The American Menu: Three Food Groups (January 6, 2014)

Posted in Consumerism, Food, Health Care, Market Solutions, Plastic, Pogo Plight on January 6, 2014 by e-commentary.org

. . .

The Gyre of Death:

Breakfast:     Sugar, Fat, Salt

Lunch:            Fat, Salt, Sugar

Dinner:           Salt, Sugar, Fat

Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat.

. . .

A          “New Year’s resolutions are one of the earliest examples of recycling.  The list of resolutions could be stored with the holiday decorations and reused each year.”

B          “We need to reduce.  Hope springs eternal, particularly in the winter.  Better to have propounded New Year’s resolutions and lost than never to have propounded them at all.”

A          “We need to resolve to shed calories responsibly all year.”

B          “Better to have lost pounds.”

. . .

A          “Disregard the class and cultural arrogance and condescension that underlies the discussion and the problem still weighs on us.  We as a people are too chunky.”

B          “Too many Americans drive around all day poisoning themselves at the food shacks that litter the highways and byways and then drive to a bar and poison themselves with liquid intoxicants before taking that last drive of the day late at night back home.  We need to change our life style.”

A          “Obesity imposes a staggering additional tax on health care costs.  If the government chimes in and proposes something, someone whines about the ‘nanny state’ interfering in our lives.”  

B          “Granny may have been right about these things.  Moderation always in all things.”

. . .

A          “Beer companies seek to decant 11 rather than 12 ounces into a bottle and grocers now package five rather than six avocados in the bag.  How do you create the market conditions so that a sugar water company reduces the ounces in the bottle and the purveyor of French fries puts fewer spuds in the bag?”

B          “And change our life style so that no uses plastic bottles.”

. . .    

[See the “e-ssay” titled Back Door Inflation (July 16, 2007).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

‘Mericanize: Monetize, Mechanize And Militarize (December 30, 2013)

Posted in Economics, Energy, Kleptocracy, Markets, Military, Pogo Plight, Society on December 30, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1        “America makes nothing but monetizes everything.”

C2        “And makes things up.” 

C1        “We make up fake money, but we cannot make up fake energy.  We need to energize not monetize.  We need to measure the energy inputs and environmental outputs before we do or make or consume anything.  Money is not the measure and sends the wrong signals.”

C2        “Even by their own terms, money and markets are far too broken to work either efficiently or equitably today.”

C1        “We aid and abet the rich players taking money electronically from the poor and middle class.”

C2        “Everything is an accounting hijink and a legal mirage concocted by the accountants and the lawyers.”

C1        “And the e-con-omists.  Everything is virtual; nothing is real.”

. . .

C1        “Now they are proclaiming that the great American heartland will be saved by the construction of new factories and a renaissance in manufacturing.  However, the typical factory does not actually employ more than two employees who turn on and monitor the machine.”

C2        “And billions are spent to keep those two employees from receiving a slightly higher minimum wage.”

C1        “Economic slaves make unprofitable consumers.”

. . .

C1        “The response in Boston is another display of the militarization of society.  The town was invaded by American storm troopers who dressed and acted like they were invading Fallujah or Kandahar.”

C2        “We lost the race years ago.  The camo armored personnel carrier replaced the black and white Crown Victoria Police Interceptor.  The .308 replaced the .38.  Kevlar® replaced khaki.”

C1        “The old saw says it all:  ‘A YouTube video is worth ten thousand words.’  The vignettes told the most harrowing stories as the militarized police broke into houses and pulled citizens out of their homes.  A few folks were shocked, a few were outraged, and a few were disgusted, yet there was an undertone of acceptance and obeisance.”

C2        “We are lost.  We are neutered and anesthetized.”

. . .

C1        “We are the Etch-A-Sketch® society.  Nothing is real or permanent.”

C2        “We are the Play-Doh® people.  No spine and no substance.  Malleable as clay.  There is no there there.” 

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled Minimum Wage and Maximum Earners (July 31, 2006), Racing Backwards; Moving Forward? (July 27, 2009), Occupy America: The “Bonus March/Chicago Police Riot/Kent State” Of 2011? (October 17, 2011) and Men In Pink: Today’s Sensitive New SWAT Togs (August 20, 2012).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Too much information, too little insight

Everything is virtual; nothing is real

Energize don’t marginalize

We need fewer folks chasing fewer flora and far fewer fauna

The cup is one sixteenth full

In the end, the physicists always triumph over the e-con-omists

The Fed at 100 (December 23, 2013)

Posted in Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Federal Reserve, Kleptocracy, Stock Market on December 23, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “We celebrate the birthday of our financial savior today and of our spiritual savior on Wednesday.”

B          “Birthday cards and candles are flying off the shelf.” 

A          “Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act on December 23, 1913 a few seconds before heading home for the holidays and a few minutes before President Wilson signed the legislation.  You wonder if they had a clue.”

B          “Most folks don’t have a clue, but what do you do.  Most folks look uncomfortably bewildered if you even allude to the Fed.  Someone who is uncomfortable with a topic does not readily come around.”

A          “They are more comfortable talking about the Football League than about the Federal Reserve.”

B          “The great debate on a national bank was lost a hundred years ago.  We need a great debate today.”

A          “The Fed is really out of control, but the wealthy are getting wealthier, so no one cares.”

B          “Congress provided some policy direction when it required to Fed to consider the level of employment in its calculus.  The Fed’s policies and decisions over the last decade have done nothing to improve employment, yet there is no sanction or penalty in the Congressional legislation.”

A          “The Fed has done more to promote the greatest transfer of wealth to the already wealthy than at any other time or in any other place in history.”

B          “The money is collecting in the Swiss bank accounts of the wealthy.  When and as the money slips from the virtual into the real economy, measured inflation will go up.”

A          “Seems to me that inflation will be exacerbated by a reduction in the supply of goods brought about by a breakdown in production and distribution.”

. . .

A          “The Fed is not the fourth branch of government, it is the first branch.”

B          “The To-Big-To-Fail-Or-Jail Banks are the first branch of government and they own the Fed and the government.”

. . .

A/B       “What will blow out the candles?”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” collected in the Category “Federal Reserve” at https://e-commentary.org/category/federal-reserve/.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Now that the banks have privatized the government, the government will never nationalize the banks.

If one person amassed 99.999999999999999999999999 percent of the income and wealth in America, would anyone notice?

Capitalize the gains; socialize the losses.

Bulk Collection Of Telephony Data. Again. (December 16, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Civil Rights/Civil Liberties, Constitution, Courts, Due Process, First Amendment, FISA, Journalism, Judicial Arrogance, Law, Newspapers, O'Bama, Politics, Press/Media, Privacy, Republican Federal Judge Syndrome on December 16, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1        “You never know what a Monday will bring.  A federal judge ruled that the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephony records likely violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

L2        “You did not hear the word ‘telephony’ in polite parlance two dozen years ago.  The courts must now address the interplay of law with technology far more sophisticated than a pair of soup cans and a string.”

L1        “Most federal judges were ‘Arts and Crafts’ majors in college who may understand Tennyson but really do not understand technology.  Listen to the techs who install IT systems in the state and federal courts.  Some of these judges are still looking for the rotary dial.”

L2        “The government’s reliance on a case from the prehistoric days of telephony – way back in 1979 – is proof positive that the issue must be addressed anew in light of the new technology today.”

L1        “They will need to refer more often to Newton’s Telecom Dictionary than to Black’s Law Dictionary.  That will be fun.”                  

. . .

L1        “Within a fortnight of the Democrats’ decision to require the Senate to ‘advise and consent’ and vote on O’Bama’s appointments to places such as the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, the decision will have consequences.  One or more of the new appointees could be assigned to the reviewing tribunal.  If there is en banc review of the three panel decision, there are now more Democrats than Republicans.”

L2        “But will the Democrats defer to their benefactor?  Is there another Republican appellate court judge who may be a fan of the Constitution rather than unchecked federal intrusion?  And we always have the five Supremes who will get to chime in.” 

L1        “Who just don’t get it.  They do not even want to admit that the NSA exists.”

. . .

L1        “Judge Leon (Bush II) overcame the always pernicious ‘Republican Federal Judge Syndrome’ that almost always plagues Republican appointees.  Yet the judge once again displays the occupational hazard of these imperial federal judges.  His opinion is snarky, arrogant, condescending, intemperate, and sloppy.  The screed deserves a B+ for intuiting basic truth, a C- for style and an F for arrogance.”

L2        “When you are going to be courageous, you must be flawless.”

L1        “There are more than a few good women and men who are concerned that collecting the metadata is constitutional and may prevent a great catastrophe.”

L2        “But in the final analysis, there is the Constitution.” 

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” titled USA PATRIOT ACT (April 4, 2005), Less Government Regulation Series: Google (Nov. 30, 2009), Boycott Facebook? (August 2, 2010), Brave 1984 Farm: The Best Of All Possible Worlds (March 19, 2012) and Hero or Traitor? (June 10, 2013) and I Spy, You Spy, They Spy (October 28, 2013).]

[See the “e-ssays” titled Judicial Activism: Rogue Republican Judges (January 28, 2013), The Paradox Of The Republican Federal Judge: Republican Federal Judge Syndrome (September 23, 2013) and Past Time: Exercising The “New Clear Option” (November 25, 2013).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

Free Edward Snowden

Pardon Edward Snowden

Bestow a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Edward Snowden

Quash the sub poena issued to James Risen

Free the Press

In a dozen plus years and without a debate or a vote, technology has deprived us of privacy.  With little debate and many hasty votes, Congress has deprived us of privacy at every opportunity.  We as a society should create a rebuttable presumption in favor of privacy even if it appears to sacrifice security.  Our personal insecurities are actually creating greater national insecurity. 

Time To Talk: Hear The Guitar (December 9, 2013)

Posted in China, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Military, O'Bama, Romney, Syria on December 9, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “In the past, proclaiming ‘National Defense’ supported any project or excused any invasion.  Today, merely alluding to ‘National Security’ rationalizes anything however short-sighted or foolhardy or counterproductive or illegal or unconstitutional.”

B          “Chanting ‘State Secrets’ is allowed to terminate the inquiry.  We need to repeat the need for diplomacy over and over to advance our real National Security’ interests.  We cannot bomb our way to peace.”

. . .

A          “Making sense of Syria is problematic.  And a problem.  We support one group this year that becomes our reviled enemy next year.  The enemy we despise this year is our tenuous ally next year.”

B          “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, now or later.”

A          “The enemy of my enemy is my enemy, just you wait.”

B          “I don’t know if a person with a clear head and a thousand hours of spare time and a generous budget could discern what has gone on and is going on over there.”

. . .

A          “Today, we are blessed because we don’t need to know the issues or the factions or the politics, we just need to know the players in America.  The same folks who brought us the Iraq nightmare now propose to bring us the Iran nightmare.”

B          “Elections have consequences.  Romney would have us at war.  O’Bama is avoiding the bait.”

A          “He should have been prescient or at least astute enough not to proclaim a line, because the line often is just one side of the box that imprisons you.”

B          “Mark my words, more is going on than we can even generally intuit.”

. . .

A          “Everyone is concerned about the financial mess we are bequeathing to the proverbial grandchildren who are trotted out during spending debates.  If America could transition from an unsustainable Empire to a sustainable Republic, we could reduce offensive military spending and bestow less debt to the proverbial grandchildren.  We also could bequeath a world with proverbial grandchildren in other lands who have not learned from their grandparents to hate America.”

B          “Hate is contagious.”

A          “And inherited.”  

. . .

A          “China and Japan are playing mouse and cat over some islands.”

B          “Who is the mouse?”

. . .

A          “And the Falklands are returning to the international radar.”

B          “Some pronounce it the Malvinas.”

A          “Oil, baby, it’s always pronounced oil.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssays” at The Drums of War (February 20, 2012) and Syria: Gas and Fog (August 26, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Diplomacy is what happens when the body count gets high enough

Coal (December 2, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Carbon Surcharge & Dividend, Coal, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Less Government Regulation Series, Market Solutions, Markets, Plastic on December 2, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

S          “Books on Cod and Salt discuss the profound impacts of the fish and the element on civilization.  Someone should write a piece titled Coal and its pernicious consequences.”

T          “A few books dig into Dirt.  We have clean dirt but not clean coal.  ‘Clean coal’ is an ironic, oxymoronic and alliterative phrase repeated often enough to fool many folks.”

S          “And ‘Dirty coal’ is redundant.”

. . .

S          “Mother Nature leads us into temptation.  The stuff is not shiny like gold but does provide that warm inner glow and hot outer glow that we all covet.”

T          “We must resist El Diablo Negro.”

. . .

T          “Later this week, coal will be deposited in the shoes of the youngsters who have been naughty rather than nice.  And may not have resisted temptation.”

S          “Some folks leave switches in shoes to acknowledge unacceptable behavior.”

T          “I really never needed candy.”

S          “We need to jolt folks into realizing that electricity is not produced for free at a wall switch.”

T          “We dig deposits out of the dirt and deposit the stuff in our power plants and then deposit the by-products around the Earth and in our lungs.  The death cycle of coal.”

S          “We need to get folks to switch their behavior.”

. . .

T          “I installed compact fluorescent lights (cfls) which admittedly have a little mercury that must be disposed of properly.  My reduced demand for coal reduces the mercury released when coal is burned to produce electricity.” 

. . .

S          “A Carbon Surcharge and Dividend policy (CS&D) enlists the market mechanism to internalize the costs of carbon production and reduce its use without any other government regulation.”

. . .

[See the article on plastics drowning the oceans at http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gold-plastic-waste-oceans-20131104,0,1147461.story#axzz2jywwzvfA.]

[See the “e-ssays” at On Trading Off (May 9, 2011) and Energy “Manhattan Project”: The “Carbon Tax And Dividend” (March 25, 2013.]

Bumper stickers of the week:

The solution to pollution ain’t dilution.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis will be available in paper back in March. 

Past Time: Exercising The “New Clear Option” (November 25, 2013)

Posted in Blue States / Red States, Civil War, Congress, Courts, Filibuster, Hypocrisy, Judges, Law, O'Bama, Presidency, Race on November 25, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

P          “It is about time.”

Q         “It’s way past time.”

P          “After stepping on your neck for years, they promise to step on your neck even harder if you try to wrench their foot off your neck.  It may be past time.”

Q         “They have used the logic embraced by the oppressed to oppress the patient and mature legislators.  It’s way past time.”

P          “Why not try to wrench their foot off, because when they get in power, they will be no less vindictive.  Now the oppressed legislators can compel the Senate to adhere to the constitutional duty to advise and consent rather than to delay and deny.”

Q         “Delaying legislation is a legislative prerogative.  The fight today is about denying executive branch appointments and undermining the executive branch.  At core, the fight is over separation of powers and the independence of the presidency.”

. . .

Q         “The war also is being fought over another branch – the courts and the judiciary.  Everyone in the know knows that there is no law, there is only ideology.  They are fighting over which ideologues get to don the wigs and dictate policy from the bench.”

P          “The vote is another skirmish in the continuing Civil War in America.”

Q        “That national experience provides historical perspective and ironic understatement.  Yet the war today isn’t civil.”

P          “At core, the clan of confederates is furious that a Black man is in the White House.”

. . .

[See the article titled http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/22/us/politics/reid-sets-in-motion-steps-to-limit-use-of-filibuster.html?hp&target=comments&_r=0#commentsContainer.]

[The benchmark price of .22s in November is not available because .22s are not available.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Mind your Ps and Qs

Kleptocracy, Inc.: Rebranding America (November 18, 2013)

Posted in Awards / Incentives, Bailout/Bribe, Banks and Banking System, Bernanke, Economics, Economics Nobel, Federal Reserve, Kleptocracy, Stock Market on November 18, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “‘Go Kleptocracy, Inc. Go’ doesn’t have the same ring as ‘Go U.S.A. Go.’”

B          “You could replace the stars with dollar signs and the stripes with universal product codes to reflect the monetization of America.  Rally ‘round the ‘Dollar Signs and Bar Codes’ does not alliterate the way rally ‘round the ‘Stars and Stripes’ does.”

A          “And doesn’t sound right, does it.”

B          “To say that everything is a lie and a fraud is an understatement.”

A          “Almost everything is a lie.”

B          “That may be closer to the truth.”

. . .

B          “A kleptocracy is an oligarchy that no longer is even vaguely concerned about even the pretense of evenhandedness or equality.”

A          “That’s it; that’s us.”

. . .

B          “And yet so many commentators point to the Dow that topped 16 Grand for a time today.”

A          “It’s over the top.  The rise is so tightly correlated with the monthly eighty-five billion dollar ($85,000,000,000.00) bribe paid by the Federal Reserve to the Big Banks.”

B          “What if they doubled the bribe to one hundred and seventy billion dollars ($170,000,000,000.00) each month paid to the Big Banks.  Why not.  Everything is a fraud and a lie and a fraud.”

A          “The crash will be even more epic.”

. . .

A          “One of the former Federal Reserve officials confessed and apologized for the program known as ‘quantitative easing’ as the ‘greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time’ with little real economic expansion.  Bernanke* is a nice guy who has really done little more than dispense bribes to Big Banks.”

B          “Like Bernanke*, Jellen may be the best this talent-starved kleptocracy can produce.  She will continue the official Federal Reserve policy of dispensing bribes to Big Banks.”

A          “In her testimony, she assured Wall Street and the Big Banks that she will maintain their primacy and hegemony.”

B          “Congress charged the Federal Reserve with considering employment.”

A          “The Fed is mindful of the impact of its bribes on employment on Wall Street.”

. . .

A          “What if he went out like former President Eisenhower and delivered a warning about the perniciousness of the financial industrial complex?”

. . .

A          “The answer is so obvious and so easy.  Preclude any bank from holding more than one hundred billion dollars ($100,000,000,000.00) in assets.”

B          “The Big Banks will never approve that action by the Federal Reserve.”

. . .

A          “The Norwegians do not help when they dispense their trophy to the cheer leaders who put a cheery façade on the fraud.”

B          “And the e-con-omics departments oblige by providing a steady pipeline of obedient sycophants.”

. . .

[See the article titled “Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer” at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303763804579183680751473884.].

[See the “e-ssays” titled Greenspan’s Legacy – Apres moi, Le Meltdown (January 30, 2006), The Dow Jones (the Murdoch ?) Hits 14 K In A Hollow Economy (July 23, 2007), A Bleak Day: The Trillion Dollar Tragedy (October 6, 2008), The TARP Is A Trap (January 19, 2009), The Bush Grand Slam (February 14, 2011) and (M)End The Fed (July 11, 2011) concluding with a draft Federal Reserve Enforcement Order that Janet Jellen could issue in her first few weeks on the job.]

Bumper sticker of the week:

In Greed We Trust

Veteran’s Day (November 11, 2013)

Posted in Consumerism, Military on November 11, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

1          “The best way to celebrate Veteran’s Day is to work to produce fewer veterans.”

2          “And to produce fewer deceased and wounded veterans.  When discussing the name of the holiday and resulting spending opportunity, ‘Anti-War Day’ was rejected in the third round of deliberations.”

1          “Packaging and branding.  There are no unwounded soldiers, so each soldier is a casualty.”

2          “‘All gave some , some gave all’ captures the prison they inhabit.”

1          “Hoist the flag and fight for peace.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled All Gave Some ; Some Gave All (April 1, 2013).]

Bumper sticker of the week:

Peace is patriotic

Commenting On Legal Commentators (November 4, 2013)

Posted in Book Reference, Courts, Education, Law, Law School, Schooling, Writing on November 4, 2013 by e-commentary.org

. . .

L1        “Did Ronald Dworkin ever practice law?”

L2        “Doesn’t seem so.”

L1        “Did H.L.A. Hart ever practice law?”

L2        “Seems that he may have handled a few traffic violations.  Some of them moving.”

L1        “Now I admit that they spouted some pretty city talk and a few inspiring aspirations, but do they have a clue.”

L2        “Does having a clue matter?  Two branches of the ‘Quaint Theory’ of the practice of law.  The say what others want to hear.”

. . .

L1        “Now Benjamin Cordoza did play the game, but he missed the boat.”

L2        “Accord.  The Nature of the Judicial Process should be filed under ‘F’ for ‘Fiction’ or for ‘Fairy Tale.’”

L1        “And given an ‘F’ for failing candidly to explicate the American legal game.”

L2        “He failed in describing how the legal game works, but he succeeded in trying to make the legal system work.”

. . .

L1        “Academic law is more closed and cloistered than any other area of academic pursuit in America.”

L2        “Except a few other areas of academic pursuit in America.”

L1        “Many of the failures of the legal system find their genesis in America’s legal schooling industrial complex.”

. . .

L1        “Did Fred Rodell ever practice law?”

L2        “He did not need to play the game.  He got it.  And got out of the game before ever entering the game.  That takes finesse.”

L1        “Lucky guy.  But he is an anomaly.  The legal schooling complex today would not allow a young Fred Rodell even to labor as an adjunct professor at a night law school.”

L2        “If they would even admit him as a law student.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled Playin’ The Legal Game (March 28, 2011).]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“There are two things wrong with almost all legal writing.  One is its style.  The other is its content.  That, I think, about covers the ground.”  Fred Rodell

I entered law school already knowing how ‘to think like a lawyer’ and exited law school still knowing how to think like a human being.