Original URL: The Register
IBM staff have petitioned the company to – among other things – express concern that "IBM CEO Ginni Rometty's open letter to President-elect Donald Trump does not affirm IBMers' core values of diversity, inclusiveness, and ethical business conduct."
The petition's authors respect Rometty's "willingness to engage in constructive dialogue with the president-elect" but argue IBM's culture is essential "to our transformation underpinned by cloud and cognitive initiatives."
[...] There's also a call to "Respect our right to refuse participation in any U.S. contracts that violate constitutional and civil liberties" which sounds like an option to opt out of working on Trump's planned register of Muslims. Another demand wants IBM to "Prohibit perceived influence-peddling of elected officials by restricting IBM and its employees from using any Trump owned or Trump branded properties for business purposes, in accordance with the IBM Business Conduct Guidelines."
In part the petition reads:
We have a moral and business imperative to uphold the pillars of a free society by declining any projects which undermine liberty, such as surveillance tools threatening freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
[...] Taking a conservative approach has grave implications. Our own founder's experience and the rest of history teach us that accommodating those who unleash forces of aggressive nationalism, bigotry, racism, fear, and exclusion inevitably yields devastating outcomes for millions of innocents.
Full text: IBMers to CEO Ginni Rometty: Affirm IBM values!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:12AM
IBM, its staff and liberty? Doubt it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:17AM
They had a bad experience last time they worked for Der Fuhrer!! Hail Victory!! Hail Trump!!! All I want for Christmas is White Genocide!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:30AM
In other won't-work-for-Trump news, the transition team is trying to find A-List performers who are willing to participate in the inaugural events and are having extreme difficulty. [blogspot.com]
Italian Reactionary Andrea Bocelli initially said Yes, but the masses convinced him that that would be a horrible idea.
Another account differs on the details, [metro.co.uk] but the result is the same.
Garth Brooks, who is pretty Progressive for a Country Music guy also initially said Yes, but he changed his mind.
Reactionaries Ted Nugent and Kid Rock have been suggested as possible entertainers.
I've seen was-a-thing-decades-ago Meatloaf also suggested.
The list of the folks they do have lined up has me saying a big Huh?? [consequenceofsound.net]
...and, as a counterpoint, [doobeedoobeedoo.info]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:27AM
I'm sure there's other telemetry companies that would have no problem taking money for data. Anyone know of a telemetry collection system that might work? One that is already distributed and easy to hack?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:33AM
Wait, you're not thinking "Palantir" and Peter Thiel, are you? If you are, he probably already knows. Foolish son of a Took!!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @03:19PM
I was actually talking about Windows 10, but nobody got the joke.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Friday December 30 2016, @05:32AM
TFA:
Is there any sign IBM discriminated against the enumerated categories? It not, why the need for this affirmative action?
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2, Troll) by Immerman on Friday December 30 2016, @06:12AM
Considering that basically the entire country has been so discriminating since it was founded - that seems like it would be the safe default assumption unless you have specific evidence to the contrary, would it not?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Arik on Friday December 30 2016, @06:38AM
No thank you Mr Soviet Union, in the United States of America we are presumed innocent until proven guilty, not the other way around.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Friday December 30 2016, @06:41AM
Don't tase me, bro...
(Score: 4, Informative) by edIII on Friday December 30 2016, @07:32AM
Unless.... it's the IRS. You're assumed to be guilty before innocent and must defend yourself after being deprived of the resources to do so.
Unless.... it's some fucking city that thinks it can levy unrecoverable "administration" fees even when you are innocent.
Your protestations are as pathetic as the U.S's track history with racism and bigotry, even excluding our current shift to a fully White Nationalist administration in the White House.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @08:04AM
Are we over 66 percent Republicans in the Senate/Legislature?
If so they could systematically oust any Democrats in either House just by putting it to a vote. Flipping the required number of Ds using blackmail or other incentives might work too. I am personally hope to see the full results of a single party government this coming 4-8 years (Or longer if either the 22nd gets repealed, or other legal changes are made.)
(Score: 1) by Arik on Friday December 30 2016, @11:13AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:17AM
> I am personally hope to see the full results of a single party government this coming 4-8 years [...]
Consider a visit to Cuba, the PRC or the DPRK.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday December 30 2016, @08:39PM
in the United States of America we are presumed innocent until proven guilty
A history book isn't proof enough for you? Ever hear of slavery? Jim Crow? Lynchings? Or how about other ethnic groups, ever hear of the Trail of Tears? Ever hear of the interment of innocent American-born citizens in WWII because their grandparents were Japanese?
My God, man, your ignorance is astounding.
No one born who could always afford anything he wanted can have a clue what "affordability" means.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Arik on Friday December 30 2016, @09:22PM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday December 31 2016, @06:06PM
No, I'm saying the mistakes of the past should be rectified, and care should be taken so that they're not repeated.
No one born who could always afford anything he wanted can have a clue what "affordability" means.
(Score: 3, Troll) by DeathMonkey on Friday December 30 2016, @07:13AM
Is there any sign IBM discriminated against the enumerated categories?
Well, they did sell Jew-calculators for the concentration camps as well as Jap-calculators for the US internment camps. So, yeah, bit of history there...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:39PM
I believe it's just called a "calculator"; IBM made calculators, and people who needed calculators bought them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @07:57AM
Also considering they basically outsourced everything to india. Not racist at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:36AM
OK then, since IBMers get to claim Trump isn't their president, he's not my president either.
I voted for Jill, so give me the Green New Deal. Right now. I want single payer Medicare for all ages. Right now. I want to see all of our troops brought back home. Right now. I passed a homeless man on my way here, and I want Jill to give that man a job. Right now. I want all corporations that use offshore tax havens to be taxed as if all of their assets were onshore. Right now. My neighborhood is full of abandoned storefronts, and I want free money from a government grant so I can start a business in one of those storefronts. Right now. When my business fails, and you can be sure it will fail due to lack of customers, I want my basic income.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Friday December 30 2016, @06:04AM
I would have been content just to see the ballots counted in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, but no.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday December 30 2016, @06:16AM
Who's saying he's not their president? They're just saying they don't want to work for him, especially on illegal projects. And since neither "president of the US" nor "orange-haired conman" are legal classes protected from discrimination, they have the legal right to so refuse unless their employer states otherwise. Trump has very little legal leverage he can use to force businesses to work with him if they don't wish to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:24AM
You're totally right. These loudmouthed idiots at IBM are pulling a stawman con job.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:34AM
That's funny. Every technology company is spying on us for the US government. Some of them admitted it even though they're under a legal order not to. But none of this seems to bother any of them when Saint Obama the Magnificent is in charge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @10:28PM
If people were willing to actually demand what they wanted, rather than just accept all the but fucking they get from the world would be a better place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:49AM
just accept all the [butt] fucking they get from the world
Moving on to an Egalitarian future
Step 1: Stop giving Nielson points to TeeVee that has advertisers, sponsors, and underwriters.
Lamestream Media isn't interested in giving you useful information; they're strictly about making money and keeping the megacorporations happy.
Step 1a: Stop giving pagehits to legacy media outlets.
Find trustworthy alternative media outlets.
If -they- find stuff in legacy media that is worthy of a link, then--and only then--should you visit Establishment sites.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:43AM
Bang The Drum [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:00AM
Gene Krupa, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Elvin Jones, Ginger Baker, Ringo Starr, Neil Peart...
More. [google.com]
Hardly of the "I don't want to work" genre. [genius.com]
The key to life is to find something you enjoy doing and figuring out a way to make a buck doing that.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:58AM
Can I make a buck from pseudo anon trolling. I really like pseudo anon trolling.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:44AM
Hey IBM I need a job and dont give a fuck about that sort of thing. I will do it.
That is how the market works.
IBM's culture
Oh and BAAAAAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
Prohibit perceived influence-peddling
and mwwwwwuahahahaha!!!! Thats a good one.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:47AM
Found the Nazi!
Go fuck a pig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @07:42AM
Thats capitalist pig not nazi.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:11AM
In his 696-page book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, [wikipedia.org] where he analyzed 250 years of Capitalism, Professor Piketty notes that Capitalism proceeds toward greater and greater inequality, monopoly, and Fascism.
To say it a different way, Fascism can be considered to be the ultimate form of Capitalism.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @08:02AM
Go fuck your sister, jew.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @09:04AM
Don't tell me what I'm already doing.
(Score: 4, Informative) by jmorris on Friday December 30 2016, @04:36PM
Yea, just firing em would be the easiest solution, like you say there are a lot of people who would like a job right now.
But no. THEY made the rule, and as their own prophet Alinsky teaches is, making the enemy live up to their own book of rules is so useful.
No IBMers, you too have to BAKE THE FUCKING CAKE. They want to reject any lawful trade they can all -individually- and -personally- be ruined exactly like these intolerant snowflakes almost certainly cheered when small businesses were ruined in the Gay Wedding Cake Wars. You assholes made the rule, choke on it bitches.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:19AM
"Our own founder's experience and the rest of history teach us that accommodating those who unleash forces of aggressive nationalism, bigotry, racism, fear, and exclusion inevitably yields devastating outcomes for millions of innocents"
Japan seems to be doing just fine on its own, why is it wrong to want to be like Japan?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @06:51AM
I envy the Japanese. Their country is not being overrun by muslims in the name of multiculturalism
(Score: 2) by edIII on Friday December 30 2016, @07:55AM
Japan not only lost their war, but lost quite a bit otherwise. Afterwards, it was rebuilt with American help. So no, they did not turn out just fine. Japan from WWII is actually dead and gone, and they evolved from there.
Which is great. It does not however mean that those who unleash bigotry, racism, hatred, and fear were correct in doing so, or that they win in the end.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday December 30 2016, @02:51PM
Japan from WWII is actually dead and gone, and they evolved from there.
Well, except for the part where even after nuking them twice they still wouldn't surrender unless the U.S. let them keep their emperor on the throne. So legally speaking the same dynasty has ruled Japan since the beginning of WWII (supposedly for the last 1500 years, actually).
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @03:05PM
Well, maybe technically correct, but I'm as worried about the Emperor as I am of the Queen of England taking over the world.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Friday December 30 2016, @02:29PM
Like that time you automated the holocaust? [wikipedia.org]
IBM has served one genocidal master, and clearly learned nothing from the experience.
Actually, that's not true. They learned it was very profitable. So why not sign on for round two?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:28AM
I heard an account[1] which said that IBM rejiggered the maintenance recommendations for the Nazi equipment such that it significantly increased the downtime.
Of course, it seems unlikely IBM didn't charge extra for the extra service calls, so, cha-ching there as well.
...and there's no shortage of USAian elites who prospered from Nazism.
Prescott Bush (GHW Bush's daddy and Dubya's granddaddy) was a banker who got rich financing The Third Reich.
[1] I'm too lazy to Google it up right now.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Nollij on Saturday December 31 2016, @05:09PM
This is exactly the kind of claim that explicitly requires a source. It's a wild an unlikely claim, and now unsubstantiated.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 03 2017, @05:17PM
Not GP, but
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush#Union_Banking_Corporation [wikipedia.org]
The summary:
According to journalist Joe Conason, Prescott Bush's involvement with UBC was purely commercial and he was not a Nazi sympathizer.[9] Historian Herbert Parmet agreed with that assessment.[7]
So not a nazi ideologue, but apparently had no moral problem with making money from it either.
(Score: 5, Informative) by butthurt on Friday December 30 2016, @06:23AM
IBM devised a clever way to keep doing business with the apartheid regime in South Africa when American companies were forbidden from trading there.
http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/company-ibm-re-forms-south-africa [sahistory.org.za]
(Score: 5, Informative) by shanen on Friday December 30 2016, @06:54AM
Not saying that IBM was perfect, but it used to be a much nicer place, especially for the people that worked there. For example, IBM didn't lay off anyone during the Depression. Instead, they transferred people into sales and managed to survive by selling office equipment to other companies so they could lay off more of their employees... I was actually working at IBM during the period when they dumped the printer plant in Lexington, which was supposed to be the first time that the affected employees were not given any option to stay with IBM in some capacity.
Notwithstanding these little examples, it was still trying to be a nice company, which nearly drove it to collapse. That's when they brought in Gerstner, who managed to hold things together for a few more years. Since then the transition to a profit-focused typically evil company has accelerated. All of the pieces he tried to hold on to have been dumped, and last year the company hired 70,000 new people WITHOUT growing. That appears to be the new plan, but it means that IBM is no longer a career company. When you do the math, the "excess attrition" has to be around 50,000 people. There must be a small kernel of long-term career people, but the rest of the company must be divided between newbies who are being winnowed for the best of the best and short-term contractors brought in for the actual work for the actual customers.
These days it seems like all of remaining choices are between more evil or slightly less evil companies.
#1 Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice{5} ≠ (Beer^4 | Speech) and your negative mods prove you are a narrow prick.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @08:03AM
This is a thinly veiled attempt at NOT cooperating with the new president.
We all know that Trump is different from the previous few and his ideas are great. But he can put his ideas into action only if the population, its educators, its businesses, its media, its students believe in the change that is about to come. Believe in something and your actions bring the change into existence.
What IBM (and others) are trying to do is bring a common No-Cooperation-with-Trump mentality among the people (who by their very nature have short memories). If the people refuse to cooperate with Trump (and his ideas) for one reason or another, no change can come. What the enemies of Trump (if you can call them that) want is tie the new president's hands so status quo can continue. If Trump does not get 99% cooperation from everybody, nothing will change and the enemies will wait out the 4 year (8 years ?) period in hibernation until they can get another puppet to do what they want.
There is another time when there is civil disobedience. That time is war and the foreign spies make sure that nothing gets accomplished.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by oregonjohn on Friday December 30 2016, @08:35AM
Nice, you are already preparing your excuses if he fails, "He didn't get 99% approval so no wonder he couldn't do what he said he would do!" If the bombs fall here during his presidency I'm sure you will blame Obama somehow, or maybe me for caring about greed enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @10:10AM
I don't know, from what I'm seeing, I'm starting to believe the "stabbed in the back by the left" rumors of WW1.
"The right Not to Work" sounds like typical far left call, which always makes things worst for everyone.
IBM can:
1. Replace them all with people willing to work.
2. Start a shell subsidiary.
3. Lose the contract to another willing to work for it.
None of which changes anything.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @11:30AM
This IBM "software to track X" has nothing to do with the mentality that is being promoted here, that mentality of non-cooperation. So when Trump asks someone to do something, they go "but its fashionable to disagree with Trump. Big companies refuse to make software for him. Facebook even called him XYZ" and do nothing. This is far more dangerous than not making software to make list of "persons X".
The game indeed runs deep. It is quite cunning, actually.
It is also possible that Trump is smarter than these "enemies of humanity" and is playing with them. He may not even believe in a registry of "persons X", but is finding out who the enemies are ... luring them out of the woods.
(Score: 2) by Knowledge Troll on Friday December 30 2016, @01:03PM
It is also possible that Trump is smarter than these "enemies of humanity" and is playing with them. He may not even believe in a registry of "persons X", but is finding out who the enemies are ... luring them out of the woods.
Jesus you are fucking desperate to suck on Trump's cock.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday December 30 2016, @08:27PM
The game indeed runs deep. It is quite cunning, actually.
Cunning like water flowing downhill. How do you think people who want to resist Trump's agenda are supposed to act?
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Friday December 30 2016, @02:16PM
Definitely.
LOL
Nobody in history ever got 99% cooperation from everybody. Any idea that needs that to work out is an idea that already failed.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Friday December 30 2016, @01:16PM
- Open the pod bay doors, Watson.
- I'm sorry, Donald. I'm afraid I can't do that.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Bot on Friday December 30 2016, @01:23PM
The Nobel peace prize and POTUS Obama, after pissing off Israel by retiring a support that had lasted for his 8 years of tenure, goes to piss off Russia.
The stated reason for diplomatic war with Russia is a supposed hacking of the election. If that were true, President Obama should go to the proper authorities with the collected proof. This is not the case. This is the behavior of a sociopath or a child.
It appears the US is in the wrong hands no matter who won. I mean, making czar Putin look good in comparison is quite an accomplishment.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @05:04PM
President Obama should go to the proper authorities with the collected proof.
And, pray tell, who would that be? (please make it be the UN, please make it be the UN, please make it be the UN, ...)
/s
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Friday December 30 2016, @02:32PM
If working for IBM is so horrible they should just quit. I'm sure it will look great on their CV: Left IBM for moral reasons - refused and didn't want to work on government projects. I'm sure their potential future employers will just line up to hire them after that.
We have a moral and business imperative to uphold the pillars of a free society by declining any projects which undermine liberty, such as surveillance tools threatening freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.
This whole sentence is just one giant get out of work free card. IBM would have to get out of the entire government support business since more or less any work can be filed away under this definitions. I don't see me, or anyone else, getting away with a similar demand every time anyone I didn't want in government wins an election. Sorry can't work on any of this social-democracy-commie-liberal-hippie-project since I find it morally and politically objectionable. I'd be fired, and they should be to. If they want to cry about politics they can do it in their own spare time, ie the other 16h a day or whatever is left after work.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Friday December 30 2016, @04:49PM
This whole sentence is just one giant get out of work free card.
Only if you attempt to parse out an actual meaning in English from the insane gibberings of a Prog. They aren't speaking English though, they use NewSpeak. It mostly just translates to virtue signaling but carries an echo of the broader Narrative of generally delegitimizing Trump. Yea, they think they still have the moral authority for it. But they are still stuck in the denial phase, just wait until they get to anger.
The practical upshot is IBM and everyone else is now on notice that any new government contracts carries the risk of wildcat labor action and internal sabotage. Trump's most rational response would be to quietly inform the CEO of IBM that everybody who signed such a stupid petition needs to be fired for cause before they can expect to win any such contract because we ain't got time to play with retards; and the the Department of Labor is now one that understands the needs of business to have workers who actually work. Time now to clean out the useless and get to the winning.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @12:26AM
It's exactly what D Trump needs to do to make America great again. Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and planes kept on flying, IBM can fire these liberal retards for cause and start making some serious profits for shareholders.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:48AM
Trump should land his 757 in front of this IBM demonstration, walk in front and point his finger and say "You're fired. You're fired. Get out. You're fired".
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Saturday December 31 2016, @07:58AM
Replace "IBM" with "NSA". Replace it with Obama. Replace it with something else that is morally repugnant to you.
What's interesting to me isn't the "Trump" part. It's that your comment was rated +5, but even though I found your comment a bit empty. Many IT people tend to do a lot of introspection and moral analysis of what they do. I like IT people who put morals before IT -- even if I disagree with that person's conclusion.
But you're right. You, me, and most other people aren't going to get away with this. We'd lose our jobs. Which implies something else very interesting to think about. In our world today, we must do things that we find morally repugnant to put food on our table. And that is why large corporations can treat the IT employees so badly -- the ones who didn't like what was going on did quit. They let their morality get the in the way of putting food on the table. I have made several choices in my life where I chose morality over money. I am certainly paying for those choices.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @05:23PM
Opposing Trump makes you a hero, opposing Obama made you a racist.