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PostPosted: 03/28/18 11:44 am • # 1 
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The DiC is almost totally transparent ~ it's not ONLY WaPo that he's targeting, but his personal jealousy of Bezos' business acumen that has brought Bezos massive wealth [far, far beyond the DiC's alleged wealth] ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Why Donald Trump is ‘obsessed with Amazon’
03/28/18 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen

When it comes to the political world’s interest in tech giants, many of the key players in D.C. have been focused heavily on Facebook, especially in the wake of the controversy surrounding Cambridge Analytica. Axios reports today, however, that Donald Trump’s interests are elsewhere.

Quote:
Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.”

Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business…. His real estate buddies tell him – and he agrees – that Amazon is killing shopping malls and brick-and-mortar retailers.

The piece added, “The president would love to clip CEO Jeff Bezos’ wings. But he doesn’t have a plan to make that happen.”

There’s certainly room for a spirited conversation about the online retailer and its influence in the marketplace, but I think New York’s Jon Chait is correct when he argues that for Trump, Amazon is simply “the outlet for his hatred of the Washington Post.”

Quote:
In theory, Trump might have developed an economic theory that Amazon is inappropriately benefitting from public policy, and have drawn critical conclusions about the journalism at the Post, and it is merely a coincidence that the same person, Jeff Bezos, owns both businesses. In practice, Trump makes no pretense of obscuring any connection between the two. When he lashes out at the Post’s coverage, he segues seamlessly to Amazon. Trump has done this over and over. […]

Whatever the merits of his case about Amazon, it has nothing to do with helping mom-and-pop shops and everything to do with his authoritarian desire to control the news media.

To a very real extent, this is exactly what Trump told us to expect before he was even elected.

Regular readers may recall our coverage from May 2016, when Trump was merely the presumptive Republican nominee, and he pushed a conspiracy theory with great enthusiasm about Jeff Bezos attacking him through the Post because he thought Trump would raise his company’s taxes. Or something. It was a little hard to understand.

And while the Republican’s conspiracy theory didn’t really make any sense, Trump nevertheless made clear at the time that he sees Amazon and the Washington Post as effectively the same thing, using the corporate brand names interchangeably. He almost seemed to threaten Bezos during a Fox News interview at the time.

“[H]e’s got a huge antitrust problem because he’s controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they’re doing,” Trump argued. “And what they’ve done is, he bought this paper for practically nothing and he’s using that as a tool for political power against me and against other people. And I’ll tell you what: we can’t let him get away with it.”

About a month later, in June 2016, Trump’s campaign said it was “hereby revoking the press credentials of the phony and dishonest Washington Post.” The accompanying press statement added, “The fact is, The Washington Post is being used by the owners of Amazon as their political lobbyist.”

There’s never been any evidence to bolster such a claim, but it’s against this backdrop that we’re now confronted with a new report about the president’s “obsession” with the company.

Maybe Trump will just continue to stew silently over this, and he won’t use the levers of government power as tools of retribution against his perceived enemies. Given the president’s track record, however, that seems unlikely.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/why-donald-trump-obsessed-amazon#break


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PostPosted: 03/29/18 7:51 am • # 2 
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Ummm ... isn't the primary function of the US postal service to deliver mail and packages? ~ how can someone who is "very very smart", has a "very high IQ", and uses "the best words" be so wrong about virtually everything? ~ :ey ~ Sooz

Trump lashes out at Amazon in bizarre morning tweet: ‘Use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy!’
Brad Reed / 29 Mar 2018 at 08:00 ET

President Donald Trump once again took aim at retail giant Amazon on Thursday, as he accused it of ripping off the United States Postal Service and putting retail shops out of business.

“I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election,” Trump wrote. “Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!”

Quote:
I have stated my concerns with Amazon long before the Election. Unlike others, they pay little or no taxes to state & local governments, use our Postal System as their Delivery Boy (causing tremendous loss to the U.S.), and are putting many thousands of retailers out of business!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2018

In fact, Amazon pays the United States Post Office to deliver its packages and the mission of the USPS is to deliver mail and packages. Additionally, notes Bloomberg reporter Steven Dennis, Amazon now pays sales taxes in most of the states where it operates.

Trump has regularly attacked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, and the president has in the past accused it of ripping off the post office. A report from Axios’ Jonathan Swan earlier this week indicated that Trump was “obsessed” with taking on Bezos, and he’s regularly heard complaints from his wealthy developer friends that Amazon has been putting their shopping malls out of business.

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/03/trump-lashes-amazon-bizarre-morning-tweet-use-postal-system-delivery-boy/


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PostPosted: 03/29/18 1:10 pm • # 3 
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Amazon saved the USPS. Some very close friends who worked there say that everyone at USPS knows this. They were losing money like mad over email, robocalls, and a huge loss in things being sent by land routes at all. UPS and FED Ex had all the parcel business until Amazon and USPS made some deals.

And that huge tax cut for the rich Trump has championed, well, Bezos and Amazon have benefitted bigly. Does he really want Amazon to pay more taxes? Then why did he just sign the huge tax cut?


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PostPosted: 03/29/18 5:14 pm • # 4 
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i can't imagine why trump cares about the postal service.


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PostPosted: 03/29/18 8:37 pm • # 5 
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macroscopic wrote:
i can't imagine why trump cares about the postal service.

It makes for good sound bites among unionized voters workers.


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PostPosted: 03/30/18 7:50 am • # 6 
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macroscopic wrote:
i can't imagine why trump cares about the postal service.

He doesn't care about the postal service ~ as queenie posted above "Amazon saved the USPS." ~ but he is rabidly jealous of Jeff Bezos' enormous wealth and especially detests the factoid that Bezos owns WaPo ~

Sooz


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PostPosted: 03/30/18 9:28 am • # 7 
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right. but that doesn't answer the question about the postal service.

is he ADHD or something?


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PostPosted: 03/30/18 11:02 am • # 8 
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macroscopic wrote:
right. but that doesn't answer the question about the postal service.

is he ADHD or something?


Macro: You are expecting there is a rational reason for what he says and does. I'm not sure the guy is entirely rational. There are many things, like his comments about the wall yesterday, which are blatantly untrue and yet he says them with such utter conviction that I'm pretty sure he believes them. USPS loses money because it is under utilized. Their bumpf regarding their losses is written in such a way that it sounds like every letter and parcel is subsidized. He's incapable of understanding how Amazon increasing the use of the postal service is a good rather than bad thing.

The ne thing I can agree with him on is that Amazon is probably going to turn out to be very bad for the economy. Retail consumerism is a major driver of the economy and Amazon (and Ali Baba, etc.) are having a huge effect on it. While the lower prices are beneficial for consumers the job and business opportunity losses created are not good.


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PostPosted: 04/02/18 7:10 am • # 9 
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If "wealth" is the measuring stick, the DiC loses BIGLY ~ :ey ~ Sooz

2 days ago
Battle of Billionaires: Trump Vs. Bezos
By News & Guts

An unusually quiet Easter weekend suddenly shattered by Trump tweets on his latest enemy, the evil Amazon:

Quote:
While we are on the subject, it is reported that the U.S. Post Office will lose $1.50 on average for each package it delivers for Amazon. That amounts to Billions of Dollars. The Failing N.Y. Times reports that “the size of the company’s lobbying staff has ballooned,” and that…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2018

Quote:
…does not include the Fake Washington Post, which is used as a “lobbyist” and should so REGISTER. If the P.O. “increased its parcel rates, Amazon’s shipping costs would rise by $2.6 Billion.” This Post Office scam must stop. Amazon must pay real costs (and taxes) now!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2018

If you wonder what might have driven Trump to the tweet machine, consider this story from the front page of this morning’s Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns Amazon.

Image

Here’s the story’s lead:

Quote:
“The carefully maintained secrecy around President Trump’s finances is under unprecedented assault a year into his presidency, with three different legal teams with different agendas trying to pry open the Trump Organization’s books.”

Trump is reportedly “obsessed” with Amazon. Some say it’s because he believes (wrongly) that Amazon is taking advantage of the U.S. Postal Service. But this grudge is also about Amazon’s owner, who Trump thinks controls the editorial (wrong again) of the Washington Post. Bezos and Trump aren’t pals. From Vanity Fair:

Quote:
“In 2016, Jeff Bezos offered to strap Donald Trump, then a presidential hopeful, to a rocket and blast him into orbit. “I have a rocket company,” he joked at Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, referring to Blue Origin. “So the capability is there.”

As with many agendas in Trumpworld, this is personal and petty.

https://www.newsandguts.com/battle-billionaires-trump-vs-bezos/


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PostPosted: 04/08/18 5:59 am • # 10 
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For your viewing giggles ~ :st ~ Sooz

SNL’s Trump admits why he hates Jeff Bezos: ‘He’s way richer than me and he admits to being bald’
Martin Cizmar / 07 Apr 2018 at 23:53 ET

Saturday Night Live is back and so is Alec Baldwin’s Trump.

This week’s cold open spoofed Trump’s press conference with leaders of Baltic nations.

“Let’s try to keep it fun, these three came all the way from Hufflepuff,” he tells the assembled journalists.

But then other people get to talk, and Trump’s thoughts begin to drift.

“I wish I was watching Roseanne. I love Roseanne, she’s like a good Rosie O’Donnell,” he thinks.

Asked why he keeps tweeting about Amazon, Trump admits the obvious: “I hate Jeff because he’s way richer than me and he admits to being bald.”

“I don’t care about America,” he says. “This whole four-year presidency is a cash grab.”

[Video accessible via the end link or at https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... iCm8tYX-Vw]

https://www.rawstory.com/2018/04/snls-trump-admits-hates-jeff-bezos-hes-way-richer-admits-bald/


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PostPosted: 05/18/18 1:46 pm • # 11 
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No IFs, ANDs, or BUTs ~ this IS "... an unusually outrageous abuse of power" ~ :eek ~ Sooz

Did Trump use his office to try to punish Amazon.com?
05/18/18 03:19 PM
By Steve Benen

Donald Trump has reportedly been “obsessed” with Amazon.com for quite a while, apparently because the online retailer is owned by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post. It’s like a political bank shot of presidential contempt: the Republican hates the newspaper’s coverage, which leads Trump to hate its owner, which then leads the president to hate its owner’s other businesses.

To that end, Trump has argued, publicly and privately, that Amazon is a tax-dodging company that unfairly exploits the U.S. Postal Service. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that White House officials, eager to help the president understand reality, have put together “PowerPoint presentations and briefing papers they believed debunked his concerns.”

Trump, however, was unmoved by facts and evidence. The president feels he’s right about Amazon, and in this White House, that effectively ends the conversation.

The larger question is what, exactly, the Republican is prepared to do as part of his manufactured feud. The Washington Post reports today on one alarming possibility.

Quote:
President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com and other firms to ship packages, according to three people familiar with their conversations, a dramatic move that probably would cost these companies billions of dollars.

Brennan has so far resisted Trump’s demand, explaining in multiple conversations occurring this year and last that these arrangements are bound by contracts and must be reviewed by a regulatory commission, the three people said. She has told the president that the Amazon relationship is beneficial for the Postal Service and gave him a set of slides that showed the variety of companies, in addition to Amazon, that also partner for deliveries.

The Post added Brennan and Trump “have met at the White House about the matter several times,” though none of the meetings appeared on Trump’s public schedule.

I appreciate the fact that Trump is at the center of a great many scandals, but if it’s true that this president used his office to try to punish a company he dislikes personally, that’s an unusually outrageous abuse of power.

Indeed, the closer one looks, the more unsettling the story appears: Trump disapproves of one of the nation’s largest and most important news organizations, and he’s reportedly acted on those frustrations by urging the U.S. Postmaster General to penalize one of his perceived enemies.

Not to put too fine a point on this, but in the United States, a president can’t use his office to retaliate against private businesses whose owners hurt his feelings.

Given Trump’s preoccupation with Watergate, it might interest the Republican president to know that nearly a half-century ago, Richard Nixon, among other things, tried to use the IRS as a political weapon to target his political foes.

That has long been seen as a radical abuse of presidential power. Its echo would be no better.

Postscript: We don’t have to speculate much about the connection between Trump’s opposition to the online retailer and his opposition to the Washington Post. Today’s article added, “Some administration officials say several of Trump’s attacks aimed at Amazon have come in response to articles in The Post that he didn’t like.”

In other words, people in the president’s orbit are effectively confirming our worst suspicions.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/did-trump-use-his-office-try-punish-amazoncom#break


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PostPosted: 05/21/18 11:59 am • # 12 
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Yet again, the DiC's over-active ego and massive vindictiveness grabs the reins ... but his "day of reckoning" keeps moving closer on the horizon ~ :ey ~ some "live links" in the original ~ Sooz

Trump’s chief economic adviser distances himself from Amazon threats
05/21/18 11:20 AM—Updated 05/21/18 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen

Given the volume of controversies surrounding Donald Trump, it’s sometimes best to put them in different categories. Some of the president’s scandals are offensive, others are amusing. Some raise the prospect of criminal misconduct, others raise questions about Trump’s character and personal integrity.

[Video, The Rachel Maddow Show, 5/18/18, 9:00 PM ET, "Trump toys with abuse of office in beef against Washington Post", accessible via the end link.]

And then there’s a category called, “Stuff that might get a president impeached.”

On Friday, the Washington Post reported on Trump personally pressuring U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to increase shipping rates on Amazon.com as part of the president’s personal vendetta against the online retailer’s CEO, Jeff Bezos. As we discussed, the nature of the story is breathtaking: Trump has taken steps to use a government agency as retaliatory weapon against a perceived American foe, in large part because the Republican disapproves of the Post’s coverage of his presidency – and Bezos owns the Post.

When Richard Nixon used government agencies to target Americans he disliked, it was included in the articles of impeachment against him. There’s now reason to believe Trump has done something eerily similar.

On ABC’s “This Week” yesterday, George Stephanopoulos asked Larry Kudlow, the director of the White House National Economic Council and Donald Trump’s top adviser on matters of economic policy, to explain what the president reportedly did.

Quote:
STEPHANOPOULOS: I also want to ask you about a headline in The Washington Post yesterday … it has having to do with Amazon. And it talks about President Trump personally pushing the postmaster general to double rates on Amazon and other firms. The president has tweeted about Amazon a lot, as well. Is it appropriate for the president to be singling out companies like this?

KUDLOW: Well, look. I’m not – that not in my lane, OK. I can’t really comment specifically. I haven’t looked at that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, it comes under the National Economic Council, doesn’t it?

KUDLOW: Well, I suppose so, but again I haven’t been involved in that discussion. Look, the president is a man of many opinions. I think you know that. I think we all know that. It’s up to him. He may be carrying this ball. I can’t comment directly on it.

He then quickly changed the subject.

I realize there’s no shortage of controversies surrounding Trump World, but I think there’s something qualitatively different about a sitting president possibly abusing his office this way.

Larry Kudlow wanted no part of this issue yesterday, but the White House will need to come up with a credible explanation.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trumps-chief-economic-adviser-distances-himself-amazon-threats#break


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