Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon from his storage in 1994 and grew to develop into it into a one-waste shop for on-quiz of books, pills, and loo paper due to the the backbreaking work of warehouse serfs, will step down from his role later this yr, the firm acknowledged Tuesday. Why is Bezos handing over the reins and transitioning to executive chairman of the board? Bezos wrote a letter to staff about taking the time to focal level on his passions, but presumably phase of the unspoken reason is de facto: My internet worth is bigger than the GDP of many dinky-to-medium-dimension countries and I save no longer no doubt feel be pleased attending Zoom meetings anymore. No no doubt, it’s cutting into my time doing whatever else the f–k I resolve on. , rich of us stuff. Neatly, no longer “rich of us stuff” loads as “folks that blueprint rich of us detect downhearted stuff.” I made $152,207 per minute closing yr, k? The oldsters that seem rich to you are in overall serfs from my vantage level.
In a letter to staff, Bezos wrote: “I’m furious to instruct that this Q3 I’ll transition to Govt Chair of the Amazon Board and [cloud executive] Andy Jassy will develop into CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focal level my energies and a focus on contemporary products and early initiatives. Andy is neatly known all over the firm and has been at Amazon nearly as lengthy as I no doubt comprise. He’ll be an impressive chief, and he has my elephantine self assurance…. As much as I peaceable faucet dance into the position of industrial, I’m all in favour of this transition. Millions of customers depend on us for our services, and better than 1,000,000 staff depend on us for their livelihoods. Being the CEO of Amazon is a deep accountability, and it’s consuming. Whenever that you just need to even comprise a accountability be pleased that, it’s exhausting to place aside attention on the leisure. As Exec Chair I will preserve engaged in important Amazon initiatives but additionally comprise the time and vitality I deserve to focal level on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Starting put aside, The Washington Put up, and my other passions. I’ve never had more vitality, and this isn’t about retiring. I’m mountainous hooked in to the impact I bet these organizations can comprise.” The Day 1 Fund is Bezos’s charitable basis which, as of 2018, modified into as soon as reportedly no longer as beneficiant as the Amazon founder would comprise of us assume; in overall, Bezos has been accused of being one thing of a cheapskate via charitable giving, which he didn’t lend a hand by as soon as claiming in an interview that he couldn’t assume of a technique to utilize his gargantuan fortune outdoors of funding his rocket ship firm, Blue Starting put aside. The cheapskate calls were ratcheted up additional in gentle of the indisputable truth that his ex-wife, Mackenzie Scott, has given away a f–k-ton of her cash.
The news of Bezos stepping down modified into as soon as printed alongside an earnings document in which Amazon acknowledged it had its first $100-plus billion quarter ever. Naturally, the contributors who helped the firm rake in $125 billion in income will observe runt or no if any of that cash. While Bezos’s internet worth elevated a thoughts-boggling $75.6 billion as of closing December, pushing it to $188 billion, frontline Amazon staff earned factual an additional $0.99 per hour (pretax!!!) for every hour labored all the blueprint in which by the pandemic, per the Brookings Institution. That took position as the firm halted hazard pay no matter the persisted threat of COVID-19, despite the indisputable truth that it fully swore it had its low-paid employee’s backs and build out a PSA calling them “heroes,” which John Oliver rightly skewered as bullshit propaganda. Correct by the identical time, staff staged protests in completely different cities highlighting the unsafe conditions in Amazon’s warehouses, which integrated an absence of personal protective equipment, an lack of skill to socially distance, and no longer even being given adequate time to neat their fingers. At some level of one walkout in Michigan, an employee named Mario Crippen told newshounds, “They deserve to peaceable no longer be selling nonessential items…. Dildos are no longer fundamental items. Books, for children, sure. Nevertheless dildos? No.”
While lowly Amazon staff—almost 20,000 of whom had examined optimistic for COVID-19 as of October—will reap nearly no longer one amongst the grueling, unsafe work they did (and continue to avoid wasting) all the blueprint in which by the pandemic, the firm will be making funds to “Amazon Flex drivers,” i.e. gig staff, after allegedly stealing thousands and thousands from them. Per Vice Data:
Amazon has agreed to pay $61.7 million to resolve allegations that it stole its Amazon Flex drivers tricks over a two-and-a-half-yr length, the Federal Alternate Price acknowledged on Tuesday. “On the unusual time, the FTC is sanctioning Amazon.com for increasing its industry empire by dishonest its staff,” FTC Commissioner Rohit Chopra wrote in an announcement. “Amazon stole almost one-third of drivers’ tricks to pad its personal backside line.” The $61.7 million represents the final quantity that Amazon allegedly withheld till it grew to develop into aware of an investigation by a Federal Alternate Price in 2019.
When Amazon launched its Flex program in 2016, the firm regularly advertised that neutral contractors who elevate choices in its Flex program would receive “100% of the tricks” they earned and would maybe presumably be paid between $18 and $25 an hour, per the FTC complaint. Nevertheless almost right away after it launched, Amazon quietly modified course and started slashing its funds to drivers and cutting into their tricks to blueprint it seem as if it modified into as soon as peaceable paying the promised hourly fee, per the FTC.
“This theft didn’t scoot omitted by Amazon’s drivers, many of whom expressed enrage and confusion to the firm,” Chopra wrote. “Nevertheless, rather than coming neat, Amazon took interpret steps to mislead its drivers and cowl its theft, sending them canned responses that repeated the firm’s lies.” (In an announcement, Amazon acknowledged “while we disagree that the ancient blueprint we reported pay to drivers modified into as soon as unclear, we added extra clarity in 2019 and are joyful to place aside this matter at the motivate of us.”)
Other firm to-dos whose important aspects Bezos will apparently no longer must hassle himself with consist of union-busting, will comprise to peaceable Amazon existing unsuccessful at blocking off staff from forming one. (Essentially based totally on The Washington Put up, staff at Amazon’s Bessemer, Alabama, warehouse are greeted by bathroom fliers telling them to vote against unionizing all the blueprint in which by the uncommon moments they’re no doubt ready to alleviate themselves. “They bought handsome on your face will comprise to you’re the use of the stall,” Darryl Richardson, a employee at the warehouse who helps the union, told the Put up. Acknowledged another professional-union employee: “I no doubt feel be pleased I’m getting pressured.”)
In other Bezos news, Michael Sanchez, the brother of his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, no longer too lengthy ago filed a defamation suit, alleging Bezos and his security handbook, Gavin de Becker, falsely claimed that Sanchez had sent the Amazon founder’s dick pics to the National Enquirer. (In a filing, attorneys for Bezos and de Becker answered: “Extortion rears its head again on this lawsuit, this time no longer most attention-grabbing aimed at Defendants but additionally straight threatening speech protected below the First Modification. By filing this lawsuit, Mr. Sanchez hopes to place aside himself motivate on the entrance pages and extract cash from Defendants by leveraging the latest media atmosphere to annoy them.”)
Anyway, congrats to Jeff on his newfound free time.
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Trump’s impeachment defense: I didn’t incite the insurrection and if I did I’m protected by the First Modification
Trump’s contemporary factual personnel has laid out its case:
In his first formal reply to the “incitement of insurrection” fee against him, Mr. Trump’s attorneys denied that he modified into as soon as to blame for the Capitol insurrection or that he intended to interfere with Congress’s formalizing of President Biden’s election take. They acknowledged his phrases to supporters, some who later stormed the constructing—“will comprise to you don’t strive against be pleased hell, you’re no longer going to comprise a nation anymore”—were protected by his First Modification handsome of free speech. They acknowledged they weren’t intended as a reference to violent stream, but “about the necessity to strive against for election security in overall.”
“It’s a ways denied that President Trump incited the crew to clutch in opposed behavior,” the attorneys, Bruce L. Castor Jr. and David Schoen, wrote in the 14-page filing.
Unusually, Dwelling Democrats comprise a completely different clutch on things:
In the transient, the Dwelling’s nine impeachment managers made an impassioned case that Trump modified into as soon as “singularly to blame” for the mayhem, accusing him of “a betrayal of ancient proportions.” They argued that he is guilty of excessive crimes and misdemeanors, the threshold for conviction laid out in the Structure, essentially because he aged the powers of his position of industrial to achieve his personal political pursuits at the expense of the nation.
“The Framers of the Structure feared a President who would putrid his position of industrial by sparing ‘no efforts or blueprint whatever to assemble himself re-elected,’?” the Dwelling Democrats wrote, alongside side: “They were neatly aware of the threat posed by opportunists who incited mobs to violence for political manufacture. They drafted the Structure to steer clear of such thuggery, which they associated with ‘the threat of civil disorder and the early assumption of energy by a dictator.’?If upsetting an insurrectionary insurrection against a Joint Session of Congress after dropping an election will not be any longer an impeachable offense, it is exhausting to imagine what would maybe presumably be.”
Lindsey Graham thinks we’re going to comprise to peaceable give Marjorie Taylor Greene the motivate of the doubt
In other locations!
“Civil War!”: How Trump’s phrases before the Capitol insurrection were amplified and echoed (USA On the unusual time)
Ginni Thomas apologizes to husband’s Supreme Court docket clerks after Capitol insurrection fallout (Washington Put up)
Biden Points Orders to Dismantle Trump’s “The US First” Immigration Agenda (NYT)
Fauci Says CDC May perhaps presumably presumably even neutral Counsel Wearing Two Masks to Struggle Virus (Bloomberg)
Right 5% of vaccinations comprise gone to Unlit People, no matter fairness efforts (Politico)
Washington Nibbles at Edges of Stock Frenzy That Defies Quick Repair (Bloomberg)
Hedge Fund In the motivate of AMC Rescue Loan Made Hundreds of Millions in Features (WSJ)
Four travelers eat 66 kilos of oranges to steer clear of extra airline charges (NYP)
Scientists Win Taught Spinach to Ship Emails (Data18)
More Colossal Tales From Conceitedness Sparkling
— Embedding With Pentagon Leadership in Trump’s Closing, Frenzied Days
— Donald Trump Refused to Dangle ‘No’ From Females—And Then From The US Itself
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— Inside the Story Bromance of Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump
— After Wrecking the Nation, Jared and Ivanka Arena Skedaddle back and forth Plans
— Can Trump’s Cult of Followers Be Deprogrammed?
— Trump Makes an Exit With His Trace in Tatters
— From the Archive: How Donald Trump Turned Palm Beach Towards Him
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