America - The Official Thread

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Rep.omar lays bare a neocon .




It is kinda satisfying watching one these fools squirm like a slug in salt .


Heres a article on who commited most acts of terror in the united states

 
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A war criminal gets told off by an "apologetic" anti-semite on a channel named after the people responsible for the Armenian Genocide.

:lol:
 
Scaff
The channels been renamed to 'The Young Ottomans', damn I missed that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide
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Of course you would. Even the founder of the channel denied it once.
However, the Young Turks show has been criticized for the name, as the original Young Turks political movement committed the Armenian Genocide,[70] and that in 1991 Cenk Uygur wrote an article in The Daily Pennsylvanian in which he promoted Armenian Genocide denial.[73] In 2016, he rescinded these statements, arguing: "My mistake at the time was confusing myself for a scholar of history, which I most certainly am not. I don’t want to make the same mistake again, so I am going to refrain from commenting on the topic of the Armenian Genocide, which I do not know nearly enough about."[74]
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Young_Turks

Who was responsible for the Armenian Genocide? [top of list]
The decision to carry out a genocide against the Armenian people was made by the political party in power in the Ottoman Empire. This was the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (or Ittihad ve Terakki Jemiyeti), popularly known as the Young Turks. Three figures from the CUP controlled the government; Mehmet Talaat, Minister of the Interior in 1915 and Grand Vizier (Prime Minister) in 1917; Ismail Enver, Minister of War; Ahmed Jemal, Minister of the Marine and Military Governor of Syria. This Young Turk triumvirate relied on other members of the CUP appointed to high government posts and assigned to military commands to carry out the Armenian Genocide. In addition to the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, the Young Turks also relied on a newly-created secret outfit which they manned with convicts and irregular troops, called the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa). Its primary function was the carrying out of the mass slaughter of the deported Armenians.
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https://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocidefaq.html

You're smarter than that Scaff, and you know TYT is the Breitbart on its side of the spectrum. They are not a reliable source of news, and got in trouble last month claiming a black shooter was actually a white supremacist motivated by Trump.
 
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TJ13
Amazon....
Will pay $0 in federal taxes this year.

Who thinks that is right?
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Hang on, there's bound to be some three hour sermon from a leading light of the Intellectual Dark Web that will totally convince you.
 
TJ13
Amazon....
Will pay $0 in federal taxes this year.

Who thinks that is right?
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Whoever they paid to make that happen is probably pretty convinced of it's rightness. Not only can money buy justice, money is justice.
 
DK
Hang on, there's bound to be some three hour sermon from a leading light of the Intellectual Dark Web that will totally convince you.
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Imari
Whoever they paid to make that happen is probably pretty convinced of it's rightness. Not only can money buy justice, money is justice.
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"The $2 million bribe they gave is like paying a tax because it goes to the government anyway, so you can say their tax bill is technically $2,000,000 not $0."
 
Liquid
"The $2 million bribe they gave is like paying a tax because it goes to the government anyway, so you can say their tax bill is technically $2,000,000 not $0."
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I see your logic but I geuss many like to pay a 1000€ bribe instead of 4000€ in taxes. Why do they not have that option?
 
Imari
I was more talking about companies straight up downsizing and attempting to do the same work with less people. Probably mostly because it's relevant to my job* at the moment and it's giving me the runny :censored:s. People vs. machines to do the same job is a slightly different kettle of fish, the company is still willing to pay in that case but is looking to optimise. The fact that there are now viable non-human methods to achieve the same labour is somewhat frustrating for humans, but kind of inevitable unless you're a Luddite.

The interesting thing is that there's a non-zero wage where it stops being worthwhile for humans to take a job regardless. If you're unemployed and someone offers you a job for three cents an hour, you probably rationally refuse because one, that amount of money makes no material difference to your ability to starve to death, and two, the opportunity cost of having free time to do anything else of value that might turn up is way higher. In a totally free employment market you likely end up with an implicit minimum wage simply because anything below subsistence wages is objectively a poor choice. You're better off scrounging food out of dumpsters than working 120 hours for a handful of peanuts.

*A department of four people downsized to about one and a half, when there was already way more stuff that needed to be done than hours in the day. It's not just my department either, it's the entire company despite the company getting a huge contract and being in an objectively good financial position with staff who are already paid below industry standards. Some companies will literally try and squeeze blood from a stone.
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Yea I agree that below a certain wage you're better off just being unemployed. For one, benefits from the government are better if you're "unemployed" vs. "underemployed". But also you have the extra time to save money. Not by scrounging dumpsters, but by going to soup kitchens, applying for better jobs, etc.

The minimum wage affects very few people in the US. Ironically, the number of people making less than minimum wage is greater than the number of people making minimum wage. I'm guessing those folks are food service where tips are expected to make up the difference and then some. The number of workers in the US that are actually using minimum wage, as in, it potentially is causing their salary to be higher, is 1.3M at most. I say at most, because it's almost certain that a fraction of those jobs would pay the minimum wage regardless of whether it was mandated.

Everyone else is not using it. For everyone else, their employer pays them according to what they earn, voluntarily, because they want that employee. Approximately 152M people.

TJ13
Amazon....
Will pay $0 in federal taxes this year.

Who thinks that is right?
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I'm sure it is right, according to the law. They must have posted no profit, instead choosing to either pay their employees (which gets taxed) or buy things to grow (which is good).
 
Danoff
They must have posted no profit, instead choosing to either pay their employees (which gets taxed) or buy things to grow (which is good).
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Or they declared their losses in places with higher corporate tax and declare their profits in places with lower corporate tax. I don't know if that is what they do but it wouldn't be uncommon. Starbucks definitely does that.
 
Liquid
Or they declared their losses in places with higher corporate tax and declare their profits in places with lower corporate tax. I don't know if that is what they do but it wouldn't be uncommon. Starbucks definitely does that.
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That's tougher to do, because you have to account for regional revenue. Amazon is apparently headquartered in Seattle, so their US revenue has to be accounted for here. In fact, since they're incorporated here, they have to account for all revenue everywhere in the US. Because they get taxed on profits from Brazil here. So in the US, they'd need to show a worldwide lack of profit.
 
Danoff
That's tougher to do, because you have to account for regional revenue. Amazon is apparently headquartered in Seattle, so their US revenue has to be accounted for here. In fact, since they're incorporated here, they have to account for all revenue everywhere in the US. Because they get taxed on profits from Brazil here. So in the US, they'd need to show a worldwide lack of profit.
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That's where the larger companies are clever. In the UK if I buy a package from Amazon I buy it from an associated company called Amazon UK (or similar). The chances are that the product is fulfilled by a company in Jersey (also Amazon-something-something) and picked from a warehouse supplier there or on the UK mainland. By the time all the books are done the Amazon company that's made the most money is, by sheer coincidence, the one in the most lenient tax territory. The Amazon bits that are in tougher tax territories have normally paid so much for supplier services that their profits are literally zero. So zero tax.

Now that's what I call lucky! :D
 
TenEightyOne
That's where the larger companies are clever. In the UK if I buy a package from Amazon I buy it from an associated company called Amazon UK (or similar). The chances are that the product is fulfilled by a company in Jersey (also Amazon-something-something) and picked from a warehouse supplier there or on the UK mainland. By the time all the books are done the Amazon company that's made the most money is, by sheer coincidence, the one in the most lenient tax territory. The Amazon bits that are in tougher tax territories have normally paid so much for supplier services that their profits are literally zero. So zero tax.

Now that's what I call lucky! :D
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Amazon UK is a subsidiary of Amazon. It's owned by the parent company. That doesn't allow them to skirt US taxes from UK revenue.
 
Danoff
Amazon UK is a subsidiary of Amazon. It's owned by the parent company. That doesn't allow them to skirt US taxes from UK revenue.
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The final European business (and possibly the US too) go through Amazon s.a.r.l., which is Luxembourgian. The US company takes advantage of state tax deals in the US, share (rather than balance) payments and loans to the SARL subsidiary to ensure it has the lowest tax burden in the US as legally possible. And it's legal, that's the main thing.

As a sort-of-aside: Trump's tax message is mixed. He wants big companies to pay more tax but has lowered the corporation tax requirement. I don't quite get that, but there you go.
 
TenEightyOne
The final European business (and possibly the US too) go through Amazon s.a.r.l., which is Luxembourgian. The US company takes advantage of state tax deals in the US, share (rather than balance) payments and loans to the SARL subsidiary to ensure it has the lowest tax burden in the US as legally possible. And it's legal, that's the main thing.
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Yea the European subsidiaries help Amazon keep a lower European exposure. They don't help with US tax exposure though, maybe if they're receiving investments of some sort, but that's how the US tax code is structured, corporate expenses are "deductible" so to speak.

The state tax thing doesn't help reduce its exposure to federal taxes as best I understand it. So the original concern was that Amazon is not paying US Federal income tax, and I don't think that any of the state or European subsidiaries actually reduce that tax exposure.
 
Danoff
Yea the European subsidiaries help Amazon keep a lower European exposure. They don't help with US tax exposure though, maybe if they're receiving investments of some sort, but that's how the US tax code is structured, corporate expenses are "deductible" so to speak.
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The European businesses offer a way for the US parent to have significant expenditure that lowers their US profits.

Danoff
So the original concern was that Amazon is not paying US Federal income tax
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They've been given various lets through tax breaks and deferments. Effectively the tax is being calculated and then relieved. In some ways this is a good idea - it keeps businesses "on-shore" and guarantees that the huge wage payout to employees is taxed at home. Amazon UK only paid £15m in tax to HMRC last year but their PAYE would be nearer £90m. Then there's the benefit to the economy from VAT on sales made to the employees spending that money in the UK.
 
Just heard through the grapevine when Trump signs the funding bill he's going to declare a national emergency for the wall.
 
ryzno
Just heard through the grapevine when Trump signs the funding bill he's going to declare a national emergency for the wall.
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Is "the grapevine" the Mitch McConell statement? :D

Most leaders would try to avoid being in a position where they praise foreign dictators, attack the free press, remove all opposing government staff and declare unitarian states of national emergency because of the parallels that can be drawn to previous, well known regimes. Not Trump, it seems to be the order of business. Sadly his belief that he is the greatest president ever and that any contrary claims are enemy propaganda (also familiar hallmarks) seemingly prevent him from realising that.

Just how crazy can it still get?
 
Sounds like a fantastic use of tax dollars. And assuming Trump does this I can't wait until a president down the road uses this as precedent to declare a state of emergency for climate change.

Oh, and the national debt just went past the $22 trillion mark. Looks like Trump really is running the country like one of his businesses, you know to the point of hemorrhaging money.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/national-debt-effect-americans-223401667.html
 
Danoff
I'm sure it is right, according to the law. They must have posted no profit
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Amazon...nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 from $5.6 billion the previous year and, once again, didn’t pay a single cent of federal income taxes.

The fine print of Amazon’s income tax disclosure shows that this achievement is partly due to various unspecified “tax credits” as well as a tax break for executive stock options.
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https://itep.org/amazon-in-its-prime-doubles-profits-pays-0-in-federal-income-taxes/

Danoff
instead choosing to either pay their employees (which gets taxed) or buy things to grow (which is good).
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...new Amazon minimum wage of $15 an hour....

Yes, Amazon is increasing wages, which will benefit most employees. But it will no longer give out new stock grants and monthly bonuses. Some workers believe that means their total compensation will shrink.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/technology/amazon-workers-pay-raise.html
 
To be fair it was something that looked like most of his supporters wanted the most from him campaign promise wise, the problem is it's not exactly constitutional the way the is trying to get the funds nor is it anywhere near enough money to actually finish the wall as claimed.

US debt is stupidly out of control it's ignorant of reality to blame it all on Trump as the intreast payments have been Soo high that basically any president who even tried to maintain status quo from the Obama administration would be growing the debt, but he certainly hasn't helped.

Unless someone like Ron Paul gets randomly elected to office in 2020 you have to accept that this problem is getting worse no matter who is in charge and will absorb most of government spending(just the intrest payments on the debt)in the years to come, I await the day US military equipment will be seized by crediters and mass government layoffs.

The only other option is to print the US dollar untill the debt is not a problem, but then many things will happen:

1. No creditor will loan to the US(why would you give money to someone that won't pay you back value at the same or higher then you lent)
2. The dollar will lose it's world reserve status
3. Hyperinflation will be a certainty thanks to the Above.

The Debt trap in a nutshell.
 
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