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    Corporate America wants a free hand to kill workers and customers

    Phil Mattera, DC Report @ Raw Story
    May 22, 2020

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    White woman grocery shopping in coronavirus mask (Shutterstock)

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Phil Mattera, DC Report @ Raw Story

    It is unclear at the moment whether Mitch McConnell and other Congressional Republicans are backing off their demand that corporations be given protection from COVID-19 lawsuits — or if they are maneuvering behind the scenes in favor of the proposal.


    What I find amazing is that business lobbyists and their GOP supporters think they can sell the country on the idea, which would be a brazen giveaway to corporate interests.

    There are numerous compelling arguments against immunity, but I want to focus on one: the track records of corporations themselves. Proponents of a liability shield imply that large companies normally act in good faith and that any coronavirus-related litigation would be penalizing them for conditions outside their control. These lawsuits, they suggest, would be frivolous or unfair.

    Every large corporation is, to at least some extent, a scofflaw when it comes to employment, environmental and consumer protection issues ... Companies may respond to a difficult business climate by cutting even more corners.

    This depiction of large companies as innocent victims of unscrupulous trial lawyers is a long-standing fiction that business lobbyists have used in promoting “tort reform,” the polite term for the effort to limit the ability of victims of corporate misconduct to seek redress through the civil justice system. That campaign has not been more successful because most people realize that corporate negligence is a real thing.

    Terrible Records

    In fact, some of the industries that are pushing the hardest for immunity are ones that have terrible records when it comes to regulatory compliance. Take nursing homes, which have already received a form of COVID immunity from New York State.

    That business includes the likes of Kindred Healthcare, which has had to pay out more than $350 million in fines and settlements.  The bulk of that amount has come from cases in which Kindred and its subsidiaries were accused of violating the False Claims Act by submitting inaccurate or improper bills to Medicare and Medicaid. Another $40 million has come from wage and hour fines and settlements.

    Kindred has also been fined more than $4 million for deficiencies in its operations. This includes more than $3 million it paid to settle a case brought by the Kentucky Attorney General over issues such as “untreated or delayed treatment of infections leading to sepsis.”

    Meatpackers, Too

    Or consider the meatpacking industry, which has experienced severe outbreaks yet is keeping many facilities open. This sector includes companies such as WH Group, the Chinese firm that has acquired well-known businesses such as Smithfield. WH Group’s operations have paid a total of $137 million in penalties from large environmental settlements as well as dozens of workplace safety violations.

    Similar examples can be found throughout the economy. Every large corporation is, to at least some extent, a scofflaw when it comes to employment, environmental and consumer protection issues. There is no reason to think this will change during the pandemic. In fact, companies may respond to a difficult business climate by cutting even more corners.

    The two ways such misconduct can be kept in check are regulatory enforcement and litigation. We have an administration that believes regulation is an evil to be eradicated.

    This makes the civil justice system all the more important, yet business lobbyists and their Congressional allies are trying to move the country in exactly the opposite direction. They want to liberate big business from any form of accountability, giving it what amounts to an immunity passport. Heaven help us if they succeed.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

    Value Raw Story?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

    Report typos and corrections to: corrections@rawstory.com.
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    The secret motive behind the QAnon Shaman’s decision to storm the Capitol

    Sky Palma
    March 03, 2021

    In a report published at Medium by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab, Jacob Chansley, better known as the "QAnon Shaman," had a small but growing online following as a "QAnon micro-influencer." But after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol -- which he partook in and was later arrested for -- viewership of his content skyrocketed.

    "Before January 6, Chansley's two Twitter accounts, @USAwolfpack and @starseedacademy, registered roughly 5,400 and 2,800 followers respectively," DFRLab reports. "Chansley, who also went by the name Jake Angeli, began by cultivating his brand on YouTube, as YouTube suited the long-form format of his videos. He would later migrate to alt-tech platform Rumble following de-platforming, as many QAnon influencers did after major social media platforms begin enforcing their rules more stringently against them."

    The Trump-supporting conspiracy theorist apparently had a perverse incentive to become involved in the Capitol riot. After analyzing his social media history, DFRLab found that Chansley saw a rise in engagement "that correlated with a rise in the amount of Q related content he was involved in."

    "Perhaps most alarming is that the Q-Shaman brand appears to have benefited from his action at the Capitol," reports DFRLab, adding that the YouTube subscriber count associated with Chansley's "spiritual guidance" channel, Starseed Academy (SSA) grew substantially in the wake of the Capitol attack. "As Chansley leaned into posting more extreme content, the channel's subscriber count grew as well."

    Chansley was charged in January with "knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority, and with violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds."

    In a statement, the the US attorney's office for the District of Columbia alleged that Chansley was "the man seen in media coverage who entered the Capitol building dressed in horns, a bearskin headdress, red, white and blue face paint, shirtless, and tan pants," while carrying a long spear with an American flag tied to it.

    Chansley's seeming resemblance to singer Jay Kay sparked a worldwide buzz on social media, prompting the Jamiroquai frontman to issue a statement making clear that he was nowhere near Washington when the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol.

    Chansley had described himself as a "digital soldier" of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory that claims Trump is waging a secret war against a global liberal cult of Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

    With additional reporting from AFP

    WATCH: Amy Klobuchar destroys Ron Johnson for conspiracy theory blaming Jan. 6 on 'provocateurs'

    David Edwards
    March 03, 2021

    Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) on Wednesday pushed back against Sen. Ron Johnson's (R-WI) conspiracy theory claiming that insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 were simply "provocateurs."

    At a joint Senate hearing on the Jan. 6 attack, Johnson focused on proving his earlier claim that the incident does not qualify as an "armed insurrection."

    "Seeking out the truth, that's what I'm trying to do," the senator explained, noting that he had been accused of spreading "conspiracy theories" after reading a conservative column into the record at an earlier hearing. The column used the phrase "agents-provocateurs" to downplay the role of supporters of then-President Donald Trump.

    At Wednesday's hearing, Johnson again entered a news report into the record claiming that the attackers were "provocateurs."

    But Klobuchar, who was chairing the hearing, refused to let the remark slide.

    "These people that were assaulting the Capitol in military gear and were pinning an officer between a door and were using bear spray on officers in the Capitol, would you title them provocateurs?" Klobuchar asked FBI Counterterrorism Division Director Jill Sanborn.

    "It would all depend on the evidence behind the case," Sanborn hedged.

    "Do you think there were some very serious violent people involved insurrection?" Klobuchar pressed.

    "100%" Sanborn agreed. "And there were some officers that were injured and a lot of damage was done."

    "And would you describe the atmosphere as festive?" the senator wondered.

    "Absolutely not," Sanborn said.

    Watch the video below.

    Trump served with civil rights lawsuit for Jan. 6 insurrection

    Travis Gettys
    March 03, 2021

    Former president Donald Trump has been served with a civil rights lawsuit that accuses him of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.

    Attorneys for Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and the NAACP formally served the lawsuit, which was filed in February, to the former president at his Mar-A-Lago club, reported The Daily Beast.

    "Donald Trump has to go away," Thompson said last month. "If he doesn't, we will put him out of business."

    The suit alleges that Trump incited the riot at the U.S. Capitol with his false claims about a "stolen" election, which the complaint says amounted to a conspiracy under the 1871 "Klan Act" to interfere with civil rights by stopping the certification of Joe Biden's Electoral College win.

    The complaint names Trump, along with his attorney Rudy Giuliani, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, as defendants.

    No attorneys have stepped forward as Trump's representative in the lawsuit, which was signed for by someone named "Ricky" when it arrived at Mar-A-Lago by certified mail.

     
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