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Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Will Advise Trump On Business Issues (theverge.com)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick have joined President-elect Trump's Strategic and Policy Forum, which will regularly meet with the soon-president to advise on business issues, the Trump transition team said in a statement. From a report on The Verge: The now 19-member council, established earlier this month, also includes Disney CEO Bob Iger and IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. Members will "share their specific experience and knowledge as the President implements his economic agenda," according to the transition statement. PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi also joins today. The announcement suggests a new link between the president-elect and Silicon Valley, which has been generally wary of the Trump presidency, with the notable exception of Facebook board member and Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, who supported Trump despite controversy and has been working as an adviser for the transition team.

6 of 244 comments (clear)

  1. Well.. by Rei · · Score: 5, Funny

    On the one hand, the fox is advising us that we're spending too much on henhouse fencing.

    Then again, we should probably listen to him, as he has a degree in hen studies.

    --
    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
  2. Re:Slashdot is killing itself by bfpierce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is an article about who in tech is going to be advising the president. That's not partisan, it's just a fact.

    If /. users can no longer handle facts being distributed there's a bigger problem than 'what content do we post'.

  3. Re:Elon Musk will advise how to waste billions by skullandbones99 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do know that you are talking rubbish, right ?

    If you looked carefully into how governments are run, you will come to the conclusion that many business sectors are subsidised via tax breaks from governments. Many companies get tax breaks such as for the Oil Extraction and Exploration companies. Different business sectors use different accounting methods and tax rules.

    "very skilled in mismanaging money on a massive scale" if this were really true there would be a fraud case but no such case exists, Mr Musk is putting much of this money into constructing infrastructure. I suggest you wait another 10 years to see how these investments bring success.

    "exploding rockets" is part of the rocket industry and is calculated into the costs and insurance. It is sad when rockets fail. The important thing is that lessons are learned from the failures as this knowledge can be used to improve the rockets.

    "building self-crashing cars" is a false premise. The driver is still in charge of the car when the auto-pilot driver assist is used. You should compare traditional car crashes with crashes of electric cars (EV's) to come to the proper conclusion that EV's are safer. There will always be some horrific car crashes.

    EV's will be the dominant form of transport within 20 years from now, You need to get used to it.

  4. This is swamp draining by Okian+Warrior · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Using billionaires like Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick to tell you what to do is "swamp draining"?

    Yeah, drain that swamp and fill it with....billionaires.

    The swamp is filled with political elites and insiders. How is using non-political insiders *not* draining the swamp?

    To put this in terms of information theory, the term "elite" is a measurement, and as such should come with units. We usually don't show the units when we make that measurement, but this can lead to confusion.

    So for example, LeBron James is an elite athlete, where "athlete" is the units of measurement. Trump could appoint LeBron to his cabinet, that would be putting an "elite" in charge, and it would still be draining the swamp because LeBron is not an elite politician.

    The measurement units are different. An elite athlete is not the same as an elite politician, and calling both of them "elite" just confuses the matter.

    Trump himself is an "elite", only the unit of measurement in this case is "financial". Elon Musk is also a financial elite.

    "Draining the swamp" refers to removing corruption, which implies getting rid of the "political" elite.

    It makes sense to take advice from elites in other units of measurement, because elites generally get to be elite because of their skill and experience.

    Elites in charge are fine, so long as they are elites due to skill, and not politics.

  5. Re:Very disappointing. by Terwin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Musk must be engaging in some serious 1984-esque doublethink here. Or maybe Trump is blackmailing him in some way?

    It would be suicidal for the CEO of any company which has government contracts as a major part of its revenue(SpaceX) to snub the president elect.
    Not to mention the foolishness of refusing to advise a president who is probably looking at ending subsidies that makes another of your companies more profitable(Tesla).

    There is also the angle of advising the president towards actions that reflect your world view, even if that world-view is not shared('we should push LED lights because they last longer and are safer than either incandescent or compact florescent, not to mention delaying the need to build more expensive power plants and power network upgrades' without even mentioning that the reduced power requirements could help fight global warming for example)

  6. Visa Fraud by number6x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What the rule should be for H1B visas is that one cannot displace existing workers in the organization in order to bring in contractors on H1B status. Don't allow an abstraction layer between the job to be performed and the original company in the form of the middle-man contractor company to allow this kind of BS.

    Excellent Idea, and good catch on the 'abstraction layer' BS!

    H1B visas are only supposed to be used when an American worker with the same skills cannot be found, yet we keep hearing about cases where American workers train their H1B visa worker replacements before the Americans are fired. This should be a big red flag. The job should not be H1B eligible because there is an American worker available to do the job, the person currently doing the job.

    How do employers get away with this obvious visa fraud with no penalties whatsoever? They use the job description equivalent of 'creative accounting'.

    1. 1) First, define your current employee with a label of some kind. Say they are a 'Program Universal Design Specialist II (PUDS II)' or some other made up label. Then, define the task that the employee currently does as being a task for a 'PUDS II'.
    2. 2) A few weeks later. re-define the task as being a task for a 'Program Implementation and Support Specialist(PISS)'. Make sure to note that you have no employees that meet the skill requirements of a PISS. Note, also, that you can find no American candidates that meet the skill requirements of a PISS, but that the Indian vendor you work with happens to have a few really good PISS candidates, with whatever certifications are needed to back up the claim.
    3. 3) Contract with the vendor to bring in the PISS employees on an H1B's. Tell the current American PUDS II's that the company no longer has any tasks for a PUDS to work on, and that their job will be terminated. (If they sign a contract to train the incoming H1B PISS, never [complain|sue|talk about the company disparagingly|steal the office supplies] they can work the next 6 months, get severance pay and will not be denied when they apply for unemployment.)
    4. 4) Profit!

    With a few simple re-definitions of employee roles and employee tasks you can avoid fines and still engage in blatant visa fraud.