There’s Nothing Funnier Than Fussy, Furious Euroweenies
Excerpt:
Hearing disturbingly feminine, Somali corruption-curious Minnesota governor Tim Walz complaining that, because of Donald Trump, people are driving by his house shouting “Retard!” should’ve been the funniest thing that happened over the last few news cycles, but our European friends have done it one better. Actually, they’re not our friends. They’re annoying layabouts who do nothing but whine and complain as they feed off the corpse of the civilization they inherited like cultural trust fund babies. They have gotten very upset because Donald Trump’s national security strategy accurately recognizes that Europe is unable to defend itself and is increasingly unworthy of us squandering more time, blood, and treasure to do it for them. So, they’re lashing out, threatening to be responsible for their own defense.
Yeah, that’ll show us. Throw us in that briar patch, Horst. There aren’t enough “LOLs” on the Internet for how funny it is to see you stomping your feet because we’re done picking up the check.
......Spoiler: There’s never going to be any gratitude. There can’t be. The fact that we uncouth hicks from the New World had to come back to unscrew the mess the Europeans have made of Europe was never going to get us anything like a simple danke schön. That they needed us grated on them then, and it grates at them now that big, loud Yankees were the only thing keeping their sorry butts from chaos. The eurotrash always imagine themselves as the pinnacle of human achievement, though it was really their ancestors who did the civilizational heavy lifting. These sorry sons of greater fathers look at the castles and cathedrals, the culture and the art, and imagine they had something to do with it other than receiving it on a silver platter and promptly turning it over to the horde of seventh-century savages they invited into their country to do all the dirty work that they imagine they themselves are too good for and to pay into the welfare state in place of the babies they were unable to make because of their cultural and physical impotence.
You know that parable about the servants the master gives coins and one of them goes and makes multiples in profit, and he gets praise (Matthew 25:14-30)? Another makes a little less, but he also gets praise. The third buries his talents because he doesn’t want to lose any, and he loses even that in the end. The Europeans have managed to do even worse. They didn’t even preserve what they were given. Instead, they spent their cultural bounty on the equivalent of hookers and blow, and now some imam with five wives and a scimitar is living next door while the call to prayer keeps the euroweenies up at night.
But don’t tell the Europeans that. They don’t want to hear it. In fact, they don’t want to hear anything. That’s why they’re trying to sue Elon Musk and X out of existence with EU fines over transparent nonsense. They’re not mad because his blue checks aren’t sufficiently blue-check-worthy. They are mad because Elon Musk allows their citizens to see and say forbidden things, things they can’t control, and they understand that the only way they can retain power is by limiting debate to a narrow range of views that reaffirms their authority and confirms their own power. The idea that these tin-pot goofs imagine that they get to dictate free speech to Americans is hilarious.
......It’s nice to go back to Europe and visit. I liked Portugal earlier this year – very good wine and surprisingly based people. There are a lot of cool Europeans. They’re just overshadowed by the fascist bureaucrats who rule over them and the vast number of Europeans who are ridiculous, pompous has-beens with a truly inexplicable amount of self-regard.
.....Now, they have taken to jumping on the Twitter machine, the online forum that they hope to someday control, informing us that they’re very mad and that, in light of Donald Trump breaking with the nearly 80-year-long tradition of America pulling Europe’s weight, the Europeans are going to show us what for by doing it themselves. The guys who can’t put together a tank battalion or a flotilla of ships on par with that of your basic Venezuelan drug cartel are going to create a military to pick up the slack for the United States because we’re an unreliable ally now. Good. We don’t want you to rely on us. We want you to rely on yourselves.
But that’s going to be a problem. It’s going to cost money, and you’ve been spending it on importing zillions of Third World barbarians and paying your own people not to work. It’s unclear where you’ll get the money to do all this rearming but go for it. Sincerely. We want you to. Of course, your own people don’t want to do it. The Germans can’t recruit anywhere near as many soldiers as they need, so they took the most basic step towards conscription, which was sending out a questionnaire, saying, “Fritz, could you be in der Bundeswehr if we needed you?” and the Teutonic teenagers chimped out. Why, defending their country is the job of Nebraskan farm boys and eager Appalachians, not the precious heirs of Arminius!
Vets like me and @CynicalPublius, along with a bunch of others who also served in the Cold War, in Europe, and/or with Europeans, are taking a special delight in watching our alleged allies squirm. They didn’t like us all that much then, and they don’t like us all that much now, but they love having Uncle Sucker forking out the cash and corpuscles to keep their Ponzi continent alive. A lot of you guys reading this feel the same – I was at Nelligan Kaserne in the VII Corps AO near Stuttgart, and if you pounded the same plätze, I don’t need to translate that (throw where you were assigned into the comments!). But those of us who helped protect the European ingrates over the years will understand that when they cry, we just shrug and say “macht nichts.”
Well conceived and wonderfully tongue-in-cheek thought piece. Yes, some of us agree that we are tired of perpetually bailing Europe out of the nursery.
The unspoken spectre behind your pithy consummation is that the Euros lazily surrendered their individual sovereignty for an umbrella inter-state 'Mother' behemoth bureaucracy to arbitrarily rule over them... and they have discovered that it is stealing the chicken out of the pot, turning their favorite TV show into a boring, shallow documentary that doesn't relate to anything that stirs up their interest - i.e.: they no longer have ANY control over their own lives.
Welcome to reality, losers! Good luck with you war with Russia... check with us later - much later.
Unfunded Greed: The Unspoken Budget Item Guaranteeing Cushy Retirements To State Employees
Excerpt:
......In his recent speech, DeGov made no mention of the $40 billion in unfunded liabilities, which is over 34% of his proposed budget. You will see why.
That huge UNFUNDED liability is due to the state employees’ supplemental retirement plan called “DROP” (Deferred Retirement Options Program) which gives cushy retirement benefits to many state employees DROP is a voluntary retirement option available to FRS (Florida Retirement System) members who are pension plan participants who are eligible for normal retirement. When an employee enters DROP, they essentially turn on their pension benefit, and the monthly retirement payments are deferred and deposited into an interest-bearing account. During the time an employee is in DROP, he continuse to work and earn a regular salary. Upon exiting DROP, employees receive a lump-sum payment of the accumulated DROP account balance, in addition to their regular monthly pension payments.(emphasis mine)
DROP was put into place in 1999 by Jeb Bush, where he allowed for 5% of an employee’s salary to be paid in; DeSantis raised that to 8%, in 2023 by signing SB 7024. Good for employees; bad for the public. Jeb was warned at the time, by other state governors like Scott Walker of WI, that such a plan could lead to trouble. The bill establishing DROP was strongly supported by unions, however, whose support Gov. Jeb was looking to purchase.
Supposedly, Jeb put DROP in place to retain people with certain skill sets. I call bunk on that.
Many of these skilled individuals in Florida have not updated their skill sets in the past 40+ years, and there was no requirement to do so, that I’ve found. With the rapid growth of “knowledge pockets” or minimally required information/skills in various industries older workers are often behind in updates needed. They may know their way around that tricky coffee machine in the office, but…
In addition, Jeb’s Family’s Common Core Education programs (1992 on) - which turned over the education of our children to the government - immediately began to teach disregard for elders and what they know. Colleges even carried whole classes in their curriculum about why NOT to listen to older people, a fact I learned from a 2017 William and Mary graduate. New, fresh ideas were supposed to be the best; hang all that “experience is the best teacher” stuff.
Why DeSantis raised the allowed pay-in to 8% is anybody’s guess. Go ahead and fill in the blank….
Going along with his buddy, Jeb, is one that pops to my mind… To be honest, neither Jeb Bush nor Ron DeSantis are fiscal conservatives. Florida general fund spending skyrocketed Jeb’s 8 years in Tallahassee, from $18 - $28.2 billion,...... DeSantis scores worse.
Just to be clear, the Sunshine State has TWO retirement plans: The Florida Retirement System’s (FRS), the regular retirement program established under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 457b. , and DROP, the Deferred Retirement Options Program. DROP is established by state law.
DROP provides retirement income over and above all other plans. For life. The payments are monthly, and the risk is low (state-backed with no market exposure), unlike funds that are traded on public exchanges.
“State-backed” means “taxpayer backed”. Of course.
Here’s how it works.
Public employees reach retirement age but don’t retire. Instead, they continue at their current jobs, and draw on the supplemental DROP plan. Any days off which are available but not taken, are allowed to accumulate at the highest salary level, not the level of the employee’s salary when the days off were incurred.
$40 billion of unfunded liabilities from this plan have accrued to date, and the Florida taxpayer is on the hook for it all.
As Leonard Gilroy of the Pension Integrity Project at the Reason Foundation points out, “if the system is underfunded, the money has to come from somewhere, and the larger the pension debt grows, the more that pension costs crowd out public services like safety, corrections, and healthcare.
A group of hard-working committed Floridians, calling themselves “tripledippers.org”’ has spent thousands of hours and personal dollars to bring this mess to the surface. GO TO THEIR WEBSITE. You will learn a lot.
Here’s how it goes. Public employees reach retirement age but don’t retire. Instead, they continue at their current jobs, and draw on the supplemental DROP plan. Taking days off? Those days off not taken, are allowed to accrue at the employee’s highest compensation level.
This system gives Florida public service retirees free money - which comes out of the pockets of Florida taxpayers. The DROP Plan supplements any retirement benefits offered by the Florida Retirement System (FRS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA). Participants may (but are not required to) contribute a portion of their income through payroll deduction each pay period.
Read that again: DROP provides retirement income over and above all other plans. For life. The payments are monthly, and the risk is low (state-backed with no market exposure), unlike funds that are traded on public exchanges.
“State-backed” means “taxpayer backed”. Of course.
Here’s the “triple dip’’ on that sweet treat/pension “cone”, provided to state employees”. There’s even a cherry on the top!
The 1ST SCOOP on that yummy treat is, of course, continued salary; 2ND SCOOP, Pension WITH INTEREST; AND, 3RD SCOOP, the employee’s option to choose NOT to pay 3% of their annual income into the fund, as is traditional in other states. Triple dippers don’t pay 3% of their salary into the Florida Retirement system like every other public employee, thus shifting personal responsibility to taxpayers. Employees are guaranteed yearly 3% cost of living (COLA) increase, PLUS a current 13% compound interest in their individual pension accounts. Finally, since the Employer Match of the Salary for Triple Dippers is 22.02% (taxpayer paid) these pension cash bonuses are the key driver of higher and higher property taxes. Elimination of the Pension cash bonuses would fund property tax cuts.
The Cherry on top: Triple Dippers get to cash out their unused days off at their highest final salary rather than what they were earning at the time the days off were incurred. According to the TripleDippers.org, the pensioners, (most of whom are over 65) and their surviving spouses get an 8% increase in their social security payments for each year they delay collecting social security.[Source: SSA.gov]
The people who will be hit the hardest by this self-serving pension plan are state residents living on fixed incomes.
The Governor also is a Triple Dipper, in case you wondered, along with all other elected officials; a few may have opted out, but I can’t find any….
There are 758 public employees in Florida who get over $1 million EACH in pension bonuses - IN ADDITION TO THEIR REGULAR PENSIONS, according to Triple Dippers.org.
Also according to “Triple Dippers” watchdogs, in an article published June 5, 2023, instead of allocating tax funds towards essential infrastructure, education, and tax cuts, the Governor and the legislature chose to bolster the bank accounts of politicians and bureaucrats. . . .
These “Triple Dippers” will now receive 8 years’ worth of pension payments as a lump sum, in addition to lifelong pension and healthcare assistance.
Learn more at www.tripledippers.org . Please click this link! These are the folks that have been watching this happen and raising the issue for a decade! They need everyone’s else’s voices raised in support, especially now, at budget time.
Currently, every man woman and child living in Florida is responsible for $1,680 of the state’s unfunded pension liabilities. Whether or not they can afford it.
For a family of four, that is $6,720.
This is NOT a uniquely “Florida” problem, and residents of other states need to take heed. Here is an interactive map( of the other 49, and their issues with pension liabilities.https://www.policyed.org/pension-pursuit/pension-liability-state/map) Still, doesn’t make it right. If you notice in the link above, some states do manage to have everything funded.
Several states, like TN have no personal income tax - something Tallahassee likes to brag about - yet the Volunteer State has the third highest funded pension system in the nation,according to Equable.org( https://equable.org/state/florida/)Check your state.Unfunded government liabilities are often overlooked, but can be crucial to the healthy future of a state. Call your reps!
Meanwhile, DeGov rattles on about property tax relief. Spare me. This accumulation of unfunded debt is going to force Tallahassee into imposing an income tax at the very least. Especially important to residents will be necessary cuts in public safety, corrections and healthcare. Florida citizens, who just took it in their wallets from the power companies, will soon face more and worse.
If Tallahassee had the moral fortitude to take away its own sweet-treat retirement, now funded by its citizens, that property tax relief could become a reality.
“Floridians First”??
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People need to focus on what their state politicians are doing.