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Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Being Attorney General: Bill Barr

From news coverage--and also blog coverage, like, right here--one might get the impression that all Bill Barr has to do as AG is to handle the Russia Hoax. Obviously that's an important part of his work, but there's lots more on his plate--which is why he has Michael Horowitz, John Durham and (almost certainly) DAG Jeffrey Rosen hard at work on that. Dealing with inherited personnel problems, after eight years of legal radicalism under Obama and two years of inaction under Sessions, is a huge task. Pushing a new agenda in coordination with the US attorney offices around the country is also a big deal--and you can see Barr's involvement in this from his frequent travels. That's not just for show or because he likes flying around. Coordinating the government enforcement of and response to challenges to Trump's agenda is also part of his job.

Yesterday there was a major development that should impact political and civil life in this country for years to come. Like Trump, Barr is making good on promises he has made. Here I'll simply paste in the WSJ account of this development via Don Surber--including Surber's comments. Note, however, the months of work that went into preparing for this initiative. Never think that Barr is sitting back and taking it easy:

"The Justice Department is opening a broad antitrust review into whether dominant technology firms are unlawfully stifling competition, adding a new Washington threat for companies such as Facebook Inc., Google, Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. 
"The review is geared toward examining the practices of online platforms that dominate Internet search, social media and retail services, the department said, confirming the review shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported it. 
"The new antitrust inquiry is the strongest signal yet of Attorney General William Barr’s deep interest in the tech sector, and it could ratchet up the already considerable regulatory pressures facing the top U.S. tech firms. The review is designed to go above and beyond recent plans for scrutinizing the tech sector that were crafted by the department and the Federal Trade Commission. 
"The two agencies, which share antitrust enforcement authority, in recent months worked out which one of them would take the lead on exploring different issues involving the big-four tech giants. Those turf agreements caused a stir in the tech industry and rattled investors. Now, the new Justice Department review could amplify the risk, because some of those companies could face antitrust claims from both the Justice Department and the FTC. 
"The FTC in February created its own task force to monitor competition in the tech sector; that team’s work is ongoing. 
"The Justice Department will examine issues including how the most dominant tech firms have grown in size and might — and expanded their reach into additional businesses. The Justice Department also is interested in how Big Tech has leveraged the powers that come with having very large networks of users, the department said." 
They should not have messed with conservatives. 
Now they pay. 
The purpose of government is to protect my God-given rights. Treating us like second-class citizens cannot be tolerated. 
Get woke -- and broken up!


1 comment:

  1. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. And not just or only in politics and government.

    ReplyDelete