(Fred Weinberg) – The news that big tech has decided to sign on to a friend of the court brief against President Donald Trump’s executive order suspending travel to the United States from seven countries while a better vetting system is put in place makes me think of one word.
Whores.
Now, none of us can boycott these companies in their entirety since they include companies which provide goods and services we use every day.
But we can note that they are whores nonetheless. And their pimps are the news media which enable them to get away with it.
Let’s start with the premise that corporations—both public and privately held—are not people. They are entities owned by people which are there to shield those people from any liability involved in doing what they are organized to do. They do have rights, one of which is to act almost as stupid as their owners.
Hence the right to file briefs in a nonsensical court case which is far more political than substantive.
Here’s what makes them whores:
Their owners are throwing a snot-slinging tantrum against President Trump while, at the same time, just begging for a corporate tax cut. Which they will get because—at its base—such a tax cut is good for America.
They are NOT concerned about comity, about the rights of immigrants, about our core values. By their very nature, corporations are only concerned about money.
And let’s delineate the money they are so concerned about that it motivated that very expensive brief.
The H1B visa program allows big tech companies to do the equivalent of building a factory in Mexico only for software engineers and coders. And, while they will tell you there is no difference in salaries, that’s not totally true. H1B workers are almost indentured servants since if they lose their corporate sponsor, they go home. And who wants to leave America voluntarily?
Many of the names on the list of top H1B users are also on the list of whores which signed the brief. (Others are just lefties playing to their customer base. Still others are a mix of both reasons.)
Seriously.
Do you really believe that Microsoft really is concerned about a religious test or America’s core values?
Or Apple?
Don’t misunderstand.
This is being written with Microsoft Word using a Windows 10 computer while my iPhone SE sits on my desk along with my iPad Air 2.
All of which are great products.
I got my information on the H1B visa program using Google.
I travel often using Airbnb and we take our credit cards corporately using Square.
But—this is, after all America—I’m paying for those goods and services and I really don’t care what those companies think about politics or our “core” values since they were established purely to sell me things. When someone tells you in business that it’s not about the money, rest assured it’s absolutely about the money.
Now let’s talk about what Trump’s order is and—more importantly—what it is NOT.
It’s not about immigration. It’s not about religion.
It is about instituting a vetting program before we continue to allow free travel from countries which export terrorism and have no reliable internal database with which we have a connection to vet who is and is not involved.
I have a question for the 96 companies which signed the friend of the court brief.
If a terrorist makes it into this country while your litigation lifted the President’s order and causes a bunch of death and destruction, are you going to include that fact in your next Superbowl ad?
Mr. Weinberg is publisher of the Penny Press. Get to know more about him by visiting www.PennyPressNV.com.
