Nothing to see here. Just the dudes who will be running Trump's business to avoid conflicts of interest sitting in on meetings. ? pic.twitter.com/E2mcSNHGBZ
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) December 14, 2016
Even the entities responsible for Star Wars Holiday Special are going, “Too cartoonish, dudes! You’re gonna lose your audience, dumb and uncritical as they are…”
Per the Washington Post:
A dozen or so technology executives filed into a conference room on the 25th floor of Trump Tower on Wednesday wearing suits not usually seen in Silicon Valley. Their combined net worth — at least $136 billion — was gilded even for the likes of Trump Tower. After months of acrimony that at times felt personal, they had come to make nice with President-elect Donald Trump.
And make nice they did…
But behind the cordiality was a sense of trepidation. While technology companies were among the most critical of Trump on the campaign trail, many understand that he will soon hold power over issues critical to them and their shareholders, including government contracts, high-skilled immigrant visas, Chinese imports and trade deals…
Trump just told tech leaders there's "no formal chain of command around here" pic.twitter.com/ghExU2251C
— Alexandra Jaffe (@ajjaffe) December 14, 2016
The infotech company with which Trump is most familiar didn’t get a seat:
oh my god https://t.co/PnQmpiuZin pic.twitter.com/YHCudk1E2C
— Alex Fitzpatrick (@AlexJamesFitz) December 14, 2016
Are you f**king kidding me? https://t.co/Mp7z6Mi13E
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 14, 2016
Sean Spicer on MSNBC re: Twitter not being at tech meeting: "The conference table was only so big."
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) December 14, 2016
@aseitzwald But Twitter only takes up 140 characters!
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) December 14, 2016
@aseitzwald if Trump's kids weren't there, there'd be more room.
— Mallory Brock (@mallorybrock) December 14, 2016
But of course Peter Thiel did. Per the Post, again:
… The president-elect also heaped praise on Facebook board and transition team member Peter Thiel, shaking his hand and calling him a “special guy.”
Trump made a point of saying that Thiel, who convened the meeting, nixed companies that were too small from attending. But one relatively small company with ties to Thiel made the cut: Palantir. Unlike the other companies in attendance, the data-mining start-up, which Thiel founded in 2004, is private and had revenue last year of less than $300 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. A large portion of Palantir’s business involves contracts with federal agencies, and the company is currently engaged in a lawsuit with the Department of Defense over the right to compete for more contracts…
Palantir is several eschelons down from every other companies on this list, in case there was any doubt about where DOD/IC $ is heading. pic.twitter.com/M3uD9zN4pa
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) December 14, 2016
best part of WSJ transcript : "“Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir hoping to help bolster national security and [inaudible].”
um, violate privacy? https://t.co/TJsGYfWtzD— Daniel Gross (@grossdm) December 15, 2016
Only way to describe tech execs leaving Trump Tower without speaking to the press: Cowardly.
— Dan Primack (@danprimack) December 14, 2016
OzarkHillbilly
They are who we thought they are.
OzarkHillbilly
I expect to hear a whole lot more of this in the years to come..
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: More:
But with Uber, the rules don’t apply.
Waldo
Cheer up, Twitter. There are worse things to be excluded from than a pointless Trump ass-kissing ceremony.
Mary G
Making America Rich White Male Again.
NotMax
Lickspittles.
Bye-bye net neutrality.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
Nope. Rules are so, 20th century.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: It’s a brave new world.
Mai.naem.mobile
I just saw on MSNBC that Obama let the Iran sanctions renew because he didn’t sign the orders??? Anybody know anything? Adam??
p.a.
Who needs Pooty-poot to discredit American democracy? Russia: day late dollar short as always. Thanks Siliconers, thanks N.C. legislature!
rikyrah
Twitter was not there because they didn’t go along with the concept of the Muslim registry.
The question to the others is: YOU AGREE WITH THE CONCEPT OF A MUSLIM REGISTRY???
RSR
Besides the Trump kids, I saw a post that noted Jared Kushner was also there, seated directly across from Trump and Pence.
Xenos
Which exact sci-fi dystopia are we looking at here? Who called it? GI)ibson? Bester? The pure feudalism of Pournelle?
TriassicSands
Twitter gets bounced because they wouldn’t let Trump have his nasty little emoji. Why doesn’t Twitter simply kick Donald off of Twitter. He’d go berserk.
Unable to rant, rave, and rage at 3am, president-elect Trump exploded in a sea of bile last night. Details at 11.
Mai.naem.mobile
@TriassicSands: if I was some tech guy at Twitter I would preview and delay his tweets a few seconds and short whatever stock he was bitching about.
Lurking Canadian
@BillinGlendaleCA: Uber’s entire business model is that the rules don’t apply to Uber. Why would they start now?
rikyrah
@TriassicSands:
The emoji story is a crock. The real reason is the resistance to the Muslim registry.
Betty Cracker
Head of state attempting to control businesses through intimidation rates a maximum four on the Banana Republican scale: ????
So does involving unelected, unqualified family members in government affairs: ????
dr. bloor
Herr Fuhrer would envy Hair Furor’s yooooouge conference table and his ability to cow the modern day Captains of Industry, although he’d probably disapprove of letting Ivanka Braun sit in on the meeting.
sherparick
@Xenos: Welcome to Philip K. Dick’s world. Definitely evolving toward a feudal world.
Iowa Old Lady
I was thinking about why it feels so different to have the president’s daughter rather than his wife in an office in the East Wing. Culturally, we assume a wife will live in the same house with her husband, so she gets some space and is allowed to do some stuff, though not too much because we didn’t elect her.
But we assume adult children don’t live with their parents. If they do, we think something’s gone wrong. So Ivanka’s being there is a choice. She’s stepping over a line.
Maybe it’s a rich person thing. Romney’s adult sons were very involved with his campaign and it wouldn’t have surprised me if one of them had a role in his administration.
trnc
Not sure why Twitter wouldn’t just block DT’s account and every other person involved with him. They’re already losing money, so that can’t be the excuse.
trnc
They’re the Trumps. Lines only exist to be stepped over.
Betty Cracker
@Iowa Old Lady: It wouldn’t bother me if Ivanka stuck to traditional first lady stuff. Well, that’s not exactly true — the notion of ANY of that parasitic bunch descending on the White House fills me with disgust! But it sounds like she and her husband will be doing more than hosting charity events and championing uncontroversial causes. Sounds like they’ll be advising the shitgibbon on policy. Have either of them ever had a job they had to actually qualify for in their entire lives? Nope. Neither has Trump, but at least he went through the trouble of winning the Republican primary and enticing the Russians to swing the election his way.
montanareddog
He looks more and more like the Noah Cross of 5th Avenue to me. With all of Noah’s character flaws
kirbster
@Xenos: I am thinking more of the “soft dystopia” of a thoroughly second-rate America in Gary Shteyngart”s Super Sad True Love Story. A worse scenario would be the world of Paolo Bacigalupi”s The Water Knife.
Brachiator
@montanareddog: But Noah Cross at least had a lovely daughter.
tobie
Dan Primack’s tweet is spot on:
The cowardice is what kills me. Not one of these business leaders has the guts to stand up to the bully. I’m not saying this was the occasion to stand up or pick a fight. But I’m amazed at how quickly all businesses are falling in line after Trump’s tete-a-tete with Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Don’t they realize how much power they actually have? Kill off high tech and you do actually kill off the economy. Thus far the only person who’s shown any courage regarding Trump is Chuck Jones. Figures that the one with the least power is the only one to show some spine.
AliceBlue
@tobie:
As far as standing up to Trump, I would add the DOE, for refusing to hand over a list of employees working on climate change.
randy khan
@rikyrah:
I saw Intercept story. I wouldn’t say any of these companies have agreed to help, and some of them just aren’t in that space. Speaking about the company I know best, that sort of thing seems inconsistent with Apple’s culture – it’s very focused on its customers’ privacy, to the point where it doesn’t collect data from its customers that other companies routinely collect.
tobie
@AliceBlue: Thanks for this reminder! I forgot about the DOE’s refusal to honor Trump’s request. I will keep this in mind and be sure to mention this to my Congresscritters when I call to urge them to resist something. This is a great example of how to resist the bully-in-chief.
3Jane Tessier-Ashpool (a/k/a Lorinda Pike)
@sherparick: But first, the Jackpot. Looks sort of like mid-transition to me. After a couple of wars, some climate-induced famines / plagues or a really good super-hurricane taking out a large chunk of the Eastern Seaboard; maybe a 9.0 quake on the West – then we’re in. The feudal part comes a bit later. Of course, the interim won’t be fun at all. I’m an old – I might just voluntarily check out, if no healthcare and cancer doesn’t get me first.
Hold on, folks.
Это курам на смех
Pursuant to a comment by JR in WV in the NC thread: what should I do to protect my life savings under the unstable times to come?
dr. bloor
@randy khan: Tim Cook was involved in fundraising for the Republicans through the last election cycle. Like most corporate barons, he appears to have spread money across both sides of the aisle, but I don’t think he or Apple have any principled ground to stand on here.
dr. bloor
@Это курам на смех: Futures in CAN-D are a pretty good bet.
Another Scott
@Это курам на смех: I put a reply in the dead thread, FWIW. I’m not a financial adviser, std-disclaimer.h, etc., etc.
Just my $0.02. HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris
@Xenos:
Are we talking about the dystopia that their policies are intended to create, or the dystopia that their policies, with their legendary levels of competence, will actually create?
The Alliance from Firefly is what they want to turn us into.
The ex-Independent failed states from Firefly is what they’ll actually turn us into.
liberal
@tobie:
Why do you think any of those fucking douchebags gives a rat’s ass about our democracy? If they did, where the fuck were they during the general campaign?
They’re fucking idiots, every last one of them. Very good at a very narrow thing, but fucking idiots overall nevertheless.
randy khan
@dr. bloor:
Like most companies, Apple is run based on what its management thinks will be best for the shareholders. As a matter of brand equity, Apple is pretty committed to customer privacy and from all appearances believes that’s important to its business success. That could change, of course, but it would cause problems with a lot of its current customers (including me, although in truth it’s not like Android would be a real alternative in that case). Apple also is fairly vocal about diversity in its workforce.
Also, Apple really wouldn’t be in a position to help with creating or maintaining any list of Muslims. That’s just not something in its areas of expertise. (In truth, there’s nothing particularly technically sophisticated required to do that sort of thing unless you have specialized demands, and the companies that do that already have government contracts for things like the do-not-fly list.)
I personally am less than thrilled that Cook hosted fundraisers for Republicans, but as someone who lives and works in Washington (and who has received pressure over the years to donate to Republicans for job-related reasons), I get that the CEO of the largest company in the world by market cap probably feels the need to have people on both sides of the aisle. If the reports I’ve seen are accurate, he basically did what you’d expect this cycle, hosting events for the people who seemed most likely to be in power after the election, Clinton and Ryan. His personal giving in previous cycles has leaned pretty heavily to the Democrats, and although it’s hard to know for sure right now, the indications are that he probably gave more to Democrats this cycle, too. (The numbers I’ve seen were from before the fundraiser he held for Clinton, and were about even.)
sigaba
@tobie: Nobody wants to pick a fight as long as there’s money to be made. If there was some suggestion that the consumer spending or ad revenues would be hurt by Trump then they’d say something.
J R in WV
@Это курам на смех:
@Another Scott:
Scott has the only real information containing comment so far, in which he expresses optimism that other billionaires won’t let Trump crush the economy, and thinks that he would use Keynesian economic methods if it came to that.
I think that bubbles explode and there’s nothing the “managers” of the economy can really do if that happens. So the question is “Does the Dow at 20,000 mean we are in a bubble right now?”
Alright the Dow is actually at 19,922 right now, this morning. So .4% below 20,000 so far. Maybe that’s just a healthy economy doing what it should be doing, albeit a little unbalanced with regard to wages and unearned income?
Ian
@tobie:
I would say giving what he has done to Boeing those corporate leaders have to go grovel. They are not running moral instiutions they are running businesses. If they did not grovel the board members would have their heads, and would procede to go do the groveling.
The problem is not so much the lack of morality in big corporations, the problem is apathy by half the population and outright emnity from a quarter of it.
Chris
@Ian:
I agree with this.
But it doesn’t make it any less utterly pathetic that these fucking assholes, after spending the last eight years sobbing uncontrollably about the mean socialist in the White House pushing them around and oh God isn’t there someone to stand up to Big Government… now, when faced with a politician who actually does actively try to ruin their corporations in order to jerk them into line, are all suddenly making themselves meek and obedient.
opiejeanne
@Ian: Is Boeing groveling? I haven’t seen that.
dr. bloor
@J R in WV:
I would imagine Alan Greenspan has been around long enough to remind us that everyone was enjoying a splendid performance of Our American Cousin until that little unbalanced guy with the gun showed up in the second act.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: The DJIA probably isn’t the best metric, but even the S&P500 is at or near (nominal) record highs. The PE Ratio is a little high, but that’s not surprising since interest rates have been so low for so long (there’s a lot of money in the stock market that would normally be in bonds).
Does that mean that as Janet continues to raise interest rates that people are going to flee the market? Maybe! But 10+% gains still look a lot better than 0.75% or 2% interest on bonds…
What should we do? Dunno. Keep your eyes open and protect yourself where you can (don’t by a $60,000 pickup truck if you can’t make money with it) is probably the sensible thing. I don’t think anyone has shown that they can consistently predict the market…
Cheers,
Scott.
eataTREE
Her Most Special Specialness, Marissa Meyer of Yahoo, didn’t make the cut? She must be so disappointed.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Ironic to consider that’s likely all these CEO and their employees voted against Trump. Most of them are from “Not REAL America” California and running companies filled with Mexicans, Muslims and other terrorists and pratice wicked things like education.
So basically everything Trump promised will destory the economy.
PatrickG
Tech employees, some of them at least, are standing up and saying “no”. While obviously this particular pledge isn’t necessarily going to stop anything, it’s a damn sight better than staying quiet, and it at least performs some positive signaling.
Started a few days ago, up to 1200 signatories so far.
http://neveragain.tech/
Mnemosyne
@Xenos:
The “joke” during the election was that it was Suzanne “Hunger Games” Collins.
Mnemosyne
@Iowa Old Lady:
For me, it’s closer to what Betty said — I think that Ivanka is going to be using her position to line her pockets and get good business deals for herself. That’s what’s so gross me to. If I thought she was going to just do “First Lady” stuff, it wouldn’t bother me nearly as much.
J R in WV
@PatrickG:
How many systems do you suppose the Federal Government has for tracking people, with flexible attributes associated with those people? Dozens at least. Some one mentioned the Do Not Fly list, which may be new enough to have some flexibility built in.
Holders of Duck Stamps, Owners of licensed boats, Commercial Drivers Licenses, Passports entering and leaving the country – a myriad of tracking systems.
Any one of those which is half way structured properly could be re-purposed to track Jews and Muslims in weeks by a good development team. And you could just track everyone, and note the ones with bad religions, or, worse yet, no religion at all.