SOCIOPATHY: Millions of corpses are getting those checks!

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Also, what the president wants to tell Putin: Yesterday, was the madness general over this flailing nation? 

We'd be inclined to say yes. Let's start with an announcement which is receiving little notice. 

The announcement was made by Pete Hegseth. Here's the start of a brief news report in today's New York Times:

Hegseth Orders Pentagon to Draw Up Plans for Cuts

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered senior military and Defense Department officials to draw up plans to cut 8 percent from the defense budget over each of the next five years, officials said on Wednesday.

Mr. Hegseth said in a memo issued on Tuesday that a number of branches within the military and the Pentagon should turn in budget-cutting proposals by next Monday, two officials said. The memo listed some 17 exceptions to the proposed cuts, including military operations at the southern border.

Say what? Defense spending would be cut by eight percent in each of the next five years? Factoring in inflation, that would mean that defense spending had been cut roughly in half by the end of that period—and by substantially more as a percentage of GDP.

That seems like a very surprising proposal! But that's precisely the target which was adumbrate only last week by Hegseth's boss, as CNBC reported:

Defense stocks drop after Trump says Pentagon spending could be halved

Defense stocks dropped sharply Thursday afternoon after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could massively cut defense spending.

Trump said Thursday at the White House the U.S. could cut defense spending in half at some point in the future. The comments came in the context of Trump discussing a potential conference on defense spending with China and Russia.

“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military...and I’m going to say we can spend this on other things,” Trump said.

“When we straighten it all out, then one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” he added.

After he gets Ukraine straightened out, the commander wants to meet with Putin to tell him that we'll be cutting American defense spending in half! 

Given the context of the real world as it really exists, this seems like an astonishing prospect. It's a marker of the breadth of the general madness that this proposal by the commander has received almost no notice.

To what wider madness do we refer? For now, forget about Ukraine. Instead, consider this:

Yesterday, the commander spoke in Miami. According to Mediaite, he made the peculiar remarks which are quoted in this news report—and the videotape is included:

Trump Baselessly Claims Millions of People Born in the 1800s Are Getting Social Security Checks

[...]

On Sunday, White House adviser Elon Musk claimed his “Department of Government Efficiency” found that more than 20 million Americans over the age of 100 have been receiving checks from the Social Security Administration. He alleged the figure included people who were born in 1875...

Speaking at a conference of investors in Miami on Wednesday, the president reiterated Musk’s baseless claims about Social Security and appeared to add some embellishments of his own.

“But listen to this—3.6 million people are on Social Security rolls from the age of 110 years old to 119,” he said. “Do you think there are really that many? Those people are seriously old. But it gets worse—3.47 million people are on Social Security from the age of 120 years old to 129 years old, 3.9 million people are on Social Security from 130 years old to 139 years old.”

Trump later added that there are “3.5 million people from the age 140 to 149 years old” on Social Security, and that “1.3 million people are on Social Security from age 150 to 159. And over 130,000 people are on Social Security over the age of 160 years old, OK? Including 1,039 people—think of it—over one thousand people between the ages of 220 to 229. And one person between the age of 240 years old and 249. And the record topper, there is one person on Social Security who is 360 years old, which is approximately 110 years older than our country.”

The assembled crowd cheered Trump’s performance.

"Think of it," the president said. He then claimed that the Social Security Administration has been mailing checks to "over a thousand people between the ages of 220 to 229"—even to "one person between the age of 240 years old and 249."

Does anyone really believe that many millions of fraudulent checks are being mailed to such non-existent people? Is it a form of madness when the president makes such a series of claim, with an audience cheering him on?

Was it a form of madness when Elon Musk made the original claim—the original claim which the commander now appears to have embellished?

Full disclosure! In that report for Mediaite, Michael Luciano links to this report in the Washington Post—a report which claims to explain the highly peculiar claims which were first made by Musk. 

As we've mentioned in the past, the Post's explanation involves certain quirks which are built into the programming language known as COBOL That said, have we entered a realm of general madness when  a cheering crowd is being told that the Social Security Administration has been mailing checks to many millions of people whose birthdates makes it clear that such people would have to be dead?

Was a madness present in that hall? On the level of the upper-end press, have you seen anyone ask that question?

The commander is planning to tell Putin that he'll be cutting the military in half. He also seems to think that deep state flunkies at Social Security have been sending checks to millions of people who were born in the 1800s.

Due to the general madness over the land, those items have been receiving very little attention. In our own Blue America, attention is being paid to the commander's recent claims that President Zelensky is "a dictator" who started the war in Ukraine and who stands at four percent the polls.

One question might go like this: 

Are issues of "mental health" and "mental disorder" involved in any of this? With respect to the commander, are we looking at behavior which resembles the lunacy which is said to have occurred when the emperor Caligula is (apocryphally) said to have named his favorite horse to the Roman senate?

Are issues of health and disorder involved? If so, we're looking at a tragic loss of human potential. But according to current rules of the game, such questions can't—and won't—be asked. 

For better or for worse, such questions are forbidden. We still want to remind you about the person who advised a different course eight years ago, but we'll close for now by linking you to one last news report.

This report appears at The Daily Beast. A paywall blocks us from reading it.

That said, the headline raises our question again. As you can see by clicking this link, the headline in question says this:

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell Rages at ‘Utterly Insane’ Image of Trump as King

Yesterday, the commander seemed to refer to himself as "the king." The White House quickly posted a photo showing him wearing a crown.

Lawrence used the word "insane" as he discussed this behavior. That said, "insane" is not a clinical term. 

Our question:

Is it possible that clinical issues are involved in the possible realm of madness into which we the people have possibly fallen? And if clinical issues are involved, what exactly does that mean?

Severe issues of "mental disorder" involve a tragic loss of human potential. For all of us, our potential is limited right from the start.  Certain types of clinical "disorder" are said to make matters much worse. 

The commander wants to tell Putin that he's cutting the military in half. Also, many millions of people who died long ago are still receiving monthly Social Security checks.

It was Zelensky who started the war. Also, American public school kids are the worst students in the whole world! (See yesterday's report.)

Is it possible that something might be "wrong" in all this? Under prevailing rules of the game, our journalists don't know how to ask!

Tomorrow: No one can call her a slouch

Concerning those annual eight percent cuts: Last evening, on Anderson Cooper 360, Beth Sanner discussed those improbable spending cuts.

Sanner served as a Deputy Director of National Intelligence—under President Trump no less. She said eight percent takes us to two percent! To read what she said, click this.

"Back out of all this now too much for us?" Is there a path out of this mess?