Ta, Erik. I always wanted to be a Union Maid, and even though we're in the wrong CBO, I'm very pleased to be retiring this year as a member of a Union. Solidarity forever.
Erik- sgain and again I can't say how much I enjoy your concise summaries of important figures and events in labor history. These are my favorite Wonkette essays 🙂 Sidney Fine's book is an excellent account of the 1937 strike and I have a copy. I think he recounts, for instance the infamous Battle of the Bridge where Walter Ruether and his bodyguard,of the UAW was physically assaulted by strike breakers (actually street thugs,) used by FoMoCo. Ruether and the bodyguard (a huge man) were both hospitalized. The Ford goons remind me a lot of the ICE stormtroopers of the present day. Some things never change 😕
Thank you for this bit of history. I was a kid in Flint in the ‘70s. Fisher Body was still around at that point, and most high school kids went straight to work for GM as UAW members. I had to get up ridiculously early to attend high school so those old enough could go from school to work second shift. It was the only way to keep graduation rates up. In the ‘80s under Reagan GM made the strategic decision to abandon Flint. It pulled out thousands of jobs/year for decades. Unemployment skyrocketed and it became the very exemplar of urban blight that plagues conservative nightmares. Now Fisher Body is gone, leaving a weird blank space in the urban landscape I remember. At least it opened a good view. Nearer my house was AC Spark Plugs, which I worked at as a senior in high school. It was a giant complex that is nothing but an empty concrete pad now.
My great-grandfather was a union organizer who was involved in this strike. I might have a transcript of an interview my dad did with him if I can lay my hands on it.
According to the NYT, a billionaire whose family owns the Ambassador (toll) Bridge linking Canada and Detroit called PAB up a couple of hours before PAB started shit-posting about the (public) bridge project that he's threatening to shut down.
And people say PAB doesn't care about the needs of Americans. Guess he showed you people that he is always willing to improve the lives of billionaires, whether as a group or in individual cases.
[today is also the anniversary of Zulu leaving, and so I spend the day remembering him and looking at pictures and crying and such and things - spare a kind thought for my supergoodboy, please
Grandpa, Grandma and Great Grandpa Bacon were all field organizers for the CIO and helped organize the Steelworkers and United Electrical Workers Unions in the 1930s and 1940s.
I remember Grandma telling me the biggest mistake the CIO made was merging with the AFL. She said after the merger the push to organize was severely weakened.
This tripped a memory for me... My grandparents lived briefly in Flint in 1937 and I wonder if my grandpa came in from Cleveland as an organizer. He never worked in auto plants but was a lifetime union member in the construction trades, and organizing was right up his alley. Anyway, they were miserable in Flint and were very happy to get back to Cleveland and my ten year old dad. Sadly, there's nobody I can ask about this anymore.
My grandfather worked for Ford in their chemistry department (probably experimenting with new paint coatings). During the early thirties Ford laid him off and he moved my mother's family to Ohio where he set up a little gas station and general store near Mechanicsville. When times got better he moved the family to Illinois but never worked for Ford again. Lesson learned I guess.
What hurts me is that all my nephews and nieces are hard core anti-union Republicans...and that would break my great grandfather's and grandparents hearts...
Ot - will someone please like and comment on this so I can see if my notifications are coming through? They haven't been for a week and I thought it was just that nobody was liking or commenting, but that's incorrect. Thank you.
Me too. So old that a bad thing has happened… I count out exact change in my hand like an official old person. I've always used change now and then, but something about the way I do it now is making me think, that person (me!) must have some Werther's on her somewhere! I don't, but…
Haven’t you heard, we’re all going to be neck deep in lobsters and Cadillacs when AI takes over all our jobs and we can enjoy lives of leisure like British landed gentry.
OT I'm still irritated by the commuter train platform's PA. It's AI now, so it says things lile "train xyz departing at four hundred eight pee" instead of "4:08 PM".
OT, but that creepy video of the creepy guy in the creepy mask creeping around Mrs. Guthrie's house was creepy. I think creepy enough that, if I saw him in my house, I would immediately offer and then provide several more holes in his creepy body. At close range.
Deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald confirmed that police have identified the suspect as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who was a resident of Tumbler Ridge.
The suspect was born as a biological male who had started transitioning about six years ago and identified in public and on social media as female.
Police clarified that nine people were killed in total, including the suspect, after a female with significant injuries survived.
A 39-year-old found deceased at the suspect’s family residence was the mother of the suspect, and the 11-year-old victim was the suspect’s step-brother.
The deaths at the private residence occurred first before the suspect went to the high school...
"Police had attended the suspect’s family residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with mental health concerns of the suspect.
This included one police attendance to the home approximately two years ago where firearms were seized under the criminal code. The lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for them to be returned, and they were..."
We cry and mourn for the victims and their families, we support them, while hugging and supporting the trans community, cause we all know what's coming.
I can listen to Representative Crockett all day. And as an attorney, she can say exactly what is legal and correct. And Pammy Jo just has to sit there and take it.
Thank you for this.
Ta, Erik. I always wanted to be a Union Maid, and even though we're in the wrong CBO, I'm very pleased to be retiring this year as a member of a Union. Solidarity forever.
Erik- sgain and again I can't say how much I enjoy your concise summaries of important figures and events in labor history. These are my favorite Wonkette essays 🙂 Sidney Fine's book is an excellent account of the 1937 strike and I have a copy. I think he recounts, for instance the infamous Battle of the Bridge where Walter Ruether and his bodyguard,of the UAW was physically assaulted by strike breakers (actually street thugs,) used by FoMoCo. Ruether and the bodyguard (a huge man) were both hospitalized. The Ford goons remind me a lot of the ICE stormtroopers of the present day. Some things never change 😕
Thank you for this bit of history. I was a kid in Flint in the ‘70s. Fisher Body was still around at that point, and most high school kids went straight to work for GM as UAW members. I had to get up ridiculously early to attend high school so those old enough could go from school to work second shift. It was the only way to keep graduation rates up. In the ‘80s under Reagan GM made the strategic decision to abandon Flint. It pulled out thousands of jobs/year for decades. Unemployment skyrocketed and it became the very exemplar of urban blight that plagues conservative nightmares. Now Fisher Body is gone, leaving a weird blank space in the urban landscape I remember. At least it opened a good view. Nearer my house was AC Spark Plugs, which I worked at as a senior in high school. It was a giant complex that is nothing but an empty concrete pad now.
Great oral history!
My great-grandfather was a union organizer who was involved in this strike. I might have a transcript of an interview my dad did with him if I can lay my hands on it.
According to the NYT, a billionaire whose family owns the Ambassador (toll) Bridge linking Canada and Detroit called PAB up a couple of hours before PAB started shit-posting about the (public) bridge project that he's threatening to shut down.
And people say PAB doesn't care about the needs of Americans. Guess he showed you people that he is always willing to improve the lives of billionaires, whether as a group or in individual cases.
I believe the guy called Nutlick, and Nutlick called Donnie.
okaaaaay everywonk yr
smoking lamp
is lit
[today is also the anniversary of Zulu leaving, and so I spend the day remembering him and looking at pictures and crying and such and things - spare a kind thought for my supergoodboy, please
https://substack.com/@zuludaddy/note/c-83827280?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=2kp8qx ]
The portrait of Zulu hanging in your home is lovely. May his memory always be a blessing.
Handsome boi!
Beautiful boy
A find looking hound!
He looks a good lad.
A good lad of a beautiful color.
Grandpa, Grandma and Great Grandpa Bacon were all field organizers for the CIO and helped organize the Steelworkers and United Electrical Workers Unions in the 1930s and 1940s.
I remember Grandma telling me the biggest mistake the CIO made was merging with the AFL. She said after the merger the push to organize was severely weakened.
This tripped a memory for me... My grandparents lived briefly in Flint in 1937 and I wonder if my grandpa came in from Cleveland as an organizer. He never worked in auto plants but was a lifetime union member in the construction trades, and organizing was right up his alley. Anyway, they were miserable in Flint and were very happy to get back to Cleveland and my ten year old dad. Sadly, there's nobody I can ask about this anymore.
My grandfather worked for Ford in their chemistry department (probably experimenting with new paint coatings). During the early thirties Ford laid him off and he moved my mother's family to Ohio where he set up a little gas station and general store near Mechanicsville. When times got better he moved the family to Illinois but never worked for Ford again. Lesson learned I guess.
My great-grandfather was also an organizer in the 30s. He had amazing stories.
What hurts me is that all my nephews and nieces are hard core anti-union Republicans...and that would break my great grandfather's and grandparents hearts...
You descend from righteous folks, indeed.
Eta- it's fixed! Thank you!!
Ot - will someone please like and comment on this so I can see if my notifications are coming through? They haven't been for a week and I thought it was just that nobody was liking or commenting, but that's incorrect. Thank you.
If you ever wonder again, just tell a joke.
I use the one, 2 Corinthians and a Camel walk into a bar......
I don't know that one but I want to hear it now!
I don't know that one but how about this!
Q: How did the phone propose to his sweetheart?
A: With a ring!
Actually laughing! Nice! Like an old Dixie Riddle Cup!
Here, have some canned clams.
YOU MONSTER!!!
PUNK!!!!
Lol thank you!
Greetings and salutations, gracious Reader.
Aww, bringing old Charlotte to mind. Hello there!
I'm an old school bookworm, m'dear.
Me too. So old that a bad thing has happened… I count out exact change in my hand like an official old person. I've always used change now and then, but something about the way I do it now is making me think, that person (me!) must have some Werther's on her somewhere! I don't, but…
It's because comments aren't allowed here
They're not?
I've got you on block anyway
Evidently.
Who?
If only the wealth generated by technological advancement went back into society, instead of being hoarded by a cabal of psycopathic pedophiles.
Haven’t you heard, we’re all going to be neck deep in lobsters and Cadillacs when AI takes over all our jobs and we can enjoy lives of leisure like British landed gentry.
And with AI building our cars and trucks, a new, fully-loaded F-150 will cost about a thousand bucks.
They'll even let you pay it off in three installments.
Can I trade some lobsters for some rib steaks?
Get the 'Surf 'n Turf' thing going.
I can't drive anymore, so I will donate the Caddy
to charity.
Please pass the butter and 10W40.
Good choices. None of that fake ass shit "Tastes like butter" or unsalted.
The Real McCoy.
Or, we will live like dispossessed serfs in mud hovels, eating grotes and the occasional insect.
None of MAGA understand they'll be the ones covered in shit.
"I'm building my rent-free hovel! And I've got a curtain rod...
If you grind up fat black ants in a mortar and pestle thingy, mush them into
patties and fry them up, they taste just like black ants.
Anything like owl pellets?
My idea of haute cuisine.
I’ll trade you a protein block for that sock with a hole in it.
COMMUNIST!
Yes?
I've been a communist with a small "C" since I was in 9th grade.
Something to be proud of methinks
Waiter, I'll have what she's having.
You're damn right!
OT I'm still irritated by the commuter train platform's PA. It's AI now, so it says things lile "train xyz departing at four hundred eight pee" instead of "4:08 PM".
AI is really stoopid on translating to English. And CC. They do not know the concept of homonyms in the use in context of the story.
And it gives Adriana Grande 6 fingers on her left hand.
I saw an AI narration pronounce the word "agape" as the three-syllable word for Christian love.
This is not hard to do.
The speech synth I worked on in the 1990s could parse syntax and get it right. On a friggin 80186 CPU.
It could also correctly deal with "St. James St." and "the wind winds down the canyon"
On a 186. In 1991.
A fucking 186? A processor so fucked up that you had to use an emulator to run DOS on it because they fucked up the interrupt numbering?
What a horrid little processor that was.
yes indeed..
But this ran a bare-metal RTOS written by a buddy of mine, and he could make a friggin ENIAC sing if he had to.
Brilliant (and practical) guy.
BART opened in 1972 and used computerized train announcements ... and still do to this day.
They figured out exactly how to drive people completely insane with incompetent AI.
Are the speakers reachable ...
That would drive me out of what's left of my mind.
Right? It's not hard to get right!
If you invest another billion I'm sure that can be fixed.
OT, but that creepy video of the creepy guy in the creepy mask creeping around Mrs. Guthrie's house was creepy. I think creepy enough that, if I saw him in my house, I would immediately offer and then provide several more holes in his creepy body. At close range.
OFF TOPIC:
𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗿 𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
Deputy commissioner Dwayne McDonald confirmed that police have identified the suspect as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, who was a resident of Tumbler Ridge.
The suspect was born as a biological male who had started transitioning about six years ago and identified in public and on social media as female.
Police clarified that nine people were killed in total, including the suspect, after a female with significant injuries survived.
A 39-year-old found deceased at the suspect’s family residence was the mother of the suspect, and the 11-year-old victim was the suspect’s step-brother.
The deaths at the private residence occurred first before the suspect went to the high school...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/11/tumbler-ridge-school-shooting-live-updates-number-dead-suspect-deceased
I hate to think about what is coming since the fascists are all in on collective responsibility.
GODDAMN IT
It is a tragedy nonetheless. But this dimension is indeed fuel for an ideological fire that needs extinguishing.
The gun is presumed innocent.
"Police had attended the suspect’s family residence on multiple occasions over the past several years, dealing with mental health concerns of the suspect.
This included one police attendance to the home approximately two years ago where firearms were seized under the criminal code. The lawful owner of those firearms petitioned for them to be returned, and they were..."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/feb/11/tumbler-ridge-school-shooting-live-updates-number-dead-suspect-deceased
"See, restricting guns doesn't work" 🤬
Everyone here knows the drill.
We cry and mourn for the victims and their families, we support them, while hugging and supporting the trans community, cause we all know what's coming.
Now the right-wing freaks are going to come down on all the trans people.
Look for more shit out of Matt Walsh's mouth. Guarantee it.
You can bet that every fucking RWNJ will be crawling all over this, including Alex Jones.
I fucking hate this timeline.
Fact check: accurate.
Well... damn
Jasmine Crockett reading people for filth today--
https://youtu.be/Iz_auHVkHII?si=UyfnPnoRBSNg7KJH
I'm here for it!
🔥🔥🔥🔥
DAMN
wowie zowie
I can listen to Representative Crockett all day. And as an attorney, she can say exactly what is legal and correct. And Pammy Jo just has to sit there and take it.
My Polysporin futures just went through the roof.
It was freakin' FABULOUS!
Both my parents were laborers. Both belonged to Unions, without which lil' Hank would have been shoeless. Both constantly voted Republican.
Dad was in both the United Steelworkers and the UAW.
He used to say he couldn't understand how any workingman could vote for a Republican.
Shoeless Hank Napkin would have been a cool moniker…
Might come to that. Just might.
A few brave people here and there over time can really make a difference.