[QUOTE]"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"[/QUOTE]
Except if they are Moslems.

[QUOTE=kladner;422352][quote]Each submarine carries 24 Trident II missiles, with each missile carrying eight warheads with a yield six times greater than the “little boy” bomb that killed over a hundred thousand people in the US bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945.[/quote][/QUOTE]

Thread-tangential correction: Little Boy (originally proposed to be named "Thin Man", in homage to the popular series of films based on the 1930 Dashiel Hammett novel - much better name IMO) was the nickname for the gun-type U235 bomb detonated over Hiroshima; Nagasaki was devastated by the Plutonium-implosion device nicknamed Fat Man. The shapes of the 2 devices reflect their different mechanisms: [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy]Little Boy[/url] used something like a whopping 64kg of exceedingly expensive hi-enriched Uranium, of which only a few ounces actually fissioned - exceedingly inefficient, not much better than a dirty bomb in terms of fallout-versus-explosive-yield.

[URL]http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/01/amnesty-international-report-children-mine-cobalt-used-in-gadget-batteries/[/URL]

[QUOTE]Children as young as seven years old are working for up to \$2 daily mining in dangerous conditions to gather cobalt used in lithium batteries for 16 multinational corporations like Apple, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony, and others, according to Amnesty International.[/QUOTE]

[URL="https://www.rt.com/uk/329593-gates-foundation-influence-development/"]Wealth, influence of Gates Foundation distorting intl development[/URL] – Global Justice Now
[QUOTE]The report’s release coincides with Bill Gates’ promotion of his very own brand of philanthrocapitalism at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. The gathering brings together some 2,500 top business chiefs, global political leaders, intellectuals, and reporters to discuss the most serious issues facing the world.

Among the report’s key criticisms was the relationship between Microsoft’s tax-dodging practices and the money that the BMGF donates. According to a 2012 US senate report, the Gates-owned tech giant used offshore subsidiaries to avoid 4.5 billion (dollars) in taxes, while the foundation issued grants totaling 3.6 billion (dollars) in 2014.

The study also condemned the foundation’s close relationship with corporations whose policies entrench global poverty and accused the BMGF of profiting from investments in controversial firms than drive socioeconomic injustices. In addition to this, the report criticized the foundation’s promotion of private healthcare and education, citing multiple agencies that insist such programs drive inequality.

It also accused the foundation of undermining sustainable, small-scale farmers that are providing food security in Africa by promoting the adoption of GM, patented seed systems and chemical fertilizers across the continent.
[/QUOTE]

[URL="http://inthesetimes.com/article/18794/flint-water-crisis-neoliberalism-free-market-reforms-rick-snyder"]Flint’s Water Crisis Is No Accident[/URL]. It’s the Result of Years of Devastating Free-Market Reforms.
This is what neoliberal governance looks like:
[QUOTE]In an October 8, 2015 press conference, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder made a surprising about-face. After installing an unelected emergency manager in the city of Flint in 2011, the Republican governor was forced to reverse his appointee’s 2014 decision to switch the water supply to the Flint River. The decision was prompted by a Virginia Tech study that confirmed high levels of lead in many of the city’s homes.

Despite the switch back, lead continues to leach from aging pipes as a result of the damage caused by the corrosive river water.
That same day, however, the governor doubled down on his harsh approach to Flint’s fiscal struggles. Despite the state’s culpability, Snyder would pay for only half of the $12 million necessary to return the city to safe drinking water. The rest would be paid for by the cash-strapped city itself and its powerful benefactor, the C.S. Mott Foundation, a nonprofit set up by one of GM’s original shareholders. If Flint residents wanted clean water, they would have to pony up for it.

Snyder’s parsimony fit within a larger narrative the governor had crafted around Michigan’s flagging industrial cities: Local officials and their populations had lived beyond their means. State officials would now force them to tighten their belts in service to a more efficient, competitive state economy.

On the surface, Flint’s lead-contaminated water appears to be the product of a specifically local form of negligence and corruption. But in fact, the city’s poisoned water supply, as well as its devastated school system, crumbling infrastructure and high levels of violence have their origins elsewhere. Flint’s struggles are deeply tied to state efforts around the country to discipline cities through neoliberal economic reforms.[/QUOTE]

(The site name here is apparently a reference to the microscopic print companies use to slip such outrages past customers:)

[url=http://www.mouseprint.org/2016/01/25/spiriva-half-the-medicine-provided-is-wasted/]Spiriva – Half the Medicine Provided is Wasted[/url] | Mouseprint.org

This reminds me of the HP low-printer-ink scam of a few years ago (HP had fiddled their ink-level-warning software to falsely report 'low ink level' when cartridge was still something like 1/3rd full) ... but lot more $ at stake here.

Little Johnny on Politics
 

(the current title of the thread is something with capitalism, let's use it fast before it morphs to something else)

(copy/pasted from the web, with very little edit)

Little Johnny asks his Dad, "What is politics?”
Dad says, “Well son, let me try to explain it this way: I’m the breadwinner of the family, so let’s call me Capitalism. Your Mom, she’s the administrator of the money, so we’ll call her the Government. We’re here to take care of your needs, so we’ll call you the People. The nanny, we’ll consider her the Working Class. And your baby brother, we’ll call him the Future. Now, think about that and see if that makes sense.”

So Little Johnny goes off to bed thinking about what Dad has said.

Later that night, he hears his baby brother crying, so he gets up to check on him. He finds that the baby has severely soiled his diaper. So Johnny goes to his parents’ room and finds his mother sound asleep. Not wanting to wake her, he goes to the nanny’s room. Finding the door locked, he peeks in the keyhole and sees his father in bed with the nanny. He gives up and goes back to bed.

The next morning, Little Johnny says to his father, “Dad, I think I understand the concept of politics now.”

The father says, “Good, son, tell me in your own words what you think politics is all about”.

Johnny replies, “Well, while Capitalism is screwing the Working Class, the Government is sound asleep, the People are being ignored and the Future is in Deep Shit.”

ROFLMAO! :davar55::davar55::davar55::grin:

A paean to Capitalism:

Freedom is good, but it's not free.
It must be paid for by the struggle to obtain it
and then never to lose it,

Money is good, but it must be respected.
It is best when it is earned, by deed or trade.

Freedom of production and trade must be honored,
or a society will sink into the morass of equalized poverty.

Wealth, or the freedom to obtain it honestly, is
the cornerstone of human progress.
Its generation and accumulation is what sparks
the wheels of industry and commerce.

Industrialization demands fairness, and money is
the means by which this can be achieved.

The only road to freedom, prosperity, fairness, and industrialization
is the one that passes through the engine of Capitalism.

Any alternative demands of us the loss of great values.
Money is a store of the values that it represents, and
only by free, open exchange through this medium can
the values that support us be abundantly maintained.

Capitalism is the key to the future.

[QUOTE=davar55;425754]The only road to freedom, prosperity, fairness, and industrialization is the one that passes through the engine of Capitalism.[/QUOTE]

Yet another unsubstantiated claim by davar55.

[QUOTE=davar55;425754]Any alternative demands of us the loss of great values.[/QUOTE]

Please explain further.

[QUOTE=davar55;425754]Capitalism is the key to the future.[/QUOTE]

I'm sure the wealthiest 1% would agree with you....

[QUOTE=chalsall;425755]Yet another unsubstantiated claim by davar55.
Please explain further.
I'm sure the wealthiest 1% would agree with you....[/QUOTE]

What's unsubstantiated about it? What evidence challenges it?

What's wrong with being in the top 1%? Or the top 0.1%?
Or the top 10%? Or the top 90%?
What is envy? Should everyone have exactly the same?
That's impossible and unjust.

Socialists are wrong to harp on income or wealth inequality,
as if it's some evil fact that must be remedied. It's not.
Wealth is earned or not. If it's earned, no one has the right
to criticize or redistribute it.

Capitalism is moral, just, efficient, and appropriate to human values.
Any other economic system falls far short of capitalism on all counts.