Archive for January, 2019

“Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Revisited:  The “Fondle Slab” Enslaves Us All (January 28, 2019)

Posted in Apple, Banks and Banking System, Cell Phones, Credit Unions, Privacy, Technology on January 28, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “We are doing it to ourselves.  The ‘Chip’ is not even implanted; the ‘Card’ is never discarded.  The ‘Chip’ and the ‘Card’ are consolidated into the ‘Fondle Slab’ we call our Cell Phone, our electronic love machine.”

Y          “The Cell Phone is a hard ‘Card’ embedded with the ‘Chip’ and cherished and adored as the most important possession and appendage of each and every subject.”

X          “The ‘Fondle Slab’ is the first thing we scramble for in the morning, the constant companion we clutch and caress throughout the day, and the last thing we embrace at night.”

Y          “They can access and assess the pictures we take and see who and what we saw and what we did and where we were when we took the pictures.  Who, what, when, where . . . and surely why.  And without asking us or paying us.”        

X          “We pass on buying infant formula to pay for the Slab.”

Y          “The enemy has been met.”

. . .

[See the article “Holding U.S. Treasurys?  Beware: Uncle Sam Can’t Account For $21 Trillion” in “Forbes” magazine by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff dated January 9, 2019 and an acknowledgement of his and Professor Mark Skidmore’s pioneering work looking behind the curtain at dodgy government accounting at “Third Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 8, 2018)”.]

[See the article discussing excessive spending and trust betrayed by J. Mark Watters and Sarah Vega with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) titled “A $450 dinner, $45 whisky: Political appointee, aide ring up the expenses” in “The Washington Post” by Robert O’Harrow, Jr. dated January 19, 2019.]

[See the e-commentary at “Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” and “The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Big Brother in a little box

We have met . . .

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King Seale Newton X Davis Dellums Day.  Oh, And Happy Martin Luther King Day! (January 21, 2019)

Posted in Bush, Class, FBI, McCain, Press/Media, Race, Society on January 21, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We lost Ron Dellums last year and yet the gang described and dismissed by some as the MSM misdirected attention to McCain and Bush I.”

J          “Adding another name makes it sound like an architecture firm.  Are we trying to celebrate too many folks on one day?  Some are concerned that setting aside February is inadequate and dismissive.”

. . .

J          “Rather than a day of service, it should be a day of musing.  Folks should discuss King, warts and clay, and his concerns and contributions.  And who killed him and why.”

. . .

[See the article titled “A Call to Reinvestigate American Assassinations” in “Consortium News” dated January 20, 2019.]

[John Clifton “Jack” Bogle – May 8, 1929 – January 16, 2019.  One of the investment giants of the twentieth century, he created the first index fund.]

[See the discussion of Martin Luther King’s famous Riverside Speech fifty years ago on April 4, 1967 at “Bush Escalates World War III (January 15, 2007)” and the e-commentary at “Race and Class And Crime: Jail White People.  Oh, And Happy Martin Luther King Day! (January 15, 2018)”, “King Seale Newton X Day (January 16, 2017)”, “King Daze (January 20, 2014)”, “King (January 16, 2006)” and “The FBI File:  The American Imprimatur Of Success (January 18, 2016)”.]    

Bumper stickers of the week / Signs at the Women’s March in Washington:

Words matter

“What does being a ‘nasty woman’ mean, Mommy.”  “It means we are getting shit done, honey.”

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears.  It was their final, most essential command.”  1984, George Orwell

It is so bad even introverts are here

Literarily everything about this is so awful

Now you’ve fucking pissed off grandma

ITMF

Furlough Trump

Fuck being ladylike

We need leaders who bleed

Kremlin names Trump employee of the month

Lock him up

Wave in 2018.  Tsunami in 2020

Shut down sexual violence

“Strong woman” is redundant

The Wall is a white supremacist monument

Our rights are not up for grabs and neither are we

Make empathy great again

You haven’t seen nasty yet

My body  My choice  My country  My voice

A woman’s place is in the Resistance

If I wanted the government in my uterus, I would fuck a senator

Go ahead, underestimate me.  This will be fun

Wall out bigotry

She levels are rising

It’s not like he can even read these

All in all, he’s just another prick without a wall

My body  My rules

Be vigilant, stay active, it is the time to meow

We want a leader not a cry baby tweeter

Cut taxes.  Fill your own pot holes.

Women are the Wall.  Trump will pay

Obama, when are you coming home?  The babysitter is weird

Make out, not war

Heart of I.C.E.

Girls just want to have FUNdamental rights

Talk politicsely to me

Trump needs four walls.  All padded

Tiny hands, but a big dick

It’s Mueller Time [on a Miller Beer label]

You’re so vain, you probably think this sign is about you

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Stagflation?!?  Hands Down Or Hands Up? (January 14, 2019)

Posted in Deflation, Economics, Inflation, Price, Stagflation, Stock Market on January 14, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The way I see the economy unfolding and unfurling in the near future, everything in or on your hands right now (stocks, bonds, lands, rides, gloves, etc.) will drop precipitously in price and everything you need to get your hands on to live (grub, aqua, tent, bike, threads, etc.) will rise staggeringly in price . . . and in value.”

J          “The old ‘lose-lose’ situation.  So many people are living a hand-to-mouth existence without much in or at or on hand to use or to lose and not much in their pockets to hand over for daily necessities.”

K          “One’s assets will halve, one’s expenses will at least double.”

. . . 

K          “For those who rode the rise, the taxes that were assessed on the assets as they rose in price will not be rebated when the assets retreat in price.”

J          “And as the assets rose in price but not in real economic value, the ‘wealth effect’ induced and seduced the owners of the assets to spend more and to incur more debt because they thought they were effectively wealthier.  Those spent monies are gone and those debts are still here and naggingly awaiting discharge.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Fed: Deal with ‘Stag’; Deal with ‘Flation’? August 7, 2006)”, “Stagflation And The Fed (September 17, 2007)”and “Going Forward With The ‘Reverse Stock Split’ (February 5, 2018)” proposing to double or even triple or even quadruple the Dow overnight just for fun.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Hard come, easy go

stocks/2 + bonds/2 + lands/2 + rides/2 + gloves/2 + etc./2 = Net Worth;  

grub x 2 + aqua x 2 + tent x 2 + bike x 2 + threads x 2 + etc. x 2 = Recurring Expenses

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The “Great American Race (‘GAR’)” Is Off.  Political Gerrymandering:  Courting The Problem (January 7, 2019)

Posted in Elections, Gerrymandering, Politics, Supreme Court, Voting, War and Wall Street Party on January 7, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The Great American Race (‘GAR’) begins in earnest this month.  America consigns two years to select its Great Kahuna whereas Australia only devotes a more reasonable two months.”

J          “And the race is rigged at every turn and twist on the track.  Some candidates such as Bernie in 2016 find that the ‘D’ division of the ‘War and Wall Street Party’ itself operates a rigged preliminary heat.  Many citizens are forced to drive a long distance to get to the betting window and/or are required to stand in a long line.  Some citizens do not even get to bet on a horse at all.  The Great Voting Gauntlet (‘GVG’) dissuades and discourages many citizens.”

K          “The Great American Race (‘GAR’) is also the Great American Crime (‘GAC’).”  

J          “Do the GAR and the GAC add up to the GAG (‘Great American Game’)?”   

. . . 

J          “The Supreme Court agreed last Friday to take up some of the unresolved questions regarding partisan gerrymandering.  The two cases consider rulings involving maps in North Carolina and Maryland drawn by Republicans and Democrats, respectively, so extreme that the lower courts say they violated the rights of voters.”

K          “Perhaps we are off and running.”

J          “Or on and stopping.”

. . .

K          “The way I see it, the courts are the people’s second to the last resort before the people resort to the streets.  If the Court abdicates its duty to address the matter with ballots, the people will at some time address the matter with bullets.  The Executive branch is effete and enervated yet admittedly still too powerful.  The Legislative branch is a product and a by-product of the problem.  The answers are not easy or elegant.  Failure to address the problem and provide a partial answer is a complete failure and capitulation.  The suite or the street, that is the question.”

J          The way I see it, the courts are the people’s second to the last resort before the people resort to the streets.  If the Court abdicates its duty to address the matter with ballots, the people will at some time address the matter with bullets.  The Executive branch is effete and enervated yet admittedly still too powerful.  The Legislative branch is a product and a by-product of the problem.  The answers are not easy or elegant.  Failure to address the problem and provide a partial answer is a complete failure and capitulation.  The suite or the street, that is the question.”

. . .   

K          “The Court of last resort may be the court of second to the last resort.”

J          “Unless the populace just does not care or does not understand.” 

. . .  

[See the e-commentary at “Partisan Gerrymandering:  From Ballots To Bullets?  Oh, And Happy National Voter Registration Day! (September 24, 2018)” and “Five Red Rich Republican ‘Catholic’ Corporatist ‘White’ Boys . . . Versus . . .  Four Blue Comfortable Democratic ‘Jewish’ Individualist White ‘Girls’ . . . And All By-Products Of The S.I.C. (October 2, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Election Day should be a national holiday

The suite or the street, that is the question.

GAR + GAC = GAG

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