TallGuyJohninBKK

That whole claim by Musk and Trump was false and fraudulent, as the OP article by Forbes here explains, and has been detailed by numerous news agencies elsewhere. "Musk had previous sparked concern about his plans for the safety net after he said tens of millions of dead Americans are receiving Social Security checks—a claim the Associated Press debunked. And on Friday, he added to fears when he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and described the federal government as “one big pyramid scheme.” In October, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog, said Trump’s policies would hasten the demise of Social Security’s trust fund." https://www.fortune.com/2025/03/03/social-security-payments-benefits-interruption-doge-cuts-system-collapse-retirement-disability/ Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims https://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7#

"Poised" is the eternal, hopeful, vague term used for high-speed rail in Thailand. Worth noting, nowhere in the OP article does it make any mention of when this supposed project might actually be completed.

And meanwhile, in the real world, government administrators with many years of experience heading the Social Security Admin have been / are being forced out, and the agency for the time being in effectively being run by a bunch of Musk-ites who pretty much have no real knowledge or expertise in Social Security matters at all. Scary! But I've never heard anyone refer to Musk and Co. -- who are doing all the "replacing," -- as "Wokeist cultural devolution" and "inexperienced, racist, diverse ideologues."

Per the Associated Press: Tens of millions of dead people aren’t getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments. Over the past few days, President Donald Trump and billionaire adviser Elon Musk have said on social media and in press briefings that people who are 100, 200 and even 300 years old are improperly getting benefits — a “HUGE problem,” Musk wrote, as his Department of Government Efficiency digs into federal agencies to root out waste, fraud and abuse. It is true that improper payments have been made, including some to dead people. But the numbers thrown out by Musk and the White House are overstated and misrepresent Social Security data. (more) https://apnews.com/article/social-security-payments-deceased-false-claims-doge-ed2885f5769f368853ac3615b4852cf7 The lunatics are now running the show under Trump and Musk... and anyone actually relying on the federal government these days ought to be very concerned.

Apparently, Elon Musk and his minions, ever since the original agency head resigned after refusing to give Musk's team access to data that was deemed private under federal law. And then the Trump admin appointed a mid-level agency bureaucrat as the current acting director -- a guy who had been placed on admin leave and was potentially facing losing his job just days earlier for allegedly giving Musk's team improper access to confidential SS data. Per the Washington Post: "The newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.” [emphasis added] In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to detailed notes from a participant in the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.” (more) https://archive.ph/1Yi8g

Can people trust Musk's DOGE minions to have the slightest clue of what really occurs with Social Security? I'd say NOT! For example, in the latest news: DOGE is driving Social Security cuts and will make mistakes, acting head says privately The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner said members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team are outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of the agency’s programs. "The newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.” [emphasis added] In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to detailed notes from a participant in the meeting obtained by The Washington Post. “DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.” (more) https://archive.ph/1Yi8g All of the above is hardly reassuring for anyone who's a Social Security recipient, current or future. And this above comes on the heels of Trump's speech to Congress where he repeated false misinformation alleging fraud and waste presumably produced by DOGE that is flawed because of flawed/missing info in the Social Security's databases, which have failed to accurately record the people's actual birth dates, leading Trump to falsely claim that huge numbers of presumably dead people were still being paid SS benefits. Per the AP's fact check report giving Trump's false Social Security claims and how/why they were mistaken: "There’s no evidence Social Security money is being paid to many people over age 100 TRUMP: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. ... 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we are searching right now.” THE FACTS: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits. Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format for dates. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization Wired first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration." But DOGE's dimwits dealing with Social Security either A] didn't bother to take the time and effort to actually what was going on with those numbers and why they were wrong, or B] they knew the data they were reporting was wrong and didn't care because it would give Trump another false talking point to assail Social Security over. CNN's fact check report had a milder takedown of Trump's false Trump's Social Security claims: "Social Security benefits: In an extended claim, Trump said 4.7 million people who are at least 100 years old are still listed in the Social Security Administration’s database and that “money is being paid to many of them.” However, this claim needs context. The vast majority of these people do not have dates of death listed in Social Security’s database. But that doesn’t mean they are actually receiving monthly benefits. Public data from the Social Security Administration shows that about 89,000 people age 99 or over were receiving Social Security benefits in December 2024, not even close to the millions Trump invoked. [emphasis added] https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html

Anyone who believes half of the false and misleading manure Trump is trying to sell is the epitomy of moronic.

And on Social Security: "Social Security fraud TRUMP: "We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program that our seniors and that our seniors, people that we love rely on, believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members, people aged 100 to 109 years old.” Trump and his adviser Elon Musk have both claimed, without evidence, that there is rampant fraud in the Social Security system. In his remarks, Trump asserted that government databases list millions of people aged well over 100 years old, including 1.3 million people between 150 to 159 years old and over 130,000 people aged over 160. But a 2023 report from the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General said that there were nearly 19 million Social Security number-holders aged 100-plus who didn't have information about their deaths in the system and that "almost none of the 18.9 million number-holders currently receive SSA payments." " https://www.npr.org/2025/03/04/g-s1-50488/trump-congress-joint-address-fact-check The bottom line, as reported elsewhere, is the current Social Security Admin's data systems for keeping track of older dates of birth and deaths in their systems are flawed by the SSA's own admission. And as a result, their databases show misleading and inaccurate counts on details being used by Trump and Musk, not that they care they are spouting known nonsense. Per Associated Press: "THE FACTS: The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits. Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format for dates. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago. The news organization Wired first reported on the use of COBOL programming language at the Social Security Administration. Additionally, a series of reports from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general in March 2023 and July 2024 state that the agency has not established a new system to properly annotate death information in its database, which included roughly 18.9 million Social Security numbers of people born in 1920 or earlier but were not marked as deceased. This does not mean, however, that these people were receiving benefits. The agency decided not to update the database because of the cost to do so, which would run upward of $9 million. As of September 2015, the agency automatically stops payments to people who are older than 115 years old." https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-trump-ukraine-3bea1df50167ac0a91f8c419b58c4b97

And on Ukraine: "TRUMP CLAIM: The U.S. has "spent perhaps $350 billion" on supporting Ukraine's defense FACT-CHECK: False According to the special inspector general responsible for overseeing the spending related to the war in Ukraine, Congress has appropriated or otherwise made available $182.75 billion for the overall U.S. response to the war since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. Of that money, about $119 billion has been for the direct benefit of Ukraine, including approximately $65.9 billion in military assistance. White House officials have offered various explanations for how the Trump administration has arrived at the significantly higher figure of $350 billion, but most of the arguments rely on dubious logic–such as factoring in inflation–which has no bearing on the actual dollar amount appropriated by Congress." https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fact-checking-trumps-speech-congress/story?id=119447124

And on the economy: Trump did not inherit an ‘economic catastrophe’ "TRUMP: “Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.” THE FACTS: Inflation peaked at 9.1% in 2022 under President Joe Biden, but Trump did not inherit a disastrous economy by any measure. The unemployment rate ticked down to a low 4% in January, the month he took office, while the economy expanded a healthy 2.8% in 2024. Inflation-adjusted incomes have grown steadily since mid-2023. And inflation, while showing signs of stickiness in recent months and still elevated at 3% in January, is down from its 2022 peak." https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-misinformation-trump-ukraine-3bea1df50167ac0a91f8c419b58c4b97

It's a LONG LONG list of falsehoods and lies, as usual with Trump... But here are some low-lights pertinent to this thread's posts: Fact-checking Trump’s address to Congress (CNN) -- President Donald Trump made numerous false and misleading claims in his Tuesday speech to a joint session of Congress. The falsehoods spanned a variety of topics, including the economy, climate, immigration and more. In his speech, just under one hour and 40 minutes, Trump also made a number of false claims about his predecessor, Joe Biden. Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s statements: (more) https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/04/politics/fact-check-trump-address-congress/index.html Including the following predictable false nonsense from Trump and echoed by his sycophants here: Per the above-linked CNN report: "DOGE and transgender mice: Trump falsely claimed that the Department of Government Efficiency identified government spending of “$8 million for making mice transgender.” Between the 2021 and 2022 fiscal years, the National Institutes of Health awarded a total of $477,121 to three projects that involved administering feminizing hormone therapy to monkeys to understand how it may affect their immune system and make them more susceptible to HIV. Feminizing hormone therapy is a gender-affirming treatment used to block the effects of the male hormone testosterone and promote feminine characteristics among transgender women. Transgender women are nearly 50 times more likely to be infected with HIV than other adults, according to one study from 2013 across 15 countries, including the US. It’s not clear where the $8 million figure came from."

Glad to see the local anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian lunatics are out in force today, cheering for their lunatic, lying leader. Meanwhile, most thinking people recoil at Trump's shameful attempts to surrender Ukraine to their Russian invaders. Shake their heads at Trump's attempts to curtail clear energy policies/programs while at the same time trying to expand the use of pollution generating fossil fuels. Going to end up paying the price for Trump and Co's efforts to gut environmental and consumer protection policies that protect ordinary people from corporate wrongdoing, The world is going to end up being in a far worse place if Trump is successful in trampling the U.S.'s democratic traditions... Unless, of course, you're like some of the posters here who think the U.S. ought to a western mirror version of Russia.

My recent experience on that in BKK: The wife and I were out for a late weekend lunch at a cafe at the Gaysorn Amarin Mall.... Nice cafe that turned out to have a good selection of beers on tap. So I asked about adding a beer to our order, and the answer was "cannot". 2-5 p.m. So after we finished our lunch, we walked out and right nextdoor inside the same mall was a beer-focused pub with an accompanying food menu. Curious, we walked in and asked, "OK to order beer now?" And the staff replied sure, no problem, can -- even though it was still during the 2-5 p.m. blackout period. So we walked in and I had the beer I wanted along with some snacks. Sorry, but that kind of stupid situation is absolutely ridiculous. And it gets repeated from place to place all around Bangkok in my experience.

And who does the Trump Admin have heading up Social Security for the time being? A formerly mid-level bureaucrat who had been placed on leave from his prior SSA job while under investigation for allegedly sharing unauthorized access to private Social Security Admin information with reps of Elon Musk's DOGE: How a Social Security Employee Under Investigation Rose to Lead the Agency March 2, 2025 "Leland Dudek, a mid-level career employee at the Social Security Administration, found himself at the center of a major shake-up when he was appointed as the agency’s acting commissioner. Just days before his promotion, Dudek had publicly stated that he was placed on administrative leave for cooperating with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency and was actively searching for a new job. His sudden elevation came after Michelle King, a longtime SSA official, resigned following disputes with DOGE representatives over access to sensitive Social Security records. King's departure is part of a broader trend of career government officials stepping down due to concerns about DOGE's influence within federal agencies. Prior to his promotion, Dudek had been under investigation for allegedly sharing unauthorized access to SSA information with DOGE representatives, according to The Washington Post. The agency's leadership team had reportedly placed him on paid leave over concerns that his actions may have violated privacy and tax laws. He was also accused of pressuring SSA personnel to expedite the clearance of DOGE engineers into the agency's systems. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/social-security-employee-under-investigation-000017561.html

And more from the Trump Admin cutting into the Social Security Admin, per AARP: Social Security Administration Plans ‘Significant’ Staff Reductions AARP calls for reassurances from SSA on commitment to customer service Published February 28, 2025 The Social Security Administration (SSA) announced plans this week for a “massive” restructuring of its operations that “will include significant workforce reductions” affecting thousands of jobs. ... The Social Security Administration had seen staffing shrink even before the recent announcement. SSA’s workforce had shrunk to a near-50-year low and attrition and hiring freezes were hamstringing efforts to improve customer service, SSA officials told AARP last year. [emphasis added] According to SSA performance data, callers to the 800 number waited 30 minutes on average to speak to a representative in January. The average disability application took eight months to process, compared to four months in January 2020. [emphasis added] https://www.aarp.org/social-security/ssa-workforce-reductions.html

Immunisation Saved At Least 154 Million Lives Over Past 50 Years – WHO Infectious Diseases 24/04/2024 "Immunisation has saved at least 154 million lives over the past 50 years, since the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in 1974. [emphasis added] Of the lives saved, 146 million were children under five, and 101 million were babies. Global infant deaths have reduced by 40% and more than halved in Africa. [emphasis added] ... The measles vaccine has had the biggest impact on reducing infant mortality, accounting for 60% of the lives saved – 94 million. https://healthpolicy-watch.news/immunisation-has-had-a-massive-impact-on-human-survival/

Here's where the Republicans really are on Social Security, per CNBC: Trump plan would make Social Security insolvent in just 6 years, budget group says Published Mon, Oct 21 2024 2:40 PM EDT "Key Points Donald Trump’s tax-cut plans and other agenda items would hasten Social Security’s insolvency, a nonpartisan budget group said. The Republican nominee’s proposals would also expand Social Security’s cash shortfall by trillions of dollars and lead to even steeper benefit cuts in the coming years, the group estimated." https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/21/trump-social-security-plan-insolvency-faster-study.html Here's where some prominent Democrats are on Social Security: 02.27.2025 NEWS: As Republicans Attempt to Undermine Social Security, Sanders, Warren, Schakowsky, Hoyle Introduce Legislation to Expand Social Security "WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 – As Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress attempt to advance legislation to give massive tax breaks to billionaires and undermine Social Security, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Ranking Member on the Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions and Family Policy, and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), along with Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), introduced the Social Security Expansion Act. The legislation would expand Social Security benefits by $2,400 a year and ensure Social Security is fully funded for the next 75 years by applying the Social Security payroll tax on all income above $250,000. Importantly, this legislation would not raise taxes by one penny on the over 91 percent of American households who make $250,000 or less." [emphasis added] https://www.help.senate.gov/dem/newsroom/press/news-as-republicans-attempt-to-undermine-social-security-sanders-warren-schakowsky-hoyle-introduce-legislation-to-expand-social-security Where does anyone think Trump and Musk are going to come down on this? Protecting billionaires and millionaires, or preserving Social Security and providing a financial safety net for the 91% of American households earning less than $250,000 per year? The DOGE attack on various federal government departments is just the opening salvo in the Republicans attack on various federal programs that help support and protect the American non-millionaires and non-billionaires. And part of their movement to convince Americans that they can't rely on the federal government and its workforce to protect them against... who else... the millionaire and billionaire liars like Trump and Musk.

Also, FWIW, the Social Security website still allows online access thru several different methods, not just Login.gov, as follows: Login.gov does NOT appear to work with GV. ID.me does work with GV... And older SS direct log-in accounts, including like the one I also have, when I tested it just now, it sent my 2FA to my registered email address... I can't recall from many past years whether I opted for that option, or that's what they wanted in lieu of a mobile ph number at the time.

Ya... I just checked. My Login.gov account has one of my regular U.S. mobile numbers set for 2FA... So that must mean my GV # didn't work on that platform. It's weird, though, because also in just checking, the fed government's similar ID.me account and log-in does accept GV SMS 2FA.

I remember! And that's going back to my early days in LOS.

The issue that often seems to trigger problems for Americans living abroad is when they try to log-in to their U.S. financial accounts using a foreign IP address. [Or make what I consider the potentially risky mistake of telling their FI that they're no longer living in the U.S. and instead are living abroad.] The various FI's security systems will tend to perceive those kinds of log-ins as dubious and/or threats, and that can trigger getting locked out of online access or other unwanted attention. The solution to that, in my experience, has been to ALWAYS use a U.S. IP address provided by one of the better VPN providers when doing online financial stuff. And that's worked for me for many years without any hitch. Along with keeping a U.S. address of record on all my U.S. FI accounts.

I'm pretty sure SS accepts my GV.... which was set up on my SS a long time back.

I've got quite a few U.S. financial accounts with brokerages, banks and credit unions, large and small... And fortunately for me, GV seems to work for 2FA via SMS messages with all of the FIs I deal with. I do know, however, (regarding your comment above) that some other members here have reported that some of THEIR FIs 2FAs cannot be received via GV.

And, the conclusions of a Science Feedback review of claims about the latest preprint cited here in the OP: The OP's study did not "definitively establish that the spike protein causes PVS. The research was preliminary, based on a small sample size and self-reported data, and its conclusions have yet to be peer-reviewed. As such, more rigorous research is needed to understand PVS, and claims linking the vaccines to immune system damage are unfounded and misleading." [emphasis added] https://science.feedback.org/review/vaids-not-real-medical-condition-causes-post-vaccination-syndrome-require-more-research/

Here's a Dec. 2023 FactCheck.org report on one of the prior reports issued by the same authors dealing with the same issues that also calls out its limitations: Yale Preprint Recorded Patient Experiences, Did Not Demonstrate Vaccines Cause New Syndrome December 18, 2023 "A preprint on a Yale-based study described chronic symptoms self-reported after COVID-19 vaccination by 241 members of an online group. The paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, did not show how common these symptoms are in the general population, nor whether vaccinations caused them — limitations popular online posts did not make clear." ... To be clear, the preprint assigns the label “post-vaccination syndrome” to patients’ self-reported symptoms, but it does not establish the causes of the symptoms or their prevalence among vaccinated people. ... “We cannot draw conclusions about the causation of the symptoms reported in this study based on the study design,” Dr. Linda Geng, an internal medicine doctor and co-director of the Post-Acute COVID-19 Syndrome Center at Stanford University, told us in an email. “Vaccines can be life-saving and it is important that we remember their benefits for public health and the broader population as we continue to research and better understand their potential complex effects in subsets of individuals.” https://www.factcheck.org/2023/12/scicheck-yale-preprint-recorded-patient-experiences-did-not-demonstrate-vaccines-cause-new-syndrome/