Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Angela Merkel Must Reform Energiewende / Politics / Germany
PROMISED AND DUE
Angela Merkel promised on repeated occasions during her election campaign that reform of Germany's energy transition plan – Energiewende – would be high on her agenda if she received another mandate to govern. Following her triumphal re-election and the political horsetrading on forming a Grand Coalition with the SDP and the Greens, this reform will have to come.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
From Greek Tragedy To Travesty: Troika Selling Off The Cradle Of Democracy / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
Is it merely a coincidence that the troika rode its Trojan horse into Athens again on the very day Angela Merkel went awfully close to an absolute majority in German elections? I'm sure it is. But it's still very bad news for the Greeks, who now have their perhaps last chance to throw out the international financial system and decide their own fate, before most of their valuables have been sold off to foreign interests. Greece is where democracy started, and the way things are going, it may be where it will end as well.
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Ron Paul - Internet Sales Tax Could Crush Small Businesses / Politics / Taxes
One unique aspect of my homeschool curriculum is that students can start and manage their own online business. Students will be responsible for deciding what products or services to offer, getting the business up and running, and marketing the business's products. Students and their families will get to keep the profits made from the business. Hopefully, participants in this program will develop a business that can either provide them with a full-time career or a way to supplement their income.
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Why Is Angela Merkel So Popular? / Politics / Germany
READ IT IN THE POLLS
Angela Merkel became Europe's most popular leader by telling Germans they don't need to change, their national energy security was guaranteed, the economy was powerful – at least for car exports - and they were shielded from the stressful Club Med debt and deficit crisis that tore southern Europe apart. Also, despite it being unpopular she had shown her European credentials. Using German money, with German conditions attached she had helped save, or delay the end of, the Euro-zone.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Obama - CIA Manchurian Candidate Groomed by Communists to Destroy America / Politics / Conspiracy Theory
John Rolls Submits: Dave Hodges writes: Former FBI Weatherman Task Force supervisor, Max Noel, noted that the FBI utilized a CARL test when it conducted background checks on various suspects. The acronym CARL stands for Character, Associates, Reputation, and Loyalty is used to assess candidates fitness to hold the highest office in the country. On each of these four points of power, Obama fails and fails miserably. Like many FBI law enforcement agents and officials, Noel was alarmed by the fact that someone like Barack Obama could capture the presidency. For some unexplained reason, Obama was never vetted before he became a candidate for the presidency by the FBI. This is an unacceptable result of our national security system and is wholly suggestive of internal plot to allow the installation of a blatantly communist advocate into the highest political position in America.
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Monday, September 23, 2013
Is Risk-Free Banking Possible? / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
Reader "Nate" noted that Bloomberg columnist Megan McArdle stated that banning Fractional Reserve banking won't work.
Nate asked "What would a future without fractional-reserve banking look like?"
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Sunday, September 22, 2013
Universities Are Terrified that Online competition Will Put them Out of Business / Politics / Education
Peter G. Klein writes: Universities haven’t changed much since the Middle Ages. There is the campus with its lecture halls, dormitories, libraries, and laboratories surrounded by leafy quadrangles. Well, they’ve added giant sports complexes, gyms and swimming pools, and gourmet restaurants, but the basic layout is the same. And the production process hasn’t changed since around 1200. Professors give lectures, students read books and take notes, there are examinations and grades, along with the occasional tutoring session, and a great deal of hanky panky. The professors wear tweed jackets instead of gowns, and the students wear – well, just about anything, including pajamas – but otherwise the university remains one of society’s most conservative institutions.
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Sunday, September 22, 2013
Genetically Modified Babies / Politics / BioTech
Rady Ananda writes: In October 2013, the US Food and Drug Administration will hold a two-day public meeting to discuss genetic modification within the human egg, which changes will be passed on generationally. The United Kingdom is also moving to allow GM babies.
Human gene therapy has been ongoing since 1990, but most of that involved non-heritable genes, called somatic (non-sex cell) gene therapy. Somatic modifications only affect the individual and are not passed on, and so do not affect the human genome.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Bernanke - Once Again, Do Not Pay Attention to That Man Behind The Curtain / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
It should be obvious by now that mass democratization over the past century demanded a steady flow of inflation. The inflation of self-esteem: This inspired rights and privileges. These were abetted by a spectacular rise in quantity (inflation) of money and equally sensational erosion of quality of everything: goods, services, education, speech, writing, words, phrases.
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Saturday, September 21, 2013
Do You Have Any Idea What $50 TRILLION Looks Like?! / Politics / US Debt
Comedian Lee Camp was inspired enough by our latest commentary on the state of our economy to feature it in his new Moment of Clarity video. Apparently only comedians seem to understand the mind-blowing absurdity of US millionaires having $50 TRILLION in wealth, while we also have a record number of people living in poverty. Russell Brand has been riffing on that stunning fact on his Messiah Complex tour, and now Lee Camp throws some fuel on the fire and also rips on this “crime against humanity.”
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Saturday, September 21, 2013
Germany Will Dilute - Not Abandon Its Energiewende Plan / Politics / Germany
TOSSING THE HOT POTATO
In Germany's election campaign the attention going to the national energy transition plan is bafflingly low. Official Environment ministry reports however suggest that total costs of Energiewende could or might rise to 1000 billion euros by the late 2030's if the program is maintained as present, and its targets are not cut back or shifted further into the future. Despite this, most German political parties have tacitly agreed to limit discussion of Energiewende and backpedal their criticism of this free-spending plan, for reasons that are much more than simply political.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Reasons Why the Next Fed Chairman Will Fail / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
Garrett Baldwin writes: As we get closer to the end of the tenure of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, pundits are falling over themselves trying to predict who the next Fed chairman will be.
Larry Summers, supposedly U.S. President Barack Obama's favorite for the job, caused the markets to soar when he took himself out of the running.
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Friday, September 20, 2013
U.S. Federal Reserve is the Worlds Greatest Criminal Enterprise / Politics / Banksters
Shah Gilani writes: Ben Bernanke is the don of the greatest criminal enterprise in the world.
And yesterday his made monsters, the Five Families, lined up to kiss his ring, again.
By not "tapering" or reducing the $85 billion a month ($45 billion in Treasuries and $40 billion in agency mortgage-backed securities) the Fed is buying from banks, the Fed is saying to its hit men, "We are family, and as long as Johnny Law is coming after you, we've got your back."
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Thursday, September 19, 2013
Tea Party Capitalism (with Chinese characteristics) / Politics / US Politics
- a dialogue
Bill: Jane, the bills need to be paid. The children can go without. I mean they can eat less - maybe one instead of two meals a day. As far as dentist and doctor visits, they can make do. We can't afford these things any longer. The bills come first! That's my politics; that's my ethics; that's my demand. I'm a right-wing Republican, a Tea Party Republican, and people like me are going to bring this country back to its roots - hard work, accountability and good values. If you don't like it, go live in China!
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Thursday, September 19, 2013
The End Of Economics And The Last (Stock)Man / Politics / Economic Theory
DENY AND OBLITERATE HISTORY
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their understanding of their own history.” ~ George Orwell.
In George Orwell‘s “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, written in 1948, the Ministry of Truth is responsible for all needed falsification of historical events, and the obliteration of all preceding interpretation of these events.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Only Legal Way to Escape US Taxes Besides Death and Renunciation / Politics / Taxes
By Nick Giambruno, Editor, International Man
When I hear about strategies that purport to legally allow US citizens to avoid having to pay income taxes, the first thing that usually comes to mind is that it is some sort of dodgy cockamamie scheme.
This is because the US government is no slouch when it comes to shaking down its citizens for every penny it can get away with. The mind-boggling spending on welfare and warfare policies necessitates this. It would be dangerously foolish in the extreme to think you could slip one past them.
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Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Rumors Of Strikes Against Syria Are Seriously Exaggerated / Politics / US Politics
MARK TWAIN'S EXAGGERATED RUMORS OF DEATH
In 1897, Mark Twain was forced to deny he was dead – persistent rumors claimed he was. President Obama's Syria policy, if it can be called that has died many times in recent weeks. Its last known version was a promise from John Kerry that any military strikes would be “unbelievably small”.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Are The Police More Dangerous Than Criminals? / Politics / Social Issues
The goon thug psychopaths no longer only brutalize minorities–it is open season on all of us –the latest victim is a petite young white mother of two small children
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article36211.htm
The worse threat every American faces comes from his/her own government.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Obama's Tipping Point and Implosion, Liar in Chief / Politics / US Politics
With a failed Presidency, Barak Obama is on the verge of becoming a perpetual buffoon in a skit on Saturday Night Live. Even with such public distain, the destructive policies of the rogue government merrily continue. The bipartisan cabal class of careerists operates as if they are permanently immune from public outrage. Up to now, they are correct. The Tea Party was hijacked and went dormant, the bulk of the anti-war opposition is AWOL and the government trolls within the occupied movement are now interning at Goldman Sacks. As for the throngs of Obama cult worshipers, who continue to place their faith in state decency and righteousness, are still on a pilgrimage to cash their loyalty checks. Yet, something has changed, but is it too late?
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Tuesday, September 17, 2013
AIG Myth: No Time to Avoid Windfall Bailout / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
On August 13, 2007, more than a year before the AIG meltdown, I publicly challenged AIG’s phony accounting for credit default swaps linked to over $19 billion in “super senior” exposure to subprime and other dodgy loans. These were meant to be super safe, but any competent CDO specialist should have been able to perform the same analysis I did. Instead of super safe, AIG had several billion dollars worth of principal risk due to exposure to mezzanine tranches backed by a significant percentage of poorly underwritten loans, and losses were eating through all of the so-called protection. Yet, despite market prices already eroding on the underlying collateral, AIG took no accounting losses at all. That was far from AIG’s only problem.
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