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welcome to reality trivia
reality is the state of things as they actually exist
oct 1, 2022
Real News Today
*An angry mob broke into a jail looking for a Black man—then freed him
History
*MAJOR PAPERS PROVIDE COVER FOR GOP ON SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE
Worthless Media
(for previous day's articles see "what's inside" below)
comment/tweet of the day
rob reiner:
a vote for a republican is a vote to destroy democracy
stupid attracts stupid
lex: republicans use racism and fear mongering to influence their supporters because they know their supporters are racist and stupid enough to believe republican lies.
Rob Reiner: "God help the USA"
We’re living in a country where the wife of a Supreme Court Justice believes that the 2020 election was stolen. God help the United States of America.
----
Disapproval of the Supreme Court Is at a Record High, Polling Finds Over 4 in 10 Americans now say that the Supreme Court is “too conservative” — an all-time high.
by Sharon Zhang, Truthout
WHAT PART DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND???
NANCEGREGGS@ DU
TODAY'S GOP IN FIVE PARAGRAPHS
THEY WON'T STAND UP FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER, THE STRUGGLING MIDDLE-CLASS, THE CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED IN CLASSROOMS, THE WOMEN BEING FORCED TO GIVE BIRTH, THE VETS WHO WERE INJURED WHILE SERVING THEIR COUNTRY, THE PEOPLE WHO DIED UNNECESSARILY FROM COVID, THE CITIZENS WHO ARE THREATENED BY THE VIOLENCE THEY'VE INCITED AND ENCOURAGED, OR THEIR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN WHO LIVE IN ABJECT POVERTY WITHOUT HEALTHCARE, SUFFICIENT FOOD, OR EVEN A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS.
WHAT THEY WILL STAND UP FOR - WITHOUT HESITATION, WITHOUT QUESTION, WITHOUT REMORSE - IS A LYING, SELF-SERVING GRIFTER WHO HAS NO MORALS, NO PRINCIPLES, AND NO REGARD FOR THE COUNTRY HE SWORE TO PROTECT, THE CONSTITUTION HE SWORE TO DEFEND, AND THE DEMOCRACY HE TRIED TO OVERTHROW.
WATCH THE REPUBLICANS CLOSELY OVER THE COMING WEEKS AND MONTHS. THE ONLY ONES WHO WILL SUDDENLY BECOME COOPERATING WITNESSES, "PATRIOTS" SUDDENLY WILLING TO "DO THE RIGHT THING", RIGHTEOUS-MINDED CITIZENS SUDDENLY SEIZED WITH A NEED TO SPEAK UP, WILL BE THOSE WHO DO SO BECAUSE OF AN OVERWHELMING NEED TO COVER THEIR OWN ASSES AND HOPEFULLY AVOID PRISON.
FOR MANY REPUBLICANS - THE ONES WHO SUPPORTED, ENABLED, AND AIDED AND ABETTED DONALD TRUMP - THE PROMISE OF THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER IN EXCHANGE FOR KEEPING THEIR MOUTHS SHUT IS LOOKING MORE AND MORE LIKE A REALLY BAD DEAL.
IF ONLY THEY'D BOTHERED TO LOOK INTO THEIR DEAR LEADER'S HISTORY, THEY WOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT THE END-GAME WAS PREDICTABLE, AND THE ULTIMATE OUTCOME WAS INEVITABLE.
TODAY'S GOP IN FIVE PARAGRAPHS
THEY WON'T STAND UP FOR THE AMERICAN WORKER, THE STRUGGLING MIDDLE-CLASS, THE CHILDREN SLAUGHTERED IN CLASSROOMS, THE WOMEN BEING FORCED TO GIVE BIRTH, THE VETS WHO WERE INJURED WHILE SERVING THEIR COUNTRY, THE PEOPLE WHO DIED UNNECESSARILY FROM COVID, THE CITIZENS WHO ARE THREATENED BY THE VIOLENCE THEY'VE INCITED AND ENCOURAGED, OR THEIR FELLOW COUNTRYMEN WHO LIVE IN ABJECT POVERTY WITHOUT HEALTHCARE, SUFFICIENT FOOD, OR EVEN A ROOF OVER THEIR HEADS.
WHAT THEY WILL STAND UP FOR - WITHOUT HESITATION, WITHOUT QUESTION, WITHOUT REMORSE - IS A LYING, SELF-SERVING GRIFTER WHO HAS NO MORALS, NO PRINCIPLES, AND NO REGARD FOR THE COUNTRY HE SWORE TO PROTECT, THE CONSTITUTION HE SWORE TO DEFEND, AND THE DEMOCRACY HE TRIED TO OVERTHROW.
WATCH THE REPUBLICANS CLOSELY OVER THE COMING WEEKS AND MONTHS. THE ONLY ONES WHO WILL SUDDENLY BECOME COOPERATING WITNESSES, "PATRIOTS" SUDDENLY WILLING TO "DO THE RIGHT THING", RIGHTEOUS-MINDED CITIZENS SUDDENLY SEIZED WITH A NEED TO SPEAK UP, WILL BE THOSE WHO DO SO BECAUSE OF AN OVERWHELMING NEED TO COVER THEIR OWN ASSES AND HOPEFULLY AVOID PRISON.
FOR MANY REPUBLICANS - THE ONES WHO SUPPORTED, ENABLED, AND AIDED AND ABETTED DONALD TRUMP - THE PROMISE OF THIRTY PIECES OF SILVER IN EXCHANGE FOR KEEPING THEIR MOUTHS SHUT IS LOOKING MORE AND MORE LIKE A REALLY BAD DEAL.
IF ONLY THEY'D BOTHERED TO LOOK INTO THEIR DEAR LEADER'S HISTORY, THEY WOULD HAVE REALIZED THAT THE END-GAME WAS PREDICTABLE, AND THE ULTIMATE OUTCOME WAS INEVITABLE.
CAPITALIST CROOKS!!!
Large Wall Street firms fined $1.8 billion in US over lax recordkeeping
Agence France-Presse - RAW STORY
September 28, 2022
Large Wall Street firms agreed to pay $1.8 billion in fines over failures to keep electronic records such as text messages between employees on personal mobile phones, US authorities announced Tuesday.
Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the firms that agreed to fines over "longstanding failures" to maintain and preserve electronic communications that must be available to regulators in the course of oversight, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.
The SEC announced a total of $1.1 billion in fines on 16 institutions in all. The 16 firms listed included some companies such as Morgan Stanley with affiliated firms also covered by the agreement.
In a parallel action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it reached settlements totaling $710 million from the same group of financial institutions over the same offenses.
"Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their recordkeeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. "Since the 1930s, such recordkeeping has been vital to preserve market integrity.
"As technology changes, it's even more important that registrants appropriately conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels, and they must maintain and preserve those communications."
An SEC investigation uncovered "pervasive off-channel communications" involving a range of senior and junior investment bankers and traders -- omissions that "likely" deprived it of communications in agency probes, it said.
Bank of America was fined a total of $225 million under the two settlements.
Financial giants agreeing to $200 million in settlements were Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Nomura, Jefferies and Cantor Fitzgerald will pay respectively $100, $80 and $16 million.
The SEC in December 2021 fined JPMorgan Chase $125 million for the offense, spurring an industry-wide regulatory crackdown on poor recordkeeping, the SEC said.
Barclays, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs were among the firms that agreed to fines over "longstanding failures" to maintain and preserve electronic communications that must be available to regulators in the course of oversight, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said in a statement.
The SEC announced a total of $1.1 billion in fines on 16 institutions in all. The 16 firms listed included some companies such as Morgan Stanley with affiliated firms also covered by the agreement.
In a parallel action, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced it reached settlements totaling $710 million from the same group of financial institutions over the same offenses.
"Finance, ultimately, depends on trust. By failing to honor their recordkeeping and books-and-records obligations, the market participants we have charged today have failed to maintain that trust," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement. "Since the 1930s, such recordkeeping has been vital to preserve market integrity.
"As technology changes, it's even more important that registrants appropriately conduct their communications about business matters within only official channels, and they must maintain and preserve those communications."
An SEC investigation uncovered "pervasive off-channel communications" involving a range of senior and junior investment bankers and traders -- omissions that "likely" deprived it of communications in agency probes, it said.
Bank of America was fined a total of $225 million under the two settlements.
Financial giants agreeing to $200 million in settlements were Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS.
Nomura, Jefferies and Cantor Fitzgerald will pay respectively $100, $80 and $16 million.
The SEC in December 2021 fined JPMorgan Chase $125 million for the offense, spurring an industry-wide regulatory crackdown on poor recordkeeping, the SEC said.
they can't be trusted!!!
'Incredibly alarming': Republican poll worker in Michigan charged with tampering with voting equipment
Sky Palma - raw story
September 29, 2022
A Michigan poll worker has been charged after a witness saw him inserting a USB drive into an electronic poll book after the Aug. 2 statewide primary, the Detroit Free Press reports.
James Holkeboer, an election inspector at the Gaines Township 8th Precinct, has been charged with falsifying records under election law and using a computer to commit a crime.
As Detroit Free Press points out, poll books contain voter registration data that includes personal and confidential information that election workers use to oversee elections at their precincts.
Holkeboer registered with the county as a Republican, according to Michigan Radio. Detroit Free Press reported that "an individual with the same name served as an alternate delegate for the 3rd Congressional District at the Michigan Republican Party's State Endorsement Convention earlier this year."
Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons says the incident did not result in any unwarranted access to voting machines or election results.
"(T)his incident is extremely egregious and incredibly alarming. Not only is it a violation of Michigan law, but it is a violation of public trust and of the oath all election workers are required to take," Posthumus Lyons said.
"Let me be very clear: voter fraud and illegal election activity in Kent County will not be tolerated. Our citizens deserve to have faith in their elections and in those who work them. I will do everything possible to keep Kent County’s elections secure, transparent, fair, and accurate. If someone or something threatens that, we will take aggressive action to protect our elections and hold those responsible accountable."
She said the Kent County Clerk's Office will conduct a post-election audit of the precinct and the poll book in question will be replaced.
A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement to the Free Press, "we take seriously all violations of election law and will continue to work with the relevant authorities to assure there are consequences for those who break the law ... Michigan voters can be confident that their votes will be counted accurately and securely.”
James Holkeboer, an election inspector at the Gaines Township 8th Precinct, has been charged with falsifying records under election law and using a computer to commit a crime.
As Detroit Free Press points out, poll books contain voter registration data that includes personal and confidential information that election workers use to oversee elections at their precincts.
Holkeboer registered with the county as a Republican, according to Michigan Radio. Detroit Free Press reported that "an individual with the same name served as an alternate delegate for the 3rd Congressional District at the Michigan Republican Party's State Endorsement Convention earlier this year."
Kent County Clerk Lisa Posthumus Lyons says the incident did not result in any unwarranted access to voting machines or election results.
"(T)his incident is extremely egregious and incredibly alarming. Not only is it a violation of Michigan law, but it is a violation of public trust and of the oath all election workers are required to take," Posthumus Lyons said.
"Let me be very clear: voter fraud and illegal election activity in Kent County will not be tolerated. Our citizens deserve to have faith in their elections and in those who work them. I will do everything possible to keep Kent County’s elections secure, transparent, fair, and accurate. If someone or something threatens that, we will take aggressive action to protect our elections and hold those responsible accountable."
She said the Kent County Clerk's Office will conduct a post-election audit of the precinct and the poll book in question will be replaced.
A spokesperson for Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in a statement to the Free Press, "we take seriously all violations of election law and will continue to work with the relevant authorities to assure there are consequences for those who break the law ... Michigan voters can be confident that their votes will be counted accurately and securely.”
from under a rock
conservatives' bullshit!!!
THE DAILY TRASH REPORT featuring today's despicables
thomas jefferson called them "waste people" and benjamin franklin called them "rubbish" we call them "maga people"
you cannot measure stupidity!!
Trump officials stuffed Hunter Biden photos in White House HVAC unit to troll incoming administration
Republicans suggest defunding Veteran Affairs even though it helps 9 million vets
Red states are lining up to stop Biden's student loan forgiveness plan
excerpt: How the GOP weaponized ignorance
Satirist Andy Borowitz on deliberate dumbness in America, and how it became central to the Republican brand
How the GOP weaponized ignorance — and how “smart people acting like dopes” stay in power
Satirist Andy Borowitz on deliberate dumbness in America, and how it became central to the Republican brand
By DEAN OBEIDALLAH - salon
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 30, 2022 6:00AM (EDT)
.....You write about ignoramuses and argue that they're attracted to the Republican Party, or so it seems. Democrats, by contrast, have eggheads. You mentioned Adlai Stevenson, Al Gore, even Mike Dukakis. Is there something about the parties that naturally self-select?
I think both parties started in a similar place. If you go back to ancient history before either of us was born, to the 1950s, and you look at Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, both of them were actually big readers. Harry Truman didn't go to college, but he read like crazy. He read every library book in Independence, Missouri. Ike on the other hand, was also a huge reader, but he kept it a secret. He thought it was going to hurt his image. He acted like he just played golf all the time, but Ike stayed up every night until 11 o'clock reading. I think reading is actually a really good measure for determining how knowledgeable somebody is.
I'm a little bit hesitant to say that the Democrats are the party of smart people and the Republicans are the party of ignorant people. But I think the Republicans caught on a little bit sooner to the fact that this whole projection of anti-intellectualism was a vote-winner, and they really made it their brand. The Democrats were a little bit tempted by that too. I mean, certainly Bill Clinton was looking at Ronald Reagan and saying, "Now, he's got a real winning message. How can I dumb down my message a little bit?" So the Democrats haven't been immune to it, but the Republicans really are untouchable when it comes to this movement. They are really the vanguard.
---
You describe three stages of the "profiles in ignorance." The first one is ridicule. Tell us a little bit about ridicule.
First of all, I should say: Nothing in this book is just my opinion. As you point out, it's very thoroughly documented. It's all facts. That doesn't mean it's totally serious. It is hilarious because, and I'm not taking credit for it, I'm quoting very funny people.
The three stages of ignorance are ridicule, acceptance and celebration. Ridicule came first. That was when dumb politicians had to pretend to be smart. It was still important, we thought, for our politicians to be knowledgeable. Then after that, we moved into the acceptance phase, where dumb politicians felt it was OK and even cool to appear dumb. That's George W. Bush, the guy you want to have a beer with. And now we're in a phase, which is really the most horrifying phase, where smart politicians pretend to be dumb because they think that wins votes. You have very well-educated guys, like Josh Hawley, the world class sprinter, and Ron DeSantis, who talk nonsense because that's what they think their voters want to hear.
But ridicule — let's start with ridicule. There was an era a long time ago, say 50 years ago, where we still expected politicians to know stuff. The Republicans discovered in the 1960s, after the Kennedy-Nixon debates, that it was important to have somebody who was good on TV. Because Kennedy cleaned Nixon's clock on TV. Not on the radio, because on the radio they both sounded knowledgeable. So the Republicans reverse-engineered this and thought, well, instead of finding a politician who's knowledgeable and making him good on TV, let's just find somebody who's really good on TV and then make it appear as though he knows stuff.
And that was the beginning of Ronald Reagan. They recruited Ronald Reagan, who was at that point a has-been TV host. I mean, he'd hosted the "General Electric Theater." They hired this guy, Stu Spencer, who was a really shrewd campaign manager. And he hired — this is not made up! — some UCLA psychologists to basically, "Clockwork Orange"-style, load Reagan with information.
It was barely convincing. I mean, he would get up there and do talking points and seem like he had memorized the script, which of course he was really good at, since that's what he did for a living. But he won the California gubernatorial race by a million votes, and that really set the whole thing off. Because at that point the Republicans realized, we just have to find people who are good on TV. ...
----
Sarah Palin, as you say, began to show us glimmers of what the GOP is today: the the celebration of ignorance and the trolling. Like, I'm going to stick it in your face and I'm going to gin up hate against people on the other side. Is that fair?
It's totally fair, because what you find, and this is true in other countries too, is that when facts and information disappear, hatred and prejudice fill the void. It's easier. Learning about geopolitics is tricky and complicated. Learning about economics, people's eyes glaze over. But if you say something like, "There are rapists coming over from Mexico," or, "Barack Obama wasn't born here," that's easy stuff to grasp. There is a very nefarious side to ignorance, which is, what fills that void? In the case of Sarah Palin, her own campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, who was John McCain's campaign manager, when he finally sat down with her after she'd been selected, he came to the horrifying conclusion, and this is a direct quote, "She doesn't know anything." And it's true.
She had never heard of Margaret Thatcher. She thought that the queen of the U.K. commanded the armed forces. She didn't know who attacked us on 9/11. She thought it was Saddam Hussein. This was somebody John McCain chose to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. I actually found her defeat, in the most recent election [as a candidate for Congress], really encouraging. I really feel that her status as a national joke may actually have caught up with her. Wouldn't that be wonderful? We say history doesn't move in a straight line. This book tells a story that's pretty horrifying. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we're actually due for a correction? You can be dumb as a politician in this country, but not that dumb. That would be amazing.....
I think both parties started in a similar place. If you go back to ancient history before either of us was born, to the 1950s, and you look at Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower, both of them were actually big readers. Harry Truman didn't go to college, but he read like crazy. He read every library book in Independence, Missouri. Ike on the other hand, was also a huge reader, but he kept it a secret. He thought it was going to hurt his image. He acted like he just played golf all the time, but Ike stayed up every night until 11 o'clock reading. I think reading is actually a really good measure for determining how knowledgeable somebody is.
I'm a little bit hesitant to say that the Democrats are the party of smart people and the Republicans are the party of ignorant people. But I think the Republicans caught on a little bit sooner to the fact that this whole projection of anti-intellectualism was a vote-winner, and they really made it their brand. The Democrats were a little bit tempted by that too. I mean, certainly Bill Clinton was looking at Ronald Reagan and saying, "Now, he's got a real winning message. How can I dumb down my message a little bit?" So the Democrats haven't been immune to it, but the Republicans really are untouchable when it comes to this movement. They are really the vanguard.
---
You describe three stages of the "profiles in ignorance." The first one is ridicule. Tell us a little bit about ridicule.
First of all, I should say: Nothing in this book is just my opinion. As you point out, it's very thoroughly documented. It's all facts. That doesn't mean it's totally serious. It is hilarious because, and I'm not taking credit for it, I'm quoting very funny people.
The three stages of ignorance are ridicule, acceptance and celebration. Ridicule came first. That was when dumb politicians had to pretend to be smart. It was still important, we thought, for our politicians to be knowledgeable. Then after that, we moved into the acceptance phase, where dumb politicians felt it was OK and even cool to appear dumb. That's George W. Bush, the guy you want to have a beer with. And now we're in a phase, which is really the most horrifying phase, where smart politicians pretend to be dumb because they think that wins votes. You have very well-educated guys, like Josh Hawley, the world class sprinter, and Ron DeSantis, who talk nonsense because that's what they think their voters want to hear.
But ridicule — let's start with ridicule. There was an era a long time ago, say 50 years ago, where we still expected politicians to know stuff. The Republicans discovered in the 1960s, after the Kennedy-Nixon debates, that it was important to have somebody who was good on TV. Because Kennedy cleaned Nixon's clock on TV. Not on the radio, because on the radio they both sounded knowledgeable. So the Republicans reverse-engineered this and thought, well, instead of finding a politician who's knowledgeable and making him good on TV, let's just find somebody who's really good on TV and then make it appear as though he knows stuff.
And that was the beginning of Ronald Reagan. They recruited Ronald Reagan, who was at that point a has-been TV host. I mean, he'd hosted the "General Electric Theater." They hired this guy, Stu Spencer, who was a really shrewd campaign manager. And he hired — this is not made up! — some UCLA psychologists to basically, "Clockwork Orange"-style, load Reagan with information.
It was barely convincing. I mean, he would get up there and do talking points and seem like he had memorized the script, which of course he was really good at, since that's what he did for a living. But he won the California gubernatorial race by a million votes, and that really set the whole thing off. Because at that point the Republicans realized, we just have to find people who are good on TV. ...
----
Sarah Palin, as you say, began to show us glimmers of what the GOP is today: the the celebration of ignorance and the trolling. Like, I'm going to stick it in your face and I'm going to gin up hate against people on the other side. Is that fair?
It's totally fair, because what you find, and this is true in other countries too, is that when facts and information disappear, hatred and prejudice fill the void. It's easier. Learning about geopolitics is tricky and complicated. Learning about economics, people's eyes glaze over. But if you say something like, "There are rapists coming over from Mexico," or, "Barack Obama wasn't born here," that's easy stuff to grasp. There is a very nefarious side to ignorance, which is, what fills that void? In the case of Sarah Palin, her own campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, who was John McCain's campaign manager, when he finally sat down with her after she'd been selected, he came to the horrifying conclusion, and this is a direct quote, "She doesn't know anything." And it's true.
She had never heard of Margaret Thatcher. She thought that the queen of the U.K. commanded the armed forces. She didn't know who attacked us on 9/11. She thought it was Saddam Hussein. This was somebody John McCain chose to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. I actually found her defeat, in the most recent election [as a candidate for Congress], really encouraging. I really feel that her status as a national joke may actually have caught up with her. Wouldn't that be wonderful? We say history doesn't move in a straight line. This book tells a story that's pretty horrifying. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we're actually due for a correction? You can be dumb as a politician in this country, but not that dumb. That would be amazing.....
screwing the little guy!!!
New report reveals how 13 US states 'shield the fortunes of the world's richest people'
Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams - raw stoty
September 28, 2022
Research published Wednesday details how a handful of U.S. states that are "subservient to the trust industry" are helping oligarchs and money launderers from around the globe evade taxes and hide their wealth within the nation's borders.
"The wealth of nations is hidden in states like Wyoming, Delaware, Nevada, and South Dakota."
Titled Billionaire Enabler States: How U.S. States Captured by the Trust Industry Help the World's Wealthy Hide Their Fortunes, the new report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) estimates that the United States is host to $5.6 trillion in trust and estate assets belonging to super-wealthy elites, both foreign and domestic.
"The concept of the 'offshore' tax haven has very much washed ashore," says the report, which exposes how 13 U.S. states "shield the fortunes of the world's richest people."
According to a summary of the report:
The "Biggest Enablers" are South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, and Delaware, which the report calls "the shadow states in the darkest corners of the wealth management industry";
The report names Tennessee, Wyoming, and New Hampshire as "Bad Actors" that actively aid and abet the wealth defense industry.
The report identifies Rhode Island, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Florida, and Texas as "Emerging Enablers" that are becoming key tools for trusts to shield hidden wealth.
"Thirteen U.S. states are in a race to the bottom to weaken trust oversight and manipulate the rules to attract billionaire tax dodgers and money launderers," Kalena Thomhave, co-author of the report and researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS, said in a statement. "The wealth of nations is hidden in states like Wyoming, Delaware, Nevada, and South Dakota."
"The clandestine world of financial secrecy stretches around the world, all the way back to the United States," says the report, which comes one year after the groundbreaking Pandora Papers investigation revealed how the U.S. has become a major player in the international wealth-hiding system—on par with Switzerland, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and other well-known tax havens.
"Trusts are key to this story," states IPS. These financial vehicles make it possible to camouflage ill-gotten gains, enabling a small number of billionaires to elude public scrutiny and taxation, with negative consequences for billions of people worldwide.
By providing a place to park illicit wealth abroad, roughly a dozen U.S. states are helping kleptocrats from around the world "avoid accountability at home," the report explains. They are also enabling ultra-rich Americans to dodge federal taxes, "cheating the U.S. out of revenue with which it could combat poverty or invest in infrastructure."
Other key findings from IPS include:
Three key ingredients—low or no taxes, secrecy, and trust longevity—make certain U.S. states particularly attractive to wealth defenders. These states pass laws to cut or abolish taxes or hide trust records from prying eyes. More than two-thirds of states allow trusts to last for at least 150 years or forever. Additionally, more than a third of states allow trusts to be established by the person benefiting from the trust, shielding their assets from creditors and tax authorities.
There is a significant correlation between regressive state taxation systems, which hurt the poorest residents, and trust-subservient state laws. Of the 13 states captured by the trust industry we have profiled here, eight are among the 15 most regressive tax states in the country. These states often cut taxes for the wealthiest residents and instead rely on the low and middle class, who pay a disproportionate amount of their income in taxes.
The trust industry says it simply helps its clients obey laws—but in reality it often writes the laws. As our report shows, the trust industry is the driving force for trust deregulation. Trust and estate lawyers regularly lobby state legislatures and sometimes work in official capacities with states to write legislation favorable to the industry. In small states with part-time or "citizen" legislatures, there is no countervailing power that matches the clout of the financial services industry. And this trust deregulation is often bipartisan.
The trust industry offers little benefit to states. Contrary to what trust and estate lawyers may claim about increased economic development and boosted state revenue, states largely do not benefit from trusts. Though billions may be held in trust in a state, state coffers—and the public—will never see it. States charge only small fees to trust companies; the trust industry creates very few jobs; and trust owners have no reason to physically move to or even visit the states where they have established trusts.
"The wealth managers and tax attorneys serving the ultra-wealthy will claim they are just aiding their clients to obey the law," said Chuck Collins, co-author of the report and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS.
"It's past time to curb wealth hiding in these states and enact policies to hold billionaires and their bureaucratic enablers accountable."
"But our report reveals how they are actively writing the laws and lobbying for changes in certain U.S. states to shield hidden wealth from accountability," Collins added.
As IPS research has consistently shown, billionaire wealth has soared over the past several years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the coronavirus crisis emerged in the U.S. in March 2020, the known net worth of the world's billionaires has grown by more than 50%, reaching nearly $5 trillion.
"Trillions more are probably secretly sequestered in trusts," the report notes. "This swelling tide of wealth is not lifting all boats. As wages continue to stagnate and everyday Americans still face health and economic harms from the pandemic, wealth inequality is a yawning chasm."
With states "engaged in a rapid race to the bottom... federal action is needed," the authors add. "States may see a few jobs created by the trust industry and determine that is worth the detrimental effect of trusts on the rest of the country. It is in the federal government's interest, therefore, to curb state laws that enable illicit wealth hiding and tax avoidance."
To crack down on this worsening problem, IPS urges congressional lawmakers to take the following steps:
Boost state and federal oversight of complex trust transactions;
Require trust registration and disclosure;
Outlaw trusts designed to obfuscate ownership;
Establish a federal rule against perpetuities; and
Reform estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes.
"The same states that morph their trust laws to help billionaires are often the same states that have the most regressive tax systems that overtax working people," said Collins. "It's past time to curb wealth hiding in these states and enact policies to hold billionaires and their bureaucratic enablers accountable."
"The wealth of nations is hidden in states like Wyoming, Delaware, Nevada, and South Dakota."
Titled Billionaire Enabler States: How U.S. States Captured by the Trust Industry Help the World's Wealthy Hide Their Fortunes, the new report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) estimates that the United States is host to $5.6 trillion in trust and estate assets belonging to super-wealthy elites, both foreign and domestic.
"The concept of the 'offshore' tax haven has very much washed ashore," says the report, which exposes how 13 U.S. states "shield the fortunes of the world's richest people."
According to a summary of the report:
The "Biggest Enablers" are South Dakota, Nevada, Alaska, and Delaware, which the report calls "the shadow states in the darkest corners of the wealth management industry";
The report names Tennessee, Wyoming, and New Hampshire as "Bad Actors" that actively aid and abet the wealth defense industry.
The report identifies Rhode Island, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, Florida, and Texas as "Emerging Enablers" that are becoming key tools for trusts to shield hidden wealth.
"Thirteen U.S. states are in a race to the bottom to weaken trust oversight and manipulate the rules to attract billionaire tax dodgers and money launderers," Kalena Thomhave, co-author of the report and researcher at the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS, said in a statement. "The wealth of nations is hidden in states like Wyoming, Delaware, Nevada, and South Dakota."
"The clandestine world of financial secrecy stretches around the world, all the way back to the United States," says the report, which comes one year after the groundbreaking Pandora Papers investigation revealed how the U.S. has become a major player in the international wealth-hiding system—on par with Switzerland, Panama, the Cayman Islands, and other well-known tax havens.
"Trusts are key to this story," states IPS. These financial vehicles make it possible to camouflage ill-gotten gains, enabling a small number of billionaires to elude public scrutiny and taxation, with negative consequences for billions of people worldwide.
By providing a place to park illicit wealth abroad, roughly a dozen U.S. states are helping kleptocrats from around the world "avoid accountability at home," the report explains. They are also enabling ultra-rich Americans to dodge federal taxes, "cheating the U.S. out of revenue with which it could combat poverty or invest in infrastructure."
Other key findings from IPS include:
Three key ingredients—low or no taxes, secrecy, and trust longevity—make certain U.S. states particularly attractive to wealth defenders. These states pass laws to cut or abolish taxes or hide trust records from prying eyes. More than two-thirds of states allow trusts to last for at least 150 years or forever. Additionally, more than a third of states allow trusts to be established by the person benefiting from the trust, shielding their assets from creditors and tax authorities.
There is a significant correlation between regressive state taxation systems, which hurt the poorest residents, and trust-subservient state laws. Of the 13 states captured by the trust industry we have profiled here, eight are among the 15 most regressive tax states in the country. These states often cut taxes for the wealthiest residents and instead rely on the low and middle class, who pay a disproportionate amount of their income in taxes.
The trust industry says it simply helps its clients obey laws—but in reality it often writes the laws. As our report shows, the trust industry is the driving force for trust deregulation. Trust and estate lawyers regularly lobby state legislatures and sometimes work in official capacities with states to write legislation favorable to the industry. In small states with part-time or "citizen" legislatures, there is no countervailing power that matches the clout of the financial services industry. And this trust deregulation is often bipartisan.
The trust industry offers little benefit to states. Contrary to what trust and estate lawyers may claim about increased economic development and boosted state revenue, states largely do not benefit from trusts. Though billions may be held in trust in a state, state coffers—and the public—will never see it. States charge only small fees to trust companies; the trust industry creates very few jobs; and trust owners have no reason to physically move to or even visit the states where they have established trusts.
"The wealth managers and tax attorneys serving the ultra-wealthy will claim they are just aiding their clients to obey the law," said Chuck Collins, co-author of the report and director of the Program on Inequality and the Common Good at IPS.
"It's past time to curb wealth hiding in these states and enact policies to hold billionaires and their bureaucratic enablers accountable."
"But our report reveals how they are actively writing the laws and lobbying for changes in certain U.S. states to shield hidden wealth from accountability," Collins added.
As IPS research has consistently shown, billionaire wealth has soared over the past several years, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the coronavirus crisis emerged in the U.S. in March 2020, the known net worth of the world's billionaires has grown by more than 50%, reaching nearly $5 trillion.
"Trillions more are probably secretly sequestered in trusts," the report notes. "This swelling tide of wealth is not lifting all boats. As wages continue to stagnate and everyday Americans still face health and economic harms from the pandemic, wealth inequality is a yawning chasm."
With states "engaged in a rapid race to the bottom... federal action is needed," the authors add. "States may see a few jobs created by the trust industry and determine that is worth the detrimental effect of trusts on the rest of the country. It is in the federal government's interest, therefore, to curb state laws that enable illicit wealth hiding and tax avoidance."
To crack down on this worsening problem, IPS urges congressional lawmakers to take the following steps:
Boost state and federal oversight of complex trust transactions;
Require trust registration and disclosure;
Outlaw trusts designed to obfuscate ownership;
Establish a federal rule against perpetuities; and
Reform estate, gift, and generation-skipping taxes.
"The same states that morph their trust laws to help billionaires are often the same states that have the most regressive tax systems that overtax working people," said Collins. "It's past time to curb wealth hiding in these states and enact policies to hold billionaires and their bureaucratic enablers accountable."
Bites from Real News
*10/1/2022*
*THE SUPREME COURT RETURNS ON MONDAY, STRONGER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER
ELIE MYSTAL
*Manchin’s Big Oil Deal Scrapped From Budget Bill in Victory for Climate Movement The deal was taken out of the must-pass budget bill on Tuesday after it became clear it wouldn’t have the votes to pass.
by Sharon Zhang, Truthout
*Seascape In the ocean’s twilight zone, a fish that could feed the world – or destroy it
Lanternfish, the Earth’s most abundant vertebrates, may be the ultimate food source. But will catching them ruin the climate?
*America Doesn't Understand that Inequality Causes CrimeIf we want to get crime under control and restore social cohesion to our society, we must also tackle inequality - and that means taxing the morbidly rich
*Why aren’t flagship universities enrolling more of their own states’ Black students?
For at least a decade, the University of Georgia has failed to enroll Black students at a rate proportionate to the number of Black high school graduates in the state. In 2020, just 6 percent of freshmen who enrolled at the university were Black, compared with 36 percent of the state’s public high school graduates.
*GOP Exploits Americans' Confusion About Taxes It’s time to re-normalize taxes on the morbidly rich (and leave them where they are on working class people) so we can again have a growing economy and a prosperous middle class
Thom Hartmann
ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH
New Report: US Gas Flaring Releases 5 Times More Methane Than Previously Thought
BY Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams - truthout
PUBLISHED September 30, 2022
Flaring, the process of burning natural gas escaping from fossil fuel wells, releases five times more methane than previously believed, according to an analysis of most U.S. operations, published Thursday in the journal Science.
The study, led by researchers at the University of Michigan, is based on data collected during 13 flights over three years at the Bakken oil and gas field in North Dakota as well as the Eagle Ford and Permian fields in Texas — which collectively have over 80% of all U.S. flaring operations.
Flaring turns methane into carbon dioxide; while both are greenhouse gases, the former is over 80 times more potent than the latter, in terms of its global heating potential, in the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.
“Industry and governments generally assume that flares remain lit and destroy methane, the predominant component of natural gas, with 98% efficiency,” the study states. “Neither assumption, however, is based on real-world observations.”
The researcher simultaneously measured both methane and carbon dioxide at flaring sites.
“If the flare is operating as it should be, there should be a large carbon dioxide spike and a relatively small methane spike. And depending on the relative enhancement of those two gasses, we can tell how well the flares are performing,” explained lead author Genevieve Plant, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan.
As co-author and professor Eric Kort summarized, the researchers discovered that “there is a lot more methane being added to the atmosphere than currently accounted for in any inventories or estimates.”
Specifically, they found that due to inefficient combustion and flares being unlit 3%-5% of the time, the average efficiency rate is just 91%, which works out to “a fivefold increase in methane emissions above present assumptions” and 4%-10% of total U.S. oil and gas methane emissions.
As The New York Times reported:
Riley Duren, chief executive of Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit group that is launching satellites next year that will detect and monitor sources of greenhouse gas emissions, said the findings were not surprising to those who have studied emissions from these oil and gas basins and know the amount of flaring that is done.
But the researchers’ comprehensive survey shows that inefficient flaring “is a more systematic issue,” said Dr. Duren, who was not involved in the study.
Elsewhere in the world, there is little direct observational evidence of flaring efficiency, Dr. Duren said. But globally, he said, “it’s likely the case that combustion and flaring is less efficient than assumed.”
While many campaigners and scientists continue to point to the worsening climate emergency as proof of the need to swiftly transition away from fossil fuels altogether, this research team noted that even improving flaring could have a significant positive impact.
“This appears to be a source of methane emissions that seems quite addressable,” said Plant. “With management practices and our better understanding of what’s happening to these flares, we can reduce this source of methane in a tangible way.”
Fixing the flaring issues to boost efficiency, Kort pointed out in a video about the research, would be equivalent to removing roughly three million gas-powered vehicles from the roads.
The team’s findings align with previous observations by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a research partner for the new study. The nonprofit group conducted aerial surveys of the Permian Basin in 2020 and found that roughly 10% of flares were unlit or malfunctioning......
The study, led by researchers at the University of Michigan, is based on data collected during 13 flights over three years at the Bakken oil and gas field in North Dakota as well as the Eagle Ford and Permian fields in Texas — which collectively have over 80% of all U.S. flaring operations.
Flaring turns methane into carbon dioxide; while both are greenhouse gases, the former is over 80 times more potent than the latter, in terms of its global heating potential, in the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.
“Industry and governments generally assume that flares remain lit and destroy methane, the predominant component of natural gas, with 98% efficiency,” the study states. “Neither assumption, however, is based on real-world observations.”
The researcher simultaneously measured both methane and carbon dioxide at flaring sites.
“If the flare is operating as it should be, there should be a large carbon dioxide spike and a relatively small methane spike. And depending on the relative enhancement of those two gasses, we can tell how well the flares are performing,” explained lead author Genevieve Plant, an assistant research scientist at the University of Michigan.
As co-author and professor Eric Kort summarized, the researchers discovered that “there is a lot more methane being added to the atmosphere than currently accounted for in any inventories or estimates.”
Specifically, they found that due to inefficient combustion and flares being unlit 3%-5% of the time, the average efficiency rate is just 91%, which works out to “a fivefold increase in methane emissions above present assumptions” and 4%-10% of total U.S. oil and gas methane emissions.
As The New York Times reported:
Riley Duren, chief executive of Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit group that is launching satellites next year that will detect and monitor sources of greenhouse gas emissions, said the findings were not surprising to those who have studied emissions from these oil and gas basins and know the amount of flaring that is done.
But the researchers’ comprehensive survey shows that inefficient flaring “is a more systematic issue,” said Dr. Duren, who was not involved in the study.
Elsewhere in the world, there is little direct observational evidence of flaring efficiency, Dr. Duren said. But globally, he said, “it’s likely the case that combustion and flaring is less efficient than assumed.”
While many campaigners and scientists continue to point to the worsening climate emergency as proof of the need to swiftly transition away from fossil fuels altogether, this research team noted that even improving flaring could have a significant positive impact.
“This appears to be a source of methane emissions that seems quite addressable,” said Plant. “With management practices and our better understanding of what’s happening to these flares, we can reduce this source of methane in a tangible way.”
Fixing the flaring issues to boost efficiency, Kort pointed out in a video about the research, would be equivalent to removing roughly three million gas-powered vehicles from the roads.
The team’s findings align with previous observations by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) — a research partner for the new study. The nonprofit group conducted aerial surveys of the Permian Basin in 2020 and found that roughly 10% of flares were unlit or malfunctioning......
Trump Officials Sabotaged Biden Transition in Very Petty Ways, Book Claims
SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Breaking News Intern
Published Sep. 30, 2022 8:52PM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
In the final days of the Trump administration, weeks after an insurrection that tried to thwart Congress from certifying the election results, White House staff attempted to sabotage Biden’s entry into the executive branch, according to details released in Maggie Haberman’s new book, Confidence Man. Among other things, transition employees faced delays when dealing with the Pentagon, were refused a computer terminal password for budget building, and were left a broken air conditioning unit from an employee of the prior administration, stuffed to the brim with photocopies of Hunter Biden’s face. Top members of Biden’s team were also reportedly baffled by the actions of Mark Meadows, who appeared completely out of the loop of typical procedure, at one point allegedly asking his Biden counterpart Ron Klain how many days out of the week the future President would be needing the intelligence briefing.
Staff Walkouts, Botched Cases: Texas AG Ken Paxton’s Office Is Reportedly a Mess
‘THE CULTURE IS BROKEN’
Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling
Breaking News Intern
Published Sep. 30, 2022 2:48PM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has remained incredibly popular among Republicans not just in Texas but across the nation since his appointment in 2015. But a damning Associated Press investigation has uncovered a litany of serious missteps—from mass resignations to botched cases—that may threaten his changes of winning a third term in November. Paxton’s office is in disarray, the AP reports, with lawyers quitting over what they say is overly politicized work. One prosecutor who quit in January said he was pressured him to withhold evidence in a murder case. Paxton is also accused of utilizing his office to aid a woman he had an affair with, and hiring a donor’s son who would later display child pornography at a work meeting. In court papers filed Sept. 13, staff revealed that they were dismissing a slew of human trafficking cases because, in part, they had lost track of one victim. “For Pete’s sake, you’re the AG’s office. You can’t find the victim?” one Republican district attorney, Dusty Boyd, said. “The culture is broken.”
*What's Inside*
*LIFE EXPECTANCY FOR INDIGENOUS AMERICANS DROPS BY 6.6 YEARS
FIRST AMERICANS
*TRUMP AND BANNON ARE PARTNERS IN CRIME AS THEY 'LINE THEIR POCKETS' WITH THEIR FANS' MONEY: HISTORIAN(SUCKERS)
*OPINION: WHY 'ECONOMIC POLICY' IS CODE FOR CLASS WARFARE
COMMENTARY
*LIES, FALSEHOODS AND "VACUOUS TRUTHS": GOP EXPLORES A NEW REALM OF ABSOLUTE EMPTINESS(WORTHLESS MEDIA)
*HERE ARE 8 STATEMENTS PEOPLE SAY THAT ARE A SIGN OF WHITE PRIVILEGE:
REAL PEOPLE
*TRANS STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS FACE A SCHOOL YEAR FULL OF TERRIFYING NEW LAWS
EDUCATION
*CEO WHO GOT $940 MILLION RICHER IN PANDEMIC IS BEHIND STARBUCKS UNION-BUSTING
SLAVERY 21ST CENTURY
*late news of interest*
A Meditation On Practical Applications Of Stupidity
The Mystery of Anti-Vax & Anti-Mask
Kat Ignatz - DAILY KOS
Sunday August 01, 2021 · 5:00 AM PDT
...“The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity” seems as good a way as any to explain the insane situation we’re in. It’s speculative, but in my opinion, guessing is all we’ve really got right now.
In his essay, Cipolla divides human beings into four categories and builds his theory on these characteristics.
His categories are:
And he presents his theory as five laws:
Taking Cipolla’s laws and looking for correlations with anti-vax/mask behavior, you can map out anti-vax/mask actions like this:
And you could do the same matching of Cipolla’s laws with anti-vax/mask actions, and together, we could come up with a big, five-part list of parallels between Cipolla’s theory and the anti-vax/mask movement.
And it would prove nothing.
But looking at it might make you wonder, like me, if there’s anything but dangerous, illogical, and incomprehensible behavior there.
Cipolla doesn’t explain stupid people. He simply says that they exist, and they’re irrational, unpredictable, and hazardous. He states that irrational people can’t be understood by rational minds and cautions against getting involved with irrational people because it always comes with a cost that’s often a big cost.
He says the only hope is for rational people to create more gains than the losses that irrational people cause. He was an economist so his theory is all gains and losses, and another way to think about his four human traits is total gain, loss/gain, gain/loss, and total loss.
And maybe that’s the real answer here. Maybe, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with why anti-vax/maskers act like they do. Perhaps, we should simply accept them as an incredible danger to our country, states, cities, friends, families, and selves, and we should just do everything we can to do more good than they do harm.
I like Cipolla’s theory, and I find it to be a compelling model for many of the problems we’re experiencing—like, for instance, Republicans.
In this writings, Cipolla makes a point of dividing bandits into Intelligent Bandits and Stupid Bandits. Intelligent bandits cause an equal amount of loss and gain, and they get everything they take from others. Stupid bandits cause more loss than gain, and they only get part of what they cause others to lose.
When I read that, I think about how Republicans are actively working to crash the US so they can keep their wealth and power. And then I think that they’re going so far with it that they may have moved from being stupid bandits to fully stupid because it’s irrational to think they’ll keep much of anything if the country collapses.
I also start thinking about how prevalent stupid banditry is in the world—as if it’s the only way to do business. The “bigs” are especially dangerous: big agriculture, apparel, chemical, electronics, oil, pharmaceuticals, retail, etc.
We’re all losing our lives in one way or another to these dubious ventures.
But that’s my mind drifting on to a topic for another diary, and I’ll stop this one here.
In his essay, Cipolla divides human beings into four categories and builds his theory on these characteristics.
His categories are:
- Intelligent People whose actions benefit others and themselves
- Helpless People whose actions harm them but benefit others
- Bandits whose actions harm others but benefit them
- Stupid People whose actions harm others but don’t benefit them and may, in fact, harm them, too
And he presents his theory as five laws:
- Everyone always underestimates how many stupid people there are.
- Stupidity is unrelated to any other human trait.
- Stupid people cause losses to others without gain and, possibly, with losses to themselves.
- Non-stupid people always underestimate how harmful stupid people are.
- Stupid people are the most dangerous type of person.
Taking Cipolla’s laws and looking for correlations with anti-vax/mask behavior, you can map out anti-vax/mask actions like this:
- How many: 30% of the US population is hesitating, resisting, or outright refusing to get a coronavirus vaccine.
- Unrelated to other traits: Health care workers are protesting against getting vaccinated.
- No gain and possible losses: Not even the threat of death is changing anti-vax/mask behavior.
- How harmful: Who would have predicted that Missouri would end up in such terrible condition?
- Most dangerous: Anti-vax/maskers are bringing the systems we rely on for our safety and health to the brink of crashing.
And you could do the same matching of Cipolla’s laws with anti-vax/mask actions, and together, we could come up with a big, five-part list of parallels between Cipolla’s theory and the anti-vax/mask movement.
And it would prove nothing.
But looking at it might make you wonder, like me, if there’s anything but dangerous, illogical, and incomprehensible behavior there.
Cipolla doesn’t explain stupid people. He simply says that they exist, and they’re irrational, unpredictable, and hazardous. He states that irrational people can’t be understood by rational minds and cautions against getting involved with irrational people because it always comes with a cost that’s often a big cost.
He says the only hope is for rational people to create more gains than the losses that irrational people cause. He was an economist so his theory is all gains and losses, and another way to think about his four human traits is total gain, loss/gain, gain/loss, and total loss.
And maybe that’s the real answer here. Maybe, we shouldn’t concern ourselves with why anti-vax/maskers act like they do. Perhaps, we should simply accept them as an incredible danger to our country, states, cities, friends, families, and selves, and we should just do everything we can to do more good than they do harm.
I like Cipolla’s theory, and I find it to be a compelling model for many of the problems we’re experiencing—like, for instance, Republicans.
In this writings, Cipolla makes a point of dividing bandits into Intelligent Bandits and Stupid Bandits. Intelligent bandits cause an equal amount of loss and gain, and they get everything they take from others. Stupid bandits cause more loss than gain, and they only get part of what they cause others to lose.
When I read that, I think about how Republicans are actively working to crash the US so they can keep their wealth and power. And then I think that they’re going so far with it that they may have moved from being stupid bandits to fully stupid because it’s irrational to think they’ll keep much of anything if the country collapses.
I also start thinking about how prevalent stupid banditry is in the world—as if it’s the only way to do business. The “bigs” are especially dangerous: big agriculture, apparel, chemical, electronics, oil, pharmaceuticals, retail, etc.
We’re all losing our lives in one way or another to these dubious ventures.
But that’s my mind drifting on to a topic for another diary, and I’ll stop this one here.
