Apple worried about constitutional changes in considering North Carolina campus

AppleInsider

Apple, though interested in putting a new campus in the state, is concerned about North Carolina politicians "meddling with constitutional amendments for political influence," according to one report.

CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams are being regularly updated on political developments, a source described as "connected to local government affairs" told the Triangle Business Journal. The claim was reiterated by a Triangle real estate source. Earlier this summer Apple was reported to be considering North Carolina's Triangle corridor for a future campus hosting thousands of workers.

The state government is said to be going "back and forth" on constitutional amendments. The Journal didn't identify which issue or issues Apple is concerned about, though it's presumably focused on anything that could have a financial impact, as well as topics the company has touched on before, namely LGBT rights.

Apple is no stranger to the state, of course. The company already has a data center in the state.

In January Apple said it was expecting to announce a new U.S. campus sometime in 2018. The facility should initially concentrate on AppleCare.

eye.surgeon

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

SpamSandwich

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

IreneW

SpamSandwich said:

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

Yeah, what do Tim know about running a business?

Francules

I can’t live in peace because of police & county politics being racist & disccrimnating me against my natural & spiritual practices. They hate vegans. 

LordeHawk

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Eye.surgeon, please review the community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks.
Let’s stick to facts and mature dialogue. 

Following the laws of a country is not “welcoming Chinese overlords”, as the Chinese population does not enjoy the same freedoms afforded Americans.  You accuse Apple of censorship in a country where one cannot post anonymously, and provide no supporting evidence.  Apple controls customer encryption keys, devices are encrypted at the local level and iMessage is secure, leaving your opinion more of a rant about China.

Read a book...

9secondkox2

LordeHawk said:

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Eye.surgeon, please review the community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks.
Let’s stick to facts and mature dialogue. 

Following the laws of a country is not “welcoming Chinese overlords”, as the Chinese population does not enjoy the same freedoms afforded Americans.  You accuse Apple of censorship in a country where one cannot post anonymously, and provide no supporting evidence.  Apple controls customer encryption keys, devices are encrypted at the local level and iMessage is secure, leaving your opinion more of a rant about China.

Read a book...

I think everyone here is entitled to state what the facts are - not just your interpretation of them - and even what their opinions are. Just because you don’t like his views doesn’t make his statements incendiary. He is obviously being a bit tongue in cheek on his take with the facts, which are that Apple did quite literally cave to China’s demands, regardless of the privacy disaster those demands brought upon its users. Of course his rant had to do with china just as Apple’s rant has to do with NC. the point is the fuss Apple fusses over one thing, but readily caves when the dollar starts to get further away. 

Please do stick to mature Dialogue, which would include cordially allowing others to speak freely just as you do. 

mazda 3s

Governor Roy Cooper may want to appease Apple. He's currently campaigning for re-election in November, and could use the jobs promised by an Apple campus as ammunition. The company already has a data center in the state.

Huh? Roy Cooper won the governorship in November 2016 and took office in January 2017. He’s not up for reelection until 2020, so this whole paragraph is misguided. 

boltsfan17

LordeHawk said:

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Eye.surgeon, please review the community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks.
Let’s stick to facts and mature dialogue. 

Following the laws of a country is not “welcoming Chinese overlords”, as the Chinese population does not enjoy the same freedoms afforded Americans.  You accuse Apple of censorship in a country where one cannot post anonymously, and provide no supporting evidence.  Apple controls customer encryption keys, devices are encrypted at the local level and iMessage is secure, leaving your opinion more of a rant about China.

Read a book...

You need to read the OP again. @eye.surgeon isn't accusing Apple of censorship. That's not really a rant about China. It doesn't take much for the police or Chinese government to legally force Apple to give up iCloud account information on Chinese users. The iCloud data center in China is run by a state owned company.  

cecil444

Pretty sure the issue they’re concerned about is that the Republican controlled NC legislature is currently trying to push through two Amendments to limit the Democratic governor’s power. They’ve been up to similar morally dubious mischief ever since he was elected. Apple simply wants to signal that such instability is making them rethink their investments.

YvLy

Tim should or shouldn't do this, Tim should or shouldn't do that ... As a shareholder I am happy that Tim DOES what he does.

tyler82

SpamSandwich said:

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

The economy is firing... mostly because of Apple.
and the economy is in a bubble because of stock buybacks.. wages still incredibly low and job market lackluster with crappy part time jobs the reson for the claims of low unemployment by a certain orange faced convict.

decodering

Since we don’t know what possible changes are being considered, we can only speculate about them and the reasons why Apple is following them.

But if the changes could have a negative impact on Apple’s ability to attract top-quality people, it’s legitimate for the company to ensure that any changes don’t impair its operational competitiveness.

bells

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Last I checked, Apple is an American company. It is entitled to its opinions, and allowed to make decisions based on its best interests.

Apple isn’t going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars building a second home if it isn’t happy with the environment. Like any company, it wants the move to be financially beneficial. It also wants employees to want to work at the location. Apple has not publically commented on its views regarding NC’s circus  policitcal environment, but it certainly is entitled to make those views known. 

As far as Apple doing business in China goes, I’m not a fan, but Apple’s view is it can effectuate change from within, and putting up with China’s laws is worth the access to the market and manufacturing. Maybe it’s right. Maybe it’s made a mistake. Nonetheless it would be very expensive for Apple to just move from China after the tremendous investments it’s made in the country. Perhaps that is why Apple is proceeding cautiously in NC. It doesn’t want to make an enormous investment that it can’t easily back out of. You have already seen Apple slowly attempt to reduce its reliance on China for manufacturing by assisting its manufacturing partners to open new facilities in other countries.

Elected Officials might be accountable to the people, but Politicians, mostly Republicans, have fought to stack the deck in their favor by redrawing districts to dilute their opponents votes. Further, schools have been stripped of funding, so many people truly aren’t educated enough to understand what they are voting for. We allow the rich to spend billions of dollars to influence elections. Our source of news is owned by the same rich people. The whole trying to rewrite the constitution in NC to undermine a law fully elected governor is just another example that voters really don’t have much power. The people vote for something, the politicians try to undermine that. 

vmarks

SpamSandwich said:

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

This is about the NC Legislature putting constitutional amendments on the ballot in NC to amend the NC State Constitution. The amendments take power away from the governor in appointments to executive branch positions and place that power with the NC Legislature. So far, the Governor sued the legislature over the language of the ballot items to prevent them from appearing on the ballot, and a panel of judges agreed with the removal, but said that the legislature can rewrite the language and try again. 

The NC Legislature called a special session to rewrite the ballot items. No idea whether the amendments will appear on the ballot or not, just yet.

In any case, calling the President or this having anything to do with national politics is irrelevant. 

GeorgeBMac

9secondkox2 said:

LordeHawk said:

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Eye.surgeon, please review the community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks.
Let’s stick to facts and mature dialogue. 

Following the laws of a country is not “welcoming Chinese overlords”, as the Chinese population does not enjoy the same freedoms afforded Americans.  You accuse Apple of censorship in a country where one cannot post anonymously, and provide no supporting evidence.  Apple controls customer encryption keys, devices are encrypted at the local level and iMessage is secure, leaving your opinion more of a rant about China.

Read a book...

I think everyone here is entitled to state what the facts are - not just your interpretation of them - and even what their opinions are. Just because you don’t like his views doesn’t make his statements incendiary. He is obviously being a bit tongue in cheek on his take with the facts, which are that Apple did quite literally cave to China’s demands, regardless of the privacy disaster those demands brought upon its users. Of course his rant had to do with china just as Apple’s rant has to do with NC. the point is the fuss Apple fusses over one thing, but readily caves when the dollar starts to get further away. 

Please do stick to mature Dialogue, which would include cordially allowing others to speak freely just as you do. 

Free speech does not include calling out "FIRE!" in a crowded auditorium.  

Neither does it preclude being corrected for violating community standards which are designed block a user forum from being used to propagate political propaganda.

GeorgeBMac

vmarks said:

SpamSandwich said:

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

This is about the NC Legislature putting constitutional amendments on the ballot in NC to amend the NC State Constitution. The amendments take power away from the governor in appointments to executive branch positions and place that power with the NC Legislature. So far, the Governor sued the legislature over the language of the ballot items to prevent them from appearing on the ballot, and a panel of judges agreed with the removal, but said that the legislature can rewrite the language and try again. 

The NC Legislature called a special session to rewrite the ballot items. No idea whether the amendments will appear on the ballot or not, just yet.

In any case, calling the President or this having anything to do with national politics is irrelevant. 

Thank you for stating the facts and the basic issue.

To state it more explicitly:   A ruling party in a state lost its governorship to the other party.  Now that party (that is still in control of the legislature) wants to obstruct that governor's ability to govern.  It is purely a grab for political power similar to a banana republic.  And, regardless of the ethics of the situation (which are shaky at best) Apple is right to be nervous about stepping into that unstable situation.

tommikele

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Incredibly childish and an very inaccurate assessment of Apple's concerns. But you knew that and figured you would take advantage of what you saw as an opportunity. Pretty lame. Are you suggesting Apple should do nothing to try and influence the environment they do business in? Or is it just the aspects of the environment you don't agree with them or care for? Within a country and within it's laws/business regulations they should do nothing? Is it just Apple? You don't seem to care about other corporations spending billions to influence politics and government policy. You down;t say a lot, but hypocrisy wafts from your comment like tuna left out of the refrigerator for a few days. Do you think it is good business for Apple in the USA to spend $100 million + and mover several thousand employees to a state that promotes/enables discrimination against a group of Americans? How about a state that wants to enshrine the ability to discriminate in their constitution and then tries to hide it behind some religious rights BS? As for your China crack, is it your suggestion they not do business there and just cut out from the second biggest national market in the world because of the politics and government there? Are you criticizing them for doing business within that country's rules? Do you have an inside track to know what efforts they undertake to change? No you don't. You don't really know squat. You just saw an opportunity to be stupid and jumped on it. Good work. You succeed beyond expectations.

tommikele

LordeHawk said:

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

Eye.surgeon, please review the community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks.
Let’s stick to facts and mature dialogue. 

Following the laws of a country is not “welcoming Chinese overlords”, as the Chinese population does not enjoy the same freedoms afforded Americans.  You accuse Apple of censorship in a country where one cannot post anonymously, and provide no supporting evidence.  Apple controls customer encryption keys, devices are encrypted at the local level and iMessage is secure, leaving your opinion more of a rant about China.

Read a book...

I don't care for the content of Eye Surgeon's comment or his opinion at all and was quite critical/snarky in my reply, but you are full of it.

"community guidelines or learn some respectful decency before making incendiary and leading remarks." There isn't one thing wrong with the words he choose to express himself and you pulling that crap with your reply is BS. After you got through your preamble of acting like some holier than thou parent, you actually countered the comment he made with good to the point remarks. Maybe you should read a book about arrogance or at lest own yours like I do.

StrangeDays

eye.surgeon said:

So the multinational corporation is worried about elected officials accountable to the people meddling with the constitution. I guess Apple prefers to do the meddling themselves. Certainly they have welcomed their communist Chinese overlords with open arms, censorship and all, without a complaint.

But but but corporations are people too. Being multinational is akin to having a passport.

StrangeDays

SpamSandwich said:

And Tim is making more noise that is going to result in negative attention on Apple. Maybe he could talk to the Prez directly instead of posturing for the media with stunts like this?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/business/trump-immigration-business-leaders-economy.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

The economy is firing on all cylinders right now. Tim is mistaken.

Did you likewise give credit to Obama since the trend upwards began under his administration? It was down after Bush, then pushed up.

Side note - speaking of censorship, did anyone see the story about google planning to launch in China after their previous pull out of china?

https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/google-china-search-engine-censorship/