For decades, the Social Security Administration has put out reports showing the percentage of household income attributable to Social Security.

In recent years, some analysts have criticized the reliance of these estimates on data from the Current Population Survey, or CPS. Studies have shown that the CPS was underreporting income from both defined benefit and defined-contribution plans. To the extent that the survey underreports pension income, it will overstate the importance of Social Security. Candidly, due to this concern, I have shied away from using these statistics in the last couple of years.

Fortunately, three researchers from the Social Security Administration have produced a comprehensive study that clarifies the role of Social Security by drawing data from three separate household surveys. One survey is the CPS, which was substantially redesigned in 2014-2015 so that it now includes separate questions about retirement-income account withdrawals and distributions. Comparing the results of the redesigned CPS to earlier years shows that the prevalence and aggregate value of retirement income other than Social Security were about 50% and 22% higher, respectively.

The second survey is the Health and Retirement Study, or HRS, the most comprehensive longitudinal study for Americans ages 51 and older. The HRS can be linked to verifiable administrative information on Social Security benefits and provides comprehensive information on retirement plan account balances and distributions from defined-benefit plans.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/yes-its-true-older-people-depend-on-social-security-2018-03-26

WASHINGTON—Acknowledging that total war with a personality cult ruled by a nuclear-capable despot will be a harrowing commitment posing many unique challenges, newly appointed National Security Advisor John Bolton promised the American public Friday that the upcoming war with North Korea certainly won’t be a cakewalk like Iraq.

“You have to admit, things in Iraq were pretty cut-and-dried—we went in there, we deposed the leader, we installed our own government, we never even had to think about the long-term consequences, and certainly no hordes of soldiers were forced to fight the tens of thousands of American teens we’re going to throw at them in great, meat-grinding, human-wave attacks like we’re about to see in North Korea,” said Bolton, who noted that as one of the architects of the “ultimately painless and remarkably successful” 2003 Iraq invasion, he knew what he was talking about when it came to planning a massive land campaign in Asia.

“It’s a good thing we have regional, expendable allies, because after the first 90 minutes of this war, somewhere around 2 million South Koreans are going to be a thin layer of greasy soot in the stratosphere, if my plan goes correctly. Then we simply commit an entire generation of young Americans to dying in numbers so great that they will permanently change the geography of the Korean peninsula. As will North Korea’s nukes and our fission weapons, of course. Believe me, this war is going to be an absolute mess.”

Bolton also warned that further delays in mobilizing for war with North Korea would inevitably push back the start of the U.S.’s upcoming war with Iran.

https://politics.theonion.com/john-bolton-warns-war-with-north-korea-won-t-be-cakewal-1824031861

Holocaust denier Arthur Jones is now the Republican nominee in Illinois’ third district after running unopposed.

Despite being denounced by the Illinois Republican Party, Arthur Jones emerged victorious in the House race on Tuesday night after failing to win the nomination five times before.

Jones, whose campaign website includes a section that claims the Holocaust is “the biggest, blackest lie in history,” is a long-time neo-Nazi who was a former member of the Nationalist Socialist White People’s Party and the American Nazi Party, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“Arthur Jones is not a real Republican — he is a Nazi whose disgusting bigoted views have no place in our nation’s discourse,” the state’s GOP chairman Tim Schneider said.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/holocaust-denier-wins-gop-congressional-primary-illinois-article-1.3887186

There is no denying the Republican Party is the party of Nazis, despite all the GOP handwringing. It's now just blatantly out in the open, which really is what they don't like.

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach could be facing a contempt order from a federal court after a judge on Tuesday tore into the Kansas Republican about repeatedly skirting her orders.

U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson chastised Kobach, a candidate for governor, at a contempt hearing for suggesting that her previous orders have left any room for ambiguity.

"I've had to police this over and over and over again,” Robinson said with frustration during the hearing in Kansas City, Kan.

Robinson in 2016 ordered Kobach to fully register thousands of Kansas voters who had registered at the DMV but had failed to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, as required by a Kansas law that Kobach crafted.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article206025749.html

Republican scumbags have infested government everywhere.

Stephen Hawking may have passed away, but his legacy of scientific discovery will live on, and his final paper has the potential to lay the groundwork for one of the most important scientific discoveries of the 21st century. The Sunday Times reports that the paper, entitled “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation,” details a means by which scientists could discover a parallel universe.

The paper had its latest revisions approved on March 4 — 10 days before Hawking’s death. “A Smooth Exit from Eternal Inflation” is a mathematical paper that sets out to find proof of multiverse theory, which argues that there are many other universes existing alongside our own.

Thomas Hertog, who co-wrote the paper with Hawking, said that their goal was “to transform the idea of a multiverse into a testable scientific framework,” Business Insider reported. Hertog said that he submitted the latest version of the paper after discussing it with Hawking, in order to ensure he approved of everything.

The paper provides the mathematical calculations that a space probe would need to gather evidence regarding the existence of a parallel universe.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/stephen-hawking-multiverse/

Within minutes of liftoff, it was clear the Dragon spacecraft was in trouble.

Inside mission control on the morning of March 1, 2013, the SpaceX team was desperately trying to figure out what went wrong and soon pinpointed the problem: A few valves were stuck.

Lori Garver, NASA's deputy administrator, was beside herself. The Obama administration had placed a bold bet on Elon Musk's SpaceX, awarding it hundreds of millions of dollars on contracts to fly cargo to the International Space Station, despite the critics who said it was foolish to trust a private outfit with such a complicated endeavor.

This was a fundamental shift for NASA, a move that some in the agency's highest reaches were wary of, and a risky bet by the White House. Under President Obama, NASA had retired the space shuttle and hired contractors — SpaceX and Boeing — to fly missions to the International Space Station as if they were providing a taxi service to space. That, in turn, would allow NASA to focus on missions in deep space and recapture some of the glory that had faded in the decades since the Apollo era put 12 men on the moon.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-spacex-trouble-book-20180316-story.html

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) loves a good joke. Too bad he has never told one.

On Saturday, Huckabee tweeted his delight at the news that Andrew McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI and 21-year veteran of the agency, had been fired the night before. McCabe would have been able to retire Sunday.

“Breaking Wind from CNN!” he wrote. “Andy McCabe offered deal for lying to FBI and won’t get pension but will get passage in overhead bin on United flight to Oakland to work for scofflaw mayor.”

Huckabee was referring to a dog that died this week after it was put in the overhead bin of a United Airlines flight. David Huckabee, the former governor’s son, killed a dog while working as a counselor at a Boy Scouts camp in 1998. Funny stuff, right?

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mike-huckabee-andrew-mccabe-dead-dog-joke_us_5aad6c68e4b0c33361b0e9e9

What a good Christian role model.

Guys. We think you need to sit down for this one. Devin Nunes, Donald Trump’s slow-witted pool boy, is dumber than we thought. Yes, we thought he had hit rock bottom when he released that hilariously stupid memo, the one that debunked its own premise on the last page. And we thought he hit rock bottom when he did … um, well basically everything Devin Nunes has ever done in his life pretty much screams, “Pick me last for the Knowledge Bowl!” But it’s worse than we knew.

The Washington Examiner reports that Nunes attended a private dinner for wingnuts Wednesday night in DC, and no, it does not say whether he brought a dairy cow as his date, or whether Devin and/or the dairy cow had “I just had sex” hair when they showed up, but it sure does report on what he said when he started making words with his dumb mouth. Feast your eyes:

“When Mueller was first appointed, I actually sent out a press release that said, this is great, because they’re going to quickly come in, and see what we’ve seen, which is that there’s no evidence whatsoever of collusion, but he’ll immediately go after the crimes which we know have been committed,” he said.

Nunes went on to say, according to the Washington Examiner, that it was a “major felony” that literal actual foreign agent Michael Flynn’s intercepted phone calls with the literal actual Russian ambassador, the ones he lied about, were leaked. Also, too, “unmasking,” because Devin Nunes is still fucking that chicken he was fucking last March when he took an Uber from the White House to the White House to tell the White House the SECRET DEVIN’S EYES ONLY intel he had just learned from the White House, about “unmasking.”

https://wonkette.com/631248/not-sure-how-to-say-this-but-devin-nunes-is-stupider-than-we-thought

I get a kick out of Evan Hurst's writing style. The comments are pretty entertaining, too.

A Nobel Prize-winning chemist’s wife is dead while he has been located alive but confused 200 miles away from where they live.

Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, 82, and his wife Sumire Negishi, 80, were reported missing on Monday in Indiana but the following day police discovered the professor wandering along a road near the Orchard Hills Landfill in Illinois.

After organizing medical treatment for the professor, who was later hospitalized, Ogle County Sheriff’s Deputies then found Ei-ichi’s vehicle and Sumire’s body at the landfill, according to a press release from the department.

While authorities are investigating her death, they said foul play was not suspected. Sumire suffered from Parkinson’s disease.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/missing-nobel-prize-winner-found-064208662.html

Weird.

A Northern California man shot more than 130 hawks and other legally protected birds of prey on his land, leaving the carcasses to pile up at the foot of trees and telephone poles, wildlife officials said Wednesday.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife managers believe the discovery near the rural town of Standish in Lassen County, on the border with Nevada, marks the largest poaching case involving raptors on record for the state, spokesman Capt. Patrick Foy said.

Wildlife officers alerted by an anonymous tip from someone who reported watching a man shooting down a hawk "just started finding one bird after the next," Foy said.

Wildlife officers don't know what motivated the shootings, he said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/officials-california-man-shot-130-hawks-birds-prey-200712577.html

What an asshole. Lock him up and take away his guns.