Robert, in deiner #190 hast du geschrieben:

"Du könntest meinen, dass diese Verhandlung nicht einmal die unterste Ebene erreicht, d.h. dass die Immigranten und Asylbewerber sogar nicht als Menschen betrachtet werden, sondern als etwas untermenschliches. Dann wäre "... not a Christian or even human solution" richtig. Wenigstens sehe ich es so."

Dass die verantwortlichen Ratten in der Regierung offensichtlich gar nichts zur Wiedervereingung von den Kindern mit ihren Eltern vorgesehen haben, unterstützt meinen Verdacht, dass das Ganze um korrupt errungene Verträge aufseiten allerlei Mitspieler der Privatgefängnis-Industrie geht. Denn je länger und je mehr Kinder verlagert und versorgt können werden, umso mehr häuft sich der Profit an. Ein Goldesel mit zahllosen Zufuhrindustrien ist das Ungeheuer, und es wächst noch weiter. Es klingt vielleicht zynisch von mir, aber es gilt ewig die Daumenregel: Follow the money. Der Geldspur nachforschen? In unserem abgelegenen Landeskreis in AZ, soll eben diese wuchernde Gefängnis-Industrie die erstrangige Einkommensquelle sein. D.h. lukrativer als Molkereien, Fleischrinderzucht, oder Ackerbau von Mais oder Baumwolle. Gefangene werden von "uns" aus vielen anderen Bundestaaten importiert und möglichst lange wie Vieh für ihren pro-Tag-Wert ausgebeutet... Alle Auszahlung vom Steuerbezahler her.

I was not aware that the federal government uses privately-run prisons for immigration detention, but apparently it does, because I can find snippets like the following with Google: Additionally, the two largest private prison companies operate more than 13,000 beds for purposes of immigrant detention.

Goldammer, one has to be careful with terminology. At least in California, "prison industry" is actually a branch of the Department of Corrections which operates workshops inside the state prisons. For example, all of the license plates for California's cars are produced in their facilities.

Here were are talking about privately-run, for-profit prisons as they exist in the UK and the US, for example. As eclectus points out, it is in the interest of the operators of such prisons to keep their facilities well filled by means of harsher sentences etc. The same applies to prison-guard unions, of course. There is some evidence of unsavory connections between the prison corporations and government officials going back a number of years, but I don't recall details.

The child-separation issue is a consequence of Trump's zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossings. A previous court ruling says that children cannot be detained for more than twenty days at most. Normally they should be processed in two to three days. If their parents are criminally charged and convicted, which carries a prison sentence of up to six months on the first offense (based on a law that has been on the books for ninety years), separation will therefore occur. Trumps ad-hoc "fix" is to detain families together, which can obviously only be done for twenty days, so he just kicked the can down the road with his recent executive order.

During the Obama administration, using prosecutorial discretion, only about 15%-20% of those illegally crossing the border were charged with a crime and presumably that group rarely included families with children. The rest were either kept in civil detention, or released with orders to present themselves to the authorities on various occasions as their cases were being adjudicated. A sizeable percentage of the last group then hid from the authorities rather than face possible deportation.

The current administration's latest plans are apparently to open new detention facilities on military bases. There is precedent for that from the Obama administration, which went that route when faced with a sudden massive influx of illegal border crossings by unaccompanied minors (this was in 2014, I think).

Previously, the cynical portion of my brain was considering two other motivations for Trump's zero-tolerance approach:

(1) The administration must have foreseen the child separation issue and the terrible media coverage that would result, but thought it would serve as effective deterrent against illegal border crossings. This might have been inspired by the Australian approach of imprisoning people who try to sneak into the country on far-away islands, then basically advertising that fact (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT12WH4a92w). The deterrent effect seems to be there in the Australian case, from what I understand.

(2) I further suspect (even more cynically) that the plight of the separated children was intended to be a bargaining chip in negotiations with Congress, to achieve full funding for Trump's border wall. Thus the misleading "only Congress can fix this" rhetoric and the many false claims that Democrats are somehow to blame for the current crisis.

I'm using a laptop, and obviously I'm ot alone with the problem. It seems to be one of the "teething problems" of the new version.

I'll be patient and, until they fix it, use the "Ende" key.

Norbert, I really loved your cartoon in the "Kurze Unterbrechung" thread, as an answer to all those complaints!

https://xkcd.com/1770/

I read an article this morning about the so called “industry 4.0”, a visionary project of our government to optimize all production processes by braiding everything and allow consumers to directly interact. Millions of blue collar and their associated middle management jobs will cease to exist, like it is to be seen in the US already (that’s why Trump is wrong assuming that foreign countries are responsible for the US unemployment rate). The unemployment rate in Germany is predicted to reach 25-30% within the next 30 years. Millions will not even be able to mentally understand the digital age. Who will feed these people and pay them minimum wages and who will prevent riots? As often, something has been started without a plan for the day after.

The article reminded me of a SF story I read in the early 60s called “Die armen Reichen” if UI remember it correctly. The author might be Simak od Asimov or any other of the the old school heros. However, in this future jobs are so rare that only privileged people have one. Most people live in huge flats and are busy consuming clothes and to use up the goods as soon as possible. Those who exceed the quota will gain the right to move to a smaller flat with less goods to be consumed. And you are really rich when you have a job and live in a small apartment.

Since we are the snails, I thought maybe one or the other is interested in an article on our brothers and sisters and the gardeners' relationship to them?

Love is in the air..... LOL!!

And the article is sehr sehr witzig, indeed.

Ich dachte, wir Schnecken wären noch eine Weile bei den markigen Worten von RenaRd und dann darauf von Gibson steckengeblieben. Ich habe früher einen klobigen Anlauf gemacht, im darauffolgenden Textfeld (#212) etwas Langatmiges anzuhängen, was ich dann gelöscht habe, denn ich stimme im Prinzip mit den schon dargelegten Vermutungen überein.

Nur wollte ich eine schwere Sache nämlich nicht mit dem Anschein stehenlassen, als hätten wir alle das Erwähnte bloß übersehen.

Viele Schnecken stecken im Moment bei ernsthaftem Verdauern. Ganz sicher.

walterwithh u Goldammer Danke für den Themawechsel samt Artikeln! Es freut mich insbesondere, einen Link zu Spektrum.de zu bekommen. Bisher habe ich es nie richtig angeschaut. Ich glaube, dass Spektrum mit meinem geliebten Scientific American eng verwandt ist, aber ob der Inhalt eins-zu-eins übereinstimmt, muss ich noch feststellen;-)

Ich auch bewohne ein fußballloses Universum!

(Ich musste mal das Deutsche auszuprobieren;-)

Hello world!

Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy tritt zurück.. wurde eben angesagt.

Oft hat eben dieser die entscheidende Stimme unter den konservativen und den liberalen Richtern abgegeben.

Jetzt darf Trump einen neuen Richter einsetzen.. eine weitere Scheußlichkeit steht uns bevor.

Ich (auch) bewohne auch ein fußballloses Universum!