International Tax Scams

Want to avoid US corporate income tax?  If you are a corporation, open a branch or a subsidiary in some really low tax country.  The Bahamas and some other Caribbean island-nations are notorious.  Apple chose Ireland, a reasonable EU country that let Apple pay 12% instead of the US 35%.  Apple got such a good deal that the EU got on Ireland's case and demanded Apple pay a whole bunch more.  If the EU finds it was a scandal, where was the American IRS?  Uncle Sam was loosing out bigtime on the Irish-Apple deal. More so than the EU was.
   Once an overseas subsidiary is established, it's easy for the company accountants to direct all sorts of earning to the subsidiary.  Just running the bills thru the subsidiary can be enough.  Even if the product is made in the US, shipped in the US, delivered in the US, but the bills go to the Bahamas, it's income in the Bahamas, not the US.  We could tighten this up with some rules in our tax code.  Call it inverse domestic content, if say 50% of the product's content is US content, then income from selling said product is US income.  And we could ban transfer of intellectual property, say the rights to Disney films like Peter Pan, out of the United States.  Between movies and music and computer programs, and books and suchlike, the US earns a lotta money, probably more than we do exporting automobiles and steel.
   We probably need a world wide tax agreement, setting corporate tax rates the same all over the world.  This would reduce the incentives for US companies, cursed with the highest tax rate in the world, to move abroad.  To make this work, we would have to bring our corporate tax rate down to match places like Germany, Japan, and England.  And once we have the first world on board, we pressure the tax havens like the Bahamas to shape up. We tell 'em if they want to do business in the first world, they gotta adopt first world corporate tax rates.  If they don't listen, we tighten the screws on 'em.
  Wanna bet nobody running for president ever talks about this?

Veggies

All the medics and dieticians keep pushing the value of eating veggies.  They are probably right, but a serving of green peas is never gonna have the attraction of a Big Mac and fries, at least for me.  But, I have found a few veggie things that taste pretty good.
   Lettuce.  In salads.  Conventional salads, chef's salads with a bit of sliced ham, and plain old steakhouse style.  Just a wedge of lettuce on a plate with your favorite salad dressing poured on top.
   Celery.  Stuffed with cream cheese, and cut into 3 inch lengths.  Crunchy.
   Carrots.  Raw, with ranch dip.  Either the expensive little mini carrots, or just plain old carrots, peeled and sliced.
  Artichoke.  Steamed, with a bit of garlic.  And melted butter to dip the leaves into.
  Apples.  I cut 'em into quarters, and cut out the seeds.  Less waste than just nibbling them down to the core.  With a little cheddar cheese on the side.
  Apple sauce.  Comes in little single serving plastic tubs.  Sweet and moist, just right during winter heating season when everything gets dry.  Also good with pork.
  Tomatoes.  Sliced with a bit of cottage cheese on top.  And a dash of basil.  Juicy.   
  Pineapple.  Cans of sliced pineapple.  Serve it with some cottage cheese on top.