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Case in point; the whole concept of "lobbyist" in US is crazy. It feels so from an outsider, european perspective. There are non-elected officials, openly charging money for their very open connections with politicians to manipulate political discourse.

How is this even legal... It's like bribery but legal and shamelessly open.

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I don't think it's much different in Europe? E.g. the German car industry has good lobbyists in Berlin, they were probably lobbying against speed limits on the Autobahn, and also against stricter emissions tests: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/sep/24/uk-franc...

Maybe the difference is that Podesta is "freelance" and can be hired by anyone (like Huawei did here), but maybe the car industry lobbyists are also close to politics, we just don't know their names...

Not only the car industry. Big farma and Nestle are also good friends of some ministers.

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