The worst of times require the best from our leaders. Tragedy begets fear, and it is in these times of tragedy that we expect the most from those that we elect. Moments like this test the moral foundation of our leaders, laying bare their best (and worst) intentions. Throughout both the COVID-19 pandemic and the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the responsibility of charting our nation’s path to action has largely fallen on individual state leaders, including state attorneys general.
Amazon is taking advantage of homebound Americans’ reliance on e-commerce during the COVID-19 pandemic. As small businesses struggle to stay afloat, Amazon’s monopoly keeps on growing. During the week of April 19th, 2020 alone, Amazon saw 93 percent more consumer spending than it did during the same week in 2019; meanwhile, 100,000 small American businesses are estimated to have permanently closed since the pandemic started.
The lawsuit argues that the final Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles (SAFE) rule stops progress that has been made to protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, hurts the economy, and harms public health.
“The Trump administration’s new rule undoes hard-earned progress to protect our health, environment, and economy,” said Attorney General Josh Stein. “As Attorney General, I will fight to uphold the law and safeguard the air we breathe and the water we drink.”
"Hard-earned progress" is right on the money. The U.S. Supreme Court had to (literally) order George W. Bush's EPA to regulate vehicle emissions in 2007, and they fiddled around until Obama's EPA started genuinely working on it. But here's the kicker: auto makers responded to both the emissions regulations and CAFE Standards (MPG), and vast improvements were made in both areas. Traffic still backs up around LA, but most of the smog is gone. In other words, everybody's happy, except the anti-government ideologues. This is what we're dealing with:
Technology has provided numerous opportunities that didn't exist as little as 10 years ago. With the push of a button, we can watch a random video clip from 1970, or order a left-handed back scratcher delivered to our door in 24 hours.
Over the past 18 months we've seen tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Amazon receive harsh criticisms for a myriad of ways their business practices harm consumers, competitors, and workers. We've seen Mark Zuckerberg testify in front of Congressional committees and heard pundits lament the bad behavior of big tech. Despite the consistent negative media attention directed at these mega companies, there has not been any significant punishment to encourage them to change their ways.
Mark Zuckerberg might be right...as hard as it is to say. Even he says that government needs to intervene and regulate the practices of big tech companies--even his own Facebook, and many others like Google and Amazon. These companies are not only taking advantage of our private data and using it without our consent, but they are also monopolizing the market and have gotten too big to regulate themselves. Zuckerberg wrote in the Washington Post, "“At our scale we’ll always make mistakes.”
And rumor has it Josh Stein just added NC to the effort:
Citing his investigation into the FCC’s public comments process preceding the vote, Schneiderman declared his office’s intention to sue to “stop the FCC’s illegal rollback of net neutrality” — a forthcoming legal challenge that’s sure to be in good company. In response to questions from TechCrunch, Schneiderman’s office noted that he will spearhead a multi-state lawsuit and that we can expect it “in the coming days.”
“We will be filing a claim to preserve protections for New Yorkers and all Americans. And we’ll be working aggressively to stop the FCC’s leadership from doing any further damage to the internet and to our economy,” Schneiderman said in a press release.
Hopefully they'll be able to get an injunction put in place with the quickness, before we start seeing shenanigans with our Internet access.
North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein announced on Thursday that he has eliminated 45 positions in the state Department of Justice after the state budget adopted earlier this summer included a surprise $10 million budget cut.
“What I’m telling you today is, we can’t do the last third,” said Stein, a Democrat in his first term. “The last third will put too much damage, too much risk on the public’s safety. For that reason, we are repeating our call to the General Assembly: ‘Please, protect the people of North Carolina, and find a way to fill this gap.’ ”
What you're seeing right now might be the true danger of gerrymandering, lawmaking that actually imperils the safety of the citizenry. Under a more competitive districting situation, such reckless behavior could be corrected in the voting booth. But when your power is guaranteed by crooked maps, you don't really care what the voters think.
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