521–530 of 1001 posts
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"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.
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"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…
Trump is the most 'free' President in modern history. He 'owes' the least, to the fewest people. How do you know? Have you actually operationalized it with a quantifiable measure? Can you actually back up your claim with actual, verifiable data? No? Then get the fuck out .
Donald Trump was not on the speaking circuit for the last few years, taking cheques from hedge funds and large banks.
Donald Trump received no endorsements from newspapers, and most of his party failed to endorse him.
Donald Trump own party apparatus worked against him.
Campaign contributions from Banks and Hedge Funds massively favoured Hillary:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/hedge-fund-money-has-vastly-favo...
Listen - I don't like Trump, if you ask me, he's kind of a douche.
But he's basically beholden to almost nobody, it's a totally unique idea in modern politics.
So the man whose company was funded by the CIA to conduct mass big data surveillance is now going to be helping to decide the structure of the executive branch, with "Law and Order" Giuliani probably as Attorney General. What could go wrong? IMHO, YC had their chance to divorce themselves from Thiel. They can still do it, but this is their last chance. Silicon Valley is not going to forget this conflict of interest.
The Silicon Valley that was giving Hillary millions so they could vie for the same positions? Or Google staffers that met at the White House over 427 times, during the same administration that expanded surveillance against Americans?
I don't know why but I've got a sinking feeling in my stomach.
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In context his suggestion is that women being allowed to vote is incompatible with enacting his ideal philosophy of government. Which in turn implies that the only way to implement his ideal philosophy of government would be to deny women the right to vote.
> Which in turn implies that the only way to implement his ideal philosophy of government would be to deny women the right to vote. And that Thiel would prefer his ideal system to a world where women can vote and prevent his ideal.
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…
Still better than President Hillary Cliton who was taking money directly from Saudi Barberia.
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To claim that Islam is somehow innately "vicious" or "barbaric" is just insulting.
>>To claim that Islam is somehow innately "vicious" or "barbaric" is just insulting. First a question: Insulting to whom? If you think it is insulting to Muslims, then I disagree. It may be offensive to some Muslims. Will criticizing Nazism be considered as insulting (to Germans)?
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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…
Last time I read the constitution there was no "intellectual stamina" requirement to become the President. Also if Hillary was elected would she have surrounded herself by Gandhi-like selfless advisors?
Nobody said it was a requirement to be a President. Just to be a decent one.
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So if Trump's problem is only with illegal immigrants, I'm sure he and his supporters would be more than happy to relax immigration policy and regularize the illegal immigrants that are already in the U.S., thus solving the issue?
Well, he seems to plan the J1 and the H1B Visas. So, he is seemingly against potential legal immigrants too..
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Any specific highlights?
In addition to what others have said: His head-over-heels support for a decidedly anti-libertarian candidate like Trump is in itself quite extremist. This has always been one of the standard tools for (crypto-)fascists and closet authoritarians of all ilks to get into positions of influence -- by using people of nominally "opposing" viewpoints as, in effect, wedge instruments to disrupt the system as violently as pos…
Is Trump anti-libertarian? His policies seem fairly libertarian to me. I suppose being anti-abortion could be considered anti-libertarian, and maybe you could frame his immigration stance as non-libertarian? But i'm not sure. Libertarians don't necessarily extend their liberty to non-citizens.
Are you thinking of some others? I'm perfectly willing to be wrong about this. I just can't think of any major instances where he deviates from what i'd consider to be a libertarian agenda.