I get an awful lot of emails from Amazon these days, advertising all the great deals they’re offering this holiday season, and I gotta admit, like usual, they’ve got a lot of great deals. But this year, I’m not taking advantage of a single one of them.
It’s not that I don’t like great deals. I do. I’m frugal by nature as well as by circumstance. And Amazon has always provided reliable service in the past.
But, well, in giving $100,000 to the No on I-1098 campaign, Jeff Bezos has proven himself to be an arrogant, self-serving prick, who apparently believes his fortune was built entirely upon his own sweat and genius, so quite frankly, I just don’t feel like giving him any of my money at the moment.
To be clear, I’m not one who generally endorses boycotts; attempting to deny someone their livelihood for daring to voice a contrary political opinion, that’s more of a Republican tactic. And honestly, it’s not like the rest of corporate America is run by angels, so the alternatives usually aren’t all that better.
But for the moment at least, fuck Bezos and his online empire.
In that vein, I wrote a nasty gram to the National Beverage Association and Coca Cola for sticking their big fat high fructose noses in our state’s business.
Not that it matters but I’ve given up the Diet Coke too. Last time I ordered something on Amazon I got some completely different product out of their Kentucky distribution center.
Eh. Don’t really care. This wasn’t a nasty personal attack based on made up shit (like the anti-gay marriage initiatives). This is a basic financial tax issue. I understand MOST folks who make $1 million plus don’t want more taxes on themselves, duh. And you can have an honest intellectual argument (and disagreement) on tax policy. Unlike the gay marriage arguments where you can’t have honest intellectual discussions because one side is based on magic and made up facts and simple can’t change their mind no matter what “argument” you put forward, it’s faith/magic/superstition based. But financial tax policy, eh.
Goldy, if you find out an executive at one of the companies that advertises on your site either gave money to, or voted against I-1098, will you drop that advertiser?
I haven’t bought anything from Amazon for a couple of years and don’t plan on starting again any time soon.
Note that Amazon is setting up distribution centers in “red states”, the most recent one was announced in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The special tax credits and deals have already been sealed, and the permit applications are proceeding on greesed wheels. They expect it will be open in time for the next holidy sales season.
Goldy,
This is a sad post.
An income tax makes sense. But not that one.
Boycott…seriously? That’ll show him. Geez.
Goldy,
This is a sad post.
An income tax makes sense. But not that one.
Boycott…seriously? That’ll show him. Geez.
My problem with Amazon isn’t Jeff’s personal support for/against some initiative, it’s their absolute lack of giving a shit about the community. Look around town. See what the other BILLION dollar corporations do. The Boeing IMAX theater, Gates, McCall, Paccar, Starbucks, all giving to arts and culture. Amazon is one of, it not perhaps THE CHEAPEST son of a bitches on the entire planet. They give virtually nothing back to their community. One of the few major corporations on the planet to be so stingy.
P.S. Their “net” profit is about $1 billion a year. You think they’d provide the financing to a theater rebuild, park or something. But no.
Support your local brick-and-mortar bookstores!
Better yet don’t buy anything unless you really need to. There is no need to be a consumer just for the sake of being a consumer.
Goldy, I see an ad by LivingSocial on your site. Amazon recently invested $175 million dollars in that company. Are you going to drop LivingSocial ad an advertiser?
@9 “Support your local brick-and-mortar bookstores!”
That’s certainly my preference, mostly because I simply love bookstores. A few years ago I did buy a bunch of Spanish language books from Amazon to help stock a library that a friend built for an Indian village in Peru. It made shipping easier. But I have zero interest in shopping there for myself. heh- The number one book request from the Indian kids? Harry Potter.
@ Troll :if he is not he is a hypocrit
@12: honestly what is the point of support local bussiness if they are filled with consumeristic crap that is made in china, might as well go to Target or Walmart and get it cheaper.
if u think 1098 support’s bad, how about caving to the obama empire on wikileaks? bipartisan raesons to boycott bezos.
I’m more pissed about WikiLeaks. But 1098 and their lack of philanthropic donations (cited above) are also good reasons. Powell’s had some labor problems a while back, but in general they’re much better politically, and from the same region.
@8
Great point!
Personally, I support my local library, but I’m an anti-consumerist commie bastard.
Curious how you appear to begrudge him his success? That is a pattern among the HA faithful. Begrudge those who have succeeded in their given endeavor and NOT ( In the minds of the HA wizards of smart) sufficiently handed over the fruits of their success to the government.
How many people does this begrudged, succesful person employ? How much of those employess incomes is filtered back into the economy? How much tax $$$ is collected from these same employees?
Meh, a simple thank you is all that is required from you Goldy.
A bit ironic that Goldy is calling someone else arrogant… Now excuse me, I am going to go Christmas Shopping exclusively on Amazon to offset Goldy’s purchasing power for the next 2 years.
Here’s a basic internet blog lesson for this dumbass motherfucker.
Ads are provided by an ad service who contracts with the blog owner. The ad service recruits advertisers. When an ad is clicked some coin gets to the blog owner.
If I see an ad for some piece of shit conservative owned company or candidate…damn fucking straight I click on it. Goldy then gets paid by people who would not normally support him. Yayyyy.
…and fuck Jeff Bezos for being a shitty corporate citizen.
@19
My question is still valid. Will Goldy give an ultimatum to the ad service to either drop LivingSocial as a client, or Goldy will boycott the ad service and drop them from his site?
Pyrite,
Why don’t you open up your own company?
I agree Fuck Jeff Bezos! And while I’m at it Fuck all the big babies that hide behind an alias to write poison pen shit to Goldy! Why not keep it on your own websites? Oh that’s right none of you losers has the creativity and talent to make a popular site.You would rather reach into your full diaper,grab a handful and fling it.Then you wait smiling for a pat on the head…well, FUCK YOU!
@8: Wow, I hadn’t appreciated Amazon’s history of weak to non-philanthropy.
http://www.slate.com/id/2213037/pagenum/all/#p2
Will have to look into DT’s suggestion @9.
That’s why I’ve shifted my online book buying, if I just absolutely have to do it that way rather than go to a local retailer like Third Place Books, to http://www.powells.com — long-time NW retailer, family-owned, and the best used bookstore in the known world!
We all know that Amazon doesn’t just sell books, right?
I’ve always thought Amazon was hinky. And their prices suck — I can almost always do better and I’ve paid more not to deal with Amazon.
Bezos is just more corporate scum. Where you spend your dollars = your values.
Speaking of corporate angels — the kind with horns — news sources report that Christopher Marconi of Garrison, N.Y., found a foreclosure notice from Wells Fargo Bank on his door.
The problem is, Marconi owns his house free and clear, and has never done business — mortgage or otherwise — with Wells Fargo Bank.
After perusing the foreclosure paperwork, Marconi figured out what was going on. He had a co-defendant in the foreclosure suit, a woman who hit his car after running a red light four years earlier. He had sued her and filed a judgment lien against her. It was her house, in a different city, that Wells Fargo was after. The bank simply scooped his name off the list of people who had liens against her and included him as a defendant.
Marconi got nowhere trying to deal with the bank. He had to hire a lawyer and pay thousands of dollars in legal fees to get Wells Fargo’s foreclosure Pac-Man off his ass.
The foreclosure scandal has now sunk to a depth where banks are filing foreclosure lawsuits, almost at random, against people who don’t have mortgages and never did business with the banks. And the banks aren’t correcting their mistakes. Instead, former employees of banks and law firms that mass-produce foreclosure filings for banks are testifying in courts across the land to ignore customer complaints and push through foreclosures even in cases they knew to be wrongful.
The banks are telling the victims of their wrongful foreclosure actions to “get a lawyer.” That’s exactly what they should do. And juries should award these victims their full costs and very significant punitive damages.
The banks think they’re protected, and therefore can get away with anything, because the government can’t afford to let them fail. A $700 billion bailout convinced them that the government simply won’t let lawyers take all their assets to compensate their victims and put them out of business, because that would take the whole economy down. But there’s a simple solution the banks have overlooked.
Nationalize the fucking banks.
If they behave like this is Argentina, then let’s treat ’em like Argentina does.
erratum @27: “Instead, former employees of banks and law firms that mass-produce foreclosure filings for banks are testifying in courts across the land they were instructed to ignore customer complaints and push through foreclosures even in cases they knew to be wrongful.”
Is this clown really so incredibly stupid he doesn’t get that “taking money from people we don’t like is a good thing???”
I know troll is “challenged” but come on!!!
We have criminal laws to punish fraud which also can, and should, be used against the bank executives and supervisors who made the decision to push through fraudulent foreclosure lawsuits people and ordered their employees to do it. And their lawyers, of course, should be disbarred and prosecuted too.
Ireland is about to impose austerity on its people to save its government from sovereign default. The austerity measures will hit hardest at families making less than $26,000 a year. Guess how many of the real estate developers and property owners who caused Ireland’s financial problems make less than $26,000 a year? If I were a working stiff living in Ireland, I’d leave. Everyone should leave, and turn that island into a fucking desert. Then let the creditors and lenders who lent all that money to the developers and property owners stew in their defaulted debts.
I’d rather not. I’m into busty redheaded girls, not balding, greedy, men.
@31
What would have happened if they’d gone bankrupt? They’re so screwed now that it seems like bankruptcy could have hardly been worse!
Bezos has been on my shit list for quite a while, for a variety of reasons. The “No on 1098” contribution is one of the recent ones. Another kicking Wikileaks out of Amazon’s cloud–although I can’t help but wonder how many of the guys in the black Suburbans paid Jeffie a visit, and what they threatened to to to him if he didn’t.
@31 That’s the problem, Roger–the Irish banks played fast and loose games with derivatives just like the ones here–and just like here, the government was dumb enough to bail them out. Now the Irish government is begging the rest of the EU to bail it out.
What basically triggered all this is that Ireland’s prior good fortunes depended on its being a haven for manufacturing, with a relatively skilled work force that worked for less than in other countries (like here in the US). China, Inc. pretty well took care of that. Any of this sound familiar?
@34
Probably handed him a brief case full of Franklins.
@27 We’re out trillions and yet, if I’m not mistaken, not a single banker or derivatives trader is in jail. If we had some public executions they might just get their fucking shit together.
Yeah, like Wikileaks is the fucking problem. Good fucking grief! It’s long past time some heads rolled.
We’re so screwed. And the people who screwed us are probably packing their bags for Dubai.
Bankers should be living in fear, not luxury.
Three cheers for Jeff Bezos and anyone else who contributed to the defeat of I-1098!
For those who want to pay a state income tax, please mail a generous check to the Washington Department of Revenue in Olympia.
@25: I like Powell’s, but I like to check out their books before I buy. To Powell’s credit, they actually pay very fairly if you sell your books to them (very much unlike Half Priced Books), so I like to patronize them when I can. It’s rare to find a used book dealer that treats patrons/sellers with respect.
Of this we agree. Both Presidents Obama and Bush LOVE Wall Street.
@42 The left-right paradigm is bullshit. We’re all fucked. The sooner we realize it the sooner we can come together and go after the people who are really screwing us over. The Democratic and Republican politicians are just puppets on a string. You’re not the enemy and neither am I. America’s real enemies would have us at each others throats. Who’s fucking with us? Who benefits from a divided and weakened America? Just follow the big money trail. Not the chump change. I mean the BIG money. For starters, we could string up anybody who owns a home in Dubai.
Marat we’re poor
And the poor stay poor
Marat don’t make
Us wait anymore
We want our rights
And we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now
Bezos is well known to be the nastier sort of conservative–has been all along. I hate doing business with Amazon, anyway–I keep wondering when their website is going to try to sell me a used car with sawdust in the gears.
If you’d like a major on-line bookstore that has more liberal and sensible management, and is infinitely more pleasant to do business with, I recommend Powells.
Maybe Amazon would have left if I-1098 had won. I-1098 would have taken away a huge advantage we have over most other states.
I1098 was doomed in this state once the words “Income Tax” were printed on it. No How, No Way, No Time.
Why is 1098 needed for the HA Libtardo class to pay the state an income tax? Since Goldy and his ilk are for it…
Just open the check book and write a damn check to Queen Chrissy and STFU. She’ll gladly accept all coins! Lets see the stupid dumb mofo rujax argue against that! Wait for it, Pavlov predicts something useless will soon appear!
Puddy loves the screams from the HA Libtardo STUPID class. Jeff Bezos loves the DUMBOCRAT! This fool actually gave money to Leaky Leahy! So Puddy almost agrees with Goldy due to political contributions. Bezos is a BIG TIME LEFTIST! Cheap on philanthropy and following the standard unnatural progressive way.
Would one HA libtardo leftist at least verify what Jeff does politically?
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooo! They just follow their pied Piper Goldy!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
Oh, oh, the psycho-laugh. Somebody hasn’t take their meds this morning.
Oh Pud, there you are.
So…since you ran away from the discussion on a previous thread, I’ll pose it again here:
Did Noah have Tyranosaurs, aardvarks, penguins and mastodons on the ark?
(This is clearer in its own entry:)
Does that include evolution, cosmic red shift, Big Bang, radiometric dating and other scientific modalities for understanding our world
Pud? PU-DDEEEE?
Hmm…I may have discovered Putz repellent. Just ask Putz, by way of probing his credibility, about his notions regarding speciation, biologic natural history and/or cosmology…and he disappears.
>>POOF<<
I fully support saying good-bye to Jeff and the Amazon trolls. They don’t treat employees well and heading for the red state to make sure they don’t have to treat employees well is just one more indicator. I don’t do Amazon.
Libtardo Moron…
Puddy works long hours. Try it sometime fool!
Back to the argument… Bezos is a good liberal, keeps his money to himself.
Amazing how the thread quiets down when the truth arrives!
penguins & aardvarks!
Calling someone psycho from the Stupid Solution Slurper!
@55
Really, where did Noah find a penguin in the Middle East? Much less a pair of every species of penguin, most of which are Antarctic in distribution?
@55
How did the Tyranosaurs survive the flood?
What about the mastodons?
You know, the last mammoths died out about 4500 years ago – were they on the ark?
Ask p’dumbski to prove anything and watch what happens.
@59
I actually enjoy hearing the ridiculous logical gymnastics that are executed to sustain belief in a literal, infallible Bible.
And it does wonders for ones credibility.
U R that Stupid. God had the animals arrive 2x and 7x per His commands. Yes U R that Stupid.
Really? From your link fool…
During the last ice age, woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. It has been shown that mammoths survived on Wrangel Island until 1700 BCE, the most recent survival of any known mammoth population. They also survived on Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea until 6000 BCE.[10] Wrangel Island is thought to have become separated from the mainland by 12,000 years BP. Survival of a mammoth population may be explained by local geographic, topographic and climatic features, which entailed preservation of communities of steppe plants, as well as a degree of isolation sufficient to delay colonization by humans. St. Paul Island shares this characteristic of geographic isolation, implying that human hunting played a role in the disappearance of the woolly mammoth. Wrangel Island mammoths ranged from 180–230 cm in shoulder height and were for a time considered “dwarf mammoths”.[11] However this classification has been re-evaluated and since the Second International Mammoth Conference in 1999, these mammoths are no longer considered to be true “dwarf mammoths”. So they had to be considered something else eh?
What a useless tool Liberal Scientist is!
This is why rujax, the dumb brick he is, will always jump on anything that closely resembles a Puddy putdown without first researching it. He doesn’t read. Prolly don’t know how to!
Such a small brittle little prick.
Classic, absolutely classic.
This is from a website creationtips.com, an indispensable resource for all things loonly and biblically literal:
So do you believe that there were breeding pairs of specimens of all the antarctic penguin species migrating from the usual precincts to somewhere in the Middle East between 2500 and 2300 BCE?
The Wrangel Island dwarf mammoth (like jumbo shrimp!) survived until 1650 BCE – did Noah have them on the ark, and if so, how did they get to and from between Wrangel island and the Ark departure pier?
@62
What difference does the classification system make? Some form of mammoth was alive on Wrangel Island when the Ark set sail – so, by your logic there had to be at least two of them on Noah’s Ark, right?
So, how did these Dwarf/not Dwarf Mammoths – were they on the ark, and how did they get to and from the Ark?
Condensed Putz: