Archive for the Elections Category

The Donald:  Enough; Bastante; Basta (April 4, 2016)

Posted in Education, Elections, Health Care, Voting, Wall Street, War on April 4, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “Dangerous.”

Y          “Enough.  Bastante.  Basta.  In any language, enough is now more than enough.”

X          “Danger has caught fire.  Those who kindled a small fire are fighting their fire with another fire.  Fighting fire with fire is more likely to create a great conflagration than to contain the fury.”

Y          “For a time, in his own twisted way, he challenged the war and Wall Street memes.  Now he is at war with decency and civility.  I have had enough, but his followers may have not gotten enough yet.”

. . .

X          “Both the Donald and the Cruz are dangerous, very dangerous.”

Y          “General elections are always about choosing between the lesser of two evils.  Primaries and caucuses are not supposed to present such a bleak choice between evil and vile.”

. . .

Y          “The current Senator and the former Senator are ratcheting up their spat.  However, the undemocratic process of the Democratic Party machine dooms Sanders.  Even their system is rigged.”

X          “Everything is rigged.  Sanders is proposing time-honored first-world public policies.  The country cannot afford a rational and efficient single payer health care system and cannot afford not to adopt a rational and efficient single payer health care system.  The country cannot afford a system of affordable education and cannot afford not to adopt a system of affordable education.  The country cannot afford to adopt what it cannot afford not to adopt.”

Y          “We could pay for it by paying for it the way we pay for war.”

. . .

[See “Physicians For A National Health Care Program” for some perspective on health insurance.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been.  The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.’”  Isaac Asimov, “A Cult of Ignorance”, Newsweek, January 21, 1980.  

The Donald:  The Consummate Republican.  Sort Of. (March 28, 2016)

Posted in Elections, Presidency on March 28, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “Dangerous.”

Y          “At core, the Owners are outraged that he is speaking far too candidly and failing to follow or even acknowledge the Rules.  The Donald has not made the sotto voce promises of position to the Republican government in waiting while amping the volume of dog whistles beyond the accepted level.”

. . .

Y          “He is the Consummate Republican or more accurately the Unvarnished Republican.”

X          “Dangerous.  The Unwashed Republican is appealing to the Unwashed Republicans.”

Y          “The Unwashed Republicans have been put through the wringer and come out dirtier, wrinkled and worse for wear.  They are now saying enough.”

. . .

Y          “The great elixir in America is the belief that everyone can get rich and everyone can grow up to be President.  Everyone cannot.”

X          “Every two years, the Republicans summon the masses and suggest that if they vote Republican they too can be part of the Beautiful People, members of the Rich and Famous.  After the false aura and the self-delusion wears off, the masses cannot ignore their grinding plight and hopeless circumstances.”

Y          “So the Donald promises . . . hope and change.”

X          “Amid the fear and loathing.”  

. . .

Y          “What about Cruz?”

X          “More dangerous.  Far more dangerous.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary for the last few weeks.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.  The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.”  Will Durant

On Male “Diss” “Coarse” And Electioneering (March 21, 2016)

Posted in Elections, Politics, Society on March 21, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They looked like vultures sitting on a circular fence waiting for a kill or to kill or to be killed.  Hunched over and looking back over their shoulders and then looking left and right, only a fool would dare speak.  If someone ventured to say something, the others would jump on the speaker and maul him.  Emotionally stunted, each hunched in wounded silence.  That was the only safe course of action and the only safe recourse during their charming diss-coarse.” 

. . .

J          “Sounds like the Republican Presidential debates except that they scream at each other mindlessly rather than suffering in silence.  And the one who is the most obstreperous and boisterous and obnoxious is winning.”

K          “They sure are ‘dissing’ each other and they sure are ‘coarse’ with each other.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

God grant me the serenity; To ignore this cacophony

Peaceful Equinox

A Second Party:  Trump or Sanders? (March 14, 2016)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Democrats, Elections, Federal Courts, Freedom / Liberty, Republicans, Stock Market, Supreme Court, Tea Party, Voting, Wall Street, War, War and Wall Street Party on March 14, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Do political ideas proceed along a line/continuum or around a circle?”

K          “The ACLU card-carrying citizen turns around and bumps into a ‘Who is John Galt?’ hat-wearing libertarian sporting an ‘Ayn Rand Paul’ button.  Each should wonder whether they have something in common.”

. . .

K          “Trump supporters yearn for someone who speaks his mind – right or wrong – rather than a politician who only lies and lies and lies and lies to them.”

J          “Can you blame them.  But it is still a message of hate and fear.  I can blame them.”

K          “Disturbing message and tone, I agree.  And then Sanders notes that socialism/crony capitalism has made the wealthy even wealthier and thus socialism without crony capitalism may offer some promise for the non-wealthy.”

J          “Two strains of populist messages at a strained time in the Republic.  Yet Trump’s authoritarian message is disturbing and threatening.  The message is no longer conveyed with dog whistles.”

. . .

J          “The two-ring circus to select the ‘D’ representative and the ‘R’ representative of the ‘War and Wall Street’ Party grinds forward.”

K          “Sanders is not the War candidate and not the Wall Street candidate, so he is doomed.”

J          “In the FIRE (‘Finance, Insurance, Real Estate’) World, Trump is more of a ‘Real Estate’ person than a Wall Street/‘Finance’ person, yet he is not interested in or even able to reign in the systematic criminal activities on Wall Street.  He is belligerent and he is bellicose, yet he does not fit in with the Neo-Cons who seek war everywhere all the time.”

K          “‘Belli’ means ‘war’.”

J          “Trump is mean and Trump means war on some groups.”

K          “So he is the Quasi-War and Quasi-Wall Street Party candidate.”

. . .

K          “The real war is over the Supreme Court.  In past years, the Democrats tended to appoint slightly less dishonest federal appellate and district court judges, although recent Democratic appointments are as dishonest as the Republican appointments.”

J          “They vitiated the last remaining tie breaker.  Now who do you vote for?”

. . .

J          “The Owners own Clinton, Cruz, Rubio, Bush, Romney and their ilk.  Sanders and Trump are speaking too freely.”

K          “Hillary Cruz, Ted Rubio, Marco Bush, Jeb Romney and Mittens Clinton.  No matter how you mix it up, it is all the same.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Tea Party And Innocence Project Form ‘Liberty Alliance’ (September 9, 2013) and The “War and Wall [Street] Party” On The War Path (February 1, 2016).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Nihilism as a response to the deeply-entrenched Kleptocrary is not always irrational.

natural born Citizen; Natural Born Killers (March 7, 2016)

Posted in Constitution, Democrats, Elections, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Originalism, Presidency, Republicans, Supreme Court on March 7, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “An individual who is not a ‘natural born Citizen’ such as John McCain and Ted Cruz is not eligible to be President or Vice President of the United States.  The ‘Originalist’ interpretation of the phrase ‘natural born Citizen’ in the U.S. Constitution is clear and unassailable.”

J          “To honor Scalia’s passing and continue its practice of intervening in elections, the Supreme Court should invoke its inherent jurisdiction and enter an injunction enjoining Ted Cruz from running.  For the good of the cause.  And the Constitution.”

K          “Indeed.  Certainement.  Post haste.  He professes to be an honorable man.  And also one of the original ‘Originalists’.  He would surely concur.”

. . .

J          “Many clear thinking individuals now maintain that those born in the United States and those born elsewhere who meet legal requirements meet the contemporary understanding of citizenship at birth.” 

K          “That is the perspective of the see-me, feel-me, touch-me; I’m-okay, you’re-okay; peace, love and Woodstock; tune-in, turn-on, tune-out; get-down, get-funky; if-it-feels-good, do-it school of jurisprudence.”

J          “Yup.”

K          “Kinda makes sense.”

J          “Does.”

. . .

K          “The boys debating with the one who is not a ‘natural born Citizen’ are behaving like ‘Natural Born Killers’.”

J          “So in the one who is not a ‘natural born Citizen’.”    

. . .

[See the discussion at http://www.vox.com/2016/2/18/11058038/ted-cruz-court and https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ted-cruz-is-not-eligible-to-be-president/2016/01/12/1484a7d0-b7af-11e5-99f3-184bc379b12d_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b.]

[See the discussion at http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/29/antonin-scalia-looking-backward.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Fukushima Daiichi

The “War and Wall [Street] Party” On The War Path (February 1, 2016)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Elections, Politics, Voting, Wall Street, War on February 1, 2016 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The two divisions of the ‘War and Wall [Street] Party’ are conducting the first of their many charades and parades today.  The WW Party is on the war and Wall Street path.”

J          “The ‘D’ division and the ‘R’ division of the ‘WW’ Party are picking their faces and their facades.  At least with the Buffoon on the loose, the process is a more entertaining farce this year.”

K          “Bernie Sanders is not really a war and Wall Street person nor for that matter is Rand Paul.”

J          “The Owners will veto the Bern’s candidacy.  The Paul is not gravitating toward the war and Wall Street crowd fast enough to endure.”

. . .

J          “The rest of them are all Tweedlededumb for the ‘D’ division and Tweedlededumb for the ‘R’ division.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at The Choice:  Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate v. Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate (April 13, 2015) and The First Look At The “Second Political Party” (January 3, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

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

Professor George Carlin was right (left?).

The bottom 1% are fighting wars for the top 1%.

Making the world unsafe for Wall Street.

Venturing A Few Unfounded And Unwarranted Predictions (July 13, 2015)

Posted in "L" Shaped Economy, Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Collapse, Depression, Elections, Foreign Policy, Gold, Gold Standard, Kleptocracy, Money, Pensions, Quantitative Easing, Recession, SDR - Special Drawing Rights, Security State, Silver, Silver Standard, Supernova Dollar, Zero Interest Rate Policy on July 13, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

3          “Pensions will be even more problematic.”

4          “When the stock markets reset catastrophically, pensions will need to be reset correspondingly.”

3          “We will need to muster the collective intellect and imagination to craft a provision allowing states to file bankruptcy.”

. . .

3          “Interest rates cannot be allowed to rise and will not be allowed to rise beyond a nominal .25 percent.  Any greater rise would result in devastating financial and economic consequences.  Some nominal rise will be imposed to proclaim that interest rates can indeed rise above zero without negative consequence.  Those citizens who planned to fund a retirement with interest-bearing instruments have been sacrificed and will continue to be sacrificed without even a vote or even a debate on the policy.”

4          “Sacrifices have to be made.  Few folks are concerned or even aware that the Federal Reserve rather than the market sets interest rates.  The way I see it the Petrodollar will continue to rise as other currencies decline and those with the wherewithal seek the safety of the Petrodollar.  At this time.  The Petrodollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and fundamentally weak foreign economies are a double magnet for money.  When the world establishes its own world currency such as a system of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) and circumvents the Petrodollar, the Petrodollar will explode and decline precipitously in value.  As I describe it, the ‘Supernova Dollar.’  The last American export – the Petrodollar and resulting inflation – will not be imported by the world.”

3          “Along those lines, the physical dollar will disappear from circulation in the United States before it disappears from the world stage.  The U.S. government and large corporations are slowly discouraging and will ultimately outlaw the use of dollars as ‘legal tender’ and as a medium of exchange.  Possession of gold and silver bullion by private citizens also will be outlawed.  The government will outsource to large corporations the issuance and control of the Universal Electronic Benefit Transfer (UEBT) cards to its subjects.  Current credit and debit cards will be re-purposed seamlessly.  The IRS will send a statement each year or even each month dictating one’s tax obligation and deducting the amount owed directly from one’s government controlled account.  As a consequence, everyone’s inclinations, transactions, and movements will be monitored and manipulated as necessary.”

4          “On the other hand, possession of gold and silver in any form by foreign citizens and governments will be the law and settled practice.  The West has readily abandoned gold and silver to an East that has eagerly absorbed the precious metals at rates that have been manipulated down by the West.  And gold and silver will be a component of the Special Drawing Rights.”

3          “The West will no longer be able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate the prices of physical gold and silver.”

4          “If the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system and the Petrodollar are circumvented, the West will be less able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate prices.”

. . .

3          “The nations in the oil-producing regions will not fight over the oil they have but over the water they do not have with far less involvement of and intervention by the United States.”

4          “Nation-States will also disappear as thriving and functioning communities and be replaced by Corporation-States that dictate policy.  The United States Congress took the lead and sold out to become the ‘Citigroup-Congress’ recently.  More than just naming rights are involved.  Current nations are just entities that can be manipulated and maneuvered to go to war with each other when necessary.”

3          “Along those lines, shares in United States Senators will be sold more openly akin to shares in corporations.  The news will announce that shares in ‘Senator Larry Jenkins, Inc.’ are up 3.1 percent today on news that he will sell his vote for the Big Project.  The John Roberts Supreme Court has endorsed the two-step business plan.  If you pay a politician directly for a vote, you are in trouble; if you pay an intermediary that pays a politician for a vote, you are blessed.”

4          “Notions of freely-established supply and demand for goods, services and commodities will yield to quotas per subject each month.  Without functioning markets and with regular and systematic market manipulation and intervention, notions of inflation and deflation will be antiquated.  World population will continue to grow and resources will continue to be more precious which under the old paradigm would fuel inflation.  However, people will simply do without.”

3          “Along those lines, capitalism is a system that socializes the costs of activities and privatizes the profits.  The end stage is the emergence of a very small cabal who control all resources and allow the subjects access to just enough resources to subsist in a police state that throttles any debate or dissent.”

4           “The treatment of Cyprus and Greece are intermediate stages in the process.”

3          “The future is not unpredictable.”

. . .

[See the efforts to eliminate cash at http://betterthancash.org/.%5D

[See the e-commentary at Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

If you do predict a definite event, do not pick a definite date.  If you do pick a definite date, do not predict a definite event.  Unless you want to.

In the past, if you could predict the future accurately, you could make a fortune.  In the present, you can predict the future astutely, but you cannot do much to protect your fortune or your future.  Even if you want to.

“The best way to predict your future is to help create it.”  Attributed to Abraham Lincoln

There are few warning signs on the off ramp down the road to serfdom.

What about global climate change?

The Choice:  Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate v. Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate (April 13, 2015)

Posted in Bush, Clinton, Elections, Journalism, Newspapers, Presidency, Press/Media, Wall Street, War on April 13, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1        “The election is already over.  One party nominates a candidate who is pro war and pro-Wall Street and the other party nominates a candidate who is pro war and pro-Wall Street.”

C2       “And if you demur in a public forum, the popular press will dismiss you as an isolationist for questioning war and as a populist for supporting an equitable and sustainable economy.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at The First Look At The “Second Political Party” (January 3, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Bush III

Clinton II

Jeb Clinton

Hillary Bush

Midterms 2014: A Verdict On Race (And Concerted Ineptitude) (November 10, 2014)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Citizens United Decision, Civil War, Dollar - World's Reserve Currency, Elections, Marijuana, Minimum Wage, Race, South, Southern Strategy on November 10, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

M          “The election came down to the Republicans putting an elected official who was not even running for office on every ballot in America.”

L          “And putting him on trial.  This race was about race.  American politics is a perennial battle between fear and hope.  The midterm elections were a verdict on whether a Black man should be President of the United States.  And the verdict is in.  Those American people scared into voting are more than uncomfortable with a Black man and his very Black woman in the House for Whites.  And then toss in Ebola and ISIS or ISIL or whatever it is and fear cripples the citizenry.”

M          “In recent decades, every President who has won a second term and had a Senate majority to lose has lost the Senate majority.”

L          “The Republicans could not say that a candidate is in the same party as the ‘n-word’ guy.  ‘Reggin’ and ‘monday’ are too blatant.  They unleashed a cacophony of dog whistles. ‘Romney – Obama Care’ passed as the ‘Affordable Care Act’ and was excoriated as ‘Obamacare.’  Republicans accused all incumbent Democratic Senators over and over and over and over of casting the deciding vote for ‘Obamacare.’  ‘Obamacare’ is the socially acceptable substitute for the ‘n-word’ today.”

M          “Money carried the message and the day.  They say the sword is mightier than the pen, but the pen that writes the campaign checks is mightiest.  Justice Roberts’ plan in Citizens United is unfolding like a carefully choreographed chess game.”

L          “It is always about money.  Obama won in 2008 in substantial part because he rejected public financing and substantially outspent McCain.  Americans were fearful then, but in the perennial battle between fear and hope, hope triumphed over fear.  Bush had made such a mess of the economy and foreign affairs that a continuation of Bush was frightening.  The fear of another Bush combined with the hope espoused by Obama was right for the times.  In this race, spending by the mega PACs bought the elections for Republicans by appealing to race and avoiding any concrete policies.  Few of the Republicans were honest enough to concede that the Republicans have used all available resources to stymie legislation and then blamed Obama.  The public voted against what they were told is ineptitude in Washington.”

M          “In 2008, in their gut, many devout Republicans said they simply could not stomach ‘President Palin’ at the helm.”

L          “Many pundits proclaimed that America was ‘post-racial’ then, yet America was and is still very involved in the racial mix and maelström.”

M          “When the finals are held in 2016, virulent racism will not be on the national exam.  Gender is much less incendiary.  America is much closer to a ‘post-gender’ electorate.”

. . .

M          “Maryland and Massachusetts are lapis lazuli blue and yet both elected Republican governors.  At some point, citizens tire of taxes and regulations.”

L          “I was heartened to see that four red states – Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska, and North Dakota -–adopted provisions to increase the minimum wage.  And the blue city of San Francisco joins the Emerald City in adopting a minimum wage.  You cannot spend money if you do not have money.”

M          “Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia adopted more rational and realistic marijuana policies.  Reduce civil rights violations, increase tax rolls and cut spending on prisons.  Regulate marijuana like alcohol and discourage and dissuade the use of both.”

. . . .

L          “Save your Confederate dollars.  The South is rising again.”

M          “Will they substitute as the world’s reserve currency?”

. . .

[Fall of the Berlin Wall:  Yesterday – 25 years]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Deal race, buy votes

Save your Confederate dollars.  The South is rising again.

Lee surrendered.  I didn’t.

The New Confederacy – Same Old Same New

The New Confederacy – Same as it ever was

“Peak Advertising” (November 3, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Economics, Elections, Facebook, Football, Google, Minimum Wage, Occupy Movement, Peak Advertising, Politics, Press/Media, Social Media, Sports, Television, Voting, Wages, Writing on November 3, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “‘Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Burma / Shave.’”

2          “Turns out that some of the first ‘six-word memoirs’ were crafted by English majors laboring for BBDO.”

. . .

1          “‘Peak Advertising’ occurs when all of a person’s senses are assaulted all of the time with non-stop commercial advertising.”

2          “That is the collective business plan of all the social media platforms.  They are premised on their presumed ability to bombard the right demographic with saturation advertising all the time.”

1          “At some time, the marginal utility of each additional fusillade will not provide any return because the consumer has nothing to spend and no source of additional debt.  What if they don’t have any more money?”

2          “They have huge advertising budgets.”

. . .

2          “Well, right, those people may be out of money.”

. . .

1          “If the television is viewed as a mirror rather than a monitor, what should one make of a string of ads for fortified barley soda interspersed with those huckstering elixirs for erectile dysfunction.”

2          “Potents for potency.  The medium is also a microscope into the ‘Land of Skinny People’ where the people have BMIs below 22 and definitely do not reflect their viewers.  They hawk products that make a person fat ninety percent of the time and concoctions that purport to make a person skinny ten percent of the time.”

1          “When others talk about ‘thinking inside the box’ are they referring to the big flashing box in the home and the little flashing box in hand?”

2          “A wide body watches a wide out on a wide screen doing battle for his team and town.  The viewer should go out and do.”

. . .

1          “Seventy percent of the economy is attributed to consumer spending.  The total amount and the percentage of consumer spending in the next few years will be revealing.”

2          “Hard to spend if you have no money and no one will provide any more credit.”

. . .

1          “One thought might be to have parents lease a newborn’s forehead to tattoo an advertisement.  You can’t let an unbleached beachhead canvas go untrammeled.”

2          “Start young.  The kid surely would develop an affinity for the product or service.”

. . .

1          “Anyone in a political battleground state has been subject to ceaseless fusillades of hate and fear from all quarters for months.  In interviews, voters criticize the negative campaigning and yet in the voting booth vote in favor of those behind the vicious attacks.  The candidates provide what the public really wants.  Each political battle is part of the ceaseless war in American politics to own the government with its ability to plunder from the populace.”

2          “I vote to be a non-combatant.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Mt. / Everest / Sherpas / Prefer / Living / Wage

Occupy Namche Bazaar

Namaste

Peak Oil, Peak Water, Peak Land, Peak Advertising, Peak Peaks

“Don’t mind your make-up, you’d better make your mind up.”  Frank Zappa

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

A ‘tax and spend’ Democrat versus a ‘no tax and spend’ Republican.

Vote