Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Afghanistan, World's Longest War Has Only Just Begun / Politics / Afghanistan
By: Rick_Rozoff
The higher number of Defense Department contractors, 160,000, added to over 100,000 troops - with the likely prospect of both numbers climbing yet more - will result in over a quarter of a million U.S. personnel serving under the Pentagon and NATO. The latter has 42,000 non-U.S. troops fighting under its command currently and pledges of 8,000 more to date, with thousands in addition to be conscripted after the London conference on Afghanistan next month.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Why Copenhagen COP15 Failed / Politics / Climate Change
By: Shamus_Cooke
To anybody interested in the future of the earth’s climate, the conclusion of the Copenhagen conference represents either colossal disappointment or profound rage. The financial pledges— if honored— that rich nations made to poor nations will do nothing to combat global warming. The few climate related agreements that were made were of zero substance, especially when compared to what the situation demanded.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Ebeneezer Scrooge Hero Not Villain / Politics / Social Issues
By: Butler_Shaffer
My interest in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol began one Christmas eve when, as a small child, my parents turned on network radio to listen to what, even then, had become a classic Christmas eve festivity: Lionel Barrymore's presentation of the Dickens story.
Radio was a medium that required the imagination to paint scenes far more colorful, and to concoct monsters far scarier, than anything motion pictures or television have ever been able to present. With radio, the listener was the stage designer, costumer, and location director.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Social Credit and Meta-Feudalism / Politics / Social Issues
By: Christopher_Quigley
“Douglas said that we are trying to pass from one type of civilization into another in which the possibilities are such that we cannot imagine.”
“The King is dead long live the King” so goes the feudal aristocratic mantra establishing power continuity. Death and birth are a part of reality and amidst the pain of death the love of life must prevail. Currently many say that American society is dying but in fact it is experiencing a transformation.
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Friday, December 18, 2009
Global Dimming Impact on Climate Change / Politics / Climate Change
By: Submissions
Horizon producer David Sington on why predictions about the Earth's climate will need to be re-examined. We are all seeing rather less of the Sun. Scientists looking at five decades of sunlight measurements have reached the disturbing conclusion that the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth's surface has been gradually falling. Paradoxically, the decline in sunlight may mean that global warming is a far greater threat to society than previously thought.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Global Warming, the Media, and the Impending Catastrophe / Politics / Climate Change
By: Submissions
Ann Robertson and Bill Leumer write: Soon, President Barack Obama will travel to Copenhagen with his pathetically inadequate proposal to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, which in essence will amount to driving off the environmental cliff at 83 miles per hour rather than 100 miles per hour. This proposal will only place our emissions at 3-4 percent below 1990 levels.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Throwing Our Energy at Impossible Dreams / Politics / Social Issues
By: Submissions
P.F. Henshaw writes:
In the haystack of contentious arguments at Copenhagen it seems only the occasional unofficial commentary pointed to the real solvable source of our monumental collision with the limits of the earth. Somehow in the process of growing ever bigger, mankind got "big", and continuing to grow still bigger is optional. Yes, it sort of "happened naturally", and is also natural for us to be a bit confused about the whole turn of events it precipitates, but it is still also definitely our own choice to be doing it too, and we're simply hiding from the problem it creates on the whole.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Are the Democrats Fighting the Banks? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Shamus_Cooke
How pathetic. President Obama sat at a table surrounded by super rich bankers, pleading with them to lend money to small businesses and workers. The media mislabeled Obama’s groveling as “encouraging,” “imploring,” and “pressing,” but a man who refuses to take action is powerless; and powerless people can only beg.
Friday, December 18, 2009
Is Obama Preparing for War in South America? / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Interview with Eva Golinger
Mike Whitney----The US media is very critical of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. He's frequently denounced as "anti-American", a "leftist strongman", and a dictator. Can you briefly summarize some of the positive social, economic and judicial changes for which Chavez is mainly responsible?
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Audit The Fed, Then Abolish It / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Pawns For The Fed: George Will, Robert J. Samuelson, Bonddad, Time, Others
The Fed is fighting tooth and nail Ron Paul's Audit The Fed proposal. Along the way it has picked up backers in some surprising places.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A New World War for a New World Order, The Origins of World War Part 2 / Politics / New World Order
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser in the Jimmy Carter administration, co-founder with David Rockefeller of the Trilateral Commission, and arch-hawk geopolitical strategist, was interviewed on CNN shortly after the protests began. When asked how the situation could be worked out to resemble Eastern Europe, as in, successful colour revolutions putting western puppets in power, Brzezinski responded, “Well, I think it will not work out the way Eastern Europe worked out, and hopefully it will not end the way Tiananmen Square ended. Eastern Europe became intensely pro-Western, pro-American, and so forth.” Further, he explained, “If there is a change of regime in Iran, there is a greater chance of accommodation, and I think that is to be fervently wished for. But that requires patience, intelligent manipulation, moral support, but no political interference.”[97]
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
A New World War for a New World Order, The Origins of World War III / Politics / New World Order
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
In Parts 1 and 2 of this series, I have analyzed US and NATO geopolitical strategy since the fall of the Soviet Union, in expanding the American empire and preventing the rise of new powers, containing Russia and China. This Part examines the implications of this strategy in recent years; following the emergence of a New Cold War, as well as analyzing the war in Georgia, the attempts and methods of regime change in Iran, the coup in Honduras, the expansion of the Afghan-Pakistan war theatre, and spread of conflict in Central Africa. These processes of a New Cold War and major regional wars and conflicts take the world closer to a New World War. Peace can only be possible if the tools and engines of empires are dismantled.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Times, Bernanke Joins a Long List of Infamous Underachievers / Politics / Central Banks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: There's a culture in our society that rewards bad behavior. Take the Fort Collins, Colo. couple that pretended to send their 6-year-old boy up in a homemade balloon so the family could star in a reality show?
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Is Obama Ready To Rumble Over Bank Bonuses? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009
By: Brady_Willett
When President Obama summoned the heads of the nations 12-largest financial institutions 3 neglected to show up in person and 2 others used the day of the meeting to announce that they would be paying back the money they owed the government. Apparently bank executives were not very pleased with the President’s ‘fat cat’ line, and they intended to leave Obama in the position of the fat girl pleading for a prom date.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
U.S. Takes a Significant Step Towards War with Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
United States House of Representatives - Statement Opposing the Iran Refined Petroleum Sanctions Act
I rise in strongest opposition to this new round of sanctions on Iran, which is another significant step toward a US war on that country. I find it shocking that legislation this serious and consequential is brought up in such a cavalier manner. Suspending the normal rules of the House to pass legislation is a process generally reserved for “non-controversial” business such as the naming of post offices. Are we to believe that this House takes matters of war and peace as lightly as naming post offices?
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tony Blair's Justification for Waging War in Iraq / Politics / Iraq War
By: Washingtons_Blog
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Iraq War investigation that - whether or not Iraq had weapons of mass destruction - he would have backed the Iraq war.
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time Magazine's Kiss of Death to You! / Politics / Central Banks
By: Mike_Shedlock
Bernanke is probably pleased to be name Time Magazine Person of the Year 2009.
The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker. How the mild-mannered man who runs the Federal Reserve prevented an economic catastrophe.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Congressman Ron Paul’s “Free Competition in Currency Act” Won’t Solve the Problem But Still Raises Vital Issues / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Richard_C_Cook
While Congressman Ron Paul’s Free Competition in Currency Act is not a workable proposal, it points to a deeply serious problem with the Federal Reserve System that must be faced if the U.S. economy is to have a future.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
How Washington Will Mess with Your Money in 2010 / Politics / Financial Markets 2010
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: In this era of growing government involvement, it's no surprise that Washington is poised to be the biggest economic wild card of the new year.
Indeed, investors who are trying to estimate the impact that politics will have on their portfolios in 2010 are likely finding this attempt at analysis to be an exercise in futility.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Don't Blame the Federal Reserve for Prescience of Financial Crisis / Politics / Central Banks
By: Stephen_Mauzy
Long ago I quit criticizing the Federal Reserve chairman for failing to avert the latest systemic financial disaster, though I still pity him for enduring the endless Socratic essays, polemics, and indignant soliloquies of his detractors. Criticizing the Fed chairman for a lack of prescience is like criticizing a dog for an inability to recite the alphabet. When something is physiologically impossible, why bother?