Both of the humans in this article are oligarchs. Oligarchs.
10
So is Bloomberg, but he is a GOOD oligarch, right?
6
Yet another scandal that will distract the public from what the Trump administration is doing policy-wise in a broad range of areas -- the environment, science and climate change being the most significant.
380
@David H
Not entirely clear what you are arguing regarding these Trump administration practices. For those of us who view their actions negatively, lack of transparency along with abusing power and established government accountability practices are the core of the problem.
27
@John: Efforts to modernize air traffic control in the 1970s led to Reagan firing all the controllers to assign the blame.
7
@David H I don't understand this comment. Do you want Bezos, who believes he was cheated out of a contract and has the wherewithal to fight Trump, to do nothing? Or do you want Kara Swisher, who covers technology, not to write about tech-related issues?
19
Trump deserves everything that Bezos can throw at him. The Democrats in the House need to wake up. They have to stop funding Trump's pet projects carried on with taxpayer money. It takes both the House and the Senate to appropriate funds.
491
@James Ricciardi - I'm more concerned over how projects get awarded than the projects themselves. So should supposedly conservative voters. When some idiot wants to attack his political foes by having gvt contracts awarded to 2nd rate bids rather than the top bid because the top bid belongs to a political foe the whole spectrum of the American population suffers monetarily and/or qualitatively.
73
@James Ricciardi
You should be right, but Trump will always just divert money from the purpose for which it was originally allocated to one of his boondoggles like The Wall. Who is going to stop him?
32
@James Ricciardi
Like him taking billions from the military for his crazy wall? Nobody "funded" that
79
“ Our war fighters desperately need”, pathetic, they desperately need a $10,000,000,000.00 gizmo for what, to fight guys on planes with box cutters. Our defense cartel which consumes more money than the rest of the developed worlds combined is as big a ripoff of taxpayer money as our for maximum profit healthcare system. We need diplomats not war mongers running this country. There are only two candidates who acknowledge the horrendous ripoff in both areas and the absolute and unnecessary futility of war: Bernie Sanders and the woman who courageously served in our armed forces rather than an armchair warrior sending other people to die, Tulsi Gabbard, who should surely be on that stage tonite rather than a billionaire who bought his way the election.
5
Even is the suit is ultimately a failure, this is exactly why Trump must go. He adds the suspicion of malfeasance to everything he does.
Case-in-point: Trump pardons a bunch of white collar criminals and everyone speculates why. To normalize a pardon for Stone? Lol, no, late breaking news is that he is alleged to have dangles a pardon to Assange to cover up Russian hacking during 2016.
Get this criminal out of the white house.
16
Regarding the 'epic battle' between Trump & Bezos I say Go
gettum Jeff!
12
Same as when Putin went after Russia’s oligarchs. Trump ‘s path is just Putin’s trail...just follow the dictator trail
6
"Right now, the Defense Department is working with patched-up systems from the 1980s and 1990s".
If this is the case, what happened to ever increasing budgets set aside for the defense department?
Besides, has anyone wondered what good billions in investment will do to us when hackers in Russia and other countries bring the mighty US on its knees by spending mere millions of dollars?
I think the efforts and resources of the US to maintain its supremacy are wrongly targeted.
5
Our defense spending is Socialism geared to jobs creation and and maintenance. It has nothing to do with actually keeping Americans safe.
5
Bill Gates started off decrying people sharing his OS code way back in the 80's. He has been obsessed with cutting out piracy since then. If one man in the USA knows how to protect data, it seems Mr. Gates has the edge.
Of course, the fundamentals have probably surpassed his personal knowledge, but he is probably adept at assembling a team that is on the cutting edge.
If MS team members have jumped to Amazon, then give Bezos the edge.
It all comes down to the brain trust either company has.
The team with more MS years on their resume is probably stronger.
3
One question worth asking--Does Amazon really need $10 Billion in taxpayer money? Maybe they could have submitted a lower bid, no?
2
Right now, the Defense Department is working with patched-up systems from the 1980s and 1990s.
How can this possible be? Is this good management? What's going on in our government?
3
The security of our nation is at stake. Oh, it’s so cute that you think Trump cares.
5
All the tech workers need to wake up and work together to put Trump out of the office, everyone of you need to vote! To have your voice heard and to protect your future before it gets taken away! Wake up! The attack from Trump is not just to Amazon, it is to everyone of you!
Amazon and other tech giants employees hundreds of thousands of very hard working people. Their livelihood depends on Amazon and the well being of the industry. They are successful and makes more money not because they are just lucky, they are successful because they understand the fundamental importance of technological advancements, by not burying their heads in the sand and to claim victim hood when the world advances pass them and then drown themselves in jealousy and endless grunting.
39
trump is just self dealing per usual without regard to legal restraints or ethical guidelines. He so needs to be decisively voted out and face endless legal proceedings. May that come to pass.
7
What is not to like about Amazon and its founder? The company is not perfect of course so is the founder (who is?), but Amazon and its employees work very hard and do very good work for their customers and you can’t find a more user friendly business on the planet. What is not to like? What more do you want? A communist America with no successful businesses where everyone must grow cabbages and can only have two chickens at home? It is laughable when I hear Americans who have never lived in a communist country for a day yearning and openly proclaim they are communist. These people have no idea what that word means and they never even bothered to study history. Take a look at some of the Seattle city counsel members. You can’t help but wonder why don’t they move to Cuba already?
4
Bezos is obviously no saint but I do welcome his tenacity and vast resources in making Trump's life unpleasant.
16
Oh Bezos, you should know that if and when you lose this suit, the next thing that will come Amazon’s way is anti-trust action. Just like you’ve kept quiet when confronted with Twitter taunts from Trump, your mammoth company should have tipped its hat to Microsoft, licked its wound and walked away to continue conquering the world. Now the Trump administration will break you up like Elizabeth Warren could only dream of doing. Our President is a sore loser but he’s never more bitter than when he wins. He’s the biggest sore winner ever.
5
Hacked his phone and stole his phones photos and what else? I expect AWS has better security.
1
Why are these massive private tech companies handling a DoD project as big as cloud computing? Seems to be a security risk. Why is the story being framed as Trump vs Bezos?? It should be about the collusion rampant in the military industrial complex.
4
With Amazon providing this system, DoD database managers searching for info on Russia's Waverider hypersonic weapon might look at their displays and see "This Item no longer available," along with a picture of the Space Shuttle with the title "Here are other items you may like."
Well why not have both companies collaborate? Microsoft and Amazon employ amazingly talented personnel and can work together to build something.. marvelous!
BTW - if Bezos offered free Amazon Prime for a year to anyone who votes against Trump 11/3; I suspect the Democratic candidate would win by a landslide.
6
First, is Presidential interference with the federal procurement process for personal reasons/for non-governmental reasons criminal or at least unlawful? Consider the answer if a mid-level official altered data or analysis to benefit himself. I see a range of possibilities from discharge to imprisonment.
Second, does executive communication or deliberation privilege shield a president from civil lawsuit discovery when and where the communication is part of a scheme to influence government procurement for non-governmental and personal reasons? I see a wide range of answers depending on what body decides, the Senate majority or a Federal District Judge. I think the intellectually honest answer comes from the judge.
I do not believe that the electoral college has the power to enable any president to fail to faithfully execute the laws of the United States.
1
@Fred Frahm Bill Barr and the GOP disagree with you, as long as the POTUS in question if GOP.
They have very very very very very very clearly said that Trump is above the law. There is absolutely nothing Trump could do to make them change their minds.
That should be perfectly clear by now.
4
Bezos, Elon Musk, Apple, Microsoft and so on, these giant progressive corporations will decide the fate of this country and the world , not idiots like Trump and his low class base...
5
Take him on Jeff, abuse the creep in public. Offer him the pilot's seat on your space him, with free seating offered to Mitch; Lindsay; Rudy G; etc.
2
Whatever their reasons, truly altruistic or for personal gain, not all billionaires are complete Ebenezers. We are all made of many parts, positive and negative, but Bezos donation for climate change, and Mike's free spending to grab trumps throat and shake in national advertising, is for good of mankind.
5
In the historical analyses of formation of autocracies and dictatorships, there are a number of common principles.
One of them is: power is rarely "seized" by the initial dictator. It is instead granted by enablers and step-wise acquiescence in a completely non-violent manner. Power is then consolidated and maintained from there by violence, or threat thereof.
Republicans who think you are "winning" right now: just remember, Trump won't live forever and whoever seizes the mantle next may have totally different ideas on what he wants to impose on us. Enjoy your brief moment in the sun.
6
Anna | NY
Every contractor stiffed and forced into silence by Trump's endless litigation backed by his millions, is now smiling and cheering Bezos on. Trump is but a mouse under Bezos' Mammoth feet... Trump in his arrogance and delusion has made some really really big enemies. Beware the Ides of March!
7
Perhaps Russia prefers Microsoft. Never can tell with this bunch.
3
Do Republicans use Amazon?
1
Please cover the Democratic Presidential campaign, world news - anything but the billionaire soap opera!!! Oh yes and Mrs. Bezos - the former and mother of the children - co-founded to company. The girlfriend is spending the money.
When will this juvenile nation get over the delusion that it is the beloved of a deity that purportedly created it.
1
Why isn't the Frontline piece on Bezos and Amazon (Relentless!) the number on topic on the front page today? I would have thought at a minimum Barr would latch on to this story to change the topic and be announcing investigations into this evil empire.
The obviousness of the lies and propaganda and alternate view of reality the memorized things the execs said were based on made me angry and sad. Mostly about how the republicans made this possible and assisted it. I had no idea they had actually made buying the market, the most corrupt and wrong economic practice, legal. I guess I'd been hoping it was only a matter of a USAG noticing and taking action.
I felt like I was watching a post WWII movie that exposed the evil of communism by showing how its acolytes were brainwashed perpetrators of evil deeds in the name of false goodness. Or reading some scifi book of dystopian futures on multiple planets.
Since when does the opinion of people who are profiting off a corrupt enterprise affect decisions at Justice?
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/
Go get him Jeff! Take. Him. Down!
4
Why not let Blackwater make the chose? We continue to privatize the military we might as well outsource the bidding process to the company who's personal will be fighting our wars.
I have no love for tech companies like Amazon, however bidding for tax payer funded contracts should always be fair and transparent and not subject to anyone persons interference in this process, even if he happens to be the President as alleged.
4
Yes. All the ful-de-rah for Bezo and down with Trump. But what about the need for our national defense to move forward?
Are Bezo's efforts to stall the JEDI project in our nation's best interest? Should we award a contract to protect our nation to someone who's willing to delay those efforts, so they may take them in hand? Are those efforts based on desire for personal gain or a personal vendetta?
Yeeet, if those efforts are motivated in trying to reduce the chances of Trump being reelected, it is harder to argue this point. The single most dangerous thing I can think of for our nation is having Trump in office.
Yet no argument seems to disuade his supporters. One loses heart, especially when you have family members and loved ones who are hard line supporters. God help us all. We are all seeing what we want to see, hearing what we want to hear, going deeper into our own convictions and becoming more divided in the process.
Is there no one who can take us to center, away from the horrors of fringe politics? (Sorry. That's another topic, I suppose.)
1
...as I stated in a previous post, an aggrieved party has every right to file a complaint without being accused of taking revenge. And Pentagon contracts are routinely litigated by the parties who failed to win the contract.
3
Wow! What twisted logic you employ! A contract is awarded in an unethical manner, no doubt due to improper meddling by the president, and you accuse the wronged company of endangering national security by lodging a complaint! In other words, according to your logic, there is no recourse for the victim. Once again, in Trump World, the president can do no wrong and aggrieved parties are the real problem.
3
By the way, no one is more notorious for filing lawsuits to delay proceedings he doesn’t like than Donald Trump.
5
Bezos must buy up as much of the mid-west media as he can starting with McClatchy and save the great Kansas City Star which famously broke it's tradition of no headlines to announce the end of WW ll. The middle part of the country is receiving only lopsided news from Clear Media with the ravings of Fox and friends and similar programming. Bezos can swing the election with properly aimed publicity. Let the battle begin!
6
trump would have absolutely no clue as to which company can do the job better. Like everything else in his life it is all about himself. He would give the project to Microsoft for the simple goal of snubbing Bezo's. And we all that. Millions of words are wasted where just a few clearly explain--trump is nothing more than a extremely petty little tin dictator.
7
So, this is what we’ve come to: hoping that we can find the RIGHT billionaire to save us. Like an abused child hoping that, “this time will be different,” we keep looking to those who have exploited the rest of us to get rich as the ones who can make things right.
Guess what? Bloomberg, Bezos, and Trump are cut from the same cloth. Until the 99% feel their power, those wolves will ALWAYS see us as sheep.
3
@IanC Correction: Bezos and Bloomberg are successful businessmen, Trump is not.
14
All Bezos has to do to taunt and irritate Trump is tweet how much he is worth every day after the market closes.
3
Trump hates Bezos because Bezos is a successful businessman.
5
...and because Bezos owns the “Fake news” Washington Post! Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Trump supporter.
2
Your wealth won't insulate you from the authoritarian regime. Ask Putin's wealthy enemies.
2
Ok hands in the air if you agree this is a dumb question. OF COURSE TRUMP did this. There is no doubt. Why wouldn't he put his thumb to still someone he hates. He is president of all things after all. All must answer to him. The only doubt is if he can hide behind executive privilege through this process which of course he will.
3
"Spaceballs". Now that was a great movie.
1
A clearly written description about...
What is it that readers, citizens or not, need to
both understand and, then do, to help make
needed, sustainable differences for our wellbeing?
For the heath of democracy? The State of a
divided nation of diverse people? Beliefs? Norms?
Ethics? Values? A challenged legal system? Unethical laws?
A political system infected by personal unaccountability?
Bozo vs Trump is not the main event!
Each of our lives IS! In a weakened democracy being
anchored in flawed facts and faux- truths!
In a culture of institutionalized complacency, fed by
“conspiracies” and all too many individual and systemic
complicits! Will WE get knocked down? Knocked out?
Ew, Trump versus Bezos..the only contest that could ever make me say, "Go Trump."
Well, maybe Trump v. Bloomberg--I pray it never comes to that.
1
You must be joking. Bezos is an extremely successful businessman whose business should have been reigned in by our anti trust laws. I blame Mitch McConnell for that. Bezos is flawed but is essentially an ethical and basically decent normal human being. Thank God for the Washington Post in this era of Murdoch controlled misinformation that gets spewed from his near monopoly of most mainstream local media. Trump on the other hand is just a thug who has lied and cheated and conned his way through life. He never made a fortune. He had a lifetime of privilege and inheritance. An utterly despicable oaf who brings great shame to this previously great nation while he drags us all into the gutter.
5
Bezos should run for President as a Republican.
2
A battle between right-wing oligarchs over our tax money being wasted on the Big Black Hole of military contracts.
5
Wow. Another win for Putin. While this makes its way through the courts our military loses out.
You’re right of course. Trump should be able to personally award a military contract to any company he likes and similarly, deny the award to any company he dislikes. This is so typical of a Trump supporter. Trump has the right as president to do anything he likes simply because he is president. Ethics and the rule of law have no role. Experts, legal authorities and those who enforce the guidelines regarding the ethical award of government contracts have no role. So please ask yourself, “ Why do these laws, ethical guidelines and legal experts exist at all in a Trump Administration?” The answer is that citizens have a say in what the Federal government does.
And also, Republicans always argued that the Federal government should not be picking “winners and losers”. The Free Market should decide. Apparently, in a Trump administration that is no longer true.
1
I’m scared! Please hold me!
Please stop framing these obscene gestures of incompetence and moral/ethical dysfunction as entertainment.
2
Why would I ever doubt the sincerity and truthfulness of the Defense department, or for that matter our Commander in Chief?
4
Hope trump enjoys the ride as Bezos will be sending him many overnight deliveries via his "prime service."
Go get him Jeff. Do what the Dems and Mueller failed to accomplish.
3
My heart bleeds for Amazon. After all, they need more money. /s
@kz I get your point but this isn't about Amazon and whether they need money but about corruption in the process to award contracts. We are not some banana republic with a dictator at the head, deciding who gets awarded government money.
1
Interesting comment! Republicans always argue that business leaders and the companies they found, are job creators. Seems to me that allowing Amazon to flourish and be rightfully awarded a contract for which the company is more qualified, would be something a Trump supporter would like. More jobs! And by the way, is it ok for Microsoft to win the contract? Do they need more money? You have undermined your own argument.
1
Is there a man so pathetic as Donald J. Trump? What an embarrassment! It’s actually nice to see the billionaires work to destroy this small man.
4
The jealous, peevish president using his position to attack a perceived enemy at the expense of his own Pentagon which needs this JEDI project desperately.
3
Another instance where the dear leader is picking the means of production and interfering with the marketplace. Whether he's fascist or socialist, trump really really really needs to meddle. If only he had our best interests at heart. But as he does everything, it's a mess and we will all pay for it somehow.
We need better leadership than this.
2
It takes an Elephant Gun to bring down a Rogue Elephant.
Bezos and Bloomberg are Elephant Guns.
1
What is the deal with the picture of Kara Swisher holding her glasses? Is she taking them off or putting them on? What is this posturing meant to symbolize? Seriousness? A certain commitment to good or tough journalism? That should be made evident in the language?
Meanwhile, is Trump telling Bill Gates and other Microsoft executives "Don't you dare give money to the Democrats!" ?
2
Trump’s playing with big boys now.
2
Separate of the JEDI contract, all Bezos has to do is start buying-up Trump named properties and replace Trumps name with his own. He can do the same with other merchandise sold under DJT's name.
Bezos has the power and $$$$ to relegate the TRUMP name to oblivion - where it belongs.
2
Bezos is beginning to look wimpy over this. He has the money to do alot of damage to GOP politicians but he hasnt said boo. Something smells fishy.
1
Amazon doesn’t have the “Microsoft” talent or creativity. Bezos is a numbers crunchers. A tyrant task master. Not needed in Department of Defense in any way shape or form.
2
@Richard The success of AWS contradicts that.
2
You need to do a little reading about Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon owns a third of all Cloud Computing.
2
Trump is jealous of Bezo's real money..that's the simplest and best explanation for the alleged bid rigging.
2
Bezos DID NOT find the Washington Post. I believe the Grahams did.
1
With all the technological infrastructure concerns facing the US (including essential management of power grid and financial security systems), every time I hear Trump or Esper speak about such matters, I have this flash of Terminator: Rise of the Machines ending.
You may remember --when John and Kate discover that Crystal Peak is not Skynet's core, but rather a very aged nuclear fallout shelter and command facility containing antiquated computers. Skynet, self aware AI, launches the nuclear holocaust.
I have no faith that Trump has any understanding of anything but military offensive assets.
1
Kara Swisher explains the stakes in this conflict, "it is critical that the Pentagon modernize its tech as quickly as possible, as it faces challenges around the globe, most especially from China." Yet in the next paragraph, Swisher switches to "the security of this country."
We should distinguish between projecting power around the globe vs protecting America. The rulers' interests in projecting power has led to the wars that Maj. Gabbard rails against as "endless regime change wars."
We should note the conflict between the rulers' desires to project power around the globe vs. the security of America. Projecting power, as we've tragically seen before, puts us into danger of blowback from which the government can't protect us.
4
I just viewed the FRONTLINE profile of Bezos and must say a big wow about his current stature, financially and power-wise. He's got tenacity and smarts and is always I gather aware of the long view as he says often in the profile. I have no idea who should be the awardee of the DOD contract as both tech giants, Amazon and Microsoft, but as has made clear to me, not all, the security of this country, in the defense arena, is in the clouds more than on the ground; in the voting booths and hacking as much as on the ground in the election arena. While I"m glad Trump has met his match, and would agree that both Gates and Bezos are far better as leaders than our current "stable genius," absolute power as they have in the cyper-world is potentially tyrannical as in other arenas.
1
I love, love, love the fact that Trump has been pitted against these super wealthy, smart men! I suspect that Trump isn't a billionaire and perhaps someday we'll be fortunate enough to see his taxes in order to reveal what a fraud he really is.
5
Where is Congress in all of this? The funds were appropriated by Congress and they have the power of the purse. They can investigate and hold up funds until we get some transparency.
9
Excellent read! Thank you. More to think about and more to watch. Let the battles begin (continue)!
4
Where's Wiki Leaks when we need a good look at tax returns. I can't believe there isn't a hacker out there who can't get access to everything right now. They can get anything but tRumps taxes are in some sort of super triple secret cyber vault?
6
And, whatever happened to Anonymous? Seems like they fell off the face of the Earth. We could sure use some good sleuthing these days.
2
Bezos should have sued Donald for interference with Amazon's economic advantage when the president told the post office to raise their package handling rates.
But Donald never pays for anything, does he?
8
@Occupy Government
Er, last time we checked, it wasn't the WH's job to look out for the interest of a private corporation that is bilking the US taxpayer through predatory pricing. Amazon needs the US postal service more than the US postal service needs Amazon.
1
@Viv
nevertheless.
Let's see one big tech company now runs the network that runs the entire country's defense system.
The issue is not whether Trump stuck his nose in something he has no business doing so. It is not whether Microsoft or Amazon won the contract. It is the fact that a single tech company will be running the U.S. military's backbone.
What could go wrong? What happens if they decide to hand it over to an AI? Skynet?
6
We have to get the petty vindictive individual out of the WH in Nov.
12
As in all things a Trump it is all about him the country be dammed.
8
This mess will come down to whether courts respect Trump's idea of blanket executive privilege for himself and anyone he designates.
Presidential privilege needs to go. Let's get this really, really straight. American taxpayers fund the federal government. Information that embarrasses the President belongs to us!
Do I need to repeat?
Wishy washy rules on classified information and privilege really come down to the idea that a President can classify and demand privilege for anything that embarrasses him. There is no oversight, just the President's claims. Trump is a joke and his enablers in Congress and people who voted for him fit in the same category.
The concept of privilege and "classified" information need to be utterly and totally revised. A completely unbiased panel of judges and a majority of non-political citizens need to sit in review of claims of classification or privilege by the President. If it seems to the average mechanic that it belongs to Americans, then it does. Any interference with that panel should be treated identically to treason. Any member who doesn't recuse him/herself for cause should be treated the same.
Americans have had just about enough of Trump's Emperor/Dictator routine along with his Senatorial aides in waiting.
12
@DGP: The whole "Federalist Society" judicial agenda revolves around restoration of State's rights, particularly with respect to establishment of religion at the state level .
3
Well said!
1
Jeff Bezos and Amazon probably have more raw power than is healthy for the American economy, but the same can be said for any of the tech giants, including Microsoft.
Bezos is tenacious and has shown more self-restraint that most captains of industry, so many of us are rooting for him to prevail against a corrupt president who clearly has gamed the system to exact revenge on Bezos and Amazon.
If Donald Trump could speak honestly, he would admit that his real argument is with The Washington Post, which he lumps together with Jeff Bezos. The real disappointment is the straight-faced ease in which Mike Esper and the Pentagon have participated in this fraud.
The losers, should Trump prevail, are the American taxpayers. Once again, the rule of law is irrelevant to Donald Trump.
9
Hopefully this case will outlast Trump's presidency and he and his minions can be forced to testify. I would have more sympathy for Amazon if they paid taxes and weren't a monopoly. There are no good guys in this fight.
7
Maybe it'll take a ridiculously wealthy outlayer like Bezos (and Bloomberg?) to bring Trump to heel. I would hope Bezos will contribute mightily to whomever winds up as the Democratic nominee.
There's nothing like beating an opponent at his own game.
5
@Robert Burns , Bezos like most of tech is faux libertarian. That is, they resist regulation and paying taxes to society as "socialist." But they love socialism when circumstances created by monopoly and excessive lobbying, allow them to benefit as the capitalist-socialist dependents upon US that they truly are. Bezos probably won't be donating to a dem anytime soon.
3
One thing is obvious - Ms. Swisher does not like Trump and trashes him or his lackeys whenever possible.
I don't like Trump either, but the tell should not be so obvious.
1
Why shouldn’t it be obvious? It’s an opinion column.
3
Trump's wealth that he inherited from his daddy may offer power at the big table but not intelligence.
'Smart is as smart does,' and Trump is way out of his league dealing with Mr. Bezos.
An 'Epic Battle' it is, and I wear a smile from ear to ear!
4
Is anyone else peeved by the name of this boondoggle: SCIFY movie characters?
I was already having trouble assimilating the need for $1B each/every year for DoD computing/networking capacity, but the moniker doesn't help me one bit.
Per current AWS pricing, they could buy 15,000 cloud instances, on 15,000 dedicated servers, 163,000 TB storage, and 100,000 GB graphics capacity.
And that's at retail... but of course I'm sure the Spentagone is paying MUCH more than retail LOL!
Our military budget is already so out-sized, when compared to the "top three" potential threat candidates, that this little kerfluffle over who reaps billions (more) in my taxpaying monies amounts to an absurdity. We already have the most powerful military on the planet....or.....at least so it's always claimed. All of it to protect a nation with a crumbling infrastructure. So we need to spend even more on it because......?
It comes to this. With a future looming where average America will be held to account for the fiscal malfeasance of Trump and the Republicans, with a national debt circling out there around the orbit of Pluto, I suspect program and policy cuts, across the board - both social, corporate and military - will be on the table for consideration.
And oh, when that day comes - and I suspect it's not far removed from now - won't the squealing over it be epic, eh?
John~
American Net'Zen
3
If Trump had anything to do with it, it was twisted. It's all he knows. Now that the GOP has crowned him King, he's all out Henry VIII.
The only thing he's made great again is animosity, division and graft, and ignorance.
5
It's not just the unfairness to Amazon that is at issue. The REAL issue is that American taxpayers are paying for a second-rate solution to a national defense priority. This has grave potential consequences.
Once again Trump has used his office to avenge a personal grievance. Once again Trump got caught because Trump thinks that he is invulnerable and acts accordingly. And we get the bill.
Somewhere in the bureaucracy there is a Lt. Colonel who got orders from someone who got orders to put a thumb on the scale. Hopefully the Vindman saga inspires that officer more than it scares him.
5
Trump is so vindictive that we should all be worried about what else he will destroy in his never ending war on Americans. His paranoia and viciousness are only getting worse by the day. We are no longer the strongest country in the world because of him. No one respects us or can count on us anymore. Very precarious situation this man has put us in.
4
Ten Billion is nothing. He could invest 100 billion in green energy and make money. But, you can't invest capital unless your getting 20% return, so just making money isn't good enough. You have to make the most. It's an illness. Heck, if he invested 100 billion in green energy and lost 10 billion it would be way better than spending ten billion on PR stunt levels of effort. But then, he'd only have 90 billion. It's an illness.
2
Trump’s many public pronouncements and the accounts by so many of his former staffers prove that the ONLY motivating emotion for trump is hate. He hates anyone who is smarter, richer, more accomplished, and worse, embraced by the other elites of this country. By all measures Mr. Bezos is all of the things trump will never be, especially embraced by the elites. That is probably all the evidence anyone would need to prove trump denied the contract to Amazon.
4
Corruption always starts at the top. Governments, corporations, and religious institutions are the sources of corruption and it just filters down from there. Trump's divisiveness, vindicativeness, and vengefulness send a clear message to everyone else it's alright to get even. This is his idea of making America great-lets get even with the whole world.
1
Good grief! I can't believe that this crazy administration just got even crazier. Or maybe I can. I am happy to see that Mr. Trump is picking on someone his one size -- Amazon! Finally I think we will see the real Clash of the Titans as these two go after each other.
Yes, it is tragic to see our military being driven into the ground by an orange bully, but at least Trump isn't picking on short men, handicapped people, and teenagers who are trying to protect the planet.
Obviously, Trump has the military, the FBI, the CIA, Fox News and Rudy Giuliani, but Jeff Bezos is a formidable opponent in his own way. He, took, can use the US courts and no doubt has a phalanx of lawyers on his side as well.
So while none of this is to be wished for, it does bring a little laughter to sooth the pain of watching the miserable destruction of the American democracy by a Nero-like tyrant.
4
@pajaritomt , Bezos and Trump are both sociopath people. Trump has the institutions you note on his side, adding in a compliant GOP in both the minority house and majority senate. The key difference is that Bezos is very smart and actually created a real (if evil) business. Trump is dumb, and a business failure. On the other hand, trump has the armed members of his cult on his side and Bezos is liked by nobody-- not his family, not his staff, not even most of his customers.
2
Jeff Bezos starting a $10 Billion climate change fund is brilliant.
Bloomberg using his money to combat Trump in waves of TV commercials is patriotic.
Trump is a Putin-loving wanna-be oligarch who has denigrated our Constitution. Enabling Congressional Republicans will be voted out of the Senate in a Blue Tsunami alongside Trump.
VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO
Demonstrate. Donate. Volunteer.
Don't agonize, ORGANIZE. Drain Trump's vile swamp of Congressional Republicans.
3
Trump's offenses make him look even more pathetic as he crows ad nauseam that he has "rebuilt our military".
4
Kara, what an awesome piece! I was waiting for the news media to pick up on the recent Amazon win in court.
Sadly, the rest of the news media is tied up with DT's daily missive of Tweets. They are too distracted when another huge story falls in their lap.
Thanks for spelling it out.
3
From a developer perspective (me), Azure, Microsoft SQL Server’s cloud based product, is superior to AWS, Amazon’s Hadoop cloud based product. And the market already knows this. Look at the price action in Microsoft stock over the past 3 years. Look in the comparative revenue growth in Azure vs AWS.
The Defense Dept made the right decision.
1
Maybe if Bloomberg doesn't work out the Democrats should pick Bezos at the convention. Pick the best billionaire to rule us.
1
Maybe it is my imagination, but reading the comments, I detect a modest amount of raw hatred against the current president of the United States.
Please convince me that it isn't so and let America show solidarity with its leader. Otherwise you are the laughing stock of the world.
What was this about "A house divided"?
If Jeff Bezos really wants to get Trump, he should buy Fox News and shutter it. What would Trump do without the fuel of right wing spin powering his policies and the comfort blanket of incessant fawning from a parade of sympathetic sycophants?
5
I’d love to see a 2020 election in which Bezos and Gates recognize that “enough is enough” with Trump and act accordingly.
1
Withholding aid to a nation that is threatened and fighting the US’s no 1 enemy to get dirt on a legitimate political contender, that’s putting the US in danger. Trumps behaviour was straight out the dictator’s playbook.
Trump is the US’s no 1 enemy.
1
We have a President who is enthusiastic about making hay while the sun shines. I suppose a lot of non enthusiast billionaires are biden their time.
Of the $10B - whichever company gets the contract - it'll probably need $9B to secure this cloud-based-system against Chinese/Russian/Iranian/N.Korean hacking (although they'll probably succeed hacking in anyway).
If Bezos would take a couple billion aimed at removing Trump from office, the clear winner would be the American people and Amazon.
2
Bloomberg-Bezos v. Koch-Adelson-Spencer? I'm betting on the former, while I watch in disgust at the true poisonous fruits delivered to The People by Citizens United.
2
At least Amazon delivers, Donnie just promises.
2
An interesting quote, “deprived our war fighters of a set of capabilities they urgently need”. Seriously, "war fighters"?! Then I can think of one more capability that the Pentagon urgently needs! If they can't come up with words for those who fight wars... :rolleyes:
1
I'm sorry, am I supposed to feel sorry for Bezos ( the biggest jerk on earth) or Amazon--the company that robs from the poor and gives to the rich? Or impressed by Bezos paltry "contribution" to climate change as Amazon helps create it through its worldwide shipping system? If I had the choice to push Bezos or Trump off a cliff, the only challenge is who would go first.
3
The Pentagon keeps receipts people.
The electronic paper trail of the Ukraine drug deal was wide and deep, and that was a by-the-seat-of-your-pants unorganized poorly run keystone cops unsecure-phone using joke. And when it all comes to light it will be ugly.
Government contracting is insanely documented.
The Pentagon buys entire warehouses just to store the documents used to procure their systems. If Trump tampered with this, the proof will be in triplicate. And civilian contracting people are not going to risk their pensions bailing out or covering for Trump, in contrast to Sondland et al who are independently wealthy and have no pension to lose.
No, this is going to be a long and hard coverup by Trump. Much harder than a perfect phone call.
1
My money is on the man with the most money.
1
I hope Trump finally goes after Bezos for all of Amazon's Antitrust violations of our laws.
Amazon has abused its monopoly power with many parts of its business.
I am a democrat but I really want to see Trump go after Amazon.
We need more Antitrust policing.
"War fighters". Why is this the preferred term for members of the military now? They are soldiers, and there is much more to being a soldier than fighting wars.
4
Jeff Bezo’s can invest in Democrats winning the senate and keeping the house to put a sure fire check on Donald Trump but that may mean his taxes will go up- so I guess he will need to choose what is most important to him
Billionaires have rigged the game for so long - will he support a swing to fairness and a check on corruption or will he prefer to keep all his money. I think he will choose his money as he has donated little to date and I am including his $10billion to climate change in this guess. Bezos could do more but doesn’t.
4
I'll bet Bezos has an excellent understanding of the federal contracting process and rules. Do you think Trump has an inkling of those....I seriously doubt it, he has no patience for details. Bidders on federal contracts have to demonstrate the ability to meet federal requirements of the contract. I would venture both Microsoft and Amazon did that. But Trumps interference would be a showstopper. Like Ukraine, there are MANY players with eyes in this process. It will be interesting to see who might talk from within the federal contracting arena.
5
Trump has clearly established a pattern of behaviors which are so observable that Bezos' attorneys should find success in moving this case forward in the courts. Trump is now well-known for harassing his perceived enemies and seeking revenge when the opportunity presents itself.
I will not be shocked if the courts allow a much broader scope of discovery than the military would like. I will not be surprised that as the courts move this case forward, Trump will only ratchet up his vitriol against Bezos. I will not be surprised if this case hinges little on Microsoft. I will not be surprised if Bezos is much better at holding Trump accountable than the Republican Senators who are elected in part to provide oversight of the Executive Branch headed up by Donald J. Trump.
6
I will be amazed if a US court resolves anything on a timely basis.
If Donald Trump is defeated for re-election, Amazon wins (at least on this issue). If Donald Trump is re-elected, Amazon loses on a lot more than just this one issue. But that's liable to be a detail among all the other people and organizations who will lose.
2
Executive privilege does not extend to self dealing, other nefarious and criminal dealing. Time for federal courts to remind the administration of that. Apparently, the Nixon Era has been forgotten.
2
The courts are now the minefield Congress must cross to subpoena anything from the Executive.
2
Unfortunately this is not fair to either Microsoft or Amazon regardless of who eventually ends up with the contract. Both are highly skilled at cloud computing. This is akin to the fighter jet contract awards where the military over time sees that each of the competing companies wins some share of the business.
The other issue is that when Bezos bought the Washington Post he should have known that with it brings scorn and anti- forces who don't like the Post's content. Any publisher of his outsized persona will get attacked. Now as you said he is a big boy and will fight back
2
Bezos’ Amazon has singlehandedly destroyed the concept of a brick and mortar business model costing thousands of jobs! That a competent competitor, one that actually on the cutting edge of technology was awarded the cloud contract does not offend anyone but Amazon!
7
@George If it wasn't Bezos, it would have been someone else. Personally, I’m going to enjoy the fight, on the theory that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
15
@George: What you say about Amazon and jobs is completely true, but that is not the point. If the DOD changed the terms of the bidding process to better suit Microsoft, that would be another egregious of this President using the awesome power of his office for his own personal vendetta. Lock him up!
1
@George Bezos did not destroy those jobs, the lazy American consumer did. People love convenience. The more convenience they can get, the better they like it. Amazon just provides the ultimate form of convenience.
2
After watching the documentary on Bezos and Amazon I’m suspect of Trump and Bezos. It wasn’t a pretty picture of Amazon. All of their executives interviewed sang the same song to the same rhythm. Very programmed as if the only robots in Amazon are not just in the warehouses.
1
Has there ever been a smaller person than Trump? And I mean ever, not just in the Oval Office.
In a smarter, saner country, Microsoft, Amazon and others would be asked to work in concert to provide state-of-the-art tech for benefit of the nation. But everything is transactional, zero-sum in the US today. And there is no greater zero than the one in the White House.
29
At least hardware technology has settled down. The same processors are in their nth generations.
I was disturbed by the alleged political influence behind the Microsoft choice over Amazon. BUT, The outcome of the impeachment vote in the Trumpian Senate should advise the good folks at Amazon to save a lot of time and money and focus their energy on Wholefoods and movies on Amazon Prime such as "Spaceballs". Also, good luck to the Defense Department with all those inconvenient Microsoft software update pauses.
6
While it's clear Trump is happy Microsoft won the bid, any allegations that he directly interfered are hearsay and guessing at best.
As a former software technology executive, I find it hard to believe that a 10 year project will ever end well or on budget. Witness the FAA AAS project (only 2.6 billion) that wasted half of the money before being cancelled. Both companies probably believe they'll get a lot more than $10B over the decade.
2
@kwb
If the allegations are hearsay and guessing then the administration will have no problem cooperating in discovery etc. Will they? What have they got to hide if the process was entirely above board and featured no political interference from Trump.
3
Well, no surprise here - we all know, Mr. Trump not only gets angry, he gets even.
Why?
Because he can. Jeff Bezos knows that, however, Jeff will still do what Jeff wants to do.
Foul play on the awarding of the contract to Microsoft - no question there was inappropriate influence from the White House.
However, there's nothing we or Jeff can do. Mr. Bezos will have to find other contracts to replace the one he lost....and he will.
AWS is a powerhouse, which has been the crown jewel in Amazon's portfolio, without which, it could not have reached the pinnacle it has.
Bezos ownership of the Washington Post put him directly in the cross hairs of the White House - and the target on Amazon will not be disappearing until Trump leaves office.
Trump does what Trump wants to do....but so does Bezos.
2
I'm disgusted by these big corporations that pay almost no taxes while profiting off government outsourcing that is questionable in the first place, like private prisons. I don't want either Microsoft or Amazon to be paid to maintain top-secret sensitive data with all of their foreign off-shored employees. It's a large project, it would be less expensive to hire government employees, Americans would be nice. And eliminate the profit that flows directly to the wealthy owners of these corporations. These mooches, the true welfare queens. Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates don't need any more of our tax dollars when they're already sitting on massive piles of untaxed billions.
7
So where is the technical assessment of the differences between the AWS and Azure platforms? How about the cost structures?
Instead - we get Trump vs Bezos, Trump, Trump...
You know media attention is air to Trump's flame - ignore him and he goes out.
My thinking is that the MS solution will be cheaper per seat - as they own the entire SW stack and can offer a bundle (Host OS, Guest OS, and the basic applications - email, word process, spreadsheets), where AWS will have to license these from MS.
4
No reasonable or knowledgeable procurement officer would have awarded this contract to any company other than Microsoft who are way late to the cloud game. The award makes it even more difficult for the DoD to wean themselves from Microsoft and its overpriced and proprietary operating systems, office software, database software, etc.
If security is the ultimate concern, which it should be, the DoD and the rest of the government should have already moved to open source products which are continually vetted for risks.
Much like Lockheed Martin, HP and it’s spinoffs, Raytheon, and every other top and mid-tier government contractor status quo and poor performance are the standard.
6
Why is it so difficult to understand that - no matter how often we find out, point out, write about, scream about, rally about and despair about Trump's blatant, unashamed, law-breaking and decency violating wrongdoings - none of this matters to this American President.
America in his view is TRUMP in capital letters and whatever Trump wants and does has to be sanctioned.
And as long as the economy works with billions and billions of arms sales pressurized out of allies who need America's support and as long as Trump's big supporters and donors get richer and richer - nothing will change.
13
A military from this century would have awarded multiple such contracts to as many qualified bidders as it could find, and then double-blinded the user-provider interface.
19
Agreed. Reliance on a single provider is not wise from a security standpoint.
6
Personally unaccountables don’t have to BE “wise”
as long as we choose not to wise-UP, and begin to
make needed, viable, sustainable choices,changes
and differences!
Especially when that sole provider has endlessly demonstrated their ability to ship software with as many holes as Swiss cheese.
Bezos, Bloomberg, and Steyer, with some help from Buffett and a few other billionaires, need to come together and agree to give some percentage of their wealth toward an all-out war on Trump’s re-election. Forget the giving challenge. Our democracy needs the help more than charitable organizations. If Trump remains in office, the social fabric of the country will be so torn that no amount of money will repair it.
64
What fun. We get to watch a real top level show of power and intelligence ... Actually, Microsoft and Amazon ought to get together and form a third company to handle the project - everybody wins. Then, no one can call anyone greedy - I'll buy some of that stock. Even the BIG GUYS do not understand collaboration for the good of all. DJM
11
By buying the WP Mr. Bezos had a fantastic opportunity to give something back to the people who made him the top merchandiser in the world. He could have delivered to them a journalistic marvel for these important political transformative times we live in, but he didn't. Instead of bringing the people top notch journalism he has chosen to use the WP for left wing political advocacy. Which means the loss of Jedi for Amazon. It's not all Trumps fault either, look at Boris and the BBC across the Atlantic. Neither care, because both know, time is on their side.
2
But ... the majority of the American people are far more left wing than the government they get.
@Joe Gilkey - ridiculous! What do you think of trump TV?
Faux no news, OAN, newsmax. The WP is one of the finest newspapers in the world, equal to the one you obviously are reading now!
1
Obviously, this will take time to play out and will delay work on the contract. Courts and lawyers are going to play outsize roles in our history because of precedents set currently. And we may never know what actually happened. What I want to know is whether the defense department or the government or Jeff Bezos has any idea how serious a threat our ignorance and lack of education pose. I’d be thinking about the larger problem of a nation that allows “a low life from Queens” — to borrow from George Will — to act in this way. Where is the bundle of code that addresses this problem?
4
If the Bezos fascination with space colonization wanes, he could let someone else run that project and join Trump and Bloomberg in the Buy-A-Term conga line of presidential succession. Not that he necessarily wants to have an elective political legacy, but that he's already bought the biggest private residence in town as well as the newspaper. The next step would be a 4 year Airbnb at the White House. As the seat of power, he could save on lobbyist costs while rigging legislation to ensure that Amazon thrives for decades to come without being burdened by commerce regulations and tax obligations.
4
Richard Branson, Virgin Airlines founder, told a story of many years ago being invited by Trump to have dinner at Trump Tower.
Branson found it odd givern they weren't close friend. He went anyway.
Branson said Trump railed vengeance to all the financiers who'd turned him down for loans.
Branson thought he would be next to decline lending Trump money. Note: Trump didn't outright ask for a loan; that's his modus operandi; beat around the bush but don't come right out and ask. Wiseguys 1.0!
You think it's bad now, wait and see what happens if the Wiseguys 2.0 sequel is renewed.
19
This will be another loss for trump in court as usual and we will pay for it... again. How can people support this guy?
16
Can't understand why people support Trump?
Read today's Thomas Edsall column. Hatred fuels democracy's destruction.
Dick Cheney: Sometimes you have to go to the dark side. This has been the Republican road for decades.
1
Bezos may have huge funds, astronomical tenacity, and a small army of lawyers, but Trump has the DOJ, the Pentagon, the Senate, the Supreme Court, and a few dozen other government departments - and it will not cost him a dime to drag this out (and he does not care what it costs tax paying dupes). Good luck Jeff.
5
Seems like Bezos has a team powerful enough to get positive judgements early on. That limits the amount of time to wait for appeals - and the team has enough money to come up with motion after motion to advance the case quickly.
I am sure that Bezos hires a team that knows the government isn’t a client who is going to start balking at the cost of the battle, and therefore they are employing a different strategy. The payout for a favorable judgement for Amazon is massive. The incentive is to get the money and soon.
4
Great piece. I so enjoy reading your columns and the background, experience, and journalism research you bring to your column.
9
Apparently every company that bid and lost found the procurement process to be unfair. Oracle is litigating the matter as well for different reasons. The actual story is far more interesting about how high level commerce works than this breathlessly conveyed Trump/Bezos angle.
7
@Frunobulax: But in those cases the President didn’t provide the losing bid with this opportunity. And given the evidence the President has already provided in other cases, there is a real possibility the complaint is correct. So yes - it is news-worthy.
16
I would hardly put it past Trump to have used his tiny thumb to shift the balance in this decision, but perhaps the contract was awarded fairly despite his words and actions.
Both Amazon and Microsoft are certainly capable of meeting the terms of the contract, which to mere mortals sounds like a massive one. The reality is that it is a $10 billion fixed price contract over 10 years. An additional $1 billion per year is nice, but both companies are going to do fine with or without it. For the Department of Defense, this contract is not even a rounding error in their budget.
I have heard that the deciding factor was Office 365...apparently, there are a lot of PowerPoint presentations done in the Pentagon.
3
Big deal- ever hear of LibreOffice? It is free open source code. If DoD chose based on Office360, we are in serious trouble. But, in fact, the bigger capability is running a massive server farm. Securely. What evidence is there that MS can do this? Amazon’s entire operation is built on massive server farms. How much down time do you see with Amazon? Amazon can rent out their spare cycles. How about your PC? Thank you MS - I use a MacBook because I got sick of Windoze crashing when I needed it. My MacBook hasn’t crashed in several years. I only reboot it when I think about it once or twice a year, just to be safe.
1
I had heard that the Pentagon had banned PowerPoint as a tool that was dumbing down meetings.
@Nunov D’Abov
Really?
Yes, I have heard of LibreOffice...I use it for opening older format files, it is particularly good for that. Otherwise, it is a bit like Linux desktop, fine for those who take the time to learn it, but not quite suitable for casual users. Remember when Munich decided to move to Linux and LibreOffice? It did not turn out so well.
Macbooks are great little machines, though they messed up the keyboards on the last few versions. They have fixed that now. For me, I need a Windows laptop because it runs the applications I need which are not available on the Mac.
As for massive server farms, I assume you have heard of Azure? It seems to be a nice little business that Microsoft is running.
Perhaps you have not heard, Microsoft is actually a huge contributor to open source, and is no longer considered the evil empire...that is now Google, Facebook, Amazon and the Surveillance Economy, though to be fair, Microsoft and Apple are both minor members of that cabal.
Trump is a heir to a fortune, one he did not increase; Trump is a marketing, interior design and tax specialist; Bezos is a business prodigy with a much larger networth.
6
Those who question the wisdom of putting DoD/government data on the "cloud" miss an important technical point: both Amazon and Microsoft have physically separate, government-certified cloud environments that are distinct from the commercial offerings most people are accustomed to. The fact is that both companies are far more adept at running data centers at scale than any government entity. Either one (or both) could have been the right choice for JEDI based on their merits.
The problem is that even if a good decision was made, it has the appearance of being tainted by political factors that do not represent the best value for the American taxpayer. That's why people involved in government procurement go out of their way to insulate themselves from non-contract-oriented influences. That becomes hard when there's a "constant background commentary".
18
Trump and Bezos is a little problem.
Trump and the Republicans have seized the government and refused to comply with the rule of law and the Constitution.
The Republic has been effectively been overthrown while people aren’t taking the power grab seriously.
I don’t think that Trump, McConnell, Pompeo, Mnuchin, Senate and House Republicans, the Republican Supreme Court, and other accomplices ave any intention to cooperate.
It’s something worth recognizing.
None of the other things will matter.
18
Well, climate change — or rather, ignoring climate change — will turn out to matter even more. But I take your point. Trump and the GOP have effectuated a hostile takeover of the US government. They — and it — must be stopped.
12
I’m thinking the Supreme Court may well surprise us as I think Robert’s is taking an extremely dim view of Trump’s interference in the Courts and thusly will be more than willing to send him a big message in the form of a huge legal setback for Trump.
I saw the look on Robert’s face when Trump shook his hand in the State of the Union and it was definitely NOT a friendly look...unless you consider a scowl friendly.
4
Bodyman, you certainly are an optimist.
1
Just another example of Trump politicizing every aspect of our federal government processes. It does not matter how important or valuable this service is to our military. It all depends upon who Trump likes or does not like. But Mr. Bezos is not one to take any dictation from Donald Trump and like Michael Bloomberg has the resources to prove it.
8
It is deeply inappropriate that the government would be consolidating a long-established monopoly (either Microsoft or Amazon) as a de facto American Institution, via a massive $10,000,000,000 cloud-computing contract. The personal beef between Bezos and Trump is not as alarming as the contract itself, and further entrenchment of monopolistic practices, effectively stifling competition.
198
chump change, call me when it has a "T" for trillion in front of it.
11
@Sean Do you want to award the contract to a company that has the chops to pull it off, or do you want a boondoggle?
Yes, Amazon and Microsoft are behemoths.
Yes, they are technically adept enough for the Pentagon.
41
@Sean
Have someone better in mind? Cousin Jim in a basement of grandma’s?
37
Here's the thing though...if you frame this as Trump vs Bezos obviously Bezos is going to win the fight...but this in its current form is Bezos vs the US Government. Its not like Trump is paying these legal bills...Trump and taxpayer funded lawyers are going to claim "executive privilege" or "top secret" or "national security" or something else and they'll drag this out in court for an eternity...when/if it ever goes to the Supreme court the justices will just say "we can't second guess the executive branch's determinations of national security" or something like that and Bezos loses.
115
@C I'm not so sure that MS and Bezos won't find that they have more in common than not, and one of those things in common is distaste for Trump. These corporations in particular have a lot to lose in a future guided by Trumpists. Regardless though, if Amazon can drag this through to an election and back a Dem candidate, it just might happen that a new administration would 'review' a lot of what the Trump administration has done and reverse direction.
24
@C
The idea that the government is going to make public its procurement rules when it comes to a program like JEDI is comical.
We're not talking about a government contract for off-the shelf office supplies you can buy at Staples.
7
Yeah, I don’t buy this stuff at Staples- I buy it on-line for pennies per giga-whatever from Amazon, Apple, Google, DropBox, or a dozen other providers of cloud storage and computing cycles. When you look at the aggregate of all the server capacity they give away free to individuals, it might actually dwarf what the DoD is paying $10B for.
3
I don't know whether msft or amzn has the better system for DoD requirements.
What I do know is trump inserted himself into the process which makes the whole award suspect and worthy of review.
Bring on the discovery.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
470
Sunlight IS the best disinfectant, but that is why the Don wears the orange SPF 10000 sunscreen. It also helps him pass the red-faced test since, even if he could blush, you would never know it.
14
@Rick
Exactly.
There is no doubt in my mind that Trump intervened and stopped Amazon from getting the contract.
12
@Rick
Not with Republicans in charge. They roll out the awnings and shutter the windows.
8
I've been in the software business since teachng Fortran to fellow engineering graduate students at Purdue in 1962. The idea of putting a business's vital data on a system not under one's direct and personal control made me shudder when it was first introduced.
I like brontosaurus. I like tyrannosaurus. I detest the very idea of cloud computing.
Yeah, I'm obsolete, close to extinct. My systems are on this machine, and are double-backed-up regularly. On removable media, then stored on the bookshelf behind me. Hack that!
13
@Austin Liberal I share your wariness about each of the cloud vendors and appreciate your defiance of them. I especially avoid Google and Facebook's surveillance honeypots. But do you not have a mobile phone? You must have an email address to be able to comment here. The government of China, i.e. the Communist party of China, probably maintains more information about you than any cloud vendor. Any of the various devices in my home with an ip address could probably be hacked by the Chinese if they were determined. I would have to personally program every single chip in every machine to keep them out. Come into my parlor, said the network to the libertarian.
2
@JW
My mobile phone is a 2001 flip-top. No browser. No email. No Internet access, at all. It's a phone: Call, talk, hang up.
I refuse to use a "phone" that comes with a 42 page instruction booklet.
(I looked for a dial mobile, but they aren't made.)
@Austin Liberal Your location can still be tracked. Even when your phone is turned off. Your habits have economic value and will be monitored. I agree that steps can be taken to avoid being helpful to the surveillance industrial complex, but facial recognition can be used to track you unless you never leave your house and never use any city water, fuel or electricity. I hated when he said this, but Scott McNealy told European regulators when they complained about privacy back in the 90's, "You have no privacy. Get over it." More true now than ever before.
1
Re”The Epic Battle Between Trump and Bezos Is On“
May the winnings go to the most spoiled.
4
I have the odd misgiving about using the cloud for stuff I'd like to keep private, like my whole life, so why is our DOD handing our whole national security to a private company?
12
They will do what they are trying to prevent citizens from doing- encrypt the data in transit and in storage.
Fortunately, we don’t have any criminals, sex offenders, pedophiles or terrorists working for the government.
1
Bezos and Bloomberg - Trump's worst nightmare.
13
If by some foreign intervention or other cheating, this unpopular illegitimate president is re-elected, people like Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg will be principal targets for revenge.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees the threat to the Republic, the rule of law, the Constitution, freedom and democracy.
Billionaires and millionaires should not be willing to trade the rule of law for tax cuts.
Without the rule of law, material wealth can be expropriated and individual freedom can be denied by the despotic Trump.
The American public was able to see that the GOP controlled Senate is no check on Trump. The Constitution is no check on Trump.
He is under the delusion he can do anything he pleases, like Emperor Caligula.
The Democratic Party needs a galvanized majority of Americans, counter disinformation tactics, clear messaging and immense resources, to stop a despot that is openly working with foreign governments to cheat yet again to destroy the American Republic.
This cannot be about ego. This will not succeed with extremist inflexible political candidates, though the GOP hopes to run against such.
For the good of the country and the world, we need a leader who will make progress in addressing critical national and global issues, instead of one bent on destroying NATO and building walls that fall with a gust of wind.
16
What next? Can we just through them into the ring at the forum and let them have at it?
1
Trump is awful, but by no means is Bezos a hero. He is actively undermining working people everywhere. He is not to be trusted.
2
Why does the author make the following assertion?
“The fact that Amazon has been hired by the federal government many times bolsters the company’s case that its loss of the JEDI project is part of the president’s vendetta against Mr. Bezos.”
Has Microsoft NOT been hired by the federal government many times? I don’t know the facts, but I don’t see why previous history of being hired (especially with lack of contrast to Microsoft’s history) provides evidence one way or the other regarding the loss of this project.
6
Trump and Bezos: they deserve each other.
3
Incomplete story. How much of a tax benefit does Amazon get for this contribution to the climate hoax?
3
@John Huppenthal ...
Why does the vast and overwhelming majority of Scientists on this planet understand that our approaching climate crisis is absolutely not a "hoax."
Is it because they are all getting a "tax benefit" for doing so?
Are you projecting the corruption of Donald J. Trump onto absolutely everyone else on our imperiled planet Earth?
Is your argument simply that all of the Scientists in the world are corrupt frauds?
1
None. Bezos contributed his own money.
As for the hoax, you may not be able to notice the temperature increase in AZ, and you certainly won’t care about the coastal flooding from rising sea levels, but when you start seeing cycles of drought and flash floods, combined with ash and dust filling the sky from the resulting Forrest fires and dust storms, you might start paying attention.
The great news is that DC is only a few feet above sea level, so we won’t need anyone to drain the swamp- the alligators will get washed out to sea where the corporate sharks can eat them.
1
@Nunov D’Abov
In 1990, Maricopa County hit a record 122 degrees. This summer? Not so much, peak temperature of 114 degrees.
As for ocean rise, as you fly into Rome, you will notice the old Roman seaport 35 feet under water from ocean rise.
If the climate hysterics are correct, in 2050, it will be 35 feet 7 inches under water.
If no one noticed or cared about the first 35 feet, why will we notice or care about the next 7 inches?
1
Dead right.
I'm not a fun of Bezos but boy this is fun, the billionaire against the thousandaire.
6
Love the “thousandaire”!
The epic battle between a bunch of rich pack holes for a contract called Jedi. Luke Skywalker phone home, there ain't no force here baby...
1
A pox on both their houses.
6
The sickening part of this is that both men are disgusting. Bezos is a greedy exploitative businessman whose company has a long track record of rapacious practices. Trump is, well, Trump. This column reads like a gee-whiz, look at the rich guys quarrel. Pathetic. The whole “tech revolution “ has been a colossal joke, a complete waste of ingenuity. Instead of solving real problems these guys have focused their talents on delivering a sandwich faster. And they do it with outsized egos. Who do these people think they are?
7
@Joe Who do people like Bezos think they are? The people who can deliver your sandwich faster. He's become a multibillionaire by being the man who can do that. What are the real problems Bezos & Co. should solve?
I've had no illusions about Bezos since I and most other older people learned about who he was in the late 1990s. At that time, he was already becoming known as a ruthless guy who wanted to put all physical bookstores out of business. Not as repulsive as Zuckerberg, I would say, but he and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were all variations on being "Zuckerberg before Zuckerberg."
5
@Joe, a trifle too simplistic to say that “these guys” have been in the business of delivering sandwiches faster? You mean the entire technology industry of the last 50 years, including the Internet? If you think that is just delivering sandwiches, I wonder how you comprehend your everyday life.
2
"hurts the security of this country"
I wonder who would benefit from that... His great pal Putin, maybe?
3
Epic battle! Trump vs Bezos! Las Vegas, DC, New York! That’s right!! Three fights! One winner! Caesar’s Palace! The Rotunda and the White House lawn! Madison Square Garden! “Leader of The Free World” versus “Richest Man in the World.” It’s insane! Cage match! Texas Hold ‘em! Shootout on Fifth Avenue at high noon! Winner takes all! Be there! Only on Pay per view CSPAN.
5
Has Dershowitz chimed in to support Trump on this yet?
10
A litigation death match. AMURICA!
1
Donny the dumpster fire is a wanna be thug. Mr Bezos is quite smart with class. As usual Donny will lose in court. America will win.
Put the dumpster fire out.
4
Ultimately, Trump probably won't be able to avoid being deposed on this one. Although I'm not at all an Amazon fan (and think the company needs to be broken up), godspeed on this fight, Mr. Bezos. And, how about spending a hundred million on turning at least a few Senate seats while you're at it?
24
Anyone who knows anything about cloud computing knows that awarding the JEDI contract to a single vendor — let alone Microsoft’s product — didn’t do their research.
I really hope Bezos shines a bright, bright light on the deep corruption of the Trump administration that exploits the military, solicits foreign governments, and lines their own pockets at the expense of all Americans prosperity and security.
15
"But if the company continues winning legal motions, there is the possibility of a discovery process that could force the Trump administration to reveal what kind of pressure the president may have brought to bear to stop Amazon from winning the JEDI project."
In this type of warfare, the discovery process may prove to be more important than the lawsuit's eventual outcome. There is dirt to be dug for a battle being fought on many diverse fronts. Trump seems to be underestimating Bezos's toughness and dedication. And that shot of Ms Swisher staring balefully over her glasses suggests she's in for the long haul as well. This could be fun to watch.
9
Who makes the Microsoft Operating Systems that Amazon uses in its Cloud, and who provides the Security Updates to ensure security of Amazon's servers in the Amazon Cloud?
Of course it is Microsoft, and how would Amazon make the US Military networks more secure than Microsoft, given a competition for money between Microsoft and Amazon?
Wouldn't Microsoft be more likely to secure US Military applications, with instant security updates to their Cloud, which Amazon could not perform without total capitulation to Microsoft?
Largely political, but when it comes down the issue of security for US Military applications on "The Cloud", Microsoft has all the right answers, control and power to implement US Military security.
2
I don’t think you understand what cloud computing entails. All DoD systems will move to the cloud, regardless of the technology that underpins those systems.
4
Bezos just pledged 10 billion to support research and efforts to ameliorate climate change...and there is the Washington Post which he owns and which frequently opposes trump....But the truth is that it would be much more effective to spend 10 billion dollars to oppose Trump's run for President and to oppose his minions in the Senate and House. 10 billion is a lot of money but actually not much in the fight to reverse climate change. Changing government policy and regulations is worth a lot more in that fight. So, the question is: why won't Bezos take a more activist role against Trump?
10
Daniel: How do we know he (Bezos) is not actively resisting the *president?
He can donate to anyone anonymously. Let’s hope.
1
@Bob I assume that any really large donation to anti trump pac would be picked up by media even if donor wasn’t made public. If such a pac received 100 million plus the media would be blitzed with negative trump ads.
Bezos has lost all his previous fights with Trump. This is likely to be the same.
2
'Twould be ironic, and deeply, deeply satisfying to have bonespur held to account, finally.
He's the scuzziest of the scuzz, and We The People have had to endure its' scuzzieness. To have it all exposed in Discovery, along with penalties (I assume there are consequences for all collusion in Our Government by employees, yes?), including possible Impeachment, is an important undertaking. Graci, Mr. Bezos
10
TEN BILLION DOLLARS
Amazon is by far the biggest cloud player, and it’s very suspicious that this business suddenly shifted from Amazon to Microsoft.
We need an investigation to determine whether the award of ten billion dollars was influenced by the President’s political interests.
12
The best way for Mr. Bezos to fight back might be to pay off everyone in Wyoming to merge with Idaho and cost Trump two Senate and Electoral College votes.
16
With such animosity pre-trump trump hurled at Bezo. There has to be an investigation into how objective (as they supposed to be), did the trump administration follow the rules to contract? Hahahahahahahhah
4
While you’re at it, consolidate the two Dakotas.
Rule of law. That is the issue. There are rules about procurement that have a long history. Vendettas in the procurement system, sweetheart deals, and influence peddling as well as outright bribery are forms of corruption that we, the public in the US, have fought with carefully drafted laws and regulations.
The welfare of the troops may be at stake here, and harm may occur, but if the President himself does not understand well-established rules about contracting, then his advisors certainly have the responsibility to take action to protect against malfeasance. If Amazon has the better product and support, then the company deserves proper consideration without political influence. Trump seems to consider himself the "chief law enforcement officer" today, so he should enforce our rules impartially. If there is a delay in support for the troops, then that issue belongs at Trump's feet.
If there was a corrupt process regarding Amazon's contract submission, then perhaps the House should investigate, with mind to even more articles of impeachment.
16
I'm with Trump. Bezos has put thousands of Americans out of work by demolishing retail and avoiding taxes.
3
Different issue. Very different.
1
@CJT
Better to destroy a few thousand retail stores than our entire economy and country...
P.S.- Stores in my area for the most part are doing great. If you have stuff that people want to buy, and they have the money to do so, then things tend to work out. Not everybody shops online.
3
@CJT
Like he is the only one demolishing brick and mortar stores. Give me a break.
And Trump is the one demolishing our Democracy or haven't you noticed all the corruption that surrounds him. Just look at who he has pardoned and who his friends are
8
Go Jeff
10
Not that Bezos is any great guy, but I hope Bezos defeats Trump and terminates the Microsoft contract. Where are the Democrats. Where is the support for Bezos. While we're at it, where is the outrage at Trump pardoning and commutating his criminal friends?
8
I am confused about the question; Why is tRump still in office? He was elected the American people. Why is this question even being asked?
2
@Robert Black
He won via the antiquated Electoral College, and actually lost the popular vote by a substantial number of votes.
Welcome to this century.
4
@Robert Black
I was hired, I willfully did a horrible job repeatedly at great cost to the customers, why am I fired?
4
If Trump loses against Bezos, a true billionaire, it will pave way a victory lane for Bloomberg if he is the Democratic nominee; another true billionaire.
5
So, Cui Bono? Perhaps that is the problem with people with huge amounts of money--they do not choose to consider who benefits except themselves-- or, at least, in the case of some people, that is how it seems. Perhaps Mr. Bezos is different, possesses a penchant for doing the right thing, or, rather, perhaps, one for doing good. It doesn't seem that he feels the need to advertise whatever his motives are, unlike some other(s) in politics, whose pronouncements in regard to motives often ring untrue and hollow. Some psychologists will tell you that cutthroat competition is ruinous to the concept of achieving a goal. The on-going uproar over President Trump's behavior acknowledges this fact. The sum total of what is involved, "...selecting, characterizing, augmenting, valuing, influencing, managing and summarizing..." in accurate conceptualizing is ignored by grossly inflated egos who simply want to win. Trump seems to think he is the standard by which personal qualities, business deals, the machinery of rendering justice, a whole host of other items should be, are judged. Call him what you like, egoist, solipsistic, even psychotic, what he does can't be good for any country, except maybe KSA.
2
In Bezos vs. Trump, I feel that all's good if Bezos can take down Trump a few pegs. Bring on the billionaires! Anything to save us from this disgusting, corrupt administration.
28
Now I see why the TV show Gotham was canceled- we got our own Gotham, complete with the release ( pardon) of Batman Criminals! Who needs TV?!
3
Dear Pentagon
I thought you invented the internet. Can't your run your own cloud to save us poor taxpayers a few bucks?
Please don't put all yours eggs in one basket, You have many branches of the armed forces. At least a duopoly would be better strategically than a monopoly. Get Bill & Jeff to kiss and makeup. They have a lot in common,
1-2 in net worth$.
YoursTruly
A Concerned Civilian
9
@Charles yeah, right! And how come this ain't a Times pick?
1
Go Bezos!
8
So we finally get fed up with Trumps "executive privilege" and who benefits? The richest guy in the States. Warped reality.
6
It sounds like we can easily be attacked. Someone would have—if we had a country worth invading. I think we’re safe...for now...
4
Even citizens of the Klingon Empire know a fix when they see it. This thing stinks!
4
Yep. This was a travesty, created by the President himself.
Donald.
While in office, you are supposed to be balanced. You are not the golden boy of Trump Inc.
You work for me.
Time to grow up and act like a President.
(You can file for bankruptcy later).
17
The First thing I would say is that it is NOT a Big Win for Amazon. These Big Pentagon awards are generally contested by the loosing team and it is simply customary for the Defense Department to put a hold on it and start a review, which is generally ordered by a Judge.
But if you go back as far as you wish to go, most of the reviews do NOT result in an award to a different team, the complaining team. The Original Winner most of the times gets it back. Yes, some times they are reversed.
Unless Amazon can provide iron clad proof that President Trump directly intereferred with the process and ordered Pentagon to give the award to Microsoft; this challenge is NOT going any where.
3
@Devendra
Even though Trump is technically the president, I would argue that referring to him as "President Trump" is absurd.
Just like saying "President Andrew Dice Clay" would be absurd even if he were literally the president.
15
Putin sleeps better nights knowing Trumpy-bear continues to show he'll alawyas have his back even at extraneous moments like these.
9
The real epic battle is the one that will hopefully end in November with Trump's removal from office by the voters. Then all these potentially criminal cases against him can be prosecuted swiftly and successfully so that he never sees the light of day again.
14
@JB It's humiliating to admit, but we citizens will need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the Republican Crime Spree.
23
It’s time to bring in Elon Musk as a consultant.
6
Hey Trump, Bezos is a real billionaire.
26
There won’t be a sage smudge stick big enough to cleanse the White House when Trump is finally gone.
20
I, for one have my popcorn ready and will greatly enjoy watching Bezos trounce Trump. Bezos is tougher where it counts, cannot be intimidated by bluster nor dissuaded by delay and distraction, and has the deepest of pockets. Seems like Trump will have to fight two REAL billionaires at once this year.
34
Matt. When tRump is out of office, you will be correct. While in office we are funding this battle in support of tRump. The US has very deep pockets.
1
I remember Trump taking credit for jobs Amazon created in the US, that were already planned before he became president.
14
Mr. Trump is and has always been a blatant criminal. What's new and why is he still the president of the USA?
27
@Wendell Murray , answer: the unconscionable party, aka the RNC.
6
There seems to be no end to Trump's perfidy. But we should draw the line when he uses his influence corruptly by spending our dollars for things like “a huge $10 billion, 10-year, cloud-computing project for the Defense Department called the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure project, also known as JEDI.”
The scale of Trump's unethical behavior has become a huge risk to our national security, since “it is critical that the Pentagon modernize its tech as quickly as possible, as it faces challenges across the globe, most especially from China. Right now, the Defense Department is working with patched-up systems from the 1980s and 1990s.”
Like many Americans, I am so sick of Republican attempts to legitimize their rogue President for the sake of their own political futures, playing to a minority of Americans. It's imperative that not only must Trump be defeated in the election of 2020, but his Republican enablers must be stopped at the polls as well.
44
Trump is making a lot of "REAL" billionaire enemies. Guys who won't forget and who don't like being pushed around. This is getting most interesting.
16
I have a family member who works for AWS. She's relieved about the decision so she won't have to protest about her company/boss being in bed with Trump's heinous policies. And it's not like they need the business. Still, their product is superior to Microsoft's and if the Prez wanted to do the best for his DOD he would use it.
11
Got to hand it to trump; he's the busiest non-president president ever. Judges, pardons, contracts and that's just today's news!
10
Sparring by day then hosting each other's families at lavish parties at night. There is no battle here, just business as usual for the ruling class. While our attention is diverted by their made-for-tv feud, children continue to die from willful neglect at our southern border and men and women continue to be maimed and killed at Bezos' fulfillment centers. The only epic thing here is the effort it takes to turn a blind eye to the the suffering Trump & Bezos continue to inflict on the most vulnerable.
9
@Maggie , thank you for your comment. It's tragic that you have to point out this fact about the unconscionable Bezos.
Still, we knew that it could come to this: the Billionaires -both real and imagined- having at it like a bunch of angry and petty war lords.
Who suffers most are the plebs. Nothing historically new there, don't you know.
5
@Carson
What about the unconscionable Trump or have you missed something
2
Not missed. I just see Bezos as motivated by greed as is Trump.
Else-wise, Bezos would pay a decent wage to those who earn him his fortune.
What a disappointment Bezos is.
While I’m grateful for the Washington Post, I see the other enterprises as less than worthy.
Other than Amazon, Whole Foods is an example. Again, not cool to employees.
None of this is to say Bezos is not doing us all a favor in taking on the enemy we have in common: the, uh, ahem, blankety blank in the Whitehouse.
3
Bumper Sticker idea. Works for Bezos or Bloomberg.
"My Billionaire beat up your Fake Billionaire."
9
Bezos would not be personally paying the huge legal bills involved. That would come out of Amazon's budget.
4
I think Amazon has more than enough evidence of direct intervention by Trump for personal reasons to get the case into discovery. Trump will be on the witness list for depositions.
The government will make a series of motions to protect Trump from testifying. Ultimately, Trump will be subpoenaed and will refuse to comply. The question (which is also posed in cases waiting for decision by the Supreme Court) is whether Trump will comply with orders of federal courts, including the Supreme Court, to produce documents or show up for a deposition.
I'm guessing he won't. So, Senator Susan Collins, what then? Not much point in impeaching DJT, is there?
12
Billionaire vs 'billionaire'
3
Great work, Kara. Thank you.
Let me paraphrase.
Gates and others have dumped millions or billions of dollars in to the educational program. Without gates, The Wall Street Journal said the Billikens should have been dumped into the ocean. It meant nothing.
It in this paper Besos wants to reduce climate change. Yet again in this paper. Solar energy for India reducing coal. There are about 1 billion people in India. 1 billion people in China. Who will build the solar panels? I think Bezos needs to understand what can produce energy from the sun. Quickly. And then remove call as a heating product not here but in the world!
Previously I stated China, India, United States, etc. need to provide for clean coal no carbon emissions to Penn State University for research. Maybe Besos should. If there is not clean coal in 5 years, maybe he can pay for the solar panels.
1
Thanks Ms. Swisher, for the remark that the self-declared stable genius and self declared multi billionaire is already rattled politically by the 'real' billionaire Micheal Bloomberg.
Bezos is just the right guy to rattle the know-nothing, illiterate, and through and through corrupt little insecure man-child sitting in the Oval Office.
I dream that #45 will be carried out of the White House in a straight jacket by men in white coats before November.
17
America is naming its defense department's computer system after a movie series for 8 year-olds about robots and spaceships and a Muppet with a sword made from laser beams. Who gets the biggest last laugh, George Lucas or Bill Maher?
7
Bravo!!!!!!! Another person enjoying hearty laughs as long as Very Stable Genius Donnie T. is playing King President is a certain very stable KGB agent.
6
Can Citizen Trump ever do anything that doesn't harm the country?
10
Kara's argument on behalf of Amazon rises to a level of satire when the impeachment precedent comes forward; the level rises higher picturing Bezo's miffed reaction along with the personal insight that he is not one be be miffed with.
2
Bezos vs Trump; billionaire brain vs lizard brain.
29
Bezos is desperate to stop Microsoft and it wont work. Microsoft is fast catching up to Amazon Web Services.
Hopefully AWS's high prices will come down.
as Jeff likes to say "your margin is my opportunity"
The U.S. government did the right thing.
1
What is not to like about Amazon and its founder? The company is not perfect of course so is the founder, but Amazon and its staff work very hard and do very good work for their customers and you can’t find a more user friendly business on the planet. What is not to like? What more do you want? A communist America with no successful businesses where everyone grows cabbage and can only have two chickens at home?
5
Time to lock up Jeff Bezos? President "Leave-No-Grudge-Behind' has him in his sights. Trump will be back to reality TV at some point spewing his lies and misinformation to feed his thin skinned ego..... What a train wreck, feel sorry that people can support such a dysfunctional mean person.
10
As others have pointed out, we don't have access to the inside information and the details, so any opinions are uninformed. Both Amazon and Microsoft draw from the same pool of talent and compete when it comes to hiring the best software engineers and programmers, etc. This is industrial strength computing. I don't think Bezos and his company would raise objections if they didn't have solidly based suspicions that there may have been a thumb on the scale when it came to awarding the contract. Maybe Microsoft was awarded the contract based on merit and Donald used his usual methods just to tweak Jeff. However, I don't think he's that clever. Hopefully, there will be a thorough and objective investigation that will either verify or refute that the contract was rewarded fairly.
5
Not only do Microsoft and Amazon recruit for the same pool of talent, but as the two big shops in town, the talent changes their jerseys with startling regularity. It’s all about re-evaluating the commute across Lake Washington, and compensation, of course.
Almost everything Trump does is motivated by ulterior motives or vengeance. In this case, he perceives the owner of The Washington Post as his political enemy and he is jealous because Jeff Bezos is a real billionaire, not just an insecure person who claims to be one. Bezos could buy out Donald Trump with his petty cash.
33
Amazon and AWS are as closed to a monopoly as it gets.
Senator Warren would find a very full time job checking their business practices.
1
Maybe...but not the issue. Not even close.
Bezos like Bloomberg has the financial clout to cause Trump a lot of pain as much as Trump goes after his enemies and rewards his friends. Get a look at his financial history his recent fraud cases with Trump University and Trump ORg Charities ,his dealing with Russian and Saudi princes laundering $ and mob connections. Document and widely expose all his financial frauds and those of his family for folks to evaluate before the Nov 8 elections.
16
So, now Trump has Mark Esper and the Defense Department, along with several other government departments, completely under his control. We are getting closer to a dictatorship every day.
Bezos has no say in the editorial policies of the Washington Post. Trump started the war with him simply because Bezos owns the paper.
Even though I'm an Amazon Prime member, I don't usually cheer for multi-billionaires. But I'll be cheering wildly for Bezos and Bloomberg to beat the dangerously unbalanced demagogue in the Oval Office. Sorry, Bernie. It's ugly, but 2020 has come down to the Battle of the Billionaires.
29
I recently deleted Twitter but feel compelled to send a message. We are in a leaky vessel and have some choice of life boats. I do not care what brand or color or amenities are available on the boats. I just want us to get relief from the sinking ship and get someone who can fix the leaks. Max. Policy does not matter, niceties and quibbles and how the life boats got to this imperiled ship matter not at all. Someone has to repair the ship of state or really we are all lost anyway.
We can have small f fights but we need to be saved first and foremost.
9
Assuming that Microsoft and Amazon carry some eqivalency in their technological genius, it is clear that Trump, having declared the free Press 'the enemy of the people', has a personal vendetta against Bezos...for being the owner of the Washington Post (although with no apparent interference of Bezos in that paper's routine work to keep us informed). Given that Trump remains an inveterate liar (whenever he opens his big mouth), journalism seems anathema to him, given that jt informs the public at great sacrifice, and based on the truth, and the evidence. But the vulgar bully in-chief is incapable to see any faults in himself, narcissistic as he is, and certainly inept to apologize for his constant insults and devious colossal blunders. What an insult to reason. And decency!
13
Isn't it amazing how Trump wants to get personally and directly involved in US Government business transactions? The more personal it is, the more likely he will use his "bully pulpit" at his frequent rallies to diss and make fun of his perceived enemies. Trump will make fun of anyone in front of a crowd...especially his loyal MAGA base.
It appears to me that his perverse way to mock, diss and make fun of his perceived enemies will haunt him for the rest of his life. It is likely to come back like a boomerang and once Trump is no longer "protected" by the presidency, will he will end up like Biff in "Back to the Future"!
4
Bezos isn't Facebook. Facebook is pretty much part of the Trump Republican Russia destroy-democracy team now. All the same, to my mind, Bezos won't actually be battling Trump until Bezos puts his money directly into protecting our democracy from the unmentionable, and getting rid of him. Oh, sure, Bezos wants the contract. Who wouldn't? It would have been corporate malpractice not to sue after the government reversed themselves. And, yep, Bezos is doing a world of good by supporting the Washington Post, though now he should triple their budget. And, the climate change sentiments are nice. But Bezos should do as Bloomberg is doing and put some real dollars into our democracy. Or we won't even have a climate to protect.
16
“deprived our war fighters of a set of capabilities they urgently need,”
What “war fighters”? The US hasn’t declared war since 1942.
18
Mr. Bezos is to be commended for committing $10 billion to fight climate change, but he won't get ANYWHERE unless Trump is out of office, the Senate goes Blue, and the House goes more Blue.
I'd like to see Mr. Bezos commit every dime he saved on the Trump Tax cut, or $10 billion dollars, whichever is bigger to fighting to get back the Senate and WH, and hold the House. He could easily fund:
1) Super-power legal teams to fight voter suppression, gerrymandering, roll-purging, poll closing and other dirty tricks to deny people their Constitutional right to vote. They also need to ensure employers allow employees to vote WITHOUT PENALTY!
2) Voter registration, especially to determine who's been purged and needs to re-register.
3) Transportation to the polls and get-out-the-vote.
4) 23 GOP Senators are up for re-election. Mr. Bezos could ENSURE not one has a "slide" back into office. And he can help protect vulnerable ones like Doug Jones. A majority is vital, 60 votes is critical, 67 means removing unqualified hack judges. And Bill Barr!
5) 435 House Seats are up. Seats like Steven King in Iowa, Devin Nunes in Cali, Matt Gaetz in Fl, etc, need to be flipped, and Trump's massive efforts countered.
6) Encourage line voting for ALL Democrats.
7) Make sure no matter HOW much Trump has, and what dirty tricks he has, he can be out-spent and the tricks and lies countered.
Unless we take back the WH and Senate, Climate Change can't be fought.
38
He wasted his money. In 35 years scientists will be warning about global coolong again, as they did 35 years ago. We can do absolutely nothing about the Earth's climate. End times hysterics will soon find a new cause to get hysterical about, maybe global cooling, or y2k 2.0
1
@CJT
Just remember: Bigfoot is real, the Earth is flat, and human-generated climate change is a hoax.
Oh, and the Moon really is made of green cheese.
4
I wonder if Jeff misses MacKenzie yet?
4
When the president calls them "war fighters" rather than soldiers, it reflects a level of ignorance that is staggering. That he used his influence to award a contract, goes without saying.
27
@Art Seaman that is DoD language and used throughout to avoid naming soldiers, marines, sailors, etc. all separately.
It has nothing to do with Trump.
I'm surprised Disney's lawyers haven't gone ballistic over the use of the term Jedi.
4
A real genius vs. a self-proclaimed, unstable one.
A real Billionaire vs. a fake, self-proclaimed one.
A real self made Businessman vs. Daddy’s boy
I’ll go with Jeff.
Seriously.
84
If given the opportunity to complete can you imagine what Space Force is going to look like? He's probably going to have to recruit from those "liberty" protectors patrolling the border. Bonus they can provide their own guns and camo. Let's hope they don't have to take a physical.
Between Bloomberg and Bezos the president is looking at problems and he knows it. These men aren't trumps typical victims and they're not going to become one either.
17
You think Bill Gates is going to let Bezos take his lunch?
I'll put my money on Bill.
1
Even if they despise each other, the epic battle is between the violent, oppressive. exploitative forces these people represent and the rest of us who are their targets.
4
Who told Bezos that buying the Washington Post was a good idea? Or did he think that up on his own?
This is a perfectly encapsulated turf war engulfing the various tech giants. The government enriched Microsoft when the Pentagon bought up DOS and Windows as its operating systems. (Bill Gates didn't write DOS but paid Tim Patterson to write it. Who should be rich, Gates or Patterson?) Similarly, who created JEDI?––certainly not Jeff Bezos. The owners of the tech companies scoop up ideas from the underlings, and then make hay with them. This hierarchical system ensures that monetization and commodification triumph over ideation.
1
This case should determine how far Trump has managed to corrupt the courts. Round one to justice
6
Bezos (or Bloomberg) should buy the rights to Bolton's book and publish it without White House review.
27
@Terri Arnold
Don't worry, Bolton's book is guaranteed to leak. We'll be seeing it one way or the other.
1
Microsoft, instead of defensively saying it won the contract "fair and square," should join the Amazon suit, in the interest of "fairer and squarer," and so that it's "win" will not be tainted by the stink of Trump, and to stand up, in alliance with its rival Amazon, against what Trump and Trumpism represent.
This contract is worth $10 billion. What's that really worth to Amazon and Microsoft? They can go halfsies on any eventual contract, or strike some other deal, or just walk away, knowing they'd done the right thing.
Satya? Jeff?
26
Suggestion for Jeff: Spend $10B to open “Bezos” Towers next to failing Trump buildings around the world and compete and crush them-Amazon style.
16
I love it---Fake Money vs. Real Money
21
Bezos is battling not just Trump but also his exwife and AOC. Sometimes power gets to the rich and powerful. I don't think epic battles will hurt either Trump or Bezos.
1
It makes my heart sing to read there are others out there every bit as vindictive and tenacious as Trump.
Where there's smoke there's fire when it comes to Trump's known antipathies. Not everyone has the resources to fight the president whose ability to politicize everything is unparalleled.
That Bezos is going to the mat to show folks how manipulative and punitive this man is should make every little guy swept up in the Trump vengeance machine smile.
29
Battle of the titans I guess. I laughed out loud when MS was named - isn't this the OS with the worst record for security? Bring it, Mr. Bezos.
21
@Michele msft has more enterprise software chops than amzn. AWS is a ahead of Azure given its head start and initial vision but Azure is closing fast. Over time I have no doubt Azure will overtake AWS because that is just what msft does.
I have no problem with the government selecting msft. Msft has been a good partner to the government.
And amzn’s whining of a tailored spec is rich. They try to influence the RFP process all the time to favor AWS. They lost this go round. Nobody should cry for them. It’s called business.
Trump is a buffoon. He created the appearance of bias - if not outright caused it - so this should be re-opened. But I still think msft is in the driver’s seat. And as a taxpayer I’m good with that. Msft is a really good cloud provider.
I guess the pretend president isn’t worried that Amazon doesn’t pay any taxes.
2
I can’t believe we are giving more tax dollars to Amazon. The NYT’s recently had an article that stated Amazon has not paid taxes in decades and it is just plain wrong. Lock Trump and Bezos up in the same jail cell. They deserve it.
4
This entire scenario is a nightmare.
An unethical billionaire utilized his public office to satisfy a personal vendetta to keep a priceless and incredibly scary cloud based intelligence system from being awarded to another unethical billionaire by steering the contract award to a 3rd unethical billionaire.
No matter how this shakes out, there are no winners. We are all losers.
7
Can't it be both things? Both are egomaniacs, both are some of worse people in America.
4
i can only hope mr bezos wipes the floor with IT, and its enablers.
"“President Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to use his position as president and commander in chief to interfere with government functions — including federal procurement's — to advance his personal agenda.”
the violation of the emolument clause has been blatant by IT....
maybe this case, with the power, and drive behind mr bezos, will bring the commander and cheat to ITs knee, and possibly outta office !!
thank you jeff !!
7
Will Bezos use his fortune to do what's right and help rid us of this orange menace? Or will he use his cash to push his personal agenda and manipulate the system until he gets his way?
4
Importantly, this time it is about something important, essential even, to the GOP’s soul: money. With Russia and Ukraine, it was all about wishy-washy stuff like legitimacy of the president and public faith in the electoral process. But this, this time, this time it’s about money. I would not be surprised to see this go much farther than other Trump scandals have.
1
Bezos will be happy to spend tens of millions of dollars to keep Trump in litigation for the rest of his life for all the lies and slander that Trump has leveled against Him and Amazon and the Washington Post. Trump has thrown Boomerangs at a lot of wealthy and powerful people for the last 3+ years and when his Presidency ends, so does his immunity.
33
The immunity is in his head. It’ll be fun to watch him crash and burn.
2
@Tim Hilton
Poor little, sad little, rich kid Donnie will not come to a happy end.
2
@pkbormes
Bezos and Bloomberg are the real deal - made billions on their own. Trump inherited his wealth and his 'investment acumen' is laughable.
Jeff and Mike represent Trump's worst fears.
4
The real battle is to get the Trumps and Bezos' to pay their fair share in taxes, so the less fortunate amongst us can have better and do better.
6
If Trump prevails our military may be saddled with substandard technology from Microsoft. Amazon's Web Services are superior in many, but not all, ways. This is especially important since cloud computing is set to double over the next three years and our national competitiveness depends on getting it right.
Amazon has higher data stability and fewer glitches, they started way back in 2002 versus Azure's 2010. AWS has a 42% market share compared to Microsofts' 30%.
But Azure has better support for hybrid clouds that enable legacy applications and may be better for organizations that prefer keeping their data in-house.
This is not a decision Trump should be involved in.
15
The Epic Battle to get and keep big money and its corrupting influence out of our government has been made even more important as Bloomberg buys his way into the Democratic party.
To elect Bloomberg is to broadcast to the world, "we're ok with allowing big money to buy our elections" and we believe that the "United States Presidency and politics in general in this country is up for sale to the highest bidder."
Bloomberg has always been a Republican and is more than ever a member of what I call the "Gang of Plutocrats" - GOP.
If there was ever a time to get and keep the corrupting influence of big money out of our government and political system. No to Trump, no to Bloomberg, no to Billionaires in the White House.
6
Why not also talk about why people thought Amazon was a lock ... it's a revolving door between the department and Amazon. Look at the people who now work for Amazon
The fix was in for Amazon ...
Frankly -- I'm glad Microsoft got the contract.We need more than Amazon to control this technology .. competition will be good for the industry.
That's not to say we want any illiagal activity from the executive branch .... but -- there always is pressure
3
The President of the United States is profoundly mentally ill and must be removed from office.
145
Jeff could have Trump bared from Whole Foods.
1
Three bald guys in a row.
4
Hmmmm ... lets see now ... genuine mega multi billionaire versus POTUS fake billionaire wanna be who's in debt up to his bad combover and spray painted tan .... in the US of A ... where money talks ... and everything else including political power takes a long walk off a very short pier ?
Hmmm .... Yup . Much as I dislike the man .... Bezos wins ... hands down . And truth be told ... despite my dislike of Bezos and all that he stands for ... the country will be better off with Bezos winning than the Donald .
Now if only a few more oligarch tech billionaires would get off their politically apathetic posteriors and take on the Donald as well .
29
Hard to say why Microsoft won the contract, since the writer here did not provide any information on the competing products..I assume the writer doesn't know and didn't do any research about the JEDI program....But, I suppose that's not important to readers here...Most just want articles that explain how everything bad is Trump's fault...No facts, explanations or analysis are required for this type of journalism...Look elsewhere for an true analysis of the situation...
3
It wouldn't be surprising if POTUS handed CIA hacking tools to Saudis and asked fir a favor.
5
@N.B. the alphabet agencies wouldnt let that happen......?
@Keith Well, since the impeachment trial Trump is well aware he is the law. Senate has rubber-stamped it as well. Is this news to you? Haven't been reading NYT?? ;-)
let these two oligarch thugs duke it out
1
" The Grand Canyon-size gulf in business talent and wealth between the two surely is a factor here"
a bit heavy handed but good
6
Does Kara believe that Microsoft isn’t up to the challenge? Is Microsoft less capable than Amazon of providing a product that keeps our military community and nation safe?
2
@John That isn't the problem! Reread the essay and concentrate on the fact that Bezos' problem is with the President and his using the contract to punish Amazon.
5
If Bezos wants to be rid of ol' DiJiTs, all he has to do is hold a CIVICS SALE during the week after Election Day - with site-wide discounts based on the % voter turnout across the USA. Any other retailers who still exist would have to join in, like a Black Friday, but earlier and for a Much Better Cause.
There is a turnout percentage that would 'virtually' guarantee flipping both the WH and the SENATE. So peg your discount to that threshold number, or let it slide depending on what the turnout results end-up being.
Go All-American, Jeff - what's more red-blooded and patriotic than voting and a sale? USA!
5
Maybe Amazon should pay a fair tax rate and fair $wage levels. Isn’t that the real story?
5
I can't help but feel it is somewhat disheartening/appalling that only billionaires have the wherewithal to try and curb Trump's excesses and abuses - in politics and business.
Yes, the courts took down Trump's phony university scam and his phony charity scam, but now that the Republican party is fine with sleazy self dealing Trump Inc operating out of the White House, who's to keep some legal limits on Trump ? Bloomberg? Bezos?
The American electorate of course could remove Trump from office. Were it a priority. There is a clear path to success - uniting behind the Democratic nominee and turning out in sufficient numbers in 50 states to overwhelm all variations of GOP voter suppression.
The Declaration of Independence was a call for unity to throw off the yoke of tyranny. The constitution's legal framework was forged in the heated debate and compromise. Unity and compromise. Not perfect, but sufficiently good to establish and preserve a nation. So far. Maybe we should try it this time around.
7
One of the most important factors in this battle — compared to a lot of other fights in which Mr. Trump delays and obfuscates and makes noise to muddy the waters — is Mr. Bezos’s tenacity.
Not to mention his resources, which certainly put those of all investigatory Congressional committees combined to shame. Most of all, Bezos lately proved himself to be impervious to blackmail though it cost him his marriage and half his fortune - proving himself to possess the sort of indomitable character anyone taking on Trump&Co needs in spades.
9
I wish Bezos would join forces with Mike - against Trump. From Climate angle and Mike's great management experience... they can change the direction of this world !
Together they can do great things for ....
11
A contest between a man who sells millions of books and another guy who has never read one. I'm with Bezos on this one.
59
@SPQR ~~tooo funny !!!
2
No, not "Spaceballs"- it feels like "trump-world" where every action taken by the "commander -in-grief" is intended to benefit him and not the country he supposedly represents. He is certainly the most malignant personality I have ever encountered.
7
“ The Grand Canyon-size gulf in business talent and wealth between the two...”
Pretty perfect observation.
9
I hope Bill Gates is aware that he now owes Trump big time. Ivanka will be in town next week to pick up the campaign check.
5
While it was Mr. Trump that caused this mess, it will be US citizens that pay's the price for his indiscretions.
This isn't the type of courtroom action that you can blow through with your GOP buddies to hide the evidence, this is corporate litigation... they're going to relentlessly track down every lead, fully aware that finding single careless email will result in a multi-billion dollar lawsuit in their favor.
This lawsuit will almost certainly go past November 2020, and Amazon won't be dropping it just because Mr. Trump isn't reelected.
11
@Chris ~~~~lets hope jeff takes it to 45, as a civil/personal matter, and hits him in the personal finances = make him penniless !!!!!!
2
Of course Trump will be the Executive Privilege Bully once again, and sound the alarm over the Pentagon/DOD not getting what they need to defend our great nation, while he obfuscates, refuses, abuses and hurls back the same attacks for which he is being investigated.
I hope you're right about Bezos, that he can expose the insane gaslighting the Trump admin has put this country through.
But he's not just up against Trump. Republicans are vigorously investigating Hunter Biden right now, thanks to the impeachment trial.
3
2 titans of industry and a pretender seems more apt
3
Captain Obvious.
If Trump is involved, it is a given that there were irregularities.
If his family doesn't have their fingers in this pie I will plotz.
7
Another reason I can't like "Star Wars" anymore. Thanks.
Maybe Mr Bezos will start a billionaire revolt against Trump's refusal to take environmental issues seriously.
By the way, do all billionaires have no hair?
1
Who'd a thunk I'd ever come to root harder for 2 multi-multi-'squared' billionaire Goliaths 'like' Bloomberg and Bezos against someone as financially insecure (and so very insecure in all human 'respects') as trump than I ever did for Mickey Mantle or Muhammed Ali -- or even and ever, in a life of unreported skirmishes, for myself.
6
Give it up. The Senate, the Supreme Court and the DOJ are all in Trump’s pocket and have 100# agreed with him that he can do anything he wants. Hey America - you broke it you bought it.
3
It's really hard to say which of the two are the lesser evil.
I just want to know why these still-young billionaires shave theirs heads. Male pattern baldness?
Bottom line:
No one include these opinion writers have a single clue as to how this will turn out.
Let the Federal judiciary decide this.
YOU don't know the out come either.
1
I cannot imagine a single DOD procurement expert permitting any of this farrago. But then, they're terribly old fashion, still hanging onto the idea that the award of a federal contract is not in the gift of the current White House occupant.
1
So, now will T's twitter mafia boycott Amazon? Not likely, and even if so, it wouldn't make much difference.
1
Anyone who thinks Trump is not directly involved in the delay and the award of Jedi to Microsoft, are the same people who believe he's innocent of so many other things. Just another Trump vendetta, Corleone-style.
14
Amazon is crying Sour Grapes on this one..and I am a big fan of Amazon....The way they were Abused by OAC and the left in N.Y.C. which cost many Great New Yorkers Excellent Jobs and would of paid back all the tax breaks 10 times over in the long run was Unjust.....but in this case they better choice of the two was made and The President has the right to do what he sees as the best course of action for the Nation.....Amazon really needs to step back and fine tune what made them and not start affairs/with military contracts that run into a whole new code of laws!
The accompanying photograph, as they say, “speaks a thousand words”.
1
It is our security! Oust the traitors! No reconciliation without truth.
In this case, the Defense Department made a better choice. I do not feel safe with Amazon in charge of data storage for the CIA, NSA, FBI, and it is absurd to subsidize the building of his empire. The CIA proposes to pay Amazon to search our personal data and pay hefty sums for intermittent use, allowing our government to finance his outbuilding of CO2-generating storage.
Good for Bezos! Maybe he can achieve what the House and the Senate failed to do - convict a really crooked President. There will be no Senate to protect Trump. Unlike the Senate farce of a trial, Bezos will not allow a no witness trial based on executive privilege. Bezos and Bloomberg - seems like wrath of real billionaires on a pretend billionaire. And just for the record - the delay in the JEDI program started with Trump!
665
@NNI ... I highly doubt that Bezos can "convict" or "allow a no-witness trial." This stuff is in the realm of lawyers and courts, not businessmen ... ummm, that's what we would think is how our system works, anyway. Hard to say, anymore.
6
@NNI Personally, I hope Bezos can do what nobody else has achieved yet: drive The Occupant into complete mental disintegration. I think the pardons today are a leading indicator that it is imminent, and we are in Act V Scene IV of this Shakespearean level drama.
34
Watching billionaires slug it out reminds me of so many Godzilla movies, where Godzilla, nominally the "good monster" battles some other towering interloper as hordes of tiny people scatter helplessly below. Does either monster even know or care about the harm they're inflicting to the creatures at their feet? In the end, Godzilla wins, but Tokyo is inevitably left a smoking ruin. Now, in this decadent, late stage of capitalism, all the little people are expected to choose their favorite billionaire as their champion. Once it was Warren Buffet; now it's Bloomberg or Bezos. Disgusting.
216
@stan continople
Superior analogy. My kudos!
21
@stan continople
Would you rather watch billionaires fight or watch cabbage grow under supervision in Cuba or North Korea? Anyone want communism in America should go live in a communist country for a year, see if you can even last that long without jumping off a bridge.
5
@Linda
Who said they wanted communism?
46
IF Jeff Bezos thinks it will be easy to obtain discovery from Trump or members of his administration in connection with the dispute involving JEDI he should think again. Never underestimate the Farce in the Oval Office.
3
This is framed as Trump's vendetta against Bezos. Fine, as far as it goes. But it should really be all about comparative qualifications for a government contract. What, exactly, is the material difference between how Microsoft and Amazon would create a cloud-based capability for the military? Anyone? Jeff? Satya? Donald?
7
Two things I guaranty . I will be shopping on Amazon many times this year and I will not be voting for DT.
37
This is great news. Villains taking out other villains, resulting in the best possible service to the public in the recent history.
Don't know about Argentina, but USA should not cry for this.
1
Trump wants to physically seal-off the borders with his archaic wall, but his administration is moving forward in putting military intelligence/infrastructure into "the cloud".
Non-withstanding the monetary/political battle between MS and Bezo, until cloud security is rock solid, this is one time I feel not aggressively moving forward may be prudent.
7
For better or worse in America, money talks. One day Trump will no longer be President. It’s likely he’s deeply in debt and not even a billionaire. Bezos will always be richer and therefore at this story’s end, more powerful.
51
@MissyR I suspect Trump has a negative net worth and has hated those more wealthy. He squandered his tremendous inheritance. He is vindictive and strikes back but he may have met his match with Bloomberg and Bezos.
3
@MissyR - Disagree. Trump is making deals in energy and real estate left and right right now... and with him moving to Florida, he doesn't need to show it in his taxes... you're naive. He's going to rob this country before he leaves 5 years from now.
4
Article misses the point that going to the cloud will provide a cheaper data storage solution. This protest simply delays those savings associated with cloud services which BTW has been already delayed once by Trump and Esper.
4
@Paul M delayed most likely because Amazon was about to be awarded the contract, and Trump wanted it stopped.
8
It seems telling the truth which spelled out in the article and in various tweets and messages from supporters doesn't get past right-wing moderators (or sensitive Republicans), but here is a truth that they can't deny.
Many of us have had to take ethics and conflicts of interest courses to do business with the government and what is reported here would be a big fail if you answered, "sure, that would be all right" on the quiz.
49
This reads like an email where the entire message could have been the subject line:
Feisty Bezos Won't Back Down Against Possible Trump Meddling in Defense Contract (nm)
16
Trump attempting to prevent disclosure of communications between Trump and Esper regarding JEDI is abuse of authority and probably obstruction of justice by preventing disclosure of talks if the claim of executive privilege cannot be supported in this case.
Court will examine the facts presented.
If Amazon wins on the technical competition and the Administration attempts to argue against that, it will have to present all the talks by Trump without a chance to claim executive privilege. If Trump won't provide all evidence, then the court will issue summary judgment against Trump's choice.
38
Regardless of the court outcome this may still resolve in favor of Bezos if buddy Bloomberg takes up residence in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave early next year.
11
@Peter J.
Yeah, well, if Bloomberg was still mayor of New York, Amazon might be in Long Island City by now, we would all be saying "There goes the neighborhood!".
You assume that Bloomberg would not compare the products and pick the best. You're probably right! He'll just have the contract awarded to his friend...But that's OK, he's not Trump!!!?
Even though the "discovery process...could force the Trump administration to reveal what kind of pressure the president may have brought to bear to stop Amazon from winning the JEDI project," based on what happened with Ukraine and impeachment, we all know what will happen with any subsequent revelation: absolutely nothing.
Congressional Republicans have anointed our first monarch, King Donald. His Highness can reward or punish anyone for any reason without consequence, and Sire knows it.
61
What's so pathetic about this is that Trump doesn't even know how to play the successful grifter. If he'd just kept his mouth shut he might have pulled this off. But, he can't help himself and ends up leaving a trail of incriminating comments a mile long. The clean up crew is left with the "well, yes, he said that but he didn't really mean it" defense which is never good.
197
@R. Parker But always works because of Mitch and Bill.
10
@R. Parker Yeah ... but he keeps getting away with it. Because...?
4
@R. Parker Unfortunately, that defense has been quite good enough so far.
2
Loved the Spacballs punchline.
Anyway, when will then be now?
12
Compared to trump, Bezos is a godsend
38
@Massimo Podrecca
Yeah, just ask his warehouse workers that have to urinate in bottles and pass out during the summer heat because of no air conditioning. Better yet, ask the over 10,000 successful lawsuits against him for not paying workers.
1
Not so much titans as oligarchs. Of which. Trump was a two-bit member in the club until very, very recently. I'm not actually enjoying plutocrats and quasi-monopolists go to the mat over the future of our country. Seems more than a little nerve wracking.
On a technical level though, I'll remind you those patched-up systems are in fact more secure than any cloud based service. Antiquated and inconvenient. However, I would never trust AWS or Azure with anything I actually meant to keep private. They are a Swiss chess of national security embarrassments just waiting to happen.
Yes. Please. Slow down. I would prefer to wait at least one more administration before we start bidding cloud solutions for the federal government. How long did we have to hear about Clinton's email server? Good grief. Humans will be on Mars before we hear the end of this mess.
30
@Andy
It's true that we need better leadership making these decisions. At the rate trump is going, he'll locate the servers in the basement of some building in Virginia Beach which will be flooded out in 4 years.
1
"But if the company continues winning legal motions, there is the possibility of a discovery process that could force the Trump administration to reveal what kind of pressure the president may have brought to bear to stop Amazon from winning the JEDI project."
LOL. Because that worked so well in the past. The Trump administration will just ignore the subpoenas.
20
@thewriterstuff
Ignoring the subpoenas may work with Congress, but it doesn't work with a Federal Court, unless you are willing to have them rule against you! There is Federal case law that speaks to the control of a (missing) witness in a case: Graves v. United States, 150 U.S. 118 (1893)—allows one party to obtain an adverse inference against the other for failure to call a controlled witness with material information.” This is a Supreme Court decision.
28
It is amazing how quickly our politics became billionaire versus billionaire. Just a few years after the "Citizens United" decision that money is speech, we have a politics dominated by oligarchs: Bloomberg, Bezos, Trump, Zuckerberg and Putin.
159
@Rich Fairbanks You must mean,choose one or both: a) grifter b) bilkionnaire versus billionaire.
4
@Rich Fairbanks
Right. It was never like that before. Everything was just fine. Enron. Madoff. Savings and Loan. Worldcom.
Healthsouth. Lehman Brothers.
3
@Rich Fairbanks
North Korea doesn’t have billionaires, so is Cuba. Anyone want a taste of communist country and poverty?
> Unfortunately, what is getting lost in these clashes of titans is that it is critical that the Pentagon modernize its tech as quickly as possible, as it faces challenges across the globe, most especially from China.
Nope. On the contrary, we need to defund the endless wars and not militarize space.
17
@Randall - There was just a major power failure here. 'Modern tech' doesn't run well without power.
4
@Randall We are already in an endless war, cyberwar, with just about everybody, while China and Russia are also very busy militarizing space.
1
@Randall It is critical the Pentagon modernize its tech quickly - unless Trump needs to take the money away from Pentagon needs to build his stupid wall - which the Mexicans won't pay for
2
Nice last line.
Unfortunately, we are too that point where we need the mega-oligarchs to fight Trump. This reminds me of Russia, yet the oligarchs here still have the power to attack the president. Is that what US democracy has become, a battle of the super-rich? I think it has been that way for a while.
21
@Anthony Human life has always been like this, even in the days of Kings and Emperors. The parliamentary system I think is bit better I think than a system where the head of state and head of the government are the same and the US was created by rich people for rich people initially.
6
Trump has spent his life bullying those who aren't as rich and powerful as he is, mostly because they haven't had the luck to inherit millions like he did.
But now, he's up against a couple of self-made billionaires who will not back down. I love it!
1277
@Wilson Trump's defiance of multiple requests to him to divulge his past tax returns is akin to a guilty plea in district court. Underneath all the subterfuge is this: Does America (not simply the Department of Defense) really, truly need JEDI?
46
@Wilson
Not to forget that the self declared very stable genius who knows so many words, is not a billionaire only a self declared one. That is one of the major reason, in addition to tax cheating and money laundering, holding back his tax returns.
It would break his little cold heart when the public learns the truth.
100
Trump would take the buffoons who blew Iowa just to put a thumb in Bezo’s eye.
Boy. That’s the kind of guy I want looking out for my best interests as an American.
November 3, right? Just checking.
25
I am going to take a step back and ask why is a private company going to manage military data worth $10 billion over 10 years? First of all this is a lot of money - why is that - are they taking all the data from anyone in a foreign country? Also how can a private company be trusted with such essential data to our country? Why isn’t this data stored by the military itself using its own cloud data resources and infrastructure.
466
@steve
Private companies have been providing data services for the military for decades. Whether it's through cloud data storage or computer programs and management of those programs.
112
@steve
The government is notoriously awful at technology. This is a smart move by the Pentagon, it's too bad Trump had to interfere and cause this mess.
"Right now, the Defense Department is working with patched-up systems from the 1980s and 1990s."
82
@steve The answer is lack of qualified people. When I worked on a military base and we needed the data transfer software on a new million dollar robot approved as secure, the head of IT would not approve its use. The new equipment then could not be properly used. She was simply incompetent to evaluate the software, so she did nothing. When incompetent people cannot be removed due to federal employment rules and competent people cannot be hired due to low salaries compared to industry, the solution now is outside contractors. Since the GOP is actively sabotaging the federal government to make it fail, do not expect this systemic incompetence to change.
285
So the fake billionaire who is not that bright takes on the wealthiest billionaire in the world who is a genius. My money is on Bezos.
1169
@Steve
Is Bezos really a genius? Because he found a better way for us to do more shopping?
10
I guess he try going after Bill Gates instead?!
@cl well at least Bezos might be a genius - we know for sure that Trump isn't one
104
In my opinion, unless Bezos is contributing more to the Federalist Society than Koch and his cloister of regressive (take women and everyone else back to the dark ages) group of domestic and foreign oligarchs it seems like between the utter tool Barr and the 5 men on the Supreme Court who are members of the organization whose agenda appears to be the nexus of agenda's of the likes of the Catholic Church's most socially conservatives and the authoritarian, purely greed-driven, anti-human, social, environmental, health, women's, LGBT, and or any other right for people, combined with the agenda of the TBTF "usury is us" crowd, then Bezos has an uphill battle.
In my opinion, since he isn't a member of the "we serve the Devil" gang of utterly morally devoid hypocrites, it is doubtful he'll get past certain utterly unqualified Federalist Society directed appointees.
This should be an interesting story. Perhaps Bezos needs to use his billions to expose the corrupt influence of dark money and other sociopathic influences if he wants to win this battle.
17
I wish Bezos would imitate Bloomberg and use his resources to defeat Trump in November.
153
The mess that Mr. Trump has created . . . only hurts the security of this country. Should be written on the gravestone of this administration.
76
Trump cannot think there is anything wrong by using who he is happy with and who he is piqued at. Why even bother to be King if your whim is not someone’s command?
19
The military-industrial complex is alive and well. And it is swimming in tax receipts, a.k.a. legislated money. The current generations of Americans have, apparently, forgotten (or never even read) the words of Dwight Eisenhower about said complex.
73
So is our choice between authoritarian rule and corporate domination. These are both accepted versions of what is colloquially known as fascism.
Will the people get a vote? Of course not. What do you think this is, a Democracy?
44
Bezos need to donate bigly to all Trumps Senate seats that are in play. Lets oust Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell for a start. Then lets go down the list flipping Senate seats.
Don't attack Trump - attack his enablers.
1001
@mrc There's a Better Way - hold a site-wide sale, with discount pegged to high voter turnout.
Problems solved.
39
@mrc
Bloomberg has been doing that since he left office several years ago. He has pledged to continue even if he is not the party nominee.
If Bezos wants to join him, then fine, although I am not really sure of his party affiliations; I believe he is a Libertarian. I don't know if that really helps.
20
@mrc You hit the nail on the head !!!
12
Excellent - you go amazon
78
@Steven
Any positive sentiment I have toward Bezos is blunted because with all his billions, he can't bring himself to pay a decent wage to those generating his wealth.
8
The U.S. used to be a broken up entity, with a seperation of powers. Now, of course, it acts like a dictatorship, with clearly hobbled seperations. Microsoft and Amazon are giant monopolies that should have been broken up years ago. They serve everyone, and no one but themselves.
4
Regardless of what one thinks personally of Bezos, AWS is a solid two years ahead of Microsoft's cloud offering, Azure, in terms of technology and maturity. It wasn't even a contest between the two for JEDI until Trump intervened.
JEDI should have been awarded to AWS. This will not end well for all of those involved in the procurement process once the facts come to light.
318
@Mike Good Call, Mike !
9
@Mike
Regardless of what YOU think of AWS versus Azure, you were not privy to the business requirements presented by the vendors nor to the bids presented by Amazon or Azure.
So your opinion on who should have been awarded the contract is just that: uninformed opinion.
3
@Mike
I am technically interested in the topic, is there any document proving your stated AWS edge over Azure? Would like to have a look, cheers Mike!
4
So Trump (or any president) can rig a government bidding process and then hide all incriminating evidence through executive privilege? I think we need a constitutional convention after Trump is gone. Sort of a like a cleansing.
560
no need for a constitutional convention, there is nothing related to "executive privilege" anywhere in the constitution. There is something about "we the people" however.
93
yes the originalists on supreme court find executive privilege, but cannot find Congress's right to enforce voting rights as established by 15th amendment.
85
There is nothing in the Constitution that allows Congress the power to investigate anything! That power, like executive privilege, stems from constitutional interpretation, not from the actual words of the Constitution. It is presumed that the Congress needs to investigate to create legislation. And it's presumed that the Executive branch does not have to account to the Congress about it's private deliberative process in governmental actions.
1
Amazon has a good case-except that Trump has now declared himself the Chief enforcement officer of America. Real justice in America is going to go on the back burner until Trump is somehow short-circuited or removed from office. As usual with Trump, America as a country will continue to suffer while Trump continues his quest toward a dictatorship.
Trump is destroying America while China will continue the quest to establish themselves as a world power. Americans who value real principles of democracy must either join together to defeat Trump or see their country devolve into a dictatorship which has no respect in the real world.
190
@Pushkin
As Putin says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
43
@Pushkin
"short-circuiting" Trump is an appealing image -- But isn't he already functioning on damaged circuit boards?
Trump lives to cause others grief, and it's wonderful to see people with even deeper pockets return the favor.
387
@JR
Deeper pockets, yes, but also more patience and more brains.
21
Does anyone think that Trump would directly intervene in the award of a contract to one firm vs. another? Do you think Trump is some kind of crook? Umm. No, Trump would never do that.
8
@C.L.S. Thanks for the laugh.
This sounds like a case where it's best to root for injuries.
6
The article mentions that Amazon has secured many government contracts. Isn’t that in itself a case against Amazons case. Does Amazon expect to win all government contracts?
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@Rafa
AWS is the leader in the cloud space. Its platform, technology, capabilities, and maturity are years ahead of the next closest competitor, Azure from Microsoft.
The reason AWS has secured all those government contracts is because they are the best, hands down.
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So this should be quiet an easy case to win. I for one am a business owner and I never put all my eggs in one basket. I own Amazon and Microsoft so no dog in this game. But thanks for your response.
@Rafa
I have had IDIQ government contracts where we won each task order. Competitively. It is in the government's, and the people's, interests to award the contract to the best provider not pick and choose winners based on who got so much of the pie.
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Was that his middle finger that Bezos gave Trump, Ms. Swisher?
I certainly hope so.
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