This is the story of how a number of US industrialists, including Prescott Bush, grandfather to the current US President, are accused of attempting to overthrow the US government in 1933 and 1934. Had it not been for the patriotic opposition of General Smedley Butler, the face of America might be very different today.
This is a frightening tale and shows how fragile our democracy can be.
The tax cuts recently advocated by Jim Flaherty and the Harper Government have done nothing to strengthen our economy. In fact, they are exaggerating the differences between oil-rich provinces and regions that rely on manufacturing.
Link to Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Study.
Here are details from the press release:
The study, by economist Jim Stanford, analyzes the distribution of corporate profits across Canada’s provinces and across 16 major industries. It finds that the big winners from Conservative corporate tax cuts will be Canada’s oil-producing provinces, and the oil and finance sectors. In contrast, industries and regions which are struggling will receive very little benefit.
“Despite what Finance Minister Flaherty says, corporate tax cuts are an especially uneven policy tool,” Stanford says. “These corporate tax cuts constitute a significant net fiscal shift in favour of Alberta, and away from Ontario and every other non-oil-producing province.”
According to the study, Canada’s three oil-producing provinces, which account for 15% of the population, generate 36% of corporate profits—and can be expected to reap a similarly large share of the benefits of corporate tax reductions. On a per capita basis, companies operating in the oil-producing provinces can be expected to receive three times as much benefit from the tax cuts as companies in the rest of the country.
“Finance Minister Flaherty is ‘picking winners’ as surely as any other Finance Minister—including Ontario’s,” says Stanford. “Surprisingly, the ‘winners’ he’s picking are the provinces and industries that are already doing very well indeed.”
The study also questions the economic impact of corporate tax cuts. Despite the dramatic decline in corporate tax rates this decade, business spending on capital equipment and R&D has been remarkably sluggish—even as Canadian companies are enjoying all-time record profits.
“Corporate tax cuts, as expensive as they have been and will continue to be, have had no visible impact on the broad pattern of business investment at all,” Stanford says.
“In addition to asking whether the regional and sectoral impacts of the Harper government’s $15 billion annual corporate tax cuts are fair and acceptable to the majority of Canadians, we should also ask whether they will have any beneficial impact on Canada’s economy at all,” concludes Stanford.
This is no way to enable a vision for Canada. Reducing $15 billion in tax revenue PER YEAR from those who are most capable of paying corporate income tax is nothing short of an abomination. To make things worse, the smokescreens being thrown around by the “our government” are unfortunate, because they are distracting Canadians from very real issues.
For example, the ongoing vitriolic attack by Flaherty and other Conservatives against the Government of Ontario are very unfortunate because they’re (a) an international embarassment, (b) potentially creating self-fulfilling prophecies and (c) no way to run a country.
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 27 of the my online book "Excited Delirium". Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index .
DATE: January 2008
SOURCE: World Social Reporter
NEWS STORY – Chinese Toy Manufacturers Are Being Fined for Illegal Lead Levels
2007 will be remembered as the year when China Poisoned our Children. Many are left asking WHY?
In most cases, there was no obvious intent, but investigations have shown that a growing number of products have unusual levels of lead and other toxins in them. These are products that are built for Americans, especially toys.
The investigations were instigated by the “Save Our Children” (SOC) environmental group, based in California. They did thorough tests of small selections of toys and other manufactured goods as they arrived in North America and found that most of goods tested showed unusual level of lead, benzene, formaldehyde, mercury and other highly toxic chemicals
“Some of the clothing that we tested showed formaldehyde in cotton clothes at levels that were 900 times greater than the ‘safe’ levels, as required by the National Standards Council, or NSC” Tania Tobin, the Director of SOC’s testing division. “We also found that pieces were smaller then requirements set out by the NSC, were painted using lead-based products and generally failed standards as laid out by any international body.”
Generally, the European Union, the only international body that has limitation requirements for clothing, especially for children, allows a maximum 20 part per million (PPM) for new goods.
“In one case, we identified a single product that had formaldehyde content that was 900 times the minimum EU levels,” Tobin said. “This is poison, but we estimate that this one piece of clothing had a distribution level in the hundreds of thousands.”
Burt Jarvis, an online investigative ejournalist, had this to offer to the World Social Reporter: “It’s not clear yet who the culprit is. There are so many American and international companies based in China doing so much work, it’s obvious that they’re the ones who ultimately sanction this kind of ‘cheating’, but at the same time, the competition within Chinese companies to net the lucrative manufacturing and assembly contracts is beyond cut-throat. They are doing anything they can to win this business, including paying off local officials and creating façade organizations that sell legit product to win contracts, just to name a few examples.”
“Some rumours are even floating around that these stories are ‘planted’ by American companies supported by organizations like the Univists that don’t believe in doing any trade with China, because the government suppresses religion.”
He continued: “To make matters worse, very few companies are actually regulated or monitored. It’s the wild west. So far, we’re only talking about toys, but we get everything from China.”
“What we know with absolute certainty: the consumer loses. Ultimately, the best way to protect yourself is to limit what you buy and when you do have to purchase necessities, buy locally and from small businesses that you know.”
In swift and harsh reaction to the news a number of Chinese manufacturers killed the managers of a few plants that allowed lead paint and other toxic products to be used for children’s products.
(Note: "Excited Delirium" is a work of fiction. Any person, place or thing depicted in this work of fiction is also a work of fiction. Any relation of these subjects or characters to real locations, people or things are an unintentional coincidence.)
Did you miss a chapter? If so, click here to see all chapters or click here to go to Excited Delirium: Chapter 1 (Prelude)
Excited Delirium by Liam Young is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License .
Based on a work at www.exciteddelirium.ca .
Chapter posting delayed for editing reasons.
(Note: “Excited Delirium” is a work of fiction. Any person, place or thing depicted in this work of fiction is also a work of fiction. Any relation of these subjects or characters to real locations, people or things are an unintentional coincidence.)
Did you miss a chapter? If so, click here to see all chapters or click here to go to Excited Delirium: Chapter 1 (Prelude)
Excited Delirium by Liam Young is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.
Based on a work at www.exciteddelirium.ca.
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 25 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
The Econoline van that the Harken family owns should have been taken off the road years ago. However, this family had made exceptional use of it over the last decade and there were no plans to put it to rest any time soon.
It was a light beige colour, and the rust and holes make it look like a kodachrome negative of a block of old Swiss cheese. The nose of the van was short and the headlight cover on the driver’s side was cracked. Over the last year, enough water had seeped into the small cavity, ending the light’s life prematurely. Of course, it wasn’t an issue because Heather Harken never drove at night. Her constant chores kept her in.
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 24 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
“I have a new project for you that I know you’ll enjoy. However, you will absolutely have to follow my directions to the letter,” said ‘Diana’, who also went by the code name “EphesianQueen”.
At great risk to each other’s identity, they had agreed to meet in person in order to establish a level of trust between themselves. Kite felt – and Diana agreed – that when you were not connected face to face, even in disguise, it was easy to become disloyal to one another. That said, Kite had also hoped that he might be able to get more than a handshake from his new employer, including some clues as to who she might be. He wasn’t the type to resort to blackmail, but if he had to, he would.
There’s an absolute sense when the author uses “gone” vs “going”. People ask me why I’ve got “Question War” and “Give Peace a Chance” bumber stickers on my little car instead of a “Support the Troops” icon.
The following describes why:
Going into 2008, the United States finds itself in the position of being unable to pay for its own elevated living standards or its wasteful, overly large military establishment. The government no longer even attempts to reduce the ruinous expense of maintaining huge standing armies.
Instead, the Bush administration has put off these costs for future generations to pay or repudiate. This fiscal irresponsibility has been disguised through manipulative financial schemes, but the time of reckoning is fast approaching.
There are three aspects to the U.S. debt crisis.
First, the U.S. is spending insane amounts of money on “defense” projects that bear no relation to the national security of the U.S. At the same time, the income tax burdens on the richest segment of the population are at strikingly low levels.
Second, there is a mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true.
Third, this devotion to militarism despite limited resources results in a failure to invest in social infrastructure and other requirements for the long-term health of the U.S. These are what economists call opportunity costs, things not done because the money was spent on something else. The public education system has deteriorated alarmingly and health care is not available to all citizens. Most important, the U.S. has lost its competitiveness as a manufacturer for civilian needs, an infinitely more efficient use of scarce resources than arms manufacturing.
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 23 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
DATE: Late 2007
SOURCE: World Social Reporter
NEWS STORY – Did
Many American politicians are pushing for an investigation into the illegal trade of arms and weaponry. They insinuate that a number of countries are selling weapons to terrorist organizations, including the Taliban,
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 18 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
“And what, pray tell, were you doing at a meeting like that?” Matthew asked Heather sternfully.
Matthew was an imposing character, of Scottish heritage, ruddy face and ruddier nose, both brought on buy an enormous amount of drinking over the bulk of his 62 years, but also by facing the merciless winds of January as he worked his farm. He weighed about 280 pounds, most of it at his centre, but a good chunk with his arms as well, given the volume of lifting and heaving that he had to do on the farm. He was in surprisingly good shape, particularly given the abuse that he hurled at himself, and he was proud of the fact that he could out-lift a man half his age. Continue reading
Author’s Note: The following is Chapter 20 of the my online book “Excited Delirium”. Please post comments. Please tell your friends about this story. If you’ve missed a chapter, please click here for Chapter 1 (Prelude) or here for the full index.
More than two months had passed for Kite and he was getting bored. Worse, he was getting worried.
He frequently checked his anonymous email accounts and some blogs where the proper codes and comments would trigger a reply, but nothing had shown up. The thought had even crossed his mind that he should seek out a different career. Of course, that would never happen, because he had come to be exceptionally good at fucking up organizations. Of course, thoughts of retiring also came to mind. The challenge was that he had champagne tastes and was still working with a beer budget, so he still had to generate some cash flow.