On the occasion of Elon Musk launching a car into space for $90 million, Kate Aronoff makes "The Case for Nationalizing Elon Musk." Long story short: the "free" market, the one that wants you to believe that it alone comes up with all the good ideas, is in fact heavily dependent on public investment and research, both directly and indirectly, and thus the people have a stake in these "free" market outcomes (let alone their profits!). Besides, it really doesn't matter if Elon Musk does a lot of good works now -- if he gets too big, he will become corrupt.
Morgan Stanley analysis expect that only 13% of the corporate tax cuts will actually "trickle down" to employees, be that in the form of bonuses, increased wages, or better benefits. One dollar out of every eight ain't much, but Republicans keep selling it as a great deal for workers, and when closer to four out of eight dollars go to executives and shareholders, then it ain't such a great deal for workers.
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt says he's been making a lot of first class flights at taxpayer expense because of the "very toxic environment politically" apparently resulting in occasional confrontations when he flies coach. All together now: waaaaaaaah! If I saw Mr. Pruitt on my plane, I'd just shake my head at him, but like the obnoxious right-winger who calls everyone he disagrees with a Communist and then castigates people for ending friendships over political differences, Mr. Pruitt acts like he doesn't deserve any of the anger directed at him.
Jonathan Chait at New York magazine describes how Republicans are planning to evade responsibility for the economic mess they're causing: by blaming the President. Of course Donald Trump is the only kind of Republican who could possibly have been elected President in 2016, just as George W. Bush was the only kind of Republican who could possibly have been elected in 2000: both ran as a "new" kind of Republican, but both of course revealed themselves to be completely predictable mainstream Republicans, even if Mr. Bush was more able to act like a civilized human being. Cutting taxes on the rich and jacking up deficits out of fear of spending cuts is, of course, a feature of Republican orthodoxy, not a bug.
Finally, as I'm sure you know, at least one member of the Trump Administration is a wife-beater, but Mr. Trump took to Twitter to whine about "due process" for such folks. Dig Ms. Sanders trying to convince us that Mr. Trump wants due process for everyone, as if that's some great gift to us. And as if it's true! When police shoot a black man dead with no charges and no trial, Mr. Trump doesn't give one rat's hind quarter about "due process" -- instead, he tries to bully you into agreeing with him. Sad!
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