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FWD.US is a conspiracy created by Mark Zuckerberg to help drive down IT wages in America.

I have no problem with talented immigrants, but American corporations are LYING about the need for those H1B immigrants due to so-called "shortages" of STEM workers in America, and in the offing they are displacing QUALIFIED American workers with those immigrants (in clear violation of the law). Here are some FACTS to counter Zuckerberg's SPIN around his company's (and others, like MSFT, Cisco, Facebook, Google, etc.) cynical attempt to drive down wages. Just look at the recent policy decision to permit H1B spouses to seek work permits in May, 2015 something; that's 150,000 new workers (most of them professionals - and many with IT skills) into an already challenged IT economy. FWD.US is part of a legal conspiracy to drive down tech wages, under cover of the lie that America does not have sufficient STEM talent. Zuckerberg is shilling for his pals, and working against the American IT worker.

FACTS: One of the most respected technology pundits in Silicon Valley has this to say about the H1-B worker problem http://www.cringely.com/2012/1...

Here's an attorney and his consultants teaching corporations how to manipulate foreign-worker immigration law to replace qualified American workers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

H1-B abuse if accompanied by other worker-visa abuse L-1 Visa (H1-B's are only the tip of the iceberg). There are more than 20 categories of foreign worker visas. http://economyincrisis.org/con...

Professor Norman Matloff's extremely well documented studies on this problem. http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/...

Federal offshoring of healthcare.gov website http://www.economicpopulist.or...

How H1-B visa abuse is hurting American tech workers http://www.motherjones.com/pol...

There is no stem worker crisis in America http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-wo...

Marc Zuckerberg and wealthy tech scions continue to perpetuate this trend http://programmersguild.org/do...

Yahoo http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs...

Unemployment is a problem in America, and so are our sticky problems with immigration. Undercover of helping those immigrants who have so long labored in our agricultural sector, the American IT sector has seen fit to use the sentiment to help agricultural workers to create a Landslide of advantage for itself. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

H1Bs in Sacramento http://www.news10.net/story/ne...

Concur 100%!!

I think your line says it all:

We've gone from the walled garden of services like AOL and Compuserve to the walled garden of Facebook and Twitter.

The hypocrisy over the female nipple is a perfect example! The Huffington Post did a good writeup:

#FreeTheNipple: Facebook Changes Breastfeeding Mothers Photo Policy
* http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

US military spending remains outrageous at about as much as the rest of the planet put together. And this ~800 billion budget is so opaque that GAO can't even begin to audit DoD.

So the 5.6 earthquake in Prague was minor to who?

The USGS and Oklahoma Geological Survey say that the quake was natural, but one study argues that 18 years of cumulative injection triggered a lesser fault, which started a cascade that led up to the major fault. Aka, the "you hit a rock, it hits a bigger one, etc" scenario I outlined in my initial post.

I think most people are perfectly capable of managing their finances and making informed choices

35% of americans are behind on bills

Kind of puts an end to that theory.

There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country.

Resurgence? It's been going on longer than we've been alive. "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."" - Isaac Asimov, 1980

Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life.

Where to begin? Unfortunately stupid people do not hold a monopoly on stupid decisions. Ever tried ordering lunch for an entire company? Scale that up to 300 million people and you may begin to appreciate the scope of the issue. Politicians don't magically slither into office, they're voted in. Ultimately it sounds like you don't want a politician but a leader, one who cannot make poor decisions meaning no compromising is allowed, since that results in stupidity, nor any dissent since only stupid people would go against the smart leader. Sounds like a good fit for a totalitarian. Who do you recommend take the helm?

You have state representatives who don't have a basic understanding of the female anatomy trying to regulate women's medical treatments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... [huffingtonpost.com]

There are minions of the state involved in falsifying test scores for financial gain, spanning over a decade, see the huge scandal in Georgia which affects tens of thousands of students.

I couldn't help but notice the source and targets for both of those links, HuffPo isn't exactly center, as tempting as it may be this is be to frame this as such it is by no means a partisan issue. There is a sustained and concerted effort by powerful monied interests spanning decades working on both sides of the aisle to undo this country and they successfully have us fighting one another. Only by working together will we get things done.

I believe you think my comment was an endorsement of facebook, when it was actually an assessment on the stupidity of scientology. As for the election of people unworthy to be in office, that's a given. You have state representatives who don't have a basic understanding of the female anatomy trying to regulate women's medical treatments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... You have had others running for office that think women can magically turn off their bodies ability to become pregnant: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country. Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life. In all honesty, the Kardashian's you speak of would be less stupid than some of those who are in now (and no, that's not an endorsement of the Kardashians).

Agreed and thanks for the clarification on the scientology part. That kind of had me chuckling over my confusion, since I agree with you on every translation.

I believe you think my comment was an endorsement of facebook, when it was actually an assessment on the stupidity of scientology. As for the election of people unworthy to be in office, that's a given. You have state representatives who don't have a basic understanding of the female anatomy trying to regulate women's medical treatments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... You have had others running for office that think women can magically turn off their bodies ability to become pregnant: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country. Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life. In all honesty, the Kardashian's you speak of would be less stupid than some of those who are in now (and no, that's not an endorsement of the Kardashians).

Agreed and thanks for the clarification on the scientology part. That kind of had me chuckling over my confusion, since I agree with you on every translation.

I believe you think my comment was an endorsement of facebook, when it was actually an assessment on the stupidity of scientology. As for the election of people unworthy to be in office, that's a given.

You have state representatives who don't have a basic understanding of the female anatomy trying to regulate women's medical treatments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

You have had others running for office that think women can magically turn off their bodies ability to become pregnant: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country. Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life. In all honesty, the Kardashian's you speak of would be less stupid than some of those who are in now (and no, that's not an endorsement of the Kardashians).

I believe you think my comment was an endorsement of facebook, when it was actually an assessment on the stupidity of scientology. As for the election of people unworthy to be in office, that's a given.

You have state representatives who don't have a basic understanding of the female anatomy trying to regulate women's medical treatments: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

You have had others running for office that think women can magically turn off their bodies ability to become pregnant: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

There is a resurgence of the anti-intellectualism culture in this country, and it's being elected into positions where it can do unimaginable damage to our country. Stupid people make stupid decisions, and when those stupid people are in public office, they make stupid decisions that fuck up everyone's life. In all honesty, the Kardashian's you speak of would be less stupid than some of those who are in now (and no, that's not an endorsement of the Kardashians).

5. Apologize for what happened with their former CEO.

Why? He quit mostly because of the mob justice stoked by OKCupid.

How Poverty Taxes the Brain;
Scientists have discovered that being poor actually impairs our cognitive abilities;
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It's so terrible that people don't want to work for a company with a proven track record of exploiting the very citizens it says it serves. All of us iPhone zombies are truly empathatic to your cause.

An obsession with "humanities" is just as dangerous as the one with engineering.

But the one obsession to rule them all is that with idea, that the government needs to step in and ensure everybody is doing, what the government (currently) considers best. It not only robs the citizens of freedom to decide for ourselves and our children, it also leads to danger and lost lives.

Consider the earlier change of government's doctrine to the exact opposite direction: for decades fat used to be bad for you, but not any more — now it the sugar, that's evil — how do they tell the last dying diabetic, it was all a mistake?

We are now collectively executing a similar pivot from "humanities" to engineering, for better or worse. But the underlying assumption remains: were it not for the omniscient and benevolent government officials, the adorable (mostly) individual slobs they've got for citizenry wouldn't learn or do anything to improve their own lot themselves.

Can we get rid of this obsession, please? Then we wouldn't need to worry about the others so much...

What a crock. The federal law, and the states that passed similar laws, ban discrimination against LGBT. Indiana doesn't, which makes the law quite different in its' effects. You know it's bad when even Fox News is pointing out your lies about your anti-LGBT law.

Mike Pence was asked many times by ABC if it would allow discrimination based on sexual orientation, and all he gave were non-answers.. Also, it's a lie to call his bill "the same as other states", when other states have laws preventing discrimination against LGBT. Indiana has no such protective laws, and Pence is opposed to them.

Even Fox News has debunked his claims that his law "is the same as the other laws."

Actually, there was this case in New Mexico, which a photographer refused to photograph a same-sex ceremony, and was sued. This lawsuit eventually resulted in a ruling against the photography studio.

Arizona and other states started creating bills to defend "religious freedom", of which this was one. Arizona, btw, ended up vetoing the bill in question.

Maybe she should share the plans on an old iPod that she was given a few years ago!

That does not make banks "criminal organizations," equivalent to drug mafias.

Complete bullshit; this is a lie.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

HSBC has been laundering money for drug cartels for quite a while now, and nothing's been done about it, and no one is prosecuting them. Money laundering IS a crime, so this by definition makes this bank a criminal organization.

You are a liar.

UC San Francisco's Sam Hawgood, who started in July, is the highest-paid UC chancellor, at $750,000 . In hoping to erase disparities, regents noted that Gene Block, who came to UCLA in 2007, is paid $428,480, which is below what Gillman will be paid at a smaller campus. (In addition to salaries, chancellors receive housing or housing allowances.)

Absolutely ridiculous.

Administrators ate my tuition

Here's an interactive chart with a state by state breakdown. Why the obscene jump in administration, especially over the last 20 years? Far greater than the educators, you know the ones actually doing something, many educators are adjunct instructors (pardon the source), in a nutshell so they're working cheaper and they comprise the super majority of instructors.

braindead republicans, ruining the country

Your bias is showing. Both parties are fully bought and paid for and further corporate special interests. Democrats were in control for many years and furthered ghastly policies began by the previous administration. Apathy and partisan politics is ruining this country. Control by splitting into hostile groups, it's not new and it's effective, you're doing them proud! The Millennials will make up a larger voting block than the Boomers this year.

unfortunately, republican state houses across the country are cutting down on funding state universities

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

etc., etc.

so tuition will increase and quality will decrease, and those who are bright but come from limited backgrounds will wind up working in retail or fast food instead of becoming good STEM candidates

of course, this makes sense, as poor and stupid is the republican base

unfortunately, republican state houses across the country are cutting down on funding state universities

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

etc., etc.

so tuition will increase and quality will decrease, and those who are bright but come from limited backgrounds will wind up working in retail or fast food instead of becoming good STEM candidates

of course, this makes sense, as poor and stupid is the republican base

Jimmy Fallon: Radio Shack’s entire inventory has been put up for auction. When asked if the auction would be on the internet, a spokesman for Radio Shack said ‘The what now?'”

Being Gay used to be illegal.

Some would make pedophilia "normal".

Sugar is added to a lot of foods (at least in the US) and it's basically poison.

Sugar is not poison. I wish people would just stop the scaremongering. There's nothing wrong with a reasonable amount of sugar intake as part of a balanced diet. Even if processed foods contain added sugar, they're not harmful in moderation.

It always amazes me when people try and censor stuff that is already public.

What's most egregious is when the US military banned their staff from viewing Wikileaks. This suggests one of several possibilities:

1. Military leadership is completely out of touch, believing that the they can put the genie back in the bottle by burying their heads in the sand. (Not unbelievable for a hierarchical/bureaucratic/authoritarian organization helmed by senior citizens.)
2. Military leadership plans to use NSA intelligence to detect/find future leakers, and a staff-wide ban reduces the background noise/false negative rate in making that detection. (Very believable.)
3. Military leadership is afraid that the existing leaked materials could spur staffers to make additional leaks. (Also believable, since there's bound to be [scattered throughout the sprawling military-industrial complex] a bunch of folks who've witnessed corruption/wrongdoing/gross incompetence and then subsequently been frustrated by formal channels for redressing such wrongs [or afraid to use such channels].)

Then the robber is guilty under the felony murder rule.

In fact, if there were two robbers, and the teller happens to have a gun and shoots one of them then the other one is guilty under the felony murder rule.

If someone dies due to the commission of a felony those committing the crime are guilty of murder (assuming they get convicted etc).

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... is a reasonably famous example.

Your amygdala sounds fat. You should seek professional help to understand your body and the influences on it, especially the internal ones.

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/2...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Defense from who, exactly?

From Russia, you Putinista asshole.

Oh, then. Bullshit.

No, it isn't. Current US voting laws are quite dysfunctional.

I think you're missing how much of a whore the media was leading up to the Iraq war, completely drowning out any dissonant experts including high ranking military, political scientists, and historians.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/11/...
http://www.salon.com/2007/04/1...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

The media will do anything that gets them readers. Morals, ethics, and political leanings have nothing to do with it. The all-mighty dollar crosses all political boundaries.

except for the studies dont back your claim up. Cali seems to be the biggest anti vax state - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

As a coda to my post, consider this howler:

World's Worst Typo Leaves Publisher Reeling

That is disputable.
When the remix of "Final Countdown" was released the first "o" was unintentionally left out.

As a coda to my post, consider this howler:

World's Worst Typo Leaves Publisher Reeling

An Australian publisher is reprinting 7,000 cookbooks over a recipe for pasta with "salt and freshly ground black people." ... The reprint will cost Penguin 20,000 Australian dollars ($18,500) ...

This incident was mentioned in a book I read not long ago about the fine art of editing to a high standard.

It appears that tiny slip cost some poor sod real money. If the writer is sloppy or inconsistent in his/her usage standard, the proof-reading job becomes ten times harder. The writer probably accepted the wrong spell-checker suggestion when he/she was bleary with late-night fatigue.

I think this is the statistic he's talking about.

psst - s/he/she/ :-)

No, this one (partial quote only)

The FBI estimates that 50 percent of its criminal records contain errors. No HR professional wants to hire a person with DUI convictions to drive a vehicle or someone convicted of child abuse to work in a school. But disqualifying every applicant with a criminal record for every job is unnecessary.

This is especially true because of profound changes in the criminal-justice system. When I was 17, I punched another young man in an argument in the local pool hall. The security guards promptly "escorted" me to the manager’s office. The manager called my father, who assured the manager that if he would allow my father to handle the situation, I would never enter his establishment for the rest of my life. To this day, I have never returned. If my son were to repeat my foolish mistake, he would unquestionably be arrested for assault and battery, and the conviction would follow him for the rest of his life. Literally millions of people in the United States today have criminal records because they were caught smoking marijuana at a rock concert 10 years ago, accidentally bounced a check, or got into a shoving match with another driver after a fender bender. Many of these people can be excellent employees.

Consequences

Refusing to hire anyone with a record is not only unnecessary, it takes a huge bite out of the applicant pool. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 30 percent of America’s adult population has a criminal record. Among people of working age, about 40 percent have criminal records. For some demographic groups, the rate is even higher. More than 50 percent of Black males have a criminal record. As the United States’ demographics continue to change, the problem presented by using criminal records as an employment screen will continue to grow.

Enforcement of the law is still highly selective. How many banksters went to jail?

I think this is the statistic he's talking about.

Hmmm... you have to be careful with Russian media:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/167...

His poll numbers were in decline and most analysts believe his actions are a crass political ploy to boost his poll numbers in Russia:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/...

I can cite articles and conclusions from think tanks all over the world if you like. I read something from a Japanese source the other day that said the same thing.

This is how the governments of the world see this action.

And that US counter response is going to focus on Putin's support base.

I bet someone has. Try to do a little googling on the bird issue, for instance: Windmills kill 58000 to 440000 birds in US per year. Domestic cats kill 3.7 billion (3700000000) birds in US per year. http://www.brighthubengineerin... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

it's deeply in debt

Nice try. We elected a Democratic governor, so the giant debts from the era of the previous republican adminstration are gone. hello surplus! Thanks credit upgrade!

Diverting 93% of the water to grow lettuce in the desert since 1920 had nothing to do with it.

Also, ignore the arctic ice that's been increasing for three years, the antarctic ice that's always grown and hit a new record in 2014, snow in Hawaii, and the great lakes that have frozen early,and that have frozen over compete the last two years. Ignore Niagara falls that has frozen over two years in a row and ignore all the record cold around the country. Ignore the fact we kill killed half the worlds trees in the last 100 years and where we do theres drought and ignore the fact the IPCC did not admit trees ate CO2 until 2010. Ignore the fact NAS falsified the CO2 hypothesis in 2010 and ignore the fact the climate models now have 95% error.Ignore the fact corals have genes that upregulate to ignore acidification and warming and ignore the fact pollution (I'm especially looking at you big oil) has gotten worse while we're distracted by this nonsense. Ignore the fact not a single IPCC prediction ever came true.

And especially ignore NAA/NOAA when they say "there has been no warming this century"

Creation science, social science, climate science... if you have to add "science" to a word to give it legitimacy, it's not science any more than the Democratic People's republic of North Korea is a democracy. Real sciences yield natural laws to quote Feynman.

Instead, look at 01% of a country that is 2% of the world.

Refs:
1) Ice
http://rs79.vrx.net/opinions/i...
http://rs79.vrx.net/opinions/i...
http://rs79.vrx.net/opinions/i...
http://news.ku.dk/all_news/201...
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/ear...
http://www.nasa.gov/content/go...

2) records:
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/vide...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
http://www.staradvertiser.com/...
https://www.facebook.com/video...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/febru...
http://www.latimes.com/local/l...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

3) Trees:
http://www.pri.org/stories/201...
https://web.archive.org/web/20...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
http://www.agu.org/news/press/...

The words are just symbols. The emotions you attach to them are your own. The problem is projection:

Back when I was in school, we had a rash of bomb threats. All fake.

But every time, they evacuated the school. Instead of being in a nice warm building we shivered outside in the cold.

Eventually, they caught the kid responsible for doing this.

Was his free speech violated because he was arrested for making those threats?

Fast forward to modern times.....

Now here are some cases below, where threats were made, and some students were arrested

http://www.collegian.psu.edu/n...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

Were their free speech rights violated?

If someone calls you and tells you there is a bomb planted in your house are you going to ignore it? Was the person just exercising their free speech to get you all freaked out and leave the place?

People get so confused about free speech. It's always good to remember the old adage - The rights of your fist end abruptly at my face. Purposeful disruption by threats of violence are never appropriate.

"Just look at the news today. Republicans are using four words in Obamacare to remove healthcare subsidies for 15 million people. While the act is completely clear, these four words were poorly chosen, and on that basis they want to throw out a major provision. It's no exaggeration to say that people will die if this challenge is upheld."

The words weren't poorly-chosen. Per one of the architects of the bill, those words were intentional -- both to strong-arm the states into making their own exchanges or risk losing huge amounts of money, and to structure things in such a way that it could be passed via the reconcilliation process instead of as a normal bill. Per his own words (just the first two hits, but google jonathan gruber state subsidies):

http://cnsnews.com/news/articl...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

People are acting like these words are being taken out of context or are just a miswording, and it's pretty disingenious of many pundits (not you -- you're cool and probably picking it up from a pundit). This was built into law as a tactic, and because people didn't go along with it, is hopefully going to bite those who wrote it hard.

I say "hopefully" not because I want people to lose insurance, but because if it's deemed otherwise, it'll be another real blow to rule-of-law and further fracture our society, which will do much more long-term hurt to us as a people wanting to live together peacefully.

Just because the police can do something, doesn't mean they should be legally allowed to do it. Before all the fingerprint comments start, I will remind folks that DNA is categorically different than fingerprints. Yes, both can identify an individual. But that is like saying both a driver's license and a smart phone can be used to identify a person. If you search someone's smart phone, you have boatloads more information. DNA is becomming more useful by leaps and bounds every year. This is too much information for the government to just blythely collect and shove into databases with little safeguard against hacking, misuse, and abuse. There seriously needs to be a national discussion and laws passed. It is sad that this is unlikely to happen.

Some (ie, those part of the security industrial complex) do not want this discussion because they fear a curtailment of police powers. Others do not want it because they don't trust our current government to not bend this discussion into the interests of the wealthy.

Luckily the supreme court is a bastion of ethical behavior and impartiality [1]. I trust this outcome is based on a rational forward-thinking, wise consideration.

[1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

This hack sounds a lot like the one that Weev used to extract info from AT&T. Apparently, GoPro didn't learn from AT&T's mistakes.

What a day, Leonard Nimoy dies.

Boris Nemtsov is murdered.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/27/...

http://news.yahoo.com/russian-...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/...

Putin says this was a horrible murder.... as he was seen hiding the fucking gun in his back pocket.

Not a good day.

Nurse Quarantined By Christie Comes Back To Haunt Him On Vaccines

Parents Fighting Against Gov't. Vaccination Agenda - The John Birch Society

Scott Brown Rents Out Email List To Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theorist

And lets not forget the John Birch-er conspiracy theory that fluoridated drinking water is a government attempt at mind control (whether or not certain fluoride compounds cause problems, the conspiracy angle is irrational).

And lets not forget that, in general, denial of medical care on religious grounds is far and away dominated by right wing religious affiliation.

So, by eliding the nuclear and GMO issues with vaccines (or other medical care) you're trying to erect a rather disingenuous straw man. If anything seems to go hand-in-hand with anti-vaccination sentiment, its freemarket ideology among the "sovereign individuals" crowd. I think Rand Paul would agree.

Have a nice day.

They are a private company that has a published set of terms and conditions.

Can a baker, florist or photographer put forth a set of terms and conditions with regards to what kind of events they will provide services for?

The courts have been saying no for a while now in the case of some events they may disagree with: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It is an interesting world where some people/companies are compelled to provide services equally (if they want to remain in business), while others are given a pass.

I'm still waiting for a case like this to happen in the US as it would be rather entertaining viewing: http://www.nationalreview.com/...

They are a private company that has a published set of terms and conditions.

Can a baker, florist or photographer put forth a set of terms and conditions with regards to what kind of events they will provide services for?

The courts have been saying no for a while now in the case of some events they may disagree with: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/....
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

It is an interesting world where some people/companies are compelled to provide services equally (if they want to remain in business), while others are given a pass.

I'm still waiting for a case like this to happen in the US as it would be rather entertaining viewing: http://www.nationalreview.com/...

fewer than 10% of the convicts in the USA are held in "private prisons"....

Your numbers are out of date. Almost half of all Federal inmates are in private prisons, with the bulk being immigrant detainees. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... That was in 2012, and the percentage has only grown.

And if you happen to live in a state with a Republican governor and legislature, you will find it's also up to about half of inmates being in private prison systems. And those are mainly the ones most likely to be repeat customers, of course. Remember that maxim of free markets: If you want more of something, make it profitable.

Two companies control 75% of the private prison population: CCA and Wackenhut. They have recently begun a program of encouraging states to transfer the inmates with the longest sentences to their facilities, because they are much more profitable.

I actually dislike when known and established creators use Kickstarter.

Kickstarter is not a zero sum gain. Exploding Kittens getting $8 million does not mean that any of that $8m would have gone to any other Kickstarter campaign. I contribute to Kickstarter stuff off and on, my contributions are not limited by finances but by interest in the project.

Why do they need it?

They need it for the same reason as anyone else - to be sure there's a market before they spend money on production. That's the awesome thing about Kickstarter, is that it takes the risk out of going beyond a prototype stage. Even a well known and creative guy like Matt could easily produce a card game that went no-where at all and no-one would buy - a terrible waste not only of his time but the resources used to print the cards and produce packaging.

With Kickstarter you eliminate a ton of waste because you are producing what people want instead of what they might want... it's the ultimate definition of win/win.

I think people who don't understand Kickstarter should go back to the Muppet movie and watch Kermit's speech on dreams (jump to 45 seconds in) and listen carefully to Rainbow Connection... Kickstarter allows any of us to be muppets on the bus to an uncertain but interesting future. I for one don't care who is driving.