vicemag:

Who’s Getting Rich Off the Prison-Industrial Complex?

You likely already know how overcrowded and abusive the US prison system is, and you probably are also aware that the US has more people in prison than even China or Russia. In this age of privatization, of course, it’s also not surprising that many of the detention centers are not actually operated by the government, but by for-profit companies. So clearly, some people are making lots and lots of money off the booming business of keeping human beings in cages.   

But who are these people?

Using NASDAQ data, I looked through the long list of investors in Corrections Corporation of America andGEO Group, the two biggest corporations that operate detention centers in the US, to find out who was cashing in the most on prisons. When we say “prison-industrial complex,” this is who we’re talking about.

Henri Wedell
The individual who’s invested the most in private prisons is Henri Wedell, who started serving on CCA’s board of directors in 2000, when the company was struggling with scandals related to prisoner abuse and mismanagement. He now owns more than 650,000 shares in the company, which is far more successful these days. Those shares are worth more than $25 million.

I called Wedell to ask him what it was like to make a fortune from the incarceration of others, and whether it bothered him to profit off a system that puts more people in prison than any other country in the world.

“America is the freest country in the world,” he told me. “America allows more freedom than any other country in the world, much more than Russia and a whole lot more than Scandinavia, where they really aren’t free. So offering all this freedom to society, there’ll be a certain number of people, more in this country than elsewhere, who take advantage of that freedom, abuse it, and end up in prison. That happens because we are so free in this country.”

Presumably, when he’s referring to all the freedom Americans have, he’s not including the 80,000 inmates in 60 prisons operated by CCA.

Continue

emergentfutures:

Homeland Security seizes funds at main Bitcoin exchange

The US Government has taken its most serious action yet against the popular cyber-currency Bitcoin by shutting down transfers between payment provider Dwolla and a Japanese exchange where the currency is traded.

 

Full Story: GigaOm

The fuckin government wants a piece of pie that doesn’t belong to them

emergentfutures:

Well, This Is Just Awful: ‘Renting’ Disabled People to Skip Lines at Disney World

The lines at Disney World are awful, we can all agree, but the lengths to which some people will go to bypass them are worse. Wealthy Manhattan parents are reportedly using a service that typically assists disabled children around the theme park to drive their non-disabled families around in a “handicapped” scooter, allowing them to skip lines by up to two hours.

 

Full Story: The Atlantic

Wow, what the fuck? What in the actual fuck man?

righteouswisdom:

thepoliticalfreakshow:

Bangladesh Walkout: 80% of Bangladesh’s Garment Workers Walk Out Of Work Today To Protest Horrible Working Conditions, Effectively Shutting Down Garment Factories Indefinitely

Bangladesh’s entire renowned garment manufacturing hub has been shut down indefinitely, after 80% of its workers walked off the job. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association announced its decision to close the almost 500 factories in the Ashulia industrial zone “to ensure the security of our factories,” the AFP reports. But the move was something of a fait accompli; almost no work had taken place there since the April 24 collapse of the nearby Rana Plaza building.

At the same time, three of the world’s biggest clothing purveyors—H&M, C&A, and Zara owner Inditex—signed a deal today legally obligating them to fund safety improvements for their Bangladesh factories, the New York Times reports. PVH, which owns Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, and Izod, which already had a similar contract in place, will also sign on. Meanwhile, search for victims at the Rana building is set to wrap up today, Reuters reports, with the latest death toll clocking in at 1,127 people.

[AFP / New York Times / Reuters]

Lets take inspiration and change the world… If 200 million of us stop working as slaves to this broken non civilian trusting system…. Then we can have the give us all the trillion dollar ground breaking patents and intellectual knowledge and we can fix this global Guantanamo situation

disconnectedreality:

thefemaletyrant:

nok-ind:

Builders bulldoze one of largest Mayan pyramids in Belize

One of the oldest and most famous Mayan pyramids has been destroyed by a construction company in Belize, while digging for crushed rock for a road they were building.

They actually did.

Cunts.

awesome-everyday:

shorterexcerpts:

thecallus:

theatlantic:

The Cheapest Generation: Why Aren’t Millennials Buying Cars or Houses?

What if Millennials’ aversion to car-buying isn’t a temporary side effect of the recession, but part of a permanent generational shift in tastes and spending habits? It’s a question that applies not only to cars, but to several other traditional categories of big spending—most notably, housing. And its answer has large implications for the future shape of the economy—and for the speed of recovery.

Read more. [Image: Kagan McLeod]

It’s safe to say that a decent number of Tumblr users are a part of the Millennial generation. So, tell us: Do you own a car or house? If not, why?

IT’S BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO DISPOSABLE INCOME YOU THUNDERING IDIOTS. Fucking preference has nothing to do with it. 50% of college graduates have no job! They all have the most student loan debt ever! What are you asking this question for?!

Also: housing is a good bit more expensive now.

My parents got a 15-year mortgage on a new house in the mid-70s. The house was $32,000. Average home price in that area now? $190,000.

So, home prices went up. Food prices went up. Health care prices went WAY UP. Rent prices went up. Higher education went up so damn high that some of us forgo that all together. Energy prices went up. Car prices went up.

Prices of prices went up.

We also pay cell phone bills, internet bills, data plans, text plans, online subscriptions, cable/satellite tv, netflix, DVR subscriptions — bills that didn’t even exist 30-40 years ago. We also use computers and smartphones and microwaves and other consumer electronics that didn’t exist 20-50 years ago.

We need medications and doctors and contact lenses and tampons and maxi pads and other things that cost money just to be alive and keep us healthy.

Most of us can’t afford to:

1. Get married and have a “Traditional” big wedding
2. Buy a house
3. Buy a new car
4. PLAN to have children
5. Take two, consecutive weeks of vacation.

Jobs that paid 50k in the late 1990s now pay between 30-35. Interest rates that favor consumers have gone down.

So I say, no. We are not choosing not to buy homes. We’re not choosing to take the bus in cities where there’s no good public transit. WE ARE NOT CHOOSING TO LIVE WHAT SOCIETY DEEMS AS AN UNDESIRABLE LIFESTYLE.

Don’t even get me started on the fact that these two people in the picture are young white hipsters. Young black and brown folks have been forgoing homeownership and buying new cars for decades, this shit isn’t new, pal. You’re just acting like this shit is new because it’s hitting white folks.

anyway, my point is: We are fucking broke.

sah-dsimone:

New UN Research Says Air Pollution Kills More People Than AIDS and Malaria Combined

From Inhabitat:

The UN recently outlined its development goals for 2030 at a conference in Olso,…

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fuckyeahdrugpolicy:

Is Ecstasy Safer When It’s Purer? | Popular Science

…most ecstasy isn’t pure MDMA — it’s often cut with a some unknown filler, as are other drugs like heroin and cocaine. Both caffeine and ephedrine, another stimulant, serve as common fillers for ecstasy because they look and function somewhat similar to MDMA, but are cheaper to obtain. They share some of the speed-like effects of ecstasy, though they don’t give you the same increase in empathy and emotional openness.

There’s also a lot of hand-wringing about how kids these days think “molly” is purer, safer MDMA. But whether or not an adulterant makes your MDMA experience more or less dangerous depends, of course, on what it is. If your pill or powder is laced with something like baking soda, the toxicity of the MDMA would actually be diluted.

“If the adulterant is caffeine or ephedrine, you can get a combination of toxic effects that can be as bad or greater than MDMA alone,” Mills says. “They may enhance each other’s toxicity, but definitive studies haven’t been done.”

In both Canada and the U.K. recently, people have died after what they thought were ecstasy pills turned out to contain a toxic chemical called PMMA, or “Dr Death.”

Ecstasy’s toxicity is a scientific mystery because it lacks a clear “dose and response effect,” according to Mills—one person might get sent to the hospital after one pill, while someone else can take 50, no problem. How many people actually die a year from ecstasy-related causes is hard to pin down, but according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, there were 22,816 MDMA-related emergency room visits in 2009.

For Mithoefer’s study, under controlled clinical conditions with research-grade, pure MDMA, the drug didn’t show any long-term side effects. Trials of MDMA-assisted PTSD therapy have also been completed in Switzerland and gotten underway in Vancouver.

As for recreational drugs, it’s pretty much impossible to tell whether what you’re buying is 100 percent pure. You can buy test kits to check for some common adulterants. If your drug dealer happens to press his pills with baking soda, a less pure dose could actually be a bit safer, though the effects you’re paying for will also be lessened. Other than that, you’re probably better off with a purer dose of MDMA, rather than something that might be laced with a substance with Death in its nickname.

full article

Haven’t thizzed since 2010. I miss it sometimes but the quality are not trust worthy so I quit all together.

Awww this brings me the memory during my wasted youth/experimental phase lolol