Human Events’ readers, in an online poll,recently voted billionaire financier George Soros “the single most destructive leftist demagogue in the country.” Here are the Top 10 Reasons George Soros Is Dangerous:
1. Gives billions to left-wing causes: Soros started the Open Society Institute in 1993 as a way to spread his wealth to progressive causes. Using Open Society as a conduit, Soros has given more than $7 billion to a who’s who of left-wing groups. This partial list of recipients of Soros’ money says it all: ACORN, Apollo Alliance, National Council of La Raza, Tides Foundation, Huffington Post, Southern Poverty Law Center, Soujourners, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, and the National Organization for Women.
2. Influence on U.S. elections: Soros once said that removing President George W. Bush from office in 2004 was the "central focus of my life." He put his money where his mouth is, giving $23.58 million to various 527 groups dedicated to defeating Bush. His early financial support helped jump-start Barack Obama’s political career. Soros hosted a 2004 fund-raiser for Obama when he was running for the Illinois Senate and gave the maximum-allowed contribution within hours of Obama’s announcement that he was running for President.
3. Wants to curtail American sovereignty: Soros would like nothing better than for America to become subservient to international bodies. He wants more power for groups such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, even while saying the U.S. role in the IMF should be “downsized.” In 1998, he wrote: “Insofar as there are collective interests that transcend state boundaries, the sovereignty of states must be subordinated to international law and international institutions.”
4. Media Matters: Soros is a financial backer of Media Matters for America, a progressive media watchdog group that hyperventilates over any conservative view that makes it into the mainstream media. Now its founder, David Brock, has openly declared war on Fox News, telling Politico that the group was mounting “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” against the cable news channel, and would try to disrupt the commercial interests of owner Rupert Murdoch—an odd mission for a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt educational foundation that is barred from participating in partisan political activity.
5. MoveOn.org: Soros has been a major funder of MoveOn.org, a progressive advocacy group and political action committee that raises millions for liberal candidates. This is the group that had on its website an ad comparing President George W. Bush to Adolf Hitler and ran the infamous “General Betray Us” ad in the New York Times, disparaging the integrity of Gen. David Petraeus.
6. Center for American Progress: Headed by John Podesta, White House chief of staff under President Clinton, the Center for American Progress has been instrumental in providing progressive talking points and policy positions for the Obama administration. There has also been a revolving door between the White House and the Soros-funded think tank, with Obama staffing his administration with many CAP officials.
7. Environmental extremism: Former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones and his leftist environmental ideas have been funded by Soros’ money at these groups: the Ella Baker Center, Green For All, the Center for American Progress, and the Apollo Alliance, which was instrumental in getting $110 billion in green initiatives included in Obama’s stimulus package. Soros also funds the Climate Policy Initiative to address global warming and gave Friends of the Earth money to “integrate a climate equity perspective in the presidential transition.”
8. America Coming Together: Soros gave nearly $20 million to this 527 group with the express purpose of defeating President Bush. A massive get-out-the-vote effort, ACT’s door-to-door canvassing teams included numerous felons, its voter registration drives were riddled with fraud, and it handed out incendiary fliers and made misleading taped phone calls to voters. ACT was fined $775,000 by the Federal Election Commission for violations of various federal campaign finance laws.
9. Currency manipulation: A large part of Soros' multibillion-dollar fortune has come from manipulating currencies. During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad accused him of bringing down the nation’s currency through his trading activities, and in Thailand he was called an “economic war criminal.” Known as “The Man who Broke the Bank of England,” Soros initiated a British financial crisis by dumping 10 billion sterling, forcing the devaluation of the currency and gaining a billion-dollar profit.
10. Delusions: Soros has repeatedly said that he sees himself as a messianic figure. Who but a megalomaniac would make these comments? “I admit that I have always harbored an exaggerated view of my self-importance—to put it bluntly, I fancied myself as some kind of god” or “I carried some rather potent messianic fantasies with me from childhood, which I felt I had to control, otherwise I might end up in the loony bin.” If only the loony bin were an option. As it is, one of the wealthiest men in the world is using his billions to impose a radical agenda on America.
Article
Monday, January 23, 2012
The Four Companies That Control the 147 Companies That Own Everything
There may be 147 companies in the world that own everything, as colleague Bruce Upbin points out and they are dominated by investment companies as Eric Savitz rightly points out. But it’s not you and I who really control those companies, even though much of our money is in them. Given the nature of how money is invested, there are four companies in the shadows that reallycontrol those companies that own everything.
Before I reveal them, some light math:
According to the 2011 annual factbook from the Investment Company Institute, there is $24.7 trillion in all the mutual funds in the world (a little less than half from the US). Based on data from the ICI, $1.24 trillion of this is directly invested in index funds, plus another $992 billion in assets beyond that $24.7 trillion in Exchange Traded Funds, which aren’t mutual funds but are index funds. That means the bulk of that money is in “active” managed funds or fund of funds.
But then consider this: the chief of hedge funds at a very large asset manager told me last week (alas, I cannot identify either) that an internal study his firm recently performed found that the vast majority of mutual funds defined as actively managed see 95% of the assets they hold determined by an index. That means just 5% of actively managed funds really are driven by the active manager’s judgment.
This less-than-active management is for two reasons: one is to maintain the fund in a style box (i.e. large value stock, medium value stocks) and comply with the reality all mutual funds are required to have a benchmark index they compare their relative performance to. The other reason is to adhere to risk metrics to which most of the fund industry is beholden. This second point is partly due to Modern Portfolio Theory (a complex topic we won’t debate here) and to the human nature that active managers tend to build portfolios close to the indexes they benchmark against to avoid really awful downward relative performance years that ends up costing them their jobs.
So of the $25.69 trillion in worldwide assets we’ve identified, $2.23 trillion are directly in indexes (ETFs and index mutual funds) with another $22.3 trillion indirectly beholden to indexes (that 95% of actively managed fund holdings said to be determined by an index).
You can see where I’m headed here. That means the real power to control the world lies with four companies: McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor’s, Northwestern Mutual, which owns Russell Investments, the index arm of which runs the benchmark Russell 1,000 and Russell 3,000, CME Groupwhich owns 90% of Dow Jones Indexes, and Barclay’s, which took over Lehman Brothers and its Lehman Aggregate Bond Index, the dominant world bond fund index. Together, these four firms dominate the world of indexing. And in turn, that means they hold real sway over the world’s money.
While that may seem benign – they are indexers after all you may say – a financial index isn’t cut and dried like the index of a book. It’s a misperception indexers merely do some simple math like identifying the 500 largest US companies and voila! you have the S&P 500. Every indexer has a fudge factor that allows them to say one company is more “economically significant” for the index at hand than another company. To again take the S&P 500 as an example, the 502-largest company by market cap could get the nod over number 500 by size if S&P decides it wants to.
The power is even more obvious in bonds. The now-Barclays Aggregate Bond Index attempts to mirror volume of bond issuance in a region or the world, but it can’t include even a sizable percentage of all the bonds issued. Essentially, there’s a big judgment call in there in what bonds it adds to its index. A judgment that influences bond fund flows worldwide.
What does all this mean? Researchers at a desk in midtown Manhattan are the butterflies that cause the hurricanes in the markets. For instance, 37% of all index funds in stocks are in a S&P 500 index fund. That’s $370 billion directly buying and selling stocks based on when the S&P analysts decide to drop ITT from the S&P500 and replace it with just one of three ITT spin-off, Xylem, as announced on Monday. Then add on top of that all of the so-called active mutual funds aiming to beat the S&P 500 (but still reflect 95% of the S&P in their funds) who react to the change and then all of the hedge funds who trade ahead of time trying to guess what S&P may drop or add.
I don’t have a grudge against any indexer (and full disclosure, I’ve done work for some of them). And the folks at McGraw-Hill don’t seem to spook people the way George Soros manages to. But when you discuss power in the world markets, the answer isn’t what you think it is.
Safely Detox Fluoride From Your Body
According to CanadianAwareness.org,
"As many people already know the commonly used sodium fluoride is extremely toxic, and contrary to most “medical professionals” it is not good for the human body.
But if you have become health conscious and stopped drinking fluoridated water, your good right? Yes and No.
If you were raised in a community that fluoridates the water, it has built up in your system. Sodium fluoride is an accumulative poison. If you are like me, born and raised in a fluoridated city, it has built up in your body. Mainly in your bones, thyroid glad, and pineal gland. So how do you get that fluoride out of your system?
That is a very complicated question. There is no 100% verified method of totally detoxing fluorides from your body. But there is several methods that I have used (along with many others), that can make a huge difference. For example: Joint pain disappearing, Chronic headaches gone, an ability to think clearer, and weight loss.
Number one of course is to stop fluoride exposure as much as you can. Even though you may have stopped drinking it in your water, many preserved foods contain it.
Second is to start using a sauna regularly. Saunas expel many heavy metals and toxins (including fluoride) from your system.
Third, getting enough sunlight daily plays a large role in detoxing the pineal gland. As well as getting enough time in the dark. Sounds strange I know. But the right balance of light and darkness helps to regulate the melatonin production (the main function of the pineal gland).
Fourth is getting enough exercise (which also helps regulate melatonin production). And fifth is doing a raw liver detox. The raw detox is were most people cringe and get turned away. But it is very simple and effective. All that you need to do is drink two cups of tea a day, cut back on preserved foods, and increase your intake of raw foods. Here is the tea recipe that I use:
* 1 thick slice of lemon
* 1 piece of fresh ginger, 2/3? long, peeled and bruised
* 1 cup boiling water
Place lemon and ginger in cup. Add boiling water and leave to infuse for two minutes. Remove lemon and ginger and drink immediately.
Using these five methods is very effective! But it is not a quick fix. It took all of that fluoride years to accumulate, and it will take years to get it all out.
Everyone is different and can expect different results, but for myself I started to feel a large difference in 3 months. I have now been doing it for 3 years, and have felt great! I am at the point that if I drink a cup of coffee that contains fluoridated water, or eat a processed food that has fluoride, I become physically ill."
"As many people already know the commonly used sodium fluoride is extremely toxic, and contrary to most “medical professionals” it is not good for the human body.
But if you have become health conscious and stopped drinking fluoridated water, your good right? Yes and No.
If you were raised in a community that fluoridates the water, it has built up in your system. Sodium fluoride is an accumulative poison. If you are like me, born and raised in a fluoridated city, it has built up in your body. Mainly in your bones, thyroid glad, and pineal gland. So how do you get that fluoride out of your system?
That is a very complicated question. There is no 100% verified method of totally detoxing fluorides from your body. But there is several methods that I have used (along with many others), that can make a huge difference. For example: Joint pain disappearing, Chronic headaches gone, an ability to think clearer, and weight loss.
Number one of course is to stop fluoride exposure as much as you can. Even though you may have stopped drinking it in your water, many preserved foods contain it.
Second is to start using a sauna regularly. Saunas expel many heavy metals and toxins (including fluoride) from your system.
Third, getting enough sunlight daily plays a large role in detoxing the pineal gland. As well as getting enough time in the dark. Sounds strange I know. But the right balance of light and darkness helps to regulate the melatonin production (the main function of the pineal gland).
Fourth is getting enough exercise (which also helps regulate melatonin production). And fifth is doing a raw liver detox. The raw detox is were most people cringe and get turned away. But it is very simple and effective. All that you need to do is drink two cups of tea a day, cut back on preserved foods, and increase your intake of raw foods. Here is the tea recipe that I use:
* 1 thick slice of lemon
* 1 piece of fresh ginger, 2/3? long, peeled and bruised
* 1 cup boiling water
Place lemon and ginger in cup. Add boiling water and leave to infuse for two minutes. Remove lemon and ginger and drink immediately.
Using these five methods is very effective! But it is not a quick fix. It took all of that fluoride years to accumulate, and it will take years to get it all out.
Everyone is different and can expect different results, but for myself I started to feel a large difference in 3 months. I have now been doing it for 3 years, and have felt great! I am at the point that if I drink a cup of coffee that contains fluoridated water, or eat a processed food that has fluoride, I become physically ill."
17-Year-Old Girl Creates Nanoparticle That Kills Cancer, Wins $100,000
When I was seventeen, it was a very good year. Actually, that’s a flat out lie. When I was seventeen I was probably wallowing in self-important despair so trivial that now, years later, I can’t even remember if I was wallowing or not. The point I’m getting at here is that I wasn’t doing anything productive, much less anything that could save countless lives and contribute to a field of science that is more important now than it has ever been. That’s what Angela Zhang was doing, and now, she’s $100,000 the richer for it. Also, she can say she’s created a nanoparticle, one that kills cancer, for what that’s worth (Spoiler: It’s worth a lot).
The $100,000 Zhang earned comes with first prize in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Her project, “Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells,” was apparently as complex, thorough, and revolutionary as it sounds.
The nanoparticle Zhang created is already being referred to as something of a “swiss army knife” in the area of cancer treatment. That’s not to say it’s dull and rusty because I you didn’t take care of it when I was you were out camping, but rather that it has a whole bunch of useful applications. The nanoparticle is delivered to tumors via the drug salinomycin where it kills cancer cells and deposits gold and iron-oxide materials to help with MRI imaging.
Not only is this impressive in its own right, but let me remind you this girl is 17. She’s got a lot of time ahead of her. She spent about 1,000 hours developing this particle since 2009 (when she must have been 15) and she wants to continue to study chemical engineering, biomedial engineering, or physics. She hopes to someday be a research professor. Thank god, because if she said she wanted to be a poet, we might have a problem on our hands. If she’s accomplished this by 17, there’s virtually no doubt we’ll see some further innovations coming from Zhang in the future. In the meantime, just take a moment to think about what you’ve done with your life. But only a moment; any longer than that and it starts to get depressing.
Article
The $100,000 Zhang earned comes with first prize in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology. Her project, “Design of Image-guided, Photo-thermal Controlled Drug Releasing Multifunctional Nanosystem for the Treatment of Cancer Stem Cells,” was apparently as complex, thorough, and revolutionary as it sounds.
The nanoparticle Zhang created is already being referred to as something of a “swiss army knife” in the area of cancer treatment. That’s not to say it’s dull and rusty because I you didn’t take care of it when I was you were out camping, but rather that it has a whole bunch of useful applications. The nanoparticle is delivered to tumors via the drug salinomycin where it kills cancer cells and deposits gold and iron-oxide materials to help with MRI imaging.
Not only is this impressive in its own right, but let me remind you this girl is 17. She’s got a lot of time ahead of her. She spent about 1,000 hours developing this particle since 2009 (when she must have been 15) and she wants to continue to study chemical engineering, biomedial engineering, or physics. She hopes to someday be a research professor. Thank god, because if she said she wanted to be a poet, we might have a problem on our hands. If she’s accomplished this by 17, there’s virtually no doubt we’ll see some further innovations coming from Zhang in the future. In the meantime, just take a moment to think about what you’ve done with your life. But only a moment; any longer than that and it starts to get depressing.
Article
Judge Rules Iran Connected To 9/11
Dax Hahs
First it was Afghanistan, then it was Iraq, now it's Iran all involved in 9/11 .... How much more Bullshit do you people need to be fed before you stop blowing this off and standing up for yourselves, your sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, Military Personnel who died because of these lies? - You can see it coming, you know what's next, go ahead shake your head, say oh well, that's just our shameful sickening government, then go back to watching tv, calling your friends, feeding your babies, playing x-box. Your government knows best right?
First it was Afghanistan, then it was Iraq, now it's Iran all involved in 9/11 .... How much more Bullshit do you people need to be fed before you stop blowing this off and standing up for yourselves, your sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, Military Personnel who died because of these lies? - You can see it coming, you know what's next, go ahead shake your head, say oh well, that's just our shameful sickening government, then go back to watching tv, calling your friends, feeding your babies, playing x-box. Your government knows best right?
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