The tax deadline is upon us, that wonderful time of year when people all over the United States get their financial house in order, file their taxes and pay a fair share to a common pool so that our society can do things that benefit everyone: pay for public schools, social services for the poor and elderly, and let us not forget the very expensive Department of Defense, whose offensive efforts worldwide contribute directly to a global economy that helps keep dark skinned people in far off lands impoverished enough to accept the slave wages to manufacture the plastic gadgets, clothing and electronic devices that serve as the very objects and emblems of our entire way of life. That is an expensive tab, and it is a good thing that regular everyday people like you and me also have corporations to thank for chipping in their fair share to this common pool that benefits us all.
And yet, I’m not breaking any news to remind that the bigger the corporation- the less likely that they will have to pay any taxes. Take Exxon Mobil, for example- the 2nd largest corporation in the world. They have been in the news of late, some of their pipelines have ruptured and have turned Mayflower, Arkansas into a toxic carcinogenic cesspool – not that we can really get the full story, because the corporate control of our lives has reached the point where journalists trying to get the real story are given a phone number managed by Exxon to get information and threatened with arrests if they try to get the real story, kids who claim illness at school are told by Exxon doctors that everything is AOK and every politician up to and including the wall street tool in the White House is not only willing to look the other way, they are ready to give their approval for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would pump the dirtiest oil in the world through pipes that will burst because that is what pipes do, under US soil from Canada to the gulf of Mexico. And Exxon, for hastening the destruction of the planet not only paid ZERO in taxes in a recent tax year, they were given a tax refund of 953 million dollars.
What about Goldman Sachs? The corporation that, thanks to reporting of Matt Taibbi, many now understand, but remain impotent to do anything about, Goldman’s “unprecedented reach and power (which) have enabled it to turn all of America into a giant pump-and-dump scam, manipulating whole economic sectors for years at a time” in a cruel game that drove many into poverty or out of their homes and took the entire economy to the brink of collapse all for the pornographically obscene profit of a few psychopaths that are lionized by our sick culture as alpha males grabbing what they deserve, rather than a more appropriate treatment such as drawing and quartering them in a public square. In a recent tax year Goldman not only paid ZERO in taxes but also was given a refund of 785 million dollars.
And last- but certainly not least- we have General Electric. GE, one of the worlds largest weapons manufactures, was also, until very recently, a majority owner of NBC universal- and was instrumental- as Glenn Greenwald reported, in silencing the anti-war voice of Keith Olbermann because – while Olbermann was good for ratings, the worldview embedded in his popular rants could have hurt the interests of weapons maker GE. Which brings us back around again to that pool of money people and corporations chip into every April in the form of paying up their taxes so that we can have things that benefit us all- like schools, roads, and keep a strangle hold on the world economy so that dark skinned people in far off lands will remain impoverished enough to accept the slave wages to manufacture the plastic gadgets, clothing and electronic devices that serve as the very objects and emblems of our entire way of life- a common good for which GE not only paid ZERO dollars in a recent tax year, but was refunded by you me and everyone you know who did pay taxes to tune of 3 Billion dollars.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
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