As the case of Brett Favre shows, the wealthy can be just as much welfare queens, as single mothers living in poverty. Their wealth makes it even more reprehensible than people who just want to eat. (ESPN, CBS, NY Times) The penis exposing quarterback got a million dollars to talk, and 5 million dollars in federal money earmarked for the poor of Mississippi, for a volleyball court for his daughter's volleyball team.
Now Elon Musk, the Logan Act violator (Newsweek), now wants Pentagon to pay for his Starlink services. (CNN) What is essentially a PR write off for Musk, who needs PR to float his colossal ego, suddenly he is not into the price tag. I prefer to let the PR of him cutting it off be the result of his behavior, not the USA government to bail him out, I'd prefer feeding poor people if we're going to help anyone at all. America is ambivalent about helping others, but if we're not going to help others, we can really save some money by chopping off corporate welfare. Ukraine doesn't get to infinitely upsell the USA on preserving democracy. This begging from the government is a PR catastrophe from a republican.
Another report came out that a Ukrainian treated Musk poorly and that is why he wants to withdraw his support. His wounded pride led to the withdrawal of his support. Perhaps he orchestrated this to do what he really wanted to do, but I think that posits too much intelligence to his public relations.
We should end all welfare for fossil fuels because it's against our own best interests. Brookings Institute suggests that $500 billion in subsidies isn't in our own best interest. (Brookings)
Boeing, Ford Motor, General Electric, General Motors and JPMorgan Chase get the most money. (Washington Post). Also Dow Chemical, Lockheed Martin, NRG Energy, Sempra Energy, SolarCity and United Technologies.
Meanwhile in other news, as we try to create a drug rather than deal with desire, a weight loss drug might also decrease our craving for alcohol. (Insider) We're cruising past Jimmy Carter's malaise, where America has to look at itself and install some individual discipline, and straight into the future of pharmaceuticals, which are losing big time in the legalization of marijuana. I hope the spectacularly wealthy pharmaceutical companies diversified their portfolios, because marijuana is cutting into their profits, and that train seems to be not so easy to stop.
As America get higher and higher, the eventual crash will not be pretty. I worked in child welfare and the mass use of marijuana to cope with poverty wasn't really accepted, but if we can make money off it, then maybe it will be accepted. Maybe that's the new growth industry everyone should be investing in. Unless you have a moral qualm about the business of intoxicants. If you prefer to invest in law enforcement and prisons, which America is heavily invested in, you're going to be losing out. Biden's pardon of federal marijuana convictions is only about 6K people, because states usually take care of that.
America is going to be the kind of place where people don't move to Florida and Texas, move away to other states. I was never attracted to the hot states anyway, so that's no loss for me, but for many the dream is to retire to Florida. I'm watching my beloved Wisconsin drift further and further right, as anti-democratic cheaters take over the state. It's not hard to twist the welfare queen farmers to their agendas (Dakota Free Press).
Update: musk says he’s going to keep Starlink up in Ukraine. (Source)
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