Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
On Obama's Failure To Carry Out His Elected Mandate To Reform / Politics / US Politics
By: Jesse
"First is the danger of futility; the belief there is nothing one man or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills -- against misery, against ignorance, or injustice and violence. Yet many of the world's great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man. A young monk began the Protestant reformation, a young general extended an empire from Macedonia to the borders of the earth, and a young woman reclaimed the territory of France. It was a young Italian explorer who discovered the New /world, and 32 year old Thomas Jefferson who proclaimed that all men are created equal. "Give me a place to stand," said Archimedes, "and I will move the world."Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Britain's Police State, UK Adopts Chinese Model of Policing Protests? / Politics / UK Politics
By: Global_Research
Nathan Allonby writes: CCTV has led to large scale arrests, following the recent student protests in London, over increased tuition fees. A total of over 180 people have been arrested, with the majority identified by CCTV.
The current arrests very much represent a landmark - we are now equipped for the Chinese approach to public order, in almost a complete reversal previous British policing.
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Fascism and Economic Collapse, Argentina's Past is America's Future / Politics / US Politics
By: Ron_Holland
There are many ominous parallels between Argentina and the U.S. and the question often asked is can America avoid the economic consequences that Argentina suffered from a fascist government combined with government debt and currency collapse? I believe the answer is likely NO!
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Fatally Flawed End the Fed Campaign Would Allow Congress to Print Money / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
Representative Dennis Kucinich has introduced a bill to end the Fed. Unfortunately his proposal grants Congress ability to create money at will for virtually any purpose. Kucinich specifically mentions full employment, stabilizing social security, and to "lend new money into circulation as authorized by Congress and to provide means for public investment in capital infrastructure".
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Reaganomics / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
I admire Robert Reich, because he has a social conscience. However, if I were writing about the current Republican/Obama tax cut, I would not help the Republicans put Ronald Reagan’s name on it. Outside of progressive circles, which reflexively blame Reagan, the 40th president is still popular, because the 1980s were the last of the good times. Who prefers 21st century America to the Reagan 1980s?
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Korea Steps Back From The Brink / Politics / North Korea
By: Mike_Whitney
Realizing that its plan to intimidate North Korea has backfired and brought the peninsula to the brink of war, the Obama administration is now looking for ways to ease tensions. But South Korea's tough-talking President Lee Myung-bak has decided to go ahead with the controversial artillery tests on Yeonpyeong Island and risk a resumption of hostilities. The North has warned that if the drills proceed, they will respond with a "counterattack....that would be deadlier than the strike on Nov. 23."
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Distorting the Tax Policy Debate / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
George Orwell warned us about the use of “meaningless words” in politics, words that are endlessly repeated by sloganeering politicians until they have no meaning at all. Meaningless words certainly were on display during last week’s congressional debate over the latest tax bill.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
The Smearing of Ron Paul by Paul Krugman / Politics / US Politics
By: William_Anderson
When the Republicans retook the U.S. House of Representatives last November, it meant that Ron Paul would be in line to chair the subcommittee that oversees the Federal Reserve System. Despite the intense lobbying by Ben Bernanke and others who loathed the prospect of Rep. Paul being able to subpoena them to appear before Congress and then to ask them pointed questions about their secret operations, the Republican leadership still gave Rep. Paul his rightful position.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
US Wealth Distribution, Where Zombies Go to Feast / Politics / US Economy
By: Bill_Bonner
A warning… Bad stuff coming!
We’ve come to the warm latitudes for our Christmas holiday. Your editor didn’t really want to do so. He travels so much for business, he longed to stay home for Christmas. He imagined himself sitting in front of the fire…happily drinking eggnog and eating fruitcake. Or, cutting down trees and mending fences.
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Why the United States of America is Broke Due to Out of Control Defense Spending / Politics / Government Spending
By: Mike_Shedlock
Explaining why America is broke is rather simple. All we have to do is look at two separate and distinct problem areas: public unions and defense spending, then generalize the problem. Let's start with a look at defense spending.
Here's an article on Foreign Affairs magazine by William Pfaaf making a solid case How Militarism Endangers America . The article is subscription, but a decent sized synopsis and lead-in follows:
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wall Street Wealth Bailout, The Bernank Who Stole Christmas / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: James_Quinn
Ben Bernanke is a highly educated PhD from Princeton who has never worked a day in the real world since he graduated from college in 1975. His entire life has been spent in the ivory tower of academia surrounded by models and theories that work perfectly in the comfort of his office. After building his reputation as an "expert" on the Great Depression by studying it and reaching the wrong conclusions, he came down from his ivory tower in 2002 to join an organization that has systematically destroyed the value of the US currency, thereby undermining the well being of the once vibrant middle class.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 20, 2010
Wikileaks And The Secrets That Deceive Us / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
In the days of Stalin’s Russia, not only would dissidents “disappear” but also even in the pre-digital era, photographs of officials at May Day reviewing stands would be erased from photographs when their political stars fell. Our own “Kremlinologists” would know who was in, and who was out by comparing last year’s pictures with this years.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
"Shadow Lending" and the Financial Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Bob_Chapman
What the tax package proves conclusively is that the President, the House and the Senate have absolutely no intention of getting their fiscal house in order. We will address the lurid details later. There is no change in the policies of borrowing continuously in order to sustain current consumption and to keep the economy from collapsing. As far as we are concerned the hold up in the package was to load it up with pork and stimulus. Some call it bells and whistles – we call it irresponsible. The Fed and all the players are buying time and 70% of the public knows that and they are going along with it. Very few want to face the music.Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, December 19, 2010
From Bush to Obama - America's Fiscal Collapse / Politics / US Debt
By: Michel_Chossudovsky
What has been implemented under Obama is strong economic medicine with a “human face”. “Promise amid peril”. The stated priorities of the Obama economic package are health, education, renewable energy, investment in infrastructure and transportation. “Quality education” is at the forefront. Obama has also promised to “make health care more affordable and accessible” for every American.
At first sight, the budget proposal had all the appearances of an expansionary program, a demand-oriented “Second New Deal” geared towards creating employment, rebuilding shattered social programs and reviving the real economy.
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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Another Record Breaking Winter, What Happened to Global Warming? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Britain and Europe have been hit hard for the third straight record-breaking winter season. Labeled by experts as the coldest winter in 100 years and set to blow well into 2011, it is already raising some very interesting questions about the new ideological split we are witnessing throughout society in the much celebrated green debate.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
In Third World America, You Can't Buy a Ream of Paper on Minimum Wage / Politics / US Politics
By: Janet_Tavakoli
In 2010, every one of my work-related conversations turned to personal wealth management. The money-class wants to preserve and increase their considerable wealth, and they are terrified of losing it. Elsewhere in America, those that don't have money are terrified of the rising cost of necessities like food and energy not captured in the consumer price index calculation.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Legal Fiction of Corporate Income and the Coming U.S. Tax Reorganization in 2012 / Politics / Taxes
By: David_Knox_Barker
Markets and pundits are celebrating the great tax deal “compromise” between the Obama Administration and the Republicans. A tax deal pitched as a compromise between the two-party duopoly that has been selling the United States into debt slavery for decades is not likely in the best interest of the country, or your bank account. The deal strikes me as a bit like a two-year-old eating homemade ice cream for the first time, believing it is the greatest possible pleasure on earth, with no earthly idea of how it stacks up against a honeymoon.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Shape of the World in 2020 / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Global_Intel_Report
None can foretell the future, and yet the shape of what we face can be shrewdly estimated with enough attention to historical trends; with broad contextual understanding; and with sufficient insight into the character of leaders, their societies, and the structures which define their basis. Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, December 17, 2010
Why the U.S. Gigantic Intelligence Apparatus Is a Mega Fraud / Politics / Government Spending
By: Robert_Higgs
On July 19, 2010, the Washington Post published the first of three large reports by Dana Priest and William M. Arkin on the dimensions of the gigantic US apparatus of "intelligence" activities being undertaken to combat terrorist acts against the United States, such as the 9/11 attacks. To say that this activity amounts to mobilizing every police officer in the country to stop street fights in Camden only begins to suggest its almost-unbelievable disproportion to the alleged threat.
Friday, December 17, 2010
U.S. China Trade Dispute Resolution Progress, but Currency Roadblock Remains / Politics / Protectionism
By: Money_Morning
Jason Simpkins writes:
The United States and China this week wrapped up a two-day meeting on trade that was aimed at cooling rising tensions between the two nations. Still, despite the progress, currency valuations and trade tariffs will continue to be a fixture of both countries' foreign policies.