Posted on 04/03/2015 10:07:41 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Former Hewlett-Packard chief Carly Fiorina on Thursday blasted Apple CEO Tim Cook's opposition to Indiana's religious freedom law as "hypocrisy."
(Photo on article not shown due to license held by Getty Images)
Fiorina, a potential 2016 GOP presidential contender, said Cook had a double standard and cited Apple's operations in other countries with controversial laws about gays and women in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
“When Tim Cook is upset about all the places that he does business because of the way they treat gays and women, he needs to withdraw from 90% of the markets that he’s in, including China and Saudi Arabia,” Fiorina argued. “But I don’t hear him being upset about that."
Fiorina said his stance exposed a “level of hypocrisy here that is really unfortunate.” She added that Indiana's Religious Freedom Restoration Act contained “nothing objectionable" and that Cook’s criticism stemmed from “narrow special interests” rather than reality.
“I think this is a ginned-up controversy by people who play identity politics that has divided the nation in a way that is really unhelpful,” Fiorina added.
Cook, who came out as gay last year, criticized the Indiana measure when it was signed into law last week. The CEO said it ran counter to Apple's policies on tolerance.
“Apple is open for everyone,” he tweeted March 28. “We are deeply disappointed in Indiana’s new law.”
The bill's supporters argue it is a necessary protection for businesses against government meddling in their faith-based decisions. But critics claim the legislation protects discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals.
Gov. Mike Pence (R-Ind.), another 2016 hopeful, signed the act on March 26.
It immediately sparked a backlash, with the Twitter hashtag #BoycottIndiana trending. A number of businesses, other state governments and celebrities also blacklisted the Hoosier State.
Pence and state legislators were forced to backtrack, and on Thursday he signed a fix to the measure which now prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. It also bars business owners from using the law as a defense if they refuse services to protected groups.
Salesforce, Twitter and Yelp are a few of the tech industry players that joined Apple in opposing the law’s original language.
"I think this is a ginned-up controversy by people who play identity politics that has divided the nation in a way that is really unhelpful," Fiorina added.She's not POTUS material, but an attack dog always makes a good running mate.
Yep, everybody's heard that lie. So knock yourself out, but until you provide reliable sources that back it up (which you can't do because it's been proven false), I'll stick with the facts as presented by the reliable sources that have already been argued here ad infinitum.
Have a great day. Cheers.
Under socialism, corporate executives are allowed to speak up....if they are members of the ruling party in good standing.
“Apple and Walmart had no trouble using slave labor and child labor to produce their products!”
Too many people are blissfully unaware of this. Good Post.
It doesn't "also" do this - this IS what it does.
It is now - literally - an ANTI-RFRA.
Yeah, because Apple uses the part of Foxconn without the suicide nets.
We won't take back the presidency with that approach.
Cruz already attacked the spineless GOPe and businesses over it
I would like to know why it is all right for Cook and his kind to discriminate -- to have standards, rules, principles, when hiring or firing people -- but it is not all right for anyone conservative or religious to have principles. These people who preach diversity seem to show no sensitivity or tolerance whatsoever toward others with different views or lifestyles.
As someone who long ago was the kid nobody played with, I can sympathize with those who feel marginalized, let alone victimized. However, I sadly realized two things: 1) My own behavior might have driven people away. 2) No matter how hard I try, not everyone is going to like me. And I am not going to like everyone either. I simply try to get along & be polite.
As long as no one is burning down a gay person's house, or throwing stones, Mr. Gay Man (or Woman) should shut up. We are leaving them alone. They must acknowledge others' opinions & simply either move on or rise above it. That is the way of the world.
Basically these people are angry at the whole concept of rules. They are amoral; they are psychopaths. They want to do their own thing & be accepted unconditionally.
Gotta admit, that's cute.
Say, have you stopped doing business yet with every American bank where a banker has committed suicide in the past few years? No nets there either... some of 'em landed on metal picket fences, the kind with the spikes sticking up, and it took hours to peel the body off the fence.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/01/bankers-suicide-conspiracy/
I'm only pointing out that Apple-hatred has generated some amazingly one-sided criticism that verges on hypocrisy of its own, especially when it's at variance with demonstrable facts. There's no need for it. Same goes for Windows-hatred, Linux-hatred, etc. They're just computers, geez.
Contrary to the Apple propaganda Steve Jobs kept Apple completely out of politics. Although he was liberal, he did not make large political donations himself. Apple itself did not make any at all. . . leaving such involvement to the Apple Employees' Political Action Committee. When asked to get Apple more involved by a Democratic committee activist, Steve Jobs was quoted as saying he would not because half of Apple's customers were Republicans and he was not about to alienate half of the company's customers for political reasons.
I certainly hope not. . . but for a Democrat, he'd be a better choice than Obambi or Hillary have been or would be. At least he's run a business. I would never vote for him. . . or any Democrat, or Liberal.
Oh, so everybody does it?
Okay, I'll accept that as an admittance.
I just get tired of Apple pretending its different.
That is probably a good conclusion. On the other hand, Apple has used it's economic power to improve the lot of workers in its supply chain in countries where workers' rights are not as protected as they could be. The threat of contract cancellation if workers are mistreated allowed Apple to force improvements in conditions, hours, and pay.
After he was "outed" he did state that he was proud to be gay. . . but he did not choose to be outed. . . but accepted it once it was made public. Now he is going too far in his "Gay Pride" and taking stands that are not good for the company.
Something about Cook has always given me the impression that he’s not nearly as bright as Steve Jobs. This latest stunt more or less confirms it. I’m not comfortable owning shares of Apple knowing that a second-rate political hack is running the show.
The question that we need to ask concerning visualizing anybody in the Oval Office is this. Would that person be willing for patriots to get them up to speed on the federal government’s constitutionally limited powers which they should have been up to speed with anyway before running for president?
And where domestic issues are concerned, Mr. Cook would be spending most of his time leading Congress to decide policy for the US Mail Service (1.8.7).
The contract company that assembles Apple products in China pays the workers on the Apple assembly lines SEVEN TIMES the prevailing minimum wage in China. That is the equivalent of $51 per hour in the United States. In additions, workers are allowed to work up to 20 hours per week of overtime. . . and they want more. Every time openings occur to work on an Apple assembly jobs thousands of applicants line up to apply for each position. Workers have the option of living in company provided dormitories or off company property in their own apartments. Please tell me where the "slave labor" conditions and requirements are? I surely do not see them.
You've been listening to the propaganda that won't tell you the actual facts such as Mike Daisey's "Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs", which had to be retracted by NPR, when if was discovered that he had fabricated much of his evidence, including falsely translated interviews with workers, and used videos purported showing Apple assembly lines conditions that actually came from completely different companies. . . and you haven't been looking for the facts which are easily found for those who dig a bit to get beyond the mis-information storm.
Thanks, DayGloRed. I also just know the facts about Apple. Wallmart buys clothing made in the sweatshop manufacturing mode. . . which at best MAY use the Chinese national minimum wage of 63¢ an hour. (Keep in mind that cost of living is far less in China than it is in the USA). However, many of the sweatshops DO NOT pay minimum wage. I do not know if Walmart polices the supply chain in any way like Apple does theirs.
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