Worker's Rights

CEOs are a Dime a Dozen

An update on the dudes who stole millions of dimes back in April. Also, the United Auto Workers strike grows further, US House Republicans burn through yet another nomination, the UN Secretary General calls for a ceasefire, and a look back at those beautiful rolling hills on your desktop.

Endeavorance

Oct 25, 2023 — 4 min read

For A Few Cents More…

You may recall all the way back in April, I talked about a heist of about two million dimes from a truck in Philadelphia. Time for an update.

Recently unsealed indictment documents contain charges for four dudes who participated in the heist and made off with almost a quarter of a million dollars in dimes. According to the indictments, the crew also stole a bunch of other random items from nearby trucks, including seafood and booze. They sold off the food, then tried to cash in the dimes at banks and Coinstar machines. But they didn't get particularly far into their haul before being caught.

They now face charges of theft of government money, among other things. Not particularly the kind of crime you wanna go into a courtroom facing.

Them Auto Workers Sure Are United

The United Auto Workers strike continues to grow as there are now about 41,000 striking workers at plants for all of the big three auto makers in the United States. This past Monday, 6,800 union workers walked out of a large assembly plant for Stellantis, hampering their production of the Ram line of pickup trucks.

Auto CEOs are still working to dig in their heels and keep their offers low, but some have budged ever so slightly. Still, UAW president Shawn Fain noted "We've got cards left to play, and they've got money left to spend" in response to the lowball offers from the corporations.

The UAW represents about 150,000 workers, so the strike is currently only about a third the size that it could be.

The Third and Fourth Speaker Nominations

US House Republicans continue to flop and flail as they try to get their party in order to elect a new Speaker of the House. We're in week four of no speaker, and things aren't looking particularly optimistic for the "I want to personally evaluate your genitals before you can enter a bathroom" party.

Yesterday, the party nominated Representative Tom Emmer, the house majority whip. He then dropped out of the running only a few hours later when he realized there was no way he'd be able to get the votes he needs to win.

Some of the holdouts against Emmer cited his support for a bill that federally recognizes same-sex and interracial marriage as a reason to vote against him. That was a deal breaker for them. He also did not have Trump's endorsement, citing that he "wasn't MAGA" and was not "loyal enough" — y'all I cannot stress enough that these people are literal fascists. Like… that's not hyperbole. "This politician isn't loyal enough" to a specific movement leader is not a thing that should be a thing.

Anyway, now they've nominated Representative Mike Johnson, their fourth pick for speaker in as many weeks. It also does not look super likely that he has the votes. We shall see.

UN Secretary General Says "Fucking Stop"

The United Nations secretary general António Guterres has called for an immediate ceasefire for Israel against Gaza, citing the "epic suffering" that is ongoing as Israel continues to hammer the Gaza Strip with bombs and blockades.

The call cites the inability to provide aid to the civilians who have been killed by the hundreds from Israeli attacks as a collective punishment in response to the Hamas attack on Israel a few weeks ago.

According to Hamas' reported numbers (clarifying: I have not been able to find third party verification of this number, though on the ground doctors and reporters confirm they're in the ballpark), more than 700 people were killed by Israel's bombardment just yesterday, bringing the total death count to 5,791, including 2,360 children.

Hospitals in Gaza are struggling to stay open, running out of power and supplies. Over a million people have been displaced, and Israel has attacked locations where civilians were told to seek refuge, essentially leaving people with no place to go.

Most western governments stand staunchly behind Israel due to their perceived necessity of maintaining a strong western military presence in the region, despite widespread protests across the world against the further support of Israel's ethnic cleansing.

On This day…

On this day in 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, which went on to become one of the most loved operating systems in the Windows line.

Hallmarks of Windows XP have found their way into meme-tier status, such as the default rolling hills desktop background or the fact that more or less every computer running Windows XP was laden with viruses at some point. At least if it was a family computer, it was.