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News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

Started by Telarus, February 16, 2012, 01:06:06 PM

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Bu🤠ns

Quote from: Junkenstein on March 15, 2013, 08:09:04 PM
All of this makes me think a hacked version of the 5/6th gen of google glass or the equivalent is pretty much going to be a mandatory purpose just in case of shit like this.

On filming police, I thought most "democracies" allow it, those being filmed somewhat less so. Highly dependent on the person being filmed and the events being filmed. Most situations will probably result in a request to stop filming, I've never actually physically been prevented from it, only verbal. I have however, witnessed filming being prevented and cameras removed during the Manchester Anti-Iraq war marches (2000/2001?). Which was unfortunate given some surrounding events.

Your local arbiters of justice may and will vary is the point of that useless anecdote.

The App 'Tasker' (for Android) will allow you to create a widget that will secretly record video or audio without it being apparent.

McGrupp

Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on March 15, 2013, 08:00:14 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on March 15, 2013, 07:25:51 PM
If we're just trying to get people to notice, a meme would be the best option.  I've already tried bringing it up on my FB feed, but some snazzy images might be helpful, too.

Yeah, I think getting people to notice, and maybe ask questions, is a good idea.

Quick noob question on memes. Do you need to make sure that the picture used is public domain or can you use what you get from google images or various websites?

Golden Applesauce

Quote from: McGrupp on March 16, 2013, 02:38:08 AM
Quote from: M. Nigel Salt on March 15, 2013, 08:00:14 PM
Quote from: LMNO, PhD (life continues) on March 15, 2013, 07:25:51 PM
If we're just trying to get people to notice, a meme would be the best option.  I've already tried bringing it up on my FB feed, but some snazzy images might be helpful, too.

Yeah, I think getting people to notice, and maybe ask questions, is a good idea.

Quick noob question on memes. Do you need to make sure that the picture used is public domain or can you use what you get from google images or various websites?

Anything you're doing semi-professionally you should always get rights to use all your media, but for things "published" on FB and message boards... I really doubt the Associated Press is going to get on your case for using one of their images.
Q: How regularly do you hire 8th graders?
A: We have hired a number of FORMER 8th graders.

McGrupp


LMNO

I have been informed that the Frozen Zone may not be happening. Doesn't say if it WAS in force at some point, nor why no one seems to give a shit.

The Good Reverend Roger

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

The Good Reverend Roger

" It's just that Depeche Mode were a bunch of optimistic loveburgers."
- TGRR, shaming himself forever, 7/8/2017

"Billy, when I say that ethics is our number one priority and safety is also our number one priority, you should take that to mean exactly what I said. Also quality. That's our number one priority as well. Don't look at me that way, you're in the corporate world now and this is how it works."
- TGRR, raising the bar at work.

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Yeah, we're completely insane. It's like we WANT to become a third-world country.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


ñͤͣ̄ͦ̌̑͗͊͛͂͗ ̸̨̨̣̺̼̣̜͙͈͕̮̊̈́̈͂͛̽͊ͭ̓͆ͅé ̰̓̓́ͯ́́͞

P E R   A S P E R A   A D   A S T R A

Cain

Quote from: Cain on March 07, 2013, 07:10:27 PM
http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/03/06/source-rudi-dekkers-drug-case-will-never-go-to-trial/

QuoteThe upcoming trial in Houston of Rudi Dekkers for drug trafficking has been pushed back and may now never happen, according to a lawyer close to the case.

"The case has been continued, and a plea agreement is in the works," said the attorney, who asked for anonymity. "The case will never go to trial. That's all I can say."

Who is Rudi Dekkers and why should you care?

Well, Dekkers was the man who ran the flight school in Florida which trained, among others, a certain Mohammed Atta.  While investigating, Daniel Hopsicker, the author of the above article, discovered a number of discrepancies involving Dekkers flight school which led him to believe it may have been a drug trafficking front, and that the truth of 9/11 may have more to do with the drug trade than is normally suspected.

Hopsicker has two updates on Dekkers

http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/03/28/the-911-heroin-connection/

This article essentially reprises Hopsicker's book, and is reprinted from a 2004 article.  Not much new there, if you read the quotes I provided.

This, however, is much more interesting.

http://www.madcowprod.com/2013/03/28/rudi-dekkers-and-the-american-oligarchy/

Quote"In Fashion," intones Supermodel host Heidi Klum, on every episode, "One day you're In, and the next day...You're Out!"

Huffman 'henchman' Rudi Dekkers, in Houston, and former Turks & Caicos Premier Michael Misick, in Brazil, were busted within hours of each other last December.

When two famous but seemingly-unrelated high fliers get sent to the 'penalty box' at the same time, it's usually an indication that both were playing for the samr team.

The biggest historical example is, of course, the Medellin Cartel.

Cain

Let's play a game called "see where these weapons turn up".

QuoteThe Interior Ministry said thieves broke into a warehouse and stole a huge amount of firearms and ammunition. The ministry said 20,000 U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles and 15,000 rounds for 9mm pistols were stolen.

"There were no guards during the break-in," the ministry said on April

Telarus

Telarus, KSC,
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Cain

Corey Robin highlights how the press reports differently on election results, by comparing the 2004 American election with the recent Venezuelan election:

QuoteIn November 2004, 50.7% of the American population voted for George W. Bush; 48.3% voted for John Kerry.

The headline in the New York Times read: "After a Tense Night, Bush Spends the Day Basking in Victory."

QuoteFast forward to 2013. Tonight, 50.6% of the Venezuelan population voted for Chavez's successor Nicolas Maduro; 49.1% voted for his opponent Henrique Capriles.

The Times headline this time: "Maduro Narrowly Wins Venezuelan Presidency."

Also note how 50.7% is "decisive" and "undisputed majority", but 50.6% is indicative of a lack of "passionate popular support".  Guess that 0.1% difference really is a big one.

Telarus

Telarus, KSC,
.__.  Keeper of the Contradictory Cephalopod, Zenarchist Swordsman,
(0o)  Tender to the Edible Zen Garden, Ratcheting Metallic Sex Doll of The End Times,
/||\   Episkopos of the Amorphous Dreams Cabal

Join the Doll Underground! Experience the Phantasmagorical Safari!

Junkenstein

The ICIJ has been doing some great work:
http://www.icij.org/blog/2013/04/release-offshore-records-draws-worldwide-response
Lets name some names:

QuoteFrench president Francois Hollande has published the personal financial details of  government ministers on the official government website, following the Jerome Cahuzac and Jean-Jacques Augier offshore assets scandals. The list of assets includes details of bank accounts, life insurance, property and other expensive items such as cars, art works and antiques. Various properties in Paris and the south of France have already been itemized by ministers, as well as designer lounge chair (Industrial Renewal Minister Arnaud Montebourg) and a David Beckham t-shirt (Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti).

European Council president Herman Van Rompuy announced that tax evasion will be discussed at the next European Council in May, saying "we must seize the increased political momentum to address this crucial problem."
BVI government officials have announced they are opening a new business headquarters in Hong Kong, with Orlando Smith, BVI Premier and Finance Minister, confirmed to officiate the opening. Executive director of BVI International Finance Centre, Elise Donovan, said the data obtained by the ICIJ was "a small fraction" of the total number of BVI firms. She later added, "We want to reassure clients in Hong Kong and the region that this is an isolated incident. We remain committed to clients' privacy and confidentiality."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged UK's PM David Cameron to crack down on tax havens during talks in Berlin, following a public outcry in Germany over the "offshore leaks." Sources "close to Cameron" claim he was actually the first to raise the issue, spelling out how his government was cracking down on tax avoidance in places such as Jersey and Guernsey.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov is moving his offshore assets back to Russia after ICIJ's revelations that Shuvalov's wife Olga Shuvalova was either a shareholder or owner of several secretive offshore entities. The Shuvalovs had a declared income of $12.7 million in 2011, most of which was earned by Olga.

Spanish political party Unión Progreso y Democracia submitted written questions to the Spanish Congress today in the wake of French president François Hollande's announcement that French banks had to declare their tax haven subsidiaries. The questions read: Is the government going to present in the European institutions any initiative to eradicate the tax havens within the Member States? and Is the government going to force banks to disclose the subsidiaries they have in tax havens and what are their activities?

French president François Hollande called for "eradication" of the world's tax havens and told French banks they must declare all of their subsidiaries. He also announced the creation of a special prosecutor to pursue cases of corruption and tax fraud. French government ministers have been ordered to declare their assets publicly within days.

Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced his country plans to lift bank secrecy rules for European Union citizens who have savings based in the country, ending decades of bank secrecy in Luxembourg. "We are following a global movement," Juncker told parliament in a state-of-the-nation address. The new transparency regime would begin in January 2015. Austria is now the only EU country not sharing data about bank depositors. In a recent interview, Austrian Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Spindelegger Fekter said: "How much money someone has in the bank is a matter between the bank and the customer and is no one else's business."
Europe's five biggest economic powers — Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain — announced they would begin regularly exchanging banking and tax information as a way of identifying tax dodgers and other financial wrongdoers.

Meanwhile, the British Virgin Islands (BVI) authorities are not fans of the ICIJ investigation. The BVI premier and Finance Minister Orlando Smith told the South China Morning Post that "BVI authorities are actively investigating how this private information has been illicitly obtained and used to attack the BVI financial services industry, which operates compliantly within international guidelines and the law."
Athens' district attorney Panayota Fakou has started a preliminary probe to find out if Greeks who own offshore companies unearthed by the ICIJ investigation have evaded taxes or laundered money. According to the Greek newspaper Ta Nea, prosecutors will send information requests to British Virgin Islands' financial authorities asking them to turn over records of 107 entities connected to Greek citizens.
An investigation by Finnish State Televisionand ICIJ exposing the offshore connections of state-owned postal company Itella has been received with surprise by the Finnish Finance Minister, Jutta Urpilainen. The minister said that "state owned companies should be an example for other companies. That is why it is especially unacceptable that Itella owns a company in a tax haven." Urpilainen said the Finnish government should adopt clear rules on the use of offshore jurisdictions by state-owned corporations and called tax havens "one of the biggest threats to the Finnish welfare state."

Canada's national revenue minister Gail Shea says the government may pursue the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in court to force it to share the offshore leaks records.

Quebec Premier Pauline Marois has declared that neither she, nor any other elected officials in her government have dealings in the offshore world. Marois also supported the handover of internal documents to Canadian authorities, stating the Quebec government would not hesitate to use "all legal means" to ensure this.

French budget minister Bernard Cazeneuve joins the clamor from governments around the globe in urging ICIJ and its media partners to release the offshore tax haven files to them, to "aid justice and help them do their job." Le Monde's response: "It is up to the justice system to establish responsibilities at a time when the law might have been broken ... It is up to the press to enlighten the reader..."

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann says he is ready to make concessions on banking secrecy, to bring the nation in step with Switzerland and Luxembourg. "Austria should participate in talks on banking secrecy," Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann declared to Die Presse.

The European Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Šemeta, called for an automatic exchange of information between countries and a "tough common stance." "Recent developments, fuelled by the outcome of the Offshore Leaks, confirms the urgency for more and better action against tax evasion .... Now it is time to put words into action." He said he was "very pleased" to see many of the Member States reviewing where they stand on the issues and "intensifying their political will to act."

The Swiss government has distinguised itself from other world governments by publicly stating it does not want access to the offshore leaks records. Finance minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said Switzerland has worked hard in recent years to curb fraud and tax evasion and that much of the activity pointed to in the leaked documents can be perfectly legal. She says the Swiss government does not want access to the data as "it was acquired illegally and Bern wants no part of that".

The Philippine Presidential Commission on Good Government probe into the disclosure that Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, the eldest daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was a beneficiary of a secret offshore trust in the British Virgin Islands, will release its report within two weeks.  "We are duty bound to investigate and, depending upon informed preliminary findings, decide whether to pursue the matter," said Andres Bautista, the chairman of the Presidential Commission on Good Government, tasked with recovering the Marcos family's alleged ill-gotten wealth.

The president of the Association of German Banks denied that his group's members had helped customers engage in tax evasion. "First in line are the individuals and the organizations that invest their money in tax oases," Andreas Schmitz said."

The Berne internal revenue service authorities announced they will re-open the Gunter Sachs case after ICIJ's revelations about the former Mr. Brigitte Bardot's intricate offshore scheme.

In Canada, a Liberal senator urged his caucus colleague, Senator Pana Merchant, to answer questions in the wake of CBC News and ICIJ reports that she has been listed as beneficiary of an offshore trust created by her husband, a well-known class-action attorney. "We're all innocent until proven guilty in this country, but I want to hear her explanation," Senator Percy Downe told CBC News in an interview.

In the Philippines, two lawmakers dismissed a report by an ICIJ media partner, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ), that they had offshore holdings. Senator Manuel Villar said his offshore entity was a "1-dollar shell company" that he wasn't required to report, because he hadn't made any real investment in it. Villar said that he hadn't conducted business with the British Virgin Islands company "because I decided to concentrate in the Philippines." Congressman Joseph Victor 'JV' G. Ejercito suggested the story about him was politically motivated. "To the best of my knowledge, I have truthfully and accurately declared all my assets, liabilities, and net worth" on required disclosures forms for public officials, he said in a statement.

Germany's Economics Minister Philipp Rösler urged the media to pass the data on to the government, stressing that tax evasion was a "criminal act."
Luxembourg's Finance Minister Luc Frieden says he is open to greater transparency of its banks in order to cooperate further with foreign tax authorities.

The Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said an inquiry had been initiated by the authorities against individuals whose names figured in the global media report. "Yes. We have taken note of the names and inquiries have been put in motion in respect of the names that have been exposed," he told a press conference.
The Mongolian Deputy Speaker, Sangikav Bayartsogt, admitted to an "ethics failure" over his undeclared million-dollar Swiss bank account. He told a press conference: "It is true that there is 1,658 Euros or 2.9 million MNT in a Swiss bank account. I opened the account to trade in international stocks with three other acquaintances in 2008. My failure of responsibility is that I did not include the company in my declaration of income. I have admitted my ethic failure and I am ready to take responsibility."

Philippine government officials said they will investigate evidence that Maria Imelda Marcos Manotoc, a provincial governor and daughter of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was the beneficiary of a secret BVI offshore trust. 

George Mavraganis, the Deputy Finance Minister of Greece announced that the Greek government is moving to address offshore-driven tax dodging. Greek members of parliament asked Mavraganis what he planned to do about the 103 offshore companies that ICIJ found hadn't been registered with Greece's tax authorities.

George Sourlas from Greece's Ministry of Justice said the revenue loss caused by offshore was huge. "By the actions of offshore companies in Greece, the revenue loss to the Greek government is in the order of 40% or more of the debt of our country," Sourlas said. "The offshore companies cast a shadow at this time of great crisis, when some get rich and many get poor."

In France, President Francois Hollande denied knowledge of the offshore accounts held by his 2012 campaign manager, Jean-Jacques Augier, asserting that it's up to the tax administration to monitor Augier's private activities. Reports about Augier's offshore dealings by Le Monde, the BBC and other ICIJ partners came in the wake of news about tax fraud charges against Hollande's ex-budget Minister, Jerome Cahuzac.

The office of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev asserted there was nothing unusual about the information in the leak – which showed that his two daughters were shareholders of three offshore companies. The statement said the President's daughters "are grown up and have the right to do business."  A spokesperson for Azersun – a holding company controlled by Hasan Gozal, a corporate mogul who was listed as the director of the daughters' companies – said the report was biased and based on inaccurate information. "I regret that authority of Press Council doesn't go beyond Azerbaijan and there is no such institution worldwide to fight racketeer journalists," the spokesman said.

Ex-Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez publicly defended his sons' involvement in offshore business. Uribe stated that his sons Tomás and Jerónimo are entrepreneurs and "have participated in business dealings since they were children" and "they are not tax evaders."

In the UK, David Cameron is facing renewed pressure to take action over Britain's entanglements within the offshore world. Lord Oakeshott, a senior Liberal Democrat said that the secrecy haven of the British Virgin Islands "stains the face of Britain." Oakeshott and others are questioning whether Cameron will raise the issue in June of at the G8 summit of wealth nations. "How can David Cameron keep a straight face calling for the G8 to make big business pay tax when we let the BVI use British law and British protection to suck in billions in dirty money?" Oakeshott asked.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble stated on public radio that he was "pleased" with the ICIJ reports. He went on to say, "I think that such things as have been made known will increase the pressure internationally, and we will be able to increase the cooperation with those who have been more reticent", a sentiment reflected in Germany's previous lobbying to stamp out tax avoidance.

Canadian Federal Revenue Minister Gail Shea called the released of offshore banking information as "good news" for Canadians and bad news for tax evaders. Ms. Shea urged ICIJ or anyone else with information on tax cheats to come forward.

Pascal Saint-Amans, director of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, said: "Secrecy is no longer acceptable. We need to get rid of it. If the rules make it possible, then we'll change the rules."

So I wonder when global pressure will actually seriously look at Tax Havens.

I guess we'll get round to it after dealing with Dole scum and the drug war.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.