Donald Trump’s administration is threatening to withdraw federal funding for unemployment assistance in all 50 states as part of the president’s nationwide campaign against “fraud” in government spending.
In a letter to the governors of 53 states and territories, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling warned that the federal government would use “every available tool” to combat “waste, fraud and abuse” within state-run unemployment insurance programs, including “withholding administrative funds from states” for the first time in history.
There is no single national program for unemployment support, though the federal government partners with state agencies to support temporary financial assistance to out-of-work Americans. Nearly 2 million people are currently receiving those benefits, while roughly 229,000 people are filing initial jobless claims every week, according to the Labor Department.
211 Comments
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 283 pts · 57d
The waste fraud and abuse are coming from inside the house.
CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 57d
And the senate, and the White House, and mar a lago
orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 45 pts · 57d
I'm not sure you're getting the reference.
ryper@lemmy.ca · 17 pts · 57d
They could have been thinking of the House part of Congress, since they only listed the Senate.
orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 57d
I'm fairly certain that's what they were thinking.
CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 57d
The house is part of congress, the other half being the senate, there was ambiguity and I ran with it
a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 57d
Wow, you may be the only one who gets very popular cultural references.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 57d
Yes... the white house... exactly... that's the "joke"
CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 57d
The house is part of congress, the other half being the senate, there was ambiguity and I ran with it
ZeroCool@piefed.ca · 165 pts · 57d
Excuse me? If anything, the 2024 election made it crystal clear that the American people will, in fact, tolerate the blatant waste, fraud, and abuse of our hard-earned tax dollars. 77 million people actually voted for it.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 57 pts · 57d
they even published a fucking playbook called project 2025.
dumbfucks
DokPsy@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 57d
But they super promised they never even heard of it or was going to use it. Then installed its writers in key positions. Purely by happenstance.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 57d
One of the things I hated so much about the 2024 election was all the fucking gaslighting about it, too. There were plenty saying "isn't that just a liberal conspiracy theory" and bullshit about "blue maga" (lol, whatever) and lots of the corporate media doing that sort of collective shrug about a documented plan.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 57d
yuuup. so fucking gross - hey we're getting the fascist back in the white house, let's make a list of horrors he can execute!
and the idiots ignored it. the media shrugged. Everyone I know was screaming about it but that tells you a lot about my peers - otherwise, the country just kinda shrugged and said "Yeah but harris slept her way to the top so-"
like, dude, if KH had such a magic vagina that the concept was even conceivable, even then, fuck you, she's way more competent and they are WAY FEWER FASCIST PLAYBOOKS WAITING FOR HER you goddamned dolts
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 57d
Amen to all that. Also, I forgot about all the "Heels Up Harris" nonsense....a certain type of individual will do almost anything not to vote for a woman, though.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 56d
yup. or POC. it's amazing the gymnastics they'll go through to justify voting for their grifting cult leader
edible_funk@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
Lemmy loves the blue maga psyop.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
oops did a bunch of fascism. whoopsie.
the question is in november, how much pain can they put on all the fucks that made this happen? I want to see dems showing up with receipts, blowtorches and pliers
GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 57d
My biggest fear is that even if we somehow manage to defeat all the cheating Dems STILL won’t take it far enough when it comes to punishing these assholes. They need to be treated like Confederates but actually held to account.
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 56d
for real, there must be consequences.
DokPsy@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
But you see, we have to heal and reach across the aisle or something
mojofrododojo@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 56d
hopefully they'll realize there is no healing until the cancer is cut out.
halcyoncmdr@piefed.social · 13 pts · 57d
Yeah and what about that $300B in taxpayer dollars we're giving to Iran? Seems like the definition of waste, fraud, and abuse.
WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 151 pts · 57d
Trump and the Republicans want to kill poor people.
grimpy@lemmy.myserv.one · 58 pts · 57d
& they are succeeding, worldwide
massacre@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 57d
And you know what happens? This makes the next group of people, i.e. middle class, the next poors! Guess what they want to do to the new poors?
bagsy@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 57d
They don't want to kill the poor, but they don't care if they die. What they want are tons of poor, desperate voters and workers.
WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 57d
The Republicans have never cared if the poor die. That's a basic part of their ideology.
This is different though. Starting with DOGE and continuing unabated since, Trump and his Republican lackeys (and his fascist handlers) have clearly deliberately gone out of their way to arrange things not so that poor people might die but so that they will die.
Which is exactly what will be left over after they kill off as many "undesirables" as possible.
4am@lemmy.zip · 11 pts · 57d
What they want is riots so they can declare martial law and hold power indefinitely, Because people are still upset about martial law being declared so “antifa” must be out there still
TheFogan@programming.dev · 7 pts · 57d
Don't forget, he's also very stupid, and I honestly believe the narcisist thinks things are going really great right now, he just can't find a way to get the numbers to agree with him. Sadly, on a purely metric issue this might be a winning play. Unemployment numbers are counted based on how many people are collecting unemployment. Kick people off unemployment = they don't count as unemployed. In his narcisism he might actually believe that "fake unemployed people are making the job numbers worse". Secondly jobs numbers themselves. Take away unemployment, people will work shittier jobs that might delay homelessness, or possibly get food when they are homeless.
Nimrod@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 57d
Unemployment insurance claims aren’t used to measure the unemployment rate in the US. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Trump thinks they are… Nor would I be surprised if he tries (or is trying) to change the measure so that it is based on unemployment claims.
To be clear I’m not saying the US’s unemployment numbers are good—they are distorted to make the unemployment number look smaller than it is. One issue is that People must be actively looking for work to be considered “unemployed”, otherwise they aren’t part of the “labor force” and don’t count at all. It doesn’t matter if they are capable of work, want to work, and spent a year straight looking for work; if they aren’t actively looking now, they don’t count. Additionally, if a person is doing any work at all—even a few hours a week at minimum wage, or doing a bit of unpaid work for a family business—they are considered an employed member of the labor force. It doesn’t matter if they are broke, homeless, and desperately looking for a job; they count as an employed member of the labor force.
TheFogan@programming.dev · 1 pts · 57d
Interesting, but yeah I guess that still counts in the sense that still it's pushing say, software engineers that lost their jobs to AI, to absolutely have to take a minimum wage job to, possibly afford enough food to survive while getting evicted/foreclosed etc...
No matter how you slice it, it still does put more people... into a rush to get SOME form of employment. even at the cost of their time that they could be using to get... actually livable employment.
Phantaloons@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 57d
blue collar worker looks up
"Homie, you think we have jobs for y'all?"
TheFogan@programming.dev · 7 pts · 57d
There's a republican solution for that as well... "lower/eliminate minimum wage so corporations can hire people to do things that are less useful". Think of it, we can pay people $2 an hour to have them stand in a park and tell people they should eat at mcdonalds, normally the conversion rate is too low, but at $2 an hour, if they can get one person to go every 2 hours, it's still profitable.
(and yes obviously this is horribly terrifyingly stupid... and honestly not that far from what many horrible politicians have pushed for).
WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 57d
Hmm...
Yes - this is true. And it's essentially 100% guaranted that unemployment, measured honestly, is going nowhere but up.
And with the midterms coming up...
Yes - this seems more likely to be the primary motivation.
DokPsy@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 57d
It's the financial version of "if we stop counting COVID deaths, the numbers will go down"
optimisticturtle@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 57d
Who do they think the rich will live off of then?
Or maybe they haven’t thought that far ahead.
WatDabney@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 57d
Oh, they're not planning on killing all of the poor people. Just the unemployed ones.
And with employment protections gone, their conception of undesirables - non-cis and/or non-white - will be over-represented among the unemployed.
And not even all of them will die, but the survivors will have no safety net so will end up homeless, and with homelessness criminalized, they'll be sentenced to private prisons/workhouses and be corporate slave labor.
Basically, they want to cull the herd - just eliminate the people who won't serve an immediate purpose in their planned technofeudalism.
PattyMcB@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
"Make poor people their slaves" Yes
Sassinake@mastodon.social · 2 pts · 56d
@WatDabney @MicroWave
of course not. they want to enslave them.
Brkdncr@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
They also think that they will save money by letting people get poorer. Moving everyone a step down won’t have that effect.
alexc@lemmy.world · 78 pts · 57d
Waste and fraud… If only someone hadn’t started a war with Iran and then paid them $300B three months later to end it, gaining precisely nothing…
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 57d
And spent 14 million painting a pool blue?
aarch0x40@piefed.social · 16 pts · 57d
And renaming the color green to blue
sns@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 67 pts · 57d
How do empires die?
Gradually then suddenly.
The US is in the latter stage.
TwinTitans@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 57d
Burnt through their head start after ww2 and squandered it all.
LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 57d
Living through the fall of the US is the fucking worst but also fascinating. It isn't too often that folks get to see this kinda thing. I hate this so much, but I am very curious to see how shit plays out. I'm doing what I can to improve conditions, but I can only do so much
TipRing@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
Punctuated equilibrium.
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
We effectively had our Hannibal moment getting locked into a stalemate with Iran.
ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world · 66 pts · 57d
This stunt actually has nothing to do with "fraud" in government spending, but as someone with experience in government procurement, contracting is where the waste is. The government actually doesn't do too badly when we keep the work in-house. It's these multimillion dollar contracts to some private company that are where the waste, fraud, and abuse are. Go fucking audit SpaceX. Revisit those contracts. Bet we can save billions every year on just one companies stupid fucking defense contracts. Then go after the rest of these contractors. Threaten to bring the work back in house and see how they react. Follow through and actually bring the work back in house, build the public sector engineering and manufacturing expertise, and see where we are.
zergtoshi@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 57d
Contracting as in having the reflection pool painted?
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz · 12 pts · 57d
Be careful. Facts, logic, and common sense will only get you on a gov't watchlist these days.
tacoplease@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 57d
Like Trump's no bid contracts that he's been giving out?
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
We’re in fascism these scam companies and the government are one in the same.
GreyEyedGhost@piefed.ca · -5 pts · 57d
I know it's easy to hate on everything Elon, but Falcon launches are about an order of magnitude cheaper than any other launch, primarily by virtue of the fact that launch vehicles aren't single-use. Starship hasn't done that well yet, but the estimates I've been able to work out put the total budget so far for that project to be as much or less than the cost of launching a single SLS launch, and it only has a lifespan of 5 launches before it gets dramatically more expensive. Falcon was cheaper to get into full operational mode than Starship, sure, but if you thought it would be easier to make one of the biggest rockets ever, then you would be mistaken.
FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 53 pts · 57d
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 57d
But by now, everyone either knows or refuses to acknowledge that the President is a notorious pedophile.
A sudden spike in unemployment followed by waves of debt default, foreclosure, and police actions on the unemployed would seem to be the more pressing issue.
This just feels like the Iran "Today's bombing a girl's school distracts from who the President was fucking in 1997" Epstein War bullshit.
Sunflier@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
He certainly doesn't think so from all the redactions to the disclosures to Congress and the sweetheart deal he gave Maxwell (the co-conspirator who is still in prison today for the crimes he committed and advances).
He had Epstein killed just 10 years ago, and there is no statute of limitations on murder.
Also, its not just him. He's surrounded by the Epstein class who all went in on raping children together.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 57d
The line of people who potentially greenlit Epstein's murder goes down the road and around the block.
Not that it matters, because pedophilia is apparently legal - even encouraged - at this point in US history.
That's been the joke of all these "Release the Epstein Files" folks tossing aside the orgy of evidence on the grounds that "it's not enough". We have a rogue's gallery of Epstein associates who remain untouchable. And the "Release" folks keep pretending there's some extra bit of evidence that's been held back that will finally bring the cops in to arrest everyone.
It's a fantasy. Just like the Mueller Report shit libs were hung up on in 2019. Nobody is coming to arrest the President or any of his close confidants. No organized agency is coming for the billionaire class. There is no secret kabal waiting for that next shoe to drop. There is no X-Files esque revelation that's going to bring about societal change that we haven't already all passed around on social media.
Amir@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 56d
I'd wager Trump could publicly do it again, livestream it, and gain more fans because he's "relatable" to those fans
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 56d
Jesus Christ, shut the fuck up already.
You really think suddenly taking millions of people off unemployment is just a distraction from something else?
This is life-ruining shit on a national scale.
Not everything is a "distraction" from the thing EVERYONE ALREADY FUCKING KNOWS ABOUT
empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 48 pts · 57d
They want you so desperate to cling to employment that you will no longer care about working conditions or fair wages or be willing to endanger said employment by being politically active.
givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 57d
Yeah...
But they're idiots.
There's not enough jobs to go around, people won't quietly starve. And the only people with anything to steal from are the wealthy.
They just created a shit ton of people with literally nothing to lose.
Rhaedas@fedia.io · 10 pts · 57d
And time to both think about that fact, and to do something.
thethrilloftime69@feddit.online · 2 pts · 57d
Don't stop your enemy from committing a terrible mistake.
4am@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 57d
Perfect time to declare martial law and lock up anyone who doesn’t play by their rules and then hold power forever
cmbabul@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 57d
Correct they are effectively rolling back as much as they can to before the New Deal
Leather@lemmy.world · 46 pts · 57d
Xerxos@lemmy.ml · 42 pts · 57d
What he wants:
What he (hopefully) gets:
Seriously, why aren't billionaire villas burning? Why is Mar-a-Lagos still standing? I'm surprised how much the American people are willing to endure.
frostysauce@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 57d
Oh, just book a trip to Florida and burn down Mar-a-Lago. Why hadn't I thought of that before?
gdog05@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 57d
Surely no one will gun you down within 200 yards.
Xerxos@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 56d
If they start shooting protesters things will escalate. That's how civil wars start.
Xerxos@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 56d
Have you seen the French protest? I don't say one man should go to there and burn it down, but I would expect big, violent protests there.
gdog05@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 56d
The French only have to protest in France. Imagine the French protesting in Moscow. That's the distance from Utah to Florida. Utah isn't even the furthest point from Florida. Tell some Frenchmen to go march on Russia and protest until they get their way. Now picture that playing out.
Xerxos@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 56d
Sure, America is too big for protests 🙄 That's why I didn't just mention M-a-L, but billionaire villas too. Protests at the closes place that makes sense. The white house, your local rich people quarter, Mar-a-Lagos, an ICE facility, the villa of the local Trump supporter,...
If you get enough people together it's hard to ignore. Make the rich fear the people again.
March when never possible, with as many people as possible. And if that fails? General strike.
Sure there were a few "no king" demos, but they ended too soon and protested the wrong places. The ultra rich and Trump himself should feel the heat.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 56d
At this point I'm convinced we're the weakest generation of Americans in American history. And the fact that our history really isn't very long doesn't help make that feel any better.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
IMHO it doesn't get any weaker and lower than exterminating indigenous people or owning slaves.
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 56d
Armed revolution results in U.S. military drone strikes on blue states. I am not joking. This is Pete Hegseth's handpicked military; they're waiting for a revolution to crush.
I'm not necessarily saying a revolution should or shouldn't happen, but you should absolutely be aware of the circumstances on topics like these. Plus, people have tried to attack the president. So many times that it's seemed for a while that these are selected shooters. They've all failed thus far.
Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 56d
I mean, Trump's war of choice in Iran was an unmitigated disaster. I can't imagine how poorly they would respond to domestic guerrilla warfare
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 56d
Horror. Abject horror would be the result.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 56d
If it's like Iran, it looks like he'd try to fight this weaker force, lose anyways, and then push the cost on all Americans, which would just grow the insurgency. His incompetence extends to military strategy.
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
Except Iran actually has a military to fight back, not to mention support from China regarding drone supply. I think you're vastly overestimating the average American's capability for war. Especially when compared to the U.S. military.
explodicle@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 56d
I'm estimating their capability as equal to one Iranian each.
Jax@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 54d
What is the Strait of Hormuz equivalent that U.S. insurgents can control? Because that is quite literally the only reason Iran has a fighting chance.
stringere@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
The US military hasn't won against an insurgent force since Vietnam. Big shiny weapons don't subjagate a populace, the USA doesn't have the numbers they need to control a population as large as ours, nor do they have enough to cover the amount of land they would need to control.
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
You can consider it a disaster because iranian drones drilled them a new one. But keep in mind these guys are sociopath with no value for human life besides their own. They would totally send soldiers kill as many as possible while suffering high losses without a second thought.
Bebopalouie@lemmy.ca · 37 pts · 57d
It’s like they are testing limits. They keep doing crazier shit week after week then say well no one is doing anything about it so let’s keep going.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 57d
I'm a cynical bastard who hates that fat orange child raping corrupt disgusting blob of gonorrhoea to my very core and my first thoughts were this is one of two things.
Either corruption. Such as: "why give this money to those poor people when I can have it, I'll funnel it through numerous companies. Plus with that new ruling about me and my family not being investigated by the tax people then there's no way anyone will do anything about it"
Or a scare tactic. "Vote for me in the midterms or lose your benefits. By the time this gets to the courts and reversed you'll be starving or dead AND it's obvious that no one will do fuck all to me for doing this to you"
InputZero@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 57d
I can imagine that in their minds it's fraud because they don't understand employment insurance and just see lazy unemployed people getting paid. They imagine that everyone who receives E.I. are welfare kings and queens.
Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip · 36 pts · 57d
"Lets do something fast and stupid so they stop talking about me starting and losing a war."
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 57d
If they remember that, they remember I started the war to distract from my child prostitution ring.
Snapz@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 57d
This is next distraction away from his complete failure in Iran and his green, moldy swimming pool. He's giving $300 billion to Iran in his total surrender, what's the total amount of assistance to be withheld in funding here?
chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 57d
Nah, this is social safety net cutting. Don't you know that desperate people don't care what those above them are doing? (Also, truly desperate people turn to violence, which is casus belli for a nationwide crackdown)
Not everything is a distraction, most things are moves in and of themselves. It's just that it takes place inside so much noise that focusing on one thing loses everything else.
Snapz@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
You're arguing a pont without purpose, it's both. They always have a hopper, packed full of bullshit, and constantly ready to deploy. It's definitely intentional timing, go read up on his relationship with roy cohn and bannon still advising from sidelines. This is how they operate
chuckleslord@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
Oh! You think they plan things. Think tanks definitely have wish lists, but the admin just does whatever, switching as fast as possible between them so that news of one rides over the news of others.
The issue with framing it as just distraction is that that language feeds into the idea that this is a smokescreen for something else that's actually important. They're both important, just timed to take air from each other in the media space. It's like a magician robbing a guy and using the illegal demolition of a building he wanted destroyed as the distraction. Both acts are things that are important to the person making the decisions, but one is definitely going to be the bigger attention grabber.
Wispy2891@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 56d
Projection much, huh?
mojo_raisin@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 56d
Also privilege, Republicans see themselves as privileged, it's not fraud when they do it, they are allowed, it's fraud when others without sufficient privilege do it.
matlag@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 56d
It's rationale: how would anyone need unemployment benefit with the best economy the
USA, theworld, sorry: the Universe have seen sincethe US existthe creation of Earth by God??minorkeys@sh.itjust.works · 33 pts · 57d
Good do it. Let the states that still have a sense of sanity group up and implement a multistate unemployment assistance strategy. Seriously, perhaps its time blue states encourage the disempowerment of the federal government and transfer those programs to mutually aligned state initiatives. Leave out all the welfare red states and redirect that transfer of wealth from blue states to red states, back to their own ppl. Americas system of statehood and states rights is something dems should probably start proposing making more use of. If feds under Trump don't want social programs then build multistate programs that serve that function, leaving out the Maga central states altogether.
andros_rex@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 57d
The problem with leaving it to the states is that you can live in a place that just fucks you. I visited with a social worker recently about how I was going to pay for a hospital visit with no insurance, and she was like yeah there’s no help here.
Where I live, unemployment is inaccessible. Housing assistance is inaccessible. Pretty much all social services have collapsed.
Is it my fault for being born in a state that hates me?
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 56d
Guess those places need to suffer enough under Republican leadership to learn their lesson and vote them out.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 57d
Unemployment is already administered by the states not the federal government.
relativestranger@feddit.nl · 32 pts · 57d
the "fraud" starts and ends at the oval office. investigate that s.o.b. first.
Poojabber@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 57d
Thats not true. My state governor is also a criminal and is grifting on a state level too...
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 57d
Have to imagine this will disproportionately hurt red states and then they'll blame it on Obama or Biden or something. Really hoping some state will withhold federal taxes but I know our leaders are too spineless for that :[
Haze@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 57d
California funds its own unemployment benefits, of course Trump is too stupid to know this.
SippyCup@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 57d
Then, magically unemployment will go down and they'll call it a success. Even though all that's happened are fewer people qualifying for unemployment, and more than likely it will result in a net increase in unemployed people.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 56d
It says they will take funding from states that don't comply with their bullshit so I'm sure the red states will be fine
dirthawker0@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 56d
If you take the top 10 states by unemployment rate, half of them are red states. Top 20, almost 3/4.
kandoh@reddthat.com · 4 pts · 57d
There's not really a mechanism for withholding federal taxes
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 56d
Sounds like something easy to fix, just don’t pay them
Haze@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 24 pts · 56d
pls no, this would make the crime rate skyrocket
AngryRobot@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 56d
That's what the federal cabal wants.
A404@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 56d
What the fuck are they trying to do? Why would they wanna destabilize the country?
CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world · 19 pts · 56d
Peter Thiel and a bunch of the other billionaires want to carve the US up into city states, they’re not particularly secretive about it either. The point is to destroy the country
It’s a quiet revolution most aren’t even aware is going on
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 56d
I look forward to the day people stop thinking it will end in 2028
forkDestroyer@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 56d
Is there any literature on this?
AngryRobot@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 56d
Project 2025.
stringere@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 56d
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/21/palantir-manifesto-uk-contract-fears-mps
https://www.businessinsider.com/palantir-manifesto-alex-karp-technological-republic-summary-2026-4?op=1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
Etterra@discuss.online · 14 pts · 56d
Because in its an excuse to send in soldiers, try to justify martial law, suspend elections, and otherwise drag the country deeper into authoritarianism. It's not quite a dictatorship yet, after all.
ZombieMantis@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Same reason they rape children. They're raping the nation for short-term profits, and imagine themselves as warlords over the ruins of a fallen world.
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 56d
That's the idea. Make it so the poor have no choice but commit crimes and then lock them up for it
nwtreeoctopus@sh.itjust.works · 7 pts · 56d
And then, per the 13th, legal slavery!
BucketBong@p.hobo.social · 23 pts · 57d
Are we at the beheading part of history yet?
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 13 pts · 57d
He just had dinner at Versailles, home of Marie Antoinette.
He's had numerous "Let them eat cake moments," most recently his "I love the Inflation" moment, and sooner or later he's going to cross the wrong line when the timing is right, and he'll meet the same fate.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
I think he said "these things happen" in relation to the price of tickets - possibly even more recently than the idiotic inflation comment.
sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io · 5 pts · 57d
I don't know if it's ever going to come.
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 57d
Not with that attitude it won’t
sol6_vi@lemmy.makearmy.io · 2 pts · 57d
I like it, just losing hope.
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
Sorry, that's a hundred years away.
ChetManly@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 56d
He's gotta do something to pay Iran 300b.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 56d
If I were real honest, I'd say that I'm not sure this guy is good with money.
nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 57d
I don’t know why this is a surprise to anyone. Trump is famous for not paying contractors and workers. He waits it out until they sue and his expensive lawyers beep the plaintiffs dry or settle for some fraction of the contract price.
lettruthout@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 57d
The new distraction from the Epstein files is here!
pelespirit@sh.itjust.works · 20 pts · 57d
Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca · 18 pts · 57d
So Trump is tanking the economy and burning through cash so bad he has to take money from people without jobs.
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 8 pts · 57d
Technically this would boost "the economy" in the way these guys measure it by increasing corporate profits and stock values because companies will be able to squeeze there workers for more output with the greater threat of unaided unemployment.
A majority of consumer spending is now done by the top 20%, as long as this doesn't effect them the corporate overlords don't give a fuck.
Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 56d
Jokes on them, it's basically impossible to get unemployment here to start with.
cdf12345@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 56d
Where is here?
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 56d
America.
anon_8675309@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 57d
Check me if I’m wrong but the only thing he can cut is the administration funding. The actual benefits are funded by a type of insurance companies pay into. Trump can’t take that away.
All this will do is make processing claims a bitch.
He’s such a dick.
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 57d
I dunno if you've noticed, but he can do anything he wants because there's no opposition.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 57d
WTAF? We all pay into this shit.
hdsrob@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 57d
Your employer pays into it, but most of that goes to the state.
But yeah, if they aren't going to pay out. Why should I keep paying it.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 56d
An actual traitor president and it looks like we're just gonna ride it out with our fingers crossed.
Formfiller@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 57d
StrawberryPigtails@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 57d
Wait, do we actually have unemployment assistance in the US? I thought it was just a slush fund for boondoggles I was forced to pay into. Every time I've tried to apply for it over the last 20 years I was rejected.
moseschrute@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 57d
Maybe it depends on what state you’re in, but I have used it between jobs after being laid off. I was actually very surprised how well it worked. This was durning Biden’s term.
tmyakal@infosec.pub · 3 pts · 57d
I used to work for a ski shop. Almost everyone would get laid off in March, rehired in August, and collect seasonal unemployment between. The owner would argue that he doesn't give sick time or PTO because everyone already got four months off paid vacation per year.
BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 57d
I'm 50. I've sure never had access to such a thing. I've lived in multiple states.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 57d
I got unemployment when I was laid off in a mass layoff
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 3 pts · 57d
You ALWAYS get rejected on the first round. You have to appeal.
optimisticturtle@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 56d
ObsidianZed@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 57d
Currently on unemployment thanks to the tech industry. I wonder what my trump loving family members will think when I bring this up the next time they ask me how the job hunt is going.
buddascrayon@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 57d
Knowing Trump fans, they're going to say it's a good thing, it'll make you get up and get a job sooner rather than laying around "wasting time on the government dime". Cause they all probably believe it's very easy to get another job.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 57d
Was going to say the same thing. Besides, if they know you don't support PEDOnald, they'll take it as your comeuppance.
I've had a conservative in-law tell me that maybe I should not be getting by financially, and that was implied as part of the problem under Biden - that I was doing okay. Because I went to college, etc. No, I should be doing less well and that would mean things were properly balanced or something. That somehow PEDOnald didn't "get" people like me the first time around and somehow harmed me and others like me (meaning, again, someone who went to college) - and maybe not only financially and that hopefully that would be different in his second term.
It's just as fucked as it sounds. Did this in-law think it through and realize it would harm not only my kids, but his direct blood relative? If he did, he didn't give a fuck, apparently.
If you aren't conservative and don't support Donvict, you deserve to suffer, in their worldview.
Eh_I@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 57d
"Have you asked ChatGPT for help finding a job?"
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 56d
Why do you still speak to them? They are traitors to our nation and vote to harm you.
MrSulu@lemmy.ml · 13 pts · 56d
Vote for him, places you in financial stress, he pisses the money away, takes more of your money for undefined reasons.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 13 pts · 57d
It doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s for working class, then it’s a terrible idea and needs to go.
Sesame Street FFS.
I do think this is Vought though. Trump is too addled at this point in time.
kmirl@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 57d
Just die already.
theacharnian@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 57d
Beating the wife and the kids at home when he got his ass kicked at the pub.
resipsaloquitur@lemmy.cafe · 2 pts · 57d
Sadistic bully looking for a pick-me-up.
SomeRandomNoob@discuss.tchncs.de · 10 pts · 57d
Can the Americans pull Trump and his Goonies out of the White House please?
Toothy@lemmus.org · 3 pts · 57d
Leave the Goonies out of this, they are just kids!
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 8 pts · 57d
Cool. Do it. I cannot wait to see what happens before he realizes that his base are beneficiaries of unemployment.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 8 pts · 57d
Fuck it, let him. I'm so sorry for all the innocents this will impact, but I'm so over this "I'm going to do something terrible to my own supporters, maybe." Shit.
Let him year down all the shit his supporters have become reliant on, but have no clue.
Fuck 'em all. Die mad and broke you pieces of shit.
chahn.chris@piefed.social · 8 pts · 57d
Do they like riots and open rebellion, because letting people starve is how you get riots and open rebellions…
nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 57d
That’s what they want.
moncharleskey@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 57d
At this piont, me too I guess. I don't like to be accelerationist, but what other options are there? There isn't enough coordination for a general strike, and they've been making moves this entire time to weaken voting rights and install their cohorts in positions of power over the voting system. What now?
nosuchanon@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
Stop going to work. General strike. Stay home. Start a vegetable garden. Idk.
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it · 3 pts · 57d
Bubbaonthebeach@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 57d
All the fraud is in his home and with his friends. Even if all the people receiving benefits were making fraudulent claims, it would probably amount to less than he and his family are grifting from the US governemnt this year.
SnarkoPolo@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 57d
When he breaks California, I hope the red states will like living in cardboard boxes and eating dirt.
YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 57d
Seriously. He wants to destroy the United States by having blue, wealthy, supportive states succeed. Then let's see how his supporters pull themselves up by their own boot straps and levitate.
jaybone@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 57d
You mean fail?
lukaro@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 57d
The biggest waste in the USA right now is the oxygen keeping him alive.
Impractical_Island@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 56d
And still the population will sit behind their screens with their keyboards and sgare a few memes and generally be pissed off and oh look its the next scandal and they population will sit behind their screens and generally be pissed off and oh look its the next scandal of the week...
Impractical_Island@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 56d
Alexa what is a "distraction?"
fox2263@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 56d
Does that equal an amount intended for ballrooms or Iran?
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 57d
Man, he is hell-bent on losing the midterms, isn't he? The only way Republicans are going to hold onto anything after the midterms, is if they cheat...hard.
f1error@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 57d
Which is exactly what's going to happen. Not enough people are willing to "Make MAGA Afraid", they'd rather make it into something silly. The far-right and alt-right are not afraid of us, and that empowers them. MAGA needs to be truly terrified, then we'll win the midterms and the next presidential election. If MAGA is not scared, we won't have another presidential election.
Don't believe me, continue to keep doing what you're doing.
Do you wanna fight? Then "Make MAGA Afraid".
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 57d
It's really hard to really cheat in a Midterms. A presidential election comes down to one race in only seven states, it's fairly easy.
But there are too many Congressional districts, that are watched too closely by locals, to make it work. The best you can do is manipulate the election environment, and hope it causes enough chaos to benefit your side. But those strategies can often help the other side, too.
And no matter what you do, if you've just been raging shitheads for 2 years, you just piss off enough people that they overwhelm your cheating strategies, and win anyway.
Mirshe@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
So, interesting points. However, consider that just in the last few years:
The big problem with fucking with a midterm isn't ease, it's just scale. When you have cops, the federal and a lot of state and even local DOJs, the President's personal goon squad (which has now been significantly inflated and equipped), and the FBI willing to harass, intimidate, or arrest voters, steal ballots, and challenge every single race, everywhere, all the time, all backed by think tanks and funding orgs that are backed by some of the richest people in the entire world, it suddenly becomes a lot easier to stop up the gears of democratic elections.
Sure, your locals can challenge the results. They can make noise. But at the end of the day, "move fast and break things" works surprisingly well as a governance tactic if your desired end result is maintaining power, because by the time people have untangled the knots you've woven, you're already ten steps ahead and "well it'd be REALLY HARD AND EXPENSIVE to run a special election (if your locality even has a legal way to do that - most don't).
Triumph@fedia.io · 5 pts · 57d
Make the masses even more desperate. Surely they won't resort to extrajudicial means to survive.
HootinNHollerin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 57d
I think they want that so they can go full blown totalitarian with an excuse
Triumph@fedia.io · 2 pts · 57d
There's more of us than there are of them. All we need is the will to do the needful, regardless of how distasteful it is. Pushing people to the edge increases that will.
tomkatt@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 57d
If he’s worried about fraud in government he outta check his pockets.
Erusset@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 57d
Oh he knows
0ndead@infosec.pub · 4 pts · 57d
How to speedrun the revolt
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 8 pts · 57d
Turns out bombing innocent fishermen, killing Americans in the street, destroying the whitehouse, crashing the economy, fucking up gas prices, letting disease run rampant, enslaving migrants, stopping production of physical cash, implementing a surveillance state, threatening to annex our neighbors, cutting any and all trade while alienating our allies didn't do the trick.
How long until they just blatantly start air striking entire states ya think?
Gammelfisch@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
The orange shitstain wants to use that cash to create more corruption.
BigMacHole@thelemmy.club · 3 pts · 57d
Being AGAINST Fraud means
NOT Taking Bribes!NOT giving Handouts to Illegal Immigrants that FIRED Hundreds of Thousands of Americans!NOT using Taxpayer Dollars on Vanity Projects!NOT giving my Friends Billions of Dollars in a Slush Fund!NOT giving Single moms Unemployment Benefits! And there's NO WAY this Backfires!RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 57d
Loser loses a war and now the loser has to figure out how to pay for it.
Only fraud going on is coming from the White House.
oakey66@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 57d
we pay for unemployment benefits. This is straight up theft.
etherphon@piefed.social · 1 pts · 57d
HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
Trump admin: "DUUUUH I WUNDER IF DIS WILL HELP PEOPLE" pushes the Hurt People buuton
Smaile@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 57d
Hahaha, do it. I'll get the pop corn.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
Bro this is the most boring shit ever, trump does something crazy half the judges say it's fine half say it's not and we go back and forth until the next stupid scandal takes over the headlines
Smaile@lemmy.ca · 0 pts · 56d
Seems to buzz people everytime.
Bluescluestoothpaste@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 56d
Yeah people are entertained by stupid shit i guess
Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 57d
Oh, fuck off
AmidFuror@fedia.io · 0 pts · 57d
Kamala probably would have done the same thing, so we really didn't have a choice.
SatansMaggotyCumFart@piefed.world · 3 pts · 57d
Harris would have started a war with Iran to boost her shitty poll numbers, gave them three hundred billion after losing that war then taken unemployment benefits to pay for it.
AmidFuror@fedia.io · 2 pts · 57d
Based on what exactly? I don't care for her policies nor her as a person but explain the logic behind such a dumb statement
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · 1 pts · 57d
Based on what exactly? I don't care for her policies nor her as a person but explain the logic behind such a dumb statement
ripcord@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 57d
I think it was sarcasm
falidorn@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 57d
Text is hard but this was pretty obviously sarcasm. Not enough vitriol to be genuine.
Lodespawn@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 57d
I can only assume you missed the loud WHOOOSH! as a giant s flew over your head ..
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · -2 pts · 57d
Yeah maybe, last time I checked saracasm doesn't translate through text dumbass
Lodespawn@aussie.zone · 2 pts · 57d
Yeah, I'm the dumbarse in this situation.. good one.
trackball_fetish@lemmy.wtf · -3 pts · 57d
Nice rebuttal, sod off