Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, May 08, 2017
Afghanistan Is America's New Vietnam Unwinnable War / Politics / Afghanistan
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND KAMRAN BOKHARI : There is a paradox when it comes to views about Afghanistan. No one would disagree that after 15 years, the Afghan state built by the West remains ineffective. Yet, no one is willing to accept that if present trends continue, the clear outcome will be regime collapse.
The Afghan government is unable to thwart a growing jihadist insurgency dominated by the Taliban. Nor is it able to prevent the Islamic State (IS) from expanding its footprint in the country. Worse is that increased factional infighting is gutting the Afghan political system from the inside.
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Monday, May 08, 2017
Poverty Is Going Extinct But The Middle Class Is Still In Trouble / Politics / Social Issues
On a global basis, the number of people trapped in extreme poverty has dropped this century. That trend does not mean everyone everywhere is living comfortably. Many millions still endure terrible conditions. But their numbers are shrinking.
The reason for the improvement, I believe, is two-fold. Technology and free trade. These have brought economic growth to formerly stagnant economies.
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Monday, May 08, 2017
Trump’s Conversion into a Warmongering Neo-con - The Horror! The Horror! (Part Three) / Politics / US Politics
In Part One and Part Two of this article I detailed the decades of propaganda, false flags, and misinformation campaigns used by the Deep State to gain power and control over the U.S. government. When war or a financial crisis is necessary to keep the profits flowing, events will be steered to such an outcome. With the latest financial plundering operation running out of steam, the Deep State is pushing the world toward global conflict.
If at first you don’t succeed with a false flag gas attack, try try again. Knowing a vast swath of the American populace is incapable of critical thinking or able to discern between fake news and factual events, the Deep State and their media lackeys unquestioningly promoted the story of children being killed by a sarin gas attack by Assad. The photos of rescue workers helping victims without gloves immediately invalidated the narrative, as the rescue workers would be dead if they handled sarin gas victims without protective gear.
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Monday, May 08, 2017
BrExit Threat - London Bridge is (Broken) Down / Politics / BrExit
The French election, won just now by Emmanuel Macron, put several segments of the French population opposite one another in a pretty fierce contest. And that contest will continue. Because Macron won’t be able to lift the French economy out of its doldrums any more than Le Pen could have, or than Trump can life the US, and the new president will have the honor of presiding over a further and deepening downturn. The French political dividing line was aptly described by Simon Kuper recently:
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Saturday, May 06, 2017
Deep State Pushing America Into Wars - The Horror! The Horror! / Politics / US Military
In Part One of this article I detailed how propaganda has been utilized by the Deep State for decades to control the minds of the masses and allow those in control to reap the benefits of never ending war. In Part Two I will discuss recent events, false flags, and propaganda campaigns utilzed by the Deep State to push the world to the brink of war.
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Saturday, May 06, 2017
Donald “Big Government” Trump Approves Of Even Bigger Budget Than Obama / Politics / Government Spending
Yesterday, the House passed another massive yearly “Omnibus Appropriations” spending bill which came in at a whopping $1.163 trillion! That’s more than Obama spent last year.
American’s who thought Donald Trump was really going to bring hope and change must really be shocked to see spending as yuge, or yuger than Obama’s.
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Friday, May 05, 2017
Why the Trump Tax Plan May Implode in America Rather than Explode in China / Politics / Taxes
Recently, President Trump released a US tax cut plan to reshore US corporate revenues. Some expect it to cause great challenges to manufacturing and capital outflows from China. The realities are more complex.At the eve of the White House’s 100-day mark in office, the Trump administration released an outline of tax reductions for American companies and households. There is great demand for change. US tax individual income tax system is broken, and while US corporate tax rates are high internationally, US companies have parked more than $1 trillion worth of cash abroad.
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Friday, May 05, 2017
BrExit War - Theresa May Warns EU to Cease Interfering in UK General Election / Politics / BrExit
The general election appears to be fast accelerating the evaporation of the calm before the Brexit storm as negotiations appear to be breaking down even before they were due to be begin following the outcome of the 7th May French Presidential Election. It started early week following the leak of last weekends lunch between Theresa May and European Commission unelected President Jean-Claude Junker that saw the continents europhile press put an anti-British spin on the meeting.
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Thursday, May 04, 2017
French Election Forecast Countdown - Elite Banker Macron vs Fascist Le Pen / Politics / France
All eyes are now on the second and final round of voting to be held in a few days time on 7th May 2017 when Rothschild Banker Macron goes head to head against Fascist Le Pen. The consensus view is that Marine Le Pen just CANNOT Win, as the odds are heavily stacked against her despite a late narrowing in the polls giving Macron a healthy lead of 60% against Le Pen trailing heavily behind on 40%,that's a HUGE 20% gap!
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Thursday, May 04, 2017
The Student Debt Servitude Sham / Politics / Student Finances
Many today strongly believe it is morally wrong to indenture students to the degree of liabilities presently required to achieve the education required to become a productive contributor within our modern society.
The question we need to demand answers to is why has college costs for students exploded upward, while salaries and job positions for graduates has not? What is driving the relentless and inexplicable surge in the debt burden for students and their parents?
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Wednesday, May 03, 2017
Can Madame BrExit Marine Le Pen Win French Presidential Election? / Politics / France
All eyes are now on the second and final round of voting to be held in a few days time on 7th May 2017 when Centrist Macron and Far Right Le Pen go head to head. The consensus view is that Marine Le Pen just CANNOT Win, as the odds are heavily stacked against her with the polls giving Macron a healthy lead of 60% against Le Pen trailing heavily behind on 40%,that's a 20% gap!
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Who Are the World’s Biggest Military Spenders, Really? / Politics / GeoPolitics
The conventional narrative is that the world is threatened by the assertive China and Russia. The inconvenient narrative is that China is modernizing, while US priorities are misguided, Dan Steinbock says.When China recently launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, New York Times saw it as “a milestone in President Xi Jinping’s drive to extend China’s military reach far beyond its shores.” First reports surfaced in early 2016, when Washington Post headlined, “By 2030, South China Sea will be ‘virtually a Chinese lake’.”
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
British Secret Intelligence Service Spymasters / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
England is a mythical land of Magna Carter power politics heritage. Such cultural and emotional symbols as 'Mrs. Miniver' Rose or the White Cliffs of Dover are engrained in the public consciousness as essential British tradition. When the "Bard of Avon" presented his indispensable observations, Shakespeare on England defined the perception essence of countless generations.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Trump's Tax Outline Won't Avert Stock Market Correction / Politics / Stock Market 2017
The primary catalyst to keep investor confidence sky-high while stocks are fliting with the most expensive valuations in history is the passage of Trump's comprehensive tax relief plan. But one thing is for sure, the current tax changes being proposed by the President will morph over time and will be significantly watered down if it is ever to become law. Therefore, since the final plan will be significantly diluted from the proposed form, its effect on the economy and for equity prices will be extremely attenuated. This means the current ebullience on Wall Street is about as far offside as possible.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Save Liberty, Shut Down the Government / Politics / US Politics
Congress ended the week by passing a continuing resolution keeping the government funded for one more week. This stopgap funding bill is designed to give Congress and the White House more time to negotiate a long-term spending bill. Passage of a long-term spending bill has been delayed over objections to Republican efforts to preserve Obamcare's key features but give states a limited ability to opt out of some Obamacare mandates.
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Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Why is North Korea Being So Unreasonable? / Politics / North Korea
On April 28, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the U.N. that North Korea “must dismantle its nuclear missile programs” before the US “can even consider talks.”*
Sounds reasonable.
Why hasn’t the Kim Jong-Un regime responded with open arms and shouts of joy for this generous and fair-minded proposal from Uncle Sam?
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Monday, May 01, 2017
America's Deep State Wars - The Horror! The Horror! / Politics / US Military
I'm constantly amazed by the ability of those in power to create a narrative trusted by a gullible non-critical thinking populace. Appealing to emotions, when you have millions of functionally illiterate, normalcy bias ensnared, iGadget distracted, disciples of the status quo, has been the game plan of the Deep State for the last century. Americans don't want to think, because thinking is hard. They would rather feel. For decades the government controlled public education system has performed a mass lobotomy on their hapless matriculates, removing their ability to think and replacing it with feelings, fabricated dogma, and social indoctrination. Their minds of mush have been molded to acquiesce to the narrative propagandized by their government keepers.
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Saturday, April 29, 2017
Damn the Deficits, Huge Trump Tax Cuts Ahead! / Politics / Taxes
Donald Trump has made good on one of his most audacious campaign promises by submitting what he describes as the biggest tax cut in U.S. History. For once, at least, this does not appear to be Trumpian braggadocio. It really may be the mother of all tax cuts. But if passed, what may this bunker buster do to the economy? While I have rarely met a tax cut I didn't like, this one just may be more likely to send the economy into a downward spiral than it is to send up to orbit.
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Friday, April 28, 2017
Calling out the Central Bankers / Politics / Central Banks
I’m a fan of the Marvel Comics movies, like X-Men and Iron Man.My lovely wife often catches me watching tidbits of the Avenger films when I sit down in front of the TV to relax for a few minutes. I’ll flip around until I find one, watch just 20 to 30 minutes, then move on to another project in the house.
It drives her nuts!
I know the ending. The characters use their skills to better the world. They have clear goals, choose their targets, and execute. These are nice, neat packages, which is completely unlike the real world.
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Friday, April 28, 2017
Earth Overshoot Day - Human Population Growth / Politics / Environmental Issues
The second half of the 20th century saw the biggest increase in the world’s population in human history. Our population surged because of:
- Medical advances lessened the mortality rate in many countries
- Massive increases in agricultural productivity caused by the “Green Revolution”
The global death rate has dropped almost continuously since the start of the industrial revolution – personal hygiene, improved methods of sanitation and the development of antibiotics all played a major role.
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