Our little native retailer, Amazon, has invested $75 million in a documentary film about first lady Melania Trump — vastly extra money than has ever been spent on even essentially the most prestigious documentary.
One may ask, gosh, why would they do this? Right here’s what Amazon’s official assertion mentioned:
“We licensed the movie for one cause and one cause solely — as a result of we expect prospects are going to find it irresistible.”
Within the lengthy annals of company bloviation and obfuscation, that establishes a brand new normal of utter laughability. Nearly nobody, not even essentially the most slavish devotees of all issues Trumpian, believes inventive advantage and viewers demand are the elements that impressed Amazon to pay that type of cash for a movie that’s already being talked about as a monumental, worldwide flop.
Just about everybody believes there may be an alternate rationalization that could be a lot nearer to the reality: Amazon’s head man, Jeff Bezos, dipped into his billions of {dollars} to pay for the most costly documentary ever made merely to please the person within the White Home. Bezos and the Amazon execs do not need their firm to be the goal of the president’s wrath, so “Melania,” the film, gave them a option to provide tribute to a would-be king; a weasel’s means of groveling earlier than a mafia don.
On this, Bezos is way the identical as virtually all of the titans of tech and finance. Positive, President Donald Trump could also be sending uniformed thugs into American cities to terrorize residents, demolishing the federal authorities and operating a overseas coverage that betrays the nation’s historical past and values, however Bezos and his friends are notably silent about all of that.
Perhaps that’s as a result of, if you find yourself so wealthy you can squander $75 million on a film that nobody needs to see, your allegiance is to not a flag or a rustic or lofty beliefs, your allegiance is to your company’s backside line and your subsequent billion {dollars}.
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