I am in the process of compiling a list of Governments that Lie.; Knowingly. I have provided the initial two entries. If you are aware of any other examples please forward me your contributions in the format below:
George W Bush and the Republican Administration of 2000- 2008
Lie: Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction
False Pretense: as contained in Colin Powell presentation to UN Security Council
Ulterior Purpose: Multiple in Nature: False provocation. National Security. Energy Security. Avenge Saddam because Saddam wanted to kill George W. Bush’s father (you’ll have to talk to George W. about this one, because it’s news to me)
Cheerleaders: Cheney, Wolfowitz
Main Spearchucker: You go to war with what you got, smaller is better Don Rumsfeld
Major Beneficiaries: Haliburton, Carlyle Group and the rest of Eisenhower’s military industrial complex crowd.
Organ Grinders: New York Times, Washington Post, main stream media at large
Poodles: Tony Blair, Stephen Harper
Not so easily fooled. Chirac, Cretien, UN
Conspicuous by its absence: UN resolution, provocation, any link to 9/11
Fallback Pretense: Democratize the region
Make it sound good award: The Patriot Act
Mission Accomplished: Major loss of human life, untold suffering, sectarian violence, instability in the region. lessened National Security, lessened Energy
Security. Saddam dead, Herbert Walker is now safe
Political Impact: Lowest polling President in modern history, Major reputational damage to how US is perceived in the world
Stephen Harper and Canada’s New Government of 2006 – present
Lie: Income trusts cause tax leakage and are “a clear and present danger” (Jim Flaherty)
False Pretense: as contained in 18 pages of blacked out documents
Ulterior Purpose: Multiple in Nature: Appease Corporate Canada as generally defined by membership of CCCE. Facilitate BCE’s private takeout. Pander to Wall Street, Henry Paulson. Goldman Sachs and US private equity. Deliberate carve out for gov’t pension plans.
Cheerleaders: Mark Carney of Finance Department, formerly of Goldman Sachs, Gwynn Morgan. Tom D’Aquino on behalf of Corporate Canada ( with echo chamber support from C.D. Howe Institute)
Main Spearchucker: “It’s not my fault”, “I am the Finance Minister of the entire country now”, Boutique Jim Flaherty
Major Beneficiaries: Manulife, Power Corporation, Suncor, BCE (management and board only) and the rest of Tom D’Aquino’s Corporate Canada Country Club.
Organ Grinders: CTV Bell GlobeMedia, CanWest Global Media and whatever else isn’t already owned by those two that constitutes the main stream media in Canada
Poodles: Judy Wasylycia-Leis, David Dodge, Eric Reguly
Not so easily fooled: Diane Francis, Seymour Schulich, and basically anyone with brains and balls.
Conspicuous by its absence: CBC, Senate, any link to tax leakage
Fallback Pretense: Ponzi scheme, nation of coupon clippers etc., etc., ad naseum
Make it sound good award: The Tax Fairness Plan
Mission Accomplished: Tax leakage of over $1 billion per year ($793 million a year from BCE alone), estimated to increase to $7.5 billion a year over the next 24-36 months
Political Impact: Canada’s New Government (TM) is “stagnating” in the polls. Harper’s much sought after majority government is illusive, like his policy justifications. Major reputational damage to how Corporate Canada is perceived by investors.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Governments that Lie; Knowingly.
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9 comments:
This Income Trust issue that was supposed to be dead months ago (with the passage of the budget) sure seems to be taking on a life of it's own.
I'm one of the many investors going to the Garth Turner town halls to see how many others in my riding have been burned by this idiotic CON government. I expect to see many faces there. The one face I don't expect is my coward MP who seems to be quite content to sit on his ass and nod his head whenever Harper tells him to.
I think the Conservatives are vastly underestimating the anger out there and it is my hope that this anger leads to some concrete ass-kicking come election day.
End of rant...
Thank goodness for the internet and the ability to easily research the lies this government is trying to sell without being forced to look the the rose-colored Globe and Mail glasses.
How about "people in government that lie ; knowingly"??
The one that just happens to come to mind is a fond memory for me : "It is not my fault" BY our "Feerless" or should I say "Feckless" Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.
Unthinking & irresponsible about sums up this guy --he has led us to the abyss & now expects us to jump readily to our demise.
All I can say is Jimmy "get a life" --really , who is to blame for this whole mess --maybe it`s those greedy old fart trust investors you have been demeaning as coupon clippers.
Actually Forbes says in reference to coupon clippers: "Some rich are clearly different: They don't work for their money; their money works for them. Rather than toil away in an office, they live well off the dividends and other rewards from their well-placed investments."
Isn`t this the ideal definition of retirement??
So Jimmy , most things in life can be tolerated from time to time--lying to the public at the expense of the many to benefit the few is not one of them--& to do it knowingly is criminal when you are in such a position of power where people`s life standards are at risk.
Dr Mike.
Hey anonymous,
Thank god for Garth!!!!!
My Mp is hidden away in some unknown location & refuses to acknowledge my existence--it appears we have become expendable this time around.
Last election he wanted my support both financially & as a worker on his campaign.
At the time , I asked him if the promise not to attack income trusts was negotiable--his response was definitely not & you can take that to the bank.
It appears that i have lost my bank(roll) & my MP both.
Where have they all gone??
Maybe they have become writers for the Star & The Globe & Mail.
Lucky for me I cancelled my subscriptions yesterday.
Dr Mike
Ah, the Globe and Mail. Their latest editorial page containst this admonition:
"Don't reopen income trust debate
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's decision to slap taxes on income trusts was a huge blow to investors. Regardless, that was the correct response to an escalating problem."
Then further down, they chide Ontario Liberal leader McGuinty for thinking he can pull the wool over voters eyes.
It's the Globe and Mail that is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. Too bad we're not buying it.
Recidivism at the Globe and Mail:
Proud to be Canadian and Anonymous, your two comments above that touched on the Globe and Mail were most inspiring and got me to thinking.
It seems the only people in this world who have a harder time admitting a mistake than politicians, all work for the corporate organ grinder known as the Globe and Mail. They may not realize it but these recidivists are forcing people onto the internet in droves. That’s probably better for all concerned. And no, its not to www.theglobeandmail.com. But rather to sites like this.
Thank goodness for the internet. It will save us from the second coming of the dark ages known as "manufacturing consent" which is the power broker's strategic response to the effectiveness of the Vietnam war demonstrations of the sixties and the investigative clout that uncovered the Watergate fiasco. Do you suppose the powers-that-be wanted a repeat of those circumstances when they assumed positions of power? The response was "manufactured consent" which takes on very innocuous but insidious forms like "support the troops bumper" stickers (which morphs handily into perceived support of the war itself by preying upon people's legitimate desire to actually be supportive of the troops themselves) meanwhile there is nothing remotely resembling a Woodward or Bernstein at the Globe and Mail. They would never get past the HR department.
Brent Fullard
The "Tax Leakage" lie is so big , let`s take one more look.
This comes to us thanks to the Federal & Provincial governments.
It would appear that there are massive amounts of dollars flowing away from all levels of government thanks to you & I , since we are the owners of the offending trusts.
The Federal government claims at least 500 million dollars lost per annum--Alberta`s finance minister , Lyle Oberg , claims to be lossing 450 million per year , Ontario a similar amount--all other provinces & territories claim losses in a lower range.
As it stands, we have all provinces , the Territories , & the federal government claiming at least 1-2 billion per annum in lost monies.
Something sure does not add-up here!!!!
The average corporate tax rate according to Revenue canada is approx. 6.2% due to accounting practices & deductions. As a corporation becomes a trust , virtually all of it`s profits must flow thru to it`s owners , us the trust investors--we pay an average rate of well over 30% on our earnings--the corporation payed much less tax than we the trust owners do now--would this not lead one to believe that someone has to have more money in taxes than they did when they were dealing with corporations alone.
I can see the money leave our wallets in greater amounts than corporations pay--this money goes to the Federal government to be distributed to the provinces & territories--all of a sudden , the amount that leaves our end which was more than the corporate tax amount , became less than what the corporations pay.
It appears that every $1.00 collected in tax from us as trust owners has become about 62 cents once it moves to various levels of goverment.
So where did the rest go--who has our money.
Maybe the experts on the editorial staff at the Toronto Star or The Globe & Mail can shed some light on this matter --they seem to have all the answers.
Dr Mike.
PS--before anyone says anything , I do realize that a large number of dollars ends up within RRSPs & tax is not paid immediately--in case Jim Flaherty is looking in , this is known as deferred taxes & will be paid eventually--kind of like the pension payments to retirees from Pension funds ( where trusts are held tax free)--if one is a deferred tax , so is the other--& this is no lie!!!!!!!!
Dr. Mike you raise a very interesting point: where is the money?
There is something that no one seems to mention, when talking about deferred taxes from RRSPs. It's as if RRSPs were just invented today, and the government is in for a long wait to collect these deferred taxes.
But RRSPs have been around since 1957, so there must be plenty of deferred tax dollars flowing in by now.
It's kind of like those old-fashioned hand water pumps. When you first begin to pump, no water comes out. But after a bit, the water begins to flow, and keeps on flowing.
As for the Big Lie - tax leakage - we would all do well to learn more about Harper's mentor Tom Flannigan, and the man who spawned the neo-con philosophy, Leo Strauss.
In a nutshell, Strauss believed that ordinary people are too stupid to be trusted with important political decisions. The elite should make those decisions for them because they are the only ones smart enough.
The so-called "noble lie" is a form of deception of the people to "save them from themselves". The elite must hide the truth from the rest of us by speaking in a form of code.
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2005/11/29/HarperBush/
Sadly it is but one little step from the "noble" lie to the self-serving lie, and it appears that Harper, Flaherty, and all their corporate buddies (D'Alessandro, Desmarais, D'Aquino et al) have taken this step.
They fully intend to persist in the lie of tax leakage no matter how much logic is brought to bear by groups like CAITI. Their best strategy is to keep the facts out of the hands of the general public, which is why the mainstream media has been at such pains to bury the income trust story, and why the Globe and Mail continues to carp about the fact that it still hasn't gone away.
These people are carpetbaggers, and shills for US private equity and Canadian public service pension plans. They are employing Alice in Wonderland fantasies to fool people and disguise their true motives.
In a REAL democracy, they would all be under indictment.
Something weird is going on around here, and I ain’t too reasonably clear what it is. On billboards, and in full-page ads and blogs, Canada’s best, brightest and most powerful are being called “Liars.” That’s slander. Unless, of course, the accusations are true. Are they?
I imagine they are. What does a politician really have to sell? He sells himself, and we buy into the belief that he will do what he says, and not do what he says he won’t do. It’s really strange, right?, for a politician who has said “I will not do X” to do X. No?
"Where is the money????"--cont`d
I have been thinking about this since i posted yesterday concerning the lost tax revenue.
There are 2 aspects which we need to look at further:
First : The last conversation that I had with my Conservative MP 3 months ago concerned tax leakage--provincial not federal--he did contend that the feds were not concerned so much about any federal loss of revenue but mainly with the lost revenue to provinces--the so-called "provincial tax leakage".
It seems that the provinces with most trust investors are Ontario & Alberta--as such , the provincial governments in these regions receive the lions share of tax money from trust investors--provinces such as PEI or Nova Scotia receive only small amounts --the actual inequity comes from the fact that these trusts were once corporations that payed tax to the province of residence, say a PEI or a Nova Scotia--now that the profits are not taxable as a trust these provinces receive no direct payments from them as a tax--the distributions are taxed by the province in which the investor resides--the majority being Ontario & Alberta--as a result , I can see there would be a loss of tax in provinces where this shift has occured.
Would this not produce a shift to enhanced tax in provinces like Ontario & Alberta , thus enhancing their tax take--so why is it that these two provinces are crying foul the loudest--Alberta claims to have a leakage of 450 million--Ontario similar amounts--they are receiving the most revenue from trusts but are losing the most.
So what gives--something is not right--the problem comes from the fact that these provincial governments have done no research on their own & rely strictly on the flawed numbers provided by the finance department--as a result everyone has tax leakage & no one gains from the huge amount paid by the trust owners--this is just not logical.
Corporations pay at a 6.9% average rate--we pay at a 30-40% average rate--even with the RRSP factor considered , someone is coming out ahead --they have to.
Second--What about all those distributions paid to the pension plans who hold vast numbers of units--these guys hold this money tax free until they send it out to retirees which can be decades during which time it acrues interest income tax free--this is ridiculous to let these guys get away with it--talk about tax leakage--this hole should have been plugged years ago--they should be limited to say 3-5% of outstanding units of a trust to keep this leakage to a dull roar.
An attempt was made to do this several years ago , but the crying & complaining was so great that the government gave in & this idea was dropped.
This is a loophole of the greatest proportions & must be shut down.
Well enough of that--I even scare myself sometimes.
Dr Mike.
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