Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt warns that Trump's administration will do "evil things"

[midian182]

Out of all the tech companies that have stood up to Donald Trump’s immigration ban - be it through words, actions, or both - few have shown as much opposition as Google. CEO Sundar Pichai was one first to speak out against the order, its employees have staged global walkouts, and the company created a $4 million crisis fund for donation to four humanitarian organizations.

Now, the chairman of Google parent company Alphabet, Eric Schmidt, has told workers that Trump’s government will do “evil things as they’ve done in the immigration area.”

Schmidt’s warning came during a weekly company meeting last Thursday, just as reports that Trump was about to sign the executive order started surfacing. Vice notes that the meeting, which brings together Google and Alphabet execs to discuss new products and other items, was a tense affair, with employees demanding to know why the companies’ leaders weren’t taking a more aggressive stance. “[I want] Google to take positions, this is a fascist regime, this isn’t normal,” said one worker, who is reportedly from Iran.

Schmidt said that in addition to the “evil things” it has planned, the main goal of Trump’s administration is economic growth.

I can tell you that the tone of this government is very much economic growth [...] And so I think at the end of the day, they are going to do these evil things as they’ve done in the immigration area and perhaps some others, but the core focus is going to be to get the growth rate in the country — which is roughly one-and-a-half to two percent — up another point by simply pushing through increases in federal spending and overcoming the tea party.

More than 2000 Google employees around the world staged a walkout yesterday as a protest against the immigration ban – action that the company fully supported. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, meanwhile, joined other protesters at San Francisco airport, saying “I'm here because I'm a refugee.”

Google cofounder Sergey Brin at SFO protest: "I'm here because I'm a refugee." (Photo from Matt Kang/Forbes) pic.twitter.com/GwhsSwDPLT

— Ryan Mac (@RMac18) January 29, 2017

CEO Pichai, who is himself an immigrant from India, has been vocal in his criticism of the ban, calling its effect on his colleagues “painful to see.”

With a reform of the work visa program on the way, and more companies now heading for the courts in an effort to get the ban overturned, Trump’s attempt at building bridges with the tech community in December now feels like a distant memory.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/67971-alphabet-chairman-eric-schmidt-warns-trump-administration-do.html

 

[MonsterZero]

All aboard the Fascism train! Conductor Trump will make himself great again! /s

 

[Uncle Al]

There was a very good news article this morning talking about the "new American Fascism" and the eventual impact on the US. Perhaps this is one of those "teachable moments" for all those that are too young or did not study the 2nd World War and exactly what it did to Italy and a few more countries that were part of the Axis Powers.

All too often, in the past, when a sitting president comes to within a year left on their term we start hearing these stories about POTUS trying to enact some kind of legislation to create Marshal Law and declare themselves King of America ...... Assuming that Trump makes it through four years, I think, based upon his actions so far, this could be a more serious concern for the future .....

 

[Raoul Duke]

In this desperately sick society increasingly ruled over by multinational corporations whose only thought is 'money/power über alles' who seem devoid of any social conscience or concern for community, my first thought is that they (Google included) have already done "many evil things"

 

[BSim500]

One of the reasons Dailytech's readership shrunk was the insistence of shoving in political headlines (which were saturated in raging confrontational politics) that succeeded in driving many neutral readers away. Many of us don't want to see Techspot head down the same route:-

1. Create increasing number of political headlines and monitor popularity of comments section

2. If political articles get many more comments / page views than pure tech articles, then create more of the same and gradually "change the focus" of the site over time

3. Lots of formerly interesting tech articles then gradually get replaced with cheap clickbait driving away people who think politics should stick to political forums.

We're already seeing certain comments sections end up "drama queen" threads filled with dozens of posts of the same screeching "non-debate". Please leave this cr*p to the tabloids and stick to tech related "news".

 

[Kunming]

I can't wait for CNN to say "the regime in the US" like they do to other official enemies.

But hey, at least Trump and google now have a motto in common

 

[Kunming]

There was a very good news article this morning talking about the "new American Fascism" and the eventual impact on the US. Perhaps this is one of those "teachable moments" for all those that are too young or did not study the 2nd World War and exactly what it did to Italy and a few more countries that were part of the Axis Powers.

All too often, in the past, when a sitting president comes to within a year left on their term we start hearing these stories about POTUS trying to enact some kind of legislation to create Marshal Law and declare themselves King of America ...... Assuming that Trump makes it through four years, I think, based upon his actions so far, this could be a more serious concern for the future .....

It's gonna be quite terrible if the world has to fight axis america...

 

[davislane1]

One of the reasons Dailytech's readership shrunk was the insistence of shoving in political headlines (which were saturated in raging confrontational politics) that succeeded in driving many neutral readers away. Many of us don't want to see Techspot head down the same route:-

1. Create increasing number of political headlines and monitor popularity of comments section

2. If political articles get many more comments / page views than pure tech articles, then create more of the same and gradually "change the focus" of the site over time

3. Lots of formerly interesting tech articles then gradually get replaced with cheap clickbait driving away people who think politics should stick to political forums.

We're already seeing certain comments sections end up "drama queen" threads filled with dozens of posts of the same screeching "non-debate". Please leave this cr*p to the tabloids and stick to tech related "news".

Not going to happen with this author. If you google him, you'll find that clickbait is his bread and butter.

 

[stewi0001]

Techspot:
- 1 News worth point

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

There was a very good news article this morning talking about the "new American Fascism" and the eventual impact on the US. Perhaps this is one of those "teachable moments" for all those that are too young or did not study the 2nd World War and exactly what it did to Italy and a few more countries that were part of the Axis Powers.

All too often, in the past, when a sitting president comes to within a year left on their term we start hearing these stories about POTUS trying to enact some kind of legislation to create Marshal Law and declare themselves King of America ...... Assuming that Trump makes it through four years, I think, based upon his actions so far, this could be a more serious concern for the future .....

Could be, but then again it could also be a lot of over reacting.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

So there is a senior rich guy at the top of a big tech company saying sort of critical stuff about Prez T. "the core focus is going to be to get the growth rate in the country — which is roughly one-and-a-half to two percent — up another point by simply pushing through increases in federal spending" is pretty rough on the top guy - but probably true. At least, I think it might be critical - though it might be a compliment depending on where you stand. The immigration thing is going to the courts (like so much else). So what.

Gee whiz, guys, I think the article was a balanced report - and only one among eight other tech topics which were non-political. Perhaps the real issue is how we 'comment'.

 

[rumar4u]

Not to offend no one with my comments but, the less immigrants working for far less money, the more opportunities for people who already have studied in the U.S., have their Masters, Bachelors or whatever degree they have. My point of view is people is overreacting and Trump is protecting local workforce. Google hires too many foreign people for less income than a U.S. citizen would accept, thus for no one's surprise, opposing this ban.

 

[BadThad]

All aboard the Fascism train! Conductor Trump will make himself great again! /s

By far, the church of liberalism more closely resembles fascism than anything else. You guys need to google fascism and LEARN.

 

[Ranger1st]

Fake news wins again.. sigh, whole generations of dullards are being raised right now.

 

[gingerbill]

Visited and enjoyed this site for years , not anymore , think this is the 4th one sided political nonsense story in a short space of time. Shame but I'm finished with techspot . Stick to tech news and not this rubbish.

 

[KulWun]

Visited and enjoyed this site for years , not anymore , think this is the 4th one sided political nonsense story in a short space of time. Shame but I'm finished with techspot . Stick to tech news and not this rubbish.

Here, here... Is there any way to NOT see articles posted by the only individual who thinks we want to see this crap... Rob Thubron?

 

[psycros]

All aboard the Fascism train! Conductor Trump will make himself great again! /s

So was it fascism when Obama did exactly the same thing? Admit it, you can 't even DEFINE fascism. Well, I can, and the previous administration was the EPITOME of it.

Also, to the SJW snowflakes forum mods: if any more of my posts are deleted I will start linking your biased articles to multiple media watchdog organizations.

 

[risc32]

Visited and enjoyed this site for years , not anymore , think this is the 4th one sided political nonsense story in a short space of time. Shame but I'm finished with techspot . Stick to tech news and not this rubbish.

Here, here... Is there any way to NOT see articles posted by the only individual who thinks we want to see this crap... Rob Thubron?

I think I might do the same. I've been poking around here since the beginning. really. the beginning. I've about had it with fake news stories being told to uninformed sheeple. I know this goes on, but I just don't need to see it here anymore. I mean, a "tech" site that didn't say one damn thing when the sec of state had an illegal server and multiple hacked devices. people all over were asking about servers, and how it all works, and this site had nothing to say at all.

 

[Duke9192]

If Trump were to fund a team who developed a cure for cancer, the headline in 2017 on techspot.com would read "The evil within, Trump puts thousands out of work as search for the cure is bullishy halted"

I've read articles on this site almost everyday for several years but I'm getting sick of the gimmicky liberal political injection as of late. I don't mind negative stories about Trump, but geez, it's such an over the top effort to portray everything about him as negatively as possible.

I'm stepping away from this site for a while.

 

[Kenrick]

Look who is talking. google must be dreaming they are the shield of justice and heaven.

Anyway, techspot has becoming more like Washington Post. The negativity is just overflowing now.

Time to put techspot to the end of my bookmarks.

 

[Billy Vinson]

I am tired of these douschebag, so-called elites, telling the public lies and attempting to deceive everyone. OPRAH, Bill Gates etc, they all need to be in prison for CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

 

[vhfan]

Google did everything to try and stop Trump because they are all about anti Americanism . We had an anti American Islamic communist in the White House the last 8 years , Trump is a God send .

 

[mbrowne5061]

Not to offend no one with my comments but, the less immigrants working for far less money, the more opportunities for people who already have studied in the U.S., have their Masters, Bachelors or whatever degree they have. My point of view is people is overreacting and Trump is protecting local workforce. Google hires too many foreign people for less income than a U.S. citizen would accept, thus for no one's surprise, opposing this ban.

The ban is not the H1-B reform. The number of employees working in tech from those countries is tiny proportion of the whole of the foreign tech workforce.

But I do think that the H1-B reform is a good idea in general, but the salary may be a bit steep (not sure) and it just puts us back in the same boat as we were before. Ideally, tying it to the minimum wage of the state might make more sense; say, 300-500% of minimum, that would be 90k-150k/yr in CA. Back when the H1-B was launched, 60k was a ton of money. Now its a low starting in the tech world, thanks to the demand and inflation.

 

[Chilkoot XXIV]

There was a very good news article this morning talking about the "new American Fascism" and the eventual impact on the US. Perhaps this is one of those "teachable moments" for all those that are too young or did not study the 2nd World War and exactly what it did to Italy and a few more countries that were part of the Axis Powers.

All too often, in the past, when a sitting president comes to within a year left on their term we start hearing these stories about POTUS trying to enact some kind of legislation to create Marshal Law and declare themselves King of America ...... Assuming that Trump makes it through four years, I think, based upon his actions so far, this could be a more serious concern for the future .....

"Marshal Law"? Your attention was obviously focused elsewhere in history class, as was mine. Marshals have nothing to do with the military being used to enforce the law. Perhaps you meant that U.S. Marshals would be enforcing the law? They already do that, along with a number of other things, but they aren't part of the military as I can only guess that you were implying when you talked about the WWII Axis Powers (that is, The Tripartite Pact which included Germany, Italy, and Japan). "A few more countries" that were, albeit not always willingly, allied or associated with the Axis Powers were Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand, while Finland and Iraq were considered co-belligerents. You can throw Vichy France in there someplace, too. My only point in mentioning the Axis at all is to point out that what happened during and after WWII was more complicated than what happened in just Government of Month Club member Italy.

What drew my attention to your post was the Marshal Law thing. When a government uses its army to supplant civil authority for enforcement of the law it is call "martial law", just as when a person is tried by the military it is a "court martial". Marshal Dillion, martial arts, Marshall Islands. No wonder people don't understand us.

 

[Uncle Al]

"Marshal Law"? Your attention was obviously focused elsewhere in history class, as was mine. Marshals have nothing to do with the military being used to enforce the law. Perhaps you meant that U.S. Marshals would be enforcing the law? They already do that, along with a number of other things, but they aren't part of the military as I can only guess that you were implying when you talked about the WWII Axis Powers (that is, The Tripartite Pact which included Germany, Italy, and Japan). "A few more countries" that were, albeit not always willingly, allied or associated with the Axis Powers were Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Thailand, while Finland and Iraq were considered co-belligerents. You can throw Vichy France in there someplace, too. My only point in mentioning the Axis at all is to point out that what happened during and after WWII was more complicated than what happened in just Government of Month Club member Italy.

What drew my attention to your post was the Marshal Law thing. When a government uses its army to supplant civil authority for enforcement of the law it is call "martial law", just as when a person is tried by the military it is a "court martial". Marshal Dillion, martial arts, Marshall Islands. No wonder people don't understand us.

You are certainly partly correct, but see the following:

Martial law is the imposition of the highest-ranking military officer as the military governor or as the head of the government, thus removing all power from the previous executive, judicial branches of government.[1] It is usually imposed temporarily when the government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively (e.g., maintain order and security, or provide essential services).

Martial law can be used by governments to enforce their rule over the public. Such incidents may occur after a coup d'état (such as Thailand in 2006 and 2014); when threatened by popular protest (China, Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, 2009's Iranian Green Movement that led to take over by Revolutionary Guards); to suppress political opposition (Poland in 1981); or to stabilize insurrections or perceived insurrections (Canada, The October Crisis of 1970). Martial law may be declared in cases of major natural disasters; however, most countries use a different legal construct, such as a state of emergency.