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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 h
by meritt 10y ago
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 10x after his endorsement of Trump, but I'll at least concede he's a very shrewd individual.
- RealGeek 10y ago> 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'?
- zump 10y agoget ready to be surprised.
- notgood 10y ago"pay per play" is the game he has always played, that's why people like him can be fined for the many of his scandals[0] but still end up profitable in the long shot. [0]http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-trump-scandals/474726/ http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/10/donald-t...
- sdenton4 10y agoI mean, it's basically his platform, too. All the stuff about only doing anything abroad it other countries are paying the US...
- noobermin 10y agoYes. 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-considered-jpmorgans-jamie-dimon-for-treasury-secretary-sources.html http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/10/donald-trump-advisors-conside...
- privong 10y ago> He lied, as many on the left said he was. Please drop the partisan angle on this. This isn't a left/right difference. Obama campaigned with a similar promise and he still selected lobbyists for his administration: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/08/15/there-are-65-former-lobbyists-currently-working-in-the-obama-administration/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/08/15/th... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wheeler https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wheeler
- noobermin 10y agoI 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).
- tempestn 10y agoLegitimate 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 unilaterally engender cooperation in that situation. I'm sure that I'm both biased and largely uninformed though, so I'm interested in the counter-argument.
- zardeh 10y agoVery little, Obama didn't have the advantage of a friendly congress.
- Turing_Machine 10y agoObama had both houses of Congress for his first two years. He could have passed any law he wanted (indeed, that's how Obamacare got passed).
- stormbeta 10y agoSure. But nobody who paid attention to how Trump has done business in the past actually believed a word of it. And now we're being proven right.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- Lagged2Death 10y agoWasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'? He straight bragged about participating in such schemes from the other side.
- Dagwoodie 10y agoThiel 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.
- Rapzid 10y agoIf 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 though. Dude looked humble-struck in the video today with Obama; almost worried about what he got himself into.
- raspasov 10y ago"humble-struck" - can't agree more, lol.
- ajeet_dhaliwal 10y agoIf he treated it like a game that you win, he won, but he can't just go home now, he's signed up to be on call 24/7. I'm not wealthy but I've treated job interviews like this and been unhappy after "winning". Now I'm highly selective about what I do. Losing such personal freedom needs someone with a real conviction about the job and stamina, he may have it, otherwise he'll be miserable. The White House probably came across as a dump compared to what he's used to.
- threeseed 10y agoTrump 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 unethical people around in politics.
- maverick_iceman 10y agoLast 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?
- kafkaesq 10y agoWasn't Trump rallying against such crony corruption aka 'pay for play'? He may have, but like most everything he says it needs to be understood as "post-truth", and meant for the emotional impact only -- not the actual substance.
- D_Alex 10y agoThis "post-truth" does not need to be understood, it needs to be rejected, as hard as possible.
- sangnoir 10y agoPost-truth is pretty much Donald's lifestyle. He testified under oath that his net worth "depends on how he feels at that moment" (paraphrasing). His state of mind defines reality/truth
- WalterBright 10y agoNet worth is a pretty slippery concept. For example, what is your house worth? You cannot know it with any sort of precision.
- rahrahrah 10y agoYou are aware that Trump contradicted himself every time he opened his mouth, right? Is there any reason to believe this will be the one time when he's self-consistent?
- BurningFrog 10y agoJust because some random internet commenter is sure this is part of a crony capitalist deal, doesn't mean that is an undisputed fact.
- Terr_ 10y agoTrump knows all about sobering up government: Take it from an alcoholic, he knows all the tricks :P
- tptacek 10y agoEvery successful politician in the last hundred years has "rallied against crony corruption".
- chrischen 10y agoYou 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.
- sharer 10y agoIt's only pay to play when it's people you don't want to play with.
- cmurf 10y agoTrump rallying against the Electoral College in 2012 as bad for democracy. Now that it gives him the win contrary to democracy what's his opinion? https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/266038556504494082?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/26603855650449408...
- DefaultUserHN 10y agoHe tried to change the rules, to make it fair. They won't change it. So he played it by their stupid rules and won. Now, they're complaining that he's playing by their rules.
- macca321 10y agoHAHAHAHAHAHA!
- mfukar 10y agoI hope you're not implying a politician may stay true to their word.
- jackmott 10y agohe was lying, which was obvious.
- baddox 10y agoShrewd seems unfair. Political views and ethics aside, it turns out he's a genius.
- vinay427 10y agoI think that is what the parent comment meant by using shrewd in contrast with negative: > I had very negative feelings about Thiel, [...] but I'll at least concede he's a very shrewd individual. Also, the Oxford definition for shrewd: > Having or showing sharp powers of judgement; astute: Source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/shrewd https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/shrewd
- baddox 10y agoCorrect. I think it's an understatement, considering how much crap he got for joining what looked like a sinking ship.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- stephencanon 10y agoWhat do you imagine "shrewd" means?
- baddox 10y agoI imagine it means making smart decisions. I think it's an understatement in this case.
- brazzledazzle 10y agoIt sounds like we may have differing definitions of "fair".
- PTthehypocrit3 10y agoHe's a hypocrite who should not be given respect. He's riding a wave of populist hatred, after complaining democracy is not compatible with freedom. Apparently to him the way to freedom is fascism. This just feels so like Hitler, marching across Europe, and everybody nodded and smiled politely. Taking a "this will fizzle out soon. Is ok." stance. There are no tanks and bombs, and no utter chaos and death. But there is plenty of social-fascism afoot. His power comes from people that want him to be kicked out of the country too. Too light in the loafers for them. Peter Thiel is a despicable human being.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- stripemango5 10y agoI really hope that's the case. More so because that will kick out the awful Megan Smith from her current position. I had to sit through the most excruciating long presentation from her about how white men are basically the devil incarnate and how women essentially invented tech but its because they're totally oppressed that we are just discovering this now. Good riddance!
- odonnellryan 10y agoI love how much the right complained about Clinton's "pay to play." http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/videos/2016-11-03/trump-blasts-clinton-for-pay-for-play-corruption http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/videos/2016-11-03/trump-bl... We've seen this during his entire campaign. Anything he attacked Clinton for came up as something he was guilty of.
- defgeneric 10y agoIt's not exactly like he's the King of Morocco, and besides, he also campaigned for Trump. It's not surprising he'd be on the transition team or give 1M to the campaign. I mean, that's the approximate value of 3 Hillary Clinton speeches. Peanuts!
- odonnellryan 10y agoIt's true, I'm not saying Clinton is innocent of this either: it's politics in general.
- Tycho 10y agoTo be fair, for Thiel $1M is practically nothing, basically just a token gesture. His press conference speech probably commanded 10x that in airtime value.
- maverick_iceman 10y agoDo you realize that $1M is chump change to Trump?
- mlangdon 10y agoProve it. Let's see some tax returns. In the absence of evidence, it is reasonable to assume that he is heavily in debt with no liquid assets and effectively poor. He paid a 7 dollar boy scout fee for his son from his "charity."
- chronic6l 10y agoYou think someone in debt would be smart enough to prod half the country as sheep into voting for him? Ha. America got trolled and was given the middle finger. We get it, you're upset. But listen to what the Democrat thought leaders are saying: stop dividing the country with your continued rhetoric in your comment. - Software engineer at Google in Mountain View, California
- mlangdon 10y agoThe onus is on him to stop inciting (and personally inflicting) violence against women, Muslims, Latinos, and more. That's what's dividing the country. I'm not going to rely on Democrats to lead any kind of thought until they grow a backbone.
- Chris2048 10y ago> stop inciting (and personally inflicting) violence against women, Muslims, Latinos Care to be specific? What do you consider to be "inciting violence"? Actual, explicit endorsement of violence; or just something interpreted as sexist/racism, that might then embolden people to commit these acts?
- dangerlibrary 10y agoTrump has been bankrupt four times and relies heavily on debt to finance his real estate ventures. It's well documented that he took on hundreds of millions of debt in the form of "junk bonds" (so called because of the high risk of default and the resulting high interest rate - 14%) in order to pay for his casinos in Atlantic city, for example. He defaulted on many of those obligations, in some cases ultimately paying only pennies on the dollar. This is what Trump is talking about when he says things like "I love debt." Because of some tax loopholes for real estate investors that existed at the time (they were closed in the 90's under Clinton, actually), he was also allowed to claim the losses as his own, rather than those of his creditors - that's how he managed to claim nearly a $1 billion net operating loss in a single year. Piecing together information from his financial disclosures (total revenue) and leaked documents (revenue net expenses), it appears at least one of his properties in NY has been modestly successful in recent years - but that property had well below $5 million in profit in 2014 and was losing money before that. We know nothing at all about his personal obligations to creditors. That lack of information, along with his refusal to release his tax returns, is what has lead to so much speculation about what may be in those returns.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoI think it's impossible ( or soon will be ) to ignore that it tapped into a lot of energy, and I can't blame Thiele for placing a bet. Trump "hacked" the electoral process. Whether he broke things remains to be seen. It's one thing chasing a bear, and quite another catching one.
- jdavis703 10y agoDoes "hacked" have to be placed in quotes here? I thought this community knew the difference between crackers and hackers.
- ArkyBeagle 10y agoI put it in quotes because it does not strictly conform to the standard usage of the word here.
- cylinder 10y agoThis doesn't mean he's a part of the Administration, he is joining the Transition Team which helps pick appointees to Administration posts.
- tn13 10y agoStill better than President Hillary Cliton who was taking money directly from Saudi Barberia.
- akhilcacharya 10y agoIs that like a country for barbers or something?
- rdtsc 10y agoA shave and a haircut, and get cut to bits for ... having the wrong sexual orientation.
- skrebbel 10y agoYour point would've made so much more impact without the Cliton and the Barberia.
- mvkaxon 10y agoNo. I don't think it is about "money" anymore for billionaires. Intentions may be evil, but not about personal financial gains.
- atmosx 10y ago> 50/50 shot at CTO of the USA. To be honest, I've always had the feeling that it was more like 10% - 90%.
- DominikR 10y agoThat's just pure speculation because you do not like Trump or his policies. Thiel is a very good person to advise on the tech sector and which direction technology might lead society to since he obviously called many major developments and made huge profits on these bets. Thiel also happens to align with the Republicans on certain issues so why should Trump not ask for his advise or Thiel offer advise? It's great that a true Libertarian like Thiel even gets the chance to influence the direction of the government.
- mathattack 10y agoThe investment has a huge ROI for Palantir too.
- AJ007 10y agoHere is what I said 25 days ago: > I think Thiel is hedging for both himself and as a proxy for Facebook. If Trump wins, Facebook gets the most favored corporation status currently awarded to Google. If Trump loses, Thiel perhaps assumes everyone will forget soon enough and Zuckerberg can diss-avow any Facebook connection. In retrospect, the one thing I think I was wrong about were the odds. I thought it was a long shot. Facebook has sentiment analysis and definitely had a better guess on how the election would turn out than perhaps anyone else in the world. While pollsters were trying to extrapolate on what the entire population would be doing based on small samples and proprietary methods, Facebook just had the data. Not only can Facebook say you are a Trump supporter, but they can know by how much and as time series! Make no mistake, "Most favored tech company" status just swapped Google with Facebook. I don't support Trump, I believe very, very little of what he has said he supports or will do. However, I am fairly upset about the public support Hillary received. From foreign policy to domestic issues, her track record is appalling and with the exception of pro-war moderates, everyone who supported her should at least be embarrassed about it.
- pvnick 10y ago> Not only can Facebook say you are a Trump supporter, but they can know by how much and as time series! That's a fascinating insight. They also have the geographic data and could slice/dice to get a sense of electoral college. After the systematic polling error that caught everyone off-guard, we will probably see some innovations in the next 4 years that will get incorporated into the ensemble models (e.g. 538). Perhaps Facebook will release some sort of sentiment data. Although that may get a little creepy.
- TheSpiceIsLife 10y agoWhat polling error? Nothing I saw said "Clinton 100%". I've seen enough horse races to know the favourite doesn't always win.
- glitchdout 10y agoSo Facebook (& Thiel) is to Trump what Pollyhop is to Conway on House of Cards.
- dominotw 10y ago> 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. why is that?
- dcosson 10y agoHe is certainly shrewd. Regardless of some of his views I disagree with, I guess I do now hope that he becomes an advisor to Trump because at least some of his friends are people I respect. And there's a good chance someone else that Trump/the GOP might choose instead would be even worse than Thiel. Also, having an openly gay advisor gives some hope that Trump might stand up to the anti-LGBT majority of the Republican party, perhaps even nominate a supreme court justice that doesn't want to overturn marriage equality. Thiel having called climate change pseudoscience as recently as 2 years ago on the other hand, and having actually acted on the authoritarian impulses he shares with Trump to shut down media organizations out of revenge, is not encouraging.