Trump Personally Pushed Postmaster General To Double Rates on Amazon, Other Firms: Report (washingtonpost.com) 352
President Trump personally urged the leader of the U.S. Postal Service to double the rates the agency charges Amazon and other firms for delivery packages in several private conversations in 2017 and 2018, The Washington Post reported Friday (alternative source). From the report: Postmaster General Megan 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.
Despite these presentations, Trump has continued to level criticism at Amazon. And last month, his critiques culminated in the signing of an executive order mandating a government review of the financially strapped Postal Service that could lead to major changes in the way it charges Amazon and others for package delivery. Few U.S. companies have drawn Trump's ire as much as Amazon, which has rapidly grown to be the second-largest U.S. company in terms of market capitalization. For more than three years, Trump has fumed publicly and privately about the giant commerce and services company and its founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, who is also the owner of The Washington Post.
Despite these presentations, Trump has continued to level criticism at Amazon. And last month, his critiques culminated in the signing of an executive order mandating a government review of the financially strapped Postal Service that could lead to major changes in the way it charges Amazon and others for package delivery. Few U.S. companies have drawn Trump's ire as much as Amazon, which has rapidly grown to be the second-largest U.S. company in terms of market capitalization. For more than three years, Trump has fumed publicly and privately about the giant commerce and services company and its founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, who is also the owner of The Washington Post.
Won't that just push... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Won't that just push... (Score:5, Insightful)
Firstly, they do have their own private courier service.
Second, if USPS suddenly is pushed by the Administration or whatever upon which the Administration manages to lean, it will become more-expensive than FedEx, UPS, DHL, and so forth. The other clients will then go to those lower-cost providers. Then the USPS will go bankrupt, like the three casinos Trump managed to trash.
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Plus the service provided by the USPS is not nearly as reliable as the other providers. My previous employer tried moving from Fedex to a Fedex/USPS last mile solution and the result was a huge increase in missed deliveries. For amazon this might not be a big deal, the cost of replacing the lost items might not be higher than the saving of using USPS but for my employer, with a limited inventory of items that are produced in one off batches, it was unacceptable. If the cost of USPS goes up and the qualit
Re:Won't that just push... (Score:5, Informative)
FedEx and UPS often just handle the long-haul portion of a shipment and rely on the USPS for delivery from a USPS distribution center to a customer. If the USPS goes away. FedEx and UPS will not take its place. We'll all just be stuck with very expensive, not very convenient shipping.
Re: Won't that just push... (Score:5, Insightful)
People only look at what is right in front of them. Last mile delivery is the toughest and most expensive to coordinate. USPS owns that. USPS is public. Trump hates public services.
Here's what's going to happen
Trump "penalizes" USPS, cheerleaders are on his side. Amazon responds by furthering its last mile push. Amazon establishes independent and underpaid delivery drivers who run last mile using their own vehicles. Eventually Amazon will be pushed to use a fleet due to the same pressures uber is facing.
USPS is pushed to the side leaving Amazon Road or whatever the fuck they'll call it to do the majority of last mile for the country. Trump and Bezos laugh together at a cocktail party years later about how they privitazed a public service and used the public dime to do it.
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FedEx and UPS often just handle the long-haul portion of a shipment and rely on the USPS for delivery from a USPS distribution center to a customer.
FedEx and UPS were doing that stuff, prior to an agreement which amounted to a bailout for the USPS which requires them to hand off most small packages to the USPS for final delivery. They do get something out of it, though; those packages can be delivered to mailboxes, unlike when FedEx and UPS drop them off, because the USPS has a monopoly on delivering to your mailbox.
Re:Won't that just push... (Score:5, Insightful)
What sort of "like, really smart... and very stable genius" manages to lose money in the gambling industry?
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One that takes out a 600million$ loan(bonds) at ~16% interest, because banks wouldn't ouch them with a 10 foot pole..
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Listen to the "Trump Inc" podcast.
I don't think making money from the casinos was ever a central part of the plan.
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It's really hard to lose money in the gambling business. You'd have to be very special to lose money in that business.
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Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Informative)
They're not subsidizing Amazon. They were turning a mild profit until they were forced to pre-pay pensions by law instead of acting like any other government or private entity.
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
They are being forced to pre-fund pension plans FAR in advance of their obligation. That is singularly different than ANY other company or entity. It is literally starving them of resources. They can't adequately keep their facilities updated, clean, or expand services. The Post Office is one of the few things specifically mentioned in the Constitution as a service the Government is expected to provide.
If it were not for companies like Amazon and others, the Post Office would have gone bankrupt.
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Insightful)
They are required to pre-fund for employees 75 years out per the interpretation of the government on the law congress passed. This means prefunding retirement for employees that have not been born yet.
It's absurd and anyone that can't see that is a shill or a partisan troll.
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That's been the GOP plan all along. They'll use that to "prove" that private enterprise is always better, smarter and cost-effective, they'll find a way to screw the workers out of their pensions and amend the constitution to either get rid of $govt_svc or to allow its functions to fulfilled by corporations entirely.
Combine that with Drumpf's hate-boner for anything associated with Jeff Bezos plus his belief that he should be able to run the government to the benefit of his business interests, and...
And there you have it in a nutshell. We're done here.
Re: How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:4, Funny)
Extensive firearms training.
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Pension plans are normallly invested, not pre-funded. It is fine to go and criticize the investments and bad money management if some details emerge, but pre-funding pensions is not typically demanded of many other goverment agencies. Because the post office manages to be efficient and self sufficient, it angers all the government-is-evil politicians.
Re:Pre-pay (Score:5, Insightful)
Even if everyone agrees with you that forcing the USPS to prefund pensions is a good idea, bitching about their finances when they have to go through this huge change is dumb, if anything we should be expanding their services so that they are more profitable. Including lost cost banking services would be a good place to start.
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figure out how much they are going to have to pay out over the next 50-70 years, and put away enough money to cover it
Funding the pensions of employees who have not been born yet is really, really stupid.
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Funding the [educations of students] who have not been born yet is really, really stupid.
This is what you'll be telling your kids when they're ready for college?
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True. The way they are supposed to work is the money disappears up some executives ass when the majority of the workers that paid into it their entire career reach retirement age.
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True. The way they are supposed to work is the money disappears up some executives ass when the majority of the workers that paid into it their entire career reach retirement age.
I'd mod the AC insightful if I had points.
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Informative)
Did you miss the part where the postmaster general said that these arrangements are beneficial to the post office?
Is there any data to back up your claim that they're losing money on the deal?
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Informative)
The whole issue here is that the USPS is subsidizing Amazon delivery, by charging rates lower than what it actually costs to ship things. Other mail fees are subsidizing Amazon, how is that right???
That is a lie.
USPS financial report [usps.com]
Re:How do you know it's more expensive? (Score:5, Informative)
The USPS has publish information multiple times debunking this statement.
The primary reason that the USPS makes a profit on Amazon even though the indivitual package price is very low is that Amazon fills the shipment.
An analogy would be a standby ticket. They need to charge passengers $200 for the flight but there are often empty seats so charging someone $50 for those IS profitable because those were unsold tickets and the new passenger costs only a little bit extra.
The USPS has obligations for certain delivery times mandated by congress, so they have a ton of empty space on the airplane or freight truck. Unlike the airlines that schedule fewer flights when a route is slow, the USPS still has to drive it every single day.
USPS items get loaded first, then other shippers like Amazon. If the truck fills, Amazon waits for the next truck but that's such a rare occurrence that it isn't a concern for Amazon.
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They don't provide the same quality of service as the other carriers though, they are cheaper and thats great and on the volume that Amazon needs they are probably a good option (hence the reason Amazon uses them) but if they cost as much as Fedex, but loose more packages then nobody is ever going to use them.
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They only lose more packages because they handle way more packages. It's also why their service is worse.
Think of it this way. In 3 days, USPS handles as much mail pieces as FedEx in a year. UPS is big
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In several markets, Amazon already does have their own carrier services known as AMZL. They even market it out as a public courier service in India.
Trump continues to be idiot (Score:3, Informative)
This is NOT news.
Wake me up when he does something not boneheaded.
If not with USPS, then they will use Fedex or UPS (Score:5, Insightful)
I am sorry the company CEO is hurting the Presidents fragile Ego. But shouldn't he be Mr. Business man? Who looks at the big picture and works to make profitable deals no matter what your personal feelings are to the other person? Just as long as Amazon and like companies are not being charged at a loss at such bulk rates this is money to the USPS system, that isn't going to its competitors of FedEx and UPS. Doubling the Rates will not hurt Amazon that much, It will just hurt the USPS because Amazon will just move to the next cheapest shipping method.
He is Mr Business Man (Score:2)
I hope this happens (Score:2)
As a heavy user of Amazon, I really, really hope that a USPS rate hike convinces Amazon to stop using them. My package delivery has gotten much slower and less reliable since they started using USPS rather than UPS. I'd love to see them go back to using UPS and FedEx exclusively.
Demand curve (Score:5, Informative)
You'd think that as a self-professed "businessman", Trump would understand how demand curves work -- if you double the price of a product, demand decreases, if other suppliers (UPS, Fedex, Ontrac, Amazon's own service, etc) can deliver for less, then the postoffice loses out on income for a business that costs very little to provide when they are already sending workers out to every address.
Though I'd be happy to see Amazon stop using the USPS -- they are the least reliable of all of the other services Amazon uses, packages sometimes show up days after they were marked "delivered", or don't show up at all. I fairly often get packages meant for neighbors, I assume this is the source of the delayed packages.
Fedex and UPS are the best, packages show up on time. Amazon's own delivery service has been ok, but seem to have a high number of rescheduled deliveries when they've run out of time to deliver. Maybe I'm on the end of the route.
Re: Demand curve (Score:5, Informative)
Trump isn't a business man. No business man worth his salt could lose money on a casino. He's also not pro business as we can see from this asking his many other feuds with the business community
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Yup. Bonds at ~16% interest @600million. There's an absolutely zero chance that whole project wasn't about side deals and whatnot. There was never any way the casino was going to make enough to even cover the interest, roughly 8 million a month. .
Or. (Score:2)
As I posted above: "Yup. Bonds at ~16% interest @600million. There's an absolutely zero chance that whole project wasn't about side deals and whatnot. There was never any way the casino was going to make enough to even cover the interest, roughly 8 million a month. "
Re:Demand curve (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Demand curve (Score:5, Insightful)
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And making policy decisions based on personal grudges should be an impeachable offense and a criminal action.
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Trump is making policy decisions based on personal grudges and personal vendettas, his ego is blinding him to facts.
In Trumpland, there are no such things as facts, all that matters is he perceives himself as the winner and all blame falls elsewhere and thus the narrative must support that.
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... Though I'd be happy to see Amazon stop using the USPS -- they are the least reliable of all of the other services Amazon uses, packages sometimes show up days after they were marked "delivered", or don't show up at all. ...
This may depend on where one lives and the mail box situation. Where I live we have community mail boxes that are locked when a package is delivered. Only the USPS has access to these boxes so there's some security involved. Packages aren't just dropped on the front step and stolen by people following the mail carrier or the mail carrier's truck. Not everyone has this advantage but I'd recommend groups of neighbors to set up community postal boxes. It's easy to do.
I've never had a miss delivered package
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He's not a businessman, but he plays one on TV.
But seriously, he's not a businessman. He's a guy who inherited a fortune from his father, ran up debts, ran his businesses into the ground, and didn't pay his bills. He had become famous for being a failure until a reality TV show started selling him as a businessman. At that point, "Trump" started making a bunch of money for their branding, but claiming that Trump's company is making money because of his shrewd business judgement is like saying Disney mak
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Fedex and UPS are the best, packages show up on time. Amazon's own delivery service has been ok, but seem to have a high number of rescheduled deliveries when they've run out of time to deliver. Maybe I'm on the end of the route.
The USPS' biggest advantage is they go buy almost every US address everyday so they are perfect to use for the last mile. If Fedex or UPS could get all of Amazon's home deliveries they would be able to address the major issue with home delivery - widely varying routes so there is no way to optimize them. If they know in advance what packages are coming tehy can reduce a lot of that variance. Of course, there still is the "no one home must redeliver" but with Amazon locker they can address that as well. Furt
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Trump is not a businessman, he just plays one on TV. His actual profession (before politics) was money-laundering using sketchy real estate deals as a front. Pretending to be a "successful businessman" was just a useful way to explain where all that extra cash came from.
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Amazon is a horrible monopoly and is killing small businesses. It needs to be trust-busted.
That's a slippery slope and there are a lot of monopolies and oligopolies that need to be broken up if you really want a fair market place.
But if you really think Amazon needs to be broken up, you don't break up a monopoly by forcing one of their shippers to raise rates.
Congrats (Score:4, Insightful)
Congrats, USA. You have elected a petulant child to run the executive branch.
Re: Congrats (Score:2)
Sour grapes (Score:5, Insightful)
The USPS is bringing in tons of money through their deals with companies like Amazon. They're not somehow getting screwed. Like in a lot of cases, if you're going to buy a large amount of a product or service, you can generally negotiate to get it at a lower bulk rate. That's not somehow unusual.
It's essentially guaranteed business for USPS. If they double the rate, I'm sure FedEx, UPS, etc., will be quite happy to carry Amazon's packages instead, and the USPS will wind up being the one that loses.
But, what's that matter when you've got an ego to feed? This never was about postal rates. This is about Trump not liking Jeff Bezos, because the Washington Post has the gall to call people's attention to it when Trump says something stupid.
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This is about Trump not liking Jeff Bezos, because the Washington Post has the gall to call people's attention to it when Trump says something stupid.
Citation please?
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=trump+attacks+washington+post [lmgtfy.com]
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This is about Trump not liking Jeff Bezos, because the Washington Post has the gall to call people's attention to it when Trump says something stupid.
Citation please?
http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=trump+attacks+washington+post [lmgtfy.com]
I was asking for proof Trump has it out for Bozo, which was the theory I was addressing... Everybody knows Trump and the media are banging heads.
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Given that there's absolutely no reason to dislike the deal, and many companies have similar arrangements with USPS, I can't see any other reason. Trump is not attacking the idea of bulk service contracts in general, just with Amazon, but he's provided no numbers to indicate it's actually a bad deal. Conversely, the USPS has, and the deal is serving them quite well. It's certainly good for Amazon as well, but well, business contracts are usually entered into because both parties stand to benefit from them.
A
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Except that this vendetta won't hurt Bezos, instead it will hurt the USPS. Which will make some anti-government types happy, who don't really care one way or the other about Bezos but who will be happy to see a government department take a blow.
Case-in-point: why Trump is not a good POTUS (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Case-in-point: why Trump is not a good POTUS (Score:5, Interesting)
Donald Trump is incapable of de-coupling his ego from his personality when it comes to his duty as President of the United States.
I basically said this on another forum a long time ago. My evidence at the time (which is still basically true) was that he initially posts stuff on *his* twitter account and then re-tweets on the POTUS account. Thus, in my opinion, he thinks of himself first and as POTUS second.
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Thus, in my opinion, he thinks of himself first and nothing or no one else.
There, fixed that for you.
Well said... (Score:2)
I see things like this and imagine if he was able to actually just do what he wants, unencumbered by the little checks and balances we have left.
From just purely the words out of his mouth I could see us nearing third world status in a decade or two if he was left to his own devices. And I say that with not a bit of hyperbole.
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Re: Well said... (Score:2)
No, a decade or two is where you're headed now, at best. Without the checks and balances that were clearly designed with a level-headed adult in mind and have thus proven insufficient, it'd be a month or two. He would've transformed the place into a complete tinpot dictatorship in a matter of weeks. He would've brought all parts of the government and legislature under his control, nationalized the media and turned it into a Trump praise machine, instituted a command economy to enact his whims and satisfy hi
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Trump is more a symptom of the problem than he is the problem itself; he is the manifestation of the problem. The real problem is the people who voted for him in the first place and the people who backed him as a candidate. None of this however excuses his behavior or lets him off the hook for not being suitable to be POTUS.
This is more or less what you're saying -- even if you're obviously very angry about it. I'm angry too -- and more than a little scared for the country.
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Trump is more a symptom of the problem than he is the problem itself; he is the manifestation of the problem. The real problem is the people who voted for him in the first place and the people who backed him as a candidate. None of this however excuses his behavior or lets him off the hook for not being suitable to be POTUS.
It's true that Trump's election is a symptom, but the cause is public frustration with "establishment" Republicans and Democrats, both. People are fed up. They elected Trump as a giant "fuck YOU!" to BOTH the Democrat AND Republican "establishment".
And, if Trump is still an effective thorn in the sides of both (R) & (D) in 2020, guess who's going to be throwing a reelection gala?
Strat
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They elected Trump as a giant "fuck YOU!" to BOTH the Democrat AND Republican "establishment".
Yes -- that is a technique commonly known as "cutting of your nose to spite your face".
And, if Trump is still an effective thorn in the sides of both (R) & (D) in 2020, guess who's going to be throwing a reelection gala?
Most people who cut off their own nose don't do it a second time.
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If Trump wants to increase Amazon's costs... (Score:5, Insightful)
...then he should get the states to increase their diesel taxes and weight-mile taxes on trucks. But this would harm the oil industry which pays big money to politicians and so it will never happen.
Always Examine the Hidden Agenda (Score:2)
So how has Amazon hurt trump in teh past? I have heard mention that it hurts him by de-valuing brick-and-mortar retail space that he is heavily invested in.
Article I, Section 9 (Score:2)
Bills of attainder are forbidden by the US Constitution. Federal regulations have the force of law, so no Donny, you can't fuck around with Amazon's contract with the USPS.
Really, I understand he's not a lawyer, but he took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, a document with which he is manifestly completely unfamiliar. I think there's a case to be made that he can be forced to at least read it once. While wearing his glasses that he refuses to wear in public, which is wh
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Yeah. Not a bill of attainder. The terms that the government and other parties agree to for a contract are not law. Changing those terms are not punishment.
Did you see the part in the summary about the regulatory commission? Postal rates are Not Simple.
Bye US Postal Service (Score:2)
Welcome Amazon Shipping and Postal Company.
Hmmm... (Score:2)
Postmaster General Megan 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.
Yet another example of Trump encouraging illegal activities.
Why should amazon have to pay more than others? (Score:2)
funny when Trumpies try deflecting from Mueller (Score:2, Insightful)
Donald is going to prison, the question is how deep is Pence's dick in the dirty business of Trump's backside deals?
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Donald is going to prison, ?
Neither are, Hillary isn't and Trump isn't going to jail. Everybody needs to stop this so we can get off this crazy partisan train.
Hillary just needs her security clearance pulled forever along with anybody who didn't report the classified data on the private E-mail system, which is pretty much all her staff. No prison term required.
Trump hasn't done anything worthy of prison either.
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There's nothing partisan about Republican Robert Mueller being allowed by a Republican Congress and Republican FBI director to continue and finish, come what may, his legitimate and legally appointed investigation into high crimes.
Donald is going to prison. Donald Junior is going to prison. Others are going to prison. The question as asked, is Mike Pence also in legal jeopardy, stands as the most important thing we do not currently know much if at all.
Re:funny when Trumpies try deflecting from Mueller (Score:5, Insightful)
First, You cannot charge a president with a crime while in office.
Actually, you can. It's against current DOJ guidelines, but that doesn't mean they can't make an exception to their own guidelines if they feel it's appropriate to do so. Then it would be up to the courts to decide if the indictment can stand or not.
As a hypothetical example, let's imagine that some President decided to walk down 5th avenue in broad daylight, point an assault rifle at a nearby crowd, and summarily murder several dozen people while on live TV. Do you really think that law enforcement would just nod their heads and say "yeah, he committed mass murder, but he's the President so we'll just have to wait until after he's out of office to do anything about it"? That seems very unlikely.
I don't claim the current situation is comparable to that, but it demonstrates that indicting a President could and would happen under sufficiently dire circumstances.
Re:funny when Trumpies try deflecting from Mueller (Score:5, Insightful)
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Stopped? USPS is still honoring their contract that still makes them money.
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Re:hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hmm (Score:5, Interesting)
Despite your disingenuous "heartening" comment, actually most of us want EVERYONE to succeed,including our political rivals, heck, even the "evil" large business owners, as long as they play the game by the rules, and don't SCREW the people or the environment to make their profits.
Of course, there are exceptions and outliers on either side of the aisle, and there are the psychopathic types that just want to see the world burn, but for the most part, most of us want everybody to succeed in life. As long as it's not at someone else's expense.
Re:Fitting sourcee (Score:4, Interesting)
It's fitting that the story comes from the Washington Post since this has nothing to do with Amazon and EVERYTHING to do with the smear job WAPO has been doing to Trump.
So you are claiming that a story about how Trump is pushing the Postmaster General to significantly increase the rates it charges Amazon... has nothing to do with Amazon? Are you saying Trump did not, in fact, press for Amazon's postal rates to increase? Because the Postmaster General has specifically and rather publicly stated why she cannot do that - which would be an odd and random thing for her to say if Trump hadn't asked for it.
How about a similar story from Fox News? Is this one a smear job too? Did Bezos buy Fox News? http://www.foxnews.com/politic... [foxnews.com]
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It's fitting that the story comes from the Washington Post since this has nothing to do with Amazon and EVERYTHING to do with the smear job WAPO has been doing to Trump. Bezos owns WAPO so Trump blames Bezos for everything WAPO does. What amazes me is with all the ammunition Trump freely provides the press WAPO still finds ways to push the envelope on twisting the truth.
You're right, it has nothing to do with Amazon. Trump is punishing Amazon not because of Amazon, but because of the Washington Post.
To be clear. I don't think there's sufficient evidence of collusion, bribery, or obstruction of justice to justify impeachment at this point.
However, I think he is veeeery close with Amazon, and if he actually did order the Postmaster General to double Amazon's rates he's stepped into the realm of trying to economically harm a major business because the owner has a newpaper giv
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Maybe it IS a good deal for the post office. But let's see that from someone without skin in the game.
You mean like the Post Master General?
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So you will take the post office claims that they are abiding by the law that all deals must be profitable as dubious, and consider an almost pathological liar who uses FoxNews Channel as basically his cabinet and calls pretty much all news fake news that doesn't lick his boots?
There is absolutely no reason to think this is some 'bad deal' for the taxpayer aside from The Whiner in chief having a beef with Bezos because he owns the WP and they have the audacity to call out Trump on his never ending stream of
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Sure, they could. But the target of trumpos rage is not based on the actual deal itself it's based off of (like usual) misconstrued/misrepresented facts. And as everyone really knows the WP...ya know the "AmazonWashingtonPost" as trump likes to call it.
There was some analysis piece done a while back that said the USPS *could/should be charging more* but that doesn't fall into line even close with the narrative Trump is (most likely parroting from fox news) spewing. Multibillion dollar deals are a tad mor
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I mean, how about the Post Office themselves? https://about.usps.com/news/statements/080117.htm. The USPS has been pretty damn clear on this. https://gizmodo.com/former-postmaster-general-says-trump-is-completely-wron-1825025953
You should take the Post's claims with a grain of salt - not because Bezos owns them, but because any single source should be verified. But this has been, repeatedly.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0... [nytimes.com]
http://observer.com/2018/04/tr... [observer.com]
http://www.politifact.com/trut... [politifact.com]
https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch... [snopes.com]
https://angrybearblog.com/2018... [angrybearblog.com]
http://www.businessinsider.com... [businessinsider.com]
http://fortune.com/2018/03/29/... [fortune.com]
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God forbid the man be right about something, even if it is motivated entirely by petty spite. The fact that the partnership is good for the USPS isn't equivalent to it being good for commerce in general. Amazon is too fucking big. It's dangerous.
That might (or might not) be true. But it's not the basis of the claims Trump is trying to make. This would be a very different conversation if it was about Amazon becoming a monopoly, or abusive of its power. That has nothing to do with the USPS.
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Re: Trump needs to keep his mouth shut... (Score:2)
Trump did indeed put a hungry, vicious fox into the henhouse of the Department of Education - a woman who wants to privatize education, subsidize private schools, and allow them to have racially segregated student bodies. I can hardly imagine anyone worse for the job. It's not the department of childcare after all.
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There's a large number of politicians who believe that any government is a waste. They dislike the fact that the USPS even exists, when there are public companies that do the same job. They ignore the fact that the USPS is self sufficient, and remains competitive without tax dollar subsidies. Trump listens to these people, he assigns these people to lead deparatments, so he probably had a thing against USPS even before he got into a fit over Bezos.