Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Monday, March 03, 2014
Is Ukraine A Case of Botched Kingmaking? / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
John Kerry made me laugh yesterday. Not that he seems to be a very amusing man, but then I don’t think he was looking to entertain. And there’s not a lot of funny material to be found in the Ukraine situation to begin with, obviously. But John still found an angle. Kerry, in his quest to appear muscular in his use of language and make Russia look like a nation filled with demons, said this on Sunday’s Face The Nation:
“You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text … “
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Monday, March 03, 2014
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel 'Defense Cuts' Are Smoke And Mirrors / Politics / US Military
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
Last week Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel proposed an additional 40,000 reduction in active duty US Army personnel, down to 450,000 soldiers. As US troops are being withdrawn from the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, it might make sense to reduce not only the active duty military but the entire military budget. However, from the interventionists' reaction to Hagel's announcement you might think President Obama announced he was shutting down the Pentagon!
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Monday, March 03, 2014
Memo To Putin – To Punish You, We Will Pay More For Oil, Gas And Gold / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Andrew_McKillop
Push Down the Ruble, Push Up Oil, Gas and Gold Prices
True to its self-assigned role of gung-ho promotion of the New World Order (whatever that is) the 'Wall Street Journal' of Rupert Murdoch led its Monday March 3 edition with the news that “The U.S. and its European allies vowed Sunday to isolate Russian president Putin and punish his nation's economy, demanding he withdraw what they called an occupation force from Ukraine's Crimean region”.
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Sunday, March 02, 2014
Why The EU Will Not Resist Putin's Ukraine Military Coup / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Andrew_McKillop
Gaseuro Recycling and Petrodollar Recycling
Much more discreet and more easily denied than also-denied petrodollar recycling operated by the US and Saudi Arabia, the EU's gaseuro and petroeuro recycling operated with Russia, especially by Germany, Italy and France but also by other EU states is starkly different to the “petrodollar system” because it is an economic win-win. Because of this, the EU after ritual blethering and cries of alarm will avoid operating economic, trade, monetary or other sanctions against Russia.
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Sunday, March 02, 2014
New York Times Fed's Transcripts the Greatest Propaganda Coup of Our Time? / Politics / Propaganda
By: Mike_Whitney
There’s good propaganda and bad propaganda. Bad propaganda is generally crude, amateurish Judy Miller “mobile weapons lab-type” nonsense that figures that people are so stupid they’ll believe anything that appears in “the paper of record.” Good propaganda, on the other hand, uses factual, sometimes documented material in a coordinated campaign with the other major media to cobble-together a narrative that is credible, but false.
Sunday, March 02, 2014
Third World America - Bp Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill Coverup - Video / Politics / Oil Companies
By: Jesse
As we approach the fourth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Disaster, perhaps it is a good time to remember the great success it represents, the success in shifting the thoughts of attention deficient Americans from the things that really matter, like honest and accountable government.
Is anything really different, or have we just been prompted to move on and think about something else? Will the US be better prepared to deal with the next financial or environmental crisis?
Saturday, March 01, 2014
Putin and the Central Asia Black Hole / Politics / Russia
By: Andrew_McKillop
From Black Hole to Nuclear Singularity
The former United States National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski in his 1997 book “The Grand Chessboard”, called the wide sweep of post-Soviet Eastern Europe and Central Asia the "Black Hole" and "Eurasian Balkans." The area is what geopoliticians as far back as the USA's Alfred Thayer Mahan, in 1900, called a Debated and Debatable region – meaning a disputed ethnic cauldron prone to instability and constant conflict, with only restricted, or even totally absent national identities, riven with religious, historical, political, ethnic and cultural influences, often organized into tribal or clan systems of power, nearly always poor - and always unpredictable. Despite or because of this, also due to resource and market search, and for self-defence, outside powers have continuously sought control or at least prime influence in this region. Past and present powers engaged in what the British called The Great Game, and the Soviets called The Struggle of the Shadows feature Russia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Pakistan, India, the US and the EU.
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Saturday, March 01, 2014
Investor Energy Potential in Ukraine's Troubles / Politics / Energy Resources
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: [LONDON] As you read this, Marina and I will be in London for the annual energy consultations at Windsor Castle.
Now, if it seems like I'm spending far too much time traveling these days, you're right. But the truth is our trip to England is just the beginning... more is yet to come.
You see, most of the major new developments are no longer taking place in North America. The global energy sector is intensifying, and its importance has never been more striking than it is right now.
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Saturday, March 01, 2014
Trashing Saudi Cutout States and Ransacking their Gold / Politics / Middle East
By: Jim_Willie_CB
Betrayals occur in high places, even the highest offices of the land. Furthermore, betrayals occur with some of the most important allies for the nation. See the official German gold account thefts, called euphemistically the repatriation demand. See the shredding of the Constitution, by virtue of the Patriot Act which could easily pass for a comprehensive Fascist Manifesto. See the renege on the Chinese gold lease, on the back end of the Most Favored Nation status granted in 1999. See the permitted security agency narcotics centered in Afghanistan, with its vertically integrated business operation, the clearing house function in Iraq, and money laundering among New York banks, whose product fills American streets. See the numerous deals for stolen Defense weapons, in particular those conducted by the favored US ally, accounted for by means of scrap metal costs associated with entire systems, the details promised the day before 911 but never to have arrived. See the planned bank account confiscations and pension fund confiscations, the procedures having been worked into law, or imminently, as the sacred privacy is stripped. See the string of Executive Decrees, which trample on rights in every conceivable manner, including life itself. See the NSA surveillance, which has been revealed not only for ordinary diverse communications but also for stealing trade secrets and monitoring discussions behind walls during trade deals. Now the latest. See the trashing of the Saudis, and the outright theft of their vast gold held on account in London.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Did Natural Gas Debt Trigger the Ukraine Crisis? / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Defending Moscow's December 18, 2013 agreement to provide Ukraine with an aid package estimated at about $15 billion, and cheaper natural gas through discounts and “gas debt forgiveness” estimated as able to save Ukraine $7 bn in one year, Vladimir Putin said the decision to invest $15 bn in 'brotherly slavic' Ukraine, and grant the gas discount was “pragmatic and based on economic facts”.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Ukraines Road to War as Crimea Boils Over / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: LewRockwell
Eric Margolis writes: The surging crisis in Ukraine is a dramatic example of how wars begin. Take arrogance, toxic nationalism, tribalism, moral outrage and profound miscalculation, mix thoroughly, and, voilà !, another great leap forward in the march of human folly.
Russia just mobilized its western regions armed forces, an inevitable response to the growing turmoil in Ukraine. Most westerners are unaware that Ukraine is the cradle of Russian civilization and, when properly run, one of the world’s great producers of grains.
Friday, February 28, 2014
One of the Biggest Financial “Rip off Traps” In History Has Just Met Its Match / Politics / Student Finances
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: I’ve written and railed about rip-off student financial aid schemes here for years.
And based on all the very personal stories I’ve received, I know many of you are outraged as well – even more so because of your devastating first-hand experiences.
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Friday, February 28, 2014
What’s Behind Ukraine’s Energy Mess / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Money_Morning
Dr. Kent Moors writes: As you read this, Marina and I are on an airplane flying to London for the annual energy consultations at Windsor Castle.
Now, if it seems like I’m spending far too much time traveling these days, you’re right. But the truth is our trip to England is just the beginning… more is yet to come.
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Thursday, February 27, 2014
End to Economic Austerity? / Politics / Economic Austerity
By: Mark_Thornton
President Barack Obama has recently released his budget in which he calls for an “end of austerity.” This is an amazing statement from a president whose government has spent the highest percentage of GDP in history and added more to the national debt than all past presidents combined. What must he mean by austerity?
There are demonstrations around the world over austerity on an almost daily basis. It is condemned as an evil poison for tough economic times while others tout it as the elixir for economic depressions.
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Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Those FOMC Transcripts: Watch Out Below / Politics / US Federal Reserve Bank
By: Fred_Sheehan
The Federal Reserve releases transcripts of FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meetings after a five-year wait. The 2008 transcripts were made public late, last week. The FOMC is the monetary policymaking body within the Federal Reserve System. Having read at least 10 years of transcripts when writing about Greenspan and his Fed, there is a lingering question of what might have been redacted before the public release as well as what might be said outside the boardroom so as to escape transcription. Every once in awhile some forward-thinking FOMC attendee (a rarity, to be sure) will remind the mob: "Remember, that comment will be public in five years."
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Japan's Non Nuclear Energy Nightmare / Politics / Nuclear Power
By: Andrew_McKillop
No Nuclear – No Future
The draft of Japan's new Basic Energy Plan, made public on Tuesday, calls nuclear power an “important baseload electricity source”, effectively reversing or heavily diluting the 2012 datsu genpatsu – “escape from nuclear” – decision, or outline decision made by Naoto Kan the more left-leaning predecessor of Shinzo Abe. Naoto Kan's escape plan, however, gave no specific timelines to close all of Japan’s atomic power plants, only saying this would happen “over the next several decades”, in stark contrast with Angela Merkel's political decision of May 2011 to close all German nuclear power plants (NPPs) by January 1st, 2022.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Ukraine Turns From Revolution to Recovery / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: STRATFOR
The uprising in Kiev has apparently reached its conclusion. President Viktor Yanukovich and the opposition reached an agreement, negotiated by the Polish, German and French foreign ministers. The parliament is now effectively in charge, deciding who will be ministers and when elections will be held, whether to dismiss judges and so on. It isn't clear whether the parliament can fire the sitting president without impeachment and trial, but all of this is now moot. What is interesting is that the Polish, French and German foreign ministers negotiated an outcome that, for practical purposes, ignored the Constitution of Ukraine. It sets an interesting precedent. But for Ukraine, the constitution didn't have the patina of tradition that a true constitution requires, and few will miss Yanukovich.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Cold War II? WWIII? Must war be the answer? NO! / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: Michael_T_Bucci
It is pointless to learn history in order to avoid repeating it if the desire to repeat it is stronger.
I turned to my conservative neighbor and remarked: "At this point, from watching events in the country and in the world, nothing would surprise me! Nothing!" He stared back blankly until I corrected myself: "Come to think of it there is one thing that would surprise me: the NRA endorsing Barack Obama". As a gun-rights activist and Tea Party Patriot, he wasn't amused.
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Monday, February 24, 2014
Russia Won The Sochi Games And Lost The Ukraine / Politics / Eastern Europe
By: Andrew_McKillop
Don't Enrage the Bear
Increasingly evident to the alert, the Ukraine crisis throws up another example of unavowed or not evident but common real US-Russian concern and reaction to world events, that we can call de facto collusion, not conflict, facing the end of the world as we knew it – and the great powers fought for it. “It is not in the interests of the Ukraine or of Russia or of Europe or of the United States to see the country split," Obama's national security chief Susan Rice told the massively-viewed Sunday 23 Feb NBC "Meet the Press" broadcast. She no doubt felt obliged to add that Vladimir Putin would be making a "grave mistake" if Russian armed forces were sent in, whether to “secure the Crimea” and its major Russian naval, air and land weapons bases, or to reinstall and restore a Kremlin-compliant Kiev government. "It's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate," she said.
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Monday, February 24, 2014
Scottish Independence Economic Consequences for England, UK, Ukraine 2014, Britain 2016? / Politics / UK Politics
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Scotland voting for independence albeit by a small margin on the 18th September 2014 referendum would set in motion the painful process of separation that will have huge economic consequences for Scotland and to a lesser degree for the remaining UK that would be further dominated by England as comprising well over 90% of the remaining UK population. Therefore this article primarily concerns itself with the direct economic and social consequences for the remaining UK following Scottish Independence.