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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."
But it's accurate.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Why the hell does anyone still care?
Don't get me wrong, the president of the US is a pretty important person and whatever he does has some effect on the world. But do we really have to hear every fart he passes? Who gives a shit about this anymore?
Wake me when he DOES something.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
He really is the president America deserves, he's an incredibly apt reflection of the population-at-large.
It's only smart if it's Trump avoiding taxes legally. The rules are different for anyone not lobbying him directly.
Distinction without difference... The sentiment expressed is still perfectly plausible:
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Donald Turmp hates the Washington Post because it accurately reports on his treasonous crimes.
I'm sorry that the Washington post documented your carelessly executed treason, Moscow Donald.
Before the election
Dec. 10, 2015
Lt. Gen Michael Flynn is part of a panel discussion in Moscow for the 10th anniversary of government-backed Russia Today, for which he receives payment (The Washington Post, Aug. 15, 2016). Officials notice an increase in communication between Flynn and the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, following the Russia Today event (CNN, May 19, 2017).
Late 2015
British intelligence agencies detect suspicious interactions between Russia and Trump aides that they pass on to American intelligence agencies (The Guardian, April 13, 2017).
March 19, 2016
Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is sent an email that encourages him to change his email password, likely precipitating the hack of his account (CBS News, Oct. 28, 2016).
March 21
During an interview with The Post, Trump lists Carter Page as part of his foreign policy team. Page had been recommended by a son-in-law of President Richard Nixon, New York Republican Party Chairman Ed Cox (WP, March 21, 2016).
March 28
Political veteran Paul Manafort is hired to help the Trump campaign manage the delegate process for the Republican National Convention. He is recommended by Trump confidante Roger Stone (New York Times, March 28, 2016). Before joining the campaign, Manafort lobbied on behalf of Oleg Deripaska, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. That deal followed a memo from Manafort in which he offered a plan that could Ãoegreatly benefit the Putin Government.Ã His relationship with Deripaska ended in 2009 (Associated Press, March 22, 2017). Manafort also worked on behalf of the Russia-friendly Party of Regions in Ukraine, helping guide the party's leader, Viktor Yanukovych, to the country's presidency. Yanukovych would later be ousted. (WP, Aug. 19, 2016)
April 27
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) may have met with Kislyak at a reception at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington before a foreign-policy speech given by Trump (CNN, May 31, 2017).
June
At a closed-door meeting of foreign policy experts and the prime minister of India, Page praises Putin effusively (WP, Aug. 5, 2016).
June 15
A hacker calling himself ÃoeGuccifer 2.0Ã releases the Democratic National Committee's research file on Donald Trump (Gawker, June 15, 2016). News reports already link the stolen data to Russian hackers (WP, June 14, 2016).
July
At some point this month, the FBI begins investigating possible links between the Russian government and Trump's campaign (Wired, March 20, 2017).
July 7
Page travels to Moscow to give a lecture (NYT, April 19, 2017). The Trump campaign approved the trip (USA Today, March 7, 2017). This trip was likely the catalyst for the FBI's request for a secret surveillance warrant to track PageÃs communications (WP, May 25, 2017).
July 11 or 12
Trump campaign staffers intervene with the committee developing the Republican Party's national security platform to remove language call arming Ukraine against Russian aggression. (July 18, 2016).
July 18
At an event hosted by the Heritage Foundation as part of the Republican National Convention, Sessions and Kislyak have a brief conversation (WP, March 2, 2017).
Flynn delivers a speech at the Republican convention, joining in the crowd's ÃoeLock her up!à chant. ÃoeIf I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth of what she did,à Flynn said, ÃoeI would be in jail todayà (C-Span, July 18, 2016).
July 22
Wikileaks releases emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee (WP, July 22, 2017).
Jul. 27
During his
we dont "allow" anything with ireland, they are their own nation with their own laws
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Trump seems unaware that TrumpCare is a giant tax cut for the rich by repealing the taxes that funded ObamaCare.
A senator who supports the bill left the meeting at the White House with a sense that the president did not have a grasp of some basic elements of the Senate plan — and seemed especially confused when a moderate Republican complained that opponents of the bill would cast it as a massive tax break for the wealthy, according to an aide who received a detailed readout of the exchange. Mr. Trump said he planned to tackle tax reform later, ignoring the repeal's tax implications, the staff member added.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/27/us/health-care-bill-trump-pence.html
We allow companies to pretend that income earned elsewhere, say in our own country, can be fed to an artificial Irish entity that does zero work, in order to park money there without paying what is due on the taxes.
So they benefit from all the roads, law enforcement, fire services, environmental controls, public education, and manage to get out of paying for it with a surreptitous act of money laundering.
I'm really confused about the president's position on dodging taxes. If poor people don't pay taxes, that's bad. But if a rich person gets a tax break, that's good. If one of Trump's businesses, or he himself, avoids taxes, that's just his business expertise. But if Jeff Bezos does it, that's bad again.
Help me out here. I'm really confused...
The tax information we do have on Trump indicates that he has taken advantage of rolling over losses to reduce taxes, so, in reality, even if Amazon were doing what Trump said, Trump's done the same damned thing.
Just another bizarre outburst from the Tweeter-in-Chief
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The interesting thing about this is that he's only concerned about tax dodging when it involves a company he doesn't like. I'm sure there are plenty of tax loopholes that is businesses have been able to use over the years.
I think almost everyone knows that businesses don't pay the official tax rates, and the largest ones are able to pay zero or get tax refunds in some cases because they're able to buy loopholes and exploit them. Even small businesses, who are the most vocal about it, structure their transactions to avoid taxes. Wage-earners are about the only taxpayers who don't get these benefits because documented W-2 and 1099 income is directly tracked and taxed at the income tax rate. But, ask any small business owner what entity owns their car, house and personal debt -- I guarantee you the answer is "John Smith Enterprises, Inc." It's way too easy for individuals to just set up a corporation and filter every personal expense they incur through it. It's not technically legal of course, but that doesn't stop it from happening. And then those same people turn around and complain about being taxed and regulated to death...those arguments ring hollow for me.
are "Internet Taxes"? There is no over-all Federal-level sales tax. As of April 1st, 2017 (two months ago) Amazon started collecting all sales tax for states that have a sales tax, 45 states in all.
But, honestly, we've come to expect this from Trump. He may actually understand how sales tax is collected, but this type of tweet is aimed at his low-information supporters to stir their rage against various targets Trump picks for them. Whatever it takes to keep the masses angry at anyone who "opposes" him, and to keep everyone confused.
No, you're wrong.
Amazon is a public company, with stock traded on NASDAQ. Ownership is over 63% institutional. Jeff Bezos is the Chariman, President, CEO, and a large stockholder, but by no means "owns" Amazon.
The Washington Post is a privately held company, which Jeff Bezos purchased through a holding company (Nash Holdings, LLC) for $250 million in 2013. Yes, he indirectly "owns" The Washington Post.
Your descriptions of writing off of losses from WP to cover gains from Amazon is grossly inaccurate and ignorant of how business structures and taxes work in the United States.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Usually, I moderate, today Ill reply.
Your wrong. -Everything- Chief Bozo says is news. If Chief Bozo disses the largest tech company in the world, that Big News. For me at least, being a cloud architect, and I regard that profession as quite nerdsy.
This why we need a businessman as president. Someone in business should be able to comprehend that a person can own many companies and not having each company interact with each other.
But we don't have a businessman as president we have a Son of a businessman who used the wealth and fame to more or less just maintain what he got, vs. Actually growing the business. Because if he just did normal investments with the money his dad gave him, he could be much richer.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Bezos tweeted that he'd save a seat for Trump on his Blue Origin spacecraft...
Trump's repeated failure to inform himself even slightly about the topics he involves himself in has so far cost him nothing.
Let's up the ante a little.
Offer Trump a place in history as the first political leader ever to take a trip into space. Offer him the choice of two tickets, both free: one would feature cramped quarters and extremely basic food for an extended trip, the other, the special "QV Laika Ticket", would feature luxurious accommodations for a considerably shorter, hotter trip.
Let him choose whichever one he likes. Since Trump has doubtless heard the term QV before, we can hope he makes the right choice.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
That's the problem when you only get news from one source that shaves it until it fits your political view. Try not thinking with pure emotions and using right and left wing news sources. Then TRY to peel the bias off of both and see what the news really is. I say TRY because it's not as easy as it sounds. People want to believe something they hear if it agrees with their ideas. But you have to put that to the side and see what's good for everybody not just you. It's hard to do. And it's the main reason I don't pay any attention to tv news sources. And I prefer to get news from left wing sources and then do some due diligence on that information. Helps with the not wanting to believe it just cause I like what they say part.
You mean like how Trump used Breitbart "news" to spread mostly false information?
The worst thing about Trump is that he's guilty of everything he complains about on twitter. People affiliated with a political party always ignore the hypocrisy of their representatives...
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Michael Flynn colluded with Russian spies, took Russian bribes, and lied on the security clearance forms designed to identify this type of treasonous behavior.
Michael Flynn and Paul Montfort retroactively registered as foreign agents, because in their time with Trump they were secret foreign agents.
I guess you just don't care about this obvious, well documented treason because your only response is to attempt to change the subject with an article from a right wing fake news and propaganda site.
Undisputed facts? Obama directly confronted Putin about the cyber activities and in turn ordered US intelligence to plant "spyware" that could be used in retaliation. It is true he tried to keep it under wraps, though.
Remember, they asked Republican controlled congress to investigate but they refused.
Be careful what you label as "undisputed facts"...
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
...we need to scrutinize it in ways we would never do with other people...
The level of scrutiny is directly proportional to the propensity for conveying inaccurate information.
He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
...the Post's only value is in it's ability to lose money to be written off for tax purposes
I'm sure the ability to spread CIA-approved propaganda doesn't enter into it.
For every billionaire on the Democratic Party's side, there are a dozen backing the Republicans. Not to mention that the Koch Brothers have contributed more to right wing causes than all three of the people you mention added together. And Fox News, right wing radio and a whole raft of conservative media vastly outnumber the few openly left wing media outlets. For that matter, the right wing bias stays just about the same even if you include hard news media that strive for accuracy. Accuracy, of course, doesn't favour conservatives.
But don't let little things like facts and common sense get in the way of playing the victim card. Conservatives do that so very, very well!
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
We need people well-versed in economics to run our public policy machine. Not just people who took economics in college, but people who have pushed the boundaries.
We should be pushing for DIVERSITY in our leadership. And I don't mean the Hijacked description of diversity called ethnic diversity.... I mean Intellectual Diversity and Diversity of Experience is even more important.
We could start by Step 1. discounting political experience as a qualification to run for elected offices, especially discount lawyers --- instead of having lawyers be legislators - appoint them "Legal assistants" -- In other words, lawyers help to understand the laws but shouldn't have the role in decisionmaking.
Step 2. Play up practical domain experience in decisionmaking, Get more scientists and engineers in office.
Step 3. Implement Term limits for all legislator positions. You serve your 6 years house and/or 12 years senate, after leaving office you must take a 6 year break before running again, and that is IT... no more legislating for you.
Actually what we really need is a president that will try to remain impartial to the party and try to find a fine balance between socialism and capitalism. A good president would know how to surround himself with a strong set of skilled people coming from different backgrounds with a variety opinions that line up with the larger portion of the population. The idea of party over country is getting old and its not helping the little guy. I compare it to when a player on a hockey team intentionally hurts another player on the other team and his team goes on to defend him regardless of how wrong the player was. It's this same sheep mentality that the choke point of many issues in the United States.
. You don't like being called Racists. So much so that we can't even have a conversation about race any more. Sheesh, and you call us Snowflakes.
When everything is racist having a conversation about race and calling people racist is retarded and a waste of time. Or do I need to go to a progressive university like Evergreen to understand your version of racism?
Rolling over losses is legitimate. It's not even remotely shady. Do you have any idea about what you're talking about?
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
The word of caution is if you win that (Chances are you don't need to worry); people have very bad misfortunes, and are rarely happy - it can destroy family and relationships, many a lottery winner wound up bankrupt or committed suicide -- you are first of all best to keep your identity secret, because you're bound to have so many desperate people with all manner of sob stories coming to ask for a handout, that if you handed them $100 a piece, you'd be bankrupt.
Take your winning ticket, lock it up securely in your safe: Don't tell a soul, and start contacting advisors to help setup the organizational Trust structure that will allow you to claim your winning ticket within the allowed time and remain anonymous and help you optimize your outcomes and happiness.
By the way 40 Million X 1.09 ^ 65 = 10 Billion
In other words... 9% Annualized returns over 65 years will do it.
Interest rates are low these days, because of Fed and government meddling,
that suppresses interest rates for debt and forces people to the higher-risk equities markets
if you want to generate returns, but there have been times in the past where you
could buy 40 Million worth of bonds and lock in a rate such as 12% - 15% interest.
At 12% it would be 29 years to turn 40 Million into 10 Billion.
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. ...
Yes, and if Amazon did buy the Washington Post to take advantage of any losses, that's perfectly legitimate as well, not that that is actually what appears to be happening.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
In today's America, facts are leftist propaganda, and need to be "balanced" with alternative facts approved by the Dear (Orange) Leader.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Here in Oklahoma, we are thankful for the electoral college. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. What is it supposed to do, you ask? Simple: It's there to prevent tyranny of the majority so large population states, like California and New York, don't have an over weighted say vs smaller states like Oklahoma and Wyoming.
If we had a direct population vote as you insinuate, then Los Angeles alone would overwhelm all of the votes of Oklahoma and Wyoming which deprives those states of representation. The electoral college assures their views are represented.
Sorry if you don't like it but it's the law of the land.....and for good reason.
Amazon *didn't* buy the WP. Jeff Bezos did, as an individual. Bezos owns 17% of Amazon, but institutional investors (i.e. Wall Street) own 63%. As usual, Trump gets the details wrong.
That, and "other people" aren't the president of the US. I would expect that the presidents' words will always continue to be heavily dissected and scrutinized, as they should be.
I don't know Trump's wealth, as he has not been up-front nor transparent about how much money he makes. Still waited for the promised tax returns...