Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.Monday, May 06, 2013
Human Liberty Is Doomed / Politics / Social Issues
Any discussion on liberty presupposes an understanding of human nature. Today, the utter confusion and distorted mindset of humankind, relegates animal instincts, as the premier motivation for salacious existence. The criteria for a cordial civilization have long been "consigned to the dustbins of history". Standards for civil and moral conduct are debased by a global disintegration to achieve the ‘good’ for the hunt of acting ‘nice’. Polite and pleasant facades are no substitute for truth and meaning. Yet, the heights of evil transactions seem to be hailed routinely, as the only achievement that power hungry sociopaths aspire to impose on the rest of the planet. Never-ending conflict is inherent in the human condition, while the state of liberty is unusual and resides within the character of the ethical spirit.
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Monday, May 06, 2013
Western Media Justifies Israel Terror Attacks on Syria Exposing Propaganda Hypocrisy / Politics / Mainstream Media
An Israeli plane bombs a target in Syria. The news is passed along first to Fox News, (huh?) by someone in the Administration.. It happened on a Thursday, but we find out about it late on Friday. The New York Times assigns three reporter to cover the story that goes up on the website in the middle of the morning on Saturday.
Earlier that day, President Obama, speaking in Costa Rica, said there will be no US ground troops on the ground in Syria. Now, the Administration says it is considering “military options.”
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Sunday, May 05, 2013
Politicians and Religions Spreading the Virus called Fear - Video / Politics / Propaganda
Very few people understand the programming of fear, and why it distorts our perceptions. While fear is a program used for our survival, fear also creates irrational beliefs that cause larger systems of fear like politics, religion and the media. "A Virus Called Fear" is a short film about the conditioning of fear, and what irrational fears can lead to.
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Sunday, May 05, 2013
Israel Terror Air Strikes On Syria, Desperate Attempts to Provoke War Against Iran / Politics / Middle East
Tony Cartalucci writes: Alleged airstrikes hope to expand conflict, undermine Syrian advances, and provoke Syria and Iran to give US justification for military intervention.
Once again, Israel is “leaking” information about alleged airstrikes it claims it has conducted against Syria along the Lebanese-Syrian border.
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Sunday, May 05, 2013
The Myth of U.S. Economic Recovery, Social Crisis in America / Politics / US Politics
US stock markets surged Friday to new record highs as Wall Street traders seized on a tepid jobs report to engage in a fresh orgy of speculation.
The official line promoted by the Obama administration is that the United States is in the midst of an accelerating economic recovery. For the corporate and financial elite that runs America, and the section of the upper-middle class that hangs on its coattails, a soaring stock market is indeed what defines economic health. For the vast majority of the population, however, life five years after the Wall Street crash of 2008 is dominated by the daily struggle to make ends meet.
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Sunday, May 05, 2013
Professors and Grade Inflation - ‘A’ is for Average / Politics / Education
About 1.8 million students will graduate from college this year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. At least one-third of them will graduate with honors. In some colleges, about half will be honor graduates.It’s not that the current crop is that bright, it’s that honors is determined by grade point average. Because of runaway grade inflation, the average grade in college is now an “A.” About 43 percent of all college grades are “A”s, according to a recent study by Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy, and published in the prestigious Teachers College Record. About three-fourths of all grades are “A”s or “B”s.
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Saturday, May 04, 2013
Government Crooks Responsible for the Greatest Wealth Transfer in History / Politics / Inflation
Last night, six of us went out to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in Salta. We ordered two bottles of good Laborum cabernet sauvignon. We had beefsteaks, dessert and coffee. The bill came to 1,058 Argentine pesos (about $200).
Was that a lot... or a little?
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Saturday, May 04, 2013
Al-Qaida Myth, the Gangland-style Execution of a Retired Bin Laden / Politics / War on Terror
Two years ago this week, US special forces shot and killed Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man.
American TV is filled with chest-thumping and flag-waving about how bin Laden was hunted down and executed. For most Americans, bin Laden was the acme of evil and author of the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 people. Good riddance.
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Saturday, May 04, 2013
Down With Plato and Rousseau, Up with Robert Nisbet / Politics / Social Issues
Is civil government the only true government? Does it alone possess legitimate sovereignty? Defenders of the modern state insist that this is the case, and that it should be the case.
Robert Nisbet, as a sociologist, looked to social organizations as the source of political tradition. He explained the rise of the modern state in terms of series of conflicts between the national civil government and other institutions inside its geographical territory. He saw the rise of the modern state in terms of the state's claims of sovereignty, a sovereignty which is it refused to share with other institutions. These other institutions had possessed limited sovereignty. He also explained the rise of classical Athens in terms of this insistence on state sovereignty. He explained the Roman Empire under Augustus and later emperors in terms of this quest for unitary state sovereignty: a war-state.
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Saturday, May 04, 2013
The US Fed's May Day Riot / Politics / Central Banks
Oh the people's flag is deepest red, just like the government's budget...
AS MAY DAY protests go, the US central bank's looked pretty tame on Wednesday.
Athens' strikers burnt a giant picture of Angela Merkel dressed as Hitler. Students in Washington threw bags of urine at each other. Protesters in Madrid waved flags shouting that "Austerity ruins & kills", while Turkish police broke up an illegal demo with tear gas and water cannon.
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Friday, May 03, 2013
Income Inequality - Richer Than You / Politics / Social Issues
Income inequality in Canada and the United States is on the rise. Read on to learn the real reason why…
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) analysis of income inequality data shows the richest one percent of Canadians make $180,000 more today - adjusted for inflation - than they did in 1982.
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Friday, May 03, 2013
The Fed Plays Pass the Parcel, Blames Congress for Lousy U.S. Economy / Politics / Central Banks
Diane Alter writes: The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting concluded today (Wednesday) with one clear message to Washington: Thanks for the lousy economy.
Central bank members cited only "moderate" expansion in economic activity and a slow improvement in the stubbornly high unemployment level.
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Thursday, May 02, 2013
Check Out Who's Hiding $32 Trillion in Offshore Tax Haven Accounts / Politics / Taxes
More than two million emails that shed light on the biggest tax dodge in history - trillions of dollars hidden in offshore accounts - have been uncovered by the British newspaper The Guardian and the Washington, D.C.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Some $32 trillion has been hidden in small island banking hubs which host a bevy of trust funds, shell corporations and other tax havens, the Tax Justice Network estimates.
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Thursday, May 02, 2013
How the U.S. Government Destroyed the American Economy / Politics / US Economy
US stocks are turning down this morning, following news that private-sector job growth in the US slowed the most in seven months.
We've already recommended you exit US stocks and buy gold on the dips.
Nothing has changed our view... So we'll get back to where we left off yesterday – making camp for the night after a long horse trek into the distant reaches of our remote Argentine ranch...
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Wednesday, May 01, 2013
A Lost Battle : Wall Street Vs. The Real Economy / Politics / Credit Crisis 2013
Wall Street
The following activities of the worldwide financial institutions, motivated by the sole motive of maximizing profits, created the biggest financial bubble in the history of the world :
- Lending money to borrowers (individuals, corporates and governments) who had insufficient income or assets to pay off the loans undertaken.
- Engaged in and encouraged massive speculation in the currencies, bonds, equity and commodities exchanges.
- Use of leverage in the form of Derivatives and High Frequency Trading to game the process of price fixing on electronic exchanges.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Europe's New Look Economic Austerity / Politics / Economic Austerity
WRONG WAY BET
Defended on French TV channel BFM in an evening marathon looking at Francois Hollande's first year of power, April 29, by his Economy minister and other "party heavyweights" with a lackluster crop of one-liners, viewers saw recent opinion polls asking if French voters would vote again for Hollande, if an election was held today.
Roughly 19% said they would, and 64% said they would vote for Sarkozy if he stood again. Street interviews with average persons, one after another, said they voted the wrong way in 2012.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Redlines and the Problems of U.S. Military Intervention in Syria / Politics / Middle East
The civil war in Syria, one of the few lasting legacies of the Arab Spring, has been under way for more than two years. There has been substantial outside intervention in the war. The Iranians in particular, and the Russians to a lesser extent, have supported the Alawites under Bashar al Assad. The Saudis and some of the Gulf States have supported the Sunni insurgents in various ways. The Americans, Europeans and Israelis, however, have for the most part avoided involvement.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Bangladesh Clothing Factory Collapse Tragedy Exposes Real Cost of Corporate Greed / Politics / Social Issues
Greg Madison writes: We've known for a long time that the things that fuel our lifestyles can come from some pretty ugly places.
The coltan that's used in our mobile phones and entertainment systems is mostly mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where millions have died in what's been called "Africa's World War." The United Nations has reported that warlords, guilty of numerous crimes against humanity, vie for control of coltan production while enslaving and killing thousands.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Unburnable Carbon Bubbles / Politics / Climate Change
A report came out in Britain 10 days ago that deserves more attention than it got. If only because it uses the great term "unburnable carbon", great even before it's defined. It makes me ponder the popular and somewhat crazy claims about shale and fracking leading to US energy independence, the holy grail du jour.
It promises much vaunted freedom from outsiders, but what exactly does it consist of? Does it mean the ability to burn ever more carbon-based energy sources without having to buy them abroad? And does "abroad" include Canada, or do we think of this as an "energy Nafta"? Guys, if you would just waste a bit less of the stuff, you'd have been energy independent ages ago without having to inject tons of toxic concoctions into your land. What on earth are you thinking?
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Monday, April 29, 2013
The Strange History Of Global Warming Fear / Politics / Climate Change
START WITH GLOBAL COOLING FEAR
By the 1830s the science now called "glaciology" was emerging. Swiss and French scientists studying Alpine glacier advance and retreat had pieced together data on historical, meteorological, economic and agricultural changes in the Alpine region and constructed models for glacier advance and retreat that were unsettling to established scientific opinion. In particular the also-emerging science of what is now called "geology" was dominated at the time by the views of the "father of modern geology", the British scientist James Hutton, who was opposed to glaciology from the start.