Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, October 09, 2016
Pentagon Begins Low-Intensity Stealth War in Syria / Politics / Syria
By: Mike_Whitney
“Last Wednesday, at a Deputies Committee meeting at the White House, officials from the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed limited military strikes against the (Assad) regime … One proposed way to get around the White House’s long-standing objection to striking the Assad regime without a U.N. Security Council resolution would be to carry out the strikes covertly and without public acknowledgment.” – Washington Post
Call it stealth warfare, call it poking the bear, call it whatever you’d like. The fact is, the Syrian war has entered a new and more dangerous phase increasing the chances of a catastrophic confrontation between the US and Russia.
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Thursday, October 06, 2016
The West Is Playing a Zero-Sum Game with ISIS / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: John_Mauldin
ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism are a threat to the Western world. And so far, we have not really developed any serious defense mechanisms to deal with it. Rather, we are mostly just reacting to seemingly random events.
My friend Dr. Woody Brock is one of the most brilliant game theory specialists that I know. He regularly applies game theory to economics and investing. Here, he analyzes the conflict between the West and ISIS. He says that because of our very values, we end up playing the “game” in a way that leads us to continual frustration.
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Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Internet Censorship as UN Intervenes into American Society / Politics / Internet
By: BATR
By now you have heard that the control of ICANN has been ceded to the globalists. The Wall Street Journal acknowledges that An Internet Giveaway to the U.N. is the result of this transfer. A last ditch attempt to forestall this treachery was dashed by the Court rejects Arizona lawsuit suit over US control of internet group. This ruling comes as no surprise. The pattern of systematic international integration is the hallmark of efforts to stamp out national sovereignty and independent countries. The United Nations from the very beginning of its inception has been a fraud of incalculable proportions and a nemesis on humanity.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
It’s Not Just Obamacare–Healthcare Systems Are Failing Everywhere / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK COX : I’ve talked to many Canadian tourists who tell me that they’re having some medical procedure done while in the States. This is because the wait can be so long back home. As an uncouth American with borderline Tourette’s, I like to point out that their government health care doesn’t seem like such a utopian system after all. This typically provokes a defense of the Canada Health Act of 1984.
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Monday, September 26, 2016
Martial Law Rolls Out Across the US As Jubilee Nears / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
As we enter into the last week before the end of the Jubilee Year, the National Guard has been deployed in Charlotte, North Carolina and massive military convoys have been deployed in the streets of New York City.
This is a continuation of last summer’s Jade Helm seven-state military exercise that many in the area saw as a prelude to military occupation. After Jade Helm came the US Army Special Operations Command’s Unconventional Warfare Exercise 16 (UWEX 16) that ran in Texas through June.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Black NFL Atheletes - Why Stand for a Country That Can Gun You Down in Cold Blood? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
If black athletes in the NFL honestly think that African Americans who live under Old Glory are as ‘equally protected ‘as whites, then they should stand up during the national anthem and sing-along. But if they know that blacks aren’t getting a square deal, and that blacks can be gunned down at any time by trigger-happy cops who never face the consequences, then they owe it to themselves and their country to demand change by remaining seated.
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Sunday, September 25, 2016
Brad, Angelina, and the News Media / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Walter_Brasch
The New York Post, a Rupert Murdoch tabloid publication that isn’t likely to win a Pulitzer Prize anytime soon, splashed a full page picture of a smiling Jennifer Anniston on its Sept. 21 front cover. In the upper left-hand space it placed all-capitals text: “BRANGELINA 2004–2016.” Inside the Post were four full consecutive pages, and a half page and part of a column deeper in the newspaper, all devoted to one of the most critical social issues facing the country—Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are getting a divorce.
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Saturday, September 24, 2016
MI6 to Recruit 1/3rd More Redundant Intelligence Agents Destined to Lose AI Cyber Wars / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Britain's secret service, MI6 is about to see their number of intelligence agents boosted by 1/3rd in attempt to fight and counter future digital cyber terror attacks and wars. This is in addition to the expansion of other arms of Britain's secret police such as GCHQ and MI5.
However, the government is making the SAME mistake it always tends to make when it engages in such job creation exercises for bureaucratic institutions in that they are ALWAYS looking in the rear view mirror of what happened in the past and thus how they could have averted for instance 9/11 or 7/7 if they had x,y,z number of personnel in place and then go ahead and implement such capacity expansion a decade after the fact, whilst failing to realise that the nature of the threat has moved on.
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Friday, September 23, 2016
Here’s Why Eastern Europe Is Doomed / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: John_Mauldin
BY LILI BAYER : The EU is falling apart. Europe’s exporters face a crisis. Its southern economies are troubled. Germany has economic challenges of its own. But as Europe’s crises deepen, something else will become more important.
The erosion of the Schengen zone could hurt Eastern members’ ties with the West. Their economic and social stability depend on access to the EU. This includes funding, investments, trade, and labor markets. So the East is sensitive to economic changes in Western Europe and the continued fracturing of the bloc.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
Germany Has No Power to Solve the European Crisis / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: John_Mauldin
BY LILI BAYER : Germany faces a growing number of crises, both at home and abroad. But it has limited power to address them. The country needs stability in Ukraine. It wants to influence Russia. And Germany needs to deal with the influx of refugees from Turkey. This requires an agreement with that country.
Recently, the German leadership met with officials in Europe and abroad to address these crises. On Sept. 15, the foreign ministers of Germany and France toured Ukraine's war-torn east. In August, the German foreign minister went to Moscow to discuss the problems in Ukraine and Syria.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
The Last Time We Saw This Was Before World War II / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Europe and Asia, taken together, are the heart of humanity. That’s where 5 billion out of the 7 billion people in the world live. When instability comes to this part of the world, it shakes humanity.
That’s why the geopolitical pattern developing in Eurasia is so ominous. It is like a hurricane—absorbing huge amounts of energy from the ocean, using that energy to build a vast, integrated structure, and then destroying whatever it touches.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
France and Germany Call to TTIP End Trade Talks with the US / Politics / Global Economy
By: John_Mauldin
BY ANTONIA COLIBASANU : The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations have failed. The TTIP is the trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the United States. German Economic Affairs Minister Sigmar Gabriel and French Foreign Trade Minister Matthias Fekl have both called for an end to talks.
This failure confirms our prediction that the EU's power is decaying. Moreover, this turn of events accents the division between Western and Eastern Europe.
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Thursday, September 22, 2016
Here’s How the EU’s Crisis Is Tearing NATO Apart / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY KAMRAN BOKHARI : NATO has been searching for relevance for a generation. Now, as the EU faces a meltdown, the fate of NATO is even more unclear.
European nations are more and more discontent with the EU. The aftermath of Brexit, and the banking crisis that has spread from Italy to Germany, only inflame the tension. As a result, major European powers are less likely to play a bigger role in NATO.
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Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Italy Is the EU’s Weakest Link / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande, and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met Aug. 22 on an Italian aircraft carrier. They said they were meeting to talk about European policy after Brexit. The real discussion was about Italy’s economy and the steps needed to revive it.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Putin’s Ukraine Strategy Could Lay the Groundwork for War / Politics / Russia
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : Tensions between Russia and Ukraine are growing. According to the Russians, a special operations team from Ukraine attacked Crimea in August. The Ukrainians denied the claim. The Russians appeared to be moving forces around in Crimea and increasing their number and posture.
There have been reports of Russian troop buildups east of their border with Ukraine. There is also an unconfirmed report of Russian troops deploying in pro-Russian, rebel-held territory inside Ukraine. The Russians have done nothing to tamp down tensions.
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Monday, September 19, 2016
UK Government Surrenders to China / France to Build Nuclear Fukushima Plant At Hinkley Point C / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Theresa May's government has once more shown its inherent weakness where after putting the French / Chinese Hinkley Point C nuclear build on hold in July has now backed down under Chinese threats of withholding investments by giving the go ahead to build a nuclear reactor that had never been proven to actually work with potentially disastrous consequences for our small densely populated Island.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Apple Tax Grab by EU Invades IRS Airspace / Politics / Taxes
By: John_Browne
On August 30th, the European Union (EU) Commission ordered the Irish government to reclaim some $14.6 billion of so-called back taxes plus interest from Apple Inc. The order challenged sovereign tax authority within the EU and well-established international tax rules. The aggressive stance of the Commission set off a furor of high level political argument among taxing authorities and multinational companies accustomed to complex but legal international tax planning. Apple's case was big enough to place it at center stage in a simmering problem for governments in striking a balance between attracting businesses, creating jobs, generating taxes and deciding precisely what type of earnings can be taxed.
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Stop the Fed Before it Kills Again / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Mike_Whitney
Why has the Fed created incentives for US corporations to loot their companies and drive them deeper into debt?
Despite four consecutive quarters of negative earnings, weak demand and anemic sales, US corporations continue to load up on debt, buy back their own shares and hand out cash to their shareholders that greatly exceeds the amount of profits they are currently taking in. According to the Wall Street Journal: “SandP 500 companies through the first two quarters of the year collectively returned 112% of their earnings through buybacks and dividends.”
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Tuesday, September 13, 2016
August Record Global Temperatures, Brexit and the Climate Change Catastrophe / Politics / Climate Change
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Another month goes by with another sign that where climate change control measures are concerned it is already too LATE to avert the climate change catastrophe that awaits humanity THIS century. According to NASA August 2016 was the hottest August month on record beating the last record by 0.16c (2014), which puts reality far beyond anything the climate change models of barely a decade ago were forecasting would happen, as we are now experiencing temperatures that weren't meant to materialise for several more decades and not 2016 which is indicative of a run away green house effect in progress.
Monday, September 12, 2016
The Fed Plans for the Next Crisis / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
In her recent address at the Jackson Hole monetary policy conference, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen suggested that the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates by the end of the year. Markets reacted favorably to Yellen's suggested rate increase. This is surprising, as, except for one small increase last year, the Federal Reserve has not followed through on the numerous suggestions of rate increases that Yellen and other Fed officials have made over the past several years.
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