Archive for December, 2013

‘Mericanize: Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013)

Posted in Economics, Energy, Kleptocracy, Markets, Military, Pogo Plight, Society on December 30, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1        “America makes nothing but monetizes everything.”

C2        “And makes things up.” 

C1        “We make up fake money, but we cannot make up fake energy.  We need to energize not monetize.  We need to measure the energy inputs and environmental outputs before we do or make or consume anything.  Money is not the measure and sends the wrong signals.”

C2        “Even by their own terms, money and markets are far too broken to work either efficiently or equitably today.”

C1        “We aid and abet the rich players taking money electronically from the poor and middle class.”

C2        “Everything is an accounting hijink and a legal mirage concocted by the accountants and the lawyers.”

C1        “And the e-con-omists.  Everything is virtual; nothing is real.”

. . .

C1        “Now they are proclaiming that the great American heartland will be saved by the construction of new factories and a renaissance in manufacturing.  However, the typical factory does not actually employ more than two employees who turn on and monitor the machine.”

C2        “And billions are spent to keep those two employees from receiving a slightly higher minimum wage.”

C1        “Economic slaves make unprofitable consumers.”

. . .

C1        “The response in Boston is another display of the militarization of society.  The town was invaded by American storm troopers who dressed and acted like they were invading Fallujah or Kandahar.”

C2        “We lost the race years ago.  The camo armored personnel carrier replaced the black and white Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.  The .308 replaced the .38.  Kevlar® replaced khaki.”

C1        “The old saw says it all:  ‘A YouTube video is worth ten thousand words.’  The vignettes told the most harrowing stories as the militarized police broke into houses and pulled citizens out of their homes.  A few folks were shocked, a few were outraged, and a few were disgusted, yet there was an undertone of acceptance and obeisance.”

C2        “We are lost.  We are neutered and anesthetized.”

. . .

C1        “We are the Etch-A-Sketch® society.  Nothing is real or permanent.”

C2        “We are the Play-Doh® people.  No spine and no substance.  Malleable as clay.  There is no there there.” 

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled Minimum Wage and Maximum Earners (July 31, 2006), Racing Backwards; Moving Forward? (July 27, 2009), Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011) and Men In Pink: Today’s Sensitive New SWAT Togs (August 20, 2012).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Too much information, too little insight

Everything is virtual; nothing is real

Energize don’t marginalize

We need fewer folks chasing fewer flora and far fewer fauna

The cup is one sixteenth full

In the end, the physicists always triumph over the e-con-omists

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The Fed at 100 (December 23, 2013)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Kleptocracy, Stock Market on December 23, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “We celebrate the birthday of our financial savior today and of our spiritual savior on Wednesday.”

B          “Birthday cards and candles are flying off the shelf.” 

A          “Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913 a few seconds before heading home for the holidays and a few minutes before President Wilson signed the legislation.  You wonder if they had a clue.”

B          “Most folks don’t have a clue, but what do you do.  Most folks look uncomfortably bewildered if you even allude to the Fed.  Someone who is uncomfortable with a topic does not readily come around.”

A          “They are more comfortable talking about the Football League than about the Federal Reserve.”

B          “The great debate on a national bank was lost a hundred years ago.  We need a great debate today.”

A          “The Fed is really out of control, but the wealthy are getting wealthier, so no one cares.”

B          “Congress provided some policy direction when it required to Fed to consider the level of employment in its calculus.  The Fed’s policies and decisions over the last decade have done nothing to improve employment, yet there is no sanction or penalty in the Congressional legislation.”

A          “The Fed has done more to promote the greatest transfer of wealth to the already wealthy than at any other time or in any other place in history.”

B          “The money is collecting in the Swiss bank accounts of the wealthy.  When and as the money slips from the virtual into the real economy, measured inflation will go up.”

A          “Seems to me that inflation will be exacerbated by a reduction in the supply of goods brought about by a breakdown in production and distribution.”

. . .

A          “The Fed is not the fourth branch of government, it is the first branch.”

B          “The To-Big-To-Fail-Or-Jail Banks are the first branch of government and they own the Fed and the government.”

. . .

A/B       “What will blow out the candles?”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” collected in the Category “Federal Reserve” at https://e-commentary.org/category/federal-reserve/.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Now that the banks have privatized the government, the government will never nationalize the banks.

If one person amassed 99.999999999999999999999999 percent of the income and wealth in America, would anyone notice?

Capitalize the gains; socialize the losses.

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Bulk Collection Of Telephony Data. Again. (December 16, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Constitution, Courts, Due Process, First Amendment, FISA, Journalism, Judicial Arrogance, Law, Newspapers, O'Bama, Politics, Press/Media, Privacy, Republican Federal Judge Syndrome on December 16, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1        “You never know what a Monday will bring.  A federal judge ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephony records likely violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

L2        “You did not hear the word ‘telephony’ in polite parlance two dozen years ago.  The courts must now address the interplay of law with technology far more sophisticated than a pair of soup cans and a string.”

L1        “Most federal judges were ‘Arts and Crafts’ majors in college who may understand Tennyson but really do not understand technology.  Listen to the techs who install IT systems in the state and federal courts.  Some of these judges are still looking for the rotary dial.”

L2        “The government’s reliance on a case from the prehistoric days of telephony – way back in 1979 – is proof positive that the issue must be addressed anew in light of the new technology today.”

L1        “They will need to refer more often to Newton’s Telecom Dictionary than to Black’s Law Dictionary.  That will be fun.”                  

. . .

L1        “Within a fortnight of the Democrats’ decision to require the Senate to ‘advise and consent’ and vote on O’Bama’s appointments to places such as the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, the decision will have consequences.  One or more of the new appointees could be assigned to the reviewing tribunal.  If there is en banc review of the three panel decision, there are now more Democrats than Republicans.”

L2        “But will the Democrats defer to their benefactor?  Is there another Republican appellate court judge who may be a fan of the Constitution rather than unchecked federal intrusion?  And we always have the five Supremes who will get to chime in.” 

L1        “Who just don’t get it.  They do not even want to admit that the NSA exists.”

. . .

L1        “Judge Leon (Bush II) overcame the always pernicious ‘Republican Federal Judge Syndrome’ that almost always plagues Republican appointees.  Yet the judge once again displays the occupational hazard of these imperial federal judges.  His opinion is snarky, arrogant, condescending, intemperate, and sloppy.  The screed deserves a B+ for intuiting basic truth, a C- for style and an F for arrogance.”

L2        “When you are going to be courageous, you must be flawless.”

L1        “There are more than a few good women and men who are concerned that collecting the metadata is constitutional and may prevent a great catastrophe.”

L2        “But in the final analysis, there is the Constitution.” 

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled USA PATRIOT ACT (April 4, 2005), Less Government Regulation Series: Google (Nov. 30, 2009), Boycott Facebook? (August 2, 2010), Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012) and Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013) and I Spy, You Spy, They Spy (October 28, 2013).]

[See the “e-ssays” titled Judicial Activism: Rogue Republican Judges (January 28, 2013), The Paradox Of The Republican Federal Judge: Republican Federal Judge Syndrome (September 23, 2013) and Past Time: Exercising The “New Clear Option” (November 25, 2013).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Free Edward Snowden

Pardon Edward Snowden

Bestow a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Edward Snowden

Quash the sub poena issued to James Risen

Free the Press

In a dozen plus years and without a debate or a vote, technology has deprived us of privacy.  With little debate and many hasty votes, Congress has deprived us of privacy at every opportunity.  We as a society should create a rebuttable presumption in favor of privacy even if it appears to sacrifice security.  Our personal insecurities are actually creating greater national insecurity. 

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Time To Talk: Hear The Guitar (December 9, 2013)

Posted in China, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Military, O'Bama, Romney, Syria on December 9, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “In the past, proclaiming ‘National Defense’ supported any project or excused any invasion.  Today, merely alluding to ‘National Security’ rationalizes anything however short-sighted or foolhardy or counterproductive or illegal or unconstitutional.”

B          “Chanting ‘State Secrets’ is allowed to terminate the inquiry.  We need to repeat the need for diplomacy over and over to advance our real ‘National Security’ interests.  We cannot bomb our way to peace.”

. . .

A          “Making sense of Syria is problematic.  And a problem.  We support one group this year that becomes our reviled enemy next year.  The enemy we despise this year is our tenuous ally next year.”

B          “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, now or later.”

A          “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, just you wait.”

B          “I don’t know if a person with a clear head and a thousand hours of spare time and a generous budget could discern what has gone on and is going on over there.”

. . .

A          “Today, we are blessed because we don’t need to know the issues or the factions or the politics, we just need to know the players in America.  The same folks who brought us the Iraq nightmare now propose to bring us the Iran nightmare.”

B          “Elections have consequences.  Romney would have us at war.  O’Bama is avoiding the bait.”

A          “He should have been prescient or at least astute enough not to proclaim a line, because the line often is just one side of the box that imprisons you.”

B          “Mark my words, more is going on than we can even generally intuit.”

. . .

A          “Everyone is concerned about the financial mess we are bequeathing to the proverbial grandchildren who are trotted out during spending debates.  If America could transition from an unsustainable Empire to a sustainable Republic, we could reduce offensive military spending and bestow less debt to the proverbial grandchildren.  We also could bequeath a world with proverbial grandchildren in other lands who have not learned from their grandparents to hate America.”

B          “Hate is contagious.”

A          “And inherited.”  

. . .

A          “China and Japan are playing mouse and cat over some islands.”

B          “Who is the mouse?”

. . .

A          “And the Falklands are returning to the international radar.”

B          “Some pronounce it the Malvinas.”

A          “Oil, baby, it’s always pronounced oil.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” at The Drums of War (February 20, 2012) and Syria: Gas and Fog (August 26, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Diplomacy is what happens when the body count gets high enough

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Coal (December 2, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Coal, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions, Markets, Plastic on December 2, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “Books on Cod and Salt discuss the profound impacts of the fish and the element on civilization.  Someone should write a piece titled Coal and its pernicious consequences.”

T          “A few books dig into Dirt.  We have clean dirt but not clean coal.  ‘Clean coal’ is an ironic, oxymoronic and alliterative phrase repeated often enough to fool many folks.”

S          “And ‘Dirty coal’ is redundant.”

. . .

S          “Mother Nature leads us into temptation.  The stuff is not shiny like gold but does provide that warm inner glow and hot outer glow that we all covet.”

T          “We must resist El Diablo Negro.”

. . .

T          “Later this week, coal will be deposited in the shoes of the youngsters who have been naughty rather than nice.  And may not have resisted temptation.”

S          “Some folks leave switches in shoes to acknowledge unacceptable behavior.”

T          “I really never needed candy.”

S          “We need to jolt folks into realizing that electricity is not produced for free at a wall switch.”

T          “We dig deposits out of the dirt and deposit the stuff in our power plants and then deposit the by-products around the Earth and in our lungs.  The death cycle of coal.”

S          “We need to get folks to switch their behavior.”

. . .

T          “I installed compact fluorescent lights (cfls) which admittedly have a little mercury that must be disposed of properly.  My reduced demand for coal reduces the mercury released when coal is burned to produce electricity.” 

. . .

S          “A Carbon Surcharge and Dividend policy (CS&D) enlists the market mechanism to internalize the costs of carbon production and reduce its use without any other government regulation.”

. . .

[See the article on plastics drowning the oceans at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gold-plastic-waste-oceans-20131104,0,1147461.story#axzz2jywwzvfA.]

[See the “e-ssays” at On Trading Off (May 9, 2011) and Energy “Manhattan Project”: The “Carbon Tax And Dividend” (March 25, 2013.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The solution to pollution ain’t dilution.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis will be available in paper back in March. 

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