Even against the greatest of odds, there is something in the human spirit - a magic blend of skill, faith, and valor - that can lift men from certain defeat to incredible victory
— Walter Lord, born in 1917
BRITANNIA RULE THE WAVES: British Warship Ignores Chinese Warnings and Sails Through Taiwan Strait.
Joshua D. Blank (UC-Irvine; Google Scholar) & Ari D. Glogower (Ohio State; Google Scholar), The Trouble with Targeting Tax Shelters, 74 Admin. L. Rev. ___ (2022):
Abusive tax shelters—complex transactions that produce tax benefits that Congress never intended, but that may resemble legitimate business deals—frequently escape IRS detection. For the past 20 years, the federal government has attempted to bolster the IRS’s ability to detect these transactions by requiring taxpayers and their advisors to disclose “reportable transactions” to the IRS Office of Tax Shelter Analysis. While mandatory disclosure rules can serve valuable tax enforcement functions, including deterrence of abusive tax planning, they are also subject to significant limitations, especially when applied against high-income and wealthy taxpayers who have access to sophisticated legal counsel. In July 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court introduced an additional potential obstacle as a result of its decision in CIC Services, LLC v. Internal Revenue Service—the reportable transaction rules may now be subject to preemptive administrative law challenges without being barred by the Anti-Injunction Act.
Swiss Post is launching the Swiss crypto stamp.
Washington Post, The Pandora Papers | A Global Investigation | Billions Hidden Beyond Reach:
A massive trove of private financial records shared with The Washington Post exposes vast reaches of the secretive offshore system used to hide billions of dollars from tax authorities, creditors, criminal investigators and — in 14 cases involving current country leaders — citizens around the world.
- Key Findings from the Pandora Papers Investigation
- FAQ: The World of Secret Money
- Why The Post Published the Pandora Papers Investigation
- Vladimir Putin: Secret Money, Swanky Real Estate, and a Monte Carlo Mystery
- While His Country Struggles, Jordan's King Abdullah Secretly Splurges
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, Pandora Papers
BBC, Pandora Papers: Secret Wealth and Dealings of World Leaders Exposed
EC head ‘deeply concerned’ by Polish constitutional court ruling The First News
We Finally Know How 43 Students on a Bus Vanished Into Thin Air Daily Beast
A Profession That Selects For SociopathsEschaton
Chinese ‘Disinformation’ and US PropagandaFAIR
“‘Government without newspapers.'” Patrick Lawrence, The Scrum
The Science Of Propaganda Is Still Being Developed And Advanced Caitlin Johnstone
Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation
60 Minutes – “Her name is Frances Haugen. That is a fact that Facebook has been anxious to know since last month when an anonymous former employee filed complaints with federal law enforcement. The complaints say Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest—but the company hides what it knows. One complaint alleges that Facebook’s Instagram harms teenage girls. What makes Haugen’s complaints unprecedented is the trove of private Facebook research she took when she quit in May. The documents appeared first, last month, in the Wall Street Journal. But tonight, Frances Haugen is revealing her identity to explain why she became the Facebook whistleblower…”
- See also Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security convened a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower” at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. Recent Wall Street Journal investigations have revealed troubling insights regarding how Instagram affects teenagers, how it handles children onto the platform, and other consumer protection matters related to Facebook. The hearing (includes link to video of testimony) provided an opportunity for a Facebook whistleblower to discuss their perspective and experience with the Subcommittee, including how to update children’s privacy regulations and other laws to protect consumers online.” Frances Haugen Written Testimony.pdf
- See also New York Times: I Designed Algorithms at Facebook. Here’s How to Regulate Them.
- See also Mashable: Facebook is holding the world hostage. Here are the ways we might stop it. Facebook: Can’t live with it, can’t live without it. For now.
