From the right: Biden’s War on Musk
President Biden “is employing agencies of the federal government to harass and punish Elon Musk . . . because the mercurial entrepreneur has the temerity to criticize Biden and champion free speech,” argues Liz Peek at The Hill, with “investigations being conducted by the Department of Justice, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
And “the government has just announced that Starlink, Musk’s satellite internet provider, is ineligible for $885 million in subsidies designated to help expand rural broadband coverage,” weirdly claiming doubts about whether Starlink can provide the service, when it does the same all over the planet.
Campus watch: Claudine Gay Victim Speaks
Harvard has backed President Claudine Gay despite “her disastrous congressional testimony” and “allegations of plagiarism,” fumes Carol Swain at The Wall Street Journal.
As one of the victims, “Gay’s damage to me is aggravated” because she dealt with “the area where my research is considered seminal.” When scholars aren’t “adequately cited,” they suffer because “stature is determined by how often” one’s research is referenced. Besides, Gay “wouldn’t normally have earned tenure in the Ivy League,” since her material lacked originality.
“In a world where the privilege of diversity is king,” she parlayed “mediocre research into tenure and administrative advancement at what was once considered a world-class university.” This harms academia overall and “demeans Americans, of all races, who had to work for everything they earned.”
Eye on NY: ‘Tenure’ for All Public Workers?
“Governor Hochul will soon sign or veto a bill designed to gut the ability of . . . local officials to discipline public employees,” reports the Empire Center’s Ken Girardin.
It would extend to other workers “the state’s notorious teacher-tenure rules that make it difficult bordering on impossible to fire a tenured teacher.” Axing a teacher is so “arduous” that Babylon school district officials paid a special-ed teacher accused of sexual misconduct “$141,000 through the next full school year for what Newsday called ‘home assignment.’ ”
“If Hochul signs the bill, the effects on public services will be severe — and in some cases, tragic.” And when asked why they didn’t act to prevent that tragedy, officials will offer the same bad answer: “Tenure.”
Libertarian: Ohtani Signs as a Tax Dodger
Baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani “will collect $2 million in each of the next 10 years” from the LA Dodgers, notes Reason’s Eric Boehm, with the other $68 million of Ohtani’s yearly salary being “deferred for a decade.”
“The Dodgers will owe it to him in annual installments starting in 2034.” Why? “California has the country’s highest state income tax rates,” so “Ohtani could save as much as $98 million” if “he relocates out of California by 2034.”
And the Dodgers might also reduce their own tax burden” by dodging the “MLB’s so-called ‘luxury tax’ ” that limits “how much money richer clubs spend on players.” Proving “teams will find new ways to sign expensive ballplayers,” and “wealthy people will find ways to avoid earning money in California.”
Conservative: Indictments = Gift to Trump
“Trump’s national lead” in GOP polls “appears to have been turbocharged by the indictments” against him, explains the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. Without them, “there is no telling where the GOP race would be today.” Back on March 27, he led Ron DeSantis “by 15 points, 44% to 29%”
Then came Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s indictment — and within weeks, “Trump’s lead over DeSantis had more than doubled.” As four more indictments followed, “Trump’s poll standing rose, from 44 points in late March to 54 points in late April to 58 points in September to 63 points today” — “an enormous backfire” for those “who thought indicting Trump would bring him down.”
Now some think “convicting Trump, at least once, will bring him down. Maybe they’re right. But maybe they’re not.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
This story originally appeared on NYPost
