There is always some madness in love.
But there is also always some reason in madness.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Guest Blog Quote of the Day
The same malign alliance between a corrupt political class, rapacious public-sector unions, and an ever more swollen army of welfare dependents has been adopted in the formally Golden State of California, and in large part by the Obama administration, whose priorities — “health” “care” “reform,” “immigration” “reform” — are determined by the same elite/union/dependency axis. As one droll tweeter put it, “If Obama had a city, it would look like Detroit.”.. Detroit needs urgently both to make it non-insane for talented people to live in the city, and to cease subjecting its present population to a public “education” system that’s little more than unionized child abuse...Forty-seven percent of adults are functionally illiterate...40 percent of its streetlamps don’t work; 210 of its 317 public parks have been permanently closed; it takes an hour for police to respond to a 9-1-1 call; only a third of its ambulances are driveable; one-third of the city has been abandoned; the local realtor offers houses on sale for a buck and still finds no takers; etc., etc. - Mark Steyn, NROOn Detroit...Bien sur!
Liberal democrats took hold of the greatest, most productive city on earth and turned it into a bloodsucker excuse-making hell. Liberals seem to think that what Mugabe did to destroy the breadbasket of Africa in Zimbabwe is somehow a desirable model. - Ted NugentNick Gillespie is correct, but easier said than done. After all, the heavily black voter base is still wedded to Democratic-style statist/redistribution politics and views the city's bankruptcy not as the consequence of failed "leadership" they voted but some vast conservative conspiracy to disenfranchise them.
One needs to get into the weeds on pension plans a bit here to explain the house of cards. Norcross makes a useful distinction between actuarial accounting and market-valuation. The idea is for the government to guarantee a certain benefit in future dollars. Because of the time value of money and/or investment returns, you don't have to salt away dollars on a $1 to $1 basis. Obviously the better your expected return, the less you have to contribute. Now consider if you have a poor year in the economy; the investment return can drop off, meaning the state has to contribute more to make up the difference. But the state is also probably taking in fewer tax dollars--if anything, they'll look to cut contributions, not add to them. That's how you end up with $11B in unsecured loans (meaning the creditor has no direct claim on present/future tax revenues), nearly $9B which involve retiree benefit obligations, in that the city had to borrow money to finance its ongoing obligations. The shortfall between full funding and actual prefunding and investment returns is called an unfunded liability. The bottom line is that the states have generally been funding and reporting their obligations using optimistic actuarial accounting (say, 8% returns) versus more realistic conservative "quasi Treasury safe" market valuation.
The Michigan legal obligations raised in yesterday's post discussion (bad judge...) are also murky ground. A useful discussion is here; what is clear is that the state can change the current program and cap accrued obligations at current levels. In theory Michigan does not want the state deferring prefunding--exactly what has been happening--but apparently the courts don't have an enforcement mechanism about lawmakers shifting pension contribution funding elsewhere. The state is supposed to address unfunded liabilities, but it has set up a decades-long payment schedule.
Georgetown law professor Levitin has a relevant post here. He argues, contrary to Judge Aquilina, Chaper 9 bankruptcy basically doesn't enable an override of state constitutional law, so Gov. Snyder'a decision to file for city bankruptcy cannot possibly be unconstitutional from a state perspective.
According to figures released by Orr’s office, more than 40% of Detroit’s revenues were spent on so-called required payments such as pension checks, bond liabilities, health care benefits and other dues, which are estimated to grow to 65% of the city’s spending in the next four years.... When he arrived on the job in late March, Orr took control of a city with an estimated $17 billion in long-term debts and a $327 million annual budget deficit. On July 12, the city announced it would stop making payments on about $2.5 billion in unsecured loans and asked some of its creditors — bond issuers, unions and pensioners — to forfeit as much as 90% of what the city owed them in order to avoid bankruptcyDetroit Mayor Bing told ABC no federal bailout request of Detroit "yet", noting Obama has other priorities. I've seen one report that in reference to a Detroit bailout, Sen. Paul (R-KY) said over his dead body; I'll stand with Rand. I'm curious to see the reactions of two Michigan residents: Mark Perry of Carpe Diem, professor at Michigan-Flint; and my favorite Congressman, Justin Amash, rumored to be considering a run for the open Michigan US Senate seat next year. I know what their political philosophy should conclude....
As for the reality of bankruptcy influencing Detroit voters, I would like to dedicate John Lennon's "Imagine" to Nick Gillespie.
Introducing My Latest Mock Award: Worst Political Celebrity of the Year
I include all sorts of celebrities, including newscasters, talk show hosts, and entertainers. I'm generally not a fan of hearing celebrities express their political views; it's not just "dime a dozen" celebrities, but I have been critical of conservative celebrities like Donald Trump and Clint Eastwood. Everyone is entitled to their point of view, but espousing a "me, too" politically correct standpoint isn't very interesting and I usually don't find them well-informed. (What about me as a commentator? For one thing, there aren't a number of people whom hold my positions across a number of issues, none of my friends or relatives; this blog is unique in terms of content, variety and style; I'm generally well-informed and articulate.)
What is this "award" about? To rephrase Justice Stewart (on hard-core pornography), I know it when I see it. .We'll have to see how this plays out over the rest of the year, but the first nominee should be obvious. I'm sure there may be even worse "progressive" talk show hosts than Melissa Harris-Perry (I've never watched any of MSNBC prime-time shows, and I know Ms. Maddow is a piece of work on past Sunday talk soup), but I actually cancelled a Reason podcast subscription because it included appearances on Harris-Perry--I was fine with Nick Gillespie, but I had to put up with Harris-Perry on whose show he was a recurring guest, and life is too short to put up with crap like that.
In this case Harris-Perry wore tampon earrings to show her solidarity with the pro-abort demonstrators in Austin recently. For those unaware, the protesters showed up with jars of feces and urine to throw on pro-life Texas legislators; a prominent women's magazine suggested throwing menstrual blood at them also; I believe that's what the tampon kerfuffle was all about. This goes beyond incivility; it's criminal behavior . I realize in her delusional fantasies, she considers herself the Madonna of talk show hosts, but it comes across as unprofessional, juvenile behavior, one which doesn't involve explaining why she favors the option to dismember babies with functioning organs and nervous systems, able to feel pain.
Political Cartoon
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| Courtesy of Glenn Foden and Townhall |
The Beatles, "Here, There and Everywhere". Before I step into more blue album material, I've been focused so much on hits that I overlooked some of my favorite Beatles tunes from Rubber Soul and Revolver, which weren't released or hit the charts. This song from Sir Paul is one of the greatest love songs ever written and in my top 5 Beatles songs. It was reportedly inspired by Beach Boys genius singer-songwriter Brian Wilson's work in Pet Sounds ("God Only Knows", "Sloop John B")
