Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Thursday, May 12, 2016
SOS Italy. ExItaly! - Video / Politics / Italy
Transcript Excerpt: Its Thursday May 12 2016 yeah I want to talk about it early this morning
and how its leaves sinking there's an interesting article in The Telegraph da
Costa UK which are linked to it by Ambrose evans-pritchard he's an
economics writer for The Telegraph and the headline in Italy must choose
between the euro and its own economic survival so a little bit of background
when Italy you know because many people think that things have been as they have
for every you know that italy is a country or state that Germany is a
country even the United States you know that it's been as it is for over 200
years but if you look deeply into the history has you know the United States
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Finance + Stress = Suicide / Politics / Social Issues
Last night, I made it back to Athens, still half a cripple, but there must be someone in this city who knows how to stick needles in the appropriate muscles, right?!, paid the rent for the Social Kitchen big house/nerve center late this morning, a tough 1 mile walk for my leg muscles -they kill me!-, still, that’s done, and hoping to get back to writing articles very soon, but having an ouzo right now just to make sure I blend in with the Romans. One can never be too sure.
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Tuesday, May 10, 2016
Greece Again Surrenders to Troika Bandits / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
On Sunday, long-suffering Greeks suffered another body blow. Parliamentarians voted 153 to 143 for greater austerity than already, exclusively benefitting Western bankers and large investors, social justice entirely ignored.
A three day anti-austerity strike featured protests and sit-ins. Large parts of Greece’s economy were shut down, including transport, schools and other public services to no avail.
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Sunday, May 08, 2016
A Rare Congress and Mixed Signals in North Korea / Politics / North Korea
For the first time in more than 35 years, North Korea is preparing to hold a full Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Originally intended to be a regular occurrence for the WPK, party congresses convened only sporadically until 1980, when Kim Jong Il was named as Kim Il Sung's successor, and juche (loosely translated as self-reliance) was formalized as the government's official guiding philosophy. In the years since, though the WPK has officially remained at the center of the North Korean political system, party congresses have lost their central role in the political cycle. Scheduled to begin May 6, the 2016 congress marks the revival of a more public political style in the country, playing on the formalism of party structure and events.
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Wednesday, May 04, 2016
War, Debt, Default and Socialism - Just Another Day In America / Politics / US Politics
I've accepted that there are evil forces in this world that will do what they can to destroy you and your family in order to build globalism. From the Brussels bombings to the Panama Papers to the ongoing Syrian massacres and turmoil in the Middle East and the refugee crises, it is all planned out.
People have a hard time with that insight. It's very difficult to live with the idea that the top controllers of Western society are actively trying to kill you or at least destroy the society you live in.
Wednesday, May 04, 2016
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew: Puerto Rico Needs Urgent Action / Politics / US Politics
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew discusses Puerto Rico's debt crisis and corporate inversion deals in an exclusive interview with Bloomberg's Erik Schatzker at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
Lew on the need for urgent action in Puerto Rico: "Puerto Rico doesn't have decades. Puerto Rico has a crisis today. Right now, today in Puerto Rico, you have hospitals that have laid off hundreds of workers, closed beds, closed wings. You have a Zika problem developing without the funds to come in and prevent the disease from spreading. You have schools that are closing. You have broad economic stress that's leading people to leave the island. Almost 100,000 people left Puerto Rico last year. Let's just be clear, there's three and a half million American citizens, many veterans -- American citizens living in Puerto Rico. If Puerto Rico doesn't have a solution, that's three and a half million Americans who are plunged into chaos. That's why the need for action is so urgent."
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Monday, May 02, 2016
U.S. Military Drafting Women Means Equality in Slavery / Politics / US Military
Last week the House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act requiring women to register with Selective Service. This means that if Congress ever brings back the draft, women will be forcibly sent to war.
The amendment is a response to the Pentagon's decision to allow women to serve in combat. Supporters of drafting women point out that the ban on women in combat was the reason the Supreme Court upheld a male-only draft. Therefore, they argue, it is only logical to now force women to register for Selective Service. Besides, supporters of extending the draft point out, not all draftees are sent into combat.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
The Central Banking Prisoner’s Dilemma: Fed Freezes, BoJ Stammers, Dollar Drops 2% Overnight / Politics / Central Banks
In today’s communist-style, centrally planned world, when big central bankers meet and make decisions, no matter how small, markets quake and currencies shake. And that’s what just happened.
Bankers at both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan met in the last 12 hours to decide where they would take monetary policy next. But when they sat down to make decisions, they were faced with a classic prisoner’s dilemma: Options were precluded. There was a lot they wanted to do but little they could do.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
Michael Hudson: The Wall Street Economy Has Taken Over The Economy and Is Draining It! / Politics / Market Manipulation
FRA Co-founder Gordon T. Long is joined by Professor Michael Hudson in discussing his concept of the FIRE economy and its influence on the production and consumption economy, along with some of his writings.
Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and author of Killing the Host (2015), The Bubble and Beyond (2012), Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire (1968 & 2003), Trade, Development and Foreign Debt (1992 & 2009) and of The Myth of Aid (1971), amongst many others.
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Thursday, April 28, 2016
MP Naz Shah Punished for Tweets Made During Israel's Genocide of Gaza Palestinian People / Politics / UK Politics
The establishment that has ruled over the British people for centuries, offering illusions of freedom and democracy and mechanisms of consumerism and debt to keep the worker slaves sedated and occupied, today sought to silence a voice of criticism of one of the elites agenda items, that for the emergence of a Greater Israel that has been in progress for near 50 years. One that involves the systematic genocide of the Palestinian people and theft of their land, of which the 2014 Gaza war crimes demonstrated that there were no depths to which the Jewish fundamentalists would sink to exterminate the Palestinian people which included the death of over 500 children and destruction of near 1/3rd of Gaza infrastructure.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
One Year After: Freddie Gray and ‘Structural Statism’ / Politics / US Politics
When Freddie Gray was born in 1989, Baltimore hosted 787,000 residents and 445,000 jobs. By the time his fatal injuries in police custody provoked riots last April, the city’s population had fallen by one fifth, to 623,000, and its job base had shrunk by one quarter, to 334,000.
Little wonder that throughout his life, Mr. Gray had never been legally employed. Nevertheless, friends and family considered him “a good provider,” according to The Baltimore Sun.
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Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Forbidden History - The 1916 Irish Uprising against British Imperialism / Politics / UK Politics
With the Easter Rising of 1916, the world was introduced to the eulogy of Pax Britannica. Much like the coercion used by the Roman Empire, the British Crown were masters at colonial repression and exploitation of royal holdings. The long strained history between the Emerald Isle and the City of London dates back many centuries. From the punitive exploits of Oliver Cromwell to the use of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary (ADRIC), the shrift shed blood on both sides. Independence comes at a high price when the imperium masters dig in to keep their rule in place.
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Monday, April 25, 2016
Disenfranchising Large Segments of Americans / Politics / Social Issues
Several hundred thousand American citizens won’t be voting in presidential primary elections—and it’s not their fault.
In Pennsylvania, for example, a registered voter who needed an absentee ballot had to submit the request at least one full week before the election, and then return the ballot no less than four days before the election.
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Sunday, April 24, 2016
Why Russia Harasses U.S. Aircraft and Ships / Politics / New Cold War
Since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, tension with the West has been high, affecting eastern Ukraine, Syria and hot spots across the former Soviet sphere. Less overtly, Moscow has been working to protect areas vital to Russian interests by raising the stakes of U.S. operations there. This has manifested in numerous aggressive interceptions of U.S. military aircraft in flight, especially over the Black and Baltic seas. The interceptions, which are reportedly occurring more frequently, aim to dissuade Washington from operating in that airspace.
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Friday, April 22, 2016
Blanket US Student Debt Amnesty Now / Politics / Student Finances
A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal confirmed our worst fears about the student loan program, that is, that it was going to blow up in the government’s face just like all the other gigantic debt-bubbles that preceded it. For the sake of background, here’s a brief excerpt from the article that will bring readers up-to-date:
Read full article... Read full article...“More than 40% of Americans who borrowed from the government’s main student-loan program aren’t making payments or are behind on more than $200 billion owed, raising worries that millions of them may never repay.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Our Day of Reckoning / Politics / Social Issues
The second half of the 20th century saw the biggest increase in the world’s population in human history.
Our population surged because:
- Medical advances lessened the mortality rate in many countries
- Massive increases in agricultural productivity because of 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 have all played a major role.
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Thursday, April 21, 2016
EU's Growing Refugee Panic, How to Change Terms of Deal with Devil (Turkey) / Politics / Refugee Crisis
When you make a deal with the devil, it's certain the devil will insist you keep up your end of the bargain.
That's precisely where we are at today in regards to the European refugee crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel signed off on a deal with the devil (Turkey) that would give 80 million Turkish Muslims visa-free access to the EU. As part of the deal, Turkey will receive €3 billion in aid.
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Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Another Record Collection from Federal Taxes / Politics / Taxes
There is not a single American alive that has a recollection of a time without a Federal Income Tax. Yet, the country existed and prospered greatly before the constitution was perverted to fleece the pockets of Americans. As with most deceptive schemes to defraud, the sales pitch seldom resembles the reality of the final outcome. The fact that the excessive growth, reach and scope of the District of Criminals government has developed into an oppressive empire during this time, is no accident.
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Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Obama Syria, Iraq 'No Boots on the Ground' Backpedaling Begins / Politics / US Military
President Obama's "no boots on the ground" pledges have been broken so many times it's hard to keep track.
Today the president is back at it. Another 200 boots are on their way to the Mideast.
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Monday, April 18, 2016
Rousseff Impeachment Neoliberal Coup Attempt in Brazil / Politics / Brazil
Washington still thinks of Latin and Central America as its backyard. Colonial thinking never fades.
Make no mistake. Its dirty hands are behind the attempt to oust democratically elected Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
She’s not neoliberal enough to suit US policymakers. Her social justice programs have to go.
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