RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/15/business/car-prices-auto-strike-uaw/index.html

Now that the United Auto Workers union has started a strike, the US auto market is about to be thrown into turmoil all over again.

Auto sales hadn’t entirely recovered from the pandemic, but car shopping in the United States could change once more.

Dealerships will stay open

You will still be able to shop for cars, even at Ford, GM and Stellantis dealers. They’re not going to shut down, as car dealerships are independent franchises that aren’t owned by the company whose logo is on the building.

What’s more, they will still have cars to sell for a while. Most of those dealers have vehicles on hand to sell for a few weeks yet, and the current strike plans will initially impact only some of their product lines, said Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Cox Automotive. The strike’s impact will be nothing like the Covid pandemic and the computer chip shortages that largely shut down the entire US auto industry in recent years, he said.

For first time in history, union workers strike against all Big Three automakers

Besides, new car dealers also sell used cars and, even if the flow of new cars suddenly stops entirely, they will continue to do so. They also service cars, and their service operations will continue, as well, although parts supplies could be hampered.

The auto manufacturing crises of recent years have left auto dealers better prepared to deal with disruptions, said Scott Kunes, chief operating officer of Kunes Auto and RV Group, which owns more than 40 dealerships in the Midwest.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/18/joe-biden-uaw-strike-electric-cars-esg-green/

As the clock turned 12:01am on Friday, the United Auto Workers (UAW) began their strike against Ford and General Motors. Not all union workers left the assembly line as part of the “rolling strike,” where some workers stay on the job (and earn their paychecks) while others walk the picket line. They’ll probably be picketing for a while: the union and the auto companies are still far apart on key demands.

Joe Biden has given the union his strong backing, proudly claiming he is the most pro-union president in history. He may well be, but the irony is that most of the union demands seek to undo the damage caused by his own policies.

All Americans, including autoworkers, have faced two consecutive years of falling incomes and spending-fuelled inflation under Biden – a loss the UAW wants to make up for under new contracts. The prospect of job losses from electric vehicles – directly tied to  Biden’s aggressive environmental policies – has driven another key demand from the U. They want to protect their union jobs as the industry follows Biden’s mandates, shifts to EVs, and slices the number of hours needed to produce every car and truck.

Those demands would be hard for companies to meet under the best conditions. They are much harder because the administration’s massive, mandated disruption of the auto and truck market creates huge uncertainty for manufacturers. They simply don’t know if ordinary consumers will buy the more expensive EVs at the same pace they have bought gas powered ones. This uncertainly makes manufacturers even more reluctant than usual to offer pay hikes and job guarantees.

That’s not all the bad news for negotiators. Right now, traditional manufacturers are losing buckets of money on EVs. They are saddled with legacy costs and facilities and are forced to compete with a host of new firms without them, spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Tesla.

https://www.nysun.com/article/biden-backing-uaw-on-demands-for-wages-that-would-give-elon-musk-and-xi-jinping-the-last-laugh

In Joe Biden’s 1950s world, unions are good and corporations bad. Hence his response to the UAW strike against the three legacy automakers. “Over the last — the past decade,” he said, “auto companies have seen record profits, including the last few years, because of the extraordinary skill and sacrifices of the UAW workers.”

Yet, the president said, “those record profits have not been shared fairly, in my view, with those workers.” He added, referring to current negotiations: “I believe they should go further to ensure record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW.” Nothing like putting the presidential thumb on the bully scale.

In Mr. Biden’s world, because the automakers have had a few good years, they should award unionized employees huge pay hikes. Never mind that if our economy slows and demand for cars slumps, the auto firms would be stuck with higher costs that would make them even less competitive with non-union companies like Tesla or BYD in Communist China. 

Nikki Haley says presidential candidates should have mental competency tests; business IQ tests might be more useful, starting with the “sacrifices” made by autoworkers that Mr. Biden hails. It is true that during the Great Recession UAW members accepted changes in contract terms that allowed the auto makers to stay in business.

Taxpayers, already being crushed by government levies, forked over $80 billion to bail out GM and Chrysler. Much of that was eventually paid back. The country was largely sympathetic; after all, it was banks that had caused the 2008 downturn, so why should Detroit’s Big Three and their employees suffer?

https://mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/turnabout-reporter-ducks-questions-congressman-about-biden-scandals

The tables were turned Thursday, when a reporter ducked questions from a congressman.

Associated Press (AP) Reporter Farnoush Amiri tried to get House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to agree that Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into Pres. Joe Biden without any evidence of an impeachable offense.

McCarthy responded like a contestant on “Jeopardy!” – by putting his answer in the form of questions.

But first, the congressman explained to AP’s Amiri that an impeachment inquiry is the not same as an impeachment – it’s just a fact-finding mission.

Rep. McCarthy then asked Amiri if she believed five items of evidence already obtained through sworn testimony:

Rep. McCarthy: “OK. Do you agree that, do you believe the president lied to the American public when he said he’d never talked to his son about business dealings? Yes or no?”

Rep. McCarthy: “Do you believe when they said the president went on conference calls? Do you believe that happened?”

Rep. McCarthy: “Do you believe the president went to Cafe Milano and had dinner with the clients of Hunter Biden, who believes he got those clients because he was selling the brand?”

Rep. McCarthy: “Do you believe Hunter Biden, when you saw the video of him driving the Porsche, that he got $143,000 to buy that Porsche the next day?

https://issuesinsights.com/2023/09/18/think-impeachment-will-help-biden-then-why-is-he-behaving-like-a-cornered-rat/

Whatever your views are on impeachment, the fact that so many on the left are acting like cornered rats is a pretty good reason for Republicans to carry on.

Over the weekend, we came across a story warning Republicans about their decision to start an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

“It may well ensure that Republicans lose control of the House in 2024,” the story says. “And it could also give Joe Biden a boost as he runs for reelection, presumably against Donald Trump himself.”

In just the past few days we’ve seen a multitude of such warnings. Here’s a small sampling:

“Impeaching Biden Is a Desperate Gamble That Will Backfire”
“Republicans would love to impeach Biden. It would backfire on them.”
“How Republicans’ Push to Impeach Joe Biden Could Backfire”
“Could the Biden impeachment inquiry backfire on Republicans?”
“Will the House GOP’s Biden impeachment probe backfire?”
“This is the White House’s Dream!”

Here’s the strange thing. Every one of these headlines appeared in leftist newspapers, were penned by leftist authors, or were uttered on leftist cable news programs.

It’s almost as though these outlets all got their marching orders from a single source. Which, it turns, out, they did – the Biden White House.

An Aug. 31 story in The Hill – headlined “White House warns GOP Biden impeachment will backfire” – says that “the White House remains steadfastly confident that if the GOP goes forward with an inquiry … it will hurt Republicans more than it could hurt Biden.”

The preamble is an introduction to the highest law of the land; it is not the law. It does not define government powers or individual rights.

Establish Justice is the first of five objectives outlined in the 52-word paragraph that the Framers drafted in six weeks during the hot Philadelphia summer of 1787. They found a way to agree on the following basic principles:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/09/a_timely_moment_to_wish_happy_236_to_the_us_constitution.html

We begin today with a “happy birthday” to the U.S. Constitution.  Maybe you remember this from your U.S. History class.  They taught it when I went to school, and I’m hoping that they still do today.  Or maybe they start today’s classes with a reminder that it was the work of a bunch of white guys who had slaves and didn’t let their wives vote.

This is the story that I learned:

On May 25, 1787, delegates representing every state except Rhode Island convened at Philadelphia’s Pennsylvania State House for the Constitutional Convention. The building, which is now known as Independence Hall, had earlier seen the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Articles of Confederation. The assembly immediately discarded the idea of amending the Articles of Confederation and set about drawing up a new scheme of government. Revolutionary War hero George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was elected convention president.

During an intensive debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal organization characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more-populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation. The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) and equal representation of the states in the upper house (Senate).

On September 17, 1787, the Constitution was signed. As dictated by Article VII, the document would not become binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. Beginning on December 7, five states—Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia and Connecticut—ratified it in quick succession. However, other states, especially Massachusetts, opposed the document, as it failed to reserve un-delegated powers to the states and lacked constitutional protection of basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. In February 1788, a compromise was reached under which Massachusetts and other states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed. The Constitution was thus narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, followed by Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. In June, Virginia ratified the Constitution, followed by New York in July.

http://Only a national government as universally corrupt as ours could feign ignorance about the Biden Crime Family’s sordid history.

Joe Biden’s corruption is outdone only by the mainstream media’s commitment to hide it from the public.  Why propagandists posing as journalists would feel the need to continue covering for China Joe and his quid-pro-quo mafia family is a mystery (although reporters are so addicted to censoring truth and spreading disinformation that they probably don’t know how to behave differently).  To be sure, the public has known about the Biden Crime Family’s notorious racketeering activities for decades.  

When a lifetime politician supposedly living on a “public servant’s” salary becomes filthy rich, no thinking person has difficulty understanding that corruption is somehow involved.  In Joe’s case, the corruption is remarkable, perhaps, because it has always been so brazen.  He has not simply become wealthy by using insider knowledge from closed-door committee hearings to effect profitable trades on the stock market (the standard form of corruption endemic in D.C.); instead, he sends family members all over the world to collect checks from foreign companies and hostile countries in return for his continued patronage within the halls of the federal government.  

No doubt many venal American politicians play the same shady game (after all, there sure are a lot of Congress-critters who enter office destitute and exit office as millionaires), but the Biden Crime Family’s particular brand of in-your-face extortion really takes the cake.  When his crackhead son Hunter is awarded a lucrative seat on a corporate board in Ukraine or receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Chinese Communist Party, it is not because he is an expert in paying for sex, drugs, and other shameful degradations.  It is because he has been taught how to collect bribes from foreign foes in return for his father’s promises to look out for their interests.

The mainstream media spent years trying to pretend that every Trump-owned property was really a front for enriching his family from secret special interests.  The partisan press were dead wrong, as always, but that did not stop them from pushing a narrative that President Trump (who took no salary for his service) was somehow using his office for personal financial gain.  In contrast, the evidence that Biden has used his various offices for pecuniary benefit is overwhelming.  In emails, witness testimony, and bank account histories, the Biden Crime Family’s business of extracting and laundering bribes is easy for any ordinary American to see.  Faced with such blinding corruption, however, the “expert” class now hilariously claims to see nothing.

In the press-titutes’ defense, though, they are lobbying Democrats pretty hard right now for more kickbacks from the government’s money-printing gravy train to keep their “profession” financially afloat.  It is quite difficult to bite the hand that feeds you.  It is even more difficult to excoriate a politician as a corrupt pig when you are feeding from the same trough.

https://justthenews.com/tv/maher-joined-barrymore-crosses-picket-line-says-time-bring-people-back-work

Bill Maher had the perfect Plan B for the ongoing Hollywood strikes.

The host of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” joined the podcasting revolution earlier this year as a creative side hustle. So when the May 2 writers’ strike shut down every late-night talk show save Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” Maher kept on talking via his “Club Random” podcast.

Now, Maher is ready to resume his “Real Time” duties even though the strike is far from over. Drew Barrymore is doing the same on her eponymous talk show. 

Will these industry veterans pay a price for their actions?

For Maher, getting back to work made sense, and he shared why on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work,” he wrote. “The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns. 

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/16/ken-paxton-acquitted-impeachment-texas-attorney-general/

The Texas Senate on Saturday acquitted Attorney General Ken Paxton of 16 articles of impeachment alleging corruption and bribery, his most artful escape in a career spent courting controversy and skirting consequences of scandal.

No article received more than 14 of the required 21 votes to convict. Only two of 19 Republican Senators, Bob Nichols of Jacksonville and Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills, voted in favor of convicting for any article — a stark contrast to the more than 70% of House Republicans who impeached the attorney general in May.

Paxton, who attended just two days of the trial and was not present to witness his exoneration, was characteristically defiant.

“The sham impeachment coordinated by the Biden Administration with liberal House Speaker Dade Phelan and his kangaroo court has cost taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupted the work of the Office of Attorney General and left a dark and permanent stain on the Texas House,” Paxton said in a statement. “The weaponization of the impeachment process to settle political differences is not only wrong, it is immoral and corrupt.”

The dramatic votes capped a two-week trial where a parade of witnesses, including former senior officials under Paxton, testified that the attorney general had repeatedly abused his office by helping his friend, struggling Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, investigate and harass his enemies, delay foreclosure sales of his properties and obtain confidential records on the police investigating him. In return, House impeachment managers said Paul paid to renovate Paxton’s Austin home and helped him carry out ­and cover up an extramarital affair with a former Senate aide.

In the end, senators were unpersuaded.