Yesterday, Trump visited a six year old factory where Mac Pros are being assembled, and Tim Cook appeared in a Trump campaign ad.
After Mr. Trump departed the factory, he tweeted, “Today I opened a major Apple Manufacturing plant in Texas that will bring high paying jobs back to America.”
About the only thing that’s true in this tweet is that the factory is located in Texas. First, Trump didn’t open the factory – it’s been in use for six years now. Second, it’s not major at all – it only assembles the Mac Pro with about 500 employees. Third, it won’t bring any jobs back because it’s been open for six years already. Lastly, it isn’t an Apple factory – it’s owned by another, independent company.
Cook stood next to him, and didn’t correct Trump at all.
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump called Mr. Cook a “very special person” because of his ability to create jobs. He turned to Mr. Cook and said, “What would you say about our economy compared to everybody else?”
Mr. Cook replied, “I think we have the strongest economy in the world.”
“Strongest in the world,” Mr. Trump said.
The president then took questions on the impeachment inquiry and launched into a tirade against “the fake press.” Mr. Cook stood silently nearby.
John Gruber, longtime Apple blogger and one of the most outspoken defenders of Apple’s policies:
I’ve been on board with Cook’s stance on engaging Trump. Participating in Trump’s technology council does not imply support for Trump. Engaging Trump personally, in private phone calls and dinners, does not imply support. But appearing alongside Trump at an Apple facility in a staged photo-op is implicit support for Trump and his re-election.
[…]A low moment in Apple’s proud history, and a sadly iconic moment for Tim Cook. I hope avoiding those tariffs is worth it.
History rarely bestows consequences on companies cooperating with the far right and nazi extremists. IG Farben’s directors were all released by the US within only a few years, and IG Farben still exists today in the form of several highly profitable companies, namely Agfa, BASF, Bayer and Sanofi.
Volkswagen was founded by a Nazi labour union, produced what would become the Beetle for Nazi Germany, built military vehicles during the war using 15.000 slaves from concentration camps, and still exists today as one of the biggest automobile conglomerates in the world.
IBM aided the Nazi regime in the organisation of the Holocaust, while in the US, it orchestrated the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were held. Meanwhile, Henry Ford’s antisemitism and nazi sympathies are well-documented, and Ford, too, is one of the largest automobile makers in the world.
Point is, there’s zero risk for Cook to openly associate himself with someone like Trump. Extremists will praise him, centrists will excuse it away, and the rest will condemn Cook, but keep buying iPhones and Macs anyway – and Tim Cook knows it.
In a corporatocracy, companies and their leaders are untouchable.
Wow. I suggest decaf in the future.
I also suggest that Godwin applies here.
Comparisons of Trump to Hitler are dubious at best. He’s much more like Mussolini.
You wish.
He’s just a Berlusconi, talking talking but caring about his companies.
But Trump isn’t a corrupt politi-… No scrap that
But he’s not a womaniser-…. No scrap that.
He’s not sexist-…. no, scrap that…
Huh, seem’s you’re right
Told you.
The worst Trump can and will do is screw up the economy, that’s all.
As usual, the left screams Nazi every time plans don’t go their own way. It’s quite sad. And I say this as a Liberal, not as a right wing person.
It’s remarkably naive to think the worst Trump can do is screw up the economy. He can, and already has undermined the American program of spreading our rules based system around the world. He’s converting the US system into something more like the Soviet system – rule of men, instead of rule of law. Just because his idiotic pro-fascist followers don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not happening.
People really don’t understand analogies anymore.
When I say:
A is to C
as
B is D
Am I establishing a relation between A and B, between C and D? The answer is no, but almost everyone including news reporters fall for this fallacy.
Cook and Apple is to Trump
as
(Numerous companies listed) is to Hitler
This does not compare Trump to Hitler. It is comparing how companies often associating with bad entities get away with it.
Another example:
Trump said:
Terrorists is to Immigration
as
Strychnine is to Skittles
People yelled that Trump was comparing immigrants to Skittles. No, No NO NOOOO. He is comparing how a few poisoned Skittles in a large group can still be dangerous, just like a few terrorists among a large group of immigrants can still be dangerous.
For love of God, quit saying people are comparing C to D. Analogies are one of those basic questions on any kind of intelligence tests. Learn how they work, everyone. Note, I am not trying to DISS the commenter. It is a very common mistake, and as I said, even the most “learned” among us seem to not get this. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves.
I don’t use Apple anymore – I use a Sony smartphone and a Lenovo computer. Does that make me complicit in something else nefarious? It’s hard to keep track.
A lot of Lenovo’s are actually assembled in NC. They do this so they can keep government contracts IIRC.
I am not taking sides. I just like things to be clear:
– He said he opened it in the tweet. He did not say it was new. Think of it as a reopening that stores do all the time.
– It will produce the new Mac Pro. I presume this means that the plant was retooled for this, but I do not know. If yes, they were probably closed or partially closed for the changes?
– Apple was reported to be looking at moving the production to China due to the U.S tariffs: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-28/apple-moves-mac-pro-production-to-china-wsj-reports
– Apple changed its mind due to exemptions from the White House: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-23/apple-s-new-mac-pro-to-be-assembled-in-texas-after-tariff-waiver
Here is the article written before the visit without all the innuendo: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-17/trump-to-tour-apple-s-austin-manufacturing-plant-on-wednesday
Actually what you are saying fits the bill.
“Apple was reported to be looking at moving the production to China due to the U.S tariffs:”
“Apple changed its mind due to exemptions from the White House.”
That’s kind of what Trump does. He causes a crisis (the first statement), and then rides in as if he solved a difficult crisis (the second statement).
I am not denying he caused then fixed it. I do think people attacking him on his use of the word “open” avoid the actual situation. That is why I wanted to be clearer with the facts.
Generally, I am against tariffs except when applied to equalize the situation with countries already using tariffs to hurt us.
Wow.
Trump is anti-war. Nothing like Hitler or Stalin.
As much as I dislike the guy, be against wars is a big plus on my book. I, surely, don’t even want to imagine what would happen if Pence was, for any reason, raised to current Trump place.
trump is anti-war ?
He is just selfish, that’s all. Turkey or Russia was kind to him, so he moved some troops. People died.
Dude puff puff pass because you are OBVIOUSLY high or being willfully obtuse because you want to wave a little donkey flag. Did you miss Hillary screaming for war with Syria, calling Gabbard a Russian puppet for gasp! Shock! Not wanting to start more wars? Did you not see how quickly the dems cheered when Trump decided to bomb somebody?
Why do you think the media is stuck in “orange man bad” mode? Look at who owns those companies…you’ll find all the usual suspects in the military industrial complex. Trump is an ISOLATIONIST and that is bad for business and the MIC has owned the DNC since the days of Bill Clinton. Isn’t it ironic that the Dems scream Trump is a racist for wanting to have a functional border while having ZERO qualms about sending white soldiers to murder as many brown people as humanly possible? All Trump wants is a wall, not to carpet bomb entire cities full of brown people so I ask you…who is the more racist?
So you keep up the NPC “orange man bad” meme while ignoring the wholesale slaughter of hundreds of thousands of brown people overseas for dreams of an American Empire but mark my words 20 years from now its not gonna be Trump likened to Hitler, its gonna be the genocide supporting DNC with their cheerleading endless wars for the benefit of a few rich old white men. BTW you have got to love the rich creamy irony of Pocahontas screaming the biggest threat is “white nationalism” while she cheerleads bombing cities filled with brown people into mulch, I guess White Man’s Burden is okay as long as its”White Woman’s Burden”.
This effectively puts the last nail in STeve Job’s coffin. Tim Cook’s Apple is Trump’s bitch as we all see.
Oh shut the fuck up, Thom. You as a foreigner relying on left-wing US media to understand our internal politics have a wildly inaccurate conception of what’s been happening here since 2017, and so should refrain from commenting. To make things worse, you’re ignoring Apple’s own statement on the matter. Money quote:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/11/apple-expands-in-austin/
> Apple’s growth in Austin is part of the company’s nationwide expansion — announced in January 2018 — to increase its investment in manufacturing, engineering and other jobs across the US. Apple is on track to contribute $350 billion to the US economy between 2018 and 2023, and during that time will hire an additional 20,000 employees in cities across the country.
If you can’t be bothered to do basic research, say nothing.
if this was Reddit I would give you gold.
“Oh shut the fuck up, Thom” followed by someone saying they’d give you reddit gold for believing only what your own new sources tell you. Here’s an experiment I’d like you to try, make sure you watch 1 hour of your hated “left-wing” media for every hour of right wing media and AM radio you watch/listen to. Only then will you see how much you’re being lied to and manipulated with fake news. If you use Facebook, that’s another thing to add to the pile of things you need to spend equivalent time on other websites for. If you do, you’ll notice the left-wing media you hate so much are the only legitimate news sources left, while you’ve become addicted to demonizing your fellow human being and feel good hatred, exactly what Putin wants, the seeds of civil war for no reason other than it personally benefits his pocket book. If you study history more, you’ll see the Republicans are most likely to commit another Tiananmen Square right now, and simply for money. Believing Apple for their word is the height of foolishness and quoting them is beyond pointless to anyone that understands what a biased source is.
Hate to break it to you, but there’s precious little objective news sources left these days. Both sides have their outlets, and both twist news to fit their narrative – disguising opinion as fact and selectively stating facts to paint the picture they want painted (and, of course, provoke audience outrage for clicks/views)
I say this as a lefty myself.
Putin is interfering in the US just like the US interferes in Russia, and everywhere else. Possibly less so. Everyone stirs everyone else’s pot, as much as they can, for their own ends. It sucks, but that’s how international politics works. That said – he can’t sow the seeds of civil unrest – merely encourage their growth. The seeds are the unwillingness to go beyond tribalism, to not see things from others’ perspective, to refuse to reach across the aisle.
Political and social history is amazingly subjective, and poorly predictive. I don’t put much stock in your forecast.
Incidentally, the apple announcement for an enlarged campus was actually mentioned in the original NYT article linked up top
That, plus public filings and investor information and other sources mean I don’t think Apple’s lying about building a facility there.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the new facility is what Trump feels he’s claiming credit for, and he visited the factory which had been recently retooled as a PR stunt (it’s a lot harder to do PR on an empty lot than a functioning factory). When you put Trump’s… unique style of self promotion and the left-leaning media’s seething hatred of the guy into the mix, this is the kind of thing you end up with. It should be pretty easy to look at the various sources and subtract the various biases and half truths and hyperbole and opinion out to come to a reasonable approximation of reality. You should always be doing that, anyway. No single source (or single bias in your sources) should be considered authoritative.
Left-wing media sucks almost as bad as right-wing media.
They are both in hands of the rich and powerful in the US. Remember their are only 4 or 5 large companies who own all the large media companies.
The Democratic party isn’t much better than the Republicans either.
Probably all Republicans have been bought and paid for through campaign funding, etc.
But most of the Democrats as well, especially the leadership. The DNC/DCCC is trying to block any progressive and not campaign funded Democrat trying to get into the party and win things like the presidency.
I would even go so far as to say: the Democratic leadership would rather lose to trump than have a progressive win.
And those working at the left-wing media agree.
Anyway, these media sources have been part of the cause that any nuance in public discourse is gone.
You should not let your vision be clouded by complications and a lots of arguments flying around. Nor by mistakes being made by both sides. However, still one can try to see through the mists of confusion and see that one of the parties clearly is taking the lead w.r.t. dis-information, spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt. Those that don’t see it, don’t want to see it. Maybe not because they are evil, but at least lazy.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the problem. As was suggested, why not look for balance from your news sources, instead of automatically writing everything off that doesn’t fall into line with your viewpoint? That narrow-mindedness, coupled with the baffling love the US has for binary politics, is why the rest of the developed world looks down on you.
I would just give up on the mainstream media these days, seen to much BS from both sides.
American Here,
Not taking sides, but my first thought to your comment is, ” Who’s researching the Apple PR machine that you apparently got your info from?”
So let me get this straight.
The article has uncovered the fact that commercial organisations like Apple are soulless, ruthless, cold-hearted, narcissistic entities lacking in empathy and accountable and answerable to nobody! What a revelation!
Is the irony of Apple running ads about privacy and freedom during the Trump era missed?
Isn’t the US election the election by the people of the US for the people of the US, what does the Ukraine and Russia have to do with it and why would they be involved?
Well… That does it. No more Apple for me.
As you save up for the iphone 12 Pro Max. LOL
I remember when tech blogs were only about tech and not about politics.
You mean, like, back in 2001? https://www.osnews.com/story/117/
Ever since technology became relevant the two became inseparable.
paride5745,
This tech blog always had politics.
No, this blog has always been covering legislation related to tech, not posting highly subjective and aggressive opinions about politics and politicians in general. And definitely not hallusinations about nazis on the Moon.
sj87,
IMHO it’s always had that, with Thom venting about whatever’s on his mind. People complain about it, but when you step back and look around, many of the professional tech publications haven’t survived (I liked byte magazine personally). Sometimes I wish osnews would be more than what it is, but I actually think the main reason osnews is still here is because it was always sort of Thom’s personal blog. If osnews had been a typical business operation, it would likely be bankrupt and shut down too.
Nazis on the moon? I feel like I must have missed something…
I mean, if anything, thanks for the reminder of how little radical left wing Europeans have on my purchasing here in the US.
Thom, I can’t believe how political you have made things around here. Plus, your use of the word “effectively” in the heading should cause you embarrassment. If I remember correctly, a major source of your revenue comes from transcribing documents between languages (if I am incorrect here, please excuse this) so you should be eminently aware of the power of words and the importance of using the correct word. If this is true and you still are not embarrassed by the headline, then you apparently lack in your understanding of English. I bit my tongue a few weeks ago when you made a similar foolish comment, but now, I guess I am going to make the same crazy association that you are that because this site used to be tech-based and now makes idiot-like references to politics that _OBVIOUSLY_ this is now a political site that lacks true insight. I will be spending my “clicks” elsewhere. Take care OSAlert, you used to be a cool and fun site.
To me, the use of “effectively” is perfectly valid here. Sounds like you just don’t like your precious orange leader being criticised. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
Right now watching Thom go on his delusional rants is almost a bit adorable, like a 4-year-old argue with her fluffy toys, but sooner or later it is gonna get really, really boring, and drive many of us readers away from this site. That is unless Thom takes the last step and starts purging “nazis” from this site himself with the righteous banhammer.
About Trump, he does what he has been doing all his life: if things get out of plans he generates confusion and then try to capitalize on it by minimizing the troubles created by himself. He really does ask credits for fixing part of his own mess and people fall for it time and time again. It is unbelievable.
About Thom rant, first of all, very few people rise above others and stand against the powerful engines set on movement by critical events in history; they knew they would be crushed and that it would make little difference in the end.
Second, every big company is a huge mix of people with many differences instances about most of the things. Punishing the company means punishing also those that are, actually, outstanding citizens.
What we really need is laws reform about culpability and liability of corporations decisions, because what they went after was planned by very few. If the penalties were very tough for the “decision makers”, putting their money in front line to bear the consequences of their acts instead of sharing it with every low ranked employee, we may see things change. Currently, almost on all places, we turn the loss public and privatize the gains (bankers are a prime example).
“Everyone I don’t like is Hitler!”
Trump is maybe centre-right if anything. Ridiculous commentary.
j0scher,
Trump is not “right” or “left”. He’s been registered as both democrat and republican, but focusing on right-left politics misses the point. His political party is not a reflection of what he believes in so much as it is a way to take advantage of identity politics and building up a base to move into positions of power. If he saw a way to do that as a democrat, he would have done it. Trump was personal friends with the clintons, he turned on them not because he objected to anything the clintons did, but because they were more valuable as enemies to consolidate the republican base behind him. His playbook is all about picking out enemies for his base to hate on.
Personally I don’t care to criticize trump because he’s democrat, republican, right, left, whatever, I don’t care too much about that stuff, I criticize him because of his lack of empathy, authoritarian tendencies and disregard for the law and other branches of government. This is extremely dangerous to democracy in many of the same ways that hitler was…. It’s got very little to do with right versus left, but rather the way they both create enemies in order to create an exploitable us-v-them mentality in the masses. People may not realize that hitler had personal jewish friends before his political ambitions that ultimately led to their persecution.
http://www.younghitler.com/hitlers_jewish_friends.htm
The similarity between their political tactics is eye-opening. Many trump supporters take any criticism of trump as an attack on republicans, but in truth, being republican is the least alarming thing about trump. What’s far more concerning is his praise towards dictators and desire to transform the presidency into a monarchy. Fortunately we have the other branches of government designed to put the brakes on, but it makes me wonder what it would take to fully defeat them. It could make for an interesting discussion some time.
This is it. Fuck this crap – I may despise Trump and dislike Apple but this is disgusting.
Megol,
Yeah, there’s a lot of hyperbole. I am not a fan of apple either, but they do seem to be on Thom’s hit list for some reason and I’m not quite sure why.
I dislike that our corporate executives get in bed with politicians to get preferential treatment such as apple getting tariff tax exemptions, but there’s nothing new here and all major corporations try to curry favor with politicians to get tax cuts and other benefits. Steve jobs was notoriously against business regulation and unions, apparently he told obama that the US needed to be more business friendly like china.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/steve-jobs-biography-obama_n_1022786
Ugh, he was part of the problem too. I hated the close ties between the obama administration and the tech companies as much as I do with the trump administration…there should be no ties or preferential treatment at all…but many don’t care about this when their own party is in charge.
Time to change username, maybe now you disgusting leftist will delete my account as I requested two days ago.
I have no problem with Cook endorsing Trump to make billions for his shareholders. It’s his duty. If he didn’t do it the shareholders would find someone else. Complaining that those with the most vested interests in a messed up system should go against their best interests to achieve the change you want is ridiculous and pointless. In fact it supports the system because you and your fellow complainers think they are doing something when they are doing nothing.
The biggest opportunity to make a change is the 2020 election. Supporting a Dem candidate on OS News would be doing something useful. I don’t care who you pick. I would love to see the debate here. It will be a lot more sincere than the usual crap on line., That’s a compliment BTW.
My fury will be if Trump actually gives Apple an exclusive dispensation from tariffs for a finished product, like the iPhone. I’ll still be pissed if he excuses phones. He will be shitting all over the other consumer product companies who are suffering as ammunition in his war with China. He shits on us at his peril. You should hope he gives Apple everything because he will get shat on and that is what you really want.
Hey Thom,
Have read for many years. First time I wanted to comment. Keep up the great work! More and more people like me in US tech that agree with you on these matters and not our bosses/shareholder ends. People are waking up to the power they posses as workers and citizens, few years ago you would hear nothing but lickspittle BS from tech dept. at various companies, but as a road engineer / IT consultant you can feel that change away from that is almost done and just some dinosaurs left that don’t realize the world has moved on.
For some strange reason, the people of Hong Kong seem to like President Trump. Maybe they know something Thom doesn’t?
https://www.theepochtimes.com/protesters-throw-rally-to-thank-us-for-enacting-hong-kong-bills_3159731.html