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"The new America, instead, is fast becoming a vast ghetto in which all of us, conservatives and progressives, are being bled dry by a relatively tiny oligarchy of extremely clever financial criminals and their castrato henchmen in government, whose job is to be good actors on TV and put on a good show."

-- Matt Taibbi

News and Opinion

Covid used as pretext to curtail civil rights around the world, finds report

The state of civil liberties around the world is bleak, according to a new study which found that 87% of the global population were living in nations deemed “closed”, “repressed” or “obstructed”.

The figure is a 4% increase on last year’s, as civil rights were found to have deteriorated in almost every country in the world during Covid-19. A number of governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to curtail rights such as free speech, peaceful assembly and freedom of association, according to Civicus Monitor, an alliance of civil society groups which assessed 196 countries.

By using methods such as detention of protesters, excessive use of force, censorship, attacks on journalists, and harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, many governments have used Covid-19 to “introduce or implement additional restrictions on civic freedoms”, the report said. The group categorised fundamental freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression as either “closed”, “repressed”, “obstructed”, “narrowed” or “open”, based on a methodology which combines several data sources. ...

Of the 196 countries assessed for the study, just two – the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan – improved their rating, moving from “closed” to “repressed”. Eleven countries were downgraded, among them the US, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Iraq, the Philippines and Slovenia. Overall, the report says, the outlook for people’s civil liberties is bleak.

In the US, as millions of protesters took part in the Black Lives Matter movement, the Trump administration responded with excessive force, police violence and mass detentions, the study found. In recent years, several states have enacted restrictive laws which limit people’s right to peacefully protest, while across the US, reporters were increasingly detained or injured while conducting interviews or covering protests, researchers found.

Emmanuel Macron announces police reform consultation

Emmanuel Macron has announced a national consultation on reforming the police amid concerns the force is losing the confidence of the French public. The move comes after multiple allegations of police violence – several captured on film – in recent weeks and angry protests over a new law giving officers powers that critics say threaten civil and press freedom.

Police are also furious and have threatened industrial action after the president called them out on racial profiling.

“When you have a skin colour that is not white, you are stopped much more. You are identified as part of a problem. That cannot be justified,” Macron said last week in an interview that angered police unions. The president is treading a fine line between balancing public and police concerns. In a three-page letter to a police union leader he said there was an urgent need to reform the force. ...

The consultation, to be carried out by representatives from the police, elected representatives and community leaders, will begin in January. It will look at police training, equipment, staffing levels, the use of body cameras, relations with the public and making the force’s internal disciplinary body more independent. ...

Macron and his interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, have both said they were “shocked” by recent footage of police beating up music producer Michel Zecler inside his Paris studio and alleged assaults on migrants and journalists during the dismantling of a refugee camp in the city centre.

Krystal Ball: In Leaked Audio Biden CAUGHT Admitting He Won't Do Anything As President

Worth a full read:

Biden Defense Secretary Nominee Lloyd Austin Comes Under Fire for Industry Connections

Last month, two progressive members of Congress sent President-elect Joe Biden a letter requesting that he commit to nominating a secretary of defense with no previous ties to weapons manufacturers. The letter, from Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wisc., and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., cited President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary Mark Esper — a former lobbyist for Raytheon, one the country’s largest defense contractors — and called on Biden to adopt a different standard and find a nominee with “no prior employment history with a defense contractor.”

But on Tuesday, Biden announced that he will nominate retired four-star Gen. Lloyd Austin III, once the top commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and now a member of the board of directors at Raytheon. The company has been in the spotlight during the Trump administration in part because it supplies air-to-ground munitions for Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, and Austin’s role with Raytheon could be central to his confirmation fight.

Austin oversaw U.S. operations in the Middle East until March 2016, a year after the Saudi-led intervention began. He retired from the military the next month and later joined the board of United Technologies, a defense contractor that merged with Raytheon earlier this year. In 2019, Raytheon proceeded with an $8 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which included air-to-ground munitions. After congressional Democrats blocked the sale on human rights grounds, the Trump administration helped force the sale through by declaring a state of emergency.

“Raytheon manufactures the bomb components that are used in Yemen. He bears a direct responsibility,” Phyllis Bennis, who directs the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, told The Intercept. “He was making money as a board member of this company that is directly responsible for the death and destruction there.” William Hartung, the director of the Arms and Security Project at the Center for International Policy, told The Intercept that picking Austin was “tantamount to making the position of secretary of defense the ‘secretary of defense contractors.’”

“The potential for conflicts is huge,” Hartung said. “Raytheon is deeply involved in controversial programs from unworkable missile defense projects to nuclear weapons — the new nuclear-armed cruise missile — to precision-guided bombs that have killed untold numbers of civilians in Saudi Arabia’s brutal war in Yemen. If General Austin were to recuse himself from decisions on programs and policies involving Raytheon, he could not carry out large parts of his job as defense secretary.”

As Food Insecurity Surges, Leading Scientist Says Hunger Is a Deliberate Choice by Those in Power

Ilhan Omar Rips Congress for Approving $740.5 Billion Bill to 'Appease Defense Contractors' While Skimping on Covid Relief

After the Democrat-controlled House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a $740.5 billion budget for the Pentagon for fiscal year 2021, Rep. Ilhan Omar slammed the warped priorities that have led lawmakers to pass with few objections a "bill to appease defense contractors and special interests" while skimping on badly needed coronavirus relief.

"It is unconscionable to pass a Pentagon budget that continues to fund unnecessary projects and endless wars during a time of widespread suffering across our country," the Minnesota Democrat said in a statement. "Thousands of Minnesotans are struggling to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. We should be investing our resources here at home—not increasing our already exorbitant Pentagon budget."

Omar was one of just 37 House Democrats to oppose the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which passed by a vote of 335-78—a veto-proof majority. The legislation is expected to easily clear the Senate despite President Donald Trump's threats to veto the measure over objections unrelated to the size of the proposed Pentagon budget.

See the full roll call for the House vote here.

"This bill further commits our servicemembers to escalations abroad—including a now-two-decade old unpopular war in Afghanistan," Omar said. "Every dollar we spend on endless wars is another missed opportunity to invest in our communities. Shamefully, this bill does nothing to stop arms sales to some of the most corrupt and brutal regimes in the world, such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates."

Passage of the sprawling defense bill came as congressional leaders and the White House continued to negotiate the details of a coronavirus relief package that progressive lawmakers have decried as woefully inadequate to address the needs of countless sick, hungry, and eviction-prone Americans.

A $908 billion bipartisan relief framework unveiled last week would not provide direct stimulus payments to U.S. households, while an $916 billion offer put forth by the White House late Tuesday would not provide a weekly boost to unemployment benefits. Both plans fall well short of the $3-4.5 trillion stimulus that experts say is needed to relieve widespread suffering and prevent a prolonged economic recession.

Biden Won't Solve Your Problems, But Will "Understand Your Problems"

'Beyond Incomprehensible': Bipartisan Covid Relief Package Would Let Paid Sick and Family Leave Expire

An updated version of the $908 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief proposal currently under negotiation on Capitol Hill does not include an extension of federal paid sick and family leave programs set to expire at the end of the year, an omission that could deprive nearly 90 million workers of key benefits as the pandemic intensifies.

Vicki Shabo, a senior fellow at the think tank New America, told HuffPost Wednesday that the proposal's exclusion of paid leave benefits is "an affront to all reason," particularly given how successful the programs have been in preventing coronavirus infections.

According to research published in the journal Health Affairs in October, paid leave benefits mandated under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) prevented an estimated 400 coronavirus cases each day per state in the U.S.

"It's beyond incomprehensible, short-sighted, and ridiculous given the public health benefits that are proven and the growing number of parents home with kids," said Shabo.

Approved by Congress and signed into law in March, the FFCRA requires many employers to provide workers infected by or exposed to the coronavirus with up to two weeks of sick leave at full pay. The law also provides up to 12 weeks of emergency family leave, only 10 of which are paid.

Despite the programs' inadequacies, paid leave advocates warned that letting the benefits expire would be a huge mistake.

"Extending emergency paid leave at the height of a pandemic is not only something we can afford, it's something we can't afford not to do," tweeted Paid Leave for All, a campaign fighting for universal family and medical leave. "It is one of the most cost-effective tools to save lives and jobs."

CNN Guy says People Don't Need Stimulus Check During Economic Crisis

ICE Mismanagement Created Coronavirus “Hotbeds of Infection” In and Around Detention Centers

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been a horrifying — and avoidable — calamity. By handing out masks late, forcing detained people into close quarters, refusing to release the medically vulnerable, not reporting infections, testing inadequately, frequently transferring detainees, and pressuring staff and guards to continue working despite compromised health, ICE’s handling of the pandemic has led to over 7,000 reported positive cases and at least 8 coronavirus-related deaths among detained people.

A new report from Detention Watch Network finds that the dire situation inside also led to wider consequences: When spread in the communities surrounding detention centers is included, ICE’s sprawling incarceration system added nearly a quarter million cases to the total U.S. caseload.

The DWN report, “Hotbeds of Infection,” released on Wednesday, lays bare how ICE’s abundant failures and dilatory mismanagement killed and infected people inside detention centers and significantly contributed to the spread of Covid-19 across the country. By August 1, almost 5.5 percent of total U.S. cases, according to the report, were attributable to spread from ICE detention centers. The report is yet another damning indication that ICE’s dereliction in protecting basic human rights, grievous medical neglect, and lack of transparency in how it detains and treats people in its system of over 200 detention centers is a massive public health threat — both to detainees and the greater U.S. population. ...

The report’s authors were at pains to explain that it is not immigrants who spread disease but rather the immigration detention regime — the nature of incarceration and all it entails — that fosters disease and sickens migrants and communities alike. “It is setting up ideal lab conditions for incubating viruses and putting them out into the community,” said Gregory Hooks, a professor of sociology at McMaster University and co-author of the DWN report.

Boise, Idaho health district meeting canceled by police after armed protesters threaten board members’ homes

At the request of the Boise, Idaho, police chief and mayor, the Central District Health (CHD) board shut down its meeting Tuesday night before it could vote on a new public health order imposing limited COVID-19 restrictions. Roughly 600 anti-mask protesters had gathered outside the barricaded office building to oppose any measures to curtail the spread of the coronavirus, while separate groups of protesters, some carrying weapons, threatened the homes of board members.

While it did not appear that anyone inside the building where the members were meeting was in physical danger—dozens of police had surrounded the building—police insisted that the meeting be called off in the interests of “public safety.” After it was announced that the meeting would be canceled, the crowd packing the parking lot erupted in cheers.

The decision to cancel the meeting came shortly after Diana Lachiondo, the Ada County representative on the health board, informed her fellow board members and attending physicians that she had to leave because protesters outside her home were threatening her family. “My twelve-year-old son is home by himself right now and there are protesters banging outside the door,” an emotional Lachiondo said. “I’m going to go home and make sure he’s okay.”

In a Twitter thread posted Wednesday morning, Lachiondo said that “armed protestors once again assembled outside my home: yelling, banging, firing air horns, amplifying sound clips from Scarface, accusing me of tyranny and cowering inside… And as many of you saw last night, my son called me in tears at the beginning of the meeting.” In addition to Lachiondo’s home, protesters descended on the homes of at least two other board members, including Dr. Ted Epperly. Dr. Epperly also reported that the protests were “not under control at my house.”

On Wednesday morning, it was reported that less than seven miles from the CDH building, fascists vandalized an Anne Frank Memorial located at the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights, defacing the memorial with Nazi stickers featuring swastikas and declaring, “We are everywhere.” The vandalism is believed to have occurred early Tuesday morning, the day of the canceled CDH meeting. ... While it is unknown at this time if any of the anti-mask protesters were involved in the vandalism, with the police continuing their “investigation,” there is no doubt that anti-Semites, racists and fascists were involved in the protests. In addition to signs proclaiming the pandemic to be overblown or an outright hoax, many protesters carried American flags and wore pro-Trump apparel.

California hospitals near breaking point as Covid cases soar

Hospitals across California are reaching a breaking point amid a shortage of ICU beds and healthcare workers, as the state faces its worst surge in Covid cases since the pandemic began.

Millions of Californians are back under the nation’s strictest lockdown, but hospitalisations are already at record levels. The state has seen a roughly 70% increase in ICU admissions in just two weeks, leaving just 1,700 of its 7,800 ICU beds available.

The situation has prompted California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, to bring in hospital staff from outside the state, and to restart emergency hospitals that were created but hardly used when the coronavirus surged last spring. This week saw the state begin to activate the first two of 11 alternative care sites that have a total capacity of 1,862 beds. ...

California officials paint a dire picture of overwhelmed hospitals and exhausted health workers as the state records an average of 22,000 new cases a day. After nine months of the pandemic, they recognize about 12% of people who test positive will end up in the hospital two to three weeks later. At the current rate, that means 2,640 hospitalizations from each day’s new case total.

As Pandemic Overwhelms Hospitals, 1/3 of Americans Live in Areas Where ICUs Close to Capacity

Public health officials say there is evidence that healthcare workers are beginning to ration care for Covid-19 patients—and at least one state governor is expected to announce that care-rationing must begin to save the lives of those most likely to survive the disease—as intensive care unit beds across the country approach capacity.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that more than a third of Americans are living in areas where hospitals are running critically short on ICU beds, while one in 10 people are served by medical centers where fewer than 5% of beds are currently available. 

According to the outlet's interactive map, in places including Lake Havasu City, Arizona and Ogden, Utah, zero ICU beds are available. 

The news comes as the Department of Health and Human Services, for the first time during the coronavirus pandemic that began in March, published detailed geographic data about Covid-10 hospitalizations. 

Public health experts have for months called on the federal government to release such information, to better help officials understand where the pandemic has hit the hardest.

Last week, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported that Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is expected to allow hospitals to begin rationing care based on which patients have the greatest chance of survival if they receive treatment. The Times reported that in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 116% of ICU beds are now occupied, with healthcare workers using 32 extra hospital beds to treat severely ill Covid-19 patients.

March for Our Lives activist Yas Mendoza tweeted Tuesday that her city of Fresno, California is facing similar statistics, noting that patients who need intensive care for non-coronavirus emergencies are increasingly unable to use ICU beds. ...

Dr. Thomas Tsai, an assistant professor of health policy at Harvard University, told the Times that there's been evidence of other hospitals rationing care in recent weeks, by making decisions about which Covid-19 patients can be hospitalized. The rate of overall hospitalizations has decreased over the past several weeks as ICUs have approached capacity.

"That suggests that there's some rationing and stricter triage criteria about who gets admitted as hospitals remain full," Tsai told the Times.

Meanwhile, public health officials say a surge in infections—linked to Thanksgiving gatherings and travel—is likely to emerge in the coming days. Traffic on Thanksgiving Day was down only 5% from 2019, indicating that many families gathered in enclosed spaces and have since been out in their communities.

Why Biden's Pick of Tom Vilsack for Agriculture Secretary Is a Missed Opportunity for the USDA

LANDMARK Case Threatens To BREAK UP FACEBOOK

Facebook's 'monopoly' must be split up, US and states say in major lawsuits

The US government and a coalition of 48 states and districts have filed parallel lawsuits against Facebook in a major antitrust offensive that accused the social media behemoth of anticompetitive behavior and could ultimately force its breakup.

At the heart of both antitrust actions, announced on Wednesday, is Facebook’s dominance of the social media landscape, and whether the company gobbled up potential competitors and blocked market access to others that could have eaten into its staggering market share.

One lawsuit brings together nearly every state in the US, a coalition led by New York’s attorney general, Letitia James. The suit accuses Facebook abusing its market power to quash smaller competitors.

“For nearly a decade, Facebook has used its dominance and monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users,” said James in a statement. “Today, we are taking action to stand up for the millions of consumers and many small businesses that have been harmed by Facebook’s illegal behavior. Instead of competing on the merits, Facebook used its power to suppress competition so it could take advantage of users and make billions by converting personal data into a cash cow.”

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which collaborated with the attorneys general in a years-long investigation, launched its own suit alleging that Facebook engaged in a “systematic strategy” of anticompetitive conduct. The FTC is seeking a permanent injunction in federal court that could force Facebook to sell off Instagram and WhatsApp.

Hunter Biden Under Investigation For China Business Dealings!

Hunter Biden says US attorney’s office is investigating his ‘tax affairs’

President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, said on Wednesday that the US attorney’s office in Delaware had opened an investigation into his “tax affairs”.

Hunter Biden, who has long been a target of Donald Trump and his allies, said he had learned about the federal investigation on Tuesday from his lawyer, who was informed of the matter by the US attorney’s office earlier that day.

“I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisers,” Hunter Biden said in a statement released by the president-elect’s transition office. ...

On Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that, according to a person familiar with the matter, the tax investigation into Hunter Biden concerned some of his Chinese business dealings, among other financial transactions, and “does not have anything to do with the laptop”; the Guardian has not confirmed this.

Hunter Biden INVESTIGATED For Money Laundering, Tax Evasion, China Dealings

Glenn Greenwald - it's worth a full read. Here are some excerpts to get you started, there's much more at the link.

The Hunter Biden Criminal Probe Bolsters a Chinese Scholar's Claim About Beijing's Influence With the Biden Administration

Hunter Biden acknowledged today that he has been notified of an active criminal investigation into his tax affairs by the U.S. Attorney for Delaware. Among the numerous prongs of the inquiry, CNN reports, investigators are examining “whether Hunter Biden and his associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China.” Documents relating to Hunter Biden’s exploitation of his father’s name to enrich himself and other relatives through deals with China were among the cache published in the week before the election by The New York Post — revelations censored by Twitter and Facebook and steadfastly ignored by most mainstream news outlets. That concerted repression effort by media outlets and Silicon Valley left it to right-wing outlet such as Fox News and The Daily Caller to report, which in turn meant that millions of Americans were kept in the dark before voting. ...

The allegations at the heart of this investigation compel an examination of a fascinating and at-times disturbing speech at a major financial event held last week in Shanghai. In that speech, a Chinese scholar of political science and international finance, Di Donghseng, insisted that Beijing will have far more influence in Washington under a Biden administration than it did with the Trump administration. The reason, Di said, is that China’s ability to get its way in Washington has long depended upon its numerous powerful Wall Street allies. But those allies, he said, had difficulty controlling Trump, but will exert virtually unfettered power over Biden. That China cultivated extensive financial ties to Hunter Biden, Di explained, will be crucial for bolstering Beijing’s influence even further. ...

The centerpiece of Di’s speech was the history he set forth of how Beijing has long successfully managed to protect its interests in the halls of American power: namely, by relying on “friends” in Wall Street and other U.S. ruling class sectors — which worked efficiently until the Trump presidency.

Referring to the Trump-era trade war between the two countries, Di posed this question: “Why did China and the U.S. use to be able to settle all kinds of issues between 1992 [when Clinton became President] and 2016 [when Obama’s left office]?” He then provided this answer:

No matter what kind of crises we encountered — be it the Yinhe incident [when the U.S. interdicted a Chinese ship in the mistaken belief it carried chemical weapons for Iran], the bombing of the embassy [the 1992 bombing by the U.S. of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade], or the crashing of the plane [the 2001 crashing of a U.S. military spy plane into a Chinese fighter jet] — things were all solved in no time, like a couple do with their quarrels starting at the bedhead but ending at the bed end. We fixed everything in two months. What is the reason? I'm going to throw out something maybe a little bit explosive here.

It's just because we have people at the top. We have our old friends who are at the top of America's core inner circle of power and influence.

Who are these “old friends” of China’s “who are at the top of America’s core inner circle of power and influence” and have ensured that, in his words, “for the past 30 years, 40 years, we have been utilizing the core power of the United States”? Di provided the answer: Wall Street, with whom the Chinese Community Party and Chinese industry maintain a close, multi-pronged and inter-dependent relationship. “Since the 1970s, Wall Street had a very strong influence on the domestic and foreign affairs of the United States,” Di observed. Thus, “we had a channel to rely on.”

Did Kelly Loeffler's Husband Get CAUGHT Insider Trading?

‘Will he ever concede?’: Trump keeps GOP leaders in endless political limbo

First Republicans in Congress gave Donald Trump a week to admit he lost the presidential election. Then they called for the lame duck president to have his day in court, where the Trump campaign amassed a 1-51 win-loss record in challenging Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

Next Republicans pointed to the so-called “safe harbor” deadline of 8 December, when states would certify their respective results, as the date when Trump would surely be forced to admit his loss. But that deadline came and went on Tuesday, seemingly unnoticed by the White House.

Now, it is beginning to dawn on some members of the Republican leadership that Trump is working on a calendar all his own, and that the political limbo they now inhabit – unable to take the basic step, as elected officials in the United States of America, of recognizing the rightful winner of a free and fair election – might never end, assuming they will not summon the courage to contradict Trump.

“I don’t know that he’s ever gonna concede,” John Thune, the Senate majority whip, told Politico on Wednesday. More than 200 Republicans in Congress – about 90% of the total – will not say publicly who won the presidential election, the Washington Post found. ...

Republicans say it makes little political sense at this point for them to counter Trump’s views lest they risk a backlash from his supporters – their own constituents – back home.

Is 'Squad' About To Get Backbone With Nina Turner In Congress?

Nina Turner Files to Run for Congress in Ohio

Nina Turner, the former Cleveland city councilwoman, Ohio state senator, and national co-chair of Sen. Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign, on Wednesday afternoon filed a statement of organization with the Federal Election Commission, signaling she will be running to represent Ohio's 11th Congressional District.

The filing followed speculation regarding Turner's intentions after President-elect Joe Biden tapped Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio), who represents that district, as his nominee for Housing and Urban Development secretary.

Human-made materials now outweigh Earth's entire biomass

The giant human footprint stamped across the world in 2020 is greater than the impact on the planet of all other living things, research suggests.

The amount of plastic alone is greater in mass than all land animals and marine creatures combined, the study estimates.

While human beings might believe in “the immensity of the globe and the seeming infinity of the natural world”, the researchers say they wanted to provide an objective and rigorous measure of the reality of the balance between man and nature.

Their research shows that human activity including production of concrete, metal, plastic, bricks and asphalt has brought the world to a crossover point where human-made mass – driven mostly by enhanced consumption and urban development – exceeds the overall living biomass on Earth.

On average, every person in the world is responsible for the creation of human-made matter equal to more than their bodyweight each week, the paper published in Nature says. The research found that the stamp of humanity has been increasing in size rapidly since the beginning of the 20th century, doubling every 20 years.

Offshore Tax Havens 'Deep Wells of Profit' For Oil Giants

Big Oil firms are enhancing their annual profit margins by hundreds of millions of dollars through tax avoidance—by shifting revenue to finance and insurance offshoots located in island tax havens instead of accurately reporting income derived from drilling in oil-producing countries where levies are higher.

That's according to a Reuters analysis of corporate filings and rating agency reports. 

The news outlet explained how the misreporting and transfer of oil profits to offshore insurance affiliates works:

Bermuda and the Bahamas aren't exactly big players in the oil-and-gas world. They don't produce any of the fuels at all. Yet the islands are deep wells of profit for European oil giant Royal Dutch Shell.

In 2018 and 2019, Shell earned more than $2.7 billion—about 7% of its total income in those years—tax-free by reporting profits in companies located in Bermuda and the Bahamas that employed just 39 people and generated the bulk of their revenue from other Shell entities.

If the oil-and-gas major had booked the profits through its headquarters in the Netherlands, it could have faced a tax bill of about $700 million based on the Dutch corporate tax rate of 25%. The bill would have been much steeper if the income were reported in oil-producing countries—some of which levy rates exceeding 80%.

Shell, BP, Chevron, and Total use subsidiaries in the Bahamas, Switzerland, Bermuda, the U.K. Channel Islands, and Ireland to provide their global operations with banking, insurance, and oil-trading services... These subsidiaries, in turn, book profits that go lightly taxed or entirely tax-free.

These perfectly legal arrangements "highlight the ability of international oil corporations to game global tax systems and avoid handing over revenue to nations where they conduct their core business," Reuters noted.

Raymond Baker, president of Global Financial Integrity, a nonprofit organization lobbying for stronger regulation to prevent corporate tax avoidance, told Reuters that "these companies are deliberately exploiting gaps in tax law and weak enforcement, and they are doing so in order to make enormous profits."

"The victims," he added, "are the countries and their budgets and their people."

The coronavirus pandemic and associated drop in oil prices have deepened budgetary challenges in oil-producing countries. According to Reuters, "Nations such as Angola, Brazil, and Trinidad, who rely heavily on oil tax revenues, have had to moderate spending and increase borrowing to respond to the health crisis."

But things wouldn't be quite so dire, tax fairness advocates say, if fossil fuel companies accurately reported profits and paid higher tax bills in oil-producing countries.

Waziri Adio, executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which advocates for stronger governance of oil revenues in the African nation, told Reuters that the practice of oil companies sheltering profits offshore may be legal but that doesn't make it fair.

"This is something that robs Nigeria of legitimate revenues and will affect the ability of the government to deliver badly needed services to its citizens," Adio said.

In response to the report, climate justice activist Jamie Henn tweeted: "Big Oil companies are making billions of dollars destroying our future and then hiding it in offshore tax havens—remind me why we don't send the CEOs to prison, seize this ill-begotten wealth, and use it to save human civilization?"

“Environmentalist” Billionaire Building Resort on Protected Wetlands

Residents of the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda say a planned luxury resort co-owned by the billionaire philanthropist and self-proclaimed environmentalist John Paul DeJoria could destroy the islanders’ way of life. DeJoria’s development company would place a golf course and community of seaside vacation homes on top of a wetland protected by an international treaty. Recognized as vital in a future marked by climate crisis, the lagoon’s mangroves, seagrass beds, and coral reefs support a lobster fishery, endangered hawksbill and leatherback turtles, and the largest nesting colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the Western hemisphere. The vegetation also helps protect land from eroding during increasingly severe storms, such as Hurricane Irma, which destroyed the island in 2017.

Locals, who are citizens of the sovereign nation of Antigua and Barbuda, are also raising concerns that the resort constructed by DeJoria’s company Peace, Love and Happiness is playing a role in upending the island’s collective land ownership system, which has survived since slavery’s abolishment. “It’s being done at the expense of people’s lives,” said John Mussington, a Barbudan school principal and marine biologist. The island’s fisheries and its collective land ownership system have been vital to Barbudans’ resilience throughout the coronavirus pandemic, he noted, offering food and housing security in a place where lobster is abundant and eviction tends to be a nonissue. “The philanthropy these persons hide behind, it’s not real — it’s just an excuse so they can continue what they’re doing.”

On Wednesday, the Global Legal Action Network filed a complaint to the secretariat that oversees the Ramsar Convention, a treaty that recognizes wetlands of international importance. The complaint, which was filed on behalf of the Barbuda Council, the governing body that oversees internal affairs on the island, alleges that construction has already damaged the Codrington Lagoon. The Barbuda Council and the Global Legal Action Network are demanding that the Ramsar Secretariat, which has little enforcement power, pressure the government of Antigua and Barbuda to stop any construction on the lagoon. (The Antigua and Barbuda national government, which is based on larger, nearby Antigua, did not respond to requests for comment.)

“Failure to stop the project in its current form will result in the destruction of the Codrington Lagoon National Park and Ramsar Site,” the complaint quoted Barbuda Council environmental adviser Adelle Blair as saying in a report to the council. “This will leave the Barbuda people more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change having decimated all the natural defenses, seriously threatening its livelihood base and survival, to make way for a place for the rich to live and play golf.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Despite Evidence of UK War Crimes, ICC Drops War Crimes Probe

Why Is Marcia Fudge Being Nominated to HUD, if Not Tokenism?

Twelve Million Renters To Be Homeless Soon Because It Benefits the Rich

Biden Defends Controversial SecDef Pick

China Hawks Outraged About Biden's Defense Nominee

The Next War Against A Public Option Is Starting

Watchdog Report: Fed’s Billions in Emergency Repo Loans to Wall Street Didn’t Go Away in June; They Just Went Dark

Argentina moves closer to historic abortion legalization

Billionaires made $1tn since Covid-19. They can afford to protect their workers

Caitlin Johnstone: Who The #Resistance Was Actually #Resisting These Last Four Years

Trump EPA Issues Last-Minute Rule to Make Action on Climate and Pollution Harder for Biden

Senate Confirms Nathan Simington, Trump's Unqualified and 'Worse Than Ajit Pai' FCC Nominee

Rats besiege New York Chipotle, eating avocados and attacking staff

Johns Hopkins was a slave owner, university reveals

'I'm a song catcher': 60 years of Arhoolie Records, the label for a lost America

Beirut port explosion: Lebanon judge indicts PM, 3 ex-ministers over blast

Keiser Report | Exemptions for Cantillonaires

Saagar Enjeti: NYT's Pornhub Victory Shows Conservatism Is IRRELEVANT

Rising: Biden May Tap PETE BUTTIGIEG For Ambassador To China

Matt Yglesias: Is Biden's Cabinet Of Retreads Even More Obama 2.0 Than Expected?

A Little Night Music

Washboard Sam - Back Door

Washboard Sam - I Love All My Women

Washboard Sam - My Bucket's Got A Hole In It

Washboard Sam - Gonna Hit The Highway

Washboard Sam - Stop And Fix It

Washboard Sam - Soap And Water Blues

Washboard Sam - I Drink Good Whiskey

Washboard Sam - River Hip Mama

Washboard Sam - I Get The Blues At Bedtime

Big Bill Broonzy & Washboard Sam - By Myself