Eat The Rich

The Guardian | £13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

becoming-wave:

A global super-rich elite has exploited gaps in cross-border tax rules to hide an extraordinary £13 trillion ($21tn) of wealth offshore – as much as the American and Japanese GDPs put together – according to research commissioned by the campaign group Tax Justice Network.

James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, has compiled the most detailed estimates yet of the size of the offshore economy in a new report, The Price of Offshore Revisited, released exclusively to the Observer.

The sheer size of the cash pile sitting out of reach of tax authorities is so great that it suggests standard measures of inequality radically underestimate the true gap between rich and poor. According to Henry’s calculations, £6.3tn of assets is owned by only 92,000 people, or 0.001% of the world’s population – a tiny class of the mega-rich who have more in common with each other than those at the bottom of the income scale in their own societies.

“These estimates reveal a staggering failure: inequality is much, much worse than official statistics show, but politicians are still relying on trickle-down to transfer wealth to poorer people,” said John Christensen of the Tax Justice Network. “People on the street have no illusions about how unfair the situation has become.”

Good lord.

These are the people whose hearts I would eat straight from their chests.

(Source: towerofsleep, via tanacetum-vulgare)

Beloved Community... (Asking for Help)

spaceykate:

queershoulder:

After much urging from friends & mentors, I’m starting an Indie-Go-Go campaign to get myself out of $8,000 (yikes) of combined medical & dental debt. Please consider donating — no amount is too small, and every bit helps. If you’re not able to make a monetary donation, please consider spreading the word about this campaign. Re-post, share, blog, tweet about it, etc. Every single bit of help is deeply appreciated.

Please check this one out. Gina de Vries, on top of being one of the finest and sweetest people it has ever been my pleasure to know and a femme icon, is a genuinely brilliant author and performing artist, and she’s the co-creator (with Julia Serano) of “Girl Talk: A Tans & Cis Women’s Dialogue,” and she needs help.

Anybody who’s ever had to pay for anything out-of-pocket ever knows how crushing medical debt can be (and if you don’t, trust me, it’s murder). Even a few dollars can help immensely.

Even if you can’t donate (or even if you do!), please reblog so that other folks can see!

seventh crow speaking: When a "die-hard conservative Republican" woman moves to Canada and encounters the universal healthcare there, cultures...

stfuconservatives:

rabbleprochoice:

abaldwin360:

by Vyckie Garrison | Reality Check

When I moved to Canada in 2008, I was a die-hard conservative Republican. So when I found out that we were going to be covered by Canada’s Universal Health Care, I was somewhat…

One day I’ll get to the doctor again. Hopefully it doesn’t take moving to Canada to get there.

(via alasmypetticoats)

Gardener Sues Tulsa for Cutting Down Her Edible Garden

barfmongrel:

afterromulus:

blackamazon:

humanformat:

KOTV reports that Denise Morrison grows an edible and medicinal garden of over 100 plant varieties in her front and back yard. Last August, she received a letter from the city reporting a complaint about her yard.

She took photographs of her gardens and went to meet with city inspectors who told her “Everything, everything need to go” when she asked for problem areas to be pointed out.

Upon hearing that all of her garden would have to be destroyed she called the police who issued her a citation so she could appear in court and work it out with the city. At her court hearing on August 15 the judge directed both parties to return to court in October.

The very next day, Morrison found, and photographed, city workers cutting down most of her plants-with what appears to be a bobcat and riding lawnmower- including trees that bore fruits and nuts. It is important to point out here that the city did not have permission to take action against the garden because the judge had put off hearing their case until October.

Everything that Morrison grew could be eaten. At the time the gardener was unemployed and not covered by insurance.She used her garden not only to feed herself, but to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure and arthritis. According to Morrison, when she explained this to the enforcement officials she was told “we don’t care.” Morrison has filed a civil rights lawsuit arguing that the enforcement officials overstepped their bounds.

If this is sounding familiar to you it’s because gardens like Morrison’s are always coming under attack. Remember the story of Adam Guerrero last year that made national headlines after Colleen blogged about it here at TreeHugger?

I wish Morrison all the luck with her lawsuit because gardens are a civil right.

[snipped for length, tyvm]

I understand that this story would be really enraging if it were true. Like. I get that. I do. My knee jerk reaction was a pretty strong one, but there is absolutely no reason to buy this woman’s story. I’m not saying she deserves to be totally dismissed; it’s just we’re getting a pretty bias angle on the issue, here. We might as well take it with a grain of salt. Search this case on google, and you’ll find no unbiased or particularly reputable news organizations covering this story, or even one without an obvious, specific agenda to promote.

There might be a reason for that: we only have this woman’s word to go on. The City of Tulsa has been unable to comment. You don’t gaggle around a news story that involves two aggravated parties without getting at least more than one source. Can we just wait for the defense to speak without jumping to the conclusion that the government is victimizing this woman? Seems kinda dirty to me. makes me all itchy and whatnot.

Oh hey look, a person with the points I should have known well enough to consider before mindlessly reblobbing this. The thing about tumblr is that we want to trust everything that comes across our dash looking legitimate, but, like any news source— especially a semi-anonymous, crowdsourced news source— we need to keep an eye out for actual facts. We can’t just trust journalists, even when we think they’re on our side. Everyone has a bias. Everybody’s getting paid to promote one agenda or the other.

(Source: theboulderrollingsociety)

Gardener Sues Tulsa for Cutting Down Her Edible Garden

blackamazon:

humanformat:

KOTV reports that Denise Morrison grows an edible and medicinal garden of over 100 plant varieties in her front and back yard. Last August, she received a letter from the city reporting a complaint about her yard.

She took photographs of her gardens and went to meet with city inspectors who told her “Everything, everything need to go” when she asked for problem areas to be pointed out.

Upon hearing that all of her garden would have to be destroyed she called the police who issued her a citation so she could appear in court and work it out with the city. At her court hearing on August 15 the judge directed both parties to return to court in October.

The very next day, Morrison found, and photographed, city workers cutting down most of her plants-with what appears to be a bobcat and riding lawnmower- including trees that bore fruits and nuts. It is important to point out here that the city did not have permission to take action against the garden because the judge had put off hearing their case until October.

Everything that Morrison grew could be eaten. At the time the gardener was unemployed and not covered by insurance.She used her garden not only to feed herself, but to treat her diabetes, high-blood pressure and arthritis. According to Morrison, when she explained this to the enforcement officials she was told “we don’t care.” Morrison has filed a civil rights lawsuit arguing that the enforcement officials overstepped their bounds.

If this is sounding familiar to you it’s because gardens like Morrison’s are always coming under attack. Remember the story of Adam Guerrero last year that made national headlines after Colleen blogged about it here at TreeHugger?

I wish Morrison all the luck with her lawsuit because gardens are a civil right.

Self-sufficiency is a fucking crime now?

Don’t ask for help, they say

Don’t depend on handouts they say

Don’t expect shit.

And when they see what that actually looks like

They take a BOBCAT to your property.

Tell me some more about how they don’t depend on our QUIET UNOBTRUSIVE suffering again

Tulsa is my home town.

(Source: theboulderrollingsociety, via transartorialism)

Gadabout Green's Misadventures: karnythia: misspepita: rubato: man so I just got back from my...

karnythia:

misspepita:

rubato:

man so I just got back from my grandparents’ place

(it was pretty awesome to just talk in mandarin for like three hours ‘cause I never do that)

my grandma made these pork chops that my brother likes, and she was packing up a couple for me to…