I don't know if this is wishful thinking or a subtle announcement or a mistake or what...

but as I was entering Markham, Ontario this morning (all the articles say "Toronto" is an Amazon HQ2 finalist but it's actually Markham (just outside of Toronto)) the sign for Markham has been changed to say "Home of Amazon HQ2".

I don't see any news about this. So wishful thinking on their part? or "Oops, we announced it before it was announced"?

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Nothing in the Googles yet about a selection.

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The secret of a long life is you try not to shorten it.
-Nobody

Yeah I checked that. So that's why I am wondering if it's just wishful thinking or if they have won the bid and someone screwed up and changed the sign too early.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

http://www.cbc.ca/...n-s-2nd-hq-1.4649672

"Road-side signs as people enter the city of Markham now have a little something extra — a smaller. bright orange sign underneath proclaiming it the "Possible Future Home of Amazon HQ2"
The word "possible" is made to look hand-written in a purposely harder-to-read lighter colour and smaller font, of course."

Fooled me. I missed "Possible" for sure.

That's really lame.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

And now, after passing the head tax with a 9-0 vote, Seattle's city council has repealed it with a 7-2 vote.

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I miss YaHey

And one of the 2 to vote against blamed conservatives!! As if there are any in Seattle.

With 7 council members up for reelection in 2019 it will be interesting to see how the voters respond to the ineffectiveness of the current council.

There is no plan to deal with the homeless other than to tax, tax and tax some more.

https://www.geekwire.com/...ivision-nearby-city/

And so the exodus continues.

Not good for me. I live east of Bellevue and this just worsens already bad east side traffic.

Really too bad those employees won't be able to ride the South Lake Union Trolly to work every day. Commute will be way more boring.

“We opened our first office building in Bellevue in 2017. It’s a city with great amenities, a high-quality of life for our employees, and fantastic talent – and it’s recognized for its business-friendly environment. We look forward to continue growing our presence in Bellevue and bring more jobs to the city.”


Zing!

I just watch this video. Really pathetic, the progressive and their good intentions are letting a great city, slide into a shit hole.-

I'm 15 minutes in and I'm giving up. Does it ever offer any solutions beyond "give the police more authority" or is it a Sinclair attempted hit piece on liberals in Seattle?

It is one thing to acknowledge that a city faces issues when it becomes a draw for homeless people. And it is easy to take potshots by saying "somebody should do something". But it is another to find actual solutions other than criminalizing homelessness.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Yep hard to watch and it is a very complicated problem but it seems Seattle is doing it wrong (along with San Francisco). Skip to 44:00 for a solution.

I don’t think they have good intentions.

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Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb

Hells no. They are purposely trying to give everyone noise cancer.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Yeah, don’t they know that if you criminalize homelessness only criminals will have homeless people?

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

Good intentions to make them selves feel good?

Any time you marginalize or make anything acceptable, you can expect to see a lot more of it. It really is that simple. Just like calories in vs calories out in weight loss.

So then you have to ask yourself what is reasonable. You can't outlaw homelessness, but you can criminalize panhandlng, camping in public areas, etc. to dissuade people from doing that in your city.

My favorite part of this video is at 38:00 when the communist council woman gets a taste of her own medicine. She is shouted down for proposing a head tax. It's gold Jerry pure gold!!

There are a lot of factors in play. And it is something that has been building for quite a while. The root cause of crime is something that I have studied and been interested in since I switched to a philosophy major in 1992. And I think the US does a really really bad job of addressing it.

In the '80's we decided to cut federal funding for mental health (I could take a potshot at Reagan but after almost 40 years and 16 years of holding the presidency I haven't see the Democrats trying to change course either). At the same time we were reducing housing funding. And the states had no interest in upping funding for either.

And for years people have been freaking out if prisons have robust education systems because "why should they get free education for committing crimes?"

And prison systems have not tried very hard to do real drug rehab like what they are attempting in RI.

Make me king, because only I can fix this, and we'd try something different in prisons and sentencing. Drug treatment and education would be at the forefront of prisons. A lot of sentences would be much more indeterminate and if you didn't complete drug treatment and education you aren't getting out very soon.

I hate when I hear people complain about making prisons too soft. It is stupid. Make them hellholes and treat the inmates like animals and that is how they will come out. All but a very few are coming back into society. Do we really want them coming out a lot worse than they went in?

And I think as a society we need to find a better way to treat the mentally ill. I don't have that answer but it is easy to see what we are doing is not working for a lot of people.

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I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.

Sure you can. Starve those fuckers! If they want to sleep, make them sleep on pavement!

Any other “Modest Proposals”, Mr Swift?

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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)

There are plenty of laws on the books. In most part these laws are thought out to make a better and fairer society. Trouble comes when do gooders who do not believe in anything close too tough love, ignore these laws.
We seem to grasp this concept when it comes to animals 'Don't feed the Bears' but some people choose to ignore these rules of nature.

I readily admit I don't have the answers but you are advocating this is a crime and therefore making people criminals. The same people who don't have money to pay for necessities will now be expected to pay fines and court costs. How are they going to pay for their crimes? I'm guessing you are including potential prison sentences. How does this work to help solve the problem?

“Homelessness is not a choice. Homelessness is one of the most potent examples of disadvantage in the community, and one of the most important markers of social exclusion.” (Department of Human Services, 2002).

According to the Salvation Army, https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/...are-people-homeless/

These are the top reasons for being homeless.

• Family violence
• A shortage of affordable housing
• Physical and/or mental health issues
• Unemployment or job loss
• Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction
• Family and relationship breakdown
• Not feeling safe at home

Why don't we work on these problems first before making people criminals.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

I think a good place to start is do a little triage. divide the homeless into groups or levels of need from the ones that are just hard on there luck, to the revolving cell door criminals and the many groups in between.

Some may just need some counseling and job training to give them a leg up.

A lot of them need a place like the RI rehab.

Some are too far gone, hopeless and just need to be locked up for good.

But just letting homeless plant a tent anywhere they feel and using the city as a toilet and a dump sounds stupid to me and I am a damn libertarian.