Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
U.S. Debt Ceiling - What Now? / Politics / US Debt
By: Axel_Merk
William Poole writes: As I write it appears that the federal government is at the brink of default. The Republicans and Democrats have laid out irreconcilable positions on taxes. President Obama has said that he will not sign a bill that does not have some increases in tax rates on upper-income taxpayers. Republicans have said that they will not accept legislation that provides for such increases. In the negotiations, there has apparently been some progress in identifying spending cuts both sides can accept, but there no compromise is possible on the conflict over taxes.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Fascism to come, wearing a libertarian veneer / Politics / US Politics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
I said to my homemaker when she arrived for her weekly visit, "I guess you are aware that Social Security checks might not arrive next week?" No, she didn't know that fact. "Well, you are aware of the Oslo gunman last Friday?" She couldn't place the word "Oslo" so I explained the tragedy in loose detail. No, she wasn't aware of it.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
10 Facts About The Financial Condition Of American Families / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
Michael Snyder writes: The crumbling U.S. economy is putting an extraordinary amount of financial stress on American families. For many Americans, "flat broke" has become a permanent condition. Today, over half of all American families live paycheck to paycheck. Unemployment is rampant and those that do actually have jobs are finding that their wages are rising much more slowly than prices are.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Obama Demagogues Default / Politics / US Debt
By: John_Browne
President Obama has continued and increased the reckless spending of the previous Administration. Now, as the federal debt reaches its statutory limit, he is spreading fear and panic in the hopes of having it raised.
Many of the key people responsible for America's historic mess, including the President, Treasury Secretary Geithner, former NEC Director Summers, and Fed Chairman Bernanke, have pronounced publicly that a failure to lift the debt ceiling will cause a catastrophic Treasury debt default.>
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Pesky Neighbor and the U.S. Debt Ceiling / Politics / US Debt
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Imagine you had a pesky neighbor who somehow took out a mortgage on his house in your name and by some legal trickery you were obligated to pay for it. Imagine watching this neighbor throw drunken parties, buy expensive cars, add more rooms to the house, and hire dozens of people to wait on him hand and foot. Imagine that he also managed to take out several credit cards in your name. One by one, he would max them out and then use your good name and credit to obtain another credit card, then another and then another.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 25, 2011
U.S. Government Promoted Debtor Nation Making Americans Dependent, Dispirited, and Uncivilized / Politics / US Debt
By: Douglas_French
The debate in Washington over the nation's debt and debt ceiling has President Obama announcing to the White House press corps, "What we need to do is to do our jobs, and we have to do it the same way a family would do it. A family, if they get overextended and their credit card is too high, they don't just stop paying their bills."
Monday, July 25, 2011
Black Hole Finance Debt Slavery - Black Swan Events / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Andrew_McKillop
To the political and corporate elite, debt is the route to Federal Europe. That sounds grand and sombre, calculated and organized, but in fact federalizing European debts and deficits is nothing more than repeating the circus act of the present financial and monetary crisis. Europe has a black hole of public debt, swallowing all and any assets, and can only only deliver Black Swan events, that by definition are strange, unpredicted and unprecedented.
Monday, July 25, 2011
Democrats, Republicans Push for Deeper U.S. Spending Cuts / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: The latest turn in the bipartisan talks on the federal debt ceiling demonstrates that both Wall Street and its political representatives in Washington are making use of the debt ceiling deadline to push through historic cuts in social spending.
White House-led negotiations on a measure to lift the debt ceiling before the August 2 deadline set by the Treasury collapsed Friday after House Speaker John Boehner, the leading congressional Republican, pulled out.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, July 25, 2011
The Geopolitics of Water in the Nile River Basin / Politics / Water Sector
By: Global_Research
Prof. Majeed A. Rahman writes: In Africa, access to water is one of the most critical aspects of human survival. Today, about one third of the total population lack access to water. Constituting 300 million people and about 313 million people lack proper sanitation. (World Water Council 2006). As result, many riparian countries surrounding the Nile river basin have expressed direct stake in the water resources hitherto seldom expressed in the past. In this paper, I argue that due to the lack of consensus over the use of the Nile basin regarding whether or not “water sharing” or “benefit sharing” has a tendency to escalate the situation in to transboundary conflict involving emerging dominant states such as the tension between Ethiopia-Egypt over the Nile river basin. At the same time, this paper further contributes to the Collier- Hoeffler conflict model in order to analyze the transboundary challenges, and Egypt’s position as the hegemonic power in the horn of Africa contested by Ethiopia. Collier- Hoeffler model is used to predict the occurrence of conflicts as a result of empirical economic variables in African states given the sporadic civil strife in many parts of Africa. In order to simplify my argument and analysis, I focused on Ethiopia and Egypt to explicate the extent of water crisis in the North Eastern part of Africa.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Peacock Syndrome – America’s Fatal Disease / Politics / US Debt
By: James_Quinn
"There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution." - Aldous Huxley
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Falling False Flags: The Norway Massacre and The Rise of Fascist Societies / Politics / Social Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
One of Rupert Murdoch's remaining moneygrubbing, gutter filling recyclable fish and chip wrappers, the UK "Sun", was predictably lightning fast with the scoop, its headline screaming: "Al Qaeda's Massacre, Norway's 9/11".
Sunday, July 24, 2011
The Fix Is In: Washington's Planned Social Contract Destruction / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan, united against working household interests. In fact, lawmakers yield on virtually everything big money wants, notably when banks and other corporate favorites are affected.
Last December, Obama capitulated to Republicans, rigging a deal for up to $1 trillion dollars in handouts, mostly to corporate giants and America's wealthy with working households almost entirely left out.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, July 24, 2011
What the U.S. Government Will Never Tell You About the Debt Crisis / Politics / US Debt
By: DailyWealth
Last week, I devoted the latest issue of The 12% Letter to the debt ceiling... and how it will affect us as investors.
After sifting through the government's numbers and mindless claims of "Armageddon," I believe it should not worry you as an investor. And I'm convinced as ever the "debt ceiling" debate is a dog and pony show that distracts Americans from our country's biggest problem.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Financial Armageddon is Looking Better and Better / Politics / US Debt
By: Bill_Bonner
Is there a fender anywhere in Christendom that the financial authorities have not dented yet?
They are lost without a compass. They are up the river without a paddle. At the automatic teller without a pin number. They have no theory that has not been discredited. They have no experience which does not contradict them.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 22, 2011
Norway Terror Bomber, Shooter Photo, Murdoch Press 'The Sun' Blames Al-Qeada! / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The horrific events in Oslo, Norway today that started with a large city centre bomb blast shortly followed by a nearby shoot spree at holiday island of Utoya have resulted in at least 80 murders, most of whom are teenagers.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 22, 2011
Pentagon Seeks to Manipulate Social Media for Propaganda Purposes / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Wired reported on Friday: The Pentagon is looking to build a tool to sniff out social media propaganda campaigns and spit some counter-spin right back at it.
On Thursday, Defense Department extreme technology arm Darpa unveiled its Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program. It’s an attempt to get better at both detecting and conducting propaganda campaigns on social media. SMISC has two goals. First, the program needs to help the military better understand what’s going on in social media in real time — particularly in areas where troops are deployed. Second, Darpa wants SMISC to help the military play the social media propaganda game itself.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 22, 2011
The Class Politics of the U.S. Debt Ceiling Crisis / Politics / US Politics
By: Global_Research
Patrick Martin writes: Washington, reinforced by the commentaries in the corporate-controlled media, both liberal and conservative.
Why is the demand for “deficit reduction” now being voiced so unanimously in every quarter of official American politics? What are the fundamental class issues that underlie this campaign?
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 22, 2011
David Cameron and the Murdoch Affair / Politics / UK Politics
By: William_Bowles
The political/corporate class must be ruing the day email arrived, it is proving to be the undoing of many a powerful individual and perhaps even the downfall of the government? But only if the media do the job they claim to be doing, investigating malfeasance at every level.
Friday, July 22, 2011
U.S. Economy Destroyed, Washington Is the Enemy / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Recently, the bond rating agencies that gave junk derivatives triple-A ratings threatened to downgrade US Treasury bonds if the White House and Congress did not reach a deficit reduction deal and debt ceiling increase. The downgrade threat is not credible, and neither is the default threat. Both are make-believe crises that are being hyped in order to force cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Kamikaze War on U.S. Debt Ceiling / Politics / US Debt
By: Danny_Schechter
New York: During World War 2, the Japanese deployed units of pilots who turned their planes into bombs, and sacrificed themselves in the name of their emperor in a holy war against US ships. They would aim for the deck of aircraft carriers and do as much damage as they could at a cost of their equipment and their lives.