September 23, 2023

"Tuesday, I’ll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create."

 X'd President Biden, quoted in "Biden to join the picket line in UAW strike/His decision to stand alongside the striking workers represents perhaps the most significant display of union solidarity ever by a sitting president" (Politico).

The announcement of his trip was seen as a seismic moment within certain segments of the labor community. “Pretty hard-core,” said one union adviser, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly....

The president’s plans come as some Democrats have begun to question his response to the strike, recognizing that he needs the full backing of union workers in his presidential reelection bid....

The link on "question his response" goes to a Politico article from last Tuesday, "'Trump scooped us': Dems sound alarm on Biden’s handling of the auto worker strike/Donald Trump’s decision to head to Detroit for a speech next week is setting off alarms among some Joe Biden allies." That article says:

Democrats close to the White House said they saw Trump’s trip as a plainly cynical ploy to gain political advantage... But they also worry it is a sign that the ex-president had a more sophisticated campaign than in previous cycles....

A union adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to offer a blunt evaluation, said Trump “is still himself and will say and do crazy shit.” But, the person added, “he actually has people who know what they’re doing. He boxed Biden in. It was kinda genius.”...

There are many unknowns about Trump’s visit to Michigan, including where he will speak and whether he will show up to the picket line as well. But his decision to go in the first place startled some Democrats.

“Trump scooped us. Now if we announce we’re going, it looks like we’re just going because of Trump,” said a national Democratic strategist. “We waited too long. That’s the challenge.”...

So, I guess, the only move — once "boxed in" — was to send Biden himself and to have him join the picket line.

ADDED: Trump has this at Truth:

Crooked Joe Biden had no intention of going to visit the United Autoworkers, until I announced that I would be heading to Michigan to be with them, & help then out. Actually, Crooked Joe sold them down the river with his ridiculous all Electric Car Hoax. This wasn’t Biden’s idea, he can’t put two sentences together. It was the idea of the Radical Left Fascists, Marxists, & Communists who control him and who, in so doing, are DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY! Within 3 years, all of these cars will be made in China. That’s what Sleepy Joe wants, because China pays him and his family a FORTUNE. He is a Manchurian Candidate. If the UAW “leadership” doesn’t ENDORSE me, and if I don’t win the Election, the Autoworkers are “toast,” with our great truckers to follow. Crooked Joe Biden is the most Corrupt and Incompetent President in the history of the USA. If he is able to gather the energy to show up, tell him to go to the Southern Border instead, & to leave the Car Industry alone!

85 comments:

Kai Akker said...

Labor got screwed by the Federal Reserve for over 10 years as all policy was tilted to capital, not labor. Suppressing interest rates to zero also suppressed wage increases to extremely low levels. I believe wages, adjusted for inflation, are at the same level as 1973. I doubt management salaries have been ANYWHERE NEAR as STATIC.

It is clearly Labor's turn again, and will be for some time. But how can the effects not continue the trend of making new cars into ever-more-extreme luxury items? Maybe all the carmakers will go bankrupt in this new cycle.

Breezy said...

Aren’t Biden’s green policies the reason the UAW is so upset? How will Biden be treated there? This seems like a risky move on his part, as well as an obviously defensive one.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

9% of private sector is union. (that is - people who like to have their paychecks reduced for pretend advantages... and a tax on income as a gift to the democrat party - like it or not)


30%+ are public sector union. (that's a number the Authoritarian-D party left want to force and increase)

the Maddow BS-buying public approve of unions (according to polls (so lol) upwards of 60%+.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

The left want to push union membership - not for working class benefit - no no no (Bernie Sanders is a fraud here) - it's another grift scheme to funnel money into democrat and union boss coffers.

rhhardin said...

It's all illegal in the first place. X and Y shouldn't get more rights against Z by joining forces than they had individually. In particular they can't force Z to negotiate with them.

After that mistake, nothing will make legal sense.

Humperdink said...

Biden's advance team has reviewed the actual picket line and have ordered all stairs and sandbags be removed.

Mr. Forward said...

The White House has announced Biden will stay on the picket line as long as it takes for Air Force One to recharge.

Dave Begley said...

I hope this blows up in Joe’s face. If he is asked questions, it will.

wendybar said...

Got to get there to spread the propaganda before Trump. At least the UAW can get a laugh from the clown they elected.

Rusty said...

This is not a good time to go on strike. Nobody is buying cars.

Kate said...

Pictures from the SAG picket line show famous actors dressed as regular people holding signs and marching. They always get an attaboy for coming down to show support. Ten cents says Biden wears a T-shirt and tries to match that vibe.

Kate said...

Of course, the famous actors are members of the picketing union. They're not outsiders trying to use the march as a photo op.

Rocco said...

What Biden will probably say during his brief five minutes on the picket line...
"You know, I was there at the Ford Hunger March in 1932. Me and Corn Pop. Things got a little out of hand. I got fired on by the cops and Corn Pop. Took a bullet in the ass. Was chained to my hospital bed. No joke. I'm serious."

"But as a proud American worker, I went back to work and built my split window Corvette the next day. Wanted a convertible, so I cut the roof off. Painted it green, too. Still drive the car as a reminder of that day."

donald said...

Hope he has an “episode”, like fall off a curb. That’ll be funny.

Dave Begley said...

Do these union people know that Joe and the Left are going to eliminate 60% of the jobs at the Big Three? Haven’t they looked at Tesla?

EVs will kill the current auto industry and its supply chain. It’s obvious.

Consumers, however, will never by EVs at scale in the US. At best, maybe 20% of the market. I’ll never buy one.

GatorNavy said...

Excellent theatre by the Biden team. However, too many bribes have been promised to the green ‘elites’ and nothing is going to stop that juggernaut, especially not, checks notes, working class white males.

Temujin said...

The workers are on strike because their middle class life has been decimated over the last couple of decades. Moreover, since Biden took over, their cost of living has skyrocketed, the mandates and push toward EVs has the auto companies hemorrhaging money, so that instead of massive profits, they're getting gouged. Ford loses $40,000 on each EV they produce. How's that for a business plan?

Bidenomics- inflation, EV mandates, energy costs skyrocketing because of cut production or lack of oil leases on Federal lands all add up to increased costs for all of us. The UAW is asking for more than they're worth, but their point is not missed on me. The middle class has been hollowed out. Those in DC simply don't get it, much like they didn't get the idea of how an open border can be harmful...that is until the illegals are sitting on their front lawns.

Trump got the workers votes in 2016. To act like he doesn't have a chance- despite the words of the UAW President- is foolish. The rank and file know what's what. And everyone knows the UAW President may represent the rank and file at the negotiation table, but he does not represent how they think.

Jamie said...

So Trump plans to speak in Detroit and it's a plainly cynical, politicized ploy. Biden - the President of the United States - announces a plan to join a UAW strike, an organization of which he is not a member and to which he'd paid essentially no attention until his opponent announced that he was going to speak to them, and... what? He's acting out of his deep personal convictions?

BUMBLE BEE said...

Last time in, Joe told a group of skilled trades "I don't work for you".

Kevin said...

represents perhaps the most significant display of union solidarity

Apparently it represents a need not to lose voters to Trump.

There are no other principles at play here.

Leland said...

Not a leader, a follower.

hawkeyedjb said...

Dave Begley said...
"EVs will kill the current auto industry and its supply chain. It’s obvious."

Yeah, most of it anyway. One car company is big enough (and smart enough) to resist the headlong rush to electric vehicles. In ten years, you'll be able to buy an EV or a Toyota.

Chris N said...

Joe and the union guys are probably united in this: Both believe the reason some people have more is because they have less.

Instead of freedom, and all the risks that come with it (more risks for less well-connected folks), it’s better to have a chip on your shoulder and take the mental slavery approach.

Might as well calcify into a more tiered, more regulated, less free civilization.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

The UAW is part of the Democrat election machine. The leadership screwed over the members by supporting Joe "China owns me!" Biden. The inflation is a result of the lockdowns and the COVID spending to fix the lockdowns, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (aka as the Graft for Grifters Act), and the infrastructure bill(s?).

The FED monetized the deficits of these bills and the money supply zoomed, causing the inflation. The FED's been holding the money supply nearly constant since Jan 2022, but FedGov has still been piling up deficits like there's no tomorrow. The tension between tight money and goosed demand has kept inflation up.

The UAW members are getting it good and hard for their support of Biden.

Iman said...

Go get ‘em, Dementia Joe!

And tell ‘em all about the ‘68 strike when you lit the line foreman’s pants on fire with your MIG
welder, just to “show that S of a B who’s boss”.

MountainMan said...

“At best, maybe 20% of the market.”

That’s spot on, Dave Begley. I have a PDF of a report somewhere from the DOE’s Energy Information Administration that estimates 79% of US cars and trucks will still be internal combustion in 2050. There are about 300M vehicles in the US and even with a WWIi-like, heavily-subsidized effort it would not be possible to replace them all by then. There are too many constraints on resources, labor, and energy for such an effort. People who believe we will have an electric vehicle transportation system any time soon are living in fantasy land. I think it would take at least 100 years, if not more.

Buckwheathikes said...

Is the Mafia really ever voting against the Don?

I don't think so. Labor unions are never, ever going to tell their members to vote against a Democrat Party president because you can't become a Democrat party president without being a made member of the Mafia.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The sound of ‘ex president Biden’ is music to my ears. Or, I see what you did there. Or I shouldn’t say ISWYDT, for fear of accidentally tripping over the cruel neutrality button. Or don’t wish for stuff you’re unlikely to get. Didn’t you read in these pages? The lottery is a tax on ____ people.

traditionalguy said...

That damn Trump out played the Dems simply by helping middle class Americans survive Biden’s Green New Deal hoax.

They got out cynical ployed.

traditionalguy said...

That damn Trump out played the Dems simply by helping middle class Americans survive Biden’s Green New Deal hoax.

They got out cynical ployed.

Bob Boyd said...

They didn't quote any union workers, only anonymous "union advisors".

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bob Boyd said...

I look forward to some new video clips of an angry Joe Biden berating and threatening actual union workers who question his commitment to their cause or any of his policies.

Levi Starks said...

Biden will be in his natural element on the picket line.
Trash talking is what he does best.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Biden is the cause of our economic destruction. And yet - his faithful media will fawn over this BS photo-op.

hpudding said...

It’s fun to watch the right-wing pretend to be pro-working class while maintaining that there should not only be no protections for labor but no effective political power or representation in their negotiations with corporate ownership.

Labor costs represent 5% of auto manufacturing expenses and the right-wing will buy the executive talking point that a raise for their pay or benefits that’s closer to the rate of increase seen in executive compensation will cripple the company.

Modern-day feudalism. They really do see execs as lords and anyone who works for them as their property. No wonder they think this country has a conservative basis. They’re living in the Middle Ages.

Rich said...

With Ford bargaining, UAW is doing with employers what the companies' tiered employment has been doing with workers: divide and conquer.

Turns, tables, etc.

Rich said...

What would be helpful would be an analysis of the added value. Which share to remunerate the capital and which share to remunerate the workers.

Yancey Ward said...

So, Biden is going to be on this picket line for what, 30 minutes?

donald said...

Pretty shoddy straw man ya got there h. It’s like you’re reading bullet points your handlers gave you, knowing you’re a dullard tool.

Breezy said...

Opening the border to millions of illegal aliens is not something that helps the working class. Quite the opposite.

Cogs said...

How is no one astonished that the President of the United States is joining a picket line against American companies?

Rusty said...

Rich said...
"What would be helpful would be an analysis of the added value. Which share to remunerate the capital and which share to remunerate the workers."
Why don't you google it and get back to us. The investors, capital, take the greater risk.

Wince said...

Prediction: Biden’s appearance will visibly split the strikers, between the political hacks and the rank in file.

Leaving Trump to enter as the truth telling healer.

Rusty said...

One of them, maybe all, can do what Caterpillar did in their Aurora Illinois plant. Simply close up shop. One of the managesr there once told me that Caterpillar could shut down production in the United States and still build thier product in the factories thay have elsewhere.
Automation is going to take off.

Rusty said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Owen said...

Mike of Snoqualmie @ 7:51: "...The UAW members are getting it good and hard for their support of Biden."

Yes --nice analysis of the inflation dynamic-- but the question is not whether the UAW members are getting it good and hard (they are), but do they correctly interpret that burning sensation? And DO THEY KNOW WHO IS DOING IT TO THEM?

Even a "yes" answer to those questions leaves open the real question: What are they prepared to DO about the screwing they're getting?

Let me guess --from my lifetime of practicing cognitive dissonance entirely too often-- that they will say little and do less. Much easier to blame The Man, i.e. those saps in the C suites at Ford, GM, Stellantis.

I expect Biden will soon show up in his Working Man outfit to hold the picket line with his mates from the old days when he was digging coal out of a shaft only this wide --THIS wide, I tell you!-- and cutting cane with them under a hot, hot sun.

And I dream of the moment when the picketers turn their backs on him as the fraud he is.

Owen said...

hpudding @ 9:10: "...Labor costs represent 5% of auto manufacturing expenses..."

Wow. That's a striking figure. Can you supply your source on that?

Thanks.

Owen said...

Mountain Man @ 8:23: Good comments especially "People who believe we will have an electric vehicle transportation system any time soon are living in fantasy land." I read (among others) Francis Menton's blog, "Manhattan Contrarian," where IIRC he has touched on the absurdity of expecting our TRUCK fleet --vital to the movement of every last thing we produce and consume (but only every last one)-- ever to be converted to EV. Do the math on the batteries needed to run that fleet: not just the number and cost of the batteries, but their weight and volume (displacing payload on the truck) and their need for recharging at heroic scale and speed on every last interstate; and state road; and downtown metropolis. All of this infrastructure is going to be summoned into being --quite magically-- over the next decade or two? By and for truckers who can barely make things work today?

Here's one random fact that might help sharpen the issue a bit: batteries are heavy. EVs weigh more than comparable ICE vehicles. Heavier vehicles wear out tires faster, need different kinds of tires, wear out roads faster. Has anybody budgeted for that? Has anybody even tried to estimate the clogging and expense that would arise with, say, a 5% or 10% greater rate of wear on every major road in the county --but only every last one?

/rant

Wince said...

I wonder who wrote for Biden that “pretty hard core” reference to Marxian surplus value?

John henry said...

Blogger Kai Akker said...

I believe wages, adjusted for inflation, are at the same level as 1973.

Why should wages, on average, ever increase? Have the workers become more productive (yes, but. See next comment)

Take a person working in a furniture factory. Their job is to saw lengths of 1X1 board into 12" lengths for table legs. It will take them a week or so to learn all there is to know about that job. Compare them to the person who has been doing it for 30 years. is there any difference in the value of their labor? Why should the 30 year person make more than the 1 week person? (Ignoring that the 30 year person may have learned how to perform other jobs like assembling, painting and whatnot)

It may be a fallacy to think that people's pay should automatically go up for no reason other than longevity on the job. Ditto the workforce overall.

Pay should go up as individuals and the workforce in general become more productive. Longevity and productivity do not necessarily go hand in hand.

In some cases the worker might be capable of more productivity but limited by the process. You might have a large, husky, worker who could cut 15 legs per minute. Next to them might be a more slightly built worker who can only cut 10.

If the process only calls for 8 legs per minute, both workers will be equally productive and should be paid the same.

John Henry

Mary Beth said...

Should a president be taking sides? To me, giving a speech in support of the workers feels different from standing on the picket line. I'm not sure why - perhaps it's that a speech feels more like a mediation tool (even if you are voicing support for one side) while picketing feels like a demand for capitulation.

How long will Biden be on the picket line? Longer than time for a photograph or two? Is the value of his presence worth as much as the trouble it will cause for security? It sounds like a major disruption.

GrapeApe said...

Yancey, until he wanders off. Or maybe when he falls and the Secret Service have to pick him up from the ground

n.n said...

Michigan, one of several jurisdictions with state-sponsored Planned Parent/hood. Joe, look out. Also, the home of the Whitmer conspiracy, the trial run for J6. Donald, pay heed.

William said...

I don't understand the issues of the strike, but I'm vaguely sympathetic to the strikers. I don't think Biden is doing them any favors by walking the picket line. The President should--at least for appearances--try to be above the fray. Biden is forfeiting his right to mediate and arm twist both management and the union....Detroit died a slow, painful death. I've read lots of stories where they say it was all because of bad decisions by the corporate management of auto companies. Uh huh. Maybe there were other reasons. In any event we now have Coleman Young in the White House.

robother said...

Labor is a key element to Democrat branding, but there's a reason FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ, Carter and even Obama never joined a strike picket line. The President needs to be a last resort broker of a nation-wide strike, and to do that, he needs to have the perception of being an honest broker. But of course Brandon (and his handlers) never look beyond the next poll.

Ironically, Trump as ex-President is better positioned to be pro-union (or, even, as others here are pointing out, pro-worker). Hope he gives them hell on the real impact of Democrat's EV mandate on the workers' future.

John henry said...

"But the workforce is more educated" you might say. That may be true, but so what. Put a HS dropout and an MIT PhD on that leg cutting process. Assuming that both can maintain the 8 per minute rate posited above, why should they be paid any differently.

Pay is for productivity, not education, experience, race or anything else.

I might even be able to make the case that the PhD should be paid less since they will be less satisfied with the work and more of a pain in the ass to work with.:)

Let's say that the employer invests capital to buy an electric chop saw. Now each worker, slight or husky can cut 16 legs per minute.

So what? The process still requires only 8 legs/cutter/minute. Unless the process is speeded up or one of every 2 cutters is laid off, there is no gain. Each cutter can still only do 8 so no productivity gain.

So the employer changes things to use the 16/minute output from 1 cutter. Now that cutter is twice as productive. Should they get a raise for being more productive? Why? They did not invest the capital to buy the chop saw. Why should they get the financial benefit of the capital investment? (Maybe they should. If you know a reason, tell me)

Maybe they should take a pay cut since it will require less skill and physical effort with the chop saw.

Since it is generally impossible to cut anyone's pay, what will happen is that over time the relatively skilled wood cutter job will become a less skilled and lower paid chop saw operator job.

And eventually they will hire me to show them how to completely automate the operation.

And what about management? What is their role in this? Should their pay go up?

John Henry

John henry said...

Yeah, what about management?

In way oversimplified terms, management's primary job is to increase productivity. Productivity is what management, and everyone else, gets paid for.

I used the example of replacing a hand saw with a chopsaw, along with process and workforce changes to increase productivity. This all costs money and stockholders should get a return on that investment.

Should they get 100% of the productivity increase? No. The capital investment was only partially responsible for the productivity gain. Part of the gain was caused by management having an idea (chopsaw), justifying it to the stockholders to get the capital and implementing it.

So yes, they should get part of the productivity increase. Either as a bonus, increased pay or a combination of the 2.

John Henry

n.n said...

Labor and environmental arbitrage, progressive prices, social justice-mediated violence, coups without borders, and the belief, despite IPCC reports (executive and press reports notwithstanding) to the contrary, have devastated diverse industries, including the auto industry.

MayBee said...

Some of the UAW's demands sound a lot like what the Obama reorganization took away from the unions, and for good reason. I don't see the automakers wanting to get back to that.

This will be interesting, because I think the automakers need all the money the government is throwing at them to build electric cars. I don't know how the execs will look at Biden siding with the UAW and their too-strong demands.

I think workers should have some protection from employers, and unions can be good for that. But unions also spend a lot of money on themselves and their favored politicians (Democrat party). It's a terribly flawed system

John henry said...

Our President Emeritus should go to Detroit tomorrow unannounced. Go to the picket line, walk alongside it, not in it, and just chat with the strikers.

No official pics or video, crowds or speech. Let, encourage, people to record with phones and post on Rumble, TikTok etc.

When asked later PEDJT can say something like "I just wanted to talk to the folks without the interference of press or crowds. I never meant for it to be public."

John Henry

John henry said...

And when he does, not jeans and t shirt pretending to be what he is not. As someone suggested Brandon will do.

Regular suit and tie, just like he naturally is.

John Henry

Kai Akker said...

@John Henry -- Yes, your reference to productivity is the key part of the equation on wages.

American industry went through a major capital-for-labor substitution strategy starting roughly in the 1980s. Better tools and processes should (and did) expand corporate profits. The job growth won't directly follow in a particular company, or industry; but as tools and processes and technology get more sophisticated, the training needed for the labor involved will usually increase, too. So the labor is also adding some value to the overall equation.

And, if profits are rising, then more investment and more growth will follow, in the broad realm, and that will help overall job growth. I know I am not telling you anything new.

The share of profits going to management, who make themselves growing owners through stock options, as well as to the public owners via the stock markets, grew dramatically greater than for labor. That is why the extremes of wealth and income, even though those are most definitely not the same, have come to look alike and are like 1920s data, only even more extreme now.

Envy is a factor, too. You can only treat your human capital like horsesh*t for so long before their motivation deteriorates, right? But that is not the main thing, the main thing is pure economics.

I think we are still very, very early in this new trend. If inflation continues, labor is certainly going to keep asking for raises. And our apparent labor shortage means they are in the driver's seat.

boatbuilder said...

"Democrats close to the White House said they saw Trump’s trip as a plainly cynical ploy to gain political advantage... But they also worry it is a sign that the ex-president had a more sophisticated campaign than in previous cycles...."

Note that the insane moron Trump is the only politician on either side with the brains and balls to jump out there and tell the people actually getting screwed that he is on their side and understands what they are trying to accomplish.

Maybe he's lying; maybe it's just a cynical political ploy.

Why didn't any of the other political geniuses, Dem or Republican, get out there and do what Trump is doing?

boatbuilder said...

For those whose detectors are on the fritz--"insane moron Trump" was sarcasm.

Kai Akker said...

@John Henry. Here are two good pieces that address this question. The first an article from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the second the most up-to-date chart from the Federal Reserve showing the trend. It has already begun to change.

https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/estimating-the-us-labor-share.htm

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PRS88003173

The chart in the first does not perfectly match the chart in the second, but I think they are catching something important between the two of them.

John henry said...

The 5% cost of labor seems low but perhaps Ms Tapioca can document it.

In any event, labor is only a relatively small part of the total cost of a car. This is, and the shared monopoly, is why unions in automotive have been able to extort above market pay from the auto companies for years (see also steel, rubber and a few other industries)

The pain of taking a strike was just not worth it when pay increases didn't increase the cost much and even if they did, the American consumer had no choice but to buy their cars anyway. Both union and company attitude were "Fuck 'em. What are they gonna do, buy a Volkswagen?"

The last new American car I bought was in 1968. The last used American car I bought was in 1981. I had a new company Chevy from 82 to 85. All, without exception, were complete shit compared to the dozen or so Japanese and Korean cars I've owned since the 1970s.

UAW membership is down? Fuck 'em. They never cared about me, why should I care about them?

GM/Ford/Chrysler are not doing well? Fuck 'em. They never cared about me, why should I care about them.

A pox on the US legacy auto industry.

OTOH, Toyota, Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Honda and others manufacture in the US and are doing well, and doing well by their workers. I expect my Hyundai and my wife's Kia will last the rest of our lives (and we expect to live a long time). I would love to buy a Hyundai made in the US if I live long enough to need to.

John Henry

John henry said...

Jimmy Carter did a lot of terrible things as president.

One of the worst was not letting Chrysler go bankrupt.

Yeah, I know, Chrysler paid all the money back.

But it was still one of the worst things he did.

It has not ended well for Chrysler, now under its 4th or 5th owners since then. It has ended worse for the US.



John Henry

Jupiter said...

' “Pretty hard-core,” said one union adviser, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly....'

Thus go the pronoun wars. It looks as if the battle of the gender-neutral "he" has pretty much been lost. Even when the person of unknown gender is clearly singular, it is apparently preferable to mis-number him, rather than potentially mis-gender him.

Joe Smith said...

This is smoke and mirrors.

The unions are owned by the Democrat party (maybe it's the other way around) as are the auto companies (bailouts, EV subsidies, etc.).

They're on the same side...

Joe Smith said...

'This is not a good time to go on strike. Nobody is buying cars.'

Very good point...

rehajm said...

Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Biden is the cause of our economic destruction. And yet - his faithful media will fawn over this BS photo-op.


Once again me and the resident hooker are kindred spirits. I'll take the under on all the rest and make out like a bandit...

Darkisland said...

Simply through the application of an inevitable principle. By the application of intelligently directed power and machinery. In a little dark shop on a side street an old man had laboured for years making axe handles. Out of seasoned hickory he fashioned them, with the help of a draw shave, a chisel, and a supply of sandpaper. Carefully was each handle weighed and balanced. No two of them were alike. The curve must exactly fit the hand and must conform to the grain of the wood. From dawn until dark the old man laboured. His average product was eight handles a week, for which he received a dollar and a half each. And often some of these were unsaleable--because the balance was not true.

To-day you can buy a better axe handle, made by machinery, for a few cents. And you need not worry about the balance. They are all alike--and every one is perfect. Modern methods applied in a big way have not only brought the cost of axe handles down to a fraction of their former cost--but they have immensely improved the product.


Henry Ford "My Life and Work" 1923

JK Brown said...

On the upside, the "US" care mfrs dominate the slowest selling inventories in September so a production decline is good for them.

Democrats have a problem as their white college-credentialed base favor socialist policies, while the white working class are voting on cultural issues that are destroying their schools and communities.

College-educated white voters have become increasingly liberal on economic issues since the mid-2000s [higher taxes, redistribution, socialism]; college educated voters now express more liberal views than working class voters on every issue domain. Over the same time period, cultural issues have become more important for the voting decisions of the working class. The increasing weight placed on non-economic issues means that the conservative cultural attitudes of white working class voters translate to Republican support at a higher rate than in the past.
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2023/09/what-explains-educational-polarization-among-white-voters.html

JAORE said...

"I would love to buy a Hyundai made in the US if I live long enough to need to. "

In Alabama alone Mercedes, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota, and Mazda make cars.

Toyota, Honda and Hyundai are among the most trouble free vehicles on the road... so much for unions assuring quality.

JAORE said...

I thought Biden was too busy to visit a rail disaster locations.... but he can "join" a picket line?

Bob Boyd said...

Owen said...
hpudding @ 9:10: "...Labor costs represent 5% of auto manufacturing expenses..."

Wow. That's a striking figure. Can you supply your source on that?


He won't because he just pulled the number out of his tailpipe.
Even the UAW says the number is 10%.

Crazy World said...

President Trump will prevail, corrupt Joe will make a fool of himself as usual.

Butkus51 said...

"I will end the fossil fuel industry."

They were all in on that. They built that.



BUMBLE BEE said...

Owen said...
hpudding @ 9:10: "...Labor costs represent 5% of auto manufacturing expenses..."

Wow. That's a striking figure. Can you supply your source on that?

Owen, you'd be sharing a view only his proctologist has seen.

rcocean said...

Biden dances to Trump's tune. How many will be smart enough to realize that Biden is ONLY coming because of politics, and Trump. Without Trump, he'd be a no-show at the picketline.

And trump is right. Biden wants to destory the coal industry, the oil industry, and the gasoline powered car. Are people smart enough to understand the ramifications? No. they'll just sit around with their thumb up their ass singing a happy tune until disaster strikes.

This whole situation shows why some people love Trump and why GOPe losers like Pence, Haley, etc. are going nowhere. And also why Romney is retiring. Trump supports the Auto workers. Trump opposes the paris accords. Trump is against cutting social security and medicare. Trump wants to protect US industry. GOPe wants to get elected on a platform of "me too" except for tax cuts and "Reforming" entitlements.

Mittens "the wise one" - wanted to let the Autoworkers go die while bailing out AIG and Citicorp. And now he wants to fight climate change and cut social security. This weird GOPe obssession with engaging in class warfare at home and forever war abroad is about as popular as pencil in the eye.

But losers gotta lose. Trump might win. And he's the only R that can in 2024.

walter said...

Don't let him drive his Vette near the assembled.
Get Dr. Jill in a Rosy the riveter outfit and have her lead him around, feeding him ice cream.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

Hey hosepudding, per the UAW, labor accounts for 10% of the cost, not 5%. Google it; it's easy. What's difficult, if not impossible, is for you to stop yourself from shitting out disinformation. But then, you are what you eat.

Maynard said...

So, Biden is going to be on this picket line for what, 30 minutes?

Just enough time for a photo op and for the media to imply that he spent a lot of time and effort there.

Howard (not that Howard) said...

Is he giving up his paycheck and going on strike pay?