BizPac Review By
Much like a dictator, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren appears convinced that businesses shouldn’t have the right to criticize her with so-called “snotty tweets.”
In a stunning tweet Thursday that was so dictatorial in nature that it inspired virtually everybody to call her out, the Democrat senator essentially told Amazon that she wants to break it up so that it lacks the power to heckle her.
The insinuation in her tweet was that, as a smaller business versus a corporate powerhouse, Amazon would have no other option but to bow to her majesty.
I didn’t write the loopholes you exploit, @amazon – your armies of lawyers and lobbyists did. But you bet I’ll fight to make you pay your fair share. And fight your union-busting. And fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets. https://t.co/3vCAI93MST
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 26, 2021
The tweet was provoked by Amazon clapping back after Warren complained during a Senate Finance committee hearing on Thursday about corporations like Amazon exploiting “loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes.”
Listen:
Giant corporations like Amazon report huge profits to their shareholders – but they exploit loopholes and tax havens to pay close to nothing in taxes. That’s just not right – and it’s why I’ll be introducing a bill to make the most profitable companies pay a fair share. pic.twitter.com/vPrmGbjUKW
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 25, 2021
In a three-tweet reply posted that evening, Amazon noted that, one, it’s paid billions in taxes, two, it’s invested billions in creating new jobs, and three, it’s merely been following the laws that have been established by senators like Warren.
Look:
1/3 You make the tax laws @SenWarren; we just follow them. If you don’t like the laws you’ve created, by all means, change them. Here are the facts: Amazon has paid billions of dollars in corporate taxes over the past few years alone.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
2/3 In 2020, we had another $1.7B in federal tax expense and that’s on top of the $18 billion we generated in sales taxes for states and localities in the U.S. Congress designed tax laws to encourage investment in the economy.
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
3/3 So what have we done about that? $350B in investments since 2010 & 400K new US jobs last year alone. And while you’re working on changing the tax code, can we please raise the federal minimum wage to $15?
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
It was this fairly polite rebuttal that inspired Warren to reveal her true Democrat colors and blatantly threaten Amazon for the apparent crime of standing up to her.
Amazon was stunned by the tweet:
This is extraordinary and revealing. One of the most powerful politicians in the United States just said she’s going to break up an American company so that they can’t criticize her anymore. https://t.co/Nt0wcZo17g
— Amazon News (@amazonnews) March 26, 2021
So were a number of onlookers, some of them members of the mainstream press, and others some of the same conservative commentators who feel disgust toward Amazon over its continued “woke” censorship of dissenting ideas.
Look (*Language warning):
All businesses should be powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets.
"Break up big tech" = make government bigger and more powerful https://t.co/9Rfdn2q1aA
— Libertarian Party of Texas (@LPTexas) March 26, 2021
Every American has the right to heckle senators with snotty tweets. That's what the First Amendment protects. https://t.co/kYInPaqsF6
— Jon Fasman (@jonfasman) March 26, 2021
It is every American's God-given right to heckle senators with snotty tweets. https://t.co/EP3b28InPv
— Allison Carter (@AllisonLCarter) March 26, 2021
Pretty explicit: Democrats use the threat of governmental power in order to make sure nobody engages of speech that criticizes them. https://t.co/bas5t3LWiu
— Tim Carney (@TPCarney) March 26, 2021
Weird. (Nobody has to be "Big Tech" or "powerful" to fire off "snotty tweets." And it's protected speech in these parts. But the goal is to stop that?) https://t.co/SaIWpjgZxY
— Sharyl Attkisson?️♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) March 26, 2021
I'm not powerful, but I'll heckle you. https://t.co/pfbQeT0wSi
— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) March 26, 2021
I don't care who she represents and I don't care about her party. A politician who says she'll "fight to break up Big Tech so you’re not powerful enough to heckle senators with snotty tweets" is in the wrong job. She needs to reread the Constitution.
— Dan Gainor (@dangainor) March 27, 2021
I don't care who is or who isn't a Warren supporter. Or who is or who isn't an Amazon supporter. That doesn't fucking matter. All that matters is no US gov't official ever should threaten punishment for speech. Period. The End. That's it.
— Mike Masnick (@mmasnick) March 26, 2021
The last guy is the editor at TechDirt, a site that is certainly no fan of Republicans or their presidents.
Warren, one of the most radical congressional Democrats, has been pestering Amazon and other large companies for years for allegedly not paying its “fair share.”
Yet in a blog post published last year, the retailer claimed it’d paid $1 billion in federal income tax expenses, $2.4 billion in other federal taxes and $1.6 billion in state taxes in 2019 alone.
However, the hubbub over Warren’s tweet comes as Amazon is facing intense scrutiny for the alleged practice of essentially forcing its employees to urinate in bottles so that they don’t “waste time” going to the restroom.
Amazon has denied the veracity of this claim, but mounting evidence suggests it’s been lying
Amazon claims its workers don't pee in bottles; defenders say it's an urban legend. But these photos sent to me by a former driver for a former @amazon contractor called Synctruck in a California facility suggest strongly otherwise. https://t.co/hp4zCqOxRO pic.twitter.com/StHNvV9B1x
— Ken Bensinger (@kenbensinger) March 25, 2021
"You are responsible in cleaning out your van at the end of your route.
"This includes garbage bags, and URINE BOTTLES." (emphasis mine)
These were signs posted to the wall in an Amazon delivery station in the Sacramento area.
— Ken Bensinger (@kenbensinger) March 25, 2021
