AÂ group of billionaires, in an effort to squeeze out more profit, destroys workers’ pension plans and creates chaos on the ground, destroying the integrity of an American institution as a result.
Yep: that’s the Romney model, all right.
Author: Jonathan Zasloff
Jonathan Zasloff teaches Torts, Land Use, Environmental Law, Comparative Urban Planning Law, Legal History, and Public Policy Clinic - Land Use, the Environment and Local Government. He grew up and still lives in the San Fernando Valley, about which he remains immensely proud (to the mystification of his friends and colleagues). After graduating from Yale Law School, and while clerking for a federal appeals court judge in Boston, he decided to return to Los Angeles shortly after the January 1994 Northridge earthquake, reasoning that he would gladly risk tremors in order to avoid the average New England wind chill temperature of negative 55 degrees. Professor Zasloff has a keen interest in world politics; he holds a PhD in the history of American foreign policy from Harvard and an M.Phil. in International Relations from Cambridge University. Much of his recent work concerns the influence of lawyers and legalism in US external relations, and has published articles on these subjects in the New York University Law Review and the Yale Law Journal. More generally, his recent interests focus on the response of public institutions to social problems, and the role of ideology in framing policy responses. Professor Zasloff has long been active in state and local politics and policy. He recently co-authored an article discussing the relationship of Proposition 13 (California's landmark tax limitation initiative) and school finance reform, and served for several years as a senior policy advisor to the Speaker of California Assembly. His practice background reflects these interests: for two years, he represented welfare recipients attempting to obtain child care benefits and microbusinesses in low income areas. He then practiced for two more years at one of Los Angeles' leading public interest environmental and land use firms, challenging poorly planned development and working to expand the network of the city's urban park system. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency charged with purchasing and protecting open space), the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice (the leading legal service firm for low-income clients in east Los Angeles), and Friends of Israel's Environment. Professor Zasloff's other major activity consists in explaining the Triangle Offense to his very patient wife, Kathy. View all posts by Jonathan Zasloff
Romney’s world view in short:
Organized labor bad! Corporate personhood good!
In formula: 1%>53%>47%>99%!
No wonder he suffers from a math deficiency!
Referees? Faugh! They’re a bunch of bureaucrats, enforcing arbitrary rules that limit player liberty. They’re the EPA of football. Remove the parasites and free the players; in a competitive market, rules and rule-enforcement mechanisms will arise organically, and maximize touchdown-scoring for the most worthy!
Sports is indeed a wonderful microcosm demonstrating how absolutely depraved capitalism has become (again).
As according to the RMoney/Ryan model of the universe:
The players and the umpires are the “takers” and the owners are the “makers”.
You’d have to be drunk and concussed on right-wing punch to believe that bullshit…
Well, sure the players, coaches and officials are the “takers”. Look at all the owners do to make the game possible:
(1.) They arrange for cushy stadiums for the players to work in, purchased on the public’s dime, with ownership reverting to the owners after some reasonable period.
(2.) They arrange for the league front-office to set up schedules.
(3.) They negotiate multi-billion dollar broadcast contracts for themselves.
(4.) They treated players like chattel slaves until the courts discovered the Fourteenth Amendment. Now they treat players like indentured slaves.
(5.) No other sort of model of ownership is conceivable — look at Green Bay! It’s clear that a public-ownership model is simply unworkable: whyever else would the NFL have a league rule prohibiting it?
/snark, for the humor impaired.
Seriously, perhaps it’s time for the geographic entities that support these parasites exercise their eminent domain authorities?
I would think the mayors who got together to kick these parasites out of the stadiums and organized a municipal league based on Green Bay’s principles would all become Senators before too long.
league rules forbid any nfl team from being owned by the community a la green bay.
The point is to establish another league and let the NFL build their own stadiums.
Doesn’t the NFL have a government granted monopoly? Seems like we ought to be able to have some say on their rules.
No, the NFL does not have a government-granted monopoly. You may be thinking about Major League Baseball, which is exempt from federal antitrust laws.
Actually, the NFL has an anti-trust exemption as well, though it is more limited than MLB’s.
Funny how some conservatives react when they are personally affected by the consequences of their policies. Suddenly Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is confronted with evidence that union-busting has bad effects, even as he denies that this has anything to do with unions, only with refs making bad calls.