February, 2019, Part 10, Political Class Insanity: NYC Politicians Killing Amazon Deal, Virginia Political Circus Continues, and A Mean A Spirited Presidential Candidate

It is another month which means it is again time to review the latest political class insanity from Washington and around the world. Political class insanity takes many forms including the wasting of taxpayer wealth, criminal fraud within government programs, inane and stupid political quotes and actions, the inability to create and implement effective and efficient government programs, stupid and ill performing economic policies and strategies, and other forms of insanity that continue to evolve and surprise and shock us.

Let’s get started:

1) As most people know, Amazon sent over 200 cities in a tizzy over the past few years when they said they would be setting up new headquarters office complexes across the country to handle their ever growing business. These headquarters efforts would obviously be a big boost to local economic conditions, creating new and high paying jobs both inside the company and in outside businesses, e.g. restaurants, that would support this new, highly paid workforce.

Cities and local politicians jockeyed hard to be selected, given the obvious economic upside, and tried to outdo each other with tax abatements, economic incentives, and a myriad of other bribery gems to try and be one of the two locations.

Amazon eventually ended up choosing northern Virginia and Queens, New York as the sites of these two new headquarters locations. Local politicians were ecstatic….for a while until at least in New York, the whole thing started to fall apart when politicians started screwing up a good deal:

• According to CNBC, Amazon is likely at least taking a second look at whether or not the NYC locations is worth the hassle and grief it is getting from local politicians.
• According to CNBC, the announcement of NYC as one of the two locations “met almost immediately with protest by some New York officials and residents who feared Amazon would take over the Queens neighborhood, drive up prices and and push out existing residents.”
• In other words, Amazon may pull out of New York if the politicians hassle them too much and just go somewhere else, with over 200 cities more than happy to not hassle and hound the company.
• Just the Queens location would be home to 25,000 well paid employees, employees who pay taxes, eat in local restaurants, buy from local merchants, improve neighborhoods with home purchases, and generate a whole lot of economic growth.
• Of course, the newest and most out of touch and economically ignorant member of Congress, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, put her two cents in, objecting that Amazon selected Queens for their location, proving that it is a great idea if she thinks it stinks.
• She issued the following, most ignorant tweet: “Can everyday people come together and effectively organize against creeping overreach of one of the world’s biggest corporations?”
• So, in her world and reality, creeping overreach is good, high paying jobs, economic revival of all aspects of the local economy, and lower unemployment.
• The governor, Andrew Cuomo, is besides himself in frustration that a deal that took so long to to is possibly falling apart because of politicians like Ocasi-Cortez: "We have to make Amazon a reality. For the state Senate to oppose Amazon was governmental malpractice. And if they stop Amazon from coming to New York, they're going to have the people of New York state to explain it to. It is irresponsible to allow political opposition to overcome sound government policy. You're not there to play politics. You're there to do what's right for the people of New York, and what they did here was wrong."

I love it when the political class eats its own, they are so inept at anything they do. Over 200 cities saw this Amazon opportunity as a good thing and now some politicians in New York want to kill the golden goose of economic growth.

Now, look, I thought what Amazon did to these 200 cities was disgusting, economic blackmail. In New York, for example, the local politicians agreed to give Amazon a tax rebate of $3 billion if Amazon generated $27 billion in revenue for the state. Similar offers were made in the over 200 cities as well. As I said, economic blackmail.

But it is still so funny to see incompetent politicians trip over themselves trying to screw up a deal of a lifetime to the detriment of the people they serve. But that should not surprise anyone, these people screw up just about anything they touch.

2) Let’s review the Virginia political situation, or circus, that we have previously discussed in recent posts:

• It came to light that the medical school yearbook page of the current governor had a picture of two guys at a costume party, one dressed in a KKK costume and one dressed in black face in addition to listing the governor’s nickname as “Coonman,” certainly a racial slur.
• The governor first admitted that he was one of the guys in the picture and a day later contradicted himself and said he was NOT one of those in the picture, making himself look like a liar.
• Then the lieutenant governor was accused of a sexual predator attack years ago.
• Then the lieutenant governor implied that the governor had released the sex attack story to take the pressure off of him. 
• Then the state’s attorney general admitted that he had dressed up in blackface long ago.
• Then a member of the state government admitted that he knew of the sexual attack by the lieutenant governor for over a year.

So every day, the situation got worse and worse, and more comical. But just when you thought you it could not get any worse: 

• A second woman has now come forward to accuse the lieutenant governor of a sexual attack.
• Now he wants the FBI to investigate the charges.
• And many of his peers/politician friends are calling for him to resign but he says he will not.

Makes you wonder what insanity will unfold tomorrow in Virginia.

3) Okay, we talked about politicians fighting among themselves to screw up a once in a lifetime economic opportunity, we talked about Virginia politicians screwing up their public offices, and now let’s talk about a Washington politician possibly screwing up her Presidential run before it if got underway:

• Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar recently announced she was going to run for President.
• But according to the Washington Examiner she has a very nasty temperament and personality.
• Apparently she has a reputation for mistreating staff.
• At least three potential campaign aides withdrew their names from being considered to be on her Presidential campaign.
• According to the Huffington Post. the Senator cultivates a nasty work environment.
• She allegedly made staffers cry if they were late, constantly describing staff work efforts as “the worst,” sharing criticism in public emails, and giving staff tasks that were in conflict with Senate ethics rules.
• No surprise that she has had trouble filling her chief of staff position.

Sounds like she has a great temperament to unite the country and get everyone working together….not! If she cannot even get a small staff to function coherently and positively it is highly doubtful that she will be able to get the country to function coherently and positively.

That will do it for today, the insanity just keeps on coming.

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