#he just has some of the funniest nonsense delivery ever

[priestfrommidnightmass]

this random thing i was watching jsut remidned me of that stupid ass video of jack dylan grazer pretending to be a youtuber and i just wanted to take a quick second to thank him for his impact as an unintentional comedic legend. he is involved in at least 5 of the funniest videos ever i’ve seen

[vaguely-concerned]

The Mandalorian season 2 ep 1 AGAIN! it’s the rewatch folks

- The entire last season reminder/intro scene is kind of clunky and we’re-hitting-you-over-the-head-with-this, but I think it’s important to note that it’s probably meant for the vast majority of people who watched this stuff once a wholeass year ago, and not for me, the crazy person who watched each episode at least five times lol

- 

I like the way mando & bb walk from darkness into brief light and back into darkness here... the directors keep finding such cool ways of using the armour cinematically, there must be some lighting considerations to be made when your main character is essentially a walking disco ball. I enjoy the mood of this planet too -- the distant lights, the way the sky isn’t quite dark like there’s a city providing some light pollution nearby (it’s a bit clearer as he walks further into the... town? that it’s not just sunset, the sky is lit up weirdly) 

also when din moves towards the camera and out of sight in this first appearance, the signet is the very last thing that leaves the frame! I just thought that was sweet, a clan of two :’)

- shotout to these two lads and their boldly absolutely inexplicable hat choices (I love gratuitous star wars crowd scenes you guys)

those tacky gold sequins on her sleeves... immaculate, beautiful, someone sat through like full body makeup application to be on screen a literal split second, that good good sw nonsense

- oh I didn’t notice before but I think those gladiator dudes are using vibroaxes! I guess they have the technology to portray it in live action now after the vibroblades in the first season

- the way bb glances up at din like ‘hey dad. dad what the fuck???’ as one gomorrean nearly chops the arm off the other fjaslfds

- when you look for it it’s comically obvious that those guys are working for the dude mando’s meeting, they’ve all got more or less the same dark uniform and don’t look much at the fight haha. they might as well have ‘hired thugs’ stamped upon their foreheads

- I like how pared down and spare the music is in this fight scene, it’s just the faint whine of the electric guitars under the thuds of meat hitting metal 

also still love how din fights, the fact that he doesn’t even try to not get hit a lot of the time, he’s just tanking through it waiting for someone to fling themselves at him in a way he can exploit to take them out

the bouncer seems to be holding something like sci-fi handcuffs when he grabs din and lifts him off his feet, so he probably meant to restrain him quickly. bonus: I didn’t notice it the first time around, but din really went straaaaaiiight for this dude’s gentleman area once he dropped him back on his feet lol (you can even see him taking a split second to orient himself and take aim first fhsdkfhas). good job space cowboy dad, sometimes fighting smart means fighting dirty

- leaving this awful dude hanging upside down to get eaten after employing some very deliberate phrasing so he’s not even breaking his word is the ruthless HEIGHT of mando’s hilarious petty streak and it makes me cackle, gives me life, waters my crops    

- oh, the palpable loneliness and longing in din’s voice when he says ‘if I can track down another of my kind’ ;_______; I’m sorry buddy

- may we speak for a moment about the fact that din carries his son around in what seems very much to be a saddle bag sdafjkhsa

- the way din checks in with peli (to see if she’s fucking with him? he’s very confused anyway haha) over the map before saying “I don’t see anything” is so precious. he already seems much more socially tuned in and responsive compared to the beginning of season 1, you love to see it, coming out of that freeze response baBEY

- I can’t get over how much the baby loves speed, this is coming back to bite you so hard if you’re ever going to have to teach this kid how to drive one day mando

- awwww the little patented mando finger curl as he enters the bar <3<3<3 that’s sort of his tell for being preoccupied/anxious; I think finding other mandos, someone to trust and to get help from, means A Lot to him  

once he sees the marshall in the armour his shoulders drop down and he stands up straighter :’) hope is a powerful thing (I guess all of this might add even more to how angry he is too)

the DEAD STOP when cobb takes the helmet off sdkfhkajsldhfsdk

- yodito putting his lil mouth on the lip of this jar thing is such a well observed little quirk of baby behaviour, I’m crying

(there is liquid of some sort in this thing; I’ve seen some people theorize it’s a spittoon but for my own peace of mind I’m going to forcefully declare that it is not thank you)

- so much stuff packed into that “He’s seen worse”!! dismissal, self-deprecation, sorrow, resignation, warning. 

- the contrast in this standoff of vanth’s eastwood eye twitch and the complete deadpan impassiveness of din’s helmet and general demeanor... wonderful  

- upon rewatching I’m actually wondering if some of these scenes with the baby on his own were filmed independently of the actors and that it might add to that slight distracting feeling of disconnect/distance you get through the episode. (it’s sort of odd to me that mando doesn’t even glance down at him as the whole place starts to shake, for example) there must be a lot of stuff that comes down to technical considerations with the baby; I suspect it takes a lot of time and resources to have him walking around too much, which is why The Waddle is kind of a rare treat   

what I’m saying is that they may be saving up dad & baby interaction resources for episodes where it’s more relevant or important

- so is this a one bantha town or is it just for convenient film language reasons it was all alone in frame like that lol

also cobb’s ‘mondays amirite’ look fdsakjfhsjk 

- since I think it every time I get to this part: this is a very neat hairstyle this person is rocking, suits them! 

- ah the stern pointer finger of emphasis. din TALKS, no, COMMUNICATES so much in this episode you guys!!!!! 

- rip this tusken, the bravest person who ever lived

- the delivery of “...they might be open to some fresh ideas” is the funniest moment of this entire episode don’t @ me

- oh the kotor-ness of it all lol

- jill (the girl who hands cobb the detonator) is so cute with her hat and everything ;____; 

- I suppose these tuskens are really the bravest people to ever live considering they saw what happened to the last guy (or gal I suppose I don’t know how sand people gender works)

- baby needs some goggles to protect his giant eyes from wind and sand Y___Y

- they’ve nailed how to make the jetpacks work in live action, it looks really cool and I suspect it easily could have uh. not 

- this poor sacrificial bantha... it even tried to get away

- ooooh the heart eyes -- cobb 100% has a crush on this man jfsdflhsad. (with it being sort of unrequited/’oh man I’m behind about 150 layers of dissociation too many to even really consider that one way or the other bud’ from mando’s side #personal headcanon disclaimer)    

- my take on why din doesn’t get dissolved in acid in there is that that stuff is released from a specific gland or something that the dragon can unleash at will and that the spit itself doesn’t have that quality on its own (or at least it’s a lot less potent) 

- seems pretty well confirmed by now that yodito is a carnivore huh hahaha

- I find it obscurely satisfying that cobb seems to be wearing exactly his old outfit under the armour -- he did just strap it on on top of what he already was. (there’s something there -- he’s a whole thing still without the armour, and at this time at least din would not be I don’t think) just some good narrative foil stuff going on here under the surface

also once again props to the costume design; without the armour he looks so vulnerable again, they have dressed him to emphasise his height and slenderness (especially compared to mando, who actually seems to have bulked up a bit? fatherhood suits him I guess)    

plus, the way the baby looks questioningly up at din while he watches cobb walk away? yeah, din is lonely, let this poor man have a friend who stays around soon T______________T

- heeey boba, nice threads! my guess is that he’s not going to be there for the armour if he does track din down, since he hasn’t seemed to be in any haste to get it back before (which is interesting!). he might also have been unable to go looking for it before because he was still recovering from being half digested, of course, they could play it a lot of different ways

I wonder if we’ll get more of him in the next ep or if they’ll let the tension ramp up through the season 

[nightvalethings]

Episode 2 - “The Glow Cloud”

I decided to join in on the nightvale rewatch being run by @welcometonightblogging. And, as part of that, I decided to do a post. I’ve gathered some ideas and thoughts on episode 2 - the clow cloud.

The visitable nightvale campaign is hilarious, and weird, and paints such a fantastic picture of what this town Is with an amazing amout of word building in it. 

“The View is literally breathtaking”. The specification that the posters will be put in police stations and yogurt shops is weird but the final touch about the free gifts is Hilarious. 

”John Peters, you know, the farmer?” And a long standing gag begins.

The cloud changes colours randomly/depending on who is looking at it but it *whistles*? I don’t remember that detail but it really ups the creepy factor. This plus Cecil’s deadpan delivery is proper spooky.

”We’d never have time to do anything right?” - Ha.

The sheriff’s secret police are established in this episode - it’s fun how much of what I associate with nightvale is introduced in this episode.

The secret police are trying to get  people to run at the cloud, screaming?? Hmm. Cecil is pretty wild but at least he doesn’t agree with that!

I enjoy the take down of the Apache tracker and his nonsense. He’s a character we’ll see more of but I like Cecil’s reaction to him.

 The “great screaming” of the post office is terrifying, horrifying, stuff. Words on the wall written in blood and all.

Here’s something odd Cecil says. Like the entire episode hasn’t been Odd. CECIL, why are you like this.

Which introduces us to Khoshekh! :D Who is now resident in the mens bathroom. This bit is Wild and does make me wonder if Cecil has, in fact, ever seen a Cat. Not convinced he has TBH.

”No pet is perfect, it becomes perfect when you learn to accept it for what it is.”

The message from our sponsors is a fantastic bit of high concept writing but has that wonderful punch at the end -”This message was brought to you by Coca Cola”. Which is literally the funniest thing ever. I remember the first time that happened I was just like ??? And then burst into fits of laughter.

The vague yet menacing government agency are up. That, and the secret police, really let us know that Nightvale is pretty controlled huh?

”Strange sights that no one saw” - Hm. I enjoy the continuing theme we have running through the first two episodes that strong establishes just how much in denial the town, and to a degree, Cecil is about what’s going on. If not in actual denial then willing to play to it anyway.

“Remember, if you see something, say nothing, and drink to forget.”

The scouts! I forgot they where introduced in this episode. The Scout changes are fun, but it’s also playing into the whole authoritarian thing going on. Children don’t enroll into the scouts, they’re selected. Hm.

The glow cloud is raining lizards. Sure. At least the animals are already dead and they have that eternal animal pyre in mission grove park. Right. Right?

Hyrum McDaniels. This is Wonderful as an introduction. “He is suspected of Insurance Fraud”. “After discerning that Frank Chen was a five headed dragon from somewhere other than our world.” Hilarious.

Alert Citizen card gives you stop sign immunity. But it’s that authoritarian thing, isn’t it? This is all painting quite a cohesive picture of how power is controlled in this town.

See, this is the first reference to the Public Library in the community Calendar in which is becomes un-knowable. Is this when the librarians get out of control? I’ve always wondered. Its a “sort of renovation”

Dot day is Scary. I do not like dot day.

”Wednesday has been cancelled, due to a scheduling error.”

Lion. Dropped by the Glow cloud. Onto the ice cream shop. Okay.

ALL HAIL THE GLOW CLOUD

That segway from the Clowcloud monologue to the weather is Wonderful and the change in Cecil’s voice is amazing and creepy. And establishes a pretty strong pattern for Cecil being possessed by various entities from here on out. Fun.

WAITING FOR THE BUS IN THE RAIN - this will forever be stuck in my head. And I always link it with episode one for some reason, even though that’s “These and more than these”.

My headcanon is that the weather is a song so that the citizens of Nightvale are never given any actual information - information is power, after all.

He doesn’t remember the cloud and there’s no tapes. Of course. Of Course.

This also establishes the standard thing of the “evil” of the week being defeated in the weather segment which, you know, I do quite like.

““I’m going to get a little personal here” - Oh, character growth. Thy name is Cecil Palmer. It’s weird how flat, and almost. Disengaged he is? Compared to the Cecil we grow used to.

The closing monologue is oddly Soothing - discussions of how you recover from trauma and the list of things. It’s lovely.

[humanoid-lovers]

One of the funniest things I have ever read!!!! I love Justin Halperns books, they always have me laughing out loud. His father is a real character - would love to meet him. But underneath it all, he gives very good, common sense advice. This is a great book to read at night so you go to sleep in a happy, peaceful mood. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next If you are offended by cursing, though, take a pass, haha. Otherwise full speed ahead and don't be eating or drinking anything while you are reading this laugh out loud hilarious book. Go to Amazon

A great casual read for a summer afternoon! This book got my attention at a local bookstore. I started reading it and, before I knew it, I had already gone through the first 10 pages or so in a few minutes, I was instantly hooked! I ended up not buying it that day, so I ordered it weeks later. The humor is pretty good, I can't say I've read many comedy books, but this one really made me laugh. Not only is it funny but it is also well written and I found it great how the author's dad is really funny in his way of thinking, saying and doing stuff, but Justin is also a great writer, his own descriptions and remarks of situations are very funny too. There are also some slightly profound passages here and there, which are great, but it has a steady humor rhythm nonetheless. A great casual read, no doubt. I haven't read the other book by Justin Halpern, but I'm definitely considering it. Go to Amazon

Easy and fun read It is an amusing book carrying the "S*** my Dad Says" legacy (I haven't read it, but I will definitely take a look at it). It is the biography of the author's sex and love life up until a crucial moment of his life (which you should have guessed what it is). His dad is ever present in the first chapters of the book, covering the author's formative years and less present as the book proceeds to the final chapters (which makes sense). In all honesty, it is dad's presence that makes the book take flight. However, Justin Halpern does a good job of taking it from there and presenting his life story in an entertaining way, with aspects of which some of us (males) might more or less relate. Go to Amazon

LOVED READING THIS BOOK I wanted to read this book after reading "Sh*t My Dad Says" and finding it so refreshing and funny. Yes, I laughed out loud with this book too and as always, the father is clearly the star of these books. When the Dad talks to his son, it is crisp, precise and really funny. The books are so positive in what his Dad says to the son about the wife/mom--the Dad adores the woman. And the delivery from this seller was very good and I had no problems. Go to Amazon

Hilarious!!! Brilliantly written and lol funny, one of the best autobiographical books I've ever read. He has a gift with language and a wickedly funny and smart sense of humor (no doubt, thanks to his father!) Go to Amazon

Humor for some, but not this one. As the author became famous from his father's crazy sayings on Twitter, I was disappointed to find out this novel is more of the same, despite the book's title. Many of the author's tales seem unbelievable and/or possibly contrived. There was not one moment in the book that is overtly funny, unless you enjoy seeing punchlines a mile away. The good news? It's short and easy to read in a day or two, so you can quickly move on to something new...like a book of poems! Go to Amazon

Just not as good as his first Halpern is a good writer, but it is his father who is the heart and soul of his first book. In this one, his dad is out on the fringe, and while Halpern has had a life of his own, his anecdotes are pretty average. Again, however, he does write well so they are mildly interesting. But make no mistake, it is his dad. I was doubled up by the first book, literally weeping at his father's comments and stories. With two sons of my own, they really hit home. But this book, some chuckles and chortles but none of the pants-wetting moments from the first. Go to Amazon

Another Great Book I loved this book. Great stories that are well written. And for those of us who were less than popular in our younger years and who also sucked at girls(or boys, or whomever), we can relate to that feeling of loneliness confusion and fear. And his dad makes appearances throughout giving advise that is hilarious, honest, and true. I wish I had someone in my life to give me that no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point type of perspective when I was growing up. Go to Amazon

funny He does, he really does LOL Three Stars Genuine story of growing up and relationships Laughed out loud Another good read his first book "sh*t my dad says" is better for that reason I presume the book might be better if you read it instead of listen to it Funniest book ever! It was even funnier the third ...

[spottypotatostuff]

Here’s What Happens to Tech in 2017 (Unless 2016 Was All a Dream)

WIRED

What does 2017 hold for the world of tech and media? With so much changing at the end of 2016, it’s hard to be sure. Very hard. But we have a few guesses.

Here you’ll find WIRED’s predictions for the coming year, and they come with one big wild card: Donald Trump. When the new administration takes office at the end of January, it will alter the course of so many things in this country of ours—not to mention the rest of the world—and alter them in ways we can’t necessarily predict. Tech is no exception.

A Thousand Tech IPOs Will Bloom

2016 was a dismal year for IPOs—the slowest IPO market we’ve had since the recession. But that’s likely to change in 2017.

Snap (formerly Snapchat) will be the first big name going public after the new year. The company has already filed paperwork for an IPO that could value it between $25 and $35 billion. That would be the third most valuable market tech company debut of all time, behind Facebook and Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. If it does reach those heights, others are likely to follow, including streaming music company Spotify, cloud storage vendor Dropbox, and meal-kit maker Blue Apron.

We might even see debuts from the ride-sharing company Uber and the super-secretive big data outfit Palantir. The environment must be right, but at the moment, things are looking good. Of the 20 tech and communications companies that went public in the second half of the year, each climbed more than 25 percent from their debuts.

What does a Trump presidency mean for IPOs? Trump has said he plans to lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent—good news for companies that may have calculated their valuations on the higher rate. Either way, tech companies likely won’t view a Trump presidency as a deterrent. In fact, they may be spurred to go public sooner rather than later—before Trump rolls out policies they haven’t foreseen. —Davey Alba

The Internet of Things Will Die

Last September, some malware took control of millions of internet-connected devices, including security cameras and DVRs, and launched an attack that took down the website of security journalist Brian Krebs. It was one of the largest ever attacks of this type. The next month, the same piece of malware rendered large swaths of the internet inaccessible to many people.

The incidents capped off two years of bad news for the “Internet of Things,” including bricked devices, irritating outages, bankrupt startups, an international emissions testing scandal, and a viral story about a Brit who spent 11 hours trying make tea with a needlessly high-tech kettle. A Twitter account called Internet of Shit started documenting this market’s silliest gadgets, funniest error messages, and most depressing possibilities. It now has over 100,000 followers.

The Internet of Things was a made-up term to begin with. And now this bit of marketing nonsense carries a sheen of ineptitude, danger, and other shit. The upshot: the term will die in 2017, kinda like Big Data before it.

The Internet of Things—or whatever you want to call it—has the potential to save precious resources, spot and fight pollution, and help people lead healthier, safer lives. But adding internet remote control to every single product on the market won’t necessarily help us get there. What we need are thoughtful, affordable, durable devices that actually, y’know, make our lives better. A new name, and a renewed sense of purpose, could be just what the Internet of Things needs. —Klint Finley

Real Internet TV Will Wait in the Wings

What we all want is television that lets us watch any show at any time from any device, all at a reasonable price. But that’s not quite a reality. And in 2017, it will remain not quite a reality.

Yes, YouTube is putting together a live TV package set to launch in early in the year. Hulu is doing the same. Amazon is poised to enter the fray. And the services will join existing options like AT&T’s DirecTV Now, which offers 60 channels for $35 a month or up to 120 channels for $70, plus premium channels HBO and Cinemax for an extra $5 a month.

Sure, the FCC has proposed new rules that would require cable and satellite TV companies to distribute their content through free apps—without the dreaded cable box. And that could push us towards even closer to the nirvana of Internet TV. But there are so many caveats hanging over this market.

Trump’s FCC will likely kill those proposed rules, siding with the cable incumbents who want to keep you tethered to your cable box. And his FCC is unlikely to curb “zero-rating,” which AT&T is already using to favor its own content on DirecTV Now over the content from rivals. This dynamic may only become more problematic if AT&T is allowed to acquire Time Warner, and the Trump administration will surely allow it. Meanwhile, those live internet TV services have so many holes in them—holes typically involving live sports. Without live sports, you’re still tied to cable.

This year, we may see Comcast introduce its own live internet TV service—but this will come with many of the same caveats as DirecTV Now. Internet TV run by the cable companies isn’t internet TV. —Davey Alba

‘Uber For X’ Will Be X-ed Out

In 2015, the on-demand ride companies Sidecar, Shuddle and Karhoo shuttered. Food delivery apps Spoonrocket and Kitchensurfing sunset their services. Washio, which promised push-button laundry, closed down too. Instacart is cutting courier wages, and Postmates doesn’t expect to profit until 2018.

Sure, Uber is still going strong. And Airbnb is too. But “Uber for X”? It will die in 2017.

Consider the numbers. From nearly $9 billion invested in on-demand companies in the third quarter of 2015—the peak for the on-demand economy—there was a sharp pullback in VC funding shortly thereafter, according to industry research firm CB Insights. And the bigwigs in on-demand—Uber, Chinese ridesharing service Didi, and Airbnb—were getting the lion’s share of the investments. In 2016, excluding those companies, funding to on-demand startups fell by almost 50 percent.

The field was too crowded with too many competitors. This type of business has razor-thin margins, and running these operations is enormously complicated. They juggle not just consumers but contract workers, all while competing with players with already enormous scale, like Uber and Amazon. In hindsight, Uber for X never stood a chance. —Davey Alba

Trump’s America Will Bring Blogging Back

On December 11, 2016, government strategist Eric Garland had some thoughts about how Russia influenced the US election. So he unloaded those thoughts on Twitter—where else?—and called them a THREAD.

<THREAD> I’m now hearing this meme that says Obama, Clinton, et al. are doing nothing, just gave up.

Guys. It’s time for some game theory.

— Eric Garland (@ericgarland) December 11, 2016

  Garland, in language at times lyrical and soaring, laid out what he called a game theory analysis of the long con Russia pulled on America with the surprising endgame of electing Donald Trump president. It’s a conspiracy theory. But for many, the most controversial thing about this conspiracy theory is that Garland unloaded it on Twitter, requiring his readers to wait and read—and wait and read. (The Stranger helpfully compiled them into a single-page story you can read here if so inclined.)

When 2016 kicked off, this would have been called a tweet storm. The hip nomenclature as the year ends is “thread”—as Garland showed—but the idea is the same whether the tweets are numbered or merely threaded. And they are happening more and more in the days since November 9. That’s because liberals on the internet have a lot of thoughts. Not all of them are as nuanced and out-there as Garlands, but on topics ranging from race to the white middle class to Hillary Clinton’s campaign failures, to media bias, to Trump’s foreign policy, people are THREADING.

In response, a joke has emerged: uh, guys, remember blogging? It was sort of this same exact thing where you get to speak what’s on your mind, but you did it all in one go, without frantic typo-ed tweets unrolling piecemeal over the course of an hour and keeping we poor Twitter followers sitting at our desks waiting for the thrilling conclusion?

Like all the best jokes, it’s brilliant because it’s true. We’re entering a period of tumult and unrest in America and along with it will come lots of thoughts and takes and threads and storms. The upcoming culture clash will make the George W. Bush years look quaint, and those marked the heyday of the blogging era. In 2017, mediums like Medium and Tumblr, which easily let people publish whatever they want, will flourish. In Trump’s America, the blog will make a comeback. If only it could bring Google Reader with it. —Emily Dreyfuss

Online Headlines Will Get True Again

As we grapple with the complex causality of disinformation and fake news proliferating through the media landscape, one problem is obvious: people only read headlines. Researchers at Columbia University found that almost 60 percent of stories shared on social media have never been clicked. This is partly the result of the sheer glut of available “content.” People simply can’t read all the journalism out there. And with news delivery services like Twitter and Facebook, which show only a headline and a short description, scrolling story after story in front of frantic, dry eyes, people feel an impossible pressure to read everything. The solution: read every headline and move one.

Others, like “Saved You a Click” creator, Jake Beckman, blame this phenomenon on clickbait culture, which in the late aughts tricked readers into clicking on stories that didn’t actually deliver on the promise in the headline. Readers rebelled against the deceit and stopped clicking altogether. They judged the story by the headline alone and moved along. Aha! Can’t trick readers! But in fact, the logical evolution of clickbait culture was fake news, which understood that readers were not going to bother to read past the first few bricks of the journalistic pyramid, but would rather assess the very top and move on.

In the wake of the 2016 election, which was so influenced by the fabrications peddled in these headlines, journalists, politicians, and technologists are struggling to figure out how to fight fake fire with real water. One very simple thing they can do is write descriptive headlines that are clear and hard to misunderstand. That will be antithetical to the brilliance of clickbait, which leaves readers wondering more. But that model was a failure. It hasn’t saved digital journalism from the financial implosion of advertising dollars in the Facebook-as-News era, nor has it on the aggregate encouraged deeper reading. Responsible news outlets trying to figure out how to convey facts will streamline their stories, pack the opening paragraphs with objective reporting, and, ultimately, they will need to abandon clever headlines in favor of clear ones—if they’re serious about being understood. —Emily Dreyfuss

Tech Will Get In Bed With Trump

The tech industry didn’t always see eye-to-eye with the Obama administration on surveillance and encryption, but that didn’t stop the industry from developing a remarkably close relationship with the White House during the Obama years. White House staffers like former press secretary Jay Carney and former senior advisor David Plouffe landed high-profile jobs at tech companies like Amazon and Uber, while former Google employees, such as corporate attorney turned patent office director Michelle Lee, found jobs in the federal government. According to information analyzed by The Intercept, Google’s lobbyists met with the White House employees 427 times in between January 2009 and October 2015.

But the election of Donald Trump has called the future of tech’s relationship to government into question. Trump’s campaign promoted a relentlessly regressive social agenda that stoked racial tensions, especially on the topic of immigration. The tech industry, meanwhile, has lobbied aggressively for immigration reform, and tries to project a progressive image when it comes to topics like gay marriage (which Trump’s running mate Mike Pence has a long history of opposing). Few in the tech industry publicly supported Trump, while many—including Alphabet chairman Eric Schmidt—openly backed Hillary Clinton.

But don’t expect any of that to stop Silicon Valley from cozying up to Trump. Google is already hiring more conservative lobbyists, Reuters reports. It has long employed former Republican congresswoman Susan Molinari. And, of course, several tech leaders—including Schmidt, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg—agreed to meet with Trump in December.

Not everyone in the Valley is trying to suck up to the president-elect. Investor Chris Sacca criticized those who met with Trump, telling Recode they were “being used to legitimize a fascist.” But Trump’s advisory team already includes Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz, and of course PayPal founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel, one of the few Valley figures who openly backed Trump before the election.

A few companies have pledged not to help Trump with one of his most frightening campaign promises: building a registry of Muslims. But Silicon Valley’s main interest, ultimately, is business. That’s something they have in common with Trump. The tech industry might not enjoy the level of access it had to the Obama administration. But if you’re looking for someone to stand up to Trump, it’s time to look elsewhere. —Klint Finley

Source: Here’s What Happens to Tech in 2017 (Unless 2016 Was All a Dream)

The post Here’s What Happens to Tech in 2017 (Unless 2016 Was All a Dream) appeared on Spotty Potato.