Friday, July 27, 2018

Detente: Anxiety Grips

“He was twenty. I remembered twenty. I'd known everything at twenty. It took me another year to realize I knew nothing. I was still hoping to learn something before I hit thirty, but I wasn't holding my breath.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, Circus of the Damned 

Donald Trump is reportedly prepared to strike Iran — and Australia will ...





James Comey ✔ @Comey
Democrats, please, please don’t lose your minds and rush to the socialist left. This president and his Republican Party are counting on you to do exactly that. America’s great middle wants sensible, balanced, ethical leadership.
Following up on my previous posts (links below):  VT Digger, Anxiety Grips Vermont Law School Community:
Almost three weeks after 75 percent of tenure faculty were stripped of tenure July 1, Vermont Law School is left with a culture of fear and uncertainty.
As of Wednesday, the administration still had not told faculty, students or staff who had tenure at the school and who didn’t. The secrecy had caused confusion among students, alumni and those faculty who remained. “People are pretty demoralized,” said professor Susan Apel. ... Some are sad professors will no longer have tenure, she said, while those who continue teaching are anxious. “I think they’re very nervous about their own status,” said Apel. “They don’t know what could happen to them next.”

Senate Finance Committee Press Release, Wyden Report Details Truth Behind Republican, Trump Claims that Tax Scam Helps Workers, Increases Investment in U.S.:
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., today released a Senate Finance Committee report that explores how Trump’s tax scam rewards multinational corporations, not workers, which will lead to fewer jobs here at home [Trump’s Tax Law and International Tax:
More Complexity, Loopholes and Incentives to Ship Jobs Overseas]. The report debunks false claims made by Republicans and Trump, and lists tactics multinational corporations will use to artificially lower their tax bills and shift profits overseas.
"Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans continue to peddle the false promises outlined in this tax scam report” Wyden said. “Republicans promised $4,000 wage increases and claimed the top priority of their tax law was promoting jobs in the United States. Their new international tax regime instead rewards companies for investing overseas while hardworking Americans watch their wages fall."
Wall Street Journal, IRS Wins Court Case Over Intel Corp.:
The Internal Revenue Service won a court case closely watched by technology companies, as an appeals court upheld a regulation governing how corporations divide expenses between their domestic and foreign operations.
Tuesday’s ruling by a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco represents a loss for Intel, whose Altera subsidiary challenged the regulation when it was a separate company [Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, Nos. 16-70496, 16-70497 (9th Cir. July 24, 2018)]. Tech companies had billions of dollars at stake in the case because the rules at issue determine where they report some deductions.
The U.S. Tax Court, which handles disputes between taxpayers and the IRS, ruled in favor of Intel [Altera Corp. v. Commissioner, 145 T.C. No. 3 (2015)]. The IRS appealed the decision.
“We conclude that the regulations withstand scrutiny under general administrative law principles, and we therefore reverse the decision of the Tax Court,” wrote Chief Judge Sidney Thomas.

Henry Kissinger: ‘We are in a very, very grave period’ FT
Detente Bad, Cold War Good Craig Murray



Scholar: Right now, we are in a new cold war Fox News. Tucker Carlson stays out of the way and allows Stephen Cohen to speak.

A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling Bloomberg

Realignment and Legitimacy
So, open season? Or more bubble-iciousness?
Why ‘Sorry to Bother You’ Is 2018’s Sharpest Political Satire Politico. Strange to see a Boots Riley film covered in Politico…
Judgment days WaPo. Via Jacob Bacharach, who comments: “WaPo paints these people as rural rubes, supporting a guy who flaunts immorality, when of course they’re all just as sophisticated as the reporters, probably more, and have made a very simple calculation about who will deliver their policy preferences.”
The Left’s Missing Foreign Policy n+1




Climb Down From the Summit of Hostile Propaganda Consortium News


Privacy concerns on My Health Record need to be addressed
VIEWPOINT: People may or may not choose to use My Health Record, but the fear is that it could be used against them, argues Deakin University's Joshua Badge.

Canberra's answer to ICAC takes shape
The ACT government has drawn up legislation to establish a powerful anti-corruption commission with broad powers to investigate allegations against public servants and politicians.

ABS plans to ramp up web security
UPDATED: Several Australian government websites are deemed 'insecure', but steps are underway to fix concerns.

District Court Holds that Santander's Arguments to Avoid Penalty for Bullshit Tax Shelter (No Substance) Lack Substance 

In Santander Holdings USA, Inc. v. United States (D. Mass. Dkt. 09-11043-GAO Dkt Entry 344 7/17/18), here, Santander previously lost the merits of its bullshit tax shelter on appeal, with the Court of Appeals holding that the shelter lacked economic substance.  Santander Holdings USA, Inc. v. United States, 844 F.3d 15 (1st Cir. 2016), here, cert. denied sub nom. Santander Holdings USA, Inc., & Subsidiaries v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 2295 (2017).  See my discussion of the Court of Appeals decision, First Circuit, Reversing the District Court, Rejects Santander's Bullshit Tax Shelter (Federal Tax Crimes Blog 12/17/16), here.










Report – Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation

Computational Propaganda Research Program – Oxford Internet Institute – Challenging Truth and Trust: A Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation, July 20, 2018: “The manipulation of public opinion over social media platforms has emerged as a critical threat to public life. Around the world, a range of government agencies and political parties are exploiting social media platforms to spread junk news and disinformation, exercise censorship and control, and undermine trust in the media, public institutions, and science. At a time when news consumption is increasingly digital, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and “blackbox” algorithms are being leveraged to challenge truth and trust: the cornerstones of our democratic society.

Manoj Viswanathan (UC-Hastings), Tax Compliance in a Decentralizing Economy, 34 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 283 (2018) (workshop) (review):
Tax compliance in the United States has long relied on information from centralized intermediaries — the financial institutions, employers, and brokers that help ensure income is reported and taxes are paid. Yet while the IRS remains tied to these centralized entities, consumers and businesses are not. New technologies, such as the “sharing” economy (companies such as Airbnb, Uber, and Instacart) and the blockchain (the platform on which Bitcoin is based) are providing new, decentralized options for exchanging goods and services. Without legislative and agency intervention, these technologies pose a critical threat to the reporting system underlying domestic and international tax compliance.
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