A new leak of a massive trove of documents being called the Paradise Papers (this post edited to add this link) reveals how the global wealthy used offshore accounts to hide their money, their financial entanglements with shady figures, and avoid paying taxes. This video explains what these documents are about and what to expect from them in the coming weeks.
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This morning most of the US went through the dreary routine of setting their clocks back one hour to revert to what is called Standard time, after having set it one hour forward in the spring to create Daylight Savings Time. This biannual routine is inevitably accompanied in the media by various explanations for its origins plus complaints about it and demands that we stop this disruptive practice that seems to produce little benefit.
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I think that we can agree that there are no depths to which Donald Trump will not sink so we should no longer be really surprised when he does something that is appalling. But one thing really grates on me and that is when he, on issues that we can be sure that he does not really care that much about, goes out of his way to harm people purely because he now realizes that it will please his slowly shrinking core of supporters, the ones he needs to attend his rallies and feed his ego, and anger his opponents, which pleases his base even more.
One of the enduring tropes endlessly trotted by anti-gay bigots is that if homosexuality and same-sex marriage are allowed, we are immediately set on a slippery slope that will lead first to polygamy and end up with bestiality. But one further argument that they have not made, at least in the US, is that animals may see acceptance of human homosexuality and decide to try it out for themselves, thus leading to their extinction.
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Vice News has produced an excellent documentary that gives voice to the people in the antifa movement to explain who they are and what they are doing and why. Given that so much of media coverage has been from the authoritarian establishment that condemns antifa, this is a much-needed and welcome alternative perspective that anyone who is concerned about understanding recent political developments should watch.
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On election day on Tuesday, there will be two constitutional amendments on Ohio’s ballot that voters will have to decide on. This business of voting on changes to the state constitution is inherently problematic because a constitution should be changed only after careful deliberation. Off-off-year elections, like this one, tend to produce very low turnout. Highest turnouts tend to be when a presidential election is on with around 70%, next highest is on other even years when Congressional elections are on where you see 40-50%, and odd-years are the worst, with rates dipping down to as low at 26% in 2013. So you can have a small fraction of the voting public deciding the fate of major issues that affect everyone.
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Republicans in Congress have released their tax proposals and to no one’s surprise, it is a massive redistribution of wealth from the have-nots to the oligarchy. Ed Burmila breaks down the awful details.
What does a massive tax-cutting bill so bad that even Republicans balk at it look like? Start with a staggering $1.5 trillion in tax cuts over ten years.
Sounds great, right? Well, you’re not getting any of it. It consists largely of corporate tax rate cuts – more on that in a second – and repealing the estate tax.
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For some time now, I have been reading reports that after hurricane Irma devastated that island nearly two months ago, only 30% of the island’s population have had power restored to them. That itself was scandalous and one can imagine the outrage if we were talking about (say) Florida or New Jersey or any other place where ‘real Merkins’ (i.e., white Christians) were the affected population, not Hispanic people.
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Reader Jeff ‘Hyphenman’ Hess takes one for the team and reads the neoconservative rag National Review so we don’t have to, and flags my attention to a recent article that deviates from their usual warmongering to present arguments for the existence of god and a soul. They start by saying that science is what gives evidence for the existence of souls, so you know right off the bat that this is going to be a doozy, and it does not disappoint.
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