Food For Thought
- Should the U.S.A. have a "velvet divorce,” (a reference to the 1993.peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia — now the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic)
- Has the U.S. has run its course and need breaking up?
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Politics. Show all posts
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Is the U.S. Better Off As A Bunch Of Separate Countries?
Saturday, November 23, 2019
The Soviet Military Secretly Mapped the Entire World
Interesting article!
In the early 2000s, a shop in Riga, Latvia’s capital held bundles of Cold War-era maps of British cities, created by the Soviet military
The Russian maps were supposed to be destroyed after the fall of the Soviet Union, but some officers, seeing an opportunity for profit, sold them. They have never been officially declassified. “Russians won’t talk about them, the people who created them will hold their secrets to the grave.”
In the early 2000s, a shop in Riga, Latvia’s capital held bundles of Cold War-era maps of British cities, created by the Soviet military
The Russian maps were supposed to be destroyed after the fall of the Soviet Union, but some officers, seeing an opportunity for profit, sold them. They have never been officially declassified. “Russians won’t talk about them, the people who created them will hold their secrets to the grave.”
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| Central Park, NYC |
Article >
Friday, December 4, 2015
Mapping International and Domestic Terrorism
Terrorism and sabotage seems to occur on an almost daily basis across the world with ever increasing frequency. Terrorist attacks are now sadly part of our contemporary landscape and regarded as a foreseeable yet analyzable business risk.
U.S. Terror History Map
The Investigative Project on TerrorismActive Global Terrorist Organizations
Map of Islamic Terrorism
Mapping Militant Organizations
Stanford University - The Mapping Militants Project identifies patterns in the evolution of militant organizations in specified conflict areas and seeks to discover the causes and consequences of their evolution.
The plague of global terrorism
The number of deaths from terrorism nearly doubled in 2014
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Democratic and Republican Ideology Shift?
Did You Know?
The Democratic and Republican Parties have undergone a long transition from their founding ideological principles. It’s hard to believe these days but the Democrats started out as the conservative party and the Republicans were once the liberal party!The Democratic Party we know today evolved from the conservative Democratic-Republican Party of the 1790s. Prior to the Cil War and during the Reconstruction, Republicans elected Abe Lincoln. and were long known as advocates for the abolitions of slavery, etc.
The 1896 Election was the first turning point when tthe country was mired in an economic depression and Democratic Party took a leap of faith to abandon their conservative orthodoxy and nominated populist William Jennings Bryan. He was the first liberal to win the Democratic Party Presidential nomination. This represented a radical departure from the conservative roots of the Democratic Party.
In response to the nomination of “liberal” Bryan by the Democrats, the Republican Party countered by straying away from its liberal leanings and nominated the moderate-conservative Ohio Governor William McKinley.
In 1912, the Progressive former President Theodore Roosevelt challenged the more conservative incumbent President William Howard Taft for the Republican Party nomination. Roosevelt, who won nine Republican primaries, bolted the party and formed the Progressive Party, a.k.a. the Bull Moose Party, and won 86 electoral votes in the General Election. Taft won just eight Electoral Votes. The Democratic nominee, New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson, mustered 435 Electoral votes and won the Presidential Election in a landslide victory.
Timelines
Polarization
Further Info
- When Did the Republican and Democratic Parties Trade Places?
- Democratic and Republican Ideologies Undergo Dramatic Role Reversal
- Is it true that Democrats used to be the Conservative party and Republicans used to be the Progressive party?
- Why Did the Democratic and Republican Parties Switch Platforms?
Monday, March 2, 2015
Nixon's Internal Memos and the Birth of Amtrak
11 Historical Maps and Charts That Explain the Birth of Amtrak
Today America's passenger rail provider does still receive help from the federal government, but it also now recovers 93 percent of its operating costs through fares, and lately the service has broken ridership records year after year.
At it's inception, internal memos show Nixon’s calculated effort to score “political points”
Article >
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
The Language of the State of the Union
An amazing interactive that charts a list of all the times that the corresponding president used the word in a State of the Union address.
A insightful revelation of which issues (and buzzwords) where prominent at the time.
Interactive Graph >
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Geostrategy - Worldwide American Military Presence
The Big Mystery…
The U.S.A. is deployed in over 135 countries worldwide. There are more than 1,000 U.S. military bases dotting the globe. Nobody knows the exact number for sure - being strategic and due to the instability in the world much is kept secret...
Mega Bases
The U.S.A. is deployed in over 135 countries worldwide. There are more than 1,000 U.S. military bases dotting the globe. Nobody knows the exact number for sure - being strategic and due to the instability in the world much is kept secret...
Mega Bases
Former Yugoslavia, Iran, Afghanistan are a few of the countries with American Mega-Bases with the usual assortment of Burger Kings and Popeyes, basically transplanted nothing U.S. town on foreign soil, bustling in a way increasingly rare for actual American towns these days, part of a planetary military deployment of a sort never before seen in history. The staggering size, scope, and strangeness of all this is seldom considered, analyzed, or debated in the American mainstream.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338/
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175338/
Historical Maps of U.S. Expansion
Link to Maps...
Middle East Geostrategy
Petroleum and International Theatre of War
in the Middle East
Worldwide Presence
Interactive Map of U.S. Army Bases
See the world’s foreign military bases from outer space
Article (Google Earth)
U.S. Military Bases >
Great Google Based map that shows everything
(1) Go to Home and Pan on map or
(2) Go the regional links
Friday, December 12, 2014
Geostrategy - Water Resources
Which regions are most affected by increasing water stress?
Water was for centuries cheap and plentiful but population growth, globalization, and climate change are shepherding in a new water-constrained era. Good, clean water just cannot be replaced—and it is getting harder to come by.
(This is a great site)
Water was for centuries cheap and plentiful but population growth, globalization, and climate change are shepherding in a new water-constrained era. Good, clean water just cannot be replaced—and it is getting harder to come by.
Thursday, December 11, 2014
Geostrategy: Oil Pipeline Maps
Much of the conflicts and future conflicts in the world today increasingly are based on access and control of energy resources. Bolstering economic alliances between nations by securing safe transport of oil and natural gas using strategically located pipelines plays an enormous role in geopolitics today
Article >
Article >
Article >
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
The Middle East - Key Players, Islamic Branches and More...
The Middle East - Key Players and Notable Relationships
A forced-network visualization of key players and notable relationships in the Middle East created by David McCandless & UniversLab.
Islamic Sects, Schools, Branches & Movements
A visual guide to the major & notable sects, schools & movements within Islam.
Islamic Schools and Branches
This article summarizes the different branches in Islam
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Geostrategy (What is the Heartland?)
I am currently reading Robert D. Kaplan's book, "The Revenge of Geography". Although obtusely written (this review accurately sums it up!), it is intriguing and a good introduction to the fascinating world of geostrategy. His chapter on Russia is brilliant.
Maps based of the work of early geostrategists Mackinder, Spykman and others visually portray the geopolitical state of the world.
Spykman differs from Mackinder. Although Mackinder sees Eurasian wars as historically pitting the heartland against the sea powers for control of the rimland, establishing a land power-sea power opposition, Spykman states that the Eurasian struggle was not the sea powers containing the heartland, but the prevention of any power from ruling the rimland. (Wikepedia)
Recommended reading:
Maps based of the work of early geostrategists Mackinder, Spykman and others visually portray the geopolitical state of the world.
Mackinder's Heartland/Rimland Concept
Mackinder's famous dictum:
- Who controls eastern Europe rules the Heartland;
- Who controls the Heartland rules the World Island; and
- Who rules the World Island rules the World,
Spykman's Rimland is the Zone of Conflict
- Who controls the rimland rules Eurasia;
- Who rules Eurasia controls the destinies of the world.
Article >
An interesting more current map interpretation:
Recommended reading:
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Sunday, October 6, 2013
The Geography of Government Benefits
Americans' dependence on government benefits has more than doubled since 1969.
The south seems especially "dependent."
Sunday, March 3, 2013
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