Which Alternative Reality Are You Living In?

There should have been no doubt, back in 2015, that Donald Trump never intended to defend the working class or Drain the Swamp but establishment politicians really were as corrupt as he claimed they were, even if he did manage to make it even worse when he was in office, turning it into an insane satire. However, just because they should have recognized that Trump was an obvious demagogue long before the 2016 election, doesn't mean either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden ever had much if any popular support, even if establishment media gave them obsession coverage trying to make them seem like the inevitable front funner in 2016 & 2020!

There's also little or no doubt that the election wasn't stolen from Donald Trump in 2020; however, that doesn't mean it was legitimate, despite all the media propaganda to make it seem so. The truth is that rigging elections has been going on for decades, and we haven't had a legitimate election in decades, assuming we ever had one. Some of the efforts to rig elections have been documented in several peer reviewed books, listed below; however, the most effective way to rig elections doesn't involve stuffing ballots or switching votes with computer hacking!

It involves rigging the media coverage so that only candidates supported by wealthy corporations, including the six oligarchs controlling over 95% of national media! And the evidence of this has been hidden in plain sight all along! Traditional media routinely tells us which presidential candidates are viable years ahead of time, typically predicting accurately at least one of the leading nominees, often predicting both. Even if they don't predict them they can narrow them down to about four or five, at the most, since they only cover candidates supported by campaign donors, ensuring that those that might represent the public much better get virtually no name recognition.

Bernie Sanders was the closest thing to an exception in my life time; and when it looked like he had a chance they began rigging the primaries against him, and for some reason, he pretended that rigging wasn't happening even when there was overwhelming evidence and endorsed Clinton or Biden, who both oppose almost all the progressive issues popular with the vast majority of the public.

The media has repeatedly claimed that Donald Trump says, "without evidence," that the election was rigged; and if you ignore the primaries, they may be right; however, if you look at the primaries there's an enormous amount of evidence showing they were rigged, even after giving Joe Biden an enormous amount of positive media coverage! They routinely refer to this as "The Big Lie;" however, they fail to remind people of an even bigger lie which they're trying to cover up!

Election rigging has been going on for hundreds of years, starting even before the American Revolution, when Colonial elections were rigged, including seats to the House of Burgess. Following the 2000 election disaster, when even the mainstream media was forced to report on it, for a little while there were several researchers that wrote about it including Andrew Gumbel, who wrote:

Andrew Gumbel "Steal This Vote" 2005

A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela or East Timor, his widely respected international election monitoring team was invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to monitor an election there in the first place. "We wouldn't think of it," the former president told a radio interviewer. "The American political system wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several reasons."

What, after all, was to be done with a country whose newest voting machines, unlike Venezuela's, couldn't even perform recounts? A country where candidates, in contrast to the more promising emerging democracies of the Caucasus or the Balkans, were denied equal, unpaid access to the media? There were a number of reasons, in the sharply partisan atmosphere surrounding the Bush-Kerry race, to wonder whether campaign conditions didn't smack more of the Third World than the First. Every day, newspapers recounted stories of registration forms being found in garbage cans, or of voter rolls padded with the names of noncitizens, fictional characters, household pets, and the dearly departed. The Chicago Tribune, a paper that knows its voter fraud, having won a Pulitzer for its work on the infamous Daley machine, found 181,000 dead people on the registration lists of six key battleground states.

Bush opponents were all too inclined to believe, in fact, that the Republicans were about to steal the presidency, just as they believed it had been stolen the last time. The Republicans, for their part, laughed this off as conspiratorial nonsense, but they also weren't shy about announcing how hard or how dirtily they were prepared to fight if it came down to another Florida-style tug-of-war. Long Island's GOP congressman Pete King, caught on camera by the documentary maker Alexandra Pelosi during a White House function on election day, bragged even as the first polls were closing that Bush had already won. When Pelosi asked him how he knew, he answered, perhaps jokingly, perhaps not: "It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting." Complete article

The lack of media coverage for candidates not collecting massive amounts of money from corporations ensuring they never get the name recognition they need is hardly ever mentioned; Gumbel is one of the few sources that discuss it, and even he doesn't put enough emphasis on it. Traditional media certainly never reminds us that they choose who gets name recognition by simply refusing to cover candidates they don't support.

Andrew Gumbel and several other good researchers including Mark Crispin Miller in "Loser Take All" 2008 and Tracy Campbell in "Deliver the Vote: A History of Election Fraud, an American Political Tradition-1742-2004" 2006 do a much better job tracking massive amounts of voting fraud, both recent and going back hundreds of years. They don't cover the 2016 or 2020 elections after the fact; but they do explain how routine voting fraud was long before this, including how the fiasco from the 2000 elections was used as an excuse to create electronic voting without a paper ballot that could be recounted or checked.

Both Gumbel and Miller reported on how the "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA), which was supposed to solve the problems with the 2000 election may have caused many more problems, including the privatizing of the election process and making it harder, if not impossible to check for fraud. This act encouraged electronic voting and it didn't always come with a paper ballot. I reported more on some of the problems they pointed out and how they impacted the 2020 and 2016 elections in Epidemic 2020 Election Fraud Again and Can Hillary Clinton win without cheating? (2016) which also included many other efforts to suppress the vote or how exit polls didn't match the official totals.

In 2016, the polls using electronic voting without a paper trail went for Hillary Clinton by much larger margins than those with a paper trail. There were also much longer lines in both election years, for both primaries and the general election, in lower income areas, especially minorities. This became much more common following revisions in the way the Supreme Court interpreted the Voting Rights Act, declaring that many Southern states are no longer bound by many of the terms. Following this ruling many states across the country began cutting back on polling places in minority areas as part of a massive voter suppression operation.

Despite the media's claims that there was "no evidence" of voter fraud, if you look at the evidence from the primaries there was an enormous amount of it, some that they even reported themselves, although they seem to have forgotten it now, and only reported many incidents at the local level at the time. In many cases, when the traditional media did report on voter suppression, they often reported about a handful of voters that waited extremely long lengths of time, but eventually did vote, as if this was evidence of elections working, despite the flaws, thanks to the perseverance of those people. However, they didn't vote on an enormous number of people that couldn't wait that long and were disenfranchised; and if they mentioned that this was much more common in low income or minority areas, it was brief and quickly forgotten. Alternative researchers like Miller, Gumbel, Campbell, and others like Lee Camp that reported on more recent elections are much more thorough. There were an astronomical number of reports, either in traditional media or alternative media, about election irregularities in the primaries, which I listed in previous articles about both 2020 and 2016

If the enormous number of reports from credible sources, even if traditional media ignores most of them, aren't convincing enough; why couldn't either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden attract large crowds if they were as popular as the polls allegedly claim? Some of the articles about rigged polls also covered the ones taken months before the primaries, pointing out that they over-polled older people that supposedly were more likely to support establishment candidates.

And why are so many people allegedly voting for candidates that oppose them on almost all fiscal issues, especially when campaign donors for both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden overwhelmingly oppose the will of the public on these issues, since they involve rigging the economy in their favor?

One of the most brazen examples where the vast majority of the public support one issue, yet the overwhelming majority of the political and media establishment oppose it is Medicare for All, which Bernie championed very well during the primary pointing out that a quarter of the public is uninsured under the current system, 30,000 people die unnecessarily per year and half a million go bankrupt. Joe Biden laughed and defended this system, even though there were numerous studies, even at that time showing that Medicare for All would save thousands of lives and billions of dollars. A new Yale Study Says Medicare for All Would Save U.S. $450 Billion, Prevent Nearly 70,000 Deaths a Year 02/19/2020, but there were other studies at the time of the debate with similar results, and no studies saying that we would save an enormous amount of lives and money.

It doesn't take a genius to determine that a major part of the reason for these large savings is that under our current system, a shocking amount of the money we pay for premiums doesn't go to health care at all; instead it goes to advertising, astronomical CEO salaries, massive amounts for lobbying and campaign donations, and much more waste that has nothing to do with health care. Since the media gets a large amount of this in the form of advertising profits, and they also have a lot of interlocking boards of directors and stockholders, they have a financial incentive to ignore how corrupt the system is and even make it worse, by giving large advantages in coverage to candidates that support Wall Street instead of the will of the people. A year before the Yale study came out Christopher Cai examined 22 studies and found they all agree: 'Medicare for All' saves money 02/24/2020

This isn't limited to rigging presidential primaries, ensuring both nominees support the corporate agenda it also involves rigging Congressional primaries as well as I pointed out in Bernie Sanders Is More Democratic Than Fake "Democrats!" which explains how Cheri Bustos, Steny Hoyer, Nancy Pelosi, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Chuck Schumer have all been caught conspiring to give insurmountable advantages to Wall Street candidates that oppose the will of the vast majority of the public. One of the tactics they use to rig primaries so that few if any progressives supporting popular issues is that they refuse to give any business to consulting firms that help progressive campaigns, anther one is to provide an enormous amount of money for those supporting Wall Street at the expense of the public.

One one occasion when Steny Hoyer was confronted with these tactics he said, on tape, “You know, frankly, that happens in life all the time.” When asked about it in public Nancy Pelosi said “I Don’t See Anything Inappropriate” in Steny Hoyer's activities, which clearly involved giving wealthy donors unjustifiable advantages at the expense of the public. She went on to say that the only problem was that it was taped and the public was informed about attempts to rig the primaries. This is the same type of outrage during the 2016 leaks of E-mails, when the entire democratic establishment claimed it was within their rights to give insurmountable advantages to Hillary Clinton, who was extremely unpopular with the public but popular with campaign donors; but they were outraged that somehow their efforts to rig the primaries were exposed to the public! This massive amount of fraud is one of the biggest reasons Trump was able to win in 2016, although it wasn't a fair victory.

There's enough public evidence, even without new E-mail links to show that they used many of the same tactics to rig the primary for Biden in 2020, which clearly means that he's no more of a legitimate candidate than Donald Trump was!

If you accept traditional media as a reliable sources and the claim that the elections are fair, and weren't stolen, then the claim that the United States is the leader of the "Free World" defending Democracy; however a closer look at the incredibly long history of rigging elections and the media coverage, ensuring only candidates supported by the oligarchs indicates this is an obvious lie. This is supported by the fact that the political establishment routinely opposes most of the issues supported by the vast majority of the public, especially fiscal issues benefiting the wealthy.

If you accept the version of truth presented by traditional media there's also little doubt about another Big Lie that they repeat over and over again, the fact that we're constantly fighting war in other countries To Defend Our Freedom! Other countries haven't been trying to invade the mainland of the United States and take away our democracy in over two hundred years, when the war of 1812 happened! The last time another country attacked a military base on one of our territories was in Pearl Harbor in 1942 Since then it's been our country invading other countries, and in some cases overthrowing their own democratic governments, or at least governments that had far more popular support than the governments our leaders installed for them. The terrorist attacks, including, of course, 9/11, against the United States were either against military bases abroad, which wouldn't fit the original definition of a terrorist attack, since they were attacks against combatants not civilians, or, when they attacked in the United States against civilians, they were in retaliation for our occupations and bombings of foreign countries. And the vast majority of citizens of countries invaded or bombed by the United States never retaliated; with the most notable exception being Muslim extremists.

This includes the South American, Central American and Vietnamese victims of wars or illegal coups carried out by our leaders. Seventy-five years ago, on September 2 1945, Vietnam made it clear that they wanted to rule themselves, demanding Independence from France as indicated in the following excerpt:

Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

"All men are created equal. They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

This immortal statement was made in the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America in 1776. In a broader sense, this means: All the peoples on the earth are equal from birth, all the peoples have a right to live, to be happy and free.

The Declaration of the French Revolution made in 1791 on the Rights of Man and the Citizen also states: “All men are born free and with equal rights, and must always remain free and have equal rights.”

Those are undeniable truths.

Nevertheless, for more than eighty years, the French imperialists, abusing the standard of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, have violated our Fatherland and oppressed our fellow-citizens. They have acted contrary to the ideals of humanity and justice.

In the field of politics, they have deprived our people of every democratic liberty. Complete Declaration

The Vietnamese were, of course, aware of this Declaration of Independence all along, and so were virtually all the people from their neighboring countries; however, the vast majority of Americans never heard of it, either while the war was going on or, still to this day. The reason for this starts with the most basic fundamentals of propaganda, "A lie, repeated often enough, becomes the truth," or at least it seems to, especially if the truth is practically never mentioned, or in some cases, ridiculed as a conspiracy theory.

This is the tactic that traditional media used to create a  false belief system about the Vietnam war being fought to defend Democracy against Communism. They ignored some of the most fundamental facts and repeated their propaganda over and over again, until people believed it without question. The omission of the Declaration of Independence was just the beginning of their efforts to cover up the truth and replace it with deceptive propaganda. On one detail after another for traditional media reported one version of truth, while foreign media or alternative media that doesn't blindly trust the government reported a different version. In many cases, traditional media did admit to some of the details that expose their lies; however, when this happens, they typically only do it briefly, before letting it fall down the memory-hole, or at least they try to.

One of the reasons they can get away with this is that the vast majority of the public simply doesn't pay much, if any attention to the news, and when they do, it's often for brief times during crisis's, when they only listen to traditional media, and quickly forget a lot of what they hear.

The same tactic is used in dozens more wars or coups, often with little or no media coverage on many of them, and most Americans are very ignorant of current affairs. In many of these coups CIA backed regimes set up death squads terrorizing their own people. Three of the most notorious of these coups include Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, and Chile in 1973, which the CIA now even admits to, although traditional media rarely reminds the public of these admissions, which would raise major doubts about the claim that the United States has been "fighting for freedom and democracy" for decades.

Foreign countries and some people who pay attention to alternative media knew these coups were supported by the CIA from the beginning; however, the majority of Americans, including me, didn't learn about it until decades later; in many cases there are many people, probably a significant majority of the public, that still don't know about it, since the media hardly ever mentions it. The CIA finally admitted they were involved in the coup in Chile over thirty years after it happened, and that they were responsible for the Iranian coup almost sixty years after it happened, even though credible alternative media outlets provided overwhelming evidence to prove it long before that and many of the individuals involved with it even admitted it.

When the CIA finally made these admissions, traditional media finally provided a minimal amount of coverage, before letting it fall down the memory hole again. However, when they mentioned it briefly they often included denials of some of the worst atrocities, which don't stand up to scrutiny, which traditional media doesn't provide. Another one of the most fundamentals of propaganda is that if they fail to report the truth, or only mention it very briefly, it can quickly fall down the memory hole and be forgotten, so lies repeated over and over again can go unchallenged. This is exactly what the mainstream media does routinely. Not only do they fail to remind the public of these coups, but they fail to mention that it much more than one coup here and another one there.

Of course, it also helps if people have an emotional attachment to the propaganda, which the media often tries to take advantage of by telling them they're part of the "Greatest Country in the World," that is constantly "Fighting for Freedom," and after many people join the military and fight these wars, or send their relatives to these wars, they don't want to believe they died for lies or that they were killing people that really were fighting for their freedom, or some other cause.

Fortunately, there are many good researchers that do a much better job reporting on the history of foreign conflicts, but they get little or no media coverage from traditional media. The historians that do get covered by traditional media, including, even Doris Kearns Goodwin, bury some of the most important facts where for people read them, assuming they mention them at all. Ironically the mainstream media tries to convince us that the best researchers are radicals, not because they're unreliable or they're lying, in fact many of them do a far better job citing their sources; but because they challenge the official version of truth and expose many of the lies by our government, often reminding their readers of many of the admissions of wrong doing that were only briefly mentioned before letting them fall down the memory hole, and reporting a lot of the news that traditional media never reports in the first place, like the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence. (Some of these authors are listed below.)

Some of these authors, including Douglas Valentine, author of "The CIA as Organized Crime" and John Perkins, author of "The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" (First edition of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" 2004 now free online) go so far as to refer to the CIA, or the dominant political establishment as criminal organizations; which may seem extreme to people not familiar with alternative media outlets; however, they do a far better job citing sources for their beliefs than the traditional media, and other authors also confirm the history ignored by traditional media.

Once you become familiar with the long history of voter fraud, wars based on lies, and many other subjects, including the economy, ignored or misrepresented by traditional media it becomes that there are at least two versions of the truth, one controlled by the mass media and the wealthiest fraction of 1% of the public, and another well researched version explained by dozens of authors who get little or no attention from traditional media, even though it's better researched and almost certainly far closer to the truth.

There are many credible peer reviewed books in the library about protecting the environment, health care, propaganda methods, economic inequality, reducing violence, and many more traditional scientific subjects, and perhaps some subjects that are considered fringe by many people, although even they should be treated scientifically. These perceived fringe subjects may include UFOs, mysticism, alleged psychic or supernatural abilities, fringe religions and many other things. Instead of treating them scientifically the traditional media and a significant portion of the scientific community often treats many of these subjects with ridicule.

There's no doubt that some, if not all of these subjects attract more cult followers, including many of the same QAnon followers that supported or participated in the storming of the Capitol based on the false assumption that the election was stolen from Donald Trump, who never looked out for their best interests in the first place, instead of being stolen from the American people. Apparently many QAnon members also believe in UFOs and other absurd theories, including a few of the theorists on Ancient Aliens. The version of their beliefs or many of the beliefs from the History Channels Ancient Aliens have an enormous number of scientific flaws; and it may be easy to dismiss the theory in its entirety; however, that might be premature.

Even though the vast majority of claims by either QAnon or Ancient Aliens on the History Channel are either obviously false or presented in a manner that has major credibility problems, that doesn't mean they're wrong about everything. It's extremely difficult if not impossible to find a good researcher on UFOs or Ancient Aliens; however, they may have some things right; and there were better researchers at one time, and may still be although they're not on traditional media. One of the best researchers on the subject still living may be Jacques Vallée, who has never been on Ancient Aliens, that I know of; but he was a former associate of Allen Hynek, a former skeptic for Project Bluebook and the Air Force.

Both Jacques Vallée and Allen Hynek came to the conclusion that there's a major unsolved mystery worthy of scientific research; however, over three decades after Allen Hynek died there still hasn't been good research done, at least not publicly. Jacques Vallée and several other researchers also concluded that were major unsolved mysteries surrounding Uri Geller and several other mystics; he also researched older historical unsolved mysteries which are tougher to confirm, since the events happened decades, if not centuries ago, including "The Miracle of the Sun" at Fatima, Joseph Smith Jr. and "Our Lady of Guadalupe," among many other things, and concluded there's a major unsolved mystery.

In "The Invisible College" he claimed that it's difficult, if not impossible to do good research with most organized researchers, including UFO groups; I might not go quite that far all the time; but I would have to agree that there are large blunders from all the highest profile researchers on the subject, often so obvious they should have corrected them, so this is close to a good recommendation. Jacques Vallée may seem like one of the only relatively high profile UFO researchers that can be trusted; however, even he needs to be fact checked. On one occasions in one of his books Jacques Vallée claimed that there's no major accomplishment by ancient civilizations that they couldn't have accomplished with technology allegedly available to them, which is false, and he should have known about at least one of the most obvious examples of this.

In 107 Wonders of the Ancient World I reviewed a large number of many unsolved mysteries in ancient archaeology, including many that require a close look to realize they shouldn't have been possible; but one is so obvious that Jacques Vallée should have known about it, massive megaliths moved by ancient civilizations. Experiments to move massive megaliths with ancient technology only succeeded with megaliths up to ten tons before they had to cheat to get them on the sledge. With experiments between ten and forty tons they cheated to get the megalith on the sledge and still was only able to pull it very short distances, and never even tried anything over forty tons.

This leads me to the conclusion that even when it comes to far-fetched things like UFOs or mystics you should be willing to question the best so-called experts on the subject, whether they're skeptics or believers, to avoid adopting a false cult belief.

On many subjects, including election fraud, wars based on lies, environmental protection, the most effective ways to reduce violence, etc., if you do a good job picking good experts, which won't be on the mainstream media, you might be able to trust them most of the time, especially if they've had good peer review. This won't be the case for subjects like UFOs or mystics, until there's better scientific review, which will require avoiding ridicule and allowing an open exchange of ideas.

Some of the best researchers reporting on the history of invading other countries or supporting coups include:

Howard Zinn author of "The People's History of the United States" etc.
Noam Chomsky author of "Deterring Democracy," "Manufacturing Consent," "Failed State" etc.
Alfred McCoy author of "A Question of Torture" "In the Shadows of the American Century," "Policing America’s Empire," etc.
Naomi Klein author of "The Shock Doctrine" etc.
James Carrol author of "House of War" etc.
William Blum author of "Killing Hope," "Rogue State" etc.
Michael Parenti author of "Against Empire," "Superpatriotism," "The Sword & The Dollar" etc.
Douglas Valentine, author of "The CIA as Organized Crime"
John Perkins, author of "The New Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" (First eddition of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" 2004 now free online)

The following are additional sources or related articles, including many about how the political establishment ignores the will of the people and is involved in epidemic levels of corruption that only gets reported in low profile manners, while those in power refuse to hold each other accountable, with or without a Quid Quo Pro:

CIA admits role in 1953 Iranian coup 08/19/2013

CIA Admits Involvement in Chile 01/06/2006

The CIA's Legacy In Guatemala 09/25/1996

The October Democratic debate transcript 10/16/2019

A Bernie Sanders Debate Quote Is Reportedly Being Misattributed To Elizabeth Warren 10/17/2019

Psst, Elections Were Rigged By Oligarchy not Russia & Evidence Was Reported Before It Happened!

Bernie Sanders Has informed Grassroots Support; Others Have Media Propaganda!

Bernie Sanders Is More Democratic Than Fake "Democrats!"

Everything That's Happened Since Supreme Court Ruled on Voting Rights Act 11/04/2014

Trump administration has Voting Rights Act on life support 08/06/2018

In 2013 the supreme court gutted voting rights – how has it changed the US? 06/25/2020

"How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative" by Allen Raymond, Ian Spiegelman 2008

"Election Meltdown: Dirty Tricks, Distrust, and the Threat to American Democracy" Richard L. Hasen 2020

U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’ 02/03/2021

'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest 11/29/2020

Incredible Cave Paintings 8 Miles-Long Discovered Deep in Amazon Forest: The Sistine Chapel of Ancients 12/01/2020

COVID-19 lockdowns temporarily raised global temperatures 02/02/2021

Archaeologists find largest-ever Mayan complex hiding in plain sight 02/06/2021

‘I was wrong. Period’: QAnon Shaman apologizes for entering Capitol 02/09/2021

Psst, Elections Were Rigged By Oligarchy not Russia & Evidence Was Reported Before It Happened!

Bernie Sanders Has informed Grassroots Support; Others Have Media Propaganda!

Bernie Sanders Is More Democratic Than Fake "Democrats!"

Could Bolivian Coup Threaten Us All?

Atrocious Biden/Harris Record From The Memory Hole

Arming The Enemy For Permanent War!

United States Coups & Entrapment of Immigrants

Joe Biden’s cabinet: What you need to know about the President’s key advisers and their top priorities 01/31/2021

Biden's controversial Cabinet picks will reveal who holds the cards in Washington 12/09/2020

Biden’s Top Cabinet Choices Who May Not Be on the Job Day One 01/18/2021

Biden Is Finding New and Inexplicable Ways to Screw Up His Cabinet Picks 12/10/2020

A Memoir From Hell: Samantha Power Will Do Anything for Human Rights Unless It Hurts Her Career 09/11/2020

Loophole Allows Biden Nominees to Avoid Disclosures. Will They Use It? 12/05/2020

Generation Forever War: Biden’s National Security Picks Herald Return to Hawkish Normalcy 11/24/2020

The Fog of Intervention 09/04/2019 Samantha Power did not set out to justify war.

Who is Victoria Nuland? A really bad idea as a key player in Biden's foreign policy team 01/19/2021

Basic Notes on Victoria (“Fuck the EU!”) Nuland 01/25/2021

Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call 02/07/2014 Nuland: OK. He's now gotten both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.

State Department OKs $85M SM-2 Missile Sale to Chile 02/08/2021

Biden administration backs DeVos in fight over testifying about loan forgiveness 02/10/2021

How Biden helped create the student debt problem he now promises to fix 12/02/2019

At Confirmation Hearing, Bernie Sanders Calls Out Neera Tanden's History of 'Vicious Attacks' on Progressives 02/10/2021

Study Shows Fossil Fuel Pollution Killed 8.7 Million People in 2018—Almost One-Fifth of Global Deaths 02/09/2021

“I Will Destroy You”: Biden Aide Threatened a Politico Reporter Pursuing a Story on His Relationship 02/12/2021 Deputy Press Secretary TJ Ducklo lashed out at journalist Tara Palmeri, spurring conversations between Politico’s brass and the White House—and raising questions about behavior tolerated in the Biden administration.

Postmaster general's new plan could include slower mail and postage hike 02/13/2021

Records show Postal Service paid millions to DeJoy's former company 09/03/2020

Postal Service awards $5 million contract to Postmaster DeJoy's former company, XPO 10/24/2020

Why Biden Can’t Fire Postmaster General Louis DeJoy 02/08/2021

Biden’s stimulus gamble: Massive cuts to Medicare, farm aid 02/13/2021

'Fire DeJoy Before He Burns Down USPS': Postmaster General Pushes Plan for Slower Mail, Higher Prices 02/14/2021

State clears first three foreign military sales of Biden administration 02/12/2021

"Tanden is famous for two things: having a puddle of DNC talking points in place of a cerebrum, and despising Bernie Sanders. 02/14/2021 She was #Resistance’s most visible anti-Sanders foil, spending awe-inspiring amounts of time on Twitter bludgeoning Sanders and his supporters as a deviant mob of Russian tools and covert “horseshoe theory” Trump-lovers. She has, to put it gently, an ardent social media following. Every prominent media figure with even a vague connection to Sanders learned in recent years to expect mud-drenched pushback from waves of “Neera trolls” after any public comment crossing DNC narratives. No name in blue politics is more associated with seething opposition to Sanders than Tanden. " .... Sen. Kennedy mentioned that Tanden had hurriedly taken down at least 1000 despicable posts from social media after her nomination.

Poll: 83% of Americans dislike work outsourcing 07/16/2012

Public opinion about offshore outsourcing 06/09/2004 The Ipsos poll shows that 69% of Americans believe that outsourcing hurts the country — and only 17% think it helps the economy. 58% of respondents in the ELA poll believe that companies outsourcing work that could be done by Americans to offshore contractors should be penalized by the US government.

Fact Check: Did Joe Biden Already Break 2 Presidential Promises Before Day 2 On The Job? 01/21/2021

Biden is already breaking promises 01/27/2021

10 U.S. cities with the worst drinking water 02/03/2011

12 cities with the worst tap water in the US 03/17/2020

Nearly 100 Community Water Systems in California Contain Illegal Levels of Arsenic 09/13/2016

Chile’s US-backed gov’t is shooting anti-austerity protesters, blinding and maiming by the thousands 02/24/2020

New Economic Study 'Demolishes' Myth About Student Debt Parroted by Joe Biden 02/18/2021

Actually, Biden Can—And Should—Cancel $50,000 In Student Debt 02/18/2021

Why Do Colleges Get Away with Price Gouging and Predatory Lending Practices? 03/05/2017

Biden’s New ICE Guidance Completely Backtracks from 100-Day Deportation Moratorium Promise, Expands Enforcement Priorities 02/19/2021

By 17-Point Margin, Voters Want Biden to Cancel $50k in Student Debt: Poll 02/19/2021

Biden’s First Month Marked by Broken Promises 02/19/2021 Biden kicked off his campaign by telling wealthy donors that “nothing would fundamentally change” under his presidency. After one month in office, it appears as if that is one campaign promise he is likely to keep. by Alan Macleod

Biden Betrays Promise to Fight for $15 02/19/2021

Ron Kim, NY Dem threatened by Cuomo, says he won't support him politically amid nursing home scandal 02/20/2021

Government memo crushes Cuomo’s defense in COVID nursing home scandal 02/20/2021

Cuomo said 'he can destroy me': NY assemblyman alleges governor threatened him over nursing homes scandal 02/17/2021

‘I believe Ron Kim’: De Blasio blasts Cuomo as bully over feud with Queens assemblyman 02/18/2021 Calling the incident “classic Andrew Cuomo,” de Blasio — who has had a number of public clashes with Cuomo during his tenure — suggested that “a lot of people in New York state have received those [kinds of] phone calls” from him.

Steal This Vote The US electoral system is deeply dysfunctional and always has been. 10/18/2005

Biden had a secret legal team of former Solicitors General to stop Trump from stealing the election: report 02/20/2021

An Ex-KGB Agent Says Trump Was a Russian Asset Since 1987. Does it Matter? 02/19/2021

How the Gores, father and son, helped their patron Occidental Petroleum 01/10/2000

Al Gore’s petrodollars once again make him a chip off the old block 01/08/2013

Ryan Ryckaert-Ruggero brought an excellent quote from Bernie to my attention, after checking the facts I realized that it was so good it was worth stealing, accidentally or not. 10/18/2020

Statement From Dominion on Sidney Powell's Charges 11/20/2020 Dominion's system does in fact include a paper ballot backup to verify results. In fact, thousands of elections officials in Georgia just completed the largest vote recount in American history using the paper ballots produced by Dominion devices.

The Market for Voting Machines Is Broken. This Company Has Thrived in It. 10/28/2019 ES&S’ chief competitors — Hart InterCivic and Dominion — are not strangers to mishaps and aggressive tactics. Dominion’s most recent voting technology failed certification in Texas, and the state also saw hundreds of aging Hart machines confusing voters and leading to accusations of vote flipping. Both companies have sued customers and each other. But industry experts insist ES&S, in part because it has been around and dominant for so long, is in a category of its own. .... ES&S and Dominion have appealed the decision. ES&S said in a statement that the technology Stein was seeking to examine was routinely tested by state and federal agencies or their officials.

In ’68, a young GI’s beliefs are rattled by another country’s Declaration of Independence 07/20/2018

Biden questions why Yale or Harvard graduates should get loans forgiven. But few borrowers attend elite schools 02/19/2021

Harvard Newspaper to Biden: Cancel More Than $10K in Student Debt and Don't Use Ivy League as Excuse Not To 02/24/2021

Majority of US Voters Want Government to Invest More in Healthcare, Education, and Fighting Poverty: Poll 02/24/2021

Lee Camp: It’s Time for Major Wealth Redistribution — Yes, I Mean It. 02/25/2021

A people’s history of the Vietnam War 09/13/2018

US Bombs Syria And Ridiculously Claims Self Defense 02/26/2021

Biden 'Revenge' Bombing of Syria 'Violates International Law': Legal Scholar 02/26/2021

'It Should Be Easier to Raise Minimum Wage Than to Drop Bombs on Syria': Progressives Fume at Biden 02/26/2021

Global Military Spending Reached Record High in 2020 With US in the Lead 02/25/2021

VP Harris, Biden’s Press Secretary Slammed as Hypocrites for Tweets on Trump’s Syria Airstrikes 02/26/2021

'Counter-Terrorism'?: Two Decades After 9/11, New Interactive Map Details Footprint of US War Machine in 85 Countries 02/25/2021

Government Secrecy Causes Conspiracy Theories 02/14/2021

Wikipedia: Foreign interventions by the United States

Wikipedia: United States involvement in regime change

The American Empire Project

Saudi Arabia signs deal with Lockheed Martin to enhance kingdom's defense and weapons manufacturing capabilities - weeks after Biden announced temporary freeze on arms sales to Middle East 02/21/2021

OPEN LETTER: NEARLY 800 ORGANIZATIONS AND INDIVIDUALS DEMAND BIDEN END SUPPORT FOR BRUTAL MOÏSE REGIME 02/24/2021 These organizations have a long history of neocolonial intervention in Haiti and the region. Ever since the democratically elected president Jean Bertrand Aristide was overthrown for a second time by a U.S.-sponsored coup in 2004, Haiti has been occupied by a United Nations force that, at its height, deployed 14,000 troops and personnel. ... The U.S. government has consistently stood as a barrier to popular democracy in the Americas. The 2009 coup in Honduras; the 2019 coup in Bolivia; and the ongoing blockades of Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela are but several examples of the U.S.’s poor record on human rights and lack of respect for sovereignty in the region. By its own admission, the State Department “works closely with the OAS, UN, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and individual countries to advance its policy goals in Haiti.” Under the guise of fighting drug trafficking, the U.S. continues to train and fund the Haitian National Police.

What UFOs and Joe McCarthy Have to Do With the Assault on the Capitol 02/12/2021 After dinner, the two ran into each other in the cloakroom and their conflict turned physical. McCarthy kneed Pearson in the groin, and Sen. Richard Nixon had to pull McCarthy off Pearson.

QAnon and UFO Conspiracies Are Merging 10/29/2019

I am Dr. Jacques Vallée a computer scientist and former astronomer. I have dedicated my personal research to the scientific research of UFOs. I was the model for the French scientist in Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters". AMA! 11/29/2015

Media Extortion From Charities, Insurance & other scams?

Do you think media oligarchs should get a cut every time you donate to charity, buy insurance or make many other purchases? With our current economic system you may not always have a choice, especially if you don't pay attention to how many organizations spend the money they collect from you. Even if you do pay attention, you may not have access to reliable information to make your decisions, although there are some cases where you can minimize the amount they virtually extort from the public, thanks to the fact that a fraction of 1% controls over 95% of the media and they treat speech like a commodity, that is far from free.

Treating speech as a commodity brazenly contradicts the fundamentals of our economic system; or at least it wiould if critics of the system had a fair chance to get their views across, which they don't since speech isn't free. The basic principles of our competitive economic system, which almost go without saying now, are that business compete by providing a better quality product, better service or a lower price, which sounds good, and would be good if it's still true. However many industries, including insurance, charity, weight loss programs etc. compete primarily by selling the most effective propaganda ads, which drive their bureaucratic expenses up, without improving the quality of their service or product, or worse they make it even less effective, which is the case with insurance and charities, among other things.

To put it simply, the more they spend on deceptive advertising, the less they have available for insurance claims, care for a charitable cause, or any other product being advertised; and the ads have an incentive to distort the truth whenever they can to increase profits or donations. When corporations or charities have enormous advertising budgets, often with strong appeals to emotions and little or no fact checking, a large part of what they're selling is propaganda, with the media taking a large cut, not the product, service, or charity they claim to be selling.

Fortunately there are some charity accountability groups that help expose the biggest frauds; unfortunately, some of these organizations, including "Charity Navigator," have given surprisingly high ratings for some major charities which have been caught in repeated scams. Fortunately they do expose some of the biggest scams including 10 Charities Overpaying their For-Profit Fundraisers; these 10 charities spend more than 50% of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit your hard-earned money, and only between 5% and 27% is directed towards its programs and services. There are other smaller charities that are even worse, often raising money through telemarketing or other means, and either spending almost all of it on fundraising and pocketing the rest or only spending one or two percent on charities. These aren't on TV, which would draw more scrutiny, and when they get caught they often shut down and start right back up again under a new name.

One of the biggest charities advertising on TV, the ASPCA, which didn't spend nearly as much money on advertising twenty to thirty years ago, isn't nearly as inefficient as these charities, but it's far from the most efficient charity either, and some critics raise doubts about the leading fact checkers. Activist Facts have raised even more doubts about the ASPCA, including the fact that they don't necessarily give much, if anything to local SPCAs, which many people are unaware of and they reviewed scandals both recent and years or decades old. Furthermore, if you accept the ratings from Charity Navigator, both Pet Smart and PAWS Chicago spend less than a quarter of the percentage on fund raising; they report that ASPCA spend just over 20% on fund raising while Pet Smart spends less than 2% and PAWS Chicago less than 5%, although further fact checking them before donating is advisable. Those wanting to donate to protect animals might be far better off donating to local shelters, which might include local SPCAs that may not get a cut of the donations collected through these commercials, while the media does get a cut.

However some charities advertising on television have a much worse track record including Wounded Warrior Project which I went into more in Wounded Warrior Project finances War Propaganda with donations five years ago. According to Charity Navigator they spend about 24% of their revenue on fund raising; however Paddock Post indicates the waste is higher, Where Does $100 to Wounded Warriors Go (2019)? 07/16/2020 and they also report on Executive Compensation at the Wounded Warriors 02/09/2018 they have fifteen executives making more than $100,000, thirteen of those make over $200,000 and the highest paid person, while they were being caught in numerous scandals, was making over $600,000, yet they have relatively high rankings on several Charity review organizations, including Charity Navigator.

Shortly after that I reviewed "Mind of the Market" by Michael Shermer and I immediately recognized that World Vision, which he provided positive propaganda for, without questioning how much they spent on fundraising, which had to be a lot judging by his review; and in addition to that I Googled them and found out they were involved in several scandals, some going back decades. When I checked back again a couple years ago in We Must Become The Media And The Scientists! I found that there were even more scandals; and while preparing this article I checked again and found even more which are listed below. Despite all these scandals they're ranked fairly well by several charity watch groups including Charity Navigator, although they don't make their best rankings.

Now that over 95% of national media is controlled by a fraction of 1% and that tehy get their funds and profits from selling these deceptive ads they have an incentive to minimize coverage of these scandals, if they cover it all. Some of the best reporting on these scandals either come from smaller organizations that few are familiar with or it took place before the consolidations of the media was complete, including the following article, which raises many questions that are still relevant today:

TV CHARITIES: LET THE GIVER BEWARE 01/20/1985

CHARITY BY TELEVISION: The tube sells everything from new cars to light beer to starving children in Ethiopia. You know what you’ve got on the former--but how can you tell that the starving children are getting fed with your dollars? A report on TV fund raising by David Johnston and Jennifer Leonard, Page 3. They all get sold on TV--new cars, light beer and starving children from the Third World.

People who are moved to spend their money on the first two pretty much know what they’re getting. But what about the money that people spend as donations to feed children in faraway lands?

How do people know whether TV charities that ask--nay, plead and beg--for contributions will spend the money wisely, or even spend it as they promise?

For the most part, donors don’t know.

TV and charity have formed a grandly profitable partnership that is one of the last great unregulated financial frontiers in America.

TV fund raising is a booming, fiercely competitive business that leaders in the field say brings in well in excess of 1 billion tax-deductible dollars annually. TV’s growing sophistication at mastering the emotional skills to separate people from their money is being adopted by TV charities.

The biggest TV charity, World Vision Inc., based in Monrovia, broadcasts videotaped shows from a stage featuring giant clockworks and the theme that “time is running out” for a starving child somewhere.

A carefully worded appeal for money is made every three minutes on World Vision’s programs because research shows that is the most effective approach, according to Russ Reid, the Pasadena advertising executive who produces these and many other fund-raising shows. Such appeals helped generate $128 million in donations to World Vision last year--or one-third of a million dollars every day.

The problem of not knowing whether a TV charity does what it claims was illustrated Jan. 11 when the news broke that the Ventura County district attorney is investigating International Christian Aid (ICA) based in Camarillo. ICA, a major TV charity, raised $33 million worldwide in 1983.

ICA purchased 49 spots on Cable News Network, at a cost of $500 to $4,500 a spot, asking for money to aid starving Ethiopians. It also aired appeals on other stations including KHJ-TV, Channel 9, in Los Angeles.

But no evidence exists that ICA has done any relief work in Ethiopia.

ICA founder L. Joe Bass denies any wrongdoing. He told a press conference last week that the charity has bought $35,000 worth of food and medical supplies to send to other relief groups in Ethiopia. Bass said he assumes these supplies are sitting on a dock “somewhere” awaiting shipment to Addis Ababa. Complete article

This was published thirty-five years ago, yet little or nothing has been done to increase accountability; if anything, it may be much worse, since the consolidation of the media escalated in the nineties, and we now have only five or six corporations controlling over 95% of national media and some of the largest remaining media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, which published that article, are owned by billionaires.

World Vision doesn't advertise nearly as much as they used to, possibly because they've been caught in way to many scams, but there are many more fraudulent charities, or at least ones that spend too much on ads, to take their place. Even though World Vision doesn't advertise nearly as much as they used to they still keep coming back, otherwise they couldn't get caught in new scams. If you Google their ads, you'll find them, and it's clear they're still running them on some TV stations even though I haven't seen many if any in years. Wounded Warriors was one of the rare charity scams to actually be exposed on national TV about six years ago, and there ads stopped for several years before gradually coming back, after people had time to forget the scams, which were never addressed.

Many business ads are also incredibly obvious scams, often even worse than charities, including just about any financial ad selling pooled risk like insurance, which I've reviewed before, and aftermarket warranties, which operate on the same basic financial principles. Just like insurance, aftermarket warranties have to cover expenses, including advertising, which makes it less efficient, and make a profit before paying for repairs, which means they have to charge more than the warranty is worth or refuse to cover repairs, using one excuse or another to stay in business and make a profit. Once you understand fundamental principles of financial scams it's easy to recognize them and often find others exposing the scam including the Better Business Bureau which reports many complaints with CarShield They rarely ever provide reviews this bad. It should be obvious that Ice-T and many other celebrities are obvious scam artists.

This scam is so obvious that even one local news outlet from Atlanta exposed their scam a couple years ago, Investigation finds extended warranty company falls short on coverage 08/26/2019 Their consumer advisor Clark Howard said, “If you want an extended service contract or warranty on your vehicle, only buy the manufacturers own. If you have a Ford, buy a Ford. If you have GM, buy a GM, Toyota, etc. That's the only way you know the money you're spending will actually work for you.” I would go one step further and recommend that consumers settle for the standard warranty, and if they consider it inadequate they might want to take their business elsewhere. Good manufacturers want to preserve their reputation and they make their money selling the product not deceptive financial services.

The fact that this news station even reported it is extremely rare, and it's virtually guaranteed that they didn't get any business from CarShield, which is still buying an enormous amount of ads just about everywhere else. This is why commercial media is so reluctant to expose these scams, but occasionally they do try to get brownie points for drawing attention to scams and forcing them to pay one claim here or there, presenting the media as the hero.

Diet programs and exercise programs are among the biggest scams, constantly trying to convince people they have to spend more in order to lose weight or exercise. More often than not, if people buy expensive exercise equipment, it's a matter time before they start hanging their clothes on it without using it. The best deals on low fat food don't require buy a specific brand name and letting someone else dictate your diet, especially since few stick to those diets.

On the other hand, those that do the best job losing weight and staying fit, don't need to pay those selling scams in all these ads; they just eat less and exercise more without paying extra for it. Many people may have motivational and insecurity problems; however, giving money to someone pitching a scam isn't going to help solve that, and they often jump from one scam to another. One possible solution for some people might involve joining an exercise group that meets in public places. These can be organized for little or no money among friends. If there's a professional group leader meeting in public parks, they shouldn't have to charge much money, but non-professional groups would probably be better for those willing to organize them. In some cases, depression or other emotional issues might be a factor in their weight problem, but falling for scams certainly won't make those problems better, if anything they make them worse.

In at least one case Dr. Oz, was implicated in a diet product that proved to be a scam. Dr. Oz isn't the only high profile pundit or media expert that has been implicated in fraud; Drew Pinsky and Phillip McGraw have both been implicated in major scandals, including using pseudo-science to treat drug and alcohol problems while being more concerned with increasing ratings than with treating patients.

So called media experts that have financial conflicts of interests like Dr. Oz, Phil or Drew, aren't the exception, they're the rule. A lot of these professional scam artists have been introduced on Oprah Winfrey's show, including Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz and Suzy Orman, all who have been caught in major scams. They all took advantage of massive media coverage from mainstream media, but were usually only exposed in their scams at a much lower profile, so they can repeat them over and over again.

Officially the media is required to serve the public's interests, which to some degree they may have done decades ago; however after the consolidation of the media so that six corporations control over 95% of national media and massive amounts of deregulation for all corporations any accountability the media once might have had is now gone. They're now a for profit organization with little or no accountability that maximizes their profits by selling fraudulent ads.

Almost all the national media pundits that you see on TV and many local news people are all multimillionaires. They don't get that rich be exposing the scams they sell, they get rich by looking the other way giving tacit support for all these scams! In most cases, if you see something with a large advertising budget on TV you would be better off researching them before buying them, even if the scam isn't quite so obvious. If you rely on traditional media there's little or no chance that you'll find the best exposes of these scams, but in many cases, if you check alternative media or start Googling any given product, service or charity, you might find they're involved in scams.

One thing we should never forget is the old saying, which applies to most commercials, "If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is!"

The following are some additional sources or related articles:

These everyday ‘scams’ have become so normalized that we hardly even notice them anymore 12/09/2020

Subtle shakedowns that we just accept on a daily basis ....

Here are some of the most popular responses:

Cable TV

“The whole idea of paying was to create a revenue stream separate from that of marketing. There are a few out there (HBO, I think) but generally we pay to access the content and still have to spend 20% of the time sitting through commercials.”

Bottled water

“Like Dasani. Especially in places like an amusement park that marks up the price a shocking amount. Also the average markup of bottled water is 4000%, which is f***ing outrageous, bc water is literally free most places.”

Hospitals

“I recently got an ER bill with itemized prices for the tests I had (a couple hundred bucks total) and then $2600 for ’emergency room.’ Like, all the actual medical things I had done had already been listed. They just tacked this on. It’s like going to a restaurant and getting a bill that says hamburger $8, coffee $2, salad $4, diner $65.“

Ticketmaster

“Basically scammers adding huge mark ups but making it impossible to use anyone else.”

College tuition

“Why aren’t they held to a competitive pricing model as opposed to having to take out a mortgage to go to school? Everyone wants to talk about government paying for college education, but there is no conversation on why is it that expensive anyway? Especially when some unis have endowments in the billions that just the interest on those funds could literally pay the tuition for everyone that goes through the door.“

Funerals

“The funeral industry has insane pricing. Some of the funeral homes and vendors are even predatory, getting grieving families to pay upwards of tens of thousands of dollars, because ‘that’s what the deceased would have wanted.'”

Ink cartridges

“Printer companies make barely any profit off of actual printers, they’re just vessels to make you buy unreasonably priced cartridges.”

Diamond rings

“Basically the entire wedding industry. Starting a new life together? Why not plunge yourselves into thousands of dollars of debt?” Complete article

9 Crazy Weight-Loss Scams People Fell For This Year 12/30/2014 7. Green coffee extract that can eliminate 10% of your body weight — a claim that got a boost from The Dr. Oz Show

Physicians urge Columbia to drop its "unacceptable" affiliation with pseudoscience promoter Dr. Oz 04/17/2015

How to Spot a Weight-Loss Scam 02/26/2021

Where does $100 to St. Jude’s Go? 02/12/2017

ASPCA CEO Made $750,000 in 2018 03/13/2020

Why did ASPCA pres Matt Bershadker get $852,231, while we got $9.70 an hour? 08/25/2020

Shriners CFO pleads guilty to stealing $828K from hospital 08/21/2008

In Shriner Spending, a Blurry Line of Giving 02/19/2007

Leaked Report Alleges Wrongdoing within Shriners Hospitals for Children 10/01/2008

FACTS CAST A SHADOW ON SHRINER FUNDS 04/24/1987

Telemarketers turn charity into profits 10/10/2016

Charity Continues to Deceive Donors In the Name of Fallen Police 12/05/2016

Quora: Do charities have to pay to advertise on TV?

Quora: How much does it cost to make and air ASPCA commercials?

Quora: How do charities afford such expensive commercials?

Quora: Why are charities allowed to waste people’s donations on TV advertising?

Charity Navigator: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Fundraising Expenses: 20.4%

Charity Navigator: Shriners Hospitals for Children Fundraising Expenses: 6.4%

Charity Navigator: Wounded Warrior Project Fundraising Expenses: 22.9%

Charity Navigator: Covenant House Fundraising Expenses: 14.9%

Charity Navigator: World Wildlife Fund Fundraising Expenses: 20.3%

Charity Navigator: ALSAC - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Fundraising Expenses: 16.1

Charity Navigator: PETA Fundraising Expenses: 16.1%

Charity Navigator: PetSmart Charities Fundraising Expenses: 1.8%

Charity Navigator: PAWS Chicago Fundraising Expenses: 4.7%

Charity Navigator: American Red Cross Fundraising Expenses: 6.3%

Charity Navigator: World Vision Fundraising Expenses: 8.4%

Charity Navigator: 10 Charities Overpaying their For-Profit Fundraisers These 10 charities spend more than 50% of its budget paying for-profit fundraising professionals to solicit your hard-earned money. They are ranked by the percentage of their total functional expenses spent on professional fundraising fees. As a result, very little of the charity's spending is directed towards its programs and services.

Voicelogic marketing services targetting businesses and charities.

Belkins Review: About VoiceLogic

BBB: Voicelogic

Tom Selleck is now shilling for a reverse mortgage company 06/16/2017

Don't be suckered into buying a reverse mortgage 07/15/2015 Advertisements make them sound tempting but reverse mortgages can put your retirement at risk.

10 Drawbacks of a Reverse Mortgage 04/03/2020

Reverse mortgages shake loan-shark image, fight for respectability 08/14/2016

How the ASPCA cooked 26 dogs in a truck: source comes forward 02/06/2020

Tips bring two bear poaching busts in two days 01/09/2021

Chuck Jaffe exposed both Colonial Penn Life Insurance as Stupid Investment of the Week 02/15/2007

Life Insurance and media companies are encouraging lots of murders

Killing Kids For Insurance Is Semi-Routine

Insurance Executives Profit By Inciting Murder Occasionally Paying Killers

Where does $1 to the ASPCA go? 02/17/2016 $63 million (33% of revenue): Salaries, Pension, Benefits, and Payroll Taxes; $ 6 million (3% of revenue): Compensation to 23 key employees (avg. $260,869); $27 million (14% of revenue): Advertising and Promotion; Three professional fundraisers were paid $2 million to raise $12 million through direct marketing, fundraising services, and membership appeals. In other words, for every dollar raised, 17 cents was paid to the fundraiser while 83 cents was given to the ASPCA.

ASPCA says 80 percent of donations go to animals 07/18/2015 The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance rated the ASPCA using financial data from 2012 and said it spent 77 percent of donations on programs, 19 percent on fundraising and 4 percent on administration. Its expenses for that year were nearly $168 million.

TV CHARITIES: LET THE GIVER BEWARE 01/20/1985

A World Vision Donor Sponsored a Boy. The Outcome Was a Mystery to Both. 08/02/2016 It was their Othman, who turned 18 on Monday but at the time was 5. None of his relatives recalled signing him up for the World Vision program — nor receiving any money. “We want to know: Who took the photo? What was their aim?” asked Othman’s uncle Abdul-Hamid Sabateen, a chicken farmer in Husan, a Palestinian village on the outskirts of Bethlehem.

World Vision charity named in sex-for-aid allegations 02/17/2018

World Vision clouded by corruption scandal 03/0/2020

Charity World Vision in allegations of corruption and nepotism 03/08/2020

Exclusive: Aid charities reluctant to reveal full scale of fraud 07/14/2015

World Vision Australia corruption allegations: What's happening and lessons for NGOs 03/16/2020

Where does your $1 to World Vision go? 11/11/2015

Five Things You Need to Know About World Vision 08/18/2016

World Vision's Problems Go Beyond the Gaza Corruption Trial 11/06/2016

ASPCA Launches Rebranding Effort 10/15/2005

Activist Facts: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

Sarah McLachlan Reveals the Truth About Those Sad ASPCA Ads 01/04/2016

Is The ASPCA’s Tear-Jerking Commercial Deceptive? 05/04/2011

The 15 Biggest Lies Ever Told By Major Advertisers 11/26/2012

93 Percent of the Biggest Celebrity Instagram Ads Are Kinda Lying to You 06/14/2017

6 celebrity endorsements that enraged consumers 04/19/2015

Celebrities shouldn't be answerable for misleading ads, say brand gurus 05/02/2016

Holding the celebrity responsible for false claims in ads is looking for a easy scapegoat 09/04/2016

How Dr. Drew Sold His Cred to Big Pharma 07/06/2012

Sketchy Things About Dr. Drew That Everyone Ignores

Dr. Phil peddles lies, manipulates guests for TV fame 02/20/2020 First, it’s important to understand that Dr. Phil is not a real doctor. While he does have a Ph.D. in psychology and used to have a license, he is no longer a licensed psychologist and cannot legally practice in the state of California, where he lives and films his show (Everyday Psychology, “Is Dr. Phil actually a psychologist?” 01.29.2008). Why did he leave the profession? We’re not sure, but his career was marred in 1988 by serious scandal.

Dr. Phil’s guest drug abuse scandal: Latest in history of lawsuits and allegations of unethical conduct 12/30/2017 A joint investigation by the Boston Globe and the medical news site Stat has chronicled new and disturbing allegations of treatment of guests who came to McGraw for help with substance abuse struggles. The expose presents accounts from multiple guests on his syndicated show who say their addictions were enabled by members of McGraw’s staff in hopes of boosting ratings.

Dr. Phil says he rescues people from addiction. Others say his show puts guests’ health at risk 12/28/2017

Hupy and Abraham Personal Injury Lawyers: Can the Pharmaceutical Industry Be Trusted?

Clint Eastwood Sues Over Phony CBD Endorsements 07/22/2020 If this claim is true, then they may also be faking the endorsements of Tom Selleck and Anderson Cooper in the following two articles as well; although even if Selleck and Cooper aren't involved in this scam, they have been exposed in others.

Anderson Cooper CBD Review: Does Anderson Cooper CBD Really Work or Scam? 12/18/2020

Tom Selleck's Latest Business Venture Sparks Tension With CBS and Big Pharma - He Fires Back With This! 01/16/2021

Breaking News: Communiqué to Mainstream Media Journalists, Pundits and Us 08/14/2017 by Teodrose Fikremariam Not too long ago, I was an associate working at Booz Allen Hamilton. By this, I mean I was a consultant at a defense consulting company.