All I got for Christmas was a deck of sticky playing cards.
I'm having a hard time dealing with this.

 

Putting Mento's in my parents ice cubes:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nqIw1BBAXn8

 

What are the chances?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/pAL6toUIvtM

 

Is anecdotal evidence reliable?

One man says yes.

 

 

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No joke. He was serious.

And I agree.

 

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Somebody is going to pay for my social security - it may as well be Elon's kids.

 

Somebody is going to pay for my social security - it may as well be Elon's kids.

On social security/medicare at FRA and still working. At least I'm getting some of my money back.

 

On social security/medicare at FRA and still working. At least I'm getting some of my money back.

There's a list of politicians who've committed to not letting that happen.

===========

• Senator Mike Lee said: “One thing that you probably haven’t ever heard from a politician: it will be my objective to phase out Social Security. To pull it up by the roots, and get rid of it.”
• In November, John Thune, the number two Senate Republican in leadership, declared that Social Security and Medicare benefits should be slashed.
• Florida Senator Rick Scott is championing a plan to put Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on the chopping block every five years, which would put the health and economic security of 63 million Medicare beneficiaries, 69 million Medicaid beneficiaries and 65 million Social Security beneficiaries at risk. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin proposed sunsetting these laws every year.
• The Republican Study Committee – which includes a majority of House Republicans – released a formal budget that, according to Politico, included “raising the eligibility ages for each program, along with withholding payments for individuals who retire early or had a certain income, and privatized funding for Social Security to lower income taxes.”
• And in 2015, most House Republicans, including Speaker McCarthy, Rep. Scalise, and a host of others in current leadership, voted to raise the retirement age to 70, which would cut Social Security benefits for tens of millions of seniors who paid into the system for years.

Republican Members of Congress have proposed making health care and prescription drugs more expensive:

Last week, Republicans in the House proposed repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, including its health care provisions. And, just yesterday, Republicans on the House Budget Committee floated a proposal to repeal the health care provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s what that would mean for working families across the country and in Florida:

• A 62-year-old in Tampa earning $55,000 would see their premium increase by $7,000 per year.
• 14.5 million Americans nationwide will pay higher health insurance premiums and see a tax increase.
• Everyone with Medicare will see higher drug prices if Medicare cannot negotiate the price of drugs.
• Tens of billions of dollars will go right back to Big Pharma, which will increase the deficit.
• 3.3 million Medicare beneficiaries who use insulin will no longer have the peace of mind of knowing that their insulin is capped at $35.
• Millions of seniors will no longer be able to get recommended vaccines for free.
• Drug companies could go back to increasing drug prices faster than inflation with no accountability, which happened for 1,200 prescription drugs last year.

 

There's a list of politicians who've committed to not letting that happen.

===========

Yes, but they all claim they didn’t say that. Of course, they will say they are “saving” the programs by cutting benefits.

They said the same thing when I was in my twenties, even had me convinced social security would be gone before I retired. Now I am 70 and receiving roughly $52K per annum in benefits. All they ever had to do to fix it forever was to index the salary cap for paying in to inflation, but they won’t ever do this because, like the debt limit, they use it for as a cudgel every year to get concessions on the budget.

 

There's a list of politicians who've committed to not letting that happen.

===========

That is a list of jokers.

Did you hear the one about Social Security?

 

That is a list of jokers.

Did you hear the one about Social Security?

Not really a long term trust if the program has to be renewed every five years. I plan to be retired for 25 more years (or so).

My favorite is the Senator telling the rich donors he became a senator just to cut social security and he tells the poor church goers that he became a senator just so he can end abortion and their social security was safe.

 

 

This one's not meant to be shot down, but rather hit with a stick until it bursts:

​

 

Even the UK is getting in on this balloon stuff.



Probably going to be considered political but it's not meant to be. Simply a balloon that was flown in the UK.

 

Even the UK is getting in on this balloon stuff.

View attachment 288036

Probably going to be considered political but it's not meant to be.

Is that thing behind the cloud an F22 with a sidewinder?

 

The very odd thing is that apparently the last 3 shot down were possibly hobby projects! The hobby rocketeers have to get FAA approval for when and where they can launch if going above a certain altitude. Hobby drones and model planes also have regulations. Can you imagine getting the government bill for observation personnel and flight costs plus 2 400k missiles used to take down your hobby balloon! That would not be much of a joke!

 

That is a list of jokers.

Did you hear the one about Social Security?
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Cute but I'm pretty happy my great grand parents were able to collect social security in the early years of the program instead of waiting until they built of a nest egg in the program under their own name. There were lots of very poor people - people who worked in the late stages of the Industrial Revolution, WW-I armament suppliers, and more - like my great grand father, who was working labor jobs into his 70's when the program started. I hope your family members were able to benefit from the early days of the program as well.

 

Yup, maternal grandfather was an engineering officer running stevedore gangs on the docks of Calais France in WWI until he "fell down a hold" and was injured. After cashiering out he ran a shipping business from Fort Myers Florida to New York City. From a wealthy family (father was Secretary Treasurer of the Dodge Hilton Timber Co) and then the great depression hit. Went and sat on a park bench all day so my grandmother wouldn't know he was out of work. When he finally got back ahead, he lost it all in Florida Land speculation when it went bust. If it hadn't been for assistance from both families (grandmothers' father was a doctor and owned a drugstore) they wouldn't have made it. As it was their cottage was a gift from the doctor and the children sent money or they wouldn't have had a nickel.

 

A room contains a stove; one burner is red-hot already. A kettle full of cold water is on the floor. The engineer and the mathematician were both asked “How would you make the water boil?” and both said “Put the kettle on the red-hot burner.”

Now there’s a table in the room also, and the kettle full of cold water is on the table. “How would you make the water boil?” The engineer said “Place the kettle on the red-hot burner.” The mathematician said “Place the kettle on the floor; the problem is now reduced to a previously solved problem.”