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Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

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Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#351

Post by leakybit »

Rapzid wrote: post #278
edblarney wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lots of individuals who Trump "owes" through either money or support they provided to him; pure cronyism." Trump is the most 'free' President in modern history. He 'owes' the least, to the fewest people. This is one thing even the center-left press were talking about. As for Thiel - $1M might seem like a lot - but Trump doesn't really 'owe' Thiel anything, because Thiel doesn't have direct future influence etc., and…

> He'll give them to those that 'stuck by him' i.e. Guliani etc. and scorn on the old Bush guard. "owes" man. In quotes because he doesn't have any fiscal or otherwise legal obligation to pay them back. If he largely surrounds himself with those few who supported him(opportunistically dare I say?) then it's a huge red flag in my book he isn't really going for the best advisors. I'd like to see at least a couple old d…

This is the case with just about every politician, the campaign staff essential becomes part of the administration. Remember that he only has 8 weeks to fill hundreds of jobs in his cabinet.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#352

Post by dangerlibrary »

maverick_iceman wrote: post #274
meritt wrote: post #21

This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. 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. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified…

Do you realize that $1M is chump change to Trump?

There is no way for the public to confirm or deny this sentence.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#353

Post by Dagwoodie »

Lagged2Death wrote: post #167
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'?

Wasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'? He straight bragged about participating in such schemes from the other side.

Thiel is an experienced, proven, intelligent, capable technologist and gay man. If there's someone better who didn't donate $1m fine, but it seems like Thiel would be qualified for his cabinet and we might want to give him a shot be condemning him.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#354

Post by couchand »

killedbydeath wrote: post #298
betolink wrote: post #240

People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.

Left-wing mccarthyism is as bad as right-wing mccarthyism. People should be able to support one of the two candidates without having to stand up to so much shaming in SV circles. Given the binary choice there may be multiple reasons to pick Trump over Clinton even if you disagree with him on a lot of issues.

"Given the binary choice there may be multiple reasons to pick Trump over Clinton even if you disagree with him on a lot of issues."

If you're willing to see past the proud racism and misogyny, then sure. If you're willing to see past the blatant disregard for objective facts, then sure. I, for one, would vote for pretty much anyone else before supporting that.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#355

Post by noobermin »

praisewhitey wrote: post #207
noobermin wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. He lied, as many on the left said he was. Here[0], there is talk Jamie Dimon was considered by his advisors for Treasury. To be fair, Dimon declined, but it shows that Trump at least surrounds himself with people who don't give two shits about his "helping the little man." [0] http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/10/donald-trump-advisors-conside...

>He lied, as many on the left said he was And many on the right.

I should have revised it to "many" fullstop. I just wanted to use a word that meant many people without making it sound something like, "informed sources say...". The point is many public figures and thinkers distrusted Trump's rhetoric.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#356

Post by gohrt »

raldi wrote: post #344
tptacek wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think many of Thiel's detractors denied that he was buying himself this seat at the table. In fact, many of us were animated by exactly that concern.

"He might as well burn that money. Talk about bad investing." "What is the point? He must know that Trump won't win." "I think he is living in a capitalistic illusion" "He's putting his Gawker money to good use." "Maybe he just needed another write off?"

Nice selective quoting.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#357

Post by chrischen »

RealGeek wrote: post #70
meritt wrote: post #21

This was obvious from the RNC speech and further reinforced when Thiel donated $1M to Trump. A contrarian bet, sure, but $1M is a pretty small price to pay to have a 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. 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. I had very negative feelings about Thiel, and those were magnified…

> 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'?

You have to realize Trump complained about the "rigged" Republican primary and then after he won he literally said it doesn't matter anymore because he won. Means to an end kind of guy.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#358

Post by kem »

ForrestN wrote: post #150
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.

As a fellow gay man I can tell you Thiel clearly appears to be quite conflicted about his homosexuality, which is why he victimized Gawker so gratuitously for revealing it to the public. Unfortunately, because becoming a billionaire is often random, sometimes people with mental illness and deep emotional pain can rise to incredible power.

Yeah, there's something contradictory about his obsession with Gawker outing him and his asserted openness about his orientation.

Actually, Thiel's full of contradictions. A professed libertarian celebrity hunting a media outlet over reporting too much information; someone claiming to be a defender of privacy founding a data mining company providing information to the government panopticon; a Stanford grad bemoaning the educational elite... do I need to go on?

Thiel strikes me as someone who heavily hedges their bets, and is probably conflicted with themselves.

I'm not surprised he supported Trump, really. I don't think it was about prescience as much as it was attraction to Trump's authoritarian, sensationalistic, prejudicial brand of quasilibertarianism. They're very similar in their political positions or outlooks -- Thiel is just shrewder, less crass, and probably more intelligent.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#360

Post by betolink »

_qbjt wrote: post #349
betolink wrote: post #240

People here giving Thiel a free pass on his views and support for bigotry is just disgusting.

Ironically, bigotry is defined as "intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself". I'm not defending Trump but it's fairly obvious to any non-partisan that the left wing is just as guilty of this.

Except that to me racism is not a political view neither climate change.
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