Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
South Africa’s Political Wars Begin To Resemble Our Own / Politics / Africa
By: Danny_Schechter
Cape Town, South Africa: When I came to South Africa, I thought I was escaping the way our news programs are totally dominated by political coverage even though the election is months away and everyone knows none of this polling and hyped-up speculation matters until October.
The fight between the Democrats and Republicans is an obscenely costly affair which none of our political pundits care to investigate in terms of why so much is being invested and what the likely payoffs will be, and to whom.
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Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Germany's Finance Minister Lectures Obama On Debt and Defends Euro / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Mike_Shedlock
President Barack Obama should focus on cutting America's own budget deficit before advising Europe on how to tackle its debt problems says German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble in the Spiegel article in Germany Rejects Obama's Criticism in Euro Crisis
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble rebuffed recent criticism of Germany's handling of the euro crisis from Barack Obama, telling the US president to get his own house in order before giving advice.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, June 25, 2012
George Soros: Merkel Leading Europe in the Wrong Direction, German Bond Bubble / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Bloomberg
BLOOMBERG EXCLUSIVE: Billionaire investor George Soros spoke to Bloomberg TV's Francine Lacqua, calling on Europe to start a fund to buy Italian and Spanish bonds.
Soros said, "There is a disagreement on the fiscal side...unless that is resolved in the next three days, then I am afraid the summit could turn out to be a fiasco. That could actually be fatal."
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Monday, June 25, 2012
Ron Paul, U.S. Government is Already Too Involved in Healthcare / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
This week the Supreme Court is expected to issue its long-awaited decision regarding the constitutionality of the "Obamacare" law. I recently discussed absurd legal arguments by Obamacare advocates that Congress can compel the purchase of health insurance, and the dismal record of federal courts applying so-called "judicial review" in protecting liberty. It is obvious that Obamacare's legal apologists either are wholly ignorant of constitutional principles, or wholly lawless in their blatant disregard for those principles.
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Monday, June 25, 2012
Why Democracy Is Dangerous, the Enemy of Freedom / Politics / Social Issues
By: LewRockwell
Karel Beckman writes: People around the world are fighting autocratic regimes in the name of freedom and democracy. They are right to fight for freedom, but wrong to fight for democracy. Libertarians should try to make it clear to them that the democratic path will not lead to freedom, but to slavery.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Crimson Tax Tide / Politics / Taxes
By: Christopher_Westley
If you ever visited my part of the country, you would likely hear about a long-standing controversy over occupational taxes and the right of my state's most populous county to impose them.
That state would be Alabama, and that county would be Jefferson County, established through violent, extramarket means in 1819 yet named for an antitax radical who eventually became the third president of the United States. Although Thomas Jefferson would die five years later, his eponymous county is still with us.
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Post Sustainable Modernism? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Andrew_McKillop
The phrase “sustainable development” was thrust into widespread use by the 1987 UN report of the Gro Harlem Brundtland commission, a group of “eminent persons” supposedly setting “a global agenda for change” in response to the alleged interaction of failing economic development, depleting natural resources and a deteriorating environment. Media treatment naturally went a lot further, rooting sustainable development in a soup of hysterical forecasts of environmental apocalypse, man-made global warming driving sea levels up so far they swamp most cities, mass species die-off and extinction, spiraling oil and other resource depletion, nuclear and industrial catastrophes, rampant overpopulation, mass starvation, epidemics and global poverty. Without explicitly saying it, the Brundtland report implied that unfettered capitalism was the basic driver.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
Ron Paul Warns Neocons, Hands Off Syria! / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Before the US House of Representatives: Statement Introducing HR 5993, The Syria Non-Intervention Act of 2012
Mr. Speaker: The Administration is marching toward another war in the Middle East, this time against Syria. As with the president's war against Libya, Congress has been frozen out of the process. The Constitution, which grants Congress and only Congress the authority to declare war, is once again being completely ignored.
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Saturday, June 23, 2012
Panic in the New World Order / Politics / New World Order
By: Gary_North
For the first time in my career, I see the international establishment, sometimes called the New World Order, facing a crisis so large that its very survival is at stake. For the first time, these people are scared.
There are not many of them. In his book, Superclass, author David Rothkopf estimates that there are only about 6000 people at the top of the pyramid of world power and influence. They are mostly males, and at least a third of them have attended America's most prestigious universities. Most of the others have attended comparable universities in Europe.
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Saturday, June 23, 2012
Italy Gasping for Economic Breath Like a Beached Whale / Politics / Euro-Zone
By: Mike_Shedlock
Berlusconi Reiterates Euro Exit "Not Blasphemy"; Beppe Grillo Discusses "Taboo of the Euro"
On June 1, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said "Italy should dump the euro unless the European Central Bank agreed to inject more cash into the economy". One day later Berlusconi said the idea Italy should dump euro was a "joke".
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Saturday, June 23, 2012
U.S. Trickle Up Economics / Politics / US Politics
By: Peter_Schiff
The political left wing has long tried to cast doubt on the fairness, and even the efficacy, of free market capitalism by branding it as a "trickle down" system. This epithet is meant to show how the middle and lower classes are dependent on scraps of wealth that happen to fall from the buffet table of the rich. This characterization of an unfair and inefficient system has helped them demonize policies that lower taxes (if they also extend to the wealthy) and reduce regulation on business.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Trade Tariffs as Welfare State Economics / Politics / Protectionism
By: Gary_North
I have found over the years that when I debate with people who promote tariffs, meaning sales taxes on imported goods that are enforced by people with badges and guns, they always adopt arguments that apply only to America's side of the border. They refuse to adopt those very same arguments for people on the other side of the border.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
New World Order Blueprint Leaked / Politics / New World Order
By: Rudy_Avizius
On June 12, a leaked copy of the investment chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was made public. This copy was analyzed by Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and has been verified as authentic. This agreement has been negotiated IN SECRET for 2-1/2 years and no information has ever been released until this leak. So why have the details of this negotiation been so secret? This agreement has been framed as a “free trade” agreement and yet out of 26 chapters only two have anything to do with trade. The other 24 chapters grant new corporate privileges and rights, while limiting governments and protective regulations.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
How Wall Street Financial Companies Stole Billions From Main Street / Politics / Credit Crisis 2012
By: Jesse
Funny how these stories of widespread and systematic financial corruption are so undercovered by the main stream media. Maybe it is because 'truth is a dagger pointed at their heart, which is their pocketbook.'
This is a long piece of investigative journalism, but well worth reading.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Destroying the Middle Class, Who Stole My Net Worth? / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
In Part 1 of this three part series I addressed where and how the net worth of the middle class was stolen. In Part 2, I will tackle who stole your net worth and in Part 3, why they stole your net worth. Now let’s zero in on the culprits of this crime.
Dude, Who Stole My Net Worth?
“Thus far, both political parties have been remarkably clever and effective in concealing this new reality. In fact, the two parties have formed an innovative kind of cartel—an arrangement I have termed America’s political duopoly. Both parties lie about the fact that they have each sold out to the financial sector and the wealthy. So far both have largely gotten away with the lie, helped in part by the enormous amount of money now spent on deceptive, manipulative political advertising.” – Charles Ferguson – Predator Nation
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Germany's Revenge! Ominous Greece, EU Parallel to the 1930s / Politics / Eurozone Debt Crisis
By: Ron_Holland
"The Euro Titanic has now hit the iceberg and sadly there simply aren't enough lifeboats." – Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party
Another Greek election and an uncertain outcome will likely continue the corrupt status quo in Greece. The Greek politicians on the take by the EU interests acting like most Western politicians and the American two-party mafia monopoly will continue to steal from the Greek people and the bailouts while the nation gets poorer. We are watching a throwback to the Great Depression years of the 1930s in Europe.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Increasing Threats to Global Energy Supplies / Politics / Energy Resources
By: OilPrice_Com
As global energy supplies come under increasing attack by non-state actors and private energy holdings become key targets of political maneuverings and criminal activities, Oilprice.com discusses the nature of the growing threat and how to reverse the risk with "smart power."
To help us look at these issues we got together with Corporate intelligence specialists and security expert Jennifer Giroux.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Immigration Hurts American Employment / Politics / Employment
By: BATR
Facts mean very little in any debate about immigration north of the Rio Grande. One such example comes from a bastion of journalism, the Daily Beast. Arian Campo-Flores in an article, Why Americans Think (Wrongly) That Illegal Immigrants Hurt the Economy, cites an economist, Gordon Hanson in a 2005 paper.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Who Destroyed The Middle Class? / Politics / Social Issues
By: James_Quinn
"Over the last thirty years, the United States has been taken over by an amoral financial oligarchy, and the American dream of opportunity, education, and upward mobility is now largely confined to the top few percent of the population. Federal policy is increasingly dictated by the wealthy, by the financial sector, and by powerful (though sometimes badly mismanaged) industries such as telecommunications, health care, automobiles, and energy. These policies are implemented and praised by these groups’ willing servants, namely the increasingly bought-and-paid-for leadership of America’s political parties, academia, and lobbying industry.” – Charles Ferguson – Predator Nation
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Hollywood's New Propaganda Movie Hostage Thriller Glamorizes The CIA In Iran / Politics / US Politics
By: Danny_Schechter
Earlier this year, I was in Tehran for a conference on Hollywood’s power and impact. It was called “Hollywoodism,” featuring many scholars and critics of the values and political ideologies featured in many major movies with a focus on the way Israel (a.k.a., “the Zionists”) are continually portrayed as if they do no wrong.