Morning Update: 07/16/24

Rain is going to dominate today’s weather and impact how I feel about everything, so let’s just accept that at the front and get it out of the way. Rain started around midnight, then got a little stormy, causing the dogs to decide they needed to rearrange how everyone was positioned on the bed. I think the only one who didn’t move all night was Frankie, the smashed-face wheezer kitty. Frank doesn’t move unless Frank wants to move. I aspire to be more like Frank.

We knew yesterday was going to be hot, so Tipper and I set off to get our walking in around 8:30. We were on our way back when a fire truck whizzed past us. We were then surprised to see it pull over to a house just up the street from where we were walking. An ambulance soon followed. Tipper, being the compassionate soul that she is, was immediately concerned for the older woman who lives there. We’ve seen her several times as we’ve passed. Tipper always smiles and says hi even though the woman never responds. As it turns out, it was one of the younger residents of the home, perhaps a son or nephew, who was having difficulty breathing. The older woman was sitting outside on a bench, out of the way of the paramedics, looking at her phone. Tipper said hi. The woman didn’t look up. Tipper switched her attention to the daycare across the street. “I hope they don’t let the kids play outside today. It’s really too hot for them to be out,” she said in the most compassionate tone. That’s our girl. Always caring for everyone else.

The mail always runs late on Mondays. I assume that’s because there’s backlog from not delivering on Sundays, which seems strange in a modern world. Each morning we get a report from USPS as to what to expect in the mail that day, with scanned images of the envelopes. This informed me that I had two letters coming from Social Security. What they missed was the flat, full-sized envelope that came with them.

The first envelope announced that the date of my monthly SS deposits had changed. No big deal. The second envelope confirmed that my attorney had been paid. I’m sure he appreciates that. The third, full-sized envelope, however, was trouble. The eight-page letter attempted to explain that while I’m definitely disabled according to their judgement, I’m currently unable to receive supplemental income for two reasons:

1. I live in the mind-numbingly stupid state of Indiana. Indiana, as it turns out, is one of seven states that do not pay any supplement. Nice, isn’t it? The state budget is running something like a $3 billion surplus. I guess that’s because our state legislature is a bunch of stingy old fucks.
2. I, allegedly, have assets over $2,000 as of January, 2024. This is the one that has me scratching my head. I’ve looked at what the Social Security Administration considers an asset. I have none of them. No home, no car, no life insurance, no investments, nothing paying dividends, no huge retirement program… none of it.

What has me puzzled, though, is whether it is worth contacting the lawyer again (or getting a different one) and appealing the decision. If Indiana doesn’t pay a supplement anyway, is it a waste of time to appeal? I have 50 days to decide, so if anyone has any Indiana-specific information to share, let me know.

There’s also the fact that SSA considers my living with Kat and the kids as a $341/month value. What happens if I move? Do I get that extra money? I do know that any form of financial help with housing lowers your payment regardless of the source. Why? Because the government wants old people to hurry up and die so they can stop paying us what we’re owed.

Of course, it may all be a moot point if Republicans win control of the federal government. While Project 2025 doesn’t outright destroy Social Security, it does raise the retirement age to 70 and opens the door for other cuts, such as letting the system go bankrupt, firing hundreds of employees, and other policy changes that could eliminate any benefit at all.

What I do know is that Republicans are prepared to fight for Project 2025. They’re already pushing to make several sections of the plan part of the official GOP platform this week. The plan’s sponsor, The Heritage Foundation, is one of the GOP Convention’s sponsors. Their pockets run deep and they’re prepared for a fight.

That means ordinary people like you and I, who don’t have deep pockets, have to make a lot of noise about the issue to make sure that voters know how dangerous it is. One of the problems, though, is that there is a lot of misinformation floating about and many of us, myself included, have unwittingly repeated it. We need to be more careful about these things. The whole plan is online, making it easy enough to verify information for ourselves. We can’t be lazy and assume that someone else has done the work.

Honestly, the plan doesn’t have to get specific. If it achieves it’s broader guidelines of concentrating power in the presidency (king making), slashing regulations (destroying oversight on any level), and taking a hardline religious agenda (especially involving medical care), then all manner of bad things could/will happen. Republican members of Congress will consider a fall victory as an edict to implement their interpretation of the plan. Never mind that the plan doesn’t get as detailed as has been inferred. Congressional Republicans have already shown a willingness to dangerous things such as discriminate against LGBTQIA+ people, eliminating DEI funding, and permit gun storage within the Capitol. Don’t think for a second that they’ll be more rational come January of next year.

Even if Republicans don’t win in November, we have to be ready for the possibility that they will try to take power by force. My friend Tony painted a frightening scenario:

i saw a bit that made the claim that the speaker will not sit the new house on Jan3, claiming election irregularities and, with the House still under con control, refuse to certify the election on Jan6. The election then goes to the state legislatures…. 26 of which are republican controlled. See where this is going. All the pieces are in place for this coup…

Could that happen? Yeah, it could. How likely it is to happen depends on how vocal we are before the election. We have to let Republicans know that we’re not going to tolerate any nonsense on their part. If they try to usurp power that is not theirs, they have to know that we are going to make every effort to stop them, regardless of what that may mean.

Again, I know there’s a push to tone down the political rhetoric after Saturday’s alleged assassination attempt, but we don’t have to infer violence to stand up to the clowns pushing fascism in our face. We just have to be louder than they are. We can do that.

If we don’t, then why the fuck am I suffering through chemo and all this SSI bullshit? If you’re going to just give up and let whatever happens, then I might as well go ahead and die because you’re allowing the Republicans to create a life in the US that isn’t worth living. I won’t live as a slave to stupidity.

Will you?