Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, December 15, 2014
Ron Paul - All I Want for Christmas is a Real U.S. Government Shutdown / Politics / US Politics
The political class breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when the US Senate averted a government shutdown by passing the $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. This year's omnibus resembles omnibuses of Christmas past in that it was drafted in secret, was full of special interest deals and disguised spending increases, and was voted on before most members could read it.
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Saturday, December 13, 2014
Cyprus-style Bank Bail-ins to Take Deposits and Pensions - The Global Bankers' Coup / Politics / Banksters
On December 11, 2014, the US House passed a bill repealing the Dodd-Frank requirement that risky derivatives be pushed into big-bank subsidiaries, leaving our deposits and pensions exposed to massive derivatives losses. The bill was vigorously challenged by Senator Elizabeth Warren; but the tide turned when Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorganChase, stepped into the ring. Perhaps what prompted his intervention was the unanticipated $40 drop in the price of oil. As financial blogger Michael Snyder points out, that drop could trigger a derivatives payout that could bankrupt the biggest banks. And if the G20's new "bail-in" rules are formalized, depositors and pensioners could be on the hook.
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Saturday, December 13, 2014
How To Renounce Your US Citizenship And Become Stateless / Politics / Social Issues
I recently had the pleasure to speak with Glen Roberts, a self-described "techno-geek", blogger and the author of How to Renounce Your US Citizenship in Two Easy Steps. The book was written as a guide to cut through opinions and describe the requirements and process of renouncing US citizenship… something in high demand lately. Glen renounced his US citizenship after living in various Central and South American countries for more than a decade and currently resides, statelessly, in Paraguay.
His story is one of the most interesting we’ve heard in the neverending Escape from Amerika struggle. Here was our conversation.
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Saturday, December 13, 2014
The American Inquisition - Torture Lobby Be Tortured? / Politics / US Politics
Torture is a crime under both American and international law. The Bush administration repeatedly broke the law from 2002 to 2006 by unleashing a wave of torture, kidnapping, and murder, all under the banner of its faux “war on terror.”
“Terror” is a wonderfully useful propaganda term developed by the Israelis and adopted by the Bush administration to dehumanize and delegitimize America’s violent enemies who were opposing US presence in much of the Muslim world.
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Saturday, December 13, 2014
Arab Spring II is Coming Fast - The Unintended Consequences of Lower Oil Prices / Politics / Middle East
Dr. Kent Moors writes: There was one particularly grim matter that came up over and over again in my overseas meetings.
It’s so serious that the bankers I met with in Paris and Frankfurt discussed the sudden need to redraw their risk parameters. Meanwhile, top players in London were concerned about its potential impact on foreign oil companies.
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Friday, December 12, 2014
How the U.S. Fed Grows Government / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Hunter Hastings writes: We are told that elections are important, but the most powerful state institution, the central bank, is totally out of reach of the voter.
Ludwig von Mises viewed democracy as a utilitarian concept. It was the form of political organization that allowed the majority to change the government without violent revolution. In Socialism, Mises writes “This it achieves by making the organs of the state legally dependent on the will of the majority of the moment.” He identified this form of political process as an essential enabler of capitalism and market exchange.
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Friday, December 12, 2014
How Wall Street “Jihadists” Are Engineering a Government Shutdown / Politics / Banksters
Shah Gilani writes: WASHINGTON, D.C. – A tense battle between warring political parties erupted in Washington yesterday when Wall Street-backed Jihadist demands surfaced in the 1,600-page omnibus spending bill – threatening to first take the U.S. House of Representatives hostage, then all of America.
Intelligence services (obviously not Washington-based) initially identified the financial terrorists as Beltway lobbyists, but later revealed them to be a Big-Bank sleeper cell embedded in God-hating Dodd-Frank legislation, universally decried by the faithful as blasphemous.
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
America Should You Believe What They Tell you or What You See? / Politics / US Politics
Sometimes I wish I could just passively accept what my government monarchs and their mainstream media mouthpieces feed me on a daily basis. Why do I have to question everything I'm told? Life would be much simpler and I could concentrate on more important things like the size of Kim Kardashian's ass, why the Honey Boo Boo show was canceled, the Victoria Secret Fashion Show, whether I'll get a better deal on Chinese slave labor produced crap on Black Thanksgiving, Black Friday, or Cyber Monday, fantasy football league standings, the latest NFL player to knockout their woman and get reinstated, Obama's latest racial healing plan, which Clinton or Bush will be our next figurehead president, or the latest fake rape story from Rolling Stone. The willfully ignorant masses, dumbed down by government education, lured into obesity by corporate toxic packaged sludge disguised as food products, manipulated, controlled and molded by an unseen governing class of rich men, and kept docile through never ending corporate media propaganda, are nothing but pawns to the arrogant sociopathic pricks pulling the wires in this corporate fascist empire of debt.
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Thursday, December 11, 2014
U.S. Police State - Illinois Passes Law Making it a Felony to Video Police Abuse / Politics / US Politics
How to Stop Police Abuse
There's one way and one way only to stop police abuse: Criminally prosecute it, then allow civil penalties.
In a podcast today with Chris Martenson, Chris suggested civil penalties should come straight out of the police retirement fund, not taxpayer pockets.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014
The Dieoff Syndromw - Why Is The World So Boring? / Politics / Social Issues
The early leading member of Dieoff.org who used the pseudonym Mister Symptote later ran the So Boring World blog which seriously needs to be recycled with the same fire and determination! Mr Symptote was convinced he was right, which always helps. One of the key arguments used by the bloggers who flocked to So Boring World is the staggering idiocy of what's rightly called "mainstream crony media", operating an IQ or Idiocy Quotient north of 100%. This simply can't be called a conspiracy theory, because its a fact.
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Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Safe Haven Colombia: Peace, Pyramids, Parrots and Profit / Politics / Social Issues
"First, let me try to tell you about the setting of the Terra Viva, or Living Earth, community in such a way that I can convey even an inkling of the spectacular appeal of this magical place. Imagine being nestled in an Alps-like pristine setting, utterly immersed in indescribable natural beauty, the sounds and sights of parrots and monkeys chattering in the trees, waterfowl gliding to a graceful landing on a still, 2-hectare lake, vines and the tree canopy high overhead shading the mid-day sun while soft breezes ensure even afternoon temperatures are pleasant. Buildings with few solid walls so the warm afternoon sun and pleasant, cool evening air heats and cools naturally, yet no insects flying in to disrupt your comfortable surroundings." – Anthony Wile
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
U.S. CIA Torture Report Released - Full 525 Pages / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
In our system, no one should be above the law or beyond the law’s reach, no matter how senior the official. The record has long been clear that the Bush administration’s torture program was devised at the highest levels, with the involvement of the White House, the Department of Justice, the CIA, and the Department of Defense. The record now also shows that the architects and perpetrators of torture misled the public, Congress, and other institutions charged with oversight of government agencies about the scope and extent of torture, the significance of various prisoners, the concreteness of various alleged plots, and the significance of information obtained through torture.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
The Collapse of US Middle Class Wealth, Consumed by the Gods of Finance / Politics / Social Issues
"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport." - William Shakespeare, King Lear
Let's file this under 'why aren't people buying things and saving more?'
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Unemployment in America: Another Fabricated Jobs Report / Politics / Unemployment
Friday’s payroll jobs report is another government fairy tale or, to avoid polite euphemisms, another packet of lies just like the House of Representatives Resolution against Russia and every other statement that comes out of Washington.
Washington is averse to truth. Washington can only lie.
First let’s pretend that the 321,000 new jobs that the government claims the economy created in November are true, and let’s see where these jobs are.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
U.S. Declaring War on Russia? / Politics / US Politics
Michael S. Rozeff writes: The U.S. government is a bastion of reckless behavior, constantly and continually. The extent of damage inflicted upon the American people by U.S. governments is huge and incalculable. The latest addition to its record of recklessness is H.R. 758. This resolution passed the House with 95 percent of the House voting “yea”. The vote was 411 to 10 with 13 not voting.
The text of H.R. 758, passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 4, 2014, is here. This resolution is directed against Russia. All quotes below are from H.R. 758.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Seeking the Future of Europe in the Ancient Hanseatic League / Politics / European Union
Mark Fleming-Williams writes: A bargain, forged in the fires of 2012's economic emergency, has defined the European Union for the past two years. It was an agreement made between two sides that can be defined in several terms — the center and the periphery, the north and the south, the producers and the consumers — but essentially one side, led by Germany, provided finance, while the other, fronted by Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, promised change. In order to gauge this arrangement's chances of ultimately succeeding, it is important to understand what Germany was hoping to achieve with its conditional financing. The answer to that question lies in Germany's own history.
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Monday, December 08, 2014
The Immigration=Identity Crisis Of France, UK And USA / Politics / Immigration
Raw Deal for Mohamed
The BBC Parliamentary TV channel, December 4, broadcast a panel discussion from the northern city of Doncaster with an all-English panel of MPs and ministers. The Labour party, Lib Dems and Tory party faithfuls congratulated themselves on keeping Scotland "a part of our country" before being asked by a member of the audience if they knew that "Mohamed", spelled various ways is supposedly now the most popular name in England (if not the UK) for newborn males? In fact that shock factoid came from a 'selective' survey done by the not-so-reliable but very true blue 'Daily Mail' newspaper. The real ranking, the panel was told, is about 15th., but nver mind, it was the cue for the panel to wheel out the Official List of reasons why every male child in England could be "christened" with the name "Mohamed". As long as they pay taxes, they could go on to become great statesmen like Barack "Hussein" Obama and do wonderful things for their nation like enrol in the British Army for a war in Iraq or Afghanistan – against plenty of "Mohameds" and "Husseins" we can note!
Monday, December 08, 2014
Market Regulation is Newspeak / Politics / Market Regulation
new•speak
ˈn(y)o͞oˌspēk/
noun
1. Ambiguous euphemistic language used chiefly in political propaganda.
“Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought-crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. . . . The process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words; and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thought-crime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. . . . Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest, not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation as we are having now?” ― George Orwell, 1984
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Monday, December 08, 2014
Euroland on the Brink of Reason / Politics / Euro-Zone
Tom Naysburn writes: Lets be under no illusions, Quantitative Easing QE is monetisation of sovereign government deficits, lets be even clearer, QE is government printing potentially limitless amounts of paper money to pay for its own hubris, incompetence and overspending. History tells us it always starts small and controllable but quickly as the drug takes hold, diversions and side shows are created to allow its continued consumption, welcome to our brave new world where everything you thought was untrue or impossible is now possible and very real. Maybe QE is the government and bankers financial Soma.
At this fork in the road, one path requires the Euro to face its problems, either form a fiscal union or disband the currency, the second path is potholed with denial, QE and the inevitable destructive forces it unleashes.
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Monday, December 08, 2014
U.S. House Chooses New Cold War With Russia / Politics / New Cold War
Last week the US House voted overwhelmingly in favor of an anti-Russia resolution so full of war propaganda that it rivals the rhetoric from chilliest era of the Cold War. Ironically, much of the bill condemns Russia for doing exactly what the US government has been doing for years in Syria and Ukraine!
For example, one of the reasons to condemn Russia in the resolution is the claim that Russia is imposing economic sanctions on Ukraine. But how many rounds of sanctions has US government imposed on Russia for much of the past year? I guess sanctions are only bad when used by countries Washington doesn't like.
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