It's Time for Big Business to show a little 'Economic Patriotism'
By Thom Hartmann A...
Walgreens has caved to public pressure and announced that they will not move their base overseas to avoid paying US taxes. However, we need to do a heck of a lot more to stop other businesses from moving offshore. The company was considering a move called an “inversion” to acquire a Switzerland-based company called Alliance Boots, and relocate their headquarters to the lower-tax nation. Walgreens CEO Greg Wasson said that the company was “mindful of the public reaction to a potential inversion.” In other words, they recognized that the American people were pretty ticked about Walgreens wanting to dodge taxes.
Public pressure was enough to keep this drug store chain headquartered in Chicago, but it won't always be enough to stop US corporations from skipping out on their fair share. Congress could change the rules and take away the tax incentives that allow corporations to relocate overseas. However, we all know that it's highly unlikely that lawmakers will suddenly stop the partisan gridlock and get that done.
In order to get around the obstruction, a group of Democratic senators is calling on President Obama to put a stop to these so-called “inversion” with an executive order. Senators Dick Durbin, Jack Reed, Elizabeth Warren, and others wrote a letter to the president warning that billions of dollars in corporate tax revenue will be lost if these inversions aren't stopped. They wrote, “The coming flood of corporate inversions justifies immediate executive action.”
The President can direct the Treasury to issue rules that would make it more difficult for corporations to dodge taxes by moving overseas. In a speech last month, President Obama said, “You shouldn't get to call yourself an American company only when you want a handout from American taxpayers.” Whether it's through executive action, public pressure, or a combination of both, we must force corporations to pay their fair share. Walgreens is staying here, and it's time for more businesses to prove their economic patriotism.
Comments
#2
P.S. Marc, I clicked on "Community" at the top of my screen and frankly, I don't know what you're talking about. All I see is the same crappy new format. Still no numbered posts. - AIW
#3
Aliceinwonderland ~ That's very strange. Are you sure that you are hovering over the time stamp next to the user name at the top of the post? You have to put your cursor directly over the time stamp. Don't click, just hover. A little black box should appear in the lower left side of your screen. In fact, that box appears whenever you hover over anything that causes your cursor to turn into a button pressing shape (cursor change for buttons/links in my operating system that changes from an arrow to a hand) That goes for any button/link on any site and not just this one.
At that moment, no matter what button you hover over, you should get a little black box at the left bottom corner of your browser screen stating the URL of that button. For example: Try hovering over the picture of Thoms cat to the right. Hover anywhere over it. The box at the bottom left side of the browser window should say, "cdn3.thomhartmann.com/sites/default/files/IMG_0208_0.JPG"
If you don't get that box you might be using a strange browser; or, possibly, one that is out of date. I'm using Chrome v.36. As I understand it Palindromedary is using Mozilla's Firefox. I'm pretty sure that Internet Explorer does the same thing. Try it again with the cat photo entitled, "Higgins faces off Goosalini" and let me know if it works. If it doesn't find out what Browser and what version it is and post it so we can figure out what the problem is.
#4
Aliceinwonderland ~ Sorry about that. I was referring to the link Palindromedary provided in post #?. lol
Anyway, here it is again:
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2014/08/new-website-design#comment-279771
The webmaster's name is Nigel and you can complain here as well as read all the other complains. As you can read, Nigels been quite busy of late. Happy complaining. You can also read my post and Palindromedarys many posts.
#5
Aliceinwonderland ~ Apropos to the second to the last post above. Apparently Thoms photos are being rotated. Higgins is no longer there. However, if you hover over any photo that little URL box should appear in the bottom left corner of your screen.
#6
Palindromedary ~ I checked out that comment page and it does look like Nigel has his hands full. Also, he probably has gone home for the night already. Chances are he'll check our messages first thing in the morning. That is why it is a good time for Aliceinwonderland to post her complaints right where they will be seen first thing in the morning.
Aliceinwonderland ~ That link again is
http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2014/08/new-website-design#comment-279771
Let the webmaster have a piece of you mind!
#7
AIW: The trick is once you put your cursor over the blue time...then don't move your cursor..leave it on the blue time. Then glance down toward the bottom of your page, on the left side, you should see the URL for the message you have your cursor on. It should look like this (only grey):
It will probably be cut off so that you cannot see the whole URL..so the 6 digit number representing the message number may be missing. But, If you are using Internet Explorer, just right click on the blue time and then left click on "Copy Shortcut" then you can paste it in notepad, if you are using Windows. You should see the entire URL including the # sign followed by a 6 digit message number at the very end. I tried this on Internet explorer but it seems that even with the page maximized it only shows the # followed by only 3 numbers...missing the last three.
If you are using a Firefox browser, I believe the last I checked it displays the whole URL including all 6 numbers. Also, You won't have the same terminology when you right click on the blue line...it says "Copy link location".
I think that eventually, the webmaster will get the number on the messages sorted out. These things can take time. Hopefully, not too much more time.
#8
Ohhh GREAT. With the old system, when I hit the "Save" button to post something, the button turned blue, which is how I knew it was working! Just now when I saw no visible response, I hit the button again and got two identical posts! Swell.
#9
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#10
Aliceinwonderland ~ The double post problem is also an issue being discussed on the community thread. From what you've described I imagine that the issue is with your OS, platform, browser, or screen resolution. Not to worry. Like you've already suggested the little black box and the information contained within simply isn't worth the effort to see anyway. That information is relatively useless to you. Also, there are other ways to try to see it that I'm not even going to waste our time with.
All we can hope for is to put the pressure on Nigel on that comment blog that I see you've found. Bravo! These changes can take some time but I'm sure they will happen because after all we are not asking for the moon. We are only asking for the basic format conveniences that we've already grown accustomed to.
I notice you've said, "If it ain't broke don't fix it." A wise axiom that I get a lot in my own career. Well said, Alice! Well said! Inevitably, that course of action always leads to multiple new problems every single time.
#11
Aliceinwonderland ~ You have a reply from Nigel. He says that post numbers are on his "wish list" and they will get to them along with a long list of "other stuff." He also replied that--and I'm paraphrasing--that the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" rule was broken it was a necessary evil. We never would have made it out of the stone age without constantly upgrading stuff.
(He could have easily added that fixing things that aren't broken is the major part of his job. Now, he has lots of stuff to fix that is indeed broken. I believe he said "a gazillion things." At least, it all works out well for Nigel. Talk about job security!)
#12
Palin, Marc- The distance between the lowest time stamp and the bottom of the page is such that I can see one OR the other; not both. And when I place my arrow over the time stamp, nothing happens except that it turns from blue to red; soon as I remove it, the stamp goes blue again. I’ve done EVERYTHING you’ve told me to do, and I get NOTHING. My husband says it’s because I’m using a different system; Mac laptop and Safari. This laptop is only a year & a half old; if that’s all it takes to be out of date, then OH WELL. Can’t afford a new computer every year!
That aside, all I need is a simple number identifying each post: #1, #2, #3… #14, #15, #16… etc. What in the hell am I supposed to do with something like “cdn3.thomhartmann.com/sites/default/files/IMG_0208_0.JPG” blah-blah-blah?!!! Even six-digit numbers are of no use to me; especially if they’re not in any kind of numerical order.
Sorry for being so bitchy. I know you guys are only trying to help, and I appreciate it. Really. But this new system just plain sucks.
Thanks so much for that link, Marc! This evening when I’ve got more time, I intend to make good use of it. - AIW
P.S. I don’t know why I should even bother hitting the “reply” button any more, since this crappy new format fails to identify what I’m replying to anyway!
#13
Thom Hartman owns this blog, and can run as he sees fit. I like the changes. It may encourage creative thinking and new ideas. Anything to get a way for the name calling and blaming that has become so prevalent here.
#14
Wow, OU812, I agree with you! :-)
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Marc, I appreciate your efforts and I really hope Nigel gets it. Why they changed this format for the worse is beyond me. There's not a single thing about the new format that's the slightest improvement over the last one; meanwhile I've encountered multiple disadvantages to this unnecessary change.
I'll never understand why there's so much meddling and tampering like this online. What purpose does it serve? I just don't get it.
Looking at the bottom left of this screen I see NO black box; only a blue box that says "Sign up now". And a much smaller blue box next to where it says "Thom Hartmann Newsletter". There's also a blue box that looks sorta like a cartoon bubble with a tail attached to it and "TH" next to Thom's name. That's it! No more boxes. Not on this computer anyway. Not on the bottom left, not on the top left, not the middle left either. No black box! Maybe they're not all the same. People are always telling me there's shit on my computer that I can't locate for the life of me. Drives me crazy. - Aliceinwonderland