Jake Johnson at Common Dreams writes—Less Than Year After GOP Tax Scam, Six Biggest Banks Already Raked in $9 Billion in Extra Profits:
It has been nearly a full year since the Republican Party rammed through its transparent scam of a tax bill in the face of massive grassroots resistance, and the results have been almost precisely what nearly every analyst predicted: Record profits for the rich and massive corporations, little to nothing for American workers.
Among the greatest beneficiaries of the GOP's bill have been America's six largest banks, which this week reported soaring third quarter profits and—according to the Not One Penny coalition—have already raked in over $9 billion in extra profits as a direct result of President Donald Trump's $1.5 trillion tax law.
"These latest filings show that big banks have stopped at nothing to make more money—and that the GOP's tax law gave them license to put profits over people," Not One Penny spokesperson Ryan Thomas said in a statement on Thursday, highlighting the enthusiastic earnings reports of Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo.
"These six banks have constantly chosen to use these tax breaks to enrich their shareholders and executives while laying off employees and exploiting consumers," Thomas noted, pointing to the explosion of stock buybacks since the GOP tax bill became law. "These shameful actions—and the Republican tax law that permitted them—indicate just how rigged the system is against working people and the middle class." [...]
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QUOTATION
“For fascism is a lie told by bullies. A writer who will not lie cannot live or work under fascism. Because fascism is a lie, it is condemned to literary sterility. And when it is past, it will have no history, except the bloody history of murder.”
~~Ernest Hemingway, 1937
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BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2004—Bush nixes Muslim peacekeepers in Iraq:
Lovely.
President George W. Bush rebuffed a plan last month for a Muslim peacekeeping force that would have helped the United Nations organize elections in Iraq, according to Saudi and Iraqi officials.
As a result, the UN continues to have a skeletal presence in Iraq, with only four staff members working full time on preparing for elections set for the end of January. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has refused to establish a new UN headquarters in Baghdad unless countries commit troops for a special force to protect it.
Saudi leaders, including Crown Prince Abdullah, personally lobbied Bush in July to sign off on the plan to establish a contingent of several hundred troops from Arab and Muslim nations. Abdullah discussed the plan in a 10-minute phone conversation with Bush on July 28 after meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, according to Saudi officials familiar with the negotiations.
Diplomats said Annan accepted the plan. But the Bush administration objected because the special force would have been controlled by the UN instead of by U.S. military officers who run the Multi-National Force in Iraq. Muslim and Arab countries refused to work under U.S. command, and the initiative died in early September.
Yet another reason we need to get rid of Bush.
On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: The Khashoggi story isn’t going away just yet. Greg Dworkin explains the mechanics of Gop's planned switcheroo on preexisting conditions. Does opening up to "the other side" work? Doubt about Chinese hardware hacks. ALEC for judicial clerks.
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