Tag Archives for US

Why ONLY Little People Pay Taxes; How the richest Americans beat the IRS.

Source: http://motherjones.com

Why a janitor ends up with a higher tax rate than a millionaire, and seven more charts that show how the richest Americans beat the IRS.

Click here for more charts on America’s growing income gap.

“We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes,” billionaire hotelier Leona Helmsley famously (and allegedly) sniffed. She wasn’t entirely correct: The superrich do still pay taxes. The wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers pay 32 percent of all income tax collected by the federal government.

But the superrich don’t pay as much as they used to—and thanks to a combination of tax cuts and preferential tax policies, their tax obligations can be less demanding than the so-called little people’s. In fact, the very wealthiest Americans’ tax burden has been steadily dropping for years, even as they’ve enjoyed astounding income growth not seen by the vast majority of Americans.

Tax rates for the wealthy have fallen substantially since they peaked in the 1940s. During the past 30 years, they have been cut at a much faster rate than middle- and low-income taxpayers’.

Just how much of a windfall are tax cuts for the wealthy? The extension of the Bush tax cuts passed last year will provide $146,000 in annual tax savings, on average, to each of the wealthiest 0.1% of Americans.

The super rich get an additional boost from relatively low tax rates on capital gains. Income from long-term investments, which makes up a larger portion of wealthier taxpayers’ incomes than middle- and low-income taxpayers’, is taxed at lower rates than wages.

Payroll taxes (deductions for Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance) are mostly paid by the bottom 90 percent of earners. When they’re factored in on top of income tax, the gap between the tax rates at the very top and everyone else shrinks even more—so much that the effective tax rate for people earning more than $370,000 is nearly the same as for those earning between $43,000 and $69,000 a year.

Payroll taxes now make up nearly as much of federal tax revenue as individual income tax. Meanwhile, revenues from corporate taxes have decreased significantly over the past 50 years.

Corporations exploit various loopholes and tax breaks to reduce their IRS bills—perhaps none more notoriously than General Electric. Though the corporate tax rate is 35%, GE has paid nothing near that for nearly a decade.

Leona Helmsley’s distaste for paying taxes eventually landed her in federal prison. But the rich have little need to break the law to avoid the tax collector. As Martin A. Sullivan of Tax.com recently calculated, a New York janitor making slightly more than $33,000 a year pays an effective tax rate of nearly 25%. And the effective tax rate for a resident of the Park Avenue building named after Helmsley, earning an average of $1.2 million annually? A cool 14.7%.

More Mother Jones charty goodness: 11 charts that explain America’s income gap; how the rich get richer; how the poor get poorer; and who owns Congress?
Sources

Share of taxes: Tax Policy Center

Top 400 taxpayers: IRS (PDF)

Falling tax rates: Remapping Debate

Bush tax cuts: Tax Policy Center (PDF)

Income vs. capital gains: IRS: Income tax rates (PDF); capital gains tax rates

Effective tax rates: Tax Policy Center

Source of tax revenues: Senate Joint Committee on Taxation (PDF)

GE taxes: ProPublica

Janitor vs. millionaire: Tax.com

Baked goods sold in USA contain a carcinogen banned in Europe but allowed in the US! This IS bad!

Much of the flour sold in the United States has been treated with potassium bromate, which causes the flour to bulk up, strengthens the dough, and makes bread rise more rapidly. This decreases the time needed for baking (thereby reducing costs) and also allows the use of low quality flour that might otherwise be unsuitable for baking. There’s only one problem with this: Potassium bromate causes cancer.

Potassium bromate is so widely accepted as a carcinogen that it has been banned in the European Union, Canada and even in China. U.S. law only allows the chemical to be used as an ingredient in food because it was first approved by the FDA back in 1958, before modern anti-cancer legislation went into effect. The fact that the ingredient has actually received FDA approval makes it much more difficult for it to be subsequently banned.

Most potassium bromate breaks down during the baking process, but tests have confirmed that trace amounts can remain in finished baked goods. Unfortunately for the careful consumer, U.S. law does not require that potassium bromate be listed as a separate ingredient on food labels. This is yet another example of the government making sure that you don’t learn the truth about what’s in your food.

See astonishing videos about this subject at www.FoodInvestigations.com

The only reliable away to avoid this poisonous ingredient is to buy organic flours and baked goods. Products sold in California must carry a warning label if potassium bromate has been used.

USA: Thirteen Ways Government Tracks Us – This Is a REAL Worry! Only the people can stop this!!!!

So Much For America being the “Land Of The Free”  – MORE like the “Land Of The Paranoid Government”

The cost of running all these departments and systems must be ‘Mind Blowing’ – Pardon the pun!

“God Bless America” ? Nah! – “God, Please help all its people” YES!

Source: http://www.informationclearinghouse.

April 09, 2012 “Information Clearing House” — Privacy is eroding fast as technology offers government increasing ways to track and spy on citizens. The Washington Post reported there are 3,984 federal, state and local organizations working on domestic counterterrorism. Most collect information on people in the US. (Source)

Here are thirteen examples of how some of the biggest government agencies and programs track people:

One. The National Security Agency (NSA) collects hundreds of millions of emails, texts and phone calls every day and has the ability to collect and sift through billions more. WIRED just reported NSA is building an immense new data center which will intercept, analyze and store even more electronic communications from satellites and cables across the nation and the world. Though NSA is not supposed to focus on US citizens, it does. (Source)

Two. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) has more than 1.5 billion government and private sector records about US citizens collected from commercial databases, government information, and criminal probes. (Source)

Three. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Times recently reported that cellphones of private individuals in the US are being tracked without warrants by state and local law enforcement all across the country. With more than 300 million cellphones in the US connected to more than 200,000 cell phone towers, cellphone tracking software can pinpoint the location of a phone and document the places the cellphone user visits over the course of a day, week, month or longer. (Source)

Four. More than 62 million people in the US have their fingerprints on file with the FBI, state and local governments. This system, called the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), shares information with 43 states and 5 federal agencies. This system conducts more than 168,000 checks each day. (Source)

Five. Over 126 million people have their fingerprints, photographs and biographical information accessible on the US Department of Homeland Security Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT). This system conducts about 250,000 biometric transactions each day. The goal of this system is to provide information for national security, law enforcement, immigration, intelligence and other Homeland Security Functions. (Source)

Six. More than 110 million people have their visas and more than 90 million have their photographs entered into the US Department of State Consular Consolidated Database (CCD). This system grows by adding about 35,000 people a day. This system serves as a gateway to the Department of State Facial Recognition system, IDENT and IAFSIS. (Source)

Seven. DNA profiles on more than 10 million people are available in the FBI coordinated Combined DNA index System (CODIS) National DNA Index. (Source)

Eight. Information on more than 2 million people is kept in the Intelligence Community Security Clearance Repository, commonly known as Scattered Castles. Most of the people in this database are employees of the Department of Defense (DOD) and other intelligence agencies. (Source)

Nine. The DOD also has an automated biometric identification system (ABIS) to support military operations overseas. This database incorporates fingerprint, palm print, face and iris matching on 6 million people and is adding 20,000 more people each day. (Source)

Ten. Information on over 740,000 people is included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) of the National Counterterrorism Center. TIDE is the US government central repository of information on international terrorist identities. The government says that less than 2 percent of the people on file are US citizens or legal permanent residents. They were just given permission to keep their non-terrorism information on US citizens for a period of five years, up from 180 days. (Source)

Eleven. Tens of thousands of people are subjects of facial recognition software. The FBI has been working with North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles and other state and local law enforcement on facial recognition software in a project called “Face Mask.” For example, the FBI has provided thousands of photos and names to the North Carolina DMV which runs those against their photos of North Carolina drivers. The Maricopa Arizona County Sheriff’s Office alone records 9,000 biometric mug shots a month. (Source)

Twelve. The FBI operates the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting Initiative (SAR) that collects and analyzes observations or reports of suspicious activities by local law enforcement. With over 160,000 suspicious activity files, SAR stores the profiles of tens of thousands of Americans and legal residents who are not accused of any crime but who are alleged to have acted suspiciously. (Source)

Thirteen. The FBI admits it has about 3,000 GPS tracking devices on cars of unsuspecting people in the US right now, even after the US Supreme Court decision authorizing these only after a warrant for probable cause has been issued. (Source)

The Future

The technology for tracking and identifying people is exploding as is the government appetite for it.

Soon, police everywhere will be equipped with handheld devices to collect fingerprint, face, iris and even DNA information on the spot and have it instantly sent to national databases for comparison and storage.

Bloomberg News reports the newest surveillance products “can also secretly activate laptop webcams or microphones on mobile devices,” change the contents of written emails mid-transmission, and use voice recognition to scan phone networks. (Source)

The advanced technology of the war on terrorism, combined with deferential courts and legislators, have endangered both the right to privacy and the right of people to be free from government snooping and tracking. Only the people can stop this.

USA; Political correctness or political insanity? New York City schools ban words such as “birthdays, wealth, poverty + topics from tests – This is just Bazaar!

Have the Yanks lost the plot or what?

Source: Activist Post

If anyone needed a single case to point to in order to show that political correctness has gone completely insane here in the United States, this is it. With the rise of such practices, we also see the growth of the “nanny state” which seeks to control every aspect of our lives.

The New York City Department of Education has banned several words in an attempt to be as politically correct as possible, although I see it as pure imbecilic nonsense.

There are some 50 words which are officially banned from being used on tests given to students by the city. Some of the more insane choices are: dinosaur, birthdays, wealth, poverty, Halloween, dancing, terrorism, divorce, references to disease, slavery, creatures from outer space, and many more.

In fact, it is not just these words that are banned, but indeed the entire topic cannot be included on any tests administered by the city.

This is supposedly because such references “could evoke unpleasant emotions in the students,” according to the New York Post.

These subjects were outlined in a request for proposals which was given to companies who compete to create standardized tests for English, math, science and other subjects which are administered multiple times per year.

Dinosaurs are banned because they supposedly might offend people who do not believe in evolution, yet this makes little to no sense given that even the most fundamentalist creationists seem to realize that there were, indeed dinosaurs.

Even the so-called “Creation Museum” in Petersburg, Kentucky includes a dinosaur exhibit called the “Dinosaur Den.”

The only people who refuse to recognize that dinosaurs existed are likely delusional or potentially insane. If the people behind the Creation Museum can agree that dinosaurs existed, as they actually have “a number of real fossilized dinosaur eggs, a Hadrosaur tibia, [and a] Triceratops skeleton casting,” on display, who out there refuses to acknowledge their existence?

Words suggesting either wealth or poverty are banned because they could supposedly make children feel jealous or saddened. I guess the New York City Department of Education believes that if you pretend it doesn’t exist, it simply doesn’t exist.

Seems to me that the Department of Education has a great deal in common with ostriches and babies under 7-9 months who have yet to develop object permanence, according to Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development.

This head-in-the-sand approach is also applied to divorces and diseases, since students might have divorced parents or might be sick in one way or another.

I guess they believe that if students don’t read the word “divorce” or anything to do with it, they’ll simply forget that their parents are divorced.

That makes about as much sense as thinking that if no one says “cancer” or “disease” suddenly no one in the world will have cancer.

However, the Department of Education insists that this is not censorship and that this is a completely routine, typical practice.

Unfortunately, our government has proven time and time again that they’re not the most competent individuals when it comes to logic and critical thinking.

“Some of these topics may be perfectly acceptable in other contexts but do not belong in a city- or state-wide assessment,” the request said.

Unfortunately, New York City is not alone and such “sensitivity guidelines” have actually been published by a group of states. They said that tests should not mention group dancing, various luxuries, junk food, homelessness and even witches.

“This is standard language that has been used by test publishers for many years and allows our students to complete practice exams without distraction,” a Department of Education spokesperson said, as reported by the Post.

However, this fails to address the fact that New York City’s list is almost twice the length of those produced by others and has even fewer exceptions.

It is my humble opinion that censoring any topic from a standardized test (within reason, of course, as explicitly violent or erotic material obviously has no place on a school test) is nothing short of absurd and represents some of the more troubling ways the American “nanny state” has reared its ugly head.

According to the list, tests cannot mention homes with swimming pools and computers or anything which could be construed as potentially “disrespectful to authority or authority figures.”

Even more insane, they are not allowed to personify animals or inanimate objects, which makes even less sense than most of the items.

According to officials, this is not necessary an absolute ban, as some items can be included on exams but only on a case-by-case basis.

“The intent is to avoid giving offense or disadvantage any test takers by privileging prior knowledge,” Robert Pondiscio, a spokesman for the Core Knowledge Foundation, said to the Post.

“But the irony is they’re eliminating some subjects, like junk food, holidays and popular music, that the broadest number of kids are likely to know quite a lot about,” he added.

“If the goal is to assess higher-order thinking skills, controversial topics, for example, ones that are the subject of political debate, are exactly what students should be reasoning about,” Deanna Kuhn, a professor at the Teachers College at Columbia University, aptly pointed out, according to the Post.

One of the most common justifications for these nonsensical practices is that they are attempting to avoid offending people of certain religious beliefs.

Birthdays are banned since Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate them; witches and Halloween are banned since they could be interpreted as pagan; and terrorism is banned because it might be scary.

If you’re absolutely astounded by these choices, you’re not alone. I honestly can’t even believe that such a thing is true, but I guess it goes to show just how far our country has gone down the rabbit hole of political correctness and the freedom-crushing nanny state.

This article first appeared at End the Lie.

Hate of Obama fuels 755% growth in extremist groups; Study (Another example of the USA becoming a basket case?)

Source: The Raw Story

Fears that the nation’s first black president will be re-elected has fueled the dramatic growth extremists groups in the U.S. over the past year, according to a report from a civil rights organization that tracks these groups.

The number of groups in the anti-government “Patriot” movement have sky rocketed 755 percent since President Barack Obama has been elected, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) yearly report found.

“These groups are becoming more and more aware as they watch the primary season unfold that Obama is fairly likely to win and some of them are having meltdowns over this,” Southern Poverty Law Center senior fellow Mark Potok told Raw Story. “They’re looking at four more years under a very hated black president — hated by them. So, we’re seeing signs of real anger over that. People saying we’re at war already, saying go out and buy AK-47s and hollow-point bullets, get tools to derail trains.”

Unlike traditional hate groups, “Patriot” groups subscribe to a set of conspiracy theories and see the government as their primary enemy.

“Basically what ‘Patriot’ groups think is that the federal government is an evil cabal in the hands of bad people,” Potok explained. “The government is about to impose martial law on the country, very probably with the help of foreign troops, perhaps U.N. troops. They intend to confiscate all guns from Americans. Those liberty-loving Americans who resisted will be thrown into concentration camps that have secretly constructed by FEMA. And ultimately the government will force us all into a socialistic kind of one-world government, the so-called New World Order.”

In addition to the staggering growth of groups in the “Patriot” movement, hate groups in general have grown from 926 in 2008 to 1018 last year. Anti-LGBT groups have grown by 27 percent and anti-Muslim groups have triple from 10 to 30 in just one year.

Ku Klux Klan groups actually fell from 221 to 152 last year, largely because the second largest Klan group — the Brotherhood of Klans in Ohio — folded after its leader, Jeremy Parker, joined a faction of the Aryan Nations.

Overall, Potok said that it was the disturbing growth by ‘Patriot’ groups that shocked the Southern Poverty Law Center.

“We were all astounded by the numbers this year,” Potok told Raw Story. “We’ve seen a very, very rapid growth in the ‘Patriot’ movement in the prior two years. We all expected that just had to tail off, that this kind of growth couldn’t continue for another year. But the reality is that we saw something close to 450 new groups appear on the scene last year.”

If the president is successful in his re-election bid, Potok sees no reason that the dramatic growth will not continue.

“I think if Obama is re-elected, this is very likely to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “We’re already seeing signs of anger in groups that are coming to believe that Obama will probably win the election so they’re going a bit crazy out there.”

U.S. – Locally-Grown Foods Account for Less than 2% of Total Sales -How Bad Is This?

Source: All Gov.

 Fueled by a flood of influential books and documentary films, the locally grown foods movement has basked in the media spotlight (including a Time magazine cover in 2007) and enjoyed astronomical growth since the turn of the century. In fact, locally grown food sales totaled about $4.8 billion in 2008–yet accounted for only 1.6% of the $300 billion U.S. agricultural products market. About 107,000 farms (5% of the total) were selling locally in many different ways, including direct to consumer marketing, farmers’ markets, farm-to-school programs, community-supported agriculture, community gardens, school gardens, roadside stands and warehouses that being together locally-grown produce.
The “locavore” movement is still growing, as a recent survey of 1,800 professional chefs by the National Restaurant Association found that three of the top four top menu trends for 2012 will be locally sourced meats and seafood, locally grown produce and “hyper-local items.” Even mega retailer Wal-Mart got into the act, announcing in 2010 its intent to sell more locally grown food.