I Worked for Democrats for Years. Billionaires Have Unfettered Influence Newsweek
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has received a quarter of a million tip-offs over the last five years as it hunts down an estimated $16 billion in stolen taxes that haven't been paid.
The tax office said the 250,000 tips it received from the public since July 2019 – almost 1000 every week – was a sign of growing frustration at people and businesses who are "stealing money needed for essential community services we all rely on".
"We get on average over 3500 tip-offs a month from people who know or suspect tax evasion or shadow economy behaviour," ATO assistant commissioner Tony Golding said.
WaPo: Meet The Black-Belt, Tattooed IRS Official Who Saved 23 Children From Their Abusers
Who died and left the US $7 billion? “It was the biggest estate-tax payment in modern history, but no one knew who made it. Then an anonymous phone call pointed to one man.” We don’t even know who our billionaires are.
García: Taxing Collusion
Russian spies plan ‘mayhem’ on British streets, warns MI5 chief Financial Times
The Internet Archive Has Been Hacked, Taken Down
Opinion | Donald Trump to skip ‘60 Minutes’ interview
Opinion | Tuesday’s VP debate might not matter … except for one moment
Let’s Stop Pretending That We Can Escape from Climate Change
The search for safe places to hide from climate change impacts is already underway, yet is set to be largely futile.
FTC Findings on Commercial Surveillance Can Lead to Better Alternatives EFF: “On September 19, the FTC published a staff report following a multi-year investigation of nine social media and video streaming companies.
The report found a myriad of privacy violations to consumers stemming largely from the ad-revenue based business models of companies including Facebook, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) which prompted unbridled consumer surveillance practices.
In addition to these findings, the FTC points out various ways in which user data can be weaponized to lock out competitors and dominate the respective markets of these companies. The report finds that market dominance can be established and expanded by acquisition and maintenance of user data, creating an unfair advantage and preventing new market entrants from fairly competing.
EFF has found that this is not only true for new entrants who wish to compete by similarly siphoning off large amounts of user data, but also for consumer-friendly companies who carve out a niche by refusing to play the game of dominance-through-surveillance. Abusing user data in an anti-competitive manner means users may not even learn of alternatives who have their best interests, rather than the best interests of the company advertising partners, in mind…”
