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Ok, quickie post today with links to guests and topics only, as I got a call this morning asking me to pinch hit for Randi Rhodes again today. So…. busy day!
First of all, Elvis Costello was great last night.. I’ll talk a bit about it on the show this morning, along with the thing that pisses me off every time I go to a concert!
And second, big apologies to Shane-O and Danielle for leaving my ustream encoder on yesterday, forcing them off the air until I could reach my daughter and have her shut down my computer last night. That WON’T happen again!
Now on to the first of two shows today:
At least two of my pals, Aaron Krager and Dave Johnson, were in Detroit yesterday for the annual GE Shareholders Meeting (the same way I attended the Carnival meeting a couple of weeks ago)…. Read their respective coverage of it at the above links, and listen for Aaron’s account at the beginning of the show.
Then, if you haven’t already realized it, the BP spew in the Gulf two years ago is still an ongoing unmitigated disaster, you’re wearing blinders. Just read this sickening report from Antonia Juhasz for The Nation… and listen, as she joins me this morning (and hopefully on Randi’s show this afternoon too.)And finally, it’s Thursday – the end of the broadcast week for The Nicole Sandler Show.
I usually try to end the week with some laughs. Today, they”ll be provided by the always funny Maysoon Zayid!
***Last minute change **** Maysoon had a family emergency so she had to cancel (we’ll get her back on one morning next week). In her place, I called on Tim Karr of FreePress.net and SaveTheInternet.com to talk about CISPA – the ”Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act” (HR 3523). Find out more and sign the petition against it here!
Talk to you this afternoon on the Randi Rhodes Show, with these guests:
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I don’t have much time to write this today, as I have to take my kid to a doctors appointment shortly… But I did want to give links from today’s show, and write a few words about fairness, which was the overarching theme of today’s show.
My friend Cliff Schecter summed up some of it beautifully for Politico:
Only in America.
We have a system where each candidate for high office only has to befriend there very own pet oligarch – be it Adelson, Foster Freiss, etc. – and they can run for office forever, as their friendly billionaire gives money to their Super Pac in an entirely “uncoordinated” manner.
We have top government officials who have admitted to allowing torture, but they are free. Wall Street hot shots who lied to their clients and then bet against them. But not one prosecution. And on and on.
But we are really wasting our time and effort on John Edwards? I’m sorry, but I really can’t get worked up about violations of our campaign finance laws, when they are a complete joke. And when people who did far worse don’t even need to hide it.
It is fun for everyone to hate John Edwards right now, because that allows us to project all of that’s wrong onto one man. What he did was terrible, but there are likely thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who who have done things much worse, that have legitimately hurt scores of people, and they will never see the inside of a courtroom. And that is what is shameful.
Of course, I’m talking bigger picture here… with the Supremes today hearing arguments on Arizona’s SB1070 “Papers Please” racial profiling law. I discussed that with Henry Fernandez, spokesman for Reform America’s Immigration Laws in the last half-hour of the show.
I began with my second conversation this week with the awesome Greg Palast, this time because the first arrest was made yesterday in conjunction with the BP disaster… unfortunately, it was a scapegoat instead of someone truly responsible for the humongous mess they created.
Then I spoke with Andrew Gumbel, author of the new book Oklahoma City: What the investigation missed – and why it still matters…
And President Obama joined Jimmy Kimmel on TV last night to talk about student loan rates doubling in July… in a creative way….
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Oh, the things that we find funny, and the things that would be hysterical if only they weren’t so terribly, horribly sad.
First up is the notion that allowing everyone the same joys and sorrows of marriage will threaten your own happy or sad union. Seriously. The state of North Carolina, currently in early voting mode, is voting on Amendment 1 which reads
“Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.”
Unfortunately, the latest Public Policy Polling data released today shows 10 percent of voters still erroneously think voting down Amendment 1 would legalize gay marriage and another 27 percent are unsure what it would do. That falls under the really sad category.
I called on Pam Spaulding, North Carolina resident and proprietor of Pam’s House Blend to join me this morning to talk about just how truly heinous this amendment is.
Big money forces are at work, pushing this piece-of-shit legislation with ads like this peppering the airwaves:
Sad, yet again.
Fortunately, there are some ads to counter that particular brand of bullshit, like these:
and
But they need money to keep running them on the air throughout North Carolina. Pam told us you can donate at tinyurl.com/amendment1 . Early voting is already in progress, and election day is May 8.
Also not funny is the hatred used to instill fear and loathing into otherwise more normal people. Arizona’s racist SB 1070 (or the “Papers Please” law) went into effect two years ago yesterday. Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on its constitutionality. How sad is that — that it’s even gotten this far?
We’ll get more in-depth on that topic on tomorrow’s show.
This morning, I also continued yesterday’s conversation on the lack of real, independent investigative journalism – today with someone else who actually does it! Russ Baker of WhoWhatWhy.com was on with me today, and will speak tonight in NYC at 6:30pm, Mid-Manhattan Library, 455 Fifth Avenue at 40th St, 6thfloor.
And we wrapped things up as we do every Tuesday morning with The Political Carnival’s GottaLaff- we talked about these stories before descending into the depths of scatological humor…
VIDEO: Mitt Romney’s fondest memories of France. Oui, la France.
Minnesota State GOP Being Evicted From Party Headquarters
Couple held at gunpoint by neighbors, arrested. Nobody believed that they were the new owners.
Matt Damon “would kiss George W. Bush on the mouth… No tongue” for his work fighting AIDS
Major Media Bias Alert! Again.
VIDEO: Missouri GOP Senate candidate Sarah Steelman never heard of Violence Against Women Act
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No, Solomon, Palast & Belle isn’t a law firm … quite the opposite. These three are people who do a lot of good – and happened to all be guests on my show this morning!
We began with Norman Solomon, long time activist turned congressional candidate. I always love talking with Norman, but wanted him on the show this morning so I could talk listeners into donating a few bucks to his campaign. Extra impetus – your donation to Solomon’s campaign (or to Dr. David Gill‘s) AT THIS LINK enters you into a drawing to win a Fender Stratocaster autographed by all the members of Barenaked Ladies – a prize offered by Howie Klein, former president of Reprise Records, now with the Blue America PAC..
Norman Solomon is running for Congress from California’s 2nd district, one of the most progressive in the nation (and also one of the most beautiful!), the seat being vacated by Lynn Woolsey. I’ve been a fan of Norman’s for years because of the way he walks the talk. From wikipedia:
Norman Solomon (born 1951) is an Americanjournalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and current candidate for the United States House of Representatives. Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy which works to provide alternative sources for journalists, and served as its executive director until 2010. Solomon’s weekly column, “Media Beat”, was in national syndication from 1992-2009. More recently Solomon has focused on his 2012 congressional campaign in California’s 2nd congressional district.
Norman Solomon is one of the really good guys, and our country would be immensely better if he were a member of Congress!
Next up, it was one of the last of a sadly dying breed – investigative journalist Greg Palast. I’m lucky to count Greg as a friend, and I’m eternally grateful for the work he does. Unfortunately, the corporately owned and operated media in this country want nothing to do with the truth he uncovers. Therefore, if you’re to watch his reports on TV, you’ll have to be in England watching the BBC.
His latest book, Vultures Picnic, tells tales too strange to be fiction… this shit only happens for real, because if you made it up it would be too outlandish.
As we marked the two-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon/BP/Halliburton biggest environmental disaster in history, Greg Palast reminds us that BP was experiencing deja vu, as two years before they had an oil rig explode in the Caspian due to quick dry cement and a faulty blowout preventer.
He wrote about it in a two-part series: “BP Cover-Up: They Knew” and “BP Cover-Up Part 2: Bribery, George Bush and Wikileaks” — required reading for any reasonably informed person.
Greg Palast is truly one of the good guys, and we’re more informed, better people for reading/watching his work.
And finally, every Monday morning, I spend the second hour of my show chatting with Nicole Belle. It’s a segment we call Fools on the Hill – so named by a listener, but apropos because we cover what was said on the Sunday talking head shows the day before, which are populated most of the time by foolish, white, Republican men.
Nicole writes thoughtful, insightful pieces for Crooks and Liars, and our Monday morning conversations do much more than just parrot what the various fools said on TV. Plus, she watches those shows so we don’t have to, and reports back so we know what they’re up to, and what nonsense they’re spewing to the masses.
Nicole Belle really is one of the good guys, and I’m thrilled that she awakens early every Monday morning to make me sound smarter!
Here’s her weekly wrap-up of the stories she brought us today:
You may have heard that FAIR came out with a study last week that confirmed what we liberals have already known all along: the Sunday shows are disproportionately white, male, very wealthy and conservative. And you can tell by what they decide to discuss on the Sunday shows how little regard they have for the concerns of most Americans.
For example, you would think there is no more important news story in America than the Secret Service scandal. Helpful hint: it’s called “the world’s oldest profession” for a reason.
Of course, the Democratic Party’s favorite turncoat, Joe Lieberman, wants America to hold Obama accountable for the Secret Service and GSA scandals. Not responsible, but accountable. Because this is the very first time something like this has ever happened. Too bad Joe wasn’t as outraged about the huge expenditures that the federal government made towards Halliburton and Blackwater. I’m pretty sure the GSA parties in Vegas were a drop in the bucket in comparison.
That’s not the only thing that Republicans want to blame President Obama for. Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels – in a clear bid for the Vice President position – faults Obama for not fixing the mess that Daniels, who served as Bush’s Budget Director, left him.
One of the more notable events of the Sunday shows is the first appearance of the newly fired Keith Olbermann. Keith unfortunately didn’t get a chance for much in the way of intelligent debate, mostly because he shared the roundtable with Peggy Noonan. His one chance to stand out and perhaps make a pitch for the eighteenth comeback of Keith Olbermann came when he suggested that the price of gas has been artificially manipulated…to the detriment of Obama’s re-election chances.
In the “what planet are you from?” department, Marco Rubio told Candy Crowley that George W. Bush did a “fantastic job as president.” The mind reels.
And finally, from whatever planet Mitt Romney lives on, he has come out swinging against the traditional media and accused them of being a vast left wing conspiracy in the ba
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The update on Ted Nugent that I opened the show with came courtesy of Daily Kos. Bill Schmalfeldt, with way too much time on his hands, actually found Courtney Love’s confession that “one of the first times” she had oral sex was with the Nuge, when she was 12 YEARS OLD! Holy fucking pedophile!
This intrepid blogger actually waded through a blog called MikesFriggin.com – some other poor soul who actually writes about what was said on the Howard Stern show each day, wrote this on March 23, 2004:
Courtney Love phoned into the Howard Stern Show on Monday before eventually coming into the studio where she made the shocking allegation that one of the first times she had oral sex was with Ted Nugent. She said she was young and she didn’t want to say exactly how old she was, but eventually confessed she was 12-year-old — which would have made Nugent approximately 28 years old at the time. The New York Post attempted to contact Nugent for a response but was unsuccessful. Moderators at Nugent’s official forum deleted the only thread asking about the topic as evidenced by the forum’s search giving a file not found error for the matched thread. She added it was a long time ago and she didn’t even have breasts yet.
Eeeew. And as the mother of a 12-year old daughter, let me add, PERVERT!!
Then, we moved on to the other not-so-smart ALEC, this one the American Legislative Executive Council. I learned almost everything I know about them via the brilliant website ALECexposed.org – a collaboration between the Center for Media & Democracy and The Nation with everything you’d ever want to know about ALEC and more! This morning, CMD executive director Lisa Graves joined me on the show to talk about the many corporations and organizations who have pulled out of ALEC in the past week or so, and the reports that say that ALEC has “dismantled” the “task force” that was responsible for foisting its sickening Stand Your Ground, voter suppression, jail privatization and more legislation, and what it all means.
In the second hour, after an update about yesterday’s Yes Men hoax on Bank of America(!), John Fugelsang joined in for a visit too…
And that’s it for this week. Talk to you Monday, radio or not!
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That’s the new logo for Your Bank of America. It’s on the website at YourBofA.com. Once you go there, you’ll see that it has been flagged as a “phishing” site. It is nothing of the kind, and you should report that as an error, and then proceed to the site.
I found it this morning upon receiving a “press release” from Your Bank of America that read:
Bank of America Corporation has added a news release to its Newsroom.
Bank of America Announces “Your Bank of America” Campaign, Partnership with Taxpayers to Revamp U.S. BankingDate(s): 18-Apr-2012 9:00 AM
As future clouds, opportunities arise for public synergy
CHARLOTTE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apr. 18, 2012– Bank of America today announced the launch of an unprecedented campaign to reach out to the American public for guidelines on how banking should happen. The campaign, Your Bank of America (www.yourbofa.com), leverages the American public’s disaffection with today’s banking practices into a full suite of real banking solutions.
“We may not have all the answers, but we’re confident that those answers exist,” said Brian Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer of Bank of America. “We want to make sure the American people are well positioned to assert control and implement changes in the direction of banking, in the eventuality that such control becomes feasible.”
“Bringing in the public sector is a good strategy for earning buy-in at a difficult time for our industry,” said Moynihan. “But this is not just a PR campaign: as the public uses our new website to share ideas of how banks should be run, we will see many ideas that are quite far ahead of the market norm. Running a bank in a sane and common-sense way isn’t rocket science—and that’s something the customer knows best.”
Read CEO Brian Moynihan’s “Letter to Fellow Americans.”
The unprecedented Your Bank of America campaign and rebranding effort is being announced on April 18th to mark the 106th anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake. After the earthquake, the fledgling Bank of America (at the time Bank of Italy) cemented its reputation as a trustworthy local institution by setting up a desk in the rubble to make loans to rebuild the city.
But Bank of America is no longer a local bank with local responsibilities. Bank of America currently controls more than 12% of America’s retail bank deposits and 17% of all American home mortgages, and serves tens of millions of consumers and small businesses in over 150 countries, as well as 80% of the Fortune 500 Global Companies. The bank is the single largest funder of a number of major US industries, like coal, is the number one underwriter of global high-yield debt, and is the third largest underwriter of global equity, ever since its 2009 purchase of Merrill Lynch. But despite its size, Bank of America stock has lost 75-80% of its value in five years, returning weak profits and ending in a near-junk credit rating.
“Our rapid growth, allowed by a relaxed regulatory framework, has resulted in a disconnect with the core values that governed our early years,” said Moynihan. “As we face the prospect of public oversight in the not-too-distant future, this is a wonderful time to reappraise how we perform, and to try out new approaches—or, at least, sow the seeds that will help others to do so.”
Look at our books here.
The Your Bank of America campaign has been designed in a spirit of honesty and transparency. Levelling with the American people about the current status of the institution’s finances is seen as a necessary first step in soliciting fresh new ideas for a way forward past any eventuality, including even receivership. “What do you want your bank to do for you?” “How should your bank’s core business work?” and “How can your bank contribute to a fair economy for all?” are just a few of the questions the firm is now seeking to answer.
See the ideas Americans are coming up with here.
“Your Bank of America will be every bit as innovative, equitable, and sustainable as our new partners can make it,” said Matthew S. McSlatter, Director of Post-Receivership Partnership Planning. “We are confident that from the wise many will emerge a new model, a new ethic, and a whole new Bank for America.”
“2008 saw financial institutions receive a federal rescue package, then go on to repeat the same errors that had brought them to that situation in the first place,” said McSlatter. “We’re confident that the American people could do better, whether given the receivership option or not.”
The firm is also soliciting design concepts for a soon-to-be tested global multi-media advertising campaign to announce the new Your Bank of America brand. “When people see their ideas take flight in the mediasphere, they get very excited,” said Kitty Carmichael, VP for advertising etc. “We can’t wait to see what people come up with.”
Visit the “Get Creative” page to submit an idea.
Contact: Bengo Guenther, bguenther@yourbofa.com, 415-754-8625.
For a listing of our other news releases, please click here
After visiting the site, I decided to call Bengo Guenther. After a few tries, “he” answered and we had a fabulous conversation. At the end, I asked if he’d ever met either Andy Bichlbaum or Mike Bonnanno, and he pleaded ignorance, but said he might like to.
An awesome hit on Bof A by the inimitable Yes Men. And I do suggest that you visit YourBofA.com while you still can, submit your ideas for how we, the taxpayers and future owners of BofA would do it better, and even create your own ad campaign for them/us! I’ll say it again, simply brilliant!
I called on my pal, pundit, author, columnist and PR man, Cliff Schecter to comment on that, as well as the assholery that is Ted Nugent and Mitt Romney, the latest on ALEC, and the other bizarre stories in the news today.
And, in the second hour, I spoke with another friend, Sara Robinson. She is the recently installed editor of the Visions section of AlterNet, where she uses her credentials as an accredited Futurist to help us navigate our path forward. We discussed her latest piece, “6 People You Need to Start a Revolution”, which should be required reading for every OWS activist!
Tomorrow on the show, the latest on ALEC with Lisa Graves of Center for Media & Democracy and ALECexposed, and John Fugelsang too!
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Today is tax day, but there are many among us who don’t want to pay their fair share of taxes. If Paul Ryan – who gives a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged to all of his staffers and requires they read it - had his way, the wealthiest among us would pay even less in taxes than they already do, while the rest of us would get hit with a bigger bill each year at this time.
But at what cost? We’re already headed on the road to austerity. The rich keep getting richer while the rest of us get screwed.
This morning was the perfect day to speak with my friend Stephen Goldstein about his forthcoming novel, Atlas Drugged – Ayn Rand Be Damned. It’s the story of a twisted reality in the re-name Corporate States of America, 67 years after the John Galt-led “restoration” - and we see a dystopian future that is eerily reminiscent of what’s going on today, but with an even greater divide between the 1% and the 99%, OWS encampments known as “Coopervilles” for then-President Cooper, and a Free For All system of economics that is all about the individual, everyone else be damned.
In addition to Atlas Drugged, Stephen has another new book out. This one, non-fiction, When My Mother No Longer Knew My Name: A Son’s “Course” in “Rational” Caregiving.
He’s also my favorite columnist at the South Florida Sun Sentinel…
It’s Tuesday, that means @GottaLaff on the show… Today, we talked about these stories and more…
Ann Romney’s Birthday Party to be Hosted by a Dude Arrested for Barbecuing a Dog
I’ve raised twins, and I have a hunch President Obama works harder than I do.
Mitt Romney adviser admits his boss is a fraud: He only “SOUNDED” “anti-immigrant”.
GOP, Dem politicians: S. Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s new memoir “fiction”, she “just makes stuff up”
Best New Thing of the Day: “Cash mobs” boost small businesses
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I am Woman. And the GOP has it in for me. Oh yes, they twist everything around and claim that the Democrats and the Obama administration are the ones waging war on the fairer sex, but we know better.
We know who wants being a woman to continue to be classified as a “pre-existing condition and having given birth as one too… even having been raped! (Yes, that’s the party that sides with the for-profit health insurance industry (extortionists). We know who voted against the Violence Against Women Act and even the Lilly Ledbetter Act that would require equal pay for women…
We women know – we are, after all, much smarter than your average man…
Today on the show, we talk about the ridiculous news cycle dealing with Hilary Rosen’s Ann Romney work comment…. I’ll also speak with Nick Steffens of the Broward County chapter of Awake the State about tomorrow’s 3 Stooges tax day Rallies, Blue America endorsed congressional candidate Trevor Thomas and Crooks and Liars‘ Nicole Belle…
Nicole brought us these stories today, as we recap the Sunday talking head shows for our weekly Fools on the Hill segment:
The Romney campaign’s successful attempt to distract the media into a discussion of whether stay-at-home moms really work meant that the Sunday shows would continue the same discussion, with absolutely no awareness that it was never at issue.
And no one embodies a total lack of awareness better than Michele Bachmann. Bachmann told David Gregory that it wasn’t true that the Republicans want to restrict contraception, insisting that women ‘can make their own choices for their own bodies’. How, you ask? By health savings accounts. Because otherwise, Obamacare makes Obama a ‘health dictator’. I swear I’m not making that up.
The voice of reason against such insanity was Kristen Gillibrand who reminded David Gregory and the Meet the Press audience that no matter how much lip service the Republican Party and its presumptive nominee say they respect women, it was Mitt Romney’s self-professed hero Scott Walker, Republican governor of Wisconsin, who just signed away equal pay for women.
While technically not a Sunday show—this segment aired Saturday—Chris Hayes pointed out that Hilary Rosen is hardly a good representative of the left or of the 99 percent. And while Hayes aimed his barbs at CNN, the same can be said of all the news outlets—none of them represent the working class and their interests well or fairly most of the time.
But guess who actually did call out a Republican lie (albeit without calling it a lie) on the working class? Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, who challenged an ongoing Romney claim that 92.3 percent of all the jobs lost during the Obama presidency were lost by women after senior adviser Ed Gillespie tried it. He told Gillespie that this little bit of an accounting trick is misleading.
But don’t think that is indicative of the larger media. No, no, no…George Stephanopoulos decided to go to the most incisive, most important aspect of the “Mommy Wars”: whether it meant President Obama would have to cut ties to Bill Maher. You read that right. Because Bill Maher defended Hilary Rosen’s comments (when everyone else, from both Obamas, to Biden, to the DNC quickly distanced themselves from her), what Stephanopoulos really wanted to know was whether the $1million donation posed a problem for the president. And this is from a former Democratic operative.
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Joe McCarthy = Allen West
I take one morning off and everything goes insane! Seriously, as I watched a parade of ridiculous events transpire Tuesday afternoon and evening, all I could think was that it figures, I’d be off the air the following day.
So, today’s show began with a recap of the madness…
First, Rick “Frothy” Santorum pulls out – of the presidential race, that is. Aww shucks, sorry to see his campaign come to an end (or not).
Then, George W. Bush emerged from the shadows to remind us of his lack of brains. One direct quote: “If you raise taxes inotherwords (I think) if you let the I wish they weren’t called the Bush tax cuts. If they’re called some other body’s tax cuts they’re probly less likely to less likely to … to be raised.. hyuh. “ Seriously. Watch for yourself:
As if that weren’t nearly enough, George Zimmmerman’s attorneys called a press conference to announce that they were dropping their client because he hadn’t responded to them in two days, but added in a surreal event that they’d be happy to take him back if he’d just call!
And, to top it all off, Allen West proved to the rest of the world that he’s certifiably insane. At another event he calls a town hall meeting (but is really nothing more than a lecture, as no constituents are actually allowed to engage their congressman), he asserted that the members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are all card-carrying Communists! Again, I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried….
And that’s the man that Sarah Palin and others want Romney to choose as his running mate. I know why Palin wants that; it’ll make her look almost qualified!
So, after bringing us all up to date on that … I spoke with Chase Madar – civil rights attorney and author of the new book, The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story of the Suspect Behind the Largest Breach in US History.
In the second hour, I told about my day yesterday at the Carnival shareholders meeting, and spoke with Jose Suarez of 1Miami, who organized the protest there.
As the tens of elderly Carnival Cruise Lines shareholders stood in line to enter the annual meeting, held today at the very swank W Hotel on South Miami Beach, they looked around at the dozens of young, black and otherwise out-of-place-looking people who invaded their usually quiet space. Apparently this meeting usually attracts 20 people. Today was different.
After a lovely continental breakfast and visual scrutiny,I sat down inside the meeting room. One of the two gentlemen seated to my right said something about him being “security”. I asked if they expected any trouble, stifling a knowing giggle, when the other one said, “Well, they’re probably going to get some grief about the Concordia accident while the board all wants raises.”
Interesting, I thought. I was just there to take notes and write about what happened today.
No trouble was planned, just a few groups of people – all shareholders, like myself. I purchased one share of Carnival stock a few months ago in order to gain access to this mornings proceedings. Many of the others were going to ask Micky Arison, the chairman of Carnival Cruise Lines, why his company doesn’t pay their fair share of income taxes.
But before the Q & A session, we had to sit through the power point presentation from hell.
You can see it for yourself here, for the next few days, anyway. The entire meeting was supposed to be webcast live. However, once some of the shareholders began asking critical questions, the feed was replaced with music, then ended altogether. The archived “webcast” available on the Carnival corporation website somehow has all of the questions edited out. Nice transparency for all of the shareholders who couldn’t attend (written in the same tone used by Micky Arison while “answering” our questions).
Luckily for me there was no rule prohibiting the recording of the meeting on the rule sheet handed to us upon entering, so I started the recorder on my cell phone, put it back in my purse, and set it on the floor next to me.
It captured just under 25 minutes of the tough questioning and horribly sarcastic and condescending tone with which Arison responded. Click here to listen.
The majority of the questions asked had to do with the fact that Carnival Cruise Lines is a corporate tax dodger. In April 2011, Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization published a study called “The Artful Dodgers” in which they identified a dozen multinational corporations who spent a Billion Dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions, and avoided paying taxes.
About Carnival, they found
Carnival Cruise Lines relies heavily on federal and local governments to keeps its ships safe from pirates and to build the port complexes required for its massive ships, yet the company also pays among the lowest total tax rates of any American corporation. According to the New York Times, “Over the last five years, [Carnival] has paid total corporate taxes—federal, state, local, and foreign—equal to only 1.1 percent of its cumulative $11.3 billion in profits.” The company is able to do this because its ships are legally registered in Panama, allowing the firm to shelter its profits there, though it also pays very little in Panamanian taxes.21
Carnival spends a tremendous amount of money trying to influence policymakers in order to protect its lucrative tax position. Over the last ten years the company’s PAC and employees have given $1.7 million in federal campaign contributions, with $131,099 of that going to members of the House Ways and Means Committee and another $100,300 to members of the Senate Finance Committee. The company also spent $1.6 million on lobbying expenditures during that period.
Quick Facts on Carnival
Campaign Contributions: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $1.7 million
Lobbying Expenditures: Total Over 10 Years (2001-2010), $1.6 million
Profits over Last 5 Years: $11.3 billion
Taxes Paid for Last 5 Years: 1.1 percent
Yet, when asked about Carnival’s failure to pay their fair share of taxes, Arison claimed, numerous times, that they “paid $400 million in taxes and fees world wide.” I really wanted someone to ask what they paid here in the US!
My favorite question came from a man who didn’t give his name. He identified himself as a shareholder, and thanked the board for “having us.” He continued to thank them for their good work, and “making this such a tremendously profitable corporation, the most profitable corporation here in Miami-Dade County.”
As there was a smattering of people who got up to the mic and delighted in saying that they held 900 or 1000 shares – and were quite peeved at the lowly one-share holders for invading their inner sanctum, I was pretty convinced he was one of them.
He continued, “My question regards how we are responding to the loss of public trust over the recent disaster, and whether we thought of one idea that I had that really hasn’t been kicked around by our experts. What if we just (pause) pay our fair share in taxes, and make a big deal about it, because not many other people do? In the last three years, we made 5.6 billion in profits, and avoided about 1.2 billion in taxes. We paid more for lobbyists than we did in taxes, and that’s pretty common practice, it’s not just us.”
At that point, Micky Arison cut in and said “Regardless of how many times I say 400 million, you’re just going to ignore what I say, right?” To which the questioner responded, “Exactly.”
Arison threw out some more nonsense, and someone shouted out the question I had been waiting for, “How much taxes did you pay in the United States?” His response: “If you want to see what the industry pays in the US and the economic impact, look at the CLIA website…” (Note: I did. The information isn’t there. Regardless, the question wasn’t about the industry! It was about Carnival.)
Then came what I considered the threat. Arison basically said that if they paid their fair share of taxes, Florida would suffer. His exact quote was “The reality is that if you want to make Florida uncompetitive globally, in shipping or in the cruise industry, it’ll cost Florida tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of dollars. This is a global economy, this is a global industry” blah blah blah….
Not being one know to hold her tongue, I had enough. I stood up and got in line. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the recorder in my purse, because it shut off before I took the mic.
But to the best of my recollection, when my turn came, I began by explaining that I, too, am a shareholder. I said I wasn’t planning on asking a question, but listening to what had transpired thus far sparked a few.
The power-point presentation at the top went to great lengths to show the safety measures instituted since the Costa Concordia disaster in Italy (and the big losses suffered by Carnival as a result). I said that from all the accounts I had read, it was a cocky captain who was showing off by taking the ship too close to land. Arison basically said that they had safety regulations, the crew was top notch and knew what it was doing, but the media blew it all out of proportion.
Earlier in the session, he had remarked that “only” five of their ships were based at the Port of Miami. I asked where those ships were registered. I believe he harrumphed a few times, pleaded ignorance, and turned to the board members, who told him Panama and somewhere else.. I asked “Why not here?” and he harrumphed some more. Someone in the audience shouted out “too expensive” and I asked him if that was it.
He then went on to say something about how not only could they not register the ships here, they can’t build them here either! To which I asked, shocked, “You don’t build them here?” And as he tried to explain why, all I heard was him saying American ship building expertise doesn’t exist. Wow.
But I wasn’t done. There was that question bugging me that he still didn’t answer. “Mr. Arison,” I said. “You keep mentioning that Carnival paid $400 million in taxes and fees worldwide. What did you pay in US corporate income tax? The last time I checked, it was 35%. Did you pay 35%?”
He replied that Carnival is not a US corporation. I asked him “then why are you here?” and he went back into his threat about what would happen to Florida if they took their non-tax-paying asses and left.
At the same time, some pissed-off looking guy came and took away the microphone, and the people in the room began quietly chanting, “Pay your fair share, Pay your fair share.” A few dozen got up, chanting even louder, while exiting the room.
I decided to stay a bit longer to see what Arison would say after they left. It was pretty much what I expected… “They’re doing more harm than good. It’s part of the occupy movement. In New York, it’s called Occupy Wall Street. Here, it’s 1Miami. It’s a free country. Everyone is entitled to buy a share.”
The next guy in line began by proclaiming that he owns 1000 shares of Carnival, and travels with them frequently. He complained that at the end of every trip, there are comment cards asking for their favorite thing about the cruise, but no place to complain. He wanted them to know that he wants deli mustard in the deli instead of the yellow kind.
