The reckoning is coming!! Another interesting fact about a growing list of cities is who runs them. Overwhelmingly liberals run the cities....right into the ground! DEI bull crap helps that along but it’s been going on a long time now.
Half the cities in the UK have bankrupted themselves. If one were to dig down into the accounts, I wonder how much tax payer money has been wasted on welfare for people who "get sick" (of having to look for a job) and how much on housing illegal migrants plus of course how much on just being thick-witted, mega-inefficient bureaucracies. End of rant.
Oxford City Council decided to go vegan to save the planet . . .so now they import Avocados from South America for their meetings rather than local beef & dairy.
A big part of the reason for that is a recent gender equality ruling. Women doing jobs like librarian complained that men earned more (because they did dangerous and dirty jobs like bin men, road repair etc). The court agreed that this was unfair and forced councils to pay the women lots more money including backpay.
That decision single-handedly destroyed the council's budgets beyond all repair and forced them into near immediate bankruptcy. Central government is theoretically conservative but reacted by praising the decision; Labour say they will extend it to include race as well as gender.
Socialists are just the larval stage of communists. The only known prophylactics are blunt force trauma, application of the blade in its various forms, the rope and high velocity projectiles. Other forms of parasite removal can be applied as is found appropriate and effective.
WARNING: None of these methods are a cure. Once placed under stress the larvae within the societal host encyst themselves within the body politic on the model of, say, the poliovirus, herpes and similar biological equivalents within the human body to await the time when the host society’s population loses its memory of the social disease’s existence which invariably weakens the society’s immune response permitting the parasite host cycle to start again.
One solution would be to never have any children who can be dumbed down so easily. Unfortunately, survival of the species apparently requires that they be born even if their collective brains resemble bb’s rattling around in a boxcar. Just sayin.
A SCAM IS A SCAM no matter how many turns of OBFUSCATION you take ... THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN knew from the beginning of THE FIAT CURRENCY PONZI SCHEME but being the one running it you could not care less about the ultimate consequences. Madoff is a innocent choir boy in comparison. Try to explain it even today to someone and they would declare you insane. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming crashing down INEVITABLY, VERY SLOWLY, though!
Well said Patti. I live in a very liberal area of Toronto. I like to thank my neighbours for enhancing my lifestyle at the expense of their children: they fear no deficit and I get free stuff.
So, it's the fault of unions and not corporate greed, irresponsible spending, SMART city infrastructure, overpaid corrupt officials and transfer payments to fund over-inflated/unlimited military budgets including ubiquitous geoengineering/nanotechnology operations, armies of Cointelpro gangstalkers, fusion centers and forever wars?
The Covid-19 military depopulation operation enabled the Five Eyes to eliminate millions of their citizens from government payrolls, benefits and pensions.
After 27 years of employment with Canada Post, I was violently assaulted at work by Vancouver Police, permanently injured and wrongfully fired for my refusal to wear a mask when no provincial or federal government mask mandates were in effect. I lost 11 years of income, my benefits and fully half of my Maximum Pension. I was also prohibited from collecting Employment Insurance benefits despite having had paid into that fking program for 30 years.
Many of my former coworkers were injured and some murdered by the modified mRNA Gene Therapy platform injections.
Moreover, this is the second time that the Canadian Government raided employees' pension funds. In the late 1990's Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Cretien stole our half of the $32 BILLION "surplus" from the combined pension funds of Canada Post, the RCMP, the Canadian Military.
This is the real reason why Canada managed the 2008 financial crisis better than most.
Hey, Angie, last I checked, cities and municipalities don't have military budgets. "Corporate Greed" has ZERO to do with the issues discussed in this post, which were cities over promising future benefits to current employees.
Try expanding your repertoire of things you can comment on intelligently.
Fusion centers, militarized police and Cointelpro gangstalking psychopaths are most definitely funded by municipalities.
The wars we have waged on other nations are now being waged (Directed Energy Weapons, Game Theory and Cognitive Warfare Tactics) on municipal populations. If you haven't experienced this yet then, you haven't been non-compliant.
" So, it's the fault of unions and not corporate greed, irresponsible spending and over-inflated/unlimited military budgets including ubiquitous geoengineering/nanotechnology operations, armies of Cointelpro gangstalkers, fusion centers and forever wars?" ...
NO it's the fault of the INCREDULITY by EVE and convincing ADAM about her own "wisdom" instead of having FAITH IN GOD ALMIGHTY'S WISDOM MIGHT AND GRACE.
TRIBALISM is the idea of EVE since THE GARDEN OF EDEN to this very day ... and she is going to refuse to admit it till the last moment.
THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE ONLY - THE ONE AND ONLY INCARNATION OF GOD ALMIGHTY AND SHEPHERD AND SAVIOUR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT FOREVER AND EVER - AMEN HALLELU-YAH - SOLI DEO GLORIA!
I wonder what is the overlap of bankrupt cities and sanctuary policies. Because if they were starting to tip over, these last 2 years have pushed them over the edge with the influx of folks from the border.
Probably a lot of overlap, but not causal, just correlational. The issue seems to be more about mono-party city control, usually Democrat but not always, and the corrupt political machines that run them without accountability. The cities were driven into the ground by single party rule, and single party rule does crazy things like declare them sanctuary cities.
All of these cities in the red have been in that zone for years, but I think there's no doubt that NYC is REALLY over line now because of illegals. Mayor Adams has already called for a re-thinking of "sanctuary" status.
Chicago and Illinois are the worst. People simply have no idea how these public sector defined benefit pensions work and cost. Can you imagine a private entity paying you to not work from the age of 50 or 55 until you die, at 75 to 85% of your last three years' highest earnings with 3% compunded annual increases? Do the math, it's not hard, but people don't care to try. And the reason they don't is because public unions are the hard-working middle class needing our protection. Except there are 2 middle classes and the one made up of private sector workers are not represented at the bargaining table when public union backed and paid-for politicians negotiate the contracts - see Exhibit A, Chicago Mayor Brandon. Ponzi scheme is too kind a description for the reaming this is.
My wife's grandfather worked as a NYC teacher and principal for 30 years and retired at 55. He then lived a nicely funded retirement for 40 years in the low cost South and died at 95. He earned far more from NYC as a retiree than as a working employee.
The incestuous alliance of public sector unions and Illinois politicians is mostly to blame. Another problem is the absence of political will to curb rampant crime. I moved from the city years ago but the problems are spreading throughout the rest of the state. Once the ball gets rolling it’s hard to stop.
Yes, and nothing will change in IL in this regard bc this public union benefit is enshrined in the State constitution, thanks to Mike Madigan and his ilk. You would need to amend the constitution which will never happen.
Very early on in life i worked at the English Lit department of a university. An enormous amount of paper pushing. Deadlines were never bothered with. Just yadadada-ing a lot. There is no incentive whatsoever to perform or threshold to meet. Twenty years later another temp job at an institution that was in charge of executing the youth work guarantee law. Same thing. Meetings lasted all day with everybody loving to hear themselves talk. I could not work in such an environment. It requires mediocracy and a lack of drive, in any direction, imo
Would you and Ryan be annoyed if I said I already know that one plays out?
(Remember, in nations like Germany, Sweden, France and some others we are some years ahead of you in this.)
Unused office buildings and such will be used as migrant-shelters/blocks of flats.
The private corporate owner will be paid with tax-money from city, state or federal sources to house migrants indefinitely.
When, after ten to twenty years the buildings have become dilapidated, burned and vandalised (trust me, they /will/ be), the city/state/federal will be obligated to buy it, citing the private owner being unwilling/unable to repair and care for it.
So the city etc will buy it for the full commercial value it would have had if it had been in good condition, citing future value-increases as reason.
Expect the politicians involved in this to have interests in the entire support-structure surrounding this.
Then, the building will be further worn down. Then it will deemed "racist" to house migrants there.
Then, the building will be sold to a private corporation for pennies on the dollar.
Then, it will renovated and turned into buy-in apartments or such, with not a cent going to the taxpayers.
Meanwhile, the migrants (by now third generation) will be doled out to rural communities surrounding the city.
Can't see why this wouldnät be done in the US. It's been ongoing here (EUrope) since 1970s.
Pittsburgh consistently finishes the year at $0, and the City hasn’t raised taxes in like 15 years, last I read. One of the few democrat run cities that can say this. Plus City residents can own guns, and visitors don’t need an extra CCA like in Philly.
Ah, to look where no one wants to look. Another great post, thanks so much.
Those who have not already left for the country will find it very expensive to do so now. Those who already have strive for self-sufficiency.
When the cities fall, there will be two kinds of people we'll have to worry about: those who want what we have and those who don't want us to have what we have. So I guess I'll stock up on diesel to keep the backhoe running...
There is no escape to a responsible city, or even a town in the countryside. These cities are like enormous political cockroach nests. When the nests collapse the roaches don't die, they spred out, far and wide, and politically infest new locations. For example, Arizona, once a solid red state, is now a purple state due to the cockroaches fleeing California and Illinois, bringing their political diseases with them. In Phoenix and Tucson, crime, poverty, spending, and debt are all rising. These new nests will grow until they too collapse, spreading their own poltical cockroach infestation upon the land.
No escape from the inevitable ... the turning point is unknown to man ... the night is the darkest just before sunrise ... most likely the night has to get darker still ... look out for THE LIGHT!
Political and social parasites require a wealthy, tolerant society in order to survive and thrive. Their ultimate success usually kills the host society. When the society as a whole collapses, they die off, because they are in general, non-productive.This gives societies a chance to start fresh.
Although the frequency of your posts has decreased, the quality of work is still top-notch. This will be viewed by future versions of ourselves as an historically accurate prediction of the mess that is to come. Unfortunately too many people will continue to ignore the problem, and vote with their beer-goggle on looking at the hag that is in front of them after 10 rounds thinking “she isn’t that bad...”
Yehp, and entirely predictable — the dynamic you describe was inevitable. Allowing governments to borrow money, especially with accounting done on a cash basis, was always a recipe for disaster, second only to expecting politicians to pass laws to fix it. There will be no course correction. Brace for impact.
I was “defending the Free World 🫡😂” in the FRG at the time by keeping an eye on those sneaky Ruskies. Those empty autobahns were eerie. One could hear any of the few vehicles on them coming from miles away (or multiples of 1.6 km).
There has been a gradual shift from self reliance to government dependency. I hate to think it’s planned and believe it has to do with inept leadership, and as you mention “buying votes.” We need to rethink the pension thing. I saved for my individual retirement. We need more of that to offset the pension burden. But it’s worse than that: Infrastructure, one of government’s fundamental responsibilities has been neglected due to fungible budget practices. Roads in California once lauded as the best are now the worst. Yet we pay extra taxes on gas and car registrations to maintain them. Dams are deemed unsafe and so rainwater, precious in a drought prone area, is wasted by being discharged to keep reservoirs at 30% as per State mandate. Development is rampant and driven by the affordable housing mantra, which has resulted in bond issues being passed by ballot initiatives that fail to deliver. Look at California No Place Like Home: promised 20,000 units in 2018 and has delivered 1700 in 5 years. Why? Any construction work done with “state funding” must be by union workers. No wonder a homeless unit costs $800,000 to build. The largest funders of democratic candidates in California are unions. What started out as a way to protect the workers has evolved into a way to control the state government.
All of these problems stem from campaign finance practices and won’t be fixed until we demand its reform.
More and more of my friends who are California liberals are moving away from the Democrats and plan to vote Republican in order to rebalance California. A reckoning may be coming in November.
Don’t be ‘blue locusts’ and vote for the same shit in your new state that you voted for in the blue shit holes you have fled from. That kind of flower child virtue signaling is way too expensive to be tolerated anymore.
Staying and slugging it out is exactly what blue locusts don’t do.
Blue as in blue states vs red states, locusts as in ravenous hordes that move from place to place consuming and destroying anything of value. Most commonly refers to the massive swarms of grasshoppers (locusts) that have caused mass starvation throughout history.
Dear Eileen, Quite amazing you still "hate to think it's planned." Inept leadership is only the visible level... ask yourself who is pulling their strings!
Municipal debt analyst here specialized in distressed municipal issuers. Cut my teeth as part of the NYC bailout team in mid 1970s. Depending on the State, municipal bankruptcy court under 9 is a viable option. States are gatekeepers and can tell a muni to pound sand. But if public pension expenses are the problem (and they tend to be), the only way to reform public pensions is to file for bankruptcy. Otherwise you can only reform around the margins. Bailouts are less frequent now and we have learned a lot about how bankruptcy courts work. Apart from family law, the most latitude is available to bankruptcy court judges. I covered Detroit for a money management firm. But here is the real truth. Municipalities will stiff “those pesky RICH bond holders first and lightly hair cut those pensions. The press will make much of a slim haircut to pensions but stiffing bond holders doesn’t play well for the narrative. Now, do people realize that retired people with limited savings are the ultimate bond holders? Hardly. They just think it’s billionaires playing with them to lower their taxes. You should know that your own Puerto Rico was a completely orchestrated default, right? GDB was the worm hole for that. I remember when GDB was headquartered on Wall and Williams Streets and staffed by old timer NYC investment bankers and then they moved to PR. Now, thanks to PROMESA, all US territories can file for bankruptcy. And the Congress critters blamed that on the hedge funds! The hedgehogs were late to the party as crossover buyers of PR. Think the States aren’t trying to get the power to file bankruptcy? And all the law firms that will reap hefty fees to help them are in favor of that. IL would be my first choice as to states filing.
Your depiction of the stiffing (“RICH bond holders”) is reminiscent of Obama’s tirade when Chrysler bond holders (ironically led by a muni pension fund if memory serves me) were holding out during the auto company meltdown. He could barely contain his contempt for “some BOND holders”.
Oh believe me. That bait and switch involving pure contract abrogation was a defining moment for all the debt markets. We had several of those moments baked in. The principal stockholders were UAW. Everyone knows that if you hold equity in a company, you are last in line for payment, period. I firmly believe that rating agency managing directors belong in jail for not taking GM and Chrysler to a well deserved D rating.
Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation. They would NOT be able to find their pants if it wasn't for RFID tags.
Are they celebrating the calamity benefiting their ineptitude? Of course, as it temporarily alleviates their burden of responsibility on the financial front, as THE OPPORTUNIST/DEVIL always does ... its not going to last long that they will have to stomach something else. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming down!
"these pension ideas were put into practice when life expectancy was 65. now it’s in the 80’s. that’s an awful lot more years of defined benefit payout" - Wouldn't it be convenient for the gov if there was a slow kill bio-weapon released (mostly injected) that would lower life expectancy by a couple of decades? Whole lot of their self made problems go away.
life expectancy has declined 3+ years.since 2019. a decline this rapid is due to excess deaths in those under the age of 60. we need workers, not retirees, to get us out of this mess. the bio weapon failed to kill the "right" segment of the population. it just made us oldsters like joe biden, sicker and cognitively impaired, adding to our medicare burden. talk about unintended consequences.
I will post a copy of a previous comment as it seems to be a common error made by those being raised by "state authorities" ...
You seem to give credit where stupidity reigns.
Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation. They would NOT be able to find their pants if it wasn't for RFID tags.
Are they celebrating the calamity benefiting their ineptitude? Of course, as it temporarily alleviates their burden of responsibility on the financial front, as THE OPPORTUNIST/DEVIL always does ... its not going to last long that they will have to stomach something else. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming down!
"Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation" - They are just the implementers of the crime and for a payoff they'll do whatever they are told. A lot are also "true believers" in the cult. They would no more know the whole plan than you or I.
The old saying:
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity"
has a alternate version:
"Always ascribe to malice that which has gone on far too long to be explained by stupidity"
Why are they still promoting the shots? Why are they still injecting children? 3+ years later?
" They would no more know the whole plan than you or I."
There is no grand plan neither is there any formal conspiracy ... though it may look like one it is just a convergence of interests collapsing/ held together by FEAR of loosing (out on) worldly power and material benefit. We are all blinded by our PRIDE, ARROGANCE, IGNORANCE, HYPOCRISY AND HUBRIS, the only difference being among each other to what degree!
Aye that it would. Especially among the true believers who actually took the shots. Those in the medical profession are coming to realize just how badly they've screwed up. They've taken more shots than any other group (true believers) and know that they LIED to everyone and that everyone is figuring out that they've been lied to.
At that point what do they do? A "mea culpa" like some have done is the correct way but most can't bring themselves to do it. Their god complex and hubris prevent them so they keep on lying.
Stalin's "Useful Idiots" now have a modern equivalent. They did the dirty work of convincing people to take the shots and are now left holding the bag.
Absolutely and you are laying it out, maybe without even noticing it, how come those "useful idiots" are still in charge.
THE CULT OF LIES, starting with THE SERPENT - fear for her offspring - and EVE in THE GARDEN OF EDEN and ADAM falling into the guilt tripping trap laid out - unknowingly - by EVE'S DELUSION is comprised of billions of lost sheep, lured into PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE by the poisoned gospel of MATERIALISM in all its forms, solely based on refusing GOD ALMIGHTY - THE TRUTH - COMMON SENSE! It's heartbreaking to put it into words of man for "victims and perpetrators" alike as both are pulling each other along into THE DARKNESS! And the injections are just one manifestation of THE MADNESS those souls are hanging on to.
I fully agree with your stance to a certain degree as your reasoning is not foreign to me. And still I am tending towards stupidity - in the sense of PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE - on different levels all with one common denominator - refusing GOD ALMIGHTY as their CREATOR AND ULTIMATE JUDGE.
At this point it seems impossible to me to give someone the full version... but who knows what GOD ALMIGHTY has in store for HIS CREATION!
The reckoning is coming!! Another interesting fact about a growing list of cities is who runs them. Overwhelmingly liberals run the cities....right into the ground! DEI bull crap helps that along but it’s been going on a long time now.
Half the cities in the UK have bankrupted themselves. If one were to dig down into the accounts, I wonder how much tax payer money has been wasted on welfare for people who "get sick" (of having to look for a job) and how much on housing illegal migrants plus of course how much on just being thick-witted, mega-inefficient bureaucracies. End of rant.
Oxford City Council decided to go vegan to save the planet . . .so now they import Avocados from South America for their meetings rather than local beef & dairy.
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/19920835.jeremy-clarkson-hits-back-oxfordshire-councils-decision-go-vegan/
A big part of the reason for that is a recent gender equality ruling. Women doing jobs like librarian complained that men earned more (because they did dangerous and dirty jobs like bin men, road repair etc). The court agreed that this was unfair and forced councils to pay the women lots more money including backpay.
That decision single-handedly destroyed the council's budgets beyond all repair and forced them into near immediate bankruptcy. Central government is theoretically conservative but reacted by praising the decision; Labour say they will extend it to include race as well as gender.
Socialism never goes to a good place in the end! Never!!!
Socialists are just the larval stage of communists. The only known prophylactics are blunt force trauma, application of the blade in its various forms, the rope and high velocity projectiles. Other forms of parasite removal can be applied as is found appropriate and effective.
WARNING: None of these methods are a cure. Once placed under stress the larvae within the societal host encyst themselves within the body politic on the model of, say, the poliovirus, herpes and similar biological equivalents within the human body to await the time when the host society’s population loses its memory of the social disease’s existence which invariably weakens the society’s immune response permitting the parasite host cycle to start again.
One solution would be to never have any children who can be dumbed down so easily. Unfortunately, survival of the species apparently requires that they be born even if their collective brains resemble bb’s rattling around in a boxcar. Just sayin.
TRIBALISM is the top level category, all else are simply different variations of it. EVE has been promoting this IDIOCY since THE GARDEN OF EDEN!
A SCAM IS A SCAM no matter how many turns of OBFUSCATION you take ... THE SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN knew from the beginning of THE FIAT CURRENCY PONZI SCHEME but being the one running it you could not care less about the ultimate consequences. Madoff is a innocent choir boy in comparison. Try to explain it even today to someone and they would declare you insane. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming crashing down INEVITABLY, VERY SLOWLY, though!
Well said Patti. I live in a very liberal area of Toronto. I like to thank my neighbours for enhancing my lifestyle at the expense of their children: they fear no deficit and I get free stuff.
Angie
4 mins ago
So, it's the fault of unions and not corporate greed, irresponsible spending, SMART city infrastructure, overpaid corrupt officials and transfer payments to fund over-inflated/unlimited military budgets including ubiquitous geoengineering/nanotechnology operations, armies of Cointelpro gangstalkers, fusion centers and forever wars?
The Covid-19 military depopulation operation enabled the Five Eyes to eliminate millions of their citizens from government payrolls, benefits and pensions.
After 27 years of employment with Canada Post, I was violently assaulted at work by Vancouver Police, permanently injured and wrongfully fired for my refusal to wear a mask when no provincial or federal government mask mandates were in effect. I lost 11 years of income, my benefits and fully half of my Maximum Pension. I was also prohibited from collecting Employment Insurance benefits despite having had paid into that fking program for 30 years.
Many of my former coworkers were injured and some murdered by the modified mRNA Gene Therapy platform injections.
Moreover, this is the second time that the Canadian Government raided employees' pension funds. In the late 1990's Liberal Prime Minister, Jean Cretien stole our half of the $32 BILLION "surplus" from the combined pension funds of Canada Post, the RCMP, the Canadian Military.
This is the real reason why Canada managed the 2008 financial crisis better than most.
Hey, Angie, last I checked, cities and municipalities don't have military budgets. "Corporate Greed" has ZERO to do with the issues discussed in this post, which were cities over promising future benefits to current employees.
Try expanding your repertoire of things you can comment on intelligently.
Fusion centers, militarized police and Cointelpro gangstalking psychopaths are most definitely funded by municipalities.
The wars we have waged on other nations are now being waged (Directed Energy Weapons, Game Theory and Cognitive Warfare Tactics) on municipal populations. If you haven't experienced this yet then, you haven't been non-compliant.
" So, it's the fault of unions and not corporate greed, irresponsible spending and over-inflated/unlimited military budgets including ubiquitous geoengineering/nanotechnology operations, armies of Cointelpro gangstalkers, fusion centers and forever wars?" ...
NO it's the fault of the INCREDULITY by EVE and convincing ADAM about her own "wisdom" instead of having FAITH IN GOD ALMIGHTY'S WISDOM MIGHT AND GRACE.
TRIBALISM is the idea of EVE since THE GARDEN OF EDEN to this very day ... and she is going to refuse to admit it till the last moment.
THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE ONLY - THE ONE AND ONLY INCARNATION OF GOD ALMIGHTY AND SHEPHERD AND SAVIOUR THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT FOREVER AND EVER - AMEN HALLELU-YAH - SOLI DEO GLORIA!
I wonder what is the overlap of bankrupt cities and sanctuary policies. Because if they were starting to tip over, these last 2 years have pushed them over the edge with the influx of folks from the border.
Probably a lot of overlap, but not causal, just correlational. The issue seems to be more about mono-party city control, usually Democrat but not always, and the corrupt political machines that run them without accountability. The cities were driven into the ground by single party rule, and single party rule does crazy things like declare them sanctuary cities.
All of these cities in the red have been in that zone for years, but I think there's no doubt that NYC is REALLY over line now because of illegals. Mayor Adams has already called for a re-thinking of "sanctuary" status.
Chicago and Illinois are the worst. People simply have no idea how these public sector defined benefit pensions work and cost. Can you imagine a private entity paying you to not work from the age of 50 or 55 until you die, at 75 to 85% of your last three years' highest earnings with 3% compunded annual increases? Do the math, it's not hard, but people don't care to try. And the reason they don't is because public unions are the hard-working middle class needing our protection. Except there are 2 middle classes and the one made up of private sector workers are not represented at the bargaining table when public union backed and paid-for politicians negotiate the contracts - see Exhibit A, Chicago Mayor Brandon. Ponzi scheme is too kind a description for the reaming this is.
My wife's grandfather worked as a NYC teacher and principal for 30 years and retired at 55. He then lived a nicely funded retirement for 40 years in the low cost South and died at 95. He earned far more from NYC as a retiree than as a working employee.
AT, did he “earn” more? Or just get paid more?
The incestuous alliance of public sector unions and Illinois politicians is mostly to blame. Another problem is the absence of political will to curb rampant crime. I moved from the city years ago but the problems are spreading throughout the rest of the state. Once the ball gets rolling it’s hard to stop.
Yes, and nothing will change in IL in this regard bc this public union benefit is enshrined in the State constitution, thanks to Mike Madigan and his ilk. You would need to amend the constitution which will never happen.
Very early on in life i worked at the English Lit department of a university. An enormous amount of paper pushing. Deadlines were never bothered with. Just yadadada-ing a lot. There is no incentive whatsoever to perform or threshold to meet. Twenty years later another temp job at an institution that was in charge of executing the youth work guarantee law. Same thing. Meetings lasted all day with everybody loving to hear themselves talk. I could not work in such an environment. It requires mediocracy and a lack of drive, in any direction, imo
The Canadian system can’t survive much longer
EVE and ADAMS want to be lied to!
where’s the break point you say?
My leading indicator is the markets "lagging" indicator:
Commercial real estate
It's so obvious and all around. Pick any building in an city and take a visit yourself.
Remote work might really the last nail in the Commercial Real Estate market.
Would you and Ryan be annoyed if I said I already know that one plays out?
(Remember, in nations like Germany, Sweden, France and some others we are some years ahead of you in this.)
Unused office buildings and such will be used as migrant-shelters/blocks of flats.
The private corporate owner will be paid with tax-money from city, state or federal sources to house migrants indefinitely.
When, after ten to twenty years the buildings have become dilapidated, burned and vandalised (trust me, they /will/ be), the city/state/federal will be obligated to buy it, citing the private owner being unwilling/unable to repair and care for it.
So the city etc will buy it for the full commercial value it would have had if it had been in good condition, citing future value-increases as reason.
Expect the politicians involved in this to have interests in the entire support-structure surrounding this.
Then, the building will be further worn down. Then it will deemed "racist" to house migrants there.
Then, the building will be sold to a private corporation for pennies on the dollar.
Then, it will renovated and turned into buy-in apartments or such, with not a cent going to the taxpayers.
Meanwhile, the migrants (by now third generation) will be doled out to rural communities surrounding the city.
Can't see why this wouldnät be done in the US. It's been ongoing here (EUrope) since 1970s.
All with “our”money
Ah, Camp of Saints
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Camp_of_the_Saints
And not annoyed at all. I think that's a potential end result for sure.
Bury it. What's more haunting, under the surface, than the vacancies is all the short-term leases signed during c19 vs 5-10 year leases.
I had to do it for 2 office space buildings....and so did everyone else.
It's going to look like a neg am loan recasting in a year or two from now.
A what is the common underpinning of all of this? The Democrat Party.
Pittsburgh consistently finishes the year at $0, and the City hasn’t raised taxes in like 15 years, last I read. One of the few democrat run cities that can say this. Plus City residents can own guns, and visitors don’t need an extra CCA like in Philly.
Ah, to look where no one wants to look. Another great post, thanks so much.
Those who have not already left for the country will find it very expensive to do so now. Those who already have strive for self-sufficiency.
When the cities fall, there will be two kinds of people we'll have to worry about: those who want what we have and those who don't want us to have what we have. So I guess I'll stock up on diesel to keep the backhoe running...
There is no escape to a responsible city, or even a town in the countryside. These cities are like enormous political cockroach nests. When the nests collapse the roaches don't die, they spred out, far and wide, and politically infest new locations. For example, Arizona, once a solid red state, is now a purple state due to the cockroaches fleeing California and Illinois, bringing their political diseases with them. In Phoenix and Tucson, crime, poverty, spending, and debt are all rising. These new nests will grow until they too collapse, spreading their own poltical cockroach infestation upon the land.
Well, the corrupt Republicans in AZ have not helped, only aided and abetted in the corruption.
Well, I won't argue with you there.
OMG! So true!!
Prime example of blue locusts at work.
No escape from the inevitable ... the turning point is unknown to man ... the night is the darkest just before sunrise ... most likely the night has to get darker still ... look out for THE LIGHT!
Political and social parasites require a wealthy, tolerant society in order to survive and thrive. Their ultimate success usually kills the host society. When the society as a whole collapses, they die off, because they are in general, non-productive.This gives societies a chance to start fresh.
Although the frequency of your posts has decreased, the quality of work is still top-notch. This will be viewed by future versions of ourselves as an historically accurate prediction of the mess that is to come. Unfortunately too many people will continue to ignore the problem, and vote with their beer-goggle on looking at the hag that is in front of them after 10 rounds thinking “she isn’t that bad...”
Yehp, and entirely predictable — the dynamic you describe was inevitable. Allowing governments to borrow money, especially with accounting done on a cash basis, was always a recipe for disaster, second only to expecting politicians to pass laws to fix it. There will be no course correction. Brace for impact.
Greatest country in the history of the world! Just ask every ass kissing politician and virtue signaling MSM talking head.
Country's a fucking joke of ignorance and sloth. And more than a little evil thrown in for good measure.
Best summary outside THE BIBLE Everyone brave enough should look up the original description...
Book of Daniel
Book of Revelation
Those of us who were young adults in the 1970's........
with home grown energy crises!
Oh, yes, I remember the 1970's quite well. I'd say this time around it's worse.
Yeah. Like Moscow 79'.
Don't worry the bread lines will bring us all together...
I was “defending the Free World 🫡😂” in the FRG at the time by keeping an eye on those sneaky Ruskies. Those empty autobahns were eerie. One could hear any of the few vehicles on them coming from miles away (or multiples of 1.6 km).
Geez. Is it 1975 again already?
There has been a gradual shift from self reliance to government dependency. I hate to think it’s planned and believe it has to do with inept leadership, and as you mention “buying votes.” We need to rethink the pension thing. I saved for my individual retirement. We need more of that to offset the pension burden. But it’s worse than that: Infrastructure, one of government’s fundamental responsibilities has been neglected due to fungible budget practices. Roads in California once lauded as the best are now the worst. Yet we pay extra taxes on gas and car registrations to maintain them. Dams are deemed unsafe and so rainwater, precious in a drought prone area, is wasted by being discharged to keep reservoirs at 30% as per State mandate. Development is rampant and driven by the affordable housing mantra, which has resulted in bond issues being passed by ballot initiatives that fail to deliver. Look at California No Place Like Home: promised 20,000 units in 2018 and has delivered 1700 in 5 years. Why? Any construction work done with “state funding” must be by union workers. No wonder a homeless unit costs $800,000 to build. The largest funders of democratic candidates in California are unions. What started out as a way to protect the workers has evolved into a way to control the state government.
All of these problems stem from campaign finance practices and won’t be fixed until we demand its reform.
More and more of my friends who are California liberals are moving away from the Democrats and plan to vote Republican in order to rebalance California. A reckoning may be coming in November.
Don’t hold your breath
Don’t be ‘blue locusts’ and vote for the same shit in your new state that you voted for in the blue shit holes you have fled from. That kind of flower child virtue signaling is way too expensive to be tolerated anymore.
Not sure what you mean, but I am still in California slugging it out for balanced representation.
Staying and slugging it out is exactly what blue locusts don’t do.
Blue as in blue states vs red states, locusts as in ravenous hordes that move from place to place consuming and destroying anything of value. Most commonly refers to the massive swarms of grasshoppers (locusts) that have caused mass starvation throughout history.
Dear Eileen, Quite amazing you still "hate to think it's planned." Inept leadership is only the visible level... ask yourself who is pulling their strings!
Municipal debt analyst here specialized in distressed municipal issuers. Cut my teeth as part of the NYC bailout team in mid 1970s. Depending on the State, municipal bankruptcy court under 9 is a viable option. States are gatekeepers and can tell a muni to pound sand. But if public pension expenses are the problem (and they tend to be), the only way to reform public pensions is to file for bankruptcy. Otherwise you can only reform around the margins. Bailouts are less frequent now and we have learned a lot about how bankruptcy courts work. Apart from family law, the most latitude is available to bankruptcy court judges. I covered Detroit for a money management firm. But here is the real truth. Municipalities will stiff “those pesky RICH bond holders first and lightly hair cut those pensions. The press will make much of a slim haircut to pensions but stiffing bond holders doesn’t play well for the narrative. Now, do people realize that retired people with limited savings are the ultimate bond holders? Hardly. They just think it’s billionaires playing with them to lower their taxes. You should know that your own Puerto Rico was a completely orchestrated default, right? GDB was the worm hole for that. I remember when GDB was headquartered on Wall and Williams Streets and staffed by old timer NYC investment bankers and then they moved to PR. Now, thanks to PROMESA, all US territories can file for bankruptcy. And the Congress critters blamed that on the hedge funds! The hedgehogs were late to the party as crossover buyers of PR. Think the States aren’t trying to get the power to file bankruptcy? And all the law firms that will reap hefty fees to help them are in favor of that. IL would be my first choice as to states filing.
Your depiction of the stiffing (“RICH bond holders”) is reminiscent of Obama’s tirade when Chrysler bond holders (ironically led by a muni pension fund if memory serves me) were holding out during the auto company meltdown. He could barely contain his contempt for “some BOND holders”.
Oh believe me. That bait and switch involving pure contract abrogation was a defining moment for all the debt markets. We had several of those moments baked in. The principal stockholders were UAW. Everyone knows that if you hold equity in a company, you are last in line for payment, period. I firmly believe that rating agency managing directors belong in jail for not taking GM and Chrysler to a well deserved D rating.
Excellent point!!
If only there were some way to get rid of a bunch of those expensive retirees without them noticing.... 🤔
You seem to give credit where stupidity reigns.
Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation. They would NOT be able to find their pants if it wasn't for RFID tags.
Are they celebrating the calamity benefiting their ineptitude? Of course, as it temporarily alleviates their burden of responsibility on the financial front, as THE OPPORTUNIST/DEVIL always does ... its not going to last long that they will have to stomach something else. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming down!
Yes; I do.
"these pension ideas were put into practice when life expectancy was 65. now it’s in the 80’s. that’s an awful lot more years of defined benefit payout" - Wouldn't it be convenient for the gov if there was a slow kill bio-weapon released (mostly injected) that would lower life expectancy by a couple of decades? Whole lot of their self made problems go away.
life expectancy has declined 3+ years.since 2019. a decline this rapid is due to excess deaths in those under the age of 60. we need workers, not retirees, to get us out of this mess. the bio weapon failed to kill the "right" segment of the population. it just made us oldsters like joe biden, sicker and cognitively impaired, adding to our medicare burden. talk about unintended consequences.
Definitely depopulation bio-weapon
I will post a copy of a previous comment as it seems to be a common error made by those being raised by "state authorities" ...
You seem to give credit where stupidity reigns.
Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation. They would NOT be able to find their pants if it wasn't for RFID tags.
Are they celebrating the calamity benefiting their ineptitude? Of course, as it temporarily alleviates their burden of responsibility on the financial front, as THE OPPORTUNIST/DEVIL always does ... its not going to last long that they will have to stomach something else. THE HOUSE OF LIES is coming down!
"Do you really believe that inept kleptocrats are able to pull off such a sophisticated global operation" - They are just the implementers of the crime and for a payoff they'll do whatever they are told. A lot are also "true believers" in the cult. They would no more know the whole plan than you or I.
The old saying:
"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity"
has a alternate version:
"Always ascribe to malice that which has gone on far too long to be explained by stupidity"
Why are they still promoting the shots? Why are they still injecting children? 3+ years later?
I'll take the second one.
" They would no more know the whole plan than you or I."
There is no grand plan neither is there any formal conspiracy ... though it may look like one it is just a convergence of interests collapsing/ held together by FEAR of loosing (out on) worldly power and material benefit. We are all blinded by our PRIDE, ARROGANCE, IGNORANCE, HYPOCRISY AND HUBRIS, the only difference being among each other to what degree!
Let me propose a third option
FEAR!
" Why are they still promoting the shots? Why are they still injecting children? 3+ years later?"
Prisoners dilemma would explain a lot!
Aye that it would. Especially among the true believers who actually took the shots. Those in the medical profession are coming to realize just how badly they've screwed up. They've taken more shots than any other group (true believers) and know that they LIED to everyone and that everyone is figuring out that they've been lied to.
At that point what do they do? A "mea culpa" like some have done is the correct way but most can't bring themselves to do it. Their god complex and hubris prevent them so they keep on lying.
Stalin's "Useful Idiots" now have a modern equivalent. They did the dirty work of convincing people to take the shots and are now left holding the bag.
Absolutely and you are laying it out, maybe without even noticing it, how come those "useful idiots" are still in charge.
THE CULT OF LIES, starting with THE SERPENT - fear for her offspring - and EVE in THE GARDEN OF EDEN and ADAM falling into the guilt tripping trap laid out - unknowingly - by EVE'S DELUSION is comprised of billions of lost sheep, lured into PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE by the poisoned gospel of MATERIALISM in all its forms, solely based on refusing GOD ALMIGHTY - THE TRUTH - COMMON SENSE! It's heartbreaking to put it into words of man for "victims and perpetrators" alike as both are pulling each other along into THE DARKNESS! And the injections are just one manifestation of THE MADNESS those souls are hanging on to.
I fully agree with your stance to a certain degree as your reasoning is not foreign to me. And still I am tending towards stupidity - in the sense of PLATO'S MENTAL PRISON CAVE - on different levels all with one common denominator - refusing GOD ALMIGHTY as their CREATOR AND ULTIMATE JUDGE.
At this point it seems impossible to me to give someone the full version... but who knows what GOD ALMIGHTY has in store for HIS CREATION!