WarSclerotic

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry told Breitbart News that attorneys general across America — both Democrat and Republican — are considering “all actions,” including the use of existing antitrust law, to curb the growing power held by technology firms such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2019/03/19/jeff-landry-all-options-are-on-the-table-to-break-big-tech-monopolies/

Jose Luis Magana/AP

Landry offered his remarks in a Tuesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

“We have seen a tremendous amount of consolidation in regard to social platforms and the tech industry over the last decade, and the result of that has become a handful of companies that have amassed a tremendous amount of data and power over the U.S. and world economy,” said Landry.

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Landry added, “Just the fact that they can censor any type of speech is problematic, on top of the fact that the monetization of people’s personal data is enriching these companies at the expense of the consumer.”

A bipartisan consensus among America’s attorneys general is arising with respect to the increasing concentration of power among several technology firms, remarked Landry.

“When you talk to attorneys general around the country — irrespective of whether they’re Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative — there is an instinct that something is going on, there is this instinctive feeling that something must be done with these companies, that they have become too big,” Landry claimed.

Marlow asked, “This is an issue where it seems like right and left, all of a sudden, are unified in their skepticism over the way these big tech giants [became] so rich and powerful. They’re the biggest lobbyists in Washington, D.C. They operate completely opaquely [with] almost no transparency. So you probably have found some — maybe unexpected — camaraderie with some of your Democrat colleagues in this regard?”

Landry replied, “What makes America great is that no one is bigger than the people, right? No one is truly bigger than the government which, of course, is a government of the people. Historically, when corporations in this country, in our free market economy, have amassed monopolistic power — power to basically control the economy — the people have stood up and said, ‘Enough is enough. Something must be done.’ There’s been a lot of positive that has come out of government taking action in this type of matter.”

“All action is on top of the table,” continued Landry. “In a couple of weeks — in fact, I think it’s next week on the 25th — there’s a roundtable being conducted by attorneys general in front of the FEC to discuss this, to discuss the harm that it’s placing on consumers, whether or not it will lead to antitrust action against the companies, or whether or not we should be looking more carefully on any mergers or consolidations or buyouts by these tech companies.”

Increasing concentration of power within Silicon Valley undermines free markets and human freedom, remarked Landry.

“When you look at the amount of data, the amount of processing power that these companies have at their disposal, they know more about you than you know about yourself,” said Landry. “We’ve seen them make comments like, ‘We can basically bend the consumer in the direction we want him to go rather than what he wants.’ That’s not independence. That’s not liberty. That’s not a free market.”

Landry said technology companies’ power is beginning to usurp government in terms of “shaping social policy”:

That’s what the Sherman Antitrust Act in the late 1800s was written exactly for. The definition, the reasoning behind it, was exactly what you just explained [about viewpoint discrimination and corporate censorship], because in our free form of government, under our democracy, we believe that no one entity should be more powerful than the government in shaping social policy.That’s something that’s best left to elected officials and to the people as a whole. That’s one of the reasons I stood up here in Louisiana and led an effort to throw Bank of America and Citigroup out of representing the state of Louisiana in some transportation bond transactions, because they had taken a position on the Second Amendment. That’s not their job. Their job is to lend money, and as long as the activity is legal, then they should be engaging in that process. We shouldn’t have these boardrooms shaping social policy. That’s best left to the government.

Technology companies’ biases are not exclusively political, warned Landry, noting how search engine users can be deceived by Google’s ad practices.

“We’ll be looking at whether Google’s ad practices hurt the consumer, [and] whether or not there’s an expectation by the consumer [for unbiased search results],” said Landry. “Because one of the things that I think Americans and mostly people around the world have come to appreciate when they utilize the internet and when they go into that search bar is that there’s an expectation that what they’re searching for is not tainted — there’s no bias attached to that — and what we’re finding is that there are.”

Landry concluded, “When we’re talking about bias, let’s not even talk about it in the political space. Let’s talk about bias in the product space. There’s an expectation, in my opinion, that when you go in there and you search for shoes or you search for a type of shoe, that you’re not looking only for the best price but also for quality in that best price. But what we’re finding and what we’re hearing from the consumers out there is that is not the case.”

Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.

Source: Islamic State fighters pinned on Syrian riverbank, warplanes fly above – Middle East – Jerusalem PoFt

fighters are still holed up in the central Syrian desert and others have gone underground in Iraqi cities to wage an insurgent campaign to destabilize the government.

Smoke rises from the last besieged neighborhood in the village of Baghouz, Deir Al Zor province, Syria, March 18, 2019. (photo credit: REUTERS/STRINGER)

DEIR AL-ZOR PROVINCE, Syria – Warplanes flew near Baghouz in eastern Syria early on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, as the final remnants of the Islamic State group held a narrow strip of land along the Euphrates in a last-ditch defense of its dwindling territory.

Defeat there would signal the end of the ultra-hardline Islamist movement’s control in eastern Syria, having held more than a third of Syria and Iraq at one point in 2014 as it sought to carve out a huge caliphate in the region.

On Tuesday, the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had driven the remaining Islamic State fighters in the town of Baghouz from a makeshift encampment that had represented most of its remaining territory.

But while the capture of Baghouz, close to the Iraqi border, would mark a significant milestone in Syria’s eight-year war and in the battle against the jihadist group, Islamic State remains a threat.

Some of the group’s fighters are still holed up in the central Syrian desert and others have gone underground in Iraqi cities to wage an insurgent campaign to destabilize the government.

Mustafa Bali, a spokesman for the SDF, said late on Tuesday that clashes with the militants at the Euphrates were continuing “in several pockets.”

Source: Ariel terrorist who killed rabbi and soldier dies in firefight with IDF troops | The Times of Israel

After two-day manhunt, Israeli troops circle building to arrest Palestinian attacker, shoot him after he opens fire on security forces

An Israeli soldier stands guard in the northern West Bank village of Salem, east of Nablus, on March 18, 2019, during a search operation for a Palestinian suspect. (JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

A Palestinian who killed an IDF soldier and Israeli civilian in a terror attack on Sunday was shot dead in a firefight with Israeli forces near Ramallah, following a two-day manhunt, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

Israeli troops surrounded a building in Abwein on Tuesday night where Omar Abu Laila, 18, was hiding out, according to the Shin Bet security service and police.

As they circled the structure “the perpetrator opened fire at our forces and was killed in the exchange of fire,” an official statement from Israeli authorities said.

There were no Israeli injuries.

Omar Abu Laila, 18, the suspected terrorist in a fatal attack at Ariel Junction on March 17, 2019 (Facebook)

Troops had been carrying out intensive searches for Abu Laila since Sunday, after he fled into a Palestinian town after fatally stabbing a soldier, stealing his gun and opening fire on passing vehicles, killing a rabbi and wounding a soldier.

Clashes were reported between Israeli troops and local Palestinians during and after the operation.

The official PA news site Wafa said earlier that a Palestinian was wounded by Israeli fire during the clashes that broke out in Abwein. The news site said he was transported to a hospital in Ramallah for treatment.

According to Wafa, Israeli security forces circled the home after cutting its power lines and calling on a person inside through megaphones to surrender.

Ma’an, a Bethlehem-based Palestinian news outlet, said two Palestinians were wounded in Abwein during “violent clashes” with Israeli security forces. Ma’an also said troops opened fire at the building, after calling on the suspect to turn himself in and threatening to demolish the structure.

Videos posted on social media purporting to be from the scene showed heavy fighting.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) pays a condolence call to the family of Rabbi Achiad Ettinger in the West Bank settlement of Eli, March 19, 2019 (Haim Zach/GPO)

“Israel’s long arm will reach all those who hurt our citizens and soldiers,” he said, according to his office.

According to Israeli authorities, Abu Laila fatally stabbed Sgt. Gal Keidan at the Ariel junction, grabbed the soldier’s gun and opened fire at passing vehicles, hitting Rabbi Ettinger, before stealing a vehicle and fleeing the scene. The terrorist then drove to the nearby Gitai junction, where he opened fire again, wounding soldier Alexander Dvorsky. He then fled on foot into the nearby village of Burqin.

Mourners carry the body of 47-year-old rabbi Achiad Ettinger, who died from his injuries sustained a day earlier during a gun and knife terror attack, during his funeral in the West Bank settlement of Eli, on March 18, 2019. (MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

Ettinger, a father of 12, succumbed to his injuries Monday morning.

Ettinger’s wife Tamar praised the operation, but called for the government to go further in taking action against the killer and his family.

“We expect from the government of Israel that it fight to eradicate this terrorism, and that it go further and expel the terrorist’s family, his entire family, and his entire village,” Tamar Ettinger said.

Rabbi Achiad Ettinger, who was shot March 17 at the Ariel junction and succumbed to his injuries the following day (Nadav Goldstein/TPS)

Authorities have already ordered work be started to demolish Abu Laila’s family home, a controversial tactic Israel defends as a deterrent against future attacks.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan praised the police officers who carried out the raid, and vowed to “continue to hunt down” terrorists who attack Israelis.

Overnight, forces combed the suspect’s home village of Zawiya near the West Bank city of Ariel, where the attack took place.

IDF soldier Gal Keidan, who was killed in a stabbing and shooting attack by a Palestinian terrorist in the northern West Bank on March 17, 2019. (IDF Spokesperson)

On Tuesday morning, Israel Radio reported that the manhunt was shifting to intelligence gathering under the assumption that Abu Laila was holed up in a secure hideout.

It was not immediately clear how Abu Laila managed to move from Burqin, in the northern West Bank, to the Ramallah area, some 60 kilometers (35 miles) south.

IDF soldiers seen during a raid in the village of Bruqin near the West Bank town of Salfit on March 17, 2019. (Flash90)

It is still unknown if the terrorist acted alone before, during or after the attack. Because he appeared to know what he was doing with the weapon, he might have had military training, defense officials said.