Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
No More Left-Right Politics / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
TRASH POLITICS - THE DEFAULT CHOICE
The morph of old-style politics in almost all Western countries brings daily proof of how far the rot has gone. The end result is NAP-No Alternative Politics, an amorphous New Left-New Right mess hiding the basic refusal to govern: for this, voters and taxpayers are supposed to be thankful.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Empires of Illusion and the Credibility Trap / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
I came across a nice, compact interview with Chris Hedges which illuminates his thesis of the decline of the American Empire and the illusory thinking that accompanies it. Can the shock and meltdown of Karl Rove on election night be any better contemporary illustration of the power of selective thinking to delude a group of seemingly rational people to their own downfall?
Sunday, December 30, 2012
At Years End: Look Back At The News of 2012 / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Danny_Schechter
New York, New York: The TV Networks are hard at work in this last week of the year recapping their best footage to remind us where we’ve been. Researchers are combing the archives to find the best images for their annual greatest hits “package” which usually ends with a photo-montage driven by music of the politicians, entertainers and personalities who died in 2012.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
2013: Why Does Advanced Science Suggest Peaceful Co-Existence In A Multi-Polar World? / Politics / Social Issues
By: DK_Matai
Albert Einstein’s famous equation E=mc^2 shows us that everything is made up of energy. Science demonstrates that energy is the building block of all matter. Energy exchanges take place within, without and at the interface of everything at all times in a most complex dynamic. Everything in this universe is ultimately made up of that same energy flow. It is just present in different forms and different shapes and keeps on transforming and recycling perpetually. The energy that composes our bodies is indeed the same one that composes the building materials of our homes and the animals and the trees found outside. It is all just the same and ever exchanging!
Friday, December 28, 2012
I love guns. God bless America / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
I want Americans to be armed to the teeth. In addition to practical and constitutional reasons for wanting an armed citizenry, I admit to having an emotional attachment to America’s gun culture. I’ll just come out and I say it: I love guns.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Fiscal Cliff Chicken / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
Talk show hosts and other bloviators have spent hours giving their versions of the fiscal cliff. In fewer than 750 words, I’ll explain the truth. Taxes and the deficit are intertwined. If Congress can’t come up with a plan to solve those problems, the U.S. will jump into the abyss of a deeper recession than existed under the latter years of the Bush–Cheney administration.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Why TIPS Won't Protect You from Inflation...and Other Government Lies / Politics / Inflation
By: Casey_Research
If the "World Snake Oil Salesperson Society" had a hall of fame, good old Uncle Sam would be a charter member. When it comes to smooth-talking folks into buying debt instruments, he's the slickest around.
And Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) are one of his slickest gimmicks.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Japan's Patriotic War Agenda / Politics / Japan Economy
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE SICKLY GIANT
Japan has the the world's third-biggest economy and was only recently pushed into this third place by China - but it remains world No 1, and by far, as measured by its sovereign debt-to-GNP ratio. Its new Liberal Democratic Party-LDP government, no different from LDP governments which have almost exclusively ruled since 1955, is setting out with a proud (in fact desperate) task: to end deflation by pushing down the world value of the JPY (yen) to a theoretical point where "inflation of 2% or 3% a year" will be possible.
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Superstitious Russians spent 30 billion on Preparing for Apocalypse / Politics / Russia
By: Pravda
The Russians, who shared the horror of impending apocalypse with the rest of the world, spent 30 billion rubles on the eve of December 21st. The calculations were made by FBK analysts, who examined the data on the structure of trade turnover and services purchased in December. The end of the world did not come, but many people have to deal with its consequences now - the shortage of money.
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Thursday, December 27, 2012
Monetary Malpractice: Deceptions, Distortions & Delusions / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gordon_T_Long
The Hippocratic Oath is an oath taken by physicians swearing to practice medicine ethically, honestly and above all, to do no harm to the patient. Unelected central bankers do not take such an oath. They do however swear allegiance to the Constitution.
On February 6, 2006, Ben Bernanke took an oath to the Constitution at his swearing-in ceremony as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The significance of this is that as a federal officer, despite being the front man for a privately owned, quasi government bank, he can be prosecuted for any violations of the Constitution that he swore to uphold.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Doug Casey on the Morality of Money / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Casey_Research
Editor's note: Doug Casey is known around the world for many very good reasons. Among investors, he's well known for being a very successful speculator and author. More broadly, his unwavering support of human liberty and his criticism of institutions based on coercion as well as those who support them have made Doug a hero to many... and perhaps public enemy number one to some of those whom he criticizes.
Whether one agrees with him or not, Doug almost always has a singular take on issues and ideas, making his essays and talks highly stimulating. As we approach the end of the year – a time when people often reflect on their progress or lack thereof over the past year across all areas of life – this February 2011 interview of Doug Casey by Louis James on the morality of money seems especially trenchant. We hope it helps you reflect on your relationship with money and investing, and brings a renewed sense of clarity and purpose to your financial activities in 2013.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Dysfunctional Washington Leans on Fed’s Money Printing Press / Politics / US Debt
By: Michael_Pento
It should now be clear to all Americans that our government is completely incapable of voluntarily reducing our fundamental problem of excess debt. The inability of Washington D.C. to address spending, even under the duress of a legal obligation to do so, is flagrantly obvious.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The Hilarious Comedy Behind John Boehner's Fiscal Cliff "Plan B" / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
I am laughing right now, really.
I am laughing because of what happened last week. I am laughing that House Speaker John Boehner's "Plan B" for the Fiscal Cliff wasn't even voted on.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Gun Control and Genocide / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
Sunday, April 24th marked the 90th anniversary of the first genocide of the twentieth century: the Turkish government's slaughter of over a million unarmed Armenians. The key word is "unarmed."
The Turks got away with it under the cover of wartime. They suffered no greater postwar reprisals for this act of genocide than if they had not conducted mass murder of a peaceful people.
Other governments soon took note of this fact. It seemed like such a convenient international precedent.
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Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The Government's Most Dangerous Threat to Your Privacy / Politics / US Politics
By: DailyWealth
Three powerful forces have come together to dismantle the privacy of U.S. citizens...
First, government programs and regulations have formed the foundation of a massive tracking grid for all individuals. It has passed laws that give it sweeping "snooping" authority... It can now legally peer deeper into our daily lives than ever before.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Toxic Nationalism Or Natural Reaction? / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE RENTACROWD LIBERALS SAY
In a recent 'Wall Street Journal' opinion piece, Robert Kaplan wrote: "Western elites believed that universal values are trumping the forces of reaction. They wax eloquent about the triumph of human rights, women's liberation, social media, financial markets, international and regional organizations and all the other forces that are breaking down boundaries separating humanity". He went on to say this is great for producing Me Tooism - but only for elites - on a global scale. Calling nationalism and national identity "regressive and exclusivist", Kaplan then sheds liberal tears for what happened to the hoped-for liberal western smartphone-enabled 'revolution' that Western journalists thought was happening in Cairo, Tunis, Benghazi and other Arab capitals nearly two years ago, at the start of 2011.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
The Fiscal Cliff Is Not the Problem, Looking on the Bright Side / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Mauldin
It is Christmas and not the time for long letters – just a brief note on why the fiscal cliff is not the End of All Things, and to point out a worthy cause led by some good friends of mine who are helping people who truly have no options in life. And we’ll start things off with a movie review of sorts to launch us into a positive take on the year behind and the year ahead.
Monday, December 24, 2012
Ron Paul on Gun Control, Why Government Security is Just Another Kind of Violence / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The senseless and horrific killings last week in Newtown, Connecticut reminded us that a determined individual or group of individuals can cause great harm no matter what laws are in place. Connecticut already has restrictive gun laws relative to other states, including restrictions on fully automatic, so-called "assault" rifles and gun-free zones.
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Sunday, December 23, 2012
Fiscal Cliff Reality / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Political Washington theater continues. Republicans and Democrats agreed years ago to erode America’s social contract en route to eliminating it altogether.
Crisis conditions create opportunities. Former White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, explained.
“You never want to let a serious crisis go to waste,” he said. “What I mean by that is that’s an opportunity to do things you couldn’t do before.”
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Sunday, December 23, 2012
Scandalous Market Regulators / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Mark_Thornton
The Democratic Party had its message on the economy well-prepared for the recent election. From President Obama to his campaign directors to campaign advisor-hacks, all the way down to the local party patsies, the message was uniform and well rehearsed. “We do not want to return to the failed economic policies of four years ago. Those policies caused the economic crisis that almost put the country back in a great depression. We cannot return to the naïve policy that deregulation is good for the economy.