The kind of writing that makes you want to give up trying to be funny. Paramecium is so *precisely* the right word. So friggin funny.
Assistant Professor @ Drexel Kline School of Law Tax and Technology Attorney Columnist @ Bloomberg Tax (https://technicallyspeak.ing/) Podcaster @ Minimum Competence (https://www.minimumcomp.com) Mastodon: @andrew@esq.social (https://esq.social/@andrew)
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The kind of writing that makes you want to give up trying to be funny. Paramecium is so *precisely* the right word. So friggin funny.
Every word of this post is perfect.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filling an IV bag from a murky puddle near Trump National's sixth tee. "The president needs parameciums," he tells the assembled media. "It's the only treatment proven to work in real testing." His golf cart is piled high with dozens of dead birds.
Whenever I read one of these rambling screeds, I'm reminded of the (perhaps apocryphal) story that Lincoln once began a missive "I'm sorry I wrote a long letter, I did not have time to write a short one."
Even accepting this abject crackpottery as true, we're just going to continue letting these "interventions" continue until you can get around to holding a press conference in September? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2025/08/28/rfk-jr-autism-cause-health-agency/
Speaking on the condition of anonymity, several indicated that they had trouble seeing Trump continuing to serve beyond 2028 at the latest.
Like how they keep chundering on about I'm out of step with mainstream quantum mechanics.
Does my wider network have any recommendations for immigration attorneys in Philadelphia? Replies, DMs, and boosts welcomed equally. Thanks in advance.
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
You hear about the internet being a mistake plenty, but I'd contend we lost the plot around bipedalism. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-02734-0
Wealthy New Yorkers are not going to leave because you taxed them. The rich are no more inclined to pick up stakes than anyone else. https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/political-commentary/zohran-mamdani-tax-rich-new-york-city-1235414327/
Politicians saying they wish celebrities would stick to whatever made them famous, and then weighing in on what those celebs are doing is ... a choice.
Wouldn't wiping out the whales improve the fisheries? Like as long as we're just being completely unhinged here and pretending windmills are somehow killing whales: the whales eat the fish, we want the fish. We use the windmills to kill the whales to keep the fish. Problem solved.
In the latest macOS Tahoe beta it seems I can't mark Reminders as completed. I know it's a beta, I know. But I mean, you'd think someone would notice that. Just saying.
Quietly terrifying.
Ideal riding season just around the corner (except for the piles of leaves).
The law requires "verification for all users, not just those accessing age-restricted content." This is a bad time for people who need anonymity to be subjecting their online activities to scrutiny.
Fox 17 Nashville reports that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from criminal detention in Tennessee and is on his way home to Maryland. “Today, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is free,” his attorney, @sean-hecker.bsky.social, said in a statement. fox17.com/news/local/k...
I'm kind of disappointed in the schemers, you're buying Instagram ads for this? Where is the inventiveness? The whimsy? The Joie de vivre?
Interesting! Probably this, making some assumptions about what the ad was pushing.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up?
Sounds legit*, no notes. *illegal
When Teddy Roosevelt died, his son said death had to come for him in his sleep or it'd have found a fight. When Dobson died, I imagine death took a similar tack—better to slip in quietly than risk hearing James' poison first hand.
Without any intention to offend religious folk, in context it reads as some kind of euphemism for a gastrointestinal issue.
Agreed, I always get the sense they're whispering "this is my Normandy" right before pressing send. It's cosplay all the way down.
Soft launching the broader argument that the streets are owned by property owners, safety is only guaranteed to property owners, and hey, maybe only property owners should be allowed to vote!
Ahh, I see he's fallen into the old canard of believing the road to heaven runs through kowtowing to Putin and immiserating folks in precarity.
Opinion: Columnist Andrew Leahey says Washington, DC, should consider more direct and accountable ways to expand affordable housing than making a deal to build a new football stadium for the Washington Commanders.
"First of all, before we even get to what you found, why don't you explain to me why you were even looking at my phone!"
https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/louisianas-tax-share-problems-prove-clawbacks-must-be-standard
Choose your blighter.
Superficial French wound.
Hey remember back in the late 00s and early 10s when right wing podcasters would hypothesize about the construction of FEMA camps? The core idea there was the fear that political undesirables would be scooped up off the street and detained without due process, right? Just checking.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewleahey/2025/08/14/behold-the-cook-model-to-tariff-exemption/
Tim Cook’s $100B pledge to Trump secured a 100% tariff exemption, but also created a dangerous precedent for ad hoc, favor-based U.S. tax policy. That said, I'm overwhelmed with the feeling that this is small potatoes in light of everything else going on.
Another day, another bad public funding for stadium deal. This time, $4.4b for ~2000 ft/pt jobs and ~1800 affordable housing units (maybe) by 2040 in DC. https://news.bloombergtax.com/tax-insights-and-commentary/commanders-stadium-deals-housing-and-job-promises-are-a-facade
Don't even get me started on the stupid Apple Intelligence-suggested responses.
Hey Apple: if I react to a message in Messages, I have read that message. You can mark it as such. Thank you.
Call me a fool but aren’t they just scrubbing them as we speak? I mean that seems like the obvious play here.
As the US hits a 33-year high in measles infections, there is now a "race" to find a treatment for the disease. One pharma company "is banking on a continuing decline in vaccination rates to fuel a need for measles treatments—and in turn, more investor interest" 🎁 link www.wsj.com/health/healt...
I didn't think you could make my grammar school experience much more unpleasant, but good lord introducing PragerU into the mix would do it.
And thank you for reading! Huge supporter of TJN and the invaluable work you're doing.
Absolutely, that’s exactly the kind of structural accountability I’m hoping to move the conversation toward. Granted, I'm fully aware that I'll be little more than a parakeet chattering away in a cage in the corner for at least the next 3+ years. But all the same.
Sounds like the position of someone angling for a position. Good move for your own mental health, I reckon.
I read something this year (probably on here, for my sins) that, contemporaneously, no one knew the Roman Empire was falling forever, just that one day an important bridge collapsed and no one ever came to fix it. I think about this all the time.
The shittiest Superman since the one Clark Kent put through the car wrecker.
My article, "Holistic Constitutional Interpretation," is forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy! Courts frequently interpret contracts, wills, statutes, judgments, deeds, and other documents as a whole. Why not the Constitution? papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Aggressively bad dinner party, stem to stern.
Just a reminder of my favorite idea for a law student note: Pick an important Supreme Court case from 5-10 years ago, and see how lower courts are interpreting it. It's helpful for practitioners and courts, and something law students can research and present effectively.
Tim Cook out as CEO yesterday please and thank you for your attention to this matter. https://nileane.fr/@nileane/114984116708849039
Say what you will about Steve Jobs (there is plenty to say and I am not defending him) but I don't think he was even *capable* of this level of obsequiousness.
If anyone is curious about the current list of search terms being used by right wing activist organizations to harass university professors, here's a public records request I received today from Mike Howell of the Heritage Foundation. Not intimidating or meant to curtail by my speech at all, right?
Ugh. Seems like a lot of professors will be taking much of their correspondence to their non-.edu addresses. You know, just so it’s easier for them to sift through their more “manageable” archives in response to these kinds of requests. 🙄
I'll just put this here and slowly back away. ::Whispering:: "Encouraging precarious income models through the tax code was a mistaakkkeeeee."
Thank goodness "no tax on tips" isn't pushing more Americans into precarious employment models oh wait no I got that exactly backwards.
All the same, statements like that made by Commissioner Long vis a vis preferring "direct audit" to Direct File makes me think time is of the essence here. www.cnbc.com/2025/07/30/i...
A new month, more progress on The Disappearing Audit. I can see cresting on the horizon in front of me the prospect of having to sort out placement of the piece and that, frankly, sends me retreating back into writing and revising. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Probably *breathes it too.
Somewhere, death breaths a sigh of relief. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/rfk-jr-pulls-back-on-mrna-projects-as-vaccine-shakeup-continues
New from me: Big Law is fearful of representing anyone Trump sees as his enemies, and it's thwarting challenges to his agenda. “There are cases that aren’t being brought at a time when civil rights abuses are maybe at the highest they’ve been.” www.propublica.org/article/trum...
Can anyone explain to me why institutions that predate the country itself are operating under the assumption that its impossible for them to weather this particular storm?
The amount of money that is going to need to be spent to undo all of this nonsense will be staggering. Like national debt-dwarfing staggering. https://futurism.com/white-house-orders-nasa-destroy-important-satellite
Why would it be a "rebate" if the export countries are paying for the tariffs, Donald? Why would you call it a rebate?! https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/week-in-insights-rebating-tariffs-would-point-to-their-folly
This, frankly, sounds low. We will have no idea how much was wasted for probably a decade or more. https://mastodon.me.uk/@PoliceStateUK/114961250448585887
Well as a US Senator, my job is twofold. Of course you have to do a lot of fundraising, campaigns are expensive. So there's a lot of that. And also sometimes I go on Benny Johnson's podcast and tell him that I'm too scared to drive into the city for a Cincinnati Reds game these days.
I thought the Presidential Fitness Test was trying to wash down the Filet-O-Fish chaser with the milkshake.
Had a dream about a week ago that a pill bottle I had been taking tablets from was actually full of watch batteries. Guess who can't take ibuprofen in the dark anymore?
It will be as it has ever been and shall ever be: designed. Wonder how you heat an ontological and existential vacuum?
Sick of winning.
He’s trying to wear out the children’s batteries.
I spent seven years writing a book on this and she just… said it in three succinct paragraphs to politico.
The “deal” that Brown made with the Trump admin is much more extreme than is being reported. It includes government oversight of course evaluations and no barrier to government interference in faculty hiring. Read it for yourself here: www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...
Ensuring an agency-wide ideology shift? https://news.bloombergtax.com/daily-tax-report/irs-posts-thousands-of-customer-service-jobs-after-downsizing
And I've found if you're working in MS Word, there is no real way to know your percentage completed. You're like one dependent clause away from the entire thing being converted to one never-ending column smooshed into the header.
Come the end times, the only surviving organisms will be the cockroach and someone drafting a "well akshully..." article.
Early week thoughts and efforts reflected in the latest. Many thanks to those who have reached out with contributions and ideas.
🎙️ ON AIR: We're speaking with experts @costasamaras.com and @michaelwara.bsky.social about the steps we can take to make California's electrical grid more sustainable. ❓ What have you observed about your own energy bill? ❓ What would you most want utilities or policymakers to address? 📻 Listen:
With the Trump administration pushing for the release, we have to imagine they already know what the transcripts contain -- right?
Yes, outfield. Outfield is where we need help. In the outfield. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/07/white-sox-trade-austin-slater-yankees.html
I'm always amazed at how those that would deride a given religion nonetheless adopt any tenet necessary to further their conspiratorial beliefs. If it being a Kaaba is a problem, doesn't that require (on some level) believing in Islam?
Mandatory intro to stats class in, like, middle school.
Also you should know I fully resisted the urge to say "well of course your county has more people than the Dakotas, there are only two!"
That raises a good point I hadn't really thought about. With a smaller denominator the per taxpayer cost of data center credits in Wyoming must be significantly higher than, say, Texas.
And Wyoming residents, via tax credits to data centers, are paying for the privilege. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/07/ai-in-wyoming-may-soon-use-more-electricity-than-states-human-residents/
Is this just a dice roll on the part of the DJT, assuming he isn't prominently discussed? Seems like a risk if he doesn't already know what's in the transcripts. https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/trump-administration-asks-judges-release-epstein-maxwell-grand-jury-transcripts-2025-07-30/
Of the many culture shock moments in law school, one that still sticks with me is learning how *wealthy* most of my classmates' families were, and the notion that it's going to be functionally impossible for lower-income students to attend going forward is really hard for me to contemplate
67 years ago today, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law. Welp. It had a good run. https://www.npr.org/2025/07/26/nx-s1-5481304/nasa-employees-deferred-resignation-program
This feels especially telling in a shouldn't-the-psychic-have-known-I-was-coming kind of sense.
Struck by this being an "ominous sign for the economy" because "Earning a Ph.D. in economics has long been a reliable path to affluence and prestige. Not anymore." Why was it a reliable path? Why weren't history jobs disappearing an ominous sign? Mini thread Gift: www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/b...
Ominous sign for the economist economy, maybe.
4,000 NASA workers are leaving through deferred resignation. "The cuts amount to an estimated 20% of NASA's workforce" www.npr.org/2025/07/26/n...
It feels like every time they're thinking "this will be the last time we'll have to do this, surely."
News from the Federal Circuit: Special Committee recommends "a one-year sanction during which Judge Newman will not be permitted to hear cases at the panel or en banc level" for "continuing misconduct." content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USF...
Stacked fraud would be whatever improperly claimed input credits and the profit to be had turning fake AirPods into real ones and selling them off.
For instance, they might: import counterfeit AirPods with forged serials; claim a warranty replacement from Apple; receive legitimate replacements; fabricate a sales trail; and export the AirPods to reclaim VAT (in the EU).
Ratcheting grievance politics up to a notch that doesn't even have a label. Epstein's real victim? Donald J. Trump.
"3000 hits or 262 hits in one season are achievements recognized by the writers, well, all but one of you" Ichiro Suzuki
Patreon." https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/shocked-me-to-my-core-dan-bongino-says-hes-learned-things-at-fbi-that-changed-him-forever-in-cryptic-x-post/
Everyone is celebrating him for his (obviously wonderful) songs but I am also celebrating him for releasing all his works into the public domain and insisting he retained no copyrights over any of it.