November 30, 2022

Dear Tim Cook... Love, Josh Hawley.

67 comments:

mikee said...

Short answer: $

Martin said...

Josh's question contains its own answer.
They support totalitarianism both here and abroad.
They are so keen to protect you from opinions not approved by
Apple they are considering taking the twitter app off the app store.

Howard said...

Thunk Different

Achilles said...

The lines are being drawn.

When the proof of collusion between the Corporations and the DC regime come out that everyone knows is happening then people will make a choice.

1. Support the Biden Regime and put the SS patch on your shoulder.

2. Be a good neutral little German.

3. Support freedom and free speech.

Dave Begley said...

Apple is a country unto itself. It has no loyalty to the US. There’s little the federal government can do to Apple.

And for me, I’m stuck in the Apple universe. Google is the other option and it’s just as bad as Apple.

Dave Begley said...

Hawley “urged” Apple to do certain things. LOL. Hawley doesn’t have the votes to do anything about Apple. The Dems are owned by the CCP. The President has been bribed by the ChiComs. The funny thing is that it was cheap for the CCP to bribe Biden and the Dems.

Dave Begley said...

I blame Nixon for our current China problem. He never should have gone to China. We should have economically isolated those Commies.

Enigma said...

Parallel event: Apple's Senior Vice President of marketing deleted his Twitter account because of Musk's arrival.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/11/21/yes-phil-schiller-deleted-his-twitter-account-no-apple-has-not-removed-its-tweets/

Dave Begley said...

DiFi employed a Chinese spy as her driver. Probably other spies on her staff.

And whatever happened with those spies employed by the Dems? The ones that had the used car dealership and access to the computers of the House Dems?

Our enemies laugh at us. We are easy to bribe and even easier to steal from. We sell them the rope to hang our selves.

Kai Akker said...

Josh Hawley tries to get ahead of the changing general psychology.

Far too late for that. But every little bit helps, so still good to see his comment. Except I couldn't see the text of the full letter -- on my Apple Mac.

AAPL "faces challenges." The money reserve is vast but the brand is getting hit frequently and that seems likely to increase.

Good. Would anyone say anything else?

soaps said...

I had retweet this!

rhhardin said...

Doing business in China for the one, and pleasing the woke for the other.

Butkus51 said...

Chevron profits last 4 years: 40 billion

Exxon profits last 4 years: 53 billion

Apple profits last 4 years: 365 billion

Apple wants to pass on the savings of slave and child labor to their consumers.

Big Oil is greedy, Apple is the best.

Got that?

n.n said...

Environmental and labor arbitrage is a many splendored thing resolved in ethical religions.

That said, from Tiananmen Square to Persian Spring to J6AuditTheVote and back to Sino Spring in the woke of authoritarian regimes with "benefits".

Cappy said...

"It's for the good of all"

Shouting Thomas said...

Hawley’s Tweet is being carpet bombed by bots.

Twitter is a mine field of psy-ops.

gilbar said...

Serious Question
Those People (you know the ones.. Those People) that complain about 'slavery' and reparations..
WHY do they all carry iPhones? and wear Nikes?

It's Almost As IF, Those People think there is something Special about slaves of a particular color

Mark said...

He is just trying to distract people from his vote against same sex unions by grandstanding about China. Yawn.

Dave Begley said...

In honor of Mark, spelling mistake at 8:08. Should be "ourselves."

Sorry!!!

Saint Croix said...

I’d like to know why ⁦@Apple⁩ continues to aid and abet the totalitarian regime in #China while campaigning against free speech at home.

Cookie!

You can chime in, too!

My letter to Tim Cook

relative? uncle? nephew? granddaddy? evil twin brother? some kind of relative?

Robert! Tim!

It sounds so fucking normal and now I'm thinking, nefarious as shit

one of you fucking Commies and/or Capitalist Pigs ought to answer the fucking question

What is this shit about attacking the USA and giving the Yellow Menace a free slide?

Saint Croix said...

I went with "Yellow Menace" instead of "Commie Hellhole" to describe China, since that damn despot tried to do a Singapore Capitalist Runaround over a decade ago.

Cookie!

You should be crying about that, right?!

You should be up and arms about the Global Capitalist Conspiracy?!

I mean we capitalists fucking captured China and you don't say shit about it?

But if you can't even get worked up about a Global Capitalist Conspiracy, now I'm thinking you're not some paid Commie stooge but just some disheartened lazy university fucker who's just flying that anti-American flag because that's all that's left in the gas tank.

Saint Croix said...

Cookie!

Why comment on USA federal evil anyway? Isn't that way too big a target? Maybe you should limit your local criticisms to your state, your city, your neighborhood, or your house?! Get really specific. I just don't get this Politeness About Foreigners But Random People In D.C. Who I Have Never Met Shall Feel My Wrath!

Not that you have any wrath at all, you cool-headed fucker.

I remember years ago, years and years, I got mad at Cookie. I don't remember what the fuck he did or said. (Commie shit, would be my guess). And I went after him hot and heavy.

You know what he did? Answered me calmly. Motherfucker!

Bob Boyd said...

There aren't any countries anymore, in the globalist view, just Special Economic Zones.

Heartless Aztec said...

China as we've come ro know it since 1949, is dying before our eyes - literally from demographics as the most rapidly aging country on planet earth and figuratively as it splits apart at the seams politically. Apple at this point is just along for the ride. No getting off that rollercoaster until it pulls into the terminal.

Saint Croix said...

My favorite Sesame Street street creation, by far, with the possible exception of that little vampire Count fucker, was Cookie Monster.

I always kind of despised Popeye and that plan to get my ass to eat spinach. Fuck you, Popeye! Spinach is shit!

When I was a middle-aged man, I tried some spinach dish, I forgot how my mom prepared it, and I was kind of shocked. "This is not bad at all!"

Which might sound like a crap compliment, but my Mom has been trying to get me eating vegetables for decades, decades, it's still going on, vegetables at the Thanksgiving table, she is like a dripping water faucet with the vegetables, so she took my half-ass excited compliment as if she had just won the Battle of the Bulge.

(So to speak).

(That might have counted as a Freudian slip except I caught that shit early, plus obviously I do sit-ups -- with my energy levels, we all know that).

Anyway, Tim Cook, circling around to relevancy, your movie title is Cookie Monster 2!

or maybe

Son of Cookie Monster

I would love to eavesdrop on that Thanksgiving reunion

probably diabolical whispering and shit

low-key passive-aggressive arguments about who has the mashed potatoes

D.D. Driver said...

I hate it so much when I have to agree with Hawley.

Joe Smith said...

It seems that Apple has chosen sides and it's not that of the Chinese citizen.

Only liberals could complain that free speech is a threat.

The left in this country is salivating over instituting the Chinese social credit system...it's the end game of their totalitarian dream.

Covid mandates were a dry run...

Michael K said...

Blogger Mark said...

He is just trying to distract people from his vote against same sex unions by grandstanding about China. Yawn.


Lefty Mark pretends there is nothing in that "Respect for Marriage Act" that violates free speech.

Ted Cruz disagrees with Lefty Mark.

""Not only does the so-called Respect for Marriage Act open the door for a weaponized IRS to target religious non-profits, but it will start a race to the bottom, forcing the most extreme marriage laws from any state onto every other state," Cruz said.

"It will only take a California, New York, or Massachusetts to legalize polygamy, incest, or child marriages to force every state to recognize these relationships as well," the senator continued."

Yancey Ward said...

This seems like an appropriate link.

Jefferson's Revenge said...

Bob Boyd said it right. To the corporate world, countries are an annoyance.I am no big Peggy Noonan fan but in a column a few years ago she said she was surprised that "most US CEO's weren't patriots like the old days. In fact, she wasn't sure they even saw themselves as citizens."

If Peggy can see it, it must be obvious.

Original Mike said...

That's what you take away from this, Mark?

The Chinese people are protesting their government locking them in their homes. I guess we have to assume Mark supports Apple weighing in on the side of the Chinese government. I don't know what principle Mark bases his support on. Personally, I think Apple is just doing it for the money.

Achilles said...

Butkus51 said...

Chevron profits last 4 years: 40 billion

Exxon profits last 4 years: 53 billion

Apple profits last 4 years: 365 billion

Apple wants to pass on the savings of slave and child labor to their consumers.

Big Oil is greedy, Apple is the best.

Got that?


The Federal Government took 47 billion in gas taxes too.

Achilles said...

Mark said...

He is just trying to distract people from his vote against same sex unions by grandstanding about China. Yawn.

The fascists just cannot be honest about what they support.

That is why they support censorship.

John henry said...

Apple is Asshoe

John Henry

John henry said...

I would never use an apple product and never have. For tech reasons in the past but their politics is certainly another reason not to use them.

Apple store destroying my hard drive 15 years ago is another.

But a question on the Twitter hoorah

Is there only the app from Twitter in the Apple store?

For my Samsung I have half a dozen or more Twitter apps available from 3rd parties

I can run Twitter on any web browser, phone, tablet pc. Does Twitter not run on apples browser?

I can download apps from outside the Galaxy store. Gab, tube ate, parler are 3 I can think of offhand.

Can an iPhone download apps outside the apple store?

John Henry

John henry said...

https://tesla.info/en/phones/

DINKY DAU 45 said...

JOSH HAWLEY as MONTY said, "RUN AWAY"!

PM said...

I thought the offshore manufacturing of these types of products, both in China and Taiwan, was poo-pooed in the U.S. due to workers being exposed to dangerous chemicals and the amount of poisonous waste dumped into our homeland.

1. If not true, U.S. could employ a lot of semi-skilled workers.
2. If true, thanks ChiComs.
3. Either way, sorry, Taiwan.

hombre said...

Nice sentiment and troll, Josh. The truth is, the greedy corporate elite identify more closely with the ChiCom totalitarians than with the hoi polloi who are their customers - particularly their fellow Americans.

See Klaus Schwab's recent revelations. https://thepostmillennial.com/watch-wef-head-says-communist-china-is-a-role-model-for-many-countries

Leland said...

What’s China’s position on same sex marriage? Asking for Mark.

Lurker21 said...

This is the great convergence that opinion writers 50 or 60 years ago claimed to see coming between the US and USSR. It didn't happen. The US had embraced consumerism. The Soviet leadership didn't, and couldn't provide the consumer goods that ordinary people wanted.

Americans were more self-reliant then and less willing to take orders from government. There was also a healthy opposition between business and government in the US and a balance between people who distrusted government and people who distrusted corporations more. The technologies of surveillance and control weren't as evolved then in the US either.

Now things have changed to the point where it's possible to be skeptical about whether there really is a great global struggle between democracy and autocracy.

Mark said...

Yes, my takeaway is that Josh Hawley is appealing to the base as a distraction.

hombre said...

Michael K wrote: 'Lefty Mark pretends there is nothing in that "Respect for Marriage Act" that violates free speech.'

If lefties believed in free speech or the Constitution, they wouldn't be lefties. Perhaps alternatively, if they were capable of critical thinking, they wouldn't post the bullshit they do.

wendybar said...

Mark said...
He is just trying to distract people from his vote against same sex unions by grandstanding about China. Yawn.

11/30/22, 8:46 AM

Like the Democrats are using Kanye to distract from all their corruption with their FXT buddies???? (why else would they be so upset about Anti Semitism when they LOVE Al Sharpton)

Scotty, beam me up... said...

I think Cook is considering punishing Musk by no longer carrying Twitter’s app for “straying off the liberal reservation”. Interestingly, I just checked the Apple App Store several minutes ago and, yep, Trump’s Truth Social app is available. I thought Trump’s app would be persona non-grata to Apple before Twitter as I thought Trump was the left’s number one boogie man. Apparently, Cook thinks free speech on Twitter to be a bigger danger to America than the app of a former president who wanted to force, if he could have, Apple to pull out of China. Actually, forcing Apple out of China would have been for the company’s own good as one day Cook will wake up to find his company’s factories essentially cut off from the rest of the world, especially if China invades Taiwan and whoever our president is stands up to China economically (I doubt Biden would do it despite his tough talk about coming to the aid of Taiwan as he is an infamous blowhard)..

Freeman Hunt said...

Good. Now write similar letters to entertainment companies that have been tailoring content to please the CCP.

boatbuilder said...

Well done, Yancey.

Chuck said...

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin McCarthy -- oh, and Glenn Greenwald -- are totally incensed at anyone who suggests that the government ought to look into the rapidly declining operations at, and fortunes of, Twitter and its users.

Because, what the hell business is it of government to tell private companies how to approach speech issues?

lgv said...

The decision was made when Foxconn set up shop there to make Iphones. There is no decision to be made by Tim Cook or Apple. If the CCP says do this or else, they do it. It really is that simple. Maybe Tim Cook hates doing it. Maybe he doesn't care. It doesn't matter.

They could have been produced elsewhere at a slightly higher cost, but even with massive gross margins, they decided China was the best choice to maximize profits.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

lgv said...
The decision was made when Foxconn set up shop there to make Iphones. There is no decision to be made by Tim Cook or Apple. If the CCP says do this or else, they do it. It really is that simple. Maybe Tim Cook hates doing it. Maybe he doesn't care. It doesn't matter.

If Tim Cook hated it, he'd have pulled out of China years ago

So that doesn't work as an excuse

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Dave Begley said...
And for me, I’m stuck in the Apple universe. Google is the other option and it’s just as bad as Apple.

Sadly, Google is worse.

If it was merely as bad, there could be competition

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Mark said...
Yes, my takeaway is that
Chain enslaving people and destroying them is perfectly fine, and shame on Josh Hawley for "pretending" otherwise

FIFY Mark

ccscientist said...

In case you don't know, Apple made any phone made for sale in China so that all communications go to the gov. Not creepy at all. Actively working to stifle protests in China. Apple is also threatening to drop Twitter from their app store. Why? Too much free speech on Twitter for their taste. Google throttled emails from repub candidates in the runup to this election. Notice how the only one helping the Iranian people is Musk? Not a peep from the media. No celebrities here using iran hashtags.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

that the government ought to look into the rapidly declining operations at, and fortunes of, Twitter and its users

That's stupid. Twitter's operations are smoother than ever and the user experience has improved immensely. What exactly do you think warrants a federal investigation, Mr. Gestapo?

TickTock said...

Thanks for the reminder, Yancey

Fred Drinkwater said...

Senators have no business making these kinds of enquiries. Got questions and deadlines? Empanel a committee and issue subpoenas. Otherwise, shut up, and work on writing and passing a federal budget.

Rusty said...

Dave Begley said...
"And for me, I’m stuck in the Apple universe. Google is the other option and it’s just as bad as Apple."
Two of the biggest lobbyists in DC.
Now we know that Mark is not a big fan of fundamental human rights which is par for the course for the left.

Drago said...

Gov Whitmer Fanboy and LLR Chuck: "
Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin McCarthy -- oh, and Glenn Greenwald -- are totally incensed at anyone who suggests that the government ought to look into the rapidly declining operations at, and fortunes of, Twitter and its users."

LOL

Self-proclaimed Legal Beagle LLR Chuck now hilariously asserts, without providing a scintilla of evidence for his latest lefty narrative talking point, that "operations at, and fotunes of, Twitter and its users" us declining!

Too funny.

We all know why he doesn't dare post any specific metrics/measures to support this indefensible Maddow-like claim, don't we.

Michael McNeil said...

Can an iPhone download apps outside the apple store?

Unless you “jailbreak” it (which few do), no.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

None of the top retweeted and liked responses over there addresses the substance of the letter. New twitter is the same as the old twitter.

hpudding said...

Sounds like Hawley is either opposed to profits (a communist?) or wants $2,500 iPhones to price most Americans out of Apple’s market. Either way, it’s anti-capitalistic. Is this what they teach all elite Harvard graduates or is this the rallying cry that works on constituencies as out of it as his in backwoods Missouri?

hpudding said...

There’s no “campaign against free speech at home.” Apple’s own speech rights extend to deciding where, when and through which platform(s) to decide to advertise or not to advertise. The cons might not be intelligent enough to understand but that’s about as much a free speech right as any.

The only alternative is compelled speech, forcing companies to advertise and associate and speak through whichever platform or company the right-wing chooses. In its race toward authoritarianism, the cons can’t even see that forcing people to say or advertise what (or where) they don’t want to is just as tyrannical as preventing them from saying or advertising what (or where) they want to.

What’s next? Compelled North Korean-style salutes and supporting sponsorship of King Elon? Good grief. And yet, from this country’s right-wing I’d expect nothing less.

hpudding said...

“Good. Now write similar letters to entertainment companies that have been tailoring content to please the CCP.”

That would be restraint of trade. Socialist!

Content creation companies are still, AFAIK, companies. Telling them what content to create or not to create in an effort to restrict their revenue by shutting them out of markets in which they could otherwise compete - simply because you don’t like the rules in those markets - smacks of the godless communist atheism that Putin is trying to return his own country to.

I really wish the right-wing would do a better job of owning up to its authoritarianism.

Saint Croix said...

I'm not sure why the hell I said "Yellow Menace" at 8:49. When I'm trying to be funny I just let it fly. I don't think I've had one conflict with a Chinese-American in my life.

I did have a conflict when I was in Australia with a guy who was half-Japanese, half-white. Fun guy, small guy. 95% of our conversations were great. But one time we got in a discussion about World War 2, and he was unhappy that the USA had dropped a nuke on Hiroshima. And I said, "Well, you shouldn't have bombed Pearl Harbor."

I was a Democrat back then, so yell at the Democrats for that shit.

Saint Croix said...

It's funny because several hours after I wrote "Yellow Menace," I went out and had Chinese food for lunch.

My Chinese waiter recognized my face, and my usual order, even though I hadn't been in there in months. (And I usually get it to go anyway). "General Tso's chicken, white rice, vegetable egg roll, and a Coke."

I was like, "Wow! You are on fire!"

He was inscrutable. (Joke, but he kinda was!)

Later after I drank my coke, a waitress noticed my drink was empty and came over. Even though I wasn't her table. And my thought was, "The wait staff in this Chinese restaurant is awesome." And then I remembered my "Yellow Peril" comment and I wondered if I had dropped a mustard seed on my own brain.

Later she would ask me if I got my fortune cookie, and we had a happy discussion about how the fortune cookie was invented by Chinese-Americans. (She said they were from San Francisco). I asked her if they had fortune cookies in China yet. And she said she was from Taiwan and no fortune cookies. And I said, "One day you'll probably get them. It'll be some fad that sweeps back home." She thought that was hilarious. You kinda had to be there. Maybe they switched up waiters because she brought me my check. Huh. Tag-team wait staff, they were rocking. (Baoding, if you're ever in Charlotte, their food is the best).

Mark said...

And here we are, a day later and able to note that Elon and Tim Cook met yesterday and made up.


Poor Josh Hawley needs to keep up with Elon if he wants to be his sycophant.

Tina Trent said...

This "Mark" frequently uses "yawn" and the same reductive tropes posing as challenges, like an elk with no horns. He's tragic. And as a fairly intelligent person, he should speak with more sophistication about the realpolitik of deceptive legislation.

Representatives represent. I'm glad to see Hawley reject that attack on religious freedom presented by a prone 5th Estate as merely the latest redundant rainbow litmus test manufactured by activists. But even if you like such Congresscritter manipulation, what's to dispute about his challenge to Cook?