Swimming with sharks June 1, 2013
To be fair, when she walked into our office in autumn of
2011, she didn’t carry in with her any evil seeds of corruption that did not
already exist.
This includes political and sexual corruption, a kind of power
trip that went back to the original owner whose exploits were notorious in the
housing developments he controlled.
He and his upper staff often intimidated pretty but poor
women in their care, insinuating that if they did not cooperate, management
would put them out.
Our owner back then apparently had regular subjects with whom
he regularly visited, this despite the fact that he had a romantic relationship
with his officer manager, one of the two people who later purchased the
business from him and became our bosses.
That boss back then used our editorial power to influence
elections and to intimidate political people who did not go along with his
agenda.
This became most evident when the tough, old-school mayor of
Hometown worked against our boss when our boss began to find excuses to evict
poor people (evict being too strong, he and his hired thugs made it uncomfortable
for the poor) so that housing could be converted to luxury properties.
Our boss sided with the county executive, a local
congressman (not the target of RR) and other power brokers to back another
candidate.
A short time later, our boss, the county executive, but not
the congressman, were caught up in a federal sting. Actually, the county
executive arranged for our boss to give him a bribe which was recorded by federal
authorities.
Fortunately, that boss had already sold the business to the
new bosses and so we escaped unscathed.
Our woman boss never ceased loving our former boss, although
he seemed to have no use for her later.
Her male partner, the man who keeps checking my computer for
messages, apparently picked up on some of the old habits, having sexual liaisons
with a number of female employees, often – apparently – bribing them with
promises of a raise or promotion.
In this light, her (my poet friend) might well be portrayed
a victim, despite her claims to trickle up.
Both bosses continued to support the political agenda of the
former boss and slanted our coverage to benefit the mayor of their choice, a
man who represented long time Hometown residents against the upsurge of yuppies
slowly taking over the town.
Ironically, we backed an old guard candidate against Z – a reformer
representing the yuppies, and actually managed to beat Z, only to have another
federal sting arrest him for corruption days after he was sworn in as mayor,
forcing a special election, Z eventually won/
When she became mayor and began to root out old timers from her
administration, even going to far as to arrange for the dissolution of runoff
elections – part of a long-term plan that seems to be geared for the election
later this year.
If Z goes head-to-head again R, she could lose. But if
another candidate should jump into the race that looks very much old school,
the vote would get split on Z’s behalf.
While the power of our office has been diminished, it still
plays a big part in the election, and this sudden defection of two former
employees to the R camp raises some questions. To begin with, there seems to be
a move by R camp to continue favorable coverage for his ticket. Having two
former employees, one of whom is closely (maybe romantically) involved with D –
the current writer for Hometown, seems too similar to what RR and our poet
friend tried to do last summer, making me wonder if maybe the two attempts are
connected – many of the same people are involved in both.
My paranoia makes me wonder if maybe RR along with these
others intentionally planted her in our office in the first place, a kind long-term
mole who they could count on to do their bidding.
Or, more likely, she got the job and then later offered her
services to them – but in exchange for what?
Even likelier, she may simply have been in the right place
at the right time and once driven out of our office by the Small Man became
another political tool for them to use, counting on her to be able to influence
D’s coverage first in the town she works in, and now in the upcoming Hometown
election.
It is difficult to know if she recruited A, or A already had
political ties to R from when she worked the Hometown beat.
Ultimately, there is big money at stake, development the old
guard wants but the reformers do not.
I suspect our old boss and R, along with other old guard
power brokers will stop at nothing to get what they want.
How much of a role my poet friend and her ally A will play
in this is hard to say. But as savvy as my poetry friend is, she is still a guppie
in a tank full of sharks, but perhaps believes if she can deliver for these
sharks, she might win status as a shark as well.
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