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Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Harris-Walz: No comment yet on 'Friends with school shooters' in debate

 Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz fumbled a response about school shootings during Tuesday night’s debate against JD Vance, saying he’s become “friends” with the shooters.

The moderators asked Walz how he changed his mind about banning “assault weapons” over his career.

“I sat in that office with those Sandy Hook parents. I’ve become friends with school shooters. I’ve seen it,” Walz said.

Pollsters, pundits and politicians immediately panned Walz for the embarrassing gaffe.

“’I’ve become friends with school shooters’ may be the worst line in any 2024 debate,” said political pollster and consultant Frank Luntz.

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Fellow pollster Patrick Ruffini was nonplussed.


Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News.AP

“See, this is useful,” floated Fox News contributor Guy Benson. “Walz saying he’s become friends with school shooters, when he meant victims, is an innocent misstatement.

“Repeatedly lying about his military rank, his DUI, IVF and Hong Kong/Tiananmen Square are not innocent misstatements.”

National Review contributor Andy McCarthy pushed back.

“Walz obviously misspoke, he didn’t mean he’d become friends with school shooters. C’mon. This is a good, high-minded debate as things go these days. Let’s not make s–t up.”

Vance and Walz talk with each other at the end of the vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News.AFP via Getty Images

“I am not friends with school shooters,” deadpanned X user Three Year Letterman. “I am here to take firm stands even if they are not popular.”

US Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) and Nancy Mace (R-SC) reposted the quote, with Luna adding that it was “concerning.”

Even former President Donald Trump got in on the action, posting a Trump-Vance 2024 sign on his Truth Social with a slogan written underneath: “Not friends with school shooters.”

A sign is posted on an electricity pole outside a house near Sandy Hook Elementary School, nearly two weeks after a gunman shot dead 20 students and six adults, in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.REUTERS

His campaign also reposted video footage of Walz stumbling over his words. 

“My daughter was killed in the Parkland school shooting,” posted Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, who was killed at the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

Andrew Pollack, father of one of the students killed in the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas school shooting in Florida, spoke out following Walz’s gaffe.via REUTERS

“It’s absolutely abhorrent that Tim Walz has befriended school shooters. Disqualifying.”

Walz made another appeal to gun owners, however, when he said he used to have his gun in the back of his car so he could go “pheasant hunting” after “football practice.”

He also said that if America wants to stop school shootings — we should look to Finland.

“They don’t have this happen,” the Minnesota governor said. “Even though they have a high gun ownership rate in the country, there are reasonable things that we can do to make a difference.”

Walz suggested the federal government had a role in taking away “some of these weapons out there” — but didn’t specify which.

“I appreciate what Tim said, actually, about Finland,” Vance responded, “because I do think it illustrates some of the frankly weird differences between our own country’s gun violence problem and Finland.”

The Ohio senator said that the US, unlike Finland, grapples with higher rates of depression and anxiety.

Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to “ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, and support red flag laws that keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” according to her and Walz’s campaign website.

The National Rifle Association, America’s gun lobby, formerly gave Walz an “A” rating for his voting record on gun legislation — but has downgraded him to an “F” during his two terms as governor.

The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2024/10/01/us-news/walz-says-hes-become-friends-with-school-shooters-in-vp-debate-gaffe/

Shattuck cut to Hold by 3 sell siders

 

TodayDowngradeNeedhamBuy → Hold
TodayDowngradeCitigroupBuy → Neutral$8 → $2
Oct-01-24DowngradeH.C. WainwrightBuy → Neutral

ILA calls for automation restrictions at US ports could undercut competitiveness

 A labor strike by unionized dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports began Tuesday with the union and port employers at an impasse over a new contract, with the use of automation and technology at ports a sticking point in negotiations.

The International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and its roughly 45,000 workers are seeking a 77% pay raise over the new contract, as well as putting a stop to port automation projects that could cost jobs. In a statement Tuesday, the ILA said that it is "steadfastly against any form of automation – full or semi – that replaces jobs or historical work functions. We will not accept the loss of work and livelihood for our members due to automation."

The U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX), which represents port employers in negotiations, said in a statement Monday that its offer would've provided a 50% raise plus improved retirement and health care benefits and would also "retain the current language around automation and semi-automation."

Eric Hoplin, CEO of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW), said on FOX Business' "Mornings With Maria" on Tuesday that the union's automation demands are "unrealistic." He noted that major ports around the world like Shanghai, China, Rotterdam in the Netherlands and Singapore have embraced automated cranes and vehicles in ports adding, "We're already three decades behind."

Douglas Kent, EVP of Corporate and Strategic Alliances at the Association of Supply Chain Management (ASCM), told FOX Business in an interview that, "The port infrastructure in the U.S. also has to remain competitive on the global stage." 

"If you take a look at things that are happening in Europe, in the Middle East, in UAE, in Singapore, for example, some of the more advanced ports, you're seeing an investment in infrastructure to take advantage of increased levels of technology that can be integrated to drive efficiencies and effectiveness and continue flow."

"That particular issue is a huge sticking point because it of course protects the worker because we're keeping things more manual. But at the same time, it's costing more to do those things because we are integrating technology and we're having to pay more for the longshoremen," Kent said. 

"The big question that that raises is, how sustainable is that situation? I mean this is, again, another multi-year contract," he said. "Are we really going to commit ourselves to not allowing for technology and automation to be part of the future state equation? It'd be foolish to do so, so I think there's going to have to be some give and take there, perhaps automation that is less impactful to the amount of labor that's needed to do the job."

"I think what they should be talking about is, what's the change in the nature of the role? Is it that we're doing things that are, let's say, more intellectual versus manual, but not necessarily reducing the workforce to take advantage of the technology and allow for some scalability of the capacity management. So new skill sets, new capabilities, new competencies," Kent explained.

Alexander Field, an economics professor at Santa Clara University's Leavey School of Business, told FOX Business, "From the long-run perspective, automation is good because it increases productivity, and productivity, ultimately, is what drives our living standards."

"Now, that's not much comfort if somebody loses their job because of automation. So the question is whether that can be handled by attrition or by compensation. It's a real dilemma in terms of the demands of the union," Field said.

Ricardo Ernst, professor of global business at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business, told FOX Business, "Not embracing technology is unfortunately very myopic because that is one of the sources of competitiveness. If we don't do it, believe me, some other place is going to do it and then they're going to be more competitive than us."

"What needs to be discussed is what alternative we find for them. What are the options, do we retrain them? It's a much larger issue than just saying we are stopping automation," Ernst said. "Automation is unavoidable."

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/dockworkers-unions-calls-automation-restrictions-us-ports-could-undercut-competitiveness