Archive for the Global Climate Change Category

Weather / Climate.  Oh, And Have A Happy Solstice! (June 17, 2019)

Posted in Climate, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Google, Solstice, Weather on June 17, 2019 by e-commentary.org

[After more than a dozen tries today, Google is not providing access to www.e-commentary.org when searching for www.e-commentary.org.]

. . .

Climate is what you expect.  Weather is what you get.

Weather is what you wear.  Climate is what’s in your closet.

Weather is the day-to-day state of the atmosphere and its short-term variation in minutes to days to weeks.  Folks regard weather as the combination of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, visibility, and wind.  Climate is the overall weather of a place averaged over a period of time such as 10 to 20 to 30 years.

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Solstice (June 21, 2010)”, “Another Solstice (June 20, 2011)” and “Darkness . . . And Light.  Oh, And Happy Winter Solstice! (December 17, 2018)”.]

 Bumper sticker of the week:

 “Everybody complains about the weather, but no one does anything about it.”  Mark Twain

China:  “The Silent Takeover” Overtakes Silently.  Oh, And Happy Chinese New Year! (February 4, 2019)

Posted in Book Reference, China, Climate, Collapse, Global Climate Change, Limits To Growth, Russia on February 4, 2019 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Global climate change, as a product and by-product of human activity and avarice, is the greatest threat to the Planet.  China, particularly affiliated with Russia and other countries, is the greatest threat on this threatened Planet to the U.S. and thus to the West.”

K          “That does make you wonder who the bachelor will pick this week.  The lethargic but lovable American people are in many ways the greatest threat on this threatened Planet to the threatened U.S.”

J          “The Chinese and their colleagues and cohorts are snatching the mantle and the future from the West in plain sight, yet the theft is unseen and unknown by most Americans.” 

. . .  

J          “China has many if not most of the rare-earth elements on Earth under control or contract.  China has a substantial horde of gold and silver in hand not under contract.  China has growing hordes of hungry consumers who could drive the Chinese economy into prosperity or drive the Chinese economy into penury . . . or a mix of both.” 

K          “China continues to colonize Africa economically not militarily.  China is following the Western play book developed and delineated in Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man, the economic and financial equivalent and update of a Chinese creation, The Art Of War.  China is manufacturing indentured servants and vassals throughout the world.” 

J          “The ‘Hit Man’ preyed on Latin America.  China has investments in Venezuela and may not cotton to the U.S. stealing its oil and the gold.  The flash point may not be in Asia.”

. . .

J          “Chinese authorities can flip a switch and trip a chip nestled in any random grid-tied solar panel and trigger a systemic grid shutdown . . . and only by lifting a finger.  China may be able to monitor conversations in subway cars.  China has stolen intellectual property and yet now just buys the companies and acquires the technology.  China can do things we do not even know they can do.”

. . .

K          “Three decades ago, friends parked their BMW rig at the airport on their way to China and returned to share pictures of people pulling and riding rickshaws.  Now the Chinese are driving the BMWs.  There simply are not enough resources on the threatened Planet to allow Americans to continue driving BMWs.  We must turn over the keys and share the resources.  America must now take its turn at the wheel pulling and riding rickshaws.”

J          “I see it.  In short order, there will be an ad for ‘Rick’s Rickshaws.  The Best in the West’ advertised during the Stupor Bowl.”    

. . .

K          “The world knows where this is heading and how this ends.  The first worldwide vote in the history of humankind to determine the ‘Empire of the Future’ was conducted and completed in 2015 with the most lopsided outcome in the history of humankind.  China was endorsed and embraced by the whole world; U.S.A. was shunned and sidelined with a few stragglers.”

J          “It was not a plebiscite because the plebes did not vote.  It was an elitescite because only the elite voted.  And they voted clearly and loudly and in their interest.”

K          “America was in first place among the losers.”

J          “America was the runner up and is out of the running.”

. . .

J          “We are in trouble.  Big trouble.  Big.  Big.  Trouble.”

K          “We can scribe tomorrow’s history in today’s journals not as history happens but before history even happens.  In real time.  Today’s Toynbee.  Gibbon.  Spengler.  Bachelorette number 3, I say.”

J          “We do not know it and we do not get it.”

. . .

[See the article titled “The Big Hack:  How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies” in “Bloomberg Businessweek” magazine by Jordan Robertson and Michael Riley dated October 4, 2018, “Clandestine Chips Are The Perfect Hack And Technology Needs To Catch Up” in “Forbes” magazine by Anna-Katrina Shedletsky dated October 4, 2018, “Senators urge Metro to guard against Chinese spying in new subway cars” in “The Washington Post” by Robert McCartney dated January 19, 2019 and the poetic challenge by Greta Thunberg to the Davos crowd and the crowded denizens of the world on January 25, 2019.]

[See the discussion between an old Chinese party official (C1) and a young comrade (C2) eight years ago transcribed in an earlier e-commentary at “The Silent Takeover (May 23, 2011)” reprinted below; a discussion by two concerned American citizens, A and B, regarding the results of the election to determine the ‘Empire of the Future’ in “AIIB:  China: 1; U.S.A.: 0? (April 6, 2015)”; and an architectonic analysis of the world situation at “The China-Russia Affair: Advancing The Petro-Yuan; Dictating The Future (March 26, 2018)” that includes many links to other commentary and previous e-commentary.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

We.  Are.  In.  Big.  Trouble. 

The year of the pig

Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered

The Silent Takeover (May 23, 2011)

. . .

C1      “Take over America.  Of course we are.  You say that you have a better plan, comrade.”

C2      “The primary lesson of the Twentieth Century is that it is easier to take by investment than by invasion.”

C1      “Clear thinking, little butterfly.  Invasion is costly and ineffective.  Invasion only assists the defense industry.  You can eat butter; you can’t eat a gun.  We focused our spending on efficient invasion technology.  We are letting the Americans spend on offensive technology to allow them to go bankrupt.”

C2      “They are already bankrupt.”

C1      “They are.  They are also too big to fail, but not too big to own and operate efficiently.”

C2      “Increase the purchases of t-bills and t-bonds by another fifty percent to a holding of 1.5 Trillion U.S.  They will be worthless, but they are one of the tickets to control.”

C1      “We will decide what they are worth later.”

. . .

C2      “America has an unproductive class of third-rate minds and fifth-rate characters who suck staggering amounts of money without contributing anything of value.  They are identified as CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and their like and ilk.  They run companies and run them into the ground.”

C1      “Comrade, we plan to teach them how capitalism really works.  Survival of the fittest.  They are not fit.  They will not survive.”

C2      “They do not have a working market for talent at the top of American corporations.  The market is broken . . . and fixed.  The brigands and hooligans run the companies.  The American schooling institutions feed and fuel the broken market.”

C1      “The brigands and hooligans will be fixed like the mongrel dogs they are.  They will be sent to regional re-education camps . . . to be re-educated.”

C2      “Were they ever educated?”

C1      “Very good.  You will go far.  What about the cyberfun we are having with them.”

C2      “You should taunt them with simple technology and gauge what they have to combat the efforts.”

C1      “We can send a message internally to the Seventh Fleet to ‘stand-down’ at any time that looks like it is one of their own.  We can even send a message to have the crew stand on their heads.”

C2      “We can?  What will you do with the people?  The people do not produce.”

C1      “We provide the goods and the money to buy the goods for now.  They will be allowed to consume as long as it is in our interest to allow them to consume.”

. . .

C2      “We have our own domestic problems.”

C1      “Not if we don’t acknowledge them.”

C2      “Look at the problems we don’t acknowledge.”

C1      “Who asked you?”

C2      “Our comrades are becoming . . . filthy running dog consumers.  We are creating our own mess.”

. . .

C2      “I have another plan.  What if we tried to work with them?  Why don’t we have a beer with Gary.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Is it possible to go through the day and encounter something or anything not made out of oil and not made in China?

Gary Locke – nominated to be the Ambassador to China.  O’Bama’s most astute and foresighted appointment.

Carbon Fee And Dividend Imagined.  Oh, And Happy Saint Nicholas Day! (December 3, 2018)

Posted in Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Climate, Coal, Energy, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming on December 3, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “In the last few days, a few congressmen introduced a bill to price carbon just a few days before St. Nicholas decides whether to put coal or candy in one’s sabot.”

J          “If the price of coal goes up, St. Nick may modify his behavior and give candy to the kids at the margin of the Naughty-Nice Scale.”

K          “If the bill passes, we all get candy in our shoes.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Coal (December 2, 2013)”, “Happy Birthday Earth Day (April 23, 2012)”, “One Hundred Year Storms.  Biennially? (October 29, 2012)”, “Energy Manhattan Project:  The Carbon Tax And Dividend (March 25, 2013)”, “Global Climate Craziness (GCC) And Taxation (March 23, 2015)”, Stealing Resources . . . Through Time . . . and Across Space (February 20, 2017)” and “Save The Planet; Save The People?  Oh, And Happy Earth Day! (April 23, 2018)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

H.R. 7173 – Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act of 2018

Price carbon

Alaska Shaker – November 30, 8:29 a.m.

Save The Planet; Save The People? Oh, And Happy Earth Day! (April 23, 2018)

Posted in Climate, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming on April 23, 2018 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “What if the only way to salvage the planet is to sacrifice the plunderer?”

J          “Sacrifices must be made to salvage the mess.”

. . .

K          “What if 1000 species that would otherwise go extinct could be saved by sacrificing 1 human who will be replaced tenfold before the question is even answered?”

J          “Natural law does not bestow upon mankind any right to plunder, exploit and destroy Nature.  Mankind is not very kind and is breaking the natural law.  There will be consequence.”

. . .

J          “Mother Nature may have had it with the predations of the apex predator.”

K          “So something like ebola is a savior and a salvation not a scourge.”

J          “Mankind will not make the final decision.”

. . .

[See “Cow could soon be largest land mammal left due to human activity – study” in “The Guardian” by Reuters dated April 19, 2018.]

[See the e-commentary at “Global Environmental Something (February 16, 2009)”, “‘It’s Only A Rental.’  The Earth As A Cosmic Doormat.  De-Immanentizing The Eschaton. (September 28, 2015)”, “Prepping:  Public And Private Perspectives (April 27, 2015)”, “Stealing Resources . . . Through Time . . . and Across Space (February 20, 2017)”, “Eroding Coastal Villages:  Consolidate And Create Community (July 18, 2016)” and “Happy Birthday Earth Day (April 23, 2012)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

April 22 – Earth Day

Finite resources are just so . . . confining

“Men argue.  Nature acts.”  Voltaire.  Nature is acting while man is arguing.

A good planet is hard to find.

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

Harvey Hits Houston Hard (August 28, 2017)

Posted in Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Climate, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming on August 28, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The great philosopher Michael Tyson observed that ‘Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.’”

J          “Harvey packed that punch.  A right and a left right to the boca.  And no one ever really had a plan.”

K          “In Houston, ‘urban planning’ has always been an oxymoron and a national joke.”

. . .

K          “The four most populous cities in America emerged at the cardinal points of a compass and are the Mega-Metropolitan capitals of the four geographic regions.  Three of them, the (North)Eastern, Southern and Western anchor cities, are on salt water.  The polis up North in the heart of the Midwest is on fresh water.  New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are as vulnerable.”    

J          “From sea to warming sea, the storms are accentuated and accelerated by the warmer seas and the warmer air temperatures.”

. . .

K          “The formula is formidable and forbidding.  Unchecked Growth + Global Climate Change = Bad News.”

J          “And the news is bad.  Floodplains are so described because they are plains that are prone to flooding.  That should be a clue.”

. . .

K          “The area is now pickled with effluents and other toxins that are escaping from and perhaps being released by the chemical plants and heavy industry refineries.”

J          “All of the electrical connections are corroding in every house and substation.  All of the houses and buildings are developing mold and mildew.  All of the area may need to bulldozed.  They need to start over.  Elsewhere.”

. . .

K          “Mother Nature does not seem happy with an area that is developing and overseeing the development of fossil fuels and other threats to her.”

J          “Many of Momma N’s kids who are otherwise merely trying to survive another day are experiencing a horror show worse than anything they have ever witnessed at the Saturday night flicks.”

. . .  

[See “Harvey Is a Major Still-Unfolding Disaster” in “Peak Prosperity” by Chris Martenson on August 28, 2017.]  

[See the e-commentary at “Beans and Bullets (April 6, 2009)”, “We Ain’t Ants; We Are Grasshoppers (April 9, 2012)”, “On Community (June 3, 2013)”, “On Roiling And Rolling Collapse (March 9, 2015)”, “Lights Out:  Renegade Nuclear Plants (September 21, 2015)” and “Prepping:  Public and Private Perspectives (April 27, 2015)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Planet Earth, we have a problem

Why not plan?  Why not prepare?

There is no PLANet B.

Salvaging Our Blue Marble (July 24, 2017)

Posted in Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Plastic, Population on July 24, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .    

K          “We need to salvage our Blue Marble.  Even if we are required to sacrifice humanity.”

J          “The great challenge is creating an appreciation of our planetary circumstance without overwhelming the person.  Someone can easily shut off emotionally and shut down intellectually.”

. . .

K          “Leaving the planet in better shape than I found it . . . is getting vexing.”

. . .

[See “The Immense, Eternal Footprint Humanity Leaves on Earth:  Plastics” in “The New York Times” by Tatiana Schlossberg dated July 19, 2017.]

[See “The Uninhabitable Earth:  Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us:  What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think” in New York “Magazine” by David Wallace-Wells dated July 10, 2017.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Save The Blue Marble

Save the Marble

Bugging Out To N.Z.:  The Movie (June 26, 2017)

Posted in Airlines, Aviation, Climate, Collapse, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Kleptocracy, Movie Reference on June 26, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Last March while hanging around the hangar grounded by the weather, a few fly boys and girls were hangar flying the script for a movie about the New Zealand bug out estates that are all the rage among the parvenu jet set.  And mulled the job opportunities.  We posited three perspectives – the valiant and selfless pilot of one evacuation plane, the oligarch on another air ship, and a kleptocrat’s cute kid on the third bird who questions the insanity and absurdity of the scheme.”

J          “Bugging out is not without bugs and not just the ones implanted on the windscreen.  The first plane may never take off because of mechanical problems, the second air ship may be lost in transit because of navigation and communication difficulties occasioned by the Collapse, and the third bird may arrive to find tents, yurts, buses, campers and other structures and local folks trying to survive who are covering the runway and precluding a safe landing.”

. . .

J          “The thinking is that the pilot’s family must be accommodated on the manifest.  Imagine the pilot’s daughter caught in swelling traffic during the Collapse an hour from the airport compelling her father to stall the departure by claiming that the stall warning system is malfunctioning.  She is trying to taxi her Gremlin to the airport while her dad is faking a gremlin in the cock pit.” 

K          “So let’s say they get everyone safely buckled into the air ship.  Heat conspiring with altitude produces ‘density altitude’ that can ground a plane because the craft physically cannot lift off the ground.  Phoenix may have arisen from the ashes, but the planes at PHX may not arise from the tarmac in the summer.  WX is such a bugger.”

J          “If they lift the craft off the ground and then the GPS system goes south, they are left with no idea whether they are heading north or south.”

K          “The best laid plans.”

. . .

K          “No one is going to inquire whether you have made three touch and goes in the last ninety days.  However, can you make one takeoff and one landing in the next nine hours?”

. . .

K          “Imagine the surprise in the cockpit when they come upon the LZ in NZ.  ‘Robber Baron Estate traffic, N0666Whiskey turning final landing one three  . . .  Romeo Bravo traffic, 66Whiskey overflying the airport.’  No place to run (fly), no place to hide (land).”

J          “They could squawk 7700 to their heart’s delight in a world that will be indifferent to their flight and to their plight.” 

K          “Some of the helpless villagers have silently squawked 7500 all their lives to announce that their existence was indeed hijacked.”

. . .

J          “Even if they armed their jets and mowed down the little people down on the runway, they may not be able to rid the strip of detritus and dead bodies to make a safe landing.”

K          “Dollars are shackles.  If their money is no good, the wage slaves are suddenly emancipated.”

J          “Someone on the ground formerly enslaved on the payroll has little incentive to assist his or her oppressor.  And may perhaps harbor some resentment at his or her former master.”

. . .

K          “So are we on a CFIT or an UFIT?”

J          “We are UnFIT.”

. . .

K          “If you want to make the gods laugh, just share your plans with them.”

J          “We need to laugh.”

. . .

[See “‘Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich” in “The New York Times” by Evan Osnos dated January 30, 2017.]

[See the e-commentary on the prospects for the Empire and the planet passim.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

CFIT:  Society’s flightpath

We are way behind the power curve

No place to run (fly), no place to hide (land)

What happens when you are running out of altitude, airspeed and ideas at the same time?

Pull up . . . pull up . . . pull up.”  . . .  “Or level off if your airspeed is too low.”

Crank, yank and bank

Aviate, navigate, communicate

Fly the plane, fly it where you want it to go, tell someone about it

What are the two most dangerous words in aviation:  “Watch this.”

Stay tuned

Paris Accord; London Discord.  America Lost; America Last (June 5, 2017)

Posted in Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Climate, Gas/Fossil Fuel, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Trumpi on June 5, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Some Americans criticized the French complicity with the Germans during World War II.  Remember the jab:  ‘How many Frenchmen does it take to liberate Paris?  . . .  None.  The U.S. always has to do it.’”

J          “How the tide has turned polluted and the seas have risen.  ‘How many Americans does it take to repudiate Paris?  . . .  One.  The Emperor.  Il Duce.  Donaldo Trumpi.’”     

K          “‘How many citizens does it take to exonerate the United States?  . . .  Everyone.  The world has to do it.’”

. . .

K          “The greatest threat on the planet today is the threat to the planet today.”

J          “The ultimate act of terrorism.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Living In The ‘Peoplocene Age’.  The Inconvenient Truth:  Renewable Energy Is Not Sustainable; The Population Must Be Restrainable.  (December 12, 2016)” and at the “Categories” for “Global Climate Change” and for “Global Warming.”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

There is no PLANet B

Making America Lost Again

Making America Last Again

Making America Lose(rs) Again

Ask the Admirals

Price Carbon ($ C)

Sometimes I wrestle with my demons and sometimes we just snuggle

Title III –> Chapter 17:  Bankrupt States . . . Going Bankrupt (May 1, 2017)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Blue States / Red States, Canada, Cartoon Reference, Climate, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Kleptocracy, Pensions, Supreme Court on May 1, 2017 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Who thought the bricks would crumble.  The fifty brick house may not survive politically and will not endure economically.”

J          “The state of the states is dismal and abysmal.  When municipalities fold or water districts dry up, some interior curtain walls are dismantled and the curtains and furniture are sold.  Yet they are all just political subdivisions of the state, not a state itself.  Until recently, interior curtain walls were relieved whereas now the exterior load bearing walls are under stress.”

K          “Pick a metric.  If you input a realistic rate of return in calculating the solvency of state pension funds, most of them are not only under water, they are drowned with no chance of resuscitation or c.p.r.”

. . .

K          “Puerto Rico is the canary in the coal mine, the guinea pig and the alpha testing ground.  Congress concocted Title III’ as part of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA) that imports many of the notions of bankruptcy law to address the island’s insolvency.”

J          “Up north, the HealthCare of Ontario Pension Fund directed funds it may not have to bail out the Toronto-based Home Capital Group for investments it never should have made.”

K          “That seems to be some type of capitalistic synergistic entropy.”

. . .

K          “On this Law Day, we should consider drafting and crafting a ‘Chapter 17’ provision to allow a state to file bankruptcy and write the next chapter in the Bankruptcy Code and American polity.  A PROMESA on steroids for the states.”

J          “The legislation may attract bipartisan support because half of the seriously distressed states are ‘red’ states and half of the seriously depressed states are ‘blue’ states.”

K          “Alaska, Kentucky, South Carolina and Louisiana counterbalance Illinois, Connecticut, New Jersey and New York among the states that are going.  Going states need some way to go.”

. . .

K          “State supreme court justices use their position and power to advance their economic interests and protect their pensions.  In the court across the street, federal bankruptcy court judges will be forced to distribute a smaller sum of money in a more equitable and efficient manner to all citizens.”

J          “This Republic had such great promise.”

. . . 

[See the discussion of the Peoples Climate March for climate, jobs and justice in “Climate March Draws Thousands of Protesters Alarmed by Trump’s Environmental Agenda” in “The New York Times” by Nicholas Fandos dated April 29, 2017, “Climate March draws massive crowd to D.C. in sweltering heat” by Chris Mooney, Joe Heim and Brady Dennis in “The Washington Post” dated April 29, 2017 and yesterday’s Doonesbury cartoon.]

[See the e-commentary at “Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 1 (April 14, 2008)”, “Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 2 (April 28, 2008)”, “Outsourcing Pensions? (Sept. 7, 2009)”, “Pensions, Conflicts Of Interest And The Illinois Supreme Court (June 1, 2015)”, “May Day (May 1, 2006)” and other e-commentary under the Category on “Pensions.”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Chapter 17 – Coming to a state near you

The United States dominates the world not because it is a “City Upon a Hill” but because it shoots, and shoots regularly, from the top on the hill.