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Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

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Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#52

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

"now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak"

Where is evidence for that? As a matter of fact, during the post election period Trump extended olive branches to his opponents and critics, such as Romney, Cruz, Bushes, etc.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#54

I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress. We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise. They may not be the origin of these trends, but they certainly rode them to tremendous wealth without anything besides the most superficial concerns…

> I'm not optimistic, but I hope that the Trump era finally puts an end to the illusions people had about tech giants as a vehicle for social progress.

I hope so too. Even if corporations really were sincerely pursuing social progress, that would be bad. In a democratic society, social progress should not be determined by a small group of unaccountable organizations.

Say what you will about governments pursuing social progress -- at least they are somewhat accountable and need to be elected. (Another potential upside of Trump's election: hopefully fewer people who believe that voting never changes anything because the establishment always wins.) Nobody outside of a corporation's board has control over who ends up in charge.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#55
post #41
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt Google or any other SV corporation would ever agree to help with a Muslim registry. Even if somehow the top leadership of such a company were to agree (which I doubt), you'd see defections, sabotage, and heavy leaks almost immediately.

http://neveragain.tech/ has a ton of Googlers on there. I'm among them.

Your replacement won't care. You even gave Alphabet mgmt a nice list of who to downsize.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#56
post #10

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

Google as a company gives equally between the 2 parties[0] (via it's PAC(s)). Google employees that donated to candidates or various government entities definitely leans towards the democrat side[1]. So the company knows to hedge its bets and give equally both ways. (Most large companies do this, like Comcast[2]). [0] https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pac2pac.php?cycle=2016&cmte... [1] https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs…

It's not just the money, though...it's the relationship, time, favors, etc. There's stuff like this organization: https://thegroundwork.com/ that Eric Schmidt set up for Hillary.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#57

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

> The typical hire former government workers to lobby current government might also be in danger if the President goes through with his anti-lobbyist rule changes. This is one thing that I'm really looking forward to.

Trump's proposal is a five-year ban on becoming a registered lobbyist after leaving a government job. This sounds good on paper -- but the more likely reality is that it will simply lead to lobbying becoming more covert, as former government employees working on behalf of corporations won't register as lobbyists.

It's also hard to believe that the Trump administration would do much to rein in backroom deals, considering the President himself hasn't released his tax returns nor taken any credible steps to solve the massive conflicts of interest posed by his holdings.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#58
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're blaming tech giants for the rise in inequality, authoritarianism and intolerance? It's like blaming Apple or Spotify that your favorite artists aren't as good as they used to be. Fine, be happy the veil is off (tech giants are corporations and when push comes to shove are about money), but honestly you need to look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians t…

> look at the petroleum industry, security & prison industrial complexes and their bought politicians to see the worst. Why would the tech industry be any better? The industries you name are somewhat more dependent on government, but Google and 'big tech' are still heavily dependent.

Deepwater Horizon, Bhopal, CIA black sites, the list is long. The level of either incompetence or pure indifference to human and environmental cost is just incomparable.

Name one such for the tech industry.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#59
post #40

> We're stepping into an era of extreme inequality, authoritarianism, and intolerance, all borne on the back of their rise what the hell are you on about?

Please don't comment like this here, regardless of how wrong someone is.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13503315 and marked it off-topic.

Re: Google, in Post-Obama Era, Aggressively Woos Republicans

#60
post #52

This is probably going to be a hard problem for a lot of companies. Spending quite a lot of money on Democrats and little on Republicans looked like a good strategy given the polling, but now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak. Not to mention all the contacts they have built up in the permanent staff might not be there as long…

"now they have to deal with a office holder that is not the least concerned with building bridges and has a bit of vengeful streak" Where is evidence for that? As a matter of fact, during the post election period Trump extended olive branches to his opponents and critics, such as Romney, Cruz, Bushes, etc.

Olive branch to Romney? He dragged him through the press like a trained dog. He said some nice things about the Clintons, but I haven't seen a lot of bridge building or olive branches.

I'm more than willing to give him a chance, and I really want him to do well, but I don't think he suffers opponents gladly.

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