Politics
Brother of Biden’s top aide takes Amazon lobbying job, as president-elect packs government with tech industry players
Among them are names from Amazon, Airbnb, Lyft, LinkedIn, Google, Uber, Stripe, Dell, and Twitter.
Joe Biden has staffed his transition team with a host of former Silicon Valley players, and now a brother of his top White House aide has landed a lobbying gig with Amazon. Can Biden be trusted to rein in big tech?
Jeff Richetti, the brother of Joe Biden’s White House counsellor Steve Richetti, has landed a lobbying job with Amazon Web Services, CNBC reported on Saturday. According to documents seen by the news outlet, Richetti registered as a lobbyist for the e-commerce giant’s cloud services division on November 13, the same day TV networks called the election in Biden’s favor, after a trickle of late-arriving ballots put the former vice president ahead of Donald Trump in a number of key swing states.
CNBC’s sources reassured readers that Jeff Richetti’s work as a lobbyist wouldn’t influence Steve and, in turn, Biden.
“Jeff has never and will never lobby his brother on behalf of any of his clients, and Steve has had no role in his brother’s business since he sold his stake in the firm in 2012,” the source reportedly said. “Steve and Jeff keep their professional activities distinctly separate.”
Yet some readers were left unconvinced, with reporter Patrick Howley calling the “globalist” Biden administration “an alliance between [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos and the multinational corporate class and the politicians who have no clue what is going on but just want money.”
Biden spoke little on the campaign trail about restricting the growing power of big tech. He mentioned back in May that Amazon and its ilk “should start paying their taxes,” and spoke more than a year ago about wanting to revoke Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from legal liability for content posted on their platforms, but has since been quiet on the topic, while President Donald Trump has made it a rallying cry.
However, any voters expecting Biden to crack down on Silicon Valley once in office are likely to be disappointed. While House Democrats grilled the ‘Big Four’ tech executives this summer and unveiled plans to break up their monopolies in October, the tech industry and the Biden administration are heavily invested in each other.
Biden’s agency review teams – who ensure the smooth transition of power across all departments of the government – are packed with tech industry figures, according to a list released last month.
Among them are names from Amazon, Airbnb, Lyft, LinkedIn, Google, Uber, Stripe, Dell, and Twitter. Representatives from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s private foundation, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, are on board, along with a number of pro-tech advocates and think-tank heads.
Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, is also an accomplished adviser to big tech, and a believer in deferring to the tech industry even on matters unrelated to technology. For example, when confronting the coronavirus pandemic – one of Biden’s key campaign messages, Klain said last month that he’d listen to Microsoft CEO and vaccine advocate Bill Gates. “He’s in a category by himself,” Klain said. “He is a global health leader, and so he stands alone.”
Biden’s tech-friendly administration is not a radical departure from his last stint in the White House. While President Trump has railed against the US’ social media giants for their censorious policies, the Obama administration and Facebook regularly traded staff back and forth. The overlap of staff between the administration and Google too was described by critics as a “revolving door.” 55 Google employees landed jobs in Obama’s government, while 197 Obama alumni went on to work for Google.
Politics
Biden Wants To Give Separated Illegal Immigrants $450,000 Per Person
The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.
The Biden administration is mulling a plan to offer immigrant families separated during the Trump administration $450,000 per person in compensation, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter.
The payments – part of an inter-agency solution to several lawsuits filed on behalf of separated parents and children claiming lasting psychological trauma could amount to nearly $1 million per family, though ‘the final numbers could shift,’ according to the report.
According to sources, most of the families crossing into the US from Mexico included one parent and one child. Depending on circumstances, many families could get smaller payouts.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents families in one of the lawsuits, has identified about 5,500 children separated at the border over the course of the Trump administration, citing figures provided to it by the government. The number of families eligible under the potential settlement is expected to be smaller, the people said, as government officials aren’t sure how many will come forward. Around 940 claims have so far been filed by the families, the people said. -WSJ
In total, the potential payout could reach $1 billion or more.
Throughout the Trump administration, thousands of children were separated from their parents (and coyotes paid to bring them into the country) after they had crossed illegally into the country from Mexico. The lawsuits allege some of the children suffered various ailments – including malnutrition, heat exhaustion, and were kept in freezing cold rooms with little medical attention. Some claim lasting mental health problems due to the trauma of being without their parents for several months.
The average amount sought through the courts is roughly $3.4 million per family, according to the report.
“President Biden has agreed that the family separation policy is a historic moral stain on our nation that must be fully remedied,” said ACLU deputy director, Lee Gelernt. “That remedy must include not only meaningful monetary compensation, but a pathway to remain in the country.”
Senate Republicans slammed the plan on Thursday afternoon following the WSJ‘s report.
“The Biden administration’s promises of citizenship and entitlement programs have already caused the worst border crisis in history—a huge cash reward will make it even worse,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR).
The discussions about the payouts have taken place over the past few months among a group of dozens of private lawyers representing the families and government lawyers. Some government lawyers have viewed the payouts as excessive for people who had violated the law by crossing the border, the people said. One government lawyer threatened to remove his name from the case out of disagreement with the potential settlement offer, the people said. -WSJ
“It is a complicated, complex piece of litigation” – trying to resolve hundreds of separate lawsuits at the same time, and “sometimes even more complex to try the cases” said Margo Schlanger, who ran the civil-rights office during the Obama administration at the Department of Homeland Security and now teaches at the University of Michigan law school.
What will the reparations crowd think of this?
Politics
White House To America: ‘We’re Coming Door To Door…With Shots!’
Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said at the daily press conference yesterday that President Biden’s strategy to get everyone a Covid shot – whether they want it or not – is to start going “door-to-door” to those not yet jabbed. So…they have a list? Also today: bomb-maker Raytheon goes “woke.” Capitol Hill Cops set up shop in California. Will CDC soon recommend a nation-wide re-count of Covid deaths?
Politics
Half A Million Illegals Crossed Since Harris Named Border ‘Czar’
By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, around 500,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the southern border since Kamala Harris was named border ‘czar’.
The Washington Free Beacon reported the findings, noting that only three months has passed since Harris took on the responsibility, and that the half a million figure is just those that have been apprehended.
The CBP says around 180,000 immigrants are being caught per month. In April agents arrested 178,854 illegal immigrants, the highest monthly figure for 21 years. That figure was then surpassed in May as agents apprehended 180,034 illegals.
By the time June’s figures are reported in the coming days, the combined number is expected to be over half a million, more than the entire population of Miami, Florida or Cleveland, Ohio.
Harris only bothered to visit the border when President Trump announced he was making a trip. Even then Harris visited El Paso, some 1000 miles away from where the crisis is taking place.
Previous to this, Harris lied and claimed she had been to the border, telling NBC’s Lester Holt “This whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
When Holt pushed back and said she had not, Harris snapped “I—and I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t—I don’t understand the point that you’re making,” then again laughed maniacally:
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Ron Johnson argued that Harris’ trip to El Paso was designed to distract the media and keep them away from the real crisis hit areas of the border.
“They took her to a point in the border where she wouldn’t see the crisis and so the press wouldn’t report on the crisis,” Johnson said.
The Senator added, “You just simply can’t understand what this administration is doing. We literally are apprehending now about 6,000 people per day. That’s I mean, that’s a large caravan every day being processed, some of them being returned, others are being dispersed. But this crisis is not going away. It’s just under everybody’s radar because the press isn’t covering it.”


