Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Tuesday, July 27, 2010
NAFTA Has Resulted in Increased U.S. Unemployment / Politics / US Economy
Mark Vorpahl writes: On July 7, 2010, President Obama made the following remarks: We're also reforming our own restrictions on exports, consistent with our national security interests. And we hope to move forward on new agreements with some of our key partners. I've instructed U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk to begin discussions to help resolve outstanding issues with the pending Korean Free Trade Agreement before my visit to Korea in November. It's an agreement that will create new jobs and opportunity for people in both of our countries.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
WikiLeaks Exposes Imperialist War in Afghanistan / Politics / Afghanistan
Alex Lantier writes: On Sunday, the WikiLeaks web site posted 91,731 American military documents on the US-NATO occupation of Afghanistan, covering the period from January 2004 to December 2009. The release was timed to coincide with articles on these revelations in the New York Times, the British Guardian and the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, all of which had received the documents several weeks ago.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Continuing Crisis in the New World Order / Politics / New World Order
Jacob Steelman writes: The crisis continues in the new world financial order with no end in sight and no real solution being put forth. Ben Bernanke, the head of America’s central bank, admitted as much in comments before Congressional committees last week. Austrian economists, investors and analysts have been saying this since before and after the global financial crisis hit the world in mid-2007. More government regulation and more fiat currency will not fix what ails the world economy notwithstanding any of Bernanke’s comments to the contrary.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
WikiLeaks and the Afghan War / Politics / Afghanistan
On Sunday, The New York Times and two other newspapers published summaries and excerpts of tens of thousands of documents leaked to a website known as WikiLeaks. The documents comprise a vast array of material concerning the war in Afghanistan. They range from tactical reports from small unit operations to broader strategic analyses of politico-military relations between the United States and Pakistan. It appears to be an extraordinary collection.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Unemployment is Worse Than We Know, Economic Recovery Challenge Harder Than We Think / Politics / US Politics
As we move into the dog days of summer, and a coming Congressional recess, the Obama Administration has shifted its focus back on to the economy and wants to convince one and all that an economic recovery is just around the corner.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Plausible Gulf Oil Spill Scenario: Underground Blowout and Mudflow / Politics / Environmental Issues
Amid rising fears over a circulating story about a leak and seepage, the federal government's oil spill chief said that seepage detected two miles from BP's oil cap is coming from another well. Meanwhile, BP is on track to use static top kill procedure in Macondo.
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The 'I's' of the Illuminati / Politics / US Politics
Barry M. Ferguson writes: The ‘I’s’ of the Illuminati – Invent, Infiltrate, Illiterate, Intoxicate, Incarcerate, Institutionalize, Impoverish, Immigrate, Indebt, Enslave
Do you know the ‘golden rule’? It is, ‘He that has the gold, makes the rules.’ Once all of the gold is secured, all the rules can be set to ensure absolute power. To make it happen, a group effort would be needed to collect all the money. How would the group go about accumulating all the money and ultimately, all the gold? Where would they get the power to implement such a plan? If we are investing for our share of the money, we better get to know the competition. For purposes of simplicity, let’s just call the group that is trying to monopolize the money, the ‘illuminati’.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
U.S. Financial Reform Bill is 2300 Pages of Gobbledygook / Politics / Market Regulation
Worrying that their friends on Wall Street are liable to blow themselves up any day with complex financial products and strategies, Congress has passed and Obama has signed 2,300-plus pages of financial reform that provides "an architecture reflective of the 21st century in which we live, but also one that would rebuild that trust and confidence," claims Senator Christopher Dodd who was the lead sausage grinder on the senate version of the bill.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
Ron Paul On the Bloated Intelligence Bureaucracy / Politics / US Politics
I have often spoken about the excessive size of government, and most recently how waste and inefficiency needs to be eliminated from our military budget. Our foreign policy is not only bankrupting us, but actively creating and antagonizing enemies of the United States, and compromising our national security. Spending more and adding more programs and initiatives does not improve things for us; it makes them much much worse. This applies to more than just the military budget.
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Monday, July 26, 2010
The Breakup of the United States / Politics / US Politics
As the dissatisfactions of Americans with their national government grow, so does the likelihood of the breakup of the United States. I believe that most Americans can improve their well-being by ending the national government, that is, ending the Union. I believe that this goal should shape politics if politics is to do much good.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Hypocrite Geithner Says Private Sector Must Drive Economy / Politics / US Economy
Like most politicians, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner likes to talk out of both sides of his mouth, generally saying contradictory things in sound bites that may sound reasonable at first glance, but look idiotic upon closer inspection.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Obama Preparing to Attack Iran / Politics / US Politics
Webster G. Tarpley writes: After about two and a half years during which the danger of war between the United States and Iran was at a relatively low level, this threat is now rapidly increasing. A pattern of political and diplomatic events, military deployments, and media chatter now indicates that Anglo-American ruling circles, acting through the troubled Obama administration, are currently gearing up for a campaign of bombing against Iran, combined with special forces incursions designed to stir up rebellions among the non-Persian nationalities of the Islamic Republic. Naturally, the probability of a new fake Gulf of Tonkin incident or false flag terror attack staged by the Anglo-American war party and attributed to Iran or its proxies is also growing rapidly.
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
U.S. Taxpayers the Largest Source of Taliban Revenue / Politics / US Politics
David Swanson writes: This coming week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on $33 billion for war. A majority of Americans opposes this, but a sizable minority of Americans supports it. No one who supports it can be aware of any of the following six facts.
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
NATO Pulls Pakistan Into Its Global Network / Politics / Pakistan
In four months the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will hold a summit in Lisbon, Portugal. The host country was one of the 12 nations that founded the United States-dominated military bloc 61 years ago.
The rival grouping that was created six years after NATO's formation and its expansion into Turkey and Greece in 1952 and the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955, the Warsaw Treaty Organization (Warsaw Pact), formally dissolved itself almost twenty years ago.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
BP Abandoning the Capped Gulf Oil Well, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? / Politics / Environmental Issues
BP will leave the cap on the oil well while it vacates the area for a number of days to avoid the coming tropical storm.
What could possibly go wrong?
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
Shadow Banking Makes A Comeback / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts
Credit conditions are improving for speculators and bubblemakers, but they continue to worsen for households, consumers and small businesses. An article in the Wall Street Journal confirms that the Fed's efforts to revive the so-called shadow banking system is showing signs of progress. Financial intermediaries have been taking advantage of low rates and easy terms to fund corporate bonds, stocks and mortgage-backed securities. Thus, the reflating of high-risk financial assets has resumed, thanks to the Fed's crisis-engendering monetary policy and extraordinary rescue operations. Here's an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal:
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Saturday, July 24, 2010
Green Jobs from the Government Not Gonna Happen / Politics / Employment
"Green Jobs Don't Exist in a Free Market" was the headline for Tom DeWeese, writing at NewsWithViews.com, which is exactly right; the only jobs that exist in a free market are those supplying real demand for, as an example, hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken and tacos, which has resulted in fast-food restaurants supplying them to be located on, seemingly, every other block in the Whole Freaking Country (WFC).
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Friday, July 23, 2010
The Strategic Ramifications of a US-Led Withdrawal from Afghanistan / Politics / GeoPolitics
The United States and the NATO allies are preparing to disengage and soon withdraw from Afghanistan and even the most vocal advocates of the "long-term commitment" do not anticipate more than five years of active US and NATO involvement. All the local key players — in Kabul, Islamabad, and countless tribal and localized foci of power — are cognizant and are already maneuvering and posturing to deal with the new reality.Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, July 23, 2010
Rating Agencies Hold SEC Hostage / Politics / Market Regulation
Less than 24-hours after President Obama signed the historic Wall Street Reform bill into law the SEC suspended the rule that makes the rating agencies more accountable for their ratings. According to the Wall Street Journal, as recently as June 30 the rating agencies thought that the provision for increased accountability had been omitted. They were wrong:
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Friday, July 23, 2010
Signing Financial Reform Is Signing Up For A New Struggle To Make It Real / Politics / Market Regulation
With eleven pens for souvenirs, President Obama signed the financial reform bill in a rare celebratory moment. Significantly, the ceremony did not take place in the Oval Office but up the block at the Ronald Reagan building perhaps to signal recalcitrant Republicans that this is a cause they should sign on to.
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