House GOP floats McHenry as caretaker Speaker after Scalise backs out – National & International News – FRI 13Oct2023

House GOP floats McHenry as caretaker Speaker after Scalise backs out.

UAW President tells automakers to “pony up” as strike enters “new phase”.

Israel gives 1.1 million civilians 24 hours to evacuate northern Gaza.

NATIONAL NEWS

House GOP floats McHenry as caretaker Speaker after Scalise backs out

Just days after being named Speaker-elect by the House GOP Caucus, Louisiana’s Rep. Steve Scalise backed out of the race last night. By then it had become clear that he did not have the 217 votes to become Speaker. There were over a dozen holdouts, mostly from the House’s MAGA contingent, and in the closely divided House, Scalise could only afford four defections.

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) promptly threw his hat back into the ring. During the caucus vote earlier this week, Jordan had only 99 votes to Scalise’s 113. Jordan’s hardline profile and his vocal support for the idea that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump will put him at odds with many of the GOP’s more traditional and moderate conservatives. Most GOP House members who have commented say they do not see a path to 217 votes for Jordan.

The idea of temporarily empowering Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC), currently serving as Speaker pro tempore, to serve as a “caretaker” speaker is apparently gaining traction among members. Rep. John James (R-PA) said members were “coming around” to a plan to empower McHenry for “30, 45 or 60 days”, long enough to shepherd the House through contentious budget negotiations next month to avert a government shutdown. However, some members are opposed to this idea and want the issue resolved now.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) echoed statements from other Democrats yesterday that his party would be open to working with Republicans to reach a consensus candidate. Democrats would, of course, demand some concessions, including an end to a current House rule enacted in January that allows any lone House member to call a motion to vacate the Speakership.

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UAW President say strike in “new phase”

In a Facebook live address (stream starts at 28:05) today, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told autoworkers that the strike against Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, has entered a “new phase”. Strikes against all three companies have been ongoing for four weeks. Until this week, UAW had waited till Friday to strike new plants tied to progress (or lack thereof) in negotiation with each company that week. From now on, Fain said, UAW will strike plants as needed, without warning and will not wait until Friday to do so.

This came two days after the UAW took everyone by surprise by calling workers at Ford’s Louisville, KY, truck plant to strike on a Wednesday. This was minutes after a meeting between Ford and UAW negotiators, Fain included. The meeting was called, Fain said, after Ford teased a better economic offer for weeks, and when the day came to present the offer, there was no new money on the table. According to a Ford negotiator who was present, the meeting lasted less than 15 minutes and ended with Fain saying, “You just lost Kentucky Truck“, referring to the Louisville plant. Fain’s account of the meeting closely matched the Ford executive’s.

Fain tells automakers “pony up”

Kentucky Truck Plant, which produces F-series trucks and SUVs, is Ford’s biggest money maker, generating $25 billion in revenue a year. That’s $48,000 in revenue per minute, which is more than the lowest paid Ford workers make in a year, Fain said.

Fain said his change of tactic was his response to automakers gaming UAW’s system of waiting until Friday to call strikes by showing up with an offer at the last minute. “They thought they’d figured out the so-called ‘rules of the game’, so we changed the rules. Now there’s only one rule – pony up”.

Fain told members taking out the Kentucky Truck plant “sent a very clear message not only to Ford, but to GM and Stellantis as well: don’t you dare snow-walk us or lowball us”.

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Israel gives 1.1 million civilians 24 hours to evacuate northern Gaza

The Israeli Defense Forces tweeted a message in Arabic today warning all 1.1 million civilians living in Gaza City, in the north of Gaza, to evacuate south. In other statements, they’ve clarified that the window to evacuate is as small as 24 hours. The speculation has been that the IDF is planning a major ground invasion of Gaza City, which along with the rest of the strip has already suffered nearly a week of constant bombardment since the Hamas attack on Saturday.

UN observers in Gaza have said the logistics of evacuating 1.1 million people southward is not realistic, especially in the given time frame. Most Gazans now have no means of transport since Israel has blockaded any supplies of power and fuel from entering the enclave for days. Some fleeing south packed tightly into vehicles have been shelled.

There’s also nowhere for 1.1 million people to shelter in the southern part of the densely-populated enclave. There are UN facilities where many have taken shelter but those facilities have also been shelled by the IDF. The crossing point into Egypt at Rafah also remains closed. Israel blames Egypt for keeping it closed, despite the fact that the IDF repeatedly shelled the crossing on both the Gaza and Egypt sides of the border.

It’s also not clear how many people even received the warning since many have been without power for days. Hamas is also giving conflicting information, telling civilians to stay in their homes

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