“Corruption in America”: Musk claims dead people receiving Social Security Checks
The issue of corruption may not be about Africa alone as always portrayed. In the United States, despite system sophistication, there might still be leakage as cost cutter office has revealed that people who are 150 years old are still receiving social security checks.
During a press conference in the Oval Office, tech billionaire Elon Musk made bizarre claims about Social Security, including that 150-year-olds are receiving benefits.
Standing beside President Donald Trump and sporting a black “Make America Great Again” hat on Feb. 11, Musk gave reporters insight on why his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is looking into Social Security, stating there are persons well past livable ages receiving the benefits.
“There‘s crazy things, like the cross-examination of social security. We’ve got people who are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone that’s 150?” Musk said. “They should be on the Guinness Book of World Records. So you know, that’s a case where I think they are probably dead. That’s my guess, so they should be very famous. It’s one of the two.”
Elon Musk says there are people older than 150 yrs old collecting Social Security: “I think they’re probably dead, is my guess, or they should be very famous, one of the two.” pic.twitter.com/rFWj3V7zkG
Since being sworn in as the 47th President, Trump has made brazen, concerning efforts to downsize federal departments. He has given Musk, a citizen, access to payment and personnel records. Members of Congress have expressed significant security and privacy concerns. Trump told reporters that the efforts are part of a plan to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget, which reached $6.75 trillion in the most recent fiscal year.
Before the press conference, Musk took to X to call out fraud claims in federal entitlements such as Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability and Social Security.
At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.
The official Social Security Administration website states people need “an SSN [Social Security number] to work, collect Social Security benefits, and receive certain government services.”
After Musk claimed moves like this are what the American people voted for, House Democrats issued a clarifying statement.
“No one voted for eliminating the Department of Education to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. No one voted for cuts to Social Security so that Tesla can continue to pay $0 in federal taxes,” the statement read, posted on X.
Forbes Celebrity, Invictus Obi bags 10-year Jail term
Forbes Celebrity, Invictus Obi bags 10-year Jail term
A US based Nigerian who was celebrated by Forbes as one of the most influential African businesspeople under 30, Obinwanne Okeke, known as Invictus Obi has bagged a 10-year jail term in the US.
A US court sentenced the Nigerian businessman for running a cyber fraud scheme that stole at least $11m (£8m) from its victims.
Invictus Obi used Nigerian-based companies to defraud people in the US state of Virginia.
His Invictus Group companies used phishing emails to capture people’s login details and take their funds between 2015 and 2019.
Trump will be breaking a 152-year-old tradition by shunning Biden’s Inauguration
Trump to break 152-year-old tradition shunning Biden’s Inauguration
President-elect, Joe Biden is on his way to the White House on January 20th, two weeks away from now. But his inauguration will have a clothing of not-peaceful transfer of power as the out-going President, Donald Trump has said he won’t attend Biden’s inauguration.
Trump tweeted Friday he will not attend Biden’s inauguration, breaking a tradition that has for centuries been a hallmark of the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next.
Two days after infuriated Trump supporters overran the U.S. Capitol during Congressional proceedings to formally certify Biden’s win, Trump wrote, “I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”
Less than one day earlier, he had issued a video promising to devote his remaining time in office to a “smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power” to Biden.
Trump will be the first sitting U.S. president since Andrew Johnson to skip the ceremony. Johnson did not to attend his successor’s swearing-in 152 years ago.
Despite his long overdue acknowledgment Thursday that Biden will take office this month, Trump continues to insist that he was cheated out of a second term in office. Officials in his administration — including former Attorney General William Barr — have affirmed there is no evidence of significant voter fraud that would have made Trump the winner.
Schumer, Pelosi, along with Trump aides, deplore president’s incitement of Wednesday’s attack on US Capitol
Vice President Mike Pence, one of the president’s most faithful supporters until they publicly broke this week, is expected to attend the inauguration, according to reports citing sources close to the vice president. Trump now believes Pence betrayed him by failing to block Congress’ certification of the election result – something Pence could not legally do.
The Biden transition team did not immediately comment on Trump’s announcement, but it has been urging people for weeks not to attend the Washington event in person, primarily because of the worsening coronavirus crisis.
After Wednesday’s assault on Capitol Hill by Trump supporters, security for Biden’s inauguration is expected to be especially tight.
Trump gave no indication of how he would spend his last days in the White House.
With less than two weeks to go before Biden is sworn in, a growing number of congressional Democrats are pushing to force Trump out of office before his term ends, maintaining he is unfit to continue to serve as president.
Following his actions which gave him out to his intentions to incite his supporters to derail democracy in United States of America, founder of Facebook and allied social media giant, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, has said his platforms have suspended the outgoing US President, Donald Trump, indefinitely.
Zuckerberg in a statement on Thursday said Trump’s action was ill-intentioned, thus, Trump’s ban.
“The shocking events of the last 24 hours clearly demonstrate that President Donald Trump intends to use his remaining time in office to undermine the peaceful and lawful transition of power to his elected successor, Joe Biden.
His decision to use his platform to condone rather than condemn the actions of his supporters at the Capitol building has rightly disturbed people in the US and around the world. We removed these statements yesterday because we judged that their effect — and likely their intent — would be to provoke further violence.
Following the certification of the election results by Congress, the priority for the whole country must now be to ensure that the remaining 13 days and the days after inauguration pass peacefully and in accordance with established democratic norms.
Over the last several years, we have allowed President Trump to use our platform consistent with our own rules, at times removing content or labeling his posts when they violate our policies. We did this because we believe that the public has a right to the broadest possible access to political speech, even controversial speech. But the current context is now fundamentally different, involving use of our platform to incite violent insurrection against a democratically elected government.
We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great. Therefore, we are extending the block we have placed on his Facebook and Instagram accounts indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks until the peaceful transition of power is complete”, said the Facebbok founder.
Joe Biden has been certified President by US Congress after turmoil
Joe Biden has been certified President by US Congress after turmoil
All is now set for Joe Biden to be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America. Congress certified Biden’s victory early Thursday after protesters disrupted the process in the US Capitol on Wednesday.
Although President is yet to concede defeat in the November election, the incumbent does not have any further option rather than to leave the White House before Biden inauguration come January 20th.
One woman was shot by police, while three others died as a result of “medical emergencies”, officials said.
The mob, which had been encouraged by President Trump, stormed the building in a bid to overturn the election result, suspending a Congress session.
The president-elect blasted the “insurrection”.
President Donald Trump later called on them to “go home” while continuing to make false claims of electoral fraud. Twitter and Facebook later froze his accounts.
US Vice-President Mike Pence started the resumed session on Wednesday evening, in which lawmakers counted and confirmed electoral votes, saying it had been a “dark day in the history of the United States Capitol”.
Some Republican lawmakers’ objections to overturn the result in Arizona and Pennsylvania were rejected. The session certified Mr Biden’s 306 votes to Mr Trump’s 232.
The rampage came as two Democrats won Senate seats in elections in Georgia, which shifted the balance of Congress to their party’s effective political control, aiding the passage of Mr Biden’s agenda after he is inaugurated on 20 January.
What do we know about the deaths?
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said the woman shot by police was part of a group of individuals that forced entry into the House room, which was still in session. They were confronted by plainclothes officers, and an officer pulled out a weapon and fired it.
The woman was taken to hospital and proclaimed dead. She has not been officially named, but local media identified her as San Diego-area US Air Force veteran and Trump supporter Ashli Babbit.
Officials said the three other deaths included one woman and two men, but details of how they died have not been made public. At least 14 members of the police were injured during the unrest.
What happened at the Capitol?
Protesters surged up the Capitol steps at about 14:15 local time (19:15 GMT), shoving past barricades and officers in riot gear to penetrate the building.
The action was targeting the joint session of Congress being held to certify Mr Biden’s election victory on 3 November. The invasion sent members of Congress scrambling for cover under their seats as tear gas was fired.
The mob – some of whom wore body armour – used chemical irritants to attack police, according to Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee.
They shouted and waved pro-Trump and US flags as they roamed the halls, demanding the results of the presidential election be overturned.
Several thousand National Guard troops, FBI agents and US Secret Service were deployed to help overwhelmed Capitol police.
Two pipe bombs were recovered, one from the Democratic National Committee offices, not far from the Capitol, and one from the nearby Republican National Committee headquarters.
The occupation of the Capitol lasted more than three hours before the building was secured by law enforcement. But there was little sign the protesters were heeding Mr Trump’s call to go home, despite a citywide curfew declared by the city mayor from 18:00 to 06:00.
So far, more than 52 people have been arrested – 47 of them for curfew violations.
There were also protests on Wednesday at state legislatures in Kansas, Georgia, Utah and on the other side of the country in Oregon and the north-western state of Washington.
This is how the Trump presidency ends. Not with a whimper, but with a bang.
For weeks, Donald Trump had been pointing to 6 January as a day of reckoning. It was when he told his supporters to come to Washington DC, and challenge Congress – and Vice-President Mike Pence – to discard the results of November’s election and keep the presidency in his hands.
Crisis can bring political opportunity, and there are many politicians who will not hesitate to use it to gain advantage.
Donald Trump – for now – is still in power. And while he may be chastened, he may be sitting in the White House residence watching television temporarily without his social media outlet, he will not be silent for long.
And once he decamps for his new Florida home, he could begin making plans to settle scores and, perhaps, someday return to power and rebuild a legacy that, for the moment, lies in tatters.
How did Biden and Trump react?
Democrat Mr Biden, who defeated the Republican president in November’s White House election, said the protesters’ activity “borders on sedition” and that democracy was “under unprecedented assault”.
“To storm the Capitol, to smash windows, to occupy offices on the floor of the United States Senate, rummaging through desks, on the House of Representatives, threatening the safety of duly elected officials. It’s not protest; it’s insurrection.”
Mr Trump responded to the action in a recorded video on Twitter, repeating his unproven claims of election fraud.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” he said. “We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election, and everyone knows it, especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace.”
For the first time, Twitter froze Mr Trump’s account, saying it would be locked for 12 hours. The social media giant demanded he delete three tweets that it said could stoke violence and threatening “permanent suspension”. Facebook and Instagram followed suit.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr Trump addressed a “Save America Rally” outside the White House, when he urged supporters to head to the Capitol. “Our country has had enough and we will not take it anymore,” he said.
Former President Barack Obama said history would rightly remember the assault on the Capitol as “as a moment of great dishonour and shame for our nation”.
And former US President George W Bush said: “It is a sickening & heartbreaking sight. This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic – not our democratic republic.”
What has been happening in Congress?
For days Mr Trump had been piling pressure on his vice-president, who was presiding over the session, to block certification of the result. But in a letter to Congress on Wednesday, Mr Pence said he had no “unilateral authority to decide which electoral votes should be counted”.
media captionHow an election is supposed to be certified
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell also definitively broke with Mr Trump in an emotional speech from the chamber floor, saying: “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral.”
After the session resumed, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer blasted the mob at the Capitol as “rioters and insurrectionists, goons and thugs, domestic terrorists”, saying the president “bears a great deal of the blame”.
Senator Kelly Loeffler, who lost her bid for election in Georgia’s vote on Tuesday, said she could no longer in good conscience vote against certification as she had originally planned, citing the “abhorrent” invasion of the Capitol.
Congress Overrides Trump’s Veto of Defence Bill Signalling Power Shift
Congress Overrides Trump’s Veto of Defence Bill Signalling Power Shift
An indication has emerged that Power is gradually slipping President Donald Trump even as his handover date is 19 days ahead. The United States Congress has voted and overrides Trump’s veto of a major defence bill, bringing to an end a tumultuous legislative session and political showdown that pitted the US president against members of his own Republican Party.
In a rare New Year’s Day session, the Senate voted 81 to 13 to reach the two-thirds majority required to override Trump’s veto of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Democrats and Republicans joined together to support the $740bn defence bill, which sets the US’s military and strategic direction for the year ahead.
The Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives on December 28 also overwhelmingly voted to override the veto.
This is the first time Congress has rejected a veto by Trump during his presidency.
Capt. Margarita Correas gives Air Force officers a flight safety brief before takeoff Friday, March 3, 2006. The detachment flew the group to Kabul, Afghanistan, during a shuttle flight for Spanish troops headed into and out of Afghanistan. The flights help the base with the movement of unusually large influxes of troops and saving the officers a convoy ride from Bagram to Kabul. The captain is a C-130 Hercules navigator with the Spanish detachment at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Lara Gale)
US 700 Troops to leave Somalia January 15th, following Trump’s order
By January 15th, nearly all United States troops in Somalia, helping the fight against insurgency will leave the war-ravaged country, Pentagon has said.
US President Donald Trump has ordered the withdrawal of nearly all US troops. The US has about 700 troops in the country helping local forces battle al-Shabab and Islamic State militants.
US officials said some of the troops would move to neighbouring countries, allowing for cross-border operations.
In recent months President Trump has issued similar orders to reduce US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He has long called for US troops to come home and has criticised US military interventions for being costly and ineffective.
The withdrawal order – which would see troops redeployed just days before Mr Trump is ex[ected to leaves office – reverses the policy of former US defence secretary Mark Esper, who was sacked last month and favoured maintaining the US presence in Somalia.
A Pentagon statement said that the order to “reposition the majority of personnel and assets out of Somalia by early 2021” did not signify a change in US policy.
“We will continue to degrade violent extremist organisations that could threaten our homeland while ensuring we maintain our strategic advantage in great power competition,” it said.
Some experts have warned that a US withdrawal could embolden militants in the Horn of Africa region.
Somalia has suffered decades of political instability but in recent years a peacekeeping force from the African Union along with US troops have reclaimed control of Mogadishu and other areas from al-Shabab – an al-Qaeda affiliate.
The group has fought for more than 10 years to impose a regime based on a strict version of Sharia law, and often attacks civilian and military targets, carrying out bombings and assassinations in the capital.
Rwanda’s Wilton Gregory becomes First African Cardinal in Catholic History
Rwanda’s Wilton Gregory becomes First African American Cardinal in History
Archbishop Wilton Gregory from Rwanda has been installed a Cardinal by Pope Francis alongside 12 others, making Gregory the first African American to hold that position.
Pope Francis on Saturday installed 13 new cardinals, including the first African American to hold the high rank, further expanding the pontiff’s impact on the group that will one day elect his successor.
The cardinals were installed in a ceremony, known as a consistory, that was markedly slimmed down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of the usual thousands, only 10 guests per cardinal were allowed in St. Peter’s Basilica as the pope gave the men their ring and traditional red hat, known as a biretta.
Nine of the 13 are under 80 and eligible under Church law to enter a secret conclave to choose the next pope from among themselves after Francis dies or resigns.
It was Francis’ seventh consistory since his election in 2013. He has now appointed 57% of the 128 cardinal electors, most of whom share his vision of a more inclusive and outward-looking Church.
Thus far, he has appointed 18 cardinals from mostly far-flung countries that never had one, nearly all of them from the developing world. In Saturday’s consistory, Brunei and Rwanda got their first cardinals.
While Europe still has the largest share of cardinal electors, with 41%, it is down from 52% in 2013 when Francis became the first Latin-American pope.
With each consistory, Francis has increased the chances that his successor will be another non-European, having beefed up the Church in places where it is either a tiny minority or where it is growing faster than in the stagnant West.
The nine new electors come from Italy, Malta, Rwanda, the United States, the Philippines, Chile, Brunei and Mexico.
In his homily, Francis told the men to keep their eyes on God, avoid all forms of corruption, and not succumb to a “worldly spirit” that can accompany the prestige and power of their new rank.
Wilton Gregory, the 72-year-old archbishop of Washington, D.C, becomes the first African-American cardinal at a time the United States is examining race relations after a spate of police killings of unarmed Black people.
Everyone in the basilica except the pope wore a mask. Each new cardinal removed theirs when they knelt before him to be invested, except Gregory, who kept it on.
Gregory made headlines in June when he blasted President Donald Trump’s visit to a Catholic shrine in Washington, after police and soldiers used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear protesters so Trump could be photographed in front of a historic Washington church holding a Bible.
Gregory said he found it “baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated”.
Catholic conservatives condemned Gregory and sided with Trump.
In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Gregory said he wanted to find common ground with U.S. President-elect Joe Biden despite disagreements on issues such as abortion.
Gregory was one of a handful of new cardinals who were quarantined for about 10 days in their rooms in the Vatican guest house where the pope also lives. Cardinals from Brunei and the Philippines could not travel and will receive their ring and hat from a papal delegate.
Four non-electors over 80 were given the honur after a long service to the Church. The most prominent is Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, an Italian-American who has worked around the world and is one of the Church’s top experts on immigration.
The new cardinals later paid a courtesy visit to 93-year-old former Pope Benedict XVI, who lives on the Vatican grounds.
Trump Chose Playing Golf Instead of Listening to Pandemic Session At G-20 Summit
Trump Chose Playing Golf than Listening to Pandemic Session At G-20 Summit
United States President, Donald Trump at the weekend chose to play golf instead of listening to the a COVID-19 pandemic session at the G-20 Summit.
Trump participated in the opening session of this year’s virtual Group of 20 summit on Saturday but did not attend a side event dedicated to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump instead left for the Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia, while that session was underway, CNN, The New York Times and Mother Jones reported.
He also tweeted multiple times during the session, alleging voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump left the summit not long after he finished speaking, according to Bloomberg News. Other unnamed leaders also left after delivering their own speeches, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed officials. Coming and going from the long G-20 summit is standard practice, Bloomberg reported, adding that Trump stayed for at least the first hour.
Following the opening session, the summit hosted an event on pandemic preparedness and response, which was largely made up of prerecorded speeches, according to The Guardian. Trump had already left for the golf club when that session kicked off.
The event included remarks from Italian PM Giuseppe Conte, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South Korean President Moon Jae-In, among others.
More than 11.7 million Americans have contracted Covid-19 since the pandemic began. The United States saw 195,000 new reported infections Friday, a record for new cases in a single day.
Health experts said cases are likely to surge following the Thanksgiving holiday, and hospitals around the nation braced for onslaughts of new coronavirus patients.
US Agency Tasked With Transition Has Not Recognized Biden
US Agency Tasked With Transition Has Not Recognized Biden
The political future of the United States of America is still uncertain with U.S. President Donald Trump refusing to concede his electoral defeat and claiming fraud in the vote count. Trump’s administration has not yet started assisting the projected winner, Joe Biden, in the initial stages of taking control of the government.
A government agency in Washington, the General Services Administration, has the responsibility to formally recognize Biden as the new president and start the transition of power that officially takes place when he is inaugurated January 20. The agency assigns office space for Biden’s transition team throughout the government and assists with other necessary tasks.
G
General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy
But GSA’s Trump-appointed administrator, Emily Murphy, has not started the process.
A GSA spokesperson said the agency would not begin the transition process until Biden’s win was legally certified, but it was unclear when that might happen since vote-counting is still going on throughout much of the country.
The outcome favoring Biden or Trump is only uncertain in a handful of states, and major news organizations say Biden is the winner.
Trump has declined to concede the election, and his campaign has filed numerous lawsuits claiming, without evidence so far, that irregularities in last Tuesday’s voting and subsequent days of vote-counting cost him the election.
Trump is hoping the lawsuits will help him overturn the projected majority won by Biden in the Electoral College vote count that determines the U.S. presidency, not the national popular vote, although Biden leads there, too.
Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are moving ahead with their transition plans, initially meeting with health experts on how to curb the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., which according to data from Johns Hopkins University has killed a world-leading 237,000 Americans and infected nearly 10 million.
Meanwhile, the Biden camp is looking for cooperation in the transition from Trump officials.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki is seen during a meeting the State Department in Washington, Feb. 27, 2015.
Jen Psaki, a Biden transition aide, said Sunday on Twitter, “America’s national security and economic interests depend on the federal government signaling clearly and swiftly that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power.”
Once declaring the “apparent winner” of a presidential election, the GSA administrator’s action provides computer systems and money for salaries and other support for setting up a new government at a cost of $9.9 million this year.
The new Biden officials can get government email addresses and office space at every federal agency. The officials can also begin to fill out financial disclosure and conflict-of-interest forms before assuming their new positions.
The nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition also urged Trump officials to “immediately begin the post-election transition process and the Biden team to take full advantage of the resources available under the Presidential Transition Act.”
The group said, “This was a hard-fought campaign, but history is replete with examples of presidents who emerged from such campaigns to graciously assist their successors.”
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