Posts from — November 2017

Paradise Papers: Tax haven secrets of ultra-rich exposed

A huge new leak of financial documents has revealed how the powerful and ultra-wealthy, including the Queen’s private estate, secretly invest vast amounts of cash in offshore tax havens.

Donald Trump’s commerce secretary is shown to have a stake in a firm dealing with Russians sanctioned by the US.

The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains 13.4m documents, mostly from one leading firm in offshore finance.

BBC Panorama is part of nearly 100 media groups investigating the papers.

As with last year’s Panama Papers leak, the documents were obtained by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which called in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to oversee the investigation. The Guardian is among the nearly 100 media partners involved in investigating the documents.

At the bottom of the article they have a nice little graphic showing the connections between Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and a number of Russians including Putin’s son-in-law.

Sutherland Springs: Texas church shooting leaves many dead. The latest official casualty count is 26 victims and the shooter dead with two dozen people injured. The victims were having their regular Sunday service when the shooter entered the sanctuary and began shooting. Sutherland Springs is an unincorporated town about 20 miles East of San Antonio in South Texas. Population estimates for the town range from 330 to 630 people, so everyone in town would know the victims.

Just another US citizen exercising their Constitutional rights, according to the NRA, so nothing can be done.

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.

The British are celebrating the anniversary of the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot.

A group of English Catholic conspirators including an explosives expert, Guy Fawkes, stashed 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament building with the intent of blowing up the members of Parliament and King James I during the official opening of Parliament on November 5^th, 1605.

Bonfire Night is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and occasionally the Pope, are traditionally thrown on the fires. Effigies of modern politicians have made their appearances at the celebration.

As Robert Cecil was involved, I doubt anyone will ever know the truth about the plot.

Daylight Savings Time will end in the US tomorrow morning, November 5^th at 2AM. It will become 1AM and you get an extra hour of sleep, unless you work the “graveyard shift” or forget.

Most new devices make the change automatically, although many, like my old clock radio, change under the old system and have to be ignored for a couple of weeks.

“Fall back – Spring ahead”

FYI: George Papadopoulos’s ‘professor’ is Ivan Nikolaevich Timofeev, a program director at the Russian International Affairs Council in London. He probably works for the SVR [Russian CIA equivalent], rather than the GRU [Russian military intelligence].

George Papadopoulos is the name of the leader of the Junta that ruled Greece when I was a frequent visitor to Athens. The government was referred to as “the Colonels”. The leader of Spain at the time was Francisco Franco, so I know what it is like living under fascist governments, if only as a visitor.

Robert Mercer, who is a prominent conservative donor and a financial backer of Steve Bannon’s website, Breitbart, announced he would step down from his hedge fund. He gave Brietbart to his daughters who are just as “conservative” as he is and unfortunately look like him. That could twist anyone.

Mr. Mercer may want to spend more time with his tax accountants and lawyer over the matter of about $ 7 billion that the IRS wants.

On a lighter note, The Register reports: Birds are pecking apart Australia’s national broadband network. I thing the author is being a bit over dramatic: “Everything in Australia wants to kill you and if they can’t find flesh, telco cabling will do.”

I admit I did keep my brother’s macaw for an extended period while he was in the Middle East, and Felipe went through at least one of the hardwood closet rods that I used for perches every week. Felipe ate Brazil nuts, so his beak was a nasty piece of work, and easily capable of slicing through fiber, coax, or twisted-pair cables.

For the last few days I have been engaged in my latest battle in the eternal war against 50-year-old galvanized steel plumbing. I was on battery power for two hours when another squirrel decided to become a crispy critter by shorting the transformer providing power to my house and the apartment where I was working. As that occurred on Halloween night with the “Harvest Festival” screwing up traffic in the neighborhood the normally fast resolution could not take place.

Looking at the latest multiple murder case, it becomes clear that the current President & Congress will soon purpose either banning rental trucks or require extreme “vetting” to be able to obtain one to take home an absurd barbeque grill. OTOH, there is nothing that can be done about ‘bump stocks’ or high capacity magazines. The logic is that driving is a privilege, while the ability to murder dozens with one trigger pull is a Constitutional right 😈