#RallyForRangers – Rhino Protection Units in Java, Indonesia

Call for a Plastic-Free Future – Greenpeace International

Remember your first toothbrush, it’s probably still out there!

We are calling on people around the world to create a “Million Acts of Blue”

Actions to push retailers, corporations and businesses to reduce single-use plastic. It’s going to take communities both large and small to tackle the scale of the current plastic pollution crisis, we all have a role to play. Every action to reduce single-use plastic sends a message to the industry that it’s time to change. We can no longer allow products that are used for a few seconds to pollute our planet for a lifetime.

For a plastic – free future go here to download the app and get more information…

https://www.greenpeace.org/international/act/lets-end-the-age-of-plastic/

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Petition: Japan Is About to Start Slaughtering Even More Whales

by: Judy Molland
recipient: Japanese Government

39,173 SUPPORTERS – 40,000 GOAL

Japan announced December 26 that it was pulling out of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

“We have decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in order to resume commercial whaling in July next year,” Japanese Cabinet Chief Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters.

Commercial whaling has been illegal since 1986, but Japan has flouted the ban several times. Now the country is declaring that it is leaving the IWC in order to pursue the slaughter of whales.

This is a barbaric and destructive practice. If you agree, please sign my petition urging Japan to return to the IWC and not resume whaling for profit.

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/826/671/977/

 

Petition: Save 6M acres of Florida wetlands from destruction

by: Ellen Fishel
recipient: Rick Scott DEP Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

35,827 SUPPORTERS – 40,000 GOAL

It was just published today in the paper that the Trump Administration is looking into developing 6 million acres of Florida wetlands for commercial development. This came about after a huge rollback in environmental regulations, which will cause half of Florida wetlands to lose federal protection.

This will destroy not only the delicate environment of the Everglades, but also the precious water supply that is so desperately needed here.

The Everglades are already in danger because of development 30 years ago!!! Scientists are trying to restore the Everglades! It can never go back to its original state. We seem to always overlook our precious environment, our beautiful planet as $$$ always seem to be at the forefront!!

I am saddened to think our government would even think of destroying such a delicate ecosystem and all the animals and wildlife who live there. What are we leaving for future generations? We already have red tide here in part due to contaminated water that is feeding this bloom. What happens when the Everglades are turned upside down???

I would like to see this stopped and legislation passed that cannot be turned over by ANYONE to save the Wetlands. Please sign the petition to demand that the Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency REVERSE this rule change, and to demand that Congress pass laws to protect this precious land, once and for all!

https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/910/168/211/?z00m=31189648&redirectID=2798991659

 

The coming collapse to Social Security as we know it

foxbusiness.com
By Rebecca Walser

Border wall funding, a government shutdown (or a government showdown!), trade relations and tariffs between the U.S. and China, the Fed continuing to raise rates with a teetering stock market — there has been plenty to fret over this holiday season. But something else is happening quietly that is nevertheless one of the most important issues in the history of America.

I am referring to, what I label as, the coming disenfranchisement of our Social Security system, at least as we know it.

Disenfranchisement, quite a stark word, is defined as the state of being deprived of a right or privilege. As a lawyer, I should know better than to use this word in relation to Social Security, since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the 1960 case Flemming v. Nestor that the receipt of payments from the program was not a“right,” even where a participant had paid into the system for years.

Even so, the reality is that most Americans count on and expect that “their” Social Security, in its present form, will be there for them. But it will not – at least that is what the current math unfortunately tells us.

Make no mistake, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system. Even though there is an estimated nearly $3 trillion in the trust fund, this simply reflects accounting entries of the net surpluses the fund has been credited with, plus interest earned, since inception. There is no actual money in the fund, just the special-issue Treasury bonds, which are in fact government IOUs. The real surpluses have been used by the federal government as a funding source of many things.

But no more – the days of surplus payments are over now and under the current system will be for the coming 75 years. For the first time since 1982, this year more benefits will be paid than revenues collected. This is no surprise to the government, as they have projected and forecasted these figures based on our demographics in the annual Trustee Report since 1941.
Retirement boom

But as difficult as that is to swallow, that is not the issue I focus on. What consumes me is the much larger problem of what is coming. When you break down the birth rates between 1946 – 1964, you see that births peaked in 1957, followed closely through 1964. This means that about 70 percent of the Boomers have not even begun to retire yet, and beginning in 2022 the bulk of the generation will retire in a five to seven-year succession, one year after the next.

In other words, our system is now approximately 2 full time equivalent payors for every 1 recipient receiving Social Security benefits, 2-to-1, costing us more than we are taking in, and 70 percent of this great generation has yet to even be a recipient in the system. (2018 Trustee report showing 2.8-to-1 includes all workers who worked at all during the year, and is not reflective of true contributors to system.)

Keep in mind that every time a Boomer retires, they are a double negative to the federal budget as they go from being a positive contributor through payroll taxes to no contribution with their retirement (the 1st negative impact) and then they move onto the system as a recipient (the 2nd negative budget impact). The lower birth rates of Gen X and Millennials, comparatively, not including surplus immigration, does not help.

Before he was Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan asked the CBO to analyze these future problems back in 2008. The resulting report was unequivocal. If the benefits paid via Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid remained (at 2008 levels) with the retirement of the Baby Boomers, benefits would have to be cut, taxes would have to go up, or more likely BOTH.
Rock and a hard place

If you are one of those in the camp of “no politician will ever be elected that will cut our Social Security benefits,” as I so frequently hear in my work across the country, let me introduce you to another harsh reality. The timing of the mass retirement of our Boomer generation is colliding with the reality of our federal debt reaching an unsustainable critical mass.

At around $22 trillion and climbing, we will not be able to debt finance these benefits for a sustained time period. Once we hit $30 trillion in total debt, which as forecasted could happen in less than 8 years with the projected $1 trillion annual deficits, interest servicing alone will cost us more per year than we spend on Medicare and the military combined – a simple impossibility for the United States.

Thus, it is clear that the proverbial can cannot be kicked down the road any longer. The road is ending, and the cliff lies dead ahead just like the iceberg did for the Titanic.

We cannot borrow our way out. As I see it, it is a mathematical certainty that benefits will be cut (I believe on some kind of aggressive means tested basis) and taxes will go up (also likely dramatically, according to the math).

And hence the word… the coming “disenfranchisement” of Social Security – Americans being deprived of the privilege of the full benefit payments upon which they were counting. It is no wonder that Congress has expressly reserved the right to alter, amend, or repeal any provision of the Act and the U.S. Supreme Court has established that it is not a right. We must wake up and prepare accordingly.

Rebecca Walser is a licensed tax attorney and certified financial planner and author of the book Wealth Unbroken, who specializes in the strategic planning of maximizing lifetime wealth while minimizing tax through her practice, Walser Wealth Management . She earned her juris doctor degree from the University of Florida and her Master of Law degree in taxation from New York University. She is a frequent national media contributor.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/the-coming-collapse-to-social-security-as-we-know-it