Friday, September 16, 2016

AM Fruitcake

History for September 16


History for September 16 - On-This-Day.com:
J.C. Penney 1875, Allen Funt 1914, Lauren Bacall 1924


B.B. King 1925, Peter Falk 1927, Mickey Rourke 1956


1620 - The Mayflower departed from Plymouth, England. The ship arrived at Provincetown, MA, on November 21st and then at Plymouth, MA, on December 26th. There were 102 passengers onboard.


1782 - The Great Seal of the United States was impressed on document to negotiate a prisoner of war agreement with the British. It was the first official use of the impression.


1810 - The Mexicans began a revolt against Spanish rule. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a Catholic priest of Spanish descent, declared Mexico's independence from Spain in the small town of Dolores.


1908 - General Motors was founded by William Crapo "Billy" Durant. The company was formed by merging the Buick and Olds car companies.


1953 - "The Robe" premiered at the Roxy Theater in New York. It was the first movie filmed in the wide screen CinemaScope process.


1953 - The St. Louis Browns of the American League were given permission to move to Baltimore, MD, where they became the Baltimore Orioles.


1963 - "The Outer Limits" premiered on ABC-TV.


1968 - "The Andy Griffith Show" was seen for the final time on CBS.

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Wish us luck! We meet with NS leaders tomorrow morning!

Dear city manager Mark Meyers and finance director Michael Huston,
TJ Parker and I are looking forward to our meeting Fri. Sep. 16 at 9:30, in your city office.
Below are some questions that I would like to discuss with you.
I've copied the city council members in the hope they might attend our meeting or may decide to ask these questions privately.
Also, I invite all copied on this email to send me any other questions that they feel might be helpful.

Much of my initial interest in the retiree underfunding came from this article:  http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/22617
And this attachment showing Norton Shores as the 6th most underfunded employee pension of the largest 100 cities in Michigan: http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/archives/2016/July21-1.pdf






















I am using your 2015 financial audit as basis for my questions:  http://www.nortonshores.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={B9072D7B-1C69-45CF-9937-9312580FF750}     


  •       The first and most important question:  Would you agree that the underfunding of the NS pension and health benefits for retirees is a concern? Why/Why not?
  • ·         If the city suffers serious financial problems because the retiree funds are underfunded, will current retirees be affected? Current employees?
  • ·         Do you agree with the American Academy of Actuaries that the goal of Norton Shores government is to fully fund the retiree pension and health insurance plans at 100%?




















  • ·         What are your plans to remedy this underfunding?
  • ·         The annual required contributions to the retiree healthcare fund had declined precipitously in recent years. Why?
  • ·         The "funded ratio" is 4.35%. With over $38 million underfunded. Are you comfortable with this? Why/Why not?




·        

  •     Why do you use 8.25% return when your money managers show expected returns of 2%-6.56% ?

  • ·        What have been the pension fund investment returns for past years?
  • ·         You have plans to fix underfunding. Are they written? What are they?
  • ·         Will citizens be able to attend meetings to discuss this issue?
  • ·         Muskegon county posts their employee contracts online. Will Norton Shores do the same?
  • ·         Are there any other pension programs or retiree healthcare programs other than these?
  • ·         Are the city councilors liable personally for serious mismanagement?
  • ·         Is there something that we citizens can do to help the situation?
  • ·         Are any new hires offered defined benefit plans and/or retiree healthcare benefits?
  • ·         Have you considered looking into other cities that have 100% funding?
  • ·         Are you willing to meet together with other cities to understand and adopt similar pension and health programs.
  • ·         How can we approach this issue as a team? (Citizens and the council they elected serving together)
  • I will attend this meeting tomorrow and will report back to you.

Link to Mackinac Center conference (live on web tomorrow, 9/15. Noon.): 

How Pensions Are Bankrupting Cities and States and How to Fix It


Thank you for your time,

Jim Riley

Carr: Some Quick, easy steps to tell if you’re a deplorable | Boston Herald

Carr: Some Quick, easy steps to tell if you’re a deplorable | Boston Herald:

"In case you’ve been wondering which side you’re on, you may be a deplorable if you stand for the National Anthem.

Or if you know all the words to the Pledge of Allegiance, especially, “under God.”

Or if when you go to Market Basket, you tend to buy generic products, because you’re using your own money, not an EBT card.

You may be a deplorable if you just got your car inspected.

If you’re deployable, you’re definitely deplorable.

If you wake before noon, if you call Islamic terrorists Islamic terrorists, if you don’t have an Obamaphone and you don’t believe that global warming is “settled science” — can you say deplorable?

You may be deplorable if "




Big Government Cracks Down On ... People Sharing Books

Big Government Cracks Down On ... People Sharing Books | PJ Media:
"Near my father's home, something that looks like a large birdhouse has appeared on someone's property.
It's one of those "little free libraries" that you might have seen -- they've popped up all over the place.
The idea is simple: If you want a book, you take a book and leave another in its place.
It's a nice, sweet idea that has worked out remarkably well, considering how many folks out there are Grade A jerks.
Speaking of jerks, however, the government is cracking down on such book sharing.
Because of course it is:
Last summer in Kansas, a nine-year-old was loving his Little Free Library until at least two residents proved that some people will complain about anything no matter how harmless and city officials pushed the boundaries of literal-mindedness:
The Leawood City Council said it had received a couple of complaints about Spencer Collins' Little Free Library.
They dubbed it an "illegal detached structure" and told the Collins' they would face a fine if they did not remove the Little Free Library from their yard by June 19.
...Keep in mind that these structures are on private property, and are typically not large enough to do much of anything except hold a handful of books. Wronging another human in any way with these structures may be literally impossible..."

Hundreds of Somalis and other Africans coming across US southern border, requesting asylum

Hundreds of Somalis and other Africans coming across US southern border, requesting asylum « Refugee Resettlement Watch
Invasion of America…..
...You know that anyone, supposedly impoverished, but with the resources  to travel across the world to get to our border, has to be up to no good.  
In fact, since we take thousands (over 8,000 Somalis this year alone) of supposedly legitimate refugees from Africa, my first question is, so why didn’t they apply through regular channels?
mexicali-mexico-map
So how do the poor, struggling asylum seekers know exactly where to go? Who is instructing them? The same person or persons paying their way?
This latest story is at Breitbart, but first revisit a post I wrote in 2011 in which I said Congress should be doing some serious investigation of the supposedly poor Somalis who know to “make their way” to our border and ask for asylum (who is instructing them? and who is giving them the money for such an expensive trip?).
Where is Congress?
I think Congress isn’t investigating because then you would be alerted to a really really scary security situation not so different than Europe is facing.  
Invasion on a smaller scale, but nevertheless an invasion.
Here is Ildefonso Ortiz at Breitbart:
Hundreds of African asylum seekers have flooded Mexican border cities with the U.S. in an effort to get to California and Texas to obtain U.S. asylum — many of the unvetted migrants are from the terror hotbed of Somalia. Rather than having to hide along the way, the African migrants have been getting a special permit from Mexico that gives them a free pass to the U.S. border.
The influx of asylum seekers from African countries who entered Mexico illegally has been building for several weeks as hundreds of individuals continue to arrive primarily to Mexicali to cross into Calexico, California, in order to seek asylum. Mexican immigration authorities have been spotted ferrying the asylum seekers from shelters and plazas to international bridges with the U.S.
Mexican immigration authorities have largely kept quiet about the wave of African migrants who have been entering Mexico through that country’s southern border and then making their way to the U.S. border to seek asylum. Some of the cities they seek include Calexico and San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas.
For new readers, asylum is part of the Refugee Admissions Program.  
These Africans ask for asylum and then wait for a court date (many of them loose in America). 
If granted asylum (with the help of dozens and dozens of immigration lawyers wanting to help them) they get the same welfare goodies and a resettlement contractor to help hold their hands through our welfare system and eventually to American citizenship..."

Emails Shed New Light On Clinton Server Fiasco | The Daily Caller

Emails Shed New Light On Clinton Server Fiasco | The Daily Caller:

"The email chain, which was obtained by The Daily Caller, shows that an employee for Platte River Networks joked about accessing the email accounts of employees of the Clinton Executive Services Corp., a pass-through company owned by the Clintons.

The emails, which are dated Aug. 19, 2015, also show that PRN had a would-be corporate client back out of a deal at the last minute because of its involvement in the Clinton email fiasco.

PRN provided the email chain to the Senate Homeland Security Committee last year. "

Michigan counties ranked by violent crime rate

Michigan counties ranked by violent crime rate | MLive.com


Lunch video-----Boris Johnson: Help us Change Britain


On the 23rd June the British people voted for change.
We now need to come together to determine how to best make that happen.
Join us today, and together we can change Britain: www.changebritain.org

Noon-toon

How a smartphone camera changed the discussion on Clinton's health | TheHill

How a smartphone camera changed the discussion on Clinton's health | TheHill:

"He proceeded to upload the video onto his Twitter feed, which can serve as everyone's own newsroom. As of Tuesday, more than 11 million people have viewed his Tweet, and at least hundreds of millions more worldwide have seen the video via broadcast outlets and other forms of social media such as YouTube and Facebook.

Gazda joins the growing list of citizen journalists armed with a camera and his or her own broadcast station via Twitter, YouTube, Facebook or all of the above. And if he wasn't there at that moment, you can rest assured Clinton's communication team would have been spinning the "nothing-to-see-here" line and most of the media would be spinning along a much different, muted tune. "

Illegal Immigrants Accounted for Nearly 37 Percent of Federal Sentences in FY 2014

Illegal Immigrants Accounted for Nearly 37 Percent of Federal Sentences in FY 2014 - Breitbart: "While illegal immigrants account for about 3.5 percent of the U.S population, they represented 36.7 percent of federal sentences in FY 2014 following criminal convictions, according to U.S.
Sentencing Commission data obtained by Breitbart News.
According to FY 2014 USSC data, of 74,911 sentencing cases, citizens accounted for 43,479 (or 58.0 percent), illegal immigrants accounted for 27,505 (or 36.7 percent), legal immigrants made up 3,017 (or 4.0 percent), and the remainder (about 1 percent) were cases in which the offender was either extradited or had an unknown status."

Budget Basics: Who Pays Taxes?

Budget Basics: Who Pays Taxes? | pgpf.org
"Americans pay many types of taxes
One of the biggest misconceptions about the U.S. tax code is that a large portion of Americans do not pay federal taxes. 
Although it is true that the bottom 40 percent of income earners pay no individual income tax, they face payroll taxes if they are working. 
In fact, about 90 percent of American taxpayers pay more in payroll taxes than in individual income taxes. 
Payroll taxes, which help to finance Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits, are the second largest source of federal revenue, and make up about one-third of total receipts annually. Payroll taxes are deducted from workers’ paychecks through a line item called FICA, which stands for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act."
Share of Federal Taxes Paid by Income

Romeo and Juliet and Sexting: 17-Year-Old Faces Child Porn, Assault Charges for Consensual Sex with Girlfriend

Romeo and Juliet and Sexting: 17-Year-Old Faces Child Porn, Assault Charges for Consensual Sex with Girlfriend - Hit & Run : Reason.com
"After being arrested, I was suicidal and hopeless," Austin Yabandith, a 17-year-old from Superior, Wisconsin, recalls. 
"As of right now, I am just hoping for the best and preparing for the worst."
The "worst" would be pretty bad. 
After discovering indecent photos of Austin's 15-year-old girlfriend on his cell phone—as well as a video of the couple having sex—authorities charged him with sexual assault of a child, sexual exploitation, and possession of child pornography. 
The sexual assault charge is considered a Class C felony, and carries a maximum (though unlikely) sentence of 40 years in prison. 
One might argue that a sexual predator deserves such a fate. But Austin isn't a sexual predator. He didn't assault anyone, or send child porn. 
By one important measure, he is a child himself: the age of consent in Wisconsin is 18, which means Austin is technically under-age, just like the girlfriend he is accused of exploiting. 
But Wisconsin's sex offender laws contain a curious quirk: 17-year-olds can be charged as adults—even though the law considers them to be children and incapable of consenting to sex. 
It's an absurd contradiction that calls to mind the prosecution of North Carolina 17-year-old Cormega Copening, who faced third-degree sexual exploitation charges for taking inappropriate photos of a minor. 
The teen was charged as an adult, even though he was one of the minors in question—some of the pictures were ones Copening had taken of himself.
Austin's situation is worse. 
Much worse..."
Read on!

Ron Maxwell: Hillary's Totalitarian Moment

Ron Maxwell: Hillary's Totalitarian Moment:

"The dehumanization and objectification of political adversaries as preparation and justification for mass murder came into sharp focus as an effective weapon during the French Revolution.
The specific insults morph to fit the circumstances and the times, but each insult is designed to have the same effect — to dehumanize and to objectify a group of people in opposition to the dominant group that has seized power and the legal mechanisms of the State.

Here is a partial list of the defamatory names of condemnation as utilized by tyrannical regimes as well as the fate meted out to people branded as such:"

Ivy Leaguer Brought To Tears By Trump Chalking [VIDEO]

Ivy Leaguer Brought To Tears By Trump Chalking [VIDEO] | The Daily Caller:
"Conservative activist James O’Keefe visited Columbia University’s campus in late August and brought a student to tears by showing his support for Donald Trump in chalk and cardboard bricks.
“I’m scared that you guys even think this,” a female Columbia student told O’Keefe in a video first obtained by The Daily Caller.
O’Keefe replied, “What do you mean?”
The student got distraught and said, “I don’t want my future to be this!” 
She later said, “You don’t have to make a wall. You don’t need a man like this!...”

AM Fruitcake

History for September 15


History for September 15 - On-This-Day.com
James Fenimore Cooper 1789, William H. Taft (U.S.) 1857, Robert Benchley 1889


Agatha Christie 1890, Oliver Stone 1946, Tommy Lee Jones 1946
Image result for Tommy Lee Jones

1916 - During the Battle of the Somme, in France, tanks were first used in warfare when the British rolled them onto the battlefields.


1923 - Oklahoma was placed under martial law by Gov. John Calloway Walton due to terrorist activity by the Ku Klux Klan. After this declaration national newspapers began to expose the Klan and its criminal activities.


1928 - Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin in the mold Penicillium notatum.
Image result for Alexander Fleming discovered the antibiotic penicillin

1935 - The Nuremberg Laws were enacted by Nazi Germany. The act stripped all German Jews of their civil rights and the swastika was made the official symbol of Nazi Germany.
Image result for The Nuremberg Laws

1940 - The German Luftwaffe suffered the loss of 185 planes in the Battle of Britain. The change in tide forced Hitler to abandon his plans for invading Britain.
Image result for Battle of Britain

1949 - "The Lone Ranger" premiered on ABC. Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger and Jay Silverheels was Tonto.


1950 - U.N. forces landed at Inchon, Korea in an attempt to relieve South Korean forces and recapture Seoul.


1982 - The first issue of "USA Today" was published.

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2016/09/constitution-day-by-tammy-derouin.html

Constitution Day

By Tammy Derouin

Throughout history there have been many important events.  Events, for better or worse, must be remembered to either prevent such atrocities from reoccurring or to commemorate an achievement which would forever change the path of mankind. 

Man’s exodus out of darkness has been a long and brutal journey.  Enslavement of the people by the governing establishment was, and in many cases still is, common place. Tyranny is readily available in many forms.  A dictator or a monarch may be the first examples which come to mind.  Tyranny also exists when religion is used to promote an ideology; a political agenda.  This is probably the most dangerous because many will deny or ignore the atrocities committed by such factions out of fear.  Falling for such tactics only pacifies the enemy, making them stronger. 

When extraordinary events take place they should be remembered and commemorated. By forgetting the importance of such events, by not educating our posterity and by taking our achievements and advancements for granted, we lose the ground which so many gave their lives to secure and protect.  When we do not know our history and the events which allowed man to live free, we willingly descend back into darkness.

History is brutal but it’s necessary to understand if we wish to remain free. A key factor for controlling and oppressing people is withholding information and preventing the population from learning. Lack of knowledge creates the perfect environment to manipulate the thinking process of those, the powers that be, wish to control. 

To claim transparency...... 

News - Democratic Platform Calls for End to Fossil Fuels, Prosecuting Climate Skeptics

News - Democratic Platform Calls for End to Fossil Fuels, Prosecuting Climate Skeptics | Heartland Institute:
"The energy and climate sections of the Democratic Party’s 2016 platform calls for a national mobilization to fight climate change and ending the use of fossil fuels.
The energy and climate sections of the Democratic Party’s 2016 platform, approved at the party convention in July, calls for a national mobilization to fight climate change.
Image result for Democratic Party’s 2016 platform global warmingOn page 45 of the platform, the Democratic Party agreed, “We believe the United States must lead in forging a robust global solution to the climate crisis. 
We are committed to a national mobilization, and to leading a global effort to mobilize nations, to address this threat on a scale not seen since World War II.”
The platform states climate change is an “urgent and severe threat” and calls for an 80 percent cut in carbon-dioxide emissions below 2005 levels by 2050 and getting 50 percent of the nation’s electric power from “clean energy sources” by 2025.
The platform also adopted a provision calling for the Department of Justice to investigate companies for skeptical statements they’ve made concerning the causes and consequences of climate change..."
Read on!

Michigan’s Quiet Success in Containing Retiree Health Care Costs

Michigan’s Quiet Success in Containing Retiree Health Care Costs [Mackinac Center]:
"It’s not news that government employee pension systems across the nation have promised retirees billions in pensions and not saved enough to make good on those promises.
But a related problem could pose an even greater risk to taxpayers: lifetime health insurance benefits provided through these systems.
Michigan may be showing governments across the country the way to resolve the fiscal challenge, however.
Without much fanfare, the state and many local governments have stopped offering new employees open-ended post-retirement health insurance benefits. 
In doing so, they have contained their exposure to ever-increasing premiums that could one day threaten their solvency.
Governments have tended not to set aside money to pay for those benefits as employees work, but rather pay the insurance premiums as they come due.
This means today’s taxpayers are paying payroll expenses incurred by government employees years or even decades in the past.
This is both unfair and imprudent.
If such coverage is offered at all, a better course would be to place money in a health insurance trust fund as the benefits are earned, just as pension contributions are deposited annually into pension funds.
Such prefunding is what governments are supposed to do with pensions. 
Most have fallen short, though. 
The latest Pew report tallies nearly $3.7 trillion in pension liabilities that governments acknowledge; stricter pension assumptions can inflate this figure.
Governments have saved $2.8 trillion to pay for pensions, leaving $934 billion in unfunded liabilities.
The retiree health insurance is a smaller, $627 billion gap, but fewer dollars have been set aside to pay these future benefits. 
The size of this gap is even more uncertain than that for pensions, given the employers’ exposure to rising health care costs and premiums..."