January 24, 2014

Grassroots and Dark Money Groups Building Media Campaign for Right to Work in PA

The never-ending push for Right to Work (for less) legislation in Pennsylvania is on the move again, but this time there’s more of a tangible campaign targeting the conservative base. For 14 straight years, State Representative Daryl Metcalfe has introduced some form of Right to Work legislation, but this year’s legislation was introduced by State Representative Bryan Cutler (Lancaster, PA). Last January, Jen Stefano from the Koch Brothers funded American’s for Prosperity in Pennsylvania held a press conference with Representative Metcalfe and announced that the legislation will become law. Currently, it appears that dark money groups tied to right wing think tanks like The Franklin Center and Greenhouse Solutions are teaming up with a conservative activist from Southeastern Pennsylvania, and are astroturfing a social media and media campaign by using Facebook and Twitter accounts to push anti-union news and rhetoric from “independent” media outlets.

The players in this story are Simon Campbell – a conservative grassroots activist from Yardley, PA, dark money think tanks, and astro-turfed media and social media outlets. Simon Campbell is a local conservative activist from Bucks County PA. He jumped on the scene in 2005 when he was elected to the Pennsbury School District. The cause-celeb he ran on was a teacher bashing and anti-teacher strike platform. While sitting on the Pennsbury School Board, Campbell started Stop Teachers Strike. In 2013, Campbell’s four year term on the local school board was up and he and his colleagues were sept off board. Weeks after the election, Campbell founded a 501.4(c) organization called Pennsylvanians For Union Reform, and thanks to his non-profit social welfare status, Campbell’s group is able to receive a whole lot of dark money. Campbell’s resume as a right-wing activist has him giving speeches at luncheons or sitting on training sessions at Koch funded think-tanks like the statewide Commonwealth Foundation and Americans for Prosperity.

Then there’s a growing social media campaign. It appears that Campbell has been running a Pennsylvanians for Union Reform facebook page since June 2013, and has amassed over 20,000 followers. That’s either one hell of a grassroots campaign or Campbell’s group has a few thousand sitting aside for social media promotion. Then the page regularly posts stories from Pennsylvania media outlets that deal with union issues, but the majority of the posts come from two “independent” media outlets, Media Trackers and Watchdog Wire. Out of the two media outlets, Media Trackers is more savvy when it comes to hiding their funding sources and who is actually writing their articles....

But 95 percent of its 2011 funding came from DonorsTrust, a spin-off of the Philanthropy Roundtable that functions as a large “donor-advised fund,” cloaking the identity of donors to right-wing causes across the country (CPI did a review of Franklin’s Internal Revenue Service records).[18] Mother Jones called DonorsTrust “the dark-money ATM of the conservative movement” in a February 2013 article.[19]Franklin received DonorTrust’s second-largest donation in 2011.[18]

The Franklin Center also receives funding from the Wisconsin-based Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation,[20] a conservative grant-making organization.[21]

The Franklin Center was launched by the Chicago-based Sam Adams Alliance (SAM),[22] a 501(c)(3) devoted to pushing free-market ideals. SAM gets funding from the State Policy Network,[23] which is partially funded by The Claude R. Lambe Foundation.[24] Charles Koch, one of the billionaire brothers who co-own Koch Industries, sits on the board of this foundation.[25] SAM also receives funding from the Rodney Fund.

What we are witnessing are the cogs turning in the right-wing infrastructure gearing up for an attack on public sector workers in 2014. There has been a quiet 14-year movement to make Right to Work a possibility in Pennsylvania, and now the volume is being ratcheted up a few notches. We are witnessing a “grassroots,” social welfare, non-profit group that has the potential to collect dark money run a social media campaign that is pushing for one issue; screwing workers’ rights. The social media campaign, run by Pennsylvanians for Union Reform, is constantly pushing anti-union rhetoric from dark money dominated non-profit media outlet, like Media Trackers, or the Koch Brother funded, Franklin Center’s communication’s department at Watchdog Wire. This is how the right wing infrastructure, with all their minions, all their think tanks and all their communications departments are going to try to undercut labor laws in Pennsylvania just like they did in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Florida in 2011.

http://nhlabornews.com/2014/01/grassroots-and-dark-money-groups-building-media-campaign-for-right-to-work-in-pa/

January 24, 2014

The Outrageous Truth About A $12 Minimum Wage And Your Grocery Bill

Every time I even mention the idea of raising the minimum wage, I am immediately attacked on social media.

Opponents imagine that inflation will skyrocket; some have even claimed that ‘milk will be $10.00 a gallon’ if we raise the minimum wage. Oh, the hysteria. Milk is currently around $3.50 a gallon and that is up 25% from just ten years ago. Is that 25% due to rising wages? Sadly, no – wages in America have declined during that time. Must be some other economic force at work. (Read “Even Dairy Farming has a 1%” here.)

So, what if we raised the floor to a living wage, and paid non-tipped employees a minimum wage of $12.00 per hour? Oh, more hysteria. Opponents claim that will drive our costs up so much we will be unable to eat!

Let’s look at a few facts about minimum wage.

Who gets paid minimum wage? People opposed to raising the wage claim that ‘minimum wage workers are kids in high school; adults do not make minimum wage’. The fact is 25% of minimum wage workers are below the age of 19 – which means that 75% of all minimum wage earners are above the age of 20. That means they’re adults – not high school kids. In fact, almost half of all minimum-wage earners are above the age of 25.

Another fact: 64% of all minimum wage earners are women. Of that a whopping 66% are women above the age of 20.

Another fact: More than a third of minimum wage workers (35.8 percent) are married, and over a quarter (28.0 percent) are parents. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that if Congress raised the minimum wage, it would raise the standard of living for more than 21 million children.

Walmart employs about 2.2 million people – almost 2% of America’s workers, these days.

If the minimum wage is raised to $12.00 an hour, 37% of Walmart employees would see a raise ranging from $3,200 (part-time workers) to $6,500 (full-time workers). Another 14.6% would see a raise between $1,670-$2,640 per year.

Now, let’s assume that Walmart passed every penny of the minimum wage increase onto customers, r ather than taking it out of profits or dividends. What would that mean to consumers? The average customer would see an increase of $12.49 per year – about 46 cents per visit – if Walmart executives passed the total cost along, rather than cutting their profits.

A closer look at Walmart’s dividend payments: corporate “insiders” own more than half of Walmart’s stock. Once again, the people who run the company personally benefit from decisions about profits paid out as dividends.

For example, Walmart Director Jim Walton owns 10.5 million shares of the company. This year, the company paid out $1.88 per share in dividends. That means Director Walton received more than $19.7 million in dividends (which are taxed at about half the rate as executive salaries).

Walmart President and CEO Michael Duke owns about 1.2 million shares of the company – that means he personally received about $2 million in dividend income this year.

All that money to corporate executives. And some people claim Walmart can’t afford to give raises to its workers?

http://nhlabornews.com/2013/07/the-outrageous-truth-about-a-12-minimum-wage-and-your-grocery-bill/

January 24, 2014

What Happens in Detroit Won't Stay in Detroit

It’s amazing, the stuff you can find on the Internet these days. Step-by-step instructions for all sorts of things, including – oh, yeah – how public employers can relieve themselves of retirement obligations through the Chapter 9 bankruptcy process. Like they’re trying to do in Detroit, right now. And reading through Ice Miller’s description of the process – right here, if you’re interested – it sure doesn’t seem all that hard.

http://www.icemiller.com/pdf/Chapter9_Bankruptcy_Benefits.pdf


And then there’s the timeline.

I’m not even going to try to figure out which chicken came before which egg. The newest emergency manager law became effective in March. The law firm Jones Day was awarded a $3.35 million contract as Detroit’s “restructuring counsel” in March. Jones Day partner Kevyn Orr was named Detroit’s emergency financial manager in March. (Or maybe by then he was a former partner? Attorney Orr resigned from the firm sometime in March.) Different media reports give different dates; and from this many miles away, it’s impossible to figure out what happened in what order.

And then there’s the law firm.

I’m human; I can’t help but sometimes judge a law firm by its clients. And Jones Day’s client list includes Koch Industries, as well as Mitt Romney’s old firm, Bain Capital.

And then there’s the lawsuit, filed by Jones Day lawyers, challenging a ban on political contributions by foreign sources (including foreign corporations). And then there’s the lawsuit, filed by Jones Day lawyers not long before last year’s election, challenging an Obama administration regulation regarding insurance coverage. (Also can’t help but wonder at all the work this law firm is apparently doing for free!)

And then there’s the attorney.

According to his official bio, Attorney Orr worked for the FDIC’s Resolution Trust Corporation in the 1990s; and while there, his duties included “serving as the agency’s chief lawyer responsible for the agency’s participation in the Whitewater investigation.” Yeah, you read that right: the Whitewater investigation.

Starting to think that maybe there’s politics involved here, somehow?

And then there’s the Governor.

Last December was a busy month for Gov. Rick Snyder. Not only did he push through a new emergency manager law, to replace the one rescinded by voters, he also pushed through a Right to Work bill. Read “GOP, Koch Brothers Sneak Attack Guts Labor Rights in Michigan” here. (Yes, there’s the Koch brothers, again.) He was so effective at pushing stuff through the Legislature that the Washington Post named him “The Scott Walker of 2014”.

Got a headache yet?

The big trouble here is, whatever happens with Detroit – with its very expensive law firm, with its history of highly-political cases…

… whatever happens in Detroit will set a legal precedent for other politicians and other employers who may want to relieve themselves of their obligations to public workers. Yesterday’s USA Today even has an interactive graphic; read “Detroit not alone under crushing pension obligations” here.

So… you think you’ve got retirement benefits? Think again.

That Ice Miller report has a state-by-state breakdown of the requirements to go through the Chapter 9 bankruptcy process. Including a note that, when the report was published, Michigan didn’t have any law authorizing a municipality to declare bankruptcy. Which it didn’t, until Governor Snyder and the Republican-led Legislature pushed through “The Local Financial Stability and Choice Act” last December… just days after pushing through the Right to Work bill.

If it’s happening in Detroit, it can happen almost anywhere.

http://nhlabornews.com/2013/07/what-happens-in-detroit/

January 22, 2014

Canadian NGOs aided in the Haitian coup that overthrew Aristide

The genesis for Nikolas Barry-Shaw and Dru Oja Jay’s book, Paved with Good Intentions: Canada’s Development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism (Fernwood Publishing, 2012), was the discovery that Canadian development non-governmental organizations (NGOs), even those considered progressive, aided in the 2004 coup to overthrow Aristide in Haiti. They gave resources to his opponents, and continued to demonize Aristide and his grassroots movement, Lavalas. The authors, members of Haiti Action Montreal (linked with Canada Haiti action network), were especially shocked at the stance of Alternatives, a Montreal based group, and began to question the role of NGOs in general.

Their first realization was that these organizations are not really non-governmental. The major development NGOS, supposedly operating to bring democracy and prosperity to poorer nations, normally receive half their budget from the Canadian government...NGOs wishing to receive funding could not criticize Canadian foreign policy; the radical groups of the 1970s were defunded and the remaining ones were “increasingly in bed with the government.

The Canadian development NGOs are part of a worldwide explosion of the same. Some were created to deal with the social costs of International Monetary Fund rules. These promoted anti-poverty measures that did not interfere with neo-liberalism, which entailed a rollback from social welfare, end of subsidies of local industry and agriculture, privatization of government services, and shrivelization of the civil service.

The universe of NGOs is now enormous. They have been sent by the West to salvage nations torn by invasions, overthrows, and exploitation. In the process they co-opt many members of the leadership class, drawing in both government employees and activists from grassroots political and social movements, as they pay high wages by local standards, and offer travel and other benefits. The NGO as an agent of imperialism is not new—remember the missionaries—but the scale is.

The authors report 10,000 NGOs in Haiti, providing 80% of the basic services. Policies of the puppet government eliminating tariffs and importing cheap food, along with food aid, helped to destroy the agricultural economy. Peasants then migrated to the city, where there were no jobs and built shoddy houses compounding the earthquake devastation...

Barry-Shaw and Jay conclude that “NGOs do more harm than good overall. While providing small, temporary benefits to poor recipients . . . NGOs are simultaneously an extension of the ‘development’ apparatus used subjugate and exploit the Global South.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/20/same-old-road-to-hell/

January 16, 2014

America Betrayed MLK for Condemning US Wars for Predatory Investments

On TV, the week-end before the Martin Luther King Jr.’ birthday holiday, see all the celebrities, Black, white, Asian, Latino. They will come to praise King and bury again King’s condemnation of US atrocity “wars meant to maintain unjust predatory investments on three continents.” [1]

They will hail King to heaven, loudly, to drown out anyone whispering that King called their dirty government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world...” [1]

But with the horrific carpet bombing of Laos and the holocaust Americans put upon Vietnam after paying the French army for eight years to retake the colony it had turned over to Japan during the Second World War, our now more worldly aware and politically informed successful hero Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in early 1967, now knew enough, AND HAD HAD ENOUGH.

He said:

“A time comes when silence is betrayal.” And that time has come for us. “They languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury.

“So far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. They wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones? We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing — in the crushing of the nation’s only non-Communist revolutionary political force, the unified Buddhist Church.

“We have supported the enemies of the peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed their men. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in the rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube.” [1]

For forty years now, one had read and heard the highest admiration for Rev. King from the same New York Times, Washington Post, other newspapers and electronic media that in 1967, after Rev. King made embarrassing world headlines with his sermon “Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence,” vilified him as “a traitor,” and “a disgrace to his race!”

http://voiceofdetroit.net/2014/01/15/america-betrayed-rev-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-for-condemning-u-s-wars-for-predatory-investments/


By the time King made the "Beyond Vietnam" speech, Smiley tells host Neal Conan, "he had fallen off already the list of most-admired Americans as tallied by Gallup every year." Smiley continues, "it was the most controversial speech he ever gave. It was the speech he labored over the most."

After King delivered the speech, Smiley reports, "168 major newspapers the next day denounced him." Not only that, but then-President Lyndon Johnson disinvited King to the White House. "It basically ruins their relationship," says Smiley. "This was a huge, huge speech," he continues, "that got Martin King in more trouble than anything he had ever seen or done."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125355148

January 16, 2014

Kevyn Orr Indicates Big Banks Might Have Defrauded Detroit

Nathan Bomey of the Detroit Free Press reports that Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr testified in U.S. Bankruptcy Court Friday that he had asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to consider prosecuting two global banks over a disastrous debt deal from 2005 that helped plunge Detroit into bankruptcy.

Bomey wrote:

Orr said this morning that he had conversations with the SEC about filing actions against UBS and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which collectively provided interest-rate swaps on a $1.4 billion pension debt deal originating in 2005.

He did not say how the SEC responded to his request. The Free Press reported in September that the deal might have been illegal.

Orr said he thought the city might have a potential fraud claim against the bank, but added that the city decided to settle the swaps debt in lieu of a legal battle.

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/7800/kevyn_orr_indicates_big_banks_might_have_defrauded_city


Today, Orr acknowledged "serious questions" about whether the city owes a dime on the deal, saying the city might have a "potential fraud claim" against the banks.

Still, he said the city decided to settle the swaps debt instead of pursuing a legal challenge, calling the chances of success 50-50.

The original swaps settlement collapsed last month after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes questioned the city’s decision to pay $230 million to settle the $293-million swaps debt, suggesting the deal might be too generous to the banks.

At the time, Rhodes also questioned the city’s decision not to disclose its legal assessment of the $1.4 billion pension obligation certificates of participation deal and related swaps.

Lawyers for Jones Day, the city’s bankruptcy law firm, told Rhodes that they were hiding the strategy because they might still sue the banks.

But this morning, Orr disclosed the city’s legal assessment in detail, marking an about-face from the city’s previous strategy.

Orr acknowledged:

--The city’s 2009 decision to pledge its casino tax revenue as collateral on the swaps might have been illegal because the Michigan Gaming Act may not allow the pledge.

--The original 2005 debt deal might have been illegal because it may have put the city over its legal debt limit.

--The city might have a fraud claim against the banks for effectively tricking the city into the swaps deal by leveraging "superior" information about future interest rates.

--UBS’ involvement in an interest-rate manipulation scandal might have led to a fraud claim for the city.

Problematic for the city is that City Council at the time secured legal opinions approving the pension debt and swaps deals. The City Council also secured a letter of approval from the state’s gaming board approving the use of casino tax revenues as collateral.

Orr said it would be too risky to pursue a legal challenge against the swaps because it would take too long, cost too much and raise a serious chance of defeat....

The city has argued that getting rid of the swaps would free up cash flow to reinvest in public safety and blight removal, while also removing restrictions over the use of its vital casino tax revenue.

http://www.freep.com/article/20140103/NEWS01/301030066/Kevyn-Orr-asked-SEC-about-prosecuting-banks-over-Detroit-debt-deal


Attorney Jerome Goldberg, appearing on behalf of City of Detroit retiree David Sole, questions Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr regarding the interest rate swaps deal, viewed by many as another gift to the very banks that destroyed Detroit’s neighborhoods using subprime mortgages and that have been charged and convicted of fraud of all sorts.

http://detroitdebtmoratorium.org/jerome-goldberg-questions-em-kevyn-orr-over-giveaway-to-bank-of-america-ubs-on-jan-3-2014/

January 16, 2014

Ibragim Todashev’s Father Writes Open Letter to Obama (Warning: Graphic death photos at link)

Abdul-Baki Todashev, the father of Ibragim Todashev, the Tamerlan Tsarnaev associate shot to death in his Orlando, Fla., apartment by a FBI agent in the company of two Massachusetts State Troopers in May, has released an open letter to President Obama calling for justice.

His letter includes photos of the bloodied Orlando apartment taken about a week and half after Ibragim was killed, images of his bullet-ridden body, and a photo of his knee following a surgery he had in March.

Federal prosecutors have officially stated the government’s contention that Todashev implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in a 2011 triple murder in Waltham. Anonymous FBI sources also told reporters that Todashev implicated himself in those murders, along with conflicting reports about how Todashev died.

In the letter, Abdul-Baki Todashev accuses FBI agents of deliberately killing and torturing his son (citing bruise marks near his left eye) and threatening and deporting his son’s acquaintances. Todashev asks the president to ensure that the FBI does not interfere with the independent investigation into his son’s death.

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2013/12/30/ibragim-todashevs-father-writes-open-letter-obama-releases-photos-surrounding-sons-death-warning-graphic/#.UscQNZUbLdY.email


That's pretty much the gist of it. The main interest of the photos is that they show a lot of bullet holes.

January 16, 2014

Afghan War blamed for child malnutrition

United Nations figures show that malnutrition among Afghan children has increased more than 50 percent since 2012, with doctors blaming the ongoing war in the country for the crisis.



Hospitals across Afghanistan have been registering significant increases in severe malnutrition among children, The New York Times reported on Sunday. Severe cases have been reported in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Kunar, Farah, Paktia and Paktika all places where the continuing war has wrecked people’s lives and pushed the poor over the nutritional edge, the report said.

Doctors and aid workers have mainly blamed continuing war and refugee displacement for the hunger crisis. “In 2001, it was even worse, but this is the worst I’ve seen since then,” said Dr. Saifullah Abasin, the head of the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul.

Dr. Mohammad Dawood, a pediatrician at Bost Hospital, said there were seven or eight deaths a month there because of acute malnutrition from June through August, and five in September. Doctors around the country have reported similar rates.

Officials at UNICEF and the Afghan Ministry of Public Health have declined to characterize child malnutrition here as an emergency, however, according to the Times.

As defined internationally, that would mean severe acute malnutrition in more than 10 percent of children younger than 5; health officials in Afghanistan estimate the rate is more like 7 percent.

The US and its allies entered the war in Afghanistan in October 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but the war has ruined the lives of people of Afghanistan. The Times said, "What is clear is that, despite years of Western involvement and billions of dollars in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, children’s health is not only still a problem, but also worsening...

http://www.nation.com.pk/international/06-Jan-2014/war-in-afghanistan-blamed-for-child-hunger-crisis

January 16, 2014

Germany tries "stop & frisk"

After more than a week of daily protests and strong criticism against Hamburg police authorities, the police announced that the so-called “danger zones” (which are actually state of emergency zones where police are able to stop, search, ban and detain people as they please) were over on Monday.



Mainstream media criticized the excessive use of force by police, and the police fabrication of an attack on Davidwache police station at Hamburgs famous Reeperbahn. Protesters were reclaiming the streets on a daily basis, and because of the spontaneous nature of the protests – and the massive support of local residents – police forces couldn’t control the protests, and after 9 days of daily protests, authorities finally gave up. During the 9 days that the danger zone existed police had harassed 990 people, banned 195 people from the area, detained 66 people and made only 5 arrests.

For German activists, closure of the danger zone was an important win, as it was the first time police authorities installed a danger zone to suppress political protests. Many activists feared that other German cities might follow the pilot project of police authorities in Hamburg. On Monday afternoon and in the evening hours, there were still protests ongoing in Hamburg because people are mobilizing against the law that makes these danger zones possible, and also to make it clear that they have not forgotten their original demands. People demand the right to stay for the “Lampedusa in Hamburg” refugees, make clear that they are against the demolition of the Esso houses, and that they will defend the autonomous cultural center Rote Flora (which is still under threat of eviction).

Police authorities claim that activists started the clashes, but their lobby groups demanded rubber bullets and tasers for the police. Hysterical media supported the police so much that authorities decided to install the danger zones. But after the strong protests and the elimination of the danger zones, Hamburg’s ruling social-democratic SPD party made a U-turn on Tuesday, and are now blaming the owner Klaus-Martin Kretschmer of the Rote Flora building for the clashes. The SPD announced that the city of Hamburg wants to buy the building back for 1.1 million Euro. Kretschmer bought the from city authorities in 2001 for 190.000 Euro in order to make a huge profit. But on the same day, Kretschmer reacted and he said he would not sell the building back to the city, and that he will continue with his plans to evict the Rote Flora and to build a theater with a car park inside the building. In a leaked letter from the city of Hamburg to Kretschmer, the city is even threatening to force Kretschmer to sell the building. The SPD wants to buy the building to maintain its occupied status.

http://revolution-news.com/hamburg-danger-zones-lifted-city-may-buy-rote-flora/


"Red Flora"

The Rote Flora is a former theater in the neighbourhood Schanzenviertel in Hamburg. It has been squatted in November 1989 in response to the decision to turn it into a musical theatre.

However, residents, shopkeepers and autonomous groups responded negatively and, within months, the protest grew. Nevertheless, the historical building was partly torn down in April 1988. Still, the protests went on and soon culminated in several violent assaults by militant groups. The need of police protection and the negative response in media eventually urged the investors to forfeit the plan.

Until following summer, the ruins and remaining parts were vacant, although several groups, involved in the prior protests, had ambitions of renovating and reusing the house again. In August 1989, the city unexpectedly offered a six-months lease to these groups. After the lease was official, the Rote Flora opened on September 23, 1989. However, the lease was soon declared obsolete and the Rote Flora was declared as squatted on November 1, 1989. Since then, the Rote Flora offers space for cultural and political events...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rote_Flora

January 16, 2014

Top Ten Examples of Welfare for the Rich

One. State and Local Subsidies to Corporations. An excellent New York Times study by Louise Story calculated that state and local government provide at least $80 billion in subsidies to corporations...

Two. Direct Federal Subsidies to Corporations. The Cato Institute estimates that federal subsidies to corporations costs taxpayers almost $100 billion every year.

Three. Federal Tax Breaks for Corporations. The tax code gives corporations special tax breaks which reduced what is supposed to be a 35 percent tax rate to an actual tax rate of 13 percent, saving these corporations an additional $200 billion annually, according to the US Government Accountability Office.

Four. Federal Tax Breaks for Wealthy Hedge Fund Managers. Special tax breaks for hedge fund managers allow them to pay only 15% rate while the people they earned the money for usually pay 35% rate. This is the break where the multimillionaire manager pays less of a percentage in taxes than her secretary. The National Priorities Project estimates this costs taxpayers $83 billion annually and 68% of those who receive this special tax break earn more than $462,500 per year (the top one percent of earners).

Five. Subsidy to Fast Food Industry. Research by the University of Illinois and UC Berkeley documents that taxpayers pay about $243 billion each year in indirect subsidies to the fast food industry because they pay wages so low that taxpayers must put up $243 billion to pay for public benefits for their workers...

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/01/14/top-ten-examples-of-welfare-for-the-rich/