Bartlett Cleland

Blog

What a Web AG Bonta Weaves

With good reason, we are encouraged to understand history, but for some, perhaps, the temptation to repeat past mistakes is just too great. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described sophists, paid philosophers often involved in public works, as those who twisted words and truth to win arguments. According to the ...
Blog

In 2022, Will Lawmakers, Courts Respect Freedom of Californians to Work as they Choose?

Just before the pandemic struck, a new law infected California. Known as AB 5, the law upended 30 years of the freedom for people to work as independent contractors and reclassified millions as employees. The worst of legislative hubris, the law was unprincipled, exempting the politically-well-connected and clearly targeting certain ...
Blog

The Once and Future “Net Neutrality”

Late last month the Biden Administration finally got around to nominating a new commissioner to the Federal Communications Commission to replace Chairman Ajit Pai, who left the FCC at the beginning of the year. Also nominated was a current commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, for another term and also to become the ...
Blog

Analyzing the Biden Administration’s Tech and Innovation Policy Agenda

While it took a couple months for clarity to replace idle speculation, the Biden administration’s tech and innovation public policy agenda is increasingly clear. The forecast? Government with little chance of free markets. At his recent address to Congress President Biden highlighted “technologies of the future” as a place where ...
Blog

Californians Reverse the State’s Legislature Providing a Fighting Chance for Innovation

Last month, Californians may very well have begun the process of saving their state, reversing a move by the state legislature. They voted by a large margin via Proposition 22 to preserve the ability of people to pursue flexible working arrangements if they so choose. In September 2019, the California ...
Blog

Populist Politicians Meet Antitrust Cancel Culture

The ill-winds of populism are again blowing across the American political landscape. This thin veneer of ideology only seeks to divide people, diving a wedge between “the people,” presented as the forces of good, against “the elite,” portrayed as evil. The most recent iteration of this divisive approach to politics ...
Blog

Prop 24: A Choice Between Expensive Ineffectiveness or a Prosperous Future

On November 3, Californians will be asked to make a what appears to be a simple decision, that is, would they like to increase their privacy? However, where Proposition 24, to enable the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act is concerned, appearances are deceiving. In 2018, seeking to address the ...
Agriculture

Big Government Won’t Improve Broadband in Rural California

Pick nearly any state in the union and likely it has a large swath of rural area and population. Even California, which is rarely thought of as a “rural state,” is still physically more than half rural, with about four million residents living in those areas. Many assume they know ...
Blog

Instead of Fining Businesses Government Should Get Its Own House in Order

Last month the state of California began enforcing its expensive and heavy-handed new business privacy laws despite the economic burdens already borne by business because of COVID-19 and the government’s shut down of the economy. At $55 billion in compliance costs with the threat of millions more in penalties and ...
California

California Doubles Down on Unworkable Data Privacy Law During Second COVID Shutdown

Businesses were ordered to close. Schools were shuttered. People were told to stay home. Many believed that in a week or two life for the most part would return to normal and that COVID would be a bad memory. Now, four months later, California has not just halted reopening but ...
Blog

What a Web AG Bonta Weaves

With good reason, we are encouraged to understand history, but for some, perhaps, the temptation to repeat past mistakes is just too great. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato described sophists, paid philosophers often involved in public works, as those who twisted words and truth to win arguments. According to the ...
Blog

In 2022, Will Lawmakers, Courts Respect Freedom of Californians to Work as they Choose?

Just before the pandemic struck, a new law infected California. Known as AB 5, the law upended 30 years of the freedom for people to work as independent contractors and reclassified millions as employees. The worst of legislative hubris, the law was unprincipled, exempting the politically-well-connected and clearly targeting certain ...
Blog

The Once and Future “Net Neutrality”

Late last month the Biden Administration finally got around to nominating a new commissioner to the Federal Communications Commission to replace Chairman Ajit Pai, who left the FCC at the beginning of the year. Also nominated was a current commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel, for another term and also to become the ...
Blog

Analyzing the Biden Administration’s Tech and Innovation Policy Agenda

While it took a couple months for clarity to replace idle speculation, the Biden administration’s tech and innovation public policy agenda is increasingly clear. The forecast? Government with little chance of free markets. At his recent address to Congress President Biden highlighted “technologies of the future” as a place where ...
Blog

Californians Reverse the State’s Legislature Providing a Fighting Chance for Innovation

Last month, Californians may very well have begun the process of saving their state, reversing a move by the state legislature. They voted by a large margin via Proposition 22 to preserve the ability of people to pursue flexible working arrangements if they so choose. In September 2019, the California ...
Blog

Populist Politicians Meet Antitrust Cancel Culture

The ill-winds of populism are again blowing across the American political landscape. This thin veneer of ideology only seeks to divide people, diving a wedge between “the people,” presented as the forces of good, against “the elite,” portrayed as evil. The most recent iteration of this divisive approach to politics ...
Blog

Prop 24: A Choice Between Expensive Ineffectiveness or a Prosperous Future

On November 3, Californians will be asked to make a what appears to be a simple decision, that is, would they like to increase their privacy? However, where Proposition 24, to enable the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act is concerned, appearances are deceiving. In 2018, seeking to address the ...
Agriculture

Big Government Won’t Improve Broadband in Rural California

Pick nearly any state in the union and likely it has a large swath of rural area and population. Even California, which is rarely thought of as a “rural state,” is still physically more than half rural, with about four million residents living in those areas. Many assume they know ...
Blog

Instead of Fining Businesses Government Should Get Its Own House in Order

Last month the state of California began enforcing its expensive and heavy-handed new business privacy laws despite the economic burdens already borne by business because of COVID-19 and the government’s shut down of the economy. At $55 billion in compliance costs with the threat of millions more in penalties and ...
California

California Doubles Down on Unworkable Data Privacy Law During Second COVID Shutdown

Businesses were ordered to close. Schools were shuttered. People were told to stay home. Many believed that in a week or two life for the most part would return to normal and that COVID would be a bad memory. Now, four months later, California has not just halted reopening but ...
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