Road Map for Improvements

Booker T. Washington nailed it: “Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.”

 

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and every one should be really excellent. Because this is our life.”

― Steve Jobs 

 

Microsoft says Russians hacked its network, viewing source codehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/microsoft-russian-hackers-source-coce/2020/12/31/a9b4f7cc-4b95-11eb-839a-cf4ba7b7c48c_story.html

So the last I had read/heard was that the hackers had checks to see if it was in Microsoft (by checking IP addresses) and not activating. So I’m not sure what this means when it’s now reported that they did access files at Microsoft.

But let’s face facts, IT has off shored massively. I’m sure Microsoft has people working around the world including in Russia. If you pay people a couple of bucks a day and then give them access to your networks, why are you surprised when your networks get penetrated?

So one weekend where I worked, some engineers hired via H1B visa were found busy faxing drawings off to who knows where. Today? No faxing required! No on site access required! Progress!

NOT ONLY IS 2021 STRANGER THAN WE IMAGINED, IT IS STRANGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE

This contempt for ordinary Americans mostly persisted in changing political environments. During the Great Depression, many liberals became Communists, proclaiming themselves tribunes of a virtuous oppressed proletariat that would have an enlightened rule. For a moment, idealization of the working man, but not the middle-class striver, came into vogue.-The Snobs At The Heart of Liberalism, Michael Barone (The New York Post)

I’D SAY ANDERSON COOPER NEEDS A SPANKING, BUT HE WOULD PROBABLY ENJOY THAT:  Anderson Cooper Needs To Go Back To Snootsville

THE BILL IS COMING DUE FOR CHINA’S ‘CAPITALIST’ EXPERIMENT, WEST MUST PREPARE FOR FALLOUT:

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has re-awoken to a profound truth: Rich, secure capitalists are the natural enemies of authoritarian regimes. In a hybrid autocratic-capitalist model, capitalism is the means to generate wealth, but power is the end goal. Successful capitalists naturally begin to demand that their personal and property rights be protected from authoritarian fiat. Capital in the hands of entrepreneurs is a political resource; it poses a threat to the implementation of centralized plans.

Realizing this, the CCP has begun to assert control over the private sector by “installing . . . Party officials inside private firms” and having state-backed firms invest in private enterprises. In the absence of civil rights or an independent judiciary, “private” companies have no real independence from the government in China. Dissent and demands for civil rights are a threat to the regime and will be crushed.

Read the whole thing.

China has also installed a fair shair of “party officials inside private firms” with businesses that aren’t Chinese-owned as well:

● US companies riddled with members of Chinese Communist Party.
● Big four accounting firms employ hundreds of Chinese Communist Party members.

Flashback from November of 2019: How to Conduct Business with Chinese Companies That See a Dark Future.

UPDATE: ‘New Window Of Hope:’ Top Chinese Official Sees Improved Relations With Biden Administration.

FinCEN Notice 2020-2 to Make Virtual Currency Foreign Accounts FBAR Reportable 

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 FinCEN Notice 2020-2, here , provides (cut and pasted in full): Report of Foreign Bank a

 

Road Map for Improvements: GAO’s Transition Webpage Flags Ways to Improve Government, Save Money

“The 117th Congress and the incoming Presidential administration will be taking office in a time that presents significant challenges to the government. Today the U.S. Government Accountability Office launched a new webpage dedicated to informing incoming lawmakers and administration officials about major challenges facing the federal government, as well as possible solutions. This Presidential and Congressional Transition webpage identifies issues needing urgent attention.

The webpage includes links to a number of resources, such as GAO’s priority recommendations across government, to bring elected officials up to speed on options for improving vital government services or achieving significant savings for taxpayers.  Users can locate issues by topic and by agency, and a find-an-expert tool will connect them with GAO staff who can provide insights on specific agencies or programs. “GAO is pulling together this information and our priority recommendations so that new and returning lawmakers and Presidential appointees can tackle critical challenges facing the nation, including the coronavirus pandemic,” said Gene L. Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States and the head of GAO. “GAO has drawn on its tremendous experience examining federal programs to identify a range of pressing issues facing our nation. We believe that lawmakers and appointees will find our transition webpage helpful in prioritizing policy matters and developing oversight agendas.”

The online transition material includes GAO work on a number of national issues such as the coronavirus pandemic, federal responses to economic downturns, and race in America, and provides resources and recommendations to spur progress in addressing them.  It also highlights GAO work examining shortcomings in the federal government’s ability to meet the needs of the American people in a rapidly changing world.  This includes weaknesses in such areas as human capital management and investment in information technology.  More broadly, GAO remains concerned about the federal government’s fiscal outlook due to the growing debt and the lack of a long-term fiscal plan to help control it…”

 

We are all Veblenians now. Our understanding of the way people’s acquisitions and activities advertise their superiority—not least in an era of Facebook show-offs and Instagrammable lives—has roots in work that the economist and social theorist Thorstein Veblen published over a century ago.

 

The goal of all art is inexhaustible precision — something simple, like Melville’s whale, that gains endlessly in complexity... complexity  

 

The AALS Tax Section hosts a Zoom panel today on New Voices in Taxation at 4:15 pm ET:

This program gives junior tax scholars an opportunity to receive useful feedback on their work from senior reviewers before submitting the work for publication.

Kathleen DeLaney Thomas (North Carolina) (moderator)

Jeremy Bearer-Friend (George Washington), Taxation and the Law-and-Political-Economy Project (with Ari Glogower (Ohio State), Ariel Jurow Kleiman (San Diego) & Clinton Wallace (South Carolina)
Commentator:  Ajay Mehrotra (American Bar Foundation & Northwestern)

Jonathan Choi (Minnesota), Legal Analysis, Policy Analysis, and the Price of Deference: An Empirical Study of Mayo and Chevron
Commentator, Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina)

Hayes Holderness (Richmond), Insidious Regulatory Taxes
Commentator:  Beth Colgan (UCLA)

Orli Oren-Kolbinger (Villanova), Error Costs of Marriage