Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
U.S. Iran War Imminent in Straits of Hormuz? $200 a Barrel Oil? / Politics / Crude Oil
By: OilPrice_Com
The pieces and policies for potential conflict in the Persian Gulf are seemingly drawing inexorably together.
Since 24 December the Iranian Navy has been holding its ten-day Velayat 90 naval exercises, covering an area in the Arabian Sea stretching from east of the Strait of Hormuz entrance to the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Aden. The day the maneuvers opened Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari told a press conference that the exercises were intended to show "Iran's military prowess and defense capabilities in international waters, convey a message of peace and friendship to regional countries, and test the newest military equipment." The exercise is Iran's first naval training drill since May 2010, when the country held its Velayat 89 naval maneuvers in the same area. Velayat 90 is the largest naval exercise the country has ever held.
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
The American Empire is Over, Brace for an Horrifying Decent / Politics / US Politics
By: Videos
Chris Hedges "Brace Yourself! The American Empire Is Over & The Descent Is Going To Be Horrifying!"
"We have undergone, I think, in the last few decades a kind of slow motion coup d'état."
Tuesday, January 03, 2012
The Outlook for the New Year, Tyranny in the Forecast / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
This past year has not been a good one for the 99%, and the new year is likely to be even worse. This column deals with the outlook for liberty. The next will deal with the economic outlook.
The outlook for liberty is dismal. Those writers who are critical of Washington’s illegal wars and overthrow of the US Constitution could find themselves in indefinite detainment, because criticism of Washington’s policies can be alleged to be aiding Washington’s enemies, which might include charities that provide aid to bombed Palestinian children and flotillas that attempt to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/us-israel-usa-flotilla-idUSTRE75N4A620110624
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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Ron Paul: Debt Burden Threatens American Families / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week, as most Americans were celebrating the holidays with family and friends, the Obama Administration announced plans to seek yet another debt ceiling increase in the New Year. While some fiscal conservatives will try to block this increase, their efforts are designed to fail thanks to the procedure set up by the last debt ceiling negotiations. Congress would have to pass a joint resolution opposing the increase, which the president could simply veto. Thus, an additional $1.2 trillion on top of our already unsustainable debt is a foregone conclusion. Our Gross Domestic Product continues to contract and now stands at $14.5 trillion. The debt already far exceeds that and will soon hit the new ceiling of $16.39 trillion.
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Monday, January 02, 2012
Britain Sleepwalking into Fascism / Politics / UK Politics
By: William_Bowles
"[W]hen dealing with more old-fashioned kinds of states outside the postmodern continent of Europe, we need to revert to the rougher methods of an earlier era - force, pre-emptive attack, deception, whatever is necessary to deal with those who still live in the nineteenth century world of every state for itself. Among ourselves, we keep the law but when we are operating in the jungle, we must also use the laws of the jungle." -- The new liberal imperialism by Robert Cooper (Cooper by the way was a former civil service adviser to Tony Blair)[1]
Monday, January 02, 2012
Public Service Has Mutated Into Public Disservice / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Elias
I would consider running for Congress, because I do not want to be a career politician.
Public service should be analogous to the charitable tithing principle: a portion of one’s income and/or time is dedicated toward others that are less fortunate (e.g., 10 percent).
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
Ron Paul's Political Platform for America: A Critical Assessment / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Compared to a rogue's gallery of Republican aspirants, supporters claim Paul looks good by comparison. Look again and think carefully about America in his hands.
True enough, he wants the Federal Reserve abolished. He calls it "dishonest, immoral, unconstitutional," and America's "great(est) threat to....security and prosperity."
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Sunday, January 01, 2012
Ron Paul and the Killing Machine / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Ron Paul is the only antiwar candidate who has a (microscopic) chance of winning in 2012. He’s also the only candidate who will make an effort to restore the Bill of Rights and reverse Congress’s decision to allow the president to “indefinitely” imprison American citizens without due process. For these reasons alone, Paul should garner the support of leftists, liberals, and progressives. But he won’t, because liberals are convinced that Paul will try to dismantle the social programs upon which the elderly, the infirm, and the vulnerable depend.
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Coming of the Violent Global Revolutions / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Dr. Raju M. Mathew writes:
The seeds of the present Islamic Terrorism, Global Economic Crisis, the Arab Springs and the Occupy Movement had been sown in Information Technology Revolutions, Petro-Dollars, Globalization, Consumerism and Corporate Culture of Greed. They had been programmed within IT, Globalization and Trade-in Services, though nobody was aware of it, even their greatest proponents. All states or religions or their development strategies have been built up within the mindset of the quarreling primitive tribal chiefs or warriors for the last several centuries.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Rothschild, U.S. Fed, Admit Nothing. Explain Nothing / Politics / Central Banks
By: Richard_Mills
Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild, founder of the International Banking House of Rothschild said:
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws."
The Rothschild brothers, already laying the foundation for the Federal Reserve Act, wrote the following to New York associates in 1863:
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Marking the First Signs of an Indian Spring / Politics / India
By: Submissions
John Pilger writes: When the early morning fog rises and drifting skeins from wood fires carry the sweet smell of India, the joggers arrive in Lodi Gardens. Past the tomb of Mohammed Shah, the 15th century Munghal ruler, across a landscape manicured in the 1930s by Lady Willingdon, wife of the governor-general, recently acquired trainers stride out from ample figures in smart saris and white cotton dhotis. In Delhi, the middle classes do as they do everywhere, though here there is no middle. By mid-morning, children descend like starlings. They wear pressed blazers, like those of an English prep school. There are games and art and botany classes. When shepherded out through Lady Willingdon's elegant stone gateway, they pass a reed-thin boy, prostrate beside the traffic and his pile of peanuts, coins clenched in his hand.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Iran, Another False Enemy? / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Merrill
Is Iran truly a country so bent on murdering innocent Americans it embraces its own nuclear annihilation, unlike any other nation now or previously, utter, complete defeat at war?
This is the claim made by the pro-warfare wing of the Republicrat Party, seven out of eight candidates seeking the Republican nomination for President. It is a given within this frightened circle that Iranians are willing to commit mass suicide as a people just to make a negative point about the freedoms enjoyed in the United States.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Another Asian Fukushima Nuclear Catastrophe Imminent? / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: OilPrice_Com
Taiwan imports 99 percent of its energy, which is vital to its rapidly industrializing economy.
The island nation's electricity demand was recently growing at almost 5 percent per year, but this is slowing to about 3.3 percent per annum to 2013. Nuclear power has been a significant part of the electricity supply for two decades and now provides 17 percent of the country's overall energy needs.
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
Devil Government Deals, Sickening Reason for the Infinite Detainment Act / Politics / US Politics
By: Bill_Bonner
Occasionally, when we’ve had too much to drink, we lull ourselves to sleep with the notion that someone like Ron Paul might succeed. Maybe America won’t become a police state after all. Maybe it will abandon its empire and its imperial death-wish before it’s too late. Maybe it will cut its budget and save the dollar.
Maybe the zombies can be brought under control before the nation is ruined by them…
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
It’s Time To Occupy A New Year / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Out with the old. I would say good riddance to 2011 even as I fear 2012 may be worse, given the financial trends, social chaos and political idiocy that we confront every day.
Every time, I believe it can’t get worse, it does.
It seems so clear that the political system is moribund and paralyzed and the economic system may be in worse shape.
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Thursday, December 29, 2011
UK To Close Borders, Evacuate Expats If Euro Collapses / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Submissions
RT Submits: As Eurozone nations sink ever deeper into crisis, the UK Treasury is working on a contingency plan for the single currency's collapse. It includes capital control measures that, under EU rules, require agreement from most of the Union members. Britain is also prepared to close its borders and evacuate expats and holidaymakers from the effected countries. Robert Oulds, president of the Bruge Groups of campaigners against excess unification in Europe says many countries will benefit if euro collapses.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The NDAA Repeals More Rights / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Little by little, in the name of fighting terrorism, our Bill of Rights is being repealed. The 4th amendment has been rendered toothless by the PATRIOT Act. No more can we truly feel secure in our persons, houses, papers, and effects when now there is an exception that fits nearly any excuse for our government to search and seize our property. Of course, the vast majority of Americans may say "I'm not a terrorist, so I have no reason to worry." However, innocent people are wrongly accused all the time. The Bill of Rights is there precisely because the founders wanted to set a very high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty. To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured.
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Responsible New York Banking / Politics / Credit Crisis 2011
By: Stephen_Lendman
Founded in 1882, the Bank of Cattaraugus (B of C) exception proves the rule. Located in Western New York, it's miles from Wall Street's cesspool of fraud, market manipulation, grand theft, bailouts, and influence peddling in league with corrupt politicians getting generous campaign contribution bribes in return.
B of C calls itself "one of the oldest and strongest banks in New York state. (It's) a full-service, independent bank that provides financial services with a hometown touch. Personal, friendly service is our signature trademark, and we're dedicated to give back to the communities we service."
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Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Unrelenting Global Economic Crisis: A Doomsday View of 2012 / Politics / Great Depression II
By: James_Petras
The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Although, even here, their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises, there are powerful reasons to believe that beginning in 2012, we are heading toward a steeper decline than what was experienced during the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. With fewer resources, greater debt and increasing popular resistance to shouldering the burden of saving the capitalist system, the governments cannot bail out the system.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The U.S. Government is Run by Liars, Like Their Drones Federal Employees Will Crash / Politics / US Politics
By: Gary_North
The U.S. government is run by liars. Every civil government is run by liars. This is the nature of civil government. We may hope for incompetent liars. We may hope for little white liars. But to hope for a civil government run by truth-tellers is utopian.
Second, the U.S. government routinely violates laws. It routinely violates decency. But it would be an exaggeration to say that it is run by fools. On the contrary, it is run by self-interested bureaucrats who fully understand that American voters are the fools, not the bureaucrats.
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