Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team • Hacker News Board

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#471

Post by Aloha » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:12 AM UTC

threeseed wrote: post #216

Rapzid wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Trump I suspect will be very similar to George W Bush. From all accounts he simply doesn't have the intellectual stamina to handle the rigours of the job. And I don't mean that in a negative way he is just more of a hands on, energetic, get shit done sort of guy. So in order to survive he is going to delegate to people like Guilani, Christie, Gingrich, Carson etc. Some of the most shameless, self serving and unethica…

They said much the same of Ronald Reagan. I'm no fan of either Reagan or Trump - but I think they both had the stamina for the office.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#472

Post by tempestn » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:14 AM UTC

snowwrestler wrote: post #365

edblarney wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Donald Trump and Paul Ryan plan to strip approximately 20 million people of health insurance, " No - they said they are going to repeal and replace Obamacare with something else. That does not mean they are going to strip people of their health insurance. "Donald Trump is part of a movement to dismantle pluralism in the United States, including the marginalization of immigrants and their descendants" This is a lie.…

> Trump has consistently supported all legal immigrants Trump confirmed his own opposition to people of Mexican descent when he said judge Gonzalo Curiel had a conflict of interest. He said that Curiel, who is descended from legal Mexican immigrants, could not rule fairly on a Trump trial, because Trump wanted to build a wall on the Mexican border. Note that Trump did not claim that Curiel was an illegal immigrant, o…

I'm the furthest thing from a Trump supporter, but it is a significant leap to take his believe that a judge with Mexican heritage would be biased against him due to his anti-Mexican agenda, and turn that into an opposition of all people of Mexican descent. Trump has said some despicable things, but saying that a person of Mexican descent might be biased against him because he's basically a dick to Mexico seems reasonably logical. Now, claiming that that's grounds for the judge to recuse himself is quite a stretch, but I don't personally see it as racist. I also think that stretching to label questionable things as racist is counter-productive; it dilutes the meaning, and makes it more difficult to call out the extreme, blatant racism that's going elsewhere.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#473

Post by adventured » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:14 AM UTC

colemickens wrote: post #390

gohrt wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump said that illegal immigrants are "rapists and murderers and some good people", "not their best people". You can disagree strongly with Trump's claims about what motivates illegal immigration, but Trump's stated view is not racist: he discriminated between two groups within a single race, and did not distinguish between races.

This is some amazing mental gymnastics here, wew. ""White people are racist, ignorant assholes, except for some of them."" ^^ I'm sure this comment will do well!

Variations of that statement are commonly being written or voiced in the mainstream media post election. So apparently it does do well. Van Jones, on national TV, called it "whitelash" and openly described Trump's election as a racist response to Obama's Presidency. The post election has been one mainstream media tirade after another about the racist white voters.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#474

Post by ubernostrum » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:15 AM UTC

oldmanjay wrote: post #402

ubernostrum wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His ideal form of government is minimal enough that voting is superfluous. What about the vote to set it up in the first place?

Who do you think voted to start the US government?

Well, it was started via the initiation of force. Which is one of only two sins in libertarianism, so if someone is a consistent libertarian they can't advocate for that as the way to get going.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#475

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:15 AM UTC

gohrt wrote: post #384

yolesaber wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women — two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians — have rendered the notion of “capitalist democracy” into an oxymoron." Wow. That is...troubling

Why? Welfare beneficiaries and women lean socialist, and vote socialist. They believe that's good. Thiel believes that's bad.

[deleted]

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#476

Post by adventured » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:18 AM UTC

pryce wrote: post #391

_qbjt wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Call me when your American Left Wing creates a system where Christians, Republicans and Libertarians are forbidden to dine in restaurants because of their identity, or are prevented from using restrooms, or are afraid to call the police should they be victims of crime, because they expect that the police will either make things worse or at best not take their experience seriously. "just as guilty" is a false equivale…

For decades the strongest core of such policies you're describing was the southern Democrat.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#477

Post by dang » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:19 AM UTC

davidw wrote: post #445

dang wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was obviously off topic; the topic is the news described in the title. Veering into most-controversial-generic-tangent-associated-with-controversial-thing is the worst direction politicized threads can take on HN, and they're borderline to begin with. Whimsical or unpredictable tangents are ok, but generic ideological tangents are always off-topic. They're black holes: they suck everything in, including all the ox…

You guys are going to need to find a way to back off on the US politics. I have no idea how... it's all I can think about myself right now, but it's a poisonous topic.

HN can't be immune from macro trends, and this is a doozy.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#478

Post by dragonwriter » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:20 AM UTC

adventured wrote: post #476

pryce wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me when your American Left Wing creates a system where Christians, Republicans and Libertarians are forbidden to dine in restaurants because of their identity, or are prevented from using restrooms, or are afraid to call the police should they be victims of crime, because they expect that the police will either make things worse or at best not take their experience seriously. "just as guilty" is a false equivale…

For decades the strongest core of such policies you're describing was the southern Democrat.

Yes, but that was before the realignment when the racist white southern conservative faction of the Democratic Party, that had been it's core prior to the New Deal Coalition, abandoned the party over Johnson's support of civil rights and became the base of the Republican Party.

Has nothing to do with the Left Wing.

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#479

Post by the_decider » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:26 AM UTC

Turing_Machine wrote: post #227

the_decider wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. Its a legitimate idea currently making the headway in our community. And if you think its ridiculous, let me ask you...Is the notion of a seperatist, intelligently run Californian sovereign state any less ridiculous than the notion of a Trump Presidency two years ago? We've always been a community of disruptors...well, now's our opportunity to really distrupt. https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/10/calexit-is-silicon-…

Where are you planning to get your water?

The Water issues can be resolved using technologies developed / enhanced by Israel. http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/science/1.698275

Re: Peter Thiel To Join Trump Transition Team

#480

Post by Mathnerd314 » Fri, Nov 11, 2016, 6:27 AM UTC

Mathnerd314 wrote: post #440

Rapzid wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

My guess is that most of them will be "wildcards", people that have no political experience / ties whatsoever and were chosen because they were experts or at least moderately successful in their chosen field. Thiel kind of fits that profile, ignoring his recent antics.

The one I'm watching (and this guy: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2016/11/09/president...) is Peter Navarro. Presumably Trump is going to find 2 more people and make up a council, like Obama's: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Economic_Advisers, but it's an interesting data point as to whether Navarro ends up as chairman.