Goings on in the New Gilded Age
By 
Good times abound. But I have to say, I appreciate it when revolutionaries get jobs reporting on the life of the rich, radicalizing us all toward revolution.
Expensive yachts that double as floating art galleries can lead to unexpected and costly mishaps.
Priceless paintings and sculptures kept on the vessels face damage not only from storms and storing conditions, but also from random threats including breakfast cereal splashed by the owner’s kids and the yacht’s crew popping champagne on board.
Two British art historians set out to help superboat owners preserve paintings hanging on their yachts, the Observer newspaper said Sunday.
Art historian and conservationist Pandora Mather-Rees runs courses in practical care of fine arts on a superyacht — at a cost of as much as 300 euros a day. Mather-Rees started giving lessons for crews after a billionaire sought her help in restoring a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting ruined first by his children throwing cornflakes and then by the crew wiping them off carelessly, according to the Observer. Her course teaches the crew to understand the value of objects on board and how to seek specialist help in case of emergency.
I knew I should have purchased that guillotine that went on the market a few years ago.
Meanwhile, will ridiculous tech bros be able to have their toys when one dies?
73 meters in length and with a wingspan of 117 meters, Stratolaunch Systems’ rocket-carrying aircraft Roc is — by some measures at least — the largest airplane ever built.
That didn’t happen by accident. Roc was purpose-built to do just one thing: carry rockets to an altitude of 35,000 feet, where Earth’s atmosphere is thin and rockets fly fast, then release those rockets to blast their way into orbit. Stratolaunch hoped to use Roc to lower the cost of spaceflight.
Billionaire Paul Allen, a cofounder of Microsoft along with Bill Gates, financed Roc’s construction. Scaled Composites, now a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC), built it…and it’s starting to look as if Northrop Grumman’s rockets are the only rockets Roc will ever carry.
Clearly, rich dudes launching rockets into space is a much better use of their money than a high level of taxation so that we can all have health care, child care, and a decent wage.
Conservatives are responding well to the reasonable criticism of their wealth.
Fox, apoplectic over its own polling showing wide public support for @AOC and @ewarren's wealth tax proposals, literally blames the fact that schools teach kids to be fair:
"The idea of fairness has been promoted in our schools for a long time." pic.twitter.com/GowAZWYWpZ
— Steve Morris (@stevemorris__) February 5, 2019
Well, say this about the New Gilded Age–there’s no reason to bother with the quiet parts any more. And at least these people have a good candidate for president.
Howard Schultz: "We shouldn't get to a place where there are people yelling from the rafters that because you have been successful, you are a bad person and we're going to be punitive to you. That's, to me, the antithesis of the spirit of the country." pic.twitter.com/d0qSO7T6Ec
— The Hill (@thehill) February 3, 2019
Schultz’s candidacy is so profoundly awful that it should inoculate us from this kind of centrist rich guy bullshit for awhile. He literally has no platform other than protecting his own wealth from Democrats. But he’s rich, so he must be smart!