Friday, June 8, 2012
Quote Of The Week
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it." - Henry Ford
Never Forget: June 8, 1967 USS Liberty Is Attacked By Kikestan
I'm sure all of my regular readers are all to familiar with this attack, but if you have never heard of the USS Liberty do yourself a favor and look into it. It kind of puts the whole "they are our only mideast ally" saying in a different light.
The Trouble With Rand Paul
SOURCE
Rand Paul just endorsed a man who is deeply hostile to human liberty.
Perhaps that’s Rand’s idea of playing politics? Come to the table, strike a deal, get what you can. Trouble is, it’s tough striking a good deal when the guy on the other side of the table believes that the government should be allowed to claim — without having to produce any evidence whatsoever — that certain people are terrorists, and therefore should be detained indefinitely without any kind of due process.
That’s textbook tyranny.
Rand Paul might have done some good work trying to filibuster the Patriot Act, but endorsing Mitt Romney goes beyond the pale. The NDAA is Romney’s most egregious transgression against liberty, but not far behind are his desire to start a war against Iran, to increase military spending, to start a trade war with China and his belief that corporations are people.
I know I will never agree with any politician on every single dimension of every single issue, and that to some extent politics will always involve compromise. Certainly, I disagree with Ron Paul on some issues. But Mitt Romney’s stances on these issues seem much, much, much closer to Barack Obama than they do to Ron Paul. In fact, he might as well have endorsed Obama for President.
And the Ron Paul supporters are noticing: Rand has probably burnt most bridges to his Father’s supporters now. His Facebook page has seen a huge outpouring of fury:
I have always been uncomfortable with the children of politicians becoming politicians. Every anointed child feels like a step away from meritocracy. Dynasties are dangerous, because the dynasty itself comes to be more important than the qualities of the politicians. Who would Rand Paul be if he wasn’t Ron Paul’s son? Just another neocon. Neocons often have a few “unfashionable” libertarian or constitutionalist sympathies; look at Charles Krauthammer. But — unlike Ron Paul — the neocon never has the spine to do much about their libertarian or constitutionalist sympathies. They just ride on the establishment steamroller, into foreign occupations, empire building, corporate welfare, and banking bailouts. Into Iraq, and soon into Iran.
Rand Paul just got on the steamroller.
Rand Paul just endorsed a man who is deeply hostile to human liberty.
Perhaps that’s Rand’s idea of playing politics? Come to the table, strike a deal, get what you can. Trouble is, it’s tough striking a good deal when the guy on the other side of the table believes that the government should be allowed to claim — without having to produce any evidence whatsoever — that certain people are terrorists, and therefore should be detained indefinitely without any kind of due process.
That’s textbook tyranny.
Yes, I would have [signed the NDAA]. And I do believe that it is appropriate to have in our nation the capacity to detain people who are threats to this country, who are members of al Qaeda. Look, you have every right in this country to protest and to express your views on a wide range of issues but you don’t have a right to join a group that has killed Americans, and has declared war against America. That’s treason. In this country we have a right to take those people and put them in jail. If I were president I would not abuse this power. But people who join al Qaeda are not entitled to rights of due process under our normal legal code. They are entitled instead to be treated as enemy combatants.Except, if the government had any evidence they were really members of al-Qaeda and engaged in a war against America they could be charged with offenses under current laws and tried in front of a jury of their peers. As was proven when Judge Katherine Forrest struck down the indefinite detention provision of the NDAA as unconstitutional, the real detention targets are people like the ones who brought the case — writers, investigative journalist and whistleblowers: people like Chris Hedges, Noam Chomsky, Daniel Ellsberg, Jennifer Bolen, and Birgitta Jonsdottir.
Mitt Romney
Rand Paul might have done some good work trying to filibuster the Patriot Act, but endorsing Mitt Romney goes beyond the pale. The NDAA is Romney’s most egregious transgression against liberty, but not far behind are his desire to start a war against Iran, to increase military spending, to start a trade war with China and his belief that corporations are people.
I know I will never agree with any politician on every single dimension of every single issue, and that to some extent politics will always involve compromise. Certainly, I disagree with Ron Paul on some issues. But Mitt Romney’s stances on these issues seem much, much, much closer to Barack Obama than they do to Ron Paul. In fact, he might as well have endorsed Obama for President.
And the Ron Paul supporters are noticing: Rand has probably burnt most bridges to his Father’s supporters now. His Facebook page has seen a huge outpouring of fury:
Just lost a lot of faith in a man I otherwise adored.
You suck Rand! Traitor!
That’s why this country is doomed! Even the person you trust is a sell-out. I’m done with politics, people deserve what they get. Let the country run itself to the ground, and still people will not understand what freedom and self-responsibility is about. People want big gov’t, big brother every step of the way. Well, they got it. The rest of us, might as well try to move to another country or find an island and move there.
I knew I’d never vote for Mitt… Now I know I’ll never vote for Rand.
He has fully sold out to the bankers
Endorsing Romney is tantamount to an utter sell-out of conservative principles.Did George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison try to compromise with King George? Or — when it became obvious that they were facing tyranny — did they stand up for the principles of liberty?
I have always been uncomfortable with the children of politicians becoming politicians. Every anointed child feels like a step away from meritocracy. Dynasties are dangerous, because the dynasty itself comes to be more important than the qualities of the politicians. Who would Rand Paul be if he wasn’t Ron Paul’s son? Just another neocon. Neocons often have a few “unfashionable” libertarian or constitutionalist sympathies; look at Charles Krauthammer. But — unlike Ron Paul — the neocon never has the spine to do much about their libertarian or constitutionalist sympathies. They just ride on the establishment steamroller, into foreign occupations, empire building, corporate welfare, and banking bailouts. Into Iraq, and soon into Iran.
Rand Paul just got on the steamroller.
Stay Tuned
I am throughly exhausted right now and don't want to breach this subject which I am very passionate about on an empty tank, but stay tuned tomorrow because I am bringing the heat regarding Rand Paul and the entire situation.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Rest In Peace Bob Chapman
I enjoy reading about economics, finance and investing because it really encompasses many facets of what drives the world. So I listen to and read hours of content per day. Many different websites, podcasts, authors and commentators.
The podcast I have listened to the longest is Gold Seek Radio, which is where I became aware of Bob Chapman. For 5+ years now I have listened to him every week, it is a staple of my weekend routine. I have told people for years now that Bob Chapman is my favorite commentator of all. He is very well informed, but there are others who are informed. He is eloquent, but there are other people who speak well. What sets him in a league of his own to me is two fold. First, he would talk about subjects which most other people in his field wouldn't such as Edgar Steele, you have to care about the Truth a good deal to even remotely stand up for someone as demonized as Edgar Steele. Second, even though Bob saw the big picture, and understood the magnitude of the problems we face on so many levels he remained positive and upbeat. That is a lesson I need, and one I can hopefully continue to learn.
So I had a heavy heart when I learned today that Bob Chapman, the International Forecaster had died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.
It is amazing how much you can care for someone you have never met. I learned a great deal from Bob over the years, about the markets, about economics, and about life. He was a good man, I am really going to miss him every week....big time.
Rest In Peace Mr. Chapman
The podcast I have listened to the longest is Gold Seek Radio, which is where I became aware of Bob Chapman. For 5+ years now I have listened to him every week, it is a staple of my weekend routine. I have told people for years now that Bob Chapman is my favorite commentator of all. He is very well informed, but there are others who are informed. He is eloquent, but there are other people who speak well. What sets him in a league of his own to me is two fold. First, he would talk about subjects which most other people in his field wouldn't such as Edgar Steele, you have to care about the Truth a good deal to even remotely stand up for someone as demonized as Edgar Steele. Second, even though Bob saw the big picture, and understood the magnitude of the problems we face on so many levels he remained positive and upbeat. That is a lesson I need, and one I can hopefully continue to learn.
So I had a heavy heart when I learned today that Bob Chapman, the International Forecaster had died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76.
It is amazing how much you can care for someone you have never met. I learned a great deal from Bob over the years, about the markets, about economics, and about life. He was a good man, I am really going to miss him every week....big time.
Rest In Peace Mr. Chapman
Sunday, June 3, 2012
List Of 2012 Bilderberg Attendees
Final List of Participants
Chairman
| FRA | Castries, Henri de | Chairman and CEO, AXA Group |
| DEU | Ackermann, Josef | Chairman of the Management Board and the Group Executive Committee, Deutsche Bank AG |
| GBR | Agius, Marcus | Chairman, Barclays plc |
| USA | Ajami, Fouad | Senior Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
| USA | Alexander, Keith B. | Commander, US Cyber Command; Director, National Security Agency |
| INT | Almunia, Joaquín | Vice-President – Commissioner for Competition, European Commission |
| USA | Altman, Roger C. | Chairman, Evercore Partners |
| PRT | Amado, Luís | Chairman, Banco Internacional do Funchal (BANIF) |
| NOR | Andresen, Johan H. | Owner and CEO, FERD |
| FIN | Apunen, Matti | Director, Finnish Business and Policy Forum EVA |
| TUR | Babacan, Ali | Deputy Prime Minister for Economic and Financial Affairs |
| PRT | Balsemão, Francisco Pinto | President and CEO, Impresa; Former Prime Minister |
| FRA | Baverez, Nicolas | Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP |
| FRA | Béchu, Christophe | Senator, and Chairman, General Council of Maine-et-Loire |
| BEL | Belgium, H.R.H. Prince Philippe of | |
| TUR | Berberoğlu, Enis | Editor-in-Chief, Hürriyet Newspaper |
| ITA | Bernabè, Franco | Chairman and CEO, Telecom Italia |
| GBR | Boles, Nick | Member of Parliament |
| SWE | Bonnier, Jonas | President and CEO, Bonnier AB |
| NOR | Brandtzæg, Svein Richard | President and CEO, Norsk Hydro ASA |
| AUT | Bronner, Oscar | Publisher, Der Standard Medienwelt |
| SWE | Carlsson, Gunilla | Minister for International Development Cooperation |
| CAN | Carney, Mark J. | Governor, Bank of Canada |
| ESP | Cebrián, Juan Luis | CEO, PRISA; Chairman, El País |
| AUT | Cernko, Willibald | CEO, UniCredit Bank Austria AG |
| FRA | Chalendar, Pierre André de | Chairman and CEO, Saint-Gobain |
| DNK | Christiansen, Jeppe | CEO, Maj Invest |
| RUS | Chubais, Anatoly B. | CEO, OJSC RUSNANO |
| CAN | Clark, W. Edmund | Group President and CEO, TD Bank Group |
| GBR | Clarke, Kenneth | Member of Parliament, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of Justice |
| USA | Collins, Timothy C. | CEO and Senior Managing Director, Ripplewood Holdings, LLC |
| ITA | Conti, Fulvio | CEO and General Manager, Enel S.p.A. |
| USA | Daniels, Jr., Mitchell E. | Governor of Indiana |
| USA | DeMuth, Christopher | Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute |
| USA | Donilon, Thomas E. | National Security Advisor, The White House |
| GBR | Dudley, Robert | Group Chief Executive, BP plc |
| ITA | Elkann, John | Chairman, Fiat S.p.A. |
| DEU | Enders, Thomas | CEO, Airbus |
| USA | Evans, J. Michael | Vice Chairman, Global Head of Growth Markets, Goldman Sachs & Co. |
| AUT | Faymann, Werner | Federal Chancellor |
| DNK | Federspiel, Ulrik | Executive Vice President, Haldor Topsøe A/S |
| USA | Ferguson, Niall | Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History, Harvard University |
| GBR | Flint, Douglas J. | Group Chairman, HSBC Holdings plc |
| CHN | Fu, Ying | Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs |
| IRL | Gallagher, Paul | Former Attorney General; Senior Counsel |
| USA | Gephardt, Richard A. | President and CEO, Gephardt Group |
| GRC | Giannitsis, Anastasios | Former Minister of Interior; Professor of Development and International Economics, University of Athens |
| USA | Goolsbee, Austan D. | Professor of Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business |
| USA | Graham, Donald E. | Chairman and CEO, The Washington Post Company |
| ITA | Gruber, Lilli | Journalist – Anchorwoman, La 7 TV |
| INT | Gucht, Karel de | Commissioner for Trade, European Commission |
| NLD | Halberstadt, Victor | Professor of Economics, Leiden University; Former Honorary Secretary General of Bilderberg Meetings |
| USA | Harris, Britt | CIO, Teacher Retirement System of Texas |
| USA | Hoffman, Reid | Co-founder and Executive Chairman, LinkedIn |
| CHN | Huang, Yiping | Professor of Economics, China Center for Economic Research, Peking University |
| USA | Huntsman, Jr., Jon M. | Chairman, Huntsman Cancer Foundation |
| DEU | Ischinger, Wolfgang | Chairman, Munich Security Conference; Global Head Government Relations, Allianz SE |
| RUS | Ivanov, Igor S. | Associate member, Russian Academy of Science; President, Russian International Affairs Council |
| FRA | Izraelewicz, Erik | CEO, Le Monde |
| USA | Jacobs, Kenneth M. | Chairman and CEO, Lazard |
| USA | Johnson, James A. | Vice Chairman, Perseus, LLC |
| USA | Jordan, Jr., Vernon E. | Senior Managing Director, Lazard |
| USA | Karp, Alexander | CEO, Palantir Technologies |
| USA | Karsner, Alexander | Executive Chairman, Manifest Energy, Inc |
| FRA | Karvar, Anousheh | Inspector, Inter-ministerial Audit and Evaluation Office for Social, Health, Employment and Labor Policies |
| RUS | Kasparov, Garry | Chairman, United Civil Front (of Russia) |
| GBR | Kerr, John | Independent Member, House of Lords |
| USA | Kerry, John | Senator for Massachusetts |
| TUR | Keyman, E. Fuat | Director, Istanbul Policy Center and Professor of International Relations, Sabanci University |
| USA | Kissinger, Henry A. | Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc. |
| USA | Kleinfeld, Klaus | Chairman and CEO, Alcoa |
| TUR | Koç, Mustafa | Chairman, Koç Holding A.Ş. |
| DEU | Koch, Roland | CEO, Bilfinger Berger SE |
| INT | Kodmani, Bassma | Member of the Executive Bureau and Head of Foreign Affairs, Syrian National Council |
| USA | Kravis, Henry R. | Co-Chairman and Co-CEO, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. |
| USA | Kravis, Marie-Josée | Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute |
| INT | Kroes, Neelie | Vice President, European Commission; Commissioner for Digital Agenda |
| USA | Krupp, Fred | President, Environmental Defense Fund |
| INT | Lamy, Pascal | Director-General, World Trade Organization |
| ITA | Letta, Enrico | Deputy Leader, Democratic Party (PD) |
| ISR | Levite, Ariel E. | Nonresident Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
| USA | Li, Cheng | Director of Research and Senior Fellow, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings Institution |
| USA | Lipsky, John | Distinguished Visiting Scholar, Johns Hopkins University |
| USA | Liveris, Andrew N. | President, Chairman and CEO, The Dow Chemical Company |
| DEU | Löscher, Peter | President and CEO, Siemens AG |
| USA | Lynn, William J. | Chairman and CEO, DRS Technologies, Inc. |
| GBR | Mandelson, Peter | Member, House of Lords; Chairman, Global Counsel |
| USA | Mathews, Jessica T. | President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace |
| DEN | Mchangama, Jacob | Director of Legal Affairs, Center for Political Studies (CEPOS) |
| CAN | McKenna, Frank | Deputy Chair, TD Bank Group |
| USA | Mehlman, Kenneth B. | Partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. |
| GBR | Micklethwait, John | Editor-in-Chief, The Economist |
| FRA | Montbrial, Thierry de | President, French Institute for International Relations |
| PRT | Moreira da Silva, Jorge | First Vice-President, Partido Social Democrata (PSD) |
| USA | Mundie, Craig J. | Chief Research and Strategy Officer, Microsoft Corporation |
| DEU | Nass, Matthias | Chief International Correspondent, Die Zeit |
| NLD | Netherlands, H.M. the Queen of the | |
| ESP | Nin Génova, Juan María | Deputy Chairman and CEO, Caixabank |
| IRL | Noonan, Michael | Minister for Finance |
| USA | Noonan, Peggy | Author, Columnist, The Wall Street Journal |
| FIN | Ollila, Jorma | Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell, plc |
| USA | Orszag, Peter R. | Vice Chairman, Citigroup |
| GRC | Papalexopoulos, Dimitri | Managing Director, Titan Cement Co. |
| NLD | Pechtold, Alexander | Parliamentary Leader, Democrats ’66 (D66) |
| USA | Perle, Richard N. | Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute |
| NLD | Polman, Paul | CEO, Unilever PLC |
| CAN | Prichard, J. Robert S. | Chair, Torys LLP |
| ISR | Rabinovich, Itamar | Global Distinguished Professor, New York University |
| GBR | Rachman, Gideon | Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, The Financial Times |
| USA | Rattner, Steven | Chairman, Willett Advisors LLC |
| CAN | Redford, Alison M. | Premier of Alberta |
| CAN | Reisman, Heather M. | CEO, Indigo Books & Music Inc. |
| DEU | Reitzle, Wolfgang | CEO & President, Linde AG |
| USA | Rogoff, Kenneth S. | Professor of Economics, Harvard University |
| USA | Rose, Charlie | Executive Editor and Anchor, Charlie Rose |
| USA | Ross, Dennis B. | Counselor, Washington Institute for Near East Policy |
| POL | Rostowski, Jacek | Minister of Finance |
| USA | Rubin, Robert E. | Co-Chair, Council on Foreign Relations; Former Secretary of the Treasury |
| NLD | Rutte, Mark | Prime Minister |
| ESP | Sáenz de Santamaría Antón, Soraya | Vice President and Minister for the Presidency |
| NLD | Scheffer, Paul | Professor of European Studies, Tilburg University |
| USA | Schmidt, Eric E. | Executive Chairman, Google Inc. |
| AUT | Scholten, Rudolf | Member of the Board of Executive Directors, Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG |
| FRA | Senard, Jean-Dominique | CEO, Michelin Group |
| USA | Shambaugh, David | Director, China Policy Program, George Washington University |
| INT | Sheeran, Josette | Vice Chairman, World Economic Forum |
| FIN | Siilasmaa, Risto | Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nokia Corporation |
| USA | Speyer, Jerry I. | Chairman and Co-CEO, Tishman Speyer |
| CHE | Supino, Pietro | Chairman and Publisher, Tamedia AG |
| IRL | Sutherland, Peter D. | Chairman, Goldman Sachs International |
| USA | Thiel, Peter A. | President, Clarium Capital / Thiel Capital |
| TUR | Timuray, Serpil | CEO, Vodafone Turkey |
| DEU | Trittin, Jürgen | Parliamentary Leader, Alliance 90/The Greens |
| GRC | Tsoukalis, Loukas | President, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy |
| FIN | Urpilainen, Jutta | Minister of Finance |
| CHE | Vasella, Daniel L. | Chairman, Novartis AG |
| INT | Vimont, Pierre | Executive Secretary General, European External Action Service |
| GBR | Voser, Peter | CEO, Royal Dutch Shell plc |
| SWE | Wallenberg, Jacob | Chairman, Investor AB |
| USA | Warsh, Kevin | Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University |
| GBR | Wolf, Martin H. | Chief Economics Commentator, The Financial Times |
| USA | Wolfensohn, James D. | Chairman and CEO, Wolfensohn and Company |
| CAN | Wright, Nigel S. | Chief of Staff, Office of the Prime Minister |
| USA | Yergin, Daniel | Chairman, IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates |
| INT | Zoellick, Robert B. | President, The World Bank Group |
| Rapporteurs | ||
| GBR | Bredow, Vendeline von | Business Correspondent, The Economist |
| GBR | Wooldridge, Adrian D. | Foreign Correspondent, The Economist |
The Jewish Double Standard In One Picture
SOURCE
Menachem Rosensaft is a Jewish anti-White columnist with access to the mainstream media. At TOO we have often noted the hypocrisy of Jews who are strong advocates for Israel as an ethnostate but oppose any manifestation of ethnonationalism by Whites. (At this time, there are 36 articles listed under the category of “Jewish attitudes on Israel versus the Diaspora.”) A recent comment by “Tom” on yet another article on the topic had the following image. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Menachem Rosensaft is a Jewish anti-White columnist with access to the mainstream media. At TOO we have often noted the hypocrisy of Jews who are strong advocates for Israel as an ethnostate but oppose any manifestation of ethnonationalism by Whites. (At this time, there are 36 articles listed under the category of “Jewish attitudes on Israel versus the Diaspora.”) A recent comment by “Tom” on yet another article on the topic had the following image. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
CNN Is On The Ropes
CNN and all mainstream news organizations are going down in flames and I'm loving every minute of it.
SOURCE
Stories aren't the only thing that high-profile studio anchors at CNN apparently know how to break. Judging by the latest TV ratings, they also seem to be uncannily successful at destroying the loyalty of viewers.
Figures from ratings agency Nielsen show that America's most famous rolling news brand has just experienced its worst month for almost 20 years, parting company with more than 50 per cent of its audience in 12 months.
The development follows years of unrelenting decline for the network, which pioneered 24-hour news in the 1980s, and was for years the top-rated news channel. It has in recent years suffered intense competition from Fox News and MSNBC, which both now outperform it in almost every time slot.
The figures also raise questions about the future of Piers Morgan, hired to shake up its prime-time schedule with an hour-long weeknight interview show. He drew an average of 417,000 viewers, a fall of 50 per cent and the network's worst figure for the slot since the early 1990s. Morgan's show is largely admired by critics. But his audience is volatile, and seems to vary according to the calibre of guests. In early 2011, when he took over from octogenarian Larry King, who boasted around 600,000 viewers, Morgan said his show should be judged "by how we settle down in between six months and a year". By that measure, he's in trouble.
May saw CNN's average audience fall to 388,000, of which a mere 113,000 are adults in the 25-54 age bracket that advertisers covet. The figures represent an exponential increase in the rate of decline for the channel, which is also undermined by the internet's rise in popularity as a breaking news source.
They also suggest that CNN is losing viewers quicker than rivals. For Fox, comparable figures (1.65m and 319,000) are down just under 10 per cent annually. MSNBC (658,000 and 213,000) is declining by around 20 per cent.
"It's really a bloodletting; there's no other way to describe it," says Robert Thompson, professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "The biggest problem is inherent in their brand. They are trying to stick to old-fashioned, unbiased news broadcasting when their rivals have worked out that to draw an audience when there aren't major stories breaking you need to do the opposite."
CNN, based in Atlanta, retains an expensive network of overseas bureaux and is still regarded as the nation's most reliable TV news brand. It has resisted the temptation to follow Fox and MSNBC in using partisan anchors.
As a result, CNN remains a go-to destination only when major breaking news stories unfold. May 2012 was particularly tough because it was a relatively quiet news month – whereas May 2011 saw the killing of Osama Bin Laden and major tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama.
CNN is hoping that two high-profile hires, the chef-turned-TV-star Anthony Bourdain and ABC News star John Berman will help to stem the bleeding.
Turn-offs: CNN's flop presenters
Piers Morgan
Hired in a blaze of publicity almost 18 months ago, the former Mirror and News of the World editor brings Fleet Street bombasity to his 9pm slot. But ratings for the show are highly volatile and on one night recently hit a low of just 39k in the all important 25-54 bracket.
Erin Burnett
"Smart, entertaining, and ahead of the news," is how CNN describes its 7pm anchor. The public must see things differently, given this respected (but perhaps monochrome) former financial journalist's prime-time show draws only 409,000 viewers – of which a woeful 46,000 belong to the 24-54 demographic that advertisers covet.
Anderson Cooper
Famed for his black T-shirts, perfect quiff and the live-on-air takedowns of public figures (on a slot he calls "Keeping 'em Honest!"), Mr Cooper is a cable news institution and the unofficial "face" of CNN. That hasn't stopped him managing to lose a quarter of his viewers in the past 12 months.
Wolf Blitzer
Bearded, bespectacled, and a fixture of CNN's line-up for more than 20 years, the ever-reliable Blitzer should be required viewing in an election year. But viewing figures for his 4-6pm Situation Room, billed as a "raw, unfiltered, and live" breaking news programme for the just-got-home-from-work crowd, are down more than half.
SOURCE
Stories aren't the only thing that high-profile studio anchors at CNN apparently know how to break. Judging by the latest TV ratings, they also seem to be uncannily successful at destroying the loyalty of viewers.
Figures from ratings agency Nielsen show that America's most famous rolling news brand has just experienced its worst month for almost 20 years, parting company with more than 50 per cent of its audience in 12 months.
The development follows years of unrelenting decline for the network, which pioneered 24-hour news in the 1980s, and was for years the top-rated news channel. It has in recent years suffered intense competition from Fox News and MSNBC, which both now outperform it in almost every time slot.
The figures also raise questions about the future of Piers Morgan, hired to shake up its prime-time schedule with an hour-long weeknight interview show. He drew an average of 417,000 viewers, a fall of 50 per cent and the network's worst figure for the slot since the early 1990s. Morgan's show is largely admired by critics. But his audience is volatile, and seems to vary according to the calibre of guests. In early 2011, when he took over from octogenarian Larry King, who boasted around 600,000 viewers, Morgan said his show should be judged "by how we settle down in between six months and a year". By that measure, he's in trouble.
May saw CNN's average audience fall to 388,000, of which a mere 113,000 are adults in the 25-54 age bracket that advertisers covet. The figures represent an exponential increase in the rate of decline for the channel, which is also undermined by the internet's rise in popularity as a breaking news source.
They also suggest that CNN is losing viewers quicker than rivals. For Fox, comparable figures (1.65m and 319,000) are down just under 10 per cent annually. MSNBC (658,000 and 213,000) is declining by around 20 per cent.
"It's really a bloodletting; there's no other way to describe it," says Robert Thompson, professor of Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. "The biggest problem is inherent in their brand. They are trying to stick to old-fashioned, unbiased news broadcasting when their rivals have worked out that to draw an audience when there aren't major stories breaking you need to do the opposite."
CNN, based in Atlanta, retains an expensive network of overseas bureaux and is still regarded as the nation's most reliable TV news brand. It has resisted the temptation to follow Fox and MSNBC in using partisan anchors.
As a result, CNN remains a go-to destination only when major breaking news stories unfold. May 2012 was particularly tough because it was a relatively quiet news month – whereas May 2011 saw the killing of Osama Bin Laden and major tornadoes in Missouri and Alabama.
CNN is hoping that two high-profile hires, the chef-turned-TV-star Anthony Bourdain and ABC News star John Berman will help to stem the bleeding.
Turn-offs: CNN's flop presenters
Piers Morgan
Hired in a blaze of publicity almost 18 months ago, the former Mirror and News of the World editor brings Fleet Street bombasity to his 9pm slot. But ratings for the show are highly volatile and on one night recently hit a low of just 39k in the all important 25-54 bracket.
Erin Burnett
"Smart, entertaining, and ahead of the news," is how CNN describes its 7pm anchor. The public must see things differently, given this respected (but perhaps monochrome) former financial journalist's prime-time show draws only 409,000 viewers – of which a woeful 46,000 belong to the 24-54 demographic that advertisers covet.
Anderson Cooper
Famed for his black T-shirts, perfect quiff and the live-on-air takedowns of public figures (on a slot he calls "Keeping 'em Honest!"), Mr Cooper is a cable news institution and the unofficial "face" of CNN. That hasn't stopped him managing to lose a quarter of his viewers in the past 12 months.
Wolf Blitzer
Bearded, bespectacled, and a fixture of CNN's line-up for more than 20 years, the ever-reliable Blitzer should be required viewing in an election year. But viewing figures for his 4-6pm Situation Room, billed as a "raw, unfiltered, and live" breaking news programme for the just-got-home-from-work crowd, are down more than half.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Obama Ordered CStuxnet Cyber Attack On Iran
SOURCE
When Iran's nuclear facilities were publicly crippled in 2011 by what then was considered a revolutionary computer virus which destroys physical equipment, many immediately assumed the virus originated in Israel for obvious reasons. They were wrong. In what can be described as the first presidentially-mandated and condoned act of cyberwarfare, one circumventing the War Powers Act of course, the NYT informs us that the order to physically impair Iranian sovereignty came from none other than the Nobel Peace prize winning president: Barack Obama.
From the NYT:
From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America's first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks - begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games - even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.
At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm's "escape," Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America's most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran's nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.
"Should we shut this thing down?" Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president's national security team who were in the room.
Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.
This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day.
For those confused - yes: this is an act of war. A New Normal war.
It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country's infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives. The code itself is 50 times as big as the typical computer worm, Carey Nachenberg, a vice president of Symantec, one of the many groups that have dissected the code, said at a symposium at Stanford University in April. Those forensic investigations into the inner workings of the code, while picking apart how it worked, came to no conclusions about who was responsible.
And still America continues to wage war, subverting the constitution, without any Congressional approval, and without even telling the population what is really happening. Because it is "for its own good."
A similar process is now under way to figure out the origins of another cyberweapon called Flame that was recently discovered to have attacked the computers of Iranian officials, sweeping up information from those machines. But the computer code appears to be at least five years old, and American officials say that it was not part of Olympic Games. They have declined to say whether the United States was responsible for the Flame attack.
The "New Normal Gulf of Tonkin":
Mr. Obama, according to participants in the many Situation Room meetings on Olympic Games, was acutely aware that with every attack he was pushing the United States into new territory, much as his predecessors had with the first use of atomic weapons in the 1940s, of intercontinental missiles in the 1950s and of drones in the past decade. He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons - even under the most careful and limited circumstances - could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.
"We discussed the irony, more than once," one of his aides said. Another said that the administration was resistant to developing a "grand theory for a weapon whose possibilities they were still discovering." Yet Mr. Obama concluded that when it came to stopping Iran, the United States had no other choice.
If Olympic Games failed, he told aides, there would be no time for sanctions and diplomacy with Iran to work. Israel could carry out a conventional military attack, prompting a conflict that could spread throughout the region.
Some call it irony, others collateral damage where people lose everything, including their lives. Semantics.
Remember though: they hate America for its freedoms.
Mr. Obama has repeatedly told his aides that there are risks to using - and particularly to overusing - the weapon. In fact, no country's infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.
And it will be a shock, SHOCK when the world retaliates against America.
When Iran's nuclear facilities were publicly crippled in 2011 by what then was considered a revolutionary computer virus which destroys physical equipment, many immediately assumed the virus originated in Israel for obvious reasons. They were wrong. In what can be described as the first presidentially-mandated and condoned act of cyberwarfare, one circumventing the War Powers Act of course, the NYT informs us that the order to physically impair Iranian sovereignty came from none other than the Nobel Peace prize winning president: Barack Obama.
From the NYT:
From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran's main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America's first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.
Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks - begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games - even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran's Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet. Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name: Stuxnet.
At a tense meeting in the White House Situation Room within days of the worm's "escape," Mr. Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the director of the Central Intelligence Agency at the time, Leon E. Panetta, considered whether America's most ambitious attempt to slow the progress of Iran's nuclear efforts had been fatally compromised.
"Should we shut this thing down?" Mr. Obama asked, according to members of the president's national security team who were in the room.
Told it was unclear how much the Iranians knew about the code, and offered evidence that it was still causing havoc, Mr. Obama decided that the cyberattacks should proceed. In the following weeks, the Natanz plant was hit by a newer version of the computer worm, and then another after that. The last of that series of attacks, a few weeks after Stuxnet was detected around the world, temporarily took out nearly 1,000 of the 5,000 centrifuges Iran had spinning at the time to purify uranium.
This account of the American and Israeli effort to undermine the Iranian nuclear program is based on interviews over the past 18 months with current and former American, European and Israeli officials involved in the program, as well as a range of outside experts. None would allow their names to be used because the effort remains highly classified, and parts of it continue to this day.
For those confused - yes: this is an act of war. A New Normal war.
It appears to be the first time the United States has repeatedly used cyberweapons to cripple another country's infrastructure, achieving, with computer code, what until then could be accomplished only by bombing a country or sending in agents to plant explosives. The code itself is 50 times as big as the typical computer worm, Carey Nachenberg, a vice president of Symantec, one of the many groups that have dissected the code, said at a symposium at Stanford University in April. Those forensic investigations into the inner workings of the code, while picking apart how it worked, came to no conclusions about who was responsible.
And still America continues to wage war, subverting the constitution, without any Congressional approval, and without even telling the population what is really happening. Because it is "for its own good."
A similar process is now under way to figure out the origins of another cyberweapon called Flame that was recently discovered to have attacked the computers of Iranian officials, sweeping up information from those machines. But the computer code appears to be at least five years old, and American officials say that it was not part of Olympic Games. They have declined to say whether the United States was responsible for the Flame attack.
The "New Normal Gulf of Tonkin":
Mr. Obama, according to participants in the many Situation Room meetings on Olympic Games, was acutely aware that with every attack he was pushing the United States into new territory, much as his predecessors had with the first use of atomic weapons in the 1940s, of intercontinental missiles in the 1950s and of drones in the past decade. He repeatedly expressed concerns that any American acknowledgment that it was using cyberweapons - even under the most careful and limited circumstances - could enable other countries, terrorists or hackers to justify their own attacks.
"We discussed the irony, more than once," one of his aides said. Another said that the administration was resistant to developing a "grand theory for a weapon whose possibilities they were still discovering." Yet Mr. Obama concluded that when it came to stopping Iran, the United States had no other choice.
If Olympic Games failed, he told aides, there would be no time for sanctions and diplomacy with Iran to work. Israel could carry out a conventional military attack, prompting a conflict that could spread throughout the region.
Some call it irony, others collateral damage where people lose everything, including their lives. Semantics.
Remember though: they hate America for its freedoms.
Mr. Obama has repeatedly told his aides that there are risks to using - and particularly to overusing - the weapon. In fact, no country's infrastructure is more dependent on computer systems, and thus more vulnerable to attack, than that of the United States. It is only a matter of time, most experts believe, before it becomes the target of the same kind of weapon that the Americans have used, secretly, against Iran.
And it will be a shock, SHOCK when the world retaliates against America.
"The End Game: 2012 And 2013 Will Usher In The End" - The Scariest Presentation Ever?
SOURCE
If Raoul Pal was some doomsday spouting windbag, writing in all caps, arbitrarily pasting together disparate charts to create 200 page slideshows, it would be easy to ignore him. He isn't. The founder of Global Macro Investor "previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe... Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36 and now lives on the Valencian coast of Spain, from where he writes." It is his writing we are concerned about, and specifically his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen....
And we see a lot of those.
The End Game
If Raoul Pal was some doomsday spouting windbag, writing in all caps, arbitrarily pasting together disparate charts to create 200 page slideshows, it would be easy to ignore him. He isn't. The founder of Global Macro Investor "previously co-managed the GLG Global Macro Fund in London for GLG Partners, one of the largest hedge fund groups in the world. Raoul came to GLG from Goldman Sachs where he co-managed the hedge fund sales business in Equities and Equity Derivatives in Europe... Raoul Pal retired from managing client money in 2004 at the age of 36 and now lives on the Valencian coast of Spain, from where he writes." It is his writing we are concerned about, and specifically his latest presentation, which is, for lack of a better word, the most disturbing and scary forecast of the future of the world we have ever seen....
And we see a lot of those.
The End Game
Capital Account TV Exclusive Interview of CBO Mortgage Fraud Whistleblower 5/30/12
Kind of a boring episode, but figured I would post it for those interested.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)