Meaningful Pursuits: Jerry Moyes and Gary Rollins

Zero Sum Empire

This week’s News segment begins with hedge fund billionaire Lee Cooperman crying on TV and (what else?) Michael Bloomberg announcing he’ll run for president. Jerry Moyes: 7/10 on the David Koch Asset Liquidation Index Chad introduces us to Jerry Moyes, the retired founder of Swift Transportation. Moyes owned the possibly-fictional NHL hockey team the Arizona Coyotes before he ran it into bankruptcy. He owns the biggest boat on Lake Powell, which he named The Big Dog. He gives tons of money to Trump. He’s been involved in a number of shady financial dealings to serve his own greed. All basic billionaire shit. The main part of the Moyes segment involves the labor history of the trucking industry in the US. It’s a sad story, and you can probably guess how it goes. Gary Rollins: 7/10 Joe talks about Gary Rollins, CEO of Rollins, Inc., which owns Orkin Pest Control. The Rollins family has some drama. The kind of drama where you hire private investigators to steal your grandchildren’s medical records. Kids suing parents. Parents suing grandparents. Ratmen suing Ratbabies. This story is nuts. Orkin also regularly cheats people, poisons people, and sometimes cheats the people it poisons. Joe offers us some thoughts on insects (and our relations to them. Innenwelt and Umwelt. Lee Cooperman crying: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/07/24/lee-cooperman-parting-advice-luxury-you-cannot-afford-is-arrogance.html Lee Cooperman crying again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEte-K-H8NY&feature=emb_title Steve Viscelli’s sociology of trucking: https://penntoday.upenn.edu/research/penn-sociologist-deconstructs-america-s-trucking-industry Hubba Hubba: A Tribute to Jerry Moyes: https://youtu.be/exZCgJzcrfg The Big Dog: https://youtu.be/GuKbzj_hfaA Michael H. Belzer’s Sweatshops on Wheels https://global.oup.com/academic/product/sweatshops-on-wheels-9780195128864?cc=us&lang=en& Jakob von Uexkull’s tick essay: http://www.codebiology.org/pdf/von%20Uexk%C3%83%C2%BCll%20J%20(1934)%20A%20stroll%20through%20the%20worlds%20of%20animals%20and%20men.pdf Baltimore Sun story on the Rollins family fued: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-2000-05-28-0005270151-story.html Forbes story on the fued: https://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/09/29/inside-the-3-billion-feud-tearing-georgias-rollins-family-apart/#1efc7a7e5cec