I don’t remember ever meeting the word “maundering” before. It sounds enough like other words, esp. “meandering,” that I took in its meaning in context without thinking. Fun to learn a new word!
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And now Social Security is being weaponized against undocumented people
https://www.alternet.org/trump-immigrants-2671743411/
‘Devastating’: Trump admin marks thousands legally ‘dead’ to stop them from making money
Approximately 6,000 immigrants who are legally in the United States will now no longer be able to do anything that requires a Social Security number.
The Washington Post recently reported that President Donald Trump’s administration has since moved thousands of predominantly Latino immigrants to the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) “Death Master File,” even though all of them are still alive. But with this move, these legal immigrants will be counted among the roughly 85 million Americans the SSA has categorized as dead since 1936. And according to the Post, they will be “never be able to do anything in the U.S. that requires a Social Security Number check ever again.” This includes earning a paycheck from a job, receiving disability payments, opening a bank account, turning on utilities and other basic necessities.
According to the Trump administration, the immigrants who have been added to the death database had ties to terrorist activity or had criminal records. However, it provided the Post with no proof to back up its claims, other than saying that some of the names of the people it legally categorized as “dead” were on the FBI’s terror watch list. White House spokesperson Elizabeth Huston said that the move was done as a means of incentivizing the migrants to remove themselves from the United States.
“President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self deport,” Huston said. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”
The approximately 6,000 people added to the “Death Master File” all came to the U.S. through a program offered by former President Joe Biden’s administration that granted temporary work permits to immigrants who didn’t have visas, which included hundreds of thousands of people. Trump cancelled that program, putting those migrants in legal limbo. And the group of 6,000 people officially became “dead” according to the federal government following the issuance of a memorandum signed by both Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek.
The SSA itself wrote of the dangers of being wrongfully declared “dead” in a blog post last month, saying the “financial hardship” from being added to the database by mistake can be “devastating.” Several agency employees anonymously told the Post that the decision to put living people in the death database was “shocking and unprecedented.” The idea to do so apparently originated from Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, according to an unnamed White House official
“If you want to know what DOGE is doing at Social Security, this is it,” the official said.
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More about this–Dudek is going after undocumented aliens in the US
Pressuring Migrants to ‘Self-Deport,’ White House Moves to Cancel Social Security Numbers
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This name change business will raise all sorts of problems in the courts. It is well established in Anglo-American law that you can you use any name for yourself that you want to use, provided that your intention is not to commit fraud.
Of course, it is prudent to leave some sort of paper trail of a change of name for a variety of reasons. For instance, if your sister had reverted to her maiden name, she would have been wise to contact SS and the IRS that she was doing so – and would have thought to do it. (You used to be able to do that easily, before DOGE.) A new passport might be a good idea. Would she have thought to have contacted her local voting registry in time to vote? Did women who took their husbands’ surnames do that after they married? (I always kept my natal surname so have never thought any of this through.)
What a hornet’s nest. I’m not sure the SAVE Act people have thought this through. Are they aiming to disenfranchise their wives and married daughters who took their husbands’ surnames? I doubt it. They just haven’t thought this through. Patriarchal idiots who just sail through life taking for granted their patriarchal privilege.
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Ain’t nothin’ “safe” about it.
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I just realized I may have registered to vote in Wisconsin with my 1st (now ex) husband’s last name. How will that even work?!
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China hits back at Trump tariff hike, raises duties on US goods to 125%
BEIJING (Reuters) -Beijing on Friday increased its tariffs on U.S. imports to 125%, hitting back against U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to hike duties on Chinese goods to 145%, raising the stakes in a trade war that threatens to up-end global supply chains.
The hike comes after the White House kept the pressure on the world’s No.2 economy and second-biggest provider of U.S. imports by singling it out for an additional tariff increase, having paused most of the “reciprocal” duties imposed on dozens of other countries.
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WOW, really, do you think?
Competence questions pose risk to Trump’s political image
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But you know, don’t you, that will force the coffee shop to make your coffee in your home every morning, with no tariff and much cheaper than before.
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Wall Street whiplash as stocks tumble again | Watch
US egg prices break record high for third consecutive month even as inflation drops
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During Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress, he bragged that in his first few weeks back in the White House he had “brought free speech back to America.”
For the folks keeping track of the number of lies by Donnie, what number is he now at??
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Every word out of Trump’s mouth is a lie. Even when he farts and belches he lies.
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Unfortunately, Krugman’s long form pieces are paywalled. His daily emails are not. I can’t afford to subscribe (pay) to all the excellent substacks out there, and I am struggling to stay informed. My next homework assignment, apparently, is to attempt to understand the bond market. Basis trade? Sigh.
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lol… A noble effort. Lots of luck : - )
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My surname is an old married name for the same reason. Also, my maiden name is French Canadian, twelve letters long, and has three consecutive vowels at one point. It’s a beautiful name, pronounced properly. As my brother, who of course has the family name, says, “First you spell it. Then you spell it again.”
The effect of this law on women in the US is devastating (if you, you know, value your franchise at all). Don’t understand why there isn’t rioting in the streets. As a Canadian, I have a constitutional right to vote, so I’m not affected, but the SAVE Act is an insult to women everywhere.
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Been thinking. Can Canada make a competing offer to buy Greenland… give them a choice? Might be the neighbourly thing to do.
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After reading a few articles this AM I wonder if the nuclear power play would be to get women, married/not married to legally change their name to Jane Doe? And let’s see how DOGE handles that curve ball.
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As it is intended.
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