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Welcome, ACLU

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Re: Welcome, ACLU

#41

Post by muninn_ »

Although I think the American Civil Liberties Union is incredibly valuable and I'm glad they have a lot more money now to fight for the American people, I'm questioning all of this.

Where was the outpouring of funding when black people were being gunned down by cops from West Coast organizations? Where has YCombinator been as our own impoverished African-Americans are getting slaughtered in the streets of Chicago? Why weren't we funding the ACLU to help these people? I haven't seen Google talk about this, or AirBnB offer support to widows of veterans whose spouse commits suicide and has left them with nothing.

I feel for immigrants from war-torn countries, especially having been there myself. Maybe I'm too cynical and look at these moves (AirBnB, Uber, Google, etc...) as marketing moves. I wish we cared more about homeless people, people in West Virginia and Kentucky who have lost their jobs and got drenched in opiates without any protests from anybody, or veterans who can't pay their VA bills. Idk.

I know this comment will be unpopular, and that's ok. I tend to care more about those who I feel (whether true or not) are being left behind because that's who I am.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#42

Post by arkitaip »

chickenfries wrote: post #16

Peter Thiel insists that the immigration EO is does not constitute a religious ban [1], but Rudy Giuliani says this is exactly what the President asked for [2] (Also, we heard him say as much many, many times). [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/01/28/peter-thiel-s... [2] http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316726-giuliani-t...

Thiel is sycophant and a liar and if he wasn't close friends with Sam and the others he would have been throw out of Y Combinator.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#43

Post by vermontdevil »

monochromatic wrote: post #33

The ACLU sometimes supports a worthy cause, but it's basically just a left-leaning political organization. I understand that's particularly trendy right now, and anyone who supports Trump is a pariah in Silicon Valley... but come on. Would YC be donating directly to the Democratic party if that got the same favorable tax treatment?

left-leaning?

Supporting the Constitution is left-leaning? Sign me up!

And yes they don't defend the 2nd amendment because there are already two large organizations focused on that.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#45

Post by sandworm101 »

CydeWeys wrote: post #11

I don't know exactly what this means, as the implementation details are hazy, but if this entails substantial support to the ACLU (in terms of lawyers, money, or both), then that is awesome. I donated to the ACLU yesterday and I'm encouraging everyone I know to do the same.

Im taking this as a statement, that progress for traditional ycombinator startups is under threat from things the ACLU deals with. It isnt a startup, far from it, but the ACLU is someone that you want on speeddial these days.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#46

Post by gadders »

monochromatic wrote: post #33

The ACLU sometimes supports a worthy cause, but it's basically just a left-leaning political organization. I understand that's particularly trendy right now, and anyone who supports Trump is a pariah in Silicon Valley... but come on. Would YC be donating directly to the Democratic party if that got the same favorable tax treatment?

YC/Sam A hosted a fund raiser for the Democratic party/Obama [1]

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2014/04/20/president-obama-will-headl...

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#48

Post by geofft »

CydeWeys wrote: post #22
savagej wrote: post #8

I thought the "A" in ACLU stood for American.

And where do you think Silicon Valley is, or where YCombinator is based?

The future nation of California, whose independence campaign is supported by part-time YC partner and New Zealand citizen Peter Thiel.

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#49

Post by joshmarlow »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #12

Does the ACLU have any new product/entrepreneurial goals for the future? Without, it would seem this is a somewhat unusual association.

I think this makes sense strategically for multiple reasons:

- YC would undoubtedly like to ensure there are no barriers to immigrant founded startups that they would like to invest in

- ensuring that there are fewer barriers to employment by immigrants in invested startups

- generally trying to build a better more open world (which is in line with the UBI initiative [0] as well as the stated interest in investigating new concepts for city design [1])

[0] - https://techcrunch.com/2016/05/31/y-combinator-announces-bas...

[1] - https://www.wired.com/2016/07/y-combinators-plan-build-new-c...

Re: Welcome, ACLU

#50

Post by ihsw »

chickenfries wrote: post #16

Peter Thiel insists that the immigration EO is does not constitute a religious ban [1], but Rudy Giuliani says this is exactly what the President asked for [2] (Also, we heard him say as much many, many times). [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanmac/2017/01/28/peter-thiel-s... [2] http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/316726-giuliani-t...

It's not just Peter Thiel but anyone of sound mind -- the top 5 countries by Muslim-majority population are not included.

* Indonesia 204,847,000 (87.2%)

* Pakistan 178,097,000 (96.4%)

* India 172,245,158 (14.2%)

* Bangladesh 145,312,000 (90%)

* Nigeria 75,728,000 (47.9%)

If Indonesia suddenly became plagued by radical Islamic terrorism then it would be on the list too.

The seven countries targeted by the immigration ban have been either failed states or antagonistic to the US for the past 30 years, it is quite plain to say that it makes sense for Trump's companies -- and various other companies across a wide swath of industries -- to refrain from conducting business there. To say that other Muslim-majority countries aren't on the list due to conflict of interest is to deny this simple logic.

Plenty of other Muslim-majority countries have kept a lid on their populace by maintaining adequate internal security within their borders and providing valuable counter-terrorism intelligence to to the US, meanwhile the seven "countries of concern" have not.

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