Hard hitting global and local news
First, please consider the article Why Singapore’s Economy Is Heading For An Iceland-Style Meltdown . Like Iceland in its heyday, Singapore’s economic stability and vitality – on the surface at least – has made it the envy of the world at a time when most Western economies are languishing with feeble growth, and high rates of unemployment and poverty.
The New York Times admitted in an early 2013 article titled, " In Thailand, Power Comes With Help From Skype ," that: For the past year and a half, by the party’s own admission, the most important political decisions in this country of 65 million people have been made from abroad, by a former prime minister who has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape corruption charges. The country’s most famous fugitive,Thaksin Shinawatra, circles the globe in his private jet, chatting with ministers over his dozen cellphones, texting over various social media platforms and reading government documents e-mailed to him from civil servants, party officials say.
Hollande Wants to "Get Things Done" by Decree, Not by Passing Laws Via translation from Les Echos , inquiring minds may be interested to note Holland wants to "get things done" in 2014 by decree or order, not by passing laws. The first cabinet meeting of the year was held on Friday. François Hollande recalled the objective of reducing public deficits, without new taxes.
Links Who is to blame for the crisis in South Sudan? The nascent civil war in South Sudan is a product of kleptocratic governance, systemic corruption, and political posturing that has reignited deep ethnic divisions between the nation’s two largest tribal groups
December 30, 2013  (Tony Cartalucci) – Singapore’s "The Straits Times" reports in their article, " Thai protests: ‘Red shirts’ plan to hit back Leader warns of retaliation if Yingluck government is forced to cede power ," that: ANGRY "red shirts" in northern Thailand are preparing to hit back as anti-government protests in Bangkok are set to enter their third month. Having stayed largely in the background, the red shirts, who propelled the Puea Thai party to power in 2011, are upset by what they see as a weak government response to the protesters’ attempts to paralyse the capital and disrupt the Feb 2 election. And they are quietly making plans to retaliate if Ms Yingluck Shinawatra’s caretaker government is forced, by a military coup or other means, to cede power to an unelected administration. The Times would also report: In the current protests, Thai police have shown relative restraint for fear that any sign of brutality would give legitimacy to protesters and provoke a military intervention
Tweet A recent article by a sociology professor at Drexel University, Robert Brulle, has uncovered the semi-secret network of funding for the climate change deniers.
View article: Thailand: Regime Escalates Conflict – Deadly Mayhem Ensues
Since the 2006 coup that toppled his regime, Thaksin has been represented by US corporate-financier elites via their lobbying firms including, Kenneth Adelman  of the Edelman PR firm  ( Freedom House , International Crisis Group , PNAC ), James Baker of Baker Botts  ( CFR , Carlyle Group ), Robert Blackwill  ( CFR ) of Barbour Griffith & Rogers (BGR) , Kobre & Kim , Bell Pottinger  ( and here ) and currently Robert Amsterdam  of Amsterdam & Partners  ( Chatham House ). The protesters then, see the privatization and selling off of Thailand’s natural resources and infrastructure, the pending FTA’s the regime has been attempting to pass, the chaos in the nation’s south, the atrocious "war on drugs," and the use of Thailand to serve the strategic interests of the West, in particular the United States, as intolerable.