Trump tells GM: Stop 'wasting time', build ventilators to address coronavirus

[Lacessit]

If there is one thing America does well, it is mass production. They invented it. Logistics is another one of their strengths.

Irrespective of whether Trump is wrong or right ( IMO he was very slow to react ) once the USA gets its act together there will probably be excess ventilators for export.

Now here's an idea - why not invoke the same Act, and have armaments manufacturers join the party? A bit like beating the swords into ploughshares.

[simple1]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Oddly, Trump has not published any document with his signature on it enacting the Defense Production Act.

 

No fanfare signing ceremony, no official government a announcement.

Formal announcement and signing ceremony completed (no social distancing to set an example - LOL). As ever the world has to put up with trump's blowhard blaming, self interest and deflections when being criticised. A good article below that talks to the background and challenges to ramp up production of ventilators which require an electronics factory facility.  As an aside I would imagine additional quality assurance for the software driving the equipment will be essential if components are  not sourced from the usual suppliers. probably slowing down supply.

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/27/business/automakers-ventilator-production-coronavirus/index.html

 

 

[simple1]

48 minutes ago, Bluespunk said:

Easy enough to find out where they got them from... read the news. 
 

Coronavirus: Tesla donates hundreds of ventilators to New York https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-52071314

LOL - from the article...

 

The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

1 hour ago, exparte said:

Trump is totally in the right. Capitalism takes a back seat in times of National Emergency.

 

Have you been dead or just sleeping the past month?  Trump weeks ago was slow to enact the DPA when governors and others were pleading for him to do so.  Then, he finally did invoke the DPA amid much fanfare, but then absolutely refused to actually implement/use it in any way, saying private industry could be counted on to do the job without federal intervention.

 

Now in the past week, despite that, FEMA announces that it's planning to use the DPA to acquire something like 20,000 COVID test kits, and that very same day, after the FEMA announcement, Trump shuts down that DPA effort by FEMA... And so after many weeks, on the DPA front, the federal government has done absolutely NOTHING!

 

Now suddenly yesterday, Trump reverses course again to actually invoke and use the DPA for ventilators, something he could and should have done weeks ago, And now he's publicly yelling at and criticizing major auto makers for failing to live up to their obligations, the same huge corporations that Trump previously had argued should be left alone without the feds getting involved.

 

The man is a one-man clown and buffoon show disguised as a president of the U.S.  And U.S. residents are going to die because of his incompetence and delays.

 

[Mavideol]

1 hour ago, Thailand said:

More to do with his election prospects diminishing perhaps?

and maybe under Kushner advise/counsel, so far he has been the best with new ideas

[ChouDoufu]

10 minutes ago, simple1 said:

LOL - from the article...

 

The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China.

 

ventilators!  get your ventilators here!

 

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Good-Price-Hospital-ICU-Ventilator-Medical_62326654039.html?spm=a2700.galleryofferlist.0.0.66976c798yDoCq

 

volume discounts!

$1,300-$1,700 per unit!

3% off coupon!

on hand for march delivery!

 

 

nah, it'll be fine!

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by ChouDoufu

[ChouDoufu]

shut up, you damn narcissist!  your people are dying.

you need 40,000 ventilators?  well, here they are.

 

you just wasted $2 trillion dollars on a pork-filled wall street hedge fund bailout.

 

just $50 million will get you those ventilators.

Edited March 28, 2020 by ChouDoufu
stupid autofill!

[bristolboy]

2 hours ago, exparte said:

Trump is totally in the right. Capitalism takes a back seat in times of National Emergency.

That means this fellow was totally in the wrong.:

Frustration mounts at Trump's reluctance to use emergency production powers

"I only signed the Defense Production Act to combat the Chinese Virus should we need to invoke it in a worst- case scenario in the future," he said. "Hopefully there will be no need, but we are all in this TOGETHER!"

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/488526-frustration-mounts-at-trumps-reluctance-to-use-emergency-production-powers

The statement was made on March 19. Which, to Trump supporters, qualifies as irrelevant Ancient History.

[bristolboy]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

Well closing a plant means something to the workers and people too, does it not?

 

I dont kow why GM was dilly dallying, Ford has been making them quickly..

Huh?

After being called out on Twitter by U.S. President Donald Trump, Ford Motor said it’s “pulling out all the stops” to build ventilators and other devices needed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Ford is already delivering tens of thousands of face shields to hospitals and police, Mark Truby, the automaker’s vice president of communications, said in a tweet. He wrote Ford also is “working flat-out” with General Electric to produce ventilators and 3M to boost production of air-purifying respirators in a partnership announced three days ago.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/ford-says-its-pulling-out-all-stops-to-make-ventilators/ar-BB11NNlV

[bristolboy]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

The USA is the best in the world at pumping stuff out once we get going. We have done it before and we will do it again. And yes there are delays, just like the Marines biatched at Guadalcanal because they were using bolt action pre 1900 design rifles while the Army boys had Garands.

Clearly you believe that the year is 1944. I got news for you. It's been quite a while since the USA was the world's leading manufacturer. Oh, and the Communists have taken over China. And lately they've proven that they're not half bad at manufacturing stuff.

[bristolboy]

1 hour ago, Nyezhov said:

I think that this endless blurb has been proven mostly false, even by the loose standards of mainstream media fact checking.

On the contrary. One Trump apparatchik had a column in the Washingtoon Post claiming otherwise. He had to finagle his way around the facts to back his assertion that the Pandemic team wasn't disbanded. 

[Nyezhov]

59 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Now here's an idea - why not invoke the same Act, and have armaments manufacturers join the party? A bit like beating the swords into ploughshares.

Thats something I have thought about. I think the two that have the machining capability in house, vis S&W and Ruger, could easily make ventilator metal parts, and I wouldnt doubt that Ruger already is, since thats what they do besides guns, make precision parts. 

[Rimmer]

off topic removed

[Don Mega]

1 minute ago, Nyezhov said:

Thats something I have thought about. I think the two that have the machining capability in house, vis S&W and Ruger, could easily make ventilator metal parts, and I wouldnt doubt that Ruger already is, since thats what they do besides guns, make precision parts. 

The plastic molded bits will take 8 to 12 weeks for off tool samples (after months of design and engineering), another 4 to 6 weeks till production.

 

And Made in China !!

[mtls2005]

1 hour ago, khunyod said:

Trump is an idiot who is now panicking. He should have done this weeks ago, much less months ago.

 

Found in the White House, circa 2017.

 

 

PLAYBOOK FOR  EARLY RESPONSE TO  EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASE THREATS AND BIOLOGICAL INCIDENTS

 

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819258/Playbook.pdf

[ExpatOK]

 

Some historical perspective.

 

 

[lannarebirth]

29 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Clearly you believe that the year is 1944. I got news for you. It's been quite a while since the USA was the world's leading manufacturer. Oh, and the Communists have taken over China. And lately they've proven that they're not half bad at manufacturing stuff.

Well, they're not really Communists are they? Autocrats yes, Communists no.

Edited March 28, 2020 by lannarebirth

[Muzzique]

6 minutes ago, mtls2005 said:

Found in the White House, circa 2017.

PLAYBOOK FOR  EARLY RESPONSE TO  EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASE THREATS AND BIOLOGICAL INCIDENTS

Early response? By the time you finish reading it the whole thing will be over. Someone got paid a whole lot of money for producing a document that will never be used.

 

 

However it could prove a very useful document in case they run out of toilet paper.

[bristolboy]

4 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

Well, they're not really Communists are they? Autocrats yes, Communists no.

In his mindset, they're Communists. I mean, to him, Bernie Sanders is a Communist.

[Number 6]

3 hours ago, Don Mega said:

Should only take GM a day or 2 to convert the factories from making cars to medical equipment !!

It's just one factory. They either have been making them or something similar in the plant. Clean jobs for 1000. Should have never bailed them out. Make horrible cars and mediocre trucks.

[rabas]

18 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

Clearly you believe that the year is 1944. I got news for you. It's been quite a while since the USA was the world's leading manufacturer. Oh, and the Communists have taken over China. And lately they've proven that they're not half bad at manufacturing stuff.

You know of global manufacturing I assume? America manufactures some of the world's most advanced technology using components make everywhere including China. China is an incredible manufacturer and that's great as I order lots of parts and components, which are cheap and shipped free.  What a wonderful global arrangement! Of course the US has 2.5 times the total national output of China relative to manufactured goods. 

 

Stats from 2018 Brookings

=====================================

Country	Manufacturing Output ($billions)	Percent of National Output	Percent of Global Manufacturing
China	$2,010	27	20
United States	1,867	12	18
Japan	1,063	19	10
Germany	700	23	7
South Korea	372	29	4
India	298	16	3

[lannarebirth]

7 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

In his mindset, they're Communists. I mean, to him, Bernie Sanders is a Communist.

 

I'd love to give him a pop quiz on that.

[lannarebirth]

3 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

It's just one factory. They either have been making them or something similar in the plant. Clean jobs for 1000. Should have never bailed them out. Make horrible cars and mediocre trucks.

GM sold that plant last year.

[bristolboy]

29 minutes ago, ExpatOK said:

 

Some historical perspective.

 

 

He launched it on Jan 30th! So, yeah, it barely made it over the post. And apparently he ignored it through February. At least I hope so. I can't imagine the Task Force could be so clueless as to be making this kind of claim: 

“I think every aspect of our society should be prepared. I don’t think it’s going to come to that, especially with the fact that we’re going down, not up. We’re going very substantially down, not up.” 

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/03/trumps-statements-about-the-coronavirus/

But I think the case is even worse  for Nancy Pelosi.. She has been frittering away lots of her time making putting up angry and self-glorifying tweets on Twitter. Now that's moronic..oh wait a minute... 

 

 

Edited March 28, 2020 by bristolboy

[Don Mega]

4 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

It's just one factory. They either have been making them or something similar in the plant. Clean jobs for 1000. Should have never bailed them out. Make horrible cars and mediocre trucks.

I doubt GM have been making them or something similar in any of their factories.

[RJRS1301]

Is this the same person who a few weeks ago stated "It's just the 'flu", no I am not worried

Same man ?

I have heard no word of "I was wrong> now I must work collaboratively with experts to control this virus, to the best of combined abilites as  we can under the current circumstances, I ask the American public to support each other and the administration in this. We will bring in our best minds from medicine ,science, community to work collectively and I will seek their advice in all matters"

Edited March 28, 2020 by RJRS1301

[bristolboy]

3 minutes ago, rabas said:

You know of global manufacturing I assume? America manufactures some of the world's most advanced technology using components make everywhere including China. China is an incredible manufacturer and that's great as I order lots of parts and components, which are cheap and shipped free.  What a wonderful global arrangement! Of course the US has 2.5 times the total national output of China relative to manufactured goods. 

 

Stats from 2018 Brookings

=====================================

Country	Manufacturing Output ($billions)	Percent of National Output	Percent of Global Manufacturing
China	$2,010	27	20
United States	1,867	12	18
Japan	1,063	19	10
Germany	700	23	7
South Korea	372	29	4
India	298	16	3

So is or is the #1 manufacturing power in the world? And you have to remember, those are nominal dollar values. If you evaluate by PPP, the gulf is a lot bigger. Keep in mind that Nyezhov claimed the USA could outproduce any other nation. And to prove it, he cited WW2. Bizarre, no? 

[rvaviator]

1 hour ago, simple1 said:

LOL - from the article...

 

The ventilators were purchased from US government-approved manufacturers in China.

Well they do have some manufacturing experience ... ???? ... Can you imagine T asking for help from China ? .. Would not look to good for him would it ...

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, ExpatOK said:

 

Some historical perspective.

 

 

The REAL historical perspective.

 

[Don Mega]

40 minutes ago, bristolboy said:

 Keep in mind that Nyezhov claimed the USA could outproduce any other nation. And to prove it, he cited WW2. Bizarre, no? 

USA can outproduce any nation in the amount of utter lie's it produces.