Archive for February, 2024

The “New York Department Of Defense Times” Proclaims:  “War On!”  Oh, And Happy Second [Tenth] Anniversary! (February 26, 2024)

Posted in Russia, Ukraine, War on February 26, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “I’ll concede that if ‘The New York Times’ says it, the Department of Defense wants us to know it.  What is it they want us to know?  Why do they want us to know it?” 

. . .

K          “The beginning of World War III is now rewound nunc pro tunc to ten years ago.”

. . .

K          “My take a day later?  The article is another desperate plea and ploy for more and more and more and more funding for the War.  This is also the first step in the ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ argument.  The U.S., the argument goes, has always been there in Ukraine and thus should continue to be there until the end.  This is the sotto voce declaration of war by the U.S. two years after the start of the Special Military Operation.”  

. . .

J          “Russia is still a threat.  However, I do not believe the A Team is in charge of the USA Team.  Things are getting out of control.  Where are the adults in the situation room?”

. . . 

K          “I am concerned that events are getting out of control of even the most powerful individuals and governments who delude themselves into believing they are in control.”

J          “Some powerless folks are concerned that things are way out of control.  Listen to folks on the street.”

. . .

K          “Both Russia and the USA face existential threats. Neither will yield without going nuclear.”

J          “Neither will yield without going nuclear.”

. . .

[See “The Spy War:  How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin” by Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz in The New York Times dated February 25, 2024.]

[See the e-commentary from two years ago at The Cuban Missile Crisis And The Monroe Doctrine Today (February 28, 2022), N. Propaganda R. Transcribed:  “Get Vaccinated.  Attack Russia.”  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 21, 2022) and the prescription in Washington Wants War In The Worst Way:  Dust Off The IOSAT Or Return To The Status Quo Ante Bellum? (January 24, 2022).  See also the existential threat to the world discussed at Existential Threat + Existential Threat = World War.  Are We Mired In World War E[conomic] / World War III? (November 21, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

War on!

I can see what is coming; I can do nothing about it.

Le Draft.  And A Day Of Remembrance.  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 19, 2024)

Posted in Draft, Hypocrisy, War, World War III on February 19, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Two months ago, they drafted Frank Murkowski to shill for the Draft.  Release the trial balloon from the far North and let it drift down to real America.  Get a few people chatting.  Then have some other MSM publications publicize the idea.  And voilà, the idea is floating around out there in the public space and is a part of the Narrative.”

J          “And published the piece on the Winter Solstice, the darkest day in the North.  He packaged it as two years of public service.  That I support.  But there is another message lurking between the lines.”

K          “Two years of public service, I heartily support.  The Draft is problematic.  I have said that it may create a tiny constituency opposed to war, but that is a quixotic notion.”

. . .

J          “As I recall, I noted back on Armistice Day in 2017 that in the early 1970’s, the Draft became an inconvenient nuisance for the well-connected such as George Bush, Richard ‘Dick’ Cheney, Rudolph Giuliani, John Ashcroft, John Bolton, Mittens Romney and Donaldo Trump.  Dodging the Draft required pulling strings with the local draft board to get a deferment or hiding in the state national guard or fleeing to Europe or faking a hangnail.  In response, many corporate think tanks, some owned by their parents, started thinking of a scheme to keep their kids out of tanks and in the corporations.  The answer was to end the formal Draft now, release their kids from the duties of citizenship and  . . . impose economic indentured servitude on the underclass.  That changed the incentive structure for war.”

K          “And Bill Clinton.  Those sound like your exact words.” 

. . .

J        “It is a real head-scratcher.  Democrats such as John Kennedy, George McGovern, Max Cleland and Jim Webb are decorated war veterans who questioned America’s pursuit of unending war all over the globe all the time.  Al Gore and John Kerry have lost their way.  The Bush, Cheney, Giuliani, Ashcroft, Bolton, Romney and Trumpi Republicans are craven draft dodgers who fledged into chickenhawks and favor and savor sending other people’s kids off to die in useless wars that advance their economic interests.” 

K          “Life in America.  And death in America.  Have you noticed that the warring class who use other people’s money to take money from other people also take other people’s kids to take other people’s lives in their wars?”

. . .

K          “Continuing to pursue World War III through the next stages is going to require more cannon fodder.  Despite using poverty as the incentive for enlistment, a growing number of kids recognize they will indeed be little more than cannon fodder for wars that never end.  They are listening to what is happening and not enlisting.”

. . .

K          “His piece reads like an endorsement for a new Civilian Conservation Corps, but I suspect he is really trying to corral the cannon fodder.”

J          “He is.”

. . .

[Take some time to see and read the e-commentary at Reinstate The Draft; Reduce The Demand For War (Somewhat). Oh, And Happy Veterans Day! (November 6, 2017), Giuliani – Draft Dodger And Chickenhawk (March 2, 2015), Imposing The Draft . . . At State (November 19, 2007), Afghanistan:  The Usual Lies And Liars.  Oh, And Happy I.F. Stone’s Birthday! (December 16, 2019) and Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend “War”; The “Racket” Continues (September 7, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Chickenhawks For War

“No one man nor group of men incapable of fighting or exempt from fighting should in any way be given the power, no matter how gradually it is given them, to put this country or any country into war.”  Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War:  A Serious Topical Letter”, “Esquire”, September 1935.

Crafting the Lottery for the Draft:

Automatically Assigned Draft Number 1:

  • Off spring of any politician who votes for any form or approval of military action including abdicating that responsibility to the President;
  • Off spring of operating officers and majority owners of all military contractors;
  • Off spring of operating officers, majority owners, senior editors and editorial writers, and hosts of major media outlets;
  • Off spring of all operating officers, partners and majority owners of major banks, financial services companies, hedge funds and private equity firms;
  • All national security advisors and foreign policy personnel advocating for military intervention regardless of age and their off spring;
  • All American members and employees above janitorial and secretarial staff of the Carlisle Group, BlackRock, Vanguard and their off spring.

Draft Number 2:

  • All graduate students, and undergrads within two years of graduating, and anyone who graduated in the previous four years from all Ivy League and U.S. News and World Report Top 25 Colleges and Universities.  Anyone who qualified for financial aid or worked twenty hours a week while in school is excepted.

Off spring means all children and grandchildren between the ages of 18 and 45.
Deferments are limited to those who qualify as disabled according to 2024 standards.  Faking a disability will result in a thirty-year (30) prison sentence with no parole.

Any decision to intervene militarily triggers the Draft.  Only after everyone with Draft Numbers 1 and 2 are inducted and serving will anyone else even be summoned for the Draft.

Any decision.

Draft beer not boys and members of the Ruling Class

So It Was The Red Sea And Credit Suisse.  Who’s Counting?  (Strait of Hormuz or Deutsche Bank?  Deriving Derivatives (July 8, 2019)) (February 12, 2024)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Derivatives, Trade on February 12, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The Red Sea rather than the Strait of Hormuz.  Big difference.  Who’s counting.”

J          “A Swiss bank rather than a German bank.  Big difference.  Who’s counting.”

. . .

J          “You were right.  Different bottleneck; same strategy.  A motley group of characters are putting a few dents in a few ships and fundamentally transforming international shipping and commercial transactions.” 

K          “You were right.  The Swiss banking regulators forced UBS to acquire Credit Suisse by taking money away from the bondholders and giving it to the stockholders.  That breaches one of the Fundamental Rules of Business and Commerce.  They cannot even strong arm a shotgun wedding legally.”

. . .

J          “And on this continent, the banking system collapsed last year but was artificially and illegally propped up by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, at least for a while.”

K          “Seems that everything involving banking is always done illegally.  When the Swiss and the Germans . . . and the Americans . . . are unable to run banks profitable, we are all in trouble.”

. . .

K          “When does the derivatives market explode?”

J          “You can say that again.  When does the derivatives market explode?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Strait of Hormuz or Deutsche Bank?  Deriving Derivatives (July 8, 2019), Special Edition.  Deciphering Derivatives.  Oh, And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! (March 17, 2023), Too Much Dirt; Too Few Rugs. Repurchase Agreements (September 23, 2019) and The Economic Equinox:  Half Light; Half Dark? (September 25, 2023).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Coming to a planet near you

There are two kinds of vessels in the Navy:  submarines and targets.

You have to be accurate every time.  Your adversary only has to be accurate once.

Oh, And Happy Mexican Constitution Day! (February 5, 2024)

Posted in General on February 5, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Mexico’s Constitution was legalized on February 5, 1917.”

J          “Seems today rather than in three months is the big red letter day.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Mexico’s Constitution was legalized on February 5, 1917.

This Is A Hybrid:  Gasoline & Duct Tape