History for June 18

History for June 18 - On-This-Day.com:

International Sushi Day

Birth anniversaries of Oscar-winning songwriter Sammy Cahn (1913-93), financial journalist Sylvia Porter (1913-91), explorer and mountaineer George Mallory (1886-1924) 

Happy Birthday! Lou Brock, Paul McCartney, Isabella Rossellini

1429 - French forces defeated the English at the battle of Patay. The English had been retreating after the siege of Orleans. 


1812 - The War of 1812 began as the U.S. declared war against Great Britain. The conflict began over trade restrictions. 


1815 - At the Battle of Waterloo Napoleon was defeated by an international army under the Duke of Wellington. Napoleon abdicated on June 22. 


1873 - Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote for a U.S. President. 


1925 - The first degree in landscape architecture was granted by Harvard University. 


1942 - The U.S. Navy commissioned its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson. 


1953 - Egypt was proclaimed to be a republic with General Neguib as its first president. 


1979 - In Vienna, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) 2. 


1983 - Dr. Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. 


2009 - Greenland assumed control over its law enforcement, judicial affairs, and natural resources from the Kingdom of Denmark. Greenlandic became the official language. 

Read These Tweets About the ‘Inevitable’ Return of the ‘Caliphate’ — the Bigger Story Could Be Who Actually Wrote Them | TheBlaze.com

Read These Tweets About the ‘Inevitable’ Return of the ‘Caliphate’ — the Bigger Story Could Be Who Actually Wrote Them | TheBlaze.com:
"A senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security claimed on Friday that the takeover of Iraqi cities by a deadly terrorist group is evidence that the return of a Muslim “Caliphate” is “inevitable.”

Want to Know Just How Close the Muslim Brotherhood Is to the Obama Admin? | Video | TheBlaze.com

Want to Know Just How Close the Muslim Brotherhood Is to the Obama Admin? | Video | TheBlaze.com:
"The following is an overview of each of the Islamist figures who have found their place — in some way, shape or form — at the Obama administration’s table."

Hopee, changee still workin' for ya?--------Price Index for Meats, Poultry, Fish & Eggs Rockets to All-Time High

Price Index for Meats, Poultry, Fish & Eggs Rockets to All-Time High | CNS News:

"The seasonally-adjusted price index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs hit an all-time high in May, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)."

VIDEO: Marine Arrested and Institutionalized for Facebook Posts Critical of the Government

VIDEO: Marine Arrested and Institutionalized for Facebook Posts Critical of the Government: "Brandon Raub, a decorated Marine who was forcefully admitted to a mental health institution for posting Facebook posts that were at-odds with the Obama Administration’s political agenda, is now suing the federal government for the apparent civil rights violation."

First they destroy the family, the nightly dinner and glorify fatness. Now they want to dump broccoli on the young adults?-------First lady: Students shouldn't pick what they have for lunch

First lady: Students shouldn't pick what they have for lunch | TheHill:
"First lady Michelle Obama on Monday blasted back at critics of her school lunch program, arguing parents should ensure their children eat healthy meals.
Obama said parents and school leaders can’t let children make the call to eat pizza and burgers for lunch every day.
“If I let my kids dictate what we have for dinner every day, it would be French fries, chips and candy, but we don’t run our households like that, and we can’t run our schools like that,” the first lady said in an interview with MSN.
“Our job as adults to make sure that our kids eat what they need, not what they want,” she added.
“What we need to do is lend a hand to the schools that are struggling, not roll back the standards and say, ‘Oh, well. The kids don’t like it so let them eat cake.’ We can’t afford to do that,” she said."

White House on Missing Lerner Emails: ‘You’ve Never Heard of a Computer Crashing Before?’ | TheBlaze.com

White House on Missing Lerner Emails: ‘You’ve Never Heard of a Computer Crashing Before?’ | TheBlaze.com:
"The IRS said it could not recover an untold number of emails to and from Lois Lerner, the former head of the IRS tax-exempt organizations unit, because of a hard drive crash. That time period — from January 2009 to April 2011 – included a critical time in the IRS’ extra scrutinizing of Tea Party and other conservative groups."

If you have money in bond funds, be warned!-------A Horror-Show Called “Fed-Gate” May Be Coming To Your Bond Fund Soon

A Horror-Show Called “Fed-Gate” May Be Coming To Your Bond Fund Soon | David Stockman's Contra Corner:
"The Financial Times is not exactly a rumor mill—-so its recent headline amounts to a thunderbolt:
“Fed Looks At Exit Fees On Bond Funds”

And so the shoes begin to fall.
Owing to the Fed’s brutal financial repression since December 2008 (i.e. zero yield on short-term funds), there has been massive scramble for yield that has driven trillions into corporate and high yield bond funds.
What this means is that liquid funds which would have normally been parked in bank deposits or money market funds have been artificially displaced.
That is,  they have been chased by the dictates of the monetary politburo into far more illiquid and risky investment vehicles owing to zero yields in their preferred financial venues.
But now it is dawning on at least some of the more market savvy occupants of the Eccles Building that they have created a monumental financial log-jam waiting to happen. 
In their jargon, the migration of trillions into bond funds since the financial crisis has resulted in a sweeping “maturity transformation”.
As former governor Jeremy Stein succinctly put it,
“It may be the essence of shadow banking is … giving people a liquid claim on illiquid assets.”
What Stein means is that the traditional money markets existed for a reason—even if returns were inferior to what could be obtained in longer duration fixed income securities or investments with equity-like features such as junk bonds.
Corporations and individuals who invested in money market instruments, including bank CDs, were willing to absorb the yield penalty in return for the assurance of absolute daily liquidity that the funds in question required.
But zero return is not a market driven liquidity penalty; it is an arbitrary prohibition imposed on the market by the monetary politburo.
So now we have a giant anomaly.
Trillions of daily liquidity demanding investments are potentially stuck in bond funds which could not provide it during a crisis. 
In effect, any attempt by bond funds managers to meet a surge of redemptions calls would make the crisis surrounding the Reserve Prime Fund’s “breaking the buck” in September 2008 seem like a Sunday School picnic."

Don't forget that politically connected, greedy unions are costing you (an your family) money every day. Every hour............Cost of School Millage Approvals Inflated Because of Prevailing Wage Law

Cost of School Millage Approvals Inflated Because of Prevailing Wage Law [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
One thing voters did not get to decide in recent school millage elections was whether they wanted to pay higher wages for the construction projects that were approved in districts across the state.
Yet that's what will happen because of the state's prevailing wage law, which mandates that union scale wages be paid on construction work funded by taxpayer dollars, regardless of the winning bidder on a contract.
Unless the law is changed before the projects get under way, $35 million of the nearly $469 million voters approved for construction this month will be spent to cover the costs of the prevailing wage, according to the Associated Builders and Contractors of Michigan, a statewide trade association representing the commercial and industrial construction industries.
"Today, the majority of construction workers in Michigan — 80 percent — choose not to belong to a union, yet the state is still basing wages for publicly funded construction on fiscally irresponsible union agreements," said Chris Fisher, president of ABC of Michigan.
"We're not trying to say there was anything wrong with the voters approving the projects.
We're pointing out that the projects would be more cost effective if this outdated law was repealed."

Hopee? We sure got "changee"--------Optimism about the 2014 economy is fading

Optimism about the 2014 economy is fading - Jun. 16, 2014:
"A Census report released Friday shows health care spending was far weaker than expected in the first quarter.
As a result, economists are now forecasting the economy contracted at an annual rate of 1.5% to 2.4% in the first three months of the year, even weaker than the 1% contraction already reported by the Commerce Department. 
(The Commerce Department will revise its GDP numbers next week).
If that's the case, achieving 3% growth for 2014 overall will be next to impossible.
The economy would have to grow at around a 4.6% annual pace for the next three quarters in a row.
The United States has not had a growth spurt that strong since late 2003 to early 2004."

It's only black on white brutality. No worries. Nothing to see here, folks.......Knockout Game, Jr.? Black Teen Attacks White Child on Camera in Pre-Planned Ambush

Knockout Game, Jr.? Black Teen Attacks White Child on Camera in Pre-Planned Ambush | Truth Revolt:

"On Wednesday in Cleveland, Ohio, a 13-year-old black girl viciously attacked a 10-year-old white girl on a sidewalk while a guardian filmed the obvious pre-planned ambush.

The video was posted online and the police are now involved calling it a "hate crime."

The video shows the 13-year-old waiting in the front yard near the sidewalk seemingly minding her own business as the 10-year-old approaches on her scooter. Once in range, the teen girl lunges out and delivers over 20 blows to the helpless little girl's face and head. A female voice from behind the camera phone eventually yells out, "All right (attacker's name)!," calling off the beating."

‘They Keep Coming’: The ‘Rehearsed’ Answers Illegal Immigrants Are Using at the Border to Gain Entry Into the U.S. | TheBlaze.com

‘They Keep Coming’: The ‘Rehearsed’ Answers Illegal Immigrants Are Using at the Border to Gain Entry Into the U.S. | TheBlaze.com:
"Border Patrol agents along the southwest border have been directed not to speak with journalists after the public became aware that more than 47,000 undocumented children have illegally entered into the country over the past eight months. Most of the undocumented children crossed through the Rio Grande Valley sector and many times, they traveled alone."

Oh goody!---------------State Budget Shifts Extra Revenue Sharing Funds To Detroit

State Budget Shifts Extra Revenue Sharing Funds To Detroit [Michigan Capitol Confidential]:
"Fresh off the Michigan Legislature approving a $195 million bailout for Detroit, some elected state officials and the governor are looking to favor the city again, but this time with the statutory revenue sharing.
 Detroit is budgeted in 2014-15 to receive $140.5 million in the money taken from sales tax revenue, a $4.2 million increase from 2013-14.
That’s what is proposed in Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget, which is in committee."

Sabotage at Nogales station puts focus on threats to grid

Sabotage at Nogales station puts focus on threats to grid:
".....The Wall Street Journal publicized a detailed account of the assault in February describing how saboteurs cut telephone lines into the plant. 
Then they "surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers" by shooting at them with sniper rifles for 19 minutes, the Journal reported.
It took 27 days to return the substation to normal, and the attack was described by Jon Wellinghoff, then-chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred."
In March, Arizona Corporation Commission Chairman Bob Stump and Commissioner Bob Burns sent a letter to Arizona utilities asking about security changes they were making in the wake of the San Jose attack.
"The incident in Nogales is a troubling development that highlights the pressing need to focus our state and nation's attention and resources to increasing utility security at all levels," Stump said Thursday.
"Physical attacks against critical facilities will, I fear, become a staple of domestic and foreign terrorist attacks over the coming years.
The potential of shutting down an entire city or even the entire Eastern Seaboard will be enticing to our enemies.""

Nearly Every Mass Shooting In The Last 20 Years Shares One Thing In Common, And It Isn’t Weapons

Nearly Every Mass Shooting In The Last 20 Years Shares One Thing In Common, And It Isn’t Weapons | World Truth.TV:
Nearly every mass shooting incident in the last twenty years, and multiple other instances of suicide and isolated shootings all share one thing in common, and its not the weapons used.
The overwhelming evidence suggests the single largest common factor in all of these incidents is that all of the perpetrators were either actively taking powerful psychotropic drugs or had been at some point in the immediate past before they committed their crimes.

1. Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the public.
2. Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded
3. Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.
4. Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.

This is a LONG list of forcefully drugged young murderers. Read it.

Obama's Balloon: Federal Student Loan Debt Up 517% in 5 Years

Obama's Balloon: Federal Student Loan Debt Up 517% in 5 Years | CNS News

This Proposed Amendment Would Violate Your Right to Free Speech (But Not the Media's)

This Proposed Amendment Would Violate Your Right to Free Speech (But Not the Media's):
"Imagine if Congress passed and the president signed a law making it a crime to utter “false, scandalous and malicious” statements “against the government.” Do you think that would violate your right to free speech?
Of course it would. "

If these people made cars, half would be recalled every year------One in Five Pittsburgh Teachers Chronically Absent, Report Says

One in Five Pittsburgh Teachers Chronically Absent, Report Says | Heartlander Magazine:

PHILADELPHIA — Teachers in Pittsburgh are absent way too often, finds a new report.
Eighteen percent of teachers were “chronically absent” in 2012-13, missing more than 18 days of work, and no obvious system of consequences exists, says a report released last week by the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ), an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.
“If the district was able to reduce the number of days chronically absent teachers miss down to the current district average of 12 days, it could realize almost half a million dollars in substitute cost savings while keeping teachers of record in the classroom with their students,” the report concludes.

The unions lied. Your children's financial future died.-------A growing crisis: Public pension funds running out of money

A growing crisis: Public pension funds running out of money | Communities Digital News:
".....Roger Lowenstein, an outside director of the Sequoia Fund and author of “While America Aged,” points out that, “For years, localities and states have been skimping on what they owe.
Public pension funds are now so massively short of money to pay future claims, depending on how their liabilities are valued, the deficit ranges from $1 trillion to $3 trillion. 
Pension funds subsist on three revenue streams: contributions from the employer; contributions from the employees; and investment earnings.
But public employees have often contributed less than the actuarially determined share, in effect borrowing against retirement plans to avoid having to cut budgets or raise taxes.”
Pension funds, Lowenstein notes, also assumed that they could count on high annual returns, typically 8 per cent, on their investments: 
“In the past, many funds did earn that much, but not lately.
Thanks to high assumed returns, governments projected that they could afford to both ratchet up benefits and minimize contributions.
Except, of course, returns were not guaranteed.
Optimistic benchmarks actually heightened the risk because they forced fund managers to over-reach.”

History for June 17

History for June 17 - On-This-Day.com:

100th birth anniversary of author John Hersey (1914-93).

Birth anniversary of composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971).

Birth anniversary of John Wesley (1703-1791), cofounder of Methodism.

Happy Birthday! Tommy R. Franks, Newt Gingrich,  Barry Manilow

1775 - The British took Bunker Hill outside of Boston. 


1837 - Charles Goodyear received his first patent. The patent was for a process that made rubber easier to work with. 


1856 - The Republican Party opened its first national convention in Philadelphia. 


1876 - General George Crook’s command was attacked and defeated on the Rosebud River by 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne under the leadership of Crazy Horse. 


1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrived in New York City aboard the French ship Isere. 


1924 - The Fascist militia marched into Rome. 


1928 - Amelia Earhart began the flight that made her the first woman to successfully fly across the Atlantic Ocean. 


1930 - The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill became law. It placed the highest tariff on imports to the U.S. 


1940 - France asked Germany for terms of surrender in World War II. 


1950 - Dr. Richard H. Lawler performed the first kidney transplant in a 45-minute operation in Chicago, IL. 


1969 - Boris Spasky became chess champion of the world after checkmating former champion Tigran Petrosian in Moscow. 

Veterans Administration Docs: If We Speak Up, We Become A Target | CNS News

Veterans Administration Docs: If We Speak Up, We Become A Target | CNS News:
"Dr. Rafael Montecino, a surgeon with the VA in eastern Kansas, complained that “when you try to make things more efficient, the system is working against you. They say that you are creating a hostile environment.”
And “when you complain, or you say like ‘You know, this is not the right thing,’ then you become a target and they gang together to get you out of there,” Dr. Montecino added."

A Jihadist’s Parting Words: ‘I’ll See You Guys in New York’ | TheBlaze.com

A Jihadist’s Parting Words: ‘I’ll See You Guys in New York’ | TheBlaze.com:
"King said the fact that Al-Baghdadi was released is a source of personal frustration.
“We spent how many missions and how many soldiers were put at risk when we caught this guy (in 2005) and we just released him,” he said."

The Punishment this Student Faced for Twirling a Pencil is Outrageous!

The Punishment this Student Faced for Twirling a Pencil is Outrageous!:

"Ethan Chaplin, a Glen Meadow Middle School student, told News 12 last week that while he was twirling a pencil with a pen cap on in math class, a student who bullied him earlier in the day yelled “He’s making gun motions, send him to juvie.”
He was suspended for two days and then underwent five hours of a physical and mental exam at Riverview Medical Center’s crisis unit, his father told NJ.com.
Maranzano told the New Jersey Herald decisions are made on a case-to-case basis on how long it takes before a student returns. Once an evaluation is done, a student could potentially return the next day, he said. "

18 baby goats headed for slaughter after urban farming idea rejected in Detroit

18 baby goats headed for slaughter after urban farming idea rejected in Detroit | MLive.com:

DETROIT, MI -- Idyll Farms hoped to start a goat farm in Detroit but officials rejected the idea, calling it an illegal violation of zoning laws.

Eighteen goats from the company's herd in Northport arrived in Detroit June 6. They were removed the following day at the demand of city officials.

Idyll Farms planned to fatten the goats by feeding them the plentiful unmowed grass on abandoned lots in Detroit's Brightmoor neighborhood throughout the summer before butchering them and selling the meet to raise money to sustain ongoing urban farming initiatives.

Since the city rejected the idea, Idyll farms says the baby goats will meet a premature demise and be butchered earlier than planned.

"The goats are currently grazing somewhere else, and will be gradually processed," a representative for Idyll Farms told MLive Detroit in an email. "They cannot return to Idyll Farms because the goats there are in a closed herd and the herders never introduce animals from the outside (or even back into) the herd."