Life imitates SNL: Abraham Lincoln library foundation may be forced to sell off artifacts to pay debt

Lincoln library cornerstone

In a mildly amusing Saturday Night Live bit where Jason Sudekis, playing the recently arrested Rod Blagojevich using the worst attempt at a Chicago accent ever, the-SNL Blago screams out during a US Senate hearing, "Hey, would any of you guys be interested in purchasing the actual wedding ring of President Abraham Lincoln? Cuz I got it, and yes, it is for sale--$250 Gs."

That sketch was prescient, as Springfield's Lincoln Library Foundation may be selling some Honest Abe valuables to pay off some debt.

The Lincoln library and museum, which is a Disney-esque tribute to the 16th president, is owned by the bankrupt-in-all-but-name state of Illinois.

From the State Journal-Register:

The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation said Thursday it may have to resort to selling artifacts in its possession if it cannot resolve financial issues over a loan it obtained to purchase a vast collection of Lincoln artifacts a decade ago.

The organization issued a statement that it has met with Gov. Bruce Rauner’s office about its financial problems but did not get any financial commitments from the administration.

“If the Foundation is not able to secure commitments in the very near future to retire most if not all of the remaining $9.7 million debt, it will have no choice but to accelerate the possibility of selling these unique artifacts on the private market which would likely remove them from public view forever,” the statement read.

The foundation — which is separate from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum — paid $25 million in 2007 to acquire the Barry and Louise Taper Collection, an extensive collection of Lincoln artifacts and other objects.

Among the items that were in that hall were a stovepipe hat that Lincoln is said to have worn, a book from 1824 that contains the earliest known sample of the Great Emancipator's handwriting, and items tied to his assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

A wax figure of Booth greeted Little Marathon Pundit and I in the museum's atrium eleven years ago when we visited. It was finally pulled because, the Peoria Journal Star reported last year, "it sent the wrong message."

Ya think?

Lincoln, but not his wife, Mary Todd, was a frugal man. Unlike current Illinois spendthrifts such as state House Speaker for Life Michael Madigan (D-Chicago). He owned only one suit that was viewed as suitable by his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, for Lincoln to wear when his body lay in state.

Illinois, because of massive unfunded pension debt, suffers from the lowest credit rating ever recorded for a state.

ILL-inois: Every person in state owes $11,000 for unpaid pension debt

It's no surprise that Illinois is one of the few states with a declining population.

This is the legacy of House Speaker for Life Michael Madigan (D-Chicago).

From Bloomberg:

Three years ago today, the Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s attempt to cut its employees’ pension benefits to chip away at a retirement-system debt that’s swelled to almost $11,000 for every man, woman and child.

Since then, Illinois’s credit rating was downgraded to the verge of junk, its bonds have tumbled and its largest city -- Chicago -- was stripped of its investment-grade status by Moody’s Investors Service. And Republican Governor Bruce Rauner and the Democrat-led legislature have made no real progress toward a new plan that doesn’t violate the state constitution’s ban on reducing benefits.

“Illinois failure to address its pension crisis has resulted in further deterioration of the state and cities’ financial condition, exorbitantly high borrowing costs, and an inability to address other critical needs at the state and local level,” said Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation, a Chicago nonprofit that tracks state and municipal finances. “Time is not your friend when your liabilities are compounding and your revenues are not.”

The funding shortfall across Illinois’s five retirement systems climbed to $137 billion by last June, a jump of about $17.8 billion since 2015, after the government for years failed to made adequate contributions. That pension deficit -- more than four times larger that its debt to general-obligation bondholders -- is adding hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to Illinois’s budget each year as the government plows more money in to catch up.

Iran Nuclear Deal Explained: Six Reasons Why Trump Is Right

"It is clear to me that we cannot prevent an Iranian nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement," Trump said Tuesday about the flawed nuclear agreement with the rogue nation of Iran. "The Iran deal is defective at its core," he continued, "if we do nothing we know exactly what will happen."

National Review puts Trump sentiments into more measured terms.

Trump, Melania, and Pence welcome three Americans held by North Korea home

Today has been an historic day.

A couple of hours ago President Trump announced on Twitter that he'll be meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong In next month in Singapore.

But while most people were sleeping, Trump, accompanied by the First Lady and Vice President Pence, welcomed back to America three men who were held captive by North Korea that were freed by his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

On behalf of the American people, WELCOME HOME! pic.twitter.com/hISaCI95CB

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

Historic: Trump to meet Kim next month in Singapore

Two years ago, actually two months ago, leftists were claiming that President Donald J. Trump would lead America into a nuclear war.

The opposite appears to be happening.

From CNBC:

President Donald Trump said Thursday that his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would take place June 12 in Singapore.

It marks the first time that a sitting U.S. president will meet with a North Korean head of state – and a stunning turnaround in U.S.-North Korean relations from last year, when the nations appeared to be on the brink of conflict.

The president revealed the date and location for the highly anticipated meeting in a tweet Thursday morning.

The highly anticipated meeting between Kim Jong Un and myself will take place in Singapore on June 12th. We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2018

A sitting US president has never met a North Korean leader.

New York Slimes slammed Pompeo for his absence as Iran deal was cancelled, but then it was learned that he was in North Korea rescuing Americans

When you are the New York Slimes and all you have in your hand is a Trump-hating hammer, then every problem is a nail.

From Brian Flood for Fox News:

As the New York Times was bashing Mike Pompeo for being missing in action while President Trump tore up the Iran nuclear deal, it turned out the secretary of state was busy rescuing three Americans who have been held captive in North Korea.

In an apparent jab at the administration, The Times’ headline said, "At a Key Moment, Trump’s Top Diplomat Is Again Thousands of Miles Away."

The Times' story noted that “Senior State Department officials were momentarily speechless on Tuesday when asked why Mr. Pompeo did not delay his trip by a day to be in Washington during Mr. Trump’s Iran deal announcement.”

But on Twitter President Trump explained why Pompeo was away.

"I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health," Trump wrote. "Secretary Pompeo and his ‘guests’ will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!"

I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting. They seem to be in good health. Also, good meeting with Kim Jong Un. Date & Place set.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

Secretary Pompeo and his “guests” will be landing at Andrews Air Force Base at 2:00 A.M. in the morning. I will be there to greet them. Very exciting!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2018

Pompeo bringing three freed Americans home from North Korea

Sure, we should celebrate the release of these three Americans, but we should still grieve the death of Otto Warmbier, another American who was imprisoned by North Korea who returned home in a coma, dying a few days later.

From BBC News:

North Korea has freed three US citizens from prison, according to a tweet from US President Donald Trump.

It is viewed as a goodwill gesture ahead of a historic summit between Mr Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong-un.

Mr Trump said he would greet the men when they return with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has been in Pyongyang to arrange the planned talks.

Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chu were able to "walk on the plane without assistance", the White House said.

(PragerU) Walt Disney: American Dreamer

Hard work and determination made Walt Disney a success. Not government handouts, Glenn Beck tells us in this latest PragerU video.

Mark Dice on males and violence: They solved it

The fake news peddlers over at CNN are claiming "patriarchy," not guns, are what is behind rampant violence in America, Mark Dice informs us.

That's a load of crap. Fatherless households, particularly in urban areas, are largely to blame.

(Photos) The Quincy Mining Company Historic District

Last summer I made my second, but hopefully not last, trip to the Keweenaw Peninsula on Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It's a fabulous place where history and nature meet. As Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I plot our escape from corrupt and bankrupt Illinois, Keweenaw, also known as Copper Country, is on our lists of refuges. Although we should probably visit in the winter before we make the decision to relocate there.

That sojourn gave me the opportunity to enjoy the Quincy Mining Company Historic District, which is just north of Hancock. It's part of the Keweenaw National Historical Park, which is on US Route 41 just north of Hancock.

That's the #2 Shafthouse straight ahead with one of the site's many ruins on the right.

Ah, but what is this? North of Quincy Mine is the unincorporated village of  Mohawk and the Mohawk Snow Stick.

The Keweenaw is 50 miles long and 15 miles wide, it juts out into Lake Superior. As colder air comes in contact with slightly warmer lake water, it produces lake effect snow. The all-time record for snowfall there is 390.4 inches--32 feet--which is believed to be the highest snow accumulation in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

Yes, the winters are brutal there.

So far 304 inches of snow have fallen in the winter of 2017-18.

Here's a closer look at those decayed buildings in front of the shafthouse.

The Quincy Mine opened in 1846 as the U.P. copper boom, America's first, was starting. It closed in 1931 but reopened for a spell during World War II, shutting down for good in 1945. From 1862 until 1882 it was America' most productive copper mine.

Some of the early investors were from Massachusetts, they named the mine after Quincy, a town south of Boston, where John Adams and John Quincy Adams were born.

Copper mining was not new to Keweenaw, 7,000 years ago Native American mined copper there.

Over on the other side of US 41 there are more ruins.

Mining dryhouses--this is all that remains of the one at Quincy--were locker rooms with sinks, a place to wash up and change in and out of work clothes.

Here's a close up of the dryhouse.

Wild sweet peas, brought to Keweenaw by immigrant miners, flourish on the peninsula. They're common in Detroit too.

Invasive? Yes. Beautiful? That too.

Experienced miners from Cornwall, England brought their expertise to Keweenaw. Michigan copper mining quickly surpassed those of Cornwall. The only remaining copper mine on the Upper Peninsulas is the four-year-old Eagle Mine near Marquette.

Cornwall's last mine of any type shuttered in 1998.

The Cornish brought pasties, a meat and vegetable-filled pastry, which are similar to pierogis, to the Upper Peninsula, where they are still widely available.

Pasty rhymes with "nasty."

This photograph was taken in 2009 in Munising.

Basalt fieldstone was used for many of these structures. Basalt is an igneous rock, fieldstone, is well, rocks just lying around, or in the case of mining areas, it's waste rock.

Ironically, fieldstone buildings are common in Massachusetts and the rest of New England.

An old mine hoist.

Here you'll see the Number 2 Hoist House (left) and Old No 2 Hoist House, the last one is now the visitors center, where Mrs. Marathon Pundit spent most of her time while I was taking pics--it has a strong Wi-Fi signal. Urban exploration, even in a rural area, isn't a chick thing. As for myself, I suffered through The Vow with her at one of those expensive movie theaters where you can order dinner. Fortunately for everyone else at the show, I ate lightly and I was able to keep my food down.

Nice digs, right? This is what a typical miner's home looked like.

Cow vetch is another European invader that I found at Quincy Mine.

Here's an outlier, a sandstone structure.

"But man in feeble, man is puny," Elvis Costello sang in "Red Cotton."

And so are man's creations.

The Quincy and Torch Lake Railroad once hauled copper out of the Upper Peninsula.

Nature always wins in the end.

Related post:

(Photos) Gay, Michigan