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Conservatives turn on Silicon Valley — and the free market
#1
http://theweek.com/articles/718558/conse...ree-market

Quote:After the 2012 election, national Republicans made a concerted effort to hack into Silicon Valley. The Romney campaign had just been thoroughly outclassed by Barack Obama's technology team. The GOP also thought Big Tech could help push its agenda on items both sides agreed on, including corporate tax and immigration reform. And it couldn't hurt to have closer ties with a sector of vast wealth and cultural influence to fill the party's coffers and up its coolness quotient.

But things are a little different in today's Trumpublican Party. In a tweet yesterday morning, President Trump again attacked Amazon...



http://theweek.com/articles/718558/conse...ree-market
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#2
(08-17-2017, 10:37 AM)Dan Wrote: http://theweek.com/articles/718558/conse...ree-market

Quote:After the 2012 election, national Republicans made a concerted effort to hack into Silicon Valley. The Romney campaign had just been thoroughly outclassed by Barack Obama's technology team. The GOP also thought Big Tech could help push its agenda on items both sides agreed on, including corporate tax and immigration reform. And it couldn't hurt to have closer ties with a sector of vast wealth and cultural influence to fill the party's coffers and up its coolness quotient.

But things are a little different in today's Trumpublican Party. In a tweet yesterday morning, President Trump again attacked Amazon...

Actually, Trump has no beef with Amazon, but he hates Jeff Bezos.  Bezos owns the Washington Post which tends to lean on Trump very hard.  Of course, Bezos is now as wealthy as Bill Gates, or nearly so at least.  Why he wants a fight with him is baffling, but then again, he's the Donald.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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#3
The John Birch/Lyndon Larouche wing of the right has always despised Silicon Valley. To them, Silicon Valley is an integral part of ZOG - The Zionist Occupation Government.
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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#4
(08-17-2017, 02:15 PM)David Horn Wrote: Actually, Trump has no beef with Amazon, but he hates Jeff Bezos.  Bezos owns the Washington Post which tends to lean on Trump very hard.  Of course, Bezos is now as wealthy as Bill Gates, or nearly so at least.  Why he wants a fight with him is baffling, but then again, he's the Donald.

Does rationality have anything to do with Trump's rage tweets against anyone or anything that opposes him?
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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#5
(08-17-2017, 02:15 PM)David Horn Wrote:
(08-17-2017, 10:37 AM)Dan Wrote: http://theweek.com/articles/718558/conse...ree-market

Quote:After the 2012 election, national Republicans made a concerted effort to hack into Silicon Valley. The Romney campaign had just been thoroughly outclassed by Barack Obama's technology team. The GOP also thought Big Tech could help push its agenda on items both sides agreed on, including corporate tax and immigration reform. And it couldn't hurt to have closer ties with a sector of vast wealth and cultural influence to fill the party's coffers and up its coolness quotient.

But things are a little different in today's Trumpublican Party. In a tweet yesterday morning, President Trump again attacked Amazon...

Actually, Trump has no beef with Amazon, but he hates Jeff Bezos.  Bezos owns the Washington Post which tends to lean on Trump very hard.  Of course, Bezos is now as wealthy as Bill Gates, or nearly so at least.  Why he wants a fight with him is baffling, but then again, he's the Donald.

I think you nailed it in your first sentence. Trump hates the press in general and the "liberal" press in particular, and that means he hates Jeff Bezos. Jeff is now quite a bit wealthier than Bill Gates by the way. Bill is no longer making money but giving it away, while amazon has become the behemoth its name suggests.
"I close my eyes, and I can see a better day" -- Justin Bieber

Keep the spirit alive;
Eric M
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#6
Amazon is no more high-tech than is Wal*Mart. Both rely upon information technology to make decisions in marketing. Amazon and Wal*Mart simply have different clienteles. Wal*Mart customers buy stuff closer to being commodities; Amazon customers are more likely to make specific  choices on what they buy. The IT that Wal*Mart uses isn't quite the  same program that Amazon uses.

Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post after getting rich off Amazon. One might buy this from Amazon.com, as I did:

[Image: MI0001006814.jpg?partner=allrovi.com]

Nothing like this is for sale at Wal*Mart, generally a store offering the low end in the life of the mind. Have you ever seen a book selection in Wal*Mart? It is awful.  

Amazon is no more a high-tech company than, for that matter, General Motors or Exxon-Mobil, both of which use high technology in their businesses. 

OK, so what is so inimical between high tech and Donald Trump? Donald Trump is anti-intellectual in the extreme, and the successful people in high tech are as a group, learned people. The more intellectual sophistication one has in America, the more likely one is to not accept propaganda at face value. They know as a strict rule that logical contradictions implode an argument as nonsense at the most benign or outright fabrication. But this applies to practically anyone well educated.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist  but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.


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#7
(12-31-2019, 01:26 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:
(08-17-2017, 02:15 PM)David Horn Wrote: Actually, Trump has no beef with Amazon, but he hates Jeff Bezos.  Bezos owns the Washington Post which tends to lean on Trump very hard.  Of course, Bezos is now as wealthy as Bill Gates, or nearly so at least.  Why he wants a fight with him is baffling, but then again, he's the Donald.

Does rationality have anything to do with Trump's rage tweets against anyone or anything that opposes him?

That's certainly true, but it's always a good idea to look at the first incidence of attack for clues. This started when Bezos bought the Washington Post, and insolated it entirely from commercial and political pressure. Trump went ballistic. Prior to the WP buy, he didn't seem to care about Bezos at all.
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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#8
(01-01-2020, 04:44 PM)David Horn Wrote:
(12-31-2019, 01:26 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:
(08-17-2017, 02:15 PM)David Horn Wrote: Actually, Trump has no beef with Amazon, but he hates Jeff Bezos.  Bezos owns the Washington Post which tends to lean on Trump very hard.  Of course, Bezos is now as wealthy as Bill Gates, or nearly so at least.  Why he wants a fight with him is baffling, but then again, he's the Donald.

Does rationality have anything to do with Trump's rage tweets against anyone or anything that opposes him?

That's certainly true, but it's always a good idea to look at the first incidence of attack for clues.  This started when Bezos bought the Washington Post, and isolated it entirely from commercial and political pressure.  Trump went ballistic.  Prior to the WP buy, he didn't seem to care about Bezos at all.

It's impossible to be objective about Donald Trump without insulting him. Be a bad person and do bad things, and the truth about the person will be almost exclusively negative.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist  but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.


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#9
What really gets me about the right's vendetta against Silicon Valley is that it ignores the existence of such right-wing extremists as Robert Mercer (the #1 contributor to Trump's 2016 campaign), Peter Thiel, and John McAfee (who if he's not a member of the Atlas Society, he's cheating the Society out of its dues) within its ranks.
"These, and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation" - Justice David Brewer, Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, 1892
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#10
(01-11-2020, 04:49 PM)Anthony Wrote: What really gets me about the right's vendetta against Silicon Valley is that it ignores the existence of such right-wing extremists as Robert Mercer (the #1 contributor to Trump's 2016 campaign), Peter Thiel, and John McAfee (who if he's not a member of the Atlas Society, he's cheating the Society out of its dues) within its ranks.

You're complaining about human nature.  The right tends to lean on emotion over reason, so seeing evil in others and goodliness in one's allies is to be expected.   Big Grin
Intelligence is not knowledge and knowledge is not wisdom, but they all play well together.
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