Walmart and the Walton family are the recipients of “special treatment” thanks to a tax system that allows them to rake in $7.8 billion a year from tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies, a new report reveals.
Armed with this news, a group of Walmart workers and taxpayers delivered a $7.8 billion tax bill — an amount that could be used to fund over 105,000 new public school teachers — to the Phoenix-area home of Walmart Chairman Rob Walton.
“Even though Walmart is making $16 billion in profits, the Waltons seem to think the American people should be providing them another $8 billion in tax breaks,” Anthony Goytia, who’s worked at Walmart for two years, said in a statement. “When the richest family in America isn’t paying its fair share, it’s no wonder that our children’s schools, our roads and basic public programs are getting cut left and right.”
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Americans for Tax Fairness (AFT), which put out the report, breaks down the $7.8 billion:
Because Walmart pays such low wages to its employees, many of them depend on taxpayer-funded programs like food stamps to get by. That adds up to roughly $6.2 billion annually.
Tax breaks and loopholes allow the corporation to join the ranks of other tax dodgers to the tune of $1 billion a year.
The Waltons, who own more than 50 percent of Walmart shares, are legally able to avoid paying $607 million in federal taxes on their Walmart dividends because investment income is taxed at a lower rate than actual work income. The report adds: “Because the Waltons have investments other than Walmart, this estimate may significantly understate the savings they derive from the tax preference on investment income.”
On food stamps, also known as SNAP, Walmart benefits in an additional way. It receives 18 percent of the SNAP market; that means its sales from food stamp recipients bring the company an additional $13.5 billion.
“Polls show that Americans want a tax system that requires large corporations and the wealthy to pay their fair share,” the report concludes. “This report shows that our current system is anything but fair – rather it provides special treatment to America’s biggest corporations and richest families leaving individual taxpayers and small businesses to pick up the tab.”
And in an interview with The Sunday Times published over the weekend, the award-winning journalist spoke about a coming “finale” that would expose specific individuals who have been targeted by the powerful spy agency.
According to the Times‘ Toby Harnden, Greenwald explained that the ultimate legacy of his NSA reporting—and the decision to leak a trove of secret NSA documents by whistleblower Edward Snowden— would be “shaped in large part” by this “finishing piece” still to come.
Greenwald said:
Greenwald told Harnden that the story to answer some of these questions will be published at his new website, The Intercerpt, later this year.
As Greenwald told GQ magazine during an in-depth interview earlier this year: “As with a fireworks show, you want to save your best for last. There’s a story that from the beginning I thought would be our biggest, and I’m saving that.”
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The UK’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee has
written to leading companies in sectors including fashion, retail and
information technology, seeking answers in relation to its inquiry into
forced labour of Uyghur in the Xinjiang region of China.
Those companies are Adidas, Amazon, Boohoo Group, Gap, H&M Group, Ikea,
Marks & Spencer, Nike, Puma, Stella McCartney, The North Face, Victoria’s
Secret, Zara, TikTok, and The Walt Disney Company.
The letters include questions concerning supply-chain transparency and
request evidence of compliance with labour, procurement and anti-slavery
laws.
The committee’s request for information includes an invitation to give
evidence at the BEIS Committee’s public hearing on Thursday 5 November.
Government minister Paul Scully
will also be giving
evidence at the session.
Nusrat Ghani, MP and lead BEIS committee member for the Forced labour in
UK value chains inquiry, said: “The Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s
‘Uyghur’s for Sale’ report names 82 foreign and Chinese companies directly
or indirectly benefiting from the exploitation of Uyghur workers in
Xinjiang. The companies listed in the Australian Strategic Policy
Institute’s report span industries including the fashion, retail and
information technology sectors.
“On the BEIS Committee, we are determined to ask prominent businesses
operating in Britain in these sectors what they are doing to ensure their
profits are not on the back of forced labour in China. These businesses are
trusted by many British consumers and I hope they will repay this faith by
coming forward to answer these questions and also take up the opportunity
to give evidence to the Business Committee in public.
“There have been a series of accounts of products being sold in the UK
which can be traced back to forced labour at camps in China. On the BEIS
Committee, we want to get a clearer sense of the extent of this problem,
how seriously businesses ask questions of their own supply and
value-chains, and to also examine the steps both Government and business
could take to ensure that businesses and consumers in the UK do not
perpetuate the forced labour of Uyghur.”
In an expression of a “new populist” energy, thousands of demonstrators shut down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC on Monday as they demanded a livable wage and an end to the corporate domination of the national economy and politics.
“We are here to fight for a new economy that is just and sustainable, that serves all of us—not just a few.”
Under the banner “Battle for the Capitol,” marchers carried puppets of corporate lobbyists swarming a 10-foot high replica of the Capitol Building as they blasted rising inequality in America and the outsized influence of big money during elections and in the halls of Congress.
The protesters chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets!”
“This is what the New Populist Movement looks like,” tweeted James Mumm of the group National People’s Action, which along with the Restaraunt Opportunities Center and the National Domestic Workers Association, organized the protest.
“We have an unbelievable inequality crisis among communities of color and minimum wage workers,” said Liz Ryan Murray, policy director with NPA, told Common Dreams.
“While our families are suffering from low wages, lack of services and good infrastructure, corporations and the one percent are doing better and better every year,” she continued.
Tweets about “#risingvoices OR #battle4thecapitol”
Ryan Murray said that this week Congress is expected to extend tax cuts to corporations worth tens of billions of dollars. “These are straight up corporate giveaways to [General Electric] and others who use the tax code to get out of paying their fair share,” she said, noting that Republicans are planning to put forth a proposal to make these giveaways permanent.
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“We know we’re dealing with some highly profitable corporations that could easily afford to pay their workers more,” added Toby Chow, a community organizer with IIRON in Chicago, who traveled to Washington D.C. for the protest. “We also know that [in cities like Chicago] it is not possible to survive on the minimum wage.”
“Really it comes down to alternatives,” Chow continued. “Further fill the coffers of corporations or give hardworking people a chance to survive with dignity. We are here to fight for a new economy that is just and sustainable, that serves all of us—not just a few.”
Groups such as NPA and Fight for 15 are calling for the minimum wage to be increased to at least fifteen dollars an hour. According to Ryan Murray, the NPA is “supportive” of President Obama’s initiative to raise the wage to $10.10, though they said it is “not where we need to be.”
The Senate is expected to vote on the $10.10 minimum wage increase on Wednesday.
The protest comes on the heels of the release of the latest AFL-CIO ‘Executive Paywatch’ report, which found that the average U.S. CEO was paid $11.7 million, or 331 times that of the average worker—a ratio that the report called “unconscionable.”
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday “effectively sided with the government” against embattled New York Times journalist James Risen by rejected his appeal of a lower court ruling challenging the Justice Department’s demand that he reveal a confidential source.
“By going after Risen, the Obama administration has done more damage to reporter’s privilege than any other case in forty years.” —Trevor Timm, Freedom of the Press Foundation
The ruling means that Risen has come to the end of the appeals process in his case and must now either testify in the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling or face possible jail time. The Department of Justice believes that Sterling is Risen’s confidential source, but Risen has consistently refused to confirm that belief, citing press freedoms and his right as a journalist to protect confidential sources. If he refuses to testify—as he has repeatedly said he will—he could be placed in contempt of court and face jail time until he complies.
As the Times itself reports:
Fellow journalist Glenn Greenwald expressed his frustration with the court’s decision, by tweeting:
Norman Solomon, a journalist and co-founder of the progressive advocacy organization RootsAction, says the ruling exemplifies issues he highlighted in a recent piece, titled An Assault from Obama’s Escalating War on Journalism, written about the Risen case for Common Dreams last week. In comments emailed in the wake of Monday’s court decision, Solomon explained:
“Fortunately, what makes James Risen an excellent journalist is also what is making him an excellent protagonist for real freedom of the press.” —Norman Solomon, RootsAction.org
And Trevor Timm, co-founder and executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, said in a statement:
Seemingly undeterred by the court’s decision, Risen himself, according to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, has vowed to continue to fight for his right to protect sources. Wemple tweeted:
Reaction on Twitter was also trending among journalists, free press advocates, and others:
Tweets about “James Risen”
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Just how badly does the American Red Cross want to keep secret how it raised and spent over $300 million after Hurricane Sandy?
The charity has hired a fancy law firm to fight a public request we filed with New York state, arguing that information about its Sandy activities is a “trade secret.”
The Red Cross’ “trade secret” argument has persuaded the state to redact some material, though it’s not clear yet how much since the documents haven’t yet been released.
As we’ve reported, the Red Cross releases few details about how it spends money after big disasters. That makes it difficult to figure out whether donor dollars are well spent.
The Red Cross did give some information about Sandy spending to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who had been investigating the charity. But the Red Cross declined our request to disclose the details.
So we filed a public records request for the information the Red Cross provided to the attorney general’s office.
That’s where the law firm Gibson Dunn comes in.
An attorney from the firm’s New York office appealed to the attorney general to block disclosure of some of the Sandy information, citing the state Freedom of Information Law’s trade secret exemption.
The documents include “internal and proprietary methodology and procedures for fundraising, confidential information about its internal operations, and confidential financial information,” wrote Gabrielle Levin of Gibson Dunn in a letter to the attorney general’s office.
If those details were disclosed, “the American Red Cross would suffer competitive harm because its competitors would be able to mimic the American Red Cross’s business model for an increased competitive advantage,” Levin wrote.
The letter doesn’t specify who the Red Cross’ “competitors” are.
The Red Cross is a public charity and occupies a unique place responding to disasters alongside the federal government.
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Among the sections of the documents the Red Cross wanted redacted was “a two-line title” at the top of a page, one line of which was “American Red Cross.”
The attorney general’s office denied that redaction, writing that it “can not find disclosure of this two line title will cause the Red Cross any economic injury.”
Asked about the effort to have Sandy materials kept secret, Red Cross spokeswoman Anne Marie Borrego told ProPublica: “We sought to keep confidential a small part of the letter [sent to the AG] that provided proprietary information important to maintaining our ability to raise funds and fulfill our mission.”
Doug White, a nonprofit expert who directs the fundraising management program at Columbia University, said that it’s possible for nonprofits to have trade interests — the logo of a university, for example — but it’s not clear what a “trade secret” would be in the case of the Red Cross. He called the lawyer’s letter an apparent “delaying tactic.”
Ben Smilowitz of the Disaster Accountability Project, a watchdog group, said,
“Invoking a ‘trade secret’ exemption is not something you would expect from an organization that purports to be ‘transparent and accountable.'”
In agreeing to withhold some details, the attorney general’s office found that portions of the documents the charity wanted to redact “describe business strategies, internal operational procedures and decisions, and the internal deliberations and decision-making processes that affect fundraising and the allocation of donations.”
The attorney general’s office also found “that this information is proprietary and constitutes trade secrets, and that its disclosure would cause the Red Cross economic injury and put the Red Cross at an economic disadvantage.”
Another section the Red Cross wanted redacted was a paragraph that noted the charity’s “willingness to meet with the [Office of the Attorney General.]” The attorney general’s office denied that part of the request
Borrego, the Red Cross spokeswoman, declined to say how much the charity is paying Gibson Dunn but said, “we do not use funds restricted to Superstorm Sandy to cover those expenses.”
Two sizable earthquakes struck off the coast of Japan near the precarious Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant early Monday.
According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, one quake measuring magnitude 5.8 and another measuring 5.6 struck off the coast of Honsu—Japan’s largest and most populated island—overnight.
The agency says there is no immediate risk of a tsunami. However, the larger of the two quakes hit just 21 nautical miles from the Fukushima plant, where the containment of radioactive water and waste has been fraught with problems since an earthquake struck off the coast of the plant in 2011.
As Scotland voted against independence from the United Kingdom, rival supporters crowded into Glasgow’s George Square on Friday in what became a contentious gathering quickly broken up by police officers.
According to a police spokeswoman, about 200 people total converged on the city’s central plaza, although they were dispersed shortly. Police launched flares and Unionists waved U.K. flags in the air as they faced off with independence voters. According to the BBC, the confrontation started with a “coordinated” push from pro-Unionists. Peter Adam Smith, a journalist with STV News, posted a vine that captured some pro-U.K. demonstrators using Nazi salutes:
The confrontation in the square followed a surprise in parliament as Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Alex Salmond announced his sudden resignation, telling a press conference, “Right now there is a decision as to who is best placed to lead this process forward politically.”
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“I believe that in this new exciting situation, redolent with possibility, party, parliament and country would benefit from new leadership,” Salmond said.
Salmond had previously said he would stay on as SNP leader through 2016, but on Friday told reporters he would not accept a new nomination at the party’s annual conference in November. He is likely to be succeeded by his deputy, Nicola Sturgeon, whom he appointed to lead the referendum process.
Updates and photos of George Square were being tracked on Twitter:
#georgesquare Tweets
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Pending lawsuits in three states could have far-reaching implications for the coal-mining industry, as the U.S. Department of Interior has been charged with too quickly rubber-stamping coal-mining operations without adequate public input or consideration of pollution impact.
Filed by the environmental group WildEarth Guardians, the lawsuits take the Interior Department to task for what is described as “a chronic failure … to involve the public and address the potentially significant environmental and economic impacts of coal mining throughout the Rocky Mountain West.” They call for the government to shut down mining operations until more complete environmental reviews are completed.
While the lawsuits deal with four specific mines, the fallout from the civil cases could be more far-reaching, due to how many mines have been approved via the same process.
“If WildEarth’s request for relief is granted … the result would be devastating economic harm to coal miners, operators and the entire industry that services coal production,” mining association attorney Stephen Bell wrote in a recent court brief, as reported by the Associated Press.
Under federal law, the Interior Department has to approve a “Mining Plan” before a company can mine federal coal reserves. The plans must demonstrate compliance with federal regulations and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), looking at how mining would impact air and water quality both now and in the future.
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In the case of four mines in Colorado, Montana, and New Mexico, the Department signed off on Mining Plans that failed “to accurately consider potentially significant direct and indirect environmental impacts in accordance with NEPA,” the lawsuits read.
In particular, WildEarth alleges that the Department failed to give sufficient public notice about environmental analyses, approved plans that employed outdated information and standards, and ignored blatant public health risks. The Trapper mine in Colorado, for example, is currently in violation of the Clean Air Act and has exceeded its water pollution limits by more than 1,000 percent, according to WildEarth.
“Without any public knowledge, Interior has given the green light for coal companies to despoil our air, our water, and our land,” said Jeremy Nichols, WildEarth Guardians’ Climate and Energy Program Director. “It’s bad enough that that Interior is approving this kind of dirty energy development in secret, but it’s also doing so without consideration of the environmental implications. The public deserves better.”
Attorneys for the federal government deny any wrongdoing and have asked for the case to be dismissed.
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Intense shelling and aerial assaults that claimed hundreds of lives over the weekend continued in the Gaza Strip on Monday, pushing the number of Palestinians killed by Israel’s ‘Operation Protective Edge’ beyond 500 people, with many thousands wounded, since it began on July 8.
“While official claims that the objective of the ground offensive is to destroy tunnels into Israel, what we see on the ground is that bombing is indiscriminate and that those who die are civilians.” —Nicolas Palarus, Doctors Without Borders
In the Gaza City suburb of Shuja’iyya on Sunday, more than 120 Palestinians—at least 40 of whom where women and children—were killed during intense and reportedly “indiscriminate” bombing by Israeli forces. The Ma’an News Agency reports that overall, 150 Palestinians were killed across the territory on Sunday.
“It was a night of horror,” one 50 year-old Palestinian from the city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza told Reuters.
According to the New York Times on Monday, “Israel has lost 18 soldiers so far, as well as two citizens killed by rocket and mortar fire.”
Late on Sunday, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting over the crisis in Gaza and demanded all parties agree to an immediate cease fire. The council, however, did not pick up an official resolution offered by Jordan which put forth stronger language condemning the violence against civilians in Gaza and called for a lifting of the siege that prevents people from leaving the enclave that has now become an open battlefield.
In a statement, the France-based medical relief agency Doctors Without Borders/MSF called on Israel to immediately stop bombing the civilian population trapped in the sealed-off Gaza strip and to respect the safety of medical workers and health facilities working there.
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“Shelling and air strikes are not only intense but are also unpredictable, which makes it very difficult for MSF and other medical workers to move and provide much needed emergency care,” said Nicolas Palarus, MSF field coordinator in Gaza.
“While official claims that the objective of the ground offensive is to destroy tunnels into Israel,” Palarus continued, “what we see on the ground is that bombing is indiscriminate and that those who die are civilians.”
UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon, speaking in Doha on Sunday, made his strongest comments yet on Israel’s military assault, calling for an end to the campaign that has now killed hundreds of civilians and wounded thousands, including a huge numbers of children.
“I condemn this atrocious action,” Ban said. “Israel must exercise maximum restraint and do far more to protect civilians.”
Both U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama have also backed the latest calls for a cease fire and expressed “concern” for the increasing numbers of civilian casualties, but continued to stop short of condemning Israeli’s aggressive tactics.
In a call with Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, according to the White House, Obama raised “serious concern” about the growing number of casualties on both sides, including increasing Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza and the loss of Israeli soldiers, but reaffirmed the U.S. position that Israel has a “right to defend itself.”
Kerry was on his way to Cairo on Monday to engage with regional leaders gathered there to work on the possibility of a negotiated settlement. Kerry made headlines on Sunday for what were described as “unguarded” comments made to a senior aide in which he was shown expressing frustration over the increasing numbers of civilians deaths caused by Israel’s attack. “It’s a hell of a pinpoint operation, it’s a hell of a pinpoint operation,” Kerry said, seeming to challenge the repeated claims made by Israeli officials.
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