Just another ordinary week for the GOP
Plus, a new chapter in Hot Labor Summer.
WHAT YOU MISSED
We know you saw the mugshot. We all saw the mugshot. But did you see the wolf man supporting the judicial prosecution of Trump outside the Fulton County jail?
Another man, flanked by pro-Trump protestors near the carceral complex in northwest Atlanta, said he had filed for a citizen’s arrest of Fulton County DA Fani Willis. “This is a weaponization of law enforcement,” he told local TV, dressed in a suit similar to the former president. “These are the tactics of a banana republic.” Sure, yeah. Whatever.
Just a day prior to his viral booking, Trump conducted a bizarre interview with former Fox News host and Totally Normal Guy Tucker Carlson, despite the latter’s well-documented, passionate hatred for the former. The dynamic duo, in a discussion posted on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), had an exhaustingly trite discourse on everything from Jeffery Epstein conspiracies and the possibility of civil war in America to President Biden’s ability to walk on sand (?) and the number of people killed by mosquitos during the construction of the Panama Canal (??). Truly a meeting of the minds.
Meanwhile, if you decided to avoid intentionally giving yourself a concussion — also known as watching the first GOP presidential primary debate — well, it’s hard to say who the “winner” is. The ability of Trump (who was not at the debate) to run for office either from prison or at trial is unclear, but he is blatantly the frontrunner.
Maybe it’s my elite, liberal media bias showing, but nobody on stage gave the impression that they have a chance in hell of becoming the nominee. Nikki Haley seemed like she was running in the 2012 Republican primary, Chris Christie sounded like he was auditioning for a job at MSNBC, Mike Pence advertised his resilience in the face of the Capitol riot (yet said he would support a Trump nomination), sexy newcomer Vivek Ramaswamy appeared to be auditioning for vice president or the 2028 race and Ron DeSantis looked uncomfortable, uninspiring and failed to distinguish himself from anybody on the stage, let alone Trump. To the rest of the field, Asa Hutchinson and Doug Burgum: I implore you to return to whatever weird hole you crawled out of.
Oh, and Tim Scott was just really happy to be there!
Auto workers announce intention to strike if demands aren’t met
Today, the United Auto Workers (UAW), led by their new, militant president Shawn Fain, voted to authorize a strike after Sept. 14 — when their contract with auto manufacturers with Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis expires — in the event that a fresh contract does not meet their stipulations. So far, there seems to be quite a bit of distance between the industry’s workers and its bosses: UAW members are fighting for a 40% raise that mirrors what their CEOs have seen in recent years.
The UAW rank-and-file is also demanding the elimination of the tier system (which creates two separate classes of workers within labor contracts), an entrenchment of pension and retirement-age medical benefits, the implementation of Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA) into the agreement and more paid time off. Such requests come as once-fragile, American auto manufacturers like Ford rake in billions in quarterly earnings.
As the labor reporter Alex Press pointed out in a recent profile of Fain, the union’s position on wages isn’t unreasonable by any stretch:
“On wages, Fain said that the union is proposing double-digit raises. He drew a contrast between autoworkers’ pay and that of auto executives,” Press explained in an article for Jacobin. “GM CEO Mary Barra received $29 million in compensation in 2022, while an entry-level worker at GM’s joint-venture Ultium Cells battery plant in northeast Ohio makes $16.50 an hour.”
A hypothetical UAW shutdown of some plants comes just days after UPS workers, represented by the Teamsters, used the threat of a strike to win similar provisions being proposed by organized auto workers.