Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Egypt's Strategic Balance, Morsi's Challenge to the Nasserite Model / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
Immediately following the declaration of a cease-fire in Gaza, Egypt was plunged into a massive domestic crisis. Mohammed Morsi, elected in the first presidential election after the fall of Hosni Mubarak, passed a decree that would essentially neuter the independent judiciary by placing his executive powers above the high court and proposed changes to the constitution that would institutionalize the Muslim Brotherhood's power. Following the decree, Morsi's political opponents launched massive demonstrations that threw Egypt into domestic instability and uncertainty.
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
An American Success Story in Mexico: Jim Bourque Starr / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Q: Jim, when did you first come to Mexico to live, and more importantly, why?
A: In 2004, I moved from San Jose, California, to Mexico City. I was in the States and met a woman from Mexico City. We married and moved to Mexico City. I started a chiropractic clinic there. It was surprisingly easy, because I didn't have to jump through any hoops. I just set up shop.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Mark Carney Abandons Canadians Sinking Ship, As Housing Market Crashes / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
"Just when scientific progress was supposed to be ridding the world of myths and ghosts, famous people became larger than life.... Fame was found increasingly fascinating. And it seemed to happen by popular demand. The general spread of education didn't make people more resistant to fame. If anything, it made them less resistant." -Clive James, Fame in the Twentieth Century
Monday, December 03, 2012
All I Want For Christmas Is The Truth / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
“Eyes blinded by the fog of things
cannot see truth.
Ears deafened by the din of things
cannot hear truth.
Brains bewildered by the whirl of things
cannot think truth.
Hearts deadened by the weight of things
cannot feel truth.
Throats choked by the dust of things
cannot speak truth.”
― Harald Bell Wright – The Uncrowned King
Monday, December 03, 2012
Doing Away With U.S. Debt Ceiling Drama / Politics / US Debt
By: Peter_Schiff
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made news last week by proposing to transfer the Congressional prerogative to raise the debt ceiling to the President. The change would essentially do away with the meaningless debt ceiling debates that have become ritual kabuki in Washington over the past few generations. Most Republicans have dismissed the proposal as a blatant executive power grab that will significantly weaken both the Congress and the minority party. While this is certainly true, Congress will only lose a power that it has never shown the slightest courage to actually use. But in truth, the proposal has the merit of refreshing honesty. By telling U.S. taxpayers, and the world in general, that the U.S. government has no intention of ever balancing its budget or limiting its accumulation of unsustainable debt, then perhaps we can begin to have an honest discussion about our economic future. Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 03, 2012
Ron Paul - U.S. Fiscal Cliff Crisis Headed Toward the 11th Hour Compromise / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
As the year draws to an end, America faces yet another Congressionally-manufactured crisis which will likely end in yet another 11th hour compromise, resulting in more government growth touted as "saving" the economy. While cutting taxes is always a good idea, setting up a ticking time bomb with a sunset provision, as the Bush tax cuts did, is terrible policy. Congress should have just cut taxes. But instead, we have a crisis that is sure not to go to waste.
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Monday, December 03, 2012
Obama's New Climate Goals Signal New Trade Tariffs / Politics / Protectionism
By: Andrew_McKillop
Obama's special climate change envoy to the present Doha climate change talks, Todd Stern, told delegates to the June 2012 Rio + 20 conference that president Obama and state secretary Clinton elevated sustainable development to one of the three pillars of U.S. national security policy, along with diplomacy and defense. Incorporating climate change action, it is a key issue.
Monday, December 03, 2012
Popular Culture Promotes the Police State / Politics / Propaganda
By: BATR
The New World Order, designed around a functional police state that is encouraged by continuous popular cultural messages, is apparent to even the most avid establishment apologist. Liberty and freedom, hardly ever mentioned in a positive light by the mass media, is a direct threat to the ruling class. The proliferation of degenerate behavior is lauded so that those who object to such conduct will be demeaned as outcasts of the decadent society. The imposition of a police state is necessary to coerce decent people into forced obedience.
Sunday, December 02, 2012
Warren Buffett: Tax Dodger? / Politics / Taxes
By: Investment_U
Alexander Green writes: I’m a longtime admirer of Warren Buffett.
He taught me a lot about stock investing, including the most important thing about it I know: Forget about outguessing the market and focus instead on identifying businesses that are selling for less than they are worth.
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Sunday, December 02, 2012
Our Collapsing Economy and Currency / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
Is the “fiscal cliff” real or just another hoax? The answer is that the fiscal cliff is real, but it is a result, not a cause. The hoax is the way the fiscal cliff is being used.
The fiscal cliff is the result of the inability to close the federal budget deficit. The budget deficit cannot be closed because large numbers of US middle class jobs and the GDP and tax base associated with them have been moved offshore, thus reducing federal revenues. The fiscal cliff cannot be closed because of the unfunded liabilities of eleven years of US-initiated wars against a half dozen Muslim countries--wars that have benefitted only the profits of the military/security complex and the territorial ambitions of Israel. The budget deficit cannot be closed, because economic policy is focused only on saving banks that wrongful financial deregulation allowed to speculate, to merge, and to become too big to fail, thus requiring public subsidies that vastly dwarf the totality of US welfare spending.
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Sunday, December 02, 2012
Let's Hold Hands and Jump Off the Fiscal Cliff / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes:
"I saw my problems and I'll see the light
"We got a lovin' thing, we gotta feed it right
"There ain't no danger we can go too far
"We start believin' now that we can be who we are.
"Grease is the word..."
Saturday, December 01, 2012
US Fiscal Cliff Talks Target the Working Class / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_Grey
As the deadline for the so-called “fiscal cliff” grows nearer, the indications mount that, behind the smokescreen of deficit talks and media hype, the artificial fiscal emergency is the starting point of a process for making deep structural cuts in basic social programs that previously would have been considered politically impossible.
Saturday, December 01, 2012
Nasa's Martian Boondoggles / Politics / Government Spending
By: Gary_North
There was a recent mini-flap over life on Mars. Some CalTech scientist said that something big is about to be announced about life on Mars. But NASA says it's not true. You can read about this here.
Here is the accompanying explanation.
Read full article... Read full article...The Mars Science Laboratory Project and its Curiosity rover are less than four months into a two-year prime mission to investigate whether conditions in Mars' Gale Crater may have been favorable for microbial life.
Saturday, December 01, 2012
The TSA, War, Corruption, Cuba, Karama / Politics / Social Issues
By: Casey_Research
Doug Casey Interviewed by Louis James, Editor, International Speculator : Dear Reader,
Before we get to this week's conversation, I am very pleased to announce that Doug Casey has just published a new book, featuring some of our best conversations: priceless takes on a wide variety of subjects, including the TSA, war, corruption, Cuba, and your health. Many of the subjects covered in this publication and the book – like the one Doug and I discuss below – are the result of questions from readers. The book, Doug's first in many years, is called Totally Incorrect, and is a convenient way to share Doug's singly unique and insightful perspective with others.
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Friday, November 30, 2012
Is the World Really Flat? / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Andy_Sutton
One of the really bad things about a period of crisis, especially when there is a vacuum in terms of real convictions, is that the void tends to be filled with anything and everything. I’m going to devote this week to some of the more absurd comments and theories that have emerged as they pertain to the whole idea of a fiscal cliff, and yet another debt ceiling battle in Washington. However, before we cover the absurdities and get to the ‘fun’ stuff, we need properly arrange the facts.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Why Loose Money Bernanke Could Learn a Thing or Two From Shrewd Mark Carney / Politics / Central Banks
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
Now that President Barack Obama has been reelected, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's easy money policies may well be with us for the next four years.
And even if Obama replaces Bernanke when his term ends in January 2014, he's likely to choose another soft-money acolyte like Fed Vice-chairman Janet Yellen to lead the Fed.
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Friday, November 30, 2012
The Internet Just Became a Dangerous Place, as Governments Try to Seize Control / Politics / Internet
By: Jeff_Berwick
The Internet is more dangerous than ever before… and not because of “child porn” or Craigslist personal ads… it is because of governments. Within that sinister cabal of governments known as the United Nations, control-crazy members like China, Russia and the Arab countries, are trying to seize control of the free flow of information. As reported in the Wall Street Journal:
Friday, November 30, 2012
The US Is Now a Police State / Politics / US Politics
By: Casey_Research
Louis: Doug, after conversations like the one we had last week, we often get letters from angry readers who accuse you of hating America, disloyalty, and perhaps even treason. These people don't know or understand what I do about you – that you love the idea that was America. It's the United State it has become for which you have nothing but contempt. Perhaps we should try to explain this to them?
Friday, November 30, 2012
Sinister Implications of the Cashless Society / Politics / Fiat Currency
By: Patrick_Henningsen
Among the long list of items bundled by consensus reality merchants under the banner of ‘conspiracy theory’, is a world without cash – where technocrats rule over the populace, and everything and anything is exchanged via plastic and RFID chips.
In this sterile and controlled Orwellian hi-tech society, the idea of cash being passed from hand to hand would be as archaic as the thought of carrying around a rucksack of tally sticks today.
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Thursday, November 29, 2012
Large Scale Quantum Entanglement, Atom Smasher Creates New Kind of 'Spooky' Matter / Politics / Science
By: DK_Matai
High speed collisions between sub-atomic particles inside the Large Hadron Collider atom smasher appear to have unexpectedly created what looks like a new form of matter! Every time we look deeply at the macro- or micro- universe with the idea that it is under constant construction and holds wonders beyond human imagining... we find them. Scientists may have accidentally discovered a new type of "Spooky" matter in which particles seemingly interact at a distance without any direct connection with each other. This new kind of matter is called "Colour-Glass Condensate" and it is a liquid-like wave of "Gluons" which are elementary particles related to the strong force that glues quarks together inside protons and neutrons. The elusive Higgs boson dubbed the "God Particle" was also discovered earlier this year at the same facilities within the European Organisation for Nuclear Research or CERN in Geneva, Switzerland.