Law, Power, and Justice

“This is a which side are you on election.”  Shawn Fein, president of the UAW.

THURSDAY 15 AUGUST 2024 #2

AFTERNOON NEWS NOTES

Democracy Now 8/14/24

•        UAW has filed charges against Trump and Musk for threatening to fire striking employees.  This is a federal crime under National Labor Relations Act.  The two men laughed about the prospect of firing workers on strike.

•        Shawn Fain, president of the UAW, said Trump and Musk and people like them do not care about workers.  They need to be held to account.  They laugh about firing people.  “This is a which side are you on election.”

•        Elon Musk is giving tens of millions of dollars to support Donald Trump.

•        The following if an interview with WSJ reporter, Dana Mattiolli, author of “The Everything War.” 

•        Musk had for years been a Democrat, but he “broke with the Democrats.”  Musk said that he had been a Democratic voter.  During the Biden administration, there was a break involving Tesla.  Tesla factories are not unionized.  Musk was not invited to Biden-held meetings about electric cars. 

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/business/tesla-snub-white-house-event/index.html

•        The super-pac Musk is involved with brought in staff from DeSantis’ failed former campaign. 

(Note: This super pac is also now under investigation)

https://wskg.org/news/2024-08-14/elon-musks-super-pac-under-investigation-in-several-swing-states

•        There was some concern that the super-pac, America pac, was just gathering information about voters when it set up a website asking voters to register and then did not send them any literature.  But after journalistic investigation, it was found that right before literature was supposed to go out, Ameripac fired the vender responsible.  They had to hire back the vendor before forms were finally sent. 

•        Musk never wanted to be the face of this PAC and took actions to hide his involvement.  Musk was so controlling, he wanted to video people knocking on doors for his superpac to see what they were saying.

•        Trump called for Fein to be fired at a rally.  Now Fein is suing him.

•        Musk has a very contentious relationship with Fein.  Musk has a history of negative comments about union activity.  Tesla is one of the only US automakers who is not unionized. 

•        The Republican Party has been courting union workers and trying to “make itself appear to be more pro-union.”

•        Teamsters President Shawn Obrien, talked at the Republican Convention.  He spoke negatively about Amazon.

(Note: This was a highly controversial decision to speak at the RMC.  The speech itself was rousing, but O’Brien gave credit to people like J.D. Vance and Josh Hawley, who are not labor supporters.)

•        Amazon has a GDP larger than many countries.  Amazon is like the “modern day standard oil.”  It’s tactics are “anti-competitive.”  Amazon has had a bumpy history with Democrats, Biden has been really tough on Amazon.  FTC head Lena Kahn brought an historic monopoly lawsuit.  She made “enemies on both sides of the aisle.”

•        Everybody was nervous about Amazon.  Amazon “penetrated industry after industry.”

•        Their business practices were driven by this toxic culture.  Amazon “lied, spied, cheated its way to the top.”

•        Amazon won in the marketplace because it “had it’s fingers on the scale.”

•        Lena Kahn, FTC, sued Amazon for illegally suppressing competition.

•        Kahn found that Amazon was mistreating its customers by charging increased fees to small businesses.  50% of what small businesses pay goes to Amazon.  Amazon was also found to have used secret algorithms to raise prices for consumers, using illegal tactics.  Rival sites cannot compete.

•        In 2017, Kahn wrote an extremely significant article which was published in the Yale Law journal on the ‘Amazon paradox.”  Amazon, had “evaded government scrutiny.” 

Big donors have called for Harris to fire Kahn.  (Note: Podcast “Bad Faith” interviewee pointed out that public calls to fire Kahn only make it more difficult for Harris to do so.)

•        Jake Tapper interviewed billionaire donor, Reid Hoffman, Linkedin, who wants to fire Kahn.  Hoffman tried to minimize his role as a donor by saying he was, instead, an “expert.”  During the interview, Hoffman said that the relationship between donor and expert should be “kept secret.”  He then corrected himself and said “kept separate”.

•        There is a lot of pressure to get Kahn fired.  She has become a “lightening rod.”  “She has taken a very close look at their companies.”  Biden has been an advocate of Kahn’s.  Vance and Gaetz are also supporters of Kahn.  (Note: ?)

•        There could be a breakup of Amazon, which would be  “historic.” 

How Amazon “Lied, spied, cheated its way to the top.”  Democracy Now Interview.

https://www.democracynow.org/2024/8/14/dana_mattioli_amazon_the_everything_war

Vanity Fair interview with Mattioloi

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/inside-amazon-business-practices

Follow-Up from Wednesday

Maria Butina

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/maria-butina-and-the-open-secrets-of-the-russia-scandal

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/maria-butina-russia-nonprofits

The Times of Israel, 8/16/24, Wheels of Justice

After ten months, there are no indictments filed against hundreds of terrorists captured on October 7 and during the ongoing war.

• There are estimated to be 1,584 of these unlawful combatants being held by Israel.
• Even though new laws are being introduced to prosecute these individuals, there are already laws on the books that allow the death penalty to be applied to them (though this has never been done with this type of offender).
• The existing likely ways of prosecuting the criminals include 1) a criminal trial in Israel’s civil courts; 2) a trial in the IDF’s military court system where Palestinian terror suspects are often prosecuted, and 3) a special court established by new legislation.
• It appears that the method of prosecution has still not been decided upon.
• In an interesting turn, Yuval Kaplinsky, former head of the International Law Department, used the example of Netanyahu’s own trial to illustrate the problems with prosecuting in the civil courts.
• Netanyahu’s criminal trial has lasted over four years with the defense not having presented a case.  Kaplinsky predicted that trials for the Oct. 7 terrorists would take 20 years.
• Kaplinsky also asserted that the death penalty would only glorify the terrorists.
• Kaplinsky advocates amending a law which would allow long-term detention without trial, which can be renewed ever few years.  He uses the example of the US and it’s indeterminate sentencing of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
• Conservative legal scholar Rafael Biton, however, noted that trials would create an important historical record.  He noted the impact of the Nuremberg trials. 
• Biton argues that it was a collective crime and the individuals should be prosecuted collectively.