Archive for August, 2022

“Recurring Revenue”:  Inserting A Tentacle Into Every Pocket (August 29, 2022)

Posted in Capitalism, Our Future? on August 29, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The word for our time.”

J          “It is a four letter word.”

. . .

K          “The business plan is to insert every tentacle into every pocket forever.”

J          “Remote start for a car strikes me as an acceptable bourgeois indulgence, but for the auto companies to demand a monthly charge for the service is underhanded and over the top.  Imagine if the credit card company botched the person’s payment for the recurring monthly power window fee and also the recurring monthly door lock fee.  A driver may be imprisoned in the vehicle.”

K          “Remember the song ‘M.T.A.’ performed by the Kingston Trio that told the tale of a rider on the MTA who did not have an extra nickel to pay the fare and was condemned to continue riding the subway in perpetuity.  Poor Chuck’s wife had to toss his lunch to him through the window.”

J          “Imagine flying down the highway and the red light erupts to inform the driver that the fee for brake service is in arrears and the braking system no longer functions.”

. . .

K          “In the early days of the Internet, those who mined and secured general internet addresses made a small fortune.  For instance, the person who first mined and secured www.pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.com made a tidy sum selling it.  Now websites are leased with the original holder retaining ownership and charging monthly rent.  It is legal and it is ethical, yet it is reflective of a desire to keep a tentacle in every pocket.  The lessee could develop the site as part of a brand and then lose the site for failure to make a monthly payment.”    

J          “Will the public resist?”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Brake service monthly fee in arrears

Will we ever return?

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Cheney/Bush v. Trumpi:  Crime Families Battling On The Big Stage (August 22, 2022)

Posted in Bush, Trumpi on August 22, 2022 by e-commentary.org

[DuckDuckGo is completely blocking www.e-commentary.org.]

.  .  .

K          “The Cheney/Bush crime families are at war with the Trumpi crime family.  With the recent primary election in Wyoming, one warrior on the battle field is now throttled, at least temporarily.”

J          “Whatever her motives, Liz tried to clean up the public sphere.  And now finally after a disturbing hiatus, the authorities are going after Trumpi.  That is promising.”

.  .  .

K          “She will land in a thoughtless think tank or an sketchy hedge fund and look for an opportunity.”

J          “Nothing ever changes.”

.  .  .

K          “Dick Cheney is not really bright and not really astute and not really witty and not really honest and not really charming and not really real, really.  That is what the system seeks and rewards.” 

J          “Give credit where credit is due.  Dick is amoral and ruthless and psychopathic and sociopathic.”

K          And he is the patriarch of a crime family that now may not have a player on the public stage.”

.  .  .

[See the e-commentary on the major crime families in America at Impeachment Imbroglio.  Oh, And Happy Saint Nicholas Day! (December 2, 2019).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“If voting made any difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”  Mark Twain

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The War Between The Nation-States:  Architectonic And Tectonic Shifts In The World:  Getting Our Bearings In The Emerging World Order: Land And People And Resources Versus Fiat And Finance And Firearms (August 15, 2022)

Posted in China, Geopolitics, Petrodollar, Russia on August 15, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The ‘War of Northern Aggression’ is an accurate description.”

J          “The ‘War of Southern Aggression’ is an accurate description.”

. . .

K          “We must conform Mercator’s depiction because the ‘West’ is really the ‘North’ and the ‘East’ is really the ‘South’.  Russia and China must be relocated to the ‘South’.  Australia and New Zealand must be relocated to the ‘North’.  And voila! everything is geographically and economically and politically and socially copacetic.  The architectonic shifts are manifesting in tectonic shifts. The lines are being drawn.”

J          “The poles are shifting.  The battle lines are being drawn.” 

. . .

K          “About three quarters to four fifths of the world’s population are ‘Southerners’ and about one quarter to one fifth are ‘Northerners’.  The ‘Southerners’ have land and people and resources.  The Northerners led by the U.S. have fiat and finance and firearms.  The ‘Southerners’ are the future.  The ‘Northerners’ are the past.”

J          “Everything turns on how much longer the PetroDollar is the world’s reserve currency.  In the short term, however, as Europe and the emerging countries suffer, assets are likely to flow to the dollar.”

. . .

K          “The U.S. War against Russia via a duped, duplicitous and culpable proxy Ukraine has triggered many of these fundamental geographic, economic, political and social changes that are acknowledged by few and understood by even fewer.  February 24, 2022 will be another red letter day on the calendar.  2022 will be another red letter year on the calendar.”

J          “Because the Chinese won.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at World War E Becomes World War III:  The West Versus The Rest:  Uni-Polar Versus Multi-Polar (March 28, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

G7 versus BRICS and many other nations

“Land and people and resources” versus “fiat and finance and firearms”

The “North” rules (while breaking all the rules) at this time

February 24, 2022 will be another red letter day on the calendar

The Chinese won/one

Was Sir Halford John Mackinder prescient?

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(Refined) Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure (R FRCP) (August 8, 2022)

Posted in Courts, Law, Rule of Law on August 8, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “One federal judge held up a pen and stated that he affixes his signature to more motions and stipulations for extensions of time than to any other pleading.  Every deadline is absurdly short in practice.  The legal beagles in power should double all deadlines in the rules with one pen stroke.  Even the time to notice an appeal should be doubled.  A party oftentimes needs a longer period of time to accept intellectually and emotionally the consequences of a decision and the challenges of taking an appeal.  60 days instead of 30 to take an appeal.”

J          “That is the problem.  The deadlines are short to benefit the judges not the public.  Judges and lawyers do not take reasonable action without tremendous public pressure.”

. . .        

J          “A judge who orders that you give up a long planned vacation on short notice to generate a draft order and do his work and then dawdles for six months before guessing which way to go is not a sage jurist or a good person.”

K          “Standard operating procedure (sop) in the court system.  Judges view themselves as gods rather than public servants.  Something must change.  Rule changes will not solve everything without a change in behavior.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

If you cannot fully explain why you believe what you believe, you might be brainwashed.

Society has become so fraudulent that the truth actually bothers people.

“In the Fall an old man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of reforming the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”  With a nod to Al

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The War On Truthful Journalism Marches On;  U.S. Carpet Bombing Propaganda And Censorship Campaign Rages On (August 1, 2022)

Posted in Censorship, First Amendment, Propoganda on August 1, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The U.S. is being the U.S. again and funding a ‘blacklist’ of journalists and commentators who ask hard questions and demand honest answers.  The U.S./Ukraine ‘Enemies List’ list includes individuals who are on the short list for a Pushitzer Prize and for the highly coveted Cameo In Courage Award.”

J          “I disapprove of what they say, but I will defend to the death their right to say it.”

. . .

[See the “US Should Not Fund Ukrainian ‘Blacklist’” reprinted in “Consortium News” dated July 27, 2022 by Scott Ritter.]

[Take some time reading and reflecting on the e-commentary six years ago on the concerted attacks on independent journalists at A “Journalist” Declares War On Journalists . . . And Journalism (November 28, 2016) and Dispatches From The War On Journalism: The New “Nixon’s Enemies List” (December 5, 2016).  See the propaganda war waged by even NPR at N. Propaganda R. Transcribed:  “Get Vaccinated.  Attack Russia.”  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 21, 2022) and Washington Wants War In The Worst Way:  Dust Off The IOSAT Or Return To The Status Quo Ante Bellum? (January 24, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“I disapprove of what you say, but [I] will defend to the death your right to say it.”  Voltaire

“To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal.”  Henry Kissinger

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