Althouse: At the White House Café...

August 7, 2017

At the White House Café...

... you can say what you like.

(And please consider shopping through The Althouse Amazon Portal.)

51 comments:

bagoh20 said...: Yep. It's a dump, but I had no idea.; 8/7/17, 9:41 PM
Trumpit said...: The U.S. must back down not a little but completely now that Kim has ICBM's The U.S. will likely face ruin if they don't get the hell out of So. Korea and Japan. Those countries must defend themselves from now on. Give them all the weapons and nukes they want; the nuclear umbrella is over. Run for the hills!; 8/7/17, 9:56 PM
Big Mike said...: Which window leads to the Lincoln Bedroom?; 8/7/17, 9:58 PM
Paco Wové said...: Google fires employees behind diversity memo; 8/7/17, 10:03 PM
Sebastian said...: "you can say what you like." Unlike Silicon Valley.; 8/7/17, 10:09 PM
David Baker said...: Kim is bluffing. And it's not good that Tillerson is backing down after saying the time for talking/negotiating was over.

Makes one wonder; is China now rolling in ICBM's by the truckload? Because if not, what are we waiting for? In short, why is Kim still alive?; 8/7/17, 10:15 PM
Sebastian said...: Google bigshot: "It is contrary to our basic values and our Code of Conduct, which expects “each Googler to do their utmost to create a workplace culture that is free of harassment, intimidation, bias and unlawful discrimination . . . At the same time, there are co-workers who are questioning whether they can safely express their views in the workplace (especially those with a minority viewpoint). They too feel under threat, and that is also not OK. People must feel free to express dissent." Which they prove by firing the dissenter. No intimidation! Feel free to express dissent! Step right up!

So how is bias against 1. men, 2. rational thinkers, and 3. conservatives not "bias" in the sense of the Google "code"? Faux question, I know, I know.

The Google episode shows that, contrary to conservative complaints, modern American colleges are preparing students very well for the authoritarian prog orthodoxy in the real world. Keep your head down. Bow to your masters. Wave your little red Code, wear your rainbow pins, and learn your pronouns.

I know it's late, but we need a proper post, madam, a righteous fisking.; 8/7/17, 10:22 PM
Unknown said...: The roof looks new.; 8/7/17, 10:32 PM
Churchy LaFemme: said...: It's hard to imagine that a company like Novell, headquartered in Utah and full of Mormans would be allowed to succeed in today's environment. Then: Tell me what your software does. Now: Tell me how woke your company is.; 8/7/17, 10:34 PM
Ray - SoCal said...: Go read the interview at Breitbart by current googlers and the culture there. wow!

Another site commented this is what brought down Yahoo, when they stopped focusing on customers.

I wonder if the guy will sue? Or he got a large Severance package to go away. My guess is large package. He won't be able to work in the valley again. Shades of Eich at Mozilla.

A good read / analysis by AA would be great. The ines in the media have been very biased. I was not sure I thought I read the same document.

Two largest advertisers, Facebook and Google, are letting politics interfere with their output. Nothing good will come of this. See Twitter...; 8/7/17, 10:44 PM
buwaya said...: Told you so.

Btw, its not unique to google, or the software business, or silicon valley. Its the Fortune 1000.

And anyone who hopes to do business with them. Hence the silence, for instance, of Mencius Moldbug.

You are all Google now.

The only free men in the US are billionaires like Trump or Peter Thiel, or those too poor to matter.; 8/7/17, 10:45 PM
LilyBart said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/7/17, 10:58 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Told you so.

Btw, its not unique to google, or the software business, or silicon valley. Its the Fortune 1000.

And anyone who hopes to do business with them. Hence the silence, for instance, of Mencius Moldbug.

You are all Google now.

The only free men in the US are billionaires like Trump or Peter Thiel, or those too poor to matter.

Yup. Husband's company is the digital arm of a large worldwide marketing group. They are pushing super hard on the diversity hires because their clients (Fortune 1000) demand it. They lost a contract they otherwise would have won because that client (an enormous company you all have dozens of products from in your house right now) required that they staff the project with 50% women and they simply could not meet that. And this is not a company you think of as being progressive or political; they have been around for a century, are headquartered in the midwest and have nothing to do with tech.; 8/7/17, 11:00 PM
bagoh20 said...: How do I quit you, Google? You are doing evil.

I just recently, after resisting for years, went full Google with an account, apps, and syncing, and all that. Now I feel like I married a bridezilla.
Turns out she's a real bitch, a heartless, stupid bitch.

I wish you could just say: take that marriage and just move it over to the fun blonde chick who respects me and has a level head. The ball and chain has me by the nuts, but I'll be eyeing up every alternative until one shows up for us forlorn-ed foolish suckers who trusted her marriage vows to not be evil. She couldn't even make that low bar.

When you have an organization full of people who cannot express their competing ideas, that organisation is a dead man walking, not to mention a sucky place to work. The first sign of the cancer going terminal has just shown up. Geeze, you guys blew it quick.; 8/7/17, 11:13 PM
bagoh20 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/7/17, 11:17 PM
eric said...: I really need to extract my life from google. Android, Chrome, Gmail....

Ugh. Today Google showed me that they need to be destroyed. So I need to figure out a way to extract my life from it.; 8/7/17, 11:38 PM
David said...: It's a dump. Charming dump however.; 8/7/17, 11:39 PM
Owen said...: The most powerful part of any sizeable organzation today is not the C suite but the HR department. What makes it particularly dangerous is that the power is wielded by people who are on average infused with SJW values and not very smart (but I repeat myself). They impose a creeping mediocrity on the whole operation, against which nobody, from the CEO on down, dare object.; 8/7/17, 11:47 PM
sane_voter said...: This PC crap is awful. It only goes one way.

If what the PC crowd says is true, someone should be able to make a killing hiring all these underrepresented groups and forming a kick-ass tech company. "Moneyball" for engineers. But never happens.; 8/7/17, 11:57 PM
sane_voter said...: I sure hope he sues the shit out of google. Are there any groups around willing to bankroll it and help support the guy? If not, exhibit 1001 of why the left generally wins the lawfare game.; 8/8/17, 12:05 AM
buwaya said...: The suppression works in many directions and many dimensions. The scale of it is difficult to realize unless one has broad interests. Then it becomes obvious, you see it here, and there, and again and again.

Razib Khan (go-to journalist on genetics for over a decade) for instance has been deplatformed several times, and has seen many US researchers drop out of population genetics. He himself long since has stopped covering research on intelligence, and has separated from Unz, I think as a political sop to his employment connections.

All of this is no accident.; 8/8/17, 12:10 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/8/17, 12:13 AM
Birkel said...: sane_voter

Moneyball is happening. Watch the internal migration numbers.
Where are all the new auto plants built?

That is Moneyball.; 8/8/17, 12:19 AM
Clyde said...: This clothing company is facing massive backlash for trying to reclaim the swastika

No. Just no. And you can't wear a toothbrush moustache without being considered a Nazi, either.; 8/8/17, 1:26 AM
Clyde said...: I saw an article that said that James Damore, the fired Google engineer, was "exploring all legal options."

Pass the popcorn.; 8/8/17, 1:32 AM
Clyde said...: I commented elsewhere the other day after the Damore story went viral that I wondered if they'd found out who he was and crucified him yet. Sometimes when you nail a guy to a cross, he comes out of it more powerful than he was when it started.; 8/8/17, 1:34 AM
Jason said...: Can you say, "unlawful chilling effect on protected concerted activity under Section 7 of the Labor Relations Act," boys and girls?

I knew you could!; 8/8/17, 1:44 AM
Kevin said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 8/8/17, 2:42 AM
Kevin said...: Google fires employees behind diversity memo

People upset Colin Kaepernick doesn't have a job cheer Google's actions.; 8/8/17, 2:46 AM
Kevin said...: Airbnb evicts users planning to attend white supremacist rally

People who demand bakers bake cakes for gay weddings cheer Airbnb's actions.; 8/8/17, 4:04 AM
Rick said...: Left wingers posing as moderates have long defended campus radicals by minimizing their impact, claiming critics are unreasonable to object. We see the radicals poisonous efforts spreading I wonder how many of those supposed moderates will change their stance? I suspect many, but essentially all change will be from "this isn't happening" to "it's good this is happening".; 8/8/17, 5:29 AM
Humperdink said...: It was Affirmative Action night on ESPN's Pardon The Interruption yesterday, as Pablo and Bomani took the reins. Pablo is terrible as he is not prepared, he needs to read from a script. On a scale of one to ten, Bomani is fair to poor.

The two hosts, essentially panned LaDainian Tomlinson's hall of fame acceptance speech - "Why can't we all just get along?" It didn't go far enough, they opined. ESPN wonders why viewers are leaving in droves.

I can see Kaepernick guest-hosting should he failed to land a job in NFL as captain of bench protest team.; 8/8/17, 6:09 AM
Humperdink said...: Metal roofs are becoming the rage in our area. The Amish are the preferred installers. They would have that roof on in half a day. The snow barrier, a few feet up from the front edge, keeps snow from sliding down similar to an avalanche.

When we had the metal roof installed at our warehouse, we did not install the barrier initially. I wanted to it myself in the spring. A bit of a mistake. Slammed the front door, down came the snow. Dented our delivery van's hood.; 8/8/17, 6:27 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: I don't see what was so wrong about what Damore wrote.

It's a no-brainer that there are differences between men and women - and women who want to have kids do structure their lives/careers differently. Of course this shows up in work/lifestyle choices.

There is literally nothing in what Damore wrote that would stop a female/minority from feeling free to argue with it.

And given that I have spent a lot of time working as a programmer (G_d I hate the "software engineer" shtick), and that I am a female, I think my views have some relevance.

I guess I need to dump Google Chrome - I am rather disgusted by this company.; 8/8/17, 6:39 AM
traditionalguy said...: War On Men has taken Google over. All men need to change their Browser.; 8/8/17, 6:56 AM
Paco Wové said...: It's been a while since I tried out Opera as a browser... time to fire it up again.; 8/8/17, 6:58 AM
Paco Wové said...: What's especially delicious in this turd salad is that the memo-writer was apparently a Ph.D. student in Systems Biology at Harvard, which tends to undermine the nonsense about how the writer stupidly didn't know what he was talking about.; 8/8/17, 7:00 AM
Tank said...: MaxedOutMama said...

I don't see what was so wrong about what Damore wrote.

Hate speech. No noticing allowed.

What's to analyze? Google is fully converged with SJWs and is now more concerned with PC than making money or good products. You can fully agree with the SJW's or STFU. Or leave.; 8/8/17, 7:04 AM
Paco Wové said...: The Google Rebels

"I didn’t even write the document, but I always fear for my job and operate with the expectation that I will be purged unless something changes... the tolerance for “microaggressions” keeps getting lower, to the point where everybody is walking on eggshells because they don’t want to be publicly shamed in next week’s Yes-At-Google*."

*Yes-at-Google: internal e-mail listserv dedicated to anonymous denunciations of other employees.; 8/8/17, 7:23 AM
rehajm said...: The Hill has revived the LA Times analysis of government subsidies Elon Musk's ventures receive from government, to the tune of $5 billion and counting.

What's frustrating is the difficulty of accounting for all the government agencies involved and their level of support. What's obvious is nobody can truthfully claim Musk's government handouts are typical.; 8/8/17, 7:25 AM
Jeff Gee said...: A sad, sad day: "Haruo Nakajima, actor who played the original Godzilla, dies aged 88"; 8/8/17, 7:27 AM
MaxedOutMama said...: Tradguy - this time I am thinking of making my own browser. I've just had it with all this.

These people need a good hard slap in the face. I think the next Althouse cafe should be devoted to a group discussion about how to unhook from Google with landing in the lap of some group even more objectionable. Getting rid of Chrome and dissing Google search should impact their revenue meaningfully if enough people do it.

People should do this en masse. We're turning into an international Stasi culture run by oligarchs. It's revolting.; 8/8/17, 7:27 AM
Paco Wové said...: "Nothing good will come of this. See Twitter"

Except Twitter has not managed to insinuate itself into everyday life the way Google has. Dumping Google (the search engine) is easy. Dumping Chrome is slightly less so. Dumping Gmail starts to get onerous. Dumping Android... are you really going to get a new cell phone? Welcome to the Goolag, citizen.; 8/8/17, 7:35 AM
Anonymous said...: "Welocme to the Goolag", as one Sailer commenter put it. (Which I'm soaking in, as I type.)

Putting aside the Orwellian content of the memos of those Google muckety-mucks, I also find the vocabulary and style deeply creepy. Is it the Newspeak, or the infantilism that makes it so? Maybe they work synergistically to make my flesh crawl. There is something wrong with these people. (I've seen the term "bugmen" used to describe these contemporary hollow men - I like it. It fits well.); 8/8/17, 7:40 AM
Ralph L said...: How does Google make money off of Chrome and Gmail?

Which search engine isn't PC?; 8/8/17, 7:48 AM
Fernandinande said...: You can block these google advertising and tracking domains and email/youtube/blogger will still work:

.google-analytics.
.googleads.g.doubleclick.
.googletagmanager.
.googletagservices.
.pagead2.googlesyndication.
.partner.googleadservices.
.plusone.google.
hangouts.google.com
safebrowsing.google.com
safebrowsing-cache.google.com; 8/8/17, 7:56 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Lena Dunham - embarrassing leftwing speech fascist.

"Leftwing madwoman Lena Dunham hears voices -- specifically, a conversation between flight attendants over their opinion on trans issues - and instead of confronting them, she narcs on them to their bosses. Like a paranoid member of some sort of regressive left secret police, she seeks to punish strangers over an unacceptable conversation she claims to have heard in her head."

Ethics Hipsters are the new Puritans; 8/8/17, 7:57 AM
Fernandinande said...: Paco Wové said...
It's been a while since I tried out Opera as a browser... time to fire it up again.

It's google's chrom(e/ium) slightly modded. Firefox still isn't.; 8/8/17, 7:59 AM
Michael K said...: They impose a creeping mediocrity on the whole operation, against which nobody, from the CEO on down, dare object.

I'm still waiting to see Eich's new browser which was in beta last I heard.

The snow fence on metal roofs is also to keep the snow above the point at which eaves project beyond the walls of the house. The roof over eaves is cold and that's where ice dams form. Then you get roof leaks.; 8/8/17, 8:10 AM
Fernandinande said...: This thing about "raping" pieces of plastic is so weird that feminists have to be behind it.

Law professor warns: Congress must act on growing sexbot industry

John Banzhaf, a Nervous Nelly at George Washington University School of Worrying About and Controlling Everyone Else, says experts disagree on the consequences of allowing people to engage in mock acts of rape with humanoid dolls, and lawmakers should vet this issue as soon as possible.

Banzhaf proposes the dolls be required to have a string on the backs of their necks that says "No means no, Mr. Man!" when pulled.

Well, not really, but it's more sensible than what he actually says.; 8/8/17, 8:23 AM
Kevin said...: and lawmakers should vet this issue as soon as possible.

Is it just the Congresswomen who have to take the robot home to rape them, or do the men have to do it too?; 8/8/17, 9:16 AM