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It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself a

It's weird to see the Republican party embrace intellectual property theft. Levandowski stole from his employer and his colleagues at Google to enrich himself at Uber. Why would that possibly be worth a pardon?

franklampard 6y ago
Corruption
apozem 6y ago
Adam Serwer, an excellent writer, explained it: [1] > Law and order, for this president, simply means that he and his ideological allies are above the law, while others, such as [George] Floyd, are merely subject to it. Lewandowski's pardon request was endorsed by Peter Thiel, a huge Trump backer, so he gets to be above the law. Simple. [1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/chauvin-did-what-trump-asked-him-do/612574/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/chauvin-di...
- sleepybrett 6y ago
  I saw reporting that Thiel (and Palmer Luckey) also received a pardon. Anyone have a link to that, I'd like to see specifically what he was pardoned for...
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    That's not correct. The reporting was that Thiel and Luckey lobbied Trump to get a pardon for Levandowski.
thesausageking 6y ago
They're not justifying it. Thiel was a big supporter of Trump and lobbied to get Levandowski a pardon, so Trump is returning the favor.
- tsycho 6y ago
  What's Thiel getting out of it though? How does pardoning Levandowski help him?
  - dannykwells 6y ago
    I guess we shall see.
  - imglorp 6y ago
    Maybe Thiel would like Levandowski to work for Luminar? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/thiel-backed-startup-luminar-to-go-public-in-3-4-billion-merger https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/thiel-bac... Dumb question, if Levandowski used the (allegedly) purloined IP at a new employer, could he be charged with a new crime or would he be clear to proceed under double jeopardy?
- sleepybrett 6y ago
  Thiel also got a pardon.. for what exactly? Also Luckey?
  - nlh 6y ago
    No I think perhaps you are misreading the announcement. Thiel, Luckey et al were backers of the pardon for Levandowski and involved in the process, not recipients of pardons themselves.
sn_master 6y ago
I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons, but I'll get downvoted into oblivion if I do so. Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt, and Levandowski has already paid a steep price for what he did.
- rchaud 6y ago
  Try to assume good faith in your responses. If your points about Obama pardons are valid, then they should stand on their own merits, and it shouldn't bother you if it's 'downvoted into oblivion'.
- abruzzi 6y ago
  I suspect in this case that you are getting downvoted /because/ you didn't provide specifics. It's certainly possible that some Obama pardons were self serving, I didn't hear much about his pardons at the time, but I'm open to the idea that some are morally dubious, but I would need names and why it is dubious, rather than innuendo. Many people on both sides felt Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich was pretty iffy.
- jshevek 6y ago
  You may be correct, but complaining that you will be down voted often leads to additional downvotes.
  - sn_master 6y ago
    Not complaining, just pointing out the bias in this community.
    - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
      The 'bias' in this community is for demanding evidence, of which you have provided none. You said "I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons" - well, if you can, do, otherwise, well, STFU. And I'm not being facetious. It's worth comparing Obama's (or any previous president's) process for granting pardons with Trump's.
coryfklein 6y ago
Donald Trump is not the Republican party.
- acdha 6y ago
  You can say that when any significant percentage don’t follow him in lockstep. Very few elected officials are willing to disagree with him in public, most backed dishonest claims or opposition to public health measures, and he has high approval ratings from Republican voters: it’s his party.
  - coryfklein 6y ago
    Yes, but in the context of presidential pardons there is nothing the GOP can do to either back the president or not back the president. It doesn't make sense to attribute presidential pardons to The Republican Party when there is a sole individual who decides who to pardon and why. I'll point out that, now that Donald Trump is out of power, many in the GOP in general have been rather quick to turn their backs on him and outright criticize him. While he was in power, sure, Republicans politicians were politically savvy enough to side with him, knowing that the alternative was suicide. But there is now room to disagree with Trump and we're seeing many (like Mitch McConnell, and you don't get more Republican than him!) use that opportunity to distance themselves.
    - joshuahaglund 6y ago
      Come on, suicide? If you loose your job for saying "this is unethical" do you call that suicide? It's called having a backbone. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." These GOP folks who stood behind Trump but are now critical choose the side that's winning at the time rather than stand up for what's right.
    - acdha 6y ago
      It's true that the direct decision was his but this doesn't happen in a vacuum. People talk beforehand — this is reportedly why he didn't pardon himself or his children – and especially now there's no reason why a member of Congress or other national leader couldn't speak against something like this. It practically writes itself — “Republicans support private property rights, thievery isn't something we condone” – so if they want an easy way to show that Trump isn't the party, all they have to do is start. > While he was in power, sure, Republicans politicians were politically savvy enough to side with him, knowing that the alternative was suicide. It's not that easy: some people were making a cold political calculation but we're far enough down the Tea Party rabbit hole that there are members who earnestly believe what used to be fringe beliefs. I mean, think about how many right now are willing to unequivocally say that Biden legitimately won the election, which is almost the weakest sop to objective reality possible. That's not going to reverse itself quickly, especially without a hard fight from everyone else still in the party. I know some people who are trying to pull the party back from the edge and I wish them success but the odds aren't looking great.
choppaface 6y ago
It's not just he "stole the secrets," he was so reckless that while at Google he instigated perhaps the first self-driving car crash in California: https://jalopnik.com/the-engineer-in-the-google-vs-uber-stolen-tech-case-1829768721 https://jalopnik.com/the-engineer-in-the-google-vs-uber-stol...
wedn3sday 6y ago
Reportedly its "worth a pardon" for about $2M a pop. Much cheaper then paying the amount Levandowski owed in the settlement, so its just good business.
ketamine__ 6y ago
Can he be retried in state or local court?
PascLeRasc 6y ago
I think some of it might be just schadenfreude for Google mixed with Uber’s prop 22 pretending to be for the “free market”.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jbigelow76 6y ago
A "campaign donation" was probably made at Mar-a-Lago.

franklampard 6y ago

Corruption

apozem 6y ago

Adam Serwer, an excellent writer, explained it: [1] > Law and order, for this president, simply means that he and his ideological allies are above the law, while others, such as [George] Floyd, are merely subject to it. Lewandowski's pardon request was endorsed by Peter Thiel, a huge Trump backer, so he gets to be above the law. Simple. [1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/chauvin-did-what-trump-asked-him-do/612574/ https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/chauvin-di...

sleepybrett 6y ago
I saw reporting that Thiel (and Palmer Luckey) also received a pardon. Anyone have a link to that, I'd like to see specifically what he was pardoned for...
- hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
  That's not correct. The reporting was that Thiel and Luckey lobbied Trump to get a pardon for Levandowski.

thesausageking 6y ago

They're not justifying it. Thiel was a big supporter of Trump and lobbied to get Levandowski a pardon, so Trump is returning the favor.

tsycho 6y ago
What's Thiel getting out of it though? How does pardoning Levandowski help him?
- dannykwells 6y ago
  I guess we shall see.
- imglorp 6y ago
  Maybe Thiel would like Levandowski to work for Luminar? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/thiel-backed-startup-luminar-to-go-public-in-3-4-billion-merger https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/thiel-bac... Dumb question, if Levandowski used the (allegedly) purloined IP at a new employer, could he be charged with a new crime or would he be clear to proceed under double jeopardy?
sleepybrett 6y ago
Thiel also got a pardon.. for what exactly? Also Luckey?
- nlh 6y ago
  No I think perhaps you are misreading the announcement. Thiel, Luckey et al were backers of the pardon for Levandowski and involved in the process, not recipients of pardons themselves.

sn_master 6y ago

I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons, but I'll get downvoted into oblivion if I do so. Pardon is by definition an admission of guilt, and Levandowski has already paid a steep price for what he did.

rchaud 6y ago
Try to assume good faith in your responses. If your points about Obama pardons are valid, then they should stand on their own merits, and it shouldn't bother you if it's 'downvoted into oblivion'.
abruzzi 6y ago
I suspect in this case that you are getting downvoted /because/ you didn't provide specifics. It's certainly possible that some Obama pardons were self serving, I didn't hear much about his pardons at the time, but I'm open to the idea that some are morally dubious, but I would need names and why it is dubious, rather than innuendo. Many people on both sides felt Clinton's pardon of Mark Rich was pretty iffy.
jshevek 6y ago
You may be correct, but complaining that you will be down voted often leads to additional downvotes.
- sn_master 6y ago
  Not complaining, just pointing out the bias in this community.
  - hn_throwaway_99 6y ago
    The 'bias' in this community is for demanding evidence, of which you have provided none. You said "I can say similar things about many of the Obama pardons" - well, if you can, do, otherwise, well, STFU. And I'm not being facetious. It's worth comparing Obama's (or any previous president's) process for granting pardons with Trump's.

coryfklein 6y ago

Donald Trump is not the Republican party.

acdha 6y ago
You can say that when any significant percentage don’t follow him in lockstep. Very few elected officials are willing to disagree with him in public, most backed dishonest claims or opposition to public health measures, and he has high approval ratings from Republican voters: it’s his party.
- coryfklein 6y ago
  Yes, but in the context of presidential pardons there is nothing the GOP can do to either back the president or not back the president. It doesn't make sense to attribute presidential pardons to The Republican Party when there is a sole individual who decides who to pardon and why. I'll point out that, now that Donald Trump is out of power, many in the GOP in general have been rather quick to turn their backs on him and outright criticize him. While he was in power, sure, Republicans politicians were politically savvy enough to side with him, knowing that the alternative was suicide. But there is now room to disagree with Trump and we're seeing many (like Mitch McConnell, and you don't get more Republican than him!) use that opportunity to distance themselves.
  - joshuahaglund 6y ago
    Come on, suicide? If you loose your job for saying "this is unethical" do you call that suicide? It's called having a backbone. "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." These GOP folks who stood behind Trump but are now critical choose the side that's winning at the time rather than stand up for what's right.
  - acdha 6y ago
    It's true that the direct decision was his but this doesn't happen in a vacuum. People talk beforehand — this is reportedly why he didn't pardon himself or his children – and especially now there's no reason why a member of Congress or other national leader couldn't speak against something like this. It practically writes itself — “Republicans support private property rights, thievery isn't something we condone” – so if they want an easy way to show that Trump isn't the party, all they have to do is start. > While he was in power, sure, Republicans politicians were politically savvy enough to side with him, knowing that the alternative was suicide. It's not that easy: some people were making a cold political calculation but we're far enough down the Tea Party rabbit hole that there are members who earnestly believe what used to be fringe beliefs. I mean, think about how many right now are willing to unequivocally say that Biden legitimately won the election, which is almost the weakest sop to objective reality possible. That's not going to reverse itself quickly, especially without a hard fight from everyone else still in the party. I know some people who are trying to pull the party back from the edge and I wish them success but the odds aren't looking great.

choppaface 6y ago

It's not just he "stole the secrets," he was so reckless that while at Google he instigated perhaps the first self-driving car crash in California: https://jalopnik.com/the-engineer-in-the-google-vs-uber-stolen-tech-case-1829768721 https://jalopnik.com/the-engineer-in-the-google-vs-uber-stol...

wedn3sday 6y ago

Reportedly its "worth a pardon" for about $2M a pop. Much cheaper then paying the amount Levandowski owed in the settlement, so its just good business.

ketamine__ 6y ago

Can he be retried in state or local court?

PascLeRasc 6y ago

I think some of it might be just schadenfreude for Google mixed with Uber’s prop 22 pretending to be for the “free market”.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jbigelow76 6y ago

A "campaign donation" was probably made at Mar-a-Lago.