buttigieg pete mayor
==
officially a target? gay
---
harris veepstakes, very good communictor
August 9, 2024, edition of CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins
PETE BUTTIGIEG (GUEST): I think this shows you how desperate Republicans are not to talk about the issues. They don't want to talk about their proposal for tax cuts for the rich. They don't want to talk about their campaign to end a woman's right to choose in this country. So, they need us to be quibbling over the finer points of how when you have a conditional promotion to Command Sergeant Major but don't retire at that rank, it's different from if you retire at that rank.
mma 8 24
===
---
an 5 26
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been receiving criticism over his newly revealed reality television show, a road trip series that was filmed over the course of seven months when he was also presumably overseeing the entire U.S. transportation system. Critics have accused him not only of shirking his responsibilities while on the taxpayers’ dime, but of conflicts of interest with the corporations he’s supposed to be regulating. On Monday, his wife had an explosive response to one critic in particular: the husband of former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
“Stand down, Chas,” Duffy’s wife Rachel Campos Duffy, who also happens to be a co-host of Fox & Friends, posted over a retweet of criticism from Chasten Buttigieg. “You and I both know that my husband has done more in one year to transform the [Department of Transportation] and [Air Traffic Control] than your husband did in over 4 years on the job.”
In the same post, she also claimed that the show —The Great American Road Trip —was funded by a non-profit organization, even though, according to the Daily Beast, “the show’s sponsors, including Boeing, Shell, Toyota and United Airlines, are all companies whose business Duffy regulates as transport secretary.” This has ethics experts sounding the alarm.
For his part, Chasten Buttigieg has a personal element to his criticism of the Duffys, posting, “The same Duffys who threw endless fits on national television when Pete was working from our son's ICU bedside are now bragging about their multi-month, taxpayer-funded family road trip while gas and grocery prices soar for American families because of Trump's war of choice. How much more unfocused, unserious, and out of touch can you be?”
The Duffys are a longtime TV couple. Sean Duffy came into the public eye in 1997 during the show The Real World: Boston, then met his wife on Road Rules: All Stars. He’s been filming his new series, he says, between “moments where I might be able to do some work” as a member of Trump’s Cabinet.
---
an 6 24
Buttigieg dismantles MAGA lawmaker’s 'factually incorrect' claims at EV hearing
transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pennsylvania) have a history of clashing on environmental policies and electric vehicles, and the two of them butted heads once again during a congressional hearing on Thursday morning, June 6.
When Perry grilled Buttigieg, he responded to the far-right MAGA congressman's claims about the Biden Administration's "dictatorial" policies on electric vehicles — and gave him a thorough fact-check.
The Democratic transportation secretary told Perry, "Given time is limited, I will confine myself to addressing the factually incorrect portions of what you have said — beginning with the assertion that EV sales are going down. They are, in fact, going up."
READ MORE: 'Help him unravel': George Conway wants Biden to hammer 'narcissistic sociopath' Trump during debate
When Perry claimed that those EV sales are "government sales," Buttigieg responded that he was referring to "private sales too."
"More private citizens buy EVs than government purchases," Buttigieg told Perry.
The Biden transportation secretary went on to tell Perry, "Let me address the second factual mistake in these remarks, which is that EV costs are getting higher. They are, in fact, getting lower, and according to J.D. Power, have now reached parity or are slightly lower than gas-powered cars."
Buttigieg also address EV sales for 2024's first quarter, adding, "The third incorrect assertion you made is that sales dropped in Q1; they did not drop in Q1 compared to the previous year."
READ MORE:Conservative explains how Biden 'outmaneuvered' Trump on debates
*Watch the full video below or at this link.
---
Rep. Pete Stauber (R-MN) was served a “reality check” by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Friday, after the pro-Trump election-denying Republican repeatedly took credit this week for a massive infrastructure project in his home state, funded by President Joe Biden’s legislation the Minnesota Congressman voted against.
“Reality check: I approved this because it’s a deserving project, consistent with President Biden’s priorities. This is happening because the Biden infrastructure package passed, despite your ‘no’ vote,” wrote Secretary Buttigieg on social media, in response to Rep. Staubert’s video providing what he claimed was a “fact check.”
At issue is President Joe Biden’s signature Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which he signed into law in November of 2021. Although bipartisan, just 13 Republicans in the House and just 19 in the Senate voted for it.
“I was recently proud to announce that both Duluth, Minnesota and superior Wisconsin received over $1 billion in federal funding to help replace the Blatnik Bridge,” Congressman Stauber, a three-term backbench Republican, proudly declared in his social media video (below). “The Blatnik Bridge has helped drive our Twin Ports economy for the past six decades, and it needs repair and replacing. Securing the money to help replace this bridge has long been a priority of mine. And I am proud to help deliver over $1 billion in federal funds to the north.”
READ MORE: Jury Orders Trump to Pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 Million
He also berated President Joe Biden and Democratic Governor Tim Walz. President Biden was a U.S. Senator for more than 35 years, and Governor Waltz was a U.S. Congressman for a dozen years.
“Now I know it’s been a while since the President and the governor worked in Congress. So maybe they need a little refresher on the legislative process, just because the infrastructure bill passed Congress and was signed into law that did not magically guarantee federal money for the Blatnik Bridge.”
Sec. Buttigieg’s “reality check” also came after Rep. Stauber earlier in the week posted on social media, “I’m proud to announce that Duluth, MN and Superior, WI have received over 1 billion in federal funding to help replace the Blatnik Bridge. This is a HUGE win for #MN08 and I was proud to advocate for these funds!”
That post earned a “Readers’ note” correction says: “Pete Stauber voted against the bill that is funding this project.”
The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party blasted Stauber: “FACT CHECK: you said the law that’s funding the Blatnik Bridge replacement was a path to socialism and voted against it. Give it up.”
Minnesota author Eric Chandler also berated Congressman Stauber: “Shorter: I will vote against infrastructure. But when money is approved by others who realize infrastructure costs money, I will put out my hand for some.”
READ MORE: Not Just Trump: GOP Voters Cheer and Applaud Boebert and 5 GOP Rivals for Arrest Records
Jake Schwitzer, the executive director of Minnesota’s North Star Policy Action added, “It’s extremely funny that this guy thinks that Biden wasn’t going to fund this bridge, but then he was presented with a letter with Stauber’s name way down the list of signatures and was like HANG ON GIVE IT A BILLION DOLLARS. Just vote for the bill if you want credit man.”
See the social media posts below or at this link.
---
Republicans propose $1 salary for Pete Buttigieg: report - Alternet.org
Pete Buttigieg just testified before Congress. It did not go well for Republicans - Alternet.org
---
rw media fail
https://www.levernews.com/the-partisan-ghost-in-the-media-machine/
---
morano BS
https://www.thefirsttv.com/watch/ohio-explosion-doesnt-fit-the-climate-agenda/
do not trust govt corps monitor by pvt co? paid?
vinyl chloride gas warfare
no action b/c not related to climate EV buses, futuristic electric train
poor white trump voters not beverly hills
gov only show us b/c pol pressure
---
an 2 23
no lnx
---
truck burned?
https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-host-blames-pete-buttigiegs-obsession-equity-i-95-collapse
---
an 2 23
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg embarrassed House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer Friday evening after he published a letter launching an investigation into the Transportation Secretary in the wake of the Norfolk Southerntoxic train derailment. The investigation notably is not into Norfolk Southern or the Dept. of Transportation itself, but into Secretary Buttigieg’s handling of the derailment.
"This incident is an environmental and public health emergency that now threatens Americans across state lines," Chairman Comer writes. “Despite the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) responsibility to ensure safe and reliable transport in the United States, you ignored the catastrophe for over a week," he claims. “DOT needs to provide an explanation for its leadership’s apathy in the face of this emergency.”
"The fallout from the Ohio train derailment continues to develop. DOT’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued a preliminary report on February 23, 2023, which stopped short of declaring a concrete cause of the derailment,” Comer added, which is also false, as the Transportation Secretary pointed out in a tweet.
RELATED: ‘We’re Not Afraid to Own Our Policies’: Buttigieg Praised as His Response to Trump Goes Viral
"I am alarmed to learn that the Chair of the House Oversight Committee thinks that the NTSB is part of our Department," Buttigieg said. “NTSB is independent (and with good reason). Still, of course, we will fully review this and respond appropriately.”
The investigation will also focus on the Biden administration’s massive – and bipartisan – infrastructure bill, which the President signed into law in late 2021. Infrastructure projects typically take years to be approved and completed. And yet Chairman Comer appeared to suggest the President’s infrastructure package should have prevented the train’s derailment – suggesting a lack of understanding of basic governmental processes.
"Under your leadership, DOT supported President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, which included billions of dollars devoted to revamping America’s railways in an effort to make them safer and more efficient. Yet America now faces one of transportation’s largest failures, even while DOT seems to not lack available funding. In America, over 1,000 trains derail every year."
Comer’s letter is signed by 21 Republicans, but noticeably absent is the signature of the Oversight Committee’s Ranking Member, Democrat Jamie Raskin. It appears Raskin was not a part of the decision to send the letter.
==
https://www.alternet.org/trump-east-palestine/ rolls eyes local
---
an 2 23
secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s response to Donald Trump’s refusal to accept any responsibility for the impact his massive deregulations have had went viral on Thursday as video of him encouraging the ex-president to support the Biden administration’s efforts went viral.
During his visit to the scene of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio on Thursday, a reporter asked Secretary Buttigieg, “You mentioned the national political figures decided to get involved, it sounds like you’re talking about Trump. And then you said, ‘I need your help.’ How can he help?”
Buttigieg replied, “Well, one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had ‘nothing to do with it,’ even though it was in his administration. So if he had nothing to do with it, and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he could come out and say that, that he supports us moving in a different direction.”
READ MORE: DeSantis Downplays Insurrection, Denies Responsibility for First Amendment Restrictions on Protesting at Florida Capitol
“We’re not afraid to own our policies when it comes to raising the bar on regulation,” Buttigieg continued. “And I’ve got to think that him indicating that this is something that everybody ,no matter how much you disagree on politics and presidential campaigns, can get behind – higher fines, tougher regulations on safety, Congress on tying our hands on breaking rules, all the other things that go with it that’d be a nice thing for him to do.”
\u201cButtigieg: One thing Trump can do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it. So if he had nothing to do with it..\u201d
— Acyn (@Acyn) 1677172265
Buttigieg was referring to Trump’s visit to the East Palestine just one day earlier, where instead of tossing paper towels at de-homed hurricane victims Trump handed out red MAGA caps at a McDonald’s and used “Trump”-branded bottled water ensure voters knew he had been there.
:{:{}:
}:
During Trump’s Wednesday visit a reporter asked him about the train derailment, which resulted in the release of toxic gases under the direction of GOP Govern or Mike DeWine.
:{:{}:
}:
“I had nothing to do with it,” Trump told a reporter Wednesday who asked about him “pulling back rail regulations” when he was president, something he did indeed do.
:{:{}:
}:
Instead, Trump quickly blamed the “airports” on Buttigieg, claiming they are like “a third world nation,” although Trump never improved them on his watch and the Biden administration actually passed and signed into law a massive infrastructure bill, one that Trump was never able to pass.
:{:{}:
}:
\u201cDonald Trump responds to Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg pointing out that his administration rolled back regulations on the rail industry:\n\n"I had nothing to do with it."\u201d
— The Recount (@The Recount) 1677101837
The Recount on Wednesday, pointing to an ABC News article, noted that the “Trump administration withdrew regulations connected to ‘high hazard’ trains, which critics say made it more likely a derailment like the kind in East Palestine would happen.”
:{:{}:
}:
Meanwhile, Buttigieg’s response to Trump’s remarks have gone viral. In just 24 hours the video (above) of Buttigieg has garnered nearly 2 million views.
:{:{}:
}:
Journalists, critics, and commentators on social media are praising the Transportation Secretary.
:{:{}:
}:
READ MORE: ‘Losing His Grip’: Trump Flattened on Morning Joe for ‘Bizarre’ Post About Train Wreck ‘Ratings’
:{:{}:
}:
“Never really understood why Republicans think picking fights with him is a good idea,” HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte tweeted. “He is hands down the Biden administration’s best communicator, he takes apart the criticism, turns them back on the critics, and does it all without sounding mad.”
:{:{}:
}:
“Absolutely incredible,” said podcaster and former Biden delegate Victor Shi. “Pete Buttigieg proves once again why he remains one of the best communicators and assets Democrats have. Very few people can respond to journalists and call out Republicans as effectively as Pete Buttigieg.”
Social media influencer and political commentator JoJoFromJerz, who has over 780,000 followers on Twitter called it “an absolute masterclass on how to handle donald j. trump.”
And author Tod Goldberg noted, “When Pete starts to smile, you know you’re about to find yourself in the ‘find out’ portion of the show.”
---
---
an 2 23
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday shared a "viewership report" on his Truth Social app to gloat about the media ratings of his Wednesday publicity stunt in East Palestine, Ohio, where a February 3rd Northfolk Southern freight train derailment poisoned the surrounding environment with toxic substances.
As Mediaite noted, "Trump's live remarks from East Palestine, Ohio were ignored by thethree major cable news networks on Wednesday: CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News," while "Newsmax and OAN, both to the right of Fox News, carried the remarks live and offered analysis following the event. The report Trump shared noted that 'outlets like Fox News are woefully derelict' in their limited reporting on the trip."
It states:
VIEWERSHIP REPORT
President Trump’s 2/22 visit to East Palestine, OH
TOTAL PEOPLE THAT SAW COVERAGE (SOCIAL+ TRADITIONAL): 178,052,414
TOTAL SOCIAL MEDIA USERS THAT SAW COVERAGE: 144,037,338
TOTAL TRADITIONAL VIEWERS THAT SAW
COVERAGE: 34,015,076
This report searched for the term 'East Palestine' + 'Trump' what you will see is while traditional outlets like Fox News are woefully derelict in their reporting with what you did, the word is still getting out there in a big way. Specifically, when the announcement was made last week there was a bump of coverage reaching about 2 million on social channels and 10 million on other channels.
However, your numbers this Wednesday were off the charts with incredible reach, 144MM on social and 34MM in other channels. The visit meant a lot for the people of East Palestine and the surrounding communities. The trip gave them hope and raised the awareness needed to combat the incompetence of the Biden Administration. As you will see a sharp spike in the positive sentiments as well.
On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump staged a publicity tour of the small town where he accused President Joe Biden's administration – especially Buttigieg – of not doing enough to address the ecological disaster, which is being managed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the request of Republican Governor Mike DeWine. Norfolk Southern was ordered by the EPA on Tuesday to pay for the cleanup.
Buttigieg addressed Trump's critiques at a press conference.
READ MORE: Donald Trump Jr.: Pete Buttigieg only became transportation secretary because 'he's the gay guy'
“I’m here for the work, and not for the politics. You can sense when you talk to local leaders and local residents that they’re getting sick of the politics too and this national ideological layer that’s been added into this," Buttigieg said, per**Forbes. But Buttigieg also fired back at Trump's claim that "he had nothing to do with" the accident amid uncertainty over whether Trump's railway safety regulatory rollbacks led to the mess.
"Yeah, you mentioned a national political figure who's decided to get involved? It sounds like you're talking about Trump and then you said, I need your help. How can he help?" a reporter asked Buttigieg.
"Well, one thing he could do is express support for reversing the deregulation that happened on his watch. I heard him say he had nothing to do with it, even though it was in his administration. So if he had nothing to do with it and they did it in his administration against his will, maybe he could come out and say that he supports us moving in a different direction," Buttigieg replied. "We're not afraid to own our policies when it comes to raising the bar on regulation. And I've gotta think that him indicating that this is something that everybody, no matter how much you disagree on politics and presidential campaigns, can get behind – higher fines, tougher regulations on safety, Congress untying our hands on breaking rules – all the other things that go with that."
Buttigieg then quipped that it would "be a nice thing for him to do."
READ MORE: Republicans don't care about human health regardless of who is to blame for the Ohio train disaster
Watch below or at this link.
mayor pete affirm action gay hire
let's start hanging fascists again t shirt
[[ 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"):}: ]]
kirk dunks on ohio bomb train epa head there day 1?
https://www.mediamatters.org/google/youtube-newsmax-host-benny-johnson-claims-pete-buttigieg-diversity-hire
https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/pete-buttigieg/ good 2022 surrogate,, gop has no policy/sols
Literally don't understand what that means': Pete Buttigieg buries MTG's bizarre attack on electric cars
October 04, 2022
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded to fears of emasculation voiced by Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News...
==
rt qanon loses mind b/c last bastion of binary thinking B/W rt/wrong good/evil ~ sec hum moral relativism postmod?
https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/marjorie-taylor-greene-2657046068/
tells mayor pete and boyfriend to stay out of girls bathroom
https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/former-reagan-white-house-staffer-defends-pete-buttigieg-against-maga-republicans-and-the-vilest-form-of-masculinity/
an 1219
no lnx
Corporate media’s mantra is ‘anyone but Sanders or Warren’ — and they’re doing the work of the extremely wealthy
Written by Norman Solomon / Common Dreams December 2, 2019
Anyone who’s been paying attention should get the picture by now. Overall, in subtle and sledgehammer ways, the mass media of the United States—owned and sponsored by corporate giants—are in the midst of a siege against the two progressive Democratic candidates who have a real chance to be elected president in 2020.
Some of the prevalent media bias has taken the form of protracted swoons for numerous “center lane” opponents of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. The recent entry of Michael Bloomberg has further jammed that lane, adding a plutocrat “worth” upwards of $50 billion to a bevy of corporate politicians.
The mainline media are generally quite warm toward so-called “moderates,” without bothering to question what’s so moderate about such positions as bowing to corporate plunder, backing rampant militarism and refusing to seriously confront the climate emergency.
Critical reporting on debate performances and campaign operations has certainly been common. But the core of the “moderate” agenda routinely gets affirmation from elite journalists who told us in no uncertain terms four years ago that Hillary Clinton was obviously the nominee who could defeat Donald Trump.
This year, Sanders has taken most of the flak from reporters and pundits (often virtually indistinguishable), serving as a kind of “heat shield” for Warren. But as Warren gained ground in polling this fall, the attacks on her escalated—to the point that she now has a corporate media bullseye on her political back.
The disconnect between voters and corporate media is often huge. Meanwhile, with fly-on-the-wall pretenses, media outlets that have powerfully distorted proposals like Medicare for All are now reporting (with thinly veiled satisfaction) that voters are cool to those proposals.
The Washington Post, owned by one of the world’s richest people Jeff Bezos, has routinely spun Medicare for All as some sort of government takeover. In a prominent Nov. 30 news story that largely attributed Warren’s recent dip in polls to her positioning on healthcare, the Post matter-of-factly—and falsely—referred to Medicare for All as “government-run healthcare” and “a government-run health plan.”
:{
}:
Such pervasive mass-media reporting smoothed the way for deceptions that have elevated Pete Buttigieg in polls during recent weeks with his deceptive “Medicare for All Who Want It” slogan. That rhetoric springboards from the false premises that Medicare for All would deprive people of meaningful choice and would somehow reduce coverage.
:{
}:
In late September, with scant media scrutiny, Buttigieg launched an ad campaign against Medicare for All that has continued. Using insurance-industry talking points, he is deliberately confusing the current “choice” of predatory for-profit insurance plans with the genuine full choice of healthcare providers that top-quality Medicare for everyone would offer.
Mainstream media outlets are ill-positioned to refute such distortions since they’re routinely purveying such distortions themselves. Warren’s backtracking step on Medicare for All in mid-November was a tribute to media pressure in tandem with attacks from centrist opponents.
The idea of implementing some form of a substantial “wealth tax” has also been denigrated by many corporate-employed journalists. Countless pundits and political beat reporters have warned that proposals like a wealth tax, from Warren and Sanders, risk dragging Democrats down with voters. The truth is that such proposals are unpopular with the punditocracy and the extremely wealthy—while it’s a very different matter for most voters, who strongly favor a wealth tax.
On the same day this fall, the New York Times and the Washington Post published stories on Democratic elites’ “anxiety” about the presidential election.The Post wrote that Democrats “fret” Warren and Sanders “are too liberal to win a general election.” (With disdain, the article made a matter-of-fact reference to “the push for liberal purity.”) The Times similarly wrote of “persistent questions about Senator Elizabeth Warren’s viability in the general election.” Contrary voices were absent in both news stories.
Assessing those articles, FAIR.org media analyst Julie Hollar pointed out: “The pieces interviewed a number of big donors and centrist party leaders, who fretted about their preferred candidate’s struggles and expressed hope for someone more corporate-friendly than Warren to enter the race and challenge her rise.”
Hollar added: “The thinking of powerful people in the Democratic Party is worth writing about. But it’s crucial not to just take their claims at face value. . . . What establishment Democrats are really worried about, of course, is their own power in the party, which is threatened by a surging left wing. Don’t look to their establishment media counterparts to report on that transparently.”
Part of the problem is the TV network that many Democrats (mistakenly) trust. MSNBC is becoming notorious for its hostility to Bernie Sanders, often expressed through egregious omission or mathematical fib if not direct antipathy.
Ongoing media analysis is crucial, but even more important is activist pushback against the 24/7 onslaught of corporate-minded propaganda, often couched as common sense and incontrovertible reality. Among the needed counterpunches are these:
Support progressive media outlets as they provide independent coverage of the presidential campaign
Widely share, via email forwarding and social media, online pieces that you like. (Hopefully including this one.)
Recognize, challenge, and organize against the corporate-media echo chamber that affects so many voters
You shouldn’t have to be an active supporter of Bernie Sanders (as I am) or of Elizabeth Warren to voice outrage about corporate media biases. What’s at stake includes democracy—the informed consent of the governed—and so much more.
History is unfolding in real time. It’s not a product on the media shelf, to be passively bought and consumed. As Bernie 2020 campaign co-chair Nina Turner says, “All that we love is on the line.”
Norman Solomon is co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” and “Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.” He is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
Homophobic bully Franklin Graham goes after Pete Buttigieg
David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement
Franklin Graham is singling out and attacking Democratic presidential candidate and mayor Pete Buttigieg once again. Not former Vice President Joe Biden, not Senators Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker,…
https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/coalition-of-church-leaders-warn-against-christian-nationalism-and-its-connection-to-white-supremacy/
One need only spend some time listening to Sister Mary Scullion (a liberal/progressive Catholic nun and activist in Philadelphia), Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg or members of an African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) congregation to realize that not all Christians identify with the brand of far-right Christian fundamentalism that President Donald Trump has been pandering to. And a group of at least 17 church leaders, united under the name Christians Against Christian Nationalism, has issued a dire warning about the dangers of far-right “Christian nationalism.”
In an official statement, the church leaders took issue with the Christian Right’s incessant attacks on other faiths and efforts to bring about a Christian fundamentalist theocracy in the United States.
...
==
Buttigieg proposes vast expansion of national service programs
Democratic presidential candidate, and current South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has unveiled his plan for a vastly expanded national service program. His plan, called “A New Call to Service” would expand existing…
mocratic presidential candidate, and current South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg has unveiled his plan for a vastly expanded national service program. His plan, called “A New Call to Service” would expand existing programs like the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps organizations to a network of 1 million members by 2026.
“National service can help us to form connections between very different kinds of Americans, as was my experience in the military,” he said in a news release announcing the plan. “I served alongside and trusted my life to people who held totally different political views. You shouldn’t have to go to war in order to have that kind of experience, which is why I am proposing a plan to create more opportunities for national service.” It would create a new service corps, including Climate Corps, Community Health Corps and Intergenerational Service Corps overseen by a new position in the White House National Security Council and Domestic Policy Council.
In an interview with The New York Times Buttigieg “noted that only a fraction of applicants to AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps are accepted every year for available positions,” and thus wants to increase service opportunities in “predominantly minority communities and rural areas.” He wants the new service corps to focus on “combating climate change, treating mental health and addiction, and providing caregiving for older people.” College students going into these service positions allow them to defer student loan payments.
There’s an argument that some of the other candidates’ plans, including massive new investment on combatting climate change and in the nation’s health systems might be more directly effective in solving all these problems, as would raising the minimum wage to attract more people into some of these caregiving jobs.
Vastly increasing service opportunities is not a bad idea by any means, but it doesn’t really measure up in terms of ambition, scope, or likely effectiveness to the plans we’re seeing from Democratic front-runners for solving the problems Buttigieg wants to address with it.
==
==
|
Christopher Staysniak, College of the Holy Cross Democratic presidential candidate… |
Far-right grifters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman have pushed a number of conspiracy theories previously; recently they failed in trying to smear special counsel Robert Mueller.
The Daily Beast reported that the man purportedly behind allegations against South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg came forward to say that the entire thing was actually the idea of Wohl and Burkman and that all the allegations were false: "Kelly said he expressed concerns about the scheme but Wohl told him to sleep on it. When Kelly woke at around 11 in the morning, Wohl 'was already dressed in a suit because he "can’t do a Monday if he isn’t in a suit”' and—of more significance—the fabricated statement had been posted to Medium, along with fake Twitter and Gmail accounts in Kelly’s name. According to Kelly, Burkman tried to calm his nerves by claiming that he was a '"star"’ and people are eating me up.' The trio, according to Kelly, ate Subway sandwiches, during which Kelly continued to express his regrets. Burkman and Wohl tried to calm him down by promising to purchase 'any house I wanted' and insisting that his family would 'get over it.'"
In the short time before Wohl allegedly posted the vague accusations online and the real Kelly came forward to dispute them, far-right media ran with them -- despite no actual evidence whatsoever. Not only did a number of far-right digital outlets run with it, but Trump-favorite cable news station OANN did as well. OANN later covered the collapse of the smear, saying it made no sense -- never mentioning that it had covered the smear a day prior.
ref
https://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2019/04/30/Trump-endorsed-One-America-News-Network-among-right-wing-amplifiers-of-Jacob-Wohls-attempt/223596
many pix twit vid
Trump-endorsed One America News Network among right-wing amplifiers of Jacob Wohl's attempted smear of Pete Buttigieg
Blog ››› April 30, 2019 3:01 PM EDT ››› ALEX KAPLAN
Melissa Joskow / Media Matters
Far-right network One America News Network and others helped spread a hoax from pro-Trump trolls Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman regarding Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
One America News Network has repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories and employs well-known right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. President Donald Trump has praised the network, and he regularly watches and cites its programs -- just last week, he pushed a false claim from OANN that the United Kingdom helped the Obama administration spy on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
On April 29, the network aired a segment about a Medium post purportedly from a man named Hunter Kelly accusing Buttigieg of sexually assaulting him earlier this year.
Media Matters did not find a segment since then correcting the report.
The real Kelly has since come forward to deny he wrote the post; he said Wohl and Burkman tricked him after approaching him to ask him to make up the allegation. From The Daily Beast:
Kelly said that Wohl and his similarly infamous cohort, lobbyist Jack Burkman, booked him a flight from Michigan to Baltimore. From there, they drove to Burkman’s home in Arlington where Wohl showed him a draft of a statement detailing the bogus accusations against Buttigieg.
Kelly said he expressed concerns about the scheme but Wohl told him to sleep on it. When Kelly woke at around 11 in the morning, Wohl “was already dressed in a suit because he ‘can’t do a Monday if he isn’t in a suit’” and—of more significance—the fabricated statement had been posted to Medium, along with fake Twitter and Gmail accounts in Kelly’s name.
According to Kelly, Burkman tried to calm his nerves by claiming that he was a “‘star’ and people are eating me up.”
The trio, according to Kelly, ate Subway sandwiches, during which Kelly continued to express his regrets. Burkman and Wohl tried to calm him down by promising to purchase “any house I wanted” and insisting that his family would “get over it.”
Wohl has a history of pushing false claims and hoaxes. He told USA Today in February that he aimed to interfere in the Democratic presidential primaries, including with the use of fake social media accounts, and he previously spread a false claim about Democratic candidate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA). The lie about Buttigieg also resembles a similar scheme by Wohl and Burkman involving a fake intelligence service used to fabricate a false sexual assault allegation against special counsel Robert Mueller.
In addition to OANN, other figures and outlets that pushed Wohl and Burkman’s false claim about Buttigieg include:
Conspiracy theory outlet Infowars and its writer Paul Joseph Watson
PJ Media, though the original link has since been updated to note that the story is false
Error-prone far-right outlet The Gateway Pundit and its founder Jim Hoft
Fellow Gateway Pundit writer Cassandra Fairbanks (who has also since deleted her tweet, which was captured via CrowdTangle)
Conspiracy theorist and Newsmax TV host Wayne Allyn Root
Far-right outlet Big League Politics
Wohl’s father and frequent Fox guest David Wohl
Radio host Bill Mitchell
Reddit’s “r/The_Donald” subreddit and 4chan’s “politically incorrect” message board known as “/pol/”
According to social media analytics website BuzzSumo, links to articles that pushed the false claim received more than 31,000 Facebook and Twitter shares combined. The original Medium post also received at least 60,000 Facebook engagements.
Update (5/1/19): OANN has since aired a segment acknowledging that the allegation against Buttigieg was a hoax from Wohl. On the April 30 edition of The Daily Ledger, guest host Alex Salvi talked about Wohl’s “smear effort” without noting that his own network had pushed the same allegation a day earlier, mocklingly saying, “I mean, we were supposed to believe that Buttigieg announced his candidacy and then immediately went and sexually assaulted someone? It makes no sense.”
Short Link
http://mm4a.org/4R3
copy link
Network/Outlet
One America News Network, Gateway Pundit, Reddit, 4chan
Person
Paul Joseph Watson, Cassandra Fairbanks, Jim Hoft, Wayne Allyn Root, David Wohl, Bill Mitchell
Show/Publication
Infowars, Big League Politics
Stories/Interests
Fake News, Alt-right and pro-Trump trolls
==
AN 419
Hope, neoliberalism and the future: Pete Buttigieg has displaced Beto O’Rourke as Democrats’ latest hopey-changey messiah — Is that actually a good thing?
===
https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/why-pete-buttigieg-may-be-reviving-progressive-ideals-of-the-social-gospel-movement/
In recent weeks, Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg has captured wide media attention.
One reason is that Buttigieg is the first openly gay presidential candidate. Another is that he has been unguarded in speaking about his religious beliefs, arguing that his faith shapes his politics.
In a recent interview, Buttigieg said that “Christian faith” can lead one “in a progressive direction.” He has also argued that Christianity teaches “skepticism of the wealthy and the powerful and the established” while elsewhere expressing concern that in the U.S. “concentrated wealth has begun to turn into concentrated power.”
These arguments are all the more striking since Buttigieg is from Indiana. According to a 2014 Pew survey, twice as many of the state’s voters identify as conservative than as liberal. Moreover, self-identified conservatives significantly outnumber liberals among Indiana Christians. It might seem that Buttigieg’s convictions are at odds with the beliefs of many people in his state.
A century ago, however, views such as Buttigieg’s flourished in the Midwest.
A progressive religious movement
As a historian of U.S. religion, I have studied the vibrant period for religious liberalism in the early 1900s. Indiana and nearby Midwestern states were at the center of a movement – the Social Gospel movement – that linked Christianity with progressive politics.
The movement gained wide popularity in American Protestantism at the beginning of the 20th century. Its proponents proclaimed the need to improve the world rather than focusing on being saved in the next life, which was the common message espoused in most U.S. churches.
One exemplar of the Midwestern roots of the Social Gospel was the Methodist clergyman Francis J. McConnell, who became known as an advocate for progressive policies.
McConnell grew up in a small-town in Ohio before attending Ohio Wesleyan University. From 1909 to 1912, he served as president of DePauw University in central Indiana.
While there, he published a book that made arguments similar to Buttigieg’s belief that faith should inspire social action. McConnell insisted, “The moral impulse calls for the betterment of all the conditions of human living.”
Historian Susan Curtis writes that McConnell “participated in the promotion of an evolving welfare state.”
There were other prominent Social Gospel proponents who lived and worked across the Midwest at the time. From his Columbus, Ohio, church, Washington Gladden became famous for urging greater protection for workers and the poor. Further west, in Kansas, the minister Charles Sheldon published the book, “In His Steps,” in 1896. It urged Christians to improve the lives of those around them.
A religious challenge to big business
It wasn’t just the presence of these leaders in the region – more important was the resonance of the message of the Social Gospel there. Small cities and towns in the Midwest were the heartland of the Social Gospel.
The Social Gospel’s critique of big business resonated in communities throughout the Midwest.
The movement emerged in response to the development of massive national corporations in the late 19th century. These companies consolidated wealth and power in large cities, often quite distant from Midwestern communities.
Demands for a social safety net for workers were rising in places like Columbus and Indianapolis as much as in larger metropolises like New York or Philadelphia.
These leaders urged the creation of a social safety net to provide a “living wage” for all workers. They also advocated increased government oversight of corporations, which they believed had grown too large. At a time when many churches supported big business, this was a counter-cultural position.
Lecturing back in his home state of Ohio in 1912, McConnell likened modern “corporate kings” to the absolute monarchs of previous centuries. Similar to rulers of earlier times, corporate titans exerted great power at a distance and could inflict harm.
McConnell believed organized Christianity could inspire people to challenge big business. “Corporations thrive best morally when they enjoy the full light of publicity,” he wrote.
Like Buttigieg, who argues that his Christian belief makes him skeptical of the effects of concentrated wealth, these Midwesterners saw Christianity as the antidote to distant corporate power.
New life for an old message
Over the last few years, observers have noted the resurgence of a religious left inspiredby the ideals of the Social Gospel.
With Pete Buttigieg, the religious left has its most prominent political leader to date – and from the part of the country that was historically important for its emergence.
David Mislin, Assistant Professor of Intellectual Heritage, Temple University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
==
rt-t-wing Christians stage bizarre protest by dressing up as Pete Buttigieg and whipping Jesus
Fox News contributor goes on tear against Pete Buttigieg for his pointed criticism of Trump-loving Evangelicals
David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement April 8, 2019
“I’ll take Trump’s ‘scandalous and colorful’ life any day of the week.”
==