Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, March 21, 2011
I Was Wrong About President Obama / Politics / US Politics
Let us call a spade, a spade. Let us call a group of armed marauding thugs, committing acts of terrorism and arson, terrorists and arsonists and let us call those who manipulate the words of others to justify their actions, barefaced liars. President Obama is one of these and how wrong I was to believe that he represented a new America.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, March 21, 2011
Weird Global Warming and Nuclear Science / Politics / Environmental Issues
Satre writes: The catastrophic disaster that swept Japan into a new stone age is truly an earth-shattering milestone. Worldwide grief and empathy is real and deserved. If this occurrence were only, a script out of a Godzilla B movie, or just lyrics from a ringtone song, the hurt or the aftermath would not be so horrible.
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Monday, March 21, 2011
Is it America vs. Poor Nations in Trade? No / Politics / US Politics
Question: is there a fundamental us vs. them dynamic in America’s trade with the developing world? Is a sound trade policy for ourselves ultimately about nothing better than grabbing an economic advantage at the expense of other nations, especially poorer ones?
Some people certainly seem to think so. To them, ending free trade sounds like a mere invitation for America to become a global economic bully boy.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
NATO's War Against Libya / Politics / Middle East
Following similar developments in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt, anti-government protests began in Libya on February 15. On March 19 the U.S., France and Britain delivered air and cruise missile attacks against targets in Libya: 112 Tomahawk missile strikes from U.S. and British submarines and warships in the Mediterranean Sea and attacks by French warplanes on what were identified as government military vehicles on the ground.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Obama's Serbia-Solution for Libya; "Split the country and steal the oil" / Politics / US Politics
The Obama administration never would have launched a war on Libya if they didn't have a puppet-in-waiting ready to take power as soon as the fighting ended. That puppet appears to be Mustafa Abdul Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister. Jalil is presently the opposition leader of the Libyan National Transitional Council which oversees the insurgents from Al Bayda. This is not a grassroots movement that embraces the fundamental precepts of democratic government. It's a clatter of rebels armed by the Egyptian military (with US approval) to topple the Gaddafi regime. Jalil has garnered the military support of the so-called "international community" despite the fact that peaceful protesters in Bahrain, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have been kicked to the curb. It's just another example of the UN's selective support for pro-democracy movements.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Beyond Japan Fukishima: A World in Denial About Nuclear Risks / Politics / Nuclear Power
What will it take for our world to recognize the dangers that nuclear scientists and even Albert Einstein were warning about at the “dawn” of the nuclear age?
Amy Goodman reminds us of the prophetic statement by Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett who tried to find words to describe the horror he was seeing in Hiroshima in 1945 after the bomb fell.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Libya, the Fourth Western Crusade in 12 Years / Politics / Middle East
Robert Bridge writes: "We must not forget how NATO and US aircraft bombed Yugoslavia, and that is not the only precedent. Libya may become the fourth country in 12 years to be threatened with direct military foreign interference after Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.”
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Secret Plan For a New Global Currency / Politics / Fiat Currency
The following is an excerpt of a chapter by Ellen Brown from the new book by Global Research Publishers, "The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century."
By acting together to fulfill these pledges we will bring the world economy out of recession and prevent a crisis like this from recurring in the future. We are committed to take all necessary actions to restore the normal flow of credit through the financial system and ensure the soundness of systemically important institutions, implementing our policies in line with the agreed G20 framework for restoring lending and repairing the financial sector. We have agreed to support a general SDR allocation which will inject $250bn into the world economy and increase global liquidity.– G20 Communiqué, London, April 2, 2009
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
More Free Trade Agreements? When NAFTA Failed? / Politics / US Politics
With the Republicans and the Obama administration attempting to rush headlong into a new trade agreements with Korea, and possibly also with Panama and Colombia, it is incumbent on Americans to apply a bit of empiricism. How have our past trade agreements worked out? Above all, how’s the grand-daddy of them all, NAFTA, doing?
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
Libya, Hypocrisy and Betrayal by the United Nations / Politics / Middle East
Felicity Arbuthnot writes: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever." - George Orwell.
The bombing of Libya will begin on or nearly to the day, of the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the destruction of Iraq, 19th March, in Europe. Libya too will be destroyed - its schools, education system, water, infrastructure, hospitals, municipal buildings. There will be numerous "tragic mistakes", "collateral damage", mothers, fathers, children, babies, grandparents, blind and deaf schools and on and on. And the wonders of the Roman remains and earlier, largely enduring and revered in all history's turmoils as Iraq, the nation's history - and humanity's, again as Iraq and Afghanistan, will be gone, for ever.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Great Anglo-American Gaddafi Deception, What's Really Going On / Politics / US Politics
One has needed a score card to keep up with the twists and turns of the situation in Libya and what will follow over the weekend is still unclear. My point is while we wish the people of Libya and their color revolution victory over crazy Gaddafi, they have likely been the unwitting pawns in a major deception by Washington to hide a dramatic Middle East foreign policy shift.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
World Government Declares War on Libya / Politics / GeoPolitics
The U.N. intervention in Libya is a major political event. The U.N. is intervening inside a country that has not aggressed against another country. Whether or not this is the first time that this has happened, it is surely an important and clear-cut instance of this happening.
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Sunday, March 20, 2011
US Makes War on Another Muslim Country With Oil / Politics / US Politics
Following the US-lobbied UN authorization of military murder in Libya, the death-dealing regime of Colonel Gaddafi said immediately that it would stop all killing. That put Obama’s war on hold, for a little while. The crazy Colonel has learned a thing or two about American foreign policy. If you pretend to favor the stated goals of the empire and comply with its stated dictates, you can otherwise do what every government in the world is structured to do: stay in power at all costs.
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Saturday, March 19, 2011
Free Trade Won't Help Global Poverty / Politics / Social Issues
The propaganda for free trade tells us that not only is it the master key to our own prosperity, but also the master key to lifting the world’s poor out of poverty. So if we don’t support free trade, we’re in for a guilt trip like the one that used to make us stick quarters into UNICEF boxes.
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Saturday, March 19, 2011
Deconstructing Meredith Whitney’s Municpal Bond Default Predictions / Politics / Mainstream Media
The Article Whitney Doesn’t Want You to Read - If I hired a full-time staff of 100 financial professionals specifically dedicated to the task of calling out all of the media’s so-called financial experts (largely comprised of lifelong snake oil salesmen and Wall Street hacks), pointing to their miserable track records, while setting the record straight on their exaggerations, drama-filled statements, bias, agendas, cheerleading and apocalyptic predictions, we would be unable to address even one-tenth of the propaganda that continues to invade the minds of Americans.
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Friday, March 18, 2011
U.N. Votes to Do a Kosovo in Libya, Be Fearful When Politicians Dream of Rambo / Politics / Middle East
Just for the record I’m not “anti-war”, my uncle was awarded a Military Cross for fighting Hitler, and I’m proud of that. But sometimes I wonder was his sacrifice worth it?
The good news I suppose is that The U.N. has managed to agree on something that might have a minimal impact on the propensity of despots with guns, money and backing from a big power, to terrorise their own people; should we now expect that someday soon:
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Time to Quit Pining for a “Level Playing Field” in International Trade / Politics / US Politics
One of the most common plaints from those who are upset about America’s current trade mess is “just give us a level playing field.” In particular, this is what one tends to hear from American businesses (at least those which have resisted the siren song of offshoring) that are hard pressed by “unfair” foreign competition. It’s hard not to be sympathetic, and on an individual basis, my heart goes out to them.
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Japan Does Not Face Another Chernobyl / Politics / Environmental Issues
What is happening in Japan is a humanitarian disaster, but not because of what primetime pundits and talking heads would have you believe."Nuclear Nightmare: A radioactive death cloud from one or more of the Japanese reactors experience core meltdown and catastrophic release of radiation could ..."
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Friday, March 18, 2011
Europe's Economic Austerity: a Grimm's Fairy Tale / Politics / Economic Austerity
Conn Hallinan writes: In the Greek town of Aphidal, people have stopped paying road fees. In Athens, bus and metro riders are refusing to cough up the price of a ticket. On Feb. 23, 250,000 Greek protesters jammed the streets outside the nation's parliament.
The Portuguese nominated the protest song "A Luta E' Alegria" (The Struggle is Joy) for the Eurovision song contest and, when judges ignored it, walked out in protest. They also put 300,000 people into the streets of the country's major cities on Mar. 12.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Why “Fair” Trade Is Not The (Whole) Answer / Politics / US Politics
The idea of “fair” trade is very appealing, whether confronting the plight of autoworkers in Michigan or farmers in the Third World. Unfortunately, it will be only a small part of any trade solution for the U.S. and the world as a whole.
Fair trade in goods like coffee is a fine thing, because there exists a clear idea of unfair practices in how coffee importers treat coffee farmers and how to avoid them. That sort of fair trade basically consists in First World consumers voluntarily not using the full strength of their bargaining position with Third World producers. This is admirable enough.