Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, July 03, 2010
Overwhelmed by Oil and Toxic Pollutants: The Destuction of an Entire Coastline / Politics / Environmental Issues
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: "The sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours ...
For this, for everything, we are out of tune." (William Wordsworth, 1770-1850.)
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Should We Nuke the BP Gulf Oil Well? / Politics / Environmental Issues
CBS News, the Christian Science Monitor, CNN and Reuters have all asked whether BP should nuke its leaking oil well.
Indeed, some high-level Russian nuclear scientists and oil industry experts have suggested such that approach to stop the Gulf oil gusher. Here is archival footage of the Russians killing a gas leak with a nuclear device.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
U.S. Economy is Stuck in Misery / Politics / US Politics
The middle class is dead. The US has produced a self-sustaining two-class society. Most Lower Class Americans are in bad or uncertain economic shape but the rich and powerful Upper Class crowd keeps making and spending money as if there has been no recession.
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Saturday, July 03, 2010
Postcards from the Gulf, Clouds of Oil Billowing from Seabed may Contain Silver Lining / Politics / Environmental Issues
James Macfarlane writes: There may be something other than misery being telegraphed from the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. To the acute observer, something besides crude oil may be seen rising to the surface. It’s a message. A message revealing a deeper truth as to the real meaning of this crisis.
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Saturday, July 03, 2010
Chinese Yaun Manipulation, Currency Reform Bill Is Only a Small First Step / Politics / Market Regulation
It’s nice to see the long-stewing Chinese currency manipulation pot bubbling a bit again, thanks to China’s latest blatantly disingenuous move to allow a token fluctuation or two of the yuan. And it’s great that Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s currency bill is inching towards the floor of the Senate. (The underlying idea, giving American industries formal trade remedies against currency manipulation by foreign governments, was actually thought up several years ago by Kevin Kearns, president of my organization, the U.S. Business & Industry Council.)Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, July 03, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Spill Disaster, An Impossible Well to Cap? / Politics / Environmental Issues
My first article in this series was a query; I listed the theories and evidence I’d seen thus far and asked for readers to respond and tell me I was crazy (which a few of you did, in as many words…much appreciated J). I felt that what I was writing about seemed to me far “too apocalyptic” as one comment on the original article stated. If you read the introduction and conclusion of the first article it becomes rather obvious that I wasn’t advocating, I was inquiring. I received over 100 emails; after investigating those leads here are what I’ve concluded thus far.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 02, 2010
G20 Economic Stimulus Stalemate in Toronto / Politics / Global Economy
Last week, global attention was focused on Toronto as the G-20 gathered to confront the growing financial and economic worries darkening the global economic horizon. In an irony worthy of Orwell, the representatives of the world's top 20 economies (19 countries plus the European Union) managed to ignore the out-of-control spending contained in Western governments' budgets and instead unite behind a banner that they called "financial responsibility." This is akin to a group of Mafiosi holding a summit on business ethics.
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Friday, July 02, 2010
Sheffield NHS Choose Your GP Consultation as Health Life Expectancy Gap Widens / Politics / NHS
The 13 year Labour government has come and gone and still PCT's such as the Sheffield NHS are sat twiddling their thumbs with yet another patient consultation rather than acting to allow patients to be able to choose to register with any GP, as patients remain locked into their local GP surgeries regardless of the huge disparity in actual health care provision as experienced by patients and as demonstrated by the UK GP Patient survey ( http://results.gp-patient.co.uk- table below).
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
How Bad is Alabama's Tax Structure? / Politics / Taxes
Helping the poor is one of the most important things society does. But we do the poor no favors when we promote public policies that perpetuate poverty.
This especially applies to the tax system.
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
Deficit Terrorism and Economic Warfare as Main Street Slips Into Debt Slavery / Politics / US Debt
Wall Street banks have been saved from bankruptcy by governments that are now going bankrupt themselves; but the banks are not returning the favor. Instead, they are engaged in a class war, insisting that the squeezed middle class be even further squeezed to balance over-stressed government budgets. All the perks are going to Wall Street, while Main Street slips into debt slavery. Wall Street needs to be made to pay its fair share, but how?
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
BP and Bhopal, U.S. Double Standards / Politics / US Politics
Bill Quigley and Alex Tuscano writes: When President Barak Obama went after BP and demanded a $20 billion dollar fund be set up for victims of the Gulf oil spill, the people of India were furious. They saw a US double standard. The US demonstrated it values human life within the US more than the lives of the people of India.
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
G20, Colossus and The Forbin Project / Politics / US Politics
The G20 Toronto Summit declaration reminds me of nothing so much as a science-fiction movie made in 1970 called Colossus: The Forbin Project.
The United States builds an impregnable computer system to control its nuclear weapons. As soon as it is activated, it senses a similar Russian system and demands a link – or else it will detonate a nuclear warhead. Once it gains this link, the two computers exchange information. The combination takes over control. It cannot be disconnected without unleashing nuclear catastrophe.
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
The Dismantling of a Suspected Russian Intelligence Operation / Politics / GeoPolitics
The U.S. Department of Justice announced June 28 that an FBI counterintelligence investigation had resulted in the arrest on June 27 of 10 individuals suspected of acting as undeclared agents of a foreign country, in this case, Russia. Eight of the individuals were also accused of money laundering. On June 28, five of the defendants appeared before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Manhattan while three others went before a federal magistrate in Alexandria, Va., and two more went before a U.S. magistrate in Boston. An 11th person named in the criminal complaint was arrested in Cyprus on June 29, posted bail and is currently at large.
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
BP and the "End Times"? / Politics / Environmental Issues
I am not much into "the End Times" prediction, as so many have been predicted in the past and obviously have failed to materialise, but the BP Oil catastrophe in the Gulf has given me some pause to think about some well-known world predictions of the end of times, all of which have proven remarkably enduring.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 01, 2010
Donkey of the Month: Lady Gaga, President Obama, BP's Tony Hayward or New York Governor (David A Paterson) / Politics / US Politics
Welcome to my monthly rant about people acting like bad little boys and girls in, or reported as such, in the month of June 2010. The month was a busy month of men and women acting strange, outrageous, insane and just plain stupid. There were several candidates on the bubble who didn't make the elite eight, but somehow, I expect they will take another run at "Donkey of the Month" in the near future. Here are my elite eight candidates:
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
Changing Attitudes on the Value of an Education / Politics / Social Issues
In response to Teenagers Scared Over Plight of their Parents; Attitudes - Bernanke's Biggest, Most Futile Fight which was based on a comment on my blog by someone using the name "Nancy Drew", please consider this response from "Projammer"
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
BP Gulf Oil Spill Questions and Answers / Politics / Environmental Issues
Victor Chan Wai-To writes: The 2010 Mexican oil spill is one of the largest offshore spills in history. Just a month after it occured, billions of dollars are lost and lives of millions of people are destroyed. Below is a summary on the incident, expressed in a Q&A format, which gives an up-to-date estimation of the economic destruction brought by the incident at the time of writing (early July 2010).
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
The Economy Is Sinking, Confidence Is Down Along With The Stock Market. Is A Depression Coming? / Politics / US Politics
The FBI arrests 1200 Americans for mortgage fraud in the largest crackdown of its kind in history. There is no media focus on the companies that securitized and insured their toxic loans. This white-collar crime sweep is, at best, a one-day story with most of the reports carried by local outlets.
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Thursday, July 01, 2010
Ben Bernanke’s Missing Puzzle Pieces / Politics / Central Banks
The “Man Who Saved the World,” Ben Bernanke delivered a truly incredible speech last week, stating that he was “puzzled” by the recent rise in Gold. A few of his more startling comments are below:
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Wednesday, June 30, 2010
War on Journalism / Politics / US Politics
John Pilger, award-winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. He began his career in journalism nearly half a century ago and has written close to a dozen books and made over fifty documentaries. He lives in London but is in the United States working on a forthcoming documentary about what he calls "the war on the media." It’s called The War You Don’t See.
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