Right Wing propaganda has been at it very specifically to find a moment of Biden weakness.....

[jaxexpat]

Last edited Sun Feb 19, 2023, 06:21 PM - Edit history (1)

that will stick to the American voter's memory. At this moment their prey is Pete Buttigieg. The stage is the train derailment in East
Palestine Ohio. They're wrapping everything from immigration to over regulation into his wheelhouse. He's correctly telling people that his hands are largely tied because of "conservative" resistance, past and current, to safety regulations. They're saying it is incumbent on Biden to fire him.

They're looking for the triple crown:
> making Biden look weak
> blame shaming the gay guy
> proving environmentalists are incompetent and regulations are worse than useless

It is now, more than ever, important to understand fully how everything they say is based on lies. Their only purpose is to disrupt the orderliness of a progressive society. The amazingly obvious part about their current campaign is that if Democrats had actually made the efforts they berate them for not making, they'd have been condemnatory about that just as vehemently. The means by which the RR company in this case made such ridiculous profits is the same reason they had such faulty maintenance of their system's safety infrastructure. Neither the regulations of Wall Street or of Interstate Commerce are actually enforced and in most cases were drafted, by "conservative's" institutional advisors, into law with an overt intent to preclude enforcement.

Pete's been getting slugged from a lot of angles over the last few days. I think the most reliable approach is to trust him first, over any of his critics. Solidarity!

[KPN]

1. K&R

[cilla4progress]

2. People aren't seeing

the pattern yet?

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. Same old playbook.

Been at it for decades.

Weaken the president by picking at his advisors. They even went after Obama’s social director, the one who coordinated social events.

They are shameless.

[onecaliberal]

4. I trust Pete. Idgaf what comes out of the fascist party and their media enablers.

[jaxexpat]

5. "Idgaf", I'd not run into that before.

At first I thought it was a character from Lord of the Rings.

Part of a duo, maybe.......... Idgaf and his elven mate, Irdce, would travel the paths of the Mystic forests together leaving scent markings for their friends to follow.

[Leith]

9. It means

"I don't give a fuck."

I just wish that rethugs would grow the fuck up. They have to earn votes, not smear and denigrate Democrats who are there to clean up the messes the cons leave everywhere. The rethug governor, OH legislature, and the town's mayor are all republican and they are the ones responsible for allowing this deadly mess to happen. They are shitting where they eat.

And, no, there is no irony in my language to describe them. All they have are lies - and I just told the truth about them. We are not the same.

[hermetic]

11. LOL!

[onecaliberal]

19. Indeed they could.

It’s been around. I didn’t make it up.

[lame54]

6. Forget them. This administration needs to get all over this.

[dobleremolque]

7. "This happened because Trump repealed the safety rules."

This happened because Trump repealed the safety rules.
This happened because Trump repealed the safety rules.
This happened because Trump repealed the safety rules.
Rinse, Repeat in East Palestine and everywhere else that gives 10 seconds of undivided attention.

[onecaliberal]

20. This is what happened when the republicans deregulated everything.

They’re even allowed to cover up the truth of the catastrophe. People will die but
the company will save money. So it’s all okay.
Money is the bottom line in every situation. People are used and disposed of.

[Duppers]

21. +100.

[Bev54]

8. They are afraid of Pete, they know one day he will run for President and he will likely win

Just as they did with Hillary for years, they will try to bring him down.

[crazylikafox]

17. Bingo

Primary reason for going after mayor pete

[Evolve Dammit]

10. RR's will do the minimal amount and usually grudgingly. Been that way all my life. And they will

fight all regulation and regulators. They have lawyers to make sure of that. This incident may play out differently for Norfolk Southern.
That said, nothing in your post I would disagree with!

[keep_left]

12. It's the old "think" tank jiujitsu by the far-right, using their own weakness as a strength.

Railroads doing $10B stock buybacks, giant salary increases, constant lobbying against safety regulations, and the regulatory capture of the Trump regime; it all runs together like mud. Yet they attack everyone from Buttigieg to the local dogcatcher as if they're responsible for the predictable results of deregulatory "reforms". And It's quite amazing how they get away with it, year after year.

The left really needs to get its think tank infrastructure together. The other side has at least 50 years on us. MMFA does a great job, but there have to be a lot more of them to make an impact. The Nation had a cover story about this back in the '90s, for God's sake. The title was something like "Why the Left Gives Too Little to Too Many", and it called for a consolidation of progressive and left think tanks to make them more powerful.

[Snackshack]

13. We are done.

This is how it’s gonna be from now on w/ GOP. Jordan, Greene, Gosar, Boebert, Brooks…

I swear to the FSM I never would have dreamed that movie I watched in 2006 would turn out so prescient. The GOP could certainly change its name to the “Brawndo” party and not skip a beat. Between uninformed, apathetic voters, an impotent power structure that has allowed a lack of intestinal fortitude by Dems to hold the criminal enterprise that is todays GOP accountable to the law. As long as the GOP sees itself getting back a majority and being treated as a legitimate party they think killing over 1 million Americans by lying about a virus, attacking the Capitol and stealing national secrets is apparently okay…Dems don’t seem to mind so why wouldn’t the GOP continue on what they must view as a successful strategy.

I mean if I could do all the completely fucked up shit the GOP has done and still get the majority back (and remember this is just in last couple years. The years before that have almost been as bad during GOP leadership) GOP sat back and let 9/11 happen, started 2 wars (one based on total fabrication of lies…also), tortured humans, let a city drown, caused global economic meltdown. If any of us fucked up at our jobs this bad we would be fired…but somehow the GOP just gets to keep on truckin…

So welcome to the world of politics from here on out. The GOP in charge spending all their time trying to make Dems looks as criminal as they are.

So for now this old saying stands tried a true.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

[countryken]

14. Clarification

The town is East Palestine, and locals pronounce it 'palisteen'.

[jaxexpat]

22. That is important. I will correct.

[ZonkerHarris]

15. time to nationalize the railroads

[Hekate]

16. KnR

[Deep State Witch]

18. They're F*cking With The Wrong Guy

Secretary Pete is more than capable of defending himself and his department.