Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/01/25/free-market-senator-josh-hawley-demands-socialism-to-bail-out-failed-company.html
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What if we end up having to import the metal from one of those countries that puts an extra “i” in it??
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That would take a HUGE amount of labour in procurement departments to account for the change. Hopefully, they’ll maintain a healthy sense of humour about the situation.
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LOL “national security issue” vs likely unionized employees losing their jobs.
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Republican economic theory: privatize the gains, socialize the losses
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I prefer workers self management but I’d love to see Biden nationalise threatened industries in red areas, if only to see Republicans rage behind fake smiles.
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Hey President Biden…
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Huh. I wonder about it, as an aluminum plant.
If the plant’s substantially processing a lot of bauxite, the cost there is 95% electricity just to refine it into usable aluminum.
It’s entirely possible, though this is just speculation, that said operation would probably have benefitted from a strong expansion of sustainable power. Also, while windmills mostly use steel, apparently photovoltaic panels are 85% aluminum, so that might have been an interesting demand market.
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“Some billionaire wants to put 500 Missourians out of work and walk away with the profit.”
I didn’t anticipate Comrade “Red Josh” Hawley being the one to lead the charge against the billionaires, but I’m sure he won’t sit idle once he’s discovered all the things that some other billionaires get up to …
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Christ, what an asshole.
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“Some billionaire wants to put 500 Missourians out of work and walk away with the profit. Can’t happen. This plant and these workers are too important to the nation to shut down”
“Josh Hawley, the free market has spoken. Time for you to go.”
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Don’t worry; we’ve comprehensively fucked our heavy industry, and need to import metals from elsewhere ourselves. 
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Taking anything Hawley says at face value is bad practice, but this appears to be the Magnitude 7 plant he’s talking about.
It’s easy to poke fun at him begging for handouts to save unionized jobs at a plant owned by a foreign company, but if the above article is correct and it’s one of only 5 remaining domestic smelters, maybe there is a valid national security angle. On the other hand…
according to a Reuters review of pollution monitor data for 2019, chemicals and soot pouring out of its smokestacks consistently produced the dirtiest air recorded in America.
So maybe building a new one once we have more renewables in place is a better option than throwing more taxpayer money at this one.
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… I want to see a whole crowd of demonstrators holding signs that say “PROJECT DISPLAY BOARD”
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A (very rare) literal LOL from me!
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Sounds more like Bought-and-Paid-For Hawley making a ransom demand to Biden to further enrich the billionaire than an actual plea to save a vital national security asset.
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That’s a load bearing “i” - we in said countries are shocked by the lack of regulation that allows American aluminium producers to leave them out.
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Hey, American aircraft manufacturers have been using “aluminum” for years without…
OK, bad example.
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What you did there. It is seen.
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Con-artists and frauds are infinitely flexible.
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