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#jeffbezos

18 posts17 participants0 posts today
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A lot of things have changed, mostly for the worst, between the first and second Trump presidency. For example, during our first dance with assclown fascism under Downmarket Mussolini, American corporate media made a massive show of "opposing" Trump; despite the fact that I (and many other observers) pointed out that their coverage of the administration typically benefitted the regime more often than it hurt them, and the class solidarity inherent to corporate media outlets often resulted in them covering up for the wealthy donors and supporters that propped up Trump's administration until the precise moment it became clear he wasn't going to win a second term in 2020. The story has been quite different here in the second Trump era however; as this Guardian article notes, despite Trump's threats and smears towards the media, corporate outlets like WaPo, LA Times, and now CBS have willingly collaborated with Trump's fascist regime and agenda. What changed? As it turns out, the whims and financial motivations of billionaire reactionaries who own corporate media companies.

theguardian.com/us-news/2025/m

Trump complains the US media aren’t bending to his will. Aren’t they?

"Despite that acquiescence, Trump has continued to threaten journalists, branding pollsters “negative criminals” who “should be investigated for election fraud”. In April, he attacked “radical lunatic Democrats and their comrades in the fake news media”, adding: “Those lying to the American People on behalf of violent criminals have to be held responsible by the Agencies and the Courts.”

The attacks overlook the ways in which some outlets have submitted to Trump’s will – either by executives settling frivolous lawsuits or wealthy owners interfering to avoid upsetting Trump.

Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post owner, ordered an overhaul to the paper’s editorial pages in February that effectively muzzled the newspaper’s criticism of Trump. The Los Angeles Times dropped its endorsement of Kamala Harris under pressure from Patrick Soon-Shiong, its billionaire owner.

In December, ABC News settled a Trump lawsuit, in a move first amendment experts said could foster more attacks on the media. And in another blow, the owner of CBS News is said to be considering settling a $10bn lawsuit brought against the network over the editing of a Kamala Harris interview."

Folks, this is a story about greed and cowardice and that's not just my opinion. Trump isn't right, and the activities he's undertaking to cow the American media, be they government investigations or frivolous lawsuits, have no basis in the law. If folks like Jeff Bezos, Patrick Soon-Shiong, and Shari Redstone wanted to fight this, they'd win. Since surrendering and collaborating is more profitable to these billionaire leeches however, they're directing their media companies to roll over. Furthermore, the cost of this collaboration with fascism goes far beyond the mitigation of Trump criticism in our media environment; with billionaire media barons kissing his ring, and corporate outlets scrambling to settle his obscenely conspiratorial lawsuits based on open lies, the Kelpto Kaiser will now argue that he's been right about the media all along and that justifies further cracking down on the so-called "free press" in America. Collaborating with fascism, will merely breed more fascism; not that any of these rich reactionaries who own media companies seem to give a shit at all.

As someone who engages in a lot of media criticism and analysis, I can't say any of this is surprising to me; if anything, corporate media's outward posture of hostility towards Trump at points during his first administration is the historical aberration here. For profit media in America has always consistently sided with power and the state; after all the same class of people who own corporate media companies, also own most of the country. Just because we can easily predict class solidarity and billionaire ownership rolling over for fascism however, doesn't change the horrifying reality of what's going on here; nobody is handing out Pulitzer's here, but both WaPo and the LA Times did some excellent critical reporting during the first Trump regime and have been nowhere as effective here in Der Leader's second term. This is a big win for the Kelpto Kaiser; which makes it a devastating loss for all of us who don't want the fascists to win.

The Guardian · Trump complains the US media aren’t bending to his will. Aren’t they?By Adam Gabbatt
#Fascism#Trump#Media

I just found out about this Amazon boycott organized by The People's Union USA.

Amazon exloits workers, crushes small businesses, profits off surveilling and tracking us, and feeds a system that no longer serves the people.

The website says it is a 48-hour boycott but their graphic says it runs from May 6th thru May 12th, 2025. I think a week-long boycott would make more of an impact.

So for the next 7 days I plan to avoid using or spending money on the websites, apps, products, and services of the following companies, subsidiaries, and brands:

- Amazon.com
- Whole Foods Market
- Amazon Fresh
- Amazon Prime Video
- Audible
- Twitch
- Ring
- Amazon Basics
- Kindle
- Amazon Music
- Goodreads
- IMDB

This means I won't be streaming on Twitch this week.

Will you join us? Even for a day. We outnumber them and I believe if enough of us care and take action, we can make a difference.

(Note: I realize a good chunk of websites and online services run on AWS, but this is a consumer boycott and for practical reasons I think it makes sense that AWS wasn't included.)

thepeoplesunionusa.com

Having studied history and religions (and learning about "End Times" Baptists firsthand), I can tell you that this UNHOLY alliance is the greatest threat to life on #MotherEarth! They discount the Earth because they don't believe She is alive! That is the difference between Earth-based religions and hierarchical ones -- which also include the religion of greed, money, and seeing our beautiful world as just something to exploit!

“End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future”

May 05, 2025, #DemocracyNow

"[W]e are in a moment where our elites, whether they admit it or not, do understand that our economic model — and I’ve written books about this and talked about it with you in the past — is at war with life on Earth, right? And they are barreling down this road of more and more extraction of fossil fuels, of all kinds of — you know, basically, anything they can extract from this Earth and turn into energy and money, particularly now with AI, which is a energy and resource hog — water, LNG, critical minerals, all of it.

So, we’re trying to understand how this is informing the kind of fascism that we’re seeing, and also we’re trying to understand what unites this kind of strange Frankenstein coalition that Trump represents, where he’s bringing together these — you know, the richest people in the world who have ever existed with many working-class people, so what binds the vision, right?

"And what we cope with in this piece, or what we propose in this piece, is that they all have given up on this world. Like, they all have bought into a kind of apocalyptic fever — right? — whether it’s #ElonMusk and #JeffBezos and their investments in outer space and sort of writing off this planet, whether #AI, which is willing to sacrifice this animate world in order to build an artificial world, or whether it’s the more populist #MAGA vision of the fortress nation-state — right? — which is thinking, 'OK, we know more and more people are going to be coming. We know that disaster is on the horizon.' "

Listen / watch / read transcript:
democracynow.org/2025/5/5/naom

Democracy Now! · “End Times Fascism”: Naomi Klein on How Trump, Musk, Far Right “Don’t Believe in the Future”By Democracy Now!

Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks – „Die Verlegerin“ (2017)

Im englischen Original heißt der Film „The Post“ und trifft damit den eigentlichen Kern der Geschichte viel mehr, als sein deutscher Titel. Doch konnte die Bedeutung der größten Lokalzeitung der Vereinigten Staaten eigentlich kaum besser personalisiert werden, als durch seine Verlegerin, Katharine Graham, die es verstand, aus dem Lokalblatt einen nationalen Medienkonzern und eine globale Institution der freien Presse zu formen. Bis Jeff Bezos das Steuer übernahm. (ARTE)

NexxtPressMediathekperlen | Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks - „Die Verlegerin“ (2017)Im englischen Original heißt der Film „The Post“ und trifft damit den eigentlichen Kern der Geschichte viel mehr, als sein deutscher Titel. Doch konnte die Bedeutung der größten Lokalzeitung der…