June, 2017, Part 8, Political Class Insanity: CNN Rigs The News and Illinois Enters Into Financial Hell

As we do every month, we review the latest idiocy, lunacy, ineptness, and general insanity from the American political class. We are getting started as little late this month since we needed to review the latest global warming.climate change insanity from the likes of Al Gore, culminating in our review of the 26 reasons why it was appropriate and necessary for Trump to pull us out of the Paris Climate Agreement:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2017/06/june-2017-part-4-i-am-global-warming.html

But let’s quickly get into this month’s political class insanity because over the past month or so there has been a lot of it was Washington implodes into a useless pile of incompetence:

1) While the political class has done very little to protect and enhance our freedoms over recent years, the so-called free press in this country have not done much to enhance freedom and truth either. We have previously reported on how the free press has become just as corrupt, just as partisan and just as useless as the political class when it comes to truth in reporting and high integrity journalism:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-perversion-and-death-of-unbiased.html

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-perversion-and-death-of-unbiased_29.html

It seems nothing has changed since these posts from last September, at least when it comes to CNN, which was once known as Cable New Network and then became the Clinton news network while the unabashedly campaigned for a Hillary Clinton victory and they have no further degenerated down into simply the Comedic News Network:

• According to Kristie McDonald, writing for the eHeadlines website on June 11, 2017, CNN in England was caught setting up a fake news story shortly after the latest terror attack in that country.
• CNN personnel were on the streets of London for what they wanted to make look like an anti-terror protest, led by Muslims apparently to show that not all Muslims are sympathetic to Islamic terror attacks.
• But thanks to the reality that everyone with a smartphone also has a video camera, video footage taken by regular people, and posted on YouTube, showed how CNN personnel were staging the rally, not reporting on the rally.
• The person shooting the video reports that there are “more press than anyone else.”
• The Muslim women supposedly protesting the terror attacks were getting their posters and flowers from the CNN personnel, i.e. this was a staged protest for the CNN cameras not a real protest.
• Once the women get their CNN provided props, they cross the street for the filming of this “news” story.

When corrupt politicians lie and cheat and have no integrity, it has always been the important responsibility of the news media and press to call them out on their lies and shenanigans. When the pores are the ones creating false truths and trying to influence views rather than report on facts and realities, our democracy is in very sad place, thanks in this instance of heinous reporting to the Comedic News Network.

The video of the setup to the fake news story can be viewed at:

http://eheadlinespolls.com/breaking-more-footage-leaks-of-cnns-staged-muslim-anti-terror-protest-video/

2) Earlier in this month’s insanity series we reported on how state politicians around the country have so badly screwed up the fiscal integrity of their state’s financial situation, allowing state governments’ unfunded liabilities to soar well over $1 TRILLION. The obvious conclusion is that politicians around the country, be they at the state, local, or Federal level have no ability, no will, or no knowledge on how to operate an effective budget process, incurring $20 TRILLION in debt at the Federal level and trillions of dollars in debt at the state, county and local level.

And at some point these financial insanities will come home to roost. It will then require state government to raise taxes, cut benefits, or eventually declare bankruptcy, all options that are ugly but highly likely to be unavoidable.

And the leading indicator in that race to fiscal ugliness, according to Nancy Hayes, writing for the Joe For America website on June 19 2017, is the state government of Illinois:

• According to a recent comment by an Illinois state government official, “We are in massive crisis mode, this is not a false alarm.”
• The state government has over $15 billion in unpaid bills on this books.
• The state government has not had a budget in three years.
• It is likely to be the first state government to have its bonds downgraded to junk quality in the very near future.
• A judge recently ruled that the state government is in violation of its own consent decrees and previous judicial orders, putting further pressure on its shaky financial situation.
• In desperation, the governor recently ordered the state legislature back into session to address the financial mess, telling everyone “to get serious and get to work.”
• As with the financial and heaving taxation and regulatory mess in California, people are leaving the state of Illinois with 22,000 leaving in 2015 alone.
• In Chicago, the epicenter of bad fiscal planning by local politicians, over 6,000 people left that city in 2015.
• The Tax Foundation claims that the state of Illinois has some of the highest property tax and other taxes in the nation, probably a leading factor in why both residents and businesses are leaving Illinois for better tax treatment elsewhere, causing Illinois to have 90,000 fewer manufacturing jobs today than in 2008.
• Chief Executive magazine ranked Illinois 48th out of 50 states relative to the ease of doing business in Illinois with taxation ranking the state as 50th out of 50.
• And as if the $15 billion in unpaid bills today is not enough of a headache, the unfunded pension liabilities of the state retirement systems is over $111 billion.

Given the sad state of financial affairs, the already high taxes, the out migration of residents and businesses because of the high taxes, what do Democrats in the legislature want to do? You guessed it, raise taxes. Let’s just throw another few gallons of gas on that fiscal fire, idiots. I what you have been doing for decades got you to where you are today a disaster, why would you want to continue to the same thing over and over again, raise taxes?

It is usually at this point where we cite our favorite Einstein quote: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” And the fiscal ineptness of Illinoi politicians have gotten them the following insanity distinction relative to the rest of the country:

What does it look like when a government and the politicians that operate it have no idea how to operate a fiscally sound budget? It looks like today in Illinois:

• The state Transportation Department will stop any and all road work by July 1 unless budget conditions change.
• The Powerball lottery system may dump the state out of its system since the state cannot and has not paid lottery winners for a while now.
• If the state is judicially forced to pay out what was settled in previous court cases and consent decrees, within a few weeks, the state will be paying out more in payments than it receives in revenue, leaving no money for schools, domestic violence shelters, ambulance services, etc.
• State Comptroller Susan Mendoza, the government official responsible for managing the state government’s cash flow and financials said it best:“I don’t know what part of ‘We are in massive crisis mode’ the General Assembly and the governor don’t understand. This is not a false alarm.” 

What a flipping, political insanity mess. And keep in mind that a lot of this problem developed while the economy was in a growth mode over the past eight years. Imagine what happens when the next recession sets in and Illinois has fewer taxpayer and fewer businesses to offset the recession’s impacts. 

Truly insane but quite possibly coming to a state or Federal government to you very soon. Illinois is the proverbial canary in the coal mine, a coal mine that Federal and other politicians have dug for us all.

That will do it for today’s insanity. Very sad, very depressing, very pathetic and very dangerous: politicians screwing our financial state and CNN screwing up our freedom of the press state. More insanity to follow.