The deadly weekend tornados devastated Kentucky (and several other states) with a death toll of 74 and counting in Sen. Rand Paul’s state. He got dragged for his request for federal relief after repeatedly voting against other state’s relief bills. A lot of criticism is going the way of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, too, given that six workers died at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois with employees revealing that little-to-no disaster training took place at the massive facility.
It’s not looking good overall for the Bezos look in response to the late-night Friday catastrophe. One Amazon worker (who perished) reportedly texted his girlfriend to relay how they weren’t allowed to leave the warehouse (to shelter at home), which is tragic, considering that their home didn’t see violent weather at all. And on Saturday morning, Jeff Bezos continued his quest to be king of space. He did not cancel his latest Blue Origin joyride, and in fact, he popped onto ABC News to talk about throwing a football around in space, so it will go “straight to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.”
Jeff Bezos: "This football when you bring it back down to Earth, is going straight to the Pro Football Hall of Fame."@michaelstrahan: "If I fumble this ball…it's just going to float!"#BlueOrigin
LIVE UPDATES: https://t.co/EoDkjYiYhd pic.twitter.com/BVKpPaobpO— ABC News (@ABC) December 11, 2021
The social media response to this ABC News tweet was a telling one, and even Newsmax’s Greg Kelly called out the billionaire retailer for feeding his space-junkie tendencies in the midst of a tragedy. Via Mediaite:
“Amazon, the company had a major warehouse that was destroyed in all of this,” said the Newsmax host, while noting six employees died. “And here’s something that is really, really infuriating… the next day, went ahead with that stupid stunt, glorified bottle rocket, roller coaster, slingshot into space.”
He added, “[H]e lost six of his employees – the people who made him rich – and here’s Michael Strahan who went up for who knows what reason, coming back, hugging Jeff and his girlfriend, a ridiculous display.”
Meanwhile, Kelly was not alone in his sentiments. Regardless of political affiliation, a whole lot of people weren’t thrilled about Bezos declining to pause space business as usual. In response to Bezos’ “thoughts and prayers’ tweet on the subject (made hours after his space launch), people pushed back.
I was in the next building. The warnings went off on phones and our supervisor immediately send out a message for everyone to meet in shelter room for head count. There is absolutely no excuse for people working on the floor durring incoming tornado.
— brian mcnally (@bm4c79) December 12, 2021
Jeff Bezos knew.
The tornado touched down in Edwardsville at 8:35pm on 12/10.
The Blue Origin space flight launched at 10:00am on 12/11.
Condolence message from Bezos 👇👇#DemVoice1 pic.twitter.com/Na29Hx4OwT
— Marla (@marla_vous) December 14, 2021
at least two people died last night in one of jeff bezos’s amazon facilities and outlets are excitedly sharing news about his rocket launch.
— . (@MarisaKabas) December 11, 2021
Can’t stop thinking about how Amazon forced employees to work during a tornado warning causing at least 6 to die and all the corporate media could focus on is Jeff Bezos joking about blasting a football to the edge of outer space.
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) December 12, 2021
Rather than pay a visit to your Amazon factory that collapsed where workers have died just ignore it and act like it never happened so you can be excited about your next Space flight. The filthy rich DO NOT CARE! If all we have to do is eat one of them I say we make it Bezos. pic.twitter.com/64lK2WMak8
— Richard N. Ojeda, II (@Ojeda4America) December 12, 2021
It doesn’t sit right with me that Amazon had a terrible tragedy last night and Jeff Bezos is still flying to space for fun this morning
Thoughts and prayers to all those impacted by the terrible tornadoes in Kentucky, Illinois and other areas 🙏
— NBA Slime (@TerryFranconia) December 11, 2021
https://twitter.com/KyleTrainEmoji/status/1470622452900249601
This tornado just missed us, but it hit the Amazon building a few miles down the road where reportedly dozens of workers are trapped. I hope @JeffBezos can tear himself away from union busting & space colonization long enough to take care of my neighbors.#ilwx https://t.co/N62jztP5qZ
— Heather ♿📷 (@MissJupiter1957) December 11, 2021
God forbid Amazon workers stop working during a tornado or Jeff Bezos might have to wait an extra 10 seconds to add another billion dollars to his net worth https://t.co/E4KnRquUFV
— Michael Sainato (@msainat1) December 11, 2021
(Via Mediaite)