At first glance, the statement did not appear menacing. I was told I could expect to receive a benefit of “about $2,136 a month” upon reaching age 70 — which certainly seems like good news. But immediately I thought of a parallel of President Obama’s infamous Obamacare promise: “If you like your Social Security, you can keep your Social Security.” Then, as if on cue, I saw an asterisk with the following message: The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2033, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 77 percent of scheduled benefits.

I could not believe I was seeing the equivalent of what I was just thinking, but with a new twist, “If I like my Social Security, I can keep 77 percent of it.” With an asterisk, my beloved government was informing me that they will be unable to fulfill their part of a financial arrangement into which, as their statement attested, I had been making mandatory contributions starting in 1971 at age 16. The skepticism I felt when I saw my initial monthly benefit was entirely justified. There are just too many Baby Boomers and too many financial promises with elected leaders too afraid to inflict the necessary pain of real reform.

Meanwhile, here is the truth, as stated by the Social Security Administration in its annual Trustees Report from 2014: Social Security is not sustainable over the long term at current benefit and tax rates. In 2010, the program paid more in benefits and expenses than it collected in taxes and other noninterest income, and the 2014 Trustees Report projects this pattern to continue for the next 75 years. The old cliché “demographics is destiny” has never been more applicable.

In January 2011, the first 1946-born Baby Boomers began turning age 65, at the rate of 10,000 a day. This gray-haired evolution continues for 19 straight years — until the end of 2029 — when the youngest crop of Baby Boomers, born in 1964, finally turn 65.

What comes to mind is a classic 1965 song by The Who, “My Generation.” If you are of a certain age you know the famous lyrics, “I hope I die before I get old.” Now, since the Baby Boomer generation is already redefining what it means to be “old,” it’s time to rewrite the lyrics: “I hope I die before the government goes broke.” As things are going right now, you won’t, but it will.

Most of us like to think that “someday” we will get out of the hole and quit being debt slaves, but very few of us ever actually accomplish this. That is because the entire system is designed to trap us in debt before we even get out into the “real world” and keep us in debt until we die. Sadly, most Americans don’t even realize what is being done to them.

In America today, debt is considered to be just part of normal life. We go into debt to go to college, we go into debt to buy a vehicle, we go into debt to buy a home, and we are constantly using our credit cards to buy the things that we think we need. As a result, this generation of Americans is absolutely swimming in debt. The following are some of the findings of the Pew survey that I mentioned above… ”8 in 10 Americans have debt, with mortgages the most common liability.”

”Although younger generations of Americans are the most likely to have debt, older generations are increasingly carrying debt into retirement.” ”7 in 10 Americans said debt is a necessity in their lives, even though they prefer not to have it.” Most of us wish that we didn’t have any debt, but we have bought into the lie that it is a necessary part of life in America in the 21st century.

It has been estimated that 43 percent of all American households spend more money than they make each month, and US households are more than 11 trillion dollars in debt at this point.

And it will be corporate America that plays the role of difference-maker in getting US politicians to implement the plan. The bill introduced last week in both houses of Congress is called the Equality Act. Forty senators, led by Jeff Merkley, Democrat for Oregon, Tammy Baldwin, Democrat for Wisconsin, and Cory Booker, Democrat for New Jersey, introduced “historic, comprehensive federal legislation to ban discrimination against LGBT Americans,” Merkley reported on his website. The legislation was filed simultaneously in the House by 158 lawmakers led by Representative David Cicilline, Democrat for Rhode Island.

While all the co-sponsors are Democrats, don’t be fooled. The collective power of America’s corporate behemoths – names like Apple, Nike, General Mills, Facebook, Google, Dow Chemicals, Levi Strauss and American Airlines – have a history of getting their way when bringing pressure to bear on Republican politicians. Just ask Indiana’s Republican Governor Mike Pence.

Back in March when he signed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the full weight of corporate America came down on his shoulders. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who is openly homosexual, scolded him on morality. Threats to leave the state poured in from Indiana-based businesses Ely Lily, NASCAR, General Electric and Salesforce.

Perhaps the most aggressive stance came from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who said his company was helping employees uncomfortable with Indiana’s new law transfer out of the state. “CEOs have a lot of power and control over investments in states,” Benioff told CNN. “And we want to invest in states where there is equality. One thing you’re seeing is there is a third political party in this country, which is the party of the CEOs.”

Not to be outdone, the NCAA threatened to pull its lucrative college basketball tournaments from the state. Sensing a mutiny over the issue, Pence caved. He inserted new language into the law, essentially gutting its protections for religious freedom and turning it into an LGBT rights law.

The Wall Street Journal said the nation just passed a security law that boosts its cyber defenses and presses for technological advances that give government the power to control Internet access. Specifically, the law includes a mandate for Chinese companies to use local technology vendors when possible and to help create an Internet “kill switch” in times of national emergency.

The newspaper said it’s all part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plan to take control of the Internet, and clamp down further on what social media users post. The news comes as the United States has fingered China in several recent and high-profile cybersecurity attacks, including one that reportedly breached the data of more than 21 million federal employees, as WND extensively reported.

The new video released by the activists at the CMP shows Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains Medical Director Savita Ginde negotiating a fetal body-parts deal, agreeing multiple times to pricing per body part harvested and suggesting ways to avoid legal consequences. The Colorado Planned Parenthood facility does an estimated 10,000 abortions per year and CMP reported it has a contract to supply aborted fetal tissue to Colorado State University.

The activist organization’s actors met with Ginde, posing as representatives from a company invested in human biologics. They ask about intact fetal specimens, and Ginde reveals that her abortionists sometimes are too late. “Sometimes, if we get, if someone delivers before we get to see them for a procedure, then we are intact,” she said.

CMP reported, “Since PPRM does not use digoxin or other feticide in its second trimester procedures, any intact deliveries before an abortion are potentially born-alive infants under federal law.” In the video, Ginde and other Planned Parenthood employees describe the “specimens” on the table before them. “It’s a baby,” Ginde tells the undercover agents, as another employee points out what used to be limbs. “And another boy!” jokes the medical assistant. And Ginde says, “We’d have to do a little bit of training with the providers or something to make sure that they don’t crush” various fetal parts.

The Los Angeles Superior Court issued a temporary injunction Tuesday stopping the Center for Medical Progress from releasing any video showing three officials from StemExpress, a company that transfers fetal tissue from abortions performed at Planned Parenthood and other clinics to medical researchers.

A company spokesman told the Associated Press that StemExpress is “grateful its rights have been vindicated in a court of law,” but the center said in a statement that the court threw out most of the company’s request. StemExpress is “attempting to use meritless litigation to cover-up this illegal baby parts trade, suppress free speech, and silence the citizen press reporting on issues of burning concern to the American public,” said the CMP statement.

Regaining control over UK borders to end mass migration from other EU nations was widely seen as the top priority for voters. And an overwhelming majority wanted a far bigger reduction in meddling from Brussels than David Cameron is seeking in his diplomatic push for a new EU deal for Britain, the figures showed. Eurosceptics seized on the findings as clear evidence that the campaign for a British exit is winnable when the forthcoming in-or-out referendum on the country's EU membership is held.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: "The ‘No to EU’ side can win this referendum as long as we make the right arguments on the issues people really care about such as border controls, which is exactly what we in Ukip intend to do." Immigration was seen as the most important issue in his diplomatic push, according to the poll. Thirty-two per cent of voters stated that "ending the free movement of people" across EU borders should be the top item on his agenda in his diplomatic push. A further 18 per cent wanted the restoration of sovereignty from Brussels to the Westminster parliament as the top priority. And 15 per cent wanted the cost of EU membership, currently around £11 billion a year, slashed so the cash could be spent within the UK.

Mr Farage pointed out that the top three priorities for EU reform were not even on Mr Cameron's shopping list. He said: "It is clear that Cameron's so-called renegotiation is a farce, given he has no intention of fighting for the changes the British people want. Open-door immigration, even to those currently undecided about whether to remain in the EU or not, is the number one concern. David Cameron has no intention of addressing this. It is vital therefore that EU open borders are part of this referendum debate."

The poll comes ahead of a new drive by Ukip to fire up the campaign for a British exit from the EU ahead of Mr Cameron's planned EU referendum.

Professor Iain Begg, of the London School of Economics, believes the threat of what would effectively be 'Brexpulsion' - rather than a British exit or 'Brexit' - from Europe is becoming an ever-more likely scenario. He believes Mr Cameron is treading on a dangerous tightrope as he tries to appease EU leaders while also refusing to help with the ongoing Mediterranean migrant crisis and the Greek debt disaster.

Professor Begg told Express.co.uk: "The Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said he was in principle backing Britain's stance but then believed he was slapped in the face by Cameron over the recent migration issue, when he heard Britain would not accept a quota of immigrants. From what I hear from Brussels insiders the Italian PM was spitting feathers and using some strong language after hearing about it."

Although Mr Cameron is keeping his cards close to his chest on his demands, top of his wish list is expected to be a curtailing of EU laws on freedom of movement and the ability for Britain to show a red card to any Brussels directive. However, the latter is unlikely to get much support from those in the EU while the former has already been given a thumbs down by some, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Despite more than £2 billion in UK fines for Libor and foreign exchange benchmark manipulation, as well as action from the EU and US, banks are still showing a worrying lack of urgency in reforming their internal controls and systems to make sure there is no repeat of the scandals, the financial watchdog said on Wednesday in a strongly worded report.

The City was shocked when banks were fined for forex manipulation, as it was revealed that the bad behaviour carried on even after the Libor scandal had broken. But even now, banks have failed to act to stop another repeat. “The progress to improve oversight and controls around benchmark activities across most firms and within individual firms appeared slow,” said the FCA.

“This lack of urgency is disappointing given the importance of benchmarks to the economy, the similarity and severity of a number of previous benchmark failures, the high level of public concern as a result of the misconduct made public, and the scale of enforcement fines levied on firms.”

More changes are on their way from regulators. The Bank of England is working with authorities around the world to draw up a global code of conduct for currency traders. On April 1, regulators added seven more benchmarks including gold, silver and oil indices to the list of those covered by tighter rules, which include the threat of prosecution and jail terms for traders who try to manipulate the markets.

The 29-year-old was arrested by police after being spotted carrying out his one-man protest on the store's CCTV cameras. He has since branded Britain's legal system a "joke" and suggested his sentence was disproportionately harsh compared to Islamist hate preachers, who often go unpunished.

A court heard how he went into a Sainsbury's supermarket in Salford, Manchester, armed with a sheet of the stickers which he had bought on the internet. Accompanied by his girlfriend and two young children, he then went up to the meat chiller and stuck nine stickers on packets of meat before leaving. Later staff at the store became aware of the stickers on various packets of chicken breasts, thighs and a whole chicken worth £16.50 which could no longer be sold due to concerns for contamination.

Upon searching the hashtag term on Twitter, staff found images of the stickers on trollies and point of sale displays.

The van driver, who told magistrates he is an "animal lover", said he was driven to carry out the protest after watching a documentary about halal slaughter on TV. He was handed a four-week curfew after admitting religiously aggravated criminal damage. Speaking in court, he revealed: "I'm a big animal lover, be it for racial or other purposes I believe it is wrong to treat animals in that way."

The Manchester United fan later tweeted: "Joke of a legal system. Stand there saying death to Britain though and it's all good…”

The judge accepted the argument of Attorney Avichai Hajbi of the Honenu legal aid organization who was representing the youths, and went on to censure the police for their handling of the case. One of the youths was arrested last Friday near one of the gates to the Temple Mount, with police claiming he attempted to blow a shofar (traditional ram's horn instrument). As for the second youth, he was suspected of trying to visit the Temple Mount on the Tisha B'Av fast day mourning the destruction of the First and Second Temples at the site while wearing tefilin (phylacteries).

"The court ruled clearly that the law relating to tefilin on one's head and a shofar in hand is the same as the law of a hijab and darbouka," said the attorney Hajbi, noting how religious freedoms apply to Jews as well as Muslims. "The infuriating discrimination that the police conduct between Jews and Arabs on the Temple Mount must end, the sooner the better."

Honenu called the police "pursuit against Jews asking to ascend the Temple Mount is infuriating and severe, and we will consider suing the police for empty arrests in both cases." "We are shocked that the police invest efforts in arresting Jews whose only 'sin' is to blow a shofar or wear tefilin, instead of crushing Arab terrorism and incitement that runs rampant on the Temple Mount."

“Our answer is clear: we would like Europe to be preserved for the Europeans”, he added. The Hungarian Prime Minister emphasized that modern-day mass migration is a consequence of political processes. In his view, the real threat is not coming from war zones, but from the depths of Africa. The Hungarian Premier criticized harshly both the European and Hungarian left-wing elites, which, he said, do not perceive immigration as a source of danger but as an opportunity.

According to Viktor Orbán, the left believes that the escalation of migration may definitively debilitate, or even eliminate, national boundaries, and this would constitute the attainment of the long-term objective of the left in a historical perspective.

“While the Hungarian left incited against Hungarians beyond the borders in 2004, they would today readily embrace illegal migrants, and would await them with open arms. These people, these politicians quite simply do not like the Hungarian people”, Orbán concluded. He added: if the left had been given the chance to form a government in 2014, “within a year or two, we would not recognise our country; we would be like a refugee camp”.

The aerial benediction was carried out to bless and cleanse the town and the surrounding area. Locals say a series of incidents, including the desecration of graves, crosses placed upside down, thefts from churches and Madonnas thrown off cliffs, suggest the presence of devil worshippers.

“If Satan exists, he has taken control of Castellammare di Stabia. There was nothing left but to try the exorcist,” said a statement from the prayer group that called in the unnamed priest. It is not yet clear whether the exorcism, which took place on 9 July, has had the desired effect.