We all last week heard much about this:
Amazon Pulls Out of Planned New York City Headquarters
I am nauseously loathe to agree with New York Communist – oops, I mean Democrat – Congressman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. But when she’s right – she’s right.
Now of course – she has almost no idea why she’s right.
Democratic Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Doesn’t Seem To Know How Tax Breaks Work
The NYC plan called for mega-corporation Amazon to be allowed to keep $3.5 billion of the money it generated there. A tax break – allowing Amazon to keep its own money.
Congressman Ocasio-Cortez seems to think NYC was going to cut Amazon a $3.5 billion government-money check.
No, Congressman – Amazon isn’t, say, a fake energy “green energy” company. These fake energy companies have over the years received hundreds of billions in straight government cash.
Your opposition to government cutting checks to corporations – sort of undermines your whole Green New Deal nonsense plan, does it not?
Of course it does.
But I’ll bet large coin:
As Amazon milks the very last pennies from the multi-billion-dollar tax breaks Arlington, Virginia is giving Amazon for its half of the second headquarters – Amazon will all over again start looking for a new location to be bribed into making its new HQ. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Well, all of that – is local government Amazon cronyism. The mega-corp is also now receiving pushback on a monstrously huge attempt at federal government cronyism.
I hope I’m sensing a trend. This from just yesterday:
New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract:
“The massive and troubled $10 billion cloud contract the Pentagon has been pursuing has run into another snag. DoD revealed Tuesday it has obtained ‘new information’ pointing to potential of conflicts of interest in the competition, already widely criticized for favoring Amazon Web Services.
“Pentagon spokesperson Elissa Smith confirmed to Breaking Defense that ‘new information not previously provided to DOD has emerged related to potential conflicts of interest,’ and as a result of this new information, ‘DOD is continuing to investigate these potential conflicts.’”
This is a $10 billion cloud computing backup – for the entire Defense Department (DoD). This is a HUGE deal.
The bad news for us fans of less cronyism – this bid process began in the uber-crony Barack Obama Administration. Obama, Inc never missed an opportunity – to use our money to help a crony.
Does Amazon’s Bezos – The Richest Man Ever – Need So Much Government Cronyism?
This huge $10 billion contract – was no exception.
Amazon’s Cloud Is the Favorite to Win a $10 Billion Defense Deal
How’d Amazon get to be the favorite? Cronyism, of course.
Amazon’s Bid on a $10 Billion Pentagon Contract Is Riddled With Conflicts of Interest:
“After a drawn-out battle over a $10 billion contract, the cloud-computing company Oracle filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that the Pentagon rigged a major contracting process in favor of Amazon….
“Of the major revelations in the Oracle lawsuit, the most damning is evidence that the Defense Department allowed multiple department staffers with previous ties to Amazon Web Services to manipulate proposal requirements for the contract for a major new cloud-computing network, the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, known by the acronym JEDI.
“According to the lawsuit, the department put two staffers, Deap Ubhi and Anthony DeMartino, in key positions on the project despite their previous connections to the company. Oracle alleges that their access to technical information from competitors accrued during this process allowed them to shape the request for proposal so that only AWS fit the needs of the contract. Oracle has asked the court to intervene to stop the award process until these conflicts of interest can be more thoroughly investigated.”
The Obama Administration put in charge of the DoD’s technology acquisition division – the bureaucracy in charge of the $10 billion cloud contract – Deap Ubhi. Whom they hired away – from Amazon Web Services (AWS)…Amazon’s cloud computing division.
Shocking that Amazon became the favorite.
Ubhi transmogrified the contract process from a search for multiple providers – which makes sense for anything tech, especially something this huge – into a sole source contract.
And then Ubhi drafted the contractor description in such a way – that only Amazon Web Services qualified for contract consideration.
God bless the 2016 Presidential election.
Breaking: Amazon’s Defense Dept Cronyism Comes Under Trump Administration Review
Pentagon to Review Amazon Employee’s Influence over $10 Billion Government Contract
Ubhi’s bastardization of the process – finally was brought to light. At which point – he recused himself.
But Ubhi’s crony work – was done. Just two weeks after recusing himself, Ubhi quit the DoD – and went back to work for…Amazon Web Services. “Heck of a job, Ubhi.”
That is a REALLY tiny closed circle. How very DC of all of them.
The Trump Administration – has continued to investigate this Obama Administration nonsense.
And the Trump Administration – keeps uncovering more and more Obama Administration nonsense.
Which is why a cloud computing contract that was supposed to be signed, sealed and delivered last spring – is STILL not signed.
Thank God.
And which is why we just yesterday – more than two years after we were finally rid of the Obama Administration – had this aforementioned headline:
New Evidence Of Conflict of Interest In JEDI Contract
Because we KEEP uncovering more and more Obama Administration nonsense.
We’ve said it before – we’ll say it again:
Amazon – and its Web Services – should be removed from all government contract consideration.
From this one – and all others for a pronounced period of time going forward.
Their all-encompassing cronyism efforts – should result in a blanket disqualification.
This first appeared in Red State.