Analysis Topic: Politics & Social Trends
The analysis published under this topic are as follows.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Government Insiders Get Ready for the Gulf "Dead Zone" Environmental Disaster / Politics / US Politics
By: OilPrice_Com
Bad news concerning the Gulf oil disaster continues to come from WMR's federal government sources in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Emergency planners are dealing with a prospective "dead zone" within a 200 mile radius from the Deepwater Horizon disaster datum in the Gulf.
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Friday, June 25, 2010
Congress Dithers On Financial Reform While Courts Give “Get Out Of Jail Cards” To White Collar Crooks / Politics / Market Regulation
By: Danny_Schechter
No Yellow Cards Here: Wall Street Banksters Lead In The World Cup of Phony Reform
charade | sh əˈrād|
noun
an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance : talk of unity was nothing more than a charade.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Greek Plague, Sticky Wages / Politics / Social Issues
By: David_Howden
After the deaths of three bank employees, Greek president Karolos Papoulias lamented that the debt-ridden country had finally "reached the edge of the abyss." It should be so lucky. Abysses allow for falls into the deep unknown. If real wages would make the plunge, Greek workers would have a future with more options than striking and senseless destruction.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
The Brilliant but Confused Radicalism of George Orwell / Politics / Social Issues
By: Jeff_Riggenbach
Eric Arthur Blair, who is best known under his pseudonym, George Orwell, was born 107 years ago this month in India, where his father was a British civil servant. His father's job, according to Orwell biographer Gordon Bowker, "was to oversee the growing of opium, mainly for export to China." Though young Eric's mother had herself grown up in Burma, the daughter of yet another British civil servant, she had long since tired of Asia; and when her son was only a year old she successfully lobbied her husband to ship her and their two children — Eric and his older sister, Marjorie — back to England. Eric did not see his father again for eight years, until he was nine years old and had come home for Christmas vacation from his "prep school," St. Cyprian's.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Is Alan Greenspan a National Security Risk? / Politics / Central Banks
By: Fred_Sheehan
(Reuters) - "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday said 'outrageous' advice from former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan helped create record U.S. budget deficits that put national security at risk." -February 25, 2010
Alan Greenspan lamented U.S. budget deficits in the Wall Street Journal on June 18, 2010 ("U.S. Debt and the Greece Analogy"). For an analysis of Greenspan's flapdoodle, Barry Ritholtz covered the turf on his blog, The Big Picture. The former Federal Reserve chairman should have withheld comment, given his personal contribution to the nation's poverty-stricken state.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Housing Benefit Illustrates Britains Disgraceful Wasteful, Benefits Culture / Politics / UK Tax & Budget
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Coalition government's measures to cut spending on Britians huge £110 billion benefits bill by £11 billion per year by 2014-15 is being met with much outrage and indignation by vested interests. However it is ordinary tax payers who should feel the real indignation when they find out that people are able to claim upto £1,000 per week, that's £52,000 per year in housing benefits alone, which is more than twice the average salary.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Detroit is Dying, Impact of Globalization, Social Decay and Urban Destruction / Politics / Social Issues
By: Global_Research
A YouTube video titled "Dying Detroit" takes you on a tour of "neighborhoods literally falling apart"—through streets that look like "a hurricane has recently swept through, destroying nearly everything on its path." Thousands of houses have been abandoned—in many areas 50-60% of the houses are in foreclosure. Some blocks have only a few homes left standing. A thousand people a month are leaving what has been called " America ’s fastest dying city."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Deepwater Horizon: The Worst-Case Scenario / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Global_Research
Richard Heinberg writes: Reports from the Gulf of Mexico just keep getting worse. Estimates of the rate of oil spillage from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead just keep gushing (the latest official number: up to 60,000 barrels per day). Forecasts for how long it will take before the leak is finally plugged continue pluming toward August—maybe even December. In addition to the oil itself, BP has (in this case deliberately) spilled a million gallons of toxic Corexit dispersant. Biologists’ accounts of the devastation being wreaked on fish, birds, amphibians, turtles, coral reefs, and marshes grow more apocalyptic by the day—especially in view of the fact that the vast majority of animal victims die alone and uncounted.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Americans Worried Sick About Their Economic Future Are Barely Hanging on / Politics / Social Issues
By: Gary_North
The recession that began in December 2007 produced a change in Americans' perception of their economic future. They moved from the tradition of hope to one of just barely hanging on. I have never seen this before. Only someone born around 1910 can recall anything like it, assuming that he recalls anything at all.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Labor Market Dynamics, Defending the Rate Buster / Politics / Employment
By: MISES
Walter Block writes: The scene is familiar from hundreds of movies featuring labor themes: the young eager worker comes to the factory for the first time, determined to be a productive worker. In his enthusiasm, he happily produces more than the other workers who have been at the factory many years, and who are tired, stooped, and arthritic. He is a "rate buster."
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Bashing BP For Doing Exactly What Government Led Them to Do / Politics / US Politics
By: Matthew_J_Novak
There has been tremendous criticism in the media of late regarding BP's response to the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and the subsequent spilling of millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
An ABC news / Washington Post poll shows that 81 percent of those polled stated they thought unfavorably of the response by BP to the spill. The same poll shows that nearly two-thirds of those responding favor criminal charges against BP and other companies involved in the spill.
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Wednesday, June 23, 2010
The Midterm Elections: No Panacea for the U.S. Economy / Politics / US Politics
By: Money_Morning
Martin Hutchinson writes: With many of the primaries past, and the November 2010 midterm elections less than five months away, it is worth taking a look at what policy changes we might expect from the next U.S. Congress. Both the political and economic worlds have changed one hell of a lot since the last elections, in 2008.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Gulf Oil Spill - The Greatest Disaster Since The Flood? / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: Submissions
Joshua S. Burnett writes: Most articles begin with a purpose statement revealing what the author desires to convince the reader of. This article is different. These few paragraphs begin with a plea for someone to tell me that I’ve got the evidence all wrong and that what I see and know is a smoke filled illusion void of reality. I want someone who knows differently to tell me. So as you read this article please understand that I’m not attempting to be a fear-mongerer. Please know I’m no prophet or guru, just a guy who looks at all the evidence he has and draws conclusions. And if you know I’m wrong and why, please write and tell me.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Gold and the Architecture for a New World Financial System / Politics / Global Financial System
By: Professor_Emeritus
The Symposium was held at the historic town of Hall in Tirol, Austria, for a good reason. Hall in Tirol (just east of Innsbruck) had been the “monetary capital” of Europe for centuries.
It all started in 1477 with the moving of the Mint from Meran in South Tirol (now part of Italy) where it had been operating since 1271, to Burg Hasegg in Hall, by Archduke Sigismund of Austria (1427-1496). At the same time the Archduke instituted important monetary reforms. He opened the Mint to silver. As a result, silver mining was revived in the valleys of Tirol, and new mining methods and technology were developed. Ultimately, the much-debased coinage of Medieval Europe was replaced by sound currency that brought heretofore unprecedented prosperity to the people of Renaissance Europe. The currency reform of Archduke Sigismund has laid the foundations for the architecture of a new world financial system.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Judge Who Overturned Drilling Ban Held Oil Stocks Back in 2008, So What?? / Politics / US Politics
By: Static_Chaos
The ink of the ruling against the offshore drilling moratorium is not even dry yet, the media is already jumping all over that Judge Martin Feldman is "greased with oil investments", says Mr. Christopher Helman, an Associate Editor of Forbes.
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Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Oakland Police Brace for Cuts, Data Shows They are Overworked / Politics / US Politics
By: JD_Rosendahl
Time is counting down, as the City of Oakland has to vote June 24th on potentially cutting some 200 policemen. Tick-Tock-Tick-Tock. The vote is in 2 days, and nothing has been resolved. See the original, Welcome to Oakland-The Model City, the insanity continues.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Obama Administration Knew About BP Deepwater Horizon Drilling Depth Risk / Politics / Environmental Issues
By: OilPrice_Com
President Obama and Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates were informed that BP would drill an unprecedented 35,000 feet well bore at the Macondo site off the coast of Louisiana. In September 2009, the Deepwater Horizon successfully sunk a well bore at a depth of 35,055 below sea level at the Tiber Prospect in the Keathley Canyon block 102 in the Gulf of Mexico, southeast of Houston.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
GasLand, Too Small To Matter / Politics / US Politics
By: James_Quinn
As I watched the documentary GASLAND last night on HBO my blood began to boil. I’m sure my blood pressure went up dramatically during the 1 hour and 40 minute film. After watching our corrupt government decide that the biggest baddest banks on the planet were too big to fail over the last two years and giving my children’s and their children’s money to these behemoth criminal enterprises, I was not surprised to see poor working class Americans treated like dirt by these same corrupt politicians. Big corporations can buy off politicians to ensure profits. The “small people”, as the Chairman of BP likes to call them, are expendable and can be ignored. They are too small to matter.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Germany and Russia Move Closer / Politics / GeoPolitics
By: STRATFOR
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle will brief French and Polish officials on a joint proposal for Russian-European “cooperation on security,” according to a statement from Westerwelle’s spokesman on Monday. The proposal emerged out of talks between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev earlier in June and is based on a draft Russia drew up in 2008. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will be present at the meeting. Peschke said, “We want to further elaborate and discuss it within the triangle [i.e., France, Germany and Poland] in the presence of the Russian foreign minister.”
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
U.S. Global War Racket Exposed: Funding Our Enemies / Politics / US Politics
By: David_DeGraw
Building on my Af-Pak War Racket report, a few recent news items help expose the true drivers of current wars around the world.
#1) Wherever there is a war, look for CIA/IMF/private military war profiteers covertly funding and supporting BOTH sides in order to keep the wars raging and the profits rolling in. As former CIA Station Chief John Stockwell explained: “Enemies are necessary for the wheels of the US military machine to turn.”
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