The portion of the federal debt that is subject to a legal limit set by Congress closed Friday, June 26, at $18,112,975,000,000, according to the latest Daily Treasury Statement, which was published at 4:00 p.m. on Monday.
That, according to the Treasury’s statements, makes 15 straight weeks that the debt subject to the limit has been frozen at $18,112,975,000,000.
$18,112,975,000,000 is about $25 million below the current legal debt limit of $18,113,000,080,959.35.
The Daily Treasury Statement for March 13 was the first to show the federal debt subject to the limit closing the day at $18,112,975,000,000. Every Daily Treasury Statement since then has reported the same thing: the debt closing the day at $18,112,975,000,000.
Every Daily Treasury Statement since Monday, March 16, has reported the debt beginning and ending each day at $18,112,975,000,000. (Read more from “US Debt Now Stuck at Same Number for 15 Weeks” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-01 03:12:322016-04-11 10:59:26Feds Manipulating the Numbers: US Debt Now Stuck at Same Number for 15 Weeks
Millions of Americans could see a boost in wages or reduced workload as a result of new federal regulations on overtime pay the Obama administration is unveiling this week.
Under the regulations, private-sector workers who make up to $50,400 a year will be guaranteed the right to earn additional pay if they work more than 40 hours per week. Currently, only workers who make $23,660 a year, or less than $455 a week, have those same protections.
The salary threshold had not been raised for a decade when Obama ordered the Labor Department to conduct a review last year, calling the figure outdated. The president plans to discuss the change Thursday in a trip to Wisconsin and previewed it in a Huffington Post op-ed posted Monday night.
“We’ve got to keep making sure hard work is rewarded. Right now, too many Americans are working long days for less pay than they deserve,” he said.
The change is likely to please labor advocates who had called on the administration to consider raising the threshold to salaries of at least $42,000 per year. They say an increased threshold could help stimulate the economy by boosting middle-class workers’ wages or triggering new hiring to prevent the need for paying the higher overtime rate. (Read more from “Obama’s Latest Regulation” HERE)
It did not match the week of his wedding or the weeks his daughters were born, but President Barack Obama acknowledged on Tuesday that last week was a particularly momentous one for him.
The Supreme Court legalized gay marriage and upheld his signature healthcare law, and Congress passed legislation critical to a Pacific trade pact Obama wants to finalize before leaving office in January 2017.
“I might see if we can make next week even better,” quipped Obama, who has about 18 months left in his presidency.
What’s next? Obama told reporters he hopes to next work with Congress on an infrastructure funding package and on reforming the criminal justice system.
“The list is long and my instructions to my team and my instructions to myself have always been that we are going to squeeze every last ounce of progress that we can make … as long as I have the privilege of holding this office,” Obama said at a news conference. (Read more from “After ‘Gratifying’ Week, Obama Vows to do Much More in Time Left” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-01 03:11:542016-04-11 10:59:27After ‘Gratifying’ Week, Obama Vows to do Much More in Last 18 Months
President Obama signed hard-fought trade legislation Monday, thanking Republican leaders who helped get it done and saying the package will “reinforce America’s leadership role in the world.”
“I think it’s fair to say that getting these bills through Congress has not been easy,” Mr. Obama said as he signed the trade bills into law in the East Room. “They’ve been declared dead more than once.”
The two major pieces of legislation grant Mr. Obama “fast track” trade-promotion authority, which allows the president to negotiate a deal and submit it to Congress for an up-or-down vote without the chance for amendments, and expand aid for American workers who lose their jobs due to foreign competition. Members of both parties attended the bill-signing ceremony, although Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky did not, with Congress on its Independence Day recess.
The trade-promotion authority measure is arguably the biggest legislative victory of the president’s second term, and will help Mr. Obama conclude negotiations with Japan and 10 other countries on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the centerpiece of his economic agenda. The House and Senate approved both measures last week after House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, temporarily derailed the package . . .
The president said trade-promotion authority isn’t “the end of the road” for his efforts, noting that negotiations for the massive TPP are still unfinished. Trading partners have been waiting to see whether Congress granted Mr. Obama the authority to negotiate an agreement that won’t be subject to amendments later. (Read more from “Obama Signs Internationalist Trade Legislation; Boehner, McConnell Miss White House Event” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-30 03:50:382016-04-11 10:59:27Obama Signs Internationalist Trade Legislation; Enablers Boehner, McConnell Fail to Show at White House Celebration
A huge fault in the Earth’s crust near Los Angeles is leaking helium, researchers have found.
They say the unexpected find sheds new light on the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the Los Angeles Basin.
It reveals the fault is far deeper than previously thought, and a quake would be far more devastating.
It follows a report from the U.S. Geological Survey has warned the risk of ‘the big one’ hitting California has increased dramatically.
UC Santa Barbara geologist Jim Boles found evidence of helium leakage from the Earth’s mantle along a 30-mile stretch of the Newport-Inglewood Fault Zone in the Los Angeles Basin. (Read more from “Helium Is LEAKING From Massive Earthquake Fault in LA Raising Fears ‘Big One’ Could Be More Devastating Than Thought” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-30 03:49:452016-04-11 10:59:28Helium Is LEAKING From Massive Earthquake Fault in LA Raising Fears ‘Big One’ Could Be More Devastating Than Thought
By Paul Bedard. Despite claims the administration was caught off guard, the White House and four Cabinet departments predicted last year’s surge of at least 60,000 illegal juveniles over the U.S.-Mexico border and expect it to more than double to 127,000 this year, according to an internal document.
A 24-page administration PowerPoint for congressional appropriators dated April 22, 2014 bluntly stated that border arrivals of “unaccompanied alien children” would rise “by nearly a factor of 10” in 2014 to 60,000 and jump to 127,000 “if these growth rates continue.” It is shown below.
Indications are that this year’s surge won’t meet that record number, but will be the second highest in recent history.
The document and accompanying graphs, provided by congressional sources, also set a price tag of $2 billion “to accommodate” the juveniles, some members of the MS-13 crime gang, this year.
The briefing counters claims by top federal officials that they didn’t see the surge coming last year. President Obama called it an “urgent humanitarian situation” in seeking nearly $4 billion, and a top aide said it “was much larger than we anticipated.” (Read more from “Revealed: Feds Predicted Surge of Illegals, See This Many More in 2015” HERE)
Undocumented Sex Offenders Left in Seattle-Area Neighborhoods Without Tracking
By KIRO 7 Staff. After digging through hundreds of ZIP codes, KIRO 7 found 11 convicted sex offenders in the country illegally living across western Washington neighborhoods.
The government has tried to deport most of these people, but a Supreme Court ruling requires they be released after six months in jail, if their home country won’t take them back.
KIRO 7 obtained sources through the Senate Judiciary Committee: a list of every ZIP code in the country that some offender called home at the time of release. (Read more from this story HERE)
By Paul Joseph Watson. Liberals at the University of Texas signed a petition to remove a statue of George Washington and memorials to other founding fathers in another illustration of the politically correct insanity that has emerged in the wake of the Charleston massacre.
Students at the University have started an actual petition to remove statues of Robert E. Lee, the commander of the Confederate army, and Albert Sidney Johnston, a Confederate general who died during the Civil War, remarking, “It is impossible to reach the full potential of an inclusive and progressive learning institution while putting an idol of our darkest days on a pedestal.”
Black Lives Matter protesters also vandalized the statues earlier this week.
Given the fact that America’s Commander-in-Chief during the revolutionary war against the British and first President George Washington owned slaves his entire life and only emancipated them after his death, would UT students also support a move to wipe Washington from the pages of history?
The answer is yes, many of them would. (Read more from “Texas Liberals Sign Petition to Remove ‘Racist’ George Washington Statue” HERE)
Texas Schools Jump on Bandwagon to Dump Historic Confederate Ties
By Merrill Hope. Texas public schools are jumping on the bandwagon to shun symbols and dump historical figures that memorialize the Confederate South in a politicized push around the state that follows the tragic hate crime shooting of nine African-American church parishioners during a Bible study in Charleston, SC.
On Thursday, Rhonda Skillern-Jones, school board president for the nation’s seventh largest school district, Houston Independent School District (ISD), called for renaming six campuses that bear the names of Confederate army officers and others associated with the Confederacy. District Superintendent Terry Grier is “strongly considering” recommending that the board do it, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Previously, Texas state Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) urged Skillern-Jones in a letter to rebrand those six campuses, which are Dowling Middle School, named for Richard Dowling, a Confederate army officer; Jackson Middle School, named for Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the brigadier general in the Confederate army; Davis High School, named for Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America; Johnston Middle School, named for Albert Sidney Johnson, a Confederate army general; Lee High School, named for Confederate army commander Robert E. Lee; and Reagan High School, named for the postmaster general and the Confederacy’s secretary of the treasury John H. Reagan.
Houston ISD student population is largely Hispanic and African-American but in the aforementioned schools, the students are predominantly Hispanic, notes the Chronicle.
Calls for change do not come cheap. Last year, it cost Houston ISD about $250,000 to transform the Lamar Redskins into the Lamar Texans, according to KTRK-13. This included costs for changing mascot names, team uniforms, related spirit, pride and booster branded materials. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-30 03:34:322016-04-11 10:59:28Texas Liberals Sign Petition to Remove ‘Racist’ George Washington Statue and That’s Not All [+video]
By Valerie Richardson. When Melisa Erwin called the Giffords about using their upstate New York property for a same-sex wedding ceremony, she apparently knew in advance that they would refuse. For one thing, she and her fiancee recorded the conversation.
Even so, an administrative judge with the New York State Division of Human Rights ordered the Giffords to pay $3,000 to Ms. Erwin and Jennifer McCarthy for “mental pain and suffering,” in addition to $10,000 for violating the state’s human rights ordinance.
In a brief filed Thursday, attorneys for Cynthia and Robert Gifford argue that the state’s ruling violates the First Amendment, but they also criticize the same-sex couple for what they describe as an “orchestrated set-up.”
“The evidence, however, indicates that Respondents were aware of the Giffords’ beliefs and chose specifically to call and record Mrs. Gifford for the purposes of documenting the Giffords’ policy,” said the brief filed by attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom.
“Such an orchestrated set-up can hardly form the basis for ‘mental anguish’ and suffering,” said the brief, which was submitted to the New York Supreme Court. (Read more Christian Farm Family Penalized in Gay Wedding Refusal Decries ‘Orchestrated Set-Up’ HERE)
Idaho City’s Ordinance Tells Pastors to Marry Gays or Go to Jail
By Cheryl K. Chumley. Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, city officials have laid down the law to Christian pastors within their community, telling them bluntly via an ordinance that if they refuse to marry homosexuals, they will face jail time and fines.
The dictate comes on the heels of a legal battle with Donald and Evelyn Knapp, ordained ministers who own the Hitching Post wedding chapel in the city, but who oppose gay marriage, The Daily Caller reported.
A federal judge recently ruled that the state’s ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, while the city of Coeur d‘Alene has an ordinance that prevents discrimination based on sexual preference.
The Supreme Court’s recent refusal to take on gay rights’ appeals from five states has opened the doors for same-sex marriages to go forth.
The Knapps were just asked by a gay couple to perform their wedding ceremony, The Daily Caller reported. (Read more from “Idaho City’s Ordinance Tells Pastors to Marry Gays or Go to Jail” HERE)
United States military personnel are now being forced to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan . . .
U.S. troops stationed in Muslim nations have been informed by a statement on the Central Command website that they are to “be familiar with host-nation customs and courtesies to help facilitate a long-lasting mutual respect with local communities.”
“U.S. military members serving in countries that observe Ramadan are required to adhere to certain practices while outside U.S. installations,” the statement read.
The post was accompanied by the following picture: . . .
“Members should be respectful of local customs and be patient with host nation personnel,” said Capt. Dan Sickles, host nation officer in-charge. “Ramadan is a countrywide religious celebration. Members should not make light of local customs and should also expect that during daylight hours host nation customer service will be abbreviated and less accommodating.”
(Read more from “US Troops Ordered to Respect Ramadan” HERE)
CENTCOM Says Obey Local Laws and Customs – Including Fasting During Ramadan
By Jeff Andrejcik. One part of Ramadan is that those observing the holiday fast from dawn until sunset.
…When outside U.S. controlled areas, eating and drinking in public during daylight hours is against the law. Failure to obey could result in fines up to $685 or a sentence of up to two months in jail.
“The commander’s policy dictates that airmen will adhere to local law, which prohibits eating, drinking or tobacco use off base in public,” said Sickles. . .
As airmen and other personnel here adjust to this, Brig. Gen. John Quintas, 380th Air Expeditionary Wing commander, outlined the type of conduct he expects throughout the holy month.
“As ‘Airmen-Ambassadors’ representing American and U.S. military values around the world, we are committed to the concepts of tolerance, freedom and diversity,” said Quintas. “I hope that during your service in the 380th AEW you become more informed and appreciative of the traditions and history of the people in this region of the world. Please remember we are guests here and that the host nation is our shoulder-to-shoulder, brothers and sisters in arms, risking their lives for our common cause to defeat terrorism.” (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-30 03:31:382016-04-11 10:59:29US Troops Ordered to RESPECT Ramadan, not Eat in Public
Four qualities have distinguished republican government from ancient Athens forward: the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Measured against the standards established for republics from ancient times, the American Republic is massively corrupt.
From Plato and Aristotle forward, corruption was meant to describe actions and decisions that put a narrow, special, or personal interest ahead of the interest of the public or commonwealth. Corruption did not have to stoop to money under the table, vote buying, or even renting out the Lincoln bedroom. In the governing of a republic, corruption was self-interest placed above the interest of all—the public interest.
By that standard, can anyone seriously doubt that our republic, our government, is corrupt? There have been Teapot Domes and financial scandals of one kind or another throughout our nation’s history. There has never been a time, however, when the government of the United States was so perversely and systematically dedicated to special interests, earmarks, side deals, log-rolling, vote-trading, and sweetheart deals of one kind or another.
What brought us to this? A sinister system combining staggering campaign costs, political contributions, political action committees, special interest payments for access, and, most of all, the rise of the lobbying class.
Worst of all, the army of lobbyists that started relatively small in the mid-twentieth century has now grown to big battalions of law firms and lobbying firms of the right, left, and an amalgam of both. And that gargantuan, if not reptilian, industry now takes on board former members of the House and the Senate and their personal and committee staffs. And they are all getting fabulously rich. (Read more from “Former US Senator: America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-06-29 03:34:512016-04-11 10:59:29Former Democratic US Senator: “The American Republic is Massively Corrupt”
