Go to any gathering, and you’ll find nearly every person carrying an iPhone or an iPad, despite the Apple Computer’s dismal record on labor practices. Apple executives must be laughing all the way to the bank — their Swiss bank, that is.
In its fourth quarter earnings report released last week, Apple Computer revealed that 2/3 of its on-hand cash – some $54 billion — is squirreled away outside the boundaries of the United States, presumably to avoid paying its fair share of taxes. In the meantime, reports Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM), a Hong Kong-based group, Apple’s major manufacturing contractors routinely subject employees to forced overtime, wage theft and no breaks — and even unprotected exposure to toxins.
Apple, together with rival tech firm Google, have been lobbying for a “tax holiday” that would allow them to bring some of those billions into the U.S. at a lower tax rate, promising that to do so would create jobs. But, as we reported, a similar measure tried in 2004 created few jobs, and instead rewarded companies that had kept their money overseas. Where Apple has created jobs is in China, where the workers who make its slick products are made to work in deplorable conditions.
A new SACOM report, “The iSlave Behind the iPhone: Foxconn Workers in Central China,” examines conditions at the Apple Computer contractor’s plant since the suicides of nine workers last year made big news. One thing that has changed: workers were given a raise — to all of $1.18 an hour. But workers are often shorted overtime pay, SACOM reports, and Foxconn even illegally withheld, during the Chinese New Year, payment for overtime already worked in order to prevent workers from taking the traditional holiday to visit their families.
Most workers in these factories are migrants; the corporations deliberately build facilities in lower-populated areas where wages are lower. Not that labor costs account for much of the cost of an Apple product. According to Sophia Cheng, writing at the SACOM Web site:
Take the iPad, for example, which is the sole item produced at Foxconn’s 100,000-worker factory in Chengdu. Industry analyst iSuppli estimates that Apple spends only $9 on labor for every $499 iPad.
In SACOM’s latest report — whose release was timed to coincide with the opening of the first Apple Store in opulent Hong Kong — workers complain of deplorable dormitory conditions, where access to electricity and water is routinely cut, and of the exploitative fees they are made to pay to Foxconn for their room and board.
Workers say they are also made to stand for 10 hours at a time without taking breaks, and subjected to abusive behavior by supervisors, including being made to sign confessional letters when accused of making a mistake or infraction. In China, labor unions are run by the state, so when workers act on their own to strike, as they did at United Win, another Apple contractor, in 2010, they risk legal sanction.
Download the full report, The iSlave Behind the iPhone: “Foxconn Workers in Central China,”here in a PDF file.
At least 127 people have been killed in separate US assassination drone strikes in Somalia and Pakistan's northwestern tribal region bordering Afghanistan over the past two days. Continue
US Killed Over 1,500 Afghan Civilians in 10 Months
By Gareth Porter U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) killed well over 1,500 civilians in night raids in less than 10 months in 2010 and early 2011, analysis of official statistics on the raids released by the U.S.-NATO command reveals. Continue
Every day that passes adds to the fraudulent image of what is called Western democracy.
Sarkozy and Merkel meet with Greece’s Prime Minister Papandreou at a G20 summit in Cannes.
Consider that the entire Western world is outraged that the Greek prime minister announced that he is going to permit the Greek people to decide their own fate instead of having it decided for them by a handful of banksters, politicians, and bureaucrats living it up at taxpayer expense at “talks” in the French resort of Cannes on the Mediterranean.
The Greek economy is facing its fourth year of decline and lacks the revenues to service its national debt held by private European banks. The banks don’t want to lose any money, so a handful of power brokers reached an agreement with representatives of the Greek government to write off some of the debt in exchange for EU capital subsidies to be financed by inflicting severe austerity on the Greek population. Wages, salaries, pensions and medical care are being cut while the rate of unemployment rises to depression levels. Government employees are laid off. Valuable public properties are to be sold to private parties for pennies on the dollar. In short, Greece is to be looted.
Large numbers of Greeks have been in the streets protesting the austerity policy and have reached the point of anger of throwing Molotov cocktails at the police. Greece is disintegrating politically. The Greek people sense that the EU “bailout” is not bailing out Greece. It is bailing out the French, Dutch, and German banks at the expense of the Greek people.
The Greek prime minister, watching his party’s support and power crumble, announced that he would let the people decide in a referendum. After all, allegedly that’s what democracies do. But it turns out that “we have freedom and democracy” is not supposed to be taken literally. It is merely a propagandistic slogan behind which people are ruled through back-room deals decided by powerful private interests.
The Greek prime minister’s announcement that he would put the back-room bailout deal to a referendum shocked the EU hierarchy, Washington, and investors. Who does this Greek guy think he is permitting the people, who bear the cost of the deal, to have a say in it? Who let this Greek guy out of his cage? This is not the way democracies are ruled.
The EU power brokers are outraged over the Greek prime minister’s departure from normal procedure. But the Greek PM is relying on the Greek people to approve the deal, and not without reason.
The Greek people have been brainwashed for decades as to the importance of “being part of Europe.” That means being a member of the European Union. When the Greeks realize that voting down the bailout of the banksters means being thrown out of the European Union, which is what they will learn between now and the referendum, they will vote for the back room deal.
Polls already indicate this. A poll for a Greek newspaper indicates that whereas 46% oppose the bailout, 70% favor staying in the EU, which the Greeks see as a life or death issue.
If this poll is a reliable indicator, the Greek PM has made a brilliant political decision. The Greek people will vote in favor of what they have been protesting violently in the streets. As the Greek people will do themselves in, the politicians are off the hook. This is the bet that the Greek PM has placed.
Whatever the outcome, keep in mind that the entire Western political and investor world was shocked that a politician, instead of simply imposing a back room deal, said he would let the people decide. Letting the people decide is a no-no in Western democracies.
If you need more evidence of this mythical creature called “Western democracy,” consider that Western governments are no longer accountable to law. Contrast, for example, the sexual harassment charges that are plaguing US presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign with the pass given to high government officials who clearly violated statutory law.
What follows is not a defense of Cain. I take no position on the charges. The real point is different. In America the only thing that can ruin a politician is his interest in sex. A politician, for example, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, B. Omama, cannot be ruined by violating United States and international law or by treating the US Constitution as a “mere scrap of paper.” Bush and Cheney can take America to wars based entirely on lies and orchestrated deceptions. They can commit war crimes, murdering large numbers of civilians in the cause of “the war on terror,” itself a hoax. They can violate US and international laws against torture simply “because the president said so.” They can throw away habeas corpus, the constitutional requirement that a person cannot be imprisoned without evidence presented to a court. They can deny the right to an attorney. They can violate the law and spy on Americans without obtaining warrants. They can send due process to hell. In fact, they can do whatever they want just like Hitler’s Gestapo and Stalin’s secret police. But if they show undue interest in a woman or proposition a woman, they are dead meat.
Very few commentators have said a word about this. The House of Representatives did not impeach President Bill Clinton for his war crimes against Serbia. They impeached him for lying about a sexual affair with a White House intern. The US Senate, which had too many sexual affairs of its own to defend, didn’t bother to try to convict.
This is Amerika today. A president without any authority whatsoever, not in law and certainly not in the Constitution, can assassinate US citizens based on nothing except an assertion that they are a “threat.” No evidence is required. No conviction. No presentation of evidence in any court. Just a murder. That is now permissible to the Amerikan president. But let him try to get a woman who is not his wife into bed, and he is a cooked goose.
In Amerika there is no such thing any longer as torture; there is only “enhanced interrogation.” A mere word change has eliminated the crime. So torture is permissible.
In Amerika today, or in the UK and the EU, anyone who tells the truth is a “threat.” Julian Assange of Wikileaks, who made public information leaked to him by US government sources horrified by the criminal actions of the United States government, is now, as a result of Amerikan pressure on UK courts, being turned over to Sweden, which, for favors from the “world’s only superpower,” will turn him over to the US regardless of law to be prosecuted on trumped-up charges.
Western “civilization” is totally corrupted by American money. There is no integrity anywhere. For a decade Washington has been murdering women, children, village elders, and journalists in the name of the hoax “war on terror.”
What terror does the world actually see? The world sees the terror that Israel, protected by Washington, inflicts on the Palestinians. The world sees the terror that the US inflicts on Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Latin America and now Africa, with Syria, Lebanon, and Iran waiting in the wings. The “war on terror” is nothing but an orchestrated invented excuse for Amerika-Israel to achieve hegemony while enriching their armaments industries.
In Greece, at least the PM committed to giving the people a say in their fate. In America the people have no voice whatsoever. The sheeple are content to be protected by “security,” porno-scanners, warrantless wiretapping, indefinite detention, and sexual groping. To carry on the hoax “war on terror,” the US government has elevated itself above the law.
The American effort to achieve accountability to law, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement, if not shut down by cold weather, ice, and snow, is likely to be shut down by police violence. One riot begun by provocateurs is all it takes to transform protesters into “domestic extremists,” the number one concern of Homeland Security. The presstitute media will make the case against the rioters, and the sheeple will buy it.
The police have been militarized by Washington. Community police forces no longer represent the local public that pays their salaries. Local police represent Washington’s war against America.
American citizens are all suspects. Anyone who goes through airport security knows this. The only law that the US government obeys is not even a law. It is a bureaucratic regulation that prevents, even in dire wartime, any profiling of suspects by ethnicity or country of origin.
Consequently, all native born, flag-waving, American super-patriots are suspects when they board commercial airliners. Americans who have a life time of security clearances are subject to being porno-scanned or sexually groped. Airport Security cannot tell a “terrorist” from a CIA analyst, a Marine general or a US Senator.
Well-connected members of the ruling elite, such as Michael Chertoff, can become rich from selling the porto-scanners to taxpayers in order “to protect the public from terrorists.”
The only terrorists Americans will ever experience are those funded by their own tax dollars within their “own” government. A people incapable of perceiving its real peril has no chance of surviving. America might be a military superpower, but it no longer exists as a free country with accountable government and a rule of law.
Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating. ________
Rick Perry's crazy, wacky and absurd speech at an event in New Hampshire is revealing on so many levels. People are saying he was drunk or on drugs. But I think it's deeper than that.
Perry is obviously losing it. He can't contain his fruity nature under the national spotlight. Politics is a big charade that involves repeating a lot of slogans, and it seems Perry is getting sick of saying "Balance The Budget," and "Cut The Government," and "Grow The Economy."
And it's not just Rick Perry who is experiencing some sort of mental collapse or emotional meltdown.
The trend of mental collapse among high-profile U.S. politicians is very visible in the last days of the U.S. empire.
U.S. political leaders are keeping world-changing secrets from the public. And they have a false persona which they present to the American people. Hence their bizarre episodes of mental collapse.
There is John "Insane" McCain who I'm pretty sure is a retard.
Dick Cheney is considered a psychotic and a paranoid mad man by a lot of people, not just so called conspiracy theorists.
George W. Bush was losing his mind, and gave bizarre answers to questions at press conferences.
Barack Obama can't give well structured speeches without the use of a teleprompter. He is not balanced mentally or emotionally. He is not fit to be President.
Herman Cain is another creepy politician who enjoys manipulating people.
I don't want to pick on just American politicians. Israel's Bibi Netanyahu is a crazy demon who wants a war with Iran.
I usually concentrate on the destructive policies that these creepy and insane politicians support. I avoid talking about their personal and psychological problems. I think it is a low blow to talk about Perry's homosexuality.
But it is important that we realize that many of these political puppets are destructive beings who are suppressing both state secrets and personal secrets. Destructive beings = destructive policies. The power elite only raise up politicians to high office who are either brain damaged, clinically insane, psychologically traumatized, mentally retarded, or emotionally screwed up. Like a Saran Palin, a Rick Perry, a Barack Obama, a George Bush, etc.
There is no question that high-profile politicians like Perry and Obama are emotionally and psychologically broken individuals. Presenting a fake face to the public takes a lot of emotional toll on an individual.
The shadow kingmakers and puppet-masters who put Obama and Perry in the spotlight are living in the safe distance. They don't suffer from the psychological consequences that comes with lying to the public on a 24/7 basis.
But with manufactured political stars and phony politicians who tell lies for a living, it is a different story. These men lead shadow lives as well as political lives. Some people can handle putting on a false persona, living with a double personality, and lying to the public because of their unique psychological make up.
But every once in awhile a politician like Rick Perry breaks loose from his false persona and starts to act in public the way he acts in private. They stop being a actor. Perry, whose persona is a "macho tough guy," showed his true self in his speech in New Hampshire - a giddy, weird and crazy individual.
Maybe I'm over analyzing and these politicians are just brain dead stupid who love manipulating people.
Palin, Bush, Perry, Obama, McCain, - all of them have very low IQ. They have rocks in their heads. And these are the leading political stars in American politics.
"I testified before the Senate Finance Committee under Max Baucus about a year and a half ago, and the subject was Cuba. But, all of a sudden, some other issues came up, as they are want to do.
And Mr. Bunning over here, the Senator who is now railing against and held up some things because of the deficit spending and everything, I made a remark that China had 1.2, 1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in its current account plus, and I said I was concerned about that. And this is what this Senator who is now so concerned about deficit spending said back to me, he said, 'That's alright Colonel, there's plenty more where those came from.'
Two-faced bastard.
But worse. Worse. It's not just duplicity or two-facedness. He's stupid.
And, frankly, I'm not sure that in our Senate and in our House of Representatives there are more than a handful of not stupid people.
That scares me more than they being all criminals."
Col. Wilkerson said the last part with a straight face and a serious tone.
This is no laughing matter.
I am more afraid of the Rick Perrys of politics than the Dick Cheneys. I can handle evil men in power, but seeing stupid men in power is terrifying.
