Archive for November, 2016

A “Journalist” Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016)

Posted in Blog, Cyberactivities, Digital, Facebook, Google, Internet, Journalism, Newspapers, Press/Media, Truth, War and Wall Street Party, Writing on November 28, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The article may be the single most outrageous and egregious defamatory screed in the history of American journalism.”

J          “And it is irresponsible, inaccurate, unfounded, unfair and wrong.”

. . .

J          “The corporate media are now at war with independent commentators.  It is all about money and power.  The corporate players see a growing challenge to their hegemonic control of opinion and the profits that flow from purveying and controlling opinion.” 

K          “He indicted 200 sites on the basis of a website that is dubious at best.  I doubt he even uploaded a dozen of the sites. Review a few of them.  Charles Hugh Smith over at ‘Of Two Minds’ ventures trenchant commentary with supporting graphs and tables and light asides about life in Hawaii.  Chris Hedges and the folks at ‘Truthdig’ provide more substance and depth than ‘Newsweek’ and ‘Time’ in their prime and actually ferret out the Truth.  Yves Smith and the ‘Naked Capitalism’ team offer thoughtful and thought-provoking essays and commentary and have supplanted the ‘Wall Street Journal’ as America’s leading financial news source.”

J          “And interject cute pictures of puppies and other critters.  However, the ‘Tyler Durden’ chap at ‘Zero Hedge’ is the edgy and enigmatic bad boy who must be sampled cum grano salis.  The motley assemblage occasionally strays near the truth, yet there is a dark and disturbing undertone.  The right-leaning websites are also under assault.”

K          “The title of the ‘Ron Paul Institute For Peace and Prosperity’ directly challenges the one political party system in America – the ‘War and Wall Street Party’ system.  Wall Street is precluding and preventing Americans from achieving prosperity.”

J          “Both Paul Craig Roberts and David Stockman held positions in Republican administrations and now challenge the neo-liberal economic policy and neo-conservative foreign orthodoxy strangling the Republic.” 

K          “The author of the article goes for the throat and challenges each author’s patriotism.”  

. . .

K          “Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald cogently and succinctly characterize the assault in their observation that the ‘Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes A McCarthyite Blacklist From A New, Hidden And Very Shady Group.’  The paper I delivered has so deteriorated over the decades.”

J          “Yet something funky and disturbing is going on out there.  We are in a new era of ‘antisocial media’ concocted by admixing Facebook and Google into a vile and evil brew dispensed anonymously.  A journalist getting it fundamentally wrong does not aid in getting it right.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

So many words, so little Truth

Facebook + Google = Trouble

Mass Media Breeds Mass Deception

Musings On Silver (November 21, 2016)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Gold, Gold Standard, Money, Silver, Silver Standard on November 21, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

_          “First place among the losers?”

_          “Dismissed as the ‘also-ran’ of precious metals?”

_          “Chump change or chump’s change?”

. . .

_          “I view gold as the farm and silver as the crops and the animals.  You do not sell the farm.  You do buy, sell and exchange the crops and the animals.”  

_          “So gold is the store of value and silver is the medium of exchange.  But what is the unit of account – hectares or hogs . . . or flashy pretentious paper with no real underlying value other than faith that is often misplaced by the populace?”

. . .

_          “The historic price relationship between gold and silver is way out of kilter.  Gold should be priced lower or silver should be priced higher.  If you account for the cost of production, gold is not priced too low and cannot be priced much lower without impacting the supply which will . . . drive up the price and further distort the price and the historic price relationship.  Ergo, silver should be priced much higher.”

_          “Everything is out of kilter.  Like so many other ostensible markets, we are dealing with rigged rackets.  Both prices are held artificially low by the powers that control price and sell paper precious metals.  But the prices cannot be held low forever.”

_          “Mr. Supply and Ms. Demand are not in the game.”

_          “Except to the extent that if a miner cannot make any money from mining, the miner will not mine.”

. . .

_          “Gold is for kings and silver is for royalty.”

. . .

_          “And there are some pure silver mines, yet silver is usually a byproduct of other mining for gold and copper.  The economics are intertwined and interdependent.”

. . .

_          “Someone said that roughly seventy percent of gold is used in jewelry and roughly seventy percent of silver is used in electronics and other commercial uses.”  

_          “Silver was once used in large quantities for analog photography.”

_          “Many digital devices use a speck of silver.  Those specks add up to a peck.”

. . .

_          “She reported back to her students that during her field trip to China fifteen years earlier, some shopkeepers exchanged her pre-1965 Washington silver quarters for two dollars and fifty cents in credit for her purchases in the shop that day.  Think about it, on average, the Chinese shopkeepers offered the tenfold premium without even a prod or a prompting.  They are in the know and they know it.”

_          “The Chinese shop keepers’ take on the pre-1965 two bits is revealing.  They will take them in exchange for twenty bits worth of products.”  

. . .

_          “That Series 1935 A silver certificate framed in the den is from a Hong Kong shopkeeper who swiftly slipped the certificate with the lapis lazuli Treasury seal in among the other unpretentious camo-colored Federal Reserve Notes she dealt and dropped in front of me.  She appeared to be sloughing it off on someone who might not notice the outlier dealt to him.  I pulled it out of the stack, stared at it and could hear its story and feel its history.” 

. . .

_          “And silver is shinier than gold.”

_          “Describing a silver salmon as ‘dime bright’ invokes and evokes a clear image.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Silver Standard:  The Value Of (Sort Of) Real Money (July 15, 2013)”, “Is The Gold Standard Really The Gold Standard? (January 18, 2010)”, “The Gold Standard Revisited (August 15, 2015)”, “‘Fiat Gold’ / Fool’s Gold (May 2, 2011)”, and “The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016).”]

[JFK – May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Silence is golden; gold is silent

What is the gold standard again?

The E-pocalypse:  My Fellow Americans, Our Long National Nightmare Is Beginning (November 14, 2016)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Clinton, Democrats, FBI, Journalism, Newspapers, Pogo Plight, Presidency, Press/Media, Radio, Republicans, Trumpi, Voting, War and Wall Street Party on November 14, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The national political stage is now showcasing a burlesque reality show with America’s Silvio Berlusconi at center stage.  Donaldo Trumpi.”

J          “If you want to be the laughingstock of the world, you need a fool to make ‘em laugh.”

K          “And to fool them.  Washington has devolved into Rome, so the populace might as well coronate Nero to oversee the cesspool.”         

J          “Circuses and bread . . . and Trump.  P.T. Barnum would be amused.  He only took the peoples’ money and yet gave them a spectacle in return.  The people soon will see that Trump will take their dreams and give them nothing.”

. . .

K          “Post Trumpatic Stress Disorder (PTpSD) is haunting three cohorts this week.  The reflective Bernie supporters who voted for Trump or others in protest are stupefied.  The disconnected voters who did not want Trump in the White House but could not vote for Clinton and were confident she would win are horrified.  And those who simply cannot accept Trump in the White House are terrified.”

J          “We need to adopt a provision from consumer protection statutes to allow voters to reconsider their decisions within seventy-two hours.” 

. . .

K          “I thought the ‘e-pocalypse’ would be an economic apocalypse not an election apocalypse.”

J          “Don’t panic.  That is coming.”

. . .

K          “Trump is the only candidate who Clinton could beat.  Clinton is the only candidate who Trump could beat.  The rules were written so that the voters could not vote for both of them to lose at the same time.  Someone was forced to win.”

J          “In a nation with millions and millions and millions of potential candidates, the number ‘n’ candidate and the number ‘n – 1’ candidate were engaged.  Long before the election, however, the Democrats elected to lose with Clinton rather than to win with Sanders.”

. . .

K          “For the last few months, I could see something bubbling in the background and hovering on the horizon.  The media were trapped in a bubble.  The Clinton campaign was trapped in a bubble.  Neither had an air vent to the real world.  The double bubble was leading to trouble for Clinton.”

J          “An old boy once told me that you should never breathe your own fumes.”

. . .

J          “The decision by the FBI director James Comey to revive the inquiry into Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server was a factor that caused her to lose.  He should be indicted.”

K          “The system is so corrupt that the FBI director can do anything and is above the law.  Only the poor and downtrodden get indicted in America.”

J          “The successful efforts by Republicans in some of the battleground states to purge their voting roles had an impact that needs to be analyzed with care.”

. . .

K          “Madeline Albright’s threat that women who do not vote for Clinton will find a place in Hell did not play well.  Too many citizens are already living a hellish existence.  Telling someone that you have no choice except to capitulate to a candidate rubbed many the wrong way.  Voting the opposite way is the only way to proclaim one’s freedom and independence.”

J          “And worth.  The simple truth is that many uneducated white males were threatened by and unwilling to vote for an educated white female.  I told others to disregard her smug, privileged, arrogant and sanctimonious attitude and vote for someone who is at least somewhat stable.”

K          “Romney’s disdain and dismissal of the ‘47 percent’ in 2012 before a private gathering of old White boys played a decisive role in his defeat.  Why Clinton decided gratuitously to take a page from his play book, disparage the ‘deplorables’ in public and leave voters wondering whether they were worthy of voting for her is stupefying.”

J          “And stupid.  There is no other word for it.  She spent time in Arizona and Georgia seeking to win by a landslide but was unaware of how the tectonic plates had shifted under her.  She never even went to Wisconsin to touch base with the folks.  All she had to do was listen to one legitimate grievance and show some empathy.  Every newspaper in the Badger State would have covered the trip.  Some attention to Michigan and Pennsylvania and perhaps Ohio suggesting a positive message rather than carping about Trump would have served her well.”

K          “If she had truly labored on a salmon slime line in Alaska and learned some life lessons rather than just logging a novel resume entry, she would be POTUS-elect.” 

. . .

J          “Some projected that if Clinton were elected, Whites would flock to and flood gun stores.  With Trump’s election, the flood gates are now open to inflict violence on Blacks and Browns who now need to flock to gun stores.  The threat to them is much more real today.”

K          “The National Rifle Association did more than any other institution to put Trump in the House for Whites.”

J          “And the grand irony in this year of absurd consequences is that the NRA followed the practice of so many voters by voting against its interest.  If Clinton had been elected, gun sales would have exploded.  Gun sales and gun stocks now may go down.”

. . .

J          “His antics earned him a billion dollars’ worth of free media coverage particularly when he was outrageous and offensive and himself.  There is a take home message there for future candidates.”

K          “The candidate who spent more money has won every modern Presidential election.  Except this election.  That fluke likely will never happen again.” 

J          “The new ‘antisocial media’ allowed streams of vile and unfounded invective to pass for political insight and surpassed the effectiveness of Anger Mongering (AM) radio.  Elections may soon be fact-free and issue-barren.”

. . .

J          “Compare the list of endorsements for President published by the top hundred newspapers since the 2000 Presidential election.  They were divided about equally between the two candidates.  Never has a major party Presidential candidate received one and only one endorsement and that from a regional paper.”

K          “The media bubble again.  He also received the nod from the Klan rag.  Not receiving one endorsement from a major newspaper was the most compelling and convincing endorsement for many.”

J          “The hate and fear newspapers present a daily gauntlet of hate and fear to everyone going through the checkout lines at grocery stores.  Repetitive subconscious subliminal messages conveyed on the small bill boards that box in the consumer, even if the rag is not read or even picked up, increased the population’s susceptibility to the messages of hate and fear.  Toss in the trip hammer of hate and fear spewing from the Faux Network at home.  Trump only had to whistle.”

. . .

K          “Trump should read the discussion in “‘Mericanize:  Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013)” over at e-commentary.org.  The landscape has not changed since then.  Factories are all automated.  Factories, wherever located, do not employ and will never employ many workers.”

J          “He does not care about ideas.”

. . .

K          “By November 5, the Republican Party was pronounced dead on a few websites and then resurrected three days later.  During the early morning hours of November 9, the Democratic Party was put on life support and left in a coma.”

. . .

K          “The undigested anger is still festering.  None of the underlying problems will be addressed.  The anger will find another outlet.”

. . .

J          “Now what?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Boycott Red America (January 3, 2005)” and “‘Mericanize:  Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The election apocalypse (hereinafter “E-pocalypse”):  Coming to a Republic near you

Did America just repudiate its sanity, decency, humanity and integrity?

Fake quotes will still ruin the Internet.  Benjamin Franklin

The future is certain and the end is already here.

You can’t always get what you want, but if you try, sometimes, you get what you do not need.

Suffer Clinton.  The Devil.  We know. (November 7, 2016)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Elections, Political Parties, Politics on November 7, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The ‘D’ division of the War and Wall Street Party foisted a candidate who passionately believes in pursuing war and protecting Wall Street.  The ‘R’ division of the W.W. Party forwarded a candidate who may not be as passionate about pursuing war and protecting Wall Street but then with him who the devil knows.  He is a nativistic, nihilistic and narcissistic nut job.”

J          “Add Nazistic to that list.  And misogynistic, racistic, and xenophobic.”

. . .

K          “He is also supported by the Middle Finger Party.  Some of the more reflective people who support The Donald are thoroughly disgusted with a government and economic system that is corrupt to the core.”

J          “The Middle Finger Party is not the Middle Way Party.”

K          “I am confident that the only profitable party – The War and Wall Street Party – is the Wrong Way Party.”

. . .

K          “Her entourage includes punks, thugs, grifters, drifters, shop lifters, lifers, ex-cons, cons, future cons, neo-cons, neo-libs, criminals, war criminals, war mongers, inside traders, outside traders, traitors, terrorists, ne’er–do–wells and cattle rustlers (hereinafter “Kennedy School/Goldman Sachs” archetypes).”

J          “His gang includes punks, thugs, grifters, drifters, shop lifters, lifers, ex-cons, cons, future cons, neo-cons, neo-libs, criminals, war criminals, war mongers, inside traders, outside traders, traitors, terrorists, ne’er–do–wells and cattle rustlers (hereinafter “Wharton School/Fly By Night REIT” archetypes).  But we do not even know who he will put on the public payroll.” 

. . .

K          “Clinton is a globalist and Trump is a nationalist.”

J          “So that means that Clinton will usher in a World War and Trump will usher in a Civil War.”

K          “They do not call it the Peace and Wall Street Party.”

. . .

J          “I concede that Clinton privately supports and will sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership because it benefits the international corporations that fund and bribe Clinton, Inc.”

K          “Trump’s challenges to the international trade agreements, if genuine, are challenging because truly free trade can provide mutual benefits to many but not all.  He cannot reject all of the treaties carte blanche with executive orders.”

. . .

K          “Three score years ago, Adlai Stevenson ran against Dwight Eisenhower.  Statesmen both.  The nation could not go wrong with either candidate.”

J          “In two generations, a ‘win-win’ option then is replaced with a ‘lose-lose’ dilemma now.  That must be what they call progress.”

. . .

J          “Vote against Trump.  And for Clinton.”

K          “In the final analysis, it all comes down to the Supreme Court.  Vote for the crook over the crazy man.  With extraordinary reluctance.  Then despair.”

J          “It has gotten old.”

. . .

J          “Vote.”

K          “Vote.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Better the crook we know than the crazy man we don’t?  Applying The Conservative Tie Breaker. (June 20, 2016)”, “The ‘War and Wall [Street] Party’ On The War Path (February 1, 2016)”, “The Donald:  The Consummate Republican.  Sort Of. (March 28, 2016)”, “On Male ‘Diss’ ‘Coarse’ And Electioneering (March 21, 2016)”, “A Second Party:  Trump or Sanders? (March 14, 2015)”, “Trans-Pacific Partnership / United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea (May 25, 2015)” and “The First Look At The ‘Second Political Party’ (January 3, 2011).”)

Bumper stickers of the week:

Vote.

Vote Clinton.  With extraordinary reluctance.  Then despair.