Open Thread - Thurs 25 Apr 2024 - Vote For Your Paychecks!

25 April 2024 - Vote For Your Paychecks!

Back in January the leader of the UAW, Shawn Fein (yes, I wanted to write Sinn Féin, heh), announced that the UAW was endorsing Biden for President. This was after very strained relationships between the UAW leadership and Biden, but Biden had supported the UAW during their strikes in 2023 (see this article at Reuters for more) and so Shawn Fein returned the favor. Whether that translates into union votes for Biden or not remains to be seen. Fein himself admitted that it probably wouldn't (from the article by Wilmer J. Leon III, discussed more below):

Following the union endorsement Fein explained that he expected most of the UAW membership would not vote for President Biden in November. During an interview on Fox Business Network’s Your World with Neil Cavuto, Fain stated, “Let me be clear about this. A great majority of our members will not vote for President Biden…The majority of our members are gonna’ vote for their paychecks, they’re gonna’ vote for an economy that works for them.”


Strikers at the General Motors Lansing Delta Assembly Plant on September 29, 2023 in Lansing, Michigan. Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images from CNN article here.

The article by Wilmer J. Leon, III on the Popular Resistance website entitled 'It's Not Apathy; You're Not Listening' is pretty good. He talks about how blacks, hispanics, poor whites, homeless and more are not apathetic. They simply hate both Democrats and Republicans because neither side speaks to and for them. And, that's basically true, ain't it?

Here's Leon's last paragraph, I think it sums it up well:

Voter disinterest is not at issue; voter apathy in not the new black.  The two major American political parties are listening to their corporate benefactors, talking amongst themselves in their echo chambers and are not listening to their constituents.  Maintain the current course and speed at your own peril.

How this malaise in our leadership gets fixed is an unanswerable question, I think. There's places to start, and voting uncommitted at least makes the point, if nothing else. Strikes, shutting down entire cities... I dunno. It's like the protests and actions of the Great Depression are going to have to be redone in essence if not in particulars. Bonus Army? I think we are on our way there now!

Thanks for reading! Here's the open thread - and remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!

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Sima's picture

Hope Thor is treating everyone well. I'm sorry for the rather sparse OT above. I'm off to the Urgent Care clinic today. My tooth infection has cleared up great, it was all gone by about 10 days ago. But, I had an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin I was given and it's not getting better. So, off I go. Ohh boy. Never had a full body itching rash/hives with swelling before, and I sure hope none of you have ever had or will have that either!

In lovely news, the apple trees around here are going insane with blooms this year. I have to get some pics, dang, they are pretty. And I got myself some little carnations which smell great. Gonna plant those and maybe have an indoor pot of them by my computer, because the smell and look are heavenly!

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If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so

Granma's picture

@Sima I hope they do something to get you out of that misery fast.

I'm all for voting your paycheck. How do they propose to do that?

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I have suffered a head to toe skin rash. Lab tests showed the rash was a type that has no known cause.
No drugs or topical salves worked whatsoever. It went away of its' own accord.
I have read that post-COVID, many people have experienced this.
At least you know the cause, and are off (forever!) amoxicillin.
As for labor wins, I am concerned corporations will shutter their business facilities and move them to foreign countries with low (slave) wages.
No political party gives a damn about wage earners in the 99%. Even if a president suckered us in to a vote because of a campaign promise, his or her party would kill it at every opportunity.
Every voter should remember that as they get all hot and bothered about some golden candidate.
Money talks, bullshit walks.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

snoopydawg's picture

.

The other day I was griping about how gas shot up 10 cents because oil jumped after Israeli hit Iran, but then went back down. I asked what were the odds that gas would top? Yesterday I saw that the price had gone down 4 cents. Wow…I bet the people living on the edge are breathing a sigh of relief!

Regular is $3.95. Midgrade in $4.20…I don’t even look at what premium is. And every gd thing in the grocery store is still going up. I rarely get out under $100 for things that used to cost me $65. And for gawd’s sake why are potatoes almost a dollar each? It sure looks like the economy was way better during Trump. Heck of a job, Biden.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

@snoopydawg
will only cost you $5.09 CASH, more for plastic, but mostly you will pay $5.17 to $5.29.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

enhydra lutris's picture

the allergic reaction, I had the same sort of thing once and it was pretty maddening but pretty much self healed once I quit taking the medication that was causing it.

I recall long periods back when I was sort of paying attention where all the party politicos were incessantly going on with that "Why dont' these/those people vote" to which the only succinct, meaningful response was "for whom, exactly?". There can be exceptions, but so what? I think of Dellums, or Lee, on the right side more often than not, but being members of a wuper-minority, can't really get much of anything done anyway. The exceptions to the exceptions are those in a position to actually help you who are also willing to do so, but, invariably, in exchange for a very steep price of some kind or another.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

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Sorry to hear of your itchy skin. I am at the tail end of the same thing.
Haven't taken antibiotics in years, so that is not the trigger. But did
previously finish a month long upper respiratory infection. Not Covid.
Seems like some strange bugs floating around these days. Glad the
jaw got sorted out anyway.

Thanks for the OT!

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Not Netanyahu

“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” the Israeli prime minister said in a televised statement. “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities.”
“What’s happening in America’s college campuses is horrific,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “Antisemitic mobs have taken over leading universities. They call for the annihilation of Israel. They attack Jewish students. They attack Jewish faculty.”

Those are all lies, of course.
meanwhile Hamas

senior official of the Palestinian Hamas movement at war with Israel has expressed support for protests being staged in solidarity with Gaza at universities across the United States and condemned efforts to crack down on them in comments shared with Newsweek.

"We in the Hamas movement believe that any popular movement demanding an end to the aggression and genocide against our people are useful and supportive activities for our cause," Hamas spokesperson Bassam Naim told Newsweek.

"They also refute the Zionist narrative," he added. "The importance of this increases if these activities involve young people and university students, given that this reflects the vision of future generations."

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guns.jpeg

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@gjohnsit as it ever was.

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