working class hero G O P

disambig

see good old boy

see pseudo-populism

TUCKER

see 2 faced hypocrisy

fake outrage

rubber glue

---

REBOOT?

AN 8 26

Republicans appear to be realizing that President Donald Trump's claims that "affordability" is a "con job" aren't winning messages for the GOP as the November 3 election nears.

Writing for The New Republic on Tuesday, Alex Thomas explained that for years, critics have claimed that Republican economic policies aren't working for the vast majority of Americans. Some have gone so far as to claim that it's outright hollowing out the middle class.

Vice President JD Vance appeared on Joe Rogan's show, where he complained that Republicans allowed Wall Street to turn “every asset of modern life” into a profit machine. So, homes, jobs, health care and basic stability are being treated as investments for the wealthy rather than necessities for working families. Vance explained that this was the reason so many younger Americans are open to socialism. The GOP has spent generations championing deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, union-busting and free trade. When big banks and mortgage companies were caught making risky financial decisions and companies collapsed, the government swooped in to bail them out. The victims of the banks were not similarly rescued.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) has criticized his party over corporate giveaways and drastic cuts to social programs. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) supports restrictions on investors buying up homes all over the U.S. Even Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged that "free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy has shrunk the middle class and left the working class in crisis."

Thomas argued that these statements aren't merely minor changes in rhetoric. He believes that they amount to a growing recognition that the old Republican economic model failed millions of Americans.

In a way, Thomas wrote, Republicans are the dog that caught the car. Meanwhile, Donald Trump's economic policies trend toward being a "dedicated transactionalist." He has "stacked up a Jenga tower of economic policies that are largely short-sighted. Not the sort of ideas you would use to rebuild a party platform that has failed, let alone revive a crumbling economy," Thomas wrote.

Calling Trump's economic policies "zaney," at least "as much as they can be coherently understood," Thomas called it a sharp reversal of the Republican doctrine.

Then there is the party’s biggest obstacle: its donors. Vance may talk about restoring worker power and rebuilding private-sector unions, but he will need the billionaire backers when it's time to begin collecting his own campaign war chest.

Vance may compare AI to the Industrial Revolution, but that was also a period that created huge fortunes while workers fought for basic rights. The difference this time is that the industrialists are already in control, the labor movement is weaker and the Republican Party is still dependent on the billionaires who stand to benefit most, Thomas closed.

-=-=

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AN 6 26

When Donald Trump declared, during his 2016 campaign, "I love the poorly educated," that line underscored his claim to represent working-class voters. And a decade later, Trump — despite being a billionaire — and his allies continue to depict MAGA as a movement designed to make the working class more prosperous. But Salon's Chauncey DeVega, in a biting late June article, argues that MAGA's appeal to "working-class identity and authenticity" is a sham.

DeVega is vehemently critical of Vice President JD Vance in his article, attacking the "Hillbilly Elegy" author and former U.S. senator as an "opportunist" who has long since turned his back on the working class he claims to represent.

"The years since the publication of 'Hillbilly Elegy' demonstrated that Vance is, at his heart, an opportunist and a chameleon," DeVega writes in Salon. "Before entering politics, he publicly and privately condemned Trump, describing him as 'America's Hitler' and an 'idiot.' Venture capitalist and conservative activist Peter Thiel served as his mentor, funding his career in finance and underwriting Vance's own business. When Vance ran for the Senate in 2022, Thiel was his largest donor, contributing approximately $15 million to his campaign."

DeVega adds, "Thiel's intervention on behalf of Vance serves as a reminder that the vice president did not pull himself up alone by his bootstraps; he had a lot of help and luck along the way."

The Salon journalist notes that when Vance "returns to his working-class roots" in interviews, his appeal to "working-class authenticity" is "largely performative" — which, according to Vega, is typical of the MAGA movement.

"In American politics — especially in the post-Civil Rights Movement era — the term 'working class,' or 'blue collar,' is presented as being race- and gender-neutral when it is usually a stand-in for white conservative and right-leaning men. In reality, there are tens of millions of working-class Black and brown people. Approximately 46 percent of the U.S. working class are women. As a group, working-class Americans support progressive policies. Besides being pro-union, they are in favor of expanding the social safety net, investing in infrastructure, and increasing taxes on the rich and corporations to create a fairer economy and more opportunity for all Americans."

DeVega continues, "When Vance or Trump talk about 'working-class' or 'hard-working Americans,' they are making thinly coded appeals to aggrieved white men and women who feel they have 'lost their country' to Black and brown people, immigrants and others who have 'cut ahead in line.' To that point, research has repeatedly shown that it is not economic anxiety but racism, nativism and white racial resentment that drives support for Trumpism, MAGA and today's Republican Party."

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PSEUDO- POP?

an 6 26

Speaking for his podcast Can’t Be Censored, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said he is leaving the Republican Party — and he blames President Donald Trump’s ostensible support for Israel.

“I would not support the Republican party, there's no chance I would support the Republican party,” Carlson declared in his Thursday episode, with him reposting the clip on X on Monday. “How could I support a political party that is not loyal to the United States. I voted Republican my entire life, I have been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican party, but there is no defending this. I'm out.”

Carlson argued that, by starting a war against Iran in February, he prioritized Israel’s interests over those of the United States. Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, Carlson asserted that the president was unduly influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter a war that America has “effectively lost already.” He added that he believes Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was funded by individuals whose “loyalty to Israel” does not align with American foreign policy priorities.

The right-wing podcaster’s split with Trump over Israel is part of a broader pattern on both sides of the aisle. A February poll taken by Gallup found support for Israel has dropped among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. Independents support Palestinians over Israel by 41 to 30 percent and Democrats do so by 65 percent to 17 percent. Republicans still overwhelmingly support Israel, by 70 percent to 13 percent, but this still counts as a 10-point drop since 2024. Overall American support for Israel has fallen from 46 percent to 33 percent in favor of Israel in 2025 to 41 percent to 36 percent against Israel in 2026.

Speaking exclusively to AlterNet, former Harvard law professor, former lawyer for Trump and Zionist activist Alan Dershowitz argued that rising anti-Semitism on both sides of the aisle will compel Israel and the Jewish community to become “stronger” and more cautious about the future.

“The alternative is to be strong,” Dershowitz told AlterNet. “The alternative is to prepare for the worst. The alternative is for Israel to be completely self-reliant, for Jews not to expect help from other people, but to do it on their own, the way they did it when they were the best musicians, the best chess players, the best inventors, the best entrepreneurs.”

He added, "I think Jews have to realize that they're not going to get, they can't count on the kindness of strangers, and they shouldn't give up any of their security in the name of public relations.”

When asked about the rise of anti-Israel sentiment from both the right and left, Dershowitz characterized it as anti-Semitic and compared the current historical moment to the World War II era.

“The antisemite to the right, antisemite to the left have more in common than they are different,” Dershowitz said, then comparing the current movements to those of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. “And that goes back to [Joseph] Stalin and [Adolf] Hitler. Stalin and Hitler had only one thing in common, that they both hated Jews.”

Since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel’s war against Gaza has led to 72,835 fatalities as of May, according to the World Health Organization. The initial Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7th led to 1,195 Israeli deaths, including 815 civilians, as well as 251 additional civilians who were taken hostage, according to Human Rights Watch.

Speaking with AlterNet in March about the tendency to blame Israel for America’s war against Iran, Brandeis University historian Jonathan Sarna said that one can criticize Israeli government officials without being anti-Semitic just as one can criticize American government officials without hating America. The challenge, he added, is discerning when those criticisms are used to denounce all Israelis, delegitimize Israel’s right to exist or hold Israel to a double standard compared to its predominantly Muslim neighbors.

“I can be critical of President Trump without being un-American,” Sarna told AlterNet. “Most people who criticize President Trump or the Republicans would assure you how much they love America and hold a fundamentally positive view of it. It seems to me that it's deeply important for us to do the same with Israel — that is, to make clear that there is a huge difference between disliking the policies of the Prime Minister of Israel and hating Israel itself.”

He continued, “If you wouldn't equate criticism of the President with hating America, there is no reason — and indeed it is wrong and wicked — to do so with regard to Israel.”

Ironically, Israel itself is starting to turn on Trump, with many Israelis believing that his tentative settlement with Iran will leave the nation as powerful as before and just as capable of attacking Israel directly or through proxies like Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As restaurateur Daniel Dorfmann, an Israeli in the town of Metulla which is close to the Lebanon border, angrily told The Guardian, “Everyone was very pleased with the war [against Iran] but the US agreement is really not good for Israel … It’s a big mistake.”

While Carlson is officially leaving the Republican Party over Israel, this is not his first deviation from the GOP on policy matters. Speaking with this journalist for Salon in 2019, Carlson challenged Republicans for seeming to prioritize capital over labor.

“My intention in writing it was to remind the Republican Party that these are now issues of concern for you, because for a hundred years you represented capital over and against labor,” Carlson told Salon at the time regarding an editorial he composed on the need for the party to be more pro-labor. “I mean that’s kind of the purpose of the Republican Party. They used to represent the investor class, right? So the conventional criticisms of the Republicans as the party of management were 100 percent true, obviously.”

He added, “What I wanted to remind Republican lawmakers was that it’s no longer true, that’s not your constituency anymore. You have a new constituency and it’s people who are primarily wage earners and primarily — not low income, but lower income.”

===

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RUNNING IN 2028?

puzzle, threat to dark money, really his problem is mcconn control pursestrings?

With minimum wage bill, news organizations help Republican Sen. Josh Hawley rebrand as a working class ally

06/16/25 MMA

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an 3 24

although 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and the MAGA movement struggle in urban areas, rural areas are another matter. Much of Trump's hardcore support comes from rural areas, especially rural areas that are predominantly white.

In their new book, "White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy," authors Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman describe the link between MAGA authoritarianism and the economic and health problems plaguing rural areas. But unlike others who have written on that subject, Schaller and Waldman hold white rural voters accountable for their actions and do not pretend that rural Americans are somehow morally superior to urban Americans.

Schaller and Waldman spoke candidly during a Q&A interview with Salon's Amanda Marcotte, arguing that GOP politicians and right-wing media figures — not urban liberals and progressives — are the most overtly condescending where rural voters are concerned.

Schaller told Marcotte, "Nobody is more insulting to rural voters than the people who are giving them nothing and taking their votes. They claim Democrats are insulting, but Democrats are doing something for them and getting none of their votes. But nothing's more condescending than getting votes and doing nothing in return. J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik and Tom Cotton — all these people were educated at Harvard and Yale. They frankly laugh behind the backs of their own voters to some degree, right? Those are the people who are really insulting."

Schaller cited Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) as another highly educated far-right Republican whose performative politics are "insulting" to rural voters.

"When Ted Cruz says: My pronouns are 'kiss my ass' or 'you can't limit me to two beers,' now he's more insulting," Schaller told Marcotte. "What he is saying is: These voters are so easily won over by performative politics. I can reduce their core urges and reflexes to this. And I don't have to deliver a thing for rural Texas."

During the interview, Schaller and Waldman stressed that rural Americans have very real problems — from health care to poverty — and that "performative" MAGA politics do nothing to better their lives.

Waldman told Marcotte, "You see it in your home state of Texas almost more than anywhere else. Republicans have carefully gerrymandered the state legislative districts, using rural areas as a kind of a leverage to make sure they stay in power. Yet there are huge problems in rural Texas that the legislature never addresses. They've got terrible infrastructure problems. They've got problem with the water systems and the electrical systems. Because they refused to accept the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid, rural hospitals are closing all over. There are people in Texas who have to drive 200 miles to get to prenatal care."

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note deflection/ inversion we are not racists. greedhead elite

see RACISM, MISOGYNY, COASTAL ELITE

see plantation, NOTE GINGRICH DEVIL TERMS POLAR

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-says-democratic-party-coalition-includes-resentful-government-addicted

KIRK (HOST): And so that gives me hope. The ordinary man. The muscular class. Our movement long term is stronger than the Democrats. The Democrats, they are atemporary coalition between permanent, resentful, government addicted minorities and WHITE? people that want government benefits, Xanax and chardonnay wine moms, and resentful college educated white, liberal women who complain about everything withsingle women, and oligarchs. WORD SALAD? That's the Democrat Party.

Republicans are a multi-racial, small business, parents party, entrepreneurs, Hispanics, Blacks, all across the board. The Republican Party is a healthier party. Not left versus right, but top versus bottom. And that might not, that might not manifest itself this election. I'm just going to be honest. No guarantee. But if the Republican Party keeps this pace up as artificial intelligence starts to displace millions of jobs, as the technocrats try to redesign society, the Democrat coalition is going to shrink and shrink. All they have left is fringe social issues of trans zealots and as we say frequently the Aspen ski lift women who care so much about abortion that's all they vote on. I think it's a Potemkin village. I think it's a house of cards. I think it's an unsustainable political coalition.

J.D. Vance slams 'elites' despite shared backgrounds: analysis - Alternet.org

an kos 2 23

The GOP continues to sling whatever trash they’ve got at President Joe Biden in the wake of his historic trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, and his total dunking on them about the debt ceiling, Social Security, and Medicare. They’re taking their talking points from Tucker Carlson, keeping up the narrative Biden is responsible for the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, because he hates white people.

Here’s the repugnant Sen. Josh Hawley doubling down on that, and throwing in some antisemitism for the heck of it: “My message to congressional Republican: you can either be the party of Ukraine & globalists or you can be the party of East Palestine & the working people of American.”

[twt w tukr]

Let’s talk about the working Americans of East Palestine, Ohio, and who is really helping them. The population of the town is 4,761 as of the 2020 census. It’s in Columbiana County, population 101,877 in 2020. In 2021, the last year statistics are available from, there were 32,077 people in the county who were enrolled in Medicaid, the joint federal/state funded health insurance program for low-income individuals and families.

So, yeah, that’s about a third of the population of the county—the smallest geographical area for which Medicaid data is available. Ohio as a whole saw a nearly 28% hike in Medicaid and CHIP enrollments during the pandemic. (CHIP is the program for children’s health.)

More than 7,500 households in Columbiana County were receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, or food stamps, in November 2022. That’s 14,407 people, including 5,421 children.

This is not a prosperous place. The median household income for the county was $49,265 in 2021, the latest figures available. That’s $12,997 lower than the median Ohio household income and $20,452 less than the U.S. median household income. The minimum wage in Ohio is $10.10/hour, $5.05 for tipped employees.

At the same time, though, the unemployment rate for the county is just 4.3%, all of which means that there are a lot of working people in this place who are living in or very nearly in poverty. And yes, you hardly need to ask: Those people voted for Trump in 2020, 72% to 27% for Biden. They’re probably now lining up in diners all through the county to be interviewed by New York Times reporters.

These are the very programs the GOP always wants to destroy, the programs that truly help working people. Medicaid, food assistance—they’re all on the chopping block as far as the GOP is concerned, and always have been.

This isn’t about Ukraine, and it sure as hell isn’t about the working people of East Palestine, Ohio—where were any of them when Trump was deregulating the rails and making this kind of disaster almost inevitable? Oh, that’s right, supporting an insurrection against the government.

[[ an 2 23

ahead of former President Donald Trump's Wednesday visit to East Palestine, Ohio—where a Norfolk Southern-owned train transporting carcinogenic chemicals derailed on February 3, prompting a mass evacuation and release of pollutants—progressive critics highlighted the key role his administration played in making the fiery crash and its toxic aftermath more likely.

During his speech, Trump—considered a leading GOP presidential candidate for 2024 despite spearheading a deadly coup attempt following his 2020 loss—criticized how President Joe Biden's administration has responded to the environmental and public health disaster unfolding in East Palestine, a poor rural town of about 4,700 people located a few miles west of the Pennsylvania border.

But as critics noted beforehand, the Trump administration's gutting of train safety rules at the behest of railroad industry lobbyists was instrumental in creating the conditions for the derailment and ensuing chemical spill and burnoff, which has provoked fears of groundwater contamination and air pollution.

"He should be apologizing to that community for his administration rolling back rail regulations," progressive stalwart Nina Turner, a former Ohio state senator, tweeted prior to Trump's address.

philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch made a similar point in an opinion piece published earlier this week.

"If residents of East Palestine—:{a:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:**:{ modern :(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}::{news desert:(style="background-color:#ff6600;"):}:**of downsized or disappeared news sources, which allows misinformation to fester—truly knew the reality, a delegation of townsfolk would likely greet Trump with tiki torches and pitchforks," Bunch wrote, comparing the former president's visit to "the tendency of a criminal to return to the scene of his crime."

Bunch noted that "Trump acted specifically to sabotage a nascent government effortto protect citizens from the growing threat posed by derailments of outdated, poorly equipped, and undermanned freight trains that were increasingly shipping both highly flammable crude oil from the U.S. fracking boom as well as toxic chemicals like the ones that would derail in East Palestine."

"Trump had been in office for less than a year when he moved to killthe 2015 rule change initiated by the Obama administration that would have required freight trains to upgrade the current braking technologythat was developed in the 19th century for state-of-the-art electronic systems," wrote Bunch, who pointed out that this came after Norfolk Southern and other rail carriers donated more than $6 million to Republican candidates in 2016 and spent millions more on lobbying.

"With the investigation into the East Palestine wreck still in its early phases, it's not clear if the modern brakes—originally required for installation by 2021—could have prevented the toxic derailment or whether the specific Obama rule would have applied," Bunch continued. "But experts do believe the new brakes could have mitigated the wreckage—and thus the release of so many hazardous chemicals."

"The rule reversal wasn't the only time that Team Trump sided with Big Rail over the forgotten Americans who live on the wrong side of their tracks," he added. "In 2019, for example, the Trump administration moved to not strengthen but relax regulations on shipping fracked natural gas through communities like East Palestine. The same year, Trump's White House also killed an Obama-era proposal that would have required two crew members in freight-train locomotives."

Ahead of Trump's visit,More Perfect Union also argued on social media that the ex-president's "attempt to portray himself as a friend of the town and as someone who would have stood up to Norfolk Southern... couldn't be further from the truth."

As the progressive media outlet observed, the Trump administration "withdrew multiple rail safety recommendations and moved toward a 'self-regulatory approach' where rail companies could do as they pleased."

"It's no surprise that the Trump years were filled with dangerous deregulation," More Perfect Union asserted, describing his decision to nominate top rail industry executives to lead the Federal Railroad Administration and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration as "a prime example of the revolving door between business and government."

"The Trump approach to the rail industry was to let the companies do what they wanted, which was to avoid regulations, slash jobs, and extract profit," the outlet continued. "This approach, and rail companies' greed, has led to over 1,000 derailments each year. Some are massive catastrophes like East Palestine. But every single one is harmful. And if the industry isn't regulated and forced to change, we'll soon be seeing more disasters."

When Trump "pretends to care about rail workers, or the people of East Palestine, we can't believe him," More Perfect Union added. "His record tells a very different story, the story of his own role in creating this problem in the first place."

Even some conservative critics of Trump have questioned the sincerity of his visit.

"It's clear that it's a political stunt," Ray LaHood, a Republican ex-member of Congress who led the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) during former President Barack Obama's first term, told Politico on Wednesday. "If he wants to visit, he's a citizen. But clearly his regulations and the elimination of them, and no emphasis on safety, is going to be pointed out."

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) wasted little time in doing exactly that, calling the GOP's indignation "fake" soon after Trump announced his travel plans.

Bunch acknowledged that "it's beyond hypocritical for Trump to bring his Harold Hill-huckster shtick to East Palestine when residents are still experiencing headaches and breathing foul air from the kind of catastrophe he didn't lift a finger to stop from the Resolute Desk."

"But also it's a bit baffling why Biden or his Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg—who seems to be channeling**his inner McKinsey & Co**. these days—haven't gone to Ohio," he argued. "Especially when Trump and any other Republicans hoping to make political hay off of East Palestine's misery are coming to town empty-handed."

"None of the anti-Biden critics on this issue have offered a solution, because they can't," wrote Bunch. "The only fix for the kind of runaway abuses of modern capitalism that cause these environmental catastrophes isgovernment regulation, aided by empowering worker safety with strong unions—two things that the Trump-led GOP has opposed at every turn."

Even in the wake of the disaster, Republican lawmakers have refused to demand stronger regulations, as HuffPost reported:

Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio), a vocal Biden critic who represents East Palestine, on Tuesday dismissed immediate calls for stricter rail regulations, saying actions toward accountability will hinge on the findings of a National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB] investigation into the derailment.

'That will dictate whether there are laws, regulations that need to be changed, whether there were rules that were violated,' he said during a news conference in East Palestine. 'We don't know any of that yet, and we won't know that until NTSB releases its report.'

Hours before Trump spoke, Buttigieg announced that he plans to travel to East Palestine on Thursday. His visit is expected to coincide with the publication of the NTSB's preliminary report about its ongoing probe into the crash.

On Tuesday, Buttigieg unveiled DOT's recommendations for improving the safety of the nation's rail system, though an inter-union alliance of rail workers immediately criticized the plan as inadequate.

Given the scale of the problems—and in light of the transportation secretary's ongoing refusal to exercise his authority to reinstate previously gutted rules along with his consideration of an industry-backed proposal to further weaken the regulation of train braking systems—union leaders have called for nationalizing the railways and implementing their proposed solutions.

Turner, for her part, emphasized that she has "been outspoken about the two years the Biden administration had [to] fix these problems."

"The Trump administration is at fault, as is the Obama administration," Turner contended, referring to the fact that the latter's regulations were also watered down in response to industry pressure.

"The Ohio GOP is to blame as well," she added, echoing recent reporting on Norfolk Southern's campaign to influence state-level lawmakers and officials. "Failure at every level of government and multiple administrations led to this."

ref dayton

https://www.daytondailynews.com/ideas-voices/marcano-the-importance-of-local-media-following-the-east-palestine-derailment/7ORSBKCMPZGLLPR6NAX3EWXNPA/

the Norfolk Southern train wreck near East Palestine has received its share of national news coverage.

The Washington Post covered a raucous town hall that the train company inexplicitly skipped. NPR’s “what to know about the derailment” provided an excellent primer on the wreck. CBS, CNN, NBC, and even Al Jazeera have covered the incident.

The train, pulling 150 cars, derailed on Feb. 3. Three dozen cars went off the tracks, and 11 contained hazardous materials — including five with the man-made, cancer-causing substance vinyl chloride. For the roughly 4,800 residents of East Palestine, on the Pennsylvania border some 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, the current short-term angst will soon turn to long-term worry.

But what happens when the story subsides and the big boys go home?

The Lisbon Morning Journal is the closest newspaper to East Palestine, about 13 miles away. The Salem News has covered the story, and they’re 30 miles away. Particle Media’s online site, Newsbreak, aggregates news content, so that’s useful.

But the train derailment highlights a problem that has affected small communities and areas from Tarboro, North Carolina, to Tucson, Arizona.

Some 360 newspapers closed from the start of the pandemic, according to a report published in the New York Times. The problem is so acute thatone in five Americans live in a news desert with limited access to local news, the Times reported.

Ohio has fared particularly poorly. Since 2004, the state has lost 32% of its newspapers, according to a study by Policy Matters. Most of those companies were run by small operators who cared about the communities they covered.

In years past, the Youngstown Vindicator would have unleashed its army of journalists to travel the 30 minutes to East Palestine. The Vindicator once had the staff and resources to support its 160,000 Sunday circulation product. But the newspaper collapsed under the weight of circulation declines and financial losses and closed in 2019, with a Sunday circulation of just 32,000.

The East Palestine train derailment lays bare what happens when the community loses its news sources.

Newsgathering goes far beyond the daily reporting of who said what at a press conference or who spoke to a crowd at a community gathering. That’s fairly simply blocking and tackling.

I wonder who will go more in-depth.

Who will tell the stories of the townspeople who will be scared for years by the wreck?Who will monitor whether residents start leaving, which would have a cascading effect on property tax revenue and the city’s school district? Who will chronicle the families and children who stay behind and worry about their health?

Who will monitor health department reports to see if residents start getting sick?

Who will act as a watchdog to monitor state officials, who will be charged with ensuring that Norfolk Southern makes restitution, in whatever form that takes? Who will file public records requests to examine the records of any settlements? If there are lawsuits, who will go to the courthouse and report on the findings?

Without reporters and news sources, the people of East Palestine don’t have an independent news source that keeps officials on their toes.

When people say that local media doesn’t matter, take a look at what’s happening a four-hour drive east of the Dayton area. The big boys will go home because they have so many other issues to tackle. Eventually, the citizens of East Palestine will feel the frustration of living in a news desert.

Somehow, we need to strengthen local news, not continue to watch it wither.

Dying newspapers mean there are fewer independent avenues to help communities, fewer ways to cover tragedy, and fewer ways to hold companies and agencies accountable through reporting.

Local news matters. Let’s do a better job supporting it.

Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday. He can be reached at :{raymarcanoddn@gmail.com:(style="box-sizing:content-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline"):}: ]]

They play-act': Jon Stewart torches JD Vance and Tucker Carlson over Ohio train derailment

Meaghan Ellis

February 15, 2023

Jon Stewart did not mince words when he slammed both Fox News' Tucker Carlson and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) for their reaction to the Ohio train derailment.

According to Stewart, although both expressed outrage...

an ah 2 23

When Patrick Buchanan ran against President George H.W. Bush in the 1992 GOP presidential primary, he campaigned on a pseudo-populistmixture of economic angst, social conservatism and white male resentment. It was a message that most Republican strategists and organizers rejected at the time, arguing that instead of resenting the rich, Americans should learn from them and try to be more like them.

But Buchanan’s ideas eventually found a home in former President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement, and Trump-inspired Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio have a lot more in common with Buchanan than they do with President Ronald Reagan or the late Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Arizona).

In an article published by The Nation on February 3, journalist Jeet Heer examines GOP efforts to brand itself as a “working-class party” — and lays out some reasons why MAGA Republicans are not practicing what they often preach.

“Trump’s success in 2016 and his near-victory in 2020 — Joe Biden’s narrow triumph resting on fewer than 44,000 votes in three states — was due to the former reality-show star’s strong appeal to white non-college-educated voters,” Heer writes. “To be sure, the white working class was trending toward the GOP before Trump arrived on the scene. But in 2016, he solidified and intensified this trend through a shrewd message of economic populism: Trump eschewed traditional Republican calls for cuts to Medicare and Social Security, hinted that he’d replace Obamacare with his own better version of health care, criticized globalism in the form of trade agreements that led to the loss of manufacturing jobs, and called for immigration restrictions as a way to bolster wages.”

Heer adds, “There’s evidence that Trump’s populism in 2020 helped him to gain traction not just with the white working class, but also, with blue-collar people of color, especially Latinos.”

The journalist goes on to stress, however, that many MAGA economic policies haven’t been pro-working class.

“Notably, the tax cuts (Trump’s) party pushed through skewed heavily toward the wealthy,” Heer observes. “Trump’s failed bid to repeal Obamacare didn’t offer any replacement.Nor has Trump ever fulfilled his promise to deliver an alternative plan. But in the wake of Trump’s electoral strength and partial policy success, a new faction within the political right emerged that claimed to take the agenda of economic populism seriously. This group often calls themselves national conservatives or NatCons.”

Heer cites Hawley, Vance and billionaire donor Peter Thiel as examples of Republicans with a “national conservative” message, arguing that in reality, the GOP “shows little interest in economic populism.”

“For the Republicans, stoking the culture wars remains the easiest way to keep white working-class support without alienating the wealthy,” Heer explains. “It’s hardly a surprise that the two frontrunners for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination are Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis: both masters of pouring fuel into the fire of transphobia, xenophobia and racism. Rather than Hawley’s meager gestures at pro-worker economic policy, they represent the future of the GOP.”

Read The Nation’s full article at this link.

an 2 23 MOFO where are these # coming from?

United States Representative Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) told right-wing commentator Steve Bannon on Saturday that he would back efforts to slash spending toward the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) as a substitute for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Nearly half of those Americans who benefit from SNAP are children.

"I just don't understand why we're a country that pays people who could go to work, not to. And when I go..." Gaetz began.

:{"How big a deal is that? Does that come away with the emergency measures coming off or is it deeper?" Bannon interrupted to ask.

"Oh, considerably deeper. And by the way, it pays you on both sides of the ledger, right? If you impose work requirements on all means-tested entitlement programs for working-age people, not for the disabled, not for seniors, but for working-age people, it's a trillion dollars in savings during the ten-year budget window," Gaetz said on War Room.

"This is in Medicaid and other..." Bannon interjected.

"This is in Medicaid and in food stamps," Gaetz stated.

"...in food stamps. Discretionary spending," Bannon added.

"Yeah. The biggest chunks are from the Obamacare Medicaid expansion to able-bodied adults and to the SNAP program. It's over 400 billion to SNAP," the congressman continued.

"So Social Security and Medicare are off the table. But you're saying taking Medicaid and other aspects of discretion?" Bannon wondered.

"Well look, if it was Matt Gaetz, I think that we do need reforms to Social Security and Medicare. I understand politically enough people have said that's off the table," Gaetz mused.

"But that can come later," Bannon added.

"By the way, Medicaid should not be a sacred cow.And so it hasn't been," said Gaetz. "You notice people and talk about Medicaid the same way they're talking about Social Security, right? So with Medicaid, I think there's a lot of meat on the bone for savings. In SNAP, you can get over 400 billion in savings."

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