“The deeper scandal is what’s legal, not what’s not,” the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer said of the NSA revelations. The same is true of the corrupted political and legal systems exposed by the Panama Papers.
FROM THE START of the reporting based on Edward Snowden’s leaked document archive, government defenders insisted that no illegal behavior was revealed. That was always false: Multiple courts have now found the domestic metadata spying program in violation of the Constitution and relevant statutes and have issued similar rulings for other mass surveillance programs; numerous articles on NSA and GCHQ documented the targeting of people and groups for blatantly political or legally impermissible purposes; and the leak revealed that President Obama’s top national security official (still), James Clapper, blatantly lied when testifying before Congress about the NSA’s activities — a felony.
But illegality was never the crux of the scandal triggered by those NSA revelations. Instead, what was most shocking was what had been legalized: the secret construction of the largest system of suspicionless spying in human history. What was scandalous was not that most of this spying was against the law, but rather that the law — at least as applied and interpreted by the Justice Department and secret, one-sided FISA “courts” — now permitted the U.S. government and its partners to engage in mass surveillance of entire populations, including their own. As the ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer put it after the Washington Post’s publication of documents showing NSA analysts engaged in illegal spying: “The ‘non-compliance’ angle is important, but don’t get carried away. The deeper scandal is what’s legal, not what’s not.”
Yesterday, dozens of newspapers around the world reported on what they are calling the Panama Papers: a gargantuan leak of documents from a Panama-based law firm that specializes in creating offshore shell companies. The documents reveal billions of dollars being funneled to offshore tax havens by leading governmental and corporate officials in numerous countries (the U.S. was oddly missing from the initial reporting, though journalists vow that will change shortly).
Some of these documents undoubtedly reveal criminality: either monies that were illegally obtained (and are being hidden for that reason) or assets being concealed in order to criminally evade tax debts. But the crux of this activity — placing assets offshore in order to avoid incurring tax liability — has been legalized. That’s because Western democracies, along with overt tyrannies, are typically controlled by societies’ wealthiest, and laws are enacted to serve their interests. Vox’s Matt Yglesias this morning published a very good explainer of various aspects of this leak and he makes that point clear:
Even as the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nations have engaged in increasingly complex and intensive efforts at international cooperation to smooth the wheels of global commerce, they have willfully chosen to allow the wealthiest members of Western society to shield their financial assets from taxation (and in many cases divorce or bankruptcy settlement) by taking advantage of shell companies and tax havens.
If Panama or the Cayman Islands were acting to undermine the integrity of the global pharmaceutical patent system, the United States would stop them. But the political elite of powerful Western nations have not acted to stop relatively puny Caribbean nations from undermining the integrity of the global tax system — largely because Western economic elites don’t want them to. …
… But even though various criminal money-laundering schemes are the sexiest possible use of shell companies, the day-to-day tax dodging is what really pays the bills. As a manager of offshore bank accounts told me years ago, “People think of banking secrecy as all about terrorists and drug smugglers, but the truth is there are a lot of rich people who don’t want to pay taxes.” And the system persists because there are a lot of politicians in the West who don’t particularly want to make them. …
… Incorporating your hedge fund in a country with no corporate income tax even though all your fund’s employees and investors live in the United States is perfectly legal. So is, in most cases, setting up a Panamanian shell company to own and manage most of your family’s fortune.
Tax avoidance is an inevitable feature of any tax system, but the reason this particular form of avoidance grows and grows without bounds is that powerful politicians in powerful countries have chosen to let it happen. As the global economy has become more and more deeply integrated, powerful countries have created economic “rules of the road” that foreign countries and multinational corporations must follow in order to gain lucrative market access.
Proving that certain behavior is “legal” does not prove that it is ethical or just. That’s because corrupted political systems, by definition, often protect and legalize exactly the behavior that is most unjust. Vital journalism does not only expose law breaking. It also highlights how corrupted political and legal systems can be co-opted by the most powerful in order to legally sanction atrocious and destructive behavior that serves their interests, typically with little or no public awareness that it’s been done.
In such cases, as Jaffer put it, “The deeper scandal is what’s legal, not what’s not.” The key revelation is not the illegality of the specific behavior in question but rather the light shined on how our political systems function and for whose benefit they work. That was true of the Snowden leak, and it’s true of the Panama Papers as well.
Top photo: A sign outside the building of Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca in Panama City, April 4, 2016.
Reading this article I was struck by the fact that the mass spying on people must produce information that could be used to deal with illegal international financial transactions. This does not happen and we have another another problem a disregard for the rule of law. I often wonder whether the the governments involved run the secret police or the secret police run the governments.
There is force admittedly to taxes and there is possibly gain from taxes. Obviously there is a vast difference in outcomes to the process. In certain circumstances I support taxes (education, roads, libraries and a few others) and in other circumstances I would boycott were it not for the threat of prison (defense budget, corporate welfare), but this grey area of choosing is sadly not an option currently. In theory you are correct about being forced, i practice, neither of our options goes anywhere. We are both stuck with either paying for something we are ethically opposed to, or facing prison term for not acknowledging those forcing us.
First off Snowden should be a free man. Obvama should bring him back to a deal where he is given say 3 years probation & hirerd by the FBI tonworknin their lab. Second Obama should nt be afraid to be honest about what he did, he does not have to run again.
He only releases Zionist spies.
That’s his employer.
The Netherlands is a EU. tax haven for big corporations.
As the Dutch PM. Mark Rutte put it:
If we don’t do it they go somewhere else…. Ofcourse John & Jane Doe pay to the full.
Legalized corruption. And corruption is one of the main reasons cited by many radicalized people as to why they’re trying to overthrow governments in the Middle East and elsewhere. Blowback.
OT: I read Krugman earlier claiming Bernie’s now become a “Bernie Bro,” so look out America.
Too much.
What, Bernie Sanders now supports his own policies? I KNEW it had to happen eventually.
Edward Snowden is known for revealing details of classified United States government surveillance programs. Which would have, and should, reveal some of the illegal financial transactions of hundreds of thousands of Americans. His activities benefited the .01%, reinforcing public attitudes that secrecy is a good thing. Assange is a hero. He busted open the secrecy of thousands of rascals and miscreants. Likewise the leakers of the Mossack data.
*Proving that certain behavior is “legal” does not prove that it is ethical or just.*
A pertinent statement, for sure. However, is it ever ethical or just for any person (or group or political corporation) to tax other people? The textbook definition of “to tax” is: to compel people to pay money (or perform a service) in such a manner that they cannot derive a “legal” claim to any good or service in return for it. A tax is not a price; it is not a fine or compensation for harm done, and it is not a gift. It is a naked taking by force or by threatening to use force.
Because there is and cannot be an ethical or just right to tax, it is impossible to pay taxes to those who have a right to tax. People always and everywhere pay taxes to those — and only to those — who have the power to force them to pay.
Unless “Might makes right” (the original and pre-Orwellian Newspeak) is an ethical principle, taxation itself is the ultimate tax fraud.
Plenty of people, probably the majority, know that taxes pay for infrastructure, public utilities, the roads, fire departments, public education, etc. etc., and they’re perfectly happy to pay taxes for those things, because they rely on those things. Do you live on an Eden-like desert island where its bounty makes it unnecessary for you personally to have any of those things? And you make a bizarre argument that paying taxes for these things inherently means that the taxpayer has no legal claim to any good or service in return for it, when the opposite is the case. A tax IS a price paid for a good or service made possible by that tax. You’re taking the Ayn Rand position, or you think that the US is still under rule from England, with the East India Company being used to tax the colonists for goods that they wanted to produce themselves, to make those American-produced products more expensive than the ones from England. The US fought a Revolutionary War to gain the right to taxation with representation. You might not like that arrangement because it’s not perfect, but tell us how the alternative is closer to perfect in the goods and services it theoretically would deliver.
When you get to the Caribbean on vacation you feel relaxed, it’s calm, cool and collect. Everything is chill. Right.
It’s until you get back home and realize you exist in a stuffy world, filled with anxiety, idiots, pomp, ego’s, back stabbing, pressure, taxes, bills, and more….
We don’t want to change the Caribbean, just who hides their money there. If you earned it legally and was taxed at home, it should be nobodies business where you decide to stash your cash.
And if you are on the governments side, let me ask you this: why should you care where I place MY money after I’ve done my share: earned it – and was taxed.
Maybe it’s because the reality is that the US is a bankrupt nation. It went BK in 1929 and it’s never recovered. Every US dollar bill in your bank or wallet is an issued note of DEBT. Not wealth.
All your money can be called in for collection like they did with gold, and if they decide to do it, you are in trouble. But no worries, all hell would break lose and there wouldn’t be any banks left.
Federal Reserve notes are worth exactly 0.01
That is about how much it costs to print a $100 bill.
The tax haven that is the subject of this leak isn’t one that was set up to hold money from people after they’ve paid taxes on it. It was set up to hold money so that taxes wouldn’t have to be paid on it to begin with.
I don’t see how if you earned money and were taxed, how you should even worry about the remnants of your efforts (your money after tax). The problem are governments, not people. The government does NOTHING to deserve 1/2 of the taxes they collect, but they’ve made it into law, because to be perfectly frank governments don’t care about the people. They care about the state.
Shock found globally from this Panama expose is from people who generally probably never made much money anyways, and it’s jealousy speaking from most.
IF anyone of you worked smart or hard enough to earn millions, you will want to keep and shelter what’s left after the government got their claws on it. Again, the main problem isn’t people protecting their wealth, it’s governments desire to strip us humans of everything we have. The less we have, the more dependent we are on government.
Free thinkers know I am correct.
As with folks who have profited from their inside connections who are hiding their money, these people are another problem altogether. They should be outed.
But protecting ones wealth is very important. And by wealth, even having $10,000 is a lot for some people, and it’s still the governments goal to figure out how to take that too.
State vs The People. It will never change.
> The problem are governments, not people. The government does NOTHING to deserve 1/2 of the taxes they collect
Phreaps if you live in Somalia. In most of the rest of the world, electrical grid distribution, water grid distribution, police force, fire fighting force, healthcare, social security, infrastructure construction, public services wages, education system, (and that’s just off the top of my head, and those are just some of the fixed costs) don’t pay itself out of thin air.
Last year, for the first time ever, I paid more than half of my income in taxes. If the schools were good, the roads repaired, the trains running on time, etc. this might be a fair price. However, none of these things are true so I just feel like a fool. Since I can’t afford a Panamanian tax dodge, I’ll have to accomplish the same thing by cutting down to three days of work a week.
At the State level, about 1/3 of revenue now goes just to pay pensions for the employees who retired at age 50. God only knows WHAT the Fed does with the obscene sums it confiscates.
I haven’t seen anywhere in coverage of this leak that tax havens are set up to hold money from people who have already paid their taxes on it. The term “tax haven” should ring a bell as to their actual purpose.
Btw all news on Panama Papers you can track here – http://panama-papers.site
It’s a live news feed for all countries. Don’t mention it!
This isn’t a problem of the west it’s a global behaviour indulged in by the wealthy , elites and politicians around the whole world. It’s a network of tax havens not a collection of individual havens. It has network properties and is independent of any democratic controls. We built it and it needs dismantling.
The FT reported today that the UK Prime Minister David “Cameron’s intervention set up a tax loophole when he wrote to Brussels requesting special treatment for UK trusts”.
Cameron has in the past publicly criticized complex offshore structures saying “they are not fair and not right”
Guardiões da mídia corporativa protegem o 1% ocidental no vazamento do Panamá, http://choldraboldra.blogspot.com.br/2016/04/guardioes-da-midia-corporativa-protegem.html
Glenn, when will you publish more Snowden docs?
Was this situation contained in any Snowden docs?
Panama paper leak not only make me wonder but also it is very much interesting shocking news for me and firstly i read from http://www.vpnranks.com/panama-papers-reveal-massive-frauds-of-all-time/
and still didn’t read detail but i think there will be some massive changes in the world.
So, why do the workers of the world put up with the parasitic rentier class? David Cay Johnston wrote a book ” Perfectly Legal ” over 10 years ago; a NYT bestseller. It explained how the elite get government to make laws to favor them. In many cases, the law is literally written by the lobby for the elite. This has gone on forever but now the public can find out but chooses not to. If you want to know more about offshore, read “Treasure Island’s”….. Hint, no matter how cynical you are, it’s worse than you think.
Why not? And they bribe elected congressmen too.
The corruption creating an empire of the greediest, one needing Big Brother, must be exposed to its roots.
May ever greater waves of conscientiousness overwhelm and end them all.
This statement is somewhat unfair to the countries affected.
“But the political elite of powerful Western nations have not acted to stop relatively puny Caribbean nations from undermining the integrity of the global tax system”
It’s fair to place the burden of cheating persons on a country that is fortunate enough to pay for all it’s government programs by not taxing corporations and getting their tax income from tourism or some other source. Nevada has zero state tax and derives all of its tax needs from gaming industry.
I think it the behavior of the person who pay zero tax anywhere is what is at the heart of the issue. Certainly no one suggests that Nevadans are tax evaders. But we’d all be upset if someone from New York created a shell company and made himself a Nevada employee to avoid taxes.
It’s the behavior, not the tax structure.
Sorry, meant to say “It’s unfair to place….” or “Is it fair to place the burden”. D’oh!
It is the tax structure. You cannot have thieves and greeds if there is no home for them. It is the tax structure.
That home is usually called prison if I’m not mistaken.
Glenn
Was the Panama Papers story offered to IT and turned down months ago, if so WHY? You almost passed on Snowden. Seems difficult to separate wheat from chaff?
Selective Leaks Of The #PanamaPapers Create Huge Blackmail Potential
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/04/selected-leak-of-the-panamapapers-creates-huge-blackmail-potential.html
Excerpt: Already some 16 month ago Ken Silverstein reported for Vice on a big shady shell company provider, Mossak Fonseca in Panama. (Pierre Omidyar’s Intercept, for which Silverstein was then working, refused to publish the piece.) Yves Smith published several big stories about the Mossak Fonseca money laundering business. Silverstein also repeated the well known fact that Rami Makhlouf, a rich cousin of the Syrian president Assad, had some money hidden in Mossak Fonseca shell companies.
I just tried to post the most relevant excerpts from the tweets MoF cited, but it’s lost in the TI ethers. Here’s the URL:
https://twitter.com/KenSilverstein1/status/716803985915703297
Glenn, do you have any comments on Silverstein’s assertion?
Also, Glenn, as you know, the ICIJ is a project of the Center for Public Integrity and the Omidyar Network is among the major institutional funders of CPI.
We have been told that ICIJ coordinated a team of 400 journalists in 50 countries in analyzing and preparing articles on the Panama Papers. Do you know if The Intercept, or any other First Look entity, participated in that process? If not, do you know why not?
If so, can you share the type and extent of your participation?
Ooops. That’s MofA, obviously.
In my morning paper (Postmedia owned) in Canada there was a helpful squib about the Panama Papers leaks which explained that while offshore banking has many legitimate uses, for corporate mergers, acquisitions, and “estate and tax planning” purposes, what is bad about it is that it can be used by criminals and terrorists and you know bad dictators and stuff.
They wonder why readership is declining.
The system is corrupt! And what supports the system? Your taxes. To do something, contact the law firm listed below.
Mossack Fonseca
p.s. also offers viral marketing services.
Mossack Fonseca is busy doing the dishes … you’ll have to call back ltr, benitoe.
“Mossack Fonseca. Please leave your name and number so that we may get back to you. For security purposes, don’t leave your real name or your real number.”
Iceland’s PM going down:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35966412
Would that we had the system for government recall that Iceland has.
It’s not the system of government that is keeping the American public from establishing justice. It’s a combination of 1) the public’s lack of awareness about propaganda and how it works, 2) the public’s unfamiliarity with social theory, 3) the public’s superficial understanding of freedom, justice, democracy, 4) the public’s underdeveloped political consciousness.
The conscience of a people is their power, Dryden said. For decades the American public has been subjected to the most sophisticated, powerful propaganda ever devised, which has rendered millions of Americans without a clue, unable to take appropriate actions, incapable of collective self-defense, forever susceptible to charlatans like Trump, Obama, Clinton, and Sanders.
Sure, VJ, it is all the result of propaganda. It is obvious that you have no better understanding of how the US works than that which you attribute to the public. Lumping TOCS together is an example.
read
“Managing Public Opinion: The Corporate Offensive” (1996) by Alex Carey
sptips.rs/SPT1996/SPT1996_11.pdf
That link is dead. But so what. What you are saying regarding the control of the people in the US is not a consistent explanation of the differences between the US and other countries.
He is absolutely correct about the propaganda.As far as differences between nations,the west is fairly monolithic,with just social programs being less popular here in the US,only because of the said propaganda from creeps who in their promised land have social programs denied US.
Trump a charlatan?He seems pretty out front to me.Obomba and the hell bitch,yes.Sanders?Up in the air.
Q: Why can’t we build structures using human bones?
A: Because people would object.
Q: What if I told you we already use human bones to build many skyscrapers?
A: I would … um … I guess I would never go inside one.
Q: How would you know which buildings not to enter?
A: Um … I don’t know.
Donald Trump: I’m a great builder. I know buildings. I’ve built buildings all my life. I build great buildings. Trust me. I’ll build the greatest buildings ever.
Americans: What difference does it make if it keeps the rain off my head?
Yet Sanders was the one who warned against Panama!
Michael Hudson was warning about the tax havens years before Sanders….
http://www.counterpunch.org/2004/03/25/an-insider-spills-the-beans-on-offshore-banking-centers/
See Pilger’s piece: http://johnpilger.com/articles/why-the-rise-of-fascism-is-again-the-issue
It will be interesting to see if the same occurs in Britain, with the leak about the UKPrime Minister David Cameron’s father, Ian Cameron, and the UK media asking the Prime Minister if he still has money stashed away in tax havens.
Labour,, the main opposition party in the UK, has just called for a full independent investigation in the UK, and for the Prime Minister, DavidCameron to explain what has been going on, and to publish his tax return
Can’t think of anybody I would want to recall Pedinska … there’s a few I would like to impeach./
https://www.salon.com/2016/04/05/this_is_much_worse_than_the_panama_papers_how_america_became_a_world_leader_in_tax_avoidance/
Sea Shells, Sea Shells, LLC
http://fusion.net/story/287187/delaware-cats-shell-company/
Trickle down economics?
*What a waste … 20 to 30 Trillion$ tied up in cat litter and shady deals at any given time around the world!
fly on the wall, listening to corporations and individuals as they prepare for damage control. exciting times.
by the way, once again Bernie leads the pack https://youtu.be/a25fZFKtJ7s
The pack of predators led by the fauxcialist Sanders wants to devour the 99%. Because capitalism.
US, NATO preparing new air and ground attacks against Libya
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/05/liby-a05.html
>”Because capitalism”
Well, that and a cold, cold heart.
*you’re a good writer … for a ‘commie’ Vivek Jain :)
US navy prepares third provocation in South China Sea https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/04/05/scse-a05.html
Questiosn that I have not seen answer, are the clintons in that list? The other I would ask is Cruz on that list. Both are very very close to Wall Street, Cruz being married to a vice president at Goldman Sach
People say “but what can Bernie do Congress won’t work with him”.
There are two things the president can do to fix this country and nobody in Congress can stop it. One being exposure and transparency ,open up the books, let the world see. The other is prosecution. POTUS controls the justice department and can prosecute.
For nearly eight years, millions of ignorant, spineless progressives, liberals and Democratic partisans have made excuse after excuse for the right wing policies of the Obama administration. Recall how frequently one would hear that Obama had “inherited a mess that Bush made” or that Congress was controlled by the GOP, or that the TEA party was too powerful, or that there was insufficient support from the Democratic base, etc. Contrary to what many millions of Americans have been led to believe, and as Greenwald has pointed out again and again, in reality the WH, Democratic party, and Republican party all serve the ruling class and work together to advance the ruling class agenda. The idea that there is too little bipartisanship is simply a lie. Look at how the parties enable the arrogation of ever increasing powers by the state. Look at how the parties facilitate the violation of rights of billions of people. Look at how the parties work together to terrorize the planet and oppress the American public. Etc.
All this is great but now the media (you all) decide what we, the masses, may evaluate? It was responsible to edit Snownen’s cache as it has names of under cover agents. This is just money. Why do the manipulors deserve the medias’ protection? Just asking.
quote” (the U.S. was oddly missing from the initial reporting, though journalists vow that will change shortly).”unquote
I’ve got $1k that says every law firm phone line in WDC/NYC/LA is ringing while certain Congress maggots are at this moment writing a bill to cover their ass, notwithstanding the FBI/NSA’s analysts going crazy trying to connect dots to prevent the exposure of US elite criminals as per an Executive Order issued in the last hour.
If anything, the P’sTB in the US will immediately do everything in their power to keep any disclosures regarding US elites involved from being compromised…including murder.
yup. Being the cockroaches they are when suddenly a flood of 1000 kilowatt lights hit them in the midst of their darktime endeavors, they looked up and were blinded by the light, and are scurrying for cover before the heat of the light burns them to a crisp.
Glen, you have touched on a real problem here. Bravo.
My comment has to do more with the Snowden revelations.
When the President and/or Congress do no uphold the constitution, we have a breakdown.
Illegal activity, whether lies of an agency head (who is supposedly a public servant) to congress or illegal surveillance or torture (a crime against humanity) or so many others, go unpunished, we have a breakdown of civil society.
When these people actively support and come up with excuses for things they should be stopping, then what do we have ?
Looking at the scale of tax evasion, it is hard to believe that governments don’t know how the game is played. Especially, since most government heads are very rich and into the game themselves.
From Chile:
Glenn, I’m no expert (I’m a high school history teacher) but you well know that in these latitudes we know how yanki imperialism works…, cruelly, very cruelly… Four points that make me doubt this whole shit and one final conclusion: 1) The article about the “World leaders involved” is very weird (rightist, pro american), just a couple of words and then appears… Putin
2) All the “leaders” involved in this “Leak” are US’s percieved worst enemies, with a couple of exceptions (Macri, Britain’s Prime Minister, King Juan Carlos, ’cause all the arab sheiks, emirs and kings don’t really count)
3) It’s just too many documents. You know Wikileaks breaks havoc with a couple of hundred thousand, and most leaks are much less, and that’s normal: there’s too many risks for a single dude so it’s impossible, even if there was more than one person involved, and corporations have a lot of security measures, so really, a million and a half is imposible to leak for anyone (that’s when the part of “you know how we know reality in places that have been dictatorshiped by you guys” is very significant and makes the difference compared to first world rich kids, maybe well intended, but who never walked the walk, even though they made the best effort, like in war corresondence, for example… We had a lot of those over here in the 80’s)
4) They haven’t been able to stop the real leaks with repression, very cruel repression, even though at the start they were sure that that was gonna work. So they had to figure out another strategy (Man, all this is just very simple reasoning for third world people, like chileans, nicaraguans, zimbabweans, angolans, cubans, chicanos, afroamericans, south africans, qadafi libyans. palestinians, syrians, nepalians, bengalians, iranians, lebanese, yemenians, kirchnerian argentinians, bolivarian venezuelans, and all the rest of my sisters and brothers who have gotten screwed by you guys all trough history)
Conclusion: You know much, much better than me what Snowden and all the rest of the security nerds gonne (all of a sudden) democrats have explained us: the more the information, the more confused you get, or “it’s better an agent on the ground like in the good old days than all this massive amount of info”, or “we knew all these guys before they bombed us, but there were too many of them so how could we focus?”
So what really is this shit? Easy man, very easy: “Since repression ddn’t work, and this shit (whistleblowing) is never gonna stop like we thought, then lets OVERLOAD”. That way it becomes not significant, like the massive amount of info in the survelaince shit is not useful and eventually becomes non significant (or better said, it was never of any significance for real intelligence, it was always meant for inner politics, for detroying dissent)
PLEASE GO FOR IT, YOU GOT THE MEANS, I DON’T ‘CAUSE I’M ONLY A THIRD WORLD ALWAYS BEEN FUCKED BY YOU GUYS DUDE… DON’T MATTER HOW SMART I CAN BE, THAT HAS NEVER MATTERED, OR HOW WELL MEANING, OR FORGIVING FOR ALL THAT SHIT… I MEAN, YOU KNOW WHAT 9/11 1973 WAS LIKE OVER HERE, RIGHT?
With guys like you in Chile’s high schools, there is hope for Chilean youth (unlike American youth, I fear).
The head of the history dept in the HS I worked in,(maintenance)had no clue as to Zionist hold over American policy.He just liked waxing his Corvette.
Unbelievable the absolute mediocrity of American mainstream thinking.
You are in violation of international internet statute article 3, which specifically regulates that all photographs posted to web sites on all parts of the internet be sized appropriately in order to prevent said web site from looking like an 18-month-old created it.
One point unfortunately Glen omits and it applies to releases of Snowden leaks. Many releases of those two cases of leaks were measured for dramatic impact, clicks, likes, upvotes and used to enhance business impact of their publications on the bottom line and not an urgency of revealing crimes being committed with massive impact on society at large.
In the Panama Papers case as well as in Snowden case there is a urgency to reveal all the documentation via Wikileaks or other means and let thousands people browse and sort out millions of pages of documents so we all know who is stealing our taxpayer money or committing crimes as it was important to know names of those who were spied upon illegally by NSA. And while data exists nobody is rushing to release it, invoking personal judgment.
While in Panama case it is clearly selective use of data for propaganda purposes since no German and US big names were even searched for, as authors admitted, and perhaps extortion of particular undisclosed yet well know figures of sports or celebrity, politics which is abhorrent in itself, but most of all the data is so far used to pursuit a political witch hunt spewing on baseless accusations and innuendoes about enemies of the west like Putin (absent from database) , hiding obvious criminality of our illustrious leaders.
I would not be surprised if Sanders will be found to have offshore account with $1.50 balance, it is that fake and stupid manipulation. So far all those names disclosed are very well know oligarchs [even formerly friendly to US like Poroshenko of Ukraine, Saakashvilli of Georgia], and their crimes are already documented years before, but perhaps discovered by virgin MSM after all kindergarteners have been already briefed. It is nothing but a bankruptcy and confusion of dying MSM.
Glen forgets that all those ”journos” from Panama Papers are funded by indirectly and directly by US Aid and other CIA/ front foundations in the US. This is an important fact needed to judge this whole thing correctly.
Where it is this coming from, fake leaks containing propaganda lies spilled by journalists implants of CIA in the US/Germany and elsewhere. Let’s not take leaks as automatically unchallenged truth since in the case of Panama the leak somebody took stinks to heaven.
Here are still lingering questions about Snowden Affair after two years.
https://contrarianopinion.wordpress.com/2015/01/06/snowden-affair-unasked-questions/
You don’t know anything about Michael Hudson (one of the editors), do you?
I always look at power of argument and ignore an argument of power or authority of a journalist, professor, oligarch or Pope , it is so-called freedom of thought.
But you do not know what freedom of thought is, do you?
Why is it that someone who claims to have the inside track on the ways of the world (like no one else!) is incapable of the most simple of comprehensive reading skills? Which is, how to spell the name of the person they are addressing and excoriating ? Glenn’s name is spelled Glenn. His name isn’t spelled glen. That’s just an FYI which you have to have seen hundreds of times by now, but yet you have remained incapable of comprehending that most easily absorbed information. What’s the deal with that?
I will hire you as my spell checker. Deal?
Now, do you care to address a single issue I have raised or you gonna keep trolling.
Glen(n) addressed your stale “issues.”
If you really need a spell checker just to spell “Glenn” keep the fuck looking, because only a fool would bother dealing with someone who claims not to even be able to spell “Glenn” without an auto robot to help them.
How was the Intercept’s 2+ years of Snowden reporting – which we’ve spent literally millions of dollars to do – “used to enhance the business impact of this publication’s bottom line”? Please be specific. Thanks.
I know I’ve been asking the same three questions now for 3 years, but it’s only because people like you refuse ever to provide answers to them – and for good reason:
1) Does your brain ever ask yourself: if Snowden wanted all these docs uploaded to the internet, why didn’t he do that himself;
2) Just last week, Snowden explained in detail the reporting method he demanded we follow before giving us these documents; do you think as journalists we should just brazenly and willfully violate the agreement we reached with our source?;
3) Publication of the full Snowden archive would destroy both the privacy and reputations of thousands if not millions of people by disclosing their private communications collected by the NSA, along with making public documents in which the US and other governments speculate about their involvement in terrorism and other serious crimes. Are you totally indifferent to that? Is your attitude: screw those innocent people and just publish away – they’re just collateral damage for The Cause?
Thanks for responding Glenn.
I was raising the issue of how leaks are being handled and who really benefit from them intentionally or not for may years.
I want to note that I never questioned Snowden data contained in the leaks and I condemned all those disclosed evidences of illegal practices of government agencies, which were rumored years before.
But I think it is a legitimate question to ask about circumstances and consequences of the selective leaks and their content in regard to any leaks by anyone as much as we must scrutinize official releases of information.
Especially, that as you are much more aware than me, many so-called leaks are instigated by those who release them, not to inform public but to confuse or lie to the public and the Iraq war was a prime example of that.
I wonder since when questioning of rationale of any story is somehow a hostile act. May be since Socrates, who was condemned to death for it.
When no complete set of existing data is released, it is legitimate to question the interpretation of the data provided, even by one of most honest journalists as yourself, with all do respect.
Nobody can require that I accept what you or Snowden disclosed as unquestioned absolute truth unless we belong to the same church and believe in the same dogmas. Hence, we all must be skeptical and anybody should encourage this.
And if our roles were reversed I would not ask you to absolutely believe me as well. I would have understood that when I was withdrawing, however legitimately in my mind, information I couldn’t claim that my conclusions are unquestionable. And hence open discussion is always inevitable when data is limited.
1) Does your brain ever ask yourself: if Snowden wanted all these docs uploaded to the internet, why didn’t he do that himself;
This is my question to him as well? If he knows about a crimes being committed he should disclose it, if he doesn’t it means that he chose to stay silenced about the crime for whatever highly legitimate reasons he may have or no crimes were committed to his knowledge and judgment. He is a judge here and we ought to have a right to question his judgment.
2) Just last week, Snowden explained in detail the reporting method he demanded we follow before giving us these documents; do you think as journalists we should just brazenly and willfully violate the agreement we reached with our source?;
Of course you have to honor the agreement you have with the source no matter how limiting it may be, it is all a judgment of experienced journalist how far he/she can go accommodating the source but that’s exactly my point. All those, may be inevitable, limitations are legitimate target for questioning since they may or may not be driven by quest for freedom of information, need for informed public about critical issues that affect it and protection of “innocent” as we hear very often from governments and corporate but a narrow often commercial/political interests of the players involved but most of all unintended consequences of partial disclosures, telling half of a story.
3) Publication of the full Snowden archive would destroy both the privacy and reputations of thousands if not millions of people by disclosing their private communications collected by the NSA, along with making public documents in which the US and other governments speculate about their involvement in terrorism and other serious crimes. Are you totally indifferent to that? Is your attitude: screw those innocent people and just publish away – they’re just collateral damage for The Cause?
You are absolutely right, if you assume that the government spying has legitimacy then even baseless accusation or linking to made-up criminal activity or terrorism found in government records could hurt but the cure for that is not to limit the information but to de-legitimize the government data.
The cure for bad data is more data, like cure for bad speech is more speech, like cure for bad democracy is more democracy.
In other words, there is an option to dismiss the data as obtained by government illegally and hence its accuracy cannot be verified and use it only as a tool to “indict” the deep state by exposing all those fallacies and lies like phony war on terror, instigating crimes and arresting people for it based on illegal spying and fabrication of records.
If one takes a position that due to illegal activity of the government, it has no legitimacy and hence all the people mentioned in any capacity in the data are be declared innocent, we could disclose everything and hence indicting the system of power and not the victims of government collecting falsehoods, innuendos and irrelevant data including pure fabrications.
I studied the issue of STASI archives and archives of other Iron curtain countries security agencies after 1989 and many different approaches they took. But almost always they chose a limited disclosure, as you/Snowden advocate, supposedly to protect innocent and it turned out to be the worst thing they could do, since it legitimized all those records contained mostly forced confessions and bureaucratic fantasies, made up so security bosses could get their bonuses.
In Germany they allowed people to see only their own records, causing others to demand that people disclose the data in order to be promoted or hired, while politicians like Merkel, a former FDJ activist were never truly even investigated beyond baseless statements of innocence.
In other countries politicians, removed their own records from archives while used other’s records to attack political opponents, security and police used them in the investigations of unrelated crimes as a leverage and business competitors, former spouses gained access legally and illegally to use it simply for extortion ort in court proceeding. Recently we are seeing this in Ukraine in so called verification processes, serving purpose of political, ethnic cleansing of the government positions. Public un-backed up by anything, accusations were flying since access to data was not public and accusations could not be rebuked on a basis of the record.
I must emphasize that I very much appreciate choices you made, your invaluable work and service that you your team and Snowden performed for public, especially all your courage to carry on under wrath of power, but all those great things you did won’t stop me from being skeptical about your and others stories and won’t stop me from asking questions.
Being understandably skeptical and understandably asking questions isn’t the same thing as ignoring the answers that have long been repeatedly explained in detail over and over again. You came here and pretended to have novel questions (they weren’t) which were supposed to be due to your healthy skepticism. But healthy skepticism learns and moves on when the reasons for the skepticism have been addressed. Healthy skepticism doesn’t beat dead horses just for the fuck of it or to make one seem to oneself to be special.
DNR TLTB
I think this is an important question.
I asked it of myself. Who funds and who decides the details of this new global exposé — do they have an agenda?
Here is where my googling led me. https://www.icij.org/
This organization appears credible to me.
Decades ago I used to work with children giving them swimming lessons in a very old building just before it was demolished. Just before I would open up the locker room for them they would plead with me to let them all in before I turned on the lights, so they could stamp out as many roaches as they could when I flicked on the lights.
The Panama Papers and Snowden type leaks sure help you see the roaches. We just can’t stamp them out quite as quickly as the kids, especially if someone only wants to give them a tax deductible fine on the profits or a pardon.
I think the real thing to caution against (not to state the obvious) is changing the system for the worse just to get the bad guys this time. We have to be very boringly undramatic and do things properly or we fall directly into the hands of perpetuating corrupt systems that point to the ends at the expense of the means
But, yeah, we should totally get, name, convict, and rehabilitate these people however long or strenuous or minutia-entrenched it is
I understand your concerns. My stamping out the roaches was meant symbolically.
We do have to be careful how we state and infer things as the elite are aware of their complete amorality and what it may ultimately result in, so thanks for reminding me as the NSA, CIA or the FBI may have seen what I wrote and could be sending someone to get me right now under NDAA Section 1021.
If you do not see any more posts for me please investigate as it gets lonely in solitary confinement.
Announcement from the Ministry of Truth by our Honoroble Cheerleader Natalie Nougayrède:
Look Only at Putin’s Friend the Cellist .. Look Only at Putin’s Friend the Cellist ..
Look Only at Putin .. Putin .. Putin
Don’t Look at Ian Cameron ..
Don’t Look at the Politicians ..
Don’t Look at the Major Corporations ..
Don’t Look at the Major BANKS ..
Don’t Look at the multitude of British Islands Used as Tax Heavens ..
You Are Only Allowed to Look at Putin .. Putin .. Putin
From the Ministry of Hate:
Hate Putin ..
Hate Putin ..
Hate Putin
From the Ministry od Love:
Love un-Putin ..
Love un-Putin ..
Love un-Putin
————————————————-
What a disgrace!
‘Gekaufte Journalisten’ is alive, well and strong!!
All Headlines Must Blame Putin!
Shame on the Press in US, Europe and the Five Eyes Countries.
What a disgarce!
Here is how offshoring works for the wealthy who earn u.s. sourced income that is taxable.
Mr Wealthy gets 2 dba’s offshore.
Dba#1 is where he puts his income either as a direct payee or as a company that requires purchases that can be expensed by Mr Wealthy.
Next, Dba#1 makes an investment to Dba#2 – owned/controlled by Mr Wealthy.
Finally, Dba#2 then provides cash to Mr Wealthy in the form of capital gains, dividends or loans (non repaid but owed).
I wonder if mittney has been on the phone for a while.
The people of the u.s. are being looted of resources, jobs, and productivity (and a whole lot more).
Would the founders have revolted by now? just asking.
“Would the founders have revolted by now? just asking.”
The founders revolted in 1775 largely to protect their property in slaves from the threat of abolition and the right of the colonists to expand Westward in defiance of treaties that the “mother country” had made with indigenous nations.
Slavery wasn’t abolished by Britain until the 1820s?or around then.
Your second point holds more water,yes.
I never heard of the idea that the US’s founders fought the Revolutionary War to “protect their property in slaves from the threat of abolition”. England had no plans to abolish slavery in the colonies. The Declaration of Independence is a pretty clear outline of why the founders fought the British, and it doesn’t list concern over abolition forced on the US by England. If that had been a factor, we’d have heard about it ever since.
Zionists love to point out the foibles of 18th century men.It makes them look like hypocrites,but hey,their mirror reflects genius.
Great article, as always, Mr Greenwald. Thanks.
Perhaps it is small comfort, but all this shows how truly weak and afraid these “legalizers” are.
The book of Proverbs: “The wicked flee when no man pursueth!”
They are hidden, rich, and powerful…yet every day they reveal more and more fear of who? the poor? the simple? NO…of their own deep soul full of guilt. They fear self-sabotage.
Someone way down the thread alluded to the vast numbers of other firms providing services like Mossack Fonseca.
I realize it’s early in the scandal disclosure days, but an introduction to the series of articles which disclosed how many other firms like this are out there would have given a much needed context.
And if it was a hacker, rather than an insider, I would like to publicly request that every single one of these firms get similar treatment. Yes… good work. But back to it please!!!
Assuming that disclosures of US elites and corporations are yet to come rather than remaining mysteriously absent, I would hope TI has one or more people ready to cover this thoroughly.
BTW GG, was TI asked to participate in the document analysis group effort?
If not, should that raise any questions?
A
In the same vein:
Yes. From Ken Silverstein’s piece back in December, 2014, The Law Firm That Works with Oligarchs, Money Launderers, and Dictators
https://www.vice.com/read/evil-llc-0000524-v21n12
we got lucky
hacker hardware-firewall monitors got thru on an ip that missed a step and whamo!
we got lucky.
Thanks, but “tip of the iceberg” and “just one of many firms” is not an answer.
That’s as much information as was in the question in fact.
80 tax havens isn’t an answer.
If Tax Justice Network came up with an estimate for the dollar figure, even one with an $11 trillion spread, did they use an estimate for the number of firms?
I don’t know, they don’t know, nobody knows are all acceptable answers.
But you would think that such a basic question for one tax haven could be researched and answered… at least with a rough estimate.
I mean a journalist posing as someone with money to hide… say, someone who had previously used Mossack Fonseca but is now looking for better… gets referrals to? From?
I imagine the yellow pages or a google search would not be very useful.
There must be a way though.
A
Re Argentina;Kirchner or Macri?We just got the new Argentine regime to approve the bankster extortion.Why would they target our new buddy?
What dumb leaders, all hiring the same law firm.
How many more firms provide similar services?
It’s early. Just wait. ;)
Despotism can only exist in darkness, and there are too many lights now in the political firmament to permit it to remain anywhere, as it has heretofore done, almost everywhere.
James Madison
Well, this is…. interesting:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027737406
Why, yes, it is, Pedinska.
Here’s what I found when I followed the link:
This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by one_voice (a host of the General Discussion forum).
The reddit thread is here.
Thanks. My computer and I both struggle with reddit so I won’t follow that though I eagerly await more news emerging on this and associated topics.
My computer handles reddit perfectly well, but I’m set in my ways and can’t handle the format.
But plenty of people can handle it, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more.
Thank you Glenn, this reminds me of a saying we have in Mexico: “pena no es robar, pena es robar y que te cachen” which translates as “don’t feel ashamed of stealing, feel ashamed of stealing and being caught”.
THOU SHALT NOT STEAL
a man who steals to eat is not a thief
a man who steals to enrich himself is a thief
so sayeth the Lord
We who have the gold in the darkness bind them;Zionist saying.
Thieves also tend to have the best locks.(security)They know the angles.
“So is, in most cases, setting up a Panamanian shell company to own and manage most of your family’s fortune.”
This really misses a key point. Firms like this Panamanian law firm specialize not simply in setting up shell companies, but in creating the entire façade that the offshore firm is managing the money.
That is essence of the fraud. Just creating an offshore vehicle isn’t illegal but it also isn’t sufficient to avoid taxes, you have to actually have the company run from offshore. What firms like this one sell is their expertise in creating a fake paper-trail of who makes investment decisions and carries out other corporate functions.
What this leak now offers is an opportunity to challenge the integrity of these tax avoidance vehicles. If tax authorities manage to get their hands on the leaked documents, there should be some very easy wins to be had against local tax cheats.
article did not miss the point
the article precipitated the point you received
WALLSTREET DID THE SAME THING
Wallstreet set a trap/environment for fraudulent home values.
Wallstreet criminals are the ones who keep law firms like them in business.
Thieves just want to own everything and rule the world – from their pov, what else is there?
get a clue.
Hi Glenn, Let’s make it clear: if George Soros finances ICIJ, these journalists are not really independent, right? All the focus of this report so far is on BRICs, Putin, Zouma, indian and chinese politicians. Differently from Snowden leak, which came from inside NSA, as you reported, this sounds like a hacker did it. And I am pretty sure leaking will be selective, like Swissleaks, reported by the same ICIJ. Thank you!
” . . . Let’s make it clear: if George Soros finances ICIJ, these journalists are not really independent, right?”
ICIJ is a project of the Center for Public Integrity, which has many funders. You can find list of the ones who make/made significant contributions on their website:
How the Center for Public Integrity is Funded
It should probably be noted that one of the major institutional funders, as of 2014, was the Omidyar Network.
Techno-Financial Capital and Genocide of the Poorest of the Poor
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2033
Read
Multiple Ways Kleptocrats and Militarists Fleece Americans
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1981
Dis-Accumulation on a World Scale: Pillage, Plunder and Wealth
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=2015
great ref. tx
[apologies for possible triple posting; the comments section isn’t playing well with others today]
i’m sure 1,000 people beat me to it, but:
“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
plus, laws only have meaning if they’re enforced. turning a blind eye to money laundering and tax havens is nothing new; just ask hsbc or apple.
http://wallstreetonparade.com/2012/12/how-did-drug-money-laundering-become-a-non-prosecutable-crime-the-stench-spreads-on-the-hsbc-settlement/
http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/10/apple-google-microsoft-hold-more-than-336b-overseas-via-legal-tax-loopholes/
also amusing how the guardian didn’t list the u.s. but drew a bunch of odd, imaginary connections to the kremlin.
http://off-guardian.org/2016/04/03/panama-papers-cause-guardian-to-collapse-into-self-parody/
http://off-guardian.org/2016/04/04/panama-papers-revealing-details-live-in-the-gaps-between-the-lines/
thanks. most interesting.
Thanks for expounding on this a bit, Glenn. Reading the Gaurdian this morning (I rarely bother w/ the NYT anymore), I was left with the impression all roads led back to Vladimir Putin & the Russian Mob … and I don’t think that was by mistake, iykwim.
Is there any relation between Mossack and Mossad?…
Actually, if I remember correctly, Panama was very deeply involved with Israel in the 1980’s. Their ex-strongman Noriega, had a home in Tel Aviv and his children went to school there at one time. It came as quite a shock to Noriega when the U.S. turned against him. This deserves further research.
KEY! it is quite possible that the dumya bushy crime family and friends are also listed given their history of corrution (S&L) and crimes (WMD).
Mossad Cossacks?
The only relevant questions when selecting an attorney in the internet age…
QUESTION: Do you use computers for document creation/record keeping? (yes/no)
QUESTION: Do you have a key that limits access to the office copier?
(yes/no)
If yes (to either), find another attorney…
It may come down to this. I have friends who are attorney’s, and I routinely scare the crap out of them when it comes to computer security. In this case it smells like an inside job by either staff or the company that digitized those 40 years of records. It will ultimately come down to a risk analysis. Do I need easy access and automation, and is it worth the risk to do so.
very estute.
comical and serious – for evaluating representation.
funny – “so mr attorney. how secure is your sh*t?”
something to think about- seriously.
This is sure ‘gonna be fun.
$hillary i can’t wait to see your name pop up on that list of tax avoiding thieves!!!
Glenn, this is a concise and useful piece to draw necessary comparisons. Reading your work can be depressing, though…
So thanks for sharing the soccer dog video from a few weeks ago!
It all depends on what the definition of ISIS?
Proving that certain behavior “is legal” does not prove that it is ethical or just. That’s because corrupted political systems, by definition, often protect and legalize exactly the behavior that is most unjust. Vital journalism does not only expose law breaking. It also highlights how corrupted political and legal systems can be co-opted by the most powerful in order to legally sanction atrocious and destructive behavior that serves their interests, typically with little or no public awareness that it’s been done.
” (the U.S. was oddly missing from the initial reporting, though journalists vow that will change shortly).”
here lies the problem. all countries are listed, except the USA, precisley for what explanation? this sounds like news management. are they now sanitising the US portion so it does not kill off their story lines or implicate the favoured sons and daughters?
remember this is the same US government that raided FIFA and arrested officlials yet does nothing against its own citizens who belong behind bars, the likes of dick cheney, hillary clinton among many others.
Watch out. These papers were leaked to what appears to be a gatekeeper press operation… https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/
The CIA or some new organization or group of organizations in the USA is using the exposure of corruption to lead to the destabilization of selected leaders of nations. What’s happening in Brazil is an example and the FIFA scandal.
These exposures are a attempt to soften up the general populations of these nations to the idea of regime change by the USA and other interested parties.
There is nothing on the USA as of yet by this alleged consortium of journalists. There may be something coming that will be supported by competitive interests in the USA which pit one US power center vs another US power center.
The United States attempts to destabilize other nations is just starting to effect itself in the destabilize the United States. It’s inevitable that if you destabilize one part of the world, it will affect, eventually all other parts of the world. This is true in science as well as politics.
World leaders are, and have always been involved in, affected by and surrounded by corruption. That is to say, they are and have been throughout history, immoral people, vicious and slaves to their own ambition. There is nothing but myth surrounding them.
Where have world leaders taken us in all these thousands of years? In circles. World leadership is about using people, it’s not about leading people.
So it should be quite easy for power centers to compete with each other using corruption as the weapon. The problem is, once you start doing that, then everybody starts using it with intensity and without restraint, and you have complete destabilization, everywhere.
But it’s quite natural for this to occur at this point in time, in this era, as the long build up and concentration of power into such a small minorities has given rise to the so called 1% types to feeling free to act with perversion and permissiveness. The problem for them is their behavior eventually makes it obvious to everyone. That’s why we are hearing calls against the “establishment” here in the US.
This is another point in human history where the world becomes divided, broken up, scattered and chaotic.
This is happening in a non English speaking country that most American couldn’t find on a map so It’s invisible
Actually, there are western outlets reporting on this:
1.http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/04/world/panama-papers-explainer/index.html
2.http://www.reuters.com/article/us-panama-tax-idUSKCN0X10C2
3.https://news.vice.com/article/the-panama-papers-massive-leak-reveals-the-global-elites-secret-cash-havens
4.http://fortune.com/2016/04/04/panama-papers-law-firm/
5.http://www.npr.org/2016/04/03/472890948/with-leak-of-panama-papers-a-glimpse-of-worlds-fiscal-underbelly
6.http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/tax-authorities-investigate-some-people-named-panama-papers-n550126
7.http://time.com/4280200/panama-papers-vladimir-putin-russia-mossack-fonseca-leak/
etc. Of course many are using it as a means to bash Putin et al – i.e. “The Usual Suspects.
Apologies for the numbers in front of the links. Didn’t want this to get lost due to multiple links.
Well, posted a reply containing multiple links that I attempted to disguise by putting numbers in front of. Seems The Intercept was not fooled and is now twirling its moustache and cackling over the capture. :-s
Suffice it to say that such major news orgs as CNN, Time, NPR, Reuters and many others are reporting on this, so no, it is not invisible.
THEINTERCEPT.com is going to wag the establishment media dog.
Well, I’ll be damned. They all showed up and the numbers did nothing to hide them. Took all night though. :-s
good
These are the types and numbers of revelations that lead to structural changes.
The ubiquity of this overreaching, behind-the-scenes behavior worldwide, whether by nation states or individuals coddled and/or created by the same, has finally reached a threshold where citizens have had enough.
Equally important is that, unlike in the past, we have the information and technology at the hands of these citizens and their advocates in order to affect that change.
A recent tweet corresponding with Hillary’s steady and increasing decline in support from much of her presumed base echoed (and cited) the sentiments of an article by David Dayen here at The Intercept: “I guess we know now why Obama endorsed DWS 5 months before the primary.”
The Establishment™ is getting nervous, and rightly so.
Many thanks to all of the journalists and outlets that support this type of public-interest reporting – you know who you are.
Sillyputty
Don’t fall for it. It’s a sham. The journalists consortium is funded by right wing groups. The leaders may be corrupt, but so is the investigation of their corruption. Politicians don’t go to jail because they did something wrong, they go to jail because they were vulnerable and some elite individual or group benefited from their being put in jail.
There are just more and more documented cases of how The United States of (criminals) America does business. The govt spies on it’s citizens to make sure they aren’t breaking the same laws the the top criminals write and implement; in other words the top gets by with what the average can’t. Great system because who’s going to put the US govt on trial? The collapse is coming due to the climate and exhaustion of natural resources. I just don’t know if it’ll happen in my lifetime or, perhaps, even sooner.
Meanwhile, why do civilians in the US let the US government confiscate the wealth that they create through their labor? How can civilians carry out tax resistance to deprive the War Machine of its vital supply of funding?
That’s why it’s such a great system,(for those at the top). How does one go about change other than a revolution?
that’s part of the problem. “Revolution” and “socialism” are two of the most deliberately-confused and banalized concepts in our time. Politically illiterate people think that state-controlled capitalism is socialism. Or that an Empire that seeks world war — as the US does — will be taken off this path through the installation of Sanders the fauxcialist (h/t Connie Bryson) who will magically undo all of the ruling class structures and mechanisms by which the ruling class extracts and accumulates wealth.
Americans have to dis-cover what politics is–unlearning all the nonsense that has been fed to us over years by the propaganda apparatus –and understand how politics is not to be equated with the casting of ballots, that politics does not equal elections, and that we in the working class have the responsibility and opportunity to build power and acquire political knowledge and clarity.
There are some who mistakenly think that the Sanders campaign is revolutionary, when in fact it’s counter-revolutionary. Just when millions of people should be breaking free and fighting the one of the factions of Big Business (the Democratic Party), Brand Sanders is used to usher them back into the tent of the pro-Wall-St, pro-war Blue Team.
I do understand your point. However, within a legal, political context framed within our current system, Sanders is by far the most realistic choice for revolutionary change. It may not be revolutionary, in so far as the change is still framed within the system, but addressing the 99% through the system is revolutionary in my eyes.
What you are implying within your writing is nothing short of physical, violent revolution. Speaking for myself, this is not where I am oriented.
So within the legal-political framework provided, this election cycle, what are your words of wisdom?
“Sanders is by far the most realistic choice for revolutionary change.”
Revolution depends on the political education and power-building of the masses, which is the very thing that is being curtailed by the Sanders Phenomenon.
The system AS IT IS is violent. The ruling class is on a course of world war. Sanders doesn’t oppose this agenda.
Have you ever wondered why Sanders appears on the late night shows, why the ruling class allows him to be presented to the American public as though he is the Savior? (It’s funny: at the same time that Sandernistas whine about how the media is excluding Sanders, Sanders frequently appears on all the late night programs, selling “Revolution” tm and pretending to oppose the ruling class. To the softminded, it’s a convincing performance.) Just think! What is the effect on a cowardly public to see the spectacle of Brand Sanders? How might the public be reassured and dis-armed and pacified by the character of Sanders, whose rhetoric on the surface appears to strike fear into the hearts of the 1% (even as he winks and messages to the ruling class that he will not depart from their agenda of world war)?
Like I said, I completely understand. For today, I must rest with my “however.”
I am thinking about the system from within the system using the system’s constructs. I get it. What you are expressing is not lost on me.
Even in saying that, I support Sanders because he, among all others, offers the most radical alternative to what presently exists. I will stay the course.
I agree with your assessment, and I do not believe that the necessary changes will ever come from voting. Whilst I am not advocating violence I believe that change will only come when people take to the streets, and do whatever is necessary to ensure that real change takes place.
It is becoming clear that the majority of people are now sick of the corrupt establishment, and that outrage and resistance to corporate governments is growing.The establishment is petrified of this scenario because they know how destabilizing mass protests can be, and they realize they are few and we are many. I believe that the only way to restore true democracy, and to remove these corrupt and evil criminals, and their elite paymasters is to mobilize mass protest and mass acts of civil disobedience.
1934: year of the fightback
isj.org.uk/1934-year-of-the-fightback/
and from Pilger:
See Pilger’s talk “A World War Has Begun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUW5-LlLQ1Q
Please do not forget ‘freedom’
“Explainer” is the wrong word. It should be “explication.” The “explainer” would be Yglesias himself.
Even “explainer” when properly used should probably be “expositor,” in my conceited opinion.
Also, re: the title, an activity that was never illegal can’t be “legalized.” “…Scandal is what is Legal”
it is a big scandal in history.
http://www.paksiyasat.com/forum-11.html
I wonder if there’s a connection in the chain of events between these kinds of Panamanian shelters and “Operation Just Cause,” the Dec. 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_invasion_of_Panama
Ostensibly, it was because a U.S. client dictator, Gen. Antonio (“Cara Piña”) Noriega was misbehaving, but I’m wondering if it set up a place where these super-crooks could do business? Somewhere in the last 25 years there must be a line of events, and this is going on in what the invasion made to be a U.S. vassal, not some British offshore dependency like the Caymans.
It is obviously a cliché, but no less a near universal truism. If you want to understand how/why the world works the way it does–follow the money and ask cui bono? The answer is almost universally the same–governments and their rich benefactors/constituents (individuals and corporate entities–banks being the biggie with a lot of others in a close second from media to military industrial complex to big ag, big energy, big pharma, and big manufacturing).
And that is exactly why America will never work for the 99% of its population except incidentally and/or as an afterthought, if ever, until “campaign finance reform” that is meaningful takes place.
Bernie Sanders is showing that it can be done, but it is up to the people to absolutely refuse to vote for any candidate for American political office who has the taint of rich individual and/or corporate money surrounding their campaigns–Democratic or Republican Party alike.
Until the American people come to understand that while there are meaningful social/human/voting “rights” differences between the two major American political parties, the differences in the global/domestic “economic” arena are illusory. And while the former are certainly important, the real battle is between “up” vs. “down” and the relatively “rich” vs. the relatively “poor” because without solving that problem, we’ll never truly address fully the fundamental social/human/voting rights issues.
The point was, the gunboat diplomacy was to make the world safe to do business, and not just for Standard Oil or United Fruit. The Marines were the corporate security, and in later decades the point had been made. Providing banking havens was simply the modern version of banana-republic economics, and a lot more lucrative than coffee, bananas or even, perhaps, narcotics.
But it’s still a racket.
Capone wept.
Yep. Agreed. And have cited to Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler’s words here many times in the past to illustrate the point you/I are making. The “game” (i.e. the “racket”) has been the same for a very long time in human history and it will literally take a political and economic “revolution” or reformation to change it in any meaningful sense. “Capitalism” (at least as understood and practiced for 100s of years) will need to be attacked directly on multiple fronts.
Doubt it will happen in my lifetime, but I suspect it is inevitable because the “game” isn’t sustainable in the long run.
Sanders’ supporters have no idea how badly they’re being conned.
See http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/01/the-lies-of-neoliberal-economics-or-how-america-became-a-nation-of-sharecroppers/
“Bernie Sanders is showing that it can be done, but it is up to the people to absolutely refuse to vote for any candidate for American political office who has the taint of rich individual and/or corporate money surrounding their campaigns–Democratic or Republican Party alike.”
No, Brand Sanders is only illustrating how desperate and politically illiterate our public is.
Sanders’ supporters have no leverage with “their guy” (who has repeatedly aligned himself with the capitalist class’ agenda).
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama
@ Vivek Jain
I generally respect your commentary, but I think we are just going to have to agree to disagree on the merits of Bernie Sanders.
I would agree with you that the one important “war” is the “class war”, but if you are going to refer to everyone who disagrees with you on the merits of Bernie Sander’s class warrior bona fides, as “politically illiterate”, particularly given I have an undergrad degree in political science with minor in history and a law degree, well we probably won’t get to far on working together to find solutions or strategy and tactics to successfully fight the ongoing global “class war”.
Me and many others here have noted Bernie Sanders faults (economic and otherwise). We’ve even noted that even if elected, and given the “institutional forces” at play that will work against his and his allies agenda, that there is still value in supporting that agenda as a “first step” and for its ability to, possibly though not necessarily, to open the political space to have a different debate on a lot of topics.
He is neither perfect nor a savior and I’ve never argued otherwise. But that is not to say you will ever convince me that he is some sort of Manchurian phony, or someone who doesn’t get what’s at issue despite his imperfections and faults.
So again, best we just agree to disagree without referring to each other as “illiterates”. Fair enough? Disagree on the merits, I always like to review your many links, but generally alienating an ideological ally (which I surmise we are by and large) isn’t the smartest move IMHO.
most undergraduate programs in poli sci and history and graduate programs in law teach ruling class ideology.
Sanders is on-board with the terrorism and violence of Western Capitalism. His support for US-NATO aggression toward Yugoslavia wasn’t a mistake, a fault, or an imperfection. His support of the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act wasn’t a error. His YEA vote for the AUMF of 2001 wasn’t an oversight. His conspicuous silence about Washington’s right wing coup in Ukraine, and his demonization of Putin is revealing. His call to the Gulf dictatorships to escalate their involvement as collaborators in Washington’s aggression shouldn’t be misinterpreted as an imperfection.
These are red flags. Heed them.
@ Vivek
All fair criticisms of Sanders foreign policy votes, albeit in the absence of context we’ll have to agree to disagree as to their import vis a vis Bernie Sanders worldview.
And given that many of us around here have gone around with you on these topics and votes before I won’t do it again.
I think the difference is, some of us don’t believe capitalism/imperialism and/or neoliberal orthodoxy is going to be undone with one candidate, ever. So to the degree someone, no matter how imperfect or a “collaborator”, I and others believe there is still the possibility for a new dialogue and some meaningful changes that can take place even under someone like Bernie Sanders and/or his agenda.
Totally agree on Sanders imperfections.
How is he going to rebuke Obomba policy wo alienating voters he’ll desperately need in Nov?
Look at the venom towards Trump for voicing more logical and sane policy than this neolibcon hell hole the Zionists have created.Sanders has to keep the MSM at least somewhat neutral,or they’ll demonize him instead of ignoring him.Which is starting btw,with the news of his being hypocritical re big banks.
Trump is all alone,as far as MSM support.Hope he can defeat their narrative of BS.Same with Sanders,imperfect as he is,who else can we call?
My voice is represented by Bernie Sanders.
You can tell me that another will be the candidate and winner and I WILL NOT CHANGE MY VOICE.
MY VOICE IS MY VOTE. I WILL VOTE MY VOICE.
If you are just looking for a “winner” so you can be unbashed or part of the crowd, you are a coward. VOTE YOUR VOICE.
Very interesting especially from the point that as a Butler I enjoy the Truth which these days it is lost in tge journalists’ propaganda in maby cases in the Mainstream who no doubt also might qualify as crooks if more of this scandal goes forward.
General Smedley Butler, USMC and American hero for speaking his conscience and opposing Prescott Bush’s attempt to overthrow the United States of America.
“Multiple courts have now found the domestic metadata spying program in violation of the Constitution and relevant statutes and have issued similar rulings for other mass surveillance programs; numerous articles on NSA and GCHQ documented the targeting of people and groups for blatantly political or legally impermissible purposes; and the leak revealed that President Obama’s top national security official (still), James Clapper, blatantly lied when testifying before Congress about the NSA’s activities — a felony.”
Glenn, what do you make of Thomas Drake’s assertion that at least since 9/11 the US government has been operating under Emergency Powers, that the Constitution has been suspended?
If the U.S. Constitution had been suspended, we’d be living somewhere like Saudi Arabia, where anyone publicly criticizing the government would be rounded up, tortured and beheaded as a message to the rest of the population – and given the love affair many U.S. politicians have with Saudi Arabia, they’d probably try it if they thought they could get away with it.
But really, such claims are just hysterical hype that don’t match reality, and in many cases, given people an unjustified view of the mass surveillance program as something all-powerful and unquestionable – when really, it isn’t. In fact, it is very vulnerable to targeted legal attacks conducted under Constitutional rules.
Take National Security Letters – an example of an unconstitutional program the FBI uses to collect information about people under the guise of “international terrorism” or “clandestine intelligence activities” – yes, they go after journalists who talk to government whistleblowers, and yes, Obama has his own team of Nixonian “plumbers” going after people who expose government fraud and corruption – but legal teams like EFF are effectively using the courts to attack the use of these letters as unconstitutional:
https://www.eff.org/issues/national-security-letters/faq
The thing to remember is that the authoritarian wanna-be fascists in government are not at all representative of the American public, that there are not that many of them, and that the general public, by working together, can undermine their agenda and remove them from power.
“If the U.S. Constitution had been suspended, we’d be living somewhere like Saudi Arabia, where anyone publicly criticizing the government would be rounded up, tortured and beheaded as a message to the rest of the population – and given the love affair many U.S. politicians have with Saudi Arabia, they’d probably try it if they thought they could get away with it.”
Do you really believe what you wrote?
Fully one-fourth of Americans are Authoritarians – fearful, angry, devoid of empathy, reason, and self-awareness. They are chomping at the bit to be ruled by a tyrant. Why do you think so many people like Trump, a wanna- be fascist dictator if ever there was one? Educate yourself:
members.shaw.ca/jeanaltemeyer/drbob
The US Constitution is only as good as those who interpret it.
Right now it’s in trouble.Scotus is pretty corrupt,at least the 4 lugheads,ready to fellate big bucks like a whore on crack.
Hi Glenn, WHen Süddeutsche Zeitung show in its site a huge picture of Putin and Assad, I start to doubt about the real goal of this Panama papers leak…
The ICIJ has a dedicated site for the Panama Papers.
https://panamapapers.icij.org/
Their “people” page has some interesting face cards, notably our dear ally Poroshenko of Ukraine, not to mention the new president of Argentina. David Cameron has some explaining to do as well, and our former friend Allawi of Iraq seems to be doing well.
https://panamapapers.icij.org/the_power_players/
The problem is that the politicians will spare no effort to protect these rich people, saying they are the entire essence of the nation. They are the Job Creators, the Innovators, the Makers, the Entrepreneurs, the Leaders. Everyone else is human trash strewn in their way that somebody has to pick up. You think rockets are launched by rocket scientists? No — they’re launched by Paypal Mafia bandits! Nobody even knows the names of the faceless, fungible engineers. You might as well try to run a company democratically without a CEO pulling down a thousand salaries … sort of like debuting a minority owned enterprise in the Old South. “No, we’re sorry, your order is still backlogged, I think I see someone coming up the driveway and they’re ahead of you in line. Because you’re scum.”
And so the lawmakers are desperate, desperate to try to keep taxes on these living gods somewhere lower than any other country, and when they’re competing with every shattered crooked regime full of slave labor around the world, that’s not easy. The gentlemen’s agreement is no tax. If your tax shelter gets publicized, what does that mean? It means some lawmakers have to work overtime to make sure it’s still no tax, and no crime.
The alternative would be unthinkable.
see:
Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism
http://www.hamptoninstitution.org/engineeringempire.html
“FROM THE START of the reporting based on Edward Snowden’s leaked document archive, government defenders insisted that no illegal behavior was revealed. ”
Glenn,
One of the early interviews you did was on MSNBC. I thought it was very interesting that the host Mika Brzezinski, daughter of super-war-criminal Zbigniew Brzezinski, had opposite you none other than Richard Haass of the CFR — the most influential ruling class think tank and membership organization — to attack you and Snowden and to lie about the significance of the leaks.
Can the Intercept discuss the CFR in the context of Mass Spying, the bipartisan drive to war against China and Russia, and the escalation of US aggression throughout the Greater Middle East and Africa? (Last year Laurence Shoup’s excellent “Wall Street’s Think Tank” was published.)
for those who haven’t seen it here’s the clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFeNcOjENYE
see also Stephen Kinzer’s The Brothers for some history on the CFR as well
Walter Cronkite,Chet Huntley,David Brinkley and ER Murrow were all spawn of immigrant warmongers.
They’ve turned so many times their graves are quicksand.
Many civilians who are loyalists of Brand Sanders — and thus, by definition, who lack political understanding — will read the above piece by Greenwald and cheerfully, zealously declare, “Bernie’s gonna clean all this up when he gets in office! He’s shut it all down!”
Such people, having grown up confused about the world, having uncritically inherited and internalized the ruling class ideas about power, justice, and politics, blind to the fact that the POTUS serves the ruling class and that the POTUS is a guardian of the capitalist-imperialist system, will foolishly conclude that if only they cast ballots for “Bernie” all of this complex organization and schemes by the ruling class will magically be un-done.
Such is the mindset of the True Believer, of the apolitical, ignorant follower, who does not understand — indeed, refuses to understand — that there is no war but class war.
Beautifully said.
If you want to fix this, you have to get governments to pass legislation to change the fact that offshore tax havens are legal entities, used by hundreds of American corporations and probably tens of thousands of the wealthiest citizens to hide their money away.
Now you can whine all you like about how nobody but you understands the true nature of the Marxist class struggle and that everyone else is a dupe but it really just comes across as nothing but idealistic whining.
The fact is, Bernie Sanders is the only one who has even the slightest chance of restructuring the financial system even a little bit; he could use antitrust laws to break up the commercial-investment banking system, put the FDR-era reforms like Glass-Steagall back in place, and put people like Elizabeth Warren in charge of a changing ‘free trade agreements’ that allow so many of these corporations to offshore their profits.
Of course if people don’t keep the pressure up after the election any effort Sanders makes at reform will be blocked by a corrupt Congress and a corrupt judicial system, but your approach is nonsensical leftover Marxist drivel from the early 20th century. History has shown that the communist regimes were just as corrupt and sleazy as the free-market capitalist regimes; there’s a direct comparison between Brezhnev’s Soviet Union and Wall Street’s United States – the CEOs of the corporate conglomerates acting as the Central Committee of the United States, with politicians and bureaucrats in government serving as their functionaries and apparatchiks.
So yes, supporting a political candidate like Bernie Sanders who as at least some chance of implementing major reforms is well worth the effort, and no, his supporters aren’t believers in magic wands – in fact, the true believers in the Marxist class struggle are the pathetic ones – like all those communist East Germans who were so upset when they discovered, after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, that their upright Marxist leaders were secretly living in western decadent luxury in their Black Sea villas while the proletariat lived in austerity – just like IMF austerity. That’s what your Marxist class struggle will buy you.
You might not need new legislation, and certainly if Bernie is President with a GOP congress he won’t get that legislation. But we see that plenty of existing laws are already broken, and Bernie can appoint a Treasury Secretary and an Attorney-General with orders to prosecute everybody they can get jurisdiction on, and certainly most of them would have property or business interests in the U.S. that could get liens and in rem jurisdiction.
For that matter, as Commander in Chief, Bernie could simply stage Operation Just Cause II and see what military investigators can find in the banks along the Via España. If Panama is U.S. territory a lot more jurisdiction and a lot more prosecution is possible, and certainly the Bush/Cheney and Obama/Clinton administration have taught us a lot about unitary presidential power.
And if Congress squawks? How many of their names turn up in the offshore accounts? The Panama Papers revelations may very well be just starting.
“The fact is, Bernie Sanders is the only one who has even the slightest chance of restructuring the financial system even a little bit; he could use antitrust laws to break up the commercial-investment banking system, put the FDR-era reforms like Glass-Steagall back in place, and put people like Elizabeth Warren in charge of a changing ‘free trade agreements’ that allow so many of these corporations to offshore their profits.”
LOL
It was Marxist class struggle that won the concessions liberals refer to as the New Deal and which they unjustly credit FDR for.
marxism just got an upgrade.
In his time there was no middle class – that was a problem.
The key to what works is OWNERSHIP AND INHERITANCE OF LIFE SUPPORT.
God gave us earth and life. Humans are priority one. Therefore human life is sacred. Comfort is the humble and modest lifestlyle that is granted for earning and inheritance for all mankind. Wealth is allowed but not to be tolerated in the presence of poverty.
its real simple. This is the will and the wish of God for all people.
Nicely said. Perfect.
The siege of Leningrad was mass starvation and courage…Christian kindness and some cannibalism.
But when the siege was lifted, the survivors crossing the river saw buses alongside full of fat, laughing party members with their whores and boxes of the best food.
To their credit, some of the whores slipped out during the siege and helped people…
I agree with much of your comment. The Sanders True Believers are fools for him, and attribute virtues to him that he does not have.
However, re taxation, Sanders would be a great improvement on the series of wealth sycophants who have controlled the Presidency since the early 1980s. Proper collection of taxes from the upper ~0.1% is something he would undoubtedly go for, and many mechanisms for doing it are straightforward. The Executive branch has considerable control over the IRS; if the President issues a directive instructing them to focus on overseas accounts, they’d do it.
Glenn’s article focused on the vast amount of self-dealing misconduct that is legal in our society. However, gray dealings that are not wholly legal, but which are made common by a lack of enforcement, contribute just as much to the raging inequality that defines us today.
Income tax evasion and money laundering (i.e. via purchase of art or real estate) are 2 areas where “legal” is often determined by audit, not written in stone. Compliance with the intent of the law is — essentially — controlled by the ethics & reliability of law enforcement, from the Executive on down.
Fluffy, you write, “Sanders would be a great improvement on the series of wealth sycophants who have controlled the Presidency since the early 1980s”.
No. Sanders’ rhetoric, his election-year bait and chatter about free shit is only for suckers.
The ruling class and the two parties have made it clear that world war is not only on the horizon but is necessary to the survival of the ruling class.
See:
http://johnpilger.com/articles/a-world-war-has-begun-break-the-silence-
I read Pilgers’ article shortly after it came out. The summation is key:
It’s not really about Bernie, per se, it’s about the “popular direct action…the courage, imagination and commitment required to begin the long journey to a better, just and peaceful world?”
Bernie has it absolutely right where he notes (repeatedly throughout his long public service career) that real change isn’t instituted from the top down, it only happens from the bottom up – and most Sanders supporters that I speak with realize this fact.
People en masse are going to change (or keep) a corrupt system, and those they support will help (or hinder) as their ideologies and self-interests align.
The only antidote is to get informed and get involved.
Civilians have a responsibility to be skeptical of those in power. Let us not suspend our disbelief and seriously entertain the trickery of charlatans such as Sanders. We cannot ignore the very real steps that the ruling class is taking:
look
Pentagon budget directed toward war with Russia and China
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/02/03/pent-f03.html
Thanks Glenn. UR the man!
The reason many companies use these shells in Cayman/etc. is to stop duplicate US taxation on income. The reason many companies (not all) setup Cayman structures is that they pay income tax in multiple countries due to the fact that they operate and have legal entities in multiple countries. Thus, they are allowed to pay tax in China, Korea, Japan, US on income where income is allocated via a consolidated financial statement.
It’s bad enough to pay high US taxes, but then to have to pay them on the same income in multiple jurisdictions is ridiculous. Income is allocated between the legal entities in these countries via intercompany agreements between the various entities. Thus, US income is tax on X dollars while Japan income is taxed on Y dollars.
To think of it differently, think of an excel spreadsheet with multiple columns each indicating a different country. Each column’s tax is separate. just because Cayman column is zero, all the subsidiaries underneath it are taxed at the local jurisdictional rates. I know because I’ve setup these structures. US companies put all their international entities underneath a Cayman structure to comply with US tax law. Thus, international taxes are assessed by other countries (who are under Cayman) and US tax which is a separate legal entity (ie..a different column).
It’s rather unfair to say companies don’t pay tax. They actually don’t want to pay tax twice on same income.
Follow up: I don’t hear any of the homeowners here complaining about their specific homeowner’s interest tax credit…..hmmmm. Why not? The fact that businesses get an international tax credit from foreign operations via Cayman structure is NO DIFFERENT that any other taxpayer getting specific tax treatment for their specific tax situation. How many of the posters here took educational tax credit, childcare tax credit or clean air vehicle credit.
The US tax system works this way. Every constituency gets it’s tax credit. Oh, I also didn’t read in this article anything to due with AMT tax assessment. Oh what’s that you say, glad to answer: AMT Tax is additional taxes assessed on large income taxpayers. So, in the end, the IRS will throw out most of your tax credit and then stamp you with a huge AMT tax bill.
Last I looked there was a chapter about Foreign Tax Credit in the IRS manual. Taxes paid in one country are offset against the tax due in the country of residence. Using tax havens, individuals and companies shift their residence to a non-tax country, which keeps them from paying any tax at all. Simple as that.
If you’d really like to make a case against the “Rich” for evading taxes, then I suggest people look at REIT structures. Now, THERE’S a SCAM. REIT companies are buying up all those ARS securities that caused the financial system to collapse at 40cents on the dollar. They wait or evict the homeowner, foreclose on the property, invest $40K to fix it up and rent it out. Then, the Corporate entity DOESN’T pay any corporate income tax as long as 90% of the income is given to investors as a form of dividend. The income is passed to weather private investors on schedule K-1 where it’s taxed at normal rates. But EVERY other company goes through double-taxation in that the corporate entity is taxed, then the investor taxed if dividends are made.
So, wealthy individuals get all the protective benefits of a corporation and and their income taxed only upon distribution. This is why home sales have soared since 2008. Check out Waypoint Homes in Oakland California.
the criminal minds that make up the tax code are the predators who want to keep a lien on each and every person in the u.s. to captivate them.
The truth is, an economy is a matter of circulation and re-circulation. The game the criminal reps and irs play is where you take the cash from the stream. The current system is evil.
The truth is, if you want a society that is both prosperous and comfortable, the ONLY place to remove cash to pay for common property maintenance is in savings! You could take out 5% from wages/salaries/bonuses for lean support but for enhanced support the money can only come from savings. If a family has to spend every dime for life support and modest comfort, THEY SHALL PAY NO TAX.
THE NEW AMERICA.
Keep an eye on Iceland. Protests underway as we speak, calls for early elections and removal of cabinet ministers etc.
Live streaming here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMT2zZcvIi8
First, thanks Glenn for not following the path of the Guardian and focusing all the attention on Putin. Anne Will devoted her entire program to it last night; a couple of the interesting things that came out were that as a candidate in 2008 Obama promised to put an end to offshore banking by US corporations, but during his administration the number of US corporations doing so increased by a third. Also, though in the past there has (in Europe anyway) been a strong focus on Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein, the vast majority of offshore accounts are currently in British Virgin Islands.
Today’s issue of the Süddeutsche Zeitung has an entire section devoted to the topic. Apologists for Hillary or Donald might ask themselves why it is that the SZ, along with ARD and NWR are the ones who got the 2.4 Terabytes of data, and not the FBI or NSA. And why is there no article on this in the NYTimes? Could it be that the US establishment is fine with the idea of hidden bank accounts and tax avoidance for the rich? Nah, that couldn’t be it.
http://off-guardian.org/2016/04/03/panama-papers-cause-guardian-to-collapse-into-self-parody/
“First, thanks Glenn for not following the path of the Guardian and focusing all the attention on Putin.”
The Guardian, of course, continues to lead the charge in the Putin demonization campaign. Their lead “reporter” assigned to the Panama Papers project? The premier Russophobe, Luke Harding.
http://off-guardian.org/2015/09/09/luke-harding-enemy-of-the-state/
“Luke Harding : the hack who came in from the cold”
(part one of our “Guardian Russophobes” series)
The Guardian has gone off the deep end; any of their one-sided articles on anything related to Russia either don’t allow comments or have a heavily censored comment section; here’s an example of what commenters there have to put up with:
Greg_Samsa
1 Apr 2016
To the Guardian,
Why did you censor my original comment related to this article?
It was not abusive, it was on topic, but provided a more holistic point of view.
There is no way that it violated your own policies regarding commentary.
It was a paraphrase of the comment I’ve recreated in my comment below; yet it was censored!
Why is that?
SHAME ON YOU!
I was one of the five original founders and editors of OffGuardian, the original owner of the domain. I was the only one of the five not to use a nom de plume, always openly identifying myself, as I do here.
If you read the “About” page you will see a little screed about the events of April, 2015. I am the unnamed villain of that story.
What happened is that one of my eager co-editors had published an article accompanied by a misleading headline and a sensational photograph that had nothing to with the story in question and served only to inflame and provoke — the worst sort of dishonest yellow journalism (although he didn’t intend dishonesty and didn’t understand why there was a problem).
I took the story down and emailed the team, telling them that this sort of deliberately or recklessly misleading behavior was unacceptable and that we needed to be much more careful not to taint the site with such material. Overnight in my time zone, one of the three who are now running the site reposted the offending piece and an angry dispute ensued.
Ultimately, the individual who refers to “sabotage” in the About page tale, sabotaged the site, herself, destroying the page layout and formatting. At that point, I posted an “OffGuardian is Gone” notice with the explanation: “We couldn’t maintain minimal journalistic standards.” Shortly thereafter, I closed down the site.
At this time, along with me, the fifth founding editor, the only professional journalist among us, also abandoned the project, concerned about being associated with such shoddy practice.
I let the domain name registration expire, and the remaining trio have continued the project and acquired the original domain.
They are basically good and well-meaning people, but their eagerness to promote their positions and support their beliefs sometimes overrides their judgment and commitment to careful editing and observation of fundamental journalistic principles. IMHO, of course.
The problem with the Guardian is that their reporting on the Eastern European crisis in the Ukraine became so one-sided that it read like straight government propaganda aimed at boosting NATO military spending in the region and perpetuating a Cold War mentality – very similar in style to the hysterical New York Times reporting on “Saddam’s WMDs” in 2003.
Likewise, much of their reporting on Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen could have been written by a Saudi/Qatar PR agency (and Britain’s heavy reliance on Saudi money on Qatari gas, in my opinion, heavily influences their editorial and non-profit foundation board members in terms of their coverage).
Interesting, the comment that was censored that I referenced was nothing more than a discussion of the emplacement of anti-ballistic missile systems on Russia’s border, which would surely result in great alarm in the United States if Russia got together with Mexico to place ABM systems on the Mexico-US border.
All in all, the Guardian’s reporting on foreign policy issues has degenerated into yellow hack journalism, much like their reporting on Britain’s domestic energy and economic issues, as well as their endless trolling of Jeremy Corbyn – straight neoliberal propaganda.
Without Glenn, the Guardian has lapsed into a tool for “humanitarian” interventionists.
The world in which we are living remind me France before the revolution. The French revolt and many royal heads rolled. The guillotine was the terror of the royalty who turned a deaf ear to the famine of the people. So, what are we going to do to the powerful 1% who control the politicians from the US to any other country? Nothing. Life goes on.
The guillotine was the terror of the royalty who turned a deaf ear to the famine of the people. So, what are we going to do to the powerful 1% who control the politicians from the US to any other country?
Eat them. I hear they are tasty with fava beans and chianti. (h/t Hannibal Lecter)
The French weren’t the only ones in history to get rid of the 1%.
read:
The Deeper Meaning of Mass Spying in America
petras.lahaine.org/?p=1943
The Logic behind Mass Spying: Empire and Cyber Imperialism
petras.lahaine.org/?p=1961
read Greenwald’s earlier piece,
A prime aim of the growing Surveillance State
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/19/surveillance_13/
“We are made to believe that the people of the United States have a common interest with the giant multinationals, the very companies that desert our communities in pursuit of cheaper labor abroad. In truth, on almost every issue the people are not in the same boat with the big companies. Policy costs are not equally shared; benefits are not equally enjoyed. The ”national” policies of an imperialist country reflect the interests of that country’s dominant socio-economic class. Class rather than nation-state more often is the crucial unit of analysis in the study of imperialism. The tendency to deny the existence of conflicting class interests when dealing with imperialism leads to some serious misunderstandings.”
– from Michael Parenti’s “Against Empire” (1995)
“A key reason why the United States is becoming increasingly like the Third World is because corporate America is going Third World, literally, not only downgrading jobs and downsizing, but moving whole industries to Asia, Latin America, and Africa. The aim of modern imperialism is not to accumulate colonies nor even just to provide outlets for capital investment and access to natural resources. The economist Paul Sweezy noted that the overall purpose is to turn Third World nations into economic appendages of the industrialized countries, encouraging the growth of those kinds of economic activities that complement the advanced capitalist economies and thwarting those kinds that might compete with them. Perhaps Sweezy relies too much on the nation-state as the unit of analysis. The truth is, the investor class also tries to reduce its own population to a client-state status. The aim of imperialism is not a national one but an international class goal, to exploit and concentrate power not only over Guatemalans, Indonesians, and Saudis, but Americans, Canadians, and everyone else.”
– from Michael Parenti’s “Against Empire” (1995)
Twenty-First Century Imperialism: Militarism, Collaborators And Popular Resistance
http://petras.lahaine.org/?p=1928
excerpt:
I haven’t been able to determine the identity of the leaker; so it’s probably the NSA or the GCHQ.
Outlawing encryption because terrorism!, was starting to wear a little thin, as terrorists are generally too stupid to use encryption. People who aspire to blow themselves up often are.
Mass surveillance to prevent people from setting up offshore accounts seems more useful. So I expect, once some prominent US names are released, that a new bill outlawing encryption will be introduced to great fanfare.
I had not thought of that. Previously, I was thinking that the battle over encryption was meant to chill the rising tide of dissent in society, you know, the revolution. It had not crossed my mind that the battle over encryption may be about halting tax evasion schemes by the 1%; especially since there are no clear lines of association between the 1% and intelligence agencies, viz-a-viz “bought” politicians.
You slightly misconstrued my point. The surveillance will ensure that tax evasion is limited to the 1%. Unfortunately, offshore accounts were becoming extremely popular, and some of the 5% were starting to set them up. The next thing you know, even the riff-raff in the 10% would have been horning in on the action. It’s time to take a principled stand.
in other words the 99% will be precluded form the criminal 1% who will have a new set of loopholes to rob the public at large. We are the sheeple, they are the wolves, we eat the grass, they eat us.
If one is not willing to be a victim, then one is branded as some sort of radical.
Sorry to disappoint, Benito, but it was a collaboration between the Süddeutsche Zeitung and broadcasters ARD and NDR. Could not be GCHQ because as it turns out that of the 214,488 accounts they uncovered, 113,648 are in the British Virgin Islands. Perhaps that is why the focus of the Guardian’s coverage is almost exclusively on Vladimir Putin, that evil man, whose family deposits large sums in David Cameron’s banks.
You’re right. It probably is the NSA, although it seems a little mean-spirited for them to throw their British friends under the bus like that. Shouldn’t slavish devotion be rewarded? Well, I suppose not, or they might start to get ideas about being promoted to equal partner.
How Süddeutsche Zeitung got the Panama leaks story
“Perhaps that is why the focus of the Guardian’s coverage is almost exclusively on Vladimir Putin, that evil man, whose family deposits large sums in David Cameron’s banks.”
I think the Graun’s focus on Putin is simply because that august and formerly leftish news entity is the official leader in the English language press of the propaganda campaign to demonize Russia and Putin.
They did bust Cameron’s father’s offshore tax-dodging fund, today. I’m sure the Scott Trust and its minions would still prefer New Labour to the Tories: kinder and gentler neoliberalism goes down a bit more smoothly.
I always assume anything that clown Luke Harding writes about in the Guardian was fed to him by GCHQ, so when I see he has many pages of verbiage on the Guardian website about it up almost immediately? Must be BS, but that’s just my own bias brought on by personal loathing of Luke Harding’s reporting style.
What’s a bit more curious is the absence of information on any U.S. citizens in the files, which, ahem, would be in accordance with “NSA minimization procedures” on unwarranted surveillance of American citizens, wouldn’t it? And apparently the firm, Mossack Fonseca, had a good deal of activity within the United States, particularly in Las Vegas Nevada. I mean, who does Sheldon Adelson use to set up his offshore tax havens? Or does he no longer need to go offshore, can he hide it in South Dakota, say?
But maybe that doesn’t make any sense either; if it was the NSA, they’d surely include a selection of Americans, since the omission is so glaring – but maybe Mossack Fonseca just hates American money for some reason?
It also appears that the U.S. itself is becoming a kind of global tax shelter zone, like the Caymans – foreign money is coming to hide in the United States, apparently because individual states in the USA allow people to come and set up shell corporations without even providing a driver’s license for identification purposes:
http://geopolitics.co/2016/04/04/panama-papers-mossack-fonseca-tied-to-nazis-cia-mexican-drug-lords/
“That money is rushing for one simple reason: dirty foreign – and local – money is welcome in the U.S., no questions asked, to be shielded by the most impenetrable tax secrecy available anywhere on the planet.”
All in all, some questions should be asked of the Suddeutsche Zeitung reporters about the nature of their confidential source, I’d say.
I totally agree that the increased scrutiny of offshore tax shelters is to encourage more of that money to find its way into the United States. In the old days, the US was happy to toss Panama a bone. However, now that the business has become a T-bone steak, they probably feel a little less generous.
The operation needs to net some Americans if the object is to get the public’s attention. Right now the leak is big news in Iceland and Panama, which isn’t going to cut it.
Big news is in Iceland and Panama, but the names (or relatives’ and friends’ of) like the leaders of Russia, China, UK, South Africa, Ukraine are already floating around in this leak. And Panama is a territory that has had repeated U.S. military interventions, so we know who owns the place. Hell, even the country’s currency, the so-called Balboa, is U.S., or was last time I looked.
Now, only a cynical person could think the U.S. might maintain this haven but surveil it sufficiently to charge a fee, let’s call it “blackmail”, to the rest of the world’s leaders. Might get the Treasury some dividends (yes, I realize the U.S. 1% could also use the same pot of hidden booty, but it could leak too).
Hah that’s exactly what I was thinking, though I didn’t want to explicitly say it. If someone was sending a message, that message was “Come to Delaware, come to Nevada, and you won’t be outed.”
The latest word from the ICIJ is that nobody with any relation to any American politicians have been found in their data trove. . . despite coming up with data on 140 politicians from more than 50 countries, nobody in the dataset had any links to American politicians, said Gerard Ryle, Director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism.
great link
Glad that someone posted this. Here’s another take on the idea that USA is attracting tax avoiders, and also the possibility that the leak is intended to take out the competition: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-03/mossack-fonseca-nazi-cia-and-nevada-connections-and-why-its-now-rothschilds-turn
This sounds absurd but the govmint may be running out of fx dollars from not being able to sell the useless T-Bills. u.s. is now a haven for money laundering? Fx transactions may be large enough to prop up the dollar. And if state’s rights are all that and a bag of chips, broke states or cities can stay afloat with laundromats.
see :
Imperialism and Imperial Barbarism
http://www.lahaine.org/petras/b2-img/petras_imper.pdf
Follow the money is always good advice. If the lists and circumstances are forthcoming it will play well for both Sanders and Trump. Sanders’ opposes such greed and Trump is an example of it. “I stood against this” and “This is how I legally did it” are both powerful slogans.
I expect to see many associates and some politicians especially the Hillary Club on the list of lawful rightful tax avoiders. After all a rich man having more has more to protect than underlings. The rich “legally” rig the game to save their fortunes from the taxes the rest are forced to pay and leave us with more debt and stagnation as a result of their privilege.
“Sanders opposes such greed”
No, that’s incorrect. He’s a guardian of the capitalist class and an apologist for imperialist aggression. He’s a mouthpiece for imperialist propaganda.
Insightful article. The new breed of white-collar criminals who want to break the law first goes to their paid-off politicians and corporate media partners to change the laws they want to break – this was really seen in the Bush – Cheney administration (aka, the Enron – Halliburton administration).
When Enron wanted to manipulate electricity and gas markets in California to make huge profits, they first went to politicians who’d support ‘deregulation’ and helped them write bills that would let them do this; then they ran a massive PR campaign relying on Hearst-style yellow journalism and lobbying to get their agenda through – then, they were able to steal with impunity.
Similarly, KBR and Halliburton also set up dozens of tax shelters via offshore shell companies to hide their profits from the Iraq reconstruction scam – but that wasn’t enough, so they eventually moved their entire corporate structures to Dubai.
From 2008, Boston Globe, Mar 6: “Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore”
“The largest of the Cayman Islands shell companies – called Service Employees International Inc., which is now listed as having more than 20,000 workers in Iraq, according to KBR – was created two years before Cheney became Halliburton’s chief executive. But a second Cayman Islands company called Overseas Administrative Services, which now is listed as the employer of 1,020 mostly managerial workers in Iraq, was established two months after Cheney’s appointment. . . .Cheney’s office at the White House referred questions to his personal lawyer, who did not return phone calls.”
Nothing has changed since in the offshore tax avoidance game – so it really is curious that the Panana leak contains no American names, since US corporations are hugely involved in the offshore shell company game – to a scale that makes the whole Panama leak look like very small potatoes indeed:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-biggest-tax-scam-ever-20140827
“The numbers are staggering. More than $2 trillion in U.S.-based multinational profits currently sit in offshore accounts, representing, by credible estimates, in excess of $500 billion in unpaid taxes. If that money were deposited in federal coffers tomorrow, it would wipe out the deficit for 2014. And every year that Congress dithers on a crackdown, America is forfeiting an approximate $90 billion in revenue.”
Another major difference between the Snowden documents and the Panama documents is that the latter are from an anonymous source; so far it all appears a bit over-hyped relative to the actual scale of offshore tax avoidance (and anything that the Guardian’s Luke Harding, aka the MI6 agent working at the Guardian, leaps on is suspicious by default ).
The uppers of the iraq invasion have the mind of common petty purse snatching thiefs. They are imbeciles who decided to enrich themselves by navigating loopholes and prejudices. America has become an opportunistic predator upon populations of the planet. Someday entire populations will reject American hegemony and fight back. At that time, American defense forces, knowing they are are not righteous, will lose.
As was the case with the mis-named ‘Lagarde List” (it should be called the Falciani List, after the HSBC whistleblower), we have no Americans named yet. The Legarde list contains some 130K account names, some of them undoubtedly US citizens, and yet somehow those names never came to light, to my knowledge, haven’t been subject of any Fed. investigation.
I find it amazing that again, none of the breaking initial news coming out has anything to do with the US, aside from the revelation that shell companies were apparently set up in Wyoming, of all places.
From a US perspective, all we have so far–from either case–is the sentencing of Falciani late last year to a 6-year term by a Swiss court. In absentia.
Let me add that this story reminds me of First Look’s failure to get a financial-reporting shop off the ground. At the time I felt that was just so unfortunate, and even more-so now.
Let me add that this story reminds me of First Look’s failure to get a financial-reporting shop off the ground. At the time I felt that was just so unfortunate, and even more-so now.
Agree, though I think the addition of David Dayen is a good step towards rectifying that.
His writing has been profoundly educational to me. You’re probably aware of his writing, but for folks who aren’t, people can subscribe to his weekly newsletter here:
https://tinyletter.com/DavidDayen
Yes, been following him since before his FDL days. Not only great stuff but LOTS of it–yuugely productive writer. But Dayen doesn’t begin to make up for what could have been.
But Dayen doesn’t begin to make up for what could have been.
No. It doesn’t.
Here in the UK it’s not much better. French prosecutors initially passed on some 3,600 UK account details and only one prosecution has been forthcoming.
I understand that UK tax authorities (HMRC) have dropped further investigations because they regard the leaked info as not robust enough to warrant further investigations.
Not surprised that Falciani’s list *by itself* isn’t robust enough. Investigators would have to dig! But of course deeply suspicious of any claim that N=3,600 reasonably leads to just a single prosecution in UK. And no prosecutions at all in US…
Wyoming? That’s Cheney’s home state. Take a drive around No. Dakota. There are, or were a year ago huge swathes of oil wells surrounded by barbed wire fences bearing signs that said “Halliburton”. These fences were the military type, with concertina wire on top. Not livestock fences.
Apparently the documents will be released over the coming few weeks. That “Wyoming” reference looks promising.
No question about it, “the Panama” documents are important but nothing close to the significance of Snowden’s….. Actually, Snowden was just a messenger like GG and Laura.
There is no reason other than humanity’s darker side that we can’t walk into an IRS office and have an IRS employee help with paying as little taxes as possible if any at all. Outside key foundational elements like military, infrastructure and the personnel to run them there is nothing more to collectively pay for.
…and just allow all the poor losers to starve, suffer and die.
Sounds like a plan…
The Snowden files are far more significant as they provide a fairly detailed documented overview of the entire NSA mass surveillance apparatus that whose existence the NSA had been lying about, even to Congress. Many people suspected the presence of such a program, based on things like DARPA’s “Total Information Awareness” project c. 2002, or Mark Klein’s revelation of the NSA Narus optic-fiber splitters on the main trunk lines of the Internet, or attempts at whistleblowing by NSA employees like Thomas Drake and Russ Tice, who were persecuted by the FBI and the White House and ignored by Congress and the media – leaving Snowden, who wanted to out the program, no real choice but to prove its existence by collected the details of the program.
This is the kind of evidence that was needed by the public, and Michael Hayden’s (NSA/CIA Director) whining about how “Snowden is revealing the plumbing” of the domestic mass surveillance apparatus – well, he shouldn’t have lied to Congress and he shouldn’t have persecuted the whistleblowers who tried to “go through the legitimate channels.”
The Panama leak is so far hard to evaluate in comparison, and it wasn’t from an internal whistleblower, so far everything indicates that Mossack Fonseca’s server was hacked from the outside.
Also, the lack of American names is certainly curious, as the U.S. corporate world is a global leader in setting up offshore corporations to hide profits from the IRS:
http://www.bankrate.com/financing/taxes/most-big-firms-use-offshore-tax-havens/
“A new report by two public advocacy groups says that as of 2013, more than 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies maintained subsidiaries in tax haven countries simply to lessen the checks they must write to the U.S. Treasury.”
So this doesn’t look like an overview of the entire offshore tax avoidance – shell company system, more like a rather selective leak. Ultimately, the nature of the anonymous source behind this leak must be addressed – who was it? Some anonymous hacker’s collective? Does the German paper that distributed the material to world know the name of their source? Or did the documents mysteriously appear on their doorstep one day? Were the documents selectively edited by the source before being given to the reporters?
I’d take it all with a grain of salt for now, but perhaps more will be forthcoming.
“Also, the lack of American names is certainly curious….”
That the derrières of US tax evaders aren’t on full display as the curtain goes up on the Panama Peep Show might lead one to suspect one of two scenarios: either the show has a second act starring an all USA cast; or, if the exceptional US continues to remain the exception of a mass outing, then we shall know who spilled the beans.
“The revolution will not be televised.”
My spouse chuckles at my frustration over these issues. “What can you do about it?” they say.
I can move my money from big corporate banks to my local credit union.
I can opt out of the stock market and invest in tangible assets locally that are helpful and useful to society.
If I lend money, I can do so at no interest. This is moral.
I can support labor unions, pay my dues, organize, and unite.
I can support and send my small money to Bernie Sanders and do all that I can to help him get elected.
I can read my news at the The Intercept, foregoing the manufactured consent of the Hillary Machine at other outlets.
I can live within my means, take no loans, incur no debt. Tell the banker to get lost.
I can help my children “see” what I see, paint a broad picture of how the world currently works and favors the 1%. Have them see the value in taking their phenomenal STEM education to the public or non-profit market; if they choose.
I can do my part to unite disparate groups; understanding the crucial connections between movements, such as BLM and, say, 350.org.
My point is that while none of these quick, simple actions are profound, they are actions nonetheless.
Thank you for this. I needed it.
Tell that chuckling husband you’ve found admirers in this neighborhood.
Good article Glenn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig illustrates how obviously broken our democracy is, and how skewed it is towards the rich.
Why should poor citizens pay taxes if the richest people and corporations are completely exempt?
For that matter, if the rich are so exempt from laws — like the affluenza teen who drunkenly ran over/killed 4 people but faced no punishment literally because he was rich — why should every day citizens follow any laws?
We might be powerless now, but there are a lot of smart/good people working for free on tools that will let us simply stop participating in this corrupt system (signal messenger, zcash, tor/dark web, ethereum, 3d printing, torrent, etc.).
As these tools become more and more integrated into our way of life, what reason will we have to continue participating in our current form of government?
1 or 2 scapegoats might be sacrificed over this leak, but the rest will walk. Like they always do. This isn’t unwarranted pessimism, this is exactly what will happen with 100% certainty.
And this is just one leak from one company… Can you imagine how prevalent this tax-evading tactic is?
Someone should develop a guide for exactly how do this so the every man can do so as well. Or TurboTaxEvasion. If enough people did it, corrupt governments would lose a huge amount of money/power and would be forced to tighten regulations.
Naturally the wealthy/corrupt would create some law to make it illegal for the poor to do this, but for the rich to continue, or they’d simply find another way to evade taxes. But I think “this rich person did the exact same thing and wasn’t prosecuted” is a fairly logical/good argument to make in court.
Who am I kidding? The courts are just as corrupt.
Everywhere is corrupt.
The internet is our last little hope of ever unplugging from this worldwide corporatocracy. As long as corruption exists, nothing will ever get better for anyone other than the rich.
I don’t think the tax evasion, in and of itself, is the unethical reveal here. There are many just reasons why someone would want to avoid handing over their property to complete strangers for dubious purposes, not least of which is the bombing of innocent civilians in foreign countries. Never forget that your tax dollars are the fuel for the imperialist fire.
What is truly unethical and despicable is the rank hypocrisy of political and corporate elites who insist on taxing the working classes while shielding their own enormous wealth from taxation.
This article’s emphasis about the corruption which “is legal”
can be clearly seen if you look at what has been institutionalized
as “The Hillary Fund.”
This scheme is the democrats celebration of “Citizens United.”
This article’s emphasis about the corruption which “is legal”
can be clearly seen if you look at what has been institutionalized
as “The Hillary Fund.”
For those unaware, Clark is referencing this:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/04/01/how-hillary-clinton-bought-the-loyalty-of-33-state-democratic-parties/
Thank you for clarifying that it is
The Hillary Victory Fund.
And, in the current context, it goes much more deeply than that:
http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/01/30/clinton-system-donor-machine-2016-election/
Yes, thanks for that additional article. The Clinton’s have multiple blood funnels jammed into the excretory orifices of the money machine. (h/t Taibbi)
Thank for that link. I’d read excerpts of it in other articles, but not the full piece.
While not an answer to Vivek’s claim (unwarranted, in my view) that Bernie and his sycophants are a part of the problem and not a part of the solution, this article (in this one specific instance) as well as the author herself (by example of her work throughout her life) does answer Pilger’s question:
“Where is the courage, imagination and commitment required to begin the long journey to a better, just and peaceful world? Where are the dissidents in art, film, the theatre, literature?…Where are those who will shatter the silence?”
The article is thoughtful, accurate, forceful, and timely. She is proof that this is where and how change comes about. I’m glad to see that she is doing well.
I’m glad to see that she is doing well.
I had been unaware of Ms. Kidder’s problems but am also glad to see she has overcome them.
While I voted for Sanders in our primary here in Ohio I am mindful of his faults, which, like any human let alone a politician, are many. He is no more a savior than Obama was and I am seeing many people, particularly in my age group, who are mindful of how things played out after the 08 election.
The positives I see in his campaign are the young people rising up and taking part, waking to their own power – something necessary if there is to be change – and the opportunity to deny Clinton, the establishment juggerNOT. Pulling that lever felt like a tiny little middle finger raised toward her and all she stands for. It was, however briefly, extremely satisfying.
Might I point out that movies about hope.charity and goodwill towards humanity are not in Ziollywoods interests.No ,super hero violent comic book idiocy,along with warmongering propaganda are the meme of the day,and decade.
Mediocre garbage.What won the oscar for BP?I can’t even remember,but I bet it was propaganda.
Dissidence won’t sell,but their garbage aint selling too much either.
You’ve got that right. My hope is that average citizens can connect all these “legal” dots and vote accordingly. There’s the letter of the law and then the ethics of participating in or following that law, and how it affects the common good.
With an upcoming “legal” dinner/fundraiser for Clinton at George Clooney’s pad- will anyone even care what that really portends for our political and financial systems (which seem to be of one stripe)? Some people are completely tone-deaf to the financial reality of working and middle class folks in this country. My hope is that all this information being made public contributes to dot-connecting and a rising storm of backlash toward current monied interests.
There is just one question – perhaps GG has some insight but how on earth did 107 news outlets around the world keep this secret until publication?
a follow up might be:
Were they successful? The law firm in question says its already fixed all the damage – which of course they would say – but did they get advance warning somehow?
It just seems very very hard to keep a secret when so many people are involved and the CIJI almost certainly the focus of the intensive government spying.
You may be interested in the thoughts of Craig Murray (former UK ambassador) – he feels that the leak of info to corporate press is not a particularly wise move.
You can read his blog post here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/
Murray’s article is thought-provoking. Here are some counterpoints:
https://twitter.com/jakebackpack/status/716980088064110592
I think Murray may be getting a bit ahead of himself on this though I understand the impulse entirely.
All true and yet another good commentary by GG.
One aspect of all this I have yet to understand is with all the power of the NSA/GCHQ to spy on billions of people etc. Is it not the case – especially sense SWIFT, BIS, ECB, all Western financial institutions and the structure and backbone of the global financial system is owned or controlled by and/or within the US.
Can’t the spies “follow the money”? Of course they can and I suppose Snowden just couldn’t get those docs or was focused on the other important issues of privacy etc and of course couldn’t do everything.
I only hope there will be revelations of just how coordinated this system of tax havens really is how it is promoted and allowed to exist by the US and Europe.
These tax havens are an integral part of the capitalist system it must have a way of “repatriating” drug, Mafia etc money back into the system and more importantly protect the identities of the real owners of vast wealth and power.
Who knows who really has the voting (not who owns the most stock who has the most votes) control of Apple? Very very people know the answer to that question and it is not answered in their annual reports.
The only reason we know about Page and Brin is because they were original founders and couldn’t hide their total control of the company and all its assets.
For all the really gigantic transnational corporations it is difficult if not impossible to determine who exactly has the controlling interest.
Great and big leak but still only the tip…
The first thing I thought when I read the articles in the Guardian–which are banned from comments & queries–is are we to believe that no one from the US is involved in this behavior? No American person or corporation? I would find that incredible. Then I wondered, was some effort made to limit or narrow the information for publication? Did the presidential election cycle play some part in that decision making? Perhaps it would be bad business to bring up income inequality, oligarchy, bad banks, etc. during an election in which one candidate is criticized as being a “one issue” candidate and another one criticized for keeping her speeches to Goldman Sachs classified.
My second thought was #EnoughIsEnough. As Bernie Sanders has repeatedly pointed out, this Wall St banking business is the root of all evil and the instrument by which working Americans, and all peoples of the world, are plundered and oppressed. When I don’t have enough money to pay my tax bill, the IRS comes after me in seconds. These offshore entities don’t even get a tax bill. In addition, they get to avoid taxes legally; I don’t. And because of this tax avoidance and theft of country assets on a massive scale, people are kept poor and also responsible for making up the difference in lost wealth.
This is just Enron on a massive scale. Wall St on steroids. #FeelTheBern. #LetTheRevolutionBegin
The journalists are releasing information over 14 days. There will be info on Americans.
1% of the 340 million in the US is 3.4 million people who have enough to afford the system of tax evasion. It is absurd to think that one bank is enough to provide the services of that many criminal tax evaders so there must be hundreds of other shell companies and banks who are co conspirators in world wide tax crimes.
Let’s release the small time non-violent offenders like pot smokers, check bouncers etc. from our prisons to make room for those who have ruined or diminished thousands of lives of the poor and middle class.
Nah, never happen. It is ludicrous to imagine the owners would ever be punished by their purchased governmental lackeys.
I agree with you, enough is enough. I, too, support Sanders. Can you imagine if Hillary has money over there? Oh snap!
Beats the hell out of me why anyone would support Sanders I really can’t see anything in his record which shows he has any interest in doing what is necessary to challenge the authority and power of the oligarchs.
I can’t see why people even call him “progressive” he’s just another hack politician. Can he even define “socialism”?
Your alternative suggestion this election cycle?
glenn, great stuff of journalistic work. goes to show why Obama is so pissed off at Ed and you. ????
Tedious. Maybe my reply to Catullus will show up, or maybe it won’t.
Link 1: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/
Link 2: https://twitter.com/jakebackpack/status/716980088064110592
which is a reply to Link 1.
Thank you for supplying that link. Clearly, I’m not the only one wondering about the mysterious absence of information about certain western countries in these articles. And, clearly, there was a deliberate decision to withhold that information.
Whoever leaked that information leaked it to a press that have an agenda do disseminate on a selective and protective basis. Why not put the entire database online and let us search it? Or who can we ask to search for American names? German? French?
It’s being released over 14 days. So there will probably be plenty of information on Americans.
What’s hillaryous is that Putin is listed by the Graun as the bad guy here,instead of American criminals.
Selective propaganda,What else is new?
I agree with you there. The emphasis on how bad “they” are and how pure and clean “we” are.
Or, “OK, we’ve been bad, but not as bad as THEM!”
I got arguments with that mentality from my kids and their friends, when they were about…6.
Just skimmed through all 5 pages of comments after trying to follow your link (which just took me to page 5, but not to a specific comment) and couldn’t find anything by you.
I reserve judgement on the issue until we’ve seen what gets published in the next two weeks, but I think there is a lot of validity in Bacharach’s observations, which really don’t entirely obviate the points made by Murray all that much. I don’t read Murray often, but if he is so sensitive to alternative interpretations of the facts in evidence that he censors to that extent, then I wonder if I’m really missing all that much. :-s
Oh, Geez. Just realized you’re talking about a comment below in this thread (not Murray’s). Time to go make another pot of coffee….. :-s
Speaking of the Snowden documents: When will you will release the next batch?
I know I could ask the same of others who have access to the documents, but they are establishment MSM outlets, and I expect much more transparency from you.
Have you actually read all the Snowden files and documents? They provide a clear map of the mass surveillance program being run by the NSA, and, as Michael Hayden whines about, “they reveal the plumbing” – i.e. enough information has been put into the public domain to allow the public to make informed decisions, which is what Snowden was after, and the reporters honored his request – he didn’t want a massive dump of all the documents into the public domain, regardless of your personal wishes.
What I would like to see is a dump of NSA cyberwarfare capabilities, i.e. targeting power grids, nuclear reactors and so on, along the lines of Stuxnet, as those capabilities have huge risks associated with them (i.e. Fukushima-scale nuclear meltdowns) and should not be allowed; nor does the nuclear reactor industry want an honest discussion of the cyber risks to nuclear reactors (which Obama also refused to address at the recent Nuclear Security Summit).
Of course this raises a question about the Panama leak : what was the source’s agenda?
https://panamapapers.icij.org/20160403-panama-papers-global-overview.html
“Reporters at Suddeutsche Zeitung obtained millions of records from a confidential source and shared them with ICIJ and other media partners. The news outlets involved in the collaboration did not pay for the documents.”
“Before Suddeutsche Zeitung obtained the leak, German tax authorities bought a smaller set of Mossack Fonseca documents from a whistleblower, a move that triggered the raids in Germany in early 2015.”
Hi Gleen, As a fan of yours, please consider asking David to translate your articles to Portuguese. Thank you for another great opinion.
Ah, you can do that for yourself these days:
https://translate.google.com/
Desde o início do relato baseado em arquivo de documento vazado de Edward Snowden, os defensores do governo insistiu que nenhum comportamento ilegal foi revelada. Isso sempre foi falso: Vários tribunais têm encontrado agora o programa de espionagem doméstica metadados em violação da Constituição e estatutos relevantes e emitiram decisões semelhantes para outros programas de vigilância em massa . . .
The reason Americans are not on the list is due to the fact that the American wealthy class, like all Americans, are exceptional.
That’s an amusing bit of snark.
But, pending what’s yet to be released, two items of note:
1. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/corporate-media-gatekeepers-protect-western-1-from-panama-leak/
2. @jakebackpack’s response to #1: https://twitter.com/jakebackpack/status/716980088064110592
GG, I value your opinion enough to ask this:
Amerians are fat, comfortable… injustice is less of a concern when you are fat and comfy. You think the anger from Trump / Sanders supporters is enough to do something about the injustice you cite or will the powers that be remain on top for another generation?
Seems like the anger is rising but it’s not like the 60s or the FDR-like times.
“Amerians are fat, comfortable”
??!?!?!
And remarkably insulated/isolated from the rest of the world, too.
A main force driving political dissent in the ’60s was the chance that you or your loved one could be drafted and forced to go to Vietnam, where you/he might be killed. We ended the draft, probably the biggest issue I was on the wrong side of in my life. (I’ve since realized that we NEED the draft in order to make even the rich and powerful subject to the horrors of what the U.S. does.) Rebellion and revolution comes from youth, and without the threat of being drafted and having to risk dying, or getting seriously wounded and/or getting mentally and emotionally destroyed in the Middle East, there are not enough youth who give enough of a damn. I never give up hope, but right now I’d guess that those in power remain so for the time being.
Did your revelation account for the fact that rich kids could be bought out of the draft, or given cushy Stateside assignments?
Because if it didn’t, I’d argue that you were on the right side in protesting it.
This is a good test for Google’s ‘right to be forgotten’ protocols, under Europe’s privacy legislation. It will be interesting to see if Google is able to wipe this mess off the internet.
There are no tax shelter companies in Panama.
If I was gay I would so plant a wet juicy kiss on your ugly mug right now.
That was hilarious sir.
Are you implying that Benito is gay? It’s such a manly name…
Troll.