Locating Those Irascible (But Not Quotidian) Quotation Marks (March 29, 2021)

Posted in Writing on March 29, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The practice perplexes me.  Injecting punctuation, even if it is only the utilitarian ‘full stop,’ (‘full stop’,) inside the quotation marks is misleading, inaccurate and inappropriate.  Quotation marks should bracket only the exact statement and absolutely nothing more.” 

J          “That is not the American way.  That may even be un-American.  For some Brits, that is the British way.  Yet I understand your concern.  However, the convention suffices for almost everyone, so I oblige and abide.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary discussing the disruptions in supplies and supply lines at “Covid-19: BAU v. BAU (February 24, 2020)”, the need for more localized farming and regional manufacturing at “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Basically, Back To Basics:  Finding Food; Printing Rutabagas.  Happy Earth Day! (April 20, 2020)” and three perspectives on our current political, cultural, economic and social circumstances at “On Roiling And Rolling Collapse (March 9, 2015)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Where do you locate the “air quotes?”  (“air quotes”?)

Lawyers And Clients: Peas In Pods; Hands In Gloves (March 22, 2021)

Posted in Courts, Judges, Law, Perjury, Perjury/Dishonesty on March 22, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “You tell me the name of a person’s lawyer and I will tell you about the person. The Rho is .97.

J          “You tell me the name of the person and I will tell you about the person’s lawyer. The Rho is .97.

. . .

J          “97 percent of all persons have no moral compunctions about lying or their lawyer lying on their behalf.  What does that say about lawyers?”

K          “What does that say about 97 percent of all persons?”

. . .

K          “Pea in pod.”

J          “Hand in glove.”

. . .

[See the conversation more than eight years ago between the “Lawyer” and the “Client” in the e-commentary at “Assigning Blame: The Lawyers: 50 Percent; The Non-Lawyer Public: 50 Percent; The Judges: 100 Percent (December 3, 2012)” and the e-commentary more than fifteen years ago on perjury – the backbone of the American legal system – at “Perjury, The American Way (February 20, 2006)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Where are the judges?

Information Silos / Echo Chambers (March 15, 2021)

Posted in Truth on March 15, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “They are more like prison towers.”

J          “With no windows.”

K          “Precluding a more expansive view.”

J          “And preventing the inflow of fresh air.”

. . .

K          “I talk with individuals who are considered ‘bright’ and consider themselves ‘brilliant’ who do not get it.  They can never get it.  They are prisoners in their own self-selected information silo.  They clutch the key to their prison cell and lock themselves inside.”

J          “More important than intellect is emotion.  They must desperately want to get it to be able to get it.  To get it, they must get out of their own echo chamber.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Constructing Thoughts:  Overton Window; Morrison Door; Basic Box (August 19, 2019)”, ““Free” Speech At The “Free Speech Forum” (October 22, 2018)” andTulsi, MSM, NYT, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Real News, Fake News, Neo-McCarthyism.  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 28, 2019)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Get out much?

GIGO

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.  We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.  The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”  H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

Covid: One Year (March 8, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Vaccine on March 8, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “A few folks got religion on Wednesday, March 11, a few more on Thursday, March 12, and a whole lot more on Friday the Thirteenth.  By Monday, March 16, religion was gotten by all.”

J          “I remember receiving reminders of meetings of upcoming events throughout the days up until Wednesday and then ‘Cancelled’ and ‘Delayed’ and ‘Rescheduled’ and ‘Postponed’ and ‘Closed’ all day on Thursday.  I said then that we as a society should have gotten two weeks ahead of it.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

It’s just the flu?

RIP: 2020: Vestigial Democracy; 2021: Free Speech (March 1, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Elections, First Amendment on March 1, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “At the end of the year, they scroll through pictures of folks we lost in the past year.  In 2020, the year of the Virus, we may have lost ‘Vestigial Democracy’ and in 2021, the year of the Vaccine, we have already lost ‘Free Speech’ without recognizing either loss.  We are off to a terrible start.”

J          “I disagree about the lost democracy.  It was clean or clean enough for me in the real world of dirty politics.  Free speech is another thing.  The First Amendment protects against government intrusion, but now the ‘governments’ are private sector Behemoths who are beyond regulation.  However, I am not totally against bans on speech that is akin to yelling ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

K          “These private sector bans will come to haunt us.”

. . .

[See “YouTube Censors Senate Testimony From Doctor On Possible Covid Drug” by Jonathan Turley dated February 4, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at YouTube:  Your University:  America’s Community College (December 8, 2014)” at a time when it seemed a more benign platform.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Did they make it Amendment One for a reason?

The Obstreperous Silence (February 22, 2021)

Posted in Uncategorized on February 22, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Seems like things are roiling and boiling and percolating.  Something is brewing.”

J          “Festering.  Feels like there is a political hurricane or an economic tornado or a social earthquake heading our way.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

Donning Masks, Doffing Masks. Oh, And Happy Mardi Gras! (February 15, 2021)

Posted in Truth on February 15, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “While we were directed to don our masks, those in power unwittingly doffed their masks.”

J          “But does anyone see?  Our masks only cover our nose and mouth, not our eyes.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Constructing Thoughts:  Overton Window; Morrison Door; Basic Box (August 19, 2019)”, ““Free” Speech At The “Free Speech Forum” (October 22, 2018)” and “Tulsi, MSM, NYT, CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Real News, Fake News, Neo-McCarthyism.  Oh, And Happy Halloween! (October 28, 2019)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Laissez les bon temps rouler!

The Populace Is “Dis-ed”: Discombobulated, Disequilibrated, Disquieted, Disconcerted, Dislocated, Disillusioned, Disappointed, Dismayed, Dissed And Dis-ed (February 8, 2021)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Society, Vaccine on February 8, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

J          “‘Not happy’ is what I am going with today.”

. . .

K          “Everyone is shuffling about the mist and the miasma in a dazed and dreary dreamland.”

. . .

J          “Intoxicated, lobotomized, anesthetized, euthanized, exhausted.”

. . .

K          “If the new age vaccines that have never been proven to be efficacious in the intermediate run turn out to ineffective or worse unacceptably unsafe, it is Katy bar the door.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “The Vaccine: The Shot Felt Round The World (November 23, 2020)”, “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War.  A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020)” and “The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

The Casino: The House Always Wins! Oh, And Happy Groundhog Day! (February 1, 2021)

Posted in Cryptocurrency, Currency, Money, Silver, Wall Street on February 1, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The little guys flashed their electronic pitch forks and played the same game as the big guys and gamed the game.  They can try to out game the system with GameStop, but the games will not stop.”

J          “The game today is to destroy successful enterprises and to bleed wounded businesses.  Productive undertakings are destroyed and delivered to the undertaker.  Uncreative destruction, I call it.  Nothing is created; everything is destroyed.”

. . .

K          “Most silver futures contracts have a provision allowing them not to deliver physical product and instead to settle in dollars.  The paper contracts only require the delivery of fiat paper currency.”

J          “Anyone seeking to long the shorts may get the short end of the stick.  However, some day, when the world is forced to deal with five hundred claims on each one ounce of physical silver, some folks will be sorely disappointed.”

. . .

K          “The rules will be rewritten and construed to protect the powerful and well-connected.  In the final analysis, the little guys are doomed to lose.”

J          “No matter how things stay the same, they stay the same.  Groundhog Day all over again.”

. . .

[See “GameStop Shares: Dark Pools Owned by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS, et al, Have Made Tens of Thousands of Trades” and other articles in “Wall Street On Parade” dated January 28, 2021 by Pam Martens and Russ Martens who were the recipients of the “Fifth Annual Noble Prize In Eco-nomics (October 12, 2020)” for their pioneering and sustained contributions.]

[See the e-commentary at “On Revolution (March 15, 2010)” discussing the extreme dissatisfaction and complete inability of any person to do anything within the current political and economic racket about the obscene inequality in society and a week later “On The Digital Revolution (March 22, 2010)” proposing that any change will involve and require digital transfers.  Bitcoin is back in the headlines again and discussed in the e-commentary at“Bitcoin”, “Ethereum” . . . “Blockchain Technology” Say What? (July 3, 2017)” and is another response to and verdict on unlimited money printing.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The House always wins!

Happy Groundhog Day!

“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” Frédéric Bastiat

Due to unprecedented demand on physical silver products, we [APMEX] are unable to accept any additional orders on a large number of products, until global markets open Sunday evening.

Update:  Due to unprecedented silver demand, SD Bullion is unable to accept any additional orders until the market opens Sunday evening.

For some background on just how unprecedented this weekend’s action in silver markets is, Tyler Wall, the CEO of SD Bullion writes the following: 

In the 24 hours proceeding Friday market close, SD Bullion sold nearly 10x the number of silver ounces that we normally would sell in an entire weekend leading to Sunday market open.

In a normal market, we normally can find at least one supplier/source willing to sell some ounces over the weekend if we exceed our long position (the number of ounces we predict we will sell over the weekend).

However, everyone we talk to is afraid of a gap up at Sunday night market open.

This is about ready to get really interesting as there was very little inventory left from suppliers/mints going into Friday close.

Our direct AP supplier informed us after close on Friday that the “US Mint will be on allocation for the remainder of Type 1” (Current Silver Eagle Design).

Our sales for the month of January exceeded any one month last year during the heart of the pandemic. It was an all-time record month in our company history. 

The “D” Division Invades The Swamp. The War On America Is On In America (January 25, 2021)

Posted in Biden, First Amendment, O'Bama, Presidency, Trump, Wall Street, War, War and Wall Street Party on January 25, 2021 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “The ‘D’ Division rolled into Fort Swamp last Wednesday without much genuine fanfare or even many fans.  Attendance at the Emperor’s coronation looked like a Bideni campaign rally last fall.”

J          “To the accompaniment of more centurions than the Empire acknowledges in its many overseas wars of choice.  A bleak and barren tableau against a desolate and deserted landscape with a rank and file of American flags made in China.  No citizens were on the National Mall and no shoppers were in the nation’s shopping malls.”

. . . 

K          “One crime family leaves and another crime family arrives.  I provoke all manner of perplexed responses when I observe that we are giving up an Ivy League President and getting someone who graduated something like 97th in a law school class of 58 at a regional law school.”

J          “Trumpi only got into an Ivy League school because he is from a second generation crime family.  The Bidenis are now an established second generation crime family and thus Hunter had a spot held for him in the Ivy League.” 

. . . 

K          “Bideni is a foot soldier for the neoliberals in domestic policy.”

J          “And an errand boy for the neoconservatives in foreign policy.”          

. . .

K          “Nothing ever changes.”

J          “Everything stays the same.”

. . .

K          “He was true to himself until the end and simply could not muster the courage and integrity to pardon Assange and Snowden and instead pardoned some stray punks and thugs.  He is a waste of protoplasm in a great wasteland.”

J          “He pardoned people who reminded him of who he is not who he wants to be.  He will always be the saurian beast until he slithers off this Planet.”

. . .

K          “Bideni promised that nothing will change; he will keep that one promise.  Day 6 is a modest improvement, but under the most optimistic scenario the country will only marginally improve under him/her/them.”

J          “Marginal is the best we can do in this country.  He will broadcast a few flashy but hollow and symbolic policies.  Few legitimate grievances will be addressed.  This is the third term of the O’Bama administration.  O’Bama spawned Trumpi.  He/she/they are the transitional Presidency to a new more slick and subtle Trumpi Version 2.0 in four years.”

. . .

K          “The war on America and Americans now begins in earnest.”

J          “The only way to grow and expand the war industry is to invade and colonize new territory.  America is just sitting there between the two vast sloughs waiting to be plucked and plundered.  America is the last frontier and the last battleground.”

. . .

[See “Here Are the Superheroes To Come and Save Us”: Media Waste No Time Fawning Over Biden” in “MintPress News” by Alan Macleod dated January 22, 2021.]

[See the e-commentary at The “War And Wall Street Party” Concludes Its Confabulations (August 31, 2020)”, The Choice:  Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate v. Pro War And Pro-Wall Street Candidate (April 13, 2015)”, “The ‘War and Wall [Street] Party’ On The War Path (February 1, 2016)”, “The First Look At The ‘Second Political Party’ (January 3, 2011)” and “DNC:  ‘We’re Losers.  Vote for Us.’ (February 27, 2017)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Give war a chance

No hope and no change

Dissent is patriotic

Hank Aaron

There is something to and something about ivermectin that compels a closer look-see

?The Dow at 20,000 or less by Halloween?