georgie01

Yes what he did was very wrong, but it’s reasonable to expect a message to be deleted when you delete it. You can say all you want that it was a failure on his part to understand how things work, and that’s true, but it’s also absurd that devices using the same account aren’t synchronized. This isn’t 1995 and POP email.

Just because he’s a loser doesn’t make Apple’s lack of synchronization reasonable or mean he can’t expect privacy.

 

AppleZulu said:

In reality this is never true. A parent who 'opts' to voluntarily eject through the windshield in an auto accident is a devastating loss to the family involved, changing the trajectory of life for everyone else. A passenger who 'opts' to voluntarily flop around in the back seat in a rollover accident, severing their spine in the process, projects the immense costs of their flippant decision on everyone else in the family and/or to others beyond, through taxes and insurance costs required to support that person if they survive. So no, choosing to get in a car and ride around without using available safety restraints is not an independent, libertarian personal choice. It is the externalization of an immense potential cost in trade for accommodating a perceived mild discomfort or impish offense taken at 'being told what to do.'

The actual reality is that the history of humanity makes it clear that the approach of forced compliance will only succeed for a time.

America’s approach was unique, and it was wildly successful. Whatever complaints people have about it today, life has never been more plentiful and abundant for a wider selection of people.  People want things to be even better, and that’s great!

Except that forced compliance eventually results in the same thing, every time. Those trying to force compliance become an elite group and are pushed more and more toward a heavy-handedness “for the people’s good”. And eventually the people rebel. Those pushing this today are pushing hard because they see the masses starting to wake up.

lordjohnwhorfin said:

Unlike under the traitor’s administration, the DOJ does NOT report to Biden and does not do his bidding.
….
because for the time being we’re still in a democracy. You better pray Biden gets reelected if you want that to continue.

godofbiscuits said:

Bosa said:

These complainers don’t know how good they have it. Try working in Any other country or even Microsoft and see what happens 

Whataboutism isn’t a valid argument. 

Of course it is. We live in an extremely entitled and ungrateful time in human history. Western ideas, with all their faults, have brought about unprecedented success in terms of providing for people (including for minorities and women).

So when someone moans and complains without an expression of gratefulness for the extraordinary plentifulness they have, the complaint cannot be accepted at face value.

It’s a similar problem to the billionaire complaining they couldn’t get their 100th vintage automobile in perfect condition because someone got to it first who wouldn’t appreciate it as much as they believe they would. Or the person throwing a fit because they were ‘misgendered’, while children in other countries don’t even have enough food to be healthy. Those complaints are trite and meaningless in the bigger picture.

joogabah said:

No hypocrisy there at all.  America never bombs other countries or invades and topples other governments, even on false pretexts.  And America had nothing to do with Ukraine's 2014 coup either.  And it didn't state explicitly its plan to balkanize Russia as a prelude to war with China which it can't compete against.

Yes, long gone are the days when we could point the finger at other ‘evil’ countries as if the US and the West are much different. There was a time when the US was impressive, but we’re just standing on those past successes thinking we can redefine obvious truths and be successful when in reality we’re on a downward spiral. We need to fix ourselves before complaining about Russia.

lam92103 said:

With 70 Billion of profit per year, 30 Billion sounds quite low for 10 years 

I’m not a fan of Microsoft and I’m not defending them, but if it were that simple then we wouldn’t be reading an article about it. A company like Microsoft isn’t generally going to act like a crime family when it comes to taxes. They will use complex processes to try and minimize tax burden. Some of it may be unsightly, but it’s not like a citizen making $70 billion and paying 4% tax. Tax laws are complex and our current tax system needs that complexity to be fair.

Now I’d be quite happy to ditch the current tax system and use something like FairTax. But the government foams at the mouth for control and power and they’d currently never accept something like that. 

StrangeDays said:

nethan9 said:

That's roughly 0.8% of his net worth. What a guy.

Jesus there's always one. Yeah man, he did a really shitty thing.

Thought experiment -- say you own a home and your net worth is $500,000. When was the last time you donated $5,000 in one crack? I'm sure it's a regular occurance for you, right?

Dunno about your charitable giving, but I usually donate a hundred bucks here and there. Far less than nearly 1% of my net worth.

I think the point is that for many people, probably most people, donating $50 is more significant to their finances than Cook donating $5m. While the donation may be a good thing (we don’t know where it was donated...), it shouldn’t be celebrated like it was some huge sacrifice for him. For some, donating 0.05 cents is a bigger sacrifice.