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Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

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Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#61

Post by briholt »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #59
briholt wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theil is becoming the liberal media's George Soros - the enigmatic billionaire pulling the strings of his evil conservative conspiracy.

Well, Soros does, in actual reality, fund and support the promotion of democracy and this has made him enemies amongst those who don't like that kind of thing. Theil and some of his buddies are on record as thinking that democracy is holding their libertarian dreams back, that it's incompatible with capitalism. And that generates pushback from those that prefer democracy. So, they do seem very neat opposites, but no…

This is a highly politicized and subjective use of the word "democracy." It would be more forthright to just say, "I like Soros's politics."

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#62

Post by Secretmapper »

kogepathic wrote: post #57
3pt14159 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monsanto is evil for tricking farmers or for unfair business practices, not for lobbying. This is a false equivalency. Google advocates for things that are generally in the public interest and does not abuse those position as many companies of their size do.

> Google advocates for things that are generally in the public interest and does not abuse those position as many companies of their size do. Yes, they do that now. What about in the future? There's no guarantee that they won't start lobbying for things which entrench their monopoly and help their business while harming consumers. Just look at Google Fiber. At one point in time it seemed they might actually disrupt i…

Source on wasn't in their interests? I've only read that they couldn't continue it due to a: aggressive regulations by incumbers preventing entry of new ISPs (such as Fiber), b: most companies (like Comcast) miraculously offered fiber once Google Fiber was in the game, and c: they're focusing on wireless/balloon solutions.

These are just what I read but I would love to hear if this was just PR and there was a sinister reason like you imply.

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#63

Post by wavefunction »

naturalgradient wrote: post #30
wavefunction wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with your notion that some hypothetical person with health issues donating $100,000 to the Obama campaign is anywhere in the same moral and ethical situation being discussed here. In fact it sounds like quite an empty equivalency.

Do you have an argument other than that it feels wrong to you? Some people feel deeply about net neutrality and the state of society.

One difference is the chronology of the donations with respect to the candidate's actions. Candidate Obama didn't campaign on covering pre-existing conditions so a donation to his candidacy had no bearing on someone who has pre-existing conditions and wishes to make donations based on that.

Thanks for offering a straw man that it's just about how I feel though.

And Peter Thiel promotes Donald Trump whose FFC appointee Pai is doing his best to destroy net neutrality, and Pai has direct control over whether that occurs whereas this action by the Missouri AG is not in favor of net-neutrality per se.

You've got some nerve presenting weak and inaccurate straw man arguments and whining about "my feelings."

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#64

Post by PeachPlum »

3pt14159 wrote: post #55
rdtsc wrote: post #5

Yes those who have money buy political favors in US. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/07/amid-antitrust-talk... Google has 25 lobbying firms on retainer and spends at least $15M / year on lobbying. That is more than Verizon, Monsanto and Goldman for example, just to pick a few traditional big and scary companies off the top of my head. Also speaking of Google, it has a pretty wide revolving door: "22 former Whit…

Monsanto is evil for tricking farmers or for unfair business practices, not for lobbying. This is a false equivalency. Google advocates for things that are generally in the public interest and does not abuse those position as many companies of their size do.

11 Sep 2017 · Google today appealed the record €2.4 billion ($2.7 billion USD) antitrust fine levied against it by the EU

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#65

Post by Jyaif »

adventured wrote: post #51
mrpopo wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is how our system of government works, and there is nothing wrong with that. For most of the world population, wealthy people buying off politicians to serve their interests is seen as unethical, and it is flat illegal in many countries.

There is no country in the developed world where politicians aren't constantly bribed, pandered to, influenced via wealth & power from the private sector, and so on. There are no exceptions. Routine scandals - only the things that get caught - over the last three or four decades, from Canada to France to Western Europe to Australia to South Korea to China to Japan prove this point dramatically.

"Routine scandals" Well that's the thing isn't? Some billionaire influencing politicians is just business as usual in the US, while in some other developing countries it (rightfully so IMO) triggers scandals.

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#66

Post by Jyaif »

briandear wrote: post #42
downandout wrote: post #23

While this headline is factual, this is like saying " Man With Pre-Existing Health Conditions Donated to the Obama Campaign, and Now We Have Obamacare ". People shop for candidates that will serve their interests and then try to help get them elected. That is how our system of government works, and there is nothing wrong with that. The article strives to imply that Thiel paid this guy off to bring the action, but pro…

Agreed: Dustin Moskovitz and his wife Cari Tuna gave $20 million to boost Clinton and other Democratic campaigns. Reid Hoffman gave 40,000 to Democrats in 2016. Sheryl Sandberg of contributed over $200,000 to Democratic electoral campaigns in 2016. Marc Benioff has previously put more than $100,000 toward Democratic election funds. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky has spent more than $10,000 to support the Democratic ticket i…

When you are responsible for a majority of the donation of an entity, you pretty much own that entity, i.e. that entity will do whatever you please.

None of the donators you mentioned own the entities they donated to. Thiel owns that attorney.

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#67

Post by Jyaif »

ForHackernews wrote: post #54
flexie wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The important question is what $300,000 is to the attorney general. For 99 percent of us it's more than we could hope to save up in many years.

> For 99 percent of us it's more than we could hope to save up in many years. This is true. It's also true that it's an utterly trivial amount of money to somebody like Peter Thiel.

trueness != relevance

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#68

Post by rdtsc »

VeejayRampay wrote: post #60
rdtsc wrote: post #5

Yes those who have money buy political favors in US. https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/07/amid-antitrust-talk... Google has 25 lobbying firms on retainer and spends at least $15M / year on lobbying. That is more than Verizon, Monsanto and Goldman for example, just to pick a few traditional big and scary companies off the top of my head. Also speaking of Google, it has a pretty wide revolving door: "22 former Whit…

Amazing comment, you somehow manage to give Thiel excuses ("it's the way it is") and shift the topic to Google's lobbying at the same time.

> Amazing comment

Thanks!

> you somehow manage to give Thiel excuses

And what is he guilty of again?

> and shift the topic to Google's lobbying

The article is about Google and lobbying, so pointing out what Google is doing is interesting.

Besides your complement and meta-comment what do you think about the article?

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#69

Post by downandout »

CPLX wrote: post #39
downandout wrote: post #23

While this headline is factual, this is like saying " Man With Pre-Existing Health Conditions Donated to the Obama Campaign, and Now We Have Obamacare ". People shop for candidates that will serve their interests and then try to help get them elected. That is how our system of government works, and there is nothing wrong with that. The article strives to imply that Thiel paid this guy off to bring the action, but pro…

If you think a Republican politician and billionaire financier is one of the most liberal people on earth you have a truly profound misunderstanding of what that word means.

He was a Republican 17 years ago when it was politically convenient, then he renounced his party membership. He was a big Hillary supporter in the last election. He's also too liberal even for mainstream Democrats today, which is why he was considering a presidential run as an independent (and ultimately didn't, because he would have simply split the Democratic vote and taken exactly 0 votes from Trump). You should examine some of his positions on things, I think you'd find that you have a "profound misunderstanding" of his political views if you believe he's a Republican.

Re: Peter Thiel Gave Money to Attorney General Going After Google

#70

Post by tryingagainbro »

ForHackernews wrote: post #53
tryingagainbro wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I'm just saying, Thiel giving a small (for him) donation to some random AG doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly interested in that race. I agree, especially since he gave the same amount to every State AG in the country. He did, right?

Do you have a list of Thiel's political donations? I'm genuinely curious.

I am willing to bet that he didn't give to all AGs in USA at least the same amount...
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