Bluesky was right all 🦋 along and will accept your apology any time - Is This a New Era of Class Warfare?

"The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.” -Marcus Aurelius "Meditations"

Bluesky was right all along and will accept your apology any time

Many savvy pundits on X framed the 2024 election as a massive political realignment and Bluesky as a “copium” den for progressives in a bubble. Boy, were they wrong.

"After World War II, regular increases in the minimum wage, the expansion of health insurance and pensions, tax policies that reduced extreme inequality and public investment in higher education all added up to an economy more responsive to the needs of working-class people."

Is This a New Era of Class Warfare?

‘Six unelected people now control the Western world’: Analyst sounds the alarm on data centres

 I don't want to give you my phone number when I buy something. I don't want to give you my e-mail address to read something. And I don't want refrigerators connected to the Internet.

Australia nears 'point of no return' as council cameras plan to track millions of people

Increased monitoring has sparked concern among privacy experts who say the rapidly advancing technology is 'deeply concerning'.

It’s Hard To Be A Rich Radical. “It was disappointing how easily money turned a lot of them into sudden conservatives, full of right-wing doctrine about bootstraps and the fantasy of a black capitalist utopia…”

 I made a small tweak to Prometheus (gift link discovery site) that kinda kicks ass: NYT Cooking is now a separate source (which you can filter by). The Rigatoni With White Bolognese recipe is a favorite of mine. 🤌

Trump and MAGA expect mercy 

 FIRST ELON, THEN YOU: “If the Democrats are willing to pick this type of fight with someone like Musk, why would they show mercy to any of the rest of us?”

Sniffing out the link between odor and disease. So we’ll have machines to do it.

My old doctor, now retired, complained that most people now take a pulse with a pulse oximeter, which just gives you a number for beats per minute. Taking a pulse manually gave you a lot more than a number: Was it bounding, thready, steady or irregular, etc. Useful information was lost in exchange for the convenience of sticking a small gadget on someone’s finger.

Star Wars: The Radio Drama

 The function of a friend is not to have a function. 

~Detlef Cordes

Star Wars: The Radio Drama

Somehow I’d never heard of this before: NPR produced and aired radio dramatizations of the films in the original Star Wars trilogy. The first program was particularly popular, garnering NPR hundreds of thousands of new listeners. The original versions are available in full on The Internet Archive:

• Star Wars: A New Hope (1981)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back(1983)
• Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi (1996)

Or get all three parts ripped from the CD.

All three programs contain elements of John Williams’ original soundtrack. Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels reprised their movie roles for the first two radio programs and some other bold-faced names made appearances throughout: Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian, John Lithgow as Yoda (??), Ed Begley Jr. as Boba Fett (???), David Alan Grier as a nameless X-wing fighter pilot, and Nia Vardalos.

The radio programs were based on the original film scripts with some added scenes; from Open Culture:

With science-fiction novelist Brian Daley brought on to add or restore scenes to the script of the original dialogue-light feature film, the story stretches out to thirteen episodes for a total runtime of six hours. The series thus stands as an early example of the expansion of the Star Wars universe that, in all kinds of media, has continued apace ever since.

And from Wikipedia:

Daley adapted the script partly using material from earlier drafts of Lucas’s scripts, and restored several scenes cut from the final edit of the film, as well as adding original new scenes created specially for the audio version. The narrative of the first two episodes takes place entirely before the opening scene of the 1977 film, and expands the background to events leading up to the capture of the Tantive IV spacecraft above the planet Tatooine. Episode 1, largely based on cut scenes from the original, explores the life of Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. During the story, Luke’s skyhopper (a vehicle seen in the background in Luke’s garage during the film) is damaged during a desert race; Luke sees the distant Star Destroyer battle in the sky; and he is reunited with his childhood friend, Biggs Darklighter. Episode 2, made up of material written entirely by Daley, provides backstory to Princess Leia’s acquisition of the Death Star plans from agents of the Rebel Alliance on the planet Toprawa. In scenes set on the planet Alderaan, Leia discusses the plans with her father, Prestor Organa, and determines to go in search of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

There are recut fan versions of the three programs as well, including Nigel’s Edits (Hope, Empire, Jedi); he added some of Ben Burtt’s sound effects into the mix:

These versions, boldly called The Definitive Editions (Hope, Empire, Jedi), include opening scrolls and images taken from Star Wars comic books and trading cards:

Yes, that’s a script turned into a movie turned into an audio drama turned into a, uh, quasi-cinematic Powerpoint? (via open culture)

Dylan in his monastic habit - Uber to pay $81 million in payroll tax to NSW tax office, High Court rules

Dylan in his monastic habit

Pope Leo receives Bob Dylan at the Vatican

Uber to pay $81 million in payroll tax to NSW tax office, High Court rules

The states are set to receive a payroll tax windfall worth hundreds of millions of dollars after the High Court ruled Uber is liable for an $81m bill levied against it by the NSW government, in a decision likely to send shockwaves through gig economy platforms.

The High Court found there was a contract between Uber and its drivers, and that driver fares were considered "wages", making it liable to pay payroll tax.

Uber warned the court decision could have "significant unintended consequences" for other businesses.

The Transport Workers' Union said the decision was a "critical reality check to companies seeking to skirt our laws".

High Court hits Uber with $81m payroll tax in blow to gig economy

Uber must pay the state of NSW at least $81 million in payroll tax, almost 10 times its local profits last year, after the ride-share giant lost a final appeal to the High Court, in a decision that could dramatically increase the tax burden on gig economy companies.

The High Court ruled on Wednesday that the fares Uber collects on its drivers’ behalf are in fact “wages” under NSW tax law, meaning payroll tax applies. Uber is therefore on the hook for the full $81.5 million in payroll tax that NSW authorities have ordered it to pay, on fares the company collected between 2015 and 2020.

Uber has lost a landmark legal battle over payroll tax in Australia. AP

That figure is almost 10 times the $8.7 million Uber posted in net Australian profits for 2025, and dwarfs even the record $21.2 million profitthe company recorded in 2024. Uber’s total tax bill is likely to grow, once NSW assesses what the company owes for more recent years.

NSW Finance Minister Courtney Houssos said the government welcomed the ruling and would consider it carefully.

“Payroll tax is a key part of the state’s tax base,” Houssos said. “Only around 5 per cent of NSW businesses pay payroll tax – the majority of which comes from big businesses – and it helps fund essential services that families and households rely on.

“Local businesses pay their fair share. Uber should pay their fair share too.”

Because similar laws exist in every state and territory except Western Australia, it is possible that Uber and “gig worker” businesses like it will face a deluge of tax assessments, with revenue authorities newly empowered by the High Court ruling.

A spokeswoman for Uber said the company would respect the High Court’s decision, although it disagreed. “We do not believe digital marketplaces like Uber should be captured by payroll tax legislation designed for traditional employment and contracting arrangements.”

The company said the ruling could have “unintended consequences” and called on governments to consider whether payroll tax laws “remain fit for purpose in an economy where technology platforms connect independent service providers directly with customers”.

The legal fight leading to Wednesday’s loss began in 2021, when Uber objected to the $81.5 million in payroll tax NSW’s tax commissioner had ordered it to pay for 2015 to 2020.

Companies normally pay payroll tax on employees’ wages, but there are some sections of the law that extend payroll tax to contractors, the category that Uber drivers fall into. The NSW tax commissioner argued Uber drivers fell within these so-called “contractor provisions”, which apply where a company agrees to pay a contractor in exchange for “services” (as opposed to goods).

Uber objected to the assessment, claiming it was merely a “payment collection agent” for its drivers, and arguing that drivers were performing services to passengers, and not to Uber. It also argued that the contractor provisions were designed only for cases of true “sham contracting”, where a contractor is really an employee in disguise.

After losing in NSW’s top court, Uber made a last-ditch appeal to the High Court, which was heard in March this year.

On Wednesday, six of the seven High Court judges found that the “contractor provisions” could apply to the “gig economy”, even though they were enacted decades before ride-sharing and other gig-based business models were invented.

The provisions were “always speaking in the present to participants in the gig economy”, Chief Justice Stephen Gageler ruled.

The majority also found that drivers provide “driving services” to Uber directly, under a standard contract. The court concluded that Uber has “substantial control” over how drivers work – for example, it sets minimum standards, and can block drivers from its app – and also controls the fares it remits to drivers, making it more than a mere “payment collector”.

Mimi Zou, a UNSW professor and barrister who specialises in tax, said the judgment was “likely to affect other intermediaries operating under comparable legislation and contractual arrangements”.

“However, the decision did not decide that Uber drivers are employees generally or automatically establish entitlements under labour laws.”

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Janek Drevikovsky is the Financial Review’s legal affairs reporter. Email Janek at jdrevikovsky@nine.com.

Westpac to exit Palantir partnership

The bank will end its Palantir deal and review its sourcing safeguards as shareholder activists turn up pressure on the surveillance tech and big data company.

The Remarkable Serbian Election

I’ve been reading a bit about the recent election in Serbia and some of the details are fascinating. A student-led coalition toppled the 12-year corrupt reign of “the increasingly authoritarian leader” Aleksandar Vučić in recent elections. But in order to ensure voters and allies that this wasn’t a grab for power on the part of the students, the students ruled themselves out.

Supporters had the votes, but they needed the losing side to stay. The strict rules were a promise: to those who had opposed running, that it would not turn the movement into a party; to voters, that the list was no party in disguise.

No student may run: anyone enrolled in 2024/25, or with studies on hold, is excluded. The drafters wanted no suggestion that students were building political careers. Former members of the ruling coalition’s 20 parties are barred, and so are former officials of parliamentary opposition parties. That leaves doctors, academics, artists, former athletes and activists. Ordinary members of opposition parties were not barred, but almost none with a party past. The list is led by Ilija Srdanović, a cardiologist and professor in Novi Sad.

The result is the Student List. From a pre-election piece in the NY Times: Something Astonishing Is Happening in My Country. The World Should Take Note.

The students’ list of 250 candidates is remarkable in itself. Comprising professors, scientists, doctors, workers, actors and activists, the candidates — most of whom had been unknown to the public — were selected through a lengthy sequence of scrutiny and interviews. University faculties proposed candidates, then reviewed nominees from across the country. After discussing the options, student assemblies made their choices. Thousands participated in this decision-making process — an extraordinary experiment in bringing direct democracy into mainstream politics.

The established opposition, meanwhile, has been pushed aside, with many of its parties backing the student list. The student movement has turned the election into something like a referendum on the regime, captured in its slogan: “Serbia or the mafia.” Many assumed the students were too inexperienced or naïve for electoral politics. But with some polls putting support for the student list above 40 percent, the race appears to be tight.

The students are coming for the machine. And, astonishingly, they might win.

Super interesting, right? US electoral politics don’t work the same as Serbia’s, but I wonder if there’s a way to inject some aspect of the Student List into US elections?

See also How to Give Away a Fortune, which resonates with the Serbian movement IMO.

WA Supreme Court denies ATO right to intervene in $71 million tax dispute

WA Supreme Court denies ATO right to intervene in $71 million tax dispute 

Former controllers of two companies in liquidation are fighting to keep longstanding tax challenges alive despite liquidators’ efforts to discontinue them

Dina Kovacevic

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has refused to allow the Australian Taxation Office to intervene in proceedings concerning whether liquidators should abandon challenges to approximately $71 million in tax liabilities, ruling that the Commissioner's financial interest as a creditor was insufficient to justify participation. 

The dispute concerns GH1 Pty Ltd and MNWA Pty Ltd, two companies that have been in liquidation since April 2017. Their liquidators, Robert Kirman and William Harris of McGrathNicol, are seeking directions under section 90-15 of the Insolvency Practice Schedule confirming that they would be justified in discontinuing four proceedings before the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART). 

The proceedings, commenced between 2014 and 2016, challenge tax assessments relating to MNWA for the financial years ending 30 June 2011, 2012 and 2013, including the disallowance of deductions for interest and development expenditure. The disputed liabilities total approximately $71 million, excluding the General Interest Charge. 

No substantive steps have been taken in the ART proceedings since the liquidators' appointment in 2017. In August 2026, the Commissioner applied to have the proceedings dismissed, while the liquidators separately sought the Court's approval to bring them to an end. 

Allen Caratti and Tina Bazzo, who oppose the proposed discontinuance, subsequently obtained leave to participate in the Supreme Court proceedings and filed applications seeking authority to continue the tax challenges on behalf of the companies. Caratti andBazzo are Western Australian property developers and de facto partners who formerly controlled MNWA and GH1, respectively, and have been involved in longstanding disputes with the ATO over the tax affairs of their property development businesses. They also sought to be joined to the ART proceedings. 

The Commissioner applied for leave to be heard as an interested party in the Supreme Court proceedings, arguing that he had a direct financial interest because the disputed assessments represented debts owed by the companies and a substantial economic interest in the operation of any orders made. 

Justice Hill accepted that the Commissioner was a creditor and that the Court had the power to grant him leave to participate under rule 2.13 of the Supreme Court (Corporations) (WA) Rules 2004. However, she held that those considerations did not warrant the exercise of the Court's discretion. 

The judge distinguished between the Commissioner's commercial interest in recovering the disputed tax liabilities and the question actually before the Court, namely whether the liquidators or Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo should be authorised to control the ART proceedings. 

Justice Hill acknowledged that discontinuing the tax challenges would have a significant impact on the Commissioner's claims as an unsecured creditor, but concluded that this financial interest alone did not justify granting leave. 

The Court also found that the existing parties were capable of properly contesting the applications. The liquidators were already participating in the proceedings, and there was no suggestion that they would fail to raise relevant issues. 

Importantly, the Commissioner retained an opportunity to oppose Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo's applications to join the ART proceedings, where he was already a party. Justice Hill considered that tribunal an appropriate forum for determining objections concerning their proposed participation. 

The Court also addressed notices to produce served on the Commissioner by Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo. The notices were ineffective because the Commissioner was not a party to the Supreme Court proceedings, a position Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo ultimately accepted. 

Justice Hill dismissed the Commissioner's application for leave to be heard. The substantive applications concerning whether the tax challenges should be discontinued or pursued by Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo remain unresolved, with a hearing scheduled for 11 November 2026. 

Read the decision here. 

HWL Ebsworth Lawyers acted for the liquidators, Robert Kirman and William Harris of McGrathNicol, while Biyara Legal acted for Mr Caratti and Ms Bazzo.