Category: Corruption

Africa, Corruption, History, Politics, RacismLeave a comment

The Fissures That Followed Mandela

Fernando Kaskais

Nelson Mandela at home in Qunu in 2011. (Adrian Steirn via Getty Images) Thirty years after the historic end to apartheid in South Africa, life remains so precarious for so many that uncomfortable questions are being asked of leaders who failed to carry the reconciliation project forward. BY SISONKE MSIMANG – Sisonke Msimang is the author of “Always Another Country” and “The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela.” There’s a set of traffic lights at a busy intersection in the plush Johannesburg suburb of Rosebank that is often on the blink. Each time the power goes out — “load-shedding” is the technical term; … Continue reading The Fissures That Followed Mandela

Corruption, Freak U.S.A, Hypocrisy, Manipulation, PoliticsLeave a comment

A travesty of justice

Fernando Kaskais

Source images courtesy of Feoktistova via adobestock.com.• Putting Clarence Thomas into great novelists’ hands BY DANIEL A. HILL Given the headlines, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the injudicious behavior of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas. I know the man unusually well. In 2012, the editors of The Wall Street Journal’s law blog asked me to weigh in on the question of whether the Supremes would uphold or invalidate Obamacare. The law can be shapeshifting in anyone’s hands. What doesn’t change very much though, if at all, is human nature. So . . . as something of an expert in analyzing facial expressions to understand … Continue reading A travesty of justice

Big Banks, Corruption, Manipulation, Money, PsychologyLeave a comment

Finance as alchemy

Fernando Kaskais

Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters Finance fraud is not a deviation from an essentially rational system but a window onto the reality-distortion of markets Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou is an associate professor of sociology at University College London. He is the author of Speculative Communities Living with Uncertainty in a Financialized World (2022). His next book, Real Fake, will be published by MIT Press in 2025. When the German banking giant Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 amid a roaring fraud scandal, public opinion was shocked. The company, praised as the country’s innovative answer to the fintech industry of Silicon Valley, had been widely seen as a ‘German miracle’ … Continue reading Finance as alchemy

Corruption, Freak U.S.A, Hypocrisy, Politics, UnbelievableLeave a comment

Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel

Fernando Kaskais

Alex Bandoni/ProPublica. Source Images: mikroman6 and Bloomberg/Getty Images. by Brett Murphy and Alex Mierjeski The fullest accounting yet shows how Thomas has secretly reaped the benefits from a network of wealthy and well-connected patrons that is far more extensive than previously understood.    ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultrawealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered … Continue reading Clarence Thomas’ 38 Vacations: The Other Billionaires Who Have Treated the Supreme Court Justice to Luxury Travel

Corruption, Freak U.S.A, Money, Politics, UnbelievableLeave a comment

Read how much Trump paid — or didn’t pay — in taxes each year

Fernando Kaskais

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at a rally for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) at the Miami-Dade Country Fair and Exposition on November 6, 2022 in Miami, Florida. Joe Raedle | Getty Images By Dan Mangan KEY POINTS The amount of income, deductions and taxes paid by or refunded to former President Donald Trump while serving in the White House was detailed in a new report released Tuesday night. The report reveals that Trump on his federal tax returns declared negative income in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020, and that he paid a total of $1,500 in income taxes for the years 2016 and … Continue reading Read how much Trump paid — or didn’t pay — in taxes each year

Corruption, Europe, Hypocrisy, Politics, UKLeave a comment

Boris Johnson leaves behind him a terrifying legacy

Fernando Kaskais

The prime minister may have resigned, but the impact of a raft of authoritarian legislation passed under his tenure is yet to be felt. Text by Ben Smoke Idon’t know if you’ve ever tried to fuck on pills but, for those of you unversed, let me break it down for you. You meet a guy in the club, you vibe, you get a cab, you go home, you furnish the floor with your clothes and you jump into bed with the promise of climax. As you climb on, you realise you’re in it for the long haul (thank you MDMA), and … Continue reading Boris Johnson leaves behind him a terrifying legacy

Corruption, Hypocrisy, Money, Politics1 Comment

The Midas Disease

Fernando Kaskais

Corruption is a truly global crisis and the wealth addiction that feeds it is hiding in plain sight by Sarah Chayes is the author of On Corruption in America: And What Is at Stake (2020), published in the UK as Everybody Knows: Corruption in America, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner Thieves of State: Why Corruption Threatens Global Security (2015) and The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan After the Taliban (2006). In Kandahar, Afghanistan, in late 2001, I watched a girl of about nine strip a Kalashnikov rifle, inspect the bullets and reload the sound ones in a matter of minutes. That child lived in a … Continue reading The Midas Disease

Big Oil, Climate Change, Corruption, Eco, Hypocrisy, PoliticsLeave a comment

The oil and gas industry knew about climate change in the 1950s

Fernando Kaskais

Archival documents set the timeline of coverups even further back. BY BENJAMIN FRANTA/THE CONVERSATION  Four years ago, I traveled around America, visiting historical archives. I was looking for documents that might reveal the hidden history of climate change—and in particular, when the major coal, oil and gas companies became aware of the problem, and what they knew about it. I pored over boxes of papers, thousands of pages. I began to recognize typewriter fonts from the 1960s and ‘70s and marveled at the legibility of past penmanship, and got used to squinting when it wasn’t so clear. What those papers revealed … Continue reading The oil and gas industry knew about climate change in the 1950s

Corruption, Freak U.S.A, Hypocrisy, Manipulation, Politics1 Comment

ONE NATION UNDER GREED: THE PROFIT INCENTIVES DRIVING THE AMERICAN POLICE STATE

Fernando Kaskais

John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead, TRI Waking Times “When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.” ― Frédéric Bastiat, French economist If there is an absolute maxim by which the American government seems to operate, it is that the taxpayer always gets ripped off. Not only are Americans forced to “spend more on state, municipal, and federal taxes than the annual financial burdens of food, clothing, and housing combined,” but we’re … Continue reading ONE NATION UNDER GREED: THE PROFIT INCENTIVES DRIVING THE AMERICAN POLICE STATE

Corruption, Freak U.S.A, Hypocrisy, Politics, UnbelievableLeave a comment

FOOD LINES GROW MILES LONG AS POLITICIANS BREAK RULES TO DINE AT FANCY RESTAURANTS, TAKE VACATIONS

Fernando Kaskais

Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project Waking Times When the politicians on taxpayer funded salaries sit around and discuss which businesses to keep open and which businesses to shut down, they never consider limiting their salaries or cutting their funding. They simply force people out of business and offer nothing in return. In states that do offer some relief to shuttered businesses, the programs fall far short of the mark for small business owners, enrich already large corporations, or, like we reported out of California, puts millions in the pockets of murders, rapists, and child traffickers — some of whom are on death … Continue reading FOOD LINES GROW MILES LONG AS POLITICIANS BREAK RULES TO DINE AT FANCY RESTAURANTS, TAKE VACATIONS