Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, June 10, 2019
Betting on Next British Prime Minister Tory Leadership Betfair Markets Forecast / Politics / Gambling
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The worst Prime Minister in British History who has literally clung onto power by her finger tips for the past 6 months is set to resign as Tory party leader tomorrow, Friday 7th of June in the wake of the disaster that were the EU elections, which will mark the start for a 6 week long tory leadership contest with the objective of whittling down a wide field of 11 candidates to just 2 from whom the 100,000 or so tory party members will vote to choose to become the next Tory Leader and thus British Prime Minister set to take office late July as Britain counts down to the 31st October 2019 deadline. A deadline that most candidates have already declared they will seek to extend as a remainer parliament continues to do its utmost to subvert Brexit by taking a NO DEAL Brexit off the table and thus wasted the last 3 years instead of just declaring Independence as I concluded several years ago is what Britain should do to win the Brexit War.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
Next British Prime Minister Tory Leadership Betting Markets / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The worst Prime Minister in British History who has literally clung onto power by her finger tips for the past 6 months is set to resign as Tory party leader tomorrow, Friday 7th of June in the wake of the disaster that were the EU elections, which will mark the start for a 6 week long tory leadership contest with the objective of whittling down a wide field of 11 candidates to just 2 from whom the 100,000 or so tory party members will vote to choose to become the next Tory Leader and thus British Prime Minister set to take office late July as Britain counts down to the 31st October 2019 deadline. A deadline that most candidates have already declared they will seek to extend as a remainer parliament continues to do its utmost to subvert Brexit by taking a NO DEAL Brexit off the table and thus wasted the last 3 years instead of just declaring Independence as I concluded several years ago is what Britain should do to win the Brexit War.
Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Is Trump Reversing Course On Iran? / Politics / Iran
By: OilPrice_Com
The Trump administration is attempting to dial down the tension with Iran, lowering the risk of military conflict and pushing for diplomatic negotiations.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the U.S. was ready to negotiate with Iran with “no preconditions,” a shift in strategy after laying out a list of 12 hardline demands last year, a list that seemed to be a set of preconditions. Meanwhile, last week, President Trump stated that he was not seeking regime change in Iran, contradicting his national security adviser, John Bolton, who has repeatedly advocated for toppling the regime in Tehran.
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Tuesday, June 04, 2019
Democrats Double Down on Trump Show Trial / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
A majority of the public by now is sick of the witch hunt. Just imagine the fatigue and revolting sentiments that ordinary Americans have for the elitists and brainwashed libtards that want to impeach President Trump. Interminable Congressional hearings with no reasonable chance for Senate removal from office are in itself an abuse of legislative provocative. The William Jefferson Clinton impeachment demonstrated that a Republican Senate had a prearranged agreement to acquit before the trial began. If two-thirds of Senators could be mustered to convict, the RINO Republicans would need to demonstrate they are closet NeoCons.
The show trial that the establishment 'Never Trumpers' would more likely be one of continued trashing by committees and endless media presstitute reporting. The Show Trials in the USSR had the purpose of protecting Stalin. The Marxist Democrats are the Amerika version of Bolshevism. Their aim is to maintain the Deep State in power. Maintaining the totalitarian culture of collectivism by systematically destroying our Constitutional Republic has reached a point of no return.
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Monday, June 03, 2019
UKIP Racists Infiltrating Brexit Party Will Kill it Electorally as they did UKIP / Politics / BrExit
By: Nadeem_Walayat
UKIP is DEAD! Electorally speaking as first the local election results and then the European Elections showed a total collapse of their vote to just 4%, losing all 24 of their MEP's as Gerard Battens embrace of the likes of Tommy "Fake Name" Robinson killed the party. Whilst TR himself only managed to scrape the bottom of the barrel with just 2% of the vote in the North West region. Basically UKIP and TR only got the perma BNP vote.
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Friday, May 31, 2019
The Bankers’ “Power Revolution”: How the Government Got Shackled by Debt / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
This article is excerpted from my new book Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age, available in paperback June 1.
The U.S. federal debt has more than doubled since the 2008 financial crisis, shooting up from $9.4 trillion in mid-2008 to over $22 trillion in April 2019. The debt is never paid off. The government just keeps paying the interest on it, and interest rates are rising.
In 2018, the Fed announced plans to raise rates by 2020 to “normal” levels — a fed funds target of 3.375 percent — and to sell about $1.5 trillion in federal securities at the rate of $50 billion monthly, further growing the mountain of federal debt on the market. When the Fed holds government securities, it returns the interest to the government after deducting its costs; but the private buyers of these securities will be pocketing the interest, adding to the taxpayers’ bill.
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Monday, May 27, 2019
War and Young Americans / Politics / US Military
By: Raul_I_Meijer
So we’re going to do this all over again? Well, not if I can help it. Not that I have much hope that I can, mind you. As the bastions of war chime on, my voice, like so many others, will be drowned out. The military industrial complex knows how to do propaganda, better than anyone. But I’ll try.
Vietnam gave the US its biggest ever defeat, both militarily and morally, and yet mere years after its deeply humiliating withdrawal was put into action, the country was back at sending its promising young boys and girls not to its school systems, but to far away battle fields to be crippled, traumatized and slaughtered.
I know, I know, the UK and France do that too, but few other places do. Russia today uses its troops to defend its territory, China has yet to reveal its intentions. But the intentions of the US have been known ever since WWII ended.
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Sunday, May 26, 2019
Brexit Party Forces Theresa May to Resign, Boris Johnson Next Tory Prime Minister? / Politics / UK Politics
By: N_Walayat
When the European election results are announced Sunday, Nigel Farage's Brexit party looks set to win as many as 30 of the 73 seats whilst the Tory party under Theresa May are set to suffer an electoral bloodbath by winning as few as 6 seats, which would be harbinger for a disastrous outcome at the next General Election. Thus the Tory party had little choice in finally forcing an inept and crippled Prime Minister Theresa May to resign Friday, ending what amounts to a miserable 3 years that not only failed to achieve Brexit but that the past 3 years had failed to achieve anything of substance as contrary to some of the mainstream press commentary Theresa May was NO Margaret Thatcher, not coming anywhere close, who instead is probably the worst British Prime Minister in living memory.
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Thursday, May 23, 2019
Trump's futile quest for a renminbi Plaza Accord / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
Recent US media reports claim China may depreciate its renminbi to cope with shrinking exports. Yet, economic realities are precisely the reverse. Worse, trade wars are about to hit American consumers. Recently, the White House lifted tariffs to 25% from 10% on $200 billion of Chinese goods, while targeting another $300 billion worth of Chinese imports for potential punitive tariffs.
As was to be expected, the renminbi depreciated from 6.7 to more than 6.9 against the US dollar, mainly on renewed trade tensions.
China retaliated by imposing duties on $60 billion of US goods, starting June 1. China could have retaliated hard, but opted for a mild response that highlights the importance of talks.
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Wednesday, May 22, 2019
The Coming Pension Crisis Is So Big That It’s a Problem for Everyone / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
By: John_Mauldin
A decade ago I pointed out that public pension funds were $2 trillion underfunded and getting worse. More than one person told me that couldn’t be right.
They were correct: It was actually much worse. It has gotten to $2 trillion and much worse in just a few years.
Note that we are talking here about a specific kind of pension: defined benefit plans. They are usually sponsored by state and local governments, labor unions, and a number of private businesses.
Many sponsors haven’t set aside the assets needed to pay the benefits they’ve promised to current and future retirees. They can delay the inevitable for a long time but not forever. And “forever” is just around the corner.
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
The Deep State vs Donald Trump - US vs Them Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part I of this article I discussed why the “Us versus Them” mindset permeates society and how Trump has become a lightning rod for hate. Now I will assess his progress in fighting the Deep State and try to peer into a murky future.
In addition to not being Hillary, the main reasons I voted for Trump was he promised to build the wall, he promised to repeal and replace Obamacare, he promised to end our foreign military interventions, he said he would bring fiscal sanity to the budget, he said the Federal Reserve had blown an immense stock market bubble, he questioned the fake economic data spouted by government drones, and he called out the fake news bullshit media. When I regularly assess his progress on these issues, the standard response from Trump acolytes is “Would you rather have Hillary?”. No, I would not. But that doesn’t get Trump off the hook for his failures in my book.
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Monday, May 20, 2019
WAR - Us versus Them Narrative / Politics / US Military
By: James_Quinn
“I’ll show you politics in America. Here it is, right here. “I think the puppet on the right shares my beliefs.” “I think the puppet on the left is more to my liking.” “Hey, wait a minute, there’s one guy holding out both puppets!”” – Bill Hicks
Anyone who frequents Twitter, Facebook, political blogs, economic blogs, or fakes news mainstream media channels knows our world is driven by the “Us versus Them” narrative. It’s almost as if “they” are forcing us to choose sides and believe the other side is evil. Bill Hicks died in 1994, but his above quote is truer today then it was then. As the American Empire continues its long-term decline, the proles are manipulated through Bernaysian propaganda techniques, honed over the course of decades by the ruling oligarchs, to root for their assigned puppets.
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Monday, May 20, 2019
US - Iran War Safe-haven Reasons to Own Gold / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Richard_Mills
“It’s the tail that wags the dog” is defined by Urban Dictionary as a way of persuading a large group of people. The phrase is usually employed in a situation wherein a cause that expects to elicit a certain effect, is in fact reversed.
The 1997 film ‘Wag the Dog’ is about a powerful political strategist who tries to get a fictional president on board with a PR campaign involving the US invasion of Albania, a tiny country in eastern Europe, in order to divert attention from a scandal at home just two weeks before an election.
Of course, you don’t need to watch a movie to know this. There are plenty of real-life examples of presidents who used foreign invasions, coups, wars, etc. to demonstrate strong leadership and thereby shore up faltering popularity at home.
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Sunday, May 19, 2019
Tory Leadership Contest - Will Michael Gove Stab Boris Johnson in the Back Again? / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The days of Britian's worst Prime Minister in history, Theresa Mays are numbered, so there is going to be another Tory leadership contest near 3 years on from the last when David Cameron quit after losing the EU Referendum, and Boris Johnson has been quick off the mark to throw his hat into the ring. Though I hope he has learned his lesson NOT to trust fellow tories such as the likes of Michael Gove who like a character out of Game of Thrones (Little Finger) stabbed Boris in the back on the day he was supposed to announce his candidature with Gove at the helm of his campaign, instead Gove announced a few hours earlier that he, himself would be standing for Tory leader!
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Monday, May 13, 2019
Why Rising Living Standard in China Offers Global Hope / Politics / China Economy
By: Dan_Steinbock
China’s 70-Year Anniversary As living standard rises in China, its global contribution continues to increase. And that means potential for growth, poverty reduction and prosperity in emerging and developing world - new hope.
When Chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949, the Chinese people could finally begin to leave behind a century of colonial humiliation and start building a new life.
What remains so poorly understood is how dire were the conditions on that extraordinary day, seven decades ago. While China had sustained its triumph, Chinese living standard was barely 5 percent relative to the United States.
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Sunday, May 12, 2019
US Will Increase Pressure on Hong Kong In An Attempt to Cripple China's Growing Tech Influence / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Alasdair_Macleod
Behind the Huawei story, we must not forget there is a wider financial war being waged by America against China and Russia. Stories about China’s banks being short of dollars are incorrect: the shortage is of inward capital flows to support the US Government’s budget deficit. By attracting those global portfolio flows instead, China’s Belt and Road Initiative threatens US Government finances, so the financial war and associated disinformation can be expected to escalate. Hong Kong is likely to be in the firing line, due to its role in providing China with access to international finance.
Hong Kong in Trouble?
Last week, The Wall Street Journal published an article claiming China’s banks are running out of dollars. Clearly, this is untrue. China’s banks can acquire dollars any time they want, either by selling other foreign currencies in the market, or by selling renminbi to the People’s bank. They have their dollar position because they choose to have it, and furthermore all commercial banks use derivatives, which are effectively off-balance sheet exposure. Furthermore, with the US running a substantial trade deficit with China, dollars are flooding in all the time.
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Saturday, May 11, 2019
Who Has More To Lose In A No Deal Brexit? / Politics / BrExit
By: Submissions
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Thursday, May 09, 2019
The Global Consequences of U.S. Executive Power / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
(Or How Carl Schmitt Took Over the 21st Century White House) Since the Nixon era, the lure of executive power has increased in the White House. After decades of global integration, misguided policy decisions, legitimized in the name of ‘national security,’ can derail economic prospects in America and worldwide. The doctrines share a dark history.
The first administration to make explicit reference to the "Unitary Executive" was the Reagan administration. Typically, the practice has evolved since the 1970s, when President Nixon decoupled U.S. dollar from the Bretton Woods gold standard and trade deficits began to rise.
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Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Mueller Never Wanted The Truth / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Zero Hedge ran an article about omissions from the Mueller report and/or investigation. It’s instructive, but there is more. First, some bits from that article:
Major Mueller Report Omissions Suggest Incompetence Or A Coverup
Read full article... Read full article...Robert Mueller’s 448-page “Investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election” contains at least two major omissions which suggest that the special counsel and his entire team of world-class Democrat attorneys are either utterly incompetent, or purposefully concealing major crimes committed against the Trump campaign and the American people.
First, according to The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland (a former law clerk of nearly 25 years and instructor at the college of business at the University of Notre Dame) – the Mueller report fails to consider whether the dossier authored by former MI6 spy Christopher Steele was Russian disinformation, and Steele was not charged with lying to the FBI.
“The Steele dossier, which consisted of a series of memorandum authored by the former MI6 spy, detailed intel purportedly provided by a variety of Vladimir Putin-connected sources. For instance, Steele identified Source A as “a senior Russian Foreign Ministry figure” who “confided that the Kremlin had been feeding Trump and his team valuable intelligence on his opponents, including Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
Will Katie Hopkins Stand for BrExit Party in Elections After Helping Destroy UKIP? / Politics / UK Politics
By: N_Walayat
Katie Hopkins darling of the far right latest tweets are alluding to her preparing to make the leap from UKIP to the Brexit Party. After all UKIP effectively died in the local elections, so a case of mission accomplished for the Trojan Horse that are Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson, who successfully turned what should have been a UKIP local elections victory in the wake of Westminster Brexit chaos into an even worse performance than that of the Tories, by losing more than 80% of their councilors to end the night down 145 councilors with just 31 left. A TOTAL DISASTER!
Which should not come as much surprise to those who follow my analysis as I forewarned what to expect in electoral terms of the impact of Trojan Horse right win fanatics for the fundamental fact is that elections are won at the margins and not by preaching extreme messages to die hard supporters as they would have voted for UKIP regardless.
29 Mar 2019 - UK INDEPENDENCE DAY CANCELLED! As Westminster SUBVERTS BREXIT!
Brexit Master Nigel Farage understands this which is why he will storm the European elections by winning at least 25 seats! Literally going from nothing to 25+ seats all within a couple of months of the launch of his Brexit Party! A true electoral genius, who unlike the idiot in charge of UKIP understands that the likes of Katie Hopkins and Tommy Robinson are toxic to political parties.
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