Joseph Bland on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'Hi, David. “…how poorly trained the ARNG soldiers were…” And that right there says it all. The ICE operatives are NOT professionals. They are not properly vetted or trained, and they’re barraged with information that reminds me of the way soldiers during the Vietnam War were brainwashed into thinking of the enemy as subhuman “gooks”. And why is that? Because this President demanded it, and his enablers have granted him his every wish, even when they didn’t really have the authority to do so. Instead, they’ve done things and then tied the question of legality up in knots in the courts, where it takes up time and money to get to the actual facts and finalize a judicial ruling.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'I see john gruber is out with his take, not complementary to Tim either… he explicitly unpacks Tim’s mild language in another piece. American icon Bruce Springsteen delivered a jolt to the hearts of GenXers everywhere by releasing a protest anthem Streets of Minneapolis – a bookend to his Streets of Philadelphia anthem about an earlier moment of national divide. I don’t know if anyone will have appetite to ask Tim his views on more directly on these issues, but I won’t be surprised if it came up.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'Not to nitpick, but no, Donald Trump is not “within his Constitutional authority to expel any non-citizen”. There are all kinds of non-citizens who are legally allowed to be in the USA. And no, what Donald Trump “was elected to do” doesn’t give him any authority, legal or otherwise, to do it. His only authority comes from the law. And it is 100% illegal to break the law, including criminal laws and constitutional laws, while enforcing other laws. 100%. Every time. All the time. No matter who you are. The only thing that matters in a constitutional democracy is the rule of law. Everything flows from that, including especially the exercise of government power. You are absolutely correct when you stated “People can’t pick and choose which laws are enforced or obeyed – especially at this scale.” It’s just that you are blind to the simple fact that it’s the people you support who aren’t following that obvious legal truth. And this isn’t relevant only to what’s going on with immigration. It’s also the reason that his imposition of tariffs on the basis of how he feels or whether someone from another country hurt his fragile ego has caused utter chaos in the domestic US corporate world, including for the company we’re all here to dig into. I’m curious to see how many of the tech bros suddenly start to feel some pain when they can’t get or keep any foreign-trained PhDs to work in the States.'
on Premarket: Apple was green, turned red - 'Microsoft shares are down overnight by nearly 6% at $453.12 on concerns over the capex spend on AI following the company’s release of quarterly results. Meta’s shares are up overnight by over 7% at $716.17 on strong quarterly and yet a big increases in planned capex spend on AI. IBM is also up over 7% overnight at $316.11 on strong AI demand and a 12% rise in revenue. Apple, which reports tomorrow, dropped $1.83 in today’s session to close at $256.44. The shares are up overnight $0.56 at $257 even. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s earnings release!'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - 'On MSFT, the analyst speculation I saw attributed the drop AH to slightly decelerating Azure growth (40% to 39%) on the quarter and next quarter (forecast of 37-38%) despite beating street estimates slightly. Overall Revenue forecast for next Q was in line, not above street estimates. Seems the expectation was for more; reminds me of quarters past where Apple beats slightly but drops. Parroting Robert here; often takes days for a rational reaction to earnings.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'Hi Joseph, I appreciate what you’re saying but I think the law most definitely prevails on this issue. President Trump was elected to do something about the illegal alien problem. He’s enforcing the law and some people don’t like that he’s actually doing it. People can’t pick and choose which laws are enforced or obeyed – especially at this scale. Whether people like it, first and foremost this is a Federal vs States’ (and local) rights issue. The President is Constitutionally responsible for enforcing immigration law. Biden caused the current massive illegal alien problem and you can’t just say, OK, never mind those 20 million people here illegally and taking up taxpayer resources. The president is within his Constitutional authority to expel any non-citizen. He has made a generous offer to them ~$1500 each now and a free plane ticket to go home. Also, afterward these people have an opportunity to apply for legal return. If they refuse and stay here they just make matters worse for themselves and remain illegal aliens. Certain states have decided to violate Federal law and aid and abet illegal aliens. These recent insurrections could have been avoided if the states cooperated with the Federal government. Walz also has a really big problem with the Great Somali Grift that has embezzled billions of state taxpayer dollars and is probably a reason he’s all in on aiding the insurrection as a dodge. Walz and Trump have met and Trump seemed positive about the meeting. Frey, ehh, not so much. But not surprising. So he appears to not be in favor of any kind of reconcilliation, but he’s also probably playing up to his constituency. I still maintain that because the Federal government – ie. the president – has the authority to expel illegal aliens, Trump is Constitutionally empowered and isn’t exacerbating anything by actually enforcing the law. Except maybe some politicians headaches. States and municipalities that choose to disobey, impede or otherwise interfere with the Federal government in the exercise of its lawful authority are in violation of the law and are actually causing the exacerbation – especially with their over-the-top, wild-eyed rhetoric. I agree that TIm Cook probably offers some good advice to Trump and whether Trump heeds it we dont fully know. On occasion Trump appears to have been somewhat condescending to Cook but I think Trump genuinely likes Cook and probably appreciates his perspective. I think Tim has a big job working with the president and China, and is always walking a fine line. He’s responsible to the shareholders but is also subject to trade law worries, which I think he tries to persuade the president to be aware of as they ultimately impact a portion of the economy. I don’t think Cook is being a patsy or scapegoat in his relationship with Trump. I think he’s just trying to do a good job for Apple and walk a tight line. Cook is responsible for the success of a really big business after all. Maybe Cook is communicating pressure he’s getting from his employees to get Trump to stop doing his job – not that it’s in any way Tim Cook’s responsibility to do so. He’s just trying to be a good negotiator and is probably between a rock and a hard place. Cook has proven he can get Trump’s ear and it pays off in business negotiations but not in this political and Constitutional matter. Cook can tell his employees he’s talked to Trump and relayed their concerns. That’s the only relevance and input Cook has regarding the issues in Minnesota. Trump has bigger issues to deal with there, however. The Federal government and Federal law prevail over state and local government. We’ll see who obeys the law and how far the lawbreakers choose to go.. I’d like to see Walz and Frey acknowledge the seriousness of this situation. They dont have the option of continuing to break the law without consequences.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - '@Robert Stack: Thanks for that update and clarification. Very much appreciated. Jerry’s departure did fall under one of the stay away topics that I referenced previously: “The four (4) areas that provoke the visceral reactions in people are politics, religion, sex, and how to raise your children.”'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - 'Plus MSFT’s revenues from traditional sources (Windows, etc) was apparently flat. Cloud services have a fair amount of risk with the threat of a bursting bubble.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'If Cook’s conversation with Trump subtly influenced Trump to say “de-escalate” on Fox “News” yesterday then I’ll take that to be a tiny, positive contribution by Cook. POTUS manages to say the word at the 2:49 mark in the “Trump laments deadly shootings in Minnesota, insists Bovino-Homan shakeup not a ‘pullback'” interview.'
on Tim Cook's memo to Apple - 'Michael/David – I agree, and so I asked ChatGPT the question. The short answer about whether corporate CEOs spoke out about the Kent State shootings is an unqualified No. The answer goes on to state that corporate norms in 1970 discouraged any sort of public commentary about political events by CEOs. The answer concludes by saying that were a situation like that happen today, the response by CEOs would be very different. Michael: Re Jerry Doyle, IIRC it wasn’t his politics that got him in trouble. While IANAL, he made highly insulting and potentially defamatory comments towards Tommo, and then responded with a barrage of religious postings. But I don’t sit here in judgement of him – it’s PED’s blog and he alone has the power to make these kinds of decisions. It’s obvious that while official blog policy is “No Politics”, he tolerates an awful lot of it and that included an awful lot from Jerry.'
on Handicapping Apple's fiscal Q1 2026 earnings - 'Dan, I’m cynical enough to think that Apple’s AI has been alluded to enough from many sources that no more statements will make much difference until they actually show it. I hope it’s soon AND outstanding.'
on Handicapping Apple's fiscal Q1 2026 earnings - 'On the subject of the AI “race”: I don’t understand any of the GPU/CPU technical stuff (so would appreciate feedback), but this guy is saying that Apple is winning. https://youtu.be/31OyQa_3gZU'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - 'Jim, my thoughts exactly. With TSMC, Apple sits at the head table and can commit to massive purchases of existing fab output and of their newest on-coming nodes. That guaranteed revenue carries a lot of weight with CC Wei – (see the transcript of their latest earnings call of last week to hear his wariness of committing 52-56 billion US dollars of capex and waiting/hoping to get future revenue in 2027-2028.) With memory suppliers, there are the big 3 (Micron, Hynix and Samsung) plus another Chinese one that’s coming on strong. While memory prices have doubled or whatever lately, one or more of these companies should be very interested in the cash Tim’s waving in front of them. A few billions will help pay for the new fabs they’re planning to build and get their equipment orders to the front of the line at ASML, ect.'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - ' Apple has the margins to spare, if needed. While competitors struggle to maintain company wide 20% gross margins, relying on unit volume for gross profit, Apple’s gross margins (company wide) have exceeded 40% for a few years, with no sign of let up until this issue popped up. If AI data centers are going to consume memory to the extent that massive price increases can be commanded, perhaps it behooves Apple to buy a memory design/fab firm large enough to satisfy its needs today and into the future. Or, at the very least, purchase a guaranteed volume. Quarterly contracts doesn’t sound right. That sounds like the spot market. Volume manufacturers require more predictability than that. It seems to me that for a firm like Apple, quarterly purchasing has gone beyond the point where ownership becomes necessary.'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - 'The fact that they have historically built in such high margins on memory upgrades and the fact that they have a significant service business that produces annuity profits for each new customer puts Apple in an ideal position for the memory crunch. If they choose they can keep prices steady or a slight rise and eat a little margin on the hardware sale, gaining it back on the services side from additional market share – since competitors are forced to raise hardware prices.'
on Did Ming-Chi Kuo take Apple shares down a peg? - 'Might have something to do with higher CAPEX related to AI and also some funny accounting regarding ChatGPT. Meta is also down after announcing increased CAPEX spending. Since Apple is not involved in that sort of spending we shouldn’t expect that tomorrow.'
on Reuters: Apple tomorrow will report its strongest iPhone sales growth in four years - 'I hope you’re right, but as Greg pointed out, “they” are really good at finding *something* to bring the stock down afterwards.'
