Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Will China End U.S. Trade War With Nuclear Financial Option / Politics / Protectionism
By: Chris_Marcus
One of the reasons why it has seemed so bizarre that the United States would engage in a trade war with its largest creditor in China, is that China has a move that the United States simply can't defend against.
In terms of any sort of engagement between the United States and China, for at least the last decade or so, it's always seemed to me that China has an incredibly large amount of leverage over the United States. To the degree that if push comes to shove, China has available actions that the U.S. simply has no answer to.
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Thursday, July 19, 2018
Trump Manchurian President Embarrasses Putin By Farcically Blowing his Russian Agent Cover / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Trump effectively blew what little cover he had left of being Czar Putin's Manchurian President, as he lavished praise on the Russian Dictator whilst deriding his own law enforcement and Intelligence agencies and their evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential Election, as Trump chose to side with Putin by following the Czar's script rather than the growing volume of evidence of Russian interference in the election that just days earlier had prompted the US to indict 12 Russian intelligence agents for hacking of DNC servers. That were a likely response to Trump's own statements made during the campaign for the Russians to to hack and leak Hillary's emails as he continued with the theme at the Press conference in Helsinki.
Wednesday, July 18, 2018
Trump or Putin - who is the Master in the Art of the Deal? / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
As summits go, this Trump/Putin melodrama has been billed with the lowest expectations. Style versus substance has been the focus of the Fake News Press. Low energy and boring is the assessment. Trump missed a great opportunity to lay out Putin on the carpet of public opinion. He got trumped by the wily KGB operative. So goes the coordinated condemnation by the U.S. media and talking heads. The internationalists in the foreign policy establishment suffer another blow in their plan to fire up the tension and brinkmanship with the Russian Bear. This attitude is vividly exemplified by that deranged spook and former director of the CIA, John Brennan: Trump's press conference with Putin 'nothing short of treasonous'.
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
Trump Treason? Get A Life! / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Yeah, just keep ’em coming, right, so that when the last one falls flat on its face people will have already forgotten about it and instead focus on the new one. It’s been the modus operandi of the US MSM ever since Donald Trump emerged as an actual presidential candidate, and they haven’t let go.
They realize by now that it divides the nation, it costs them a large chunk of their potential readers and viewers, and creates chaos all around, but the bottom line is it makes them money. Because those people who fall into the echo chamber trap, tumble into it fast and furious, and will gladly pay to read yet another installment of how bad the man really is.
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Monday, July 16, 2018
Trump Fee-Fi-Foe-Fum Declares European Union America's Enemy! / Politics / New World Order
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Trump ended his whirlwind or rather hurricane tour of Europe and the UK that included a NATO summit where he lambasted the likes of Germany for free riding on the backs of American defence spending for decades, and a four day tour of the UK where he met British Prime Minister Theresa May where during a joint press conference Trump declared that Boris Johnson would make a great Prime Minister. And that Theresa May had ignored his advice on how to deal with the European Union in respect of Brexit which Theresa May later jokingly revealed on the Andrew Marr show was to forget about negotiating with the EU but instead to SUE the EU.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
The True Meaning of Russian ‘Collusion’ / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The indictment by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose task it is to investigate possible collusion between the Trump campaign and ‘Russians’, that was released yesterday by Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, raises so many questions one has to be picky.
Many people have already stated that the report contains no proof of anything it claims, and that Mueller doesn’t have to prove a thing, because the 12 Russians he accuses will never show up in a US court. Many of course also have at least questioned the timing of the release, 3 days before the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki, of information Mueller and Rosenstein have allegedly been sitting on for months.
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Saturday, July 14, 2018
China vs the US - The Road to War / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Richard_Mills
In 2016 Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, declared that there was no doubt, in his mind, that the US would go to war with China in the South China Sea in the next five to 10 years.
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Friday, July 13, 2018
Trump US Trade War With China, Europe Consequences, Implications and Forecasts / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Nadeem_Walayat
And so the Trade War begins as Trump delivers on his 'America First' election slogan where at the top of his agenda is for a destructive Trade War against not just China but the whole world, which Trump sees as correcting decades of erroneous US trade policies that saw the Chinese totalitarian state literally handed trillions of dollars to invest in it's civil and military infrastructure, modernising it's third world economy at an unprecedented lightening speed, trillions of dollars coupled with valuable intellectual property stolen from the West that has put China on the fast track towards ultimately threatening US global supremacy with their own Empire that Trump chaotically has tasked himself towards preventing.
Friday, July 13, 2018
Tariffs “Trump” Tax Cuts / Politics / Protectionism
By: Michael_Pento
China appears to have more to lose from a trade war with the US simply because the math behind surpluses and deficits renders the Bubble Blowers in Beijing at a big disadvantage. When you get right down to the nuclear option in a trade war, Trump could impose tariffs on all of the $505 billion worth of Chinese exported goods, while Premier Xi can only impose a duty on $129 billion worth of US exported goods--judging by the announcement on July 10thh of additional tariffs on $200 billion more of China’s exports to the US we are well underway towards that end. However, this doesn’t mean China completely runs out of ammunition to fight the battle once it hits that limit.
Thursday, July 12, 2018
The Rise and Fall of Global Trade – Redux / Politics / Protectionism
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Ilargi: Someone linked to this almost 8 year old article from Nicole (July 19 2010), on Twitter. And yes, it’s even more relevant now than it was when she wrote it. So here’s a re-run:
… the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 in the US, which drastically raised tariffs on imports, lead to retaliation by trading partners, and the resulting trade war dropped global trade by 66% between 1929 and 1934.
One more comment from me: Trump may be on to something with some of his tariff actions, but he risks having the US run headfirst into the brittleness of just-in-time supply lines.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2018
Failure of US Supreme Court Opinions / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
Now that Brett Kavanaugh has been selected by President Trump to be the next Supreme Court Justice, the gladiator games of the confirmation process begins. Much of the attention will focus on the bitter hysteria that the Never Trump lunatics exhibit as they regress even further into denial. Those supporters who demand a Living Constitution are in a panic. They see the gains they have made over decades are fading with a court of Originalists and fear that Textualism will become the standard for the Supreme Court. The self-proclaimed enlightened zealots contend they are social justice warriors. In actuality they protect the corrupt institutions, practices and policies that progressives profess they oppose.
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Wednesday, July 11, 2018
America a Nation Built on Lies / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
“The greatest want of the world is the want of men — men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall.” – Ellen G. White
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
A Public Bank for Los Angeles? City Council Puts It to the Voters / Politics / Banking Stocks
By: Ellen_Brown
Voters in Los Angeles will be the first in the country to weigh in on a public banking mandate, after the City Council agreed on June 29th to put a measure on the November ballot that would allow the city to form its own bank. The charter for the nation’s second-largest city currently prohibits the creation of industrial or commercial enterprises by the city without voter approval. The measure, introduced by City Council President Herb Wesson, would allow the city to create a public bank, although state and federal law hurdles would still need to be cleared.
Tuesday, July 10, 2018
As Trade Wars Broaden, Europe Is the Key to Future / Politics / Protectionism
By: Dan_Steinbock
As the Trump White House has started the “biggest trade war” in history, diplomatic activity is escalating from the transatlantic axis to China and the EU – America’s next tariff target. After the meeting of China and Central and East European (CEE) countries in Sofia, Bulgaria, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang rushed to the fifth round of intergovernmental consultations between China and Germany.
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Monday, July 09, 2018
Brexit Gross Incompetence / Politics / BrExit
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Here’s the lowdown: the EU’s single market mechanism dictates freedom of movement for labor, capital, services and goods. These are not divisible; you cannot have one without the other. Still, that’s precisely what Theresa May, again, is proposing. She basically wants to keep the UK in the single market for goods, and make other arrangements for the rest. The EU will not accept that because it could have 27 other countries coming with their own versions of single market à la carte.
Friday, July 06, 2018
Trump Destroying US Empire in Trade War Against China, Europe and Canada / Politics / China US Conflict
By: Nadeem_Walayat
And so the Trade War begins as Trump delivers on his 'America First' election slogan where at the top of his agenda is for a destructive Trade War against not just China but the whole world, which Trump sees as correcting decades of erroneous US trade policies that saw the Chinese totalitarian state literally handed trillions of dollars to invest in it's civil and military infrastructure, modernising it's third world economy at an unprecedented lightening speed, trillions of dollars coupled with valuable intellectual property stolen from the West that has put China on the fast track towards ultimately threatening US global supremacy with their own Empire that Trump chaotically has tasked himself towards preventing.
Thursday, July 05, 2018
The United States of Terror! / Politics / US Military
By: Antonius_Aquinas
Two recent articles* have again demonstrated that the greatest “terrorist” entity on earth is not the bogymen – Russia, China, Iran, North Korea – so often portrayed by Western presstitudes and the American government, but the United States itself! Ever since World War II, the US has been the most militaristic, far surpassing all of the Communist and dictatorial regimes combined.
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Thursday, July 05, 2018
Nanny State: A Permit Patty and BBQ Becky In Every Neighborhood / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Berwick
Who needs paramilitary police with the legal authority to shoot you at will, when you’ve got crazy citizens like Permit Patty?
It seems like a disturbing new trend: the rise of busybody code-enforcers. Or, as I call it, slave-on-slave crime.
It’s also called Stockholm Syndrome. These miserable victims of the state have learned to take pride in reinforcing the matrix of arbitrary rules and regulations that make life more difficult for us all.
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Thursday, July 05, 2018
Independence From What? / Politics / US Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
There’s something wonderfully -though at the same time sadly- ironic in simultaneously contemplating America’s Independence Day and Greece’s NO! (OXI!) vote three years ago that was subsequently defeated by it own prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, at the behest of the European Union’s powers that be.
Where Americans managed to break free of their yoke in 1776, the Greeks did not. Indeed, they were betrayed by their own. There are certainly plenty of similarities with the Declaration of Independence to be made, plenty voices and forces that sought to defeat the Founding Fathers. In the end, the result is simple: the Americans succeeded in breaking free, the Greeks did not.
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Tuesday, July 03, 2018
Trump Racks Up More Wins – The Rising Deficit Isn’t One of Them / Politics / US Debt
By: MoneyMetals
President Trump is winning on a number of fronts, and American conservatives are feeling better about their prospects than they have for a very long time.
Trump supporters are cheering an imminent shift in the balance at the Supreme Court. The President is expected to nominate a justice who respects the constitution to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy. This legacy promises to endure for decades.
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