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What's driving Trump's attacks on Amazon? It's personal

Early in President Donald Trump’s term, when White House officials heard him complain vociferously about Amazon.com Inc. they arranged private briefings in the Oval Office to make sure that he would talk knowledgeably about the company.

Gary Cohn, his top economic adviser, and other officials gave PowerPoint presentations and briefing papers they believed debunked his concerns that Amazon was dodging taxes and exploiting the U.S. Postal Service.

It made little difference. Mr. Trump persisted in attacks that ran counter to the material they had showed him.

“It’s not the narrative he wants,” one person familiar with the matter said of the White House briefings. “He clearly didn’t find it persuasive because he keeps saying it’s untrue.”

What’s not clear is whether Mr. Trump will take actions that would harm Amazon’s business interests.

The company is now vying for a U.S. defense contract potentially worth $10 billion to shift computer services from mainframes to the cloud.

The contract came up in conversation at a private dinner in the White House with Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor, who brought along Oracle Corp. co-CEO Safra Catz, an Amazon rival, a White House official said.

Before the Tuesday dinner, aides privately briefed Mr. Trump and told him Ms. Catz might want to talk to him about the defense contract. He was advised not to engage, but rather to tell her the contract was up to the Defense Department.

Ms. Catz brought the matter up, saying the Pentagon’s process seemed to favor Amazon. Mr. Trump replied that the contract wasn’t up to him but would be awarded by department officials, the White House official said.

Yet in his talk with reporters aboard the plane, Mr. Trump suggested some form of action against Amazon may be taken but didn’t specify what it would address.

“We’ll see what happens,” he said. “The post office is not doing well with Amazon. … The playing field has to be leveled.”

Again, thanks izzy. You and walter, writing from Britain and Germany,

Looks like there was a terrorist truck/pedestrian attack in Germany.

New York: Mother arrested, used large kitchen knife to behead her 7-year old son

This is the worst attempt to obfuscate the truth that we’ve seen in a while:

Mouhib used a large-bladed kitchen knife to stab the victim in the upper-left area of the back and in his neck, causing the victim’s head to become severed from his body.

It’s almost as if the police and/or media are suggesting that she didn’t attempt to cut her son’s head off. But if true, imagine the violence and effort she put forth to continue “stabbing” until the poor boy’s head fell off.

It could be that it was related to the anti-Turkey demonstration by Kurdish organisations, which should have started at the time of the crash. (That was the reason for many policemen being in the city centre.)

Perverse individual is now gone. Thank you, Jesus.

according to the latest news

Number of Salafists in Germany has doubled in past five years

The number of individuals in Germany recognized as adherents of Salafism has reached a new all-time high, the interior ministry said. The growth is particularly fast in Germany's smallest states.

On This Day...
Apr 07, 2017: Stockholm, Sweden
A 'radicalized' Muslim steals a truck and
mows down five pedestrians: 5 Killed

It's still un-official,