back to article Three-commas Thiel expresses love for himself, Trump and downtrodden millionaires

Billionaire venture capitalist and professional contrarian Peter Thiel hailed a new political reality this morning with another public endorsement of fellow billionaire Donald Trump just days before the US elections. The Paypal cofounder and early Facebook investor travelled from Silicon Valley to Washington DC to hold a press …

  1. goldcd

    Why he's doing it? A hard question

    How he's doing it? Much easier - he's got a shit-tonne-pile-o'cash.

    If Thiel did not have a giga-hoard-o'spondoolies, then this story wouldn't be here.

    Backing Hogan I could respect him for - it was to my liberal sensibilities reprehensible and I'd give a nod to anybody who underwrote him.

    Actually, I think that's maybe my point - you can admire the actions of people, without having to like or completely agree with the person. It's.. well sortof how society works.. and well 'people'.. my own mother drives me up the wall, and I believe my brother voted for Brexit.

    Did the Dalai Lama wear Gucci? - well frankly I don't give a toss, as I don't have the responsibility of judging him as a person.

    Short of running for president, none of this matters (god help me, if I was judged on my whims).

    Now when you run for president though..

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Why he's doing it? A hard question

      He probably doesn't know why either... my guess is, the voices inside his head tell him to. The same voices that are responsible for that haircut.

      1. Geoffrey W
        Happy

        Re: Why he's doing it? A hard question

        Re. "The same voices that are responsible for that haircut"

        Seems I will have to say this again. That isn't his haircut. That photo has been "Trumped" up. Naughty Reg. Silly commentard.

      2. Solmyr ibn Wali Barad

        Re: Why he's doing it? A hard question

        Could be voices. Could be just that lovely & wonderful narcissistic personality.

        There's one characteristic thing about narcissists. They contradict themselves very frequently, sometimes at every other phrase. When challenged about it, they'll be very quick to shift blame onto others - for misinterpreting them, taking their words out of context, being just malicious towards their holy self.

        Narcissistic psychopaths can perform their charades with a straight face, because they truly feel righteous. They rarely doubt, if ever. They rarely lie, and if they do, it's obviously your fault. They are not wrong about things, you are just too stupid to understand.

        Charming folks and purveyors of Truth. Woe on anyone who dares to doubt that.

        1. dalethorn

          Re: Why he's doing it? A hard question

          As long as we do everything necessary to get Trump in, the rest is just locker room talk.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why he's doing it? A hard question

      Why - easy. Nothing hard in this question.

      However openly mentioning why he is doing it is considered very politically incorrect.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thiel and the free press

    There is plenty not to like about Thiel but tired of this angle he is a big danger to free press. Fact is Gawker got what they deserved. The Conde Nast incident just reinforced that. Pretty funny to see writers of a penis pic publishing gossip blog try portrait themselves as Woodward and Bernstein fighting the good fight.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thiel and the free press

      That said this line is infinitely depressing to me. A lot of what he says is bullshit but sadly more than likely not this.

      >If you're a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system.

      1. Eddy Ito

        Re: Thiel and the free press

        But he's absolutely right, it's almost to the point where you need to be a triple-digit millionaire to have any standing in our legal system. It almost always comes down to who can survive the long slog and expense unless it's far, far cheaper to simply "settle" for pennies on the dollar most, if not all, of which winds up going to the lawyers anyway.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Thiel and the free press

          Yeah but Gawker didn't lose because they didn't have enough money. They lost because they published a private sex tape recovered through ill gotten means. The bar for the press losing a case in the US is actually remarkably high but Denton and his crew made news by leaping over that fscker.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Thiel and the free press, worth repeating - no US justice for single digit millionaires

        Agreeing with A/C just above ... that WTF quote ... what kind of place is US anyway ...

        >If you're a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Thiel and the free press

        >If you're a single-digit millionaire like Hulk Hogan, you have no effective access to our legal system.

        Except Hogan is probably worth more like $25M

        And, BTW, $1M is about how much money you need to retire.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thiel and the free press

      The best (worst) was seeing those same writers throwing up a huge stink after Univision swooped in and saved their jobs because Univision requested a half dozen articles with current litigation towards the former owners be taken down. Some real hipster entitlement and if they didn't have two or three of about the best internet article writers out of there (on brother/sister properties) they would have been a lost cause a long time ago.

    3. Donk

      Re: Thiel and the free press

      Let's not forget that Gawker outed Thiel while he was undertaking business in Saudi Arabia, putting his life at risk.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Could be...

    That he just doesn't like Queen Hillary and her options.

    1. Nathan 6
      Devil

      Re: Could be...

      Queen, I thought she is the Devil or the anti-Christ???? How else does one explain her rising from the dead every week, or so.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Could be...

      Yeah but giving over a million dollars to Trump is like fixing your ball itch by taking a ballpein hammer to them repeatedly.

  4. ecofeco Silver badge

    (En) Titled

    "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled nearly rich, yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, the barely millionaire. Send these, the yachtless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door of lawsuit victory!"

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. gr00001000

    He reminds me of those slightly distopian yet glossy films of the 90s like Robocop, running man and Total Recall where wealthy powerful businessmen tread on the normal guy, like some kind of black and white world.....

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Ah the Pink Floyd Animals album cover type world.

  6. Unicornpiss
    Alert

    Just... wow..

    Humility? Sounds like almost the last person with any credibility to speak of such a thing. What a pissy, entitled, useless human being. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I expect he will spend his next 20 lives shovelling shit.

    1. Yesnomaybe

      Re: Just... wow..

      ...as a dung-beetle.

  7. Youngone Silver badge

    A few thoughts (some of them my own)

    The economic problems in the US are not nearly bad enough to provoke change

    The political problems are beginning to become bad enough to provoke change.

    When change comes, it will be violent. Those privileged few will not give up their privilege without a fight.

    The fact that Donald is a fool does not mean that the people who support him and want change are wrong, it just means they have backed the wrong horse this time.

    I'm not sure where all this is going, but I am not hopeful about the future of the US. What happens when Hilary is elected, then the FBI decide to prosecute her because of the email thing? Is that a coup?

    I think there are some Hilary supporters who might present it that way.

    1. dalethorn

      Re: A few thoughts (some of them my own)

      I am continually amazed by the number of people who express negative opinions of Trump based on nothing but slurs, backed by their total lack of knowledge.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A few thoughts (some of them my own)

      What happens when Hilary is elected, then the FBI decide to prosecute her because of the email thing? Is that a coup?

      I'd prefer President Kane to President Pence.

      There's a good chance Trump would be impeached - by Democrats and Republicans.

  8. Mark 85

    ...or whether we can all go back to mocking – and ignoring – egomaniacal billionaires.

    This is El Reg. I thought we did that anyway.. election or no election.

  9. cd

    One reason why people have less savings is Paypal stealing their money. I've donated to a dev and the currency charges were ore than the donation. I've had them reach into an empty account during a purchase and cause several overdrafts even when I specified using a credit card. They need to be regulated like a bank.

    The rest of it is simple; he's batshit.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why Thiel, why now? ... To anyone caught in the Trap of the American Dream, these sound bites work:

    ......."64 percent of people over age 55 have less than a year’s worth of savings"

    Check... And for those younger, the savings figures are far worse [Bloomberg].

    ......."Healthcare is 10 times in the US what it is in the rest of the world."

    Check...

    ......."College tuition continues to rise above inflation."

    Check... Many colleges are so expensive only the elite can afford to go there.

    ......."Incomes aren't moving."

    Check... Its widely accepted that we've had a Japanese 'lost decade' already.

    ......."And the government is "wasting trillions of dollars" on wars."

    Check... Wars they have no idea how to escape, never mind win.

    ......."Single-digit millionaire? You have no effective access to our legal system."

    Check... Only the elite can afford to take on and risk losing legal cases.

    1. Jimbo in Thailand

      Re: Why Thiel, why now? ...

      "Wars they have no idea how to escape, never mind win."

      THEY never intended to "escape, never mind win" any wars—Post WWII—simply because wars are unfathomably big $$$ for the Military Industrial Complex fatcats. It's the same philosophy as the US pharmaceutical industry. How many 'cures' for heinous diseases have been introduced during the past 50 years? The answer is, the number is close to zero, if not zero. Compare that with the number of 'miracle' drugs that have been introduced that only 'treat' the condition. Cure a disease and the money stops. Treat a disease and the coffers keep swelling until the patient eventually dies. Wars are the same.... win a war and... uh oh... who turned off that damn $$$ faucet?! Of course, former President Eisenhower warned us to beware of the ultra-greedy MIC as he was leaving the Oval Office way back in 1961. Sadly, his prophetic warning fell on deaf ears.

      1. dalethorn

        Re: Why Thiel, why now? ...

        While I generally agree about the medical industry, who BTW hold people hostage over drug prices that in some case have jumped to 10, 20, 30 times the previous price overnight, I don't necessarily agree on war - or better yet, a threat of war that yields a satisfactory result. We in the U.S. held the line in Korea and Vietnam against Communism, and then collapsed the Soviet Union by 1990. China is so capitalized that it doesn't count, at least for the near future. Even though we "lost" in Vietnam, they provide a lot of commercial product to our markets now, and they're not crazed like North Korea.

        Where we got into trouble was electing the Bushes, who have strong connections to Hitler and Fascism going back to the 1930's. To be able to attack Iraq in 2003, unprovoked, and lynch their president Texas-style as Bush #2 did, is nothing more than one mobster getting revenge on another smaller mobster who wouldn't play ball. And using the U.S. military as the executioners is the mob's crowning achievement.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      All those things are correct

      But "elect Trump" does not follow from those things. Of course, "elect Hillary" doesn't either. Electing someone not beholden to either of the two mainstream parties is potentially a fix, or at least the start of a fix.

      So why doesn't / didn't he put his billions behind a credible third party candidate that all the "I don't like [Trump | Hillary] so I'm going to vote for [Hillary | Trump] to stop [him | her]" voters could vote FOR? If ever there was an election where a third party candidate had a real chance, it was this one where most voters dislike both alternatives. Pushing a demagogue who is all bluster and no actual solutions and who has chosen to run within the two party system isn't helping solve any of those problems.

      I have hopes that 2020 might be that year - but only if Hillary wins this time around. If that happens, Trump will probably start his TV network, be jabbering on for years about his pet alt-right conspiracy theories, and run again in 2020. Maybe as a republican, or maybe as a third party if the republicans take steps to rig the game against him. Either way, there would be enough disgusted republicans who don't want to lose again to go along with democrats who aren't enthusiastic about four more years of a neocon in liberal's clothes for a third party candidate to have a chance - if he's a reasonable guy and not a little crazy like Perot or a lot crazy like Trump.

  11. Winkypop Silver badge

    Cray cray

    But wealthy.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The US are crazy....

    ...and you can keep that shit to yourselves.

  13. Trixr

    I can't believe he's gay

    That is literally the worst haircut I've seen on a gay man. Although the "Trump junior comb-over" doesn't really favour anyone.

    1. originalucifer

      Re: I can't believe he's gay

      Agreed. "Billionaire homosexual has terrible hair" seems like an oxymoron, yet there it is.

    2. Hollerithevo

      Re: I can't believe he's gay

      His gay card is hereby revoked.

      1. LINCARD1000
        Unhappy

        Re: I can't believe he's gay

        "We" don't want him. He's not gay, he's a goddamned freak and a very poor excuse for a human being.

  14. mics39
    Thumb Up

    Fund me next

    After the Trumpy falls off next Tuesday he should fund me next for the Republican Party prez campaign. Like all his fundees I will parrot whatever that selfish audience want to hear and promise that the downtrodden lives don't matter. Surely I can do my campaign as well as Randy, Carly, Teddy and theDonald for cool $1.25 million and last 6 months.

    Wait ... that's not enough for justice.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Fund me next

      Do you have your "Bigotry 101 Certificate"?

      You will need that.

      1. mics39
        Pirate

        Re: Fund me next

        I'll be at my best incoherent self. Just pass me that bottle of vodka, the Russian one.

  15. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Catch 22

    Why an Engineer can not vote for Trump: He loudly announces that he can do everything better than you without having the slightest idea what he's talking about.

    Why an Engineer must vote for Trump: Nonsense and chaos is often the fastest technique for finding flaws in a broken system.

    I'm pretty sure the US is screwed with any running candidate. All that changes is who gets hit first.

    1. Unicornpiss
      Meh

      What is Trump?

      While you can argue that there's no place for niceness in business or politics, it's worrisome to me that the man hasn't even been elected yet and has managed to alienate whole ethnic groups and countries. While Hillary's no prize, I think she has a spark of compassion and real-world experience and ability with our screwed up political system. And a great advisor in the form of her husband waiting in the wings. You could argue that ol' Bill couldn't keep it in his pants, but he was at least human and a fairly good diplomat and president overall, IMHO, though certainly in different times.

      Trump is a verified slum lord that used horrible tactics to get what he wanted, much to the detriment of his tenants. I really doubt he cares much for anything but himself, the quest for power, and maybe his family as a distant third. Even factoring out his "loose cannon" persona, he has no experience, no tact, and no ability to see the ocean beyond the pier. I really fear WWIII for the first time since the 80s if this fool is elected. Mismanaging a business empire is not the same as running a nation and providing stability in the world, and it is world stability that more than anything keeps the poor housed and fed. So I, like so many others, will choke back the taste of vomit and vote for Hillary in a week or so.

    2. dalethorn

      Re: Catch 22

      Trump runs a huge business enterprise, has billions of his own earned dollars, has a great and successful family, and is beating everyone who comes against him, by hugely popular support.

      Hillary has no enterprise except theft and money laundering, has one child who is as bad as she is, and has no respect for anyone in the country she'd like to run. Not to mention being guilty of numerous felonies.

      Not a difficult choice for an intelligent voter.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Catch 22

        Trump runs a huge criminal enterprise, has billions of his own earned dollars (which started out from his father and is less than he would have just investing it in the stock market) , has a family (or three families if you count each marriage - because divorce and adultery appeals to the religious right), and is almost tied in the polls.

        Not to mention being guilty of numerous felonies.

        Hillary has no enterprise except eight years as a First Lady, eight years as a senator, four years as the secretary of state - and is infinitely more qualified to run the government, has one child, and has never been divorced.

        Not a difficult choice for an intelligent voter.

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