Paul Chesser

American Corporations Push Paris Climate Accord as China Pushes Coal

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Apple CEO Tim Cook

As member nations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change take their 25thstab at an international agreement to limit so-called greenhouse gas emissions, some American corporations are trying to make up for the absence of the United States as part of the deal.

President Donald Trump famously announced in June 2017 the U.S. withdrawal from the nonbinding Paris Climate Agreement, which was previously negotiated in 2015 with the willful participation of then-President Barack Obama. Even though the U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty, as is required, the U.S. acted as though it was legal and pretended to adhere to the accord. But then last month Trump gave formal notification to the U.N. of America’s departure from the pact, effective the day after Election Day, in 2020.

There has been predictable outrage on the environmental left, from their allies in the media, … Read More ➡

Google Co-Founders Go Deeper in Hiding as 2020 Approaches

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Larry Page & Sergey Brin/IMAGE: YouTube

Expect nothing substantive to change at Google and parent company Alphabet, following Tuesday’s announced departures of co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin from their roles as CEO and president, respectively, of Alphabet.

The moves made big headlines, but the pair is mostly invisible anyway, leaving Google CEO Sundar Pichai – who will now hold that title for Alphabet also – to take the frequent slings and arrows that are now regularly thrown at the companies, as he mostly already has in recent years. But in reality Page and Brin will still call the shots, thanks to their ownership of special classes of “super-voting” stock that gives them majority control.

The announcement of their moves admitted as much.

“We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders,” Page and Brin wrote. … Read More ➡

Will Alphabet/Google Be Transparent in Its Sexual Harassment Investigation?

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Following the introduction and eventual rejection of a shareholder resolution sponsored by National Legal and Policy Center at the annual meeting of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, board members are now investigating sexual harassment claims against some of its executives.

The resolution, announced a year ago by NLPC president Peter Flaherty, followed the height of the #MeToo movement in which women who had been sexually harassed – or even assaulted – came forward to expose what happened to them in the workplace. The proposal sought accountability and transparency in how Alphabet/Google has handled various claims of such misconduct, and also called for more ideological balance on the heavily left-leaning board of directors. The annual meeting was held in June.

The current investigation by a select committee of Alphabet’s board, along with the hiring of a law firm to aid the probe, was revealed this month in a report… Read More ➡

ABC, CBS, NBC & CNN Have Corporate Parents; What Will They Do About Bias?

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Amy Robach/IMAGE: Project Veritas

The revelation by Project Veritas that ABC News killed a story three years ago by their reporter, Amy Robach, that would have exposed the sexually predatory conduct of late financier Jeffrey Epstein, raises the question: What is parent company Disney going to do about it?

And CBS Corporation – it’s obvious you fired the wrong person (Ashley Bianco) you had hired away from ABC, whom you believed leaked footage of Robach mourning the killing of her Epstein story, leaving the company vulnerable to a potential lawsuit for unfair termination. What is (pending) parent ViacomCBS going to do about it?

And with NBC News, which ran off investigative reporter Ronan Farrow, who was hot on the trail with plenty of evidence of sexual misconduct against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein: What are you going to do about it, parent corporation Comcast?

Then there’s CNN, which … Read More ➡

Facebook Embraces Free Speech for 2020, While Twitter Wants Censorship

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Mark Zuckerberg

Last week’s polar opposite decisions on the handling of political advertisements by Facebook and Twitter have predictably exposed the anti-free speech tendencies of the Left.

The former announced it would allow candidate and issue ads and exempt them from the platform’s fact-checking operation that it employs for news reports.

The latter said it would ban political advertisements altogether.

Advertisers crave access to Facebook’s users far more than Twitter’s, mostly because it is easy to specify target audiences (for example, those who “Like” Donald Trump). But both social media operations are desirable for politicians and activists to get their messages out, even for Republicans who complain about Facebook’s admitted anti-conservative bias, because they are an effective tool to reach desired voters.

The rationale given by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for his decision shows a mindset that helps explain why his business was not profitable until recently.

“We … Read More ➡

Google & YouTube Censor Tulsi Gabbard, Too

Posted on by Paul Chesser

It turns out that not just conservatives can expect censorship of their content and advertisements by dominant search and web advertisement service Google, and by the equally powerful video site it owns, YouTube.

It turns out also that if you are a Democrat who fails to fully adhere to the orthodox progressive agenda, then you too will find your Internet voice muted.

Such is the case with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who also is a 2020 presidential candidate.

The congresswoman from Hawaii, an Iraq War veteran who still serves as a Major in the Army National Guard, has sued Google for $50 million over the suspension of her campaign account during the first presidential debate, while she became a hot topic for Internet searches. That her account went missing is not disputed; however, Google claims it was not due to bias against Gabbard, but instead was caused by its … Read More ➡

Apple CEO Tim Cook Caves to Communist China, Again

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Apple Inc. and CEO Tim Cook have gone big in efforts to capture consumers and profits in the People’s Republic of China, so the current outrage from the rest of the world over its obedience to the communist government – as it cracks down on dissent – appears to be a minor irritant not worth addressing.

Following the NBA’s cowardice last week – as the normally media-savvy league known for outspokenness against injustice by its executives, coaches and players suddenly turned mute after a pro-Hong Kong tweet outraged the ChiComs – Apple acceded to China’s censorship wishes as well.

This time Cook removed a crowd-sourcing app called HKmap.live from its App Store, following complaints by the government (through its state-run media) that Hong Kong protesters used it to target individual police officers for attacks.

“The app in question allowed for the crowdsourced reporting and mapping of police … Read More ➡

Are Nike & Adidas Behind NBA’s Appeasement of Communist China?

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Have the corporate world and U.S. professional sports leagues finally gone too far carrying water for America-haters?

This week there has been a backlash against the National Basketball Association from China, following a tweet supportive of the pro-democracy Hong Kong protests by Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey. After the immediate outcry, Morey deleted the tweet and the NBA and its partners began to grovel apologetically to the Chinese communists. The league has a reported $1.5 billion deal with a Chinese streaming company to broadcast its games, and an estimated 500 million citizens watched games last year.

Viewership isn’t all that’s at stake. Athletic shoe companies such as Adidas and Nike enjoy American support but desperately want to expand their audience and customer base overseas, especially to China. The hostile response to the tweet from the communist government threatens that market segment, where Nike took in an estimated $6.2 … Read More ➡

Facebook’s Zuckerberg Admits Bias Problem; Won’t Do Anything About It

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Facebook’s fact-checkers, like the legacy media’s predominant accountability sites like Politifact and FactCheck.org, are biased in favor of progressive causes.

And now even CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted it.

Four Republican Senators called out the social media powerhouse earlier this month over censorship of a pro-life group’s post and videos that claimed abortion is not medically necessary. The fact-check that led to restrictions to access of the posts was written b – you guessed it – abortionists.

The “offending” posts were separate videos published on Facebook by Live Action: one featuring the group’s president, Lila Rose, and the other featured by neonatologist Dr. Kendra Kolb. The women claimed in each video that abortion is “never medically necessary.”

To fact-check the claims, Facebook enlisted Robin Schickler, an OB-GYN and fellow at the pro-abortion Physicians for Reproductive Health, and Daniel Grossman, director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health … Read More ➡

Some Big Tech Companies Don’t Join Call for Gun Control

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Mark Zuckerberg

Corporate activism for progressive causes has become so common, that it is now news when social justice warrior CEOs don’t sign joint letters that demand government to address their latest outrage.

That’s the case following the recent mass shootings in the Texas cities of El Paso and Odessa, and in Dayton, Ohio. As part of the usual outcry for more gun control legislation after such incidents, several companies co-signed an open letter addressed to U.S. Senators asking them to address the “public health crisis that demands urgent action.”

The major technology companies of left-leaning Silicon Valley regularly participate in such initiatives, and some smaller ones did join this effort, including the top executives at Airbnb, Lyft, Reddit, Twitter, Uber and Yelp.

“There are steps Congress can, and must, take to prevent and reduce gun violence,” the letter stated. “We need our lawmakers to support common-sense gun laws that … Read More ➡