Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, April 02, 2011
Class Warfare Scoreboard : Guess Who's Winning? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
This has gotta be a joke. According to a new report by the BEA, personal consumption expenditures (PCE) increased by $69 billion (7 percent), while personal income rose by only $38 billion (3 percent) in February.
So consumers are back to their old ways again, spending more than they earn?
Friday, April 01, 2011
Fukushima Fallout Reaches U.S.A, Radiation Found in Rainwater from California to Massachusetts / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
Three of the six nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant have partially melted down and highly toxic plutonium is seeping into the soil outside. Plutonium is less volatile than other radioactive elements like iodine or cesium, but it's also more deadly. According to Businessweek, "When plutonium decays, it emits what is known as an alpha particle, a relatively big particle that carries a lot of energy. When an alpha particle hits body tissue, it can damage the DNA of a cell and lead to a cancer-causing mutation." If plutonium leaches into groundwater or pristine aquifers, the threat to public health and the environment will be extreme. This is an excerpt from an article in the Guardian:
Friday, April 01, 2011
Libya, Another Unconstitutional, Undeclared Illegal Killerthon / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Statement on Libya – Defining U.S. National Security Interests, Before the Foreign Affairs Committee, US House of Representatives, 31 March 2011
The American people have once again been suckered into an unconstitutional, undeclared, illegal, and unwise war. This is not a war in response to an attack on the United States. This is not a war against a regime that has threatened the United States. This is a preventative war. The president never claimed that any large-scale slaughter of civilians was taking place in Libya. Rather, the president has spent close to a billion dollars – so far – bombing a country because its government might at some point harm its civilians.
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Friday, April 01, 2011
The Birth of New Colonialism in Libya / Politics / New World Order
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
What we are observing in Libya is the rebirth of colonialism. Only this time it is not individual European governments competing for empires and resources. The new colonialism operates under the cover of "the world community," which means NATO and those countries that cooperate with it. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was once a defense alliance against a possible Soviet invasion of Western Europe. Today NATO provides European troops in behalf of American hegemony.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Are American Workers Just Getting What They Deserve? / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
If you don’t think American workers are being inexorably scr*wed by our governing establishment’s embrace of “free” trade, stop reading right here. If you do, I have a dark question for you, one that may have occurred to you in private already:Did we bring this whole mess on ourselves?
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
The Conquest of Africa: NATO Wages War On Third Continent / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Rick_Rozoff
At its summit in Lisbon, Portugal last November the North Atlantic Treaty Organization adopted its first strategic concept for the 21st century, one in keeping with its expansion into not only a pan-European but a self-styled international military force.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
U.S. Government Shut Down, The Next Crisis / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
"Political Language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable"... George Orwell
Forget Libya; the real bombing is not underway there. Pay less attention to Pakistan; the drone attacks there pale in comparison.
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Thursday, March 31, 2011
Rebooting the American Dream / Politics / Resources & Reviews
By: Ian_Fletcher
Thom Hartmann is famous as a liberal commentator on the radio, on TV, and in over a dozen books. But he has written here a book that is of far more than partisan value. Rebooting the American Dream: 11 Ways to Rebuild Our Country will please liberal readers, but it will also challenge them to revisit some of their own lazy beliefs. It will annoy conservatives, but the smarter ones will take notes and absorb some of his trans-partisan insights into their own politics.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Imperialist Carve-Up Libya at London Conference / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Barry_Grey
The conference on Libya held Tuesday at London's Lancaster House was a repulsive exercise in hypocrisy and cynicism. In the name of liberating the Libyan people, the United States and Britain brought together foreign ministers from 40 countries and dignitaries from international organizations such as the United Nations, NATO and the Arab League to sanction an escalation of the air war against the former colony and set the stage for the installation of a stooge regime.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why Religious People Struggle with Economics / Politics / Economic Theory
By: Jeffrey_A_Tucker
For years I've puzzled over the question of why religious people have such trouble coming to terms with economics. This problem applies only to modern religious people, for it was Catholics in 15th- and 16th-century Spain who systematized the discipline of economics to begin with. That was long ago. Today, most of what is written about economics in Catholic circles is painful to read. The failing extends left and right, as likely to appear in "progressive" or "traditionalist" publications. In book publishing, the problem is so pervasive that it is difficult to review the newest batch.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Obama Raises American Hypocrisy to a New Level / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
What does the world think? Obama has been using air strikes and drones against civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and probably Somalia. In his March 28 speech, Obama justified his air strikes against Libya on the grounds that the embattled ruler, Gadhafi, was using air strikes to put down a rebellion.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Why Economists Love the Fed / Politics / Central Banks
By: Gary_North
The Federal Reserve System is the central bank of the United States. It was founded by Congress in 1913 to provide the nation with a safer, more flexible, and more stable monetary and financial system. Over the years, its role in banking and the economy has expanded.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
CIA Libya Rebels are Al-Qaeda Fighters From Iraq / Politics / Al-Qeeda
By: Global_Research
Dr. Webster G. Tarpley writes: “Serpents, thirst, heat, and sand … Libya alone can present a multitude of woes that it would beseem men to fly from.” Lucan, Pharsalia
Washington DC, March 24, 2011 — The current military attack on Libya has been motivated by UN Security Council resolution 1973 with the need to protect civilians. Statements by President Obama, British Prime Minister Cameron, French President Sarkozy, and other leaders have stressed the humanitarian nature of the intervention, which is said to aim at preventing a massacre of pro-democracy forces and human rights advocates by the Qaddafi regime.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Is Fukushima About To Blow? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What Happened to the American Declaration of War? / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
In my book “The Next Decade,” I spend a good deal of time considering the relation of the American Empire to the American Republic and the threat the empire poses to the republic. If there is a single point where these matters converge, it is in the constitutional requirement that Congress approve wars through a declaration of war and in the abandonment of this requirement since World War II. This is the point where the burdens and interests of the United States as a global empire collide with the principles and rights of the United States as a republic.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Central Banks and Politicians Confidence Game / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
This week's Outside the Box is a little different. It's a stroll down history lane and thoughts on confidence, from Grant Williams, in the form of an introduction to his letter Things that Make You Go Hmmm. Grant currently resides in Singapore, and I find him a very thoughtful read and a wonderful resource. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
And for those interested, I think I am scheduled to be on Marketplace on your local NPR Radio station on Tuesday, which is today for most readers. Good to be back home for a few days! And now, let's think about confidence in a little different way.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Will German State-level Politics be Felt Throughout the Euro-zone? / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Victoria_Marklew
An upset in the regional election in one of Germany's 16 states could be expected to generate reams of newsprint in the local press, but wouldn't normally have implications for the continent's energy sector or for EU-level plans to support the financial sector. However, we live in unusual times and the surge in support for the Green party in Baden-Wuerttenberg will have consequences far beyond the borders of Germany's third-largest state.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Globalists Target 100% State Owned Central Bank of Libya / Politics / Central Banks
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Eric V. Encina writes:
One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned. The world’s globalist financiers and market manipulators do not like it and would continue to their on-going effort to dethrone Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, bringing an end to Libya as independent nation.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Central Banks Seek Excuses to Plunder Treasuries and Enrich the Banking Cartel / Politics / Central Banks
By: Barry_M_Ferguson
Dumb and Dumber and Dumberer
Jim Carrey starred in the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ in 1994. The movie told the story of the two stupidest humans on earth - Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. They were ‘dumb’ and ‘dumber’. But, even this over the top portrayal of these two stupid characters could not have possibly equal the stupidity of the real characters that run our world today. They can only be described as ‘dumberer’. Even worse, our ‘leaders’ must think of the rest of us as ‘dumbererest’.
Monday, March 28, 2011
U.S. Super-Rich the Greatest Living Parasites Flourish as Inequalities Deepen / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Petras
Billionaires Flourish, Inequalities Deepen as Economies "Recover" - According to the annual report of the business magazine Forbes there are 1,210 individuals – and in many cases family clans – with a net value of $1 billion dollars (or more). There total net worth is $4 trillion, 500 billion dollars, greater than the combined worth of 4 billion people in the world. The current concentration of wealth exceeds any previous period in history; from King Midas, the Maharajahs, and the Robber Barons to the recent Silicon Valley – Wall Street moguls of the present decade.