United States

Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“You had to live - did live, from habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”—George Orwell, 1984

In past ages, those who dared to speak out against tyranny - viewed as an act of treason - were blinded, castrated, disfigured, mutilated, rendered mute by having their tongues cut out of their heads, and ultimately crucified.

Authored by Pepe Escobar, originally posted Op-Ed at SputnikNews.com,

US President Barack Obama landed in Saudi Arabia for a GCC petrodollar summit and to proverbially “reassure Gulf allies” amidst the oiliest of storms.

The Doha summit this past weekend that was supposed to enshrine a cut in oil production by OPEC, in tandem with Russia – it was practically a done deal – ended up literally in the dust.

Submitted by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

There is so much economic despair in our country today, but if you have a good job and if you live in a good neighborhood you might not ever encounter it. 

Almost two weeks ago, On April 14, we reported the striking news that DB has decided to "turn" against the precious metals manipulation cartel by first settling long-running silver and gold price fixing lawsuits which in addition to "valuable monetary consideration" would expose the other banks' rigging after DB also "agreed to provide cooperation to plaintiffs, including the production of instant messages, and other electronic communications, as part of the settlement."

Confirming The Conference Board's earlier disappointment, it appears the American public is chock-full of "cynics" and "fiction-peddlers" as Gallup reports Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy reached its lowest weekly level so far in 2016.

The latest figure represents a four-point drop from the previous week's average. The last time Gallup found a lower weekly score was in August 2015.