Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Libya Premature Victory Celebration / Politics / Middle East
The war in Libya is over. More precisely, governments and media have decided that the war is over, despite the fact that fighting continues. The unfulfilled expectation of this war has consistently been that Moammar Gadhafi would capitulate when faced with the forces arrayed against him, and that his own forces would abandon him as soon as they saw that the war was lost. What was being celebrated last week, with presidents, prime ministers and the media proclaiming the defeat of Gadhafi, will likely be true in due course. The fact that it is not yet true does not detract from the self-congratulations.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
Mission Accomplished in Libya? / Politics / US Politics
Even as a major hurricane hit America's eastern seaboard, the administration is determined to expand the war in Libya while threatening the regime in Syria. Is there any limit to government's appetite to create more problems for our nation and economy?
Americans may be tempted to celebrate the apparent victory of US and NATO backed rebels in Libya, since it seems the Gaddafi regime is overthrown. But I believe any enthusiasm for our Libyan misadventure is premature.
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Monday, August 29, 2011
U.S. Avoid Trade War? We're Already In One! / Politics / Protectionism
Whenever protectionists like myself demand that the U.S. government do something to stand up for America in global trade, we are shouted down with the stern admonition, "You'll start a trade war."
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Sunday, August 28, 2011
The West Wants to take Control of Libya's Oil Wealth / Politics / Middle East
While Libyan revolutionaries have not yet won the war in the oil-rich country, Western powers are already discussing the post-Gaddafi period on such issues as how the interim government there needs to honor its oil contracts.
In case of internal fighting in Libyan crisis, will the US and its coalition NATO allies deploy boots on the ground to protect their oil interests?
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Trade With China and India Will Not Collapse America's Economy / Politics / US Economy
For over half a century, I have read warnings that free trade is a threat to America. The freer it gets, the more we are told that slave labor in Asia is threatening the workers of America.
We hear calls for fair trade. Who is to decide what is fair trade? Congress. Ah, yes: Congress. The source of fairness if ever there was one. No special interests there, putting their PAC-filled fingers on the balance scale of justice.
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Saturday, August 27, 2011
Behind Closed Doors at the Fed: Ten Years of Research into America's Central Bank / Politics / Central Banks
During the past few years, The Federal Reserve has engaged in a "deliberate inflating policy."
This policy earned disfavor, both at home and abroad.
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Friday, August 26, 2011
Why Congress Blocking the Debt Ceiling Increase Will Launch an Economic Boom / Politics / US Debt
Pieter Schoonheim Samara writes: The general population hasn’t been taught the economics of the private sector free enterprise Capitalism as it relates to Freedom (audio link) in many decades, nor that private sector capitalism is the opposite side of the same coin of Liberty upon which the Constitution is based.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Western Mainstream Media Complicit in NATO War Crimes in Libya / Politics / Mainstream Media
Libya represents a new low in Western government war crimes – which is something of a disturbing record given the decades of war criminality by these governments.
In Libya, not only is there the criminal military assault on a sovereign country, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the murder of women and children, and all the violation of international law that that entails – we now have the complete lobotomisation of language and normal meaning of words.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
German Court Wields Huge Economic Power / Politics / Financial Markets 2011
With investors now emerging from a state of panic after the harrowing losses of late July and August, stock markets are now rising and gold is finally falling after a record run that pushed its price north of $1,900 per ounce. The buoyant mood is largely undergirded by the hope that on this Friday, August 26th, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke will announce another round of stimulus to stop the U.S. economy from slipping back into another recession.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Libya After Gadhafi: Transitioning from Rebellion to Rule / Politics / Middle East
Scott Stewart writes: With the end of the Gadhafi regime seemingly in sight, it is an opportune time to step back and revisit one of the themes we discussed at the beginning of the crisis: What comes after the Gadhafi regime?As the experiences of recent years in Iraq and Afghanistan have vividly illustrated, it is far easier to depose a regime than it is to govern a country. It has also proved to be very difficult to build a stable government from the remnants of a long-established dictatorial regime. History is replete with examples of coalition fronts that united to overthrow an oppressive regime but then splintered and fell into internal fighting once the regime they fought against was toppled. In some cases, the power struggle resulted in a civil war more brutal than the one that brought down the regime. In other cases, this factional strife resulted in anarchy that lasted for years as the iron fist that kept ethnic and sectarian tensions in check was suddenly removed, allowing those issues to re-emerge.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Media Campaign to Undermine Ron Paul's Presidential Candidacy Begins Again / Politics / US Politics
Picking up where they left off in 2008, the media is in the midst of a campaign to ignore and undermine the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul (they gave me even rougher treatment during my 2010 Senate run). Political pundits just do not know what to do with a candidate who fails to fit into the blue and red boxes that form the simple narrative of American politics. They are perturbed by the grass roots nature of the campaign, by the strange honesty and earnestness of the candidate and his supporters, and the odd mixture of conservative values and liberty-minded policies. And like most adolescents, they reject what they don't understand.
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Thursday, August 25, 2011
Libya's Post Gadhaffi Future - Who gets the Oil? / Politics / Oil Companies
Muammar Gadhaffi's 42 year-old regime is in its death rattle - maybe today, maybe tomorrow, his administration that has ruled Libya with a quixotic and brutal hand is about to pass, in Trotsky's piquant phrase, "into the dustbin of history," prompting the question "what next?"
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Wednesday, August 24, 2011
NATO Targets Syria After Libya for Regime Change / Politics / Middle East
With globalist restructuring plans for the Middle East and North Africa looking to be nearly complete, one major hurdle remains. After a relatively easy path to victory in Tunisia and Egypt, and with the project to dismantle and re-privatise the Libyan state nearly complete, only Syria remains as the last serious contender for resistance against a globalist effort to dominate the greater region.
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Tuesday, August 23, 2011
What Happened In Tripoli From 20TH To 22ND Of August - The Truth !! / Politics / Middle East
Forest Lane Submits: It’s no longer a surprise that a media war is being waged against Gaddafi and Libya. In March, all news were breaking and highly contradictive towards each other. It arose in global media approximately on 15th of August, when a Saudi Arabia newspaper Asharq Alawsat told that Gaddafi is allegedly ill and ready to leave the country. Saudis, mortal enemies of Muammar Gaddafi, were, of course, such a reliable source, that all other papers followed.
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Monday, August 22, 2011
The Illusion of Safety, Government Cannot Protect Us / Politics / US Politics
Recent incidents of violence in Norway and London have made us understandably uncomfortable here at home, as many fear that a worsening economy will lead to violence and unrest in American cities. This is why Congress must view the economy as its first priority and a matter of national security: unless and until we get our fiscal house in order to foster economic growth, civil society will continue to deteriorate.
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Monday, August 22, 2011
Totalitarian Collectivism, Liberty for the Ron Paul Generation / Politics / US Politics
The stark reality about the Ron Paul revolution is that the power elites could not survive in a society based upon individual liberty. Nevertheless, this statement does not imply that a Paul presidency would guarantee the elimination of the oligarchy. The faint memory of what a free nation could be or even what our country once was, could be revived under certain circumstances. Imagine the abolishment of the Federal Reserve and the fractional debt created money system. Consider a non-interventionist foreign policy that allows for actual national defense and secures the borders. Or, best of all, a limited government culture that is based upon the principle that government exists to serve citizens in their pursuit of freedom. Thomas Jefferson’s soul lives within the Ron Paul generation.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Zombies Born of Government Spending / Politics / Government Spending
Zombie, zombie in the night
Making cities burn so bright
What immortal hand could frame
Thy fearful symmetry?
Sunday, August 21, 2011
U.S. Homelessness: how many will lose everything? / Politics / Social Issues
Thomas Kelly, 37, died on July 10, five days after being beaten with electric walking sticks, flashlights, leather and chains, as well as kicking by six police officers who were part of a police patrol in the town of Fullerton, California.
After this incident, Thomas was sent to a nearby hospital, but arrived in a coma. His face revealed multiple bruises, scrapes and minor cuts.
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Monetizing Electoral Politics: TV Networks Are Out To Sell, Not Tell / Politics / Mainstream Media
Already the projections are in—not for who is going to win the election in 2012---but for how much it is likely to cost.
Public Radio International concludes: “Campaign spending in the 2012 US election could reach $6 or 7 billion dollars as outside groups pay for electoral influence.”
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Sunday, August 21, 2011
Roubini Says We Ran Out Of Rabbits But Don’t Despair!! He Can Save The World / Politics / Economic Theory
Running out of rabbits to pull out of hats in the Year of the Rabbit sounds a bit far-fetched, but apparently that’s the situation right now. At least that’s what Nouriel Roubini says in a recent post “Marx was right: Capitalism may be on brink of doom”.
He should know; because, as we keep hearing, he predicted everything in sight from as early as 2003 and if only anyone had listened to him disaster might have been averted. Oh well, perhaps someone will listen to him now, and perhaps if they do another disaster can be averted?
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