5 ms·

Eric Schmidt set up a data company for the sole purpose of getting Hillary elected. Google also had 427 white house visits during the Obama Admin. Not sure what

Eric Schmidt set up a data company for the sole purpose of getting Hillary elected. Google also had 427 white house visits during the Obama Admin. Not sure what your definition of bribe is but they are as tight with DC as any wall street bank https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close-relationship-with-the-obama-white-house-in-two-charts/ https://theintercept.com/2016/04/22/googles-remarkably-close...

euyyn 9y ago
> Not sure what your definition of bribe is lol
kbenson 9y ago
> Not sure what your definition of bribe is Well, if it's the actual definition[1], then you didn't exactly prove anything. 1: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bribe https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bribe
- derping69 9y ago
  Definition from your link 1. "money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust" 2."something that serves to induce or influence" Eric Schmidt spending millions to create groundwork isn't a favor? You think Google wasn't trying to influence the Obama white house during those 427 visits? from wikileaks "He’s ready to fund, advise recruit talent, etc. He was more deferential on structure than I expected. Wasn’t pushing to run through one of his existing firms. Clearly wants to be head outside advisor, but didn’t seem like he wanted to push others out. Clearly wants to get going. He’s still in DC tomorrow and would like to meet with you if you are in DC in the afternoon. I think it’s worth doing"
  - CobrastanJorji 9y ago
    Do you consider every political donation to be a bribe? You may very well be correct, but a definition that includes nearly every corporation or wealthy individual may not be particularly useful as a term.
    - quickben 9y ago
      Unless the subject is a rare individual ( mother Teresa, spirituality ascended personalitie etc), rarely who shelves out resources not hoping to get something in return. Especially not a corporation in a field heavily regulated to prevent that.
- metaphorm 9y ago
  it's not a very convincing argument to quote the dictionary at someone who is clearly trying to make a more sophisticated point about political and cultural attitudes w.r.t influence peddling and interaction of money and politics.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    The supporting evidence of their argument was two separate items, that Eric Schmidt set up a data company for the sole purpose of getting Hillary elected, which is entirely unsupported by the reference they provided, and that Google visited the white house a lot, which while supported has nothing to do with bribery when taken by itself. I took "depending on your definition of bribery" to be implying that these visits indicate some behavior akin to or equal to bribery, and quoting the definition as a succinct way to note that they aren't equivalent at all as currently explained. I thought that was sufficient because unlike you I did not interpret that comment as clearly trying to make a more sophisticated point, but as trying to allude to misconduct from facts which have entirely benign explanations. It's possible there was misconduct, but assuming so from the information presented is not a way to have a rational discussion on the topic.
    - metaphorm 9y ago
      quite a lot of perfectly legal behavior, that would not be called misconduct by a prosecutor or investigator, can still be on shaky ethical grounds for various reasons. surely Google does not visit the white house just because they enjoy the breakfast buffet. they're lobbying for their business interests. this isn't necessarily unethical at all, but when you look at the pattern of campaign contributions and think tank funding (and various other kinds of pulling of influence levers) you start to find the grey area. I probably wouldn't go so far as to call it bribery, but it's not a clear cut thing. I'm nearly certain that is why the poster said "depending on your definition of bribery". He/she was (in my interpretation) intending to discuss that grey area. Shutting down that discussion by throwing the dictionary at him/her is both rude and unhelpful. There might really be an interesting discussion of ethical grey areas in political lobbying activities to be had, but not if you're gonna shut it down with that kind of reactionary literalism.
dang 9y ago
We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle (and ignoring our request to stop). That's against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

euyyn 9y ago

> Not sure what your definition of bribe is lol

kbenson 9y ago

> Not sure what your definition of bribe is Well, if it's the actual definition[1], then you didn't exactly prove anything. 1: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bribe https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bribe

derping69 9y ago
Definition from your link 1. "money or favor given or promised in order to influence the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust" 2."something that serves to induce or influence" Eric Schmidt spending millions to create groundwork isn't a favor? You think Google wasn't trying to influence the Obama white house during those 427 visits? from wikileaks "He’s ready to fund, advise recruit talent, etc. He was more deferential on structure than I expected. Wasn’t pushing to run through one of his existing firms. Clearly wants to be head outside advisor, but didn’t seem like he wanted to push others out. Clearly wants to get going. He’s still in DC tomorrow and would like to meet with you if you are in DC in the afternoon. I think it’s worth doing"
- CobrastanJorji 9y ago
  Do you consider every political donation to be a bribe? You may very well be correct, but a definition that includes nearly every corporation or wealthy individual may not be particularly useful as a term.
  - quickben 9y ago
    Unless the subject is a rare individual ( mother Teresa, spirituality ascended personalitie etc), rarely who shelves out resources not hoping to get something in return. Especially not a corporation in a field heavily regulated to prevent that.
metaphorm 9y ago
it's not a very convincing argument to quote the dictionary at someone who is clearly trying to make a more sophisticated point about political and cultural attitudes w.r.t influence peddling and interaction of money and politics.
- kbenson 9y ago
  The supporting evidence of their argument was two separate items, that Eric Schmidt set up a data company for the sole purpose of getting Hillary elected, which is entirely unsupported by the reference they provided, and that Google visited the white house a lot, which while supported has nothing to do with bribery when taken by itself. I took "depending on your definition of bribery" to be implying that these visits indicate some behavior akin to or equal to bribery, and quoting the definition as a succinct way to note that they aren't equivalent at all as currently explained. I thought that was sufficient because unlike you I did not interpret that comment as clearly trying to make a more sophisticated point, but as trying to allude to misconduct from facts which have entirely benign explanations. It's possible there was misconduct, but assuming so from the information presented is not a way to have a rational discussion on the topic.
  - metaphorm 9y ago
    quite a lot of perfectly legal behavior, that would not be called misconduct by a prosecutor or investigator, can still be on shaky ethical grounds for various reasons. surely Google does not visit the white house just because they enjoy the breakfast buffet. they're lobbying for their business interests. this isn't necessarily unethical at all, but when you look at the pattern of campaign contributions and think tank funding (and various other kinds of pulling of influence levers) you start to find the grey area. I probably wouldn't go so far as to call it bribery, but it's not a clear cut thing. I'm nearly certain that is why the poster said "depending on your definition of bribery". He/she was (in my interpretation) intending to discuss that grey area. Shutting down that discussion by throwing the dictionary at him/her is both rude and unhelpful. There might really be an interesting discussion of ethical grey areas in political lobbying activities to be had, but not if you're gonna shut it down with that kind of reactionary literalism.

dang 9y ago

We've banned this account for using HN primarily for political battle (and ignoring our request to stop). That's against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.