• *Greece has signaled its willingness to default on its upcoming IMF payment
• *Sets in place a plan to shift from Euros to a new issue of Greek controlled Drachmas
• *Tspiras boards a plane for Moscow
• *Seeks alternative creditors in Russia and China
• *A “Grexit” would be the de facto end of NATO and shift alliances in the Aegean from Europe to Russia
• *IMF formally withdraws staff from Athens….

Greece arrives at an existential fork in the road:  which way to turn? Continue to go West or strike out for an unknown path heading East ——————————————————————————————————————————–

The far-Left Syriza party of Greece, contrary to assertions of the European Monetary Union (EMU) has not agreed to further “austerity” measures, but has decided to double down on its threats to default on its IMF payments and align itself with Russia.

The Telegraph explains some of the backstory for Syriza’s popularity and rejection of “austerity” measures that don’t include significant debt write-offs (forgiveness).

“…One might righteously protest at what amounts to open blackmail by Mr Tsipras, deeming such conduct to be a primary violation of EU club rules. Yet this is to ignore what has been done to Greece over the past four years, and why the Greek people are so angry…

An apartment building for “middle class” Athens residents, in a “decent” part of Athens, 1 block from our 4 star hotel  (Jan 2015).  According to local social workers, 50% of the population of Greece has migrated from the countryside to Athens in an effort to find work and pool resources with other like-impoverished family members. (Click to embiggen detail)

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Running out of other people’s money….

(Reuters) – Chicago drew closer to a fiscal free fall on Friday with a rating downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service that could trigger the immediate termination of four interest-rate swap agreements, costing the city about $58 million and raising the prospect of more broken swaps contracts.

The downgrade to Baa2, just two steps above junk, and a warning the rating could fall further still, means the third-biggest U.S. city could face even higher costs in the future if banks choose to terminate other interest-rate hedges against fluctuations in interest rates.

All told, Chicago holds swaps contracts covering $2.67 billion in debt, according to a disclosure late last year. (more…)

The last time a federal budget was passed into law was September of 2007 for fiscal year 2008 and it was signed by President Bush. President Obama has not had a single day in office with a federal budget, EVER.

For the first time in six years President Obama will actually meet a statutorily required deadline for submitting a federal budget. The Executive Branch budget proposals are due by the first Monday in February; however Obama usually blows off the rules. I digress.
This 2016 proposal is a little disingenuous no?

…”The president’s budget features a six-year, $478 billion public works program for upgrading the nation’s infrastructure, including roads, railroads and ports”….

Didn’t congress spend $1,000,000,000,000.00 (trillion) on Obama’s “stimulus plan”, aka “shovel ready jobs”, aka “American Reinvestment and Recovery Act”, for public works in 2009/2010? And what exactly did we get out of that little expenditure?
WASHINGTON DC – President Obama will unveil a $4 trillion budget Monday, featuring an ambitious public works program, a one-time tax on foreign profits kept overseas by corporations, tax credits for middle-class Americans, and a 1.3 percent pay raise for federal employees and troops. (more…)

McDonalds sought to deflect pressure from the BGI and Professional Left over Franchise Law (NLRB), employment, and pay rates. So they took a proactive position and hired a black CEO. Three consecutive years of failure, dismal sales and market share losses ensued. The worst leadership run in the history of the organization.
However, now Al Sharpton and the Obama administration (using the NLRB) are likely to strike back.  Yet consider this: immediately the stock soared on the news of Thompson’s firing;  which would indicate the shareholders would rather face Sharpton/Obama than deal with a continued idiot at the helm.
BLOOMBERG – McDonald’s Corp., the world’s largest restaurant chain, will replace Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson with one of his top lieutenants following the company’s worst U.S. sales slump in more than a decade.
Chief Brand Officer Steve Easterbrook will take the reins when Thompson steps down on March 1, the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said in a statement Wednesday. Easterbrook, currently a senior executive vice president, also will join the board, filling Thompson’s vacated seat, the company said. Thompson, 51, had been in the CEO job fewer than three years.
“With sales stagnant for this long, there’s been a lot of push for change,” said Will Slabaugh, an analyst at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas. “They had to show investors they’re serious about changing and improving sales.” (more…)

The last federal budget was signed into law September 2007 by President Bush. Since then the past 7 fiscal years have been funded under continuing resolution bills.
In a sane world the Republicans would have only funded Fiscal Year 2015 through April, and taken the position of waiting to see President Obama’s budget proposal for FY 2016 which is due in February. (President Obama has never met a statutorily required budget submission deadline). Alas, another year funded by CR.
Via Politico – In a big win for House Republicans and President Barack Obama, the House passed a $1 trillion-plus funding bill Thursday night that will keep the government open into next year.
The final vote, which came after a high drama day of behind the scenes arm twisting and vote counting, was 219 to 206.
The Senate passed a two-day funding bill following the House vote, avoiding a government shutdown starting at midnight Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), however, warned that the “cromnibus,” as the massive spending package has come to be called on Capitol Hill, may not pass the Senate until Monday. (more…)

(source)

(Via The Hill) Legislation approving construction of the Keystone XL pipeline failed in the Senate on Tuesday, delivering what could be a fatal blow to Sen. Mary Landrieu’s reelection campaign.

The vote was still going on at 6:18 p.m., but 41 senators had voted against passage, enough to defeat the bill. Landrieu and other Keystone proponents needed a supermajority of 60 votes for final passage — and didn’t get there despite Landrieu’s week-long battle to win over members of her conference.
The vote itself was a gift to Landrieu, who has long sought approval of the pipeline as a project that would bring jobs to her state.
Even if the legislation had cleared the Senate, it faced a near certain veto from President Obama.  (read more)
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This is a follow-up to a previous argument. Two district courts have split on the issue. The language of the legislation itself is specific that only exchanges set up by individual states are eligible for federal subsidy. The ObamaCare defenders claim differently.
Everyone with common sense should work to insure ObamaCare collapses – because it’s a total fraud and getting worse. 
To use the administrations’ own figures initially the goal was to create healthcare for 30 million “uninsured”.  According to the feds own figures they have registered 1.2 million people on the federal exchanges.   According to the same stats 70% of those registrations are qualifying for Medicaid (a state program).  That means only 300k are paying for some form of coverage, or actual health insurance.  
So a program sold to benefit 30 million is only benefiting 300k   And to benefit 3 million they are destroying the coverage of 300 million.  Think about it.
This was never about “Healthcare”, this was always about “CONTROL”.  

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a legal challenge to a key part of the Obamacare health law that, if successful, would limit the availability of federal health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans. (more…)

A serious issue addressed while carrying a sense of humor…

Essentially the EU is charging Britain for having an economy that has outperformed other EU members over the last 20 years.   Pushing the socialistic equality in outcomes principle…  Opposition leader Nigel Farage (UKIP) was just given a golden arrow in his quiver to advance his goal of exiting the EU construct.

The Telegraph – David Cameron is fighting to stop Britain being forced to pay an extra £1.7 billion to the European Union due to the success of the British economy.

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