Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
“Instead of ‘naming and shaming’ corrupt individuals, we are ‘naming and
faming’ honest officials. We’re not focusing on the wrong-doers, we’re
celebrating the do-gooders…
It has been well known for some
time that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under
investigation for alleged bribery. But few until now have known what he is supposed
to have done.
The Times of Israel has the story.
According to the paper, Mr Netanyahu is being accused of receiving gifts from
two wealthy individuals in return for attempting to extend a tax exemption for
people moving to Israel.
A SURVIVOR of the Parkland school shooting called out President Donald Trump on Saturday over his ties to the powerful National Rifle Association, as several thousand rallied in Florida to demand urgent action on gun control.
In a motion filed in New York federal court, the CIA claimed that limited disclosures to reporters do not waive national security exemptions to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Intelligence and law enforcement agencies frequently deny records requests on the basis of protecting sensitive national security information, one of nine exemptions written into the federal FOIA law…“In this case, CIA voluntarily disclosed to outsiders information that it had a perfect right to keep private,” [the Judge] wrote. “There is absolutely no statutory provision that authorizes limited disclosure of otherwise classified information to anyone, including ‘trusted reporters,’ for any purpose, including the protection of CIA sources and methods that might otherwise be outed.”
Here’s Chris Cuomo’s “legal reasoning” via Prof. Volokh. (Cuomo: “remember, it’s illegal to possess these stolen documents. It’s different for the media. So everything you learn about this, you’re learning from us.”). EXTRA IRONY BONUS: CNN — that same defender of transparency and the public’s “right to know” — forced YouTube to remove the video clip of Cuomo’s inanity.
THE US government has charged 13 Russians and three Russian companies over a sophisticated, multimillion-dollar operation designed to sway the 2016 US election in Donald Trump's favour.
"Judges Say Throw Out the Map. Lawmakers Say Throw Out the Judges." Michael Wines has this articlein today's edition of The New York Times.
Patrick
Soon-Shiong has shown incredible determination, imagination and belief in himself
in rising from discrimination in apartheid South Africa to become a billionaire
in Los Angeles — and he has
given hope to one of America’s great newspapers.
Now he’s going to have to trust others in a field he knows little about, if he
wants his newest acquisition, the Los Angeles Times, to bloom again.
In two words, show humility, says an author who has been following billionaires
buying media properties.
A team of FBI and IRS agents on Tuesday searched a North Dallas office building, authorities said. ... Brint Ryan, who has an office in the building, said about 40 agents were at the offices of Garza & Harris.
Joe B. Garza is a Dallas tax planning attorney known for his “aggressive” tax shelters. ... Garza’s website says he has negotiated and closed “more than $300 million of debt transactions” and “over $1 billion of tax exempt bond transactions as bond counsel for the state of Texas.” ...
But Garza’s promotion of certain shelters has resulted in costly adverse tax rulings against his clients, according to court records. Garza promoted and sold to clients a variety of the notorious “Son of Boss” tax shelter, which the IRS ruled was abusive if used to create artificial tax losses that could offset other income, according to federal court records.
In Kennedy’s book, out March 6, he holds the Bezos purchase as the best-case
scenario of a billionaire buyer. Poynter has talked at length with Kennedy
about those mixed experiences and about Soon-Siong in an interview here.
One key point: “What Soon-Siong could learn from Bezos is that he should
concentrate on areas where he can add real value — mainly on the business side
— and respect the wall that has traditionally separated news and commerce,”
says Kennedy, an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University.
“We don’t know whether he intends to do that yet. Some wealthy owners get it.
Some don’t.”
Catch the full interview,
but first, welcome to Poynter’s Morning MediaWire. Here are a few things that
caught our eye to help you start the week
290 School Shootings In America Since 2013: Again, again, again – it pains me no end to have to post news of yet another mass shooting in a public school, yet not to do so lets the silence speak volumes, which is not now, nor will it ever be, acceptable. These are our children America – they are in our schools. And please, do not forget for a moment the teachers, coaches, principals and other professionals who help to educate them, and keep them safe, often sacrificing their own safety, and their lives, to protect America’s children against gunfire from assault weapons in their classrooms and on school campuses around the country.
Quartz – The normalization of America’s school shootings, in one chart
Via Everytown: “Since 2013, there have been nearly 300 school shootings in America — an average of about one a week. How many more before our leaders pass common-sense laws to prevent gun violence and save lives? Communities all over the country live in fear of gun violence. That’s unacceptable. We should feel secure in sending our children to school — comforted by the knowledge that they’re safe. Consistent with expert advice and common sense, Everytown uses a straightforward, fair, and comprehensive definition for a school shooting: any time a firearm discharges a live round inside a school building or on a school campus or grounds, as documented by the press and, when necessary, confirmed through further inquiries with law enforcement or school officials. Incidents in which guns were brought into schools but not discharged, or where the firearm was discharged off school grounds, are not included. The database is updated as new shootings occur or as new evidence emerges about prior incidents. When it comes to American children being exposed to gunfire, these shootings are just the tip of the iceberg. A report by the Urban Institute showed that in the single school district of Washington, DC, there were at least 336 gunshots in the vicinity of schools over a single school year. And school shootings have long-term impacts on the school community as a whole: a recent analysis of school shootings found that those involving a homicide reduced student enrollment in the affected schools, and depressed students’ standardized test scores by nearly 5 percent.”
“The frustration is that we did everything that we were supposed to do … and still to have so many causalities. … I feel today like our government, our country, has failed us and failed our kids and didn’t keep us safe.” – Melissa Falkowski, teacher at Florida high school pic.twitter.com/LknYnQaD2A — Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 15, 2018
THE
PICTURE TRUMP DOESN’T WANT YOU TO SEE: For nearly a year, reporters have been asking the White House for photos
of the president signing House
Joint Bill 40. That NRA-backed bill would have kept 75,000 Americans who
were determined to be mentally deficient from buying a gun. The
photos of the Trump signing exist; the White House has refused to release
them. A reporter’s plea on Thursday went unanswered. The presidency is not
subject to the Freedom of Information Act
Ethnosex
Diversity ... THE LEFT IS REAPING THE WHIRLWIND OF THE CULTURE THEY
MADE, Andrew Klavan writes. “The left wants to defend gangstas and
‘transgressive’ art and antifa thugs — but when the shooting starts, they blame the guns.”
Dallas Morning News, FBI and IRS Raid Dallas Offices of Tax Planning Attorney, Say Neighboring Tenants:
