Month: July 2014

Clearly completely out of productive idea, President Obama has
declared war on companies that dare to move their headquarters out
of the country. The White House website is even devoted to the
cause, with a big graphic of a 19th-century business-y bigwig in
top hat and pince nez, apparently puffing away on a…doobie? It
looks hand-rolled, anyway. This is supposed to be a bad guy, we
know, enjoying his new low-tax digs in Ireland or someplace.

But the oddly archaic image is matched only by the hoary,
counterproductive tax laws that drive corporations to seek shelter
outside the United States. That should be obvious from the fact
that the president’s argument against shopping for friendlier
venues rests almost entirely on questioning the patriotism of
businesses that take advantage of better deals elsewhere.

 

Babbled Barry
yesterday at Los Angeles Trade Technical College:

Even as corporate profits are higher than ever, there’s a small
but growing group of big corporations that are fleeing the country
to get out of paying taxes.

Well, hold on a second.  I want you—I say fleeing the
country, but they’re not actually do that.  They’re not
actually going anywhere.  They’re keeping most of their
business here.  They’re keeping usually their headquarters
here in the U.S.  They don’t want to give up the best
universities and the best military, and all the advantages of
operating in the United States.  They just don’t want to pay
for it.  So they’re technically renouncing their U.S.
citizenship.  They’re declaring they’re based someplace else
even though most of their operations are here.  Some people
are calling these companies “corporate deserters.”…

I’m not interested in punishing these companies.  But I am
interested in economic patriotism.  Instead of doubling down
on top-down economics, I want an economic patriotism that says we
rise or fall together, as one nation, and as one people.

Obama went on to admit that the practice is perfectly legal, so
it’s not clear what these companies could be punished for
(not that he wants to do that). But he does want to change that law
and keep companies from going overseas. A
helpful post by Lindsay Holst on the White House blog explains,
“The President’s FY 2015 Budget proposes that we do away with these
loopholes, ensuring that American companies pay taxes to the
country that made them great.”

You go, Barry! Stop those unpatriotic deserters from leaving
this great country of ours that they shouldn’t want to leave cuz
it’s so great!

But wait. Why are some corporations engaging in inversion? Aside
from their lack of patriotism, that is. A 2013
paper from the International Monetary Fund gives us a little
more background than the White House may want us to have.

All G-7 countries other than the United States have now adopted
territorial taxation (or a partial version thereof) for active
business income. A pure version of territorial taxation imposes tax
on active business income earned by corporations outside their
countries of residence only in the source (“host”) country,
incurring neither contemporaneous tax liability in the home
country, nor taxation on dividend repatriation from foreign
subsidiaries. Worldwide taxation is a system under which
corporations deemed “resident” in a country are taxable by that
country on their in come from all over the world…

Companies can defer taxes on overseas profits if they don’t
bring the money to the U.S., and many are doing that—to the

tune of over $2 trillion. But other countries allow companies
to have easier access to their money without taking a big bite of
profits made elsewhere.

Japan and the United Kingdom were the last two G-7 countries to
switch to territorial taxation. They also cut corporate tax rates.
In both cases, money flowed into the countries after the
change.

For the Heritage Foundation, Curtis S. Dubay
suggests the U.S. adopt a territorial system rather than
cracking down under its existing laws, since tightening an already
uncompetitive regime risks really sending businesses fleeing
elsewhere.

But it’s not just taxation of worldwide profits—the U.S. is
generally uncompetitive on the business tax front, according to
rankings
released last year by the consulting firm
PricewaterhouseCoopers. The U.S. ranks 64 out of 189 for ease of
paying business taxes, with a total tax rate of 46.3 percent, and
175 hours required to comply, with an average of 11 payments.

By contrast, Ireland, where several U.S. firms
recently relocated their headquarters, comes in at 6, with a
total tax rate of 25.7 percent, and 8o hours required to comply
with an average of nine payments.

And thene there’s Canada, at 8,with a total tax rate of 24.3
percent, 131 hours to comply, and eight payments.

Apparently, economic patriots are expected to insert themselves
into the grinding wheels of an expensive and inefficient
bureaucracy—and like it.

President Obama says he wants Americans to “rise or fall
together.” Not only is that creepy, but given the proposals he has
in mind, only lemmings would take him up on the offer.

Welcome to conspiracy world. Did Mike Adams, the
crackpot who runs the Natural News bogus supplement and
health information empire set up the Monsanto Collaborators
website which likens supporters of modern biotech crop science to
Nazis and calls for their deaths. The site specifically lists a
number of journalists and publications as collaborators worthy of a
final solution.

The folks over at anti-biotech website SeedFreedom have
republished Adams’ manifesto, “Biotech
genocide, Monsanto collaborators and the Nazi legacy of ‘science’
as justification for murder.” Adams pulls not punches when he
likens biotech researchers and supporters of science to Nazis. In
order to unmask their diabolical plots, he calls for the creation
of a website listing the evil collaborators. Here a few samples
pungent propaganda to savor:

Parallels to the Nazi regime are numerous. GMOs, after all, are
genetically engineered to either grow poison in the plant or to
resist deadly poisons sprayed on the crops. In both cases, GMOs
expose the public to toxic, cancer-causing chemicals that kill
people just as effectively (although not as quickly) as Zyklon B.
The Nazi Regime was also steeped in the use of deadly chemicals to
accomplish its goals, and just like the biotech industry, the Nazis
weren’t afraid to use human subjects as guinea pigs in large-scale
medical experiments…

…it is the moral right — and even the obligation — of
human beings everywhere to actively plan and carry out the killing
of those engaged in heinous crimes against
humanity.(emphasis his)…

Today, Monsanto collaborators — publishers, journalists and
scientists — have signed on to the Nazi genocide machine of our
day: the biotechnology industry and its evil desire to dominate the
world’s food supply and blanket the planet with deadly chemicals
that have been scientifically shown to cause horrific cancer
tumors. They use many of the same tactics as the Nazi regime, too:
intimidation, character assassination, threats and fabricated
disinformation. Hitler’s Ministry of Propaganda, it turns out, is
alive and well today in America. Its headquarters is not in Berlin
but St. Louis….

I’m hoping someone will create a website listing all the
publishers, scientists and journalists who are now Monsanto
propaganda collaborators. I have no doubt such a website would be
wildly popular and receive a huge influx of visitors, and it would
help preserve the historical record of exactly which people
contributed to the mass starvation and death which will inevitably
be unleashed by GMO agriculture (which is already causing mass
suicides in India and crop failures worldwide).

Deranged? Unhinged? Batshit crazy? Yes. Yes. Yes. And by the
way, Adams’ claims about suicide and crop failures due to biotech
are
completely false.

As we now know, some defender of natural goodness did set up
just such a website within a day or two of the publication of
Adams’ manifesto. Now Adams is furiously denying that he was
involved and is asserting that the cabal of Monsanto collaborators
actually set up the website as a way to discredit brave anti-GMO
truthtellers like himself. No, I’m not kidding. From Adams:

UPDATE 2: After careful analysis, I have come to the
conclusion that the Monsanto Collaborators website is a
bait-and-switch trap engineered by the biotech industry in an
effort to lure in support from GMO skeptics and then discredit them
with some sort of insane “call to action” of some kind.
Click here to see the evidence and reasoning on this. Because
of this, I am recommending that members of the GMO skeptics
community refrain from linking to or endorsing the Monsanto
Collaborators website.

There are clearly no lengths to which evil biotech masterminds
will not go to undermine the credibility and sully the reputations
of true humanitarians like Adams.

In any case, the folks over at the Genetics Literacy Project
(GLP), whose head Jon Entine, was listed one of the evil biotech
shills on the Monsanto Collaborators site
counter these protestations of innocence:

The GLP has been able to confirm that Adams is indeed
the mastermind and financier behind the Monsanto Collaborator’s
website. The story has now taken an even more bizarre twist, as
Adams, facing multiple investigations from law enforcement
officials, including the FBI, is now trying to make it appear that
not only did he not oversee the project, but that it was a set up
by Monsanto in a twisted plot to discredit anti-GMO
critics.

I look forward to seeing the GLP evidence and how Adams responds
to it.

For more background on this bizarre and disturbing case, see
reporting from alleged Monsanto collaborators
Keith Kloor and the
Genetics Literacy Project, as well as articles from
Mother Jones and the
Knight Science Journalism Center.

I will try to keep everyone posted about how this latest
outbreak of anti-GMO insanity plays out.

Welcome to conspiracy world. Did Mike Adams, the
crackpot who runs the Natural News bogus supplement and
health information empire set up the Monsanto Collaborators
website which likens supporters of modern biotech crop science to
Nazis and calls for their deaths. The site specifically lists a
number of journalists and publications as collaborators worthy of a
final solution.

The folks over at anti-biotech website SeedFreedom have
republished Adams’ manifesto, “Biotech
genocide, Monsanto collaborators and the Nazi legacy of ‘science’
as justification for murder.” Adams pulls not punches when he
likens biotech researchers and supporters of science to Nazis. In
order to unmask their diabolical plots, he calls for the creation
of a website listing the evil collaborators. Here a few samples
pungent propaganda to savor:

Parallels to the Nazi regime are numerous. GMOs, after all, are
genetically engineered to either grow poison in the plant or to
resist deadly poisons sprayed on the crops. In both cases, GMOs
expose the public to toxic, cancer-causing chemicals that kill
people just as effectively (although not as quickly) as Zyklon B.
The Nazi Regime was also steeped in the use of deadly chemicals to
accomplish its goals, and just like the biotech industry, the Nazis
weren’t afraid to use human subjects as guinea pigs in large-scale
medical experiments…

…it is the moral right — and even the obligation — of
human beings everywhere to actively plan and carry out the killing
of those engaged in heinous crimes against
humanity.(emphasis his)…

Today, Monsanto collaborators — publishers, journalists and
scientists — have signed on to the Nazi genocide machine of our
day: the biotechnology industry and its evil desire to dominate the
world’s food supply and blanket the planet with deadly chemicals
that have been scientifically shown to cause horrific cancer
tumors. They use many of the same tactics as the Nazi regime, too:
intimidation, character assassination, threats and fabricated
disinformation. Hitler’s Ministry of Propaganda, it turns out, is
alive and well today in America. Its headquarters is not in Berlin
but St. Louis….

I’m hoping someone will create a website listing all the
publishers, scientists and journalists who are now Monsanto
propaganda collaborators. I have no doubt such a website would be
wildly popular and receive a huge influx of visitors, and it would
help preserve the historical record of exactly which people
contributed to the mass starvation and death which will inevitably
be unleashed by GMO agriculture (which is already causing mass
suicides in India and crop failures worldwide).

Deranged? Unhinged? Batshit crazy? Yes. Yes. Yes. And by the
way, Adams’ claims about suicide and crop failures due to biotech
are
completely false.

As we now know, some defender of natural goodness did set up
just such a website within a day or two of the publication of
Adams’ manifesto. Now Adams is furiously denying that he was
involved and is asserting that the cabal of Monsanto collaborators
actually set up the website as a way to discredit brave anti-GMO
truthtellers like himself. No, I’m not kidding. From Adams:

UPDATE 2: After careful analysis, I have come to the
conclusion that the Monsanto Collaborators website is a
bait-and-switch trap engineered by the biotech industry in an
effort to lure in support from GMO skeptics and then discredit them
with some sort of insane “call to action” of some kind.
Click here to see the evidence and reasoning on this. Because
of this, I am recommending that members of the GMO skeptics
community refrain from linking to or endorsing the Monsanto
Collaborators website.

There are clearly no lengths to which evil biotech masterminds
will not go to undermine the credibility and sully the reputations
of true humanitarians like Adams.

In any case, the folks over at the Genetics Literacy Project
(GLP), whose head Jon Entine, was listed one of the evil biotech
shills on the Monsanto Collaborators site
counter these protestations of innocence:

The GLP has been able to confirm that Adams is indeed
the mastermind and financier behind the Monsanto Collaborator’s
website. The story has now taken an even more bizarre twist, as
Adams, facing multiple investigations from law enforcement
officials, including the FBI, is now trying to make it appear that
not only did he not oversee the project, but that it was a set up
by Monsanto in a twisted plot to discredit anti-GMO
critics.

I look forward to seeing the GLP evidence and how Adams responds
to it.

For more background on this bizarre and disturbing case, see
reporting from alleged Monsanto collaborators
Keith Kloor and the
Genetics Literacy Project, as well as articles from
Mother Jones and the
Knight Science Journalism Center.

I will try to keep everyone posted about how this latest
outbreak of anti-GMO insanity plays out.

On the heels of reporting the
trend of New York City Taxi and Limousine Officials
improperly seizing cars under extremely dubious claims that
they are illegal cabs (when they were actually transporting friends
or family members of the driver), DNAInfo New York spoke
with several inspectors who
lay the blame on quotas:

[Alan] Kaeckmeister, and three other TLC enforcement sources who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that while inspectors are
tasked with policing yellow cabs and livery cabs, seizing cars
suspected of being illegal taxis has become the main focus.

They said the reason is money.

While illegal cab seizures may be a gold mine for a city — those
found guilty must pay a fine of at least $600 — the push is also
leading to innocent drivers losing their cars, Kaeckmeister and the
other sources said.

“They’re stopping cars without legal justification all the
time,” said Kaeckmeister, who in the past year has gone to two
tribunal hearings to testify before a judge that his superiors
forced him to seize a car when he didn’t have the evidence to do
so.

DNAInfo described one case where a driver actually
thought a taxi commission chief was trying to carjack him. They
tussled, and the driver was arrested, but subsequently cleared of
allegations by a tribunal.

A commission spokesperson has responded to DNAInfo‘s
reporting by saying all the terrible incidents that have happened
took place under the previous leadership. With the Bill de Blasio
administration comes a new commissioner, Meera Joshi. She has
mandated “refresher training” of the protocol for seizing vehicles
and has ordered additional dashboard cameras.

But the whole problem with calling more training is the silly
assumption that these officials don’t know exactly what they’re
doing. DNAInfo was told by anonymous sources that
underperforming officers are threatened with bad shifts and other
forms of retribution. Kaeckmeister said an assistant commissioner
once told inspectors that he would not lobby for them to receive
pay raises because they weren’t snagging enough cars.
DNAInfo concludes its latest report:

As for Kaeckmeister, he has given up on a career in law
enforcement and is now pursuing a master’s degree in divinity and
hopes to become a chaplain.

In a 12-page statement he submitted to the DOI last year, he
summed up his frustration with the TLC.

“I wanted an entry-level law enforcement position and to help
people,” he wrote. “However, within a few weeks of starting
actually working with the TLC, I can see that the TLC doesn’t offer
any real value to the public and the enforcement section of it is
more or less just a corrupt money-making scam for the city.”

In other transportation news from the Big Apple,
Lyft will start offering its ride-sharing services there today,
after agreeing to submit to the taxi commission’s various
regulations. 

On the heels of reporting the
trend of New York City Taxi and Limousine Officials
improperly seizing cars under extremely dubious claims that
they are illegal cabs (when they were actually transporting friends
or family members of the driver), DNAInfo New York spoke
with several inspectors who
lay the blame on quotas:

[Alan] Kaeckmeister, and three other TLC enforcement sources who
spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that while inspectors are
tasked with policing yellow cabs and livery cabs, seizing cars
suspected of being illegal taxis has become the main focus.

They said the reason is money.

While illegal cab seizures may be a gold mine for a city — those
found guilty must pay a fine of at least $600 — the push is also
leading to innocent drivers losing their cars, Kaeckmeister and the
other sources said.

“They’re stopping cars without legal justification all the
time,” said Kaeckmeister, who in the past year has gone to two
tribunal hearings to testify before a judge that his superiors
forced him to seize a car when he didn’t have the evidence to do
so.

DNAInfo described one case where a driver actually
thought a taxi commission chief was trying to carjack him. They
tussled, and the driver was arrested, but subsequently cleared of
allegations by a tribunal.

A commission spokesperson has responded to DNAInfo‘s
reporting by saying all the terrible incidents that have happened
took place under the previous leadership. With the Bill de Blasio
administration comes a new commissioner, Meera Joshi. She has
mandated “refresher training” of the protocol for seizing vehicles
and has ordered additional dashboard cameras.

But the whole problem with calling more training is the silly
assumption that these officials don’t know exactly what they’re
doing. DNAInfo was told by anonymous sources that
underperforming officers are threatened with bad shifts and other
forms of retribution. Kaeckmeister said an assistant commissioner
once told inspectors that he would not lobby for them to receive
pay raises because they weren’t snagging enough cars.
DNAInfo concludes its latest report:

As for Kaeckmeister, he has given up on a career in law
enforcement and is now pursuing a master’s degree in divinity and
hopes to become a chaplain.

In a 12-page statement he submitted to the DOI last year, he
summed up his frustration with the TLC.

“I wanted an entry-level law enforcement position and to help
people,” he wrote. “However, within a few weeks of starting
actually working with the TLC, I can see that the TLC doesn’t offer
any real value to the public and the enforcement section of it is
more or less just a corrupt money-making scam for the city.”

In other transportation news from the Big Apple,
Lyft will start offering its ride-sharing services there today,
after agreeing to submit to the taxi commission’s various
regulations.