Next on Netflix…
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I’ve noted this before, but it bears revisiting now because Timothy Mellon — Andrew’s grandson — has just donated $50 million to a super PAC supporting Trump, according to new federal filings. It’s among the largest single disclosed contributions — ever.
Timothy Mellon is the first donor to give $100 million in disclosed federal contributions in this year’s election. He was already the single largest contributor to super PACs supporting both Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Mellon previously gave $25 million to both).
Andrew Mellon, Timothy’s grandfather, is the major source of this money. As secretary of the Treasury, Andrew cut the estate tax by half, arguing that “the social necessity for breaking up large fortunes in this country does not exist.” He also whittled down the top income tax rate from 73 percent to 25 percent and eliminated the gift tax.
These changes enabled Andrew to shift much of his personal fortune — estimated to be $600 million in 1932 (about $9 billion today) — tax-free to his heirs, including Timothy.
Forbes estimates the Mellon family is now worth $14.1 billion.
Like his grandfather (and like Donald Trump), Timothy Mellon rages only against handouts to people who were born without silver spoons. In his self-published 2015 autobiography, Timothy argued that expanded social programs have only made Black people “even more belligerent.” He wrote:
“For delivering their votes in the Federal Elections, they are awarded with yet more and more freebies: food stamps, cell phones, WIC payments, Obamacare, and on, and on, and on. The largess is funded by the hardworking folks, fewer and fewer in number, who are too honest or too proud to allow themselves to sink into this morass.”
The $100 million Timothy has shelled out to Trump and RFK Junior comes courtesy of a tax system pioneered by his grandfather that allows the perpetuation of dynastic wealth and the maintenance of its political power.
The Mellon money trail exemplifies the perils of dynastic wealth — and why we need a wealth tax in America. Alternatively, the capital gains tax must be applied to the appreciated value of assets held during someone’s life, before they die and hand them off to their heirs at current market values.
When he was a Virginia legislator, Thomas Jefferson sought legal ways to prevent the perpetuation of great fortunes, fearing that the rise of an American “aristocracy of wealth,” would cause more “harm and danger, than benefit, to society.”
The wealth and power extending from Andrew Mellon to his grandson Timothy proves Jefferson right.
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Of which he includes himself, no doubt, with the money that he inherited with his own two hands.
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Everyone has plans until they get punched in the face.
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I’m looking forward to retiring to a little helium farm and getting free radiation therapy?
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If you put the farm in the dark side of the moon, then there’s no radiation, right?
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Well, to be fair, a pressure vessel made out of carbon fibre works a lot better if the pressure is on the inside.
Me, I think HM Government should stop faffing around and give that Quatermass chappie the funding he needs for his Moon project.
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Plus only 1 atmo of pressure, but how well does it handle repeated lunar day/night temperature cycles and harsh sunlight?
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The moon is a harsh mistress, dude
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Just build a shell of regolith Legos around it.
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You’d have to bury it under a thick layer of Lunar regolith anyway, @Shuck 's objections notwithstanding.
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Their submarine couldn’t survive the depths of the Atlantic but perhaps it will fare better in the Sea of Tranquility.
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It’s hard to have an implosion failure when there’s a vacuum outside, so there’s that.
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At least the moon is close — people don’t understand how fucking far away Mars is 
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“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.”
—Douglas Adams
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… and the moon is just right there
We literally couldn’t ask for a planet to play with that was any closer 
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George Clooney has such a large voice because he’s a billionaire. He’s one of the large donors people talk about.
Also- choosing the New York Times to air your views (and them choosing you) - was a bit on the nose.
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