Infographic: Why Long-Term Debt Matters

Infographic: Why Long-Term Debt Matters | pgpf.org:
"A strong fiscal outlook is an essential foundation for a growing, thriving economy.
Putting our nation on a sustainable fiscal path creates a positive environment for growth, opportunity, and prosperity.
Unfortunately, America is on a dangerous long-term fiscal path.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that national debt could rise to 141 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2046. 
If our long-term fiscal imbalance is not addressed, our future economy will be diminished, with fewer economic opportunities for individuals and families, and less fiscal flexibility to respond to future crises.
The good news is that there is still time to act.
While partisan gridlock may have prevented meaningful progress to date, there is no shortage of worthy proposals to strengthen our fiscal and economic future."

Long TSA Delays Force Airports To Hire Private Security Contractors

Long TSA Delays Force Airports To Hire Private Security Contractors - Slashdot:
"An anonymous Slashdot reader writes:
TSA checkpoints caused 6,800 American Airlines passengers to miss their flights in just one week this spring, and the problem isn't improving.
"Two years ago the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) offered $15,000 to anybody -- literally anybody -- who could come up with an idea to speed up airport security..." writes Popular Science.
"They wouldn't say who won or for which idea, but since we're here two years later with longer wait times than ever, it's fair to say it hasn't lived up to the groundbreaking ideals of that call to action...
Now in summer 2016, the TSA recommends arriving three hours early instead of a mere two."
So this spring the Seattle-Tacoma airport replaced many of the TSA staff with private screeners, although "Private security operates under strict direction from the TSA, and even those airports that heavily utilize private contractors still have a lot of TSA personnel in the back rooms..." according to the article.
"The ability to do exactly what the TSA does, only faster and cheaper, seems to be the major draw." Now 22 U.S. airports are using private screeners, although the Seattle and San Francisco airports are the only ones with significant traffic.
The article also cites a Homeland Security report which discovered that investigators were able to smuggle a test bomb past security checkpoints in 67 out of 70 tests."

The Murky Secrecy Surrounding the Iran Nuke Deal

The Murky Secrecy Surrounding the Iran Nuke Deal - The American Interest:
More murky details keep surfacing in connection to the Obama Administration’s landmark nuclear deal with Iran. 
Reuters:

The United States and its negotiating partners agreed “in secret” to allow Iran to evade some restrictions in last year’s landmark nuclear agreement in order to meet the deadline for it to start getting relief from economic sanctions, according to a think tank report published on Thursday...

“The exemptions or loopholes are happening in secret, and it appears that they favor Iran,” Albright said.

The text of the report can be found here.

There is absolutely no policy justification for these concessions being secret. 
The Iranians know what they are; so do all the governments involved in the negotiations. 
The only people these agreements are being hidden from is the public. 
And it seems unlikely that there is a need to hide the details from the Iranian public—the news that their negotiators got a better deal would presumably be good for the Iranian government’s political popularity.

So on the face of it, the secrecy clause looks like evidence of bad conscience and political squeamishness on the part of the U.S. government—the administration didn’t want the American people to know how many concessions it made to get the deal.

Top 5 ‘Climate Change’ Myths Debunked | Glenn Beck

Top 5 ‘Climate Change’ Myths Debunked | Glenn Beck:

"This one is for you Prius-driving, canvas tote bag-carrying hippies who refuse to shop at Amazon because of the cardboard boxes, who are always talking about “emissions” and “the polar bears.” You know who you are."

Are Voter ID Laws Racist?

Are Voter ID Laws Racist? | Insider Online:
"It is easy to draw up a story about how the extra burdens of the voter ID laws fall disproportionately on minority persons, given that persistent differences by race in education, employment, and health are the norm today (in part because of the misguided progressive policies that hamper charter school education, place minimum wage and union barriers against minority employment, and block the entry of low-class corporate healthcare providers in minority neighborhoods).
And it is easier still to select individual instances where the burdens of compliance are higher than the norm.
But the central point is that nothing in the majority opinion stated, let alone demonstrated, that minorities who suffer from educational, employment, or health disadvantages find it any more difficult than white individuals to get the appropriate IDs.
The sole objection was that there were more minority individuals in this vulnerable group, so that the disparate impact claim is always made out once the standard demographic information is trotted out. By this dubious logic, it is possible to order the removal of existing safeguards against fraud because they too have a disparate impact.
Click here to read the full publication →http://www.hoover.org/research/are-voter-id-laws-racist

AM Fruitcake

History for September 5

History for September 5 - On-This-Day.com:
Jesse James 1847, Darryl F. Zanuck 1902, Jack Valenti 1921


Bob Newhart 1929 - Actor, comedian (The Bob Newhart Show), Freddie Mercury (Queen) 1946, Michael Keaton 1951 - Actor ("Batman")


1698 - Russia's Peter the Great imposed a tax on beards.


1774 - The first session of the U.S. Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia. The delegates drafted a declaration of rights and grievances, organized the Continental Association, and elected Peyton Randolph as the first president of the Continental Congress.


1836 - Sam Houston was elected as the first president of the Republic of Texas.


1881 - The American Red Cross provided relief for disaster for the first time. The disaster was the Great Fire of 1881 in Michigan.


1906 - Bradbury Robinson executed the first legal forward pass in football. Robinson threw the ball to Jack Schneider of St. Louis University in a game against Carroll College.


1914 - The Battle of the Marne began. The Germans, British and French fought for six days killing half a million people.


1939 - The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality in World War II.

1945 - Iva Toguri D'Aquino was arrested. D'Aquino was suspected of being the wartime radio propagandist "Tokyo Rose". She served six years and was later pardoned by U.S. President Ford.

Social Security Administration Confirms: Illegal Aliens To Begin Collecting Benefits In 2017 - Breitbart

Social Security Administration Confirms: Illegal Aliens To Begin Collecting Benefits In 2017 - Breitbart:

"We learned about that crisis thanks to an inquiry from Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who also asked the SSA to run the numbers on how many of our New Americans would be collecting benefits legally after Obama illegally dismantles our citizenship laws. The chief actuary responded that he expects about 16,000 “New Americans” to begin collecting Old-Age, Survivor’s, and Disability Insurance benefits by 2017, with the total rising steadily over the next four decades until it hits 695,000.

As Ryan Lovelace at National Review observes, even this estimate is absurdly optimistic, because it assumes the flow of illegal aliens will decrease after 2016. In reality, we’ll be hit by wave after wave of new illegals looking for their piece of the amnesty pie."

The environmental crowd knows no compromise

Rex Murphy: The environmental crowd knows no compromise | National Post:
"The environmental protesters who are determined to throttle Alberta’s oil industry are so invested in the narrow, regressive world of their own doom-laden vision of the future, and the fanatic, narcissistic righteousness that is the hallmark of that vision, that they see themselves as having a licence to to do just about anything, no matter how morally reprehensible, in the pursuit of their cause.
Civilized debate, respect for one’s opponents, listening to differing opinions and good manners: these are the practices and mores of every other social and political exchange, and are necessary for reasoned debate to take place in a democratic society.
Yet the anti-pipeline zealots seems to think that these standards don’t apply to them.
...They were only three protesters.
But these three hooligans are a perfect example of the holier-than-thou mentality the pervades the modern environmental movement. 
Storm a meeting, scream slogans, insult the industry, play the victim, taunt the police, harass, intimidate and act like a thug — you may call it protesting if you wish, but bullying and boorishness are far closer to the mark..."

Dem Senator: It's 'Sexist' to Question Hillary's Health

Dem Senator: It's 'Sexist' to Question Hillary's Health | PJ Media:

CHAT 57 COMMENTS

"Eight years ago, when John McCain was only three years older than Hillary will be on election day, the MSM was using actuarial charts to prove that he was probably not going to live through his first term if elected (update: he's still alive). 

Now it's sexist to wonder if a woman who suffered a head injury and often shows signs of not being all there is healthy.

Welcome to identity politics at its most evil.

Side note: notice how hard Andrea Mitchell works to lay the groundwork for the response she wants Sen. Klobuchar to give her."

Clinton Email Scandal: A Catalog Of Lame Excuses From The FBI Report | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD

Clinton Email Scandal: A Catalog Of Lame Excuses From The FBI Report | Stock News & Stock Market Analysis - IBD:

"Clinton's attempts to avoid responsibility became particularly strained when the topic turned to classified material she said never showed up on her email server. The report is replete with so many different attempts to duck blame that we thought it would be helpful to categorize them.

The Blanche DuBois Excuse:  Like the character from "Streetcar Named Desire" who famously says that she "depends on the kindness of strangers," Clinton says that she depended on anyone emailing her to know the rules of classification. If there was a problem, it was their fault, not hers."

Comparing cosmetology to policing might say more about cosmetology than policing.

"Comparing cosmetology to policing might say more about cosmetology than policing.
Colin Kaepernick again weighed in on the important topic of police abuse of power this week, stating: “[Y]ou can become a cop in six months and don’t have to have the same amount of training
as a cosmetologist. 
That’s insane. 
Someone that’s holding a curling iron has more education and more training than people that have a gun and are going out on the street to protect us.”
We don’t know what the right amount of training for a police officer is, but the amount of training a person must receive in order to practice cosmetology is certainly insane.
As the Institute for Justice has shown over and over again in its research and litigation, cosmetology licensing is about protecting existing practitioners from new competition, not about ensuring health and safety. 
In IJ’s latest study on the issue, Angela Erickson found that requiring hair braiders to take thousands of hours of cosmetology training does nothing to enhance consumer safety:
“[A]cross seven years and 10 jurisdictions, just nine complaints with health and safety issues were received for unlicensed braiders—just over one per year and just less than one per jurisdiction.
Further, none of the complaints alleging consumer harm were verified by licensing boards.” Cosmetology licensing does seem to do one thing well, though: 
It generates plenty of complaints about the licensing status of cosmetologists—by other cosmetologists." (Heritage Foundation-insider)
**********************************************************
 [Institute for Justice]
Executive Summary
African-style hair braiding is a traditional art and a time-tested way of caring for tightly coiled Afro-textured hair naturally, without scissors, heat or chemicals.
Yet, in most states, people who wish to braid for a living must first obtain a government permission slip—an occupational license requiring up to 2,100 hours of training. 
This study investigates whether the natural craft of braiding poses risks that justify occupational licensing and whether braiding licenses create barriers that keep people out of work..."

Michael Flynn: Stop KKKing Republicans

Michael Flynn: Stop KKKing Republicans | Washington Examiner:
"Retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a top adviser to Donald Trump, is fed up with people who try to tie the Ku Klux Klan to the Republican Party.
"Don't try to tie the KKK to the Republican Party or the conservative movement in this country," the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency told CNN's Erin Burnett Thursday evening.
To start the interview, the anchor brought up former KKK wizard David Duke's praise of Trump's immigration speech on Wednesday and asked Flynn to comment on "the fact" that the GOP nominee's message is resonating with white supremacists.
Duke, also a former state representative, is currently a candidate for the Republican nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Louisiana with very little chance of winning.
"Not only does Donald Trump disavow them, but I think most Americans disavow that line of thinking and those kinds of groups," Flynn assured her. On a personal level, Flynn said "I find them disgusting..."

Lunch video-----CNN Blurs Out Guest's Trump T-Shirt During Interview

Noon-toon

FBI: Hillary Clinton Lost Cell Phones with Classified Emails

FBI: Hillary Clinton Lost Cell Phones with Classified Emails:

"The fact that Clinton’s staff attempted to destroy her old smartphones whenever they could indicates that they knew there was sensitive information on the devices.

FBI director James Comey revealed in July that Clinton had sent and received emails that were marked classified at the time, and contained information that she and her aides should have known was classified.

Federal law prohibits the unauthorized transfer, storage, or destruction of classified information. Federal records acts likewise prohibit the destruction of government documents, which would have included work-related emails on Clinton’s server and mobile devices."

TAMARA KEEL ON HILLARY’S LATEST: This is about as plausible as “the dog ate my homework”.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » TAMARA KEEL ON HILLARY’S LATEST: This is about as plausible as “the dog ate my homework”. She cla…:
TAMARA KEEL ON HILLARY’S LATEST:

This is about as plausible as “the dog ate my homework”. She claimed she didn’t know that the “c” meant “confidential”, that nobody told her that she should retain work emails as they are part of the public record. Further in the article, she throws her staff under the bus, in effect claiming that underlings and minions told the dog to eat her homework.

That’s some Grade A leadership there, right? Makes you wanna sign right up for that outfit, no?

Further, I have an Ivy League lawyer, wife of a former governor and president, who lived in the White House for eight damned years, then went on to be a senator and Secretary of State telling me she didn’t know about classified email and that work-related documents needed to be saved as part of the public record?

Look, I don’t mind you bullshitting me a little bit, Hillary, but don’t you ever lie to me like I’m Montel Williams.

Oops.in

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 1:53 pm

Underfunded Pensions: The Expanding and Escalating Challenge

Underfunded Pensions: The Expanding and Escalating Challenge | Mercatus:
"Puerto Rico’s recent financial failures have raised public awareness of underfunded pensions, as well as questions about the federal government’s proper role in pension failures. 
Regrettably, the problem is not unique to state governments—with low interest rates, unrealistic benefit promises, and poor funding, pension plans are under intense financial pressure at all levels of government and throughout the private sector.

...Meanwhile, most states and localities have significantly underfunded their pension obligations, and the potential for shortfalls portends state fiscal crises that may elicit demands for federal intervention.

Political sympathy for retirees runs deep on both sides of the aisle, but federal financial intervention in a major pension failure would have a disastrous impact on the federal government’s credit and debt. 
It would also create a dangerous disincentive for the responsible and prudent administration of pensions at all levels.
Below is a brief overview of recent developments related to failing pensions, the mounting shortfalls faced by the federal government’s PBGC program, and the challenges faced by state pension plans 

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

While early pension challenges have been relatively small, the way in which they are handled sets an important precedent for the exponentially larger pension challenges that lie ahead. Specifically, it is likely that a combination of benefit cuts, premium increases, and better future funding will be necessary to shore up failing pensions. While painful for current beneficiaries of failing pensions, this precedent could help remove expectations for federal bailouts, reinforce the understanding that individual pension plan sponsors are responsible for their own financial solvency, and prompt pension administrators to make the difficult—but critical—decisions necessary to address shortfalls. Further, such a precedent could help PBGC and state and local governments to avoid a large and painful insolvency.

• The Detroit bankruptcy deal. The City of Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013 after a series of state-ordered financial reports found that the city was insolvent. The resulting bankruptcy deal set a precedent by allowing a pension sponsor, the City of Detroit, to cut benefits in order to maintain the solvency of the pension plans. Retirees’ pension payments were reduced by 4.5–20 percent.

• The Kline-Miller Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014. The Kline-Miller Act, named for its bipartisan cosponsors, Representatives John Kline (R-MN) and George Miller (D-CA), empowered private multiemployer pension plans to cut benefits to a minimum of 110 percent of what PBGC insures if doing so would avert insolvency (e.g., for 30 years of service, PBGC’s maximum guarantee is $12,870 per year and may be less). The law, prompted by the increasing number of large multiemployer plans facing insolvency, envisioned that multiemployer pension funds would remain self-sufficient rather than relying on government assistance.

• Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican debt crisis is the result of decades of government profligacy and inadequate pension funding and was ignited by a downgrade of the US territory’s debt to junk status in early 2014. Puerto Rico’s pension system was 96 percent unfunded with a $44 billion shortfall in 2014, according to the US Treasury. In dealing with the tension between government retirees and bond holders, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has stated, “We’ve never said that pensions should be made senior to all debt.” Lew prescribed, and Congress legislated, a fiscal oversight board for Puerto Rico with “the discretion to make the trade-off decisions,” including cuts to pension benefits.
Read on.
Lots here!

TOO DUMB TO BE PRESIDENT? Clinton told FBI she didn’t understand classified intel. Related...

Instapundit » Blog Archive » 
TOO DUMB TO BE PRESIDENT? 
Clinton told FBI she didn’t understand classified intel. 
Related: FBI…:
"TOO DUMB TO BE PRESIDENT? 
Clinton told FBI she didn’t understand classified intel.

Hillary is either dishonest or dumb—there is no third choice.
By giving her the Comey get-out-of-jail-free card in spite of this — and by scheduling this release for the Friday before Labor Day Weekend — the FBI has demonstrated that it doesn’t deserve its position either.

Plus: Clinton, aides told FBI conflicting stories about email use."

Hillary Clinton ‘Could Not Recall’ 39 Email Details for FBI - Breitbart

Hillary Clinton ‘Could Not Recall’ 39 Email Details for FBI - Breitbart:

"Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton repeatedly could not “recall” the answers to 27 different questions from the FBI about her private email server and communications habits. Clinton also specified that she did not “remember” details of her emailing and classification habits at least 12 times.
Below are some of the highlights from the redacted FBI interview transcripts released to the public today."

The Coming Storm for Global Financial Markets

The Coming Storm for Global Financial Markets - Bloomberg View
"Global growth is weak, and will be eroded further by Brexit.
Oil prices are low, and likely to plunge further.
The world has excess capacity and a wage-depressing labor surplus.
Corporate profits are shaky.
And deflation is laying bare the impotence of central banks.
So where would you logically expect financial markets to be going, given that economic, financial and political environment?
You’d expect to see increased demand for safe-haven U.S. Treasuries, a soaring dollar, falling commodity prices, and increasing investor aversion to junk bonds, emerging market debt and equities and other low-quality securities.
But that’s not the case..."
...But Europe offers an example of what might happen if things reverse.
The region's benchmark Stoxx 600 index is down more than 5 percent this year, erasing almost all of 2015's gains.
In this environment, investors should hold universally-large cash positions until there's a clearer picture of what comes next."

AM Fruitcake

History for September 4

History for September 4 - On-This-Day.com
Henry Ford II 1917, Paul Harvey 1918, Dick York 1928 


Mitzi Gaynor 1931 - Actress, Damon Wayans 1960 - Actor, comedian ("My Wife and Kids"), Beyoncé Knowles 1981 - Singer (Destiny's Child) 


1886 - Geronimo, and the Apache Indians he led, surrendered in Skeleton Canyon in Arizona to Gen. Nelson Miles.


1899 - An 8.3 earthquake hit Yakutat Bar, AK.


1923 - The first American dirigible, the "Shenandoah," began its maiden voyage in Lakehurst, NJ.


1957 - The Ford Motor Company began selling the Edsel. The car was so unpopular that it was taken off the market only two years.


1967 - "Gilligan's Island" aired for the last time on CBS-TV. It ran for 98 shows.


1967 - Michigan Gov. George Romney said during a TV interview that he had undergone "brainwashing" by U.S. officials while visiting Vietnam in 1965.


1972 - Swimmer Mark Spitz captured his seventh Olympic gold medal in the 400-meter medley relay event at Munich, Germany. Spitz was the first Olympian to win seven gold medals.


1998 - While in Ireland, U.S. President Clinton said the words "I'm sorry" for the first time about his affair with Monica Lewinsky and described his behavior as indefensible.

University official wants answers on whether climate professors are 'indoctrinating' students - Washington Times

University official wants answers on whether climate professors are 'indoctrinating' students - Washington Times:

"DENVER — The University of Colorado professors who shut down climate change debate in class have landed on the radar of a top school official, who says he wants to make sure students are being “educated, not indoctrinated.”
John Carson, a member of the University of Colorado Board of Regents, said he plans to make inquires Thursday about an email from three University of Colorado at Colorado Springs professors who advised students to drop the class if they dispute climate change.
“I have a lot of questions after reading this reported email sent to students,” Mr. Carson told The Washington Times. “We should be encouraging debate and dialogue at the university, not discouraging or forbidding it. Students deserve more respect than this. They come to the university to be educated, not indoctrinated.”"