Category Archives: Legal

Judges Nixing Keystone XL South Cases Had Tar Sands-Related Oil Investments

Lambert here: As ever, the scandal is what’s legal. Ka-ching. By Steve Horn, a Madison, WI-based Research Fellow for DeSmogBlog and a freelance investigative journalist. He previously was a reporter and researcher at the Center for Media and Democracy. Originally published at DeSmogBlog. On August 4, the U.S. Appeals Court for the 10th Circuit shot […]

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New York Department of Financial Services Slams Bank Fixer Promontory Group, Hitting it in Its Profits and Reputation

A decision by the New York State Department of Financial Services appears to be finally crimping the wings of this powerfully placed bank fixer. Promontory is being denied access to information that effectively locks it out of a large swathe of consulting work that is important to its business.

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Another Private Equity Scam – Tax Receivable Agreements

As one tax expert put it, “Private equity is a tax gimmick with an acquisition attached.” We’re going to discuss a very big tax gimmick that virtually no private equity investors seem to be aware of. The failure of private equity general partners to publicize a tax scheme that on paper should benefit their limited […]

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Dealing With Mass Killings in America: Funding Our Children, Not Our Wars

As mass killings become more common in the US, law enforcement agents fixate on and unduly publicize cases with jihadist links. As this post describes, that serves as an excuse for even more intensive surveillance.

Yet as Mark Ames described in one of the first works on these rampages, in his book “Going Postal,” there were no obvious similarities among the perps. They weren’t all, or even often, isolated losers. They did not typically come from broken homes. They were generally of above average intelligence. Aside from being disproportionately male, the other common thread was that they had been bullied.

If Ames’ observations still hold true, the lack of distinctive demographic or behavioral predictors of those who go on rampages means that heightened surveillance is at best another form of security theater, and at worst an excuse for Stasi-like dossier-gethering.

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