Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Higher Taxes Are Coming, Head for Your Bunkers. / Politics / Taxes
By: Richard_Daughty
In the calming environment of the Big Mogambo Big Is Better Bunker (BMBIBB), I can finally relax by sitting, armed to the teeth, amongst my puny trove of gold, silver and oil, idly trying to say, “Big Mogambo Big Is Better Bunker” five times quickly until my seething, vaguely homicidal rage at the Federal Reserve and the socialist/fascist/ communists in the White House and Congress that have destroyed us all.Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Obama’s Clean Energy Agenda on Track / Politics / Renewable Energy
By: Richard_Mills
Current global leaders in advanced electric vehicle batteries are based, for the most part, in Asia.President Obama made global warming one of the main planks in his election platform. Included in his Clean Energy Agenda were pledges to eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within a decade and to slash his country’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 30 per cent by the year 2020.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
New Jersey With The Luck Of The Irish / Politics / Market Manipulation
By: Static_Chaos
One of the headline news today was that New Jersey became the first U.S. state sued by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) for security fraud. Here is the low-down according to WSJ (my summary):
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Friday, August 20, 2010
How Washington Should Handle the Bush Tax Cuts / Politics / Taxes
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes:
The big political issue for the remainder of this year will be the so-called "Bush tax cuts" engineered by U.S. President George W. Bush in 2001 and 2003.
Those tax cuts are scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, with taxes reverting to their 2001 levels.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
America’s Healthcare Mafia Strikes Again / Politics / Healthcare Sector
By: Mike_Stathis
Did you get a raise in 2009?
CEOs of the nation’s largest health insurers most certainly did; CIGNA, UnitedHealth, Humana and Wellpoint. In fact, as a reward for many years of excessive hikes to insurance premiums executed under his leadership, Edward Hanway, the former CEO of CIGNA was provided with a retirement package worth $110.9 million, paid for by the excessive and unnecessarily high insurance premiums billed to CIGNA’s policy holders.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
Why the Wars can't be Won / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Kozy
Edmund Burke's statement, "Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it" is frequently cited, but in truth, even history's obvious lessons are unrecognized by many who know history very well.
There was a time when every school child could recite the Gettysburg Address from memory, especially its famous peroration: “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." But that resolution has largely gone unfulfilled. So exactly what did the Civil War accomplish?
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Friday, August 20, 2010
How Could Illegal Immigration Make America Any Worse Than It Already Is? / Politics / US Politics
By: LewRockwell
Mark R. Crovelli writes: Way back in the 1950’s, one could perhaps be excused for fearing that unhampered "illegal" immigration would lead to a dissolution of the American republic, as throngs of uneducated foreigners with different cultural values overran the existing American population. Indeed, one might have been justified in thinking, as many conservatives in fact did, that the unique "American experiment" depended upon the prevention of an influx of foreigners of the old-world mentality, who did not understand or appreciate individual liberty the way Americans did.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Happy Birthday Social Security? / Politics / US Politics
By: Neeraj_Chaudhary
In his weekly radio address this past Saturday, President Obama happily commemorated the 75th anniversary of Social Security. From my perspective, the milestone is nothing to celebrate. For although the president spoke earnestly about the "obligation to keep the promise" of Social Security, in reality, the program will wreck the government's finances within 10 years.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
U.S. Operation of Destroying Iraqi State Almost Complete / Politics / Iraq War
By: Global_Research
Elena Pustovoitova writes: There is no question where the US forces withdrawn from Iraq will go – Afghanistan is known to be the next destination.
In the process, Washington manages to demonstrate a commitment to peace. The US President is convinced that the US mission in Iraq can be “safely” finished by the end of August and the US will pull out by the end of the year, says White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Unenlightened Self-Interest, Deficit Hawk Down On Tax Cuts and Financial Reform / Politics / US Debt
By: Jesse
"Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man." Henry Hazlett
The argument that 'tax cuts for the wealthiest few stimulates growth' aka the trickle down theory needs to be buried alongside the 'efficient markets hypothesis' and the other principle beliefs of voodoo economics that have brought the US from the world's greatest nation to third world status in a generation.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
WSJ Wants Government Subsidies for Mainstream Media / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: MISES
Jeff Harding writes: I almost choked when I read Lee Bollinger's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal advocating public financial support of the mainstream media. This is the Lee Bollinger who is the president of Columbia University and was recently named deputy chair of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. The article says more about the writer and the mainstream media than it does its subject matter. It is unbelievable and irresponsible that anyone in his position should seriously advocate subsidies for the press.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Homeowners Rebellion against Wall Street, Axing the Bankers Money Tree / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Ellen_Brown
Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system devised by and for the convenience of the mortgage industry. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut breaks the chain of title, voiding foreclosure. The logical result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Why WikiLeaks Must Be Protected / Politics / US Politics
By: Submissions
John Pilger writes: On 26 July, Wikileaks released thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan. Cover-ups, a secret assassination unit and the killing of civilians are documented. In file after file, the brutalities echo the colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name. Wikileaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing for both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times are a fraction.
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Thursday, August 19, 2010
Obama's Agenda to Destroy the Few Remaining Solvent U.S. States / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Shedlock
In response to Oregon Wins Blue Ribbon for Unfounded Optimism; Everything "Weaker than Expected" several astute readers sent me a link to a Heritage Foundation article regarding public unions, collective bargaining, and their role in the state budget crisis.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
HMRC Northern Ireland Racist Staff Systemic Underpayment of Benefits To Ethnic Minorities / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The HMRC sacked seven of its Belfast workers with an additional 2 workers having already resigned for systemic racist abuse of ethnic minority benefit claimants by tampering with their computer records so that people from an ethnic minority background were paid less money then they were entitled to receive.
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Washington And Wall Street Depending On Deceptive Economic Statistics / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
August 17, Bloomberg reported a US government release that industrial production rose twice as much as forecast, climbing 1 percent. Bloomberg interpreted this to mean that "increased business investment is propelling the gains in manufacturing, which accounts for 11 percent of the world’s largest economy."
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Bankster's Business As Usual as Banks Settle Fraud Charges / Politics / Credit Crisis 2010
By: Danny_Schechter
Another day, another bank in the news -- with the settlement blues.
Now, Barclays is coughing up $298 million for violating a US Trade law. A Judge is still deliberating on a settlement that may cost Citi $70-$100 million for misleading investors about $40 billion in sleazy subprime holdings .
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Without A Revolution, Americans Are History / Politics / US Politics
By: Paul_Craig_Roberts
The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times Column, Welcome to the Recovery.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Vestiges of Nuclear War Begin To Appear in Asia / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Pravda
On August 6 and 9, the world marked the 65th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombings marked the ending of WWII: Japan was forced to capitulate over the fear of even more destructive attacks. However, even after the first-ever practical nuclear bombings the world could not stop from ending the nuclear race.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Pakistan Floods, From Natural Disaster to Social Catastrophe / Politics / Pakistan
By: Global_Research
Snehal Shingavi writes: The floods which have devastated huge areas of Pakistan may be an act of nature, but the worsening humanitarian crisis that followed is a direct result of the failures of Pakistan's venal leaders – and the impact of the U.S. “war on terror.”