MaxKeiser.com | As most of you know, I spend almost as much time studying social changes and geopolitics happening around the world as I do studying markets. While carefully observing those areas are always important to a macro investor such as myself, when you are smack in the middle of a Fourth Turning they take on an increased level of importance. What has shielded the U.S. from a lot of the social strife sweeping the rest of the globe at the moment has been the U.S. dollar’s reserve status since this allows us to print seemingly infinite amounts of paper dollars and shove them down the throats of the rest of the world for their resources. This keeps the populace fat, happy and most importantly asleep and apathetic.

Fox News | Campaigning for the 2012 presidential race has already begun, but what the candidates don't know is that come election day, hackers could be the ones whose votes have the biggest impact. Researchers from the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois have developed a hack that, for about $26 and an 8th-grade science education, can remotely manipulate the electronic voting machines used by millions of voters all across the U.S.

TheInternationalForecaster.com | The takedown of gold and silver markets over the past two weeks signified a new milestone in corruption, brazenness, arrogance and it reveals the level of evil control behind our government. This past week, in just one week, saw gold fall almost $200 and silver about $10.00. We have been involved in gold and silver for 53 years and the only event that comes close to this was October 19, 1987, when we witnessed the Bank of England sell down gold $100.00 under the orders of the Fed and the US Treasury, which borrowed the gold from the IMF.

RawStory.com | A new study suggests that a single dose of psilocybin -- the active ingredient in "Magic Mushrooms" -- can result in improved personality traits over the long term. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine found that individuals who received the drug once in a clinical setting reported a greater sense of "openness" that often lasted 14 months or longer, according to study published this week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Reason | Michael Tracey, who wrote about restrictive teen-driving laws in the June issue of Reason, catches up with the consumer crusader for The American Conservative: Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential race, one might assume that Nader has little to be cheerful about. Yet he says there is one candidate who sticks out—who even gives him hope: Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. [...] "Look at the latitude," Nader says, referring to the potential for cooperation between libertarians and the left. "Military budget, foreign wars, empire, Patriot Act, corporate welfare—for starters. When you add those all up, that's a foundational convergence. Progressives should do so good."

Reuters | Japan faces the prospect of removing and disposing of 29 million cubic metres of soil contaminated by the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years from an area nearly the size of Tokyo, the environment ministry said in the first official estimate of the scope and size of the cleanup. Six months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami triggered reactor meltdowns, explosions and radiation leaks at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on Japan's northeast coast, the size of the task of cleaning up is only now becoming clear.

AP | Firearms dealers in states that allow medical marijuana can't sell guns or ammunition to registered users of the drug, a policy that marijuana and gun-rights groups say denies Second Amendment rights to individuals who are following state law. Federal law already makes it illegal for someone to possess a gun if he or she is "an unlawful user of, or addicted to" marijuana or other controlled substances. A Sept. 21 letter from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, issued in response to numerous inquiries from gun dealers, clarifies that medical marijuana patients are included in that definition.

The Excavator | The big open secret about Ron Paul is that he is a powerhouse in the 2012 presidential race, not some little nobody who can be pushed around. He is not simply running on a political platform to get a fifth of the votes and go home, he is leading a revolution of ideas that is awakening a revolutionary nation from a long, media-induced sleep. This revolution will ultimately be successful because Dr. Paul's message is so timely and he has the support of the two most important groups who can make or break a revolution: the young people and the military.

Yahoo | In a new Harris Poll, 2012 Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul beats President Obama 51 percent to 49 percent in a general election race. “This is yet another poll that clearly proves how competitive Ron Paul is against the sitting President,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton. “Dr. Paul is making strides, affirming that the American people are looking for conviction instead of the typical status quo rhetoric being offered by establishment candidates.”

ZeroHedge.com | The latest quarterly report from the Office Of the Currency Comptroller is out and as usual it presents in a crisp, clear and very much glaring format the fact that the top 4 banks in the US now account for a massively disproportionate amount of the derivative risk in the financial system.

WSJ | Emerging-market countries continued to top up their gold reserves in August, with Russia, Thailand and Bolivia among those to add to their holdings. Central banks have bought gold as some seek to diversify foreign-exchange reserves that have grown along with emerging market export industries. The purchases have helped drive the price of gold higher, because they absorb supply and boost market sentiment.This year, central-bank officials also began buying in earnest in reaction to the government debt woes affecting the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Numismaster.com | From last Wednesday’s COMEX close into Asian market trading this Monday, the price of gold dropped more than 14 percent, its largest four-day price drop in the past 30 years. The price of silver tumbled more than 35 percent over the same period. I am aware that gold and silver prices might fall by a noticeable percentage at any point, as that is an event that occurs from time to time. However, I was not looking for it to happen now and not to the extent that it occurred.

WND | Would you know if you are eating genetically engineered foods? The Los Angeles Times recently reported that, with no labeling on such foods, few realize that they are doing just that. Genetically modified crops comprise 93 percent of all soy, 86 percent of all corn and 93 percent of all canola seeds planted in the U.S., and are used in an about 70 percent of all American processed food.

Economic Collapse Blog | For a moment, imagine that there is a privately-owned organization in the United States that can create U.S. dollars out of thin air whenever it wants and can loan that money to whoever it wants to.  Imagine that this organization is able to act with the full power of the U.S. government behind it, but that nobody in the organization is ever elected by the American people, and that for all practical purposes the organization is not accountable to the president or to Congress.  Imagine that the organization is able to make trillions of dollars of secret loans to banks, to foreign governments and even to their close friends without ever having to face a comprehensive audit.  Does that sound preposterous?  Well, such an organization actually exists.  It is called the Federal Reserve, and today we found out that once again the Fed is going to be taking huge piles of your money and loaning it to commercial banks in Europe.  The Congress cannot overrule this decision.  Neither can Barack Obama.  Because it has so much power, many refer to the Federal Reserve as "the fourth branch of government", but unlike the other three branches of government, there are basically no significant "checks and balances" on the Federal Reserve.  If you don't like the fact that the Federal Reserve is racing in to help big foreign banks survive the European debt crisis that is just too bad.  The Federal Reserve pretty much gets to do whatever it wants to do, and the folks over at the Fed simply do not care whether you like that or not.

Mercola.com |There's compelling evidence and agreement by many experts that excessive fructose is toxic to your body. Unlike fructose, nearly every cell in your body can directly use glucose. However fructose is primarily metabolized in your liver and can serve as a substrate for increasing cancer cell growth.