Jeff Bezos has published a piece on Medium, and man is it crazy:
Back to the story: Several days ago, an AMI leader advised us that Mr. Pecker is “apoplectic” about our investigation. For reasons still to be better understood, the Saudi angle seems to hit a particularly sensitive nerve.
A few days after hearing about Mr. Pecker’s apoplexy, we were approached, verbally at first, with an offer. They said they had more of my text messages and photos that they would publish if we didn’t stop our investigation.
***Well, that got my attention. But not in the way they likely hoped. Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there’s a much more important matter involved here. If in my position I can’t stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can? (On that point, numerous people have contacted our investigation team about their similar experiences with AMI, and how they needed to capitulate because, for example, their livelihoods were at stake.)
In the AMI letters I’m making public, you will see the precise details of their extortionate proposal: They will publish the personal photos unless Gavin de Becker and I make the specific false public statement to the press that we “have no knowledge or basis for suggesting that AMI’s coverage was politically motivated or influenced by political forces.”
Read the whole thing- and Bezos has receipts. They thought they were fucking around with the guy on the left and the guy on the right showed up.
eataTREE
Non-lawyer wonders how this is not straight-up criminal extortion. Do what we say or we publish damaging pictures?
lollipopguild
Extortion works just fine on people who cannot fight back, then they go a bridge too far and…. oooops!
Chip Daniels
I’m not getting out of the boat.
Is there any reason to think the Bezos divorce is anything out of the ordinary marital breakup? Like, anything other than just people behaving like normal people do?
The Midnight Lurker
This IS extortion! No doubt about it.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chip Daniels: Besos can be the biggest ahole in the world and extortion is still out of line.
lamh36
like someone said you can’t really bully someone who refuses to be bullied. Bezos saying “come at me bro”
and ima just sit here and eat my popcorn
Yutsano
@Chip Daniels: Other than the $60+billion dollar no pre-nup fortune?
tobie
Wow! Blackmail is never subtle.
ETA: Does Bezos look like Kevin Spacey in that picture from 1998, or is it just me?
Chip Daniels
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I refuse to read anything about celebrity breakups because in spite of being rich and famous, celebrity marriages break up the same way any run of the mill couple do- in sad tawdry ways where no one ends up looking good.
zhena gogolia
@tobie:
I def thought this was a story about Spacey’s “comeback.”
Roger Moore
@eataTREE:
It sure as hell looks like extortion to me. They just assume they can get away with it because they have so many times before.
FelonyGovt
Wow! I’m not his biggest fan, but I have to admire him for doing this. He’s right- how many other people could call their bluff without ruining their lives or livelihoods?
Yes, @lamh36: let’s order ALL the popcorn!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Chip Daniels: This isn’t a celebrity break up, basically the National Inquirer has pictures selfies of Bezos sent to his gf and threatening to publish them if Bezos doesn’t meet their demands which the NI lawyer hints rather strongly are “muzzle the Washington Post, or else”
So is this what happened to the NY Times and why the NY Post hates Trump with such a passion?
debbie
I hope Bezos stays this tough.
mad citizen
This story just led Lester Dolt’s newscast.
Jay
@Chip Daniels:
The story isn’t about a Celebrity Divorce.
It’s about AMI targetting an “opponent” of Hair Furour, and engaging in illegal actions. As we have seen in recents days, the State of the US First Estate, is not healthy.
clay
This reminds me of when someone tried to blackmail David Letterman over an affair that he had. Letterman said fuck you, went to the FBI, and announced the whole story on his show so no one could blackmail him in the future. The guy got arrested, and that’s why you don’t threaten people with no fucks to give.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I guess maybe trying to shake down a guy who could buy and sell then 8000 times over turns out not to have been the best move. Who could have known?
hells littlest angel
Does Trump have any associates who AREN’T criminals?
lamh36
Enquirer fuqed with the wrong billionaire
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@hells littlest angel:
No.
Next?
bobbo
They point out repeatedly that Bezos is wearing his wedding ring in these nude and semi-nude photos. Like that is supposed to be extra-embarrassing or something.
Marcopolo
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Yep. Important part of this is the extortion/blackmail aspect. And I think we all need to extrapolate out from Bezos’ experience that this is shit AMI has been doing for decades (and often in the service of advancing Trump’s interests). Me thinks there is a whole lot of there there if US Attorneys decide they might want to look a little deeper into it.
hells littlest angel
Breaking: New York Times Fails To Understand Difference Between Extortion And Blackmail
Yutsano
@clay: I’m thinking of the girl who took a selfie next to a naked Julian Edelman and she threatened to release the pictures. His response was classic: “I’m single and you’re legal. Go ahead.”
The Midnight Lurker
I wonder why ol’ Pecker is so touchy (heh) about his relationship with the Saudis?
Did he help set up the hit on Khashoggi?
And yes, I thought this post was about Kevin Spacey as well. Uncanny resemblance.
hells littlest angel
@Marcopolo: Doesn’t Mueller already have the contents of David Pecker’s Safe Of Sleaze?
randy khan
There are many things I don’t like about Amazon, but I have to say that this is magnificent.
Ksmiami
bezos did not build a multi-billion dollar company from nothing by being weak or afraid- I expect AMI to be crushed into powder.
NotMax
“Mr. Phelps, your assignment, should you choose to accept it: Pecker checker.”
The Midnight Lurker
And you have to be some kind of special stupid to try and extort a guy like Bezos. Talk about lawyers, guns money.
Pecker must a Trump pardon in his pocket.
Pecker… pocket… I can’t help myself.
Uncle Omar
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): And the first time he bought them he could burn them and everything they own to the ground, take back what he paid them, and turn the whole sorry-assed lot into the street wearing a barrels and carrying signs that reads “Ex-Con Needs Work. Anything Helps. God Bless.”
Marcopolo
@hells littlest angel: It was the Southern Dist of NY office that did the deal regarding AMI not SCO. According to Southpaw on Twitter this interaction with Bezos seems to have occurred after SDNY ASUA let them off with a warning cause they said they’d be good citizens going forward. If that is the case then AMI probably just violated the agreement they signed with those folks. Southpaw said you don’t want to screw around when it comes to these things cause ASUAs do not like being made to look like fools.
C Stars
I hate Bezos. But I want more of this. Just stand up to these rightwing dickbrains. No more cowering.
Major Major Major Major
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Dear Donald
I’m a real billionaire. You shouldn’t have fucked with me.
Regards,
Jeff”
Citizen_X
@hells littlest angel: Even the ones that stay on the right side of the law are the lowest rank of bottom feeders.
Patricia Kayden
@C Stars: Amen to that! Push back hard and stop cowering when they come for you. Otherwise, they’ll only become bolder with their shakedowns.
Marcopolo
@hells littlest angel: It was the Southern Dist of NY office that did the deal regarding AMI not SCO. According to Southpaw on Twitter this interaction with Bezos seems to have occurred after SDNY ASUA let them off with a warning cause they said they’d be good citizens going forward. If that is the case then AMI probably just violated the agreement they signed—and it isn’t a good idea to make them look bad for the deals they reach w/ folks.
Mary G
Good billionaire! You still need to pay higher taxes.
I wonder if Robert Mueller will live long enough to investigate all the crimes surrounding the president.
I wonder how the paper got hold of the selfies and texts.
I’m glad I took that offer of an incredibly cheap WaPo subscription several years ago through Amazon. Now I pay full price without a quibble.
B.B.A.
Rooting for injuries here. At least unlike the Thiel/Gawker debacle the somewhat-less-evil one has the upper hand.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
“Publish, and be damned”
Mike in NC
Hope they issue an indictment for Pecker. Everyone around Trump is a criminal.
NotMax
Remembering how parts of this place erupted in vituperation when it was announced that Bezos had purchased the WaPo.
delk
You’d think they would remember Peter Thiel and Gawker Media.
Raoul
Pecker has dick picks is a bit too clever. Who’s writing this earth timeline?
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: vituperation, here?‽ Yeah right.
rk
Blackmailing the richest man in the world? Sounds like a genius move. Only someone completely stupid, like the President of the United States would think that was a smart move.
opiejeanne
@lamh36: We just read the link on Twitter and are still laughing. I saw your tweet and laughed some more.
Too, too delicious.
He lives in WA, a community property state. They think he’s afraid this will make his divorce cost him more somehow??? LOL!
Roger Moore
@clay:
The part where they sent their extortion demands in writing reminds me of something that happened to my employer many years ago. The former CEO threatened to blackmail the organization with the records of all the bad stuff that had happened under his watch. It was never clear to me how that was supposed to work. He was the boss and clearly knew about all the malfeasance, as demonstrated by his having kept records of it, so it made him look far worse than the organization that had canned him.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Okay, okay. Maybe it was ire.
:)
hells littlest angel
@Marcopolo: Thanks for the correction. However, the immunity Pecker got was from the feds, so I assume that wouldn’t protect his company from local prosecution.
Josie
@Mary G:
I also subscribed through Amazon and have not regretted the purchase. I was also just wondering, like you, how the people at AMI got hold of those texts and photos. If your phone can be hacked, there are lots of people who are vulnerable to extortion.
opiejeanne
@delk: Gawker and Thiel were mentioned by someone on Twitter. We laughed at the idea of Bezos ending up owning The Enquirer.
If only they’d stuck to Bat Boy articles.
kindness
Oh shit is so hitting a fan right now. Need moar popcorn.
smintheus
As the old saying has it:
Bezos probably sells it by the barrel as well.
Gvg
Bezo’s owns his own company, he doesn’t depend on anyone else for a living. That mean’s he is in a better position than most to stand up to blackmail. I guess AMI mostly blackmails actors, who can’t afford to be unpopular. Different economics. I am glad they were stupid though because I would bet there are more.
opiejeanne
@Mary G: The suspicion is that Bezos’s girlfriend’s brother is the source of the pictures and texts.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Nope, they are targetting his self image and ego.
And as it seems to be API standard business practice, it must have worked before in the past, on behalf of certain ogliarches and Foreign Powers.
Roger Moore
@kindness:
I think the sentence you’re looking for is “Alexa, order all the popcorn”.
Skepticat
I try to avoid this “celebrity trauma” trash, but I’m impressed by Bezos’s stance. More power to him—not that he needs it.
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Her wackjob Trumpist brother.
Amir Khalid
@Roger Moore:
“Give me munnies, or I’ll tell the law I’m a crook!” Hmm. I don’t get this plan either.
GrannyMC
@bobbo: If he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring, they’d try to make a big deal out of that.
dr. bloor
@smintheus: And delivery is free if you’re an Amazon Prime member!
PPCLI
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Dear President Loser,
I can buy Fox. I can buy the Wall Street Journal. I could buy every major newspaper in the US and turn them into All Trump Corruption, all the time. And it would make such a small dent in my fortune that I would hardly notice it.
So Ixnay on the uckwithme-fay.
Love and Kisses,
Jeff
Jay
@smintheus:
Amazon Prime gives you free shipping.
geg6
LOL, never thought I’d say this but you go, Jeff Bezos! Wow, those NI/AMI people are really, really stupid. He will eat them alive. I need to buy some popcorn.
rikyrah
Well well well…
This is hilarious??
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
As best I can understand it, the idea is that my employer is a non-profit, so any kind of financial shenanigans would discourage people from donating money. I can understand how somebody might think it would make sense to make a payoff to protect that revenue stream. In the actual event, we contacted the authorities and as far as I can tell suffered no bad publicity over the event.
PaulWartenberg
they are fucking with a guy who can
1) buy more lawyers than they can
2) buy more mercs than they can
Hell, Bezos can just go in, buy up the entire GOP Senate (thanks, Citizens United!) and get them to all flip to a new political party (WeGotzPaidBro) and get them to promise to impeach the ever-loving hell out of trump some time this Friday, and STILL have money left over to buy up the National Enquirer and turn it into a used car market report.
Just saying.
For once, they went after the wrong fucking billionaire.
The Midnight Lurker
Puckish Pecker picks pocket of piggish playboy, promising to publish procured pics of paramour. Philanderer plans payback per P.I.
I crack myself up.
PaulWartenberg
If Bezos needs more money to buy Fox Not-News and turn it into the fresh orange juice commodities network, I will gladly buy more ebooks for my Kindle right now.
Woodrow/Asim
They Came After The King. And they missed!
I’m no huge Bezos fan…BUT.
Brachiator
It’s interesting that right wing forces have tried to pull a “Godfather” move, pushing out embarrassing info about Elizabeth Warren’s bar application, the three top Virginia elected officials, and now Jeff Bezos, among others. They thought that they were settling all old debts in clearing a path for Trump, no doubt. But damn, they have definitely overplayed their hand with Bezos.
I’m looking at the online Daily Mail, which details the info the Enquirer threatened to release. What a bunch of lowlifes.
Kay
We’re in desperate need of a crack down on white collar crime.
This should be someone’s entire platform. If we could stop these criminals a lot of the other problems would literally disappear.
joel hanes
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The person muzzling the FTFNYT is named Sulzberger.
His accomplice is named Baquet.
The phone calls are coming from inside the house.
Kay
How many other people did they threaten, and when?
It would be good to find out.
Baud
Bezos > Schultz.
SiubhanDuinne
@clay:
This tired old world needs a lot more honey badgers.
Baud
@Kay:
Time for Kamala to put her prosecutor cred to good use.
aliasofwestgate
I normally would say i’m rooting for injuries in this case. But this time? Bezos can trash the bastards all he wants.
AMI/NI: Call off WaPost or weez gonna expose all your dirty texts and shit.
Bezos: get rekt, asswipes. *shows receipts*
me: *gigglesnorts* Buys a few kindle books in solidarity.
joel hanes
Bezos has in effect referred AMI to the reply made in the case Arkell v Presdram
good show.
lamh36
yall we don’t have enough popcorn
GregB
BEZOS, SHOW NO FUCKING MERCY. Finish him!
joel hanes
@opiejeanne:
If only they’d stuck to Bat Boy articles.
Bat Boy (and aliens visiting WJC, and so on) were the defunct Weekly World News.
The Enquirer specializes in lies about public persons.
scott (the other one)
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That’s more or less been what I’ve been arguing, yeah. I suspect Putin has dirt on a handful–maybe a very large handful–of top people at the FTFNYT. I find it very hard to believe it would cost much to get kompromat on most of them and very or from his POV.
Salty Sam
@Marcopolo:
Yeah, maybe, but really, cut ’em some slack, they’ve got a pretty full plate already…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Mary G
@Kay: Man. This so much. Not prosecuting white collar crime for decades has made these people more and more blatant. And the money involved is just astronomical.
chris
Bezos raises his eyes from the emails and says,”Alexa, order all the lawyers.”
Oh yeah!
Barbara
@hells littlest angel: Extortion usually involves a threat of bodily injury or accusing someone of a crime.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: In these curious times, I suspect many people can quote sentences they never thought they’d be uttering as a(n) [fill in the blank].
Bill Arnold
@Ksmiami:
This was remarkably stupid of AMI. I’m still laughing. Anybody in tech could have told them this. (Probably true of anyone who has interacted with him in a business capacity.)
Bezos, for those who didn’t read it:
Gravenstone
Having Trump in ascendance has been a nightmare. But seeing all these clowns who have been in his orbit in some fashion or another get their comeuppance (even those from unexpected quarters, such as Pecker getting royally counterpunched by Bezos) is an unadulterated pleasure.
Bobby Thomson
LOLOL
Eric Killmonger just shot the hostage.
C Stars
I should believe it, given the stupidness of this timeline, but I have a hard time believing that this was simply AMI doing Trump’s bidding to get Bezos to bend the knee. There’s gotta be another scandal behind it, right? Of course, as with the Mueller report, I guess there’s a healthy chance that we’ll never fucking get to know…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
IANAL, but victims would have to come forward, no? or another branch on the Mueller tree?
different-church-lady
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Not while Trump is alive.
Stuart Frasier
I really hope this has serious consequences for AMI.
pat
Wow. Just watched this on MSNBC. Seems the information came from the brother, an avid trumpster, of his mistress. Honey trap, anyone??
Have not looked at any responses, my feed still says there are only two, but I expect many more when I refresh!
Eric S.
@rk:
I thought Putin owned Trumplethinskin.
dexwood
@different-church-lady:
Thanks. Best laugh today. Off to eat my dinner.
Mike in DC
The correct way to view billionaires in general is neither hagiographic or demonizing. They are human and therefore capable of both wonderful and terrible things
debbie
Bezos is unintimidated.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If the scandal is one of trump’s, and he was paying* and/or bullying Pecker into keeping it quiet, you can pretty much let your imagination run wild as to what they’re covering up for him. I cannot, at this point, think of a single vile thing on this earth** trump is not capable of, anything that would make me say, “nah, that’s just kooky talk, this isn’t a movie”
* with someone else’s money, Barrack’s or Mercers’
** for this reason, as well as the confusion with the venerable and much-mourned Weekly World News, I discount rumors that Ivana fucked a chiroptera-like alien and Eric is an illegal Bat Boy
Aleta
If a WaPo story is about to be published about AMI/Pecker + Trump and Saudis + the Enquirer and the pro-Saudi tabloid; and if Bezos takes court action against AMI …
It makes me think that we need to make the scandals about Republicans come nonstop, and give them clicks and attention, and make those stories long-lived. Support the papers and reporters and tweeters and sites who are doing that.
The Moar You Know
@joel hanes: Fun fact: same company. The WWN was the Enquirer’s old black and white presses, and rather than just throw them in a swamp in Florida somewhere, they decided to milk the last dime out of them and…Weekly World News.
How would I know?
Ex-girlfriend’d dad was a photog for them in the 1990s. He’s been out for a while. He often remarked on the stringency of their legal due diligence. I see zero evidence of that here, frankly, I see lawyers SIGNING THEIR FUCKING NAMES to straight-up extortion, and that’s something I expect that particular moral example of an attorney will probably go to jail for.
@lamh36: Um, yes it did. Yes it certainly did.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Stuart Frasier: You’re a hoper, aren’t you?
Apologies to Sam Shepard.
joel hanes
@The Moar You Know:
same company
I had no idea. Shoulda googled. Thanks.
Your nym has never seemed so appropriate.
Chip Daniels
@C Stars:
As with all things in Trumpworld, it is a Matryoshka nesting dollset of scandals, one inside another.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Did you ever meet Ed Anger?
jl
Twitter threads I found indicate that legal opinions are mixed on whether AMI’s despicable conduct is technically illegal, and something that a prosecutor would bring to court even if technically illegal. Because it is a complex case, and a lot hangs on technically what is illegal and how the extortion note was worded. Yeesh. There otta be a law, huh? Boggles my mind what people with money can get away with in this country.
So, GOP is past ‘no governing authority’ issues that gave Al Gore so much trouble. The bar for much of what they do is not ‘it wasn’t illegal’ but ‘it wasn’t technically illegal’ or ‘it was illegal, so they won’t bring it to court because we threaded the needle on that sucker’. Nice to keep track of where the bar is.
I would be interested in what BJ legal flying wedge thinks is the situation if Trump was involved in making the decision to blackmail and extort.
ruemara
Even if all the discovery causes a breakup of Amazon, regulations and his removal as head of the company, He’s a fucking billionaire!
There’s nothing to lose besides shame and this guy is known for nearly killing his workers. ¡Idiotas! Fuck you both, but please fuck AMI into the grave so I can tap dance on it.
JPL
So the National Enquirer is trying to protect a president who cheated on his wife after giving birth with a playboy bunny and then cheated on her with a porn star.
Jeff Bezos might be the less tainted among them
Jim, Foolish Literalist
If that’s the worst thing Pecker has on trump’s pecker, I’ll eat a MAGA hat
enplaned
My estimation of Bezos has gone up many, many times. Amazon is a deeply problematic company — I should know, I have worked for them at a non-trivial level. But AMI/Pecker (and, probably, Trump in the background) have f*cked with the wrong dude.
Just One More Canuck
Bezos: “You can have my answer now, if you like. My offer is this: nothing. Not even the fee for the gaming license, which I would appreciate if you would put up personally”
Roger Moore
I really hope there’s a lawsuit over this, just for the discovery.
Jeffro
@Raoul: who’s writing this time line? Probably Warren Ellis
Spanky
@JPL: Wait, Trump gave birth with a Playboy bunny before cheating on his wife with a porn star?
lamh36
From ABL
PST
The brother is the source of the photos, eh? Those are Kushner family values. It’ll be fun to see our Spacey lookalike go all Keyser Söze on Pecker’s ass.
Spanky
@lamh36: Simple. Arrogance and stupidity go hand in hand.
khead
@lamh36:
May I have some of your popcorn?
Immanentize
@jl: extortion involved threats of violence — think protection racket. So, not extortion. Sets my teeth on edge when people say that because it will be the Trump go-to defense. No Extortion!!
But this is straight up blackmail — Do this thing or I will do this bad embarrassing thing to you. It is pretty damn plain. Seems easy to charge.
Immanentize
I’ve always said that Tump’s genius is dragging people into the gutter where he is King. Most people get their asses kicked in the gutter because they don’t know the rules of the gutter. Bezos knows the rules of the gutter, and he may be the emperor there. Let’s find out.
Aleta
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: There’s the beauty of it for AMI. Make them fearful enough that nothing is worth coming forward. Maybe at first the Enquirer (or Stone and Carter Page?) hoped that threatening to ruin his marriage would make him slow down the Post’s reporting? Instead he responded by announcing the end of his marriage.
It was a partial fail for them with Stormy Daniels, because of her bravery, but they still got a partial win with their tactics. Encouraged people to reflexively joke about her, which diminished her reality and the seriousness. (Even Josh at TPM and this blog fell for this.) Threatened her. She still kept it up, so maybe someone got her arrested hoping to scare and humiliate. Then they put her deep in debt for their legal fees.
She did a lot, as brave as Bezos, with much less protection and public support and fewer resources.
And I can’t help thinking of all the women who are still out there, afraid to talk about Trump. Including about abortions.
And also, if Bezos makes the Enquirer go broke or AMI exposed for criminal blackmail, I wonder if that will allow more stories to come out.
Yarrow
This is amazing. Can’t really understand what Pecker/AMI/NI were thinking. Blackmailing the richest guy in the world? These guys are so dumb.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
Betcha their Alexas have been feeding these dopes’ private conversations to Bezos for months. If I were Bezos I’d use a little more of my spare change to wreck every single Trump org venture along with taking out AMI. Can’t for the life of me understand how they thought they could take him on and win. Ordering popcorn now…from Amazon.
TriassicSands
@hells littlest angel:
The title of the article is “Jeff Bezos Accuses National Enquirer of ‘Extortion and Blackmail’. ” It’s not that they don’t know the difference between extortion and blackmail, but that they are quoting Bezos. That is what he accused the Enquirer of doing. There is only room for one of the words in their online headline and I’m guessing they went with blackmail over extortion because they figure more readers know what blackmail is. The article doesn’t discuss the difference.
It is hard, if not hopeless, to judge a newspaper by its headlines. The Washington Post seems to have someone of questionable literacy and political leaning writing their headlines, which are often contradicted by the article itself.
Martin
@JPL:
National Enquirer doesn’t protect anyone. They are scandal brokers. They buy scandals and trade their silence for other scandals. Whoever can’t pay up gets published.
mad citizen
I read the Bezos piece and laughed out loud when I read this line in the AMI letter: “· Ms. Sanchez wearing a plunging red neckline dress revealing her cleavage and a glimpse of her nether region.”
TriassicSands
@Yarrow:
Maybe they thought the divorce will strip him of that title and it would be a lot easier to coerce the second, third or even 10th richest person (Larry Ellison with close to $60 billion) in the world today.
Individual wealth of almost unimaginable magnitude is relatively new and the fools at the Enquirer might not know the difference between million and billion.
Aleta
@Immanentize: sorry. I just did it too. I’ll remember.
(I guess it’s the phrase ‘extorted for money’ and the use of blackmail to get money that made me equate them.) Wrong! Thanks.
The Midnight Lurker
HuffPo: BEZOS EXPOSES PECKER!
Friday’s headlines are going to be awesome!
Spanky
Sounds like the brother is a real piece of work. Could be known as “Dirty Sanchez”.
I’ll see myself out.
Aleta
@TriassicSands: They misjudged his priorities. And that his anger is stronger than his fear of embarrassment.
Fair Economist
@lamh36:
Seems to be a habit with this crowd. Manafort and now AMI – plus, I’m sure, more we don’t know about – yet.
hitchhiker
Interesting that Bezos mentions the fact that several people have told him about being blackmailed by AMI. Maybe he’ll offer to pay all the NDAs off so we can all find out what AMI has been hiding and who it’s been protecting.
Aleta
@mad citizen: his semi-erect manhood is penetrating the zipper of said garment
Immanentize
@Aleta: Don’t fret. Blackmail often slips into extortion because the threat becomes somehow physical. But this is on the blackmail side.
I saw some lawyers opining this isn’t criminal blackmail. I’m like, “What?”
Maybe they think there is a first amendment exception? There is not. The part that looks really illegal is the “you tell people there was no influence or we will publish….”. Take that to a jury.
Brickley Paiste
It would be really nice if this whole thing were to piss Bezos off enough that he would decide to spend, oh, say 20 or 30 billion dollars removing Republicans from office.
Chyron HR
@mad citizen:
What, like Tartarus?
Immanentize
@Aleta:
Can’t get it up? Is that the threat?
joel hanes
@Fair Economist:
Manafort I can understand. He’s more afraid of the vengeance of the people he’d betray if he were honest (his family is crooked as hell) than he is of jail.
Cheryl Rofer
Immanentize
@hitchhiker:
In the end, NDAs that are hiding illegal conduct are void.
dww44
@tobie: Nope, he does indeed.
jl
@Immanentize: Thanks for info. The things a person learns on this blog….
Aleta
One of the funniest lines in those emails (in context: coming the publisher of the Enquirer using it) is CONFIDENTIAL & NOT FOR DISTRIBIUTION
And misspelled for emphasis. (Tough guy movie accent on someone’s mind?)
Bill Arnold
@Yarrow:
This is not the lesser form of stupid where the perp tries to blackmail or extort somebody who has vastly more resources/capabilities than is obvious.
J. Bezos is extremely rich and has a reputation for harshness, and these things are very well-known.
This shit, the attempted coup in Virginia (potentially going to a guy in his position due to chance [1], if I’m reading it correctly), and more, will force reactions. The Republicans in Virginia in particular have declared war on democracy. They will try to claim plausible deniability, but, “the third time is enemy action”. [2] Oops.
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/01/04/drawing-today-decide-virginia-state-house-race-majority-party/1002910001/
[2] amusing how this has internationalized: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/when-arun-jaitley-quoted-james-bond-and-an-mp-corrected-him-1971531
Mezz
So is nobody noticing that the Medium piece is an enormous piece of self-puffery??? Or just not commenting on it because it’s so screamingly obvious, and I’m the doofus?
(A: I am the doofus, but would it also be for this as well?)
I mean, fucking seriously:
Don’t hurt yourself self-fellating, bucko
Uncle Cosmo
@opiejeanne: Wasn’t Bat Boy a star of the late Weekly World News?
Now that was a rag. Raggo di tutti raggi. One Xmas one of my coworkers received as a gag gift a 13-wk subscription to the WWN, delivered to our office (an outpost of a nationwide government-contracting & scientific consulting firm with >40,000 employees). “Kookie” left each issue in the common area & morale instantly improved – laughter, in gusts of howls, truly is the best medicine. (Edited for clarity.)
Martin
@Aleta: Embarrassment? Fuck, it’s been how many weeks since his marriage was broken up? We passed fear of embarrassment quite a while ago. You don’t threaten to key someone’s car after you’ve kidnapped their kid.
Chip Daniels
By the way, those two pictures of Bezos reminds me of the dual roles played by J.K. Simmons in Counterpart.
mad citizen
@Aleta: For some reason Beavis and Butt-head came into my brain reading their language.
It’s weird, does anyone really care about this stuff–and who is buying the Enquirer rag? It’s kind of like the Trump debacle destroyed these kinds of norms–like a provacative picture of a man WEARING HIS WEDDING RING sending it off to a girlfriend–no one cares.
But like everyone else, this story should be very entertaining with popcorn.
Amir Khalid
@Bill Arnold:
Yeah, but when I see things like
I’m kind of glad Bezos doesn’t get stuck in and edit copy at The Post.
Uncle Cosmo
@Roger Moore: Or maybe Dyslexa, corner all the pop orders. :^p
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Aliens Ate My Dingo!
:)
Martin
@Cheryl Rofer: Everything is hosted by AWS. Fuck, they run 2 data centers just for government data. He can make quite a few agencies go dark with a phone call.
The thing that bothers me here is that if Trump had anything to do with this, even remotely, then we have a situation where Bezos is being attacked utilizing federal infrastructure, while Bezos holds the operational keys to quite a lot of that infrastructure. This start to get a whiff of a national security problem.
Amir Khalid
@Chip Daniels:
For a moment, I thought the pic on the right really was JK Simmons.
B.B.A.
@Bill Arnold:
In Virginia, we have met the enemy, and he is us.
Wapiti
@Mezz: Nah, I read that as Bezos saying, “I’m not Howard Schultz. I’ve spent some of my money on a public good. My reputation – as a publisher – is important to me; more important than my personal reputation.”
Since extortion might be based on a threat to one’s reputation, Bezos might be establishing that his reputation was, indeed, threatened.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Yeah, my eyes were thrown out of focus by that as well.
Sounds like the nameplate of a concept car from a late 1950s auto show
Cheryl Rofer
@Martin: The centralizing and monopolizing of too many things is a national security threat. It’s time to enforce the antitrust laws.
Cheryl Rofer
So let’s say that there is some loose or maybe not so loose coordination among the ratf*ckers in Virginia and the ratf*ckers at National Enquirer and Donald Trump’s fear of investigation and Matt Whitaker’s reluctance to testify in Congress and many other things as well.
One might conclude that people are frightened that their grift is starting to come apart.
Cheryl Rofer
Bobby Thomson
@Martin: they protect Trump. Pecker and the prick are good friends.
Aleta
@lamh36: I wonder if they thought their immunity deal would protect them from other prosecutions ? (Making the mistake of thinking they’re like a police informant who won’t being arrested for a theft because they are important to a case?)
How could they be so overconfident that he would stay quiet? Did his lawyer or someone with Mueller string them along? Why would they email this ??? Why not an unsigned letter? Email !
NotMax
@Cheryl Rofer
Splitting the datum?
(Couldn’t resist.)
Martin
@Mezz:
It is, but considering he’s outing the existence of his own dick pics, and a media attack against him, I think he’s entitled.
Wapiti
@Cheryl Rofer: I expect one of the morons took notes on their criminal conspiracy.
HalfAssedHomesteader
MEMES!! Lots and lots of meeemes!
[National Enquier headline:]
“Bezos: Eat a Pecker!”
B.B.A.
@Aleta: Why did the scorpion sting the frog?
Immanentize
Who is Mezz?
Was that a one off?
Mezz
@Wapiti: Hmm. Good point. And there is the whole “maintaining pretty reasonably the independence of the Washington Post.
JMG
Why didn’t Bezos just hire a few ex-GRU guys and give Pecker the polonium doorknob treatment? Cheaper in the long run. Our zillionaires lack imagination.
Jeffro
@Cheryl Rofer:
Why yes, one might indeed!
The mind-boggling thing to me is how these slimeballs went ALL. IN. on trumpov! trumpov of all people!! How could someone with two functioning brain cells not know to at least hedge their bets and just go about their own jobs/grift/whatever without backing Ultimate Scumbag to the hilt?
It’s bizarre how tribalism and sheer greed/self-interest have driven so many so much further into Shit Midas’ embrace than I ever could have imagined. Hope at the end they at least understand why they stink so badly, and why we’re all gonna flush them.
Cheryl Rofer
Lawfare’s quick take
Laura Too
@The Midnight Lurker: Screen now cleaned of beer, thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a long time.
Amir Khalid
@The Midnight Lurker:
@Laura Too:
Seconded. That would make a beauteous headline.
Mezz
@Immanentize: No, I just don’t post a terrific amount. But good gravy, the self-importance of the Bezos piece was SCREAMINGLY TITANIC.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Immanentize: Not only that, but Bezos has the kind of money Agent Orange pretends he has, so he can have Alexa order all the (best!) lawyers and pay them.
rikyrah
Watching Maddow.,
WAIT…..
You mean what they did to Bezos
Invalidates the agreement that they made with prosecutors?
Really?
Seriously?
That they can be phucking charged for all they admitted to?
?????????
Immanentize
@Mezz: That is who he is. All of the world has reaffirmed that. But he is doing many people — especially vulnerable teens who send indiscreet photos then get blackmailed -; a great service.
Sometimes you need a rich dick head ? to help justice move in the right direction.
Immanentize
@rikyrah: why yes it does. And it’s hard to see how the prosecutors can avoid doing so now.
chopper
@Wapiti:
haha, nice.
chopper
@Mezz:
he’s worth more than god, of course it’s gonna be self important. i mean come on.
clay
@Cheryl Rofer: One wonders why Farrow et al didn’t report at the time that they were being threatened? Is there something in the journalist ethics code that prevents it or something?
Mezz
@Immanentize: I (we) shall take the victories where they happen! It wouldn’t be the first time an individual with wealth used their “immunity” for good intentions.
Though still it sucks that vast wealth is what that type of protection usually requires. As others have said, I don’t think Trump’s orbit can actually really appreciate Bezos’ wealth. (I sure can’t.)
MagdaInBlack
@rikyrah:
Ain’t it grand!
opiejeanne
@joel hanes: Oh, I got them mixed up. I liked the sensational front pages of that other rag, especially the photo of Hillary being visited by an LGM.
The Midnight Lurker
@Amir Khalid:
@Laura Too:
That WAS Huffington Post’s headline! They took it down, damnit. I WISH I’d thought of it! The genius that wrote that deserves a Pulitzer! (falls on floor laughing again)
In newsrooms across America tonight, editors will be screaming at their headline writers, “This is a family paper, goddamnit!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Cheryl Rofer: How the hell did a gossip rag think they were gonna blackmail Ronan Farrow, who on top of everything else is the guy who said, in response to gossip: “Isn’t there a good chance we’re all Sinatra’s kid?”
Aleta
It seems so fortunate, and unusual that Bezos can, I hope, protect the WaPo’s ability to pursue and devote resources to these stories. He definitely made it a point from the get go in his essay, to emphasize how committed he is to the WaPo.
How rare this is these days — that a story that could damage Trump, AMi, and the Saudis may be able to proceed as long as reporters can follow it.
It makes me think about the times Democrats have been faulted for ‘folding’ in front of a negative story or for not hitting the Republicans hard enough. How often has that result been controlled by whose financial power is influencing the most news organizations? (And by fewer stories in general receiving months’ worth of money and time to be developed. )
Laura Too
@The Midnight Lurker: Screen now cleaned of beer, thanks for the best laugh I’ve had in a long time.@The Midnight Lurker: Fantastic, I appreciate your sharing!
mad citizen
@Spanky: Wanted to recognize your genius here Spanky! And it just occurred to me, how classy for a brother to get into his sister’s phone (adults, mind you) and steal pics not only of her man-friend, but of his sister.
J R in WV
@smintheus:
Oh, honey, my small town’s newspaper business with probably an 11 county circulation of maybe 50K back in 1970 and they had the ink delivered in tanker trucks, like the deliveries to truck stops for fuel.
Barrel deliveries were so over in like 1930… I bet the WaPo gets deliveries via rail tankers!!!
boatboy_srq
@eataTREE: Your (publicly-traded, incorporated) business does what our (incorporated but held by hedge funds) business wants, or we publish your (personal) pictures.
That’s a bit like the Lone Gunmen trying to take down GE by threatening to put Lawrence Culp’s drunken frat pics on Instagram.
Jay
@clay:
Good journalists ususally don’t report it because it make them part of the story.
clay
@Jay: I see what you’re saying, but if they’re being threatened, then they are part of the story and should report it as such.
The Midnight Lurker
Mrs. Lurker heard me howling with laughter and came to investigate. I told her the whole story, and said I was trying to come up with the perfect headline (no, I’m not a reporter).
Mrs. Lurker: “What are you? Twelve years old?” So I told her the HuffPo headline.
She turned red, suppressed a giggle, and spun away on her heel.
Laughing hysterically, the Midnight Lurker falls onto the floor again, clutching his sides.
I am soooo twelve years old!
Martin
Watching Rachel. Rachel Sanchez definitely has a case against AMI. She’s a California resident and threatening to publish sexually explicit pictures is most certainly a felony in this state.
Jay
@clay:
Physical threats they ususally report to the police,
Other threats they ususally ignore,
Unless, the threats become the story.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/globalnews.ca/news/4840763/radio-host-threats-yellow-vest/amp/
Aleta
@Immanentize: I like accurate language.
At some point we (or reporters or DOJ) could find they slipped into extortion for money somewhere along the way. If they’re as overconfident as it seems … maybe they weren’t shy about worse offenses.
lgerard
II wonder what the New York Bar Association thinks about a member participating in a revenge Porn scheme?
jl
@Immanentize: The doubters I read talked about lack of AMI holding something definite of value that belonged to Bezos, and getting that back hinged on the blackmail ask. IANAL, so I didn’t understand.
Seems like the confidential private pix were something very definite and something of value. And AMI was trying to trade one editorial favor for another. So, AMI threw first amendment protections out of the window. The blackmail letter said the issue was trading favors, the public newsworthiness of the pix or what WaPo was reporting had nothing to do with it.
opiejeanne
@Aleta: Yes to everything except for the fact that they destroyed his marriage before they tried to blackmail him for the relationship. They published stuff that wrecked Bezos’s marriage of 25 years. maybe it was already on shaky ground, I don’t know, but they sent it over the cliff. And that was before this attempt at blackmail.
Emma
So I come back home after a luxurious dinner of hand-made gyoza, udon noodles in broth, and pad khing with my sister and I came across this. I read all the comments and followed all the links and I am still at the “WTF were they thinking!!!???!!!” stage. I mean, honestly. WTF WERE THEY THINKING!!!???!!!
Jay
@opiejeanne:
Bezo’s broke his marriage.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
On nights like this I picture The Beast trying to stay in the comfort zone of Fox, but unable to resist clicking over to CNN, and getting angrier and angrier and making rage-filled phone calls to Jethrene and Kellyanne (she needs a nickname, Hate-Filled Old Stringy Mop Turned Up-Side Down is too long), telling them he’s never even heard of David Pecker and put that in an official tweet right now.
Watching MSNBC it occurs to me I’ve heard of Gavin DeBecker before this and can’t for the life of me think why. If you had asked me earlier today I would’ve said he was the hero of a second-rate spy book I bought at the airport a couple of years ago.
Jay
@Emma:
That they had gotten away with it many times before, including Politicians on behalf of “others” and Foreign Powers.
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_de_Becker
Emma
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think he’s the author of a book called The Gift of Fear? Helped me a hell of a lot living alone in a strange city for the first time.
Bobby Thomson
@Martin: that’s assuming she wasn’t part of it, which I doubt.
Gvg
@clay: he did as I recall. It just didn’t get as much attention. Bezos is a pretty big deal and you know, I have to admit I think people have accepted an idea journalists get threatened by stories. Most of the time it’s hot air, sometimes it’s not, but we have heard it before.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Jay: A piece of advice from The Gift of Fear is that the best way to fight blackmail is to reveal the embarrassment with which you’re being blackmailed, thus depriving the blackmailer of leverage. They upped the ante by also revealing the attempted blackmail itself.
While I find he blames victims of domestic violence in a way I fundamentally disagree with, overall it is a very valuable book. An important point he makes about domestic violence is that the most dangerous time a woman faces is when she leaves, and he also cautions against escalating violence with the intervention of authorities, which is often the effect. Based on my professional experience with interpersonal violence, I’ve found both to be accurate.
PaulWartenberg
According to AtoZ Databases, American Media Inc. is worth $500 million in revenue (although the WSJ claims the company is $300-500 million in DEBT). Amazon.com Inc is worth $177 BILLION in revenue. so let’s do some math… Amazon has 350 times more money in revenue than AMI. All Bezos has to do is pull some kind of hostile takeover of the company (can Amazon buy up the debts that creditors have on AMI?) and he’d STILL have enough money to buy up the Republican Party and Fox Not-News…
By the by, Fox’s parent company News Corp is publicly traded and worth $9 billion in revenues. Amazon has 19 times (roughly) the revenue. I would go for it, hostile takeover, just to f-ck up the Far Right news conspiracy
Jay
@PaulWartenberg:
Unfortunately, Meuller has the safe,
So the New National Enquirer has to start from scratch.
“Out to make ReThugs die in the dark!”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think William Goldman made up “Follow the money”. Did Mark Felt actually say, “The truth is these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand”?
Bill Arnold
@Amir Khalid:
You might be amused by this:
How to eviscerate your enemies with words, by Jeff Bezos (Jenni Avins, 2019/02/07)
Jay
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Unknown, it’s in the book and the movie.
catclub
@opiejeanne:
I would hope that Bezos decides ending up with $50B after a divorce, he will still be just fine.
Kent
Well, I gotta say, this story sure blew the blackface stuff clear off the news today. Wasn’t expecting that.
Aleta
@opiejeanne: “that was before this attempt at blackmail”
Either someone else informed Bezos the story was coming, or the Enquirer sent him a warning (or a threat) before publishing the first texts and photos. It made me wonder if they were trying to control his behavior* before the first story became public. A not-quite-criminal blackmail from the start, for someone working for Trump.
The earliest stories reported ‘rumors’ of possible sexting pictures, which seemed less like reporting than like a threat. I wonder if that’s really when an effort began to make AMI write something down.
*wrt the WaPo’s developing stories about Trump +/- the Enquirer—and their assumption he could or would interfere
catclub
@PaulWartenberg:
I agree, that would be neat.
Unfortunately, many billionaires got that way by not doing things that look like wasting their money.
Mnemosyne
@Immanentize:
I looked at the Popehat and Renato Mariotti Twitter threads and they seem to think that the courts will see this as two corporations negotiating, not a corporation blackmailing a private citizen.
However, they seem to have slightly different and incompatible explanations for how that could be. IANAL, but Popehat seemed to be claiming that blackmail is totally legal as long as the extortion letter is written by a lawyer so they can claim it’s part of a negotiation?
jl
@Mnemosyne: The corporations are different from you and me, they retain lawyers…. and they’re corporations.
If you or I tried to pull something like that, would there be lawyers sagely counseling that we weren’t trying to blackmail someone?
With stolen sexpix? Really? I find the situation hard to believe.
And how is Bezos, individually, the corporation. They are different, that is the whole point. Corporations are people too, my friend.
I don’t care whatever knots lawyers tie themselves into trying to explain why a corporation or a rich schmuck can do whatever the hell they want, I think it is clearly blackmail, and it should go to court. Even if the victim here is a billionaire semi-schmuck.
Aleta
@Kent: Yeah, I agree, it’s another benefit, longterm I hope. Hope it kills the immediacy of the “VA Democrats in disarray” theme that the RW is working so hard to make last as long as possible.
(Not saying it lessens the seriousness of the VA stories; but since long-running stories are the way the Rs work their damage, this may shorten its run on the front page and national news channels. They try for a new development every few days. And then to reopen it or find new angles every few weeks/months.)
May developments in this story already be in the wings, for whenever there is no Mueller news that week.
(I know real life doesn’t work like the movie running in my head though.)
catclub
@Cheryl Rofer
Somebody else mentioned Bezos ability to buy AMI and all its pieces without breaking a sweat. It would be funny if the Antitrust division of DOJ woke up for THAT.
jl
@Aleta: If Northam is the clueless stubborn fool he looked like during his presser on the yearbook blackface scandal. Seems to me he can quash any potential crisis by simply not resigning, at least for now, until its old news. Not pretty, but gets that job done.
Or until a new investigation into charges against the Lt. Gov is complete and we know better the truth of that situation.
Jay
@catclub:
The thing is, the Faux News “consumers” have shown that they are easily manipulated, belive insanity and send money.
– Turn Faux News into The Resthome Shopping Network,
– stoke their fear and anger differently, ( after all, what their current fears are, are imaginary, created and stoked by Faux News)
-?????????
– PROFIT!!!!!!
catclub
@jl: Between Bezos, Northam and AOC in the news, I bet Mango Mussolini is steaming he is no longer the center of attention.
Aleta
@Mnemosyne: Didn’t read those yet, but that’s weird. Since the photos are of individuals and affect privacy. Is their idea that it’s corporation vs corporation related to how Bezos described AMI’s claim: that the photos are news because Bezos’s behavior showed poor business management? So it’s a corporate issue because it’s about stock value?
catclub
@Aleta:
I find Matt Levine at Bloomberg funny and interesting. One repeated theme in his columns is that eventually every crime that involves corporations becomes securities fraud. He makes it more amusing. [Basically if a bad thing happens, and the company does not reveal it to their stockholders, then some stockholders will sue that their holding was damaged by the non-reporting of the bad thing. and they are likely to be made whole if they win their suit. never mind that the bad thing was poisoning poor kids in bumfuck, nebraska, and those kids are not made whole by the process of dealing with a securities fraud claim.]
Wapiti
@Aleta: This. IANAL, but I don’t think the dick pics show the WaPo’s tackle.
jl
@catclub: Seems like people, even lawyers, are jumping through hoops to avoid holding corporations accountable for any kind of bad behavior at all. Bezos is a person, the corporation is a (fake construction for certain legal purposes) person. There are two distinct legal persons here, Bezos, his corporation. On Levine’s theory, AMI was going to damage Bezos’ corporation by going after him personally. So, there are in the big picture at least three legal persons involved not two, and more if individuals in AMI are individually criminally liable. Or are we going to elevate corporate personhood so much that individual personhood is effectively erased, even a mega billionaire individual personhood?
More I think about it, I come down on the side that it’s blackmail and should go to court.
@catclub: Bezos is aiming for Trump as well as AMI, clearly hints that he thinks Trump is deeply involved. Trump shouldn’t be too relieved that Bezos’ complaints with AMI are in the news.
Jay
@Aleta: @catclub: @Wapiti:
Internet Lawyers love to argue,
Courts decide.
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
The Rs have lost control of the narratives. I mean, Bezos chose to write that medium post. AOC has been stoking the RW media and fever swamp (more on the right know about her than the rest of America), and the Virginia OPO-drops are politically poorly timed and may well be (in part) rogue(not GOP-planned) ratfucks (combined with others perhaps: [1]) etc. Russian (and other) propaganda operations are frequently unmasked in realtime, and savvy reporters see these unmaskings via e.g. twitter. DJT and team are unraveling, newly and rightly unsure of their ability to handle the chaos, making frequent mistakes including tactical mistakes. Mueller is relentless. Dem house has started doing its oversight.
Interesting times!
[1] Real world ocean rogue waves explained without the modulational instability [2]
[2] Random, or not? :-)
Ruckus
@Mezz:
He wouldn’t be the wealthy man he is if his ego wasn’t just a little bit out there.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Naw, they saw an opportunity to cash in big time. Maybe figured (correctly) that drumpf wasn’t going to be able to do anything right, he never has, but an opening is an opening and they grabbed at it. Being that they are really, really bad at shit they can’t buy off, of course they are fucking the clown big time. I’d guess that they figured that with the Russians paying off so many, there wouldn’t be anyone watching them.
Ian R
This was what the richest man in the world ordered before the extortion attempt. I think AMI and Trump have literally no concept of the sheer scale of money that Bezos would be willing to set on fire to get back at them now.
Aleta
Prob already mentioned. Just figuring this out. I just saw this Feb 5 article at the Wapo about the brother Sanchez (“who said he is his sister’s manager and publicist”) and Stone and Page.
Clever.
AMI’s written offer to blackmail Bezos was emailed on Feb. 5th at 3:30, maybe just before the WaPost put their story out. Rushed? Then AMI got persuaded (kind of worried?) to put its more formal offer into writing, the email from AMI on the 6th.
Jeez.
Every one of these people is helping to hold children and adults in prison where they are demeaned and injured for being human.
Aleta
@catclub: @jl: Save the corporation! Don’t let the financial systems fail! Stop the vote count! Help prop up Trump and his casino! Too big to let fail! All starts to sound the same.
And the chorus goes like this: They deserve to make big money because they take big risks.
Chris Johnson
@scott (the other one): I’ve been saying for a while that Putin simply bought the NYT. I don’t care what name’s on it, paper newspapers have been fucked for decades in the era of internet, and they needed the money. They’re owned by the Russians.