Yesterday’s New York Times yielded a bumper crop of full-page advocacy ads.
There was this ADL ad on page 11.
And this ad from a boatload of human-rights and faith-based groups on page 17.
But it was this ad on page 21 that went straight to our All Those Dollars and No Sense desk.
The ad was paid for by Brett M. Kingstone, CEO of Orlando-based Max King Realty, LLC, who railed against government-funded “corporate welfare deals” in Jarred Schenke’s Bisnow Atlanta piece last year.
Now he’s all about a full-throated defense of capitalism. And his Times ad struck the headscratching staff as bizarre enough to merit a readable reproduction in full.
Not surprisingly, the reaction in the Twitterverse was equally headscratchy.
Memo to Brett M. Kingstone: Next time, just set your $120,000 on fire.
I reached out to him on LinkedIn. Here’s the exchange. Should we pursue?
Jason Mandell
MONDAY
6:32 PM
Subject: NY Times ad
Hey Brett, saw your ad in the Sunday Times. I’m doing a research project on people who are some combination of batshit crazy and/or evil. Can I interview you?
TODAY
Brett Kingstone sent the following message at 8:19 AM
8:19 AM
Yes any time Jason.
I certainly qualify for crazy but I doubt you will conclude I am evil after speaking with me…
Sent from my iPhone
Brett Kingstone
CEO
Max King Holding Company,LLC
Kingstone Family Holding Company, LLC
Kingstone@maxkingrealty.com
OFFICE: 407-451-1000
I reached out to him on LinkedIn and he graciously wrote aback. Here’s the exchange below. Should we pursue???:
Jason Mandell
MONDAY 6:32 PM
Subject: NY Times ad
Hey Brett, saw your ad in the Sunday Times. I’m doing a research project on people who are some combination of batshit crazy and/or evil. Can I interview you?
TODAY
Brett Kingstone sent the following message at 8:19 AM
8:19 AM
Yes any time Jason.
I certainly qualify for crazy but I doubt you will conclude I am evil after speaking with me…
Sent from my iPhone
Brett Kingstone
CEO
Max King Holding Company,LLC
Kingstone Family Holding Company, LLC
Kingstone@maxkingrealty.com
OFFICE: 407-451-1000
Could be fun, Jason. Whatcha got in mind?
well I suppose we, or more credibly, you, should interview him. It could be enlightening. Email me at jasonlmandell@gmail.com.
Guys, been more than a year. Still waiting for my interview if you are still serious. Perhaps this might illuminate you on what more than half the population is thinking (most are not NY Times readers of course!)
Regardless, my best wishes to you and your families for a very happy and healthy holiday and prosperous New Year!
Brett Kingstone
Max King Holding Company, LLC
aka “Batshit Crazy” to Left Wing Liberals, Quite Sane to Hard Working Conservatives…
Thanks, Mr. Kingstone, and happy holidays to you as well.
To Jason Mandell and the Campaign Outsider Team:
Although we obviously do not agree on politics I do want to thank you for being extremely fair, open and transparent in actually publishing my unedited replies. Perhaps the way to find common ground on these issues is to first treat each other with respect and fairness. My guess is from your last name that in addition to us both being proud American citizens we share a common religious heritage. My family immigrated from Russia and Romania. A place where Jewish villages were burned to the ground in Pogroms. Socialism and Communism were not to kind to people of all faiths. Those who wanted to continue to profess their faiths became “Refuseniks”. I personally travelled to Russia to visit many in the 1980’s and witnessed this for myself. I have travelled often to many of the countries you site provide “socialism” or “socialist programs”. Their health care systems are a disaster and my friends in England and Norway are often traveling out of the country to see specialists due to the year plus waiting lists and inability to see the doctors of their choice.
In order to enforce true socialism you must have a totalitarian state. That means you need to rob people of the opportunity to engage in free enterprise and freedom of speech. Reading George Orwell’s 1984 gives you a clear picture. Perhaps Winston Churchill summed it up the best: “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” There is a reason why millions emigrate from socialist countries to American and very few in the other directions. In order to maintain the US as the “land of opportunity” we must preserve Capitalism and Free Enterprise.
P.S. – Yes, you I may be right that I have “set my $120,000 on fire” but I have donated millions to charity and will continue to do so. Every day I wake up in this free nation I remember the word’s of my immigrant grandfather Max Kingstone who served his country in World War I: “Thank God you live in America”.
Hello again, Mr. Kingstone. Not sure why we’re back on your dance card two and a half years later, but rest assured the hardworking staff at Campaign Outsider strives always to be extremely fair, open and transparent in actually publishing the unedited replies of our splendid readers.