AOC gets what she wants: [NYT] Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters

I often hear “naive”, “emotional”, “girl” and “ignorant” used by those that don’t like AOC. It is interesting that the same belittling words are used against an independent and empowered female. The use of those terms is rather telling and only proves her point and position on many issues.

 

I'd challenge you on Trump as a strategist.

I think it's clear when you follow the thread of his candidacy, and now presidency, that it is basically controlled chaos.

In some ways his unpredictability was an asset at times in the primaries -- but there's no indicator that anything Trump does or says is with any thought given to more than a few days or weeks into the future. His entire political life is swatting at whatever bit of string has last been dangled in front of him. He got into the White House despite this (along with some assistance from sh*tty Democrats and an ailing economy), not because of it.

You are very right that he is a master manipulator (most con artists and sociopaths are). He is a top tier demagogue, panderer, and fame/popularity w****. AOC and Trump share a populist flavor, but that's where the comparisons stop. She is not even in the same ballpark as Trump as a marketer or promoter. If you think she is skilled now, wait until she actually has some years in Congress under her belt. She's a political infant at this point. Relatively speaking she has no idea what she is doing.

 

This is literally an appeal to emotion.

 

He doesn’t play “11 dimension chest”, he understands the basic emotions and human nature of people.

I hear Democrats call Trump stupid, he isn’t... and I hear Republicans call AOC and Biden and Sanders stupid.

 

You can be an effective vessel of rage and resentment and still be pretty not very smart.

Trump doesn't understand what a tariff is, like at a basic level. Not at a malapropism level.

Because his brain can no longer process it. Call it stupid, call it diminished capacity, but that's a fundamental fact about him.

 

Trump is a lot of things.

Genuinely stupid is not one of them. He’s like the Kim Kardashian of politics. Kim is a lot of things, and I don’t agree with the manner in which she gets attention and money. She is not stupid in the least bit

She performs her art skillfully.

 

You have never heard this? You don't spend much time in NYC.

NYC does not receive it's share of tax revenue. It's a common issue for New Yorkers and the main tension between city hall and albany.

 

He's genuinely stupid. Trump wouldn't last as a political individual in an era of 3 network news channels and no internet. All we would hear is his buffoonery with none of the spin.

 

That 4 to 8 million so sure feet was a projection not a guarantee.

 

Understood. Still not sure the two things are comparable.

 

He has political smarts and marketing savvy. I don't think his voters care about his diminished capacity.

They probably relish it until they're forced to throw him in the trash heap.

 

One thing exists (Amazon renting office space in NYC) - the other thing (the ethereal 8 million SF Amazon town in LIC) is marketing copy that may or may not happen, but would definietly not happen for at least 10-15years or so (they won't get to 6 million in Virginia, where the sites are in way better shape to build and it's way easier to do construction...until 2030). But the current activity in VA is...yep, renting a few hundred thousand sf of existing space. Sound familiar?

Hell breaking it down the 4-8 million SF figure sounds very shaky once you look at comparables. Amazon is famously parsimonious internally - more so than Google, e.g, but let's use google as the comp, they have a goal of 15k employees in a planned 2.9 million sf of space in NYC - yet Amazon would instead use anywhere from 50-250% more space per worker just...because? Something smells funny here....

That said, I just want Amazon to know that I support their corporate goal of destroying Donald Trump.

 

It's just like O's Editorium not to update this thread with this news. Is there anything amazing AOC cannot do?


AOC Celebrates That “Amazon is Coming to NYC Anyway” Without Tax Incentives
https://slate.com/news-and-politics...tes-amazon-lease-new-york-tax-incentives.html

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is “waiting on the haters to apologize” after Amazon said it would open up corporate offices in New York City to house more than 1,500 employees. The announcement from the internet giant came less than a year after it abruptly dropped plans to build a second headquarters in the city following backlash to the some $3 billion in financial incentives that the government had offered to woo the company. Ocasio-Cortez quickly celebrated the announcement in a series of tweets.

“Won’t you look at that: Amazon is coming to NYC anyway - *without* requiring the public to finance shady deals, helipad handouts for Jeff Bezos, & corporate giveaways,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Maybe the Trump admin should focus more on cutting public assistance to billionaires instead of poor families.” She then tweeted a photo of herself sitting on a couch saying she was waiting for apologies.

The lawmaker’s tweets came shortly after the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had signed a new lease for 335,000 square feet in New York City. Unlike earlier expansions, the company is setting up shop without any special tax incentives. Some had worried that when Amazon pulled out of setting up its second headquarters in New York it would scare away other large businesses. “Instead, Amazon’s continued expansion marks the latest sign that tech companies are scrambling for prime Manhattan real estate to attract the city’s large and well-educated talent pool,” reports the Journal.

Some though were quick to criticize Ocasio-Cortez, saying her claiming victory on the issue was a bit misleading considering that the new office space is far smaller than what the online giant had vowed to set up in the Queens neighborhood of Long Island City as part of its second headquarters. The company had pledged to create 25,000 new jobs as part of that expansion.

 

.06 the size of what they wanted to bring. Nice victory for AOC.

 

This thread shows so-called GOP's conservative values, namely true free market, was MKT BS.

 

You obviously don't understand what the issue is at all.

25K over a period of 10 years, which is 2.5K per year. Versus the initial 1.5K that they are now investing. Amazon will likely continue to expand operations over time because of the rich talent pool that NY attracts. Google and FB are also competing for this talent, so whether not Amazon got this tax incentive, they had already made the decision to go to NY because it was the profitable thing to do. If they were to allow NY to simply be dominated by Google, FB, and other tech firms, they would be at an enormous disadvantage in terms of human capital.

Amazon was always going to come to NY, they just decided to make a sick game out of it by pitting states and cities against each other in order to boost their profits. And your point that "0.06 the size" (makes no sense to divide a 1-year real investment by a 10-year theoretical aggregate) is just as preposterous as AOC claiming "victory" for this by herself. There was a sustained resistance by local party leaders and officials to Amazon coming to NY which AOC was a piece of. Remember, Governor Cuomo and De Blasio were on Amazon's side, and AOC by herself could not have stopped this deal.

My opinion of the original Amazon deal is that it would likely improved the overall GDP of NY, but a lot of the gains would have gone to out-of-state talent that moved to NY. In addition, the "increased development" would likely have shot up housing costs in the area and pushed existing residents out of their homes. This is a situation where the economy may grow in terms of macroeconomic indicators, but ultimately fails to distribute that growth adequately to the local community. And so is it worth the forgone $3 billion taxes? Tough to say. But the reality is that Amazon has come to NY and will, in all likelihood create more jobs in the future in addition to the initial 1.5K jobs and pay full taxes (Well, maybe not full they still pay $0 per year in federal income tax).

 

Indeed she does.

HO HO HO