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President Trump Attacks Amazon, Incorrectly Claiming That It Owns The Washington Post For Tax Purposes (recode.net)
The Washington Post, which has been critical of Donald Trump and his administration in its coverage, has become the latest victim in Trump's Twitter tirade. On Wednesday, he accused Amazon of not "paying internet taxes (which they should)," adding that the company is using The Washington Post "in a scheme to dodge" the taxes. Quick fact check: Amazon doesn't own The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos -- in his personal capacity -- does. At any rate, Trump's furious tweets come a day after The Washington Post reported that a fake issue of Time magazine with Trump on the cover was hanging in some of the president's golf clubs. The timing of this is also awkward because just last week the president met with Bezos and other top executives to discuss ways the White House can modernize government and aid the tech industry. But the two have a long history. As Recode reminds: Meanwhile, Amazon is about to embark on what could be a lengthy government antitrust review of its bid to buy Whole Foods. Already looming large over the roughly $14 billion deal are the president's own comments: He has previously attacked Bezos and claimed the Post is a tax-dodging scheme for Amazon. "He thinks I'll go after him for antitrust," Trump said at one point during his campaign. "Because he's got a huge antitrust problem, because he's controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing." Months later, Trump charged: "Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems, they are going to have such problems." Meanwhile, Bezos isn't one to shy about his anti-Trump views either. At one point during the election, Bezos tweeted that he'd save a seat for Trump on his Blue Origin spacecraft, with the hashtag "sendDonaldtospace."
It hadn't occurred to me before, but Zaphod Beeblebrox (in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams) is spookily predictive of Trump as US President: ... He was briefly the President of the Galaxy (a role that involves no power whatsoever, and merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so no one wonders who's really in charge, a role for which Zaphod was perfectly suited). ... As a character, Zaphod is hedonistic and irresponsible, narcissistic almost to the point of solipsism, and often extremely insensitive to the feelings of those around him. In the books and radio series, he is nevertheless quite charismatic which causes many characters to ignore his other flaws. ... Throughout the book and radio versions of the story, Zaphod is busy carrying out some grand scheme, has no clue as to what it is and is unable to do anything but follow the path that he laid out for himself. ...
> There is a reason for the electoral college and it's states rights. If it wasn't in place 3 to 4 cities would dictate the vote from mainly 3 states and 47 other states wouldn't matter.
No. Why would it work that way? There is no winner-take-all in any level in a direct popular vote. 3 or 4 cities are NYC, 8.1 million, Los Angeles, 3.8 million, Chicago, 2.7 million, Houston, 2.1 million. 16.7 million. Even near doubling that for suburbs (which often vote distinctly opposite from the city), that's about 10%. The population of the USA is about 330 million.
And in those cities, without a winner take all, the minority candidate's votes also accumulate. Think about the 40% of conservatives in California, or the 40% of liberals in Texas. So even if the large cities vote for one candidate by 65 to 35%, a 30% difference (which is very large) that's 16.7 million * 0.3 = about 5 million votes. (I'm equating population to votes, but it should be roughly proportional).
In a direct popular vote, every vote matters, and candidates would campaign and try to appeal everywhere. Conservatives in New York. Liberals in Kansas. Everyone. Why should a few states in the current system (FL, OH, PA, MI) get to matter more than many other states?
Wake me when he DOES something.
Time to wake up!
Trump is continuing his attack on the Press. That is bad.
Trump is at the same time incorporating lies into his public statements. That is bad.
Both of these are behaviors of those wishing to become dictators. Read The Atlantic from a couple of months ago, the one with the cover article "How to Build an Autocracy". For your filter-check, know that The Atlantic leans slight right.