So, the UAW struck the Big Three this weekend and all hell is breaking loose in Michigan, Ohio, and Kentucky. The big question: can the unions get what they want from the rich and entrenched auto companies. It’s obvious that the manufacturers can afford what the unions are asking. They have been making staggering profits and, like most American corporations, have not shared the bounty in any equitable way with their workers.
Just look at the Executive Compensation of each company and that will give you an example of what I’m talking about.
The chart below shows that the CEOs of Ford, GM and Stellantis average $26 million in compensation a year. When questioned about this figure Mary Barra CEO of GM claimed that her decision making was worth every penny. Really? Well, maybe if you founded the company and built it to its present position you might be worth a significant fraction of that figure but let’s face it, theirs is a white-collar desk job and nothing more. Sure, they make important decisions but usually nothing earth shattering, certainly worth nothing in the neighborhood of what they get paid.
Yes, the decision-making jobs are individually more important than those of the workers on the line but by a ratio that averages 336 to 1? I think not.
CEO Compensation for the Big 3 auto giants:
GM
CEO- Mary Bara- $ 29M
Median Worker- $80,034.
Pay ratio-362-1
2021 Corporate Earnings – $5 B
Ford
CEO- Jim Farley – $21M
Median worker- $74,681.
Ratio= 281 to 1
2021 Corporate Earnings -$7 B
Stellantis
CEO -Carlos Tavares – $28 Million
Median worker – $67,789
Ratio = 365 to 1
2021 Corporate Earnings- $11.9 B
If you think those compensation figures are fair, there is something radically wrong with your ability to reason.
*****
We should not forget that David Weiss the lead counsel in the nonsense against Hunter Biden is a Trump appointment.
The gun charge has no relationship to any of the tax or investment charges they are trying to attach to him. No reputable lawyer interviewed so far has been able to recall this gun charge ever having been brought against anyone. It’s something you add to a criminal act to make the case more serious.
I find it ridiculous that Trump who is buried in real criminal charges, based in many instances on his own recorded comments, is busy shouting about political prosecution while none of the charges against Biden have been labeled political despite the fact that it’s obvious this is the only reason the GOP is hunting him.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace ( R ) South Carolina makes a strong but invalid reply to this point, arguing that there is evidence of the charges against Hunter and of the his father’s culpability on money charges. But her argument would be much stronger if it wasn’t coming from a Republican voice, since the GOP has lied so much in recent years that it is almost impossible to assign any validity to anything they say. I mean listeners no longer believe the likes of Matt Gaetz when he tells them his name is Matt Gaetz.
*****
Chief of Staff, General Mark Milley was interviewed by Martha Raddatz prior to his retirement next month and he was adamant about the military not getting involved in politics. This is an admirable position, unfortunately it is not shared by many of our staff officers. The problem is, it only works when it is held by an officer who has a firm grip on reality, which is not always the case, as proven by superstar General George Patton. *****
The United States is currently busy recovering from the disaster of the Trump administration, a recovery being led by Joe Biden. Joe will be a hell of a lot more successful in this work if he can get the fractured GOP to stop their bickering and join him in setting the debt limit and avoid shutting down the government. But the GOP is completely riven by the disagreements of the radical right vs the moderates. The Right wants to eviscerate the budget while the moderates want to bring it in at about what McCarthy and Biden agreed on a couple of months ago. The problem is that they are running out of time, and it doesn’t appear as if there is any way to get it done by the September 30thdeadline.
The Democrats are just sitting by and calmly watching, because there is no way they can do this by themselves. So, they have to wait for what is quite possibly the least competent majority in the history of congress to function in even a minimal fashion. And then they will be able to make a deal with them to keep the country afloat. It looks like a long shot to me.
*****
There has certainly been a lot of noise made by the GOP about Biden’s competency. They are quick to point to any signs of inability in his speeches even if they are only due to his stutter or exhaustion from his international schedule. But the other night Trump made a speech to the great intellectually unwashed and not only did he speak to the fact that he won an election against Obama, which he in fact did not. He never ran against Obama, but he lso warned us that Joe Biden’s international policies would lead us to WWII.
Now, there are two explanations for this historical misstep. Either Trump is so stupid he doesn’t get that WWII happened 80 years ago or he is so used to lying about everything that he just didn’t care. Or maybe the reality is that he is losing it far more and faster than the GOP hoped Biden was. On top of all his other reasons not to get vote one for President, we can add that he has lost it and no longer has the mental stability for the job. After all he’s only, four years younger than Biden, and never having been the brightest bulb in the fixture, there’s no reason why we should expect more from him.
*****
And if years of evidence, much of it supplied by Trump himself, aren’t enough for us to understand what a sub-human grotesquery Donald Trump is, maybe this story from the Atlantic, this week will paint a more vivid picture.
It takes place at the ceremony welcoming General Mark Milley as chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the ceremony Milley had requested that Louis Avila, a seriously wounded Army Captain sing God Bless America. After Avila’s appearance Trump approached Milley and said:
“Why do you bring people like that here? Nobody wants to see people like that, the wounded.”
Now, if you don’t want to believe this story, or you can’t believe anyone could be that crude, just think back to Trump’s reaction to the earned adulation of Senator John McCain when he was being praised for his heroism as a prisoner of war during WWII. Don’t forget Trump the draft dodger dismissed this American hero with distain, claiming that he didn’t see any heroism in being a prisoner. Now if that doesn’t paint the picture of Trump as a true scumbag, I don’t see what does.
NB- The Curmudgeon will not be publishing for a couple of weeks. I am escorting the BW, (I stole that from Earl Wilson), to London for a little R&R.
Enjoy the. A ation