Censuring Project Censorship

Every year the Reader Weekly publishes excerpts from Project Censored, “The News That Didn't Make The News”, and every year I gnash my teeth over at least half the items.  I’ve already read about them someplace else.  If they were censored, how did they get published so that I already knew about them?  If they were censored stories, how did the authors of these items get all their information?  And if they were censored, how did they get public coverage through Project Censored?  Wouldn’t the “censors” have closed Project Censored’ offices?

This year I’ll try a bit harder to find out where all of these items did make the news.

Widespread GMO Contamination: Did Monsanto Plant GMOs Before USDA Approval?

I am not surprised.  Monsanto has had widespread objection to its products and practices for years.

I searched for “monsanto gmo contamination 2000”.  A History Commons article gives citations from the Washington Post and others from 1999 and from the New York Times from 2000

Pennsylvania Law Gags Doctors to Protect Big Oil’s “Proprietary Secrets”

The Philadelphia Inquirer apparently didn’t know that this story was censored.  In December and January it ran stories on this law in its Philly.com site. The law is being contested in state courts.  That law is even being opposed by local Republican politicians; one even thought all the state Republicans should be turned out of office in the next election.

The Power of Peaceful Revolution in Iceland

I knew that years ago Icelanders turned out the government that let banks run rampant.  The new government did not bail the banks out.  They let the banks take their own losses rather than  “socialize” the losses as so many other countries did.

Food Riots: The New Normal?

I expected that this could happen given global warming and government corruption impoverishing many countries.  But there could also be a bright side.  Education, cell phones, and local electricity are giving many people the power to better their own lives.  And not all live in areas overrun by militant, religious extremists.

Journalism Under Attack Around the Globe

What’s new?  There have been many reports about attacks on journalists.  Reporters without Borders have been working for years to end violence against reporters.  One of the latest was a German photographer shot point blank in Afghanistan.  And an Italian reporter was killed in Ukraine.

The US Has Left Iraq with an Epidemic of Cancers and Birth Defects

This is not surprising considering the amount of toxic junk left by the military.  I’ve seen many stories about the depleted uranium shells left behind and its dangers.

Trans-Pacific Partnership Threatens a Regime of Corporate Global Governance

This title is ambiguous.  Does TPP threaten an existing “regime of corporate global governance”?  Or does it threaten to bring about a “regime of corporate global governance”?

I’ve seen the latter complaint before, many times.  There are many opposed to TPP who have been vociferous in their condemnation of it.  I’ve read many stories about the requested “fast track” authority and the secrecy about what is in the agreement.  Those voting for TPP ought to consider what happened with the PATRIOT Act.  Most did not read it.  I know of one case in which a Senator read the act and refused to vote for it.

What we probably can know for sure is that the “greatest deliberative body in the world” probably won’t deliberate much.

A Fifth of Americans Go Hungry

This headline is a sweeping generalization of the real problem described afterward.  Going hungry once a year is not the same as always being hungry.  Going hungry through no fault of one’s own is bad enough, but generalizations weaken the case for helping those who do.

Another side is that many unwittingly go hungry even though they have plenty of food.  The “American diet” is filled with food that only increases hunger, food brought to you through the “hard work” and “generosity” of big-ag.

Bank Interests Inflate Global Prices by 35 to 40 Percent

There is a simple explanation; it is called compounding.   Most everything we consume or use is produced by a pyramid of suppliers, each paying interest on its loans and expecting profit. 

Mary sells a widget to John.  John uses Mary’s widget to make a thingamajig.  John sells his thingamajig to Carl.  Carl uses John’s thingamajig to make a whatchamacallit. Carl sells his whatchamacallit to Karen.  Karen uses Carl’s whatchamacallit to make “The Latest Great Thing”.

Assuming the value added at each stage was twenty percent and each paid five percent interest on his or her costs, the accumulated interest is 15.5 percent.  The longer the chain of suppliers, the greater the compounding of interest.  And we aren’t including the interest each of these producers is paying for a house, a car, and a credit card.  And all that interest is not going just to banksters.  Many a pension is paid for by interest.  Many colleges, foundations, and charities depend on the interest and dividends paid on invested donations.

Richest Global 1 Percent Hide Trillions in Tax Havens

Many have complained about this.  It seems I see at least one story a week about tax havens.

Bradley Manning and the Failure of Corporate Media

We don’t know the rationale of rejection by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Politico.  These are only three of dozens of corporate media.  This is a sweeping generalization too much like too many other sweeping generalizations of all X do Y.  The Huffington Post did report in 2013 that Manning did reveal he tried to reach these media organizations, but he received no answers.  The real question is did those at the lower echelons who received his messages have any reason to believe his credibility.

Think about it!  How often has your contact with any large corporation gone past the first person you reached?

As far as “corporate media” shunning the story, I can easily find many articles at the time of his trial.  I do know that I got tired of reading about it.

Manning’s sexual orientation was new to me after his trial.

Gogebic Taconite President Bill Williams Faces Environmental Charges in Spain

Wisconsin Public Radio has been publishing stories about the Spanish pollution charges against Bill Williams.  I don’t know how often they have to cover it to have more than “little coverage”.  The Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative has published several stories.  Maybe about 4,000 followers means little coverage, but how many more read these stories without becoming followers?  Other publications reporting these charges include The Daily Press of Ashland, WDIO, Sawyer County Record of Hayward, and Business North (KUWS story),

Police Brutality and Disregard for People’s Rights

These stories are always coming up.  Sadly, these abuses have been going on for a long time.  Joseph Wambaugh, a police officer who became a novelist in the 1970’s, wrote about some of these abuses in his stories.

Protests Everywhere and No One Cares

Who the hell are the Smiley Cyprus and Dustin Peeper mentioned in this section?  I certainly don’t care to read much about their escapades.

I read about the Venezuela protests in the News Tribune or Star Tribune.

Could the Rome protests be about a story in La Repubblica?  La Repubblica reported that the head of the Ukraine Communist Party was accused of being a sniper, beaten, and forced to kiss a cross.  This story appeared in contropiano.org, an online Communist journal.  Contropiano’s story was published March 1, 2014, but La Repubblica ran a correction on February 22 that the party official was not a sniper!

My conclusion

My “censorship” is your “lack of interest” and vice versa.  We would have to spend all day and all night reading all the stories that may have some interest to us.  But we can never keep up with all that others may consider important.

Almost every day I read the Duluth News Tribune, the Star Tribune, and the New York Times.  Do I read everything published in them?  Come on, I would like to do a lot of other things besides read news on a screen, especially news about the doings of Cypress and Beeper.

People are highly selective in what they read.  Some read only the sports; some, the headlines, some, the entertainment, and on and on.  Because you and I take note of economic treaties doesn’t mean everybody else does.

I know this very well! I’ve been beating the drum that Adam Smith has been misinterpreted.  Other than the copy that was in the Reader (“The Invisible Adam Smith”), I doubt if one hundred people have read that article in my blog.  Has my view been censored?  No, it has only been overwhelmed by millions of articles that are more interesting to tens of millions of readers.

Mel is a gullible skeptic.  Sometimes he swallows somebody's line; sometimes he tries to figure out what is really going on.

Published in Reader Weekly, 2014-06-05, http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/06/05/3495_censuring_project_censored

Thanks to my most eager and vigilant user

If I post two entries within fifteen minutes of each other (sometimes less), it seems that somebody has viewed the first before I post the second.

Thank you so much for your interest.  I hope you can tell many others.

I need as many readers as possible to counter the increasing number of Russian reverse spammers.  I can’t believe that there are five times more people in Russia who are interested in this blog than there are in the United States who read this blog.

The Russians are back!

Me and my fat fingers!  I posted an entry on how the page views of this blog from Russia had gone to zero.  Now the Russians are back and the U.S. page views are down and far less than the Russian views.

I just can't believe that there are more Russians who are truly interested in what I post than Americans.

If you reside in the U.S. and like this blog, please tell your friends.  If you reside outside the U.S. and actually read this blog, I thank you for your interest and I hope I can keep your interest.  Maybe if the ranking of this blog goes up enough, the reverse spam will go down.

I don't miss Russian reverse spamming

Starting about a week ago, this blog has had no readers from Russia.  Up to then, the number of page views from Russia often outnumbered the page views from the U.S.  Then the page views from Russian started dropping.  My minuscule page count dropped somewhat, but it seemed my U.S. views went up.  Not to stellar heights, but a bit better than previously.

I don't know why the Russian reverse spamming stopped, but I'll take any and all of the following: they saw no response from me,  Russian authorities put some of them out of business, or internet authorities in the U.S and elsewhere stopped the spammers probes.

Now, is the increase in page views because reverse spammers have moved to the U.S. or is the increase because real readers are telling their friends or I'm thinking up clever keywords.  I do now that some of my entries on Kathleen Sebelius are still getting many hits.

Whatever, I do appreciate the two or three dozen regular readers.  I  hope I can give you something of interest several times a week.

Default Social Security but not China?

A company was founded that used bonds for its financing rather than stocks.  It issued bonds for various lengths of time: short term to smooth cash flow, medium term for starting new projects, and long term for capital improvements such as office buildings and factories.

When it began hiring a large number of people, it started a retirement and disability insurance fund for its employees.  It paid half of the premiums and collected the other half from the employees.  All the premiums purchased short-term bonds of the company.  Essentially, the company used the premiums to smooth its cash flow.

This went on for several decades.  Some employees never collected because they died before retirement.  Others collected for a few decades after retirement.  Few complained about the arrangement.

Then the company hired a new CEO.  He looked at the retirement fund and decided that instead of paying interest on the bonds of the fund, he could use that money to increase his own salary.  He also found a loophole in the decades-old contracts that allowed him to not pay the principle on the bonds.  He could apply it to his own salary.

There was a big hue and cry from current retirees about having their retirement checks reduced, but the votes of the bonds were controlled by the company, not the retirees.

Meanwhile,the holders of the higher interest bonds, the big banks and the foreign governments, including China, were assured that the company would meet its regular interest payments and pay the bonds in full on maturity.

Thanks to my really loyal reader

Often when I post more than one entry, Blogger will show that the entry I posted a few minutes ago has already been read by one person.  This evening I've posted four in a row, and all but the last have already been read.

If you are a real person, thank you very much for your interest.  Please tell your friends about the Irregular Blog.

If you are one of the Russian reverse spammers, I just wish you would go away.  I would like to have my writings read by real people.  Also, you are wasting your resources.  I don't click on the referring links shown by Blogger.

If you are one of the less immediate readers from around the world, thank you also for your interest.

For those interested in where my readership is, for the following week I've had page views from Russia, United States, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Canada, India, Phillipines, Brazil, and Kazakhstan.  I hope most of these are real people and not 'bots.  If you are a person, thank your for your interest.  I hope I can keep you coming back.

Let's do away with capital gains taxes, dividend taxes, and estate taxes by...

Replacing them with taxing withdrawals from savings. Not withdrawals from your passbook savings account or your money market fund. That could well be money that was already taxed, especially considering the low interest on these currently.

I think a better plan would be to create investment accounts similar to IRAs. If you put money into an IRA it is not taxed. When you withdraw money from an IRA you are taxed at the wages rate on the full amount of the withdrawal, regardless of the source of the money: original contribution, capital gains, dividends, or interest.

In one way, you can look at an IRA as a lousy investment tax-wise. You may have saved some taxes at time of deposit, but you may be paying for more taxes than if you had put the money in a traditional mutual fund, especially if you had large capital gains over the life of your account.

However, if we move all investments to IAs, we solve the problem of taxing capital gains, dividends, and interest at a lesser rate than taxing work at a desk or bench. We also eliminate many of the side effects of people changing investments to get some tax advantage. The markets may be less chaotic at year's end as people buy or sell stock for some advantage.

We also solve the problem of estate taxes. Those who bequeath or who are bequeathed often don't want a penny of taxes to come out of the estate. But what happened to all the capital gains taxes that might have been paid if the deceased had lived. If an Investment Account is bequeathed, the beneficiaries would only be taxed on the money they withdrew. They would be free to buy and sell investments in the Investment Account without being concerned about the tax consequences of the transactions.

Probably most opposition to this plan would come from those benefiting from the current tangle of tax laws - lawyers, estate planners, and so on.

I've been sitting on this idea for some time; I was prompted to write about it after reading "Savings Accounts for All: Simple, but Not Easy" by Ron Lieber for the New York Times and republished today on Yahoo! Finance.

I also posted the above to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/