Do they know what happens to bond values when interest rates go up?--------------Bonds captivate $16 trillion of pensions

No worries.
If they belly up, the taxpayer will borrow the money from China, put it in the kid's tab and pay the moochers.
What a country!
Bonds captivate $16 trillion of pensions | Crain's Detroit Business:
"Risk off:
"They're taking more equity risk off the table" with fixed-income securities as their funding status improves, Zorast Wadia, an analyst at Milliman, said in a telephone interview. "Pension plans don't want to give back the gains that essentially took over five years to accumulate."

Public and private pension funds in the U.S. added $117 billion of debt securities in the three months ended in September on an annualized basis and sold $135 billion of equities, according to Fed data released on Dec. 9.

The disparity was the greatest since 2008 when comparing third-quarter data on an annual basis.

About 70 percent of companies with defined-benefit plans, or those that provide workers with retirement income based on employment length or salary level, may increase their share of long-term debt securities and other rate-sensitive investments by 2015, based on a November report by Towers Watson, a New York-based pension advisory firm."

Obama's america. "Pay off your ...bills" by borrowing the entire amount-----Saginaw County takes second shot at selling $52 million in bonds to finance pension obligations

Saginaw County takes second shot at selling $52 million in bonds to finance pension obligations | MLive.com:
"SAGINAW, MI — After an initial offering failed, Saginaw County is trying once again to sell nearly $52 million in bonds to investors.

The bond sale, which is expected on Wednesday, Jan. 15, is an attempt by the county to pay off a multimillion-dollar unfunded pension liability."

Firm looks to light up pot sales with Canadian unit

Firm looks to light up pot sales with Canadian unit | Crain's Detroit Business
A publicly traded, Madison Heights-based company has set up a subsidiary just across the Canadian border to grow and sell 1.3 million pounds of marijuana a year. 

Creative Edge Nutrition Inc., a nutritional supplement company that sells products for the likes of weight loss and energy boosting, formed CEN Biotech Inc. in Lakeshore, Ontario, just outside Windsor, to take advantage of the increasingly legal market for marijuana. 

History for January 15 - A King and a bunch of other stuff

History for January 15 - On-This-Day.com:

85th birth anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr (1929-68).

Birth anniversaries of Lloyd Bridges (1913-98), Edward Teller (1908-2003).

1559 - England's Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey. 

1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" appeared in "Harper's Weekly." The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.
 

1892 - "Triangle" magazine in Springfield, MA, published the rules for a brand new game. The original rules involved attaching a peach baskets to a suspended board. It is now known as basketball. 


1967 - The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. The final score was 35-10. 


1974 - "Happy Days" premiered on ABC-TV. 


1986 - Republican President Reagan signed legislation making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday of January. 

Federally funded kollege jobs. Ain't they great?-------University Employee Who Ran Phone Sex, Escort Websites Will Keep Her Job

University Employee Who Ran Phone Sex, Escort Websites Will Keep Her Job | CNS News:

Maybe the next time they tell us they're out of money and want more of our money...... maybe we'll think twice?
Naaaa.......
"A University of Colorado administrator who was found to be moonlighting as an adult escort will keep her job - even though she had previously been suspended for running a phone sex website during work hours.

Resa Cooper-Morning, the Cultural Diversity Coordinator at the University's Ethnic Studies department, was already serving a suspension for running a phone sex website during work hours.
Now, it appears that Cooper-Morning was also selling her services as an escort through another website called "Fantasy Elite."

On her website, Cooper-Morning specifies certain aspects of her services, including kissing, lap dances and "...pleasurable oil massage that will linger in your mind until we meet again."

Despite this, since it cannot be proven that Cooper-Morning exchanged sexual favors for cash, the university claims it has no standing to fire her.

"The University does not condone Ms. Cooper-Morning's activities,"  said CU Denver Chancellor of Communications, Leanna Clark in an interview with CBS 4 News in Denver.

"But under the law, there are limits on actions that employers can take regarding off-duty conduct of employees.""

Health insurance enrollment takes off in Michigan, nation for coverage under ACA

Soooo, of the 5+ million who signed up, more than 4.1 million got it free or with a big federal subsidy.
Sooooo, folks like free stuff.
But not so much they want to pay their own real money for Obama's "care".
Health insurance enrollment takes off in Michigan, nation for coverage under ACA | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
WASHINGTON — Enrollment for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act took off in Michigan and across the nation in December though it remained somewhat below Obama administration targets.
.........75,511 Michiganders had selected a plan.
......... Officials said more than 5 million people have been deemed eligible to enroll in the insurance marketplaces, more than half of whom qualified for financial assistance. 

Nearly 1.6 million others qualified for coverage under a Medicaid expansion or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Gay rights=racial rights=lots of rich lawyers------Equality Michigan director's friendliness opens doors in Lansing

Berman: Equality Michigan director's friendliness opens doors in Lansing | The Detroit News

Her mission is advocating for the state’s lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender (LGBT) community, trying to popularize same-sex marriage and adoption, for starters — issues that wedge voters into corners.

Add that to her sleek, cartoon-red hairstyle and frankness about everything and you might not expect the doors of Republican legislators to swing open for Emily Dievendorf, the executive director of Equality Michigan.

....In the meantime, Dievendorf continues lobbying hard to encourage legislators to amend the state’s Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination on grounds of religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, and marital status — virtually everything but sexual orientation.

Her goal is to see that prospective amendment introduced by a Republican lawmaker, although that hasn’t yet happened. “We’re having delays not because things aren’t moving but because we are having great conversations,” she says. “In the past, we’ve made too many assumptions about who is on board and who is not.”

...Despite political momentum, the Republican majority may block Dievendorf’s ambitious goals — but they won’t make her any less fun to watch.

I'm thinkin' there's not a lot of respek goin' on here...... Iran's Rouhani: 'World Powers Surrendered to Iranian Nation's Will'

Iran's Rouhani: 'World Powers Surrendered to Iranian Nation's Will' | The Weekly Standard:

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani is taking to Twitter to gloat about the nuclear deal his country struck with the U.S. and other Western countries.

"Our relationship w/ the world is based on Iranian nation's interests. In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation's will," Rouhani tweeted about an hour ago.

Hassan Rouhani @HassanRouhaniFollow

Our relationship w/ the world is based on Iranian nation's interests. In #Geneva agreement world powers surrendered to Iranian nation's will

6:36 AM - 14 Jan 2014

In a recent interview, Iran's chief negotiator for the nuclear deal also claimed victory.

“No facility will be closed; enrichment will continue, and qualitative and nuclear research will be expanded,” the chief nuclear negotiator said. “All research into a new generation of centrifuges will continue.”

NR's McCarthy: Christie Lied Before

NR's McCarthy: Christie Lied Before
In a lead editorial this weekend in National Review online, McCarthy offers a scathing analysis of Christie's protestations.

McCarthy notes that Christie's firing last week of a top aide for lying to him wasn't the first time someone near him took the rap.

In 2010, Christie education chief Bret Schundler was ousted for purportedly lying to him about not supplying data that cost New Jersey $400 million in federal Race to the Top funds.

But Schundler, a respected conservative and former Jersey City mayor, insisted he had told the governor's staff, and Christie himself, about the mistake immediately after the feds denied New Jersey funding.

In fact, Schundler said, Christie promised no one would lose a job over the issue.

McCarthy recounts that Christie, at first, decided not to blame Schundler, but instead held a press conference blaming the missing data on bumbling D.C. bureaucrats. He claimed that New Jersey officials had shared the data with Washington, though Schundler says Christie knew that was not the truth.

When that story was quickly proved untrue with the surfacing of videotape of New Jersey officials making their presentation without the data, Christie suddenly blamed Schundler.

Christie declared that Schundler had lied to him in claiming the data had been supplied to the feds.

Sound familiar?

The story would have been written off as a "he said, she said" controversy, but the fired Schundler released emails proving his side of the story.

Christie called Schundler's version of events "revisionist history," and the story was quickly forgotten outside Trenton, McCarthy writes.

With Christie now talked about as the potential front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, McCarthy predicts bridge-gate won't be so quick to disappear.

Remember the solemnity of President's Day

Lesson learned-don't steal Un's chicks-----North Korea: Kim family's former sushi chef says uncle was executed over 'pleasure brigade'

North Korea: Kim family's former sushi chef says uncle was executed over 'pleasure brigade' - Telegraph:
"Kim Jong Un’s uncle may have been executed for his taste in young women and role in maintaining a “pleasure brigade” for Kim Jong Il, a former chef for the North Korean leader has said.
Kenji Fujimoto, a sushi chef who worked for the Kim family between 1989 and 2001, has said Jang Song Thaek was given the task of recruiting women - some as young as 15 - to please the late dictator.
Mr Jang, the uncle to the young leader, would often abuse his position in the talent hunting process, and that may provide some insight as to why he was executed on 12 December 2013, he told NK News."

Don't worry about people's right to privacy-----Proposed spy phone record shift draws resistance

Big Obama supporters and Obama's "hand picked ..." will make everything just fine.
Right?
Proposed spy phone record shift draws resistance | The Detroit News:
"Washington — Telephone companies are quietly balking at the idea of changing how they collect and store Americans’ phone records to help the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.
They’re worried about their exposure to lawsuits and the price tag if the U.S. government asks them to hold information about customers for longer than they already do.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce Friday what changes he is willing to make to satisfy privacy, legal and civil liberties concerns over the NSA’s surveillance practices.
One of the most important questions is whether the government will continue to collect millions of Americans’ phone records every day so that the government can identify anyone it believes might be communicating with known terrorists.

The president’s hand-picked review committee has recommended ending the phone records program as it exists. It suggested shifting the storage of the phone records from the NSA to phone companies or an unspecified third party, and it recommended new legal requirements before the government could search anyone’s phone records."

Michigan's Gov. Granholm did the same thing a few years ago---Christie office: Obama admin approved Jersey Shore TV ads

But she's a girl.....a democrat girl.... so it's OK....
Right?
Christie office: Obama admin approved Jersey Shore TV ads | The Daily Caller:

Aides to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are pointing out that the Obama administration approved of the New Jersey tourism ads starring Christie and his family that a Democratic congressman has encouraged federal investigators to probe.

Using federal relief money after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the state of the New Jersey ran “Stronger than the Storm” ads promoting the state’s beaches.

Gotta stink smell here----DIA-pension deal may turn on Michigan's role

How diverse!
Combine the "godly" acts of "art-love"(really art related employees) and sympathy for those hard working union retirees and "voila" we gatta deal!
A deal to screw the taxpayers (mostly kids and unborn kids) get it up the wallet again.
What a country..... 
DIA-pension deal may turn on Michigan's role | The Detroit News:
"A coalition of national and regional foundations is prepared to commit as much as $330 million to bolster underfunded pensions for city retirees and to shield city-owned pieces in the Detroit Institute of Arts from liquidation."

As long as we have unlimited money, this is a GREAT idea........how did we ever survive WW2------Second meeting planned for those seeking psychological support in wake of Fruitland Township shootings

Second meeting planned for those seeking psychological support in wake of Fruitland Township shootings | MLive.com:

MUSKEGON, MI – Muskegon County Community Mental Health has scheduled a second meeting for Tuesday, Jan. 14, for those who wish to speak to mental health professionals about a shooting in Fruitland Township that killed 21-year-old Gary Lee Ogreen and wounded three people.

.....“The event has been quite traumatizing to many people, and we simply want to intervene with support to those who would like to talk some more with others about this tragedy,” said Joellen Rhyndress, psychological first aid specialist for CMH, in a news release.

It’s the second such meeting.
The first, also at St. Alban’s, was Dec. 23, two days after the shootings.

So the media is fine with the president's IRS thuggery? So was the the German media in the 1930s. The ‘crime’ of the IRS

The ‘crime’ of the IRS | New York Post:

Only days after we learned the Obama administration had appointed an Obama donor to head investigations into the IRS targeting of conservative organizations, we now have a leak from law enforcement saying the FBI doesn’t expect to file criminal charges.

Michigan anglers no longer required to have minnow receipts

Tiny story.
I just liked the headline.....
Michigan anglers no longer required to have minnow receipts | The Detroit News:
"Lansing — Anglers who buy minnows to use as bait in Michigan no longer will be required to have their receipts with them while fishing under new state regulations."

Dude, you dissin my twerkin'?-------------------Flyers for 'Freedom 2 Twerk' dance party showing MLK in a gold chain prompts venue to pull the plug

Flyers for 'Freedom 2 Twerk' dance party showing MLK in a gold chain prompts venue to pull the plug | MLive.com:

FLINT, MI -- The flyer showed a manipulated photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s face pasted onto a body of a man wearing a gold chain and making a "westside" sign with one hand.

The flyer advertised a dance party for teens titled "Freedom 2 Twerk Martin Luther King Day Party."

The party was scheduled for Jan. 18 at The Social Network Banquet and Event Center on Corunna Road.

But the venue's owner, Vic McEwen, had no idea that the party would be advertised using a manipulated photo of a fallen civil rights leader. When McEwen saw the flyer, he promptly cancelled the event.

He fears some of the damage was already done. 

The flyer has created some outrage online and even King's daughter, Dr. Bernice King, told an Atlanta television station the image was "appalling."

My Favorite “Dumb Congressperson” Video

My Favorite “Dumb Congressperson” Video. - Downtrend.com:
"Laugh Break: I get a kick out of watching politicians make fools of themselves.

I have to share with you my favorite. I watch it over and over. It’s a typical house committee meeting. During the hearing, Rep Hank Johnson – a Democrat from Georgia, expresses concern, genuine concern that having more US troops on the island of Guam could cause it to tip over. This is not a joke. First, he debates a military commander – for more than a minute – about the actual dimensions of the island territory, then he asks the same commander if the island could “capsize.” He is reassured that no, definitely not will Guam capsize. Enjoy:"

History for January 14 - Peace, Doh, Doh, Doh, Doh, Doh, Dough

History for January 14 - On-This-Day.com

1784 - The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War. 


1954 - Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married. The marriage only lasted nine months. 


1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator. The new company was called the American Motors Corporation. 


1963 - George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama. 


1999 - The impeachment trial of U.S. President Clinton began in Washington, DC. 


1999 - The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine and food for the Iraqi people. 


2005 - A probe, from the Cassini-Huygens mission, sent back pictures during and after landing on Saturn's moon Titan. The mission was launched on October 15, 1997.

Report: States face a combined $5.1 TRILLION in debt

Report: States face a combined $5.1 TRILLION in debt - EAGnews.org powered by Education Action Group Foundation, Inc.:

State Budget Solutions’ (SBS) fourth annual State Debt Study reveals that state governments face a combined $5.1 trillion in debt.

This total equals roughly $16,178 per capita, or 33 percent of annual gross state product. 
Another telling way to view the problem – state debt is equal to 469% of all fiscal year state general and other fund expenditures.

Since 2010, SBS has conducted a comprehensive examination of debt facing the 50 state governments. These reports have repeatedly found trillions in combined debt that stand in stark contrast to officials’ proclamations of balanced budgets and belt-tightening. This year’s update, and those in the past, show unfunded public pension liabilities’ incredible contribution to state debt. In fact, these liabilities make up 79 percent of all state debt.

And communism/socialism/progressivism work fervently to achieve the goal of universal poverty---- "Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man."

Instapundit » Blog Archive » READER KEVIN MANLEY SENDS THIS ON Ted Sturgeon and the generosity of Robert Heinlein. Only idiots…:

OCTOBER 2, 2012

READER KEVIN MANLEY SENDS THIS ON Ted Sturgeon and the generosity of Robert Heinlein.

Meanwhile, with the election looming, it’s worth revisiting this Heinlein quote:

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man.

Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. 

Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Or as some would say: “You didn’t build that.”

Everyone in the MSM knows this. They simply refuse to report it---Real Unemployment Rate Of 11.5% Means Difference To Reported Rises To Record

Real Unemployment Rate Of 11.5% Means Difference To Reported Rises To Record | Zero Hedge:
"The gross manipulation of the unemployment rate due to the plunging labor force participation rate and the soaring, record number of people that are not in the labor force is by now, we hope, clear to all.
Yes, millions may be dropping out of the labor force because they can't find a job which somehow means the US economy is getting better, but sadly the US civilian, non-institutional population keeps rising, and hit a record 246.7 million in December.
Which is why every month we show what the real unemployment rate would look like when normalized for the fudged participation rate by taking a 30 year average.

Today, we find that the difference between the reported (6.7%) unemployment rate, and the implied using realistic assumptions for the US labor force, which remained at 11.5% where it has been ever since the start of the Second Great Depression, just hit a record high 4.8%.
As did the spin, lies and obfuscation by the administration that "all is well.""

20 Things I Learned While I Was in North Korea

20 Things I Learned While I Was in North Korea | Wait But Why

2) Everyone lies about everything all the time.

The government lies to the outside world. The government lies to the people. The press lies to the people. The people lie to each other. The tour guides lie to tourists. It’s intense.

The lies range from big things—the government hammers away at the message that the US is preparing to attack North Korea, the press depicts South Korea as a suffering and American-occupied country, the leaders’ speeches talk about North Korea being the envy of the world with the highest quality of life—to tiny things—we met a soldier at one point we were told was a colonel, and after he left, a retired army major on my tour told me that he had studied North Korean army uniforms and that the soldier was in fact a captain.

Facts are not a key part of the equation in North Korea.

And it can really mess with your mind as a visitor.
I’d find myself in these perplexing situations trying to figure out if a lie-spouting North Korean was in on it or not. 

Was she thinking, “I know this is false, you know this is false, but I live here so I gotta play the game”? 

Or was she fully brainwashed and thought she was telling me the truth? 

It was impossible to tell. During interactions, I’d find myself thinking, “Are you an actor in The Truman Show and you think I’m Truman? 

Or are you Truman and I’m one of the actors?” 

Are those kids on the street just pretending to be playing for my benefit? 

Is any of this real? 

Am I real?

Too dangerous to mix with other prisoners. Writes he is going to eat people. They let him out early. 4 murdered------In prison, Nikko Jenkins was deemed too dangerous to mix with other inmates

In prison, Nikko Jenkins was deemed too dangerous to mix with other inmates - Omaha.com

In the two years before his release into the general population of Omaha, Nikko Jenkins wasn't even released into the general population of his prison. 

The main reason: He was too dangerous to mix with other inmates. 

Yet prison administrators launched him from their most extreme confinement — a segregated cell where he spent 23 hours a day — into the Omaha community. 

They did so despite warnings from Jenkins' family, friends, judges, psychiatrists, prosecutors, Parole Board staff, even Jenkins himself. 

In an email two months before Jenkins' release, Trudy Clark, an administrative assistant to the Nebraska Parole Board, wrote the director of the state corrections' mental health unit. 
“This email is written from a personal level only,” Clark wrote. 
“Why isn't Nikko Jenkins in the mental health unit? 
The board is getting letters from him that he is going to eat people, specifically Christians and Catholics. 
This is only one of many bizarre letters the board has gotten from him. 
Is he being evaluated for a mental health commitment? 
As a taxpayer, this guy scares me to death!” 

.........Within three weeks of his July 30 release, authorities allege, Jenkins killed Jorge Cajiga-Ruiz and Juan Uribe-Pena in Spring Lake Park; Curtis Bradford near 18th and Clark Streets; and Andrea Kruger near 168th and Fort Streets.