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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#191

Post by xamuel »

shams93 wrote: post #148

If this is the last election it guarantees Thiel not just 4 years of crony paydays but a lifetime. Trump doesn't have to make good on promises when there will never be another election. He can simply gave any one killed who complains about the inequality they nearly have fully autonomous killing drones and Trump will be legally empowered to have anyone he wants out to death at any time without trial.

I've noticed the president switches between "omnipotent tyrant" and "powerless figurehead" depending whether or not I agree with his party.

When he's in my own party, he's a lame duck, unable to effect the slightest change without congressional approval.

When he's the opposite party, he's a monarch whose word is law and who answers to no-one.

This is extremely convenient as it allows me to avoid all kinds of cognitive dissonance :)

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#192

Post by revelation »

overgard wrote: post #26
_pius wrote: post #2

Meanwhile, Trump's already got an RFS in waiting: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-says-he-... https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/ The longer YC waits to do the right thing on this, the worse it will get.

"The right thing". Tolerance means recognizing that people have different world views than your own. Sometimes the people you do business with have political opinions you don't agree with. The melodrama over Thiel's political opinions is pointless. If you demand Thiel steps down, are you personally just going to stop doing business with 49% of the country that voted differently? Personally I lean liberal, but I'm pre…

There is tolerance and then there are things that are not open to discussion. The line tends to shift as society progresses.

Not so long ago it was a perfectly valid opinion that there should be slaves. Try that today.

(Incidentally that same level of society would have seen Thiel stoned to death, he is openly gay after all)

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#193

Post by raspasov »

Rapzid wrote: post #178
RealGeek wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm sure he'll see a very significant ROI on his $1M once the government starts awarding contracts very conveniently to companies of which he owns a portion. Wasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'?

If we believe all the recently headlines about who he's bringing in it appears pure "pay to play". Lots of individuals who Trump "owes" through either money or support they provided to him; pure cronyism. I'm not sure Trump realizes what worked best in business, or what he felt worked best for him in what business he has done, is not necessarily best for operating policy. I'm not sure he cares. I suspect he might tho…

"humble-struck" - can't agree more, lol.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#194

Post by barney54 »

magic5227 wrote: post #99

Great, another climate change denier https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-views-of-the-Thiel-Founda...

Nothing in that post explains why Thiel is a climate change denier. The only thing I see that could be construed that way is that he said it hasn't gotten warmer the last 15 years. It depends on when Thiel made that statement whether it was true or not at the time. The warming that occurred over the last year meant that there was statistically significant warming, but before about February the warming over the last 15 years was not statistically significant.

At worst getting the facts wrong by a few months doesn't make Thiel a climate change denier.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#195

Post by phlakaton »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #52
roywiggins wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More Democrats voted and caucused for her than for Bernie. I don't know where the notion that his nomination was stolen comes from other than maybe Trump himself.

Independents, needed to win the general, were not permitted to participate in several major Democratic primaries. Those Independents did not go for Clinton (clearly). Nor did Millennials, who also sat out for Clinton. If you need people outside your party to vote for you, you don't restrict caucusing to just your party. Otherwise, you get the proverbial brick in the face. Must be a terrible legacy to lose to the pers…

Independent here from California. I absolutely voted for Clinton over Sanders, and I assure you my conscience is clear about it.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#196

Post by randycupertino »

cmsmith wrote: post #183

Given the choice between Thiel (favors reconstitution of our political establishment and believes in science and technology) and the rest of the Trump hangers-on (are ambivalent towards reconstitution of the establishment and are anti-science), this is a decent outcome.

"believes in science and technology"

Not really, since he denies global warming: https://youtu.be/CoxxGhLFbw4?t=2m25s

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#197

Post by woofyman »

skewart wrote: post #160
woofyman wrote: post #95

I don't understand how a gay man can support a political party who's platform wants to reverse marriage equality.

Just because he's gay doesn't mean he supports marriage equality. Given Thiel's political views I would guess that he thinks that the government shouldn't care about _anyone's_ marriage, gay or straight. So rather than fight for marriage equality for gay couples he'd fight for marriage deregulation for everyone, including straight couples (e.g. no special tax treatment, no special legal protections for spouses).

Start with marriage equality then fight for marriage deregulation

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#198

Post by zardeh »

tempestn wrote: post #176
noobermin wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said people on the left don't do it. Yes, Obama did it too. The point is Trump isn't what he appears to be, in fact he appears very similar to Obama in the sense that he convinced many people there would be change for the better but all evidence points to that he will just perpetuate the system which he rallied against (which Obama did too).

Legitimate question: what could Obama have done better? Being Canadian I didn't take as close an interest as I would have in my own government, but it seemed from my perspective like he was doing everything he could to bring about change. The problem appeared to be that he had a very different idea of what that change should be than the Republican Congress, and short of utterly capitulating, I'm not sure how you unil…

Very little, Obama didn't have the advantage of a friendly congress.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#200

Post by Retric »

tomhoward wrote: post #126
Frondo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tolerance means you aren't jailing people with different views than your own. Tolerance means you aren't out beating people up for having different views. Tolerance isn't about putting on a happy face and doing business with someone whose views you find odious. If people are no longer free to use words or social stigma to advance their views and opinion, because "tolerance," then what do we have left?

Tolerance is compassion. It means seeking the deeper truth beneath the words and actions, to understand the fundamental reasons. It's true that few of us have the time and energy to dig through all the bullshit and achieve understanding of everyone we find abhorrent. But where we are able to do so, we usually learn some important things about others and about ourselves - mostly, that when it comes down to it, we all…

This is based on the assumption that understanding someone is enough to accept them. I disagree, cannibalism is just one example of things people do where understanding and accepting are very different.

PS: Some people really don't care about safety others don't care about love.

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