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

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

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

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

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

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      17 hours ago

      I wish it was easier to shop local :/

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

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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        3 minutes ago

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

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

      • Elextra
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        15 hours ago

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

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

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

      • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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        10 hours ago

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

      • ImADifferentBird@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        16 hours ago

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

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

    • punkaccountant@lemm.ee
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      15 hours ago

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

      • WxFisch@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

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

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      shop local

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

      • zabadoh@ani.social
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        15 hours ago

        Think of it as supporting your neighbors.

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

    • Homescool@lemmy.world
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      15 hours ago

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

      • Granbo's Holy Hotrod@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

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

        • Homescool@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

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

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