Large Adult Sons Incorporated: The Bass Brothers and the McNair Family

Zero Sum Empire

Zero Sum Empire's hosts have had a busy year that included two new babies and entirely relearning our day jobs because of the pandemic, and that's made us a little slow putting episodes out. Sorry everybody! Thank you for sticking around. We are mentally, physically, and emotionally recommitting to our once-per-month release schedule. This week in the news we mostly discuss the Amazon unionization drive in Bessemer, AL. We also talk about a rash of billionaires dying in helicopter crashes. If you're a billionaire, your chances of dying in a helicopter crash are around 1/500. Billionaire #1: The Bass Brothers, 6/10 on the David Koch Memorial Asset Liquidation Index All of the billionaires in today's episode happen to be Texans. Lots of big, beefy boys in the bunch. The Bass brothers inherited their fortune from their uncle Sid Richardson, one of the big mid-20th century Texas oilmen. We spend most of our time talking about Richardson and his partner Clint Murchison. Although most people have probably never heard of these guys, they had every president from FDR to Nixon doing personal favors for them. They were two of the five richest people in the US for a time. They funded LBJ's political career and had bunga bunga parties with J. Edgar Hoover and Joseph McCarthy. Also, they made their fortunes by running criminal enterprises that used political influence to avoid having to obey laws. Billionaire #2: Janice McNair (and son), 7/10 on the DKMALI Janice McNair owns the Houston Texans NFL team. She also has a large adult son, Cal, who has been compared to Billy Madison. For some reason, he runs the team. He also hired an evangelical life coach named Jack Easterby as Executive Vice President of Football Operations. Easterby is a wild character who seems to have fallen fully formed from Danny McBride's brain. Janice and Cal McNair are trying to "be better" after husband/dad Bob McNair got in trouble for making racist comments. Links: Bass Bros: https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/jan/05/cover-oil-politics-la-jolla/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Rich https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1995/06/24/the-bass-dispute-at-yale/03c68321-5857-4fdf-a4f5-223973a645fb/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2161030/Hyatt-Bass-adds-security-Manhattan-home-mother-Anne-held-hostage-Connecticut.html McNairs: https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/12/10/ex-chaplain-jack-easterby-houston-texans-chaos-after-power-struggle-daily-cover https://www.si.com/nfl/2018/04/05/texans-bob-mcnair-inmates-comment