Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, June 06, 2014
US Foreign Wealth Confiscation Begins Under the Code Names FinCen, FATCA and FBAR / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
We have been reporting on how the US government is using very nefarious and egregious methods on tracking its own citizen's financial information, fining them and even instituting the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) as a form of subterfuge capital controls which is closing off international banking to Americans (as we reported yesterday in Mexico)
Friday, June 06, 2014
Euroskeptic Election Victories Raise Global Risk Of Return To 2012 Crisis / Politics / European Elections
By: Dan_Amerman
In one of the most stunning political developments in recent decades, the group of political parties that are being collectively called "Euroskeptics" won more votes than any other individual party in several major European nations in the May elections for the EU Parliament.
Thursday, June 05, 2014
The Battle of Midway / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Fred_Sheehan
The Battle of Midway was fought 72 years ago, from June 4, 1942 to June 7, 1942. Air strikes from U.S. aircraft carriers maimed beyond repair the four Japanese aircraft carriers. The Japanese fleet, and Japan, never recovered.
Less than six months earlier, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack swept across the Pacific. Franklin Roosevelt, in his "Day of Infamy" speech, told the damage:
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Thursday, June 05, 2014
China-Vietnam Conflict in The South China Sea / Politics / China US Conflict
By: EconMatters
China is on a roll upsetting neighbors from all directions in its aggressive stance towards territorial claims.
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
U.S. Media, Military/Security Complex Driving the World towards Final War / Politics / US Military
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
At West Point Obama told us, to the applause of West Point cadets, that “American exceptionalism” is a doctrine that justifies whatever Washington does. If Washington violates domestic and international law by torturing “detainees” or violates the Nuremberg standard by invading countries that have undertaken no hostile action against the US or its allies, “exceptionalism” is the priest’s blessing that absolves Washington’s sins against law and international norms. Washington’s crimes are transformed into Washington’s affirmation of the rule of law. Here is Obama in his own words:
Wednesday, June 04, 2014
The Wealth Divide Never Wider / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
The Robber Barons of the 19th and 20th century had nothing over the elites of today’s globalist transnational financial conglomerates. The Richest Americans, listed in Forbes conceals the real power that controls the economy. Net worth is deficient in gauging dominance in financial commercialism and monetary preeminence. The Top 50 Highest-Paid CEOs as reported by ABC News ties into Michael Hiltzik’s account that CEO-to-worker pay gap is obscene, "The average CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 2012 was about 350 to 1." Yet the divide in pay does not exemplify the exact lose in a livable standard of living for the ordinary staffer.
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
European Commission Advises Booming Britain to Burst Housing Market and Collapse UK Economy / Politics / UK Housing
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The clueless academics employed by the European Commission's political elite of the euro-zone, who for the glory of power over the european people are hell bent on driving much of the european union into the abyss of a socialist utopia where the masses own and earn nothing but become wholly reliant on ECB central bank money printing funded government hand outs as bought and paid for vested interests in exchange for votes for career european union politicians who have nothing in common with their electorates, today have been busy issuing advice to the one Island of Independence on a continent of conformity as to how Britain should ruin its booming economy.
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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