White Privilege At Play:  Born On First Base (July 13, 2020)

Posted in Gender, Race, Sports on July 13, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I am not precisely sure who said it, but it has been said about Little George Bush and others.  They jump up and down on third base and proclaim they hit a triple without realizing they were born on third base.  White privilege is simple.  When you are White and particularly when you are male, you are at a minimum born on first base.” 

J          “I have noticed it on some of the birth certificates that have resulted from my deliveries.  ‘White Boy, First Base, U.S.A.’  Life is a lot easier when you are born on first base.”

K          “According to official baseball regulations, it is 90 feet between each base on a baseball field and thus 90 feet from home plate to first base.  However, according to real life rules, it is really 180 feet from home plate to first base for the ordinary person.  And if there is one major settled conclusion among baseball pundits developed statistically over the last score years, it is a shared conviction that the key to scoring points and winning a game is simply getting a player on first base.  That is how one scores and that is how one wins.” 

J          “Life is a lot easier when you are born on first base.  On a different playing field, they also say that the first million is the hardest million to get.  That goal is a lot easier to score . . . when you start out on first base.”

. . . 

[See the e-commentary at “King Seale Newton X Davis Dellums Day.  Oh, And Happy Martin Luther King Day! (January 21, 2019)”, “NFL Protests:  Celebrating And Revering A Great American Tradition (September 25, 2017)” and the other e-commentary linked there; “On Balls and Strikes and Perjury:  America’s Pastimes? (August 23, 2010)”, the bantering of ideas that are now scurrilous and heinous at “Columbus And The Redskins (October 14, 2013)” and “Black Hawk Down. And Down and Down And Down (February 5, 2007)” that includes a nod to Molly Ivins who opined on Little George Bush and others.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Play ball!  (No spitting.)

Born On First Base

Not Born On First Base

Personal baseball path:  4 to 9; 4 to 9; 10

Leave a comment »

Fifth Annual “Cameo In Courage” Award For 2020 (July 6, 2020)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Cameo In Courage Award, Courage, On [Traits/Characteristics] on July 6, 2020 by e-commentary.org

[Google continues to block access (except on July 2 and 3!?) to https://e-commentary.org/ with no justification or recourse.]

. . .

K          “The envelope please.  . . .  This year, the ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award is awarded to . . . Doctor Chris Martenson at Peak Prosperity who has presented and continues to present a regular detailed presentation and discussion of issues and challenges related to the Coronavirus / Covid-19 Plague.  With quiet conviction and factual facts, he has challenged the lies and propaganda of the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the American Medical Association (AMA), President Trumpi, the Surgeon General, the Main Stream Media (MSM), Corporate News Network (CNN), Faux News (Fox), Big Pharma (BG) and so many other institutions and individuals.  One benchmark of his veracity is the unrelenting criminal efforts by the Internet gate keepers such as Google/YouTube and Facebook and Twitter to block his presentations.”

. . .

[See “Malaria drug and zinc, the missing link” in “The Conservative Woman” dated May 26, 2020 by Joseph Berry.]

[See the e-commentary noting Doctor Chris Martenson’s contributions at “Covid-19:  BAU v. BAU (February 24, 2020)” and “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  The (Partial) Solution:  Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup Savored Alone (And Wash ‘N’ Wear ‘N’ Hide!) (March 30, 2020)”.]

[See the e-commentary at “Seeing 2020:  Profiles In Cowardice; Profiles In Courage.  Oh, And Happy Valentine’s Day! (February 10, 2020)”, “Alex J. / J. Assange And The First Amendment (August 13, 2018)”, “Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013)”, “Fourth Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2019 (April 8, 2019)”, “Third Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2018 (April 9, 2018)”, “Second Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2017 (March 6, 2017)”, “First Annual ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award For 2016 (May 9, 2016)”, “Award Deadlines (Livelines?) (July 25, 2016)”, “Profile In Cowardice Award (May 12, 2014)”, “Profile In Courage Award, 2015 (May 11, 2015)”, “Chelsea And Ed:  Time For ‘Con’ ‘dign’ Treatment (November 30, 2015)” and “On Courage and Truth (March 17, 2008)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Dissent remains patriotic

“The more flak you get the closer you are to the target.”  World War Two bomber’s observation

“Science is but an image of the truth.”  Francis Bacon

Julian Assange:  b. July 3, 1971 – d. slowly for the last few years

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Taking Legal Stock (June 29, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Medicine, Privacy, Public Health on June 30, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “About the run on toilet paper . . . .”

. . .

K          “It is slithering closer.  The very close friend who lost a very close friend will soon be the very close friend who is lost.”

J          “Them or her or him or you or me.  Now or by NOVember.”

. . .

J          “Contract tracing is a diametric departure from and express rejection of the privacy concerns expressed in HIPAA and other legislation.  Now when someone tests positive, all the world is notified.”

K          “The government can justify just about anything domestically in the name of public health and safety.  And the government can justify just about anything internationally in the name of national defense and security.  I concede that I do not have a fundamental quarrel with announcing to the world that someone tests positive.”

. . .

J          “Now that the horses are out of the barn, the government is hiring bureaucrats to determine the names and addresses of the escaped equines.”

K          “The ad for contact tracers says the government is seeking ‘all the king’s horses and all the king’s men’ to interview the team of horses who have fled the barn.”

. . .

J          “And contact tracing has just about exceeded its usefulness when just about everyone you come into contact with has contracted it.  The response has always been two weeks behind.  The strategy should be to get two weeks ahead.  Contact tracing is now two months behind . . . and moot.”

K          “Contact tracing is now the cover to monitor the activities of every citizen.  Now that the Virus has nestled in every corner of the country, contact tracing needs to be curtailed.”

. . .

K          “The current bailout includes provisions exempting all the legislation and payments from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  We as a society made so much progress and now are on the retrograde.” 

J          “Our personal privacy rights are compromised by all the governments admittedly for reasons that are not implausible in this situation.  The public’s right to know is totally undermined in one stroke by Congress.  There is something retrogressive about all those decisions.”

. . .

K          “The Big X, the Tenth Amendment, is resurgent along with the Virus.  States are now almost co-equal players with the federal government in the political debate over the response to the Virus.”

J          “International agencies and the federal government have failed.  Some state governments have stepped in commendably.  Some state governments have failed.  Some city governments have stepped in commendably.  Some city governments have failed.  The checkerboard response is surreal and unreal.”

J          “Medicine is politics.  What happens when a red state governor does not adopt a mandatory masks policy and a blue city mayor adopts a mandatory masks policy?”

K          “In the city, the citizens wear a mask; in the rest of the state, they wear what they think is appropriate consistent with the ignorant directives of the governor.  But I can assure you that logic will not prevail particularly when you are dealing with American–trained judges.”

. . .

K          “And you know my firm conviction that there are many members of the medical establishment and in government committing crimes against humanity.”

J          “You may be right.  I am still researching.  But no one in power in America will ever be convicted of a crime.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

Great Meteor 2020  Just End It Already

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Taking Stock (June 22, 2020)

Posted in Bankruptcy, Blue States / Red States, Book Reference, Covid / Coronavirus, Freedom / Liberty, Law, Medicine, Privacy, Public Health, Wall Street, War and Wall Street Party on June 22, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Taking stock of the stock market is the stock in trade of the Federal Reserve.  The only certainty throughout this Plague is the Federal Reserve doing everything possible to protect and serve Wall Street.”

J          “Those on every street in and out of uniform who are obliged to protect and serve have protected and served the interests of Wall Street not Main Street.”

. . .

K          “It has been a tough few weeks to be a statue.”

J          “Some had to be moved.  But in their uncontrolled and unfocused rage, they may topple a statue of Lincoln without knowing who he was or what he did, albeit with alloyed motives.”

. . .

K          “This is also a tough time to be a state in the Union.  The federal government can print money at will in unlimited amounts forever until the rest of the world unseats the United States as the purveyor of the world’s reserve currency.  The towns, cities, counties, boroughs, water authorities and other political subdivisions can always file bankruptcy.  But the states are stuck because they cannot print money and cannot deficit spend and cannot file bankruptcy.”

J          “And cannot pay their bills.  The federal government has an out, the other governments have an out and the state governments are left out.  It will soon manifest and not be pretty.” 

. . .

J          “My initial fear was that it appeared to be some variety of the Hantavirus which is far more virulent and infectious than Covid-19.”

K          “My continuing fear is that it is becoming more virulent and infectious.”

. . .

K          “I do not know what to make of “Event 201” in October 2019 with the powerful players playing war games and discussing the outbreak of a Coronavirus at the very same time that the Coronavirus was breaking out.”

J          “The exercise let everyone know that they had more than a clue that the Plague was coming, but they were absolutely clueless about what to do about it as it came.”

. . .

K          “The proper use of masks was obvious.  I joined the cover up immediately and was the first Occidental in my Costco to wear a mask way back in early February.”

J          “Make masks great again.  We have always known that fact despite what those in power said and misled.  However, based on recent findings, the concern with spreading by contact with paper, door handles and the like is still a concern but a less urgent one.”

. . .

J          “Faux libertarians say their right to swing their fists only ends an inch from my nose.  However, their swing is still a battery against me and my nose.  And their refusal to wear a mask and cover their nose and mouth hits me right in my nose and mouth.”

K          “They say it is the hit to the kisser that can be the kiss of death.”

. . .

K          “We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.  When do we enter the next stage?”

J          “That is what I fear.  That is what I don’t know.  I’ll simply go on record as prognosticating ‘Winter’ at this time.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “On Freedom and Liberty (May 24, 2010)” and “Who Is Your Big Bad Bogeyman? (March 26, 2007)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered.  And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute.  History has stopped.  Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”  George Orwell, 1984  Orwell’s “Party” = War and Wall Street Party?

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Now What?!  Make Masks Great Again (June 15, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Kleptocracy, Public Health, Schooling on June 15, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “Too many of the protests degenerated into riots.  Who provided the bricks?  Provocateurs provoking tensions for their own agenda?  Protestors with a nefarious plan unconnected with engendering racial harmony?”

J          “A single brick too often is used to destroy a collection of bricks that serve the collective.  Once a brick goes through a window, the building is usually broken.”

. . .

K          “In 2008, it was illiquidity, so they added liquidity.  Now it is insolvency, so they add . . . liquidity.  A flood has overwhelmed the town, so the FRFD comes to the rescue and turns all the water hoses on the town.”

J          “The Federal Reserve Fire Department is contributing to the flood while filling the swimming pools of the Kleptocrats and providing them with the money to build bigger pools.  They are all wet.  It will not end well.” 

. . .

K          “Futball players are returning to the grid iron and may need to rethink the ‘full contact, two a day, with pads’ regimen and instead institute ‘six feet apart, one a day, with masks’ to keep the kids alive.”

J          “Once the kids are there, it is their problem.  It could be a doozy.”

. . .

K          “Those in power are terrified that hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine with azithromycin and zinc is an effective prophylactic and a treatment, so it is banned.  The grand obscene irony is the world will know in less than a year.  Those who want to know now, now know.  A crime against humanity, possibly?”

J          “The real crime is the refusal to undertake a valid scientific test.  To date, the tests by my colleagues have been premeditated frauds.  At this time, I reserve final judgment.”

. . .

J          “You shouldn’t get your medical advice from television ads . . . or the NYT.”

K          “And any advice from the World Health Organization (WHO), the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the American Medical Association (AMA), President Trumpi, the Surgeon General, Anthony Fauci, the Main Stream Media (MSM), Corporate News Network (CNN), Faux News (Fox), Big Pharma (BG), etc. also should be consumed cum grano salis and perhaps not BID.”

. . .

[See “Coronavirus To Decimate Colleges and Universities” by Yves Smith in “Naked Capitalism” dated May 12, 2020.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Make masks great again

The relaxation of isolation rules does not mean the Plague is over.  It means they currently have a bunk for you in the ICU.   

Wearing a mask outside makes about as much sense to me as wearing rubbers in the rain. 

Covid-19(84)

You shouldn’t get your medical advice from television ads . . . or the NYT.

Wash; mask; space

“The current mitigation measures, such as social distancing, quarantine, and isolation implemented in the United States, are insufficient by themselves in protecting the public.  Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the trends of the pandemic worldwide.  We conclude that wearing of face masks in public corresponds to the most effective means to prevent interhuman transmission, and this inexpensive practice, in conjunction with extensive testing, quarantine, and contact tracking, poses the most probable fighting opportunity to stop the COVID-19 pandemic, prior to the development of a vaccine.”

“Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19” in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America by multiple authors dated June 10, 2020.

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Rioters / Protestors:  Too Much Noise / Too Little Signal (June 8, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Kleptocracy, Occupy Movement, Police on June 8, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “I have said for weeks the most devastating rioting and looting has been taking place in the suites in New York and DC not in the streets of Denver and Detroit.”

J          “I hear you.  It will not stop.  Last year as I recall around September 17, 2019, eight years to the day after the emergence of the Occupy Movement, the economy was heading into another major collapse.  And once again, the Federal Reserve stepped in and gave away billions via its repo purchases.  That was not enough.  Covid was and is a godsend for the Kleptocrats because it graciously provided cover and allowed the Federal Reserve to step in and give away trillions.  It just will not stop.”

. . .

J          “Being cooped up has also led many folks to fly the coop.  The legitimate and the undigested anger were unleashed, but the rage is unfocused.  The protestors are protesting about something more and something even the reflective ones would admit is difficult to describe.”

K          “I’m with you.  So much is wrong, yet too much has been needlessly destroyed.  So many of the hard-working business owners already confronted too many challenges and now likely will quit the market.”

. . .

K          “So now the statues have been beheaded, drowned, defaced, dethroned, destroyed and demolished rather than being properly displayed.  I still maintain that all the Confederate and genuinely offending statues should be removed from their public perch and carefully moved to museums and displayed with an explanatory historical text.”

J          “The statues should have been removed by reasonable minded politicians long ago.  The public has had it and did it for them.  The public needs to do things for themselves.”

. . .

J          “We need to rename a dozen military bases currently named for domestic terrorists.  What heroes should we celebrate to replace Fort Benning and Fort Bragg?”

K          “Fort E. Shinseki and Fort S. Butler, although Fort. S. Butler really should be a Marine base.  Or the new name for the Pentagon.”

. . .

K          “So much energy is being misdirected.  The rage and the energy must be directed at the Kleptocrats not just the cops who are doing their bidding.”

J          “The cops also must decide if they are with the power or with the people.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Charlottesville . . . Chancellorsville? (August 14, 2017)” “Rerouting History (February 15, 2016)”, “The Confederate Flag:  What Does It Mean To You? (July 6, 2015)”, “Celebrate Virginia’s ‘Celebrate Slavery Month’ (April 12, 2010)”, “King Daze (January 20, 2014)”, “Dixie Visited (September 17, 2012)”, “Brown Is The New Black (February 18, 2008)” and “Columbus And The Redskins (October 14, 2013)”.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

No justice, no peace

Remove the statues; end the idolatry

Smedley Butler Pentagon

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  Is A Nationwide Police Riot Productive? (June 1, 2020)

Posted in Police, Race on June 1, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “So one white police officer tortures and executes an innocent black citizen . . . and the police respond to legitimate and some admittedly illegitimate outrage and frustration by undertaking a nationwide police riot and killing and maiming more citizens?”

J          “The powder keg is doing what a powder keg does.  The demonstrations are a plebiscite by the people that the system is failed.”

. . .

J          “In my unscientific and non-random survey, those who appeared to be genuine protestors were wearing a face covering and those who were rioting and looting were not covering.”

. . .

[See “Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide” in “Slate” dated May 31, 2020 by Matthew Dessem.]

[See the e-commentary at “The Great National Dissolution:  Resolving The Great Civil War (April 18, 2011)”, “Occupy America:  The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011)”, “Civil War II.  Coming To A Country Near You (November 26, 2018)”, “Watertown? Ferguson? Your Town? Your Son?  Will They Allow It In Laramie?  (August 11, 2014)”, “Fallujah or Ferguson? (August 18, 2014)” and “Men In Pink:  Today’s Sensitive New SWAT Togs (August 20, 2012)”.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

No justice, no peace

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  In Memoriam (May 25, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Public Health on May 25, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

To the health care workers.

. . .

[See “In Memoriam” in “Straight Line Logic” dated May 24, 2020 by Robert Gore and “25 YEARS OF CN:  Memorial Day—‘Tragic Valor of Marines at Con Thien’—May 29, 2016” in “Consortium News” dated May 25, 2020 by Dan North.]

[See the e-commentary at “Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  TSD/PTSD In The New Plague War.  A New Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)? (April 27, 2020)”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Hug a health care worker.  From thirty feet.

I [heart] health care workers

Wear a mask; save a health care worker

Provide health care workers with health insurance and paid sick leave

Leave a comment »

Graduation Advice:  Stop, Pause, Think (May 18, 2020)

Posted in Covid / Coronavirus, Graduation Advice on May 18, 2020 by e-commentary.org

. . .

K          “We will try it again.  If this signal is now coming through to you or to some of you, we can proceed with the first virtual graduation ceremony in school history.  Stop, pause, think.”

. . .

K          “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’20 . . . learn to stop, pause, think. . . .  If I could offer you only one tip for the future, learn to stop, pause, think.  You have been studying and partying and extracurricularing at a frantic and frenetic pace.  Now is the time to stop, pause, think.  We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.  The next days and weeks and years and decades will not be as calm.  Stop, pause, think.”

. . .

K          “And wear sun screen and hearing protection and chainsaw safety chaps.  Eat dessert.  First.  Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie).  And stop, pause, think.”

. . .

J          “Go East, young person.  Go to Rome, D.C. and get in on the looting before it is too late.”

. . .

[See the “Sunscreen Column” http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html, the Wikipedia article “Wear Sunscreen” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wear_Sunscreen and listen to “Everbody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.]

[See the e-commentary at “Graduation Advice:  Learn To Tie a Bowline (And A Bow Tie) (May 13, 2019)”; “Graduation Advice:  Eat Dessert.  First. (May 14, 2018)”, “Graduation Advice:  Wear Chainsaw Safety Chaps; Cut With Care (May 15, 2017)”, “Graduation Advice:  Wear Hearing Protection; Listen Attentively (May 16, 2016)” and the advice to youth at “Go East, Young Person (August 25, 2014)”.] 

Bumper stickers of the week:

Wear sun screen and hearing protection and chainsaw safety chaps and eat dessert.  First.   Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie).  Stop, pause, think.

Stop, pause, think

Leave a comment »

Covid-19 PanICdemic/Plague:  The Personal Lockdown Calculus (May 11, 2020)

Posted in Academia, Covid / Coronavirus, Health Care, Public Health, Universities on May 11, 2020 by e-commentary.org

[Google continues to block access to https://e-commentary.org/ with no justification or recourse.]

. . .

K          “We are in the halcyon days of the Plague.”

J          “That is what I fear.”

. . .

K          “A very close friend lost a very close friend in late February, but not a very close friend of mine.  And then another very close friend lost a very close friend in March, but not a very close friend of mine.  And then another very close friend lost a very close friend in April, but not a very close friend of mine.  But I have not or have not to date lost a very close friend or a close friend or a friend.  In time.”

J          “‘Have not to date’ is true.  It is still distant and foreign and academic and theoretical.  New York is far away and distant and foreign for most people.  Someone must first lose a neighbor, then a second cousin, then a nephew, and then a parent, spouse, child.  Then it gets real.  Then there may be some passing collective interest in wearing a mask properly.”

. . .

J          “If we want to reduce traffic injuries and death, we could outlaw left turns.”

K          “Or cap the speed limit at 25 mph.  Everything in life is a trade-off.  I get it.”

. . . 

J          “So many of the individuals who support the lockdown can afford to be locked down and benefit from others being locked down.  And so many of the individuals who oppose the lockdown cannot afford to be locked down and believe that they do not benefit from others being locked down.”

K          “The dispute is not just another ‘blue state’ versus ‘red state’ divide but rather is a ‘green state’ divide in the populace.  The ‘green state’ divide is real.”

. . .

J          “This ‘Covid Conversation’ stuff even with video denies us the chance to observe and gauge the speaking and revealing we do with our body.  And to sense the pheromones.”

K          “A fortnight ago, I observed that I feel for the first time in my life like a reluctant prisoner in my own private fort with no defined sentence or clear terms of parole.”

. . .

K          “Do you open the universities this Fall?  The decision needs to be made now.  No, the universities cannot open this Fall.  Opening a university creates more problems of all kinds and also would lead to financial ruin via a different path.  When kids from all over descend on shared bed rooms and communal bathrooms, all viral hell breaks out.  The entire fragile and unsustainable economic model for today’s University, Inc. is built on the foreign students in particular all the Chinese students paying full freight.  There will be bloodbaths of red ink.”

J          “I know of many hospitals low on or out of cash.  The hospitals affiliated with state universities are not receiving enough funds from the state legislatures that are not receiving enough tax dollars from the citizens to fund the operations because the citizens are not able to work.  What is also bewildering is that individuals are not presenting with the medical problems that one would expect based on accurate historical records.  There will be bankruptcies.”

. . .

J          “I maintain that you will get it NOW or you will get it in NOV.  Wear a mask properly.  Work to delay it for you and for others and for the system as long as possible.  There may be more resources and should be refined protocols in NOVember than NOW.  Unless the system is overwhelmed and/or the Virus is more virulent.”

K          “I have spent the last few months doing for others even when they didn’t want to do for themselves or did not know what to do.  I am doing right now what I would do when it is too late to do something.  The drum beat is getting louder and the march is getting closer.”

J          “NOVember is just around the corner.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary on the Plague over the last few months.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Things are worse than they seem

“In a very toxic world, a healthcare system that can’t or won’t talk about detoxification, nutrition, and vitamin deficiencies/supplements, but only likely more toxic pharmaceuticals and possibly toxic vaccines (flu vaccines that still have mercury in them, for instance) is a healthcare system that no one needs.”  Attributed to _______________?

When can you tell that a government virologist is lying?  When he/she is moving his/her lips.

Dad attended Brown; Mom attended Smith; I onlined Dartmouth

Leave a comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »