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March 02, 2015

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Fetus (up to delivery)- holy and worthy of everything
Baby and beyond- disposable unless its pulling its weight

Democrat - spineless creature, big mouth, only comes out every 4 years to vote in a presidential election.

Utter waste of time: The last three minutes I spent reading this.

Republican- 1)A person brought up and continuing to exist in a sheltered, monoculture environment. Usually affluent Caucasian. 2) An angry white working class person whose world views are mostly manipulated through racist and religious prejudices. 3) A wealthy person who cares only about the acquisition of more material wealth without regard to the effects his or her greed based existence has on others or future generations. 4) Christian supremacists who want to impose their version of Biblical teachings on secular societies and wage unceasing military crusades in the Holy Land and Middle East. Have particular hatred for all Muslims.

Aw come on INPHX surely U can find a way to get off on this?

Now off topic- but- Emil mentioned in one of his more recent posts almost in passing an important point; that is the mandated underfunding in state budgets of pensions. It was simple cost shifting to balance them, but it only kicked the can down the road, and its been going on for a long time. IIRC the last gubenator who was being called out for this was Mr. Christie. Not nice. Is it possible that funds set aside by workers might have been diverted? I don't know. If so the
at would indeed reek. Could be wrong on both counts of course.

Sorry. In a hurry. "underfunding of mandated contributions to stae pension funds."

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength. George Orwell

Cal:

Think I'll sit this one out. You and the rest of the Cuckoo's nest crowd have a good time with Nurse Ratchet.

Wish I was effective enough to be an enemy.

INPHX- peace be unto us. pax nobiscum, whatever. If you're reading this, suggest that you take another look at the film or another skim of the book, especially as metaphor. You've paid us a compliment.
Regards,
McMurphy

One-Party System - The sort of government preferred by anyone who believes this drivel.

C'mon, Jon, you can do better than this!

Lighten up Bohan.

Even Jon deserves a little fun every now and then.

How about this:

Sarah Palin - living proof Neanderthals bred with homosapiens.

I never cease to marvel at Republicans who are more offended by having it pointed out to them that their party is swarming with bigoted hypocritical ignoramuses than with the actual fact that it is swarming with bigoted hypocritical ignoramuses.

Palin-drome- utter nonsense forward and backward.

Ken Buxton is correct - we have entered the "Animal Farm".

Im all for a Democrat dictionary. Should be fun.
INPHX, thanks for the Nurse Ratched thought. Ken Kesey is a favorite and I have watched the film probably 5 or 6 times. Whereas the actreess who won the award cant bear to watch her cruel, Republican character again.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2012/10/04/cuckoo-nest-actress-says-her-nurse-ratched-character-is-too-cruel-for-her-to/

INPHX, I left U some drivel back on the last blog.

Anybody know? Is INPHX just a troll or the resident adam henry on this blog?

I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt that he is not a troll.

Adam Henry:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Adam+Henry

He's okay. Methinks he's a libertarian. As Maude lebowski put it in a different context, back and forth with him was a "zesty enterprise."

Side note: a startling revelation about Illinois' pension problems, has been added at the end of the Comments section, here:

http://www.roguecolumnist.com/rogue_columnist/2015/02/solemn-obligations.html

Okay, INPHX, here's an old chestnut for you:
Conservative- a liberal who's been mugged. Bada-bing!

What we might see in the near future:
"Newly Minted Liberal"- a working class conservative with health problems whose health insurance evaporates and who is shit out of luck in our Hobbesean playground.

Evidently needling, insulting, and name-calling is called "discourse" when conservatives do it to liberals.
Dawgzy, I don't know that INPHX is a Libertarian: Libertarians are just Republicans who smoke weed.

Cal:

Intersting article about Nurse Ratchet, who, as I recall, was an employee of a public mental health facility and maybe even in a public employee union.

Private hopitals sure as hell wouldn't have out up with that kind of behavior....

Fox News: Fair and balanced journalism.

Political Ethics =

Private hopitals [sic] sure as hell wouldn't have out up with that kind of behavior...

Really? I worked with a Nurse Ratchet type and it was a corporation. She was horrible as a coworker, not that bright, dogmatic, but she was kept on when everyone else was outsources and even retired (not a union shop either). She cost that company a fortune over petty differences, obey my A-TOR-I-TY battles, not to mention goodwill between suppliers and even coworkers.

As for private hospitals, my wife just switched out of the Scottsdale Healthcare System as the staff was rude, the doctors and nurses unsympathetic and evidently afraid of corporate. St. Joe's charitable nonprofit system is way better.

Jerry:

Glad things worked out for your wife. I wasn't attempting any detailed analysis; I was just responding to Cal's comment that Nurse Ratchet was probably a Republican.

Love non-profits. Donate and support when I can.

You know that St. Joe's is owned by an outfit called Dignity Health, don't you? Amazing organization.

Here's a little about them:

http://www.dignityhealth.org/index.htm


Imagine a country where a veteran can't walk into one of those facilites with a voucher and get medical care.

It boggles the mind, doesn't it??

INPHX, for your notes, I became a republican at nine, as i noted they had more $$$.
I agree with you about Nurse Ratchted working in a government setting and even maybe belonging to a union.
For the record I am still a republican.
I worked at the AZ State Hospital (Me and Winnie Ruth) and I also worked at private mental facilities and in the AF medical corp I worked pych units. What I can tell you is that the care one got was based on the amount of $$$ you had to spend. I saw some of the saddest cases one could imagine and I remember four pointing some of the wealthiest and famous. As a retired cop I have seen the same with private prisons, its all about the $$$'s. And lo mismo for charter schools. (dens of evil in my opinion). You want to go to a "charter/private School" pay the bucks but no vochers or tax breaks, you still gotta pay your bucks to support public education.

Cal:

Well in Illnois, someone is paying the bucks to support public education, but that includes $105K per year plus healthcare retirement package for a 55 year old.


Until they die.

Swell.


Agree with you on one thing.

It's all about the benjamins.

I dont think INPHX is a republican or a democrat or a libertarian, here's what I said back on Solemn obligations. (with a footnote at the end)

INPHX what's your story?
Are you that name I see scribbled on vacant walls, "Who is John Galt?
I recall seeing that name on the underside of a large bridge I was camping under on my walk across America in 95. (and on a lot of bathroom walls)
The Tea Party is being shoved out by a renewed posse comitatus effort to bring John Birch back to life,(I miss his book store at Central and Camelback).

Gotta love pols that want to do away with all governmental regulation. My favorite the Politician that wants to quit telling employers that they have to post signs advising employees to wash their hands before exiting the shit house.
And of course as I have mentioned before, no need for drivers licenses, as I was breed into existence at the wheel of Desoto with a bench seat. Nowadays in Arizona I dont have to go to a PRIVATE for profit gun range and prove I can shoot safely, to get renew my CCW permit. Any fool with a few bucks can now go most anyplace in AZ with most any firearm and if the vanilla ice cream man signs current legislation all Sierra Club members will be able to go armed to the legislative sessions, scary thought.

PS. I want a get in free voucher to the Fountain Head so I can watch Atlas Shrug (shrug off the weak and filthy)The world where the WE are gone and I am it.

Hi, INPHX. I love everybody.
Just a few points: To reiterate, yes there are abuses in unions, pensions,etc. That sort of thing is allowed when laws/regulations either carelessly allow them, or deliberately fashion that type of exception.
But to be clear: there are chiselers, weasels, hustlers con-men and scam artists looking in every place with $$$ lying around. They ARE in unions, they receive outrageous pensions, etc.
But they exist as well (some say thrive) in the military industrial complex, financial sector, the revolving door between K street and congress, etc. And this latter group costs you and me orders of magnitudes more money, especially in tax $$, than the welfare queens, or the young bucks in their caddies eatin' food stamp steaks, and all other low-level cheats.
The low level scammers all to easily get conflated with those who "have it better than I do," like public school teachers. Then they become targets too.
The low level scammers are down here at street level with the rest of us, so we see them, and naturally get pissed off.
We don't see the mega-weasels because they're up in the corner offices and penthouses. (Not that everyone up there is a weasel.) Very high level scams are veiled. If someone's interested in finding them they have tho look really hard. Unfortunately, the press (with a few exceptions) has retired from this pursuit.
As to La Ratched; I've been a nurse for 36 years in public, private and university hospitals. I know the type- smart, ambitious and ruthless. They know how to kiss up and kick down. The VIP patients will send her flowers after they're discharged. But she'll get a masters or MBA and ascend up the ranks in a for-profit system and thrive, slashing staffing and supplies, and giving medically indigent or medicare patients shitty care. Been there, seen that.

Nurse Ratched is an archtype and can be found in every walk of life.

Felicitations to all.
I'm a former catholic. Every once in awhile I come into contact with active members or institutions that walk the talk. It's impressive.
I work for a catholic not-for-profit healthcare organization that is, at least on paper, owned by nuns who've taken a vow of poverty. They write off more debt by far than any system in our region. It's a very big reason why I continue to work for them after a dozen years. I suspect that Dignity Health is animated to some degree in a similar fashion. But these systems are exceptional.
"the mission" provides insulation from the usual market forces. But even my nuns are going to have their backs against the wall eventually, I'm sad to say. Because healthcare is an INDUSTRY.
Also St. Joes ( where my tonsils were removed) is where an abortion was carried out. If an abortion was ever justifiable by almost any standard, that was one. The nun who was a chaplain on the ethics committee that okayed the procedure was excommunicated by our brother in Christ, the Archbishop. That's the side of the church that, alas, one sees all too often.

I'm agreeing with Donna Gratehouse.

And I will throw some of this in here for flavor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F421AyTqnbI&feature=share&fb_ref=share

And Dawgzy, I am enjoying your comments.

Donna, I'm enjoying your enjoying. Signing off for awhile- to Frisco and Austin to visit my kids for a few weeks. Play nice.

Oops. Suzanne, OF COURSE! "who's Donna?"
There was a great cartoon recently, post-coital couple in bed snuggling up. He's scowling, says "Who's God?"

Dawgzy, Who's god? U read the New Yorker?
Say Hi to my grand kids in Austin, they love the town. They are into computer design with an art touch and working nation wide from their home base

A proposed dictionary entry:

Balanced budget, aka fiscal responsibility (Republican Governors' definition): pension robbing.

"State Budget Solutions found that in recent years several states have reduced the annual required contribution to the pension funds, or just skipped the payment altogether. New Jersey is the latest state to pull off this budget gimmick, reducing this year's payment by a whopping $2.4 billion as a way of "balancing" the state's budget."

http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/promises-made-promises-broken-2014-unfunded-liabilities-hit-47-trillion

When Republican governors start doing the same thing, it makes me suspicious of an overarching scheme. Remember how puzzled everyone was that the Koch brothers were pouring big money into funding local political races? Now we know that it was an attempt to gain control of state governments following the 2010 Census, so that Republicans could gerrymander voting districts for their benefit in national congressional races.

Underfunding pensions could be the latest way to "starve the beast": underfunding creates fiscal conditions which put state budgets in crisis when the pension fund assets fall sufficiently behind, often due to the last (or the next) recession. Republicans then use the situation as a convenient excuse to undermine unions by kneecapping their retirement benefits.

Further background:

"Trustees of New Jersey's largest pension funds filed a lawsuit today against Gov. Chris Christie for slashing $2.4 billion in pension fund payments he promised to pay as part of a 2011 pension reform deal."

http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_pension_funds_sue_christie_over_pension_grab.html

INPHX wrote:

"Well in Illnois, someone is paying the bucks to support public education, but that includes $105K per year plus healthcare retirement package for a 55 year old."

I thought we resolved this in the last thread. First, it's an undocumented personal anecdote of INPHX. Second, assuming it has any relation to reality whatsoever, it certainly doesn't relate to typical state pensions (e.g., teacher pensions), considering that a full teacher's salary averages in the $40 to $50 K range. Also, it takes 35 years to qualify for a full pension, but a full pension is 75 percent of the full salary. Also, any sort of early retirement (e.g., age 55) gets penalized (the earlier, the more heavily penalized). Finally, new hires in Illinois have to wait until age 67 to begin collecting benefits, and this has been true since 2011.

I guess INPHX would rather spout the same old discredited talking-points. Beats thinking.

P.S. The guy in charge of the Republican gerrymandering scheme, which was of course not officially affiliated with the national Republican Party (wink, wink), called Redmap, actually appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show for a (very friendly but also very illuminating) interview. He admitted the whole thing. Should be on YouTube somewhere.

I hate to bust your bubble, Emil, but I know a slew of retired Chgo Public School teachers, here in Tucson, and they are living very, very well, and will not not give up their perks for love nor money.

Plus, they resist, actively, any notion to contribute to their medical plans. which are 100% paid for by Illinois wage slaves. It makes me mad, yes it does.

Glad to hear them Chicago folks are stealing Dudas sunshine.

Did I say glad
I meant sad.

Emil:

The people I reference are in their mid 50's. Perhaps the rules were different when they started-they are also both principals or vice principals in fairly wealthy school districts. Perhaps they're lying.

But look- you're probably right.

Cause the city of Chicago is a great credit risk, as is the State Of Illinois. There's no problem.

And boy, you're right about something else- how the Republicans starve the beast. You know- with all the decades of Republican dominance in Illinois.


http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-79520660/


http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/04/usa-illinois-ratings-idUSL2N0TO24020141204


At least 6,000 retired teachers over $100K per, year, and examples of over $200K per year.

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=24820

Single school district, in a single year, 140 retirees over $100K and 15 over $120K:

http://patch.com/illinois/grayslake/bp--2012-teacher-retirees-over-120000


Carry on.

Suzanne, that was a little too much flavor! I definitely agree w/ DG too.

INPHX, thanks for the well wishes. She is doing better.

Cal - that remark isn't worthy of you.

Your Right Dudas
I had a weak moment.
and there is enough Sunshine to go around

At least 6,000 retired teachers over $100K per, year, and examples of over $200K per year.

That's called sweating the little stuff. Here's some medium stuff that might be worth some of your scorn:

The decision by the administration of Gov. Chris Christie to settle an environmental lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corporation for roughly three cents on the dollar after more than a decade of litigation is an embarrassment to law enforcement and good government. Even more troubling are the circumstances surrounding the decision, which recently came to light. As a judge deliberated whether to assess the $8.9 billion in damages New Jersey sought, the administration stepped in and agreed to take about $250 million and settle the case.

And then here's the really big stuff that the "fair and balanced" network never covers, which just might, on reflection, make your initial anger seem a big chickenshitty:

More than half the world's money passes almost undetected through a series of financial black holes that shelter it from not only the tax collector but from shareholders, partners and wives, a Tribune-Review investigation found ... these secret bank accounts have grown so vast and lawless that some experts tell the Trib they fear the amount of money involved threatens societies from China to Africa, Europe and the United States. World leaders railed against the impact of secret havens during the G20 summit in Pittsburgh three years ago.


http://triblive.com/news/2126360-74/tax-money-accounts-taxes-countries-financial-hide-billion-china-global#axzz3TdSrFqqz

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/05/opinion/chris-christies-exxon-settlement-is-bad-for-new-jersey.html

Regarding my comment up above and the slap at "fair and balanced" journalism. While catching up on the Nemtsov assassination story I came across this paragraph:

The 55-year-old Nemtsov was among the few prominent opposition figures who refused to be cowed. But while many at the march expressed respect for his long political career and grief at his loss, few believed that his death would spark major change in Russia because of the Kremlin's control over national television, where a vast majority of Russians get their news.


While the dangers of state-controlled media have long been crowed about, consider too the dangers of a population that gets it news only from a single private source (Fox News or Salon). In some sense we are no better than the average dumbass Russian....

INPHX, nobody here defends pension spiking, which is fairly common at the administrative level but infrequent among ordinary workers since their contract arrangements seldom allow it. I suspect that if the details of the cases of the tiny fraction of schoolteachers with seemingly overly generous pensions were looked into, we might find a number of instances where exceptional circumstances (e.g., job related injuries or illnesses) as well as districts where corruption and graft play a role (e.g. pension fixing paid for with kickbacks or bribes to administrators on the take and willing to twist or break the rules).

What puzzles me is this: (1) your seeming indifference when this occurs at the executive level (e.g., the platinum pension arrangements of the last Phoenix city planner), and (2) the way you use exceptional or atypical examples to tar and mischaracterize the situations and arrangements of the vast bulk of working class public servants.

Also, your spirited defense of private sector executive compensation packages and pointed abuse of those who criticize them ("loony left") is mystifying. Why do schoolteachers, firemen and policemen draw your ire? Why do you personally identify with super-rich CEOs? Could it be that your priorities are confused?

Re Christian Nation and Christian values, how many Tea Party and conservative Republicans follow the commands of Romans Chapter 13:

"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God... For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers attending continually to this very thing. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due...

OK, I checked INPHXs claim that more than 6,000 Illinois teachers earn more than $100,000 a year in pension money.

The NCPA link he provided led to an article in the right-wing Washington Times newspaper, which in turn led to a paper-mill founded by a Tea Party candidate for Illinois governor named Adam Andrzejewski.

It appears that the report in question refers not to teachers but to "educators" and includes high level administrative positions like schools superintendent for a district.

I'm stuck on mobile today and it's terribly difficult to do this kind of research, but I also have questions about the methodology.

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