Top TILIS posts of 2014

The following list is not exactly precise, since all-powerful Google's Blogger platform doesn't give me an easy way to count for the year, but more or less, these were my most popular posts of 2014. Gratifyingly, many were not simply re-posts, but were hardcore analysis by moi, Mr. JT.

So here goes, in chronological order:

"On Ukraine's burgeoning revolution"

"A Wal-Mart manager tells why Wal-Mart sucks"

"The REAL 'stupidity tax' benefits Wall Street"

"Ukraine's Maidan activists are not 'fascists'"

"How America's far-left gets Ukraine wrong"

"Trying to read Putin's mind about Ukraine"

"The Duh files: Study reveals U.S. is an oligarchy"

"On 'tax inversion', Apple, and what makes a 'U.S.' company"

"War Nerd: ISIS conquering empty desert; and bless the Kurds"

"Beinart: Cheney openly disparages 'Bush Doctrine'"

"'Sharing-economy' workers moving toward unions"

"Milbank: Boomers are terrible political leaders"

"What makes 'Murica, land that I love" 

"Corporate tax dodges are un-American" 

"VIDEO: Russians interrogate female pilot captured INSIDE UKRAINE (subtitles)" -- I'M STILL SURPRISED HOW POPULAR THIS RE-POST HAS BEEN.

"State lotteries exploit the poor (NPR)" 

"Yale prof.: How privileged kids can 'avoid becoming out-of-touch, entitled little shits'" 

"Watch 'Jaffa: The Orange's Clockwork' (2010)" 

"Culture warriors, HERE'S something REALLY wrong with U.S." 

"Will: In lame defense of tax inversions"

"U.S. economy stinks because of greedy corporations?"

"Today's thoughts on ISIS"

"Guns in Kroger and the myth of the open-carry Old West"

"Vanden Heuvel's vile apologia of Putin"

"M. Shishkin: Thanks to Putin, post-war Europe is now pre-war Europe"

Granted, a large number of my posts this year were about Ukraine and Russia, and that's no accident, since yours truly speaks Russian and Ukrainian and has had some very personal experience there. I thought that my East-meets-West perspective was lacking in the U.S. blogosphere and could perhaps help others to understand what was happening there.

Case in point, back home I even gave a half-hour seminar to the local Tea Party group about the crisis in Ukraine! They were attentive, polite and grateful. And I kept it to the facts, ma'am, no Obama or lib'rul bullcrap.

That said, here are a few posts that I enjoyed and wished had received more attention:

"You have no business challenging scientists"

"Meyerson: Why the EU's far-right is rising"

"Pew: How Americans fall out politically"

"The universe is huge...So where is everybody?"

"Can corporations become President or get married? (Ruductio ad ridiculum)"

"Study: Healthcare prices 'irrational'"

"Many Israelis don't know a single Palestinian" --  SO THEY'RE EVEN MORE CUT-OFF THAN MOST WHITE PEOPLE IN THE U.S. WHO HAVE AT LEAST ONE BLACK FRIEND.

"Report: Reducing U.S. prison population reduces crime"

"Bergen: 'Jihadist threat is quite inconsequential'"

"Younge: Americans want U.S. power without cost or risk"

"Stopping the next Ebola outbreak in Africa" 

"Being an 'indispensable nation' is killing America"

"What we know about IS leads back to Iraq debacle"

"Vanden Heuvel still ignoring Ukrainians' will, defending Putin, and blaming the U.S."

Happy New Year, everybody!

On 'tax inversion', Apple, and what makes a 'U.S.' company

Continuing on a pet theme of mine, I want my readers to consider just what is a "U.S. company" (for tax purposes). What comes to your mind?  Do you even know what the formal definition is? Does that definition meet your moral-reasonable expectations of an American company?

Pearlstein objects to those American companies that want to have their cake and eat it to, that want...

...all the rights and privileges of being an American company without the full complement of responsibilities that go along with it.

You want the peace and security guaranteed by a muscular military and intelligence apparatus that make it possible for you to operate and market in all the advanced economies of the world. You want the world’s most sophisticated and enforceable patent system to protect your intellectual property. You want a fair and efficient judicial system to enforce contracts.

You want a well-educated workforce to design and make your products, based on basic research done through an extensive network of government-funded institutes and laboratories. You want modern ports and highways and airports to ship your products to market, and an efficient border operation to speed them through customs.

You want an honest, efficient financial system that can provide you with cheap and plentiful capital. You demand a professional, credible regulatory agency that can expeditiously evaluate your products and ensure customers that they are safe and effective. And you insist on government-funded health care for the poor, the elderly and the disabled that will pay you more for your devices than any other country in the world.

In related news that my fellow Americans are probably not paying attention, the European Commission is investigating Ireland, and other known EU tax havens for their soft treatment of Apple, Google and other well-known US companies. 

Now, the EU isn't trying to help the USA collect more tax from these "American" companies, no sir.  They are threatening potential punishments for handing out what amount to subsidies to home businesses -- an unfair trade practice that decreases the competitiveness of other EU states. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out!....

An open letter to Medtronic on what it means to be an American company

By Steven Pearlstein

June 20, 2014 | Washington Post

URL: http://wapo.st/1rg2HK9

Ames: Apple, Google, Adobe, Pixar colluded to depress tech wages

Ever trenchant muckracker Mark Ames reveals here that tech giants like Apple and Google not only outsource their manufacturing to suicidal sweatshops in China that revolt against their masters, not only do they avoid U.S. taxes by registering in Ireland, they also conspired to hold down wages for U.S. tech workers, the alleged winners in this whole globalized, "We got the brains, you got the brawn" value chain. 

Tell me again why we celebrate these "American" companies?  

The Techtopus: How Silicon Valley’s most celebrated CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 tech engineers’ wages

By Mark Ames

January 23, 2014 | Pando Daily

URL: http://pando.com/2014/01/23/the-techtopus-how-silicon-valleys-most-celebrated-ceos-conspired-to-drive-down-100000-tech-engineers-wages/

UPDATE: There's this far-right libertarian Nazi that I correspond with, he says he's a millionaire, let's call him Old Dirty Bastard, who responded to this post. I think this thread is pretty instructive for all you not-so-crazy folks, and shows why we need unions and collective bargaining to protect us from the ODBs of the "free market":

(ODB): Wake up and smell the coffee---it's been happening forever. They are dumb if they don't get their best deal. They do it to states by incorporating in states like Nevada also.

(Me): Employers have always colluded to keep wages down in a given sector? Did you read the article?  You don't even believe your own libertarian mumbo-jumbo!  What a cynic you are! Don't preach to me anymore about your free-market beliefs, etc. because you believe in the Law of the Jungle, where Might Makes Right. 

(ODB): Explain the difference between free market and the law of the jungle. I do not see it

(Me): That's your definition of libertarianism.  The Sherman Anti-Trust Act, Teddy Roosevelt, Grover Cleveland... they were all long-haired hippy commies "ruining" the free market.  There's no use arguing with you, you are so far to the right that you're back on the left with Hitler and Pinochet. 

UPDATE (20.02.2014): Mark Ames followed up his original report with more court documents and e-mails, this time between Apple's Steve Jobs -- "an American hero" -- and Palm's Edward Colligan: "Steve Jobs threatened Palm’s CEO, plainly and directly, court documents reveal."

The 'You didn't build that' lie persists

Here we have the latest citation from the Rush Limbaugh Show. Rush quotes as Gospel for his mind-numbed robots that President Obama sincerely believes that nobody who has achieved that fleeting "American Dream" really deserves any credit for it.  Nope, it was all thanks to Big Gubument, says Rush of Obama's beliefs:

That's what the President believes. Obama doesn't believe in the prescription of hard work equals success.  In that statement, he just puts it down.  He just delegitimizes it.  Cookie, find that from our archives.  That was July 2012, Roanoke, Virginia.  Give me the whole thing.  "I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart.  There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else.  Let me tell you something -- there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there." That's not what makes the difference.

The thing is, that quote has always been taken out of context. Several sentences of Obama's speech have always been artfully deleted by the talk-radio/Fox News media axis. Factcheck.org busted this myth back in July 2012, yet it still persists:

There’s no question Obama inartfully phrased those two sentences, but it’s clear from the context what the president was talking about. He spoke of government — including government-funded education, infrastructure and research — assisting businesses to make what he called “this unbelievable American system that we have.”

In summary, he said: “The point is … that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.”

Now here's what President Obama actually said, unedited and unabridged by talk radio and Fox News hacks, on July 13, 2012 [emphasis mine]:

There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.

So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together.

Now the thing about it, now that you've read it, is that Fact Checkers be damned, it's unequivocally true. You can go back as far as you like, and you can find the hand of government in the great successes of our nation, business or otherwise. The things that we take the most pride in as Americans are the things that we did together. 

I mean, is it any wonder that our Armed Services -- not Microsoft, not Apple or Google -- are held today by Americans in such high esteem?  Is it indeed because they "defend" us -- against whom? -- or because they are the last great institution devoted to a -- dare I say it? -- socialistic ethos of collective contribution, shared sacrifice, and honor for the glory of country? Instinctively, in our guts, we see the value in their honorable endeavors.

The great pity of modern American culture is that we cannot apply those same values of sacrifice, teamwork, equality and honor to making the lives of Americans better. The U.S. Military can teach us plenty; but we accept their lessons emptily, we accept their examples of self-sacrifice ritualistically, without thought or self-reflection. Glory be to them -- but shame on us!

Going further... The GOP talks about morals, they talk about values. What would be wrong with President Obama talking about the value of hiring American workers and paying them a fair wage?  What would be immoral or un-American about Obama's naming and shaming those companies like Apple, Google... the list goes on and on... that call themselves "American," and yet employ most of their workers and pay most of their taxes overseas, and his demanding, "Can't you do better?  Can't you be more patriotic?"  

I'm not talking about a single law, a single executive order, just our Chief Executive saying what we all know in our guts to be true: so many U.S. companies treat American workers like Kleenex; meanwhile, they depend like the dickens on American consumers to buy their products. If this were wartime, if this were a time of crisis, we simply wouldn't put up with it.  And yet we do. Because we believe that's just the way it is.  Well who the hell said so?? 

I'm fired up!  WHOO! 

Meyerson on tax avoidance: More than one bad Apple

Meyerson reminds us that:

 ... the system of sovereign nation-states — a pretty impressive creation in its day — has become a plaything for big business in the age of globalization and digital communication. The world is full of places with dirt-cheap labor, low or no taxes and scant or non-existent regulation.

We call sovereign states' total submission to corporate puppeteers in this globalized system "the race to the bottom."

Meyerson also keenly notes that lowering U.S. corporate tax rates is not the solution for corporations' tax avoidance: 

Reducing the nominal tax rate on corporate profits in the United States to 25 percent, or 15 percent, from the current 35 percent won’t deter some future Apple from shifting profits to some future Ireland if the tax rate there is zero.

So what are the solutions?  Meyerson says we should consider: 1) replacing corporate profit tax with an increase on capital gains tax; or even 2) a tax on corporate sales revenue earned in the country, not corporate profit.

Apple’s U.S. revenue should be taxed

By Harold Meyerson

May 29, 2013 | Washington Post

URL: http://wapo.st/12MZKUA

Global development paid for by U.S. middle class

I'm not ready to say that  the global economy is zero-sum, where China's gains are always our losses. At the same time, nobody disputes that we're all interdependent.  What China or Taiwan produces, somebody must buy.  So if China is exporting and we're not, that would tend to be our loss.  If we're not buying then they're not producing that is China's loss.  

It's kind of a moral not an economic argument, nevertheless Paul reminds us that trade, not simple production, is what has lifted record millions out of poverty in the last 50 years, and the U.S. is largely responsible for allowing that trade to happen, not least by serving as the largest market/buyer of all the fastest-developing countries' exported goods.

Fairly, Paul also mentions the global companies like Apple and Google that are in fact without country and who benefit the most from increased global trade. Indeed, more than 60 percent of global trade takes place within multinational companies (MNCs).  

We can think of these as "great American" companies but we're kidding ourselves, we say so only to feed our vanity: it gives us a vague sense of self-worth to say we have a stake in a huge multinational company's success. (It's not unlike Americans who cheer on their local pro team which is probably a net drain on the local economy, yet it gives millions of local residents a great sense of pride that the privately owned sports franchise is "theirs.")

Unlike citizens and workers who are not so mobile, these MNCs go where the lowest cost of production and lowest taxes are.  Often they play off localities, regions and countries against each other -- who can offer them the cheapest labor, the lowest tax rates, the biggest subsidies, etc. -- in what has been called the "race to the bottom."  

Wrote Paul:

Companies such as Apple and Cisco Systems, and nations such as China, that have benefited from free trade are part of a closed system that has been built in large measure on the strength and confidence of the U.S. consumer. Yet those beneficiaries have been largely indifferent to the plight of the American middle class -- whose economic well-being and confidence in the future has been undermined by the expansion of free trade -- focusing instead on their own self-interest and entitlement to the benefits of trade. The leaders of Apple and Cisco gripe about tax rates, while the leaders of China disdain American concerns for their predatory trade practices.

Finally it's worth noting that no other major economy has adopted the U.S. approach, which is basically to open its markets to everybody and let domestic producers die.  

Beware the Global Consequences of Further Declines in the American Middle Class
By David Paul
May 11, 2013 | Huffington Post

URL: http://huff.to/19bTxE1

You make-ey my iPhrone, chop-chop!

Apple may be big geniuses when it comes to computer design, but when it comes to managing their slave-wage supply chain... eh, not so much.

It's tempting to get upset about things like labor strikes and terrible working conditions for poor people in developing countries, but let's keep things in their proper perspective: the important thing is that I get my pre-ordered iPhone 5 before you do.  Hands off!  

Now get back to work, you lazy Chinamen, my iPhone isn't going to assemble itself!  Chop-chop!   

(Sheesh, if the Chinese keep up their bitching and whining we may just have to outsource their jobs to America, where it's every desperate man for himself and workers shut up and do what they're told.  It's so hard to find good help these days.)

Foxconn workers strike over iPhone 5 demands, labor group says

By Julianne Pepitone

October 6, 2012 | CNNMoney

URL: http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/05/technology/mobile/foxconn-iphone-5-strike/index.html?source=cnn_bin

Visionary 'lost' 1983 speech by Steve Jobs

I'm not an Apple guy at all, but I have to admit, Steve Jobs was visionary about the ubiquity of portable computers, Wi-Fi, the Internet and even voice-recognition programs.

What most of us knew in 1983 about personal computers was the Atari 2600, or maybe ColecoVision -- both strictly for gaming.  Jobs was thinking at least 20 years ahead.

You can listen to an audio recording of Jobs' entire presentation at conference entitled, "The Future Isn't What It Used To Be," here.

The “Lost” Steve Jobs Speech from 1983; Foreshadowing Wireless Networking, the iPad, and the App Store

By Marcel Brown

October 2, 2012 | Life, Liberty and Technology

URL: http://lifelibertytech.com/2012/10/02/the-lost-steve-jobs-speech-from-1983-foreshadowing-wireless-networking-the-ipad-and-the-app-store/

Word of the day: skeuomorphism (and why it's bad)

I'm always glad to take pot shots at Apple's bandwagon.  Enjoy.

Will Apple’s Tacky Software-Design Philosophy Cause A Revolt?

By Austin Carr

September 11, 2012 | Fast Company

URL: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1670760/will-apples-tacky-software-design-philosophy-cause-a-revolt

'There's an app for that'...unless it's the truth

Apple Says No Thanks to App that Tracks Deaths from U.S. Drones

By Taylor Berman

August 30, 2012 | Gawker 

URL: http://gawker.com/5939442/apple-says-no-thanks-to-app-that-tracks-deaths-from-us-drones

Steve Jobs' record on workers' rights

Americans and American media tend to pile on. When it comes to rich, "self-made" tycoons, they trip over themselves to lavish praise and attention on the already rich and famous.

So while everybody is piling on the praise of Apple's Steve Jobs, who is retiring as CEO (but will be chairman of board), let's not forget where part of Apple's high profits came from: easily exploited overseas labor.

According to a review conducted by Apple itself: less than 1/3 of all Apple factories obeyed Apple rules about not forcing factory workers to work more than 60 hours a week; only 57 percent of its factories complied with the Apple's policies on occupational injury prevention; 95 factories did not perform regular safety inspections; and 54 factories failed to give their workers adequate safety equipment.

Remembering Steve Jobs' Record on Workers' Rights

By Mike Elk

August 25, 2011 | In These Times

URL: http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11863/remembering_steve_jobs_record_on_workers_rights/

Hip, cool Apple employees fed up, want a union

Think unionization in a retail- and service-based economy is irrelevant? If employees at a hip and cool place like Apple stores want to unionize, then unions are relevant everywhere.


Apple Store Workers Share Why They Want to 'Work Different'
By Josh Eidelson
June 24, 2011 | In These Times

URL: http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/11557/apple_store_workers_share_why_they_want_to_work_different/