Once I built a railroad...

Just after the turn of the 20th century, Henry Flagler was among the world's richest men. He had accumulated his wealth by founding standard oil, and essentially owning the early oil business. 

But he wasn't content to sit on those riches. He wanted to do more - and have more. He decided that he could create a series of hotels for his wealthy friends to winter in, along Florida's coast. 

To do that, he had to snap up some land in the state. He did what any wealthy man of any era might do: he told the state that he would build a railroad along the coast in exchange for free land near the coast. 

Florida was poor for the most part, saw the opportunity, and agreed. (And yes, it's more complicated overall, but that is a quick summary) 

As he agreed, he built the railroads at his expense, and allowed for public use of them. But, he also used them to allow for the wealthy to  travel to his hotels, and (more importantly) for commerce that benefited him. 

He built an opulent hotel in Saint Augustine. He built another palace of sorts in palm beach. And they were successful at bringing people to Florida, as he anticipated. 

Then, he decided to build further south, into the Florida keys. Ideally, he wanted his railroad to go all the way to key west. 

The reasons were strictly for financial gain to him: it has a deep water port, its 90 miles from Cuba and could be conducive to trade, and there was a desire to open trade, given that the Panama Canal was set to open. 

And of course, it was a way to make himself more of a household name. He would be "the guy." 

The railroad, built in the 1910s, reportedly cost $50 million dollars - that's something around $1.6 billion in today's dollars. (Yikes!)

There is a fun story about how the railroad builders wanted to finish early and worked multiple shifts to create the bridge that spanned the seven miles between the middle keys and big pine key. It was done as a sort of a marathon effort. And they named the town to the north Marathon as a result. 

There are also stories about how he treated the people building the railroad. They were paid well, but had moderately tough living conditions. And he imposed his morals on the men working there: no gambling, no drinking, and no women were allowed at his camp. 

I pose to you this question: are the über wealthy of today any different?

We hear about these billionaires who always want more. To control everything. And they bend the rules to their whim and get others to do their bidding. 

It hasn't changed in the 110 years between; it's just that we're more aware of it now. And the bites these guys take are bigger than they were before.  

But the Elon Musks and the Jeff Bezos of the world are in it for themselves, much like Henry Flagler. They want to be "the guy."  The wealthy industrialist who does something grand at the expense of others around him. 

Streaming and exclusivity

I cut the cord some years ago, leaving cable behind.  

Mostly, its been great. But streaming services are so bizarre.  And when it comes to sports packages and special events, its even more bizarre.

Try watching your local sports team without cable.  The major sports (outside of the NFL) have deals with services that are exclusive to cable.  Don't have cable? Can't watch!

And now you're seeing special events - from the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade to specific events that want you to subscribe to a service in order to watch.

Its crazy.

I've experienced not being able to watch English Premier League games on Peacock, because they were being televised on USA (on cable).

And then there's the NFL, which has some games on over-the-air TV, and others on various streaming platforms, so now you have to pay to see some number of games.

But its weirder than that.  On thanksgiving, the early game was on CBS.  I was not near a TV and thought I'd watch it on Paramount+.  Only I couldn't because it required me to signin to my cable provider in order to watch, in spite of subscribing, and this not being some kind of special event.

Its just all so strange.

Objects in mirror…are definitely closer

Oddities with billionaire greed, stadiums, and residents needing help

We turn our attention to the Tampa Bay Rays and their ongoing stadium saga. 

In short, the owner wants a brand new stadium, and wants the city or county to basically give it to him. 

The city of Saint Petersburg had previously agreed to do something like that, had already decided which underserved community to demolish, and was planning to vote on the bonds. 

And then came a hurricane that ravaged the city and the surrounding area. It also damaged the current home of the rays. Which meant that there would have to be repairs made to it in the short term, to be paid for by someone (probably the city), IN ADDITION to paying for the new one. 

The city commissioners took theirs stances on the topic… and wouldn't you know there was an election recently, and two of the commissioners were ousted and replaced with people who think stadium spending is a generally bad idea. And in light of the storm damage, and how peoples lives have been affected, definitely think it is a bad look and worse use of money. 

So there was a commission meeting and on the agenda was stadium funding.  The city councils action were … well, amusing. 

First, they voted  4-3 to approve spending $23 million toward repair of the Tropicana Field roof

Then, they voted 5-2 to put off selling $450 million in bonds for a new stadium and surrounding infrastructure. 

And that's when the owner of the Rays decided to get indignant. He needs that stadium! And if they're not going to vote on it, then he'll move the team. 

A team executive said "our agreement effectively died.  I don't believe we can make the economics around this arrangement work any more."

And that caused the council to vote again, this time 7-0 to undo the vote to spend on fixing the roof, basically giving the ownership the middle finger. 

It's a small (and possibly pyrrhic) victory. 

But it's nice to see a billionaire get a little comeuppance. 

“Anti-Woke” is just drivel

You hear the term "Anti-Woke" bandied around frequently. It's the counter to being in any way fair minded, or inclusive. 

And yet, no one can define "woke."  It's an ideal as much as anything. I don't like it. That's woke!

Anyway, the Washington professional football team had been called "Redskins" since their inception.  

Over the last 30 or so years, that name (and others like it) started to come under some scrutiny for being derogatory toward Native Americans.

And then a few years ago, they elected to change the name to "Football Team" (such an awesome generic name!) and later to "Commanders."

But of course some saw the decision as woke. Because they gave in and changed the name! The horror! 

The team was sold and the new owner was asked if he'd bring the old name back. "Unlikely" was his answer. 

And then this year, as our political landscape heated up, it became a thing again (I would assume mostly because the team is located close to DC, so it gets noticed). "They need to change the name back!"

One senator made the circuit, talking about how he had been in discussions with the owner and the tribes and he believes they can work it out and undo this wokedness!

And that is a sound bite. But does it have any merit?

I would argue, No. it does not. 

Because, it's actually about money. 

What gets lost is that before the name change, a federal judge ruled that the use of the word, and the Native American head used on the helmets were not protected under copyright, because the word was pejorative and the image was actually owned by the tribe. 

So in effect, all of the teams logos and merchandise were in the public domain and anyone could produce and sell it. Cutting off a huge revenue source for the team and the league. 

It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about how woke it might be to lose the name. What matters is the ability to make money on selling merchandise. 

No billionaire owner is going to let just anyone profit on the team name and imagery. That just wouldn't be right. 

It's all about the dolla dolla bills y'all.  

That’s amazing

I mean, you still have to have the grades and get accepted (no small feat!) but it's an intelligent way to combat what appears to be a downturn in education that is happening. 

“We are living a lie”

So says astronaut Ronald Garan. 

From within the ISS he reached an epiphany:

"From space, it becomes painfully clear how our human-made systems treat Earth's vital systems as mere subsidiaries of the global economy," 

In short, we can be better to our planet and do things to help the earth more, rather than always trying to extract its resources.

As I've heard it stated colloquially "there is no planet B"

The real question, though: Is anyone listening?

https://dailygalaxy.com/2024/11/astronauts-lightbulb-moment-in-space-reveals-humanitys-biggest-lie/