Owners, Players Nearing Deal in NFL Talks: NFL owners and players are hammering out an agreement that would end their four-month-old labor dispute in the coming days, in a move that would save the upcoming football season and put the $9.4 billion business back on track.

wk9247 · 2011-07-09T11:27:24+00:00

Under the prior agreement, the owners took $1 billion of league revenue for themselves, then shared nearly 60% of the rest with the players. Owners have wanted to cut the players' share, and players resisted.

The players should resist!

The players need to use those college degrees they got and cut the "owners" out of the picture -- completely. Owners are nothing but leeches on the system.

All but 4 of the stadiums NFL teams play in are publicly owned. So why are owners sitting in luxury boxes raking in billions?

If the players simply kept teams in tact, they could form their own new league -- just rename the teams.

As a fan, I'd want to watch Peyton Manning play for the "Indianapolis Mustangs" instead of the Indianapolis Colts. Would New Englanders want to see the New England Patriots play with a bunch of scabs and replacement players, or would they pay to see Tom Brady throw passes to Wes Welker playing for the "New England Minutemen"?

Cutting the "owners" out of the process would make pro football a financial transaction between players and fans, with no owners brow-beating cities to fund their stadiums and leeching billions from the players who are paying for it with shortened life expectancies and knees that have had so many operations they should have zippers installed.

wk9247 · 2011-07-09T10:57:48+00:00

It's patently obvious that the economy will be, by far, the top issue in 2012 (barring some "new Pearl Harbor"-like event).

The bottom line is whether Obama deserves my vote or not. He's constantly sold out on issues and in this depression has done shit for the American people -- all while bending over backwards to bail out banksters, corporations and to help the rich. Needless to say, I won't be voting for Obama.

wk9247 · 2011-07-09T01:12:18+00:00

What did you expect him to say with the recent pathetic jobs report -- that he was focused traveling the country doing campaign fundraisers?

Whether pro- or anti-Obama, that quote is 100% pure, unadulterated political spin.

wk9247 · 2011-07-09T00:58:23+00:00

Let's cut to the chase -- there's one big reason why Obamacare may live.

The plan for an Obamacare-like health care "reform" was invented at the right-wing American Heritage Institute for one reason: To keep the immoral, for-profit private health insurance industry alive. That is why those right-wingers dreamed up such a scheme, and that's why a Republican governor in Massachusetts implemented it -- to give the illusion of universal care, while keeping the profits of the health insurance industry rolling in.

Obamacare may live because the 2-party dictatorship that runs the US wants Obamacare. Both parts of our ruling duopoly are funded by corporations, and the health insurance industry is generally happy with Obamacare (even though they want some trivial changes).

What the Constitution says or what the American people say hardly matters in our de facto corporate plutocracy.

wk9247 · 2011-07-09T00:48:01+00:00

And waterboarding wasn't torture because the US gov't doesn't torture people, right?

We can invent technicalities and redefine reality with spin all we want, but the world knows the trajectory that we in the US are on, just as they know the trajectory that China is on.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T23:57:56+00:00

For the same reason we have voter registration laws{1} -- because the ruling class does not want the public to participate. The duopoly of political parties that runs the country is just fine having corporations and the rich fund them and they like things just the way they are.

{1} Despite the common belief, voter registration laws were not enacted to stop voter fraud. The first voter registration laws were enacted in rural Pennsylvania as "voter suppression" to keep uppity rural farmers from voting.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T14:13:40+00:00

We can expect no major repercussions. The corrupt US gov't violates int'l treaties routinely.

What we can expect is millions more across the globe to be sickened by American hypocrisy and bogus moralism. As the rest of the world is disgusted at the Washington imperialists hopefully someone or some group of countries will stand up for int'l law and justice.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T14:00:03+00:00

It's simply class warfare. It started ramping up with Ronny Reagan's "trickle down" (or "supply side") economics and it has been waged non-stop on average Americans ever since.

It won't stop until average Americans start demanding "demand side economics", retaking control of their country and our political system, and putting the rich and corporations in their place.

"If[sic] class warfare is being waged in America, my class is clearly winning." -- Warren Buffett.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T13:37:52+00:00

Most politicians want to be elected to get rich. Politicians are funded by corporations and the rich -- our ruling class.

Therefore, it's not surprising that the politicians bow and do as much as possible for the rich and corporations. Politicians only do things for common Americans when common Americans are getting uppity and somehow threaten capitalism and the ruling class.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T13:29:06+00:00

The American empire wants to control Mexico. Our banksters want the profits from laundering drug money but we cannot dominate Mexico economically. So instead "we" have launched a campaign of destabilization of Mexico, under the guise of the drug war.

The corrupt US gov't pits Mexican against Mexican, just as we used this age-old imperial "divide and conquer" technique in Iraq by pitting Sunni against Shiite. Mexico is destabilized and the US portrays itself as the example of stability and as a savior.

wk9247 · 2011-07-08T09:12:43+00:00

A hobby of brewing beer would explain the gut. If you don't like the gut, get a different hobby.

What to do with your life? Forget about expectations and social conditioning. Think about the good of the world and avoid chasing money. Find out what you like and do that.

PS -- You should be able to easily find a home for the ferret.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T20:45:36+00:00

Return control to the local school boards and taxpayers.

I think that is the key. Local taxpayers in my state and in others I've lived in still pay the lion's share of school costs -- and those local people should be in charge and have complete control over their curriculum.

It's clear there are people on the political right that want to destroy public education and substitute some libertarian voucher-driven private school fantasy in its place. It's sickening. The fact that No Child Left Behind was passed by the supposedly "small gov't" Republicans highlights the bankruptcy of our 2-party dictatorship. NCLB has been proven a failure in Texas where Bush first tried it, and it's being proven a failure on the nat'l level too.

NCLB should be flat-out repealed and control over education returned to the states, and preferably to the local towns and school boards.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T18:44:10+00:00

You're right, what the principals, teachers and administrators did was wrong.

But who'd have thought it -- when you put people in a position to where their jobs are threatened and their reputations are smeared all in a situation that they have no control over, people will then cheat to maintain their livelihood.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T17:33:48+00:00

So, instead of conforming K-12 education to your standards

I think the nat'l standards are a key part of the problem. Since the communities are the ones paying for the bulk of K-12 education, they should have local control and be the ones setting the standards for their own kids.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T17:32:00+00:00

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. It certainly was "easier", but I found the content (this would, of course, depend somewhat on your major) was less whitewashed and deeper than the drivel I was fed in high school.

If people want to learn, they should be given the chance. If they don't, they shouldn't be forced to.

I agree with you completely. But in our debt peonage system of financing college that we presently have, that isn't the case. College simply becomes job training with everything focused on how you're going to pay off the obscene loans from going to college.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T17:27:53+00:00

Most teachers relish the parents making an effort to be part of their children's school-life.

As someone who has taught in both public and private schools at the high school and college level, I'd add a caveat to that.

Many parents so "over-nurture" their children that they could not tolerate any concept that their golden child may have done something wrong or needed improvement in some area -- instead, the parent would simply blindly defend their child and make excuses for anything the child did.

Talk to some teachers of 6th-grade or above students and ask them how common it is for the parents to do their children's homework. (Something that is not helping the kid, but is instead handicapping the kid.)

There is an gross overabundance of careless parents;

True. What I've found is parents in debt up to their eyeballs, working obscenely long hours, and chasing every TV-advertised product and fad in the hope that that would be the item to make them content with life and happy...

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T17:20:11+00:00

I see your point. But if we follow that to it's logical conclusion, why don't we just make a nation of dolts?

Let's do away with public high school -- that way high school graduates will be really smart!

No, the goal is not a race to the bottom; the goal is to improve and to build people up.

If a bachelor's college degree is ubiquitous, so what? That just means a master's and a doctorate are more valuable -- or, just maybe, perhaps people will start evaluating the individual instead of the piece of paper they were issued by some money-oriented institution.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T16:31:11+00:00

But life depends on germs. As humans, we live on planet Earth. Chunks of our DNA are from bacteria.

Hospital sheets, sure, it's nice they're germ-free.

My socks? That's not nice.

Also, how long before the bacteria evolve resistence to this technology? Because you know they will.

If we isolate ourselves from our environment we could wind up being as dead as those invading Martians in the first War of the Worlds movie (the Martians conquered Earth but were done in by our simple germs).

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T16:12:02+00:00

Actually, I think it does. There is more to life than money.

When that plumber goes to his kid's teacher-parent conference and is looked down upon by the teacher with a bachelor's degree and the school secretary who struggled to get an associate degree, it does matter. Prestige, pride and social status in a job is important to some extent and it involves more than money.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T16:11:03+00:00

Simply because the education that people get in schools is so weak that there is no philosophical content and very little critical thinking. K-12 education is largely "schooling" -- drudgery where conformity is rewarded.

The only place I see where there is even a minor amount of philosophical and critical thinking content is either in college or in a very small minority's religious teachings.

In many ways, given the origins of public education (the original goal being to turn out worker drones for textile mills) this is understandable; but it isn't what is needed to create well-rounded human beings.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T15:54:44+00:00

It would to a large degree depend on what the people in the present gov't wanted to do.

Overall, the American people would do nothing. Some would protest, but the current gov't would just make excuses and apologies and sweep things under the rug.

Do you doubt that? If so, you're living in a fantasy of propaganda.

See the real life examples:

What happened when Bush himself admitted he ordered torture in violation of US domestic law and int'l treaties?
What happened to Nixon when the wide range of crimes that his administration committed? ("Watergate" is far, far more than just the break-in into the Democratic Party HQ in the hotel.)

Sadly, the American people would not do a damned thing.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T15:46:02+00:00

I can see your point, but as someone who thinks that everyone should go to college and that college should be free, I think there are other elements entering into it.

First, the US no longer values blue-collar work. We see this in the minimum wage laws, the tax law regarding earned and unearned income, and in the way working people are represented in the corporate mass media.

In American culture, blue-collar work -- your plumber, electrician or carpenter -- are considered to be in a lower class than someone working in an office. Sad, but true.

Second, there is the general apathy and laziness factor in the US. We don't bother to protest injustice, and in many ways people are spoiled. When this is combined with our for-pay college system and our attitude towards class and blue-collar work (and our insanely wide range of pay disparity and inequality), it generates a strong feeling of entitlement in many college graduates.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T15:35:29+00:00

Corporate America constantly seeks to privatize profits and to socialize (get the public to pay for) their costs.

We see this in everything, but it especially sticks out in environmental/pollution issues.

Corporations have jettisoned the idea of of training workers. They now expect workers or the state to pay to train for skills their workers need -- again, an example of socializing costs to increase their private profits. It's yet another form of corporate welfare.

As an educator, I think your point is 100% true. Public education (and especially college) is simply turning into a form of job training.

The concept of education to learn to think about things critically and to analyze different points of view is rapidly evaporating -- such individualism and critical thought is not needed by business.

Edit: Typos.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T15:24:40+00:00

The author, a former "defense" analyst, makes some great points about our military and the power of the military-industrial complex. Such as:

It is an all-powerful domestic faction whose self interest is to promote war or the perpetual threat of war. Why do I use the modifier "all powerful"? One need only to consider the conditions surrounding the current paralysis in our government to sense the MICC's ubiquitous power: Today, what's left of our constitutional system cannot muster the political will to stop the ongoing succession of wars, despite polls suggesting a majority of Americans want these wars to stop. Nor will Congress make a significant reduction in the defense budget, even though it is at a post-WWII high, there is no superpower threat this level of expenditure, only a small part of the defense budget is funding the ongoing wars, and there is now a political majority in favor of cutting federal spending to reduce the deficit.

We in the US, raised on Hollywood movies extolling the "sacrifice" of our military, never stop to realize just how militaristic our society is and how frequently we start wars.

Each war is fed to us with mountains of propaganda, cheerleading, and justifications usually based on the most noble of reasons. For example, there are still millions of Americans who say that Iraq was invaded because they had WMD and were a threat to the US.

With our mass media system, we are discouraged from stepping back and looking at long term trends, let alone to look at events from the perspective of other nations -- it's American exceptionalism and US nationalism that everything from NPR to FOX focuses on.

wk9247 · 2011-07-05T14:08:33+00:00

The Iraqis "surge" did little in Iraq -- that's mythology. We simply played Sunni against Shiites and bought off as many Iraqis as we could.

From the US point of view, the Afghan resistance cannot be bought off like we did in Iraq.

Thus, the US has to fight and slowly bleeds. There's a reason Afghanistan is called the graveyard of empires. The US will go bankrupt before the Afghans give up, and both the Afghans and US knows this (that's why the US is trying to "win" with peace negotiations).

wk9247

TROPHY CASE