Trump’s ban on admitting Muslims from seven nations is obviously disgusting. But the tech giants who are leading the charge against it are just as gross.
On Trump’s Muslim Ban, No Good Guys
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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This is absolutely brilliant.
(I knew I should have bought shares in rentahouseplant dot com back in the day…)
(Then again I didn’t have any money did I?)
(Screw this.)
Maybe the Trump and the tech boys can find a compromise, maybe agreeing to let in more Sikhs even though they kinda look entirely unlike Muslims? Difficult sell.
Or Trump could re-start the Korean war to should shake things up in the tech sectors and generate well-educated refugees. That would also create a lot of new jobs in the military and related sectors from engineering to undertaking. What could go wrong?
“You have lived in peace for most of your life. Bad deal. Sad.
War is good for business. We’re going to have a yuge, beautiful war.”
But we don’t want to add to the paranoia of those shining lights like Bannon and Thiel, do we?
Tell me about it. Microslop forces anyone over forty out the door, then cries crocodile tears over how they can’t find any talented people without hiring from overseas.
Foreign workers model employees. They work cheap, they don’t complain ‘cuz they go back home if they lose their jobs, and they don’t have any of those inconvenient ideas about their “rights.”
Sincerely,
over-aged under-employed crazy tech worker
… are model employees.
«The problem is that STEMMIES see themselves as ‘professionals’ and therefore above such plebeian activities as unionizing.» You put your finger on a sore spot there, CrazyH, but I suggest that this has less to do with «STEMMIES» in general than with STEMMIES – and others, whether blue or white collar, in the United States, with that country’s peculiar social ethos. From what I understand, most STEMMIES here in Sweden are, in fact organised, because they are intelligent enough to realise that organisation increases their bargaining power (and that of their colleagues) vis-à-vis employers. Of course, if one is living in a dreamworld in which one is destined to be, as Mr Sanders would have it, «a member of the billionaire class», than one has no need of unions….
Henri
Different people have different motivations. I understand that of the white collars – even as I disagree with them.
What I cannot understand is just how well TPTB have turned blue collar workers against unions. Their grandfathers organized and gave them their middle class lifestyle in the first place.
«What I cannot understand is just how well TPTB have turned blue collar workers against unions. Their grandfathers organized and gave them their middle class lifestyle in the first place.» Indeed they did. But these grandfathers’ descendants live in more or less the same dream world inhabited by the STEM-workers. As I noted earlier, the reluctance of professionals in the United States to organise is more characteristic of that country, than of professionals in general – we shall have to see whether the «Trump experience» will end up bursting that bubble for both so-called professionals and blue-collar workers….
Henri
«Tell me about it. Microslop forces anyone over forty out the door, then cries crocodile tears over how they can’t find any talented people without hiring from overseas. »CrazyH, after reading the above, I thought I’d take a look at available unionisation statistics for workers in the the so-called STEM fields in the United States and found the following : In 2015, … 3.9 percent of professionals in computer and mathematical occupation were union members.. No wonder then that companies like Microsoft can and do exploit both their domestic and their foreign employees in the manner you describe above – there’s no countervailing power. So long as the notion of unions remains a bad word in the United States, so long are employees going to continue to be royally shafted by the employers….
If everyone, without discrimination, worked to a union contract, employers would not be able to undercut domestic employees by hiring in workers at lower wages from abroad, nor would they be able to fire employees who’ve passed 40 years of age ad libitum….
Don’t mourn, organise !…
Henri
a-yup. The problem is that STEMMIES see themselves as ‘professionals’ and therefore above such plebeian activities as unionizing.
I was in one place with an engineer’s union. They never reached 50% of the workforce, they weren’t willing to strike (and even if they were – leaving 60% of the engineers in place would mean a slow-down instead of a stoppage, hardly a good bargaining position.)
I had a very short (radio call-in show) conversation with Obama, during his Senate run, about H1B visa workers in 2003 when high tech firms couldn’t get enough these “skilled workers”, and so received three allocations of 65,000 each, for a total of 195,000.
Obama explained to me that the Phds and Masters in Electrical Engineering I worked with needed to go back to school to compete with their foreign low wage replacements (Presumably to learn how to live on a 40% salary reduction).
I leaned very early what a corporate kiss-up he was and would be.
«Obama explained to me that the Phds and Masters in Electrical Engineering I worked with needed to go back to school to compete with their foreign low wage replacements (Presumably to learn how to live on a 40% salary reduction).» That’s why it’s called a «labour market», Glenn – corporations can collude and sign so-called no-poaching agreements (even if it’s illegal, the penalties are simply a (minor) cost of doing business), while the employees, unorganised as they are, have little or no bargaining power to counter such manoeuvers or the hiring of foreign workers at much lower wages. I note that Mr Obama, in his brief interchange with you, did not suggest that those PhDs and Masters organise to prevent their employers from screwing them – quelle surprise !….
Henri
I liked the Michael Moore 6 minute video. For 5 minutes, he explains why many working class Americans are furious at the Democrats and the Republicans, and desperately want someone like Trump. That’s where the Republicans cut it off and handed it out. After the 1st 5 minutes, Mr Moore says that voting for Trump would only make things much, much, worse.
Secretary Clinton promised war with Russia. I read comments that a war with Russia would be a more facile victory than Libya. But I am not so sure.
I was not convinced that a vote for Trump was a vote for nuclear war. But now it’s beginning to look like the US nominated the frying pan and the fire. So no matter whom we voted for, our gooses will all be cooked!
True.
The Plebs were the big losers in this election before the first vote in the general election was cast, making this the least important plebiscite in my lifetime.
Trump may not make “America Great Again”, but he might be instrumental in making Americans Great Again if they can lose some of the undeserved reverence for the corrupt institutions and learn to resist the overstepping intrusive assholes as if they really mean it.
Well, Trump is certainly doing that with the corporate news/entertainment media. CNN is now non-grata.
DanD
«Secretary Clinton promised war with Russia. I read comments that a war with Russia would be a more facile victory than Libya. But I am not so sure.» You really are a Doubting Thomas, Michael ! Russia’s a pushover – just ask Napoleon, or, for that matter, Hitler….
Henri