Friday, May 4, 2012

real debt

revisiting detroit demonstrations that kicked off last week, as part of coordinated shareholder actions across the country dubbed, "the 99% spring."

as blogged earlier, activists in detroit converged upon a ge annual shareholder meeting, presenting a 26.5 billion dollar outstanding bill, asserting that is the amount ge owes the united states in taxes, based on a 35% statutory rate.  similar demonstrations took place in san francisco.

below, detroit continues to present bills for the real debt owed in america, at another shareholder meeting for DTE:




A statement at the Occupy Detroit youtube channel reads:
In 2010, the company posted a $640 million profit, yet received a $172 million federal tax refund, paying a measly 2.5 percent tax income rate. When corporations don't pay their fair share, either other tax payers have to pick up the tab or our nation has to go deeper into debt. The only other option would be to make the other 99% suffer by losing out on critical services such as fire, police and eduction.
below, from KennySnod, also on the ground in detroit, another clip showing a lone cowboy officer trying to disrupt the demonstration. the protesters, admirably, stay composed, and peacefully remind the policeman who this demonstration belongs to, before continuing on with the march. 





they never do this to the tea party, do they!  indeed, it was also interesting (in terms of observing double standards), and after blogging about the confiscation of tent poles and stakes tweeted by seattle police at M1GS, to hear rachel maddow report in passing the republican party seriously considering whether to allow republican demonstrators to carry loaded arms, i think it was, at their national convention.

there are several potential layers of very wry remarks to made about that!

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