New York Teamsters approve slashing benefits to retired members

New York Teamsters approve slashing benefits to retired members:
"WILMINGTON, Del. (Reuters) - Retired members of the Teamsters union in New York will have their benefits cut by around 30 percent starting in October after the 34,000 participants in the pension approved a plan aimed at extending the life of the cash-strapped fund.
Monthly pensions for retired teamsters from nine New York local unions who have 30 years' service will be cut on average to $3,550 from $5,000, according to plan trustees.
Members who are working would also have benefits cut.
The vote by participants in the New York State Teamsters Conference Pension and Retirement Fund sparked an outcry on social media, in part because defeating the proposal required a majority "no" vote by eligible voters.
Votes against the cuts topped votes for the cuts 9,788 to 4,081, but 20,767 eligible participants did not vote, so the cuts were approved, according to the U.S. Treasury..."
Read on!

Video of Dog Giving Nazi Salutes Earns Man Hate Crime Charge - Hit & Run : Reason.com

Video of Dog Giving Nazi Salutes Earns Man Hate Crime Charge - Hit & Run : Reason.com:
"A case out the United Kingdom is a perfect example of why legislation restricting "hate speech" is a terrible idea.
In April 2016, Mark Meecham of Coatbridge, Scotland, posted a YouTube video of his girlfriend's dog Buddha responding to the words "seig heil" by raising his paw in a Nazi salute and responding to the question "Do you want to gas the Jews?" by jumping to attention.
According to Meecham, the video was intended to prank his partner's overdone admiration for her admittedly adorable pet.
"My girlfriend is always ranting and raving about how cute and adorable her wee dog is. 
so I thought I would turn him into the least cute thing I could think of, which is a Nazi," he says at the beginning of the video, titled M8 Yer Dugs A Nazi."
Meecham's video quickly went viral, racking up some three million views and sparking reactions of both amusement and offense.
Then police showed up at his door and arrested him for a hate crime..."

Read on!

#1 This day 1979-----The Knack - My Sharona (1979)

Coverup: Benghazi Contractors Reveal What Hillary's State Dept. Ordered Them to Do After Attack

Coverup: Benghazi Contractors Reveal What Hillary's State Dept. Ordered Them to Do After Attack:
"Two security contractors at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi have claimed they were pressured to stay silent about security deficiencies at the site and the scrambled to improve them in the weeks before it was attacked in 2012, Fox News reported.
In a story that aired on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Tuesday, five years after the attack, Brad Owens and Jerry Torres of Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions told Fox News that Hillary Clinton’s State Department had ordered them to be quiet about security lapses. 
...While TAES had bid on the contract, the men noted that the deck was stacked against them by what the State Department considered “technically acceptable...”

You ought to know!

Clinton State Department silenced them on Benghazi security lapses, contractors say | Fox News

Clinton State Department silenced them on Benghazi security lapses, contractors say | Fox News:

"Security at the State Department's Benghazi compound was so dire that another contractor was brought in to clean up the mess just two weeks before the 2012 terror attack – and was later pressured to keep quiet by a government bureaucrat under then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to two men from the American security company."

Clinton: 'I Am Not Someone Who Will Say Things That Aren't True' | Daily Wire

Clinton: 'I Am Not Someone Who Will Say Things That Aren't True' | Daily Wire
“I am not someone who will say things that aren’t true,” said Hillary Clinton in a Tuesday-published interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein.

Clinton framed herself as politically disadvantaged by her honest disposition relative to Barack Obama in 2008 and Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in 2016.
Partial transcript below:

I can’t change who I am. 
I knew that. 
I knew that I am not someone who will say things that aren’t true, that will not take responsibility. 
I had to run as me. …
I care about being absolutely as accurate as possible. …I didn’t want to be either not telling the truth about what was going to happen [with any of my policy proposals] and not being responsible about what I thought we could do and get done together..."
Watch Clinton’s comments below:

“I don’t think I’m held to the same standard as anybody else,” said Clinton, portraying herself as uniquely and acutely scrutinized by the broader news media..."

Read on!

AM Fruitcake

History for September 16

History for September 16 - On-This-Day.com
Louis XIV (France) 1638, J.C. Penney 1875, Allen Funt 1914


Lauren Bacall 1924, B.B. King 1925, Charlie Byrd 1925
 

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.


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


1940 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act, which set up the first peacetime military draft in U.S. history.


1940 - Samuel T. Rayburn of Texas was elected Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He served for 17 years.


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


1965 - "The Dean Martin Show" debuted on NBC-TV.


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


1974 - U.S. President Ford announced a conditional amnesty program for draft-evaders and deserters during the Vietnam War.

Awans Funneled Data to Secret Server | The Daily Caller

Awans Funneled Data to Secret Server | The Daily Caller:

"A secret server is behind law enforcement’s decision to ban a former IT aide to Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz from the House network.
Now-indicted former congressional IT aide Imran Awan allegedly routed data from numerous House Democrats to a secret server. "

The way we were-----The Hollies - Long Cool Woman (In A Black Dress) [v2] [Lyrics] [1080p] [HD]

Boob-tube-----THE FLINTSTONES: Original TV Pilot (1959) [HD 1080 Remastered]

Equifax had 'admin' as login and password in Argentina - BBC News

Equifax had 'admin' as login and password in Argentina - BBC News
"The credit report provider Equifax has been accused of a fresh data security breach, this time affecting its Argentine operations.
Cyber-crime blogger Brian Krebs said that an online employee tool used in the country could be accessed by typing "admin" as both a login and password.
He added that this gave access to records that included thousands of customers' national identity numbers.
Last week, the firm revealed a separate attack affecting millions in the US.
After being notified of the latest breach, Equifax temporarily shut the affected website.
..."We immediately acted to remediate the situation, which affected a limited amount of information strictly related to Equifax employees..."

Two Models | Belmont Club

Two Models | Belmont Club
"For most of recorded human history men have dealt with the weather in two ways: adaptation and amelioration. 
When sea levels rose, men moved cities inland. 
But for the first time, policy makers don’t want to adapt to climate, they want to change the climate itself. 
Perhaps no one put it more clearly than Barack Obama in his 2008 nomination speech. 
Now the seas would fall.  
Describing the significance of his vision Obama said, “this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”

The current program put forward by climate change advocates is frankly one of weather engineering.

Policy makers are going to change the quantity of carbon in the atmosphere by taxing energy consumption -- and thereby reduce carbon. 

“A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon content of fuels…. 

From an economic perspective, carbon taxes are a type of Pigovian tax [intended to correct an inefficient market outcome ... by being set equal to the social cost of the negative externalities]”

That’s how we’re going to save the world, through Pigovian taxes.

In general governments and big companies (which benefit from government largesse) like Pigovian taxes..."

Hillary Lies about Trump’s Inaugural Address | National Review

Hillary Lies about Trump’s Inaugural Address | National Review:

"President Donald J. Trump’s inaugural address was “a cry from the white-nationalist gut,” the Duchess of Chappaqua proclaimed on Sunday while pitching What Happened, her brand-new, blame-all extravaganza about why her Oval Office bid crashed and burned. As she further pronounced in an audience that she granted to CBS News: “What an opportunity to say, ‘Okay, I’m proud of my supporters, but I’m president of all Americans.’ That’s not what we heard at all.”

Wrong!

Five Cities That Got F*cked by Hosting the Olympics - Reason.com

Five Cities That Got F*cked by Hosting the Olympics - Reason.com
"Every four years with the Olympics, municipalities compete to host the winter and summer games and virtually always plunge their cities and sometimes even their home countries into massive debt and insolvency.

Why? Because host cities inevitably spend double or more over initial estimates, fewer people show up than expected, and the International Olympic Committee, or IOC, takes bigger and bigger cuts of TV and other revenue streams. 
Sports economist Andrew Zimbalist says that a typical Summer Olympics generates up to $6 billion in revenue, at least half of which goes to the IOC. 
Winter Games generate even less money despite often being more expensive to host than Summer Games. 
Cities routinely claim that whatever money they spend on new facilities will stimulate the local economy for decades to come.
With the recent announcement that Paris will host the 2024 Summer Games and Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Games, here are five cities that got fucked by hosting the Olympics.

Athens, Greece, 2004.

Athens is the birthplace of the ancient games that inspired today's modern municipal money pits. Its 2004, Games cost $16 billion, or 10 times the original estimate. By 2010, more than half the venues built for the event were underused, completely empty, or literally falling apart..."
Read on!

Portland Police Nix Gang Database. Due to Lack of White Gangs. Yes, Really... » Louder With Crowder

Portland Police Nix Gang Database. Due to Lack of White Gangs. Yes, Really... » Louder With Crowder
"Anyone who lives near a city knows how much of a problem gangs are. 
If you’re downtown after dark, you could very well get caught in a crossfire between mental midgets who think it’s perfectly acceptable to murder somebody for wearing the wrong color. 
So, over the years, the authorities created resources to help catch these lead-slinging douchenuggets. 
But now, Portland is nixing their gang database. 
Because there aren’t enough white gangs on the list. 
Yes, really…

Portland police will no longer maintain a database of suspected gang members, due to concerns that the vast majority of people with the gang label are racial minorities.

Starting Oct. 15, the Portland Police Bureau will end the 20-year practice of issuing gang member designations, which police say can lead to “unintended consequences” and a lifelong stigma even for those who have given up the gang lifestyle..."

Lunch video-----Europe Is Killing Itself

Noon-toon

Georgia teacher removed from classroom after comparing Trump slogan to swastika | Fox News

Georgia teacher removed from classroom after comparing Trump slogan to swastika | Fox News:

"A Georgia teacher who told students in her math class that they are not allowed to wear “Make America Great Again” T-shirts because the campaign slogan is akin to a swastika, will no longer be teaching in the classroom."

‘They put bows on them’: Venezuelan plan to encourage rabbit-eating amid food shortages goes awry as people adopt them as pets

‘They put bows on them’: Venezuelan plan to encourage rabbit-eating amid food shortages goes awry as people adopt them as pets:
Mr Bernal blamed a "cultural problem," explaining to Tuesday's cabinet meeting: 

"A lot of people give names to rabbits, put on a bow, they take it to their house, they take the rabbit to sleep in their bed."
But, he insisted, Venezuelans must adjust their attitudes towards rabbits and see them "from the point of view of the economic war".

Hurricanes, Rainfall, and Climate Change - Just Facts

Hurricanes, Rainfall, and Climate Change - Just Facts

The Claims

While Hurricane Irma was razing the Caribbean and barreling toward Florida, climate scientist David Hastings told the Washington Post, “Hurricane Harvey and Irma should resolve any doubt that climate change is real.” Likewise:

• CNN’s Ron Brownstein reported during Hurricane Harvey, “There is no doubt that climate change, particularly because of warming the ocean waters and the gulf waters, makes storms like this more common.”
• Meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote in Politico that “climate change is making rainstorms everywhere worse, but particularly on the Gulf Coast.”
• The BBC’s Laura Trevelyan stated, “Of course we do have a changing climate we do have warming waters. With more warming waters, you get more moisture coming into the atmosphere, and what hurricanes absolutely love is moisture because that gives them rainfall. And that’s what’s happened in this situation with Hurricane Harvey...”

...Summary

Certain media outlets have linked hurricanes Harvey and Irma to global warming by ignoring wide-ranging facts and cherry-picking timeframes, geographical locations, report contents, and the opinions of scientists. 

As explained in an academic book about analyzing data, “One of the worst abuses of analytics is to cherry pick results. Cherry pickers tout analysis findings when the results serve the purpose at hand. But, they ignore the findings when the results conflict with the original plan.”

Read on to see the facts!

#1 This week 1968-----Harper Valley P.T.A. movie clip / singer Jeannie C. Riley

Customers Angry After National Anthem Silenced At Buffalo Wild Wings « CBS Los Angeles

Customers Angry After National Anthem Silenced At Buffalo Wild Wings « CBS Los Angeles
"EASTVALE (CBSLA.com) — The National Anthem is the focus of controversy again, this time at a bar in Riverside County.
Customers at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Eastvale say an employee refused to let them hear the anthem before an NFL game Monday night – which happened to be the 16th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
...When he was asked why, the employee — who was not identified – said the anthem is too controversial, and it was company policy not to play it..."