Saturday morning market.

Bumper stickers expressing this sentiment are pretty common around here. Most aren’t this obnoxious.

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Posted at 12:00 pm in Detroit life, iPhone |
 

43 responses to “Saturday morning market.”

  1. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    Built by autoworkers, not robotss.

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  2. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 1:07 pm

    Autoworkers used to be able to buy nice homes in Detroit. Detroit used to be a great city, The Grosses used to be for rich people that valued the working stiffs for providing them with their riches. These days, rich people want it all, and they bought the GOP to get it.

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  3. brian stouder said on April 30, 2011 at 1:19 pm

    Yesterday at work, a person used a direct and flatly racist and offensive expletive while complaining about something, whereupon I flatly ended the conversation and turned away. Gabbing with Pam about it later, she pointed out that I am a spineless weenie, and she indicated several other possible responses that could have been employed. I pointed out that at least I didn’t just “stare at my shoes” (where did I read that term?), whereupon she pointed out that I was only about half-a-notch beyond that response.

    So, although I am indeed a weenie on these sorts of issues, the problem with that sticker isn’t just the overt appeal to xenophobia* (and/or racism), but also the gross misunderstanding of how corporations exist in this world.

    Is there such a thing as an American car company? There ARE American factories, but the corporations themselves have no intrinsically American character; they’ll invest their capital and build factories anywhere on earth where they’ll make the most money.

    http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/company-focus/2011/02/25/292393/General-Motors.htm

    GM sells more than 70 percent of its vehicles outside its home market, led by China. GM now sells more vehicles in China than in the United States.

    And they aren’t building all those cars in Michigan (whether or not they use chopsticks in their Chinese factories)

    *I think this is why stickers like that one miff me. On one hand, I cannot imagine putting such a sticker on my car, and proudly declaring to all who see it “HEY THERE!! LOOKIT ME!! I’M A COMPLETE JACKASS!!”. On the other, stickers like that seem to WANT to make people nod in agreement; or tell those who disagree to go to hell. For example, I have an Obama-12 sticker, and I’m no more likely to put that on my car than I was to ever put an Obama-’08 sticker on there. Why provoke those who disagree? (which, as it happens, seems to include almost everyone I interact with each day)

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  4. jcburns said on April 30, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    Don’t even bother explaining that chopsticks are tools, or checking through his toolbox for americanmade vs overseasmade.

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  5. Linda said on April 30, 2011 at 2:42 pm

    My car was in fact made in the USA, as in final assembly. Have no idea how many parts were built elsewhere, but I assume a lot were. It wasn’t the only factor in its purchase, but it helped tip the scale, and it was made by union workers (same union as me), that further tipped the scale. BTW, most “foreign” cars are built in the US, but not by UAW peeps.

    Because I met so many people in Tennessee who hated union workers, and thought them dirt, I’d probably make a point of never buying one made there by Nissan. Especially hateful and hypocritical was the attack on the auto bailouts by Sen. Corker, who won’t acknowledge the amount of subsidies his state gives auto companies while decrying the auto bailouts.

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  6. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 3:08 pm

    America is sadly disfuntional on the subject of the value of labor. Americans that labor do not do so so that they can be denigrated and rich people can just get richer, although this is GOP creed. Take a look at pro football, for instance. Yeah those guys make big bucks. Would the owners make a dime if Randy Moss wasn’t making astounding catches? And the Owners will not open their books. They want the players that might get injured and be expendable on the next play to take their word for it. So the Owners lock ’em out. Ensuring more injuries and damaging the players’ earning ability. That’s America? Nope, it is class warfare. The players are going into the mine, where the Owners’ rules mean they might get blown to smithereens. And there is no source of the Owners’ wealth but for the players risking life and most assuredly limb. Consider the Pats. Flagship. Right? They made Robert Edwards particcipate in an inane flag-football game attached to the Pro Bowl. He blew out his knee. Pats talked a good game but screwed him over when they thought he wouldn’t produce another 1400 yard season. How did the Pats take care of this valued employee? They didn’t. Dickwads with more money than God rule. The people that make the money are peons.

    We are supposed to have Constitutional protection against rich fucks treating us like barter. But we have rich fucks like Scalia and Roberts ensuring that feudal lords rule. Teabaggers should wake from their fevered waking dream and realize they are zombies in thrall to the bastards that awoke and enslaved them.

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  7. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    I believe the auto company bailouts have been paid back, with with interest, baby.

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  8. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 3:28 pm

    Wills, this one’s for you. And this one.

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  9. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 3:46 pm

    Supposedly, there is a Rod and Jeff Beck album coming out. I hope it deals with the Velvets or something. But Jerome Kern will do nicely, and be friendly to the Blacks.

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  10. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 3:53 pm

    Nancy, I know you’re enamored of Iggy, but for pure minimalism with great guitar, Mitch Ryder is the real deal. I believe that is Dick Wagner on the guitar. Nobody in the Stooges could play like that. And James couldn’t sing like that.

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  11. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    And just for the hellu it, How fucking cool is Link Wray? Sorta way beyond cool, I’d say.

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  12. Rana said on April 30, 2011 at 5:52 pm

    I’ve lost a lot of tolerance for simplistic bumper stickers, even when they’re not actively offensive. I am just too aware of all the complexities being excluded in order to make a pithy “point.”

    My “Japanese” Honda, for example, was made in the United States, by American workers, and sold by an American dealership, and repaired by American mechanics, and fueled by American gas stations operated by American franchisees. And it’s far better workmanship than any of the products in its class put out by its supposedly “American” counterparts.

    These are the same sort of people who think slapping a made-in-China magnetic ribbon on the car makes them superior to people who don’t, or who think buying something colored breast-cancer pink makes them part of “the cure.” It’s meaningless, except as a visible token of their desire to be Good People without any of the work or thought or sacrifice that usually entails, and to look down on others while doing so.

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  13. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 7:30 pm

    Rana

    I’d agree. Except my dad wore a livestrong bracelet for years after my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and kept it as a remembramce when she died. I still have it on after he died. So sometimes these things aren’t meaningless. Sometimes these things represent true loss. Bumper stickers? If you heart the troops, bring them the fuck home.

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  14. basset said on April 30, 2011 at 7:50 pm

    Meanwhile, another truck-mounted personal statement:

    http://i.imgur.com/qvcus.jpg

    Here at the Basset family compound, we operate an Indiana-made Subaru and a Kentucky-built Toyota, one American bicycle and one Chinese.

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  15. brian stouder said on April 30, 2011 at 8:09 pm

    Basset – that picture made me snort! And Pros – you had some interesting links, too.

    Aside from that, Pam dragged me off to see Water for Elephants at the matinee this afternoon, and… I liked it!

    I went in expecting a flat-out chick-flick since Pam “loved the book”, and the last time we saw a matinee based on a book she loved, it was Dear John – and there was maybe 3 men in an audience of 100+; but instead, it was more of an adventure.

    Plus, who doesn’t like Reese Witherspoon?; and more power to her – for carrying off the romantic lead, opposite a young fellow.

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  16. MichaelG said on April 30, 2011 at 8:49 pm

    Am I the only one here who was treated to a local news person advising the world that tomorrow Pope JPII will be “beautified”?

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  17. LAMary said on April 30, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    I hadn’t heard that Michael and I don’t understand why they would do that. He was a perfectly nice looking old guy. Seems a little late to be prettying him up.

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  18. MichaelG said on April 30, 2011 at 10:07 pm

    I thought so too, but you never know what folks might be up to.

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  19. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 30, 2011 at 10:18 pm

    Oddly enough, I find the American cars in my garage are made in Canada, but my chopsticks are made in America.

    Whatever else might be said of him, Karol Wojtyla did a beautiful thing choosing to let his aging and infirmity be seen without shame. Parkinsons and similar syndromes don’t have to be hidden away. But word of the death of his predecessor, the too-little remembered Albino Luciana, was my first broadcast news story, on WNWI-AM (“wonderful northwest Indiana!”). We figured there was no chance someone even as young as John Paul I (65) would be elected pope this time around. The 58 year old Polish pope shocked many, but certainly the northwest Indiana “region” was electrified by his announcement.

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  20. Dexter said on April 30, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    Follow Up…”Ernie” has opened in Detroit.
    http://www.freep.com/article/20110429/ENT05/110429002/1050/sports02/-Ernie-opening-night-brings-cheers-tears

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  21. Dexter said on April 30, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    Just 36 years ago today one helluva historical event occurred in US history, a day that no one mentions anymore, a day forgotten by all but a few of us. The war ended in the most unceremonious manner.
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Vietnamese_UH-1_pushed_over_board,_Operation_Frequent_Wind.jpg

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  22. prospero said on April 30, 2011 at 11:03 pm

    Yeah Dex, but didn’t Tricky have a plan to end it way sooner? Current occupations are driven by corporate cash, and there is no popular move to shut them down, the way there was back then.

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  23. brian stouder said on April 30, 2011 at 11:28 pm

    Yeah Dex, but didn’t Tricky have a plan to end it way sooner? Current occupations are driven by corporate cash, and there is no popular move to shut them down, the way there was back then.

    As Country Joe McDonald reminds us – there’s no draft nowadays.

    In 1969, the idea of war in some far corner of the world was not an abstraction or a hypothetical consideration, but instead a looming reality for a whole generation

    Well, come on all of you, big strong men,
    Uncle Sam needs your help again.
    He’s got himself in a terrible jam
    Way down yonder in Vietnam
    So put down your books and pick up a gun,
    We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun.

    And it’s one, two, three,
    What are we fighting for ?
    Don’t ask me, I don’t give a damn,
    Next stop is Vietnam;
    And it’s five, six, seven,
    Open up the pearly gates,
    Well there ain’t no time to wonder why,
    Whoopee! we’re all gonna die.

    A national draft would tend to focus a much wider swath of our people’s minds upon the question “What are we fighting for?”; not just the young folks but also their moms and dads. (and indeed, this would include the moms and dads of daughters as well as sons).

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  24. brian stouder said on April 30, 2011 at 11:55 pm

    And aside from that, the White House Correspondents Dinner Dinner was good stuff, this evening. Donald Trump got a fully loaded plate of just-deserts, and indeed, I think he enjoyed basking in all the attention (and indeed, he’s an insufferable basker from way back)

    Half the fun of the C-Span show is picking out the people you can recognize in the crowd, and also reading lips and so on, to see what they’re laughing about

    http://www.mediaite.com/tv/snls-seth-myers-rips-into-donald-trump-at-the-white-house-correspondents-dinner/

    Pam and I howled at Meyers’ “the blacks” joke:

    He also took a shot at the mogul’s toupee, which was brave if cringeworthy and not super original. Very funny, however, was Meyers’ line about Trump’s claim that he has a great relationship with “the blacks.” Quoth Meyers: “Unless ‘the Blacks’ are a family of white people, I think he’s mistaken.” By now the cameramen had received my telepathic memo and were on point, cutting to a shot of Obama giggling uncontrollably.

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  25. moe99 said on May 1, 2011 at 12:46 am

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/04/birther-idiocracy-followup-not-socially-acceptable-to-call-him-a-nigger/238016/

    James Fallows does a damn fine job answering JoeK’s question of yesterday.

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  26. ROgirl said on May 1, 2011 at 9:08 am

    RE: America is sadly disfuntional on the subject of the value of labor.

    And education.

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  27. coozledad said on May 1, 2011 at 10:04 am

    I seem to remember Republicans discussing ways to change the eligibility requirements so Schwarzenegger could run for president, back before he proved conclusively he was just another washed up bodybuilder. And Arnold’s dad was straight up Sturmabteilung.

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  28. Dexter said on May 1, 2011 at 11:41 am

    Trump sat there like a bump on a stump while Seth Myers shredded him. Yes, that is a fox on top of Trump’s head.

    A horrible economy feeds the military recruiters the raw stock they need to mold soldiers, airmen, and sailors & marines.
    My step-grandson is training now at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.
    He had been living in Las Vegas with his mom and step-dad since junior high, and Las Vegas living jaded him…all three kids hated Las Vegas public high schools, two quit and went to some kind of alternate education option, and as soon as the boy got his papers from there he made a beeline to the Air Force recruiter who told him there was freeze on enlistments, so he joined the US Army.
    My grandson saw a future of low paying jobs and layoffs and just wanted out of Las Vegas. Most people are ready to leave there after two or three days…imagine having to LIVE there during your formative years. I just had a feeling he was going to join the army, just to have some structure in his life. Now he has it, yes he does.
    My older granddaughter was sailing along at UNLV, doing the work with great grades, then after her sophomore year she suddenly felt the need to leave Las Vegas also. She is now in pre-med at U of Toledo.
    What is it about Las Vegas? Now my 40-something daughter is spending her weekends helling around on a motorcycle. She called yesterday from Arizona. She had never had a motorcycle before. Yep, she has a tattoo, also.

    Happy May Day, the international workingman’s holiday. Remember Haymarket!
    “This story goes all the way back to 1886 in Chicago. Working conditions were terrible and made worse by a depression. While many could find no work, others had to toil for 12 to 16 hours a day. On May 1, 200,000 workers walked off their jobs in a general strike demanding an eight-hour day. Two days later, police killed two striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works.

    The next day, May 4, a protest rally in Haymarket Square was attacked by police and someone — it was never proven who — threw a bomb. Police as well as workers were killed and injured. This was the excuse the bosses needed for an all-out anti-labor offensive. Eight labor leaders were arrested and charged with murder in the death of one of the cops. Four were hanged, one died in prison and, eight years later, the other three were pardoned by Illinois Gov. John Peter Altgeld, who condemned their trial as unfair.

    In 1889, at an International Socialist Workers’ Congress in Paris, some 400 delegates voted to call a universal day of demonstrations for the eight-hour day. A U.S. delegate asked that the date for this event be May 1, in honor of the Haymarket martyrs. That’s how May Day was born as the international workers’ day.

    For decades, millions of workers all over the world marched on May Day in a show of international solidarity and unity. As workers’ revolutions began to topple governments in Europe and Asia, May Day became an official holiday in many countries.

    But not in the United States. Here, where May Day was born, it took a struggle, led by leftists, to bring out the union movement on May Day. After the anti-communist witch-hunt period of the 1950s, some of the best militants were hounded out of the unions. In 2005 the Million Worker March Movement, led by Black trade unionists and their allies, held a May Day rally in New York. But in general, the huge May Day demonstrations of the 1930s became little more than a memory.

    Until May 1, 2006. On that day, between 1 million and 2 million people demonstrated across the country. It was a stunning development that caught the bosses by surprise.

    Who revived May Day in the United States? Immigrants from some of the poorest countries, especially from Latin America.

    -Workers World Party account-

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  29. Dexter said on May 1, 2011 at 12:05 pm

    http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=198258063544365&set=p.198258063544365&type=1

    my cat Friendo

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  30. MichaelG said on May 1, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    He enabled the rise to power of the very powerful, ultra right wing Opus Dei cult and the rush to sainthood for Josemaría Escrivá. He presided over a radical right turn for the Church dashing any hope of advancement toward equality for women. He reinforced the Church’s ban on contraception, guaranteeing that more poor women would bear unhoped for children and failing to participate in the battle against AIDS. He crushed any dissidence and open discussion within the Church. There was financial scandal after financial scandal during his years. He did his level best to stonewall and bury the horrid child abuse scandals that have and still continue to rock the Church. He selected his right wing pal, Ratzi, to run the Church on a day to day basis while he traveled the world acting holy and anointed Ratzi as his successor. Elevating Ratzi along with appointing a record number of Cardinals, all of them in his right wing mold, ensured that the Church will continue on its misbegotten course for years to come. Such is the legacy of Pope John Paul II.

    Is the Church as an organization, as a religion, as a center of benevolence better off today than it was before JPII took over? Assuredly not. If any Pope in recent history should be sainted, it would be Pope John XXIII. The rushed beatification of JPII is nothing more than a cynical ploy on the part of the Vatican to try to capture the sympathy of the poor and the gullible with a little pomp and pageantry.

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  31. beb said on May 1, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    Speaking of chopsticks, I seem to recall an article or maybe it was a book in US trade policy, which pointed out that while the US has laws against exporting raw lumber to foreign countries, US timber is exported to Japan under some loophole, for the manufacture of chopsticks.

    Bumper stickers that tell people to stop buying foreign may be well meaning but with so many Japanese branded cars made in the US, and US branded cars made in Mexico, how do you know which cars are foreign made?

    And speaking of foreign companies manufacturing in the US, what about IKEA? It’s US facility is at the center of a dispute over worker treatment. Where IKEA is well regarded in their native country as a good employer, it’s like they opened on America specifically so they could lie, cheat and steal from their workers.

    I saw Mayor Bloomberg on Meet the Press today. He floated an idea that’s sure to kill immigration to the US. After noting that immigrants are great for founding new businesses, he suggested that new immigrants should be required to live their first five years in Detroit. Thus they would a) repopulate the city and b) fill it with new businesses.

    While I sure Bloomberg meant well, I can’t imagine any immigrant wanting to settle in Detroit. You can’t form a new business in a place where no one has any money!

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  32. Suzanne said on May 1, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    It is kinda funny that many Americans are terrified of workers rights as it smacks of Socialism/Communism but right now, China, which last I checked is Commie Red, is on the fast track to take us economically.

    And my favorite memory of the former Pope’s election was the newscaster in Fort Wayne who mistakenly announced that the Catholic Church had elected the first non-Catholic pope in years.

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  33. moe99 said on May 1, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    also for JoeK: This black guy explains why it was and is racism:

    http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2011/04/eviscerating-donald-trump.html

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  34. Deborah said on May 1, 2011 at 7:50 pm

    Bravo Moe. I hope that link goes super viral. That needs to be seen and heard by as many people as possible. Joe K I hope to God you click on that link and watch it through it’s entirety.

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  35. moe99 said on May 1, 2011 at 8:21 pm

    Oh, and Mitch Daniels proved his clown credentials last week:

    http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2011_04/029207.php

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  36. Joe Kobiela said on May 1, 2011 at 9:51 pm

    Watched, wasn’t really impressed, every one is free to have their opinion, thats what makes America great and I respect his. To bad some here don’t respect mine. This guy hates Trump, Trumps white, why is he allowed to spew hatred,against a white person and not be called a rasist? He talkes about going to vote and being asked questions. What a bout the Black Panthers in Philly the last election standing outside a polling place with clubs and intimidating whites trying to vote? Where does it stop? I don’t agree with most of the liberal policy but I will not speak unkindly of anyone that disagrees with me. To bad its not a two way street.
    Pilot Joe

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  37. Bitter Scribe said on May 1, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    My father was a UAW autoworker for years and proud of it. He even kept up with the retirees union. But I always bought Toyotas (except for one brief, disastrous foray with a Chevy) and I never heard a word from him about it. If he didn’t give me any grief on that score, I’m sure not going to take any from anyone else.

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  38. coozledad said on May 1, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    Looks like Bin Laden’s dead.

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  39. brian stouder said on May 1, 2011 at 11:09 pm

    Huzzah!! Huzzah!! Huzzah!!

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  40. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 1, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    Feeling grim satisfaction, mingled with “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind” – John Donne

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  41. Deborah said on May 1, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    Just back from seeing the Werner Herzog movie, Cave of Forgotten Dreams about the Chauvet cave paintings discovered in the 1990s. I highly recommend it. It was filmed in 3D.

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  42. Kirk said on May 1, 2011 at 11:30 pm

    Amen. A time to celebrate the death of one of the vilest piles of shit ever to walk the face of the Earth. May he suffer in hell forever.

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  43. Halloween Jack said on May 5, 2011 at 2:59 pm

    Mitsubishi built a plant in Normal, Illinois, near my home town, and is still providing jobs and economic support to family and old schoolmates two decades after Chrysler pulled out of the partnership. I’ve occasionally thought of getting one of their Normal-built cars just to be able to ask any America-firster who bitched about it if they knew, for a fact, where their car was made.

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