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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

#71

Post by maxxxxx »

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…

I am always surprised how little money is really spent on lobbying. It really has an insane ROI.

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

#72

Post by rayiner »

maxxxxx wrote: post #71
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…

I am always surprised how little money is really spent on lobbying. It really has an insane ROI.

If lobbying had insane ROI, wouldn't companies spend more money on it?

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

#73

Post by danblick »

Jyaif wrote: post #66
briandear wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Thiel owns that attorney.

Maybe, but that sounds like a pretty big logical leap.

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

#74

Post by Eridrus »

rayiner wrote: post #72
maxxxxx wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am always surprised how little money is really spent on lobbying. It really has an insane ROI.

If lobbying had insane ROI, wouldn't companies spend more money on it?

Not everything scales.

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

#75

Post by maxerickson »

estsauver wrote: post #48
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…

The way I've always heard is that Google was coming up while the DOJ was tearing into Microsoft for anti trust and so was very culturally aware of the impact that government can have on the success of a company.

They took a decade to really get going with it.

See the chart midway through here:

https://www.theverge.com/2012/4/23/2968686/google-joins-lobb...

Before 2009 they weren't spending all that much. The company was flush with cash at least since the 2004 IPO.

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

#76

Post by rayiner »

Secretmapper wrote: post #62
kogepathic wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 siniste…

> 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)

The truth is the exact opposite. Google got very favorable treatment from fiber cities: https://techliberation.com/2012/08/07/what-google-fiber-says.... See also: http://crosscut.com/2014/12/google-fiber-never-come-seattle-....

The difference between Mountain View and Kansas City isn’t that that Comcast has somehow managed to out-lobby Google in Google’s own back yard. That’s absurd.

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

#77

Post by ZeroGravitas »

briholt wrote: post #61
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

Are you suggesting Soros doesn't promote democracy, or that Theil hasn't bemoaned democracy and suggested its incompatible with capitalism. Or both?

I mean, just to avoid doubt, I do like democracy so to the degree that someone enables democracy then I do like their politics.

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

#78

Post by rayiner »

Eridrus wrote: post #74
rayiner wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If lobbying had insane ROI, wouldn't companies spend more money on it?

Not everything scales.

There isn't more than $15 million worth of things a company like Google could be lobbying over?

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

#79

Post by maxxxxx »

rayiner wrote: post #78
Eridrus wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everything scales.

There isn't more than $15 million worth of things a company like Google could be lobbying over?

They may be already getting what's politically feasible.

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

#80

Post by grasshopperpurp »

natecavanaugh wrote: post #47
smhost wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is how our system of government works, and there is nothing wrong with that. The system you described naturally consolidates power, and most of society finds it acceptable only if it coexists with a mechanism to redistribute some of that power to the underprivileged class. So there are some things wrong with it. > a man hated by liberals for his support of Donald Trump Liberals hate him for his conservative vi…

> Textbook conservative gaslighting to downplay the prevalence of an issue that they find to be inconvenient. I think depending on your experiences, it may come off as gaslighting, but as a conservative (who loathes Trump and a lot of what Thiel champions), I can tell you that even the word racist is a heavy handed social weapon that has sometimes been used wrongly, or, and this is what triggers conservative anger, i…

>Again, I'm not saying there aren't racists and that there aren't institutional issues that stem from it, I'm saying that it's frustrating that it's often ignored when PoC exhibit the same behavior, and that it happens when the environment is setup to favor PoC and the white person is the one at the disadvantage.

When do white people experience systematic racism anywhere near the systematic racism that PoC endure? What environment are you referring to?

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