The Stock Market Has Predicted the Outcome of Presidential Elections With 86 Percent Accuracy - MICHAEL SNYDER CHARISMA NEWS

Overall, the stock market has predicted the outcome of presidential elections with 86 percent accuracy, and that is way too strong of a correlation to ignore. (REUTERS/Carlo Allegri)

The Stock Market Has Predicted the Outcome of Presidential Elections With 86 Percent Accuracy

 8/3/2016 MICHAEL SNYDER  CHARISMA NEWS

If you want Donald Trump to win the election, you should be rooting for a stock market crash between now and November. As you will see below, if stocks go up during the last three months before an election, the incumbent party almost always keeps the White House. But if stocks go down during the last three months before an election, the incumbent party almost always loses.

Trump warned Americans to get out of the stock market, and if his warning turns out to be correct it will likely benefit him politically as well. When the general population believes that things are going well, Americans tend to stick with current leadership, but when the general population believes that we have hit rocky times they are usually ready for a change.

It turns out that this very strong correlation between the direction of the stock market and the outcomes of presidential elections goes all the way back to before the days of the Great Depression. The following comes from Zero Hedge...

Since 1928, there have been 22 Presidential Elections. In 14 of them, the S&P 500 climbed during the three months preceding election day. The incumbent President or party won in 12 of those 14 instances. However, in 7 of the 8 elections where the S&P 500 fell over that three-month period, the incumbent party lost.

The last time this correlation failed was back in 1980, and at that time Americans were feeling depressed about the country for other reasons. Overall, the stock market has predicted the outcome of presidential elections with 86 percent accuracy, and that is way too strong of a correlation to ignore. Just consider the gains or losses that we have seen for the S&P 500 during the last three months prior to each election since 1928 and the outcomes of those elections...

1928: 13.6 percent gain—incumbent party won

1932: -2.6 percent loss—incumbent party lost

1936: 7.9 percent gain—incumbent party won

1940: 8.6 percent gain—incumbent party won

1944: 2.3 percent gain—incumbent party won

1948: 5.4 percent gain—incumbent party won

1952: -3.3 percent loss—incumbent party lost

1956: -2.6 percent loss—incumbent party won

1960: -0.7 percent loss—incumbent party lost

1964: 2.6 percent gain—incumbent party won

1968: 6.5 percent gain—incumbent party lost

1972: 3.0 percent gain—incumbent party won

1976: -0.1 percent loss—incumbent party lost

1980: 6.7 percent gain—incumbent party lost

1984: 4.8 percent gain—incumbent party won

1988: 1.9 percent gain—incumbent party won

1992: -1.2 percent loss—incumbent party lost

1996: 8.2 percent gain—incumbent party won

2000: -3.2 percent loss—incumbent party lost

2004: 2.2 percent gain—incumbent party won

2008: -19.5 percent loss—incumbent party lost

2012: 2.5 percent gain—incumbent party won

As you can see, the only times the correlation broke down were during the years of 1956, 1968 and 1980.

But this is a very strange year. We have never seen a candidate like Donald Trump before, and the establishment is pulling out all of the stops in an effort to derail his march to the White House. So the normal rules may not apply this time around.

On Tuesday, Barack Obama took time out of his busy schedule to tell the press that Trump is "woefully unprepared" to be president, and he called on Republican leaders to pull their support from him...

"There has to come a point at which you say somebody who makes those kinds of statements doesn't have the judgment, the temperament, the understanding to occupy the most powerful position in the world," Obama said at the event with PM Lee Hsien Loong.

"There has to be a point in which you say this is somebody I can't support for president of United States," the president said. "There has to be a point in which you say 'enough.'"

The funny thing is that the exact same things could be said of Hillary Clinton. In fact, three of the top four hardcover books on the New York Times nonfiction best sellers list are about how Hillary Clinton does not have the judgment, the temperament or the character to be the president of the United States. The following comes from the Washington Examiner...

For the first time, three of the top four New York Times nonfiction best sellers are anti-Clinton books.

Two new books jumped to the front of the all-important hardcover nonfiction list just this week: Armageddon, by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann, and Hillary's America, by Dinesh D'Souza.

They join No. 1 Crisis of Character by former Secret Serviceman Gary J. Byrne which has been on top of the list for four straight weeks.

If you want to see where Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the Democrats want to take America, all you have to do is to look at the meltdown of the "socialist paradise" in Venezuela. For a while socialism seemed to work just fine there, but now desperate citizens wait in lines for up to 12 hours hoping to get something to feed their families...

A BBC journalist, who attempted to film the crisis, was stopped and forced by soldiers to delete footage of a protest outside a supermarket as desperate Venezuelans waited for food.

Baying crowds shouted "We want to buy stuff!" as they grouped outside the store in the country's capital, Caracas.

BBC journalist Vladimir Hernandez reports that many people approached him to say they had queued for 12 hours without being able to buy what they wanted.

This is what the endgame of socialism looks like.

Unfortunately, the American people don't understand this.

Unfortunately, about half the country wants to make Hillary Clinton the next president of the United States.

And in the end, the outcome of this election may be swayed one way or the other based on what the stock market does between now and November.

I don't know what that says about our country, but it isn't good.

If the American people still had any sense, an ultra-corrupt, morally bankrupt politician such as Hillary Clinton would not have a prayer of being elected dog catcher, much less president of the United States. The fact that about half the country plans to vote for her at this point is extremely frightening, and it may indicate that this nation is in far worse shape than most of us would like to admit.

Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of End Of The American Dream. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled "The Rapture Verdict"is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.

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Credit Card Companies Specifically Target Less Educated And Less Sophisticated Americans - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Credit Card Companies Specifically Target Less Educated And Less Sophisticated Americans Posted: 24 Jul 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG The big credit card companies don’t make much money off of those that pay their bills on time, and so they often specifically target less educated and less sophisticated consumers that don’t really understand the dangers of credit card debt.  The goal is to find people that will carry credit card balances from month to month, because that is where the real money can be made.   The average U.S. household that carries balances from month to month has approximately $15,310 in credit card debt right now.  At an average interest rate of about 15 percent, the profits pile up very quickly for the big credit card companies.  After all these years, so many of us still have not learned the truth about credit cards, and so credit card debt is absolutely crippling tens of millions of American families. In 2015, the total amount of credit card debt in this country increased by a staggering 71 billion dollars.  In a previous article, I explained to my readers that American consumers accumulated more new credit card debt during the fourth quarter of 2015 than they did during the entire years of 2009, 2010 and 2011 combined. Many analysts are forecasting that the total amount of credit card debt will surpass a trillion dollars by the end of 2016.  This is why there is such a crying need for financial education in this nation.  Millions upon millions of us are being taken for a ride, and as I mentioned above, the big credit card companies often target those of us that are the least sophisticated about financial matters.  The following comes from Bloomberg… Credit-card companies need people to spend more than they can afford, but not so much that they default on their payments. So they could benefit from targeting individuals who are more likely to have cognitive failings. This is the dark side of behavioral finance. Some new research by economists Antoinette Schoar of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Hong Ru of Nanyang Technological University claims to find exactly such a result. The authors use data from a private company that tracks credit-card offers. They find that less educated consumers — who are likely to be less financially sophisticated — are more frequently given offers that include back-loaded costs. Those are plans that start with low rates, but increase later, with extra-high over-limit and late-payment fees. In other words, those are likely to be the borrowers who make bad financial decisions — racking up debt and eventually paying much more in interest. Meanwhile, more educated households tend not to be offered these plans. Do you understand what that is saying? The large credit card companies want to find those of us that are the most vulnerable, because that is where their biggest profits can be made. And of course most of us have gotten into trouble with credit card debt at some point.  They don’t teach us how to manage our finances in high school or in college, and so most of us are very financially naive when we first get out into the real world.  Card offers are being showered on our young people, and cash-strapped young adults can find it very easy to “buy now and pay later”… Psychologically, it can be easier for people to pay using a credit card because no paper money is involved, Danford said. A Dun & Bradstreet study found that people spend an average of 12 to 18 percent more when using a credit card instead of cash. “I think that’s one of the traps. It’s almost too easy to use a credit card,” Danford said. “You don’t have to think of the consequences.” According to 2015 data from Experian, the average American had 2.24 credit cards, up from 2.18 in 2014. Of all credit card users, what percentage do you think carries a balance from month to month? 30 percent? 40 percent? Well, according to Time Magazine only 35 percent of those that use credit cards completely pay them off every single month.  That means that 65 percent of those that use credit cards do carry a balance… Only 35% of credit card users don’t carry a balance–they pay off their bill every month, like you’re supposed to. They use credit cards for convenience, and perhaps to generate bonus points and rewards, not because they need to borrow. If you’re a member of this group, you’re known as a “convenience user.” (Go ahead and pat yourself on the back for not being on the hook for high interest rates, but don’t gloat.) The other, more typical credit card users are known as “revolvers” because they don’t pay off their bills in full so the debt revolves. To them, credit limit increases are essentially invitations to spend more. It’s unsettling: “for revolvers, a 10% increase in credit is followed by a 1.3 percent increase in debt within one quarter and a 9.99% increase in debt over the long term,” the study found. Unfortunately for the big credit card companies and the overall U.S. economy, it appears that U.S. consumers are starting to get tapped out. Retail sales fell 2.9 percent in April, and then they dropped by 3.9 percent in May.  As a result of these declining sales, corporate profits are suffering, and it is being projected that the final numbers for the second quarter of 2016 will show that corporate profits in the U.S. have now fallen for five quarters in a row. That is not an “economic recovery”.  Rather, that is what normally happens at the beginning of a major recession. And don’t expect this to turn around any time soon, because Americans just don’t have the kind of discretionary income that they once did.  The following comes from a New York Post article entitled “A staggering percentage of Americans are too poor to shop“… Retailers have blamed the weather, slow job growth and millennials for their poor results this past year, but a new study claims that more than 20 percent of Americans are simply too poor to shop. These 26 million Americans are juggling two to three jobs, earning just around $27,000 a year and supporting two to four children — and exist largely under the radar, according to America’s Research Group, which has been tracking consumer shopping trends since 1979. So much of what is happening right now is very reminiscent of 2008.  There was an explosion of credit card debt just before that crash as well. We should have learned some very hard lessons the last time around, but we didn’t, and so now the pain for American families will be even greater this time. If you are in credit card debt at this moment, it would be wise to try to eliminate it as soon as you can, because you definitely don’t want to be drowning in debt when times get really, really hard.

The Elections - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

The Elections

Now Think On This

Steve Martin

“Do you want to be on good terms with the government? Be a responsible citizen and you'll get on just fine, the government working to your advantage.” (Romans 13:3-4, The Message)

Every four years in American politics the voting age population has a choice to make in the selection of the one who will sit in the presidential office seat. Voting for our elected officials is one of the many freedoms that our founding fathers fought so hard to obtain, and many, many since then have fought to maintain. The freedom to choose is not found in all nations. But in this country, since 1776, it has been one of the great freedoms we have as a people.

Sad to say that too many choose not to exercise this democratic freedom. Since I turned the voting age of 18 in the early 70’s, I have not missed a presidential election, going to the voting booth every time. I am proud, if I can say that humbly, to have done that.

The opportunity taken to vote or not to vote was never a decision I considered not doing. As a citizen of this nation, while I still abide here, I will always feel it is included as one of my basic responsibilities. No doubt I will continue to vote at every opportunity I have. If I am going to pray for our government leaders (not as much as I should), I believe it is also my responsibility, every time I am given the choice, to also vote for the ones who adhere to the principles I stand for. I find it hard to think that other believers often choose to not participate.

How can those who say they are walking in the Lord’s ways not also take the time to know the candidates and then vote for those they want to see lead our local, state, and national offices? Even if our choice we voted for does not win, at least we can say we participated in the process.

Believing that the Lord sets in place those in authority who govern, He also wants us to take part in bringing that about. We are not just to sit it out and say that whatever will be will be, or to glibly say that our actions do not matter in the outcome, so why bother? Does the Lord not tell us to be a light on a hill? Is not the government realm another area where that light is so sorely needed in our time, where we can participate in taking His principles into all areas of life? Even to this one area.

If and when you are given the opportunity, take it, and do one more thing in extending the Lord’s kingdom on this earth. As an American, do the right thing, and vote for those who will act on our behalf. As a big election block voting in unison, we carry a lot of influence, and can do a lot of good. Many have gotten elected because of us. Others have lost because we have not done our part.

If we don’t exercise this freedom, we cannot rant and rave when the darkness even more so penetrates the halls of our government buildings.

We can participate in what the Lord desires to yet do in this nation. This is one opportunity He freely gives you and me to do, as we go to vote, with His wisdom and guidance leading us.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People, Inc.

P.S. I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. They might need it. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

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Now Think On This - In the New Year of our Lord 07.22.16 - #262 –“The Elections” – Friday at 7:40 pm

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on the website: Now Think On This

Again, I would be most grateful if you'd share this encouraging word with your family and friends. You can easily use the social media icons below. Thanks! Steve

EBT Card Outage?: It Is 8 Days Into June And Many Americans Are STILL Waiting For Food Stamp Money - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

EBT Card Outage?: It Is 8 Days Into June And Many Americans Are STILL Waiting For Food Stamp Money Posted: 08 Jun 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Widespread reports continue to pour in from all over the nation of “glitches” with the food stamp system.  It is eight days into the month and large numbers of people still have not received their benefits, and in other instances it is being reported that EBT cards are simply not working correctly.   So what in the world is going on here?  On downdetector.com there are scores of reports of problems with the EBT system from people all over the nation.  Could this simply be another example of government incompetence, or is something else at work here? I had heard some rumblings about this over the past few days, but I had not really taken them seriously until I read an article from highly respected author Ray Gano… It interesting over the weekend I got several emails telling me about cell phones being down, internet being down, and get this, EBT cards not working and having no money associated to them. This is a concern because when the US Government has payment failures, then there is possibly something happening that the press is not telling you about. Now, we know that computers have problems and that states, counties and cities run on computers. But what is interesting is that since the beginning of 2016, The US government has had over 2,700 reports on downdetector.com showing that they have been late loading the money onto these EBT cards. Folks, we are now going on 8 days where the Government has not paid the EBT payments so that people have food. So I went over to downdetector.com myself, and I was stunned to see that reports of EBT outages continue to pour in every hour.  Here are just a few of the recent comments that have been left by people that are still waiting for their food stamp benefits for June… Heidi Lynn: I was supposed to get mine on the 5th and still nothing. Even ebt NJ site says $0 as well as my EBT card says $0. I’m on disability. I forgot to add I tried calling NJ Board of Services and was on hold for over an hour. I had to hang up to take dog out, etc. Does anyone know what’s going on yet? Ann Wilson: Now that it’s been a whole week since I was supposed to get my June benefits, and haven’t, I’m planning on going to my Illinois FCRC office. I hope they will be able to fix this difficulty. Jenn Johnson: I always get mine on time. I was due to get mine today June 7th and nothing. I am from kentucky. Why is there nothing on the news about this? Jarrett Manhart: Havnt received mine either. They are never late. And my fone is off so i cant call em. Im on Wi-Fi down the street from me. Sunny Nicole Jones: I haven’t gotten mine either! I’m glad it’s not just me though because then I would really be worried! But when I went to confirm these widespread outages with articles from the mainstream media, I came up empty. Either the mainstream media does not know what is going on yet, or it is being ignored. If you have not gotten your EBT benefits for this month yet or you know someone that is in that position, please feel free to let me know.  I want to get to the bottom of this.  There are people all over the nation that are reporting problems with the food stamp system, but nobody seems to know exactly how widespread this issue is just yet. Today there are well over 40 million Americans on food stamps, and a lot of them would start rioting tomorrow if you told them that their food stamp cards were being turned off permanently. EBT cards are the modern equivalent of the bread lines of the 1930s.  Instead of having to wait in long lines for food, the government just zaps money on to EBT cards each month, and those that are hurting are able to get something to eat. But down in Venezuela, extremely long food lines are a daily reality for much of the population right now.  The following comes from the Daily Mail… Venezuela was once South America’s richest nation, but a fall in oil prices combined with other economic problems has led to desperate citizens taking drastic measures. Nearly half of Venezuelans say they can no longer afford to eat three meals a day, according to a recent poll by the local firm Venebarometro. The poll surveyed 1,200 adults at their homes during the first week of April and had a margin of error of plus or minus of about two percentage points Those who can, cross the border into Colombia to buy, bring back and then use or sell food and other basic commodities. Could you imagine not being able to provide three meals a day for your family any longer? Close to half the population of Venezuela is already in that position, and the economic collapse down there grows worse with each passing day. Most Americans just assume that nothing like that could ever happen here. Most Americans just assume that the government will always have plenty of money to give out. As I mentioned above, there are well over 40 million Americans that receive EBT benefits. However, when you factor in all government programs, more than 100 million Americans get some form of money or benefits from the federal government each month. So what would happen someday if suddenly the spigot was turned off? What would those 100 million people do? How would they survive? Hopefully this current EBT outage is just a temporary technical glitch, and hopefully the government will get it fixed in short order. But someday there will be a major crisis that will cause food stamp benefits to be cut off either permanently or for an extended period of time. When that day arrives, what will that do to our communities? Please feel free to share what you think by posting a comment below… *About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*

Barack Obama Warns Americans ‘To Be Prepared For A Disaster’ - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Barack Obama Warns Americans ‘To Be Prepared For A Disaster’ Posted: 02 Jun 2016 Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG When Barack Obama speaks to the public, it is very rare that he does so without a specific purpose in mind.  So why is he urging Americans “to be prepared for a disaster” all of a sudden?  On May 31, Obama took time out of his extremely busy schedule to deliver an address at the FEMA National Response Coordination Center in Washington.   During his speech, he stressed that every American is responsible for preparing for disasters, and that includes “having an evacuation plan” and “having a fully stocked disaster supply kit”.  These are basic steps that I have been encouraging people to do for years, but if they won’t listen to me, perhaps they will listen to the man currently residing in the White House.  The following excerpt from Obama’s speech comes directly from the official White House website… One of the things that we have learned over the course of the last seven and a half years is that government plays a vital role, but it is every citizen’s responsibility to be prepared for a disaster.  And that means taking proactive steps, like having an evacuation plan, having a fully stocked disaster supply kit.  If your local authorities ask you to evacuate, you have to do it. Don’t wait. This speech was timed to coincide with the beginning of the hurricane season, although hurricanes have not posed much of a threat lately. In fact, a major hurricane has not made landfall in the United States for 127 straight months. But without a doubt, we all need to be preparing for disaster.  Hurricanes can create a short-term emergency that can last for a few days, but there are other threats that could create a major emergency that could potentially last for an extended period of time.  That list of potential threats includes a major volcanic eruption, a natural or engineered pandemic, a west coast earthquake, a New Madrid earthquake, a tsunami on either the east or west coasts, a meteor impact, Islamic terror, war, an EMP burstthat takes down the power grid, cyberwarfare, economic collapse, and civil unrest resulting in the imposition of martial law. Of course the items that I just mentioned are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, in different scenarios we could actually see multiple events happen in rapid succession. It is interesting to note that during his speech Barack Obama also noted that the American people seem to have become very complacent about getting prepared… And what we’ve been seeing is some public complacency slipping in; a large portion of people not having preparedness kits, not having evacuation plans. This is exactly what I have been noticing as well.  There appears to be a tremendous amount of apathy out there, and relatively few people really seem to feel much urgency to get prepared these days. My contacts in the emergency preparedness industry have been telling me that sales are way down right now.  There was a big peak last fall, but since then it is like interest in prepping has just fallen off the map. Ultimately, those companies are going to be okay because interest will pick back up shortly as global events begin to spiral completely out of control.  However, of much greater concern is the fact that people have not been using this period of relative calm constructively. Just like we have seen in Venezuela, time to prepare eventually runs out.  And someday there will be millions of parents that are absolutely horrified when their children come to them crying out for food and they don’t have anything to give to them because they didn’t heed the warnings and they didn’t get prepared. When that day arrives, many of those families may be forced to turn to whatever help the government is offering at the time. One more thing that I found particularly noteworthy about Obama’s speech was that he said that there is now “a FEMA app” that can direct you to the nearest “FEMA shelter” in the event of a major emergency. If you need information about how to put together an evacuation plan, how to put together a disaster preparedness kit, as Craig said, we’ve got an app for everything now.  We have a FEMA app in English and in Spanish to help you prepare your family for a disaster.  You can update the National Weather Service alerts.  You can get safety tips for more than 20 kinds of hazards.  It provides you directions to nearby shelters. Could you envision yourself and your family having to take refuge in a “FEMA shelter” someday? If not, you should do what you can to get prepared now.  Over the next couple of days, my wife and I will be releasing a couple of new videos about preparation on our YouTube channel.  I hope that many of you will check them out. Unlike Venezuela, it looks like we may still have a little bit more time to prepare for what is ahead.  Some people will relax and use this time to party, but those that are wise will work diligently and will do what they can to get ready for the exceedingly challenging times that are rapidly approaching. Hopefully you are listening to the warnings and are heeding what the watchmen are saying. If not, the consequences for what will happen to you and your family will ultimately be on your own hands.

6 Giant Corporations Control The Media, And Americans Consume 10 Hours Of ‘Programming’ A Day- Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

6 Giant Corporations Control The Media, And Americans Consume 10 Hours Of ‘Programming’ A Day

Posted: 26 May 2016  Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

If you allow someone to pump hours of “programming” into your mind every single day, it is inevitable that it is eventually going to have a major impact on how you view the world.  In America today, the average person consumes approximately 10 hours of information, news and entertainment a day, and there are 6 giant media corporations that overwhelmingly dominate that market. 

In fact, it has been estimated that somewhere around 90 percent of the “programming” that we constantly feed our minds comes from them, and of course they are ultimately controlled by the elite of the world.  So is there any hope for our country as long as the vast majority of the population is continually plugging themselves into this enormous “propaganda matrix”?

Just think about your own behavior.  Even as you are reading this article the television might be playing in the background or you may have some music on.  Many of us have gotten to the point where we are literally addicted to media.  In fact, there are people out there that become physically uncomfortable if everything is turned off and they have to deal with complete silence.

It has been said that if you put garbage in, you are going to get garbage out.  It is the things that we do consistently that define who we are, and so if you are feeding your mind with hours of “programming” from the big media corporations each day, that is going to have a dramatic affect on who you eventually become.

These monolithic corporations really do set the agenda for what society focuses on.  For example, when you engage in conversation with your family, friends or co-workers, what do you talk about?  If you are like most people, you might talk about something currently in the news, a television show that you watched last night or some major sporting event that is taking place.

Virtually all of that news and entertainment is controlled by the elite by virtue of their ownership of these giant media corporations.

I want to share some numbers with you that may be hard to believe.  They come directly out of Nielsen’s “Total Audience Report“, and they show how much news and entertainment the average American consumes through various methods each day…

Watching live television: 4 hours, 32 minutes
Watching time-shifted television: 30 minutes
Listening to the radio: 2 hours, 44 minutes
Using  a smartphone: 1 hour, 33 minutes
Using Internet on a computer: 1 hour, 6 minutes

When you add all of those numbers together, it comes to a grand total of more than 10 hours.

And keep in mind that going to movie theaters, playing video games and reading books are behaviors that are not even on this list.

What in the world are we doing to ourselves?

The combination of watching live television and watching time-shifted television alone comes to a total of more than five hours.

If you feed five hours of something into your mind day after day, it is going to change you.  There is no way around that.  You may think that you are strong enough to resist the programming, but the truth is that it affects all of us in very subtle ways that we do not even understand.

And as I mentioned above, there are just six giant corporations that account for almost all of the programming that we receive through our televisions.  Below is a list of these six corporations along with a sampling of the various media properties that they own…

Comcast
NBC
Telemundo
Universal Pictures
Focus Features
USA Network
Bravo
CNBC
The Weather Channel
MSNBC
Syfy
NBCSN
Golf Channel
Esquire Network
E!
Cloo
Chiller
Universal HD
Comcast SportsNet
Universal Parks & Resorts
Universal Studio Home Video

The Walt Disney Company
ABC Television Network
ESPN
The Disney Channel
A&E
Lifetime
Marvel Entertainment
Lucasfilm
Walt Disney Pictures
Pixar Animation Studios
Disney Mobile
Disney Consumer Products
Interactive Media
Disney Theme Parks
Disney Records
Hollywood Records
Miramax Films
Touchstone Pictures

News Corporation
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox News Channel
Fox Business Network
Fox Sports 1
Fox Sports 2
National Geographic
Nat Geo Wild
FX
FXX
FX Movie Channel
Fox Sports Networks
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Post
Barron’s
SmartMoney
HarperCollins
20th Century Fox
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Blue Sky Studios
Beliefnet
Zondervan

Time Warner
CNN
The CW
HBO
Cinemax
Cartoon Network
HLN
NBA TV
TBS
TNT
TruTV
Turner Classic Movies
Warner Bros.
Castle Rock
DC Comics
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
New Line Cinema
Sports Illustrated
Fortune
Marie Claire
People Magazine

Viacom
MTV
Nickelodeon
VH1
BET
Comedy Central
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Home Entertainment
Country Music Television (CMT)
Spike TV
The Movie Channel
TV Land

CBS Corporation
CBS Television Network
The CW (along with Time Warner)
CBS Sports Network
Showtime
TVGN
CBS Radio, Inc.
CBS Television Studios
Simon & Schuster
Infinity Broadcasting
Westwood One Radio Network

Fortunately, those enormous media conglomerates do not have quite the same monopoly over the Internet, but we are starting to see a tremendous amount of consolidation in the online world as well.  Just check out these numbers…

Overall, the top 10 publishers — together owning around 60 news sites — account for 47% of total online traffic to news content last year, with the next-biggest 140 publishers accounting for most of the other half, SimilarWeb found.
The biggest online news publisher for the U.S. audience was MSN, owner of MSN.com, with just over 27 billion combined page views across mobile and desktop, followed by Disney Media Networks, owner of ESPN and ABC News, with 25.9 billion.

The battle for the future of this nation is a battle for the hearts and minds of individuals.
And it is hard to see how things will be turned in a dramatically different direction as long as most of us are willingly feeding our hearts and minds with hours of “programming” that is controlled by the elite each day.

The good news is that there are signs of an awakening.  More Americans than ever are becoming disenchanted with the mainstream media, and this is showing up in recent survey numbers.  Here is one example…

Trust in the news media is being eroded by perceptions of inaccuracy and bias, fueled in part by Americans’ skepticism about what they read on social media.
Just 6 percent of people say they have a lot of confidence in the media, putting the news industry about equal to Congress and well below the public’s view of other institutions.

As Americans (and people all over the world) have lost confidence in the mainstream media, they have been seeking out other sources of news and entertainment.  This has greatly fueled the rise of the alternative media, and the dozens of websites all over the Internet where this article will ultimately be published are examples of this explosion.

You can only enslave people for so long.  Ultimately, they will want to break free of the chains that are holding them back and they will want to find the truth.

In this day and age, it is absolutely imperative that we all learn to think for ourselves.  If you find that you are still addicted to the “programming” that the giant media corporations are feeding you, I would encourage you to start unplugging from the matrix more frequently.
In the end, you will be glad that you did.

Why Are Americans Getting Married An Average Of 7 Years Later Than They Did In The 1950s? - Michael Snyder THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG

Why Are Americans Getting Married An Average Of 7 Years Later Than They Did In The 1950s? Posted: 24 May 2016   Michael Snyder  THE ECONOMIC COLLAPSE BLOG Americans are getting married later and later in life these days.  So precisely why is this happening?  As you will see below, the average age when men and women first get married in the United States is getting perilously close to 30, but in the middle of the last century is was close to 20.  There has been a dramatic cultural shift, and this has resulted in a whole host of unintended consequences.   Because even though people are getting married later, they are still engaging in behaviors that in previous generations were considered reserved for those that had made a permanent commitment.  The family has always been one of the foundational institutions in society, but now it is breaking down at a very alarming pace.  Our young people have been trained to think that getting married, having children and raising a family are not important priorities, and this is showing up in a myriad of various ways. In America today, the average woman is getting married 7.0 years later than she did in 1956, and the average man is getting married 6.7 years later than he did back then.  The following comes from CNBC… The typical U.S. woman now marries at 27.1 years old, the typical man at 29.2, according to census data. That’s up from record lows of 20.1 for women and 22.5 for men in 1956. “They’re concentrating more on school, careers and work and less focused on forming new families, spouses or partners and children,” said Richard Fry, lead author of the report and a senior economist at the Pew Research Center. Fry said of the millennials. At one time, a woman was considered to be an “Old Maid” if she had not married by the age of 25, but in this day and age that is about the time that many women are just getting started seriously looking for a mate. One of the big reasons why men and women are both delaying marriage so much these days is because our young people are constantly being inundated with messages that tell them that it is much more fun to be single.  If you aren’t doing so already, start paying attention to how marriage and parenthood are being portrayed to our young adults on television and in the movies.  In most cases, getting married at a young age is portrayed as being a “mistake”, and having children is often depicted as a good way to ruin your future. And of course a lifestyle that involves sexual promiscuity is almost always portrayed as more desirable than a lifetime commitment to a single person.  Just watch any television show or movie that is targeted to young males in particular.  Being able to “score” often and with as many women as possible is what they are told they should do, and very rarely are they encouraged to value marriage and fatherhood. This dramatic cultural shift that we have seen over the past several decades is having some very serious unintended consequences. For one thing, an increasing number of our young people are choosing to never leave the nest.  In fact, the percentage of our young adults that are living at home now exceeds the percentage of our young adults that are married or are living with a partner… Nearly a third of millennials live with their parents, slightly more than the share of their age group who live with a spouse or partner. For this age group, the researchers say, this is the first time that living at home has overtaken living with a spouse since the U.S. Census began keeping track in 1880. As recently as 2000, nearly 43 percent of young adults, ages 18 to 34, were married or living with a partner. By 2014, that proportion was just 31.6 percent. In 2000, only 23 percent of young adults were living with parents. In 2014, the figure reached 32.1 percent. Another unintended consequence has been a huge rise in the number of unmarried women giving birth to children. When the average age of first marriage was at a record low in 1956, about 5 percent of all babies in America were born to unmarried parents.  Today, more than 40 percent of all babies in America are born to unmarried parents. In addition, just because young adults are not getting married does not mean that they are not looking for outlets for their sexual desires. Of course lots and lots of people are sleeping around, but others are seeking alternative ways to fill what is missing in their lives.  Right now, there are more than four million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.  This plague has become so widespread that it has been estimated that even 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis. Clearly we have a major problem. And I haven’t even mentioned the millions of abortions and millions of STD cases that have resulted from the “sexual revolution” that we have witnessed. As the institution of the family has broken down, we have become lonelier, more isolated, less healthy and more prone to addictive behaviors as a society. Could it be possible that previous generations of Americans actually knew what they were doing? Could it be possible that it would be a good thing to teach our young people to value marriage and family? Could it be possible that we are actually designed to get married and have children at a relatively younger age? What we are doing right now is definitely not working.  We have one of the highest divorce rates on the entire planet, the CDC says that there are about 20 million new STD cases each calendar year, we have tens of millions of men that are addicted to pornography, and somewhere around a third of all children in the United States are currently being raised in a home without a father. So is there a solution to this mess? If so, what would that look like? *About the author: Michael Snyder is the founder and publisher of The Economic Collapse Blog. Michael’s controversial new book about Bible prophecy entitled “The Rapture Verdict” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.*