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Corporate Patriotism. by Ralph Nader. Corporatism, terrorism war, drug war.

Corporatism. | 14.11.2001 18:37

"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
--Mussolini


Corporate Patriotism. by Ralph Nader. Corporatism, terrorism war, drug war.

Ralph Nader article farther down shows how corporatism is taking advantage of the Terrorism War. Nader was the Green Party presidential candidate in the USA in year 2000.

Corporatism also exploits the Drug War. Greens oppose the Drug War. See:
 http://drugwar.8m.com

"Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power."
--Mussolini

"The great mass of Latin American citizens have no illusion -- unlike their US neighbors -- that governments are sincerely fighting a war on drugs. The consensus-manufacturing machines broke in the latter part of the 20th century: the violence, corruption, collusion and dishonesty by State, media, banking and other powerful sectors are all too clear to the great majority of Latin Americans."
-- Al Giordano, publisher of NarcoNews.com
 http://www.narconews.com

>
>Corporate Patriotism
> http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1110-07.htm
>
>By Ralph Nader
>
>November 10, 2001
>
>U. S. corporations aren't even subtle about it. Waving
>a flag and carrying a big shovel, corporate interests
>are scooping up government benefits and taxpayer money
>in an unprecedented fashion while the public is
>preoccupied with the September 11 attacks and the war
>in Afghanistan. Shamelessly, the Bush Administration
>and Congress have taken advantage of the patriotic
>outpouring to fulfill the wish lists of their most
>generous corporate campaign donors. Not only is the
>Treasury being raided, but regulations protecting
>everything from personal privacy to environmental
>safeguards are under attack by well-heeled lobbyists
>who want to stampede Congress to act while the media
>and citizens are distracted.
>
>Only a handful in the Congress--members like Senator
>Russell Feingold of Wisconsin and Representatives Peter
>DeFazio of Oregon and Barbara Lee of California--have
>shown the courage to question the giveaways and the
>quick wipeout of civil liberties and other citizen
>protections. In most cases, such as the $15 billion
>airline bailout and corporate tax breaks, legislation
>has been pushed to the forefront with little or no
>hearings and only fleeting consideration on the floor
>of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
>
>One of the boldest grabs for cash has been by
>corporations seeking to eliminate the Alternative
>Minimum Tax (AMT), which was enacted during the Reagan
>Administration to prevent profitable corporations from
>escaping all tax liability through various loopholes.
>Not only do the corporations want relief from the
>current year's AMT taxes, but they are seeking a
>retroactive refund of all AMT taxes paid since 1986.
>
>This giveaway, as passed by the House of
>Representatives, would make corporations eligible for
>$25 billion in tax refunds. Just 14 corporations would
>receive $6.3 billion of the refund. IBM gets $1.4
>billion; General Motors, $833 million; General Electric
>$671 million; Daimler-Chrysler $600 million; Chevron-
>Texaco $572 million. The 14 biggest beneficiaries of
>the minimum tax repeal gave $14,769,785 in "soft money"
>to the national committees of the Democratic and
>Republican parties in recent years.
>
>Soon to join the bailout parade is the nation's
>insurance industry, which is lobbying the Congress to
>have the federal government pick up the tab for future
>losses like those stemming from the attack on the World
>Trade Center. Proposals are on the table for taxpayers
>to either pick up losses above certain levels or to
>provide loans or loan guarantees for reinsurance.
>
>The insurance companies want federal bailouts, but they
>continue to insist on regulation only by underfunded,
>poorly staffed state insurance departments, most of
>which are dominated by the industry. Any bailout or
>loan program involving the insurance companies must
>include provisions which ensure that insurance
>companies cannot refuse to write policies and make
>investments in low, moderate and minority
>neighborhoods. Allegations about insurance company
>"redlining" or discrimination against citizens in these
>areas have been prevalent for many years. It would be a
>terrible injustice for citizens to be forced to pay
>taxes to help bail out insurance companies that
>discriminate against them. Congress needs to address
>this issue before it even considers public assistance
>for the industry.
>
>People-concerns have been missing in all the bailouts.
>When the airline companies walked off with $15 billion
>plus in bailout money, the thousands of laid-off
>employees--airline attendants, maintenance crews,
>baggage handlers and ticket counter employees--received
>not a dime. Attempts to include health benefits and
>other help for these employees were shouted down on the
>floor of the House of Representatives.
>
>Last month, more than 400,000 employees lost their jobs
>nationwide and the national unemployment rate rose to
>5.4 percent, the highest level since 1996. The Bureau
>of Labor Statistics said roughly a fourth of the lost
>jobs were the direct result of the terrorist attacks of
>September 11. Bailouts, benefits or other aid for these
>victims of the attacks? No, that's reserved just for
>the corporations under the policies of the Bush
>Administration and the present Congress.
>
>Yet it is the workers in the low-wage jobs--like those
>in restaurants, hotels, retailing and transportation--
>who are bearing the brunt of the layoffs in the
>aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center,
>according to a report from the New York State
>Department of Labor. Almost 25,000 people told the
>department that they lost their jobs because of the
>trade center disaster. An analysis by the department of
>the first 22,000 of the claims found that 16 percent
>worked at bars, 14 percent worked at hotels, 5 percent
>worked in air transportation and 21 percent in a
>category termed "business services." Only 4 percent
>worked at Wall Street brokerage firms.
>
>While more workers lose jobs, the Administration is
>pushing for authority to expand the North American Free
>Trade Agreement (NAFTA) under new "fast-track"
>authority. The Department of Commerce concedes that at
>least 360,000 jobs have been lost under NAFTA, and
>private research groups estimate the total may be twice
>that number. Now, with unemployment rising to alarming
>levels, the Administration decides to cave to pro-NAFTA
>corporate demands which will only make the labor
>picture worse. No bailout for laid off workers, just a
>hard crack across the knees.
>
>As Bill Moyers, the author and national journalist,
>commented: "They (the corporations) are counting on
>your patriotism to distract you from their plunder.
>They're counting on you to stand at attention with your
>hand over your heart, pledging allegiance to the flag,
>while they pick your pocket."
>
>The present crisis cries out for shared sacrifice--not
>the opportunism so blatantly displayed by the nation's
>corporate interests. President Bush and the Congress
>must summon the courage to resist the self-serving
>demands--the kind of courage and shared sacrifice that
>guided the brave rescue workers on September 11.
>

----------- End of Ralph Nader article ----------

-----------------------

Green Party.
 http://www.greenpartyus.org/

*Greens and the Drug War. Worldwide. LINKS. Green Party candidates, positions, platforms, etc.. Concerning the Drug War, cannabis, marijuana, harm reduction, etc.. Ralph Nader info, links.
 http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/greens.htm and
 http://drugwar.8m.com/greens.htm ___

*The MAJORITY of the 2 million U.S. inmates are incarcerated due to the drug war! The Drug-War Industrial Complex. The U.S. drug-war inmate MAJORITY is calculated by adding together inmates committing drug crimes, drug-related crimes (such as robbing to get money for drugs that are expensive because of the drug war), drug-related parole violations, etc.. The USA has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's 8 MILLION prisoners. The USA surpassed Russia in the year 2000, and so the USA again has the world's highest incarceration rate! It is now 5 to 17 times higher than all other Western (long democratic traditions) nations. The US incarceration rate has nearly QUADRUPLED since Reagan's election in 1980. 6.5 million adults, or 1 in 32 adults in the USA, or 3.1% of adults, were under correctional supervision (in jail, in prison, on probation, or on parole) at yearend 2000. Statistics, references, links, and charts:
 http://drugwar.8m.com/majority.htm and
 http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/majority.htm and
 http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/majority.htm

*TOTAL INMATES. Yearend 2000. USA and Territories. Jail, prison, INS, juvenile, Indians, military, etc..
 http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/y/usaterr.htm and
 http://drugwar.8m.com/usaterr.htm [TopLink]

[pre][code]

>_____________________________________________
>ALL_inmates._End_of_2000.____________________
>USA_and_territories._________________________
>_____________________________________________
>State_and_federal_prisons.__________1,312,354
>Local_jails.__________________________621,149
>Juvenile_facilities.__________________108,965
>Territorial_prisons.___________________16,130
>INS_facilities._________________________8,894
>Military_facilities.____________________2,420
>Indian_country_jails.___________________1,775
>_____________________________________________
>TOTAL_______________________________2,071,687
>_____________________________________________
>INS=Immigration_and_Naturalization_Service___
>234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456
>Fixed_width_Courier_font_lines_up_columns.___
>_________________________[/code][/pre]
>  http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/p00pr.htm and
>  http://members.fortunecity.com/multi19/usaterr.htm ___
> Number in juvenile facilities is as of October 1999. U.S. Territories and Commonwealths are American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands.

Corporatism.

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