DELEITURAS

Rupert Murdoch

“News Corp” was founded by Rupert Murdoch more than 30 years ago and today it has been confirmed that the business will be split into two separately listed companies.

“News Corporation confirmed today that it is considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct publicly traded companies,” News Corp said in a statement.

The move is to split News Corps publishing division from the more lucrative television and film business.

News Corp’s U.S. print assets include venerable publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, the New York Post and Financial News and community publications like The Brooklyn Paper and The Coming Leader. Murdoch’s empire also includes 20+ magazines and inserts like Modern Boating, Truckin’ Life, and the Entertainment and Travel section of Vogue. The company also has assets in the U.K. and Australia.

The long list of News Corp’s broadcasting assets include*:

• 20th Century Fox Television
• 20th Television
• Foxtel
• Fox Broadcasting Company
• Fox International Channels
• Fox International Channels Italy
• Fox International Channels Portugal
• Fox International Channels Philippines
• Fox Channels Benelux
• Fox Sports Australia
• Fox Telecolombia
• Fox Television Stations
• Fox Television Studios
• Imedi Media Holding
• Latvijas Neatkarīgā Televīzija
• MyNetworkTV
• STAR TV
• TV5 Rīga

As is the list of cable outlets:

• Big Ten Network (49%)
• Fox Business Network
• Fox College Sports
• Fox Movie Channel
• Fox News Channel
• Fox Soccer Channel
• Fox Sports Enterprises
• Fox Sports en Español
• Foxtel (25%) –
• Fox Sports Net
• FUEL TV
• FX Networks
• Fox Reality Channel
• National Geographic Channel (US) (67%)
  • National Geographic Channel (International) (50%)
• Speed Channel
• SportSouth
• LAPTV (Latin America — co-owned with Paramount Pictures/Viacom, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/MGM Holdings and Universal Studios/NBC Universal)
• Telecine (Brazil — co-owned with Globosat Canais, Paramount Pictures, MGM, Universal Studios and DreamWorks)

Rupert Murdoch has built a news and entertainment empire over the last three decades and appears now to be experiencing the same shift in consumer attitudes that other media companies are seeing – more people are turning to digital and television than the printed word.

* – according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_News_Corporation

A jury awarded Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul over $580,000 in damages Wednesday to compensate for the injuries he suffered after a neighbor attacked Paul in a dispute over lawn care.

The jury awarded $375,000 in punitive damages and $200,000 for pain and suffering, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. Paul was also given $7,834 for medical expenses, according to the AP.

“We all expected that Sen. Paul would get a verdict in his favor,” Rene Boucher’s attorney Matt Baker said, according to the AP. “This far exceeds anything that we were expecting.”

The decision to compensate Paul for the trauma and injuries he endured comes after Boucher, 60, attacked Paul in November 2017 in a lawn dispute. The assault broke six of Paul’s ribs and bruised his lungs.

Boucher initially denied attacking the senator before admitting to Kentucky State Police that he had assaulted Paul. The dispute allegedly began after Paul placed a pile of brush near the property line separating his and Boucher’s residence.

After Boucher pleaded guilty to a felony assault charge in March 2018, he was sentenced to 30 days in prison and a year of supervised release, according to the U.S. News And World Report.

Paul testified about the incident Monday. “This may be the last breath I ever take,” Paul said, describing his thoughts during the attack, the AP reported in a separate Monday article.

Paul underwent hernia surgery during the week of Jan. 21 at a hospital in Ontario, according to reports.

Boucher will appeal the ruling, according to Baker, the AP reported.

The Institute for Supply Management released it’s non-manufacturing report today hit 52.1, the lowest in more than 12 months, indicating that while the service-related businesses are still growing, the growth is slowing.

In May, the Non-manufacturing index (NMI) was at 53.7. June’s NMI was markedly lower at 52.1 indicating that service-sector employers were seeing weakness in their respective industries.

While the construction industry perceived the economy to be flat from the prior month. Only entertainment and recreation saw any growth month-over-month as Americans head into the heavy summer vacation season. All other service sectors were seeing weakness building in their businesses.

Business activity for services fell off almost 4% in June while the backlog of new orders slipped into decline indicating that a turn-around isn’t likely soon.

Month	NMI	Month	NMI
Jun 2012	52.1	Dec 2011	53.0
May 2012	53.7	Nov 2011	52.6
Apr 2012	53.5	Oct 2011	52.6
Mar 2012	56.0	Sep 2011	52.6
Feb 2012	57.3	Aug 2011	53.8
Jan 2012	56.8	Jul 2011	53.4
Average for 12 months – 54.0 High – 57.3 Low – 52.1

While the employment index of the survey showed increased hiring, the activity, inventory and backlog indices indicate that they might be hiring into a slowdown. Inventory sentiment gives more proof to that assertion as business owners feel that they have too much capacity for the current demand and while demand is weakening, capacity hasn’t matched it as of yet.

The report’s employment index may show slight improvement for the employment report due out Friday, but huge improvements should not be expected. While most analysts are projecting 90,000 new jobs in Friday’s report, it will be only a small improvement over May’s dismal jobs figures.

Summary

When looking at the June Manufacturing report and services reports together, backorders have slipped into decline and both major indices are showing their lowest numbers in more than a year. The economy is slowing and another downward revision in annual GDP for the United States should be expected.

China’s central bankers announced Wednesday that they would be injecting another huge amount of cash into the stock market and imposing trading rules to curb recent volatility.

In a move intended to cushion the recent market crash, the People’s Bank of China dumped $22 billion (140 billion yuan) into the Chinese stock market this morning and the government will limit trading in index futures.

China has tried propping up its stock market before with liquidity injections with little success.

China had just yesterday lowered interest rates by another .25% to 4.6% – a more traditional central bank move.

Lowering interest rates by most central bankers is intended to move liquidity from the central banks and into the hands of businesses and consumers with the hope of stimulating spending, investment and growth. But in China, the central bank is a buffer between the rest of the world and the Asian giant. The move also signals to the world that China’s economy may be worse than the government is reporting.

Despite multiple equity injections and several interest rate drops in the last few months, it appears  – that China just hasn’t been able to help itself.

• Triple amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage is refusing to answer basic questions about his new nonprofit organization that will use the funds raised by his viral $20 million GoFundMe to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Kolfage announced WeBuildTheWall Inc. on Friday, but documents submitted to Florida reveal the nonprofit was created over two weeks ago in late December.
• Kolfage is directing check donations to a separate organization, We Fund The Wall Inc. with a PO Box in Houston; The Daily Caller News Foundation has been unable to find any record of its existence.
• Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff says Kolfage’s new nonprofit raises a “huge red flag.”

The founder of the viral $20 million border wall GoFundMe campaign is refusing to answer basic questions about his new nonprofit organization that will use donor funds to construct a piecemeal wall mile-by-mile along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Triple amputee Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage is asking donors to transfer their donations to WeBuildTheWall Inc. following his announcement Friday that the federal government will not accept any funds from his viral fundraising campaign, despite his initial claim otherwise.

GoFundMe said Friday that donors will need to opt into transferring their donations to Kolfage’s new Florida-based nonprofit by April 10, when all remaining contributions will be automatically refunded.

Kolfage claims the bylaws of WeBuildTheWall Inc. prevent him from taking any salary from donor funds that originate from GoFundMe. But Kolfage has refused to provide The Daily Caller News Foundation a copy of the nonprofit’s bylaws to corroborate his claim.

Kolfage’s statement omits the fact that he is now directing check donations to an entirely different organization, We Fund the Wall, Inc. with a PO Box in Houston.

Kolfage has ignored multiple inquiries from TheDCNF asking why he’s directing check donations to a separate organization based in a different state, and whether donations sent to We Fund the Wall, Inc. can be used to compensate him in any way shape or form.

It’s unclear how much money Kolfage has raised via check donations, but his tweets suggest it could be a substantial amount.

Furthermore, TheDCNF has been unable to find any record of We Fund the Wall, Inc.’s formal existence, and multiple inquiries requesting the organization’s founding documents have gone ignored.

Charity Watch President Daniel Borochoff told TheDCNF that raises a “huge red flag.”

“People should give right to the organization that they want to support. Why are they directing money to some other entity?” Borochoff said. “This money could get stolen or misdirected to be used for another purpose.”

“There could be some kind of misdirection of funds or something going on there that people might not be happy about,” Borochoff added. “They really need a good reason for doing that.”

Kolfage has also refused to address why he waited until Friday inform his donors about the existence of his new nonprofit organization, which was founded over two weeks ago on Dec. 28, according to Florida’s Division of Corporations.

Source: Florida Division of Corporations/Screenshot

The stated purpose for Kolfage’s nonprofit is: “funding, construction, administering, and maintaining a United States Southern Border Wall and the processes associated therewith,” according to its founding documents signed on Dec. 27.

This appears to show that Kolfage was aware the federal government would not be able to accept donations by Dec. 27 at the latest, but despite this, he knowingly raised $2.8 million on GoFundMe between that date and Friday, all the while telling donors that 100 percent of their donations would be handed over to the government for the purpose of funding a border wall.

Kolfage has ignored multiple inquiries asking why he waited over two weeks to inform his donors of his intention to transfer their contributions to his new nonprofit.

“We have contacted the Trump Administration to secure a point of contact where all the funds will go upon completion. When we get this information secured we will update,” Kolfage claimed at the onset of his fundraiser.

Kolfage now says “highly experienced team is highly confident that we can complete significant elements of the wall in less time, and for less money, than the federal government.”

All contributions collected by Kolfage’s GoFundMe after Friday will be automatically routed to WeBuildTheWall Inc., and Kolfage claimed Sunday that one third of his 340,000 donors had already opted into the nonprofit.

I have a friend, Tom, who is a 48-state big rig driver. He saw an increase in road construction just before the election, especially in “swing states” such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, as well as country-wide. He knows about what he is talking. He thinks that the highway construction jobs had two purposes: “shovel-ready” jobs from The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (the stimulus) spending, and to boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Both purposes were ultimately for the buying of votes. So, with Tom’s premise as a starting point, let’s examine what is currently going on with the GDP, as well as how the stimulus has been used in the past to have an effect upon the GDP.

The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced on Friday, October 26, 2012, that the GDP grew at an annual rate of 2 percent in the third quarter of this year, due to increases in consumer and government spending. Consumer spending, about 70 percent of US GDP, grew at a 2 percent quarterly rate, while government spending grew at a whopping 9.6 percent quarterly rate.

The BEA also emphasized that the 2 percent growth rate is an “advance” estimate. For comparison, the BEA also said that the GDP grew at an annual rate of 1.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, down from the BEA advance estimate of 1.7 percent.

“The Bureau emphasized that the third-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency. The ‘second’ estimate for the third quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on November 29, 2012.”

The MSM announced the growth rate, but I could not find where the MSM said the BEA announcement that the growth rate was an advance estimate, nor could I find that the MSM announced the two subsequent estimates the BEA schedules: the Second GDP announcement on November 26 (well after the election), and the Third GDP announcement on December 20. But the MSM did say how this announcement will help Obama. The White House was quick to latch onto the BEA report, saying that the economy is recovering from its 2008 collapse.

But nowhere could I find the MSM or the White House offer this bit of information:

“Economists often say U.S. GDP needs to grow around 3% a year to bring unemployment down significantly.”

To support Tom’s premise, look at what happened in 2010. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that the stimulus added 3.3 million jobs and increased the GDP by up to 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2010. “Vice President Joe Biden issued a statement on May 26, 2010, saying the CBO report ‘is important validation that the action we took to rescue the economy last year has not only pulled us back from the brink, but put us on a firm path toward economic recovery’.” The CBO also, in May 2010, said that the effect of the stimulus will continue to increase through 2010. The ABC News site did say that all of the figures it announced were CBO “guesstimates,” but nowhere did it offer whether the CBO used advance, second, or third figures.

And, to further support Tom’s premise, government spending increased by 9.6 percent in the third quarter of 2012. Government spending was down by 0.2 percent in the second quarter of 2012, and it dropped in the seven previous quarters as well. Coincidence? Your call.

Did Obama and his minions pull the same stunt that they pulled just before the 2010 elections?

By the way, look at this map to see which two states have received the most stimulus money: California and New York, the two states with the most electoral college votes. Coincidence? Again, your call.

But that’s just my opinion.

Please visit RWNO, my personal web site.

Your tax dollars at work.

Made in 2010 but just coming into the public eye is a Star Trek spoof video made by the IRS for a training and leadership session. At $60,000 this sad parody was supposed to share helpful information with IRS employees. Instead it’s just an embarrassment. The IRS last week apologized for the misuse of funds.
Even Captain Kirk is appalled at the waste of taxpayer money.

IRS Spends Thousands On Star Trek Video; Shatner ‘Appalled’ | NewsBreaker | OraTv

You can watch the whole video here. But be warned, most high school kids could have done better with less…

The top line jobless claims number rose above estimates and to the highest level since February, but that’s not the most disturbing news.

Digging into the numbers, it appears that more people are suddenly having to find work (initial claims) and they are finding that it is taking longer than previously to get a job (continuing claims.)

Jobless claims jumped to 297,000 versus analyst expectations of a 285,000 number. These represent first-time jobless claims.

While seeing the first time claims number break the trend line is disturbing, a tragic direction change in the continuing claims numbers tells the story the administration would rather you not pay attention to:

 

Since May, continuing claims have completely reversed their downward direction and as of this latest report seem to be accelerating higher.

Initial claims are people who have made the initial application for jobless benefits while continuing claims statistics represent those who are having to stay on unemployment because they can’t find work.

This could be an ugly summer for the economy.

The man who attacked a mosque in New Zealand Friday wrote the name of a little girl killed in a 2017 terrorist attack on his rifle, justifying his own attack as “revenge” for her death.

Alleged gunman, 28-year-old Australian man Brenton Tarrant, attacked two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 49 people and wounding numerous others, according to CNN. Written on the shooter’s rifle was Ebba Akerlund, the name of an 11-year-old partially deaf Swedish girl who died in an April 2017 terrorist attack.

Akerlund was killed after Uzbekistan asylum-seeker, Rakhmat Akilov, drove a stolen beer truck through a crowd in Stockholm. The attack killed five and injured 14, according to The Associated Press.

Alleged shooter Tarrant cited Akerlund’s death multiple times in his 74-page manifesto, vowing “to take revenge for Ebba Akerlund,” in his manifesto, The Daily Beast reported. Other white supremacist groups have used the girl’s name to justify violence.

“That difference was Ebba Akerlund. Young, innocent and dead Ebba,” Tarrant wrote. “Ebba death at the hands of the invaders, the indignity of her violent demise and my inability to stop it broke through my own jaded cynicism like a sledgehammer.”

“It gives you chills,” Akerlund’s mother, Jeanette Akerlund, said, according to the Beast. “It is deeply tragic that Ebba’s name is abused in political propaganda.”

The girl’s father also blasted violent extremists who use his daughter’s name as justification for further violence.         “[M]y daughter’s name on a rifle … How sick it is,” Stefan Akerlund wrote in a Facebook post. “How in hell can we ever get to mourn in peace?” he said, the Beast reported.

Tarrant’s manifesto also cites a number of terrorist attacks committed by Islamic terrorists and points to a history of aggression by Muslims. His attack is “revenge for the enslavement of millions of Europeans taken from their lands by the Islamic slavers,”according to the manifesto.

Approximately four percent of guns in New Zealand are registered, according to researcher and GunPolicy.org founder, Philip Alpers, The Guardian reported.

Tarrant is in custody and has been charged with murder, according to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Retirement “Just a Dream” for Many

6 out of 10 believe they’ll never see a social security check

WASHINGTON, DC, May 8 – America’s workers are too busy looking for jobs to think much about the prospects of retiring. One of the longest, slowest and weakest post-recession recoveries has decimated the work force. Record numbers of people have stopped looking for jobs out of despair, skewing government unemployment reports. And, a recent Gallup poll reported that 60% of those currently in the workforce don’t believe they’ll ever receive Social Security when they come of age.

“It’s been a depressing, a tedious and worrisome so-called recovery over the past five years and we’re still not out of the woods. Individuals who once had good paying jobs are hard pressed to find employment that allows them to make ends meet, let alone put some money aside for the future. America lost nearly 9 million jobs during the Great Recession that lasted from 2007 to 2009. Statistically the country has regained the bulk of those jobs. But, for the most part, those who have gone back to work are making less money,” according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens.

Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, which issued its annual retirement survey this week, pointed out that more than a third of the country’s workers expect they’ll have to continue working well past their hoped-for retirement age.

“The long-held view that retirement is a moment in time when people reach a certain age, immediately stop working, fully retire, and begin pursuing their dreams is more myth than reality,” she said. The survey showed that only 21% of the workers who were interviewed expect they’ll be able to “fully retire” when the time comes. The rest expect to work, full time or part time.

Weber said that many seniors have gone back to work because they can. They are living longer, healthier lives and enjoy the camaraderie of the workplace. But most of them need the jobs in order to get by.

“The net worth of all Americans declined sharply during recession and its aftermath. But seniors have been hardest hit. And, the proof is in the numerous surveys that show there are more post-retirement job seekers out there than ever before.”

But for many elderly Americans, finding work to supplement their incomes is not an option. Social Security is what puts food on their tables. “It’s their principal source of income, meager as it might be, and they would face cruel hardships if they their monthly checks were cut. For them, the fact that Social Security faces major fiscal challenges in the coming years is a scary prospect. That’s why it is one of the reasons AMAC has put its primary focus on the fate of Social Security in the association’s meetings with lawmakers in Congress,” Weber noted.