Jul 07

U.S. Postal Service has lost more than $50 billion

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Since 2007 the U.S. Postal Service has lost more than $50 billion. Its unfunded liabilities for its employees’ extravegent retirement benefits are nearly $100 billion.

This despite having every advantage in the market place. Paying no taxes (property or income); being able to keep out competition; eminent domain; prestige locations, etc.

Rural Post Offices are maintained open even though the bottom 4,500 rural locations average just 4.4 customer visits a day.

Postal workers are so overpaid that HUNDREDS OR EVEN THOUSANDS of people apply for every job opening.

Other, “socialist,” countries such as the Netherlands have fully privatized their systems and opened them to competition.

Jul 05

More sightings of the word “austerity” in headlines (it exists almost nowhere else)

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The word “austerity” means cuts in government payroll, welfare or other spending.

Many opinion writers–and even a few “journalists”–write that there is “austerity” going on in various places. Rarely do they point to any specific events.

Here is a recent example. A Huffington Post writer named Dean Baker claims in a headline that “Bill Gates Could Fund Huge XPrize To End Austerity in Europe.”

Is there “austerity” going on in Europe? Anywhere?

“Austerity” is like “deregulation.” It is often invoked; but rarely seen (no matter how desperately it is needed).

Jul 05

Yale University “environmental” center claims that Greenland ice is melting at unprecedented rates; actual data show Greenland ice is melting slower than normal

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Fascinating battle of claims regarding Greenland’s ice pack. Most elite, government-supporting institutions are heavily promoting claims that 2016 is vastly hotter than any other year in history.

Some critics suspect that supporters of the government’s manmade-global-warming theories are escalating their hysterics this year for political reasons.

In any case, Yale University’s “Environment 360” center is currently promoting claims that Greenland is experiencing “abrupt,” “unprecedented” melting of its ice pack. See here.

However, intrepid data analyst Tony Heller has studied satellite imagery of Greenland’s ice cover and concluded that Greenland’s ice is actually ABOVE NORMAL!:

The surface of the Greenland Ice Sheet has gained nearly 500 billion tons of ice since last summer. More than average.

See here.

Jul 04

Newspaper editor (and his lawyer) charged with felonies for filing public records requests

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Journalism which supports the state is probably the world’s safest profession.

Journalism which attacks, critically investigates, or undermines the state has always been one of the world’s most dangerous professions.

Now a reporter in Georgia, along with his attorney, have been arrested and charged with FELONIES for filing public records requests regarding a powerful local judge, Brenda Weaver. See here.

Jul 04

EU regs ban the claim that water can prevent dehydration

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Britons have been highly criticized for their decision last week to leave the European Union.

But the EU, like all centralizing bureaucracies, churns out stupid, expensive, life-choking regulations on a weekly basis.

For example, EU officials recently banned bottled water firms from claiming that drinking water can prevent dehydration! See here.

Jul 04

Federal regulations are choking America: We are all 75 percent poorer because of them

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According to a new time-series study by economists John Dawson of Appalachian State University and John Seater of North Carolina State,
U.S. regulations have prevented the American economy from being productive and inventive. Because of this, U.S. GDP is just $16 trillion instead of $54 trillion.

Ronald Bailey writes that “the growth of federal regulations over the past six decades has cut U.S. economic growth by an average of 2 percentage points per year.”

“As a result, the average American household receives about $277,000 less annually than it would have gotten in the absence of six decades of accumulated regulations.” ­

See here.

Jul 03

GAO discovers that some federal employees take YEAR-LONG vacations at taxpayer expense

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Federal workers are practically gods walking among us. They are so overpaid and overrewarded with benefits that they represent modern feudal overlords overseeing peasants.

A new study by the GAO has found that it is not unheard of for federal employees in the Department of Homeland Security to take entire months off of work–and in some cases entire years off–PAID entirely by the taxpayers. See here.

They do this by manipulating sick and leave time, and “trading” such off-time among each other. “Depending on the department and the length of service, each federal employee receives . . . . 4 to 8 hours of both sick and vacation leave [per pay period (every 2 weeks) which accrues.”

That means some employees are receiving 7.8 weeks of vacation each year.

On top of this, if someone needs additional leave for personal or medical emergency, they may receive vacation leave transferred from a fellow employee.

About 2% of all federal employees–4,281 people–went on leave for longer than three months during the fiscal years 2011 through 2013.

219 employees of the DHS alone went on PAID leave for 6 -12 months.

“[O]ver the five years of the study (from 2011-2015), 116 DHS employees were on administrative leave for more than a year costing us over $19.8 million.”

Jul 02

Secret government documents reveal 90 percent of persons killed by U.S. drones have not been the intended targets

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“Secret government documents leaked to The Intercept by a whistleblower show that, according to official figures, 90 percent of people killed in U.S. drone strikes in a five-month period in provinces on Afghanistan’s eastern border with Pakistan were not the intended targets.”

See here (Salon).

And here (The Intercept).

Jun 26

Yale Law School Dean pronounces that climate skepticism is “fraud”

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Former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas once noted that authorities who violate freedom of speech and press always claim they are doing something else.

“Protecting public order,” “preventing violence,” and “stopping terrorism or treason” are common excuses offered by tyrants who defy the First Amendment.

Now, the DEAN of Yale Law School is openly claiming that skepticism of the government’s man-made-carbon-dioxide-global-warming theory falls into a “fraud” exception to the First Amendment. See here. Thus, according to this high-level law professor, government can forcibly suppress such speech.

Jun 26

Contradicting hundreds of news reports, Greenland’s ice surface is well above normal for the date

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Hundreds of newspaper articles and posts on “mainstream” (meaning government-supporting and supported) websites have proclaimed a recent “acceleration” in melting of ice in Greenland.

In fact, satellite footage and data show that the ice pack in Greenland (as mid-summer approaches) is actually above normal.

“Greenland’s surface has gained 530 billion tons of ice since last summer, and is tracking well above normal.” See here.