Musk Droppings (13 Viewers)

[Huntn]

SpaceX’s Starship explodes in second failure for Musk’s Mars program

Back-to-back mishaps indicate big setbacks for program to launch satellites and send humans to the moon and Mars

www.theguardian.com

The failure comes just more than a month after the company’s seventh Starship flight also ended in an explosive failure. The back-to-back mishaps occurred in early mission phases that SpaceX has easily surpassed previously, indicating serious setbacks for a program Musk has sought to speed up this year.

 

[Dragon]

Understood. However, from an accounting perspective, that doesn’t make me feel any better about a payment system that is possibly issuing payments to individuals while missing critical pieces of information. You know the how. You have explained it. But you haven’t explained the “why”.

Why are we issuing checks to people when we are missing critical data. There SHOULD be controls that prevent this from happening at all. It makes me question the integrity of the entire payment system. As an auditor, I don’t know that I could place any reliance on such a system As you say, maybe there are mitigating controls somewhere. i would hope so. I haven’t heard anything about them. I would think if that were the case someone would have mentioned it.

Where is the proof that payments have been processed to individuals with "missing data"? The DOGE team removed these supposed "savings" from their claim list after being called out on it.
In the first scenario, the individuals in question are most likely deceased, meaning their accounts are no longer active. In the second scenario, the missing data pertains to registrations still in progress. Once the individual is fully registered in the system, their information will be updated, and only then will payments be issued.

 

[Dragon]

Another side of this issue

People still alive being declared dead with huge economic consequences

https://www.nbcwashington.com/inves...ror-can-lead-to-years-of-devastation/3417992/

 

[bird]

Cannot wait for Musk to go to Mars.

The sooner the imbecile is gone the better.

 

[coldseat]

Understood. However, from an accounting perspective, that doesn’t make me feel any better about a payment system that is possibly issuing payments to individuals while missing critical pieces of information. You know the how. You have explained it. But you haven’t explained the “why”.

Why are we issuing checks to people when we are missing critical data. There SHOULD be controls that prevent this from happening at all. It makes me question the integrity of the entire payment system. As an auditor, I don’t know that I could place any reliance on such a system As you say, maybe there are mitigating controls somewhere. i would hope so. I haven’t heard anything about them. I would think if that were the case someone would have mentioned it.

You misread her post. Critical data is not missing for those receiving SS. You just need to know how to read the information and where to find that critical data. That's all. These numbskulls didn't know how to do that.

Does the system need to be updated, obviously. But it's not as easy as it sounds and it's already been attempted unsuccessfully. Still, the system works, it may not be as efficient as it could be, but if it didn't work there would be a lot more fraud and a lot more overhead (things that are sure to increase substantially if we ever attempt to privatize social security).

 

[TampaJoe]

You misread her post. Critical data is not missing for those receiving SS. You just need to know how to read the information and where to find that critical data. That's all. These numbskulls didn't know how to do that.

Does the system need to be updated, obviously. But it's not as easy as it sounds and it's already been attempted unsuccessfully. Still, the system works, it may not be as efficient as it could be, but if it didn't work there would be a lot more fraud and a lot more overhead (things that are sure to increase substantially if we ever attempt to privatize social security).

How to we know there hasn’t been more fraud? You are assuming there isn’t fraud.

I don’t know that there is and I don’t know that there isn’t. What I am hearing is that the payment system is missing critical data. I wouldn’t make assumptions either way. I would test the hell out of it before making any judgements regarding it’s reliability.

 

[coldseat]

How to we know there hasn’t been more fraud? You are assuming there isn’t fraud. .

Because we have inspector general's reports. They actually do understand what they're looking at.

I don’t know that there is and I don’t know that there isn’t. What I am hearing is that the payment system is missing critical data. I wouldn’t make assumptions either way. I would test the hell out of it before making any judgements regarding it’s reliability.

This is already being done and is a part of the system's operation. We don't need DOGE to figure this out, we already have the information we need. Just implement the IG's recommendations.

Through several audits, Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General made dozens of recommendations for the Agency to prevent improper payments before they occur as well as to detect and correct existing improper payments. However, to date, many of those recommendations remain unimplemented, leading to continued improper payments.

The report Preventing, Detecting, and Recovering Improper Payments summarizes OIG’s audit work regarding improper payments, which OIG identified as a major management challenge since Fiscal Year (FY) 2002. Improper payments can be overpayments (when SSA pays someone more than they are due) or underpayments (when SSA pays someone less than they are due).

From FYs 2015 through 2022, SSA estimates it made nearly $72 billion in improper payments, most of which were overpayments. While this is less than 1 percent of the total benefits paid during that period, at the end of FY 2023, SSA had an uncollected overpayment balance of $23 billion.

Office of the Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General is directly responsible for meeting the statutory mission of promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security Administration programs and operations and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement in...

oig.ssa.gov

 

[RobF]

How to we know there hasn’t been more fraud? You are assuming there isn’t fraud.

I don’t know that there is and I don’t know that there isn’t. What I am hearing is that the payment system is missing critical data. I wouldn’t make assumptions either way. I would test the hell out of it before making any judgements regarding it’s reliability.

I have never seen anyone give such a dazzling display of trying to use a literal declaration of their own ignorance as an argument.

Joe, you not knowing something isn't even remotely an argument, especially when there have been multiple posts made and sources provided that would have informed you had you read them.

"I don't know, therefore it could be anything!" That's not how that works!

 

[Dragon]

How to we know there hasn’t been more fraud? You are assuming there isn’t fraud.

I don’t know that there is and I don’t know that there isn’t. What I am hearing is that the payment system is missing critical data. I wouldn’t make assumptions either way. I would test the hell out of it before making any judgements regarding it’s reliability.

The issue here isn’t specifically about the payment system but rather the social security database—a significant distinction. Could the system be more efficient? Certainly. However, achieving that would require a level of registration that most conservatives in the U.S. would likely oppose.


In Denmark, every citizen is assigned a personal identification number at birth (or upon arrival for immigrants and refugees). This number consists of a six-digit birthdate and a four-digit security code, which also indicates gender and legal status. A similar system in the U.S. would require more digits due to the larger population, but the concept would function in much the same way.


Because this number is universally assigned and used across all public records, Danish government agencies can easily access the necessary information for providing social services, such as medical care, pensions, and other benefits. For example, I recently retired due to a serious illness and was surprised to receive a letter informing me that I would be granted an early retirement supplement—something I had neither applied for nor even known existed.


The downside, at least from an American perspective, is the level of government insight into personal data. The system records where you live, your school grades, whether you have a gun permit, your marital status, your medical history, your income, employment details, and much more.


That said, Denmark’s system is highly secure. Every inquiry is logged, and any unauthorized access to a person’s records is flagged for investigation. This ensures a balance between efficiency and accountability in handling sensitive data.

 

[TampaJoe]

The issue here isn’t specifically about the payment system but rather the social security database—a significant distinction. Could the system be more efficient? Certainly. However, achieving that would require a level of registration that most conservatives in the U.S. would likely oppose.


In Denmark, every citizen is assigned a personal identification number at birth (or upon arrival for immigrants and refugees). This number consists of a six-digit birthdate and a four-digit security code, which also indicates gender and legal status. A similar system in the U.S. would require more digits due to the larger population, but the concept would function in much the same way.


Because this number is universally assigned and used across all public records, Danish government agencies can easily access the necessary information for providing social services, such as medical care, pensions, and other benefits. For example, I recently retired due to a serious illness and was surprised to receive a letter informing me that I would be granted an early retirement supplement—something I had neither applied for nor even known existed.


The downside, at least from an American perspective, is the level of government insight into personal data. The system records where you live, your school grades, whether you have a gun permit, your marital status, your medical history, your income, employment details, and much more.


That said, Denmark’s system is highly secure. Every inquiry is logged, and any unauthorized access to a person’s records is flagged for investigation. This ensures a balance between efficiency and accountability in handling sensitive data.

If we are talking about waste fraud and abuse, we are talking about the payment system as well as any other systems that could result in waste fraud and abuse.

 

[Dragon]

If we are talking about waste fraud and abuse, we are talking about the payment system as well as any other systems that could result in waste fraud and abuse.

Waste, Fraud and abuse... Well look no further than the current president. Whose company was found guilty of defrauding a childrens cancer society of all things

 

[TampaJoe]

Waste, Fraud and abuse... Well look no further than the current president. Whose company was found guilty of defrauding a childrens cancer society of all things

And here I thought we were discussing Social Security.

 

[Dragon]

And here I thought we were discussing Social Security.

Waste, Fraud and abuse seem to be the claim the Trump followers use to destroy every social support system in the US and yet those who has provenly committed fraud are the ones pushing that story. One of the worst healthcare frauds ever was committed by a company run by Rick Scott. A Maga republican

"Scott was pressured to resign as chief executive of Columbia/HCA in 1997. During his tenure as chief executive, the company defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs. The U.S. Department of Justice won 14 felony convictions against the company, which was fined $1.7 billion in what was at the time the largest healthcare fraud settlement in U.S. history"

 

[superchuck500]

If we are talking about waste fraud and abuse, we are talking about the payment system as well as any other systems that could result in waste fraud and abuse.

The biggest issue I have with these new administration (mostly Elon) claims about massive fraud in the SSA system is that there has been no real proof offered - only claims in the form of tweets and statements in interviews with no cross examination whatsoever.

The SSA payment system has been the subject of several analyses over the past few years that have found that there is indeed an amount of payments made every year that are improper - though most of them are to living people and most are recovered. These audits have not found there to be some wild number of dead people getting payments and it appears that Elon's claims about people with birthdays in the 1800s has to do with the COBOL language system. And none of this stuff is actually fraud.

A new program launched with Congress in 2023 to enhance recovery of improper payments estimated to recover $215 million between 2023 and 2026. Yes, it's important to make sure these systems work as well as they can - and improve them periodically. Yes, it's important to identify and recover improper payments.

But it's not like this is some dark cave that nobody has ever looked in before - it's the subject of regular review and analysis. Yet, Musk is out there claiming massive numbers of fraudulent payments - numbers that don't check out anywhere near any of the previous audits or analysis, and he seems to think that any improper payment, no matter the reason or whether it is of the kind typically recovered, is fraud.

It's all so over the top that it's logical to presume that they're setting the rhetorical table for something transformative . . . without Congress and after not campaigning on that at all so that people could make an informed choice.

Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims

apnews.com

 

[TampaJoe]

The biggest issue I have with these new administration (mostly Elon) claims about massive fraud in the SSA system is that there has been no real proof offered - only claims in the form of tweets and statements in interviews with no cross examination whatsoever.

The SSA payment system has been the subject of several analyses over the past few years that have found that there is indeed an amount of payments made every year that are improper - though most of them are to living people and most are recovered. These audits have not found there to be some wild number of dead people getting payments and it appears that Elon's claims about people with birthdays in the 1800s has to do with the COBOL language system. And none of this stuff is actually fraud.

A new program launched with Congress in 2023 to enhance recovery of improper payments estimated to recover $215 million between 2023 and 2026. Yes, it's important to make sure these systems work as well as they can - and improve them periodically. Yes, it's important to identify and recover improper payments.

But it's not like this is some dark cave that nobody has ever looked in before - it's the subject of regular review and analysis. Yet, Musk is out there claiming massive numbers of fraudulent payments - numbers that don't check out anywhere near any of the previous audits or analysis, and he seems to think that any improper payment, no matter the reason or whether it is of the kind typically recovered, is fraud.

It's all so over the top that it's logical to presume that they're setting the rhetorical table for something transformative . . . without Congress and after not campaigning on that at all so that people could make an informed choice.

Tens of millions of dead people aren't getting Social Security checks, despite Trump and Musk claims

apnews.com

Point well taken.

I would like to see these systems run as efficiently and effectively as possible. I am not looking for a way to do away with SSI or Medicare.

I do believe we are going to have to deal with the growth and funding in these programs. Personally, I don’t view them as insurance. I see them for what they are. Entitlement/Safety Net programs funded by payroll taxes. We are closing in on a date when the program expenditures exceed tax collections which means the shortfall will have to be funded from the general fund. So we need to deal realistically with filling the funding GAP sooner rather than later. It won’t get any better or easier with time.

 

[Dragon]

Point well taken.

I would like to see these systems run as efficiently and effectively as possible. I am not looking for a way to do away with SSI or Medicare.

I do believe we are going to have to deal with the growth and funding in these programs. Personally, I don’t view them as insurance. I see them for what they are. Entitlement/Safety Net programs funded by payroll taxes. We are closing in on a date when the program expenditures exceed tax collections which means the shortfall will have to be funded from the general fund. So we need to deal realistically with filling the funding GAP sooner rather than later. It won’t get any better or easier with time.

Just tax the billionaires on the same level as everyone else as they were previously. No cap on Social Security taxes, Problem solved

 

[bird]

Waste, Fraud and abuse... Well look no further than the current president. Whose company was found guilty of defrauding a childrens cancer society of all things

Waste, fraud and abuse occur when the private sector intersects government.

See: Columbia HCA

 

[coldseat]

Point well taken.

I would like to see these systems run as efficiently and effectively as possible. I am not looking for a way to do away with SSI or Medicare.

I do believe we are going to have to deal with the growth and funding in these programs. Personally, I don’t view them as insurance. I see them for what they are. Entitlement/Safety Net programs funded by payroll taxes. We are closing in on a date when the program expenditures exceed tax collections which means the shortfall will have to be funded from the general fund. So we need to deal realistically with filling the funding GAP sooner rather than later. It won’t get any better or easier with time.

The solution is very simple, as stated by @Dragon. The problem is those donors who control the congressmen (who control the law/purse strings) don't want to implement it because it would cost them more money, even though it's the most equitable way to do it. That's why they're pushing the Ponzi scheme nonsense and why they want to privatize it.

 

[Optimus Prime]