People sometimes say to you, ‘Well, are you trying to make people think?’ I say, ‘No, no. That would be the kiss of death. What I want to do is to let them know I’M thinking’.
-George Carlin
Arts Audiences In Australia Are Coming Back, Even As COVID Cases Rise Again
Joint Tax Committee: Overview Of The Federal Tax System
Ottessa Moshfegh “has dedicated her career to writing about assholes: cruel, pathetic people who do cruel, pathetic things” Ottessa Moshfegh
Does success make us miserable? Freud thought so. Modern science begs to differ Freud Of Success
Current and former employees describe culture of fear at KPMG Lower Gulf
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, July 3, 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: Vendors prep for new cyber rules of the road; USPS: It’s Up to Mailers to Comply With State Laws on Abortion Pills; Facial Recognition Technology: Federal Agencies’ Use and Related Privacy Protections; and Google Asks for Permission to Flood Inboxes With Campaign Spam.
2022 Edition – A Democracy Crisis In The Making
This report is a partnership between the States United Democracy Center, Law Forward and Protect Democracy: “…We issued our first Report less than four months after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, itself a violent attempt to subvert the voters’ choice. In that Report, we identified 148 bills that had been filed that would allow state legislatures to politicize, criminalize, or interfere with elections. Today, at roughly the same point in the calendar year, legislatures in 33 states are considering 229 bills that do the same—175 introduced in this calendar year alone and 54 that rolled over from the last calendar year. A total of 50 bills have been enacted or adopted, 32 last year and 18 thus far this year…”
See also Washington Post: “…The court will likely validate in some form the “independent state legislature” theory, which could expand the power of state legislatures over elections in radically anti-democratic ways….The case, Moore v. Harper, concerns whether the North Carolina state legislature is precluded from executing an extreme partisan gerrymander by state courts’ interpretation of the state constitution. If the Supreme Court rules in the legislature’s favor, the court could endorse some version of the theory, which holds that state legislatures have near-plenary control over election rules. This is supposedly grounded in “originalist” readings of the Constitution. But recent scholarship has debunked this, documenting that founding-era understandings gave a central role to state constitutions and courts in overseeing states’ setting of election rules…”
A 4th Of July Reminder: 'This Land Was Made For You And Me'
Cyber security, digital health also top of mind.
Australia’s national auditor will again consider an audit of the federal government’s digital identity system after a proposed review of the the $600 million-plus project failed to get up last year.
The Australian National Audit Office released its work plan for 2022-23 this week, singling out the scheme, as well as the country’s digital health system, for potential review over the coming 12 months.
Auditor re-sets sights on Australia's digital ID scheme