Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, June 07, 2013
IRS Most Outrageous Abuses / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
Greg Madison writes: The IRS scandal of allegedly targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny may just be the tip of the iceberg. Unanswered questions abound about the powerful agency's involvement in Obamacare and partisan politics.
Using the IRS as a presidential pit bull is a fine old bipartisan tradition going back to Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration and refined by Richard Nixon.
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Friday, June 07, 2013
America's Stasi Collecting Your Phone Records / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_S_Rozeff
Verizon is being forced by the government to disclose telephone records of all of its customers. Those of us who want our call records to be private are being forced to reveal them to the government. We can't keep them private even if we want to. What is wrong with the government spying on us in this way?
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Friday, June 07, 2013
Fracking America’s Food Supply / Politics / Fracking
By: Walter_Brasch
Fracking—the process the oil and gas industry uses to extract fossil fuel as much as two miles below the ground—may directly impact the nation’s water supply, reduce water-based recreational and sports activity, and lead to an increase in the cost of food.
The cocktail soup required for each well requires about two million pounds of silica sand, as much as 100,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, and three to nine million gallons of fresh water. There are more than 500,000 active wells in the country.
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Friday, June 07, 2013
Ed Miliband, Labour's Dirty Benefits Culture Election Winning Secret Revealed / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Labour leader Ed Miliband with much fanfare announced that Labour too will now crack down on Britain's benefits culture by capping social security spending following an 2015 election win.
"We will tackle the deep, long-term causes of social security spending and tackle the costs of failure like housing benefit. They (Conservatives) will not."
"Controlling social security spending and putting decent values at the heart of the system are not conflicting priorities. It is only by reforming social security with the right values that we will be able to control costs."
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Friday, June 07, 2013
Chile vs Venezuela, Capitalism vs Socialism / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Nothing shows the difference that a local governing style has on an area such as South America like the current difference between Venezuela and Chile. It is almost becoming as obvious as the difference between North Korea and South Korea.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Groups Map / Politics / War on Terror
By: STRATFOR
The Naval Update Map shows the approximate current locations of U.S. Carrier Strike Groups and Amphibious Ready Groups, based on available open-source information. No classified or operationally sensitive information is included in this weekly update. CSGs and ARGs are the keys to U.S. dominance of the world's oceans. A CSG is centered on an aircraft carrier, which projects U.S. naval and air power and supports a Carrier Air Wing, or CVW. The CSG includes significant offensive strike capability. An ARG is centered on three amphibious warfare ships, with a Marine Expeditionary Unit embarked. An MEU is built around a heavily reinforced and mobile battalion of Marines.
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Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Obama Warfare / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Redmond Weissenberger writes: Amid varying scandals in late May, President Obama gave a speech on foreign policy at the National Defense University (it's a dismaying sign when a university is dedicated to teaching the art of global war) highlighting his administration's goals when it comes to international conduct. Among flashing cameras and his handy teleprompter, Obama stressed the War on Terror will "come to an end at some point". He finally acknowledged his administration is responsible for the murder of four American citizens without due process - one of which was a sixteen year-old who committed no crime other than having a radicalized father. To top it off, the President assured the public he was going to enact strict measures so the vast killing authority he granted himself would not be abused by future Oval Office holders.
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Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Will Saudi Arabia Allow the U.S. Crude Oil Boom? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
Technology, technology, and more technology--this is what has driven the American oil and gas boom starting in the Bakken and now being played out in the Gulf of Mexico revival, and new advances are coming online constantly. It's enough to rival the Saudis, if the Kingdom allows it to happen. Along with this boom come both promise and fear and a fast-paced regulatory environment that still needs to find the proper balance.
Tuesday, June 04, 2013
New Arab Spring Could Breed Chaos in the Energy Markets / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: Investment opportunities in the energy markets always bounce between questions of available supply and prospects for demand.
These days many commentators in the U.S. are viewing excess domestic shale gas and tight oil as a factor in restraining energy prices. Meanwhile, their colleagues in Western Europe forecast continuing economic malaise, translating into a similar result.
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Tuesday, June 04, 2013
The Paradox of Imperialism / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: MISES
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
writes: The State
Conventionally, the state is defined as an agency with two unique characteristics. First, it is a compulsory territorial monopolist of ultimate decision-making (jurisdiction). That is, it is the ultimate arbiter in every case of conflict, including conflicts involving itself. Second, the state is a territorial monopolist of taxation. That is, it is an agency that unilaterally fixes the price citizens must pay for its provision of law and order.
Predictably, if one can only appeal to the state for justice, justice will be perverted in favor of the state. Instead of resolving conflict, a monopolist of ultimate decision-making will provoke conflict in order to settle it to his own advantage. Worse, while the quality of justice will fall under monopolistic auspices, its price will rise. Motivated like everyone else by self-interest but equipped with the power to tax, the state agents' goal is always the same: to maximize income and minimize productive effort.
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Monday, June 03, 2013
Ron Paul - Iraq Collapse Shows Bankruptcy of American Interventionism / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
May was Iraq's deadliest month in nearly five years, with more than 1,000 dead - both civilians and security personnel -- in a rash of bombings, shootings and other violence. As we read each day of new horrors in Iraq, it becomes more obvious that the US invasion delivered none of the promised peace or stability that proponents of the attack promised.
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Monday, June 03, 2013
Bilderberg Authoritarianism Destroys Humanity / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
By: BATR
Knowing the accuracy of historical reality is difficult, but accepting the truth in that chronicle is almost impossible for most people to accept. This reluctance to deal with the stark and calculated obliteration of societal freedom is the ultimate curse of the human condition. The denial of the authoritarian plan by elites like the Bilderberg cabal is the equivalent of Satan's greatest lie, convincing us he does not exist. Well, the days of casting the smear of conspiracy over any reporting on the secret and hidden conclave of global manipulators, is officially over.
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Monday, June 03, 2013
Russia is The Greatest Threat to the Energy Markets / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: As Yogi Berra aptly put it, It's deja vu all over again.
The Soviet gulag state is coming back and this time it could wreak havoc on the world's energy markets.
I began my energy career in Russia. Back then it was part of a sprawling Soviet Union. For the past 23 years there have been 15 independent countries in its place.
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Sunday, June 02, 2013
UK Soldier Killer Tipped Over the Edge by MI5, Collateral Murders in Iraq and Afghanistan / Politics / War on Terror
By: Global_Research
Margaret Kimberley writes: Two British-Nigerians frightened the great former colonial empire to death by nearly beheading a soldier, in London. Yet British and other western politicians have far more blood on their hands than the young Africans. “This killing was no more awful than those committed by the military from the U.S. or other NATO nations.”
Saturday, June 01, 2013
Welcome to the Electronic U.S. Concentration Camp / Politics / US Politics
By: Videos
In conjunction with the upcoming release of his new book, A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, John W. Whitehead sits down to discuss several "pressure points" that are threatening the Bill of Rights and undermining our essential freedoms. In part four of this special series, Whitehead examines the collusion between corporations and government officials in erecting a system of mass surveillance aimed at all Americans.
Saturday, June 01, 2013
The Middle Eastern Perpetual War Syndrome / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
THE DEAD HAND OF TRADITION
While the US fixation with Muslim Terror, or homegrown terror, in fact any kind of terror can be said to have been ratcheted up to its current extremes from about 2000, Shia-Sunnin terror war has a long pedigree. Inside Shia majority countries, or in Shia areas of Sunni countries, Shia Muslims are obsessed with Sunni aggression, exclusion, or "cultural racism". The exact opposite also works for Sunni majority countries and regions of Shia countries. The fixation with the past is total.
Saturday, June 01, 2013
Escaping from the United States Gulag / Politics / US Politics
By: David_Galland
Argentines have a phrase, "mi lugar," for when you find your special place in this world – the perfect combination of place and people that entirely suits your nature. The phrase translates simply as "my place."
I was very fortunate in my early thirties to be able to spend three years on a quest for paradise on earth, visiting pretty much every country I thought might be a suitable candidate. It turns out, in hindsight, what I was really looking for was not paradise, but mi lugar.
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Friday, May 31, 2013
Eurozone Debt Crisis Exposes What EU Leaders Fear Most / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes: European Union leaders have seemingly changed their tune lately on how best to deal with the long-running Eurozone debt crisis.
Increasingly, EU politicians have been sounding the theme that economic growth - not Eurozone austerity - is the answer, and that deadlines set for reductions in public spending needed to be loosened.
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Thursday, May 30, 2013
The Rise and Fall of the U.S. Dollar / Politics / US Dollar
By: Mark_Thornton
Over the last century America’s money—the dollar—has come to dominate the global monetary system. It is used not just by Americans, but in other countries, in the global black market, and by importers and exporters. And it is the primary reserve currency for central banks. This status is what Barry Eichengreen calls an “exorbitant privilege,” because it confers numerous benefits to individuals, companies, and governments. Collectively, it also confers the ability for Americans to consume beyond our ability to produce.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
How Big Corporations Are Destroying the "Free Market" / Politics / Corporate News
By: Money_Morning
Garrett Baldwin writes:
As an economist, I wince whenever I hear someone say that we live in a true free market.
The reality is we live in a semi-free market where regulation stifles business and corporate money influences and distorts what would normally be a highly competitive marketplace.
And over the last two decades, the situation has only gotten worse for consumers, producers, and defenders of the so-called "free market."
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