Apropos of nothing, a reminder that Randy Johnson was otherworldly from age 30-41. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/j/johnsra05.shtml

Being the main character for a day on Twitter was bad, but being the main character on BlueSky results in a bunch of people with a lot of acronyms after their name just kind of shaking their head at you in disgust. Seems like it'd be a lot worse for the ole ego.

For the low low rate of $64,000 I’ll tell him he sucks and should go live in the woods and write poetry he immediate throws down a well because no one wants to read that crap either.

Philip Gourevitch@pgourevitch.bsky.social · 3d ago

"The matchmakers also puzzled over the Ivy League-educated economist who said he wants to date only women who are thin, have large breasts and are fluent in Mandarin, but who should not have any artistic hobbies or talents. He had been unable to fully articulate why." www.nytimes.com/2026/08/18/w...

I mean OK, like you wouldn’t curl up in a steamer trunk to make a trip with Eisenhower or Truman. Like you wouldn’t break your own legs to origami yourself into James Buchanan’s boot box. https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/18/politics/natalie-harp-trump-aide

Latest Recent Rulemakings Reviewed is up. Where June tilted sharply toward finalization—finals up, proposals down—July ran in the opposite direction overall. Taken together, the regulatory pipeline emptying and refilling. https://www.yalejreg.com/nc/recent-rulemakings-reviewed-july-2026/

Trump can rage post all he likes, his options for interfering with NY’s pied-à-terre tax are extremely limited. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewleahey/2026/08/18/trump-cant-stop-new-yorks-pied--terre-tax/

Trump Can’t Stop New York’s Pied-À-Terre Tax

Trump has few options to stop New York’s pied-à-terre tax, but Congress could theoretically preempt it using its power to regulate interstate commerce.

forbes.com

Just got approval from NJ for Minimum Competence’s first CLE — which also opens it up to some PA and NY attorneys. 1 credit, totally free. Future offerings will be paid. Feedback welcome. https://cle.minimumcomp.com/courses/federal-tax-research-after-loper-bright

Firms capturing gains from AI-driven labor force reductions should carry some of its social costs. But the proposed tax on AI tokens illustrates why taxing AI use is a poor proxy for taxing automation itself. news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights...

Taxing AI to Help Workers Sounds Good, But Public Deserves More

Opinion: A proposed tax on artificial intelligence tokens shows why taxing AI use is a poor proxy for taxing automation. Lawmakers should instead give the public an equity stake in the firms that capt...

news.bloombergtax.com

If doomsday cultists ever figure out they should be recruiting in DMV waiting lines, society is going to be in big trouble.

Let’s talk about the problem of going too many years with everyone telling you you’re brilliant.

Jonathon Booth@jboothhistory.bsky.social · 4d ago

yikes

An infielder with grass stains on their back is rarely a sign of a tightly played game.

Dan@danbaseballman.bsky.social · 4d ago

watching baseball

I don’t think it’s ever done intentionally, but every once in a while someone will say something like “I used to love those columns you used to write” and I realize anew its a masterful slam for someone that still writes one.

RIP TJ

The car loan interest deduction is terrible policy. The end. https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/week-in-insights-car-loan-interest-tax-break-rewards-higher-debt

Week in Insights: Car Loan Interest Tax Break Rewards Higher Debt

Imagine two buyers walk into a car dealership. Buyer A saved for years and pays cash, while Buyer B finances most of the purchase and pays thousands in interest. Under proposed IRS rules, Buyer B would be able to deduct up to $10,000 in interest on their loan from their taxes, while Buyer A would receive no tax benefit.

news.bloombergtax.com

The thing about the Claude AI text watermarking announcement is that you’ll still, ultimately, be taking the word of an AI company over a student/employee/actual human being/etc.

the little legs kicking

Announcers Watch Angels-Royals Game In Total Silence

TFW you get Google Scholar alerts people are citing you but you’re just hoping to get the darn piece placed.

MIT OpenCourseWare added an AI training section to their TOS. https://tostracker.app/document/mit-opencourseware/compare?v1=981142&v2=1796

MIT OpenCourseWare Terms of Service Changes

Compare Terms of Service changes for MIT OpenCourseWare. View additions, deletions, and modifications between February 2026 and August 2026.

tostracker.app

As an adult if I was running around shooting my mouth off about how tough or American or whatever I was, and my opponent said the equivalent to “okay, let’s fight then,” that would be the end of whatever I was doing. I’m all set. 🫡 Bye now!

working on my fall syllabi

I'm sorry I was not familiar with your game.jpg

I live in Jupiter, Florida and have since retiring from the car dealership I owned in Toms River, NJ back in 2007. I play 162 holes of golf per week and the top issue in my life is this terrible Mandami pied-a-terre tax in New York City. What about all the money those people spend at restaurants?

Early indications from FRTracker data are that commenter identity has little to no bearing on the likelihood of an agency making changes between a proposed and final rule. Variation between agencies outstrips any between commenter type. https://frtracker.app/blog/who-comments-on-rules-that-change

The standard rule of administrative burdens: if you increase the time tax for doing something, you make it less likely that people will do it. That is what the Trump administration is trying to do with vaccines.

Mark Gongloff@markgongloff.bsky.social · last wk.

Trump and RFK Jr just made life 5x more miserable for every parent of young children and raised the risks that preventable nightmare diseases will return, all in service of nonsense Gift link to @lisamjarvis.bsky.social 's column for @opinion.bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

Like it or loathe it, your tax dollars are subsidizing an AI boom that probably doesn’t need subsidizing. https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/tax-law-is-funding-the-ai-infrastructure-boom-not-creating-it

Tax Law Is Funding the AI Infrastructure Boom, Not Creating It

Opinion: Congress should prove that publicly financed tax benefits from last year's tax law changed corporate behavior for companies investing in AI rather than merely rewarded them for investments they were already racing to make, writes Andrew Leahey.

news.bloombergtax.com

A lot to unpack vis a vis paper choice.

My favorite part of law school orientation is when all the alt students find me after to talk about piercings and tattoos in law school / the legal profession (both of which I make sure to display prominently for exactly this reason). Yes, you can absolutely be alt in law school. We exist. 🖤

Taking this Anthropic announcement on watermarking text as read, I still won’t be comfortable accusing a anyone of using AI when 1) simple editing may remove it and 2) written material passed through a model may be flagged.