Scott Walker Goes Dark as Trump Threatens Harley Davidson, Escalates Trade War, and Engages in 'Harley Bashing'

Headlines like the one above lead Scott Walker to hide,
and Donald Trump to threaten Harley Davidson as Trump's
trade war escalates and victims multiply. Half-way through
Trump's second year, many Americans are "sick of winning."
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, June 26, 2018

Trump Warns Harley-Davidson: "beginning of the end" for Company

Gov. Scott Walker goes dark

- Analysis -

Updated - Madison, Wisconsin — Gov. Scott Walker's continuing silence on attacks against a venerable national institution, Harley-Davidson, located in Milwaukee is drawing howls from across the state.

From One Wisconsin Now:

"@ScottWalker is so afraid of getting a Trump rage tweet that he won’t even stand up for a Wisconsin business.” -- our @rossacrosswi on Walker's latest fecklessnesshttps://t.co/wsgIAN7oCI

— One Wisconsin Now (@onewisconsinnow) June 26, 2018

What's next? Trump attacks beer and children?

Donald Trump warned Harley-Davidson its move of divisions to Europe to off-set retaliatory tariffs from Europe means "the beginning of the end" for the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturing company.

It's a strange spectacle to hear an American president threaten and scold an American company like Harley-Davidson, after Trump's trade war with the European Union, Mexico and Canada provoked predictable reactions with new levies on "products from politically important states that supported Mr. Trump, like Ohio, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin," (NYT), (The Politico).

The impulsive Trump has manufactured a crises, started a trade war now escalating, and working families and venerable institutions are taking hits.

"Shares of Harley-Davidson fell nearly 6 percent in afternoon trading" yesterday, reports the NYT.

Gov. Scott Walker (R) has taken an unusual approach to communications with the Wisconsin people asking for answers about Harley: Avoidance.

Reports Scott Bauer from the Associated Press:

No comment yet from avid Harley rider @GovWalker in the face of these new full-throttled attacks from @realDonaldTrump against the iconic Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer.

Oh, and Trump is joining Walker on Thursday in Wisconsin for the groundbreaking of the Foxconn plant https://t.co/R7jhN5FNkh

— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) June 26, 2018

Scott Walker remains obsequious to Donald Trump, and when Trump screws over working families, in Scott Walker's mind, it's time to hide and be silent.

The AP reports:

Walker has avoided directly criticizing Trump on the issue, saying instead that no tariffs would be good for Wisconsin manufacturers and farmers.

The Harley bashing comes as Trump is scheduled to join Walker in Wisconsin on Thursday for the groundbreaking of a Foxconn Technology Group factory.

From the NYT:

The Wisconsin company said on Monday it would shift some production of its bikes overseas to avoid stiff retaliatory tariffs imposed by the European Union in response to Mr. Trump’s trade measures. The company said the move 'is not the company’s preference, but represents the only sustainable option to make its motorcycles accessible to customers in the E.U. and maintain a viable business in Europe.'

Mr. Trump’s trade war is beginning to ripple through the United States economy as companies struggle with a cascade of tariffs here and abroad. While Mr. Trump says his trade policy is aimed at reviving domestic manufacturing, Harley-Davidson’s move shows how the White House approach could backfire as American companies increasingly rely on overseas markets for materials, production and sales. 

Scott Walker is sitting out the Harley-Davidson issue out because he knows and cares even less than Trump about actual working families.

Meanwhile, Americans across the ideological spectrum would prefer Donald Trump to stop the trade war, bring the jobs home.

Democratic Party Freezes Out Grassroots in Wisconsin, Nation

Updated - Someone should ask U.S. Rep. Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) why the national and Wisconsin Democratic Parties (DPW) are shutting out grassroots primary challenges against congressional incumbents.

WisPolitics is holding a luncheon for Rep. Kind to discuss policy issues at The Madison Club, 5 East Wilson Street in Madison at 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on March 29 next Tuesday.

Rep. Kind is facing a tough primary challenger in retired teacher Myron Buchholz (D-Eau Claire).

Kind is chair of the corporatist New Democrat Coalition and a champion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 'trade' agreement now before Congress.

Buchholz opposes the TPP and is making the loss of manufacturing jobs and campaign finance the centerpiece of his campaign. Buchholz launched his congressional run in February.

One would think in progressive Wisconsin, in the tradition of Bob La Follette, voters should pick their representatives, not Party bosses.

Candidate Buchholz found out the Democratic Party bosses protect entrenched incumbents like Kind, who has received over $16,000 from the Koch brothers, (Craver, The Capital Times).

Money Talks, La Follette Walks

Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) Chair Martha Laning is protecting Kind and the special interests funding his six-figure gig as a nine-term member of Congress.

Laning tells the Democrat in good standing, Myron Buchholz, that the DPW's voters' list, (Voter Activation Network (VAN)), will not be made available to Buchholz for his challenge to Rep. Kind, (Blogging Blue), (Cognitive Dissidence).

It's about money.

The money from the Koch brothers is nothing compared to the top four special interest sectors forking over money to Kind—Insurance, Pharmaceuticals/Health Products, Health Professionals and Securities and Investment—who have collectively donated over $391,000 in the 2015-16 election cycle alone, (Open Secrets, Center for Responsive Politics).

As of Dec. 31, 2015, Kind had over $2 million on hand and raised well over $1 million in 2015-16.

Name of the Game Is Money from Special Interests

Kind and the DPW are not unique. Shutting out, and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) hopes shutting down, grassroots challengers is a national phenomena.

"The Florida Democratic Party will not allow me access to our party's (voters') database and software because I am running against an incumbent Democrat," said Florida congressional candidate, Tim Canova (Fulton, Common Dreams). Sounds familiar.

Canova is mounting a grassroots challenge against the six-term congresswoman and chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Florida).

Message from the DNC, Schultz and the Party insiders' favorite, Hillary Clinton, to challengers fighting special interests is clear: Get lost, (Iannelli, Broward-Palm Beach New Times).

[Note: Breaking news out of Florida: "After being denied access to an important voter file that could help his campaign, Democrat Tim Canova, who is challenging incumbent Debbie Wasserman Schultz this August, will now get access to a campaign tool called the Voter Activation Network (VAN)," (Perry, Florida Politics).]

Missouri and other states report similar challenger obstruction by the state's Democratic Party.

"(N)ews outlets in Missouri reported last month on the fight over VAN access in that state, 'several Democratic candidates—who are also Ferguson movement leaders,' were blocked from the files by the state party. As one of the candidate's campaign managers put it, 'The sign almost says, 'Newcomers need not apply.'"

The DNC has become a funnel for special interests and Myron Buchholz and Tim Canova are not the right kind of special. The kind with a dollar sign and six figures to donate for services rendered.

This begs the question of Kind, posed by Myron Buchholz, which side are you on, Ron Kind?

Which Side Are You On, Ron Kind, Asks Congressional Challenger Myron Buchholtz

American industry moves manufacturing jobs overseas
as trade agreements championed by Rep. Ron Kind
(R-Wisconsin) have hollowed out the U.S. economy.
Now before congress, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
would move entire industries overseas, as American
manufacturing jobs move into endangered-species territory.
Pictured above is a shuttered facility from La Crosse
Footwear Inc. that shipped 100s of American jobs to the
Far-East circa 2000-01. Who would want to ship away
American jobs and why?
Myron Buchholz demands an answer.

Rep. Ron Kind is to manufacturing jobs what Gov. Scott Walker is to higher education: Hostile.

Brilliant campaign video is out by Myron Buchholz for Congress (D-Eau Claire), challenging nine-term incumbent Rep. Ron Kind (D- La Crosse).

Kind is the chair of the "New Democrat" Coalition and a champion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) 'trade' agreement now before Congress.

TPP like other trade agreements will hollow out the American economy, ship jobs and industry overseas, and drive down American wages.

TPP was negotiated in secret for years, is heavily supported by Republicans, the pharmaceutical industry, an array of corporate special interests and Wisconsin's own Ron Kind, (Wallach, Goodman; Democracy Now); (Conyers, The Nation).

Why would any politician even consider TPP? Rep. Kind has no answer.

Myron Buchholz pays homage to Bob Dylan's classic Subterranean Homesick Blues (1965) in a video asking Rep. Kind, Which side are you on, Ron?

The video features images of the homeless, shuttered factories and foreclosed homes, as Buchholz asks in a lamenting tone, Which side are you on, Ron?

Changed America

Sarah Palin's squawking [and let's pray to the Almighty that she becomes the Republican 2012 nominee] aside, writers like Paul Craig Roberts at CounterPunch have been warning for years the offshore-the-jobs, screw-the-workers' policies are devastating.

Dingbats like Sarah Palin screech U.S.A., but do not think the sentiment ought include the American working class.

A couple of not-altogether pleasant reads explain why the jobless future in the offing is not a good thing. See by Don Peck' How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America and Ismael Hossein-Zadeh's The Retrogression: New Phase, Not Just Another Recession.

Put aside the free market nostrums that Palin spouts without comprehension, we need a government committed to the great majority of its citizens, an economic democracy.

Faced with joblessness, a lame jobs bill now being batted about to unanimous Republican opposition is not close to a step in the right direction. But it's not too late to help Americans.

Though Palin will pick up on traditional GOP racial and class resentments, she is a poor, political vehicle. The question is will President Obama step up to offer a challenge, he has not to this point.

MSJ: Mercury Managers Sue for Unpaid Bonuses

John Schmid has a piece in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on mid-level managers at Mercury Marine in Fond du Lac unhappy about unpaid bonuses. Reports Schmid:

As union workers at Mercury Marine fought over contract concessions meant to save hundreds of jobs in Wisconsin, the company's midlevel managers filed a lawsuit over unpaid bonuses.

The class-action lawsuit, filed last month in federal court, argues that the Fond du Lac-based outboard-engine maker failed to pay $7 million in bonuses to roughly 100 managers. According to the suit, senior Mercury executives instructed lower level managers in April 2008 to implement a cost-savings program and assured managers that they would receive 10% of whatever savings they managed to achieve as an incentive.

The suit names Brunswick Corp., Mercury's parent company, as defendant. Brunswick cancelled bonuses despite repeated assurances that the managers were entitled to a 'self-funded bonus program,' said Gregory Gill Sr., the attorney representing the managers.

One wonders how much of the cost-savings concessions the union gave back on its contract will be paid in bonuses to the workers.

NYT: Wisconsin Shows Signs of Industrial Rebound

All I say is that I hope Peter Goodman's piece in the Sunday Times, In Wisconsin, Early Signs of an Industrial Rebound, is on the mark.

Writes Goodman:

At the Rockwell Automation factory here, something encouraging happened recently that might be a portent of national economic recovery: managers reinstated a shift, hiring a dozen workers.

After months of layoffs, diminished production and anxiety about the depths of the Great Recession, the company — a bellwether because most of its customers are manufacturers themselves — saw enough new orders to justify adding people.

Given the panicked retreat that has characterized life on the American factory floor for many months, any expansion registers as a hopeful sign for the economy. Last week, the Federal Reserve found signs of 'modest improvement' in manufacturing. That reinforced the direction of a widely watched manufacturing index tracked by the Institute for Supply Management, which surged into positive territory last month for the first time in a year and a half.

Mercury Marine Updates

Update: Oklahoma Offered Mercury Marine a $300 Million Incentive (WBAY). Oklahoma Socialists! Wait until Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck hear about this.

Jobs are moving fast to Fondy. That's news we like to hear.

From the Fond du Lac Reporter:

Jobs in machining and casting at Mercury Marine's Stillwater, Okla. plant will be moving to Fond du Lac within a month.

That's the word from company spokesman Steve Fleming, who anticipates the number of manufacturing jobs locally will grow to between 1,400 and 1,600 by the end of the seven-year contract just signed with the company's current 850-member union at the Fond du Lac plant.

Most of Stillwater's 385 factory jobs will be moved to Fond du Lac over the next 18 to 24 months

Also, the Fond du Lac city council unanimously approved the Mercury Marine incentives package last night (Laurie Ritger).

Did Merc Union Negotiator Receive Death Threats

Update: See Roger Bybee's piece at In These Times: "(W)orkers and their families soon came under enormous pressure to reconsider [the new contract with 'more than 170 changes' as] ... unbearable pressure ... [and] profound worry about their families' futures" seized the (IAM) Local 1947 made out to be the fall guy by Mercury officials. Such pressure did not grip Dustan E. McCoy, Chief Executive Officer of Brunswick Corporation. McCoy in 2008 ... raked in $9,334,343 in total compensation."

Brunswick's stock (BC) is up 162 percent since early July.

In the wake of tens of millions of dollars in state, county and city incentives for Mercury Marine to retain and increase its manufacturing jobs in Fond du Lac, Fond du Lac is breathing a sigh of relief.

But word around the campfire is that the third union vote held last week after lead (IAM) Local 1947 union negotiator Dan Longsine announced his resignation was preceded by several threats made against Longsine's life.

Unconfirmed, but the drama and fear in Fond du Lac these last few weeks certainly makes the rumor seem plausible.