Apple CEO Tim Cook to Host Fundraiser for House Speaker Paul Ryan

[Gasu E.]

"[It's called] a republic, if [we] can keep it."
-- Benjamin Franklin

I wish people would stop saying this. A republic is a nation where the people are sovereign; that is, government is in the name of the people. It may or may not also be a democracy. They are not exclusive. The Benjamin Franklin quote specifically contrasts a republic to a monarchy; in a monarchy, the king/queen is sovereign.
[doublepost=1466517445][/doublepost]

It is money earned and spent by citizens of other countries. It wasn't US money that was shipped overseas and then the US wants it back again. Just because Apple is a US companies shouldn't entitle them to bring every dollar from around the world back to US soil where the US government would benefit from that. Am I totally wrong about this? If I do business in Japan, why would Canada be entitled to tax money? What is Canada doing for my business in Japan? Nothing.

Often not. For example, here's a common tax dodge: 1. Invent something in the USA 2. "Sell" the patent to an offshore subsidiary (transfer patent rights) for $1 2. Have the USA subsidiary license the right to use the patent from the offshore subsidiary for millions of dollars in "royalties". These show up as expenses in the US, cutting taxable income there, while boosting income in the offshore sub. Yet no actual tangible business was done in the overseas sub-- it's an accounting fiction.

If it were money actually earned overseas, that's another matter. But the products are more likely than not sold in places with high corporate taxes (although not as high as the nominal US rate, which is something of a joke at this point). Yet Apple reports a good chunk of its earnings out of Ireland, a nation with just over $3M people I believe.

 

[bbeagle]

Does anyone really think Tim Cook's personal politics are anywhere near Republican? Not the way he's always spouting off about Democrat issues.

People are not 100% Republican or 100% Democrat. Most people are in-between somewhere. To have to label someone as one or the other is one of the problems with politics in this country.

Tim supports gay rights, but also supports less taxes on corporations. Both are allowed to co-exist. Gay people are allowed to run companies, therefore both co-exist.

I can be both pro-abortion and pro-guns. It's totally allowed. People's family values many times are different politically than their economic values. People in Silicon Valley are very hard workers, but also have many liberal values. Fox News wants to paint them all as 'liberals' and also paints all 'liberals' as welfare-loving slackers. This is completely untrue for 90% of Silicon Valley workers. But it gets the low-information voters on Fox News's side because they want white-and-black issues, where 'all liberals are wrong' and 'all conservatives are right'. Things are much more complex than that.

 

[doelcm82]

I wish people would stop saying this. A republic is a nation where the people are sovereign; that is, government is in the name of the people. It may or may not also be a democracy. They are not exclusive. The Benjamin Franklin quote specifically contrasts a republic to a monarchy; in a monarchy, the king/queen is sovereign.

You won't get your wish. For Ben Franklin to have been "specifically" contrasting a republic to a monarchy, he would have needed to SPECIFY that he was doing so. He didn't. He was answering a question about whether the new nation was a republic or a democracy.

 

[FieldingMellish]

People are not 100% Republican or 100% Democrat. Most people are in-between somewhere. To have to label someone as one or the other is one of the problems with politics in this country.

Tim supports gay rights, but also supports less taxes on corporations. Both are allowed to co-exist. Gay people are allowed to run companies, therefore both co-exist.

I can be both pro-abortion and pro-guns. It's totally allowed. People's family values many times are different politically than their economic values. People in Silicon Valley are very hard workers, but also have many liberal values. Fox News wants to paint them all as 'liberals' and also paints all 'liberals' as welfare-loving slackers. This is completely untrue for 90% of Silicon Valley workers. But it gets the low-information voters on Fox News's side because they want white-and-black issues, where 'all liberals are wrong' and 'all conservatives are right'. Things are much more complex than that.

And liberal Democrats are non-polarizing? Are you freakin' kidding me?

 

[rdowns]

COme on Ryan, Cook needs him some more H1B visas

 

[djgamble]

Do you realize how dumb this is? You are essentially saying that the establishment shouldn't listen to it's voter base. You are effectively disenfranchising MILLIONS of voters and going against any form of representation by the people.

More importantly the Supreme Court is a huge issue in America ever since it got the power to create laws. If the democrats put a liberal justice on the bench that it's game over for the GOP.

1. A large company disendorsing a candidate isn't 'dumb' or 'disenfranchising' anybody. It's called democracy, MATE!

2. The USA is a common law country. The Supreme Court doesn't create law, it FOLLOWS the law. Judicial independence is VERY important, and it's at the heart of democracy/freedom. (Source: I'm a lawyer, MATE!)

 

[bbeagle]

And liberal Democrats are non-polarizing? Are you freakin' kidding me?

No clue what you mean by that.

What is this mythical 'liberal Democrat' you're talking about? There are probably 15% of 'liberal Democrats' and 15% of 'conservative Republicans' that are nuts, toe their party line, and that won't listen to the other side at all. But the other 70% of people are somewhere in-between and can understand issues on both sides.

 

[xbjllb]

Wonder if plans have changed after the revolt today, tonight, tomorrow, and who knows how long. Mr. Cook wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of history, I would imagine.

One can hope.

 

[Renzatic]

More importantly the Supreme Court is a huge issue in America ever since it got the power to create laws. If the democrats put a liberal justice on the bench that it's game over for the GOP.

Wait. When did the Supreme Court gain the power to create laws? Don't say the gay marriage thing, because they didn't create a law there, merely did their job, which was determine whether a law passed constitutional muster or not.

 

[APlotdevice]

Do you realize how dumb this is? You are essentially saying that the establishment shouldn't listen to it's voter base. You are effectively disenfranchising MILLIONS of voters and going against any form of representation by the people.

Objectively it is a bit disturbing, though not exactly against the will of the founding fathers. In fact the whole reason they came up with the Electoral College was because they specially did not trust that the people would always vote for the best interest of the country. The GOP similarly feels that its base voted against the party's best interest, to the point that it will very likely sabotage their attempt to retake the White House.

 

[ToroidalZeus]

Objectively it is a bit disturbing, though not exactly against the will of the founding fathers. In fact the whole reason they came up with the Electoral College was because they specially did not trust that the people would always vote for the best interest of the country. The GOP similarly feels that its base voted against the party's best interest, to the point that it will very likely sabotage their attempt to retake the White House.

The founding fathers would consider that Tyranny. Political Parties were never specified in the Constitution.

 

[thermodynamic]

Hmm, one post says he's not donating --> https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...-trump-politics.1978538/page-19#post-23036186

This one says he's not not donating. And Paul has said he'll work with Trump.

Cool.