Report: Attorneys General Probe of Big Tech Could Launch in September

State attorneys general could launch an antitrust investigation into America’s largest technology companies as soon as next month, according to a report released Monday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that several attorneys general continue to move forward with an antitrust investigation of Silicon Valley, focusing on whether these companies stifle competition by using their marketplace powers. The attorneys general would likely issue civil investigative demands, which act similarly to subpoenas, to tech giants and other companies.

The report arises as President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its antitrust review, which will focus mainly on Google and Facebook. The Journal reported in June that several attorneys general were considering a probe into antitrust concerns regarding Silicon Valley. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) continues to investigate Facebook, including the companies’ acquisition of nascent competitors as a means to stifle potential competitors to the social media giant. The FTC continues to look into whether Facebook purchased WhatsApp or Instagram to prevent those companies from becoming competitors.

FTC Chairman Joe Simons said recently that he remains prepared to break up big tech, even reversing past mergers, as part of the regulator’s antitrust investigation into big tech.

Reports have suggested that the antitrust investigation of the attorneys general could become bipartisan as many Democrats have an interest in curtailing the power of big tech as well.

North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, said he is “participating in bipartisan conversations about this issue.” Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, another Democrat, said that he continues  “to be concerned with the aggregation of data in the hands of a few and [I] am always watchful of any monopoly.”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, released a statement after last month’s meeting of attorneys general that the groups of attorneys discussed “the real concerns consumers across the country have with big tech companies stifling competition on the internet.”

Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple declined to comment regarding the Journal report. The companies have said that they operate fairly and do not engage in anticompetitive behavior.

One Google spokeswoman referred to congressional testimony by Adam Cohen, its director of economic policy, who said that the search giant has “helped reduce prices and expand choice for consumers and merchants in the U.S. and around the world.”

Matt Perault, Facebook’s director of public policy, said that the social media giant “faces intense competition for all of the products and services that we provide.”

Apple and Amazon echoed Facebook and Google’s comments, saying that their businesses compete fairly against other companies.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, a prominent anti-big tech lawyer, said that the state attorneys general will consider “all actions,” including antitrust law, to curb the growing power held by Google, Facebook, and Amazon.

“We have seen a tremendous amount of consolidation in regard to social platforms and the tech industry over the last decade, and the result of that has become a handful of companies that have amassed a tremendous amount of data and power over the U.S. and world economy,” Landry told Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow in March.

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

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Graham: IG report on Russiagate will be “ugly and damning”

Will it, or will it be the GOP’s equivalent of Mueller-mas? Lindsey Graham is in position to take an educated guess and do some strategic expectations-setting ahead of the inspector general’s report release next month. Instead, Graham told viewers and Fox News Channel’s Maria Bartiromo yesterday to buckle up because Michael Horowitz will issue an “ugly and damning” report about the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the entire Russiagate affair.

At least, that’s what will happen eventually, Graham promises (via RCP):

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM: Well, you’ve got three lanes here. You have what the committee will do, my committee, you’ve got Mr. Durham who’s looking at criminality — he’s the U.S. Attorney in Connecticut — And you’ve got the DOJ Inspector General report. I think it will be coming out in weeks, not days, not months. The Horowitz report will probably be ugly and damning regarding the Department of Justice handling of the Russia probe.

MARIA BARTIROMO: Tell me about that, we know that the DOJ is not prosecuting James Comey. Learned that about a month ago. We know we just got the so-called 302 out of Bruce Ohr, that’s the investigation and interviews of Ohr with the FBI. And the IG report, we were supposed to get it months ago. How come it is so late?

GRAHAM: Every time you turn around you find something new. Mr. Horowitz is doing a very in-depth dive about the FISA warrant application. The behavior regarding the counterintelligence operation. He will send his report over to the Department of Justice, they will look at for classified information. I am going to meet with the Attorney General next week, I want to declassify as much as possible. On the American public to hear the story, I want all of this information to come out, I didn’t want people to believe what I said I want them to read for themselves how bad it was.

The warrant application to the FISA court, I think quite frankly was a fraud. I want all the committee cases out, where they will notice Christopher Steele hated Trump and that he was an unreliable informant. I want this information coming out that the Steele dossier with information coming from Russia is unverified information, I want the transcripts surrounding interviews with Papadopoulos to be released where it was clear he was not working with the Russians.

I want it all out. I want people to see how this investigation got so off the rails and I want people to be held accountable and I am patient, and not in a hurry, I want to do it right.

He’s meeting with Barr next week on this subject? If Horowitz isn’t done yet, that might be premature. After all, they can’t start making disclosure decisions until they know specifically what the report contains. Horowitz is likely to write the report with public release in mind, just as Robert Mueller and his team did with their special-counsel report. Barr has already been given presidential carte blanche for declassification on these investigations in order to achieve maximum possible transparency, and it’s a cinch that Trump will want as much of Horowitz’ report to be out in the open as possible.

With that said, though, Republicans run the risk of setting expectations too high. Thus far no one’s really sure what the IG will find, not even Graham. Could this have been a political hit from the start by a corrupt Obama administration, FBI, and intelligence community? Sure, but it might be a lot less than that; it might be that a few people let their political biases cloud their judgment and then everything else rolled downhill into a disaster of incompetence more than malice. Furthermore, an IG at the DoJ may not have the scope or jurisdiction to determine much more past that possibility, not unless people suddenly decided to get very loquacious about any potential conspiracy all of a sudden after years of guarded tongues.

Democrats just experienced the impact of promising an outcome at length only to have the official findings yank the rug out from under their conspiracy theories. Republicans might want to start thinking about shaping public perception early to keep from having to explain away any potential letdown on the Right when Horowitz finally speaks.

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Homeless Trigger Sacramento Salon Owner To Leave. She Makes Viral Video Targeting CA’s Newsom.

A Sacramento salon owner moved out of Sacramento because of the mounting problems she faced due to homeless people excreting on her business’ doorstep and breaking windows, but she was not going down quietly; she made a video that went viral that slammed California governor Gavin Newsom for his inaction.

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Trump Tweets Hilarious Meme Of Greenland, Leftists Explode

President Donald Trump tweeted a hilarious meme of Greenland on Monday, which caused those on the political Left to freakout, as political talks about his desire to purchase the world’s largest island continue.
Trump tweeted out a photo of Greenland with a picture of Trump International Hotel Las Vegas photoshopped into the photo, writing: "I promise not to do this to Greenland!"

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Judge Jeanine: Epstein Said His Roommate Beat the Hell out of him. That’s Probably True “Because I Knew Nicholas Tartaglione” (VIDEO)

Judge Jeanine Pirro went on with Tucker Carlson on Monday to discuss the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Judge Jeanine said the medical examiners jumped too quick with their conclusions.

Judge Jeanine: Her rush to judgement that this was a suicide makes no sense. We don’t know why the cameras won’t working. We don’t know why everybody was asleep, why they lied. The FBI, DOJ, Department of Prisons, everybody is doing an investigation… You’ve got to give me the additional dots that cause me to believe it is one way versus another. And by the way Tucker I have tried cases that were listed as suicides and I’ve gotten a homicide conviction. So they weren’t suicides they were intentional murders. And secondly the breaking of the hyoid bone, that’s classic in the strangulation cases, not in a hanging.

Judge Pirro then went on to discuss Epstein’s former roommate, mass murderer Nicholas Tartaglione.

Judge Jeanine: People say he tried to kill himself, he definitely committed suicide. That’s not true! Because HE SAID Nicholas Tartaglione the cop in the cell originally beat the hell out of him. I knew that probably as true because I knew Nicholas Tartaglione. He was a cop when I was a DA in Westchester. Would it be like him to slap this guy around? Without a doubt. That’s number one. And number two the fact that he was very upbeat with this attorney, said I’ll see you Sunday. All of these facts need to be looked at to see if this was a homicide versus a suicide.

Via Tucker Carlson Tonight:

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Watch: Democratic Presidential Candidates Asked If They’ll Denounce Antifa

Far-Left ANTIFA is a domestic terror group. They beat journalists, fight cops and destroy cities. They want full communism and terrorize innocent Americans to try and get it. So will America’s leading Democrats denounce ANTIFA? We asked. This is scary. pic.twitter.com/aYO6sWEB2j — Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) August 18, 2019 Fail. Via Daily Wire: In a new […]

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Detained Illegal Aliens Sue US Government Over Conditions, Medical Care

Detained illegal aliens filed a class action lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and ICE on Monday for ignoring their medical needs.

Disability and civil rights advocates said in the suit that the detainees are placed in isolation and denied medical treatment.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of 15 illegal immigrants from countries such as Sudan and Mexico living in eight difference facilities, many of whom are fighting deportation.

One detainee from the Middle East alleges he was denied a wheelchair and another claims he has not been provided with an interpreter.

Via Associated Press:

 Immigrants held in U.S. detention facilities filed a lawsuit Monday decrying what they called shoddy medical care and a failure by authorities to provide accommodations for disabilities.

The problems harm disabled immigrants and threaten anyone in one of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s more than 50,000 detention beds who winds up getting sick or isolated from other detainees, said Monica Porter, staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, one of the organizations that filed the suit.

“ICE cannot simply contract with third parties to operate its detention centers and then wash its hands of the deplorable, unlawful conditions in those detention centers,” said Tim Fox, co-executive director of the Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center.

The number of immigrants in detention has grown in recent years. There are currently an average 55,000 immigrants in detention each day, according to ICE.

Last month six migrant (illegal alien) families filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration seeking $3 million each saying they need money to pay for medical care and counseling to pay for the “torture” they endured over last year’s so-called ‘family separations.’

Five out of the six families illegally crossed the border and were arrested and the sixth family showed up to a port of entry without permission.

So the illegals invade the US and because they get arrested and don’t receive top notch healthcare, they respond by suing the US government. Welcome to 2019.

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WATCH: Trump Releases Video Brutally Mocking Anthony Scaramucci

President Donald Trump released a brutal video on his Twitter account late on Monday night mocking former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci, who has publicly feuded with Trump in recent days.
Scaramucci, who was fired after only 11 days in the White House, turned on the president because "his feelings just seem to be hurt," according to White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

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Angry Los Angeles Residents Demand Action Over City’s Growing Homeless Problem

The homeless problem in California is spinning out of control. There is a rat problem which is bringing disease and locals have had it.

There is growing anger and a call for city leaders to act before it gets worse.

FOX News reports:

LA residents fed up with officials, demand change after homeless crisis spirals in city

It’s the stale stench of liquor and human waste that hits you first. Then it’s visual — row after row of dirty tarp tents crammed together on the sidewalk next to piles of rotting trash and broken appliances. There are half-dressed, drugged-out shells of people wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street. Some curse at cars. Others just stare. There are fights, prostitution and rodent burrows. This is the fabled Skid Row in Los Angeles and it’s a disaster.

Like several West Coast cities Fox News visited, Los Angeles is dealing with a homeless crisis. However, unlike the East Coast, LA can’t hide all of its homeless in shelters or low-income housing.

Failed liberal policies coupled with decades of neglect and mismanagement have turned an old problem into a modern-day nightmare. Some fear the City of Angels is at the point of no return and are angry at elected officials who talk a big game but rarely deliver.

“I don’t want to see them on camera anymore,” Marquesha Babers, who lived on Skid Row as a teenager, told Fox News. “I don’t want them to write any more articles about how much they care or how much they’re trying to change things. I want to see them do it.”

There are parts of the city that look like a third world country or worse.

What will it take for someone to do something about this?

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The US Congress has decided to scrap the Constitution

The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution in March 2019 in which appears the following text:

Whereas Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim are subjected to false and dangerous stereotypes and myths including unfair allegations that they sympathize with individuals who engage in violence or terror or support the oppression of women, Jews, and other vulnerable communities …

By passing that resolution, including the text cited above, the House of Representatives has established with painful clarity either that the members of the House are entirely ignorant with respect to the contents of the sacred texts of Islam, which clearly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically call for the hatred, discrimination, subjugation, terrorization, persecution, enslavement, rape, and mass murder of non-Muslims, or that the members of the House who voted to pass that resolution wish to deceive Americans with regard to the contents of those sacred texts.

The House of Representatives condemned Islamophobia.  This means that House members condemn superior moral values and condemn criticism of fascism; genocide; terrorism; and a long series of violent, perverse, barbaric atrocities and abominations.  Essentially, they condemn the traditional moral foundations of America, as well as of many other nations.  They condemn principles of the Constitution, of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and of the Almighty God of Abraham.  And they condemn all American laws that criminalize all of the deranged, fascistic, and perverse practices authorized under Islamic law.  The House of Representatives has forfeited its last vestige of legitimacy, as a legislative body, of honor, and of sanity.

The resolution further states the following:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(9) encourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence andencourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the first and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

The members of the House have encouraged all public officials to confront the “bigotry” of those who understand and openly declare that Islamofascism is an unlawful, barbaric abomination.  The members of the House have equated “Islamophobia,” the aversion to Islamic atrocities, with hatred of others based of their faith-based support of moral, ethical standards.  The members of the House have caused to be immortalized in print the tragic fact that they believe the vile lie that anyone has a right, acknowledged by America’s Constitution, to commit all of the crimes, perversions, and atrocities called for by Islamic law.

The members of the House have lost their collective mind.

But surely Americans can still look to their Senate to rescue Congress from the utter insanity of the House of Representatives.  Surely the Senate must confront the House to set it straight on its senseless, lawless expressions.  But alas, it is not so.

The fact is that the Senate and the House of Representatives are in full agreement in their insane expressions of disdain for truth, for American law, for the freedom to express truth, and for the lawful limits of their delegated power.

In fact, on April 5, 2017, all 100 United States senators voted to pass Senate Resolution 118, in which they defined as criminal anyone who displays any form of bias against Islam.  They also asked federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to investigate and bring charges against anyone who displays any form of bias against Islam.

The 100 senators and the majority of the members of the House have decided that their moral sense is greater than that of other Americans.  They have decided to grant themselves the power, not delegated to them by the Constitution, to determine that foreign laws that call for violation of American laws and egregious abuses against any non-Muslim are acceptable in America, as well as morally equivalent to American laws that classify the practices called for by Islamic law as criminal.  They have defied American laws, rights, values, and norms, and reality, and their oath to support and defend America’s Constitution.  They are daft.

The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution in March 2019 in which appears the following text:

Whereas Muslims and people perceived to be Muslim are subjected to false and dangerous stereotypes and myths including unfair allegations that they sympathize with individuals who engage in violence or terror or support the oppression of women, Jews, and other vulnerable communities …

By passing that resolution, including the text cited above, the House of Representatives has established with painful clarity either that the members of the House are entirely ignorant with respect to the contents of the sacred texts of Islam, which clearly, repeatedly, and enthusiastically call for the hatred, discrimination, subjugation, terrorization, persecution, enslavement, rape, and mass murder of non-Muslims, or that the members of the House who voted to pass that resolution wish to deceive Americans with regard to the contents of those sacred texts.

The House of Representatives condemned Islamophobia.  This means that House members condemn superior moral values and condemn criticism of fascism; genocide; terrorism; and a long series of violent, perverse, barbaric atrocities and abominations.  Essentially, they condemn the traditional moral foundations of America, as well as of many other nations.  They condemn principles of the Constitution, of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, and of the Almighty God of Abraham.  And they condemn all American laws that criminalize all of the deranged, fascistic, and perverse practices authorized under Islamic law.  The House of Representatives has forfeited its last vestige of legitimacy, as a legislative body, of honor, and of sanity.

The resolution further states the following:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

(9) encourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence andencourages all public officials to confront the reality of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as historical struggles against them, to ensure that the United States will live up to the transcendent principles of tolerance, religious freedom, and equal protection as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and the first and 14th amendments to the Constitution.

The members of the House have encouraged all public officials to confront the “bigotry” of those who understand and openly declare that Islamofascism is an unlawful, barbaric abomination.  The members of the House have equated “Islamophobia,” the aversion to Islamic atrocities, with hatred of others based of their faith-based support of moral, ethical standards.  The members of the House have caused to be immortalized in print the tragic fact that they believe the vile lie that anyone has a right, acknowledged by America’s Constitution, to commit all of the crimes, perversions, and atrocities called for by Islamic law.

The members of the House have lost their collective mind.

But surely Americans can still look to their Senate to rescue Congress from the utter insanity of the House of Representatives.  Surely the Senate must confront the House to set it straight on its senseless, lawless expressions.  But alas, it is not so.

The fact is that the Senate and the House of Representatives are in full agreement in their insane expressions of disdain for truth, for American law, for the freedom to express truth, and for the lawful limits of their delegated power.

In fact, on April 5, 2017, all 100 United States senators voted to pass Senate Resolution 118, in which they defined as criminal anyone who displays any form of bias against Islam.  They also asked federal, state, and local law enforcement officials to investigate and bring charges against anyone who displays any form of bias against Islam.

The 100 senators and the majority of the members of the House have decided that their moral sense is greater than that of other Americans.  They have decided to grant themselves the power, not delegated to them by the Constitution, to determine that foreign laws that call for violation of American laws and egregious abuses against any non-Muslim are acceptable in America, as well as morally equivalent to American laws that classify the practices called for by Islamic law as criminal.  They have defied American laws, rights, values, and norms, and reality, and their oath to support and defend America’s Constitution.  They are daft.

via American Thinker Blog

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