Scott McNealy gets touchy feely with Trump: Sun cofounder hosts hush-hush reelection fundraiser for President

The mystery host of a Silicon Valley fundraiser for President Trump today has been revealed as Scott McNealy, co-founder and former CEO of Sun Microsystems. The location of the fundraiser, due to be attended by the Command-in-Chief, was kept under wraps, even from those that are reportedly paying $100,000 to attend, with …

[Anonymous Coward]

“If AT&T screws around with my data, I go to Verizon. If the USA screws with my data, I cannot leave.”

Seriously? The only people who could keep both AT&T and Verizon from screwing around with your data is the government. It's not like we have real competition in the cellular phone market.

And "leave" is just what Trump has suggested you do if you don't like what is happening. So, bye, Scott.

[Anonymous Coward]

People like him are so used to buy politicians they can't see the difference. The asymmetry between megacorps and customers means the latter will be always screwed if a government doesn't set the rules. Or if a non-functioning one like Trump's is charged to destroy them to free megacorps screwing.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

Seriously WTF! ???

Wow.

So a guy backs a political party in a country that is proud that it has free and open elections along with strong support of freedoms and you waste it by attacking someone who is in support of this?

Long ago I had the chance to move to Silicone Valley.

I'm glad I turned it down. I'm an independent but in California, common sense has left along with Elvis.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Seriously WTF! ???

> Long ago I had the chance to move to Silicone Valley.

I doubt it.

Proper noun:

Silicone Valley:

1. (slang) The porn industry of San Fernando Valley.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Seriously WTF! ???

I thought it was just a 'hacker name' like me calling it 'Silly Valley'

so FAIL to you for FAILING to GET THE HUMOR

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Seriously WTF! ???

> I thought it was just a 'hacker name' like me calling it 'Silly Valley'

Nope. It's not a 'hacker name'. Silicone Valley has had very well defined semantics for a very long time.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

@ST Re: Seriously WTF! ???

Sorry mate, calling Silicon Valley ... Silicone Valley ... been going on for a long time.

And in context you should know the difference.

Of course there are a couple of sex shops and venues in SFO that would make you blush.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

@ST Re: Seriously WTF! ???

Naw, I call it silicone valley because most people who live there have the liquid gooey mush implanted in their heads to fill in their cranium.

There's this disease called SVS (Silicon Valley Syndrome) where a person instantly feels smarter based on their proximity to Silicon Valley. I've seen this in friends who moved from the Midwest who suddenly felt superior based on the fact that they worked in the Valley and we didn't. Of course I have other friends who actually are smart and they moved there because they had to for work.

If you run the numbers, you have a higher salary but your cost of living goes way up.

Not to mention you have to deal a lot of things you don't have to deal with in other cities. The real trick is to take a job where you can get the Silicon Valley salary but have a much lower cost of living.

But to go back on topic...

My post which got seriously down voted by commentards who forget a simple idea.

Respect.

We live in a free society where one should feel free to voice their opinion. You don't have to agree with the opinion but just accept that a person has the right to hold that opinion.

I don't know McNealy's political views. I really don't care. Its his right to have a fund raiser for whatever candidate he wants.

By down voting me, you're actually saying that you don't believe that McNealy has the right to hold an opinion or freedom to host a fund raiser for a candidate of his choosing. What you're saying is that you don't respect the freedoms you have and use.

You are free to down vote me, however, think about what I am saying and why the down vote.

Of course if you are a fan of Sillycone valley... my condolences.

[HCV]

Re: Seriously WTF! ???

Argle bargle freedom wargle how dare you say things that I don't like why do you hate freedom

[bombastic bob]

Re: Seriously WTF! ???

"in California, common sense has left along with Elvis."

Good one.

From the article: "Trump is unpopular in California"

Trump is unpopular with the *LOUD* *CROWD* who attempt to look like "everyone" by being as *LOUD* as possible. [I can't even accomplish that by going 'all caps', ha ha ha]. In fact, the *LOUD* *CROWD* is busy trying to "OUT" people who SHOW UP at the Trump rallies and/or give money to his campaign.

Remember that guy who was CEO of Mozilla? He was "outed" for donating to a campaign for a proposition in California that was POPULAR AMONG VOTERS (it passed), but was "politically incorrect" so it was NUKED in the courts. And HE LOST HIS JOB.

What kind of world does *LOUD* *CROWD* *SHAMING* to get their way? A society of BULLIES?

Trump's VERY popuilar among MANY in California. You may not see it on the news, or read about it anywhere, but SOME outlets (like Fox News, talk radio) will reveal this little *secret* to the world... and if your media isn't being FILTERED, you'll hear about it.

And 'Silly Valley' needs an enema. Drain it right into the bay. Alviso used to be a swamp. Not sure what it is these days. That'd be a great place to build the 'enema drain' for Silly Valley... and then we just WASH ALL THAT LIBERAL CRAP AWAY!

[Ian Michael Gumby]

@Bombasitic Bob Re: Seriously WTF! ???

Absolutely.

I'm going to guess that you're in the over 45 crowd.

Today's younger population doesn't understand the freedoms they have extend to others with whom they may disagree.

When I was a kid, we had a neo-nazi march down Skokie Ave in Chicago. More people showed up to protest than supporters. Which is their right. But I support the right for the idiot to plan the march even though I don't believe in what he was preaching.

Its respecting the 1st Amendment.

[Fred Goldstein]

The myth of the "free market" is that it operates outside of government regulation. But a market cannot exist without regulation. Government enforces honesty, punishes prevents fraud, and provides public safety, even in an actual Smithian market. Today's so-called free marketers are really just wanna-be freebooters, who want to rob the public via their unregulated power.

[bombastic bob]

"But a market cannot exist without regulation"

* W R O N G * !!!

Markets can EASILY exist without regulation. The only reason regulations exist is that SOME participants might be engaging in unfair and/or predatory practices (read: China) and so the regulations are there to simply STOP the abuse. But when there is NO abuse, you need no regulations.

Except when Liberals run things, in which case the regulations are there so that *THEY* can pick "the winners" and CONTROL EVERYONE. it's what "they" do, yeah.

[Anonymous Coward]

Regulation

Rule number 1: There shall be no abuse.

But Bombastic Bob doesn't need that because people are inherently good.

[CrazyOldCatMan]

Markets can EASILY exist without regulation

Yeah - because lightening bank regulation didn't in any way lead to a major economic crisis with the Government being required to give vast amounts of money to the "too big to fail" banks in order to stop them collapsing..

Oh, hang on.

Can you actually list any specific period of history when a truly unregulated market existed? For bonus points, list one where there wasn't some sort of major social or economic calamity occuring as a direct result of said lack of regulation..

[CrazyOldCatMan]

free marketers are really just wanna-be freebooters

What in the bad old days were called "robber barons". And I don't mean in the old English nobility sense - to quote T.J. Stiles:

"conjures up visions of titanic monopolists who crushed competitors, rigged markets, and corrupted government. In their greed and power, legend has it, they held sway over a helpless democracy."

[Clunking Fist]

Dude, AT&T & Verizon have handed over all your data to the NSA without a warrant. See Room 641A.

[JohnFen]

What a scumbag

"He was the person who famously announced that the age of privacy was over, and he followed that up last year by announcing that people’s personal data was safer with marketers than the US government"

Fuck you, McNealy, for that as well as the rest of your inhuman, hypocritical worldview.

[Mark 85]

Re: What a scumbag

He seems typical of his class. They get there billions and workers who built their business get stuffed. I'm all for free-enterprise but worker bees should get paid equal to the value they give.

[Blank Reg]

Re: What a scumbag

Sun used to pay quite well and gave out plenty of stock options, and not just to management. And part of the reason for Sun's failure was because Scott didn't want to lay off staff, they waited too long and by then it was too late.

But none of that excuses supported that orange dirt bag.

[bombastic bob]

Re: What a scumbag

"He seems typical of his class. They get there billions and workers who built their business get stuffed"

'Class Envy' much?

Those who are CREATIVE and/or WORK HARD and/or TAKE THE RISKS necessary to MAKE IT BIG **DESERVE** to keep their wealth! Because, THEY! EARNED! IT!!!

Socialists and their "justice" and the "warriors" who want to FORCE THE REST OF US into their COMMUNISM need to GET A CLUE. Socialism DEPRESSES economies, DISCOURAGES hard work [because it will NOT pay off, everyone ELSE gets "the benefits", not YOU], and ENCOURAGES MEDIOCRITY.

Because, if there's NO REMAINING PATH to success except "brown nose someone in power", then there will be NO SUCCESS ANY MORE. And society will GREY OUT into MEDIOCRITY. Right, Venezuela?

[countd]

Re: What a scumbag

Shut up, Bob.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What a scumbag

One must remember, the only real talent the present US President has is the ability to bring out the worst in the worst of humanity.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What a scumbag

McNealy is/was a privacy scumbag, but that is a trait that is common among the execs at many major Silicon Valley companies--Google, Farcebook, Cisco, Palantir, and I am sure more. McNealy is pretty much out of the picture in running big SV companies these days, so I don't see why we need to single him out too much when there are guys like Zuckerberg who are far more deserving of criticism.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: What a scumbag

You see lack of Zuck criticism on El Reg?

[el kabong]

No lack of Zuck criticism on El Reg

And deservedly so, zuck works real hard to earn that criticism, withholding it would be both unfair and a gross violation of his human rights.

[sabroni]

Re: I don't see why we need to single him out too much

It's in the article. He's hosting a secret fund raising event for Trump.

Do try and keep up.

[bombastic bob]

Re: I don't see why we need to single him out too much

OK, lemme git this straight: You just said that McNealy needs to be *SINGLED* *OUT* because "He's hosting a secret fund raising event for Trump.".

What if Republicans *SINGLED* *OUT* people who did a Biden fundraiser, or a Mrs. Clinton fundraiser, or an OBAMA FUNDRAISER [back in the day] ???

Do you REALIZE what it is you are SUGGESTING? That a MOB RULE *LOUD* *CROWD* gets to BULLY and "SHAME" *ANYONE* *THEY* *DISAGREE* *WITH* __SIMPLY__ FOR *DISAGREEING*?

(you're making me run out of punctuation on this one)

That's a form of THOUGHT POLICE, you know. Except the "police" are an *UNELECTED* *MOB*!!! (That implies 'mob rule', hint hint hint)

[JohnFen]

Re: What a scumbag

I've not been remotely sparing of criticism of Zuckerberg in articles where such commentary is on-topic. But if it makes you feel any better, fuck Zuckerberg too.

[Daniel von Asmuth]

Let's make SunTools great again

That zucks.

[Ian Michael Gumby]

@JohnFen Re: What a scumbag

Was that Scott McNealy or Eric Schmidt?

IIRC that was Eric Schmidt who said it while head of Google.

But I could be wrong.

[Mayday]

Secret Location

"vetted attendees asked to meet at a car park in Palo Alto before being given the address."

Sounds like when I used to have to go and get sketchy location details whenever a rave party was happening.

[eldakka]

Re: Secret Location

Like with a rave, you should take lots of drugs before (or while) attending.

[WonkoTheSane]

Re: Secret Location

Snorting Adderall through a rolled-up copy of the US Constitution?

['s water music]

Re: Secret Location

I thought car-park meets tended to be about dogging these days.

Maybe just my social circle?

[Anonymous Coward]

Slightly off-topic but...

whoever the person is at ElReg that chooses the pictures for the articles should get a raise in pay.

Never fails to entertain

[nanchatte]

Had to go back and take a look.

Indeed, chuckles were had!

[Teiwaz]

Had to go back and take a look.

Indeed, chuckles were had!

Look at that face!! News to me, I didn't know Trump was in Police Academy.

[hopkinse]

Makes a change from the usual Dr Evil impersonation. Close your eyes and it would be difficult to tell them apart...

[mevets]

Sun Radio.

Sun had an internal radio station, where Scott would give a pep talk to all employees every week. In one that I particularly enjoyed, but sadly didn't record, Scott gave a great talk about leadership, and followership. The key take away was that a good leader enables followers to know what the leader would want without explicitly asking. This sort of empowerment was especially important surrounding areas that might be somewhat ambiguous from an ethical or even legal standpoint.

My interpretation of Scotts message was that an effective leader, having so empowered the underlings, was thus safely walled off from those that would do the bidding of the leader. That was in the Summer of 2003; I left before the Autumn, but long after the fall....

[ps: yeah, I maybe not allowed to publish this; don't really know or care ].

[Tom Paine]

Re: Sun Radio.

Godwin Exception: this tactic - enabling the execs to know what the leaders would want them to do without the awkwardness of asking them, on the record, -- really was invented by the Nazis. IIRC it was called something like "towards Hitler" or something similar, of course that's no help when trying to find an actual reference I saw last week or so. (Three guesses what the context was?)

[Fred Goldstein]

Re: Sun Radio.

I think it was when Nixon got into trouble that the tactic you describe was given the term "plausible deniability".

[JohnFen]

Re: Sun Radio.

He's probably jealous of Henry II.

"Will nobody rid me of this turbulent priest?"

[Kevin McMurtrie]

"McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

I can get along with people wanting a more free market or a smaller government. These are discussion points in a topic that will never have a perfect solution.

Trump is not that. Trump is hatred, ego, fear, lies, reckless waste, and pride in stupidity. White House employees rage-quitting doesn't count as a smaller government. McNealy might want to check the recent slope of the federal deficit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

Republicans don't really care about the deficit. They lost all credibility when they supported Bush's tax cuts when we were running a surplus and on the path to eliminating the deficit within a couple decades (it would probably be about paid off by now if we had left taxes alone and hadn't gone into Iraq)

They've done it again by supporting Trump's tax cuts which are putting the deficit near a trillion dollars in a good economy. They claimed deficits of a trillion during Obama's early years when the economy was in bad shape was a national emergency, and imagine how bad they'll be when the next recession hits. If a democrat wins in next year you can bet they'll start talking about them again, and no doubt blame the recession on the democrat who inherits the problem just like they did when Obama inherited the problem. It is all a farce, republicans just want to be the only ones allowed to buy votes by borrowing money.

A guy like McNealy REALLY doesn't care about the deficit. Getting to keep more of his money is more important than whatever happens to the US. If the doomsayers are right and huge deficits eventually catch up to the US and turn its economy into a shambles he doesn't care, he'll just dock his yacht elsewhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

A market dominated by very few megacorps is not a freer market. The telco cartel is not a free market, and merger will make it even less free - so, really, the option to "switch" is not really an option,

Look at the clown they put at FCC - sure, that's "small" government, as in "full of little men".

Anyway, should we trust more people like him, who drove Sun into the ground?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

who drove Sun into the ground?

I think that dubious honor belongs more to Jonathan Schwartz. McNealy didn't react sufficiently to the bubble bursting, Sun was his baby and he didn't want to do the drastic layoffs it needed, but Schwartz was the one with the long-term failed policies that mostly killed the company. Larry Ellison did the rest.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

Even layoffs won't save a company with no real competitive products to sell... how may company reduced the workforce and went into the ground regardless?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

> McNealy didn't react sufficiently to the bubble bursting

No, McNealy didn't wanna hear it that Intel chips had beat SPARC on price/performance. Which is surprising, to say the least, given that he labels himself as a "raging capitalist". The one thing a "raging capitalist" should surely understand is the competition. Or that your own product is overpriced, under-performing and sucky.

McNealy canceled Solaris for X86 and he kept pushing SPARC. Instead of doing a competitive Linux distro for SPARC hardware, he got himself very busy trying to undermine Linux on X86, and actively undermining Linux on SPARC. Result: no viable Linux on SPARC distro. Wasn't Sun in the business of selling SPARC hardware?

Fun fact: on the same exact Sun hardware Linux on SPARC was twice as fast as Solaris on SPARC. Linux on SPARC only had community support, while Solaris on SPARC was Sun's flagship product.

In 2003, I got myself a Pentium4 ThinkPad - IBM still made those back then - for $2500 that beat the crap out of a $40,000 Sun Ultra-80 with 2 UltraSPARC-II CPU's on performance. The ThinkPad - at home - was running RedHat 7.3 -- this is all before RedHat split into RHEL and Fedora. The Ultra-80 - at work - was running Solaris 8.

It doesn't take a genius to realize there's a big product viability problem here that can't be solved by firing people or by trash-talking your main competitor. See icon at right.

Meanwhile, McNealy kept talking about computers being like cars, about how Linux on X86 sucked, and about how Solaris on SPARC was the greatest thing since sliced bread. How did that turn out?

By the time Schwartz became CEO, Sun was already cooked. Schwartz was put in the CEO's chair to take the blame for McNealy's serial failures.

[bombastic bob]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

"Trump is hatred, ego, fear, lies, reckless waste, and pride in stupidity."

It's like you just had a wardrobe malfunction. Your IGNORANCE is showing!

Pandering to the perception and echoing the *FEELIES* and *FAKE* *NEWS*. *yawn*. And a big THUMBS DOWN for the lack of intelligence.

(read: there is no evidence for any of what you just said. It's just a bunch of *FEEL*).

[Blank Reg]

Re: "McNealy, 64, is a free-market, small-government Republican"

No evidence? Are you new to this planet?

[Herby]

Your popularity...

...is measured by how many protesters come to your event.

Of course, the more you try to keep things "private" the more people want to not make it happen. Sometimes you want to be left alone.

I just wonder the reaction to Elizabeth Warren would be in Midland, Texas.

[sabroni]

Re: I just wonder the reaction to Elizabeth Warren would be in Midland, Texas.

Because, like in Charlottesville, both sides are basically the same?

People who discriminate against race and people who discriminate against bigotry. You don't see a difference?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Your popularity...

A shrug of the shoulders I suspect. It's the left who try to ensure their political enemies are prevented from speaking, something that happily coincides with near their near monopoly on the supply of unemployed screaming fanatics :-)

[FQ]

Re: Your popularity...

Heard of the lefty organization called ACLU? They are about free speech. Authoritarian right are about censorship.

[bombastic bob]

Re: Your popularity...

"Heard of the lefty organization called ACLU? They are about free speech. Authoritarian right are about censorship."

HA HA HAHA! Oh you were SERIOUS? Let me laugh even HARDER!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

[sabroni]

Re: It's the left who try to ensure their political enemies are prevented from speaking

It's the right who try and equate illegal hate speech with free speech. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from consequence.

Besides which, from Trump and his hispanic rapists to BoJo's letterbox women the right aren't being silenced, their stupid, baseless hate is more readily available than it's ever been.

[SVV]

If the USA screws with my data, I cannot leave

Dude, you can. You're rich.

[Amentheist]

"paying $100,000 to attend, with vetted attendees asked to meet at a car park in Palo Alto before being given the address"

Sounds like the sh1ttest illegal rave in history

[confused and dazed]

A little dissapointed

I worked for Sun for a long time. Scott's leadership was often inspirational. As others have said, the company under him did share far more down the ranks thank other merican corps I've known. I know he liked to be controversial, but this is a step too far ....

[bombastic bob]

Re: A little dissapointed

"this is a step too far "

* W H Y * ???

Because he's NOT supporting SANDERS, or Elizabeth 'Pocahontas' Warren, or Joe 'BITE-ME' Biden?

<snark>I guess there must be something *WRONG* with him!!!</snark>

I should start a movement to DEMAND PSYCHOLOGICAL EXAMINATIONS for *ANYONE* who votes Demo[n,c]rat... and you know, there's EVIDENCE [the lies, the manipulation, the mob behavior, the "shaming", the intolerance, the racism in the form of demographics, ...] to SUPPORT that this kind of behavior is SOCIOPATHIC... a TRUE psychological disorder, and NOT the made-up "-phobia" emotion bombs so often coined by the left [and thrown about like hand grenades, everywhere].

icon, because, facepalm

[mevets]

Re: A little dissapointed

Donald, is that you hiding there? Did they take your twitter account away from you again?

[Amentheist]

Re: A little dissapointed

McCarthyism back in fashion I see

[Anonymous Coward]

Wayin

Wayin got snarfed by Cheetah Digital a few months ago, so I don't think McNealy's part of the company any more.

[RobertLongshaft]

The Trump derangement syndrome is strong in this one.