Multiple commenters on Calculated Risk created new lyrics to “Hotel California” while discussing the current disastrous budget crunches in California happening simultaneously at state, county, and local levels.

“On a dark desert highway
Cool winds through my hair
Warm smell of foreclosures
Risin’ up through the air

Up ahead in the distance
I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my wallet thin
From the capital flight …

There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the Dow Jones bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be Vallejo or this could be hell’
Then she gave me an SIV, and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say…

Smoke and mirrors in the budget,
red ink on the books
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of the lies we cook’
And in the legislative chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab us with their steely knives,
And this time they might just kill the beast

Welcome to the third-world, California
T’was a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Now a sad disgrace

There’s plenty of room in the third-world, California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Goin’ chapter 9 …”

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