Category: SILICON VALLEY

Mish: Chicago Headed For Insolvency, Get The Hell Out Now!

By Tyler Durden – 11/04/2019

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Teachers Union reached agreement on a deal sure to send Chicago over the cliff.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board blasts Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot for her deal with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The deal will further wreak havoc on the already insolvent school system.

Who will be hurt most?

The WSJ answers the question this way: Union Routs Students in Chicago.

Contract Details

  1. 16% raise over five years (not including raises based on longevity)
  2. Three-year freeze on health insurance premiums
  3. Lower insurance copays
  4. Caps on class sizes
  5. More than 450 new social workers and nurses.
  6. New job protections for substitute teachers who going forward may only be removed after conferring with the union about “performance deficiencies.”
  7. Chicago Public Schools will become a “sanctuary district,” meaning school officials won’t be allowed to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order.
  8. Employees will be allowed 10 unpaid days for personal immigration matters.
  9. Under the new contract, a joint union-school board committee will be convened to “mitigate or eliminate any disproportionate impacts of observations or student growth measures” on teacher evaluations.
  10. Instead of student performance, teachers will probably be rated on more subjective measures, perhaps congeniality in the lunchroom.
  11. The new union contract caps the number of charter-school seats, so no new schools will be able to open without others closing.

Get the Hell Out

The WSJ commented “Michelle Obama the other day complained that white people were leaving the city to escape minorities who are moving in. No, they’re fleeing Chicago’s high taxes and lousy schools—and so are minorities.”

Chicago Public School Bond Ratings

CAP

You can kiss those positive and stable outlooks goodbye. The system is insolvent and this contract will further weaken the outlook.

Bond Rating Comparison

 

CAP

S&P already has CPS bonds in the “highly” speculative area, five steps into its junk ratings.

Pension Spiking

A Chicago Teacher’s Pension is based on your years of service and a pension percentage (up to 75%), multiplied by your final average salary. Their union notes “There are ways to increase these factors to enhance your pension or meet eligibility requirements.”

Let’s Discuss Pensions

Wirepoints asks Chicago Teachers Strike: Why is No One Talking About Pensions?

The average retired CPS teacher already receives a pension of nearly $55,000 a year, according to a 2019 FOIA request to the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund.

However, looking at the pension of an average teacher far understates the true size of CPS pensions. The “average” benefit includes teachers who only worked a few years for CPS, which brings down the average.

To get a more accurate picture of what pensions are really worth, look at career teachers. Over half of all currently retired CPS teachers worked 30 years or more. On average, they receive a $72,000 annual pension and began drawing benefits at age 61.

In comparison, the average annual Social Security payment in Chicago is just $16,000 and the maximum benefit for someone retiring at age 62 is $26,500.

C-O-L-A Cola, la la la Payola

CAP

The average career CPS pension will grow by 3 percent, compounded annually, due to the COLA benefits teachers get. That will double a teacher’s annual benefit to over $140,000 in 25 years.

Teacher Contributions

CAP

CAP

Those projections were based on the proposed contract. The CTU held out for even more benefits and got them.

Pension Funding Level

The Chicago Tribune notes that the end of 2018, City Hall’s pension funds had only 23% of what they should have.

By 2023, Lightfoot must find an additional $989 million a year for pensions, according to the Tribune’s Hal Dardick and Juan Perez Jr. Thank you, former mayors and aldermen, for promising more pension benefits than Chicagoans could afford.

Who Will Pay?

That one is easy.

  • The kids will suffer because charter schools are reined in, grading standards lowered, and incompetents were given further projections.
  • Taxpayers will face higher property taxes, higher gas taxes, and higher sales taxes with every penny going to pensions.

Get the Hell Out

On October 5, I commented Escape Illinois: Get The Hell Out Now, We Are

Goodbye Illinois. Hello Utah. See my reasons for Utah above.

If you can’t get out of Illinois, do the second best thing, Get the Hell Out of Chicago.

By the way, Chicago is not “headed” for insolvency, it’s already there, but it is just not recognized yet.

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Ilhan Omar at Bernie Sanders Rally: “I Am Beyond Honored and Excited for a President Who Will Fight Against Western Imperialism”

by Kristinn Taylor

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) decried U.S. “genocide” and “western imperialism” in a speech at a Bernie Sanders rally in Minneapolis Sunday night at the University of Minnesota’s Williams Arena. In her speech, Omar, who endorsed Sanders two weeks ago, accused the United States of “genocide” against Native Americans and said of Sanders, “I am beyond honored and excited for a President who will fight against western imperialism and fight for a just world. I am excited, I am excited for President Bernie Sanders!”

Sanders and Omar embraced on stage and then held hands aloft in solidarity before the cheering crowd.

Short excerpt from Omar’s speech:

The Sanders-Omar rally was moved to UM’s larger (14,625 seats) Williams Arena from the 2,700 seat Northrop Auditorium to meet demand. Sanders does not appear to have come any where close to a capacity crowd as the photo below shows the upper bowl completely empty.

CAP

 

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Speier Says Democrats Plan To Release Transcripts Of Impeachment Testimony This Week

Posted By Tim Hains

California Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that the transcripts from the House impeachment inquiry are going to be released in the coming week, calling them “very telling.”

A member of the House Intelligence Committee, Speier says that the public will see “all of the transcripts that are going to be released, probably within the next five days.”

“I think the transcripts are going to start to be released next week, and that’s going to give the American people an eye on exactly what we have heard, and what we have heard is growing evidence of grounds for impeachment,” she said.

“I don’t know if they’re all going to be released on the same day, but they’re going to be very telling to the American people. There’s no question now whether there’s a quid pro quo,” she said.

“I don’t know if they’re all going to be released on the same day, but they’re going to be very telling to the American people,” she added. “There is no question now whether there was a quid pro quo, and now the question the Republicans are trying to throw out is, ‘Well, was there corrupt intent?’ Wel corrupt intent is defined in part by whether the president has lied.”

“I think they’re going to begin very soon,” Speier said. “We have one more week of interviews that will take place and then I’m pretty confident we’re going the move into a public hearing setting in which the House Intelligence Committee, along with the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Oversight Committees, will start to place in the public’s hands the information.”

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LONG TIME CLINTON ADVISOR: ‘HILLARY IS RUNNING; FEELS SHE WAS PUT ON EARTH TO BE PRESIDENT’

Long Time Clinton Advisor: 'Hillary Is Running; Feels She Was Put On Earth To Be President'

“Make no mistake. She wants it,” he added.”She’s planning on it. She’ll do everything she can to achieve it.”

Steve Watson  – OCTOBER 29, 2019

Rumors that Hillary Clinton will once again run for President continue to abound. The latest comes in the form of long time Clinton advisor Dick Morris insisting that Hillary will become the Democratic nominee because she believes ‘she was put on Earth to be President’.

Morris served as an advisor to Bill Clinton while he was in the White House, and has ties to both Clintons going back decades.

“She feels entitled to do it. She feels compelled to do it. She feels that God put her on the Earth to do it.” Morris said during a recent interview.

“She’s hesitant because she realizes the timing is bad. In the old issue of sexual harassment, the focus has shifted from the perpetrator to the victims…when your focus is on the predator, that’s Bill Clinton’s problem, but when you look at the victim’s…that’s her.” Morris added, arguing that Hillary’s efforts to ignore her husband’s sexual indiscretions are taking a toll.

Morris claimed that Hillary is waiting for Joe Biden to inevitably drop out.

“She’s got to wait until Biden drops out because he’s obviously next in line for it, and if he goes away, there’s an opening for her,” Morris said.

“Make no mistake. She wants it,” he added.”She’s planning on it. She’ll do everything she can to achieve it.” he added.

In the past few weeks, Hillary has made several comments indicating she is at least considering another run.

During an appearance on PBS Newshour, Clinton teased a 2020 run against Donald Trump by bizarrely asserting, “Obviously I can beat him again.”

Clinton then fanned the flames of speculation about a third run for president again when she tweeted at Trump, “Don’t tempt me.”

Screen Shot 2019-10-29 at 2.29.43 PM

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Baltimore Police FOP Posts Shock Video of Gang of Thugs Wielding Guns on Neighborhood Street

By Kristinn Taylor – Oct 29, 2019

The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 3 posted a video it says was recently taken from social media showing a gang of teenagers and young men wielding handguns as they rapped and danced for a video recording in the street of a crime-ridden Baltimore neighborhood. One rapper is seen flashing a spread of money including hundred dollar bills. The FOP complained that this is what they have to deal with in a city so poorly run it can’t even control “squeegee kids” harassing motorists.

 

“This was posted to social media just days before a recent murder in the same O’Donnell Heights neighborhood. This is what our Cops are facing under the current administration. They can’t even find a way to resolve the squeegee issue let alone this! #CityinCrisis”

The people in the video appear to be all black with the exception of a lone young white male seen on the far edge of the gang toward the end of the video clip.

Excerpt from the Baltimore Sun report on the recent murder in O’Donnell Heights:

A 32-year-old man was shot to death Sunday afternoon in O’Donnell Heights in Southeast Baltimore, Baltimore Police wrote on Facebook on Sunday night.

Southeast District officers responded to a report of a shooting at the 6100 block of Boston St. at approximately 4:15 p.m. They located a man who was suffering from gunshot wounds to the body. The victim was transported to Johns Hopkins Hospital at Bayview where, police wrote, he was pronounced dead a short time later…

The “squeegee kids” problem the FOP mentioned was detailed in a local TV report earlier this year:

Excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for O’Donnell Heights:

O’Donnell Heights is a neighborhood named for a public housing development in the far southeastern part of the city of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is located south and east of Interstate 95, just west of the border with Baltimore County, and north of the St. Helena neighborhood.

The community was built to house factory workers during World War II. Today operated by the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, the original 900 unit development was modernized in 1983. The neighborhood, which also contains privately owned and rented rowhouses, is separated from Highlandtown by highways, cemeteries, and industrial areas. It is in close proximity to the Point Breeze Industrial Park and Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Baltimore and Maryland have some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. Excerpt from Wikipedia on Maryland gun laws relevant to the video:

Carrying a handgun, whether openly or concealed, is prohibited unless one has a permit to carry a handgun or is on their own property or their own place of business. The Maryland State Police may issue a permit to carry a handgun at their discretion and based on an investigation. In practice, very few applicants are granted carry permits, and approval typically requires the applicant to provide proof of a clear and imminent threat on his or her life…

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Minneapolis a Hotbed of Somali Gang Warfare

See the source image

Latest gang killing highlights crisis in Minnesota capital

By Dan Lyman – 10/29/2019

A deadly shooting between rival gang members in Minneapolis highlights the growing crisis of East African clan warfare in Minnesota’s capital region.

An operative of the 1627 Boys gang was charged with second degree murder after allegedly shooting a high-ranking member of the Somali Outlaws during a drug deal in Minneapolis.

Mustafa Ali, 25, was shot three times in the chest by 18-year-old Mahad Ali (no known relation), police say. Mahad Ali was also shot during the altercation and suffered non-life threatening injuries.

Mahad Ali’s mother told detectives the two men had a long-running “beef” leading up to the shooting.

See the source image

“The slaying was the latest in a bitter feud between Cedar-Riverside neighborhood gangs and their rivals, who claim the area around Karmel Mall,” the Star Tribune reports. “But police and community leaders say that some of the bloodshed has shifted to the city’s North Side in recent months.”

According to charges filed against Mahad Ali, “both gangs are known for retaliatory and escalating violence that often manifests itself in drive-by shootings, attempted murder and murder. They are known by law enforcement to attack each other over using the same drug dealers.”

In September, the father of another high-ranking Somali gang member was killed during an ambush that was reportedly “staged to look like a home invasion,” according to police.

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During a single night in March, five men of Somali descent were shot in different incidents across Minneapolis.

Somali gang violence has plagued Minneapolis for well over a decade.

A 2009 CBS report titled “Rise of Somali Gangs Plagues Minneapolis” noted that seven Somali men had been killed in the span of 10 months, all by fellow Somalis.

“It was all gang activity, totally, 100 percent,” Shukri Adan, a former Somali community organizer told CBS at the time. “The police don’t want to say that but everybody else knows that.”

See the source image

Victims of Somali violence are not confined to the local East African community.

In May, a group of Somali teens armed with hammers and bars reportedly attacked commuters at a rail station in Minneapolis.

In 2016, Dahir Adan, a 20-year-old Somali Muslim, stabbed 10 victims at the St. Cloud Crossroads Center mall.

Also in 2016, a mob of up to 30 Somali men traveled to the upscale Lake Calhoun neighborhood and prowled the streets while yelling threats of violence and rape at residents, according to reports.

“They were screaming at the house that they were going to kidnap you and they were going to rape you,” one resident told local media. “It was a very traumatizing experience.”

The International Institute of Minnesota estimates that as many as 150,000 Somalis reside in Minnesota, and that 80 percent are concentrated in the Minneapolis area.

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(THIS IS WHY THEY WANT OUR GUNS AMERICA) – THE DEMOCRATS REALLY THINK THAT THEY HAVE FINALLY GOT TRUMP THIS TIME

The Democrats Really Think That They Have Finally Got Trump This Time

There are persistent rumors that quite a few Republican Senators are ready to stab Trump in the back

Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse – OCTOBER 29, 2019

It seems like the Democrats have been trying to figure out a way to remove President Donald Trump from office forever. 

Trump was under investigation even before he won the election, and it has literally been a miracle that his presidency has been able to survive for as long as it has.  But now the Democrats think that they have finally got him.  A parade of witnesses has come forward testifying that Trump pressured the president of Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, and that Trump withheld key military aid from Ukraine as leverage.  Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and other top Democrats believe that this constitutes an “abuse of power”, and that this “abuse of power” qualifies as a “high crime or misdemeanor”.  Other than Fox News, the mainstream media is solidly behind the Democrats on this, and we have seen a shift in public opinion polls in favor of impeachment.  Many conservatives continue to doubt that an impeachment trial will actually happen, but Nancy Pelosi would have never let things get this far if she didn’t know for sure that she has the votes that she needs to impeach Trump in the House.  At this point, it appears extremely likely that Trump will be impeached, and that will set up a historic trial in the U.S. Senate.

On Tuesday, House impeachment investigators will hear testimony from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, and according to a draft of his opening statement he plans to tell them that he notified his superiors twice regarding his concerns that military aid to Ukraine was being withheld in order to pressure the Ukrainians to investigate the Bidens…

Sen. James E. Risch                            Sen. Mitt Romney

The White House’s top expert on Ukraine twice notified superiors about concerns that the president and those working for him were linking foreign aid to Ukraine with investigations that would help President Donald Trump politically, a push that he said could undermine U.S. national security, according to an opening statement obtained by USA TODAY.

The testimony of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman before the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight committees Tuesday will mark the first time lawmakers investigating the impeachment inquiry will hear from someone who listened to Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — the call at the center of the impeachment investigation that included a Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate former Vice President Joe Biden.

This is likely to be bombshell testimony, but the American public won’t get a chance to hear from Vindman firsthand because the Democrats made a critical strategic mistake.

At the outset of this process, the Democrats decided to keep the proceedings shielded from the American public.  This has opened them up to tremendous criticism from Republicans, and it has resulted in them missing opportunity after opportunity to move public opinion more dramatically.

For the past month, the Democrats have looked like they are trying to hide what they are doing, and the process has been deeply unfair to President Trump.

Finally realizing that they have massively screwed up, the Democrats now plan to hold a vote in the House later this week that will make the next phase of the impeachment inquiry more open to the public.  In a letter to her fellow Democrats in the House, Nancy Pelosi explained why this move is being made at this time.  The following is an excerpt from her letter…

This week, we will bring a resolution to the Floor that affirms the ongoing, existing investigation that is currently being conducted by our committees as part of this impeachment inquiry, including all requests for documents, subpoenas for records and testimony, and any other investigative steps previously taken or to be taken as part of this investigation. This resolution establishes the procedure for hearings that are open to the American people, authorizes the disclosure of deposition transcripts, outlines procedures to transfer evidence to the Judiciary Committee as it considers potential articles of impeachment, and sets forth due process rights for the President and his Counsel.

‘We are taking this step to eliminate any doubt as to whether the Trump Administration may withhold documents, prevent witness testimony, disregard duly authorized subpoenas, or continue obstructing the House of Representatives.

If the Democrats are going to be successful, they need to get somewhere around 60 percent of all Americans on their side, because it is at that level where certain Republicans in the U.S. Senate would feel comfortable betraying Trump.

In order to do that, the Democrats desperately need to get these proceedings on television, and this resolution will finally authorize that.

But will this be a case of too little, too late?

We shall see.

Ultimately, the Democrats never should have gone down this road, and even if everything they are alleging is true there is nothing that Trump has done that represents a “high crime or misdemeanor”.

And with Republicans in control of the U.S. Senate, you would think that Trump should be feeling quite safe.

Unfortunately, so far only seven Republicans have publicly stated that they have ruled out removing Trump from office, and most Republican Senators are purposely refusing to take any sort of a public stand.  Here are a few examples…

  • Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho): “I’m a juror and I’m comfortable not speaking.”
  • Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.): “I’d be a juror, so I have no comment.”
  • Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.): “I don’t need a strategy for impeachment because I may be a juror someday.”
  • Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine): “I am very likely to be a juror so to make a predetermined decision on whether or not to convict a president of the United States does not fulfill one’s constitutional responsibilities.”

So much for loyalty.  President Trump recently endorsed Senator Risch, and this is how he is repaying Trump?

If the Republicans in the Senate came together and released a public statement in which they pledged not to remove Trump from office, that would immediately suck all the life out of the impeachment process.

But they are not going to do that.  In fact, there are persistent rumors that quite a few Republican Senators are ready to stab Trump in the back.

Whether you support Donald Trump or not, the truth is that every American should be deeply alarmed by what is happening in Washington right now.  In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville warned us that this might happen someday: “A decline of public morals in the United States will probably be marked by the abuse of the power of impeachment as a means of crushing political adversaries or ejecting them from office.”

The scenario that he warned about is playing out right in front of us, and if Donald Trump is removed from office it is going to cause irreparable damage to our system of government.

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