You’d never get a toadying Arkansas elected official to admit he’s been had by a corporate welfare supplicant, but take a look at this account of how Cooper Tire shook down three states, including Arkansas, for $66 million in state and worker gifts to keep three tire plants open. The suggestion is that it knew all along which plant it was going to close, but used the situation to extort money out of roundheel states, helped along by skulduggery in Mississippi. Believable.

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