My mother died on January 6, 2025 (obit). She’s still eligible to vote in New Jersey and some other states, I think, so it makes sense that a new Proud Democrat card arrived in the mail this month:
I can’t figure out why the righteous are limited to 3 outrage choices in each category. If my mom had lived to pick
- Attacking the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ Americans
- Gutting abortion access
- Enacting mass deportations
she would be precluded from picking “Severely limiting voting access” (e.g., to those who are alive).
A longer letter was attached. Your kindergarten education will serve you well because 100 percent of those who participate can be a “leader”:
Every Democrat — each and every one of us — will be a leader in the fight to stop the Trump administration’s dangerous agenda.
Could this be a reference to the War of Northern Aggression (“Civil War”)?
But we, the Democratic Party, have fought through major inflection points in history before.
The overall package seems inconsistent. America is going down the “path of darkness, chaos, and hate”. At the same time, there is a concern about “mass deportations”. Why wouldn’t a noble undocumented migrant be far better off after being deported? He/she/ze/they would get a U.S. taxpayer-funded flight far away from the darkness, chaos, and hate.
Seems that your mom, may her memory be a blessing, has bright political future. In some time, if DOGE is successfully resisted, she may even join 20 million plus of post-centerians who remain on social security rolls.
Thanks, P, but the funeral home folks notified SSA, I think, as part of their standard service. At least if everything works as designed, the only way that SSA is paying out for dead beneficiaries is if someone dies at home and is quietly buried in the back yard.
Philip, doubt that SSA missed over 20 million deaths in the last decades, as revealed by DOGE. Those $10 million mansions of civil searvants making $150 K per year in post-Biden money do not grow on trees.
@philg: “the only way that SSA is paying out for dead beneficiaries is if someone dies at home and is quietly buried in the back yard”
I’ve got to believe there are hundreds of thousands of deceased SS recipients still receiving monthly checks in such places as Ukraine, Romania, Nigeria, Ecuador, Mexico, Philippines, etc., and, heck even Puerto Rico. I’m guessing the reporting practices are not to reliable in those places.
Well, we’re just going to have to spool up more big government to root out all these dead citizens sucking on the SS teet in ways the rubes who designed the system in 1935 never foresaw. Send folks around knocking on doors monthly to do fingerprinting and proof of life checks? Probably not secure enough, since there’s no existing comprehensive fingerprint database associated with SSN’s. How can we know for sure who’s who? Are a water bill and library card sufficient? I guess we’ll just have to start fingerprinting kids at vaccination time and might as well grab some DNA and throw that into a national crime database as well, you know, while we’re at it. We can use that for a new republican endorsed anti fraud voting system, too. Think how fast we can clear up the enormous rape kit backlogs folks like Gregg Abbot are so concerned about using familial DNA.
@Senropablo, I love your thinking!
So, when can I start receiving EBT, SNAP, housing assistance, and heating aid, to start with? And what about SSDI? My kids would like the same benefits too. Oh, and I shouldn’t have to prove that I actually need these programs — I’ll just take them because I’m “entitled” to them. After all, isn’t it your belief that the government shouldn’t bother verifying who qualifies who’s who? Just hand out taxpayer money, no questions asked, right?
@Senropablo I am a democrat, but voted for trump this time. Dems have lost their way for last 10 years. What current administration doing is good for dems in the long run. Trump talks a lot but devil is in details. All the precedencies he is setting is good for dems and they can do the same when they come to power. I want him to deport all illegals, but my prediction is he will end up deporting less than what Obama did. Every one was expecting some changes(restrictions) to H1-b visa program but instead , he is going to expand as his Wal street and billionaire friends needs cheap labor(not real talent) this is one of the reason I voted for him. He is going to cut taxes which will benefit mostly corporations and wealthy(i will also benefit) with no corresponding spending cuts and all the middle class people voted for him
will get diddly squat. My prediction is deficit will increase and debt will also increase. He is going cut regulation and does not have any corporate oversight, we all know how it goes example 2007 crises . Remember Henry Paulson proponent of free market and capitalism ran to congress to bailout his wallstreet friends throwing out his life long free market and capitalism beliefs. He promised to gut obama care and replace with even better one, lets see what he does. Next time dems should run on popular progressive agenda like medicare for every one(single payer) and taking on big pharma, not on DEI, LGBT and open boarder. Till that time i will be independent voter.
DT: That’s a great point. I hadn’t considered all of the beneficiaries who’ve wisely chosen to relocate to places where quality of life is high and cost of living is low. My smartest helicopter student wasn’t even 40 years old and was already eligible to retire from the NYPD. City taxpayers were funding two years at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, which is how he ended up as my flight student. After he got his degree at Harvard, his plan was to retire back to his native Philippines and live like a king on his NYPD pension.
All of that said, I guess I don’t believe that there is going to be a huge amount of low-hanging fruit. The problem with our government, in my view, is that Americans aren’t collectively productive enough to fund the government to which they feel entitled (including one that supports 20-25 percent of us with a mostly subsidized lifestyle). Maybe SSA incompetence is more widespread than I imagine, though!
GeorgeA, the benefits you desire are available to all Americans! If you really want EBT, Snap, housing assistance, etc. I suggest reducing your income to zero and unburdening yourself by donating any disqualifying financial assets you may have. After all, you can’t really fully enjoy all these amazing benefits if you’re still working anyway. You might be able to bury the cash or exchange it for bitcoin if you’re not encumbered by ethics. Philg has been consistently talking up how amazing these free benefits are, for over a decade now, and he may be able to advise on how to best get yourself some of that prime free housing in Ma, free mobile phones and and even an Xbox.
I also forgot to mention perhaps the best method for unmasking the SS cheats–offering rewards or bounties to folks willing to unmask these crooks. I hear it’s effective in places like China and the former Soviet East Germany. Who better to root these folks out than their own family and neighbors? The thing about creating a society that has no fraud, illegal immigration, etc. is you end up with a place no one wants to live. I prefer to accept some imperfection.
Philg – we’re the most productive country on the planet and pretty high up on the GDP per capita, too. Though there are many socialist countries that beat us out which I’ve been told isn’t theoretically possible. So apparently we are productive enough overall to live the way we desire, but perhaps the issue is that a tiny percentage of the population enjoys all the spoils in a society ignorant enough to perpetuate the trickle down myth. For all his success and wealth, Elon looks and acts more miserably than a typical homeless person.
@Senorpablo, I refuse to join the “Elite Club” that sits at home, contributes nothing to society, and cries: “I’m a victim, pay me!”
When my family legally immigrated to the U.S. in 1981, my high school offered free lunch to my brother and me after someone told them we were struggling financially. My father refused, teaching us one of his many valuable lesson in self-reliance and hard-work.
As for those receiving handouts, the only people who should receive them are the truly disabled and those struggling to get them back on their feet. Everyone else is where they are because of their own life choices, and they shouldn’t expect a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense year-after-year. Your way of thinking promotes dependency, weakening society and ultimately leading it toward decline. You want proof? Just look at any nation that receive foreign aids, decade-after-decade and tell me how well they are doing. And please don’t tell me those nations don’t have resources, they all do.
> The thing about creating a society that has no fraud, illegal immigration, etc. is you end up with a place no one wants to live. I prefer to accept some imperfection.
Yes, some imperfection, is always the case. However, “some” is no the case any more. At this rate of unchecked illegal immigration, unchecked handouts and unchecked entitlement, the US and Europe will eventually become places no one wants to move to. Unless, of course, the so-called do-gooders — those proudly displaying “No Human is Illegal”, or “Everyone is Equal” yard signs — are willing to open their own homes and wallet to them, which sadly, has never been the case.
Question: When was the last time you checked where the U.S. ranks in STEM? If you don’t see how the “some imperfection” is directly impacts our standards, then we’ll never see eye to eye.
George A, firstly, let me clarify that my reply was somewhat sarcastic, perhaps not unlike the spirit in which you asked how to get on those programs. I don’t suggest that any able folks should take advantage of social aid programs. But, I do think there is very much more nuance than what you say:
“As for those receiving handouts, the only people who should receive them are the truly disabled and those struggling to get them back on their feet. Everyone else is where they are because of their own life choices, and they shouldn’t expect a free ride at the taxpayers’ expense year-after-year.”
Which, frankly, sounds like something someone who never truly struggled and has a deep lack of empathy would say. Does a child who was abused and severely traumatized either sexually, physically and/or mentally fall into the category of “they are where they are do to their own choices?” Sure, they may have technically made all the poor choices, but are all the conditions that wired them to make poor choices on them, such as genetics and trauma? That really seems like the point of view only someone with zero knowledge, or experience, with mental illness could promote. I’ve experienced family members who lived a productive life, suffer a mental breakdown and have their lives and personality changed seemingly in an instant. That’s an extreme case which helps me to empathize with all the folks somewhere in between normal and that–they seem fine externally, but just can’t seem to get their shit together.
What really is the definition of a disability and who gets to judge that? Physical disabilities might be more obvious to determine, but what about less obvious things like the very broad spectrum of mental illness which leads to poor decision making, impulse control, etc.? Some people are not wired to make good decisions, as you say, and then suggest that withholding any assistance from them might somehow magically teach them to think more correctly, which is about as simplistic and effective a view as espousing corporal punishment.
PTSD is just now becoming more well understood, long after we sent and returned a man from the moon. We send soldiers to war for a year to do, and witness, horrific things, As a society, some accept that they’ve been wounded not only physically but mentally. What of children, much younger and more developmentally vulnerable, who suffer at the hands of adults, often their own parents, for mush longer periods of time, often with zero recourse? Yes, of course the only logical way to cure these people of their poor decision making is to make them endure more hardship by withholding assistance.
You know, It’s easy for folks with an average to high IQ and no mental illness–all things they were provided, to judge others inability to make good choices and be successful because they’ve never truly understood true struggling or hardship. They may think they’ve worked hard and struggled to get where they are, but have they really? Were they born predisposed to have a good work ethic, or is it something they themselves built over time? It’s all relative. Warren Buffet, who is on the far right end of the success bell curve, might wonder why everyone isn’t as successful as he is in the same way. But, he’s a humble guy who probably realizes he’s just been extremely lucky and gifted. It all comes easy to him and it never seems like work, because he’s wired to be curious and enjoy every second of what he does and it comes naturally to him and therefore never really feels like hard work–that’s the impression I get from watching his talks. Why aren’t you and I as successful as he is–because we didn’t work as hard, or because we weren’t as gifted? He’s on one end of the bell curve, and let’s say the folks who need assistance are on the other, average commoners might be in the middle. Isn’t it just common sense that there will always be folks at one end of the bell curve who need help from everyone else, and that moving the arbitrary cutoff point isn’t going to magically change the fundamental makeup of society? There’s probably some reasonable and useful amount of carrot and stick to be had, but I think the belt is pretty medieval and counterproductive in the long run. Why not endeavor to reduce inevitable and needless suffering to some extent?
George A, also, can’t we use the nordic countries as an example of societies which are remarkably generous in their social aid programs, to the point of being radical compared to the US, to refute your claim that social assistance ensures a declining civilization? I think most, if not all, of the metrics would suggest otherwise. Per capita GDP, happiness, life expectancy, education scores, etc. say your sweeping conclusion is wrong.
SP, Nordic countries with generous welfare were built and became rich due to hard work, strong work and everyday life ethics, religious morality and liberal economy. For example. small Holland used to be one of top 10 world manufacturers. Before that it was a naval superpower. Nordic countries developed strong social support systems, because relatively few of their citizens used it and abuse of it was incompatable with their Protestant ethics. Now, in post – Cristian era, with dropping birth rates , Nordic countries are experiencing demographic and economic crisises, their relative position in the world drops and they are reforming their economies back towards free markets and their safety nets are going to be affected as well as once again they will have to increase their military budgets to reduce their defense reliance on USA.
That letter paints such a grim picture — it feels like COVIDfear all over again, only this time rebranded as FreedomFear!
Question: Is this the first time your mom received a letter from the DNC? The “P.S.” section makes it seem that way. If so, how on earth did they manage to find her now that she’s no longer with us?!
George: Stoking fear is certainly a proven way to get money out of old people and Democrats/Progressives have been working tirelessly on my mom for some years (maybe encouraged by smaller donations in past years). Our mailbox can be completely filled after a couple of days by appeals from the Righteous. Some are even addressed to me because of the assumption that if I share a mailing address with a righteous person I must myself be righteous. I have recently received mail, for example, asking me to pay to help plant more rainbow flags around Florida.
For those wonder who Roger is, he is Roger Lau, the deputy executive director of the DNC, which raises the question why the letter didn’t come from Sam Cornale, the executive director