. . .
K “Time to disband.”
J “Time to rethink the alliance.”
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
[Sported by senior citizen] Sometimes I have to remind myself that it is not worth the jail time.
. . .
K “The headline above an Associated Press article astutely sums up the score. Law in America is a game and a sport with winners and losers. The decisions should be printed and debated on the Sports Page. However, there is no justice.”
J “Not allowing them to make their argument was callow.”
. . .
K “The idea that even an ordinary person off the street does not have standing to defend the most fundamental Constitutional right is obscene. They were advocating for free speech and were not even allowed to speak. I know obscenity when I see it.”
J “Time to appoint non-lawyers to the courts. Lawyers are not capable of handling the task. A new team is our only salvation.”
. . .
K “I suspect they were discreetly reminded that they should not forget who they are dealing with. Any one of the more than half dozen vaunted persuasion vectors alone could have been persuasive.”
. . .
Bumper stickers of the week:
“[O]ne of the most important free speech cases to reach this Court in years.”
There was “more than sufficient” evidence that Jill Hines, one of the plaintiffs, had standing to sue “and consequently, we are obligated to tackle the free speech issue that the case presents.”
“The Court, however, shirks that duty and thus permits the successful campaign of coercion in this case to stand as an attractive model for future officials who want to control what the people say, hear, and think.”
“The Government’s pressure tactics, which included threats of adverse regulatory action, cannot be dismissed as mere persuasion.”
“This ruling effectively grants the government a free pass to continue its campaign of suppression, threatening the foundational principles of free expression.”
Justice Samuel Alito
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
Free. Assange. Free.
. . .
K “I slide into the conversation that ‘everything is a fight today’ and elicit quick deep-seated and long simmering responses. And nods of frightened understanding.”
J “Because everything is a fight today.”
. . .
K “The populace is anesthetized. Zombieified. Unable to act and unwilling, unless provoked, even to respond.”
J “And they do not know what it is. But on a primal level, they know it is coming.”
. . .
J “Require a license akin to the shortwave radio technicians license to access the Internet. Limit ‘anti-social media’ usage to 15 minutes a day. What promised to bring the world together has blown it to smithereens.”
K “Worth a try. As long as there are no other restrictions or limitations on content.”
. . .
J “I get it. But when?”
K “Moi aussi. The uncertainty is the most debilitating impact.”
. . .
[See Edward Hopper: The Mirror For Our Age (January 22, 2024), The Other Sabot To Drop (April 18, 2022) and The Residue of Unrelenting Fear: PTSD Afflicts The Populace (August 28, 2006).]
Everything is a fight today.
What promised to bring the world together has blown it to smithereens.
Répondez s’il vous plaît
. . .
Bumper sticker of the week:
“Men have chosen the precious metals gold and silver for the money service on account of their mineralogical, physical, and chemical features. The use of money in a market economy is a praxeologically necessary fact. That gold–and not something else–is used as money is merely a historical fact and as such cannot be conceived by catallactics. In monetary history too, as in all other branches of history, one must resort to historical understanding. If one takes pleasure in calling the gold standard a “barbarous relic,”[*] one cannot object to the application of the same term to every historically determined institution. Then the fact that the British speak English–and not Danish, German, or French–is a barbarous relic too, and every Briton who opposes the substitution of Esperanto for English is no less dogmatic and orthodox than those who do not wax rapturous about the plans for a managed currency.” Ludwig von Mises, Human Action
[*]“Lord Keynes in the speech delivered before the House of Lords, May 23, 1944.”
“Fiat currency always eventually returns to its intrinsic value – zero.” Voltaire
The Petrodollar Pact: June 6, 1974 – June 9, 2024. ?
We live in a country with many, many, many rules and many, many, many laws, but we do not live in a country that believes in or adheres to the rule of law.
Bumper sticker of the week:
. . .
K “The envelope please. . . . This year, the ‘Cameo In Courage’ Award is awarded to . . . David McBride who disclosed war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan including the killing of 39 unarmed Afghan prisoners, farmers, and civilians in 2012. And for his courageous and commendable efforts, the Australian government is sending him to prison.”
J “He has my vote and support.”
K “The Australian government fails to protect some Australian citizens such as Julian Assange and persecutes and prosecutes other Australian citizens. Emulating the United States is obscene.”
. . .
[See “The Heroism of David McBride” by John Kiriakou in “Consortium News” dated May 16, 2024.]
Bumper sticker of the week:
Dissent remains patriotic, but perilous
. . .
K “Plant a garden.”
. . .
K “Ladies and gentlemen of the class of ’24 . . . plant a garden. . . . If I could offer you only one tip for the future . . . plant a garden. You have been studying and partying and extracurricularing at a frantic and frenetic pace. Now is the time to . . . plant a garden.”
. . .
K “Wear sunscreen. Wear hearing protection; listen attentively. Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care. Eat dessert: First. Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie). Stop, pause, think. Eschew fear. Transcend: Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude). Find the First Amendment. And plant a garden.”
. . .
J “Go East, young person. Go to Rome, D.C. and get in on the looting before it is too late.”
. . .
[See the original “Sunscreen Column”, the Wikipedia article “Wear Sunscreen” and listen to “Everbody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Wear sunscreen. Wear hearing protection; listen attentively. Wear chainsaw safety chaps; cut with care. Eat dessert: First. Learn to tie a bowline (and a bow tie). Stop, pause, think. Eschew fear. Transcend: Maintain FL 44; Make A Few Discrete Dives And Diversions To TPA (Traffic Pattern Altitude). Find the First Amendment. And plant a garden.
e-commentary 
Ninth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2024 (May 6, 2024)
Posted in Pushitzer Prize In Commentary on May 6, 2024 by e-commentary.org. . .
“The envelope please. . . . This year’s Pushitzer Prize in Commentary is awarded to . . . John Day, M.D. . . . for his tireless work publishing two to three detailed posts and aggregations of articles a week for some years now with little compensation. A self-described Army brat and Buddhist, he is a courageous physician caught in the middle of the Covid/Coronavirus nightmare who lost his job because of his convictions. For his efforts stirring the pot, asking hard questions, demanding answers, rejecting lies, spotlighting uncomfortable truths, comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. And being a model citizen journalist.”
J “I cannot say that I agree with him most of the time. I abstain but live with the decision.”
. . .
[See the e-commentary on the ongoing international crime at The Persecution Of Assange And The Feckless MSM (September 21, 2020).]
[See the e-commentary on the Commentary Award and previous recipients at Eighth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2023 (May 8, 2023), Seventh Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2022 (May 9, 2022), Sixth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2021 (June 7, 2021), Fifth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2020 (May 4, 2020), Fourth Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2019 (April 15, 2019), Third Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2018 (April 16, 2018), Second Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2017 (April 10, 2017), First Annual Pushitzer Prize In Commentary For 2016 (April 18, 2016) and Pulitzers Are Pro-War? Pressing The Pushitzers (April 22, 2013).]
[Please send your nomination for the Pushitzer Prize in Commentary for 2025 and a supporting letter by January 21, 2025 to e-ssay@gci.net and send the entry fee to your favorite charity.]
Bumper stickers of the week:
Make journalism great again
Make journalism journalism again
Knowledge is not power, but ignorance is powerless
“First they came for the journalists. We don’t know what happened after that.”
“All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.” George Orwell
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