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The caveat is that Facebook has a long history of claiming that it's not a media company in order to try and avoid responsibility for certain things.

That may be true, but as long as it's social interaction, and news-worthly, it will be..
 
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I think you're in the wrong forum, lol! We're talking about taxes. You can't spend more money on social reform if you want to tax people and corporations less. It's dollar and cents, something Cook is probably pretty good at, so yes, this is a bit of a contradiction.
Social laws don't take money, other than paying the lawmakers who pass them. Anyway, left wing politics is about taxing to redistribute the money through welfare and/or public services.
 
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Cut taxes, buy more shares, increase dividend, increase corporate payouts. They aren't going to make more jobs, it's a nice cover though.
 
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Exactly. This entire war on fake news by the “mainstream” media is more about who controls the narrative and distribution of information. Are there fringe trolls and “sources” out there making up stuff? Of course. We’re people turning to these “sources” before the last election. Absolutely. If the government and big media want people’s trust, earn it. Institutional distrust is not new, and is not a Trump, Obama, Republican, or Democrat creates problem.
I didn’t vote for Trump and I can’t stand him but let’s face it all this outrage directed towards social media is because everyone in the media expected Hillary to win. They still haven’t accepted that Trump won and have to find an excuse for why Hillary lost. Of course the real reason she lost is she was a terrible candidate who ran a terrible campaign. Facebook, Twitter and Google had nothing to do with that.
 
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At least under Trump we can see some changes happening in the Middle East best example is Saudi Arabia’s opening up to the world and changing their attitudes toward women and doing some major religious reforms something Bush or Obama never cared for.


Yeah, you don't actually believe that Trump is responsible for that, do you? The guy who made no mention of Saudi Arabia improving on human rights or women's rights in his speech there? The guy who said that he was "not here to lecture" and who sought "partnership not perfection" in Saudi Arabia, basically admitting he was happy to turn a blind eye to human rights there?
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It's almost like Russia influenced the other idiot to skip campaigning in Wisconsin.

I also blame Hillary for her mistakes, because she ended up failing to save us from this utter disaster of a rapacious, corrupt presidency. And yes, also Russia played a big part. It's not one or the other.
 
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Yeah, you don't actually believe that Trump is responsible for that, do you? The guy who made no mention of Saudi Arabia improving on human rights or women's rights in his speech there? The guy who said that he was "not here to lecture" and who sought "partnership not perfection" in Saudi Arabia, basically admitting he was happy to turn a blind eye to human rights there?
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I also blame Hillary for her mistakes, because she ended up failing to save us from this utter disaster of a rapacious, corrupt presidency. And yes, also Russia played. It's not one or the other.
She's still an idiot.
 
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Will be interesting to hear Cook’s take on tax reform. He’s very liberal in his political views, but has a fiduciary responsibility to his company to turn a profit. Those seem to be competing ideology’s.

I disagree that they are competing ideologies. Our economy typically does better under a Democratic leadership in terms of growth and job numbers. Taxes fund the government and the government spending fuels growth (along with consumer spending and corporate spending). We are not taxed particularly high (unless you consider that we still have to pay for education and healthcare out of our own pocket) but the nominal tax is reasonable.

I am interested to hear what Tim Cook has to say...
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Is this guy going to ever stop being a political hack and just run his company?

You realize he is also a citizen and a head of a company that employee tens of thousands of people. I agree that corporations influencing government isn't a good thing but this is the least of our worries. Let him speak out. He has the right to do so...

In the meantime, maybe we should focus on abolishing Citizens United. That's a much bigger problem.
 
At least under Trump we can see some changes happening in the Middle East best example is Saudi Arabia’s opening up to the world and changing their attitudes toward women and doing some major religious reforms something Bush or Obama never cared for.

I didn't vote for him, actually i didn't vote, but i can say some things he has done right, and its good change.
 
Social media spreading fake news? How about major networks...
Really? You are going to compare CNN to a completely fabricated story made up by Russian trolls that the right wingers are eager to eat up....and then call CNN false. Sure the major networks have their biases...but Russian troll farms are a new level of fabrication and fake news.
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Honestly, can we not go on and on about these social networks spreading fake news and influencing people and instead start talking about critical thinking skills?

It's almost as if the media and the establishment don't want people to have or need to think critically. Easier to control that way?
Not sure what you mean by media influencing critical thinking. If you think mainstream media is influencing critical thinking then by all means so is your FB feed that is heavily biased to what you want to read.

That's the problem now a days. People do not get balanced news that would allow them to think critically. FB and social media is actually worse than the mainstream networks.
 
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Really? You are going to compare CNN to a completely fabricated story made up by Russian trolls that the right wingers are eager to eat up....and then call CNN false. Sure the major networks have their biases...but Russian troll farms are a new level of fabrication and fake news.
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Not sure what you mean by media influencing critical thinking. If you think mainstream media is influencing critical thinking then by all means so is your FB feed that is heavily biased to what you want to read.

That's the problem now a days. People do not get balanced news that would allow them to think critically. FB and social media is actually worse than the mainstream networks.

No, I was thinking more along the lines of "we should be teaching people to know how to spot BS and use critical thinking skills to evaluate sources."

IMO, from what I've seen, we have had fake news going all the way back to the start of the country. A few weeks ago, I read in an old book an account of how the opponent of Edward Tiffin (the guy who eventually came to be the first governor of Ohio) paid a newspaper to post an ad saying that Tiffin would ratify slavery into the state constitution if elected. This spread but was not Tiffins actual stance/platform - just a smear tactic. Tiffin became the first governor and, Ohio never ratified slavery into the state constitution.

This opened my eyes a bit more. It seems so obvious anyway, but I think it helps to articulate it: Fake news has been going on since at least the formation of Ohio. I then realized that fake news is actually an old problem with a new name, and a problem that's going not away. Not in a different election cycle, a different decade, or a different century.

And yeah, FB and Google allow it to spread faster and easier than a newspaper in the 19th century, but shouting at FB or Goog about this isn't going to solve the fundamental problem.
 
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So he says the money is taxed in those countries....

Everyone knows companies use legal loop holes that are morally questionable to avoid paying tax outside the US, so he is correct when he says tax laws need reformed, not just in the US
 
Will be interesting to hear Cook’s take on tax reform. He’s very liberal in his political views, but has a fiduciary responsibility to his company to turn a profit. Those seem to be competing ideology’s.

How so? Because liberals are possibly more about consumer protection and some govt regulation of business?

Rather, this seems to be about an historic, uniquely US stance on foreign-earned income. It applies to individuals as well as corporations, and I think it could be argued that it is somewhat draconian. If I understand it right, the US is the *only* country that tries to "double tax" foreign-earned income in this way.

For example, I would be classified by the US as an "American person". I have a US passport, having been born in USA. However, I have lived in UK since age of 1yr, and also have a UK passport.

I did attend university in US, and had a part-time job there during school; but in the last 23 years I have spent all of maybe five weeks in the US to visit extended family -- haven't set foot in the US in the last 6 years or so.

My home business was originally registered in UK, but is now registered and operated in NL (where I have lived as resident for 12 years); and my clients are all over the world. The US wants a piece; yet the UK does not have me fill out a tax return. When my residency returns to the UK, the UK will expect to tax me.
 
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...

You realize he is also a citizen and a head of a company that employee tens of thousands of people. I agree that corporations influencing government isn't a good thing but this is the least of our worries. Let him speak out. He has the right to do so...

In the meantime, maybe we should focus on abolishing Citizens United. That's a much bigger problem.

How do you reconcile the sentiments you expressed in the first paragraph with those you expressed in the second? They seem rather contradictory.

Should people lose their free speech rights (and the protection thereof provided by the First Amendment) because they are associated with or as a corporation (or when acting in such context) or not? Should someone who is, e.g., being paid by a corporation lose their speech rights while acting on behalf of that corporation?
 
I'm SO tired of 'important' people trying to explain the devastatingly Titanic loss Clinton suffered to President Trump.

Even if Russia, Lithuania, Slovakia, North Korea, ... pumped billions into Google and Facebook to influence the election through 'advertising' (and have the money land in the Clinton Foundation, btw). WHO really thinks that had an impact on voting?

Really, that swayed the election. I call bull droppings.

But, then again, I'm thrilled the Democrats can't let this go. With each month that passes it further insures another Democratic loss in 2020. Oh, the smear ads showing their bitterness to this loss are going to me mind-blowing.

Oh, and btw, this new Donna Brazile news about Hillary Clinton campaign FUNDING the DNC (keeping it afloat) for the entire year leading up to the election is going to BLOW UP big. Hillary is FINALLY done, politically. Thank you, Baby Jesus.
 
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Social laws don't take money, other than paying the lawmakers who pass them. Anyway, left wing politics is about taxing to redistribute the money through welfare and/or public services.
the next time you go to a restaurant and experience food poisoning because there was no food inspection of the restaurant or the food supplier remember it was because taxes are only for welfare and social services.
Maybe you should learn about all the medical research that is funded with tax dollars (and not private corporate funds).
Dont forget the public funds that paid for the development of the internet you are using.
 
the next time you go to a restaurant and experience food poisoning because there was no food inspection of the restaurant or the food supplier remember it was because taxes are only for welfare and social services.
Maybe you should learn about all the medical research that is funded with tax dollars (and not private corporate funds).
Dont forget the public funds that paid for the development of the internet you are using.
Those aren't the kinds of social issues I meant, and I'm not sure if they're even considered social issues. I didn't say the bolded part, so maybe you should reread my 2-sentence comment, consider that I'm not down to write an essay clarifying everything perfectly, and make a few easy assumptions instead of pretending I'm a total idiot.

I can be more explicit: The kinds of social issues that Tim Cook is involved in (Affirmative Action, gay marriage, I think transgender stuff too?) don't conflict at all with being fiscally conservative.
 
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How do you reconcile the sentiments you expressed in the first paragraph with those you expressed in the second? They seem rather contradictory.

Should people lose their free speech rights (and the protection thereof provided by the First Amendment) because they are associated with or as a corporation (or when acting in such context) or not? Should someone who is, e.g., being paid by a corporation lose their speech rights while acting on behalf of that corporation?

The two statements are not contradictory. Please read more about citizens united decision. It has nothing to do with individual rights under the first. It has everything to do with corporations being treated as individuals and being able to make financial contributions to any political cause.

It, along with the slow and systematic disassembly of tort laws in this country, is what is currently destroying our democracy. That was kind of the point I was making. Tim has the right to speak up as a private citizen. He even has the right to voice his opinion on the impact a government policy will have on his employees. As long as he opens his mouth and not his company’s wallet, he will have my support.
 
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