4 ms·

He's probably too busy now trying to split up California into pieces. http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-split-three-states-20180612-story.ht

He's probably too busy now trying to split up California into pieces. http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-split-three-states-20180612-story.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-split-t...

maxxxxx 8y ago
That guy is nuts. It scares me that with his money he has a lot of influence.
- bredren 8y ago
  I realize the ongoing support of this founder looks pretty bad. But in all my interactions and work with Tim Draper, I've found him to be an ethical and good person. He is nuts in an amazing way, and of all the investors I have met in the valley, I can't think of any other one I'd entrust with his influence.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    He is good at tech and investing, no doubt. His political ideas are interesting but his money gives him way too much influence in other areas that aren't his main expertise. And supporting Holmes for that long and even now looks really bad and is very difficult to justify.
  - propman 8y ago
    That may be true, but if Holmes wasn’t stopped, thousands could have died...people trusted her to get accurate blood test results. What if some major medical ailment went undiscovered due to the poor accuracy of her machines? Holmes is a ruthless, despicable humnan being. Cheating people out of money is one thing. Cheating people of their health, denying when caught for years and years is on a complete another level. And what she did to the poor whistleblower? Almost ruined his life and went a few rings below murder to her chief scientist. Not to mention the mafia style shakedown of John C, the reporter who broke the story. If someone knows all that about a person, and still glowingly praises them, in my opinion they are NOT ethical and not a good person.
- dralley 8y ago
  This is a general issue. See also: Thiel, the Mercer's, the Koch's, Sheldon Adelson, the Illinois Democratic political machine, the Harry Reid Nevada political machine, etc.
  - saalweachter 8y ago
    Are there still functional political machines in the US? The Chicago machine survived the 40's but was killed by the Shakman Decrees 20 years ago. (There's still a formidable political party to be sure and a bit of graft wouldn't surprise me, but it seems almost sarcastic to compare that to eg the New Deal political machine, or the Chicago machine of ol'.)
    - toomuchtodo 8y ago
      > Are there still functional political machines in the US? Rahm Emanuel, Michael Madigan, and Lisa Madigan come to mind.
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
      - saalweachter 8y ago
        Those are all Chicago politicians, yes. While people sometimes use "political machine" to mean "a functioning, robust party" nowadays, a "political machine" refers to a specific system of patronage, where campaigning for a politician or political party is rewarded with government jobs, and anyone supporting the opposing party was rewarded with unemployment. At the height of the Chicago political machine (and New York, and ...) tens of thousands of city jobs were used to reward campaign workers, not just big donors and campaign managers but the people who knocked on doors or district leaders who ensured good turnout in their districts. At the height of the New Deal political machine, the WPA was used to do the same. Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, has "good relations" with Chicago businessmen and receives giant campaign donations; Michael Madigan tried to get jobs for a half dozen people and was shutdown hard.

maxxxxx 8y ago

That guy is nuts. It scares me that with his money he has a lot of influence.

bredren 8y ago
I realize the ongoing support of this founder looks pretty bad. But in all my interactions and work with Tim Draper, I've found him to be an ethical and good person. He is nuts in an amazing way, and of all the investors I have met in the valley, I can't think of any other one I'd entrust with his influence.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  He is good at tech and investing, no doubt. His political ideas are interesting but his money gives him way too much influence in other areas that aren't his main expertise. And supporting Holmes for that long and even now looks really bad and is very difficult to justify.
- propman 8y ago
  That may be true, but if Holmes wasn’t stopped, thousands could have died...people trusted her to get accurate blood test results. What if some major medical ailment went undiscovered due to the poor accuracy of her machines? Holmes is a ruthless, despicable humnan being. Cheating people out of money is one thing. Cheating people of their health, denying when caught for years and years is on a complete another level. And what she did to the poor whistleblower? Almost ruined his life and went a few rings below murder to her chief scientist. Not to mention the mafia style shakedown of John C, the reporter who broke the story. If someone knows all that about a person, and still glowingly praises them, in my opinion they are NOT ethical and not a good person.
dralley 8y ago
This is a general issue. See also: Thiel, the Mercer's, the Koch's, Sheldon Adelson, the Illinois Democratic political machine, the Harry Reid Nevada political machine, etc.
- saalweachter 8y ago
  Are there still functional political machines in the US? The Chicago machine survived the 40's but was killed by the Shakman Decrees 20 years ago. (There's still a formidable political party to be sure and a bit of graft wouldn't surprise me, but it seems almost sarcastic to compare that to eg the New Deal political machine, or the Chicago machine of ol'.)
  - toomuchtodo 8y ago
    > Are there still functional political machines in the US? Rahm Emanuel, Michael Madigan, and Lisa Madigan come to mind.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - saalweachter 8y ago
      Those are all Chicago politicians, yes. While people sometimes use "political machine" to mean "a functioning, robust party" nowadays, a "political machine" refers to a specific system of patronage, where campaigning for a politician or political party is rewarded with government jobs, and anyone supporting the opposing party was rewarded with unemployment. At the height of the Chicago political machine (and New York, and ...) tens of thousands of city jobs were used to reward campaign workers, not just big donors and campaign managers but the people who knocked on doors or district leaders who ensured good turnout in their districts. At the height of the New Deal political machine, the WPA was used to do the same. Rahm Emanuel, meanwhile, has "good relations" with Chicago businessmen and receives giant campaign donations; Michael Madigan tried to get jobs for a half dozen people and was shutdown hard.