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Amazon is seeking a court order that would prevent Microsoft from doing work for the US Department of Defense under a contract that Amazon says was awarded improperly.
[...] Amazon alleges that the president "launched repeated public and behind-the-scenes attacks to steer the JEDI Contract away from AWS [Amazon Web Services] to harm his perceived political enemy—Jeffrey P. Bezos," the founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post.
Amazon and the US have agreed to an expedited briefing schedule, in part to consider a motion for a restraining order or preliminary injunction that Amazon intends to file. A joint status report filed in court yesterday by Amazon, the US government, and Microsoft described what's happening next in the case:
AWS intends to file a motion for temporary restraining order and/or preliminary injunction to prevent the issuance of substantive task orders under the contract, which the United States has previously advised AWS and the Court will begin on February 11, 2020, given the United States' consistent position that the services to be procured under the Contract are urgently needed in support of national security. The parties have agreed to an expedited briefing schedule on the issue of preliminary injunctive relief, and respectfully request that the Court expedite consideration of the issue, as described below.
[...] both the US and Microsoft "intend to file partial motions to dismiss" the case, the status report said.
[...] The status report also says that the US government "does not intend to file an answer to AWS's complaint." Instead, "the parties will file cross-motions for judgment on the administrative record."
[...] Trump "escalated his intervention, jettisoning any appearance of impartiality by making clear to DoD (and to the world) that he did not want AWS to get the JEDI Contract," the lawsuit said.
Is it wrong to root for Microsoft to win?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:10PM (18 children)
Short answer: Yes, generally speaking.
Longer answer:
Not if Microsoft can or could somehow play fair and square. I see no evidence of wrongdoing by Microsoft here. It is wrong, IMO, in this instance to root for Microsoft to win because the deck was stacked in favor of Microsoft (or actually against Amazon) by outside interference. That may not be Microsoft's doing. But if Microsoft could not have won this by simple fair commercial competition, then thy don't deserve to have it magically handed to them.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:25PM (6 children)
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:39PM (4 children)
Didn't you read what I said? I'm all for rooting for best service at the lowest price. It seems apparent that Microsoft would have lost that competition, had it not been that Trump hates Bezos for personal petty vindictive triggered reasons.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday January 15 2020, @04:41PM (3 children)
Remember when the government picking winners and losers was a bad thing?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 15 2020, @04:49PM (2 children)
The rules are different for Trump.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:08PM (1 child)
You lost me when you used "rules" and "Trump" in the same sentence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @03:44PM
Sorry, Trump feels that rules do not apply to him.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:30PM
the government shouldn't be in the business of extorting tax dollars from whoring cowards and handing it over to private corps. fuck em.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:43PM (3 children)
It seems to me what we really want is both to lose. Amazon and Microsoft are both hell-hounds dragging their demonic, flaming assholes across the carpet of our day-to-day lives.
I'm trying to glue some stupid Azure piece of shit to some AWS diarrhea puddle because the higher-ups at my company heard cloud and assumed it would automatically be better.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @07:33PM
imagine you're a free man, and tell them to fuck off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 15 2020, @08:11PM
Award the contract to Oracle. It'll be FOBAR.
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:08PM
Yea, cross/multi cloud is a wall even Trump would be proud of.
Using kubernetes helps though, but I've not tried with Azure, only Google (GKE) and AWS (EKS) using Rancher. Your use case could be different of course. I stay away from Azure as much as possible.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Wednesday January 15 2020, @03:44PM
microsoft is israeli now, so this is also about the u.s. army using infrastructure it has no physical control over.
It is effectively a command decapitation sold as a business decision.
It is very bad for the united states in every possible way.
More so for the soldiers who will rely on said services for their lives while they walk through minefields in iraq and afganistan.
Should one or another unit not be enthusiastic enough about israel, I hope they have their own TI-200's in their backpacks.
Otherwise amazon and microsoft are both companies who primarily make listening devices for people not intelligent enough to know the danger of bugging their own homes willfully for the state, and the cultural hegemony which dominate it.
Sadly in the case of the united states, these are the same people who did 9/11, so good luck on that security check, to the extent you know what this word even means.
And like I have said, keep an eye on the statue of liberty, millenium tower in SF and other spectacular locations where some columbs of smoke on teevee would scare 'the (fascist) base' into a blind murderous rage against whoever they are told to hate in that moment:
https://archive.is/wZMMJ [archive.is]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @04:02PM (5 children)
It doesn't sound from TFS that Microsoft is really the defendant, it sounds like the real defendant is the president of the United States.
And here's the problem: The president decided that he didn't like what somebody wrote about him in a newspaper owned by Jeff Bezos (the Washington Post). So he decided to use the power of his office to try to harm Jeff Bezos' businesses any way he could. There are two problems with this:
1. That's a violation of the First Amendment's protection of freedom of the press. A major point of that is that the government cannot penalize you for writing things that are critical of politicians (unless you are credibly threatening to kill them). It's pretty clear to me that this administration doesn't believe freedom of the press should exist, for instance revoking reporters' White House press passes if they write anything critical of anything the administration has done.
2. That's also potentially penalizing US taxpayers, because Amazon's bid might have been cheaper or better in some other way than Microsoft's bid, and the US DoD couldn't choose that bid because of the president's actions. Which means that the DoD gets a worse product or a more expensive product than they otherwise would have gotten, which is bad for us because we have to pay for it.
This is the same kind of instinct that got the president into trouble over Ukraine: When the interests of the United States government or its citizens conflict with his personal interests, he chooses his personal interests every single time.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday January 15 2020, @04:09PM (4 children)
I am convinced.
There is no bottom.
There is no low that is too low.
There is no evidence that will dissuade Trump and his Fox News fed band of mouseketeer cheerleaders.
Trump really could shoot someone on fifth avenue and there would be no consequences. None. It would all be explained and hand waved away.
I believe Trump will be re-elected in 2020, but not by my vote. I also won't support him in 2024 and beyond.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @09:07PM (3 children)
Among his truly hardcore supporters, they've gotten to the point where they actually have a religious devotion to him, and firmly believe that he cannot do anything wrong under any circumstances.
Which, incidentally, happens to be one of the signs somebody is the anti-Christ.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:34PM (2 children)
That observation has not escaped me. There is another term used in Thessalonians is "the lawless one".
Trump openly bragged before the election that he was the ONLY one who could negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. We will see. (Dan 9:27) Some people say this couldn't refer to Trump. Well if you believe it, then it must refer to someone at some time. Someone is going to sign that peace deal.
And as far as someone who would enter the third Jewish temple and defile it, proclaiming himself to be above all others, who does that kind of bragging sound more like than Trump?
Yet evangelical Christians are his most rabidly blind supporters. Wow.
Just sayin'. Take it for whatever you think it's worth.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday January 15 2020, @10:55PM
If you want the full case, a "formerly fundie" writer lays it out: Could American Evangelicals Spot the Antichrist? [benjaminlcorey.com]
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 16 2020, @03:49PM
I'm fairly certain that my Evangelical Church is not.
My mom's as well (story time):
During children's sermon, the pastor asked if anyone knew what a king was. He then went on to ask in the US had a king. There was a rumble of restrained laughter, and the pastor said, we're not going to go into that...