Sep 6 2024

Prisons Collaborate with the Private Sector – Free Labor

Posted originally on Sep 6, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

Slavery is alive and well in the United States. Two-thirds of US prisoners, 800,000 men and women, have jobs in federal and state prisons. While 80% of prisoners work to maintain the prison in terms of maintenance, a growing portion of prisoners hold jobs for private companies. Estimates that that these prisoners are producing at least $11 billion annually for the US government and receiving little to nothing in return.

Non-industry workers can earn between 13 cents to 52 cents per hour. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas are not required to pay these workers. “There’s no way we can take care of our facilities, our roads, our ditches, if we didn’t have inmate labor,” Warren Yeager, a former Gulf county, Florida, commissioner said to the Florida Times-Union. In other words, states have become reliant on free labor from prisoners and actively put this into their budgets.

What some do not understand is that private companies are also employing prisoners. McDonald’s, Burger King, Golden Corral, Walmart, Wendy’s, IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Texas Instruments, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, and Target are among hundreds of private companies that have active agreements with state governments to farm out their prisoners. The private companies pay the prisons directly, bypassing the people who are forced to work long hours with no protections.

These workers have a far lower rate at being released on parole. The state believes they are safe enough to work among the public, but refuse to offer them an opportunity to leave. Only non-violent offenders are offered these jobs and most are swindled into accepting the positions to obtain favorable housing.

Alabama, for example, allows non-violent prisoners to work in the private sector for pennies. Yet, the state takes away 40% of their pay before taxes, charges them fees for transportation, laundry, and any extras they find. Alabama now earns more than $450 million annually on the backs of these workers. It comes at no surprise that the parole rate in Alabama plummeted to 8% in 2023.

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) found that over 75% of workers are unable to take off work, and if they do, they risk being sentenced to solitary confinement and prevented from visitations with their families. About 70% of these workers said they cannot even afford to call home or purchase soap. They are denied all rights and treated as sub-humans. “The United States has a long, problematic history of using incarcerated workers as a source of cheap labor and to subsidize the costs of our bloated prison system,” said Turner, a principal human rights researcher with the ACLU’s Human Rights Program.

“The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” notes a study study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the US prison complex of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.”

Private prisons, in general, operate as businesses as they are guaranteed a fee per inmate, which US taxpayers pay. The majority of people are African American and Hispanic, but we hear silence from communities demanding reparations and failing to acknowledge that modern-day slavery is alive and well in the US. The private sector is creating jobs for the prison industry on behalf of the US government and this is one of the reasons that we see a decline in available jobs. The business is extremely lucrative because they profit on holding the inmates as well as forcing them to work.

So, these human beings were deemed stable enough to work unsupervised with the public. Yet, those same decision-makers turn around at sentencing and tell these workers that they are simply too dangerous to return home. This is why the United States, home of the free, hosts the largest prison population in the world. It always comes down to greed and money.

Categories

Sep 5 2024

CCP Influence Ops In US A SIGNIFICANT PROBLEM: FBI Would Rather Go After J6ers

Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on: Sep 4, 2024 at 07:00 pm EST

Sep 5 2024

Benz: The Push To Amend The Constitution Is The “Re-Upping” Of The Transition Integrity Project

Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on: Sep 4, 2024 at 07:00 pm EST

Sep 5 2024

Will Rate Cuts Help Canada?

Posted originally on Sep 5, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

The Bank of Canada voted to cut rates by 25 bps to 4.25%, marking the third consecutive rate cut. Inflation has allegedly slowed to 2.5% as of July, and Governor Tiff Macklem said that was reason enough to drop rates to attract investment.

“If inflation continues to ease broadly in line with our July forecast, it is reasonable to expect further cuts in our policy rate,” Governor Tiff Macklem said in a prepared opening statement. Canada’s GDP grew at a faster rate than anticipated during Q2 after growing 2.1% vs the 1.8% forecast. Unemployment remains high at around 6.4%.

The bank acknowledges that these cuts will not impact the housing market. “With the share of CPI components growing above 3% now around its historical norm, there is little evidence of broad-based price pressures. But shelter price inflation is still too high. It remains the biggest contributor to overall inflation, despite some early signs of easing.”

Will these rate cuts cause any major changes in Canada’s economy? Absolutely not. In 2016 under the Liberal government, the total private debt of the Canadian public exceeded the total national GDP for the first time in history after reaching 100.7%. Canada’s national debt spiked to $1.501 billion USD in March of 2024, a $1.423.3 billion USD increase from March 2023. Gross debt was 117.2% of GDP in 2021, above pre-pandemic levels at 105.6^ in 2019. Half of Canada’s debt comes from the federal government while the other half is from provinces and local governments who have been given the green light to continue spending.

Canada is deeply indebted and now ranks the third-highest nation in terms of household debt in the world. I reported in July how household debt exceeded 100% of GDP with no signs of slowing under the Trudeau Administration that recklessly spends with no end in sight. Switzerland and Australia are the only nations exceeding Canada’s debt levels. Government debt has SOARED in recent years, now exceeding C$1,139.98. This figure was only C$721.36 billion in 2020 before Trudeau used the pandemic as an excuse to bulk up social programs.

The population of Canada has exploded to the highest level in history thanks to open border policies. Canada, like all the other Build Back Better nations, has the funds to support every foreign interest and war while placing their citizens last. Rate cuts can do absolutely nothing when the government is borrowing against future generations.

Sep 5 2024

Trudeau: Let Them Eat Donuts

Posted originally onSep 5, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

I commend the restraint displayed by this Canadian citizen. Failed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attempted to campaign to workers in Ontario who were utterly underwhelmed by his presence. Trudeau praised the 25% tariffs he placed on Chinese steel. “So that’s going to help me keep my job?” the citizen remarked.

No, tariffs NEVER work and the tariff on steel has only led China to retaliate. Trudeau’s Administration believes China’s “intentional, state-directed policy of overcapacity” is undermining Canada’s ability to compete and they plan to slap a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum from China, as well as a 100% tariff on EVs. China is the third-largest supplier of steel to Canada and Trudeau believes these tariffs “level the playing field for Canadian workers.”

China claims that this “will damage trade and economic cooperation” and “violated the WTO rules.” Over a million Canadians are actively seeking jobs and unemployment remains high. The central bank may have cut rates citing lowering inflation, but Canadian families certainly are not seeing their costs lowered. Canadians are struggling to find housing or to maintain the costs of their current homes. Demand far outweighs supply and the newcomers from foreign nations have tipped the scales.

Trudeau brushes off the comment from the citizen who is outraged that he pays 40% in taxes and lives the same life as his unemployed neighbor. This is how the world works under socialistic policies where equality voids hard work from the equation and does not amount to a better life. Canadians are watching their tax dollars being redistributed to those on social welfare programs. Billions are sent to Ukraine despite Canada having ZERO involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war. Healthcare and basic necessities have become luxuries under Justin Trudeau.

The people who created the problem cannot solve it. Canadians have watched their economy decline under Trudeau, not to mention a complete alteration of their society due to a rapid change in demographics. “I think you are only here for another year, we won’t see you around in another year,” said the steel plant employee told Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau continues to show no empathy toward the average Canadian. “He’s got the donuts! Excellent!” Trudeau said to end the conversation. Sorry that you cannot afford housing or to see a doctor despite giving the government nearly half of your paycheck. Let them eat donuts.

Sep 4 2024

Culture War

Posted originally on Rumble By Bannons War Room on: Sep 3, 2024 at 07:03 pm EST

Sep 4 2024

Hungary Fined for Limiting Asylum Seekers – Is it Time to Break Up with the EU?

Posted originally on Sep 4, 2024 By Martin Armstrong

The European Union has fined Hungary for failing to accept its delegated quota of migrants. Hungary has refused to pay the fine €200 million fine issued by the European Court of Justice (ECJ). Will this be the issue that finally breaks ties between Hungary and the European Union?

Hungary is constantly at odds with the elite in Brussels who wish to impose a one-Europe government over all member states. The EU has taken over trade, currency, and domestic law for each member. In June, the ECJ found the nation guilty of “unprecedented and exceptionally serious breach of EU law” for limiting the number of asylum seekers. “That conduct constitutes a serious threat to the unity of EU law, which has an extraordinarily serious impact both on private interests, particularly the interests of asylum seekers, and on the public interest,” the judges said.

“It seems that illegal migrants are more important to the Brussels bureaucrats than their own European citizens,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated. None of Orban’s policies align with Brussels and the EU has been actively ostracizing Hungary for its independent positions.

The fee has already been claimed as the European Commission plans to deduct the 200 million euros from Hungary’s portion of the European Union budget. Worsening relations, the ECJ is considering placing a 1 million euro DAILY fine on the member nation for ignoring the ruling, in addition to the 200 million it has already claimed.

The European Union is actively destroying Hungary’s economy. The EU has repeatedly sided with Ukraine over the ongoing oil dispute. Orban has been the target of unwarranted hate since he met with both Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin to hold peace talks. EU diplomats and foreign affair officials boycotted Hungary’s rotation to hold summits and discuss its ideas for the bloc. They claim each state is a member but they are willing to completely ignore and silence member states who do not blindly comply with Brussels.

Orban does not want to fund Ukraine or involve itself in the war against Russia – strike one. “My job is to convince them to shift from the pro-war policy to a pro peace policy,” Orban said. “They believe that they can destroy the military [of the] Russians … but I don’t believe this at all, because I know the Russians, I know the Soviet Union, I know the Ukrainians. I’m belonging to a neighboring country. I know the whole context. It’s impossible to find a solution on the battlefield, we will lose every day thousands of innocent people,” Orban told CNBC, also adding that “human life is the most precious thing we can lose,” citing the thousands who have already died in this endless war.

In addition to this, there are trade tensions between Ukraine and Hungary. Hungary and Slovakia are exempt from the EU ban on Russian crude oil. These landlocked neighbors are to receive oil through the Druzhba pipeline, but Ukraine has prevented these nations from receiving shipments. Lukoil may be the main supplier using this line, but Russneft, Tatneft, and Gazprom also utilize this line, leading Ukraine to intervene. Hungary is blocking aid to Ukraine as a result, but Brussels has repeatedly told Hungary it is in the wrong.

There is no European Union. There is a European authority within the pretend union that controls all members. The United Kingdom was wise to leave the EU when they had the opportunity, as this power-hungry bloc WILL become more tyrannical as the European economy turns down, war turns up, and member states begin to question the entire alliance. One must ask who actually benefits from the European Union’s regulations and absence of protections.