Monday, February 17, 2025
Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said?
https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/feb/17/are-150-year-old-americans-receiving-social-securi/
Why 150-year-old figures may exist in the Social Security database
Social media commenters came up with one possible explanation for the 150-year age, and experts who have worked closely with the Social Security Administration told PolitiFact it was plausible.
Under an international standard called ISO 8601, a missing value for a date is coded as May 20, 1875, because that was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the "Convention du Mètre."
For that reason, under some coding systems, a missing value for a date will default to 1875 — which in the year 2025 produces a round figure of 150.
Nope. There are no 150-year-olds on Social Security. It's COBOL!--UPDATED Feb 15
Elon Musk claimed that his team found 150-year-old people collecting Social Security! He implied there were dead people being sent benefits, with checks cashed by someone else.
But no—the people getting paid are very much alive. They are collecting their own benefits. They’re not committing fraud. They’re just not 150 years old, of course.
So what happens if Social Security doesn’t know a birthdate? That field is empty in its records. Thus that person appears to have a birthday of May 20 1875—about 150 years ago.
Fact-checking Elon Musk's claims in the Oval Office
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyjz24ne85o
Elon Musk has made a number of exaggerated or unevidenced claims during an Oval Office event alongside President Donald Trump.
Elon Musk Why destroying the Beauracracy
@thedailyshow Elon Musk's warning about an unelected bureaucracy is like watching Drake sing "Not Like Us" at karaoke #DailyShow #ElonMusk #bureaucracy
♬ original sound - The Daily Show
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair claims she gave birth to Elon Musk's 13th child - Family Values?!
Conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair claims that she gave birth to a child fathered by Elon Musk – said to be the billionaire's 13th – in secret five months ago.
Musk has been a vocal critic of the declining birth rate in the West. He brought his son X Æ A-Xii, whom he shares with ex-girlfriend and musician Grimes, into the Oval Office during a televised meeting with Trump last week. Musk also shares daughter Exa Dark Sideræl and son Techno Mechanicus with Grimes. Earlier, he and ex-wife Justine Wilson had six children – twins Vivian and Griffin, triplets Kai, Damian, and Saxon, and son Nevada Alexander, who died when he was 10 weeks old. Musk also has three children with Neuralink executive Shivon Zilis, twins Strider and Azure, and a third whose name has not been publicized.
Trump ‘replacing the rule of law with the law of the ruler’
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5147993-auchincloss-trump-rule-of-law/?tbref=hp
“What I say about it is that this president is replacing the rule of law with the law of the ruler,” Auchincloss said.
“He came into office, he pardoned violent criminals from Jan. 6 insurrection, including men who tased cops in the neck. Those people are now recommitting crimes back in their communities. He fired inspectors general and federal prosecutors without cause, and now he is directly bullying the Southern District of New York to act in a corrupt manner,” Auchincloss continued.
Auchincloss praised the prosecutors for refusing to dismiss the charges, pointing specifically to Hagan Scotten, the assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, who resigned from his post over the order to dismiss the case.
“That was the lead prosecutor on Eric Adams, and he resigned rather than pursue this corrupt path,” Auchincloss said. “And he said anybody who followed this order would be a fool or a coward. Now Hagan Scotten clerked for a conservative Supreme Court justice. He is no fool. He is a decorated special forces officer. He’s no coward. Can Republicans answer the same? Because right now they look like both.”
A GOP U.S. Attorney Does the Right Thing in Eric Adams' Corruption Case
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2025-02-14/nyc-mayor-eric-adams-danielle-sassoon
The standoff over an administration seeking to use the Justice Department for political ends is an even more alarming transgression than President Richard Nixon’s interference with the Justice Department during the Watergate scandal more than 50 years ago.
These early actions by Trump’s appointees are alarming. As Robert Jackson, who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s attorney general before he joined the Supreme Court, warned, “The most dangerous power of a prosecutor … [is] that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.”
Trump and his Justice Department appointees are eviscerating a nonpartisan workforce that is essential to preserving the rule of law. By firing government lawyers, pressuring others and intimidating those who remain, Trump is seeking to stack the government with lawyers who will be beholden to him personally and who will do his bidding.
The order from Washington to stop the prosecution of Adams reveals a worrisome effort to create a compliant corps of government lawyers who can wield the threat of prosecution (or the promise of dropping charges) to enforce a party boss’s will. If his case is dropped, Adams is no longer beholden to New York City voters but rather to Trump. The same could occur with corporations, wealthy individuals and other officials.
The best hope is that lower-level lawyers will follow the lead of principled prosecutors like Sassoon by doing their jobs in the tradition that Robert Jackson articulated so well. That means declining to follow directions that are improper and resigning in protest if necessary.
Zelensky warns Ukraine won't accept decisions made without them in peace talks
https://www.axios.com/2025/02/16/zelensky-putin-war-against-nato-trump
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a "Meet the Press" interview aired Sunday that he would "never accept" decisions made by the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine's future, even as the two nations appear poised to engage in peace talks this week.
The big picture: President Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed Sunday on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that he and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz will travel to Saudi Arabia to "hopefully make some really good progress" on the Russia-Ukraine peace process.
Zelensky had said hours before that Ukraine was not invited to participate in any peace talks, a notion which Witkoff pushed back against to Fox News' Maria Bartiromo.
"Ukraine is part of the talks," Witkoff said, adding, "I don't think this is about excluding anybody."
Zoom out: European allies had also expressed concern Ukraine wouldn't get an equal say in peace talks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shocked NATO allies by declaring key bargaining chips off the table.
Trump administration's mixed messaging on foreign policy leaves world guessing
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crr0gkn1qlzo
Hegseth said it was "unrealistic" to think Ukraine could win back its sovereign territory occupied by Russia, as was its demand for Nato membership, adding it was up to European and not US troops to keep the peace.
Critics, including some Republicans in Washington, castigated the speech, saying it gave away all of Ukraine's leverage ahead of any negotiations. It was, they argued, a US capitulation to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"It's certainly an innovative approach to a negotiation to make very major concessions even before they have started," said former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, who co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relation, a think tank.
The US secretary of state's position contained no trace of laying out limits for Ukraine in the way the defence secretary had done. Then, also in the German city, Vice-President JD Vance said the US could use "military tools of leverage" to compel Russia to do a deal, appearing to contradict Hegseth who had said no US troops would be deployed to Ukraine.
Ukraine woos Trump with prospect of mineral riches
https://thehill.com/policy/international/5141789-ukraine-rare-earth-minerals-trump/
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is leveraging the country’s large deposits of rare earth materials and critical minerals to win the favor of President Trump ahead of high-stakes negotiations to end Russia’s war of aggression.
But negotiations between Zelensky and U.S. officials are off to a rocky start, Politico reported Saturday. Ukraine reportedly balked at a U.S. proposal calling for U.S. rights to half of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for military support.
Less than 20 percent of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including half of its rare earth deposits, are under Russian occupation, Zelensky told Reuters in an interview last week. Zelensky called for allies’ help in protecting what Ukraine controls, particularly in the eastern part of the country, which is the frontline of fighting.
“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky “knows Trump is transactional, so he’s playing to a rhetoric that works,” Gracelin Baskaran, director of the critical minerals security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Hill.
Dressing under the Blanket in the Morning
Igros Moshe (YD III #47.3) Getting dressed in the morning under the blanket because of the laws of modesty regarding uncovering places on the body which are normally covered and the Mishna Berura says that even is for putting on stockings. He also says there are differences between places and similarly it is obviously there are differences based on time. That means that a place of the body which used to be covered but is now typically uncovered it is to be described as a place that is typically revealed We are not saying that the way people dress in public should be that way they dress in the privacy of his house even though this distinction is found universally. Rather we are concerned only with those parts of the body that are normally covered even in the house. Therefore only the clothing that cover these normally concealed places need to be dressed under the blanket because the glory of Heaven fills the whole world. . Furthermore these typically uncovered places need to be covered only during prayers and they need to be not only covered but covered with respectful clothing such as worn in the presence of distinguished people even though it is true that every moment even when not praying you are standing before G-d. In fact when not praying it is not required to cover those places with articles of clothing but anything which covers. That is because dress is not objective reality but depends on the person as we see there are wide differences in dress between places and times. The main thing with clothing is that it cover the body and not because it protects from cold or heat. The basic concern is that it is considered disgraceful for certain places to be uncovered even when he sits in the privacy of his home during the day. In fact if he doesn’t consider it degrading to sit that way in his home by definition it is not viewed as degrading and thus he can sit in his house that way without covering on those places.
If there is a problem caused by having to get dressed under the blanket such as it taking a lot of time and it interferes with his need to go to work and surely if it causes loss of Torah study time and similarly women who are very particular to dress properly and this can not be done properly under a blanket What is the alternative? For those who sleep in pajamas I would advise them to undress and put them on in the bathroom, since in America it is a place where people stand naked for a shower or bath and thus is better than the toilet. Thus using the bathroom there is no problem being there naked while changing clothing and this is also considered a need like taking a shower . This is also true for a bathhouse or mikve or toilet since there is no issue of being uncovered However this is because there is an actual need it is permitted in these places where there is not a concern for dignity and respect. The bathroom is preferable to a toilet. This leniency can be utilized since the issue of modesty is not an actual prohibition but proper conduct and desirable behavior.
Jewish Florida man shoots 2 Israelis, mistaking them for Palestinians
A Florida resident named Mordechai Brafman, working as a plumber in Miami-Dade County, fired 17 shots at a vehicle mistakenly believing he was targeting Palestinians. Upon arriving at the local police station, Brafman claimed he had killed two Palestinians, only to discover he had wounded two Israeli citizens.
The incident sparked immediate concern within the Jewish community, which initially feared the shooting was a targeted hate crime. The two victims, reportedly a father and son from Israel who were traveling in the United States, sustained only light injuries. The local Miami Herald reported that Brafman is now in custody and will face two counts of attempted murder.