That story does a really shitty job of explaining why the homeless guy was charged with fraud as well.
You know what, when the news story first broke, I thought this was what was really happening. Everybody was sharing links about how great this guy was, how kind the couple was...and just out of curiosity, I searched for the homeless man on Facebook. He was openly planning to live off-grid. I figured he was just pretending to be homeless and was gonna reap the benefits of a couple that wanted their own 15 minutes of fame for advertising how nice they were all over social media. Turns out they were all in on it, and he was pissed it wasn't an even split. He's also a Flat-Earther...not really connected to being off-grid, other than in a mental way...
Why do people donate to this crap anyway? If you want to donate to charity it's pretty easy to find one you know is legit. Was it you who posted the one where people were giving this guy money so he could go fuck his tub of lard girlfriend off the coast of Denmark? I guess some people really don't like their money.
smile.amazon.com Go through there instead of amazon.com, pick a charity you wish to donate to, and amazon will donate a percentage of your purchases to that charity on your behalf. It's not much, but it does ad up. I've generated roughly $40 in donations since I set it up about a year or two ago. Every little bit helps, and since it doesn't cost you a thing, it certainly doesn't hurt.
If you're a resident of New York or Virginia, you just donated alllll that and more back to Amazon with their HQ2 bullshit.
But I mean if you shop at amazon anyway. Since I have two kids under the age of 5, amazon is a godsend. Plus for stuff like tools and outdoor gear, where you want to compare, it's so much more valuable. Never mind easier and, often, cheaper.
Yes, that was some pretty fucking hilarious bullshit at that. Last I read, NY is paying some $48k a year for each job that is going into that HQ2. What a deal!
Especially because after all that song and dance, Amazon picked the two biggest talent pools on the East Coast which is where they probably would have gone with no incentives in the first place?
Not just that, but they swapped out "a new HQ2" to "we've picked 2 places for our 2 new HQ2's". I think they just got played BIG TIME... like, if you think your town got hosed by building that new sports arena, ha... that's child's play to what Amazon just fucked them over for. Especially since one of them is a monster hub, and not really an HQ.
That is beyond fucked up. If I was a resident of one of those places I would be livid. Now it makes sense why, when amazon told our city that they were on the list as one of the places in consideration, we told them we'd be happy to have them but there wouldn't be any incentives. Basically, "go fuck yourself."
Some small town offered to make Jeff Bezos mayor for life. It was fucking nuts what some places were offering.
I remember reading that some town offered to rename itself to "Amazon." What they've done to Seattle is absurd. My wife and I love that city, try to visit there as often as possible. Greatest city in the US. And none of the residents can afford to live there anymore thanks to bezos. Their homeless population is insane (though the homeless are very friendly, unlike the homeless in SF who are liable to throw shit at you if you look at them the wrong way).
I wouldn't put that squarely on Bezos. That's happening all over, just as a consequence of urbanization. As Juice was discussing earlier in this thread, the townies have been driven out of Charlestown and Southie almost entirely, and there's no single dominating tech presence in Boston. Similar price hikes in any major metro with jobs to offer. Not to mention that before Seattle was Amazon's background, it was Microsoft's.
It’s interesting how much money cities were willing to throw at them when they have such a terrible reputation for a working environment. And is it really an “HQ2” when it’s split in two different areas? It’s just two Amazon corporate offices. It remains to be seen what kind of presence GE will have here when they move their HQ from Connecticut. Cambridge is dominated by biopharma and smaller tech companies, but who knows.
As someone who lives in NY, and one of those towns/counties that fell for the "let's build a sports arena" lines, the taxpayers' assholes are so worn out they make a whistling sound at the slightest breeze. Voters here finally smartened up and cleaned house a couple weeks ago, but Albany is a whole cesspool unto itself.