Commodity HQ
Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector
Posted on September 14, 2011 by Jared Cummans
As the years have progressed, commodity exposure has evolved from a binary factor, either you have it or you don’t, to a necessary component of every portfolio. But as markets have been continually beaten down as of late, for many investors, finding the right commodity allocation has been something of a difficult task. A number of investors have stopped looking for growth, and taken cover in value funds that pay out annual yields in a time when no returns are guaranteed [see also The Guide To The Biggest Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector].
Dividend payments are a crucial element to investing, as they not only provide inflation hedges and steady income, but they also point to a company that is healthy. Typically only a strong company is able to pay out cold hard cash to its investors, where as a non-dividend company has an easier time cooking its books to make everything appear business as usual. Below, we outline companies with strong dividend payouts in a number of major commodity sectors, giving value investors a great way to add not only commodity exposure, but another income stream to your portfolio as well [for more commodity new subscribe to our free newsletter].
As far as this sector is concerned, Deere & Company (DE) is one of the top dogs. Branded “John Deere”, the company is the leading agricultural machinery manufacturer on the globe. DE makes everything from tractors and ATVs, to combine harvesters and balers. The firm has a market cap of $30.62 billion and trades about 5.8 million shares on a daily basis. While DE is not directly tied to any specific commodity, its products help cultivate and produce a wide variety of mainstay agricultural crops like corn and wheat, meaning that the health of the agriculture sector and underlying commodities alike will have a major impact on profits. DE pays out an annual dividend yield of 2.2% [see also Invest Like Jim Rogers With These Three Agriculture Stocks].
When it comes to aluminum, Alumina Limited (AWC) offers one of the best value plays. The company was formed in 2003 in a spin-off from Western Mining Company and is one of the largest companies on the Australian Securities Exchange. AWC’s business comes solely from a 40% stake in a joint venture with Alcoa which yields the extraction of bauxite, alumina, and aluminum smelting. The company controls roughly 17% of the global alumina market, making it a major player when it comes to this ultra-popular industrial metal. AWC pays out a healthy dividend of 3.6%, giving it an edge over Alcoa’s significantly smaller dividend.
Coal has long been a major source of energy for the world and while it may not be the cleanest burning fossil fuel, it will certainly remain an important energy source for many years to come. One of the most valuable coal miners comes from Yanzhou Coal Mining Company (YZC). The company is headquartered in the People’s Republic of China and is the only coal mining stock to be listed on all three of the Hong Kong, Shanghai, and New York Stock exchanges. YZC as a stock is popular among traders with a nice daily volume of 275,000 and a market cap eclipsing the $12.8 billion mark. Its dividend yield of 3% will make for a nice coal allocation to your portfolio while adding a steady stream of income [see also Commodity Investing: Physical vs. Futures].
As far dividend players in the copper sector go, few match the promise of Southern Copper Corporation (SCCO). The company is one of the largest publicly traded copper miners and is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The majority of the company’s operations take place in Peru and Mexico given that over 75% of the corporation is owned the the Mexican miner Grupo Mexico. Along with copper, SCCO is a major producer of molybdenum, zinc, silver, and gold. SCCO is one of the highest-paying dividend companies on this list, coming in with an annual yield of 8%.
Gold has been an extremely popular commodity recently as its price has skyrocketed over the past few years. Now that the Swiss franc is officially pegged to the euro, many feel that this is the last safe-haven investment available. While there are a number of massive gold miners, Newmont Mining Corporation is one of the better value options. Newmont is based in Denver, Colorado, and is among the world’s largest gold producers. Active mines for the company lie all over the world in places like Indonesia, Australia, Ghana, and the US. As of the end of 2010, the company produced 5.4 million ounces of gold annually while boasting proven reserves nearing 94 million. While its dividend yield of 1.8% isn’t anything extreme, when compared to the rest of its sector, NEM makes for one of the best dividend plays [see also Three Reasons Why Gold Is Overvalued].
Plum Creek Timber (PCL) is an investor favorite for gaining access to this sector as it is one of the largest public lumber firms in the country. PCL is the largest private landowner in the U.S., the majority of which, is timberland, giving a strong outlook for this big-time player in the lumber space. The stock has a current market cap of $5.7 billion and trades relatively actively, with over 1.5 million shares exchanging hands on a daily basis. Technically, PCL is a REIT, a move it made for tax and accounting advantages, though its business is derived from selling and producing various wood products. PCL pays out a dividend yield of 4.7%, something of a rarity for lumber firms.
MLPs
Master Limited Partnerships have long been known for their high yields as the offer exposure to the infrastructure of natural gas and crude oil industries. One of the better-paying companies comes from Enbridge Energy (EEP). The company majority owned by Enbridge, which operates some of the longest crude oil and liquids pipelines in the U.S. and Canada, is responsible for delivering more than two million barrles of crude oil each day, making it a very important pipeline. The company pays out a healthy yield of 7.5% but should be given a closer look, as a number of MLPs sporting high yields are designed to terminate after a certain period of time [see also [see also Top Seven Strangest Commodity Futures].
Though a number of specific metals have their own respective sectors, when it comes to general metals mining, few companies have the clout that BHP Billiton (BHP) has amassed. The company has a massive market cap of $207 billion, making it one of the largest companies in the world. BHP is responsible for mining a vast amount of metals including copper, gold, lead, zinc, iron ore, manganese, coal, aluminum, and others. The company has headquarters in both London and Australia while paying out a dividend yield of 2.9%, creating a good large cap value play for risk-averse investors.
Crude oil is one of the most prolific commodities as it has a major impact on a number of other commodities all around the world. As such, investments in this sector are incredibly popular, and a number of major oil companies offer competitive yields. British Petroleum (BP), however, offers one of the most enticing yields in the space, with an annual dividend yield of 4.7%. BP was under major scrutiny last year after the Deepwater Horizon spill caused massive damage in the Gulf of Mexico. While its stock price has yet to recover, the company was able to reinstate dividends to add value back to its large cap structure [see also Major Countries Burn Up Crude Reserves: Big Oil In Trouble?].
Steel is one of the most important industrial metals as its strength provides as a base for a number of important structures in skyscrapers, automobiles, and much more. One of the world’s largest steel makers comes from Companhia Siderurgica Nacional (SID). The company is based in Rio De Janeiro and is one of the biggest steel manufacturers in Brazil. The company accounts for nearly half of all steel products sold in the emerging market and also has significant operations in tin. The company also sets itself apart from the competition by being one of just a handful of companies to own its own iron ore source, a major component of steel production. SID pays out a dividend yield of 7.1% for those value investors who do not mind the emerging market exposure [see also Powerhouse Producers: Cocoa, Platinum, Rare Earth Metals].
[For more Commodity stories sign up for our free CHQ Newsletter.]
Disclosure: Jared is long BP.
This entry was posted in Academic Research, Agriculture, Aluminum, Copper, Exclusive, Gold, Industrial Metals, Steel, WTI and tagged Aluminum, AWC, BHP, BP, Copper, DE, EEP, Gold, Lumber, PCL, SCCO, SID, Steel, WTI, YZC. Bookmark the permalink.
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20 Responses to “Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector”
Five Most-Traded Commodity Contracts Of August | Commodity HQ says:
[...] August was a tumultuous months for markets across the board. The first ever downgrade of U.S. debts was handed out by S&P while the Fed announced it would be freezing rates for nearly two years. Markets reacted poorly to the headlines through out the month, swaying back forth by as much as 5%. Volume went through the roof as traders made a play to profit on volatile markets, while others pulled their assets and headed for higher ground and safer asset classes [see also Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector]. [...]
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[...] Mutual funds have long been one of the most popular ways to gain exposure to a number of assets. They are something of dinosaurs when it comes to investing, as a number of funds have long successful track records that other securities simply cannot compete with. The mutual fund space has tens of thousands of options and a number of those offer exposure to gold. Perhaps the biggest draw to this sector is the high dividend yields that a number of mutual funds tend to offer. Investors should note that most of these products require minimum investments in order to discourage less-serious, and ultra-small investors [see also Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector]: [...]
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BullseyeMicrocaps.com » 3 Commodities Dividend Lovers Should Consider says:
[...] Over the years, value investing has emerged as one of the favorite strategies for a number of individuals and advisors. A steady stream of income that dividends provide can help protect a portfolio from market dips as well as adding an inflation hedge. The methodology has become so popular that some investors swear by it and are uneasy about making allocations to anything that lacks an important dividend yield. Many feel that value principles conflict with the commodity space; when someone thinks of commodity investing, they typically think of active trading of futures contracts or exchange traded products. But there are a number of securities that may be overlooked [see also Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector]. [...]
Nora C says:
Excellent article for a new bee investor in Commodities. Thanks a million!
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[...] Silver bullion is perhaps the safest and most hassle-free way to maintain silver exposure. The biggest issue when holding physical bullion comes from purchasing the metal itself, which can run up costs exponentially depending on the amount that someone wishes to purchase. Silver bullion allows an investor to know exactly where their money went, what it is worth, and immediate access to the metal should they ever need it. Silver also runs at a much cheaper cost than gold, allowing investors of all shapes and sizes to maintain exposure to bullion [see also Dividend Special: Top Companies In Every Major Commodity Sector]: [...]
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Eduled2002 says:
Any information on water ETF”s(PHO, etc.)
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JAMA. 1949;140(15):1224-1226. doi:10.1001/jama.1949.02900500032015
Markle Scholars in Medical Science Nominations
Dr. Wells Heads Department.— Dr. Benjamin B. Wells, director of cancer research at the M. D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research, Houston, Texas, assumed his duties July 1 as head of the department of internal medicine at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine, Little Rock. Dr. Wells, a graduate of Baylor University College of Medicine, Houston, 1935, served on the faculty of the University of Arkansas from 1946 to 1948 as professor of medicine and also as dean the last year.
St. John's Hospital Fall Clinic.— St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, will present its first Annual Fall Clinic September 12-14. The program includes symposiums on hyperthyroidism, the genitourinary system and jaundice; seminars in obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics and hematology; a clinical pathologic conference, and peripheral-vascular clinic. Out of state guest speakers include Drs. Percy J. Carroll, Harry H. McCarthy and Louis D. McGuire, Omaha, Neb.; Malcolm B.
Medical News. JAMA. 1949;140(15):1224–1226. doi:10.1001/jama.1949.02900500032015


Drill, baby, drill?
By archives - September 24, 2010
Fracking. For something so obviously pun-worthy, it’s a pretty serious issue. Hydraulic fracturing, a means of collecting otherwise inaccessible natural gas, is extremely controversial. It’s as potentially lucrative as it is environmentally risky. And it could be coming to our campus’ backyard.
The Environmental Protection Agency is in the midst of a $1.9 million study (scheduled for a 2012 release) showing the effects of fracking on the water table and ecosystem at large. The EPA even made a stop in Binghamton last week to get public input on its study.
Why should the EPA be worried? For starters, even a brief description of hydrofracturing is well, worrying. According to Tuesday’s issue of Pipe Dream, the process of fracking ‘involves injecting a pressurized mixture of water and specialized chemicals into underground layers of rock and forcing out natural gas that is encased within the shale.’
Shooting up to five million gallons of water per well mixed with chemicals (85 different ones, actually, are used in Pennsylvania) as deep into the ground as 8,000 feet below the surface to collect fossil fuels?
Yeah, in layman’s terms, it’s terrifying. We don’t like the idea of ammonia persulfate, formaldehyde or polyethoxylated alkanol (2) in the Susquehanna River, let alone our drinking water.
Proponents, though, avow that the risk for environmental contamination is negligible and the economic upshot is immense.
The Southern Tier is sitting on the largest natural gas reserve in the United States, embedded in a layer of shale. The Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia up to the Catskills, holds 50 times the gas that is used by the East Coast annually. It’s huge. Through fracking, this reserve would produce cheap American-made energy ‘ and create jobs in places that really need them (like Broome County, for instance).
The back-and-forth between the pros and cons in the fracking debate is essentially a shouting match of superlatives.
‘We’re all gonna be rich,’ one side shouts.
‘We’re all gonna die,’ reminds the other.
We tend to support a skeptical approach to the issue.
We’re skeptical of eco-crazies, who would willingly sacrifice economic opportunity on merely the principle that drilling for natural gas is evil.
We’re even more skeptical of energy tycoons, who deny even the slightest risk in their conceivably toxic business in the pursuit of another dollar.
We’re even skeptical of the EPA, who have spent more than enough time in bed with those same tycoons. The agency’s 2004 study into fracking was shaky at best, and downright corrupt at worst, and 2012’s may not be better. The $1.9 million the EPA is spending seems somewhat skimpy for a nationwide, imperative investigation. And according to The New York Times, this study’s investigative panel is filled out with the same oil company officials that scuttled the first effort.
Despite this, the only thing to do is wait ‘ at least for the EPA’s 2012 study’s release date. We can not, in good conscience, and in a post-BP world, support fracking in the Binghamton area before the EPA has had another say on the issue. We can only pray for transparency. We also support, hand in hand with environmental investigation, a thorough economic forecast on how individuals who live in the area, especially on the land where the fracking will take place, will benefit from this natural gas production. Energy conglomerates can’t be the only people to make money on this.
So, we wait. We’ll support safe drilling, if it’s proven to be so.


Posts Tagged Ray Whinstone
“Noah” movie, a hotchpotch of hidden messages?
Posted by simon peter sutherland in Science and evolution, The Bible, The influence of film on April 11, 2014
Walking into the theatre to watch the new ‘Noah’ film was one of those moments where one does not know what to expect.
Film makers always have an agenda. Even if the agenda is art, fame, money, or personal inner release concerning some issue or topic that is bursting them open at the seams, there is always a reason for making a film.
But the director and maker of this film is a new atheist. Which begs the question; why would a new atheist desire to make a movie about Noah?
I have seen a lot of ‘Biblical Epics’ over the years, some good some not good. But most of them, if not all have been set in the ‘Biblical eras’. Such did not appear to be the case with the ‘Noah’ movie. It was filmed in Southern Iceland with no attempt to make it look Babylonian or Turkish.
What struck me on the opening scenes was the films ‘Apocalyptic’ appearance. The cloths appeared more futuristic and the landscape not at all like the Biblical Sacred Geography of the Bible lands.
It soon became quite clear to me that this film was not about the Bible at all. It was not even about the Biblical story of the flood. Something else was going on.
Some scenes were not too bad, but then I noticed when Tony Hopkins appeared on screen he repeatedly mentioned the drinking of “tea”. Anthony Hopkins was of course playing a representation of ‘Methuselah’ but he was not at all like a Biblical Prophet but rather resembled some kind of witch doctor or spiritualist.
Why, I asked, would ‘Methuselah’ mention Noah as ‘drinking tea with an old man’ when there is no evidence that people drank tea in the areas inhabited by Noah. Tea drinking likely began in China yet the script made a clear point of repeating the habit. Why? A conclusion I made was that the reference to drinking tea was a covert method of disconnecting the story to the Biblical eras and giving it a more recent or futuristic setting.
What struck me about the film was that it appeared apocalyptic rather than historical and really, the topic itself was about ‘depopulation’. The popular notion which many of those who presently embrace the theory of ‘Global warming’ that ‘Man has corrupted this world and must be destroyed’. The focus was not upon the Biblical claim that God was correcting the corrupted seed which the serpent had sown. No, the focus was upon ‘saving the animals’ and getting back to ‘Eden’ without man. The animals were the innocent. Man must be destroyed even to the point of a savage and unBiblical representation of Noah as one who became like a madman, wholly intent upon killing the new born child of ‘Shem’s wife’.
The covert yet apparent topic of ‘depopulation’ became quite apparent within the film, the seeds of which the theory of overpopulation can be traced to a Darwinian origin. Darwins acceptance of Thomas Robert Malthus’ principle of population of which his proof was concerning population expansion in America. The film quite clearly represented ‘Darwinian Theory’ in a scene where ‘Noah’ was in the ark after the floods came and he told the story of Creation which in this case was little more than a basic representation of the big bang. The scenes quite swiftly progressed to show a mass of water and sea creatures, one of which crawls out of the water and onto dry land, soon to be transformed into a reptile, then a beast, then a monkey and then ‘Adam and Eve’. The scene was little more than a representation of the often misinformed view of ‘Theistic evolution’.
What could have been rather good was the resurrected inclusion of Tubul Cain, an obscure Biblical character as mentioned in Genesis 4: 22. The Mosaic narrative says that Tubal-Cain was “an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron”.
The Jewish historian Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews 1. 2. 2 affirms this and wrote “Tubal…exceeded all men in strength, and was very expert and famous in martial performances”. He also states that he “first of all invented the art of making brass”.
Concerning the historical references to the ancient use of Iron, written history itself disagrees with modern scientific claims concerning the dating of the iron age and even though the character of Noah was not represented Biblically in the film, outside of the English accent and appearance, Tubel-Cain appears quite accurate?
It cannot be merely argued that the film made Biblical mistakes, but more choices of either interpretation or the so-called ‘artistic license’. Such licences were extreme. Such was the case concerning the violence of Noah and his family when the flood waters came and the great springs of the deep burst forth (Genesis 7: 11) and people tried to get on the ark. Noah and his sons were depicted as killing them. This is a distinct misrepresentation. But the claim that people attempted to get on the ark can be traced historically to the Talmud, where the Babylonian version claims “the people came to the ark and clung to it, and cried to Noah for help, but he answered them: “For a hundred and twenty years I entreated ye to follow my words; alas, tis now too late” (The Talmud. Translated by Polano. Part first. Page 25. London)
Thus, it seems that in some ways the writers did some research into the ark, the written texts and so forth, yet they seemed to mingle these things with other ideas. Such things as the representation of the ‘fallen angels’ I thought was pathetic. The Deist representation of God, always named “The creator” is inconsistent with the Noahic story.
Towards the end of the film when the ark had landed, it seems that the film-maker depicted the vessel as broken in two. This, is likely to be based upon the eyewitness claim of George Hagopian who claimed that when he was a boy he was taken to view Noah’s ark on Ararat around the years between 1900-1905. He stated that he saw the ark and went onto it and it was split in two. This, among a good number of reliable historical eye witness accounts that range from Josephus to Marco Polo, give us many indications and evidences concerning the historical whereabouts of the ark. Evidences it seems, the film-maker is aware of?
Thus, in our modern age where some people consider the Bible unreliable, those who believe that Noah’s ark and Biblical Creation are historical facts are sometimes labelled as ‘fanatics’ or ‘uneducated’ or ‘morons’. These claims are untrue. The word ‘uneducated’ should be replaced in many cases with ‘unpersuaded’. For, such claims are often based upon disinformation and misinformation.
Major facts which divide those two groups are matters of faith and facts on both sides. The Darwinian’s and uniformitarians, who must deny the historical reality of Noah’s flood in order for their ‘uniformitarian assumption’ to work, must, if they are sold out to their atheistic world-view play the event down. The event of the flood would disprove their ‘unformitarian assumption’ that the present is the key to the past. For, the implications of a worldwide flood, would be that it had affects concerning the mutations of the earth and the earth’s crust. If there was a worldwide flood, then the fact that 71% of the earth’s surface is water, must be played down by new atheist scientists as being unrelated to a worldwide flood, but the product of highly speculative theories. Thus, when their body of scientists are set up and declare their finds as ‘fact’ then those sheep who follow them are in fact, little more than scientific faith-heads who put their trust in interpretations of science and ignore the historical texts. Or merely label them as unscientific myths for deluded religious morons.
The facts remain that the story of a worldwide flood is highly documented throughout history, geology and archaeology and whether or not a person believes those claims I have made there, is really a matter of faith in objective argument.
The question is; who are you going to put your trust in? Science or scientists? Arguments or Truth? Written proofs or the claims made about them? Darwin or God? Because, as Bob Dylan rightly put it, “You’ve gotta serves somebody. It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’ve got to serve somebody”.
The God of the Bible will not take second place. For the Truth, as the great hymn writer put it “demands my soul, my life, my all”
In conclusion; the Noah film was not at all Biblical but a mere hotchpotch of deism and fantasy. Shame because it could have been good. What was good though is the way the film was depicted, which dissolves somewhat the children’s story like representation in other films, cartoons and books and atheist fiction and mockery. However, I thought they spoiled the film and muddled it up. But I don’t think it was intended to be Biblically based, but merely a film which used popular and central characters and events to further something else. A subliminal message of which I think relates to a predicted and futuristic mass genocide of depopulation? Where men seek justification to “annihilate” man and save the earth because according to them, man is destroying it. A wretched notion on their part, which I think should be consistently opposed.
The god of the Noah film is not the God of the Bible. He is the ideal god that the new atheists would prefer, if indeed, in their minds there were such a being, he is a deist god, and one whom, the new atheists in their wishful thinking, would rather exist, than the Biblical Creator. Science views itself as a type of god, the creator of life and this universe and it is science that will seek to give or take away life. The institution of modern science is not a friend of the earth or of people, it is merely gaining peoples confidence as a friend in the present, only to turn and rise up against them in the future. A new army is rising and a new era; science has been hijacked and will be used against us by militants and the one institution which they have presented as the peoples enemy, will be the one institution that will save us and concerning those wretch notions that some people have concerning depopulation, from the likes of Jacques Cousteau, John P. Holdren, Ted Turner, Bill Maher and many more, I think they are disgusting, for there is enough room in this world for all of us.
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(ESV: Through The Bible)
Ezekiel 40 (Listen)
Vision of the New Temple
40:1 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day, the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me to the city. [1] In visions of God he brought me to the land of Israel, and set me down on a very high mountain, on which was a structure like a city to the south. When he brought me there, behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze, with a linen cord and a measuring reed in his hand. And he was standing in the gateway. And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and set your heart upon all that I shall show you, for you were brought here in order that I might show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”
The East Gate to the Outer Court
And behold, there was a wall all around the outside of the temple area, and the length of the measuring reed in the man's hand was six long cubits, each being a cubit and a handbreadth [2] in length. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed; and the height, one reed. Then he went into the gateway facing east, going up its steps, and measured the threshold of the gate, one reed deep. [3] And the side rooms, one reed long and one reed broad; and the space between the side rooms, five cubits; and the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the gate at the inner end, one reed. Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, on the inside, one reed. Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and its jambs, two cubits; and the vestibule of the gate was at the inner end. And there were three side rooms on either side of the east gate. The three were of the same size, and the jambs on either side were of the same size. Then he measured the width of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits. There was a barrier before the side rooms, one cubit on either side. And the side rooms were six cubits on either side. Then he measured the gate from the ceiling of the one side room to the ceiling of the other, a breadth of twenty-five cubits; the openings faced each other. He measured also the vestibule, twenty cubits. And around the vestibule of the gateway was the court. [4] From the front of the gate at the entrance to the front of the inner vestibule of the gate was fifty cubits. And the gateway had windows all around, narrowing inwards toward the side rooms and toward their jambs, and likewise the vestibule had windows all around inside, and on the jambs were palm trees.
The Outer Court
Then he brought me into the outer court. And behold, there were chambers and a pavement, all around the court. Thirty chambers faced the pavement. And the pavement ran along the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates. This was the lower pavement. Then he measured the distance from the inner front of the lower gate to the outer front of the inner court, [5] a hundred cubits on the east side and on the north side. [6]
The North Gate
As for the gate that faced toward the north, belonging to the outer court, he measured its length and its breadth. Its side rooms, three on either side, and its jambs and its vestibule were of the same size as those of the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. And its windows, its vestibule, and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the gate that faced toward the east. And by seven steps people would go up to it, and find its vestibule before them. And opposite the gate on the north, as on the east, was a gate to the inner court. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.
The South Gate
And he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate on the south. And he measured its jambs and its vestibule; they had the same size as the others. Both it and its vestibule had windows all around, like the windows of the others. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. And there were seven steps leading up to it, and its vestibule was before them, and it had palm trees on its jambs, one on either side. And there was a gate on the south of the inner court. And he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.
The Inner Court
Then he brought me to the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate. It was of the same size as the others. Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others, and both it and its vestibule had windows all around. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. And there were vestibules all around, twenty-five cubits long and five cubits broad. Its vestibule faced the outer court, and palm trees were on its jambs, and its stairway had eight steps.
Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gate. It was of the same size as the others. Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others, and both it and its vestibule had windows all around. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. Its vestibule faced the outer court, and it had palm trees on its jambs, on either side, and its stairway had eight steps.
Then he brought me to the north gate, and he measured it. It had the same size as the others. Its side rooms, its jambs, and its vestibule were of the same size as the others, [7] and it had windows all around. Its length was fifty cubits, and its breadth twenty-five cubits. Its vestibule [8] faced the outer court, and it had palm trees on its jambs, on either side, and its stairway had eight steps.
There was a chamber with its door in the vestibule of the gate, [9] where the burnt offering was to be washed. And in the vestibule of the gate were two tables on either side, on which the burnt offering and the sin offering and the guilt offering were to be slaughtered. And off to the side, on the outside as one goes up to the entrance of the north gate, were two tables; and off to the other side of the vestibule of the gate were two tables. Four tables were on either side of the gate, eight tables, on which to slaughter. And there were four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, and a cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high, on which the instruments were to be laid with which the burnt offerings and the sacrifices were slaughtered. And hooks, [10] a handbreadth long, were fastened all around within. And on the tables the flesh of the offering was to be laid.
Chambers for the Priests
On the outside of the inner gateway there were two chambers [11] in the inner court, one [12] at the side of the north gate facing south, the other at the side of the south [13] gate facing north. And he said to me, This chamber that faces south is for the priests who have charge of the temple, and the chamber that faces north is for the priests who have charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, who alone [14] among the sons of Levi may come near to the Lord to minister to him. And he measured the court, a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits broad, a square. And the altar was in front of the temple.
The Vestibule of the Temple
Then he brought me to the vestibule of the temple and measured the jambs of the vestibule, five cubits on either side. And the breadth of the gate was fourteen cubits, and the sidewalls of the gate [15] were three cubits on either side. The length of the vestibule was twenty cubits, and the breadth twelve [16] cubits, and people would go up to it by ten steps. [17] And there were pillars beside the jambs, one on either side.
1 Peter 5 (Listen)
Shepherd the Flock of God
5:1 So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, [18] not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; [19] not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love.
Peace to all of you who are in Christ.
[1] 40:1 Hebrew brought me there
[2] 40:5 A cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters; a handbreadth was about 3 inches or 7.5 centimeters
[3] 40:6 Hebrew deep, and one threshold, one reed deep
[4] 40:14 Text uncertain; Hebrew And he made the jambs sixty cubits, and to the jamb of the court was the gateway all around
[5] 40:19 Hebrew distance from before the low gate before the inner court to the outside
[6] 40:19 Or cubits. So far the eastern gate; now to the northern gate.
[7] 40:36 One manuscript (compare verses 29 and 33); most manuscripts lack were of the same size as the others
[8] 40:37 Septuagint, Vulgate (compare verses 26, 31, 34); Hebrew jambs
[9] 40:38 Hebrew at the jambs, the gates
[10] 40:43 Or shelves
[11] 40:44 Septuagint; Hebrew were chambers for singers
[12] 40:44 Hebrew lacks one
[13] 40:44 Septuagint; Hebrew east
[14] 40:46 Hebrew lacks alone
[15] 40:48 Septuagint; Hebrew lacks was fourteen cubits, and the sidewalls of the gate
[16] 40:49 Septuagint; Hebrew eleven
[17] 40:49 Septuagint; Hebrew and by steps that would go up to it
[18] 5:2 Some manuscripts omit exercising oversight
[19] 5:2 Some manuscripts omit as God would have you
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Sessions Testifies Before House Judiciary Committee — And Disappoints Democrats
RUSH: Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifying today before the House Judiciary Committee. It had its moments of high comedy when Sheila Jackson Lee got her turn to start asking questions. This is the representative from Houston who took over the seat for the esteemed Mickey Leland when he was killed in an accident in Ethiopia. He was on a mission there to feed the poor, and he died there, plane crash or some such thing. I forget the specific details, but she took over his seat.
She is the member of Congress who, on a visit to NASA, was looking at the Mars Rover — they had the video turned on — the Mars Rover was sending pictures back from Mars. Sheila Jackson Lee asked NASA administrators if they were gonna have it go over to where the astronauts had planted the flag.
Of course, the NASA administrators had to deal with that with much diplomacy, because of course we’d never been to Mars and as far as we know there’s not an American flag there. We do know that if there was an American flag there, Colin Kaepernick would take a knee, even on Mars. It’s on the moon. And the NASA administrators had to very diplomatically remind her, “No, no. You’re getting our moon and the planet of Mars confused.”
“Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah.” So she didn’t have much time when she got to her turn to ask questions, and she really didn’t want any answers. I mean, it’s just these rat-tat-tat, one allegation, one accusation after another. And Jim Jordan, congressman from Ohio, had a very pointed question to Sessions about why he has not appointed a special counsel on the Clintons.
RUSH: Okay, the Jeff Sessions hearings today before the House Intelligence Committee. Now, I have to tell you something. I watched some of this during the breaks, and I’m gonna be really up front with you: It was embarrassing. It was embarrassing to have these various members (and most of the ones that I’m talking about are Democrats) who apparently had no problem whatsoever illustrating their complete ignorance of the U.S. Constitution. For example, one Democrat was asking Sessions if he would have the guts to prosecute Trump for expressing an interest in any investigation.
“Because, you know, that’s unconstitutional, Mr. Attorney General. That is a violation. The president cannot do that!”
It is not. The president runs the Justice Department! The president is entitled to know anything going on! It may not be politically correct, but he can. He can ask for any bit of information he wants and be given it. But here you had a Democrat claiming that Sessions didn’t have the guts to prosecute Trump in such a circumstance. Just sheer illiteracy of the United States Constitution — and that doesn’t even talk about Sheila Jackson Lee. I mean, it’s embarrassing. You know, we talk about what kids in school today are learning and what they think.
My friends, some of these elected members of our Congress are so ignorant of the founding documents of this country that it is scary. They just make it up, whatever they think is or is not constitutional — and with Trump, most everything is unconstitutional that these doing. And then they badger. They badger Sessions in a way that most judges would not even permit it, because they ask him questions that he can’t answer. If he answers one way, they accuse him of lying and hiding information.
If he doesn’t answer, they accuse him of stonewalling and not knowing or hiding something. And then most of their questions had innuendo that he’s lying about the Russians and that he did collude and that he knows Trump colluded, but he doesn’t have the guts to say so. It was a spectacle. It is ignorance. It’s stupidity on parade! We have a little bit of it. We’ll start here. This is the question from John Conyers. Conyers had a list of questions. He could barely read them, and he tried to get Sessions.
“These are all ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ I just want to know, yes or no: Did you beat your wife before you left for the hearing today? When you talked to the Russians about colluding, did Hillary Clinton’s name come up positive or not?” Stupid questions like that. Sessions said (impression), “I’m not sure I understand what you’re asking me, Congressman,” and Conyers would get frustrated and accusing him of stalling. But here is one of Conyers’ questions: “Are you recused from investigations that involve Secretary Clinton?”
SESSIONS: I cannot answer that yes or no because — under the policies of the Department of Justice — to announce recusal in any investigation would reveal the existence of that investigation, and the top ethics officials have advised me I should not do so.
RUSH: Oh, that didn’t sit well with the Democrats! “All we want know is you recused yourself from Hillary! Have you recused yourself from anything to do with lawbreaking? Have you recused yourself from anything that might have to do with anything Trump did in a gambling casino?” They’ve been asking all these asinine questions, and it’s all been one giant trick, attempted trick. Jerry Nadler, Democrat, New York: “Did Mr. Papadopoulos mention his outreach to the Russian government during that meeting?”
SESSIONS: He made some comment to that effect, as I remember, after having —
NADLER: Answer yes or no. I don’t have time!
SESSIONS: All right.
NADLER: There are reports that you “shut George down,” unquote, when he proposed that meeting with Putin. Is this correct? Yes or no.
SESSIONS: Yes. I pushed back. I will just say it that way, because it was —
NADLER: Yes. Your answer is yes. So you are obviously concerned by Mr. Papadopoulos’ connections and his possibly arranging a meeting with Putin. Now, again, yes or no: Did anyone else at that meeting — including then candidate Trump — react in any way to what Mr. Papadopoulos had presented?
SESSIONS: I don’t recall.
RUSH: Now, there’s a technique here the Democrats obviously have settled upon. Every question: “Yes or no! Yes or no!” Conyers did it. You just heard this guy, Jerrold Nadler, do it. Sheila Jackson Lee tried it. “Yes or no! Just yes or no! I don’t have any time. Republicans aren’t giving me enough time. This is a rigged hearing. We don’t have time here on the Democrat side! We don’t have time. You don’t speak fast enough pick up lie. Just yes or no!” And that’s what he was up against all day here.
The next question, Sheila Jackson Lee: “These young women have accused this individual, Roy Moore, who’s running for a federal office, of child sexual activity. Do you believe these women?”
SESSIONS: I am — have no reason to doubt these young women.
JACKSON LEE: And with that in mind, if you believe these young women, do you believe Judge Moore should be seated in the Senate if he wins, and would you introduce investigations by the DOJ regarding his actions?
SESSIONS: We will evaluate every case as to whether or not it should be investigated. This kind of case would normally be a state case.
RUSH: And we have time for one more. This is Sheila Jackson Lee asking Sessions about his previous testimony in the Senate on Trump campaign contacts with the Russians during the campaign.
JACKSON LEE: Do you want to admit under oath that you did not tell the truth or misrepresented or do you want to correct your testimony right now?
SESSIONS: You’re referring to my testimony at confirmation?
JACKSON LEE: Before the Senate Intelligence Committee. My time is short and I have two more questions, please.
SESSIONS: Well, I’m not able to respond because I don’t think I understand what you were saying.
JACKSON LEE: I’m asking your Intelligence Committee testimony, do you want to change it where you indicated you had no knowledge of involvement of the Trump individuals involved in conversations regarding the Trump campaign, Russians. And Mr. Miller, uh, gave, uh, supported, uh, Mr. Trump’s, um, press conference where he said, “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’ll be able to find the 30,000 emails.” Do you want to change your testimony that was where you said “I have no knowledge of any such conversation by anyone connected to the Trump campaign regarding Russians involved in the campaign”? That was, uh, a testimony on June 13.
SESSIONS: I’m not able to understand —
JACKSON LEE: All right, let me move forward.
RUSH: That’s a comedy. The woman’s a joke. There’s no way anybody could answer this. She doesn’t know what she’s saying. The staff writes the questions for her and she rehearses it and makes sure she speaks loudly so it sounds like she’s projecting with confidence. This is a joke.
And here we’re back to, I’ll never forget, this is one of the things I’m jealous that Trump did this. This is the kind of thing that we do on this program. “Hey, Russians, if you’re out there, maybe you can find the 30,000 Hillary emails and give ’em to the CIA or something. We’re looking real hard. We can’t find the 30,000 emails.” It was a laugh riot.
Instead, the Democrats in the media accuse Trump of inviting the Russians to hack Hillary’s server. And Sheila Jackson Lee is all over this still, and she’s trying to get Sessions to admit that that was improper contact with the Russians and that Trump was encouraging them. And, by the way, Stephen Miller, Stephen Miller, Stephen Miller. She didn’t know what Stephen Miller did. The staff put his name in the question, just put his name in there because they think it’s negative.
It’s a joke. These people are insults to everybody’s intelligence and they are insults to the Constitution. But they’re duly elected by their idiot voters. And so we have to put up with them being in there. But man is it embarrassing.
RUSH: Look. This is not a court of law. These Democrats cannot direct any witness how to answer. A prosecutor can, a defense attorney can, judge can, but these guys, they can’t control what Sessions says. And that’s not the point. They don’t even want him to answer.
All they’re doing is making speeches under the guise of questions. They’re creating sound bites for their own reelection or they’re creating sound bites for the news. They’re doing anything they can to blaspheme, impugn Sessions or what have you. They’re not interested in his answers to anything. The questions are designed to make him look guilty no matter what he says. “Yes or no, yes or no.” They can’t control how he answers. And, you know, the chairman could point that out now and then.
RushLimbaugh.com: True Crime: The Intel Community vs. Trump - 11.13.17
Washington Post: Sessions Considering Second Special Counsel to Investigate Republican Concerns, Letter Shows
The Hill: Sessions: DOJ Investigating 27 Classified Leaks


NYPD Warns Drivers: Slow Down And Beware Of Speed Cameras In School Zones
Filed Under:Back-to-school, Local TV, New York, NYPD, Speed Cameras, Vision Zero
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – The NYPD is warning drivers to slow down in school zones – or it will cost you.
The reminder comes as students in the city head back to school tomorrow.
The mayor’s office says the number of speed cameras in school zones has increased to 360, with more being installed each month to reach 750 citywide by June 2020.
“With schools reopening, we’re doubling down on our effort to protect the most vulnerable among us: our kids,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. “With more officers patrolling around schools and hundreds of new speed cameras coming on line in the months ahead, reckless drivers will hear one thing loud and clear: slow down or pay the price.”
Additionally, the hours of enforcement have doubled well beyond the school day — from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays year-round.
“If you don’t yield to the right-of-way to the pedestrians or the bicyclists out there, you will have problems,” NYPD Transportation Chief Thomas Chan said Wednesday.
If caught driving 10 miles an hour over the posted speed limit, get ready to pay a $50 fine.
Web Extra: NYPD, DOT On More Speed Cameras In School Zones
The brand new speed camera at the corner of Third Avenue and 99th Street in Bay Ridge was a welcome addition for administrators at students at Fontbonne Hall Academy as they prepare to start the school year.
“It’s definitely nice knowing that there’s cameras, so that people will be more aware of what they’re doing and where they’re driving,” senior Isabella Chirico said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the expansion into law on Mother’s Day, and State Sen. Andrew Gournades was one of the bill’s sponsors.
“We have to engage in a massive culture change to get everyone to slow the heck down,” he said Wednesday. “This is not just about keeping kids safe when they’re in algebra and biology class. This is about keeping kids and people safe when they’re coming to schools for whatever the reason.”
The cost to drivers can never compare to heartbroken families, like mother Amy Cohen, whose son was killed in 2013.
“There is blood on our streets followed by a river of tears. It’s time we acted,” she said. “We’re grateful for this step forward, but we know we have more to do.”
Nearly 200,000 tickets were issued in July alone. According to the DOT, 80% of drivers who get their first ticket don’t get another one.
The money raised from the program will go toward studying its effectiveness and implementing other safety initiatives.


Det medisinske fakultet
Institutt for allmenn- og samfunnsmedisin ( -2009)
Internasjonal helse
Acceptability of Voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV among Pregnant Women in Western Health Division, the Gambia
Jammeh, Abdou
AbdouxJammeh.pdf (471.1Kb)
Internasjonal helse [134]
Rationale of the Study: The Gambia is a developing country and the majority of the population are women. They need adequate support, information and knowledge to protect themselves from acquiring HIV, and for those already infected from transmitting it to their infants either during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding.
The Gambia has a low prevalence of HIV, but despite that the number infected increased yearly among women of childbearing age and among children. The rates of mother-to-child transmission for HIV-1 and HIV-2 were estimated at 25% and 4% respectively in a cohort study of antenatal mothers between 1993 and 1995. In a follow-up study in 2002, 34% of the mothers identified in 1993 to 1995 had died; 69% of HIV-1 infected children also died.
In light of this, the Department of State for Health has decided to integrate Voluntary Counselling and Testing in certain antenatal clinics with free antiretroviral drugs, and for women, the need to know their status is paramount. Many studies on HIV/AIDS have been conducted in the Gambia, but none have specifically investigated factors that influence acceptability of VCT among pregnant women. Little is also known about what women know about HIV/AIDS and their perception of risk.
Objectives: The main objective of this study was to explore and describe factors that influence acceptability of voluntary HIV counselling and testing among pregnant women in Western Health Division of the Gambia.
Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among pregnant women in western health division of the Gambia. A quantitative methodology with the aid of a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The study design was facility-based and, pregnant women were invited to participate when they came to the antenatal clinics included in the study. Midwives were instructed to invite women of all ages, educational levels, parity and occupation in a convenience-based sample. A total of 246 pregnant women were approached and asked to participate in the interview, out of whom 229 actually participated; (a participation rate of 93%)
Results: The majority of pregnant women (65%) and (51%) had high knowledge on the modes of HIV transmission and on MTCT of HIV respectively. There was a significant difference in level of knowledge on HIV spread between educational groups. Women with formal education seemed to be more knowledgeable than those with no formal education (x2 = 6.09, df = 1, p = 0.01). Nearly half of the women had low knowledge on specific areas of MTCT such as the transmission of the virus through pregnancy, delivery and breastfeeding. The majority of pregnant women (61%) also had low knowledge on the three basic prevention messages (ABC) of HIV. Some misconceptions relating HIV transmission were also reported in the study and the majority of the pregnant women (55%) perceived themselves as not susceptible to HIV /AIDS.
Nearly all the women, (98%) were aware of the existence of the PMTCT programme. The majority (92%) had gone through the pre-test counselling, but 82% have actually done an HIV test of which 72% had taken the decision independently. Return rates were also found to be very high (91%). The need to know ones serostatus; and if HIV positive, be offered ARVs to protect the child and to prolong own life were factors that motivated or influenced women to accept HIV testing. The majority of the respondents (97%) would like to notify their partners about an HIV seropositve result and two third preferred to seek VCT together as a couple. Neighbours and other community members would never be informed of an HIV positive result and 80% of the respondents would not discuss their HIV serostatus openly if they were positive.
Conclusion: The findings from this study showed that women easily accepted VCT and return rates were equally high. There is an indication that women’s acceptance of HIV test seemed to depend on their view that going through the VCT process and the provision of and access to antiretroviral drugs provide benefit for both the child and themselves. We therefore believed that improving the accessibility and affordability of ARVs to HIV positive individuals, and encouraging couple counselling could significantly increase the up take of the VCT services in the Gambia.
Key words: Couple Counselling, HIV Testing, PMTCT Programme, Level of knowledge, Informed Consent, Pregnancy.


Disclosure and Deceit: Secrecy as the Manipulation of History, not its Concealment
by Dr. T. P. Wilkinson
The declassification of official secrets is often seen as either a challenge or a prerequisite for obtaining accurate data on the history of political and economic events. Yet at the same time high government intelligence officials have said that their policy is one of ‘plausible deniability’. Official US government policy for example is never to acknowledge or deny the presence of nuclear weapons anywhere its forces are deployed, especially its naval forces. The British have their ‘Official Secrets’ Act. When the Wikileaks site was launched in 2007 and attained notoriety for publication of infamous actions by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, this platform was heralded and condemned for its disclosures and exposures.
Julian Assange is quoted as saying that when he receives documents classified under the UK Official Secrets Act he responds in accordance with the letter of the law – since it is forbidden to withhold or destroy, his only option is to publish. The question remains for historians, investigators, and educated citizens: what is the real value of disclosures or declassification? Given the practice of plausible deniability, does disclosure or declassification constitute proof, and if so by what criteria? Both facts and non-facts can be concealed or disclosed.
Information is not self-defining Ultimately there remain two questions: does the secret document (now public) really constitute the ‘secret’? What is the ‘secret’ for which we use the document to actually refer? Is secrecy the difference between the known and unknown, or the known and untold?
Some benefit can be found by borrowing theological concepts. We can distinguish between a mystery revealed and a supernatural truth which, by its very nature, lies above the finite intelligence. But a secret is something unknowable either by accident or on account of accessibility. I believe that the popularised form of disclosure embodied in Wikileaks should force us to distinguish between those beliefs we have about the nature of official action and the conduct of people working within those institutions and the data produced. Wikileaks is clearly a platform for publishing data but much of the response to these documents is more based on mystery than on secrecy. That is to say that the disclosures are treated as revelation in the religious sense – and not as discovery in the sense of scientia – knowledge. Why is this so? Wikileaks is described as a continuation of the ethical and social responsibility of journalism as an instrument to educate and inform the public – based on the principle that an informed public is essential to a democracy and self-governance. By collecting, collating and disclosing documents ‘leaked’ to it, Wikileaks also attacks what Assange calls the invisible government, the people and institutions who rule by concealing their activities from the people – and brings to light their wrongdoing.
There are two traditions involved here that partially overlap. In the US the prime examples are the ‘muckraking journalism’ originating in the so-called Progressive Era, spanning from 1890s to 1920s, and more recently the publication of the Pentagon Papers through Daniel Ellsberg. While liberals treat both of these examples favourably, their histories, however, are far more ambivalent than sentimentally presented. To understand this ambivalence, itself a sort of plausible deniability, it is necessary to sketch the history of journalism in the US – the emergence of an unnamed but essential political actor – and some of the goals of US foreign policy since the end of the 19th century. This very brief sketch offers what I call the preponderance of facticity – as opposed to an unimpeachable explanation for the overt and covert actions of the US.
First of all it is necessary to acknowledge that in 1886 the US Supreme Court endowed the modern business corporation with all the properties of citizenship in the US – a ruling reiterated with more vehemence this year by another Supreme Court decision. As of 1886, business corporations in the US had more civil rights than freed slaves or women. By the end of the First World War, the business corporation had eclipsed the natural person as a political actor in the US. By 1924 US immigration law and the actions of the FBI had succeeded in damming the flow of European radicalism and suppressing domestic challenges to corporate supremacy. Thus by the time Franklin Roosevelt was elected, the US had been fully constituted as a corporatist state. US government policy was thereafter made mainly by and for business corporations and their representatives. Second, professional journalism emerged from the conflict between partisan media tied to social movements and those tied to business. The first journalism school was founded in 1908 at the University of Missouri with money from newspaper baron Joseph Pulitzer. As in all other emerging professions at that time, it was claimed that uniform training within an academic curriculum would produce writers who were neutral, objective, and dispassionate – that is to say somehow scientific in their writing.
A professional journalist would not allow his or her writing to be corrupted by bribery or political allegiances. These professional journalists would work for commercial enterprises but be trained to produce value-free texts for publication.. The US has always refused to call itself an empire or to acknowledge that its expansion from the very beginning was imperial. The dogma of manifest destiny sought to resolve this contradiction by stipulating that domestic conquest was not imperial. Control of the Western hemisphere has always been defined as national security, not of asserting US domination. Likewise, it is impossible to understand the actions of the US government in Asia since 1910 without acknowledging that the US is an empire and recognising its imperial interests in the Asia–Pacific region. It is also impossible to understand the period called the Cold War without knowing that the US invaded the Soviet Union in 1918 with 13,000 troops along with some 40,000 British troops and thousands of troops recruited by the ‘West’ to support the Tsarist armies and fascist Siberian Republic. It is essential to bear these over-arching contextual points in mind when considering the value of classified US documents and their disclosure, whether by Wikileaks or Bob Woodward. It is essential to bear these points in mind because the value or the ambivalence of ‘leaks’ or declassification depends entirely on whether the data is viewed as ‘revelation’ or as mere scientific data to be interpreted.
Revelation and heresy For the most part the disclosures by Wikileaks have been and continue to be treated as ‘revelation’ and the disclosure itself as heresy. This is particularly the case in the batches of State Department cables containing diplomatic jargon and liturgy. The ‘revelation’ comprises the emotional response to scripture generated by members of the US foreign service and the confirmation this scripture appears to give to opinions held about the US – whether justified or not. Just as reading books and even the bible was a capital offence for those without ecclesiastical license in the high Middle Ages, the response of the US government is comprehensible. It is bound to assert that Wikileaks is criminal activity and to compel punishment. Yet there is another reason why the US government reaction is so intense. As argued above, the primary political actor in the US polity is the business corporation. In Europe and North America at least it is understood: (1) that the ultimate values for state action are those which serve the interests of private property; and (2) that the business corporation is the representative form of private property.
This in turn means that information rights are in fact property rights manifest as patents, copyrights, and trade or industrial secrets. Since the state is the guardian of the corporation, it argues that the disclosure of government documents should only be allowed where the government itself has surrendered some of its privacy rights. This is quite different from the arguments for feudal diplomatic privilege, even though business corporations have superseded princely states. The argument for state secrecy now is that the democratic state constituted by business corporations is obliged to protect the rights and privileges of those citizens as embodied in their private property rights – rights deemed to be even more absolute than those historically attributed to natural persons, if for no other reason than that corporations enjoy limited liability and immortality, unlike natural persons. When the US government says it is necessary for other states to treat Assange as an outlaw and Wikileaks as a criminal activity, it is appealing on one hand to the global corporate citizenry and on the other, asserting its role – not unlike the Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages – as the sole arbiter of those rights and privileges subsumed by Democracy in the world. Many of those who lack a religious commitment to the American way of life have still recognised the appeal to privacy and ultimately to private property which are now deemed the highest values in the world – so that trade, the commerce in private property, takes precedence over every other human activity and supersedes even human rights, not to mention civil rights.
Ellsberg In 1971 Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, which began their publication. This leak was treated as a landmark, although it would take several years before the US withdrew its forces from Vietnam and many more before hostilities were formally ended. What then was the significance of the ‘leak’? The documents generally point to the failures of the military, omitting the role of the CIA almost entirely. Today it is still largely unknown that Ellsberg was working with the CIA in counter-insurgency programs in Vietnam. Did the Pentagon Papers thus serve the interests of plausible deniability – a disclosure of secrets designed not to reveal truth, but to conceal a larger truth by revealing smaller ones? On the other hand, the collection of essays, Dirty Work, edited by Philip Agee and Lou Wolf, showed how the identity of CIA officers could be deciphered from their official biographies, especially as published in the Foreign Service List and other government registers. This type of disclosure allows the competent researcher to recognise ‘real’ Foreign Service officers as opposed to CIA officers operating under diplomatic cover. Agee and his colleague Lou Wolf maintained that disclosure of CIA activities was not a matter of lifting secrets but of recognising the context in which disparate information has to be viewed to allow its interpretation.
To put it trivially: in order to find something you have to know the thing for which you are searching. In order to be meaningful, disclosures of intelligence information must explain that intelligence information seeks to deceive the US public. For example, the CIA and those in the multi-agency task forces under its control produced an enormous amount of reports and documentation to show what was being done to fulfil the official US policy objectives in Vietnam. One of these programs was called Rural Development. This CIA program was run ostensibly by the USAID and the State Department to support the economic and social development of the countryside. This policy was articulated in Washington to fit with the dominant ‘development’ paradigm – to package the US policy as aid and not military occupation. And yet, as Douglas Valentine shows in his book The Phoenix Program, Rural Development was a cover for counterinsurgency from the beginning. The Phoenix Program only became known in the US after 1971, and then only superficially. The information released to the US Congress and reported in the major media outlets lacked sufficient context to allow interpretation. There was so little context that the same people who worked in the Phoenix program in Vietnam as 20-year-olds have been able to continue careers operating the same kinds of programmes in other countries with almost no scrutiny.
Two people come to mind: John Negroponte, who is alleged to have provided support to death squads in Honduras during the US war against Nicaragua and later served as ambassador to occupied Iraq, began his foreign service career in Vietnam with one of the agencies instrumental in Phoenix. The other person died recently: Richard Holbrooke began his career with USAID in Vietnam, went on to advise the Indonesian dictatorship, went to manage the ‘diplomatic’ part of the US war in Yugoslavia and finally served as a kind of pro-consul for Central Asia with responsibility for the counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. As the secret weapon in US imperial policy, the counterinsurgency or rural development or ‘surge’ policies of the US government never include an examination of the professionals who managed them. It used to be said among some critics that one could follow General Vernon Walters’ travel itinerary and predict military coups. But that was not something ‘leaked’ and it did not appear in the mainstream media analysis.
The illusion of objective neutrality So if much of what we see ‘leaked’ is gossip in the service of plausible deniability, what separates the important gossip from the trivial? I suggest it is a return to consciously interested, humanistic values in historical research. We have to abandon the idea that the perfect form of knowledge is embodied in the privilege of corporate ownership of ideas, and domination of the state. We also have to abandon the illusion of objective neutrality inherited from Positivism and Progressivism, with its exclusionary professionalism. Until such time as human beings can be restored to the centre of social, political and economic history we have to recognise the full consequences of the enfranchisement of the business corporation and the subordination of the individual to role of a mere consumer. If we take the business corporation, an irresponsible and immortal entity, endowed with absolute property rights and absolved of any liability for its actions or those of its officers and agents, as the subject of history it has become, then we have to disclose more than diplomatic cables. We have to analyse its actions just as historians have tried to understand the behaviour of princes and dynasties in the past. This is too rarely done and when often only in a superficial way. I would like to provide an example, a sketch if you will, of one such historical analysis, taking the business corporation and not the natural person as the focus of action.
In 1945, George Orwell referred to the threat of nuclear war between the West and the Soviet Union as a ‘cold war’. He made no reference to the 1918 invasion of the Soviet Union by British troops. In 1947, US Secretary of State Bernard Baruch gave a speech in South Carolina saying ‘Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war’. The speech had been written by a rich newspaperman named Herbert Swope. In 1947, George Kennan published his containment essay, ‘The Sources of Soviet Conduct’, in Foreign Affairs under the name ‘X’. In it he describes a supposed innate expansionist tendency of the Soviet Union – also no mention of the US invasion or the devastation of WWII, which virtually destroyed the Soviet Union’s manpower and industrial base. In April 1950, NSC 68 is published – classified top secret until 1975 – outlining the necessity for the US to massively rearm to assert and maintain its role as the world’s superpower. At the end of summer 1950, war breaks out in Korea. President Truman declared an emergency and gets UN Security Council approval for a war that lasts three years, killing at least 3 million Koreans – most of whom die as a result of US Air Force saturation bombing of Korea north of the 38th parallel. Truman proclaims that US intervention will be used to prevent the expansion of the Soviet Union or as Ronald Reagan put it then – Russian aggression. After being utterly routed by the army of North Korea, the US bombs its way to the Yalu only to be thrown back to the 38th parallel by China. In 1954, the US organises the overthrow of the Arbenz regime in Guatemala and begins its aid and covert intervention in Vietnam beginning a war that only ends in 1976. Meanwhile Britain suppresses the Malaysian independence movement. Between 1960 and 1968, nationalist governments have been overthrown in Indonesia, Congo, Ghana, Brazil. Cuba is the great surprise amidst the literally hundreds of nationalist, anti-colonial movements and governments suppressed by the US.
William Blum has catalogued the enormous number of overt and covert interventions by the US in his book Killing Hope. The amazing thing about much of what Blum compiled is that it was not ‘secret’. It was simply not reported or misreported. Blum makes clear – what should be obvious – that the Soviet Union was not a party to a single war or coup from 1945 to 1989 and that the US government knew this. Much of this early action took place when John Foster Dulles was US Secretary of State and his brother was head of the CIA. The Dulles brothers were intimately connected to corporations they represented in their capacity as ‘white shoe’ lawyers in New York. In fact the founder of the OSS, the CIA’s predecessor, William Donovan, was also a corporate lawyer both before and after his service in the OSS. In other words the people who have commanded these foreign policy instruments have almost without exception been the direct representatives of major US business corporations. In each case the public pretext has been the threat of communism or Soviet expansion. Yet the only consistent quality all of these actions had was the suppression of governments that restricted the activities of US or UK corporations. Of course, communism has long been merely a term for any opposition to the unrestricted rights of business corporations.
One could say people like Donovan or Dulles were seconded to government office. However, the direct financial benefit that someone like Dulles obtained when he succeeded in deposing Arbenz in Guatemala came from his shareholding in United Fruit, the instigator and financial backer of the CIA co-ordinated coup. Perhaps the more accurate interpretation of this secret activity is that the business corporation, which previously employed law firms and Pinkertons, had shifted the burden of implementing corporate foreign policy to the taxpayer and the state. Now the interest of the US in Latin America has been well researched and documented. But the persistence of the Vietnam War and the silence about the Korean War have only been matched by the virtual absence of debate about the overthrow of Sukarno and the Philippine insurgency. The Philippines became a footnote in the controversy about US torture methods in Iraq and elsewhere as it was shown that the ‘water cure’ was applied rigorously by American troops when suppressing the Philippine independence movement at the beginning of the 20th century.
Lack of context not knowledge The study of each of these Asian countries – and one can add the so-called Golden Triangle; and I would argue Afghanistan now – has been clouded not by lack of evidence or documentation but by lack of context. If the supposed threat posed by communism, especially Soviet communism is taken at face value – as also reiterated in innumerable official documents both originally public and originally confidential – then the US actions in Asia seem like mere religious fanaticism. The government officials and military and those who work with them are so indoctrinated that they will do anything to oppose communism in whatever form. Thus even respected scholars of these wars will focus on the delusions or information deficits or ideological blinders of the actors. This leads to a confused and incoherent perception of US relations in Asia and the Pacific. The virtual absence of any coherent criticism of the Afghanistan War, let alone the so-called War on Terror, is symptomatic not of inadequate information, leaked or otherwise. It is a result of failure to establish the context necessary for evaluating the data available. It should not surprise anyone that ‘counter-terror’ practices by US Forces are ‘discovered’ in Afghanistan or Iraq, if the professional careers of the theatre and field commanders (in and out of uniform) are seriously examined.
Virtually all those responsible for fighting the war in Central Asia come from Special Operations/CIA backgrounds. That is what they have been trained to do. If we shift our attention for a moment to the economic basis of this region, it has been said that the war against drugs is also being fought there. However, this is counterfactual. Since the 1840s the region from Afghanistan to Indochina has been part of what was originally the British opium industry. China tried to suppress the opium trade twice leading to war with Britain – wars China lost. The bulk of the Hong Kong banking sector developed out of the British opium trade protected by the British army and Royal Navy. Throughout World War II and especially the Vietnam War the opium trade expanded to become an important economic sector in Southern Asia – under the protection of the secret services of the US, primarily the CIA. Respected scholars have documented this history to the present day. However it does not appear to play any role in interpreting the policies of the US government whether publicly or confidentially documented. Is it because, as a senior UN official reported last year, major parts of the global financial sector – headquartered in New York and London – were saved by billions in drug money in 2008? Does the fact that Japan exploited both Korea and Vietnam to provide cheap food for its industrial labour force have any bearing on the US decision to invade those countries when its official Asia policy was to rebuild Japan as an Asian platform for US corporations – before China became re-accessible (deemed lost to the Communists in 1948)? Did the importance of Korean tungsten for the US steel industry contribute to the willingness of people like Preston Goodfellow, a CIA officer in Korea, to introduce a right-wing Korean to rule as a dictator of the US occupied zone? Is there continuity between Admiral Dewey’s refusal to recognise the Philippine Republic after Spain’s defeat – because the 1898 treaty with Spain ceded the archipelago to the US – and the refusal of General Hodge to recognise the Korean People’s Republic in Seoul when he led the occupation of Korea in 1945? As John Pilger suggests, were the million people massacred by Suharto with US and UK support a small price to pay for controlling the richest archipelago in the Pacific? Was the Pol Pot regime not itself a creation of the US war against Vietnam – by other means?
Is it an accident that while the US was firmly anchored in Subic Bay, armed and funded Jakarta, occupied Japan and half of Korea, that the US was prepared to bomb the Vietnamese nationalists ‘into the Stone Age’? It only makes sense if the US is understood as an empire and its corporate interests are taken seriously when researching the history of the US attempts to create and hold an Asian empire. The resistance to this perception can be explained and it is not because of an impenetrable veil of secrecy. It is not because of the accidentally or inaccessibly unknown. Rather it is because US policy and practice in the world remains a ‘mystery’, a supernatural truth, one that of its very nature lies above the finite intelligence. The quasi-divine status of the universal democracy for which the USA is supposed to stand is an obstacle of faith.
Engineering consent In the twentieth century two conflicting tendencies can be identified. The first was the emergence of mass democratic movements. The second was the emergence of the international business corporation. When the Great War ended in 1918, the struggle between these two forces crystallised in the mass audience or consumer on one hand and the mass production and communication on the other. As Edward Bernays put it: ‘This is an age of mass production. In the mass production of materials a broad technique has been developed and applied to their distribution. In this age too there must be a technique for the mass distribution of ideas.’ In his book, Propaganda, he wrote ‘The conscious and intelligent manipulation of organised habits and opinions of the masses…’ was necessary in a democracy, calling that ‘invisible government’.
Like his contemporary Walter Lippmann, a journalist, he believed that democracy was a technique for ‘engineering the consent’ of the masses to those policies and practices adopted by the country’s elite – the rulers of its great business corporations. By the 1980s the state throughout the West – and after 1989 in the former Soviet bloc – was being defined only by ‘business criteria’, e.g. efficiency, profitability, cost minimization, shareholder value, consumer satisfaction, etc. Political and social criteria such as participatory rights or income equity or equality, provision of basic needs such as education, work, housing, nutrition, healthcare on a universal basis had been transformed from citizenship to consumerism. The individual lost status in return for means tested access to the ‘market’. In order for the state to function like a business it had to adopt both the organisational and ethical forms of the business corporation – a non-democratic system, usually dictatorial, at best operating as an expert system. As an extension of the property-holding entities upon which it was to be remodelled, the state converted its power into secretive, jealous, and rigid hierarchies driven by the highest ethical value of the corporation – profit.
Journalists and ‘corporate stenographers’ While historical research should not be merely deductive, it is dependent on documents. The veracity of those documents depends among other things on authenticity, judgements as to the status, knowledge or competence of the author, the preponderance of reported data corresponding to data reported elsewhere or in other media. A public document is tested against a private or confidential document – hence the great interest in memoirs, diaries and private correspondence. There is an assumption that the private document is more sincere or even reliable than public documents. This is merely axiomatic since there is no way to determine from a document itself whether its author lied, distorted or concealed in his private correspondence, too. Discrepancies can be explained in part by accepting that every author is a limited informant or interpreter. The assumptions about the integrity of the author shape the historical evaluation. In contemporary history – especially since the emergence of industrial-scale communications – the journalist has become the model and nexus of data collection, author, analyst, and investigator. Here the journalist is most like a scholar. The journalist is also a vicarious observer.
The journalist is supposed to share precisely those attributes of the people to whom or about whom he reports. This has given us the plethora of reality TV, talk shows, embedded reporters, and the revolving door between media journalists and corporate/state press officers. In the latter the journalist straddles the chasm between salesman and consumer. This is the role that the Creel Committee and the public relations industry learned to exploit. The journalist George Creel called his memoir of the Committee on Public Information he chaired – formed by Woodrow Wilson to sell US entry into World War I – How We Advertised America. The campaign was successful in gaining mass support for a policy designed to assure that Britain and France would be able to repay the billions borrowed from J. P. Morgan & Co. to finance their war against Germany and seize the Mesopotamian oilfields from the Ottoman Empire. Industrial communications techniques were applied to sell the political product of the dominant financial and industrial corporations of the day. The professional journalist, freed from any social movement or popular ideology, had already become a mercenary for corporate mass media.
The profession eased access to secure employment and to the rich and powerful. The journalists’ job was to produce ideas for mass distribution – either for the state or for the business corporation. Supporting private enterprise was at the very least a recognition that one’s job depended on the media owner. Editorial independence meant writers and editors could write whatever they pleased as long as it sold and did not challenge the economic or political foundation of the media enterprise itself. In sum the notion of the independent, truth-finding, investigative journalist is naïve at best. We must be careful to distinguish between journalists and what John Pilger has called ‘corporate stenographers’. This does not mean that no journalists supply us with useful information or provide us access to meaningful data. It means that journalism, as institution, as praxis, is flawed – because it too is subordinated to the business corporation and its immoral imperatives. Wikileaks takes as its frame of reference the journalism as it emerged in the Positivist – Progressive Era – a profession ripe with contradictions, as I have attempted to illustrate.
Were Wikileaks to fulfil that Positivist–Progressive model, it would still risk overwhelming us with the apparently objective and unbiased data – facts deemed to stand for themselves. Without a historical framework – and I believe such a framework must also be humanist – the mass of data produced or collated by such a platform as Wikileaks may sate but not nourish us. We have to be responsible for our interpretation. We can only be responsible however when we are aware of the foundations and framework for the data we analyse. The deliberate choice of framework forces us to be conscious of our own values and commitments. This stands in contrast to a hypothetically neutral, objective, or non-partisan foundation that risks decaying into opportunism – and a flood of deceit from which no mountain of disclosure can save us.
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Electric Bike Demo In Rapid City Friday
by: Al Van Zee
Posted: Jul 11, 2018 / 06:26 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 11, 2018 / 06:26 PM CDT
Rapid City recently approved electric bicycles for use on the city’s streets and bike paths. And Rapid City e-bike dealers are planning a demonstration for people who want to find out what e-bikes are all about.
E-bikes work essentially the same way as regular bicycles. But they add a little more muscle when it’s needed. That comes from a motor next to the peddles and a battery attached to the frame.
The electric motor doesn’t run all the time. You have to keep peddling in order for it to provide power. It’s sort of like power steering on a car. It doesn’t do all the work, but it does enough to make the experience pleasant.
“You have to peddle. Just like a regular bike. You have to peddle all the time if you want the motor to assist you. There is no throttle. So, if you’re peddling, the bike helps you peddle,” said Josh Dailey, with Acme Bicycles in Rapid City.
“It’s kind of nice. You get the assist on the bike when you’re going up the hills. It helps you out. It gets more people out riding,” said cyclist Mark Thompson of Rapid City.
And that’s the point of all this, according to Dailey and Thompson: To get more people out bicycling. To give that effort an additional boost, the bicycle dealers in Rapid City are giving people a chance to look over their new e-bikes and take one for a ride on Friday. The e-bike demonstrators will be on display at Founders Park next to the Big Fish on Omaha starting at about 3 p.m. in the afternoon.
The dealers say they are expecting questions like: how fast can they go?
“Most of them are governed at about 20 mph. So, if you’re peddling faster than that, you can go faster than that. But the motor will shut off at 20 mph,” said Dailey.
Another question that will probably come up: how far can they go?
“If you’re riding off-road trails, most of them will do 25 to 35 miles. If you’re riding the bike path or on the road, uh, up to 60,” said Dailey.
He said the battery will be fully charged if plugged in overnight.