Making the golden years golden for all Americans

Time for an update to our private retirement saving system

By Gerald E. Scorse, guest columnist for Progressive Charlestown

Congress created individual retirement accounts (IRAs) in 1974. Four years later it added 401(k)s. A third variety, Roth IRAs, won approval in 1997. 

Together the accounts dominate America’s private retirement system. 

Today we’re a hugely unequal society. Updating our private system could reduce inequality, and help make the golden years golden for all Americans. 

Let’s begin with the millions of workers we’re not even giving a chance: 

The 1974 bill aimed to provide a workplace retirement plan for all private-sector employees not otherwise covered. Forty-three years later over 70 million workers, mostly low- to middle-income, still lack a workplace option. 

They deserve at least two. One would be a broad stock market index fund like the S&P 500. For savers who put safety first, the other would be a bond fund holding only Treasury debt. Enrollment would be automatic with an opt-out provision. 

Pre-tax contributions would be made via payroll deductions. Gains would accrue tax-free, taxes payable on withdrawal (the same as all current accounts except Roths). 

Seven dirty words for Robert Mueller

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We have been assimilated

Trump administration building world's biggest and most expensive embassy in London.
A billion dollars and we can't afford child health care.
We ARE Borg.

Rhode Island’s favorite highway sport doesn’t work the way we think it works

Tailgating doesn't get you there faster: Study

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, CSAIL

We've all experienced "phantom traffic jams" that arise without any apparent cause. Researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) recently showed that we'd have fewer if we made one small change to how we drive: no more tailgating.

Specifically, the team's new journal article argues that if we all kept an equal distance between the cars in front of and behind us -- an approach that MIT professor Berthold Horn describes as "bilateral control" -- we would all get where we're going almost twice as quickly.

"We humans tend to view the world in terms of what's ahead of us, both literally and conceptually, so it might seem counter-intuitive to look backwards," says Horn, who co-authored the article with postdoctoral associate Liang Wang. "But driving like this could have a dramatic effect in reducing travel time and fuel consumption without having to build more roads or make other changes to infrastructure."

More science on the question of whether money can buy you happiness

How much people earn is associated with how they experience happiness

American Psychological Association

People who earn more money tend to experience more positive emotions focused on themselves, while people who earn less take greater pleasure in their relationships and ability to connect with others, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

"Higher income has many benefits, including improved health and life satisfaction, but is it associated with greater happiness?" asked lead author Paul Piff, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine. 

"After all, most people think of money as some kind of unmitigated good. But some recent research suggests that this may not actually be the case. In many ways, money does not necessarily buy you happiness."

He’s got nukes and he’s not afraid to use them

Trump National Security Strategy Could 'Create More Pathways to Nuclear War' 

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams

Viewed by critics as further evidence that President Donald Trump is "obsessed with nuclear weapons and creating the conditions for nuclear war," the White House's newly unveiled National Security Strategy (NSS) lionizes America's nukes as the "foundation" of its security policy and suggests they could be deployed even in the case of non-nuclear threats.

"Nuclear weapons have served a vital purpose in America's National Security Strategy for the past 70 years," states Trump's NSS document (pdf), made public on December 18. "While nuclear deterrence strategies cannot prevent all conflict, they are essential to prevent nuclear attack, non-nuclear strategic attacks, and large-scale conventional aggression."

The policy statement goes on to lament the decline of "investments in our nuclear enterprise" and the "reduced...role of nuclear weapons" following the end of the Cold War and argued that "significant investment is needed to maintain a U.S. nuclear arsenal and infrastructure that is able to meet national security threats over the coming decades."

Trump just screwed temp workers bigly

It just got a lot harder for workers to bargain with their employers

 By Marni von Wilpert, Economic Policy Institute   

On December 14, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made it more difficult for millions of workers to join together and form a union, by overturning its joint-employer standard established in 2015’s Browning-Ferris Industries case.

It is hard in today’s economy to bargain for higher wages or better working conditions, especially if your direct employer doesn’t really make those decisions.

Under President Obama, the NLRB tried to make it easier for employees by holding each employer responsible when they co-determine what a worker’s wages, hours, and working conditions will be. In yesterday’s decision, the Trump NLRB decided to make it harder than ever.

The NLRB’s latest decision is bad law resulting from a bad process. Ordinarily, before overturning major precedent, the Board invites the public to comment by filing amicus briefs.

However, this time, they did not, and instead announced this reversal with no warning or notice.

We Agree Assault Is Bad. Let’s Agree on How to Punish It.

Kevin Spacey can't play the president on TV because he committed sexual assault. Our real president brags about assault and stays in office.

By Jill Richardson

Our national debate about sexual harassment and assault seems to be missing a bit of nuance. 

As a woman who’s been sexually harassed and assaulted many times, here’s how I see it.

Sexual predators aren’t the same as pigs. 

Roy Moore is a predator. His systematic, frequent pursuing of teenage girls at a shopping mall when he was in his 30s shows a pattern of intentional behavior. He was after children too young to consent to sex.

Film producer Harvey Weinstein, who systematically entrapped women trying to make it in the film industry, is a predator. A monstrous one.

Al Franken sounds like a pig.

A pig is the man who stares at your chest instead of your face when talking to you. A pig might try to touch you under the pretense of being friendly, or joking, or “accidentally” brushing up on you.

The pig might think he’s being hilarious or just having good fun. He may even think he’s flattering you. You should feel grateful he chose you as a woman worthy of his sexual attention.

Hedge Fund Nation

For more cartoons by Jen Sorenson, CLICK HERE.

Best government money can buy

Jail needed to stop corporate crime

Who Pays the Penalties for Volkswagen’s Crimes?

By Phil Mattera in the Dirt Diggers Digest

It’s refreshing to see the book thrown at a corporate criminal, but it would have been even better if federal prosecutors had aimed higher.

Oliver Schmidt, who had once been a mid-level manager at VW’s engineering and environmental office in Michigan, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in the company’s long-running scheme to defraud the federal government in diesel emissions testing.

The charges against him included conspiracy and violations of the Clean Air Act. He was also fined $400,000.

Schmidt, who was arrested when he foolishly came to the United States for a family vacation, must be pissed off at having to pay such a severe personal price while higher ranking VW officials back in Germany will probably remain unscathed.

Appearing at his sentencing hearing in a prison jumpsuit with his wrists shackled, Schmidt admitted culpability and did not point the finger at any company superiors. However, he did not let VW completely off the hook.

In a letter to the judge overseeing his case, Schmidt said he felt “misused” by the company and that he was following VW talking points when he met with a California air pollution official in 2015 and concealed the existence of the software that made the cheating possible.

Schmidt could not have participated in a conspiracy all by himself. Yet the Justice Department does not appear to have tried very hard to land any bigger fish (though at least one person senior to Schmidt is being prosecuted in Germany).

Instead, the DOJ took the typical route of bringing a case against the company as a whole and letting it buy its way out of the entanglement.

Save Rhode Island spotted turtles

Rhode Island’s Spotted Turtles in Serious Trouble

By ecoRI News staff

URI doctoral student Scott Buchanan handles a snapping turtle.
He found plenty of them during his three years of research.
(Courtesy photo)

A University of Rhode Island doctoral student who surveyed the state for freshwater turtles and studied their habitat preferences has discovered that the once-common spotted turtle is in trouble, largely because of habitat disturbance.

Scott Buchanan, a New Jersey native working in collaboration with URI associate professor Nancy Karraker, repeatedly visited 88 different wetlands in the state over three years and captured nearly 2,000 turtles of four different species. 

Just 50 were spotted turtles, a species considered by the state to be of high conservation concern and a candidate for the U.S. endangered species list.

“Throughout they’re range, populations of spotted turtles have declined extensively, and we can certainly say with a good deal of confidence that’s also the case in Rhode Island,” said Buchanan, who is scheduled to graduate this month. 

“I found that they are associated with wetlands in forested landscapes, which means they are susceptible to development, forest fragmentation, wetland alteration, and other human disturbances.”

Buchanan said the largest populations of spotted turtles he found were in locations where human disturbance has been minimal.

“So now it’s a matter of managing those landscapes in an appropriate way,” he said.

Habitat alteration isn’t the only conservation concern the species faces, however. The illegal collection of wild turtles for the pet trade is also a problem.

Yes, it's about Hillary Clinton

Senate Judiciary Committee member Sheldon Whitehouse says focus shifted from Russia to "peripheral issues."

By Gryphen in the Immoral Minority

Courtesy of Business Insider: 

Senate Judiciary Committee Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told the committee's chairman, Sen. Chuck Grassley, in a letter Friday that he does not think the panel is "presently on a path" to help defend against potential Russian interference in the 2018 midterm elections — and beyond. 

That is because the committee is elevating "peripheral issues," Whitehouse said, such as Hillary Clinton's relationship with the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. 

Fusion hired a former British spy during the campaign to investigate President Donald Trump's ties to Russia.

Though Senator Grassley was not named in the article pointed out by Whitehouse, he IS one of the Senators currently calling for a second Special Counsel to investigate Hillary's connection to Fusion GPS and relationship with Russia.

VIDEO: Christmas time, the Gävle goat and the Charlestown bonfire

Celebrating by playing with fire

By Will Collette

Here comes the twister (Photo by Will Collette of the New Year's Eve,
2012 Charlestown bonfire that was almost its last)

Since Tom Ferrio and I started Progressive Charlestown in 2011, we’ve featured two important holiday season events: Sweden’s Gävle goat and the Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire.

Despite all of 2017’s tumultuous and often tragic events, life goes on and so do the Gävle goat and the Charlestown bonfire.

Of particular local interest, the Charlestown New Year’s Eve bonfire WILL take place again this year, on that day and in Ninigret Park. In an e–mail, the bonfire’s originator and main mover Frank Glista told me he relented from his decision that last year’s fire was going to be his last.

Yes, I gave in to doing another Bonfire.  The main Structure is complete so now it's time to do a little decorating.

In 2016, the Gävlebocken was torched only hours after it was dedicated.

I’m really glad about that because that bonfire was one of the few times each year where local friends and foes could stand together in peace and enjoy the warm glow.

In my own odd way of thinking, I connect our bonfire to the “traditional” 40-foot high Yuletide straw goat, the Gävlebocken, in the town of Gävle, Sweden. 

The “tradition” is just over 50 years old when town merchants came up with the idea in 1966 as a gimmick to promote winter tourism.

As traditions go, that’s not very long. Indeed, that nauseating tune Jingle Bell Rock predates the Gävlebocken by almost 10 years.

What made the Gävlebocken different than any other commercial Christmas display is the fact that, most years, the Gävlebocken gets burned to the ground.

The year in review

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