TIMES, TIME, AND HALF A TIME. A HISTORY OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM.

Comments on a cultural reality between past and future.

This blog describes Metatime in the Posthuman experience, drawn from Sir Isaac Newton's secret work on the future end of times, a tract in which he described Histories of Things to Come. His hidden papers on the occult were auctioned to two private buyers in 1936 at Sotheby's, but were not available for public research until the 1990s.



Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Secrets, Scandals and Higher Truths: The Bahamas Papers



The quote of the day comes from a commenter at Data Lounge, where people are speculating wildly on the Brangelina divorce and the Hollywood pedophiles who abused 80s' Canadian actor, Corey Haim:
"I think if people really knew what went on in Hollywood, Politics, and Wall Street, they'd go crazy."
Rarely has the establishment, regardless of politics, appeared to be so compromised. WikiLeaks has released information which damages Clinton's presidential campaign - if you believe WikiLeaks.


Conspiracy theorists and whistle blowers make it look as though you cannot succeed in any quarter of society - anywhere in the world - without being ruthless, heartless, exploitative, and willing to do anything while hypocritically declaring yourself to be a defender of law, order, virtue, and the common good. The ugliest American election campaign in history concentrates on sex slave islands, million dollar pay-offs, and six-week body counts.

These 'higher truths' are dangerous, because they have huge online momentum and can change the outcome of elections, or destroy the lives of falsely accused individuals. At the same time, some revelations do confirm genuine exploitation, falsehoods, kleptocracies and plunder. We need higher truths, but on the Internet, any higher truth can be manufactured.


Today's online convulsions produced the Bahamas Papers (Twitter: #bahamasleaks), which you can read here; they concern 175,000 offshore companies registered in the Bahamas. From the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists:
"A cache of leaked documents provides names of politicians and others linked to more than 175,000 Bahamian companies registered between 1990 and 2016. ...

The new information reveals previously unknown or little-reported connections to companies owned or run by current or former politicians from the Americas, Africa, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. ...

The data released today involve the basic building blocks of offshore companies: a company’s name, its date of creation, the physical and mailing address in the Bahamas and, in some cases, the company’s directors. At a basic level, this information is crucial to day-to-day commerce. In other cases, police, detectives and fraud investigators use registries as starting points on the trail of wrongdoing.

'Corporate registries are incredibly important,' said Debra LaPrevotte, a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation special agent whose work included tracing billions of dollars in bribes and corruption proceeds hidden in tax havens for politicians from Ukraine, Nigeria and Bangladesh. 'Offshore companies are often used as intermediaries to facilitate money laundering and, frequently, the companies are only used to open bank accounts, thus the corporate registry documents, which might identify the beneficial owners, are part of the evidence.' ...

Unlike the Panama Papers, 11.5 million often-detailed emails, contracts, audio recordings and other documents from one law firm, the information listed in the new Bahamian documents is plainer — if still fundamental — in content. The new data does not make it clear, for example, whether directors named in connection with a Bahamian firm truly control the company or act as nominees, employees-for-hire who serve as the face of the company but have no involvement in its operations.

When paired with the Panama Papers, the Bahamas data provide fresh insights into the offshore dealings of politicians, criminals and executives as well as the bankers and lawyers who help move money."


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