January 17, 2021
By Caitlin JOHNSTONE
The Biden/Harris inauguration event is going to be a star-studded celebration spanning an unprecedented five days, a giddy orgy of excitement at a murderous oligarchic empire having a new face behind the front desk after promising wealthy donors that nothing will fundamentally change.
This comes at a time when Americans are now reporting that they trust corporations more than they trust their own government or media, when pundits are gleefully proclaiming in
The New York Times that “CEOs have become the fourth branch of government” as they pressure the entire political system to smoothly install Biden, when the leading contender for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is an Obama holdover who went from the administration to working for both Amazon and Google, and when Americans are being paced into accepting an increasing amount of authoritarian changes for their own good.
Caitlin Johnstone
The Biden/Harris inauguration event is going to be a star-studded celebration spanning an unprecedented five days, a giddy orgy of excitement at a murderous oligarchic empire having a new face behind the front desk after promising wealthy donors that nothing will fundamentally change.
This comes at a time when Americans are now reporting that they trust corporations more than they trust their own government or media, when pundits are gleefully proclaiming in
The New York Times that “CEOs have become the fourth branch of government” as they pressure the entire political system to smoothly install Biden, when the leading contender for the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division is an Obama holdover who went from the administration to working for both Amazon and Google, and when Americans are being paced into accepting an increasing amount of authoritarian changes for their own good.
Android Community
January 14, 2021
It took a while to get here but Google has finally completed its acquisition of fitness wearables company Fitbit. The deal has been valued at $2.1 billion and follows the announcement late last year of the approval from the European Commission. Google has made some commitments to the EU regarding the planned operation and use of health data from existing and future customers. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice Antitrust Division says they are still continuing the investigation into the acquisition and have not given the final okay.
In their official announcement, Google’s Senior Vice President for Devices and Services, Rick Osterloh, announced that the acquisition has been completed and that they are welcoming the team to Google. He also emphasized the same song that they have been singing, that the deal is “about devices, not data”. In order to get the EU approval, Google had to pledge to not use the health and wellness data from Fi
Thursday, January 14, 2021
What happened?
The Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (“DOJ”) announced that, on January 5, 2021, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Surgical Care Affiliates LLC and its related entity (together, “SCA”), which own and operate outpatient medical care centers across the country, for agreeing with competitors not to solicit senior-level employees. This follows on the heels of DOJ’s announcement last month that a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment charging Neeraj Jindal (“Jindal”), the former owner of a therapist staffing company, for participating in a conspiracy to fix prices by lowering the rates paid to physical therapists and physical therapist assistants. These indictments mark the first times that DOJ has challenged alleged no-poaching and wage-fixing agreements as criminal violations of federal antitrust law.