âWeâll Remember in Novemberâ
I like it.
âHundreds of Kentucky teachers are flexing their political muscle with a rally outside the state Capitol, hoping to bury a proposed pension overhaul.â
Why donât they just invest the entire fund in coal futures?
Problem solved!
You want attention? Tackle Rand Paul off his riding mowerâŚ
3/20/18 WKCT, Bowling Green
Republican Governor Matt Bevin:
Kentucky Teachers have a âthug mentalityâ.
They are âremarkably selfish and shortsightedâ and are âthrowing a temper tantrumâ for benefits they havenât really earned.
Bevin when asked about discussing the Pension Bill with teachers, âYou canât win an argument with an ignorant person.â
And in other Kentucky News-
On the day of another school shooting this unstable republican- who is confirmed to have access to firearms- annouces that itâs okay to joke about shooting a U.S. Congressman- if in fact he was joking.
There are several levels of Law Enforcement / Public Safety jobs that this comment alone would automatically disqualify him from holding. Definately he wouldnât be permitted to be under arms. Someone at his former job really screwed up by clearing this guy to carry a weapon.
You really have to ask why isnât he in custody now, or his weapons confiscated.
The only ignorant thug in evidence here is Gov. Matt Bevin, who like way too many Repuglicans, scapegoats teachers with the old canard of them being, âselfish and shortsighted.â I vie him or any other GOP dipshit to find another group of professionals who work more hours, do more tasks beyond their job descriptions, spend more money out-of-pocket, put up with chronic under-funding, irresponsible work-load assignments (class sizes), for ridiculously low salaries and benefits, all for the goal of educating the children of all of us.
In way too many cases, what keeps these teachers on the job is the one solid financial reward they have been promised, a livable pension when they burn out.
How many well trained professionals with advanced degrees would be willing to spend a career working for the average teacherâs salary of around $50k in Kentucky, and then stick with it for a gutted pension plan? Is this how we value the people to whom we entrust the education of our kids.
Contrast this with the pay levels of public school teachers in Luxembourg ($137k), Switzerland ($103k), & Germany ($84k), and tell us who is the shortsighted tightwad.
OT, but notice that statute of Jefferson Davis in that photo. There has been a lot of talk about yanking it, but I admit thatâs the one statue of the treasonous bastard I like. And the reason I like it is that, by accident or design, it just disappears against the background, swallowed up by that white marble behind him as he stands there perpetually looking at the twelve foot bronze of the man who crushed his vile rebellion.
Heâs a ghost, acknowledged for, like Lincoln, having been born there and his distinguished pre-treason career. And acknowledged, too, for how his and Lincolnâs having shared a birth state so perfectly captures Kentuckyâs ambivalent state during the Civil War. But itâs like the wall behind him is just sucking him up, fading him out, a pale wraith haunting the state and the Republic in the shadow of the truly great man who opposed him.
When I worked there in the 80âs, the symbolism used to constantly grab me every time I passed through the rotunda. If I wasnât in a hurry, I couldnât help but stop and look and wonder how much of it was deliberateâthe choice of material and the location of the statute and the direction of his gaze. Part of me suspected that the white marble was just some bullshit Jim Crow Klan symbolism gone very wrong â puah whate mahble selected to memorialize this true knight of white supremacy. But part of me also suspected that some subversive Union sympathizers had a hand in making this what it is.
Anyway, go Abe, go teachers, fuck Bevin.
Good luck, teachers. We need more like you.
And as an asideâŚ
Braving a late-season snow
Spring started yesterday. This is an off-season snow.
They are âremarkably selfish and shortsightedâ and are âthrowing a temper tantrumâ for benefits they havenât really earned.
They were employed with that as part of their pay package â effectively as wages agrees to. If they were present for work, they earned this. Why wouldnât they be pissed off when the state reneges, both cutting their future pay and clawing back what theyâve already earned? What a fucking goon!
Teachers said they are upset by proposals that would achieve savings mostly from temporary cuts to the annual cost-of-living raises for retired teachers. The raises would be restored once the system is 90 percent funded. Currently, the system is 56 percent funded.
Once allowances are made for the needed tax cuts of the future, the date of restoration at 90% funded is put on an infinite regress as that 56% just doesnât rise. Pensions that are first frozen are then, with every yearâs inflation, effectively reduced.
Over the long run, it should be good for pet food sales.
Note: I am a teacher in NYC. I dunno if I have the same national union as Kentucky.
Itâs sad that education has become a political football over the past several decades. By not having national standards and treating educators as if they were the bad guys, this country is on a fast track to third world status. Not sure of the monied people who think paying teachers a good salary and taking care of their retirement as a way of saying thanks, understand you cannot survive as a first class country without a decent educational system.
Thinking you donât need to treat educators correctly and get good results is where you want to go. Having an ignorant population will soon pave the path to self-destruction. How will the wealthy maintain their wealth? HmmmâŚ
For some unaccountable reason, republicans seem to have a penchant for destroying existing systems first and then promising that they will get around to implementing the much better new system someday Real Soon Now, right after the porcine aviation event.
ââTremendous respectâ for teachersâ is what Republican state politicians usually say just before picking the teachersâ pockets.
Bloviating jackass says what?
By definition, a pension is a benefit applied to a long-term, loyal employee. Itâs a life-long benefit that usually benefits the money-changers more than the pensioners.
I thought Trump supporters believed loyalty deserves rewards.
Only the rubes among them.
He didnât call them âknown promoters of socialist liberal thoughtâ? Count me disappointed.
Calling them thugs is right out of the Wisconsin 2011 playbook. The result here is a steadily eroding educational system due to the demonizing of teachers; itâs harder to recruit quality teachers to any school, from the universities to elite pre-schools. We lost the best and most experienced teachers to early retirement while they still had the option â and before they lost any further benefits.All this means the state becomes less attractive over time and falls in rank. The damage will take years to undo and that might not be possible. Iâd think Kentucky isnât ranked highly now for teachers seeking good jobs, so maybe they have less to lose.
Just like Walker, Republicans in KY donât believe anybody needs to know anything about English, history or philosophy and those that teach it donât deserve a living wage or a pension.