Jingthing

Apparently this will happen in about ten years or even much sooner. Most of us I presume have adapted to smart phones becoming necessary to exist. This was generally harder the older you are and obviously super easy for digital natives. But how do you feel about the next step? Personally I've had enough. I would be happy to see smart phones get better and better, especially more secure, but don't want to ever give them up.

They're deliberately trying to break it. Then they can "fix" it to meet their actual goals and their actual goals have nothing to do with serving the public. But many of you guys voted for this.

Heads up. First of all many expats have a U.S. address on record with the SSA even though they're expats. That is arguably fraud. I expect the Dogey tech bros will get to to that issue eventually and then who knows what? If I had to guess based on the sleazy tactics of the Dogey tech bros, I would expect benefits cutoff, or even worse, with difficult reinstatement paths. I think that is very big issue as I'm sure the percentage of expats that do that is quite high, especially those in Mexico. People do that to avoid the proof of life letter. etc. As far as what we do know already, the Dogey tech bros are sad that it turns out there aren't actually tens of millions of people over age 150 collecting benefits. It turns out the that the level of fraud easily found is actually very minimal. So now what? I'll tell you. They'll make it harder and harder to make new claims and make changes, meaning many people will be cut off for very long periods of time unfairly. They have announced that very soon MILLIONS of letters will go announcing AUDITS of SS recipients. This includes retirement status. What red flags for an audit? Changing your address. Changing your direct deposit details. Dealing with such an audit where you may even need a lawyer will be big fun from abroad. Many of you voted for this. I hope you're happy.

News of tomorrow. Fascist president would be King Trump tries to shut down Atlantic Magazine.

There is no defense for this scandal. Being a maga cult member who just knee jerks anything maga doesn't cut it. Where are the consequences? Yeah, we know. Nothing. Disgusting.

He could and he did. He intentionally picks people for loyalty, not competence.

I've had people in the weed biz say they are illegal. If they weren't, they would be sold openly in shops selling bongs, and they are not. If they indeed are illegal, which I think they are, seems to me another case of unintended consequences.

Fire them all!

Does this crackdown apply to dry HERB vapes at weed? In other words, little ovens to heat up your favorite "organic" HERB. My current info says that they are illegal, but I wonder if that is intentional, as they are entirely different thing than e-ciggies.

Don't doubt they are trying to do that. Who's gonna stop them? The fascist Trump regime is now ignoring court orders.

Of course.

Yeah sure boycott us. Elections have consequences.

A Separate Peace 1972 "Classic" movie adaptation of a "classic" novel. I think I probably read the book back then as it was standard school curriculum stuff but maybe missed the movie. At a New Hampshire boys school world war 2 era. Might want to pair this with Summer of 42 and a Pinot Grigio. War is hell. But sometimes necessary.

Ukraine's surrender.

It won't work but I appreciate the effort.

Not all of the people sent to the El Salvador hell hole entered illegally. They weren't vetted properly. We know that some of them were not even gang members and certainly many had no criminal records. Do you want to be a citizen of a country that stops having due process? Nobody is against deporting people that deserve deporting back to their home countries after they have been afforded due process to have their specific cases examined. Do you understand what El Salvador is doing to these prisoners? We may say well it's their country, they can do what they want to their OWN citizens. But what fascist Trump is doing is totally different than that.

Yeah Lanzhou noodles is very good. I was aware of one of those Sichuan places in that location. I did try it once and found it OK but I haven't been back. For me, the Sichuan place in Central Mall is much better.

Of course tv and films have replaced novels. Story telling is wired in humans. But reading a well written novel is an entirely different personal experience than watching the story.

Recession, Depression, Stagflation. Certainly nothing good!

Used Teslas are going cheap now. If you buy a used one, are you helping the evil villain Musk, or not? I'm all for people getting a good deal on EVs and I'm totally against punishing owners. You have no idea of the politics of the people who own them unless they tell you.

I think it's more or less dead already. Yes many novels are published annually but only a tiny percentage of people read them anymore. It's only a matter of probably a short time before AI can write great novels that will be totally indistinguishable from human written ones. But people still won't read them AI or not. If you meet a young person these days who says they want to be a novelist, perhaps the proper response is to slap them in the face.

Andrew Sullivan says what needed to be said:

Here goes nothing.

Since when is vandalism terrorism?

Not that the magas are logical or anything like that but forcing expats on SS home would be really stupid from a fiscal POV, assuming Medicare will still be around. Medicaid on the other hand they're viciously trashing for all.