X          “What do Republicans and Democrats agree on?”

Y          “Nothing.”

X          “What do Republicans and Democrats disagree on?”

Y          “Everything.”

. . .

X          “There you go.  The People’s Amendment:  ‘If a law applies to the people, it applies to Congress; if an exception or exemption applies to Congress, it excepts and exempts the people.’  One simple commutative rule enshrined in a constitutional amendment.  Genius is always obvious and simple.”

Y          “And the provision applies equally to Republicans and Democrats.”

X          “Indubitably.  Courts could easily interpret it without all the arrogant activism and ideological warfare that characterizes the courts today.  Every tax payer has standing to enforce the People’s Amendment in court.  Individual Congresspersons and Senators who vote for legislation that violates the PA are held personally liable for the attorney’s fees of the tax payer who succeeds in enforcing the PA and a small percentage of the public damages.  Each representative’s self-interest is enlisted to provide for and protect the public interest.”

. . .

Y          “While you are at it, add a simple term limits provision.  Six two-year terms in the House and two six-year terms in the Senate are balanced and fair.  The provision applies equally to Republicans and Democrats.”    

. . .

X / Y  “However, a balanced budget amendment is hollow and shallow.  Congress can balance the budget without a balanced budget amendment if Congress wants to balance the budget.  Congress can circumvent a balanced budget amendment if Congress wants to circumvent a balanced budget amendment.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled The “Contract with America”; The Congressional Reform Act of 2010 (March 29, 2010), Term Limits (May 14, 2007) and Bringing Balance To The Balanced Budget Amendment Debate (July 18, 2011).]

[For an argument that John McCain and Lindsey Graham should not be considered “enemy combatants,” see the “e-ssay” titled Republicans are Enemy Combatants? (May 10, 2010).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

A Democrat for The People’s Amendment

A Republican for The People’s Amendment

An Independent for The People’s Amendment

A Libertarian for The People’s Amendment

A Green for The People’s Amendment

A Tea Partier for The People’s Amendment

A Coffee Partier for The People’s Amendment

A Partier for The People’s Amendment

My honor student supports The People’s Amendment

My average student supports The People’s Amendment

My below average student opposes The People’s Amendment

My dog supports The People’s Amendment

A sniper for The People’s Amendment

An LBGT for The People’s Amendment

A mom for The People’s Amendment

A dad for The People’s Amendment

A viscountess for The People’s Amendment

A Fan of Fred (Hayek) for The People’s Amendment

A visiting adjunct professor at the Barack Hussein O’Bama II School of Government at the University of Chicago for The People’s Amendment

. . .

1        “Hearst sure was.  He lobbied via his newspapers to get America involved in a dustup or two.”

2        “You never know, he might have qualified for a Pulitzer.  Their award for Commentary often seems to reward the individual who did the most over the past year to foment, promote and encourage war and discord, albeit usually subtly.”

1        “I envision a ‘war correspondent’ as someone like Martha Gellhorn who chronicled war and was even repelled by it rather than those who advocate and lobby for the start and prosecution of a war.”

2        “Greenhorn that I am, I naively believe that a ‘war correspondent’ who understands war also should comment on the need to prosecute those who start and prosecute an illegal and immoral war.”

1       “The War Lobby is wide-ranging; each industry does its part and takes its pro rata profit.  The Washington Post/The New York Times Pulitzer Prize for Commentary shuffles between The Washington Post Writers Group and The New York Times group of writers with a few stray forays over to the Murdoch Journal and another publication or two.  And favors those who favor war.”

2        “When you think about it, the unprovoked and illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003 could go down in history as ‘The Washington Post/The New York Times War.’”

1        “Or the ‘General Electric/NBC/MSNBC War.’”

2        “Or the ‘ABCNNBCBS War.’”

1        “Or the ‘Fox Fiasco.’  A war spikes ratings.”

2        “And builds bottom lines.  In a generation, the Press has moved from investigating at great financial and personal risk the undermining of democracy in 1973 to supporting the invasion of a sovereign nation in 2003 with great financial and personal reward for the journalists, television folks and others on the inside.”

1        “As they said back in the olden days in ‘73, follow the incentive structure.  The Pulitzer Prize impacts pay, power, prestige, promotions, professorships, and the like.  We need to establish a peace prize for commentary for the journalist who questions the immediate resort to full-scale war and violence for every slight or perceived slight to counterpoise the Pulitzer Commentary War Prize.”

. . .

2       “Remember the scene in ‘Three Little Beers’ where the Three Stooges impersonate reporters to gain entrance to the Rancho Golf Course by using knobs from bathroom fixtures as press passes.  Moe’s and Larry’s read ‘Press’; Curly’s read ‘Pull.’  To get reporters to impersonate reporters, we need to establish something like the Pressitzer Commentary Peace Prize to push against the powerful forces advocating for war and violence.”

1        “What about the ‘Pushitzer Commentary Peace Prize’ to press for the consideration of a peaceful resolution.”

2        “But peace may not be what the editors and publishers want, so the effort may be all for naught.”

1        “The outcome turns on what the readers want.  And will pay for.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Earth Day Every Day

Civics Quiz:  “Can you name either the Three Stooges or the three branches of government?”  “Larry, Moe and the Supreme Court.  . . .  Right?”  . . .  “Spanky, Fox and Congress.”  . . .  “Manny, Moe and Jack.”

A press pass is not a pass for the press

If you are not a pacifist, are you an activist?

Give war a chance

Give war a fighting chance

Give war a fighting chance, or I will kill you

Don’t give peace a chance, not even a fighting chance or I will kill you

. . .

CD1      “Makes you wonder what we get for today’s tax payment.  The Dodd-Frank legislation states that we the taxpayers will not bail out banks and other connected businesses again for failed derivatives and the like.  So the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Federal Reserve (Fed) admit they cannot do their jobs and force the individual depositor to bail out the banks and other connected businesses.”

CD2      “At least now they claim that they will not take our tax dollars directly but will take our money indirectly.  Banks in America still exist to provide taxpayers with regular opportunities to bail them out.  And to pay huge and undeserved bonuses.  And on occasion to finance an upstart organic neighborhood grocery stand.”

CD1      “While individual states serve as laboratories for social and economic experiments, other countries provide insight into responses to social and economic problems.  The response in Cyprus to the banking crisis that afflicts every country today is revealing.  Instead of the taxpayers bailing out the bank, the banksters took deposits from individual depositors to cover shortfalls.  A ‘bail in’ rather than a ‘bailout’ is the way they brand it.”

CD2      “That has been the official policy in the United States and England since December 10, 2012.  The FDIC may promise to insure deposits up to $250,000, but that promise may be repudiated or supplanted or modified by the FDIC’s new formal and promulgated confiscatory policy.  They title their marching orders ‘Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.’  The Federal Reserve joined in the task and in effect issued a joint press release stating:  ‘Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.’  Taxpayers cannot say that the government did not properly warn them.”

CD1      “The only event that really threatens the banking system is a literal run on the banks.  News broadcasts will have a field day interviewing those in line if they stay in line and the outraged ‘man on the street’ demanding his deposit.  However, by privately stealing funds from the public, there is no single public event to steel public attention and ire.”

CD2      “Failing banks were always taken over by a receiver and the small depositors recompensed by the FDIC.  However, if a bank fails today, the derivatives that doomed and continue to doom the economy are afforded super-priority status.  Ordinary depositors are booted to the back of the line.”

CD1      “Or the ordinary depositor is kicked completely out of the creditor’s queue and given worthless stock in the failed bank.  Four months have passed without an uncompensated failure.  A fortnight will pass and perhaps another four years without incident, but this banking fraud cannot go on forever.” 

. . .

CD1      “The insurance on up to $250,000 in deposits ostensibly provided by the FDIC has exacerbated the ‘moral hazard’ by disconnecting the individual investor from the process.  Individuals do not even make a cursory inquiry into the viability of a financial institution.”

CD2      “Should the depositor be obligated to do so or should the banking system be regulated and monitored by the government.  The answer is that the banks are inadequately regulated and monitored by the government, so by default it is ‘depositor beware.’”

CD1      “If depositors were rational as rationality is defined by economists and in the face of near zero transactions costs, they would transfer their funds to a credit union.  The National Credit Union Association (NCUA) has not joined the ‘bail in’ scheme publicly at this time.”

CD2     “A depositor who is rational as defined by economists realizes that interest rates are near zero and thus the benefit of leaving money in a bank is near zero unless the money is safe.  The potential costs are far more than zero and thus the depositor should transfer the money to a safe location such as a safe located in the basement.”      

. . .

CD1      “They say that if a frog in a pot of water is brought to a slow boil, it will not know or respond to what is happening, but if the frog is thrown in a pot of boiling water, it will jump out.”

CD2      “MF Global is forgotten.  They are slowly turning up the heat without response.”

CD1      “At least the frog reacts.  I’m tired of ‘bailing out’ and now ‘bailing in’ banks and am bailing on banks.”

. . .

[Peruse the government scheme titled “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions” at http://www.fdic.gov/about/srac/2012/gsifi.pdf and the similar policy in New Zealand at http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/finstab/banking/4430900.html.]

[Reflect on the discussion in http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/national-planning-cyprus-style-solution-greens/5/150410, http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/ and http://webofdebt.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/winner-takes-all-the-super-priority-status-of-derivatives/.]

[See the "e-ssays" titled Money “In The Bank” Or “Under The Mattress” (October 8, 2012) and Boycott Big Banks – Vote Your Dollars (November 21, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I am not so much concerned with the return ON my money as I am with the return OF my money.  Attributed to a number of wits.

“An efficient path for returning the sound operations of the G-SIFI [Globally Active, Systemically Important Financial Institution] to the private sector would be provided by exchanging or converting a sufficient amount of the unsecured debt from the original creditors of the failed company [meaning the individual depositors who were previously assured their deposits are insured] into equity [meaning worthless stock].  In the U.S.,the new equity would become capital in one or more newly formed operating entities.”  Page 3 at Paragraph 13 of the publication “Resolving Globally Active, Systemically Important, Financial Institutions.”

Your Deposits Are No Longer Insured.  Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

Get Your Money Out Of Banks Now.  Federal Reserve

The most condign resolution is to attach the salaries and retirement payments to the employees and retirees of the Fed, the FDIC, the SEC, the OCC, the CFTC, the DoJ, the BoE, the BoA, AIG, GS, S&C, C&B and others to fund any bank shortfalls.  And Congress, the President and the Supreme Court.  Problem resolved. 

“Open Bank Resolution”  “Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name.”

If banksters were branded terrorists, would there be prosecutions?

42

1          “TED is a clever acronym.  Technology, Engineering and Design.  Three universes and infinite possibilities.  ‘Ideas worth spreading,’ they allege.”

2          “On first hearing, it sounds like a program named after your favorite smallmouth bass fishing buddy.”

1          “That is part of what reels them in.  Our friend TED covers the usual 3E programs – energy, economics, and the environment – and everything in between and on all sides.  Local programs are identified by the small letter ‘x’ and then the community such as ‘TEDx Gotham City’ or ‘TEDx Dodge.’”

2          “I thought the ‘x’ stands for the second ‘x’ chromosome.  By design, the speakers are from diverse backgrounds, yet they still tend toward more males than females.  However, the local organizers and more than 53 percent of the attendees are double ‘xx’ers.  But that is not why the local programs are not called ‘TEDy Shangri-La.’”

1          “That was my first thought.  Just because the ‘y’ chromosome so often correlates with goonery and buffoonery does not mean that all males are goons and buffoons.  Really.”

2          “Not all of them.  But the local programs may need to be called ‘THEODORAx’ or ‘DOROTHEAx.’”

1          “Or keep the males in the loop and call the local programs ‘DOROTHyx.’”

. . .

2          “Women undertake most of the jobs in non-profit entities.”

1          “Yet the White boys still hold most of the positions of power in for-profit entities.”

2          “But one can say with a high degree of confidence that it is not because of talent.  The White boys are there because of market distortions.”

. . .

1          “With women surpassing males in high school and college, the emerging civil rights issue is whether a less talented cohort of males can be admitted in the interest of maintaining roughly equal numbers of males and females in a class.”

2          “Instead of a young woman going to college to get an MRS. degree, today’s young man goes to college to get an MR. degree.”

1          “If he gets in.”           

. . .

[See the website http://www.ted.com/pages/about.]

Bumper stickers of the week

TED:  Ideas worth spreading

Ideas:  Good, especially good ones.

1          “It expresses a universal and timeless truth.  It is a precisely balanced six-word memoir.  It is a pleasant and pleasing palindrome.  It is the perfect poem.  It is It.”

. . .

1          “No joke.”

2          “No, joke.”

1          “No joke.”

. . .

[See the article at http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html dated today.  No joke.  See also http://ukiahcommunityblog.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-treason-of-the-intellectuals/.]

April – National Poetry Month

Bumper stickers of the week:

There are no unwounded soldiers.

Show or tell?  Show, don’t tell.

Get it right, Write it right.

Cure writer’s block – Exercise, listen, think; Exercise, listen, think – Writer’s block cured.

Character is fate; Fates shape character.

Republicans like GLBA; Democrats like LGBT.

Addiction is too consuming; Destitution is too constricting; Dissolution is too confining; Might as well live.  (With a nod to Dorothy Parker).

C1         “The ‘Manhattan Project’ wisely collected all the talent in one location under one command to develop the atomic bomb.  The project required the right mathematical formulas and the right raw materials to be assembled by one team under one governmental authority.  Some say the solution to our energy challenges is to create a Manhattan Project under one authority with one energy czar.  However, the solution is not to establish a government agency but rather to enlist and unfetter the market mechanism.  Rather than subsidizing a company that is politically connected or sports a flashy marketing campaign, let the market decide.  Let not one but one million citizens work on it.  The proposed ‘carbon tax’ provides a tax on carbon and thus rewards those who can reduce or avoid the production of carbon and taxes those who cannot.  The funds collected by the tax are returned as a dividend to the public to maintain revenue neutrality.”

C2         “The ‘old cap and trade scheme’ created undesirable property rights that would be unworkable and undesirable.  A carbon tax and dividend sounds workable and desirable.”

C1          “Friedrich van Hayek would have endorsed the carbon tax and dividend mechanism.  He surely is rolling over in his grave because we as a society have not adopted it.”

C2         “I know that I for one want Fred to rest in peace.”

. . .

[See the website http://www.citizensclimatelobby.org/.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

A planet is a terrible thing to waste

Sign outside the Supreme Court:  “Supremes:  You can hurry love.”

[See the “e-ssays” collected under “Iraq” http://e-commentary.org/category/iraq/ in the “Categories.”]

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week (on vehicles in the parking lot of an Unitarian church conducting a seminar for members of the military considering conscientious objector status in 2007):

Ford F150:    Kill them all and let God sort them out

Prius:             Coexist                       Dissent is patriotic

Dodge Ram:   God bless our troops especially our snipers

Volvo 122 S Estate Car:   War is not the answer             Give peace a chance

Chevy Silverado:  When it absolutely positively has to be destroyed overnight – U.S. Marines

. . .

LS1      “An amicus brief is a ‘friend of the court’ brief filed by someone who is not a party to a case that provides information and argument that may or may not have been advanced by a party to the case.”

N1        “Sounds like a legal way to lobby a court constituted of legal lobbyists for private interests.”

LS1      “In effect.  Before the Supreme Court writes its opinion, it is interested in the opinions of the Owners and others.”

N1        “Who would have guessed.  First the housebroken Republicans came out of the cloak room.  Then the business community came out of the board room.”

LS1      “They realized that inequality is less economically efficient than equality.  Surreal that one can drive from one state in a state of marital bliss to another state and enter into a state of marital banishment.”

N1        “That is bad for business.”

LS1      “No bandwagon has been boarded by as many people in as short a period of time.  Everyone now wants to influence the bench to allow all adults to walk down the aisle.  The train is leaving the station.”

N1        “They say the Supreme Court does not pay attention to the weather, but the Justices do pay attention to the climate.”

LS1      “You don’t need a climatologist to see which way the wind blows.”

N1        “But you do need courage.” 

. . .

[See the "e-ssay" titled Fukushima Daiichied (March 12, 2012) on the anniversary.]

[See the "e-ssay" titled Less Government Regulation Series: Love and Marriage (May 19, 2008).]

[See the articles at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/business/businesses-refuse-to-arrive-late-on-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/business/companies-ask-justices-to-overturn-gay-marriage-ban.html?ref=business, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/gay-marriage-brief-gets-more-republican-support.html?ref=business and http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/us/politics/administration-to-urge-justices-to-overturn-a-gay-marriage-ban.html?ref=business&_r=0.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Gay marriage?  Here’s the way I see it.  If I had to get married, then THOSE PEOPLE have to get married.  Fair is fair.”

My wife keeps complaining that I never listen to her . . .  or something like that.

Can someone file an “enemy of the court” brief?

Hate is overrated.

LS2      “Scalia has gone feral.”

LS1      “In the past, he demanded that the Court and the courts construe congressional language in a statute or provision literally – or as he defined literally – even in the face of clear contrary legislative intent and then took great delight in often perverse or unintended consequences or interpretations.”

LS2      “Now he is transforming the High Court into a MegaCongress to proclaim what he thinks animated Congress when it passed legislation.  In the face of crystal clear Congressional language and equally clear legislative intent regarding the Voting Rights Act, he appointed himself to second guess Congress and impose his personal prejudices on the populace.”

LS1      “At least he is blatant and blunt about it.  In his capacity as the Law Czar, however, he surely will not allow a person to bring and maintain a claim to instate the Move To Amend legislation on the ground that Congress would have passed the legislation except for the overweening influence of corporations.”

LS2      “That’s a new possibility.  Introduce a bill in the Supreme Court and let them pass judgment.  Two can play that game, yet only one person is allowed to play the game in the American legal game.”

. . .

LS2      “His great contribution to legal thinking is a grand sophistry.  ‘Originalism’ is an admixture of equal parts hypocrisy, dishonesty, perversity and absurdity.”

LS1      “And risibility, but it is a serious matter.  He is becoming even more grating and obnoxious.  Sarcasm is the first cousin of anger.  He is angry.  Ergo, he is sarcastic.”

LS2      “Sourcaustic.  In contemporary patois, Scalia is a bully of the worst kind.  A bully and a coward.  He uses the bench as a bully pulpit and then cowers behind the guards and security detail.”

LS1      “If someone asked him to step outside, Scalia would soil his panties and then curl up in a fetal position and cry for help.”

LS2      “He should take senior status and take over a hate radio show on Anger Mongering (AM) radio.”

LS1      “A festschrift of his proclamations does not require more than a few hundred words.  He is worth a footnote perhaps but much less than a chapter.  Someone, probably a former fawning law clerk, will spawn a 900 page idolatrous hagiographic piece.”

. . .

LS1/LS2  “He fails to realize that civility is not unconstitutional.”

. . .

[LS1 = Legal Scholar 1; . . . ]

[See the “e-ssays” titled One Gun Per White Adult Male? A Flintlock Musket? The “One Man, One Gun” Decision (October 4, 2010), Are Courts Irrelevant? Are Courts Illegitimate? (October 3, 2011) and The Supreme Court – Unrepresentative And Illegitimate: The 33.3 Percent Solution (October 1, 2012), three of the “First Monday in October” commentaries on the Supreme Court.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

I don’t like some lawyers because some lawyers are not likable.

Do Supreme Court Justices get rabies shots?

N1          “There is something to be said for precise strikes or at least less imprecise strikes.”

N2          “No boots on the ground but many bombs on the ground.”

N1          “At least now a few members of the public are debating whether bombing one’s neighbor in suburbia from above is a good idea.”

N2          “Seems to depend on the neighbor.  Makes me wonder whether the covenants, conditions and restrictions allow the government to smoke one of my neighbors who may be smoking in his back yard or has a smoky bar-b-que in violation of some edict or another.”

N1          “You wouldn’t want to do that.”

N2          “No way.  Not me.”

. . .

N2          “Will the FAA control all the airspace, issue flight permits, assess fees, require turn signals, etc.”

N1          “Imagine all the federalism issues that will bollix the black robes when some states and municipalities ban drones and the federal government insists on flying all the friendly skies.”

. . .

[N1 = Neighbor 1; . . . ]

[See the articles http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/opinion/drones-for-america.html?hp and http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/25/distance-from-carnage-doesnt-prevent-ptsd-for-drone-pilots/?src=rechp.]

[See the article on rating agencies at http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/02/19/how-to-prevent-more-bond-rating-fiascoes/.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Me ‘n’ Larry got us a pair of them there drones.  One of them was a militarized version.  In full camo plumage.  Dropped one of them with one shot.”

“Will you be required to shoot steel or allowed to use lead?”

“A KFUBAR Channel 13 unmanned aerial vehicle lost power and crashed on an urban assault vehicle on the southbound lane of Highway 66.  Film at eleven.  If we can recover the drone.”

“And now please turn to the right for a side view.”