Pompeo says it is clear that Russia was behind the widespread hacking of US government systems, becoming the first member of the Trump administration to publicly link the Kremlin to the cyberattack.
I can't believe I have forgotten over the past 48 hours now that the Cosmopolitan Globalist has been launches to mention I have been working on an article for a while now discussing the advocacy work I have been involved with relating to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act for the last 10 years. I remembered to bring this up as it dawned on me that Toomas Hendrik Ilves criticized FATCA in a media appearance last week which makes him the highest level foreign official to criticize FATCA.
FATCA is too often discussed as a "tax" story when it is more geopolitical and rule of story. For example right now there are US citizens are not tax compliant with US tax law living in France(who are compliant with French tax law) who think what Russia did to the US today was a good thing not a bad thing and France should be standing with Russia against the US and the US basically deserves this because of FATCA(And would not have felt this way prior to FATCA). Thus my surprise to see Toomas criticize FATCA as it is generally perceived in Washington on Capitol Hill that to be anti FATCA is to be anti American and vice versa and Toomas is definitely not anti American.
I'm sure you can imagine that my sympathy with these US citizens is not vast. I've somehow managed to comply with French tax laws *and* FATCA *while* criticizing FATCA *and* while refraining from being both a traitor and an idiot. It's not that hard.
Well through my work I have come to the conclusion that about 90 to 95 percent of US citizens abroad are not complying with FATCA and even those who think they are complying in fact would not withstand a full IRS audit. So there is a massive amount of lawbreaking. The crowd though if you want to meet "real" radicals are the so called Accidental Americans these are people who technically were born in the US and thus US citizens but left the US as toddlers and thus have identified as French there entire lives. I call those who can't be traitors as to be traitor you have to have once believed in something and these people never did vis a vis the US.
What is interesting in my experience is that the more "treasonous" stories are sometimes the most compelling but most divisive. I don't want to mention names but many of you might call the more defense and military minded members of Congress i.e. those who see Russia is enemy number 1 are actually fairly open to getting of FATCA if it it could bring these more "treasonous" elements back onside and that Putin is the "real" enemy not tax evaders in Paris and the French Rivera. Other more domestically oriented members of Congress much more in tune with the domestic US sentiments that led to the enactments of FATCA think this is blackmail and hostage taking.
Not to get to into the dynamics of the "anti FATCA crowd" but this video below of the In Lieu of Fun youtube show(where Toomas is a longtime contributor and in fact the same show where he made his own anti FATCA comments on) from earlier today is a classic example in the minds of certain anti FATCA-ites I deal with in France of why they hate Washington, DC. Which is that the story of the "hack" according to people like Ms. Eoyang is not the negligence of the US govt and US Congress(including people like Congresswoman Eshoo) but instead criminal violation, rule of law violations, sealed indictments, and need to uphold justice etc. and that the solution to the hack is to "entice" the Russian hackers to the French Rivera then use the French Police do America's dirty work through the US French extradition. In particular the US should NOT escalate in militaristic fashion as that is what Putin wants instead stay towards true blue American values like justice for all which is America's strength. From the perspective of the Franco-Americans I who work who are anti FATCA radicals most would say that France should "screw" or "fuck over" the US and refuse to help the US with the "hack" to get back at people like Congresswoman Eshoo and her aide Ms. Eoyang who supported FATCA and anyways if these Russia hackers were so good why weren't they able to hack into the French govt computer systems that control the "Force de Frappe" which is far more important to them personally than the US nuclear deterrent. Remember these are often people who spent much of there lives in the US but now post 2010 post FATCA want to now "hurt" America.
I will discus in my article what the response has been when I bring up these arguments in Washington, DC.
This is a specific, cultivated style. It's a beurocratic style, presumably used in innumerable white papers, press releases, interagency memoranda. It's not a personal style nor reflective of a lack of education. It's an established language, designed for a certain level of abstraction & obfuscation.
Claire, can we go w "CosGlo" or something? This leads to calling sensible things "cosglogian" -> "the cosglogian view" (not sure yet if the "g" should be hard or soft). But I can see it in Webster's in a few years. The full team name is supercalafragalistic and all...so many syllables.
A decent development today re: official attribution of the provenance of The Hack.
https://twitter.com/peterbakernyt/status/1340320022527414272?s=20
Peter Baker @peterbakernyt
Pompeo says it is clear that Russia was behind the widespread hacking of US government systems, becoming the first member of the Trump administration to publicly link the Kremlin to the cyberattack.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/us/pompeo-says-russia-was-behind-cyberattack-on-us.html
I can't believe I have forgotten over the past 48 hours now that the Cosmopolitan Globalist has been launches to mention I have been working on an article for a while now discussing the advocacy work I have been involved with relating to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act for the last 10 years. I remembered to bring this up as it dawned on me that Toomas Hendrik Ilves criticized FATCA in a media appearance last week which makes him the highest level foreign official to criticize FATCA.
FATCA is too often discussed as a "tax" story when it is more geopolitical and rule of story. For example right now there are US citizens are not tax compliant with US tax law living in France(who are compliant with French tax law) who think what Russia did to the US today was a good thing not a bad thing and France should be standing with Russia against the US and the US basically deserves this because of FATCA(And would not have felt this way prior to FATCA). Thus my surprise to see Toomas criticize FATCA as it is generally perceived in Washington on Capitol Hill that to be anti FATCA is to be anti American and vice versa and Toomas is definitely not anti American.
I'm sure you can imagine that my sympathy with these US citizens is not vast. I've somehow managed to comply with French tax laws *and* FATCA *while* criticizing FATCA *and* while refraining from being both a traitor and an idiot. It's not that hard.
Well through my work I have come to the conclusion that about 90 to 95 percent of US citizens abroad are not complying with FATCA and even those who think they are complying in fact would not withstand a full IRS audit. So there is a massive amount of lawbreaking. The crowd though if you want to meet "real" radicals are the so called Accidental Americans these are people who technically were born in the US and thus US citizens but left the US as toddlers and thus have identified as French there entire lives. I call those who can't be traitors as to be traitor you have to have once believed in something and these people never did vis a vis the US.
What is interesting in my experience is that the more "treasonous" stories are sometimes the most compelling but most divisive. I don't want to mention names but many of you might call the more defense and military minded members of Congress i.e. those who see Russia is enemy number 1 are actually fairly open to getting of FATCA if it it could bring these more "treasonous" elements back onside and that Putin is the "real" enemy not tax evaders in Paris and the French Rivera. Other more domestically oriented members of Congress much more in tune with the domestic US sentiments that led to the enactments of FATCA think this is blackmail and hostage taking.
Not to get to into the dynamics of the "anti FATCA crowd" but this video below of the In Lieu of Fun youtube show(where Toomas is a longtime contributor and in fact the same show where he made his own anti FATCA comments on) from earlier today is a classic example in the minds of certain anti FATCA-ites I deal with in France of why they hate Washington, DC. Which is that the story of the "hack" according to people like Ms. Eoyang is not the negligence of the US govt and US Congress(including people like Congresswoman Eshoo) but instead criminal violation, rule of law violations, sealed indictments, and need to uphold justice etc. and that the solution to the hack is to "entice" the Russian hackers to the French Rivera then use the French Police do America's dirty work through the US French extradition. In particular the US should NOT escalate in militaristic fashion as that is what Putin wants instead stay towards true blue American values like justice for all which is America's strength. From the perspective of the Franco-Americans I who work who are anti FATCA radicals most would say that France should "screw" or "fuck over" the US and refuse to help the US with the "hack" to get back at people like Congresswoman Eshoo and her aide Ms. Eoyang who supported FATCA and anyways if these Russia hackers were so good why weren't they able to hack into the French govt computer systems that control the "Force de Frappe" which is far more important to them personally than the US nuclear deterrent. Remember these are often people who spent much of there lives in the US but now post 2010 post FATCA want to now "hurt" America.
I will discus in my article what the response has been when I bring up these arguments in Washington, DC.
https://youtu.be/RC_AC7fnoGE?t=2135
My theory:
This is a specific, cultivated style. It's a beurocratic style, presumably used in innumerable white papers, press releases, interagency memoranda. It's not a personal style nor reflective of a lack of education. It's an established language, designed for a certain level of abstraction & obfuscation.
Claire, can we go w "CosGlo" or something? This leads to calling sensible things "cosglogian" -> "the cosglogian view" (not sure yet if the "g" should be hard or soft). But I can see it in Webster's in a few years. The full team name is supercalafragalistic and all...so many syllables.
Well, now that you have penetrated the terrible, passive-voice Latinate prose and told me what they’re really saying, I’m terrified.
Also enjoyed the cameo from President Toomas Ilves. We can trust him when says “crap your pants”. Nice
Ha! Excellent!