Why is that all of these posts saying to "take a stand" fail to explain the political process? I'll just quote myself here. If you want to help stop trump the most effective ways are to:<p>1. Call<p><pre><code> - Local congresspeople (http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/)
- Senators (https://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/)
- Local officials (https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials)
</code></pre>
2. Participate<p><pre><code> - Get involved in local elections (this is a decent start - to become informed locally http://www.npr.org/stations/)
- Protest
- Attend town hall and city council meetings (see npr)
</code></pre>
3. Share<p><pre><code> - Tell your friends
</code></pre>
4. Vote (<a href="https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote" rel="nofollow">https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote</a>)<p>5. Volunteer<p>6. Stop reading and start doing one of the other things.
> In doing so, we should not demonize Trump voters—most of them voted for him for reasons other than the promise of a Muslim ban. We need their eventual support in resisting actions like these, and we will not get it if we further isolate them.<p>This is very important people - calling everyone who voted for Trump a racist homophobe, a moron, and not deserving of the franchise is not going to help anything. I didn't vote for Trump, but I do identify with some of the beliefs of those who did, and I can tell you that the rhetoric I'm hearing from many of the most vocal left is pushing the middle away.
>1. Call 2. Participate 3. Share 4. Vote<p>This is the same kind of bullshit that's lost Hillary the election and got us here in the first place. It might have worked in the '90s to get a gold medal for Rosa Parks. It will not work in 2017 to make Trump back off his core message.<p>The problem here is not that your side isn't loud enough and can't get political attention for an issue. The problem is that the opposing side is too organized and too strong and already has a decided stance about your issue.<p>Being more strident won't help. Ostracizing people who have links to the opposing side will positively hurt.<p>Instead of doing all this "yell out louder" crap, any serious opposition should rather do some serious soul searching to figure out how to win back key constituencies. The only people who need to be ostracized are the idiots who got us here in the first place.
In case anyone is still skeptical that this is really a Muslim ban and not just a blanket ban on refugees and immigrants, note that Trump has said he will give priority to Christian refugees: <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/01/27/brody-file-exclusive-president-trump-says-persecuted-christians-will-be-given-priority-as-refugees" rel="nofollow">http://www1.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2017/01/27/brody-fi...</a>
The ACLU is both challenging the order and rounding up attorneys to help legal residents and Visa holders that have been prevented from entering the country. Now would be a good time to donate. <a href="https://www.aclu.org" rel="nofollow">https://www.aclu.org</a>.
I think that the only way to fix this long-term is by winning the hearts and minds of those who think this ban is a good idea, or who are ambivalent about it. Unfortunately, those of us who have been shrilly opposing every move Trump has ever made are perhaps the most poorly positioned to do that. Trump has successfully demonized the voice of the mainstream media and costal cultural elites, and if you're perceived as being in that group, your objections are likely to fall on deaf ears.<p>We need to find a way to rebuild bridges between different tribes in America, so that we can have a reasonable dialog. I don't pretend to know how to do this, but I'd love to have a discussion about how to get it done. I think <i>that</i> is the only way to keep Trump or someone else like him from capturing the voice of the people long term.<p>"How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps"
<a href="https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/01/20/culturejam/" rel="nofollow">https://www.caracaschronicles.com/2017/01/20/culturejam/</a>
I know it's an extremely antisocial position but I can't help but feel like most of Trump's immigration policies and outrageous tweets are just bait to keep our attention away from big money legislation that the 1% wants to get through.<p>For example, the Keystone XL and Dakota access pipelines were heavily debated, protested, and ultimately rejected under Obama but Trump just signed orders to have them built and Sam's post doesn't even mention it. Seeing Sam write about the accusations of voter fraud instead brings this quote to mind:<p>> The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....<p>- Noam Chomsky, The Common Good
I am affected personally by this. I have extended family members from Indonesia and Malaysia in the US who are still on Green Card. Although those countries aren't affected by the ban, who knows when Trump will decide to change his mind at his whim.<p>But the time for talk has passed. I don't think very much is going to happen because Trump is empowered by his election victory, and he won't listen to anyone. Has he ever listened to anyone, even during his celebrity-only days? To think that you can actively engage him in a conversation is not the way to do this.<p>What is needed is to prepare for the 2018 and 2020 elections RIGHT NOW. We need an organized social media structure where all of the positive, democracy-pro candidates in every electoral district gets publicized and supported. EDUCATE YOUNG PEOPLE WITH GREAT POLITICAL CANDIDATES AND MOTIVATE THEM TO VOTE. I'm not talking about just voting for the Democrats. Democrats are just as bad as the Republicans. We need a new voice that actually cares about progressive, democratic values, and actually believes in what they say. Not the same, tired politicians that play us for fools and leave us with the best of two evils.<p>Organize now, smash the two-party oligarchy and elect REAL POLITICIANS, hopefully young people that care about the US, not people who want to enrich themselves from the teat of government funding. You could argue that Trump was that candidate for half of Americans, as well as Sanders for the other (nearly) half. We need fresh blood, and we need to start now.<p>The only way to stop Trump is to silence him by breaking up the Republican Congress majority, and it's only in 2 years.
Things companies in tech can do:<p>- Demand to see the detailed plan for TrumpCare. What's it going to cost us? What will it do to our employees? Where are the details? That's what lobbyists are paid to find out. Employers have a big stake in this.<p>- Demand to see the tariff plan. So far, it's all talk, but soon it will be legislation. This has huge impacts for many businesses. Business planning and investment will stall until the details are settled. Already, you don't want to build a factory in China or Mexico. On the other side, will there be efforts to make it easier to sell into China?<p>- About that infrastructure thing. What kinds of projects will be supported? Roads? Internet access? Pothole repair?<p>- How serious is the administration about not employing illegal aliens? Will employer sanctions be increased or more stringently enforced? Will employers be going to jail? On the other side, will the enforcement be effective enough to force growers to use robotic picking? Is it time to get behind ag startups like Abundant Robotics? Get into robotic floor cleaning for commercial buildings?<p>- Will there be tax incentives for investing in communities in rural America? If so, how much, and when will they become available?<p>- Will Glass-Stegall come back? That was a Trump campaign promise, and it's in the Republican platform.<p>Every one of those is a real business issue, and business needs to know what's going to happen.
A majority of his voters <i>did</i> vote for Trump because they support his views on immigration. It's why they voted for him. To deny that is to simply deny reality just like Trump does on a daily basis.<p>Honest question - What will statements by tech CEOs do? Trump has a mandate given to him by the people of your country against the very elites this post is appealing to. The politicians are with him because they want to keep their power.<p>And am I misremembering all these powerful tech CEOs went grovelling to meet Trump and hoping to have a foot in the door with the new administration with Thiel?<p>These are turbulent times.
He clearly stated he would make strong policies regarding immigration. The American people voted for him knowing this and he's following through on it.<p>I'd say “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” is a fitting name given everything he has said up to this point.<p>Whether or not you agree, this looks like the democratic process to me. Taking action against his policies after election is obviously fine, but if you cared so deeply then why didn't you do this rallying call before he got elected? He is doing exactly what he said he would do and what the people voted him in for.<p>* PS: I'm not endorsing Donald Trump's decisions at all.
Shouldn't we have been taking a stand against Obama who destabilized the region, was dropping bombs there and arming the "rebels" who had a revolving door relationship with ISIS and other such groups there.<p>Refugees didn't come from a vacuum and it wasn't some natural disaster. They started streaming in because the West including US has been meddling and destabilizing that part of the world.<p>Unfortunately it seems profiling to prevent terrorism has worked ok for Israel recently. It is not something pleasant and nice, but so far it seems there have been deadlier and more frequent terror act committed by radical Muslims in Europe than in Israel. People see the news from Europe and they don't want that here. A closer vetting of refugees from that region seems reasonable and letting them in unchecked seem irresponsible.
> Almost every member of the GOP I have spoken to knows that these actions are wrong.<p>How about Peter Thiel? What did he say when you spoke to him?
This is absolutely nuts.<p>Green card holders (legal permanent residents of the United States) are being turned back from the US as soon as they get to the airport. They are being forced to file waivers which can be denied.<p>How can legal permanent residents be denied entry? I mean this has to be breaking So many laws, how can this be ok?
"The executive order… is tantamount to a Muslim ban" isn't quite true.<p>Islam by country
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country</a><p>1. Indonesia<p>2. Pakistan<p>3. India<p>4. Bangladesh<p>5. Nigeria<p>6. Iran<p>7. Turkey<p>8. Egypt<p>9. Algeria<p>10. Sudan<p>It's probably not a great tactic to perpetuate the American habit for making sweeping comments about the rest of the world which aren't really grounded in truth. Might be best to be scrupulously fact-based on these matters.
I think it's shameful to have an open Trump supporter as part of the upper echelons of YCombinator (Thiel).<p>Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But when you openly support a candidate who likes to "grab [women] by the pussy", and now is making headway into some sort of Muslim ban which was a campaign headline, how will female and muslim applicants feel if they know part of their process might be controlled by someone who finds this acceptable? Might it discourage them?
Lots of hypocrisy here today. There are 11 million refuges from Syria all over the world currently. The US gave shelter to about 0.1%. Fucking ridiculous 0.1%. There wasn't any uproar to hear about that shaming fact in the US until now. But when Trump makes it harder to recruit some IT workers from the middle East the HN bubble starts screaming.
Billionaire Silicon Valley tech CEOs are NOT sympathetic characters with the general public. (Or pretty much anyone outside the VC echo chamber.) Might as well ask the CEOs of Goldman Sachs and JPM to "take a stand." The only option SV has is to continue introducing bias and propaganda into their already heavily biased products.
I live in Central Europe. It is really hard from my perspective to understand all that mass hysteria in US, especially in California. Maybe overdosing leftist propaganda causes that hysteria.<p>Many products of Silicon Valley and Hollywood companies are simply blocked in China. Mainly to protect Chinese young companies. As far I known Google is completely blocked in China. Hollywood movies are also not freely distributed in China. And for some reason it is Trump accused of acting against free trade. What should be the right reaction for Chinese protectionism? More know-how transfer to the land of democracy?<p>And if you really care about Muslim countries then explain to me: why the PhD brain drain is so good for these countries?
The time to take stand was 3 months ago. Things will get a lot worse now before they can get better and no amount of blogging is going to change that.<p>Trump is hell bent on destroying America from within and his followers (who we are not supposed to criticize) are A-Ok with that.<p>Soon to be seen in a theater near you in Europe as well.
Sama, I appreciate your taking a stand on this, but how do you reconcile YCombinator's ties with Peter Thiel? Actions speak loud than words, and so far we've only seen words from you guys. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Are there any publicly pro-Trump founders in the current YC batch and, if so, how ostracized do they feel reading things like this?<p><i>EDIT:</i> If there's no answers from the current batch (either due to sample size or general shyness), I'll pose the same question regarding past YC alumni. I find it hard to believe out of a thousand people there isn't a single Trump supporter.
Easiest way to take a stand is to be logically consistent about federal power - which means be against it always and not just when the opposition party is in charge.<p>If 2/3 of the country can't agree that it needs to apply to the whole country then it's a state policy and not a federal one. Embrace the 10th amendment and make nullification a common act and not some rare that people scorn. It's the agree to disagree amendment. Push it's use and you can unite this country again because half the country won't be able to impose themselves on the other half every 4 years.
Amusing how Silicon Valley leadership is now bleeding their hearts out when legal immigrants from some countries are discriminated against. This same crowd had stood by silently when many of their workers - legal immigrants from India and China - had been discriminated against for many years in the name of per-country-green-card-quotas.<p>How is "we chose to discriminate against Muslim majority countries" any different from "we chose to discriminate against populous countries"? Both look arbitrary to me.
Donald Trump and Steve Bannon's blatant disregard for objective fact is reckless and dangerous. Go too much further and talent will begin to divest from the United States for moral reasons. Your move, America.
So Trump is a racist homophobe but he also won the elections: straight and fair. At last 45% of American population is like that - if their "economic anxiety" causes them to ignore rights of LGBT people, immigrants, latinos, blacks, and other minorities, then just imagine what they will do when there is no food on the table.<p>I cannot blame these people: that is how it is. But we need to accept that fact: we live in a very diverse country where there are people who do not share the same moral values as SV, NY, LA, etc.
I think that most Americans, even many Trump voters, disagree with this specific action. The problem we have now is that the left and the press have declared every single thing Trump has done both before and after the election as the worst thing that has ever befallen our nation. The press has left both Trump and the country tone-deaf.<p>Donald Trump is a man extremely concerned with his popularity and public image. If the media were to present a balanced and fair portrayal of the positive (or non-negative) things he does, he would be able to gauge how unpopular actions like this ban are and would probably listen to the message. But the press simply cannot contain itself - CNN, for example, has turned into HuffPo with a cable channel.<p>In short, the universally negative coverage of every breath Trump takes has actually empowered him. Trump will do some good things, such as making it less punitive for large corporations like Apple to repatriate foreign cash and invest it here, and he will do some bad things, like this temporary travel ban. The media will treat it all negatively, which gives him carte blanche to ignore all forms of criticism and defeats the entire purpose of the free press.
Reading this thread, I see people saying he is implementing his campaign promises. However, going through the thread on his victory (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752</a>), most people seemed to be of the opinion that he will implement none of his election promises (eg <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12911551" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12911551</a>). It is fascinating to see how people perceive things and how they might turn out to be. I wonder what more is in store.
People like Sam Altman are alarmed now that Trump has shown he is willing to meddle in labor markets and potentially impose protectionist labor policies. As Sam says, "This is not just a Muslim ban." Indeed not!
This order directly affects me.<p>But frankly I've lost hope in any political process. I know this is a grim message, but perhaps standing idle is exactly what needs to be done.<p>I fear people now vote out of frasutration, and leave it to someone else to make the right choice and cancel out their vote. Perhaps it's time for everyone to realise the full force of their voting power, and perhaps it's time to trust the powers to be. That breaking social contracts will be detrimental to The society in the long run and hope that voters will realise this.<p>My pessimistic two cents.
> Guys, Donald Trump might be President. We need to speak out in our support for Clinton.<p>Donald Trump becomes our democratically elected President.<p>> Guys, _now_ is the time to take a stand against Donald Trump.<p>No, the time was 6 months ago. You failed.<p>It is astounding to me how little respect Silicon Valley elites have for the democratic process. This article is another instance of the continued marginalization of the massive voter base who voted for Trump, and, if it were read by them, would do nothing but convince them that Trump was the right choice.<p>How about, instead of saying "Trump is really bad", we encourage those in power to work with him and find solutions to the problems he has highlighted that work across the isle? Sam is just perpetrating class and party politics with this article, and its infuriating.
Balderdash and blather!<p>This type of empty outrage and chatter serves little purpose.<p>Well articulated facts and solutions along with the leverage to put them in to practice or enforce them is productive. Tabeth's comments are appropriate and on point.<p>Sam has clearly proven he is a bright guy, but this is nothing more than a chant for a march, or a pointless drum circle. I know it feels good, and that's not a bad thing, but a call to action should have more direction.<p>Disappointing.
aren't the majority of Americans in favor of this ban?<p><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/18/fox-news-poll-views-on-trumps-proposed-ban-on-non-u-s-muslims.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/12/18/fox-news-poll-vie...</a><p><a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/donald-trump-backs-off-muslim-ban-but-its-already-way-more-popular-than-he-is/" rel="nofollow">https://theintercept.com/2016/07/07/donald-trump-backs-off-m...</a>
> But the executive order from yesterday titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” is tantamount to a Muslim ban and requires objection. I am obviously in favor of safety and rules, but broad-strokes actions targeted at a specific religious group is the wrong solution, and a first step toward a further reduction in rights.<p>I see this mistake a lot. "Muslim" isn't intended to target a certain religion here; it refers to citizenship status with problematic countries that happen to be predominantly Muslim. I support the "Muslim ban", but would be surprised if Trump tried to target Muslim US citizens(especially 3rd-generation US citizens, to avoid all doubt).<p>You might oppose the immigration controls, but it's nothing more than a rhetorical trick to say they violate religious freedom, so that you can bring up the first amendment. I don't believe the first amendment offers any protection with regards to citizenship status.
Bravo to Sam Altman for focusing on a way to talk about immigration that will resonate outside Silicon Valley. The full-strength SV mindset plays very well in the 650 area code ... but it's less effective and sometimes downright counter-productive in a national context.<p>Here's the lead story on Breitbart today, demonizing Mark Zuckerberg for his position on immigration. <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/01/28/sheriff-clarke-im-tired-one-percenters-like-mark-zuckerberg-lecturing-us/" rel="nofollow">http://www.breitbart.com/video/2017/01/28/sheriff-clarke-im-...</a> I'm sharing it, not because I agree with a single word of it, but because it's in the mix. To convince the current Congress (or the emerging Supreme Court) of the merits of the pro-immigration case, the argument needs to be made in a way that polarizes less and enlightens more.
This isn't the tech community's responsibility. This is everyone-who-disagrees' responsibility. If the GOP doesn't. It starts with holding representative's responsible. I think you're right that big tech has a huge voice, but I can't agree with the idea that it's their job to Be the Guiding Light ™
It makes me sad that politics has made its way to the top of HN. I'm relatively new here. One of the things I love about the community is that it has been something of an oasis over the past few months.<p>This is in no way intended to denigrate the esteemed author or his thesis. I'm just disappointed that we're at this point.
I think Sam's point about strength in numbers is really critical. The tech community sometimes has a little fear of being first that can rapidly shift into fear of being last, so I wonder what will cause a critical mass of tech leaders to take a stand. I think Sam is right that employees will have to provide some of the push, the New York Times article I read on this earlier mentioned an Iraqi Facebook employee in Seattle who can no longer go to Vancouver BC to visit his family for instance, so this effects us and our colleagues directly, not abstractly. I would suggest we all try and start bottom up pressure within our organizations to denounce the immingration ban, tech has always been pretty pro immigration (not always for noble reasons) so this shouldn't be a difficult sell.
This strikes a personal chord. Shortly after 9/11, I had taken a short trip back to India. I was transitioning from a student to work visa, and got held up indefinitely by the US consulate. It was a grueling experience, but what I remember most is how my employer stood by me. They contacted our local congressman, kept me employed, and even paid me for the time I could not work (two months), at a time when they were a struggling start-up. I know I am not the only immigrant who has experienced the incredible generosity of this country. For beneficiaries like us, it is all the more important to speak up, and take actions to welcome and support the next generation that wants a shot at the American Dream.
A lot of people in the comments below are fussing over whether
there is a Muslim ban. Well, think about it for two seconds.<p>1. This doesn't set a good precedent.
2. Donald Trump is aiming for a Muslim ban. He said so during the elections.<p>He said it during the elections: <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-president-election-muslim-ban-immigrants-website-statement-removed-a7408466.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trum...</a><p>At this point I'm surprised by how many people are bickering over this. Why don't you guys just say that you voted for Donald Trump? That would simplify the discussion.
I hope I am not downvoted because I have a different view.<p>I think Trump is a show man to some degree. He has said in the past he wanted to be in Hollywood. This is important to understand what drives him.<p>I think what Trump is doing is a part of a show, to tell his voters he is credible. But I think his long term policies will not be this drastic even if they are. I think the tech community should work with him to do the right thing, dissenting with him is not the right way at this point in time. It is too early to decide that you are against Trump ( as a Tech community).
"Almost every member of the GOP I have spoken to knows that these actions are wrong. Paul Ryan, Mike Pence, Kevin McCarthy and James Mattis said so themselves when Trump first proposed his Muslim ban"<p>NY Times says about Paul Ryan today [1]: "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said it was right on target."<p>Which one is it?<p>[1] <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/trumps-immigration-ban-disapproval-applause.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/trumps-immigration-ban...</a>
While you're at it, Sam, you should disassociate HN from Marky Mark for building his racist wall in Hawaii. He should be building bridges, not walls.
US immigration policy became broken long time ago. Why the rage only now? I'm not a US citizen and entering the US used to be a major headache every time. Every freaking time. Nobody cared during Obama's time but now all of a sudden it's "time to take a stand". I suspect it's way more about the despise of Trump than real concern about the current state of US immigration policy.
Why do people call this a "Muslim ban", when most Muslims are unaffected by it? There are 200M Muslims in Indonesia who are unaffected, 180M Pakistani Muslims, 172M Indian Muslims, 150M Bangladeshi Muslims, 75M Nigerian Muslims, 75M Turkish Muslims, 73M Egyptian Muslims...all of these people are unaffected by this "Muslim ban"
Here's a link to the full text of the executive order:<p>Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States (January 27, 2017)<p><a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3431228/Extreme-Vetting-EO.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3431228/Extreme-V...</a>
I stopped reading as soon as I got to "Muslim ban". Muslims did not get banned.<p>A Muslim ban would mean any Muslim coming from any country is banned. Sad that this is the level of discourse and understanding these days.<p>I care more about correct terms than if you are for or against it. Stoking fears over something that does not exist is childish at best.
Trump is not really a "Republican" and the real Republicans don't know how to handle him. What is sad is that it would only take two Republican senators taking a stand to block his legislative agenda. How more outrageous does he have to be before we get two such senators.
We need to take a stand, but I encourage everyone to look at what is happening with depth. The immigration actions are terrible, misguided and anti-Anerican BUT much like abortion or taxation this is the most distracting and highlighted issue in the media.<p>Surely, we should stand against such a law, and I will. But let us not do so at the expense of more dangerous and less publicized attempts to curtail freedom. This will be fought on many fronts and is much bigger than immigration. We stand to have surveillance bolstered, restriction in our movements, loss of input in our governments behavior & worse. We are entering into a world war-- which is already being fought publicly; and we need to work as a country & the global community for diplomacy and freedom.
Well, at least I hope this puts rest to one particularly galling argument made by some Trump supporters: "If you take Trump literally, you don't understand him."<p>(...Well, one can hope, can't one?)<p>Never vote for a politician if you can't take him literally. He might mean it literally.
I question how effective this policy is going to be in stopping the actual terrorists. Just as a determined hacker will always find a way to break into your server/network, the terrorists will find a way to illegally enter.
Tech companies must use their advertising networks to influence public opinion on these issues.<p>Instead of ads for products/services, they should allocate space for ethical and moral issues.<p>Staying 'politically' neutral is no longer an option when we're dealing with issues which affect a great part of Earth's population, like climate change, globalised economy, aggression and war and so on.<p>Tech companies must get political - in fact, they must reinvent politics like they reinvented so many other fields.<p>We have to do this now or these people will slowly shut everyone down, like they did in China, Russia, Turkey, etc..
I just want to say that I appreciate Sam Altman for speaking up - I know that just speaking doesn't change things, but tech/business guys are often very cautious when discussing politics, as they fear that making their political stand public may have negative consequences to their business (which might be true), but in times like these one has to take position.<p>So kudos, Sam, and please America don't go the route of politics that mimic politics of Europe's 1930s (sadly there are also suboptimal developments in Europe).
And yet HC killed <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13506412" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13506412</a> earlier today.
Can't wait to see what Altman writes when the voter fraud is investigated and it's over 3 million fraudulent votes.<p>We already know of 800,000 (<a href="http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/26/hillary-clinton-received-800000-votes-from-nonciti/" rel="nofollow">http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/jan/26/hillary-clinto...</a>). Detroit was apparent. The rest will come easily.<p>What else is Altman wrong about??
Those people implementing these orders need to also take responsibility for their actions. The concentration camp guards take just as much responsibility as dictators.
I realize this may seem alarmist, but I have to say it, nonetheless. Judging by the pace and effectiveness of policies being implemented, it seems possible that voting might not matter a few months from now. Whatever your action, it must be one of immediate consequences, however small. Call, write, donate, protest, support and spread statements such as sama's today.
I strongly agree and I believe what Sam is doing is essential: People are hard wired to follow social norms, as I once heard a social scientist describe it. If we say nothing, we allow passivity or tacit acceptance of Trump to become a norm. That especially applies to leaders in every community, who have a special responsibility. Thanks Sam for making your voice heard.
Does this mean foreign students and foreign workers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen will have to leave America? That's really troubling. I wonder if Canada could step up and take the valuable human resource that America seems to be willing to throw away.
Sama doesn't need to "remind anyone involved in this administration" about how they'll regret the actions of this administration. He simply needs to remind Congress--who can undo an executive order--and he can easily get their attention with lobbying and donations.
I think as a non-US person, I think it may also be time to pay attention to executive powers in the US political system. It is one thing to have a system that will only rarely elect a nutjob but not having any safeguards once a nutjob is elected is too dangerous at a systems level.
To Republican voters: I agree Hillary wasn't the greatest candidate, but there are bigger things at stake now.<p>You have more power than most of us here to stop this Muslim ban. Call your representatives in Congress before your party allows America to be destroyed by white nationalists.
Maybe under a Trump administration Silicon Valley will also object more strongly to the NSL regime, now that it's "someone I dislike doing something I dislike", rather than "someone I like doing something I dislike."
OK, so take one! Your partner is complicit in this and you still haven't done anything about it.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12926843" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12926843</a>
Google's Pichai had sent an internal note regarding this which got leaked to the press and was covered by the WSJ. What will it take for him/others to make public, target than private, statements?
Why did this disappear off the front page so quickly? It has 934 points and is 4 hours old. Do stories have a customizable weight? Did this one start at the top, like the YC recruiting posts?
in the end only US citizens can decide.
as a devotee for freedom and a world in peace i am very worried about those citizens' last decision concerning POTUS.
i am not a US citizen. and i never felt the need to be one - just because i was lucky to be born in a country where in my opinion there is at least hope left for a better future.<p>i hope more US citizens "take a stand" like the OP and show how they want their part of the world to be like.<p>just my two cents - euro cents (a currency used in another union of only 28 states...)
Tech can also do a lot by stopping moving everyone to California. Winning the popular votes doesn't mean much when those votes only come from states that Hilary already won.
Trump needs to be focused onto social and humanitarian issues where his penchant for aggressive and disruptive change can be a benevolent force, if that's possible.
I'm not sure if this will get any response, but figured I'd pose the question since I'm giving it serious thought.<p>Has anyone considered renunciating their US citizenship? Do you have practical advice on how to go about doing so and handle the ramifications?<p>Half my earnings going to government through taxes has been a hard to swallow fact, but funding an administration making decisions like this, just seems like something I want to be no part of.
I strongly encourage people who consider Donald Trump to be a threat to consider arming themselves in accordance with the 2nd Amendment. While my hope for the future does not involve needing to use them, if the situation one day comes to that, I would prefer that people who are indifferent to the actions of this administration NOT be the only ones with guns.
I have a little private wish that Facebook would identify anti-immigration comments by people who themselves are immigrants and post a big red "hypocrite" banner above their posts.<p>It's so infuriating how quickly people forget their own past and become entitled oppressors themselves.
perhaps we can use fake / fact based trump tweets to offset his #altfacts? it's asking a lot from the public - but it may help en masse.
~ <a href="http://TrumpTweets.io" rel="nofollow">http://TrumpTweets.io</a>
First, it's not a "ban". It's a temporary suspension until new vetting procedures are put in place.<p>Second, it's not "Muslim". Muslims from all other countries (some of them pretty large, e.g. Indonesia and Pakistan), will experience no change in their ability to enter the US.<p>Other than Iran (which imo shouldn't be on the list) we're bombing and droning all of those countries at the moment. It's insane to accept military age males from there for entry into the country, particularly if information about them is very sparse (which in war torn countries it typically is).<p>But there's another aspect of this that baffles me. Somehow Sam has no issues with democrats totally destabilizing the Middle East, and funding/arming ISIS to depose Assad. Yet the moment Trump attempts to mitigate the negative side effects of that to this country, "it's time to take a stand". The time to take a stand was back when Obama and Clinton armed extremists in Iraq and Syria -- years before Trump.
How do you expect us to take Ycombinator and the tech community seriously when you have a large number of persons within the tech community organizing grassroots initiatives for the purpose of having California succeed the from United States. It's a bit hypocritical to lump the tech community into your narrative to fit your narrative of how you believe America should operate and which values it should uphold.
This is meaningless grandstanding until:<p>1) YC voted Thiel off the island
2) YC establishes a policy of "take money from Thiel and you are toxic to us"<p>Anyone in a position of power who took a look at Trump and didn't recoil with disgust needs to be exiled from civil society.
You have directly caused my wife's parents to miss the birth of their first grandchild, and worse things I won't name because they would personally identify me, by electing an idiot who is terrified of fictional terrorists. You are a bad person, and I don't care whether you appreciate knowing it or not. I don't really give a shit what you think of Hillary, because she did not needlessly block my family from coming to me. Your guy did that. And he is capable of doing it because of you.<p>There is nothing 'mindlessly nasty' here. The central theme of the Trump campaign, and now the Trump administration, is right-wing virtue signaling with no consideration for the effects those actions would have on real actual human beings. This shitty situation is exactly what everyone said would happen if he got elected, and you elected him anyway. There is no room for interpretation here. Hillary is a straw man. You elected a man who is causing American citizens active trauma and the best I can hope for you and those like you is that one day you at least realize what you have done, and take responsibility for it, instead of this weak-kneed "well I only support SOME of his policies" apologetics.<p>You won. The least you can do is develop a fucking spine.
A good place to start for someone like Sam Altman is people in his strata, such as Peter Thiel, who notoriously donated money to Trump's campaign, and publicly endorsed him.
You really do need to demonize Trump voters. Most of them are in favor of his horrible policies, and are malicious themselves.<p>You're never going to get anywhere without recognizing the source of the problem.
What Trumpf has done here is so far beyond the pale I think you have to look toward tinpot dictatorships to find a comparison. This is not a disagreement about tax policy, trade, healthcare, etc. Rather, this is an illegitimate, unqualified con-man who due to our anachronistic electoral system wound up as president despite the majority of Americans opposing him.<p>It's now clear that Trump wasn't kidding and actually intends to follow through on his promises to ethnically cleanse America of Muslims, latinos and various other scapegoats.<p>Therefore, the solution is extremely simple. Trump cannot continue to be President and we need every institution of our society -- our courts, congress, businesses, media, schools, etc -- to put aside petty partisan differences and unite on this point.<p>Now that we have full knowledge that Trump is every bit the white-supremacist fascist he campaigned as, it cannot remain socially acceptable to continue to support him.<p>The people who have supported him are complicit in ethnic cleansing and their beliefs are absolutely incompatible with the our core American ideals of multiculturalism, freedom-of-religion, equality and diversity.<p>Trump needs to be removed from power and in our personal, familial and professional lives we need to make it our mission to stamp out the hatred and intolerance which fuelled the rise of this white-supremascist cancer which we if turns out we never fully excised.
I think that one of the main issues of politics is the lack of real time data. There should be a website where people can vote every day (I'm not sure what exactly I mean by vote, I guess the bare minimum would be "i'm content with current political situation" and "i'm not content with current political situation").<p>Idk if this could take off but i feel like it could become a tool for voicing discontent and seeing some of these numbers of how many other people are voting could lead to something more.<p>One of the fundamental instruments of dictatorships is deceiving the public about how many other people are dissatisfied with the regime. If you know for a fact that 9/10 of the population is extremely dissatisfied with the regime, you can topple these regimes.
> ... the executive order from yesterday titled “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States” is tantamount to a Muslim ban and requires objection.<p>But it's more than that -- it's illegal. Apart from known criminals, the government can't arbitrarily choose which groups to deny entry:<p>NYT Op-Ed: Trump’s Immigration Ban Is Illegal: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/opinion/trumps-immigration-ban-is-illegal.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/opinion/trumps-immigratio...</a>