Censored 2014 (15 page)

Censored Story #23: Transaction Tax Helps Civilize Wall Street and Lower the National Debt

The prospect of a modest tax on the routine stock transactions that benefit the financial industry and super elites has been discussed in Congress over the past several years as a potential means of revenue. Such a tax at a proposed rate of 0.03 percent (three cents for every $100 of equity value traded) could generate $350 billion in revenue over a ten-year period for a severely indebted and overstretched federal government forced to curtail programs for the most disadvantaged.

Even though such a measure would likely receive broad support from a public well aware of wealth and income disparities between the 99 percent and their ultra-wealthy counterparts, it has received little coverage in corporate media for obvious reasons. This blackout suggests the ways that such media serve their corporate masters. By keeping such anticipated legislation buried, the public has no way of
knowing about it, much less advocating their congresspersons for its passage.

The traditional “buy and hold” investor who purchases securities for the long haul would barely notice the small tax. Instead, “high frequency traders” who buy and sell gargantuan volumes of equities and derivatives throughout the course of a day in order to benefit from often modest, split-second fluctuations in price would be the ones to feel the tax most keenly. In other words, the tax would fall most heavily on the likes of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citibank, and the various hedge funds taking in massive profits through their hefty buy-and-dump transactions and attendant market manipulation as government regulators awaiting passage from their positions through the revolving door to industry often look the other way.

JAMES F. TRACY, PHD
, is associate professor of media studies at Florida Atlantic University. His scholarly and critical writings have appeared in a wide variety of aca-demic journals, edited volumes, and alternative news and analysis outlets. Tracy is the editor of Union for Democratic Communications' journal
Democratic Communique.
He is also a regular contributor to the Center for Research on Globalization's website Glob-alResearch.ca, and a contributor to Project Censored's 2012 publication,
Censored 2013: Dispatches From the Media Revolution.

Notes

^1.
Matthew G. Miller and Peter Newcomb, “Billionaires Worth $1.9 Trillion Seek Advantage in 2013,” Bloomberg, January 2, 2013,
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-01/billionaires-worth-1-9-trillion-seek-advantage-in-2013.html
.

^2.
“Globally Almost 870 Million Chronically Undernourished,” United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, October 9, 2012,
http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/161819/icode/
.

^3.
Brandon Roberts, Deborah Povich and Mark Mather, “Low Income Working Families: The Growing Economic Gap,” Working Poor Families Project, Winter 2012–13,
http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Winter-2012_2013-WPFP-Data-Brief.pdf
.

^4.
Robert Kuttner,
The Squandering of America: How the Failure of Our Politics Undermines Our Prosperity
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), 21.

^5.
Ibid.

^6.
C. Wright Mills,
The Power Elite
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1956); William G. Dom-hoff,
Who Rules America?
(Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1967).

^7.
“Confidential Memorandum: Attack on American Free Enterprise System,” Lewis F. Powell Jr. to Eugene B. Sydnor Jr., August 23, 1971, 19–21. Available at
http://research.greenpeaceusa.org/?a=view&d=5971
, accessed May 27, 2013.

^8.
For more on this theme, see Peter Phillips and Brady Osborne's “Exposing the Financial Core of the Transnational Capitalist Class,” ch. 9 in this volume.

^9.
David Noble, “Prologue,” in
Global Productions: Labor in the Making of the “Information Society,”
ed. Gerald Sussman and John Lent (Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1998), ix-x.

^10.
David Rothkopf,
Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
(New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2009).

^11.
Peter Phillips and Kimberly Soeiro, “The Global i Percent Ruling Class Exposed,” in
Censored 2013: Dispatches From the Media Revolution,
Mickey Huff and Andy Lee Roth with Project Censored (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012), 235–258. Also see Phillips and Osborne, “Exposing the Financial Core,” ch. 9 in this volume.

^12.
Carl Herman, “1% Hide $21 Trillion and US Big Banks Hide $10 Trillion; Ending World poverty: $3 Trillion,”
Washington's Blog,
July 24, 2012,
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/07/i-hide-21-trillion-us-big-banks-hide-10-trillion-ending-world-poverty-3-trillion.html
.

^13.
Andrew Gavin Marshall, “The Trans-Pacific Partnership: This Is What Corporate Governance Looks Like,”
Truthout,
November 20, 2012,
http://truth-out.org/news/item/12857-the-trans-pacific-partnership-this-is-what-corporate-governance-looks-like
.

^14.
Ibid.

^15.
Ibid.

^16.
Kevin Zeese, “Obama's ‘Employment Creation' Program: Massive Outsourcing of American Jobs,” Global Research, September 10, 2012,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/obamas-employ-ment-creation-program-massive-outsourcing-of-american-jobs/5304005
.

^17.
Ibid.

^18.
George Monbiot, “Bang Goes the Theory,”
Monbiot.com
, January 1_4, 2013,
http://www.mon-biot.com/2013/01/14/bang-goes-the-theory/
.

^19.
Ibid.

^20.
Ellen Brown, “It's the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World,” Global Research, November 8, 2012, /www.globalresearch.ca/its-the-interest-stupid-why-bankers-rule-the-world/5311030. Originally posted at Web of Debt, November 8, 2012,
http://webofdebt.word-press.com/2012/11/08/its-the-interest-stupid-why-bankers-rule-the-world/
.

^21.
Margrit Kennedy,
Interest and Inflation Free Money: Creating an Exchange Medium that Works for Everybody and Protects the Earth
(Seva International, 1995), 10,
http://kennedy-bibliothek.info/data/bibo/media/GeldbuchEnglisch.pdf
.

^22.
On Iceland, see
Censored
stories #9 and #19 and the Censored News Cluster, “Iceland, the Power of Peaceful Revolution, and the Commons,” in this volume.

^23.
Ellen Brown, “North Dakota's ‘Economic Miracle,' It's Not Oil,”
YES! Magazine,
August 31, 2011,
http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/the-north-dakota-miracle-not-all-about-oil
.

^24.
“State-Owned Financial Institutions 2012 Legislation,” National Conference of State Legislatures, January 16, 2013,
http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/banking/state-owned-financial-institutions-2012-legis.aspx
.

^25.
The unemployment rate was roughly 25 percent in 1933—the most severe year of the Depression. This is an estimate as the US government did not collect such statistics until 1940. Irving Bernstein, “Americans in Depression and War,” US Department of Labor,
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/chapter5.htm
. Independent economist John Williams used the Bureau of Labor Statistics U6 alternate measure of unemployment that includes all able-bodied and employable workers, including “short-term discouraged,” “marginally attached,” and “part-time” workers, to arrive at a figure of 13.6 percent. Williams includes long-term discouraged workers to arrive at a much higher figure of 23 percent. John Williams, “April Employment and Unemployment, M3 and Monetary Base,”
Shadow Government Statistics,
May 3, 2013,
http://www.shadowstats.com/article/no-521-april-employment-and-unemployment-m3-and-monetary-base
. See also John Williams, “Alternate Employment Charts,” May 3, 2013,
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
.

^26.
Mike Ludwig, “Millions Go Hungry as Congress Considers Food Stamp Cuts and Drought Threatens Crops,”
Truthout,
August 23, 2012,
http://truth-out.org/news/item/11067-millions-go-hungry-as-congress-considers-food-stamp-cuts-and-drought-threatens-crops
.

Susan Rahman and Donna Nassor

Censored #5

Hate Groups and Antigovernment Groups on Rise across US

Brian Levin, “U.S. Hate and Extremist Groups Hit Record Levels, New Record Says,”
Huffington Post,
March 8, 2012,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/hate-groupssplc_b_1331318.html
.

Mark Potok,
Intelligence Report: The Year in Hate and Extremism,
Southern Poverty Law Center, Spring 2013,
http://www.splcenter.org/home/2013/spring/the-year-in-hate-and-extremism
.

LaurieInQueens, “‘Patriot' Groups At All-Time High, Hate Groups Up Again: Report,”
National Memo,
March 7, 2013,
http://www.nationalmemo.com/patriot-groups-at-all-time-high-hate-groups-up-again-report/
.

Student Researchers:
Sunnie Ayers (Sonoma State University); Jackson Hand and Amanda Baron (College of Marin)

Community and Faculty Evaluators:
Ben Parry (Sonoma State University); Andy Lee Roth (College of Marin)

Censored #10

A “Culture of Cruelty” along Mexico–US Border

Erika L. Sánchez, “Ripped Off by Smugglers, Groped by Border Patrol: The Nightmares Women Migrants Face,”
AlterNet,
June 26, 2012,
http://www.alternet.org/immigration/156035/ripped_off_by_smugglers,_groped_by_border_patrol%3A_the_nightmares_women_mi-grants_face?page=entire
.

No More Deaths, “A Culture of Cruelty,” September 21, 2011,
http://www.nomoredeaths.org/cultureofcruelty.html
.

Student Researcher:
Marylyn Phelps (Santa Rosa Junior College)

Faculty Evaluator:
Susan Rahman (Santa Rosa Junior College)

Censored #20

Israel Counted Minimum Calorie Needs in Gaza Blockade, Documents Reveal

John Glaser, “Israel Counted Minimum Calorie Needs in Gaza Blockade, Documents Reveal,”
Antiwar.com
, October 17, 2012,
http://news.antiwar.com/2012/10/17/israel-counted-minimum-calorie-needs-in-gaza-blockade-documents-reveal
.

“Israel Forced to Release Study on Gaza Blockade,” BBC News, October 17, 2012,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19975211
.

“Israel Set Calorie Limit during Gaza Blockade,” Al Jazeera English, October 18, 2012,
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/10/20121017115529845399.html
.

“Israel Calculated Palestinian Calories for Gaza Blockade,”
Ma'an News Agency,
October 17, 2012,
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=529743
.

Student Researchers:
Mohamed Duple (College of Marin); Liliana Valdez-Madera (Santa Rosa Junior College)

Faculty Evaluator:
Susan Rahman (College of Marin)

Censored #25

Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Immigrants without Their Consent

Alistair Dawber, “Israel Gave Birth Control to Ethiopian Jews without Their Consent,”
Independent,
January 27, 2013,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-gave-birth-control-to-ethiopian-jews-without-their-consent-8468800.html
.

Ali Abunimah, “Did Israel Violate the Genocide Convention by Forcing Contraceptives on Ethiopian Women?”
Electronic Intifada,
January 28, 2013,
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/did-israel-violate-genocide-convention-forcing-contraceptives-ethiopian-women
.

Beth Brogan, “Israel Admits Forced Birth Control For Ethiopian Immigrants,” Common Dreams, January 29, 2013,
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/29-0
.

Student Researchers:
Shanti Williams (College of Marin); Elizabeth Saechao (Sonoma State University)

Faculty Evaluator:
Andy Lee Roth (College of Marin); Noel Byrne (Sonoma State University)

INTRODUCTION

We have come so far since the 1965 Civil Rights Act, people frequently assert from across the political spectrum in the United States. But is it true? That is debatable. Although people can now sit together at lunch counters and on buses, research also documents huge increases in black and brown people incarcerated for offenses—including various types of drug possession—that have only recently been considered crimes for which the offender must serve time.
¹
The US incarcerates people at a rate that is higher than ever—with lifelong repercussions for those subject to imprisonment, not least of which is the denial of their civil liberties.
²

Each of the independent news stories in this Censored News Cluster deals with hatred, racism, bigotry, and hegemony. These stories show how the maintenance of power, in the US and in Israel, partly depends on the ability and willingness of the powerful to restrict or violate the human rights and civil liberties of those they deem “Other.”

Censored #5: Hate Groups and Antigovernment Groups on Rise across US

Corporate media pump doubts over public safety and fear of terrorists into the minds of American public. The basic message is that we have much to fear but our government is ever vigilant to protect us from the bad guys.

Censored
story #5 covers the rise of hate groups in the US, suggesting that we do have something to fear, but that this rise may be an unintended consequence of US policies. Laws intended to keep Americans safe may actually be alienating the very people who join “patriot” and militia groups. In March 2013, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which monitors hate groups and antigovernment groups, released a report showing i,360 radical, antigovernment patriot groups and 321 militias actively operating within the US. SPLC statistics indicate an 813 percent rise in the number of such groups since 2008.
³
Hate groups are most prevalent in California, with eighty-two documented groups; Texas stands second among states with sixty-two.
⁴

By the SPLC's standards, hate groups “have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics,” and their activities can include “criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafleting or publishing.”
⁵

With the numbers of patriot groups now higher than during the peak of the 1990S militia movement, the threat of non-Islamic domestic terrorism is real and growing, according to the SPLC. As the SPLC released its report, the Center's president, J. Richard Cohen, sent a letter to the US attorney general and the homeland security secretary urging the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security “to establish an interagency task force to assess the adequacy of the resources devoted to responding to the growing threat of non-Islamic domestic terrorism.”
⁶

According to the SPLC report, hate groups are now transitioning from racist hatred to hatred focused on the government and its repre-sentatives.
⁷
As Brian Levin reported,

As Cohen and the SPLC argued, “serious questions have been raised about the level of resources that are now being devoted to assessing the threat of non-Islamic terrorism.”
⁹

Corporate media paid scattered attention to the SPLC report. Both the
New York Times
and MSNBC covered the report on the day the SPLC issued it. Otherwise, establishment media have done little to shed light on this subject. In some cases, corporate media actually contribute to the problem. As the Southern Poverty Law Center noted, the growth in extremism

Individuals that identify with patriot groups often seek to preserve a strong white nationalism, which they perceive as threatened by cultural shifts in today's society. These shifts include the election of Barack Obama as America's first black president, changes in the nation's demographics (with the loss of its white majority predicted by 2043), and, in his second term, President Obama's agenda for gun control and immigration reform.
¹¹
Of course, change is nothing new in the US. From the abolition of slavery through the civil rights movement to the present, greater inclusivity appears as a threat to those who would maintain the status quo. Perhaps corporate media pay less attention to (white) militia groups because, in a way, these organizations do the ruling class's dirty work.

Censored #10: A “Culture of Cruelty” along Mexico–US Border

US treatment of immigrants crossing the Mexico–US border shows that we do not see all people as equal. US policies have left many citizens of Central American countries without adequate work.
¹²
As
Censored
story #10 documents, when immigrants travel to the US in hopes of economic opportunity, they encounter what the organization No More Deaths has dubbed a “culture of cruelty.”

Drawing on the work of No More Deaths, Erika L. Sánchez reported how migrants crossing the Mexico–US border face not only the dangers posed by an unforgiving desert but also abuse at the hands of the US Border Patrol. Crossing the desert, migrants risk dehydration, starvation, exhaustion, and the possibility of being threatened and robbed; the dangers continue if they come in contact with the Border Patrol, Sánchez reported.
¹³
In “A Culture of Cruelty,” the organization No More Deaths revealed human rights violations by the US Border Patrol including limiting or denying migrants water and food, verbal and physical abuse, and failing to provide necessary medical attention; female migrants face additional risks, including sexual abuse, according to No More Deaths.
¹⁴
Sánchez reported, “Dehumanization of immigrants is actually part of the Border Patrol's institutional culture. Instances of misconduct are not aberrations, but common practice.”
¹⁵
The Border Patrol denies any wrongdoing and has not been held responsible for these abuses. No More Deaths reported 179 human remains found in the desert in 2012 alone.
¹⁶

Public debate on immigration tends to ignore not only the potential dangers of crossing the desert, but also the reasons for the migration of undocumented immigrants to the US. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), signed by US President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Carlos Salinas in 1994, displaced many Mexican farmers and workers from their farms. Lack of employment resulting from NAFTA continues to motivate many to migrate to the US. Sánchez reported:

Fear of immigrants from Mexico and Central America has led the US government to undertake extreme measures in order to keep immigrants out of the US. The enormous wall that separates the US and Mexico is just one example of this. Both the wall's construction and the second-class status of the Mexican people parallel the situation between Palestinians and Israelis living in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, and throughout Israel. The walls that snake throughout these regions are made by the same manufacturers who helped construct the physical barriers along the US-Mexican border—with the same intent: to keep undesirable people out.
¹⁸

Censored #20: Israel Counted Minimum Calorie Needs in Gaza Blockade, Documents Reveal

US corporate media regularly distort, and even censor, news reports about Israel–Palestine.
¹⁹
US corporate media systemically avoid stories on the Israel–Palestine conflict that portray Israel in critical terms, and when they do report on the conflict, that coverage employs double standards that favor Israel.
²⁰
The “monumental cover-up” of news on Palestine, described by Alison Weir in 2004,
²
continues in 2013.

The Israeli human rights group Gisha fought a legal battle that led to the release, in October 2012, of government documents that exposed Israeli policy to permit Gazans just 2,279 calories of food each day.
²²
The 2008 defense ministry study, titled “Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip—Red Lines,” sought to determine the “minimal subsistence basket” that was “sufficient for subsistence without the development of malnutrition.”
²³
The evidence indicates that Israel
decided hunger would be an effective means to coerce residents of Gaza to force out the Hamas government.

Since June 2007, Israel has imposed tightened restrictions as a form of collective punishment for Palestinians who democratically elected Hamas to lead the government in Gaza. From 2007 until 2010, Israel only allowed food into Gaza that it determined as vital for the survival of the civilian population. Furthermore, with limited exceptions, Israel has banned the export of virtually all goods from Gaza, creating additional hardships for Gazans attempting to earn a living and support their families.
²⁴
In January 2011, WikiLeaks released a US diplomatic cable from 2008 in which Israel informed US officials of its intent to keep Gaza's economy “on the brink of collapse” while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, which would require an international response.
²⁵
Despite its restrictions, Israel continues to allege that it does not control Gaza.