
Microsoft's Hypocrisy on DACA - feross
http://idlewords.com/2019/07/microsoft_s_hypocrisy_on_daca.htm
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Const-me
The article looks like BS. The main source is this link:

[https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&commi...](https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00193342&contributor_name=C00227546&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020)

According to that web site, quite a few other companies did the same, at the
same day. Some even donated exactly same amount.

[https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&commi...](https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00193342&contributor_name=C00075341&contributor_name=C00186288&contributor_name=C00428623&contributor_name=C00502906&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020)

I think it's either creative accounting, or donations matching. Probably in
combination with lazy payments processing, e.g. all transactions from March
are labelled "March 31"

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idlewords
You don't know what you're talking about, to be honest. If you're going to
call me out on BS, then state your claim.

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Const-me
> If you're going to call me out on BS, then state your claim.

Sure. The title says “Microsoft's Hypocrisy on DACA”, and the article focuses
on Microsoft.

Meanwhile, many other companies did the same: Facebook, Google, Motorola,
Verizon, Home Depot, UPS, Accenture, GE, Comcast, Siemens, and many others.

You ignored the rest of them. You have cherry picked a single data point from
a large publicly available database, and based your article around that.

May I ask why?

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olliej
Ok, so I’m seeing a lot of these (googles pac as well), can someone confirm
whether these are deliberate donations by the company, or whether they’re
corporate donation matching? (I don’t know whether the donation matching that
tech companies do restricts contributions to political orgs)

~~~
idlewords
Corporations can't match donations to political candidates.

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Tomte
While I don't like what Microsoft's PAC is doing, and I agree that probably
many employees don't really know where exactly the money goes to (OTOH, I'm
sure some employees explicitly agree with its political aims!), I also
consider it harassment to contact others about their donations.

These are co-workers, for god's sake! The people going around pestering
donators aren't some randos on Twitter that you just block. They are people
you can reasonably expect to meet in an "official setting" later. They are
people some of which you can reasonably expect to be higher up in the
hierarchy.

HR is totally right to shut that down, hard.

The activists should do what Maciej is doing here: create publicity. And
certainly not contact any of their co-workers directly.

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darkcha0s
From what I've read, Microsoft Corp. actually distances itself from its PAC.
I've heard many times that employees aren't in line with the politics they are
pushing. I'd be interested to hear more about how such a thing comes about.

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tptacek
Then _why have the PAC at all_?

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gigel82
I think the author is confused or biased. Corporations cannot use corporate
funds to make donations to political candidates. That's why PACs exist; and
they are entirely funded by employees.

I suspect that while a lot of its employees are left-leaning, (just like in
the general population) there are some right-leaning as well, and the PAC
cannot prevent those from making their donations to whomever they choose.

Microsoft doesn't donate any of its own money to anyone (they would be
breaking the law if they did). Microsoft employees do.

~~~
idlewords
I don't think you understand how a corporate PAC works. Employees pay in, and
the money is allocated by a group of DC consultants chosen by company
management.

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he0001
What does an organization like MS gain when they “sue” the government like
that? What can happen?

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techntoke
If they cared that much about helping people they would focus on open sourcing
their OS and making progress to benefit society as a whole, not backroom deals
for government contracts.

~~~
sascha_sl
God, why are you people like that? Article about a social issue, immediately
jump back to foss. Is that all the politics the audience of HN is interested
in? I could make a remark about the dominating demographic in here right now,
but i'll leave it at this metacommentary. You know who you are, "foss is the
most important issue" people.

~~~
ohithereyou
The problem with discussing politics here is that if you aren't on the right
side of history (as determined by groupthink) then you very quickly find
yourself shadowbanned or outright banned.

So don't expect a nuanced discussion of politics here.

~~~
sascha_sl
I'll be honest. With that comment I expected to find something between alt-
right and neoliberal shit in your comment history.

Positively surprised.

