Tag: Corporate Greed

Hawai’i Has The Right Idea

Since those political hacks we called the supreme court made it possible for corporations to have more clout than the people of this nation the money has been pouring into the super PACs making our elections more about who can draw the most donors than the policies that help the population.

Now the state of Hawai’i is trying to do something about this miscarruage of our system…..

The state of Hawaii has passed a law that poses a direct challenge to the infamous 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling, which opened the door to unlimited corporate spending in US elections.

Democratic Hawaii Gov. Josh Green on Thursday signed into law a bill that takes aim at the court’s ruling that corporations are effectively people with full free speech rights who can face no limits on what they can contribute to political organizations.

As explained by More Perfect Union, the law, which is set to take effect next July, classifies corporations as “artificial persons” who do not have a constitutional right to make political donations.

“The bill could limit the influence of super PACs,” noted More Perfect Union, “and be a model to challenge the influence of money in politics.”

Democratic Hawaii state Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, a supporter of the law, said on Thursday he was proud that Hawaii has become “the first state in the nation” to take direct action challenging Citizens United.

“As elected leaders, we do not serve artificial entities,” Keohokalole said. “We serve the people.”

US Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, hailed the law as “big news” that should inspire opponents of limitless corporate political spending across the US.

“The far-right Supreme Court hijacked the Constitution to let corporations spend in our elections,” said Casar. “But we are not powerless. We can fight back.”

The new law passed despite opposition from Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, who argued that defending it in court could be difficult and expensive.

The law’s passage earned praise from campaign finance watchdogs who have long called for overturning Citizens United and reestablishing guardrails for corporate cash in US democracy.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/citizens-united-law-hawaii

I say bully for them!

This is worth the fight no matter the cost.

Should be a template for all states.

The problem is if it goes to the supreme court those twats will strike it down….

The fight must go on.

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Tariffs And Prices

There is a new ‘pause’ on tariffs and that should stabilize prices but it does not seem to be doing that at all….

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick bragged about the “amazing” revenue that the Trump administration’s tariffs are delivering to the U.S. Treasury.

“The tariff revenues are amazing: $700 billion a year,” Lutnick told Shannon Bream. “That’s just net new money the government never had before. You take that for 10 years, that’s $7 trillion.”

Ignore, if you can, the still bizarre (but increasingly common) sight of a Republican executive official bragging about how much money the federal government has extracted from the economy. Similarly, try to ignore Lutnick’s questionable calculation of how much revenue the tariffs will generate—the best estimates right now suggest they will generate between $2.5 trillion and $2.7 trillion over the next decade, not the $7 trillion that Lutnick claims. (But those estimates are tricky things, given the lack of certainty surrounding all of this.)

Focus instead on the obvious question that Lutnick’s claim ought to bring to mind: Where, exactly, is all that “new money” coming from?

All taxes are paid by someone, and President Donald Trump’s tariffs are no exception to that rule. The question of who pays and in what amounts is likely to become even more of a focal point in the coming days and weeks, as the White House follows through on its threat to hit imports from dozens of countries with higher tariffs starting on August 1.  (The good news is that this ‘pause’ may keep prices from rising too much)

https://reason.com/2025/07/29/yes-tariffs-are-raising-prices/

So if the tariffs are on old why are prices still rising?

There is a good reason why.

The effects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are winding their way through the American economy, and a new piece of analysis claims that corporate America is using them as “cover” to further jack up prices.

Progressive advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative issued a new report on Tuesday that uses corporate executives’ own words to show how many firms are taking advantage of the tariff situation by using it as an all-purpose justification for price increases. The report found many of these executives’ admissions through quarterly earnings calls in which they discussed plans to increase costs even if their inputs were not being significantly affected by the tariffs.

Among others, the report cited a statement made earlier this year by Aaron Jagdfeld, the CEO of power generation products manufacturer Generac Power Systems, who said on an earnings call that “even if we have metals that weren’t impacted directly by tariffs, the indirect effect of tariffs is that it gives steel producers and the mills and other fabricators… great cover for increased pricing in some cases.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/trump-tariffs-corporate-greed

True to their greed corporations are using tariffs to raise prices and then when tariffs hit (if ever) then they should use the tariffs as cover for their greed and the rise in prices which will prove many Americans out of markets like housing, food, etc.

Is this what the mentally challenged voted for last year?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Greenland?

Has anyone considered why Greenland is such a big deal to the trump Administration?

Donny and his butt boyz have been trying to provoke some sort of response for the island of Greenland…..there have been many theories on why Donny wants Greenland so bad…..the natural resources or as a base for protection of the US or….like I said many theories but the only one that makes sense to me is the concept of “Freedom City”….

Just what is ‘Freedom City’….and the Robber Barons that are pushing the idea….

A handful of wealthy, politically connected Silicon Valley investors are reportedly eyeing Greenland’s icy shores as the site for a techno-utopian “freedom city.”

That’s according to a report from Reuters, which details a proposed effort to establish a new, libertarian-minded municipality characterized by minimal corporate regulation and a focus on accelerating emerging technologies like AI and mini nuclear reactors. Supporters of increased economic development in Greenland argue its frigid climate could naturally cool massive, energy intensive AI data centers. Large deposits of critical and rare earth minerals buried beneath the island’s ice sheets could also potentially be used to manufacture consumer electronics.

The so-called “start-up city”—which bears similarities to another ongoing venture in California’s Solano County—reportedly already has the backing of PayPal founder Peter Thiel and Ken Howery, President Donald Trump’s pick for Denmark ambassador. If confirmed by the Senate, Howery would lead US discussions to acquire Greenland. In that role, Howery could potentially act as a bridge linking the audacious freedom city investors with the US government.

…

The Reuters report cites claims Howery, Thiel, and prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreesen are amongst the most prominent names backing the Greenland effort. Howery, who still needs the US Senate to confirm his position as ambassador to Denmark, is reportedly a long-time friend of billionaire Elon Musk and formerly founded a venture capital firm with Thiel. Thiel, meanwhile, has emerged as one of the loudest supporters, both vocally and financially, of the “Seasteading” movement, which is trying to build floating, stateless utopia cities in the ocean. Andressen, notably, is also part of a tech-investor consortium California Forever looking to build the city in Solano County.  Each of these efforts—along with others like the already existing city Próspera in Honduras—are united by libertarian political ideals, a focus on technological development, and lots of money.

Rumors around the proposed Greenland city date back at least to November 2024 when Praxis co-founder Dryden Brown fired off a series of tweets explaining how he had tried to purchase land in Greenland. Praxis is a self-described “internet-native nation” crypto startup with a stated goal of “restor[ing] Western civilization,” and has reportedly received over $525 million in funding to start building out new cities. Brown told Reuters he has since been approached by several companies to explore establishing a new city on Greenland.

https://www.popsci.com/technology/billionaire-freedom-city-greenland/

There you have it….just another way for rich bastards to make more and more money while not having to worry about regulations, laws, taxes, on and on….this is not about enriching the nation in some way but rather doing so for their wealthy butt-lickers.

I say fuck’em….  these d/bags should be paying their way through the system and not being allowed stop using the US as their private ATM.

Time for people to realize that these slugs are not in it to help the working people but rather to milk all the energy out of the nation and use their ill-gotten gains to buy a yacht…we mean nothing to these parasites….we are lower than the lowest to them.

Wake up!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Inflation?

We are told weekly if not daily that inflation is down then why does my wallet look and feel lighter?

If inflation is so low and manageable then why are my eggs a dollar more than a year ago?

There are many excuses these days…..price of gas….death of chickens….labor strikes….we could on and on but why bother….you get the picture.

One another side of this story….we give deep tax cuts to corporations which makes them more profitable and do they do the right thing and reward us peasants with lower prices?

What the Hell is going on?

Inflation has eased over the last two years, and with supply chains no longer struggling to keep up with demand and companies’ business costs stabilizing, an analysis out Thursday asks: Why haven’t American households seen the benefits of a more secure economy, with the prices of consumer goods and services falling?

The answer, said economic justice think tank Groundwork Collaborative, is that high prices linked to the coronavirus pandemic were never just the result of higher labor and production costs—but were partially caused by corporations’ deliberate price gouging.

When the pandemic upended the U.S. economy, said the group, “businesses jumped on the opportunity to pass these costs on to consumers—and added a little extra to pad their profits.”

“The worst part?” said the group. “They’re still doing it.”

Groundwork analyzed corporate earnings reports starting in 2021, focusing on numerous industries in which consumers were facing sky-high prices.

“This research revealed CEOs openly bragging to their shareholders about their ability to raise prices beyond their rising costs to increase profits,” said Groundwork. “To justify these moves, CEOs hid behind the cover of supply chain issues and the economic turmoil caused by the pandemic.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/corporate-profits-inflation

After lying for decades to the American people some are starting to wake up…..they are told that corporations need tax cuts to be competitive and in doing so would take the price of stuff down…..if you have been keeping track of your spending you know it is all so much bullsh*t.

Corporate tax cuts do nothing for you and increases their profits as they smoke those god awful smelling cigars.

You want lower prices?

Then do what must be done!

Corporations are the problem then elect people that will fix the problem.  (I know they are hard to find because most candidates owe corporations their political lives)

We will continue to see prices rise until someone finds a way to repair this system.

I am done preaching.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Global Minimum Corporate Tax?

Here is an idea that I can support…..but an idea that will be fought tooth and nail by corporations that do not want to pay anything for the right of economic exploitation….

But Biden’s SecTreasury has proposed a plan for a global tax…….

Corporations around the world should pay at least a 15% tax on their earnings, the Treasury Department said Thursday as part of its push for a global minimum for businesses.

The final rate could go even higher than that, according to a Treasury release that said the 15% minimum is a “floor and that discussions should continue to be ambitious and push that rate higher.”

U.S-based companies currently pay a 21% rate, a level that was slashed during the Trump administration. Previously, the top rate had been 35%.

Under a proposal from President Joe Biden, the tax rate would be lifted to 28%, part of a plan to raise levies on both companies and the highest earners.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has been touting the benefits of a global corporate minimum tax rate that she said would discourage companies from relocating domiciles to other countries to cut their tax burdens even though most of their operations are in the U.S.

Yellen’s Treasury believes “that the international tax architecture must be stabilized, that the global playing field must be fair, and that we must create an environment in which countries work together to maintain our tax bases and ensure the global tax system is equitable and equipped to meet the needs of for the 21st century global economy,” the department said in a news release.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/20/us-proposes-global-minimum-corporate-tax-rate-of-15percent-with-an-eye-on-something-even-higher.html

Sadly I do not see this as a plan that will make it….corporations own a lot of politicians around the world and they will do as they are told…..

I may have been pre-mature in my doubt….

The Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed Saturday to support a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15% in order to deter multinational companies from avoiding taxes by stashing profits in low-rate countries, per the AP. G7 finance ministers meeting in London also endorsed proposals to make the world’s biggest companies—including US-based tech giants—pay taxes in countries where they have lots of sales but no physical headquarters. Britain’s Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the meeting’s host, said the deal would “reform the global tax system to make it fit for the global digital age and crucially to make sure that it’s fair, so that the right companies pay the right tax in the right places.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who attended the London meetings, said the agreement “provides tremendous momentum” toward reaching a global deal that “would end the race-to-the-bottom in corporate taxation, and ensure fairness for the middle class and working people in the US and around the world.” France cheered Saturday’s agreement and claimed credit for acting as its catalyst. “We made it! After 4 years of battle, a historic accord was reached with G7 member states,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted. “France can be proud!” The endorsement from the G7 could help build momentum for a deal in wider talks among more than 140 countries being held in Paris as well as a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Venice in July.

Will this be just another great idea that will be thrown on the trash pile of good ideas.

A side thought for my reader to ponder…

As long as I am writing about globally….how would you like to work for McDonalds…..in Denmark…..

The agreement with McDonalds does not only include salary per. hour and 6 weeks holiday. There is extra charge for evening and night work. Payment for seniority, holiday payment (Easter and Christmas for example, (100%), on top of all payment there is an extra 6.85%, Pension plan for employees from the age of 20 (12%).

In the Danish labor market, all employees have 5 weeks paid holiday by law. Some of the things that are extra in the companies that have a collective agreement, just like McDonalds, is one week more (called Feriefridage). So, the answer to your question is yes. McDonalds employees have 6 weeks’ paid vacation for all.

McDonald’s workers in Denmark truly make more than $20 an hour.

Do McDonald’s Workers in Denmark Make $22 an Hour?

Interesting!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Taxing The Rich!

It is TAX DAY!

OMG! That is almost blasphemous these days.

The lie spread is that the less tax the wealthy pay to more economic activity they produce and in turn the better the Middle Class and workers will do.

Pause here for the inevitable dash to the Google machine……..

Just about every viable candidate for the Dems has some plan or other to tax the rich so at least we get something from these people….Warren, AOC, Bernie, Yang et al…..it is a popular meme for Dems this cycle.

The 1990s Democratic Party made friends with the rich. The 2008 Democratic Party was eager to bail them out. The 2019 Democratic Party seems ready to declare war.

In just the past few months, at least three major Democratic Party figures, two of whom are presidential contenders, have proposed large tax increases targeted at the richest Americans:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) floated a big increase in top marginal income tax rates in an interview on 60 Minutes. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) proposed an annual wealth tax. Sen. Bernie Sanders. (I-VT) proposed a drastic hike in the estate tax.

There is a way and there is a desire by the people to see the rich to start paying their share of the American Dream……

https://www.vox.com/2019/3/19/18240377/estate-tax-wealth-tax-70-percent-warren-sanders-aoc

How successful will these people be in this endeavor?

If you listen close enough you can hear the big guns of corproate America being prepared for war.

2020 is the voters chance to change the course of the crumbling America……but do they have the guts to step up for change or will they roll over like they have been doing since the 1990s?

Corporate Death Penalty

Think back to the 2008 collapse of the economic structure….it was the banks that lead the way and yet they were not punished for killing so many pensions….at best there was a slap on wrist and they promise not to do it again…..and if you will notice they are doing it again,

It is time for the government to bring the pain to these lousy players in our economy.

Bring back a corporate death penalty……

Let’s begin with a SCOTUS dissenting opinion from 1935…..

“The prevalence of the corporation in America has led men of this generation to act, at times, as if the privilege of doing business in corporate form were inherent in the citizen, and has led them to accept the evils attendant upon the free and unrestricted use of the corporate mechanism as if these evils were the inescapable price of civilized life, and, hence to be borne with resignation.

“Throughout the greater part of our history, a different view prevailed.

“Although the value of this instrumentality in commerce and industry was fully recognized, incorporation for business was commonly denied long after it had been freely granted for religious, educational, and charitable purposes.

“It was denied because of fear. Fear of encroachment upon the liberties and opportunities of the individual. Fear of the subjection of labor to capital. Fear of monopoly. Fear that the absorption of capital by corporations, and their perpetual life, might bring evils similar to those which attended mortmain [immortality]. There was a sense of some insidious menace inherent in large aggregations of capital, particularly when held by corporations.”

—U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, 1933 dissent in Liggett v. Lee

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/01/08/its-time-bring-back-corporate-death-penalty

The limp wrist attempt to make corporations, especially the banks, was quickly pushed aside as soon as another corporate titan comes to power….time to make any penalties permanent…..time for the government to work for the people and not just the corporations.

This may be wishful thinking but I do feel the country is starting to realize just how bad corporations are acting and want accountability for their CRIMES.

2020 could be the beginning of the revolution to get the greed and corruption out of our society, especially from the corporations.

But first we must VOTE!

President Trump’s Corporate Government

Pres. Trump is doing what every American president has done for many long decades…..enriching corporate America.

We’re 100 days into Corporate Government.While giant corporations have for decades and on a bipartisan basis exerted far too much influence over government decision-making, we’ve never seen anything like the Trump administration.

The key officials in the federal government, starting with the president himself, come from Big Business; the administration openly seeks guidance and direction from giant corporations and corporate CEOs on policymaking; and the Trump administration is rushing to deliver subsidies, tax breaks and deregulatory gifts to the giant corporations to which the administration apparently owes its primary allegiance.

A day-by-day review of the administration’s first 100 days in office shows that virtually every day there has been a new, extraordinary grant of power to corporate interests and/or another development in Donald Trump’s get-rich-quick-scheme known as the American presidency.

Source: President Trump’s Corporate Government | Alternet

I think it is disgusting that corporations get all the breaks and benefits from the administration……Trump is not doing anything different from the last several presidents…but it seems that he is doing it better than his predecessors.

Service To Be Restricted

There has been lots of talk about the possibility of the internet could become limited and even censored…..some of these are great conspiracies and again maybe not so “out there”…..

Comcast is about to makes its residential internet service a lot more like smartphone data plans for millions of customers, the Washington Post reports. Starting Nov. 1, Comcast will be capping the internet usage of customers in 18 markets—including 12 whole states—at 1 terabyte. According to Ars Technica, Comcast has had a data cap in place in some markets since 2012. For Comcast customers who exceed the 1TB monthly limit, Comcast will charge a $10 fee per additional 50 gigabytes up to $200. To avoid the data cap, customers can either pay an extra $50 per month for unlimited data or $300 per month for Comcast’s Gigabit Pro fiber-optic service. A list of markets that will be impacted by the data cap is here.

Comcast claims the data cap is “based on a principle of fairness”—the people who use the most internet will pay the most for it. But Engadget argues that doesn’t make complete sense, as in only the most extreme cases does someone using more internet impact anyone else’s internet usage. A Comcast executive has also acknowledged that the data cap is a “business policy,” not a technical necessity. Comcast says 99% of customers don’t use more than 1TB of data—enough to stream up to 700 hours of video or play 12,000 hours of online games—per month. But that may not be true for long, with the increasing prevalence of HD and 4K games and videos that use more data.

Is this just the beginning?  Were all those conspiracy nuts being prophetic?

The Pacific trade deal has all kinds of protections for businesses — but not for workers | GlobalPost

Obama’s newest fight with Congress is the trade agreement that he supports, the TPP…….we are told all about how good it will be for this country……Obama and his conservative supports are pulling out all stops to make this thing happen……..

The problem is, at least for me, that all the promises and talk has all  been said before……that time by Bubba Clinton and his abortion, NAFTA……for all the good they told us it would do just somehow did not help any body but business…..the workers were screwed….as always……the TPP will be NO different.

If this is such a superb deal for the country then why is it a secret?  Why is it not possible for us to see the agreement before it is finalized?

TPP will be nothing but a con to promote and protect business…..workers will be left at the curb…..as they always are in these “good” deals……..

 

The Pacific trade deal has all kinds of protections for businesses — but not for workers | GlobalPost.