On Standards & Quality (July 20, 2015)  

Posted in Genius, On [Traits/Characteristics], Society on July 20, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

4          “If I look up and can see the bar, I drop everything and raise the bar until I cannot see it.  Even with a pair of 10 by 40s.  I am not interested in surmounting a bar I can see.  I then move the bar down the field and out of sight.  Outta sight, inna mind.”

. . .

4          “That is true.  They say that if you hold someone to a higher standard, the person may aspire to reach the higher standard.  When I look around, however, at the end of the day the only way others can pass the bar is to drop the bar on the floor.  Maintain even low standards and no one passes.”

8          “So much gross incompetence and ineptitude today.  Perhaps it has always been that way.”

 . . . 

4          “If you hit a target they cannot see, they say that you missed the target they can see.”

. . .

4          “Build a better mouse trap and you may trap a few more mice.  Build it and you will need to buy a riding lawn mower.”

8          “Bloom where you are planted.  You may be able to trap more mice in your nicely manicured field.  Or you may decide to let the mice roam in a wild field.”

. . .

8          “Perhaps nobody cares.”

. . . 

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Talent hits a target that no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.”  Arthur Schopenhauer

“There is always some kid who may be seeing me for the first or last time, I owe him my best.”  Joe DiMaggio

“A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever.”  John Keats

Nobody cares.

Venturing A Few Unfounded And Unwarranted Predictions (July 13, 2015)

Posted in "L" Shaped Economy, Bankruptcy, Banks and Banking System, Collapse, Depression, Elections, Foreign Policy, Gold, Gold Standard, Kleptocracy, Money, Pensions, Quantitative Easing, Recession, SDR - Special Drawing Rights, Security State, Silver, Silver Standard, Supernova Dollar, Zero Interest Rate Policy on July 13, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

3          “Pensions will be even more problematic.”

4          “When the stock markets reset catastrophically, pensions will need to be reset correspondingly.”

3          “We will need to muster the collective intellect and imagination to craft a provision allowing states to file bankruptcy.”

. . .

3          “Interest rates cannot be allowed to rise and will not be allowed to rise beyond a nominal .25 percent.  Any greater rise would result in devastating financial and economic consequences.  Some nominal rise will be imposed to proclaim that interest rates can indeed rise above zero without negative consequence.  Those citizens who planned to fund a retirement with interest-bearing instruments have been sacrificed and will continue to be sacrificed without even a vote or even a debate on the policy.”

4          “Sacrifices have to be made.  Few folks are concerned or even aware that the Federal Reserve rather than the market sets interest rates.  The way I see it the Petrodollar will continue to rise as other currencies decline and those with the wherewithal seek the safety of the Petrodollar.  At this time.  The Petrodollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency and fundamentally weak foreign economies are a double magnet for money.  When the world establishes its own world currency such as a system of Special Drawing Rights (SDR) and circumvents the Petrodollar, the Petrodollar will explode and decline precipitously in value.  As I describe it, the ‘Supernova Dollar.’  The last American export – the Petrodollar and resulting inflation – will not be imported by the world.”

3          “Along those lines, the physical dollar will disappear from circulation in the United States before it disappears from the world stage.  The U.S. government and large corporations are slowly discouraging and will ultimately outlaw the use of dollars as ‘legal tender’ and as a medium of exchange.  Possession of gold and silver bullion by private citizens also will be outlawed.  The government will outsource to large corporations the issuance and control of the Universal Electronic Benefit Transfer (UEBT) cards to its subjects.  Current credit and debit cards will be re-purposed seamlessly.  The IRS will send a statement each year or even each month dictating one’s tax obligation and deducting the amount owed directly from one’s government controlled account.  As a consequence, everyone’s inclinations, transactions, and movements will be monitored and manipulated as necessary.”

4          “On the other hand, possession of gold and silver in any form by foreign citizens and governments will be the law and settled practice.  The West has readily abandoned gold and silver to an East that has eagerly absorbed the precious metals at rates that have been manipulated down by the West.  And gold and silver will be a component of the Special Drawing Rights.”

3          “The West will no longer be able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate the prices of physical gold and silver.”

4          “If the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) system and the Petrodollar are circumvented, the West will be less able to use paper and electronic transactions to manipulate prices.”

. . .

3          “The nations in the oil-producing regions will not fight over the oil they have but over the water they do not have with far less involvement of and intervention by the United States.”

4          “Nation-States will also disappear as thriving and functioning communities and be replaced by Corporation-States that dictate policy.  The United States Congress took the lead and sold out to become the ‘Citigroup-Congress’ recently.  More than just naming rights are involved.  Current nations are just entities that can be manipulated and maneuvered to go to war with each other when necessary.”

3          “Along those lines, shares in United States Senators will be sold more openly akin to shares in corporations.  The news will announce that shares in ‘Senator Larry Jenkins, Inc.’ are up 3.1 percent today on news that he will sell his vote for the Big Project.  The John Roberts Supreme Court has endorsed the two-step business plan.  If you pay a politician directly for a vote, you are in trouble; if you pay an intermediary that pays a politician for a vote, you are blessed.”

4          “Notions of freely-established supply and demand for goods, services and commodities will yield to quotas per subject each month.  Without functioning markets and with regular and systematic market manipulation and intervention, notions of inflation and deflation will be antiquated.  World population will continue to grow and resources will continue to be more precious which under the old paradigm would fuel inflation.  However, people will simply do without.”

3          “Along those lines, capitalism is a system that socializes the costs of activities and privatizes the profits.  The end stage is the emergence of a very small cabal who control all resources and allow the subjects access to just enough resources to subsist in a police state that throttles any debate or dissent.”

4           “The treatment of Cyprus and Greece are intermediate stages in the process.”

3          “The future is not unpredictable.”

. . .

[See the efforts to eliminate cash at http://betterthancash.org/.%5D

[See the e-commentary at Monitoring The Masses: The Card And The Chip (January 12, 2015).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

If you do predict a definite event, do not pick a definite date.  If you do pick a definite date, do not predict a definite event.  Unless you want to.

In the past, if you could predict the future accurately, you could make a fortune.  In the present, you can predict the future astutely, but you cannot do much to protect your fortune or your future.  Even if you want to.

“The best way to predict your future is to help create it.”  Attributed to Abraham Lincoln

There are few warning signs on the off ramp down the road to serfdom.

What about global climate change?

The Confederate Flag:  What Does It Mean To You? (July 6, 2015)

Posted in Politics, Race, Slavery, Society, South on July 6, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “It means that Blacks are second class citizens.”

2          “It means that voting rights should be denied.”

3          “It means that discrimination should be allowed.”

4          “It means that lynching should be legal.  For Blacks, I mean.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

E          “All of the above.” 

It’s mean?

Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4 (June 29, 2015)

Posted in Due Process, Equal Protection, Gay Politics, Less Government Regulation Series, Supreme Court on June 29, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Brown: 5 – Plessy: 4

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

June 26:  A day that will live in famy

Succession Forest / Recession Forest: An Old Timer’s Perspective (June 22, 2015)

Posted in Climate, Collapse, Gas/Fossil Fuel, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Personal Stories Series, Personal Story, Solstice on June 22, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

OT          “The grass, weeds and fireweed gave way to bushes, alders and willow which gave way to paper and smooth birch which finally yielded to a variety of mature spruce.  In an area I cleared thirty years ago, the process began anew and today the birch are under challenge from the up and coming spruce.  Winters were always 40 or 50 or 60 below zero for weeks at a time.  Winters are now only 10 or 20 or 30 below for a week here or a week there.  Alder and willow have erupted everywhere and are winning the competition against the birch and the spruce.  Passage through the woods is difficult with the new undergrowth.  The succession forest has become a recession forest.  Things are going backwards.  Rainfall has not markedly changed in the last fifty years.  Only the average temperatures have changed.  That’s all I know.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at “Grexit”, “GrexEUnt”, Percolating Problems: PIIGS, BRICS, EU, EC, ECB, IMF, NATO, WTO, WAR (February 23, 2015).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Summer Solstice

Opportunity, Welfare And Unrest (June 15, 2015)

Posted in Collapse, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Kleptocracy, Minimum Wage, Poverty, Slavery, Society, Wages, War, Welfare on June 15, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

4          “They say that welfare is the bribe paid to the underclass not to revolt.  The bribe is no longer enough.  The underclass reasonably seeks more from the overclass.  Many of them do not want a bribe, they want opportunity.  There is no opportunity today and will be even less opportunity tomorrow.  There is more restiveness.  There is more restlessness.  There will be more unrest.”

6          “The war on poverty has become the war on those in poverty.”

4          “Always a war.  Could be a hot summer.  Or a hot winter.” 

6          “A hot winter?  Is that anthropogenic global climate change?

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”  John F. Kennedy

High-Frequency Trading = Cybercrime (June 8, 2015)

Posted in Crime/Punishment, Cyberactivities, Law on June 8, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

7          “Imagine the surprise a part-time summer intern for the federal government will receive upon learning that his or her personal data was purloined decades later by someone or something unknown.”

. . .

9          “High-Frequency Trading (HFT) is Cybercrime.  Period.  And the government does absolutely nothing about it.”

7          “Because it is done by the Owners, it is allowed.  If it were done by the Chinese or by the Russians or by the Iranians, bombs would fly.”

9          “High-Frequency Trading (HFT) is Cybercrime.  Period.”

7          “And the government does absolutely nothing about it.”

. . .

7          “There may be a few individuals within the government who know what is going on but are throttled from doing anything about it by those in power.”

9          “High-Frequency Trading (HFT) is Cybercrime.  Period.”

. . .

[See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-frequency_trading.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

High-Frequency Trading (HFT) is Cybercrime.  Period.

Pensions, Conflicts Of Interest And The Illinois Supreme Court (June 1, 2015)

Posted in Conflicts of Interest, Courts, Judges, Judicial Arrogance, Judiciary, Law, Pensions on June 1, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

7          “How the h-e-double hockey sticks can the Illinois Supreme Court rule on a matter that goes to the heart of its and its members core fundamental financial interests – their pensions.”

9          “They are judges.  Period.”

7          “The court as an institution was obligated to recuse itself.  Each justice should have recused himself and herself.”

9          “They are judges.  Period.”

7          “No one will ever get a fair hearing on the matter before a partial court.  Judges like to make a public spectacle about recusing themselves for some minor insignificant matter to give the appearance that the system is fair and impartial.”

9          “They are judges.  Period.”

7          “The constitutional language cited by the court is aspirational and premised on a functioning economic and political system.”

9          “They are judges.  Period.”

7          “The plausible arguments are rejected with some snitty aside that ‘the argument is absolutely without merit’ or some such intellectually dishonest drivel.  And then the court sanctions the attorney.”

9          “They are judges.  Period.  They do what they want to do.  Period.  It is not that difficult.  Period.”

. . .

[See the e-commentary at Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 1 (April 14, 2008), Pensions and Other Entitlements: Pt. 2 (April 28, 2008) and June – Celebrate Terrorism-Free Month (June 2, 2014).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Celebrate Terrorism-Free Month in June.  Reject your fears for a few weeks and reflect on your hopes for a few minutes.

Trans-Pacific Partnership / United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea (May 25, 2015)

Posted in Clinton, Foreign Policy, International Finance, Kleptocracy, O'Bama, Politics, Presidency, Trade on May 25, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

5          “The United Nations Convention On The Law Of The Sea (UNCLOS) cedes minimal U.S. authority to international institutions; the Republicans vehemently oppose the treaty.  The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) concedes substantial U.S. sovereignty to international corporations; the Republicans ecstatically support the treaty.”

6          “Go figure.  If O’Bama supports something, the Republicans hate it.  If O’Bama opposes something, the Republicans love it.  O’Bama supports the TPP, the Republicans love it.  What is up?”

5          “What is up?  O’Bama is not allowing anyone other than a few Senators to review the language of the legislation.  That is surreal.”

6          “And perverse and undemocratic.  If the Republicans had pulled that stunt, they would have gotten hammered.”

5          “At the end of his administration, Clinton capitulated to the Republicans and signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), the legislation that repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and has led to reckless financial speculation.  The damage done by DOMA has been undone, but the damage done by GLBA will undo America.”

6          “O’Bama may be the first President in American history to switch political parties while in office.”

5          “Other than Clinton.  They will still hate O’Bama because he remains Black.”

6          “Historians so inclined will be able to uncover the critique of a few prophets with honor who chronicled the dismantling of America in real time.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.  The essential causes of Rome’s decline lay in her people, her morals, her class struggle, her failing trade, her bureaucratic despotism, her stifling taxes, her consuming wars.” Will Durant

George Carlin was right

World Trade Center Building 7 And The AIA (May 18, 2015)

Posted in Airlines, Architecture, Aviation, Awards / Incentives, Collapse, Courage, Perjury, Profile In Courage Award, Pulitzer on May 18, 2015 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “If they presented a Profile in Courage lantern, would someone seek the light?”

B          “If they provided a Pulitzer Prize, would someone pursue the truth?”

A          “If they fielded a Fields Medal, would someone prove that 2 plus 0 is not 3?”

B          “It they supplied only two planes, could someone destroy three buildings?”

. . .

A          “On Saturday, delegates of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) overwhelmingly voted down Resolution 15-6 which called for AIA to support a new investigation of the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7 on 9/11 2001.  By a vote of 3892 – 160, the resolution, introduced by AIA member Dan Barnum FAIA, was voted down.”

B          “96% of the delegates voted to ignore the facts, the science, and the evidence which is today common knowledge among those who care about the destruction of Building 7.”

A          “The vote says more about architects, at least 3892 architects, than anything ever said about architects.”

B          “And about 160 architects.”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

Give prizes for the truth and you may get some truth; give prizes for untruth and you will get untruth.