Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Ukraine Standoff Signals Global Power Shift / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Power Shift
Following from and related to the economic proxy war, by sanctions, engaged by the EU28 and US against Putin's Russia, and counter-sanctions by Russia against the “Atlantic Alliance”, we do not have to look very far for sequels. Plenty of EU28 banking groups are now on a short fuze, for example on the borrowing of PKO Bank Polski, Poland's largest lender. Able earlier this year to raise over 2 billion euros this lender's timing was very lucky. Even “EU28 core” private banks, including BNP of France and Deutsche of Germany may soon face “unexpected difficulties” recapitalizing their bad debt. Banks of the “southern tier” or Club Med countries will soon face serious difficulties, like Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo group's “unexpected difficulties”.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Scottish Independence Vote / Politics / UK Politics
By: Jonathan_Davis
The vote in September is unlikely to be Yes for Independence – though the polls are closer now than a few months ago and there is a large undecided bloc. However, I’ll be surprised if Scotland votes Yes especially as the Establishment is out in force telling the people to vote No.
Why would that be, I wonder? See below.
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Wednesday, August 27, 2014
The Monopoly of the Government Education Cartel / Politics / Education
By: BATR
Learning is a noble pursuit, but the ancient Greek text is one of the few places where the Socratic Method survives. Sanctioned political doctrine of required thinking is the mainstay in today’s august temples of purification. Forget about a classroom, the curriculum core of New Age studies has no room for the classics, much less instructions into the process of thinking itself. Except, of course for the need to electronically check off the loan applications and assign grants to the business office. In the end, university is big business and developing intelligent graduates happens as an afterthought, if at all.
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
U.S. Empire’s Bumpy Ride / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
If you are one of those defeatist-type Americans, always alarmed over the dire fate of the US economy, actually believing 2 + 2 = 4, it may be best not to shift your glance to the state of US foreign policy today.
Obamaville’s geopolitical stance is harder to grasp than a BLS formula for unemployment is.
And if the thought is, quaintly, of defending the US shores and citizens you are decades behind the curve.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
U.S. Self Checkmate in War on Islam / Politics / US Politics
By: Jack_D_Douglas
The result of this vast U.S. War Against the Muslim World is now so vastly complex, explosive and convulsive every day in new catastrophes that no one can possibly understand where it is all headed or what new cataclysms will erupt today or tomorrow or any time in the foreseeable future.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
America's Blacks Must Confront Reality / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Walter E. Williams writes: Though racial discrimination exists, it is nowhere near the barrier it once was. The relevant question is: How much of what we see today can be explained by racial discrimination? This is an important question because if we conclude that racial discrimination is the major cause of black problems when it isn’t, then effective solutions will be elusive forever. To begin to get a handle on the answer, let’s pull up a few historical facts about black Americans.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Will The US Succeed in Breaking Russia to Maintain Dollar Hegemony?... / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Clive_Maund
In Why they are making an enemy of Russia? we looked at two of the key reasons why the US is making an enemy of Russia, namely the promotion of conflict by the powerful Defense industry lobby in order to keep its order books full, and the value of conjuring up an external enemy as a hate figure for the masses, in order to take the heat off the government. In this article we are going to look at what is arguably an even bigger reason, that was largely omitted in the earlier article, which is that Russia, in alliance with China, is threatening to bring an end to the dollar as the global reserve currency, which would mean the end of the American empire.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Iraq and Syria Follow Lebanon's Precedent / Politics / Syria
By: STRATFOR
By George Friedman: Lebanon was created out of the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement between Britain and France reshaped the collapsed Ottoman Empire south of Turkey into the states we know today -- Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, and to some extent the Arabian Peninsula as well. For nearly 100 years, Sykes-Picot defined the region. A strong case can be made that the nation-states Sykes-Picot created are now defunct, and that what is occurring in Syria and Iraq represents the emergence of those post-British/French maps that the United States has been trying to maintain since the collapse of Franco-British power.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Colonization by Bankruptcy: The High-stakes Chess Match for Argentina / Politics / Global Debt Crisis 2014
By: Ellen_Brown
If Argentina were in a high-stakes chess match, the country’s actions this week would be the equivalent of flipping over all the pieces on the board. – David Dayen, Fiscal Times, August 22, 2014
Argentina is playing hardball with the vulture funds, which have been trying to force it into an involuntary bankruptcy. The vultures are demanding what amounts to a 600% return on bonds bought for pennies on the dollar, defeating a 2005 settlement in which 92% of creditors agreed to accept a 70% haircut on their bonds. A US court has backed the vulture funds; but last week, Argentina sidestepped its jurisdiction by transferring the trustee for payment from Bank of New York Mellon to its own central bank. That play, if approved by the Argentine Congress, will allow the country to continue making payments under its 2005 settlement, avoiding default on the majority of its bonds.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Islamic State - Yeah, This Will Work Out Just Fine / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: John_Rubino
The Islamic State (ISIS) has set a modern-day “emergent threat” record by going from obscurity to existential global menace in what seems like a matter of weeks. But as with most overnight sensations, there was a longer gestation period outside of the limelight. And like most military threats of the past few decades it was nurtured by, you guessed it, us.
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Prohibition Laws and Agency Regulations / Politics / Social Issues
By: BATR
Depending on the longevity of one’s experience, the history of government’s inhumanity to man grows deeper. A person, who has lived through four score and seven years ago, may very well be similar to an individual hearing the Gettysburg Address at the time when Abraham Lincoln originally spoke those words. Eight-seven years is a long time, witnessing the Great Depression, World War II and every succeeding administration, which transformed the country from a Republic, into an Empire. Reflecting on the dramatic departure that took off under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the course of the federal government has intensified in size and escalated in scope of intrusion.
Monday, August 25, 2014
Ferguson: The Iraq, Gaza War Comes Home / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
America's attention recently turned away from the violence in Iraq and Gaza toward the violence in Ferguson, Missouri, following the shooting of Michael Brown. While all the facts surrounding the shooing have yet to come to light, the shock of seeing police using tear gas (a substance banned in warfare), and other military-style weapons against American citizens including journalists exercising their First Amendment rights, has started a much-needed debate on police militarization.
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Sunday, August 24, 2014
The Ebola Outbreak: U.S. Sponsored Bioterror Weapon? / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
By: Global_Research
We can now be extraordinarily confident that the U.S. government is lying, in key material respects, about the latest Ebola outbreak—and not just because it lies about nearly everything of political consequence. This article shows that there are compelling reasons to believe we are being told three big lies about Ebola. It also offers a simple, rational, yet disturbing, explanation that very tidily accounts for all three lies. The explanation supposes that the current Ebola outbreak consists in an act of U.S.-linked bioterror.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Instigating War in Europe - Understanding Ukraine in 15 Minutes / Politics / Ukraine Civil War
By: Mike_Whitney
If you want to understand what is going on in Ukraine, then you need to watch this 15 minute video with Putin advisor and friend, Sergei Glaziev. Glaziev explains how structural changes in the global economy and a shift to Asia have precipitated a desperate attempt by US policymakers to maintain their grip on power by instigating a war in Europe. Whether readers agree with this analysis or not, they will find Glaziev is brilliant, erudite and passionate in his beliefs. For that alone, the video is well worth the time.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
A Call to Revolution / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
William Wallace writes:
Income inequality on a massive scale is well discussed on this site regularily. Taxes and regulations have increased diabolically during this "recovery" making it almost impossible to independently create wealth through your own hard work and enterprise. Incomes are stagnant and declining, industry is lost to Asia, debt has accumulated at every level to try to keep things going, and companies with access to cheap fed funny money are gobbling up competition causing rationalization and further concentration of wealth. Costs of higher education have soared and caused those of limited resources to get buried in debt while having less likely prospects to get the employment necessary to get out of debt. In addition to education, social connection is required to access higher levels of employment keeping the poor poor.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Beware Of China And India / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Goading Putin is One Thing
It is simple good luck and certainly not by design that the west has chosen Russia as No 1 whipping boy. Russia is a western country, largely dominated by Christian values or a Christian heritage. It is a “known” rather than the “unknown” of China and India. When the political goading, military provocation and economic sanctions start with them, we will be on a short fuze.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
The West Set Up the ISIS Endgame / Politics / ISIS Islamic State
By: Andrew_McKillop
The Conventional Explanation
This can be found in the MSM or mainstream media, and paints a picture of political leaders in the US and its European partners being so committed to the overthrown of Syria's Bashr al-Assad regime that not enough notice went to where the arms supplied to the so-called “moderate opposition groups”, like the Syrian Free Army, were really going. The anti-Assad forces were “porous”, and in any case the most extreme jihadists received both funding and weapons supplies from Saudi Arabia and the other Arab Gulf states. But this was OK because these jihads, western security “experts” said, were totally opposed to al-Qaeda. Also, the anti-Assad forces, of all kinds, were either supported or tolerated by the west simply because they were anti-Assad, and simply because Putin's Russia was pro-Assad.
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Global Panic - U.S. Federal Government Stockpiling Ammo – Here’s What We’re Going to Do / Politics / Financial Markets 2014
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: This is a warning. I’m not kidding.
I heard something yesterday that blew me away.
I can’t further corroborate it, but I trust the source.
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Saturday, August 23, 2014
If Scotland Votes Independant It Will Revalue Its Money / Politics / UK Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Devalue or Revalue The Money?
With absolutely no doubt the question of what money an independent Scotland would use, and its value, has become the major background theme in the independence debate. The English Union lobby argues Scotland will have to devalue, suffer huge inflation, and become a European Argentina, which is pure and simple nonsense. England is the Argentina-candidate of Europe but does not have a telegenic Madame Kirchner to say so! Its money is massively overvalued on any rational basis.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Partying On In The Terror State - Thank God for Nuclear Weapons / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
Terror and Counter Terror
We can be sure that, as one example, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel has a well-developed terror doctrine or ideology – or at least a bunch of slogans - for his press conferences. Apparently his “drone war” and its civilian victims is not Terror War, nothing like ISIS atrocities because it only concerns non-white persons, who don't speak English, and don't live in the US or Europe. Nice definition!