[bestbits] The Googlization of the Far Right ....

[Guru गुरु]

This was bound to happen.... with loosening regulation of spending on 
political purposes, deep pockets especially of Internet based businesses 
will push private interests and hurt democracy, in the US and 
globally... something for IG CS to be concerned about...

regards
Guru


http://truth-out.org/news/item/20372-the-googlization-of-the-far-right-why-is-google-funding-grover-norquist-heritage-action-and-alec

excerpts....

"Political spending for corporations is purely transactional. It is all 
about getting policies that maximize profitability," Bob McChesney told 
CMD. “So even ostensibly hip companies like Google invariably spend 
lavishly to support groups and politicians that pursue decidedly 
anti-democratic policy outcomes. It is why sane democracies strictly 
regulate or even prohibit such spending, regarding it accurately as a 
cancer for democratic governance." Professor McChesney co-founded the 
media reform group Free Press in 2002, and this year authored How 
Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy.....


....Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), the anti-government group run by 
Republican operative Grover Norquist, was another new recipient of 
funding from Google in 2013. ATR is best known 
<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Tax_Reform> for its 
“Taxpayer Protection Pledge,” and for its fundamentalist attacks on any 
Republican who might dare to vote for any increase in taxes. According 
to the Center for Responsive Politics, ATR received 85% of its funding 
in 2012 
<http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/11/atrs-tax-forms-raise-questions-about-use-of-crossroads-grant-social-welfare-purpose.html> ($26.4 
million) from the ultra-partisan Karl Rove-run Crossroads GPS, another 
dark money group.

ATR President Grover Norquist infamously said that he wants to shrink 
government "down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." 
<http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Grover_Norquist> Google’s 
position on the relative size of government versus bathtubs is not 
known, but according to a Bloomberg analysis 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-22/google-joins-apple-avoiding-taxes-with-stateless-income.html> of 
Google’s U.S. corporate filings, it avoids approximately $2 billion 
dollars globally in tax payments each year through the use of creative 
tax shelters.

Bloomberg reported 
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-22/google-joins-apple-avoiding-taxes-with-stateless-income.html> in 
May 2013 that in France alone Google is in the midst of a dispute over 
more than $1 billion in unpaid taxes that have been alleged. An August 
2013 report by U.S. PIRG – “Offshore Shell Games 
<http://uspirg.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/Offshore_Shell_Games_USPIRG.pdf>” 
-- found that Google is now holding more than $33 billion dollars 
offshore, avoiding taxes on these earnings in the United States.

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