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In other words, his life may depend on whether or not he can afford a security detail.

Anther reflexive and empty comment. Whoever those lefties may have been, were any of them in a position of power to actually pull the Secret Service protection from Trump? You got any evidence that it was actually considered by people in authoritative position?

The Inspector General of the Justice Dept conducted an extensive review of the Justice Dept. investigation of Donald Trump. He found no evidence of persecution. William Barr, the Attorney General and his special prosecutor, John Durham both publicly disagreed with that finding. John Durham conducted his own 4 year investigation to determine whether or not there had been such a persecution. He was considerably aided by William Barr who had weekly meetings with Durham. Not just that, Barr even accompanied Durham to Europe to help him get information. Despite which, Durham came up with nothing. He developed evidence for 2 cases in which he accused not the FBI but certain parties of lying to the FBI. Both cases ended in acquittals. The only case he won was based on evidence developed by the Inspector General and that one ended in a misdemeanor conviction. Manafort, Stone, and Flynn were all convicted during the Trump administration.

Keep on invoking the G word.

I'm not sure I understand your point. Do you believe that Hamas and Hezbollah pose a genocidal threat to Israel via Iranian support?

Genocidal? Maybe if they could, they would be. You seriously believe that Hamas poses a credible threat to the survival of the Jewish people of Israel? But thanks for providing more evidence in support of my point.

As I recall, Israelis and others aren't the least bit reluctant to claim that Hamas poses a threat similar to the Holocaust. In fact, invoking the Holocaust has even been used by right wing Israelis against their own leaders.

"The Israeli military raided the Jerusalem home of a Hamas member released as part of an exchange for Israelis being held hostage in Gaza, detaining one person and roughing up others on Saturday evening, including a New York Times reporter conducting interviews at the scene... A second Times reporter, Natan Odenheimer, then identified himself as a journalist, video recorded by The Times shows. The same soldier told Mr. Odenheimer that he didn’t care, using an expletive to underscore his point. The soldier then pointed his loaded rifle at Mr. Odenheimer again, the video shows." https://archive.ph/ct2RB I'm sure that soldier will be treated to the same harsh disciplinary action that typically follows such acts of brutality...just kidding

So the point of your comment "Their God is money and power" was that the Chinese are no different from anybody else. That the vilification of their conduct as something distinct is baseless. So, in your own special way, what you really were offering was a plea for tolerance and understanding. You are an inspiration to us all. Hark! I hear a song in the distance. I believe it's Kumbaya.

I've read that one of those leftist politicians had the benefit of several hundreds of millions of dollar expended on his behalf by the world's richest person.

What makes you believe that most of the value is in China? Most of the value is in the intellectual property and the most valuable chips which are not manufactured in China.

https://theweek.com/articles/476005/how-apple-dodges-billions-taxes-concise-guide You might want to reference how Apple sells it intellectual property and services, which are mostly created in the United States, out of subsidiaries located in foreign countries where no tax needs to be paid.

You might want to actually read the article. You might be surrprised.

Tim Cook Is Latest Tech Exec to Kiss the Ring, Gives Trump’s Inauguration $1 Million Cook is personally giving the money, keeping Apple out of it. https://gizmodo.com/tim-cook-is-latest-tech-exec-to-kiss-the-ring-gives-trumps-inauguration-1-million-2000545840

It did sign on to that agreement. But even putting aside its liberal rules for deductions, why should a country where most of the value is generated and where a substantial chunk of the profit gets made, not be paid taxes on that? And why should the level be set at 15%? What if a country charges corporations 20%? Why shouldn't corporations based there pay taxes that are based on reality?

Nonsense. Companies charge whatever price consumers will pay. Unless you believe that demand won't falter no matter how high the price a company will charge. You might want to look into the issue of profit margins. As for avoiding taxes being a legitimate reason. Not if the government says it isn't. And as for your point about passing tax costs on to the consumer. So if corporations don't pay those taxes, who will make up the difference? And please, spare us the argument that taxes should be lower. That's just evading the question.

Really? Apple assigns its income to Ireland because it wants to get taxed at a higher rate than would be the case in the USA? Apple pays a 12.5% income tax rate to Ireland. "Ireland has a low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent. Net operating losses can be carried back one year and carried forward indefinitely, allowing companies to be taxed on their average profitability." https://www.google.com/search?q=Irish+tax+rate+on+corporations&oq=Irish+tax+rate+on+corporations&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDkwMThqMGo3qAIIsAIB&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 And from the article: Howard Lutnick, the president’s pick as commerce secretary, said in October that American businesses should pay more to the US Treasury instead of filling the coffers of foreign nations. He singled out Apple’s experience in Ireland as a prime example of the behaviour he wanted to stamp out.

You've got nothing.

As I noted, that's a disincentive. But it's not a prohibition. It effectively puts a ceiling on how much tax a country can impose. And it doesn't answer the question of why Ireland, or any other country, should benefit from economic activity that has little or nothing to do with them.

But why should these corporations have any reason at all to be filing there unless it's for legitimate reasons? Why should those tax monies flow to a place where most of the income isn't really generated? As a disincentive, a 15% minimum may be an improvement, but it's not good enough.

That's' only a part of it. The issue at question here is whether Apple and other corporations should be paying taxes on income to Ireland given that almost all of the value of the product is created elsewhere and almost all of the income is earned elsewhere.

Not surprising. During his first time, Trump made government employees sign Nondisclosure Agreements. Which was obviously blatantly illegal. As others have pointed out, Trump isn't merely demanding loyalty. He's demanding fealty.

Excellent point. Lots of the members here are living in the past. As I pointed out earlier, Post WW2 Japan was often ridiculed for cheap low quality goods it exported. Most people stopped laughing at Japanese tech a long time ago. Nowadays, Made in Japan is a byword for high quality.

Some posters don't resort to IMO as a way of asserting all kinds of blatant nonsense. They back up their opinions by linking to facts and expert opinions.

Traditionally, much of the appeal of an Irish base was the ability to house a company’s intellectual property in Ireland. Tech companies then attribute a significant share of global sales and profits to that IP and so pay the 12.5pc rate rather than a higher tax in the nation where sales are made. “They pay corporate tax on 3pc profit in America and Ireland announces a massive budget surplus for their 5m people." https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/01/25/donald-trump-plan-crush-ireland-economic-miracle/ I have to give Trump credit if his administration actually follows through on this. While The Telegraph puts a negative spin on this in their headline, actually it's long overdue.