radarthekat

dewme said:

randominternetperson said:

AppleInsider said:

Cook was once described by Steve Jobs as not being a "product person," but he's unquestionably a politician. He apparently kept the working relationship going with Trump before the last election, and he is confirmed to have personally donated $1 million to the president's inauguration.

I'll do more than question it, I'll flat out assert that he is not a politician.

Politicians (at least when the term is used pejoratively, as it seems to here) don't stand for anything, say whatever they need to say, and shift with the slightest breeze.

That isn't Tim Cook. Exhibit 1: https://www.apple.com/diversity/ ;

Perhaps we can agree that he is politically astute, but that doesn't make him a politician.

I agree with your assertions. What Tim Cook is doing, at least when he's wearing his Tim Apple Super CEO suit, is not politics but doing everything he can to ensure the success of his company and all of its stakeholders. However, what Tim Apple does probably does not reflect what Tim Cook, the man, would do in order to maintain his own personal integrity, reputation, value system, and generally how to exist peacefully as a citizen of the world.

The problem for Tim Cook is that every time the president mentions his name or insinuates a real connection with Tim Cook, the man, Tim takes a hit in the things that many people and especially Apple customers value in him, including his reputation and integrity. Tim Cook was hand picked to take the helm when Steve Jobs stepped back. That is a really big deal considering Steve Jobs is the one who restored Apple's reputation, integrity, competitiveness, differentiation from the crowded PC world, and a willingness to always make sure customers were delighted with the products he help bring to market. 

The current president has significantly damaged the reputation, trustworthiness, and reliability of the United States. In the same way, every time another leader in the private sector gets anointed as a "True Trump Buddy" their reputation, trustworthiness, and reliability takes a big hit. In some cases it gets obliterated as we've seen with Elon Musk and Zuckerberg.

Apple will pay a price for this, we just don't know how large or how fire-walled or DMZ'd it can be kept  between the real person and who they play when they step into their corporate role. 

discountopinion said:

The tariff game sort of makes sense in its destructive chaos. I do not like it one bit, but there is some method in the madness.

Ensuring that chips, electronics and other increasingly strategic products have a geopolitically diverse footprint makes perfect sense. There is a huge concentration risk at present which does not help anyone other than China.

Short term we will stumble and make mistakes brining these processes back to the US and Europe. That is ok and normal for any large transition. But a change like this does not happen on the Trump time scale, but if Trump does not blowtorch the industry to move then it will likely never do so.

Love him or hate him - Elon Musk’s Tesla is the most geopolitically resilient company from a supply chain standpoint. Very few other companies are.

I want to see a future where high tech is manufactured and invented in hubs of awesome across the globe. We are in the very early stages of spinning up the robots economy and why on earth should a small island off the coast of China be a single point of failure and why should mainland China be a single point of failure for such a large quantity of goods when many other countries can do the same work to build planet wide resilience.

Xed said:

9secondkox2 said:

AppleZulu said:

9secondkox2 said:

Xed said:

9secondkox2 said:

As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened. 

No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.

Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense. 

As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well. 

Talk about the real TDS. 

Trump has no one’s interests at heart but his own. This was not some masterful “art of the deal.” This was and still is an economic clusterf*ck foisted on the world by an egomaniacal narcissist, surrounded by a bunch of servile sycophants who won’t tell him no, even if it means destroying the entire world economy. 

These are not even remotely “reciprocal tariffs.” They are simplistic ChatGPT math, based on individual trade deficits, not other countries’ tariffs imposed on US imports into their countries, all dumped on a chart like a list minute homework project where the assignment was “give me a chart of big tariffs on every country in the world, except Russia.” You can paint bullseyes around every one of Trump’s randomly thrown darts, but you’re not convincing anyone that any of it has been a carefully planned strategy. 

No matter what the guy does, you’ll find a reason to hate on the man. That’s “The real TDS.” Any time he does something that not even haters can hold against him, you’ll accuse him of painting a bullseye there.

If he did something that was both lawful, decent, and good it would noted as such. Starting a trade war with lies like, "tariffs are paid by the company importing the goods" is a ridiculous comment and the fact that you still don't understand that is very troubling.

If Trump actually got rid of the penny or daylight saving time (like he's proposed) I'd be on board with that. I've wanted these to happen for decades. On the flip side, making English the "official" language so you can better support hate crimes against anyone not speaking English or speaking it in an acceptable accent, or changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico I don't support for reasons that should be obvious to a reasonable person. If Biden did the former things I'd have been onboard with it and if Biden had done the latter things I wouldn't. You are the only one that makes blanket comments that are always in favor of Dear Leader no matter what stupid thing he does no matter how many times he flips back and forth on an issue.

Serious question: Do you think that weekend Fox & Friends host is qualified to be Secretary of Defense? How about the beef jerky that wished to be a real boy that is Secretary of Health and Human Services?

9secondkox2 said:

Xed said:

9secondkox2 said:

As I’ve been saying since before this whole thing happened. 

No, you said that the world has been ripping the US off and that Apple needs to bring manufacturing back to the US. Trump giving in yet again with this exemption doesn't hurt China and doesn't bring "jobs" back to the US. But nice try.

Wrong. I said all of the above - including that Apple would sail through due to exemptions. Mike W. even commented directly telling me "it's not going to go the way I think it will go" in response to one of my posts on the matter. I also added late that The USA has indeed been getting ripped in world trade forever now and that it's about time someone stands up to global bullies. Manufacturing does belong back in the USA - but also elsewhere. America doesn't need to abdicate all manufacturing. Much healthier to be both a product AND services economy. The fact is Trump is very easy to read and to predict when you realize that he has America's best interests at heart ad takes action accordingly. It is no surprise that he initiated reciprocal tariffs or that he paused them when the word wanted to make a deal. It's also not shocking at all that he kept up the tariffs on China, but did so in a way that doesn't hurt American companies (though it also weakens the tariff impact on China) - who he is doing this on behalf of. It's the art of the deal in action - set an extreme goal, get them scrambling, then when the entrenched positions are broken, maneuver the chess pieces, keep them guessing, and settle on the realistic area you wanted all along.I know it's popular on this site to hate on the man, but it doesn't make much sense. 

As I have been saying all along, Apple is going to be OK. They have someone standing up for them on the global stage. I have a sneaking suspicion that more is to come with the EU as well. 

Globalism lifts the entire world up and betters the lives of billions.  As a retired serial software startup entrepreneur from the Boston area I’ve  lived in The Philippines since 2016 and have watched it happen here.

Meanwhile, in more advanced economies those offshored jobs are replaced with better, higher-paying jobs in STEM, engaged in R&D, engineering, product management, creative design, and entrepreneurial pursuits that create whole new industries.  We shouldn’t want those offshored jobs back; we should want our children to pursue careers in the above fields or other more rewarding endeavors.  Bringing back manufacturing jobs is not a very productive use of human capital in an advanced society that could instead educate its populous to pursue more expressive careers and lives.