Archive for the Class Category

From “Occupy” to “Occupation”:  Nine Years Later (September 14, 2020)

Posted in Book Reference, Civil War, Class, Collapse, Occupy Movement, Voting on September 14, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Occupy showed so much promise.”

J          “That’s why they killed it.”

. . .

K          “What was percolating may start boiling.”

J          “What was festering may start exploding.”

. . .

K          “Occupy challenged one to occupy his or her mind and community and now the Occupation/Siege calls for one to occupy the bowels of the beast.”

J          “September 17 may become as big a holiday as July 14.  Stay tuned, as they say.”

. . .

[See the commentary on the Occupation/Siege at Adbusters.]

[See the e-commentary at “Occupy America (October 10, 2011)”, “Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)”, “An “Occupy Primer” (November 14, 2011) and “Civil War II.  Coming To A Country Near You (November 26, 2018)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking:  What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?  Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?  …  The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!  If … if … We didn’t love freedom enough.  And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation … We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”  Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918 – 1956

On Acceptance. And Home, Hope, Fear, Change, Uncertainty, Insecurity, Class, Income, Gender, Region, Religion, Profession, Education. And Syntax. And Race. (September 9, 2019)

Posted in Class, Education, Gender, Housing, Race, Religion on September 9, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Toby Hemenway observed about life with their rural neighbors:  ‘We were on good speaking terms with all our neighbors, but never found much common ground with them.  Local parties often began with watery beer and ended in drunken fights, so we went to fewer as time went by.’”

. . .

K          “They were transferred and transported from a small fishing community to the East Coast, submitted the application to the yacht club, and waited.  And waited.  And when they inquired when they might get a response were enlightened:  ‘In about 200 years.’”

. . .

J          “He characterized the entrenched neighbors surrounding the new stewards of Green Acres as cool and distant and observed:  ‘They’ll let you volunteer all you want, but don’t expect to get invited to their homes for dinner.’”

. . .

K          “And then the other recent pilgrims band together which creates two communities in the community.”

. . .

K          “The cauldron of class, income, gender, region, religion, profession, education and even syntax create hurdles that can become barriers.  With a little understanding and a lot of work, common ground can be found.  A sincere dinner invite was even issued.  Oddly issued?”

J          “Losing that cherished ground to the highest bidder often produces legitimate resentment among the long-term locals.  They may even lose their ground merely because the taxes to hold their ground are overwhelming.” 

. . .

K          “Toss race into the pot and taste the stew.  Even today, a non-white moving into the area would trigger an overload.  Or should I say “Oddly today” the move would be awkward and uncomfortable.”

J          “And non-whites are legitimately resentful when they lose their ground to well-healed whites who move into the area and move them out of the area.”

. . .

K          “Gentrification is the private sector solution to housing and urban development.  The Department of Housing and Urban Development should be scaled back to police the market for red lining and other market impediments but otherwise not get involved in the market.”

. . .  

J          “Imagine a vegetarian tee-totaling transgender who describes their former neighbor’s cabin as an ashram and festoons it with Buddhist prayer flags and fires up solar panels.”

. . .

[See “Peak Oil and Urban Sustainability” by Toby Hemenway dated June 1, 2005 that provides much insight but does need a much sexier title.]   

Bumper stickers of the week:

YMMV

A television may insult your intelligence, but nothing rubs it in like a computer.

Reparations.  Universal Basic Income (UBI).  Oh, And Happy May Day And World Press Freedom Day! (April 29, 2019)

Posted in Affirmative Action, Civil War, Class, Race, Reparations, Supreme Court, Universal Basic Income (UBI) on April 29, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “In the land of the red, white and blue that purports to cherish ‘life’, ‘liberty’ and ‘property’, the White man arrived and confiscated the property of the Red man and often took his life and curtailed his liberty and transported the Black man to work the purloined property and violated his life and his liberty and his property interests.  And hers.”

J          “And then doubled down and did the same thing to the Brown man and the Yellow man.  And woman.”

. . .

J          “Let’s borrow from the Great Declaration and include ‘the pursuit of happiness’ and from the French and admix ‘liberté’ and ‘égalité’ and ‘fraternité’ into the formula.”

. . .

J          “No one doubts that the promise of ‘forty acres and a mule’ descended and degenerated into the ‘Great Hundred Year War of Terror in America’ directed and orchestrated by almost every public and private institution in both the South and the North against anyone Black from 1865 to 1965.  Even today there is only an unstable modus vivendi regularly under attack.”

. . .

K          “The fundamental problem is that the victims are not alive and the oppressors are not alive.  Society is not well served by anointing someone who is not an individual victim with official individual victimhood status and accusing someone who is not an individual oppressor with official individual oppressorhood status.  The wrong solution to a very real and very deep and very sustained problem is not the right solution.”

. . .

K          “No public commentator to date has fleshed out the process and mechanics of establishing and implementing the Great Divide/Schism in America.  Would the government establish a cabinet-level Department of Reparations?  Would there be one unit of reparations paid to someone who proves that he or she is Black or Brown or Red on both sides of the family?  Would the amount be reduced if the individual’s family came to America after 1907 or 1865 or 1932 or some other randomly selected date?”

J          “And what about Barack O’Bama?  There you have the intersection of race and class and income.”

K          “Right.  Would he only get a half unit?  Would Barack O’Bama’s half unit be reduced because his father came to America after 1907 or 1865 or 1932?  Or his mother’s family?  Would the reparations payments be taxed or tax free?  Would the reparations payments be paid out of the general fund or by a separate reparations tax on Whites?  Would Whites be exempt from the reparations tax if they could prove that their family came to America after 1907 or 1865 or 1932?  Would Barack O’Bama remit a half unit of reparations tax to the reparations fund because he is half White and receive a half unit of reparations payments because he is half Black?” 

J          “The tax and the payment could be offsetting.”

K          “Would there be ‘means testing’ so that a successful half Black neurosurgeon does not receive any reparations payment.  Because of her income, would she pay taxes to the reparations fund?  It goes on and on and on.  Each one of these divisions creates another divide.” 

J          “O’Bama should get another half unit because the other half of his family is Irish.  The Irish were oppressed and ostracized upon arrival.  But they were White and thus much, much more readily accepted by and assimilated into White society.”

K          “Much, much, much more readily.  The ‘Plessy Ferguson Reparations Bill’ is not the way to challenge and address what is going on in Plano and Ferguson.  There is no single piece of legislation that could further divide this country in twain than a piece of legislation that further divides this country into two groups that are expressly separate and unequal.”

. . .

K          “The prejudice is on a group level and must be challenged on a group level.  Start by releasing every other Black and Brown and Red and Yellow prisoner from the American Prison Gulag who is likely in prison simply for being Black or Brown or Red or Yellow.  Extend the statute of limitations on affirmative action another fifty years or pick a specific ending date such as 2065.”

J          “If the ‘Great Hundred Year War of Terror in America’ is said to have reached a de jure end with the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, something is going to have to be done to furlough the five lobbyists on the Supreme Court who have unilaterally abrogated the modus vivendi.  In the end, if you want a good and great society, place a few coins in every pocket and a few ideas in every head.”

. . .

J          “Go big.  My thought is to institute a Universal Basic Income (UBI).  Far too many people in America of all shades are suffering the effects of systematic and institutional economic terrorism.  The country is pursuing a War on Terror.  The War on Terror should be refocused and redirected at the many millions of Americans who suffer the terror of not knowing whether they will have a meal in their belly or a roof over their head.  The cost is insignificant and inconsequential because there is no cost too great to fight and win the War of Terror.”

K          “I still have a fundamental problem giving folks money simply for existing.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Great National Dissolution:  Resolving The Great Civil War (April 18, 2011)”, “Watertown?  Ferguson?  Your Town?  Your Son?  Will They Allow It In Laramie? (August 11, 2014)”, “The Conservative Solution To Affirmative Action (October 15, 2012)”, “Race and Class And Crime: Jail White People.  Oh, And Happy Martin Luther King Day! (January 15, 2018)” and “Columbus And The Redskins (October 14, 2013)” and a dozen other e-commentaries.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Think big, think long

May 3 – World Press Freedom Day

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

Civil War II.  Coming To A Country And City Near You (November 26, 2018)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Civil War, Class, Democrats, Gender, Race, Republicans on November 26, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “What will be the trigger?”

J          “Finger or event?”

. . .

K          “No other phrase and concern arose at Thanksgiving gigs as often in private conversations with close friends from across the political spectrum.”

J          “Immigration and the economy and global climate change are just the cover subjects.”

. . .

K          “The only thing in the US uniting us is our disunity.”

J          “The only thing in the US uniting us without us even knowing it is our shared sense of disgust and outrage and horror.”

. . .

K          “This past weekend featured the ‘civil war’ futbal games between the ‘University of [insert name of state]’ versus ‘[insert name of state] State’ in storied and unpredictable games. ”

J          “And in the Great American Legal Game, the gang of ‘Bush Judges’ and ‘Trumpi Judges’ are trouncing the team of ‘Clinton Judges’ and ‘O’Bama Judges’ resoundingly.”

. . .   

K          “We as a society are pursing infinite economic sprawl on a finite planet.  What few resources are available are being concentrated in the hands of individuals who are doing nothing but further concentrating resources in their hands.”  

. . .

J          “The parking space at the shopping mall will be the figurative and literal triggering event.  We live on a planet with finite parking places.  Someone will cut off someone else who patiently waited for a parking place.  First they will exchange harsh words, then they will exchange hot lead.”

K          “Someone in a red F-150 sporting a MAGA bumper sticker will exchange lead greetings with someone in a blue Prius spouting an ACLU bumper sticker.”

J          “And then we are off to the races.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary “The ‘I’ Gene; The ‘We’ Gene: Searching For The Genie In All Of Us (April 3, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

What happens when a blue Prius spouting a bumper sticker proposing to ‘Give peace a chance’ heading west to the country crashes into a red F-150 sporting a bumper sticker proclaiming ‘God bless our troops.  Especially our snipers’ heading east to the city?

The Taxonomy Of The American Economy (May 21, 2018)

Posted in Class, Economics, Kleptocracy, Race on May 21, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The economic and political system exists for the benefit of the one one-thousandths of one percenters (.001 %) and the remaining members of the One Percenters (.999 %).  The Four Percenters (4 %) include the schooled servants squiring to the needs of the One Percenters.”

J          “The tax lawyers, obeisant judges, lecherous lobbyists, teeth whitening dentists, pliant politicians, public relations spin doctors, officious bureaucrats, tummy-tuck plastic surgeons, and their ilk.”

K          “As long as they obey and play, they get the pay.”

J          “They say.  The Fifteen Percenters (15 %) may stay a pay check or two ahead of calamity, yet many are never really economically secure or free of the nagging concerns that haunt them at three in the morning.”

K          “The butcher, the baker and the candle stick maker.  The good old Middle Class.  The good old Middle Class has been badly butchered, baked and left in the dark and the dirt.  Is it even as high as fifteen percent if you factor in the insecure position of so many of them?”

J          “Beneath them are the Eighty Percenters (80 %) who have desperately little chance of ever participating in the American dream.”

. . .

J          “The Dow and the Russell 5000 Index and such metrics measure the economic situation and security of the Five Percenters, not of the general public.  Assessing the real economy requires one to study metrics such as the U6 measure of unemployment of those who were making under $50,000 when they were fired or laid off, opioid use, child mortality rates, consumer debt loads, etc.”   

K          “The poor, the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the unwashed masses, [the] hoi polloi, the sheeple are summoned on election day for an hour to vote their fears and hopes and summarily disregarded the rest of the time.”

J          “Seems we could do better.”

. . .

[See “Shadow Stats” collected by John Williams and navigate the site and the sources.]

[See the e-commentary titled “The Microeconomics of Suburban Subsistence (February 7, 2005)”, “The Microeconomics of Suburban Subsistence: Three Years Later (February 4, 2008)” and “Justice Is a Middle Class Creation, Delusion and Aspiration (March 20, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Feed the homeless to the hungry

The beatings will continue until morale improves

Bugging Out To N.Z.:  The Movie, Part 2.  Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 12, 2018)

Posted in Aviation, Class, Climate, Collapse, Community, Contracts, Global Climate Change, Kleptocracy on February 12, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Those who want to bug out to New Zealand seem to believe the island is ‘PLAN B’ on this planet.”

J          “And yet the thoughtful folks who think about it observe that ‘There is no PLANet B’ in our universe.”

K          “Not even Mars.” 

. . .

K          “When the funds run out to guard the compound, the guards will walk off the job.”

J          “I would clear the runway and clear the plane to land, visually if necessary.  The first aid kit, fire extinguisher and other supplies on the plane would come in useful.”

K          “The P.I.C. should pack a readily available t-shirt proclaiming ‘Don’t shoot me, I’m only the pilot’ to stand apart and then stand apart when they land.”

J          “When the kleptocrats deplane, they can be debriefed and disabused of their old ideas.  They need to know that the rules have changed.”

K          “The rules may be the same, just the participants will change.  They depart a land where ‘Might makes right’ and land in a land where ‘Might makes right’ also.  The difference is the group with the might has changed mightily.”

. . .

K          “If I were the pilot, I would let the Kleptocrats know that the manifest has changed and take my family and friends.” 

J          “The ‘theory of efficient breach’ provides the inconvenienced Kleptocrats with a cause of action against the pilot for their inconvenience.”

K          “That is a succulent use of a theory that was concocted to allow the wealthy to breach a contract that nuisances them and avoid punitive damages and the likelihood that the other party would be able to pony up the lucre in the ‘pay to play’ legal system.”

J          “I would cherish the opportunity to inform the Kleptocrat: ‘Sue me’ and then part with: ‘I’ll see you in court’ as we run up the engines and begin to head down the runway.”

. . .

K          “I asked him to forward the draft contract when they e-mail it to him.  Is he as pilot obligated to be ready to leave in four hours or six hours or eight hours?  How many family members is he allowed to take with him?  However, when the Collapse comes, all contracts are advisory and voidable.  The pilot can amend the manifest and take his family and friends to the promised land.  That could be the plot twist for the third plane that actually completes the flight.”

J          “We might ‘Immanentize the Eschaton’ in the new land, the New Z-land.”

K          “Perhaps the most prudent strategy for the locals is to bivouac next to the compound, befriend the guards and be ready for the transition.”

. . .

K          “Before takeoff, China will already have taken over both islands.”

J          “Unless an earthquake devastates and cracks the runway first.”

. . .

[Listen to this excerpt from Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot (1994) ]

[See the e-commentary at “Bugging Out To N.Z.:  The Movie (June 26, 2017)” and “Immanentize the Eschaton.  Say What? (August 22, 2016)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

There is no PLANet B

Government Shutdown: Shutdown Congress (January 22, 2018)

Posted in Class, Congress, Gender, Race, Term Limits, Women's March on January 22, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Shut down Congress.”

J          “Vote them out.”

. . .

K          “One word.  Term limits.”

J          “If Congress does not limit its term, we must limit their terms.”

. . .

K          “We need 20/20 vision in the upcoming 2018 elections.”

J          “Hindsight is 20/20, but only if you want to see things clearly.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Marching For Science And Momma (April 24, 2017)”, “Women’s March On Washington (Woodstock With Conviction) / Coronation (January 23, 2017)” and “Debt Ceiling Dilly-Dallying?  Term Limit Amendment = Balanced Budget Amendment (December 11, 2017).”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Throw the bums out

We need 20/20 vision in the upcoming 2018 elections

Women’s March 2018 signs courtesy of Doonesbury:

Make America Smart Again

First We Marched, Now We’re Running (For Office)

Does This Ass Make My Country Look Small?

Grab ’em By The Midterms

Super Callous, Fascist, Racist, Sexist, Braggadocious

Women Are The Wall And Trump Will Pay

Too Much Bulls*** For One Sign

They tried to bury us.  They didn’t know we were seeds.

Elect A Clown, Get A Circus

Without Hermione, Harry Would Have DIED

I know signs.  I make the best signs.  They’re terrific.  Everyone agrees.

Race And Class And Crime: Jail White People.  Oh, And Happy Martin Luther King Day! (January 15, 2018)

Posted in Affirmative Action, Class, Crime/Punishment, Due Process, Equal Protection, Guns, Justice, Prison/Criminology, Race, Wall Street on January 15, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Blacks are disproportionately and unfairly favored over Whites.”

J          “Browns too.  And the long-term studies clearly show that many of the Blacks and Browns who were preferred over the Whites and received a free ride at public expense were clearly unfit and unqualified at the time of matriculation.”

. . .

K          “White people are criminals.  They commit almost all of the crime . . . measured by the time-honored dollar per transgression ($/transgression) metric.  We need to lock up White people.”

J          “That is exactly my point.  The total criminal activity of White people (CAW Index) is calibrated in the trillions of dollars.  The total criminal activity of Black and Brown people (CABB Index) is calibrated in the hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps may be as high as a billion dollars when everything is considered, calculated and calibrated.”

. . . 

J          “That underscores the fundamental Equal Protection rights of Whites that are being trampled and transgressed by favoring Blacks and Browns in the allocation of public accommodations at the graybar hotels of America.”

K          “And the Due Process rights of Whites.  Whites must be afforded the right to receive ‘three hots and a cot’ on the public dole.”    

. . .

K          “So what you are saying is that in 2018, no Blacks or Browns should be sent to jail and in their stead Whites should be given the highly-coveted openings in jail.”

J          “Exactly.  Unless a gun, knife or other weapon is involved, any Black or Brown charged with a property crime in 2018 should be given probation and not take a spot away from a deserving White in the graybar hotels of America.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “King Seale Newton X Day (January 16, 2017)”, “King Daze (January 20, 2014)” and “King (January 16, 2006).”]     

Bumper stickers of the week:

Jail White People Now

Prison:  It’s not just for Blacks and Browns