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Silicon Valley Warms to Trump After a Chilly Start
Two days after Donald J. Trump won the 2016 election, executives at Google consoled their employees in an all-staff meeting broadcast around the world.
"There is a lot of fear within Google," said Sundar Pichai, the company's chief executive, according to a video of the meeting viewed by The New York Times. When asked by an employee if there was any silver lining to Mr. Trump's election, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, "Boy, that's a really tough one right now." Ruth Porat, the finance chief, said Mr. Trump's victory felt "like a ton of bricks dropped on my chest." Then she instructed members of the audience to hug the person next to them.
Sixteen months later, Google's parent company, Alphabet, has most likely saved billions of dollars in taxes on its overseas cash under a new tax law signed by Mr. Trump. Alphabet also stands to benefit from the Trump administration's looser regulations for self-driving cars and delivery drones, as well as from proposed changes to the trade pact with Mexico and Canada that would limit Google's liability for user content on its sites.
Once one of Mr. Trump's most vocal opponents, Silicon Valley's technology industry has increasingly found common ground with the White House. When Mr. Trump was elected, tech executives were largely up in arms over a leader who espoused policies on immigration and other issues that were antithetical to their companies' values. Now, many of the industry's executives are growing more comfortable with the president and how his economic agenda furthers their business interests, even as many of their employees continue to disagree with Mr. Trump on social issues.
💔 💰💰💰 💕👌
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @11:24PM (17 children)
Do you think there will be any introspection?
I don't.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 30 2018, @11:39PM
They went all-in on Hillary and lost, but being Jews they will go where the money is while telling you that they are human and capable of learning from their mistakes.
Jeff Bezos is not a Jew, and with his Washington post he is not only politically reckless but being stupid with his monies. Now with his Washington Post, he has few choices and all of them make him look stupid. Bezos' best option with respect to the Post would be to softly let them go neutral or at least tone down the partisanship a bit so they look a bit more objective. But he could sell it off, or let it die, whatever. They've been a neocon mouthpiece for decades anyway, Lally Weymouth should have been a dead giveaway, and of course we all know them for once hiring a guy named Rob Malda.
To remove himself from Trump's shit-list, Bezos should increase his partnerships with existing mom-and-pop businesses just like with booksellers back in the day. He will lose some Jew-golds, but he will with his wealth help Make America Great Again. Now, he doesn't have to give up his slave-driving warehouses. He could start giving those workers reasonable hours and paying them more. Or he could move them to Mexico and pay them reasonable wages and give them reasonable working conditions so they stop hopping our borders and trying to have anchor-babies.
Along with Bezos, I tried to look up Larry Ellison as a similar example, but the Wikipedia page indicated that his biological mother was Jewish as was his adopted family. That explains a lot about why he was conspicuously silent during the American political process of recent years. The Wikipedia revealed that his biological father was absent, and if you were faced with the prospect of being stuck with a Jewish woman, you'd be as well. That also explains why Larry is at once an alpha male and a dickhead.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Friday March 30 2018, @11:47PM (15 children)
> Why were these smart people SO wrong?
[citation needed]
Everyone likes a tax cut, and anyone powerful has to tone down the rethoric when dealing with a hostile and vengeful bully.
That doesn't change how most of the policies of the administration are short-sighted and extremely dangerous: "Hey, let's up the deficit to a Trillion dollars per year, before getting into a trade war with the people financing the deficit by buying Treasury Bonds"
(Score: 2, Funny) by milsorgen on Friday March 30 2018, @11:55PM (5 children)
I hope someday you grow out if being an adult child and learn to open your eyes to the reality of the situation. My advice? Lay off the corporate media and look around and discover what the real issues we face are. Hint: it's not muh short sighted bully.
On the Oregon Coast, born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:06AM (4 children)
Go ahead. Tell me about The Real Issues.
No hints. Facts.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:44AM (3 children)
"Mexican" salsas here in America aren't very hot. That is a very bad issue in the United States. We can blame Silicon Valley and their cultural appropriation for burritos wrapped in cold and flaccid flour tortillas and salsas that pack the Scolville heat of Heinz ketchup (The "Chipotle" effect). Some Mexicans are good, they know how to make hot salsas.
(Score: 3, Informative) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:10AM (2 children)
Flour tortillas were invented in the US by formerly Mexican people after they lost the Mexican-American War.
It wasn't enough that the Yanquis slaughtered so many without the slightest pretense of provocation, they had to add insult to injury by doing away with corn crops and replacing them with wheat, which the formerly Mexican people did not know how to eat.
Japan had the same problem with wheat after it lost World War II, but a really cool frood invented Ramen.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:29AM
Flour tortillas were not utilized by a people who knew how to slap them onto a gas grill, or even an electric one for a few delicious minutes, to serve them to the Gringo rubes or feed their own Gringos. The ones who knew how to slap them onto a gas or electric grill already knew how to cook real tacos and burritos, the ones who didn't moved to San Jose and worked for Google and started a food company called Chipotle, then moved their tribe back downward to Irvine. The latter were working for Aztlan to poison the Gringos.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:40AM
Looks like they learned fast then. Plus, Mexico grows its own wheat which was introduced [gramene.org] way before Yanquis were involved.
I don't buy that wheat tortillas were invented centuries later because of the merely presence of the devilish Yanquis.
The US didn't replace Japan's rice crops with wheat. Japan was almost completely depleted, food-wise, due to the destruction of the war. Instead, the wheat and whatnot was what the US had to give. did the Navajo [whatscookingamerica.net].
The US version of "May you live in interesting times" is "May your food come from a quartermaster."
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:06AM
By far, the most important consideration for long-term thinking is to deal with immigration. People from the Third World don't magically change their behavior when they set foot on First World soil. They instead infect their new land with all the awful things you find in the Third World.
This change is permanent. Particularly troublesome is the violent pedophile religion, from which people seldom convert. Exponential growth takes over, and the nice Western civilization is replaced with something resembling that of Pakistan, Yeman, Somalia, etc.
Many immigrants, particularly from the south, are fond of socialism. We now have a decent portion of our population thinking that they want socialism. They fail to see the connection to Venezuela, where roving gangs of kids are murdering each other in territorial fights to control access to garbage dumpsters behind the best restaurants.
The primary test for political thinking being long-term or short-term is thus immigration. If you would allow us to be conquered without a fight, your thinking is short-term.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:18AM (7 children)
Is this why they supported Clinton?
The current administration has no option. If you look at what Trump is doing, he is getting the economy moving. A government doesn't announce investment in infrastructure during boom times, they do that during recession. So Trump knows what he's doing, he realises that bringing wealth creation back to the US will have a cost and has covered himself.
The Petro-Yuan will crash and China has reached its practical and economical limits with regard to growth. Global growth has been at 1% while growth in China and developing economies have grown around 10% PA. This has been nothing but a wealth transfer and Trump (I'm not a fan) at least sees this needs to be reversed. Not only has he identified the problem, he's taken all the necessary steps to fix it. On a personal level you can hate him all you like, on a political level you have to understand the policies before you criticise them.
(Score: 4, Informative) by bob_super on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:47AM (5 children)
> Is this why they supported Clinton?
Everybody supports either the winner, or both sides when the winner is not clear. That's pragmatic.
Silicon Valley is more likely to support the dems, especially against a Trump, but pay attention and you'll notice how many hedged their bet just in case.
> The current administration has no option. If you look at what Trump is doing, he is getting the economy moving.
> A government doesn't announce investment in infrastructure during boom times, they do that during recession.
Feel free to google the US economic growth. The US economy grew pretty well under Obama, so the tax cut is pro-cyclical, making it dangerous, especially since there is clearly a tech bubble. You are supposed to pay your debts during the good times (so you can get back in debt at the next recession).
Unemployment was nearing record lows before Trump stepped into the white house. Now, a lot of those jobs are less good jobs than before W's Great Recession, unquestionably, with partial employment up, and stagnating wages this century. But the US economy was doing fine, and the deficit hawks should have been delighted that it was time to reduce the debt. Instead, we get another W-style cut at the worst time.
> So Trump knows what he's doing, he realises that bringing wealth creation back to the US will have a cost and has covered himself.
Wait, did you understand my sentence you quoted?
> This has been nothing but a wealth transfer
Wealth transfer to China and to the richest Americans, true, at the expense of the middle and lower class.
The new tax cut adds to the wealth transfer to the upper class, while the tariffs will hit the lower and middle class, just as inflation is starting to kick up (still under the 2% target, but under pressure).
Bringing high-profile manufacturing back to the US is good, but automation means not too many jobs come back (less than were lost, otherwise the factories wouldn't come back). The US should be investing massively in education, because millions of low-paying jobs are threatened with near-term extinction regardless of what happens in DC. Instead, the pentagon gets a giant raise (which does drive a few immediate good jobs, but lots of upper-class pocket stuffing).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:06AM (3 children)
Exactly and who would buy product if it had continued?
How is this any kind of economic assessment and would the specific tariffs matter if it was? How could the US defend itself against military aggression if China controlled the metal supply?
Automation has no impact on GDP, [mit.edu] immigration did [nationalacademies.org] but no longer will for reasons we already addressed.
In hard science, not social science like "gender studies". The cancer needs treating, starve it of public funds!
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:23AM (2 children)
China controls the rare earth element supply.
There are just two rare earth mines on the entire planet: one in China and one in the US. The US one is able to operate only when rare earth prices are high enough.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @07:31PM (1 child)
According to this [globalsecurity.org], there were somewhere around 9 active mines in China, plus whatever illegal mining goes on over there.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @08:09PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:21AM
My friend Morris has a Molecular Biology PhD and has worked two postdoc positions but can't get so much as another postdoc because there are just too damn many PhDs.
Instead he now teaches high school chemistry.
The recent emphasis on STEM education caused a serious problem: there is a shortage of qualified applicants for skilled trade jobs.
Despite that I attended Caltech and UCSC for college, in eighth grade I took wood and metal shop. My high school had a really excellent auto shop - students could bring their cars to school to get fixed while they were in class.
We need more shop classes and fewer STEM classes.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:16AM
Who is investing?
Trump's plan is to give America's infrastructure to private businesses so they can charge us all to pay tolls on roads and bridges that were built by public financing. I can't see any good coming from that. Will there by any well-enforced requirement that all the deferred maintainence is actually performed?
I readily agree that we need to fix our infrastructure. If you're going to increase the deficit by a trillion samoleons, do it by fixing our bridges not by giving tax cuts to all your homies because they like to give you reacharounds.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @11:32PM
FTFY
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 30 2018, @11:41PM (13 children)
If you were a Google employee, could you wear a MAGA hat? No. No, you could not.
Could you at least not enthusiastically oppose Trump? No. You would be suspected of wrongthink, and mere suspicion is enough to get you in trouble.
Google employee opinions on politics are about as trustworthy as North Korean opinions on politics. There are consequences for failure to demonstrate loyalty to the cause.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday March 30 2018, @11:47PM (10 children)
External politics do not belong in the American workplace. Period.
The leadership of Google, as is the leadership of all that other overvalued "pie in the sky" bullshit, were and are fools for "encouraging [external, political] discussion." This is why good employers allow their employees to go home at reasonable hours, so that those employees can get all of that out of their system before coming back to work to code.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:22AM (9 children)
Conservatives tend to feel it is inappropriate to bring politics into the workplace. This is a losing strategy. This makes large corporations liberal.
You hire/promote/fire fairly, choosing for competence. Some portion of the competent people will be liberal and will get into positions where they can hire/promote/fire, but they will not return the favor. They will prefer like-minded people. As the overall bias tilts more in their favor, it becomes unacceptable to be conservative and then unacceptable to not be enthusiastically liberal.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:34AM (2 children)
Your first sentence is wrong, mostly. Both sides are guilty. But since we are on the internet, the internet is governed by Silicon Valley. Huntsville, AL contains one of the highest concentrations of Ph.Ds, if not the highest, in the US. Gays run the space industry now. If they're quiet about being gay and loud about launching [youtube.com] rockets into space, then you should be quiet about discussing gayness up the anus and let those anointed homos do their jobs.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:39AM (1 child)
If they manage their diversity quotas the GNAA may have been prophets?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday March 31 2018, @01:59AM
The GNAA were Gods, rather than prophets.
We fear that it may have been too late for the rest to understand.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:37AM
They're not liberals, Milton Friedman was a liberal, these people are illiberal collectivists and communists.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:00AM (4 children)
People who want to get shit done feel it is inappropriate to bring politics into the workplace. Please incorporate that correction into your thinking.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:22AM (1 child)
Amongst all the noise, a dollop of pure truth. I will thus spend a mod point. :)
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:23AM
Now that I swallowed the dollop of pure truth, may I be excused for a moment?
I need to go to the toilet, to get that shit done...
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:34AM (1 child)
Yes, conservatives want to get shit done. This is the reason they do not discriminate against liberals; a small portion of liberals can get shit done or at least seem able to do so.
In the short term, that works great. In the long term, it fails. The strategy fails to defend itself from people with hostile values. In the end, conservatives are discriminated against, even if that means nobody is left to get shit done.
So it is a losing strategy. The kind fairness is not reciprocated.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:03AM
You mean like companies paying out because they're discriminating against conservatives or shrink/go bankrupt because they lose focus on the business? I think the strategy has more going for it that you suppose above.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday March 31 2018, @02:03AM
I was once a client of a publicly-funded mental health care clinic.
Quite likely Trump will cut that clinic's funding. Even so I never asked any of its employees about Trump.
And why? Because I didn't want them to have to deal with the possibility that their political persuation wasn't cool with their employer's.
(I now pay for marketplace insurance. That insurance doesn't cover the treatment I was getting at that clinic.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @04:55AM
This is the company where management condones messages of "fuck you" being sent via official tools, including from managers, to peons who commit wrongthink.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by GlennC on Saturday March 31 2018, @12:00AM (1 child)
However, since there hasn't been much (at least, none that adversely affected business), they realized that they well and truly own the United States Government.
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 31 2018, @03:10AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 31 2018, @08:15PM
Is childish shit like hugging the poor fuck next to you and that walmart chant usual in USAian workplaces or a rare exception that makes it into the news because its unusual?
(Score: 2) by corey on Saturday March 31 2018, @10:11PM
Most of trump's changes have benefitted the large corporations and rich elites. Silicon Valley are just these. Of course they will like tax cuts and less regulation. Easier to get richer.