In a Tax Day opinion piece at USAToday.com, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., writes that the ongoing exploitation of tax loopholes by large, profitable corporations has “helped shift the tax burden onto American families and small businesses, and … added billions of dollars to the budget deficit.”

As chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Levin has spent more than a decade exposing corporate tax loopholes such as the use of offshore tax havens to avoid taxes. He authored legislation, the CUT Loopholes Act, to combat some of the worst tax loopholes.

Today millions of Americans take part in an annual ritual of filing their income taxes. The willingness of millions of families to plod through this ritual rests in part on the understanding that their burden is shared. Today, though, some of us are bearing a higher burden than ever, while others, particularly our most profitable corporations, sometimes pay no tax at all.

From 2008 to 2010, 30 of the most profitable large corporations paid no federal income tax. None. While the top federal income tax rate for corporations is a relatively high 35%, the effective tax rate for U.S. corporations -- the tax they actually pay -- is less than 15%. I suspect most of the families scrambling today to get their taxes done would love to get that kind of tax cut, let alone the pay nothing, as many large companies do.

This gap between the tax rate on paper and what corporations actually pay has helped drive a huge shift in the tax burden from corporations to American families. In 2011, individuals paid about $6 in income taxes for every dollar that corporations paid. In 1980, the ratio was less than 4-to-1.

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This is your Moment of Clarity #222: The Obama Administration's unmanned drones have been bombing targets on their "kill list" for several years now. A new report from McClatchy on some leaked documents show that the military is not only killing high level al Qaida.

And here's Glen Greenwald's article on the use of the word "militant" to mean... anybody.

I started a Kickstarter to keep the Moment of Clarity Show going, this short video describes the project:

Please spread the word, and help me continue to have a show that corporate America will hate.

Keep fighting,

Lee

America is in the grip of a societal economic panic. Lawmakers cry “We’re broke!” as they slash budgets, lay off schoolteachers, police and firefighters, crumbling our country’s social fabric and leaving many Americans scrambling to survive. Meanwhile, multi-billion-dollar American corporations like Exxon, Google and Bank of America are making record profits. And while the deficit climbs and the cuts go deeper, these corporations -- with intimate ties to our political leaders -- are concealing colossal profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. income tax.

"We're Not Broke" is the story of how American corporations have been able to hide over a trillion dollars from Uncle Sam, and how seven fed-up Americans from across the country, take their frustration to the streets and vow to make the corporations pay their fair share.

More here.

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This is your Moment of Clarity #221: Large corporations and factory farming are responsible for more animal cruelty than just about anything else. Just wait until they get their hands on free range chickens and their eggs...

Learn more about this at The Humane Society.

Keep fighting,

-Lee

Watch this animated video that shows the difference between factory farming and a farm where "a pig can be a pig," and inspires people of ages to think about where their food comes from.

"A Pig's Tail"

The push to legislate "morality" goes on, and on. But should it? Republican legislators have hammered away at trying to take down Roe v. Wade at the state level. Why is the "morality brigade" so concerned with fetuses, but so quick to cut benefits to children from low income families? Can that behavior really be considered "morality?"

On that matter, is there any argument against same-sex marriage that isn't "morality" based?

Why are corporations given rights that trump those of ordinary people? What about the sweeping Wall Street greed that is decimating our country's economy? Could it be...that this about who has the money and who's working for them? Why isn't the morality brigade fighting that battle? Robert Reich explains the troubling situation.

Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade from Garrett Graham on Vimeo.

"Blockadia Rising: Voices of the Tar Sands Blockade" is an hour-long documentary film written and directed by Garrett Graham in collaboration with the Tar Sands Blockade and features exclusive video footage shot by the blockaders themselves during the course of over six months of sustained resistance.

In 2012, Texas landowners and environmental activists came together to organize resistance against a dangerous pipeline being built by a Canadian corporation to bring tar sands oil from Alberta Canada to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. This hazardous project continues despite unprecedented opposition from indigenous communities, local farmers and even global environmental movements. From this struggle, a community of resistance was born that has attracted volunteers from around the continent who have successfully defied this multi-million dollar corporation with the power of non-violent direct action.

The film is meant to be both a celebration of the blockades' achievements and a primer for those interested in joining the campaign. It explains the dangers of tar sands extraction and the risks to public health posed by the pipeline as well as the strategy of non-violent direct action that has been delaying the pipeline so far.

The story takes place in the backwoods of East Texas where the pipeline crosses farmlands and homesteads as well as aquifers and old growth forests. You will hear the voices of the blockaders who are risking their lives to stop this pipeline. In the Texas heat, they have locked themselves to heavy machinery, and braved the elements by living in trees. Hear these courageous folks in their own words.

Blockadia Rising is just the opening chapter in this ongoing movement to stop this pipeline and halt the extraction of the Canadian tar sands, but the blockaders see themselves as a part of a larger struggle against the consequences of run-away climate-change caused by unchecked extraction of natural resources by industry at the expense of both human and non-human communities. This film speaks to all movements for environmental and social justice and showcases direct action techniques that have never been attempted before.

Blockadia Rising: Voices from the tar Sands Blockade (2013) was written, edited and narrated by Garrett Graham, an active participant of the Tar Sands Blockade who continues to support their efforts. This film is dedicated to them, and everyone fighting for environmental and social justice.

The Campaign: tarsandsblockade.org
The Filmmaker: garrettgrahamonline.wordpress.com

[Via Garrett Graham]

China's Army might be training the country's next crop of cyberhackers. An investigation by Mandiant, a U.S.-based computer security firm, found that many of the attacks on American corporations and government agencies are coming from a clandestine People’s Liberation Army base on the outskirts of Shanghai. The report found that many members of China's most sophisticated hacking groups are working from around that area, and it's likely that they are run by army officers or contract workers.

NYT:

The building off Datong Road, surrounded by restaurants, massage parlors and a wine importer, is the headquarters of P.L.A. Unit 61398. A growing body of digital forensic evidence — confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of the army unit for years — leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around the white tower.

An unusually detailed 60-page study, to be released Tuesday by Mandiant, an American computer security firm, tracks for the first time individual members of the most sophisticated of the Chinese hacking groups — known to many of its victims in the United States as “Comment Crew” or “Shanghai Group” — to the doorstep of the military unit’s headquarters. The firm was not able to place the hackers inside the 12-story building, but makes a case there is no other plausible explanation for why so many attacks come out of one comparatively small area.

“Either they are coming from inside Unit 61398,” said Kevin Mandia, the founder and chief executive of Mandiant, in an interview last week, “or the people who run the most-controlled, most-monitored Internet networks in the world are clueless about thousands of people generating attacks from this one neighborhood.”

Other security firms that have tracked “Comment Crew” say they also believe the group is state-sponsored, and a recent classified National Intelligence, issued as a consensus document for all 16 of the United States intelligence agencies, makes a strong case that many of these hacking groups are either run by army officers or are contractors working for commands like Unit 61398, according to officials with knowledge of its classified content.

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The American Lung Association released this Red Carriage television advertisement to highlight the efforts of big corporate polluters who are working to block clean air protections. Children, seniors and millions of others with chronic lung disease need to be protected from air pollution.

The ad highlights what's at stake if Washington weakens clean air protections, and drives home the implications of the choice we face as a nation -- a dirty coal fired future, or one powered by clean, renewable energy.

The Clean Air Act reduces our exposure to the harmful effects listed above by regulating emissions of ozone, particle pollution, and other pollutants. Nationally in 2010, the Clean Air Act prevented:

160,000 premature deaths;

1.7 million instances of asthma attacks;

41,000 respiratory hospital admissions; and

45,000 cardiovascular hospital admissions.

For additional information, check out the following:

Healthy Air Resources

American Lung Association

Just a sample of the State Government Leadership Foundation's work.

By Justin Elliott, ProPublica

Some of the nation's biggest corporations donated more than a million dollars to launch a Republican nonprofit that went on to play a key role in recent political fights.

Like the nonprofit groups that poured money into last year's elections, the decade-old State Government Leadership Foundation has been able to keep the identities of its funders secret. Until now.

A records request by ProPublica to the IRS turned up a list of the original funders of the group: Exxon, Pfizer, Time Warner, and other corporations put up at least 85 percent of the $1.3 million the foundation raised in the first year and a half of its existence, starting in 2003.

The donor list is stamped "not for public disclosure," and was submitted to the IRS as part of the foundation's application for recognition of tax-exempt status. If approved, such applications are public records.

The foundation and other similar nonprofits are allowed to take anonymous and unlimited donations from individuals or corporations. That's because they are classified as "social welfare" nonprofits, which are supposed to benefit the community at large, and not just one group or political party.

Last year, we reported how the State Government Leadership Foundation paid for Republican redistricting consultants to draw new congressional district maps in North Carolina. The resulting gerrymander helped flip the state's congressional delegation to Republicans.

In recent years, the foundation has also funded TV ads targeting Democrats during the 2011 Wisconsin showdown over collective bargaining rights; attacking President Obama in Virginia over his energy policy; and accusing teachers unions of "destroying our children's future."

The foundation also gave $1.25 million in 2011 to the Indiana Opportunity Fund, a state-level nonprofit that ran anti-union ads featuring Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. (That group was founded by attorney Jim Bopp, who has long fought against campaign finance regulation.)

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There's a new front line in the battle to prevent catastrophic climate change.

Arrested Development star Alia Shawkat (aka Maeby) explains the truth about the coal industry's plans to export American coal.

Multi-billion dollar coal companies like Arch, Ambre, and Peabody want to ship the coal buried under the United States to Asia, releasing disastrous amounts of carbon pollution, just to line their own pockets. This expansion in US coal exports could release more carbon pollution than any other new fossil fuel project in the United States.

Coal exports out of the Pacific Northwest could pose a bigger climate threat than the Keystone XL pipeline. Coal companies are scheming to export over 150 million tons of coal through the region. If we're serious about halting the worst impacts of climate change, we must do something to stop Arch, Ambre, and Peabody's plans, and keep this coal in the ground.

The good news is that there is a growing movement to stop coal exports. In the past few months alone, over 10,000 people have turned out to public hearings in the Pacific Northwest to say no to new coal export terminals.

Globally, renewable energy can power our homes, cars, and businesses, and make these massive extraction projects irrelevant. That's why Greenpeace is calling on elected officials to put people over profits and put the brakes on coal export expansion. The Obama Administration can declare a moratorium on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin.

Visit Quit Coal for more information. Because we deserve safe, clean energy.