On To Panama!

These Panama Papers are, to quote a great leader, a BFD.

Comments

[Threadkiller]

Why did Hans blow the rooftop...

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Bottom story of the day, literally;
Lena Dunham does her best Basic Instinct move;
entire film crew hospitalized.

[buccaneer morgan]

Who was left off the list, is as interesting, as who was on.

[Threadkiller]

A birth canaler thread?

::groan::

[matt]

Panama has been a money haven for 50 years. Now the people trying to overturn Western society have figured out how to out the people using Panamanian banks to avoid taxes.

Not sure how this will all play out, but it would seem that there is a concerted effort by governments across the world to kill some tax havens while others so far have gone untouched.

Bermuda and the Caymans may be next. And yet none of this seems to affect the drug lords. Funny, huh? Or not.

[NK]

Dunham-- what a pig.

[NK]

Matt-- where does Columbian and Mexican drug $$$ go?

[Jim Miller]

This week, what I admire most about Donald Trump is a quality he doesn't have.

It is natural for boys to have some misogyny (and girls to have some misandry); it may even be genetic.

As we grow older, we learn to overcome, at least to some extent, that tendency, learn to treat those of the other sex respectfully, as equals.

It is difficult to think of a man who has learned that lesson better than Donald Trump. You can see it in his fidelity, the way he treats women journalists, the way he avoids criticizing women for their looks, and much else.

It takes both intelligence and discipline to do that, and gives us another reason to admire Trump, along with his gift for self-effacing humor, and the transparency of his campaign.

(Oddly, American women don't seem to see this fine quality in Trump, but I am sure they will, in time.)

[henry]

Matt, ask Soros... he paid for the hack.

[Dave (in MA)]

Panama Papers sounds like something that you might see near the register next to the Zig Zag and EZ Wider at the 7-11.

[Dave (in MA)]

She probably needed help getting her legs crossed in the first place.

[NK]

TomM-- NYT Panama money laundering biz? Meh. Let me know when the NYT does an expose on Clinton Foundatin tax evasion and laundering. That story is A REAL BFD.

[Appalled]

Lena Dunham is one of those cultural phenomena I am glad I am just too old to understand.

It sounds like the scene takes place in a fictional workplace. Can the male character sue on the grounds of sexual harassment?

[buccaneer morgan]

It does show off some of the players in the Brazilian house of cards, car wash and other scandals.

[NK]

Brazil certainly went full Peron under Lulu and $110 Brent.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Is Deutsche bank an analog for Lehman?
Worth it just for the "you are here" graph at the end.

[Thomas Collins]

Lesson from the Panama Pixels Affair: If something really must be kept secret, store it in paper form in manila files put into bigger redropes in locked metal cabinets in an out of the way warehouse. Spread the sensitive stuff among several metal cabinets. Intersperse files that appear to contain hot info but are filled with diversionary, worthless info. And have all requests for any files in the metal cabinet go through your loyal trusted secretary of over two decades.

As the song says in Casablanca says, as time goes by, the fundamental things apply.

[NK]

TC-- I worry about you sometimes.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Japan implements NIRP unexpectedly must begin printing more ¥10,000 bills when people decide hoarding cash at home is better than paying some banker to park it in his bank vault [or his offshore shell corp].
Who coulda seen that coming?

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

End game of QE and NIRP revealed in country that started it all:
Japan has a "potential" growth rate of 0.5% or lower, meaning that's as high as it can possibly get.
QE and NIRP = massive, historical wealth destruction and prevention totaling trillions of dollars.
Apparently it won't stop until someone starts killing these thieves who will wreck the rest of us to keep their power and way of life.
If they think Trump is rude wait until a mob of peons burns them at the stake.

[pagar a bacon, country ham and sausage supporter]

The truth: will set you free or not?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-06/panama-tax-haven-leak-bigger-picture

"US and UK – Not Panama – Biggest Tax Havens for Money Laundering Criminals"

[James D]

There's that word again - unexpectedly.

[Thomas Collins]

My family has given up worrying, NK. They figure if I have maintained a functioning relationship with society all these years, they might as well let TC be TC.

[jimmyk]

Remarkable that printing lots of money can't offset the fact that Japan has a median age approaching 50--not exactly a recipe for a dynamic and vibrant economy (though the causality probably runs both ways). With apologies to all the dynamic and vibrant over-50 JOMers.

[Threadkiller]

Women haven't voted for Trump.

[James D]

Ig @ 12:15

I think that's exactly right, and it is absolutely mind-boggling to me that our elites and geniuses and experts cannot or will not see it.

I mean, I know it's human nature to assume nothing bad can ever happen to you, especially if you already think you're the smartest guy in the room. And I know that history isn't taught anymore, and the French Revolution was like 1 century ago or something and has no relevance to us today, right?

But the sheer delusion necessary for these people to imagine that they can just skate on indefinitely with no price to be paid for their endless failures, their insulting lies, their crimes...it's hard to wrap my mind around it.

I guess when the mob comes for them, egged on by whomever Trump's successor in the role of Angry Outsider, they'll get a very fast (and brief) education.

[buccaneer morgan]

Well the Chinese Nicaraguan and Venezuelan ones but whose counting.

[NK]

TC-- define "functional relationship"

A few years from now images of Bernanke and Yellin will be treated like those of Hitler and Stalin. Thing is, they are mere functionaries doing the bidding of Soros, GS and OFA who are the real evildoers.

[James D]

Speaking of mobs and burning at the stake...

http://dailycaller.com/2016/04/07/fed-worker-got-two-subsidized-housing-units-despite-long-waiting-list/

A Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employee was given subsidized housing project units in two states to occupy simultaneously, even as thousands of other impoverished citizens languish for years on long waiting lists, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.

Immediately after federal officials caught the offending employee, HUD promoted her to manage the awarding of millions of tax dollars in grants, even though she lied to criminal investigators about double-dipping in the benefit programs her department administers.

I think I have a guess as to the ethnicity of the people involved in this story, too, and I suspect it played a role in the pack of prosecution or actually any discipline at all: Markquonda, Markquasha, Macretia, and Marquisha

[lyle]

Insty links this:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/donald-trump-and-the-ghost-of-christopher-lasch/

Worth your time.

[NK]

Black Irish?

[lyle]

A bit:

For America’s winners, compassion is abstract, as Lasch realized. As often as not, up-market altruism is staged to signal virtue and magnanimity. Emotional causes and feel-good politics keep all-important dopamine and self-esteem levels healthy and high.

Yeoman America is not protected or rich enough to be abstractly high-minded. It gets panhandled at the 7-Eleven. It travels Economy Class Group 3. It doesn’t get the scholarships or set-asides. It lives too close for comfort to seedy section 8 neighborhoods. Loose cultural standards and industrial decline have coarsened many who are prisoners of celebrity culture.

[Threadkiller]

I really don't care about the story because he reaches a little to make his point. I am posting the link so you know where I got the photo.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/04/ted-cruz-culture-violence-responsible-unhinged-protesters-bronx-rally/

To me it is completely ridiculous that these two goons could get this close to the number 2 candidate in a Presidential campaign.

I think this is a direct result of Fields, her wimp boyfriend, the WaPo Fruitcake, The Magpie,and Ben Shapiro.

The Secret Service is getting put in a position of second guessing there job. It happened with local law enforcement and now it is trickling up to the premier agency.

I may not like Cruz, but he does not deserve this.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Twice as many "migrants" let into US from muslim countries as from Europe.

[Threadkiller]

...their...

[NK]

Things like this win Cruz votes in the Burbs and hinterland.

[Theo]

Speaking of women and Trump, I assume that it is a small sample size issue, but I have noticed that the most vociferous advocates for Trump around here seem to be primarily of the female persuasion. Miss Marple, porchlight and cheerleader come to mind, and also possibly clarice. Treadkiller seems to be sort of in the Trump camp as well but he is pretty vehement about voting Republican no matter what, which is not true in all of the other cases of Trump supporters.

Could be just a statistical oddity and the polling certainly shows that Trump has problems with women voters generally. Not so much here.

[Thomas Collins]

Let's see, "functional relationship"-Relatively gainful employment since I was 8 years old (my Manhattan uncle and aunt have passed into eternity, so it's too late for the NYC, NYState and Federales critters to go after them for violating child labor laws), and family, friends and work colleagues not bumping me off or taking out a contract for someone else to do so.

Well, I guess I can't really be 100% certain about that no contract one!

[squaredance]

Notice that to the extent that is is not about Soros and Obama going after enemies, this is about tax evasion and not government corruption.

[Art in Newport]

I am for Trump, although not vociferous.

My view is that Trump is the worst possible candidate, except for all the others.

[Theo]

Art --

I am close to agreement with you. I agree that "Trump is the worst possible candidate." I would end the sentence there.

But as much as I dislike Trump, I think that the notion that his supporters are all racists and misogynists is a slur on some well meaning (but in my opinion misguided) people who are neither of these things.

For all the carrying on about how Trump's mangling of the abortion question was going to hurt him among women, I see that there was NO gender gap in the results of the Wisconsin Republican primary.

[RIF]

"I think this is a direct result of Fields, her wimp boyfriend, the WaPo Fruitcake, The Magpie,and Ben Shapiro.

The Secret Service is getting put in a position of second guessing there job. It happened with local law enforcement and now it is trickling up to the premier agency."

Cruz doesn't have Secret Service protection.

Undoubtedly "Fields, her wimp boyfriend, the WaPo Fruitcake, The Magpie,and Ben Shapiro" are to blame for that.

Bastards.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Quote from that Christopher Lasch column;

“Diversity – a slogan that is attractive on the face of it – has come to mean the opposite of what it appears to mean,” Lasch remarked. “In practice, diversity turns out to legitimize a new dogmatism, in which rival minorities take shelter behind a set of beliefs impervious to rational discussion.”

Mirrors something I was thinking about the other day;

The cultural diversity the left supposedly champions is just a tool to enforce a rigid ideological conformity.

The idea of the melting pot and the supposedly evil cultural conformity it produced was in fact the method by which intellectual and ideological freedom was safeguarded.

Not exactly a new or revolutionary thought, but the fact remains that importing and allowing to flourish a plethora of cultures which have no experience with nor are particularly amenable to political liberty will [and already has] gravely reduce our political liberty, which of course is always the left's great project.

It is the hidden, sunk cultural attributes of that iceberg graphic somebody posted the other day that undermines our liberties.

[Theo]

Ignatz --

You are right.

I think the best illustration of this might be in the example of "gay rights." 50-60 years ago, "gay rights" meant not being arrested for being homosexual. Then it became not being discriminated against. Then it became the right to have relationships legally recognized as marriages. And now "gay rights" means the right to punish and demonize people who do not wish to participate in gay weddings or to ostracize anyone who thinks that there should be gender specific bathrooms.

They start out just asking to be left alone and they end up wanting to dictate what everyone else does.

[buccaneer morgan]

And I linked the 'draconian' law lass night.

[Theo]

You may recall how in 1992 there was a story going around about how the first President Bush was mystified when he saw a grocery store scanner. It never happened, but it became part of the folklore that Poppy was out of touch with the lives of real people.

Now look at this:

http://www.redstate.com/jaycaruso/2016/04/07/hillary-struggle-metrocard-subway/

And how does the media spin THIS? Why it shows that Hillary is just a normal every day person.

If it weren't for double standards, they would have no standards at all.

[lyle]

Who said it?

“I can’t fly the plane; I can’t change the weather — falling asleep, you’ll either wake up and things will be fine or you won’t,” [redacted] said. “Early on, back in [redacted], we would fly on anything. I flew on crop dusters. I flew on planes that were so small you felt like you were putting on a pair of pants. I’ve been on planes where doors have flown off … I think [all that] set me up for just knowing that, once I put myself on the plane, I was just going to have to take a deep breath and hopefully enjoy it. I find that very true for a lot of life.”

[Art in Newport]

Sometime in the future, historians will pick out an arbitrary point, sometime between 2000 and 2010, I would think, and say "this marks the end of the post-WWII era".

With little more awareness than programmed machines, the DC establishments of both parties are continuing with business as usual, as though the middle east were not in flames, and Europe beginning to smolder, and the rest of the world weakening and uncertain..

And here, the middle class slowly being crushed by unemployment, and higher prices for everything, and always more taxes. And ever more of them slipping down toward actual poverty.

Immense societal pressures and stresses have been generated, and they will find release in some way.

Change is upon us, and none of the others feel it. All the others are 'defenders' of this or that, against the various retrograde forces we confront. Trump's instinct is to attack them head-on, which is the only way to win.

[Threadkiller]

Cruz doesn't have a Secret Service detail?

So this failure is his fault.

[maryrose]

Daddy?

[lyle]

Pace derwill's comments yesterday re the GOPe:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/04/gop-establishment-still-standoffish-over-cruz.php

Look, I get that people don't like his looks, his hair, his voice, his preachiness, his arrogance, etc. but do any of his considerable detractors think he would be a good president or not?

[maryrose]

Only front runners get SS
Carson had it at one point but. Now I think Cruz and Bernie should have it

[lyle]

Good one, maryrose. But, no.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Yes Art, I suspect when all is said and done Barry will have helped fundamentally transform America in a way he didn't exactly intend.

[Jack is Back!]

Lyle,

Kasich?

Spieth -4 after 12 in lead. Berger -3 is on his heels.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

That statement was by CorkScrew Clinton.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Is it as windy as they said it would be JiB?

[lyle]

I'll append this datum to AiN's comment @ 1:28:

http://freebeacon.com/issues/government-owe-money-entire-economy/

[Porchlight]

Wow. So that should have made the news, if doors really flew off a plane carrying a First Lady of Arkansas or a FLOTUS or a SoS, right?

[Theo]

lyle --

I think that there are several reasons why the GOPe is standoffish towards Cruz.

1. They do not think that he is likely to win.

2. If he did win, he would owe almost nothing to the GOPe; he has made his campaign about running against them and he will be free to disregard them.

3. They are hoping that somehow they can use him to stop Trump and end up with someone they like better and/or think has a better chance to win.

[lyle]

I thought the blatant bullshit line I bolded would be the easy tip-off on that 1:25 quote.

[Theo]

I was going to guess Brian Williams.

[lyle]

4. They're just peachy with Hilligula as prez.

[Threadkiller]

but do any of his considerable detractors think he would be a good president or not?

I think he will be a terrible President.

[Theo]

lyle --

I do not think that they would be "peachy" with Rodham as president. But they probably do not see how they as rent seekers would be much worse off with her than with Rafael. And they can run against her again in four years and if Cruz is elected they probably have to support him in 2020. I think that they would campaign for Cruz and vote for Cruz and prefer Cruz over Rodham. But it would not make that much difference to them.

[Theo]

Why do you think so, TK?

[Jack is Back!]

Iggy,

Not as much as forecast but it is at 10-15mph and will pick later in day. No doubt favors morning times. Luck of the draw for Spieth. Tiger used to benefit from tee time luck a lot during his majors run. Spieth birdies 13. Now -5. Ho Hum!

[Threadkiller]

We've been through it, Theo. I won't clog the threads.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/04/entertainment/eric-bauersfeld-obit-admiral-ackbar-star-wars-irpt/

[Captain Hate]

Tammy Bruce is going down a laundry list of ongoing IRS abuses regarding refund fraud and identity theft. That GOP Congress has really made a difference.

[Old Lurker]

1:50, line 1, where TK earns a free beer from me.

[Old Lurker]

Cap'n those abuses will all stop when the Koskinin Impeachment wraps up, you know, right after the criminal indictments of Hillary are handed down, scheduled, I think, when the Power of the Purse has finally produced a balanced budget..

[Threadkiller]

Note that in the Ledge-er, OL.

:-)

[Old Lurker]

:-)

[buccaneer morgan]

Its a trap!

[Captain Hate]

OL, I'm still waiting for the GOPologists to give me a coherent reason why I'm wrong to be so mean to their heroes. They must be on cruises without WiFi.

[Porchlight]

That Ledge-er must be looking quite complex by now.
How many rounds are we up to?

[gentlejim]

NK posted

"Dunham-- what a pig."

Unfair to pigs.

[Old Lurker]

Hey Porch, what's up with that dead student in the creek behind your library?

Yes the "Ledge-er" is longer and longer but the joke is on Lyle when I offer him a free beer because I self fund cocktail hour each day since only my friends are allowed on the Ledge and it is worth it to me to not have to drink alone.

Also we are engineering some new changes at the Ledge because Lurker Susie (do I recall correctly?) asked for an ocean view. I considered just moving the entire structure to Nantucket to accommodate that, but the crazy whacko libs who run the HDC will never give me architectural approval for such a structure. I offered to clad it in grey shingles with white trim, but they still said no. I offered to make the Ledge itself resemble a "Widow's Watch/Walk" so it would blend in with the other houses, but again they said no.

[Miss Marple 2]

http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/275463-cruz-gets-the-time-treatment

Cruz on Time cover.

[Old Lurker]

Yes, gentlejim, that would put me off bacon for good.

[Miss Marple 2]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/04/07/va-wait-time-manipulation-veterans/82726634/

Still manipulating wait time in at least 7 states.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

-- Luck of the draw for Spieth.--

IIRC he may very well have lost either The Open or the PGA last year by bad luck in the same wind draw, no?

[Old Lurker]

MM, as soon as the idiots at the VA see what happened to Lerner and Koskinin for screwing up the IRS, I am certain they will clean up their acts.

[Miss Marple 2]

A courageously critical article by a Notre Dame student who heard Wendy Davis speak on campus:

http://ndsmcobserver.com/2016/04/women-deserve-better/

[Miss Marple 2]

Old Lurker,

It is my opinion that the VA bureaucracy should be working on chain gangs.

[Old Lurker]

Mine too. All of them.

[gentlejim]

OL,
I think the ledge should stay where it is anyway. I don't think the turrets would look good clad in grey shingles. They'd fall off after happy hour "shots" also. It'd just be a mess.

[Old Lurker]

I think it should stay there inside the Beltway too, since the whole reason for installing those guns from the battleship was so we could lob shells the size of VWs on every government building in DC.

[Miss Marple 2]

Old Lurker,

What a pleasing visual!

Shame you can't install guns big enough for shells the size of buses, which is what the VA needs.

[gentlejim]

Secret Service or not, Cruz' security team needs a kick in the balls. No excuse for letting those two obviously irate guys that close to him.

[James D]

MM, OL

You're a lot kinder than I am, where the VA bureaucrats are concerned.

[MaryD]

Great and extremely well-writtten article, MM. I emailed and told her so.

[gentlejim]

Think I lost a post to the naughty bin.

There is no excuse for Cruz' security team to allow those two obviously irate fellas that close to him.

[derwill]

See, we can't nominate either Cruz or Trump, because they won't be able to unite the party and the polls show that they would both lose to Hillary in the Fall. That's why a brokered convention is a good thing, so that the GOPe can select Paul Ryan as our nominee.

Oh, wait . . .

"Some top Republicans see House Speaker Paul Ryan as the party’s savior if they can just make him the GOP presidential nominee. But Ryan loses to both major Democratic candidates in head-to-head matchups, with roughly a quarter of Republicans looking somewhere else.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that Hillary Clinton tops Ryan 40% to 34% among Likely U.S. Voters, but a sizable 22% prefer some other candidate given that matchup.

Similarly, Senator Bernie Sanders posts a 41% to 34% win over Ryan, but 20% like another candidate. Five percent (5%) are undecided in both cases."

Oops.

(via Drudge)

[lyle]

but the joke is on Lyle when I offer him a free beer because I self fund cocktail hour each day since only my friends are allowed on the Ledge

Not quite sure how to take this... :)

[Threadkiller]

The VW's pollution equal a bus, MM. If that is any consolation.

[Old Lurker]

Now don't slice and dice my comment, Lyle, I was just observing that my offer of a free beer for behaving in your exchange above was of small actual value to you since cocktail hours on the Ledge are always free for all my friends and that includes you. I evicted JOMers I am mad at; I told them they could either test the diving boards or take the elevator back down, but they had to leave for not playing nicely with the rest of us.

[lyle]

I do not think that they would be "peachy" with Rodham as president.

What, in the past several years, have the Rs done that would lead you to believe that they're even slightly opposed to having a D in the WH? I could start naming at least a dozen R Senators right now who would would endorse The Hag right now were it not for the fact that they're running for re-election. In fact, I'll start and let any JOMer add to the list: John Sidney McCain.

Only rule: one name per comment but no limit on comments. Go.

[Theo]

derwill --

Maybe there just isn't going to be a united party. Trump supporters say they will not support anyone else and non-Trump supporters will not back Trump. At least not in sufficient numbers.

Do you know if the opposition to Ryan is procedural? I can imagine a lot of Republican votes PO'd that the nominee was not someone who ran in the primaries and withholding their votes on those grounds. Or is it something about RYAN that they do not like.

If it is the latter, maybe if some other non candidate (I have no idea who) would come out of the convention, there might be a chance for party unity.

[lyle]

::whew:: :)