iceland

William Long Testifies In Senate Nomination Hearing To Be IRS Commissioner

'The Clown Show Continues': Billy Long Out at IRS, But Probe to Persist

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden said that "my investigators have obtained alarming information pertaining to Long's conduct at the IRS that we have begun to investigate."

Less than two months after U.S. Senate Republicans confirmed Billy Long as head of the Internal Revenue Service, the scandal-plagued commissioner confirmed on Friday that he is leaving the IRS to serve as President Donald Trump's ambassador to Iceland.

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—who opposed Long's IRS nomination with the rest of the chamber's Democrats—pledged in a Friday statement that a probe of the outgoing commissioner will continue.

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billy long

internal-revenue-service

Icelandic people cheer while watching a football match

How's Iceland's 4-Day Work Week Working? 'Incredibly Well,' Study Says

"The Iceland story offers a very different vision to countries across Europe that are grappling with low productivity but trying the same old failed methods," said one researcher.

Iceland's economy grew more than all but one other rich European nation and its workers reported higher well-being, lower stress, and better work-life balance after the country reduced its standard work week from 40 to 36 hours, research published Friday affirmed.

The study—released by a pair of think tanks, London-based Autonomy Institute and Alda (Association for Sustainability and Democracy) of Reykjavík, Iceland—"offers new insight into the program of working-time reduction that has taken place in Iceland, following successful public sector trials in the country."

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labor

The Return of Whaling

The industry is on the cusp of winning a major victory over the global conservation movement that has fought for decades to bring this murderous practice to an end once and for all.

Whaling is seen as an evil of the past, memorialized in events like ritual recitations of Moby Dick. Or invented as a metaphor for the worst of humanity’s greed—the Tulkun hunts in Avatar: The Way of Water. But commercial whaling hasn’t actually stopped, it’s merely scaled back. Japan, Iceland, and Norway still engage in commercial whaling.

On May 9^th, a spokesperson for the Japanese government announced that they were intending to set a hunting quota for fin whales. A week earlier, the Kangei Maru, a brand new, state of the art whaling factory ship, was launched. It’s almost four decades since the Japanese whaling industry felt the need for a new whaling mothership, and this one’s specifications will allow whalers to butcher fin whales on it. Plus, the Kangei Maru has the range and construction to work in Antarctic waters. Coincidentally, on exactly the same day as the Kangei Maru’s launch, a scientific paper was published, presenting the results of surveys conducted in one area of the Southern Ocean. The results suggest that there are around 50,000 fin whales in just that one site.

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whales

'The Clown Show Continues': Billy Long Out at IRS, But Probe to Persist

Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden said that "my investigators have obtained alarming information pertaining to Long's conduct at the IRS that we have begun to investigate."

How's Iceland's 4-Day Work Week Working? 'Incredibly Well,' Study Says

"The Iceland story offers a very different vision to countries across Europe that are grappling with low productivity but trying the same old failed methods," said one researcher.

The Return of Whaling

The industry is on the cusp of winning a major victory over the global conservation movement that has fought for decades to bring this murderous practice to an end once and for all.

A Nonviolent Revolution, Viking-Style

Could the United States actually be home to an organized movement to deliver its people a happier, healthier, and more egalitarian future?

The Vikings used to be in bad shape

But why not make a violent revolution?

Icelanders show Americans what we could do here

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