Bad Bonds?

Recall that Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million to victims and associates of Larry Nassar’s sex abuse victims while he was pretending to treat our women gymnasts’ injuries.

Now the school intends to float bonds to raise the money to pay the bill.

Were I an investment advisor—which I’m not, nor do I play one on the radio—I’d advise against buying these bonds; I’m not satisfied Michigan State will be able to pay them off in the end, even with OPM.

Aside from their investment quality, or lack, I also think it’s immoral to bail out the school until there has been a serious cleaning house of school management, from middle management layers all the way up through the top layer.  This house-cleaning must include the athletic department as well as HR, student affairs, extracurricular affairs, and the President’s office.  Especially in the latter and in the athletic department, no one should be left but the secretaries.

And none of this gets to the fact that the bond offering is just a cynical back-door effort to get taxpayers to pay for the school’s failure.  That’s also morally unacceptable.

And this:

[The school] is in talks with its insurers and has said it expects to recover at least some funds through them.

Is the school seriously suggesting that it bought insurance against the risk that its medical personnel would engage in sexual abuse?  I can think of no other way in which insurers would be liable for a payout here.

Self-Defense

The People’s Republic of China did this to our aircraft in Africa, too.  And, yes, it’s the PRC.  No one else, save us and possibly Russia, have this capability.  Russia isn’t in the East China Sea.

Lasers have targeted pilots of American military aircraft operating over the western Pacific Ocean more than 20 times in recent months….

Officials said all of the incidents occurred in and around the East China Sea, typically where the Chinese military or other Chinese civilians operate. The laser signals directed at American aircraft appeared to be coming from fishing boats operating in the area and from shore….

Fishing boats.  Sure.

This is the PLA conducting OT&E against our pilots as it tests a range of laser powers for operational utility.  The laser sites and ships doing the shooting need to be destroyed in prompt self-defense response.  Gussy it up with excuses and denials as the PRC would like to do, these are overt attacks.