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Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

nytimes.com

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Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#261

Post by aluminussoma »

lostcolony wrote: post #228
aluminussoma wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. I'm sure I have accidentally made someone uncomfortable before. Does that make me a bad person? I hope not.

Of course it doesn't make you a bad person. In fact, there's a good chance you're a good person, and if you have accidentally made someone uncomfortable, it was through something they could easily put their finger on; you said something, you reminded them of something, etc. This doesn't sound like it's that. He does, after all, call it 'inexplicable'; literally unable to be interpreted or expanded upon. It was a 'gut…

The danger with such unqualified sentiments is that there are many things that can make someone uncomfortable. Let me be more plain: David Drummond is (was) the most famous black male executive in tech. I have heard black men voicing frustrations at people being uncomfortable at them for no good reason.

I am not saying that the OP or anyone here is being racist. We need to provide more context to these statements if we are going to say these in public. Otherwise, some groups of people will be at the receiving end of these kind of statements more often than the rest of us.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#262

Post by onetimemanytime »

rayiner wrote: post #147
hackinthebochs wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get this "abuse of power" angle at all. Having a relationship with a subordinate is not an abuse of power. Insisting that your job rests on a relationship is an abuse of power, but without evidence that happened (and it seems like it didnt), there's no abuse. This idea that a power differential invalidates a relationship is nonsense. The fact is, people spend half or more of their waking hours at work. You sp…

> This idea that a power differential invalidates a relationship is nonsense. Why? Seems pretty sound to me.

>>> This idea that a power differential invalidates a relationship is nonsense.

Why? Seems pretty sound to me.

Pretty demeaning to a mature woman, smart enough to be hired by Google. Maybe we should have a male guardian sign off on such things? just to be sure?

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#263

Post by onetimemanytime »

nostrademons wrote: post #158
tmpz22 wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "HR told me that Sergey's response to it was, 'Why not? They're my employees,'" Ayers said. "But you don't have employees for f---ing! That's not what the job is." Ooooof. That shatters the "Early on Google's culture was great!" narrative... [1]: https://www.businessinsider.com/google-sergey-brin-employees...

Not really. Eric Schmidt (also a notorious womanizer) had a saying while I was there: "More revenue solves all known problems." When everybody at the company is getting rich, they're all working on exciting problems, Fortune and Time and BusinessWeek and Playboy magazines are featuring employees on the cover, and everyone you meet is impressed at where you work, then employees are willing to overlook a large number o…

>>It's only when there's no chance at getting rich that people care about the little things like being treated fairly, not being sexually harassed, and so on.

Make me a star Harvey...

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#264

Post by ChuckMcM »

Not one of my favorite people at Google. We had an interesting discussion about why Google, which was "transparent" about ranking and rating kept two variables about your performance secret which made it impossible to verify whether or not your bonus was in fact what they had promised you. Very annoying.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#265

Post by meesterdude »

celticmusic wrote: post #251
meesterdude wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think it is a bad idea to say this about him without providing a concrete example on how he made you uncomfortable. They don't have to justify themselves to you. He saw what he saw, and felt what he felt. if you have any problem with that, that's on you.

the need for offense is strong with this one, yes?

not here to people please, just being authentic.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#266

Post by orf »

celdon25 wrote: post #167
nostrademons wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Eric Schmidt (also a notorious womanizer) had a saying while I was there: "More revenue solves all known problems." When everybody at the company is getting rich, they're all working on exciting problems, Fortune and Time and BusinessWeek and Playboy magazines are featuring employees on the cover, and everyone you meet is impressed at where you work, then employees are willing to overlook a large number o…

I don't think the 2016 election is a good analogy, as both candidates had their share of skeletons in the closet, with the non-winning party arguably having skeletons that were more of a national security risk than a cultural one. People seem to conveniently forget this fact though.

Often bankrupt property tycoon riddled with dubious overseas Russian debt and has historic shady dealings in a number of countries doesn’t have skeletons in his closet that would impact national security?

Right. There was a reason he was Russia’s preferred candidate, and it wasn’t because they had too much kompromat on Hillary to know what to do with.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#267

Post by orf »

mellosouls wrote: post #215
joncrane wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assuming that the story in https://medium.com/@jennifer.blakely is accurate, that man is a monster.

David was married and had a son She's not exactly squeaky clean either.

An estranged wife though.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#268

Post by jillesvangurp »

rvz wrote: post #33

The multiple scandals, trip-ups, investigations and blunders at Google sounds very eligible to be turned into its own theatrical melodrama set. In this rehearsal, the CLO has already been "off script" for many years and the "directors" have told him that he isn't getting his $50m golden parachute this time. Instead, he leaves with nothing and takes an Uber back home. No travel expenses paid.

People zoom in on the wrong things. What this person did is one thing. In a normal company that kind of thing results in a chat with your boss and ultimately some kind of resolution that probably involves people leaving the company.

What happened here instead is years of this being the status quo with people looking the other way that really should not be. Even helping to cover this up; or even actively harassing people pointing out that this wasn't cool. Google is firing people who speak up and rewarding people who abuse their power & privilege.

This person was very gently nudged out the door when he should have obviously been fired years ago. This kind of thing is a no-brainer in modern companies. You fuck around like that and you fail to keep it a secret, that's a career ending event. It's a failure of leadership right there. That leadership is still in place. The problem is still there.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#269

Post by nl »

celdon25 wrote: post #202
rconti wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point 3 is not a straw man argument; he was objectively a horrible person before that quote came to light. It wasn't remotely surprising to anyone.

Did he start 4 civil wars though? That's my point, a lot of voters weigh that heavily against what you bring up. Don't shoot the messenger.

Just because some right wing opinion piece thinks Hillary Clinton started 4 civil wars doesn't make it true.

she convinced Obama to back military coups against the democratically-elected leaders of Honduras and Egypt.

The Intercept (no friend of the Clintons!) writes:

A retired U.S. military intelligence officer, who helped with the lobbying and the Honduran colonels’ trip, told me on condition of anonymity that the coup supporters debated “how to manage the U.S.” One group, he said, decided to “start using the true and trusted method and say, ‘Here is the bogeyman, it’s communism.’ And who are their allies? The Republicans.”

A network of former Cold Warriors and Republicans in Congress loudly encouraged Honduras’s de facto regime and criticized the newly elected Obama administration’s handling of the crisis.

https://theintercept.com/2017/08/29/honduras-coup-us-defense...

By the time Clinton got involved the coup was complete.

The others are the same.

Read the US reaction to the Egyptian coup: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Egyptian_coup_d%27%C3%A9t.... It's easy to criticise it, but hard to come up with what the reaction should have been. It's worth noting that both parties had fairly similar reactions here.

Does anyone really believe that Clinton and Obama were backing militant Islamists in Syria and Libya? The countries were a mess and they were stuck trying to find a way forward - they didn't (and shouldn't have!) wanted Gaddafi or Assad in power, but both conflicts were multi-sided messes where one group would get taken over by another.

Re: Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

#270

Post by mellosouls »

orf wrote: post #267
mellosouls wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

David was married and had a son She's not exactly squeaky clean either.

An estranged wife though.

He claimed. He was still married to her years later, so not that estranged.

Plenty of decent single men out there, she went for the married one with kids.

Not disputing the guy's behaviour seems appalling; so her due diligence on his character and his actual single status appears to have been poor.

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