The America's Cup is killing us!

First Larry Ellison and his rich cronies try to perpetrate [1] an audacious real estate scam on San Francisco, after pitting us against other cities to host his America's Cup race. Even though we were able to scale back that swindle [2], they still evicted Teatro ZinZanni from Pier 27 so they could profit from overpriced waterfront concerts [3] at the spot they supposedly need for their boat race -- lying [4], cheating [5] and corrupting the system [6] along the way.

Then we learned that Ellison, the world's fifth richest man, and the other 1-percenters on the America's Cup Organizing Committee, may stick San Francisco taxpayers with a $20 million bill [7] for their race because they're all too greedy and selfish to honor their private fundraising commitment – which they could cover by simply writing checks for amounts they would barely notice [8], and which they'd probably find a way to write off of their taxes anyway.

And now, on top of all those outrageous indignities … they're killing people!

Well, maybe Ellison and his crew aren't actually committing murder. But during last weekend's venerable Escape from Alcatraz triathlon – which was moved up from the warm-ish summer months to the frigid winter because the yachts are apparently unable to share the bay for a few hours one morning – one man died of a heart attack and 150 participants had to be rescued [9] (three times the normal number) because the water was so dangerously cold [10].

Just one more example of how overentitled rich people, with the active complicity of the Mayor's Office, are having their way with San Francisco, heedless of the consequences.