Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Jim Chalmers Corporate Wake in Fright: Learning from neoliberalism: a Machiavellian plea for reverse engineering

Greggery: "It was the critique of someone who might know what was going on." Miller: "And the PM liked reading the SMH." Commissioner, loving this media education: "Where was the SMH in your [spectrum]?" Miller: "Leftwing." Commish: "Leftwing!"



James Chalmers


Twitter stories by JC


Treasurer Jim Chalmers has rejected as “laughable” criticism he has turned his back on the Hawke-Keating reform era in his blueprint for “values-based capitalism”. 

In this podcast Chalmers also reveals he spoke with Paul Keating while writing the essay, published in The Monthly. 

“Capitalism after the crises” looks at Australia’s future following three international crises: the GFC, the pandemic, and the current energy and inflation shock. Chalmers advocates government-private co-investment, the renovation of the Reserve Bank and the Productivity Commission, and improving the functioning of markets.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Treasurer Jim Chalmers answers critics of his ‘values-basedcapitalism



Chalmers vision: corporates wake in fright


Learning from neoliberalism: a Machiavellian plea for reverse engineering (PDF) Joanna Kusiak, Across Theory and Practice: Thinking Through Urban Research. From 2018, still germane:

The revolutionary capacities of capitalism in general, as well as its impres- sive ability to undo established orders, have been well known since at least the publication of the Communist Manifesto. However, neither capitalism nor neoliberalism (both of which are, as Berman (1982) and Harvey (2005) note, utopian in spirit) achieve their aims by means of ideological purity. On the contrary, ‘really existing neoliberalism’ is var- iegated (Peck and Theodore 2007) and, it might be added, omnivorous: it operates through co-optation. Trying to counter its power while ad- hering to the strict rules of ideological purity is like fighting an armed street gang while abiding by the principles of a martial art: we may feel more dignified than the opponent, but we also are bound to lose. Can we remain critical and yet become more street-smart?


PwC scandal: who’s guarding the guards? Nobody 


Another tax accountant advising the government runs into a little turbulence. Is this a trend?


I’m a corporate fraud investigator. You wouldn’t believe the hubris of the super-rich Guardian. 

We would, really…



The German Minister of Public Health just confirmed what scientists have been trying to tell the world about Covid.

 The Obscure New York Law That Could Dismantle Trump’s Empire


WARM UP THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD: Deepfakes: faces created by AI now look more real than genuine photos.


Two Supreme Court Cases That Could Break the Internet

The New Yorker $ – A cornerstone of life online has been that platforms are not responsible for content posted by users. What happens if that immunity goes away?: “In February, the Supreme Court will hear two cases—Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google—that could alter how the Internet is regulated, with potentially vast consequences. Both cases concern Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which grants legal immunity to Internet platforms for content posted by users. The plaintiffs in each case argue that platforms have violated federal antiterrorism statutes by allowing content to remain online. (There is a carve-out in Section 230 for content that breaks federal law.) Meanwhile, the Justices are deciding whether to hear two more cases—concerning laws in Texas and in Florida—about whether Internet providers can censor political content that they deem offensive or dangerous. The laws emerged from claims that providers were suppressing conservative voices. To talk about how these cases could change the Internet, I recently spoke by phone with Daphne Keller, who teaches at Stanford Law School and directs the program on platform regulation at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center. (Until 2015, she worked as an associate general counsel at Google.) During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed what Section 230 actually does, different approaches the Court may take in interpreting the law, and why every form of regulation by platforms comes with unintended consequences…”


Immune Harm: Who to believe? Easy Chair 

 

The Gig is Up, and It Feels Weird Ok Doomer. The deck: “The German Minister of Public Health just confirmed what scientists have been trying to tell the world about Covid.”

 

Self-injury, suicidality and eating disorder symptoms in young adults following COVID-19 lockdowns in Denmark Nature. “Our findings provide no support for the increase in self-injury, suicidality and symptoms of EDs after the lockdowns.”


The New York Times: “Your email address has become a digital bread crumb for companies to link your activity across sites. Here’s how you can limit this. When you browse the web, an increasing number of sites and apps are asking for a piece of basic information that you probably hand over without hesitation: your email address. It may seem harmless, but when you enter your email, you’re sharing a lot more than just that. I’m hoping this column, which includes some workarounds, persuades you to think twice before handing over your email address. First, it helps to know why companies want email addresses. To advertisers, web publishers and app makers, your email is important not just for contacting you. 

It acts as a digital bread crumb for companies to link your activity across sites and apps to serve you relevant ads. If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. For decades, the digital advertising industry relied on invisible trackers planted inside websites and apps to follow our activities and then serve us targeted ads. There have been sweeping changes to this system in the past few years, including Apple’s release of a software feature in 2021 allowing iPhone users to block apps from tracking them and Google’s decision to prevent websites from using cookies, which follow people’s activities across sites, in its Chrome browser by 2024. Advertisers, web publishers and app makers now try to track people through other means — and one simple method is by asking for an email address. Imagine if an employee of a brick-and-mortar store asked for your name before you entered. An email address can be even more revealing, though, because it can be linked to other data, including where you went to school, the make and model of the car you drive, and your ethnicity.

 [Note – beSpacfic uses opt-in email requests to deliver daily updates inclusive of 10 new daily links and abstracts. Since 2002 – no information is sold, repurposed or shared. My site is a solo research effort, and has been free since its founding. Readers support is much appreciated. Please help support my research using the Donate feature – much appreciated!]

For many years, the digital ad industry has compiled a profile on you based on the sites you visit on the web. Information about you used to be collected in covert ways, including the aforementioned cookies and invisible trackers planted inside apps. Now that more companies are blocking the use of those methods, new ad targeting techniques have emerged…” 

Everyone Wants Your Email Address. Think Twice Before Sharing It. The New York Times


New:

  1. Alexander von Humboldt by Dalia Nassar.
  2. Aesthetic Experience by Antonia Peacocke.
  3. Stoicism by Marion Durand, Simon Shogry, and Dirk Baltzly.

Revised:

  1. Revolution by Allen Buchanan and Alexander Motchoulski.
  2. Determinables and Determinatesby Jessica Wilson.
  3. Colonialism by Margaret Kohn and Kavita Reddy.
  4. Donald Cary Williams by Keith Campbell, James Franklin, and Douglas Ehring.

IEP      

  1. Substance by Ralph Weir.     
  2. Pseudoscience and the Determination Problem by Massimo Pigliucci.

NDPR           

  1. Analytical Essay on the Faculties of the Soul by Charles Bonnet is reviewed by John H. Zammito.
  2. Heidegger and the Problem of Phenomena by Fredrik Westerlund is reviewed by Jussi Backman.
  3. Epistemic Explanations: A Theory or Telic Normativity, and What it Explains by Ernest Sosa is reviewed by John Greco.
  4. Socrates on Self-Improvement: Knowledge, Virtue, and Happinessby Nicholas D. Smith is reviewed by Nicholas R. Baima.
  5. Hobbes and Political Contractarianism: Selected Writings by Susan Dimock, Claire Finkelstein, and Christopher W. Morris (eds.) is reviewed by Andrew I. Cohen.
  6. Thomas Aquinas on Virtue by Thomas M. Osborne, Jr. is reviewed by Rebecca K. DeYoung.
  7. Rational Deliberations: Selected Writings by David Gauthier is reviewed by Paul Hurley.
  8. An Introduction to Hegel’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion by Jon Stewart is reviewed by Reed Winegar.

1000-Word Philosophy     ∅          

Project Vox     ∅ 

Recent Philosophy Book Reviews in Non-Academic Media

  1. The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science by Bojana Mladenović is reviewed by Paul Dicken at Los Angeles Review of Books.
  2. In Praise of Failure by Costica Bradatan is reviewed at The Economist.

Open-Access Book Reviews in Academic Philosophy Journals

  1. The Right to Higher Education: A Political Theory by Christopher Martin is reviewed by Jennifer Morton in Ethics.
  2. Being You: A New Science of Consciousness by Anil Seth is reviewed by Mark Sprevak in Philosophical Psychology.

Compiled by Michael Glawson

BONUS: Or have philosophers read this comic, and then you can be pretty confident that they’re thinking (highlight afterwards):

KLG: Why Trust Science in the 21st Century? An Object Lesson


#RobodebtRC After an intense grilling of Annette Musolino: Commissioner Holmes says its “5:00pm” (indicating a possible break) “Oh sorry” , realises its 4:00pm “I was having so much fun, I thought time had moved on” 🤣👏👏👏

Stranger Twitter


How London’s property market became an inheritocracy FT


The Paper Trail: the Failure of Building Regulations Inside Housing. More on Grenfell Tower. Not unrelated to the above; see NC link here 


Murdoch Fox Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch is expected to be questioned under oath in a defamation lawsuit over his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 US presidential election.

Election technology company Dominion Voting Systems says Fox News Network amplified false claims that its machines were used to rig the election against Republican Donald Trump and in favour of his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who won the election.

Dominion is seeking $US1.6 billion ($2.3 billion) in damages.

Murdoch, 91, is the most high-profile figure to face questioning in the case.

Fox has argued it had a right to report on election-fraud allegations made by Mr Trump and his lawyers, and that Dominion’s lawsuit would stifle press freedom.

A judge rejected the network’s bid to toss the case in December 2021.



Alarie: The Rise Of The Robotic Tax Analyst


Solove, Daniel J., Data Is What Data Does: Regulating Use, Harm, and Risk Instead of Sensitive Data (January 11, 2023). Management Journal for Advanced Research, Volume-2 Issue-6, December 2022, PP. 12-15, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4322198 – 


1 big thing: Tipping fatigue Axios


Why and How Class Still Matters Jacobin

 


The Designer Economy NOEMA



Exclusive: SWIFT payments network access cut to crypto exchanges Asia Markets


Climate change is threatening Madagascar’s famous forests: Study shows how serious it is Phys.org


KLG: Why Trust Science in the 21st Century? An Object Lesson


Robots Are Treated Better’: Amazon Warehouse Workers Stage First-Ever Strike In the UK CNBC


McDonald’s, In-N-Out, and Chipotle are spending millions to block raises for their workers CNN 


Google let go of 31 massage therapists at its California offices amid mass layoffs Business Insider


Google institutional investor calls for wider cuts: 30k jobs The Register


SAP to cut nearly 3,000 Jobs, weighs Qualtrics stake sale MarketWatch


IBM Cuts 3,900 Jobs Reuters


Pay Algorithms Make Working in the Gig Economy Feel Like ‘Gambling,’ Study Says Vice


Massachusetts Bills Would Set a Minimum Wage For Rideshare Drivers Engadget


Covid was the 3rd leading cause of death in kids age 5-14!



Babiš plays on fears of war with Russia in long-shot Czech presidency bid Politico

 

Hundreds of high-ranking military officers sacked in Hungary Daily News Hungary

 

Independence is both inevitable and impossible. A possible pathway to Interdependence Bella Catalonia. I have to say that Ukraine has made me just a little sour on nationalism just now, but the ideas about citizen assemblies are interesting.


Monday, January 30, 2023

Murdoch scraps merger of Fox and News Corp after investor pushback

 Murdoch scraps merger of Fox and News Corp after investor pushback FT


Pfizer Pays To Change The Story The Lever



Santos lists new treasurer -- who says he doesn't work for the congressman Embattled Rep. George Santos' campaign appears to be left without a treasurer.


In her first major interview since stepping down from the role in September, Dame Vera Baird accused the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, of seeking a “puppet on a string” while he undermined the rights of victims with his proposed bill



The house looks like part of Long Bay Jail: Inside Guy Sebastian’s controversial seaside ‘fortress’ at heart of stoush with neighbour


The Global Zeitenwende : How to Avoid a New Cold War in a Multipolar Era Olaf Scholz, Foreign Affairs

* * *

Ukraine Russia War Latest w. Col. Doug Macgregor YouTube. guurst warns it starts to ramble after 30:00.



L6 APS6 - Pacific Gambit: Inside the Chinese Communist Party and Triad Push into Palau



PwC tax leak ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ chance for crackdown: former ATO exec

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The man who led the Tax Office’s crackdown on multinational profit shifting says revelations about the PwC tax leak offer a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity for the agency to “get rid of the drivers of tax planning” by targeting accounting firms that provide aggressive taxation advice.






There’s an anecdote from former U.S. Chief Technology Officer and Assistant to the President, Todd Park, that talks about how you can usually find the solution to a problem way down the organisational chart… not from the “important people” at the top. He refers to this person at the L6 (as in, level 6). They’re never in the crisis meetings, they’re not consulted by the L1’s or the CEO. In fact, the L1 probably doesn’t even know this person exists. But they’re the people closest to the problem, the client issue, the code, the product line. They understand the problem in detail, know what’s been tried in the past and what’s really needed to solve it.”



Pacific Gambit: Inside the Chinese Communist Party and Triad Push into Palau C

by Bernadette Carreon (OCCRP), Aubrey Belford (OCCRP), and Martin Young (OCCRP) 
12 December 2022
The tiny Pacific nation of Palau is a key hotspot in the growing rivalry between China and the West. Organized criminals with links to the Chinese Communist Party are trying to find a way in — and many in the local elite have welcomed them.