Silicon Valley’s ‘progressives’

Well, well. The days when the tech guys avoided politics are well and truly over. See, for example, this from Recode:

With the entire House on next year’s ballot — and about one-third of the U.S. Senate up for a vote, too — the stakes are high for those in the Bay Area who seek to erode the GOP’s control of Congress and erect a new bulwark against Trump’s agenda in areas like immigration and climate change.

But some of the region’s most politically active executives — including Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet; and Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX — have contributed generously to Republicans in recent months in a bid to maintain steady relationships with both parties.

At the end of March, for example, Musk chipped in $50,000 to an organization run by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy that’s meant to boost his GOP allies. Musk also donated roughly $34,000 to the Republican Party’s official arm for electing lawmakers to the chamber, federal records show.

Yet Musk’s support comes despite his public rift with the president.

Initially, the SpaceX and Tesla founder tried to maintain a positive working relationship with Trump, even serving as an adviser to the White House on economic issues. But Musk severed those ties in June, citing Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement — a pact to reduce carbon emissions around the world that Musk and other business leaders had supported. A spokesman for Musk did not immediately respond to emailed questions on Thursday.

Links for 7/7/2017

  1. Martin Kettle: “Here is Britain’s new place in the world – on the sidelines”

  2. Eric Posner:“Twenty Theses about Twitter”. Spot on.

  3. Reuters:“EU considers record fine as panel checks Google Android case”

  4. “Transparent, explainable, and accountable AI for robotics”. In Science Robotics.

  5. New York Times: “Lasting Damage and a Search for Clues in Cyberattack”

  6. Julia Powles: “Why are we giving away our most sensitive health data to Google?”. Why indeed.