F. Left News

The Trump administration is trying to allow more electric bikes onto national park trails, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). New rules being finalized by the National Park Service (NPS) weaken the environmental reviews required under a successful PEER lawsuit brought during the first Trump term challenging an attempt to allow e-bikes wherever pedal bikes are allowed to travel.

Today marks the end of the public comment period for these proposed new rules. In its public comments, PEER raises concerns that the rules expanding e-bike access to park trails:

• lack any provisions to monitor or prevent injuries and conflicts with other trail users, such as hikers and horseback riders;
• do not address disturbing wildlife or the danger of wildfires caused by overheated e-bike batteries; and
• dramatically reduce public involvement in decisions to expand e-bike access.

“This is yet another example of the Trump administration’s deep aversion to considering consequences before acting,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, noting that the primary rationale for the rules are executive orders promoting deregulation and reducing environmental reviews. “Safeguards against abuse from e-bikes will depend upon shrinking cadres of park law enforcement rangers trying to cope with ever-growing demands on their time.”

One major issue PEER raises is e-bike access to park wildlands. While e-bikes and other mechanized transportation are not allowed inside congressionally designated wilderness, there are 26 million acres of park backcountry lacking such protection. Several “flagship” parks such as Yellowstone, Glacier, Big Bend, and Grand Canyon, for example, do not have any designated wilderness and are “protected” only by NPS policies that can be waived or changed. The proposed NPS rules open doors for park managers to allow e-bike access to backcountry trails.

“Our concern is that e-bikes could be allowed in the most remote, wild places within the national park system,” added Whitehouse, pointing out that PEER has no objection to e-bike access on paved roads or trails in parks’ developed front-country. “It will become harder to appreciate the wonder of nature above the constant whir of e-bike motors.”

Another complication is that the new NPS rules would not preempt the growing number of state laws governing e-bike equipment and use. As a result, future e-bike restrictions may vary widely from park to park.

###

Read the PEER comments

See NPS’ proposed rule

Look at vast park backcountry lacking wilderness protection

Revisit PEER e-bike lawsuit

Damn but we're tired of a racist, petty, what-about-me child in the White House. For solace: He's hopefully heading for the losingest fail of his long loser's life - and maybe a jail cell please? - and there are many, many people just as tired, with good shticks to match. This week saw some truly stellar trolling from, in turn, Obama, Norway and a heroic guy in South Carolina who managed to foist the Jonestown Massacre on the latest Nazi rally. Well done, all.

There's nothing like hearing Obama at his recent campaign appearances - in Georgia, Michigan, Ohio - to be starkly reminded there are no grown-ups left in the fake-gold-encrusted room of the current regime. Yes we know: he was seriously flawed, and failed to achieve much of what he promised. Still, it was bracing to see him smoothly obliterate the mad child-king, first with his crack about Saddam's Cheesecake Factory, then by skewering a president (sic) who spends his time "doing arts and crafts" in the Oval Office and who, after his just critiques of war, inflation, apocalyptic decline and "unprecedented corruption" chose to "mobilize a whole government response" not to those issues, but to a cheesecake joke: "This is what I mean. These are not serious people."

Next was Norway's gleeful response to Trump's petulant whining (still) about the Nobel prize won by "a woman nobody ever heard of" - Navanetham Pillay, a renowned South African jurist who's spent decades seeking accountability for war crimes, sexual violence and genocide from Rwanda to Gaza at the ICC and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - and not to him, who's "settled 8 (imaginary) wars and I've got 2 more coming." "'What about me?'" he bleated in Michigan of the "disgraceful" choice. "So I’m not in love with Norway. I don't want anybody from Norway. Frankly, Norway sucks. Norway has become a shithouse country, actually.” Thus did a sulky illiterate toddler toss (blond!) Norway in with Haiti, Libya, Somalia, mangling the "shithole" epithet en route.

Norwegian officials, evidently grown-ups, took the picayune insult and ran with it. First, they calmly noted Trump "knows very well" the prize isn't awarded by the government but by an independent Nobel committee. "We have reminded him of that, in case anyone is wondering," said Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Then he took pity on the wretched child. "The president is currently in the midst of an election campaign that perhaps isn't going very well for his party," he calmly added. "That leads him to say a lot of things." At home, Bernie Sanders slammed an "insane" babysitting task. "Norway is one of the most democratic and prosperous countries on earth. Free college, strong democracy, free press," he declared. "We have a mentally unbalanced president."

Norway, with just 5.6 million people, likewise boasts one of the world's highest gross national incomes and top ratings for education and life expectancy, its largest sovereign wealth fund, and for the 10th consecutive year first place in the World Press Freedom index. It also has some of the world's most dazzling landscapes - rugged fjords, thunderous waterfalls, sweeping vistas, colossal mountains along 18 designated Scenic Routes - along with, its tourism bureau happily brags, "some of the world's most spectacular toilets," many of them sleek, award-winning "architectural masterpieces" that combine minimalist designs with breathtaking views. "These toilets are worth a visit," they crow, "both when you really have to go - and when you don’t.”

"Yes, Donald, we are a 'shithouse country,'" proudly proclaims the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, taking Michelle Obama's famous "when they go low" approach under the news headline, "Straight Into the Toilet." Norway is, after all, "the home of the outhouse," they note, which many residents connect to the country's hardy traditions and longtime "cabin culture." Visit Norway, its official tourism board, went further, showcasing its striking "lovely lavatories." "We've heard some chatter about a 'shithouse country.' Well, what can we say? Norway makes shit houses great again!," they wrote, urging tourists to "take your time and enjoy. Yes, Norway has some spectacular scenery. It just happens to have some pretty spectacular toilets, too. With love, Visit Norway."

The site highlights the wave-shaped Ureddplassen toilet on the coast of Helgeland in the north, hailed by designers as the most scenic restroom in the world. Also the solar-powered bog at the Utsikten viewpoint, the elegant Tungeneset loo - “Looks pretty good under the Northern Lights” - and, for "the bully in kindergarten,” the triangular “Golden Toilet,” or “Gulldassen,” at Ersfjordstranda on Senja island, recently paired with a glamorous new silver service building: "If you are a mere mortal like us and can’t afford a gold-plated toilet seat, the Golden loo (on) Senja is the next best thing.” Coming soon: a forest-themed wooden loo made from over 60 trees "for the pit stop of your life." Visit Norway on the "immense" response: "The world needs a little laugh."

Finally, bravely facing off against the horrors of a vengeful, demented, badly-accordion-playing rapist implausibly in power comes "absolute legend" and hero without a cape Tom Hoyle, 57, a South Carolina graphics designer in a bushy beard, baseball cap and t-shirt for heavy metal band Death: "I look like you, but I'm not like you," he says of fortuitously blending into a MAGA mob. "I'm the vampire during the day." A longtime Republican until he wasn't, he runs MadPark Designs, which in recent dark days has done screen printing and embroidery for No Kings rallies, George Floyd protests, LGBTQ-led music org We Rock Charlotte etc. Now, MadPark is "being bombarded by 5-star reviews" thanks to Hoyle's unplanned "25 seconds of fame" at his local Nazi rally.

The backstory: Hoyle has hated Trump since his infamous 1980s attack on the Central Park Five, now Exonerated Five - "I decided, 'You're dead to me, and hopefully to everybody else'" - but what "pushed me over the edge" this week was the GOP calling his shop (wait, they do that?) to urge him to attend Friday's rally for clueless Darline Graham. "We despise that," he says, "so we thought we'd turn the tables on them, do something goofy and make some good trouble," maybe some friendly neighborhood heckling. He slipped in through security by "talking in circles" about heavy metal and his shirt: "Death is the most hardcore death metal. You see somebody in a Death shirt and you know they're interested in humanity." He didn't expect what came next: a Fox mike in his face.

His now-viral wisecrack (see below) was entirely off the cuff, though he recalled seeing memes comparing MAGA to 1978's gruesome Jonestown Massacre, a mass murder/suicide in Guyana wherein over 900 glassy-eyed disciples of Jim Jones drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid to fulfill "a madman’s fever dream." The joke on the difference between Trump and Jones: Trump would charge you for the Kool-Aid before you died. When the Fox guy asked why Hoyle was here, he had his punchline. As he headed to the exit and Secret Service approached, he innocently asked if this was about the concession stand; alarmed, they asked what he'd done there. "Nothing," he said, "but it was closed super early and I was starving." Then he kept walking. He'd like to thank Billy Crystal for his epic timing. We'd like to thank him for his ray of light.

"The devil…the prowde spirite…cannot endure to be mocked.” ― Thomas More

- YouTube www.youtube.com

Financial disclosures filed by Stephen Miller, a senior White House official, contain numerous inconsistencies between reported stock sales, share counts and disclosed family assets, according to a new investigation by Public Citizen. The discrepancies raise questions about the accuracy of the filings and the White House ethics office’s certification of Miller’s disclosures.

Public Citizen’s investigation found that at least 10 of the 27 stock sales listed in Miller’s August 2025 transaction report could not be reconciled with the corresponding certificates of divestiture. In multiple instances, the reported sale values appear too low to account for the number of shares listed on the certificates.

The investigation also identified discrepancies involving Miller’s children and wife, Katie Miller. The stock the Office of Government Ethics certified for sale from the three children’s custodial accounts was worth roughly $443,000 to $507,000 per account on the day of the sales, about $1.4 million in all, and the accounts held another $165,000 to $400,000 in other investments earlier that year. By the end of 2025, each account held just $1,000 to $15,000 in cash, plus $15,000 to $50,000 in Spotify stock in one account. Miller’s disclosures do not show where the rest of the money went. Separately, Katie Miller’s IRA held shares of MP Materials, Alphabet, Viking Therapeutics, Apple, Amazon and Arm in March 2025—none of them appear on Miller’s annual report, and his only transaction report lists no sales of Alphabet, Viking Therapeutics or Apple at all.

In response to Public Citizen’s questions, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis said, “The White House regularly works with appointees to provide ethics guidance and help ensure compliance with applicable federal ethics laws and regulations. Stephen Miller complies with all ethics requirements.” The White House did not address the specific discrepancies.

“Stephen Miller is neither above the law nor the rules, and conflict of interest standards are not optional. This administration has demonstrated an objective to scrutinize alleged errors in other people’s paperwork, with very serious consequences,” said Lisa Gilbert, Public Citizen co-president. “If that is the standard set by the White House, then the rules should apply equally to everyone. Stephen Miller included. The American people deserve an answer on why these inconsistencies are present, as well as corrections and consequences.”

It is unclear if the discrepancies in Miller’s paperwork are due to sloppiness, bureaucratic error or another explanation.

What is clear is that the Trump administration has used alleged errors or inconsistencies in official paperwork to justify criminal investigations and prosecutions against perceived political enemies, immigrants and others.

Public Citizen is calling for a detailed explanation of the discrepancies, clarification of the basis of the White House ethics office’s certification, and corrections to the financial disclosures.

“Miller’s own filings don’t add up, and the White House signed off on them anyway,” said Zach Everson, Public Citizen Research Director. “Miller and the White House must explain how these numbers were reconciled and whether corrected disclosures are necessary.”

Public Citizen has provided a copy of this report to the Office of Government Ethics.

350.org says oil companies cannot continue to reap the rewards of fossil fuels while households face rising energy bills and communities bear the costs of climate devastation.

As communities across the world face devastating heat, droughts, wildfires and growing pressure on public services, US oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil are among five major oil and gas companies expected to make around $53 billion in combined third-quarter profits.

The scale of these forecast profits comes as families and small businesses struggle with energy affordability, while governments face mounting costs from extreme weather and climate impacts. As the US approaches the midterm elections, energy affordability is a growing concern for households and communities. Across the country, debates over rising electricity demand, the expansion of data centres, and the continued reliance on expensive and polluting fossil fuels are bringing questions about who benefits from the energy system ,and who pays, into sharper focus.

Candice Fortin, US Campaigns Manager,

“As we head into the midterms, energy affordability is on everyone’s minds. Families and small businesses want reliable electricity they can afford, and communities want a say in how their land, water and energy resources are used. Yet as people struggle with energy bills and the impacts of extreme weather, the biggest oil companies are forecast to make billions.

“We need an energy system that puts people first. That means protecting households from losing access to essential electricity during extreme heat and cold, expanding affordable solar and wind power, and ensuring that new sources of electricity demand, including data centres, do not drive up bills or place additional pressure on communities. It also means making sure oil and gas companies pay their fair share towards the costs of the crisis, rather than leaving the public to pick up the bill.”

350.org says governments should make polluters pay through permanent levies on fossil fuel producers and taxes on exceptional profits, using the revenue to help energy-stressed households and accelerate the transition to affordable, clean energy.

The organisation is also calling for stronger protections for households facing disconnection or unaffordable electricity bills, greater access to rooftop and community solar, and transparent safeguards for data centre expansion. These should include requirements for genuinely new and additional renewable electricity supply around the clock, with benefits shared fairly with surrounding communities.

An idea from fifty years ago offers solutions to today's economic, technological and environmental crises, writes Adrian Smith

The post Looking forwards to the Lucas Plan appeared first on Red Pepper.

Corporate political spending in the 2026 midterm elections has reached approximately $737 million, a 60 percent increase from what was spent on the 2024 presidential election, according to newly filed federal campaign finance data analyzed by Public Citizen. Spending this cycle accounts for 40 percent of the $1.8 billion corporations have spent on federal elections since the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

Cryptocurrency, online betting, and Big Tech interests — including companies involved in AI and data centers — have collectively contributed $391 million toward the 2026 elections. This accounts for more than half of corporate political spending reported this cycle.

Corporate political spending has grown substantially since Citizens United. Corporations contributed $12.8 million during the 2010 election cycle, $84.9 million in 2012, and $117.9 million in 2016. The current cycle’s $737.3 million total underscores the scale of corporate spending in federal elections.

“Corporations are exploiting Citizens United to drive their political spending to unprecedented levels,” said Robert Weissman, Public Citizen co-president. “These corporations aren’t investing this money because they are civic minded or want to advance a particular viewpoint. They are spending to buy influence, determine outcomes and shape policy. This election cycle shows beyond any doubt that we desperately need a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United and put the people, not corporations or the super rich, back in charge of elections.”

Today, Groundwork Collaborative released a new report exposing how corporate consolidation and a lack of basic price transparency in the funeral industry are driving up costs and forcing grieving families into debt at one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

The new report, Death, Debt, and Paperwork: How the Business of Dying is Burying American Families by Groundwork’s Associate Director of Policy and Advocacy, Zoe Butler, analyzes Bureau of Labor Statistics data to find funeral costs have skyrocketed in recent decades, rising 310% since 1986 and now exceeding $7,700 on average, with many services topping $10,000. These costs are often due within days of an individual’s passing, even as families’ assets remain tied up in probate for months and are subject to administrative and legal fees. As a result, more families are forced to take on debt just to bury a loved one. The share of grieving family members taking on debt after a loved one’s death rose from 14% in 2024 to 37% in 2025.

At the same time, the industry operates with little transparency or competition. Corporate consolidation has allowed large firms to raise prices while fewer than one in five funeral homes post prices online, leaving families to make urgent financial decisions without clear information or the ability to comparison shop.

Groundwork’s President and CEO, Lindsay Owens, said:

“No one should be forced into debt just to bury a loved one, but as corporations exploit families at their most vulnerable moments, more and more grieving loved ones are being driven to the brink to pay for a dignified death. Funeral companies are raising prices, hiding costs, and taking advantage of a system that gives grieving families no time and no transparency. Policymakers must act to bring down prices, increase accountability, and ensure families can access what is already theirs without delay.”

Just a day after MPs voted against taxing fossil fuel profits in the 2027 budget, TotalEnergies is today reporting obscene profits. Civil society stands united to denounce this handout to oil companies while a large share of French households are struggling to make ends meet. This morning, 350.org, Action Justice Climat Paris, Attac France and Extinction Rebellion – Carnage Total staged a visual action near the National Assembly to say loud and clear that yesterday’s vote does not settle the debate. Taxing fossil fuel profits remains an urgent priority.

Today, TotalEnergies reported a net income of $8.2 billion for the third quarter of 2026 (opens in a new tab), up 124% year on year. Since January, the multinational has raked in $19.5 billion in profits, nearly twice as much as over the same period in 2025, without these windfall gains being subject to any additional tax whatsoever.

350.org has criticised TotalEnergies for using household affordability as leverage against taxation while pursuing a strategy of expanding oil and gas production and increasing shareholder payouts.

Against a backdrop of energy price volatility and escalating climate impacts, the figures raise urgent questions about who benefits from fossil fuel markets and who pays when prices rise. While households face higher costs and governments are left to fund public support, essential services and climate recovery, fossil fuel companies retain considerable control over production decisions and the distribution of their profits.

Joined by feminist organisations, students, trade unions and yellow vest activists, 350.org calls on political leaders to tax profits of fossil fuel companies without delay, in order to free up resources to fund public services, speed up the ecological transition and support households facing the rising cost of living. Yet every amendment to this effect was rejected by MPs yesterday in the vote on the 2027 budget for France.

Fanny Petitbon, France Manager, 350.org

“Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across France this month because they can no longer afford to live. Their anger is rooted in our dependence on fossil fuels. Every time oil and gas prices spike, households pay more at the pump and on their bills. And every time, TotalEnergies cashes in.

“In a year of war, price shocks and social anger, TotalEnergies is making a fortune and doesn’t even pretend to be embarrassed about it. It claims to support households with affordability while threatening to withdraw fuel discounts if it is taxed, expanding fossil fuel production and promising shareholders ever-bigger payouts. When prices rise, ordinary people are told to tighten their belts and governments are expected to pick up the bill.

“Yet the government still refuses to tax TotalEnergies’ soaring profits, and yesterday MPs rejected every amendment that would have done so in the 2027 Finance Bill. That vote was a missed opportunity, not the end of the fight. Political leaders must make polluters pay, so that those profiting from the crisis help protect people and fund a fair transition to affordable, renewable energy.”

Rukiya Khamis, East Africa Programme Manager, 350.org

“TotalEnergies’ years of impunity while driving human rights and climate violations across Africa must end. To add insult to injury, Total continues to announce record profits while frontline communities face an escalating climate and social crisis. France must take a strong stance by taxing Total’s super profits, creating a precedent for every region where the company operates. Big polluters like Total must be held accountable and pay for the harm they inflict on people and the planet.”

Photos from the action are available here (opens in a new tab).

Between 2017 and 2022, only Texas and Oklahoma lost more farms than Missouri, which saw 8 percent of its farms disappear during the period of the last national agricultural census.

That continued a 30-year trend of lost farms in the Show Me State, as older farmers retired or died and had few heirs to carry on the family work. During that period, most of Missouri’s rural counties lost population.

Almost all the lost farms were family-run operations, according to the American Farm Bureau. The average age of Missouri farmers in 2022 was 57.9 years, an increase from 57.4 in 2017.

Farm loss and consolidation may reduce the number of farm families and agricultural jobs, which can worsen existing population loss and weaken sales-tax receipts, school enrollment and demand for local businesses, a University of Missouri Extension study showed.

New Madrid, Maries, Howard, Cooper, Scott and Boone suffered the highest percentages of lost farms between 2017 and 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Maries County in Central Missouri lost 16.2 percent of its farms in that period, while New Madrid County in Southeastern Missouri lost 16 percent of its farms.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Declining populations and labor forces put rural Missouri counties under pressure

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Rural Missouri counties have higher-than-average premature death rates

The post Missouri near the top in the number of lost farms appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

Today, Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair Rep. Greg Casar (TX-35) and House Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) co-led the introduction of a resolution warning of the economic risks posed by an artificial-intelligence-related asset bubble, opposing a bailout of corporations or their business executives impacted by the collapse of an A.I. bubble, and affirming their support for aggressive federal action to protect workers, retirees, and low-income communities who will be harmed by an economic downturn.

They were joined by Representatives Danny Davis (IL-07), Chris Deluzio (PA-17), Valerie P. Foushee (NC-04), Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04), Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Analilia Mejia (NJ-11), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), André Carson (IN-07), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Brad Sherman (CA-32), and Rashida Tlaib (MI-12).

“Big Tech billionaires are making increasingly reckless bets on A.I. They got richer off Trump’s deregulation and Republican tax breaks. Now they expect taxpayers to bail them out if those bets go bad. We won’t let them," said CPC Chair Casar. "A.I. companies that fail should go bankrupt, and executives who commit fraud should be held accountable. Federal help should go to workers and retirees.”

“Big tech and Wall Street are taking enormous risks with billions in borrowed money to fuel the AI boom, despite growing warning signs of a dangerous bubble and if it all comes crashing down they should not expect taxpayers to rescue them,” said Ranking Member Waters. “We saw what happened in 2008 when reckless Wall Street practices brought our economy to its knees. The banks got bailed out while millions of hardworking Americans lost their jobs, homes, and retirement savings. We cannot let history repeat itself. The American people should never again be forced to foot the bill for billionaires’ reckless bets.”

In the resolution, the Democratic lawmakers note that “artificial intelligence-related firms hold trillions of dollars in debt, much of which is raised in opaque and unregulated private credit markets,” and “the price-to-earnings ratio of the stock market is currently almost as high as it was at the peak of the 1990s tech bubble.”

The Democratic legislators also point out that “federal regulators have avoided applying robust scrutiny and oversight regarding enormously complicated debt and equity schemes used by artificial intelligence firms” and highlight the Trump White House’s deregulatory focus and conflicts of interest related to A.I.

The resolution’s cosponsors commit to avoiding a federal response similar to what occurred during the financial crisis of 2008, where the financial sector received trillions of dollars in liquidity without accountability for senior executives involved in illegal and fraudulent behaviors. Meanwhile, 10 million homeowners lost their houses and tens of millions of workers went years without adequate employment while too-big-to-fail banks enjoyed a massive bailout.

The resolution urges the Federal Government, including Congress and key Federal agencies to oppose:

• Any measure to rescue insolvent artificial intelligence-related firms or to shield their senior executives from accountability for reckless conduct;
• Special assistance like emergency lending or direct capital infusions to prop up insolvent A.I. companies’ operations or prevent their orderly resolutions through ordinary bankruptcy processes;
• “Golden parachutes” for corporate executives involved in risky or illegal behaviors that lead to their firms’ insolvency, instead requiring them to be held fully accountable under civil and criminal law and be obligated to return ill-gotten gains like mansions, vacation homes, private planes and yachts, and other assets.

The resolution also calls on the Federal Government to support:

• Aggressive, direct federal action to support ordinary Americans through federal spending to create jobs, protect state and local government services, and robust unemployment insurance, nutrition support, and housing assistance;
• The protection of pension and retirement fund holders who may face devastating losses in the event of a collapse of an A.I. bubble;
• Far-reaching reforms to prevent future speculative bubbles, including additional transparency and accountability requirements;
• Automatic economic stabilizers—investments in people that start to flow immediately in the event of an economic downturn—that support workers and consumers when financial crises, asset bubbles and other harms create downturns and recessions.

The resolution was endorsed by American Federation of Teachers, American Economic Liberties Project, Americans for Financial Reform, the Center for Responsible Lending, Demand Progress Action, Future of Life Institute, Guardrails Action, Indivisible, Interfaith Centre on Corporate Responsibility, Investor Alliance for Human Rights, Jobs With Justice, P Street, and Social Security Works.

“Americans are already paying for the AI build-out through higher power bills and a stock market propped up by a handful of companies,” said Morgan Harper, Director of Policy & Advocacy for American Economic Liberties Project. They should not pay a second time with a bailout. When Wall Street’s bets went bad during the financial crisis, the banks got rescued and ordinary people got foreclosure notices. Congressional members are right to reject AI bailouts in advance, and commit to saving real help for those who will be left holding the bag—the American people.”

“Tech billionaires and their Wall Street backers are using dangerous tactics reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis to make trillion dollar bets on AI—and they are putting working people’s money at risk,” said Maya Jenkins, a senior policy analyst at Americans for Financial Reform. “This resolution charts a critically important path for defending people’s economic security from the bubble’s blast radius, opposing billionaire bailouts, and holding corporate executives to account. This is the kind of approach needed to confront mounting financial risks and emerge from the aftermath of the AI bubble with an economy that is fairer and more stable.”

“When the housing market collapsed in 2008, the financial industry was prepared to act to ensure that there was a bailout that benefited them,” said Dean Baker, senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. “It is important that the Congressional Progressive Caucus is stepping forward to make sure that any bailout from the collapse of the AI bubble is designed to benefit the country as whole, rather than the billionaire AI boys who created the problem in the first place.”

“Chair Casar, Ranking Member Waters, and the Progressive Caucus should be praised for this resolution and recognized as being at the tip of the spear in ensuring that AI policy focuses on working-class impacts and isn’t simply left to the desires of the handful of billionaires and their courtesans in Congress, said Maya Handa, Senior Advisor, Guardrails Action. “The AI industry is trying to buy our elections and write their own regulations while its biggest players line up IPOs at record valuations. If this turns into a bubble, working-class Americans must not be forced to pay the tab for big tech CEOs’ recklessness and greed. Simply put: there can be no bailout for big AI execs or their financial enablers.”

“AI companies and their billionaire executives shouldn’t get to gamble with our economy and democracy, then expect working people to bail them out when their bets on AI go bust,” said Andrew O’Neill, National Advocacy Director of Indivisible. “We learned in 2008 what happens when the government puts impunity for corporate corruption ahead of working families. This resolution draws a clear line: will lawmakers protect AI tech bros or the people they’re supposed to represent?”

Read the resolution here.

Shrinking labor forces and population loss are pressuring rural Missouri to find new revenue sources to balance budgets and avoid tax increases for residents who can’t afford them.

Local officials are finding that protecting a county’s future takes more than saying no to change.

Federal labor and population statistics place several rural Missouri counties in the difficult position of providing valuable services, such as emergency response services, education and roads, for shrinking populations.

A study by Judith Stallman and Austin Sanders of the University of Missouri notes that “jurisdictions losing population must still provide and maintain basic infrastructure and services. That means these costs must be spread across a smaller population, resulting in higher costs per capita.” Some local officials are finding new revenue to keep services running. Others turn it away and leave residents to pay more or get less.

In 2020, Missouri’s growth rate of 0.2 percent was half that of the rest of the country and many of the state’s rural counties lost population. That was particularly true in the Bootheel section of Southeastern Missouri and in counties north of the Missouri River.

“Overall, 62 of Missouri’s 115 counties (including St. Louis City) lost population between 2019 and 2020,” said a report by the Missouri Small Business Development Center. “During that period, 10 of Missouri’s 35 metro counties and 52 of its 80 nonmetro counties lost population.”

The combination of decreasing population and labor forces leads to a vicious cycle as more people leave rural counties to seek opportunities. The remaining populations are older and in poorer health. As Checks & Balances Project reported, many of these counties suffer from premature death rates higher than the Missouri and national averages.

Local officials can’t stop every cause of rural decline. But when they reject new revenue, they owe residents a plan for paying the county’s bills.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Rural Missouri counties face EMS crisis

Rural Missouri counties have higher-than-average premature death rates

The post Declining populations and labor forces put rural Missouri counties under pressure appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

Most of Planet Earth now knows cruelty is the point of Trump 2. But if anyone implausibly needs more evidence, meet Rev. Edward Nalwamba, a 79-year-old, pro-democracy Ugandan priest who spent over a year in ICE detention. When he went in, he was fit; at his long-delayed release last week, fellow detainees had to carry him to a car because officials wouldn't let him take his wheelchair that far. To ICE, he charged, "You are an animal...They forget they are dealing with human beings."

In the last 18 months, the Trump regime has deported nearly a million people, and killed at least 60, including two U.S citizens in cold blood and broad daylight. The family of one, Renee Good, has filed two federal civil lawsuits over her Jan. 7 murder, alleging wrongful death, "negligent infliction of emotional distress," conspiracy to conceal evidence, and coordinated campaigns of "aggression and abduction" against ethnic communities and "intimidation and violence" against their allies. And of course it has detained, terrorized, traumatized or shattered the lives of untold thousands, the vast majority with no criminal history.

One was the good Rev. Nalwamba, who arrived in the U.S. in 2002 for a religious conference. Having publicly condemned human rights abuses by the Ugandan government, and subsequently heard from colleagues that government agents were pursuing him, he decided to stay in Colorado and apply for asylum. In 2010, after his application was denied, he began living peaceably in Lakewood under a 15-year ICE supervision order, reporting to immigration officials as required, working as a health aide for people with developmental disabilities, and serving as a pastor at nearby Resurrection Anglican Fellowship until he retired two years ago.

In September 2025 he was arrested by ICE; they charged he was under a removal order dating back to 2010, and that he'd failed to "cooperate with efforts to obtain travel documents" before a deadline, aka to help with his own deportation in a timely manner. He was taken to the GEO Group's private ICE detention facility in Aurora, where for over a year DHS repeatedly vowed to deport him and then didn't. On Oct. 20, after his lawyers filed a second habeas corpus petition, Judge Cyrus Chung ruled feds had exceeded a “presumptively reasonable” six months of holding time with "no concrete plan” to return him to Uganda, and ordered his release.

When he was detained, Nalwamba was a fit 77-year-old who regularly walked, exercised and played ping pong. Inside, his health quickly deteriorated. He caught pneumonia which persisted for weeks, lost over 30 pounds and the ability to walk, developed a stubborn cough, chest pain, scratchy throat, headache and fatigue that were never treated - and besides, "You don’t want to go to the hospital - they shackle you like a bull.” "He walked in. He can't walk now," noted Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper. "They want the misery of one person to be known by others. It's a low-rent form of terrorism to make people so scared they'll self-deport."

Along with the barbaric cruelty, observers also blasted the "staggering hypocrisy" of a regime that simultaneously charged Biden et al "targeted" Christians yet in their voter intimidation efforts sent ICE into churches, interrogated church staff, and detained and abused a church elder. Last week, because they hadn't alienated Christians enough by picking a fight with the Pope, they also turned a supposed prayer gathering of Catholic bishops into a sleazy photo op, prompting two angry Archbishops to apologize, charge they'd been "manipulated," and clarify this was "in no way an endorsement of the president, his policies, or his party."

In the final, petty degradation meted out to Rev. Nalwamba, detention officials told his attorneys they would ensure his safe passage on release with a wheelchair and escort, and then reneged on it all. The wheelchair couldn't go out to the gate, they insisted, nor could vehicles approach it. Hickenlooper: "There is no excuse for this cruelty. None.” In the end - no surprise here - it was two young mensches also being released who hooked their arms together - one lawyer: "It was heartbreaking and it was infuriating" - carried the reverend to his waiting car, and went on their way: "They didn't even give me a chance to say thank you.".

After his release, a buoyant Nalwamba said he’s “in another world." He talked to his children, he's well fed, he’s staying with a family who lent him an electric scooter to get around. The next day, he visited a health clinic to get a chest X-ray, blood work, TB testing. He looks forward to physical therapy and reconnecting with his church community: "I am a happy man." Except for the monsters, still here. DHS said they were "forced" by "an activist judge" to release "an illegal alien" who "chose to overstay his welcome in violation of our nation's laws." Most vitally, "He remains in the country illegally," under a removal order, without legal status.

So much, or not yet for Obama's Michigan citing of "a decency we should expect from our public officials." Attorneys plan to reopen Nalwamba's asylum case; conditions in Uganda have seriously deteriorated with widespread crime, unrest and targeting of political opponents and a U.S. "Do not travel" advisory in effect. At the same time, says attorney Joy Athanasiou, she has never seen "this inhumanity and cruelty" over 20 years of working with detained clients. Before, there were under 1,000 habeas corpus petitions a year; now there are about 90,000, a demand "100 times greater than what we can provide.”

Nalwamba says his thoughts remain with those innocents still inside a callous, corrosive environment worse than any maximum security prison. He loves the America he has lived in for almost 26 years, he says, and has always thought African and other countries should aspire to be like the U.S. But no more, he adds, not without drastic change. Those other countries, he argues, treat their livestock better than he was treated. "It's as if they've gotten used to treating people that way, like they're taking care of goats or cows,” he said. “I have never imagined human beings treated like I saw in this place."

The Rev. Edward Nalwamba Photo by Resurrection Anglican Fellowship

Responding to the large-scale Israeli military operation and mass displacement in Hebron in recent days, Oxfam’s Response Lead in the West Bank, Mustafa Tamaizeh, said:

"This is not only a humanitarian crisis but a deliberate assault on the economic foundations of Palestinian life, as families lose their homes and livelihoods. The destruction of factories, workshops, and business premises is wiping out years of investment and hard work. As movement restrictions tighten under Israel’s illegal occupation, workers cannot reach their jobs, farmers cannot access their land, and businesses are cut off from customers and supply chains.

“These illegal actions amount to collective punishment and are accelerating the forced displacement of Palestinian communities across the West Bank. They come during the olive harvest, one of the most important sources of income for Palestinian farming families. Israeli authorities, however, are creating conditions that make it increasingly difficult for Palestinians to remain on their land, with escalating state-backed settler violence and severe access restrictions preventing many from reaching their groves to harvest the crops that provide for them and their communities.

“The restrictions are also severely affecting humanitarian operations, limiting Oxfam's ability to reach affected communities and assess needs at a time when humanitarian access is most critical. All aspects of life are being impacted. Children and students, for example, cannot reach their places of study, and even those in need of medical care are being prevented from accessing health services.

“The economic damage being inflicted on Hebron is not incidental. It is part of a broader pattern of dispossession and ethnic cleansing that is deepening poverty, increasing dependency on humanitarian aid, and undermining any prospect for a just and dignified future.

“In recent days, high-ranking Israeli officials have openly acknowledged they are considering plans for the largest military operation in the West Bank since 1967, with calls for operations in the West Bank to be conducted like those in Gaza. Against this backdrop Oxfam is calling for urgent action by the international community to stop Israel’s campaign of mass forced displacement, demolitions and state-backed settler violence, which amount to a policy of ethnic cleansing.”

The editor-in-chief of Russian-language news site Meduza tells Anne Schumacher about Putin's objectives and circumventing censorship

The post Making the Kremlin sad – an interview with Ivan Kolpakov appeared first on Red Pepper.

These truly-through-the-looking-glass days, it seems the drunk great-uncle you really didn't wanna ask to dinner is somehow getting worse. Scarily and no longer mirthfully, the befuddled "head" of a GOP blitzed on projection daily spirals deeper into phantasmagoria - slurring words, crafting fictions, renaming oceans, rekindling grievances, losing it over trifles and consorting with imaginary friends as the world burns. An Orange-Stain plea from No Kings for the coming election: "Clean Up On Aisle USA" please. Soon.

To be clear, Trump was a lying fabulist from way back. In the glitzy 1980s and 1990s, he regularly posed as a successful businessman, savvy dealmaker and cad-about-town who'd infamously call reporters or publicists as "John Barron" to boast about his money or conquests - a ploy he admitted in later court depositions he learned from his Nazi father. In power, like "a pre-teen with a girlfriend in Canada nobody's met," he's long invented "friends," fans, sources who praise him and his dreadful policies, from cultists invariably with tears in their eyes who "thank me for saving the country" to U.S. CEOs and "one of the great people of China, from the highest echelons" who inexplicably extol his disastrous tariffs.

Lately, though, the GOP is reportedly freaking out, watching the line between fact and fiction increasingly blur in Dear Leader's mashed-potato mind as the economy keeps tumbling and vital mid-terms approach. They want him to celebrate (albeit largely imaginary) tax cuts, trade deals, safe borders, winning fights against drag shows and "transgender for everyone" (sigh). Instead, he raves about livestreamed executions, the hotness of GOP candidates, often in the wrong state - "His ass, shit, it's like a pile of muscle" - his bestie Putin who's been "fine on Ukraine," how "not a single" undocumented immigrant has entered America since he took office, how soaring gas and diesel costs are "a small price to pay," though it's unclear for what.

He garbles words or makes them up - "When we had the hurricane...We call it a watercane" - prompting excited patriots to up their expectations: "OK, cancel the Blue Wave, we want a Blue Watercane." Wearily, he jokes about creating a robot lookalike on the campaign trail- "Nobody would know the difference" - so he can stay home and watch TV, his true, small vocation. Weirdly, he fantasizes about trashing other countries: He boasts about "polling higher than anyone has ever polled in Venezuela," which is why "after I finish with this" he'll to go Venezuela, "learn Spanish quickly, it won't take long, I'm good at languages" and run for president there, and yes we are here for it.

Hopefully, Venezuela won't have pesky reporters asking him questions that drive him to melt down in "dementia anger-flare." Because he lacks both impulse control and any trace of decency, he's also lauded Vivek Ramaswamy's grotesque ad against rape survivor and Dem opponent Amy Acton, wherein her estranged, unhinged mother calls her a liar, charging the Fake News "is trying to convince everyone this Ad is bad because it’s so good!...It's called 'hitting pay dirt.’” He adds that if his "legendary" mother "said anything bad about me, (it) would go down as the Ad of the Decade — Maybe the Century!" Vivek should keep the ad up, he says, so people know Acton is "a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!” Killer pot/kettle.

There are more. The racist fraudsters who got rich on corruption - and turned Minneapolis into Fallujah - want us to rat on our neighbors for...fraud under Trump's stammered "Fraud Whistle...Blower Incentive...Program" whereby "Americans (can) report theft of taxpayer dollars," with DOGE "skunk-works" stragglers helping. Turn in someone with $1 billion, you get 1%: "That's a lot of money.” Except the cap is $30K, you probs won't see it, and it's queasily akin to Nazi bounties on Jews. Stephen Goebbels was even there to smear phantom Somalis who get $30 million for a fake daycare, buy BMWs or mansions, fly their kids "first class all over the world...living the high life." What a sick fuck. Meanwhile, America urges, "Call in fraud at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

Alas, the more loopy he gets, the more openly he flies his violent, racist, crassly unfettered flag. There are more curses and more bellicose AI slop like the video of a macho white guy put in prison with three scary black guys, by one scary black cop, who takes them all down: "Bullies Can’t Break a Strong Man." (So many pots/kettles!) The rallies grow more pugnacious too: In the second assault this month, a South Carolina sheriff's office is investigating an attack on a protester - punched in the head, neck and chest - that Trump cheered on, praising the thugs' "courage." "Who's the guy that threw that punch?" he excitedly asked. "I love that." He also mocked the victim as "a very unattractive guy," for a rare combo sick fuck and pot/kettle.

That was at a rally, in a reported “livestock arena” say what, for Darlene Graham, who’s “gonna have a big win.” If so, no thanks to his shambolic speech, which roamed from renaming the Atlantic Ocean - “I was always high end” - to insisting he doesn’t ramble while rambling - “I got - I know everything I’m doing. I got aptitude they dream about” - to again whining about the prizes he didn’t win: The Pulitzer for writing - “The people that got it shouldn’t have gotten it” - and the usual Nobel, despite being “one person who deserves it more than any yuman being." ”Not that I want it - it’s just ridiculous,“ he babbled. ”How the hell do you not get the Nobel Prize? i settled like 8 wars. The woman that got it, I don’t know where the hell she comes from.“ Losingest loser ever.

Finally, amidst all the lame, foul, daft fails, there are his deeply undignified transfers: The careening burlesque of a walk to his helicopter in Alaska. The ambling approach to his beloved, million-year helipad when he suddenly stops to acknowledge, salute and wave to a crowd of supporters, aka thin air. Eventually, the camera zooms out to show...empty space. A few seconds later, aides walk out from a different direction; other angles - here and here - show the same abyss, for which Fox would've run Biden out of town. Same for last week's event, ostensibly to honor first responders where, amidst a losing war, crumbling economy, burning planet and hungry children, Nero nattered and raved about his house projects. Nothing to see here.

“You're seeing this for the first time. This used to be grass. So if we did this, you couldn't do it. It was unusable. You know, this is built on a wetland. So the grass was always wet. Even if you were in a drought, the grass was soaking wet. And especially women with the high heels, they'd be holding their shoes. They go out and buy beautiful new high heels that go into the White House and they come back and their shoes are destroyed. But we did a job with the same stone that matches the White House stone and hasn't been totally finished. We're going with the black over here, too, because the limestone doesn't hold up well. Never, never did. Never will. But what we've done here is really amazing. We put a brand new coat over the White House, brand new coat. We fixed up the walls. They were all broken, chopped, terrible shape. A lot of the ornamentation, like around the windows, was broken. And many years ago, 30, 40, 50 years ago, probably a lot during Biden three years ago because he had no idea what the hell he was doing. But you'd look at a window and you'd see ornament on the right side. And on the left side, you'd see it was it had fallen off. Some people think that's OK, but I don't think it's OK. So we had molds made of the right side. We put it on the left side. It's all perfect now. So we re-skinned. Basically, it's a re-skinning. And that building is good to go for another 100 years or at least actually. But even this, the you see the the top sections where it was so bad, I didn't even like standing under it. The thing was all cracked and broken all over the place. We put the sign up, solid brass, half inch thick, as opposed to laminate. You ever see these laminate? They they don't want to spend the money on the brass. So they have a piece of brass laminated. It's about a hundredth of an inch thick. And they put it on a piece of wood to save a lot of money. And then in about two years, it decomposes and it's laying all over the floor. We don't do that. But up there is the Rose Garden. And then we, as you know, that wall has sat for 150 years empty. And I said, something has to be on that wall. And I just had the the notion I've often thought of it because I've never seen it before. A presidential walk of fame. So we went from George Washington to Trump. And that will be extended on this wall right up here because somebody said, oh, but you have no room for anybody else. I said, no, it extends this way. And but I'm going to have to leave that because whoever it is, maybe they won't be able to figure that out. And if they don't figure it out, I don't know what they're going to do. You know, but we have we have at least one hundred and twenty five years of extension going this way. So it's fun. But everybody loves the presidential walk of fame. Nobody knows if there is any. And we have a very generic, very good description of every president from Washington all the way down. And we get a little bit more personal as we get closer to my my year. Talk a little bit about in more detail about what we've had to put up with....All I do is write the truth.” - Donald J. Trump

Ladies and gentlemen, the President (sic) of the United StatesGetty Image

Today, Public Citizen released a new set of fact sheets that track the toll of the NAFTA-WTO era and today’s chaotic trade policies on the workers, farmers, local communities in all 50 states in the U.S., covering lost manufacturing jobs and farms, shuttered factories, battered union membership, depressed wages, falling farm exports, and other effects of bad trade policies.

While this story is often associated only with the industrial Midwest, the latest data show significant job, farm, and income loss across the South and Northeast, as well in other areas of the country often left out of the discussion on trade.

The ongoing impacts of these losses still looms large in political battleground areas, and are especially relevant when talking about working-class politics in post-industrial and rural areas.

“For decades, both parties have promised working people that “free trade” deals would bring good jobs and rising wages,” said Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at Public Citizen. “Instead, initiatives like the NAFTA and the WTO led to massive outsourcing, the closure of thousands of factories, the destruction of millions of good-paying jobs, and left rural and working-class communities abandoned nationwide — and current chaotic and corporate-friendly trade policies have only made matters worse.”

Key Revelations:

• ALMOST EVERY STATE GOT HIT HARD – The U.S. has about 4.4 million fewer manufacturing jobs today than in 1994, when NAFTA went into effect. Nationwide, more than 3 million workers were certified by the U.S. government as losing their jobs to trade policy during this period. The share of manufacturing jobs in 43 states dropped by more than 30% in that period and by more than 50% in 12 states.
• BATTLEGROUND STATES PARTICULARLY IMPACTED – One quarter of manufacturing job losses took place in the seven key 2024 battleground states. Overall, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin lost more than 1 million manufacturing jobs combined. Manufacturing’s share of total jobs in these states fell by nearly 40% on average, and union density fell by 46% on average, 10 points higher than the national average.
• THE DECLINE OF THE INDUSTRIAL HEARTLAND – Nearly one third of national manufacturing job losses came from just six states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Combined, these states lost more than 1,400,000 manufacturing jobs.
• HUGE LOSSES IN THE NORTHEAST – The Northeast, New England plus New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, lost more than 40% of its manufacturing jobs – more than any other region. New York and Rhode Island each lost more than half of their manufacturing jobs.
• THE SOUTHERN RUST BELT – In the Southern states, manufacturing’s share of total jobs dropped by more than 45%, 10 points higher than in the Midwest. This shift was most pronounced in North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, where the drop was more than 50%. North Carolina lost 365,000 manufacturing jobs—110,000 more jobs lost than Michigan, 54,000 more than Illinois, and 39,000 more than Ohio and Pennsylvania; and manufacturing’s share of total jobs dropped by 63%, worse than any other state.
• UNION MEMBERSHIP WAS DECIMATED – Ten states saw union density declines of more than 50%, five of which are in the South. Union density declined most in South Dakota, followed by Wisconsin and Arkansas, at 72%, 65%, and 63%, respectively. Nationwide, overall union density fell 35%, while only one state, Vermont, saw an increase.
• FARM LOSSES HIT HARDEST IN THE SOUTH – Of the 10 states that saw the largest proportional declines in the number of farm operations, six are in the South. Tennessee and North Carolina lost more than 30% of their farms, the highest percentage losses of any state. The South lost more than 140,000 farms, more than half from just three states: Tennessee, North Carolina, and Kentucky.
• WORKERS LEFT WITHOUT RELIEF – Since 2022, Congress has left over 100,000 workers who lost their jobs due to our trade policies stranded by failing to reauthorize the Trade Adjustment Assistance program. Almost a quarter of those workers are from just two states – Texas and Oregon. Thirty-two states had more than 1,000 workers who were awaiting assistance at the time.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today demanded that a U.S. manufacturer of electroshock weapons stop sending its devices to Israel following an investigative report revealing their systematic use in the torture and abuse of Palestinian detainees.

According to an investigation published by The Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, American company Axon Enterprise (formerly Taser International) has continued to supply electroshock Taser weapons and accessories to Israeli security forces despite mounting documentation that these devices are deployed inside detention facilities to inflict severe physical abuse.

Released detainees interviewed in the report detailed horrific accounts of being tightly restrained, doused with water to intensify electric shocks, and repeatedly tortured, leaving lasting physical and psychological scars.

The investigation also highlighted findings from the UN Committee Against Torture regarding a sharp escalation of abuse, sexualized torture, and electrocution inside Israeli detention facilities since October 2023, alongside similar documentation by human rights organizations like Amnesty International.

In a statement, Washington, D.C.-based CAIR said:

"It is unconscionable that equipment manufactured by an American corporation is reportedly being used to carry out acts of torture and abuse against detained Palestinians. Axon must immediately halt all current and future contracts, shipments, and servicing of electroshock weapons to Israeli authorities. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Commerce must rigorously enforce export oversight criteria to block the transfer of technologies to governments implicated in systemic human rights violations."

The nation’s largest and most profitable corporations paid an average federal income tax rate of just 10.4 percent in 2025, the lowest rate documented in more than four decades of research by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), according to a new study released today.

The study examines the current federal income taxes of 706 major U.S. corporations that collectively reported $1.88 trillion in domestic profits last year. Despite these enormous earnings, the companies collectively paid less than half the statutory federal corporate income tax rate of 21 percent, and 114 paid no current federal income tax at all.

The findings illustrate the combined effects of two rounds of corporate tax cuts enacted under President Trump: the 2017 tax law, which slashed the statutory corporate income tax rate from 35 to 21 percent, and the 2025 tax law, which expanded and made permanent lucrative corporate tax breaks.

Among the study’s key findings:

• 114 corporations paid no current federal income tax in 2025, including well-known companies such as Tesla, Walt Disney, CVS, Citigroup, United Airlines, and DoorDash.
• 258 corporations paid effective tax rates below 7 percent, or less than one-third of the statutory rate. Together, these companies reported $683 billion in U.S. profits but paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 1.7 percent.
• The 706 corporations studied received $198 billion in federal tax subsidies by paying less than the statutory 21 percent rate. They also benefited from an additional $263 billion in tax savings attributable to the 2017 reduction of the statutory rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
• Just 25 corporations accounted for more than half of the 2025 tax subsidies. Alphabet ($18.9 billion), Microsoft ($18.7 billion), Amazon ($17.4 billion), and Meta ($13.9 billion) were among the largest beneficiaries.

“These findings show just how dramatically the corporate tax system has been tilted in favor of the nation’s wealthiest and most powerful companies,” said Matt Gardner, ITEP Senior Fellow and co-author of the report. “At a time when lawmakers claim the country cannot afford investments in families and communities, some of the most profitable corporations in American history are paying little or nothing in federal income taxes. This is not an accident. It is the predictable outcome of deliberate policy choices that have steadily eroded the corporate tax base.”

The study finds that corporate tax avoidance is particularly pronounced in several industries. Technology companies collectively paid an effective federal income tax rate of just 10 percent, receiving $68.5 billion in federal tax subsidies. Motor vehicle companies paid just 2.7 percent, while telecommunications companies paid 6.7 percent and aerospace companies paid 7.6 percent.

The research also documents how corporate tax breaks enacted or expanded in Trump’s 2025 tax law have helped some of the nation’s largest tech companies dramatically reduce their tax bills. Provisions allowing companies to immediately deduct investments in equipment and research have provided substantial benefits to corporations making massive investments in artificial intelligence and other technologies.

While these subsidies are frequently promoted as necessary to encourage investment, the report raises questions about why highly profitable corporations should receive billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for spending they may have undertaken regardless.

“Congress has repeatedly chosen to expand tax breaks for corporations that are already extraordinarily profitable,” said Steve Wamhoff, ITEP Federal Policy Director and co-author of the report. “Rather than continuing to subsidize corporate investments and reward aggressive tax avoidance, lawmakers should close these loopholes and ensure that large corporations pay a meaningful share of their profits in taxes.”

ITEP’s analysis draws on annual financial reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by corporations in the Fortune 1000 or S&P 500. The study calculates effective federal income tax rates based on companies’ reported current federal income tax expense relative to their U.S. pretax profits.

The findings continue a series of corporate tax studies conducted by ITEP and Citizens for Tax Justice over more than four decades. The 10.4 percent effective rate in 2025 is even lower than the 11.2 percent rate documented in 1982 following President Reagan’s first round of corporate tax cuts, and the 11.3 percent rate reported in 2018 following Trump’s first tax law.

In nearly two years the Trump administration has protected just three species as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act and missed dozens of deadlines to make decisions promised in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service workplan. No other administration in the more than 50 years since the law was passed has protected so few animals and plants from extinction.

“The Trump administration is just a pure disaster for the natural world and America’s struggling wildlife will pay the price,” said Noah Greewnwald, endangered species codirector at the Center for Biological Diversity. “To benefit polluters and billionaires the administration is taking a wrecking ball to protections not just for wildlife but also our air, water and climate.”

In 2024 the Service published the fifth version of its workplan since 2016, providing a schedule of protection decisions for hundreds of species by fiscal year (Sept. 30 to Oct. 1) over the next five years. In fiscal year 2026 the Service failed to make scheduled findings for 39 species, leaving wildlife like little brown bats, golden-winged warblers, Arizona toads and more in the lurch.

“Even before Trump species waited far too long for protection,” said Greenwald. “Now massive spending and staffing cuts and contempt for environmental protections mean hundreds of plants and animals won’t get badly needed protections anytime soon, pushing them closer to extinction. It’s truly sad.”

Under the Clinton administration 521 species were protected and under the Obama administration 361 species were protected. Only 22 species were protected under the first Trump administration. To date, the second Trump administration has listed just three Florida reptiles: the Florida Keys mole skink, rim rock crowned snake and the Key ringneck snake. All three were listed following court orders.

In July the Trump administration published a new version of the workplan that dropped decisions for 64 species over the next five years, meaning animals including pygmy rabbits and Florida manatees have no prospects for gaining lifesaving protection.

The Trump-Vance administration has abandoned its appeal in National Council of Nonprofits et al. v. McMahon, a case brought by a broad coalition of nonprofit organizations, more than a dozen local governments, and labor unions against the U.S. Department of Education. The case stopped a new rule that would have allowed the Secretary of Education to disqualify government and nonprofit employers that disagree with the administration’s policies from a program intended to support borrowers working in public service jobs.

Earlier this year, a federal court ordered the Trump-Vance administration to stop its unlawful rewriting of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program as a way of silencing nonprofit organizations and local governments that do work that runs counter to the administration’s political agenda. The government had filed an appeal of the ruling, but on Wednesday submitted a joint stipulation of dismissal, which will formally end the matter and ensure the new rule will never take effect.

Plaintiffs in the case include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), City of Albuquerque, City of Boston, City of Chicago, City and County of San Francisco, County of Santa Clara, Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Legal Aid DC, National Association of Social Workers, National Council of Nonprofits, Oasis Legal Services, American Federation of Teachers, and National Education Association. The coalition is represented by Democracy Forward and Protect Borrowers in this matter; the County of Santa Clara and City and County of San Francisco represent themselves.

“The Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was created so public service workers can pursue careers serving their communities without being burdened with debilitating debt,” said AFSCME President Patrick Moran. “Countless essential workers rely on this program, and weaponizing it for political purposes would hurt not just these workers but the communities they serve. We’re glad the administration is now following the law and abandoning this illegal scheme.”

Quotes from additional plaintiffs included in the coalition about the court’s ruling are available here.

The legal team on this case includes Sarah Goetz, Victoria Nugent, Simon Brewer, Jennifer Fountain Connolly, and Robin Thurston from Democracy Forward, Persis Yu and Winston Berkman-Breen from Protect Borrowers, and attorneys from the County of Santa Clara Office of the County Counsel and San Francisco City Attorney’s Office.

Read the opinion that decided the case here and learn more about the case here.