AMI, the parent company of the National Enquirer, tried to extort Jeff Bezos, the multibillionaire owner of Amazon and the Washington Post. The lawyers threatened to post embarrassing photographs of him if he didn’t make certain statements that were untrue. Instead of bowing to their demands, he published their letters. His letter is wonderful.
It just goes to show that if you are a billionaire, you can laugh at extortionists.
The issue: AMI apparently doesn’t like the Washington Post coverage of the murder of Jamaal Khashoggi. It has a long history of protecting Trump and paying off women who want to sell their story of having a liaison with him.
Of interest to readers of this site: Austin Beutner, the superintendent of the LA public schools, was on the board of directors of AMI after his company invested in AMI.
Evercore Capital Partners, the controlling shareholder of American Media, Inc. (“AMI”), announced today that it has agreed to a recapitalization of AMI in partnership with Thomas H. Lee Partners (“THL”) that values the Company at $1.5 billion.
Evercore and THL investors will each fund approximately one-half of the total equity of $508 million in the recapitalization. Following the transaction, Evercore and THL will jointly control AMI.
“AMI has strong, well-established titles, consistent and substantial free cash flow, and terrific growth potential through advertising, pricing, brand extensions, the integration of the Weider transaction and new acquisitions. We are excited about the opportunity to partner with Evercore and David.”
The transaction will be structured as a recapitalization in which the original investors in the May 1999 purchase of AMI, led by Evercore, will sell their interests to the new investor group.
American Media Chairman, President & CEO David J. Pecker said, “This new capitalization of AMI better allows us to build a larger media company and makes the multi-billion dollar funds from Evercore and THL available to us. Thanks to the efforts of Austin Beutner and Evercore, our recent acquisition of Weider transformed us from a tabloid publisher into a consumer magazine company, and this new transaction will let us pursue even bigger targets. Thomas H. Lee Partners’ investment will be a great addition for AMI, not only in terms of capital, but also in their wealth of experience.”
Austin M. Beutner, Evercore President, said, “It has been a great and very profitable partnership with David Pecker and the team at AMI over the last four years and we look forward to the next phase of growth. As the company has proven itself in building significant value through acquisitions, and as the acquisition environment is becoming more favorable, we felt it prudent to recapitalize AMI in order to provide greater financial flexibility. We have partnered with our friends at THL in the past and look forward to continuing together the successful execution of AMI’s long-term strategy.”
Evercore Partners and Mr. Pecker acquired American Media in May of 1999. AMI purchased the Globe later that same year. Since then they have significantly enhanced the position and performance of AMI’s six tabloids, launched four successful new titles, become the leader in the country music magazine market, and recently purchased Weider Publications, the leading worldwide publisher of health and fitness titles, for $350 million. EBITDA has nearly doubled under their ownership.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Jeff Bezos should acquire AMI, a wholly owned subsidiary of Individual #1, and put Pecker out of business. One condition of the acquisition should ban Pecker from ever buying another media company. If we are all lucky enough, he might become editor of a prison newsletter to serialize the crimes of Manafort, Cohen. Butina (?), Stone (?), little Trump (?) Mohammed bin Salman (?).
You beat me to it. A company valued at $1.5 billion, if I read that right, would be pocket change for Bezos.
Except AMI is hurting for cash. Could be why Mr. Pecker was in Saudi Arabia in 2017/2018.
No, if we are all lucky enough, Bezos and Pecker share a prison cell where they dream together about what they will accomplish 50 years from now when they get out.
This is outrageous. LA Public School System should get out of AMI now before Bezos bankrupts it. The superintendent should be fired immediately. Beutner’s been in bed with Pecker for years. He has to know what a sleazy, miserable human being Pecker is now and has been for a very long time.
Thanks for letting us know. (I was surprised that I still have the capacity for outrage after 2+ years of a president who has numbed such sensitivity through his repeated assault on all of us.)
John Blaine Anchorage, AK
Sent from my iPad
>
Here is a better link to Jeff Bezo’s correspondence. He is taking AMI to the woodshed. I am sure there are countless others who have been scammed by AMI’s National Enquirer. https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f
The “Skills Gap” Was a Lie
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/02/the-skills-gap-jobs-unemployment-training
What I want to know (inquiring minds want to know – sorry), what exactly did Bezo’s investigation find that made AMI et el get so worried about?
Extortion
AMI wanted Wash Post to stop investigating Khashoggi murder.
I have found some interesting information: AMI has a deal with the Feds that says if they are found to have committed any crime after their non-prosecution agreement, the entire deal is off the table. That’s when they will be charged with all crimes they admitted to along with the new crimes.
Bezos unearthed new crimes, hence the demand to Bezos to make that statement and drop all investigations.
The moment I heard about the blog that Bezos posted regarding this attempt to blackmail the richest man in the world, I said to myself… BRAVO, at last someone standing up to the corrupters and saying, “ENOUGH.”
What AMI did was the RESULT… what happens when there is not a shred of ACCOUNTABILITY FOR A CULTURE OF LIES. Bezos is going to do what Congress cannot do!
”The destruction of the distinction between truth and falsehood is the foundation of dictatorship.” And along came Trump, whose love affair with falsehood, is the model! “Fake News!” he cries… and Pecker complies.
What Bezos did, — IMMUNE in his cocoon of enormous wealth — was to point a finger at the culprits, bringing at last, some accountability for the poisonous behavior of those WHO CONTROL THE MEDIA.
AMI helped to give us the pussy-grabber president.
AMI promised to refrain from criminal behavior in order to escape punishment for their role. But , Pecker (love the metaphor in his name) like Trump has no concept of the RULE OF LAW.
But I need to tell you— who read my words here— that this unfolds even AS I WRITE my essays on the UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES (‘U.C.) of New Technology — where I examine MENDACITY, and how WORDS MATTER! What is happening is very complicated. Who could have predicted the unintended consequences of information technology that was thrust upon us — homo sapiens –, by the internet.
This happens at the very moment that I am exploring this ERA of TRANSFORMATION — which like all transformational eras –have unintended consequences. (Think: agriculture instead of hunter-gathering, and the creation of cities — or industrialization and the impact on slavery).
This age of ‘information technology’ began in the forties, with television’s endless promotion of images, in order to PUSH stories AND BUILD AUDIENCES. Soon, television began to sell us everything from soap to politicians. Vance Packard, wrote “The Hidden Persuaders,” https://www.thesocialcontract.com/artman2/publish/tsc1004/article_903.shtml
He witnessed how tv was being used to control us! I read his book in 1962! Television was young, but the agencies that grasped how to use human behavior, created campaigns to influence people — the advertising ‘mad-men’ led the way to the subtle influences that sell everything from soap to politicians — by using subliminal messages!
In the nineties, I introduced my students to the subtle ways in which that medium sells VALUES… even as families, neighborhoods, communities, and schools were losing that role. Have you read, “In the Absence of the Sacred?” THE BEST EVER to explain when and how our values changed from the beneficial ones that parents and society once passed on, to the ones sold to us by corporate entities I read the introduction to my 7th grade, when I introduced my unit on Media and Communications, a subject that was part of my college education
Mander ALSO PREDICTED THE FUTURE in his book “Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television” long before the corporate entities that control EVERYTHING, began to sell disinformation in CYBERSPACE. https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=vbsPAAAAQBAJ&gl=us&source=productsearch&utm_source=HA_Desktop_US&utm_medium=SEM&utm_campaign=PLA&pcampaignid=MKTAD0930BO1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAkfriBRD1ARIsAASKsQK45IjRoZ0MsSDxd3_YkM7ETqoQwKWmEkeT8xo4icJiTAdsCAYCIWYaAmngEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
Now a word about LEARNING and our CHILDREN!
Our children WHO WATCHED THE BIG SCREEN — paid the price for the enormous changes in the value system that followed like night follows day… obesity, aggression and violence were the U.C. of the information technology of TELEVISION!
But now, in the age of cyberspace and the ubiquitous SMALL SCREEN, the human race goes to a place where anarchy rules. Hatred is being sold to divide us as a nation, just as cigarettes were sold back in the day and LAWLESSNESS PREVAILS… and our schools disappear. Anyone who drives these days, realizes that the laws are just suggestions.
You see, in this era of transformation, information technology never seen in history is inundating the people, with so many talking heads, so many pundits, and with so much false and misleading stories and memes, that ordinary folks, even bright, educated people who can think critically and have a modicum of prior knowledge, just give up.
It is even more a tidal wave to those who have little information about the past, or a small capacity to analyze. We edcuators call this information ‘prior knowledge.’
The schools cannot compete with this, and public education is under attack.
That is the reason why THIS behavior IS BEING CALLED THE WEAPONIZATION OF DISINFORMATION.
This is why a powerful man is standing up to DEFEND himself against an onslaught of lies.
Well, to sum up….
Jeff Bezos remembers when the RULE OF LAW was what made America (for all its flaws and failings) a special place in a world where liars and dictators often rule! And he has the $$$ to step up and OPEN THE CURTAIN on real FAKE NEWS.
DON’T YA LOVE THE IRONY? As a playwright I could not create the plot where Pecker and his Trump finally face the facts of their calumny.
My wish: Bezos buys the National Enquirer and it’s files. Publishes all the dirt in Pecker safe. Closes down the filthy rag.
You beat me to it!!! Hurrah!!!!
Mamie Krupczak Allegretti: One has to wonder who actually buys this garbage. Closing them down will not be a loss to decent journalism.
I did not include the link to “In the Absence of the Sacred,” which is a MUST READ!!!!
http://www.scottlondon.com/reviews/mander.html
It is just plain embarrassing to have a fellow of the national enquirer in charge of the education of L. A.’s children. A man is known by the company he keeps.
Sorry. Children not coldren
Seems like Austin Beutner doesn’t mind investing $ in companies whose businesses are run like the Mob. The scum tactics of AMI & the National Enquirer were an open secret to employees
https://www.thedailybeast.com/private-eyes-detail-inner-workings-of-national-enquirer-blackmail-machine?ref=scroll
“It may have shocked the world when the publisher of the National Enquirer allegedly tried to use nude pictures to coerce Jeff Bezos. But it came as no surprise to three veterans of the Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc.
“The threats, the blackmail, that’s their business model,” one former National Enquirer staffer told The Daily Beast.
And Daniel “Danno” Hanks, who said he worked as an on-contract investigator for the Enquirer “off and on” for 40 years, used the phrase “war of blackmail” to describe the AMI empire’s ethos.
“I’ve known this newspaper’s tactics for years, and I’d rather the truth be told,” Hanks said.”
So, Trump fathered an illegitimate child and AMI hired a powerful law firm to get AP to ‘abandon our reporting’. The story ran after months of delays. Why isn’t this enough to get rid of Trump? How much garbage can Trump do and nothing ever happens? AMI also threatened legal action against the Wall Street Journal when they attempted to report AMI’s role in keeping the Trump love child rumors under wraps. Trump has no morals and he is worshiped like a god by the Evangelicals. Good for Bezos in not caving in to this ‘blackmail’ machine.
………………………
Private Eyes Detail Inner Workings of National Enquirer ‘Blackmail’ Machine
By Lachlan Markay, Asawin Suebsaeng and Maxwell Tani, The Daily Beast
09 February 19
Threatening to reveal Jeff Bezos’ ‘dick p*ck’ was just the latest strong-arm tactic. ‘The nice way of calling it was quid pro quo,’ one veteran said, ‘but really it was blackmail.’
…Separately, when the Associated Press was preparing a story that would reveal AMI had effectively paid hush money to a source accusing Trump of fathering an illegitimate child, AMI hired the powerful law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to apply, in Birdis’ words, “a continuous amount of pressure to get us to abandon our reporting.”
Ultimately, the Associated Press’ story ran, but only after months of delays. An AP spokesperson told The Daily Beast the wire service did not initially publish the story because editors believed it did not meet the company’s standards….
Two sources with knowledge said lawyers, acting on behalf of AMI, also threatened legal action against the Wall Street Journal when the paper attempted to report on AMI’s role in keeping the Trump love child rumors under wraps…
https://www.thedailybeast.com/private-eyes-detail-inner-workings-of-national-enquirer-blackmail-machine?source=email&via=desktop
The ‘love child’ had not been confirmed by any other outlet/person. Wondering how many ‘catch & kill’ stories are in that safe of Pecker’s.
Pecker’s safe won’t protect him from this- If Manhattan prosecutors decide Pecker broke the law by extorting Bezos, he & AMI violated an immunity agreement that required him to stay clean for three years:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-08/national-enquirer-s-ami-said-to-be-scrutinized-over-bezos-story
“Federal prosecutors are reviewing the National Enquirer’s handling of its story about Jeff Bezos’ extramarital affair to determine if the company violated an earlier cooperation deal with prosecutors, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Prosecutors in the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office were provided with information about key exchanges concerning Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com Inc., who went public in a jaw-dropping public blog post Thursday night. In it, Bezos detailed exchanges with American Media Inc. and accused the company of extortion.
They are now reviewing whether there was any criminal activity or whether AMI, the National Enquirer’s parent company, violated an earlier agreement not to engage in criminal conduct. AMI reached that deal to avoid prosecution over its role to silence women who had relationships with President Donald Trump, agreements negotiated with his former lawyer Michael Cohen.”
Plus, Pecker & AMI may have benefited from some of that Saudi money! RutRo.
Bezos and his wife (the divorce isn’t final yet) is worth more than $130 billion.
“In November 2010, American Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection due to nearly $1 billion in debt, but has continued to buy and sell various magazine brands over the last 10 years.”
Bezos could buy AMI and merge all of its publications with The Washington Post, fire all of the current corrupt management and replace them with only reputable journalists.
The news fakers might have missed a thing or two…
“Bezos’ relationship with the military and spying agencies of the U.S. Government, and law enforcement agencies around the world, predates his purchase of the Washington Post and has become a central prong of Amazon’s business growth. Back in 2014, Amazon secured a massive contract with the CIA when the spy agency agreed to pay it $600 million for computing cloud software. As the Atlantic noted at the time, Amazon’s software “will begin servicing all 17 agencies that make up the intelligence community.”
As the ACLU put it: “Amazon is building the tools for authoritarian surveillance that advocates, activists, community leaders, politicians, and experts have repeatedly warned against.”
But hey,
as long as JB(give me some of that “public money” before I set up shop in your town)
pings the villians…
I am glad Jeff Bezos is standing up against Pecker.
One thing that really bothers me is that there are some ignorant media types that are making the false equivalency that this is like Peter Thiel suing Gawker and putting it out of business.
Now as far as I know, Gawker specialized in revealing things that famous people might have wanted to keep hidden. They did not go to the celebrity and say “I will not publish xx if you do this for me.” If Gawker had gone to Thiel and said “we will out you unless you do xxx”, that would be similar to what the National Enquirer did to Pecker and apparently to other people like Ronan Farrow.
I remember back in the day when the National Enquirer was in the business of just publishing embarrassing revelation about politicians (i.e. Gary Hart/John Edwards) and NOT trying to extort powerful people into doing something that was helpful to the politicians they supported.
As much as I find it disgusting, it is fair game to publish embarrassing details about a celebrity’s life that a tabloid learned about (assuming those details were not illegally obtained).
But it is a criminal activity to use your tabloid to extort someone to do what you want by threatening to publish something embarrassing about them.
That isn’t a free press, that is blackmail.
And buying negative stories about a politician in order to lock them in a vault in order to protect that politician’s political career is not journalism and I’m not sure it is even legal. At the least, it certainly seems like a political contribution to their campaign.
“I remember back in the day when the National Enquirer was in the business of just publishing embarrassing revelation about…” Add celebrities to the mix. They published a false story about Carol Burnett. She stood up to them, sued, and won.
So, no wonder why I had such a strenuous time while on the State Board of Education! I knew there were shenanigans going on to use public money for private gain, but at the time I was thoroughly confused why a democratic board seemed to me to be selling out. I could not figure out why a President whom I respected in nearly every other way was committed to such a lousy plan like Race To The Top, the main components of which were to transfer public money to private concerns, nationalize standardized testing and common core curriculum providing private profit, diminish teacher autonomy, segregate districts, and close schools for poor children. I knew many neo-liberal democrats were profiting. I knew Corey Booker, now running for President, was steeped in his support for charter schools. I figured some lobbyists had tapped into him among many other democrats who were (hello!) aligned with republicans on this issue. Why? I kept asking myself.
But now here is the kicker. Jeff Bezos, Owner of Amazon, is being blackmailed by David Pecker, owner of AMI that publishes The National Enquirer. Pecker is a friend of President Trump. Pecker (appropriate name) tried to keep women from telling their stories of affairs with Donald Trump. But you could have knocked me over with a feather when I discovered that the Superintendent of Schools in LA – Austin Beutner – is on the Board of AMI. AND he is responsible for adding to the growth of that company that publishes the sleazy Enquirer. Can you believe he is also responsible for the education of American kids in the largest city in the country? He runs Evercore Capital Partners, and he has the poor kids of LA first in his heart? I can only imagine the quality of the journalism courses in his purview.
Of course, Jeff Bezos also owns the Washington Post which lately has been publishing stories attempting to get justice for the brutal killing of its reporter Jamaal Khashoggi. Everyone in the world believes Khashoggi was murdered at the behest of the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, everyone, that is, except The Trump Administration. Bezos was warned to back off the attacks against Saudi Arabia by Pecker, a valued friend of Austin Beutner, Superintendent of Schools in LA. He was warned to back off by Pecker or Pecker would publish more sleazy photos of Bezos. Did I mention that Pecker and the LA Public School Superintendent are buddies? Partners? The LA School chief helps finance a sleazy rag one minute, and the next minute is helping poor kids from the ghetto sing “America, the Beautiful”.
Everything seems connected – Privatization of Schools, sleazy politics, tax cuts for the fabulously rich, busting unions, immoral wars, the demise of democracy, the lessening of the social contract. Here is a public statement:
American Media Chairman, President & CEO David J. Pecker said, “This new capitalization of AMI better allows us to build a larger media company and makes the multi-billion dollar funds from Evercore and THL available to us. Thanks to the efforts of Austin Beutner and Evercore, our recent acquisition of Weider transformed us from a tabloid publisher into a consumer magazine company, and this new transaction will let us pursue even bigger targets. Thomas H. Lee Partners’ investment will be a great addition for AMI, not only in terms of capital, but also in their wealth of experience.”
Did I mention Austin Beutner is Superintendent of LA Public schools? Did you notice part of the above quote says that “this new transaction will let us pursue even bigger targets”? Jeff Bezos is a pretty big target.
Yesterday the President of the United States made a statement in which he actually said The National Enquirer is a better newspaper than the Washington Post. That in itself should tell you the world is upside down.
The Post condemns the brutal murder of Khashoggi, the preponderance of evidence pointed straight at the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. The National Enquirer put out a spread on the Crown Prince praising him as a wonderful leader. The Post condemns the murder. The Enquirer praises the murderer. Trump loves the Enquirer. Trump hates the Post.
Where do you think the Superintendent of LA Public Schools stands? I do know he stands for more school privatization, but so does Corey Booker, and for that matter, so did Barack Obama. No wonder teachers are rebelling. Imagine folks like Beutner – who partner with thugs like Pecker who partner with murderers – in charge of the education of our children. Would you trust the education of your child to a system that selects Beutner as its head? Do you wonder how many educational leaders are more like the LA Chief than not? I do not wonder. I know now – Beutner is not alone.
The Dapper Don: If the US Were Run by a Mob Boss. . . .
So, Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, which hasn’t been a Faux-News-style cheerleader for Vlad’s Agent Orange, aka Lacquer Man, aka Comb-over Don. aka Prez Pinocchio, aka Don the Con, aka Donnie “J-fo’-Jerk” Trumpsty. After Trump continued to fawn over the leader of the government that MURDERED a Washington Post reporter and the Post dared to run articles suggesting that murdering reporters isn’t OK, suddenly the company AMI, publisher of the rag known as the National Enquirer owned by one of Don Cheeto Trumpbalone’s capos with the altogether perfect name of “Pecker,” started trying to extort and blackmail Bezos, and they did this by threatening to run pictures and texts hacked from Bezos’s phone. Bezos’s own investigators are saying that this looks as though it was the work of a foreign government. This hacking by foreign governments to serve Trump’s interests has become insanely routine.
So, hacking, collusion, extortion, blackmail. Typical mobster-type behavior, huh? Kudos to Mr. Bezos for standing up to this obscene, criminal behavior on the part of the most embarrassing President in our history.
Oh, did I mention Trump’s history of money laundering and hiding his tax returns and requiring loyalty oaths of subordinates?
The full story of Trump’s business with the Russian mob. Now that’s one that inquiring minds would like to know more about.
Glad Bezos will go after AMI. Well deserved.
Like what he’s done w/WaPo, too–“Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
&, I believe (& correct me if I’m wrong), he actually listened to Bernie’s criticism & gave Amazon workers raises. (Of course, w/his money, a lot more could be done, but he’s not the Waltons, either.)
Yes, Jeff Bezos is allegedly the wealthiest person on the planet (until the divorce is settled and his wife walks away with half of his net worth).
But, there is a difference between net worth and actual cash in the bank.
Most of his net worth is invested in his Amazon stocks. To get that in dollars, he’d have to sell the stocks.
I tried to learn how much Bezos actually has in cash (not invested in stocks), but couldn’t find a number.
Net worth counted in stocks and investments can go down almost as fast as it can go up.
To be honest, I’d be willing to let Bezos keep all of his stocks and investments if he was willing to give me all of the cash he had in his bank accounts yesterday. I wonder how much that is.
What would you do with that cash, Lloyd?
Pay off the mortgage, the car, and the HERO loan. Then if enough was left, I’d buy some acreage and build a custom home on it but only if I had the cash.
If any money was left, I’d use it to pay for more promotion/ads for my books. I’d even pay for new book covers and spend more on editing.
Any money that was left, would sit in my savings account in case of rainy days.
This kind of cash would only be a one time event so I wouldn’t want to waste it.
So you’d spend about half a million and would keep 1 billion for rainy days? How big rain do you expect? 🙂
When we had an over a billion in lottery here, I thought over how much money 1 billion is. It turns out that if you spend $100K a day, and you don’t take any vacations from spending, you’d have work on spending $1 billion for about 30 years.
So I sat down, and tried to think of reasonable ways of spending $100K, but I really ran out of ideas after 1 year of spending ($36 million).
Mate, you would not run out of money in 30 years, because your $1 billion would be earning money every day. Even while you sleep.
Well, I’d be spending a lot more than half-a-million.
My idea of building my own home means buying at least 10 acres (secluded) in the Bay area somewhere, and the house would have at least three underground levels in addition to the one-story house on the surface that would have very thick bulletproof walls. Each of the four levels including the one on the surface would be about 1,600 square feet each.
Every window would also come with bulletproof, roll-down metal shades; maybe the acreage would have a wall around it, a high, really difficult wall to climb or break through. Lots of concrete and rebar. The window covers would probably buy layers of titanium sandwiching the latest bulletproof material.
There would be solar panels, wind power, hydrogen fuel cells so the estate would be off the grid.
Actually, I’d rather have at least a hundred to a thousand acres with the house somewhere in the center.
That means whatever money was left would be saved to pay the property tax until I died and then I wouldn’t care what happened to the place. The idea is to have a place that stands a chance of surviving climate change and the coming Civil War between Trump’s army of racists and the rest of us.
Oh, after it was finished, I’d move out of my current house and probably sell it.
My understanding is that many of the billionaires already built such places for themselves exactly for surviving the uprising against them. Perhaps it was you, Lloyd, who posted an article about this.
I have found this New Yorker article about this stuff.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich
The strange thing for me is that these techy billionaires are afraid that when AI takes over many jobs, they will be the target of the uprising against the creators of AI, but it doesn’t occur to them that perhaps the profit made by AI should go to support shorter work days, longer vacations, instead of their own pocket.
At least it seems to be logical and fair to me that as AI takes over more and more jobs, people move to work in the remaining jobs and work less and less for the same salary. Then there would be no uprising.
Máté Wierdl: What a creepy article. Many of the wealthy are planning to escape to some safer place when the climate change, nuclear bomb, revolution of the increasingly poor or any other disaster occurs. Their narrow-minded thinking is ‘me first’ and ‘only me’. There is a lot of that going around and it is personified by Trump.
This is interesting:
“In the first seven days after Donald Trump’s election, 13,401 Americans registered with New Zealand’s immigration authorities, the first official step toward seeking residency—more than seventeen times the usual rate. The New Zealand Herald reported the surge beneath the headline “trump apocalypse.”
There is still hope:
I wouldn’t buy a bunker,” Elli Kaplan, the C.E.O. of the digital health startup Neurotrack, told me. “I would reinvest in civil society and civil innovation.”
I might have shared a piece about wealthy tech people buying lots in New Zealand and having underground shelters installed.
These billionaires live in the states planning to rush to New Zealand and hide when the collapse comes.
I wonder if they all own private jets that can fly that far without needing to refuel. Most private executive style jets are limited to 3,000 miles or less and the cost for an airliner that can fly that far is very expensive not counting maintenance and upkeep.
Their escape plans must be really expensive. It might be cheaper to invest in private armies to guard them and their families like the Koch brothers have done.
Betsy is costing around a million a month. How much is really being spent to give security to Trump. I would imagine he is aware of the number of people who can’t stand him. [He’d never admit it since he is the best president in the history of the US.] Does he still pay to have his own security guards? Bet he does.
………………
11 Private Security Firms Guarding Donald Trump
Donald Trump’s longtime fascination with having his own private security force is now a hefty campaign expense that might be illegal.
The campaign might not want to talk about it, but Trump has contracted 11 security firms, security-guard services, and dozens of individuals as he’s campaigned around the country. And a handful of the private companies are run by retired, high-ranking law-enforcement personnel. It’s unclear if any of them are armed in their capacity on the Trump campaign.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/11-private-security-firms-guarding-donald-trump?source=email&via=desktop
Only a non-existing brain like Trump’s would call the National Enquirer ‘far more accurate’ than WaPo. I see the Enquirer’s front page when checking out from grocery shopping and groan at the lack of journalistic integrity. Inaccurate exploitation would be a better description. It used to be called yellow journalism.
…………………………………
Trump mocks “Jeff Bozo” while calling National Enquirer “more accurate” than Washington Post
President Trump praised the National Enquirer without naming it on Sunday night, while calling Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos “Jeff Bozo.”
“So sorry to hear the news about Jeff Bozo being taken down by a competitor whose reporting, I understand, is far more accurate than the reporting in his lobbyist newspaper, the Amazon Washington Post. Hopefully the paper will soon be placed in better & more responsible hands!”
Why it matters: The National Enquirer is the publication that published many of the details on the end of Bezos’ marriage. Its parent company admitted making a payment “in concert with” the Trump campaign to buy and suppress a story about Trump’s alleged affair with Playboy model Karen McDougal.
& this is why the moniker (good one, Diane!) “IQ45” is accurate!
I wonder if ‘impartial” fact-checkers who are revealing their blatant partisanship against Trump are coming from WaPo that keeps track of his over 8,000 whole or partial lies. I’m so glad that I’m better off than a year ago. I needed to read this to find out. [Sarcasm]
This was posted from the WH.
…………………….
Boom: Best Economic Optimism in 16 years, 50% ‘Better Off’ Under President Trump
“Public optimism in their personal economy has hit a 16-year high under President Trump, according to a new survey. Some 69 percent told Gallup that they expect their personal finances to be even better next year,” Paul Bedard reports for the Washington Examiner.
“What’s more, the survey company said that 50 percent believe they are ‘better off’ than just a year ago when the current economic surge was kicking in. . . Gallup said that is the first time the level has reach 50 percent since 2007.”
……………
In the New York Post, David Harsanyi writes that “impartial” fact-checkers are revealing their blatant partisanship against President Trump. “With a veneer of impartiality, fact-checkers often engage in a uniquely dishonest style of partisanship. And State of Union coverage gave us an abundance of examples of how they do it.”