Cicilline asks about whether Google engaged in surveillance to identify competitive threats. Pichai deflects. @davidcicilline says they have internal evidence that "Google does just that." #BigTechBarons
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1. Identity politics is bad because it's fundamentally a con, a way of ensuring plutocrats control our society. It's the inversion of 'rights' to support authoritarian corporate power. Here are some examples.
2. Regulating trillion dollar social media and search monopolists to protect children from addiction is actually an attack on gay people. wsj.com/politics/polic…
3. Another... Getting paid $1500/hour to help steal from chicken farmers is about women's empowerment.
1. Since the new line on why antitrust is bad is the Spirit Airlines bankruptcy, let's talk about what is really happening. Here's a hint. The CEO of Spirit was paid a $3.8 million bonus the week before the bankruptcy. But you don't hear about that. wlrn.org/business/2024-…
2. What's really going on isn't a bad enforcement regime, it's a bunch of greedy incompetent airline executives blaming the government for not letting them violate the law for money. Let's start at the beginning. npr.org/2024/11/18/nx-…
3. In 2022, there was a bidding war between Frontier and JetBlue over Spirit Airlines. Spirit's board hired a consultant to evaluate, who told execs/shareholders that the JetBlue deal was *illegal." They accepted it anyway since it was more money. financierworldwide.com/jetblues-38bn-…
I dislike the nonprofit industrial complex because the feedback loop has fundamentally distorted both parties. Paul Sabin's history here is very good. But let's be clear, the legacy is Hillary Clinton and a bank-dominated society. history.yale.edu/publications/p…
The nonprofit industrial complex is a Ralph Nader created world on top of which built most boomer politics. Example, Hillary Clinton got her start at the Children's Defense Fund. But the whole right-wing built their apparatus on top of it in the 1980s.
The fundamental argument underlying the nonprofit world is that foundation-funded lawyers are the public interest, because big government, big business, and big labor ignore consumers. It's a deeply anti-democratic framework.
1. Let's talk about Jeff Bezos's manipulation of the Washington Post for political purposes to help Trump and what this choice is causing Democrats to realize. For a long time, there's been a debate over the merits of big business and billionaires.
2. Writers like Matt Yglesias and @EricLevitz see Amazon as generally good. Here's Yglesias: "Amazon, as far as I can tell, is a charitable organization being run by elements of the investment community for the benefit of consumers.” slate.com/business/2013/…
3. But they've systematically ignored the darker side of oligarchy these firms represent, and not just evidence that Amazon is overhyped as a business. For instance:
It's not just a white young male problem, it's a young male problem, period. Part of the answer is progressive elites dramatically overvalue civility and order, and thus disdain much of the cultural stuff that young guys enjoy.
I once attended a Young Dems conference, and there was an hour when all the different caucuses met. Disability caucus, black caucus, women's caucus, LGBT caucus, et al.
What was left were a group of straight white guys just standing around, awkwardly. What kind of shit is that?
How many Democratic activist-types actually listen to Joe Rogan? He's funny and weird and not at all how he's portrayed. Think about the angry reaction to Rogan endorsing Bernie.
1. Since 2008, Google has systemically destroyed evidence relevant to antitrust investigations. And judges are beginning to hold Google accountable. Today I was a courtroom to watch Judge Leonie Brinkema, the latest judge, who is presiding over Google's third antitrust trial.
2. Why so many trials? Well Google has many lines of business! One trial was on its control of app stores. Another trial was about search. This one's on its power over online ad software that manages publishing sites and ad buying. All involve Google's document destruction.
3. In the app store trial, Judge Donato gave jury instructions known as 'adverse inference' meaning that the jury should consider Google operating in bad faith for destroying evidence. Google lost. In the search trial, Judge Mehta was scornful of Google, and ruled against them.