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Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

vanityfair.com

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Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#3

> Thiel reportedly doubled-down and immediately donated $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign Can someone describe corruption and help me understand how it differs from this situation?

Trump was a private citizen at the time. That was a donation from Thiel to Trump presidential campaign. Corruption is mostly reservered for government favouritism.

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#4

> Thiel reportedly doubled-down and immediately donated $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign Can someone describe corruption and help me understand how it differs from this situation?

Trump was a private citizen at the time. That was a donation from Thiel to Trump presidential campaign. Corruption is mostly reservered for government favouritism.

The point of the donation was a bet, to receive government favoritism in the event of election. Is that non-obvious?

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump was a private citizen at the time. That was a donation from Thiel to Trump presidential campaign. Corruption is mostly reservered for government favouritism.

The point of the donation was a bet, to receive government favoritism in the event of election. Is that non-obvious?

Which is why basically every big corporation and donor donates to both side of the campaign. This is nothing new. Only difference is that here, Thiel donated to a candidate that didn't get many other big donations because it was presumed he had no chance of winning.

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#7
Rumours of Theils maleavolence are greatly exaggerated. His bio better resembles a modern day Ross Perot, libertarian and all. Network analysis and data mining inteilligence toolsets were used in the intel comminity lkng before Palantir, same as mercenaries were vighting foreign wars ling before Blackwater. A real problem in government is lack of domain expetise in oversight. Heres a chance to have some of that if the article is correct.

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#8
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump was a private citizen at the time. That was a donation from Thiel to Trump presidential campaign. Corruption is mostly reservered for government favouritism.

The point of the donation was a bet, to receive government favoritism in the event of election. Is that non-obvious?

"Government favoritism" is markedly different from the actual "leadership role in the newly elected government"

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#9
post #7

Rumours of Theils maleavolence are greatly exaggerated. His bio better resembles a modern day Ross Perot, libertarian and all. Network analysis and data mining inteilligence toolsets were used in the intel comminity lkng before Palantir, same as mercenaries were vighting foreign wars ling before Blackwater. A real problem in government is lack of domain expetise in oversight. Heres a chance to have some of that if th…

I think I agree in part, though the framing of it in the Gizmodo piece that he seems "less" worried about Facebook is concerning. Google I get, Amazon sure, but why not Facebook? That seems like the most massive surveillance vector to ever exist and a company which might have a penchant for what's not too different from mind control.

Edit: after reading the Vanity Fair essay (which is much better than this Gizmodo thing) I'm I think more skeptical, though it's more explicitly stated that Facebook is viewed in a more nefarious light.

Re: Is Trump mulling Peter Thiel for a top intelligence advisory post?

#10
post #7

Rumours of Theils maleavolence are greatly exaggerated. His bio better resembles a modern day Ross Perot, libertarian and all. Network analysis and data mining inteilligence toolsets were used in the intel comminity lkng before Palantir, same as mercenaries were vighting foreign wars ling before Blackwater. A real problem in government is lack of domain expetise in oversight. Heres a chance to have some of that if th…

Yeah, why bother with any kind of personal ethics? If you don’t take the dirty money, someone else will always be found, so it might as well be you, right? I mean look around, those guys over there got away with literal war crimes.

For that matter, why should you let common law precedent or the rule of law prevent you from secretly funding third-party lawsuits as part of your personal revenge scheme? This is America and money should be able to do whatever it wants.

And oh, funding the campaign an openly white supremacist, brags-about-sexual-assualt, famous fraudster and charlatan with no credentials who is obviously unprepared and poorly suited temperamentally to be president? Hey, if the bet pays off there’s great personal upside, so who cares if it would be terrible for the society?

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