Daniel Villarreal, - The New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan:
The American tax structure is so biased and rigged to support the rich and corporations that it has reached this level. as a result the United States has the worst wealth inequality of any developed democracy in the world. Not only do corporations pay nothing in taxes, billionaires pay less than waitresses.
A newly released Government Accountability Office (GAO) office has revealed that 34% of large, profitable corporations paid nothing in federal income taxes in 2018, the same year that large tax cuts, passed by former President Donald Trump, went into effect.
The GAO report found that in 2017, the average tax rate for companies was 14.6 percent. In 2018, it dropped to 8.9 percent. A similar GAO report in 2016 found that 20% of corporations paid zero in federal income taxes. Comparatively, the average American tax rate is about 14.8%, according to the data site Statista.
While the recent GAO report doesn’t name the companies that paid zero in taxes, a 2022 report from the Center for American Progress found that the telecommunications company AT&T made $29.6 billion in 2021, but paid zero in federal income taxes that same year. Instead, AT&T received a $1.2 billion IRS refund, Common Dreams reported.
Similarly, in late December, the House House Ways and Means Committee released Trump’s tax returns from 2015 through 2020. In three of the six years, Trump’s taxable income was zero. This […]
What I find so interesting, if sad and depressing, is that a large number of American voters don't seem comprehend what the Republican Party is attempting to do, nor do they seem to understand that they have voted for men and women, who care not a fig for their wellbeing.
Republican Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina speaks during the House Financial Services Committee hearing Credit: Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call / Getty
The U.S. committee tasked with overseeing the financial sector on Thursday “dispelled any doubt of their intent to do the bidding of the financial industries over the interests of everyday families,” said a government watchdog group as the panel signaled it will significantly scale back its efforts to push for consumer protections on Wall Street.
House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) Chair Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) announced the new Republican subcommittee chairmanships, with new panels including the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Monetary Policy—tasked with overseeing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)—and the Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Inclusion, headed by pro-cryptocurrency Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.).
Gone from the list were the former Diversity and Inclusion Subcommittee and all references in the panels’ descriptions to “consumer protection,” “investor protection,” and “community development.”
The Republicans now in control of the HFSC “never met a consumer protection effort they liked and have been […]
I am becoming increasingly concerned that the Republicans, recognizing that they are a small and shrinking minority are trying to rig our government so that they can remain in power. Quite apart from the democracy issues this represents, and they are many, we are rapidly moving towards the "no return" point in climate change, and the Republicans, as a party, are not taking or even advocating the steps that need to be taken to prepare for what is happening. Instead, they are focusing on vengeance grudges, controlling women, and limiting the ability of people of color to vote.
The Republican Party, GOP candidates and voters, and aligned groups filed 93 anti-voter lawsuits in 2022, and although most were unsuccessful, the trend underscores how right-wing attacks on ballot access and election administration are taking place in courtrooms as well as state legislatures nationwide.
According to a report published Monday by Democracy Docket, a progressive platform that tracks voting litigation, 175 “democracy-related lawsuits” were filed in 31 states last year. Democracy Docket excluded 58 active redistricting lawsuits from its report in order to focus on cases related to voting rights and election oversight.
Of the 175 democracy-related lawsuits filed last year, 93 were characterized by Democracy Docket as “anti-voting” and 82 were characterized as “pro-voting.” Democracy Docket called 2022 another “litigious election year” after 2020 saw 150 democracy-related lawsuits, 95 of which were deemed anti-voting compared with 55 pro-voting.
The Republican Party officialdom—defined as the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee, and state or county Republican parties—was responsible for 23 of the 93 anti-voter lawsuits filed in 2022, researchers […]
When I tell you that the Republican Party, in slavish devotion to the funding it gets from the carbon industries, is actively undermining America's preparation for climate change, I am not exaggerating nor being politically partisan. I am simply stating the objectively verifiable truth. Here is a factual example of what I mean, and a demonstration of political whoring. We are very quickly coming to a crossroads that will determine our future. We must vote Republicans out of office.
Credit: Spencer Platt / Getty
Kentucky officials threatened to divest the state from 11 financial institutions on Tuesday over what it deemed to be climate-conscious investing practices. Targeted firms include BlackRock, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, all of which have publicly pledged to incorporate pro-environment principles into their financial strategies.
Such policies, Kentucky State Treasurer Allison Ball said in a press release, “boycott fossil fuels” and “intentionally choke off the lifeblood of capital to Kentucky’s signature industries.” The announcement follows a state bill passed last year directing her office to publish an annual list of financial institutions involved in a so-called “energy company boycott.”
Kentucky’s efforts are the latest in the Republican Party’s larger campaign against what are known as environmental, social, and governance, or ESG, investing principles. After years of activist efforts to get financial firms to disclose and account for their climate risks, ESG practices — which, in theory, prioritize investments in renewable energy, for example, over oil and gas — have moved from the sidelines to the mainstream, becoming a […]
Amy Yurkanin, Investigative Reporter - Advance Local (Alabama)
Stephan:
Because they recognize that they are unlikely to get much federal legislation accomplished the Subordinate Women's Movement which is anti-choice is focusing on the state level. Here is the kind of thing that is going on. What I am following is how many women are leaving Alabama, or not choosing Alabama colleges, or taking their medical practice to another state. You have to be clear this is not about ending pregnancy, it is about controlling women. If this was about the wellbeing of mothers and babies and the children they grow up to be then it would follow that this would be the next step. However, Alabama's objective social outcome data is so bad -- the state ranks 45th in the U.S. in maternal mortality, it ought to be humiliating, but it is not, and I think that is important to note because Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall knows this as well as I do. So why is this Republican saying this?
One week after the federal government made it easier to get abortion pills, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said Tuesday that women in Alabama who use those pills to end pregnancies could be prosecuted.
That’s despite wording in Alabama’s new Human Life Protection Act that criminalizes abortion providers and prevents its use against the people receiving abortions. Instead, the attorney general’s office said Alabama could rely on an older law, one initially designed to protect children from meth lab fumes.
“The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, exempting women ‘upon whom an abortion is performed or attempted to be performed’ from liability under the law,” Marshall said in an emailed statement. “It does not provide an across-the-board exemption from all criminal laws, including the chemical-endangerment law—which the Alabama Supreme Court has affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children.”
The announcement followed changes last week to regulations of two medications commonly prescribed for abortion. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a change that will allow brick-and-mortar and mail-order pharmacies to dispense mifepristone and misoprostol, two drugs used in more than half of abortions in the United States.
Before the change, people using medication for abortions had to […]
