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Thursday, January 28, 2021

National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Impact of COVID-19 and IRS Funding Needs

 “If I'm a lousy writer, then an awful lot of people have lousy taste.”
Grace Metalious 

 

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

~ Michael Jordan - the surname sounds familiar ....


Hacker Leaks Data of 2.28 Million Dating Site Users ZDNet



 

A Rightful Place, from colonisation to reconciliation

In the lead up to Survival Day this year, three key reports have been released, the interim Report to the Australian Government by the Indigenous Co-Design team on the Voice; the Human Rights Watch World Report for 2021; and the 2021 State of Reconciliation in Australia Report released last week by Reconciliation Australia. Continue reading 

Posted in Indigenous affairsTop 5 | 1 Comment

Invasion Day: we didn’t get the day or date right

Writing to the Sydney Morning Herald Letters Editor, John Carmody discusses how we haven’t chosen the right day to celebrate the colonisation of Australia. So much for not changing our history. Continue reading 

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments

‘Australians all let us forget that we are not all free’

Until recently, Australia Day for most was just a long weekend to do nothing. I yearn for such a return. Who wants immigration ministers feeling they can decide what we should wear, and what we should be doing? That official bossiness is a precursor to a national security state and social exclusion.Continue reading 

Posted in Indigenous affairs | 3 Comments

Bushfire Rorts: Coalition targets bushfire recovery funds for Coalition seats

Federal and state funds for bushfire recovery have been heavily skewed in favour of state Coalition seats with NSW State Labor picking up just 1% of $177 million handed out. The devastated Blue Mountains electorate, with a Labor MP, received nothing. 

Continue reading 

Posted in Politics | 9 Comments

Greg Sheridan: Principles, privilege and punditry

The Australian newspaper’s foreign affairs editor Greg Sheridan epitomises the capacity columnists have to promote ideological agendas – even ones that are seemingly at odds with their professed values and beliefs. They are hardly conservative.

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Posted in Politics | 11 Comments

Australia’s ‘exceptional’ human rights record

Leaders who consider their country exceptional are less likely to acknowledge any shortcomings. In light of recent criticism of Australia’s human rights record, will our leaders feel so ashamed of being labelled exceptional that they will look to implement standards of common decency considered central to a fair-go culture?Continue reading 

Posted in Human Rights | Tagged  | 1 Comment

Some want voter suppression in Australia

While many of us in Australia are impressed with the state of our nation, especially when we compare it with our rich and powerful ally, the USA, we should not get too smug, with plenty of warning signs of some really bad American ideas about to be imported. Continue reading 

Posted in Politics | Tagged  | 4 Comments

Wiped from history books: Menzies’ plan for the Jindivik pilotless bomber to finance Woomera

Far from being duped, Prime Minister Bob Menzies and his Cabinet went to extraordinary lengths to support the development in Australia of British atomic bombs and thermonuclear components for the H bomb. Continue reading 

Posted in Defence and Security | 1 Comment

What do we really celebrate on Australia Day?

Spare a thought for Australian representatives abroad who face awkward questions about what we celebrate on our National Day. It just goes to highlight the confusion and hypocrisy about pretending it was a noble venture by heroic and benign colonisers. Continue reading 

Posted in PoliticsTop 5 | 17 Comments

Patriotic ins and outs at the Australian unity jamboree

It wouldn’t be late January if Australians were not being drawn into pointless “national conversations” about Australia Day, its occurrence on the anniversary of British settlement and the beginning of Aboriginal displacement, and what it means to be Australian. Continue reading 

Posted in Politics | 10 Comments

Fundamental purpose of superannuation is to provide adequate retirement incomes, not finance bequests

The priority for retirement incomes policy is to ensure that retirement savings are used efficiently to generate an adequate income. Until this occurs, there should be no change in the legislated increases in the compulsory superannuation guarantee contribution rate. Continue reading 

Posted in EconomyPolitics | Tagged  | 6 Comments

Morrison’s private school funding model ignores the Bank of Mum and Dad

Private schools will receive $130 billion from the Federal Government over the next eight years. It constitutes massive over-funding by taxpayers because the Government’s funding model ignores a major source of family income used to assess the financial need of private schools.  Continue reading 

Posted in Education | 2 Comments

Victors of colonial terrorism, disguised as civilised democracy, get to write the story

Just as Israel’s Independence Day and the Palestinian Nakba Day, in remembrance of deportation and deadly dispossession, have a bloody symbiosis, Australia Day/Invasion Day is celebrated or mourned according to the victors or the vanquished. Continue reading 

Posted in Indigenous affairs | 4 Comments

Survival Day 2021: What January 26 means to me

Many Australians believe that January 26 fails in its purpose. While it aims to unite, it actually divides us. Instead, the customary Indigenous theme ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’ has the potential to unify.

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Posted in Indigenous affairs | 5 Comments

Trump’s presidency embodied the raw politics of US white supremacy

Throughout America’s history, the bigotry that fueled Donald Trump’s rise to power has never been far from the surface. Trump’s departure is an opportunity for a new beginning, not only in the deeply-wounded United States, but in multiethnic societies everywhere. Continue reading 

Posted in World Affairs | 4 Comments

The Queen’s implausible denial on the Whitlam sacking (repost July 21, 2020)

It beggars belief that the Queen did not know that John Kerr was planning to sack Gough Whitlam. She may not have known the detail of the coup in progress, but she knew the substance. But like Lord Nelson she pretends she did not see anything. Nonsense.She is trying to mislead us.That is not surprising for our Head of State who lives in London.Continue reading 

Posted in Politics | 5 Comments

An ‘ugly plot’ by the ‘Democrats’ in Hong Kong

The arrest of 53 persons on January 6-7 this year in Hong Kong on suspicion of subversion has, once again, raised a frenzy of condemnation by western leaders and the media.
Continue reading 

Posted in ChinaPoliticsTop 5 | 11 Comments

Fake news abounds in the misguided war on the digital media platforms

Opposition is growing both locally and globally to media laws introduced by the Coalition Government requiring tech giants Google and Facebook to pay for displaying original news content. Why should our domestic monopolists get preference?Continue reading 

Posted in Media | 18 Comments

Sleepwalking into a fascist alliance

Those critically engaged in understanding and debating the future of Australian defence and national security strategies should pass two votes of thanks: the first is to former President Donald Trump; the second to the recent political-strategic proclamations of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.Continue reading 

Posted in Defence and Security | 22 Comments

Pompeo and Blinken are wrong: China is not committing genocide in Xinjiang

On his last day as US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo declared China’s human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region constituted “genocide” against ethnic Uighur Muslims. This outrageous declaration was the last of many that Pompeo has issued in a deliberate attempt to destroy relations with China on his way out of office. Continue reading 

Posted in China | 38 Comments

Japan’s kow-towing to US is leading to ecological destruction on a majestic reef.

 Japan, in consultation with the US, is trying to build a huge military facility for the US Marine Corps by reclaiming a large part of the wondrous, biodiverse Oura Bay. It is akin to Australia offering part of the Great Barrier Reef to the Pentagon to establish a military facility.

Continue reading 

Posted in Defence and Security | 1 Comment

Let the JobKeeper rorts roll

Where do we start when considering the $100 billion JobKeeper scheme? Should we focus on the opaque nature of the scheme in which less than 3% of JobKeeper payments have been disclosed in public company accounts and there is no way of finding out who got what and how much? Continue reading 


Danielle Dreilinger, The Secret History of Home Economics: How Trailblazing Women Harnessed the Power of Home and Changed the Way We Live.  A pathbreaking book that unearths and presents part of the “hidden” history of economics, in this case as practiced largely by women, and often black women at that.  Think of it as the science and craft of Beckerian household production but with a managerial emphasis.  If you like books on paths not taken, this one is for you.


David M. Carballo, Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain.  I never tire of books on this topic, but that should tell you something about the topic, right?  This one is written by an archaeologist, and you can think of it as unearthing the different layers of Aztec culture more effectively than most competitor books.


Avi Loeb, Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.  The Oumuamua book, by the former chair of the Harvard astronomy department.  I am not able to judge the scientific claims about comets, light refraction, travel spin, and the like, but too much of the book felt like “argument from elimination” to me.  “Well it can’t be this, and can’t be that, and thus it is likely to be…”  That works well for phenomena we understand!  But it can lead you into dangerous traps when you apply it to mysteries.  I get nervous when I read sentences like “Shmuel and I went down a logical path.”  The book is well-written and plenty clear, and can be usefully supplemented with this podcast with the author.  In any case, I find alien origin unlikely, but still see a one percent chance as more than sufficient to justify this entire line of inquiry.


Bryn Rosenfeld, The Autocratic Middle Class: How State Dependency Reduces the Demand for Democracy.  When is it the middle class that contributes to the resilience of autocracy, rather than its breakdown?  A very interesting book, highly relevant to China among other places.


IR-2021-11 (Jan. 13, 2021), National Taxpayer Advocate Delivers Annual Report to Congress; Focuses on Taxpayer Impact of COVID-19 and IRS Funding Needs:

National Taxpayer Advocate Erin M. Collins today released her 2020 Annual Report to Congress, focusing on the unprecedented challenges taxpayers faced in filing their tax returns and receiving refunds and stimulus payments during a year consumed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report also finds that a roughly 20% inflation-adjusted reduction in the IRS's budget since fiscal year (FY) 2010 has left the agency with antiquated technology and inadequate staffing levels to meet taxpayers' needs.

As part of the report, Collins released the fourth edition of the National Taxpayer Advocate's "Purple Book," a compilation of 66 legislative recommendations designed to strengthen taxpayer rights and improve tax administration.



Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, January 16, 2020 – Privacy and security issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: The evolving threat of ransomware: Beware of cyber extortion in 2021; What if opting out of data collection were easy?; How 5G and AI Are Creating an Architectural Revolution; and Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects’ alibis.

They Found a Way to Limit Big Tech’s Power: Using the Design of Bitcoin

The New York Times – “Companies inspired by the cryptocurrency are creating social networks, storing online content and hosting websites without any central authority…When YouTube and Facebook barred tens of thousands of Mr. Trump’s supporters and white supremacists this month, many flocked to alternative apps such as LBRY, Minds and Sessions. What those sites had in common was that they were also inspired by the design of Bitcoin. The twin developments were part of a growing movement by technologists, investors and everyday users to replace some of the internet’s fundamental building blocks in ways that would be harder for tech giants like Facebook and Google to control. To do so, they are increasingly focused on new technological ideas introduced by Bitcoin, which was built atop an online network designed, at the most basic level, to decentralize power. Unlike other types of digital money, Bitcoin are created and moved around not by a central bank or financial institution but by a broad and disparate network of computers. It’s similar to the way Wikipedia is edited by anyone who wants to help, rather than a single publishing house. That underlying technology is called the blockchain, a reference to the shared ledger on which all of Bitcoin’s records are kept. Companies are now finding ways to use blockchains, and similar technology inspired by it, to create social media networks, store online content and host websites without any central authority in charge. Doing so makes it much harder for any government or company to ban accounts or delete content…”

See also The New York Times – What is a Blockchain? Is It Hype? A technology based on a decentralized network may offer more control over what people do online.