Pandora Papers

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

Of course it is not just the USA but South Dakota being used as tax haven as well as a possible money laundering centre is interesting.

Edward Snowden has paid tribute to whoever leaked the Pandora papers and commented, “Hats off to the source”.

The British look embarrassed by this with their PM possibly being compelled to hand back personal financial donations and the Conservatives insisting that all donations to the Party are vetted [flying pigs seen in herds across London] while of course the Windsors appear to have been involved and, unsurprisingly, Tony Blair is mentioned. Some years ago London was recognised as the money laundering capital of the world, I wonder if it has lost its title, or whether it still retains it.

The Czech prime minister, is accused of using a convoluted offshore structure to purchase a mansion in the South France, he denies it of course, and has alleged that this is a a deliberate attempt to damage his chances in the general election due later this week.

You do wonder how some of these individuals look themselves in the mirror each morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/202...67bn-tax-haven

South Dakota is sheltering billions of dollars in wealth, some linked to individuals and companiesaccused of financial crimes or serious wrongdoing, according to documents in the Pandora papers.

The files suggest the US midwestern state now rivals Switzerland, Panama, the Cayman Islands and other famous tax havens as a premier venue for the international rich seeking to protect their assets from local taxes or the authorities.

Wealthy foreign individuals and their families are moving millions of dollars to South Dakota trust funds, which enjoy some of the world’s most powerful legal protections from taxes, creditors and prying eyes.

The US has previously faced international criticism over the ease with which shell companies – which can be used to perpetrate tax fraud and financial crimes – can be incorporated in the state of Delaware.[...]

The disclosures will be a major embarrassment for the US president, Joe Biden, who upon entering office pledged to “lead efforts internationally to bring transparency to the global financial system”.

The papers were leaked to the ICIJ, a US-based journalism nonprofit, which shared access to them with the Guardian, the BBC, the Washington Post and other media partners around the world.

According to a 2020 state report, South Dakota’s burgeoning trust industry holds an estimated $367bn (£273bn) in assets, a sum approaching the annual economic output of the Republic of Ireland – up from $75.5bn in 2011. The phenomenal growth has been supercharged by the state’s aggressive drive to attract money by shielding trust owners’ assets from foreign governments, taxes and even former spouses.

South Dakota’s moves have inspired other states to “liberalise” their trust regulations, a phenomenon that helped the US overtake Switzerland in the Tax Justice Network’s 2020 global ranking of countries most complicit in helping individuals hide their finances from the rule of law.

More than 200 US trusts appear in the Pandora papers data, sheltering at least $1bn. While South Dakota emerges from the leak as the most popular location, with 81 trusts, Florida, Delaware, Texas and Nevada account for dozens more.

mong those for whom South Dakotan trust firms have acted are a Colombian textile magnate who was previously fined $20m by US authorities investigating a major money-laundering network.

José Douer-Ambar set up a South Dakota trust in 2013, according to the files. However, less than a decade earlier in 2004, US, UK and Canadian authorities had announced the dismantling of a massive Colombian money-laundering ring in which Douer had been partly implicated.

The Colombian Black Market Peso Exchange (BMPE) laundered millions of dollars accrued by narcotics traffickers. US authorities alleged that Douer had repeatedly purchased millions of dollars in the BMPE system over a period of years. Douer, who died last year, agreed to forfeit $20m in connection with a deferred prosecution agreement and the settlement of a civil asset forfeiture action.

Prior to establishing the new trust, Douer’s trust provider made inquiries about his history. Douer’s representative described his involvement in the BMPE scheme as an “unfortunate experience” in a reply to the offshore provider.

“The case arose from a transfer of US$190,000.00 to a bank in the UK using a broker who had been highly recommended to Mr Douer as an honest person by other wealthy Colombians,” the representative said. “Unknown to Mr Douer the broker was unlicensed and had also received US dollars from persons involved in narcotraficking and that led to Mr Douer’s problems.”

That explanation appears to have been sufficient for the provider. Although the total sum sheltered in the trust is unclear, email correspondence suggests a previous entity linked to Douer contained as much as $100m. [...]

Chuck Collins, the author of The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions and the director of the programme on inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, said the situation with regard to South Dakota was “an embarrassment” for the US.

“We are the weak link. And South Dakota is in a race to the bottom to be the weakest link on trusts,” said Collins. “We have seen the hidden wealth apparatus but it is always considered offshore. The more we understand that it’s onshore, the US is a weak link and we are now the magnet for kleptocratic capital the better for national understanding and the greater the potential for national legislation.”

[rogue06]

The rumors about what the Pandora Papers contain have been rather interesting. It looks like a lot of corruption is about to be exposed.

[rogue06]

The rumors about what the Pandora Papers contain have been rather interesting. It looks like a lot of corruption is about to be exposed.

Source: Key findings from the Pandora Papers investigation

The Pandora Papers is an investigation based on more than 11.9 million documents revealing the flows of money, property and other assets concealed in the offshore financial system. The Washington Post and other news organizations exposed the involvement of political leaders, examined the growth of the industry within the United States and demonstrated how secrecy shields assets from governments, creditors and those abused or exploited by the wealthy and powerful. The trove of confidential information, the largest of its kind, was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which organized the investigation.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Country leaders on five continents use the offshore system: The Pandora Papers expose the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, according to analysis by the ICIJ. The new records show more than $106 million spent by King Abdullah II of Jordan on luxury homes in Malibu, Calif., Washington, D.C., and other locations; millions of dollars in property and cash secretly owned by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic; and the acquisition of a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco by a Russian woman after she reportedly had a child with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Representatives of Abdullah have denied any impropriety or use of public funds. The Czech and Kenyan leaders did not respond to request for comment, nor did the Kremlin and the Russian woman.

The investigation exposes more than twice as many offshore account holders and political figures as the Panama Papers, an earlier ICIJ-led global study of offshore finance, and relies on a larger trove of confidential information.

2. Some American states have become central to the global offshore system: The U.S. government has condemned prominent offshore financial centers, where promises of discretion have long drawn oligarchs, business tycoons and politicians. But the Pandora Papers expose how foreign political and corporate leaders or their relatives moved money and other assets in recent years from international tax havens to even more secretive American trust companies, including those in South Dakota. The records also show how a firm in Central America became a one-stop shop for American clients, allowing them to conceal their assets while facing criminal investigations or lawsuits.

Offshore financial firms that responded to the ICIJ's and The Post's requests for comment issued statements asserting their compliance with legal mandates but declining to answer questions about their clients.

3. A global treasure hunt leads to an indicted art dealer's offshore trusts - and the Met: The records reveal how a notorious art dealer, Douglas Latchford, and his family set up trusts in tax havens shortly after U.S. investigators began linking him to looted Cambodian artifacts. The Post and its ICIJ partners launched a hunt for antiquities that Latchford and his associates are suspected of selling and examined how offshore companies are used to conceal wrongdoing in the global art trade. Although some museums have returned Cambodian antiquities in years past, dozens tied to the indicted dealer remain in prominent collections, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum in London. These museums and others said that they take many precautions to ensure the items they acquire weren't stolen, and that standards for provenance have changed over the years.

4. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs hit their targets. While American officials say visibility into the private accounts of Putin insiders is rare, the Pandora documents show the reach of sanctions at a time when they are the overwhelming weapon of choice in Washington's combative relationship with Moscow. Oligarchs - targeted for sanctions because of what the U.S. Treasury has called "malign" activity by Russia - have gone to great lengths to evade their effects, at times reconfiguring their holdings and shifting ownership of assets. Still, the measures took a toll on their targets and triggered losses that spread across the financial networks that include these Kremlin insiders.



Source

© Copyright Original Source

Note that #4 was part of Trump's being tough on Putin which the MSM has only recently begun to admit was the case (CNN called it a "dirty secret").

[Sparko]

Thanks. I will need to look into SD trusts. Anything that keeps the grubby feds' fingers out of our money is a good thing.

[rogue06]

Thanks. I will need to look into SD trusts. Anything that keeps the grubby feds' fingers out of our money is a good thing.

Especially since Biden is wanting all banking transactions of $600 and over be reported to the feds (currently it's $10,000). Supposedly to follow millionaires and billionaires (and maybe those "trillionaires" old Joe brings up).

[seer]

Thanks. I will need to look into SD trusts. Anything that keeps the grubby feds' fingers out of our money is a good thing.

The real problem is leftists can't get their paws on the monies:

"The new data leak must be a wake-up call," said Sven Giegold, a Green party lawmaker in the European Parliament. "Global tax evasion fuels global inequality. We need to expand and sharpen the countermeasures now."

Oxfam International, a British consortium of charities, applauded the Pandora Papers for exposing brazen examples of greed that deprived countries of tax revenue that could be used to finance programs and projects for the greater good.

"This is where our missing hospitals are," Oxfam said in a statement. "This is where the pay-packets sit of all the extra teachers and firefighters and public servants we need. Whenever a politician or business leader claims there is ‘no money’ to pay for climate damage and innovation, for more and better jobs, for a fair post-COVID recovery, for more overseas aid, they know where to look."


https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics...es-celebrities

[Sparko]

The real problem is leftists can't get their paws on the monies:

And they never spend it on "hospitals" - they spend it on pork, bribes and lining their own pockets.

[Juvenal]

... responded to the ICIJ's and The Post's ...

Source

Actual source
Actual source

I'd cut you some slack on using a Chron reprint of the Washington Post to get around the paywall if they hadn't trimmed it. For just a second there, when I saw there were only four takeaways, I thought it might be a separate analysis.

[rogue06]

Actual source
Actual source

I'd cut you some slack on using a Chron reprint of the Washington Post to get around the paywall if they hadn't trimmed it. For just a second there, when I saw there were only four takeaways, I thought it might be a separate analysis.

Appreciate the link to the full article, I didn't know it was edited.

From the Post itself:

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Country leaders on five continents use the offshore system: The Pandora Papers expose the offshore holdings of 35 current and former country leaders, according to analysis by the ICIJ. The new records show more than $106 million spent by King Abdullah II of Jordan on luxury homes in Malibu, Calif., Washington, D.C., and other locations; millions of dollars in property and cash secretly owned by the leaders of Kenya and the Czech Republic; and the acquisition of a luxury waterfront apartment in Monaco by a Russian woman after she reportedly had a child with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Representatives of Abdullah have denied any impropriety or use of public funds. The Russian woman did not respond to request for comment.

The investigation exposes more than twice as many offshore account holders and political figures as the Panama Papers, an earlier ICIJ-led global study of offshore finance, and relies on a larger trove of confidential information.

[Ask The Post your questions about the Pandora Papers]

2. Governments launch investigations after secret papers show how elite shield riches: Australia, Britain and Pakistan vowed to investigate the revelations. Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman denied that the materials proved members of President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle stashed assets in overseas tax havens, and Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said he has done nothing "illegal or wrong" in a tweet Sunday. The Jordanian royal family said Monday that luxury real estate in the United States and Britain was paid for with the monarch’s personal fortune and not by public funds.

3. Some American states have become central to the global offshore system: The U.S. government has condemned prominent offshore financial centers, where promises of discretion have long drawn oligarchs, business tycoons and politicians. But the Pandora Papers expose how foreign political and corporate leaders or their relatives moved money and other assets in recent years from international tax havens to even more secretive American trust companies, including those in South Dakota. The records also show how a firm in Central America became a one-stop shop for American clients, allowing them to conceal their assets while facing criminal investigations or lawsuits.

Offshore financial firms that responded to the ICIJ’s and The Post’s requests for comment issued statements asserting their compliance with legal mandates but declining to answer questions about their clients.

4. A global treasure hunt leads to an indicted art dealer’s offshore trusts — and the Met: The records reveal how a notorious art dealer, Douglas Latchford, and his family set up trusts in tax havens shortly after U.S. investigators began linking him to looted Cambodian artifacts. The Post and its ICIJ partners launched a hunt for antiquities that Latchfordand his associates are suspected of selling and examined how offshore companies are used to conceal wrongdoing in the global art trade. Although some museums have returned Cambodian antiquities in years past, dozens tied to the indicted dealer remain in prominent collections, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the British Museum in London. These museums and others said that they take many precautions to ensure the items they acquire weren’t stolen, and that standards for provenance have changed over the years.

[Trove of secret files details an opaque financial universe where the global elite shield their riches]

5. U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs hit their targets. While American officials say visibility into the private accounts of Putin insiders is rare, the Pandora documents show the reach of sanctions at a time when they are the overwhelming weapon of choice in Washington’s combative relationship with Moscow. Oligarchs — targeted for sanctions because of what the U.S. Treasury has called “malign” activity by Russia — have gone to great lengths to evade their effects, at times reconfiguring their holdings and shifting ownership of assets. Still, the measures took a toll on their targets and triggered losses that spread across the financial networks that include these Kremlin insiders.

Read more about this project and why The Post published the Pandora Papers investigation.

So what I said about Trump and Putin would be #5.

I have several other ways of getting around WaPo's paywall (and two for NYT but none for WSJ) including using MSN news aggregate which uses several news services that publish articles first published in the WaPo. But it looks like with this route there is a chance something might have been edited down.

[Juvenal]

Appreciate the link to the full article, I didn't know it was edited.

[...]

So what I said about Trump and Putin would be #5.

I have several other ways of getting around WaPo's paywall (and two for NYT but none for WSJ) including using MSN news aggregate which uses several news services that publish articles first published in the WaPo. But it looks like with this route there is a chance something might have been edited down.

What you said about Trump and Putin is what we've all learned to expect from ya, the usual studiously uninformed hyper-partisan tripe. He ignored that vote, too, just btw. You'd know this if you didn't waste your news time following fringe media.

Now, personally, being the prurient heathen that I am, I was bunches more captivated by the millions shoveled off onto Putin's mistresses.

SECRET MONEY, SWANKY REAL ESTATE AND A MONTE CARLO MYSTERY
.

MONACO — The apartment hangs over the blue waters of the Mediterranean beneath the Monte Carlo casino of James Bond legend. In the harbor below, royals, moguls and oligarchs float by in iceberg-size yachts.

There is little about the humble background of Svetlana Krivonogikh to indicate that she had the means to acquire property overlooking this playground for the world’s elite. The Russian woman reportedly grew up in a crowded communal apartment in St. Petersburg, and held jobs that included cleaning a neighborhood shop.

But previously undisclosed financial records combined with local tax documents show that Krivonogikh, 46, became the owner of the apartment in Monaco through an offshore company created just weeks after she gave birth to a girl. The child was born at a time when, according to a Russian media report last year, she was in a secret, years-long relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There's a gymnast linked in as a romantic interest in there, too. Ya know, if you're going to pay for sex, and ya can, it's more classy to pay really well.

[One Bad Pig]

What you said about Trump and Putin is what we've all learned to expect from ya, the usual studiously uninformed hyper-partisan tripe. He ignored that vote, too, just btw. You'd know this if you didn't waste your news time following fringe media.

This related story in your link caught my eye. Apparently, the White House was right.

And I dunno about you, but it seems to me that

Source: your link

The legislation sets up a review process that would require Trump to get Congress’ approval before taking any action to ease, suspend or lift any sanctions on Russia.

<snip>

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson questioned the legislation on Wednesday, urging Congress to ensure that any sanctions package “allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation.”

© Copyright Original Source

is a valid concern for any president, given Congress is not exactly designed to be flexible.

[rogue06]

What you said about Trump and Putin is what we've all learned to expect from ya, the usual studiously uninformed hyper-partisan tripe. He ignored that vote, too, just btw. You'd know this if you didn't waste your news time following fringe media.

To add onto what the singular naughty swine noted, it was CNN host Fareed Zakaria who called it "the dirty little secret about the Trump Administration" saying that "the Trump Administration was pretty tough on the Russians. They armed Ukraine, they armed the Poles. They extended NATO operations and exercises in ways that even the Obama Administration had not done. They maintained the sanctions."

Now, I can agree with you that CNN typically offers up, as you say, "the usual studiously uninformed hyper-partisan tripe," but in this case they pulled off the broken watch thing, even though it was hardly a secret for anyone who actually bothered to check the record rather mindlessly regurgitating what the MSM spoon fed them.

Trump would say nice things in public about Putin and Russia while doing things that infuriated them^[1] For instance

• accused Russia of deploying land-based cruise missiles saying that they violated the "spirit and intent" of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty -- something Obama refused to do.
• bombed Syria's Shayrat Airbase (Russia's allies) when they use chemical weapons in 2017.
• again bombed Syrian forces in 2018 killing over 200 Russian "mercenaries".
• tried to get Merkel to stop importing natural gas from Russia which would deal a serious blow to the Russian economy.
• sent weapons, including a bunch of anti-tank missiles, and not just blankets and well-wishes to Ukraine so they can fight the Russians.
• facilitated the sale of more coal to energy-strapped Ukraine
• sent Patriot missiles to Poland which had begging for them for years.
• shifted a couple thousand U.S. troops from bases in Western Europe to Poland, which while largely symbolic, infuriated the Russians just like selling them the anti-missile defense systems did.
• like with Poland, Trump supplied the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with arms and training along with money to help them prevent Russian cyber attacks, again pissing off the Russians who think of those countries as theirs.
• imposed stricter sanctions^[2] than those initially called for by Congress including imposing sanctions on Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally.
• ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and closure of Russian consulate in Seattle in response to Russia's poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal (Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the expulsion of the total of 153 Russian diplomats by 28 countries was the result of the Trump Administration "blackmailing" other nations).
• sanctioned four Russian entities and seven individuals in response to their attempt to interfere in U.S. midterm elections, including Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef" because he has his hands in so many pies
• approved sanctions placed on builders of the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipelines.^[3]

A Brookings Institute analysis of the Trump Administration's record with Russia published a year ago found it had taken 52 actions against the Russians, both severe and minor, but try and tell that to the cognitively challenged TDS crowd





1. Anyone familiar with his Art of the Deal would know that is how he has always operated

2. to be fair this has been a bit of a mixed bag in that earlier Trump expressed reluctance about enforcing some sanctions that he had signed into law. But in the end his placing harsher economic restrictions on Russian oligarchs (more than just Skripal) close to Putin hurt the latter enormously. Putin is thought to have illegally amassed tens of billions of dollars, but he can't hold all that wealth in his own name, so he appointed his oligarch cronies to be his trustees. Sanctioning his buddies was effectively putting sanctions on Putin himself

3. Old Joe removed those sanctions which was a blessing to Putin and the Russian economy while shutting down the Keystone pipeline here, that, along with a few similar moves, turned us from finally becoming energy independent after decades of not being so, into being energy dependent again. What was it, something like 6 months your demented duffer was begging OPEC to increase demand?

[Juvenal]

To add onto what the singular naughty swine noted, it was CNN host Fareed Zakaria who called it "the dirty little secret about the Trump Administration" saying that "the Trump Administration was pretty tough on the Russians. They armed Ukraine, they armed the Poles. They extended NATO operations and exercises in ways that even the Obama Administration had not done. They maintained the sanctions."

Now, I can agree with you that CNN typically offers up, as you say, "the usual studiously uninformed hyper-partisan tripe," but in this case they pulled off the broken watch thing, even though it was hardly a secret for anyone who actually bothered to check the record rather mindlessly regurgitating what the MSM spoon fed them.

Trump would say nice things in public about Putin and Russia while doing things that infuriated them^[1] For instance

• accused Russia of deploying land-based cruise missiles saying that they violated the "spirit and intent" of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty -- something Obama refused to do.
• bombed Syria's Shayrat Airbase (Russia's allies) when they use chemical weapons in 2017.
• again bombed Syrian forces in 2018 killing over 200 Russian "mercenaries".
• tried to get Merkel to stop importing natural gas from Russia which would deal a serious blow to the Russian economy.
• sent weapons, including a bunch of anti-tank missiles, and not just blankets and well-wishes to Ukraine so they can fight the Russians.
• facilitated the sale of more coal to energy-strapped Ukraine
• sent Patriot missiles to Poland which had begging for them for years.
• shifted a couple thousand U.S. troops from bases in Western Europe to Poland, which while largely symbolic, infuriated the Russians just like selling them the anti-missile defense systems did.
• like with Poland, Trump supplied the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with arms and training along with money to help them prevent Russian cyber attacks, again pissing off the Russians who think of those countries as theirs.
• imposed stricter sanctions^[2] than those initially called for by Congress including imposing sanctions on Ramzan Kadyrov, a close Putin ally.
• ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian diplomats and closure of Russian consulate in Seattle in response to Russia's poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal (Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov declared that the expulsion of the total of 153 Russian diplomats by 28 countries was the result of the Trump Administration "blackmailing" other nations).
• sanctioned four Russian entities and seven individuals in response to their attempt to interfere in U.S. midterm elections, including Russian financier Yevgeniy Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef" because he has his hands in so many pies
• approved sanctions placed on builders of the Nord Stream 2 Russia-to-Germany gas pipelines.^[3]

A Brookings Institute analysis of the Trump Administration's record with Russia published a year ago found it had taken 52 actions against the Russians, both severe and minor, but try and tell that to the cognitively challenged TDS crowd


1. Anyone familiar with his Art of the Deal would know that is how he has always operated

2. to be fair this has been a bit of a mixed bag in that earlier Trump expressed reluctance about enforcing some sanctions that he had signed into law. But in the end his placing harsher economic restrictions on Russian oligarchs (more than just Skripal) close to Putin hurt the latter enormously. Putin is thought to have illegally amassed tens of billions of dollars, but he can't hold all that wealth in his own name, so he appointed his oligarch cronies to be his trustees. Sanctioning his buddies was effectively putting sanctions on Putin himself

3. Old Joe removed those sanctions which was a blessing to Putin and the Russian economy while shutting down the Keystone pipeline here, that, along with a few similar moves, turned us from finally becoming energy independent after decades of not being so, into being energy dependent again. What was it, something like 6 months your demented duffer was begging OPEC to increase demand?

Anyone familiar with Trump's Art of the Deal knows he didn't write it, and likely didn't read it, either.

The Trump administration engaged in a great number of actions adamantly opposed by Trump himself, and avoided just as many actions adamantly promoted by him, leading to ubiquitous claims of a deep state that inevitably trailed back to his closest aides and appointments. They were able to accomplish this through methods as trivial as stealing papers off his desk and as consequential as the strategic resignation of a cabinet secretary, the latter leading to aid rendered to the Kurds fighting alongside our troops abandoned by Trump.

And again, really, you need to news, roguelish, so you don't miss that the 200 mercenaries bombed during the Trump administration were bombed because they were actively engaged in an attack on our troops, and only after the Russians were informed, repeatedly, that they would be attacked if they did not withdraw, and the Russians repeatedly disavowed them.

Take a moment, or all the time you need, to wipe the egg off your face on that one.

Trump complained bitterly about the strength of the sanctions his administration imposed after the Skrpal poisonings. The only sanctions removed by the Biden administration, to my knowledge, were on the gas pipeline through Germany, a sop to the Merkel administration.

No need to google any of this, because I can pull this information straight off the back off my head, because I news, meaning I don't waste my time on broadcast media, making your attempt to palm off the evidence of your own ignorance into a claim the comment was directed toward CNN particularly rancid.

CNN is broadcast media. Broadcast media is not news.

[Juvenal]

This related story in your link caught my eye. Apparently, the White House was right.

Because they said so?

Oh, dude.

And I dunno about you, but it seems to me that

Source: your link

The legislation sets up a review process that would require Trump to get Congress approval before taking any action to ease, suspend or lift any sanctions on Russia.

<snip>

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson questioned the legislation on Wednesday, urging Congress to ensure that any sanctions package allows the president to have the flexibility to adjust sanctions to meet the needs of what is always an evolving diplomatic situation.

© Copyright Original Source

is a valid concern for any president, given Congress is not exactly designed to be flexible.

You introduced those sanctions as evidence of action by the Trump administration in a conversation with me a few years ago, at which time I pointed out how you were handing Trump credit for something he was forced, kicking and screaming, to accept.

One more time, then. Check the dates on those stories. They're from mid-June before the legislation was sent to the House, at which time, the White House immediately registered its opposition, as noted in your related own goal.

In late July, after the legislation had come back with revisions from the House ...

With New Sanctions, Senate Forces Trump’s Hand on Russia

Your opinion, echoing that of the administration, was not shared by anyone in the Senate, not the Democrats, and not the Republicans, with the sole exceptions of Rand Antivaxx and the Sandernista caucus.
.

Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he “cannot imagine” Mr. Trump rejecting legislation with such veto-proof majorities in Congress.

“If I were giving advice to the president, which I’m not on this issue,” he began before offering some, “it’s just not a good way to start a presidency to veto something and then be soundly overridden.”

For years, a hawkish approach to Russia has been central to Republican foreign policy doctrine. But conservative lawmakers have found themselves at odds with their own president amid Mr. Trump’s stated desire to find common ground with Russia, against the background of Russia-tinged scandals that have consumed his administration.

Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who has long advocated an aggressive stance toward Russia, cheered colleagues for summoning bipartisanship “to respond to Russia’s attack on American democracy.”

“We will not tolerate attacks on our democracy. That’s what this bill is all about,” Mr. McCain said. “We must take our own side in this fight, not as Republicans, not as Democrats, but as Americans.”

And please, can we finally put to rest the knee-jerk TDS claims. No evangelical Christian is in a position to talk about anyone else's TDS while defending a serial philanderer and con man who openly bragged about abusing a position of power by grabbing women by their genitals.

And that's before we consider how little the Pandora documents, you know, this thread topic, has to do with the Trump administration.

Put down the crack pipe and get back to work. You spend all your time on fringe media telling you to steer clear of mainstream media, with the evident result that you have no more idea what's actually going on in the world than the typical Facebook user getting their news off of unsourced memes. When you don't check things out, you become a chump for every conman and liar who comes along.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

The rumors about what the Pandora Papers contain have been rather interesting. It looks like a lot of corruption is about to be exposed.

Given that we've had the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers exposing tax evasion and corruption on huge scales it looks like this revelation is just the latest in a long history of power and corruption. Lord Acton is once again proved correct. While many of these actions are not intrinsically illegal they do reek of both selfishness and greed.