The distinction is simple: one is semi-automatic, meaning that you have to pull the trigger each time to fire. The gun loads itself automatically each time. The other is *fully* automatic, it will keep firing as long as you hold the trigger. This is a "machine gun", which very few people actually own.

I really dunno why we haven't had another revolution yet. It's frankly embarassing. I first became aware of these kind of things in the late 1980's when I was in Uni, and I've been wondering ever since, just when its all gonna blow apart. People know these things go on, and yet they keep voting for the same clowns. *Frustration*

Yah, I'm still waiting for the trickle-down to happen, the same one they've been yammering on about since Reagan. I voted for him, BTW.

Want to solve all this crap? Do away with corporate tax, but then harmonize capital gains and carried interest with regular income. So that they are all taxed the same. The reason why this would solve the issue is simple.

These laws were lobbied for by corporate america, and the C-level executives tend to take their compensation in the form of stock, and in un-taxable forms. Such as borrowing against the value of their stock options - a loan isn't taxable. When they actually do cash out some stock, it gets taxed at the lower rate. Basically we need to re-implement Reagan's 1986 tax reform act. We also need to put the STFU on Congress - they increased spending by 250% during Reagan's first term when they saw the revenue flowing in.

And how much would you like to bet that aple is just one of many companies that paid congress top put those loopholes there in the first place, via campaign "contributions" and general lobbying?

The Lanham act has to do with whether or not corporate officers should be held personally liable for their choices. I think they should, since they seem to want the corporation to have all the rights of a natural person. Therefore they should have all the responsibilities too. Instead of hiding behind the corporate veil.

Nobody said anything about curtailing speech, unless you truly believe that money equals speech.

You mean, just like every other business lately? Because they *all* utilize the infrastructure, *most* of them are a legal fiction which can only exist at the whim of the government, and they *all* denounce the taxes that fund the society which created them.

Ingrates.

Nope, wrong. Individually they each have the right to vote, to donate, to have a voice. All those good things. They could all just happen to vote the same way, etc. but the effect is the same. Why should they get to double-dip?

Also, if corporations were really behaving like collections of people then we wouldn't need the Lanham act.

Wrong. (I can't believe I'm replying to an AC) Think about it: Barnes and Noble called them out on it *and won* since they have a good argument for the Doctrine of Laches (regarding the NDA's). Which estopped MS from collecting anything on the patents in question. Barnes and Noble were able to do this because they don't offer any other MS products. Samsung et al *do* offer other products with MS, and to call them out may have impacted their other licensing agreements in an unfavorable way. Hence they folded to the racket.

Wait, what the FUCK...

Since when does the Defense Dept. need another source of funding? Don't they have their *own* research capability via DARPA?

Also_ this clown needs to be gotten OUT of politics ASAP. Well actually that would be a beginniong.

Barnes and Noble told them to stuff their NDA and guess what? Barnes and Noble no longer has to put up with MS bluffing. See, it depends on the skill of the lawyers. That is what Foxconn is lacking. Which is understandable since the USA isn't exactly in their jurdistiction.

It's called "the free market" and MS lost that one. However hard they worked actually doesn't mean shit.

My observation is that most companies *love* the free market as long as they own it. Its when they don't own it that they start to act like assclowns.

Welp, too bad you can't have everything.

Microsoft loses nothing because they are collecting for these patents. Likely they are trying to collect enough that even if they lose them in court, their court costs are covered by the patent fees. Meanwhile they have effectively sown a cloud of trouble over Android even though they (microsoft) don't even have anything competitive in this market.

Tl;dr -- it galls me, the chutzpah of these assholes!

Of course, the economic collapse and recession are due to those *eeeeeevil federal regulators forcing banks to make bad loans and not freeing the market to correct itself...

You can show them goatse in your will. That is a form of data, and they will genuinely grieve after seeing it.