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Brother Buzz

(36,444 posts)
1. A real wartime president would have hired a William Knudsen...
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 03:35 AM
Mar 2020

a year before the balloon went up. Jared Kushner ain't no Knudson.

William S. Knudsen, original name Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen, (born March 25, 1879, Copenhagen—died April 27, 1948, Detroit), Danish-born American industrialist, an effective coordinator of automobile mass production who served as president of General Motors Corporation (1937–40) and directed the government’s massive armaments production program for World War II.

After Knudsen immigrated to the United States in 1900, he worked at a variety of jobs. In 1902 he began working for Keim Mills, a Buffalo bicycle factory, which in 1904 began manufacturing parts for the Ford Motor Company. Ford purchased the factory in 1911, and Knudsen was eventually transferred to Ford’s Detroit plant. In 1914, the year that he became a U.S. citizen, he began supervising the establishment of Ford assembly plants throughout the United States. He directed the firm’s construction of submarine patrol boats and other war matériel for the U.S. Navy during World War I. In 1922, after a falling-out with Henry Ford, he joined the General Motors Corporation; he was appointed president and general manager of the Chevrolet division in 1924 and president of General Motors in 1937.

In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Knudsen director of industrial production for the National Defense Research Committee. He continued to direct production of war matériel as head of the U.S. Office of Production Management (1941) and as lieutenant general in charge of production for the War Department (1942–45). He returned to private business in July 1945.


William Knudsen was a problem solver, extraordinaire, and Boy howdy, he got things done. People did the impossible for him because they believed in him...and more importantly, he believed in them.

sprinkleeninow

(20,250 posts)
2. Brilliance. A colossally perceived difference between this Knudsen
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 03:42 AM
Mar 2020

and the sorry excuse for CiC we are subjected to.

Brother Buzz

(36,444 posts)
3. When FDR called him, he stepped right up, but refused a salary
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 04:00 AM
Mar 2020

He was the first genuine dollar-a-year man, and that speaks volumes about his character.



Good read: Freedom's Forge: How American Business Built the Arsenal of Democracy That Won World War II by Arthur Herman

Freedom's Forge reveals how two extraordinary American businessmen—General Motors automobile magnate William 'Big Bill' Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser—helped corral, cajole, and inspire business leaders across the country to mobilize the "arsenal of democracy" that propelled the Allies to victory in World War II. Drafting top talent from companies like Chrysler, Republic Steel, Boeing, Lockheed, GE, and Frigidaire, Knudsen and Kaiser turned auto plants into aircraft factories and civilian assembly lines into fountains of munitions. In four short years they transformed America's army from a hollow shell into a truly global force, laying the foundations for the country's rise as an economic as well as military superpower. Freedom's Forge vividly re-creates American industry's finest hour, when the nation's business elites put aside their pursuit of profits and set about saving the world.

Jamastiene

(38,187 posts)
4. Who the fuck are we going to go to war with?
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 04:03 AM
Mar 2020

We are being led by a crackpot. Lock him up, padded cell, jail, prison, under the prison, I don't care. Just get that fucker out of power. Put a real leader in charge. Why can't we have President Pelosi instead right now? Hell, President almost any democrat would be better.

We are NOT at war, Trump! You stupid fucker. Stop playing pretend. Get your fucking head out of the clouds and stop pissing around.

God, how I hate him.

sprinkleeninow

(20,250 posts)
5. This latest from him is not usual bs emitting from his orifice.
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 04:56 AM
Mar 2020

This is intentional. First, 'getting off' on it, the thought put into words. Then a hidden message regarding his 'stature' during this election year. Forbid that anyone should consider not supporting an incumbent 'wartime president'.

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,350 posts)
7. I think *himself* called it "the invisible enemy"
Thu Mar 19, 2020, 05:54 AM
Mar 2020

So, build a wall along the Rio Grande.

It's war, baby!

Semper Mendacem! (always lying, maybe)

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