Free Republic

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday warned of a war with Iran after the United States pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and world powers, AFP reported. Kerry spearheaded the diplomacy that led to the 2015 agreement in which Iran promised Western powers, Russia and China to scale back its nuclear program drastically in return for sanctions relief. In May, US President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement, which he has slammed as “the worst deal ever negotiated”. Trump later signed an executive order officially reinstating US sanctions against Iran. Additional US...

11 Sep 20188,697 Irish rock star Bono gave a Nazi salute during a show in Paris, while mocking the success of the Swedish populist party, Sweden Democrats, in Sunday’s general election. Performing as his dark “alter-ego” Mr. MacPhisto in Paris on Sunday, the 58-year-old rocker gave the Nazi salute twice before shouting “Åkesson!” a reference to the Sweden Democrats charismatic leader Jimmie Åkesson. “He’s done so well in the election today… It appears the Swedes are beginning to discover their Aryan potential,” Bono said. “I love elections. I love balloons. I love… parties that get out of hand.” Bono made...

The address “1209 North Orange Street” in Wilmington, Del., has become known in recent years as the epicenter of U.S. corporate secrecy. The squat, split-level building is the official address of over 285,000 companies, many of which are looking to take advantage of Delaware’s Panama-like secrecy rules, tax incentives, and business-friendly case law.In the wake of the recent “Panama Papers” scandal, this unassuming brick office has received renewed scrutiny from the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Telegraph, and advocates for corporate tax reform.But one of its tenants may come as a surprise—a company owned by Democratic presidential frontrunner...

Two days after announcing plans to donate $45 billion over time to his family foundation, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg responded to criticism about his philanthropic ambitions. In a Facebook post on Thursday, he pushed back against accusations that he had structured his foundation, not so much as a charity, but as a vehicle for evading taxes and making financially motivated investments under the guise of doing good. Zuckerberg created the foundation as a limited liability corporation instead of a traditional foundation. He said that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, would fund it with 99% of his wealth, made from...

A review of public records in New York and Delaware has revealed that every business started by Al Sharpton has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes. According to National Review Online, the records of Sharpton’s organizations are “copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre; and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants.”

When normal people happen to "find" their own money, it might mean a twenty left in a winter coat, or discovering change beneath the sofa cushions. But if you're Charlie Rangel, it means doubling your net worth. Earlier this month the Chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee "amended" his 2007 financial disclosure form—to the tune of more than a half-million dollars in previously unreported assets and income. That number may be as high as $780,000, because Congress's ethics rules only require the Members to report their finances within broad ranges. This voyage of personal financial discovery brings Mr....

President Obama has had, by general consent, a torrid First Fortnight. To put it another way, it has taken precisely two weeks for the illusion that brought him to power to be exposed for the nonsense that it so obviously was. The transformational candidate who was going to sweep away pork-barrel politics, lobbyists and corruption has been up to his neck in sleaze, as eviscerated here by Charles Krauthammer. Despite the fact that he came to power promising to ‘ban all earmarks’, his ‘stimulus’ bill represents billions of dollars of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections -- which have nothing...

Bloomberg material cannot be posted here so will you have to go to the link for the juicy details