| Paradise Papers on 19:02 - Nov 6 with 2738 views | Brightonhoop |
It's just another scam imho Antii, yes I think they have an absolute responsibility with the Licence Fee to see it's not being misused in this way. Pay the actors and 'stars' through the PAYE system same as the vast majority of BBC Employees or forfeight the Licence Fee. It cannot be right on any level that earnings off the BBC deprive the Exchequor through Tax Avoidance schemes when the NHS is £2.5 Billion in deficit. | | |  |
| Paradise Papers on 20:53 - Nov 6 with 2675 views | Antti_Heinola |
Honestly mate, that's bizarre. A independent company makes the show. The independent company will then pay the talent. That company may be owned by the star of the show. I'm not sure how that could possibly be done through PAYE unless the BBC literally made all their programmes in house and every single person who played any part in making BBC content was employed by the BBC directly. Which would be utter madness and wholly unworkable. It's not the BBC depriving anyone. They're paying for content. Where that money goes afterwards is not their fault, nor their problem. | |
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| Paradise Papers on 21:11 - Nov 6 with 2651 views | hubble |
I tell you what, all this tax avoidance stuff is a fantastic smokescreen for all the shiite that's kicking off in Saudi Arabia right now.
Seems like there's a massive purge and power play taking place and it has direct connections to all sorts of stuff that *was* coming out of the woodwork in America, not least about the nefarious activities of the Clinton foundation.
It can't be just a coincidence that at the same time as:
"Saudi Arabia’s leadership has pulled off its boldest move yet to consolidate power around its young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, arresting 11 senior princes, one of the country’s richest men and scores of former ministers in what it billed as a corruption purge."
(source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...med-bin-salman)
This happened:
"A senior Saudi prince and seven other officials have been killed in a helicopter crash near the country's border with Yemen, state media report.
Prince Mansour bin Muqrin, the deputy governor of Asir province, was returning from an inspection tour when his aircraft came down near Abha late on Sunday, the interior ministry said.
It did not give a cause for the crash."
(source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41881058)
Something really big is happening on the global stage and the leaks about the secret tax avoidance affairs of the super rich do look in some ways like a distraction (to me, anyway) timing-wise, because it's completely pushed this coup and a lot else off the front pages. | |
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| Paradise Papers on 21:28 - Nov 6 with 2638 views | FredManRave |
If "they" wanted a distraction "they" should have helped us bloody win at Forest. That would have been front page news globally! | |
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| Paradise Papers on 21:31 - Nov 6 with 2631 views | hubble |
"They" would have covered it up Fred - far too controversial - and obvious - QPR winning at Forest? Dead give away! | |
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| Paradise Papers on 06:34 - Nov 7 with 2542 views | PlanetHonneywood |
Thankfully, you've not taught me anything I didn't already know/suspect. While I wouldn't dare to suggest I have all the answers for the woes of the world, I'd suggest that at least you/me and many other rfosi are well aware of what the problems are. Which is a start!
I do wonder whether such concerns underpinned your vote in the EU referendum? I know they did mine! The EU's close links with the global banking community should have been a concern for all but sadly, we descended into racism and not a proper debate about how it works. I suggest, if you don't already know, a google of the European Stabilising Mechanism as a case in point about a lack of accountability, as but one example of a model seriously flawed. Further evidenced by the gold market. My man in the know swears blind - and with a fair bit of evidence - that there is more traded than there actually is!
There were some shenanigans a few years back about late trading on a Friday where the gold price went haywire as markets closed in Zurich, London and then New York. The suggestion was that a foreign power was testing reactions to dumping/manipulating. It coincided with the Yanks nearly having an egg when Germany purportedly asked for all its gold out of Fort Knox! I remain of the view that gold is always the best barometer and why personally, I sold up on equities this year and went into other more reliable tangibles over fear of the impending.
I return to the central tenant of my original post; the history of how the establishment always wins the long game. I admire your optimism, but while I am sure your sentiment has been said throughout the passage of time, I think you've got three factors unconsidered in your missive:
1. I am sure many felt like you when the printing press was first designed that this would allow the word to get out. Alas, a lot of people couldn't read. By the time mankind could read in sufficient numbers, the establishment owned the media and thus, determined what people read.
The internet as was explained to me back in the day, suggested it could trigger revolution for the want of a better word, and lead to a more egalitarian world. Alas, there was a cautionary note: ultimately the establishment would own, monitor and respond accordingly. I also suspect that the galvanising effect you predict could be diluted by the internet busting under the weight of posts about Kim Khadashian's huge arse or, a Facebook post of a cute puppy eating a lolly. In summary, I think the ICT is as much dumming down as it is enlightening some and simply put, I think the overwhelming majority of folks don't know or give a toss that they don't know.
2. Notwithstanding the flaws within the global economy, you haven't factored China in. Or, maybe you have! I suspect they have got all their ducks in play and having spent years buying up vast tracks of Latin America, Asia and Africa, the real battle will be for resources as basic as water. I think the world's growing issues will not be so much about financials, but basic human fundamentals.
3. While the arch of history may well bend, rarely, if ever, does it break beyond repair. The fact is, any revolutionary event may well have yielded some form of advancement of human rights, but eventually, the pendulum swings back. The Bilderbergs, Rothschilds et al have historically shown they are not only prepared to play the long game, but they are bloody good at it as well!
The biggest flaw I suggest in your theory; is that organising has become increasingly harder. Look at trade unions in the EU and globally for example. The EU free-movement of labour (note we don't even call them people) is about access to cheaper labour and, from work I have done with international organisations in this area, economic migrants tend not to join trade unions in new countries. With weakened resistance, it's why labour laws will be slowly stiffening within and outside the EU is my prediction. It will be interesting to see how Macron fairs with his reforms in France, which certainly in terms of collective bargaining, are at the behest of the EU's desire to break them. I am definitely keeping my eye on that one!
Of course, Occupy, Corbyn, Drop-The-Debt and even Cuba do offer some notion that the people can gather a momentum, but I still return to the notion, that these are never long-term.
In Russia, you have the system funding both pro- and anti-Putin organisations. This is happening elsewhere and globally, monitoring of comment - for which you and I are now being subjected to in this thread - means that governments can react a lot quicker then we maybe acknowledge. Basically, the establishment can easily manipulate like never before which I suggest is an alternative-fact (no pun intended) to be considered.
There is another factor, which in my view renders a lot of this mute. A few years back a mate of mine attended a meeting Bill Clinton was at. He commented that we can wet ourselves about Aids, bird flu, terrorism, financial collapse all we like, but if we don't sort climate change out, then we are well and truly stuffed. Personally, I think the biggest threat we face isn't so much about how the globally economy does or does not work, but how this planet is going to survive if we continue on the path we're currently and, quite probably, too far down to recoil from.
This and the other perennial thorn in the side of history....will any of us ever live to see the day that we win at Forest? | |
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| Paradise Papers on 07:18 - Nov 7 with 2534 views | distortR |
Re: the IOM and VAT on private jets (And luxury yachts, I believe), isn't the real kick in the face that you can legitimately claim VAT back on a luxury jet as a business expense anyway? | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 08:13 - Nov 7 with 2512 views | ElHoop |
Isn't Panama the pimple on a few other systems' backsides, not just one residing on capitalism's bottom?
And anyway, what is capitalism? Is this it? | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 11:22 - Nov 7 with 2424 views | hubble |
That's an excellent and insightful riposte Mr H. Without wishing to bore other readers, I'd like to respond to some of your points.
I agree with you about the EU - I'm sure you're not surprised by that. Yes, the debate got skewed away from the really pertinent points, as it so often does. Yes, the 'cabal' owns the mainstream media and therefore controls the cultural narrative... or does it?
One of the many things I gleaned from Noah Yuval Harari's excellent 'Sapiens' was that there is no such thing as historical inevitability, and that we cannot extrapolate the future from the past.
I am absolutely aware of the Bilderbergs, the Rothschilds, the role of China - indeed of all the BRICS nations - in all of this - there are many actors striding the global stage, but none of them can predict the outcome.
But I say again: don't underestimate the transformative effect of the internet. Of course governments, States and powers-that-be (that were?) are desperate to control it. Ultimately, there can only be one winner: either we get a free internet or we get totalitarianism. Naturally, I'm hoping for the former, but I also think that's a realistic hope. The power of the old order to influence people, typified by the shenanigans of the cabal and their agencies, is enormous. They still own the mainstream media, but as I said, do they still dictate the cultural narrative? To me, the entire system has walked over a cliff. It's just that they haven't realised it yet. The very last place you're going to see any of this is in the mainstream media. As Gil Scott-Heron said: the revolution will not be televised.
I believe the change is already upon us. It's happening, whether 'they' like it or not. I think it's unstoppable. Before the internet, it was easy for the powers-that-were to manipulate public opinion and it was easy to pull the wool over people's eyes. Not so much any more. In the past, John Kerry would have hectored his way into forcing the UK and the UN to underwrite an armed invasion in Syria to overthrow Assad. But in the internet age, this didn't happen. Too many people were wise to what the US was up to, too many people understood that regime change was always on the agenda. They'd also seen the faked footage, the crisis actors, they understood the game. This is unprecedented in modern human history.
If we fast forward from then to now, things have ramped up considerably. On the geopolitical stage, there is a massive purge taking place - something that I alluded to earlier in this thread. The old order is being booted out. Of course, it may be 'new boss same as the old boss' time, but whatever it signifies, change IS taking place.
You haven't directly responded to my assertion that crypto-currencies are another game changer, maybe underpinning the whole revolution. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on this. You talk about gold, and I understand your reasoning, but no one can ignore crypto-currencies any more. They are not going away.
Steve suggested earlier in this thread that nothing would change while the dollar remained the world's reserve currency. Well, not for much longer. The days of the heinous alliance of the US with Saudi Arabia to support - at any cost - the petrodollar (taking the dollar off the gold standard in the process) - the root of so many of the Middle East's problems - are numbered. And this purge is a big sign this is taking place. Many of those being ousted from the Saudi regime are Bush/Clinton allies. The entire regime is being replaced. There may be shocking (to some) revelations very soon and arrests of those who were formerly considered untouchable in the US. Undoubtedly, some kind of plea-bargaining will take place, but there's no doubt how utterly corrupt the Bush/Clinton (and even Obama) regimes have been. Before the internet, all of this would have remained hidden from us proles. Now we're no longer just the children at the adults' table, we are actually part of the tide of change. Every node in a peer-to-peer network strengthens that network. Bitcoin represents a huge interconnected network of nodes that is so powerful no single supercomputer can match it. Its strength lies in unity. I believe people are waking up to this truth once again. And maybe this time it really will change. A revolution that is not manipulated by banks or masons (as all the previous ones were), but one where anyone who wants to be, can be involved. Hell, it might even be peaceful.
In the short term, the old order are still fighting tooth and nail to keep control. But the signs are all around us that their power is on the wane. Interesting times indeed. [Post edited 7 Nov 2017 11:25]
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| Paradise Papers on 12:15 - Nov 7 with 2381 views | Brightonhoop |
Don't know about conspiracy theories but Saudis now accusing Iran of supplying the missile to Yemen that Suadi shot down near Riyadh at the weekend.
With the US Generals at the weekend also stating the nay way to disarm North Korea is by a ground invasion, it seems increasingly likely the US will invade NK, which is a high risk strategy stupid enough to spark all out Nuclear War, the Chinese aren't going to tolerate a US invasion of NK. Before Trump then invades Iran, maybe on the pretext of protecting Saudi.
There's no link with the Paradise Papers to Trumps plans for war on two fronts. | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 12:41 - Nov 7 with 2354 views | BklynRanger |
I've only had time to scan this thread but I have been wondering how much truth there might indeed be in this.
If we know that this dodgery has been going on for years then why, with so much else going on, should I give two fcuking shits about what Mrs Brown's Boys are doing with their high octane comedy cash? Tell Lewis Hamilton to give his plane money back then! Report it once or twice by all means, as an example of how broken and wrong the system is, but then move on! The BBC news page has got this stuff broken into 6 or 7 stories all of their front page.
Now obviously to rely on the BBC as your sole source of news is very daft in this day and age - so some of it can shirley be put down to agendas, cuts in foreign correspondents and general shyteness, but it's still healthy to ask why this should be getting such prominence. | | | |
| Paradise Papers (n/t) on 12:59 - Nov 7 with 2335 views | BazzaInTheLoft |
[Post edited 7 Nov 2017 13:00]
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| Paradise Papers on 13:05 - Nov 7 with 2323 views | TW_R |
That's not entirely true. BBC Scotland are one of three production companies behind the show. One of the others is O'Carroll's own production company. It's filmed at BBC Scotland and has a number of BBC staff as Producers or Exec Producers. Notwithstanding any discussions about tax avoidance, looking at the sums of money at least 3 of the cast have flowing through Mauritius and then back into there bank accounts, the BBC should be questioned on the amount they are paying these people.
If the only thing good comes out of this is the show being dropped, there will be a lot of very happy people out there. | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 13:23 - Nov 7 with 2309 views | TGRRRSSS |
Isnt the real point that if US invade into NK it then gives them the perfect place to then go through??? | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 13:57 - Nov 7 with 2276 views | hubble |
Just to back up my assertion that regime change is on the cards, especially concerning the Clinton/Bush cabal, this is from the mainstream Huffington post. The article is originally from August 2016, but updated in 2017 (I don't know what they changed), so what's happening in Saudi Arabia now can be considered with this factored in:
"If I told you that Democratic Party lobbyist Tony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta chairs Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, is a registered foreign agent on the Saudi government’s payroll, you’d probably think I was a Trump-thumping, conspiratorial nutcase. But it’s true.
The lobby firm created by both Tony and John Podesta in 1988 receives $140,000 a month from the Saudi government, a government that beheads nonviolent dissidents, uses torture to extract forced confessions, doesn’t allow women to drive, and bombs schools, hospitals and residential neighborhoods in neighboring Yemen. "
And then there's this paragraph:
"The Podesta-Clinton-Saudi connection should be seen in light of the recent media exposes revealing the tawdry pay-to-play nature of the Clinton Foundation. Top on the list of foreign donors to the foundation is Saudi Arabia, which contributed between $10 million and $25 million.
What did the Saudis get for their largesse and access? Wikileaks revealed a 2009 cable by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying: “More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar e-Tayyiba and other terrorist groups.” Instead of sanctioning the Saudis, Clinton did the opposite: She authorized enormous quantities of weapons to be sold to them. On Christmas Eve in 2011, Hillary Clinton and her closest aides celebrated a massive $29.4 billion sale to the Saudis of over 80 F-15 fighter jets, manufactured by Boeing, a company which coincidentally contributed $900,000 to the Clinton Foundation. In a chain of enthusiastic emails, an aide exclaimed that it was “not a bad Christmas present.” I’m sure the Yemenis at the receiving end of the Saudi bombings would not be so enthusiastic. "
full article: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/medea-benjamin/hillary-clinton-the-podes_b_117798
It's worth noting that as far as I understand it, Tony Podesta has been arrested recently:
"Democrat lobbyist Tony Podesta was arrested Saturday night and taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals office as new indictments were also issued against Hillary Clinton and John Podesta."
Source: http://yournewswire.com/tony-podesta-arrested-indictments-hillary/
People have suggested there's a reason Clinton has been walking around with an ankle boot: it's disguising her electronic tag. Make of that what you will. John Podesta, former Obama chief of staff and Clinton campaign manager is the man at the centre of the 'pizzagate' revelations. | |
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| Paradise Papers on 15:13 - Nov 7 with 2216 views | hubble |
No, Mr Sheen, I mean what was revealed in the DNC email leak that has been repeatedly blamed on Russian hackers without any meaningful evidence whatsoever to date - i.e. yet more smokescreens. I'm talking about the emails that were leaked - according to sources from with the DNC - by Seth Rich, a DNC employee who was later found murdered after an apparent break-in, where nothing was actually stolen.
Posting links to mainstream media interpretations do not concrete evidence of falsehood or conspiracy make. I mean you're hardly going to see the MSM actually follow this up - too many of the owners are implicated. Think about it. I'll give you but one example of how this sort of thing is covered up by the establishment: the convenient disappearance of 114 files linked to allegations of paedophile activity in Westminster. Vanished. Poof. Oh dear. This was when Theresa May was Home Secretary and there was meant to be an investigation into MPs and establishment figures involved in paedophile rings. What did happen to that inquiry, by the way? First one chairperson dropped out, then another... it started in 2014, by 2016, 2017 still nothing... Remind you of anything? Savile, perhaps? Do you really think the mainstream is an open, honest and independent source of news, especially in cases like this?
Question: have you personally read or reviewed any of the leaked emails that have led to the pizzagate accusations? Because if you haven't, your basing your evidence on those links alone.
If you want the start of a smoking gun, then look to Donna Brazile's revelations about the DNC campaign funding (she became DNC chairperson during the campaign) that have been all over the MSM recently. If you consider those alone have HRC bang to rights fixing the nomination (and a hell of a lot more) and then you consider Brazile is a DNC insider, you can see that the drip-drip of real info is starting to come out. I take it you don't refute any of the evidence in that Huffington Post article? That in itself is fairly damning of a DNC/Clinton regime of at best, severely dubious morals. At best. But then, if you research the Clinton Foundation more widely, you'll see that's the tip of the iceberg.
If you want to read up more about John and Tony Podesta, feel free. Although I suspect you won't. It's easier to pooh-pooh these allegations than take them seriously, because then you have to consider the entire establishment is riddled with this stuff... but then.... oh wait... [Post edited 7 Nov 2017 15:16]
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| Paradise Papers on 16:04 - Nov 7 with 2170 views | kensalriser |
I can't help feeling that Trump, his billionaire cronies, Bannon, the Koch brothers et al are the more clear and present dangers, not Hillary Clinton. | |
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| Paradise Papers on 16:26 - Nov 7 with 2145 views | robith |
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| Paradise Papers on 17:31 - Nov 7 with 2100 views | Brightonhoop |
If you mean on into China, the Chinese will never allow that.
There's alot going on behind the scenes, reports if accurate, that the test base under the mountain collapsed killing hundreds and making the area so toxic it's no longer viable as a test place, unsafe from radiation.
Others saying the Chinese have threatened to remove Kim themselves because they dont want the US on the border, with all the inherent risks that would bring.
Whatever's true or not in this fake news era, Kim is strangely quiet after all his recent blustering. Let's hope it's not the calm before the storm. | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 18:06 - Nov 7 with 2064 views | MrSheen |
I haven't been able to find any evidence that anyone within the DNC blamed Rich. Kim Dotcom said he did it, and Julian Assange, characteristically, hinted that he did while saying he didn't reveal sources. Neither worked for the DNC, last time I looked.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/24/15685560/seth-rich-conspiracy-
Fox News presented a private investigator called Rod Wheeler who said he had heard from the FBI that Rich was the leaker. He then admitted that he hadn't. Here's a previous example of Wheeler's investigative prowess.
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2007/rod-wheeler-cla
I don't dispute what Brazile has to say at all, though it is strange that she is only bringing it up now (when she has a book to sell) and did nothing about it at the time (when she actually had power). In my opinion, both Clintons were/are money-grabbing sleazeballs and HRC was unfit to be President, though amazingly only the second least-qualified person in the race. It's a strange world when Sanders can feel cheated of the Democratic nomination, as he's never been a member of the party and still won't describe himself as one. O'Malley for President, anyone?
The advantage of reading the Mainstream Media is that they make an effort to verify statements of fact, if only in competition with each other, on the grounds that if they can't be trusted in small things, why would they be believed on large things. For that reason, they are willing to acknowledge mistakes and ask for another chance. It's a fallacy to believe that "citizen journalism" is free from those errors, whether discussing police executions and Prime Ministerial cover ups at London Bridge, Podestas being arrested, Seth Rich being identified as a leaker by sources within the DNC, Seth Rich being murdered in a break-in (he was shot in the street), Pizzagate, Edward Heath and Harvey Proctor sharing gay orgies, etc, etc. But if you KNOW the truth already, you have no need of supporting evidence. As long as it feels good, write it, and if it doesn't fit, move on to some more. | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 18:17 - Nov 7 with 2056 views | hubble |
I just don't share your high opinion of the MSM Mr S. As for Seth Rich, I wonder why Donna Brazile made a special dedication to him in her book, calling him a patriot, if he was just a lowly intern as other DNC staffers described him at the time? Yes, he was attacked and killed in the street. Nothing was stolen from him. His is just one of a list of suspicious deaths that surround HRC.
In other news, regarding the escalating Saudi regime change story, the following has just come to light:
"Early this morning, Israeli Channel 10 news published a leaked diplomatic cable which had been sent to all Israeli ambassadors throughout the world concerning the chaotic events that unfolded over the weekend in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which began with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri's unexpected resignation after he was summoned to Riyadh by his Saudi-backers, and led to the Saudis announcing that Lebanon had "declared war" against the kingdom.
The classified embassy cable, written in Hebrew, constitutes the first formal evidence proving that the Saudis and Israelis are deliberately coordinating to escalate the situation in the Middle East."
This stuff is definitely happening.
Source: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-07/leaked-secret-israeli-cable-confirms-is | |
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| Paradise Papers on 18:50 - Nov 7 with 2031 views | Benny_the_Ball |
That might not be so bad - that pub would never close! | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 19:04 - Nov 7 with 2016 views | Benny_the_Ball |
Of course they're not going to walk away from the market but they could close UK sites and just choose to operate in the UK from outside. After all, they're an E-Commerce retailer not a high street store. They don't need to be based in the UK in order to trade in the UK. | | | |
| Paradise Papers on 19:18 - Nov 7 with 2003 views | Boston |
Could be on to something with North Korea, we're desperately short of waste disposal facilities. | |
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