The super-rich are different from us. Very different. Jeff Bezos is worth more than $200 billion. Right now, he is the richest person in the world, which must be annoying to Elon Musk.
Bezos probably worries about a lot of things, but not money. However, he did worry about his prize trophy, The Washington Post, which had gotten bad press for the last few weeks (see previous posts today), due to Bezos filling the top ranks with journalists from the Murdoch empire. Bezos took a few minutes to send a reassuring email to Post executives, according to Richard Johnson at the New York Daily News. Did he worry about morale? Nah. Does he worry about morale at Amazon? Nah. He is having a really good time right now in the Greek Islands with his fiancée.
Johnson wrote:
Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest man according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, interrupted his holiday in the Mediterranean to deal with a crisis at The Washington Post, which he owns.
In a Tuesday email to Post execs backing his embattled publisher Will Lewis, Bezos said, “The journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change.”
Lewis, a Brit, is under fire for some of the sleazy reporting tactics used at papers he worked for in London.
The Amazon founder — worth $211 billion — and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez were on the Greek island Mykonos.
The loved-up duo flew into Greece on one of their three private jets, worth $65 million apiece, to sail around the Greek islands for a week.
Sanchez, who has a pilot’s license, flew one of their helicopters from the airport and landed on their $500 million super yacht Koru, which means “new beginnings” in Maori.
The boat features a topless figure of Freyja, the Norse goddess of love and fertility, on the bow.
To get to dinner, the couple choppered off their boat and landed in town where they were whisked to Noema, a restaurant in the old part of the city, in a black SUV with tinted windows followed by a van with four security guards.
Because no cars are allowed in the historical part of the city, the couple had to walk to the restaurant trailed by armed guards.
Sanchez, in a low-cut and figure-hugging yellow dress, and Bezos, dressed in cream-colored short-sleeved shirt and navy slacks, smiled and waved to the crowds who started yelling out his name and giving him the thumbs up.
The pair requested a corner table for themselves and another couple. Bezos’ security made it clear to the staff that the mogul didn’t want to talk to anyone and “wanted to get in and out in one hour.”
Bezos ordered the boîte’s famed fresh lobster over pasta while Sanchez ordered a selection of sushi.
Observers said the tanned and fit couple looked “madly in love,” noting that on the way out Bezos gallantly held Sanchez’s hand as they navigated the steep steps and the narrow, rocky road back to their chopper.
Insiders say Bezos installed a cutting-edge beauty salon on the boat for Sanchez, who travels with a hairdresser, makeup artist, and manicurist, to be camera ready at all times.
The billionaire also keeps a second $80 million support craft near his main boat where he keeps his staff and all the “water toys.”
One can’t help wondering why he was upset about the Post losing $77 million last year. And why he had to buy out 240 employees.

The only ethos of the super rich is accumulate more wealth and power. Screwing others along the way is collateral damage of no concern.
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When Eugene Meyer bought The Washington Post in 1933 he established a set of guiding principles for the newspaper and its employees.
The first was” to tell the truth as nearly as the truth can be ascertained.”
The other principles included:
* “The newspaper’s duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owners.”
* “The Newspaper shall tell ALL the truth so far as it can learn it.”
* “In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good.”
* “The newspaper shall not be the ally of any special interest, but shall be fair and free and wholesome in its outlook on public affairs.”
I think it’s fair to say that there has been some genuine “slippage” under Jeff Bezos.
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These guys are in need of undergoing a moral conversion the likes of which was portrayed by Liam Neeson as the real guy, Oskar Schindler, in Schindler’s List. Otherwise, it seems they cannot be stopped either by their egregious oversights about what they could do about world problems, or in actively destroying everything good that ever occurred in the unfolding of world events.
Do those who people the oligarch class really think that the power situation will remain the same under a fascist with today’s military, political, and social power? CBK
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I don’t think that Bezos, Musk, Thiel, Zuckerberg care about anything other than their personal wealth. Google the movie “Elysium”.
Bezos and company want safety for themselves. The rest of us are fodder.
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Birdchum: Yes, . . . and that’s exactly why nothing less than a moral conversion remains a potential if not actual scenario. If history tells its tale and is rightly heard, or heard at all, waiting for fascism is a prescription for self-destruction. So, there’s the THAT that takes us all down with it. CBK
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Elysium was spot on.
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Visible By Name :30 (youtube.com)
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To be camera ready at any moment? Sounds exhausting. I guess money can’t buy everything . . .
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lkylequeen: That’s why the English “ruling classes” used to insist on dressing so differently from the poor and “working classes” . . . to secure in everyone’s minds even through their attire, the fake difference between them and those who worked for them. It’s the spread of real blood and economic differences to falsely infect educational, moral, political, and even spiritual differences.
What a waste of human energy and potential creativity vanity is. CBK
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