Puppet Masters
Following the loss of the US's triple-A credit score which sparked sell-offs on global markets, a new war using financial derivatives has been waged, which by no means can bear the name of WWIII, financial analyst Max Keiser told RT.
Investors however remain unconvinced the country's finances are solid enough. Problems in the Eurozone will be up for discussion by the French and German leaders next week.
Max Keiser, financial analyst and host of the Keiser Report on RT, said French banks are now loaded with toxic derivatives that were sold to them by US investment banks.
"The US investment banks and the rating agencies are now attacking these French banks. They know where the bodies are buried, and they are using the weapons they sold them to attack them," he said. "The rating will be downgraded again. This is part of a new era on Wall Street - they go after sovereign debt. Wall Street and rating agencies are working together to destabilize the sovereign debt of these countries," he added.

More than Fifteen million US dollars
given by US taxpayers to Israel
each day for their military use.
Nearly 20 percent of the constituents of Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) live under the poverty line, and nearly 15 percent are unemployed. Jackson's congressional district, covering parts of the south side of Chicago and its southern suburbs, has been hit harder than many others by the crises plaguing the economy. Many of his constituents are looking at even more cutbacks in social services, higher prices for food and fuel, and ever scarcer jobs.
During this August congressional recess, Rep. Jackson, Jr. should be at home, meeting with constituents and proposing to them how he will help them cope with their difficult circumstances. Instead, the politician is proudly gallivanting around Israel, in one of three separate congressional delegations heading there this month on all-expense-paid junkets organized by the American Israel Education Foundation (AIEF), a so-called charitable affiliate of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most influential of the myriad pro-Israel lobbying outfits.
In total, 81 representatives, nearly one-fifth of the entire House, will participate in these jaunts, which, according to The Washington Post, include "a round-trip flight in business class for lawmakers and their spouses (that alone is worth about $8,000), fine hotels and meals, side trips, and transportation and guides."

Michael Puddy, shown outside Old City Hall provincial court in May. He was arrested during the G20 demonstrations in downtown Toronto with a knife in a pouch. Justice Melvyn Green found him not guilty of possession of a prohibited weapon on Thursday.
"The only organized or collective physical aggression at that location that evening was perpetrated by police each time they advanced on demonstrators," Justice Melvyn Green ruled on Thursday. He was referring to a demonstration at Queen St. and Spadina Ave. on Saturday, June 26, 2010.
Green stated police criminalized political demonstration, which is "vital" to maintain a "viable democracy."
Green's stern words echo widespread criticism of police during the G20, in which more than 1,100 people were detained in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. A Toronto Star/Angus Reid Public Opinion poll conducted on the one-year anniversary of the G20 found a majority of Torontonians (54 per cent) now believe police response to demonstrations during the summit were unjustified.
"The zealous exercise of police arrest powers in the context of political demonstrations risks distorting the necessary if delicate balance between law enforcement concerns for public safety and order, on the one hand, and individual rights and freedoms, on the other," Green wrote in a 29-page judgment.
Former New York police chief Bill Bratton, famed for his 'zero tolerance' tactics, said yesterday that UK forces should be more assertive with offenders, advocating a doctrine of 'escalating force'.
Last week David Cameron was reported to have approached Mr Bratton to discuss taking charge of the Metropolitan Police, and he has already enlisted him to help tackle the threat of gangs.
However his comments came as fresh doubts emerged over his chances of landing top job at the Met, which could be hindered by the Prime Minister's own police reforms and clampdown on immigration.

Yemeni soldiers seek al Qaida militants last year. The Yemeni branch is said to be seeking castor beans for making ricin.
For more than a year, according to classified intelligence reports, Al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen has been making efforts to acquire large quantities of castor beans, which are required to produce ricin, a white, powdery toxin that is so deadly that just a speck can kill if it is inhaled or reaches the bloodstream.
Intelligence officials say they have collected evidence that Qaeda operatives are trying to move castor beans and processing agents to a hideaway in Shabwa Province, in one of Yemen's rugged tribal areas controlled by insurgents. The officials say the evidence points to efforts to secretly concoct batches of the poison, pack them around small explosives, and then try to explode them in contained spaces, like a shopping mall, an airport or a subway station.
President Obama and his top national security aides were first briefed on the threat last year and have received periodic updates since then, top aides said. Senior American officials say there is no indication that a ricin attack is imminent, and some experts say the Qaeda affiliate is still struggling with how to deploy ricin as an effective weapon.
Russia's Foreign Ministry this week began preparing a list of officials connected to the U.S. apprehension of suspected arms dealer Viktor A. Bout and convicted drug dealer Konstantin Yaroshenko, according to reports in the Russian press.
The State Department last month announced that it has a list of Russian officials connected to the 2009 slaying of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky who would be denied visas to visit the United States if requested.

President Barack Obama signs a copy of his book at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
His toughly worded message - he said there was frustration in his voice, in case anyone missed the point - came amid a series of polls showing that people are disgusted with political dysfunction and are dispensing blame all around, including on Obama.
Obama aired his frustration with the ways of Washington at an event in Michigan before pivoting to his re-election campaign and a pair of big-money fundraisers in New York City.

Beware the Praetorian Guard: The coat of arms of Downing Street's own "Executive Assassination Ring"?
Jean Charles de Menezes was tailed by a surveillance team on July 22 as he caught a bus to Stockwell Underground station in south London. He was shot eight times when he fled from his pursuers at the Tube station.
The Ministry of Defence admitted last week that the army provided "technical assistance" to the surveillance operation but insisted the soldiers concerned were "not directly involved" in the shooting.
Press photographs of members of the armed response team taken in the immediate aftermath of the killing show at least one man carrying a special forces weapon that is not issued to SO19, the Metropolitan police firearms unit.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks at an iftar dinner celebrating Ramadan at the White House in Washington August 10, 2011.
The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also reversed a lower court decision that threw out the entire healthcare law.
Comment: The reader will of course note the irony of Obama stopping off to declare 'there is something wrong with our politics", while on route to his big-money fundraisers.