German poet Heinrich Heine was once asked why men no longer build great cathedrals. He replied: "People in those old times had convictions; we moderns only have opinions. And it needs more than a mere opinion to erect a Gothic cathedral."
Rob Heferen - This philosophy-quoting taxman is going old school
The low-tax countries wooing the world’s wealthyFinancial Times
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta recently hired a team of professional pickpockets to take items from his players’ pockets during a team dinner to teach them “a valuable lesson about being alert and prepared at all times
If elected in November, Kamala Harris would be the first US president to have worked at McDonald’s. “She joins 41 million Americans, including Jeff Bezos, who worked at the Golden Arches.”
Taxpayer Liable for Willful FBAR Penalties Despite Alleged ADHD, Stress, Depression, and Stage 3 Prostrate Cancer
In United States v. Rund (E.D. Va. No. 1:23-cv-00549 Memo Opinion & Order 8/6/24), CL here and GS here, the Court granted the Government summary judgment on Rund’s liability for FBAR willful penalties and ordered judgment for “$2,915,663 as of April 30, 2021, consisting of an assessment against him under 31 U.S.C. § 5321(a)(5), plus pre- and post-judgment interest and penalties accruing on that assessment in accordance with 31 U.S.C. § 3717.”
Musk hosts friendly chat with Trump on X after tech delays BBC
Trump and Musk, on X, Discuss Immigration and Shared Vision for U.S. Wall Street Journal
Trump seeks $100M in damages from DOJ for Mar-a-Lago search The Hill. Lambert covered this development yesterday, but this story is getting some play.
The far-right are coming for tax
I have published this video this evening. In it, I argue that far-right politicians hate government, or so they say. For decades they tried to deny it revenue by operating from offshore. Now, they're trying to deny funding to onshore tax authorities. In both cases, the aim is the same: they want to undermine the state by denying it the funding it needs.
2 photos of what appear to be JD Vance in drag surface online
The bones seem to belong to one young man, one middle-aged, and one elderly. This matches the oldest known depiction of the Three Kings: this 6th century mosaic in Ravenna. There's a legend that they were martyred as Christians — all at the same time, as the bones would imply.
Father Dante - Ravenna of Prosaic Mosaic
Kamala Harris’s Inner Circle and the California Democratic Way Lee Fang. On Glenn Greenwald’s System Update.
- Poynter’s Roy Peter Clark with “What I learned about writing from watching the Olympic games.”