Dark web detectives and cannabis sommeliers: Here are some jobs that could exist in the future

• A black activist convinces a neo-Nazi that he can help with mounting legal troubles. That’s just the beginning of his cunning plan. A can’t-read-it-fast-enough piece from the Washington Post’s Katie Mettler.
• Welcome to “Cancer Alley.” ProPublica’s Lylla Younes and Times-Picayune and The Advocate’s Tristan Baurick and Joan Meiners write about neighborhoods in jeopardy because of new industrial plants that will increase concentrations of cancer-causing chemicals.
• Too many news organizations made too big of a deal over the NCAA’s announcing that student-athletes can profit from their name, image and likeness. As Jemele Hill writes for The Atlantic, the details are vague and “who knows whether (Tuesday’s) vote is truly a turning point for the NCAA — or just an attempt to head off more far-reaching reforms?”
• And, finally, we end where we started this newsletter. The Washington Nationals won the World Series, so here’s perspective from legendary Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell, one of the best baseball writers who has ever lived. He rises to the occasion with this truly poetic column — on deadline, no less.

The internet was 50 years old few days ago. "In a notebook entry for '29 Oct 69' we can see a particularly important notation at 22:30 (10:30 pm): 'Talked to SRI, Host to Host.'"

What is fingerprinting? The online tracking you can't avoid

Just when you thought we had hit rock bottom on all the ways the internet could snoop on us - no. We've sunk even lower.

Meet Erika the Red: Viking women were warriors too, say scientists Guardian

Rattlesnakes have had a busy year. Same for the people who catch them for a living LA Times

We're not dragons in pearls, say librarians, we're just ...

Librarians have poured their hearts out to a parliamentary committee, ... June Wall, treasurer of the Australian School Library Association.

Australia wants to use face recognition for porn age verification.


Wall Street Journal, Trying to Control Your Heirs’ Behavior From the Grave Often Backfires:

It’s hard enough to influence people’s behavior when you’re alive. After you’re dead? You may be inviting trouble.

Death is inevitable, but life can be unpredictable. And that’s a key reason why many estate-planning advisers discourage so-called dead-hand control.

Dead-hand control describes a situation where people try to control their heirs’ behavior from the grave. It typically involves incentive wills and conditional trusts that tie inheritance or trust disbursements to beneficiaries achieving certain goals. They can include things like graduating from college and taking a certain career path; staying sober or marrying within the family’s faith.

 Caitlin Johnstone Dark web detectives and cannabis sommeliers: Here are some jobs that could exist in the future


Tim Berners-Lee warns internet’s power for good is ‘under threat’ The Bolton News

THIS JUST IN: CLASSICAL LIBERALS* ARE CLASSICAL LIBERALS. The Intellectual Dark Web is more liberal than you’d think.

The issue that commands the most consensus, not surprisingly, is free speech, with 89 percent of us agreeing it should always be allowed and 83 percent believing ‘people should be allowed to say and believe whatever they want, even if others think those words or beliefs are hurtful’. We’re also very respectful towards those who disagree with us, which is what you’d expect from a group committed to viewpoint diversity. More than half the respondents said they had a high tolerance for members of the political party opposite to them and wouldn’t mind if one of their children was going out with someone with diametrically opposed views.
What struck me on reading this is that most of us hold opinions that 70 years ago would have placed us to the left of the Overton window and 20 years ago would have put us squarely in the middle. But the shift to the left among the educated intelligentsia has accelerated so significantly in the past 10 years that it’s now commonplace to describe a group of ‘moderate secular liberals’ (Michael Shermer’s phrase) as ‘alt-right’ extremists.

Which dovetails well with the “America’s Delusional Elite Is Done” essay in the American Mind we linked to yesterday:

OECD reform is weak on corporate tax havens, harsh on poorer countries

Highly anticipated OECD proposals will intensify global inequalities and fail to curb rampant tax abuse, our new analysis reveals

 

Ellen P. Aprill (Loyola-L.A.), A Tax Lesson for Election Law, 164 Tax Notes 2259 (Sept. 30, 2019):

This short article analyzes the complicated role that tax law plays in regulating campaign finance, using a request from the Price for Congress Committee as a case study. The Price Committee asked the Federal Election Commission for an Advisory Opinion approving transfer of its remaining campaign funds to a section 501(c)(4) social welfare organization. The piece first describes applicable campaign finance law and the FEC proceedings that ended in a deadlock. It next considers the advantages of transferring remaining campaign funds to a section 501(c)(4) organizations instead of a section 501(c)(3) charity. It cautions, however, that a transfer to a section 501(c)(4) could result in adverse tax consequences to the former candidate under section 527. This analysis exposes uncertainties in both federal election and tax law.

Mainstream Journalists Who Refuse To Defend Dissident Journalists Are Worshippers Of Power Caitlin Johnstone