Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, September 12, 2014
U.S. Meddling Dims Prospects for Ukraine Peace / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Mike_Whitney
The Minsk Ceasefire Protocol has very little chance of succeeding. In fact, the meeting between the warring parties was not convened to stop the violence as much as it was to buy time for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) to retreat and regroup. In the last two weeks, the junta’s army has suffered “catastrophic” losses leaving President Petro Poroshenko with the choice of either calling for a truce or facing the unpleasant prospect of complete annihilation. Poroshenko wisely chose to withdraw under cover of the ceasefire agreement. But let’s not kid ourselves, Poroshenko only accepted that humiliation because he had no other choice. Once he gathers his forces and rearms, he’ll be back with a vengeance.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Is Scotland Big Enough To Go it Alone? / Politics / Scotland
By: MISES
Peter St. Onge writes: Back when Quebec was weighing secession from Canada, I was a lowly American undergrad living in Montreal. It was an exciting time, since in America we have our railroads torn up and population starved when we secede. Now that Scotland is going through the motions, I figured I’d stir the pot, economically.
Friday, September 12, 2014
Is the Fed Preparing to Asset-Strip Local Governments? / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Ellen_Brown
In an inscrutable move that has alarmed state treasurers, the Federal Reserve, along with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, just changed the liquidity requirements for the nation’s largest banks. Municipal bonds, long considered safe liquid investments, have been eliminated from the list of high-quality liquid collateral assets (HQLA). That means banks that are the largest holders of munis are liable to start dumping them in favor of the Treasuries and corporate bonds that do satisfy the requirement.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Inside the Washington-Wall Street Corruption Industry / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: There’s a new twist in an ongoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe.
For months now, the SEC has been investigating whether anyone in the federal government leaked inside information to a Washington-based investment research firm.
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Thursday, September 11, 2014
Scotland - A Wee Problem for the UK / Politics / UK Politics
By: John_Browne
Last weekend several polls emerged that shockingly forecast Scottish independence from Great Britain is within the realm of political possibilities. Although the September 18th vote had worried a number of people, the evenly split polling results burst upon the world like a thunderbolt, perhaps shattering the image of a steady, genial and conservative Britain. But the ramifications of Scottish independence go far beyond national pride and historical score settling. Watchers of the global economy should be aware of the potentially serious follow-on results.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The Mass Psychosis Of 9 /11 Will Never Be Healed / Politics / War on Terror
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Posted by the group of authors called Cognitivedissonance on twoicefloes.com in its 'Dispatches' series, today 11 September, a very long and well-argued article examines the now intricately or insanely woven strands of the rational and irrational called “9 / 11”.
Trying to separate them is basically impossible but we have to try.
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Thursday, September 11, 2014
Radical Islam's Crisis of Competing Caliphates / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: STRATFOR
The rise of the Islamic State will inspire other jihadist groups to claim their own caliphates and emirates. In the long run, the extremism of these contrived dominions and the competition among them will undermine the jihadist movement. However, before that happens, the world will witness much upheaval.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
As More U.S. Bombs Drop, Empire Begins Fall / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
On Wednesday evening, September 10, 2014, hours before the thirteenth anniversary of 9/11, President Obama announced his decision to bomb Syria and deploy more troops inside Iraq. While the February events in Kiev could be seen marking the EU's capitulation to neo-fascism in Europe in submission to Washington's hegemonic diktats, Obama's arrogant militancy as presently expressed should be viewed as the beginning of the fall of American Empire. Whether it falls this year, the next, or in three to five years, it will end through military defeat, economic collapse and by forces from within that will - by necessity - fight for self-survival against their own government and their sectarian political oppressors and opponents. America will then inherit the mantle that Germany endured for over fifty years following World War II. At that, the rotating sphere of world dominance will have completed its cycle. Unipolar will be dead. The sun will have set in the West and risen in the East. Many will die fighting against the inevitable. Many will blame everyone but themselves.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Islamic State's Ultimate Goal: Saudi Arabia's Oil Wells / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: OilPrice_Com
For the terrorist group known as the Islamic State, Syria and Iraq were a good place to start their campaign, but in order to survive and prosper it knew from the outset that it had no choice but to set its sights on the ultimate prize: the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Ukraine Crisis And Self-Determination / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Raul_I_Meijer
What do you think the situation in Scotland would be like if an army acting on behalf of the London government had just killed thousands of Scots in Glasgow and Edinburgh over the past 6 months and destroyed their streets and homes and water and electricity grids, and if moreover that government had seized power after a violent coup and essentially been handpicked by Washington?
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Cameron and Miliband Desperately Attempt to Prevent Scotland Committing Suicide / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Leaders of both major political parties, Ed Milliband (Labour) and David Cameron (Conservatives) headed north on Wednesday to try and persuade 9% of Britain in terms of population and economy not to commit suicide by voting YES in what is termed as an independence referendum but in reality is towards marking the start of the dissolution of a 300 year old union of the Island of Britain that over the centuries has become ever more intertwined that on September 18th could begin the dangerous process of being ripped apart all for the tunnel vision obsession of Scottish power hungry nationalists such as Alex Salmond who literally are willing to sacrifice their own nation for personal vanity.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Scottish Independence UK Catastrophe - The Balkanisation of Britain - Video / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The people of Britain are waking up to the potential reality of the end of the United Kingdom if as recent opinion polls increasingly suggest Scotland votes YES for independence / dissolution of the union on September 18th 2014.
This video answers key questions as to what would happen to both Scotland and the UK financially, economically and socially should Scotland vote YES, as the risks are far beyond that which many people have thus contemplated, far beyond just Scotland gaining independence but rather acting to blow itself and the United Kingdom apart.
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Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Old Gold, New Debt And Scottish Independance / Politics / Scotland
By: Andrew_McKillop
A Deliberately Confused Debate
As I noted in a recent article, when or if Scotland separated from England and received its share of the UK's 310-ton official gold reserves, and its share of UK national or sovereign debt officially placed at a rather exact and reassuring total of 1410 billion pounds (about $2200 billion), Scotland's central bank would be the proud possessor of 26.35 tons of gold.
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
The Scotland Black Swan / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Got a mail from a friend in Scotland late last night that got me thinking. “Unfortunately, using Ireland as a model of fracture, we may start blowing up each other.” I’ve been reading a lot lately, in between all the other things, about Scotland, as should be obvious from my essay (Jim Kunstler tells me I can use that word) yesterday, Please Scotland, Blow Up The EU, and sometime today a thought crept up on me that has me wondering how ugly this thing is going to get. I think it can get very bad.
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Tinseltown Goes to War - Hollywood Propaganda / Politics / Propaganda
By: LewRockwell
Ralph Raico writes: I’ve just watched for about the third time the 1962 film, The Longest Day, a great action movie on the Allied invasion of Normandy. Among its several pluses: an all-star male cast, including a young Sean Connery, as well as a brief segment starring a seriously good-looking woman bearing a strong resemblance to Sophia Loren.
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Scotland's 26.35 Tons Of British Gold / Politics / UK Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Massive Threat to England
Proving it isn't yet the end of summer and its silly season, at least for journalists (and politicians), reports from sources including Reuters - “Ownership of UK gold up for renegotiation if Scotland votes Yes”, September 9 - say that independent Scotland could lay claim to a part of the United Kingdom's 310-tonne gold reserves if votes go in favour of the "Yes" campaign. Ownership of Britain's bullion hoard will be up for negotiation along with other assets. How about the debts and liabilities?
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Did Putin Just Bring Peace to Ukraine? / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Mike_Whitney
There is no way to overstate the significance of what has transpired in Ukraine in the last three weeks. What began as a murderous onslaught on the mainly Russian-speaking population of east Ukraine, has turned into a major triumph against a belligerent and expansionistic empire that has been repulsed by a scrappy, battle-hardened militia engaged in a conventional, land-based war. The conflict in east Ukraine is Obama’s war; launched by Obama’s junta government, executed by Obama’s proxy army, and directed by Obama’s advisors in Kiev. The driving force behind the war is Washington’s ambitious pivot to Asia, a strategy that pits Russia against Europe to prevent further economic integration and to establish NATO forward-operating bases on Russia’s western border. Despite the overheated rhetoric, the talk of a (NATO) “Rapid Reaction Force”, and additional economic sanctions; the US plan to draw Ukraine into the western sphere of influence and weaken Russia in the process, is in tatters. And the reason it is in tatters is because a highly-motivated and adaptable militia has trounced Obama’s troopers at every turn pushing the Ukrainian army to the brink of collapse. Check out this frontline update from The Saker:
Tuesday, September 09, 2014
Suckering the Public on a War of Terror / Politics / War on Terror
By: BATR
The gullibility of the American public only exceeded by the ease that the fascist establishment is able to conduct their criminal government without any meaningful protest - just keeps rolling along. The mainstream media is still able to practice their black art of painting their masterpiece, entitled discovering a new cell of terrorists in every news report. Making up a scripted narrative to fix all seasons, take the creative ability of a screenwriter and the guidance of the intelligence community to shepherd the story to fix the immediate political objective. In a world where truth is the rarest of all commodities, you can be assured that the simpletons, who believe the psychological warfare accounts reported as fact, will invariably remain docile fools.
Monday, September 08, 2014
Please Scotland, Blow Up The European Union / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
You know they’re desperate when they play the royal card and announce a new baby on the way. Britain, and especially Downing Street 10, got a huge scare last week when a poll showed the Scottish independence movement is now favorite to win the September 18 referendum. It’s not entirely clear, but I don’t think Cameron and his crew would be able to stay on if Scotland secedes from the UK.
Monday, September 08, 2014
How the Fed is Killing America / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Money_Morning
It’s maddening…
Our economy is stagnating.
The divide between haves and have-nots is widening every day.
There are fewer and fewer good jobs and careers to be had.
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