Over the last month, I’ve been regularly traveling between my home and my parents’ home—a distance of only four miles—because of some health issues my dad has been experiencing. I won’t be too specific about the town they live in, but it’s very small and close to Minneapolis. Many high net-worth individuals live in this town. It’s not unusual for homes to sell for seven or eight million. Some homes go for upwards of $20 million.
I bring this up because for a month straight, as I’ve made my drive to my parents’, I’ve noticed a series of SUVs idling outside of one of these newly constructed lakeside mansions. No matter what time of day I’m there or what day of the week—early morning on a Tuesday, midday on a Saturday, dinnertime on a Wednesday, or even midnight any day of the week—an SUV is parked outside of this house, with a burly-looking guy in the driver’s seat. Usually looking at his phone.
I even took a quick video of the car (this was done safely and hands-free, thanks to suction cups and some jerry-rigging1). And although it’s annoyingly unremarkable given the amount of Benny Hill-style effort that went into obtaining it, it’s illustrative of what I see every time I drive down this street. Note: the lovely home seen in the video is not the home in question (the SUV is usually parked a little down the street).
Over time I realized that there were actually two burly guys—one with a beard (he’s in the white SUV) and one without (black SUV). They appear to work in twelve-hour shifts. The car is on the entire time—it’s winter here, so it’s easy to see the exhaust.
Again—no matter when I’ve gone to my parents’ over the last month, one of these guys has been sitting outside this mansion. Finding this curious, I tapped my vast network of sources and spies to get the details. My mom got back to me in hours.
As I expected, the SUV guys are hired security. What I didn’t expect was that the person who hired them is a health insurance executive, who apparently lives in the house. It’s 24/7 security. My mom heard from her source that the guy and his family are “super liberal.” Based on other information she received, I believe I know who the individual is.
I include the text conversation between my mom and me below (scrubbing out sensitive or private information).
Admittedly, I was being glib, of course, and a bit of a brat to boot. I have no idea if security is “totally unnecessary” in this case. There may very well be a specific and credible threat against this guy that makes him nervous, especially if he lives with a family. Maybe this is why he hired 24/7 security (though a guy sitting in a car playing Candy Crush outside a lakeside house that’s a good 400 feet from the street doesn’t scream “eminent threat” to me).
It’s also possible that this individual’s family is, in fact, more progressive than one would expect from the family of a health insurance CEO.
But I remember that intelligence assessments leaked in December indicated little to no threat of violence against health insurance executives, and that “left-wing” people unhappy with the health insurance industry, in particular, are committed to expressing that discontent “via peaceful protest.”
And while I think it’s highly unlikely someone is going to seek this guy out (his company is a rather obscure one in the scheme of things) in a sleepy town full of antique stores and one very overpriced coffee shop, it’s certainly not impossible. Obviously, I’m not an intelligence analyst.
I do think it’s worth noting, however, that the alleged shooter of Brian Thompson would have had an infinitely easier time if he’d targeted Thompson in Minnesota, where Thompson lived in a Twin Cities suburb. Without security.
Instead, this shooter chose a very public setting, in a busy, heavily populated city, on a street lined with exactly these kinds of idling SUVs, an hour before an investor meeting. Symbolism was more important to this shooter than the taking of Thompson’s life, which I think can be seen in the choice of setting, the words on the bullet casing, and the backpack full of Monopoly money.
That all being said, we should get used to seeing CEOs flanked by security when out in public or ensconced in their luxury bunkers. There is genuine fear among the billionaire ranks right now—the inauguration of Donald Trump was not moved indoors because of seasonal winter weather. It was moved indoors because the broligarchy is scared.
They know they’re hated2.
But what fascinates me is their inability to grasp that despite their own best efforts—by manipulating Twitter and Facebook algorithms, by pushing conspiracy theories, by riling people up with lies about stolen elections—the appetite for political violence in this country is almost non-existent. This is one reason why Mangione’s alleged actions reverberated the way they did.
In fact, the only sliver of the population that has shown any appetite at all for political violence is the one made up of the very people Elon Musk tried to incite. There’s a reason why the two shooters who tried to assassinate Donald Trump identified as Trump supporters.
The fear is part of the Mangione Effect. And I don’t mind that they feel a little fear. (Or a lot—in September, the New York Times reported on Elon Musk’s mini-Secret Service.)
These people are largely are immune from fear due to privilege and unimaginable wealth, and they lack both the compassion and the imagination to understand that many of us do live with fear. Including the fear of bankruptcy due to denial claims or the fear of a loved one dying because our health insurer won’t cover a vital treatment. We live in fear of another school shooting. Of climate change wreaking havoc on our communities. Of our immigrant neighbors being rounded up by ICE.
These are not fears that CEOs have. Because they don’t experience these fears, they consider them non-existent. And because they consider them non-existent, they have an exceedingly difficult time understanding them, when asked to do so. Which is why I’m okay with a little fear injected into the ruling class.
Even if the burly guys in the SUV idling outside a lakeside home located in an antiquer’s Mecca aren’t really necessary, it’s kind of good to see them there.
Etymology nerd moment: I’d normally “jury-rigged” here, as that’s my preferred term of the three Merriam-Webster says are acceptable, but given the context, I thought that might be a bit much.
Eagle-eyed readers will notice that I removed a couple sentences where I mention Elon Musk’s appearances with his toddler the day after the December 4th shooting, referencing his “never-before-seen toddler son.” A friend of the Substack corrected me on this point. Musk has actually been seen in public with this little guy a lot, particularly in 2023 when he and Grimes were locked in an ugly and very public custody battle. So the “human shield” accusations, while something I have no doubt Must would utilize, and which were made possible by Musk’s horrible instincts regarding optics, can’t be made with any sort of seriousness at this point.
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