Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Is Fukushima About To Blow? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Mike_Whitney
Conditions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are deteriorating and the doomsday scenario is beginning to unfold. On Sunday, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) officials reported that the levels of radiation leaking into seawater at the Unit 2 reactor were 100,000 times above normal, and the airborne radiation measured 4-times higher than government limits. As a result, emergency workers were evacuated from the plant and rushed to safe location. The prospect of a full-core meltdown or an environmental catastrophe of incalculable magnitude now looms larger than ever. The crisis is getting worse.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
What Happened to the American Declaration of War? / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
In my book “The Next Decade,” I spend a good deal of time considering the relation of the American Empire to the American Republic and the threat the empire poses to the republic. If there is a single point where these matters converge, it is in the constitutional requirement that Congress approve wars through a declaration of war and in the abandonment of this requirement since World War II. This is the point where the burdens and interests of the United States as a global empire collide with the principles and rights of the United States as a republic.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Central Banks and Politicians Confidence Game / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
This week's Outside the Box is a little different. It's a stroll down history lane and thoughts on confidence, from Grant Williams, in the form of an introduction to his letter Things that Make You Go Hmmm. Grant currently resides in Singapore, and I find him a very thoughtful read and a wonderful resource. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.
And for those interested, I think I am scheduled to be on Marketplace on your local NPR Radio station on Tuesday, which is today for most readers. Good to be back home for a few days! And now, let's think about confidence in a little different way.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Will German State-level Politics be Felt Throughout the Euro-zone? / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Victoria_Marklew
An upset in the regional election in one of Germany's 16 states could be expected to generate reams of newsprint in the local press, but wouldn't normally have implications for the continent's energy sector or for EU-level plans to support the financial sector. However, we live in unusual times and the surge in support for the Green party in Baden-Wuerttenberg will have consequences far beyond the borders of Germany's third-largest state.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Globalists Target 100% State Owned Central Bank of Libya / Politics / Central Banks
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Eric V. Encina writes:
One seldom mentioned fact by western politicians and media pundits: the Central Bank of Libya is 100% State Owned. The world’s globalist financiers and market manipulators do not like it and would continue to their on-going effort to dethrone Muammar Muhammad al-Gaddafi, bringing an end to Libya as independent nation.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Central Banks Seek Excuses to Plunder Treasuries and Enrich the Banking Cartel / Politics / Central Banks
By: Barry_M_Ferguson
Dumb and Dumber and Dumberer
Jim Carrey starred in the movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’ in 1994. The movie told the story of the two stupidest humans on earth - Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne. They were ‘dumb’ and ‘dumber’. But, even this over the top portrayal of these two stupid characters could not have possibly equal the stupidity of the real characters that run our world today. They can only be described as ‘dumberer’. Even worse, our ‘leaders’ must think of the rest of us as ‘dumbererest’.
Monday, March 28, 2011
U.S. Super-Rich the Greatest Living Parasites Flourish as Inequalities Deepen / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Petras
Billionaires Flourish, Inequalities Deepen as Economies "Recover" - According to the annual report of the business magazine Forbes there are 1,210 individuals – and in many cases family clans – with a net value of $1 billion dollars (or more). There total net worth is $4 trillion, 500 billion dollars, greater than the combined worth of 4 billion people in the world. The current concentration of wealth exceeds any previous period in history; from King Midas, the Maharajahs, and the Robber Barons to the recent Silicon Valley – Wall Street moguls of the present decade.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
French Plan to Topple Gaddafi on Track Since last November / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Global_Research
Voltaire Network writes: According to right-wing Italian journalist Franco Bechis, plans to spark the Benghazi rebellion were initiated by French intelligence services in November 2010. As Miguel Martinez from the progressive ComeDonChisciotte website observes, these revelations which have the blessing of the Italian secret services should be interpreted as the sign of existing rivalries within the European capitalist camp. Voltaire Network wishes to point out that Paris promptly paired up with London in its scheme to overthrow Colonel Khadafi (Franco-British expeditionary force).
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Solution to the U.S. Budget Crisis: Keeping the State's Money in the State / Politics / US Debt
By: Ellen_Brown
Cut spending, raise taxes, sell off public assets – these are the unsatisfactory solutions being debated across the nation; but the budget crises now being suffered by nearly all the states did not arise from too much spending or too little taxation. They arose from a credit freeze on Wall Street. In the wake of the 2009 financial market collapse, banks curtailed their lending more sharply than in any year since 1942, driving massive unemployment and causing local tax revenues to plummet.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Fukushima Nuclear Reactors Radiation Catastrophe, Japanese Government Lies and Cover-up / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Dr. Ilya Sandra Perlingieri writes: “Should the public discover the true health cost[s] of nuclear pollution, a cry would rise from all parts of the world and people would refuse to cooperate passively with their own death.” Dr. Rosalie Bertell. “No Immediate Danger,” xiii.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Libya War Damages Russia's Economic Interests / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Pravda
The events in Libya are impacting the economic interests of Russia. While Russian raw materials companies working in this country may still cherish the hope to participate in some projects, the loss of Rosoboronexport's contract with the Jamahiriya will amount to over $4 billion. In the event of the victory of the Western coalition the country's weapons market will be closed for Russia.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
The World As A Theater Of The Absurd: Interests or Idiocy? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Danny_Schechter
It's been a long time since I sat in a college literature class and learned about the theater of the absurd, the work of great writers like Beckett, Ionesco, Genet and Camus, among others. Their writing was their way of reacting to a world that seemed out of control and maybe out of its mind.
Wikipedia tells us “It expressed the belief that, in a Godless universe, human existence has no meaning or purpose and therefore all communication breaks down. Logical construction and argument gives way to irrational and illogical speech and to its ultimate conclusion, silence.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
The Burden of Portugal is Not Debt but Education? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Justin_John
Portugal is the poorest country in Western Europe. It is also the least educated, and that has emerged as a painful liability in its gathering economic crisis. Wednesday night, the economic crisis became a political crisis as Portugal’s parliament rejected Prime Minister José Sócrates’s plan for spending cuts and tax increases. Mr. Sócrates handed in his resignation even though he will hang on as a caretaker until a new government is formed.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Japan Fukushima Radioactive Fallout Nears Chernobyl Levels / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Jesse
I do not seem to be hearing this same level of detailed information on the financial news networks anymore. I do not watch network televised news at all, so it could be covered there.
Apparently I am not the only one who feels this way.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Cameron Hoodwinks Uncle Sam into Another Stupid War: After Libya...Mogadishu? / Politics / UK Politics
By: Andrew_Butter
When I was confined to one of those particularly British institutions, “Public School”, one of our favourite games to relieve the tedium was to goad unpopular boys into having a fight. The trick was not to get found out.
A pattern is starting to emerge; mid-term with approval ratings in the doldrums, US Presidents are easy meat…for Public School Boys.
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Friday, March 25, 2011
23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism / Politics / Resources & Reviews
By: Ian_Fletcher
If you’re not happy with the way the U.S. economy is being run right now, you’ve been pretty much stuck talking to leftists to get any serious in-depth dissidence. With the exception of a few distinguished rightist critics like Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan appointee at the Treasury Department, most people who do hard-hitting across-the-board criticism of our present variety of capitalism are liberals and beyond. So if pink isn’t your political color, you’re pretty much stuck with narrow-bore criticism of the recent financial crisis—most of which comes down to “people were stupid and crooked.”Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, March 24, 2011
The EU-India Free Trade Agreement, Banking Sector Liberalization / Politics / India
By: Global_Research
Kavaljit Singh writes: Since 2007, India and EU have been negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) — covering trade in goods and services, investments, intellectual property rights and government procurement — that is fraught with problems. Till now, ten negotiating rounds have been held. The agreement is expected to be finalized by mid-2011.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Big Oil Versus The Dangers of Nuclear Power / Politics / Crude Oil
By: Eric_Walberg
As oil prices soar and countries think twice about expanding nuclear power, we should be careful about where to point the finger, says Japan’s trauma following the partial meltdown of nuclear reactors in Fukushima has once again brought to the world’s attention the dangers of nuclear power. From the start, it was clear that a broad advocacy of nuclear energy is bad ecology. Splitting the atom (or worse, fusing atoms) unleashes intense heat and radiation and produces poisonous waste that lasts for up to 10,000 years or more
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Tokyo Residents Preparing For Massive Nuclear Radiation Exposure / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Chris_Kitze
End of the American Dream writes: Does anyone really know what is going on at the Fukushima nuclear complex? When problems at the facility first surfaced, authorities promised that no significant amounts of radiation would be released. Then we were told that only those living within 20 kilometers of the complex needed to take precautions. After that we were told that radiation was showing up in many different types of vegetables all over northern and central Japan but that it was not a major concern. Now we are being told that the tap water in Tokyo is unsafe for infants to drink. So what are they going to tell us next? Should residents of Tokyo be preparing for massive radiation exposure from this disaster? Tokyo is only 150 miles away from the Fukushima nuclear complex. If a worst case scenario plays out at Fukushima, exactly what would that mean for the over 30 million people that live in and around Tokyo?
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Economic Nationalism: Fair or Foul? / Politics / US Politics
By: Ian_Fletcher
Because we have a national government, because Americans care about what happens to their economy, and because it is the national debate on the question that will bring changes or fail to, our trade problems will be fixed in Washington or not at all. As economist Herman Daly of the University of Maryland, best known for his work on ecological economics, puts it, “Free trade makes it very hard to deal with these root causes at a national level, which is the only level at which effective social controls over the economy exist.”Read full article... Read full article...