Bezos ignored offer to save jobs of dozens of journalists
The owner of The Washington City Paper offered to buy The Washington Post’s sports and local news desks weeks before the journalists on those teams were laid off. But Post owner Jeff Bezos ignored the offer. From The Verge:
Sources close to the discussion said Mark Ein, the owner of the City Paper and a part owner of the Washington Commanders, had approached then-CEO [Will] Lewis weeks ago with a proposal: They could instead spin sports and local into a separate entity that the City Paper would then invest in and host on its platform. (News organizations selling off sections and IPs is not an unheard-of phenomenon.)
Though Lewis was reportedly receptive, the discussions abruptly ended last Wednesday, when the Post closed those sections altogether and laid off the journalists who staffed them.
Bezos on Saturday shared his first public comments about the paper since having hundreds of Post journalists fired last week. “The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity,” Bezos wrote. “Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”
This Week in Bezos:
Amazon’s tax bill has been dramatically reduced thanks to Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Last week, Politico reported that Amazon “ran a $1.2 billion tax bill last year, down from $9 billion the previous year, and even as its profits jumped by 45 percent to nearly $90 billion.” (Politico)
Amazon’s headquarters in Milan, Italy, was raided on Thursday as part of a new tax evasion probe led by the country’s Guardia di Finanza tax police. Amazon managers have also been targeted in the investigation. (Reuters)
Instead of trimming his hedges to the maximum height dictated by municipal code, Bezos appears to be eating a $1,000 monthly fee for the towering shrubbery bordering his Beverly Hills mansion. (The Hollywood Reporter)
A photo from Epstein’s ‘wild’ night with Musk, Zuck, and Thiel
A photo from the “wild” 2015 dinner party that Jeffrey Epstein attended alongside Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel was included in the Justice Department’s release of files related to the late sex offender. It’s unclear who took the photo, but Epstein emailed a copy of it to himself. Musk and Zuckerberg are pictured sitting at the table, along with Priscilla Chan, the Facebook founder’s partner.
That dinner was hosted by LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, a billionaire and Democratic Party megadonor who communicated frequently with Epstein. In various emails, Hoffman asked Epstein if he could visit his private island in the Caribbean, while Epstein invited Hoffman to both his island and his New Mexico ranch to “play.” In one email from 2014, Hoffman told Epstein that he had gifts shipped to his New York home, including ice cream “for the girls” and “something that may strike your funny bone for the island.” Hoffman has claimed he “only knew” Jeffrey Epstein through his work as a fundraiser for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The latest Justice Department document dumps illustrate Epstein’s close ties to Big Tech elites. Epstein even sought to use his role as a philanthropic advisor to Microsoft founder Bill Gates to rehabilitate his reputation following his 2008 conviction for soliciting an underage girl. (Gates’ ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, said last week that Gates must answer for his relationship with Epstein.)
Epstein was also close to Gates’ protégé Steven Sinofsky, a former Microsoft executive. In 2012, Epstein helped negotiate Sinofsky’s departure from Microsoft, with Sinofsky telling Epstein that he would give him a share of his exit payment. Epstein, meanwhile, told Sinofsky he could put him in touch with Apple CEO Tim Cook, who, he said, “was excited” to meet Sinofsky.
Epstein said he ‘gave another girl’ to Musk’s brother
New documents released by the Justice Department suggest that Jeffrey Epstein provided at least two women to Kimbal Musk, the younger brother of Elon Musk and a Tesla board member since 2004.
“I gave another girl to kimball and he is thrilled,” Epstein wrote in a June 2015 message to a person named Sanita. “I told him you prefer dark eyes.”
That message came less than three years after Kimbal had first thanked Epstein and his associate, Boris Nikolic, for “connecting me with Jennifer.” (Nikolic is a venture capitalist who at one point “served as chief advisor for science and technology to Bill Gates,” according to a biography on his venture firm’s website.)
Kimbal, who was a member of SpaceX’s board of directors at the time, appears to have been introduced to the woman referred to as “Jennifer” at his 40th birthday party. In a September 2012 email, Nikolic told Epstein, “Kimbal, Elon and few of their closest friends will go out that night.” He also noted that Kimbal had agreed to have Epstein and “Jen” join them. “[Kimbal] said yes and is looking so much forward. So please prepare Jen — ;),” Nikolic wrote to Epstein.
The following morning, Kimbal emailed Nikolic, saying he had had a “Fun time last night” and added, “Let Jeffrey and his friends know they are invited tomorrow night. Four Seasons. 7pm. Black tie.”
In a Monday statement, Kimbal, who holds roughly $500 million in Tesla stock, denied visiting the island while attempting to downplay his relationship with Epstein. “The reason he has so many emails from me is because he was subscribed to a newsletter I sent out to thousands of people every few weeks,” he wrote.
Musk wants to build a satellite-launching catapult on the Moon
Elon Musk had a revelation on Sunday: The Moon is closer to Earth than Mars, and thus easier to reach. Since then, he has shared his plans for a lunar city, despite insisting for years that SpaceX was focused on building a Martian colony.
As part of his new lunar obsession, Musk informed xAI employees on Tuesday that their work would include building an AI satellite factory on the Moon, along with a massive catapult to hurl them into space. From The New York Times:
Inspired by the billionaire’s love of science fiction, the space catapult would be called a mass driver, and would be part of an imagined lunar facility that manufactured satellites to provide the computing power for the company’s A.I.
“You have to go to the moon,” Mr. Musk said during an all-hands meeting, which was heard by The New York Times. The move would help xAI harness more power than other companies to build its A.I., he said.
“It’s difficult to imagine what an intelligence of that scale would think about, but it’s going to be incredibly exciting to see it happen,” he added.
Last week, Mr. Musk said he was merging xAI with his rocket business, SpaceX, to facilitate his plans to create A.I. data centers in outer space. Now that vision has expanded to include the lunar facility, though he did not say in his hourlong talk, which also featured remarks from other executives, how it could be built.
Reuters reported last week that xAI was acquired by SpaceX as a wholly owned subsidiary. “As a subsidiary, xAI’s debt, legal liabilities and contracts remain separate from the corporate parent, allowing xAI to run its operations independently while helping to insulate SpaceX from any investigations and litigation X may face,” the report read. Additionally, the merger was a tax-free reorganization, “allowing xAI shareholders to defer taxes on the SpaceX shares they receive as part of the deal until they sell their stake.”
This Week in Musk:
The National Labor Relations Board has dismissed a case alleging that SpaceX illegally fired eight employees. The labor regulator used an argument made by SpaceX’s own lawyers to explain why it dropped the case, stating that it lacked the jurisdiction to handle it. “This is one of a million terrible things going on in the U.S. right now,” said Deborah Lawrence, one of the fired SpaceX employees. “It’s an example of one of the many ways that our government is now actively hostile to its people, including when it comes to labor law.” (New York Times)
In January, Musk posted about race on X almost every single day, according to an analysis by The Guardian. Among his posts was one that claimed, “Whites are a rapidly dying minority.” (The Guardian)
Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Andy Kim urged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to investigate Chinese investments in SpaceX that could pose “national security” threats. (Reuters)
Zuckerberg buys South Florida mansion amid California billionaire tax push
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently purchased a South Florida home, joining a growing number of Silicon Valley oligarchs who have sought to establish new residences amid a one-off California tax proposal targeting billionaires.
The home Zuckerberg purchased is located on Indian Creek, an artificial island in Biscayne Bay, Miami. A Wall Street Journal estimate valued the home at $150-200 million. Jeff Bezos previously purchased three properties on Indian Creek for a combined $230 million. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump also own a home on the island.
Zuckerberg’s other properties include a $112 million compound in Palo Alto, a $22 million estate on Lake Tahoe, a sprawling $100 million, 2,300-acre ranch in Hawaii, and a $23 million mansion in Washington, D.C.
This Week in Zuck:
In December, Meta received a patent for a large language model capable of simulating a person’s social media presence after their death. “The language model may be used for simulating the user when the user is absent from the social networking system, for example, when the user takes a long break or if the user is deceased,” the patent reads. A Meta spokesperson claimed the company has “no plans to move forward with this example.” (Business Insider)
As part of a landmark social media addiction trial in California, Stanford University professor Anna Lembke testified that Meta uses features like Instagram’s “infinite scroll” to hook young users. Instagram executive Adam Mosseri testified that users cannot be “clinically addicted” to social media apps. (AFP)
Meta is facing a separate trial brought by New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez, who has accused Meta of failing to protect minors on their platform. “What we are really alleging is that Meta has created a dangerous product, a product that enables not only the targeting of children, but the exploitation of children in virtual spaces and in the real world,” Torrez said in a Monday interview. (CNBC)
Trump admin threatens Apple for ‘suppressing’ conservative news outlets
On Wednesday, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook demanding that he address a report from a right-wing nonprofit claiming that “Apple News has systematically promoted news articles from left-wing news outlets and suppressed news articles from more conservative publications.”
Ferguson’s letter continued: “Big Tech companies that suppress or promote news articles in their news aggregators or feeds based on the perceived ideological or political viewpoint of the article or publication may violate the FTC Act if that suppression or promotion (1) is inconsistent with the terms and conditions of service; (2) is contrary to consumers’ reasonable expectations such that failure to disclose the ideological favoritism is a material omission; or (3) when those practices cause substantial injury.”
The report Ferguson cited to support his letter was published by the Media Research Center, a media nonprofit funded by conservative megadonor Robert Mercer.
Oligarch Roundup
Crypto startup founded by Trump donor receives national bank charter. Last week, Erebor Bank, which specializes in cryptocurrencies, became the first bank to receive a national charter during Trump’s second term. Erebor was founded by Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, a longtime Trump backer, and its investors include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Andreessen Horowitz, and Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale, another outspoken supporter of the president. (Wall Street Journal)
The federal government is using Grok to give Americans nutrition advice. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently launched a new government nutrition website, Realfood.gov, unveiled in a Super Bowl ad starring retired boxer Mike Tyson. The site, which criticizes ultra-processed foods and calls for an end to “the war on protein,” uses Elon Musk’s controversial Grok chatbot to advise Americans on the kinds of “real food” they should eat. Curiously, a Wired reporter found that the chatbot disagreed with RFK Jr.’s call for Americans to consume more protein. (Wired)
CBS News producer departs over network’s ‘new vision.’ Producer Alicia Hastey was one of the numerous CBS News employees who accepted buyouts last week amid a round of layoffs imposed by the network’s new owner, David Ellison, and his conservative editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss. In an exit statement, Hastey cited how the network has changed under the Trump-aligned Ellison, who is the son of centibillionaire Larry Ellison. Stories are being “evaluated not just on their journalistic merit but on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations — a dynamic that pressures producers and reporters to self-censor or avoid challenging narratives that might trigger backlash or unfavorable headlines,” Hastey wrote. (The Wrap)
Ellisons offer new sweeteners in hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance, the media conglomerate owned by the Ellison family, has again upped its effort to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), offering WBD shareholders a $0.25-per-share ticking fee, payable quarterly if the deal fails to close by December 31, 2026. Paramount also offered to cover $1.5 billion in debt refinancing and the $2.8 billion termination fee WBD would incur if it terminated its already agreed-upon sale to Netflix. Those sweeteners are in addition to Paramount’s $30-per-share offer to buy WBD. In turn, the Ellisons’ dream of buying their way into the largest entertainment and news conglomerate in history appears to be gaining traction: At WBD, one activist investor — Ancora Partners, which disclosed a $200 million stake — advocated for a sale to Paramount, citing a more favorable regulatory path. (The Hollywood Reporter)
The billionaire Trump donor who relied on cheap migrant labor. Dick Uihlein, owner of the Uline shipping company and a Republican megadonor who gave $59 million to help Trump’s 2024 campaign, relied on a “shuttle program” for years that moved workers from Mexico to his company’s warehouses in the U.S. “They told us we had to go to the United States because there were not many people who were working at that time. It was around the time of the pandemic,” former Uline employee Christian Valenzuela told The Guardian. Migrant workers like Valenzuela earned significantly less than their American peers. The company’s use of migrant labor is particularly notable in light of a December speech that JD Vance gave at a Uline facility in Pennsylvania, during which he called for the removal of “illegal aliens” and promised to “reward companies that build here in America and give good wages to do it.” (The Guardian)
The Financial Corruption is Overwhelming
I think it is terrific that so many oligarchs are building their monstrous mansions near trump in south Florida. Since trump cancelled EPA regulations, climate change will accelerate and they will all either be destroyed by a massive hurricane or be under water as the oceans rise. All their money and power cannot save them from the forces of nature and science.