Category: US Politics
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Obama's Crocodile Tears on Newtown Slayings as Dirty Drone Wars Rage On / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
From December 14, world media was saturated with images and comment on the latest mass slaying by a young American male armed with cheap, easily and legally available firearms. These arms increasingly include high powered infantry war-theatre weapons such as US-made M16 and Russian AK47 Kalashnikovs, Heckler & Koch HK416 and 417 assault rifles, the Iraq-made Tabuk sniper rifle, Israeli Uzi submachine guns, and a large range of similar 5.56mm and 7.62mm calibre weapons with a killer firing range of 1 kilometre or more. In the US, sales of these arms always leap after each designer killing but Barack Obama shed a couple of tears on primetime TV concerning the Newtown outrage.
Friday, December 14, 2012
The Fiscal Spliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Redmond Weissenberger writes: “My stock answer was that medical marijuana would start to be legalized in 10 years and that marijuana would start to be legalized in 20 years, probably during an economic crisis.” — Mark Thornton
Drug laws are probably the most inane (well maybe a close second to environmentalism in today’s world: San Diego Residents Face 6 Years In Prison For Washing Their Car) expression of the power of the state. Typically, the average person rationalizes laws in this way: “I am law abiding, and I respect the law as it is just, therefore I am not worried about the law applying to me.” Also, they generally buy into the state’s justifications of why a particular law has been put in place.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2012
TSA Tightening Grip on Internal U.S. Travel / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Wendy McElroy writes: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is tightening its grip on domestic travcel. I don't mean the random, unpredictable security checks at bus, subway and train stations which already exist. I mean a coordinated and systematic police control of internal travel within America. Groundwork is being laid.
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
U.S. Fiscal Cliff Budget Farce Suggests Term Limits Needed / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Browne
Put simply, the fiscal cliff debate is an illustration of staggering political cowardice. Politicians of both parties are unwilling to ask voters to pay for all of the big government promises that they made on the campaign trail. They would rather risk the country's long term future than risk losing the next election. As a former elected legislator, I can assure them that their offices are not worth the price they are asking us, the voters, to pay.
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Monday, December 10, 2012
Ron Paul - Expanding Covert Warfare Makes Us Less Safe / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Earlier this month we learned that the Obama Administration is significantly expanding the number of covert Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) agents overseas. From just a few hundred DIA agents overseas today, the administration intends to eventually deploy some 1,600 covert agents. The nature of their work will also shift, away from intelligence collection and more toward covert actions. This move signals a major change in how the administration intends to conduct military and paramilitary operations overseas. Unfortunately it is not a shift toward peace, but rather to an even more deadly and disturbing phase in the "war on terror."
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Sunday, December 09, 2012
Fiscal Cliff, Why The Rich Will Not Abandon Dividend Stocks / Politics / US Politics
By: Richard_Shaw
WHO ARE THE RICH? First an apology for using the term “rich”. Because this is about pending tax policy, we are using the Washington D.C. working definition of rich. You know — the movement that began with soak Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, because billionaires don’t pay enough and actually want to pay more — the soak the billionaires movement that quietly became the soak the millionaires movement, that morphed into soak the rich, who we find are those couples who make $250,000 per year or more (and singles who make $200,000 per year or more).
Sunday, December 09, 2012
America’s National Security Vulnerabilities / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
Raymond Matison writes: Article I, Section 7 of our Constitution states that “Congress shall … provide for the general Defence …”. At its root, our national security requires for Armed Forces to keep the United States from being invaded by foreign military forces that would harm America and its citizens. According to Wikipedia, the “objective of National Security Strategy is to create a stable situation in the world”. Admittedly, this is a very broad concept in relation to just providing for general defense. Therefore, the very term national security has a meaning that changes with the preferences of the president and other elected and appointed officials then in office. It follows also from this definition that America’s involvement in the affairs of other sovereign countries in the world is dependent on the perceived level of stability sought by the then leaders in charge. Finally, this definition implies that for the purposes of our National Security Strategy, we will take unilateral actions that may be contrary to the interests and desires of other sovereign nations.
Sunday, December 09, 2012
The New Serfdom, Lord Obama Owns You / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Anne Wortham writes: In President Obama's much-discussed speech in Roanoke, Virginia, among his remarks on the source of success was his assertion that
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.[1]
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Saturday, December 08, 2012
Identity Politics and Political Correctness / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
L: Doug, I hear that a friend of yours, Indian activist Russell Means, has passed away. He was an unusual and interesting character. Are you up to talking about it?
Doug: Yes. You know, I've gotten into the habit of doing obituaries in recent years in The Casey Report – but generally of people I don't like. I know that's considered improper, because you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but –
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Thursday, December 06, 2012
Neoliberal Terror / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_McKillop
What is neoliberal terror? In a recent on-line article ('Hurricane Sandy in the Age of Disposability and Neoliberal Terror') Henry Giroux claimed that firstly hurricane Katrina, then hurricane Sandy imprinted their "haunting images of the abandoned, desperate and vulnerable", "and for a moment imposed themselves on the collective conscience of Americans".
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Is the U.S. Fiscal Cliff the Result of Psychopath Leaders? / Politics / US Politics
By: Brian_Bloom
In the early hours of this morning – at 3:00 am to be precise – I was lying in bed thinking about how the world got to this point in its history, and I started thinking about the synchronicity of the French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Industrial revolution that began to emerge in England.
“Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” were all about human rights – the right to be given equal opportunity to apply one’s skills without living under a crippling tax burden under the French King Louis XVI. Quote from Wikipedia: “Amidst a fiscal crisis [1789] , the common people of France were increasingly angered by the incompetency of King Louis XVI and the continued indifference and decadence of the nobility.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution )
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Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Is U.S. State Secession a Right? / Politics / US Politics
By: David_Gordon
Grant defeated Lee, the Confederacy crumbled, and the idea of secession disappeared forever, or at least that's what the conventional wisdom says. Secession is no historical irrelevance. Quite the contrary, the topic is integral to classical liberalism. Indeed, the right of secession follows at once from the basic rights defended by classical liberalism. As even Macaulay's schoolboy knows, classical liberalism begins with the principle of self-ownership: each person is the rightful owner of his or her own body. Together with this right, according to classical liberals from Locke to Rothbard, goes the right to appropriate unowned property.
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
CIA and Pentagon Fusion Revolutionizes Modern US Covert Action Complex / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Justin O’Connell writes: The Pentagon will expand its spy network over five years to rival the CIA in size, according to US officials, as it constructs the thus far classified Defense Clandestine Service or DCS. The project will “transform” the Defense Intelligence Agency from a Cold War, multiple-war agency to include increased operations against Islamists in Africa, North Korea-Iran weapons transfers, and Chinese military modernization that is now underway. Once completed, the DIA will have approximately 1,600 so-called “collectors” the world over who will be “closely aligned” with the CIA and elite military commando units. As the Washington Post notes, “an unprecedented total for an agency whose presence abroad numbered in the triple digits in recent years.”
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Obama Tells Goldman Fiscal Cliff Deal is Just a Matter of Maths / Politics / US Politics
By: Bloomberg
Bloomberg TV's Julianna Goldman spoke with President Obama today to discuss the fiscal cliff and his efforts to compromise with Republican leaders. In a lengthy interview in the Map Room of the White House, President Obama told Goldman that he is willing to make further cuts in entitlements, but insists that Republicans accept higher tax rates for top earners in the US. "It's just a matter of math."
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
An American Success Story in Mexico: Jim Bourque Starr / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Q: Jim, when did you first come to Mexico to live, and more importantly, why?
A: In 2004, I moved from San Jose, California, to Mexico City. I was in the States and met a woman from Mexico City. We married and moved to Mexico City. I started a chiropractic clinic there. It was surprisingly easy, because I didn't have to jump through any hoops. I just set up shop.
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Monday, December 03, 2012
All I Want For Christmas Is The Truth / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
“Eyes blinded by the fog of things
cannot see truth.
Ears deafened by the din of things
cannot hear truth.
Brains bewildered by the whirl of things
cannot think truth.
Hearts deadened by the weight of things
cannot feel truth.
Throats choked by the dust of things
cannot speak truth.”
― Harald Bell Wright – The Uncrowned King
Monday, December 03, 2012
Ron Paul - U.S. Fiscal Cliff Crisis Headed Toward the 11th Hour Compromise / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
As the year draws to an end, America faces yet another Congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth touted as "saving" the economy. While cutting taxes is always a good idea, setting up a ticking time bomb with a sunset provision, as the Bush tax cuts did, is terrible policy. Congress should have just cut taxes. But instead, we have a crisis that is sure not to go to waste.
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Sunday, December 02, 2012
Our Collapsing Economy and Currency / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Is the “fiscal cliff” real or just another hoax? The answer is that the fiscal cliff is real, but it is a result, not a cause. The hoax is the way the fiscal cliff is being used.
The fiscal cliff is the result of the inability to close the federal budget deficit. The budget deficit cannot be closed because large numbers of US middle class jobs and the GDP and tax base associated with them have been moved offshore, thus reducing federal revenues. The fiscal cliff cannot be closed because of the unfunded liabilities of eleven years of US-initiated wars against a half dozen Muslim countries--wars that have benefitted only the profits of the military/security complex and the territorial ambitions of Israel. The budget deficit cannot be closed, because economic policy is focused only on saving banks that wrongful financial deregulation allowed to speculate, to merge, and to become too big to fail, thus requiring public subsidies that vastly dwarf the totality of US welfare spending.
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Sunday, December 02, 2012
Let's Hold Hands and Jump Off the Fiscal Cliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
"I saw my problems and I'll see the light
"We got a lovin' thing, we gotta feed it right
"There ain't no danger we can go too far
"We start believin' now that we can be who we are.
"Grease is the word..."
Saturday, December 01, 2012
US Fiscal Cliff Talks Target the Working Class / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Grey
As the deadline for the so-called “fiscal cliff” grows nearer, the indications mount that, behind the smokescreen of deficit talks and media hype, the artificial fiscal emergency is the starting point of a process for making deep structural cuts in basic social programs that previously would have been considered politically impossible.