America

Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

We've been persuaded that the state-cartel Plantation Economy is "capitalist," but it isn't. It's a rentier skimming machine.

I have often discussed the manner in which the U.S. economy is a Plantation Economy, meaning it has a built-in financial hierarchy with corporations at the top dominating a vast populace of debt-serfs/ wage slaves with little functional freedom to escape the system's neofeudal bonds.

Authored by Justin Murray via The Mises Institute,

Time and time again, these pages have listed numerous benefits of automation and robotics. The discussions point out that mechanization doesn’t make us poor, that attempting to tax machines is counter-productive. Automation even makes our jobs safer as we can offload dangerous tasks to a metal creation.

With WTI prices back below $50, it appears stocks and NOPEC production are trumping any OPEC hype/hope and today's Baker Hughes' rig count merely adds to those concerns. For the 13th week in a row, the number of US oil rigs rose (up 5 to 688, the highest since April 2015).

• *U.S. GAS RIG COUNT UP 5 TO 167 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US
• *U.S. OIL RIG COUNT UP 5 TO 688 , BAKER HUGHES SAYS :BHI US

Though the rig count iuncreased, it is the smallest rise in 3 months...

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

“You all start with the premise that democracy is some good. I don’t think it’s worth a damn. Churchill is right. The only thing to be said for democracy is that there is nothing else that’s any better. …

 

“People say, ‘If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better.’ I say Congress is too damn representative. It’s just as stupid as the people are, just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish.”

Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

On April 15th, Zero Hedge bannered «Doomsday Bunker Sales Soar After Trump's Military Strikes», but this growth in the market for nuclear-proof bunkers is hardly new; it started during the Obama Administration, in Obama’s second term, specifically after the Russia-friendly government of Ukraine, next-door to Russia, got taken over in 2014 by a rabidly anti-Russian government that’s backed by the U.S. government.