Another Solstice (June 20, 2011)

Posted in Society, Solstice on June 20, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

O          “Solstice is a regular reminder of something more ominous.  The Last Sunset.  Seems like a day to mourn rather to celebrate.  The day is heralded as the beginning of Summer, yet the day harbingers the ending of additional day light.  Summer is otherwise just dawning and just finishing the first quarter, yet Nature reverses the rheostat and lowers the lights.”

Y          “Summer is more like a hockey game.  The lights go up during the first period – Memorial Day – and then down before the second period – Independence Day.  The third period – Labor Day – eases the transition to Fall.”

O          “The lights should stay on until half time.  Keep them lit until July 21.”

Y          “It is what it is.  The second period may not offer as much light, yet it is still warm.  There is lots of time to play.”

O          “And each Solstice appears to arrive sooner every year.  We should be inspired by the golden-crowned sparrow that enchants us with its plaintive song all Summer.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Carpe Diem

Why not enjoy the day

Fishing is fast; catching is slow.

Our “Fiat Future” (June 13, 2011)

Posted in "Fiat ______", Banks and Banking System, Debt/Deficits, Economics, Gold Standard, Peak Land, Peak Oil, Spending on June 13, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

Y          “So we live in an economy driven by ‘fiat money.’  Should we use the money to buy a Fiat car?  You know it is an acronym for ‘Fix It And Trade’?”

X          “Our fiat currency rolls along, but it is not a convertible vehicle.  I would like to fix it and trade, but we are just trading it.  A ’fiat’ is an order and a directive.  The United States Government orders and directs the citizens to accept ‘fiat money’ or ‘fiat currency’ or ‘fiat dollars’ for ‘for all debts public and private.’  The order and directive are backed by the ‘full faith and credit’ of the United States Government.  See, no worries.”

Y          “But I’m worried.  The credit of the United States government on paper is non-existent.  Why take its paper?  Who has even ‘half faith’ in its credit?”

X          “Only fools and citizens.  Only you and me.”

Y          “Why have faith when the empirical evidence is so clear and so clearly to the contrary?”

X          “Think about it this way.  I will accept the dollar if and because you will accept the dollar.”

Y          “Well then I will accept the dollar if and because you will accept the dollar.”

X          “That is the rationale.  It has worked and it works, but it may not work.  I don’t know if I want to accept the dollar.”

Y          “If you want to get rid of them, I will take them off your hands.”

X          “I will use them for the time being if and because you will accept them.  Half of the physical dollars are in circulation outside the United States and serve as the de facto currency in some countries and regions.  At the same time, the banks and financial institutions in America may have one tenth of one percent of the physical dollars necessary to cover the deposits in the banks and financial institutions.  Our fractional-reserve banking system is fractured, but it has not yet fractured.  A run on the banks, for rational reasons or irrational whims, would confirm what no one denies.”

Y          “So is the refusal to raise the debt ceiling a rational or an irrational triggering event?”

X          “An understandable reaction, but an irrational and dangerous response.  In a country awash in electronic dollars, there are no real dollars and not even enough fake dollars.  When the populace resorts to gold, everyone will discover that it is ‘fiat gold’ even if we are not ordered and directed by the government to accept it.”

Y          “The government took gold out of the equation decades ago.  And if you want to get rid of any gold, by the way, I will take it off your hands.”

X          “Others have put their full faith and credit in gold.  And then fail to see the irony in denominating the value of gold in . . . ‘fiat dollars.’”

Y          “So the dollar is not backed by gold, but gold is backed by dollars.”

X          “Seems to be.  However, there is no fiat bread.”

Y          “So when everyone realizes that the government ‘bread’ is stale, we will yearn for real bread.” 

X          “Bread is the real bread.  But we can’t print it.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Bake Bread

Know how to bake bread

He Who Has The Gold Makes The Rules

Officious B-crats. Made In The U.S.A. (June 6, 2011)

Posted in Bureaucracy, Courts, Movie Reference, Pensions, Pogo Plight, Society on June 6, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

[0911 hours]

B          “You shall punch two holes at the top of the pleading.”

C          “What if you receive a pleading without two holes punched at the top of the pleading?”

B          “We reject it.”

C          “Even if it is a Motion For Stay Of Execution?”

B          “Don’t care if it’s not right.  Rules are rules.”

C          “I’m not talking about a stay of execution of a foreclose of a debt involving a fork lift, I’m talking about a stay of execution of a person.”

B          “Don’t care if it’s not right.  Rules are rules.  That is why they are rules.  Rules rule.  Two holes punched at the top of the pleading.”

. . .

[0937 hours]

C          “Do you know where the Recorder’s Office is located?”

B          “Do I look like a receptionist?  No, I don’t look like a receptionist.  I don’t look like a receptionist because I’m not a receptionist.  Do I really look like a receptionist?”

C          “You look like a person.  You look like a person receiving a pay chcck from the government.  You look like a person who might know which agencies are in the building.”

B          “Ask the receptionist.”

C          “Where do I find the receptionist?”

B          “There is no receptionist.  We don’t have a receptionist.  I don’t know where the Recorder’s Office is located.”

. . .

[0942 hours]

B          “We don’t record documents with two holes punched at the top of the pleading.  Period.”

C          “The court required two holes to be punched at the top of the pleading.”

B          “Don’t care if it’s not right.  There are rules.”

C          “I can’t remove the holes.  The statute says that every properly signed and notarized document ‘shall’ be recorded.  ‘Shall’ is a mandatory verb.  That wording actually makes life easier for all of us.”

B          “It’s discretionary around here.”

C          “Now today is a Tuesday.  On Tuesdays, some supervisors exercise discretion and record a document even if it has court-ordered holes in it.”

B          “Well, it is in fact Tuesday, we can make an exception this time and follow the statute, if you insist.”

. . .

[“Now the hired help is taking home regular paychecks.  I don’t.  The hired help has generous health care.  I don’t.  The hired help has been promised that they will receive a defined benefit retirement plan until they depart this planet.  I won’t.  The response of the ‘receptionist’ is not dictated by some absurd official policy.  And here on the wall near his office is a sign noting that the Recorder’s Office is down the hall to the left.  He may be a private sector contract employee who suspects that the contractor who may file bankruptcy to shed any financial obligations, yet he is receiving a regular paycheck.  Not far below the surface, Americans are angry, bitter, raging, frustrated and percolating.  Seems that some are working, although something is not working.”]

Bumper stickers of the week:

“Hold it [the chicken] between your knees.”  Jack Nicholson / Robert “Bobby” Eroica Dupea in “Five Easy Pieces” (1970) (With a little finesse, he could have gotten the toast without anyone getting toasted.)   

Tear, fold, spindle and mutilate

In Memoriam (May 30, 2011)

Posted in Military, Society on May 30, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A          “The kids came from Connecticut and Kentucky and Kansas and Colorado and California and got carted off to countries with foreign-sounding names.  They did not individually have any quarrel with the people.  . . . .”

. . .

Bumper sticker of the week:

All gave some, some gave all

The Silent Takeover (May 23, 2011)

Posted in China, Cyberactivities, Economics, Foreign Policy, Locke Gary, Middle East, Military on May 23, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

C1        “Take over America.  Of course we are.  You say that you have a better plan, comrade.”

C2       “The primary lesson of the Twentieth Century is that it is easier to take by investment than by invasion.”

C1        “Clear thinking, little butterfly.  Invasion is costly and ineffective.  Invasion only assists the defense industry.  You can eat butter; you can’t eat a gun.  We focused our spending on efficient invasion technology.  We are letting the Americans spend on offensive technology to allow them to go bankrupt.”

C2       “They are already bankrupt.”

C1        “They are.  They are also too big to fail, but not too big to own and operate efficiently.”

C2       “Increase the purchases of t-bills and t-bonds by another fifty percent to a holding of 1.5 Trillion U.S.  They will be worthless, but they are one of the tickets to control.”

C1        “We will decide what they are worth later.”

. . .

C2       “America has an unproductive class of third-rate minds and fifth-rate characters who suck staggering amounts of money without contributing anything of value.  They are identified as CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and their like and ilk.  They run companies and run them into the ground.”

C1        “Comrade, we plan to teach them how capitalism really works.  Survival of the fittest.  They are not fit.  They will not survive.”

C2       “They do not have a working market for talent at the top of American corporations.  The market is broken . . . and fixed.  The brigands and hooligans run the companies.  The American schooling institutions feed and fuel the broken market.”

C1        “The brigands and hooligans will be fixed like the mongrel dogs they are.  They will be sent to regional re-education camps . . . to be re-educated.”

C2       “Were they ever educated?”

C1        “Very good.  You will go far.  What about the cyberfun we are having with them.”

C2       “You should taunt them with simple technology and gauge what they have to combat the efforts.”

C1        “We can send a message internally to the Seventh Fleet to ‘stand-down’ at any time that looks like it is one of their own.  We can even send a message to have the crew stand on their heads.”

C2       “We can?  What will you do with the people?  The people do not produce.”

C1        “They produce but not products.  We provide the goods and the money to buy the goods for now.  They will be allowed to consume as long as it is in our interest to allow them to consume.”

. . .

C2       “Soon the Middle East will be our challenge.”

C1        “A problem not a challenge.  It is now an American problem and will remain an American problem.  America has a place in the world and a role to play.”

. . .

C2       “We have our own domestic problems.”

C1        “Not if we don’t acknowledge them.”

C2       “Look at the problems we don’t acknowledge.”

C1        “Who asked you?”

C2       “Our comrades are becoming . . . filthy running dog consumers.  We are creating our own mess.”

. . .

C2       “I have another plan.  What if we tried to work with them?  Why don’t we have a beer with Gary.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Is it possible to go through the day and encounter something or anything not made out of oil and not made in China?

Gary Locke – nominated to be the Ambassador to China.  O’Bama’s most astute and foresighted appointment.

“Fiat Stock”: Taking Stock Of The Stock Market (May 16, 2011)

Posted in "Fiat ______", Middle East, Stock Market on May 16, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

?          “Let me get this right.  Once the stock is initially offered, typically to a few connected individuals and institutions on the Inside, the company does not receive any of the money from any subsequent stock sales?”

!           “Right.  The shares are bets by individuals and institutions.  The holder of the stock may receive some dividends that are taxed as ordinary income.  However, the holder of the stock is gambling on the market decreeing that the stock is worth more because the company is somehow worth more.  Some individuals and institutions on the Inside get information called ‘inside information’ that allows them to buy the stock before those on the Outside learn that something happened earlier that makes the stock more valuable now.  The holder of the stock is counting on a pension fund or endowment or widow or other Outsider being there to buy the stock at a higher price.”

?          “To get the dividends?”

!           “At least a dividend is something.  The big score is to sell the stock at a higher price to someone who did not have the ‘inside information’.”

?          “But what is the stock really worth?”

!           “Who knows.  The government and the Fed could double the supply of money/money electrons and give the stuff to those on the Inside to spend.  Then the aggregate stock prices would roughly double.  That is particularly true today when there really are no other viable competing investments.”

?          “But what is the stock really worth?”

!           “Does it really matter.  You’re on the Outside.  Don’t ask too many questions.  Play along.  Just because it is your future does not mean that it is not a game.  The key is knowing when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.”

?          “While you only have ‘outside information’ to guide your gamble?  And then if you actually win anything, you convert the stock into ‘fiat money’?”

!           “Or convert it into ‘fiat gold’ or ‘fiat silver.’  It’s that simple.”

?          “But what is it really worth?”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Trust Me

Have Faith

George Mitchell Resigns ; Middle East Hopeless

On Trading Off (May 9, 2011)

Posted in Economics, Energy, Environment, Global Climate Change, Global Warming, Housing, On [Traits/Characteristics] on May 9, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

X          “I gave a neighbor a few dollars a few years ago not to cut a tree on his property that provided ample shade for my house and a sylvan view for me.”

Y          “You paid for what they call ‘borrowed landscape.’  You receive a pleasing view that someone else funds and maintains.”

X          “He pays the taxes and I rake the leaves within the drip zone.”

Y          “Anything in writing?”

X          “Just a handshake deal that has worked so far.  The tree shades the house from the sun and lowers the electric bill.  Now I need the energy from the sun to hit the house and lower the electric bill.  The solar panels are wired in series and when even small areas of a few panels are shaded they produce less electrical output.  I plan to approach him and see if he will let me cut the tree.  He installed a back up wood stove last year and may now allow me to cut it if I give him the wood in sixteen inch lengths.  That would work for me.”

. . .

Z          “We debated the proposed microhydro project last week.  It is hard to be in favor of microhydro at the public forum on alternatives and then against microhydro at the fly fishing club meeting.”

Y          “Hard to have hydro without hydro.”

. . .

Z          “It looks like I am saving the planet until you look at all the costs.  ‘Emergy’ is all the embedded energy in an item.  The measure incorporates all the energy to produce and consume it not just my cost of acquisition and consumption.  Weighing everything, the decision is not as clear.”

. . .

X          “The community council seeks to impose height restrictions on buildings and also require more substantial setbacks from the street.  A building must go up or go out.”

Y          “They may be against buildings.  A building can’t go up if it can’t go up or go out.”

. . .

Z          “Do you support a local farmer who occasionally indulges some pesticides or a distant organic farmer?”

. . .

Y          “Providing fewer parking spaces won’t reduce the number of cars.  Providing more sidewalks may increase the number of pedestrians.  However, aren’t you simply substituting concrete for tarmac?”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

Medium Is Beautiful

Eat Mangoes Naked

Sawgrass Is Popeye’s Spinach On Crack

“Fiat Gold” / Fool’s Gold (May 2, 2011)

Posted in "Fiat ______", Depression, Dollar - World's Reserve Currency, Economics, Gold Standard, Recession on May 2, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

F          “Remember that back in 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt confiscated all gold, devalued the dollar and decreed that the United States no longer allowed U.S. citizens to convert dollars into gold.  On August 15, 1971, President Richard Nixon decreed that the United States no longer allowed for the convertibility of the dollar into gold.  At the same time, federal spending and dollar creation grew and continues to grow exponentially.  Gold is an unworkable and irrational benchmark and restraint, yet it was a brake.”

G          “You still believe that the rest of the world will decree that the dollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency.”

F          “Don’t lose faith.  In time, it is only a matter of time.  Even with careful explanations, the public will not understand the consequences.  If there is a ‘slinky slide’ rather than a sudden drop, ‘fiat dollars’ may be accepted for a few months or perhaps longer if there is still some residual faith in the greenback.  The buck is familiar and will be readily available, but it may stop here.  Some members of the public will shed their habit and shift their faith from ‘fiat dollars’ to gold and silver.”

G          “Moving from money to Morgans.”

F          “Then the Great Revelation will be revealed when they discover that they are now holding ‘fiat gold’ and ‘fiat silver.’  The half life of the fascination with the shiny stuff may be two or three months.  Then everyone will discover that the stuff is generally useless, although gold may be useful for some electrical connections and silver for our electrical devices.”

G          “And maybe the stuff is not really as necessary if there is limited delivery of electricity.”

F          “A garden shovel will be much more valuable than a golden bar.”

G          “And knowing how to use a garden shovel.”

F          “And being physically able to use a garden shovel.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” titled “Is The Gold Standard Really The Gold Standard? (January 18, 2010)”]   

Bumper stickers of the week:

Why is gold always priced in . . . dollars?

Fiat = Fiat = ?

All that glitters is not a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a unit of account. 

An Earful About Earmarks (April 25, 2011)

Posted in Congress, Constitution, Debt/Deficits, Earmarks on April 25, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

5          “The era of earmarks is not over.”

C          “I hear that we have not heard the last.  Earmarks are misunderstood.  How many citizens really know what they are criticizing.  Remember the typical two stages of a bill in Congress.  One committee ‘authorizes’ a law that authorizes an activity or program.  After the other bills in the other authorizing committees are authorized, the Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees review them and ‘appropriate’ funds when appropriate.  After review, the authorized activity or program may or may not be appropriated funds.”

5          “The Interior Committee authorizes an activity or program and then the appropriate subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee appropriates money.”

C          “And with more steps in the process, there are fewer spending opportunities.”

5          “An earmark is a way to bypass this settled procedure and practice.  More powerful Representatives and Senators are able to slip spending provisions into bills without Congressional oversight.”

C          “The oversight is the lack of oversight.”

5          “Right.  The authorization/appropriation process is a way and a means to maintain internal checks and balances.  Today, there are too many checks being written by the government and too little balance.  The amount involved admittedly is just a drop in a deluge of deficits and debt.  However, allowing earmarks reflects a lack of disciple and purpose.”

C          “Earmarks are not unconstitutional.  Earmarks are not illegal.  Earmarks are perfectly legal.  But hear me out.  Earmarks are a leading cause of deficit spending.”

. . .

Bumper stickers of the week:

One man’s earmark is another man’s sage expenditure

Authorize And Appropriate; Avoid Earmark Expenditures

The Great National Dissolution: Resolving The Great Civil War (April 18, 2011)

Posted in Immanentizing The Eschaton, Political Parties, Politics, Race on April 18, 2011 by e-commentary.org

. . .

A         “Last Tuesday marked one hundred and fifty years since the outbreak of the Civil War.”

E         “And it started with a terrorist assault by a state on Ft. Sumter, an outlying Union outpost.  4/12 was 9/11.”

A         “The Great National Dissolution springs from the realization that divorce and dissolution are among the most important and necessary institutions developed by humankind.”

E         “The fundamental issue today really is exactly the same as the fundamental issue in 1860.  Slavery disguised and marketed as States Rights.  America still is divided into the Slave States and the Free States.  It’s that fundamental.”

A         “The division reflects tension between the human desire to be free oneself and the human urge to enslave others.  The first stage of the Civil War was followed by the Great Hundred Year War of Terror.  From the signing of the terms of surrender in 1865 to the signing of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, there was a sustained campaign of terrorism against Blacks.  Blacks rode the Underground Railroad from the Slave States to the Non-Slave States as political and economic refuges fleeing from domestic terrorists.  When the CRA and VRA were signed, most of the overt terrorism against Blacks in America went underground, yet many Blacks are still railroaded.”

E         “Dissolution may be an option, but you confront the proposition that the right of a state to leave the Union was settled at Appomattox in 1865.  There are some guys who proclaim: ‘Lee surrendered, I didn’t’.”

A         “Act on that sentiment and the Feds will issue ‘three hots and a cot.’  However, the proposal avoids the problem of unilateral and illegal state action.  Congress itself must enact the Great National Dissolution.”

E         “When the Civil War broke out, some guys who had studied Jomini, drank Jack Walker and went on panty raids together at West Point went South while the others went North particularly many of the small cadre that were deployed at the time out West.  Robert Lee, who graduated a few years earlier and higher in the class than most of his home boys, took sides with Virginia and the insurgents.  Others stayed with their then-current employer, Tio Sam.  So you say that everyone should be afforded an opportunity to make that decision today?”

A         “Exactly.  The Great National Migration.  Very clean, very elegant.”

E         “I suspect that the District of Columbia would elect to go with the Free States.”

A         “Probably.  DC could also attain statehood immediately.  Again, very clean, very elegant.”

E         “The battle lines in America are clear, although the specific boundary lines are cloudy.  The resource extraction states would go with the Slave States; the states with exploitable natural resources do not need human resources.  The entire state of Oklahoma would, of course, go with the Slave States.  A state like Minnesota would be torn, like the Virginia of old, possibly in twain.  M. Bachman and her ilk would go with the Slave States, K. Ellison and his followers would go with the Free States.”

A         “And then there is Wisconsin.”

E         “By the way, you’re hosed.”

A         “Not to worry.  A friend and I agree that each of us will be forced to leave or will be driven from our respective states.  We agreed to swap houses.  A Section 1031 exchange is possible.  The possibilities are endless.  There is no downside.  Neither side would need to compromise its principles.  The Great National Dissolution is one of the most, if not the most, clean, elegant, practical, and principled resolutions of an intractable problem in the history of humankind.”

E         “I’ll concede that the solution is Pareto Optimal.”

A         “And allows all of us everywhere to . . . immanentize the eschaton.”

. . .

[See the “e-ssay” dated January 3, 2005 titled “Boycott Red America (January 3, 2005).”]   

Bumper stickers of the week:

Lee Surrendered, I Didn’t

Better Dead Than Red

Better Red Than Read

The Great National Dissolution:  Coming To A State Near You

Only those who have already immanenetized the eschaton warn against immanentizing the eschaton.