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I'm embarrassed to admit that when I posted a venn for Amazon two weeks ago, it was incomplete. In fact, it failed to include the most egregious addition: Jeff Bezos, himself. I had wondered why this huge company (just reported yesterday to be the second most valuable company in the US, eclipsing Google) would have such a small venn. But I failed to check two sources that I normally check. Well, that's been corrected now.

Amazon has lobbied more government agencies than any other tech company, according to Bloomberg: “Last year, [Amazon] lobbied on 24 general issues (each of which could include dozens of laws or regulations), up from eight in 2012. Entities lobbied, such as the Senate and NASA, jumped from eight in 2012 to 39 in 2017.” This is because Amazon is in so many different businesses, selling such vastly different products and services.

Regarding its size alone, Amazon seems the very definition of a bloated corporation too big to effectively compete in a competitive marketplace. But of course, that's where the government steps in. Washington's main purpose these days is to keep unwieldy, bloated corporations from collapsing under their own weight. In fact, Washington is the reason many corporations are allowed to remain so big and bloated. And Bezos has planted himself firmly in Washington. He owns a 27,000 square foot home there, as well as the *Washington Post*. (Amazon doesn't exercise any control over the newspaper.)

So it's no surprise that Amazon is testing a public-private partnership with the USDA: a grocery delivery to food stamp recipient with the Agricultural Department. Amazon also provides cloud computing services for the CIA and is trying for a cloud-computing Defense Department contract, as well.

Of note on the updated venn is Charlotte Newman, former economic policy advisor to Senator Cory Booker, who was recently stumping for Amazon to bring their HQ2 to his homestate of New Jersey back in January. Six months before that, however, Booker was quoted in the media using a set of hard-line talking points regarding the merger of Amazon and Whole Foods. He promised “greater scrutiny” on its proposed merger and a letter to the Justice Department that raised “concerns.” Despite the media prediction that a “showdown” might occur between Jeff Bezos and Cory Booker, the FTC approved the merger a month later, without a second information request. Newman, Booker's former economic policy advisor, had started working as an Amazon in-house lobbyist in January of 2017.

The lobbyist that likely secured the Amazon/Whole Foods merger in August 2017, however, was probably Seth Bloom. Back in August of 2016, Amazon had hired Bloom, who had previously worked both within the Senate Antitrust Committee and as an antitrust attorney for the Justice Department.

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