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Alphabet’s Chief Legal Officer Stepping Down Amid Investigation

nytimes.com

271–280 of 311 posts

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

#271

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.

The story of these men is always that they are going to leave their wife, which they obviously won't.

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

#272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The story of these men is always that they are going to leave their wife, which they obviously won't.

Agree - so presumably the author believed what she wanted to believe, or didn't really care.

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

#273
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no criminal law against it, but it opens you up to civil suits from aggrieved parties (who can be either participants in the affair or bystanders who feel they were given a raw deal because of the relationship). Hiring, firing, and performance management is supposed to be based on your performance at doing your job, not because your boss dumped you and now dislikes you. Sexual harassment and discrimination su…

You're assuming there are "aggrieved parties". To the best of my knowledge nobody was "aggrieved" by Sergey at least. He probably had them sign something before the "massage" or else I'm sure we'd see some lawsuits. Don't get me wrong, I'm not justifying sexual harassment in any way. But it's not "harassment" if it's wanted and consensual, and it's not _automatically_ unethical if the employee is not in his chain of…

> He probably had them sign something before the "massage" or else I'm sure we'd see some lawsuits.

This sounds quite unlikely.

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

#274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone explain why they're downvoting this? I know anecdotally My employer constantly gets in trouble during earnings calls from shareholders for doing anything remotely environmentally responsible because it impacts margins. It's pretty clear capital has no intention of being ethical at the cost of profit

Because it's being phrased as "punishment", which implies some kind of punitive action. "Oh the greenies are putting trees over green, we'll show them! Watch your share price tank!" That's not what happens. It's a bunch of quants sitting and running the numbers forward a few years to estimate numbers and price accordingly, not a conscious decision to punish. The big traders don't really have a particular attachment t…

It is how markets work. Your description just makes it an emergent property of how the markets function.

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

#275
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming there are "aggrieved parties". To the best of my knowledge nobody was "aggrieved" by Sergey at least. He probably had them sign something before the "massage" or else I'm sure we'd see some lawsuits. Don't get me wrong, I'm not justifying sexual harassment in any way. But it's not "harassment" if it's wanted and consensual, and it's not _automatically_ unethical if the employee is not in his chain of…

> He probably had them sign something before the "massage" or else I'm sure we'd see some lawsuits. This sounds quite unlikely.

Why? That's exactly what a playboy billionaire should ask his sexual partners to do in year 2020 when consent can be "withdrawn" retroactively and a male is considered guilty unless proven otherwise.

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

#276
post #171

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 think this sums up not just big cooperate, but large part of our society in general as well. ( May be a bigger problem in US than other parts of the world, but still a problem ) I often wonder why realistic people are called cynical, even when they are facts happening everywhere in a statistically large sums. Do others live in fairy land?

I can give the cynical answer to that. Being correct is a lousy strategy for social creatures, and making the best decision within the limits of what a person knows is a nearly guaranteed way to lose out to someone who takes risks. In that context, realists are not encouraged by the broader society. Better to be surrounded by and encouraging of irrepressible optimists, they explore more and are more likely to try to change the world for the better because they don't understand the essential futility of it all.

Realists live humble, modest lives. Seek to change themselves themselves and such. Accept the futility of it all. Realistically the difference between comfortable and opulent is not as large as it is made out to be. The optimal strategy is to use an approach that is excessively risk tolerant and then hope that you are in the group of people that are lucky. Almost all the people who are 'winning at life' are using some variant of that, or descendants from someone who was.

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

#277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked for Bill for about a year at GV. He was one of the friendliest managers I've ever met at Google. I randomly met Dave Drummond once at a coffee shop in Sausalito (I didn't know who he was at the time... he just commented on my Google shirt), and he gave me an inexplicably uncomfortable feeling.

So what? This comment is nonsense.

The majority of human communication is nonverbal. I saw this same kind of commentary about Epstein's "assistants". Humans can read humans to an extent that should impact behavior (but rarely does). Get over it.

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

#278
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Wiki page for CIA activities in Syria - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Syria#War,_2... - includes the choice quote "CIA-armed units and Pentagon-armed ones" battling each other.

If Russia had a preference, theories of kompromat look pretty weak compared to theories that maybe Trump just looked less likely to topple regimes basically on Russia's southern border. Hillary was probably going to continue in the same vein as either Bush or Obama, at least Trump would have appeared as a new draw from the deck.

Trumps "peace with Russia" pronouncements are one of his best features. It is a good year when the US president isn't flattening countries a la Bush. If there was a path to swapping out the missiles for insulting tweets that is a big win for everyone. Not to say Trump is particularly good, but really the US has an impact on the world and wide-eyed anti-Russia conspiracy theories help nobody. At least his administration has been better than Bush's for the Middle East.

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

#279
post #232
post #154

Interesting comment from Bill Maris from Axios. Bill Maris, who founded Google's venture capital arm and reported directly to Drummond before quitting in 2016, tells Axios... "The news of David Drummond leaving Google today brings to mind a quote from one of my most favorite creatures. 'At an end, your rule is. And not short enough, it was.' I had been asked in the past why I left Google in 2016, and I have never rea…

is that a star wars quote???

Yes I believe that’s what Yoda says to palpatine in episode III.

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

#280
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ignoring USA politics for a moment, can we admit that the current state of Syria is better for both residents and the world than the current state of Libya? I.e., that it's better not to completely destroy society, subjecting everyone who lives there to unrelenting death, violence, poverty, and slave markets?
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