News & Articles

Burger King, the fast food giant, bills itself as “Home of the Whopper,” a name intended to convey to burger eaters that this one is jumbo, chockfull, and a whale of a deal. But “whopper” also means a prevarication, a crock, flim flam, a tall tale – ie, hogwash.
Both meanings apply to Burger King’s current effort to take over Tim Hortons, a Canadian coffee-and-donut chain. The $10 billion price certainly is a whopper – the most ever paid to buy out a fast-food purveyor. And the deal would result in a mondo corporation, with 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries, making about $22 billion in annual sales.
But the deal is also a whopper in that it’s based on a fabrication, a scam, a con. While Burger King’s CEO, Daniel Schwartz, offers some credible business reasons for the combine, what he doesn’t want BK’s American customer’s to know is that the clincher in the deal is that it provides a huge tax dodge for his corporation. In US tax law, something called an “inversion” (actually, a perversion of law) is a loophole allowing an American corporation that merges with a foreign one to reincorporate in the foreign country – and dodge its tax responsibilities to our nation.
Schwartz intends to do just that, renouncing Burger King’s US citizenship so it can get a lower tax rate as a Canadian citizen. Schwartz & Company would still be headquartered in Miami, Burger King would still haul in billions of dollars in sales from its US outlets, and top executives would still enjoy all the benefits that the USA affords them – but without putting a corporate dime into our national treasury.
Why should we buy this whopper? There are plenty of burger stands – why put your dollars in the one that says it doesn’t want to be a US citizen? If Burger King won’t support America, American’s shouldn’t support it.

“Dealing for Doughnuts,” The New York Times, August 26, 2014.
“Whopper of a move: Burger King to Canada?” Austin American Statesman, August 26, 2014.
“Burger King pulls trigger on huge scheme: Will ditch USA after giant corporate merger,” www.salon.com, August 26, 2014.

Scary Perry foments fear that terrorists “could be” coming from Mexico

One thing you can say about Rick Perry is that he sticks to his guns. If one of his policy proposals turns out to be dumb – by gollies, he doubles down on dumb.
For example, in his current re-run for the GOP presidential nomination, the “Oops” governor has rebranded himself as an expert on border security. As such, he milked a lot of political PR out of this summer’s surge of migrant children crossing our southern border illegally. Never mind that they were desperate to escape the abject poverty, rapes, murders, and gang cultures that confronted them everyday in their Central American homelands, Perry used their plight as a political opportunity to foment fear and become the “Lock ‘em Out” candidate.
But, darn it, the surge of young migrants soon came to an end… and so did Perry’s dumb rationale for slamming and locking our nation’s southwest door. No problem for Rick, though – he simply reached for dumber. Instead of children, his latest bugaboo is – believe it or not – Islamic terrorists.
In August, Perry warned that murderous militants from the ISIS “could be” penetrating into the US from Mexico. Could be? Well, he conceded, there’s “no clear evidence” of it – but BE VERY AFRAID! The “expert” said that people “from countries with terrorist ties” are crossing. Really? Yes, he said, citing “three individuals from Ukraine” who were caught. Uh, Rick... Ukraine is not a country “with terrorist ties.”
Never mind facts, he went on to scold Obama for failure to put more border agents in place and use drones to bolster security there. Apparently no one told the newly-minted border expert that Obama proposed just that last year, but Perry’s fellow Republicans killed the bill.
Perry is scary. Next, he’ll warn that Islamic terrorists are sneaking across the border – carrying Weapons of Mass Destruction!

“Perry Says Terrorists Could Be Entering the U.S. From Mexico,” The New York Times, August 22, 2014.
“America’s Test at the Border,” The New York Times, August 21, 2014.
“Why the Border Crisis Is a Myth,” The New York Times, July 26, 2014.
“We need migrant policy, not just Guard,” Austin American Statesman,” July 22, 2014.