‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ still sits as an ironic indictment on the masthead of the Washington Post – the paper that broke the Watergate story and unseated a corrupt president – as oligarch-owner Jeff Bezos dramatically undermines standards. He has issued an edict that curtails what the Opinion section can print prompting the top opinion editor to resign. Pre the election for the first time ever the WP did not support the Democratic candidate on Bezos’ instruction.
What is odd is that Bezos was generally thought of as liberal minded, a disliker of Trump (and vice versa) and a positive force when he first bought the WP in 2013, restoring it to profitability and keeping his hands off the journalism. One likely explanation is that in recent times he has become concerned about possible attacks on Amazon for restraining trade. He also owns Blue Origin, a rocket and space technology firm with government contracts. Limiting the government’s regulatory oversight over space technology or contracting is in Bezos’s interest. He appeared with his fiancée Lauren Sanchez at the inauguration last month and donated $1 million to the president’s inaugural committee.
The Washington Post, founded 6 December 1877, has a communicative, knowledgeable and adventurous Sagittarius Sun and Mercury with a revolutionary Pluto in Taurus square Uranus; and Uranus further emphasised being on the focal point of a yod inconjunct Mars in late Pisces sextile Venus. Such a Uranus is independent-spirited, often a catalyst for change and a mould-breaker – ideally designed to shine a light on power structures that needed changed.
This year tr Uranus is conjunct the WP Pluto for the final time from mid March to early April and square the Uranus in June and on and off into 2026. So a time of great turbulence. With confusion and disappointment in 2026/27 as tr Pluto is square the WP Neptune.
The WP relationship with Bezos will continue on a rocky road ahead with an aggravated, angry tr Uranus square the Mars across June, December and March 2026. With tr Neptune Saturn square the composite Mercury Sun in 2025/26; and tr Uranus square the composite Saturn opposition Uranus in 2026/27.
Bezos himself, 12 January 1964, is an ambitious, go-getting Sun Mars in Capricorn with a self-aggrandising, over-wheeningly confident Jupiterian yod onto Pluto sextile Neptune. He will have lucky moments ahead but 2027 is when he runs into serious trouble, perhaps his arrogance having pushed him a step too far in in 2026.
He really is not an easy match with Trump since JB’s Sun Mars in Capricorn is in an irritable opposition to DT’s Saturn Venus in Cancer. JB’s Saturn Venus in Aquarius opposes and clashes with DT’s Mars in Leo; and JB’s Pluto is in an unsettled square DT’s to Uranus.
Their relationship chart does have a lucky T square of Sun opposition Mercury square Jupiter; though also a hostile composite Mars opposition Saturn Venus. There’ll be ripples of unease this May and again in early 2026 when tr Uranus is square the composite Pluto putting their relationship onto a different footing. Through 2026 a chill will emerge and intensify in a disappointing 2027 – assuming all stays as is.
That April/May period this year (and across the end of the year) does seem to be one of great unrest on a whole swathe of key charts.
As a Briton I would never regard the Democratic Party in the USA as having been in anyway a working class socialist party even in the half hearted way the UK Labour Party used to attempt it under Clause Four. The Democrats have always been economic as well as political liberals with long historical connections to Wall Street and corporate America.
@Hugh Fowler, I suppose this was a response to me. The US does have a complex and largely unknown I see even to Britons history with Unions. They have been and are independent from party politics, but still drive the vote in many places. Culinary Union Local 226 in Las Vegas essentially decides Nevada elections. Teamsters endorsement is also important.
I think really too little attention has been given to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020 having been also Union victory. While not your traditional “leftist” Democrat, Biden built his career on being on side of Unions. That might have pushed him just those missing 20-30 k votes up in key States.
Also, it seems to have forgotten that the 2020 Democratic primary no less that three actual Billionaires running for the presidency, one of whom is a financial media owner. None was well received. I haven’t seen Bezos showing any real interest to stepping to daily politics, or voicing opinions on “culture war” issues, so there is very little evidence about Democrats “loosing” him. They are more than capable of making strategic blunders, but there’s no proof not catering to billionaires is one, especially given the current very “anti-billionaire” mood in the US.
From Bezos chart he is from the Pluto and Uranus in Virgo generation. They would generally be liberal in outlook though his Sun in Capricorn might give him an essentially conservative core. I suspect he is one of those old style 1960s liberals who has become alienated from the rather shrill and intolerant mind set that subsumed parts of the left in the past decade.
I don’t think he is a natural Trump supporter but presumably he will be pocketing the tax cuts on offer. Perhaps the Democrats should be pondering how he ended up on the other side.
@Hugh Fowler, Pluto/Uranus in Virgos are libertines, not liberal. Honestly, likely the most sexually and otherwise promiscuous generation from those I’ve observed who, however, tend to fit neatly to corporate and political establishment. There are, obviously, exceptions, but a Capricorn Stellium is not going to be one of them.
Also, if you think that Democrats are the working class party in the US, how is an Union busting founder thinking about what ever is shareholders’ interest going to be one of them? He is not there for the people, he has always been there for his enrichment, and Democrats never “got” him, except maybe those extremely pro-business candidates such as H. Clinton (raised Republican) who lost these voters.
Think it’s their Neptune in Scorpio, Solaia which is sextile the Pluto Virgo – which due to being earthy can be rather sexual
I always thought Bezos is a Cancer rising.
That might put his Sun on his descendant (needs a partner to feel complete).
No agreed birth time for him. I don’t know about his ASC but I am not feeling the Sag moon, if he was born after around 9.30 at night he nips into Capricorn. I also would expect a really strong Uranus considering his buisness became the most powerful on the internet and completely changed how people shop. I don’t think he needs a partner so much as feeling part of a ‘team’ with Aquarian Venus.
Lauren Sanchez has a late degree Sag sun so I am now reconsidering my thoughts on his moon lol
@Hugh, for Bezos it’s all about the money. He’s afraid Trump/Musk will shut down Blue Origin, with Musk forcing it out of business, and Trump imposing difficult regulations/costs on Amazon, as Trump attempted in his first term.
The WashPost is my hometown newspaper and I’m still a subscriber, but I’m struggling with it. I’m about ready to cancel but my husband is not. If Bezos starts interfering with the news coverage — though I suspect many journalists may be self-censoring already — that will be my red line. As a journalist myself I’ve seen that interference with my local paper from a prior owner; the current owner, a vulture capitalist, doesn’t seem to interfere with news coverage but has cut the staff so deeply many things don’t get covered. And they have a blanket policy across their newspapers of no endorsements in national elections but allow them in local elections. Since it’s a broad policy I can live with that.
Amazon also provides cloud services to the Pentagon and has had a monopoly on those services, a particularly lucrative but lesser known source of revenue for Amazon. So, follow the money.
I hope he sells the paper, but there are few deep-pocketed buyers willing to invest the resources essential to support quality journalism. Alden Capital, which has bought so many papers including my local paper and several once great papers, strips them of resources and guts them until they’re a shell of their former selves — see also the Denver Post, Baltimore Sun, the San Jose Mercury News.
The WashPost has bled money in recent years and will continue to lose subscribers if Bezos continues his move to turn the paper into Trump’s Pravda. He’s also brought in several British news executives tainted by Rupert Murdoch/News of the World scandals to run the paper, which has also prompted the resignations of many prominent journalists who’ve joined The Atlantic, New York Times and the new Substack The Contrarian, founded by ex-Postie Jen Rubin and former White House ethicist lawyer Norm Eisen, who left CNN.
@Amelie Pettyfor, I would say that generally speaking, the billionaire class is just doing it for themselves. I don’t see any of the above being assets in any sense of Russia or China. Most have an adversary stance towards the countries. Zuckerberg’s Facebook is still banned in China and was always pretty irrelevant in Russia, which has a copycat platform Vkontakte. Bezos’ Amazon always had a limited market entry strategy outside the US.
Now, Musk is the odd one out and I will say this: I think he might be motivated, ultimately, to sell Tesla to Chinese when they’ve taken over the affordable electric car sales. I am by no means an auto industry specialist, but I saw this something like this happen in cell phone industry: Nokia had a patent portfolio that did, at one point, bring them more money than direct cell phone sales, because iPhones used their tech.
I would agree with that view. For most of Trump’s billionaire backers tax cuts in his budget is what matters. Looking for ideological reasons for their political stance beyond more power and money is probably overthinking it.
Interesting point that relates to Bezos and Amazon from a podcast unfortunately in Finnish with the first (then) stock analyst giving a “sell” rating to Nokia in 2008 and now helping for instance game development firms in investor relations and market entries: He says nobody expected Chinese to take over the consumer tech business just 5 years ago. Americans especially thought they couldn’t get Western consumer psychology. Now Temu and Shein are taking Amazon market share because they have *fun* easy to use apps unlike Amazon, which hasn’t managed this in 20 years.
Made me think, because while Amazon never had a proper shop in my country, I used the German shop quite a lot when my child was a baby 11 years ago. I was already a Kindle user, which I enjoyed, but the shopping experience overall was so frustrating I haven’t used the thing since 2016. I also steered away from Kindle when local services surpassed the experience.
Interesting comment! I have been appalled by Amazon’s website in quite some time now. It was a nightmare before when delivering to some countries, and I believe now is as well, especially with very expensive delivery options and customs. I also feel it is flooded with cheap stuff that is ‘blink and you’ll miss it’. There is no standard always-on-offer stuff, it seems. It might be only good for books. And I keep wondering how did Jeff allow for this to happen.
I don’t even know if its good for books now. Physical books, perhaps. But did you hear that Amazon have now stopped the ability to download your digital books for backup or to put on another e-reader? The customer literally has no way to own their own purchases, so essentially, you are renting books for stupid prices and should you ever lose your account, all your books go with it. The monopoly the Tech Bros have on owning or legally stealing everything (I’m talking about AI here) just grates on my nerves.
Maybe a good time to check the natal chart of when the Amazon online shop began to see what’s coming.
See
United States – Pluto Return dims prospects
9th February 2025
For me, it’s truly Occam’s Razor. If you were to look at Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg et al as Russian and/or Chinese assets (simplest explanation), then all of their actions and inactions make perfect sense. Allegedly and opinion.
@ Pettyfor, what frightens me most is the amount of data these three have on Americans.
If they combined all of their data they could easily manipulate the entire country (world) because they know what people like purchasing, for whom they purchase it, where people work, how much education they have, where they obtained their education, etc.
Now that Musk has had access to the entire U.S. government he has everyone’s social security number, bank account, health records, etc.
We should all be afraid of how all of this data could be used against use politically.