Two things stand out in Trump's commentary on his debate performance. Doesn't it seem bad to be corrected so many times ("practically everything I said")? That just means you lied a whole bunch. Who would brag about that? And, as was pointed out, the second thing is that there was no audience. Just one more thing that Trump needs to be corrected on.
Trump doesn't like unions, he told Elon musk that he should fire strikers. Where is Biden, Trump and Vance are everywhere .It is a big mistake for Harris and Biden to let these guys take the limelight.
Shame on the Teamsters. I fear racism, and possibly even more misogyny, may have a real impact. After Hillary lost voters (often women) told me that they liked her but we shouldn’t have a woman in the White House. Terrific. (Grinding of teeth.)
This whole political situation in Congress is mind-blowingly messed up. How can a politician no longer in office dictate the voting in the House? I still have a very hard time digesting the fact that the bulk of the Republicans would rather help one man for the sake of their careers than do the right thing for the country. Surely what Trump and Vance do to harm the country crosses the line into treason?
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien is a moron who should be ousted from his position. He exemplifies precisely the same characteristics killing the Republican Party – the utter lack of courage to lead.
Who gives a shit what internal polls say? You should be educating people about the absolute inanity of not supporting Harris, an taking a chance on Trump being elected. Regardless, your job as a workers' union is to do what's in the best financial and employment interest of your members, not cater to their cultural grievances because they're too ignorant to understand how badly Trump stabbed them in the back last time.
But apparently, much like Republican politicians, Sean O'Brien has no intention of actually leading his union. I guess his job must come with some really nice perks that he wants to protect, and so he's acting like a politician. He'd better hope that Trump doesn't get elected, because without the Teamsters' actual endorsement, Trump will happily let the union fend for itself, and go back to stacking the NLRB and the courts with anti-union lackeys.
And then maybe his members might actually find out one day how bad he screwed them. See how they take to having it blamed on them; we all know how big MAGA is on personal responsibility.
After all, the buck always stops with Donnie Rotten, right?
Thinking of the idiocy of the SAVE Act, does anybody remember the REAL ID Act? Passed in 2005 with an original implementation date of 2008, and just extended again last week to 2027. What makes anyone think the SAVE Act, which essentially duplicates REAL ID is going to be ready in days? Or even necessary, but that’s another kettle of rotting fish.
Unfortunately, Sununu just signed into law just such a requirement for proof-of-citizenship to vote in NH, and there is a possibility that a loophole may uphold it, unlike other states who have had it struck down. It will not be enacted until after the General Election, but having the change made now means more confusion for people wanting to register to vote in NH, Five states plus NH (and a couple of the territories) have an exemption to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, because either they have no voter-registration requirements or have election-day voter registration at polling places with respect to elections for federal office. Most states have extended its procedures to all elections.
The NVRA requires states to accept a universal federal voter registration card, which asks for a unique identification number like a Social Security number or driver’s license number but does not require proof-of-citizenship documentation. Instead, applicants attest/sign documentation upon penalty of perjury that they are citizens, with deportation as a possible punishment.
It’s such a scam that our state legislators are spending so much time (and money) on trying to disenfranchise our state’s voters. According to NH State Senator Gray (R), in the 2016 presidential election 230 out of almost 900,000 ballots cast had people who signed affidavits but were not able to be located after the election at a given address. Of course, no one ever moves or has mail delivered to a wrong address or something similar when it came time to return the address verification material (if you get it), so this miniscule number of POSSIBLE infractions means you need to pull up the drawbridge and fill the moat with alligators. As it stands, New Hampshire has no early voting, no pre-processing of absentee ballots (except for the COVID elections), and no on-line registration.
I'm a union guy. And I'll take the car guy over the truck guy. All day, every day. And twice on Sunday.
Full disclosure: I'm a UAW skilled trades retiree, having gone to work in a GM plant more than 50 years ago and staying there for nearly 34 years, weathering layoffs and call backs and layoffs again, a protracted strike and continuous downsizing until a spin-off bankruptcy forced me to seek employment in small non-union shops in my area for the next nearly two decades.
But my affinity for Shawn Fain isn't because he's UAW and O'Brien's a Teamster. It's because Shawn Fain is the first UAW president worth a damn since a Scottish-American fellow named Doug Fraser, who when asked by the press his opinion of GM's Chairman and CEO during the fraught, very contentious contract negotiations of 1982, replied very clearly and without any hesitation, "Roger Smith is a horse's ass."
And he was. I didn't need that drama queen Michael Moore and his so-called documentary to tell me that.
Shawn Fain may not be calling anyone a horse's ass. (He did call Trump a "scab".) But he obviously knows one when he sees one, considering his and the UAW's endorsement for president and what political convention he chose to attend and to speak at.
Sean O'Brien, on the other hand, seems to know only how to act like one when it comes to who he chooses to play political footsie with and who he does or doesn't support for president. All in the interest of working people. Of course.
But in this particular election, what about professional people? And retired people? Infirm people and people struggling just to get by? What about *all* the people in America - regardless of their economic class or social status - who cherish their right to live in freedom and govern themselves through our democratic process?
Both UAW Shawn and Teamster Sean wear glasses. Maybe someone's prescription is just out of date, and he'd see things more clearly if he'd take care of that.
Or, maybe someone other than one of the two candidates is just a horse's ass.
I believe Teamsters has a larger male membership. It’s super irritating that this group of members is willing to potentially weaken ALL union members for trump who is clearly not for unions.
The GoP has spent the last few decades working hard to destroy unions. This is not an opinion, but fact.
Convicted Felon Trump is clearly not a friend to unions, given his record as a businessman and as a politician. Again, you can look this stuff up.
BUT the Teamsters are neutral on Trump vs. Harris, for some reason (this was pushed down to the fact that the actual membership doesn't like Harris, though they seemed to like Biden).
So.... you favored the guy who was orginally running, the administration that was actually doing things for workers and unions, but you do not favor his VP, another left of center Democrat, whose polcies (as expressed) would be largely the same nd favorable to you and your organiztion... because of "cultural conservatism."
Now, I am reasonably sure that the Teamster's leadership knows which side of the bread has butter on it. I am also pretty sure that they do not want to tick off their membership (which is largely white and male), so they opted for neutrality--like all politicians do (because Teamster leadership is politicians, even if they started out as Working Joes).
It makes you wonder how unions HAVE survived in America given the blatant stupidity displayed by membership at times.
Really getting tired of seeing "cultural conservatism" not being called out for what it often is.
As a rhetorician and a student of human behavior, I understand why this is done--but doing this kind of puts you in a cleft stick. It creates a permission structure to just continue along as you are (because cultural conservatism is "respectable" while being racist, sexist, or religionist is not--though religion often seems to get something of a pass because, religion).
BUT if you call people out on it, you create an oppositional structure. even when you are "quiet" about it--like creating policies against harrassment or enforcing laws against it or trying to educate people about it) you usually get strong opposition--particularly when it is turned into a partisan political issue.
The problem is that NOT calling out the behavior in clear terms doesn't seem to have worked well, either.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Continual work and education and creating substantive norms is required to counteract the natural tendency of humans to turn pretty much everything into Us/Them.
Hopefully, a lot of those Trump-supporting Teamsters will be on the road, far from their voting polls, on Election Day. And we know that they wouldn't have mailed in their ballots as that requires planning and forethought, something I have a feeling they aren't that good at. (Plus Trump has told them mail-in ballots are bad.)
Seriously, this is pure class bigotry. What makes you think that teamsters can't plan or think? There is a reason they support Trump: they dislike snobs.
Lincoln Project, Quickly get out an ad re how many States recounted the 2020 Votes plus the cost to taxpayers and found ZERO unauthorized Immigrants trying to vote. Also publicize the pain of a Government Shutdown to each and every one of us. We need to run these imaginary ads in every Congressional District these Clowns represent!!!
That’s one thing people overlook, the wasted tax dollars as well as donations to groups like Audubon that have to use the money for lawsuits and not for activities supporting birds.
Inflicting pain on ordinary people if he believes it will advance his political interests is not simply an out of power move by Trump. It is also an in power move. One of the many examples include limiting or blocking COVID-19 resources to blue states during the height of the pandemic. Of course, he was only mimicking Congressional Republicans who consistently voted against disaster funds for blue states while being the 1st in line to request federal disaster aid for the their own states. Unfortunately the cruelty and hypocrisy will not end if Trump loses in November. But maybe it will be a beginning of the end.
trump's demand for the SAVE Act+6-month-CR vote yesterday was also a loyalty test for the Rs. Quite a few of them evidently didn't care about flunking. That should give the trump campaign something to think about.
How about the Dems run an add with Trump talking to Musk about firing workers who strike. What a bunch of racist mysoginists. Let’s not forget these guys have wives who hopefully are secretly supporting Kamala for all the reasons mentioned. But especially on the women’s rights to control their own body. I thought we were in trouble with their vote when the president of the Teamsters spoke at the RNC. Small set back. We must remain positive and remember how far we have come since Joe Biden bravely stepped aside.
While their numbers are not huge, to see a woman in the driver's seat of 18-wheeler is not exactly a rare phenomenon these days. And, while Trump is reportedly the choice of the majority of men, the counterpart for men in traditionally "female" jobs is the profession of nursing. It would be interesting to see the canvassing results of these two groups voters on their preferences for POTUS.
Yes, the rest of the union movement--including the largest unions--are sticking with Harris. Think culinary workers in Nevada, a key swing state. The UAW, now a strong presence in the South.
The Teamsters have only succeeded in sowing division in their own ranks. So much for solidarity forever.
Two things stand out in Trump's commentary on his debate performance. Doesn't it seem bad to be corrected so many times ("practically everything I said")? That just means you lied a whole bunch. Who would brag about that? And, as was pointed out, the second thing is that there was no audience. Just one more thing that Trump needs to be corrected on.
Suffering in the service of stupidity: Whack! Thank you Mr Trump may I have another? Whack! Thank you...
Trump doesn't like unions, he told Elon musk that he should fire strikers. Where is Biden, Trump and Vance are everywhere .It is a big mistake for Harris and Biden to let these guys take the limelight.
Had to look up “kayfabe” for the umpteenth time, but glad I did. PERFECT description of what’s going on (not getting done) in this Congress.
Shame on the Teamsters. I fear racism, and possibly even more misogyny, may have a real impact. After Hillary lost voters (often women) told me that they liked her but we shouldn’t have a woman in the White House. Terrific. (Grinding of teeth.)
This whole political situation in Congress is mind-blowingly messed up. How can a politician no longer in office dictate the voting in the House? I still have a very hard time digesting the fact that the bulk of the Republicans would rather help one man for the sake of their careers than do the right thing for the country. Surely what Trump and Vance do to harm the country crosses the line into treason?
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien is a moron who should be ousted from his position. He exemplifies precisely the same characteristics killing the Republican Party – the utter lack of courage to lead.
Who gives a shit what internal polls say? You should be educating people about the absolute inanity of not supporting Harris, an taking a chance on Trump being elected. Regardless, your job as a workers' union is to do what's in the best financial and employment interest of your members, not cater to their cultural grievances because they're too ignorant to understand how badly Trump stabbed them in the back last time.
But apparently, much like Republican politicians, Sean O'Brien has no intention of actually leading his union. I guess his job must come with some really nice perks that he wants to protect, and so he's acting like a politician. He'd better hope that Trump doesn't get elected, because without the Teamsters' actual endorsement, Trump will happily let the union fend for itself, and go back to stacking the NLRB and the courts with anti-union lackeys.
And then maybe his members might actually find out one day how bad he screwed them. See how they take to having it blamed on them; we all know how big MAGA is on personal responsibility.
After all, the buck always stops with Donnie Rotten, right?
Thinking of the idiocy of the SAVE Act, does anybody remember the REAL ID Act? Passed in 2005 with an original implementation date of 2008, and just extended again last week to 2027. What makes anyone think the SAVE Act, which essentially duplicates REAL ID is going to be ready in days? Or even necessary, but that’s another kettle of rotting fish.
Unfortunately, Sununu just signed into law just such a requirement for proof-of-citizenship to vote in NH, and there is a possibility that a loophole may uphold it, unlike other states who have had it struck down. It will not be enacted until after the General Election, but having the change made now means more confusion for people wanting to register to vote in NH, Five states plus NH (and a couple of the territories) have an exemption to the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, because either they have no voter-registration requirements or have election-day voter registration at polling places with respect to elections for federal office. Most states have extended its procedures to all elections.
The NVRA requires states to accept a universal federal voter registration card, which asks for a unique identification number like a Social Security number or driver’s license number but does not require proof-of-citizenship documentation. Instead, applicants attest/sign documentation upon penalty of perjury that they are citizens, with deportation as a possible punishment.
It’s such a scam that our state legislators are spending so much time (and money) on trying to disenfranchise our state’s voters. According to NH State Senator Gray (R), in the 2016 presidential election 230 out of almost 900,000 ballots cast had people who signed affidavits but were not able to be located after the election at a given address. Of course, no one ever moves or has mail delivered to a wrong address or something similar when it came time to return the address verification material (if you get it), so this miniscule number of POSSIBLE infractions means you need to pull up the drawbridge and fill the moat with alligators. As it stands, New Hampshire has no early voting, no pre-processing of absentee ballots (except for the COVID elections), and no on-line registration.
What an embarrassment these people are.
There's UAW Shawn. Then there's Teamsters Sean.
I'm a union guy. And I'll take the car guy over the truck guy. All day, every day. And twice on Sunday.
Full disclosure: I'm a UAW skilled trades retiree, having gone to work in a GM plant more than 50 years ago and staying there for nearly 34 years, weathering layoffs and call backs and layoffs again, a protracted strike and continuous downsizing until a spin-off bankruptcy forced me to seek employment in small non-union shops in my area for the next nearly two decades.
But my affinity for Shawn Fain isn't because he's UAW and O'Brien's a Teamster. It's because Shawn Fain is the first UAW president worth a damn since a Scottish-American fellow named Doug Fraser, who when asked by the press his opinion of GM's Chairman and CEO during the fraught, very contentious contract negotiations of 1982, replied very clearly and without any hesitation, "Roger Smith is a horse's ass."
And he was. I didn't need that drama queen Michael Moore and his so-called documentary to tell me that.
Shawn Fain may not be calling anyone a horse's ass. (He did call Trump a "scab".) But he obviously knows one when he sees one, considering his and the UAW's endorsement for president and what political convention he chose to attend and to speak at.
Sean O'Brien, on the other hand, seems to know only how to act like one when it comes to who he chooses to play political footsie with and who he does or doesn't support for president. All in the interest of working people. Of course.
But in this particular election, what about professional people? And retired people? Infirm people and people struggling just to get by? What about *all* the people in America - regardless of their economic class or social status - who cherish their right to live in freedom and govern themselves through our democratic process?
Both UAW Shawn and Teamster Sean wear glasses. Maybe someone's prescription is just out of date, and he'd see things more clearly if he'd take care of that.
Or, maybe someone other than one of the two candidates is just a horse's ass.
I believe Teamsters has a larger male membership. It’s super irritating that this group of members is willing to potentially weaken ALL union members for trump who is clearly not for unions.
The GoP has spent the last few decades working hard to destroy unions. This is not an opinion, but fact.
Convicted Felon Trump is clearly not a friend to unions, given his record as a businessman and as a politician. Again, you can look this stuff up.
BUT the Teamsters are neutral on Trump vs. Harris, for some reason (this was pushed down to the fact that the actual membership doesn't like Harris, though they seemed to like Biden).
So.... you favored the guy who was orginally running, the administration that was actually doing things for workers and unions, but you do not favor his VP, another left of center Democrat, whose polcies (as expressed) would be largely the same nd favorable to you and your organiztion... because of "cultural conservatism."
Now, I am reasonably sure that the Teamster's leadership knows which side of the bread has butter on it. I am also pretty sure that they do not want to tick off their membership (which is largely white and male), so they opted for neutrality--like all politicians do (because Teamster leadership is politicians, even if they started out as Working Joes).
It makes you wonder how unions HAVE survived in America given the blatant stupidity displayed by membership at times.
Really getting tired of seeing "cultural conservatism" not being called out for what it often is.
As a rhetorician and a student of human behavior, I understand why this is done--but doing this kind of puts you in a cleft stick. It creates a permission structure to just continue along as you are (because cultural conservatism is "respectable" while being racist, sexist, or religionist is not--though religion often seems to get something of a pass because, religion).
BUT if you call people out on it, you create an oppositional structure. even when you are "quiet" about it--like creating policies against harrassment or enforcing laws against it or trying to educate people about it) you usually get strong opposition--particularly when it is turned into a partisan political issue.
The problem is that NOT calling out the behavior in clear terms doesn't seem to have worked well, either.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Continual work and education and creating substantive norms is required to counteract the natural tendency of humans to turn pretty much everything into Us/Them.
Hopefully, a lot of those Trump-supporting Teamsters will be on the road, far from their voting polls, on Election Day. And we know that they wouldn't have mailed in their ballots as that requires planning and forethought, something I have a feeling they aren't that good at. (Plus Trump has told them mail-in ballots are bad.)
Seriously, this is pure class bigotry. What makes you think that teamsters can't plan or think? There is a reason they support Trump: they dislike snobs.
Sorry--Trump supporters bring out the worst in me. As far as "class" snobbery, most of them probably make more money than me---thanks to their union!
Lincoln Project, Quickly get out an ad re how many States recounted the 2020 Votes plus the cost to taxpayers and found ZERO unauthorized Immigrants trying to vote. Also publicize the pain of a Government Shutdown to each and every one of us. We need to run these imaginary ads in every Congressional District these Clowns represent!!!
That’s one thing people overlook, the wasted tax dollars as well as donations to groups like Audubon that have to use the money for lawsuits and not for activities supporting birds.
Inflicting pain on ordinary people if he believes it will advance his political interests is not simply an out of power move by Trump. It is also an in power move. One of the many examples include limiting or blocking COVID-19 resources to blue states during the height of the pandemic. Of course, he was only mimicking Congressional Republicans who consistently voted against disaster funds for blue states while being the 1st in line to request federal disaster aid for the their own states. Unfortunately the cruelty and hypocrisy will not end if Trump loses in November. But maybe it will be a beginning of the end.
trump's demand for the SAVE Act+6-month-CR vote yesterday was also a loyalty test for the Rs. Quite a few of them evidently didn't care about flunking. That should give the trump campaign something to think about.
How about the Dems run an add with Trump talking to Musk about firing workers who strike. What a bunch of racist mysoginists. Let’s not forget these guys have wives who hopefully are secretly supporting Kamala for all the reasons mentioned. But especially on the women’s rights to control their own body. I thought we were in trouble with their vote when the president of the Teamsters spoke at the RNC. Small set back. We must remain positive and remember how far we have come since Joe Biden bravely stepped aside.
While their numbers are not huge, to see a woman in the driver's seat of 18-wheeler is not exactly a rare phenomenon these days. And, while Trump is reportedly the choice of the majority of men, the counterpart for men in traditionally "female" jobs is the profession of nursing. It would be interesting to see the canvassing results of these two groups voters on their preferences for POTUS.
Yes, the rest of the union movement--including the largest unions--are sticking with Harris. Think culinary workers in Nevada, a key swing state. The UAW, now a strong presence in the South.
The Teamsters have only succeeded in sowing division in their own ranks. So much for solidarity forever.