SpaceX exec quits to fight Trump 'nightmare'

[applegrove]

SpaceX exec quits to fight Trump 'nightmare'

by Seth Fiegerman at CNN

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/15/technology/dex-torricke-barton-trump/index.html?category=technology

SNIP..............


For Torricke-Barton, head of communications at SpaceX, it was personal. He is the son of a refugee from Burma and emigrated to the U.S. from the U.K. He also spent much of his career pushing for a more connected world with roles at Facebook (FB, Tech30) and Google (GOOGL, Tech30).

Like much of Silicon Valley, Torricke-Barton was surprised and saddened to see Donald Trump win. Unlike some in the industry, however, he is now looking to do something about it.

Torricke-Barton announced Tuesday that he was quitting his job at SpaceX after just six months in order to do grassroots work to combat the rise of Trump and bridge the "growing gulf... between coastal elites and communities left behind by globalization."
Related: What Trump's presidency means for Silicon Valley

His project, called Onwards, will initially take the form of a "listening tour" to better understand why communities across America voted for Trump, how new technologies are impacting them and what they think needs to be changed.

..................SNIP

[BeyondGeography]

1. Bless him

[Wilms]

2. I hope he and Sanders get to sit down. n/t

[BainsBane]

3. Listening is good.

I hope we all learn from it.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. Hope he links up with Tom Steyer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steyer-vows-to-battle-trump_us_582c8307e4b099512f80135e

[ErikJ]

5. How about a fact-check app?

Type in the claim and it gives u the truth rating.

[Hortensis]

8. Those who need it most will reject it as lies.

After all, a quarter century of attack investigations proved Hillary Clinton consistently clean, earnest, and hard working, and how'd that affect their thinking?

She spoke for an hour to Coal Country conservatives in Kentucky about exciting major investments in their region that would mean good, worthwhile jobs, greatly increased incomes, reliable medical care, better schools for their children, and on and on. They grabbed and twisted one phrase to mean she callously promised to destroy their jobs and voted exactly as they would have anyway. They voted not just against her but against everything her administration planned to do for them because it was the opposing team.

This guy sounds absolutely wonderful, but I hope he starts with learning about the extremely unadmirable and reasons many people choose their leaders and how they behave once they have.

[cmos_sue]

6. My new hero!

This young man is an inspiration!

[Equinox Moon]

7. Maybe he will film some of it for a documentary

May your journey be fruitful.

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

9. I can save him a lot of time and money.

Trump won mainly because the RW media has succeeded in brainwashing their audience into believing lies and acting on "feelings" instead of facts. If people can be convinced that a greedy, fascist, cheat and bully like Trump is the answer to their prayers, then they are not acting on reason.

Many voted for Trump, who was as guilty as anyone of perpetrating the ravages of globalization, because they were convinced by extreme propaganda that Clinton was everything that Trump, in fact, was a thousand times more seriously: greedy, ambitious, crooked, "nasty", etc.

Let's not forget the many bigots who were drawn to Trump simply because he was one of them.

And don't discount the affects of misogyny.

Then, of course, there were plenty who voted for one of the most "elite" of the "coastal elites" because they agree with his take-from-the-poor give-to-the-rich because, after all, if you're poor you're shit, and stand to gain from a Trump presidency. Or, even worse, those who are poor and will be treated like shit by Trump, but who also buy into that "hate the loser" philosophy.

Oh, and that's not even to mention the very real possibility of election rigging, and I don't just mean the disenfranchisement.

I shouldn't have started this reply when I don't have time to edit and express my view more clearly, but I have no doubt about the central theme of my view: RW lies and manipulation have convinced huge swaths of people to vote against their own best interest and to elevate a truly dangerous man to a position of great power.