Paypal Founder Peter Thiel To Speak At Trump's Republican Convention (nbcbayarea.com)

Slashdot reader speedplane writes: The New York Times is reporting that renowned Venture Capitalist, Paypal Founder, and Gawker Litigation Funder, Peter Thiel will be speaking at the Republican National Convention. The original story does not state what Thiel will discuss at the convention, only that he'll be speaking the last day, but there's plenty of speculation.
Facebook issued a statement that though Thiel is on their board of directors, his appearance was "personal," saying Thiel "is not attending on behalf of Facebook or to represent our views." NBC reports Thiel will be the first openly-gay man to speak at the convention in 16 years, "as party leaders refuse to soften the GOP's formal opposition to gay marriage," noting Thiel "has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump's run for the oval office, previously supported Ron Paul for president and has identified himself as a conservative libertarian in the past... Other speakers will include four of Trump's children, Las Vegas casino owner Phil Ruffin, and actor and former underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr."

Comments

I want to like Donald.

[amiga3D]

I really want to like Donald but he makes it so fucking hard. He has so many bad points that it's gotten to the point I keep telling myself "at least he's not Hilliary, he's not Hilliary." I swear I hope a third candidate gets enough traction to make them viable.

Re:I want to like Donald.

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

I really want to like Donald

Just out of curiosity, why?

I hate Hillary with a passion, but any sentence out of Trump's mouth makes her look like Gandhi in comparison.

Re:I want to like Donald.

[parallel_prankster]

Its fashionable to hate Hillary among Sanders fans. These folks always says Hillary is the same as Trump or worse. I am so tired of this shit. Its like they have no idea what he is saying or what the Republican party has been up to for the last 5 years! I hate Hillary as well, but like you said, she is Gandhi compared to Trump and any nonsense that is going to come out of the RNC this week. Has this moron Thiel looked at their anti-gay agenda even?

Re:I want to like Donald.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you understand that the majority of people on this planet would either be dead (of starvation) of slaves, without government - (and sometimes with, when it fails to do its job)?

The PRIMARY purpose of government is to manage resources (owned by a (rich) minority) for the benefit of the majority - it started with farming and has since encompassed a lot more.

Why is humanity struggling - because this is an ongoing war that the minority are currently WINNING. If you don't LIKE government, in general, then kill yourself and get it over with, for the majority of humanity will be better off without you. If you don't like SOME of what government does, how and why, then how much of it do you truly understand? Again, most of the problems we have with governments, stem from the rich minority using it for their own purpose, against the majority.

Re:I want to like Donald.

[markdavis]

>"Besides, among republicans I've seen anti-2nd amendment and pro-choice."

Exactly. It seems popular here (and many places) to think that all Republicans are identical and believe the same things. They don't. Many Republicans do not support anti-abortion. Many Republicans support certain gun control. Many Republicans do not push a religious agenda of any sort. Also, despite the summary and prevailing theory, being anti-gay marriage doesn't mean being anti-gay nor does it automatically make it a religious issue. There is probably more variation in the Republican party than any other at this point (and one reason for things like the Tea Party splinter).

In the same light, not all Democrats think we should go further in debt, should prevent private gun ownership, have a forever-growing Fed, or that we would should tax everyone out of existence.

And it also doesn't mean that all Libertarians think we should have no national defense, have no regulations, should have no federal government, or should allow corporations to rape the environment.

>"The expectation that they MUST share ALL of the same views as their party is the whole reason we're stuck in this two party rut to begin with."

It is one of many reasons... of course the biggest reason we are stuck in a rut is because of a stupid two-party system, which can never change without changing to a ranked voting system... which itself can never change because the two-parties won't allow it.

So we are always stuck with voters having to pick between what they think is the lesser of two evils OR vote AGAINST the party they are most afraid of.... and usually fueled by single issues such as those I listed above.

Not a libertarian anymore!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thiel "has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump's run for the oval office, previously supported Ron Paul for president and has identified himself as a conservative libertarian in the past...

Anyone who supports Trump is certainly not a libertarian. In fact, it was clear that Thiel had abandoned libertarianism when he gave an interview two years ago. During the interview, he said that he was opposed to competition because "it's very, very hard to make money" when there's competition!

This is largely a myth

[Giant Electronic Bra]

As someone who's actually KNOWN Bernie Sanders (to the extent that I've lived in Burlington when he was Mayor, met the guy, argued with him, etc, I don't have any personal relationship with him) for 30 years, and greatly appreciated what he's brought to national politics in the last year or so, I believe this 'Sanders supporters hate Hillary' meme is mostly bunk. There may be a very vocal minority of people who became 'Sanders supporters' suddenly in the last 6-12 months because it was fashionable and they yell and squawk about how much they 'hate Hillary' because that's apparently fashionable too.

See, I would draw a huge distinction. I dislike the ESTABLISHMENT, and all the dirty tricks that the powers which be have used against Sanders IS galling. Clinton is ABSOLUTELY a pillar of that community. OTOH if you look at her in terms of an actually realistic view and not the bizarro-world distorto-vision that FOX News and etc have created around her, she's a relatively center-left candidate with fairly conventional views for a President. Nothing is going to change vastly, but its likely she'll implement some modest policy changes and programs that are part of the agenda for more left-leaning people. In fact she'll probably continue largely in the same vein as Obama, with increases in the minimum wage, labor-friendly policies outside of trade, some expansion of publicly funded healthcare, and otherwise she's probably closer to Nixon than to say Kennedy.

The bad things will be the environment, which Clinton seems to have little interest in at a critical juncture, and the military-intelligence-police-industrial-state that seems to have been building itself under every president of the last 70 years happily regardless of what policies they supposedly espouse. I'm not even convinced a President Sanders or somesuch could change those things.