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Tuesday, June 14, 2022

IRS Dangles Telework to Lure New Recruits to Beleaguered Agency

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Commissioner Brenda Lucki says the borderless nature of crime has been particularly evident through the emergence of the dark web and cyber crime.

“People can communicate, they don’t look at the traditional sense where an offender was in a location and committed a crime in a location. That is not the case anymore,” she said.

‘Borderless crime’ evident through dark web and cyber crime | Sky News Australia

Another interesting dynamic is the rise of the independents. An adage attributed to Aristotle, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts”, is apt here. An independent may represent only one vote, but the collective voice of a bloc of independents can shift the whole narrative and instil a sense of change.

The new member for Curtin, Western Australia, Kate Chaney, says:

“The major parties shy away from discussions about tax and debt. Our tax system is complex and requires reform so it is fit for purpose, looking ahead to the social and demographic changes of the next decade. This requires deep thinking about major issues including our national debt, housing affordability, and the impact of an aging population, and how we address these issues for our children’s generation.”

The new member for Wentworth, NSW, Allegra Spender, seeks to:

Reform our tax system, starting with a parliamentary review that reports back before the 2023 budget.

The tax leftovers Labor must digest


$3,374,629,000,000: Federal Tax Collections Set Record Through May


Bloomberg, IRS Dangles Telework to Lure New Recruits to Beleaguered Agency


The IRS is in the midst of a return-to-office effort that will offer many employees the option to telework some or most of the time, something agency officials and union leaders view as an asset in recruiting.

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the agency to close its offices for several months in 2020. While employees tasked with processing paper tax returns and other documents have been working in-person for the last two years, many other employees have continued to work remotely.

The IRS is taking a phased approach to bringing everyone back to the office, which started in late April with members of leadership coming in at least once per pay period. As of May 8, employees without formal telework agreements were required to return to the office, and other employees could do so voluntarily.


Labor government urged to drop prosecutions against whistleblowers and ramp up protections



Anatomy of a controversy: Inside the drama at The Washington Post

The controversy currently swirling around The Washington Post doesn’t go back days. It goes back years.


Wall Street Journal Essay:  Why Most Pastors Avoid Politics, by Ryan Burge (Baptist Pastor; Author, Twenty Myths About Religion and Politics in America (2022); and Assistant Professor of Political Science, Eastern Illinois University):

Rev. [Greg] Locke and Robert Jeffress ... are often raised up by critics as examples of how American Christianity has become overtly political, sparking a movement on social media to revoke the tax-exempt status of all U.S. churches.


Former Trump campaign manager to testify at ‘Big Lie’ hearing Reuters

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, June 4, 2022: Privacy and cybersecurity 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 online security, often without our situational awareness. Four highlights from this week: A Face Search Engine Anyone Can Use Is Alarmingly Accurate; Cybercriminals target metaverse investors with phishing scams; Tech Experts Urge Congress to Fight Crypto Influence; and Cybersecurity Initiative to Give Consumers New Digital Security Tools.


The Pope of Russell Square | Commonweal Magazine

The idea of poetic impersonality is closely related to Eliot’s self-declared classicism. The classic in Eliot’s view is not in the first place the work of an individual genius. It is rather a piece of literary art that is resonant of a specific civilization—one whose language gives voice to a particular culture and history at the peak of its maturity. The unique genius that produces it is not that of an individual author but the spirit of a particular age and a particular people. Virgil’s greatness springs from his place in the history of the Roman Empire, as well as in the evolution of the Latin language. The classical work brings a national language to a point of perfection, and its ability to do so, ironically, is what makes its appeal so universal.


The history of wiretapping shows Americans’ shifting views on surveillance. Their chief reaction now is  indifference 


In response to Mr Gould’s application to stay the decision, the TPB tended evidence in relation to an ATO investigation named Operation Rubix, which expressed that it was “concerned with the use of multi-layered offshore structures based in the UK, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Samoa and elsewhere by Mr Gould, his associates and clients of his former accounting firm, Gould Ralph, to avoid Australian taxation and to accumulate wealth offshore”.

The AAT referred to the Federal Court decision in Hua Wang which pointed to “sustained, calculated and layered dishonesty”, including describing Mr Gould’s conduct as “disgraceful”.

TPB v Gould