Amazon, Others Rip Into Ocasio-Cortez After Company Flees NYC Deal, Taking 25k Jobs With It
Joe Scarborough: “What’s shocking to me is once again she shows how little she understands not just economics but even unemployment.”
Yesterday I blogged about Amazon skipping out on New York City, which gave Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) a victory.
Now Amazon, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Chris Cuomo, and others have ripped into Ocasio-Cortez not only for her behavior to push out Amazon, but how she is cheering loudly over the decision. An Amazon spokesperson said the congresswoman and other lawmakers “made it a hostile environment to do business.”
Here is how Ocasio-Cortez responded to the news:
Anything is possible: today was the day a group of dedicated, everyday New Yorkers & their neighbors defeated Amazon’s corporate greed, its worker exploitation, and the power of the richest man in the world. https://t.co/nyvm5vtH9k
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 14, 2019
Yeah, except that Amazon claimed that “polls show that 70 percent of New Yorkers support our plans and investment.”
Here’s the backlash. From Fox News:
“If you talk to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it’s ‘Never Amazon,'” Jodi Seth, the head of policy communications for Amazon, told NBC News in an interview on Thursday. “If you talk to [New York City Councilman Jimmy] Van Bramer, it’s unions.”
Seth added that “it wasn’t any one incident” that drove the Seattle-based tech giant to its decision, adding that the virulent political discourse that occurred over the past three months was what led to the decision. “It was that the environment over the course of the past three months had not got any better. There were some local and state elected officials who refused to meet with Amazon and criticized us day in and day out about the plan,” she said in the interview.
Seth, who has been at Amazon since October 2017 according to her LinkedIn profile, said the company did not know whether the “deal would be approved until a year from now,” but said it was “pretty confident” in the approval, mentioning that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “was working hard to make it happen, but looking at the opposition and the timeline we decided we don’t want to work in this environment in the long term.”
The headquarters would have brought in over 25,000 to 40,000 jobs and billions of dollars for development. Those jobs had a starting salary of $150,000. A friend in the area showed me flyers that encouraged people to invest in properties since the presence of Amazon would hike up property value.
De Blasio reminded Ocasio-Cortez that people want jobs. From The New York Post:
“As a progressive my entire life — and I ain’t changing — I’ll take on any progressive anywhere that thinks it’s a good idea to lose jobs and revenue because I think that’s out of touch with what working people want,” the mayor said on WNYC radio.
—
“I came up watching the mistakes of progressives of the past, unfortunately what happened in this city when it almost went to bankruptcy in the 1970s,” said a boiling de Blasio. “I saw all the times progressives did not show people effective governance and all the times progressives made the kinds of mistakes that alienated working people.”
“Working people are very smart and very discerning. They want jobs, they want revenue, they want the kinds of things that government can do for them,” he added. “They understand they have to be paid for.”
New York City and state politicians would have given “Amazon $2.5 billion in tax credits, a $500 million state construction subsidy and the ability to sidestep the city’s laborious zoning process to bring the company’s promised new campus and its 25,000 jobs to the Long Island waterfront.”
Even Democratic Gov. Chris Cuomo criticized Ocasio-Cortez:
“[A] small group [of] politicians put their own narrow political interests above their community – which poll after poll showed overwhelmingly supported bringing Amazon to Long Island City – the state’s economic future and the best interests of the people of this state,” Cuomo said publicly. “The New York State Senate has done tremendous damage. They should be held accountable for this lost economic opportunity.”
The panel on Morning Joe on Friday all agreed that Ocasio-Cortez has shown again that she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. From The Hill:
“What’s shocking to me is once again she shows how little she understands not just economics but even unemployment,” Scarborough said. “She’s the one who said the reason unemployment is so low is because a lot of people have two jobs. She needs to learn basic things about what it is to be a representative.”
“When you look at what happens in New York City and New York state, we’re losing people like crazy,” the “Morning Joe” host and former GOP congressman added. “We are going to lose our influence in Washington during the next redistricting because we’ll lose one to two congressional seats. Now we’re telling business don’t come here.”
“Just because she has a progressive agenda, which some people like, does not man she has the city’s best interest,” Scarborough concluded. “She showed me she only cares about herself and not about her colleagues … and not about the people she represents because those people would be getting jobs themselves.”
Panelist Donny Deutsch explained that this behavior puts us “in a dangerous place” and if Democrats “don’t start to speak up against people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is young and dynamic but does not know what she’s talking about, they’re going to hand the presidency back to Donald Trump.”
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Comments
The mixture of stupidity and self-righteous arrogance is just the worst.
Typical of her ilk, ie. liberals
‘Arrogance and stupidity, all in one package. How efficient of you.’
-Londo Mollari
Bonus for the Londo quote
Amazon to Long Island City: Drop dead!!!
As Michael Savage pointed out yesterday, she made no friends within the financial structure of NYC… mayor, UNIONS, peripheral businesses. As of now she is one and done. Considering the turnout was 7% voting in her district… she better start thinking about a new waitress gig… or a sugar daddy in DC. Sen. Harris might have some tips for her to re-energize her position in the future.
Which one of her positions?
She does seem to making enemies rapidly.
What an incredible combination of arrogance and stupidity.
Missionary.
The RNC should give her a blank check and fund her re-election campaign to the hilt. She is the ultimate gift to conservatives. If the communists continue to hold the House we should promote her for Speaker.
Comments like this is one of the reasons why I never donate to the RNC anymore. Use the crap that she spits out against her, but don’t give her money to get re-elected.
Donate to the people that you like & the districts or states that are critical.
Sorry honey, it was a joke. A) It’s New York City and Coke will be selling ice water in hell before a Republican is elected to any office there. B) Why would we want a sane democrat in that office when this insane “democratic socialist” is the gift that keeps on giving.
The loss of productivity is typically the result of the government’s meddling in the economy. This example is simply more immediately obvious.
Her lack of understanding is not shocking when you understand the collateral damage of affirmative action for the elitist liberal white guilt northeastern schools.
Small correction to reasons stated for this. It had nothing to do with politicians putting their “own narrow political interests” first. It was ideology. It was hatred of successful businesses. It was kneejerk opposition to private enterprise.
And, yeah, stupidity.
Often wrong. Never in doubt.
So who supports the three policy goals that will destroy the USA to the cheers of the ignorant and self-centered?
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2019/02/3_democrat_policies_that_must_die_for_america_to_survive.html#.XGcNrWpnFdE.twitter
Correction: Scarborough did not make many of the comments you quote him on like mentioning that unemployment is low because people have 2 jobs, NYC losing people and it losing influence in the next Congress. His female panelist did.
Yes, she is a dimwit. But compare She Guevara to the (R) party. She has been in office for a grand total of one month. On her day 1 she protested Speaker Pelosi’s office and demanded Pelosi more hardcore left. Day 1! She was the face of the New Green Deal, which was adopted by I think four? (D) presidential candidates, she slayed the Amazon dragon, she is one of the leaders to ban ICE (maybe the leader) and is clearly a leader for ending border control, she has about twice as many Twitter followers than Pelosi, she is in the news almost every single day, partly because the media slobbers over this moron, but also because she isn’t afraid to blab and tweet and (more importantly for the sake of my argument here) act.
What did a (R)-controlled Congress accomplish during Trump’s first two years – not counting things Trump pushed hard himself?
Again, she’s been in office for a month. What have (R)s done in the past 50 F-ing years to significantly scale back government?
*sound of crickets*
Go to hell Republicans.
Yes, loose cannons can be very effective at . . . well, nothing very useful.
When you’re not taking the time to do something right, events can move along at a good pace.
Her substance (or lack of it) is not what stands out. Name a (R) member of Congress with greater tenacity than she has? Name a (R) member of Congress who was a force in the party before taking a freaking oath of office?
The only one in the entire (R) party who can mop the floor with this doofus is Trump. Otherwise, for decades, we’ve had nothing but pansies and ineffectual dickweeds who have allowed the country to continually move left.
You give them too much credit, Colonel.
Fine. You take Occasional Cortex. I’ll take Ben Cardin, any day.
The US Democrat Party right now reminds me of Al-Qaeda in Iraq in about late 2006-early 2007, just before the Anbar Awakening. They had made great strides in Iraq, and then started acting more and more extreme, to the point of stupidity. At the time, I theorized that Al-Qaeda had lost somebody smart near the top of the organization.
If the freshman class in the US House of Representatives is an indicator, the Democrats have be deserted by the smart people.
Obviously. The Rs are useless. I’ve never said anything else. DJT’s great virtue is that he isn’t a very good R; if he was, he’d be as worthless as the rest of them.
Krazy Kat is also useless, just in a noisier way.
I agree with you about the (R)s, but AOC does not have “tenacity.” She is a (literal) wild-eyed fanatic who doesn’t realize she’s digging her own grave. She has no idea that she has probably already ruined her own political career, and failing having done that, may ruin her party. “Blind” does not equal “tenacity.”
She’s tilting at windmills. The Grey New Deal is unreliable, nonrenewable, redistributive, disruptive, and a first-order forcing of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change… and sustainable in a democracy with the left-kind of demographic.
This could be life changing. It’s really important to get your thoughts out to politicians and local candidates about how you feel about Amazon and businesses moving into your city in general. Opinioner helps with that: https://opinioner.org
AOC is the primary example of what our overpaid educators are churning out now: inflated self-esteem combined with narcissism. It’s no wonder she is so certain of what little she knows.
Joe Scarborough is mistaken if he thinks AOC was “educated” in economics. She was not. She was indoctrinated. An education requires that you study, learn, and think. When indoctrinated, you’re only required to believe what you’re told by your professors.
Jane Jacobs she ain’t.
It is a statement on the Powerful. A business is offered $3 Billion to bring in 25000 jobs. Frankly, I think that is crazy. Amazon needs to be broken up. The new Monopolies all need to forced to break up. From Amazon, to Facebook, and beyond, if there is a Billionaire involved he or she is milking things for all the power and influence he or she can amass.
Nevertheless, Amazon was going to do more good for New York than Krazy Kat ever will.
I am not a fan of Amazon or Bezos. I buy products from Amazon when there is no other alternative, the same way I do my damnedest not to buy anything made in China. That being said, it is not as if NYC was dipping into their pocketbook to hand Amazon $3 billion to locate in Long Island City. They were offering a $3 billion discount off of the multi-billion pile of taxes which Amazon would certainly pay to the city. There is a big difference.
This is a business deal we know of because the media attention. I’d be curious as to how many companies/businesses consider new york only to quietly conclude they don’t want anything to do with that economic environment. I bet it’s a lot.
It’s not just the economic and political environment. The street level stinks. It stinks of stale human urine.
Tiffany’s the jewelry company was going to open a store in downtown Sacramento. Much of downtown smells of human urine. The company put their store in city called Roseville, in a more conservative county north of Sacramento. The controversy at the time was (wait for it…) “racism” according to some. Not the fact the location they chose did not smell of urine.
Or that fact that their selection of location may have made the store more convenient for people who could afford their wares.
Columbia Sportswear has been at odds with the Portland City Hall for the last few years over the deteriorating conditions around their corporate offices. I have also watched the homeless put a number of places out of business, and I wonder if there isn’t some strategic use of the po-po to steer them towards businesses in order to devalue the property and force a sale. We have a “metro” level of .gov which is between the county and the state which controls the urban growth boundary (can you say price fixing of real-estate?). They control the availability of land for development, otherwise, even more places would have abandoned Portland proper for the suburbs.
Be awful funny if Amazon HQ winds up in a red state. Another of WA’s employers, Boeing, has opened new factories in several red states. And it has everything to do with state and local pols in WA taxing Boeing to death, or demanding Boeing foot the bill for improvements to roads and the like connecting to their manufacturing plants. So Boeing expands ops in other states, the union squeals and WA continues their mind-numbing, employer-hostile policies.
I believe they said they are not going to look for another location, just stick with one near DC and expand places they already have.
I have a problem with all these progressive types coming to the red states – they will try to change the state to the same liberal BS that they escaped from.
I see it in Oklahoma – the state used to be conservative D and then moved to conservative R. Now, with the attempt to bring in business to OKC, there is a shift and the 5th district has turned back to D. I haven’t made my first call to the new representative. It will be interesting to see how the staff takes it when I give them my opinions.
“…they want the kinds of things that government can do for them”
Ohhh! So close, Mr. Mayor! But yet again, with that last sentence, you show how disconnected from reality you and your ilk—Liberal and Progressive alike—are.
De Blasio wants to throw shade on AOC after publicly mocking Amazon’s lack of… let’s call it, tenacity, for being unable to handle New York politics and cowardly fleeing the field of battle? What’s up with that?
Found on the web.
Caller: Hi, I’d like to order 25 large pizzas. I have a coupon for $10 off.
AOC: I don’t believe in coupons. You must pay the full menu price.
Caller: In that case, I’m taking my business elsewhere.
AOC: Hey boss I just saved us $10! Where’s my raise?
She actually responded to that tweet:
More like, “I’d like to order 25 pizzas. I made up this $300-off coupon + demand you take it, and if you want to talk about it at all I’ll leave.”
Queens: Where did this coupon come from? $300 is too much. Who gave this to you? This is weird.
Them: I TOLD YOU $300 OFF 25 PIZZAS
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1096520101925437441
why is everyone up in arms against Amazon, didn’t New York that I think it was called ‘build NY’ a while back offering no taxes for 10 years to businesses that locate or relocate to NY
think about the caparison to Seattle, they were almost as dum as NYC
Once again she has shown brilliance of a Boston University cum laude graduate in economics.