e-commentary

Happy Birthday U.S. PetroDollar: The Golden Anniversary Of Shedding Gold (August 16, 2021)

Posted in Banks and Banking System, Gold, Gold Standard, Money, Silver, Silver Standard on August 16, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Fifty years ago yesterday, our friend Tricky Dick decided the country could no longer afford to back the greenback with Au and instead developed a plan to backstop it with Fe and Pb.”

J “Precious metals all three.”

. . .

K “Nixon had no choice. Fiscal and monetary irresponsibility got the country into a mess. The solution precipitated even more grossly irresponsible fiscal and monetary policy.

. . .

J “Oil is the oxygen for the economy.”

. . .

K “The idea is among the craftiest in the history of humankind. Inform another country that your country will provide protection if it sells black oxygen in a new magical unit called the PetroDollar. If you don’t agree, we will kill you. If others do not agree, we will kill them.”

J “They were not demanding protection money, they were demanding that everyone use their money to obtain protection. No one has been able to refuse the offer to date. To date. Anyone who tried was killed. The ultimate international carrot and stick.”

. . .

K “No other commodity or idea or thing has been as universally accepted if not cherished across time and space as precious metals particularly gold. Try to find a country or culture or collective that has not given precious metals at least a serious look-see.”

J “A precious metals standard is still problematic.”

. . .

[See “WTF Happened In 1971?” for some thought provoking ideas on what happened in and after 1971.]

[See the e-commentary at “One World Currency? (January 8, 2018)”, ““Bitcoin”, “Ethereum” . . . “Blockchain Technology” Say What? (July 3, 2017)”, “The Mandibles, FRNs, SDRs, IMF, G20, WTD! (September 5, 2016)”, “World’s Reserve Currency War I = Cold War 2.0 = WW III (?) (September 8, 2014)” and “The Legacy Of “Easy Al” And Easy Money (October 15, 2007)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

No Baby On Board Feel Free To Ram Me

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Got D3 and Zn? (August 9, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Vaccine on August 9, 2021 by e-commentary.org

Letter To The Editor

. . .

Vaccines are not enough. Take care of yourself. Vitamin D3 and Zinc sustain one’s immune system. Discuss with your health care provider taking, say, 3000 ius of Vitamin D3 and 30 mg of Zinc regularly along with a balanced diet and vigorous exercise after a night of restful sleep. Take Zn with a hint of copper (Cu) and an ionophore to get the Zinc into your cells!

We should create a contest to craft a catchy slogan like the “slip, slop, slap and wrap” campaign in Australia that encourages kids and adults to protect themselves against the sun and skin cancer. However, northern folks need to address a lack of sun and thus a lack of vitamin D3. For inspiration, think of the catchy first poem recited by some attentive seven year olds to their occasionally inattentive parents: “Click It or Ticket”. How about: “Got D ‘n’ Z?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: The (Partial) Solution: Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup Savored Alone (And Wash ‘N’ Wear ‘N’ Hide!) (March 30, 2020)”, “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: The Plague Of Lies Is Pandemic; Everyone In The Know Knows; Does Trumpi Know Something? (April 6, 2020)”, “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: An Exclusive Interview With . . . Mr. COVID-19. Save The United States Postal Service (April 13, 2020)”, “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague: TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War. A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020)”, “Vaccine Vacillation And Vicissitudes (December 14, 2020)” and “MLK 2021 (January 18, 2021)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Got D3 and Zn?

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Narratives Competing (August 2, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Vaccine on August 2, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Still buying the Mainstream Narrative?”

J “Still in the market. Still buying the Counter Narrative?”

K “Still in the market.”

. . .

J “Agree to disagree?”

K “Agree.”

. . .

[See “A Tale of Two Narratives” in “The Automatic Earth” dated July 27, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at “The Vaccine: The Shot Felt Round The World (November 23, 2020)”, “Vaccine Vacillation And Vicissitudes (December 14, 2020)” and “Masks, Mandates And mRNA Vaccines: The Great Divide (May 24, 2021)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Free soap with all hand washes

Mask the truth

Even though your weltanschauung is different than my weltanschauung, we can still be friends

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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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Editing Editors (July 19, 2021)

Posted in Writing on July 19, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “I was astonished. The results were astonishing. I was astonished by the astonishing results. Every word and phrase and syntactic experiment giving the piece verve and vigor and vivacity was stricken and scoured from the draft. To me, however, the editor’s red pen confirmed the strength of the original unedited piece. I retained everything that was eliminated and disregarded the additions and almost all of the suggestions. The review was productive in its own way.”

J “I do not run anything by anyone any more. I write. I edit. I stop. I done.”

. . .

J “That must have been an awkward situation. Could you explain to the editor that the input is still insightful and helpful notwithstanding the final product?”

. . .

K “What if the editor is right? What if I am wrong?”

J “Could be. But you must go with what you know. And what you believe. I do.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary under the Category “Writing” and you decide where to put the quotations marks.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Give me coffee to change the things I can change and whiskey to accept the things I can’t.

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Cosby And Equality (July 12, 2021)

Posted in Courts, Judges, Race on July 12, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “We are reaching a place of racial equality in America. Rich Black criminals are now getting treated like rich White criminals. And getting off.”

J “And some folks say that society does not progress.”

. . .

K “Poor Black and Brown criminals are treated worse than poor White criminals, but all three cohorts are treated very poorly.”

J “The poor are treated poorly. The rich are treated richly. By definition, the poor cannot be treated richly.”

. . .

J “Someone may have had something on one of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justices and called in the favor or agreed to remain silent. Cosby pays a million for the briefing and the gibberish and the song and the dance, the lawyer calls in the favor for the well–healed client.”

K “Or one of the lawyers was on the same junior varsity lacrosse team at prep school with one of the Justices. The favor is subtle and not actionable. Few of you members of the public know that judges are not held to ethical standards unless they do something really, really stupid and embarrassing. That is then called unethical.”

. . .

K “If the resources that went into putting a guilty man on the street had been spent examining the convictions of a dozen random cases of unconnected defendants, a few innocent men likely would have been released.”

J “Is that why the words ‘perverse’ and ‘travesty’ and ‘injustice’ are in the dictionary?”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Equality On The Bench Today (August 21, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Liberty and justice for some

The Civil Code exists to allow the rich to extract wealth from the poor; the Penal Code exists to prevent the poor from retaliating.

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M. Gravel Versus D. Rumsfeld (July 5, 2021)

Posted in Courage, Politics, Pushitzer Prize In Commentary, Vietnam on July 5, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Peace versus war.”

J “Honesty versus dishonesty.”

K “Vision versus venality.”

J “Public purpose versus private profit.”

K “Virtue versus vice.”

J “Courage versus cowardice.”

. . .

[See “The System Isn’t There To Protect Us From Criminals, It’s To Protect Criminals From Us” in “CaitlinJohnstone.com” dated July 1, 2021 by the award-winning investigative journalist and commentator Caitlin Johnstone.]

[See the e-commentary on M. Gravel at “Seeing 2020: Profiles In Cowardice; Profiles In Courage. Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 10, 2020)” versus the e-commentary on D. Rumsfeld at “Iraq: AGFPT. Iran: AGFPT II? (January 2, 2012)”, “Iraq: Shock and Awe; Shocking and Awful (September 6, 2010)*”, “Balls and Strikes and Perjury: America’s Pastimes (August 23, 2010)”, “The Double Ought (00) “Decadent Decade” (January 4, 2010)”, “McNamara (July 13, 2009)”, “Invest or Invade? (December 15, 2008)” and “The Kennedy Court Reigns In the King (July 3, 2006)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Great versus not so good

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Google The Gatekeeper Wall (June 28, 2021)

Posted in First Amendment, Google, Monopoly, Technology on June 28, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “I was at Firefox to avoid the Google fist and simply sought to duck over and go to duckduckgo. Das ist verboten. Google monitors all requests and demands another step in its monitoring of Internet traffic. When the desired website is one of the sites blocked by Google, the demand appears. The Behemoth blocks. But Google does not block a search of nyt.com or msm.com. Google has offered absolutely no reason why it needs to determine whether the request is coming from a robot. The one thing its AI knows is that the request is not coming from malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests but rather is coming from a very sentient and sapien human being.”

J “Not only are they monitoring your searches, they want you to know that they are monitoring your searches. They are brazen because they can be brazen.”

. . .

K “I went to Firefox to search for ‘Mother Teresa’ and the request was sent over from Firefox to Google and then deemed suspicious.”

J “Search for ways to promote world peace or cure cancer and your service may be terminated.”

. . .

K “The CAPTCHA security measure is a clever acronym. Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. Alan Turing’s legacy endures.”

. . .

J “The Internet is evil. There may be a dozen solid reasons why the Internet has improved our lives, but in the final analysis, it is evil. Google’s hip motto was an ironic and prescient admission of just what Google and the Internet would do.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Should You “Friend” The Tech Beasts And Behemoths? (October 23, 2017)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

About this page

Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it’s really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?

This page appears when Google automatically detects requests coming from your computer network which appear to be in violation of the Terms of Service. The block will expire shortly after those requests stop. In the meantime, solving the above CAPTCHA will let you continue to use our services.

This traffic may have been sent by malicious software, a browser plug-in, or a script that sends automated requests. If you share your network connection, ask your administrator for help — a different computer using the same IP address may be responsible. Learn more

Sometimes you may be asked to solve the CAPTCHA if you are using advanced terms that robots are known to use, or sending requests very quickly.

IP address: 97.73.244.131
Time: 2021-06-18T19:52:05Z
URL: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=duckduckgo

Yes, indeed, it is really me trying to discern Truth.

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Solstice (June 21, 2021)

Posted in Solstice on June 21, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K “Yesterday really. 11:32 p.m. on the Coast East. The day triggers introspection. The party has just started and the punch bowl is pulled back unrelentingly a little at a time and then more quickly.”

J “The great rheostat starts turning down the lights. We need to light up our lives.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Weather / Climate. Oh, And Have A Happy Solstice! (June 17, 2019)”, “Another Solstice (June 20, 2011)” and “Solstice (June 21, 2010)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Party on!

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