I am a media professional, but without the necessary contacts to do this alone. Therefore, I have a request for you, Thom, since you have a much wider audience and many more contacts than I have in the political arena (or any news area, for that matter).

Please write an article that confronts everything Chris Christie said about HRC at the convention. His attack was so riddled with lies that even many Republican individuals I know were disgusted by Christie’s HATE speech. He has a lot of nerve to accuse HRC of anything when his Bridge-gate and distribution of Sandy funds are still under investigation. But, that’s the way of the devious, isn’t it; to move the negative attention away from oneself with an all-out attack on someone else.

 
All the Republicans are doing is attacking Hillary because they have nothing else to talk about—nothing else to offer—and cheating is the only way they can win, the only way they have always won in the past. Christie used lies and the press to destroy the reputation of his opponent in his first governor’s race; he used the same rhetoric that Trump uses, “I heard, I read on the Internet, someone Tweeted me…” that his opponent was guilty. How do they get away with it? It has to be more than just sheep mentality.

Someone—you, hopefully—MUST tell HRC that she MUST fight back; that she MUST address all of these accusations and replace them with the truth. Courteous, educated people always choose the British method for dealing with gossip, slander, and libel; that is, to ignore it—because decent, honest people have faith that the American/British people are too intelligent to believe such lies and nonsense. I recall a similar incident with the Queen and the Royal family.

But they are wrong. If a man, his colleagues, and all his friends and family continually call another man (or woman) a liar and a crook; eventually, a very large portion of the public will believe it. Grant it, that portion includes the uneducated, blue collar, and lower middle class segment (in terms of earnings) of the population, who do not have the desire or time to research the truth.

These are the hard working class heroes who spend 10 to 15 hours a day working one or two jobs just to put food on the table. They do not have the time to research politics and read the opinions of half a dozen different journalists (or watch the live interviews) in order to get a non-biased view of the politicians and; therefore, make an educated decision regarding what to believe. So they choose a news source like Fox News and let the biased and prejudiced views of one man “Rupert Murdoch” spoon feed his racist, bigoted, lies straight to their bellies (well, actually, it’s straight to their brains). And they walk away with a distorted version of reality that’s been filtered thru Rupert Murdoch’s sick, twisted mind.

 
I would guess that the majority of Fox News fans have no idea who Rupert Murdoch is or that he tightly controls ALL the news that’s reported from the 62+ news organizations that Murdoch owns worldwide, AND that NOTHING gets published or broadcast that he doesn’t approve.

RationalWiki defines Keith Rupert Murdoch as “an ancient, evil fear-monger from Australia … responsible for the “we report gossip, lies, and innuendo/you decide based on your deep-seated fears and prejudices” blatherers known as Fox News. (http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch). Rational Wiki also says that Murdoch, “Definitely qualifies as a right-wing bastard and a heartless one at that—even by right-wing standards. Murdoch has had such an ongoing negative impact on the world that it may never really recover.”

So then I wonder how can such an evil, destructive man influence so many people? He is the epitome of what all the working class heroes detest and yet they believe every word that spews from the mouths of his indentured journalists; journalists that he fires on the spot if they say anything that conflicts with his right wing, extremist points of view. And the real irony about Murdoch is that Trump hates him. Wake up America; a twisted, sick Australian named Rupert Murdoch is controlling your lives!

SEO writers focus on capturing the attention of search engines by using specific, targeted keywords or keyword phrases to push their amateur blogs to the first page of your search engine results. These Forbes’ bloggers (and that’s a kind definition for what they do) spend more time using Google’s Keyword Tool to ascertain which words will solicit the most user hits, than they do researching and writing these unedited, unsubstantiated blog pieces, which is why they are inundated with grammatical and punctuation errors, in addition to erroneous facts.

And for this very special privilege of spending more than half a month doing minimal Internet research, which means they just repeat and then rewrite what the “real” journalists have investigated through hours of corporate interviews, combing thru company documents, and talking with dozens of professional analysts; these “contributors/bloggers” get a big bonus of $0.005 per page view. Wow!

“But we have bloggers making $9000 a month for producing less than 5000 words a month,” they say; they being these SEO content mill publishers who lure these naïve, amateur bloggers to their nest like a spider lures flies to its web. And more tall tales follow when they prove their claims by publishing a scanned image of an “actual” check for $9000 (a 40 second forgery in Photoshop).

PC World tried this for a while, but they paid $1500 a month, which, for one article a day (or 31 blogs a month) still sucks because that’s only about .06 (six cents) a word. When my roommate worked there, he spent five to six hours a day working on each article because the editor he worked for had no experience or self confidence. When she called him every morning to discuss his topic—which had to be one of the top 10 Google technology news stories of the day—instead of approving his daily topic, she’d whine and cry and complain about all the other freelancers and how none of them listened or respected her. Consequently, it took longer to finish his work, which set his hourly rate at just above minimum wage.

None of the articles were edited for content, grammar, or punctuation and, since a dozen or so writers all had to choose from the same top 10 list, the good topics (which would extract the most hits) were saturated, while the more tiresome topics were ignored. And the plagiarism was horrendous! After all, how many ways can a dozen writers all say that the Apple iPhone launch was a nightmare.

About.com (which is owned by the New York Times) pays around $725 a month (up from $700 a month six years ago), but these folks work like dogs for those table scraps. Bloggers spend 20 to 30 hours a week on blogs, forums, reviews, FAQs, tutorials, tests, graphics, and correspondence with readers. Bloggers are limited to one topic and, sometimes, to one small niche in that topic. I have read hundreds of these About blogs and so, so many of them are oozing with errors and misinformation. About.com is just another carbon copy site that exploits rookies and capitalizes on professional journalists’ work.

Suite101 is even worse. They only pay by page views (although they have recently added a percentage of the AdSense revenues to that). One gentleman I interviewed said he was required to write four feature articles and four blog posts a month. With an average of 15,000 to 20,000 page views a month, he’s lucky to make $1 per article per month. And every day, it gets worse because the pay is so bad, no one stays for more than a few months. High turnover means the word gets around faster and the word is “don’t waste your time with Suite 101 (or About.com).”

Examiner.com and Top Ten Reviews are two more content mills that exploit writers and never fact-check or provide any copyediting. Both pay by page views and, if you fall behind on your quota, which is around three to four articles a week, they withhold your pay (which is pathetic to begin with). I wrote for Examiner.com when it first launched, for about two months. They refused to pay me until I had earned $100, which never happened. After I resigned and asked for my compensation, they refused again saying I forfeited my pay when I quit! So, essentially, these bastards have been making money off my articles for around five years and I have never received a single penny from them.

Examiner.com’s original launch was so huge, every Internet search generated dozens of Examiner hits. It got so bad, that users stormed the Google gates and demanded that Google severely limit the Examiner hits or remove them altogether. Following some shrew negotiating, Google restricted the number of Examiner hits that could appear on any single topic. After that, writers by the thousands quit, and Examiner reverted back to its original form; that is, a pathetic little chameleon who is only capable of imitating its surroundings because it lacks the skills and ability to produce anything original.

AND, Top Ten Reviews DOES NOT review ANY of the products on its website or those mentioned in its articles. This is another company my roommate worked for. Top Ten Review’s product reviews are based on Internet research (which is the work of those few magazines who actually do purchase and test products) or contributions from the manufacturers. That means if Top Ten Reviews prints an article that says RipIt software is better than ZipIt software, which is better than TipIt software; you can only count on one thing as truth, which is: Either one of the legitimate magazines, such as Consumer Reports, listed RipIt as the best product OR RipIt paid Top Ten Reviews to list its product as number one.

This unethical practice is known as a sponsored post; that is, a post on a website or blog that’s paid for by an advertiser. I often wonder how many people purchased products they believed were used and tested by professionals; merchandise that Top Ten Reviews listed as the best or second best product, only to find out later that the product they purchased sucked and Top Ten Reviews lied in order to collect a payoff!

And what about the Huffington Post, which doesn’t pay its contributors anything? Not a single farthing! With revenues in the neighborhood of $30 million last year, revenues generated on about 4.8 billion page views (according to Quantcast data), this publication cannot seem to find even a pitiful wage for its bloggers. WAKE UP bloggers! Stop working for free! If you think these penny-ante jobs are providing exposure and getting your name “out there,” you’re wrong! All the professional publishers (and everyone else in this industry) know how much these content mills pay, which means they know you’ll work for next to nothing. Once you’ve worked for pennies, it’s a lot harder to convince editors that you’re worth more.

In summary: If research or acquiring accurate facts is your goal, DO NOT believe or even read these blog posts disguised as professional journalism submitted by contributors or guest writers at well-known content mill magazines. If we boycott the content mills, maybe these publishers will change their tactics. I remember when a topic such as Celtic heroes actually produced professional (or near professional) websites with accurate, relevant information. Now, this same topic returns forums and blogs written by frustrated housewives, teenagers, and ego-inflated mad men who know NOTHING about Celtic heroes except for what they’ve seen on television!

The Internet is changing. It is becoming one, huge scrapbook for teeny-boppers and stalkers: one to flood the information highway with Facebook-style details about everything from what your BFF had for breakfast to what color her Tuesday under panties are; TO how to find your neighbor’s babysitter, so you can attach a GPS tracking chip to her car bumper so it’s easier to follow her around. As this tabloid-type of Internet swells and swallows up all the legitimate sites; serious, professional users will begin searching for more reliable sources such as Internet2, and that’s when the planet will see another huge divide between the wealthy and the Walmart population. The rich will have access to the real super highway, while the poor are stuck on the misinformation freeway.

And last: Dr. Ian Sussman, Elliott Gould’s character in the film Contagion, said, “Blogging is not writing. It’s graffiti with punctuation!”

For an interesting review of the changing Internet, read this article:

http://observer.com/2013/04/why-sponsored-posts-are-a-waste-of-ad-dollars/

FYI: I am a professional journalist and published author (14 years), and I DO NOT write for any of the content mills. However, this is my website and, although I consider my work editorials, articles, and reviews, which are fact-checked and copyedited, you may disagree. That said, I urge you to research everything you read including all the works on this site.

Shizuka said, “So recently this morning I’ve all of a sudden been getting a Redirect Notice everytime I click on an image in Google. It doesn’t take me to another website, it only takes me to a white page that says:
Redirect Notice:
–The previous page is sending you to: URL
–If you do not want to visit that page, you can return to the previous page.

This is not happening in the Images when I use Google Chrome, only regular IE. I scanned with Norton and said everything was safe, I even logged out of my Google Account, and deleted my cookies and cache, yet it’s still happening.

Does anyone know how to fix this? My friend isn’t having the problem on her computer, is anyone else? I’m pretty sure I don’t have the Google Redirect Virus, it lets me browse all other webpages – but not just singularly click on an image. Nothing suspicious pops up and all else seems fine.

—————————————————-
ANSWER: NO, you do not have the Google Redirect Virus! It’s a Google issue, see these two links:
1. Google Search By Image Broken In IE9 But Adds Features
2. 2 Weeks Later Google Fixes Search By Image

Not every image you click on activates the Redirect to image URL notice, but it’s enough to make the process a real aggravation and it’s time consuming. We have NOT found a fix for this new Google issues, but if you click on the URL text below the image and not on the image itself, it will continue to work like before, which wasn’t really all that great to begin with.

The Yahoo Image function is MUCH better. When you click on an image in Yahoo, the image comes up in a slide show with arrows to move forward and backward thru the pictures, allowing you to view many dozens of images in seconds AND eliminating all those clicks (or keystrokes) for going back and forth from screen to screen.

I was browsing the net looking for an artist to design some book covers for my small publishing company: Moonlight Press when I discovered Book Covers Plus. AMAZING work! These book cover designers have created book jackets and inside page design for everyone from Penguin (publishers) to Pinnacle (corporation).

They provide original photography, illustrations, watercolors, and woodcuts OR stock photography, illustrations, watercolors, and woodcuts, all for the best prices I have seen anywhere. For example, a cover with a single stock image is only $400. But the amazing stuff happens when they take four stock images and weave them together to make one seemless picture of exactly what you want on the cover.

For example; this book cover uses four different images stitched together and overlaid to create this wonderous effect: http://www.bookcoversplus.com/nina’s_time.htm

And this book cover uses five different photos to get this single, seemless effect:http://www.bookcoversplus.com/minds_in_distress.htm.

This original artwork was digitally created using a combination of illustrations, photography, and digital special effects: http://www.bookcoversplus.com/lanterns_in_the_mist.htm.

I have never been so impressed and so pleased with an organization’s work! I use Book Covers Plus now for all my authors’ works. And the best part: I get New York design quality for small town prices. My name is Daniel Poppet and I own Moonlight Press Publishers plus several small press agencies.

I offer this gratis review of Book Covers Plus for my friend Sgt Pepper, who runs this site and takes requests from folks who want to praise and celebrate another’s excellent work–OR–expose some dirty, rotten scoundrel for illegal, unethical, or unprofessional, shoddy work. Thanks 2Vox, Sincerely, Daniel Poppet

book covers designed by BookCoversPlus

I was greeted by the owner, Hasan Kasem, (a friendly and very professional man) who agreed to repair the system while I waited. He finished up with the customer before me, then listened intently as I explained the problem. He quoted me a very reasonable price, then took my computer in the back for repairs. I asked if I could observe and he graciously agreed. He checked the motherboard right away, and then assured me that it was intact and not to worry.

While he was replacing the power supply, I asked the prices for a new Ethernet card and a second DVD burner. He responded with no hesitation (or excuses like, “wait while I check my list”). I said, “Let’s do it,” and he replaced the power supply, the defective Ethernet card, and added a new DVD burner all in less than 30 minutes.

The total bill for parts and labor was just over $200 and, frankly, I was amazed. As a computer journalist, I write a lot of reviews about software and hardware, so I know what these components cost. His prices for parts and labor were more than fair and the service he provided was not only excellent, he took the time to explain what he was doing and why, and answered every question I threw at him (and he answered them correctly).

Over the past 25 years, I have worked with a lot of vendors, manufacturers, and retailers in the computer and electronics industry and, I am sorry to say, that most of them (on the retail side, especially) were seedy characters who tried to overcharge me for products and services that I didn’t need or even receive (in some cases). One of the Geek Squad boys at Best Buy told me once that the only way to save the data on my hard drive (after my last computer crash) was to let him copy the data onto a new, portable drive (at $160 an hour).

I asked about hard drive enclosures, but he feigned ignorance and said Best Buy did not carry them. This was on New Year’s Day, so my options were limited. The following day I took the hard drive to a small independent shop owner who sold me a hard drive enclosure for $35 (including installation). I have lots of similar stories from overzealous, greedy retailers who have tried to take advantage of me (some succeeded) and defraud me for excess funds.

NOT THE CASE with Mr Hasan Kasem. He was/is fast, fair, efficient, and extremely affordable. He knows the industry, he knows what he’s doing, and he keeps his word; that is, he provides a quote and he honors it. As a professional computer industry journalist, past programmer/analyst, network engineer, and Information Technology professor, I give ACE Computer and Electronics in Mobile, Alabama FIVE (5) gold stars. In addition, I would recommend this company to any/every individual struggling with electronics or personal computer issues.

And, in case you’re wondering: no, I was not compensated by anyone for writing this review. I believe that good, fair companies deserve to be recognized and awarded for their work. Good luck Hasan.

Bann explains that the average time between foreclosure and actual eviction is around 484 days (or about 16 months); information that he attributes to an article from the Nov 29, 2010 issue of Time Magazine titled “The Case of the Missing Mortgage,” which appears to be the same article written by Stephen Gandel that’s  titled “Foreclosure Foul-up: Tracking Down Those ‘Lost’ Mortgages.”
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2032110,00.html

Regardless of the title, the message is the same. According to RealtyTrac, the nation’s authority on foreclosures (or so they advertise), one in every 139 housing units received foreclosure notices between the second and third quarters of 2010. Fox News reported that 288,345 properties were foreclosed from July through September, but that 930,437 homeowners received foreclosure warnings.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/14/record-number-foreclosures-face-challenge-court/#

Bann mentioned that when mortgage prices are higher than the property is worth, homeowners that lose their jobs have no choice but to default on their loans. But it’s not just the upside down mortgages that are in default. Neighborhoods all over the country are saturated with empty homes, and front lawns from Boston to Berkeley are littered with For Sale signs. Many thousands of unemployed homeowners would prefer to sell their homes rather than face foreclosure and lose their credit, but houses are just not selling, even houses that appraise for more than the balance due.

Conversations over coffee at Starbuck’s reveal that people are really scared as they watch their neighbors load up moving vans and slip away quietly under the camouflage of night. In this scenario, the unemployed refugees are either moving in with other family members or turning to the nation’s shelters for sanctuary. And, as the numbers of the homeless increase, millions of homes across America sit empty; homes that no longer use electricity, water, gas, or generate property taxes; homes that housed families of consumers who supported the local businesses, events, and medical facilities; and homes that become eyesores as the abandoned structures are left to the elements, vandalism, and neglect.

Bann also quoted Michael Johnson, director of the Public Policy Ph.D program at UMass. Johnson said, “The first wave of foreclosures was triggered by declining property values, but the second wave happening now is triggered by unemployment.” Unemployment that, according to the Department of Labor, reached a seven-month high of 9.8 percent in November, with 6.4 million Americans out of work for more than 27 weeks. And, in spite of the government’s efforts to stimulate the economy and create more jobs, the numbers continue to escalate.

Wake up folks; the Grapes of Wrath are upon us again, now in the 21st century. And, as John Steinbeck wrote when he was creating this novel, “I want to put a tag of shame on the greedy bastards who are responsible for this Great Depression and its effects.” Translation: America’s greed will once again collapse our nation.

She said, no problem; but then while she tried to respond to his other questions, he sat behind his sloppy desk sending text messages on his BlackBerry while surfing the Internet on his laptop. When she asked the normal, basic questions typically discussed in an interview, he couldn’t seem to find a single answer. He didn’t know what the job paid, what the benefits were, or even what the job description entailed. His attitude was impatient, obnoxious, and downright rude.

She wondered why he even bothered with the interview. He obviously didn’t read her résumé because with her education and experience, she had to be older than 25 or 30. And yet, he was still expecting a young, nubile female to decorate his office and give his nerf buddies another toy to play with between afternoon naps and Star Wars.

Bottom line: As soon as a woman over 50 walked through that door, he was too busy to conduct an honest interview, too busy to look at her extensive portfolio, which was actually more impressive than anything he had ever done (or so we have discovered since then), and too busy to extend even the most common of courtesies. He spent half an hour politely insulting and berating her (between answering phone calls, texting, and surfing), then promised to call her the following week for a second interview which, of course, never happened. She never heard from that company again. Not even a polite rejection email.

So, is this what the so called “professional” world has become—a playground for rude, insecure, depraved and spoiled children masking as adults? This company sounds more like a preschool than a professional enterprise. According to their website, they provide software and services to multi-level marketing companies—hmm, isn’t that another word for pyramid scheme?

She was shocked by the unprofessional, adolescent behavior of the jerk that interviewed her. The owner of this software company should fire that pathetic little brat masquerading as a man before he insults some woman with lots of money (and an angry husband) and they sue the company for discrimination.

Please send us your comments. We feel that companies who discriminate against others because of age, race, sex (particularly women), or religion should be blacklisted and we DO NOT and WILL NOT support them.

My friend Hannah mails and/or emails 40 to 50 résumés a week to companies within a 100-mile radius of her home. Ninety percent of the companies she contacts never bother to even respond. Seven percent telephone or email and ask a horde of personal, illegal questions, which they attempt to disguise through deceptive and conniving methods such as questions about her age, religion, marital status, credit scores, buying habits, sexual preferences, and whether or not she drinks or smokes.

The human resource departments of the 21st century have a new handbook for discrimination. These people know exactly what questions to indirectly ask, in order to manipulate you, so you will blindly disclose this private information. For example, they wear a friendly face while enticing you to talk about your family. “How many kids do you have—four girls and two boys—that’s amazing,” they say, “And how old are they? In college, you say, and the two oldest are married? Any grandkids? Three grandkids, wow? You must be so proud.”

And then suddenly, the phone interview is over and you never hear from that company again. Why, because grandkids mean you are probably over 50. But age is the easy one. You should hear what they ask when they are trying to discover your religion, your political affiliations, or if you’re a gay smoker who devours expensive wines and imported brandies that you charged on your over-extended credit cards. And race, well they can usually find that plus your age, credit score, and criminal record (or not) on the Internet—one of our greatest achievements and, possibly, the source of our downfall.

So, back to the percentages: the remaining three percent of the companies she contacts request either a second telephone conversation or an in-person interview. In two years, she has had two dozen telephone conversations (that’s one a month) and four in-person interviews. That’s two interviews a year: the result of 2600 résumés. Is our country really that depressed?

She gets so excited at the possibility of finally getting a job. She has her best suit cleaned; polishes her favorite shoes; buys an auburn-brown rinse to touch up those very-slightly gray hairs around her temples; and picks up a new pair of stockings.

She prints out several copies of her résumé, updates her portfolio, buffs and polishes the scratches off her brief case, then cleans and vacuums out her car. She schedules the interview for the afternoon, so she has plenty of time to get ready, and make that 50-mile (one way) commute to the company’s location. On her way out, she spends her last $40 on gas, and then drives through the car wash, on the off chance that someone at the company might notice her car. She wants to make a good impression, so it has to be clean (even if it is nine years old).

But the results are the same everywhere she goes. Employers are rude, insensitive, and have no qualms whatsoever implying and even, in many cases, boldly announcing that she is TOO OLD to work for them. She faces age discrimination at every interview, even though many of the men who interview her are older than she is. Her qualifications and experience never even make it out of her portfolio, because once they see that her age is somewhere between 45 and 60, she’s immediately disqualified.

I have heard this story from hundreds of women from New York to New Mexico and everywhere in between. Women over 45 are no longer considered useful in the current workforce unless you already have a job, a Harvard degree, or Ivy League connections. The following posts are TRUE stories from today’s women that are searching for jobs. For details (and warnings about specific companies) see the following posts.

Julie Sartain Gets Five Stars for Excellent, ORIGINAL artwork. Booklocker gets 1 star for copyright infringement + blaming others for it.

Click to continue reading: Booklocker guilty of copyright infringement, NOT Sartain …

Hello Readers: I just read a really great book called Souljourns, the Seventh Sense: In Pursuit of the Afterlife by Jules Riada MacKenzie, available at Amazon.com at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Souljourns-Seventh-Sense-Pursuit-Afterlife/dp/1453883193″>Souljourns.

Everything is so upside down these days: people losing their jobs, their homes, and their life savings due to a failing economy that’s leaning farther and farther towards a worldwide depression. Sometimes a bit of hope is all we need to get around the next obstacle. Sometimes one book; that is, one person’s words can heal a frightened, aching heart. Give it a read. You won’t regret it.

RATING: Definitely 5 stars (out of five) * * * * *