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Thiel recently hired former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who resigned from that position after a bunch of corruption scandals came to light. That should

Thiel recently hired former Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, who resigned from that position after a bunch of corruption scandals came to light. That should make it quite clear what direction he wants to take.

Rebelgecko 5y ago
He wants to become chancellor of Austria? Or just parlay that relationship into another citizenship for his collection?
- vanusa 5y ago
  "High-level corruption as a service" is likely to be his main value proposition, basically. That's the takeaway to get from his partnering with Kurz.
  - coldtea 5y ago
    >"High-level corruption as a service" is likely to be his main value proposition, basically. He could have gotten that from almost anybody in Washington or Wall Street...
    - vanusa 5y ago
      Ah, but there's a certain cachet that comes from partnering with major figures who've been caught with their hands as explicitly in the cookie jar as were Kurz's. And on camera, no less.
      - coldtea 5y ago
        Is there? Because the cachet usually comes from the opposite, to do it with figures who managed not to be caught.
        vanusa 5y ago
        Right -- and that is precisely his intended message: To be openly court corruption of this sort, as a way of rejecting the accepted norms of Western democracy. In its current effete, collectivist form. "Burn it down, burn it down!", in other words. Until the world is ready to accept his profoundly more enlightened norms -- of evolved, "capitalist" democracy.
rchaud 5y ago
The nature of the scandal is interesting is well. His governing coalition partner (head of a far-right party, unsurprisingly named "Freedom Party") was videotaped in conversation with an intermediary of a Russian oligarch. In that video, the intermediary offered to acquire an Austrian newspaper and change their editorial tone to pro-FP. In return, the party head would offer the Russian's company Austrian state contracts. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/europe/austrian-chancellor-sebastian-kurz-resigns.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/europe/austrian-cha...
- cehrlich 5y ago
  There was a whole other Newspaper/TV polling fraud scandal since that one, this time relating to Fellner's 'Österreich' / 'OE24', as well as several other scandals (search for "Pflegemilliarde", "Hure der Reichen", etc). There was so much that even a few months later it's easy to forget half of it. Unfortunately the ÖVP knew of all the warrants on their offices ahead of time, so devices were wiped and documents shredded. Most of the recent scandals came from the files from a single Apple Time Capsule that someone forgot to get rid of. As fascinating as that is, I'm sure there's a bunch of additional corruption and fraud that we will never know about.

Rebelgecko 5y ago

He wants to become chancellor of Austria? Or just parlay that relationship into another citizenship for his collection?

vanusa 5y ago
"High-level corruption as a service" is likely to be his main value proposition, basically. That's the takeaway to get from his partnering with Kurz.
- coldtea 5y ago
  >"High-level corruption as a service" is likely to be his main value proposition, basically. He could have gotten that from almost anybody in Washington or Wall Street...
  - vanusa 5y ago
    Ah, but there's a certain cachet that comes from partnering with major figures who've been caught with their hands as explicitly in the cookie jar as were Kurz's. And on camera, no less.
    - coldtea 5y ago
      Is there? Because the cachet usually comes from the opposite, to do it with figures who managed not to be caught.
      - vanusa 5y ago
        Right -- and that is precisely his intended message: To be openly court corruption of this sort, as a way of rejecting the accepted norms of Western democracy. In its current effete, collectivist form. "Burn it down, burn it down!", in other words. Until the world is ready to accept his profoundly more enlightened norms -- of evolved, "capitalist" democracy.

rchaud 5y ago

The nature of the scandal is interesting is well. His governing coalition partner (head of a far-right party, unsurprisingly named "Freedom Party") was videotaped in conversation with an intermediary of a Russian oligarch. In that video, the intermediary offered to acquire an Austrian newspaper and change their editorial tone to pro-FP. In return, the party head would offer the Russian's company Austrian state contracts. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/europe/austrian-chancellor-sebastian-kurz-resigns.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/09/world/europe/austrian-cha...

cehrlich 5y ago
There was a whole other Newspaper/TV polling fraud scandal since that one, this time relating to Fellner's 'Österreich' / 'OE24', as well as several other scandals (search for "Pflegemilliarde", "Hure der Reichen", etc). There was so much that even a few months later it's easy to forget half of it. Unfortunately the ÖVP knew of all the warrants on their offices ahead of time, so devices were wiped and documents shredded. Most of the recent scandals came from the files from a single Apple Time Capsule that someone forgot to get rid of. As fascinating as that is, I'm sure there's a bunch of additional corruption and fraud that we will never know about.