.
6/29/16, "Japan's top court has approved blanket surveillance of the country's Muslims," UK Independent, Matt Payton
"Japan's Supreme Court has upheld the government's blanket surveillance of the country's Muslim community.
The court struck down the second appeal by Japanese Muslim plaintiffs
against what they perceive as an unconstitutional invasion of their
privacy and freedom of religion.
A 2010 leak of 114 police files
revealed nationwide surveillance of Japanese Muslims. The files revealed
that Muslim places of worship, halal restaurants and Islam-related
organisations across the capital, Tokyo, were being monitored.
Within a few weeks of the leak, the data had been downloaded 10,000 times in 20 different countries from a file-sharing website. A group of 17 Japanese Muslims, mostly from Middle Eastern and North
African countries, decided to sue the Japanese government for infringing
on their constitutional rights.
Mohamed Fujita, a native of Japan who converted to Islam over 20
years ago, is one of the 17 plaintiffs fighting the surveillance.
He told Al Jazeera: "They made us terrorist suspects, we never did anything wrong - on the contrary."
The Supreme Court finally dismissed the case after two appeals on 31 May.
The plaintiffs were awarded ¥90 million ($880,000) as compensation due to violation of their privacy by the leak. However, the presiding judges did not make a judgment on police
profiling and surveillance tactics which a lower court had upheld as
"necessary and inevitable" to guard against international terrorism.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Junko Hayashi said: "We were told we don't have a constitutional case, we're still trying to figure out how it is not constitutional."
Speaking at a Tokyo symposium on government surveillance via weblink,
NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden said: "People of the Islamic faith are
more likely to be targeted...despite not having any criminal
activities or associations or anything like that in their background,
simply because people are afraid.""
=====================
Comment: Why are they "afraid," Edward? Because their government knowingly participates in the genocide of its citizens. Citizens are defenseless and "afraid." OK?
....................
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Per NBC News Wall St. Journal poll, voters prefer Trump to Hillary on major issues: Dealing with economy +10, Being honest and straightforward +16, Standing up for America +8, Terrorism and Homeland Security +5, gun issue +8, Changing business as usual in Washington +30. June 19-23, 2016, 1000 registered voters nationwide
.
6/27/16, "NBC News/ Wall St. Journal Survey"
Poll dates, June 19-23, 2016, 1000 registered voters nationwide, 43% Dem, 39% Repub., 11% Independent (p. 26). 47 Male, 53 Female (+6 female), p. 1. Error margin, 3.1%. "450 respondents reached with cell phone only, 50 respondents reached on a cell phone but who also have a landline."...
June 2016, among registered voters nationally:
page 10, Top priority of fed. gov. should be:
28 National security and terrorism
22 Job creation and economic growth
14 The deficit and government spending
=================
page 25: For whom did you vote in 2012 (if you voted)?
42 Obama
31 Romney
9 Someone else
15 Did not vote
=================
page 26: Political party identification
Totals:
43 Democrat (strong, not strong, lean)
39 Republican (strong, not strong, lean)
11 Strictly Independent
How strong:
22 Strong Democrat
9 Not very strong Democrat
12 Independent/Lean Democrat
....................
11 Strictly Independent
....................
9 Independent/Lean Republican
9 Not very strong Republican
21 Strong Republican
5 Other
2 Not sure
============
page 27, Do you or does anyone in your household own a gun?
45 Yes
50 No
5 Not sure
=====================
page 12, Presidential preference today among Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson (Libertarian), and Jill Stein (Green):
Hillary 39
Trump 38
Johnson 10
Stein 6
None, other, not sure 7
=========
page 12, Presidential preference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump only:
Hillary 46
Trump 41
----------------
page 12, If you didn't prefer either Hillary or Trump, but there were no other candidates, and you were voting today, which would you choose?
Hillary 30
Trump 29
Not sure 41
------------------
Comparing Trump and Hillary on major concerns:
page 17, Who would be better, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
"Changing business as usual in Washington"
Trump 53
Hillary 23
======================
page 17, "Dealing with the economy"
Trump 47
Hillary 37
==================
page 17, "Standing up for America"
Trump 45
Hillary 37
--------------
page 17, "Terrorism and Homeland Security:
Trump 44
Hillary 39
........................
p. 17, "The gun issue"
Trump 43
Hillary 35
....................
page 18, Who would be better, Trump or Hillary?
"Being effective at getting things done"
Trump 42
Hillary 39
...............................
page 18, "Being honest and straightforward"
Trump 41
Hillary 25
============
page 22, Which worries you more, that the US won't go far enough in monitoring potential terrorists living in the US, or won't go far enough? (Asked of one half the respondents, Form A)
54 Will not go far enough
39 Will go too far
..........................
page 24, Recently, Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown temporarily" of Muslims entering the US. What is your view on this?
23 Strongly favor
11 Somewhat favor
13 Somewhat oppose
36 Strongly oppose
17 No opinion either way
---------------------------
https://www.scribd.com/doc/316881192/Nbcwsj-June-Poll
========
Ed. note: Tiny text above in subhead, "Comparing Trump and Hillary on major concerns" is by order of google. I added a screen shot in legible type above the tiny text. This is how obsessed google is with preventing or sabotaging speech it disagrees with.
=====================
6/27/16, "NBC News/ Wall St. Journal Survey"
Poll dates, June 19-23, 2016, 1000 registered voters nationwide, 43% Dem, 39% Repub., 11% Independent (p. 26). 47 Male, 53 Female (+6 female), p. 1. Error margin, 3.1%. "450 respondents reached with cell phone only, 50 respondents reached on a cell phone but who also have a landline."...
June 2016, among registered voters nationally:
page 10, Top priority of fed. gov. should be:
28 National security and terrorism
22 Job creation and economic growth
14 The deficit and government spending
=================
page 25: For whom did you vote in 2012 (if you voted)?
42 Obama
31 Romney
9 Someone else
15 Did not vote
=================
page 26: Political party identification
Totals:
43 Democrat (strong, not strong, lean)
39 Republican (strong, not strong, lean)
11 Strictly Independent
How strong:
22 Strong Democrat
9 Not very strong Democrat
12 Independent/Lean Democrat
....................
11 Strictly Independent
....................
9 Independent/Lean Republican
9 Not very strong Republican
21 Strong Republican
5 Other
2 Not sure
============
page 27, Do you or does anyone in your household own a gun?
45 Yes
50 No
5 Not sure
=====================
page 12, Presidential preference today among Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, Gary Johnson (Libertarian), and Jill Stein (Green):
Hillary 39
Trump 38
Johnson 10
Stein 6
None, other, not sure 7
=========
page 12, Presidential preference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump only:
Hillary 46
Trump 41
----------------
page 12, If you didn't prefer either Hillary or Trump, but there were no other candidates, and you were voting today, which would you choose?
Hillary 30
Trump 29
Not sure 41
------------------
Comparing Trump and Hillary on major concerns:
page 17, Who would be better, Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
"Changing business as usual in Washington"
Trump 53
Hillary 23
======================
page 17, "Dealing with the economy"
Trump 47
Hillary 37
==================
page 17, "Standing up for America"
Trump 45
Hillary 37
--------------
page 17, "Terrorism and Homeland Security:
Trump 44
Hillary 39
........................
p. 17, "The gun issue"
Trump 43
Hillary 35
....................
page 18, Who would be better, Trump or Hillary?
"Being effective at getting things done"
Trump 42
Hillary 39
...............................
page 18, "Being honest and straightforward"
Trump 41
Hillary 25
============
page 22, Which worries you more, that the US won't go far enough in monitoring potential terrorists living in the US, or won't go far enough? (Asked of one half the respondents, Form A)
54 Will not go far enough
39 Will go too far
..........................
page 24, Recently, Donald Trump has called for a "total and complete shutdown temporarily" of Muslims entering the US. What is your view on this?
23 Strongly favor
11 Somewhat favor
13 Somewhat oppose
36 Strongly oppose
17 No opinion either way
---------------------------
https://www.scribd.com/doc/316881192/Nbcwsj-June-Poll
========
Ed. note: Tiny text above in subhead, "Comparing Trump and Hillary on major concerns" is by order of google. I added a screen shot in legible type above the tiny text. This is how obsessed google is with preventing or sabotaging speech it disagrees with.
=====================
Current head of EU, Juncker, gave billions in tax breaks to fat cats when he was Luxembourg Prime Minister. No jail time for EU's Juncker--jail time is demanded for whistleblowers who made Juncker look bad in LuxLeaks-BBC (Where is everybody invoking Hitler and Nazis when such comparisons actually apply?)
.
"In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent."
6/29/16, "LuxLeaks scandal: Luxembourg tax whistleblowers convicted," BBC
Former
PricewaterhouseCoopers employees Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet
received 12 and nine-month sentences respectively for leaking documents.
Prosecutors had sought 18-month jail terms for the two men. Edouard Perrin, a journalist who reported on the leaks, was acquitted of all charges.
Deltour, 31, and Halet, 40, also received suspended fines of €1,500 (£1,250; $1,650) and €1,000 respectively.
They have 40 days to appeal against the verdict. Deltour told Agence France-Presse that he intended to do so.
The prosecution accused Deltour and Halet of theft and said they violated a confidentiality agreement in their employment contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The two men faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.
The 30,000 pages of documents leaked by the whistleblowers exposed favourable tax arrangements offered by Luxembourg to some of the world's biggest companies - including Apple, Ikea, and Pepsi - while Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister....
The same data received wider coverage after an international investigation of the data organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
But despite the revelations prompting parliamentary debates, select committee hearings, and an EU probe into anti-competitive tax deals, it is the two former employees of PWC and Edouard Perrin who ended up in the dock.
Although they have been given suspended sentences, the guilty verdicts for the two former PWC employees are likely to increase calls for more robust protections for whistleblowers....
The leak was the biggest expose of corporate tax deals until last month's publication of the Panama Papers, which revealed links between a number of international leaders and offshore shell companies that can be used to hide or launder wealth."
Juncker in 2011, above image caption: "Wrong man for the job': Jean-Claude Juncker tucks into his food - and wine - at a European finance ministers' meeting in 2011. A senior diplomatic source claims Mr Juncker 'reportedly has cognac for breakfast'," Reuters via Daily Mail
=================
May 2016 article
5/15/16, "LuxLeaks trial: Prosecutor demands jail for 'whistleblowers'," BBC
"The files showed how Luxembourg granted lucrative tax breaks that saved firms including Apple, Ikea and Pepsi billions of dollars in taxes, at a time when Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister....
The documents were originally used for a 2012 report on French public television in collaboration with the BBC's Panorama. They gained international interest in 2014 with the huge "LuxLeaks" dump of all 30,000 pages into the public domain.
LuxLeaks was the biggest expose of corporate tax deals until last month's publication of the Panama Papers, which revealed links between a number of international leaders and offshore shell companies that can be used to hide or launder wealth."
..........................
Nov. 2014 report:
"In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent....Disclosure of the leaked documents comes at a sensitive time for Luxembourg, a nation with a population of less than 550,000. Amid the EU probe of Luxembourg’s tax deals, former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is in his first week in office as president of the European Commission, one of the most powerful positions in the EU....The European Union and Luxembourg have been fighting for months over Luxembourg’s reluctance to turn over information about its tax rulings to the EU, which is investigating whether the country’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat Finance violate European law. Luxembourg officials have supplied some information to the EU but have refused, EU officials say, to provide a larger set of documents relating to its tax rulings."...
11/5/2014, "Leaked Documents Expose Global Companies’ Secret Tax Deals in Luxembourg," Int. Consortium of Investigative Journalism, icij.org, by Leslie Wayne, Kelly Carr, Marina Walker Guevara, Mar Cabra and Michael Hudson
""The landlocked European duchy has been called a “magical fairyland” for brand-name corporations seeking to drastically reduce tax bills.
Pepsi, IKEA, FedEx and 340 other international companies have secured secret deals from Luxembourg, allowing many of them to slash their global tax bills while maintaining little presence in the tiny European duchy, leaked documents show.
These companies appear to have channeled hundreds of billions of dollars through Luxembourg and saved billions of dollars in taxes, according to a review of nearly 28,000 pages of confidential documents conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a team of more than 80 journalists from 26 countries.
Big companies can book big tax savings by creating complicated accounting and legal structures that move profits to low-tax Luxembourg from higher-tax countries where they’re headquartered or do lots of business. In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent on the profits they’ve shuffled into Luxembourg.
The leaked documents reviewed by ICIJ journalists include hundreds of private tax rulings – sometimes known as “comfort letters” – that Luxembourg provides to corporations seeking favorable tax treatment.
The European Union and Luxembourg have been fighting for months over Luxembourg’s reluctance to turn over information about its tax rulings to the EU, which is investigating whether the country’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat Finance violate European law. Luxembourg officials have supplied some information to the EU but have refused, EU officials say, to provide a larger set of documents relating to its tax rulings.
Today ICIJ and its media partners are releasing a large cache of Luxembourg tax rulings – 548 comfort letters issued from 2002 to 2010 – and reporting on their contents in stories that will be published or broadcast in dozens of countries. It’s unclear whether any of these documents are among those still being sought by EU investigators, but they are the kinds of documents that go to the heart of the EU’s investigation into Luxembourg’s tax rulings.
The leaked documents reviewed by ICIJ involve deals negotiated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, on behalf of hundreds of corporate clients. To qualify the companies for tax relief, the records show, PwC tax advisers helped come up with financial strategies that feature loans among sister companies and other moves designed to shift profits from one part of a corporation to another to reduce or eliminate taxable income.
The records show, for example, that Memphis-based FedEx Corp. set up two Luxembourg affiliates to shuffle earnings from its Mexican, French and Brazilian operations to FedEx affiliates in Hong Kong. Profits moved from Mexico to Luxembourg largely as tax-free dividends. Luxembourg agreed to tax only one quarter of 1 percent of FedEx’s non-dividend income flowing through this arrangement – leaving the remaining 99.75 percent tax-free.
“A Luxembourg structure is a way of stripping income from whatever country it comes from,’’ said Stephen E. Shay, a professor of international taxation at Harvard Law School and a former tax official in the U.S. Treasury Department. The Grand Duchy, he said, “combines enormous flexibility to set up tax reduction schemes, along with binding tax rulings that are unique. It’s like a magical fairyland.”
FedEx declined comment on the specifics of its Luxembourg tax arrangements. Other companies seeking tax deals from Luxembourg come from private equity, real estate, banking, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and other industries, the leaked files show. They include Accenture, Abbott Laboratories, American International Group (AIG), Amazon, Blackstone, Deutsche Bank, the Coach handbag empire, H.J. Heinz, JP Morgan Chase, Burberry, Procter & Gamble, the Carlyle Group and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
For their part, Luxembourg’s officials and defenders say the landlocked nation’s system of private tax agreements is above reproach.
“No way are these sweetheart deals,” Nicolas Mackel, chief executive of Luxembourg for Finance, a quasi-governmental agency, said in an interview with ICIJ.
“The Luxembourg system of taxation is competitive – there is nothing unfair or unethical about it,” Mackel said. “If companies manage to reduce their tax bills to a very low rate, that’s a problem not of one tax system but of the interaction of many tax systems.”
Less than 1%
Disclosure of the leaked documents comes at a sensitive time for Luxembourg, a nation with a population of less than 550,000. Amid the EU probe of Luxembourg’s tax deals, former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is in his first week in office as president of the European Commission, one of the most powerful positions in the EU.
Juncker, Luxembourg’s top leader when many of the jurisdiction’s tax breaks were crafted, has promised to crack down on tax dodging in his new post, but he has also said he believes his own country’s tax regime is in “full accordance” with European law. Under Luxembourg’s system, tax advisers from PwC and other firms can present proposals for corporate structures and transactions designed to create tax savings and then get written assurance that their plan will be viewed favorably by the duchy’s Ministry of Finance.
“It’s like taking your tax plan to the government and getting it blessed ahead of time,” said Richard D. Pomp, a tax law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “And most are blessed. Luxembourg has a very user-friendly tax department.”
The private deals are legal in Luxembourg but may be subject to legal challenge outside the country if tax officials in other nations view them as improper.
Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement that “advance tax decisions” are “well established in many EU member states, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Luxembourg” and that they don’t conflict with European law as long as “all taxpayers in a similar situation are treated equally.”
PwC said ICIJ’s reporting is based on “outdated” and “stolen” information, “the theft of which is in the hands of the relevant authorities.” It said its tax advice and assistance are “given in accordance with applicable local, European and international tax laws and agreements and is guided by a PwC Global Tax Code of Conduct.”
In its statement PwC said media do not have “a complete understanding of the structures involved.” While the company can’t comment on specific client matters, it rejects “any suggestion that there is anything improper about the firm’s work.”
ICIJ and its media partners used corporate balance sheets, regulatory filings and court records to put the leaked tax rulings in context. News organizations that have worked together on the six-month investigation include
The Guardian,
Süddeutsche Zeitung and
NDR/WDR in Germany, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
Le Monde,
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun,
CNBC,
Denmark’s Politiken,
Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo and others.
U.S. and U.K. companies appeared more frequently in the leaked files than companies from any other country, followed by firms from Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. Most of the rulings in the stash of documents were approved between 2008 and 2010. Some of them were first reported on in 2012 by Edouard Perrin for France 2 public television and by the BBC, but most of the PwC documents have never before been analyzed by reporters.
The files do not include tax deals sought from Luxembourg authorities through other accounting firms. And many of the documents do not include explicit figures for how much money the companies expected to shift through Luxembourg.
Experts who’ve reviewed the files for ICIJ say the documents do make it clear, though, that the companies and their advisors at PwC engaged in aggressive tax-reduction strategies, using Luxembourg
in combination with other tax havens such as
Gibraltar,
Delaware and
Ireland."...
Among deals documents show:
"Belgium’s richest family, the billionaire de Spoelberch dynasty, obtained a private tax ruling from Luxembourg in 2008. The de Spoelberch clan, part of the country’s old nobility and close to the royal family, holds a big stake in ABInbev, the world’s biggest brewer whose labels include Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona and Beck’s. The records indicate the de Spoelberch’s routed €2 billion through Ireland and then Luxembourg, reducing taxes with each step. The only sign of Luxembourg companies controlled by the family appears to be
a small letter box at an address that lists nearly
190 other companies
....
Gilded Age
Last month, in the Gilded Age splendor of New York’s private Metropolitan Club, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s minister of finance, tried to woo the Wall Street crowd with some premier cru wine and a little levity. He told assembled financiers that he wanted to dispel the myth that his tiny country is nothing more than a tax haven: “Luxembourg is not an offshore place. I say it loud and clear.”
What he got back was hearty round of laughter.
In the wake of the EU’s probe of its tax practices, Luxembourg officials continue to bristle at their nation’s tax haven label. The country, a founding member of the EU, boasts of being a multi-lingual nation in the heart of Europe with a business-friendly and stable government. Once primarily a steel-maker and manufacturer, Luxembourg has transitioned into a financial center rivaling London, New York or Hong Kong. With $3.7 trillion in assets under management by banks and other institutions, Luxembourg is second only to the U.S. as a global investment center.
More than 170 of the Fortune 500 companies have a Luxembourg branch, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. A total of $95 billion in profits from American corporations’ overseas operations flowed through Luxembourg in 2012, the most current statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show. On those profits, corporations paid $1.04 billion in taxes to Luxembourg- just 1.1 percent.
Other tax havens, Ireland for example, openly advertise rock-bottom corporate tax rates of 12.5 percent. Luxembourg instead maintains a statutory tax rate of 29 percent, but the leaked files show that the duchy has routinely approved tax rulings that whittle down what counts as taxable income to practically nothing.
This can drop Luxembourg’s effective tax rate deep into single digits."...
............
"In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent."
 |
| Juncker in 2011 |
6/29/16, "LuxLeaks scandal: Luxembourg tax whistleblowers convicted," BBC
"Two whistleblowers have been found
guilty in the so-called "Luxleaks" tax scandal and given suspended
sentences, while a journalist has been acquitted.
Prosecutors had sought 18-month jail terms for the two men. Edouard Perrin, a journalist who reported on the leaks, was acquitted of all charges.
Deltour, 31, and Halet, 40, also received suspended fines of €1,500 (£1,250; $1,650) and €1,000 respectively.
They have 40 days to appeal against the verdict. Deltour told Agence France-Presse that he intended to do so.
The prosecution accused Deltour and Halet of theft and said they violated a confidentiality agreement in their employment contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The two men faced a maximum sentence of 10 years.
The 30,000 pages of documents leaked by the whistleblowers exposed favourable tax arrangements offered by Luxembourg to some of the world's biggest companies - including Apple, Ikea, and Pepsi - while Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister....
The same data received wider coverage after an international investigation of the data organised by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
But despite the revelations prompting parliamentary debates, select committee hearings, and an EU probe into anti-competitive tax deals, it is the two former employees of PWC and Edouard Perrin who ended up in the dock.
Although they have been given suspended sentences, the guilty verdicts for the two former PWC employees are likely to increase calls for more robust protections for whistleblowers....
The leak was the biggest expose of corporate tax deals until last month's publication of the Panama Papers, which revealed links between a number of international leaders and offshore shell companies that can be used to hide or launder wealth."
Juncker in 2011, above image caption: "Wrong man for the job': Jean-Claude Juncker tucks into his food - and wine - at a European finance ministers' meeting in 2011. A senior diplomatic source claims Mr Juncker 'reportedly has cognac for breakfast'," Reuters via Daily Mail
=================
May 2016 article
5/15/16, "LuxLeaks trial: Prosecutor demands jail for 'whistleblowers'," BBC
"The files showed how Luxembourg granted lucrative tax breaks that saved firms including Apple, Ikea and Pepsi billions of dollars in taxes, at a time when Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister....
The documents were originally used for a 2012 report on French public television in collaboration with the BBC's Panorama. They gained international interest in 2014 with the huge "LuxLeaks" dump of all 30,000 pages into the public domain.
LuxLeaks was the biggest expose of corporate tax deals until last month's publication of the Panama Papers, which revealed links between a number of international leaders and offshore shell companies that can be used to hide or launder wealth."
..........................
Nov. 2014 report:
"In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent....Disclosure of the leaked documents comes at a sensitive time for Luxembourg, a nation with a population of less than 550,000. Amid the EU probe of Luxembourg’s tax deals, former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is in his first week in office as president of the European Commission, one of the most powerful positions in the EU....The European Union and Luxembourg have been fighting for months over Luxembourg’s reluctance to turn over information about its tax rulings to the EU, which is investigating whether the country’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat Finance violate European law. Luxembourg officials have supplied some information to the EU but have refused, EU officials say, to provide a larger set of documents relating to its tax rulings."...
11/5/2014, "Leaked Documents Expose Global Companies’ Secret Tax Deals in Luxembourg," Int. Consortium of Investigative Journalism, icij.org, by Leslie Wayne, Kelly Carr, Marina Walker Guevara, Mar Cabra and Michael Hudson
""The landlocked European duchy has been called a “magical fairyland” for brand-name corporations seeking to drastically reduce tax bills.
Pepsi, IKEA, FedEx and 340 other international companies have secured secret deals from Luxembourg, allowing many of them to slash their global tax bills while maintaining little presence in the tiny European duchy, leaked documents show.
These companies appear to have channeled hundreds of billions of dollars through Luxembourg and saved billions of dollars in taxes, according to a review of nearly 28,000 pages of confidential documents conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and a team of more than 80 journalists from 26 countries.
Big companies can book big tax savings by creating complicated accounting and legal structures that move profits to low-tax Luxembourg from higher-tax countries where they’re headquartered or do lots of business. In some instances, the leaked records indicate, companies have enjoyed effective tax rates of less than 1 percent on the profits they’ve shuffled into Luxembourg.
The leaked documents reviewed by ICIJ journalists include hundreds of private tax rulings – sometimes known as “comfort letters” – that Luxembourg provides to corporations seeking favorable tax treatment.
The European Union and Luxembourg have been fighting for months over Luxembourg’s reluctance to turn over information about its tax rulings to the EU, which is investigating whether the country’s tax deals with Amazon and Fiat Finance violate European law. Luxembourg officials have supplied some information to the EU but have refused, EU officials say, to provide a larger set of documents relating to its tax rulings.
Today ICIJ and its media partners are releasing a large cache of Luxembourg tax rulings – 548 comfort letters issued from 2002 to 2010 – and reporting on their contents in stories that will be published or broadcast in dozens of countries. It’s unclear whether any of these documents are among those still being sought by EU investigators, but they are the kinds of documents that go to the heart of the EU’s investigation into Luxembourg’s tax rulings.
The leaked documents reviewed by ICIJ involve deals negotiated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, on behalf of hundreds of corporate clients. To qualify the companies for tax relief, the records show, PwC tax advisers helped come up with financial strategies that feature loans among sister companies and other moves designed to shift profits from one part of a corporation to another to reduce or eliminate taxable income.
The records show, for example, that Memphis-based FedEx Corp. set up two Luxembourg affiliates to shuffle earnings from its Mexican, French and Brazilian operations to FedEx affiliates in Hong Kong. Profits moved from Mexico to Luxembourg largely as tax-free dividends. Luxembourg agreed to tax only one quarter of 1 percent of FedEx’s non-dividend income flowing through this arrangement – leaving the remaining 99.75 percent tax-free.
“A Luxembourg structure is a way of stripping income from whatever country it comes from,’’ said Stephen E. Shay, a professor of international taxation at Harvard Law School and a former tax official in the U.S. Treasury Department. The Grand Duchy, he said, “combines enormous flexibility to set up tax reduction schemes, along with binding tax rulings that are unique. It’s like a magical fairyland.”
FedEx declined comment on the specifics of its Luxembourg tax arrangements. Other companies seeking tax deals from Luxembourg come from private equity, real estate, banking, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and other industries, the leaked files show. They include Accenture, Abbott Laboratories, American International Group (AIG), Amazon, Blackstone, Deutsche Bank, the Coach handbag empire, H.J. Heinz, JP Morgan Chase, Burberry, Procter & Gamble, the Carlyle Group and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
For their part, Luxembourg’s officials and defenders say the landlocked nation’s system of private tax agreements is above reproach.
“No way are these sweetheart deals,” Nicolas Mackel, chief executive of Luxembourg for Finance, a quasi-governmental agency, said in an interview with ICIJ.
“The Luxembourg system of taxation is competitive – there is nothing unfair or unethical about it,” Mackel said. “If companies manage to reduce their tax bills to a very low rate, that’s a problem not of one tax system but of the interaction of many tax systems.”
Less than 1%
Disclosure of the leaked documents comes at a sensitive time for Luxembourg, a nation with a population of less than 550,000. Amid the EU probe of Luxembourg’s tax deals, former Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker is in his first week in office as president of the European Commission, one of the most powerful positions in the EU.
Juncker, Luxembourg’s top leader when many of the jurisdiction’s tax breaks were crafted, has promised to crack down on tax dodging in his new post, but he has also said he believes his own country’s tax regime is in “full accordance” with European law. Under Luxembourg’s system, tax advisers from PwC and other firms can present proposals for corporate structures and transactions designed to create tax savings and then get written assurance that their plan will be viewed favorably by the duchy’s Ministry of Finance.
“It’s like taking your tax plan to the government and getting it blessed ahead of time,” said Richard D. Pomp, a tax law professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law. “And most are blessed. Luxembourg has a very user-friendly tax department.”
The private deals are legal in Luxembourg but may be subject to legal challenge outside the country if tax officials in other nations view them as improper.
Luxembourg’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement that “advance tax decisions” are “well established in many EU member states, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, the U.K. and Luxembourg” and that they don’t conflict with European law as long as “all taxpayers in a similar situation are treated equally.”
PwC said ICIJ’s reporting is based on “outdated” and “stolen” information, “the theft of which is in the hands of the relevant authorities.” It said its tax advice and assistance are “given in accordance with applicable local, European and international tax laws and agreements and is guided by a PwC Global Tax Code of Conduct.”
In its statement PwC said media do not have “a complete understanding of the structures involved.” While the company can’t comment on specific client matters, it rejects “any suggestion that there is anything improper about the firm’s work.”
ICIJ and its media partners used corporate balance sheets, regulatory filings and court records to put the leaked tax rulings in context. News organizations that have worked together on the six-month investigation include
The Guardian,
Süddeutsche Zeitung and
NDR/WDR in Germany, the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
Le Monde,
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun,
CNBC,
Denmark’s Politiken,
Brazil’s Folha de S. Paulo and others.
U.S. and U.K. companies appeared more frequently in the leaked files than companies from any other country, followed by firms from Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. Most of the rulings in the stash of documents were approved between 2008 and 2010. Some of them were first reported on in 2012 by Edouard Perrin for France 2 public television and by the BBC, but most of the PwC documents have never before been analyzed by reporters.
The files do not include tax deals sought from Luxembourg authorities through other accounting firms. And many of the documents do not include explicit figures for how much money the companies expected to shift through Luxembourg.
Experts who’ve reviewed the files for ICIJ say the documents do make it clear, though, that the companies and their advisors at PwC engaged in aggressive tax-reduction strategies, using Luxembourg
in combination with other tax havens such as
Gibraltar,
Delaware and
Ireland."...
Among deals documents show:
"Belgium’s richest family, the billionaire de Spoelberch dynasty, obtained a private tax ruling from Luxembourg in 2008. The de Spoelberch clan, part of the country’s old nobility and close to the royal family, holds a big stake in ABInbev, the world’s biggest brewer whose labels include Budweiser, Stella Artois, Corona and Beck’s. The records indicate the de Spoelberch’s routed €2 billion through Ireland and then Luxembourg, reducing taxes with each step. The only sign of Luxembourg companies controlled by the family appears to be
a small letter box at an address that lists nearly
190 other companies
....
Gilded Age
Last month, in the Gilded Age splendor of New York’s private Metropolitan Club, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg’s minister of finance, tried to woo the Wall Street crowd with some premier cru wine and a little levity. He told assembled financiers that he wanted to dispel the myth that his tiny country is nothing more than a tax haven: “Luxembourg is not an offshore place. I say it loud and clear.”
What he got back was hearty round of laughter.
In the wake of the EU’s probe of its tax practices, Luxembourg officials continue to bristle at their nation’s tax haven label. The country, a founding member of the EU, boasts of being a multi-lingual nation in the heart of Europe with a business-friendly and stable government. Once primarily a steel-maker and manufacturer, Luxembourg has transitioned into a financial center rivaling London, New York or Hong Kong. With $3.7 trillion in assets under management by banks and other institutions, Luxembourg is second only to the U.S. as a global investment center.
More than 170 of the Fortune 500 companies have a Luxembourg branch, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonprofit research and advocacy group. A total of $95 billion in profits from American corporations’ overseas operations flowed through Luxembourg in 2012, the most current statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis show. On those profits, corporations paid $1.04 billion in taxes to Luxembourg- just 1.1 percent.
Other tax havens, Ireland for example, openly advertise rock-bottom corporate tax rates of 12.5 percent. Luxembourg instead maintains a statutory tax rate of 29 percent, but the leaked files show that the duchy has routinely approved tax rulings that whittle down what counts as taxable income to practically nothing.
This can drop Luxembourg’s effective tax rate deep into single digits."...
............
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Princeton, NJ woman awakes to Guatemalan illegal alien intruder raping her. The rapist currently resides in Princeton-NJ Star Ledger
.
"Arias-Santiago is from Guatemala and living in the country illegally."
........
6/29/16, "Princeton woman awakes to being sexually assaulted by stranger," NJ Star Ledger, Anna Merriman, Princeton
"A Princeton woman woke up early Wednesday to a stranger sexually assaulting her in her house, police said.
The intruder, later identified as Pedro Arias-Santiago, 26, of Princeton, was arrested outside of the woman's home in the 200 block of Birch Avenue by responding officers.
He was charged with aggravated sexual assault, burglary and theft.
The 28-year-old victim told police she was sleeping in her home when she woke up a little after midnight to find Arias-Santiago sexually assaulting her, the statement said.
Police do not believe the woman knew Arias-Santiago before the assault.
The woman ran from her house and called police, who captured Arias-Santiago just outside the house. They searched the 26-year-old and found he was carrying a few items of the woman's clothing.
Police believe Arias-Santiago got into the woman's house through an unlocked door.
Arias-Santiago is from Guatemala and living in the country illegally and federal immigration authorities were notified of his arrest, police said.
A judge later Wednesday set Arias-Santiago's bail at $200,000 and he was lodged at the to Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell Township.
A spokesperson for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said they do not yet have a date set for Arias-Santiago's bail hearing."
Image caption: "Pedro Arias-Santiago, police photo."
....................
"Arias-Santiago is from Guatemala and living in the country illegally."
........
6/29/16, "Princeton woman awakes to being sexually assaulted by stranger," NJ Star Ledger, Anna Merriman, Princeton
 |
| Arias-Santiago |
The intruder, later identified as Pedro Arias-Santiago, 26, of Princeton, was arrested outside of the woman's home in the 200 block of Birch Avenue by responding officers.
He was charged with aggravated sexual assault, burglary and theft.
The 28-year-old victim told police she was sleeping in her home when she woke up a little after midnight to find Arias-Santiago sexually assaulting her, the statement said.
Police do not believe the woman knew Arias-Santiago before the assault.
The woman ran from her house and called police, who captured Arias-Santiago just outside the house. They searched the 26-year-old and found he was carrying a few items of the woman's clothing.
Police believe Arias-Santiago got into the woman's house through an unlocked door.
Arias-Santiago is from Guatemala and living in the country illegally and federal immigration authorities were notified of his arrest, police said.
A judge later Wednesday set Arias-Santiago's bail at $200,000 and he was lodged at the to Mercer County Correction Center in Hopewell Township.
A spokesperson for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office said they do not yet have a date set for Arias-Santiago's bail hearing."
Image caption: "Pedro Arias-Santiago, police photo."
....................
NY State Conservative Party Chair Mike Long says support for Trump is 'overwhelming' among party's 287 member committee. Trump polling 'extremely well' in Nassau, Suffolk, and upstate, Trump making NY State competitive for Republicans-Newsmax, 6/29/16
.
6/29/16, "Conservative Party Chair: Trump Could Turn NY Around," Newsmax, John Gizzi
............
"New York Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long predicts that Donald Trump would make his state “very competitive” in the fall.
........
“He’s running extremely well in Suffolk and Nassau Counties and upstate,” Long told me, citing “privilege polling” he had recently seen. “There’s a revolution against politics as usual taking place and, while winning New York is difficult for any Republican, Donald Trump is making it competitive.
............
"In so doing, he can change the dynamics of the election this November.”
..........
Long underscored that support for Trump was “overwhelming” among the party’s 287-member state committee.
..........
With New York one of the five states in which candidates can appear on multiple ballot lines and have all of their votes counted in an aggregate total, the Conservatives are expected to officially “cross endorse” Trump at their state committee’s September meeting.
..........
The state is also eyeing two important Republican primary contests for open U.S. House seats: the 19th District, in which former State Assembly Minority Leader John Faso rolled up nearly 70 percent of the vote, and the 22nd District, in which State Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney emerged the winner in a three-candidate race with 42 percent of the vote.
........
Long was a pivotal player in the wins of Faso and Tenney, both of whom are stalwart conservatives. With Long’s strong encouragement, the Conservative Party gave its fall ballot line to Faso and Tenney.
...........
“And in both races, this sent a clear message to rank and file Republicans as to who was the real conservative in the primary,” Long told us, “You might call our endorsement the ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” of conservatism.”
...........
Agreeing that both Faso and Tenney would succeed two far more moderate GOP U.S. Representatives (retiring Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna respectively), Long said that “the primary wins of John and Claudia gives us an opportunity to hold these open seats with Republicans who are far more conservative than the outgoing congressmen.
.............
"The election of both would be a clear upgrade for conservatism.”"
.............
"John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax."
..............
6/29/16, "Conservative Party Chair: Trump Could Turn NY Around," Newsmax, John Gizzi
............
"New York Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long predicts that Donald Trump would make his state “very competitive” in the fall.
........
“He’s running extremely well in Suffolk and Nassau Counties and upstate,” Long told me, citing “privilege polling” he had recently seen. “There’s a revolution against politics as usual taking place and, while winning New York is difficult for any Republican, Donald Trump is making it competitive.
............
"In so doing, he can change the dynamics of the election this November.”
..........
Long underscored that support for Trump was “overwhelming” among the party’s 287-member state committee.
..........
With New York one of the five states in which candidates can appear on multiple ballot lines and have all of their votes counted in an aggregate total, the Conservatives are expected to officially “cross endorse” Trump at their state committee’s September meeting.
..........
The state is also eyeing two important Republican primary contests for open U.S. House seats: the 19th District, in which former State Assembly Minority Leader John Faso rolled up nearly 70 percent of the vote, and the 22nd District, in which State Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney emerged the winner in a three-candidate race with 42 percent of the vote.
........
Long was a pivotal player in the wins of Faso and Tenney, both of whom are stalwart conservatives. With Long’s strong encouragement, the Conservative Party gave its fall ballot line to Faso and Tenney.
...........
“And in both races, this sent a clear message to rank and file Republicans as to who was the real conservative in the primary,” Long told us, “You might call our endorsement the ‘Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” of conservatism.”
...........
Agreeing that both Faso and Tenney would succeed two far more moderate GOP U.S. Representatives (retiring Reps. Chris Gibson and Richard Hanna respectively), Long said that “the primary wins of John and Claudia gives us an opportunity to hold these open seats with Republicans who are far more conservative than the outgoing congressmen.
.............
"The election of both would be a clear upgrade for conservatism.”"
.............
"John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax."
..............
Trump and Hillary in statistical tie in June 21-27, 2016 Quinnipiac Poll, 42H-40T. Trump leads Hillary as better job creator by 12 points, Trump more trustworthy by 8 pts, Trump stronger leader by 6 pts, Trump better at handling ISIS by 13 pts. Trump at 33 among Hispanic voters, better than Romney's 27 and McCain's 31
.
33%
of 2016 Hispanic voters choose Trump in latest Quinnipiac national poll
putting him ahead of both Romney and McCain's final result in this group. Only 27% of Hispanic voters chose Romney in 2012, 31% chose McCain in 2008.
........
Poll dates, June 21-27, 2016, 1610 registered voters nationwide, 2.4 error margin. Sample: 28% R, 31% D, 33% Independent. Cellphone only 39%, landline only 5%, combinations of both, 15% and 40%.
6/29/16, "Quinnipiac University Poll"
Hillary v Trump with no other candidates: q. 1
Hillary 42
Trump 40
Hillary v Trump After adding third party candidates: q. 2
Hillary 39
Trump 37
Johnson-Libertarian 8
Stein-Green 4
===============
Independent voters, p. 3
Trump 36
Hillary 34
----------------------
Hispanic voters, p. 3
Hillary 50
Trump 33
========
Trump better at creating jobs than Hillary by 12 points, 52-40, p. 9
=======
Trump more trustworthy than Hillary by 8 points, 45-37, p. 12
Among independent voters, Trump more trustworthy by 20 points, 47-27, p. 12
Trust for Hillary drops 10 points among Hispanic voters who said they'd vote for her. 50% said they'd vote for her, only 40% say she's more trustworthy, p. 12
=========
Trump better at handling ISIS than Hillary by 13 points, 52-39, p. 9
==========
Trump a stronger leader than Hillary by 6 points, 49-43, p. 12
Among independent voters Trump a stronger leader by 12 points, 51-39, p. 12
-------------------------
Added: Media says it's "shocking":
To deflect from so-called "shock" of the dead heat, pollster and media sell old standby, "hate," in a never ending quest to pollute and dispirit the electorate:
..........
6/29/16, "They're TIED: Trump vs. Clinton is suddenly too close to call as pollsters say Americans hate 'mean-spirited, scorched earth campaign between two candidates they don't like'," Daily Mail, David Martosko
........
"DEAD HEAT: Clinton leads by 2 percentage points in a poll where the margin of error is 2.4," image from Daily Mail
........
Poll dates, June 21-27, 2016, 1610 registered voters nationwide, 2.4 error margin. Sample: 28% R, 31% D, 33% Independent. Cellphone only 39%, landline only 5%, combinations of both, 15% and 40%.
6/29/16, "Quinnipiac University Poll"
Hillary v Trump with no other candidates: q. 1
Hillary 42
Trump 40
Hillary v Trump After adding third party candidates: q. 2
Hillary 39
Trump 37
Johnson-Libertarian 8
Stein-Green 4
===============
Independent voters, p. 3
Trump 36
Hillary 34
----------------------
Hispanic voters, p. 3
Hillary 50
Trump 33
========
Trump better at creating jobs than Hillary by 12 points, 52-40, p. 9
=======
Trump more trustworthy than Hillary by 8 points, 45-37, p. 12
Among independent voters, Trump more trustworthy by 20 points, 47-27, p. 12
Trust for Hillary drops 10 points among Hispanic voters who said they'd vote for her. 50% said they'd vote for her, only 40% say she's more trustworthy, p. 12
=========
Trump better at handling ISIS than Hillary by 13 points, 52-39, p. 9
==========
Trump a stronger leader than Hillary by 6 points, 49-43, p. 12
Among independent voters Trump a stronger leader by 12 points, 51-39, p. 12
-------------------------
Added: Media says it's "shocking":
To deflect from so-called "shock" of the dead heat, pollster and media sell old standby, "hate," in a never ending quest to pollute and dispirit the electorate:
..........
6/29/16, "They're TIED: Trump vs. Clinton is suddenly too close to call as pollsters say Americans hate 'mean-spirited, scorched earth campaign between two candidates they don't like'," Daily Mail, David Martosko
........
"A shocking
national poll released Wednesday morning shows the U.S. presidential
race as a statistical dead heat, with Democrat Hillary Clinton's lead
over Republican Donald Trump shrinking to just 2 percentage points, a
number that's within the survey's margin of error.
...........
...........
The respected Quinnipiac University poll found Clinton with a 42-40 lead in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup, narrowing from a 4-point gap a month ago....
......
......
The Quinnipiac
poll showed two ethnic trends behind the scenes of the results, with
blacks favoring Hillary by an iron-clad 91-1 margin and Hispanics
favoring her 50-33.
If
Trump were to win the support of one-third of Hispanic voters, he would
outperform both Mitt Romney in 2012 (27%) and John McCain (31%) in 2008. Those men,
the last two GOP nominees, polled 27 per cent and 31 per cent,
respectively, among Hispanics on Election Day."...
..........
..........
"DEAD HEAT: Clinton leads by 2 percentage points in a poll where the margin of error is 2.4," image from Daily Mail
...................
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Massive trade deals like pending TPP put constant downward pressure on American wages-Wessel, Oct. 2015 UK Guardian
.
Massive trade deals like pending TPP result "in constant downward pressure on American wages."...
Oct. 2015 UK Guardian article:
10/9/2015, "Wikileaks release of TPP deal text stokes 'freedom of expression' fears," UK Guardian, Sam Thielman in NY
"Intellectual property rights chapter appears to give Trans-Pacific Partnership countries greater power to stop information from going public"
"Michael Wessel was one of the advisers who was asked by the US government to review what he said were woefully inadequate portions of the document. Wessel said the thrust of the TPP does nothing for Americans. “This is about increasing the ability of global corporations to source wherever they can at the lowest cost,” he said.
“It is not about enhancing or promoting production in the United States,” Wessel said. “We aren’t enforcing today’s trade agreements adequately. Look at China and Korea. Now we’re not only expanding trade to a far larger set of countries under a new set of rules that have yet to be tested but we’re preparing to expand that to many more countries. It would be easier to accept if we were enforcing today’s rules.”
Wessel said that ultimately, the countries currently benefiting from increased outsourcing of jobs by American firms aren’t likely to see wages rise above a certain level. “If you look in other countries, Mexico and India and others – there’s been a rise in the middle class but there’s been stagnation for those we’re hoping to get into the middle class,” Wessel said. “Companies are scouring the globe for countries they can get to produce most cheaply.”
That, he said, results in constant downward pressure on American wages. “Companies are not invested here the way we’d like them to; they’re doing stock buybacks and higher dividends,” Wessel continued. “They may yield support for the stock-holding class but it’s not creating jobs.”...
“The text of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of internet activist group Fight for the Future. “But the sad part is that no one should be surprised by this. It should have been obvious to anyone observing the process, where appointed government bureaucrats and monopolistic companies were given more access to the text than elected officials and journalists, that this would be the result.”"...
..................
Massive trade deals like pending TPP result "in constant downward pressure on American wages."...
Oct. 2015 UK Guardian article:
10/9/2015, "Wikileaks release of TPP deal text stokes 'freedom of expression' fears," UK Guardian, Sam Thielman in NY
"Intellectual property rights chapter appears to give Trans-Pacific Partnership countries greater power to stop information from going public"
"Michael Wessel was one of the advisers who was asked by the US government to review what he said were woefully inadequate portions of the document. Wessel said the thrust of the TPP does nothing for Americans. “This is about increasing the ability of global corporations to source wherever they can at the lowest cost,” he said.
“It is not about enhancing or promoting production in the United States,” Wessel said. “We aren’t enforcing today’s trade agreements adequately. Look at China and Korea. Now we’re not only expanding trade to a far larger set of countries under a new set of rules that have yet to be tested but we’re preparing to expand that to many more countries. It would be easier to accept if we were enforcing today’s rules.”
Wessel said that ultimately, the countries currently benefiting from increased outsourcing of jobs by American firms aren’t likely to see wages rise above a certain level. “If you look in other countries, Mexico and India and others – there’s been a rise in the middle class but there’s been stagnation for those we’re hoping to get into the middle class,” Wessel said. “Companies are scouring the globe for countries they can get to produce most cheaply.”
That, he said, results in constant downward pressure on American wages. “Companies are not invested here the way we’d like them to; they’re doing stock buybacks and higher dividends,” Wessel continued. “They may yield support for the stock-holding class but it’s not creating jobs.”...
“The text of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,” said Evan Greer, campaign director of internet activist group Fight for the Future. “But the sad part is that no one should be surprised by this. It should have been obvious to anyone observing the process, where appointed government bureaucrats and monopolistic companies were given more access to the text than elected officials and journalists, that this would be the result.”"...
..................
Monday, June 27, 2016
Armed Mainers stop gun-wielding heroin traffickers from New York State. Result: No one injured-Howie Carr Show, CentralMaine.com
.
"Rochester and Buffalo rank third and fourth, respectively, in the U.S. for poverty, a report in 2014 found."...
===========
6/27/16, "Armed Mainers stop gun-wielding heroin traffickers from New York," HowieCarrShow.com, Steve Robinson
"Armed bystanders came to the rescue over the weekend at an Augusta, Maine, Wal-Mart when shooting broke out in the parking lot. Augusta police said shooting broke out between two people in two cars Sunday evening.
4/16/16, "In NY, voters adjust to something new: attention," Poughkeepsie Journal, Joseph Spector, Albany Bureau Chief
subhead, "Tale of two cities"
"Rochester and Buffalo rank third and fourth, respectively, in the U.S. for poverty, a report in 2014 found.
Only Detroit and Cleveland were worse."...
.................
"Rochester and Buffalo rank third and fourth, respectively, in the U.S. for poverty, a report in 2014 found."...
===========
6/27/16, "Armed Mainers stop gun-wielding heroin traffickers from New York," HowieCarrShow.com, Steve Robinson
"Armed bystanders came to the rescue over the weekend at an Augusta, Maine, Wal-Mart when shooting broke out in the parking lot. Augusta police said shooting broke out between two people in two cars Sunday evening.
Police said the gun fight was interrupted
when two armed bystanders intervened. Maine became a constitutional
carry state in 2015— meaning no permit is required to carry a concealed
firearm.
According to CentralMaine.com, the following individuals were charged in connection to what cops say is a heroin-related incident:
• Kwiesha “Reggie” McBride of Harlem, New
York, charged with reckless conduct with a firearm, Class C, and
aggravated trafficking in drugs (heroin), Class B. His bail was set at
$50,000.
• Frankie Dejesus of Rochester, New York,
charged with reckless conduct with a firearm, Class C, and aggravated
assault, Class B. His bail was set at $25,000.
• Diana Davis of Rochester, New York, charged with aggravated assault, Class B. Her bail was set at $5,000.
• Samantha Tupper, of Augusta (Maine), charged
with probation violation and furnishing drugs (heroin), Class B. She was
held without bail.
.........................
subhead, "Tale of two cities"
"Rochester and Buffalo rank third and fourth, respectively, in the U.S. for poverty, a report in 2014 found.
Only Detroit and Cleveland were worse."...
.................
Globalist Hank Paulson hasn't checked himself into prison or even retired from the public stage in disgrace. The Goldman Sachs alum and George Bush pal doubles down and endorses Hillary-Julia Hahn
6/26/16, "Hank ‘Meltdown’ Paulson Cites Hillary’s Globalist Platform as Reason for Endorsement," Julia Hahn, Breitbart
 |
| The truly vile Paulson, ap |
Paulson also posits that Clinton would be more likely to cut Americans’ medicare and social security, which Paulson cites as a top priority following the financial collapse he helped to create.
Paulson is also the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, which has given Hillary Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches. According to Politico, Goldman Sachs rewarded Clinton with a total of $675,000 for three paid speeches....
Since Ted Kennedy’s 1965 immigration rewrite was passed into law, the U.S. has added 59 million immigrants. Since mass migration began in the 1970s, U.S middle class has shrunk ten percentage points, and real average wages are lower today than they were in 1973.
(Henry) Paulson does not make clear why Americans should trust his economic judgement, considering that he failed completely to predict the housing crash over which he presided."
.............
Added: They said the Great Recession would be fixed by more government, folding private businesses who'd play ball into government. The definition of Soviet style Communism. Since this didn't exactly help the US middle class (which was at one time unthinkable) Pew says, forget about that--the middle "holds its ground!"
2/4/2015, "America’s ‘middle’ holds its ground after the Great Recession," Pew Research
1970-2013, middle class shrinks by 10%:
"The share of adults who live in middle-income households has eroded over time, from 61% in 1970 to 51% in 2013."...
1970-2013, lower income HHs up by 4%:
"The share of adults living in lower-income households has increased, up from 25% in 1970 to 29% in 2013."...
Globalist Pew says hey, great news! The rich got richer:
1970-2013:
"But more adults now live in upper-income households, up from 14% in 1970 to 20% in 2013."...
From 1990-2013:
"From 1990 to 2013, the share of adult whites and Asians living in middle-income households decreased the most, from 58% to 53% and from 56% to 50%, respectively. The decline was less pronounced among Hispanics (from 48% to 47%) and blacks (47% to 45%)."...
"If past trends continue to hold, there is little reason to believe the recovery from the Great Recession will eventually lead to a rebound in the share of adults in middle-income households."...
"Incomes of all households are higher today than they were in 1970....However, the overall gains mask a lengthy period – a lost decade,
and then some – of losses from 2000 to 2013. During this time, the
median incomes of lower-, middle- and upper-income households have
fallen by 9%, 6% and 6%, respectively. Currently, the incomes of these
households are comparable to what they were in 1997."
==============
Added: I was unable to find a citation in the Pew article for Ms. Hahn's statement that "real average wages are lower today than they were in 1973." Perhaps it was there and I missed it.
==============
PS. Hank Paulson and his pal George Bush should be in prison for the rest of their lives given only bread and water.
==============
Added: I was unable to find a citation in the Pew article for Ms. Hahn's statement that "real average wages are lower today than they were in 1973." Perhaps it was there and I missed it.
==============
PS. Hank Paulson and his pal George Bush should be in prison for the rest of their lives given only bread and water.
....................
......................
Widows of two Americans killed in Middle East sue Twitter alleging it knowingly permitted Islamic State to use its platform to spread its violent message, recruit, and raise funds-NY Times
.
6/26/16, "C.I.A. Arms for Syrian Rebels Supplied Black Market, Officials Say," NY Times,
"Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials.
Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F.B.I. officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to reported for the first time people familiar with the investigation....
The specific motives behind the November shooting at the Amman police training facility remain uncertain, and it is unclear when the F.B.I. will officially conclude its investigation.
........
"This
year (2016), the widows of the [two] Americans killed in the attack (in Jordan) sued Twitter,
alleging that it knowingly permitted the Islamic State to use its social
media platform to spread the militant group’s violent message,
recruiting and raising funds."... [paragraph #37 in NY Times article]...
6/26/16, "C.I.A. Arms for Syrian Rebels Supplied Black Market, Officials Say," NY Times,
"Weapons shipped into Jordan by the Central Intelligence Agency and Saudi Arabia intended for Syrian rebels have been systematically stolen by Jordanian intelligence operatives and sold to arms merchants on the black market, according to American and Jordanian officials.
Some of the stolen weapons were used in a shooting in November that killed two Americans and three others at a police training facility in Amman, F.B.I. officials believe after months of investigating the attack, according to reported for the first time people familiar with the investigation....
The specific motives behind the November shooting at the Amman police training facility remain uncertain, and it is unclear when the F.B.I. will officially conclude its investigation.
........
This
year, the widows of the Americans killed in the attack sued Twitter,
alleging that it knowingly permitted the Islamic State to use its social
media platform to spread the militant group’s violent message,
recruiting and raising funds."... [paragraph #37 in NY Times article]...
....................
Sunday, June 26, 2016
In honor of England whose citizens peacefully broke the chains of neocons and globalists: Song, 'LET ME BE,' 1965 by the Turtles: 'Don't try to change me or rearrange me to satisfy the selfishness in you. I'm not a piece of clay to mold to your moves each day. I'm sorry, I'm not the fool you thought would play by your rules'
.
"Let Me Be," by The Turtles released in 1965. Let Me Be, You Tube, featuring lyrics
..................
"Let me be," lyrics
..................
"Please don't mistake me or try to make me
The shadow of anybody else
I ain't the him or her you think I am
I'm just trying hard to be myself
Though society's goal is to be part of the whole
That may sound good to you, not to me
....................
Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
.................
Don't try to plan me or understand me
I can't stand to be understood
I could never give in to or ever live up to
Being like you think I should
I've got some inner need that I'm tryin' to heed
Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
...............
Don't try to change me or rearrange me
To satisfy the selfishness in you
I'm not a piece of clay to mold to your moves each day
And I'm not a pawn to be told how to move
I'm sorry I'm not the fool you thought would play by your rules
A 'To each is own' philosophy
Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
................
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
...............
I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be"
...
About The Turtles
====================
Added: Thanks so much to England's voters! You give us hope. Please excuse tiny text here and in spots above. It's one of google's ways of throwing a fit. They hate free speech.
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"Let Me Be," by The Turtles released in 1965. Let Me Be, You Tube, featuring lyrics
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"Let me be," lyrics
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"Please don't mistake me or try to make me
The shadow of anybody else
I ain't the him or her you think I am
I'm just trying hard to be myself
Though society's goal is to be part of the whole
That may sound good to you, not to me
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Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
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Don't try to plan me or understand me
I can't stand to be understood
I could never give in to or ever live up to
Being like you think I should
I've got some inner need that I'm tryin' to heed
Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
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Don't try to change me or rearrange me
To satisfy the selfishness in you
I'm not a piece of clay to mold to your moves each day
And I'm not a pawn to be told how to move
I'm sorry I'm not the fool you thought would play by your rules
A 'To each is own' philosophy
Let me be, let me be
To think like I want to
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Let me be, let me be
That's all I ask of you
I am what I am and that's all I ever can be
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I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be
I said that's all I ever can be"
...
About The Turtles
====================
Added: Thanks so much to England's voters! You give us hope. Please excuse tiny text here and in spots above. It's one of google's ways of throwing a fit. They hate free speech.
........................
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