the real reason:
Female workers tell of exploitation and sexual assault at frankincense warehouse supplying US essential oils company
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Sigh. Or maybe you’ll just lose your ass betting on elections. Betting generally. That’s why it exists.
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I was going to file this under “Stupid Things I hear at Work,” but this turned into more of a conversation with a managing partners where I work. He is a nice older guy who usually smiles while he is talking. He would usually say “hello” when he passed me, even when he didn’t know who I was.
As a reminder — where I work is a place that deals with real estate financing. So I am suspicious of most there.
He pulled me aside this afternoon and thanked me for the hard work I did for his “team.” I put together a “book” for them promoting a “portfolio” of three residential buildings in Queens. I thanked him. Faking naturalistic human interaction is a skill I have learned over the past decade.
We briefly talked about the buildings. They were well-maintained rental buildings from the 1920s. Decent by New York City rental standards. Older rental properties in NY are neglected so much that most of them are onlyl standing because they were robustly constructed at the time.
He bemoaned that the three buildings couldn’t be sold for a higher price. It was, he siad, because of rent stabilization. “New York, you know, is a communist city” he said, still with a smile on his face.
He let me know he owns a few buildings himself. “They won’t let me charge market rent.” In one of his buildings he has to rent a unit for $1,100, while on another floor, for the same unit, he can charge more than $4,000. “It’s rent stabilization. Worse than rent control.” Still smiling at the absurdity of the situation.
He was done. As he was turning to leave. I replied, with a smile, and in a very friendly manner “well it was very helpful to me when I needed it.”
He smiled and waved as he left.
So now he thinks I am a communist. Or I hope he does.
I bought my current apartment in 2019. Before that I only ever lived in rent stabilized apartments. What else could I afford? I couldn’t afford market rate apartments unless my pay was doubled or tripled. And that would never happen.
Without rent stabilization, I could not have been able to save money to buy my apartment. Without rent stabilization I could not be in NY doing such hard work for him.
Here he is making probably 10 times as much as I do. Maybe even 20 times. And he’s complaining about government controls on his rents.
All these people who make obscene amounts of money through real estate in NY hate the place. They hate the left-wing government and fear the dirty, criminal citizens. They all live on Long Island or New Jersey.
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It’s hard for people to keep informed.
So a lot of people vote while mis-informed, and/or based on vibes.
IF there were a way to prevent rigging, I wonder if sortition, randomly selecting 5% or 10% of the public to act as voters for each 2-year stretch, and paying them appropriately, subsidizing their research, etc. might counter that.
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It might, but I find it extremely difficult to imagine such a thing ever happening in the U S of A.
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https://www.reuters.com/world/us/unitedhealthcare-ceo-fatally-shot-ny-post-reports-2024-12-04/
motive is not exactly clear, but it was a targeted attack, and:
Thompson’s wife, Paulette, told NBC News that he had received some threats, though she did not know any specifics.
“Basically, I don’t know, a lack of coverage?” she said, appearing to allude to a potential insurance-related motive
seldom see such direct action in class warfare, assuming that is the motivation.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/business/brian-thompson-insurance-executives-threats.html
Why is the NY Times not “one boxing” today?
Anyway, here is the headline:
The ‘Chilling’ Fatal Shooting of a C.E.O. Has Business Leaders on Edge
After Brian Thompson of UnitedHealthcare was killed in Manhattan, the phones at corporate security firms were “ringing off the hook.”
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So, they DO understand the connection.
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in 2008 when the banks fucked over the world, there was something in the news about the bankers looking into increased security measures. given the amount of guns in the US and all the gun violence, I was sort of surprised nobody did anything. I guess the camel’s back didn’t give out until now.
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Hmm, maybe. I’ll start getting intrigued that way if it happens again.
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That really is the quiet bit being said out loud, isn’t it.
Here’s the archive of the article to stop the Murdoch empire from getting a click.
It does the classic UK switcheroo of starting by talking about social class and education, but shifting to actual economic class by defending capital gains and inherited wealth when it comes to the actual polices that she’s concerned about.
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Alice Thomson isn’t flagged as a transphobe by my extensions, but her Wikipedia article lights up like a Christmas tree, which is all I need to know about her.
Yet more evidence that the culture war is a distraction, and that all racists, sexists, homophobes and transphobes are class traitors.
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Back when I was in Bosnia in the '90s they gave us playing cards with the pictures of wanted war criminals. I’ve thought of making a similar set of cards with the pictures of healthcare CEOs, defense CEOs, insurance CEOs and VC CEOs.
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