The “New York Department Of Defense Times” Proclaims:  “War On!”  Oh, And Happy Second [Tenth] Anniversary! (February 26, 2024)

Posted in Russia, Ukraine, War on February 26, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “I’ll concede that if ‘The New York Times’ says it, the Department of Defense wants us to know it.  What is it they want us to know?  Why do they want us to know it?” 

. . .

K          “The beginning of World War III is now rewound nunc pro tunc to ten years ago.”

. . .

K          “My take a day later?  The article is another desperate plea and ploy for more and more and more and more funding for the War.  This is also the first step in the ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’ argument.  The U.S., the argument goes, has always been there in Ukraine and thus should continue to be there until the end.  This is the sotto voce declaration of war by the U.S. two years after the start of the Special Military Operation.”  

. . .

J          “Russia is still a threat.  However, I do not believe the A Team is in charge of the USA Team.  Things are getting out of control.  Where are the adults in the situation room?”

. . . 

K          “I am concerned that events are getting out of control of even the most powerful individuals and governments who delude themselves into believing they are in control.”

J          “Some powerless folks are concerned that things are way out of control.  Listen to folks on the street.”

. . .

K          “Both Russia and the USA face existential threats. Neither will yield without going nuclear.”

J          “Neither will yield without going nuclear.”

. . .

[See “The Spy War:  How the C.I.A. Secretly Helps Ukraine Fight Putin” by Adam Entous and Michael Schwirtz in The New York Times dated February 25, 2024.]

[See the e-commentary from two years ago at The Cuban Missile Crisis And The Monroe Doctrine Today (February 28, 2022), N. Propaganda R. Transcribed:  “Get Vaccinated.  Attack Russia.”  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 21, 2022) and the prescription in Washington Wants War In The Worst Way:  Dust Off The IOSAT Or Return To The Status Quo Ante Bellum? (January 24, 2022).  See also the existential threat to the world discussed at Existential Threat + Existential Threat = World War.  Are We Mired In World War E[conomic] / World War III? (November 21, 2022).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

War on!

I can see what is coming; I can do nothing about it.

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Le Draft.  And A Day Of Remembrance.  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 19, 2024)

Posted in Draft, Hypocrisy, War, World War III on February 19, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Two months ago, they drafted Frank Murkowski to shill for the Draft.  Release the trial balloon from the far North and let it drift down to real America.  Get a few people chatting.  Then have some other MSM publications publicize the idea.  And voilà, the idea is floating around out there in the public space and is a part of the Narrative.”

J          “And published the piece on the Winter Solstice, the darkest day in the North.  He packaged it as two years of public service.  That I support.  But there is another message lurking between the lines.”

K          “Two years of public service, I heartily support.  The Draft is problematic.  I have said that it may create a tiny constituency opposed to war, but that is a quixotic notion.”

. . .

J          “As I recall, I noted back on Armistice Day in 2017 that in the early 1970’s, the Draft became an inconvenient nuisance for the well-connected such as George Bush, Richard ‘Dick’ Cheney, Rudolph Giuliani, John Ashcroft, John Bolton, Mittens Romney and Donaldo Trump.  Dodging the Draft required pulling strings with the local draft board to get a deferment or hiding in the state national guard or fleeing to Europe or faking a hangnail.  In response, many corporate think tanks, some owned by their parents, started thinking of a scheme to keep their kids out of tanks and in the corporations.  The answer was to end the formal Draft now, release their kids from the duties of citizenship and  . . . impose economic indentured servitude on the underclass.  That changed the incentive structure for war.”

K          “And Bill Clinton.  Those sound like your exact words.” 

. . .

J        “It is a real head-scratcher.  Democrats such as John Kennedy, George McGovern, Max Cleland and Jim Webb are decorated war veterans who questioned America’s pursuit of unending war all over the globe all the time.  Al Gore and John Kerry have lost their way.  The Bush, Cheney, Giuliani, Ashcroft, Bolton, Romney and Trumpi Republicans are craven draft dodgers who fledged into chickenhawks and favor and savor sending other people’s kids off to die in useless wars that advance their economic interests.” 

K          “Life in America.  And death in America.  Have you noticed that the warring class who use other people’s money to take money from other people also take other people’s kids to take other people’s lives in their wars?”

. . .

K          “Continuing to pursue World War III through the next stages is going to require more cannon fodder.  Despite using poverty as the incentive for enlistment, a growing number of kids recognize they will indeed be little more than cannon fodder for wars that never end.  They are listening to what is happening and not enlisting.”

. . .

K          “His piece reads like an endorsement for a new Civilian Conservation Corps, but I suspect he is really trying to corral the cannon fodder.”

J          “He is.”

. . .

[Take some time to see and read the e-commentary at Reinstate The Draft; Reduce The Demand For War (Somewhat). Oh, And Happy Veterans Day! (November 6, 2017), Giuliani – Draft Dodger And Chickenhawk (March 2, 2015), Imposing The Draft . . . At State (November 19, 2007), Afghanistan:  The Usual Lies And Liars.  Oh, And Happy I.F. Stone’s Birthday! (December 16, 2019) and Smedley And Ernest On Our Friend “War”; The “Racket” Continues (September 7, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Chickenhawks For War

“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.”  Ernest Hemingway, “Notes on the Next War:  A Serious Topical Letter”, “Esquire”, September 1935.

Crafting the Lottery for the Draft:

Automatically Assigned Draft Number 1:

  • Off spring of any politician who votes for any form or approval of military action including abdicating that responsibility to the President;
  • Off spring of operating officers and majority owners of all military contractors;
  • Off spring of operating officers, majority owners, senior editors and editorial writers, and hosts of major media outlets;
  • Off spring of all operating officers, partners and majority owners of major banks, financial services companies, hedge funds and private equity firms;
  • All national security advisors and foreign policy personnel advocating for military intervention regardless of age and their off spring;
  • All American members and employees above janitorial and secretarial staff of the Carlisle Group, BlackRock, Vanguard and their off spring.

Draft Number 2:

  • All graduate students, and undergrads within two years of graduating, and anyone who graduated in the previous four years from all Ivy League and U.S. News and World Report Top 25 Colleges and Universities.  Anyone who qualified for financial aid or worked twenty hours a week while in school is excepted.

Off spring means all children and grandchildren between the ages of 18 and 45.
Deferments are limited to those who qualify as disabled according to 2024 standards.  Faking a disability will result in a thirty-year (30) prison sentence with no parole.

Any decision to intervene militarily triggers the Draft.  Only after everyone with Draft Numbers 1 and 2 are inducted and serving will anyone else even be summoned for the Draft.

Any decision.

Draft beer not boys and members of the Ruling Class

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So It Was The Red Sea And Credit Suisse.  Who’s Counting?  (Strait of Hormuz or Deutsche Bank?  Deriving Derivatives (July 8, 2019)) (February 12, 2024)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Derivatives, Trade on February 12, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The Red Sea rather than the Strait of Hormuz.  Big difference.  Who’s counting.”

J          “A Swiss bank rather than a German bank.  Big difference.  Who’s counting.”

. . .

J          “You were right.  Different bottleneck; same strategy.  A motley group of characters are putting a few dents in a few ships and fundamentally transforming international shipping and commercial transactions.” 

K          “You were right.  The Swiss banking regulators forced UBS to acquire Credit Suisse by taking money away from the bondholders and giving it to the stockholders.  That breaches one of the Fundamental Rules of Business and Commerce.  They cannot even strong arm a shotgun wedding legally.”

. . .

J          “And on this continent, the banking system collapsed last year but was artificially and illegally propped up by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, at least for a while.”

K          “Seems that everything involving banking is always done illegally.  When the Swiss and the Germans . . . and the Americans . . . are unable to run banks profitable, we are all in trouble.”

. . .

K          “When does the derivatives market explode?”

J          “You can say that again.  When does the derivatives market explode?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Strait of Hormuz or Deutsche Bank?  Deriving Derivatives (July 8, 2019), Special Edition.  Deciphering Derivatives.  Oh, And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! (March 17, 2023), Too Much Dirt; Too Few Rugs. Repurchase Agreements (September 23, 2019) and The Economic Equinox:  Half Light; Half Dark? (September 25, 2023).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Coming to a planet near you

There are two kinds of vessels in the Navy:  submarines and targets.

You have to be accurate every time.  Your adversary only has to be accurate once.

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Oh, And Happy Mexican Constitution Day! (February 5, 2024)

Posted in General on February 5, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Mexico’s Constitution was legalized on February 5, 1917.”

J          “Seems today rather than in three months is the big red letter day.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Mexico’s Constitution was legalized on February 5, 1917.

This Is A Hybrid:  Gasoline & Duct Tape

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China Invaded . . . And Won!  Oh Well. (January 29, 2024)

Posted in China, Economy, Kleptocracy, Trade on January 29, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “How does one explain why there is such a fuss over China possibly invading Taiwan when there was so little effusion over China invading the USA.”

J          “And winning.”

. . .

K          “For most of our adult life, the American economy has been and is being destroyed, disemboweled and dismembered.  A crook like Harry Stonecipher destroyed, disemboweled and dismembered a brilliant American jewel – Boeing.  A thug like Jack Welch destroyed, disemboweled and dismembered a shining American icon – General Electric.  Destruction from within a company.  And economic criminals like ‘Mitts’ Romney and Peter Singer and so many others destroyed companies from without.”

J          “In the patois of our age, would ‘Domestic Economic Terrorist’ appropriately describe them?”

K          “And then they get appointed to a presidential cabinet position or even run for or get into the White House.”

 . . .

K          “Those in power are only concerned with Washington and Wall Street not with Waukesha and Wabash.”

J          “Our friend the ‘War and Wall Street Party’ grinds on and over and around and through us.”

. . .

K          “Look at how it was accomplished.  With the active cooperation and complicity of the Ruling Class of the United States, China invaded the Greater Midwest writ large of America. . . and took over.  The invasion was undertaken not with people and bullets but instead with United States politicians/businessmen and plant closings.  The good people in the Greater Midwest writ large know that they have been conquered and vanquished.  China also stormed the beaches and invaded the two Golden Coasts . . . and took over.  However, the fools on the two Golden Coasts do not know that they too have been conquered and vanquished.”

. . .

J          “Someone was sounding that message more than five years ago.  The Mandarin language class on Tuesday nights prepares one to interpret the conversations of the prison guards at the re-education camp.  And some of us will be quickly identified and shipped to the re-education camp.  Or shot on sight.” 

. . .    

[See the e-commentary at Mitt’s “Destructive Destruction”: The Bane of Capitalism (July 9, 2012) and Volkswagen (VW).  The Bottom Half Of The German Engineering Class Must Go Somewhere.  Boeing? (July 1, 2019).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

We could be getting into trouble

Three “D” USA Economic Policy:  Destroy, Disembowel and Dismember

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Edward Hopper:  The Mirror For Our Age (January 22, 2024)

Posted in Art, Society on January 22, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “Edward Hopper.  Top of the list.  He captures and distills the disconnection and alienation of the nation . . . in his time . . . and in our time . . . in a subtle haunting and disturbing way.”

. . .

K          “Everyone knows.  Something is wrong.  Something is amiss.  Something is fetid and festering.  Yet everyone knows they do not know everything.  Everyone knows they may not know specifically, but they do know that they know generally.  That certain uncertainty is toxic and crippling and debilitating and alienating.”

J          “If you pay attention, you really can see it and hear it and feel it and smell it . . . and even taste it.”

. . .

J          “Photoshop a Fondle Slab into every other paw.  Etch a tattoo or two on their torso, too.  Turn the top hats into backwards baseball caps.  Modify the visages from resigned acceptance to coiled and undigested anger.”

K          “He captures the loneliness and emptiness and the milieu with a quiet dignity.”

. . .

J          “Even if not a thing is changed, his work captures his age and our age . . . and our restrained outrage.”  

. . .

[See the recent e-commentary at On Friendship Today:  Flat, Fried, Frayed, Frazzled, Frozen, Fractured, Fissured, Fatigued, Finished?  Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 20, 2023) and The Other Sabot To Drop (April 18, 2022) and some vintage observations at The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006) and Depleted Uranium Disease (DUD) (March 30, 2009); see the January e-commentary on the Fondle Slab 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:

When all this social distance stuff is over, I still want people to stay away from me.

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MLK, Jr. (January 15, 2024)

Posted in Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Race, Society, War on January 15, 2024 by e-commentary.org

Take five minutes to reflect . . . and then go on with the demands of life.

Bumper sticker of the week:

“The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and racism.  The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a radical redistribution of political and economic power.”  MLK, Jr.

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January 6:  The Country Needs An Impartial And Objective Inquiry (January 8, 2024)

Posted in Collapse, Corruption, Elections on January 8, 2024 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Then I had no doubt.  Now I do.  A more reasoned and seasoned analysis has slowly supplanted a quick emotional reaction.  And I have had time to learn more, talk with many others and give it more thought.”

J          “Three years later, I have no doubt.  It was an insurrection.”

. . . 

K          “Someone who voted and will vote for Biden and anyone else foisted on this country by the DNC pulled me aside and confessed that he is deeply troubled that his law enforcement friends on the inside told him they were expressly ordered to stand down and not call for reinforcements in the face of a disorderly group.  A piece of uncontroverted evidence from his trusted old home boys shared over coffee still rattles him three years later.  He is on the first step on the road to Truth, but he admits that he does not and will not take another step.”

J          “No one on the inside forced them to climb the walls and break through the barriers and enter the building.  Someone on the outside encouraged them to climb the walls and break through the barriers and enter the building.”

. . .

K          “I worked near Jenkins Hill fifty years ago when Washington, D.C. was a sleepy southern town with modest security and muggy summers.  In 1974, a few harmless citizens started chanting for a change in our Southeast Asian war policy at the southwest base of the Hill.  The area is north of Independence Avenue and just west of First Street, Southwest.  I was in the Rayburn Building and saw the walls pivot open and discharge phalanxes of SWAT teams that barged through the crowd and charged outside to confront the citizens.  I was asked to and did immediately leave the building and was positioned outside to chronicle the confrontation.  The police presence was so overwhelming and the citizens were so well mannered that nothing came of it.  The police allowed the citizens to flash signs and chant for change but not enter the building.  No one was hurt.  No one was arrested.  The First Amendment was not bruised.  Since those bucolic days, the level of security – visible and largely hidden – has mushroomed and created an impregnable fortress with fluted columns on the Hill.”

J          “I vaguely recall getting drafted by someone on a blustery, nasty, rainy and chilly Saturday morning to attend a demonstration to get the country out of Iraq.  We walked from the Capitol South Metro station to the same southwest side of the Hill.  The police had designated an area to congregate surrounded by a circular ring of blue motor scooters, officers astride horses and two rows of officers equipped for war.  A few speakers spoke to the fifty or so folks without incident and then everyone disbanded to go home and get dry and warm.  The Metro was dry and warm.  The police do know how to put the populace in their place.”

K          “I have been charged by one of those phalanxes . . . and felt sympathy for the horses.”

. . .

K          “After the riots broke out after King was terminated in 1968, I remember the newspaper picture of members of the 82nd Airborne drilling multiple triangles of holes to bolt tripods to the top of the western wall of the Capitol.  The rioters were approaching street by street from the northwest.”

J          “They meant business.  They need to mean business.  It can be a mean business.”

. . .     

K          “I believe everyone should be required to take off his or her shoes and to wear some more formal attire to enter, so you can put me down as one who does not countenance anyone breaking anything or breaching an entrance without permission.”

J          “From what I saw, no one even wiped his or her shoes before entering.”

. . .

K          “If I had not been subject to a self-imposed Covid travel embargo, I would have been there in person on the Mall with my reporter’s notebook and Steve Job’s Hasselblad on January 6, 2021 to chronicle the event.”

. . .

K          “We need to include a discussion of the Tractorcade events of February 5, 1979 on the agenda.  I did not have a camera then.  Or a cell phone.  That was quite a spectacle.  The snow rained on their parade.”

. . .

K          “Keep it simple.  Occam’s Razor comes into play again yet is applied differently than in your prior application.  There is one rule in this situation that has no exception:  No one gets into the Capitol unless allowed into the Capitol by those in the Capitol.  If you knew nothing about the situation and applied only Occam’s Razor, any plausible explanation must comport with this one fundamental rule. The Capitol is Joint Base House-Senate.”

J          “I restate my case.  No one on the inside forced them to climb the walls and break through the barriers and enter the building.  Someone on the outside encouraged them to climb the walls and break through the barriers and enter the building.”

. . .

K          “There is more to the story.  For the sake of the country, the country needs to empanel an impartial committee to provide an inquiry into what went on that day.  Keep in mind the people we are dealing with up there, Democrats and Republicans.  On their best day, they are ruthless and amoral.  Many of them could get the Devil to gag.  Everything is always more complex than it initially appears.”

J          “Or more simple.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at On Riots And Rampages (January 11, 2021).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Be skeptical

Be very skeptical

Be profoundly skeptical

The Capitol is Joint Base House-Senate

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.”

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e-commentary:  Approaching A Score Years Of Fun And A Mille Posts! (December 31, 2023 / January 1, 2024)

Posted in Year In Review on December 31, 2023 by e-commentary.org

. . .

    Peaking behind the curtain, lifting up the carpet, looking under the table.  Honing skills, helping folks, having fun.  Venturing answers to questions that have not yet been asked, seeking to elucidate as much Truth on as many issues in as few words as possible, striving to leave a “commentary of record” for Clio’s consideration.  Chronicling the American experiment and the American experience, the theory and the practice, the promise and the performance, and the aspirations and the aftermath.  Doing something was paramount.  

           “Polymath” was a provocative but too nerdy title; many folks are turned off by a lot of math.  “essay.org” and “e-essay.org” were taken.  “e-ssay.org” turned out to be the perfect abbreviation of “electronic essay” and provided the original title for this undertaking for years.  In the first few years, taut, short, cogent, succinct and focused “e-ssays” told people what to think rather than suggesting ideas to think about during the following week.  Reveal, don’t tell, they wisely decree.  Conversation provides a rapid ping-ponging of ideas.  After a few years, “e-commentary.org” emerged and provided “electronic commentary” using dialogue to allow the reader to listen in on the discussion rather than being told what to think.  The pieces are laced with many little lagniappes for the diligent reader to discover and deduce. 

    Over the past two years, most of the topical pieces focus on the wrenching, painful and uncertain transition from a uni-polar world to a multi-polar world evolving on an overpopulated planet undermined by debilitating debt – government, corporate and personal.  See the e-commentary at Portentous Developments In 2022? (January 23, 2023), Counting Battered Bodies Badly.  Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 13, 2023), World War E / World War III Is 1 [9?] Year[s] Old This Week.  Oh, And Happy Presidents’ Day! (February 20, 2023), The Two Great Geopolitical Elections:  China in 2014-15; Russia in 2022-23 (March 20, 2023), Russia Is PLANet B!  We Are Saved! (March 27, 2023) and World War I (18__ – 1918).  World War II (19__ – 1945).  Planetary Implosion l (Festering For Decades / 2022 – ____) Oh, And Happy Armistice Day! (November 6, 2023).  Some of the economic, financial, political and social consequences of the transition are discussed at Special Edition.  Deciphering Derivatives.  Oh, And Happy Saint Patrick’s Day! (March 17, 2023), CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currencies):  The End Of Freedom, Privacy, Dignity, Sovereignty And Humanity.  And What Happens When AI (Artificial Intelligence) Takes Over Control Of CBDCs?  (April 17, 2023), “De-Dollarization” Is The Word Of The Week.  And The Development Of the Year. (April 24, 2023) and The Economic Equinox:  Half Light; Half Dark? (September 25, 2023).  Few understand what is happening; fewer are prepared for what is happening.  Interesting times.  Some of the lighter pieces this year glance at our follies, foibles and failures and also our hopes, dreams and successes.  United States of America V. Thomas Jefferson: The Transcript (September 18, 2023), The Trenchant And Traumatic Hemingway (July 31, 2023) and others.

    The “On [Traits / Characteristics]” Series acknowledges the father of the essay, Michel de Montaigne, who explored individual traits and personal characteristics.  He shared personal ruminations and anecdotes about society in his celebrated collection Essais (e-ssais?).  Earlier “e-ssays” on this site ruminate on respect, fear, admiration, irreverence, success, self-esteem, regret, standards/quality, loyalty, hypocrisy, honesty, empathy, joy, mudita, etc.  This year the concern is On Friendship Today:  Flat, Fried, Frayed, Frazzled, Frozen, Fractured, Fissured, Fatigued, Finished?  Oh, And Happy Thanksgiving! (November 20, 2023) in the current post-Covid climate.

          The “Less Government Regulation” Series posits examples where government regulation may suffocate and free markets may suffice.  An e-commentary in the series in 2009 advocates for regulation of Google/Alphabet in an economy that is now pockmarked by monopolization of every industry in America.  Subsequent e-commentary challenges the overweening role of the Frightful Five – Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google/Alphabet and Microsoft.  A half dozen mega–banks and six media conglomerates control and manage our money and our minds.  In an economy without any price discovery, the completion of the “General Theory of Economics” is forced into remission.  The need for free markets is discussed at We Need Free Markets.  Oh, And Happy Fourth! (July 3, 2023).

          The “Boycott” Series suggests that readers treat dollars like votes in the marketplace and use them to support and reject policies and activities.  An e-commentary in the series in 2008 proposed a boycott of Facebook because it and the other tech beasts and behemoths are not friendly.  Boycotting the only supplier of an essential good or service is problematic and is addressed.  An e-commentary in 2011 proposed boycotting big banks and depositing funds in and supporting local credit unions.  An early e-commentary in 2006 implores the reader never to boycott and always to buy into the franchise, even if voting appears to and may be futile in a country with only one political party, the War and Wall Street Party.  The notion of purposeful boycotting undergirds the discussion in Read, But Don’t Read (June 26, 2023).

          The “First Monday In October” Series debuted in 2010 with a discussion of “strict constructionism/originalism” in the context of gun control that should resolve the debate over the proper paradigm for all and once.  Subsequent e-commentary in the Fall series provide insight into the Supreme Court, courts and the state of the law, justice, crime and punishment in America.  The emerging irrelevance and illegitimacy of the current Supreme Court is discussed for the first times in 2011 and then in 2012 and developed in subsequent e-commentary.  Regular visits to the Court to observe the hired help further inform the analysis in the draft “Treatise on Law” now in nearly final form.  This year a few issues are discussed at The Government Stumbles; The Judicial Legislature Rumbles (October 2, 2023).

          The “Graduation Advice” Series is inspired by the national treasure “Wear Sunscreen” crafted by Mary Schmich and proposes a pithy suggestion for graduates of school and participants in life.  Advice was dispensed in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (Graduation Advice:  Transcend:  Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude) (May 16, 2022)) and 2023 (Graduation Advice:  Find The First Amendment (May 15, 2023)). 

        The greatest threat to the Planet is the threat to the Planet.  Posed and poised and poisoned by Man.  [Wo]Man versus [Mother] Nature?  Pl–as–ti–cs and plu–tonium versus People?  Is Man the mortal enemy who must be contained by whatever means?  Is a carbon fee and dividend program the long-shot market-based solution capable of salvaging the vulnerable blue marble? 

          Over the years other e-commentary reviews everything from the human causes to the economic consequences of actions and inaction.  e-commentary addresses everything from philosophy to foreign policy to domestic polity; from the intertwined 3Es (from energy to environment to economics); from war to war to war; from sports to technology to society; from race to class to gender; from guns to gold to the Great Wall of Canada; from war to war to a possible antidote to war; from newspapers to the press/media to journalism; from the First Amendment, to the Second Amendment, to the Third Amendment, to the Fourth Amendment, to the Eighth Amendment, to the Balanced Budget Amendment and to the Term Limits Amendment; and from A – (AIIB, CFETS, CIA, CIPS, FBI, FDIC, IMF, INE, LIBOR, MICAC, NATO, NPR, NSA, SDR, SWIFT, TARP, USA PATRIOT ACT, ZIRP) Z. 

          After considerable thought and development, the “Awards and Incentives Project” rolled out and now includes four annual awards with others under construction.

          The “Cameo In Courage Award” challenges the award given by the establishment to other members of the establishment.  Society needs an award that rewards those who are truly courageous.  Awards were made in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 (Cameo In Courage Award Nominee: Julian Assange (January 31, 2022)) and 2023 (Eighth Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2023 (May 22, 2023)) to Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

    The “Noble Prize In Eco-nomics” identifies those who develop and advance eco-nomic ideas to promote the public weal and the common good.  The award serves as a challenge and counterpoise to the “Nobel Prize In E-con-omics” awarded by the Swedish Central Bank to those who advance ideas that promote the interests of the wealthy and well-connected.  Awards were made in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.  

          The “Noble Prize In Jurisprudence” celebrates the work of someone who really knows something about jurisprudence and the impact of courts, judges, lawyers and police on the lives and livelihoods of ordinary citizens.  The award recognizes a person who or institution that lives the conviction that men and women should establish and respect some norms and standards that are promulgated clearly to all and enforced equally in favor of and against all.  Awards were made in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.  

    The “Pushitzer Prize In Commentary” honors inspiring and inspirational writing that does not necessarily reflect the dominant viewpoints and worldviews.  Awards were made in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

    e-commentary provided first–hand on–the–ground dispatches from the March for Women, the March for Science, the March For Our Lives and the April 19 March. Lists of the clever and inspiring signs sported by participants are noted.  We march on.

          The requisite moving and stirring memoir is now available.  The book tour is still not yet booked.  However, although “Analog Knowledge Devices (“AKD”)” will soon be worth their weight in gold, this production saves paper and is only available e-lectronically.     

         Over the years, a menagerie of speakers and characters such as “A” / “B” and “GO1 [Gun Owner1]” / “GO2 [Gun Owner2]” and “3” / “6” / “9” among others debuted and debated issues.  In recent years, “J” and “K” emerged as the primary characters in the ongoing dialogue and debate. The events of the last three years have bitterly divided the two of them, however the recent antics of the Supreme Court have “J” and “K” back on the same page on some issues.

          The “Bumper sticker of the week” started out as a spoof on the shallow and callow “bumper sticker” nature of our public discourse and became the playful signature sign off concluding each piece every week.

          Looking back, the undertaking is an extended serialized novel about the American experience presented in a series of weekly poems developed through dialogue that allows all of us in some small way possibly to . . . immanentize the eschaton. 

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not possibly succeed under any circumstances?

“Do.  Or do not do.  There is no try.”  Yoda

“Not being heard is no reason for silence.”  Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“It doesn’t require many words to speak the truth.”  Chief Joseph

Otter:  “I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part.”     Bluto:  “We’re just the guys to do it.”  “Animal House” (1978)

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigues of supporting it.”  Thomas Paine

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”  Marcus Aurelius

“You do not merely want to be considered just the best of the best.  You want to be considered the only one who does what you do.”  Jerry Garcia

Think big, think long.

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Have A Peaceful 25th.  Oh, And Have A Merry Christmas! (December 25, 2023)

Posted in Society on December 25, 2023 by e-commentary.org

Merry Christmas

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