Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
The Yoke Of Stupidity Is Strangling America / Politics / US Politics
By: Barry_M_Ferguson
California Governor Brown says the state budget deficit is growing and one of the reasons is the minimum wage increase that state voters just approved. Duh! State government worker pay is tied to minimum wages and as minimum wages go up, so too do government wages. That means the state government has to increase expenses and that calls for even higher taxes. Those extra taxes might be hard to raise as survey out revealed that in states and municipalities that elected to raise minimum wages, 75% of business respondents reported they were cutting back on hours and employees as a result. Duh! Can humans get any stupider? From my last post, the governor and the voters should have listened to the smartest man in California, Simon Salazar.
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Does Trump Have a Magic Wand? I Simply Don’t Buy It! / Politics / US Politics
By: Harry_Dent
As Trump was inaugurated, it seems most people are feeling better about the economy. Even a more liberal analyst said yesterday in an interview that he thought Trump should raise the minimum wage to $15 to stimulate demand!Seriously?!
A Bernie Sanders, far-left strategy in a Republican Congress?
How delusional can you get?
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 24, 2017
The Deep State in the Age of Trump / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: BATR
Politics as usual, especially the party version of Republicans and Democrats is the latest endangered species to hit the bone yards of extinction. Now, that does not mean that competing power factions have all merged into a collegial stew of some imaginable melting pot. No the literal power behind the government that embeds the deepest recess of manipulated reality still maintains and uses their influence and coercion force to remain in control. What actual effect Donald Trump will have to break the connections that keeps the deep state in charge can only be judged with the passage of time. Some contend that Trump is actually an integral component of an elitist fraternity of financial magnates that sit at the table of the deep state.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Trump's Foreign Policy An Unwise Inconsistency? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Throughout the presidential campaign, Donald Trump's foreign policy positions have been anything but consistent. One day we heard that NATO was obsolete and the US needs to pursue better relations with Russia. But the next time he spoke, these sensible positions were abandoned or an opposite position was taken. Trump's inconsistent rhetoric left us wondering exactly what kind of foreign policy he would pursue if elected.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 23, 2017
United States Common Sense - 2017 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
In Part One of this article I explored Thomas Paine's critical role in the creation of our nation. His Common Sense pamphlets inspired the common people to uncommon acts of courage and heroic feats of valor; leading to the great experiment we call the United States of America. Paine, Franklin and the other Founding Fathers produced a republic, if we could keep it.
John Adams championed the new Constitution precisely because it would not create a democracy, as he knew a democracy "soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." Their herculean efforts, sacrifices, and bloodshed have been for naught as we allowed our republic to devolve into a democracy and ultimately into our current corporate fascist warfare/welfare surveillance state. Sadly, we were unable to keep the republic Franklin and his fellow revolutionaries gave us.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 23, 2017
HBO HOMELAND Bet on HIllary Clinton Winning US Election and LOST / Politics / Mainstream Media
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The new series of HBO's award winning HOMELAND began Sunday that onc more paints the CIA as fighting the good fight across the globe against threats to America. However, wishful thinking on part of the writers of Hillary winning the election did not quite pan out that way. So within 10 minutes of the start of episode 1 we see a sane President Elect understanding HER brief and having valid questions of the lead actors in the series about sending in 70,000 ground troops into Syria, which does not gel with the reality of President Trump who's policy is simply to "Bomb the Shit out of them".
Sunday, January 22, 2017
The Epidemic of Bad Ideas / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Galland
Dear Parader,
This week’s missive tackles a big topic. One of the biggest.
That’s because it touches virtually every corner of society: politics, the economy, investments, social order, innovation. People live or die because of it.
The topic is education.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Trump Talks Gibberish at Inauguration then Panic Runs to CIA to Prevent Assassination / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
If you thought Trump was unhinged during the election campaign then you have not seen anything yet for he is truly showing all the hallmarks of turning into an American Pyscho! First we had his inauguration speech, which was far from being presidential, a stream of gibberish inter spiced with "america first" and "make america great again", something a rebellious teenager would have put together.
Now what would a sane President have been focused on following in the inauguration? Getting ones team together to start the hard work to rebuild america? Not Trump, his first order of business was the size of the inauguration crowd!
Read full article... Read full article...
Saturday, January 21, 2017
These Are the 3 Main Issues for Europe in 2017 / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND JACOB L. SHAPIRO : What will the year ahead look like for Europe? 2017 will be another chapter in the European Union's slow unraveling… a process that has been underway for over a decade.
The EU is a union in name only. The transfer of sovereignty to Brussels was never total, and member states are independent countries… each with their own interests at stake.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, January 20, 2017
The Trump RESET Starts on US Presidential Inauguration Day 2017 - What to Expect / Politics / US Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Donald Trump will be sworn into office at 12 noon today to become the 45th President of the United States that will trigger the 'Trump Reset' on that which has passed for the past 40 years, which my video series seeks to detail the key mega-trend geopolitical consequences of why the US under a Trump Presidency is trending for instance towards an inevitable war with China, economic, cyber and even outright military conflict, something that is deemed to be impossible by most today.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Will the CIA Assassinate Rogue President Donald Trump Like JFK? / Politics / Intelligence Agencies
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The establishment elite still reeling from the failure of any of their bought and paid for candidates that populate both the Democratic and Republican parties to make it into the White house for the first time since perhaps JFK, are increasingly looking to the likes of the CIA to begin implementing the elite's PLAN B as President Elect Donald Trump takes office and starts to diverge from the elites interests.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Populism; the Danger? What About Debt? / Politics / Global Debt Crisis
By: Doug_Wakefield
In the spring of 2015, I placed the chart below on global debt levels at the opening of the article. Notice the value of global debt in 2000, 2007 and then half way through 2014.
Thursday, January 19, 2017
The US Is Headed to a Pivotal Socio-Economic Crisis / Politics / Social Issues
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN AND ALLISON FEDIRKA : This year, the United States will be the main geopolitical power. And President Donald Trump will run it. This will be the first big shift to nationalism in US politics.
This rise in nationalism is global. Its rise stems from the rejection of the internationalist model. This has ruled international relations since the end of World War II.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, January 19, 2017
There’s Probably No Solution For Europe’s Problems / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
Our fifty states are essentially what the European Union’s founders wanted: a giant free-trade zone with a currency union and fiscal union. It’s working for us in part because our states, while unique, don’t have the centuries of cultural and linguistic diversity that Europe’s do.
The separate languages, cultures, and histories of its nations don’t mean Europe can’t develop better ways cooperate economically; but the EU structure—specifically the European Monetary Union and the euro—clearly isn’t the answer.
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Donald & the US Dollar / Politics / US Dollar
By: Antonius_Aquinas
John Connally, President Nixon’s Secretary of the Treasury, once remarked to the consternation of Europe’s financial elites over America’s inflationary monetary policy, that the dollar “is our currency, but your problem.” Times have certainly changed and it now appears that the dollar has become an American problem.
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the soon to be 45th President of the United States believes that the greenback’s strength – up some 25% against a broad basket of currencies since 2014 – is now “too strong,” “killing us,” and has hurt companies trying to compete overseas.* A top Trump economics advisor, Anthony Scaramucci, reinforced his boss’ sentiment adding that “we must be careful of a rising dollar.”
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
The Hunt for Russia's Next Enemy / Politics / Russia
By: STRATFOR
By Ksenia Semenova : Alexander III, the conservative Russian emperor who ruled from 1881 to 1894, once famously remarked to his ministers that Russia has only two allies: its army and its navy. "The others," he said, "will go against us at the first opportunity."
Russian President Vladimir Putin recalled these words in a 2015 speech, adding that he quite agreed with them. At the time, Putin held every card he needed to point to the West and proclaim that the world stood against Russia, leaving it with only its forces for protection. But as the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump moves to embrace Russia and question the West's assumptions about NATO — just as the Europeans have begun to look for warmer ties to the east — Russia's diplomatic environment has started to change. And one thing Putin certainly understands, as Alexander III did, is the Russian government's need for an external enemy. This raises the question: In the new strategic environment that is emerging, who will that enemy be?
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Trump’s “Great Game”: Playing Russia Against China? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Dan_Steinbock
Trump has pledged to reset the White House policies on “America First” basis. In Asia, it may mean an effort to balance with Russia against China – the reverse of US China approach in the 1970s.
After inauguration, Donald Trump will move from Trump Plaza in mid-Manhattan to White House in Washington, where he will enjoy extraordinary execution power. Today, Republicans will control the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
How To Read Trump / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
As President, Trump has pledged to reset the White House policies on “America First” basis. But will he deliver?
Around the world, there is great apprehension and much speculation about potential Trump scenarios. Nevertheless, not everything that is possible will happen, even with Trump in the White House.
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Trump anti-Communist Counter Revolution / Politics / US Politics
By: BATR
The century anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution occurs this year. Any serious examination of The Russian Revolution and the Soviet Union must conclude that the systematic eradications of millions and the ruthlessness of the Communist commissars rule was a miserable failure, even by Marxist postulates. Russia today is quite different from the Gulag Archipelago that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn experienced and wrote about. “And those who, like you and me, dear reader, go there to die, must get there solely and compulsorily via arrest.”
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
The American Crisis - Common Sense 2017 / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
Thomas Paine was born in 1737 in Britain. His first thirty seven years of life were pretty much a series of failures and disappointments. Business fiascos, firings, the death of his first wife and child, a failed second marriage, and bankruptcy plagued his early life. He then met Benjamin Franklin in 1774 and was convinced to emigrate to America, arriving in Philadelphia in November 1774. He thus became the Father of the American Revolution with the publication of Common Sense, pamphlets which crystallized opinion for colonial independence in 1776.
The first pamphlet was published in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776, and signed anonymously “by an Englishman.” It became an instantaneous sensation, swiftly disseminating 100,000 copies in three months among the two and a half million residents of the 13 colonies. Over 500,000 copies were sold during the course of the American Revolution. Paine published Common Sense after the battle of Lexington and Concord, making the argument the colonists should seek complete independence from Great Britain, rather than merely fighting against unfair levels of taxation. The pamphlets stirred the masses with a fighting spirit, instilling in them the backbone to resist a powerful empire.
Read full article... Read full article...