> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
51–60 of 465 posts
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is an assertion with no evidence. Either is possible.
While either is possible, your response reminds me of Russell's teapot because it's just as possible that Bezos eats dirt. Without being able to falsify the claim, and by deferring to a claim that isn't the simplest possible explanation (he's got nothing), it makes me wonder whether other HN commentators will come to defend my "Bezos is a dirtmonger" conspiracy theory as well.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#53Whoever is running Amazon's PR is either really good and has determined this won't matter, or is really really incompetent. Based on how the PR for HQ2 in NYC went, I'm suspecting the latter.
Will it matter? The sheep (myself included) will still shop on Amazon.
Amazon is far from essential; they can be beaten handily on price, quality, and sustainability by hand-picked suppliers, and frankly in many cases I prefer the experience of buying things from humans. I went to a local hardware store the other day (I live in Los Angeles) and when shopping I asked about some pallets outside and was invited to take them, saving me easily $40 in lumber and making me feel more valued as a customer than Amazon “guaranteed [except not really and with no consequences for failure] 2-day shipping” has ever made me feel.
For people who value the feeling of connection to their community and their supply chains, Amazon doesn’t make sense. For those who would prefer to disconnect from the environment and humans that supply them with what they need and want, Amazon is competitive but not unbeatable.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
You did? With 11% of the company? > Amazon's chief executive officer (CEO) and founder, Jeff Bezos, is the company's biggest shareholder, with 55.5 million shares representing 11.1% of outstanding shares.
Which would make him the majority shareholder. By a margin of 5% - almost double the next largest shareholder and more than the next dozen shareholders combined. In other words: he has unilateral control of the company. Welcome to publicly traded companies. You don't need 51% to control the company.
But he's not a majority shareholder, since his percentage of ownership does not exceed 50%.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#55> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Evidence is plain as a day to see: no "reams" of any kind have surfaced in 4+ years in spite of the entirety of the deep state working overtime to unearth them. While absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, the latest switch from mere misinterpretations and quoting out of context to brazen whole cloth made up hit jobs that dozens of people deny _on the record_ suggests that the DNC is out of ammo.
He just hired the DOJ to defend him in a lawsuit in which he is accused of rape. That seems like something.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
The implication here requires a few things to be true. 1. The CIA illegally collected intelligence on Donald Trump prior to his election to the Presidency 2. This intelligence was specifically of a compromising nature to President Trump 3. This intelligence was retained and can be retrieved at a moments notice 4. The retired DCI, who is no longer a government employee, somehow retains his read ins, Need to Know or ac…
Plus we've already had an impeachment trial. If there were damning, conclusive evidence that the CIA possessed on Trump, that would have been the time to present it.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
You did? With 11% of the company? > Amazon's chief executive officer (CEO) and founder, Jeff Bezos, is the company's biggest shareholder, with 55.5 million shares representing 11.1% of outstanding shares.
Which would make him the majority shareholder. By a margin of 5% - almost double the next largest shareholder and more than the next dozen shareholders combined. In other words: he has unilateral control of the company. Welcome to publicly traded companies. You don't need 51% to control the company.
Bu that reasoning, if 1000 people each own 0.1% of a company, and one buys another out, then the person with 0.2% has "unilateral control of the company", implying that the other 99.8% could not stop the desires or action of the 0.2%.
This is nonsense. Any 3 of the 999 could stop the 1.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#59> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
- Checking out on Amazon was always encrypted.
- Browsing on Amazon was not encrypted until quite recently. Add To Cart wasn't encrypted.
- High end network equipment includes support for monitoring your browsing on the guest wifi to send URLs from you browsing Amazon to price-compare or buy. See, for instance, Cisco Analytics for Retail.
Re: Former NSA chief Keith Alexander has joined Amazon’s board of directors
#60> For those keeping score, not only does Amazon own the The Washington Post and oversees the CIA’s Commercial Cloud Enterprise, it now has on its powerful board of directors the most visible figure from the NSA who illegally spied on Americans for the better part of a decade. This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now. Man in a position to have reams of compromising intel on the current presiden…
This: This sounds tinfoil hat crazy, but here we are. Not so crazy now At some point we need to just say it some of the largest tech companies are basically NSA+CIA partners and we're well on our way to having Big Tech completely integrated into NSA and CIA and DoD