Breitbart Business Digest: Biden’s Noncompete Ban Is a Gift to Silicon Valley
Biden’s FTC Moves to Protect Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft with a Ban on Noncompetes
The Biden administration’s declaration that it will treat almost all noncompete provisions in employment agreements as illegal should be seen for what it is: sectional warfare and a giveaway to his wealthy supporters in Silicon Valley.
The Biden appointees Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday to ban noncompete agreements for virtually all employees, from the hourly wage workers to the most senior company executives. The vote was strictly partisan, with the commission’s three Democrats favoring the ban and the two Republicans opposing it.
When the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) first began mulling a rule against noncompetes, many expected that it would be structured to cover only lower paid workers or at least stop at the c-suite.
Most of the political rhetoric against the provisions has been directed at the fact that in recent years they’ve been sometimes applied to some people who work as custodial staff, or sandwich shop workers, or security guards. For these workers, noncompetes are basically irrational products of over-lawyering—even if they are rarely enforced and possibly unenforceable in most circumstances. If the FTC banned only these noncompetes, there would likely be few objections and no negative economic impact.
But Biden’s FTC decided to adopt a maximalist stance on noncompetes, barring them even for senior executives. You might not think that Tim Cook needs protection from the FTC against Apple unfairly asking him to wait several months before leaving to run a different tech giant, but the FTC does.
Actually, Cook was already protected from the burden of a noncompete provision in his employment agreement by a law that has been on the books in California for 150 years. The Golden State has long had one of the strictest rules against the provisions, and last year Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a pair of additional laws further cracking down on noncompetes.
This is one reason that Silicon Valley is not up in arms about the FTC rule. It has been operating under a bar on noncompete agreements from the start. Microsoft, although based in Washington, said last year that it would voluntarily stop enforcing noncompete agreements. Which means that by adopting the rule, the FTC was not risking politically alienating the big Biden tech sector donors.
Californication of Noncompetes Is a War on Texas, Michigan, and Pennsylvania
To the contrary, the FTC is delivering a huge gift to Silicon Valley and Microsoft because the rule amounts to a Californication of the rest of the country. States hoping to attract innovative companies with laws that are more permissive when it comes to contractual noncompetes will now be barred from doing so by the power of the federal government.
Texas is probably the most prominent victim of the FTC’s Californication rule. Noncompetes are generally enforceable under Texas law, so companies that consider the provisions important had reason to locate there instead of neighboring California. The same is true for Pennsylvania and Michigan, states that also would very much like to break California’s hold on tech start-ups and have the higher education firepower to make that a realistic goal. Wisconsin is slightly stricter about noncompetes, but it too is far more permissive than California—or it was until the FTC declared this week that this is now illegal.
In other words, the FTC’s new rule against noncompetes is itself anticompetitive. Its effect—a cynic could even say its goal—is to make it harder for the 47 states that allow contractual noncompetes to compete with California for jobs, investment, and innovation. It also makes it harder for smaller tech companies to protect themselves and their intellectual property from predation by Apple, Meta, Google, and Microsoft.
The Vaporware of a Noncompete Ban
The fact that California has long banned noncompetes is also a reason why the alleged benefits—thousands of more patents, an explosion of innovation, lots and lots of jobs—of a nationwide ban touted by the FTC are likely to turn out to be vaporware. Employees seeking to escape the grip of a noncompete to found their own companies already had the option of moving to a state that would not enforce the provision. And states that believed they were losing out on innovative companies could change their laws.
The nationwide ban is more likely to stymie innovation and investment by preventing states from experimenting with different legal treatments of noncompetes and banning companies from seeking the right legal regime for their business. We’ve had terrific success in developing technology in this country with a federalist approach to contractual noncompetes. Adopting a one-size-fits all model is a risky experiment, at best.
The silver lining here is that the FTC’s rule is held up by the slimmest legal thread. It’s very likely that the federal courts will put the rule on hold and eventually strike it down as overreaching the commission’s statutory authority. If the federal government is going to ban noncompetes, it likely requires actual legislation rather than agency fiat.
That likely does not matter to Biden and his apparatchiks in the federal regulatory bureaucracy. The goal of keeping Donald Trump out of the White House overrides any concerns about the long-term economic effects of their policies or their legality. They think the noncompete ban is a political winner—and that’s all that counts for this administration.
Conclusion
There you have it – the Democratic Party in all its totalitarian glory. Whatever obstacles its members may face, their instinctive response is always the same: iron-fisted thuggery. (BELOW)
Big Tech Writes Its Ticket to the White House
Silicon Valley's allies are filling up the Biden administration.
A big payoff is sure to follow.
Washington Free Beacon Editors - DECEMBER
23, 2020 6:10 PM
Silicon Valley played an integral role in propelling
Joe Biden to the White House. He raked in uncounted millions from liberal tech
billionaires such as Netflix's Reed Hastings, LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman, and
Apple heiress Laurene Powell Jobs; their employees shelled out $5 million more.
As Biden takes office, the techies want what they
paid for. Reuters reports that executives at
top firms like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are gunning for jobs at
the Departments of Defense, State, Justice, and Commerce and also eyeing
influential posts at the Federal Trade Commission and beyond.
They want two things: lucrative federal contracts and
less scrutiny than they’ve gotten over the past four years, as President Donald
Trump has made their bias against conservatives front-page news. The Department
of Justice's antitrust inquiry into big tech has already garnered bipartisan
backing, including from a group of state attorneys general who have filed their own suit.
A Biden administration could make all of that go
away. And it could ignore altogether these firms' obsequious dealings with
Communist China.
That explains the rush to fill seats: It’s unlikely
that the techies moving into the Biden administration will check their business
relationships at the door. Each hire is another pressure point for Silicon
Valley’s most powerful to exploit.
This is hardly a problem unique to Democrats—you just
hear about it less when they’re in the White House. This sort of revolving door
was considered outrageous in the George W. Bush administration, when Democrats
and the media harped relentlessly on Dick Cheney’s ties to Halliburton and
charged that he was in the pocket of Big Oil. They raised the same ruckus when
Trump appointed Exxon chief Rex Tillerson as his first secretary of state.
These unseemly connections aren’t new for Democrats.
Google employees averaged a meeting a week with that
Obama White House, influencing a president who "routinely pushed
policy that pleased the tech-savvy."
Now think what happens with those same lobbyists
running the show. After rolling out transition teams free of connections to big
tech, Team Biden added several Facebook executives over the Thanksgiving
holiday. The transition team "has already stacked its agency review teams
with more tech executives than tech critics," Reuters notes, including
"several officials from Big Tech companies, which emerged as top donors to
the campaign."
Their influence doesn’t stop there. Biden on Tuesday
named as an economic adviser Joelle Gamble, who last worked as an investor
under eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, funneling funding to outfits run by other
Biden appointees. Others may soon follow, like Mark
Zuckerberg’s philanthropy chief and former Kamala Harris aide Mike Troncoso.
For just one example of how a problematic connection,
consider WestExec, the consultancy
cofounded by secretary of state nominee Tony Blinken. The firm helped Google win contracts
from the Defense Department and advised Google cofounder Eric Schmidt's
philanthropy. Now, Reuters says, Schmidt is making recommendations for
personnel in the Biden Defense Department, a textbook example of business
relationships shaping government policy.
That’s just the start of the coming horse trading,
hidden behind the Obama-era pretext that the White House is merely cultivating
a relationship with the smartest people. But if personnel is policy, the Biden
White House will be doing everything it can to comfort Silicon Valley’s most
comfortable.
Biden Taps Liberal Billionaire’s Acolyte for Top
Econ. Job
Incoming Biden adviser's last project said capitalism 'fundamentally
broken'
Charles Fain Lehman - DECEMBER
21, 2020 4:40 PM
President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday that he
will appoint Joelle Gamble, who previously worked as a principal at the
social-change investment firm funded by liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar, as
a top economic adviser.
Gamble, who left her role at the Omidyar Network (ON)
to work on domestic economic policy for the Biden-Harris transition team, will
serve as special assistant to the president for economic policy, a job on the
National Economic Council.
That role may be informed by her previous work as a principal at the network's "reimagining
capitalism" project, an Elizabeth Warren-esque endeavor that maintains that "capitalism can still be a powerful force
for good" but that "the current form of capitalism is fundamentally
broken."
Gamble's appointment means that an economic
progressive will have the president's ear as he seeks to revitalize the
post-COVID economy. It also forges a connection between the Biden
administration and Omidyar, who has funneled millions to left-leaning activist
groups, including those run by other Biden appointees, and is a major funder of
groups opposed to President Donald Trump.
Neither the Biden Transition Team nor the Omidyar
Network responded to requests for comment.
Gamble joined the Omidyar Network last June,
following her graduation from Princeton's graduate program in economics. In
that role, she was a frequent public commentator on what she saw as the
injustices and inequities of capitalism, writing in the left-wing
magazine Dissent, for example, that "our measure of economic
security is based on white economic security." Reporting her involvement
with the Biden transition in October, the Washington Examiner described her as
"represent[ing] the left wing of the Democratic Party within Biden's
economic team."
She honed those positions at ON, a social-change
investor that operates as both an LLC and a 501(c)3 nonprofit, allowing it
to invest in both for-profit and non-profit ventures.
ON operates several major projects across its
portfolio of over $100 million in
outstanding grants. That includes Gamble's "reimagining capitalism,"
which aims to restructure capitalist society around principles that include "an explicitly
anti-racist and inclusive economy" and "rebalanc[ing] the
relationship between markets, governments, and communities."
Under that aegis, "reimagining capitalism"
has given grants to a number of influential left-leaning groups,
including those with connections to the incoming administration. Contributions
include $500,000 to the Roosevelt Institute, where Gamble worked for five years
before matriculating at Princeton, as well as $700,000 to the Center for
American Progress, run by Biden OMB nominee Neera Tanden, and $1.5 million to
the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, led by Heather Boushey, a Biden
nominee to serve on the Council of Economic Advisers.
The whole affair is funded by eBay cofounder Pierre
Omidyar, whose net worth Forbes estimates to be in excess of
$20 billion. Omidyar is one of a group of Silicon Valley billionaires who have
increasingly flexed their financial muscle in the political arena since Donald
Trump's ascent to the presidency.
ON is not Omidyar's only charitable venture. Through
Democracy Fund Voice, he has given extensively to
activist groups including the Proteus Action League, Sixteen Thirty Fund, and
the Tides Foundation, the primary sponsor of Black
Lives Matter. He also has a history of financial
support for Democrats, including generous donations to the DSCC and DCCC in the
early 2000s and contributions to both Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) and
then-senator Harry Reid (D., Nev.) in 2008. His media company, First Look
Media, is the primary backer of the left-wing investigative outlet The Intercept.
Omidyar has also been a generous backer specifically
of opponents of Trump. He was the primary funder of NeverTrump PAC, later Never Means
Never PAC, dropping $250,000 over the 2016 cycle. He also backed the anti-Trump
"Not Who We Are" PAC, alongside fellow Silicon Valley billionaires
Dustin Moskovitz, Cari Tuna, and Christopher Hughes. Through Democracy Fund Voice,
he has given over half-a-million dollars to support Stand Up Republic, a group
that organizes Republicans critical of the president.
Techies like Omidyar have flocked to Biden,
with a Wired investigation finding
that 95 percent of contributions from tech employees went to the Democratic
nominee. They are in turn already enjoying outsized influence in the
transition, which has drawn on Silicon Valley
to staff its teams. Gamble's appointment extends these connections from the
office to the network of charitable groups funded by top tech execs, further
entwining the Biden administration with their wealth.
Has Our Government Erased the First Amendment?
The most important thing you will see this week is this interview of Mike Benz by Tucker Carlson: Benz is with the Foundation for Freedom, which tracks government censorship. In this interview he explains how our government rigged elections abroad and has now, through DHS (Department of Homeland Security) and CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), censored online communications, noting that its most substantial censorship involved blocking and limiting any critiques online respecting the government’s responses to COVID-19 and the security of the 2020 election.
Rep. Andy Ogles Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Biden, Harris: ‘They Have Mired Office in Criminal Activity, Political Weaponization’
AMY FURR
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced articles of impeachment Monday against President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing them of poorly handling their leadership roles.
The articles accuse Biden of “weaponizing” the presidency in an effort to “shield the business and influence peddling schemes of his family from congressional oversight and public accountability,” Fox News reported Monday.
In a social media post on Monday, Ogles said Biden and Harris have “refused to protect and defend the Constitution.”
“They have mired their office in criminal activity and political weaponization. It is time their corruption be brought to task with the full force of the law,” he added:
The documents also claim the president has acted in a “manner contrary to the public trust and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States” in regard to how he has dealt with the crisis at the southern border.
In February, Ogles yelled, “It’s your fault,” at Biden during the State of the Union Address when he was speaking about fentanyl deaths, according to Breitbart News.
Ogles later said he was one of those who shouted at Biden regarding the issue.
“He has left our border wide open and allowed our streets to be flooded with drugs; meanwhile, 60% of women and children are raped trying to cross. Yes, it’s his fault,” he stated.
According to WKRN, Ogles said in a statement Monday, “Joe Biden hasn’t just failed the American people with his abysmal excuse for ‘leadership,’ he’s violated his sworn oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
“Joe Biden has repeatedly abused his position of power, both as vice president and president, to cover up his illicit family business dealings and exploitation of taxpayer resources,” he concluded:
Punishments attached to an official impeachment are removal from office and a possible ban from serving in the government, the WKRN report said.
The impeachment articles regarding Harris target her performance as vice president and how she has dealt with issues at the nation’s southern border, per the Fox report.
The documents accuse her of exhibiting “extraordinary incompetence” regarding her responsibilities at the border.
After Biden named Harris the “Border Czar” in 2021, she faced mounting criticism from Republicans due to her lack of effort and hesitancy in visiting the border to assess the situation, Breitbart News reported in May.
Related — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Finishes Her “Impeachment Week” by Announcing She’s Filing Articles to Impeach Biden
video: mayorkas urges illegals to vote for biden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxfjL3BkYes
Established by the White House in 1987, the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) is an award-winning nonprofit that identifies, inspires, prepares and positions Latino leaders in the classroom, community and workforce to meet America's priorities.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was grilled by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) during a hearing over an alleged flyer that the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project claims asks migrants to vote for President Joe Biden in November.
Elon Musk’s Twitter Censors ALIPAC Ad on Documentation of Noncitizen Voters Citing ‘Hate Speech’
Americans For Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) has withdrawn support for Elon Musk’s X/Twitter after the platform censored its ad promoting a new website and forum section aimed at documenting noncitizen and illegal migrant voters.
On April 17, ALIPAC launched a press release announcing the creation of NonCitizenVoters.com, a website dedicated to collecting documentation of noncitizen and illegal migrant voters. The purpose of the site is to assist media, lawmakers, candidates, and voters in addressing this acknowledged national issue. However, the X/Twitter ad promoting the press release and information, which quickly gained 44,000 views, was censored and halted by Elon Musk’s company.
William Gheen, spokesman for ALIPAC, said in a post: “Today we are releasing Twitter’s emails to us declaring that felony-committing noncitizen and illegal migrant voters are a ‘protected group’ on X and promoting documentation and sources proving we have a system-wide problem with this form of election fraud is considered ‘hate speech / hateful content’ which they will block!”
The release and post was flooded by comments on both X/Twitter and Facebook, claiming that anyone concerned about the issue of illegal migrant voters was lying and a racist. ALIPAC notified a national network of activists and encouraged them to respond to the trolls with links and source citations.
ALIPAC believes that many of the commenters are online trolls, referring to them as “China Trolls” or “Laughing Trolls.” According to ALIPAC, these trolls are hired by unknown paymasters and attack people in groups, use the same language, and target accounts that have low visibility and are shadowbanned, such as @ALIPAC. These trolls also appear to have a poor understanding of basic English and the issues at hand, according to ALIPAC. They respond very quickly to certain content, which suggests that they are searching platforms to find targeted content about immigration, Ukraine, and other related topics.
When ALIPAC contested the censorship of their ad by X/Twitter and inquired why it was censored, Twitter initially stated: “Our team manually reviewed your content and confirmed that it violates our Hateful Content policy…Hate speech or advocacy against a protected group, individual, or organization.” However, when asked where it was written that people of many races violating American election laws and committing felonies by voting as noncitizens are a protected group, Twitter changed its stance and claimed that the ad was targeting countries not permitted for advertising Political Content.
ALIPAC, a registered Political Action Committee, responded by citing a recent article in the Guardian stating that Twitter allows U.S. political candidates and parties to advertise. They asked for clarification on whether the current Twitter / X Political Content Policy prohibits their political advertising in the United States or if a change needs to be made to allow their ads to run only in the United States.
Twitter did not respond and instead reiterated their claim that the ad violates their “Hate Speech” rules.
Read more at ALIPAC here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
DEMOCRAT PARTY NEO-FASCISM: FIRST BLOCK FREE SPEECH UNDER THE GUISE OF 'MISINFORMATION'
Here is the problem in a nutshell. Most Democrat voters don't realize that leftist idealogues have hijacked the Democrat party, actively pushing traditional Democrat politicians out. They don't yet understand that the Democrat party they knew doesn't exist anymore. Almost all of the major news organizations work together to lie to Democrat voters and feed them misinformation constantly. Corrupted government entities like the FBI and the DOJ, and the leftists running all social media, have worked together to censor and silence any dissenting voices. The goal is to create a false reality in the eyes of Democrat voters and shield them from the truth. This is vital to ensure their continued support on Election Day. IAN MacCONNELL
Mayorkas TORCHED by Marjorie Taylor Greene for TREASON!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJWPI8vuMq4
Maxine Waters opposes voter ID laws; she thinks that they are racist. You need to have a photo ID to attend her town hall meetings.
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