When The Mace

IN THE REAL WORLD, WHEN WOULD THIS EVEN BE REALLY CONSIDERED ……

Just do not understand. 😳. ☹️

Would this now mean. That these countries , with Russian citizens in then, are now eligible for Russian invasion and annexation .? Seems to be the trend. Especially if it is a country with a shared boarder.

Latest on EU-Russian borders:

🔹66 000 Russian citizens have entered the EU over the past week, a 30% increase in comparison to the preceding week

🔹Most of the Russian citizens are entering the EU through Finnish and Estonian border crossing points

More details >>

And that’s how it’s done. No muss, no fuss, no life vest, no safety ropes. Just simple competency.

Longing for deep water, following seas, and wooden ships.

Woooo

Important. Please understand how your own government actually works people.

Common Dreams

PBS Mirrored GOP Lies on Social Security and the Debt

National news media often broadcast misinformation when discussing the debt of the United States government, erroneously targeting Social Se

By Frederick H. Decker

Common Dreams

Nov. 29, 2023

National news media often broadcast misinformation when discussing the debt of the United States government, erroneously targeting Social Security as the main culprit whether intentionally or from genuine ignorance.

The coverage of the federal debt by news media generally considered credible often mirrors, unfortunately, the falsehoods heard from Republican lawmakers in blaming Social Security as a major driver of the federal debt. Such misleading news coverage was embedded in a recent segment aired during the week of Thanksgiving on the PBS NewsHour, which is an hour I watch regularly to typically be informed by sound journalism. But in the segment at issue here, I witnessed misinformation broadcast to the public that could shape public opinion into thinking, quite erroneously, that Social Security needs gutting because it is the culprit increasing the federal debt. It isn’t.

This particular segment on the federal debt on PBS NewsHour was introduced on Tuesday November 21 by coanchor Amna Nawaz stating how the “U.S. government remains open this Thanksgiving week, thanks to a temporary funding deal Congress passed last week.” But when that temporary funding starts expiring in January, Nawaz added, “conservatives are signaling they won’t pass another funding deal without addressing a bigger issue, the swelling U.S. national debt.”

Then coanchor Geoff Bennett and correspondent Lisa Desjardins, standing before a screen with varying charts, discussed the growing interest paid on the federal debt. As Desjardins put it, “just the interest on our debt is so large [in the past year] that it is almost [the size of} the entire Department of Defense budget.” That statement may be true, but that was not the punchline of the segment.

Social Security hasn’t reduced available general revenue nor been the reason why politicians are not funding programs for younger constituencies.

The NewsHour segment ended mirroring the Republican Party’s mantra that Social Security is the major driver of the federal debt. As Desjardins concluded “the three largest drivers of the debt are in reality” Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt, with each in the chart displayed indicated as accounting respectively for 21.2%, 12.9%, and 10.5% of total federal expenditures. Desjardins added, “Really what’s happening here is Congress is not addressing the big drivers of the debt at all.”

In a recent piece with misinformation embedded in its title alone, “Why We’re Borrowing to Fund the Elderly While Neglecting Everyone Else,” columnist Catherine Rampell also implied that borrowing to fund Social Security benefits will, as she wrote, “continue to crowd out future spending obligations in years ahead” on programs for the young like “pre-K, or child care, or paid parental leave, or a more generous child tax credit.”

One problem in such depictions exemplified by the NewsHour and in Rampell’s article is that Social Security, specifically, is funded almost exclusively by its own revenue source. Not by borrowing, as Ms. Rampell implies without providing supportive evidence for that contention (because there isn’t any). Nor funded by general revenue as likely many believe when seeing typical charts on federal spending (like that shown in the segment aired on PBS NewsHour) that include Social Security expenditures, which are not at all funded by general revenue but, rather, by its separate targeted payroll and income taxes.

Actually, as I have written about previously, Social Security is today the entity owning the most debt, $2.7 trillion in Treasury securities (Monthly Treasury Report, Table 6, Schedule D as of October 31, 2023). More than the two foreign governments owning the most U.S. debt, Japan today owning U.S. securities valuing $1.1 trillion and China with under $1 trillion.

Surpluses in Social Security revenue by law have to be invested in U.S. securities. And revenue surpluses have over the years been the norm in the program. Thus, Social Security for years, in essence, funded the debt with its surplus revenue, not caused it.

Social Security hasn’t reduced available general revenue nor been the reason why politicians are not funding programs for younger constituencies as Ms. Rampell alludes to in her piece. Tax cuts during the Trump and Bush administrations, however, did help do that. Growth in deficits and debt, as analysis by the Center for American Progress indicates, has largely been driven by those tax cuts. Tax cuts reducing general revenue applicable to programs like the earlier expanded child tax credit that, before expiring, lifted more children out of poverty.

The Social Security program has nevertheless, according to reports by the Board of Trustees overseeing the program, recently incurred shortfalls in its dedicated revenue stream. In 2022, a 4% shortfall noted in the trustees’ current report (Table II.B1, page 7). And those recent shortfalls have been met simply by just cashing in some U.S. securities the program acquired over the years with revenue surpluses.

But true enough, within current parameters of the program, the trustees predict the program’s reserves (i.e., securities) will be depleted by 2033. Then relying solely on Social Security’s separate tax revenue, it is predicted only 77% of benefits due will be payable. That’s not being totally broke, but it would have an adverse effect on the income many elderly depend upon.

Raising the Social Security retirement age to purportedly reduce costs also has adverse effects that, as I discussed earlier, the Congressional Research Service among others have outlined. For one, among those of lesser means who also on average have lower life expectancies, increasing the retirement age would reduce their lifetime Social Security benefits collected disproportionately relative to reductions among higher income earners with typically longer life expectancies. Increasing the retirement age would, furthermore, disproportionately harm those retiring early due to work-related health impairment suffered most prevalently in blue-collar occupations.

A different option some propose to increase revenue is eliminating the cap on the income subject to the Social Security payroll tax. In 2024 the limit on income taxed will be $168,600. Income above that limit would not currently be taxed.

However Social Security is made solvent for the future, one thing is quite clear. Social Security has not been the reason for incurred and increasing U.S. debt.

Surveyed the blackberries and it’s not looking good for jelly time this year. Enough water but all ar the wrong growth times. ☹️

So you want to know why I’m disgusted with the U.S…..

I’m over 60 years old. I’ve formally had five jobs in my 42 + year professional year professional life. One by popular election, two by my own selection. Those three required that I take an oath to uphold the Constitution of this country. I took it personally and seriously. That conduct repulses me on so many different levels that I am without further words …..

AP News

Trump chief of staff Meadows says actions laid out in Georgia indictment were part of his job

Mark Meadows, former White House chief of staff, has testified that actions detailed in a sweeping indictment accusing him of participating

I’m no legal expert, but if attempting to overturn a federal election conducted and certified as valid under the Constitutions of the United States and the state of Georgia, and in accordance with state and federal law, is now “part of the job” then people, all people, really ought to get to the range and practice. Because if the President’s Chief of Staff can pull that card to subvert an election, then our Republic truly is under mortal threat.

ABSOLUTELY

Reblog if you think public libraries are important and should be maintained.

Oh you mean publicly funded child grooming centers?

The scary thing. The really scary thing is there are millions of people who believe that that is exactly what libraries are.

But let me turn that on it’s head, and embrace it. They are child grooming centers. Because they are a place where children can be groomed not to learn what to read and what not to read, but to read. Groomed not to learn what to think and what not to think, but to think. Groomed not to learn what to believe and what not to believe, but to question. Groomed not to condone or condemn the ideas, believes, and lifestyles of other people, but to understand they exist.

Because once a child learns to read, think, question, and understand they can grow to become a dangerously intelligent and formidable adult. And if there is one thing that scares the shit out of governments and institutions it is exactly what this nation needs more of; dangerously intelligent and formidable adults.

And on a personal note, if you think libraries are places where kids go to get groomed to be molested, become drag queens, gay, communists, fornicators, or God knows what else your Jack in the Box fucked up mind can come up with, you’re kinda a dipshit. And you clearly don’t spend much, if any, time in public libraries.

Getting back a little late. At least they left the light on. 💡

ABSOLUTELY FUCKING ABSOLUTELY

In the most 1776 manner, Do Not Tread On My/Any Library 🐍

SANCTUARIES AND REPOSITORIES OF KNOWLEDGE MUST EXIST !

Because Library is a safe place.

Took off for a couple days. One day we did get to do hiking. These are from Starved Rock state park. The upper then lower ends. The river (Illinois) then canyons. River actually shows a grain barge going through the locks. Then Council Bluff (which from this aspect is a cave) A Native American site 8000years old. ! Yes we took the dog. That reoccurring person is my partner, who just can’t stay out of my photos. Ha !