If this stands – and it HAS already been appealed – this is, um, Things Go Boom Time.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ruled today that pensions of city retirees can legally be cut in Detroit’s bankruptcy — a decision that came as a significant surprise to people observing the case.
Rhodes emphasized he won’t necessarily allow pension cuts to be approved in the city’s final reorganization plan, called a “plan of adjustment.”
Rhodes previously signaled that he planned to decide the issue of whether the pensions can be cut later in the case. But today he said he changed his mind and decided ruling on the issue now would expedite the bankruptcy.
The judge’s ruling is that federal bankruptcy law trumps the Michigan state constitution, which should lead us to the mordantly entertaining sight of watching a bunch of liberal and Democratic groups argue strenuously for states’ rights. The real problem is that Detroit is $3.5 billion in the hole for unfunded pension obligations*, and Detroit doesn’t have the money. And yes, those pensioners were promised that money. Guess what? The (Democratic) politicians who ran Detroit into the ground lied to the pensioners.
And that’s pretty much where it ends. There’s no money. No, stop, the Left isn’t listening: there’s no money. Yup, it’s horrid. But there’s no money. And there still will be no money when the shouting, the threats, the primal screaming, the conspiracy theories, and the general freak-outs cease.
Sorry. Well, sort of: I didn’t do this.
Moe Lane
*Opposing arguments give that number as ‘only’ $600 million. Wondering how two people can look at the same data and get such wildly diverging numbers? Welcome to government accountancy: here’s your accordion.
The Gods Of The Copybook Headings have come demanding their due.
No. But their alarm clock is ringing.
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Mew
Wait, are you double spacing?! You are! *dies laughing*
More has always double spaced. His exact words in a post on the topic escape me, but to the effect of “From my cold dead fingers, b!#@&*s” seems accurate….
I have honestly never noticed up until this point.
I double-tap. That way I’m sure the sentence is dead.
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You got a problem with that?
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Mew
Who uses “tab” anymore?
Who said tab?
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Oh, and nearly every website designer ever, by the way. It doesn’t just mean “five spaces” anymore.
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Mew
Ops, read that has “tab” for some reason. I have nothing against double-space, I just don’t understand it.
I take it you learned to type on hardware designed after 1974, with a curricula updated for post-1974 hardware?
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See, before that, back in the dark ages, we didn’t have typewriters that could do proportional fonts, everything was monospace, and so the kerning could get a little messed up…
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The standard practice, due to the limitations of the hardware, was to double-tap the space bar after a period to ensure that there was a clear stop to the sentence, that it couldn’t be missed as the kerning weirded.
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Hope this helps, and consider yourself to be lucky you learned later on, eh?
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Mew
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(has fond memories of being the only guy to take typing class; the rest of the class being young ladies intent on getting jobs as secretaries .. )
I was born in 1980, but I do remember my teachers attempting to teach me HANDWRITTEN double-space (we were forced to use the end our pointing finger to measure the double-space) and yes I had typing class where the computer program forced the use of double-space. I went along with it all, but nevertheless rejected it.
Oh my god, I’m surrounded by whippersnappers!!! Get off my law..oh wait. Moe’s lawn.
I remember with no fondness at all the IBM Selectric II’s that haunted my high school typing class. There were two that were post 1973 and had the built in ‘correction tape’ and the entire class would race of them. Carbon paper still brings out the tic under my left eye.
I hated the electric typewriters in my freshman year typing class. I also hated that typing class, which I only took because my parents made me.
And then computers showed up, and my parents got the slightest bit smug. Which was totally fair and I don’t begrudge them for it.
So what would stop liberal politicians in DC from spewing billions to their liberal friends in Detroit (and whatever other city that liberal policies have doomed)? I mean, Detroit is only $3.5 billion in the hole? Congress pissed through $800 billion in the blink of an eye in 2009.
Speaker of the House John Boehner.
No, I’m being perfectly serious. The man knows that if he proposed a bailout of Detroit, then every other city in America that was in the hole would follow suit – and every fiscal conservative in the Republican party would start screaming*. So totally not worth it.
Moe Lane
*I know that some of you are muttering that Boehner wouldn’t care. …Far be it from me to discourage a healthy loathing of our party leadership, but Boehner’s not anywhere near THAT bad. Comprehensive immigration reform, if he gets a shot at it? Sure. Breaking off the fiscal conservative leg of the Republican tripod? Not a chance in Hell.