When Will The Riots Begin? Time for a “Love Actually” moment

The signature of authoritarianism is not the use of force, but the pathological dependence on deception, often to the extent of becoming self-delusional.”

– Tom G Palmer and Simon Lee



Australia’s “JobKeeper” Scheme Falls Short by Design Jacobin

Where Is God In A Pandemic?

Defining Who Is An Employee After A.B.5: Trading Uniformity and Simplicity for Expanded Coverage, 70  Cath. U. L. Rev. 473 (2020

Stephanie Hunter McMahon (Cincinnati), The Tax Law System is Only Incomprehensible to Some(reviewing Wendy Wagner (Texas) & Will Walker, Incomprehensible!: A Study of How Our Legal System Encourages Incomprehensibility, Why It Matters, and What We Can Do About It(Cambridge University Press 2019):

Journalists often remark that income tax rules are incomprehensible and that taxpayers cannot understand the law or the explanatory guidance created by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In her recent book with Will Walker, Incomprehensible!, Wendy Wagnerdevelops a rubric to evaluate the process by which the law and agency action become incomprehensible.

Unfortunately, applying that rubric to the federal tax system is difficult because of the system’s multiple speakers and audiences. Attempting to fit this system within the rubric, however, highlights how federal tax rules’ incomprehensibility depends upon how one defines the relevant audience, a task the government has yet to undertake. ...

BRUCE HAIGH. A Wake-Up Call

With the world in the grip of the Covid19 virus, there are lessons to be learnt and changes to consider. The pandemic has brought nations together who were eschewing the value of international co-operation. It has highlighted the need for reform. Continue reading →

The Coronavirus New Normal Has Only Started To Arrive

Why we aren’t even at the end of the beginning of coronavirus-induced change

When Will The Riots Begin?

Marise Payne condemns Beijing's actions in the South China Sea

Recovery tsar eyes gas, tax and skills to get economy up and running

The company responsible for delivering traffic reports on radio and TV stations across Australia accidentally sent out the dates of birth, names and home addresses of more than 100 current and former staff to potentially thousands of people as the company seeks to apply for the jobkeeper payments.
Australian Traffic Network provides short traffic report updates during news bulletins to 80 radio and television stations, including the ABC, Seven, Nine, 10, 2GB and Triple M.
Email bungle at company seeking jobkeeper payments exposes staff's personal details ...

The Best Scholarly Books of the DecadeChronicle of Higher Education.I’ve read none of these – but I will order some of them from my bookseller. And I confess that even though I am a voracious reader, I’ve been too distracted by the ongoing calamity to finish many books. Keeping up with the day’s news is taking up my all my time and my mental energy

OWEN BARDER. Time for a “Love Actually” moment

Posted on 17 April 2020 by John Menadue

There is a precedent. One of George W. Bush’s first acts as president in 2006 was to reinstate the “global gag rule” which withdrew US aid from organisations that counsel women about abortions or to advocate for liberalized abortion laws in their countries. In response, the UK Government offered to make up the funding to any organisation that lost out from George Bush’s political grandstanding. As a Brit, I was so proud.Continue reading →

iFixit: “Isopropyl alcohol is having a moment. Not an uplifting celebration, unfortunately. It’s more of a panicked where-can-I-find-it, is-this-the-same-stuff moment. Isopropyl alcohol is a disinfectant at its higher percentages, and you can use it to make homemade hand sanitizer. As such, there’s a shortage, and recent prices are triple what they were a month ago. Given the trickier supply and uncertainty, we want to help where we can. We know, rely on, and recommend isopropyl alcohol (a.k.a. isopropanol, or IPA) for many of our techniques and guides. It’s pretty simple stuff, but it is sold in different ways, and recommended for a myriad of uses. Understandably, people have questions. Is “rubbing alcohol” or “surgical spirit” the same thing? What percentage of isopropyl do I need for electronics work or disinfecting? Can I use anything else on my electronics? And, hey, is this stuff going to catch on fire if I cause a spark? Let’s clean up these questions

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time. Does it come with a bearded Spock?

Thank god for the internet. “I was 12 the first time I logged onto whatever was called the internet then. There were no websites to speak of, not really. No ecommerce, no banner ads, no data tracking, no spyware. iPhones hadn’t been invented yet; we called apps ‘programs’; and I had an EGA monitor on my PC (a whole 16 colors of range). But the first time I telnetted into a chatroom about raves, made new friends in Australia, or downloaded files to load into a music tracker, I felt the same elation that I feel now. This force, propelled by people, connected by copper and light, letting us make new connections. Connections we need now more than ever.”

JOHN DANIEL DAVIDSON: The Coronavirus Is Exposing Little Tyrants All Over The Country. “We’ve now witnessed local and state governments issue decrees about what people can and cannot buy in stores, arrest parents playing with their children in public parks, yank people off public buses at random, remove basketball rims along with private property, ticket churchgoers, and in one case try—and fail—to chase down a lone runner on an empty beach. All of this, we’re told, is for our own good.”