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The first thought that came into my head was that AOC should be taking a victory lap over this. I clearly remember all the hate she got not only from the collec

The first thought that came into my head was that AOC should be taking a victory lap over this. I clearly remember all the hate she got not only from the collective of right wing people but also her own party. Sure enough after this news, she has brought it up: "When I opposed this Amazon project coming to New York bc it was a scam of public funds, the whole power establishment came after us. Billboards went up in Times Sq denouncing me. Powerful pols promised revenge. Op-Eds & CEOs insulted my intelligence. In the end, we were right." "I know I’ll never get an apology for that time, but it was worth it. We protected NYers from a scam deal to drain public dollars from schools & infrastructure in exchange for empty promises of “Amazon jobs” w/ 0 guarantees or guardrails. Sadly, cities who took it are suffering." [1]:https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1631706682597179405 https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1631706682597179405 [2]:https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1631708752737861665 https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1631708752737861665

amateuring 4y ago
which cities who "took it" are suffering exactly?
- nebula8804 4y ago
  Did you read the article? We are only talking about two locations.
  - 0xffff2 4y ago
    I can't read the article without turning off my ad blocker, but based on other comments in this thread, Virginia doesn't actually seem to be suffering because they didn't offer anything beyond standard development incentives they would offer to anyone. Those incentives are performance based, so they aren't paid if Amazon doesn't follow through.
    - nebula8804 4y ago
      The whole reason activists in NY made a stink about this is because these "jobs" Amazon promised were all hypothetical white collar jobs that would not benefit the existing residents at all and instead serve as a forcing function to push them out of their communities through price increases. Imagine you are a representative of the people currently living there. If you actually wanted to benefit your constituents you'd attracts jobs that your voters are actually qualified for(Maybe an Amazon warehouse which they already have). There was a massive surge in real estate purchasing and speculation in the weeks leading up the Amazon decision in NY. All AOC and the activists really did was request Amazon answer some additional questions and that was enough for them to totally flip the table and announce they are leaving. What followed what the shit show that AOC described in her tweet. In the end those white collar jobs didn't even materialize in Virgina but they got all the downsides that NY avoided.
ThunderSizzle 4y ago
One of the few things I didn't entirely disagree with AOC on. Too bad she comes with a lot of baggage, so the argument she fights for the "little man" falls flat.
- woooooo 4y ago
  Nobody's perfect but most of the "baggage" originates from Tucker Carlson rather than AOC herself. How would you or I look if we were the target of that kind of campaign?
  - darkwizard42 4y ago
    I don't think OP was talking about that. There are a number of short-sighted policies that she supports which definitely don't hold economic water. ex. rent control expansion, extremely high % of affordable housing designation in new construction. They are popular policies but don't necessarily make a real difference to the environment.
    - dwallin 4y ago
      A focus on achieving outcomes unfortunately isn't really valued in our current political system so instead of us being able to debate which policies would most effectively achieve shared goals we debate how ideologically pure the policies are, or even just reflexively reject ideas based on who delivered them. This is a universal problem across political parties.
- nebula8804 4y ago
  She appears to have very high approval ratings among her constituents. At the end of the day they are the ones who matter, not HN downvoters, not the people who criticize her or don't like her, not anyone else. There have been moments where she has disappointed her greater base (this includes people outside her district) by not being stronger on pushing back at her own party. It seems like a losing proposition. She is only a small handful of progressive candidates and anyone of her cohort who speak out have their reputations cemented in a negative fashion. Just ask Ilhan Omar: Among the many right wing attacks against her are stupid things like her supposedly marrying her brother and on the left wing she is constantly attacked for being anti-semitic despite raising obvious points on the corruption of the Israel lobby. AOC, Ilhan, and the squad are used by the Democratic party when it suits them but at the same time all their bills are quickly killed so whats the point? There has been so many decades of left wing apathy that every single entity that musters up any little bit of courage to fight the right wing using their own tactics are quickly branded as a dangerous being and that negative emotion is permanently sewn into people heads.

amateuring 4y ago

which cities who "took it" are suffering exactly?

nebula8804 4y ago
Did you read the article? We are only talking about two locations.
- 0xffff2 4y ago
  I can't read the article without turning off my ad blocker, but based on other comments in this thread, Virginia doesn't actually seem to be suffering because they didn't offer anything beyond standard development incentives they would offer to anyone. Those incentives are performance based, so they aren't paid if Amazon doesn't follow through.
  - nebula8804 4y ago
    The whole reason activists in NY made a stink about this is because these "jobs" Amazon promised were all hypothetical white collar jobs that would not benefit the existing residents at all and instead serve as a forcing function to push them out of their communities through price increases. Imagine you are a representative of the people currently living there. If you actually wanted to benefit your constituents you'd attracts jobs that your voters are actually qualified for(Maybe an Amazon warehouse which they already have). There was a massive surge in real estate purchasing and speculation in the weeks leading up the Amazon decision in NY. All AOC and the activists really did was request Amazon answer some additional questions and that was enough for them to totally flip the table and announce they are leaving. What followed what the shit show that AOC described in her tweet. In the end those white collar jobs didn't even materialize in Virgina but they got all the downsides that NY avoided.

ThunderSizzle 4y ago

One of the few things I didn't entirely disagree with AOC on. Too bad she comes with a lot of baggage, so the argument she fights for the "little man" falls flat.

woooooo 4y ago
Nobody's perfect but most of the "baggage" originates from Tucker Carlson rather than AOC herself. How would you or I look if we were the target of that kind of campaign?
- darkwizard42 4y ago
  I don't think OP was talking about that. There are a number of short-sighted policies that she supports which definitely don't hold economic water. ex. rent control expansion, extremely high % of affordable housing designation in new construction. They are popular policies but don't necessarily make a real difference to the environment.
  - dwallin 4y ago
    A focus on achieving outcomes unfortunately isn't really valued in our current political system so instead of us being able to debate which policies would most effectively achieve shared goals we debate how ideologically pure the policies are, or even just reflexively reject ideas based on who delivered them. This is a universal problem across political parties.
nebula8804 4y ago
She appears to have very high approval ratings among her constituents. At the end of the day they are the ones who matter, not HN downvoters, not the people who criticize her or don't like her, not anyone else. There have been moments where she has disappointed her greater base (this includes people outside her district) by not being stronger on pushing back at her own party. It seems like a losing proposition. She is only a small handful of progressive candidates and anyone of her cohort who speak out have their reputations cemented in a negative fashion. Just ask Ilhan Omar: Among the many right wing attacks against her are stupid things like her supposedly marrying her brother and on the left wing she is constantly attacked for being anti-semitic despite raising obvious points on the corruption of the Israel lobby. AOC, Ilhan, and the squad are used by the Democratic party when it suits them but at the same time all their bills are quickly killed so whats the point? There has been so many decades of left wing apathy that every single entity that musters up any little bit of courage to fight the right wing using their own tactics are quickly branded as a dangerous being and that negative emotion is permanently sewn into people heads.