The Great 2012 Flag Flap: Caymans Or Bermuda, It’s Still About the Tax Returns

There’s been some debate over whether the flag being flown on one of the yachts that hosted a private party for Romney donors is that of the Cayman Islands, or Bermuda.  From everything I’ve seen, including a better photo of the boat by the AP, it sure looks like a Cayman Islands flag to me; and while the particular tax haven represented on the flag is not the real issue here, I’ll give you what I found on the flags:

Here’s Brian Ross’s article picture:

Here’s the AP picture of the boat:

Here are pictures of the 2 versions of the Cayman Islands  “Red Ensign”:

Red Ensign/No Disc

(a smaller version can be found on the UK page for the Cayman Islands)

Red Ensign/w disc

According to World Flag Database,

“In 1999 the Ministry of Defense decided to increase the size of the badges and to remove the white discs from blue and red ensigns… The older versions, with white discs, are still in official use.”

These are the flags of Bermuda:

National Flag

(a smaller version can be found on the UK page for Bermuda)

Government Ensign

Two obvious difference in these flags are: 1) Bermuda’s “Badge” is within the shape of a shield, while the Cayman Islands’ is inside a circle. You can clearly see that the flag on the boat in question displays a badge inside a circle. 2) The green at the top of the flag’s badge on the boat is consistent with the Cayman Islands’ turtle, not the red lion of Bermuda. I’m just sayin…

It is still disrespectful to the American people to arrogantly fly the flag of a tax haven at the GOP convention, when Mitt Romney’s taxes are such an issue; and they are still an issue.

What difference does it really make if your candidate for President cheats on his taxes in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands? As Vanity Fair reported:

“…there is a Bermuda-based entity called Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd., which has been described in securities filings as “a Bermuda corporation wholly owned by W. Mitt Romney.

Romney failed to list this entity on several financial disclosures, even though such a closely held entity would not qualify as an “excepted investment fund” that would not need to be on his disclosure forms. He finally included it on his 2010 tax return.

…investments in tax havens such as Bermuda raise many questions, because they are in “jurisdictions where there is virtually no tax and virtually no compliance,” as one Miami-based offshore lawyer put it.”

Instead of demanding their candidate disclose his tax returns, the GOP lemmings are doing a happy dance over a flag possibly being misidentified; a dance that might have been a bit premature.

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