The hidden super hand grenade in income review report

The art of the pickpocket, when they're a good one, is that you never know until much later that you've been robbed.

They could bump up against you on a crowded bus, politely apologise, and disappear into a crowd, laughing as they count your cash. You are none the wiser until you feel for your wallet.

If you've walked the streets of Rome, or many other European cities, you may well have been accosted by the gangs of street urchins whose method of distraction is to accost you in a group, offering to sell you a tatty looking newspaper, while their partners in crime quickly have their hands in your bag and are off with your holiday spending money.

Josh Frydenberg's modus operandi is, of course, much less crass and involves a long and involved intellectual process. But don't be fooled. You are about to have your pocket picked.

The beauty of it is you'll never see his hands move and you may not know for years that you've been fleeced.

He yesterday released a review into Australia's retirement income system. Running to 600 pages, it is detailed and broad-reaching, examining the entire complex web of rules and conventions which determine how much money you end up with when your weekly pay packet finally stops and you enter your golden years.

As the Treasurer said, the review looked at the three pillars of our retirement income system – the age pension, compulsory superannuation and voluntary savings, including home ownership.

It was carried out by three very eminent and independent experts in the field.

They found overall that the system is sound and sustainable and while not making specific recommendations, made a number of observations.

For instance, they observed that the aged pension helps to reduce inequality because those on lower incomes receive a higher rate of the pension.

They also observed that the pension system helps act as a buffer against economic downturns because as retirees exhaust their savings, they always have the pension as a safety net.

As well, the review panel observed that there is room in the system for more efficient use of assets to bolster income in retirement. That is, it should be easier to use some of the equity in your home and turn it into cash. Obviously, that means less of the house to leave to your children but for many people it's an option at least worth considering and, it could be argued, the overall system should reduce the obstacles in the way.

The review also looked at the very serious problems of gender inequality in retirement income, how women invariably end up with much lower incomes in retirement than men because they are more likely to take time out of their careers to focus on family. That includes bringing up children as well as caring for the elderly.

All of these observations are reasonable and legitimate and deserve consideration when governments and others make decisions on the future of the retirement income landscape.

But there is also one little nugget in that report which will have important implications both politically and for your hip pocket.

It's being seized on by thousands of employers around the country and it is the review panel's comments on the superannuation guarantee levy.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/josh-frydenberg-retirement-income-review-released-what-it-reveals/e0392fa8-2846-4060-a2cd-9a83b5b96ff6

Nearly All Lawmakers at House Armed Services Committee Hearing Opposed Afghanistan Troop Drawdown

Nearly all lawmakers present during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Friday expressed opposition to President Trump’s troop drawdown in Afghanistan from 4,500 troops to 2,500 troops by January 15, despite little public appetite for keeping U.S. military involvement going.

Both Republicans and Democrats at the hearing expressed reservations about the decision, which was announced last week at the Pentagon by Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, in accordance with Trump’s goal to end the war in Afghanistan.

Republicans and Democrats on the committee expressed concern about whether 2,500 troops were too few to stave off a takeover of the country by the Taliban, to conduct the U.S. counterterrorism mission there, and to prevent al Qaeda from plotting another 9/11 from within its borders.

Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) even raised the prospect of reversing Trump’s decision and sending U.S. forces back into Afghanistan:

I worry about the reinstatement of Sharia law and the impacts on women and children and I worry that we have to calibrate what a presence that will be relevant is. Is 2,500 enough, or do we need 4,000? Can we reinstate the other 2,000 after the Biden administration comes into operation if that is where he’s inclined to go?

There was little support for drawing down forces from the hearing’s three witnesses, who all opposed Trump’s decision.

“It is, I am afraid to say, folly to think that a full U.S. troop withdrawal is somehow going to make us safer or uphold our core values,” said Ryan Crocker, a retired career ambassador and nonresident senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “We have to show the strategic patience we need to face down a determined enemy.”

“In my view, we should maintain our current troop level chiefly for its political value as bargaining leverage in the ongoing talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban,” said Stephen Biddle, professor at Columbia University and adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“I think the U.S goal should be to continue to build political consensus in Afghanistan to support peace talks and at least to prevent the overthrow the Afghan government by the Taliban,” said Seth Jones, an expert with the Center for Strategic & International Studies thinktank.

Only two lawmakers at the hearing expressed opposition to keeping U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

On the Democrat side, it was House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA), who raised questions about the costs and effectiveness of having U.S. troops in the country, although he stopped short of making any definitive statements.

“Outside forces are not going to bring peace to Afghanistan. One way or the other, the people of Afghanistan are going to have to make that choice. And when we look at Afghanistan, I think we need to be very humble about imagining that there is something we can do to make that different,” he said, adding:

If you tell me I got to bet $100 dollars one way or the other, I’m betting rather confidently that the chaos is going to continue. And we are in the middle of that chaos…Lives are being lost, money is still being spent, and people — our troops and others — are still being forced to be sent over there, and I think the American people are saying, ‘For what?’

Only Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) unequivocally said he was opposed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He noted that as a Republican member of the committee and supporter of withdrawing U.S. forces from the country, he was “a minority” with a “minority view” on the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

“I’m against it. Based on even the words of our own witnesses today, the corruption in Afghanistan is unsolvable, the war in unwinnable, and the strategy is undecipherable,” he said.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/20/nearly-all-lawmakers-at-house-armed-services-committee-hearing-opposed-afghanistan-troop-drawdown/

U.S. Companies with ‘Made in China’ Products, ‘Optimistic’ About Joe Biden

American companies that do business and make their products in China are, by a majority, “optimistic” about a Joe Biden presidency, a new survey reveals.

The American Chamber of Commerce in a Shanghai, China, survey asked 124 business executives their opinions on a Biden presidency, to which a majority, nearly 63 percent, said they are “much more optimistic” or “more optimistic” about their doing business in the Communist country with the former vice president in the White House.

Likewise, the survey found that business executives do not expect Biden to impose more tariffs on China-made products — as President Trump did with billions of dollars worth of goods against the wishes of corporate interests.

CNBC reports:

“The majority of our respondents look at it as a positive,” Ker Gibbs, president of AmCham Shanghai, told CNBC in a phone interview. “The Biden administration would be a positive to the stability of the environment, the stability of the relationship.” [Emphasis added]

…

Under a Biden administration, only 5.6% of AmCham Shanghai survey respondents expect more tariffs. Instead, 70.2% anticipate new U.S. leadership will work more with other countries to put pressure on trade relations with China. [Emphasis added]

In August, Biden seemingly claimed he would repeal Trump’s tariffs on Chinese products. Later, his campaign aides walked the statement back, and he has since not been definitive on whether he plans to keep the tariffs or throw them out.

Already, the Business Roundtable, which represents some of the nation’s largest multinational corporations, is pushing Biden to ease the tariffs imposed on Chinese products by Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal:

“Unwinding the tariffs, especially with China, shouldn’t be a unilateral act,” said Josh Bolten, the BRT’s chief executive. “It should be an opening to begin a serious negotiation that the Trump administration attempted but in many respects made difficult through overly aggressive measures.” [Emphasis added]

…

On Monday, former George W. Bush administration Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson made a proposal similar to Mr. Bolten’s. “I would only remove existing tariffs when we have extracted a reciprocal and tangible benefit from China, met by defined benchmarks in a phased bilateral trade agreement,” he said at conference. [Emphasis added]

…

Myron Brilliant, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s executive vice president, added his voice to the rollback call on Tuesday. “We would hope that China would agree to the importance of further efforts on structural reforms unaddressed by the phase-one agreement,” he said in an interview, “and that the U.S. and China can find the political space to pull back tariffs that are currently in place.” [Emphasis added]

Biden has promised the opposite approach to China that Trump has successfully implemented for almost four years. Whereas Trump’s focus was on an “America First” bilateral trade policy with other nation-states, Biden is promising the multilateral approach that has formed the Washington, D.C., free trade consensus for decades.

Many Senate Republicans have suggested that they are behind a return to the multilateral approach with Biden. Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee issued a report this week wherein they declared their support for Biden’s strategy, the Wall Street Journal reports:

“It is our populations—the U.S. and Europe—that built the world order of today, not China,” said Sen. Jim Risch, the chairman of the Senate committee, in an interview. “The world order that we have, based on democracy and based on the rule of law, is where this planet should go if it’s going to have a future.” [Emphasis added]

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/11/20/u-s-companies-with-made-in-china-products-optimistic-about-joe-biden/

Schiff: GOP ‘Relinquished Its Constitutional Duty’ — It’s a Trump Cult

House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Friday on MSNBC’s “All In” that the Republican Party had “relinquished its constitutional duty and become a cult,” referring to its loyalty to President Donald Trump.

Schiff said, “In terms of the Republicans in Congress, you know, as you pointed out during the trial, Chris, we warned that he tried to cheat in the election and got caught. He tried to get Ukraine to help him cheat, and he would do it again. That’s exactly what he’s doing. The Republicans who, you know, many of whom acknowledge that he had been proven guilty of the charges and then went on to say as what you’ve pointed out that, well, let’s let the voters decide, now that the voters have decided, that’s still not good enough for them. The only remaining ideology, Chris, that we have seen of these Republican enablers is say what the president says, do what the president wants. That is now the Republican Party ideology. It doesn’t go beyond that. What he says rules them. They fear angry tweets; they fear primary challenges; they fear retribution, they fear that voters in Georgia may not turn out if Donald Trump takes the ball and goes home. And so we see once again this utter capitulation to the wishes of Donald Trump, no matter how anti-democratic and unconstitutional they may be.”

On impeachment, Schiff said, “We saw what Donald Trump was made of. We saw the abuses of power. We in the House undertook our constitutional responsibility with great seriousness. Although, you know, we had realistic expectations, we hoped and prayed the Senate might do the same. They didn’t. That’s not necessarily a flaw in the remedy of impeachment. One of the things that we pointed out during the trial is that it doesn’t matter how well the Constitution is written or how profound the oath of impartiality is, if those things are not animated by the spirit with which the Constitution was written if the members don’t give them content through their character, none of it works. And it hasn’t worked because the GOP, one of the major parties, has relinquished its constitutional duty and become a cult of the president.”

He added, “Donald Trump couldn’t be doing any of this. There would be no lack of ascertainment by the GSA administrator if the Republicans weren’t allowing it. They could put an end to it tomorrow. They just don’t have the courage to do it. And it’s a colossal failing. It doesn’t mean that impeachment won’t be an effective remedy in the future if it’s necessary, but it does mean at this moment of peril that one party is not living up to its responsibility.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/11/20/schiff-gop-relinquished-its-constitutional-duty-its-a-trump-cult/

Here Are Just 10 of the Wild Conspiracy Theories the Left (and Media) Have Tarred Trump With for More Than 4 Years

The “deranged” Russian spy in the White House told the Ukraine president to drink Clorox and refuses to leave his “illegal” office until every blue mailbox filled with secret messages to “very fine” white supremacists in Prague is removed by incontinent hookers…

… and other whoppers the media trolled Donald Trump with for the past four-plus years. Speaking of trolls, so-called “fact” checkers are advised that this is satire. That is “protected speech.” Look it up.

The Left and their media wingmen have decided that after four years of believing Russian Facebook ads interfered with the 2016 election, that it’s absolutely a “deranged conspiracy theory” for the president to question the odd results of the 2020 election and the way they were produced. If the shoe had been on the other foot, the media’s candidate, Joe Biden, would be lauded for his patriotism and fortitude between his ever-diminishing bouts of clarity.

When the media turned on the big-talking and sometimes bellicose New Yorker (see Andrew Cuomo) and began reporting that he was a suspected Russian secret agent, Trump flipped it right back, dismissing them as Fake News. They rewarded the big-talking candidate with – what do they like to say now? – oh, yes, giving agency to some of the biggest whoppers ever conceived of by reporters and their buddies over at the Lincoln Project, Hillary Clinton’s rumor-factory, and the DNC.

Let’s take a rambling trip down the memory lane of the Steele Dossier fever dreams, “highly placed sources,” and Rick Wilson’s fantasies, shall we? These are the 10 Biggest Conspiracy Theories leveled against Trump. These are not in any particular order.

1. Trump Is a Russian Spy

Vladimir Putin cultivated, “supported and directed” Donald Trump years before he thought about running for the presidency. CNN kept this fiction going long after the IG’s report proved it’s a whopper.

This was the Russian hoax put forward, as we later found out, by Hillary Clinton using Russians to trump up oppo research and call it a “dossier.” The “Steele Dossier” was a series of memos told by a guy who later admitted it was drunken bar talk and sold to the media as evidence of kompromat to the gullible and unthinking Adam Schiff.

1. Trump ‘Colluded’ With the Russians To Win Trump the White House

Congressman Adam Schiff promised he had “evidence” of Trump’s “collusion” with the Russians to “intervene” in a “very close election” to propel President Trump to the White House. These claims were amplified by media, willing to believe that Trump threw the 2016 election, but unwilling to entertain the allegations of foreign interference in the 2020 election.

3.Trump Was Not Legally Elected and He Never Plans to Leave

Before the president took office, anti- and Never Trumpers declared themselves to be “The Resistance.” House Judiciary Committee member, New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, said that Trump was not a legal president and helped draw up impeachment articles before he was sworn in. Dozens of Democrats in the House boycotted his inauguration. And in 2019 Hillary Clinton proclaimed Trump an “illegitimate president.” So much for that whole peaceful transfer of power thing. The New Yorker fanned the flames of the Resistance by announcing that the president was initiating a coup and wouldn’t leave office for at least three terms.

1. Trump Told Putin to ‘Hack’ Hillary’s Email to Win the Election

Candidate Trump in July of 2016 joked in a news conference, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 [Hillary Clinton] emails that are missing.” It was a rueful joke because the Secretary of State’s 33,000 emails, sought by the House Select Committee on Benghazi, on her personal server had been destroyed by her and her staff. Although Hillary’s email destruction gambit is often conflated with the DNC hack they are not the same thing. The hack of the Democratic National Committee’s emails, which were splayed on the web supposedly by Wikileaks, was allegedly done by Russian “GRU officers” via phishing emails. In fact, a declassified leak of a handwritten memo by then-CIA chief John Brennan revealed that it was Hillary Clinton’s campaign that began the Trump-is-a-Russian-spy story to draw attention away from her email scandal. See number one.

1. Donald Trump Paid Hookers to Urinate on a Bed Because … Obama

https://pjmedia.com/election/victoria-taft/2020/11/20/here-are-just-10-of-the-wild-conspiracy-theories-the-left-and-media-have-tarred-trump-with-for-more-than-4-years-n1153713

CANNIBALISM suspected as German police arrest man in gruesome murder case

A man has been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of killing another person amid reports he might have eaten his victim as prosecutors say they have found indications of cannibalism in the case.

A 41-year-old resident of Berlin’s northern district of Pankow has been placed into custody by a local court on Friday. The suspect identified by the German media as Stefan R. is accused of a sexually motivated murder. “It was an act aimed at satisfying the sexual instinct,” the court ruling said.

Now, the Berlin Prosecutor’s Office said it had reasons to suspect “cannibalistic background” in this case.

The chilling murder has first come to light when some skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded area in Berlin’s Pankow district in early November. According to the police, the bones were “totally devoid of flesh.” A forensic analysis indicated the bones belonged to a 44-year-old construction worker Stefan T., who vanished without a trace on September 5.

The investigation led by the Berlin police homicide department together with the prosecutor’s office led to Stefan R., who is said to be living not far from the place where the bones were found. The law enforcement officers found traces of blood reportedly belonging to the victim as well as cutting tools in his apartment.

The two men also allegedly new each other as they exchanged messages on an online dating platform. However, the suspect, who is said to be a math and chemistry teacher at a private high school, according to the media report, also frequented websites of much more sinister nature.

“The suspect had an interest in cannibalism,” Berlin prosecutors’ office spokesman Martin Steltner said. “He searched online for the topic.” The suspect remains silent and does not comment on the allegations, he added.

The prosecution also refused to provide any further details on this case while saying it was investigating it “at full speed.”

The chilling case is reminiscent of another murder, which saw a former computer repair technician, Armin Meiwes, killing and eating his victim in 2001. One of the most unnerving details of the murder was that Meiwes, who currently serves life sentence in prison, claimed that his victim himself fantasized about being eaten.

https://www.rt.com/news/507366-germany-murder-arrest-caniibalism-suspected/

‘No return to austerity’ in the UK, PM Johnson’s spokesman says

Austerity will not return to the UK, Boris Johnson’s spokesman insisted on Friday, citing the prime minister and his finance minister, Rishi Sunak. However, Sunak is expected to announce a public pay freeze.

“Both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor [of the Exchequer] have been clear that we will not return to the austerity of the past,” the spokesman said, answering a question on whether there will be a renewed squeeze on public sector pay. “Departmental spending will increase above inflation on both day-to-day spending and longer-term investment,” he added.

However, British media reports say that over four million public sector workers are facing a pay freeze, as the government deficit could hit a peacetime record in 2020-21 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sunak is likely to announce the heaviest public borrowing since World War Two next week. He is also expected to announce the “pay restraint,” which would affect soldiers, police officers, teachers and civil servants.

Frontline doctors, nurses and other NHS workers are likely to be exempt from the wage cap, as the country is going through a second – and severe – wave of coronavirus cases.

The government may argue that in the private sector, many people have already faced pay cuts or the loss of their jobs. But unions have warned against a pay freeze, with Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), saying that “working people must not bear the burden of the crisis.”

Rehana Azam, national secretary of the GMB trade union, said that “it’s dangerous territory for the chancellor,” and remarking that “billions are being wasted, flowing out of the Treasury into the pockets of [the government’s] chums,” in reference to lucrative contracts reportedly awarded to companies with ministerial links.

Sunak said on Friday that public finances need to be put on a sustainable path over time, after more than £200 billion in support schemes was provided “to protect the economy, lives and livelihoods from the significant and far-reaching impacts of coronavirus.”

https://www.rt.com/uk/507339-austerity-britain-public-sector-pay/

Acting SecDef, service secretaries exposed to COVID-19 after top civilian tests positive

WASHINGTON — A top Pentagon civilian has tested positive for COVID-19 after meeting with a foreign dignitary — who may have also exposed acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller as well as the top civilians from the Air Force, Navy and Army, Defense News has learned.

Lithuanian Defence Minister Raimundas Karoblis met with Miller, the service secretaries and retired Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, who is performing the duties of the undersecretary for policy, during a Nov. 13 visit to the Pentagon. Upon returning to Vilnius this week, he tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Miller, as well as Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite, who met with Karbolis Nov. 16, have all tested negative and do not plan to self-isolate.

The disease, which has claimed the lives of more than 250,000 Americans, has an incubation period of up to 14 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear when or where Karoblis contracted the disease and whether he was contagious during his visit to the Pentagon.

Photos from the meetings between Karoblis and Department of Defense leaders show those in attendance wearing face masks, although one formal photo shows Miller and Karoblis standing without face coverings.

In response to questions from Defense News about a possible infection, chief Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said the department learned of Karoblis’ positive test Nov. 19 and began testing. Tata tested positive twice and will now isolate at home for 14 days.

“We have and are continuing to conduct further contact tracing of DoD personnel who have had close contact with the Lithuanian delegation or Mr. Tata, and are taking appropriate precautions in accordance with CDC guidelines,” Hoffman said. “Additionally, DoD personnel who had contact with the delegation have received or are receiving at this time rapid COVID tests as deemed necessary based on CDC protocols. Additional necessary testing for individuals who had contact with Mr. Tata is ongoing.

“We will report additional positive cases as appropriate.”

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2020/11/19/acting-secdef-service-secretaries-exposed-to-covid-19-after-top-civilian-tests-positive/