Amazon’s decision to take #HQ2 to D.C. and NY is about enveloping government and media, the two primary checks on concentrated power in a democracy.
It’s decision to also go to Nashville is about deflection. 1/
It’s decision to also go to Nashville is about deflection. 1/
Jeff Bezos’s intention is to usurp the authority of government: to set the rules by which other firms are allowed to trade and to levy a tax on their trade. 2/ See: thenation.com/article/amazon…
Bezos also intends to assume control of the government’s data and spending. Already #Amazon hosts a lot of federal data. It also controls the purchasing of many government agencies, all the way down to your local school district. 3/ See: ilsr.org/release-amazon…
In America, when a monopoly closes down markets and takes the reins of government, it tends to get slapped down -- or at least that used to happen. 4/
But with Amazon spreading its tentacles across D.C. and enlisting liberals like De Blasio and Northam to fund its growth with billions of public dollars --- I fear we’re no longer a democracy. 5/
I fear we’re no longer the people who dumped a bunch of tea in Boston Harbor because the giant East India Company got a sweetheart deal from the British Parliament. 6/
Meanwhile, in New York, Amazon will further its influence over the media. This entire #HQ2 process has been Amazon pulling the strings of the media, a bonanza of publicity. 7/
All this #HQ2 reporting should have been used to investigate Amazon’s dominance, and the consequences of it – consequences a lot of communities are experiencing without any coverage at all. 8/
Even now, when it’s obvious this whole #HQ2 thing has been a giant ruse, the inclusion of Nashville is a head-fake. And I bet many journalists will jump. 9/
Sure, Amazon is going to set up facilities in Nashville. It’s also going to set up in lots of places. It’s a massive corporation. 10/
What Nashville really offers Amazon is a way to upend today’s news coverage in order to obscure what we all know to be true… 11/
… Amazon is expanding in the nation’s two major centers of power, because it intends to envelope, smother, and usurp that power for itself. 12/12
