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What's the next big financial crisis? Bankrupt public-employee pensions


Investor's Business Daily
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 00:00 UTC
$50bill on map
© Thomas White/Reuters
Pension Crisis: As the media relentlessly focus on the federal government's burgeoning debt, a new report says that states face their own ticking debt bomb: the exploding liabilities for lavish state and local public-employee pensions. Reform won't be easy, but there is no choice.

A new report by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that the problem is getting out of hand. In 2016, the most recent full year for which data are available, states were more than $1.4 trillion in the red. Pension debt has increased for 15 straight years, and shows no signs of abating.

Indeed, as Reason blogger Eric Boehm notes, "The really scary part is that pension debt keeps increasing despite the fact that taxpayers' contributions to state-level pension plans have doubled as a share of state revenue in the past decade."

Worse still, as performance lags expectations, desperate pension fund managers have gone in for increasingly risky investments - meaning that workers' pensions might not be as safe as they think.

The Pew report is blunt:
"Many state retirement systems are on an unsustainable course, coming up short on their investment targets and having failed to set aside enough money to fund the pension promises made to public employees."
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Bomb

Silence from UK govt reprehensible after deadly Saudi-led airstrike on Yemeni wedding


RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 12:40 UTC
plane soldier
© Ali Owidha / Reuters
The UK has come under fire for failing to criticize a reported deadly airstrike by Saudi Arabia-led forces on a wedding party in Yemen. Anti-arms campaigners denounced the government's ongoing Saudi weapons sales.

According to Khaled al-Nadhri, a leading health official, the majority of the 20 dead were women and children. The crowd had gathered in a tent for the wedding in the district of Bani Qayis, reports the Independent. Hospital chief Mohammed al-Sawmali says 46 people who were injured in the attack, including the groom, were brought to the local al-Jomhouri hospital to receive treatment.

Many on Twitter have questioned why there has not been any response from the UK government to the latest reports of civilian deaths in Yemen, orchestrated by Saudi Arabia. Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) notes the Saudis have bought "£4.6 billion [US$6.4 billion] worth of arms" from the UK since March 2015. The UK government has been quick to criticize other reported attacks on civilians, including those in Syria.

Comment: For more on this airstrike, see also: Upwards of 50 killed in Saudi-led air strikes on Yemeni wedding

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Heart - Black

Left-wing hypocrisy and Twitter mobs

Meghan Murphy
Quillette
Mon, 23 Apr 2018 17:50 UTC
inquisition tribunal painting Goya
© Francisco Goya / Google Art Project
"The Inquisition Tribunal"
I grew up working class, and proud. My father was a Marxist who was active in the labour movement, campaigned for Canada's left-wing New Democratic Party, and educated me about the harms of capitalism. Throughout my teen years and young adulthood, I never questioned which side I was on. To this day, I remain steadfast in my belief that everyone deserves access to affordable housing, free health care, and advanced education. I believe that poverty is unacceptable and that wealth is unethical. I believe racism and sexism are embedded within our society. I'm pink, through and through.

But politics aren't just about words and ideas. They're also about ethics and action -- both personal and political. And though I remain a leftist in my principles, I can no longer stand in solidarity with former fellow travellers whose ethics are dictated by social convenience, who prioritize retweets over free inquiry, democracy, and debate, and who respond to disagreement with calls for censorship (or worse). These feelings aren't new for me. But they've recently come into sharper focus.

Comment: Ms. Murphy finds herself in good company:

Lindsay Shepherd: A short video statement on why I no longer call myself a leftist



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Eye 2

'Globalism is spiritual and demonic at its core', say US theologians

Alex Newman
New American
Fri, 30 Sep 2016 19:37 UTC
Globalism
As the radical ideology of globalism comes under increasing pressure worldwide, a number of prominent theologians are joining the discussion, blasting the internationalist movement as "demonic" and even "anti-Christ" in nature. With a link on the subject to the widely read Christian Post appearing this week on the influential Drudge Report, the sharp criticism is making major waves worldwide. But the argument is hardly new.

Of course, critics of globalism who deal primarily in the physical realm have long attacked globalists and their political schemes to subvert national sovereignty as dangerous, totalitarian, extreme, kooky, fringe - even treasonous. But as globalism becomes politically toxic around the world and across the political spectrum, the spiritual implications of globalism are coming under fresh scrutiny too.

There are numerous different definitions of globalism. Until recently, even the word itself was relatively obscure, used mostly by the alternative media to describe the views of establishment figures pushing what they themselves tout as the "New World Order." At the core of globalism as it is presented publicly, though, is the idea that nation-states and borders need to give way to international governing institutions such as the United Nations, the European Union, and other outfits.

Critics oppose the scheming for a broad range of reasons. For one, globalism aims to disenfranchise citizens and strip them of their right to self-government at the local, state, and national level in favor of what is euphemistically referred to as "global governance." If "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely," as the old saying goes, the implications of total power at the global level are obvious. And that is just the start of the problem. Globalists tend to be fanatically anti-liberty, too.

Comment: This is interesting, but it should also borne in mind that the vehicle of 'globalism' for the past 150 years or so has been - at least in part - the USA's evangelizing 'liberty' across the whole world.

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Bizarro Earth

Top liberal think-tank that issued policy proposals for sexual harassment facing allegations of sexual harassment


RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:44 UTC
Clinton Neera Tanden
© Yuri Gripas / Reuters
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) smiles next to President of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden, October 24, 2013.
A leading liberal think tank run by a longtime adviser to former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is facing allegations of serious sexual harassment which went undealt with by management, a new report claims.

The Centre for American Progress (CAP), headed by Clinton associate Neera Tanden, has released four policy proposal papers on dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace, but former staffers have come forward with stories of repeated harassment at the think tank, BuzzFeed reports.

In an exit memo, one former employee named only as Mary told her colleagues that she and others had faced "retaliation"for coming forward. She said that the worsening environment and treatment by supervisors outweighed "the seemingly positive act" of reporting the harassment.
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Info

Armenia isn't undergoing a color revolution - Armenians are just fed up with Sargsyan

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:13 UTC
armenia protests
One of the great problems caused by the US's 'colour revolution/regime change' policy is that it is sometimes difficult to separate a genuine political crisis and real protests from US confected ones.

Recent events in Armenia provide a good example.

Over the last week Armenia's has been hit by a massive wave of protests following the ruling party's attempt to appoint Armenia's longstanding leader and former President Serzh Sargsyan to the post of executive Prime Minister.

The protests, with took place in several cities including the capital Yerevan and in which by some accounts some members of the military joined in eventually led to the forced resignation of Prime Minister Sargsyan and of his government.

Talks are now underway on setting up a new government.

Comparisons with the events in Ukraine in 2013-2014 are irresistible, and many see in the events in Armenia a repeat of those events, with a 'pro-Russian' leader - Sargsyan - ousted by pro-Western protesters in what is essentially a 'colour revolution' coup orchestrated by the US.

In my opinion this comparison is misleading and is almost certainly wrong.
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Heart - Black

British woman escapes after being repeatedly raped and held as sex slave in Italy


RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:11 UTC
Woman trafficking
© baytunc / Getty Images
A British woman imprisoned for weeks as a sex slave in Europe has escaped, smashing through a window to flee from her attacker. She was then rescued after police traced her phone signal to an isolated home in southwest Italy.

The woman, from northern England, had been living in Germany for work when she met Mamadou Jallow through Facebook. The Burkina Faso national convinced her to visit friends of his in Italy.

Once there, the Briton was bundled into a room where her phone was taken from her and she was imprisoned for two weeks, during which she was repeatedly raped by Jallow, 37, and two of his friends. Her bank account was also emptied.
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Bullseye

Wannabe 'Russian disinformation expert' Ben Nimmo outed for spreading disinformation about so-called Russian trolls


RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 16:41 UTC
Ben Nimmo
© Channel 4
Defense analyst and wannabe Kremlinologist Ben Nimmo, reportedly responsible for wrongly 'outing' a genuine Twitter user as a 'Russian troll,' has been attempting to backtrack, much to the amusement of social media users.

The head of the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Labs, described by The Times as "an expert on Russian disinformation," has been studying the activity of suspected pro-Russia Twitter users over the last couple of months. In his analysis, Nimmo identified Twitter user @Ian56789 as a 'Kremlin troll.'

The claim was challenged when @Ian56789, whose real name is Ian Shilling, was interviewed by Sky News after he had his Twitter account suspended following a spate of 100 tweets a day during a 12-day period from April 7, reaching 23 million users. Shilling is a middle-aged, self-described "ordinary British citizen" who likes to do his own independent research on issues, suggested in his interview that he's been targeted due to his non-mainstream views on major issues.

Comment: See more:

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Robot

Twitter bots are bad! (Unless they push the 'right' story)


RT
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 16:07 UTC
twitter bot matrix background
© Donald Iain Smith / Getty Images
In what should be a source of embarrassment to the British government and the journalists who parroted it, a number of prominent Twitter users have recently been accused of being automated Russian bots rather than real humans.

Two of these government-identified "bots" are the accounts @Ian56789 and @Partisangirl - and they are in fact definitely not bots, but real live people. In the case of @Partisangirl, whose real name is Maram Susli, any three-year old could have figured out that she is a real person simply by viewing the multiple videos and interviews she has posted online in recent years.

But Guardian journalist Heather Stewart didn't do that. Instead she unquestioningly reported the 'news' that Susli is a bot.
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Sheeple

Sowing more confusion: Brit tabloid headlines 'Is this the face of the assassin Russia sent to kill Sergey Skripal?'

Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Tue, 24 Apr 2018 15:08 UTC
skripal mystery man possible suspect
A British newspaper says so.... Media reports suggest British authorities still in the dark about the Skripal case

Two British newspapers - The Sunday People (which is a tabloid) and the Times of London (which is not) - have published very similar stories about a supposed breakthrough in the Skripal case.

The Times of London as usual is somewhat more measured.

Firstly it reports the interesting fact (based on a report drawn from the Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets) that Yulia Skripal's Russian fiancé is refusing to reply to her calls, causing her deep distress
The fiancé of Yulia Skripal, who was poisoned by a nerve agent in Salisbury, works at an organisation with links to the Russian security services and has gone into hiding.

Stepan Vikeev, 30, has not been seen since Yulia, 33, and her father, Sergei, 66, a former Russian military intelligence officer, were poisoned last month, the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper reported.

Mr Vikeev has not answered Ms Skripal's calls since she was discharged from hospital and deleted all his social media accounts after the attack, for which the government has blamed Russia.....

The newspaper said that Ms Skripal was "hysterical" when Mr Vikeev failed to return her telephone calls.

Comment: Keep Calm & Blame Russia: RT Documentary on Inconvenient Facts in Skripal Saga

There are many more possible explanations for the Skripal incident than the British government is presenting, including a few that will never be seen in mainstream media.

Former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan Craig Murray wrote one week after the incident in early March:
Israel has the nerve agents. Israel has Mossad, which is extremely skilled at foreign assassinations. Theresa May claimed Russian propensity to assassinate abroad as a specific reason to believe Russia did it. Well, Mossad has an even greater propensity to assassinate abroad. And while I am struggling to see a Russian motive for damaging its own international reputation so grievously, Israel has a clear motivation for damaging the Russian reputation so grievously. Russian action in Syria has undermined the Israeli position in Syria and Lebanon in a fundamental way, and Israel has every motive for damaging Russia's international position by an attack aiming to leave the blame on Russia.


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