Tag: Peace

Some Info To Use When Lobbying Our Congresscritters (and people in the grocery line, too!) Regarding Social Security

Setting the Record Straight on Social Security

by Kathleen Romig Director of Social Security and Disability Policy February 20, 2025

Social Security has broad support across party lines, income levels, and generations. After 90 years, Social Security remains one of the nation’s most successful, effective, and popular programs.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has strict controls over who receives a Social Security number (SSN) and what documentation is required to prove identity, U.S. citizenship, and immigration status. The agency assigns a unique Social Security number to each eligible individual, and it pays a single Social Security benefit to each qualifying individual with a Social Security number. Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present non-citizens may receive Social Security benefits. Social Security’s payment accuracy rate is very high — well over 99 percent — and it has many safeguards against improper payments, including rigorous protocols to stop paying benefits to people who have died.

Misinformation and false statements from President Trump and “Department of Government Efficiency” head Elon Musk claiming otherwise are causing confusion and risk undermining a trusted program that is rigorously administered, and which 69 million people currently rely on and nearly everyone will eventually use.

Here are the facts.

Social Security Number: What Is it and Who Is Eligible?

  • The Social Security Administration only provides new or replacement Social Security cards to people who meet strict authentication requirements. Applicants must fill out an application for a Social Security card (SS-5) and take or mail original documents to a local Social Security office for processing. Applicants must provide at least two documents that prove age, identity, and U.S. citizenship or lawful immigration status. Almost all U.S. citizens are assigned Social Security numbers at birth through SSA’s enumeration at birth program.
  • Some non-citizens with lawful immigration statuses may receive Social Security numbers. To receive a work-authorized SSN, non-citizen applicants must prove that they have a current, lawful work-authorized immigration status (such as lawful permanent resident status, also known as having a green card). Social Security cards issued to non-citizens with temporary work authorization are labeled “VALID FOR WORK ONLY WITH DHS AUTHORIZATION.” To receive a non-work SSN, applicants must prove they are lawfully present in the U.S. (for example, on a student visa) and provide the valid, non-work reason for which they need an SSN. Social Security cards issued to non-citizens without work authorization are labeled “NOT VALID FOR EMPLOYMENT.” People who are without lawful immigration status are not eligible for an SSN.
  • The Social Security number is a unique identifier, meaning that one number is assigned to one individual. It was designed this way to keep track of each worker’s earnings so that SSA could determine eligibility for Social Security and the benefit amount, which is based on a worker’s earnings.

Social Security Benefits: Who Gets Them and How Are They Calculated? 

  • Social Security has a payment accuracy rate of over 99 percent. Only 0.3 percent of Social Security benefits are improper payments, which are typically caused by mistakes or delays.
  • SSA has many safeguards to ensure accurate payments, including strict documentation and eligibility requirements, quality reviews, and regular reviews of medical eligibility for disability beneficiaries and financial eligibility for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients. SSA works with its Office of Inspector General (OIG) to root out rare cases of outright fraud, in which applicants or beneficiaries deliberately falsify information to get or keep undeserved benefits. SSA and OIG team with state and local authorities in Cooperative Disability Investigations to investigate suspected fraud and to prosecute violations of the law.
  • Only U.S. citizens and some lawfully present non-citizens may receive Social Security benefits. Social Security benefits are based on the earnings on which people pay Social Security payroll taxes. As of 2004, non-citizens must have had work authorization for their earnings to count toward Social Security eligibility and benefits. In addition, the Social Security Act has prohibited the payment of benefits to non-citizens who are not “lawfully present” in the U.S. since 1996.
  • SSA only pays one Social Security benefit to each qualifying Social Security number holder. A person may receive a Social Security benefit based on their own work history or based on their relationship to a worker — for example, the surviving spouse of a deceased worker. Beneficiaries who are eligible in multiple ways (for example, as both a worker and a surviving spouse) only receive one benefit that is reduced under the “dual entitlement rule,” which caps the total benefit amount at the highest single benefit for which the person qualifies. In no case does the same individual receive multiple Social Security benefits, nor does SSA pay Social Security benefits to people without SSNs.
  • SSA has rigorous protocols to stop payments to beneficiaries who have died. State vital statistics agencies report deaths to SSA via the Electronic Death Registration system, typically within days. SSA also collects death data from funeral home directors, family members, and financial institutions. Across all sources, the agency receives nearly 3 million death reports each year, preventing over $50 million in improper payments each month. To catch any deaths that may have escaped reporting, SSA regularly checks to be sure its oldest beneficiaries are using their Medicare benefits — if not, they verify that the beneficiary is still alive. And in the extremely rare cases where benefits are paid to people over 100 years old, SSA has a policy to stop payments by age 115.
  • Only 0.1 percent of Social Security benefits are paid to people over 100 years old. DOGE head Elon Musk has been circulating a table he claims shows Social Security beneficiaries at very old ages, but he is grossly mischaracterizing its contents. These numbers appear to be drawn from SSA’s Numident database, a record of every Social Security number application since the program started. The Numident typically does not contain death dates for people born before 1920 — before Social Security was established and long before electronic records were kept. A 2023 OIG report explains that “almost none” of the people born before 1920 in this dataset are being paid benefits. As a result, SSA explained that adding death dates to these very old records would be “costly to implement [and] would be of little benefit.”

https://www.cbpp.org/blog/setting-the-record-straight-on-social-security

Peace & Justice History for 2/21

February 21, 1848
“The Communist Manifesto,” written by 29-year-old Karl Marx with the assistance of Friedrich Engels, was published in London (in German) by a group of German-born revolutionary socialists known as the Communist League.

Friedrich Engels Karl Marx
The political pamphlet — arguably one of the most influential in history — proclaimed that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles,” and that the inevitable victory of the proletariat, or working class, would put an end to class society forever.
Read the Manifesto 
February 21, 1965
Malcolm X, an African-American nationalist and religious leader, was shot and killed in New York City by Black Muslims with whom he had broken the year before, as he began to address his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City’s Washington Heights. His home had been firebombed just a few days earlier. He was 39.

Radio story on the late Manning Marable’s biography, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention 
More on on Malcolm’s assassination
MalcolmX.com 
“In 1964, after his break with Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad, and following his trips to Africa and to Mecca, Malcolm was seriously questioning black nationalism. He was also beginning to recognize that MLK’s non-violent methods, far from being passive, were actually creating more change than the separatism of the Nation of Islam.
In this same period MLK was beginning to recognize that Malcolm was advocating self-defense, not violence.
In March Malcolm and Martin encountered one another by chance at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Subsequently Malcolm spoke at several rallies in support of the civil rights movement, and in February 1965, two weeks before his assassination, he went to Selma to meet with King.” –Grace Lee Boggs

” You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.”–“Prospects for Freedom in 1965,” speech, January 7 1965.
February 21, 1972
The trial began for Father Philip Berrigan and six other activists (the “Harrisburg Seven”) in Pennsylvania. They were charged with conspiring in an alleged plot to kidnap Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Proceedings later ended in a mistrial.

Daniel Berrigan, above, and his brother Philip in the documentary, “Investigation of a Flame.” The film focuses on the Catonsville action.
Remembering Fr. Philip Berrigan 
February 21, 1975
Former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, Mitchell aide Robert Mardian, and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 21⁄2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. They were variously convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, fraud, and perjury.
See the new film, Frost/Nixon, for perspective on some of
the issues behind Watergate
 Charlie Rose interview with Peter Morgan, the screenwriter (and author of what was originally a play) and Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, the lead actors
February 21, 2011
Two Libyan Air Force fighter pilots defected to the Mediterranean island of Malta rather than carry out orders they had received to bomb civilian countrymen. Two helicopters with seven others landed in Malta to escape the violence. Colonel Muammar Qadaffi had ordered the attacks in attempt to quell the growing protests against his 42-year dictatorship.
Libya’s ambassadors to China, India, Indonesia and Poland, as well as Libya’s representative to the Arab League and most, if not all, of its mission at the United Nations resigned the same day.

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february21

Me, Too!

Savage Chickens by Doug Savage for February 20, 2025

Savage Chickens Comic Strip for February 20, 2025

Donkey and Minions and Flowers, Oh, My!

And now that the rage of thy rapture is satiate with revel and ravin and spoil of the snow, And the branches it brightened are broken, and shattered the tree-tops that only thy wrath could lay low, Algernon Charles Swinburne – “March: An Ode”

by Worriedman Read on Substack

I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure yet what that poem is trying to say – I just know that ”-satiate with revel and ravin and spoil of the snow,” is just a badass phrase. The kind of phrase I hope I’m smart enough to understand someday!

Today is going to be really good pictures of flowers and really good pictures of a mule and some donkeys. What can I say? It’s what I’m good at and I’m lucky to have found my calling.

It was cold when I took these pictures yesterday. 14° with a dozen mile an hour wind. The wind chill was somewhere around “cold as hell” verging on “What the F*#k?!” I couldn’t wear gloves and still work the camera so I took pictures until my fingers hurt.

I’m going to have to work until I die so I have an inexhaustible source of amaryllis.

That’s all I got room for – Thanks for dropping by! (snip)

A Cool Meme from Faithful America

It came in an email with action alerts, linked. I made a religious statement earlier, and I don’t want to overdo religion here. Anyone can participate without fear, though, and they don’t check to see if you’re Christian; they just appreciate the help. Mainly I really like the toon above; it belongs here. Good Afternoon!

There Are Good Things Happening-

I love reading The Bee’s blog. It’s so refreshing! These posts are especially comforting.

Good News For 2025

Peace & Justice History for 2/19

As well, Feb. 19th is the annual Day of Remembrance of Pres. Roosevelt’s E.O. 9066, interning Japanese-Americans.

February 19, 1919
A Pan-African Congress was organized by W.E.B. DuBois in Paris, France, to coincide with the Versailles Peace Conference after World War I. DuBois, sociologist, historian, novelist, playwright, and cultural critic, served as special representative of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and was assisted by Blaise Diagne, a member of the French Parliament from the West African colony of Senegal.

W.E.B. DuBois, founder of the NAACP and convener for the Pan-African Congress in Paris.
The Congress’s aim was to call the issue of “international protection of the natives of Africa” to the attention of the United States and the European colonial powers who were making momentous decisions on the nature of the post-war world.
DuBois was a moving spirit behind the growing struggle for self-determination among Africans, both on the continent and in the diaspora, and the Pan-African Congresses helped to bring the issues of this struggle to world attention. The Pan-African Congress was re-convened in 1921, 1923, 1927, and 1945.

Attendees at the Pan-African Congress.
More about W.E.B. DuBois 
More depth on the Pan-African Congresses
February 19, 1942
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, ten weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, issued a directive ordering all Japanese Americans (Nisei) evacuated from the West Coast of the U.S., and forcing them to live in concentration camps. Executive Order 9066 authorized the Secretary of War and military commanders “to prescribe military areas . . . from which any or all persons may be excluded.”

San Francisco Chronicle February 27, 1942 Photo by Dorothea Lange

Japanese American residents board the bus for Camp Harmony, 1942.
There was strong support from California Attorney General Earl Warren (later U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice), liberal journalist Walter Lippmann and Time magazine—which referred to California as “Japan’s Sudetenland”

Japanese-American child on bus to concentration camp. photo: Dorothea Lange
112,000 citizens of Japanese ancestry were relocated, losing their businesses, homes, and belongings to the white residents of their former neighborhoods.This day is referred to as the “Day of Remembrance.” It has been commemorated every year for 67 years to remind Americans of that miscarriage of justice, and to ensure such things do not happen again.
Children of the camps 
Note: In the entire course of the war, 10 people were convicted
of spying for Japan, all of whom were Caucasian
Day of Remembrance 
“Not Enough People Know About Day of Remembrance” 
February 19, 1972
Paul McCartney’s song, “Give Ireland Back to the Irish,” was immediately banned from airplay by the BBC.
Opening of the song:
Give Ireland back to the Irish
Don’t make them have to take it away
Give Ireland back to the irish
Make Ireland Irish today
Great Britain you are tremendous
And nobody knows like me
But really what are you doin’
In the land across the sea
Tell me how would you like it
If on your way to work
You were stopped by Irish soldiers
Would you lie down do nothing
Would you give in, or go berserk?
  
Paul McCartney and “Wings” rehearse the song 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february19

A Few Things I’ve Run Across Today-

This one is expanding today’s Free The Ocean Trivia Question Answer, which I actually got correct!

Acidic Oceans Are Causing Oysters To Become Female

January 28, 2025 Written by Matthew Russell

Ocean acidification now looms as a direct challenge to oysters. Experts warn that more acidic conditions can alter the sex balance in these shellfish. Some oysters start life as male, then switch to female later. Shifts in pH threaten to speed that switch.

These shifts could upend aquaculture and coastal ecosystems everywhere.

Researchers note that an oyster population with too many females might see future reproduction problems, since a balanced sex ratio helps keep populations stable.

Photo: Pexels

Oysters rely on environmental cues to decide their sex. (snip-MORE)

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UnitedHealth Group resists shareholder proposal on delayed and denied care

Proposal calls on company to prepare reports on ‘macroeconomic costs’ of health insurer’s practices

UnitedHealth Group is attempting to swat down a non-binding shareholder proposal that asked the company to prepare reports on the costs of delayed and denied healthcare.

The proposal, filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), represents a new frontier in seeking to hold insurance companies accountable for the “macroeconomic costs” of denied care – arguing they eventually hurt the bottom line of large investors.

The proposal asks UnitedHealth Group to prepare reports on the “public health-related costs and macroeconomic risks created by the company’s practices that limit or delay access to healthcare”.

“The investors we work with are interested in long-term value creation,” said Meg Jones-Monteiro, senior director of health equity at ICCR. The coalition represents primarily institutional investors, such as pensions and foundations.

“When you think about the investment portfolios our members have, they are very diverse,” Jones-Monteiro. “What happens in one sector impacts another.”

The proposal is non-binding, but UnitedHealth Group is nevertheless fighting to stop it. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in January, UnitedHealth Group attempted to exclude the proposal from proxy statements on technical grounds, arguing in part that the terms “public-health related costs” and “macroeconomic risks” are vague and subject to interpretation. (snip-MORE)

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An update on searching for trans-friendly employers who sponsor visas

Last month I asked to hear from trans-friendly employers who sponsor visas, and provided a simple form for interested employers to reach out. In the process, I heard from many individuals: people who were hoping to find new employment in another country, and people who worked for companies that were aligned, who were encouraging their bosses to fill in the form.

A quick reminder before we dive in: I’m not providing formal legal or financial advice. I’m just trying to point people in the right direction and provide some ideas for relocation for people who want it.

The bad news

Here’s the bad news: today, that form sits empty. While the post was shared far and wide, not a single person has filled it in.

I think there are a few reasons for this. First and foremost, in the current environment, being listed in such a database presents a significant risk, particularly if you’re doing business with US entities. In an environment where the administration is firing employees and cutting contracts for even the barest mention of support for trans people, there’s every reason to believe that the current administration will penalize people and organizations who work with trans people.

So, that’s not great. I’m very sorry to everyone who got their hopes up that I would be able to make direct connections.

The good news

The good news: some countries actively sponsor visas, welcome trans people, and are hiring.

In my personal conversations with people, what jumped out again and again was that emigrating to the Netherlands was a viable route for many people — and particularly those with tech skills (engineering, IT, product management, design, research, and so on).

Reasons include:

The Netherlands is also kind of just a neat country: excellent social safety net, great support for culture and the arts, good connectivity to other European countries, and a strong grant support network for mission-driven tech. Amsterdam is a first-class cosmopolitan city, but other centers in the Netherlands are not to be sniffed at, and the country is so small that you can easily take public transit from one to another in less time than it might take you to commute to work by car in the US.

It is not, however, perfect. Much like the US, the Netherlands has had its own racial reckoning; unlike the US, the discourse has often centered on the idea that racism doesn’t happen there. That’s a rich claim from a society where racist tropes like Zwarte Piet are still commonplace, and where women of color are often marginalized. There’s work to be done — although it’s worth asking if this is truly any worse than the US.

Not everybody can relocate, and not everybody has these skills. I’m aware that this is a privileged route that not everybody can take advantage of. It would be better if there was a defined route for everybody who needed to find a safer place to live; it would be better still if a safe place to live was the place they already call home. This situation is sick and sad, and I truly wish that everything was different.

It also comes with an attendant cost. It’s estimated that moving to the Netherlands will set you back between $6-10K. That’s a lot less than one might expect, but it’s obviously a significant barrier for many people. Unfortunately, very little financial support exists for these moves. If you know of grants, mutual aid funds, or community resources that help trans people relocate, please share them. Funding and guidance from those who’ve navigated the process could make all the difference.

Please reach out

In the meantime, I’ll keep looking. If you are a company in a country that is safe for trans people, and you’re looking to hire people from the US who need visa sponsorship, please fill out this form or reach out to me via email. I’m not giving up.

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I once had a wonderful experience with tens of thousands of pansies. by Worriedman

Pansies! Read on Substack (Because we need a brain cleanser.)

Plant the green side up and give it a good drink of water a couple of times a week…

Pansies are Viola hybrids, Viola x wittrockiana. (“wittrockiana” sounds like a mountainous region in the south of the Duchy of Grand Fenwick) The common names, pansy, viola and violet are used interchangeably. “Pansies” are usually larger and taller than true violas, with large showy blooms. Violas are usually smaller plants, with smaller blooms, more plentiful than find on pansies. If you want to be a real nerd you can look at the petals. Both kinds of blooms have five petals . On the pansy, four petals point up, one points down. On the viola, two petals point up and three point down.

(snip-MORE)

I Just Really Like This Apropos To Nothing Current-Event Related; I Would Really Like It Anyway-

2000 Sonnets of Naskar – Mammoth Compilations

Peace & Justice History for 2/18

February 18, 1688
Francis Daniel Pastorius and three other Pennsylvania Quakers (members of the Society of Friends) made the first formal protest against slavery in the new world. At the Thones Kunders House in Germantown (now part of Philadelphia) they signed a proclamation denouncing the importation, sale, and ownership of slaves: “. . . we shall doe [sic] to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent or colour they are.”
More on Germantown Society of Friends 
February 18, 1961

above: Bertrand Russell and Edith Russell watching the actress Vanessa Redgrave address the Committee of 100 meeting in Trafalgar Square, which preceded the anti-Polaris “sit-in” outside the Ministry of Defence on February 18, 1961.
In London, Sir Bertrand Russell, 88, led a march of 20,000 and sit-down of 5,000 in an anti-nuke rally outside the U.K. Defense Ministry, and was jailed for seven days. It was the first public demonstration organized by the Committee of 100, the direct action wing of the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament.

Early CND demonstrator
The CND today
February 18, 1970
Five of the “Chicago Seven” (Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin) were found guilty of crossing state lines to incite a riot during the 1968 Democratic convention.

The Chicago Seven
John Froines and Lee Weiner had both been charged with making incendiary devices (stink bombs) but were found not guilty of all charges. None of the seven were found guilty of conspiracy. Attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass and defendants Weiner and Dellinger were sentenced for contempt of court, except for Weiner for more than a year. All appealed.
More on the group Summary of the legal issues 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryfebruary.htm#february18