My god, they sure *hate* #LinaKhan. This once-in-a-generation, groundbreaking, brilliant legal scholar and fighter for the public interest, the slayer of #Reaganomics, has attracted more vitriol, mockery, and dismissal than any of her predecessors in living memory.
She sure must be doing something right, huh?
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this to read or share, here's a link to pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion
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She sure must be doing something right, huh?
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this to read or share, here's a link to pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox
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Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox
www.yalelawjournal.orgCory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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When Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, he surprised everyone by appointing Khan to the #FederalTradeCommission.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1171/vote_117_1_00233.htm
These Republicans saw in Khan an ally in their fight against "woke" #BigTech. For these senators, the problem wasn't that tech had got too big and powerful - it was that there were a few limited instances in which tech leaders failed to wield that power in the ways they preferred.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2022/10/18/administrative-competence/#i-know-stuff
This is in marked contrast to the corporate Dems' champions in the administration. People like #PeteButtigieg are heralded as competent
technocrats, "realists" who are too principled to peddle hopium to the base, writing checks they can't cash.
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/12/regulatory-uncapture/#conscious-uncoupling
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal
And naturally, this has *really* pissed off all the right people: America's billionaires and their cheerleaders in the press, government, and the hive of scum and villainy that is the Big Law/thinktank industrial-complex.
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Cory Doctorow
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These attacks are worth reading, if only to see how flimsy and frivolous they are. One major subgenre is that Khan shouldn't be bringing any action against Amazon, because her groundbreaking scholarship about the company means she has a conflict of interest.
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Cory Doctorow
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But these attacks are even more laughable due to who they're coming from: people who have the most outrageous conflicts of interest imaginable.
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Cory Doctorow
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Writing in *#TheAmericanProspect*, @ddayen runs the numbers:
> Since the late 1990s, 31 out of 41 top FTC officials worked directly for a company that has business before the agency, with 26 of them related to the technology industry.
https://prospect.org/economy/2023-06-23-attacks-lina-khans-ethics-reveal-projection/
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Attacks on Lina Khan’s Ethics Reveal Copious Amounts of Projection
David Dayen (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
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https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-im-resigning-from-the-ftc-commissioner-ftc-lina-khan-regulation-rule-violation-antitrust-339f115d
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Why I’m Resigning as an FTC Commissioner
Christine Wilson (The Wall Street Journal)Cory Doctorow
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https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4365601-Wilson-Christine-Smith-final278.html
Or take Wilson's GOP FTC predecessor #JoshWright, whose incestuous relationship with the companies he oversaw at the Commission are so intimate he's practically got a Habsburg jaw.
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Cory Doctorow
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George Mason's Scalia center practically *owns* the revolving door, counting *fourteen* FTC officials among its affliates:
https://campaignforaccountability.org/ttp-investigation-big-techs-backdoor-to-the-ftc/
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.citizen.org/article/ftc-big-tech-revolving-door-problem-report/
The *majority* of FTC and DoJ antitrust lawyers who served between 2014-21 left government service and went straight to work for a Big Law firm, serving the companies they'd regulated just a few months before:
https://therevolvingdoorproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/The-Revolving-Door-In-Federal-Antitrust-Enforcement.pdf
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The FTC’s Big Tech Revolving Door Problem - Public Citizen
Public CitizenCory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.citizen.org/sites/default/files/andrew_smith_foia_appeal_response_11_30.pdf
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Cory Doctorow
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Khan is the first FTC head with no conflicts. This leaves her opponents in the sweaty, desperate position of inventing conflicts out of thin air.
For these corporate lickspittles, Khan's "conflict" is that she has a *point of view*. Specifically, she thinks that the FTC should do its job.
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-16/ftc-rejected-ethics-advice-for-khan-recusal-on-meta-case
That ethics official, #LoriellePankey, did *not*, in fact, make this recommendation. It's simply untrue.
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Cory Doctorow
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But there's more to this story. Pankey herself has a *gigantic* conflict of interest in this case, including a stock portfolio with $15,001 and $50,000 in Meta stock:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ethics-official-owned-meta-stock-while-recommending-ftc-chair-recuse-herself-from-meta-case-8582a83b
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Ethics Official Owned Meta Stock While Recommending FTC Chair Recuse Herself From Meta Case
Brody Mullins (The Wall Street Journal)Cory Doctorow
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Jordan called his hearing on the back of this fake scandal, and then proceeded to show his whole damned ass, even as his GOP colleagues got into a substantive and even informative dialog with Khan:
https://prospect.org/power/2023-07-14-jim-jordan-misfires-attacks-lina-khan/
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Jim Jordan Misfires in Attacks on Lina Khan
David Dayen (The American Prospect)Cory Doctorow
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https://www.ft.com/content/8ce04d67-069b-4c9d-91bf-11649f5adc74
Other Republicans, including confirmed swamp creatures like #MattGaetz, ended up agreeing with Khan that Amazon Ring is a privacy dumpster-fire.
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Subscribe to read | Financial Times
Financial TimesCory Doctorow
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But Khan's opponents did manage to repeat a lot of the smears against her, and not just the bogus conflict-of-interest story.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers
In her ruling, Corley explained that she didn't think Microsoft would abuse the market dominance they'd gain by merging their giant videogame platform and studio with one of its largest competitors. Why not? Because Microsoft's execs pinky-swore that they wouldn't abuse that power.
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Judge Rules for Microsoft: Mergers Are Good
Matt Stoller (BIG by Matt Stoller)Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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Now, maybe you hate Sony. Maybe you hate Activision. There's plenty of good reason to hate both - they're run by creeps who do shitty things to gamers and to their employees.
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Cory Doctorow
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Microsoft made *exactly* the same promises it made on Activision when it bought out another games studio, Zenimax - and it broke every one of those promises.
Microsoft has a long, long, *long* history of being a brutal, abusive monopolist. It is a *convicted* monopolist.
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Cory Doctorow
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/11/25/the-peoples-amazon/#clippys-revenge
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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The Microsoft case is about the future.
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Cory Doctorow
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But it does, and not just because games are an art form that generate billions of dollars, employ a vast workforce, and bring pleasure to millions.
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Cory Doctorow
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Cory Doctorow
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https://gizmodo.com/ftc-files-appeal-of-microsoft-activision-deal-ruling-1850640159
They echoed the smug words of insufferable Activision boss #MikeYbarra: "Your tax dollars at work."
https://twitter.com/Qwik/status/1679277251337277440
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FTC's Fight Against Microsoft/Activision Deal Is Back From the Dead
Kevin Hurler (Gizmodo)Cory Doctorow
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The business lobby and their pathetic Renfields have hoarded all the nice things and they don't want us to have any. Khan and her trustbuster colleagues want the opposite.
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Cory Doctorow
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The tooth-gnashing and scenery-chewing over this is *wild*. America's biggest companies have wheeled out their biggest guns, claiming that if they make it too easy to unsubscribe, they will lose money.
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Cory Doctorow
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https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/12/ftc_cancel_subscriptions/
We shouldn't have to tolerate this sleaze. And if we back Khan and her team, they'll protect us from these scams. Don't let them convince you to give up hope. This is the start of the fight, not the end.
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You're too dumb to use click-to-cancel, Big Biz says with straight face
Thomas Claburn (The Register)Cory Doctorow
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Gina Helfrich, PhD
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Cory Doctorow
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Aaron In Minnesota
•Cory Doctorow
•SaftyKuma
•schlmorp
•ProtectiveHen
•Life today in the usa:
"The business lobby and their pathetic Renfields have hoarded all the nice things and they don't want us to have any."