We will use our generic “wishful, magical thinking” graphic again tonight, as Hinderaker makes the facially preposterous claim that the minerals under Minnesotans’ soil are “worth” ~$850 billion.

Having worked (loading dynamite, and running a jack-leg!) in hard rock mines more than a mile underground… I well know that copper / zinc / iron / platinum and gold ores… are only “worth” what your net profit will be, after all the extraction costs.

The ores in the upper Midwest are extremely low grade — which means open pit mining, and vast grinding / slurry and floatation pond operations (and then electrolysis operations — using thousands of megawatts of electrical energy per month!) remains the only way to extract the metals. That (for copper) would amount to perhaps 1,000 pounds of malleable metal, for every 200 tons of rock moved. That would require copper to trade at thousands of dollars a pound (close to gold pricing!) just to break-even. Damn.

There is simply no way on Earth to make that a profitable operation, even if there were ZERO environmental regulations to meet. Hinderaker knows it — but it is going to let him offer more boot licking, for Musk/Tangerine talking points about exempting billionaires from our EPA and NLRB and yes FDIC laws.

None of it makes a bit of logical sense — and all of it requires significant new legislation to pass both Houses of Congress. Read: it will never happen before 2026, and if any of it advances very far toward law, we may confidently predict that Democrats will regain control of either or both chambers by 2026 mid-terms.

So sure, Johnnie, spin your tales — just as Trump today mused that he might abolish the FDIC.

H I L A R I O U S.

The Wall St. bros listening aren’t even smart enough to realize he speaks all day, every day… about “doing things” he’s expressly forbidden by Congress… from doing.

And today he’s admitting that lowering the price of groceries — something he promised as “first week in office” on the campaign trail, over and over… is going to be “very hard”.

In sum, he didn’t even remotely understand the problems — and has zero solutions.

Just like John’s “metals reserves” in Minnesota — you cannot get there, from here, idiot.

Out.