Tag Archives: politics and government

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Wants to Send Donald Trump to Space

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Donald Trump hates the media. Trump hates other rich and powerful people who think he’s a moron. But Amazon founder Jeff Bezos occupies a special place in Trump’s ire. Not only is Bezos a bleeding-heart Silicon Valley tech founder, but he owns the Washington Post — which makes him a media mogul of his own. To Trump, Bezos occupies a sweet space between those two loathed groups of people.

Trump lashed out at Bezos on Monday morning, calling him a shoddy business leader who owns two businesses that don’t profit.

Never mind Trump properties’ many bankruptcies. Never mind Trump’s admitted use of financial devices in order to manipulate his assets. He is right about one thing: Amazon has gone years without making a profit, because Bezos is wreaking havoc on the retail and shipping industries in the name of innovation. Investors are just fine with this.

Bezos, always a man who appreciates humor, basked in the recognition of finally receiving one of Trump’s many attempted digital smackdowns, and gave his own response:

 

 

That hashtag proposing we #sendDonaldtospace has inspired others to send Trump their own bon voyages, suggesting that the Republican presidential candidate shoot for the moon and land among the stars.

 

 

 

Bezos’ net worth is estimated to be close to $50 billion, which by some measures is anywhere from five to 10times the net worth of Trump.

 

 

Originally Written & Published by Jack Smith IV of Mic

Chicago cops’ account of Laquan McDonald killing differed wildly from video footage

Protesters in Chicago prepared for a new round of action on Sundayafter the city released documents showing that at least five Chicago police officers told a story about the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald that is wholly unsupported by the notorious video footage of the incident.

McDonald was shot 16 times in 15 seconds while he was walking away from officers. Jason Van Dyke, the officer who shot him, has been charged with murder.

But, as the New York Times noted, that version of events differs markedly from the story that multiple officers told—something we know thanks to newly released police records:

[A]t least five other officers on the scene that night corroborated a version of events similar to the one Officer Van Dyke, now charged with murder in the shooting, gave his supervisors: that Mr. McDonald was aggressively swinging his knife and was moving toward the police, giving Officer Van Dyke no choice but to start shooting.

The revelation will only heighten the scandal swirling around the Chicago Police Department. Protests have rocked the city since the McDonald video was released. Mayor Rahm Emanuel has fired the department’s superintendent in response to the scandal. There is also the possibility of an investigation by the Justice Department into the department’s wider problems.

A Chicago Tribune report on Saturday detailed some of the ways in which the department has managed to evade the kind of public scrutiny it is currently facing:

Of 409 shootings since the [Independent Police Review Authority’s] formation in September 2007 — an average of roughly one a week — only two have led to allegations against an officer being found credible, according to IPRA. Both involved off-duty officers.

[…]

Overall, police misconduct, including shootings and other wrongdoing, has cost taxpayers more than $500 million since 2004, according to officials.

The Chicago officers are far from the first to tell stories about police killings that wound up differing drastically from recorded footage of the events. Officers in the shootings of both Tamir Rice and Walter Scott, for instance, presented completely contradictory accounts of the incident.

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Sunday’s protests in Chicago are set to begin at 1:30 PM.

 

 

 

Originally Written & Published by Jack Mirkinson of Fusion

Donald Trump Criticized for Mocking Reporter with Disability, Claims He ‘Merely Mimicked’

Donald Trump is under fire for making fun of a reporter who has arthrogryposis, a chronic condition that limits movement.

While at a rally in South Carolina Tuesday night, Trump waved his arms and spoke in a halted manner to create an unflattering impersonation of New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.

The newspaper has since responded: “We find it’s outrageous that he would ridicule the appearance of one of our reporters,” a spokesperson for the Times told CNNMoney.

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Trump’s alleged imitation of Kovaleski was in relation to a story the reporter had written in 2001 – it refutes claims that thousands of Muslims in Jersey City cheered the 9/11 attacks. But the Republican candidate is insisting he himself saw “thousands and thousands” of Muslims celebrate the attacks on the World Trade Center.

New Jersey police and public officials also deny these claims, and Kovaleski said this week he did not hear any reports at the time of such celebrations. “I certainly do not remember anyone saying that thousands or even hundreds of people were celebrating. That was not the case, as best as I can remember,” he told The Washington Post.

On Thursday, Trump responded on Twitter, claiming he wasn’t making fun of his disability but rather mocking him for allegedly “groveling and searching for a way out from what he wrote many years before.”

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“In my speech before over 10,000 people in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I merely mimicked what I thought would be a flustered reporter trying to get out of a statement he made long ago,” Trump, 69, wrote.

He added, “If Mr. Kovaleski is handicapped, I would not know because I do not know what he looks like. If I did know, I would definitely not say anything about his appearance.”

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Trump also said this week that he would reinstate waterboarding and that suspected terrorists “deserve” to be tortured.

“It works,” Trump repeated of waterboarding. “Believe me, it works. And you know what? If it doesn’t work, they deserve it anyway, for what they’re doing.”

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN & PUBLISHED BY: SHEILA COSGROVE BAYLIS from People [11/26/15]