« Back

Open Thread October 5, 2023 – 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers Strike

Angry Bear | October 5, 2023 6:30 am

Hot Topics

US Economics

Wednesday (October 4, 2023) found more than 75,000 union employees of Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health providers, walked off the job, marking the largest health care worker strike in US history. Kaiser Permanente unionized health care workers go on strike across dozens of locations, cnn.com, Samantha Delouya.

Open Thread – NPs and PAs are Handling Primary Care Visits, Angry Bear

11 Comments

Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 5, 2023 at 9:07 am

To the World, McCarthy’s Exit Is Just Another Example of US Disarray

NY Times – Peter Baker – Oct 5

There was a time, not that long ago, when the United States presumed to teach the world how it was done. When it held itself up as a model of a stable, predictable democracy. When it sent idealistic young avatars to distant parts of the globe to impart the American way.

These days, to many watching at home and abroad, the American way no longer seems to offer a case study in effective representative democracy. Instead, it has become an example of disarray and discord, one that rewards extremism, challenges norms and threatens to divide a polarized country even further.

The Republican uprising that led to the ouster of a House speaker for the first time in American history would be enough of a disruption. But the upheaval on Capitol Hill comes as a former president sits in a New York courtroom, already judged to be a fraud, while using increasingly violent language and pushing the limits of a gag order. At the same time, military aid to stop Russian invaders in Ukraine has been held up by a vocal G.O.P. minority in Congress, and another government shutdown looms next month.

The institutions that were already strained during Donald J. Trump’s presidency now face a series of profound stress tests. Can the courts maintain public faith and deal credibly with a former president running for his old job who has been accused of so many crimes it is hard to keep track? Can Congress get its act together enough to simply pick a leader, much less address vexing issues like immigration, spending, climate change and gun violence? Can the presidency in the hands of an aging traditional politician like President Biden be a tool to heal the wounds of society? …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 5, 2023 at 9:08 am
  
  Mr. Biden, for his part, emphasized on Wednesday his commitment to trying as he vowed to work with whoever emerges as the replacement for the deposed Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy. “More than anything, we need to change the poisonous atmosphere in Washington,” Mr. Biden said. “I know we have strong disagreements, but we need to stop seeing each other as enemies. We need to talk to one another, listen to one another, work with one another. And we can do that.”
  
  Not many others in Washington shared his optimism. And that certainly was not the message of his putative rival, Mr. Trump. Outside the courtroom in New York on Wednesday, the former president proved undaunted by the gag order as he attacked the judge who imposed it. “He’s run by the Democrats,” Mr. Trump claimed. “Our whole system is corrupt. This is corrupt. Atlanta is corrupt. And what’s coming out of D.C. is corrupt.”
  
  The former president has long chosen provocation over peacemaking. But in recent weeks, he has escalated the violence of his rhetoric. He threatened to investigate NBC News for “treason” if he gets back in office, mocked the husband of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi who was attacked in their home, called for shoplifters to be shot on sight and implied that Gen. Mark A. Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, should be executed as a traitor. “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” he wrote on social media in August.
  
  Mr. Trump’s brand of burn-the-house-down politics played a role in this week’s meltdown among House Republicans, inspiring the far-right rebels who took down Mr. McCarthy. But the Republicans have been building to this moment since before Mr. Trump won the presidency. The ultraconservatives in their conference effectively pressured two previous Republican speakers to leave, albeit without the spectacle of the vote that formally toppled Mr. McCarthy on Tuesday. …
- paddy says:
  
  October 5, 2023 at 10:14 am
  
  Predictable is not always consistent with “democracy”
  - Fred C. Dobbs says:
    
    October 5, 2023 at 10:31 am
    
    Hmmm. Chaos is always unpredictable, yes.
    
    That’s what the MAGA GOP is all about.
    
    MAGA-inspired House rebellion leaves chaos on Capitol Hill
    
    ABC News – Oct 3
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 5, 2023 at 9:13 am

Bannon Stokes the Republican Party Meltdown

NY Times – Oct 4

On Wednesday morning, two Republicans who hours earlier had toppled Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House made a well-worn trek to a 19th-century brick townhouse a few blocks away from the Capitol and entered the cluttered sanctuary of Stephen K. Bannon’s recording studio.

Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida, the instigator of the rebellion, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of seven other Republican defectors, huddled with Mr. Bannon for a morning meeting ahead of a joint appearance on his “War Room” podcast.

“Tectonic plate shift here in the imperial capital,” Mr. Bannon told his listeners at showtime, while directing them to donate to his guests online. “We must stand in the breach now. We have to lance the boil that is K Street in this nation.”

From this cavelike studio not far from where Congress meets, Mr. Bannon, the former Trump adviser, has been stoking the chaos now gripping the Republican Party, capitalizing on the spectacle to build his own following and using his popular podcast to prop up and egg on the G.O.P. rebels.

Mr. Bannon has spent years promoting the lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald J. Trump, railing against coronavirus mandates and what he refers to as a “criminal invasion of the southern border.” His obsession of late was toppling Mr. McCarthy and taking out what he describes as “uniparty” Republicans who have become indistinguishable from Democrats.

With Mr. McCarthy’s historic downfall this week, his wing of the party has claimed its most prominent trophy.

Mr. Bannon represents a clear through line from the grievance-driven MAGA base to Congress. And his role in the meltdown that played out this week in the House helps explain why the Republican Party appears to be eating its own. He is a vital part of a feedback loop of red-meat media hits and social media posts, online fund-raising and unfettered preaching to an often angry and fervently right-wing base that rewards disruptions and detests institutions. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 5, 2023 at 10:41 am

Is this anything?

China’s E.V. Threat: A Carmaker That Loses $35,000 a Car

NY Times – Oct 5

Nio, a Chinese electric car company that competes with Tesla, employs 11,000 people in research and development, but sells a mere 8,000 cars per month.

It has invested so extensively in robots that one of its factories employs just 30 technicians to make 300,000 electric car motors a year. Nio offers $350 augmented reality glasses for each seat in its cars, and has introduced a cellphone that interacts with the car’s self-driving system.

And none of it is profitable — far from it. Nio lost $835 million from April through June, or $35,000 for each car it sold. …

Today Nio embodies China’s dominance of electric vehicle innovation and manufacturing, underlining its threat to traditional auto powers in Europe and the United States.

The strike by the United Automobile Workers union against three Detroit carmakers, now in its third week, is at its heart a conflict over electric vehicles: The companies say they must invest billions of dollars to retool their operations, while workers say they must defend their jobs from automation and technology while increasing their pay.

On Wednesday, European politicians worried by a wave of Chinese exports formally launched an investigation into whether electric car manufacturers in China have received government subsidies, a step that could lead Europe to impose tariffs. China’s E.V. exports have surged 851 percent in the past three years, mainly to Europe. The inquiry by the European Union is geopolitically complicated: Many of Europe’s most important companies have ties to China’s market, and China is ready to retaliate.

China’s Ministry of Commerce denounced the inquiry on Wednesday, calling it “naked protectionist behavior that will seriously disrupt and distort the supply chain of the global automotive industry chain.” …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 5, 2023 at 7:51 pm
  
  Alabama Is Ordered to Use Map With Two Districts That Empower Black Voters
  
  NY Times – just in
  
  A federal court ordered Alabama on Thursday to use a new congressional map that could lead the state to elect two Black representatives for the first time in its history, by creating a second district with close to a majority of Black voters.
  
  The order, the culmination of a nearly two-year fight over the Republican-dominated state’s illegal dilution of Black voting power, could also see Democrats pick up a seat in the state, at a moment when Republicans control the House of Representatives by a thin margin.
  
  A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama approved a map that increases the percentage of Black voters in one of the state’s six majority-white congressional districts to 48.7 percent, up from about 30 percent, while preserving the state’s one existing majority-Black district. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 8, 2023 at 11:39 am

Hot Topics?

I tried placing these under one of the fresh posts tagged ‘Hot Topics’, but they were deleted.

Trying again, in this fairly out of the way corner…

More Than 900 Dead After Hamas Attack and Israel’s Retaliation

More than 30 hours after a surge from Gaza, Israel’s military said its forces were still battling gunmen on Israeli territory.

Around 600 people have been killed in Israel, an official told The Times. The death toll in Gaza is at least 370, according to Palestinian authorities.

Israel Battles Militants as Netanyahu Warns of Long War

NY Times – Oct 8

More than 30 hours after militants from Gaza surged across the border, Israel’s military said its forces were still battling gunmen on Israeli territory. Around 600 people have been killed, according to a senior Israeli defense official.

Nostradamus predicted new ‘great war’ and ‘evil doing’ in 2023 as Israel hit by rockets

Daily Star (UK) – Oct 7

A chilling prophecy by Nostradamus may have come true after Israel declared a state of war today, with the French philosopher predicting a World War Three event would take place this year.

(Previously, the Nostradamus prediction was linked to China attacking Taiwan, but that is yet to happen. So far, so good?)
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 8, 2023 at 11:44 am
  
  Here’s the latest on the fighting in Israel and Gaza
  
  NY Times – just in
  
  Israel’s military said its forces were still battling gunmen from Gaza on Israeli territory on Sunday afternoon, more than 30 hours after the initial surge of armed militants across the border as part of the broadest invasion in 50 years.
  
  The ongoing fighting came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a “long and difficult war” ahead, saying in a statement that Israeli forces were moving into an “offensive phase, which will continue with neither limitations nor respite until the objectives are achieved.”
  
  A senior Israeli defense official said that an early assessment showed that about 600 Israelis were believed to have been killed on Saturday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly. At least 370 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
  
  The land, sea and air assault on Israel launched by Palestinian militants on Saturday prompted Israel to respond with heavy strikes on Gazan cities, which continued into Sunday morning. …
- Fred C. Dobbs says:
  
  October 8, 2023 at 12:35 pm
  
  Israel formally declares war against Hamas as hundreds killed on both sides
  
  The Washington Post – just in
  
  BEIRUT — Israel formally declared war against Hamas on Sunday, opening the way for a major escalation in fighting, a day after a surprise assault killed at least 600 Israelis. Reprisals by the Israeli military have killed at least 370 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
  
  The authorization of war by the Israeli cabinet would allow the government to carry out a wider mobilization of military reserves and use more military options. It also compels the government to identify specific wartime objectives, raising the specter of a ground invasion of Gaza. …
Fred C. Dobbs says:

October 8, 2023 at 12:00 pm

“Already an embarrassment”: Legal experts shred Judge Aileen Cannon for granting Trump “delay”

Salon – Oct 6

The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump’s classified documents case on Friday temporarily paused a series of significant pre-trial deadlines pertaining to prosecutors’ sharing of sensitive materials that the former president is entitled to while building his defense, The Messenger reports.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon authorized a paperless order delaying the deadlines she’d previously set for October 2023 through May 2024, when the trial for Trump and his three co-defendants in the case is scheduled to start in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Though Cannon’s order doesn’t address the May 20 start date for the trial itself, it does state that all of the scheduled deadlines connected to classified information are on hold “pending consideration and resolution” of a Trump motion proposing a new timeline that was filed last month.

That Sept. 22 filing accused special counsel Jack Smith’s team of making “unjust efforts…to foist rushed CIPA litigation on the Court, President Trump, and his co-defendants.” …