[HN Gopher] Huawei hiring former Democratic super lobbyist Tony ...
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Huawei hiring former Democratic super lobbyist Tony Podesta
Author : jimmy2020
Score : 104 points
Date : 2021-07-23 16:57 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.politico.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.politico.com)
| Hokusai wrote:
| > Podesta will work to advance a variety of the company's goals
| in Washington, according to one of the people. He declined to
| comment. A spokesperson for Huawei also declined to comment.
|
| Very transparent for some one that is going to work with the
| country representatives.
|
| Corruption: dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power,
| typically involving bribery.
|
| China has realized what Russia knows so well. You don't compete
| with the USA, it's cheaper and more effective to buy its
| politicians.
| tablespoon wrote:
| > China has realized what Russia knows so well. You don't
| compete with the USA, it's cheaper and more effective to buy
| its politicians.
|
| Maybe the Cold War would've ended differently if the Soviet
| Union had just hired better lobbyists.
|
| There's a saying that goes something like "a capitalist will
| sell you the rope you'll hang him with," and I think there's
| more than a grain of truth to it.
|
| If Huawei wants to lobby the US government, let the Chinese
| Ambassador do it. I don't think foreign companies should be
| able to hire lobbyists to manipulate the US government, let
| alone companies from non-democratic countries. And it should be
| illegal for an American to take such a job.
|
| Edit: also TIL this isn't the Podesta emails guy (that's John),
| rather it's his brother.
| ashtonkem wrote:
| Technically you're supposed to register as a foreign agent
| under FARA. This law has gotten a _lot_ of ex trump guys in
| trouble, including just last week his inauguration committee
| chairman.
|
| So as the laws currently stand you can work for a foreign
| government lobbying the US government, you just need to be
| transparent about what you're doing.
| tablespoon wrote:
| > So as the laws currently stand you can work for a foreign
| government lobbying the US government, you just need to be
| transparent about what you're doing.
|
| While that's better than nothing, it doesn't go far enough.
|
| And frankly, there's also an issue of reciprocity: why
| should the Chinese be able to hire connected government
| insiders, when I'm pretty sure the CCP would absolutely
| disallow such work by their own political insiders (and
| probably do bad things to anyone who was stupid enough to
| take a job like that).
| sremani wrote:
| Tom Barrack is not arrested under FARA.
| dirtyid wrote:
| >let the Chinese Ambassador do it
|
| ...
|
| And from comment below
|
| >CCP would absolutely disallow such work by their own
| political insiders
|
| It's Track 1 vs 1.5 vs 2 diplomacy. CCP allows "legal"
| foreign influence as well. A PRC equivalent-ish of FARA was
| new NGO laws / local partners. Un-sanctioned foreign
| influence (i.e. all the CIA assets) got purged. There's going
| to be need for less official track 1.5/2 work in managing
| complex relationships especially if tensions between US&PRC
| is going to heatup in future.
|
| The nuance is recalibrating different tiers of policy
| instruments to determine level of appropriate engagement.
| Over the last few years, US has been neutering PRC orgs like
| Confucius institutes, pursued the extremely broad China
| Initiative and other measures to establish reciprocity in
| response to CCP crushing unwanted US influence ops in PRC.
| Work in progress, but track 1.5/2 is not going anywhere.
| underseacables wrote:
| Be thankful for your government, it's the best that money can
| buy.
| tkinom wrote:
| Big Money can buy.
| darawk wrote:
| Not even really that big, though.
|
| https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/18/too-much-dark-money-
| in...
| phkahler wrote:
| Politicians in Washington are transistors with high beta.
| adolph wrote:
| Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying
| for.
|
| Will Rogers
| pphysch wrote:
| Chinese and Russian lobbies are absolutely nothing compared to
| the Israeli lobby [1].
|
| [1] - https://www.hks.harvard.edu/publications/israel-lobby-
| and-us...
| bitcurious wrote:
| What's described in the article as the "Israel lobby" would
| be better described as the "Pro-Israel lobby," as it consists
| largely of Americans democratically expressing their
| preferences, rather than a foreign entity buying influence.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Well, we already _like_ Israel, so there isn't much
| "convincing" to be done.
| MikeUt wrote:
| > already
|
| Are you sure the lobbying didn't come first?
| swader999 wrote:
| Welcome to the power grid CCP!
| iratic0 wrote:
| Is anyone here a Biden voter and is surprised by this news? Not a
| single Trump voter is.
| TurkishPoptart wrote:
| Yes. With the collaboration on Facebook to flag
| "misinformation", the heavy-handed coercion over vaccines, lack
| of pressure on China (didn't expect this though), and now this
| news, I can safely say that I am very not thrilled with this
| administration.
| king_magic wrote:
| I guess everyone has a price.
| the_optimist wrote:
| This looks a lot like a legalized form of bribery. Is there any
| way to account for this or distinguish it from more transparent
| bribery? Is there any way to identify the effects of this? For
| example, if we see that Huawei is suddenly acceptable in
| infrastructure contracts where there would have otherwise been
| major national security concerns, is there any way to even
| identify who is responsible for undermining national security
| from inside?
| willcipriano wrote:
| When you break a law, say speeding it is sufficient to prove
| that you were going above the speed limit. Pretty simple.
| Bribery laws aren't written like speeding laws, it is
| insufficient to prove that a official took money or favors and
| then acted in a manner beneficial to the payer, you must prove
| that they did so due to the payment specifically. This is
| virtually impossible so long as they aren't idiots and write
| the agreement down.
|
| One way to enforce this would be to do sting operations from
| time to time. This was done during the 70's, it was called
| ABSCAM and they hooked twelve high ranking public officials.
| Congress got real mad when the FBI did that and it was never
| attempted again.
|
| Must be nice to make the laws.
| threatofrain wrote:
| But what is the framework under which Huawei can reliably
| secure the returns on their bribe? What can a consultant like
| Tony Podesta do for your company?
| the_optimist wrote:
| As far as I can tell, it would be impossible to know if one
| existed. Perhaps plausible deniability is the KPI here?
| [deleted]
| ashtonkem wrote:
| It honestly seems like nobody can tell bribery from the normal
| order of operations anymore
| the_optimist wrote:
| And if this results in horrific consequences because we've
| fundamentally undermined security, who's accountable for that?
| No one (and everyone)?
| grumblenum wrote:
| >And if this results in horrific consequences because we've
| fundamentally undermined security, who's accountable for
| that? No one (and everyone)?
|
| It will be quite the moot point then, won't it? May I add for
| the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's record
| that I, for one, welcome our new Chinese overlords.
| underseacables wrote:
| Don't forget this is the guy who came under investigation in 2018
| and his entire lobbying firm imploded. He's lucky he's not in
| jail.
| PicassoCTs wrote:
| Luck got nothing to do with it. He is just that good and he has
| just those goods.
| BitwiseFool wrote:
| >"He's lucky he's not in jail."
|
| A wealthy Washington DC insider and power-broker... I assure
| you his freedom has nothing to do with luck.
| adamiscool8 wrote:
| He plays for the right team, too.
| phkahler wrote:
| Generally neither team wants any players going to jail, not
| even those on the other team. Once you start that the game
| itself gets disrupted.
| epicureanideal wrote:
| It seems like the gloves are coming off lately with the
| Michael Flynn prosecution, Giuliani losing his license to
| practice, and so on.
| neither_color wrote:
| All that says is which side is losing.
| idownvoted wrote:
| Oh wait, so when Trump was using the Podesta Emails for making a
| point, Podesta was a saint.
|
| Now with Trump gone, Podesta is an un-sainty "lobbyist" when
| hired by Huawei.
|
| That can only mean one thing: Others want a cut, Huawei needs to
| pay up.
| adolph wrote:
| _. . . Hillary Clinton campaign Chairman John Podesta . . . is a
| long-term associate of the Clintons and was President Bill
| Clinton 's Chief of Staff from 1998 until 2001. Mr Podesta also
| owns the Podesta Group with his brother Tony, a major lobbying
| firm and is the Chair of the Center for American Progress (CAP),
| a Washington DC-based think tank._
|
| https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/
| dna_polymerase wrote:
| The first time I heard that name (as a non US citizen) was in a
| documentary about breitbart.com founder Andrew Breitbart, who
| apparently did not like the guy. I found this article about
| Podesta (on breitbart, so take that with a grain of salt, or an
| entire salt mine):
| https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2016/11/04/remembering-an...
|
| Looks like Podesta is everything the 'Drain-the-swamp' Trump
| supporters hate. This deal is probably fueling a lot of debate on
| their social platforms right now.
| belltaco wrote:
| >Looks like Podesta is everything the 'Drain-the-swamp' Trump
| supporters hate.
|
| Yet not a peep from the same people about swamp creatures Paul
| Manafort and Michael Flynn.
| zohch wrote:
| https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/12/24/ben-sasse-
| crit...
| furgooswft13 wrote:
| > Looks like Podesta is everything the 'Drain-the-swamp' Trump
| supporters hate. This deal is probably fueling a lot of
| comments on their social platforms right now.
|
| lol Podesta is pretty much ground zero of the Pizzagate
| conspiracy. Only thing that would be juicier to Trump
| supporters would be Huawei also hiring Hillary Clinton and
| Jeffery Epstein.
| hdjjhhvvhga wrote:
| Pizzagate was a crafted phenomenon. Whoever prepared this,
| they managed to collate pieces of genuine information with
| fake ones, inaccuracies, planted images and so on. It could
| be 4chan, but it could be Russians as well. And while the
| Internet was buzzing about it, mainstream media felt it's too
| ridiculous to discuss, so the debunking arrived too late.
| briefcomment wrote:
| Have you seen the paintings in Tony Podesta's house? I know
| art is subjective, but if I saw someone who collects the
| type of art Tony does, I would stay as far away as
| possible, and maybe report them for it.
| geofft wrote:
| Report them to who? Not sure there's a US government
| agency that's interested in getting reports of people
| having art that offends someone's sense of morality.
| Maybe some CCP agency is what you're interested in?
| a_conservative wrote:
| > Pizzagate was a crafted phenomenon
|
| Maybe. The emails that kicked off pizzagate don't seem to
| be crafted to me.
|
| > the realtor found a handkerchief (I think it has a map
| that seems pizza-related. Is it yorus?
|
| The emails were using coded language around pizza. These
| emails spawned pizzagate.
| throwaway4good wrote:
| I would really appreciate if HiSilicon once again was allowed to
| fab via TSMC.
|
| Fine if the US doesn't want to buy any of Huawei's products, but
| for us in the rest of the world. Please allow us.
| 908B64B197 wrote:
| That's TSMC's decision to stop activity with a sanctioned
| entity. Since they aren't under US jurisdiction they are free
| to resume it at any time.
| ChuckNorris89 wrote:
| You're mistaken. TSMC has no choice but to stop manufacturing
| for Huawei as TSMC's EUV tech is using US R&D that they and
| ASML have licenses from US research labs many years ago.
| russli1993 wrote:
| No, current US sanctions against huawei says, any entity
| using US origin technology cannot fabricate Hisilicon chips.
| While TSMC is not headquartered in the US, they use US origin
| technology. For example, ASML EUV machines contain US origin
| tech, or they use Applied Materials, LAM research machines
| heavily on their production line. I am not sure how deep it
| goes, maybe even if the manufacturing line uses Intel CPUs
| also counts. That is for the legal experts to explain. As
| result, TSMC is under US jurisdiction with respect to this
| particular ruling. Maybe TSMC can risk it and supply Huawei,
| but US could retaliate by sanctioning them. At the end of the
| day, TSMC can't operate without US origin tech; if they can't
| get EUV machines or LAM machines, they are dead as well. So
| the choice is clear. And I am sure TSMC wants to be on good
| record with the US anyway.
| marsven_422 wrote:
| Sounds needlessly complex, just buy Hunter Bidens "art" for 200
| million dollars.
| hourislate wrote:
| With his deep ties through out the Biden Administration, it's a
| brilliant move. Meng should sigh a breath of relief, she will be
| free soon to return to China and all US Gov charges will be
| dropped. Look to also see Huawei sanctions removed. Hard to buy
| the Chinese and Russians but American Politicians will whore
| themselves out for the cost of a hooker, golf game and dinner,
| plus a couple of points on the deal.
|
| It's so nice to know your elected officials work for foreign
| powers and themselves and they say the folks who stormed the
| capital were the terrorists.
| belltaco wrote:
| >It's so nice to know your elected officials work for foreign
| powers and themselves and they say the folks who stormed the
| capital were the terrorists.
|
| Why can't it be both?
|
| What would you call folks that violently and successfully
| interrupted a core democratic process of tabulating the votes
| from different states?
| sremani wrote:
| A permanent war among plebs - well, I do not want any part of
| it. I might as well hang-out with Tony and collect some
| Fentanyl money.
| a_conservative wrote:
| if they "violently and successfully interrupted a core
| democratic process", why do you think the charges being
| levied against these terrorists are so light?
|
| Why no charges of insurrection?
| selectodude wrote:
| Some of the more serious charges being levied such as
| "Assault on a federal officer with physical contact and
| intent to commit another felony" come with penalties more
| severe than insurrection charges.
| a_conservative wrote:
| my point is that there is inconsistency between popular
| descriptions of jan6 and the charges.
|
| If jan6 was as bad as many say it was, then we should
| expect to see not only serious indictments, but also
| convictions.
| belltaco wrote:
| Did you miss the conviction with a 8 month prison
| sentence a few days ago? Other convictions are in the
| pipeline.
| the_optimist wrote:
| Obviously this wasn't an "insurrection," and the people
| using that inflammatory language are hyperventilating to
| crack down on dissidents. We even know that FBI agents were
| involved in setting this up (although the full extent of
| involvement is unknown). It's no different from China or
| Cuba. Perhaps more insidious than what you'd see in Russia.
| foolinaround wrote:
| many of those arrested are in 23 hour solitary for the
| past months without any charges filed on them... ( no,
| this is not in Guantanamo Bay, but right here in the
| heart of USA, right under the nose of the 'free' press )
|
| No substantial charges will likely be filed too, simply
| because the evidence is not there.
|
| Those here on HN who had hyperventilate about freedoms
| and rights and such, but have maintained a studied
| silence in this case are being exposed as hypocrites.
|
| As the days go on, it will be seen how much longer they
| will pretend to be ignorant.
| hourislate wrote:
| >What would you call folks that violently and successfully
| interrupted a core democratic process of tabulating the votes
| from different states?
|
| Are you referring to the Politicians you vote for that
| violently spread war and interrupt core democratic process
| all over the world?
|
| It's not both because the folks in power (and their
| supporters) are the ones who are exaggerating everything to
| obfuscate their own criminal behavior.
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