Thursday, April 12, 2018

Today's Blind Items - They Don't Exist

This A or A+ list CEO has been making the rounds of TV and other media in recent weeks, calling out his younger counterpart for questionable data practices. I don't know if it's ironic exactly, though it does sound funny coming from the head of a major company with a long and well known history of labor abuses in a certain very populous country.

What's less well known is that our CEO was a driving force behind the offshoring of so much production. The public reason is money, which is always a factor, but as CDAN readers know there is often a private, and even in some cases secret reason.

You see, when the CEO is in country, he likes to visit barely legal nationals of a certain sex. Or rather, they say they are, and we all hope they're that, at least. This country famously keeps tabs on all births, but out in the countryside especially they're not always recorded. Sometimes the family had paid a bribe to avoid violating the national policy, and sometimes it's just bureaucratic incompetence. In any event there's no record of how old they are, or even that they exist.

And just as the industrial revolution brought the rural masses to cities in the nineteenth century West, this country's cities have been thronged by migrants looking for work in recent decades. Some of them find it, including at places like the one where this CEO's products are made, but it is often low paying. The toil is miserable, and more than a few have killed themselves.

Others find that they can make much more money providing services to wealthy foreigners - especially those with a singular preference for young men of this particular ethnicity, and even nation of origin. In the CEO's community, there's a term for it.

77 comments:

The G Man said...

Steve Wozniak calling out Zuckerberg

MontanaMarriott said...

The term being "Rice Queen"? As in Asian girly boys?

sandybrook said...

This is Musk again isn't it? He's been feuding with Zuckerberg because one of his rockets blew up and destroyed a Zuckerberg satellite that was going to bring internet access to third world companies.
If it's not Musk it's Jeff Bezos.

Brayson87 said...

Jeez is everyone above drunk, this one is obvious.

Unknown said...

I was reading it as Tim Cook of Apple but I'd call him A+ list easily.

Brayson87 said...

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/10/apple-ceo-tim-cook-on-the-importance-of-consumer-privacy.html

Marlene said...

Good Heavens, it's Tim Cook, of course. It's so obvious.

longtimereader said...

You can be damn sure he won't spend a day in jail for this either.

T. W. said...

China for the country.

MontanaMarriott said...

Country being China with their two children per family policy?

Adrian Grimples said...

It's Cook. I could see them referring to him as A or A+ in comparison to the shoes he had to fill and the loss of 'magic' the company has had since Jobs died.

Flashy Vic said...

Looky looky here comes Cooky

Chase said...

This is totally Tim Cook. Not Woz. Geez another Pedo. Go figure. Makes sense though. Probably Thailand for the country which should be renamed as Pervland.

MontanaMarriott said...

Again for those in the back who didn't get it:

"Others find that they can make much more money providing services to wealthy foreigners - especially those with a singular preference for young men of this particular ethnicity, and even nation of origin. In the CEO's community, there's a term for it."

Rice Queen:
A homosexual male of non-Asian descent who is predominantly attracted to Asian males.

Ghost said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
timebob said...

Tim Cook got pushed out of the closet due to talking head on the news outing him (in his defense he thought Tim was already out)

and the MSNBC special he was just on was called "revolution"

Everyone knows Apple uses slave labor and yet apple products fly off the shelves. We are all hypocrites.

Brayson87 said...

It's not freakin Wozniak, leave that poor man alone. Wozniak is not a gay current CEO. Unless I missed that blind ;)

Unknown said...

The very populous country with a history of labor abuses and a tight birth control policy that's not enforced as well in the rural areas, and many rural people moving to the cities in recent years, is China.

Ghost said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chase said...

@Bagel- WOZ was gone long ago. Nice try.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Spielberg and Tim Cook share interests huh

Nature Girl said...

Whoever it is, just one more sick twisted perv POS who will always get away with it because he's rich. Pure evil. I made a post the other day on a Lee Pace post about how I don't care who people including famous ones have sex with because it's none of my business and I wanted to clarify that statement considering how many posts here are about all these sick evil excuses for human beings are out there getting away with horrific acts of abuse. I don't care who CONSENTING ADULTS sleep with however, when it comes to rape, coercion human trafficking and exploitation of women and children, I most certainly care. Makes me sick and angry and sad for the victims because there is no justice for them. The rich and famous have always gotten away with it and will continue to. God and/or Karma will get them hopefully some day.

Brayson87 said...

@Bagel- Siri, is that you?

Cook joined Apple in March 1998 as a senior vice president for worldwide operations, and then served as the Executive Vice President for worldwide sales and operations.

Kendrick Schroder said...

Valleywag I think first reported this person's interest in "Asian guys."

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Chinese media have recently been all over rumours, first conveyed through The Atlantic and Valleywag in 2011, that Apple CEO Tim Cook might be dating Asian-American Benjamin Ling, an investment partner at Khosla Ventures who has previously held senior positions in Google, YouTube, Facebook and Badoo. Nothing has of yet been verified or refuted.


The 2011 Atlantic commentary, which has been referred to across multiple Chinese websites, held uncanny foresight that urged that "To be the most powerful man in Tech, Cook needs to come out". It reported how Cook was outed by two anonymous sources on the media outlet Valleywag, a Gawker site that covers Silicon Alley.



They were quoted by Valleywag as saying:

"[O]ur tech executive source claims Cook is into Asian guys, a tidbit that prompted another tech observer, with whom we shared the item, to propose some strategic matchmaking that would pair Cook with Google hotshot Ben Ling"


Ling, who is now 37, holds a Ph.D. and Master’s in Computer Science from Stanford University and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering / Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration from UC Berkeley.


A Weixin report also highlighted how Ben Ling tweeted an Businessweek aticle on Cook speaking up about how he was "proud to be gay", along with the comment "Thank you @tim_cook for speaking up".

Guesser said...

I think the A list was also to point to Apple, and to have a lower rating than Zuckerberg or Jobs. I thought everyone would guess this before getting to the payoff.

Unknown said...

http://money.cnn.com/2018/04/09/technology/steve-wozniak-facebook/index.html

Unknown said...

Apple didn't move heavily into China (Foxconn) until the iPod in 2001. Wozniak still gets paid to do promotional stuff for Apple, but he hasn't been involved in decision-making since he left Apple in 1985. Foxconn is also known for employee suicides. This one isn't hard.

filmfanb said...

Ya Tim is a total ricequeen. Heard that a few times about him

just sayin' said...

Fan your jets, people. The only thing we're learning here is that Tim Cook's a rice queen. If the boys are of legal age, it's legal (unless violating China's prostitution laws.) It doesn't say the boys are disappearing or even killing themselves because of his actions. It says some people who depend on factory work (for any company,not just Apple) have committed suicide.

TriciaJr said...

I love how do many "regulars" know more about Teen Mom and Kardashians than business news. Tim Cook has been roasting Zuck for awhile.

hunter said...

Agree w/ just sayin' - this blind does NOT say these boys are being trafficked or sold by their families or forced against their wills. If they choose to willingly engage in sex work to support themselves or their families then so be it. It ALSO does not say they are underage - not to be all race bait-y but I think we can all agree many Asians have the genetic fortune to look young for a very long time which can probably be capitalized on through dress & mannner.

Brayson87 said...

No wonder they installed suicide nets at the factory. If my only options were working an assembly line or servicing an old white dude I'd be jumping off the building too. I guess Heaven isn't the only place on earth.

Guesser said...

The Chinese lie about the ages of their little league teams, but of course, they hold the moral high ground when it comes to prostitution. Give me a break.

Anonymous said...

Even Hellen Keller can see that this is Tim Cook. And I think the slang term for those young men is "Rice Queen". I did not make the term up and don't support the use of it. But none the less the term does exist.

RedVelvetBoots said...

"Some of them find it, including at places like the one where this CEO's products are made, but it is often low paying. The toil is miserable, and more than a few have killed themselves."

Foxconn, Apple, Cook.

Jimbonius said...

Tim Cook, he loves Asian boys/men. There's nothing new here is there?

SDaly said...

The defenders here are ignoring the "he likes them young" and there is no way to tell if they are legal. This is the story - desperately poor "barely legal" (if that) boys selling themselves to a billionaire CEO. If true, he's a scumbag.

JL said...

I always said he was evil.

orangesoda said...

A lot of Asian guys - especially the effeminate gays - look extremely young. As someone else pointed out as well, how do you even know that they're legal? Lets for argument's sake say that's he's banging 18 year olds but what if he's specifically targeting ones that look 12 or 13? It's not uncommon. I'm sick of these old perverted fucks getting away with their predatory actions.

JL said...

+1000

Sher said...

Cook may like young asian men, but he doesn't need any secret reasons to manufacture in China. Not even a tiny reason. He needs the skilled and flexible (and huge!) labor market there. It simply doesnt exist in the U.S.. It can't be done. Other suitable Asian countries are dominated with competitors (like Samsung in S. Korea and Vietnam). Only the smaller specialty segments of the market can remain stateside.

Apple would manufacture there even if labor costs were high. The cheaper labor is a bonus.

It's like choosing to swim in pool A, filled with water and connected to a waterfall or Pool B, with 6in of stale water on a drip. Not really a choice.

xyzxyz33 said...

The city is Shenzhen just across the river from Hong Kong.
I've toured some of the factories and housing units in Foxconn
& other similar companies while advising a Chinese Electric Car Company
and Battery manufacturer.

It's a very sad existence for the people working there.
My Chinese associate shared the grim details of the people
who help to create the iPhone and other Apple products you own.

The work is tedious. They work 6 days a week hours on end.
Their families live in very small dorms like sardines.
No vacation. No hope. No future
Many of them go insane.
Many more kill themselves than reported.

Yet, who cares about a bunch of stupid Chinese slaves going insane
when Apple Shareholders make billions from these useless slaves?

Tim Cook and his fellow oligarchs are MONSTERS.



Sign Name Below said...

Giving @ Brayson the "ikr?" reply. My thoughts exactly

Guesser said...

I am pretty sure the only suicides you hear about are the ones jumping off the building. The rest can be hidden. No,the cheaper labor cost is the reason. If it weren't,they could just pay more.

Sign Name Below said...

Two random thoughts.

1. Zuckerberg was photographed with anti-Apple talking points at his Congressional hearing

2. Those of you saying this is a NBD b/c ..."legal" are missing the point. Lots of things are legal in the world that are pretty immoral to most of the West. Tim Cook was not raised in a culture that thinks that a fifty year old man having sex with an14 year old is a good thing. Just the opposite.

totaji said...

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

totaji said...

Isn’t there a mineral mined there that is a huge reason why they are there as well?

CJ said...

Tim Cook, Apple CEO calls out Zuckerberg, Facebook. Tim is openly gay. Apple has plants in China.

HoneyRyder said...

Damn it, Tim. Another predatory term and image I cannot get out of my head.

Mad Hominem said...

Some links about the working conditions at Apple: it seems that Foxconn is plagued by mass suicide among members of its factory labor force:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/9006988/Mass-suicide-protest-at-Apple-manufacturer-Foxconn-factory.html

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30532463

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

Do you think Zuck gets an endless supply of barely legal Asian twinks through his wife as well?

Halloweenie said...

I'm really enjoying the twitter #nationalenquirer moment. Apparently the national enquirer sat on the story about Trumpski's alleged bastard kiddo ( shades of swarthzeneggar yes ? ) . Btw if Trumps unknown child is a poc child, half black , half latino, half Asian would not surprise me at all. Anywhooooo the national enquirer paid the doorman who informed them off and the doorman has passed a couple of lie detector tests. I just am hoping cheeto doesn't start a war with someone to deflect all that will be coming to light. (Alleged lol )co** abuse. Check. Illegitimate child on the side ( allegedly lol) check # tip of the iceberg. # is the swamp drained yet? Also the sad and depressing thing is that just about everything we wear and use is manufactured in the not so best conditions for workers in other nations. Unless it's ethically sourced and there are worldwide laws protecting the workers like the UN attempts to set up. You know, the kind of laws Trumpski and the billionaire boys club hate. Environmental regulations to protect our precious planet that the repubs are attempting to dismantle one by one to appease corporations and big business. Can someone start investigating the propaganda pact that herr Don the con has with the national enquirer now? Drag everything into the light. Including the Murdoch Trump Fox News Sinclair media four horsemen of the apocalypse situation.

IanPhlegming said...

This must be true and even worse than we presume, because now the deflect/distract/counterattack propagandists have arrived.

I no more care about Trump's mixed race kid than Bill Clinton's. Either he's doing a good job as president o not. If we start bombing Syria tomorrow, the impeachment hearings can start the same day. But none of that has anything to do with the fact that yet another iconic corporate CEO is an elitist, lecturing creep.

BonnyPommy said...

Tim Cook, unlike the other guesses, is openly gay so it makes sense. Maybe he's not firmly in A+ because his name recognition isn't as good as that of Musk, Zuckerberg or Wozniak.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

The UN is a human trafficking front
Human trafficking is a euphemism for slavery

Southern Man said...

Duh Cook. Doing a *great job ruining Apple....

Hey Frau said...

TIM "TIMMAY!" COOK!

Unknown said...

It's always interesting to see who gets defended, even indirectly, on this stuff. Though I guess it's not hard to see why Cook would be.

No, they don't *have to* offshore labor. That's a globalist lie. We used to make computers (and plenty of other stuff) in the US, and we didn't suddenly forget how. We still do most of the innovation here. But they figured out it could be cheaper overseas, as long as the foreign governments didn't get any crazy ideas about workers having a right to decent conditions or wages or any pesky stuff like that.

They could be manufacturing iProducts here in the US today. They'd probably cost somewhat more, but we'd also have more people making good wages to buy them. They offshored because it saved money that could go to upper management, period -- sex slaves for CEOs are the bonus.

AIP said...

Most of this is well known and verifiable, but I just don’t buy the implied allegation that Tim Cook is targeting underage boys and that’s the reason Apple is manufacturing its products there to boot. The only reason was, is and always shall be: filthy lucre.

Sd Auntie said...

Really Movie buff? I have never paid a prostitute or treated people as subhuman . Look in the mirror and we are here to put the word out on child predators and if u don't like it, go read your bible.

Sd Auntie said...

Mr Singer??? Is that u ??? Silly lil movie buff....don't try to hide..be calm , don't be afraid...nambla will help u..

Sd Auntie said...

Hate apple products...Samsung galaxy all the way..woo hoo

Schneiderisnext said...

All of the Big-tech Giants employ pedophiles

http://www.newsweek.com/metoo-microsoft-amazon-trafficking-prostitution-sex-silicon-valley-755611

Over 20 Microsoft and Amazon employees were caught in a sex tourism sting on 2017

I also happen to know of a convicted sex tourist/distributor of child porn who is currently working for Amazon as an "onboarding service coordinator"...despite being convicted in relation to an international Puerto Vallarta/San Francisco/thailand based pedophile ring.

It's so hard not to dox this dude. I know he currently volunteers with at-risk lgbt youth...

But the courts and fbi have already decided that this former personal assistant of deceased financier "Thomas Frank White" is not a threat and though ordered to register, is somehow not on the "Megan's Law" database.

http://www.banderasnews.com/0506/nw-pvporn.htm

Oops I may have doxxed him...too bad he fought so hard to have certain images of his removed from the internet. Thank God for the internet archive

alicecorrine said...

Def Tim C

Aoife said...

totaji the metal that is a necessity for all cell phones is mined in Central Africa. Not the country "Central African Republic" but the geographical center of that continent. Control of the mines is behind a lot of the warfare in that part of the world.

#TEAMGEELJIRE CLASSIC said...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubumbashi

Cocobean said...

Yeah, apple is infamous for their abusive labor practices in China.

Hanniam said...

+111 @just sayin’

Being gay does NOT equate with being a pedo. Neither does being into Asian guys.

Hanniam said...

I’m not buying into this one without better “evidence” than Cook’s sexuality and the race of his (extremely intelligent and well educated) significant other. JFC.

Do I wish Apple would move production to the US? Yes. Do I think that’s going to happen and keep Apple products affordable-ish? Hah. No.

We’ve been dealing with declining REAL American wages since we were conned into the “necessity” of a two income household. Ever cheaper goods from overseas allowed companies to fall further and further back from keeping non-CEO wages up to date.

Now, we’re in a false economy where the wealthy “can’t afford” to increase American wages even though their profits have soared at the expense of wage earners. And those same wage earners can’t choose to spend local on everything anymore because they’re not paid enough to pay what American-made quality products are actually worth.

So while it’s easy to bash Apple, I prefer to spread the wealth of disdain around to the guilty parties who have so long shaped policy to benefit the wealthy and trap everyone else in a cycle of cheap goods and low wages.

plot said...

@Dan Mullin

"Tim Cook has been roasting Zuck for awhile."

Everyone in Silicon Valley roasts Zuck. He's a greedy idiot.

@Halloweenie

The mixed race child stories are hilarious. No one should care, but the racist Trumpette sure will.

Last year, Trump bombed an airfield in Syria after warning the Russians and Assad in advance so they could get their people out. The mission was expensive and did nothing. Planes were flying in and out again 12 hours after the mission.

It's likely that Donny Moscow is going to do something similar this time. Lots of stormy rhetoric and massive erections, while calling Vlad for the A-OK before launching anything.

@MovieBuff&AIP

+1!

@Han Niam

What do you think of Universal Basic Income? I've been looking into it, off and on, and it sounds like a solid solution to the endless consumerist economy leading the abject poverty.

Hanniam said...

@plot

I find the idea intriguing and agree it sounds like a solid solution. I’m more pessimistic about it as a solution to consumer greed and endless status purchasing because that would take a cultural shift in the US that I can’t envision happening in less than generations. It’s so engrained in Americans that everyone has a shot at the “American Dream” that even middle class people are reluctant to share the wealth for fear they’ll get soaked by taxes once they’re wealthy.*

There’s also a problem with the American cultural view that anyone can make it with hard work and determination.**

More subversively, UBI would give some power back to the lowest paid employees in regards to working conditions, and you KNOW the corporate lobbyists would be against that to the tune of billions.

I could see it conceivably happening in California, especially if that secession thing ever happens.

But most of America can’t or doesn’t want to understand that all of society benefits when everyone has guaranteed food, shelter, and basic income.*** Especially with the addition of universal health care, I suspect it could even be, ultimately, less burdensome than CA’s expenditures on incarceration, unpaid emergency room visits, and homeless/low income support services.

So, to sum up, I’m for it in theory, especially with the improvement in working conditions I suspect it would bring, but I have doubts about its feasibility in the US in our lifetimes with the possible exception of California.

*Not if. Once.
** Never mind disabled people and single parents who would benefit society overall by being able to properly raise their children.
***Which isn’t the kind of income most people envision. It is basic. Covering needs. Desires are what motivate people to work, as we need workers to keep the economy rolling.****
****Communism is a miserable failure IMO mostly because of human nature.

DailyTacoTrux said...

This is clearly a Facebook or Russian (or both, they're fairly interchangeable) trying to smear Cook for calling out Zuckerberg.

DailyTacoTrux said...

+ troll, left out that word

CJ said...

No love here for Timmy C or Apple's offshoring practices, but when he calls out Zuckerberg for privacy violation, he is correct.

ancoranonhocapito said...

"Donny Moscow"
Sigh
Do you guys seriously believe that someone who is obviously surrounded and protected by the largest part if not entirety of the U.S. Military echelons and lower tiers is also a friend of Moscow? And yet enjoying the full support and protection of U.S. generals?

Hanniam said...

@ancoranon Nope. Which is why he’s been changing his tune radically of late in regards to Putin and Russia. It wasn’t sustainable if he wants to retain his position.

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