Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Limitless Drone War, the Hellfire, Morality and Strategy / Politics / War on Terror
By: STRATFOR
Airstrikes by unmanned aerial vehicles have become a matter of serious dispute lately. The controversy focuses on the United States, which has the biggest fleet of these weapons and which employs them more frequently than any other country. On one side of this dispute are those who regard them simply as another weapon of war whose virtue is the precision with which they strike targets. On the other side are those who argue that in general, unmanned aerial vehicles are used to kill specific individuals, frequently civilians, thus denying the targeted individuals their basic right to some form of legal due process.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Obama's Theory Of Institutional Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
ACTION BEFORE ITS TOO LATE - WATTS UP WITH THAT?
Wattsupwiththat.com, the most viewed Web site on global warming, climate change and bad weather policy and management, leads this week with an article by Ken Haapala, a director of the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), founded by the longstanding "climate sceptic", S. Fred Singer. Before his now total and outspoken opposition to the core theses of "anthropogenic global warming due to CO2", and other human origin greenhouse gases, 89-year-old Austrian-born Singer was a scientist renowned for his works on space research, atmospheric chemistry, rocket and satellite technology.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
How Turkey Could Shift the Global Balance of Power / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Money_Morning
Jeff Uscher writes: Is Turkey about to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)?
After years of delay on its application to join the European Union (EU) as a full member, Turkey has made overtures to the SCO as an alternative to the EU.
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Why the Power Elite Will Lose Power / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
The best description of the reversal of fortune is Mary's Magnificat, recorded in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, verses 46-55. "He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree" (v. 52).
This was a fundamental theme in the Old Testament. We are told that those who hold their position by means of political power and corruption always lose their position. They are always overthrown. They look unbeatable. They are always defeated. The prophets of Israel came before kings and commoners with this message. Isaiah 1 is a good example. Isaiah even identified a major technique of the power elite: inflation. "Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water" (Isa 1:22).
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Monday, February 18, 2013
Obama's State of the Delusion Speech, US Adrift At Sea / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.”– Friedrich Nietzsche
The big story this past week, besides the annual State of the Delusion speech by Barack “It won’t add a cent to the deficit” Obama, was the fate of the passengers on the Carnival Triumph as their skyscraper sized ship was left adrift at sea for days without power. This 900 foot long, 100,000 ton goliath is one of the largest passenger cruise liners in the world, carrying 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members in luxurious splendor through warm Gulf of Mexico seas to sun drenched exotic isles.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Ron Paul on the U.S. Drone Threat / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, Senators threatened to put a "hold" on the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director over his refusal to answer questions about the use of drones to kill Americans on US soil. That the president's nominee to head the agency that has used drones to kill perhaps thousands overseas could not deny their possible use at home should be shocking. How did we get to this point?
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Monday, February 18, 2013
The Final Economic Countdown / Politics / Global Economy
By: Alasdair_Macleod
Governments have refused to accept the necessity of a period of economic re-adjustment following the credit-bubble. The bubble burst about five years ago and economic progress has been effectively suspended ever since. The consequences of this refusal to accept reality are at a minimum to make this adjustment unnecessarily drawn out and needlessly painful, without offering a better eventual outcome.
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
Behind the SEC’s Revolving Door Between Jobs in Washington and Wall Street / Politics / Market Regulation
By: PhilStockWorld
John Light writes: The Project on Government Oversight (POGO), a government accountability watchdog group, published a report this week on the so-called “revolving door” at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Authored by POGO Investigator Michael Smallberg, the report highlights numerous examples of how the back and forth of SEC regulators between jobs in Washington and on Wall Street blunts the agency’s effectiveness.
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
Obama's Next Big Housing Market Giveaway to the Bankster Mafia / Politics / Banksters
By: Mike_Whitney
For those who missed President Obama’s latest giveaway to the Bank Mafia, we’ll repeat what he said here. This is an excerpt from Tuesday’s State of the Union Speech:
“Part of our rebuilding effort must also involve our housing sector. Today, our housing market is finally healing from the collapse of 2007. Home prices are rising at the fastest pace in six years, home purchases are up nearly 50 percent, and construction is expanding again.
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
Pentagon Creates Medal to Honor Drone Killers / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
John Glaser writes: The Defense Department has decided to create a medal to honor US soldiers who sit at a computer and operate armed, unmanned vehicles bombing people thousands of miles away.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday announced that the Pentagon can award the Distinguished Warfare Medal to drone operators, because although they are far from any battlefield, they have a direct impact on combat operations.
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Sunday, February 17, 2013
Why Bankers Rule the World - It’s the Interest, Stupid! / Politics / Banksters
By: Ellen_Brown
In the 2012 edition of Occupy Money released last week, Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP. That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street. The rich get progressively richer at the expense of the poor, not just because of “Wall Street greed” but because of the inexorable mathematics of our private banking system.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
The Real New World Order is Bankers Taking over the World / Politics / Banksters
By: John_Kozy
How quickly best laid plans become passé. New world orders come, it seems, as frequently as eclipses.
The old world order (ancien régime), along with 16 million people, died during the Great European War which began on June 28, 1914 when the Austrian heir to the throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated by a Serb nationalist, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo. (Today he would be called a terrorist.) This assassination sent nations that had no desire to go to war into the most destructive war the world had yet experienced.
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Saturday, February 16, 2013
The Educated Socialism of Obama / Politics / US Politics
By: DailyWealth
Porter Stansberry writes: In Wednesday's essay, I laid out the "great lie" that is bankrupting America.
At the heart of this lie – told by so many of our political leaders and believed by so many of my fellow citizens – is a horrifying turn of events. As I mentioned, the drive for freedom and a better life through hard work, saving, and independence has been replaced by a craven need for the illusion of security.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
The Power Elite Bought the U.S. Presidential Election With Central Bank Printed Money / Politics / US Presidential Election 2012
By: Bill_Bonner
Today, on the Ides of February, we hold our hat in our hand... we bow our head... and let our mouth fall open in amazement. Our Lenten program of fasting, prayer and meditation is producing results. We are lightheaded from near-starvation and alcohol deprivation. But our thoughts are clear. Or else, we are hallucinating.
In the last two days, we've taken a look at what promises to be the biggest bust-up of all time.
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Notes from the New War Generation / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
I was born in 1991. I’ve lived over half my life in a nation at war.
Starting in 2001, when I was just ten years old, the War on Terror and it’s two biggest projects to date, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have shaped my view of war as a regular facet of life, a part of being an American. It’s just something that we do. This puts me in an unfortunately un-special class of about 90 million U.S. citizens who can lay claim to this bitter benchmark, one that grows each year as more blood is shed and lives torn apart in the fog of perpetual war. Though we’ve seen no bombs fall or bullets fired in front of our eyes, we are most certainly a product of war’s specter, albeit in a different sense than our grandparents were.
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Obama's New Minimum Wage Will Eliminate At Least 467,000 Jobs / Politics / Unemployment
By: Money_Morning
Ben Gersten writes: In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Barack Obama urged Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9, saying the move would reduce poverty and stimulate the economy.
"Tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour," President Obama said. "This single step would raise the incomes of millions of working families. It could mean the difference between groceries or the food bank, rent or eviction, scraping by or finally getting ahead.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
President Obama's State of the Union Address Fuzzy on Maths / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: President Obama's State of the Union Address on Tuesday night was high on rhetoric but short on math.
As with most Obama speeches, it was beautifully delivered. However, even where I agreed with the ideas, I couldn't quell a nagging suspicion that the numbers simply didn't add up, and indeed likely missed by a lot.
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
China, Beijing's Pollution Alarms Neighbors / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: OilPrice_Com
The good news for the Chinese leadership is that their fiscal policies have paid off, producing both the world's second largest economy and the globe's leading creditor nation in less than a generation.
The less good news is that the country's hell-bent drive towards industrialization has brought in its train a host of collateral problems, not the least of which is pollution. Last month Beijing's air pollution soared past levels considered hazardous by the World Health Organization.
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Wednesday, February 13, 2013
U.S. Rogue State Business / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
KEEPING UP APPEARANCES
Noam Chomsky's new book with David Barsamian 'Power Systems' keeps up appearances in what we can call Rogue State Business, Chomsky's line of business for more than 30 yeas. This business is perhaps in a downturn, but not yet in recession. Defining the difference is easy: being glad when the neighbors lost their jobs, and you didn't, is the American definition of an economic downturn but not, definitely not a recession. Only when you lose your job, is it a recession.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
America's Suffering Middle Class, Still Worse Off than 2008 / Politics / Social Issues
By: Money_Morning
David Zeiler writes:
The government's numbers - primarily the monthly data on unemployment and inflation - tell the story of a slow but gradual recovery by the U.S. economy.
But the experience of millions of Americans tells a far different story.
According to a new national survey conducted by the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, many Americans continue to suffer from the impact of the Great Recession.
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