Rick Claypool

Rustbelt-raised corporate power researcher for @Public_Citizen. he/him

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

NEW @Public_Citizen report:

Trump agencies canceled or froze 159 enforcement actions vs 166 alleged corporate lawbreakers over the 1st year of his 2nd term.

1/3 of the corps have Trump admin ties such as ballroom donations.

They avoided paying $3.1 billion in penalties. 1/2

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

A remaining CFPB attorney:

“You feel like the industry will report back if you’re not really overly polite and deferential…All the companies we’re investigating, they all know leadership. They can send an email to them, and we can get scolded.”

[Bloomberg @business]

Russell Vought has gutted the CFPB, and in dozens of cases refused to enforce settlements and pursue lawsuits to the benefit of companies like Walmart, Toyota and others. https://t.co/vvqf0r81q9

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

54% of Americans think that "when it comes to politics and society, nothing really matters because powerful people will always do whatever they want."

Just 25% disagree.
https://t.co/zzpc0UAmz3

[David Dayen @ddayen]

I did a short piece today about the under-the-radar Publicis/LiveRamp merger proposal, which would join together the largest global ad agency with the company that has built nearly 250 million profiles on nearly every U.S. adult. Yikes!
https://t.co/reqIpjVER8

[Daniel Boguslaw @DRBoguslaw]

The people wanted documents, so I am giving them documents. Today I am publishing internal DHS and fusion center reports showing the criminalization of speech and assembly involving criticism of AI and data centers. You can read all documents at the link in replies.

[Alexander McCoy @AlexanderMcCoy4]

It’s always interesting to read the job descriptions of roles corporations post to try to deal with massive public backlash to what they’re doing.

[Luiza Jarovsky, PhD @LuizaJarovsky]

Anthropic must have regretted getting involved with the church because the pope is now DESTROYING their "conscious AI" hype and making it look immoral.

That's great news for the field of AI governance.

[Shakeel @ShakeelHashim]

The Trump admin using a fancily designed website to push the idea that undocumented immigrants are not human.

Is this what Airbnb founder @jgebbia is spending his time on as Trump’s “Chief Design Officer”?

[Alan Zibel (@alanzibel.bsky.social) @AlanZibel]

Ah yes, the argument that young male voters are close students of antitrust and financial regulatory policy and Biden alienated the policy wonk masses who want a more forgiving Third Way approach. Also, honestly, why is @Public_Citizen not in this report? Attack us too!

[Tyler Johnston @tyler_johnston]

Call me obtuse, but I don't think you can:

(1) be OpenAI's president;
(2) make donations advised by OpenAI's chief lobbyist;
(3) direct said donations to an industry PAC that OpenAI's chief lobbyist helped build and *modeled* on the last PAC he ran; and
(4) go to the media advertising that the donation is in service of OpenAI's mission;

And then act surprised if people misunderstand whether the PAC speaks on behalf of you or your company instead.

[Amanda Fischer @amandalfischer]

This is massive, scandalous news

Just days after @nytimes investigation on CFTC corruption, the Chair moves to exhume a past settlement w/the Winkelvoss twins’ exchange, move to toss it out, & discredit the career civil servants whose case was approved by past CFTC leadership

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

what the fuck

[More Perfect Union @MorePerfectUS]

A judge has ruled that corporations can vote in some Delaware elections.

Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz said the town of Fenwick Island was not diluting human votes by allowing companies ​and other legal entities that own property to cast votes in municipal elections.

These "legal entities" and corporations make up about 12% of registered voters in the town.

In total Delaware has far more ​corporations chartered in the state than residents.

Judge Karsnitz rejected the constitutional arguments of the ACLU, including the claim that "entity" or corporate voting dilutes the political power of living people.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

pure lies

[Acyn @Acyn]

Miller: The way most welfare works in most states and most places is we take your word for it. If you say your kids are hungry, you are going to get food stamps. We don't check if you even have kids. You will just start getting the checks.

[Sam Biddle @samfbiddle]

This seems like a critical and under-discussed point.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

many such cases

[Restaurant Development Experts, LLC. @RDE_Restaurants]

Pizza robot company Picnic shuts down https://t.co/iszARE6rBE

[Hal Singer @HalSinger]

Gentle reminder that the wealthiest 10% of American households own approximately 87% to 93% of all U.S. stock market wealth. Hence the booming stock market juxtaposed against plummeting consumer confidence. Riddle solved.

[Matt Stoller @matthewstoller]

Jim Cramer is a downright Soviet style spokesman for corporate America. Here he is extensively praising Siri.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

so they're going to claim manipulative chatbot outputs can't be regulated because "free speech"...

while forcefully suppressing the speech of real humans speaking out against AI data centers & Big Tech

[Daniel Boguslaw @DRBoguslaw]

BREAKING: The federal government is targeting Anti-AI and data center activists. They are formulating a new threat category: anti-tech violent extremism. Full article in replies.

[Gabriel Zucman @gabriel_zucman]

Hello @JeffBezos, since you question the results of our studies on the unfairness of the US tax system, please allow me to remind you of the main conclusions of our work, the most comprehensive research to date on this issue.

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

@AlanZibel yeah replacing workers with machines is not exactly "techno-optimism" from the worker perspective

[Rick Claypool @RickClaypool]

ok it was bizarre when Bezos described Trump as "calmer" in December 2024, before the 2nd term actually started

but Bezos in May 2026 praising Trump as "more mature" shows the depth the MAGA sycophancy brain rot has taken hold among Big Tech billionaires