Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Courts / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: MISES
Ben O'Neill writes: Many commentators following the NSA scandals have been eagerly awaiting the recommendations of the US government task force on the matter, and the proposed reforms to be implemented by President Obama to bring the spy agency under control. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, you can watch the president’s recent speech and nod your head approvingly when he talks about the“tradition of limited government” in the United States, and the constitutional limits his government is at pains to respect. Oh, and just for good measure, while you’re listening to this magnificent oration being replayed to you on YouTube, the NSA will be recording your internet browser history, or possibly even hacking your computer.[1] If you decide to click on the “like” or “dislike” buttons at the bottom of the video, that little nugget of political information can be added to their “metadata” archives, along with the rest of your internet activities. In fact, in the 42 minutes it will take you to watch the president’s speech, the NSA will have hoovered up around 40 million records of internet browsing from around the world.[2] Perhaps yours will be among them.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Obamacare as a Jobs Killer / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Economic illiteracy is a hallmark of most political policies. The prime example of this principle is the idiocy out of the Obama administration that maintains that the Affordable Care Act is favorable to job seekers. The ranks of progressive euphoria reporting on the joys of Obamacare want to spin the latest Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) analysis as favorable. As these imbeciles push out their demented dreams for a neo Great Society, the facts of trade and industry need to be buried in order to institute the total welfare state.
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Obama Spins Subsidies Both Ways / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Peter_Schiff
In our current age of spin and counter-spin, there is no contortion too great for a politician to attempt. On occasion, however, the threads of one story become entangled with another in a manner that should deeply embarrass, if the media were sharp enough to catch it.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
The Putin Interlude Draws To A Close, Russia's Terror War Psychosis / Politics / Russia
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Would-Be Empire
Vladimir Putin's presidency is likely soon to end. Putin himself has several times given hints that he is not interested in another term. Other signs and signals point the same way – even the Sochi Games and their financial fallout. Planned as a festival of profit for handpicked, Kremlin vetted-vested interests its circus of waste, fraud, abuse and double dealing has dismayed several powerful Oligarchs close to power, who are now increasingly far from Putin.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Lowlife Keynesian Morons in Power / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Richard_Daughty
As the scene opens, lights swirl in the eerie black background, crazily careening in a whirling kaleidoscope of disjointed light and dark. In the distance, sirens dimly wail. My face half-hidden in the gloom, I am mindlessly wiping the gleaming barrel of what appears to be a machinegun when I dully look up into the camera lens.
Staring directly into the camera, my narrowed, bloodshot eyes darting from side to side like the frightened little rat that I am, I feverishly say in a hoarse whisper “The Federal Reserve is monetizing the debt! We’re Freaking Doomed (WFD)!”
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
New Dimensions of U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Russia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
The struggle for some of the most strategic territory in the world took an interesting twist this week. Last week we discussed what appeared to be a significant shift in German national strategy in which Berlin seemed to declare a new doctrine of increased assertiveness in the world -- a shift that followed intense German interest in Ukraine. This week, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, in a now-famous cell phone conversation, declared her strong contempt for the European Union and its weakness and counseled the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine to proceed quickly and without the Europeans to piece together a specific opposition coalition before the Russians saw what was happening and took action.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
TV Propaganda and the Mind Control Culture / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: BATR
Few subjects present an undisputable window into modern society than the electronic version of reality that is dispensed through television broadcasts. This technology does not require interactive skills or critical thinking acumen. Just watch and fall into a daydream trance. TV is the stealth killer that penetrates 114.7 million American households. According to Nielsen, the 2012 Universe Estimate (UE), reflects a reduction in the estimated percent of U.S. homes with a television set (TV penetration), which declined to 96.7 percent from 98.9 percent. Should this turn down suggest promise or is it merely a result of internet substitution?
Monday, February 10, 2014
The Stench of Political and Financial Corruption / Politics / Banksters
By: Jesse
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Monday, February 10, 2014
Ron Paul Asks Will No One Challenge Obama's Executive Orders? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
President Obama's state of the union pledge to "act with or without Congress" marks a milestone in presidential usurpation of Congressional authority. Most modern presidents have used executive orders to change and even create laws without Congressional approval. However President Obama is unusually brazen, in that most Presidents do not brag about their plans to rule by executive order in state of the union speeches.
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Monday, February 10, 2014
Danger Alert! 25 Signs That The US Middle Class Is Facing Annihilation / Politics / Social Issues
By: LibertyGoldAndSilver
While the ever distracted and perpetually preoccupied American public is just recovering from the onslaught of the Super Bowl and readying itself for two continuous weeks of the vicarious videotaped splendor of the Winter Olympics from Russia, ominous signs of the inevitable collapse of the American economic and social order continue to grow. Regrettably, very few of these signs are ever discussed on any of the business channels.
Sunday, February 09, 2014
The American Dream is Dead, Obama Killed It / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
If you follow the financial news, you already know that the American people are on an epic downer. Just check out some of these headlines I pulled up in a five minute Internet search and you’ll see what I mean:
Read full article... Read full article...“Gloom and doom? Americans more pessimistic about future” Las Vegas Review
Sunday, February 09, 2014
Who Owns The Federal Reserve? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Ellen_Brown
– The Honorable Louis McFadden, Chairman of the House Banking and Currency Committee in the 1930s
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Sunday, February 09, 2014
Russia Sochi Olympic's Terrorist Attack Threat, Who is Behind the Caucasus Terrorists? / Politics / Russia
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
In the weeks leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Western Media has released a dribble of “trustworthy reports” examining “the likelihood” of a terrorist attack at the height of the Olympic games.
In late January, the British government warned “that more terrorist attacks in Russia (following the Volgograd attack in December) are “very likely to occur before or during the Winter Olympics in Sochi”. (BBC, January 27, 2014).
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Sunday, February 09, 2014
The Eastern Europe Question Goes Viral / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Before The Storm
One of our major problems is there is no such thing as “the eastern question” today. It was pre-1914 thinking – and concern – about the coming break-up of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and what that would do to the European “powderkeg of the Balkans”. The highly-related “Balkans question” of pre-1914 concerned when, rather than if the jigsaw puzzle and powderkeg would explode, and what type of World War would ensue in the scrabble for territory. Today we effectively have a pan-Asian question, but due to compartmentalized thinking it is ignored or sidelined. This new eastern question is much bigger than the pre-1914 version – in fact globalized - and at least as dangerous.
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Saturday, February 08, 2014
The View From Madrid - Spain Running Away From Reality / Politics / Spain
By: Fred_Sheehan
Fernando del Pino writes "Independent views on Spain, Europe and the big picture of politics and money" one of the few realistic appraisals written from Europe today. Running Away from Reality is anathema to the nomenclatura since its untroubled disposition runs faster and faster from the encroaching reality. To read more of his essays, his website is http://www.fpcs.es
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Friday, February 07, 2014
Non-Farm Friday – Is America Working? / Politics / Employment
By: PhilStockWorld
I F'ing give up!!!
I try my best to make people aware of the ridiculous BS that goes on behind the scenes in the halls of power. I try to help people understand the way Big Business manipulates our Government, the same way the Banksters and Billionaires manipulate the markets. In short – we explore the dark side of Capitalism as having a realistic outlook helps us make better trading decisions.
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Friday, February 07, 2014
Post-Lehman Financial Crisis Era Coming to an End / Politics / Credit Crisis 2014
By: Alasdair_Macleod
When Lehman collapsed in 2008, the world stopped while the Fed implemented its plan to rescue America's banks and the world's financial system. This was achieved by making unlimited money available to the banks, and the stimulus has continued subsequently through quantitative easing. The post-Lehman era has therefore been one of unprecedented and coincidental expansion of narrowly defined money supply in all five major currencies, the fifth being the Chinese renminbi which has seen additional expansion of bank credit as well.
Friday, February 07, 2014
How Central Banks Cause Income Inequality / Politics / Central Banks
By: Frank_Hollenbeck
The gap between the rich and poor continues to grow. The wealthiest 1 percent held 8 percent of the economic pie in 1975 but now hold over 20 percent. This is a striking change from the 1950s and 1960s when their share of all incomes was slightly over 10 percent. A study by Emmanuel Saez found that between 2009 and 2012 the real incomes of the top 1 percent jumped 31.4 percent. The richest 10 percent now receive 50.5 percent of all incomes, the largest share since data was first recorded in 1917. The wealthiest are becoming disproportionally wealthier at an ever increasing rate.
Friday, February 07, 2014
Farm Bill 2014: The Food Insecurity Bill / Politics / Food Crisis
By: Michael_T_Bucci
As part of a package of agricultural legislation, Congress and the President have passed what should be called "the food insecurity bill" that will cut $8.7 billion in food assistance (SNAP or food stamps) over the next decade. The bill will cause an estimated 850,000 low-income households in sixteen states (including Maine) to lose an average $90 in monthly benefits, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, following an approximately $11 billion cut to SNAP benefits on November 1 of last year. Since 2007 and the beginning of the Great Recession, food stamp enrollment has surged from about 26.3 million people to 47.6 million last year, according to Agriculture Department figures.
Wednesday, February 05, 2014
No Bid Government Contracts / Politics / Government Spending
By: BATR
Corporatocracy is distinctly the dominate practice when it comes to doing business with the federal government. The once embryonic relationships between favored companies and agency bureaucrats, have germinated into distinctive hybrid organisms. Grafting into self-generating species resistant and virtually immune from pest control methods can be found in every area of government expenditures. The big daddy of cozy dealing is that preverbal military-industrial-security complex.