Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Aug 7th, 2010

Summary: The Justice Department has announced the indictment of 14 people — 12 of them Minnesota Somalis, many of them U.S. citizens — accused of funneling “money, personnel, and services” to the Shabab, the Islamist terrorist group fighting an insurgency in Somalia. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 7, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that a suicide car bomb devastated a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq, one of a series of attacks that killed at least 40 and wounded about 100 Iraqis. He also reported that Pakistan’s Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud had been killed in a CIA missile strike.


Jul 26th, 2010

Summary: A six-year archive of classified military documents released on the Internet by an organization called WikiLeaks offers an unvarnished picture of the war in Afghanistan that is in many respects more grim than the official portrayal. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 26, 2009 Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea expressed an interest in holding direct talks with the United States and provided an abridged summary of his psychological profile of Kim Jong-Il, developed for the U.S. government.


Jun 7th, 2010

Summary: June 7, 2010 marks the end of 104 months of war in Afghanistan, making it the longest war in American history after the Vietnam War, which continued for 103 months following the Aug. 7, 1964 Tonkin Gulf Resolution. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 7, 2009 Aubrey Immelman provided his weekly report of U.S. military deaths in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), compiled from U.S. Department of Defense News Releases.


May 20th, 2010

Summary: Forensic evidence proves North Korea fired a torpedo that sank the South Korean warship Cheonan, while North Korea denies responsibility and threatens “all-out war.” … Psychological evaluation of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il by Aubrey Immelman. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 20, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Rep. Michele Bachmann appeared on talk radio with end-times pastor Jan Markell to discuss the “Criminalization of Christianity,” where in the past she held forth on topics ranging from homosexuality to the Second Coming; but this time, her topic was the labeling of Christians as terrorists.


Feb 17th, 2010

Summary: The Taliban’s top military commander has been captured in Karachi, Pakistan, in a secret joint operation by Pakistani and American intelligence forces. The commander, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, is an Afghan described by American officials as the most significant Taliban figure to be detained since the American-led war in Afghanistan started more than eight years ago. He ranks second in influence only to Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taliban’s founder and a close associate of Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 17, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that North Korea marked the 67th birthday of its leader, Kim Jong Il, by claiming it had the right to “space development” — a term it has used in the past to disguise a missile test as a satellite launch.


Feb 7th, 2010

Summary: Complete Super Bowl coverage … Tim Tebow — the Heisman Trophy winner who almost wasn’t … New York Times editorial: Super Bowl censorship … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 7, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, said that the Army, to battle a growing suicide rate, may have to start teaching soldiers how to handle stress from the first day they take their service oath.


Feb 4th, 2010

Summary: Three U.S. special operations soldiers have been killed in a roadside bombing in northwest Pakistan, drawing unwanted attention to a U.S. program for intelligence gathering and training Pakistani Frontier Corps paramilitary forces to fight the Taliban and al-Qaida — a little-publicized mission because of local opposition to American boots on the ground in Pakistani. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on February 4, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that a classified Pentagon report urged President Barack Obama to shift U.S. military strategy in Afghanistan, de-emphasizing democracy-building and concentrating more on targeting Taliban and al-Qaida sanctuaries inside Pakistan with the aid of Pakistani military forces.


Jan 27th, 2010

Summary: The State of the Union: Fed up with Congress, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the federal government. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 27, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that the new Obama administration had a clear message for Pakistan: No change in U.S. policy when it comes to going after al-Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan’s lawless border areas.


Jan 24th, 2010

Summary: President Barack Obama has recalled his former campaign manager, David Plouffe, and is reconstituting the team that helped him win the White House in 2008 to counter Republican challenges in the 2010 midterm elections and recalibrate after political setbacks that have narrowed his legislative ambitions. … The political psychology of Barack Obama: Obama’s personality profile; Obama’s leadership style; Obama’s decision-making style. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 24, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported on the Iraqi provincial elections and the power struggle among competing Shiite factions in Iraq.


Jan 19th, 2010

Summary: In the biggest attack in months, Taliban militants struck in the heart of the Afghan capital of Kabul, launching suicide attacks at key government targets in a clear sign the insurgents plan to escalate their fight as the U.S. and its allies ramp up their own campaign to end the war. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on January 19, 2009, Aubrey Immelman reported that President George W. Bush presided over the weakest eight-year span for the U.S. economy in decades, according to an analysis of key data, with economists across the ideological spectrum increasingly viewing his two terms as a time of little progress on the nation’s thorniest fiscal challenges. Specifically, the number of jobs in the nation increased by about 2 percent during Bush’s tenure, the most tepid growth over any eight-year span since data collection began seven decades ago. Gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic output, grew at the slowest pace for a period of that length since the Truman administration. And Americans’ incomes grew more slowly than in any presidency since the 1960s, other than that of Bush’s father George H. W. Bush.