Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Here's How the U.S. Will Play the Russia-China Oil Deal / Politics / Russia
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: Pundits have been quick to label last week's mammoth gas deal between Russia and China as "historic."
That may be true. But the fact is there are a number of important elements in the $400 billion agreement that have yet to be decided.
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Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Geopolitical Journey, European Borderlands Part 2 / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: A borderland is a region where history is constant: Everything is in flux. The countries we are visiting on this trip (Turkey, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Poland) occupy the borderland between Islam, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. Roman Catholic Hapsburg Austria struggled with the Islamic Ottoman Empire for centuries, with the Ottomans extending northwest until a climactic battle in Vienna in 1683. Beginning in the 18th century, Orthodox Russia expanded from the east, through Belarus and Ukraine. For more than two centuries, the belt of countries stretching from the Baltic to the Black seas was the borderland over which three empires fought.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Ellen Brown - Infrastructure Sticker Shock: Financing Costs More Than Construction / Politics / US Politics
By: Ellen_Brown
Funding infrastructure through bonds doubles the price or worse. Costs can be cut in half by funding through the state’s own bank.
“The numbers are big. There is sticker shock,” said Jason Peltier, deputy manager of the Westlands Water District, describing Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to build two massive water tunnels through the California Delta. “But consider your other scenarios. How much more groundwater can we pump?”
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Monday, June 02, 2014
U.S. Mental Health Screening a Good Way to Decrease Liberty, Poor Way to Increase Security / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week Americans were shocked and saddened by another mass killing, this one near a college campus in California. We all feel deep sympathy for the families of the victims.
As usual, many people responded to this shooting by calling for new federal gun control laws, including the mental health screening of anyone attempting to purchase a firearm. There are a number of problems with this proposal. Federally-mandated mental health screenings would require storing mental health records in a government database. This obviously raises concerns about patient privacy and doctor-patient confidentiality, as well as the threat of identity theft. Anyone who doubts that these are legitimate concerns should consider the enormous privacy problems with the Obamacare website; some have even suggested that healthcare.gov be renamed indentifytheft.gov.
Sunday, June 01, 2014
How Global Agri-Business Destroys Farming / Politics / Agricultural Commodities
By: Global_Research
Colin Todhunter writes: A new review carried out by the organization GRAIN reveals that small farms produce most of the world’s food. However, they are currently squeezed onto less than a quarter of the world’s farmland. The world is fast losing farms and farmers through the concentration of land into the hands of the rich and powerful. If we do nothing to reverse this trend, the world will lose its capacity to feed itself.
Saturday, May 31, 2014
An Open Letter to Edward Snowden - Stand Your Ground / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Dear Edward Snowden,
Rumor has it you are contemplating a return to your beloved country, the country whose crimes against liberty and justice forced you to take a moral, principled position by revealing truths about a surveillance state so wide-sweeping it is totalitarian - ever expanding in lawlessness and reach. Your efforts have been both reviled by the powerful and praised by the powerless. Your life has been threatened. You have been turned into a pariah and criminal by the very agents you sought to expose to divert focus away from them and place upon you. Now, after the rigors and humiliations you experienced you are considering a return to your country which has only persecuted and avenged you; a country led by a President and Congress whose war crimes, militarism, imperialism, desecrations of the Constitution and Bill of Rights will forever by seen as leading America into the greatest crucible in its history from which she may or may not recover her birthright.
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Friday, May 30, 2014
The Nihilists Said Keep Calm And Carry On / Politics / Religion
By: Andrew_McKillop
The First Ones Did
Plenty of hair-splitting but not much real difference separates “the heroic philosophies” from what ended up, in Europe as Nihilism and Existentialism. The first say that nothing exists while the others say that only existence exists. Both reject society. Both reject all previous socially-imprinted ideas or “social facts”. Both are in play in the crisis we have today.
Friday, May 30, 2014
America's Gun Insanity Extends Beyond the Shooters / Politics / Social Issues
By: Walter_Brasch
During this past week, in Scranton, Pa., a 16-year old put two bullets into the head of a taxi driver and then stole about $500 earned by the cabbie that evening.
The teen, who showed no remorse when arrested a few hours later, mumbled a few words about his reasons. He said he murdered the cabbie “’Cause that’s what I do to people that don’t listen.” The teen thought the cabbie was taking too long to get him to his destination. The driver was a 47-year-old man with a wife and two children. The gun was an unlicensed 9-mm.
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Friday, May 30, 2014
EU Elections Disenfranchised Protest Vote at Creeping Loss of Freedom / Politics / European Union
By: Ty_Andros
This past week was action packed and the smoke signals have come at us in a fast and furious manner. The biggest headline came from the EU parliamentary elections where a good portion of the disenfranchised sent an unambiguous message of protest of central governments and their socialist masters. The people are WAKING UP to the creeping loss of freedom and destruction of the economic future by Brussels and their handmaidens in capitols throughout the Eurozone. Let's take a look at the growing march against CREEPING socialism and totalitarianism on the continent:
Friday, May 30, 2014
Giving the Supreme Sacrifice - Reflecting on a Life / Politics / Social Issues
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: We will talk about energy matters another time. Today, I have something else I need to share with you.
This week, we honored those who have given the supreme sacrifice to allow the rest of us to live the kind of lives we do.
For me individually, this is a very tough time of the year. And it is all coming back to me this morning.
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Thursday, May 29, 2014
The Colder War and the End of the Petrodollar / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Marin_Katusa
The mainstream media are falling over themselves talking about Russia’s just-signed “Holy Grail” gas deal with China, which is expected to be worth more than $400 billion. But here’s what I think the real news is… and nobody’s talking about it—until now, that is.
China’s President Xi Jinping has publicly stated that it’s time for a new model of security, not just for China, but for all of Asia. This new model of security, otherwise known as “the new UN,” will include Russia and Iran, but not the United States or the EU-28.
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Thursday, May 29, 2014
Doomburgers On The Menu In The UK / Politics / UK Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
French Like Hamburgers
One way to talk around the problem of food no longer having any taste – called the Malbouffe crisis in France and dating to the late 1990s – is to dumb down and eat what everybody else eats. So French today eat hamburgers. Adding a regulation dose of French hypocrisy, this comes down to selling hamburgers – at well over 20 euros ($27) each - by calling them Gastro(nomic) Burgers made from Organic Foods and “elaborated” by French cooking experts called Les Toques.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
The End of Federal Taxation as We Know It / Politics / Taxes
By: Barry_Elias
The way we tax is obsolete.
It’s safe to say, in the century since the federal income tax was instated, the system has become broken. The complex, voluminous tax code (included in the 70,000+ page CCH Standard Federal Tax Reporter) needs a revolutionary overhaul.
The current system doesn’t raise nearly enough money, Social Security is nearing insolvency, the administrative cost is exorbitant, and economic growth is actually impeded.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Angela Merkel Snubs Global Warming And Dumps The Solar Industry / Politics / Solar Energy
By: Andrew_McKillop
Mutter and Stutter
Germany's Angela Merkel, nicknamed the Mutter for “Mother” of a successful Germany who got herself re-elected, is said by Berlin daily 'TAZ' to have already decided she will not attend the Ban Ki-Moon-initiated UN climate conference in New York this September. The paper says this was “confirmed by a government spokesman“. If so, Merkel’s decision to snub the event is likely another sign that efforts to implement present climate agreements, and forge new ones are already dead in the water. Germany EEG or renewable energy law (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz) is another very likely collateral victim.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Capital Controls Rolling Into High Gear Under FATCA / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Jeff_Berwick
The traditional banking system was already bad enough but now, with banks around the world rushing to comply with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) it is beginning to reach extreme levels. And it isn't just affecting the most financially restricted people on Earth: US citizens... it is affecting everyone.
Take myself for example. I operate numerous businesses worldwide. I am a Canadian citizen as well as the citizen of a Caribbean country and our business operations are also operated out of a non-tax jurisdiction in the Caribbean. On top of that we hold no bank accounts, whatsoever, in the US... instead, we have bank accounts all over the world.
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014
France's “Presidential Majority” Ump Party Now Shipwrecked / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
Get Out and Don't Come Back
The Policy Bureau of France's “Union pour une Majorite Presidentielle” (also called “Union for a Popular Movement”) shook with rage at 11 am on Monday 26 May following the European elections of 25 May. The UMP party founded by Jacques Chirac following the massive shock vote for candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen and his “unconstitutional” Front National party in the 2002 presidential elections was “in torment”. As reported by the finance broadsheet 'Les Echos', 27 May, party president of the UMP, Jean-Francois Cope, was unanimously told to resign and get out immediately - “or nobody in this building will ever shake your hand again”.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Power in U.S. Military Black Budgets / Politics / US Military
By: BATR
The top five military contractors by sales are Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumann, General Dynamics and Raytheon. In addition to the Department of Defense allocations, the top five intelligence agencies that often provide military use applications are the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Program and the General Defense Intelligence Program. The actual amount of monies that go into funding off the books secret projects, estimated by Bill Sweetman as cited in the Economic Crisis and the Pentagon`s Black Budget, exceeds rational comprehension. "The Pentagon’s ‘black’ operations, including the intelligence budgets nested inside it, are roughly equal in magnitude to the entire defense budgets of the UK, France or Japan, and ten percent of the total."
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Democracy - Another God that Failed / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: On Memorial Day weekend, scores of thousands of bikers arrived here for their annual Rolling Thunder tribute to America’s veterans, especially those lost in our wars or left behind.
But this year the tribute has been sullied by a squalid scandal in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
The Trouble with Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
“There is something odd about the global warming debate – or the climate change debate.....since global warming has for the time being come to a halt”. In a paper with the title “The Trouble with Climate Change” published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation of Benny Peiser, May 2014, the former UK Chancellor Lawson said that the Prince of Wales reports the 'Orthodoxists' of global warming are now in a stew and say “we are headless chickens”. Pan-fried or otherwise!
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Are You Sure You Want To Go To War? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Ukraine has a new president, or at least someone, Petro Poroshenko, who claims to be. One of the first things to come out of his mouth was that he doesn’t recognize Crimea as being a part of Russia. Still, the good listener knows there were no Ukraine presidential elections in Crimea either on Sunday. So Crimea is supposedly still a part of Ukraine, despite a referendum in which 89% of Crimeans chose not to be, and they get no vote in who gets to be their president either? What does all that mean?