Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, January 02, 2015
Where Have All the Statesmen Gone? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Marin_Katusa
One of the most striking things about the Colder War—as I explore in my new book of the same name—has been the contrast between the peevish tone of the West’s leaders compared to the more grown-up and statesmanlike approach that Putin is taking in international affairs.
Western leaders and their unquestioning media propagandists appear to believe that diplomatic relations are some kind of reward for good behavior. But it’s actually more important to establish a constructive dialogue with your enemies or rivals than your friends, because that’s where you need to find common ground. Indeed, it’s been the basis for diplomacy since time immemorial.
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Friday, January 02, 2015
Why Is It Impossible For Palestine To Be An Independent State / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
Why Is It Impossible?
The first answer is that it is not impossible. The economic reasons for that are pretty
conclusive and simple. Decades of sanctions and unfavorable trading relations with and through
Israel, and Egypt during the Mubarak era, has forced Gaza to make do and mend. To be a very
efficient micro-economy, with its own offshore natural gas reserves. Eastern Palestine, as we
can call it, with its ultra symbolic capital Jerusalem is another subject, economically.
Thursday, January 01, 2015
Bluff of the Day: Germany Warns Greece on Euro Bailouts / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
In the obvious bluff of the day, Euro zone No Longer Obliged to Rescue Greece, Merkel Ally Says.
Actually, the eurozone was never obliged to rescue Greece, and in fact did not rescue Greece. Rather the EU and Troika rescued European banks holding Greek bonds.
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Thursday, January 01, 2015
2014 in 5 Narratives - 2014 in 5 Narratives - Ukraine, EU, Oil, North Korea and U.S Dollar / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Let’s see, how do we close this year in a proper manner? I already wrote that 2014 for me has been The Year Propaganda Came Of Age. Likewise, looking forward, I said that The Biggest Economic Story Going Into 2015 Is Not Oil. Moreover, I talked about things that need to be done next year in Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead.
So what else is left? I thought I’d make a list of narratives that painted the past year, and look at what’s real about them versus what we’re being told they are about. Nothing comprehensive about them, mind you, just train of thought.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Bail-In Normalization / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Andy_Sutton
When the bail-in first ripped through Cyprus in the first part of 2013, I wrote a series of articles about the topic and examined some documents from the Bank for International Settlements, the FDIC and Bank of England regarding treatment of depositors and their funds. To sum it up as we begin the latest chapter in what will no doubt morph into the biggest swindle ever to impact humankind, let’s recap what exactly the bail-in is.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Why Are We Still Using A ‘Second-Rate’ Calendar System ‘Imposed By A Pope Over 400 Years Ago’? / Politics / Religion
By: Steve_H_Hanke
If Canadian-born astrophysicist Richard Conn Henry were in charge, New Year’s Eve would have been four days ago.
Under the intricately designed Hanke-Henry calendar (slogan, “It stays exactly the same, year after year!”), the day we’ve known for centuries as New Year’s Day would actually be Jan. 5.
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Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Russia's SWIFT Settlement Alternative / Politics / Russia
By: BATR
The SWIFT System is an integral part of a communication process that assists payment and clearing of financial transactions. The Corporate-to-Bank site defines it in the following manner and provides several examples of Payment, Clearing and Settlement Systems.
“The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, Societe Cooperative a Responsabilite Limitee (limited co-operative society) (“SWIFT”) is a member-owned co-operative. SWIFT provides a telecommunication platform for the exchange of standardized financial messages between financial institutions and corporations. SWIFT is neither a payment system nor a settlement system though the SWIFT messaging standard is used in many payment and settlement systems. SWIFT’s customers include banks, market infrastructures, broker-dealers, corporates, custodians, and investment managers. SWIFT is subject to oversight by the central banks of the Group of Ten countries.”
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Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Top Five Geopolitical Events in 2014 / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: 'Tis the season to make lists, and a list shall be made. We tend to see each year as extraordinary, and in some senses, each year is. But in a broader sense, 2014 was merely another year in a long chain of human triumph and misery. Wars have been waged, marvelous things have been invented, disease has broken out, and people have fallen in love. Nonetheless, lists are called for, and this is my list of the five most important events of 2014.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
U.S. Cops Can Enforce Non-Existent Laws With Impunity / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Wendy McElroy writes: Ignorance of the law is an excuse...if you are a cop. American police no longer need to know what the law says or to enforce it correctly. They can implement a non-existent law with impunity even if it results in the apparent violation of constitutional rights. This may have been apparent to many as a police practice but now it is now officially the law of the land. On December 15, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled on Heien v. North Carolina.
Monday, December 29, 2014
For Students To "Give Back," Add Real Value / Politics / Social Issues
By: MISES
Peter St. Onge writes: A recent article in the left-leaning Independent argued that student volunteers are useless. In one project putting UK college students to work building a local school, the work was so awful that local Ugandan masons "dismantled the structurally unsound work [the students] had done — relaying bricks and resetting timbers whilst the students slept."
"Giving back" is big these days, but how can we know if we’re really making a contribution, or if we, like those students, are just tourists who need cleaning up after.
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Monday, December 29, 2014
What Went Wrong In 2015 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
What Went Wrong in '14?
In some ways this could as easily be 1914 as 2014 War-fascination and phobia was so high in 2014 that in several countries, in Europe and also the USA, Canada, Australia and others the production of books, films, TV documentaries and panel discussions, leading press articles and political speeches relating to the 1914-1918 war were everywhere. But just as the Clash of Empires theme was found diificult or wanting to explain the war, even if the vidgame version of empires clashing is a moneyspinner. the economic causes of WWar I were also found wanting, despite all the effort trying to cobble them together and prove them. By the 1920s and above all the 1930s, J. M. Keynes had made the economic causes and consequences of the war one of his major writing projects. And in 2014 it was possible to find at least a few major similarities between the causes of the 1929 crash and its follow-on Great Depression, and the flyblown world since 2008.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Climate Change - What If The World Can’t Cut Its Carbon Emissions? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Roger Andrews: Many people, including more than a few prominent politicians, accept that global warming must be limited to no more than two degrees C above the pre-industrial mean, or a little more than one degree C above where we are now, to avoid dangerous interference with the Earth’s climate. Let’s assume these people are right, that the 2C threshold really does represent the climatic equivalent of a cliff and that bad things will happen if we drive off it.
Monday, December 29, 2014
Things To Do In 2015 When You’re Not Yet Dead / Politics / Social Issues
By: Raul_I_Meijer
America has managed to construct an entirely one-dimensional political system. There’s no discernible difference left between left and right, other than in spin language pre-cooked for the sole purpose of faking the concept of elections. There’s very right and ultra right. America is living proof that once money is allowed into politics, the accumulation of it, and of the power it can buy, will and eventually must fully control a democratic system, which in the process, of necessity, suffocates and dies a painful death.
Monday, December 29, 2014
The Real Meaning of the 1914 Christmas Truce / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
One hundred years ago last week, on Christmas Eve, 1914, German and British soldiers emerged from the horrors of World War One trench warfare to greet each other, exchange food and gifts, and to wish each other a Merry Christmas. What we remember now as the "Christmas Truce" began with soldiers singing Christmas carols together from in the trenches. Eventually the two sides climbed out of the trenches and met in person. In the course of this two day truce, which lasted until December 26, 1914, the two sides also exchanged prisoners, buried their dead, and even played soccer with each other.
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Monday, December 29, 2014
Are Islam And Christnity Being Wise And Brave Enough To Eradicate Hunger, Ignorance And Humiliation Of Their Own People? / Politics / Religion
By: Dr_R_M_Mathew
Islam and Christianity have emerged as the two well-organized and most resourceful world religions capable of bringing over sixty percent of the mankind under their fold. Out of 60,000 years of the known history of the humanity, Christianity has just 2000 years and Islam just 1400 years of existence. Both Islam and Christianity have been promising the heaven or the paradise for their own members, leaving the rest to some other place, including those who lived before their origin.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
America's War on Palestine / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
America one-sidedly supports Israel. Both countries partner in each other's crimes. United against Palestinian statehood.
Determined to keep 4.5 million Palestinians subjugated. Hostages on their own land in their own country.
Under militarized occupation rule. Afforded no rights whatever. Congressional members demand Obama veto Palestine's Security Council statehood resolution.
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Saturday, December 27, 2014
Peace On Earth And Goodwill To All Men / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
What Was His Crime?
I'm not talking about Jesus but the 6-year-old Palestinian child who got off a bus – and got shot in the face at close range with a 15.5gram high velocity rubber bullet. So his crime was 1)Being Palestinian and 2)Not being sufficiently armed to reply to a punk psychopath soldier of the Israeli defense force-IDF or its paid militias. Treat them how you should treat them if they aggress your child with no reason at all.
Saturday, December 27, 2014
The Interview - 2014, The Year Propaganda Came Of Age / Politics / Propaganda
By: Raul_I_Meijer
From just about as early in my life as I can remember, growing up as a child in Holland, there were stories about World War II, and not just about Anne Frank and the huge amounts of people who, like her, had been dragged off to camps in eastern Europe never to come back, but also about the thousands who had risked their lives to hide Jewish and other refugees, and the scores who had been executed for doing so, often betrayed by their own neighbors.
Friday, December 26, 2014
Putin: It Is Time to Play Your Ace in the Hole / Politics / Russia
By: Ron_Holland
You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done.
"The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers
The entire world is watching Putin play poker with the Western politicians lead by Obama and followed by Washington quislings in London, Brussels and Berlin. America's goal since the end of the Cold War has been to weaken by financial, economic and, if necessary, military means any real competition to its global financial and resource domination through the petrodollar and dollar world reserve currency status.
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Friday, December 26, 2014
Russian Roulette: Taxpayers Could Be on the Hook for Trillions in Oil Derivatives / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
By: Ellen_Brown
The sudden dramatic collapse in the price of oil appears to be an act of geopolitical warfare against Russia. The result could be trillions of dollars in oil derivative losses; and depositors and taxpayers could be liable, following repeal of key portions of the Dodd-Frank Act signed into law on December 16th.
On December 11th, Senator Elizabeth Warren charged Citigroup with “holding government funding hostage to ram through its government bailout provision.” At issue was a section in the omnibus budget bill repealing the Lincoln Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Act, which protected depositor funds by requiring the largest banks to push out a portion of their derivatives business into non-FDIC-insured subsidiaries.
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