With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate, Cruz's H-1B Stance Now In Question (computerworld.com)

dcblogs quotes a report from Computerworld: In 2013, Sen. Ted Cruz emerged as one of the Senate's top H-1B visa supporters, and argued for a 500% visa cap increase. But during his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Cruz had a conversion. Cruz's presidential platform proposed a $110,000 minimum wage for visa workers, among other restrictions, as a way of ending their use as low-cost labor. The move marked a complete turnabout on the H-1B issue. Cruz's decision Wednesday to add former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina as his running mate if he wins the nomination, may make his newly found H-1B beliefs a hard sell. At HP, Fiorina was a prominent supporter of the offshore outsourcing model, said Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at Howard University. "To pump up profits, she was an early adopter of the practice, which given HP's status as a leading Silicon Valley firm, pushed other firms to adopt offshoring," said Hira. As offshoring gained, Fiorina played a leading role in defending globalization. To make her point, in 2004, Fiorina said: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

Comments

Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's like most of the people here don't want workers from India and it's somewhat racist.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[amiga3D]

I think the problem is bringing them here at the same wages they make in India. If they force the corps to pay them a wage equivalent to what an American worker in the same job normally makes then it's not a problem. Using them as cheap labor is racist.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[epyT-R]

if it had to do with racism against indians, then these companies wouldn't be racing to hire them in the first place.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's because the program is being abused to import workers from other countries and pay them much lower wages than an American would for the same job.

The H-1B program was intended to help companies get the skilled workers they need when they could not get an American for the job, but what's happening is companies are getting rid of American workers and replacing them with foreign workers while essentially paying them poverty wages compared to what they would pay an American. They are ripping off H-1B workers, killing jobs for Americans, and contributing to the shrinking of the American middle class all to save a few bucks.

It's a raw deal for all involved, save the corporations involved, and the program needs to be reformed to prevent these kinds of abuses.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because they are brought over here at low wages. Once they are here, they have no options to get a different job if their current one doesn't work out. This means that they are stuck. If their employer asks them to work longer hours, they have to. If they are given more and more duties with no further pay, that's too bad. If they are fired for under performing, they are deported. If they decide to quit, they are deported.Their employer knows this, but they visa holder doesn't always know it until it's too late.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Go try to get a job in India as a foreigner and you'll see what bureaucracy is. It's almost as if they didn't want foreigners working there either and that's racist - right?

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[ShanghaiBill]

I think the problem is bringing them here at the same wages they make in India.

H1-B workers already make way more than they do in India. You couldn't even survive in America on typical Indian tech wages, because of the much higher prices here.

Anyway, there is no reason to expect Ted's position on this to change because of Carly. VP candidates typically have zero input on policy.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[ITRambo]

It's not racist at all. It's protectionist. Other countries do it. The US needs to protect it's citizens also.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[khallow]

Anyway, there is no reason to expect Ted's position on this to change because of Carly. VP candidates typically have zero input on policy.

Biden - *IAA. Cheney - Halliburton. The last two VPs had strong connections to certain lobbies and those lobbies did well during the tenure of those VPs.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[plopez]

And they ca't quit to find better paying jobs. They are de facto indentured servants..

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[guises]

It's not racist, it's opportunist. They have a chance to exploit a legal loophole in order to reduce the cost of their workforce, and they have no compunctions, so they do it.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to miss your point, but the Indians themselves have to deal with very nearly the same level of bureaucracy. They were taught by the British, after all, the undisputed masters of the genre.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[prefec2]

So then you should lobby for an equal pay law. this is a European thing. To get it you need real unions and politicians that understand that equality is as important as freedom and fraternalism. However, what I learned form the average US citizen, unions are evil and equality is evil. Under the assumption that H-1B visa applicants work for less then this is classic capitalism. That is what you decided to have.

Re: Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's against Indians allright, but it's not racism. It's called facing reality. Lying and cheating in college, on resumes, and on in applications is rampant and accepted in Indian IT H1-B culture. Please note I'm being rather specific here: I have little idea how things work in the rest of Indian culture, but for the ones who come over here there is an extremely high percentage of that.

We do use generalizations to make sense of the world and certainly not every H1-B worker from India is like that. However, there is a strong probability that if you meet an Indian working for certain consultancy companies that person is considerably less qualified in reality than on paper.

If you want to call that racism go for it because I don't care, though I advise you to consider that what's really being judged here are qualifications and practices.

Re: Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are also dirty little bastards that dont wash their hands after wiping their asses with them when taking a shit.

They are incredibly racist too. There is nothing worse than an Indian with a little bit of power or authority. Notice how the new Indian "manager" often completes a purge of all American workers and replaces them with more servile lower caste Indians ?

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[BitZtream]

...

Not disagreeing with the blatant abuse of power you're pointing out, but those two organizations did well lobbying before that too.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[TomGreenhaw]

tldr: We're not racist, we dislike the stupid corrupt H-1B system

Current H-1B Visa policy is decimating the corporate IT profession. There is an avalanche of large scale conversion from US IT workers to off-shore IT workers happening right now. Older IT workers (read age 40 and up) are not able to replace the jobs they are losing.

The majority of the H-1B visas are being issued to multinational (mainly from India) companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro, HCL, and Cognizant. They can offer their services for a much lower hourly cost because these H-1B visa holders do not pay federal income tax, unemployment tax, minimum health care, and a variety of other costs mandated for American workers (ironically they do pay Medicare and Social Security). H-1B visa rules require these workers to have a minimum bachelors degree, but educational costs are far higher in the US than they are in India. Many of these workers simply meet the requirement with a degree from a diploma mill. Moreover, the majority of the on-shore IT staff are project managers who send the actual coding work to workers in foreign countries working for many cases for less than what most Americans think is a reasonable minimum wage. Americans simply cannot compete against this dramatically skewed playing field.

From a idealistic free market and free trade standpoint, this is good for America as a whole because consumers get their products at a lower cost. From a practical standpoint it is a disaster for the American worker who supports the federal government through the payment of taxes. The blue collar manufacturing profession has largely left the US and its economy has transitioned to a services based economy. With this new trend of sending services work overseas, the American worker is experiencing negative pressure on wages and suitable job availability.

The benefit to corporations is questionable. While an outsourcing strategy can certainly lower costs dramatically at first, it generally costs an organization much more in the long run. The loss of institutional knowledge causes firms to become inefficient and unable to rapidly adapt to a changing marketplace. Additionally, the outsourcing firms start with low teaser rate contracts and then increase cost on renewal. This is why most companies switch outsourcing firms every few years. This wreaks havoc on a companies ability to compete in the marketplace. There are also serious intellectual property and security implications to having foreign workers leaving the country with intimate knowledge of a companies internal operations.

All this migration to H-1B visa workers is based upon the lie that there is a shortage of STEM workers in the United States. There is no shortage of STEM workers in the US. There is a shortage of certain types of workers with ephemeral skills especially in hotbed tech localities at a wage that employers want to pay. They want low wage IT workers now. Because these companies advise lawmakers, policy is passed to benefit multinational corporations at the expense of American IT workers and the future of America's prosperity.

Another major lie is that an H-1B visa can only be granted if an equally qualified American is not available. The requirement is based upon an honor system that by law the Department of Labor cannot enforce.

This has absolutely nothing to do with racism against anybody including Indians. My niece is married to an Indian man and he's awesome - our whole family loves the guy and he's a fantastic asset to our country. I also like many of the Indians I work with and count many as my friends. There are Indian families that live where we live and they are great neighbors. I personally am a strong believer in immigration. The vast majority of Americans are either immigrants themselves or descended from immigrants within a handful of generations. To oppose immigration of quality people is blatant hypocrisy. The more skilled workers we have working in America, the greater the gross domestic product and tax revenue for

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Fire_Wraith]

The law already requires that an H-1B be paid more. The problem is that there are ways around that where you don't put them in an "equal" position.

For instance, Acme Widgets decides that instead of paying its own IT workers at $80,000 apiece, it'll just contract out its IT work to a company like Infosys or Tata. That company just happens to employ lots of H-1Bs as its workers for contracts, making $40,000 each, but it tells Acme they'll work for an FTE rate of $50,000, saving Acme $30,000 per worker. No workers were directly replaced, so they get away with it.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[prefec2]

The law in Germany is a little different. Here employees from, let say Poland, will get at least the same amount as other employees performing the same job. There is a union based trade or wage agreement which defines how much money employees get if they work in a certain industry. The wage agreement of the union and the industry association also applies to foreign employees. For example, if I work for IBM an get 50 000 € and you come to Germany and work in a similar company, let say Siemens, you will get the same salary (of course the specific company can pay you more than the wage agreement demands).

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[kilfarsnar]

It's like most of the people here don't want workers from India and it's somewhat racist.

No, it's like people don't want to be replaced by foreign labor when local labor exists. If the H-1B program was not illegally abused to undercut wages, and instead used for its intended purpose of filling jobs that can't be filled with local talent, we wouldn't have a problem.

Re:Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Hognoxious]

They can, but not if those jobs are in the US.

Re: Why does Slashdot oppose H-1B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they restrict companies in Germany from paying a different company to perform a service? It seems that would be the only way to prevent what the parent comment describes.

-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

I modded you down because I disagree with you. It's not racism. H-1B takes jobs away from qualified Americans. I hope I was quick enough that nobody sees your post. Please stop posting crap that's wrong. Otherwise I'll keep modding down all of your garbage that I disagree with. I'm posting anonymously so I don't undo your well deserved downmod.

- chipschap

Re:-1 Disagree

[Espectr0]

H-1B visas are awarded in a lottery fashion, and the company has to prove the government that there is a lack of qualified americans to fill the position. If this is being exploited somehow, it doesn't have anything to do with the visa itself.

H-1B visas are good, provided they are issued correctly

Re:-1 Disagree

[AK Marc]

They are being done wrong. So is it better to have them done wrong, or not at all?

Re:-1 Disagree

[chipschap]

- chipschap

This miserable dog of an AC used my nickname without authorization of any kind. I certainly had nothing to do with the post above. Unethical doesn't even begin to describe the AC's action.

Re:-1 Disagree

[gumbi west]

What do you see that makes you think they are being done wrong?

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

How about not at all? The US already has work visas, which worked perfectly until businesses wanted cheap imported labor, and undying loyalty (90 days until deportation is a big motivator.)

I see H-1Bs abused all the time. From recruiters demanding 5-7 years of Apple Swift2 so the employer can say they can't find anyone in the US, so have to go overseas, to "secret requirements" which only can be fulfilled by a H-1B worker. I have been told by bosses that Americans and Europeans are lazy and are going to be replaced, and H-1Bs are where real productivity happens, this speech happening the same day I was cleaning up messes caused by a H-1B squad that didn't understand "DROP TABLE" autocommits in MS SQL server.

Re:-1 Disagree

[MightyMartian]

The problem here appears to be fraud. In Canada, we had similar abuses going on with the Temporary Foreign Worker program (the equivalent of an H1B). In general, companies were using a number of different tricks, from putting out job listings with very difficult to fulfill requirements, or in some cases putting out job listings but then rejecting any Canadian applying for the job regardless of qualification. The TFW program was so poorly managed, and the Provinces so unwilling to enforce labor codes, that unskilled workers from the Philippines were being brought in to staff fast food restaurants, but the real crime was large companies, like the Royal Bank of Canada attempting to layoff their IT staff to hire people from India. It was all technically against the rules, but as there was virtually no oversight at all, companies were literally committing visa fraud, all facilitated by major international recruitment companies like Actyl.

The low skilled jobs were grating in their own way because what they were doing was allowing fast food joints, particularly in the communities servicing the oil sector in northern Alberta and Saskatchewan to put cheap labor in place, in some cases, once their rents and fees were deducted, these TFWs were making far less than the provincially-mandated minimum wage, and often housed in pretty astonishingly shitty conditions to boot. In the end, the former Conservative government was forced to largely shut down the TFW program to save itself from embarrassment.

The whole time, of course, if applications weren't being rubber stamped and if the provinces had been enforcing labor standards laws for the foreign workers, this would never happened. Of course, the politicians and the bureaucrats put on a good show of being ever so shocked by the abuses, when one has to infer from the number of abuses and the length of time that it had all gone on, that the whole thing had been a wink-and-nod affair for a long time before the whole thing finally leaked to the press. Naturally a few McDonalds outlets were targeted for fines, but the big companies apologized and were never fully investigated.

The solution I agreed with in the end wasn't to kill the TFW program, because there are sectors in which local labor markets can't fill the need, but rather to make it the first step to immigrating and ultimately becoming a citizen. Barring that, at least enforcing existing laws and regulations would have been a start.

Re:-1 Disagree

[guruevi]

All you have to say is: "There is no applicant that fulfills my requirements, I promise" and for good measure you make up a job posting with requirements such as 10 years of experience with Exchange 2016 and a minor in archeology. That's literally the extent of the H1B and the lottery only applies if your company needs more than a certain amount of workers per year, I forgot the exact limits. If you need only a few workers, you're guaranteed to have the applicant you want, it's less than an hour of paperwork and far less issues with HR (it's a modern slave trade).

Where I work we regularly hire through H1B, we pay 35k/y for a PhD from China or Eastern Europe and as an added benefit we/they get a fast track through the green card and permanent resident process later on, in comparison we pay 125k/y and relocation costs for similar degrees from American sources.

500% increase would be 1.25 million H1B's/year on top of the 'regular' .25M work immigrants through other methods such as Visa's.

Re:-1 Disagree

[phantomfive]

All you have to say is: "There is no applicant that fulfills my requirements, I promise" and for good measure you make up a job posting with requirements such as 10 years of experience with Exchange 2016 and a minor in archeology

You also need to interview people who apply and find a way to disqualify every single one of them.

Re:-1 Disagree

[phantomfive]

I modded you down because I disagree with you.

FYI that is absolutely the wrong reason to mod someone down.

Mod them down if they are spam, or their tone is flamebait or trollish.
If you merely disagree, write a well-reasoned post explaining why you disagree. Which you did, but you shouldn't have down-modded, that's abuse.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

It could always be worse -- imagine if Trump chooses Sarah Palin. (BTW yes the comment/mod situation is unforunately nothing new around here, I've had it happen too)

Re:-1 Disagree

[Shadow99_1]

Well since the late 90s american law firms have taught companies how to disqualify american workers for jobs and get in H1Bs instead. A Pittsburgh firm famously got on Youtube for a seminar were they did that. It hasn't stopped. In my region it's gotten so bad for H1Bs that there are barely any large companies that have american IT workers, at the same time myself and hundreds of others who have applied for some of these jobs were not hired. While I can't tell what rate those workers are then paid, what exactly do you suppose is the reason to discriminate against american IT workers?

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming you're telling the truth, the AC shouldn't have done it. However, permission isn't required for using pseudonymous nicknames online. You're overreacting quite a bit. People are generally pretty rude to each other on Slashdot and I've seen enough of your posts to know you do it too. Maybe not using someone else's pseudonym, but I've seen you say some pretty nasty things to people, too. Frankly, both you and the AC need to be more respectful of others. Both of you need to grow up.

Re:-1 Disagree

[AK Marc]

The H1-B visa holders are doing jobs Americans are willing and able to take (illegal) and the H1-B visa holders are being paid below market for the position (also illegal).

What do you see that makes you think they are being done right?

Re:-1 Disagree

[Shadow99_1]

This isn't hard. Do you know how many times I've had good interviews, but I hear from people I know working at the place that I wasn't hired because HR said I was "To expensive due to experience", "Overqualified for the position", or "We felt they were not a good fit". None of those has any substance to them, but they are considered valid reasons to not hire someone.

Re:-1 Disagree

[phantomfive]

Yeap. It happens all the time, maybe for every single H1 application.

Re:-1 Disagree

[alvinrod]

"Too expensive" or "overqualified" are not valid reasons for an H1-B, nor is "not a good fit" for that matter. This is a program designed for the case where "we couldn't find anyone with the skills we needed at all" kind of cases. They could easily fix the system, by allowing as many H1-B visas as a company would like, but increasing the cost for every time a new one is created. Give them a 10 year life span and don't require holders to remain at the same company. It immediately provides a market based solution where companies are only going to be willing to get an H1-B worker when they really can't find any talent within the country or need someone who's so insanely skilled that the extra cost is worth it from their perspective.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

I suspect the AC saw a -1 mod to something they liked and (for whatever reason) associated that downmod with someone they don't like. They made a crafted inflammatory post, as an almost premeditated act. Trying to reason with it is equally idiotic.

Re:-1 Disagree

[phantomfive]

don't require holders to remain at the same company.

That would help.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

"because there are sectors in which local labor markets can't fill the need"

It's called offering more money/benefits. You offer someone enough money, and they'll move to these remote areas.

Work visas shouldn't only be offered in cases where the job is 1.) something only a few people in the world can do, 2.) something with such low demand that it rarely crops up (so that training a local wouldn't make sense), or 3.) the country is at full employment.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Shadow99_1]

Well the main problem in general is no one checks the 'why' in why a person is not hired. The companies get to say "We tried to find a local, but none were suitable for this position", the majority get thrown out during the paperwork phase before even getting an interview. Less than 1% get interviews and of those any reason under the sun is 'valid'. Technically they can't avoid hiring you for age, gender, or other protected status traits, but even that happens all the time because the company doesn't even have to tell you why you weren't hired. Most people get form letters that simply say "We found a more qualified applicant". Which is hilarious if the same job then appears in the paper (or online) the next week at that same company.

If the company had to disclose why they didn't hire someone and could only hire an H1B for skill, things would be much different. The companies would hate it though.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Pseudonym]

However, permission isn't required for using pseudonymous nicknames online.

Saved my bacon more than once, that did.

Re:-1 Disagree

[MightyMartian]

Absolutely. Bringing in foreign workers distorts a labor market, very much in business's favor. One of the big defenses of using the TFW program to bring in Asian workers to hand out coffee and burgers was "We can't get anybody to work up here in Frozen Butthole, Alberta", to which my response was "Well, no, you can't get anyone to work in Butthole, Alberta serving coffee for $15, when it costs over $1,000 month for the privilege of sleeping in a closet. If you pay $40 an hour, which is what serving coffee in the frozen tundra is really worth, then you'd be surprised."

One of the biggest scams going was a guy in Northern British Columbia whose company was bringing in Chinese foreign workers, and he'd made himself a litle sideline with a big tenement to house them, and then he'd charge them rent! And the real evil was that because these are sponsored workers, if they bitched, he fired them and they got sent back to the country they came from. The TFW program had quite literally turned some foreign workers into little better than indentured slaves. It was a sort of quasi-legal human trafficking operation, with the Government of Canada and the Provincial governments looking the other way, because, you know "BUSINESS!"

Re:-1 Disagree

[whoever57]

don't require holders to remain at the same company.

That would help.

H1-B visa holders can certainly change jobs. I think that the new job does not count against the cap, so it should be easy for them to change.

In practice, many of the H1-B holders are on contracts that require them to pay their employer large sums of money if they leave, and secondly, it is difficult to change jobs during the process of a green card application.

The USA needs to limit any debts to the actual costs of moving an H1-B employee to the USA (with any debts in excess of this unenforcible in the USA) and make it easier to transition to a similar job without delaying a green card application.

Finally, H1-B salaries need to be 105% of the local average and there needs to be sufficient funds to enforce these regulations.

Re:-1 Disagree

[whoever57]

Where I work we regularly hire through H1B, we pay 35k/y for a PhD from China or Eastern Europe and as an added benefit we/they get a fast track through the green card and permanent resident process later on, in comparison we pay 125k/y and relocation costs for similar degrees from American sources.

You should report your employer for violating the law. You might be able to get some money as a whistleblower.

Re:-1 Disagree

[BigU 03C0mpin]

I see this a little from both sides. Here's my take from a TBTF financial institution perspective.

I talked to the head of our wholesale line of business when looking for a new career opportunity and he basically stated to me that the H1B workers, at least on paper and in his tangible measures, can run laps around the domestic applicants. One of my former peers went to manage for our experimental development group and admitted that they have better experience out of school. They get hands on nitty-gritty internships, if not full on work experience while doing their studies. Every summer on their resumes is filled with some form of relevant job experience rather than a blank area where it can be inferred that trips to Cozumel to binge drink and chase ass took place. Very hard to compete with that since most American's are raised to believe if you just work hard you will be successful here. It's true to a degree, but we're really are shined all through school with that one. Everyone knows someone who makes it look easy to be successful.

Now, this isn't to say that they are superior in all respects. I've had US contractors come through who are laughing at the "talent" we're using. One guy who left us for a much better gig when he realized just how bad he was getting paid literally said we were "scraping the bottom of the barrel". So take it for what it is, some are good, some are bad, but on paper they look 10x better. Obviously this is due to contractor placement agencies that inflate resumes. People have admitted to me that their agency put experience on their resume that they never had. But employers don't care because they can be gone tomorrow and a replacement will arrive in 7 days. There's

Here's the real rub though. Nowadays it's getting really hard to have an intern do real work for no money, unless you're Disney. So interns will come through and be handed joke/busy work to keep them doing something so that they can tag working at XXX company on their resume to enter the work force. Companies used to like interns because it was slave labor and good publicity, now its just not worth it. Interns who do "meaningful" work have to be paid accordingly. The last thing a corporation wants to do is hire someone with absolutely zero experience into an internship and pay them to actually do stuff. So H1B's fit this bill perfectly. Companies can easily make this case in their benefit, the US schools aren't producing grads that can compete because there's no real comparison to the experience they are provided.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anne Thwacks]

If the company had to disclose why they didn't hire someone and could only hire an H1B for skill they would lie even more than they do now

FTFY

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny. When lefties talk about illegal immigration from Mexico they're all "tear down the wall" "no human is illegal" and so on. But when they talk about H1B, i.e. something that makes THEM loose jobs, instead of some "dirty rotten fascist Republican-voting redneck in his farm in Texas" then suddenly it seems that all men may be made equal, but when it comes to techie jobs, Americans are more equal than Asians.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

No, the solution is exactly to kill the programs. If these jobs are so hard to fill then wages should go up. These programs are designed first and foremost to stop that little law of economics from working.

Between resume and degree inflating plus outright cheating in college and constant dishonesty in estimating capabilities and reporting status, H1-B holders are ruining our profession. It's gotten so one can read volumes about a company's ethics and work environment simply by looking at the proportion of Indians working there, and that's frankly sad.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

You also need to interview people who apply and find a way to disqualify every single one of them.

Oh no you don't it's just as easy to disqualify them based solely on their job application. Nine companies out of 10 will do so and not even send a rejection letter in response.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

There is an "Overrated" mod. It would stand to reason that the only people who use this modifier would be those who believe a post to be overrated. It would be hard to argue that you both agree with a post and feel that it is overrated, therefore this is effectively an "I disagree with this post and don't feel it should be getting the recognition that it has" modifier.

Re:-1 Disagree

[AmiMoJo]

I sincerely hope you don't ever get any more mod points. There is no -1 Disagree mod for a good reason. If you disagree post a comment explaining why. Down-mods are only for abuse, not because someone offended you by stating a contradictory opinion.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Trailer Trash]

Well the main problem in general is no one checks the 'why' in why a person is not hired. The companies get to say "We tried to find a local, but none were suitable for this position", the majority get thrown out during the paperwork phase before even getting an interview. Less than 1% get interviews and of those any reason under the sun is 'valid'. Technically they can't avoid hiring you for age, gender, or other protected status traits, but even that happens all the time because the company doesn't even have to tell you why you weren't hired. Most people get form letters that simply say "We found a more qualified applicant". Which is hilarious if the same job then appears in the paper (or online) the next week at that same company.

If the company had to disclose why they didn't hire someone and could only hire an H1B for skill, things would be much different. The companies would hate it though.

I looked at the requirements for hiring H1Bs as an employer - this is pretty much spot on. You basically have to swear that you can't find a local qualified worker and that's the end of it. Oh, and pay a few thousand bucks to the government. After that you can bring your H1B(s) over as long as you get a slot.

The whole thing needs to be shut down. You can read elsewhere on here where I describe the conditions around my wife coming here 23 years ago as an H1A. It's the exact same thing only in the medical industry. Most of the foreign nurses that you see here are the equivalent of the cheap programmer, with the main difference being that nursing is easier (bluntly speaking) and more standardized with a required board exam, so they do as good a job as an American would. Just much cheaper, and that's the point. Get rid of H1B and wages would rise and more Americans would be interested in being nurses. Allowing H1Bs simply manipulates the market in favor of business, cronyism 101.

Re:-1 Disagree

[guruevi]

It's completely legal.

Re:-1 Disagree

[guruevi]

Plenty of people ARE interested in nursing and similar jobs, the foreign workers are if not cheaper, more reliable and hard working and don't have much legal recourses for shorting them overtime pay and sick days.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Lefties have gills and breathe dryer lint. See? I can make stuff up too!

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. See what Bush and Congress really mean by a "shortage of skilled U.S. workers." Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

Re:-1 Disagree

[whoever57]

It's completely legal.

No. Salaries are far too low to be legal.

Re:-1 Disagree

[__aaclcg7560]

What do you see that makes you think they are being done wrong?

If you're looking for a job and scan the job search websites on a regular, you will notice job listings with unusually high qualifications that never get filled for months. I'm not talking about the proverbial "must have five years of experience in a technology that came out six months ago" job listing. The corporations use these job listings as proof that qualified Americans can't be found and foreign workers are needed to fill these jobs.

Re:-1 Disagree

[kilfarsnar]

Funny. When lefties talk about illegal immigration from Mexico they're all "tear down the wall" "no human is illegal" and so on. But when they talk about H1B, i.e. something that makes THEM loose jobs, instead of some "dirty rotten fascist Republican-voting redneck in his farm in Texas" then suddenly it seems that all men may be made equal, but when it comes to techie jobs, Americans are more equal than Asians.

You know what's even funnier, other than your caricature of "lefties"? That you think the Right gives a crap about illegal immigration. There is one sure way to stop illegal immigration: aggressively identify and prosecute the businesses that hire them. If they can't get jobs, they won't come here. But you don't hear or see anyone doing that, do you? That's how you know that no one, left or right, gives crap. So forget "lefties". Look to the Chamber of Commerce and the politicians they have in their pocket.

Re:-1 Disagree

[king neckbeard]

You can have a consistent policy towards both. When employers try to use immigrants to undermine labor/unions, the employers should be punished. The workers are generally just trying to find a better life.

Re: -1 Disagree

[chipschap]

but I've seen you say some pretty nasty things to people, too.

Really? Look back at my posts and show me. Of course, you're posting as an AC, aren't you?

Re:-1 Disagree

[david_thornley]

The fact that there is an Overrated mod suggests that it does have a legitimate use. In some cases, I've seen posts with gross factual and/or logical errors that have been upmodded, and I've occasionally slapped (-1, Overrated) on them. It's not my favorite use of mod points, but sometimes it's justified. I wouldn't use it for simple difference of opinion.

You do realize that your logic applies to any downmod, don't you? It would be hard to argue that I agree with a post and think it's a troll, either.

Re:-1 Disagree

[david_thornley]

If I've been modding on a story, and I find a post with gross factual and/or logical errors that's been modded up, should I post as AC, score 0, to show why the poster is wrong, or would it be more effective to mod (-1, Overrated) as well?

Re:-1 Disagree

[AmiMoJo]

You should post, as AC if you like but it appears you have an account. Or just remember that it's not you against Slashdot and someone else will correct them soon enough, who you can then mod up.

Down mods really are only for abuse, nothing else. Being wrong is not a reason to down-mod IMHO, it's always better to simply post or mod up a reply correcting them.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Trailer Trash]

Plenty of people ARE interested in nursing and similar jobs, the foreign workers are if not cheaper, more reliable and hard working and don't have much legal recourses for shorting them overtime pay and sick days.

Yes, again, I cover this elsewhere. Employers love them because they're stuck in their job and have little mobility. Ultimately this all plays into the price for their labor, and the inability to change jobs skews the labor market so that they can be paid less. They're also treated badly in some places in various ways because there's no way to complain. I had an acquaintance who worked for a "staffing company" that one day changed the nurses' contracts to remove some of their paid leave. Nobody complained. I told her they couldn't do that and she didn't understand why they couldn't change their own contract. This stuff is common.

But as I said, Americans would be interested if the free market were allowed to work properly and raise wages. Cronies don't like that, though, so they bring in cheap foreigners to disrupt the market and lower wages.

Re:-1 Disagree

[TangoMargarine]

You don't mod people down for disagreeing. You mod people down for being factually wrong or trolling.

Re:-1 Disagree

[TangoMargarine]

They have a -0 Disagree mod over on SoylentNews, but yeah.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Hognoxious]

Logically, overrated shouldn't be applicable to anything that hasn't been rated. IOW, it should only counter a prior upmod, not act as a downmod.

Mirror that for underrated.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

You should post, as AC if you like but it appears you have an account.

Who died and made you king?

Re:-1 Disagree

[Kreplock]

...take it for what it is, some are good, some are bad, but on paper they look 10x better. Obviously this is due to contractor placement agencies that inflate resumes. People have admitted to me that their agency put experience on their resume that they never had. But employers don't care because they can be gone tomorrow and a replacement will arrive in 7 days. There's

I'm right there with you - there are some good and some bad, and ON PAPER they look better. As a peer of many such hires my experience is that it is largely lies, stacked against my honest resume. I'm getting co-workers with excellent skill sets and work experience listed, and at first I was very excited at the prospect of learning so much from these gods of modern tech. Then I end up having to explain basic concepts such as schema references in an Oracle query and whatnot. When I'm invited to give technical interviews about 80% of the time I quickly realize the candidate studied for tests and certifications but has very limited real world experience.

I can only conclude that if the typical candidate has so much as logged onto an Oracle RAC system with GoldenGate, RMAN, etc they then add such techs to the list of technologies they have "supported". Then there's the incidents of interviewing one person and a different one shows up for the job. It's a mess.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

No, tack on a premium for bringing in a foreigner on a work visa, say 2.5 to 3 times the going rate for the job. That will ensure that companies look high and low for an American citizen before asking permission to import a foreigner. That would ensure that skills being brought in are REALLY lacking in the citizen population.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to have to try to split this up across posts. The lameness filter doesn't want to let me post this, and I have no idea why.

I speak from personal experience in a prior conversation. I could look it up if I desired.

An article was posted about Windows 10 telemetry, claiming that the OS tried to phone home to something like a thousand different IPs in an eight hour period, even when telemetry was turned off. The claim was pretty clearly dubious, as commenters in the article noted. Nonetheless, the Slashdot groupthink was happy to rip Microsoft over claims that were intellectually dishonest.

To try to make my point, I made a trollish post claiming that Linux distros do the same thing. The claim was incorrect, but for the purpose of reaching people who weren't otherwise responding to reason and showing them how they look making false claims about Microsoft. I openly admitted the post was trollish, but explained this reasoning at the time.

As I recall, you followed up with personal attacks. I didn't attack your character or insult you first. I was mad and, in my anger, helped the conversation devolve into posting flames. I've tried to learn my lesson not to get pulled into an emotional response from internet users and not get pulled into flames.

It's been a few months since that exchange. I understand there are trolls who like to randomly flame people, and I ignore them. In terms of logged in users posting at 2, I remember you as being one of the rudest people I've ever encountered on this site.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

Post #2 to avoid the lameness filter.

I believe people make mistakes once in awhile. I also believe people can genuinely change. But I had a truly nasty experience with you that I haven't forgotten. I have a very unfavorable view of you to this day.

Regardless of those feelings, I was wrong for flaming you on that thread and genuinely apologize. I also don't condone ACs trolling by claiming to be you. I'm not sorry for trolling about Linux because I feel it was one of the only ways to get people to stop and think about their own similar behavior that they didn't see as trolling.

I sincerely hope I see something to change my view of you. So far, though, I haven't.

Re: -1 Disagree

[Anonymous Coward]

One more post, and an unplanned one. There's no good reason for the lameness filter to censor what I wrote. Regardless of your opinion of it, I see no legitimate reason for it to be automatically blocked by the software running this site.

Re:-1 Disagree

[gumbi west]

What do you see that makes you think they are being done right?

I actually just had the question. I knew that many /.ers take this as the truth and i didn't know why and wanted to find out. These responses have shown me what people see.

Re:-1 Disagree

[Espectr0]

I did not imply that the visas were being assigned correctly. I know they are being exploited. But it isn't the H1-B visas fault. It's like trying to convict the bar owner for a customer that killed someone driving drunk.

Rather than nix the program, just enforce them being assigned correctly. One method is to make sure the foreign workers are paid the same as an american. That way the companies can't use them to get cheaper labor.

Re:-1 Disagree

[AK Marc]

Working in tech, many Slashdotters see people fired and replaced with an H1-B worker (also illegal).

Re:-1 Disagree

[Espectr0]

Well i really hope it would be like you are saying. I'm not an american and am trying to find a job in the US and relocate there in order to escape the crisis in my country. The company that interviewed me said they couldn't get me an H1-B visa. And they were in the top 10 companies that got approved visas in 2014... So i wonder what's up?

Re:-1 Disagree

[guruevi]

You must pay them at least the actual or prevailing wage for your occupation, whichever is higher, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Again, you just make these occupations up and you make sure nobody can fill the position.

Re:-1 Disagree

[whoever57]

Again, you just make these occupations up and you make sure nobody can fill the position.

The rules don't allow job requirements to unrealistically specific.

You are in denial about your employer's illegal activities.

Re:-1 Disagree

[guruevi]

And who is going to evaluate it? The dozen or so people that have to handle the 250k applicants per year? It's well known in the industry, IBM does it, Microsoft does it, Google does it, go after those companies first because they do it by the dozens.

Re:-1 Disagree

[whoever57]

None of which makes it any less illegal.

I doubt that those companies are so blatant as your employer. $35k for a PhD?

I think that the worst large offenders are the Indian outsourcers.

Re:-1 Disagree

[david_thornley]

I do have an account, yes. If I've been modding a discussion, all those mod points go away if I post under my pseudonym. Sometimes I come along some time after an idiotic post has been modded up, and there hasn't been a good reply to mod up. It isn't me against Slashdot, since I'm trying to make Slashdot better.

Down mods are for more extreme cases than up mods, yes. If you want to convince me that they're abuse, you'll have to provide reasons.

Re:-1 Disagree

[david_thornley]

That's pretty much how I use it (and I rarely do). There's lots of stupid things at 1 or 2, so a few more won't make any difference. If something that is clearly very wrong (as opposed to merely strongly against what I think), and it's at +3 or better, I'll consider an (Overrated, -1).

He doesn't have a running mate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Because he can't win the nomination.

Whatever his policy positions are is moot.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[R3d M3rcury]

I wouldn't be too sure.

Trump needs to get 1237 delegates to win in the first round. If he doesn't and it goes to a second round, Cruz has a chance, though not necessarily a good one. If he doesn't make it, the wheeling-and-dealing begin.

Personally, I'm rooting for Trump to come up just shy--like 1200+. Then we'll see some fireworks.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[amiga3D]

The party bosses hate Cruz just slightly less than Trump. They'll try to find a way to nominate !Jeb but failing that it'll be Rubio or Kasich. It should be an interesting election. They say Hillary will get the women's vote and I suspect that is true but I don't know that many men that feel good about her. I guess I'll end up voting for whoever runs against her. I just hope it's not !Jeb.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[shanen]

The party bosses hate Cruz just slightly less than Trump. They'll try to find a way to nominate !Jeb but failing that it'll be Rubio or Kasich. It should be an interesting election. They say Hillary will get the women's vote and I suspect that is true but I don't know that many men that feel good about her. I guess I'll end up voting for whoever runs against her. I just hope it's not !Jeb.

I don't like Hillary that much, but I have to respect her for her taste in enemies. Mindless and irrational, usually sexist.

Congratulations. You're 3 out of 3!

Anyway, my #1 beef with Hillary is her personal identity. All of us have many of them, but I think her top one is probably "corporate lawyer" and certainly not "idealist". It's Bill Clinton who is first and foremost a "politician". Probably Obama, too.

None of which is related to the original H1B topic, unless you [amiga3D] are one of the folk who think President Obama needs one. (Also, I don't think Trump believed the birther nonsense any more than he believes most of the crazy stuff he says. His #1 identity is "salesman" or "con man" and he is just telling the 'customers' (the so-called Republicans voting in the primaries) what they want to hear.)

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[bmimatt]

Because politicians are not hypocrites at all and they always stick to what they pitch to the masses once elected. He's just another snake trying to get the mouse.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[jandersen]

Yeah - it would be more relevant for Hillary Clinton to pick a running mate. I suggest Bernie Sanders - he could attract the voters that are sceptical about Ms Clinton's credentials.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[nikkipolya]

Personally, I'm rooting for Trump to come up just shy--like 1200+.

My guess, Trump might manage to go past 1237.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[Rei]

It'll be a bit tough to hear Cruz's victory speech over the singing fat lady and the wingbeat of the pigs flying past the sun as it sets in the east.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[MachineShedFred]

I have no idea why people paint dislike of Hillary as automatically sexist. I have no problem with her being a woman. I do have a problem with a leading candidate for President being a habitual liar, a follower of the poll of the week rather than a leader who joins the debate in order to sway public opinion, and someone with a long history of patronage and hypocrisy.

None of that has jack shit to do with gender.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[david_thornley]

Personally, I'd rather see Sanders in a position of some power, either Senator or President, than Vice-President. Moreover, I think that you don't want to make both members of a ticket something other than white male Protestants, and Hillary's female and (IIRC) Bernie's Jewish.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[TangoMargarine]

Who's "not-Jeb"? He has 4 siblings. This is political shorthand for...?

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[Anonymous Coward]

Way to take a strong position there, buddy.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[Rob Y.]

The problem is that any number of politicians could just as easily be characterized as 'a habitual liar, a follower of the poll of the week, etc.'. But somehow, for Hillary Clinton, these things become evil personified.

And beyond that, there are lies and there are lies. In my book, "we've got to lower taxes to get this economy running" is a worse lie than "I've evolved on the issue of gay marriage". The first is an utter distortion to sell a policy that will drive up the national debt, make the rich ever richer, and leave the rest of us to foot the bill. The second is a bit of political positioning to, yes, be able to play both sides of an issue she obviously is on board with personally.

Likewise, "I had a personal email server, because I didn't want to carry 2 devices" is essentially "I don't want people poking through my email in order to cherry pick embarrassing statements to use out of context against me". That's hardly "I wanted to destroy the country and hide the evidence". But, on the other hand, "we know Saddam Hussein has nuclear weapons and wants to use them"... Some lies have consequences - some are merely political positioning. They are wholly different classes of 'evil'.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[MachineShedFred]

Don't worry - I'm big on calling out anyone who purposefully lies for no better reason than self-aggrandizement. If the lie is meant to protect ongoing military operations or something, that's called 'counter-intelligence'; lying just to get a better gig, lying to advance your partisan bullshit, or lying keep the gig you've already got disqualifies you from holding office, in my mind.

And I don't make this distinction just for Hillary, or even just for Democrats. Betray the public trust, and you should be shown the door.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[phantomfive]

Don't worry, the frigid air from hell will help his voice carry farther.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[Rob Y.]

Well, stay pure brother! Of course, you may end up with one of the biggest liars ever in the White House (and I don't mean Clinton). But you know best.

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[Anonymous Coward]

I do have a problem with a leading candidate for President being a habitual liar, a follower of the poll of the week rather than a leader who joins the debate in order to sway public opinion, and someone with a long history of patronage and hypocrisy.

So you have a problem with her being a politician. Yeah, me too.

That said, the very few politicians that don't behave like that also don't seem to have much chance of being elected,

IMO, it isn't just that the "system" is broken ... the American electorate are. (Mostly likely by design.)

Re:He doesn't have a running mate...

[shanen]

Actually, if he [MachineShedFred] actually meant what he wrote, then we wouldn't have any politicians left. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm saying he must be woefully ignorant of how modern politics works, rationalizing what he wants to believe without regards to the actual evidence, or a partisan liar, possibly of the paid sort.

Recently learned that the Chinese Commies actually pay trolls to disrupt political discussions within Chinese websites. The going rate is about 50 cents per post, so the dissidents call the paid trolls the "50-cent party". Today's so-called GOP has never met a bad idea they didn't want to copy, near as I can tell. (However I also read a report accusing a HIllary PAC of doing the same thing--but it might have been reported by a paid troll.)

Really?

[rmdingler]

With Carly Fiorina named as his running mate, her stance on H1B, as a former Captain of tech industry, is the first query lobbed at Team Cruz?

He wondered aloud, "Why are we even contemplating running mate issues prior to a Presidential nomination?"

Re:Really?

[Black Parrot]

He wondered aloud, "Why are we even contemplating running mate issues prior to a Presidential nomination?"

ISTM that you could gild your appeal early - if you make a wise choice. I'm surprised it isn't done more often.

Re:Really?

[XxtraLarGe]

With Carly Fiorina named as his running mate, her stance on H1B, as a former Captain of tech industry, is the first query lobbed at Team Cruz?

It doesn't matter who he picks for his running mate, he's not going to be the nominee.

Re:Really?

[david_thornley]

Naming a running mate is making a political statement that may be helpful. People misguided enough to want Fiorina a heartbeat from being CEO of the US might approve of him more. This may backfire among people knowing her record as CEO of HP.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cruz chose the only candidate that's an greater psychopath than Hillary.

Carly Fiorina is...

[brennz]

a bad business person.

Like many other CEOs, she thought short-term without considering the long-term implications of her actions.

She pushed outsourcing to the detriment of American workers
She eroded the previous HP quality
She bought a horrible company in Compaq
She failed to properly integrate Compaq into HP
She failed to leverage a crown jewel in the DEC Alpha, and contributed to its cancellation after the acquisition
She destroyed the value of the overall business of HP

I don't need to say she is anti-American, though she may be. Definitely a business failure though, despite the golden parachute.

Re: Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

I hate how she ruined HP's calculator business. The HP48 was a great calculator, in a long line of great calculators from HP.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[AK Marc]

Compaq was a good buy. That she mis-managed the opportunity doesn't mean the purchase was necessarily a bad thing. The HP servers were falling, and with them the more profitable professional services. Compaq had a better server line, and the popular servers these days are descendants of Compaq, not HP server lines. So without Compaq, HP would have been even worse off. It's just that the inability to act on the good acquisition makes it look like a bad move. Given the other blunders at the time, how is one able to tell which blunder lead to which bad result?

The unforgivable sin was the damage to the handhelds (including calculators).

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[MightyMartian]

She was an utter moron, the very picture of the idiot CEO who has no fucking idea what the business they've been put in charge of does, and just starts running amok through various business units, building debt with shit purchases, and then firing the R&D people because they can't get the two or three quarter turnarounds the fucking retards put on the Board by the institutional investors (read: corporate rapists) think is needed.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[phantomfive]

Like many other CEOs, she thought short-term without considering the long-term implications of her actions.

That might have been forgivable if she'd had any success at all with the short-term results of her actions.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Orgasmatron]

Well, she did get a 7% bump in the stock price.

When news got out that the board sacked her.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[khallow]

Both HP and Compaq stock dropped instantly on the announcement of the buyout. I know because I owned shares in both and my job at HP (I was one of the first wave of laid off HP employees within a week of the announcement as part of the merger agreement) went down near instantaneously. It wasn't a great time financially, but it was a big lesson to me in how apparently independent risks can correlate through a single unforeseen event.

When you have an instant drop on all the involved companies, you know that a lot of shareholders out there are convinced it's a bad deal.

And in hindsight, we still don't see the value of the deal. There's just this hazy assertion that it might have been worse otherwise because HP servers are descended from Compaq servers. All I know for sure is that Fiorina turned the combined current market share of HP and Compaq into less than the market share of HP at the time of the merger.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[AK Marc]

There's just this hazy assertion that it might have been worse otherwise because HP servers are descended from Compaq servers. All I know for sure is that Fiorina turned the combined current market share of HP and Compaq into less than the market share of HP at the time of the merger.

She still did better than AOL/Time Warner, then.

We can't know what the result would have been, until we invent time machines and alternate universes.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[plopez]

She also made Lucent what it is today. Let's never forget Lucent.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

could not agree more. worked at HP during the fiorina days. Left before she was fired luckily. All my friends there put up a party when she was fired. That's how motivating she was. She had an ego and a face the size of a horse (and still does from the looks of it). Huge portrait of herself at HQ, treating Hewlett's nephew like a pariah and pretty much gutting the HP way. She was a terrible leader and a disgustingly bad motivator. She should be running for congress, not president!

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[khallow]

She still did better than AOL/Time Warner, then.

It's worth noting in that merger, AOL jumped while Time Warner fell. The merger was great for the AOL side.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[ipb]

So you're saying she's the perfect running mate for Drumpf?

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

| It's worth noting in that merger, AOL jumped while Time Warner fell. The merger was great for the AOL side.

Err, not so much. Time Warner took all the cash and didn't re-invest anything in AOL. After about a year, AOL subscribers started dropping like flies, as the service basically stopped innovating. Granted, it hasn't done any better under Verizon.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Gussington]

Like many other CEOs, she thought short-term without considering the long-term implications of her actions.

Yes that's it. CEO 101 all boiled down to one sentence. How can we make you president of the universe?

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Gavagai80]

Carly is just a ploy to get the Trump voters. Cruz notices that the republican base wants a bad business person with a long record of destruction, so he has to put one on his ticket to match Trump.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[khallow]

Time Warner took all the cash and didn't re-invest anything in AOL.

Even if we took your assertion at face value (given that the CEO came from AOL not Time Warner, I don't buy it), how was that worse for AOL? What really was there to invest in on the AOL side? AOL employees stayed employed longer, customers stayed as long as they were going to, and shareholders of AOL stock made out like old-time railroad barons.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[drinkypoo]

Compaq was a good buy.

No, it was not.

That she mis-managed the opportunity

It wasn't one

doesn't mean the purchase was necessarily a bad thing.

It was.

The HP servers were falling, and with them the more profitable professional services. Compaq had a better server line,

let's just be clear, Compaq's server line was pure fucking garbage as well. Everything down to the bezel design was ass.

and the popular servers these days are descendants of Compaq, not HP server lines.

That supports your argument that HP's servers were shit, but not that Compaq's are actually any good. I built a cluster out of CPQ crap shortly before the merger and it was all shit. I didn't specify the hardware, so it's not my fault, but let me give you a hint: they provided the lowest quote. Nobody ever bought Compaq because it was good. They bought it because it fit into their pathetic budget.

So without Compaq, HP would have been even worse off.

Or maybe they would have bought someone else, someone with a compelling product.

Given the other blunders at the time, how is one able to tell which blunder lead to which bad result?

They're all blunders. If Carly did it, it was fucking stupid.

The unforgivable sin was the damage to the handhelds (including calculators).

What? You are smoking the good shit, buddy. Where do you get that? HP never had a handheld worth a fuck outside of calculators, and calculator sales are basically nonexistent today.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[MachineShedFred]

HP servers at the time were shit, and everyone knew it. If you were serious about buying servers with maintenance, you bought IBM or you bought Compaq. HP could have either shuttered their enterprise business completely, or did what they did. Either way, there was going to be layoffs of people making shitty servers.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

a bad business person.

Like many other CEOs, she thought short-term without considering the long-term implications of her actions.

She pushed outsourcing to the detriment of American workers
She eroded the previous HP quality
She bought a horrible company in Compaq
She failed to properly integrate Compaq into HP
She failed to leverage a crown jewel in the DEC Alpha, and contributed to its cancellation after the acquisition
She destroyed the value of the overall business of HP

She is the least interesting CEO in the world!

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[chihowa]

The unforgivable sin was the damage to the handhelds (including calculators).

Way to dig up buried memories. I still cringe when I have to pull the emergency, last resort 49g+ out of the drawer. I got it after my 48GX was run over by a truck, which I think is the only way one of those old things actually ever die. Thankfully you can still pick them up on ebay.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

HP was way behind the rest of the market as far as Wintel servers went. Aside from Compaq & IBM, there was DEC - before Compaq bought them, and several others as well, like Dell, Tandem, and a few others. HP's choice in servers would have been to stick to PA-RISC servers of different shapes and sizes, maybe some running HP/UX and some running Linux

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

She did. The Senate, & was trounced by Barbara Boxer once those ads came out about how she shipped 30,000 jobs to China. I'm completely puzzled on why none of her GOP rivals - except Trump - chose to call her on her management of HP. In the same debate where she stared Trump down over the comments about her face, he pointed out her real record not just at HP, but at Lucent as well, and remarked that she would never have been hired to run any of his companies.

The other thing about her - days after 9/11, she made a disgusting footnote to a speech about the greatness of islam. It's strange that neither Trump nor Carson brought it up. It's unbelievable how Cruz believes that she's a conservative: she was a McCain advisor in 2008, a candidacy that Cruz rightly holds up as disastrous to the GOP cause that year. Yeah, she may have been more conservative than Tom Campbell, but was a liberal in contrast to Chuck DeVore.

Cruz is smoking something if he thinks that naming a VP now is gonna salvage him in IN or anywhere else, for that matter. Trump will win IN, NM, OR, WA and CA.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Except that Trump doesn't have a record of sending tens of thousand jobs abroad. Yeah, he went thru 4 bankruptcies, and that's a risk that any business takes. But since then, he's run a very successful company. In contrast, the last real job that Carly had was at HP, so she has no redeeming record to fix that HP debacle. It's not just that people want an outsider or businessman instead of politicians: they want a successful one at that. Which is why both Trump & Carson did well, whereas the only time Carly did well was for a couple of days after the CNN debate where she stared down Trump, when she was #3 in IA and #2 in NH

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, the old Compaq servers were tanks. They ran forever. The old HP Netservers were crap.

When they merged the lines, instead of picking the best tech from each side, they made political decisions about what to keep.

I haven't bought an HP server in 15 years.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[AK Marc]

Because of that and other mergers and such, it's hard to tell who would have been better off for what. Can you tell me the value of $10,000 of AOL stock held at opening on January 10, 2000 would be worth today? Given the dot-com bust, I'd assume that it's worth less now than before. A loss for AOL shareholders isn't a "jump". When looking at news stories of the day, they seem to be inconsistent, so I didn't find short term results. And it looks like the combined market cap of the resultant AOL/TW company did drop below the market cap of either before the merger. So again, still worse than HP's acquisition.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[AK Marc]

That supports your argument that HP's servers were shit, but not that Compaq's are actually any good.

Comparatively good, then. Dell didn't have much for servers at the time, and there weren't too many choices for Wintel. Compaq was the server leader at the time. It's obvious you didn't like them, but they were more popular than anything else. And HP was not popular, at all.

You are arguing that HP could have acquired someone better than Compaq, not that Compaq was a bad acquisition.

HP never had a handheld worth a fuck outside of calculators, and calculator sales are basically nonexistent today.

Even over 20 years after introduction, the HP 200LX is still in use in mission-critical places. A device the size of a cell phone that ran DOS, and had a serial port. If they had kept up the miniturization on that and kept it small and cheap, http://www.amazon.com/Hewlett-... You can still buy used ones for more than the cost of new, back when they were made. Had HP not been idiots, they could have had 100% of the DOS market, in a PC that runs on AA batteries (or forever off a low-power wall wart).

Yes, their WinCE devices were shit, but mainly because WinCE was shit.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[khallow]

Can you tell me the value of $10,000 of AOL stock held at opening on January 10, 2000 would be worth today? Given the dot-com bust, I'd assume that it's worth less now than before.

My view is that this was one of the biggest scores of the dot comm era. AOL got a huge company with a real balance sheet to massively dilute its shares with AOL stock. As a result, $10,000 of AOL stock is worth a lot more now than it would have been.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[AK Marc]

As a result, $10,000 of AOL stock is worth a lot more now than it would have been.

But not worth more than it was. So you agree 100%, but in the most disagreeable way possible. What a prick.

Re:Carly Fiorina is...

[khallow]

But not worth more than it was. So you agree 100%, but in the most disagreeable way possible. What a prick.

Well, I don't know that. What I do know is that the January 10, 2000 price would not have lasted even three months due to the subsequent dot com burst which started two months later. Time Warner bought AOL at an all time high, making it one of the biggest scores for a dot com company and not coincidentally one of the dumbest moves by an established company during that time.

My view is that a stock rising on an announcement is an indicator that the market consensus is that share holders in that business will do well. A stock falling is market consensus to the contrary. The AOL-Time Warner situation indicated that AOL's side was advantageous. That plus the easily foreseen future collapse of AOL's stock price meant that AOL made an incredible deal at the expense of Time Warner shareholders. AOL who instigated this merger did amazingly well which what you'd want with a merger.

But now look at the HP-Compaq merger. First, we have the negative indicator that both stocks dropped in price on the merger. Second, we took the Compaq server and PC business which has been alleged in this thread as the driver for the merger from the more successful competitor and gave it to the worse one. A collapse in combined market share followed which I don't think was coincidence.

It's worth noting too that a lot of acrimony and further dumbing down of the HP board of directors happened during this time with the eventual departure of the Hewlett and Packard family representatives in protest of the merger which I think goes a long way to explaining the subsequent series of really dumb decisions by the board (who had lost the last people with a long term interest in the company).

In summary, not many people benefited from the HP-Compaq merger. The person at the top of that short list was Carly Fiorina. Then some bankers handling te merger. That's probably most of the beneficiaries right there.While in the case of the AOL-Time Warner merger, we can point to the entire AOL side doing really well as a result of the merger.

Did I miss the memo?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did Cruz win the primary, or something? It's a little presumptuous, otherwise. Oh, sure, he's picking a potential VP to increase his nominability during the contested election, but why would he pick a boat-anchor like Carly "right-shoring" Fiorina? She's as much as, if not more than, a weasel as he is.

Re: Did I miss the memo?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a desperation move because of Trump's recent success. And historically such moves haven't turned out well. I think Cruz knows Trump will probably get the nomination.

Re:Did I miss the memo?

[Etcetera]

Did Cruz win the primary, or something? It's a little presumptuous, otherwise. Oh, sure, he's picking a potential VP to increase his nominability during the contested election, but why would he pick a boat-anchor like Carly "right-shoring" Fiorina? She's as much as, if not more than, a weasel as he is.

He doesn't need to, for two reasons:

1) Deciding on a prospective running mate gives a clearer idea of "what you'd get" by supporting his candidacy,
2) He's not running to win, he's running to draw.

He can't win the nomination outright, so at this point it's all about keeping Trump from getting over the top. Once the convention begins and the first ballot concludes, all bets are off.

If Trump doesn't get it on the first ballot, it'll probably be a dark horse that comes away with the nomination. (That is, not Cruz or Trump.)

Screw Him

[Anonymous Coward]

I was replaced by an H-1B visa holder from Pakistan then FIRED. I have NO intention to stop milking the government for unemployment benefits, ever. I quite enjoy sitting on my ass and smoking pot every day. Screw this fucked up country and screw capitalism.

Re:Screw Him

[110010001000]

Well thats odd! Who would fire a guy like you? You sound like a winner.

Re:Screw Him

[Anonymous Coward]

....and now it's clear why you were fired. You're a lazy landwhale.

Re:Screw Him

[Anonymous Coward]

(A)

Who cares?

[110010001000]

Cruz isn't getting the nomination. The guy has about 2% of the Republican vote. Give me a break.

Re:Who cares?

[TheGratefulNet]

they are meant for each other. he has the world's most punchable face (look it up, its a fact) and she, well, she's not all that far behind in that area, either.

Re:Who cares?

[Mashiki]

But the media and establishment really, really, really, really want Cruz. So he's gonna get it, cuz they said so.

Re:Who cares?

[vux984]

I'm not so sure. The establishment may be pushing cruz to force a contested election so that they don't have to pick either Trump or Cruz.

The media also wants a contested convention because that's ratings gold.

Re:Who cares?

[skam240]

Please, how much money do you want to bet that Trump won't get the Republican nomination at this point? Whatever it is I'll see it. He has it locked down at this point. The "controversy" is a media invention designed to get readers. It doesnt really exist.

Re:Who cares?

[Pseudonym]

he has the world's most punchable face (look it up, its a fact) [...]

I tried to look up up, but for some reason I keep getting pictures of Martin Shkreli.

and she, well, she's not all that far behind in that area, either.

Speaking only for myself, while I wish many things for Carly Fiorina, physical violence is not one of them.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a word for that: Backpfeifengesicht.

Re:Who cares?

[MachineShedFred]

Not only is it ratings gold, but a nice long floor fight where Republicans are eating their young is a wet dream of every news editor in the business.

Re:Who cares?

[david_thornley]

Trump has a much better chance at a first-round win than I thought last month, but it's nowhere near a lock, and I really don't think he has a chance if it goes to two rounds.

Re:Who cares?

[skam240]

Trump is extremely likely to get the 1237 he needs at this point. He has all of the momentum and it's not as if there's going to be a "controversy" that brings him down. As we've all seen he appears to be "controversy" proof. Also, even if he doesnt get the the 1237 votes the Republican party would be fools to not endorse a candidate that has such a clear majority of votes.

And who would they go with? Cruz? He isnt any more popular among many of the Republican establishment than Trump is.

Re:Who cares?

[david_thornley]

He's got an excellent chance at the 1237, but I wouldn't call it a lock (Hillary's got a lock on the Democratic nomination). If it goes to a second round, I don't know what the convention will do, but it's got an excellent chance of just rejecting Trump. This looks like as disastrous a convention coming up as the 1968 Democratic convention, although for different reasons.

Re:Who cares?

[skam240]

I consider it a lock hecause as I stated before, in the unlikely case that it goes to a second round of voting they have no other strong canidates besides Cruz and many find him as objectionable as Trump. Why go against popular will to bring in a different canidate that you also dont like?

Only complete idiots

[l0n3s0m3phr34k]

ever believed Cruz's "H1-B visa stance". It's all just propaganda. Before he started running he was advocating for a 500% increase in H1-B visas in 2013.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump recently pivoted in a debate to say that he now supported the H1B program, in spite of what his web site said. Megyn Kelly followed up just to make sure she heard him correctly. Then the next day, probably after talking to Rudy Guiliani and other trusted advisors, he flipflopped back to his original position.

So you can't trust Trump on H1B either. He'll say whatever it takes to win the election. I bet even he doesn't know what he'll do if he got elected, on that and any number of issues foreign and domestic.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

He's in the pocket of telecoms, gets huge funding from them. He's also against net neutrality and cheaper internet access (big surprise).

What kind of idiot would think he would do anything good for the American working class?

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

BTW that was around the time when Mike Bloomberg was making a lot of noise of launching a third party candidacy. Bloomberg, of course, is 100 percent in favor of the H1B program. So maybe Trump was trying to either discourage him from entering the race, or "covering" Bloomberg's position to prevent Bloomberg from getting a big constituency (talking about $$$), right off the bat.

Trump is a weasel. He keeps hawking his book, The Art of the Deal. He should've called it The Art of Being a Weasel Who Rips People Off Over and Over Again.

Re:Only complete idiots

[phantomfive]

Cruz is one of those people who will say/do whatever it takes to get elected. Tea partier? Sure, why not. Establishment pet? He will obey for votes. H1-B visas? What difference does it make, as long as it gets him votes? He'll flip-flop on anything you pay him to do, and then bore you to death with a long, legalistic, and incorrect explanation of why he is not actually flip-flopping.

Re:Only complete idiots

[phantomfive]

Look at the bright side, when Trump is president, he'll.......
I don't know what, I'm still trying to figure out a bright side.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Orgasmatron]

The question was about highly skilled workers, which is what we imagine H1B to be. But that's not what H1B is.

The sales pitch is Einstein and von Braun. The reality is the foreign guy that answers the phone when you call Dell for tech support.

Re:Only complete idiots

[shanen]

Cruz is one of those people who will say/do whatever it takes to get elected. Tea partier? Sure, why not. Establishment pet? He will obey for votes. H1-B visas? What difference does it make, as long as it gets him votes? He'll flip-flop on anything you pay him to do, and then bore you to death with a long, legalistic, and incorrect explanation of why he is not actually flip-flopping.

You're confusing Trump with Cruz. Trump is that way, but Cruz has an entire worldview of insanity, and it's cast in concrete. Don't let his debating skills as a lawyer fool you. Yes, he can speak on either side of any issue, but when he gets to pick the side he wants, the country is in big trouble. The only risk with the Donald is that he picks a V-P like the big dick Cheney.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe his intention was to force an equal distribution of visas. Right now, they are clustered at the lowest pay tiers. An equal distributions would make things less lopsided.

That said, I swear I've seen this exactly comment thread in another slashdot article. It's bizarre.

Re:Only complete idiots

[phantomfive]

The only risk with the Donald is that he picks a V-P like the big dick Cheney.

Even odds Trump chooses Ben Carson as VP. Flip flop.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

> Look at the bright side, when Trump is president, he'll.......
> I don't know what, I'm still trying to figure out a bright side.

You still don't get it, do you? Trump is the bright side you are looking for. Because it's right in front of you, you refuse to see it.

Re:Only complete idiots

[phantomfive]

Trump is a cad: almost to the point that the word was defined for him.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump has flipped on nearly every issue that he's taken a stance on that has become too embarrassing to maintain a stance on.

The wall with Mexico hasn't been embarrassing enough to cancel out his stance on it yet, and that's a very dangerous sign of exactly how embarrassing something needs to be. Personally, I wish the President of Mexico held a press conference which wrapped up with him telling Trump that Mexican taxpayers are not Trump's wetbacks, there to only pay for his pet projects, and wrapping up with his mooning Trump via the cameras to let the people in the USA understand exactly Mexico's stance on the issue in terms that Trump supporters understand.

Unfortunately it would damage the Mexican President's position in Mexico; because, they tend to frown on statesmen acting like buffoons. Which likely means the will frown upon the USA forcing them to act with buffoons that hold office.

Back to the topic at hand, Fiona joining Cruz's ticket is a pure McCain - Palin move, except that Fiona is not as incoherent as Palin and actually might pick up a few California votes. Still, it is hard to imagine how Fiona strengthens the Cruz ticket enough, as Fiona isn't different enough to appeal to a large demographic unless the Republicans are really so stupid that they think women only vote for other women because there's a secret vagina to vagina bond of communication.

Re:Only complete idiots

[swb]

I think at this stage of the race Cruz would offer to perform abortions on live TV if it would get him the nomination.

As President, he seems the most likely to do whatever his Republican masters tell him to do with the exception of social issues, where he might be willing to fall on his sword.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

"Look at the bright side, when Trump is president, he'll......." be fun to watch

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

... he'll not be as blatanly bought as Hilary?

Re:Only complete idiots

[MachineShedFred]

You could have just said:

So you can't trust Trump on $TOPIC either. He'll say whatever it takes to win the election.

It works for everything.

Re:Only complete idiots

[MachineShedFred]

The last thing Cruz is, is an establishment pet. The establishment hates this guy because he fucks them over at every turn. And I don't say that as a good thing - this is the guy who led the charge to shut down the government for absolutely no reason, and with absolutely no effect other than giving thousands of federal employees a paid vacation. Obamacare still stands, the CR was passed with the exact terms and figures from before the shutdown. The debt limit has effectively been nullified. It was a complete failure of policy and grandstanding, and empowered the executive to do many of the things that he now cries about, because the Congress's "power of the purse" was shown to be a fucking joke, and they basically gave it up in the aftermath of tripping on their own dicks.

Cruz is a blowhard, an underhanded schemer who will say or do anything to get elected. But an establishment lackey? No.

Re:Only complete idiots

[phantomfive]

The last thing Cruz is, is an establishment pet. The establishment hates this guy because he fucks them over at every turn

That was true until the last few months, when Cruz realized the establishment was his last chance at getting elected, and the establishment realized he was the last chance to keep Trump from getting elected.
He's gotten a bunch of endorsements from party blowhards, and he's hoping to get the uncommitted delegate votes at the convention. Not going to happen, but he dreams.

Re:Only complete idiots

[T.E.D.]

ever believed Cruz's "H1-B visa stance". It's all just propaganda. Before he started running he was advocating for a 500% increase in H1-B visas in 2013

The problem with Cruz is that just because he may now be offering you your favorite candy instead of candy corn, he's still doing it outside the same beat-up windowless van.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

That said, I swear I've seen this exactly comment thread in another slashdot article. It's bizarre.

It's just as bizarre as the black Sanders "supporters" at Trump rallies. I thought Sanders was the old white guy from Vermont who's completely out of touch with civil rights issues....

No, it's pretty obvious what the "lizard people" (Illuminati/0.01%ers/whatever... I just like how "lizard person" rolls off the tongue) are doing. They've known since Trump began proving that people were sick and tired of establishment candidates that the only way to complete the Coronation of Clinton is to attack Trump in every indirect way they can. It's pretty disgusting.

I'd like to think Sanders had a credible chance. I suppose I'd need to review when the Sanders "supporters" started showing up at Trump rallies. Was that when a Sanders victory was starting to look a little shaky? If that's the moment that the lizard people knew they could write off Sanders, that would make quite a bit of sense.

I mean, there was an article a few days ago here about this. We know that there's at least one pro-Clinton superPAC that's out there astroturfing the internet. It's obvious by now that barring a miracle it's going to be Clinton vs. Trump. Possible "miracle" outcomes: Sanders vs. Trump or Clinton vs. Kasich (don't get greedy and suggest two miracles with Sanders vs. Kasich). Clinton vs. Roboromney or vs. Lyin' Ted is just laughable--that would be a landslide for Clinton.

So I don't doubt you've seen GP's comment before somewhere else here. I just thought I'd put forward my theory that the more of this we see until the convention, these are Clinton astroturfers, not Cruz astroturfers.

Re:Only complete idiots

[Anonymous Coward]

But Trump laid out his plan a few days ago. It is putting a fee on every money transfer to Mexico until Mexico makes a one time payment of $X billion to the US. Right now, such funds have overtaken oil as Mexico's leading source of revenue: they are not stupid to let that get either eroded or completely cut off in place of this.

Luz with Cruz

[Anonymous Coward]

They're throwing this election on purpose. Why else would you pick a proven loser like Carly?

BTW, I think Cruz's campaign logo is supposed to be a flame, which would make the Luz/Cruz thing actually kind of cool because luz is Spanish for light. That would, IMHO, be the only cool thing about him. It also looks like a tear drop. This is one sad ticket. It would pretty much guarantee Hillary in office, which I think the GOP establishment prefers because they'll have an easier time dealing with her than Trump.

Re:Luz with Cruz

[dgatwood]

Former Republican running as a Democrat, former Democrat running as a Republican... this is by far the most screwed up election in our nation's history, and I'm including the "Who am I? Why am I here?" election....

Re:Luz with Cruz

[Mariner28]

I really think the flame logo is supposed to represent the Holy Spirit - you know, since Cruz was anointed by God to run for Prez. All the righty-tighties just eat that stuff up... But I wonder what the Wilks brothers, his major financial backers, think of the Carly thing. They don't think rightly of a woman being in a position of power.

Re:Luz with Cruz

[__aaclcg7560]

"Who am I? Why am I here?"

You're the voter exercising their civic obligation Most registered voters don't vote. Most citizens aren't registered to vote. Democracy is decided by the few and the proud.

Re:Luz with Cruz

[dgatwood]

I was referring to the 1992 vice-presidential debates, where Admiral Stockdale began his opening remarks with, "Where am I? Why am I here?"

Re:Luz with Cruz

[dgatwood]

Or rather, "Who am I? Why am I here?"

With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[fustakrakich]

I wouldn't worry about his "wide stance" on H1-Bs. I wonder why he's sabotaging his campaign so quickly. I mean, really, Fiorina? Are people actually voting for a ticket like that?

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[amiga3D]

She was the only one stupid enough to agree.

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[MightyMartian]

At this point, it just looks like desperation. It's hard to see how anyone is going to stop Trump.

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[Anonymous Coward]

This could be the beginning of the end for Donald Trump!

He's having a moment. It's a little unclear how long this moment's gonna last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvyRIgPImOY

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[Anonymous Coward]

It's hard to see how anyone is going to stop Trump.

Chainsaw and a whistle in the Thunderdome...

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, don't worry about him. His gag is part of the Clinton campaign. He's a saboteur. A political "suicide bomber" planted into the GOP.

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[serbanp]

At this stage, he only cares about the California delegates and probably has this fuzzy idea that Fiorina will help him with that - given how much this state loves her (what?)...

Re:With Carly Fiorina As Running Mate

[dgatwood]

They'd just about have to be on crack to think that Fiorina would help them in California....

Most California Democrats in Northern California would instantly vote for a centrist Republican over either Barbara Boxer or Dianne Feinstein. They are completely out of touch with the views of the Silicon Valley voting block, with Boxer tending to be very pro-Hollywood and anti-tech, and Feinstein being very pro-spook and anti-tech. Somehow, both of them won their last elections because the Republicans managed to pick somebody that the NorCal Democrats would dislike even more. That takes major skill for a political party to be that completely out of touch with potential voters, to such a degree that I have to assume that they didn't even try, or maybe even that they deliberately sabotaged their own chances for some reason.

In California, Fiorina will float Cruz's candidacy like a lead balloon, which makes me assume that Cruz isn't even trying, either, and that this is all basically just for show at this point.

What a mystifiying decision

[Applehu Akbar]

Ted Cruz was already a distant second banana, and has decided to pump up his popularity by inviting as running mate the least popular vagino-American in Silicon Valley. The only possibly worse choice would be John McAfee.

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[Anonymous Coward]

I dunno. Is Hans Reiser on parole yet?

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[MightyMartian]

At least McAfee would be worth a few jokes. Fiorina is only deserving of unmitigated contempt. One of the worst CEOs in recent history, which is astounding, consider the amount of competition for worthless brain dead senior management there is these days.

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[KiloByte]

Hans Reiser might be a psychopath but at least he's not incompetent. Carly has not the slightest bit of adequacy.

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[Anonymous Coward]

"Hans Reiser might be a psychopath"
For choking out the wife who fucked another guy and then stole his house?

Na, men get choked out for much less, usually don't die tho, but it's always a gamble (one nina lost).

The kids are better growing up in Royssia these days anyway.

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[CrashNBrn]

I dunno ... John McAfee is kinda awesome (JOHN MCAFEE TELLS ALL / RAW)... or at least pretty damned funny - How To Uninstall McAfee Antivirus

Re:What a mystifiying decision

[drinkypoo]

Hans Reiser might be a psychopath but at least he's not incompetent.

He's not very good at not getting caught for murder, which pretty much disqualifies him from becoming POTUS.

Heh.

[Black Parrot]

Cruz may need H1-B status to work as POTUS.

Re:Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

well, there certainly isn't any qualified applicants.. the h1-b route and importing POTUS from india for $50k should be an option.

Re:Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

In that case you could have had President Schwarzenegger in White House anytime now. Instead of cruzing along the campaign chem trails you could have posters like: "Vote for me if you want to live!", "I'll be back, for you!", "Hello cutey pie, one of us is in deep trouble if you don't vote the right way!" and "That me, strong in the White House, like Crom."

Re:Heh.

[riverat1]

I laughed out loud at that!

But although I'd never vote for Cruz for anything ever, he does have the citizenship qualifications to be President. As much as John McCain did.

Re:Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is funny because Cruz is an alien from outer space, right?

Re:Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

He was born I Canada and so is not constitutionally eligible to be the US President. But laws shmaws, right? We're in a post-constitutional age.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

Re:Heh.

[Anonymous Coward]

He was born I Canada and so is not constitutionally eligible to be the US President. But laws shmaws, right? We're in a post-constitutional age.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...

He was born to a US-citizen parent dumb ass. Not that I support Cruz for president.

Madame Vice President

[PopeRatzo]

Official Cruz-Fiornia campaign portrait:

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/...

Re:Madame Vice President

[jenningsthecat]

Too bad I already posted - I'd love to mod you up. Laughing my ass off! Although I'm not entirely sure whether Cruz is Waylon or Madame...

Re:Madame Vice President

[PopeRatzo]

I'm not entirely sure whether Cruz is Waylon or Madame...

It's "Wayland". Get your gay puppeteer references straight.

Oh, and here's a little gift for your thoughtful and appreciative comment:

https://youtu.be/---tyXiY1fE

[Many people forget that in the '70s, Wayland and Madame were so popular that they actually made movies. This clip is from the unforgettable "Norman...Is That You?" with Redd Foxx. Also, I apologize to the young'ns that will be completely puzzled by the reference.]

In question now?

[Tailhook]

Cruz's recently acquired anti "H1-B stance" is election year politics just like his recently acquired anti TPP stance.

Re:In question now?

[MightyMartian]

The guy is a sociopath. He has no sincerely held views, no real beliefs, he's just a pure political animal, a Frank Underwood with eyeliner.

Re: In question now?

[TimMD909]

He's misunderstood. He needs a bogel for the glotch, you insensitive clod.

Re: In question now?

[spire3661]

That was fantastic.

Re:In question now?

[Anonymous Coward]

The guy is a sociopath. He has no sincerely held views, no real beliefs, he's just a pure political animal, a Frank Underwood with eyeliner.

You got him wrong. Cruz is very dogmatic when it comes to political views. He's the type of man that can burn down the government because God said so. He's the evangelical christian equivalent of an arab salafist.
God help us all if he wins. Trump might be a drump but he at least can change opinions. Cruz's only opinion is the literal interpretation of the bible. But you're right on one point, Cruz is a sociopath.

Re:In question now?

[riverat1]

The guy is a sociopath. He has no sincerely held views, no real beliefs, he's just a pure political animal, a Frank Underwood with eyeliner.

I do think is evangelical views are sincere, which makes him even more unvotable for to me.

Re:In question now?

[MightyMartian]

No, he's a con artist that uses a cloak of "Evangelism" to maintain the support of his constituency.

Re:In question now?

[EmagGeek]

Come on, don't insult Frank Underwood like that. I think Underwood is a whole lot more electable than Ted Cruz.

Re:In question now?

[Anonymous Coward]

While his war-hawkish and pro-inequality views might be sincerely Evangelical, I submit they cannot be sincerely Christian.

Though you'll never get a direct conceptual correspondence between religion and politics, anyone who has read Jesus' statements would clearly understand him as "Left" in a political rendering, and that the "Religious Right" is a contradiction in terms.

H-1B Is not offshoring

[tkrotchko]

H1-B is bringing in guest workers to the United States, but keeping the work in house.

Offshoring is simply moving the work to a foreign country.

The article and summary seem to have confused the two.

Re:H-1B Is not offshoring

[imbusy]

In the Disney case H1-B workers were trained by the US citizens and then the jobs were moved offshore and US citizens were fired. I can't complain about H1-B because I used it to get into US as well, but I can see how it is used to drive down wages. There are already laws saying you can't offer a lower than average wage for the position to a H1-B worker, but there is freedom on what you call the worker's position so a senior can be hired as a junior.

Re:H-1B Is not offshoring

[bloodhawk]

Was about to post the same offshoring does not equal H1-B. The article and summary author doesn't seem to understand the difference, that is not to say Carly isn't an aweful CEO though or that Cruz somehow has credibility in his stance just the article and summary is really really bad.

Re:H-1B Is not offshoring

[Solandri]

Not only are they confusing the two, they're accusing someone of flip-flopping based on their speculation as to his motives. Cruz's stance only appears inconsistent if you took the cynical view that he supported H1-Bs because he wanted cheap foreign indentured servants. Now suddenly he wants to put a $110k floor on H1-B salary, and you think he's had a conversion.

If Cruz truly believed H1-B visas are being used properly, then there is absolutely nothing inconsistent about his previous stance and current stance. He strongly supported H1-B visas because he felt they were a valuable tool for bringing over highly skilled foreigners as workers, and as a first step to making them U.S. citizens. A bunch of people complained that H1-Bs are also being abused for low-income labor, so he is taking steps to prohibit such abuse and preserve what he feels is the proper use of H1-Bs. It is not a conversion because he never believed H1-Bs were supposed to be abused that way, as the cynics speculated.

Fiorina OTOH...

Re:H-1B Is not offshoring

[Anonymous Coward]

typically those h1-b's "in house" are actually outsourced contractors... and often contracted out to companies at least partially foreign owned (where the workers primarily come from). potato potahto it's still taking american jobs, for which there are an abundance of actual qualified workers, and filling them with foreigners at much lower pay.

Lying Ted

[Anonymous Coward]

As much as I despise Drumpf, he's right about Cruz.

Did Cruz say it with a Bible held high?

Reading too much into it

[Nidi62]

Cruz picked Fiorina for 2 reasons: she's a woman and she an "outsider". He doesn't care what her policies are as long as she doesn't have a Palin effect on his campaign. The "outsider" factor is to try and grab support away from Trump and the woman factor is to try and get people to think he will have a better shot at winning a general election.

On the bright side, maybe Fiorina would try to offshore Congress?

Re:Reading too much into it

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be awesome. Could we offshore the political offices and CEO positions of major corporations overseas. I am pretty sure that if we could hire President Putin or Castro to run the United States they would do a better job of protecting the interest of the United States. The current president seems hell bent on becoming subservient to every single nation on the planet. The only time he shows some balls is when he is going after American white crackers. He will use FORCE to round up those evil 'white nationalist'.

    People say President Obama is the first black president. I call bullshit on that. Noone hates crackers as much as a fellow white cracker. I say President Obama is a cracker though and through. I can not imagine a black man allowing President Putin or Castro bitch slap the POTUS from one end of the planet to the other like he has.

President Obama. Please start looking after the interests of the United States as opposed to the interests of tree frogs, plants, and (Russia / Mexico / China / Cuba). But then again I might just be racist.

The United States is the most diverse nation on the planet, yet when we finally get a so called black president he gives up the ball to a bunch of nations who really don't give a fuck about the United States or black people. Go Figure. President Obama is the worst pres since the last pres.

Re:Reading too much into it

[mnemotronic]

maybe Fiorina would try to offshore Congress

I say we outsource Congress to SE Asia and the Executive branch to China. TSA can be replaced by lowest bidder. I heard that some company named i-SYS will do it for free. Let's grate America up again!

Re:Reading too much into it

[alvinrod]

He probably picked her because he thinks it will give him more pull in California, which it won't. She's tried to run for office in California before and failed. He she actually be successful in her tenure as HP's CEO she likely would fare better politically, but when getting fired makes the company's stock jump over 6% on just that news alone, it's pretty obvious you did a shit job.

Perhaps more interesting though is that several weeks ago there was also a rumor going around that Cruz had an affair with the woman who's now Fiorina's campaign manager. I didn't really go anywhere, but the person who reported on it was the same one who broke the Edwards scandal previously. Carly might have put the squeeze on him in order to stay silent and was always his guaranteed choice of VP whether it did him any good or not.

However, it doesn't really matter. Cruz only has appeal to the bible-belt crazy wing of the Republican party. People were so caught up in the narrative about how the Republican party disliked Trump that they forgot that the party doesn't like Cruz either.

Re:Reading too much into it

[youngone]

they forgot that the party doesn't like Cruz either.

Where I live the media were running stories only a couple of weeks ago about how Cruz was hated by the Republican elite, almost as much as they hate Trump. Yesterday I read about how Cruz is teaming up with Kasich to stop Trump, and the Republicans love Cruz.

No-one seems able to explain how that was ever going to work, so of course it fell over at the first hurdle, and Trump won five more States. If Cruz has Fiorina as his running mate, what about Kasich?

None of this makes any sense unless you get no outright winner, and the Party can then insert their own man.

Re:Reading too much into it

[Anonymous Coward]

as she doesn't have a Palin effect on his campaign.

Good thing she started off her co-run by singing a super-creepy song, plus brought along a nice clip for Trump to post of her on TV saying her now-running-made is a pandering fraud who will tell any lie for a vote. So the Cruz-Carly is off to a good start!

Re:Reading too much into it

[quantaman]

they forgot that the party doesn't like Cruz either.

Where I live the media were running stories only a couple of weeks ago about how Cruz was hated by the Republican elite, almost as much as they hate Trump.
Yesterday I read about how Cruz is teaming up with Kasich to stop Trump, and the Republicans love Cruz.

Oh Republicans hate Cruz, more than they hate Trump, more than they hate Obama, even more than they hate that illegally immigrated Islamic-Mexican transsexual abortion doctor named Osama.

But Cruz only loses them the election, Trump maybe loses congress and senate while firmly ensconcing slightly racist trolling white men as the base of the Republican party.

No-one seems able to explain how that was ever going to work, so of course it fell over at the first hurdle, and Trump won five more States.
If Cruz has Fiorina as his running mate, what about Kasich?

None of this makes any sense unless you get no outright winner, and the Party can then insert their own man.

Seems like they needed to work that out before talking about it publicly.

The problem is that Cruz has an ideology that gives him a lower ceiling than Trump and Kasich has had his best success running as "None of the Above". Neither has a remote chance at getting another shot at the nomination so it's win or bust, and if the delegates are going to hand it to a not-Trump it's going to be the not-Trump who seems to be in charge.

Re:Reading too much into it

[Anonymous Coward]

...TSA can be replaced by lowest bidder...

I thought TSA were the lowest bidder!

Re:Reading too much into it

[Anonymous Coward]

Also, Carly has been living in VA for the last several years, and is a VA resident: that was where she voted. If she was a magnet for Californians, wouldn't she have still been a CA resident?

Beating a dead horse

[Koby77]

Ted Cruz has been mathematically eliminated from winning the nomination by virtue of voter delegates to the convention. His choice for vice president running mate matters about as mine: 0% chance of winning a legitimate vote. So therefore I nominate Ben Carson as my running mate. Quick, someone call a press conference!

Re:Beating a dead horse

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Trump, is that you again?

Re:Beating a dead horse

[Anonymous Coward]

All he can do at this point is to *hope* to spoil trumps nomination and make it contested.

Trump needs 250. There are 445 delegates left. Cruz can not automatically get the nomination at this point. All he can do is hope for contested.

I personally do not see that happening. But it could.

Re:Beating a dead horse

[MightyMartian]

Unless he can start winning some states again, I don't see how he can hope to stop Trump. Before last night, maybe a slim chance, now, forget it. Trump has got the nod, which means Hillary Clinton is the next POTUS.

Re:Beating a dead horse

[Anonymous Coward]

> Trump has got the nod, which means Hillary Clinton is the next POTUS.

Did you think Cruz getting the nod (with his huge base consituency) didn't? I assume you're just too ignorant to understand the consequences of your own imagination.

Re:Beating a dead horse

[Anonymous Coward]

The difference is everyone will come out to vote for Hillary even those that are uncertain about her in the democratic party simply because she isn't trump. Cruz while being a useless knob doesn't engender such hate and may just make a lot of people that would vote for Hillary just abstain. he still wouldn't beat her and at this stage it looks like USA is royally FUCKED no matter which candidate that get, not sure their has ever been a worse set of options.

Lying

[Anonymous Coward]

He's (Cruz) is lying his ass off to get them more money, they are smarter in most things. Why not just talk about that instead of making it about money or making it about lying or both?

It seems so simple.

Who cares?

[jenningsthecat]

Cruz strikes me as an opportunist who will engage in policy-based evidence making. It doesn't matter how good or bad the H1-B program is - he will denigrate it or support it based entirely on what will win votes and/or please major campaign contributors and/or result in some concession in some sleazy backroom deal. Cruz will do with H1-B whatever gains him the most political capital, and Carly's position is irrelevant.

Not that Cruz is much different from most of the other contenders, Democrat or Republican.

Reiser would be a bad choice?

[Anonymous Coward]

I was sure he'd help his presidential candidate murder the competitions.... chances.

What did you think I was going to say?

Alternative Right viewpoint

[bretts]

Alternative Right writer here. From where most of us on the altright stand, Cruz looks like The Establishment Candidate: strong defense, protection of corporate interests, and nominal attention to irrelevant social issues. The GOP likes him because he will not rock the boat, and they can keep playing Little Red Riding Hood to the big bad wolf of the Democrats. That way, the donations can continue to roll in and yet they do not have to take any risky stances. Everyone in Washington is keeping everyone else there employed, and the consequences to America and her people are entirely irrelevant.

And the other side

[s.petry]

H1Bs even if implemented "correctly" are bad for the nation. If that person is so exceptional, the company can pay for them to immigrate. You know, like we did for the majority of human history.

Your thesis works if, and only if, there is a single global economy with the same rules for all workers. The whole "but we are global" argument falls flat on it's face because that scenario does not, and will not ever, exist. It's always about higher profits at the expense of the worker, always. If China required unemployment insurance, health insurance, retirement plans, caps on hours a person was allowed to work and/or forced to work, and all of the safety and regulation training companies are required to provide in the US, do you think labor would still be pennies on the dollar in exchange? H1B workers receive huge tax breaks, and allow companies to bypass legal work restrictions. You know, like that one company who literally had slaves escape last year who were here on H1B visas? (One of how many obvious violations, and how many under the table threats.. yeah)

Look, if Politicians and Uber wealthy people really had _your_ interests in mind they would stop lining their own pockets and start lining yours. They don't, you are delusional if you believe they are on your side and looking out for you, the end.

Re:And the other side

[TheSync]

If China required unemployment insurance, health insurance, retirement plans, caps on hours a person was allowed to work

In China, under the Social Insurance Law both employers and employees are required to make contributions (at different rates) to a pension fund, unemployment insurance fund and medical insurance fund, as well as the Housing Provident Fund. Employers, but not employees, are also required to contribute to the work-related injury and maternity insurance funds.

Under the Chinese Standard Working Time System, workers shall not work more than 8 hours a day and shall not work more than 40 hours a week; workers have at least one day off per week.

To the extent that labor costs less in China, it is due to the massive surplus of rural labor moving into urban manufacutring zones. However China's GDP per worker is only 17% that of the USA due to less capital per worker being available for productivity. But capital investment continues in China, worker productivity is growing, and wages are growing - especially as the surplus rural labor pool runs out.

Re:And the other side

[Cyberax]

H1Bs even if implemented "correctly" are bad for the nation. If that person is so exceptional, the company can pay for them to immigrate

How? There are no real fast ways to get a green card in the US, outside of the EB2 green card program.

If China required unemployment insurance, health insurance, retirement plans, caps on hours a person was allowed to work and/or forced to work, and all of the safety and regulation training companies are required to provide in the US, do you think labor would still be pennies on the dollar in exchange? H1B workers receive huge tax breaks, and allow companies to bypass legal work restrictions.

There are no tax breaks for H1B workers, they actually have to pay Social Security tax even though workers might not stay in the US and receive any benefits from SocSec later in their life. H1B also does not allow employers to work around labor rules.

What H1B does allow is grossly underpaying people for work that requires high qualification. And the easiest way is indeed to have a minimum $110k wage.

Re:And the other side

[s.petry]

How? There are no real fast ways to get a green card in the US, outside of the EB2 green card program.

I gave you the primary reason, you just don't like it. Immigration is the solution, you just don't like that as the answer. Start reading Milton Friedman if you really want to understand. I don't have months to try and teach you economics theory and would do a worse job than Milton.

There are no tax breaks for H1B workers, they actually have to pay Social Security tax even though workers might not stay in the US and receive any benefits from SocSec later in their life. H1B also does not allow employers to work around labor rules.

Good grief, at least _try_ to run a web search before making such easy to disprove claims. Look up the OPT program. I'm not going to provide citations because you lazy.

Re:And the other side

[Anonymous Coward]

China is so rife with corruption that I seriously doubt the necessary contributions are being made as required by the Social Insurance Law. Same for the hours per day/week.

Re: And the other side

[Cyberax]

I _am_ an H1B worker, though not really a typical one (for one, I'm in the top tax bracket). I also now hold an EB1 green card. I am absolutely for easier immigration rules for highly qualified specialists. The reality right now though is that there are no real alternatives to H1Bs for people willing to immigrate.

Re:And the other side

[Espectr0]

H1Bs even if implemented "correctly" are bad for the nation. If that person is so exceptional, the company can pay for them to immigrate. You know, like we did for the majority of human history.

How would that be different from what you guys have now? You just described the consequences of a company hiring an H1B visa holder

Re:And the other side

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's just suppose, for the sake of argument, that this "Chinese Standard Working Time System" is real. If real then it is widely ignored, or unenforceable, or contains loopholes big enough to drive aircraft carriers through. The whole Apple/Foxconn labour standards scandal was about precisely this.

So if you think that Chinese workers are only working 8 hrs/day and 40 hrs/week, you have a serious reality problem.

Re: And the other side

[s.petry]

Stop changing the subject because you lose. Moving the goal post is a pathetic TROLL, not debating. You are wrong, you are dishonest, and you know that you are.

Please never move to the US, we have enough people living here who are sociopaths already. Stay in your own country and lie for self interests.

Vermin Supreme!

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask Vermin Supreme what his opinion is on H-1B Visas. He's just as likely to be the Republican nominee as Ted Cruz is.

Re:Vermin Supreme!

[ChunderDownunder]

Vermin Supreme

I'm not from the US; is that some sort of pizza topping?

Re:Vermin Supreme!

[Dragonslicer]

He's a guy from Massachusetts that wears a boot on his head and advocates for a pony-based economy. He got on the primary ballot in New Hampshire. His campaign slogan was something like "All politicians are vermin, so the president should be Vermin Supreme."

mo3 Up

[Anonymous Coward]

as it is 7ice8sed

I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[shanen]

Fiorina as V-P? Does Cruz think the presidential election is an UNpopularity contest?

Even by Texas standards of insanity, his desperation is hilarious.

Born in Texas, but now I'm an ex-Texan of the no-vote-for-you party and I donated my poll tax to Bernie Sanders.

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[Alomex]

Just like you I couldn't make heads or tails out of this choice... until I figured out that what must have happened is that all of Cruz first choices turned him down and he had to settle for Carly.

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[shanen]

Actually, at this point I'm hoping the Donald gets the nomination, but no one will agree to be his V-P. That would be a hilarious end for the party that claims to be the legacy of Abe Lincoln's Republican Party and the GOP of Ike and Teddy. Just a sad brand hijack.

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[skam240]

Chris Christie has already sold his soul to Trump for a shot at the VP spot.

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[riverat1]

I think you got that right.

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[shanen]

Chris Christie has already sold his soul to Trump for a shot at the VP spot.

Considered as an election tactic, that would seem unwise, even by the Donald's extremely fuzzy values of wisdom. I think their supporters are almost the same set, whereas the usual ideal is to broaden your appeal with a V-P pick from another region of the country or with significantly different characteristics. Actually, I think Christie's supporters are a small subset of Trump's (but mostly I can't imagine who would support or vote for Christie (or Trump), even notwithstanding the evidence that someone must have for him to be governor).

Trying to link it back to the original topic of the article, it would make more sense for Cruz (or Trump) to pick someone who has a different H1B position than his own. The problem with Cruz is figuring out what that position actually is since it is quite probably unrelated to whatever he is saying (whereas Trump has been on every side of every issue).

Re:I always thought Cruz was insane, even in Texas

[skam240]

I dont think theres all that much cross over at all between supporters. They're very different canidates. Chris Christie is an Republican establishment moderate. Trump is most certainly not establishment and while he's moderate on some issues it's not at all where Christie is. For example, Christie has never even approached the "deport 11 million illegals" that Trump advocates. A women would probably be the best for Trump but he could do a lot worse than Christie precisely because of the fact that he's a centrist and that is not at all the catagory Trumps core supports are in.

I think the guy on MSNBC said it best

[Blinkin1200]

When it was announced that Cruz was going to name Carly Fiorina as his running mate, one of the people on MSNBC commented 'two losers are better than one?'

Yes, I laughed out loud. Cruz, in his introduction, listed all of the attributes a leader should have. I laughed again because she has none of these. Yes, I am biased. I had family members that were directly impacted by her management moves. It pissed me off to the point that I will never purchase or approve the purchase of any HP product.

The only question I have is whether I thaw out the tomato before I throw it.

Why question his stance and not hers?

[schwit1]

I think he chose her because the establishment likes her, she will attract more women and she can go toe to toe with Hillary without the automatic label of sexist. I am surprised Trump didn't ask her first ... maybe he did.

Re:Why question his stance and not hers?

[myowntrueself]

I think he chose her because the establishment likes her, she will attract more women and she can go toe to toe with Hillary without the automatic label of sexist.

I am surprised Trump didn't ask her first ... maybe he did.

Trump is going to have a Hispanic woman as his running mate.

Re:Why question his stance and not hers?

[dgatwood]

Why do I have a funny feeling that he'll try to find one who is single and willing to seduce the President of Mexico, as part of his plan to get them to pay for that wall....

Cant stand both of them

[Anonymous Coward]

But....$110,000 a year actually sounds like a fair deal. The problems not importing talent, it's paying them like slaves.

More Than One Issue

[KermodeBear]

There's more than one issue, and I dare say that when it comes to the issues, H-1B visas are not at the forefront of American politics. Most people outside of the tech industry don't even know what the hell they are. Whatever differences Cruz and Fiorina have regarding H-1B visas really don't matter - it's not a significant part of the platform.

She already said it all

[Anonymous Coward]

Her own words and I quote Cruz will say anything to get elected.
He should self deport.

It has never been in question

[Anonymous Coward]

He was always going to fuck over American workers

Cruz is a Theocracy loving shit sucker

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

And Fiorina ran HP, and via mergers, Compaq and DEC into the ground and perpetuated the off shoring nonsense that helped destroy major parts of the tech industry in the US back then.

As much of a nazi demagogue as Trump is, Cruz and his minion are even worse. Sucks that the Dem candidate likely to win that nomination is a corrupt cunt.

Re: Cruz is a Theocracy loving shit sucker

[TimMD909]

But how do you really feel about Ms Clinton? (On a serious note, I'd vote Trump if Hildog were the democratic nominee. I can't trust anyone with a snuke in her snizz.)

Re: Cruz is a Theocracy loving shit sucker

[Gojira Shipi-Taro]

It's a tough call. While Trump is likely exempt from traditional corruption, he's also a total shitbag, would tank our international relations, and possibly get us into a hot war within 6 months of taking office.

There are no good choices. The only firm NO I have is any candidate that says "Anyone who doesn't start the day on his knees in prayer isn't qualified to be the commander-in-chief of this nation".

Anyone who starts his day on his knees in prayer shouldn't be permitted anywhere near public office. None of my friends that call themselves Christians do that. Anyone that does (or more likely CLAIMS to do) is fucking insane.

Re:Cruz is a Theocracy loving shit sucker

[plopez]

Don't forget Lucent. She helped make Lucent what it is today.

Re: Cruz is a Theocracy loving shit sucker

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there any real evidence that Trump would be more dangerous as Commander in Chief than Cruz or Clinton? Trump has at least said that he respects Vladimir Putin and thinks he and Putin could get along. He also angered the Republican establishment by saying the Iraq war was a disaster.

Clinton voted for the Iraq war and was the architect of the "regime change" efforts that destabilized Libya and Syria.

Cruz is a rabidly pro-Israel religious nut, and while everyone was freaking out about Planned Parenthood funding, Fiorina made the statement that she would cut off dialogue with Putin and take an even more aggressive military posture so that he'd "get the message". I wouldn't let her within 1000 steps of the presidency.

Here's a carrot

[PopeRatzo]

You were just named a vice presidential candidate, Ms Fiorina. So why the long face?

http://assets.nydailynews.com/...

It does not matter

[Anonymous Coward]

The American taliban won't become president.

First Palin. Now Fiorina

[hambone142]

WTF is wrong with the Republican Party?

Prediction

[Tablizer]

Having followed politics a while, I predict a response similar to the following:

"There certainly have been abuses in the H-1B program. We should apply the lessons of these experiences, review the guest worker laws, and tighten them if necessary such that companies that truly cannot find qualified citizens still have access to guest workers, yet avoid the abuses we've been seeing from companies lacking a genuine need."

Minimum wage

[Livius]

It's *sounds* good to set a "minimum wage", but H-1B abuses are not about money, they're about abusing workers in every other way. Employers have no problem paying a worker for 40 hours work at a fair wage since they can pressure them into working 80 hours.

Ok, Slashdot...

[DoctorNathaniel]

You do realize that H1-B visas are probably a pretty minor thing in the grand scope? Maybe there might be more important or pressing concerns in presidential hopefuls than how they come down on visas for the tech industry?

Cuz that was the first thing on your mind when you heard this announcement?

I like Ted Cruz

[Anonymous Coward]

I voted for Ted Cruz. I agree with his economic policy, I agree with most of his domestic and foreign policy. I'm not all to concerned with social issues. I like Ted Cruz.

However picking Carly, specially so he can win CA and stop Trump puts a sour taste in my mouth. In no way should a failed CEO become the 2nd most elected official in the country. Specially after losing her Senate bid and her presidential bid.

That's not even mentioning her terrible record at HP.

It saddens me to say it, but Cruz has lost my support. Picking a Rand Paul, a Mike Lee, nearly anyone else who isn't a neo-con would have been fine with me. But this? No.

And with that, I'll have to throw my hat in the ring,
Trump 2016...

Re:I like Ted Cruz

[Anonymous Coward]

I originally had 3 favorites - Trump, Carson and Cruz. It's now 2. Cruz lost my support first after the con job he pulled on Ben Carson in IA, and more recently, when he signed on to the concept of 'Islamism' and distancing himself from Trump's ban on Muslim immigration. Cruz wants to ban Muslims from just 5 countries - Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq - from entering the US. But most of those Jihadi attacks - Syed Farook, the Chattanooga attacks, the Tsarnaev brothers, et al came from OTHER Muslim countries, not from these 5. Cruz's ideas ain't much better than the Bushes, who want no end to Muslim entry into the US

Just another set of immoral republicans.

[cpotoso]

They are ALL immoral of the worst kind. Always passing judgement on how other people live, always trying to mess up with other people's lives. But they are the biggest sinners. They are always drug addicts, or child molesters (see recent news), or are caught soliciting prostitution in airport bathrooms. In essence it boils down to how this starts: if your ideals are to just screw everybody and care for nobody you are a scum bag and that is that.

Re:Just another set of immoral republicans.

[Anne Thwacks]

if your ideals are to just screw everybody and care for nobody you are a politician

FTFY

Re:Just another set of immoral republicans.

[cpotoso]

Sure, most are bad... but republicans are piece of sh... BAD. I do not like Obama or Clinton, but W, Cruz or Trump are a lot worse.

You underestimate Congress.

[John.Banister]

They could do them wrong and not at all.

Imagine a bill to eliminate H-1Bs by providing free VR to companies so that those same workers could do the same jobs without leaving their home country. Think of the startups (In the world of corporate personhood, these are the children.) that could use this help in getting off the ground. Think of the dividends that could be paid to investors in American companies if CEOs had available this powerful tool. Daughters and Ducats - why move bodies at 560 mph when you could move minds at the speed of light!

Re:You underestimate Congress.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who needs VR? In my town, H1-Bs are often just the anchors to their cheaper brothers offshore. All they need is the Internet.

It was not having to wait for expensive/slow shipping of tapes and printouts overseas that made the whole offshoring concept become Christmas for employers.

Who cares? Cruz is dead

[Anonymous Coward]

The whole early VP selection is the desperate stunt of a candidate who knows he's losing. Raving about who pees where led him to a string of last place finishes that further cemented that he absolutely cannot reach 1237 delegates anymore. The guy's only chance at the nomination is the type of convention shenanigans that should turn off anyone who respects the idea of voting anyway. It's a catch-22: if you get a chance to vote for him in the general, then it's because he's done enough backroom scheming to make voting for him an act of shame.

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[account_deleted]

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What a joke.

[kheldan]

As if Cruz wasn't a crackpot and a joke to start with, he picks the second-worst running mate imaginable, the worst being Sarah Palin. When I heard about this on NPR I almost ran myself off the road, I was laughing so hard.

Re:What a joke.

[david_thornley]

Out of curiosity, how would you rate Michele Bachmann as a running mate (made a seriously unsuccessful attempt for the nomination in 2012, somewhat weakened by not running to stay in her Congressional seat in 2014)?

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[account_deleted]

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What Fiorina said about Cruz in January 2016

[Anonymous Coward]

On CNN, Fiorina said something about Cruz that people should now consider:

{
title:Carly Fiorina...
posted by : Raw Story
date: January 3, 2016
link: https://youtu.be/arUc8RD9yqg?t=2m15s
view count: 12,102
}

Also on CNN, Ted Cruz and his family:
{
title: Watch Ted Cruz...
posted by : CNN
date: Dec 2, 2015
link: https://youtu.be/hO_MkcZh-VY
view count: 1, 111, 229
}

And the late musician Prince wrote something about Trump:
{
title: Donald Trump (black version)
posted by: The Time Topic
date: November 7, 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkBs2tw89dk
view count: 209, 322
more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemonium_%28The_Time_album%29
}

Some may not have seen this from 1988 (twenty eight years ago) when trump was caught on camera wildly out of control::

{
Published on: June 25, 2015
Posted by: OWN
LInk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPs17_AkTI
View Count: 1,882,054
}

Two radio broadcasters slam trump:
{
Published on: November 15, 2015
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG8QX5SEtMU
view count: 33,415
}

I included view counts, 'cos WHAT THE H*** HAPPENED TO THE SLASHDOT EFFECT?!!!! ( Look at the view counts on the actual pages, and compare them to the numbers posted above, )

Offshoring and H1B

[Anonymous Coward]

How many years will it take Americans to distinguish between H1B and Offshoring. H1B is a tool, it is a boon and a bane at the same time. When the world's best and brightest come to the US, it is a win-win for all, when offshoring tech companies bring in H1Bs to transfer knowledge and permanently move IT departments offshore it erodes long term value. We need smart policies that encourage the smart PhDs, MBAs, MS holders who want to work here in the US and discourage the temporary workers who are here to transfer knowledge to their teams offshore, and the 1st step in making these smart policies is understanding and acknowledging the difference.

Looks like...

[codeButcher]

As a foreigner it looks to me as if 2017 will be the year in which all previous US presidents look good.

Re:Looks like...

[Anonymous Coward]

Even Andrew Jackson?

she's an "outsider"

[Snufu]

My ficus tree is an outsider.

And probably could have done a better job with HP.

Please explain to me your meaning of 'racism'

[Taco Cowboy]

... It's like most of the people here don't want workers from India and it's somewhat racist

In the United States I have 18 registered companies under my name and man more companies with other partners

None of those company, and I mean, *NONE*, employs H1B workers

If you want to claim 'racism', try me

I am not your average White

I am not even born in the United States

I am from China, I am an ethnic Chinese

Are you claiming that none of my companies employ even one single worker under the H1B visa scheme I am a racist?

Are you telling me that because all my co-workers inside the United States are American citizens or permanent residents, of all races, I must be a racist?

If I am a racist by doing what I do, then I am fucking proud to be a RACIST !

Re: Please explain to me your meaning of 'racism'

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you blow your nose into the sink in the lunchroom, or spit everywhere you walk ?

If you don't I'm calling BS on the whole "Chinese" thing.

Who cares about H-1B's?

[Anonymous Coward]

If he becomes president and returns the United States to the gold standard, the effects will be so dire that no foreign workers will want to come here.

Just viote Trump !

[Anonymous Coward]

Just get Trump in the Whitehouse already. Clinton is a crook and the rest of the pack are a bunch of whining losers.

Why does the VP matter?

[moeinvt]

Why would any of the President's views be "in jeopardy" simply because the chosen VP might disagree with those particular views? The VP has very little power as per The Constitution. Only if an H1B bill was tied 50-50 in the senate, or if she became president would Fiorina's views on that issue be relevant to establishing public policy.
The VP doesn't need to be a political clone of the president. Cripes, in the distant past, the VP could even be from an entirely different political party!

Cruz?

[MindStalker]

Well we will officially have our first imported President, it only makes sense he wants to bring in other imports as well. Perhaps we can import a medical system.

It wasn't in question before?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cruz has always been strongly pro-immigration, which is not surprising given he's from Texas, a large gateway state for people just trying to find a better life for themselves. Of course he wants to be accommodating to these people, who bring with them their vibrant culture and strong work ethics. I applaud his choice for VP. Together they will bring many new people to this culture to participate in the cultural melting pot, and many more people who can work and contribute to the economy.

Good for him!

Cruz didn't think this through

[laughingskeptic]

I wouldn't put my life as the only obstacle to Carly Fiorina's presidency.

Republican Mind Control

[Sloppy]

The People: "I am not fucking voting for Hillary! I won't! I swear, I won't!!!"

Republicans: "Oh, yes you will. You will vote for exactly whom we want you to."

What do you mean now?

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of use never believed that fuckers statements about any form of minimum wadge, unless it was to abolish it.

Damn lies!

[s.petry]

Cruz is not anything like McCain, your claim is completely false and lacks any semblance of truth. If you are repeating because of ignorance you are just as morally corrupt as a person repeating this to manipulate.

McCain was born on a US Military base, which is sovereign US territory and established in the definition of "Natural born". Cruz was born in a Canadian Hospital in CANADA, he was not born on US territory. His claim to being "natural born" is that his parents were citizens, which goes against the definition of "Natural born". In fact Cruz gave up his dual citizenship not very long before running for President.

Here is a very in depth analysis of Cruz, including the citizenship argument. Be careful, there are actually facts in this video.

Re:Damn lies!

[riverat1]

Cruz's mother was an American citizen at the time he was born. That's good enough to establish citizenship anywhere in the world.

Re:Damn lies!

[s.petry]

And your statement is related to the requirement of "Natural Born Citizen" how exactly? Oh, it's not the same thing so it's not related. You are still a liar, and intentionally deceptive. Instead of attempting more deception and lies, how about trying some honesty.

Re:Damn lies!

[Anonymous Coward]

This has to be the stupidest fucking comment I've read in a long time. You regularly demonstrate that you have shit for brains, but this really takes the cake.

Please at least fully state your position. You believe that pregnant women should not be able to leave the country without risking that they give birth to somebody who isn't a "natural born citizen." Say it. Just say it, faggot.

The birther thing was fucking stupid when Trump did it to Obama, and if we're going to do this fucking birther thing all the fuck over again with Cruz... just no, just shut the fuck up. There are a billion reasons I'm voting for Trump, even if I think he's pretty much an idiot as well, over Lyin' Ted, and stirring up some fucking birther shit because you think you can fucking play internet lawyer and point to some weird-ass obscure law on the book or precedent somewhere that makes you think flaming somebody for stating what every fucking reasonable citizen of my beloved United States reads "natural born citizen" means is just going to make a Cruz supporter say "Oh, you're right. I've got this whole thing wrong then."

You're just as fucking stupid as people who think if they use some kind of fucking magick phrase like "citizen of $state" that's a magical fucking get-out-of-income-tax-free incantation or that writing one's names in all caps somehow makes that a fucking legal fiction so that $law_you_don't_like just doesn't apply to you because magic. Do you also believe that if somebody finds out your real fucking name they have some kind of power over you? Do you suck dicks?

Good god, man. Please vote for Trump if that's what you were going to do anyway, but please stop posting brain dead shit.

Oh! I have a new litmus test to determine whether somebody is suffering from fucking brain-dead can't-fix stupid. Axl Rose came out as transgendered recently. Which restroom do you believe Axl Rose will want to use, say, a year from now? ...

If you said the women's room, you fucking lose, and I won't bother fucking tell you why. You fucking lose for the same reason you think "natural born citizen" doesn't mean what the courts have accepted for a long fucking time about what a "natural born citizen" is.

Re:Damn lies!

[riverat1]

The definition of Natural Born Citizen is rather fuzzy and has never been explicitly settled. If you are a citizen of the United States of America at the moment of your birth that's good enough for me regardless of where you were born.

Re:Damn lies!

[Anonymous Coward]

Cruz is not anything like McCain, your claim is completely false and lacks any semblance of truth. If you are repeating because of ignorance you are just as morally corrupt as a person repeating this to manipulate.

McCain was born on a US Military base, which is sovereign US territory and established in the definition of "Natural born". Cruz was born in a Canadian Hospital in CANADA, he was not born on US territory. His claim to being "natural born" is that his parents were citizens, which goes against the definition of "Natural born". In fact Cruz gave up his dual citizenship not very long before running for President.

Here is a very in depth analysis of Cruz, including the citizenship argument. Be careful, there are actually facts in this video.

McCain was born in Panama City, not the Canal Zone. Panama City was always a part of Panama. Then there is George Romney, who was born in Mexico, which was never US territory

Managers from India and Carly hate you.

[Anonymous Coward]

I work at a tech company in California. A billion dollar software company. A several managers from India were forcefully telling external recruiters they only wanted resumes of other workers from India. They did this for years. The major qualification was someone who came from India so we ended up with a lot of tehnicians who knew nothing about our products or coding. I checked around and other major tech companies almost all have this problem. Why do managers from India break the rules of companies committed to be equal opportunity employers? PLEASE look at your organization chart at your tech company I bet you notice quickly that Indian managers and executives have tricked HR and managed to hire only other people from India. At worst I suspect they are racist and believe that blacks, latinos, chinese and caucasian people are inferior. At best they are just hiring their friends, be an interesting study to find out what is going on. However, it is already too late the young people of this country are screwed. If you want your child to have a future refuse to train anyone from India because if they get promoted they will mostly likely never hire you or your kind. There are some good people from India that are decent technically and fair, but they are extremely rare, the bulk of H1B visa's will politically stab you in the back for a dollar, a decent bloke from India told me this.

H!B holders hate you here is proof.

[bugmenot1]

PLEASE look at your organization chart at your tech company I bet you notice quickly that Indian managers and executives have tricked HR and managed to hire only other people from India. At worst I suspect they are racist and believe that blacks, latinos, chinese and caucasian people are inferior. At best they are just hiring their friends, be an interesting study to find out what is going on. However, it is already too late the young people of this country are screwed. If you want your child to have a future refuse to train anyone from India because if they get promoted they will mostly likely never hire you or your kind. There are some good people from India that are decent technically and fair, but they are extremely rare, the bulk of H1B visa's will politically stab you in the back for a dollar, a decent bloke from India told me this.

You are confusing Rubio and Cruz

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

The guy is a sociopath. He has no sincerely held views, no real beliefs, he's just a pure political animal, a Frank Underwood with eyeliner.

Your description is just about perfect for Marco Rubio but it's completely wrong, well except maybe for the sociopath part, about Cruz. Very little of what Rubio believes makes any sense. He has spent almost all of his post law school life in some sort of government job. Rubio is a liar, has few if any ethics, and loves and needs money (he and his wife outspend their incomes). Rubio accepts positions based on contributions he gets. He does not have a belief that doesn't have a price attached to it. Rubio will use anything and anyone to get and hold power. He's not really a Tea Party kind of guy, but he had no problem pretending he was to get elected Senator. Honestly, I'm really surprised that he chose not to run for re-election as Senator but look for him to run for governor of Florida in 2018. He needs the money and he loves the power, so he's not yet finished as a politician, although he probably won't ever be president.

The problem with Cruz is that he really does believe all that whack job stuff he spouts. He's a bona fide Tea Party member, which immediately means that he truly believes a lot of anti-government nonsense he spouts, which sort of makes him something like an anarchist who wants to be president. The biggest component of his beliefs is the "Religious Whack Job" component, which I put at about 80% of his beliefs. The rest is just typical far right wing Republican nonsense - cut taxes to the bone, especially for businesses - stop as much government regulation as possible, all if possible - stop anything that remotely resembles environmentalism - businesses are always right so let them do whatever they like - and so on.

Behind you!!!!!

[Hognoxious]

You don't mod people down for disagreeing.

Yes I do.

You mod people down for being factually wrong or trolling.

No I don't.

Re:Behind you!!!!!

[TangoMargarine]

Fine, s/You/You're not supposed to/

Re:Behind you!!!!!

[TangoMargarine]

Bleh.

You're not supposed to mod people down for disagreeing. You're supposed to mod people down for being factually wrong or trolling.

Smells like desperation

[thunderclees]

Ted and the GOP inner circle where he comes from must be reeling in desperation to tap Carly. Fiorina is kind of evil, she successfully sank two great tech companies but need help from "the Don" Capella to kill a third. She took Lucent, a leader in high end network switching and reduced them to selling win-modems. She took HP, undisputed in printing, and with a vibrant UNIX community and reduced them to a 2nd rate Windows PC maker and forced them to share the printer market with just about everyone. All of that being said I'd still vote for her over Hillary. Not because she is on the GOP ticket but her evil is in no way close to Hillary's. On the scale of things Fiorina is Dante, Hillary is Satan.

Well I'll be dipped

[cmdr_klarg]

I didn't think there was a way to make me LESS likely to vote for Cruz, but they definitely found a way!

HP, PA-RISC, Alpha & Itanic

[Anonymous Coward]

a bad business person.

Like many other CEOs, she thought short-term without considering the long-term implications of her actions.

She pushed outsourcing to the detriment of American workers
She eroded the previous HP quality
She bought a horrible company in Compaq
She failed to properly integrate Compaq into HP
She failed to leverage a crown jewel in the DEC Alpha, and contributed to its cancellation after the acquisition
She destroyed the value of the overall business of HP

I don't need to say she is anti-American, though she may be. Definitely a business failure though, despite the golden parachute.

From what I recall, Compaq had already terminated the Alpha before the HP takeover. Besides, there was no reason for HP to embrace the Alpha, when they already had the PA-RISC, which they had decided to retire in favor of the Itanic. I'm no fan of Carly, but that was a decision taken during Lewis Platt. The environment in which such a decision was taken is understandable: at the time, Intel's top CPU was the Pentium or Pentium II, and way behind just about every RISC CPU - from Alpha to SPARC. HP wanted a partner in Intel to leverage their manufacturing, while Intel wanted a pioneer in CPU design. Which HP seemed to be providing with it's Multiflow & Cydrome acquisitions, which were VLIW Research companies.

If HP was guilty of killing a CPU, that would be the PA-RISC. In fact, when HP acquired Compaq, an argument could have been made that it was swallowing a CPU competitor in the Alpha. Except that Compaq had already terminated that CPU and sold all IP related to it to Intel. Carly had many faults, but HP's CPU debacle was not one of them.

Buying a company like Compaq, which was itself already struggling with its digestion of DEC, was stupid itself in its own right. Some of the other moves were already in the cake by Platt, when she took over. Such as spinning off Agilent and Keystart.

Trump, Cruz & H1Bs

[Anonymous Coward]

Trump recently pivoted in a debate to say that he now supported the H1B program, in spite of what his web site said. Megyn Kelly followed up just to make sure she heard him correctly. Then the next day, probably after talking to Rudy Guiliani and other trusted advisors, he flipflopped back to his original position.

So you can't trust Trump on H1B either. He'll say whatever it takes to win the election. I bet even he doesn't know what he'll do if he got elected, on that and any number of issues foreign and domestic.

Actually, Trump does openly support H1B's in one case - that of the OPT.

An OPT is an extension of an F1 student visa, which allows a graduate of any US college/university to work legally for 1 year. After that year, that person needs an H1B from his employer if they want to retain him. So the issue here was that foreign graduates of US universities would need to leave the US after their graduation if H1Bs went away. Trump favors them staying, since companies want people with their skills, and unlike illegal immigrants from Mexico or expatriate workers from India or China, these students actually have skills that companies can use. As opposed to foreigners who need to be trained by the people they are replacing.

So an H1B visa is a catch all for 2 types of immigrants - ex OPT holders, and expatriate workers from other countries. Trump supports the former, but opposes the latter. One way Trump could get his way would be to enable OPT holders to directly apply for green cards after N years, without having to convert them to H1Bs, and thereby not falling through the cracks if H1B ceilings don't get increased. If that happens, Trump could oppose H1B visas and still get his way on the OPT guys.

Cruz, OTOH, makes no distinctions between foreigners who graduate from US universities and people shipped in from India or China to replace US workers after being trained by them. As far as Carly goes, she directly moved the jobs to China, didn't necessarily bring in H1Bs for HP. So Cruz & Carly may not have differences on even this issue.

Only difference between Cruz & Carly - Carly is an out & out Islamopanderer, while Cruz is a believer in a fictional construct called 'Islamism'. A distinction without a difference.