Greg Palast's Blog, page 76

Turn-Around: Joy Reid Interviewed by Greg Palast

"It is difficult to get the issue of voter suppression on television at the moment, I think for a couple of reasons. Number one: Donald Trump — he sort of blocks out the sun. He’s taken up so much of the airtime on any given day that the media just feels that it can’t not talk about him. Between the insane things that he’s tweeting, or the policies that he’s putting forth that are draconian and scaring the hell out of people, I think that he sucks up so much of the oxygen that other stories are getting drowned out…The election of Donald Trump had a lot to do with the suppression of votes. It had a lot to do with the aftermath of gutting the Voting Rights Act… Unfortunately, we’re not focussing on it." — Joy-Ann Reid, host of #AMJoy on MSNBC

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Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still — get the Book & DVD combo.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

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Trump’s Tax Cut Flunks the Napkin Test: A “D” Student’s Misreading of Economic Law

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By Greg Palast for Truthout

A napkin can be a dangerous thing in the hands of fools. Especially when the D students sit in the Oval Office.

President Donald Trump's mind-blowing $2 trillion tax cut, according to his Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, "Will pay for itself with growth."

The storied economist John Maynard Keynes once said, "Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back."

The scribbler, in this case, is my old professor and mentor, Art Laffer. Famously, he did his scribblings on napkins, a corollary of his addiction to greasy cheeseburgers.

In 1974, over burgers at the University of Chicago student grill, he scribbled a curve on a napkin, illustrating a curiosity: the higher the tax rate, the lower the total tax collection. Or, turned around: a cut in taxes can pay for itself.

But, alas, Art told me, this economic magic trick only works at the tippy-top of the curve, "Maybe just in Sweden where rates are 98 percent or even 102 percent." But in the US, with 40 percent top rates? The magic is gone.

Unfortunately for the US, Art also showed his napkin trick to one Dick Cheney, very much not a professor of economics ... and from there the "Laffer Curve" made its way to Ronald Reagan.

Our first actor-president, not savvy to the subtle calculus of the curve, wrote about this miracle no-cost tax cut while running in 1976, "Warren Harding did it. John F. Kennedy did it ... cut the income tax. In both cases, federal income went up instead of down."

The Gipper's opponent, George H.W. Bush called it "voodoo economics." Indeed, when Reagan implemented this "miracle," it blew the doors off the national debt.

Laffer, today as in 1974, remains a conservative fan of shrinking government and tiny taxes. So, he and his colleague, Trump advisor Stephen Moore, still promote a "scientific" form of free-lunch tax cuts.

Scientific or not, our latest actor-president has swallowed napkin-omics whole.

The result will be anything but magical. Let's get into the nasty details.

First, Trump would cut the AMT, the Alternative Minimum Tax, to the rate of absolute zero. It may be just a coincidence, but the AMT is the only income tax that Trump is known to have paid.

Did the AMT really stop Trump and other real estate moguls from investing? There's no evidence the tax caused Trump to stuff his billions into a mattress. He boasts of his spending of $200 million to refurbish the Old Post Office in Washington. Moreover, $1.7 billion of his invested capital sits in high-tax New York. Paying the AMT clearly did not discourage investor Trump.

Even beyond the creepy conflict of Trump giving himself a tax cut, eliminating the AMT is truly bad policy. According to what my professors Laffer and Milton Friedman taught me, taxes should be designed to stop investors from making decisions based on how to avoid taxes. The AMT tells investors, "Forget avoiding taxes -- you'll pay them anyway." Now, with Trump eliminating the AMT, it's "Dive for the loopholes, gents."

And loopholes there are, still worth billions. The big one, which candidate Trump vowed to close, is called "carried interest." Candidate Trump promised, "We will eliminate the carried interest deduction and other special interest loopholes that have been so good for Wall Street investors, and for people like me, but unfair to American workers."

But he didn't. In fact, Trump went the opposite way, killing a 3.8 percent surtax on speculation profits that Obama instituted to cut health insurance rates under Obamacare.

A billionaire most burdened by the Obamacare tax, and a beneficiary of the carried interest loophole, is Paul Singer. Singer, aka "The Vulture," was a secret visitor to the Oval Office in February -- until Trump let the secret out of the bag. Shortly after that meeting, via the Trumpcare bill, Trump nixed the Obamacare surtax on Singer and his speculator colleagues.

But Trumpcare flatlined, so Trump simply put the elimination of the speculation tax into this new bill. Total cost to the Treasury: $15.7 billion.

And who will make up for the lost billions and trillions? The answer is: you, me and the guys in the funny red Make-America-Great hats.

Trump boasted that he'd be the first candidate ever to turn a profit on a presidential campaign. And now, it looks like the profits will be tax-free.

Surprised? When power meets greed, you can bet, the schmucks in the red hats will pay.

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Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

Palast is also the author of the New York Times bestseller Armed Madhouse and BBC Newsnight book of the Year Vultures' Picnic.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

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A “D” Student’s Misreading of Economic Law appeared first on Greg Palast.

Drill Baby Drill Why Drilling In The Arctic Is A Terrible Idea

President Trump aims to roll back the Obama administration’s attempts to ban oil drilling off the southeastern Atlantic and Alaskan coasts.

I was in the Arctic where Trump wants to drill baby drill. Drilling means the ethnic cleansing of the Inuit speakers who still live there. Whales won't swim in hydrocarbon. I noticed Trump did not OK drilling off Mar-a-Lago.

For more on this watch my movie, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy — available to stream worldwide from just $2.99!

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Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

vStay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

GregPalast.com

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Why Drilling In The Arctic Is A Terrible Idea appeared first on Greg Palast.

Trump Stumped: Tax Cut based on his D-Student Misunderstanding of Laffer Curve

[image error]Trump claims his big tax cut will pay for itself based on his D-student misunderstanding of the "Laffer Curve." Economist Art Laffer, my mentor at U Chicago, showed how cutting taxes could produce more tax revenue, a theorem he famously drew on a napkin.

Laffer drew the Curve for me—also on a napkin. (I can’t make this up: Art was addicted to cheeseburgers and always scribbled diagrams as he talked and chowed down. This is a replica of what he showed me—he used the original to wipe up.)

One napkin was shown to Ronald Reagan who, foreshadowing Trump, was too thick to understand it. Like Trump, the Gipper thought that it proved that, 'the lower the tax, the more tax revenue collected.' George Bush Sr. called that "voodoo economics."

Not voodoo, no; but here’s the key—pay attention, A students!— it’s a CURVE. When "marginal" tax rates are ABOVE 90%, cutting to, say, 85%, will actually produce more tax revenue from increased business activity. But at the lower end of the curve, with taxes below 40% as they are now, there’s no tax gain—just the opposite, the Laffer Curve shows tax collections will collapse.

Cutting the corporate rate to 15% from 40% will cause a $4 trillion-dollar tax loss — which non-corporations, that is, working class schmucks who voted for Trump, will have to make up.

Take a look…then wipe that cheese off your chin.

And that ain’t the bottom of the stupid and venal oozing from the Oval Office. The Donald’s tax plan includes opening new loophole called, "territoriality." To translate from the pigs’-Latin, this means that the US can no longer collect taxes on profits of US corporations on their foreign operations.

In other words, THIS IS A MASSIVE TAX BREAK FOR MOVING A FACTORY OVERSEAS. Shifting your plastics factory from Midland, Michigan to Monterey, Mexico means you no longer pay taxes on it. Hey, wasn’t this the guy who said he’d TAX companies that leave the USA?

Well, it looks like he’ll make Mexico great again.

But maybe Trump is no tax dunce—but one very brilliant business man who knows how to dupe his troops. After all, he’s a casino magnate who makes his money by fleecing those suckers in the red trucker hats. Trump knows: the house always wins.

The post Trump Stumped: Tax Cut based on
his D-Student Misunderstanding
of Laffer Curve appeared first on Greg Palast.

Deepwater Horizon BP and GWB knew The Real Story of the Cover-up

by Greg Palast – for Channel 4, UK

Two years before the Deepwater Horizon blow-out in the Gulf of Mexico, another BP off-shore rig suffered a nearly identical blow-out, but BP concealed the first one from the U.S. regulators and Congress.

5 years ago, we located an eyewitness with devastating new information about the Caspian Sea oil-rig blow-out which BP had concealed from government and the industry.

The witness, whose story is backed up by rig workers who were evacuated from BP’s Caspian platform, said that had BP revealed the full story as required by industry practice, the eleven Gulf of Mexico workers “could have had a chance” of survival. But BP’s insistence on using methods proven faulty sealed their fate.

One cause of the blow-outs was the same in both cases:  the use of a money-saving technique—plugging holes with “quick-dry” cement.

By hiding the disastrous failure of its penny-pinching cement process in 2008, BP was able to continue to use the dangerous methods in the Gulf of Mexico—causing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. April 20 marks the 7th anniversary of the Gulf oil disaster.

There were several failures in common to the two incidents identified by the eyewitness. He is an industry insider whose identity and expertise we have confirmed. His name and that of other witnesses we contacted must be withheld for their safety.

The failures revolve around the use of “quick-dry” cement, the uselessness of blow-out preventers, “mayhem” in evacuation procedures and an atmosphere of fear which prevents workers from blowing the whistle on safety problems.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president of Waterkeeper Alliance and senior attorney for Natural Resources Defense Council, said, “We have laws that make it illegal to hide this kind of information. At the very least, these are lies by omission. When you juxtapose their knowledge of this incident upon the oil companies constant and persistent assurances of safety to regulators, investigators and shareholders, you have all the elements to prove that their concealment of the information was criminal.”

The first blow-out occurred on a BP rig in the Caspian Sea off the coast of Baku, Azerbaijan, in September 2008. BP was able to conceal such an extraordinary event with the help of the ruling regime of Azerbaijan, other oil companies and, our investigators learned, the Bush Administration.

Our investigation began just days after the explosion and sinking of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010 when this reporter received an extraordinary message from a terrified witness—from a ship floating in the Caspian Sea:

“I know how …. Would not be wise for me to communicate via [official] IT system, ….”

When the insider was contacted on a secure line, he stated that he witnessed a blow-out and the panicked evacuation of the giant BP “ACG” drilling platform.

To confirm the witness’ story, British television’s premier investigative program, Dispatches, sent this reporter under cover into Baku, Azerbaijan, with a cameraman. While approaching the BP oil terminal, the Islamic republic’s Security Ministry arrested the crew.

To avoid diplomatic difficulties, we were quickly released. However, two new witnesses suddenly vanished, all communication lost with them, after they confirmed the facts of the 2008 blow-out. Both told us they had been evacuated from the BP off-shore platform as it filled with methane.

Furthermore, witnesses confirmed that, “there was mud (drill-pipe cement) blown out all over the platform.” It appears the cement cap failed to hold back high-pressure gases which, “engulfed the entire platform in methane gas,” which is highly explosive.

In both cases, the insider told us, BP had used “quick-dry” cement to cap their well bores and the cost-saving procedure failed catastrophically.

We have learned this week that BP failed to notify the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC) about the failure of the cement. (British companies report incidents as minor as a hammer dropped.) Notification would have alerted Gulf cement contractor Halliburton that the process of adding nitrogen to cement posed unforeseen dangers.

In fact, this past December, BP attempted to place the blame and costs of the Gulf disaster on Halliburton, the oil services company that injected quick-dry cement into the well under the Deepwater Horizon. BP told a federal court that Halliburton concealed a computer model that would show that, under certain conditions, the cement could fail disastrously.

Following the Deepwater Horizon explosion, it became clear that nitrogen-laced mud can leave “channels” in the cement, allowing gas to escape and blow out the well-bore cap. However, that would have become clearer, and risks better assessed, had Halliburton and regulators known of the particulars of the Caspian blow-out.

We have also just learned that the cement casing itself appears to have cracked apart in the Caspian Sea. The sea, we were told, “was bubbling all around [from boiling methane]. You’re even scared to launch a life boat, it may sink.”

This exposed another problem with deepwater drilling. BP had promoted Blow-Out Preventers (BOPs) as a last line of defense in case of a blow-out. But if the casing shatters, the BOPs could be useless.

BP has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal the story of the first blow-out, and for good reason:  If the company deliberately withheld the information that it knew “quick-dry” cement had failed yet continued to use it, the 11 deaths on its Gulf rig were not an unexpected accident but could be considered negligent homicide.

Kennedy told me, “This is a critical piece of information. The entire government is basing its policy on the assurances of this company that this process can be done safely and it never failed before. This is what they were telling everybody. Yet, the whole time they knew that this was a process that had failed disastrously in the Caspian Sea.”

Why haven’t these stories come out before? This week our witness explained that in Azerbaijan, “People disappear on a regular basis. It’s a police state.”

But even in the U.S. and Europe, BP and other industry workers are afraid to complain for fear their files will be marked “NRB,” for Not Required Back­­—which will end a workers’ offshore career. Jake Malloy, head of the Offshore Oil Workers Union, reached in Aberdeen, Scotland, independently confirmed statements of the whistleblowers. He noted that companies create an atmosphere of fear for one’s job with the “NRB” system and its latest variants, which discourage reports on safety problems.

BP refused an interview for this investigation, though the company responded to our written questions regarding the Caspian blow-out. Notably, the company does not deny that the blow-out occurred, nor even that it concealed the information from U.S. and UK regulators. Rather, the company says there was a “gas release”—a common and benign event, not a blow-out. As to the accusation of concealment, BP states:

While BP says it issued a press release at the time of the September 2008 Caspian blow-out, the company did not tell the whole truth as reported by workers and witnesses. The BP press release of that day admitted only that, “a gas leak was discovered in the area of” the platform when, in fact, it was an explosion of cement and methane, say our witnesses, “which engulfed the platform.”

BP later stated that all operations on the platform were suspended as a “precautionary measure,” suggesting a distant, natural leak. In fact, the workers themselves said that, like the workers on the Deepwater Horizon, they were one spark away from death, with frightened minutes to escape.

While BP called the evacuation a by-the-textbook procedure, in fact, said our witness, “It was total mayhem,” and that a lifeboat rammed a rescue ship in the chaos. U.S. government investigators in the Gulf cite BP’s confused and chaotic evacuation procedures for possibly adding to the Deepwater Horizon’s death toll. Information about the 2008 blow-out should have led to improved procedures and possibly could have saved lives.

More seriously, BP PLC’s official filing to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, which requires reporting of all “material” events in company operations, again talked about a “subsurface release,” concealing that the methane blew out through its drilling stack.

Both the safety of quick-dry cement (which some drillers won’t use) and deep water drilling itself were in contention before the April 20, 2010 Gulf blow-out. In fact, the U.S. Department of Interior was refusing BP, Chevron and Exxon the right to expand the area of their deep water drilling in the Gulf over safety questions.

However, BP and the industry conducted a successful lobbying campaign to expand deep water drilling. BP’s Vice-President for operations in the Gulf, David Rainey, testified before Congress in November 2009, five months before the Deepwater Horizon explosion that, “Releases from oil and gas operations are rare.” Rainey assured Congressmen that reliable “well control techniques” such as cement caps will prevent a deep water disaster. Rainey made no mention to Congress of the blow-out in the Caspian Sea which occurred a year before his testimony.

BP itself states that if not for Halliburton’s quick-dry cement failures, the Deepwater Horizon would never have blown out.  Halliburton defends itself by saying that BP’s methods created air channels in the cement that caused it to fail. Notably, BP’s court Motion states, “Halliburton has deprived the Court and parties of uniquely relevant evidence.” BP claims that hiding the information about problems with the cement caused the loss of lives.

Kennedy suggests that if Halliburton’s withholding evidence was deadly, so was BP’s concealment of the cement failure in the Caspian. Stefanie Penn Spear, editor of EcoWatch.org, says that BP’s hiding evidence ultimately led to, “The biggest oil spill in U.S. history. It entirely turned the Gulf Coast economy upside down and threatened—and continues to threaten—the health and livelihoods of the people in the Gulf region.”

How is it that a major oil disaster, a blow-out that shut down one of the world’s biggest oil fields and required the emergency evacuation of 211 rig workers could be covered up, hidden from U.S. regulators and Congress?

The answer:  pay-offs, threats, political muscle and the connivance of the Bush Administration’s State Department, Exxon and Chevron.

For that story, read Part 2 of Greg Palast’s investigation BP Covers up Blow-Out—Bush, Big Oil and WikiLeaks.

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Greg Palast is the author of Vultures’ Picnic (Penguin 2011), which centers on his investigation of BP, bribery and corruption in the oil industry.

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is also the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

You can read Vultures' Picnic, "Chapter 1: Goldfinger," or download it, at no charge: click here .

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The post Deepwater Horizon
BP and GWB knew
The Real Story of the Cover-up appeared first on Greg Palast.

Muslim Lives Matter

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Hey, Donald, the safe zone’s supposed to be in place BEFORE you lob the missiles. It seems, as TS Eliot put it, that Trump has committed, "The greatest treason / To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

Meanwhile, some opposing safe-zones in Syria say we should just increase refugee immigration. In other words, let’s empty out Syria, assist Assad in ethnically cleansing Shia Muslims. And, without a no-fly zone, you’re asking Syrians to flee without any protection from barrel bombs and mass slaughter.

And sorry, Donald, but it was the REPUBLICANS who voted down Obama’s request for power to take out Assad’s air bases in 2013. If GOP paper warriors like Marco Rubio hadn’t stopped Obama, those Syrian kids would be alive today.

 

Trump is taking out one airfield. That’s like taking out Mar-al-Lago and leaving Trump Tower. Hillary says, take’m ALL out. Never thought I’d say this until today: Damn, I miss that woman.

For years, too many of my progressive comrades have simply denied the slow-motion holocaust in Syria. When we talk about woman’s rights, how about the right not to see your child vomit out their intestines?

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Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

GregPalast.com

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TrumpCare dies, XL flies and the Secret Winner is…

by Greg Palast for OpedNews

Koch Brothers celebrate their victory (from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy)

When RyanCare-TrumpCare finally ended up face-down in the swimming pool, triumphalist Democrats whooped and partied and congratulated themselves on defeating the Trump-Ryan monstrosity.

But deep in their counting house, counting their gold, three brothers cackled with private jubilation.

David and Charles Koch knew the day was theirs.

Joining them in the celebration was Brother Billy, William Koch, who will share in their $21 billion windfall that the President arranged for them only hours before TrumpCare crashed—when Trump announced his State Department had formally approved the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Let's start with that $21 billion.

The XL Keystone Pipeline would take the world's heaviest, filthiest crude from Canada's tar sands, and snake with it all the way down to Texas.

From Greg Palast’s film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits

Now here's a question I never hear from our sleep-walking media: Exactly why are we sending oil all the way across the United States to Texas. I mean, doesn't Texas already have a little oil?

In fact, Texas is drowning in oil, choking in it. But the Kochs' Texas refinery can't use much local crude. The Koch Industries Flint Hills refinery on the Texas Gulf Coast was designed specifically to crack only the world's "heaviest" (i.e. filthiest) crude.

Texas crude ain't heavy enough, ain't dirty enough, for the Kochs' Gulf Coast operation, originally designed for imports for the world's major source of heavy crude: Venezuela. The price the Kochs paid for Venezuela's oil was set by its President Hugo Chavez, and now, by Chavez' chosen successor, Nicolas Maduro.

Chavez and Maduro both told me they'd squeeze the Kochs by their tankers. They have.

Enter the Mounties: Canadians sell their super-heavy crude at a $12 to $30 a barrel discount to the Venezuelan price. If the XL Pipeline is complete, the Kochs can suck down Canada's cheap cruddy crude for a minimum savings of $1.27 billion in a single year.

The Kochs pocket billions while we fry: burning the Canadian tar sands reserve will, all by itself, raise the temperature of the entire planet by 0.7 degrees Fahrenheit.

Over the life of the XL Keystone Pipeline, the various Koch operations will put at minimum, $21 billion in Koch family pockets. Because we have to add in not only Charles' and David's gains, but Brother Billy's windfall as well"

Brother Billy's Filth Factory

Koch Carbon pet-coke dust cloud, Detroit

The third, lesser-known Koch is Brother William, now principal of Oxbow Carbon. The name itself gives environmentalists the heebee-jeebies.

To keep the tar sands gunk flowing through the Keystone pipeline, the worst of the tar must be extracted and processed as "petcoke," stuff so filthy and toxic it is illegal to burn in the USA. So Billy Koch sells the compressed filth to China and Mexico.

And Billy's bro's have joined the "petcoke" game too. David and Charles' subsidiary, Koch Carbon, already pulls the gunk from the current Keystone pipe where in Detroit it's accumulating in piles bigger than the pyramids. Here's a photo of Koch's coke wafting over Detroit's city parks.

Which explains why the Koch's political front operation, Americans for Prosperity, named approval of the XL Pipeline the number one priority for the Trump presidency.

KochDon'tCare

When TrumpCare breathed its last, the President blamed Democrats for its untimely demise.

A stunned by-stander, Democratic Minority leader Nancy Pelosi, went for it: "We'll take credit for that."

Sorry, Nancy, you can't.

Because it was the Kochs' brownshirts, the self-styled "Freedom Caucus," that, in a bestial assault, crushed a sitting President and their own leader of Congress, Paul Ryan. The thugs' secret weapon: heavy bags of cash, Koch cash.

Koch front groups, including Americans for Prosperity (the XL promoter, promised unlimited funds to any far-right Congressman who would vote against the bill. The Kochs' Freedom Partners Executive Director told members of the uber-right Congressional Freedom Caucus, "We will stand with lawmakers who keep their promise and oppose this legislation" with a "seven-figure" war chest. In the old days, that was called "bribery." But today it's called, "Koch."

Blow-hard Trump threatened them, but Koch's money protected them.

The Kochs don't want ObamaCare, TrumpCare, nor any care at all for Americans that add to their tax bill. Call it KochDon'tCare.

Billionaires versus Billionaires

But keen observers of TrumpCare would note that it was not really a health care bill, but a tax bill–specifically, a tax cut of some $157 billion that has been charged to the richest Americans to fund ObamaCare through a 3.75% tax on passive investment income—that is, money earned, not by working, but by speculating.

Because behind the public creator of the bill, Speaker Paul Ryan, stood Ryan's number one funder, a billionaire known as The Vulture. The Vulture, aka Paul Singer, makes all his money by nasty methods excoriated even in the Wall Street Journal.

[image error] Paul 'The Vulture' Singer, from The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

(Image by Keith Tucker)

In Trump's weird psycho-babbling press conference last month, he said, "So I want to thank Paul Singer for being here and for coming up to the office." Reporters scratched their head, not knowing who this "Singer" is nor why Trump brought it up.

Now, you know what that was about.

Singer makes all his money from speculation income. The Ryan-Trump "healthcare" bill was first and foremost a tax cut for Singer, likely worth billions to The Vulture (and more to his cohort including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin).

But to the Kochs, this tax break is nearly worthless. So, behind the curtain, this was a fight of billionaires versus billionaires.

The Kochs, having built up their army of useful idiots—the Koch-funded Tea Party and Freedom Caucus, won this one. (Hey, no hard feelings. The Vulture still dines with the Kochs in Vail and donates to their super-PACs.)

Sure, let's breathe a sigh of relief that, with ObamaCare momentarily saved, we won't have more amputees begging in the subway, meth addicts croaking in New Hampshire and my bank account emptied for my next heart surgery.

It's not Trump's victory that portends fascism—it is the bending of Trump by the hands of the poisonously greedy Brothers Koch that brings the fascist corporatist state one day closer.

And that is nothing to celebrate.

* * * * *

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

GregPalast.com

 

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and the Secret Winner is… appeared first on Greg Palast.

Who gets XL Pipeline Bonanza? Koch

From Greg Palast’s film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits

Stay informed, rent or buy the film on Amazon or get the signed DVD, a signed copy of the book companion or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.

* * * * *

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Suppor the Stolen Election Investigation

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! 

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Watch The Best Democracy… Movie Right now!

Right now, this minute, you can watch The Best Democracy Money Can Buy on Amazon from $2.99, or if you prefer get a lifetime stream from Vimeo.

Or better yet, get a signed copy for a tax-deductible donation.

See the Film that Jesse Jackson is bringing to 200 churches before election day.

“Hilarious and heartbreaking. The most important movie — and the most entertaining. Standing ovation!”
- John Perkins, author, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Follow me as I bust the New Klux Klan – the billionaire bandits that are behind a scheme to purge one million voters of color on election day.

The Hysteria Factory is in full effect. Trump says a million "aliens" are swimming the Rio Grande to vote for Hillary. Fox News —even NPR— are peddling stories about dead voters, ghost voters, double voters and other berserk claims of fraudulent voting. But it’s just the cover to STEAL THIS ELECTION, to swipe the Senate.

Watch the Hysteria Factory Clip from the Movie 

With the help of Willie Nelson, Rosario Dawson, and detectives Ice-T and Richard Belzer, I track down the secret billionaires behind Donald Trump and the guys who are gaming our voter rolls and funding this voter fraud Hysteria Factory.

* * * * * *

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Donate to the Palast Investigative Fund and get the signed DVD.

Download the FREE Movie Comic Book.

Rent or buy the film from Amazon or Vimeo.

Check for Movie Screenings in your area.

Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive!

Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile.

AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund and you get a tax-deduction! More info.

GregPalast.com

The post Watch The Best Democracy… Movie
Right now! appeared first on Greg Palast.

March 15 Fundraiserto support Greg Palast’s new investigation of Trump’s Billionaires

Join Jackson Browne

to honor

Greg Palast

and his team’s new investigations of

Trump’s billionaires and the plan to fix the vote of 2018

With discussion of the attack on voting rights by

Joy Reid of MSNBC

and the need for investigative reporting 

 

WHEN: Wednesday, March 15 at  6:00pm PT

WHERE:  Santa Monica, CA

Wine and Buffet

Performance by Jackson Browne

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

"Lives in the Balance" | "Running on Empty"

We are facing a democratic emergency:

Our purpose is to expose and prevent the theft of the election of 2018—and the billionaires who have turned The White House into a profit center.

 $100 per person or $175 per couple

Very limited space. Get your TICKETS now.

All proceeds are tax-deductible

and benefit the Palast Investigative Fund

 (checks and credit cards accepted)

If you are unable to attend but wish to support our work,

and have your support acknowledged by Greg and Jackson,

you can donate here.

Trump has claimed that millions of Americans vote illegally.  The Palast team's investigation for Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera, and BBC TV proved that this claim was the excuse for "anti-fraud" measures that, in fact, blocked 1.1 million citizens of color from casting their votes in the swing states of Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Florida in the last election.

No, Trump did not win – and Palast has showed how, in cruel detail.

Palast says, "While our work has been lauded and applauded for exposing mass vote suppression, our goal now is to expand our research and investigations while also coordinating with the Civil Rights Law Center of Washington to insure that this information is in the hands of voting rights litigators, progressive legislators, church and front-line organizations to prevent the theft of the 2018 election.''



Our film on the suppression of the vote in 2016 The Best Democracy Money Can Buy has been viewed by more than one million Americans and has become the source of fighting facts from People For the American Way to Rainbow-PUSH Coalition to the Potomac Coalition.

"What Greg Palast has done is heroic, invaluable, and must be seen by every voting rights advocate in America."

- Voting rights attorney Barbara Arnwine

Help us win this next battle for democracy

* * * * * *

Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, now out as major motion non-fiction movie.

Rent or buy the film from Amazon Vimeo.

Support The Palast Investigative Fund and keep our work alive.

Or support us by shopping with Amazon Smile.

AmazonSmile will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of The Palast Investigative Fund and you get a tax-deduction!More info.

GregPalast.com

The post March 15 Fundraiser
to support Greg Palast’s new investigation
of Trump’s Billionaires appeared first on Greg Palast.