Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Viewing Russia From the Inside / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: Last week I flew into Moscow, arriving at 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 8. It gets dark in Moscow around that time, and the sun doesn't rise until about 10 a.m. at this time of the year — the so-called Black Days versus White Nights. For anyone used to life closer to the equator, this is unsettling. It is the first sign that you are not only in a foreign country, which I am used to, but also in a foreign environment. Yet as we drove toward downtown Moscow, well over an hour away, the traffic, the road work, were all commonplace. Moscow has three airports, and we flew into the farthest one from downtown, Domodedovo — the primary international airport. There is endless renovation going on in Moscow, and while it holds up traffic, it indicates that prosperity continues, at least in the capital.
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
The Financial Industry Pigmen Win Again / Politics / Market Regulation
By: James_Quinn
"The real owners are the big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions. Forget the politicians, they're an irrelevancy. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the statehouses, the city halls. They've got the judges in their back pockets. And they own all the big media companies, so that they control just about all of the news and information you hear. They've got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying - lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want; they want more for themselves and less for everybody else." - George Carlin
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Spain's Publishing Industry Commits Internet Suicide as Google Quits News / Politics / Internet
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Spain at the heart of a luddite Europe Union has forced Google to quit its news service following its law makers succumbing to Spain's lunatic publishing industry that was expecting profit from taxing Google for every news story that it linked to on Google News as of 1st of Jan 2015. That's just for posting the title of news stories with a short snippet to prompt google news searchers to link through to the source content, a lot of free traffic that Spain's publishing industry had greatly profited from.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 15, 2014
A U.S. Court Practically Declared Insider Trading Legal / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: Wednesday, December 10, 2014, was a big day for insider trading.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned insider trading convictions of former hedge fund managers Todd Newman and Anthony Chiasson.
Not only did the appeals court reverse the much-publicized guilty verdicts against the two traders, its 28-page decision effectively rewrites the meaning of insider trading.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 15, 2014
A Brief Financial Moment in Time / Politics / Social Issues
By: Dr_Jeff_Lewis
“It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system; for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”
-Henry Ford
I have a small confession.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 15, 2014
CIA, Democracy, Quo Vadis, America? / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Where are you going, America?
I don’t like to discuss politics too much. There are not enough smart, kind and honest people in politics wherever I look in the world for me to want to have anything to do with that game. I’d just spend all my time wondering what kind of mindset it takes to want to tell other people what to do, and be in control of the millions, billions and trillions of dollars that are taken from these people on a daily, yearly, basis.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 15, 2014
Ron Paul - All I Want for Christmas is a Real U.S. Government Shutdown / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The political class breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when the US Senate averted a government shutdown by passing the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This year's omnibus resembles omnibuses of Christmas past in that it was drafted in secret, was full of special interest deals and disguised spending increases, and was voted on before most members could read it.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Cyprus-style Bank Bail-ins to Take Deposits and Pensions - The Global Bankers' Coup / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
On December 11, 2014, the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, stepped into the ring. Perhaps what prompted his intervention was the unanticipated $40 drop in the price of oil. As financial blogger Michael Snyder points out, that drop could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20's new "bail-in" rules are formalized, depositors and pensioners could be on the hook.
Saturday, December 13, 2014
How To Renounce Your US Citizenship And Become Stateless / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
I recently had the pleasure to speak with Glen Roberts, a self-described "techno-geek", blogger and the author of How to Renounce Your US Citizenship in Two Easy Steps. The book was written as a guide to cut through opinions and describe the requirements and process of renouncing US citizenship… something in high demand lately. Glen renounced his US citizenship after living in various Central and South American countries for more than a decade and currently resides, statelessly, in Paraguay.
His story is one of the most interesting we’ve heard in the neverending Escape from Amerika struggle. Here was our conversation.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, December 13, 2014
The American Inquisition - Torture Lobby Be Tortured? / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Torture is a crime under both American and international law. The Bush administration repeatedly broke the law from 2002 to 2006 by unleashing a wave of torture, kidnapping, and murder, all under the banner of its faux “war on terror.”
“Terror” is a wonderfully useful propaganda term developed by the Israelis and adopted by the Bush administration to dehumanize and delegitimize America’s violent enemies who were opposing US presence in much of the Muslim world.
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, December 13, 2014
Arab Spring II is Coming Fast - The Unintended Consequences of Lower Oil Prices / Politics / Middle East
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: There was one particularly grim matter that came up over and over again in my overseas meetings.
It’s so serious that the bankers I met with in Paris and Frankfurt discussed the sudden need to redraw their risk parameters. Meanwhile, top players in London were concerned about its potential impact on foreign oil companies.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 12, 2014
How the U.S. Fed Grows Government / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: MISES
Hunter Hastings writes: We are told that elections are important, but the most powerful state institution, the central bank, is totally out of reach of the voter.
Ludwig von Mises viewed democracy as a utilitarian concept. It was the form of political organization that allowed the majority to change the government without violent revolution. In Socialism, Mises writes “This it achieves by making the organs of the state legally dependent on the will of the majority of the moment.” He identified this form of political process as an essential enabler of capitalism and market exchange.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 12, 2014
How Wall Street “Jihadists” Are Engineering a Government Shutdown / Politics / Banksters
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: WASHINGTON, D.C. – A tense battle between warring political parties erupted in Washington yesterday when Wall Street-backed Jihadist demands surfaced in the 1,600-page omnibus spending bill – threatening to first take the U.S. House of Representatives hostage, then all of America.
Intelligence services (obviously not Washington-based) initially identified the financial terrorists as Beltway lobbyists, but later revealed them to be a Big-Bank sleeper cell embedded in God-hating Dodd-Frank legislation, universally decried by the faithful as blasphemous.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 11, 2014
America Should You Believe What They Tell you or What You See? / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
Sometimes I wish I could just passively accept what my government monarchs and their mainstream media mouthpieces feed me on a daily basis. Why do I have to question everything I'm told? Life would be much simpler and I could concentrate on more important things like the size of Kim Kardashian's ass, why the Honey Boo Boo show was canceled, the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, whether I'll get a better deal on Chinese slave labor produced crap on Black Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, fantasy football league standings, the latest NFL player to knockout their woman and get reinstated, Obama's latest racial healing plan, which Clinton or Bush will be our next figurehead president, or the latest fake rape story from Rolling Stone. The willfully ignorant masses, dumbed down by government education, lured into obesity by corporate toxic packaged sludge disguised as food products, manipulated, controlled and molded by an unseen governing class of rich men, and kept docile through never ending corporate media propaganda, are nothing but pawns to the arrogant sociopathic pricks pulling the wires in this corporate fascist empire of debt.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
U.S. Police State - Illinois Passes Law Making it a Felony to Video Police Abuse / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
How to Stop Police Abuse
There's one way and one way only to stop police abuse: Criminally prosecute it, then allow civil penalties.
In a podcast today with Chris Martenson, Chris suggested civil penalties should come straight out of the police retirement fund, not taxpayer pockets.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
The Dieoff Syndromw - Why Is The World So Boring? / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The early leading member of Dieoff.org who used the pseudonym Mister Symptote later ran the So Boring World blog which seriously needs to be recycled with the same fire and determination! Mr Symptote was convinced he was right, which always helps. One of the key arguments used by the bloggers who flocked to So Boring World is the staggering idiocy of what's rightly called "mainstream crony media", operating an IQ or Idiocy Quotient north of 100%. This simply can't be called a conspiracy theory, because its a fact.
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Safe Haven Colombia: Peace, Pyramids, Parrots and Profit / Politics / Social Issues
By: Ron_Holland
"First, let me try to tell you about the setting of the Terra Viva, or Living Earth, community in such a way that I can convey even an inkling of the spectacular appeal of this magical place. Imagine being nestled in an Alps-like pristine setting, utterly immersed in indescribable natural beauty, the sounds and sights of parrots and monkeys chattering in the trees, waterfowl gliding to a graceful landing on a still, 2-hectare lake, vines and the tree canopy high overhead shading the mid-day sun while soft breezes ensure even afternoon temperatures are pleasant. Buildings with few solid walls so the warm afternoon sun and pleasant, cool evening air heats and cools naturally, yet no insects flying in to disrupt your comfortable surroundings." – Anthony Wile
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
U.S. CIA Torture Report Released - Full 525 Pages / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Submissions
In our system, no one should be above the law or beyond the law’s reach, no matter how senior the official. The record has long been clear that the Bush administration’s torture program was devised at the highest levels, with the involvement of the White House, the Department of Justice, the CIA, and the Department of Defense. The record now also shows that the architects and perpetrators of torture misled the public, Congress, and other institutions charged with oversight of government agencies about the scope and extent of torture, the significance of various prisoners, the concreteness of various alleged plots, and the significance of information obtained through torture.
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
The Collapse of US Middle Class Wealth, Consumed by the Gods of Finance / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jesse
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport." - William Shakespeare, King Lear
Let's file this under 'why aren't people buying things and saving more?'
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Unemployment in America: Another Fabricated Jobs Report / Politics / Unemployment
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Friday’s payroll jobs report is another government fairy tale or, to avoid polite euphemisms, another packet of lies just like the House of Representatives Resolution against Russia and every other statement that comes out of Washington.
Washington is averse to truth. Washington can only lie.
First let’s pretend that the 321,000 new jobs that the government claims the economy created in November are true, and let’s see where these jobs are.
Read full article... Read full article...