Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable

Poetry is the power of defining the indefinable in terms of the unforgettable

Democracy is good. I say this because other systems are worse.

"Yammer of Naked Conversation fame was intended to be an ever-evolving, open, public space dedicated to the expression of democracy,"
The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness

We have no democracy in the most important area of our lives ... work.

“If they’re killing people for poetry, that means they honor and esteem it, they fear it, that means poetry is power”... Poetry   

National Poetry Day 2019: 28 of the most powerful lines ever written Independent. Readers please provide your picks! Some of the ones here weren’t that strong, IMHO. What about Blake, Robert Lowell, Seamus Heaney? The Ezra Powell choice strikes me as odd. And what about the thumpy but effective Charge of the Light Brigade?

The ATO is organising Stay Smart Online week to avoid cybercrime from 7 to 13 October

Judge blasts Cranston prosecutors over $100 million tax evasion case

The case against Adam and Lauren Cranston, the children of a former Tax Office deputy commissioner, is languishing in the Supreme Court without a trial date.

Marjorie Kornhauser (Tulane), American Voices in a Changing Democracy: Women, Lobbying, and Tax 1924-1936:

• Part 2: Lobbying & Taxation 1924 – 1936
• Part 3: Women & Lobbying 1924 – 1936 
• Part 4: Women's Tax Lobbying 1924 – 1936
• Part 5: Conservative Women’s Groups & Tax Lobbying 1924-1936
• Part 6: Cathrine Curtis and Her 1934 – 1936 Tax Campaign

Billionaire Con Makris applauds hiring Chris Pyne as land tax lobbyist - article on property developer Con Makris' criticisms against the proposed SA land tax changes

IRS: Sorry, but It’s Just Easier and Cheaper to Audit the Poor ProPublica

Will a wealth tax be crippled by avoidance schemes? The Week Gives a more detailed summary of the Summers/Sarin piece in the Washington Post than I did, and also includes a rebuttal by Zucman and Saez that I chose not to dignify…their claim that the rich hold only 20% of their wealth in private businesses. That is a completely made up number. There is absolutely no way to know. As I pointed out, little old moi has had multiple clients who were WAY above the threshold for inclusion in the Forbes 400 (domestic or int’l) and weren’t because their holdings were mainly in real estate or private companies. And keep in mind I have a microscopically small data set.

Wealth Identity Politics: Billionaires Acting Like A Persecuted Minority Is Peak Capitalism Caitlin Johnstone (UserFriendly). The coincidence of Schwarzman saying maybe Bernie Sanders shouldn’t exist and Sanders angina is creepy.

Here’s how much things have changed for women-owned businesses since the ’80s (and how far we have to go), by the numbers Business Insider (Kevin W). Some eye-opening factoids.

I Worked at Capital One for Five Years. This Is How We Justified Piling Debt on Poor Customers. New Republic

Catapult | I Spent Years Searching for Magic—I Found God Instead | Tara Isabella Burton

The Atlantic – “…Google calls a “knowledge panel,” a collection of definitive-seeming information (dates, names, biographical details, net worths) that appears when you Google someone or something famous. Seven years after their introduction, in 2012, knowledge panels are essential internet infrastructure: 62 percent of mobile searches in June 2019 were no-click, according to the research firm Jumpshot, meaning that many people are in the habit of searching; looking at the knowledge panel, related featured snippets, or top links; and then exiting the search [emphasis added]. A 2019 survey conducted by the search marketing agency Path Interactive found that people ages 13 to 21 were twice as likely as respondents over 50 to consider their search complete once they’d viewed a knowledge panel….when every square inch of the internet is contested terrain, Google results have become an unlikely site for the spread of misinformation: Some knowledge panels, and related featured snippets, cite information posted in bad faith, and in so doing, magnify false and hateful rhetoric

PREMIUM Cans of worms and what the Auditor-General is thinking of digging up next. The hints are there for the taking

THE OBSERVER: Every year around tax time a flurry of stories erupts in the media about what dodgy claims the ATO will focus on, along with cautionary tales of what not to (over)claim on your tax return lest you be subject to the scary prospect of an audit or worse.

• An unthinkable crime. A ground-breaking surgery. Lives lost and a life saved. All this is an amazing piece by Gene Weingarten in The Washington Post Magazine. This is elite-level journalism that you absolutely must read.
• Is it worth it? The Cut’s Irin Carmon and Amelia Schonbek, with additional reporting from Sarah Jones, on what it’s like after a survivor comes forward about sexual assault and harassment.
• Esquire picks HBO’s 15 best documentaries of all-time. In the meantime, The Athletic’s Richard Deitsch writes that tonight’s HBO documentary “Diego Maradona,” about the soccer legend, is the best sports documentary of 2019. (Note: The Athletic has a paywall.)
• Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan and CNN media analyst Brian Stelter talk about how the media should be covering impeachment on WNYC’s “The Takeaway.”

3G Internet and Confidence in Government SSRN

Ethics is good for business: Fact or fluff?

 

I Gave My Cat a Fitness Tracker and the Results Were Worrying Vice

 

Great policy successes Mallory E. Compton & Paul ‘t Hart A space for a less relentlessly negative view of our pivotal public institutions, as told by sympathetic observers.

The failure of foresight Richard Hames, via LinkedIn Uncertainty, volatility, ambiguity and complexity prevail. But have you wondered why? Really considered why?