by Tyler Durden
Zerohedge.com

We've spent a lot of time of late discussing the inevitable public pension crisis that will eventually wreak havoc on global financial markets.  And while the scale of the public pension underfunding is unprecedented, with estimates ranging from $3 - $8 trillion, there is another taxpayer-funded retirement benefit that has been promised to union workers over the years that puts pensions to shame...at least on a percentage funded basis.

Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB), like pensions, are a stream of future payments that have been promised to retirees primarily to cover healthcare costs.  However, unlike pensions, most government entities don't even bother to accrue assets for this massive stream of future costs resulting in $700 billion of liabilities that most taxpayer likely didn't even know existed. 

As a study from Pew Charitable Trusts points out today, the average OPEB plan in the U.S. today is only 6.7% funded (and that's if you believe their discount rates...so probably figure about half that amount in reality) and many states around the country are even worse.

States paid a total of $20.8 billion in 2015 for non-pension worker retirement benefits, known as other post-employment benefits (OPEB).  Almost all of this money was spent on retiree health care. The aggregate figure for 2015, the most recent year for which complete data are available, represents an increase of $1.2 billion, or 6 percent, over the previous year. The 2015 payments covered the cost of current-year benefits and in some states included funding to address OPEB liabilities. These liabilities—the cost of benefits, in today’s dollars, to be paid in future years—totaled $692 billion in 2015, a 5 percent increase over 2014.

In 2015, states had $46 billion in assets to meet $692 billion in OPEB liabilities, yielding a funded ratio of 6.7 percent. The total amount of assets was slightly higher than the reported $44 billion in 2014, though the funding ratio did not change. The average state OPEB funded ratio is low because most states pay for retiree health care benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis, appropriating revenue annually to pay retiree health care costs for that year rather than pre-funding liabilities by setting aside assets to cover the state’s share of future retiree health benefit costs.

State OPEB funded ratios vary widely, from less than 1 percent in 19 states to 92 percent in Arizona. As Figure 1 shows, only eight have funded ratios over 30 percent. These states typically follow pre-funding policies spelled out in state law. Many of them also make use of the expertise of staff from the state pension system to invest and manage plan assets.

Wall Street financial analyst par excellence and investor Charles Ortel has applied the same expert research skills he employs to determine if a prospective investment follows sound solvent accounting to the Clinton criminal charity conspiracy and fraud machine. Ortel has called the Clintons the “Bonnie and Clyde” of charity fraud who make Bernie Madoff look like a piker.

Editor's Note: What has become known as the "Deep State" is essentially the bulk of unelected career gubermint employees and bureaucrats that remain in their positions from one administration to the next.  They ensure the continuity of agenda dictated by those who really control our gubermint, the transnational banking/corporate interests.

Trump’s election confirmed one thing for certain: The Deep State is real.

By Ben Garrison

The Deep State's dedication to removing our president from power is relentless. They will continue to work against him and if Trump backs off from any of his campaign promises, they’ll use that against him and claim victory. This is currently being done with his ambivalence on the ‘dreamers,’ which is a lefty name designed to garner sympathy for illegal aliens.

My cartoon shows some of the central players involved in the Deep State. Prominently featured is George Soros. He wants to break America and Europe and see western civilization replaced by a feudal, collectivist, globalist system.

The source of the swamp is evil itself. We know that many at the top are Satanic pedophiles. It’s sickening that we’re forced to cough up tax dollars as tribute for these monsters. We are forced to endure complicated tax forms and cough up our hard-earned money because the Deep State wants us kept poor, fearful and compliant. The tyrants know most people don’t want to lose their stuff and be hassled by the IRS. We go along and don’t push back enough. That attitude puts us on a slippery slope.

We slide into the swamp and the Deep State wins.

Currently they’re pushing for more taxes and control by means of their ‘climate change’ con, led by Al Gore. Those who question it are ridiculed, marginalized, or even threatened. Slippery slopes are created to keep people going along with the Deep State program when we should be rounding up people such as Soros. Hillary should have been locked up by now. The central bankers should be broken up and their Federal Reserve needs to be ended.

There are many good people on the Internet who are exposing the Deep State and its legion of lies, but can it lead to real change?

Milton Friedman and his take on the idea of socialized medicine also known as universal health care. He is no fan of the idea. Citing it will detract from both quality of care and increases overall cost. Universal health care is still a issue that is strongly debated today. Milton Friedman was an American economist who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences.

The US State Department hired a UK company with no experience in hostile climates who operated without weapons in Benghazi. A US security firm was told to be silent about it or risk losing future contracts. This is the Swamp Squared.

By Katie Pavlich
TownHall.com

According to new transcripts released by the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday afternoon, former FBI Director James Comey made the decision not to refer then Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for prosecution long before ever interviewing key witnesses. Members of the Committee allege Comey made the decision months before FBI agents were finished with the criminal investigation into her mishandling of classified information during her time as Secretary of State. 

The transcripts were revealed in a letter sent to current FBI Director Christopher Wray, in which lawmakers are demanding an explanation and more documents surrounding the case. 

"According to the unredacted portions of the transcripts, it appears that in April or early May of 2016, Mr. Comey had already decided he would issue a statement exonerating Secretary Clinton.  That was long before FBI agents finished their work.  Mr. Comey even circulated an early draft statement to select members of senior FBI leadership.  The outcome of an investigation should not be prejudged while FBI agents are still hard at work trying to gather the facts," the letter, signed by Chairman Chuck Grassley and Committee member Lindsey Graham states. "Conclusion first, fact-gathering second—that’s no way to run an investigation.  The FBI should be held to a higher standard than that, especially in a matter of such great public interest and controversy."

"It is unclear whether the FBI agents actually investigating the case were aware that Mr. Comey had already decided on the investigation’s outcome while their work was ongoing. However, it appears that the answer to that question may be underneath some of the extensive redactions that the Department made to the transcripts," the letter continues.
 
According to the letter and an ongoing investigation into the matter, Comey started drafting a statement exonerating Clinton in April or May of 2016. At this point, he had not interviewed Clinton herself or her closest aides. This included Bryan Pagliano, who set up the personal server where Clinton hosted and shared top secret information, and Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, who was granted immunity. On July 5, 2016, Comey made his public statement that the FBI would not be referring Clinton to the Department of Justice for prosecution. 

You can read the letter, which contains excerpts from the transcripts, here. 

If you would like to know precisely the "really" going on, this video is well worth the time to watch!
 

Asking questions as Judge Andrew Napolitano did in a recent broadcast on his now cancelled daily show may very well be the reason behind his recent dismissal from Fox. Though specific details are hard to come by because the Judge has yet to give any interviews on the matter, it's believed that his refusal to bow to commonly manufactured media narratives is among one of several key reasons he is no longer with the network.

The following 5-Minute Speech that Got Napolitano Fired from Fox News is one that should not only be forwarded and shared with every single man, woman and child in this country, but taught and expounded upon in every social studies, civics and government class from first grade through college.

They walk among us. On the outside. they’re just like you and me, but on the inside they are unfeeling automatons who care only for themselves. They are the psychopaths, and they are in control of our governments, our corporations, our military and all of the positions of power. Join us this week on The Corbett Report as we delve into Political Ponerology, a diagnosis of our politicians and a brief look at the bigger picture.