Roger Goodell and the War on Pensions, hating on Ben Bernanke, Back to the Future (Economic-style), the Grand Old Straight White Men’s Party, the Year They Stopped Trying, Frank Rich steals my idea, hidden causes of the Muslim protests, and the design of US Embassies.
Welcome to the Daily Sausage.
First up, we have Charles P. Pierce talking about Roger Goodell and the 1%’s war on pensions.
From a management perspective, pensions are a terrible idea. Even if they’re only issued to employees that have worked for a company for years or decades, they’re still tremendously expensive.
However, from a worker perspective, they’re worlds better than 401(k)’s, which can be volatile and unpredictable depending on the whims of the stock market.
So when you have Roger Goodell, who works for a cadre of American billionaires, saying:
From the owners’ standpoint, right now they’re funding a pension program that is a defined benefit program, […] About ten percent of the country has that. Yours truly doesn’t have that. It’s something that doesn’t really exist anymore and that I think is going away steadily.
It’s hard not to shake your head and go “About ten percent of the country has that because your bosses and their friends have spent the last thirty years systematically shuffling all the money that would have gone to pensions into your own pockets and the pockets of Wall Street, and in the process passing the buck to the Federal Government who will have to pick up the slack when those pensions turn up underfunded and those 401(k)’s fail to live up to estimations.”
Krugthulu rises, and sort-of defends Ben Bernanke. In doing so, he points out that the GOP’s economic policy hasn’t changed in nearly a decade: domestic energy production, school choice, trade agreements, deficit reduction, tax and regulation reduction.
So, here’s a riddle for you. When a political party is essentially recycling the same economic plan, regardless of economic circumstances, regardless of whether they’re in or out of power, what do you call that?
The answer? No plan at all.
Bill Keller has an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times, titled “The Grand Old Straight White Men’s Party”.
Dammit Bill Keller! Stop stealing my ideas!
Anyway, Keller’s article focuses on the four New York Republicans that voted to support gay marriage. Spoiler alert: one retired, three got primaried, two are likely to survive. The fact that the GOP can apparently read polls, and yet still maintain ideas that are gigantic long-term losers, is baffling. Do they think that everyone under 30 is going to magically forget that when history came a-knockin’, the GOP picked the wrong side?
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m a big Indianapolis Colts fan. This past off season, we let a lot of our players go. Not just any players either; these were guys that were crucial to our Super Bowl runs, including future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning.
The Colts did it because it was time for a change. The window had closed. The team needed to be rebuilt, and the only way to do that is to dump whoever is too old, too injured, and too overpaid to contribute. Yes, it means we’re going to suck this year. Maybe next year too. But, the whole scale turnover of the roster means we’ll be much better in the future.
The GOP needs to look at that example and learn from it. Their base is no longer large enough to power them to victory without including those that they now openly mock. Yes, it’s going to mean being out of power for a generation or more, but that’s what happens when you ally yourself with a small group of voters whose views are out of the mainstream. So really, the question is whether or not the GOP wants to continue trying to make the playoffs and getting blown out in the first round, or if they’re willing to tank, get a new franchise quarterback, and rebuild.
Ed from Gin and Tacos has an interesting article titled “More rope, please!”, but I think the better title is “The Year They Stopped Trying.”
Essentially, the GOP has moved beyond facts, math, and anything else that requires any kind of critical thinking skills to evaluate. Rather, they no longer care if those things are accurate. The math that makes the Romney/Ryan budget plan work is either politically toxic or non-existent. They don’t care. They’re not even pretending to care. They’re basically giving the media the finger and saying “Go explain to 330 million Americans how “the math doesn’t work” and see how many pairs of eyes glaze over as soon as you start talking about the mortgage interest tax deduction. Those are our voters.” The plutocrats that run the GOP aren’t even bothering to call it trickle-down anymore. They’re just reflexively calling for tax cuts. Why shouldn’t they? Sheldon Adelson will give Mitt Romney $100 million to beat President Obama. Romney and Congressional Republicans will pass tax cuts that net Adelson $2.2 billion. Adelson will make 220 times his investment, and not a cent will ever filter down to anyone that isn’t a member of Adelson’s family.
NYMag’s Frank Rich stole my idea and immersed himself in right-wing media. His take: they’re terrified. I think he’s right. I think a second Obama term will start with riots. It’ll be like the Watts riots, if everyone was either on a hoveround or wearing Brooks Brothers.
The Atlantic’s Robert Wright delves into the hidden causes of the Muslim protests. Long story short: we’ve spent most of the last fifty years meddling in the Middle East, up to and including our most recent desert adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. That includes propping up dictators, suppressing democratic reform if we didn’t like the reformers, engaging in a probably-illegal war-by-proxy using unmanned aerial vehicles, unwavering support of Israel even when they’ve done something stupid, and permanently stationing members of the US Military in Muslim countries. Hell, I’m an American and I’m angry about all that stuff too.
Finally, The Atlantic’s Henry Grabar has a great article on how we design U.S. Embassies.
