Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Internet Barons Pushing The New Barbarity / Politics / Propaganda
By: Andrew_McKillop
Terrorism is Cool
Writing for Stratfor, August 28, Rober D. Kaplan said that “Terrorism is Theatre” but of course only for the mentally sick, including the Internet barons who directly profit from Death Pornography. Kaplan wrote that by choosing decapitation as the method for killing US journalist James Foley, the degenerate psychopaths of ISIS were right on the Internet social network button.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Obama’s “Catastrophic Defeat” in Ukraine / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Mike_Whitney
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“We are currently witnessing an epic and historic event. The Ukrainian regular army and the punitive battalions are suffering a catastrophic defeat to the south of Donetsk…..It still is not quite clear how the Junta intends to avoid a complete defeat here…. By squandering the most combat-capable brigades in systematic offensive operations, the Junta sustained enormous losses and at the same time suffered a crushing, purely military defeat. The southern front has collapsed.” – The Southern Front Catastrophe – August 27, 2014″, Colonel Cassad, Military Briefing, Novorossiya, Ukraine
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Washington Anti-Russian Propaganda Piling Lies Upon Lies / Politics / Propaganda
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The latest Washington lie, this one coming from NATO, is that Russia has invaded Ukraine with 1,000 troops and self-propelled artillery.
How do we know that this is a lie? Is it because we have heard nothing but lies about Russia from NATO, from US ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, from assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland, from Obama and his entire regime of pathological liars, and from the British, German, and French governments along with the BBC and the entirety of the Western media?
Saturday, August 30, 2014
ISIS The Mother of All Blowback / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: President Barack Obama is being lambasted by US Republicans for admitting that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for dealing with the rise of the militant group, ISIS, or Islamic State, as it’s now known.
Given that the US had made an unbelievable mess of its Mideast policies, the president is right to pause and think, something his shoot –from- the- lip Republican critics rarely do. They are demanding the US attack both Iraq and Syria without asking “what then oh brave Washington warriors?” These are the Republicans who ardently supported George Bush’s catastrophic invasion and destruction of Iraq.
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Corporations Join Droves of Americans Renouncing US Citizenship / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
Nick Giambruno writes: Don't be surprised to lose if you don't make an effort at being competitive.
And if you go out of your way to make yourself less competitive, expect to lose.
If that sounds like simple common sense, that's because it is.
But it's also exactly what the US has been doing for years-enacting tax policies that sabotage its global economic competitiveness.
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Friday, August 29, 2014
Russia, Ukraine War - It’s Time to Play the “Gazprom Card” / Politics / Natural Gas
By: Money_Morning
As the situation in Ukraine continues to unravel, the West is certain to develop another round of sanctions against Russia.
Unlike the first set, these new sanctions will almost certainly have a more direct bearing on the energy sector.
And now that Russian gas behemoth Gazprom (OTC: OGZPY) has once again threatened to cut off the gas supply to Ukraine if Kiev doesn’t pay what it owes, worry has begun to creep into the European Union headquarters in Brussels.
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Friday, August 29, 2014
ISIS Is Only A Metastase – Not The Original Cancer / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: Andrew_McKillop
Obama Says Extract The Cancer of ISIS
President Obama is not an oncologist but a golfer and a politician when he is off the golf links, so we don't have to treat his diagnosis as definitive. For metastases to appear there is obligatorily a deep-seated, primary, primitive or original cancer either still present today or no longer present but active in the form of metastases. Each of these can in turn generate a new deep-seated cancer, oncologists tell us, but the process is in no way 100% predictable.
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Netanyahu Proudly Claims ‘Victory’ After Israel Butchers 1470 Civilians, Women and Children in Gaza / Politics / Israel
By: Global_Research
Anthony Bellchambers writes: 2,101 Gazans killed – UN estimates 70% of deaths are civilians
7 civilians killed in Israel
Thursday, August 28, 2014
EU Gas Supply Is In Real And Imminent Danger / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Raul_I_Meijer
More accusations fly across the media, like so many flocks of Canada geese, of direct Russian involvement in Ukraine. Much is made of an interview with Donetsk National Republic leader Alexander Zakharchenko, in which he “admits” there are Russian volunteers fighting on his side.
To the west, that’s all the proof they need. There are 1000 Russians in Ukraine, cries NATO. That doesn’t make them the Russian army though. If there are only 1000, that would be disappointing. These are people who are seeing their family just across the border shot to bits.
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Thursday, August 28, 2014
The Monetary Killing Fields / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
The house organ for the Council of Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs, has published its final solution under the title: "Print Less and Transfer More: Why Central Banks Should Give Money directly to the People." Written under the names Mark Blyth and Eric Lonergan, but trumpeting the establishment voice of, say, Martin Wolf, they state: "It's well past time, then, for U.S. policymakers - as well as their counterparts in other developed countries - to consider a version of Friedman's helicopter drops.... Many in the private sector don't want to take out any more loans; they believe their debt levels are already too high. That's especially bad news for central bankers: when households and businesses refuse to rapidly increase their borrowing, monetary policy can't do much to increase their spending.... Governments must do better. Rather than trying to spur private-sector spending through asset purchases or interest-rate changes, central banks, such as the Fed, should hand consumers cash directly.... The transfers wouldn't cause damaging inflation, and few doubt that they would work. The only real question is why no government has tried them."
Thursday, August 28, 2014
Foley Beheading: Terrorism as Theater / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: STRATFOR
Robert D. Kaplan writes: The beheading of American journalist James Foley by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq was much more than an altogether gruesome and tragic affair: rather, it was a very sophisticated and professional film production deliberately punctuated with powerful symbols. Foley was dressed in an orange jumpsuit reminiscent of the Muslim prisoners held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay. He made his confession forcefully, as if well rehearsed. His executioner, masked and clad in black, made an equally long statement in a calm, British accent, again, as if rehearsed. It was as if the killing was secondary to the message being sent.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
The ISIS Menace - Just What We Need, Another War / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York: Sound the bugle! Get the press to march along; we are going to war.
Again!
Enemies r ‘us, and for a long time with the killing of bin Laden, a Jihadi fatigue had set in. With the apparent shriveling up of the Al Qaeda menace, America’s threat-defining and refining machinery was somewhat adrift. What had been so simple, turned too complex to fuse into one soundbite.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Ukraine Standoff Signals Global Power Shift / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Power Shift
Following from and related to the economic proxy war, by sanctions, engaged by the EU28 and US against Putin's Russia, and counter-sanctions by Russia against the “Atlantic Alliance”, we do not have to look very far for sequels. Plenty of EU28 banking groups are now on a short fuze, for example on the borrowing of PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest lender. Able earlier this year to raise over 2 billion euros this lender's timing was very lucky. Even “EU28 core” private banks, including BNP of France and Deutsche of Germany may soon face “unexpected difficulties” recapitalizing their bad debt. Banks of the “southern tier” or Club Med countries will soon face serious difficulties, like Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo group's “unexpected difficulties”.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Scottish Independence Vote / Politics / UK Politics
By: Jonathan_Davis
The vote in September is unlikely to be Yes for Independence – though the polls are closer now than a few months ago and there is a large undecided bloc. However, I’ll be surprised if Scotland votes Yes especially as the Establishment is out in force telling the people to vote No.
Why would that be, I wonder? See below.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
The Monopoly of the Government Education Cartel / Politics / Education
By: BATR
Learning is a noble pursuit, but the ancient Greek text is one of the few places where the Socratic Method survives. Sanctioned political doctrine of required thinking is the mainstay in today’s august temples of purification. Forget about a classroom, the curriculum core of New Age studies has no room for the classics, much less instructions into the process of thinking itself. Except, of course for the need to electronically check off the loan applications and assign grants to the business office. In the end, university is big business and developing intelligent graduates happens as an afterthought, if at all.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
U.S. Empire’s Bumpy Ride / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
If you are one of those defeatist-type Americans, always alarmed over the dire fate of the US economy, actually believing 2 + 2 = 4, it may be best not to shift your glance to the state of US foreign policy today.
Obamaville’s geopolitical stance is harder to grasp than a BLS formula for unemployment is.
And if the thought is, quaintly, of defending the US shores and citizens you are decades behind the curve.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
U.S. Self Checkmate in War on Islam / Politics / US Politics
By: Jack_D_Douglas
The result of this vast U.S. War Against the Muslim World is now so vastly complex, explosive and convulsive every day in new catastrophes that no one can possibly understand where it is all headed or what new cataclysms will erupt today or tomorrow or any time in the foreseeable future.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
America's Blacks Must Confront Reality / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Walter E. Williams writes: Though racial discrimination exists, it is nowhere near the barrier it once was. The relevant question is: How much of what we see today can be explained by racial discrimination? This is an important question because if we conclude that racial discrimination is the major cause of black problems when it isn’t, then effective solutions will be elusive forever. To begin to get a handle on the answer, let’s pull up a few historical facts about black Americans.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Will The US Succeed in Breaking Russia to Maintain Dollar Hegemony?... / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Clive_Maund
In Why they are making an enemy of Russia? we looked at two of the key reasons why the US is making an enemy of Russia, namely the promotion of conflict by the powerful Defense industry lobby in order to keep its order books full, and the value of conjuring up an external enemy as a hate figure for the masses, in order to take the heat off the government. In this article we are going to look at what is arguably an even bigger reason, that was largely omitted in the earlier article, which is that Russia, in alliance with China, is threatening to bring an end to the dollar as the global reserve currency, which would mean the end of the American empire.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon's Precedent / Politics / Syria
By: STRATFOR
By George Friedman: Lebanon was created out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between Britain and France reshaped the collapsed Ottoman Empire south of Turkey into the states we know today -- Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and to some extent the Arabian Peninsula as well. For nearly 100 years, Sykes-Picot defined the region. A strong case can be made that the nation-states Sykes-Picot created are now defunct, and that what is occurring in Syria and Iraq represents the emergence of those post-British/French maps that the United States has been trying to maintain since the collapse of Franco-British power.