Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Why The End of QE May Be Imminent? / Politics / Quantitative Easing
By: DK_Matai
Has the central bankers' pixie dust of perpetual money printing begun to lose its power as it was wont to do at some stage in the non-stop Quantitative Easing (QE) insulin injection cycle?
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Mass Surveillance Dirty Secret - NSA Spying Doesn’t Work to Prevent Terrorism / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
William Binney knows as much about spying as anyone alive.
Binney – a 32-year National Security Agency veteran – is the former head of the NSA’s global digital data gathering program, and a very highly-regarded cryptographer.
Binney told Daily Caller yesterday that the spying “dragnet” being carried out by the government is useless:
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Wednesday, June 12, 2013
The Only Way To Beat Global Warming / Politics / Climate Change
By: Andrew_McKillop
WIN THE WAR
Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering sacred cows. The impassioned defenders of this ideology say that we cannot afford to ignore either the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear energy, or the transformational potentials of genetic engineering, the benefits of nanotech, robotics and the rapid growth of geoengineering.
In the 1960s and up to the late-1970s “global cooling” was the topic of headline articles in popular media such as 'Newsweek' with reports of meteorologists being “almost unanimous” that the cooling trend could lead to catastrophic famines, another little Ice Age, or worse. In 1974 'Time' magazine published an article titled “Another Ice Age?.”
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
U.S. Politicians and Central Bankers Crushing the Middle Class / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Browne
Like a carefully memorized religious incantation, politicians and central bankers continually stress how their stimulus policies are designed to promote the interests and prosperity of the middle class. Cynical observers may note that this brave political stance may have something to do with gaining the support of the vast majority of voters who identify themselves as "middle class." However, the cumulative effect of their economic programs has achieved the opposite. The middle class is being crushed under increased taxes, negative real interest rates, debased currencies and increasingly intrusive regulations.
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Monday, June 10, 2013
NSA Built Back Door In All Microsoft Windows Software Since 1999 / Politics / US Politics
By: Washingtons_Blog
In researching the stunning pervasiveness of spying by the government (it’s much more wide spread than you’ve heard even now), we ran across the fact that the FBI wants software programmers to install a backdoor in all software.
Digging a little further, we found a 1999 article by leading European computer publication Heise which noted that the NSA had already built a backdoor into all Windows software:
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Monday, June 10, 2013
Ron Paul on NSA U.S. Government Spying: Should We Be Shocked? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week we saw dramatic new evidence of illegal government surveillance of our telephone calls, and of the National Security Agency's deep penetration into American companies such as Facebook and Microsoft to spy on us. The media seemed shocked.
Many of us are not so surprised.
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Sunday, June 09, 2013
Another Phony U.S. Jobs Report From A Government That Lies About Everything / Politics / Unemployment
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The payroll jobs report for May released today continues the fantasy.
Goods producing jobs declined, with manufacturing losing another 4,000 jobs, but the New Economy produced 179,000 service jobs.
Are these jobs the high-powered, high-wage “innovation jobs” that economists promised would be our reward from Globalism. I’m afraid not.
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Sunday, June 09, 2013
Transcend Conditioned Consciousness None But Ourselves Can Free Our Minds / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_DeGraw
Seventeen years ago, I read a book called The Evolving Self. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, it profoundly affected the direction of my life. Here’s the section of the book that became a splinter in my mind and resonated the most with me:
Read full article... Read full article...“In order to gain control of consciousness, we must learn how to moderate the biases built into the machinery of the brain. We allow a whole series of illusions to stand between ourselves and reality…. These distortions are comforting, yet they need to be seen through for the self to be truly liberated… to come ever closer to getting a glimpse of the universal order, and of our part in it.”
Saturday, June 08, 2013
Internet is Intelligence Agencies Virtual PRISM for Total State Surveillance And Control / Politics / Social Issues
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The PRISM system for the all prevailing global phone calls and internet access super surveillance state should not come as any surprise to most readers as new technologies are ALWAYS subverted by the state to spy on its citizens, and so citizens of the world have been given a glimpse into the current state of the surveillance state following leaks of the US operation PRISM which concerns ALL of your private phone calls, transactions, communications, accesses and interactions with virtually all of the major communications and web services from tek giants such as Verizon, AT&T, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, AOL, Yahoo and even Apple, who gave us the anti big brother sales propaganda against IBM near 30 years ago (1984), only now to be revealed that Apple too is part and parcel of the state security apparatus.
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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