I have been following developments in the world financial system for some time. Around 2005, I could see the systemic problems coming that eventually manifested in 2008. It was no mystery actually, provided you had the will and dedication to sift through blogs, websites and the opinions of those 'off the beaten path' from consensus economic thought. The system (the derivatives market in particular) and debt were unstable and unsustainable. It was only a matter of time before things came crashing down under the weight of debt, greed, corruption and lies. But the system did not collapse, largely thanks to the Federal Reserve recycling debt by buying up United States Treasury notes through Quantitative Easing.

The Federal Reserve, under the auspices of protecting the financial system, came to the rescue of the 'too big to fail' banks and other institutions deemed more worthy of saving than you and me. Well, that isn't exactly the case, since a few programs, such as extended unemployment, were enacted and extended to sustain the downtrodden and newly unemployed on one hand, and on the other, the big banks and powerbrokers on Wall Street were saved and enriched. Many other programs that were supposed to help those meeting mortgage payment difficulties by reducing and reorganizing the mortgages fizzled because they gave no real advantage to the banks, and yet, at the same time, banks unloaded many troubled loans onto the backs of the taxpayers by selling them at top prices to what are effectively government-sponsored enterprises like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were subsequently taken over outright by the United States government.

Overall, those at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder have lost out and the big banks have been left to continue paying the enormous salaries and reaping the fat profits associated with the 1%, despite balance sheets that are contrived and supported by edict of the United States government. The system failed, but not completely. It was 'saved', and don't you forget it. Main Street in the United States is slowly being gutted at the same time that the 'too big to fail' banks are been propped up and protected. I'll be honest though. The economic system is NOW a complete fraud and façade, thrown up to maintain the status quo. One recent example of this that came to light in the mainstream was the publication of the monthly US employment report.

The US Army has given firms three grants to upgrade flare systems used to mask the heat signature of prized fighting machines. The heat-obscuring chemical, used for the past 60 years, has been deemed dangerous to health and the environment.

Three private companies - Lynntech, Inc., Nanotrons and Physical Sciences - will be in charge of developing new countermeasures, to replace weapons that have been accused of releasing harmful copper into the air when a smoke bomb is detonated.The US government will give the firms around $100,000 to complete the task.

The "dust clouds", which aim to impede the ability of heat-obscuring weapons to detect heat signatures, can have adverse health effects on whoever inhales the smoke particles. Most obscurants used today are made from metal particles - often bronze - and have "significant environmental persistence that may pose health hazards," Wired reports.

Ingesting too much copper, which is found in bronze, can cause gastrointestinal health problems and in serious cases lead to liver and kidney damage. Inhaling copper particles can also cause respiratory irritation, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US prides itself on a free and fair election system. It's the main hallmark of democracy. But as RT's Anastasia Churkina reports, stealing an election in America is easier than 1,2,3.


The U.S. - a beacon of democracy, and an example to be followed by the rest of the world. One big source of pride is its' fundamental concept of free and fair elections.

"American elections are a disgrace. It's like looking into a kitchen of a world-class restaurant and losing your appetite at what you see, because we have an election system, a voting system that is completely non-transparent," said Mark Crispin Miller, Professor at NYU and author of "Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections."

This is an opinion shared by many political experts and educators.

"If you were to hand your vote to a man in a magician's suit who then went behind a curtain and came out having first shredded the ballots, to tell you who won - would you trust that process?" said the co-founder and director of the Election Defense Alliance Jonathan, Simon.

The process largely to blame is the out-dated electronic voting system.

Gaza - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched rockets at southern Israel on Monday in what they said was a response to an air strike that wounded two militants and eight bystanders on Sunday.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, said it was involved in the attack together with members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Hamas has not acknowledged launching rockets and mortars at Israel since June.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that some rockets had landed in areas close to the border with the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of casualties or damage, she said.

Rafah - One Palestinian was killed and five others wounded on Sunday in an Israeli air strike that targeted a motorbike in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources told AFP. "One citizen was killed and five others, including two children, were wounded by an Israeli aircraft that fired on a motorbike in the Brazil neighbourhood in Rafah," a medical source at Rafah hospital told AFP. Eyewitnesses said the man killed was a member of the Popular Resistance Committees militant group, but there was no immediate confirmation from the organisation. The Israeli military said it was checking on the reported air strike and had no immediate comment. One of the wounded, a man, was in serious condition, the medical source said.

Source: Agence France-Presse

Israel still investigating Saturday's incident in which an unmanned aircraft was shot down over the country's skies, with main suspect being Lebanon-based and Iran-funded Hezbollah.

Israeli warplanes swooped low over Lebanese villages Sunday in a menacing show of force apparently aimed at the Hezbollah guerrilla group after a mysterious raid by an unmanned aircraft that was shot out of Israeli skies over the weekend.

Israel was still investigating Saturday's incident, but Hezbollah quickly emerged as the leading suspect because it has an arsenal of sophisticated Iranian weapons and a history of trying to deploy similar aircraft.

The Israeli military said the drone approached Israel's southern Mediterranean coast and flew deep into Israeli airspace before warplanes shot it down about 20 minutes later. Israeli news reports said the drone was not carrying explosives and appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission.

Military officials would not say where the drone originated or who produced it, but they ruled out the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, a group not known to possess drones. That left Hezbollah as the most likely culprit and suggested the drone may have flown with the blessing of Iran. Tensions are high between Israel and Iran over Tehran's suspect nuclear program.

"It is an Iranian drone that was launched by Hezbollah," Israeli lawmaker Miri Regev, a former chief spokeswoman for the Israeli military, wrote on her Twitter feed. "Hezbollah and Iran continue to try to collect information in every possible way in order to harm Israel."

She did not offer any further evidence and was not immediately available for comment.

Hezbollah officials would not comment on speculation that the group had launched the drone.

Akcakalet, Turkey - Turkey's military on Sunday fired artillery on targets inside Syria for a fifth day consecutive day, immediately responding to a Syrian shell that landed on Turkish soil. The exchange kept tensions along the volatile border running high and stoked fears of a regional conflagration.

An Associated Press journalist witnessed the shell landing some 200 meters inside Turkey, near the border town of Akcakale. A short time later, eight artillery shells could be heard fired from Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Saturday warned that Ankara would respond forcefully to each errant Syrian shell that lands on Turkish soil. The latest Syria-Turkey crisis erupted earlier this week, after a Syrian shell killed five civilians in a Turkish border town.

Inside Syria on Sunday, forces loyal to President Bashar Assad clashed with rebels across the country, from the northern city of Aleppo to the southern border with Jordan. Activists said opposition fighters were strengthening their hold over the village off Khirbet al-Jouz, in the northern province of Idlib, which borders Turkey and where violent clashes broke out a day earlier.

The Turkish state-run Anadolu news agency said Sunday that the rebels had regained full control of Khirbet al-Jouz. It said the Syrian army was forced to "pull back" following an "offensive" by some 700 rebels.

Security staff at airports can already force us to go through metal detectors and use X-rays to see under our clothes.

But a new technology being developed on behalf of the U.S. government goes even further - soon officials will be able to scan every single molecule in our bodies.

And travellers might not even know that they are being watched, as the device can be operated from a distance of 50 metres.
It is reasonable to assume that the Department of Homeland Security is primarily intending to use the Picosecond Programmable Laser scanners in airports, where security is usually at its highest.

But the device is small and light enough to be easily portable, and could be installed in any building or even on the street.

The invention, while technologically exciting, raises the sinister spectre of government, businesses and individuals having the ability to monitor everyone constantly.

For decades, disaffected Americans have been trudging to the polls and voting for the lesser of two evils. That's how they register their preference for a presidential candidate.

Choices based on that dubious strategy seem to work for the short-term (at best). But in the long run, the law of diminishing returns sets in.

Term after presidential term, the lesser of two evils lowers the quality of life for everyone and keeps nudging the decline of the American Republic. The hole to dig out of becomes deeper, and successive presidents - each one the lesser of two evils - are less capable and willing to do the necessary digging.

That's the story of leadership in America.

But prompted by new and more desperate created crises, citizens resort to the "lesser" strategy every four years, believing they must.

Citizens and scientists have raised concerns that the science ministry manipulated its measurement of radiation levels in Fukushima Prefecture to show figures lower than they really were.

The Association for Citizens and Scientists Concerned About Internal Radiation Exposures said on Oct. 5 that its survey this year of airborne dose levels found an average 10-30 percent higher than the ministry's numbers, and in certain areas, the discrepancy was even greater.