With US crude production starting to drop, the lagged plunge in oil rig counts appears to be having some effect. Baker Hughes reports that the number of US oil rigs dropped 10 to 362 (14th weekly drop of last 15), the lowest since Nov 2009. The total rig count tumbled 14 to 450, fresh record 41-year lows. Crude was leaking lower into the data and rose modestly after.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll poll shows that 63% of Americans - 82% of Republicans and 53% of Democrats - believe torture of suspected terrorists is "often" or "sometimes" justified to gather information.
While it would be nice to beat the crap out of some bad guys to get them spill the beans - and prevent more terrorism - the truth is that torture DECREASES the amount of information we'll get and actually INCREASES terrorism.
We've Known for Over 2,000 Years that Torture Produces FALSE Confessions
We've known since ancient Rome that torture doesn’t work:
The New York Times editors express hope that a proposed cease-fire in Yemen might hold:
Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to meet soon with foreign ministers of gulf Arab nations. If he can make sure they go forward with the cease-fire, there may be a chance of ending a conflict that has slaughtered civilians, tarnished America’s standing and diverted resources from fighting the Islamic State and Al Qaeda.
In March the US economy added a healthy 215K jobs, beating expectations and more importantly, pushing the average hourly earnings up by 0.3% on the month. Which, however, is curious because a cursory look at the job additions in the month reveals that nearly two-third of all jobs, and the three top categories of all job additions, were once again all minimum wages jobs.
For Israel’s Sake The Israel Lobby Must Be Held To Account
Paul Craig Roberts
It was ten years ago that the London Review of Books published an article on the Israel Lobby by John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, distinguished scholars at two of America’s top universities. The following year the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux found the courage to publish The Israel Lobby, a book with 357 overwhelmingly 5 star amazon.com reviews.