Corporate Integrity Project

NLPC seeks to promote integrity in corporate governance, including honesty and fair play in relationships with shareholders, employees, business partners and customers. In doing so, NLPC places special emphasis on:

* Asserting that the social responsibility of the corporation is to defend and advance the interests of the people who own the company, the shareholders. True responsibility is fidelity to one’s own mission, not someone else’s, or someone else’s political agenda.

* Exposing the seeking of influence on public officials by corporations, which is the inevitable result of high levels of government spending and intervention in the marketplace.

* Combating practices that undermine the free enterprise system, including philanthropic giving to groups hostile to a free economy.

Google Defends Profane, Hate-Filled Tweet by Employee

Posted on by Paul Chesser

 

Dave Hogue’s LinkedIn photo

Upon the swearing in of Brett Kavanaugh as the newest Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after he was falsely accused by Democrats of sexual attacks and impropriety, Google lead designer Dave Hogue let loose on Twitter with a profane rant that condemned Republicans to a painful eternal destiny of torment.

And he wasn’t fired for it – at least not that we know of.

The now-deleted tweet said:

You are finished, @GOP. You polished the final nail for your own coffins.

F***. YOU. ALL. TO. HELL.

I hope the last images burned into your slimy, evil, treasonous retinas are millions of women laughing and clapping and celebrating as your souls descend into the flames.

Just as noteworthy and revealing about the corporate culture that Google fosters is the fact that the company, rather than issue a direct repudiation, instead defended its business.

“What employees … Read More ➡

California to Impose Gender Quotas on Businesses?

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

Mandatory “gender equity” on corporate boards may seem a far-fetched idea, but in one state it soon may become law. Several weeks ago, the California legislature passed a bill, SB 826, that would require every public company headquartered in the state to have at least one woman on its board of directors by the end of 2019. Larger companies also would have to place at least two women on their boards by the end of 2021. There would be stiff fines for noncompliance. The bill awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown (in photo). It’s yet another example of how affirmative action is driven by political shaming, not by sensible economics or constitutional law.

Feminists long have set their sights on breaking the “glass ceiling,” that metaphorical barrier established by male employers to discourage women from advancing to top positions. As a corrective, these activists increasingly are calling for requiring … Read More ➡

Google CEO Shamed Into Visiting Congress After Obvious Bias

Posted on by Paul Chesser

Last month at National Legal and Policy Center we pondered the question whether Google will “cave to Chinese communists while censoring conservatives at home?”

We already knew, and know, the answer. But a month-and-a-half’s time has only further confirmed the answer is “yes.”

Last week The Intercept reported that Google – despite previous claims that downplayed any plans to rejuvenate a search engine in China that complies with the Communist government’s wishes – is indeed furthering the project along. A discovery of a top-secret company memo showed the search engine, code-named “Dragonfly,” would “require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have ‘unilateral access’ to the data.” Searches would be tied to users’ phone numbers, making it easy for the government to track down anyone researching topics or issues they don’t like – such as … Read More ➡

Will Nike’s Colin Kaepernick Campaign Backfire?

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

Buying a pair of athletic shoes shouldn’t be a political act. But Nike, the world’s largest maker of athletic shoes, thinks otherwise. And it might lose customers as a result. On Thursday evening, September 6, the company aired its widely anticipated two-minute “Just Do It”-themed ad on NBC-TV during the 2018 NFL season opener narrated by Colin Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who two years ago started the ritual “kneel-down” national anthem protests. He remains a factually-challenged moral exhibitionist who has built a cult upon the false claim that local police forces across the nation are murdering innocent blacks. The campaign might boost Nike sales in the short run, but market surveys suggest that it might not end well.

For a man whose name is radioactive around the National Football League, Colin Kaepernick’s career shift is paying off. During the 2016 exhibition season, he chose to kneel rather … Read More ➡

Twitter’s Denial of Bias Still Doesn’t Ring True

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Jack Dorsey/PHOTO: magerleagues (CC)

Perhaps the leaders of Silicon Valley’s major Internet-based tech companies be more credible if they heeded their conservative-leaning employees, who feel marginalized and muted, because of the leftist cultures they have cultivated in their workplaces.

And maybe these executives would be taken more seriously if they would simply stop lying – especially in places such as before Congressional committees – by saying they don’t “intentionally” impose policies that censor those on the right.

Because that is exactly what they do.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, after a recent campaign in which he made himself available to conservatives (including Sean Hannity) to discuss their grievances about restriction of their voices, admitted in an interview last week that his conservative employees don’t feel comfortable expressing themselves at the office.

“We have a lot of conservative-leaning folks in the company as well, and to be honest, they don’t feel safe … Read More ➡

Ex-Chrysler Executive Sentenced in UAW Training Fund Scandal

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

As a key figure in the Chrysler-United Auto Workers training fund scandal, Al Iacobelli expected a stiff sentence. And that’s what he got. On August 27, Iacobelli, former vice president of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to 66 months in prison and 24 months of supervised release for attempting to bribe certain UAW officers with more than $1.5 million in cash and other things of value in 2015 in hopes of persuading them to drop contract demands, and for embezzling funds for his own use. Iacobelli was ordered to pay $853,522 in restitution, a $10,000 fine and a $100 assessment. He had pleaded guilty in January after being indicted last July. The actions follow an investigation by the FBI, the IRS and the Labor Department’s Office of Labor-Management Standards and Office of Inspector General.

Alfons “Al” Iacobelli, now 58, a … Read More ➡

Elizabeth Warren’s Accountable Capitalism Act is an ‘Invitation to Corruption’

Posted on by Carl Horowitz

The Left may have shifted their main focus from class to race, but they haven’t forgotten about their original mission of taming capitalism. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., certainly hasn’t. On August 15, Senator Warren introduced a bill, the Accountable Capitalism Act, to rein in companies that are “making the rich even richer.” Among its features, the measure would force corporations with annual revenues of at least $1 billion to obtain a federal charter and mandate that at least 40 percent of the board members of such companies be chosen by employees. Warren assures skeptics that she believes in markets. Yet even if her profession is genuine, her proposal is a recipe for undermining them.

Not that long ago, Elizabeth Warren, now 69, taught contracts and bankruptcies at Harvard Law School. The author or co-author of nearly a dozen books, Warren evolved into a Real Fighter, an advocate for beleaguered families … Read More ➡

Apple Shareholder Files Proposal on Free Speech

Posted on by Peter Flaherty

National Legal and Policy Center has submitted a shareholder proposal asking Apple Inc. to made a report on human rights, and specifically, free speech. The 2019 Apple annual meeting will take place in Cupertino, California in early 2019. Here is the text of the proposal and supporting statement:

Whereas, the Securities and Exchange Commission has consistently recognized that human rights constitute a significant policy issue.

Freedom of speech and association are fundamental human rights.

The Company operates in nations with systematic human rights abuses. The Company has abetted certain governments and non-governmental organizations in suppressing freedom of speech and association.

For example, our CEO in March 2018 co-chaired the so-called China Development Forum, sponsored by the Communist Chinese government. In December 2017, our CEO keynoted the World Internet Conference, another Chinese government event.

In February 2018, the Company transferred operation of its iCloud data center in mainland China to … Read More ➡

Twitter and Dorsey Get It Right on Infowars

Posted on by Paul Chesser
Jack Dorsey/PHOTO: magerleagues (CC)

Twitter and CEO Jack Dorsey have come under criticism on this Web site and others over past efforts to censor conservatives, but in the high-profile case this week with provocateur Alex Jones and his organization Infowars, Twitter didn’t go along with the mob (Apple, Facebook, Google/YouTube, Pinterest and Spotify) and boot him from their social media platform.

It doesn’t appear that Twitter has necessarily seen the light, as it still shadow bans conservatives (a charge that Dorsey has denied), but the CEO’s explanation for not taking out Infowars articulated principles that the other tech companies should heed.

Saying that Infowars “hasn’t violated our rules” and that Twitter “wouldn’t succumb and simply react to outside pressure” (like the group thinkers at Facebook, YouTube, etc. obviously did), Dorsey then put the onus for holding Jones and company accountable on others.

“Accounts like Jones’ can often sensationalize … Read More ➡

Will Google Cave to Chinese Communists While Censoring Conservatives at Home?

Posted on by Paul Chesser

As Internet companies such as Apple, Facebook, Google (through subsidiary YouTube) and Twitter jack up their efforts to censor conservatives’ speech, most recently by deleting projects and accounts of alt-media personality Alex Jones, they are at the same time opening the doors wide to communists.

Last week Google apparently reversed course on availability its powerful search engine, which based on “principle” had withdrawn from China in 2010, after it refused to comply with the government’s wishes for it to self-censor content sensitive to its freedom-hating leaders. Now, under a program called “Dragonfly,” Google is said to be developing a version of its search engine that would comply with Chinese demands.

Search is where Google generates huge profits, and missing out on the massive market in Asia clearly bugs them in Silicon Valley.

“Google is waking up to smell the coffee,” said Andy Mok, founder and president of Beijing-based consultancy … Read More ➡