Governing through Reason
Open Mic September 28
I said WHAT last month???
Things are heating up in the Middle East. Republicans decided to support Todd Akin after the deadline for him dropping out passed. Mitt Romney spent the week trying to see how often he could put his foot in his mouth. And, perhaps of greatest importance, the National Football League will have real referees, hopefully the play on the field bears a passing resemblance to the calls made by the officials.
Don’t see an article on a particular topic, but want to talk about it somewhere? This is Open Mic. Talk about whatever you want, but stay respectful.
We create a new Open Mic every week to give a clean slate, but feel free to add to this topic at any time.
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#102 written by channelclemente 7 months ago
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#103 written by rgbact 7 months ago
I don’t think rg knows how pension plans actually work, if he imagines that the company he worked for “had set aide money to pay me a pension until I’m 110.”
Yeah, its only my job for about 10 years now. But feel free to enlighten me on what really happens. And also feel free to enlighten me on why I should believe you. What the
heck do you think “fully funding” a pension means?I’m still waiting to hear what investment vehicle that company
put the money into that they “set aside” for your pension that will be absolutely guaranteed to payOne of the links I just provided shows companies typically go with about 50% equities and 40% bonds. So I can’t speak to your specific employer,but the idea every company is plowing all their money into Enron stock is flat
wrong. Nothing is “absolutely guaranteed”.….if you can’t print your own money. -
#104 written by Max 7 months ago
rgbact,
So, if companies are funding their pensions far into the future with sufficient funds to cover their employees who retire under their system, then why is the PBGC necessary?
Or did you know that $5.6 BILLION was paid in FY 2010 by the PBGC to people whose companies DID NOT meet their pension LIABILITIES?
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#105 written by shortchain 7 months ago
rgbact,
I’ve heard (and seen) quite a few companies who have cheated on their pension funds, and whose retirees ended up getting the shaft. It’s not every company — nobody hinted that it was. But it’s not rare.The union boss who cheats the union members out of their union pension — that’s something I haven’t heard of for a long time. It’s very rare, these days.
But you think companies are somehow more trustworthy than unions. I beg to differ. I’ve belonged to unions. They always treated me fairly. I’ve worked for many companies, and I’ve been shat upon quite a few times.
I truly doubt that I am unique in that respect.
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I’ve been hearing reports that Romney has memorized, and is practicing, a set of “zingers” to use in the debates. He apparently is going after sound bites in preference to substance. Expect him to come across as nasty and combative, searching for the cheap shot rather than actually engaging in debate.
He cannot “win” on substance. He will strive instead to kick and scratch, a reversion to the privileged preppie who would hold someone down and cut off his hair. It’ll be the spoiled brat vs. the adult in the room. All President Obama needs to do is look presidential, and let Romney engage in sneering spitballing.
Popcorn time.
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#110 written by Mainer 7 months ago
DC, when your veep can’t get through an interview on Fox where he is asked about his bosses budget proposals and his boss has gone into terminal pathological liar mode what else would one expect? Fox seems to be building a new meme on biased coverage (can you even believe that coming from Fox?) and how the DNC figures the president will lose the first round (based on what I’m not sure). Now Glen Beck is saying Mitt will win through devine intervention. I’n my way of thinking gawd could be the damned moderator and Mitt would still lose.
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#111 written by Rose 7 months ago
It should be interesting to watch how Mitt inserts his “zingers”. I expect that he will feel compelled to use them all, and will jump at the chance even when the zing is completely inappropriate.
Re: congressman Shinkus’ comments in the Daily Mail, I am betting the British are rejoicing that they no longer have us as a colony. One theory for the dinosaur extinction is that there was massive volcanic activity that essentially smothered the planet. Is that the 4000 ppm he is referring to?
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#112 written by Mainer 7 months ago
One needs to note the derth of comments on the south thread. No one gives a shit about them. Nuke the Confedracy. Move all the military bases out of there, cut off funding for the TVA, shut down the Army Corps of engineers, pull the CDC out of Atlanta, shut down FLETC, shut down all the space program stuff, cut off fire supression from the Forest Service, and cut off Texas from 1⁄3 of their budget that the rest of us are paying. You want to go it alone then fine but understand the price tag.
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#113 written by channelclemente 7 months ago
Mainer,
it’ll take 50 years for the “South’ to fix itself, and all the GOBs to die off. Texas will be blue most likely by 2020, anyway. What’s most interesting, all the white bread Texans are mostly from the midWest, not Texas. I once did an informal poll at an engineering company in Austin of the 20 or so engineers there, boots and Bushites all, not one had been born in Texas.
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#114 written by Max 7 months ago
Mainer,
Don’ch y’all make me come up thar and kick your crusty old yankee ass!!!!! If it wasn’t for lobstah, y’all just might as well be the 11th province. We might have Perry as guvnuh down here , but you wanna remind me the name of Maine’s?
LOL! Just kidding.
No, I’m not!
Yes, actually.
Not really.cc,
you’re leaving out all the Californians that got here the last 5 years. Hell, we got one subdivision here that we call “lil California”!
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#115 written by WA7th 7 months ago
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#118 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
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#121 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
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#124 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
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#126 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
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#128 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
it seems to be, look in the recent comments. it shows:
“yes the live commenting is working; the upload image, not so much.need more testing but it appeared that the email notification linked back to a different page than the comment it contained…” . but i don’t see that one in this chain… -
#132 written by logarchism 7 months ago
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#133 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
Quote of the day: “if [George] Will believes that the reason the president seems to be prospering right now is because the good heart of America is giving the black fella a break, he’s climbed so far up his own ass that he could sneeze and break his collarbone. ”
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/george-will-romney-turn-around-column-13301812#ixzz28BFsAH3U
Pierce pierces the bubble of faux intelligence once again. -
#134 written by DrFunguy 7 months ago
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rgbact,
I’m still waiting to hear what investment vehicle that company put the money into that they “set aside” for your pension that will be absolutely guaranteed to pay the required amount for the next 60–70 years.
The companies that owe me my pensions merely have a future liability, which they currently have in their own stock, but will, in the future, redeem via whatever revenue they have available. If they go bankrupt, that’s worthless. And it isn’t even the company I worked for, which is still profitable.