Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Saturday, September 27, 2014
Can Money Save The Climate? / Politics / Climate Change
So PIMCO was going to fire Bill Gross over the weekend, and he chose to leave on his own accord and work for Janus. So what? Gross is 70 years old and still joins another firm geared towards making money, and nothing else at all. As if making money, and nothing else, is a valid goal in a human life.
As if someone who’s done nothing else his entire life, and who’s richer than Croesus, should have nothing else to do with the times that remains him, and is somehow right and justified about not being able to find anything more worthwhile.
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Saturday, September 27, 2014
Why the U.S. Created and Armed ISIS From Libya to Syria / Politics / War on Terror
From Libya in 2011 to Syria in 2013 to Iraq in 2014, how the U.S. armed and trained ISIS following the age old CIA blueprint of arming and training Islamic fundamentilis to fight proxy wars from Afghanistain in 1981 to Syria today for which ISIS acts as a backdoor into Syria with the real target being Assad.
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Thursday, September 25, 2014
Hollande Says Global Warming Causes ISIS Terror / Politics / France
The Killing of Herve Gourdel
At the UN General Assembly, 24 September, French president Francois Hollande condemned the killing in Algeria of a French hostage, by terrorists claiming they are now part of the Islamic State and have abandoned al Qaeda. Their message to France by Internet was titled a 'Message in Blood for the French Government'. French journalists and terror experts suggested that a ransom demand of several million euros had been rejected at the “highest levels of the state”, by Francois Hollande.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Why Turkey Must Tread Carefully Against Islamic State / Politics / Turkey
As the United States begins its full assault against the Islamic State in Syria, backed by Arab allies, the absence of NATO ally Turkey is drawing attention and comment. Just days before the Sept. 22 beginning of U.S. airstrikes, Turkey managed to broker a deal with the Islamic State to return 49 diplomats held in Iraq for 101 days. Contrary to diplomatic and media speculation, however, Turkey is not supporting the transnational, Syria- and Iraq-based jihadist movement known as the Islamic State.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The Washington-Wall Street "Corruption Corridor" / Politics / Market Manipulation
Shah Gilani writes: There's a new twist in an ongoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe.
For months now, the SEC has been investigating whether anyone in the federal government leaked inside information to a Washington-based investment research firm.
While that was pretty juicy already, those investigators are now looking at up to 44 hedge funds that may have traded on that inside information.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2014
The Quick Slide From Hope to Despair As War Returns--If It Ever Went Away / Politics / US Politics
New York, New York: On the Sunday, the world came together to demand climate justice with massive marches of solidarity and positivity.
On the Monday, the UN prepared for its global climate summit with more than l00 Heads of State, some there as ornaments, others as advocates for changes in environmental conditions that threaten the survival of many nations and peoples.
On the Monday afternoon, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called climate change Washington’s number #1 priority.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Home Healthcare Cuts Threaten 500,000 Jobs and Female-Owned Businesses / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By Dennis Miller
That title wouldn’t make for much of a campaign slogan, and yet, it’s the natural outcome of one particular politician’s promise. As the editor of a retirement-focused newsletter, most of the notes I receive about the Affordable Health Care Act, or Obamacare, are first-person accounts of how a reader’s change in coverage or cost is affecting his finances. These (mostly sad) stories prompted several discussions with Andy Mangione, vice president of government relations of the Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC). Andy serves as the lead legislative and government contact for AMAC in Washington, DC. He’s also responsible for national grassroots outreach and developing strategic partnerships.
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Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Bread, Circuses and Bombs - Decline of The American Empire / Politics / US Politics
"Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions -- everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: Bread and Circuses." - Juvenal - Satire (100 A.D.)
Roman satirist and poet Juvenal was displaying contempt for a degraded Roman citizenry that had shunned civic responsibility, shirked their duties of citizenship within a republic, and had chosen to sell their votes to feckless politicians for assurances of bread and circuses. Rather than govern according to noble principles based upon reason, striving for public policies that led to long term sustainability and benefitting the majority of citizens, politicians chose superficial displays and appeasing the masses utilizing the lowest common denominator of "free" food and bountiful spectacles, pageants, and ceremonies in order to retain power.
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Monday, September 22, 2014
Scotland YES 71% - Global Youth Intifada Moves On / Politics / GeoPolitics
71% of Yes Votes in Scottish Refrendum
Under 20's in the Scottish referendum vote of 18 September voted Yes at 71%. The over 55's voted about 65-35 for staying with Nanny England but Duke Franz of Bavaria is biding his time to become King of Scotland. Its only a question of time you know!
Monday, September 22, 2014
China to Invest $20 billion in India Despite Territorial Dispute / Politics / Asian Economies
The leader of the People's Republic of China Xi Jinping arrived on a visit to India, where he had a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The goal of the Chinese side, apparently, is to strengthen both diplomatic and economic relations with its neighbor, despite unresolved territorial disputes between China and India.
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Monday, September 22, 2014
The Millenial Cult Of Global Warming / Politics / Climate Change
What is a Millenial Cult?
Remember the Y2K hysteria in 2000? Or the Maya 13th Baktun of December 2012 after which the world would surely end? They threatened “potted disaster” but in those two cases the political handle was hard to spot, even by seasoned conspiracy theorists. Unconvincing attempts included claims that the 13th Baktun coincided with particularly intense experiments in the US HAARP (high frequency auroral research) program, which would cause complete collapse of all electric power grids, followed of course by the declaration of martial law and the start of the New World Order, which itself is an elite millenial cult – like global warming.
Monday, September 22, 2014
Ron Paul - Congress Votes for More War in the Middle East / Politics / US Politics
Last week, the House and Senate voted to rubber stamp President Obama's war plans for the Middle East. Both bodies, on a bipartisan basis, authorized the US to begin openly training and arming the rebels who have been fighting for three years to overthrow the Assad government in Syria.
Although the Syrian government has also been fighting ISIS and related extremist groups for three years, the US refuses to speak to the Syrians and has warned Assad not to interfere with the coming US attack on sovereign Syrian territory
Sunday, September 21, 2014
ISIS Fear-Mongering Ahead of Another US False Flag? / Politics / War on Terror
Fear-mongering is sinister. It's reprehensible. It's longstanding US policy. So are false flags.
Merriam-Webster calls them "deliberate gross distortion(s) of the truth used especially as a propaganda tactic."
Wikipedia says they're "covert operations designed to deceive the public in such a way that the operations appear as though they are being carried out by other entities."
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Sunday, September 21, 2014
Ecology Politics And Haeckel's Tree Of Meaning / Politics / France
Shattered Ecology Politics
The desperately unpopular Parti Socialiste (PS) government of Francois Hollande in France stumbles forward with the uncertain support of a few Ecology party deputies, and even more uncertain and fewer French Communist party supporters, who collectively now have a key role in either saving or destroying Hollande's power. They can abstain or even vote against the PS in key votes such as the early-September confidence motion of the parliament, won by the PS without an absolute majority. But this also signs a death warrant for Ecology-and-Communist party influence in national politics because both parties, as well as the PS, are so unpopular. For the moment, Hollande refuses to recognize this, and especially courts the Ecology party called EELV, itself a coalition of now “historical” French ecology and environment parties and movements.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Scottish Referendum Not Avoiding The Future / Politics / Scotland
A Close Run Thing
Glasgow, by far Scotland's biggest city voted Yes to independence by a large majority and 71% of under-20's in Scotland also voted Yes. For UK premier David Cameron and especially for English Labour Party politicians who depend on their “Scottish safe seats” it was a close run thing. Pandora's Box was not entirely closed and will stay half-open.
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Five Lessons Learned from the Scottish Referendum / Politics / Scotland
Ryan W. McMaken writes: Government authorities in the UK have declared that the “Yes” campaign for secession has failed by a margin of approximately 55 percent to 45 percent. Yet, even without a majority vote for secession, the campaign for separation from the United Kingdom has already provided numerous insights into the future of secession movements and those who defend the status quo.
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Sunday, September 21, 2014
The Problem With UKIP And Other I I P's / Politics / UK Politics
IIP's or The Instant Independence Parties
Before the howls arrive on my doorstep accusing me of personality assassination of Nigel Farage, I will clearly say Nigel Farage is a nice man who is probably kind to animals and small children. He is also opposed to Scottish independence because it would be “the wrong political and economic flavour” for him. It would be Statist and Taxist (which is a word I offer him). It would increase national debt. It would fritter away the oil and whisky and other things, and its national money would go down the tube. It would be a Nanny State truly at home in the EU. It would be bureaucratic and meddling. It would probably start losing football matches, but that one is not yet on Farage's “No” list.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Scotland and the Spirit of Our Time / Politics / Scotland
The quote of the day today must be this one from Belgian EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht in the aftermath of the Scottish rejection of independence: “A Europe driven by self-determination of peoples … is ungovernable … ”
I don’t think he understands the implications of what he says, and I’m quite sure he completely misses out on the mastodont sized problem he – quite accurately despite himself- describes.
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Friday, September 19, 2014
Iran Prepares for a Leadership Transition / Politics / Iran
Though Iran has been broadcasting pictures and videos of top state officials and noted foreign dignitaries visiting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the hospital, the health of the man who has held the most powerful post in the Islamic Republic remains unclear. The unusual public relations management of what has been described as a prostate surgery suggests Tehran may be preparing the nation and the world for a transition to a third supreme leader. Iranian efforts to project an atmosphere of normalcy conceal concerns among players in the Iranian political system that a power vacuum will emerge just as the Islamic republic has reached a geopolitical crossroads.
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Friday, September 19, 2014
The Geopolitical Situation of Europe / Politics / European Union
Claudio Grass writes: Prof. Dr. Albert A. Stahel, a renowned political economist and honorary professor of strategic studies at the University of Zurich, is writing about the actual conflict herds in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Claudio Grass of Global Gold in Switzerland (www.globalgold.ch) asked him to share his view on the role of regional powers and the interests at stake for Russia and the United States, as well as the potential implications the actions of those stakeholders will have on Europe over the coming years.
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