When I first joined Google, I loved this meeting. This was 2010. You got some pretty candid responses and presentations from the executives. Fast forward 2-3 years and it had largely turned into a dry run of a public announcement later that day. All very choreographed, no real answers to anything. So probably around 2013 I stopped even paying attention to it.

What I find most interesting is the change that happened in this country, including Google, with Trump being elected. Google had enough closet Trump acolytes and sympathizers who were removed from reality like only a Trump supporter can be (it seems).

You can disagree with policies like immigration, tax breaks for the GOP donor class and so on without thinking that supporter is delusional.

But what changed is that those same Trump supporters suddenly thought reprehensible behaviour was suddenly justifiable, even required. Examples:

- Leaking videos of TGIF because you think the company oppresses your political views (just leave!)

- Worse, you leak personal details of employees who speak up against issues you believe in so they essentially get targeted by alt-right zealots.

In no world can I fathom me taking my personal political disagreement to the point of doxxing someone. How anyone can think this is justifiable is utterly beyond me.

You see this in the US government too. Like we now have too many leaders who are prepared to burn institutions to the ground to further political goals. Look at Mitch McConnell's stonewalling of the Obama administration (more cloture motions than any previous Senate by a huge margin), choosing not to hold hearings on nominees, stuffing the judiciary with underqualified minions and so on. Look at the Justice Department, which is now defending the White House despite any evidence to the contrary.

How can anyone think this is OK? Whatever norms are established by the GOP now will absolutely be used against them in the future (eg a simple majority on Supreme Court nominees). Do these people not realize how dangerous it is to destroy institutions meant to protect all of us?

But that's the Trump era we live in. I've met more than one Trump adherent who simply will not or cannot see fault in anything Trump does. And I'll tell you, that scares the bejesus out of me.

I fully agree with Google employees protesting things like helping the US DoD better identify kill targets (identifying what not to kill is the same as identifying what to kill) and supporting the oppression of a billion people by pandering to Chinese censorship. Gone are the days when Sergey was essentially responsible for pulling Google out of China.

But what Google really needs at this point is a purge of people who are prepared to dox their fellow employees. Those people are utterly destructive to the company and need to be excised.

So anyway I'm not surprised at TGIF being scaled back. It's been on the cards for years and, at this point, it's honestly not much of a loss.

Whatever Google's problems are however I don't think Sundar is the leader they need.