn't just wave away the joke that ended I with something like the three reappearing at the house in 1985 mere seconds after they left, flushed after their grand adventure, dropping off the girlfriend, and then heading off to another adventure.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:33 PM (GBKbO)

464 On the other hand, it was heartwarming to hear Doc say they'd eliminated all lawyers in the future.

Posted by: Dr. T at February 19, 2025 02:19 PM (lHPJf)

-- --

lol.

And they could control the weather instead of the government controlling us because of the weather.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:33 PM (6ydKt)

465 Vance warns Zelensky that 'badmouthing' Trump in public will backfire

https://mol.im/a/14413657

Posted by: Ciampino - Meanwhile at February 19, 2025 02:33 PM (KjLnc)

466 Which is why we should do what is in our power to not be on a medicine, if possible.

Some people definitely need a particular medicine and thus have to risk the side effects. The risk-benefit ratio works for them.

But incurring the risk of side effects just because you want something to be fast or effortless does not make sense in terms of risk and benefit.

Sure, that's the ideal. But what if you're on a dozen medications because you're obese? Further, what if you've tried to reduce your food intake and exercise since you were in middle school, but it's not working because you have a high food drive and your stomach too often overrules your ability to mentally talk down your body all day every day?

For tens of millions of westerners, that's their reality. For them, Ozempic calms down their food drive and enables them to use their brain when making choices. Then when they lose weight, they can get off the dozen meds that treated the issues they had due to obesity.

Posted by: bonhomme at February 19, 2025 02:34 PM (Odg76)

467
I lost 80 2 years ago, but it took 2 years to do it.
Posted by: Piper

We need before and after pics.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at February 19, 2025 02:34 PM (63Dwl)

468 Sci-Fi Western, you don't see that too often.

Firefly, kinda.

Cowboys and Aliens.

Outland (1981)?
The Sean Connery flick where he played a marshal on a space station. It was a western set near Jupiter.

There are probably more.
Posted by: SpeakingOf

That's what I was thinking.
I like this genre. Two things I like: Sci Fi & Westerns.
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025 02:16 PM (7rn5C)

Some say that the Dirty Harry movies were just westerns dressed in a modern environment.

Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at February 19, 2025 02:36 PM (g8Ew8)

469 Based on previous observations, I am guessing that grants that come from other parts of HHS are also directed to services for illegal aliens.

Posted by: Isophorone at February 19, 2025 02:36 PM (5adCf)

470 but it's not working because you have a high food drive and your stomach too often overrules your ability to mentally talk down your body all day every day?

I'm skeptical that this can be scientifically proved in any reliable way.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls at February 19, 2025 02:36 PM (V9cMX)

471 $8000 per year at 10% for 40 years is $3,500,000

Posted by: free tibet with purchase of equal or greater value tibet at February 19, 2025 02:37 PM (iNp3L)

472 Seriously, federal workers, welcome to the real world of layoffs, reorganization, new CEO bringing their own executive team and changing your job/department completely (and you feel lucky for not being downsized). No one is owed a job for life in 2025.

Posted by: Lizzy at February 19, 2025 02:38 PM (Hkcdp)

473
I've always kind of assumed that's why II mainly went back to 55 and didn't just wave away the joke that ended I with something like the three reappearing at the house in 1985 mere seconds after they left, flushed after their grand adventure, dropping off the girlfriend, and then heading off to another adventure.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 02:33 PM (GBKbO)

-- --

In the end it might have boiled down to cashing on Baby Boomer's sentimentality for the 1950s.

Peggy Sue Got Married made a ton with just a slight variation on the plot.

Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025 02:39 PM (6ydKt)

474 189 "ERs can’t legally turn them away, thanks to commie judges ruling everyone has a right to ER services."

Umm, EMTALA under Reagan.
Posted by: Peel gp A Jackfruit at February 19, 2025 01:51 PM (5xgzq)

That is correct. It's a condition of Medicare participation. Many states have adopted similar laws as a condition of hospital licensure. So they're kinda fucked.

Posted by: It's not worked out great at February 19, 2025 02:40 PM (yzp7T)

475 Some say that the Dirty Harry movies were just westerns dressed in a modern environment.
Posted by: Dr Pork Chops & Bacons at February 19, 2025

***
The hard-boiled crime story and the Western are close cousins. It's why Elmore Leonard, for instance, was able so easily to make the leap to crime novels. His Fifty-Two Pickup and Mr. Majestyk (his best crime stories, to me) would have made good Westerns themselves.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:41 PM (J2vNu)

476 In the end it might have boiled down to cashing on Baby Boomer's sentimentality for the 1950s.

Peggy Sue Got Married made a ton with just a slight variation on the plot.
Posted by: SpeakingOf at February 19, 2025

***
Despite my affection for Kathleen Turner, I disliked that film. It was full of things that boiled down to "These people in [was it 1960?] were so silly! They didn't know [such and such an event, like the Beatles] was coming!"

Back to the Future avoided that.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at February 19, 2025 02:43 PM (J2vNu)

477 "The watchdog found that in FY 2021, it distributed $2.4 billion in grants to nonprofits. In FY 2022, it distributed $3.4 billion, then that number skyrocketed up to $10 billion in FY 2023 before being reduced to $4.2 billion in FY 2024."

Bullshit: All these so called nonprofits profited bigly through this money laundering scam known as grants. The profits here don't show up in a normal sense, rather they show up in the bank accounts of staff.

It is not unfair to say that these scams are make work projects for thousands and thousands of people with gender studies master degrees whose only other career prospects would be selling cigarettes in a gas station.

Adding to the farce is the masquerade that nonprofits are nonpolitical. The ones I have rubbed up against all lean hard to wearing the Democrat union label, a not unexpected consequence of them being staffed top to bottom with queer DEI or their equivalent degree holders.

Also, I would like to know how much more cash is wasted on funding the homeless-non profit complex.

The time has come to cut off this scam spigot.

Posted by: Altaria Pilgram - My President has convictions at February 19, 2025 02:46 PM (Q8Bj8)

478 411 btw, I really liked Back to the Future when I was a kid, because it's a good kid's movie. Saw it multiple times.

But I never had the desire to watch the two sequels. That's weird, yes?
Posted by: Soothsayer at February 19, 2025

Nope, I'm the same way. I loved BttF (and I still like it a lot), but I never had any interest in the sequels. For me it's a self-contained story and I don't need to see anything else with those characters.

Posted by: Ian S. at February 19, 2025 02:23 PM (2ocoG)

mr three!

Posted by: zigggggy at February 19, 2025 02:46 PM (K5Rdg)

479 Where is the bar graph that shows the cost of migrants over the past 4 years across all the states and federal government compared to the cost of finishing the wall?

Posted by: hatethedeepstate at February 19, 2025 02:49 PM (8nX01)

480 457 Still have no idea when Kash Patel will get confirmed, every day just read 1 more step done of 263 I think it takes
Posted by: Skip at February 19, 2025 02:03 PM (fwDg9)

Should be tomorrow. I think it could be late tonight but it should be tomorrow. All that's left is the final confirmation vote.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at February 19, 2025 02:31 PM (ExV1e)

funny thing that he's about the very last one....
I'm sure the media will make a HUGE deal about him being the first minority head of the FBI...

Posted by: zigggggy at February 19, 2025 02:49 PM (K5Rdg)

481 I'll reiterate here that the Captain of the Black Hawk that collided was a much-vaunted DEI type. The issue is not her gender, the issue is how she came to the position that she was in.

Posted by: Mike Hammer,etc., etc. The issue there isn't that she was a female, the issue is how at February 19, 2025 02:56 PM (XeU6L)

482 156 We simply do not know the extent of the fraud in SS, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Until we have a firm grasp of those losses, it's all guessing.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at February 19, 2025 01:43 PM (mWSu4)

========

And since the narrative of the past few decades has been, "We can't get debt under control without touching Medicare, and you're not allowed to touch Medicare," it makes me wonder if the narrative is bullshit from the beginning.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, watching B-movies with Roger Corman at February 19, 2025 01:44 PM (GBKbO)
-----------

Fearmongering to prevent people from looking under the hood of government spending. It was a way of keeping people in line because grandma and grampa will wind up on the street if spending is cut.
Posted by: blake - semi lurker in marginal standing (tT6L1) at Febru

When one has to resort to emotional blackmail, the argument is lost. Further the emotional blackmailers should be harshly called out on such vile tactics.

Posted by: Bonecrusher at February 19, 2025 04:06 PM (JNTt1)

483 Anyway they can do to appease the Demo-Rats the UN/Soros/Globalists and the sinister CFR

Posted by: Tamaa the Drongo Bird at February 19, 2025 04:52 PM (wGqjj)

484 Ten billion for illegal health care. This is theft on a massive scale. It is designed to destroy Medicare and Social Security. The Dhimmies have done this deliberately. Its time to remove the govt control over the individuals and allow each American total control over his own financial resources. These communist's want you to be their slaves.

Posted by: TJ Jackson at February 20, 2025 12:30 AM (bXvrr)

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