Oprah's Ratings In Steep Decline

Are people tired of being lectured at by a sanctimonious pseudo-intellectual ? Or is the Obama effect - as his ratings fall so do hers ?

Since far too many people seem to enjoy the former, I will choose the latter as probable cause. But it's good news either way.

In the week ending July 18, CBS Television Distribution's The Oprah Winfrey Show sunk to an all-time ratings low for the third time in five weeks, dropping 13% from the prior week to a 2.8 live plus same day household average, according to Nielsen Media Research. That almost moved Oprah out of syndie's top-ten, tying for overall ninth place with CTD's Inside Edition and reruns of the off-net hour CSI: New York. Compared to last year at this time, Oprah is down 20%.(1)

1'Oprah Ratings Continue to Plummet' - Broadcasting and Cable; Albiniak

Exxon and BP in the South China Sea

Why has the South China Sea dispute jumped into the news recently, after simmering for years on the back burner ? Why did Hillary Clinton just spring one on China at the recent Asean meeting ?

Probably because of this:

The Chinese government considers the entire South China Sea as its own, dismissing claims from Southeast Asian countries to islands such as the Spratlys, and is building an ocean-going fleet to project power beyond its borders. China told Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc to halt exploration in areas that Vietnam considers part of its territory, according to U.S. government agencies(1)

China views the sea as their sovereign territory by historic right. But by interfering with the market growth of these two companies China probably made a huge tactical error. Exxon is as a tied to the U.S. elite as any corporation can be, as is BP with Great Britain. The CCP substituted nationalist fervor for Maoism and might have painted itself into a box politically which it can't get out of.

1'China Says Its South Sea Claims Are `Indisputable' - Bloomberg

Wiki Leaks Versus The Pentagon

We report, you decide:

Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the release of the documents that WikiLeaks calls its "Afghan War Diary" deeply damaging and potentially life-threatening for Afghan informants or others who have taken risks to help the U.S. and NATO war effort.
"Mr. Assange can say whatever he likes about the greater good he thinks he and his source are doing, but the truth is they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family," Mullen said.
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Assange told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. in an interview aired Thursday that WikiLeaks had contacted the White House — via The New York Times acting as intermediary — and offered to let government officials go through the documents to make sure no innocent people were identified. The White House did not respond to the approach, he said.(1)

How could such obviously honorable men have so many differences in memory ?

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'Pentagon: Leak investigation may go beyond military' - AP

The Dot Com Collapse Versus the Great Recession

Which was more severe ? By unemployment, the 'Great Recession'. But Durable Goods Orders tell a slightly different story, as they reveal the true severity of the Dot Com collapse, which - as is commonly understood - was masked by the Greenspan 'put' of easy money and inflating a new bubble in the housing sector.



The overall story is that the US economy has been very weak since the last motor of productivity peaked, the internet or dot com revolution, which encouraged private capital to invest on a large scale. Without a motor of this type again, the US will be mired in stagnation indefinitely. Especially as long as the leadership remains fixated on the idea that only private capital can create jobs.

The Attacks on Wiki Leaks Begin

Paying special attention to Assange's home country of Australia:

WikiLeaks founder Australian Julian Assange could have committed a serious criminal offence in helping an enemy of the Australian Defence Force (ADF), the lobby group, the Australia Defence Association (ADA) says.

ADA executive director Neil James said much of the 92,201 assorted US military, intelligence and diplomatic documents leaked by Wikileaks would not be new to anyone familiar with the Afghanistan war or wars in general...

"Moreover, as an Australian citizen, Wikileaks' Julian Assange may also be guilty of a serious criminal offence by assisting an enemy the ADF is fighting on behalf of all Australians, especially if the assistance was intentional," he said...

"What WikiLeaks and its apologists ignore is the clear legal and moral differences between the actions of rule-of-law democracies applying international humanitarian law in UN-endorsed warfighting (however imperfectly at times), and the deliberate rejection of such law by the Taliban and its Islamist allies," he said.

And the Iraq War was 'legal' ? What nonsense, and what stupidity. Of course corruption breeds it in spades, which is why a gang of hackers has outwitted the official best and brightest with their unlimited warchests.

But like the internet itself, the cat's out of the bag. In the not too distant future, there will be one-two-many Assange's and Wiki-Leaks. The ruling classes of the Western world have no idea how completed discredited they are; they are drenched in lies and blood.

And it appears there is a little blow back on Western Finance when it comes to Iceland, home of WikiLeaks. Serves Britain right, especially, after they tried to forcibly liquidate the country. I would suggest Assange become a citizen.

1'WikiLeaks head attacked by ADA'- Sydney Morning Herald
2'WikiLeaks exposure endangers Afghan lives: Times' - AFP

When Mercantilists Feud

I'm sort of wondering how long the China-Germany lovefest goes on. Maybe not too much longer:

Via the Financial Times (7/18):

Two of Germany’s most prominent industrialists have attacked the business and investment climate in China during a meeting with Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier.

The criticism from the businessmen, the chief executives of Siemens and BASF, came against a backdrop of rising discontent among foreign businesses operating in China...

Jürgen Hambrecht, chief executive of BASF, the chemical producer, hit out at restrictions on foreign business and complained of foreign companies being forced to transfer business and technological know-how to Chinese companies in exchange for market access...

Addressing government procurement practices, a recent area of complaint by foreign executives and governments, Peter Loescher, chief executive of Siemens, the industrial conglomerate, said foreign companies operating in China “expect to find equal conditions in the fields of public tenders”

Again, China fully expects to field their own internationally competitive companies and wants to grow them initially via the domestic market. While the capitalist world system can incorporate a South Korea or a Taiwan into the second tier of world powers, in terms of per capita GDP, it's not likely that it can with a China unless someone else on top of the pyramid falls off or collapses. Capitalism has a shown a reliance on large pools of cheap labor from its inception.

America, A Country of Cowards

The vast majority cheers as a population is forced to flee from their homes in a law that is tantamount to ethnic cleansing. From land that is 'American' in every sense - stolen through war and conquest.

And we laud the brave troops (even if the war is 'misguided') sitting on their asses, eating nachos in some bunker in Nevada as they wipe out villages in Afghanistan by joystick.

Truly the United States as a country loves to kick the weak and serve the powerful.

1'Migrants sell up and flee Arizona ahead of crackdown' - Reuters; Gayner
2'The War Logs; Wikileaks' - UK Guardian; Davies and Leigh

Why No Reaction to Secret Government WaPo Series ?

Scolds Glenn Greenwald.

Well, what exactly is the average person supposed to do Mr. Greenwald ? Write a letter to their Senator ? Have a nice peaceful protest and march in a circle ?

The U.S. can not and will not survive as a bourgeoisie democracy will these escalating levels of inequality. The ruling class is putting a police state apparatus into place, and adapting each younger generation to a steady erosion of their constitutional rights. The ruling class no longer offers the promise of an increased standard of living or a more humane society. All they have left is coercion and thuggery.

1'Why has the Post series created so little reaction?' - Greenwald- Salon

The South China Sea Dispute

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said resolving territorial disputes in waters off China’s coast is “a leading diplomatic priority” as the U.S. strengthens Asian defense ties in the face of a Chinese naval buildup.

Ending disagreements in the South China Sea “is pivotal to regional stability,” Clinton told the 27-member Asean Regional Forum in Hanoi today, according to a transcript provided by the State Department. She is set to meet later today with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi.

Clinton yesterday discussed military cooperation with Vietnam and Defense Secretary Robert Gates restored ties with special forces in Indonesia. The two countries border the South China Sea, which contains sea corridors vital to world trade, and where U.S. officials say China has become more assertive.

East Asia will be an increasingly dangerous place as the decade progresses. Rapid economic growth is placing the dominance of the US 'umbrella' at doubt, at least in mindset if not practicality.

From China's point of view, the sea is theirs by historic right. No other country in the region sees it that way and, like it or not, they are calling in the United States as a counterweight. And the U.S doesn't maintain some dozen aircraft carriers, as much as the rest of the world combined, to hand over control one of the world's key shipping lanes.

It's highly unlikely the dispute will just be 'resolved'.

1'U.S. Says Settling South China Sea Disputes `Leading Diplomatic Priority' - Bloomberg

Polling on SB 1070

California voters are sharply divided and hold very strong opinions about Arizona’s new anti-illegal immigration law. According to the latest Field Poll 49% of this state’s registered voters approve of the Arizona law while 45% disapprove. Most of the voters who approve or disapprove do so strongly.

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• White non-Hispanic voters here are supporting the Arizona law 58% to 37%, as do African-Americans (53% to 39%). This contrasts sharply with the views of Latino voters who oppose the new law 71% to 24%. Asian-American voters are more divided – 50% in favor and 43% opposed.

• Voters who were born in the U.S. favor the law 54% to 41%, while voters born outside the U.S. oppose it by a greater than two to one margin (67% to 28%).(1)

Unfortunately the results of the poll reveal the divisions within the U.S. working class and why it is impossible to sustain any kind of progressive, let alone social democratic movement. We are deeply divided by skin color, place of birth, sexual 'orientation' and the like.

The Filed poll represents what many people know but don't want to say. That the majority of both Blacks and Asians support SB 1070, and the same would probably be true within the native born GLBT community. Support is not just from the fringe Tea Party movement or even the recalcitrant and fading Reagan Democrat. SB 1070 has now become a 'Mexican issue'.

The U.S. working class has let itself be divided into camps of 'Others'. While the very wealthy may be pleased with this, it bodes ill for the future of basic progressive institutions like public education which require working class solidarity.

1Field Poll on Arizona's Immmigration Law SB 1070

No Mosques in My Backyard ?

Muslims throughout Temecula and Murrieta have saved up for years to build a mosque to replace the plain white industrial building, tucked between a pipeline company and packaging warehouse, where they now gather to pray.

But as the Islamic Center of Temecula Valley moves ahead with plans to build on a four-acre plot of vacant land near Temecula's gentle hills and invading housing developments, plans for the new mosque have stirred hostility in this mostly conservative community in southwest Riverside County.(1)

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I don't see why this lovely 'conservative community' is making such a fuss. The only possible annoyance I could see is prayer calls going out at all hours. If it takes shutting up incessant church bells to prevent this, in the name of equality, then all the more better. Other than that, people need to worry about real things or find a partner and have lots of sex if they have all these pent up frustrations about life.
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1' Planned Temecula Valley mosque draws opposition' - LA Times; Willon

Foot Long Cheeseburger, Yummy !

A fast food chain that gave America the 1,400 calorie Monster Burger says it is introducing a new foot-long cheeseburger with three patties and cheese slices.

Carl's Jr. restaurants in Southern California and Hardee's in Indiana are testing the new foot-long burger that weights in at 850 calories with 20 grams of saturated fat, USA Today reported Friday...

"We live in a society that's fascinated with all things big," says Scott Hume, editor of BurgerBusiness.com, an industry trade site. "It's inherently American to push for something bigger and better than anyone else has."

Then why not make it two feet ? Under this logic it would be twice as 'bigger and better' as the hapless competition.

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1'Carl's Jr. testing foot-long cheeseburgers" - UPI