Executives of Blue Origin briefly met with Trump within hours after paper spiked endorsement of Harris

Executives of Blue Origin briefly met with Trump within hours after paper spiked endorsement of Harris

The multi-billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, continued facing criticism throughout the weekend because executives from his aerospace company met with Donald Trump on the same day the newspaper prevented its editorial team from publishing an endorsement of his opponent in the US presidential election.

Senior news and opinion leaders at the Washington Post flew to Miami in late September 2024 to meet with Bezos, who had reservations about the paper issuing an endorsement in the 5 November election, the New York Times reported.

Amazon and the space exploration company Blue Origin are among Bezos-owned business that still compete for lucrative federal government contracts.

And the Post on Friday announced it would not endorse a candidate in the 5 November election after its editorial board had already drafted its endorsement of Kamala Harris.

      • Darkard@lemmy.worldEnglish
        26·
        2 months ago

        I think if he’s blasted then maybe he will think twice before doing it again

      • MisterFrog@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 months ago

        Journalists have ruined this word.

        Another pet peeve I have of journalists in general: god-awful referencing. “A report by XYZ organisation shows…”

        Gee THANKS, “a report”, that’ll help me find the source… It’s wild there aren’t minimum regulations on news referencing in most countries (at least, I’m not aware of any).

        Thanks for being my 2¢ receptacle

  • logos@sh.itjust.works
    855·
    1 month ago

    “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.”

    ― Benito Mussolini (apocryphal)

    • diffusive@lemmy.world
      123·
      2 months ago

      This quote is not true (see this article for further details).

      But even if it was it would mean something different. In Italian “corporazioni” are not “corporations” (corporations are “grandi aziende”). Corporazioni are organisations of people doing a specific work. For example masons could have their own Corporazione (they don’t, Mussolini created the “ordini” but mainly for professions so for example even today for being an engineer you must register with the engineers corporazione).

      Assuming that quote was true and assuming the translation was somehow literal (hard to say without an original text) it would mean that state and productive sector should collaborate (for the greatness of the nation likely, given his kind of speeches).

      Also, Fascism was definitely not capitalism. Mussolini imposed in the board of the directors of every large company one member of the Fascist party. This for controlling their behaviour and making sure that they were aligned with the fascist agenda. Not exactly freedom (it was never their point) but not unchecked power of the corporations either.

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
    54·
    2 months ago

    In a way he’s doing the country a favor by shining a spotlight on how the power created by wealth can be blatantly abused. This should make us rethink freedom of the press and corporate control of media. News publishing is probably the most important area where antitrust laws should be applied and strengthened. In general, wealthy individuals and corporate boards have gone way past a reasonable point of simply buying controlling interests in something to acquire more power and influence than the public has through government. Democracy means nothing if kings and queens can sprout up inside of it. And that’s not “communism” talking, it’s commonsense-ism.

    • punkaccountant@lemm.ee
      141·
      2 months ago

      Keeping our Amazon prime until it’s 2025 expiration date. Spent today researching alternatives so I can placate my Amazon loving spouse. Fortunately coming armed with info and the promise that they’ll have a several month “get used to it” cooling down period, they took it pretty well. I also reminded them if they MUST get something from Amazon, they still do the free 2 day shipping if u spend over $35. But it’ll probably be easier than they think with all but the oddest of purchases.

      Been wanting to get rid of it anyways and this was the nail in the coffin.

      • teamevil@lemmy.world
        61·
        2 months ago

        I dumped them last year cuz the products never got delivered on time. I’ll never use the site again

      • Tacos_y_margaritas@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I was able to get a lot of things through Target, and the rest through individual venders that usually have a lower price than Amazon these days.

      • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
        31·
        2 months ago

        Grove has become my go-to storefront for general household goods - they have a solid selection of generally reasonably priced jtems, and a strong aversion to plastic. They’re by no means perfect but I feel a lot better with them getting a cut of my money than Bezos.

        They’re not going to have the billions of niche items on Amazon, but they’re pretty great for my needs.

      • teamevil@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Blue origin and Trump should both be in deep s*** for negotiating deals they don’t have a right to deal

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      181·
      2 months ago

      I wish it was easier to shop local :/

      I’m not even in the middle of nowhere, I’m in a city. But it’s so hard to get anything that can’t be found at a dollar store.

      • Elextra@literature.cafe
        111·
        2 months ago

        I went without Prime for >1 year. I just online shopped directly from manufacturer if I can and paid shipping if free shipping not available. I minimized use of amazon only if I had $35 in my cart for the free shipping.

        However, I know I am privileged enough to do so.

        I honestly would encourage everyone not to have Prime though. Its like what $150+ now for a year? Save that money and wait until your cart is $35. If you cannot wait, you can pay for shipping (assuming $7) x20+ times before you make up price of that $150 for Prime.

      • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        71·
        2 months ago

        One of the reasons I love my town is there is a great, thriving small business culture. It’s relatively easy to shop local for a lot of things.

        That said, it can be expensive, and there are certainly things it’s not easy to find locally, so sometimes I do, unfortunately, turn to Amazon. But I try to minimize it.

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
        4·
        2 months ago

        I haven’t used Amazon in over 5 years now. Unless you’ve got some truly critical equipment that is only available through their platform, then it’s just a matter of buying from other sources, or in most cases, not at all.

        I just think back to the 90s, where I wasn’t able to get literally anything I wanted unless I went to a big city. Somehow I survived. I was ever happy sometimes, if you can believe it :p

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 months ago

        I am on the outskirts of nowhere and disabled. All my options are big chains. I wish they weren’t – my small town is now all hair salons, Tai Quan Do studios, pubs, florists, and yard or antique shops. No local shops here carry life supplies (food, toiletries , drinks, medicine) except the gas station (in very small quantities).

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
      103·
      2 months ago

      shop local

      Be nice if “shopping local” didn’t mean 2-6x higher prices, a lot of us can’t afford that kinda price hike

      • zabadoh@ani.social
        44·
        2 months ago

        Think of it as supporting your neighbors.

        There is value in keeping money within your own community, instead of giving all the profit to Bezos.

    • punkaccountant@lemm.ee
      61·
      2 months ago

      A family member recommended target circle as a replacement for Amazon prime and I am researching it. It’s still a big company…but where I live there really isn’t TRULY local options (I.E. small businesses) for household goods and such. I figure target is a pretty good alternative and since we have a store pretty close, I can pickup stuff instead of getting so much extra shipping.

      • WxFisch@lemmy.worldEnglish
        41·
        2 months ago

        So we did exactly this when we dropped our Prime membership a few years ago as part of working against Amazon building a massive warehouse in our fully residential borough (we won if anyone was wondering, they chose not to continue fighting it in court). We shop mostly in store at Target and other brick and mortar stores. We will also shop online still, but almost always directly from the manufacturer. This usually means paying shipping, but I figure our UPS driver and mail person need a paycheck too so we are fine with that. We will occasionally use Amazon for things that are just hard to find elsewhere but only order once our cart is in the free shipping price range. It turns out, Amazon is not only a shit company the uses dark patterns to push a mostly superfluous subscription, most things we buy are cheaper elsewhere. Combined with not buying nearly as much random crap, we have saved a butt load since quitting Amazon.

    • Homescool@lemmy.world
      27·
      2 months ago

      Not yet. Happy to jump when there is a viable alternative. I’m not willing to give up all the conveniences and efficiency for a cause. Also, these campaigns rarely actually work. I would be more interested if there were an actual well thought out migration pattern in motion for regular consumers who will never care but spend most of the money

      • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
        92·
        2 months ago

        And this…will be our end. There are so many world problems where this is the answer. I’m not poking at you directly, just that this right here is why we can’t have nice things.

        • Homescool@lemmy.world
          62·
          2 months ago

          I would respond by saying that focusing on the attitude or values of an individual or individual type is a convenient distraction from the truth that it is extremely impractical to do what you ask, at scale. The change has to be systemic. And the only systemic change that is practically on the table, is letting the system spin faster until it breaks. That is the only practical, proven path.

          Name anything like this in history. Old solutions are well defended against by those in power

  • WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
    36·
    2 months ago

    So… the Streisand effect is in full bloom now. They were going to endorse Harris. But they were told they can’t endorse Harris. Now, because of this- more people are aware that they intended to endorse Harris than anyone would have if they had just been allowed to from the beginning.

    We all know they endorse her. They’re just not being allowed to actually say it.

    Soooooo… TLDR?

    The message remains. Despite Bezos being a coward, WaPo still endorses Harris.

    • mynameisigglepiggle@lemmy.world
      81·
      2 months ago

      The thing is here Bezos isn’t afraid of Trump because of retribution.

      He is afraid he won’t be able to corrupt him if he pisses him off

      • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 months ago

        How the fuck is there someone that has to worry about whether they can make Trump more corrupt? Billionaires existing is a sign of a failed society.

    • blockheadjt@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 months ago

      The problem is that the venn diagram of people who know about this and people who were undecided who to vote for has no overlap.

  • Wiz@midwest.social
    25·
    2 months ago

    If true, that might be a campaign finance violation. Any agreement with value to the campaign counts, and must be reported. That’s one of the reasons why the Stormy Daniels thing got him in hot water.

    • bitjunkie@lemmy.world
      171·
      2 months ago

      So we have a little over a week until the election, and one side committed crimes that will take years to go through the courts, if they even do. Whooptie-fucking-doo.

      • repungnant_canary@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        In my country for administrative cases with short deadlines courts have fast tracks. So in such a case the court probably wouldn’t issue any final judgement but could order everyone involved to stop further committing potentially illegal actions.

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
    18·
    2 months ago

    The best thing about nepo-bootstrap baby bezos seems to be his wife, who divorced him.

  • nul42@lemmy.ca
    17·
    2 months ago

    Is Bezos more comfortable with the prospect of a fascist regime or an FTC headed by Lina Khan? His recent behavior seems to indicate the former.

  • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
    181·
    2 months ago

    Doubt Bezos has done enough to outbribe SpaceX. He should have gone all in on Harriss even if that is somehow a longshot now.

      • humanspiral@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 months ago

        I don’t know details of space contracts. Seems SpaceX has more capabilities, and so on merits, could be argued to get new contracts or replace underperforming contractors. It got paid to fix Boeing failure, for example, despite Musk being all in on GOP. The bribe level favouring Trump is sure to outweigh Bezos influence on top of merits.