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.”

Leave a comment »

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.org

Dear ___________,
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. 

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

?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

Leave a comment »

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

Leave a comment »

Read, But Don’t Read (June 26, 2023)

Posted in Newspapers, Truth on June 26, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Read ‘Consortium News’, but don’t read ‘The New York Times’.  Read ‘Naked Capitalism’, but don’t read ‘The Washington Post’.  Read ‘Wall Street On Parade’, but don’t read ‘The Wall Street Journal’.  Read the ‘South China Morning Post’, but don’t read ‘USA Today’.”    

. .  .

J          “Read ‘The New York Times’, but don’t read ‘Consortium News’.  Read ‘The Washington Post’, but don’t read ‘Naked Capitalism’.  Read ‘The Wall Street Journal’, but don’t read ‘Wall Street On Parade’.  Read some other paper, but don’t read ‘South China Morning Post’.”    

. . .

[See the diffident musings in “The New York Times Is A Disgusting Militarist Smut Rag” by Caitlin Johnstone, the recipient of the Fourth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2019 (April 15, 2019) in “www.caitlinjohnstone.com” dated March 27, 2023 and “New York Times Is Now Telling Bigger Lies Than Iraq WMDs and More Effectively” by David Swanson in www.WorldBeyondWar.com” dated April 11, 2023.]

[See the e-commentary at Information Silos / Echo Chambers (March 15, 2021), Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022 (May 9, 2022) and Fifth Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 12, 2020).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

“If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed.  If you do read the newspaper, you’re misinformed.”  Attributed to Mark Twain, but who knows

Leave a comment »

Juneteenth (June 19, 2023)

Posted in Freedom / Liberty, Slavery on June 19, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We need to remember.”

J          “We cannot forget.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Humanity’s Motto: To Enslave And To Colonize (January 27, 2014).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

To Enslave And To Colonize.  Hey, it’s who we are.

Leave a comment »

Stalking The Stalking Saber-toothed Tiger (June 12, 2023)

Posted in Society on June 12, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The Smilodon donned quite a smile.  Strategically curved white teeth.  Without orthodontics or whitener.  Or regular brushing.  Could have been a movie star.  Had to kill or be killed.  Killed and was killed.”

J          “You see it.  The critter explains life.  And death.  Sitting in the split-level cave with a flickering fire and nothing to eat in the last fortnight wondering if the saber-toothed tiger gets you or you get the saber-toothed tiger.”

K          “And today the saber-toothed tiger is much more subtle and cunning and menacing and camouflaged.  And stalking us everywhere and all the time.”

J          “Far more saber-toothed tigers are stalking us with less opportunity for us to harvest one than in recent memory.” 

. . .

J          “Airline seats will soon be modified baby chairs that may recline.  For a fee.”

K          “Another saber-toothed tiger stalking us.”

. . .

K          “The pack is scared.  The human pack.  Is scared.”

J          “You can feel it and smell it and hear it and see it and touch it.  Out there.  Everywhere.” 

. . .

K          “Those in power charge for access to water.  They will soon charge for access to oxygen.”

J          “As a society, we pursued oil and gas via fracking in the short run and in the process literally poisoned our water in the long run.”

K          “That is an 800-pound saber-toothed tiger.”

. . .

J          “And then there are Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS).”

K          “Another 800-pound saber-tooth tiger.” 

. . .

J          “When an airline charges for access to the bathroom on the plane, take note.”

K          “Another saber-tooth tiger stalking us.”

. . .       

[See the e-commentary in no special order at “Recurring Revenue”:  Inserting A Tentacle Into Every Pocket (August 29, 2022), Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Basically, Back To Basics:  Finding Food; Printing Rutabagas.  Happy Earth Day! (April 20, 2020), “Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Seven Years Later (January 10, 2022), “Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015)” Revisited:  The “Fondle Slab” Enslaves Us All (January 28, 2019), Monitoring The Masses:  The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015), Social (In)Security And The C.P.I. (May 29, 2017), Back Door Inflation (July 16, 2007), Fraudulent Frequent Flying Fiascos.  Oh, And Happy Canada Day and Independence Day! (July 2, 2018), Preserve Cash; Preserve (Some) Privacy (May 4, 2015), Close the Harvard Business School (February 23, 2009) and An Airline (Partial) Survival Guide (January 24, 2005).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Lion or Gazelle?

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the slowest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn’t matter if you are a lion or gazelle: when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

[Be the feline.  It does matter if you are a lion or a gazelle.  When . . .  and what does the gazelle get to eat?]

. . .

“War has also taught me that each one of us contains every ingredient of the human recipe.  By varying measure we are all cowards and brave men, thieves and honest men, selfish and selfless men, malingerers and champions, weasels and lions.  The only question is how much of each attribute we allow—or force—to dominate our being.”  Eric L. Haney, Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »