September, 09 2022, 10:23am EDT
FTC Should Reject Amazon's iRobot Acquisition, Advocates Say
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should not approve Amazon's purchase of iRobot Corporation, maker of the popular Roomba smart home device, Public Citizen, Fight for the Future, and key advocates for Big Tech accountability said in a letter to the agency sent today.
WASHINGTON
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) should not approve Amazon's purchase of iRobot Corporation, maker of the popular Roomba smart home device, Public Citizen, Fight for the Future, and key advocates for Big Tech accountability said in a letter to the agency sent today.
Amazon's years-long acquisition spree has already established the company as a dominant player in the smart home device market. Like the company's purchase of smart doorbell maker, Ring, buying iRobot would harm competition while endangering what little privacy remains in internet-connected homes, the groups said.
"The proposed deal poses a striking set of concerns related to consumer privacy and market competition. Allowing Amazon to absorb a competing smart home device business with access to incredibly detailed consumer data would endanger fair competition and open markets while also jeopardizing consumer privacy," the letter reads.
"There is no more private space than the home. Yet with this acquisition, Amazon stands to gain access to extremely intimate facts about our most private spaces that are not available through other means, or to other competitors. This information goes beyond home floor plans and includes highly detailed information about the interior of consumer homes and lifestyle of the inhabitants. Giving Amazon access to this kind of private information through this acquisition hurts consumers."
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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House Progressives Blast Attempts to Discredit Pro-Gaza Campus Protests
Rep. Ayanna Pressley condemned "misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement."
Apr 26, 2024
Progressives in Congress this week have joined professors and Holocaust survivors in supporting peaceful student protests against the U.S.-backed Israeli assault of the Gaza Strip as the demonstrators have been demonized by the White House, Democratic and Republican political leaders, police, administrators, and the corporate media.
"Peaceful protest is a central tenet of our democracy and students standing for justice have often been a catalyst for much-needed change," Rep. Ayanna Pressleysaid Friday. "From the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War protests, the struggle for gender equality, and the movement for Black lives, to the global movement for peace in Israel and Palestine, many of the rights we tout today were earned thanks to the sweat equity of students demonstrating on college campuses across the nation."
Already, hundreds of students and faculty have been arrested for protesting at dozens of U.S. college and university campuses.
Pressley, who supports a cease-fire in Gaza, stressed that "every student, regardless of background or faith, has a right to feel safe and show up in the world without fear or discrimination—and we must ensure that those exercising their right to free speech are met with dignity and respect, not criminalization."
"We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing."
"That is why I am deeply concerned about misinformation that aims to undermine this movement, outside agitators that detract from peaceful solidarity actions, and the aggressive response by law enforcement to students peacefully protesting across the country," Pressley said. "The National Guard or riot police should not be called in response to students' peaceful freedom of expression."
"I am grateful to students nationwide and across the Massachusetts 7th—at Emerson, Northeastern, MIT, Tufts, Boston University, Harvard, and more—who are raising their voices and putting their bodies on the line to press for action to save lives in Gaza," she added. "That is what this movement is about. We cannot lose sight of the horrific injustices that Palestinians in Gaza are facing and I am proud to stand in solidarity with peaceful protestors."
Since October, Israeli forces have
killed at least 34,356 Palestinians, wounded another 77,368, and displaced around 90% of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people. Thousands more remain missing in the rubble of devastated civilian infrastructure. The International Court of Justice has deemed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war—fueled by U.S. weapons and diplomatic support—plausibly genocidal.
Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-Minn.) daughter Isra Hirsi was suspended from Columbia University's Barnard College earlier this month for "standing in solidarity with Palestinians facing a genocide." Omar—a war refugee and longtime critic of the Israeli government—has not only grilled the Ivy League school's president at a congressional hearing but also attended the ongoing demonstration.
"I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand," Omar said Thursday. "Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza. I'm in awe of their bravery and courage."
I had the honor of seeing the Columbia University anti-war encampment firsthand.
Contrary to right-wing attacks, these students are joyfully protesting for peace and an end to the genocide taking place in Gaza.
I’m in awe of their bravery and courage. pic.twitter.com/yC6hcBMwCP
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 25, 2024
Omar is a frequent target of right-wing attacks, which she has faced in the past for being outspoken on foreign policy issues and this month for supporting student anti-war protesters.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) claimed that "Omar's pro-Hamas rhetoric solidifies the Democrat Party as the pro-terrorist party."
Responding to Emmer, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said that "this rampant Islamophobia is unacceptable. My sister Ilhan Omar is standing up with the students peacefully demanding a cease-fire to end the bombing, starving, and killing of Palestinian people. No amount of hatred is going to stop this movement for peace."
Bowman—who faces a primary challenger backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee—has also slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) trip to Columbia and law enforcement's crackdown against students.
"As an educator who personally experienced the overpolicing of our schools, this is personal to me," Bowman said. "We must resist right-wing demagoguery and stop suppressing peaceful protest if we are to keep students safe."
Both Bowman and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) visited the Columbia encampment on Friday. The congresswoman has also publicly
challenged comments from New York Police Department of Patrol John Chell and taken aim at "vulnerable N.Y. Republicans in tight seats" who have gone to campus to condemn the nationwide demonstrations.
"They have played a key role drumming up pressure to crack down on students and asymmetrically police Palestinian human rights speech," Ocasio-Cortez said of her Republican colleagues. "Those campus hearings? GOP-led. They need to lose."
Police violence against students and professors has been on display across the country. A day after state troopers descended on a demonstration at the University of Texas at Austin, Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) addressed protesters, noting the decades of protests at the campus.
"We need a cease-fire now in Gaza. And it is up to us to live that out here today," Casar said, with the crowd echoing his speech line by line. "My message to the university is clear: Students and faculty are not the enemy. Students and faculty are the university. We are the university. This is our democracy. And we are going to save it, here and for the world."
"I am so proud of each and every one of you. Because you have raised your voices, Austin is the largest city in this country where your entire Democratic delegation voted 'no' on sending more weapons to Netanyahu," he noted, eliciting cheers. "There are millions more lives at stake and your continued organizing is the only way we can stop being complicit in this killing and instead get to saving our shared humanity. Solidarity forever."
After defeating a primary challenger backed by a billionaire Republican megadonor and Netanyahu ally earlier this week, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.) on Thursday addressed the University of Pittsburgh's encampment.
"While Netanyahu compares students on campuses like Pitt—including Jewish students—protesting peacefully against genocide to Nazis and attempts to define the limits of our free speech and assembly, it's worth noting that there are no universities left in Gaza from Israeli and U.S. bombs," Lee said in a social media post about her speech.
"We must always confront and root out antisemitism anywhere it appears, and not let the white nationalist GOP be the arbiters or weaponizers of it," she continued. "Students engaging in the time-honored tradition of activism and civil disobedience is a crucial right we must all protect."
Rep Summer Lee @RepSummerLee drops by the University of Pittsburgh’s Palestine encampment to support and give propers to the students leading the fight for Pitt to divest from the occupation as part of the broader student movement that erupted across the US. 🇵🇸✊🏼 pic.twitter.com/KFeTNX138G
— Abdelrahman ElGendy (@El_Gendy_95) April 25, 2024
As
Common Dreamsreported Thursday, Jewish Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—who lost family members to the Holocaust—also pushed back against Netanyahu's mischaracterization of U.S. campus protests, asserting, "It is not antisemitic to hold you accountable for your actions."
Others who have spoken out this week include Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), who denounced Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's decision to deploy the Georgia State Patrol at Emory University, saying the officers have "no place on the college campus. And neither do outside agitators who seek to usurp the peaceful protests against the Netanyahu government's killing of tens of thousands of innocent Gazans by giving life to a false narrative that the protest movement is violent and antisemitic."
Drawing on her own experiences with the Black Lives Matter movement, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) said that "as a Ferguson activist, I know what it's like to have agitators infiltrate our movement, manipulate the press, and fuel the suppression of dissent by public officials and law enforcement. We must reject these tactics to silence anti-war activists demanding divestment from genocide."
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) declared that "the rights to peaceful assembly and to express dissent are constitutional freedoms. Criminalizing young people who are using their voices to call for peace is not only harmful; it endangers the well-being of the students and the health of our multiracial, multicultural democracy. Resisting war and standing up for peace are not a crime."
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Alabama House Passes Bill That Could Be 'Used to Arrest Librarians'
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," one Democratic lawmaker said.
Apr 26, 2024
The Alabama House of Representatives voted 72-28 on Thursday in favor of a bill that would apply the state's criminal obscenity laws to public libraries, public school libraries, and the people who work there.
Critics, including the Alabama Library Association, have warned that the bill could see librarians jailed and argued that it violates the First Amendment.
"This is a pig," Rep. Chris England (D-70), said during the debate, as AL.com reported. "It is a bad bill, and when you attempt to take what is normally non-criminal conduct and make it criminal, you bend yourself into ways that potentially not only violate the Constitution but potentially subject somebody to an illegal arrest with no due process."
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?"
House Bill 385 would allow anyone to write a letter to a school district superintendent or head librarian claiming a book is obscene. The Montgomery Advertiser explained further:
The library would be required to remove the materials within seven days of receiving the required written notice. Failure to remove said materials would result in a Class C misdemeanor upon the first offense, a Class B misdemeanor upon the second offense, and a Class A misdemeanor after the third and beyond. They may challenge the claim during the seven-day period.
In Alabama, a Class C misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of three months in jail and fee of $500. The maximum sentence for a Class B misdemeanor is six months of jail time and a $3,000 fee, while a Class A misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail and a $6,000 fee.
The bill also adds to the definition of the "sexual conduct" minors must be protected from to include "any sexual or gender-oriented material that knowingly exposes minors to persons who are dressed in sexually revealing, exaggerated, or provocative clothing or costumes, or are stripping, or engaged in lewd or lascivious dancing, presentations, or activities in K-12 public schools, public libraries, and other public places where minors are expected and are known to be present without parental consent."
During the debate, England warned, "This process will be manipulated and used to arrest librarians that you don't like, and not because they did anything criminal. It's because you disagree with them," as The Associated Press reported.
Rep. Mary Moore (D-59) warned that the description of sexual conduct was loose enough that it could apply to students dressed up for prom, according to AL.com.
"Some of them would be under the jail because of this," Moore said.
Rep. Neil Rafferty (D-54) also expressed concerns that the language could apply to people in Halloween costumes or wearing summer clothing.
"I feel like this is a violation of the First Amendment, and it's easily going to be abused," he said, according to AP.
Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-103) said the bill was "putting lipstick on a pig," and added that the government "can't legislate morality," and that it would prevent children from "having an open mind," AL.com reported.
The bill comes amid increased politicization of libraries and attempts to ban books, especially in Republican-led states.
In Alabama, the legislature is also considering making $6.6 million in public library funding dependent on whether a library relocates materials deemed inappropriate for children, AL.com reported further. Nationwide, PEN America found that the total number of book bans in schools and libraries during just the first half of the 2023-2024 school year was greater than all the titles banned in 2022-2023, and that number had already jumped by 33% from the school year before.
The bill applying obscenity laws to libraries now heads to the Senate, but Alabama Library Association president Craig Scott told AP the state should expect to lose "lawsuit after lawsuit" if it becomes law.
"Why are they coming into libraries or thinking that they can come in and run the place better than us as professionals?" Scott asked.
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Sabreen, Baby Girl Rescued From Mother's Womb After Israeli Airstrike, Dies
The baby was born last week via an emergency Caesarean section, but doctors were ultimately unable to save her.
Apr 26, 2024
A grieving family and a team of medical providers in Rafah, Gaza were desperate this week for a miracle, hoping that newborn Sabreen al-Rouh Jouda would survive after being delivered prematurely moments after her mother died of injuries sustained in an Israeli airstrike.
On Friday, it became clear that the family's hopes would not be realized as doctors announced Sabreen's death.
Dr. Muhammad Salama, head of the emergency neonatal department at Emirati Hospital, where Sabreen was born last week via a Caesarean section that was caught on film and widely reported as outlets searched for any bit of hopeful news out of Gaza, said the baby's lungs were not able to fully absorb oxygen because she was born at just 30 weeks' gestation.
"Every day we have a sad story; every day we have a horrible story," Salama toldNBC News, gesturing to other babies whom doctors and nurses are struggling to care for amid Israel's destruction of the territory's healthcare system. "This baby right here, his father has died. This baby's mother has died. Another two babies in the ICU, one of them came and we cannot know, sadly, if his mother or father is alive."
Sabreen is now one of 16 children killed in two airstrikes last weekend at a housing complex in Rafah, where Israeli officials have said they plan to move forward with a planned ground invasion.
Sabreen's parents and their three-year-old daughter, Malak, were also killed.
Her mother, Sabreen al-Sakani, was rushed to the hospital on Saturday night with extensive injuries that she succumbed to just before doctors performed the emergency Caesarean section.
Sabreen weighed just 3.1 pounds at birth and was in severe respiratory distress, but doctors were able to temporarily stabilize her condition.
Her grandmother was filmed speaking to her as she lay in an incubator earlier this week.
"I swear I will lock you inside my heart," she said. "You will live in blessing."
At least two-thirds of the 34,356 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since last October have been women and children, according to the local health ministry. Israel and the U.S., which has contributed billions of dollars in weapons to the IDF, have repeatedly claimed the military is precisely targeting Hamas fighters.
As Common Dreams reported earlier this month, the IDF has relied on an AI targeting system to identify Hamas targets, but considers bombing suspected militants in their homes "a first option," and has officially considered the killing of up to 100 civilians for every Hamas target an acceptable level of precision.
Israel has also claimed it has designated so-called safe zones, but Palestinians have been killed after moving to areas where the IDF said it wouldn't carry out bombings.
"There are no safe places at all, they are liars, liars," Sabreen's uncle, Rami Jouda, told NBC News. "There is no safe place in Gaza. We are all living under the menace of death."
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