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That would be a sound assumption. Why else should a Silicon Valley billionaire give 300k to someone running for attorney general in a Missouri? Is he just inte
by flexie 9y ago
That would be a sound assumption.
Why else should a Silicon Valley billionaire give 300k to someone running for attorney general in a Missouri? Is he just interested in justice being pursued in a small Midwestern state he doesn't live in, that he is neither from, nor studied in, nor has his major business interests in?
$300,000 is a sizable donation for someone running for attorney general in a low key state.
- ForHackernews 9y ago> $300,000 is a sizable donation According to Forbes' estimates, Thiel is worth about $2.8 billion. Donating $300,000 for him is proportional to giving maybe $30 for a normal upper-middle class person.
- tryingagainbro 9y agoSure, sure. If Bill Gates gave $1 mil ist's nothing to him but what is it to ME? The average person would probably be tempted to murder someone in exchange for that
- ForHackernews 9y agoSure. It highlights the corrupting influence wealthy people have over politics. I'm just saying, Thiel giving a small (for him) donation to some random AG doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly interested in that race. I would guess he has given equal or larger donations to many other politicians and political action committees.
- tryingagainbro 9y ago>> I'm just saying, Thiel giving a small (for him) donation to some random AG doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly interested in that race. I agree, especially since he gave the same amount to every State AG in the country. He did, right?
- ForHackernews 9y agoDo you have a list of Thiel's political donations? I'm genuinely curious.
- tryingagainbro 9y agoI am willing to bet that he didn't give to all AGs in USA at least the same amount...
- trhway 9y ago>I'm just saying, Thiel giving a small (for him) donation to some random AG doesn't necessarily mean he's particularly interested in that race. he gave all what he could - sounds different from "gave a small (for him) donation" :)
- flexie 9y agoThe important question is what $300,000 is to the attorney general. For 99 percent of us it's more than we could hope to save up in many years.
- ForHackernews 9y ago> For 99 percent of us it's more than we could hope to save up in many years. This is true. It's also true that it's an utterly trivial amount of money to somebody like Peter Thiel.
- Jyaif 9y agotrueness != relevance
- CodeWriter23 9y agoEU Courts already found Google guilty of antitrust activities. So the sound assumption here is US Courts will rule similarly. So why would a State AG pass on such an opportunity to fill the state coffers and defend their citizens? Check out followthemoney.org to learn why California isn’t filing the suit.
- flexie 9y agoAmerican antitrust legislation is completely different from European competition law. It's by no means given that the result will be the same in the US or that the fines would be similar. Also, I doubt that most Missourian voters care nearly as much about fighting Google as they care about jailing local criminals.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoTell that to Microsoft.