Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
French Politics – More Hypocrite Than Us “Tu Meurs” (You Die) / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
OOH LA LA!
Anybody viewing the litany of scandals and scams marking French politics, the economy and business, and social issues from a suitable distance away from ground zero can only say “Ooh la la!”.
Rumors that President Francois Hollande has threatened his government with his own personal resignation – and the likely return of Nicholas Sarkozy – if they go on refusing to keep a “tight ship in adverse times” are treated seriously by several reputed political commentators reporting in French media, including 'Le Monde'. The latest proof of that came with the instant sacking of Ecology minister Delphine Batho, this week. She had criticized the budget cuts hitting her ministry more than others. She had not retracted. So she was sacked on the spot.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
The Big Banks On Trial, Again / Politics / Banksters
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: You want to know why the entire global financial system almost collapsed in 2008?
There seems to be a simple answer. Not encouraging, but simple: The European Commission is exploring the possibility that there was a conspiracy among 13 of the world's major banks that colluded to keep the entire house of cards a secret.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Snowden, The Man of Conscience Speaks From Moscow / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
One week ago I left Hong Kong after it became clear that my freedom and safety were under threat for revealing the truth. My continued liberty has been owed to the efforts of friends new and old, family, and others who I have never met and probably never will. I trusted them with my life and they returned that trust with a faith in me for which I will always be thankful.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Will there be Riots Across America if George Zimmerman is Acquitted? / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Fred Reed writes: Watching the Zimmerman trial, I wonder whether we may not be in for big trouble. Racial hostility is much higher in the United States than it is allowed to appear. In the Twittersphere there is much traffic from blacks, saying that if Zimmerman walks, they will kill him themselves, riot, or kill random whites. On many sites around the web, whites of a sort not found on NPR are saying, “Bring it on.” This is not your granny’s recipe for domestic tranquility.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
How the Government Uses Citizenship as a Weapon Against You / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
"The Obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon," writes whistleblowing hero Edward Snowden, surprising no one who has been paying enough attention in the past few years.
We've been saying this for years now ourselves. The time is coming when the gentle prodding of the USSA imperial police state will become a naked mugging with overt threats of violence and kidnapping. Capital controls and border controls to keep in both money and people are coming. What's happening to Snowden is just a taste of what's coming to Americans that the US doesn't consider nearly as troublesome.
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Wednesday, July 03, 2013
NSA Tapes 1 Billion Mobile Phone Calls Per Day - Spy Versus Spy / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Andrew_McKillop
HOW MANY CALLS?
European media reports including highly publicised 'Guardian' and 'Der Spiegel' reports using documents and insights directly supplied by Edward Snowden say the US NSA regularly intercepted and monitored about 60 million telephone calls and Internet connexions – per day – only in Germany. Other reports suggest the average rate may have been “as low as” 600 million per month. Spying on French-based phone and Internet connexions was said to run at about 180 million per month.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Gustavo Speaks! Confessions of a Central Banker / Politics / Central Banks
By: Submissions
David Hague writes: Dear reader, decorum and etiquette demand that I give you fair warning. This commentary regarding central bankers may contain content and images not suitable for all ages. This should not surprise anyone, as the current state of our global economy and the behavior of central bankers can only be discussed by those who have a strong constitution and an appetite for the surreal.
Tuesday, July 02, 2013
Exploding Demographic Time Bombs / Politics / Demographics
By: Money_Morning
Greg Madison writes: When a big economy hits the shoals, there are options.
You can take a Keynesian approach. You can take a Friedmanian approach. There are Bernankes, there are Nodas , the Austrian School, the Chicago School, expansion and contraction - however a government wants to play it, whatever the ideology, there are options and precedents for getting the economy going again.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
Obama Finds A New Way to Strangle US Economy / Politics / US Economy
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: The scary question is, is he continuing to wound this recovery on purpose or by accident?
And which answer is worse?
Last Tuesday, President Obama announced his "Action Plan on Climate Change."
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Monday, July 01, 2013
The End of American Independence Day / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
The 4th of July should be a day of historic retrospection. For a proper understanding into the significance of the birth of the nation, start with an examination of the perennial BREAKING ALL THE RULES essay, The Meaning of Independence Day. Then contrast our circumstances and heritage in the article - Independence Day for Whom? Both of these columns are essential. If one forgets from where, how and why our country was created, it is impossible to appreciate the uniqueness of the American Revolution and the meaning of the "shot heard ‘round the world".
Monday, July 01, 2013
Is NSA Blackmail Inc. for the U.S. Military Industrial Complex? / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Toby_Connor
Jon Rappoport writes: Every director of the NSA is a general or an admiral.
The NSA is organized under the US Dept. of Defense.
Imagine that you are a powerful player who straddles two worlds – the Dept. of Defense and the private sector where corporate defense-contractors live and flourish.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
France Being Wrecked by Socialism, Nationalism and Germanophobia / Politics / France
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: Nice, France – I’m just down to sea level from the 2,600 meter high mountain forts on France’s wild, vertiginous Alpine border with Italy.
The Cote d’Azur, or Riviera, is buzzing with summer activity: packed beaches, traffic jams, crowded restaurants, outrageously priced hotels and an armada of yachts jostling for scarce marina space.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
Are Intelligence Agency Analysts Profiting From Spying by Front Running Markets? / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Washingtons_Blog
We’ve previously documented that the government has been giving our private information to big companies so they can make money. And see this.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the NSA spies on Americans’ credit card transactions. Many other agencies are doing the same. In fact, virtually all U.S. intelligence agencies – including the CIA and NSA – are going to spy on Americans’ finances. The IRS will also be spying on Americans’ shopping records, travel, social interactions, health records and files from other government investigators.
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Monday, July 01, 2013
Ron Paul - If You Like The Surveillance State, You'll Love E-Verify / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
From massive NSA spying, to IRS targeting of the administration's political opponents, to collection and sharing of our health care information as part of Obamacare, it seems every day we learn of another assault on our privacy. Sadly, this week the Senate took another significant, if little-noticed, step toward creating an authoritarian surveillance state. Buried in the immigration bill is a national identification system called mandatory E-Verify.
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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Global Cooling And The Great Mandrake / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE GREAT DROWNING
For the Dutch, the Grote Mandrake is nothing to do with Linux software, but means “The Great Drowning” and is named for the epic and massive flooding that occurred, more and more frequently in the Low Countries of Europe's North Sea region as Europe's Little Ice Age intensified.
Normal or predictable spring and autumn flooding was increasingly replaced by large-area and intense flooding, sometimes outside spring and autumn from about 1300, in recurring crises which lasted into the 18th century. In the Low Countries and across Europe, but also elsewhere, the cooling trend starting in the late 13th century became more intense. It brought long cold winters, heavy storms and floods, loss of coastal farmlands, and huge summer sandstorms in coastal areas further damaging agriculture. Climate historians estimate that major flooding on an unpredictable but increasingly frequent basis started as early as 1250. Extreme events like the Grote Mandrake flood of 1362 which killed at least 100 000 people became darkly repetitive.
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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Gambling Banksters - How Many Warnings Do You Need? / Politics / Banksters
By: Rudy_Avizius
If you knew someone with a gambling problem, you probably would not give them your money to hold. If you knew that they had placed bets that were 30 to 70 times more than the amount of money they had, you would certainly consider them totally reckless. If you knew that the money they were holding and betting with was with borrowed money, other peoples’ money not their own, you would probably conclude that they are hopelessly addicted to money. Remember these thoughts as you continue to read this article.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Washington Is Driving The World Towards The Final War / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
“V For Vendetta,” a film that portrays evil in a futuristic England as a proxy for the evil that exists today in America, ends with the defeat of evil. But this is a movie in which the hero has super powers. If you have not seen this film, you should watch it. It might wake you up and give you courage. The excerpts below show that, at least among some filmmakers, the desire for liberty still exists.
Whether the desire for liberty exists in America remains to be seen. If Americans can overcome their gullibility, their lifelong brainwashing, their propensity to believe every lie that “their” government tells them, and if Americans can escape the Matrix in which they live, they can reestablish the morality, justice, peace, freedom, and liberty that “their” government has taken from them. It is not impossible for Americans to again stand with uplifted heads. They only have to recognize that “their” government is the enemy of truth, justice, human rights and life itself.
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
What Level of Taxation Is Too Much? / Politics / Taxes
By: Casey_Research
By Nick Giambruno, Editor, International Man
You are technically a slave when 100% of the fruits of your labor is taxed or otherwise confiscated by force. So, at what percentage are you not a slave?
When you consider the totality of the countless direct and indirect taxes on the local, state, and federal levels in the US, as well as the pernicious effects of inflation – the hidden tax – many of us are at least already halfway to 100%.
Friday, June 28, 2013
You Can’t Hide From These Spying Eyes / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Walter_Brasch
The media have been playing “cops and robbers,” trying to track down the location of Edward Snowden, who had fled to Hong Kong and said the U.S. was spying on its citizens.
The citizens are scared and paranoid; visions of Big Brother are peering into their lives.
But, the government’s knowledge of the lives of individuals is little more than the equivalent to a children’s coloring book compared to the library that private companies have on everyone.
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Bankers Still Playing Russian Roulette With Someone Else's Head / Politics / Banksters
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Last week, Britain's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards issued a report that lists a number of recommendations for an overhaul of the country's banking sector. The idea is that Chancellor George Osborne includes them in his Banking Reform Bill, a preliminary draft of which was publicly criticized by the Commission in March.
Whether the government will actually follow the recommendations, however, remains to be seen; PM David Cameron and his cabinet have sung their praises of the City and its importance for Britain's economy on countless occasions. Which looks a little strange at times, especially those times when the state is forced to bail out, save, break up and/or nationalize yet another bank. Lately RBS has been added to the roll, and by now every "High Street" bank must have had some sort of government "treatment". A few CEOs were fired, with Downing Street 10 obviously hoping that would calm the waters. So far, amazingly, it seems to work: it's all bout keeping the customer satisfied. And clueless.
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