Showing posts with label Jeff Bezos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jeff Bezos. Show all posts

Monday, July 15, 2024

The Media's Irony Impairment and the Trump Assassination Attempt

The left-leaning media in the Western world has long used Hitler as the model for a fascist dictator, however, in recent years we've seen Donald Trump repeatedly compared to Adolf Hitler as a means to drive voters away from Trump's agenda.  In this posting, we'll look at one example and how the owner of the media company that published the opinion piece is obviously irony impaired.

  

On December 20, 2023, this missive appeared in the Washington Post:

 


The author of the opinion piece is Mike Godwin, an American attorney and author and formulator of Godwin's law aka Godwin's rule of Hitler analogies which is expressed as follows:

 

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Hitler approaches 1." (i.e. a 100 percent certainty)."

  

Godwin's law implies that the level of discourse regarding a subject has devolved to the degree that further discussion is absolutely pointless with the person who mentions Hitler being the loser in any argument.

  

Despite his creation of Godwin's law, he makes the following remarks in his Washington Post opinion piece:

 

"But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy.

 

And that’s why Godwin’s Law isn’t violated — or confirmed — by the Biden reelection campaign’s criticism of Trump’s increasingly unsubtle messaging. We had the luxury of deriving humor from Hitler and Nazi comparisons when doing so was almost always hyperbole. It’s not a luxury we can afford anymore."

 

He also notes that not only is Trump's authoritarian bent an issue, so is his use of certain dog-whistle words like "vermin" which Trump has used to describe those who oppose him and that the current influx of undocumented immigrants which he claims are "poisoning the blood of our country" which Godwin claims parallels Hitler's rhetoric about the "untermenschen" which included Jews, gays and gypsies not to mention the Slavic people as a whole.

 

His opinion piece closes with this:

 

"Will Trump succeed in being crowned “dictator for a day”? I hope not. But I choose to take Trump’s increasingly heedless transgressiveness — and, yes, I really do think he knows what he’s doing — as a positive development in one sense: More and more of us can see in his cynical rhetoric precisely the kind of dictator he aims to be."

 

So basically, Mike Godwin has fallen into a trap of his own making, hoisting himself on his own petard.

 

Now, you may say that the Washington Post merely published Mr. Godwin's opinion piece in the interest of maintaining political balance and that the intent was not that the piece was to be a dog whistle for the left/Democrats.  I would suggest that you may want to rethink that idea this quote from this Washington Post article in 2013 which was published when Jeff Bezos took over the WaPo:

 

 

Given his leaning to the left of the political spectrum, I would propose that it is highly unlikely that the Washington Post would have published Mr. Godwin's opinion piece comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler if it did not pass Jeff Bezos' approval.

  

Now, let's close with this tweet that Jeff Bezos posted about "Hitler" after there was an attempt on Donald Trump's life on July 13, 2024:

 

So, apparently it's okay for the rulers to be thankful that "Hitler" is safe after his brush with death.


The irony impairment evident among some of the ruling class is, to put it mildly, stunning.  Apparently, running "assassination porn" against Donald Trump is okay until someone swallows the KoolAid and decides to take matters into their own hands, perhaps staining the political left and its pathological hatred of the "far right".


Monday, March 18, 2024

Jeff Bezos and Biomanufactured Food - Our Fake Food Future

This announcement recently appeared on the Bezos Earth Fund website:

 


The Bezos Earth Fund was established in 2020 by Amazon's Jeff Bezos in 2020 with a funding commitment of $20 billion to be disbursed by 2030 as grants to address climate and nature.  Here's a quote from their "Who We Are" and "Our Journey" webpages:

 

"The problems we face require all hands on-deck. Philanthropy has a crucial role to play in providing effective flexible funds and risk-taking capacity, and in bringing independent expertise to the design of solutions. The Bezos Earth Fund team is a new philanthropy, and as such we are still learning from others. We are building an inspiring team of thought leaders, problem solvers, and doers from scientific, government, private, and nonprofit backgrounds, all working to deliver transformational change in these critical times."

 

"The Bezos Earth Fund was established with the largest philanthropic commitment ever to fight climate change and protect nature. We aim to harness the best of human ingenuity, adaptability, and collective action to create a future in which everyone can thrive."


Yes indeed, everyone can thrive...but by everyone, they mean the global aristocracy.

 

So far, $1.63 billion in funding has been disbursed by the Bezos Earth Fund since the first grants were made in November 2020.

 

As an aside, the choice of 2030 as a timeframe is not random, it just happens to be the date by which the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals must be achieved.

  

On March 12, 2024, the Bezos Earth Fund Vice Chair, Lauren Sanchez (who just happens to be Jeff Bezos fiancee) announced an initial $60 million commitment to establish Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein as part of the Bezos Earth Fund's commitment to "food transformation".  Here is a quote from the press release:

 

"The Centers will target major technological barriers to reducing cost, increasing quality, and boosting nutritional benefit of alternative proteins by advancing science and technology. To date, challenges in biomanufacturing – the production, at scale, of sustainable protein products, whether plant based, fermented, or cultivated – are resulting in high costs and limited quality. There are also enormous opportunities to enhance the texture and boost flavor through innovation in cell biology and engineering.

 

We need to feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable food throughout this century while protecting our planet. We can do it, and it will require a ton of innovation,” said Sánchez. “Our world is poised for transformation, for a future not constrained by compromise. Solutions to our greatest challenges often come from the quiet persistence of those willing to question, reimagine, and innovate.”

 

The press release goes on to note the following:

 

"Food is the second largest cause of climate change, and agriculture is the primary driver of deforestation and biodiversity loss. Making the food system more sustainable requires changing the way we produce and consume food. Given population and income growth, by 2050 food consumption is expected to rise by 50%, while emissions from food will need to fall by 60% and pressure on vital forest systems will need to be reduced. New ideas, technologies, and behaviors can make this possible."

 

So, a fake food future it is.

 

If you had to make a choice between fake, biomanufactured food or this from our overlords at the World Economic Forum: 

 


...which would you choose?

 

In closing, when you consider your food choice, remember this significant single-point source of climate-changing emissions which is allowed because it is sourced from the ruling class: