be just

Rudolph: US Inequality Quiz | Informed Comment 12. How much in corporate income taxes did General Electric pay to the United States on its 2010 billions in profit? -In 2010, “General Electric…reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, and said $5.1 billion of the total came from its operations in the United States. Its American tax bill? None. In fact, G.E. claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion.” “Although the top corporate tax rate in the United States is 35 percent, one of the highest in the world, companies have been increasingly using a maze of shelters, tax credits and subsidies to pay far less….Such strategies, as well as changes in tax laws that encouraged some businesses and professionals to file as individuals, have pushed down the corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts—from 30 percent of all federal revenue in the mid-1950s to 6.6 percent in 2009….G.E. spends heavily on lobbying: more than $200 million over the last decade…While G.E.’s declining tax rates have bolster...

Confrontation Begins Before Gaza Flotilla Sets Sail by Apostolis Fotiadis -- Antiwar.com ATHENS — Activists are engaged in a harsh confrontation with Israeli authorities days before the international “Freedom Flotilla II — Stay Human” sets sail toward the Gaza strip in an attempt to break the naval blockade Israel has imposed since 2007. The flotilla will include 10 ships that have already reached Athens. Two are cargo boats carrying medical aid and construction material. The rest are passenger ships carrying hundreds of people, among them politicians, writers, religious leaders, people from the fields of art and culture, as well as 10 members of the European Parliament and 10 MPs from France, Norway, Sweden, and Spain.