Unlike the full House Judiciary Committee three ring circus yesterday, finding ANY information about today’s hearing featuring that committee’s sub-committee (how many committees do these people run?) on Anti-Trust took some digging.
Essentially, at noon eastern, the heads of Twitter, Amazon, Google and Facebook will be questioned by a subset of the full Judiciary Committee. This little pow wow will be happening via video conference due to COVID hysteria, so, unlike the outrageous treatment of Attorney General William Barr, there will be no glaring lights on the witnesses, and humanitarian breaks at the witnesses’ leisure since they will be in the comfort of their own surroundings.
Oh, yeah, that’s fair.
So, who is involved in today’s Q&A where the person being examined presumably will be able to spew their propaganda at will?
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook)
Sundar Pichai (Google)
Tim Cook (Apple)
Jeff Bezos (Amazon)
The subcommittee welcomes Bezos for the first time, who also owns the Washington Post.
The topic today is are these online entities too big. Not the censorship issue that is sure to come up since there’s been so much of it in the last week, but should these platforms be broken up since they have so much power.
As if those four men are going to be forthcoming about that.
Who is doing the questioning?
| Majority | Minority |
|---|---|
| David Cicilline, Rhode Island, Chair Hank Johnson, Georgia Jamie Raskin, Maryland Pramila Jayapal, Washington Val Demings, Florida Mary Gay Scanlon, Pennsylvania Joe Neguse, Colorado Lucy McBath, Georgia | Jim Sensenbrenner, Wisconsin, Ranking Member Matt Gaetz, Florida Ken Buck, Colorado Kelly Armstrong, North Dakota Greg Steube, Florida |
| Ex officio | |
| Jerrold Nadler, New York | Doug Collins, Georgia |
Oh, good Lord. Rep. “Guam might tip over” again. And that McBath woman.
Well, at least we have Matt Gaetz.
Oh, gawd, McBath.
Bezos, can it. Amazon is PAIN IN THE A$$ for independent authors selling books. And it’s the only retailer like that, too.
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288558375031250950
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288559029829152769
Anything like the original ‘rooster’ cut of Trey Gowdy?
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288559415302524931
Not the donors I would expect for Jim Jordan.
Is he like SC rooster (Gowdy)? Makes great sound bites but nothing comes by way of literally action or consequence? Can’t believe that is true of Jordan…???
Google, Koch Brothers and Citizens United in top 10 w/10K each
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/contributors/jim-jordan?cid=N00027894&cycle=2020
same in the 2016 & 2018
Intersting … google consistently gives more to GOP candiddates
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/lookup2.php?strID=C00428623&cycle=2020
Interesting to see to whom they are donating this cycle … their $10K donations are not common
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2020&cmte=C00428623
“Is he like SC rooster (Gowdy)?”
I’ve never seen a sign of that. Gowdy can be like Lindsey Graham and others who say the perfect thing sometimes but not so much at other times. I haven’t seen that with Jordan. He is always reliable.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/president-trump-threatens-executive-orders-bring-fairness-big-tech
FTA
With minutes to go until the historic hearing of the four major tech CEOs in front of Congress, President Trump has tweeted his thoughts:
If Congress doesn’t bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders.
Trump continued:
In Washington, it has been ALL TALK and NO ACTION for years, and the people of our Country are sick and tired of it!
Talking about slave labor in manufacturing, and all agree that it’s not tolerated.
Oh, yeah, there’s indictments coming. COVER COVER COVER!!!!!!!!!
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288565217694298112
Might be the only thing of substance that has occurred so far in this hearing though of course it would require enforcement. Rep Raskin thanking Buck for his line of questioning and all 4 Big guys agreeing to Buck might have China fuming right now.
That crossed my mind about Buck.
Facebook gives overwhelmingly to Dem but also to GOP. Facebook gives to Presidential candidates and seems (from my limited research) to give during primaries as well as to incumbents.
Ingeresting to see which GOP and how much
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/totals?id=D000033563
Giving to both parties…very common when you are dealing with permits, regulations, inspections, unions, etc. Trump did it regularly, as has thousands of others who depend upon “signatures” to do business. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it unless it’s 100% one way…as many are!
Gaetz…if I was ten years younger…such a wonderful extemporaneous debater. No reading a script. He’s so nimble.
Talking to the Google dude about search manipulation, and that Google dude changed his story.
He he he he he.
Of course, the people who need to hear this aren’t watching.
Related.
https://twitter.com/Ey3s0nQ/status/1288567391673294848
Okay…Stuebe asking about the HCQ videos being taken down for violated “community standards”.
Answer: using CDC as the authority.
Good for Stuebe, shot back “opinion of medical doctors”. Still side stepped but point made.
I miss my Blackberry.
https://twitter.com/shadygrooove/status/1288568692117082112
Too Big to Manage Poso Flag of United States Retweeted
Malcolm FleXFlag of United States@Malcolm_fleX48
·
1h
There is no place for a tech monopoly that has managed to weave its way into the essentiality of every day life the way these tech firms have, to operate as their own private entities when they house public services that we pay taxes to fund.
REGULATE THEM TO PROTECT OUR RIGHTS.
Quote Tweet
Too Big to Manage Poso Flag of United States
@JackPosobiec
· 1h
Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon are monopolies and should be treated as public utilities under the FCC
Armstrong asking about sellers of Amazon.
Talking cookies now.
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288583723412271105
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288585932006924290
https://twitter.com/Project_Veritas/status/1288530906496540673
I’ve got some things going on here. Will be back from time to time.
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288593799355277312
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288593187368509442
Oh, good Jordan. I need No Doz for this hearing. These people are BO-RING.
He’s talking about “wrong think” and the “cancel culture” mob.
[crickets][
https://twitter.com/Tore_says/status/1288597326530072576
They’re rehashing the same stuff over and over. Denying working with the Chinese government, word parsing on censoring conservatives and wrong think.
Total propaganda psy-op to get ahead of the indictments. Some will fall for it. Most won’t.
Thank God, that’s over.
Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) Tweeted:
Tucker Carlson’s full segment with Rep. @Jim_Jordan on big tech:
“Google is your second biggest contributor in the last cycle. Why do you think they would give you money?”
“If Google gives me a few thousand dollar check, God bless them. That doesn’t change who I am.” https://t.co/ReTjkqpx4j
[…] Details and commentary from the Q tree can be found here. […]