(via Coronavirus: First possible person-to-person transmission of COVID-19 in California / Boing Boing)
This is important.
It’s not a “loophole” it’s explicit within the text of the amendment
“Loophole” lmfao like it’s a fucking accident, like it wasn’t purposefully structured to reclaim and expand a source of free labor
We never outlawed slavery in America. We simply transferred ownership of slaves from individual landowners to the government and large corporations.
Other fun facts about prison labor corporations:
-Federal and state-run prisons usually pay their slaves minimum wage; some states, however, like Colorado, pay $2/hour.
-Private prisons pay $.17-.50/hour. The highest paying private prison is in Tennessee, which pays $.50/hour for “highly-skilled labor.”
-You think that hasn’t affected wages in the US? You think that hasn’t removed manufacturing jobs from the economy?
-Companies that contract with private prisons for their slave labor include: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores. Many, many products that say “Made in USA” were made in prison.
-Private prisons often have quotas with the states, wherein the states contractually guarantee that they will provide a certain number of prisoners to fill the beds of a private prison, and if they don’t then they owe the private prison millions of dollars. I’m not making this up. It happened in Colorado after they legalized weed.
-States have a financial incentive to lock up their citizens.
-All of the above corporations have a financial incentive to see citizens get locked up.
-This is why Jeff Sessions is going after weed. The prison industrial complex needs slaves.
-To the shock of absolutely no one, private prisons have even more disparate racial demographics than federal/state prisons.
-Where do you think they send undocumented immigrants who have been rounded up? That’s right, private prisons. That’s why so many of them are in the South. So they take immigrants who are earning some kind of comparable wage and paying income tax to the government, and put them in prison where the wages are absurdly depressed and the prison pays virtually nothing in taxes.
-Oh yeah: private prisons pay virtually nothing in taxes. Because they technically manage real estate (prison as housing), they get all sorts of tax breaks and subsidies.
Tl;dr the prison industrial complex removes jobs from the economy, depresses wages, cheats the tax system, and ENSLAVES PEOPLE, usually people of color.
Sources:
http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2013/09/private-prisons-occupancy-quota-cca-crime
http://mfgtalkradio.com/s7-e15-manufacturing-jobs-lost-prison-slave-labor/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/19/private-prison-quotas_n_3953483.html?1379606057
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/03/13/289000532/why-for-profit-prisons-house-more-inmates-of-color
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/02/27/immi-f27.html
https://www.finance.senate.gov/ranking-members-news/wyden-introduces-bill-to-stop-private-prisons-from-exploiting-tax-incentives-for-profit
For reference, they’re referring to the clause that goes, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
no, listen, when I say I want to integrate more specific solarpunk stuff in my life, i don’t mean to ask for yet again new “aesthetic” clothes that now you have to buy or make to show your support of the movement (screw that i’m consuming enough as it is), or more posts about impossible house goals, or whatever, I’m asking you what my options to build a portable and eco friendly phone charger are, im asking you viable tiny-appartment edible plants growing tricks on a budget, im asking tips to slow down when my mind and society tell me im not fast enough, i don’t need more rich art nouveau amateurs aesthetics or pristine but cold venus project, okay, i know i should joins associations where I am tho i’m constantly on the move, thanks for that, just, you know, can we get a bit more practical ??? how do I hack my temporary flat into going off the grid for the time i’m here
Hello! ☀️ Here are a few practical suggestions for stuff you can do:
- Make a bottle tower garden (a small one could do well on a windowsill)
- Make eco-friendly household cleaners
- Germinate strawberry seeds and care for the plants
- Grow plants from cuttings (you can grow almost anything this way)
- Make a sun jar
- Grow low maintenance houseplants
- Make a string garden
- Make a wall planter
- Germinate an avocado seed
- Make a shoe pocket garden
- Build a mini solar generator
- Re-grow kitchen scraps
- Find the right solar battery charger
- Recycle old solar cells
Hope you find something useful in there! I post stuff up from time to time under my diy tag. Feel free to drop me a message if you have any requests!
- grow oyster mushrooms on waste coffee grounds (also works with shiitake)
- a list of some food plants that can grow indoors with reduced light
- windowsill herbs
- egg carton seed germination
- germinate chayote and keep it as a houseplant (the root, stem, leaves, fruit, and seed are all edible)
- choosing a portable solar panel
- tips for energy efficient apartment life (but jsyk LED is better than CFL, and a tank bank or expanding water bottle is better than a brick or bottle of gravel)
- DIY draft stoppers
- DIY solar oven and recipes
- evaporative refrigeration
- use conkers/horse chestnuts to replace soap and detergents
- use baking soda as dry shampoo
- cleaning with vinegar do’s & don’ts and common myths
- DIY dryer balls
- apartment-friendly bokashi composting and DIY bokashi bran
- DIY moss terrarium for your soul (ain’t many souls slower or more patient than moss)
- and a list of some easy care indoor plants for your nerves
- and for your bathroom and your air quality
- recycle t-shirts into yarn for your crafts
The successful investigation on Boyd’s behalf prompted other black farmers to come forward with their stories, and in 1995 Boyd founded the National Black Farmers Association after meeting with many black farmers and hearing similar USDA experiences.
“All these farmers were coming out of the woodwork saying, ‘You think what happened to you is bad? You should hear my story!’” he says. “I was just trying to save my farm. But then I saw this was a huge national issue.”
In 1997, Boyd and 400 other black farmers sued the USDA in the landmark lawsuit Pigford v Glickman, which alleged that from 1981 to 1997, USDA officials ignored complaints brought to them by black farmers and that they were denied loans and other support because of rampant discrimination. In 1999, the government settled the case for $1bn, and more than 16,000 black farmers received $50,000 each.
But Boyd didn’t know his work was just beginning.
