Making America Unemployed Again

Red denotes counties to be hardest hit.  The darker the red, the greater the harm. 

The last time the United States got itself embroiled in a worldwide trade war was in 1930.  It did not end well for the American economy or for the world economy.  It's one of the lessons of history that the mental midget occupying the White House likely knows nothing about. Ditto for most of his staff and cabinet members who are little more than boot licking sycophants. The irony of the trade war Der Trumpenführer has ignited will fall disproportionately on his base.  China and other countries responding with retaliatory tariffs are targeting Trump supporting counties and states with laser precision. As the Wall Street Journal (read the entire piece) reports:

The [Chinese] retaliatory tariffs will fall especially hard—affecting more than 25% of a county’s economy—in nearly 20% of the counties that voted for Trump, affecting eight million people. Only 3% of the counties that voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton, with a total population of 1.1 million, would be so heavily hit.

The piece has an interactive map where one can check the impact on every county in the United States. In Virginia, Southwest Virginia - Trump country - will be hit the hardest. Do I have any sympathy for the victims of Trump's idiocy?  For the adults, none whatsoever.  But I do feel sadness for children and youths who be harmed by the consequences of those who answered Trump's calls to racism and bigotry. One can only hope that they will come to realize their misfortune tracks to their parents and Trump.  

Among the industries likely brutalized as a result of Trump's peevish, narcissistic desire to "win" are the auto industry and Midwest agriculture concerns.  Many farmers in Iowa who sold their souls to Trump's racist appeals may find themselves losing their farms or at minimum in dire financial straights. Again, I feel little sympathy inasmuch as the harm was self-induced.  A lengthy piece in the New York Times looks at the harm and job loses likely coming to the auto industry - plus the increased costs every American consumer will suffer - all so Trump's ego can be satiated.  May the suffering of his base be swift and extremely painful.  Here are article excerpts:

It used to be a refrain of the Republican faithful that the government shouldn’t be in the business of picking winners and losers where industry and technology are concerned.

As President Trump’s global trade war escalates, with the latest round of tariffs going into effect on Friday, his administration is doing just that. The new wrinkle is that it is no longer clear who is being set up to triumph or fail. Tariffs directed at products from one country — whether that’s steel from Canada and China or cars from Italy — are just as likely to affect American companies and hurt their workers.

The global auto industry relies on supply chains that were built on the free movement of parts and goods. Suppliers, dealers and car manufacturers in the United States and other countries are petrified by the damage that the tariffs could do to their businesses.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade group for domestic and foreign automakers with operations in the United States, predicts that a 25 percent tariff on imported cars, the high end of what has been proposed, could increase the average price of a new imported vehicle by $5,800. . . . . increased vehicle costs will lead to fewer sales and less tax receipts, fewer sales will lead to fewer jobs, and those fewer jobs will significantly impact many communities and families across the country,” the alliance warned in its June 27 comments to the Commerce Department.

One of America’s Big Three automakers, Fiat Chrysler, which operates 23 plants and employs 56,000 people in the United States, is an Italian-American company incorporated in the Netherlands with headquarters in Britain. It builds its strong-selling Jeep Renegade model in Italy, China and Brazil. The company stands to lose as much as $866 million in profit, according to one estimate, if a 25 percent tariff on cars from the European Union goes into effect.

Foreign carmakers with factories in America, including BMW and Volvo in South Carolina, Mercedes and Hyundai in Alabama, Subaru in Indiana, plus Toyota and Honda, which operate plants in several states, also stand to suffer, along with all of their suppliers. A study by the Peterson Institute found that 195,000 jobs will be lost if the tariffs are enacted and 624,000 lost if retaliatory tariffs follow.

The prospect of tariff-induced job losses, however, is not just hypothetical. Harley-Davidson, the Wisconsin-based motorcycle maker, could be a bellwether.

Harley sales have been in decline in the United States for years. Its bikes are big, fat, noisy and technologically backward, and the company has been too slow to make the lighter, more modern motorcycles that appeal to younger, more technically sophisticated American buyers. Japanese and European motorcycle makers have excelled at this.

Yet, ironically, sales for Harley-Davidson have been steady in Europe, the company’s second-biggest market, while dropping 8.5 percent in the United States in 2017. Those European sales were helping to support hundreds of workers in the United States, along with assembly plants in Australia, Brazil, India and Thailand.

One of Harley’s rivals, the Iowa-based Polaris, is also considering moving some production to Poland in response to the retaliatory European levies.

Tariffs are like a long train of boxcars; each one is filled with unintended consequences that can knock into the next with devastating consequences. The names on the factories may be foreign, but the workers who stand to lose their jobs are right here in America.

Chrysler Joins Push for LGBT Non-Discrimination Protections

Based on Chrysler's announcement that it is joining with  Michigan's two largest regional chambers of commerce to push for expanded non-discrimination protections for LGBT Michigan citizens, it is safe to predict that the hate group American Family Association and its putative One Million Bitches Moms will be launching a boycott against the auto manufacturer.  Yet, Chrysler is not apologizing and has stated that expanded non-discrimination protections for LGBT citizens are a business issue. Just as noted many times on this blog, the lack of such protections impedes the ability of businesses, cities and states to attract the best and brightest talent.   Here are highlights from Gay South Florida:

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. -- Chrysler and Michigan's two largest regional chambers of commerce on Thursday joined a business-backed push for an update of state law to prohibit discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity, an issue Gov. Rick Snyder said lawmakers should consider later this year.

"It's a business issue," said Rick Baker, president and CEO of the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. "We've had companies in our area express concern about their ability to attract and retain talent. We wanted to address their concerns ... and create a climate where everyone feels welcome in Michigan."

The announcement at the Detroit Regional Chamber's Mackinac Policy Conference was no accident. The annual gathering attracts more than 1,500 of the state's top business, political and civic leaders, and Snyder — in his strongest comments to date — said he opposes discrimination and urged legislators to consider the issue later this year.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2014/05/chrysler-joins-push-to-bar-anti-gay-discrimination.html#storylink=cpy

Under Michigan law, it is illegal to discriminate based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status or marital status. Efforts to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list have stalled because of Republicans' concerns about infringing on employers' religious freedom.

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2014/05/chrysler-joins-push-to-bar-anti-gay-discrimination.html#storylink=cpy

Earlier this month, AT&T, Blue Cross Blue Shield and other companies launched the coalition to push for adding legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Those who signed on Thursday on Mackinac Island also include Kellogg, Pfizer and other businesses.

Brad Williams, vice president of government relations for the Detroit Regional Chamber, said it is time to address the law that people view as discriminatory.

"We know that the Legislature needs to hear from the business community to push this issue up to the top," he said. "We plan on spending the summer talking to them a lot on the issue, and we're hopeful that come fall we'll be able to take it up and get the issue off the table."

Sadly, no matter how much common sense LGBT employment protections make from a business point of view, the Christofascist will never willingly support them because an inherent part of the Christofascist mindset is a perverse sick need to condemn and discriminate against others.   Simply put, they are not nice or decent people.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/29/4144638/chrysler-others-join-effort-to.html#storylink=cpyS

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/29/4144638/chrysler-others-join-effort-to.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/gaysouthflorida/2014/05/chrysler-joins-push-to-bar-anti-gay-discrimination.html#storylink=cpy

 

Chrysler CEO Pushes Back on Romney Lies - GM Joins Push Back

UPDATED:  Not only has Mitt Romney been lying about Chrysler, he's also been lying about events and job lay offs at General Motors.  Here are highlights from Politico as GM calls out Romney for his lies:

Via the Detroit Free Press, Mitt Romney's auto bailout Ohio radio ad is prompting some pushback from General Motors:

“We've clearly entered some parallel universe during these last few days,” GM spokesman Greg Martin said. “No amount of campaign politics at its cynical worst will diminish our record of creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country.”

The ad's contention about the jobs lost under GM is what Martin pushed back on — the ad says the company cut 15,000 jobs "under President Obama" but is going to double China production. The majority of those job losses, the Free Press says, took place ahead of the restructuring through the bailout.

The spot implies the auto bailout, which is popular in parts of the Midwest, was a mistake. As the Atlantic's Molly Ball notes, the messaging from Romney has been blurry on this subject — he has called the bailout bad while also saying it was his initial idea to call for a bakruptcy process.

I have been active in politics for many years and I truly do not believe that I've ever seen any politician more willing to simply outright lie than Mitt Romney.  It's one thing to different on interpretations of data or policies.  It is something totally different to just flat out lie.  Yet that is precisely what Mitt Romney is doing in an ad that claims that Chrysler is planning to move jobs manufacturing Jeeps to China.  It's simply not true, but that means nothing to Romney and his morally bankrupt campaign.  Politico reports on Chrysler's push back against Romney's baldfaced lie.  Here are highlights:

The Toledo Blade reports on the latest turn of the screw in the auto-related debate that has overshadowed the final week of the race in Ohio:

Chrysler Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne circulated an email to Chrysler Group LLC employees today strongly restating the automaker's promise that it will not move existing U.S. production of Jeeps to China.

In the email, Mr. Marchionne said he felt obligated to again address the company's production plans over continuing "public debate."

The note did not directly reference politics or the presidential election, but Chrysler's plans for Jeep have become a major political talking point over the past week, especially in Ohio. Speaking in Defiance last week, Republican candidate Mitt Romney seized on a misrepresentation of a Bloomberg story, suggesting that Chrysler was considering moving existing Jeep production to China.

Romney has stuck with the Jeep-related line of attack against Obama, though in a modified form that only implies — rather than stating explicitly — that Chrysler might move jobs from Ohio to China. It's a decision that has puzzled Republicans both in and outside Ohio: after letting Obama dominate the auto-bailout debate on the airwaves for months, Romney has re-engaged the auto fight at the last minute on less-than-firm footing, with an attack that now has Chrysler weighing in against him.

Frankly, it is to a point where if I were talking to Romney face to face and he said it was raining outside, I'd want to go look out the window and confirm it before I took the statement as true.  The man is a pathological liar.  We cannot afford putting such a totally dishonest man in the White House.

Exposing More Romney Lies About the Auto Industry

Mitt Romney continues to spin lies about both what he wrote in his November 18, 2008, op-ed in the New York Times and what Barack Obama has done to revive the U.S. auto industry.  Signs like this need to not only blanket the Mid-West by every state.  An Obama ad adds this:

When the auto industry faced collapse, Mitt Romney turned his back. Even the conservative Detroit News criticized Romney for his 'wrong-headedness' on the bailout. And now, after Romney's false claim of Jeep outsourcing to China, Chrysler itself has refuted Romney's lie. The truth? Jeep is adding jobs in Ohio.

 Here are highlights from Chrysler's statement:

Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation. A careful and unbiased reading of the Bloomberg take would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments. 

Chrysler Closing All 30 Plants for One Month

Just as in the real estate industry the inability to obtain loans is causing a melt down of unsold homes and foreclosures to continue unchecked, so to the credit freeze is also killing the auto industry with USA based companies faring the worse. Even though the U.S. government has poured billions of dollars into supporting lenders, the lenders are NOT passing along credit to qualified would be borrowers. Personally, I think it's about time that the lenders receiving bailouts be told that they either get back into the lending business or else the supports will be withdrawn and they will be closed down. Adding to the egregiousness of the situation is the greed of incompetent CEO who ran their companies into the ground yet who want to walk away with big bonuses. They need to be fired as a condition of bailout assistance. Here are highlights from the Washington Post on the Chrysler shut down:

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Chrysler announced today that it will close all 30 of its auto manufacturing plants for at least a month starting at the end of shifts on Friday as it tries to conserve cash and avoid bankruptcy amid plunging demand for its vehicles. . . . It blamed its current difficulties largely on customers' inability to obtain financing to purchase new vehicles and said tight credit markets were discouraging would-be buyers.

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Chrysler's decision follows a 47 percent drop in U.S. sales in November. Because of customers' difficulties in obtaining car loans, Chrysler dealers say they are increasingly unable to close deals and that sales volumes have plummeted. For the first 11 months of this year, Chrysler sales are down nearly 28 percent from the same period last year. Now, Chrysler says, it is approaching the minimum level of cash it needs and will have trouble paying its bills after Jan. 1.

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I am not a fan of the Big Three's refusal to build cars that are more fuel efficient and friendly to the environment. Nonetheless, the credit debacle is inexcusable.