Archive for October, 2020

“Clinton, Inc., Trump, Inc., Bush, Inc., Kennedy, Inc., O’Bama, Inc. (October 24, 2016)” Four Years Later (October 26, 2020)

Posted in Book Reference, Kleptocracy on October 25, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Add Biden, Inc. to the mix.  The Bideni gang rides again.”

J          “Over six years ago it was clear that the sons of the Ruling Class like Kerry-Heinz and Biden were positioned and poised to make a killing.  No matter how things stay the same, they stay the same.”

. . .

K          “Professor G. William Domhoff’s classic examination of power in America, Who Rules America?, revisited and explored observations developed earlier by Professor C. Wright Mills in his seminal The Power Elite.  I read Mills in high school and Domhoff in college.  Now there is Professor Peter Phillips who has written Giants, Who Really Rules The World? and refines and updates the analysis.”

J          “Phillips in the graduate school of life.  His division of the new “Global Power Elite” into four sections includes four archetypes: 1) Managers (i.e., the financial elite), 2) Facilitators (i.e., bureaucrats and policy planners), 3) Protectors (i.e., military-intelligence apparatus of power), and 4) Ideologists (i.e., public-relations operatives and propagandists) is frighteningly insightful.  An inquiry into the absolute domination of the powerful over the powerless.  To continue the tradition, he may need to add an initial to his name . . . say Professor P. Peter Phillips.”

. . .

K          “That uneasy feeling in late October 2016 manifested itself in the political surprise of our lifetime.”

J          “I’m still uneasy.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Clinton, Inc., Trump, Inc., Bush, Inc., Kennedy, Inc., O’Bama, Inc. (October 24, 2016)”, “Impeachment Imbroglio.  Oh, And Happy Saint Nicholas Day! (December 2, 2019)” and “World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

And the beating goes on

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Fifth Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 19, 2020)

Posted in Jurisprudence Award, Law, Noble Prize in Jurisprudence on October 19, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “A prize dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating the work of someone who or some organization that really knows something about jurisprudence and the impact of courts, judges, lawyers and police on the lives and livelihood of ordinary citizens.  Someone who lives the conviction that men and women should establish and respect some norms and standards that are promulgated clearly to all and enforced equally in favor of and against all.”

J          “Someone who advances the Rule of Law and stuff like that.  I like it.”

K          “The recipient of the fifth annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence . . . is Francis Boyle, a leading advocate of the rule of law and of international law, for his continuing efforts against overwhelming odds to advance and defend civil rights and civil liberties.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Fourth Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 21, 2019)”, “Third Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 15, 2018)”, “Second Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 16, 2017)”, “First Annual Noble Prize In Jurisprudence (October 17, 2016)“, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)” and “Hiroshima And Nagasaki At 75 (August 10, 2020)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Give civil rights and civil liberties a chance

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Fifth Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 12, 2020)

Posted in Economics, Economics Nobel, Noble Prize in Eco-nomics on October 12, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “An award acknowledging and celebrating the work of someone on the planet who really knows something about eco-nomics.  Eco-nomics is about making and sharing; e-con-omics is about taking and stealing.”

J          “The Noble Prize in Eco-nomics is a delightful and playful replacement for the discredited and misnamed ‘Nobel’ Prize in Voodoo E-con-omics.  And I get it.  You get what you reward.  You need to reward what you want to get.  Who gets it this year?”

K          “The recipients of the fifth annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics are . . . Pam Martens and Russ Martens who have researched and crafted ‘Wall Street On Parade’ for decades.  The couple has contributed immensely and with little credit chronicling in clear prose the circus and criminality on Wall Street and the consequences for the ordinary person.”

J          “They should get credit for challenging the credit markets.  They have made a far great contribution to the public discourse than everyone writing at ‘The Wall Street Journal’ for the last two decades.  The age of vicious irony is viciously ironic.”

. . .

[See “The American Nightmare” in “The Automatic Earth” by Byron Bishop dated October 12, 2020; “The Tyranny of Economists  How can they be so wrong, so often, and yet still exert so much influence on government policy?” in “The New Republic” by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein dated September 30, 2019, the book titled “The Nobel Factor: The Prize in Economics, Social Democracy, and the Market Turn” by Avner Offer and Gabriel Söderberg and “Heretics welcome!  Economics needs a new Reformation” in “The Guardian” by Larry Elliott dated December 17, 2017.]

[See the e-commentary at “Fourth Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 14, 2019)”, “Third Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 8, 2018)”, “Second Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 9, 2017)”, “First Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 10, 2016)”, “Announcing The First Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (May 2, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “From e-con-omics to eco-nomics? (August 1, 2011)”, and “Skip the Nobel in Economics (October 6, 2009)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Show me the incentives and I will show you the outcome.”  Charlie Munger

Boycott banks; support credit unions

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day

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First Monday And “Patient One” (October 5, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, First Monday In October, Immanentizing The Eschaton, Presidency, Supreme Court on October 5, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Are there gradations of illegitimacy?”

J          “Is the Supreme Court just quasi-illegitimate and semi-unrepresentative?”

. . .

K          “I gather that he becomes ‘Patient One’ and gets transported by ‘Marine Corps One’ to ‘Bed One’ for scrutiny by dozens and dozens of doctors.”

J          “Certainly more than one.  If you or I had presented with his symptoms, we would have been sent packing back home thus killing precious time to make a more careful diagnosis and treatment.”

. . .

K          “In the age of vicious irony, her introduction in the Oval Office to the powers that should not be may have turned into a superspreader event.”

J          “Moving from outside in the Rose Garden to inside in the Oval Office may have done it. No is speaking candidly who really knows his condition and the medical cocktail he is consuming.  The age of vicious irony is also the age of calculated ignorance.”

. . .

K          “The Court that may soon have 6.75 Catholics, with 5.75 solidly united in not allowing others to ‘immanentize the eschaton’ and one committed to allowing others to ‘immanentize the eschaton’ in this life.”

J          “And two other souls who also want others to be able to ‘immanentize the eschaton’ in this life.  The Court theoretically could be more unrepresentative but not much more unrepresentative.”

. . .

K          “What so many good folks fail to realize is that Trumpi is effectively packing the Court for the corporations.  A Court that went from the ‘Kennedy Court’ for years to the ‘Roberts Court’ for months is now becoming the ‘Trumpi Court’ for decades with his three picks in three years.”

J          “A Court named not after a justice but someone outside the Court who was always outside the law.  Trumpi aspired successfully to achieve injustice by breaking the law in a legal system that allows the rich to break the law.”

. . .

J          “The controlling Corporatists on the Court hold opinions and values that do not represent the rest of the public pack in America.”

K          “If the opportunity presents, we the unrepresented pack should seriously consider packing the court and sending them packing.  Try to bring that topic up with others and you quickly discover that most folk’s Overton Window is the size of a side door peep hole.”

J          “Roberts sealed the front doors of the Court for the little people years ago and Trump is nailing them shut for two generations.”

K          “RBG opened doors for women and girls.  ACB will close doors for women and girls.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary under the Categories “First Monday In October” and the “Supreme Court”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

RBG opened doors for women and girls.  ACB will close doors for women and girls.

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