Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Fidel Castro and the American Empire / Politics / US Politics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
The death of the brutal Cuban Communist dictator Fidel Castro closes the door, in some respect, on another disastrous page in US foreign policy history. For all the denunciations and criticism of Castro from conservative elements and exiled Cubans, his despotic rule was the outcome of decades of American imperialism which began with President William McKinley’s infamous decision to wage war on hapless Spain in 1898.
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Monday, November 28, 2016
To Really 'Make America Great Again,' End the Fed! / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Former Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher recently gave a speech identifying the Federal Reserve's easy money/low interest rate policies as a source of the public anger that propelled Donald Trump into the White House. Mr. Fisher is certainly correct that the Fed's policies have "skewered" the middle class. However, the problem is not specific Fed policies, but the very system of fiat currency managed by a secretive central bank.
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Sunday, November 27, 2016
Castro Was Not Who You Thought He Was / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Castro is dead, but he achieved his purpose, which was to aggravate the Cold War, provide a test case for communism and frighten people about incipient nuclear missile exchanges.
His passing marks the end of the first phase of the Cold War. Now it is very obvious that a second phase is being prepared.
Tensions between Russia and the US are being continually heightened… and no, they are still ongoing even with the election of Trump who, under the guidance of Henry “War Criminal” Kissinger, has pledged his full support for NATO while Putin has replied that he will crush NATO.
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Sunday, November 27, 2016
It's (sigh) President Trump / Politics / US Politics
By: Walter_Brasch
When Sen. Barack Obama was running for the presidency and for most of his two terms, the Tea Party right-wing claimed he was born in Kenya, that he was a radicalized Muslim, and was unfit to be president. The rise of the Tea Party led to a rise of racist ideology and an increase of violence during political rallies.
After Sen. Obama’s election, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Senate majority leader, said the Republicans’ primary direction was solely to block whatever the new President wanted to do. Other Republicans chimed in that President Obama was out to destroy the country. The country did not destruct under the Obama Administration.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Italy: The Biggest Elephant Jeopardizing Europe and the Euro / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Jeff_Berwick
Not just the euro, but the entire European Union may be in jeopardy next week when the Italians vote on a constitutional referendum initiated by Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi.
What a Jubilee year it has been. First Brexit, then Trump and now it appears Italy is on the cusp of also escaping the grasp of the European Union.
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Saturday, November 26, 2016
Understanding the Trump Presidency , Beyond Merkel / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
By Reva Goujon : We hear all the time about how the world "should" work. Self-proclaimed liberals and conservatives, Keynesians and Reaganites, humanists and hawks, globalists and nationalists have crammed the airwaves and filled our Twitter feeds with policy prescriptions, promoting their worldview while scorning others'. But after the emotionally charged year this has been, I suspect many people are growing weary of big theories and cursory character assassinations. Instead, it may be time to replace the pedantry with something more fundamental — and less divisive — in which to ground our thoughts and make sense of the world.
Saturday, November 26, 2016
Germany Pulls the Plug on Market Oracle site for 24 hours, German Election BrExit GerExit Warning Shot? / Politics / Internet
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Market Oracle site is hosted on its own dedicated server in Nuremberg Germany, which so far has proved highly reliable with ample capacity of more than ten times normal server load to cope with any occasional traffic spikes that tend bring other sites down to a crawl or even offline. So we were surprised to see our site effectively go dead around 1.40pm Friday.
So for the first couple of hours we tried the usual checks, all failed as we had no access to the server at all, it was though the plug had been pulled.Here's a video uploaded 14 hours into the shutdown of what was happening at the time.
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Thursday, November 24, 2016
Establishment Controlled Mainstream Media Launches War on Alternative 'Fake' News / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Jeff_Berwick
It’s mainstream versus alternative media.
A list of “fake news” has been circulating that includes such prominent conservative and libertarian sources as Zero Hedge, Breitbart, The Blaze, Red State, the Daily Wire, Project Veritas, WND, and Infowars among many others.
These sources are not “fake” however. You can find a lot of truth on them. On the other hand, former GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul recently circulated a list of mainstream reporters who evidently colluded with the Clintons and were named by WikiLeaks for doing so.
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Thursday, November 24, 2016
Breaking News - Spain Launches War on Cash / Politics / War on Cash
By: Jeff_Berwick
India, Uruguay, Australia and now Spain. The Minister of Finance and Public Service, Cristóbal Montoro has reportedly just announced “anticipated measures in order to ‘reduce the use of cash.’
In other words, Spain is going to make cash transactions even more difficult. As of presstime, from what we can tell, this has yet to be reported anywhere in English media except here now at TDV.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Trump Moves as America Stands Still / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Ever since the November 8 election, it’s been hard to write anything that makes actual sense, as evidenced by just about everything I’ve read in the past two weeks, little of which was particularly elevating, because just like before the vote, and just like in pre- and post-Brexit Britain, all there is left in the US are deeply dug-in heels.
Everything and everyone is standing still; dug-in heels do that for you. Problem is, of course, that standing still doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re going to have to move or you’ll be left behind. Somehow it’s wonderfully ironic that Donald Trump is the only main character in this play who’s moving, and he does so in more ways than one. It’s like he’s going head first against the latest braindead internet craze, mannequin. If he does it on purpose, I commend him for it.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2016
A Vote for Trump, Much in Spite of Who He is / Politics / US Politics
By: Rodney_Johnson
It’s hard to keep up with all the labels.According to the mainstream media, anyone who voted for Donald Trump is a hate-filled bigot who objectifies women, can’t stand immigrants, denies global warming, has no education, and earns less today than he did in 1999. He must be resentful that a black man occupies the White House today and apoplectic at the possibility that a woman might do the same thing.
That’s a lot to carry around… and it’s not who I am… even though I voted for Trump.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Why A US-Russia Reset Will Help the Economy / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: AnyOption
Although the Democrats eagerly painted Russia as the enemy throughout the American election campaign, the budding dialogue between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President-elect Donald Trump has some interesting implications. In many ways, both represent the ongoing global shift in political dynamics towards more right-wing governments. While historically these developments have created an environment ripe for conflict and war, the surprising election of Trump may sow the seeds of change to this classical narrative.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Donald Trump is just an ugly intermission between acts / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
Mr. Trump, you have no mandate. You not only lost the popular vote by two million but the disparity between the popular vote and Electoral vote was historically unprecedented.
What you have is a constituency that mostly voted for radical change and who seem gleefully unaware that similar ultra-right, populist movements in the last century produced Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and, in recent decades, third-world banana republic thugs underwritten by Wall Street and the State Department for the purpose of dismantling social democracies to enrich private corporations, bankers and oligarchic nationalists.
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Tuesday, November 22, 2016
US Education System Broken: Let's Try 'Ed-Exit' / Politics / Educating Children
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently signed an executive order forbidding Maryland public schools from beginning classes before Labor Day. Governor Hogan's executive order benefits businesses in Maryland's coastal areas that lose school-aged summer employees and business from Maryland families when schools start in August. However, as Governor Hogan's critics have pointed out, some Maryland school districts, as well as Maryland schoolchildren, benefit from an earlier start to the school year.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Here’s the Real Reason Putin Sympathizes with Trump / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The US presidential campaign contained a constant undertone of Russia and President Vladimir Putin.
Putin said nice things about Donald Trump, and Trump about Putin. In fact, there is a small faction of Trump supporters that admires Putin. They like that he is a strong leader and his position on gay rights and other matters. They do not see him as a former communist, but rather as a defender of Western civilization.
But, the key here is to understand the real issues that exist between the US and Russia. At the heart of this matter is Ukraine.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Elites Are an Endangered Species / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
I’m glad to read that the halls of power in Europe are in an uproar over our election.
Their concern is not that Trump is now president. They are worried that elites everywhere—the people who “know” how the world should be run and expect the “little people” to stay in line—are an endangered species.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
The Trump Trade War Already Started / Politics / Protectionism
By: John_Mauldin
BY PATRICK WATSON : After the initial shock-and-awe reaction to the surprise Trump victory, the markets rejoiced last week… a lot.
“The Dow closed at an all-time high on Thursday, while the S&P and the Nasdaq were flirting with their record highs entering Friday,” reported CNBC.
Others were less thrilled with the election result. Some experts claimed Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on China, withdraw from NAFTA, and otherwise stop globalization in its tracks would surely set off a trade war and hurt the markets.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Trump Negotiating NAFTA's Future, Mexico Economic Uncertainty / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
In Mexico, uncertainty abounds over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and, in particular, his promises to change NAFTA. Although the next president will have the power to unilaterally pull out of the trade bloc, as he has threatened to do, congressional opposition and legal challenges from private companies may discourage him from doing so. Aside from the political and legal battles that would doubtless ensue, withdrawing from the North American Free Trade Agreement would be economically painful, disrupting business continuity for companies around the world — including those in the United States. Still, Trump has a few options with regard to NAFTA. Instead of suddenly withdrawing from the deal, he could try to renegotiate certain aspects of it. He may even decide to leave NAFTA alone (although that seems unlikely given the emphasis he placed on the agreement during his campaign). Regardless of which path he takes, Trump will not be acting in a vacuum. His decision will likely depend on the cooperation of the U.S. Congress and of the trade agreement's other signatories, Canada and Mexico.
Monday, November 21, 2016
UK Autumn Statement: The Longest Tax Freeze in History Must be Turned into a Cut / Politics / UK Tax & Budget
By: Submissions
Pre-Autumn Statement releases and announcement rumours of a continuing freeze in fuel duty till April 2018 show that the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his first ‘Mini-Budget’ is undeniably listening to FairFuelUK’s overwhelming economic evidence that lower prices at the pumps are hugely beneficial to the economy.However, following the Autumn Statement UK petrol drivers will remain the 5th most fuel taxed in the world with diesel drivers being punished more than all other countries in 1st position. UK drivers will still pay £33bn in fuel taxes each year to the Treasury for little investment return into roads infrastructure.
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Monday, November 21, 2016
Donald Trump Grey Champion Assumes Command of America's Fourth Turning Crisis - Part 2 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I discussed the arrival of Grey Champions in previous Fourth Turnings; their attributes, deficiencies, and leadership skills; and why Donald Trump is the Grey Champion of this Fourth Turning - whether you like it or not. Now I will try to make sense of what could happen next.
Read full article... Read full article..."Our movement is about replacing a failed and corrupt political establishment with a new government controlled by you, the American people. The establishment has trillions of dollars at stake in this election. For those who control the levers of power in Washington and for the global special interests, they partner with these people that don't have your good in mind. The political establishment that is trying to stop us is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration and economic and foreign policies that have bled our country dry.