Headlines

Cheney grills Pence on Trump’s foreign policy

Sterling plunges after Theresa May’s Brexit deal suffers surprise legal setback

TUCKER FIGHTS BACK ... ‘Will never bow to the mob, ever’ ...

Fox News strongly condemns Jeanine Piro’s  remarks on Omar’s hijab

Pelosi’s hard line on impeachment splits House Dems

New York AG issues subpoenas to 2 banks relating to Trump Org. projects

News Corp. calls for Google breakup ...

Dilingpole: Tommy Robinson may run for Parliament

Stacey Abrams: ‘2020 is definitely on the table’

US Consumer Price Index rose 0.2% in February, as expected

Trump’s support among ICE officers dwindles over failure to end catch-and-release ...

Experts: NYC could go bankrupt for first time in 40 years

Headlines

These headlines are real ... they have all been discovered on Internet news sites. Guess which ones came from Politico?

Deep-pocketed health-care lobbies line up against Trump

Puerto Rico declares bankruptcy ...

Comey: Russia favored Trump because Putin 'hated' Hillary Clinton

Donald Trump: 'Not good' Susan Rice refuses to testify

Poll: Trump approval hits 49% ...

Hannity on Comey testimony: 'How stupid do they think we are?'

MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' hosts engaged

Colbert walks back 'crude' Trump-Putin joke

Trump to visit Israel, Vatican, Saudi Arabia on first foreign tripZ

Another man says Seattle mayor paid him for sex ...

Tillerson defends outreach to foreign leaders who deviate from American 'values'

Coulter: Swamp People: 47; Trump: 0

Son of Solyndra

If you thought that the Solyndra rat hole was the ultimate in gross government waste …  think again. Apparently, Obama and his gang of crony capitalists have even outdone this previous $527 million dollar squandering of taxpayer money with their newest bird rotisserie in the Mojave Desert, the Ivanpah Project. Actually this time it is a $540 million government grant request that is to help pay down a $1.6 billion government loan guarantee to build this ill-planned, ill-engineered, and ill-financed environmental monstrosity … see my previous blogs on this subject: The Price of Progress and The Birds, This entire solar project cost $2.2 billion with roughly $600 million coming from Google,  NRG Energy and the sale of energy futures … for more of these sordid details, see: Powerline Blog Story.

After the multiple planning, engineering, environmental and financing screw-ups that the Powerline blog deftly outlines and with another behemoth bankruptcy looming on the horizon, there is one matter that still sticks in my craw. If you remember the Solyndra fiasco, it was full of private self-dealing and poor government oversight. And, as I recall, the private investors stepped ahead of our government’s loan guarantees in the bankruptcy proceedings … which is not the way it is supposed to happen … see: Washington Post Story. This new Ivanpah grant request from our feds has that same smell of self dealing as Solyndra. Will any of this money go the project's owners, Google and NRG Energy, or will it be used solely to reduce our government’s loan guarantee (equivalent to taking from one government pocket and putting it in another)? Knowing how the current bunch of slimy Solons in Washington operate, my odds-on bet is on the former option.

But before I go, guess who was up to his oily neck in the Solyndra scandal? Why it was our new Ebola czar, Ron Klain ... see: PJ Media Story. Nothing really surprises me from this Chicago mob any more ...

Afterward: See also: Solyndra Times Three.

Mo-or-Less-Town

Mitt Romney's campaign prediction has come true.  Detroit, Michigan has declared bankruptcy ... the largest city to ever do so in the United States (see: Detroit News Story).  What a shame! I've only been to Detroit once or twice ... to visit the General Motors headquarters ... so I have not seen the central-city decay there cause by decades of irresponsible fiscal management. But there might be plenty of pain to go around once the courts have divvied up the few remaining assets.

Yes, pensioners there may suffer but, I suspect that the Obama administration will find a sub rosa way of easing their pain.  (There is something called the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation which will probably dump tons of taxpayers money into this financial chasm ... see: Wikipedia Entry.  Yes, this quasi-governmental company is privately-funded now ... but it is running such a huge deficit that we all know that taxpayers will eventually be forced to close this gap.)  The other real sufferers will more likely be all the IRA owners around the country who either are directly or indirectly invested in Detroit municipal bonds.  They, like the previous investors in General Motors debt, will take it in the shorts.

And many other major mismanaged cities around the country are going to find their municipal bond financing costs go up ... possibly dramatically.  So we see that Detroit's pain will likely be shared by all of us ... even though we had no hand in the corruption and fiscal naivete that caused this catastrophe.

I do have a simple suggestion that might allow Detroit to make lemonade out of the bushel of lemons that it now has on hand (a thought I also had for the South Bronx when it was in rampant decay.)  I think that tens if not hundreds of blocks of contiguous abandoned homes and businesses in downtown Detroit should be bulldozed and a gigantic verdant municipal park should be created ... as a centerpiece of an eventually revitalized city.  It might even get Mitt Romney to donate the millions of dollars it will cost ... then name it for his father, George.

Afterward: For another interesting take on Detroit, see: The Diplomad Blog.

Le Jeux Sont Fait

What was once a sure bet ... building a casino ... has turned sour. The $2.4 billion Revel Casino in Atlantic City has just declared bankruptcy after less than a year of operation (see: CNBC Story ). The losses should top $1 billion for the initial investors and Atlantic City will continue to take it on the chin after years of hoopla.  This is an oft-repeated story. The casinos in Rhode Island are have been in steady decline for years.  I stopped going to them when it became obvious that their payout percentages were being reduced to make up for declining business ... which, of course, caused even greater visitor defections ... a vicious cycle.

Now the native-American casinos in Connecticut, Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods, are also apparently on the downward slope and have extended their hands to Uncle Sam for some more sugar (see: Breitbart Story).  Six years ago these casinos were on a building binge ... expanding their gambling, lodging, dining, and commercial retail areas.  Now this optimism appears to have been misplaced.  Plus, Massachusetts is on the verge of authorizing slot parlors and destination casinos which will surely erode business away from Connecticut.  And, if the potential investors in these Massachusetts casinos are the slightest bit perspicacious, they probably should re-jigger their financial models to account for what is apparently a growing aversion to tossing away money on the part of the Supp-hose set.

The chips are down.

California Dreamin'

San Bernardino, Stockton, Mammoth Lakes, Compton … this is a list of the cities/towns in California that have recently gone bankrupt … or, are about to slip under the fiscal waves (see: Fox News Story). Expect many more … and, very possibly, the state of California itself will give up the ghost. Yes, spending and accounting shenanigans are partly to blame for these problems, but may I suggest a much more structural issue? Two of these bergs are in the Central Valley, the vegetable/fruit basket to this nation. Or, at least, it used to be. The economic health of this region has been greatly sacrificed to save the Delta Smelt, a small endangered fish that has caused our federal government to impose onerous water restrictions on the farmers there (see: Central Valley Water Crisis). Without water, crops won’t grow … and, without crops, farmers are impoverished … and, without agricultural income, taxes can’t be paid … and, without tax income, bergs go bankrupt. It’s that simple.

And since Central Valley agriculture was a large part of California’s fiscal strength, this short-sighted eco-suicide is one reason that the whole Golden State itself is on the ropes. Another reason is that oil exploration and extraction in California has been seriously curtailed by these same tree-hugging limousine liberals who claim to care for the downtrodden … while, at the same time, trodding them down. Will Governor Moonbeam recognize and remedy these problems? Keep California dreamin' …