On Friday I was in the hospital all day getting a chemo infusion, never much fun— but nothing like the day after, which is really when hell kicks in. One thing that made it less horrible is that one of my doctors, someone I’ve been working with for 10 years, although not on this cancer, came to visit. She did have some amazing news for me though. The cancer marker had gone from 1,124 all the way down to 57… and in just one month. It means that the chemo is working and working much faster than anyone expected. Hurray!
She shared something else with me. She took out her cell and showed me a photo. Someone had bashed in her car— maybe with a baseball bat. What a mess! She bought the Tesla 5 or 6 years ago before Elon Musk was public enemy # 1, and before he was working to destroy our country. She just wanted a car that didn’t contribute to global warming.
She said she couldn’t really feel any anger towards the person who bashed in her car (in a parking lot). A long term patient of hers, a woman in her 80s, told her she would have to discontinue the treatment. She managed to make ends meet, for the trip to L.A.— the bus, the hotel, the food— with her Social Security check. In the 2 decades that she’s been getting it, something had just happened that had never happened before. The check didn’t arrive.
Howard Lutnick— may his penis, ears and nose fall off in quick succession— “Trump’s billionaire commerce secretary, suggested on a podcast this week that missing Social Security checks,” wrote Ryan Bort, “aren’t a big deal, and that only a ‘fraudster’ would actually complain if their monthly benefit didn’t come in the mail. ‘Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month,’ Lutnick said on the All-In podcast. ‘My mother-in-law is 94. She wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She would think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining. The easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen,’ he continued. ‘Whoever screamed is the one stealing.’”
Lutnick’s comments come as Elon Musk and his minions from the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have invaded the Social Security Administration, implementing big changes and leading Americans to worry that their benefits could be in danger.
DOGE has pushed to close dozens of Social Security offices and limit phone services. The Social Security Administration (SSA), which has plans to slash its workforce, announced earlier this week that it will no longer allow people to verify their identities by phone, forcing them to come into brick-and-mortar field offices. The changes could overwhelm the agency’s staff and delay access to benefits.
The AARP, a powerful advocacy group for seniors, was livid about the latest proposed change. “The Social Security Administration’s move to force people to visit offices in-person for services that they have sought by phone will result in more headaches and longer wait times to resolve routine customer service needs,” the AARP wrote in a statement. “Requiring rural Americans to go into an office can mean having to take a day off of work and drive for hours merely to fill out paperwork.” The AARP continued to stress the change could result in “real economic hardship” for older Americans.
Lutnick— a billionaire whose in-laws are also affluent— doesn’t seem to understand this, to say the least.
The federal judiciary has been thwarting some of the ostensibly illegal moves the Trump administration has made to take over Social Security, including by blocking the Social Security Administration from allowing Musk and DOGE to access the sensitive private data of hundreds of millions of Americans. Lee Dudek, whom Trump named acting administrator of the SSA, was so miffed by the ruling that he threatened to shut down Social Security entirely. “Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.”
…Social Security going dark would endanger the welfare of millions upon millions of older and disabled Americans who rely on the benefit program to live.
Lutnick seems more concerned with the welfare of the world’s richest man.
Earlier his week, he went on Fox News and begged viewers to buy Tesla stock, which has been tanking as Musk continues to fire federal employees and dismantle essential government services. The Campaign Legal Center called for an investigation into the plea on Friday, calling Lutnick’s remarks an “apparently flagrant violation of federal law” barring public officials from using their offices for private gain.
It’s easy to see why someone might take a baseball bat to a symbol of grotesque wealth and power when their own survival is suddenly at risk. The aristocrats of old learned this lesson too late— just as the streets of Paris filled with desperate citizens who had been told for too long that their suffering was a mere accounting error, or that only “fraudsters” would dare to complain about starvation.
Lutnick, Musk, and their ilk might imagine themselves untouchable, just as the ruling class of pre-revolutionary France did. But history suggests otherwise. When the powerful sneer at the suffering of the many, when they strip away even the illusion of stability from those who depend on it, something deeper stirs. The Bastille wasn’t stormed over a single grievance— it fell because the people finally understood that their rulers had no intention of changing.
For now, Lutnick can mock and Musk can plunder, but there are only so many times you can take food from the mouths of the hungry before they come to take something from you.
Well I got my SS check for March but I gotta say I was wondering. We will see what happens in April. 80 plus years of reliability may soon come to an end.
glad to hear about your stats. tell your doctor I will pay for her patients next treatment. I mean it Howie.