Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Iran Sanctions Inflicting Pain At Gas Pump, Stalling Energy Projects / Politics / Gas - Petrol
Although the Iranian government insists that countries like China and Russia can make up lost Western investment in the petroleum sector, rising gas prices and stalled energy projects are signs that the regime is beginning to buckle under international sanctions.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
The New York Times and Lies about 'Acid Rain' / Politics / Mainstream Media
As one who often reads the Newspaper of the Ruling Class, the New York Times, I tend not to be surprised when the "Newspaper of Record" distorts the record. Furthermore, one could do nothing but write comments refuting the various economic fallacies and outright distortions that accompany each edition of the Grey Lady.
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Deficit Busting Tobin Tax Could Save America / Politics / Taxes
Martin Hutchinson writes: After the Nov. 2 midterm elections, the Obama administration and Congress are going to have to scramble to fill a trillion-dollar hole in the U.S budget, and tax increases may be the only option.
A tax increase won't be good news for an already wheezing economic recovery that seems to get weaker with each new report or indicator that's issued. But the type of tax that's chosen will go a long way in determining just how much damage the U.S. economy will have to endure.
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
U.S. Strategy to Control The World By Controlling The Internet / Politics / China
Chen Baoguo writes: US controls threaten Internet freedom
In May 2009, Microsoft announced on its website that they would turn off the Windows Live Messenger service for Cuba, Syria, Iran, Sudan and North Korea, in accordance with US legislation.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Iraq War Name Change to "Operation New Dawn" / Politics / US Politics
Kevin Zeese writes: In the week since the much publicized withdrawal of "combat" troops from Iraq it has become more evident that the Iraq War continues under a new name: "Operation New Dawn."
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Tuesday, August 24, 2010
U.S. Wants the Appearance of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks / Politics / Middle East
The Israeli government and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) have agreed to engage in direct peace talks Sept. 2 in Washington. Neither side has expressed any enthusiasm about the talks. In part, this comes from the fact that entering any negotiations with enthusiasm weakens your bargaining position. But the deeper reason is simply that there have been so many peace talks between the two sides and so many failures that it is difficult for a rational person to see much hope in them. Moreover, the failures have not occurred for trivial reasons. They have occurred because of profound divergences in the interests and outlooks of each side.
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Monday, August 23, 2010
Goldman and AIG: Blankfein and Paulson / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
It’s September 2008. Goldman and AIG are trading in the markets, and Goldman notices that AIG seems to be having very severe liquidity problems. AIG needs to renew repo agreements after investing the trades’ cash in plunging mortgage collateral bought from investment banks, and asks around for various other sources of funding.
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Monday, August 23, 2010
Russia One of the World's Worst Places to Live, Has A Lot To Accomplish? / Politics / Russia
Switzerland and Sweden took second and third positions, respectively, followed by Australia, Luxembourg, Norway, Canada, Holland, Japan and Denmark. U.S. took only 11th place in the overall rankings. The bottom of the list is occupied by Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia and Uganda.
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Monday, August 23, 2010
Iran and Nuclear Proliferation, Nobody Gave Us The Bomb / Politics / GeoPolitics
The Internet, the press and media, and leading politicians bristle with trenchant prose on the dangers of atomic weapons proliferation and how it can be stopped dead in its tracks. In the extreme case of Iran's suspected "double track" approach using civil nuclear technology to make a bomb while pretending it doesn't want the bomb, the extreme solution to make Iran "come clean" includes simply bombing all of its nuclear installations. To some this is a practical and real option, whatever the horrendous civilian "collateral damage" - and the impact on oil prices.
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Sunday, August 22, 2010
Obama’s Delusions on The Economy and Iraq / Politics / US Politics
If you’ve listened to recent speeches the President has given about the economy and the Iraq war, you’d think that two of the biggest social issues facing working Americans are improving. But facts are stubborn things.
Take for example the numbers of jobs lost in the last two months: 221,000 in June, 131,000 in July.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Has Yet Another Fraud Been Perpetrated By BP & The US Government Against We The People?! / Politics / US Politics
And What They Represent Concerning The Well In Question & BP Narrative
BK Lim has done it again. He presents here an alarming analysis of the events prior to and after the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon on top of the Macondo Prospect in the Gulf of Mexico. We very much appreciate this great revelatory work by BK Lim.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
U.S. Military Gearing Up to Challenge the Asian Century / Politics / GeoPolitics
The first decade of what more than a generation ago was predicted to be the Asian Century is winding down, marking ten years since the end of the American Century.
China overtook Japan as the world's second-largest economy during the second financial quarter of this year and three-quarters of the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) nations, the world's largest emerging economies, are entirely or primarily in Asia. During its first heads of state summit in Russia last year, BRIC "urged the creation of a new global financial security system." [1] At the time its members accounted for 15 percent of the global economy and 42 percent of international currency reserves [2] even after the advent of the U.S.-triggered world financial crisis in 2008.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Climate Change Scientists and Politicians Concocting the Consensus View / Politics / Climate Change
The debate is over! There is a consensus! The time for discussion has ended and the need for action is paramount!
We have all heard this before.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010
U.S. Military Intervention in Africa, The New Blueprint for Global Domination / Politics / Africa
Paul C. Wright writes: The United States’ intervention in Africa is driven by America’s desire to secure valuable natural resources and political influence that will ensure the longevity of America’s capitalist system, military industrial complex, and global economic superiority – achieved through the financial and physical control of raw material exports. While America’s prosperity may be waning due to a number of current factors, policy makers are bent on trying to preserve America’s global domination and will pursue policy objectives regardless of the downturn in the economy at large.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010
The New Auto IRA Is Just Highway Robbery / Politics / Pensions & Retirement
First They Destroy Private Healthcare in America – Yes, the socialist Democrats won their first battle to destroy the private healthcare system in the US but the automatic IRA bill now in Congress is their next attack to also control, confiscate and destroy the private retirement system. Ultimately, nationalizing healthcare is designed to create a major new government revenue stream by replacing private health insurance with a nationalized, mandatory, government program and their goal is identical with your retirement plan.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010
Higher Taxes Are Coming, Head for Your Bunkers. / Politics / Taxes
In the calming environment of the Big Mogambo Big Is Better Bunker (BMBIBB), I can finally relax by sitting, armed to the teeth, amongst my puny trove of gold, silver and oil, idly trying to say, “Big Mogambo Big Is Better Bunker” five times quickly until my seething, vaguely homicidal rage at the Federal Reserve and the socialist/fascist/ communists in the White House and Congress that have destroyed us all.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Obama’s Clean Energy Agenda on Track / Politics / Renewable Energy
Current global leaders in advanced electric vehicle batteries are based, for the most part, in Asia.President Obama made global warming one of the main planks in his election platform. Included in his Clean Energy Agenda were pledges to eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within a decade and to slash his country’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 30 per cent by the year 2020.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
New Jersey With The Luck Of The Irish / Politics / Market Manipulation
One of the headline news today was that New Jersey became the first U.S. state sued by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) for security fraud. Here is the low-down according to WSJ (my summary):
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Friday, August 20, 2010
How Washington Should Handle the Bush Tax Cuts / Politics / Taxes
Martin Hutchinson writes: The big political issue for the remainder of this year will be the so-called "Bush tax cuts" engineered by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
Those tax cuts are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, with taxes reverting to their 2001 levels.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
America’s Healthcare Mafia Strikes Again / Politics / Healthcare Sector
Did you get a raise in 2009?
CEOs of the nation’s largest health insurers most certainly did; CIGNA, UnitedHealth, Humana and Wellpoint. In fact, as a reward for many years of excessive hikes to insurance premiums executed under his leadership, Edward Hanway, the former CEO of CIGNA was provided with a retirement package worth $110.9 million, paid for by the excessive and unnecessarily high insurance premiums billed to CIGNA’s policy holders.
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