Let's Not Forget ...

No. P01135809


NEW! Essays and opinions by Editor James M. Flammang may now be seen on Substack (angularviews.substack.com). Subscriptions are Free, and encouraged.

Current essay topics include the 2024 Election ... Getting Noticed ... Mass Transit .. Greed ... AI ... EVs ... Fear ... Guaranteed Income ... Job Woes ... Juries ... Socialism ... Misfits ... Drunkenness ... Decrepit old cars ... and Competition.

Coming Up: Sex Workers, Gambling, Tattoos, Homelessness, Workhouses, and much more.


COMMENTARY

Thinking About Leaving U.S.?

What can democracy lovers do as vision of second Trump presidency looms ever closer?

(Early October Update) Yes, the future (or demise) of democracy lies on the November ballot; and for about half of Americans, its prospects are mighty troubling.

Four years ago, as the 2020 presidential election drew to a close, voters for both candidates (but especially for Biden) expressed fear for the future. This year, the stakes are far higher.

As Donald Trump's first term developed, some of us began pondering possibilities that would have seemed ludicrous a few months previous. With the potential for political disaster looming in the 2022 Midterm election, searching for a way out seemed more compelling than ever. Subsequent events, as Republicans opened Congress with a slim House majority, added to the concern. By the time Donald J. Trump was indicted in New York, with nearly all Congressional Republicans taking his side, the country appeared more divided than ever. Now, less than a month before the election, having faced 91 felony charges in four courts and already convicted once, while repeatedly promising retribution against all opponents, Mr. Trump is in a virtual "dead heat" with Vice-President Kamala Harris. Especially with the nomination of JD Vance as his running mate, the near-certainty of unprecedented chaos looms ever larger, whether or not the Republican ticket achieves electoral victory.

What can we, as individuals on the liberal or progressive end of the political spectrum, do to survive?

• Leave the country (not so easy unless you have substantial income/wealth, or an in-demand skill).
• Intensify peaceful, last-minute protests.
• Tune out: Strive to ignore the worsening political scene.
• Weigh the merits and drawbacks of splitting the country into red and blue nations: a drastic and difficult action.

Editor Jim Flammang chose to aim at the first solution. Now a widower, following the passing of his beloved wife Marianne last November, he is contemplating a move to Mexico on at least a periodic, but preferably semi-permanent, basis. For now, he has arranged to be in Mexico City on Election Day, and (if the worst happens) hopes to be outside the U.S. on the day of Donald Trump's Inauguration – sure to be among the darkest days in American history. Those of us pondering or contemplating leaving the country need to do some hard thinking/planning for a more appealing future, elsewhere in the world.

Gunshots: Not Again ... and Again and Again!

One week in April 2023 was a big one for gun-wielding homeowners. When a 16-year-old Black boy went to the wrong house in Kansas City to pick up his siblings and rang the bell, the 84-year-old white man inside answered with gunshots. Days later in upstate New York, a young woman passenger was shot and killed by a 65-year-old man, after her driver turned into the wrong driveway. On a Saturday night in Alabama, a Sweet Sixteen party for a 16-year-old girl ended with four killed and 32 injured. Late on a Tuesday, two teen cheerleaders were shot in a Texas supermarket parking lot when one of them tried to open a car door, mistakenly thinking it was her own vehicle.

In Nashville in March 2023, a shooter fired 152 shots inside a Christian elementary school, killing six: three 9-year-olds and three adults. Early in May, a man killed eight at a Texas outlet mall. Two mass shootings took place in California within a two-day period. Eleven lay dead, with nine injured, in an attack on a dance studio near Los Angeles, as elder Chinese-Americans celebrated Lunar New Year.

During 2023, more than 630 mass shootings took place, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nation's shooting spree continued into 2024. Early in February, a woman with a small child in tow fired shots into a crowd at Joel Osteen's Houston megachurch; one child was shot and the shooter killed. A day later, a shooter opened fire during Rush Hour at a New York subway platform, killing one and injuring five. In September, a teenage boy went on a killing rampage armed with an assault rifle ndash; a gift from his parents. And on, and on, and on.

When Will We Finally Learn: GUNS KILL!

Gun Advocates: Don't forget Annabell and Xavier


Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez and Xavier James Lopez, both age 10, were best friends who texted "I love you" to each other. Acknowledging the young sweethearts' affection, their mothers had them buried next to each other in Uvalde, Texas. They were among 19 children and two teachers murdered in school.

Donald Trump:
Inevitably the
Partial President

Unlike any predecessors, Mr. Trump has never even pretended to be president of all the people; only his followers and MAGA Republicans. Everyone else was deemed an enemy, subject to verbal abuse. As his utterances, tweets, and actions made perfectly clear for four years, he was emphatically not the president of Democrats and progressives. For additional comments on early Trumpism, please Click here.

Toil & Trouble

 While chronicling Trump phenomenon and its impact, Tirekicking Today began this section on work/labor. It builds upon views in Work Hurts, one of our Books in Progress.

A Century of
Pay and Prices

Chronicle of workers' wages and commodity prices, 1886-1986

How much did Hudson Hornet cost in 1953? What did average worker earn? Click here.

"No man is good enough to be another man's master."
George Bernard Shaw,
in Major Barbara


"I don't like to work. It tires me out."
Actor James Garner, portraying the reluctant lawman in Support Your Local Sheriff


"Only suckers work."
Actor John Derek, portraying criminally-inclined Nick Romano in film version of the Willard Motley novel Knock On Any Door (1949)


"I work all night, I work all day,
to pay the bills I have to pay.
Ain't it sad....
In the rich man's world"
Song lyric, ABBA, "Money, Money, Money"

Words On Work

• New Ways To Look at Work
• Overview: Imaginative Approaches Required ...
• Solidarity Forever?
• Let's break the chain of consumer debt
• Needed Now: Jobs, Not Careers

Additional articles on work and labor be seen on the Editor's Substack site (angularviews.substack.com), including:
• Reject! For some applicants, job search is futile
• Quit calling us consumers!
• Surprise! Some of us don't mind paying taxes
• Prioritize! Living with Less and Liking It
• Own Nothing, Owe Nothing
New essays on labor, work, money, and related topics will be added periodically to Angular Views (our Substack site).

Work/Labor News Headlines

May 17: Mercedes-Benz workers in Alabama vote to reject United Auto Workers union.

April 19: Almost three-fourths (73 percent of workers in Volkswagen's Chatanooga, Tennessee factory vote to join UAW. Traditionally, import-brand workers in southern states have voted against union recognition.

Labor News headlines, especially related to low-wage, contract, and temporary work, will resume soon as part of the Tirekicking Today update.


"No Human Being Is Illegal"
Sign carried by protester marching in support of "Dreamers" on January 19, 2018

Work/Labor in Print

In 2018, Amazon announced that 20 cities were on the "short list" of possible sites for the company's second headquarters. Each city offered massive incentives. Before a final decision was made, residents of those cities might have benefited from reading a vivid description of the working life in an Amazon warehouse, in one chapter of Nomadland. Jessica Bruder chronicles lives of "houseless" Americans who live in vans and RVs, working at seasonal and short-term jobs to survive. A film version directed by Chloe Zhao starred Oscar-winner Frances McDormand.

On the Clock, another book focused on low-wage toil, painted an even bleaker picture. Laid-off reporter Emily Guendelsberger spent an exhausting, painful month at a massive warehouse in Kentucky, then traveled to North Carolina for a job at a call center. In addition to fascinating detail about her experiences, she covers aspects of labor history that led to today's low-wage worklives, including observations on Frederick Taylor, a pioneer in industrial efficiency.

Reports on new books, articles, and labor history will resume soon.


"[W]hile there is a soul in prison, I am not free."
Eugene Debs (in 1918 court statement)
Five-time Socialist candidate for president

Work On Film

Vintage and Recent Movies About Work and Labor that should not be missed:

• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• Norma Rae (1979)
•I'm All Right, Jack (1957)
•The Organizer (1963; Italian)
•Wages of Fear (1953)
•Office Space (1999)
•The Misfits (1961)
•Death of a Salesman (1951)
•Bachelor Party (1957)
•They Drive By Night (1940)
•No Down Payment (1957)
•Greed (2019); scathing satire on extreme wealth
• The Good Boss (2021) Spanish film stars Javier Bardem

Please Click Here for details on films.


You know what the weirdest part about having a job is? You have to be there every day, even on the days you don t feel like it.
Jemima Kirke as Jessa Johansson, in episode 4 of the HBO series Girls, created by Lena Dunham


"He that has to obey the will of another is a slave."
Samuel Fielden (1886)


Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.
Typically attributed to Winston Churchill, but actual source is uncertain


The Dunning-Kruger effect: "Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge."
Charles Darwin


"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)
Paleontologist, The Panda's Thumb


"Anyone who is willing to work and is serious about it will certainly find a job. Only you must not go to the man who tells you this, for he has no job to offer and doesn't know anyone who knows of a vacancy."
B. Traven - Author, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

UPDATED: October 8, 2024

Ex-president Trump accuses FEMA of failing to provide aid to Republican areas in hurricane-ravaged states

Kamala Harris blasts Trump's claim as "irresponsible," while President Biden deems it "un-American."

Tirekicking Today is in the midst of revamping and updating, including expanded coverage of the chaotic political scene as Election Day draws nearer

News from TK Press (the book division of Tirekicking Today):

Untied Knots, latest book by James M. Flammang, is available directly from the author at a discounted price ($16 including U.S. shipping). Full details may be seen on our Books Page, along with information on previous and forthcoming titles.

UNTIED KNOTS: Tales of Travel and Back at Home

Three groups of offbeat short stories make up Untied Knots. Nearly half are travel-based, focusing on second-class journeys through everyday life, steering around the posh and touristy. Several stem from real-life journeys within Mexico, undertaken as far back as the 1970s. "Back At Home" tales are more fictional, though inspired at least in part by real people and places. Several early stories, strictly fictional, come from the author's archive.

Please go to the TK Press Books Page for details on Untied Knots and other books by Tirekicking Today editor James M. Flammang, including the forthcoming Fraidy Cat and Absurdities. Previous works, available now, include Mr. Maurice Knows It All ... and Incompetent.


Automotive History by James M. Flammang

All 20 chapters of Clunkers & Creampuffs, editor James M. Flammang's comprehensive history of the used car (1900-85) are now available. See details below.

• Easy Shifting: a detailed history of the automatic transmission

• Gasoline Rationing: Learning from the past – Part I covers World War II period (1942-45) ... Part II deals with public reaction, along with threat of revived rationing during 1970s.

News Briefs That Matter

Selected news items highlight some of the most worrisome recent events and statements, augmented by commentary (at right) related to the bitterly partisan U.S. political scene.

October 8: In his latest book, War, Bob Woodward asserts that during the peak of the Covid pandemic, then-president Trump sent a shipment of scarce testing devices to Russian Vladimir Putin, for his personal use.

August 9: Kamala Harris picks Minnesota governor Tim Walz, considered a political progressive, for running mate. Republican vice-presidential candidate JD Vance, who'd spent six months in Iraq as a Marine, attacks Walz's military record. Governor Walz had served for 24 years in National Guard, resigning not long before his group would be advised of possible deployment to Iraq.

July 22: Joe Biden drops out of presidential race; will support Kamala Harris for top office. Following weeks of insisting that he would remain as candidate, Biden accedes to pleas from growing number of Democrats that he abandon his quest for a second presidential term. Those who favored his dropping out typically cited his age (81) and evidence of diminishing capacity.

July 13: Donald Trump shot and slightly injured during Pennsylvania rally, two days before start of Republican Convention. Ex-president appeared to have been shot in the ear from a distance, by assassin with AR-style rifle. Trump was safe, but young shooter was killed, along with a bystander.

July 8: Biden faces growing pressure to drop out of presidential race. Following disastrous debate with ex-president Trump and weak interview with ABC News, rising number of Democrats are urging Biden to withdraw, based upon his age and possible cognitive issues that could affect his ability to serve out a second term.

July 8: Ex-president Trump is granted immunity for his "official actions" while in office. In partisan 6-3 (conservative/liberal) decision, Supreme Court rules that former president deserves immunity for any official actions taken during his term, including those related to January 6 Insurrection. "The President is now a king above the law," declared dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Chronicle of Notable News Briefs Will Resume Soon

Although the "national emergency" stemming from the Covid pandemic was declared over in April 2023, late that year, Covid-19 hospitalizations continued to rise. By winter's end, they were declining, though a surge emerged in summer. Updated booster vaccinations, created to deal with the latest Covid variants, are available now.

White House Woes

Trump's Presidency In News Briefs
During and prior to the first two years of his presidency, we compiled news items outlining the outrages committed by the Trump administration against American laws, values, and principles. We revived coverage for his final year in office, concluding in January 2021.

• Click here for Countdown News Briefs (PDF): Chronicles the three-week period prior to 2017 Inauguration
• Click here for White House Woes (PDF): Two Years of News Briefs, January 2017 through December 2018
• Click here for Election Season News Briefs: March 2020 to January 20, 2021 (Inauguration Day)
• Click here for Post-Presidency News Briefs: February 2021 to October 2022

GRETA'S CORNER

Since 2019, teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been speaking out forcefully about the lack of action on global climate change.

Ms. Thunberg has spoken at such events as the UN Climate Action Summit and the World Economic Forum, berating world leaders for doing "basically nothing" to reduce carbon emissions. In 2020, Greta returned to school, having dropped out for a year, but she continues her protest activities.

Greta mocked world leaders at Youth4Climate forum in Italy, asserting that for the previous three decades, climate action amounted to no more than "blah, blah, blah.... empty words and promises." Shortly after Russia attacked Ukraine in its "special military operation," Greta joined a group of "Stand With Ukraine" protesters at a Russian embassy. Early in 1923, Ms. Thunberg was carried off by police officers in Germany, following her participation in a coal mine protest. Not long afterward, she was briefly detained during a protest against wind farms in an indigenous area of Norway. Wind farms are said to adversely impact grazing by reindeer, which are herded by the Sami people. In July 2023, a Swedish court fined Ms. Thunberg about $240 (U.S.) for refusing to obey police order during a climate protest at an oil facility. "We cannot save the world by playing by the rules," she told journalists after the guilty verdict. She then rejoined the protesters.

Click here for additional details on Greta's activities.

After 23 years covering the auto industry, Tirekicking Today shifted gears in 2016 to focus on social, political and economic issues – led by unprecedented ramifications of the Trump presidency and its election-denying aftermath.


• Articles and essays on current affairs will appear periodically.

Tirekicking Today editor James M. Flammang, a veteran auto journalist, has contributed countless product reviews and feature articles to such publications as autoMedia.com, New Car Test Drive, CarsDirect, and Kelley Blue Book. He has written for a variety of major outlets, including J.D. Power, cars.com, and the Chicago Tribune; and extensively, including books, for Consumer Guide. Flammang is a member of the Freelancers Union and (since 1989) the International Motor Press Association, and is a past president of the Midwest Automotive Media Association. He has authored more than thirty books, mostly on auto history but including various buying guides.

TK Press, established in 2014 as a division of Tirekicking Today, has published four books by Flammang. Several more (See Books Page) are well underway.

Clunkers & Creampuffs

A casual history of the used car

Overview
1: Early Days
2: Ford's Model T
3: Production and Prosperity
4: "Easy" Payments
5: Family Cars and Family Life
6: Five-Dollar Flivvers
7: Rise and Fall of Used Car
8: Saturation and Salesmanship
9: A Global Blowout (1930s)
10: Selling In Hard Times
11: Wheels for the Workingman
12: Okies, Nomads, & Jalopies
13: Motoring in Wartime
14: The Postwar Boom
15: Chromium Fantasies
16: Dealers' Image Problem
17: Wheels for '50s Workingman
18: Teens, Rods, Clunkers
19: Everybody Drives
20: Personal Clunker History

Older Car
World

Ever since the first automobiles began to age, early in the 20th century, the used car has been a notable yet seldom-heralded element of American life. Editor James M. Flammang began reporting on used cars in the 1980s, not only for this website and other publications but especially for Consumer Guide's annual buying guide. This section also covers the new-vehicle marketplace, led by an early report (sson to be updated) on the growing market for electric cars, including a brief history of EVs.

• Are EVs finally ready for prime time?
• Used Car Trends
• Cars vs. Trucks in sales race
• What's happened to used car prices?
• Whatever happened to the Repo Man?


Note: Articles on automotive history and the car culture appear periodically in this section, led by Easy Shifting, a comprehensive history of the automatic transmission.



Part I of our detailed, two-part history of gasoline rationing covers the World War II period (1942-45). Part II deals with public reaction and threat of rationing during 1970s oil crisis.
• Click here for Gas Rationing during World War II




News Headlines
in the Auto World

What's New for 2025

• June 20: Cyberattack against software company halts computer operations at 15,000 car dealers, forcing them to revert to non-digital processes, like using pen and paper for sales/service tasks.

News about 2025 cars and the automobile business will resume soon.

All editorials, essays, and articles are available for reprinting.
Editors are invited to contact us for rates and full details.

TIREKICKING TODAY began in 1993 as a monthly print publication. Created by widely-known automotive writer/editor James M. Flammang and associate editor Marianne E. Flammang, it went on the Internet in 1995. TIREKICKING TODAY has given consumers, enthusiasts, and industry leaders an abundant supply of valuable automotive information, incuding new-vehicle reviews, used-car buying advice, editorial commentary, and feature articles. By 2016, we were ready to ease away from coverage of automobiles, and take the publication on a completely different track – focusing primarily on topics that had become far more crucial than cars.
Tirekicking Today accepts no advertising and receives no funds from any organization.

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please contact us at JF@tirekick.com.
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