Wednesday, January 27, 2016

- 10 Taxpayer Handouts to the Super Rich -




- Corporate welfare and entitlements for the top 1 % - .

A few of the giveaways to the rich - and how much they cost the US :


1. Tax Breaks for CEO bonuses ($7 billion/year)

The biggest corporations exploit a 20-year-old loophole that allows them to write off
   inflated compensation packages for CEOs,
   billing stock options,
   performance-based bonuses
to taxpayers.
-
In 2010,
the biggest corporations cost Americans $7 billion by writing off inflated executive pay.
     - That $7 billion could fund the annual budget for the National Science Foundation —
     - 11,000 scientific research projects each year
     - 26 Nobel laureates in the last 5 years.
Between 2007 and 2010, this loophole accounted for more than $30 billion in corporate welfare.

2. Tax cuts for luxury corporate jets ($300 million/year)

Currently, corporations get huge tax deductions by writing off purchases of
corporate jets, fancy cars-limousines , …
and chauffeurs …
These tax breaks for some of the wealthiest Americans cost the rest of us $300 million each year.

3. Big oil subsidies ( $37.5 billion/year )

Between $10 billion and $52 billion per year on corporate welfare for the fossil fuel industry .
OCI estimated that total subsidies to big oil – approximately -  $37.5 billion in 2014,


4. Pharmaceutical subsidies ($270 billion/year)


The pharmaceutical industry gets roughly $270 billion a year 
This is over $1,900.- per household in corporate welfare.
This is mainly due to the bill that George W. Bush signed into law in 2003,
which prevents Medicare from negotiating drug prices with pharmaceutical companies.
-
The biggest drug companies also make (a combined $711 billion in profits between 2003 and 2012)
by buying patents for drugs - largely developed with taxpayer-funded research,
then jacking up the price …


5. Capital gains tax breaks ($51 billion/year)


Capital gains, are taxed at a 20 %  -
real, actual work  35 %.
53 percent of Americans own no stock at all,
The richest 5 percent own two-thirds of the stock.
Only 10 percent of Americans have pensions,
The total amount of lost revenue was $256 billion between fiscal years 2012 and 2016,
or $51 billion a year over the last 5 years.
If investment income was taxed at the same rate as wages,
75 percent of that revenue would come from the richest 0.3 % of Americans;
92 % of that revenue from those making $200,000 or more per year.
The chart below shows what percentage of income each tax bracket makes from capital gains -




Chart courtesy of The Century Foundation.

6. Corporate tax subsidies from state and local governments ($80.4 billion/year)


In 2012,  -  tax breaks in 1,874 programs cost taxpayers $80.4 billion every year for corporate welfare in their state.

7. Big Ag ($18 billion/year)

Median income of commercial farm households  was $84,649 in 2011 —
70
% more than the average American household.
Farmers grow crops on land that is unproductive,
then - make money from insurance claims ...
In 2011, 26 farmers each got an annual subsidy of $1 million, or more .

8. Wall Street ($83 billion/year)

As big banks grow bigger,
the Federal Reserve lets them borrow at lower interest rates than other banks —
essentially subsidizing the continued growth of the big banks.
The 10 biggest banks get $83 billion per year in corporate welfare.

9. Export-Import bank subsidies ($112 billion)


The Export-Import (Ex-Im) bank, had a $112 billion portfolio,
of which $90 billion went to multinationals.
Most of that money went to 10 wealthy corporations.



10. Federal contracts for the top 200 biggest companies ($880 billion/year)


The top 200 companies spent $5.8 billion on lobbying Congress between 2007 and 2012.
Those companies received $4.4 trillion in federal contracts.






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The combined cost of these 10 corporate welfare programs is $1.539 trillion per year.

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The US spends 10 times as much on corporate welfare and handouts to the top 1 %
than on  welfare for working families …
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
 Mainly from an article by :
 Tom Cahill | October 28, 2015
a writer for US Uncut based in the Pacific Northwest.
He specializes in coverage of political, economic, and environmental news.
You can contact Tom via email at tom.v.cahill@gmail.com.
---
with additional material from -

Economic Policy Institute
Oil Change International (OCI),
healthcareforamericanow.org.
Pew Research
The Guardian,
Century Foundation
Tax Policy Center
New York Times
Bloomberg report
Sunlight Foundation
-
Links in post …
-
And numerous uncredited sources …

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Saturday, January 9, 2016

37 Lies Americans Tell Themselves -Draft -

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37 Lies Americans Tell Themselves To Avoid Confronting Reality

 | January 4, 2016 0 Comments
by Mike Adams,
Have you noticed the incredible detachment from reality exhibited by the masses these days? The continued operation of modern society, it seems, depends on people making sure they don’t acknowledge reality (or try to deal with it). “Denial” is what keeps every sector of civilization humming along: medicine, finance, government, agriculture and more.
The trouble with the denial approach is that eventually the lies collide with reality. Until that day comes, however, happy-go-lucky Americans are merrily enjoying their courtship with self delusion, repeating the following 37 lies to themselves as if they were true:
Lie #1) All FDA-approved medications are safe to consume in any combination, because the FDA protects the public.
Lie #2) Food prices keep going up because inflation is a natural force that can’t be halted.
Lie #3) The mainstream media is telling me the truth when it reports on world events.
Lie #4) Chemical food additives are tested for their safety before being widely used across the food supply.
Lie #5) We can all pump groundwater out of the ground forever, and it will never run out.
Lie #6) We can also pump fossil fuels out of the ground forever, and they will never run out, either. Why worry?
Lie #7) If anything bad happens in terms of a national emergency or natural disaster, the government will take care of me.
Lie #8) It doesn’t matter where my food comes from as long as it’s cheap and delicious.
Lie #9) GMOs must be safe to eat because a bunch of scientists paid by the biotech industry all tell each other that GMOs are safe and therefore have reached “scientific consensus.”
Lie #10) Government debt doesn’t matter because the government can simply create more money any time they want.
Lie #11) Mercury in vaccines must be safe to inject into children, otherwise the CDC and FDA wouldn’t allow it to be used in vaccines.
Lie #12) Organic produce is a waste of money. I’ll buy conventional produce treated with pesticides and herbicides because the cost of all the cancer treatments I’ll need 20 years later will be covered by Obamacare anyway.
Lie #13) The history taught to children in public schools is a true and accurate history. Columbus was best friends with the Indians, too!
Lie #14) Swallowing fluoride chemicals is good for babies and children, and that’s why cities put fluoride into public water supplies.
Lie #15) Flu shots prevent the flu. That’s why the package inserts for flu vaccines openly state there is no scientific evidence to support any conclusion that influenza vaccines prevent influenza.
Lie #16) Whatever is backed by “science” must be true. Science is never falsified by corrupt scientists or corporate agendas, and scientific conclusions are never wrong.
Lie #17) The global ecosystem can handle unlimited human pollution without any negative consequences. We can all continue to dump unlimited toxins into the environment.
Lie #18) Cell phone radiation is harmless. The reason we know that is because the cell phone companies hired scientists to say so.
Lie #19) If everybody else is doing something, it must be the right thing to do. After all, how could so many people be wrong?
Lie #20) We don’t need to store food for emergencies because there will always be more food available at the grocery store.
Lie #21) There’s no need to be concerned about Ebola or other infectious diseases in America because the vaccine companies can always and instantly create a new vaccine that works 100% of the time, with zero side effects.
Lie #22) Local police departments need battlefield military weapons, armored cars and body armor because the drug war demands it.
Lie #23) If I buy something at Whole Foods, it must be healthy and free from contaminants like toxic heavy metals. (Or is it really?)
Lie #24) My vote really counts in national elections. We live in a democracy where the People have power over the government.
Lie #25) My checking and savings accounts are perfectly safe no matter what happens because my bank is FDIC insured.
Lie #26) Raw dairy products are dangerous and deadly because the FDA told me so. Those horrible farmers selling raw dairy products should be locked away in prison.
Lie #27) My oncologist recommends chemotherapy treatment for me only because he cares about my wellbeing, not because his clinic sells the chemotherapy drugs at a huge profit.
Lie #28) The government isn’t secretly recording my phone calls or reading my emails. Why would they? I’ve done nothing wrong!
Lie #29) Commercial dog food is healthy and nutritious for dogs. Dog treats made in China are also trustworthy and free from contaminants like lead.
Lie #30) The only way to prevent infectious disease is with a vaccine. Vitamin D and healthy immune support have nothing to do with it.
Lie #31) After I pay off my house, I own it free and clear. (Think again: Property taxes mean you’re only “leasing” it from the county. Stop paying those taxes and you’ll find out very quickly who really owns your home.)
Lie #32) Google will do no evil, and the fact that the company is developing humanoid battlefield robots, autonomous drones and super-human quantum computing brain chips is nothing to worry about.
Lie #33) Cancer is caused entirely by bad luck (or smoking) and has nothing to do with the food I eat or chemicals in my personal environment.
Lie #34) The radiation release from Fukushima wasn’t that bad. Sure, it was many times larger than the Chernobyl disaster, but authorities say we have nothing to worry about.
Lie #35) Autism isn’t caused by vaccines, and the way we know is because the CDC scientist who admitted to a massive conspiracy of scientific fraud to bury the evidence linking vaccines to autism should not be believed.
Lie #36) All foods certified as “organic” are automatically free of toxic heavy metals and contaminants.
Lie #37) Human civilization is the only intelligent civilization in the entire galaxy. Anything else would simply be too scary to contemplate.

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http://www.bodymindsoulspirit.com/37-lies-americans-tell-themselves-to-avoid-confronting-reality/
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Thursday, January 7, 2016

-

A few quotes on the - 

Manipulation of Facts, Governments, Peoples - ___

Propaganda, 1928 


The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society.
Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.” – 
Edward Bernays (“the father of public relations”),
( Bernays’ book, Propaganda, begins with the above quote).

Theodore Roosevelt - 26th U.S. President 

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. (source)
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 Woodrow Wilson - 28th U.S. President 

Woodrow Wilson,  -  his book The New Freedom.
The book also contains several other, similar statements:
Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men’s views confided to me privately.
Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something.
They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.
  (source)
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John F. Kennedy - 35th U.S. President 

The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.
We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.
Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions.
Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.
And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.
That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it is in my control. … For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily
on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–
on infiltration instead of invasion,
on subversion instead of elections,
on intimidation instead of free choice,
on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day.
It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.
Its preparations are concealed, not published.
Its mistakes are buried, not headlined.
Its dissenters are silenced, not praised.
No expenditure is questioned,
no rumor is printed,
no secret is revealed. 
(source)
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John C. Calhoun,
7th Vice President of The United States

-  from 1825-1832. 
A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many, and various, and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks. (source)
((?- x - clip from the Thrive documentary by Foster Gamble,
heir to the Proctor Gamble corporation. ))
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John F. Hylan - Mayor New York City 

-  from 1918-1925. 
The real menace of our Republic is the invisible government, which like a giant octopus sprawls its slimy legs over our cities, states and nation …
The little coterie of powerful international bankers virtually run the United States government for their own selfish purposes.
They practically control both parties … [and] control the majority of the newspapers and magazines in this country.
They use the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of office public officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government.
It operates under cover of a self-created screen [and] seizes our executive officers, legislative bodies, schools, courts, newspapers and every agency created for the public protection. 
(source)(source)
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Senator William Jenner

-  to Congress in 1954:
Today the path to total dictatorship in the U.S. can be laid by strictly legal means …
We have a well-organized political-action group in this country, determined to destroy our Constitution and establish a one-party state …
It operates secretly, silently, continuously to transform our Government … This ruthless power-seeking elite is a disease of our century…
This group … is answerable neither to the President, the Congress, nor the courts.
It is practically irremovable. 
(source)
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Senator Daniel K. Inouye

-  serving the democratic party from 1963 until his death in 2012.
There exists a shadowy government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from all checks and balances, and free from the law itself. (source)
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Dwight D. Eisenhower - 5 Star General, 34th U.S. President  

In his farewell address to the nation, ...:
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.
The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. …
Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defence with our peaceful message and goals. 
(source)
-  the disastrous rise of  the military industrial complex has indeed occurred…
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Benjamin Disraeli, First British MP

The world is governed by very different personages to what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes. (Coningsby, Book 4, Chap. 15.) – Page 131
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Paul Hellyer - Canadian Defence Minister 

Former Minister of National Defence, Paul Hellyer, is one of Canada’s best known and most controversial politicians.
First elected in 1949, - youngest cabinet minister appointed to Louis S. St. Laurent’s government eight years later.
Held senior posts in the governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre E. Trudeau.
He achieved the rank of senior master (Deputy Prime Minister),
Became the Canadian Defence Minister. 
It is ironic that the U.S. would begin a devastating war, allegedly in search of weapons of mass destruction, when the most worrisome developments in this field are occurring in your own backyard.
It is ironic that the U.S. should be fighting monstrously expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, allegedly to bring democracy to those countries, when it itself can no longer claim to be called a democracy, when trillions, and I mean thousands of billions of dollars have been spent on projects about which both the Congress and the Commander in Chief have been kept deliberately in the dark. 
(source)
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If you told somebody 10 years ago that there existed some sort of secret group or “secret government” pulling the strings behind the scenes of government policy, international law, various global rules/regulations, and more, they would have called you a “conspiracy theorist.” Today things have changed, largely as a result of information leaked by Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, and various other whistleblowers and activists in recent years. Their bravery has shed light on the world of secrecy that’s been blinding the masses since its inception.
I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll mention it again, did you know that the U.S. Government classifies more than 500 million pages of documents each year? Did you know that the United States has a history of government agencies existing in secret? For example, the National Security Agency (NSA) was founded in 1952, but its existence was hidden until the mid 1960’s. Even more secretive is the National Reconnaissance Office, it was founded in 1960 but remained completely secret for 30 years. Then we have the entire black budget world, a world dominated by secrecy that was officially revealed by Edward Snowden a couple of years ago. This deals with what are known as “Special Access Programs.”
It’s not just statements that these “high-level” people are making. It’s all of the proof and evidence that goes along with it.
***You can read more about the black budget HERE***
_____