Why should we care about this self-aggrandizing druggie, this nouvelle PT Barnum? Our official President-elect, #TheRealDonaldTrump, is merely a gelatinous, orange-stained, bloviating bigot of a glove puppet. It’s Musk’s fingers in the glove. (Lesser billionaires have also inserted their sticky fingers — I’ll name them in future columns.)
“Fascist”? Isn’t that harsh, Mr. Palast? I don’t throw around epithets like “fascist” easily. But Elon Musk is a textbook Mussolini wannabe. The definition of “fascism” is the lock-up of corporations and government implemented by autocratic power and sold to the public with howling tribal fearmongering.
Did Trump steal 2024?
Many of you have asked me if Trump’s victory could be accounted for by vote suppression trickery. It’s a real possibility. We are still trying to pry the voting data out of the hands of MAGA-supporting election officials. So, be patient. To maintain the integrity of our work, as an investigative reporter, I don’t report until I’ve investigated. In the meantime, stream my film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen.
Let’s begin with Trump’s appointing Elon as co-potentate of the Department of Government Efficiency, the cutely named DOGE. Please note: there is no such Department. Cabinet departments are headed by Secretaries who must be confirmed by elected United States Senators. That’s in the Constitution. We used to call it “democracy.” But now, we have something better: Elon-ocracy. I’d note that “Secretary” Musk says DOGE will target, flail and fire “unelected” civil servants — with no one asking, “And who elected YOU, Mr.Musk?”— reminding us that America’s unelected billionaires have no sense of shame, hypocrisy nor irony.
DOGE-meister Musk will personally pocket gazillions from his announced chainsaw massacre of government regulations. This is not a “conflict of interest” — because Elon doesn’t know the difference between the public interest and his own. DOGE’s motto will be, presumably, Je suis l’État (which means…well, look it up).
Musk’s racially poisonous tribalism is bred in the bone. As the New Yorker disclosed, the grandfather Elon lionizes was an infamous supporter of apartheid and a notorious Jew-hater who wrote, “The facts of history show that the White man has always developed the country he inhabits to the benefit of all concerned,” — views Musk platformed and, in the case of anti-Semitic bilge, lauded on his X.com. After one Neo-Nazi posted that Jews deserved no sympathy because they invited “hordes of minorities” to their countries — a view known among white supremacists as The Great Replacement Theory, Musk wrote, “You have said the absolute truth.”
Heil, Elon!
How can we forget Elon at the southern border in Texas, with his cowboy hat on backwards, calling for the mass deportation of “illegal”immigrants – despite the fact that, as the Washington Post revealed, the South Africa-born Musk is himself an “illegal” immigrant. But, hey, Musk wasn’t complaining about white immigrants. (See above re. hypocrisy, shamelessness and irony.)
To correct the record: It wasn’t Musk’s hat that was on backwards; it was his head.
THE ULTIMATE WELFARE QUEEN
Trump has given Musk’s DOGE a license to kill government, aiming particularly at our nation’s welfare safety net. That’s pretty rich from America’s Number One welfare queen. Welfare Queen Musk? Let me count the ways:
First, it’s by government edict that General Motors and other automakers have paid Tesla a whopping $11 billion for “emissions credits.” According to CNN, 100% of Tesla’s profits up to 2021 were from these regulator-mandated payments.
While scarfing up billions in payments for his “emissions-free” cars, in reality, his Teslas simply move filth from the tailpipe to the electric power plant smokestack. Sixty percent of America’s electricity is produced by fossil fuels. Therefore, by definition, Teslas are 60% fossil-fueled. In states like Wyoming, where 100% of electricity is produced from coal, Teslas are, effectively, autos running on coal. Emissions free? My ass.
No question that, on net, electric-motor cars will reduce pollution in our cities. But let’s not forget that Teslas are made in assembly plants, not in Green Heaven.
In Texas, where Musk moved his headquarters to flee California’s safety and pollution regulations, a Wall Street Journal investigation discovered that Tesla’s Austin plant has been secretly dumping poisons into the Colorado River, the city’s water supply. Skol!
Welfare is Musk’s middle name. Tesla sold just 2,000 cars in its entire history until, in 2010, the federal government lent Musk nearly half a billion dollars ($465 million) to build his Fremont assembly plant. According to SubsidyTracker.com, Tesla has also pocketed $2,496,769,455 in state and local subsidies.
Plus, have we mentioned the $7,500 federal tax credits subsiding Tesla to the tune of $3.2 billion so far — with $4,700 more per car that for years was tossed in by the California taxpayers he despises. (See above re. hypocrisy, shamelessness, irony.)
Fourth, fifth, sixth and so on: Without government welfare, Tesla, by Musk’s admission, would have gone bankrupt in 2019. And, may I note, that his SpaceX rocket wouldn’t have gotten off the launchpad without $20 billion in federal contracts.
And then there’s the Welfare Champ Division of Tesla known as “Solar City” which sucked up — ready for this? — $958 million in subsidies from the State of New York for its Buffalo plant which produces rooftop solar panels and charging stations for EVs (electric vehicles). Tesla is expected to pull in $6 billion to $12 billion a year from these charging stations subsidized by $7 billion from Pres. Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. (See above: hypocrisy & etc.)
And remember that Tesla’s Solar City operation wouldn’t be worth a can of spam if not for the massive government payouts and tax breaks for solar panels. Throw in cheap power deals and credits from electric companies for home charging imposed on utility ratepayers by government regulators. Call it the Green New Dole.
There are damn good reasons for taxpayers to subsidize going green, and for regulators to order GM to pay for Musk’s boy toys. But in the end, Musk’s genius is not in his ability to design a better product but his entrepreneurial skill in getting his snout into the public trough.
HOW TO PUT MUSK OUT OF BUSINESS: END TARIFF TERRORISM
How would you like to own a new Tesla Model 3 that can go 353 miles on a charge, jump from a standstill to 62mph in 3.8 seconds — and costs less than $25,000?
Sure, you’d buy. But you can’t. Because Tesla doesn’t make one. But Chinese manufacturer BYD does.
How do you get one?
You can’t.
Because the US imposes a 100% tariff on all Chinese EVs.
Willing to give up some range and size? You can get a BYD Seagull EV for $10,000 — just $2,500 after the $7,500 federal EV rebate.
Let me repeat that: without government-imposed tariffs and restrictions, you could buy a 100% electric compact for $2,500. (Note: It’s estimated that transport and changes to meet US safety rules would add $2,000 — offset in many states by tax rebates and utility subsidies.)
Think about it. Imagine if Americans could buy a new EV compact for the price of a good bicycle or a luxury sedan that beats the Model 3 to death for just $25K. But trade barriers keep America from driving green and cheap. As one auto executive said, Chinese EVs are so good that without trade barriers, “They will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.” The executive? Elon Musk.
Without the tariff barriers and other government restrictions on Chinese EVs, Musk would be living in a cardboard box on Alvarado Street.
The Musk-protecting laws started with Trump who, in his first term, imposed a 25% tariff on all Chinese electric vehicles. As Joe Biden pointed out in his (cringe here) debate with Trump, tariffs are a hidden sales tax. But, then, as Trump triumphantly pointed out, Biden kept the Trump tariffs in place. In fact, Biden quadrupled the EV tax to 100%!
This is far worse than a hidden sales tax. After all, Biden was klonged by voters because of high inflation. Inflation would plummet because automobile costs make up nearly 16% of the Consumer Price Index, the measure of inflation.
If consumers could buy a new EV for $2,500, we would all but wipe combustion engines off America’s roads before the next car commercial.
And the price of gasoline would nosedive because the wheels would fall off demand for oil.
But no one would care anyway because, hey, no one will need gasoline
But we are denied cheap cars because both Trump and Biden played the ethically questionable game of terrorizing union auto workers with the claim that, without tariffs, they’d all lose their jobs.
Yes, I am aware that opening the gates to dirt-cheap Chinese cars would lead to closures of US auto plants. But we keep claiming there’s a climate emergency. Either we have an emergency or we don’t. If this is a real emergency, we should welcome a nation helping us get to “net zero” by Thursday. Then, we should help auto workers as FDR did in the 1930s — create jobs we need at full union wages. (But that’s for yet another column.) Instead, Biden purchased the UAW’s endorsement by making Americans wildly overpay for cars. But, in the end, that didn’t work out too well for Joe nor Kamala. Nearly half of union households voted for Trump.
I must note that, recently, days after BYD announced new price cuts, Trump said he’ll add an additional 20% tariff (to 120%!) on Chinese EVs to make sure you are pushed into buying a Musk-mobile.
Worse, the massive “hidden tax” on automobiles was not enough for Biden. He also imposed a 50% tariff on Chinese solar cells; yet Musk didn’t even send Biden a Thank You note for this billion-dollar give-away to Solar City. Even worse, to make sure you can’t get a low-cost car, Biden blocked the $7,500 credit for EVs powered by Chinese batteries. Still no Thank You note from Musk for protecting his Nevada and Texas battery-making “Gigafactories” with these new tariffs.
Once again, why are we massively taxing, via tariffs, solar panels and batteries in the midst of a climate crisis? I am doing my best not to make an inappropriate joke about cognitive impairment.
Some smarty-pants at BYD realized that the way to get their cheap EVs into the US would be to build a plant in Mexico which could export to the US tariff-free under NAFTA’s new incarnation, the USMCA trade pact. But, with Trump threatening to literally demolish Mexico’s economy with giant across-the-board tariffs, Mexico’s new President got the message and cancelled the new BYD plant. Musk must be grinning: His $130 million contribution to Trump has already paid for itself 40 times over.
WHAT CAN WE DO NOW?
Instead of raiding the White House refrigerator for Thanksgiving leftovers, Biden should immediately eliminate all tariffs on EVs, solar panels and batteries.
Look, I’m not in love with China’s dictatorship. But, after all, until Trump came along, we didn’t have big tariffs on TVs, toys or iPhones made in China. Why impose huge tariff taxes on green technology, the products we most need?
And why not encourage BYD to build another plant in the US? After all, the company is already America’s top maker of electric buses. And I’d note that BYD’s California plant, unlike Musk’s, is fully unionized.
As Musk is a booster of the Neo-Nazi Great Replacement Theory, it’s only justice that Biden adopt my Musk Replacement Theory and wipe the piggy grin off the uber-grifter’s snout.
*
Forensic economist Greg Palast was co-founder of the labor union consulting firm Union Associates of Chicago and former Executive Director of the New York State Legislature’s Commission on Science and Technology.
Sign up for Palast’s commentaries on BlueSky.com
Greg Palast (Rolling Stone, Guardian, BBC) is the author of The New York Times bestsellers, Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits and the book and documentary, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
His latest film is Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen.
Palast is currently working on a new documentary Long Knife, exposing the Koch Brothers' theft of Osage oil, to be released in 2025.
Support The Palast Investigative Fund with a donation and keep our work alive. Become a monthly Contributor.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter
No comments:
Post a Comment