Just [censored]ing us after they're done [censored]ing us!

...inappropriate because the pensions have been before the court.

Since he stood to gain financially, did he recuse himself when they were before his court? If not, he's guilty of an ethical violation, and should be forced to give up his judgeship AND his pension.

$12k A MONTH?!?!?!

Must be f-ing nice. Maybe I can get job w/ the gov't when I finish my nursing degree....

There has been a massive over-reach into the citizens lives by the government and the citizens are starting to see the damage (cost) of this by letting the government "do what is best for the citizen."

These things are coming to light and people are not happy.
I went to a seminar over the weekend. One guy explained that the current administration is going against the people's wishes e.g. mandatory healthcare. I

If this were being forced on the people by an administration that wasn't elected there would be an uprising by the people. However, because this administration was elected by the people, most of the people feel they have a responsibility to suffer through it.

I live in San Diego. One of the biggest reasons people are pissed off isn't because of petty jealousy...people are pissed because these pensions are sucking money from more and more necessary services. It was frustrating when the city drastically reduced library and rec center hours. However, it was another thing entirely when people started dying in house fires because their neighborhood fire stations were idled. Currently, the city idles EIGHT fire stations EVERY DAY...and we're in the middle of a heat wave in dry southern California. But hey, as long as pensions are paid...

All I care about, is, are these pensions in line with what a private corporation does. If they are, then it doesn't matter that some guy goes on to becoem a judge an make more money... I presume most of us will want to be eworking after we retire, we should still get our due.

However, if these aren't what you would get in the corporate world? Then it's bad news.

the thing that is making pensions untennable isn't that they are a bad idea. They may/may not be. it's the decision on the part of many municipalities and companies to not fund future obligations correctly. They are supposed to pay into these accounts over time, and they have not been. When the bill comes due, why is it the retiree's fault that the city or company hasn't been funding correctly? From that standpoint it's fraud on the city's/state/corporation...

I think we are pointing fingers at the wrong people here. The people following the rules aren't to blame if the rules are wrong. That you might have to go to a union or other group and say "NO" we are not giving you more pension bene's... well that's management. If City managers dodn't do what you want, you fire 'em.

"They had nothing to do with the fateful city decisions in 1996 and 2002 to sweeten retirement benefits, they point out"

If these assholes retire now and live to be 100, then the children of people who weren't even born in 1996 will be paying for those bloated pensions. What did they have to do with those fateful decisions?

"Maybe I can get job w/ the gov't when I finish my nursing degree...."

If you're in nursing, you'll be working for the government, whether you realize it or not. I should cut excerpts out of my textbooks for you. Lines such as "removing the financial boundaries to health care for all" and "sociopolitical reasons for the disparities in pregnancy outcomes of non-white populations". These are in 200 level theory courses, as in "indoctrinate the newbie fresh meat right out of the gate". The layers of bullshit make the actual evidence based practice hard to find. I tried to read these to dear hubby last night and he got up and walked away, flailing his arms around his head and yelling "GGGGAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

Maybe he has the right idea.

$12,000 a month for doing nothing? That's a lot more than I make treating uninsured patients and Medicare/MediCal patients in clinic.

Retirement is a pretty ridiculous concept to begin with. I will likely live to be in my nineties. My father's parents did, and my grandfather smoked. The grandparents on the other side lived considerably shorter lives due to alcohol poisoning and a heart attack. My father is nearing eighty, but he's fighting lung cancer from decades of smoking. I don't smoke and I assume that if I continue to live a reasonably healthy lifestyle I can expect to hit ninety five.

Society expects that I should work from eighteen to sixty five, a total of forty seven years, if I don't attend higher education full time. And in those forty seven years, I need to be able to earn enough money that I can provide for myself for approximately the next forty years.

Logic tells me I need to be socking away close to half my wages, for the days when I can't work. But making approx. a thousand dollars a month, I barely pay for myself. (I'm not figuring in my husband's wages at all)

At twenty four years old, I can't expect a pension. It's unreasonable to think that I should put in twenty years with a company and they pay for the next forty. (That's what the pension plan was at my last job. I could have retired at thirty-nine, had they not shipped that job to Taiwanese children making forty cents a day).

I have no hope for social security, and the money they take out of my checks I think of as a donation to the old and ill-prepared charity. I can't afford children and I think that a large percentage of my generation feels the same way. There simply won't be the children in the future to provide for me.

I'd like to go back in time and shoot the guy, in the head, that decided that old people didn't have to work.

Cat - the original SS setup was intended to take care of people who had worked their whole life and were reaching the end of their useful span. Approximately 1/2 of people never lived long enough to collect, because the retirement age was set at roughly the current life expectancy.

Had they tied the SS system to the life expectancy, so that retirement age increased as medicine got better at keeping us alive, we would not be nearly in as bad shape as we are now.

Incidentally, Cat, I'm almost twice your age, and I STILL don't really expect a pension worth mentioning.

Sim Von Kalinowski is a disgrace! if you end up in his court room make sure you're represented by an attractive young female attorney and count on him not to give a damn much less read the evidence, declarations, and all presented to him. I know him and the mediators of the vista court need to be investigated. One mediator, Beth Coldwell was only there for three months or so then rumor has it, she was fired. When you ask about her departure they dont want to answer. Truth will not prevail in his court room! I wouldnt be suprised if deals were made although he does make to much money for napping! he is crooked! and the mediators are too! god bless anyone that has to expirence them.

@ law abiding US citizen from May 8, 2011. I am experiencing the exact same situation in Sim Von Kalinowski's Court and agree 100%. He neglects all procedures of due process, he neglects the statutes, he neglects the declarations, violates stipulated judgments of the parties to produce the results he wants and then makes up his own law. I would love to contact you and discuss a method to address this situation. This has to stop!!!!