. . .
K “Workers Day.”
J “Builders Day.”
. . .
K “Workers must unite.”
J “And then bargain zealously or strike with zeal.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Labor Day. Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 3, 2018).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Workers And Builders Day. Oh, And Happy Labor Day! (September 4, 2023)
Posted in Middle Class, Work on September 4, 2023 by e-commentary.orgAnother BRICS In The Wall? (August 28, 2023)
Posted in BRICS, Great Transition, World's Reserve Currency on August 28, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “A few more BRICS in the Wall? Much if not most of the world is trying to erect a firewall to protect against US-led aggression and domination.”
J “But no one really knows. No one really cares. It is not a topic at the water cooler or around the bar-b-que. If I said BRICS, someone would think I was building a walkway. A few stragglers may have some idea.”
. . .
K “From the reports, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa appear to be admitting the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Argentina and Ethiopia to the Club. Look at the resources and population and land mass and other metrics. Collectively, the Club will wield a much bigger club.”
. . .
K “Seems to me that the most effective way to unite a group of folks with disparate goals and interests is to identify and demonize a common enemy especially one that is a true demon.”
J “Seems to be a truism not just of politics but of human nature. Overlooking internal divisions is easier with an outside divider threatening everyone. That is at play and at work.”
. . .
K “The United States does not have the individual talent or the talented institutions to recognize and adjust to changing realities. The United States does not have the human capital in positions of power. We are hosed.”
J “Bummer.”
. . .
J “The mess we are bequeathing to the kids is a real and an unreal and a surreal mess. No one really knows, yet there are a few stragglers who do care and are concerned but cannot figure out how to manifest their care and concern.”
K “Folks are restless and restive and not resting well. Things are festering faster and percolating precipitously.”
. . .
[For an exuberant but perhaps exaggerated perspective on the Great Transition, see “‘Welcome to the BRICS 11’” by Pepe Escobar, the recipient of the Sixth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2021 (June 7, 2021), dated August 25, 2023 in “thecradle.co”]
[See the e-commentary at Portentous Developments In 2022? (January 23, 2023), The China-Russia Affair: Advancing The Petro-Yuan; Dictating The Future (March 26, 2018), World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014), AIIB: China: 1; U.S.A. 0? (April 6, 2015), The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016), USA + FRN/PD — > IMF + SDR — > NDB + UMU? The “Universal Monetary Unit” . . . Coming To a Planet Near You (January 2, 2017) and One World Currency? (January 8, 2018).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
There is a disturbance in the force
There is a disturbance in the farce
Multipolarity – Coming to a planet near you
Dragon < Eagle > Bruin; Dragon + Bruin > Eagle; Eagle + Bruin > Dragon
Bummer
Back To School. “Credentialists” Versus “Human Capitalists”: STEM Classes – Arts & Crafts Classes – Education Classes (August 21, 2023)
Posted in Education, Propoganda, Schooling, Schooling Industrial Complex on August 21, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Most of the Arts & Crafts programs d/b/a Arts & Sciences at the most profitable universities are simply certifying that its graduates are obedient to and compliant with the Dominant Narrative.”
J “That is what the System wants and that is what the System produces and that is what the System gets. Yet some elements of the Dominant Narrative are dominant for a sound reason.”
. . .
K “Most STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs do create some human capital. Arts & Crafts Schools provide a mix of some useful skills along with the certificate of conforming behavior. The Arts & Sciences Schools certify that the individual is properly potty trained.”
. . .
J “Most education degrees could be distilled into four fundamental classes rather than slow rolled over four years. Education Schools leave their graduates with more student debt in a world that underpays teachers. How about a three year program and thirty percent increase in pay?”
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace. Confucius
All The People In Power. At Every Opportunity. All The Time (August 14, 2023)
Posted in Hypocrisy, Justice, Law on August 14, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
J “Absolutely. Without exception. Your ‘favorite’ politicians. My ‘favorite’ politicians. The big people who are supposed to protect the little people.”
K “The big people who are supposed to protect the little people. My ‘favorite’ politicians. Your ‘favorite’ politicians. Without exception. Absolutely.”
. . .
K “The Special Counsel regulations state in pertinent part: ‘The Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government.”
J “The way I see it, the regulation uses the mandatory verb ‘shall’ not the discretionary verb ‘may’ so the duty is clear and absolute and simple to implement. Even the non-lawyer can interpret the language. Maybe we need more non-lawyers to interpret the language.”
. . .
K “David Weiss is not outside the government.”
J “Nope.”
. . .
J “John Durham was not outside the government.”
K “Nope.”
. . .
K “Robert Mueller was outside the government?”
. . .
K “My ‘favorite’ politicians. Your ‘favorite’ politicians. Without exception. Absolutely.”
J “Absolutely. Without exception. Your ‘favorite’ politicians. My ‘favorite’ politicians.”
. . .
J “It is always an inside job.”
K “Last time I looked, I was on the outside.”
. . .
K “All the people in power breaking the law all of the time.”
J “At every possible opportunity.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
28 Code of Federal Regulations § 600.3 Qualifications of the Special Counsel “The Special Counsel shall be selected from outside the United States Government.” (Emphasis added.)
Near the end of the movie “Rancho Deluxe”, Slim Pickens said to Henry Dean Stanton: “Son, all large-scale crime is always an inside job.”
When Will They [Le Kennedys] Ever Learn?: The Answer Is: ASSANGE (August 7, 2023)
Posted in Cameo In Courage Award, Courage, Hypocrisy on August 7, 2023 by e-commentary.orgDear ___________,
The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation invites you to submit nominations for the annual Profile in Courage Award®!
Acts of courage happen at every level of government – and the Profile in Courage Award aims to recognize individuals who have taken a political risk to do what is in the greater good for their community, their constituents, and their country.
Founded by President Kennedy’s family, the award honors his legacy by celebrating leaders, like him, who act with integrity and conviction, regardless of the consequences.
Take a few minutes to nominate an elected official at the federal, state, or local level who you believe has demonstrated this exceptional political courage.
Thank you for your nomination and for helping us honor those who serve with courage and integrity.
Best wishes,
The JFK Library Foundation Team
. . .
K “They are brokering their award to curry favor with the ‘Parvenu PMC’ and other errand boys and girls. They are engaging in what I describe as ‘cross-credentialing’ with others.”
J “Everyone is hustling to get a bigger piece of the Racket.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Cameo In Courage Award Nominee: Julian Assange (January 31, 2022) and The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Alpha
Sierra
Sierra
Alpha
November
Golf
Echo
ASSANGE
Julain Assange’s continued incarceration is a continuing crime against humanity. Anyone concerned with free speech and the First Amendment should be appalled and incensed. By our silence and our indifference, we are all co-conspirators in a crime against humanity. And we just go on with life.
The Trenchant And Traumatic Hemingway (July 31, 2023)
Posted in Economics, Rackets, War, Writing on July 31, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Perhaps his best work. Done when he was young.”
J “He worked the trenches and wrote trenchantly.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary at Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend “War”; The “Racket” Continues (September 7, 2015) and Interest Rates ‘risin’? (March 30, 2015).]
Bumper stickers of the week:
“Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter.” Esquire, September 1935.
“Hills Like White Elephants”
“Up In Michigan”
“No one man nor group of men incapable of fighting or exempt from fighting should in any way be given the power, no matter how gradually it is given them, to put this country or any country into war. The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.”
. . .
“They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason. . . . The only way to combat the murder that is war is to show the dirty combinations that make it and the criminals and swine that hope for it and the idiotic way they run it when they get it so that an honest man will distrust it as he would a racket and refuse to be enslaved into it.”
Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War: A Serious Topical Letter,” Esquire, September 1935
American Foreign Policy: 1945 – ____ (July 24, 2023)
Posted in Foreign Policy, Terrorism, War, War and Wall Street Party on July 24, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “Bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, bomb, maim, kill, weaken, damage, destroy, undermine, overthrow, eviscerate, . . . .”
J “Some untidiness in the international arena is to be expected. The world is not a pretty place. An adult informed me as a kid that I should not pay any attention to what the United States does internationally to protect our security. However, the comment was not entirely reassuring even then. The world is not a pretty place.”
. . .
K “For seventy-eight years – for more than my entire life – the U.S. has been at war with the world. In 1945, the U.S. was in a position to be at peace with the world. Just read between the interstitial lines of every work from [Thomas] Bailey to [Norman] Graebner and edit the propaganda. The U.S. has not been pursuing a Global War on Terror, the U.S. initiated and continues to pursue a Global War of Terror on the globe. The great shining opportunity of the mid-century was squandered and squashed.”
. . .
K “Many years ago, Senator Frank Church took the country to church over its criminal activities abroad, yet whatever reforms he may have intended have been entirely subterfuged and undermined by the criminals.”
J “I could agree to some inquiry, yet what goes on in and by other countries is as criminal.”
. . .
K “The resentments are simmering. The blowback will be mind blowing.”
. . .
K “It did not need to be this way. It did not need to be this way. It did not need to be this way.”
. . .
[See “The Rise of China (and the Fall of the U.S.?)” by Alfred McCoy in “TomDispatch.com” posted on April 27, 2023 and “The EU brought to its knees by the Straussians” by Thierry Meyssan in “Voltaire.net” dated September 13, 2022.]
[See the e-commentary at Joint Base State-War (JBS-W) (April 25, 2022) and The Flag (May 31, 2010) and many other e-commentaries.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
America bombs bridges; China builds bridges
“No matter how paranoid or conspiracy minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you can imagine.” William Blum
Mom
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
?There Is No Peaceful Resolution? Oh, And Happy Bastille Day! (July 10, 2023)
Posted in Society on July 10, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “There is no peaceful resolution.”
J “No peaceful resolution is there.”
. . .
K “Now what?”
J “What now?”
. . .
J “Do what everyone does. Self-medication for the many. Self-immolation for the few. There is nothing you can do.”
K “That is too selfish. We need to unite the folks with the burning torches and the folks with the pitch forks in a common purpose. They have been at war with each other for far too long and overlooked or disregarded the real enemy.”
. . .
[See “The Lords of Chaos” by Chris Hedges in “SheerPost” dated March 19, 2023 and “Human Destiny in Ukraine” by Eve Ottenberg in “CounterPunch” dated April 7, 2023.]
[See the e-commentary at The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006), Fight Or Flight In The Face Of Fear? A Principled Reaction To Stand (November 30, 2020), On The Digital Revolution (March 22, 2010) and Economic Nuremberg Trials? The War On Economic Terrorism. Oh, And Happy Solstice! (June 25, 2018).]
Bumper sticker of the week:
“Those who make peaceful revolution [resolution] impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” John F. Kennedy
We Need Free Markets. Oh, And Happy Fourth! (July 3, 2023)
Posted in Free Markets, Freedom / Liberty on July 3, 2023 by e-commentary.org. . .
K “We need free markets.”
J “Agreed. That is a need.”
. . .
K “The federal government in the guise of the disguised ‘non-Federal’ Federal Reserve controls and directs almost every aspect of the economy and our daily lives more than any other command economy in history. We need businesses to fail then to bail but not to be bailed out.”
J “The very low interest rates until recently were a veiled daily bailout that insulated a company from the consequences of a normally functioning economy. That is hard to miss, but it is missed.”
. . .
K “The days of laissez-faire economics seem quaint and romantic. And vaguely appealing.”
. . .
K “That is a form of independence I would like to celebrate.”
J “Me too. We are not free until markets are free.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
Is there something less fair about a dollop of laissez-faire in our lives?
Give freedom a chance, albeit not a big chance
e-commentary 