Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
UK Thin Blue Police Line - Those Were the May Days / Politics / UK Politics
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Is it sheer hubris, or is it just incompetence? It’s a question often asked when it comes to politics. And regularly, the answer is both. Still, what the ruling British political class has put on display recently seems to exist in a category all its own. Less than a year go, then-PM David Cameron lost the Brexit referendum that he called himself and was dead sure he would win by a landslide.
His successor Theresa May, Cameron’s Home Secretary and a staunch Remain advocate, lost the Brexit vote as much as her PM did, but stayed on, was promoted, and acted for 11 months like Downing Street 10 was hers by Divine Decree. Then she did the exact same thing Cameron did: she looked at polling numbers and decided to go for the jugular: more power through a snap vote.
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Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Here’s A Closer Look At North Korea’s Artillery Capabilities / Politics / North Korea
By: John_Mauldin
By Geopolitical Futures : As Pyongyang, Washington, and other regional players prepare for the prospect of war, North Korea’s nuclear program and ballistic missile capabilities have received undue amounts of attention. Important though they may be, they have less bearing on how the war will be fought than does North Korea’s conventional military.
Eliminating Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities would be the first objective in a war, and indeed the justification for an attack. The second objective would be to protect South Korea from North Korean retaliation.
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Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Liberals are losing their War of Terror on America / Politics / War on Terror
By: BATR
What do the latest London radical Islamic terrorist attacks have in common with the liberal/progressive anti-American cultural assault that has gone into extreme hyper drive with the election of Donald Trump as President? Only an apologist for the "politically correct" cancer that has infected Western Civilization would deny that allowing Wahhabism to infiltrate Europe and the US, while establishing the growing practices of Sharia law, is suicidal. Yet you will seldom see or read any criticism of the demonic Talmudic pedagogies and practices that have corrupted and perverted any moral claim that the loony left would make. Both factions are engaged in political Armageddon, based upon a false and demented orthodoxy. They profess submission. The Wahhabi-Salafis to Allah the other acceptance of a Halakhah distortion that justifies their professed superiority.
Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Orphaned Poisoned Waters,Severe Chronic Water Shortage Imminent / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Richard_Mills
There's a lot of water on the planet we inhabit – an estimated 326 million trillion gallons or 1,260,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters. Hard to believe are reports water is going to get much dearer in our near term future – yet Peter Voser, chief executive of the world's second-largest energy company, Royal Dutch Shell, warned us, as far back as June 2011, that global demand for fresh water may outstrip supply by as much as 40 per cent in 20 years if current fresh-water consumption trends continue. And Voser isn’t the only one warning about future fresh water shortages…
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) predicts that by 2025, one-third of all humans will face severe and chronic water shortages.
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Tuesday, June 06, 2017
Donald Trump is an Economic Ignoramus! / Politics / US Politics
By: Antonius_Aquinas
Not surprisingly, Donald Trump has followed in the infamous footsteps of his presidential predecessors in the transition from candidate to chief executive. Invariably, every candidate for the presidency makes a whole host of promises, the vast majority of which are horrible and typically only exacerbate the problems they attempt to resolve. Among the proposals, however, there is an occasional bright spot. Yet, once elected the stupid polices are eagerly pursued while the good ones are quickly discarded.
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Monday, June 05, 2017
UK’s Weaker Brexit Hand with the EU / Politics / BrExit
By: Dan_Steinbock
Prime Minister May pushed for a snap election in June 2017 to strengthen her hand in the impending Brexit talks. In practice, she has weakened UK's bargaining power at the EU’s expense, while the latest London Bridge incident introduces new uncertainty and volatility into the EU/UK divorce proceedings.Like too many times before, British police declared a “major incident” on London Bridge after a van reportedly hit multiple pedestrians.
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Monday, June 05, 2017
Regime Change in the Trump White House? / Politics / US Politics
By: Dan_Steinbock
No U.S. postwar president has managed to reset relations with Russia. Now the Trump administration must cope with a special counsel’s investigation. In the past, US efforts at regime change targeted foreign countries; today, the White House. How will it impact Trump’s stalled policy agenda?As I argued in spring 2016 (TWFR, April 25, 2016), US election is a global risk and it would continue to be fought after the Trump election win. But recently, these political struggles moved to an entirely new phase.
First, the Department of Justice (DOJ) dismissed James Comey, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), reportedly only days after his request for increased resources to investigate Russia’s alleged interference in the election. Barely a week later, DOJ appointed Robert Mueller, former director of the FBI (2001-13) as special counsel overseeing the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
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Saturday, June 03, 2017
In Defense of Trumpian Diplomacy / Politics / US Politics
By: John_Browne
Given the media's obsession with some of the President Trump's communication challenges, it was utterly predictable that the President's declaration that his trip to Europe and the Middle East should be considered a "home run" was met almost universally with ridicule. In truth, the President actually did accomplish a series of victories overseas, or at least laid important groundwork that should help advance American interests in ways that prior Administrations have failed to do. It's a shame that these developments have been ignored among the din of partisanship.
Saturday, June 03, 2017
The US May Attack North Korea In Two Weeks / Politics / US Military
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : The US Navy has announced that the USS Nimitz will leave Bremerton, Washington, on June 1 for the Western Pacific. This is the third carrier battle group to be sent to the region—enough to support a broader military mission. It will take about a week to get to its station, after which it will integrate with the fleet.
So here’s the situation: Soon the United States will have its naval force in waters near North Korea.
It already has strategic bombers in Guam, and it already has fighter aircraft in Japan and South Korea.
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Friday, June 02, 2017
Trump's 'Arab NATO' Vision is a Desert Mirage / Politics / US Politics
By: STRATFOR
Ever since Teddy Roosevelt began a tradition of overseas state visits when he headed to Panama to check on his canal project in 1906, American presidents have chosen the destination of their first overseas visit with foreign policy theater in mind. The majority, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Barack Obama, stayed close to home to focus on North America or the Caribbean Basin. Others, from Woodrow Wilson to Jimmy Carter, crossed the Atlantic amid wars hot and cold. Donald Trump, however, is the first to choose the Middle East for his foreign debut. His reach, in this case, may well exceed his grasp, especially when it comes to the concept of building an "Arab NATO" to manage the region.
Thursday, June 01, 2017
President Trump’s Impending Resignation and Declaration of Victory / Politics / US Politics
By: Harry_Dent
This is what I predicted the day after Trump’s election.He has the impulse control of a grease fire. And he certainly can’t admit when he’s wrong, even though he changes his mind on one policy or view after the next.
There’s something disturbing about that. More disturbing than Richard Nixon’s paranoia that led to the Watergate scandal. Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, June 01, 2017
Russia’s Disinformation Seems To Work—But It Doesn’t / Politics / Russia
By: John_Mauldin
BY GEORGE FRIEDMAN : From its founding, the Soviet Union ran campaigns designed to destabilize and neutralize potential enemies. Disinformation was and is the name of the game.
After the Russian Revolution, Lenin founded the Third International to support Communist parties around the world. Soviet intelligence ran disinformation campaigns. These campaigns were designed to undermine national governments, to discredit leading figures, and so on.
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Wednesday, May 31, 2017
China’s Belt and Road to Nowhere / Politics / China
By: Michael_Pento
Moody’s Investors Service downgraded China’s credit rating recently to A1 from Aa3. The rational being that it expects the financial strength of the economy to erode, as GDP growth slows and debt levels continue to pile up. What is Beijing’s response to the slowing economy and intractable debt accumulation that was just underscored by Moody’s: issue a mountain of new debt in order to pave over 60 countries around the globe?
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Tuesday, May 30, 2017
What is the Best Way to Support Veterans? / Politics / US Military
By: BATR
Since the abolishment of the draft, volunteers have manned the military. By professional armed services standards, this conversion has produced the most efficient and competitive war machine ever. However, what escapes this simplistic viewpoint is that the forces deployed "To Kill People and Break Things", are used to expand and perpetuate an empire, while forgoing an actual defense of our nation. Decisions to police the world are made by non elected agencies, who essentially formulate the detailed policies that shed the blood of soldiers and drain the treasure of the country. Presidents and politicians talk about the hard determinations to place service personnel in harm's way, but it is the military-industrial-complex that does the grunt work in staging the logistics and directing what theater of operations the grand imperial military can operate.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Fracking – An Unconventional Poisoning / Politics / Fracking
By: Richard_Mills
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it’s more commonly referred to, is used to stimulate the production of oil and gas from unconventional oil and gas deposits - shales, coalbeds, and tight sands. These types of deposits need to be stimulated because they have a lower permeability than conventional reservoirs and require the additional stimulation for production.
Hydraulic fracturing involves drilling a well then injecting it with a slurry of water, chemical additives and proppants. Wells are drilled and lined with a steel pipe that’s cemented into place. A perforating gun is used to shoot small holes through the steel and cement into the shale. The highly pressurized fluid and proppant mixture injected into the well escapes and create cracks and fractures in the surrounding shale layers and that stimulates the flow of natural gas or oil. The proppants (grains of sand, ceramic beads, or sintered bauxite) prevent the fractures from closing when the injection is stopped and the pressure of the fluid is removed.
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Monday, May 29, 2017
An Invisible Curtain Falls Between Russia and the West / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
By Jon Sather : The Cold War ended over 25 years ago, but the lingering Soviet specter continues to haunt the Western world. Since the election of Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2000, a new conflict has been brewing, this time in cyberspace. And on a battlefield monopolized by the United States and Russia, the historical threats of nuclear war, ambitions of global dominance and aspirations of containing the enemy may not be the relics of the past we imagine them to be.
Sunday, May 28, 2017
Trump’s Predatory Infrastructure Privatization Scheme / Politics / US Politics
By: Stephen_Lendman
Straightaway in office, Trump proved he’s an imperial/predatory corporatist tool - his rhetorical populism pretense, not real, his agenda hugely harming ordinary people at home and abroad.
Days after his election, Ellen Brown exposed his phony promised economic change, saying “his infrastructure plan appears to be just more of the same - privatizing public assets and delivering unearned profits to investors at the expense of the people.”
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Sunday, May 28, 2017
Libya: A US-Created Terrorist Haven / Politics / Middle East
By: Stephen_Lendman
US-led NATO aggression on Libya raped and destroyed its sovereign independence - one of history’s great crimes.
Africa’s developed nation was transformed into a cauldron of failed state, terrorist-infested violence, chaos, deep poverty, mass unemployment, and devastating human misery.
Libya was Obama’s war, launched in 2011, orchestrated by Hillary Clinton. Her remark after hearing of Muammar Gaddafi’s death, saying “(w)e came, we saw, he died” alone will long define her pure evil.
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Saturday, May 27, 2017
BBC Newsnight Falls for FAKE POLLS, Opinion Pollsters Illusion for Mainstream Media to Sell / Politics / UK General Election
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Apparently the boring election that everyone knew the Tories would win with a landslide is no more, for the Tory's 24 point lead over Labour has not just narrowed but collapsed to just 5% over the course of the past few days (Yougov Con 43%, Labour 38%). Which the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight made a good job of regurgitating at length. Emily Maitlis did her thing of prancing around the studio as intelligent eye candy so as to hold the attention span of viewers as the talking heads one after another explained the shock narrowing of polls which if it continues could even result in Labour winning the election!
Thursday, May 25, 2017
Rosenstein and Mueller: the Regime Change Tag-Team / Politics / US Politics
By: Mike_Whitney
Let’s say you own a big US corporation but need help managing your domestic accounts. So you hire a bright, young man named Bruno who just graduated from Harvard Business School with a Masters in corporate finance. And the first day on the job, you discover that Bruno has secretly employed a private detective who has obtained subpoena power to dig through all of your business accounts, all your investments past and present, all your taxes going back decades, and any personal transactions you might have made in the last 20 years or so. And, oh yeah, and he also has the authority to interview anyone he chooses, including people who might have a grudge against you or who lost money on one of your dodgy real estate deals or who simply doesn’t like the way you comb your hair. And, of course, Bruno knows that the information he gathers is going to be deliberately tweaked to look as suspicious as possible, then it’s going to be leaked to the press and splashed across the headlines, then it’s going to be presented as evidence to a Grand Jury, and then, finally– after months of excruciating testimony and nonstop mud-slinging– it will be used in criminal proceedings that will lead your removal as CEO of your corporation.