Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
China Busy Redrawing Territorial Waters Map Sowing Seeds of Conflict With Neighbours / Politics / China
By: DK_Matai
As China's military and economic influence has grown throughout the world, Beijing appears to have become more bold, brash and brazen in its claim to territories believed to be rich with oil and natural gas across the Asia-Pacific. The latest attempt to achieve just that is the watermark on China's new e-passports depicting its map, which has ended up insulting and offending most of its sovereign neighbours.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
When Propaganda Masquarades as News / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Global_Research
Prof. James F. Tracy writes: The week-long Israeli onslaught against largely defenseless Palestinians in Gaza that began on November 14 provides a basis for assessing how Western corporate media whitewash the war crimes of America’s foremost ally in the Middle East. There are three often intertwined techniques consciously applied to such news coverage—historical context, sourcing, and objectification of the enemy to be targeted. Such practices can readily transform journalism into propaganda that acts to abet such crimes while at the same time allowing journalistic institutions to still claim the mantle of “objectivity.”
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Middle East Crises, Paying For Oil - Twice Over / Politics / Middle East
By: Andrew_McKillop
November 22 - Recent days have given all the proof needed that enthusiastic oil traders never miss a trick, for talking up prices, whenever the Middle East Crisis button is hit a couple of times. Even the first announcement of the Egyptian brokered truce deal between Hamas and Israel was not enough. Traders pumped up prices a little more on the basis that "we can't be sure the truce deal will hold". When or if the Hamas-Israel hostilities completely stop, oil traders can beat a retreat to Syrian war musing and Iran bombing scenarios, whenever they fear that oil prices are getting soft. A little later on, by about Spring 2013, we can have Arab Spring-2 or Spring-3 fears and rumours rolled out, as a handy lever to talk up prices.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Is Middle East Peace a Mirage? / Politics / Middle East
By: LewRockwell
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: With the truce in the week-long Gaza war, Barack Obama is being prompted by right and left to re-engage and renew U.S. efforts to solve the core question of Middle East peace.
Before he gets reinvolved in peacemaking, our once-burned president should ask himself some hard questions.
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Friday, November 23, 2012
Nobody Won the Last U.S. Presidential Election / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Phil Maymin writes: One guy beat another guy in vote totals this month, but they both lost, even in their combined total, to None of the Above. For the fourth Presidential election cycle in a row, and the 27th time out of the past 30, most eligible voters opted not to vote.
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Friday, November 23, 2012
America, You Can't Secede...Because We're Exiling You! / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
Once again we come to you as the humble messenger and past predictor of today’s major issues!
On January 20th of this year we penned an article entitled, “Forced Expatriation Coming to the USSA”. In it we stated, “We can clearly see that the United Soviet States of America is putting in place the necessary tools to be able to strip whoever it likes of the so-called 'privilege' of being a US citizen.” And, yet again, it looks as though it is coming to pass.
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
Understanding Liberal Democracy / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Gordon
Most contemporary political philosophers, unfortunately, are not libertarians. Nicholas Wolterstorff, best known as a founder of "reformed epistemology" but a philosopher of extraordinary range, is no libertarian either — far from it. In the present collection of essays, though, he assails a vastly influential school of thought in a way that libertarians will find useful.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
French Political Earthquake, The U.M.P Crisis / Politics / France
By: Andrew_McKillop
SERIAL LIARS
The UMP party, with two official definitions of what the "MP" means (either Mouvement Populaire or Majorite Presidentielle) was founded in November 2002 on the initiative of Jacques Chirac, following his vastly humiliating re-election where he was so unpopular that the second round pitched him, the supposed "Regal President", against the clownesque and bizarre-but-fascist Jean-Marie Le Pen of the equally bizarre Front National party. In the first round of voting, Le Pen polled almost as many votes as Chirac. The Parti Socialiste's candidate Lionel Jospin was totally trounced and quit politics.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Constraints Facing the Next Mexican President as Cartels Evolve / Politics / Mexico
By: STRATFOR
Enrique Pena Nieto will be sworn in as Mexico's next president Dec. 1. He will take office at a very interesting point in Mexican history. Mexico is experiencing an economic upturn that may become even more pronounced if Pena Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party administration is able to work with its rivals in the National Action Party to enact needed reforms to Mexico's labor, financial and energy laws.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
The Trans-Pacific Partnership as Global Corporate Coup, Why the Secrecy? / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is the most secretive and “least transparent” trade negotiations in history.
Luckily for the populations and societies that will be affected by the agreement, there are public research organizations and alternative media outlets campaigning against it – and they’ve even released several leaks of draft agreement chapters. From these leaks, which are not covered by mainstream corporate-controlled news outlets, we are able to get a better understanding of what the Trans-Pacific Partnership actually encompasses.
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Thursday, November 22, 2012
Is a Carbon Tax a Done Deal for the US? / Politics / Climate Change
By: Marin_Katusa
We know Obamarama is going to tax the rich, but I bet many didn't think he would weasel in the carbon tax as quickly as he is going to now. A Romney win would have been bullish for coal producers in the US – but Romney lost, and now so has coal, at least in the near term. The biggest winner from Obamarama? Natural gas.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Romney Was Right, The Power of Government 'Gifts' For Gaining Power / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Patrick J. Buchanan writes: "What the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote, and that strategy worked."
Thus did political analyst Mitt Romney identify the cause of his defeat in a call to disconsolate contributors.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Secession Is America's Pecan Pie / Politics / US Politics
By: Thomas_J_DiLorenzo
"Secession is a deeply American principle. This country was born through secession." ~ Ron Paul
Leftists and neocons in the media who tend to agree on the propriety and desirability of an ever-growing welfare/warfare/police state were predictably apoplectic when Ron Paul recently stated on his House Web site that secession is "a deeply American principle." Congressman Paul was alluding to the fact that all fifty states have sent secession petitions to the White House.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
America's War on Children / Politics / US Politics
By: Jeff_Berwick
This holiday season, give the gift of freedom. Include a passport among the gifts you give your children this Christmas. Not an American passport, but one from the several countries that make it easy to acquire residency status even if you do not live there. For example, Paraguay requires only a two day visit to apply for a passport, and the residency status so acquired is permanent even for those who never return. While taking a family vacation, you can protect your children from an unpredictable and alarming world.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
The Fiscal Cliff and the U.S. Trade Deficit / Politics / Protectionism
By: Ian_Fletcher
First, let’s get the definitions straight, as confusion about definitions is the single biggest avoidable cause of economic nonsense.
The trade deficit measures how much America’s imports exceed its exports.
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Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Patriotic Millionaires Unmasked / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
Despite the breathless post-election "think pieces" that have drawn sweeping and deeply considered conclusions about the political drift of the country, at its core President Obama's re-election is easy to understand. He essentially promised millions of middle and working class voters that if he were to be re-elected, they would receive benefits paid for by the rich. You don't need to read a Time Magazine cover story to untangle this political strategy. Now that he has been given a second term, Obama needs to deliver the goods by raising taxes on the rich and only the rich. He will be "asking" them to pay their "fair share," (as if "asking" and "fairness" have anything to do with it). In reality the wealthy already pay taxes at a much higher rate than average Americans and in many cases will now have to pay more than half of their income in federal, state, and local taxes.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
The Trans-Pacific Partnership's Secret Agenda / Politics / US Politics
By: Andrew_G_Marshall
The following is the first installment of a three-part exclusive for Occupy.com on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In 2008, the United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab announced the U.S. entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks as “a pathway to broader Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.” Originating in 2005 as a “Strategic Economic Partnership” between a few select Pacific countries, the TPP has, as of October 2012, expanded to include 11 nations in total: the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia, with the possibility of several more joining in the future.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Israel Gaza Conflict Impact on West Bank and Jordan / Politics / Middle East
By: STRATFOR
A Palestinian who was wounded Nov. 17 during protests in the West Bank against Israel's ongoing operations in the Gaza Strip has died from his injuries, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported Nov. 19. The West Bank has been calm in recent years, but significant protests have been taking place across the eastern Palestinian territory -- which is ruled by Hamas' secular rival, Fatah -- in response to Israel's Operation Pillar of Defense. The protester's death could widen that unrest.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Ron Paul on U.S. States Secession: Are We Free To Go? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Is all the recent talk of secession mere sour grapes over the election, or perhaps something deeper? Currently there are active petitions in support of secession for all 50 states, with Texas taking the lead in number of signatures. Texas has well over the number of signatures needed to generate a response from the administration, and while I wouldn't hold my breath on Texas actually seceding, I believe these petitions raise a lot of worthwhile questions about the nature of our union.
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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Elites Will Make Gazans of Us All / Politics / US Politics
By: Chris_Hedges
Gaza is a window on our coming dystopia. The growing divide between the world’s elite and its miserable masses of humanity is maintained through spiraling violence. Many impoverished regions of the world, which have fallen off the economic cliff, are beginning to resemble Gaza, where 1.6 million Palestinians live in the planet’s largest internment camp. These sacrifice zones, filled with seas of pitifully poor people trapped in squalid slums or mud-walled villages, are increasingly hemmed in by electronic fences, monitored by surveillance cameras and drones and surrounded by border guards or military units that shoot to kill. These nightmarish dystopias extend from sub-Saharan Africa to Pakistan to China. They are places where targeted assassinations are carried out, where brutal military assaults are pressed against peoples left defenseless, without an army, navy or air force. All attempts at resistance, however ineffective, are met with the indiscriminate slaughter that characterizes modern industrial warfare.