Corporate Media and Censorship In America

"Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know."

John F. Kennedy, The President and the Press, 27 April 1961

"There are men, now in power in this country, who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit."

John Lindsay

This link below is a fairly long and very interesting discussion of the recent crisis in the Ukraine, and what some of the bigger picture implications and reasons for it may be.

However, I am starting this video towards the end, so that you can hear one key point that Professor Stephen Cohen of Princeton makes that is in my opinion essential.

He states that there is no longer a place in the popular mainstream media for debate over the different positions and opinions on key policy questions outside of a narrow range of acceptable views as decided by a few major media outlets.  If there is a dissenting view that is distasteful to the powerful interests that influence the government, they will not allow it to be heard or discussed rationally, except perhaps in a few scholarly journals out of the reach of most.

And in this I think he is absolutely correct. And it is not just about issues such as a new Cold War, but on a broad range of social and financial topics as well.  Journalism as I once knew it no longer exists except in select locations on the Internet.

Staged discussions between paid 'strategists' from the two major political parties with commentary from a few corporate media representatives is not journalism, and does not provide the platform for the serious discussion of issues that affect all of us.

The seeds for the decline of American mainstream media were sown by the overturn in 1987 of the Fairness Doctrine which required broadcasters to air both side of controversial subjects, and not just the officially sanctioned sides of a carefully selected and phrased question or topic. 

And the Communications Act of 1934 was further gutted by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which permitted corporate conglomerates to acquire and establish powerful monopolies across the press, radio, and television.

I am finding too many cases where topics are being effectively censored by implicit agreement of the corporate media to either not cover a story, or to permit only certain aspects and views of an issue to be heard.

I am no big fan of the governments of either Russia or China.  It is the oligarchs who like the way these statist governments operate, but only when they are making deals with them and getting their way.   It was Bill Gates who came back from a tour of China in 2005 and praised this new kind of capitalism.

I have been to both Russia and China, and I prefer neither of those brands of oligarchy and monopoly in alliance with the State.  And so I am concerned about the modern attraction by the powerful in the West to emulate them, to manage the news, to establish monopolies, and to hide behind secrecy as they engage in undemocratic backroom deals with powerful interests as a standard matter of doing the business of the nation.

This de facto censoring of the news in the West is not a healthy situation.  And so we must get information about important topics where we can.   The coverage of too many news topics, from Snowden to the financial crisis to the Ukraine, have been disgracefully one sided and carry the stink of propaganda wrapped in a  press under the thumb of a few moneyed interests.

You may wish to listen to the entire interview which I found to be most interesting.  Please click on the link below to start the interview at the point of discussing censorship.

Stephen Cohen, The New Cold War: It's Five Minutes to Midnight

Related: National Publications Refuse Journalist Bill Cohan's Expose of Price Rigging in the Silver Market

               Salon, Obama's Unprecedented War on Whistleblowers

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - China Is Back From Holiday

"I have come to realize that the vast majority of decent, wonderful people have no idea how they are being hoodwinked, day in and day out, by the scum of this world. We are lied to, misled, bamboozled, suckered, cheated, misrepresented, conned, manipulated and royally screwed!

They take us to the cleaners day in and day out in every way possible. We, the people, pay the price of their cheating, their folly, their lying and their sheer stupidity."

Pierre Rinfret


"How could I have done this? I was making a lot of money. I didn’t need the money. Am I a flawed character?”

Bernie Madoff

Silver was under pressure most of the day, while gold was able to gain a bit of ground after yesterday's rally.

China is back from holiday for its 'National Week.' The markets that count for gold bullion are open again.

Nothing of particular consequence happened on the Comex in the markets or their warehouses for precious metals yesterday.

The associated trades with silver such as miners and royalty plays continue to get hammered. That they gained so sharply yesterday seems to suggest that the much remarked short interest in some of those plays really is that significant.  I wonder if some of the 'smart money' isn't advantageously picking up some positions on the cheap ahead of some forthcoming event.

As you know there are some real divergences between gold and silver, both in paper and physical levels, that have some of us shaking our heads a bit. You know, the kind of people who actually notice things and ask about them.

There was intraday commentary from Robert Johnson in The US System Is Broken and Heading Towards Social Conflict

Some of the things that he says might appear to be shocking, but he is only saying what a lot of well informed and intelligent people are thinking.

But it is considered impolitic to actually say these things out loud, because the status quo thinks you are stirring things up, and speaking ill of insiders. And that makes them angry. It is the same type of anger that a friend who has had too much to drink might feel when you attempt to take their car keys and offer to call them a cab. They have been driving under the influence for years and never had a problem before.  Who are you to question their abilities?

"The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself."

Archibald Macleish

And the elites in the US and the UK are driving inexorably forward under the mass delusion of their own will to power.  I am not stopping unless the others stop first.   And in their inability to stop, their groupthink keeps rationalizing and reinforcing the idea that they are not only right, but are acting nobly in taking the lead by obtaining an historically inordinate and unsustainable amount of money and power.  They clearly deserve it. People must be jealous of them, since they can do no wrong and are superior, if not to everyone then at least most of those fools and parasites.

Neo-liberalism brings out the worst in people, and fosters a culture that nurtures sociopathic tendencies that become self-reinforcing and self-justifying.   It is calls forth the kind of power that makes men into monsters.

After this latest financial crisis the Western Banks think they are holding unbeatable hands.  And the pathologically greedy never wish to surrender even one iota of money or power, even to save themselves.

The ever expanding Ponzi scheme of Western finance has its reckoning at the borders of Eurasia.  And so it is a time of historic change.

Have a pleasant evening.

 

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Whipsawed

Yesterday's late afternoon Fed rally that ran up so sharply faded just as sharply today.

Yesterday the Fed's dovish tones had American stocks partying like it was 1999. And today, after the cold water was thrown on the global economy by more dire outlooks from Europe, traders reconsidered and thought, 'yes the Fed is dovish, because the economy is not recovering. Hey, the economy is not recovering. Sell!'

The Fed's jawboning giveth and the Fed actions or lack thereof taketh away. At least in terms of money manipulated wealth.

I don't want to give these markets too much credit for thought though, considering that the average holding time of a stock trade is now measured in seconds. These sharp moves ought not to surprise one too much. This is a very speculative, hot money driven, technical market. It reminds me of a description I read of the stock markets volatile up and down moves in the Summer of 1929.

We are now in earnings season. It was not auspicious that Alcoa beat on earnings and came inline on revenues last night, put out a rosy forecast, and the stock sold off today.

Well that's today. And here in the United States of Amnesia, we only live in the now.  

And it doesn't matter if the broad swath of people, thriving, as long as they are surviving.   It matters that the things that really count to the power players look good.  And baby, our one percent look marvelous.

Have a pleasant evening.

Robert Johnson: US System Is Broken and Heading Toward Social Conflict

"We are on an unsustainable financial trajectory, the financial system has been unmasked as unstable and unfair, and that contributes to inequality, part of which comes from the operations of the financial sector, and is a formidable, formidable cause of social instability in the medium term."

Robert Johnson

The English-speaking people are marvelously unaware and uninformed of what is happening in their own countries. 

Peaceful demonstrations and grievances such as Occupy Wall Street are systematically stifled and crushed.  Non-sanctioned opinions are marginalized and ridiculed.

A vocal minority is energized by stimulating their fears, hatreds, and paranoia.   The majority are 'diverted' and confused.   The professional class is acquiescent to the status quo.  The intellectuals hide in their studies.

The plutocracy's standing order of the day is 'keep a lid on it.'   Until when?  The increasing use of force? And then what?

There will be change in finding the right issue, the fulcrum of change that will enable diverse groups with different perspectives to come together and energize themselves in a common cause.   Favorite causes and individual egos will continue to be an impediment to this.  The Occupy movement lost focus because it chose to protest in favor of everything and became enamored of process over substance.

I thought Johnson's idea of eliminating private schools was in the wrong direction.  Consolidating the schools and eliminating diversity while giving them to an unreformed and corrupt political regime does not seem to be in the first priority for change.  Social engineering tends to be longer term, divisive, and debilitating.  And I don't think eliminating choice is the key to achieving progress.  It sounds somewhat statist.

The focus of effective reform needs to be struck at the root, which is the financial sector and the mechanism of financial looting, and the money corrupted political process which is how injustice is propagated.

The Banks must be restrained, and the financial system reformed, with balance restored to the economy, before there can be any sustainable recovery.

Related: The Problem In One Picture

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Quod Erat Demonstrandum

Gold and silver were under some serious pressure after a mid morning hit that was particularly blatant and clumsy.

The pressure continued steadily most of the day with silver really taking it hard.

The Fed minutes came out around 2 PM, and the equity and the precious metal markets headed north like scalded cats, because of the decidedly dovish flavor of the Fed talk.

Is there anyone, and I mean anyone, who reads what I write here who is surprised by this? If so, then I must not be doing a very effective job of explaining that The Recovery™ is not yet sustainable, and the Fed must continue 'priming the pump' in a somewhat neurotic attempt to invoke the appearance of growth and vitality where none exists.

And why is this? Because the system has not been reformed, and the financial sector and the one percent continue to take, by far, the greatest share of this monetary stimulus and shove it into their own tax avoiding pockets, and the public be damned.

After the Fed minutes came out, a few of us crossed emails saying, 'is there any doubt why they hit gold and silver this morning?'

There is almost NO doubt in my mind that the Fed and their Bankster owners are actively managing market perceptions while they continue their failing policies, all in the virtuous name of 'instilling confidence.' 

But a goodly portion of the Rest of the World seems intent on calling their bluff.

Well, let's see what happens. It is far too early to call the 'triple bottom' in place. We must see a breaking of the downtrend of lower highs and lower lows.

But the fundamentals remain in place, and for longer term investors, that is what matters the most.

As for stocks, I have mixed emotions. They are running on Fed money expansions, but the organic growth from the economy really is not there yet.

A true stock market junkie and advisor making their living from stocks will keep reciting the 'stay fully invested' mantra. I became intimately familiar with this mindset as I chose to liquidate a substantial tech stock portfolio prior to the tech bubble crash of 2000.

I remember the big house broker almost yelling at me to 'stay fully invested, these are good companies!'    I liquidated everything and took my money as far away from that firm and Wall Street as I could manage.

And in less than six months I saw many of my friends who took that sort of advice being virtually ruined, as their stock heavy retirement plans evaporated. And even if they had held they would not have gotten even in the subsequent bubble, because they were not able to toss the losers out of their portfolios as the indices like the Dow, the SP and the NDX so often may do.

And you know what was said on financial television to these people who had been ruined?  "No one MADE them buy those stocks."

And we saw a similar cycle of run up and crash in 2007-2008.  Many were decimated, but Wall Street continued on, keeping its profits, and socializing its losses to the public trust.  Hi ho.

Neo-liberalism breeds a pathology of the sociopaths.  It holds that the markets are as gods, and that people will get what they deserve.  If they are tricked, if they are taken advantage, if they are destroyed, they must have had it coming because they were stupid and weak.  To each as they deserve, and what they deserve from the strong is subjugation and death. 

 

This too shall pass.

 

Have a pleasant evening.

SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts - Easy FOMC and Here Come the Earnings

After the bell Alcoa kicked off earnings season by beating estimates for profits, and coming in-line for revenues.

For the entirety of the earnings season take profit results lightly, but key in on the top line numbers.  They are harder to engineer using accounting gimmicks.

The Fed minutes were decidedly dovish, and they caused the equity markets to take off.  

This is not due to any recovery,  but to the Fed's indication of keeping zero interest rates in place for a considerable amount of time.  Why is this important? Because it compels one to calculate the risks somewhat differently.

Have a pleasant evening.