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Everything Is Still A Fight Today.  Oh, And Happy Civic Holiday (Canada)! (August 4, 2025)

Posted in Culture, Internet, Society on August 4, 2025 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Everything is still a fight today.”

J          “Everything.”

. . .

J          “Not available.”

K          “Not in stock.”

. . .

J          “Please hold.  For a long time.”

K          “Forever.”

. . .

K          “For your convenience.”

J          “For your inconvenience.”

. . .

K          “The country is broke.”

J          “The populace is broken.”

. . .

K          “The anger is percolating.  The rage is raging.  The undigested anger is festering.”

J           “Something insignificant will be the trigger.”

. . .       

[See the e-commentary at “Everything Is A Fight Today.” Please répondez s’il vous plaît. Oh, And Happy Solstice! (June 17, 2024), Weaponizing Turn Signals (September 19, 2022), Edward Hopper:  The Mirror For Our Age (January 22, 2024), The Other Sabot To Drop (April 18, 2022) and The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).]

“As I see it, the only pleasure of living is that every joke should be made, every thought expressed, every line of investigation, irrespective of its direction, pursued to the uttermost limits that human ingenuity, courage and understanding can take it.  The moment that limits are set … then the flavor is gone.”  Malcolm Muggeridge

Camping is cheaper than therapy, and you don’t have to talk to anyone.

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DeepSeek-R1!  Sputnik Moment?  Paradigm Shift?  Black Swan?  Genie / Bottle? (January 27, 2025)

Posted in China, Internet, Technology on January 27, 2025 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “A new, free, open-source, large language model?  Holy smokes!”

J          “Holy Toledo!  Seems from the early reports that the cost of training and developing DeepSeek’s model is only a small fraction of what is required for OpenAI or Meta Platform Inc.’s best products?  And available to everyone for free?  Say what?”

. . .

J          “The big American monopolists have invested massive amounts of money in hardware and energy centers that now may be less important if freely available software will do the trick.  They will lose huge monopolistic margins.  They will not be amused.”

K          “What appears to be a gift to the people of the world is also an existential threat to western financial interests.”

. . .

. . .

K          “Will the Deep State deep six DeepSeek?”

J          “The country that considers itself the greatest democracy is threatened by a program or protocol that democratizes artificial intelligence.”

. . .

J          “Stay tuned.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Will the Deep State deep six DeepSeek?

Stay tuned

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“Everything Is A Fight Today.” Please répondez s’il vous plaît. Oh, And Happy Solstice! (June 17, 2024)

Posted in Culture, Internet, Society on June 17, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I slide into the conversation that ‘everything is a fight today’ and elicit quick deep-seated and long simmering responses.  And nods of frightened understanding.”

J          “Because everything is a fight today.”

. . .

K          “The populace is anesthetized.  Zombieified.  Unable to act and unwilling, unless provoked, even to respond.”

J          “And they do not know what it is.  But on a primal level, they know it is coming.”

. . .

J          “Require a license akin to the shortwave radio technicians license to access the Internet.  Limit ‘anti-social media’ usage to 15 minutes a day.  What promised to bring the world together has blown it to smithereens.”

K          “Worth a try.  As long as there are no other restrictions or limitations on content.”

. . .

J          “I get it.  But when?”

K          “Moi aussi.  The uncertainty is the most debilitating impact.”

. . .

[See Edward Hopper:  The Mirror For Our Age (January 22, 2024), The Other Sabot To Drop (April 18, 2022) and The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Everything is a fight today.

What promised to bring the world together has blown it to smithereens.

Répondez s’il vous plaît

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Go Away Go Daddy (December 18, 2023)

Posted in Internet on December 18, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “In the embryonic days of the Internet, upstart Go Daddy sported sleazy and cheesy ads during sporting events.  I overlooked and disregarded the ads and purchased a website.  As the years have gone on, the prices to renew have gone up despite no major increase in the cost of administering a site.  Then they created a program that purports to do what they already promised to do, but at an additional annual or monthly charge.  The exploitation does not end.”

J          “I saw that.  Two-step verification is standard practice today.  Double-checking that the credit card information is correct is in their interest because they cannot legally take money from someone else’s account.  You have already paid for the service and now they want to assess a recurring fee for the service.  It is everywhere.  All the time.  Another 800 lb. sabre tooth tiger has been uncaged to terrorize the public.”

. . .

K          “At times, the 800 lb. sabre tooth tiger behaves more like a reticulated python that wraps around its victim and slowly squeezes the life out of it.”

J          “The reticulated python squeezes and squeezes and squeezes and squeezes and squeezes and squeezes its prey.  The sabre tooth tiger pounces and kills.  The reticulated python is a better analogy to describe the recurring charges.”   

. . .

K          “The latest scam is probably the handiwork of a recent graduate of the madrassa for financial terrorism.”

J          “The Harvard Business School never changes.  Business in America never improves, it only rots.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Recurring Revenue”:  Inserting A Tentacle Into Every Pocket (August 29, 2022) and Stalking The Stalking Saber-toothed Tiger (June 12, 2023).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Our Domain Ownership Protection plan keeps your domain protected from hackers by requiring 2-step verification for vital changes like transferring or deleting a domain.  Our Ultimate Domain Protection plan also holds your domain for 90 days if your credit card or billing method expires at renewal.”  Go Daddy

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Is Tucker Carlson The Walter Cronkite Of Our Day? (July 17, 2023)

Posted in Internet, Journalism on July 17, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J         “No.”

. . .

J          “Nope.”

. . .

J          “No way.”

. . .

J          “Not a chance.”

. . .

J         “Not in a million, two hundred seventy-four thousand, six hundred and thirteen years.”

. . .

K          “He asks questions.  He listens to answers.  He challenges conclusions.”

. . .

J          “Not with a 3.048 meter pole.”

. . .

K          “I can assure you that I am deeply surprised to find myself even entertaining the hypothesis.  He was at Faux.”

. . .

J          “He is a snake oil salesman selling poisonous snake oil.”

. . .

K          “He is taking flak.”

. . .

J          “Nyet.”

. . .

K          “He is close to the target.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Tulsi, MSM, NYT, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Real News, Fake News, Neo-McCarthyism.  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 28, 2019) and Russian Interference; Russian Collusion.   Epilogue (March 25, 2019).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“The more flak you get the closer you are to the target.”  World War Two bomber’s observation

“In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”  Bertrand Russell

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The Obscene Crime That Is Censorship And Shadow Banning (April 10, 2023)

Posted in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Censorship, Google, Internet on April 10, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Every week for many months for many years, when I typed in “www.e-commentary.org” to review the weekly e-commentary, Google regurgitated a list of biblical babble.  Even scrolling through all the Google pages rarely provided access to “www.e-commentary.org”.  A few workarounds to gain access worked at times.  Ten years ago or so, an early and rudimentary form of censorship blocked the site before anyone even suspected the extent of the rampant censorship.  AI likely was not sophisticated enough.  What is most troubling is that a person or persons had to review the content and then program the algorithm to block the site.  The censorship today is much more subtle and much more pervasive and much more pernicious.”

. . .

K          “If I type in “The Two Great Geopolitical Elections:  China in 2014-15; Russia in 2022-23 (March 20, 2023)”, a neutral algorithm should return “The Two Great Geopolitical Elections:  China in 2014-15; Russia in 2022-23 (March 20, 2023)”.  However if I type in “The Two Great Geopolitical Elections:  China in 2014-15; Russia in 2022-23 (March 20, 2023)” and even add “www.e-commentary.org”, the Google algorithm shanghaies the viewer to other sites that pay it lucre and purvey official narratives.  Google violates the public trust and breaches the social contract and breaks the law.  Try it at home.  Try it right now.  Try it again later tonight.  Try it again later this week.  Any person can replicate the results.”

. . .

J          “I tried it at home.  I typed in “The Elections Clause And The Independent State Legislature Theory Confront Sound Logic And Settled Practice (December 12, 2022)” and expected Google to respond with “The Elections Clause And The Independent State Legislature Theory Confront Sound Logic And Settled Practice (December 12, 2022).”  Nope.  Other sites are linked.  I get it.  The Internet is not your friend.  Not mine either.”  

. . .

[See “Fighting Shadow-Banning. The Seneca Blog Lands on Substack” by Ugo Bardi in “The Seneca Effect” dated March 23, 2023 (“‘Shadow Banning’ (also ‘soft banning’, or ‘ghost banning’) is a clever way to make someone disappear from the Web, without giving the impression that he or she has been censored (*).  It simply consists in making one’s website disappear from the first pages of the search engines.  It works:  you get lost in the vast prairies of the Internet and your readers can’t find you anymore.  It happened even to Donald Trump when he was still president.”] 

[Google and DuckDuckGo and Brave all respond to a search for https://assangedefense.org/ with a . . . “504 Gateway Time-out”.  Censored again and again and again.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“As of my knowledge cutoff date in September 2021, e-commentary.org does not appear to be a widely recognized or influential website within the realms of finance, economics, or politics.  It is possible that the website has changed or gained prominence since then, but I don’t have any specific information about its content or mission.” ChatGPT-4.

“Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.” Isaac Asimov

The Internet is not your friend.

April 11:  Rallies for Julian Assange in various cities

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Boycott DuckDuckGo (July 11, 2022)

Posted in Boycott Series, Internet on July 11, 2022 by e-commentary.org

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

. . .

J          “Not a surprise.  Everything involving or affiliated with the Internet has been and is being used for evil.  When I started hearing ads on the radio for the Duck and then heard that the search engine was censoring speech, I knew it was on the dark side.” 

K          “Another search engine will come along . . . and be used for evil.”

J          “And then another.”

. . .

[See the “The DuckDuckGo Controversy” reprinted in “Peak Prosperity” dated May 29, 2022 by Terence Kam.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”  Eric Hoffer

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Disinformation Governance Board / Ministry Of Truth (May 2, 2022)

Posted in Censorship, Information / Disinformation, Internet, Newspapers, Press/Media on May 2, 2022 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Information should be unfiltered.”

J          “Information should be curated.”

. . .

K          “Almost all of our current problems spring from information interference.”

J          “Almost all of our current problems spring from a failure to interfere with misinformation.”

. . .

K          “The people must be obligated to filter information.”

J          “The government must be obligated to curate information.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

DGB = KGB?

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Pulchritudinous Pay Walls (July 26, 2021)

Posted in Digital, Internet, Journalism on July 28, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Beautiful, baby.”

J          “If you barrier it, they will not come?  Hopefully.”

. . .

K          “We should be so lucky.  Some sites are bivouacked behind a paywall of some sort that may limit their fan base without expanding their profits.  That is promising.”

J          “If you build it behind a barrier, they will not necessarily come.  There is hope.”

. . .

K          “The barriers used to mine the viewer’s wallet are varied.  Either there is an absolute pay wall, or a pay wall that applies to articles on one walled day but not on another open day, or a part one ‘teaser’ and a blocked part two promising all the salacious insights, or a plebeian site that is a ‘come on’ to a patrician product accessed by a secret code available only to club members.”

J          “Some sites require one to be a premium member to view or post comments.  Easy enough.  I don’t view or post comments.  I don’t participate.  I boycott.”

. . .

J          “When you black hole yourself into a vortex, your own computer is instantly infested and infected with something quaintly called ‘cookies’ and other technological cancers.  Ads drop from above and rise from below and are hurled from the left flank and the right flank.  Things explode from nowhere and everywhere.  The assault does not end until you manage to crawl out of the maelstrom.  The Internet.  It is not a pretty place.”

. . .

K          “The few stray Prophets With Honor out there are not making much profit.  They deserve support.  They are not getting it.”

J          “They deserve a listen.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

DON’T CLICK ON IT!

If you are not paying for the product, you are indubitably the prey

The Internet.  It is not for the fainthearted.

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TeeVee, The Fondle Slab And L’Internet (May 17, 2021)

Posted in Fondle Slab, Internet, Our Future?, Society, Television on May 17, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Last time I ventured a guess, I concluded that I watch about 30 hours of traditional television a year.  Some of the viewing is logged under ‘social science research’ rather than ‘entertainment’ or ‘educational’ activities.  You will not be surprised to be reminded that I still have no television cable service.”

J          “About 50 hours, give or take about 50 hours.  Or a little more or less.  Some of our watching is hybrid television.  The only boob tube in the house is ensconced in the corner in the basement near other things in storage.”

. . .

K          “Now the amount of time I am enslaved by the fondle slab is another story.  A daily nightmare really.  Too much viewing.  Je suis addicted.”

J          “You may cut the cord, but we all are tethered by the signal.  If I could do it, I would do away with the Internet entirely including all the positive avenues and opportunities it has created.  Eliminate.  The.  Internet.  Period.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at ““Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Revisited:  The “Fondle Slab” Enslaves Us All (January 28, 2019)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

If you are not paying for the product, you are the prey

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