It didn't take Egypt very long to revert back to a military oligarchy with elections. That oligarchy wasn't brought back by an armed coup in the dead of night, but by popular protests.
The
Arab Spring was trumpeted by liberals as a new era in the history of
the Middle East. But the Middle East is better at undoing history than
the media is at writing it. In Egypt, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi brushed away the effects of the Arab Spring. Now in Libya, General Khalifa Hifter is set to undo Obama's military intervention which put the Muslim Brotherhood on the road to taking over Libya, as they had taken over Egypt.
Forty-five years ago a group of officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seized control of Libya. Gaddafi enjoyed support from the military and Federalist opponents of a central government. And the rest is history, except that history in the Middle East repeats like a broken record.
Now Khalifa Hifter, a former Colonel (his post-Gaddafi rank is higher and disputed), is leading another military coup while vowing to free Libya of chaos, instability and corruption. Like Gaddafi, Hifter focused on Benghazi and Tripoli. His forces pounded Islamic militias in Benghazi, including those responsible for the murder of four Americans, and seized the parliament in Tripoli.
Hifter, who has spent a long time living in the United States, claims to have American support, but his real support probably comes from the east.
Like Gaddafi, Hifter is supported by the military and the Federalists. However he isn't fighting a weak monarchy, but the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and other Islamist militias. But like Gaddafi, his takeover was probably inspired by Egypt and possibly even planned out by Egypt.
Egypt's new government, which overthrew the Muslim Brotherhood, can't risk allowing the group to control a bordering country and one of the largest oil reserves in Africa. Gaddafi used Libya's oil wealth to fuel his insanity and fund terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood would funnel it into pursuing its program of regional and global takeovers and the Islamic militias that control much of Libya would become a problem for Egypt.
Egypt's immediate security agenda is to control border instability fed by the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and Sinai. It would only be natural for Egypt's new rulers to turn their attention to their country’s large western border with Libya.
When he released a video calling for a change of power, General Hifter appeared marginalized and isolated. Now he has powerful financial, military and tribal allies. And many ordinary Libyans see him as a possible alternative to the random brutality of militia rule, of which the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans was just one example, the collapsing governments and the threat that the simmering civil war which never really ended might heat up until the bloodshed becomes as extreme as anything in Syria.
The Syrian Civil War is also Hifter’s best asset and greatest threat. The conflict called away many Jihadis who had originally fought in Libya, but if that unholy war collapses and there isn't a more appealing conflict waiting in the wings, they may drift back to Libya to fight its military. Al Qaeda has training camps in Libya and the Islamic militias are doing well, but they may not have the numbers to take on General Hifter’s forces. And with Syria and Egypt consuming the energy and attention span of Jihadis worldwide, this may be Libya's only chance to beat them.
Even though Hifter is stepping into the slot occupied by Gaddafi, it doesn't mean that he is another Gaddafi.
This time Egypt may actually get what it wants; a stable Libya under military officers who, like their Egyptian counterparts, are less interested in revolution and more interested in the good life. In the best case scenario, the generals may stabilize Libya. If they don't, Libya will wait for a strongman to finally get the job done.
The question is whether General Hifter can get the job done.
The Muslim Brotherhood's roots in Libya have always been weak. Unlike Egypt, it hasn't done too well at straight elections and has been obligated to resort to political machinations. It got the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group to switch its orientation from Al Qaeda to the Brotherhood long enough for Gaddafi to set them loose and for them to help overthrow him. But that left the Brotherhood dependent on Islamic militias with unstable allegiances and a hunger for power.
That hasn't worked too well for the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria where its influence has been swamped by Al Qaeda. The Brotherhood is a parasite that depends on a facsimile of civilization even as it works to destroy it. Post-Gaddafi Libya is closer to Syria than to Egypt, its tribal links are more powerful than political slogans and even religion.
If Libya's generals can win quickly, the Muslim Brotherhood's hopes of getting its greasy hands on the country's oil wealth will go the way of its brief time ruling Egypt. If they can't, then Libya may go the way of Syria. The Libyan military was known as a joke under Gaddafi and its performance during the Libyan Civil War didn't do much to impress anyone.
And there is the Obama card.
General Hifter claims American support, but it's doubtful that he has anything except maybe a few leftover contacts in the CIA. The Arab Spring was never about democracy, it was about convincing Islamists to pursue their Caliphate dreams through political elections, instead of suicide bombings. Hifter, like Al-Sisi, is upsetting that particular apple cart and the vendors of its sour fruit in Washington and Brussels won't thank him for it.
But Al-Sisi also demonstrated that Obama is too weak to be worth fearing. Despite his support for the Muslim Brotherhood, Obama was forced to accept a new Egypt. And, after kicking and screaming, even provide it with military aid. Hifter is gambling that Obama won't turn to a second unpopular military intervention in the Middle East and will accept a fait accompli.
Especially if it turns out to have been backed by Saudi Arabia.
Egypt was meant to be a model for the revolutions of the Arab Spring, but instead it became a counterrevolutionary model. Even if Egypt isn't behind Hifter, the general obviously drew inspiration from what the Egyptian military did to a much more powerful Muslim Brotherhood regime. And he also drew inspiration from Obama's inability to meaningfully respond to it
Gaddafi's coup against a king echoed Egypt's own military coup against a king. Hifter's coup against a political body increasingly dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood's machinations is also an echo of Egypt's overthrow of a Muslim Brotherhood government.
We
should be wary of embracing either Al-Sisi or Hifter. They are at most
only the enemies of our enemy, but they also appear to have a narrower
scope of ambition and less interest, by the standards of the region, in
engaging in international terrorism or waging a war against the West.
Stabilizing Libya will reduce terrorism and limit the flow of refugees
spilling into Europe.The media will pay little attention as the last dregs of the Arab Spring slide into the gutter. It will have little to say about Obama's illegal Libyan intervention, except to mock Republicans for trying to find out the truth about the chain of bad decisions that led to the murder of four Americans. Like Obama, the pundits and talking heads will learn little humility from the swiftness with which the Middle East erased their new era of history from history.
And that is why they have nothing to say about the Middle East worth listening to. They never understood the region. Their political agenda for it is big on empty slogans that reflect a reality that exists only in their own minds. They thought that their plans for the region were set in stone. Instead they were writing on sand. The wind has blown across the desert and their plans have blown away with it.
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Friday Afternoon Roundup - #LikeABoss
By Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog on May 23, 2014 07:18 pm
When everyone is talking about your boss’ incompetence, it’s time for a #LikeABoss hashtag.
ALSO LIKE #LIKEABOSS
1,600 Americans died chasing a political slogan that existed only in the heads of his speechwriters.
In 2009, the CIA determined that there were at most 100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. Next year his own CIA director admitted that there were at most 50-100 Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.
That same year 499 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.
Obama Lost the War on Al Qaeda, While Claiming to Have Won It
Gitmo Terrorists Got Better Medical Care than American Vets - The 150 Jihadis have 100 doctors and nurses assigned to them
3 AM PHONE CALL
A still-classified State Department e-mail says that one of the first responses from the White House to the Benghazi attack was to contact YouTube to warn of the “ramifications” of allowing the posting of an anti-Islamic video.
“White House is reaching out to U-Tube [sic] to advice ramification of the posting of the Pastor Jon video,” the e-mail reads, according to Issa.
During Benghazi Attack, Instead of Saving Americans, They Told YouTube to Take Down Video
Dem Congressman: “We’ve Proved that Communism Works”
A TALE OF TWO JOES
In 2009, the Campaign for America’s Future, a collection of influential lefties within the Democratic Party, ran a blog post that proposed to use the VA as a national health care model.
The post was by health care consultant Joe Paduda, who recently dismissed the people suffering under ObamaCare by writing, “‘When one person suffers it is a tragedy, when millions do, it is a statistic.’ As abhorrent as quoting Josef Stalin might be, the monster was right.”
Arguing against the Medicare for Everyone proposal that’s a popular lefty vehicle to single payer, Paduda wrote, “Medicare is not controlling the primary driver of medical costs – utilization of services.”
Liberals Wanted to use the VA as a Model for National Health Care
MUSLIM MISOGYNISTIC MURDER CULTURE
Defense attorney Julie Clark admitted Hussain beat his wife — but argued that he is guilty of only manslaughter because he didn’t intend to kill her. In Pakistan, Clark said, beating one’s wife is customary.
“He comes from a culture where he thinks this is appropriate conduct, where he can hit his wife,” Clark said in her opening statements at the Brooklyn Supreme Court bench trial.
NYC Muslim Beats Wife to Death, Lawyer says Beating Women is “Customary” in his Culture
More Gazans Accidentally Blow Themselves Up… Than are Killed by Israel
ISLAM IS PANTS
Yahya “John” Lindh sued the directors of the Federal Bureau of prison. He is represented by the ACLU.
The lawsuit states: “Yahya Lindh is Muslim and it is a clear tenet of Islam that Muslim men are prohibited from wearing pants below their ankles."
Islam. It’s a religion whose prophet raped a little girl and had verses put into his head by the devil. But if you wear your pants too long, you will go to hell.
“The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “The dress that is under the ankle is in the Hellfire.” (al-Bukhaari, no. 5787)
American Taliban Sues Prison for Violating Islam by Making Him Wear Long Pants
Libya Detains UN Observer for “Sorcery” and “Black Magic”
OUTRAGE OUTRAGE ATLANTIC ELEVENTY
Did George Wallace come back from the dead? Are there colored water fountains again? Are black kids being prevented from going to schools in their districts?
No, no and no.
Segregation was a government policy. There is no government policy to segregate children. Resegregation is a myth like the jackalope. It refers to the fact that there are minority areas. That’s why the most “segregated” schools are in New York City
Not exactly Old Dominion.
There is No School Resegregation
DRONE DRONE
Paul keeps insisting that “American citizens” must be tried before they are killed. But our criminal justice system no more allows us to execute foreigners without due process than Americans.
If killing Anwar Al-Awlaki was an extrajudicial killing, then so is killing any Al Qaeda commander. If we have to put Anwar Al-Awlaki on trial before killing him, then we have to put every Al Qaeda terrorist we drone kill on trial first.
Rand Paul provides no legal basis for the distinction he’s making between Americans and foreigners. And that’s probably because he isn’t making that distinction. He just knows that emphasizing the American citizen part makes for a more compelling argument to a conservative audience.
Rand Paul’s Dishonesty About Anwar Al-Awlaki and Drones
#LIKEABOSS II
CNN’s widely and deservedly mocked coverage of the missing Malaysian jet is a-ok with the network’s boss mostly because a ton of people watched it. “I’m incredibly comfortable with it,” Jeff Zucker said.
Other things that Jeff Zucker is incredibly comfortable with include…
... "I’m incredibly comfortable with the way CNN covered the Justin Bieber story,” Zucker told the audience.
... “A lot of the basis of your question really emanates from the tremendous emergence of Keith Olbermann‘s program at 8 o’clock. I think I’m incredibly comfortable with that program.”
Also Jeff Zucker is comfortable getting fired for his incompetence…
“We had both gotten to the same place,” Mr. Zucker said. “He made it clear that they wanted to move on at the close of the deal, and I was completely comfortable with that.”
Biggest Failure in TV History Refuses to be “Shamed” into Covering Benghazi
1 in 7 Prisoners May be an Illegal Alien
YES WE CAN
“Gentlemen, we have the technology, we have the capability to make the world’s first billion dollar website. We can make it load slower, crash faster and email your personal information directly to Nigerian scammers.”
Healthcare.Gov is the $1 Billion Website
Charlie Crist has been a Republican, an Independent and a Democrat, switching parties after every defeat. If he loses this time, he might be thinking of going Communist. He’s not quite red, but orange might be close enough.
Only Charlie Crist Can Go to Communist Cuba
Will Pope Francis Meet with Palestinian Authority Muslim Sheikh Who Called for Exterminating Jews?
HOT SHOT - #LikeABoss
Local officials in New Mexico warn a move by the Obama administration to designate nearly a half-million acres as a national monument could open up a crime corridor making it easier for illegal immigrants to cross the border and for drug cartels to operate undetected.
“I’m not finished,” Obama said during Wednesday’s ceremony. "There is no time to waste to preserve precious resources and give a shot in the arm to local economies.”
These border parks, created to protect the environment, often more closely resemble a landfill from the debris and damage caused by endless streams of drug runners and illegal aliens.
Ah that’s what Obama meant by a shot in the arm for the local economy. First you tie off the arm of the local economy. Then you inject heroin into it.
Obama Creates 500,000 Acre Paradise for Illegal Aliens, Drug Cartels
Obama’s DREAM Amnesty Leads to Huge Surge in Illegal Alien Minors Invading US
WHY EL PASO IS SAFER THAN JUAREZ
“And two of the safest cities in America, two of them are on the border with Mexico,” Garcia continued. “And of course, the reason is we’ve proved that Communism works. If you give everybody a good government job, there’s no crime.”
El Paso also has one cop to every 600 people. Or 17 cops to 10,000 people. That’s a worse ratio than New York which is something like a cop to every 300 people, but it really beats Chicago with 44 cops to 10,000 people.
If you look at cities by population, El Paso has one of the higher cop to civilian ratios in its size. And that is much of its secret. If you throw manpower at a crime problem and the department is decently run, you can drive down crime rates.
El Paso has higher cop ratios than Boston, Baltimore or Denver. Its secret isn’t government jobs. It’s men in uniform.
Dem Congressman: “We’ve Proved that Communism Works”
The VA Really is Socialized Medicine – That’s Why It’s Terrible
THAT'S ALL FOLKS
Bugs Bunny: “He’s got me dead to rights, doc. Would you like to shoot him here, or wait till you get home?”
Daffy Duck: “Oh, no, you don’t. Not this time. Wait till you get home”
Senate Republicans say they’ll try to pass immigration reform legislation in the next two years if they take back the Senate in November.
Sen. Charles Schumer (N.Y.) Said House Republicans have a narrow window between early June and the August recess to act.
“I am saying that if Speaker Boehner, Leader Cantor, and other Republican leaders refuse to schedule a vote on immigration reform during this window, it will not pass until 2017 at the earliest,” he said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
Democrats Blackmailing GOP Pro-Amnesty Senators by Refusing to Pass Amnesty
BRIGHT RED CARD
The temperature in Qatar between May and September ranges between 30°-50°C (86°-122°F) with humidity of 90%.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter has admitted that it was “a mistake” to choose Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.
Blatter said that the technical report into Qatar’s bid had warned that it was too hot but despite that, FIFA’s executive committee had voted for the Middle Eastern country.
But Mr Blatter insisted Qatar had not “bought” the World Cup: “No. I will never say they bought it,” he said.
Soccer President Admits World Cup in Islamist Country w/122 Degree Temperatures a Mistake
#BRINGBACKOURGAYS
Mr Jammeh, who took power in a coup in 1994, was re-elected with 72% of the figures, official figures show. “I will deliver to the Gambian people and if I have to rule this country for one billion years, I will, if Allah says so.”
Yahya Jammeh told a political rally that gay people had 24 hours to leave the country. He promised “stricter laws than Iran” on homosexuality and said he would “cut off the head” of any gay person found in The Gambia.
The president of Gambia has threatened to kill any citizen of his country who cites persecution of LGBT people in seeking asylum abroad.
Muslim President of Gambia Threatens to Kill Any Gays Who Claim Asylum in US
Obama Inc. Shifting Funds from Cultural Exchange w/Europe to Africa
ECO-ZOMBIE WAR ON WOMEN
Ehrlich, a Stanford University biologist famous for his widely debunked book “The Population Bomb,” which predicted four billion famine deaths, including 65 million Americans.”
Ehrlich blamed Republicans and the media for failing to take action.
He accused “every state legislature” of waging a “war on women” and a “war on the environment.”
He called for “backup abortions” for any woman who’s birth control failed, in an attempt to control “breeding,” as he put it.
Ehrlich told Zepps humans must soon begin contemplating “eat[ing] the bodies of your dead” after resources are depleted.
Environmentalist Hoaxer who said Billions Would Die in 70s Famines, Warns We’ll Have to Eat Our Dead
A DRINK OF WATER
Police in Northern Ireland are investigating a potential hate crime after an evangelical Protestant preacher compared “cells” of Muslims in Britain to the IRA.
“I think the public of Northern Ireland is fed up with all this stuff, when we have to treat everyone like cotton wool, and yet the people we are treating like cotton wool, in other lands wouldn’t let us breathe – wouldn’t give us a drink of water,” McConnell said.
“I will wait and see what the police say to me. I am prepared and if they put me in jail I will go to jail, but I will not retract what I have said,” he added.
IRA Demands Investigation of Pastor Who Compared Muslim Migrants to IRA
FOR THE KIDS
The waiver proposal is being pushed, in part, by the School Nutrition Association, which represents school nutrition workers and receives substantial industry funding. The group has been criticized by health activists, who say it is serving the interests of processed-food firms such as makers of frozen pizza and agribusiness companies listed as donors.
Tom Stenzel, president of the United Fresh Produce Association, which is lobbying against delays in carrying out the new rules, said he believes the school nutritionists organization is responding to its donor base.
“They are overwhelmingly dependent on the processed food industry so there is an ingrained bias toward foods like frozen pizza and chicken nuggets that have been a staple of school lunches in the past,” Stenzel said.
Meat, Dairy and Fruit Lobbyists Fight It Out Over School Lunches
SEA CHANGE
Feminism had already been subverted by the “Women of Color” attack which accused white feminists of privileging gender over race. It’s one reason why American feminists have so little to say about Islamic law. They’ve had it beaten into their heads that they have no right to presume that Muslim women don’t want to wear hijabs or be second-class citizens. They’ve embraced the comforting myth that a woman in a hijab or a burka is just as empowered as a Western woman who can dress as she likes.The Brunei Moment
When it comes to Muslims, a conventional feminism that argues for equal rights hardly exists among professional American feminists. Gay rights groups however have demonstrated now that they are unwilling to subordinate their agenda to the larger agenda of the left. Unlike feminists, they don’t intend to just take a seat in the back and show up as representative props at generic protests.
Imam Who Said 9/11 Museum Film was Islamophobic, Stole $140,000
SYRIA, IT'S EVERYWHERE MUSLIM MIGRANTS GO
Yesterday, police and security were again called in as ugly scenes erupted at the Blockhouse Bay Rd mosque where two Islamic factions are fighting for control.
Security officers had to intervene to stop a worshipper from using a weapon to attack another man who turned up at the mosque border despite having been trespassed.
First you have a mosque. Then the mosque has a border. Then there are Muslims invading the mosque border. And then you’ve got the Syrian Civil War in New Zealand.
“To Actually Put a Jihad on a New Zealand Citizen Trying to Enforce New Zealand Law is Ludicrous.”
SO IT IS
I would like to see the site treated with more respect, but that’s been a lost cause ever since the cops allowed Truthers and vendors to overrun the area. And there are far too many tourists who treat it as another stop on a tour and behave with very little respect. Fixing that would be a more worthwhile effort than denouncing the gift shop or the restaurant.
My own preference would have been for rebuilding the Towers and placing a memorial at the base. Instead the rebuilding was a disaster and there’s a memorial and a museum.
If people feel the need for souvenirs, then it’s better if they get a somber stylized pin at the museum than a holographic 9/11 keychain made in Shanghai from Abdul Fareed outside.
The 9/11 Museum is a Museum… So It’s Going to have a Gift Shop
Pakistani Muslim Lawmaker Blames Drones for Polio
MONEY WALKS...
It’s no secret that lefty doesn’t practice what he shrieks. Michael Moore had Haliburton stocks. Code Pink’s deranged Medea Benjamin invests in companies that have a sizable presence in Israel. George Soros, a major funder of the Anti-Israel movement, including BDS, goes them one better by buying up a chunk of SodaStream while investing in other Israeli companies.
George Soros Funds BDS, Buys SodaStream Stock
NO WAY BACK
Former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren has an interesting exchange of letters with the editor of Foreign Policy about Israel. One particular thing that Michael Oren wrote jumped out at me.
But a two-state solution is unfortunately unlikely and not because of Israel. We’d make most of the sacrifices — but only because the Palestinians lack the national cohesion necessary to sustain a state structure. Our identity exists entirely independently of theirs; theirs cannot exist without denying ours. Accepting us would sever the one thread that — sometimes — holds them together.
Palestinian Identity as the “Anti-Israel”
PATIENT ZERO
The sharpest gap may in Malaysia which scores at 61%. But Muslim anti-Semitism rates in Malaysia are at 83% while Buddhist anti-Semitism rates are at 34%.
It’s one country and yet the difference in a particular strain of bigotry between Muslims and Buddhists is stunning.
It’s hard to look at these numbers and deny the fact that anti-Semitism is spread by Islam.
Anti-Semitism Survey Shows Muslims More Anti-Semitic than Buddhists
THE ROUNDUP
WE DON'T NEED NO EDUCATION
The song was recorded just off Upper Street, and the children were recruited from the nearby Islington Green Comprehensive School. However, while Walters's song was a protest against his strict Fifties grammar school, the education these children were receiving in 1979 was very different indeed.
A testbed of progressive education, Islington Green Comprehensive had an established reputation for chaotic behaviour and dreadful academic results. A new head, Communist Party member Margaret Maden, had been drafted in to turn the school around
In 2007, a BBC documentary reunited the choir, and there was a palpable sense they had been let down by their school. One former pupil, the daughter of a consultant psychiatrist, recalled, "I don't think I learned anywhere near as much as I could have done. I was quite bright, I think obviously if it had been a far more disciplined school then an awful lot more time would have been taken up with teaching and much less with crowd control. Come the end of the fifth year I was desperate to get out. I just wanted to leave." Aged 40, she was doing four jobs to afford the fees at her son's independent prep school.
A Commentator article, via Blazing Cat Fur
CONTROL
While in one part of southern California students were recently asked to debate if the Holocaust had ever happened, in nearby Los Angeles an advocacy group for children of Holocaust survivors is trying in its own unique way to ensure that a genocide of the Jews will never again occur by training its members in the use of firearms for self-defense.
The group, Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, last week hosted the gun instruction course in which they learned from a former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer who taught them the basics of safe firearm handling and shooting.
In encouraging people to attend, the Holocaust survivor children’s group posited that an armed civilian population could have stopped historical crimes against unarmed minorities including those under Stalin, in Cambodia and European Jews. “Atrocities could have been prevented with bullets and rifles. There is no virtue in being unprepared. Do you want Never Again to really be Never Again? … Freedom is not Free,” its invitation to the class read.
from The Blaze's story on the work of Children of Jewish Holocaust Survivors
WHY DOES TREASON NEVER PROFIT?
Glenn Greenwald, for instance, is a particularly resilient example. Greenwald successfully survived a scandal which resulted from his exposure for having persistently used “sock puppet” false identities to lavish praise on his own blog postings. He more recently attached himself to the cause of “whistle blowers” like Edward Snowden and acted as go-between between the latter and Establishment newspapers. Pimping US Intelligence secrets to the Guardian and the Times is the kind of thing which, in today’s world, makes one a hero in certain circles, and the next thing you knew Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar was writing a check for $250 million to buy Greenwald his own media organization. Who better to manage such a thing than the man renowned as “the left’s most dishonest blogger?”
from Never Yet Melted's commentary
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SOCIALIST
While we drank our coffee after the meal, he launched a sales pitch for treason. He proved not the most subtle of barkers.
"OK. We now know each other, and you know what I need from you."
"No, what do you need?"
"You know, you know." He arched his eyebrows.
"I don't know. What do you want?" I was getting the feeling that this was going in a weird direction.
"You work for Walters, right"
"Yes."
"I need his secret documents."
I thought he was joking and laughed, "Sure, you need his 'secret documents'. How many do you need?" I sipped my coffee, and then stared at him over my glasses.
"Yes, here is the list." He handed me a paper that had on it, no kidding, a typed tasking for me, "Provide all secret papers."
...from DiploMad's tales of the lighter side of treason
MEANS AND ENDS
The mayor calls his budget “historic” and “transcendent.” Indeed, for the first time since New York recovered from its near-bankruptcy of the 1970s, the city is willing explicitly to spend beyond its means to buy labor peace. The new teachers’ contract, including $4.3 billion in retroactive pay raises back to 2009, is the acute example
Via Neo-neocon, but in fact New York City began spending wildly beyond its means under Bloomy. The difference is that Bloomberg was only a liberal while De Blasio is a creature of the hard left.
New York City comes in second on the list of cities with the largest unfunded pensions. After Detroit.
A New York household is on the hook for $14,302 in unfunded city employee pensions and $22,857 in unfunded city worker health care costs. Since much of the city doesn’t actually pay taxes, that breakdown is mostly fictional.
“Bernie Madoff pretended he was getting 8% returns on his clients’ investments—and he’s in jail for running a Ponzi scheme. But in the public sector that kind of make-believe is common,” Joel Klein, the former New York City school chancellor, wrote.
“The city pension plan offered teachers and administrators guaranteed an 8.25% return, regardless of what the investments actually earned in the market.”
Cliff meet city.
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