You Take Allies Where You Can Find Them

Hey, I like Amazon as much as the next guy. I have a prime mem­bership. I use their photo saving service, listen to tunes on their music app, Keith watches their “TV’ shows and all of my book purchases are Kindle books. On the rare occasion that I buy a hard copy book with real paper pages, I get it from one of the preowned book sellers on Amazon.

I've ordered stuff from just about every category on their drop-down menu. Starbucks and Peets Kcups, disposable toothbrushes, plant food and insect poison, fertilizer, gauges, sweatshirts, underwear, shoes, computers, backpacks, paper, analog and electronic stylus, food, snacks, vitamins, medicine, cleaning supplies, essential oils, Christmas decorations and gifts....and the list goes on and on. I use the services they provide ALL. THE. TIME! But still....

As Bernie Sanders tried to tell us during his run for president....and is still currently trying to tell us, Jeff Bezos and many other large corporations pay no personal income tax. They exploit the system and exploit the recent “tax cuts for the little guy” farce by deferring income from previous years to be taxed at the lower corporate rates. Yes, Amazon does theoretically pay state and local taxes but as we’ve seen with the “pick me, pick me” frenzy of offers from cities far and wide, promising tax breaks and all kinds of incentives, that is not a given either.

And he pays his employees a wage that forces many of them to seek out public assistance and food stamps. There are rumors that Amazon exploits and mistreats their workers.

And Fox News mocked Bernie for saying this stuff because....capitalism.

So, imagine my surprise the other night when I happened upon Tucker Carlson bitching about how Amazon doesn’t pay their fair share in taxes. He complained that not only does Jeff Bezo pay zero federal income tax, we, the other taxpayers, pick up the tab for his employees who need public assistance to make ends meet. Their wages are so low that they qualify for food stamps, Medicaid etc.

I don’t like Tucker and I think he suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome just as surely as the snowflakiest snowflake. In reverse. The flip side of the coin. He is an unwavering member of Team Trump. But to quote Tucker....

“This is a weird moment in American politics so you take allies where you can find them.”

Yep..Bernie Sanders and Tucker Carlson are “allies”... at least on this particular issue. So, yeah, Fox News mocked what Bernie had to say about Amazon...and WalMart....and (insert name of well-known, lucrative corporate entity) until Trump decided he was pissed at Bezos. THEN Fox News picked up the baton. But I’ll take it. Even though Tucker did his usual “blame the Dems” thing (and perhaps I don’t totally disagree with some of his reasoning. I liked Bernie. I agreed with Bernie. The stereotypical Democratic politician...not so much)

Here is a link to Tucker’s most recent segment on Amazon (and Walmart and Uber) 

Tucker Carlson Bernie Is Right About Amazon and Making Corporations Pay The Welfare Bill

And here are two more videos well worth the time (10 - 15 minutes or so) to watch. The sources could not be farther apart politically. Tucker again and the Young Turks, a very left wing (though very factual) internet news group, making pretty much the same exact points. .

How Amazon paid zero in taxes on its billions

You Won't Believe How Much Taxes Amazon Paid Last Year

This is a mirror...duplicate...post of what I posted on my other blog, It's Personal. There was a time this blog, Mercy Not Sacrifice, used to show up on the first page of google results and had lots of visitors. For one reason or another, I stopped writing as much. The google crawler visited here less and less often (since I wasn't posting much) and it's mediocre popularity fell even more but "It's Personal" is oblique at best.

I kind of want to separate the two blogs and keep the spiritual content separate from the political outrage I'm feeling these day, however, this blog still gets a lot more visitors than It's Personal. So I am going to double post political, current event stuff for a while.

Plus...I want to post links to some of the political stuff and I'm not so sure I want everyone from Facebook rummaging through some of the spiritual opinions I've expressed here. Not sure it will work out the way I plan but humor me for a while.