Little Rock       Yes, I know the guest list for Jeff Bezos’ wedding to LA TV host Lauren Sanchez is this weekend has not been published yet, so you’re wondering?  Where was your invitation?  Were any of us invited?  Well, it was probably well-known that Local 100’s Leadership Conference was scheduled for this weekend in Little Rock, so we’d be busy.  Furthermore, the way Amazon’s Alexa might be still listening to all of our conversations, they probably knew what we really thought about one of the world’s richest men, his rapacious company that we can’t avoid, our empathy for the workers of his enterprises, and more, so we’re all persona non grata. 

Since none of us are going and wouldn’t go even if we were invited, why are we unable to avoid hearing and reading about it everywhere?  What happened to the superrich worrying about security and wanting privacy?  Please bring back those days, because this is gross.  Why couldn’t they just rent a collar and go quietly in the woods somewhere and be done with it all.  Heck, this isn’t his first rodeo.  He learned something, though.  This time he has a pre-nuptial agreement.  Last time, he didn’t and made his ex-wife a super-billionaire as well, and she has shamed him and the rest of the philanthropy world by dropping gazillions on nonprofits all around the country.

This all seems so over the top, ostentatious.  The price tag is supposedly ten-million.  They are virtually renting what seems like most of Venice, Italy.  They changed the wedding chapel supposedly to a Basilica on a separate island because of security.

The city officials are salivating over the whole affair as being the kind of boost that a Taylor Swift concert would bring.  Florists, bakers, and gondoliers by the hundreds are looking for career paydays.  The city claims it is hoping if the Bezos wedding is successful, they might become a wedding destination for others among the super rich.  The locals that haven’t been priced out yet are doing some protests and waving banners that say “No Space for Bezos.”  They are at least getting quoted, because all the contractors making bank from this trickle down of Bezos wealth have had to sign non-disclosure agreements to button their lips.

Pictures of potential guests have started showing up, and it’s kind of pathetic.  It’s like they don’t have real friends.  Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner and their kids are there.  The Kardashians.  Tom Brady. Oprah.  These are his buddies?  Really?  He works for Amazon for a couple of decades in the tech world and was a bit shore in Seattle way before he went all LA, and only Bill Gates is listed as a maybe.  This is all kind of pathetic, even if pictures of him sport a big grin.

Now that he has gutted the editorial page of the Washington Post and is interfering with the news unless it suits him, we’ll have to see if he and Lauren are all over their society page. Their PR people said they the happy couple wanted everyone to know they love Venice.  They feel like they bought peace because they gave money to three nonprofits.  It might be nicer if he actually paid taxes and Amazon did the same.

I guess in the new roaring twenties the superrich think they own everything, and that money solves every problem. Not with everyone in Venice, it turns out.  And, not the rest of us either.