Dem
47
GOP
53
You would think that, if you've become the leader of a company that is one of the world's largest and best-known, you would no longer have to engage in the sort of bootlicking that lower-level employees have to do. But, as it turns out, rising to the top of the corporate ladder just means that you get to lick a higher quality of boot.
Case in point: Apple CEO Tim Cook. It is probable that, as a gay man who leads a very left-leaning company,
he's not MAGA. But he desperately needs to make certain that Apple does not get hit with mega-tariffs, or with
other such measures. So, he's puckered up, time and again. Cook
gave Trump
a Mac Pro (retail price: $6,999), despite the fact that Trump has no idea how to use that computer (or any other computer).
Trump may or may not understand the significance of getting a Mac Pro, a large, unwieldy, but very high-powered machine
designed for professionals who do complex video and audio editing. Mac Pros are assembled in Austin, TX.
Cook obviously understood that Trump would not know how to use the computer since he gave Trump the base model,
which is basically useless. A proper configuration with plenty of RAM and SSD would cost at least double that. Gold plating is extra.
A MacBook, which would
have made more sense as a gift, would have been a worse choice because MacBooks are made by Foxconn in China.
Cook
wrote
a personal, $1 million bribe check to Trump's inauguration committee. Cook got in on the act of giving Trump
silly awards, and
presented
the President with a custom-made plaque, complete with gold base. And, of course, Cook
attended
the Melania screening at the White House, and pretended to like the film.
So, what was Cook's reward for all this sycophancy? Well, this week, he was attacked by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson, accusing Apple of suppressing conservative voices on its Apple News+ platform. Ferguson claims the company may be in breach of the FTC Act.
Ferguson's argument is thinner than Twiggy, circa 1967. However, he knows that making a stink like this will generate some publicity, and will also please the boss in the Oval Office. Undoubtedly, Ferguson is also aware that Cook remains desperate to protect Apple's interests, and that he's folded like a cheap suit many times in the past. So, it is probable that Cook will announce some tweak to Apple's algorithms that will prioritize more right-wing content.
Needless to say, we do not have responsibility for a trillion-dollar company, so we cannot fully appreciate the situation that Cook finds himself in. However, we do know that Trump is a bully, and his underlings are bullies, and that when you give in to a bully, you encourage them to come back for more, again and again. We take the position that the smarter play is to stand up to Trump, who tends to back down in those situations, and to find another target to pick on. And, if Trump does not back down, well, that's why Apple has an army of lawyers. Instead, Cook chose the easier and more cowardly route, and now he's reaping the whirlwind. There's certainly some schadenfreude in that. (Z)