Thank you for your service, Baker.
Warning Shot? Amazon Pulls Out Of Seattle Office Tower At Center Of Homeless Tax Debate
According to a report published by GeekWire, which managed to obtain a copy of a marketing flier circulated by the company, Amazon is seeking to sublet 30 floors of office space in a new building in Rainer Square - which is still under construction.
A marketing flier obtained by GeekWire confirms that the tech giant is seeking new tenants for its office space in Rainier Square, a building under construction that will one day be the city’s second-tallest skyscraper. Amazon had leased all 30 floors of office space in the building. After weeks of rumors, the listing was made official over the weekend, according to real estate brokers familiar with the marketing efforts. Amazon will make all of the office space it leased in Rainier Square available to other companies.
Amazon's decision to pull out of the tower, which comes after the Seattle City Council backed down from plans to impose a new headcount tax - intended to provide more resources for homelessness - after the company threatened not to move into Rainer Square, is "emblematic" of the company's "uncertain future" in its hometown.
Now, it appears Amazon is making good on that threat, despite having beat back the tax.
The skyscraper project, once an emblem of Amazon’s ambitions in Seattle’s urban core, now becomes a symbol of its uncertain future in its hometown. The move follows Amazon’s decision to back out of its HQ2 project in New York City after opposition there, amid signs that the company will focus its Seattle-area growth in nearby Bellevue, Wash.
Amazon did not immediately respond to GeekWire’s request to comment on the news. Real estate company JLL is listing the space on the company’s behalf, according to the flier.
A source told GeekWire that Apple, Oracle and Dropbox are all "circling", and have expressed interest in renting space at the tower, which is located at 4th and Union Street.
While Amazon's motives in subleasing the space are unclear, it's worth noting that several Seattle City Council members recently traveled to New York City to warn activists about the downside of hosting Amazon in your backyard.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/warning-shot-amazon-pulls-out-seattle-office-tower-center-homeless-tax-debate
Will Trudeau Resign After Former AG's Explosive Testimony?
During a day where three concurrent Congressional hearings dominated the news cycle in the US, the testimony of Canada's former Attorney General seemed to slip under the radar. But unlike Michael Cohen's star turn in front of the House Oversight Committee, what former AG Jody Wilson-Raybould shared with lawmakers and the Canadian public actually might cause one head of state's carefully constructed house of cards to come crashing down - just as campaign season is ramping up.
With roughly eight months left until an election where Canadians will decide whether to stick with - or reject - the progressive agenda of PM Justin Trudeau, a widening corruption scandal is threatening to take down the prime minister's entire government. Two weeks ago, journalists at the Globe and Mail blew the lid off a scandal involving Trudeau and his closest aides, where the prime minister appeared to pressure Wilson-Raybould, then the attorney general, into offering a DPA to a Quebec-based engineering firm - then fired her when she refused to obey his demands. And after weeks of radio silence, she shared her side of the story during a widely watched (in Canada) Congressional hearing Wednesday afternoon.
Answering questions posed by a conservative MP, Wilson-Raybould said she faced intense political pressure and veiled threats from at least 11 people involved in the government - either the PMO or the Privy Council Office - related to the SNC-Lavalin affair. She also said she was warned directly by Trudeau about the negative consequences should the company face prosecution, according to CBC. One close aide to Trudeau has already resigned over the scandal.
Wilson-Raybould listed the people she had warned about "the inappropriate nature of these conversations" after they "hounded" her about the affair, including Trudeau, Finance Minister Bill Morneau, Clerk of the Privy Council Michael Wernick and the (now-fired) senior senior aide to the prime minister, Gerald Butts.
"For a period of four months from September to December 2018, I experience a consistent and sustained effort by many people within the government to seek to politically interfere in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion in my role as the attorney general of Canada in an inappropriate effort to secure a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) with SNC-Lavalin."
"Within these conversations there were express statements regarding the necessity of interfering in the SNC-Lavalin matter, the potential of consequences, and veiled threats if a DPA was not made available to SNC-Lavalin," she said.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/will-trudeau-resign-after-former-ags-explosive-testimony
Maduro Unloads Another 8 Tons Of Gold From Venezuela's Central Bank
Maduro's government has resorted to selling gold as falling oil production, mounting debts to Russia and China, and tough international sanctions have created a cash crunch. Now, with the opposition seeking to win over the military, which is the only bulwark keeping Maduro in power, the socialist dictator needs to make sure he can keep his soldiers happy…or risk losing it all.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/maduro-loots-another-8-tons-gold-venezuelas-central-bank
Government Is The Main Problem, Say A Record Number Of Americans
Think of all the troubles in the world. Climate change. Student debt. Terrorism. Job insecurity. What’s the number one most mentioned problem, according to a recent Gallup poll? Government itself. Thirty-five percent of Americans put that concern above all others. It’s a record number, according to the pollsters who have been tracking this since 2001.
Not only that: there have only been a handful of times when any number one issue clocked in with this level of intensity: terrorism after 9/11, Iraq after the war began, and the economy after 2008.
When I saw the numbers, my first thought was that Democrats made up the margin of change. They don’t like the president. He drives them crazy. So it makes sense that they would more quickly name government as the leading problem — which in turn raises the question of why they would push so hard for government to exercise more power over our lives.
It turns out, however, that it is not movement among Democrats but among Republicans that is the most noticeable on the graphs.
Having Trump as their president in office, then, has not increased confidence in government. If anything, it has had the opposite effect, turning Republicans themselves against government as never before. But notice that the loathing is nonpartisan.
Other polls such as Pew Research report similar results, with only 18 percent showing confidence in government at all. This is down from 78 percent half a century ago.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-27/government-main-problem-say-record-number-americans