Two years ago, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg announced that he was making the fight against “systemic racism” into the core of his job. The failed South Bend mayor came out of the gate claiming that highways were racist. Last year, he went to Birmingham to announce the launch of a $1 billion plan to tear down racist highways and implement transportation equity.
Taxpayer money would be directed to “economically disadvantaged communities, especially those with projects that are focused on equity and environmental justice.”
East Palestine was not one of them.
On Feb 3, a train filled with hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine. That same day, an interview with Buttigieg about “infrastructure, safety and equity” appeared in Forbes Magazine.
Buttigieg did not mention the disaster in East Palestine, instead he talked about how “communities of color” were being “destroyed” by infrastructure investment and how under Biden, they’d have the opportunity to “reconnect across highways or railways that divide them.”
In East Palestine, the thousands of residents, unfortunate enough to be born the wrong color, were terrified of drinking the water or taking showers. Rashes were breaking out in children. Those who could afford to, fled the area across the racist highways Buttigieg had yet to destroy.
Buttigieg would not offer any comment on what happened for another ten days.
The disaster that would be compared to Chernobyl around the world did not change Buttigieg’s schedule or his priorities. At the National Association of Counties, Buttigieg complained that there were too many white construction workers working on projects in black neighborhoods. That same day he finally got around to tweeting a press release, “I continue to be concerned about the impacts of the Feb 3 train derailment.” Afterward he tweeted about his NACO event.
In his great search for systemic racism, Buttigieg had finally found some by practicing it.
Last year, the EPA’s Michael Regan, hailed as the first black administrator to hold the role, visited Alabama on the anniversary of the Selma march and claimed that black residents faced water discrimination.
“It’s very sobering to see that in 2022, in the United States of America, there are people who are subjected to situations that I don’t think any of us would want to be subjected to,” Regan fulminated. “These individuals deserve what every American deserves, which is clean water and a safe environment.”
Buttigieg retweeted a video of Regan ranting to the camera and contended that, “it’s a shocking and moving example of what environmental injustice looks like.”
The actual shocking example of environmental injustice was painted by Regan and Buttigieg.
Two weeks after the disaster, Regan finally visited and unconvincingly assured residents of East Palestine that their water was safe to drink and the air safe to breathe. He claimed that he couldn’t have come earlier so as not to “take away resources from the state highway patrol”.
Notably absent from Buttigieg and Regan’s response was any of the passion that they had brought to transportation and water issues that they could blame on systemic racism.
“We know that systemic racism, lack of interest in low-income communities, lack of political representation, have contributed to the disproportionate impact of black and brown in low-income communities being exposed to a lack of access to good quality drinking water,” Regan had falsely claimed before.
The residents of East Palestine are 95% white and so their water must be safe to drink.
White privilege means poisoned water and air, but white people are immune to toxic chemicals.
Had East Palestine been 95% black, we know how the story would have played out. Experts would have been brought on the air to explain that hazardous materials are more likely to travel through black areas. Fake history, like that of Buttigieg’s lie about highways being used to keep black people from visiting New York City beaches, would have been trotted out to claim that this was a systemically racist policy bordering on genocide which had poisoned generations.
East Palestine might have benefited from such attention if its people had not been white.
Buttigieg’s racist infrastructure obsession is a recapitulation of the Douglass Plan that he produced during his presidential campaign in a failed effort to win over black voters.
Under ‘Infrastructure’, his Douglass plan claimed that infrastructure problems “disproportionately affect communities of color” and that “Flint is not alone. A 2017 Reuters study indicated that almost 4,000 communities had levels of lead in water or homes twice as high as Flint’s.”
One of those places was Buttigieg’s own South Bend.
One South Bend neighborhood had lead levels that were six times higher than Flint’s. But South Bend is 58% white while Flint is 56% black. The near racial mirror images are exactly what systemic racism looks like.
“If we can get clean water to a base in Afghanistan, we should be able to get clean water to Flint, Michigan,” Buttigieg had sneered. Or maybe even South Bend and East Palestine.
Meanwhile, East Palestine residents are told to drink tainted water and stop asking questions.
“I trust what the science is saying,” Regan pontificated.
According to the Douglass Plan, the focus would be on dealing with environmental threats in “communities of color”. East Palestine isn’t a community of color and so it’s been left out.
What is the purpose of infrastructure?
According to Buttigieg’s introduction to his department’s unconstitutional equity plan, “transportation has always been inseparable from America’s struggle for racial and economic justice.” From a critical race theory standpoint, the only meaningful way to look at transportation or anything else is through race. And such a perspective systematizes the very racism that it claims to be fighting. Buttigieg’s Department of Transportation, like all agencies in the Biden administration, made racism into the centerpiece of everything. And children were poisoned.
But it was okay because the children came into this world the wrong color.
The pursuit of equity put some people ahead of others. Everything revolved around the search for systemic racism even as a toxic train barreled down on East Palestine.
On Feb 21, nearly three weeks after the disaster, Buttigieg condescended to suggest that, “I am very interested in getting to know the residents of East Palestine, hearing from them about how they’ve been impacted and communicating with them about the steps that we’re taking.”
“But yes, when the time is right, I do plan to visit East Palestine. I don’t have a date for you right now.”
Buttigieg was too busy announcing that the University of Alabama would be getting $8 million to buy electric buses, billions more would be spent on electric car chargers for Tesla owners and that $435 million would be spent on the “next generation of diverse transportation researchers”.
There are a lot of priorities and the people of East Palestine are incredibly privileged already. Like Buttigieg, they’re white, unlike him they’re not members of a sexual minority, which means that they are even more privileged than he is. So why are they complaining? They ought to be grateful that somewhere the “next generation of diverse transportation researchers” is envisioning which racist highways need to be demolished and replaced with bike lanes.
One day, ‘Mayor Pete’ will hop on his bike, ride for a block, then have his staffers load it in the back of a black government SUV, and fly in for a photo op in East Palestine. Like a klansman visiting a black church, it won’t change the systemic racism that is at the heart of his DOT.
The people of East Palestine deserved a Department of Transportation and an EPA that were run without regard to race, instead they got a systemically racist DOT and EPA that left them behind, watched while they and their children were poisoned, and shrugged at the spectacle.
And all Americans, regardless of race, deserve a DOT free of systemic racism.
The only remaining systemically racist parts of America are those that believe in systemic racism. Critical race theory needs to be forced out of not just our schools, but all of our institutions. The polluted water and air of East Palestine are a warning of what happens if we continue to allow a corrupt racist bureaucracy to run our government and endanger our lives.
Biden won a lot independent votes based on the false image that he was a moderate mature man .That he cared about blue-collar worker. This was amplified throughout the election.
Well as we can now see it was just another Democratic lie. A nice big juicy one.
But this may be the dealbreaker His disregard for the people of this blue-collar town will come to haunt him in the next election. no longer can he claim this message . Behind working class Joe is a Soulis demagogue..
The DNC isn’t too worried about it. They’ll simply send out a couple of million more mail-in ballots in order to compensate.
And when their woke operatives stuff the drop-boxes with fraudulent ballots the next election, they’ll leave their cellphones at home. (Can’t have True The Vote tracing their movements like last time.)
Biden ran in normalcy and moderation, but to win the nomination he had to mortgage his agenda to the party’s two bases, the Left and black nationalists.
You’re right in that this will be another reminder to the white working class that the Dems don’t give a damn about them
Alzheimer Joe doesn’t even know what day it is.
He’s a demented retard.
I would care less if Biden had a good heart attack or stroke. Same for his heathen cabinet and their buddy George Soros.
well I think the latest election was a fraud, Most Americans were for Trump but “oting machines” were rigged and the same goes for vote in mail
That lie was pushed a lot after Trump’s defeat. The problem is the repubs haven’t produced any proof that Biden tried to steal the election. Mountains of evidence exist indicating Trump tried. Just the antics within the postal service earn him and the head of the Post Office life terms in prison.
Biden preened: “I know they call me middle class Joe”. HAH!
He’s more than just soulless. He’s stupid. He has always been stupid.
Stupidity is dangerous.
Joe Biden had the reputation of being the dumbest member in congress and at one time the most racist.Announcing to his colleges he didn’t want his kids going to a school that looked like a jungle.. He’s been a womanizer and a handler of children for his whole time in congress and there are a ton of news photos to prov it. He has been selling the Biden vote to lobbyists for years and has three multimillion dollar homes to prov that too.
He was also the first Democrat Congressman to enter a Bill to tax Social Security. With this man’s reputation who in their right mind would want him to be their president?
Agree. The people who need to take a cognitive test are Biden voters.
I would care less if Biden had a good heart attack or stroke. Same for his heathen cabinet and buddies like George Soros.
To bad stupidity isn’t painful!
Biden probably didn’t win as many votes as you think. Thousands of mules stuffing drop boxes with illicit ballots helped the Dems steal that election for Biden.
Who is responsible for keeping railroad tracks in good repair? The railway company owns the land the tracks run on, doesn”t it?
The rules that were eliminated wouldn’t have applied to this train in any case. They applied to trains carrying “highly flammable” cargoes. This train wasn’t. Also, the rules would have required two crew members in the engine. This train had three. So I guess the real lesson is that Trump Derangement Syndrome has no known cure.
My guess is that you’re some cosseted type who’s never had to run a business.
Before Hong Kong got taken over, it had few simple, broad regulations – not 1000s of small contradictory regulations that no one could follow with any hope of compliance.
Trump didn’t “gut”, so much as he dispensed with the suffocating bullshit that did zero to improve safety.
You’re cowardly lying, hun. The NTSB director—Biden’s own appointee—strongly refuted Buttigieg’s lies, as lies—with receipts to prove it. The rescinded regulation that you are falsely claiming as being the cause of this disaster, and for which you again, with malicious cowardice,blame on the residents, was an irrelevant regulation pertaining only to very limited situations involving oil transport, of which there was none in this train. That is only scratching the surface of your deceits and lies, but I think you should become accustomed, moving forward, to more literate and honest people giving you zero tolerance for smug lies like this and you should become accustomed to the mockery and ridicule that you and others of your low caliber deserve in abundance. You’ve already done enough harm in the callous vindictiveness of the willing, spineless elder-abuse of a legendarily corrupt, pathological liar with two failed campaigns, and now known dementia victim; don’t even dare anyone to treat you with respect or tolerance.
Three crew in cab, none detected the warning AND responded appropriately when the warning about a “hit box” came through. THIS incident lays directly at the feet of the OWNER of the particular tank car with the “hotbox”that started the derailment chain reaction. Funny how the truckpolice are all over as many rigs as they can stop to find ir imagine some “violation” of the complex systems involved on highway trucks. I’ve had state coppers roll under my rig on their creepers, take their markers and “fudge” the retracted length of the brake application rods, then have me apply the braes and measure slack. Since they added an inch and a half the “travel” mark read two and a half inches.. a violation times eight. After they left I took pictures and brought them to show the judge, along with a roster of MY measurements when done correctly. The judge was pretty sharp knew exactly what had happened, and tossed the case. Other truckers in the room cheered as I walked out a free man. They’d all been burned too.
What I wnt to know is WHO owns that tank car with the melting wheel bearings, and WHEN does the record show it was last inspected or serviced.
NO railroad are responible for the mechanical condition of every car they pull. The OWNER is.
God bless you for your intelligence, foresight and bravery!
It’s usually stenciled on the car’s side who the leasing/ownership entity is, Years ago it was banks in large cities. I presume they pay the railroad to maintain them as a car lease company does. Any one out there know for sure?
What a silly comment! The cause of the crash according to NTSB was a frozen or otherwise disabled bearing on car 23. You should educate yourself before making foolish comments.
He obviously know more about trains than you do.
Norfolk Southern isn’t paying for shit and Beijing Biden doesn’t even know what time or day it is.
You piece of shit. Real people are suffering in East Palestine Ohio and you make excuses based on your scummy political affiliation?
Fuck, I’d like to smash your stupid face.
Bastard Biden won’t make the railroad companies pay. Bastard Biden, his heathen cabinet, and his bastard buddies care less about working Americans.
“Those who could afford to, fled the area”
Yeah. Dreadful stuff in those tank cars. Like being in the trenches in WW1 and subjected to chemical attack.
Yes, why were those toxic chemicals in there, anyway? What are they necessary for?
I understand that a certain ex president has visited the area and is paying with his own funds to help the blue collar white privileged families.
In the meantime Biden and his cronies were in extreme danger in luxurious hotels in Ukraine.
Did Hunter go too?
Hunter didn’t go, but his portfolio did make the trip
(Perhaps along with a few of his crack-pipe paintings in case a corrupt oligarch needs access to the “big guy”.)
You make an ironic point. Trump belongs to the old school of “public service” in which the president and everyone in government was considered a servant of the people. It was considered an honor to serve.
Roles are reversed.
If this community had been an inner city slum the response by this administration would have been rapid if not immediate
That is a government-wide policy of every agency under Biden. See, e.g., his Feb. 16, 2023, “equity” executive decree.
The only white privilege I see is a small gay white man, who resembles Howdy Doody, married to another white man who has a job where he really doesn’t have to do anything, but gets to take personal time all the time, fly around at our expense, and lecture us about systemic racism and racist roads.
Now that is white white a$$ privilege.
Howdy Doody. That’s funny. He looks like Mr Bean to me, though.
I thought he looked like Alfred E. Neiman.
Good ole Scranton Joe. A man of the blue collar worker. The guy that went to work with his lunchbox and got down in the trenches.
Our country has turned into a banana republic. It’s so corrupt from decade after decade of these politicians making deals with lobbyist’s and dictators around the world there is no coming back from it.
If anyone can’t see what this admin has done to our country, as well as Obama who laid the foundation, there is no turning back.
Thomas Sowell said if Biden wins the presidency this country will not recover. He’s right.
The great Thomas Sowell.
No equal to him. He won MY heart when I read his writings absolutely blasting is own race for voting for the kinyun just BECAUSE of the level of melanin in his skin. Tore them up for that. But what could they say? They KNEW he was “one of them”. Born in the projects to a single mom, raised with no father figure in the home…. one of the most educated wisest, most capable American men anywhere.
Stick THAT in your ray cyst pipe and light it, Pete the butt gig.
He is far more ray cyst than anyone I’ve ever known.
Strange what money can do to a fella……
Thomas Sowell is a truly great man. He exemplifies what “content of character” should be at its best. Few men of any race reach the commanding heights of Thomas Sowell. I am so grateful to him.
The illegals entering this country receive more attention, concern, and compassion than the citizens of East Palestine. This is where the country is headed under Biden. We should not get used to it; we should stand up against it.
excellent point
Why isn’t Buttsky doing something about the 1000 derailments a year?
He is doing something. Jerking off.
Biden gives tax payers money to Ukraine but nothing for East Palestine OH and I used to have Aunt and Uncle who lived in Painesville some 106 Miles to the North
Everything is racism to a race hustler. It’s their bread & butter, so to speak.
We cannot trust the satanic islamic loving American Government!
Systemic racism is just ideology. There is no standard for when it has been eliminated. It is simply always there. There is also no standard for when it is actually there. One might object that if everything is systemic racism, then nothing is. It used to be the Jews were the source of all evil. Now it is the white supremacists, which include Jews of course. Pete is not a white supremacist, because he is gay. And Joe is not, because he was raised in black churches and worked with his hands, rode trains and carried a lunch bucket. And his relatives fought for the good and just. All the Republicans are white supremacists, even the African Americans and Hispanics and Asians. They are just born bad, nothing to do about it. So sorry. They can perhaps escape the stigma if they vote Democrat. Or perhaps they can join the alphabet identity category. Perhaps become Cherokee Indians or discover some other non-white ancestry.
That was funny!
Trump brought 1000s of bottles of water for the people, some of which he collected from his hotels. Then he bought lunch at McDonalds for the first responders. He showed he cared, and that is the only reason Buttegieg came and Biden ordered FEMA to make an about-face.
This debacle has been a very bad look for Biden’s administration. Pete Buttigieg, Biden, and FEMA failed the
people, and even Ohio’s governor was insane to order an emergency burn of those railcars. He was too stupid to realize that all that toxic poison would be released into the air and water of the town. Then he said it was safe for the residents to come home way too soon. They shouldn’t be anywhere near there until all the water
and air has been proven to be safe, and even then, that poison has been released into the ground and all the resident’s wells.
I think this town should be treated the same way Chernobyl was treated, and the railroad company and the government should relocate these people at the railroad company’s and FEMA’s expense.
Silly me, I believed that a highway could carry cars with black drivers just as well as it carries cars with any other minority groups or even whites. Guess I could never qualify for a job in today’s DOT.
So what dose Time Magazine think of their Person of the Year now? And will the Eco-Freaks still support Biden next year?
Well I am now certain I do NOT live in a racist area.
I live a ways outside of town, three miles or so, rural enough there is no public water out this way.
I’ a white guy, all my neighbours are for at least a mile in any direction. We all have our own wells. My water is not fit to drink, nor even to wash clothes. I have to haul water in froma free well a few miles away. I know f o source that will help me get safe clean drinking water, so this must NOT be a racist area.
I would also match DEI ESG involvement or coercion in company forces to spin off under quota or DEI hires management in our food supply or energy infrastructure goal being “first ever minority owned” outside merit or qualifications necessary needed. Tells are on their marketing
I would look to merger or spin off companies guided or forced to equity diversity . “first minority owned” outside credentialed parameters. Companies i. our food or energy infrastructure. It’s a danger
Greenfield expressed our outrage as well as outlining the issues without losing his cool – and I’ve lost my cool several time over this already.
Excellent comments too – save for one troll focusing on some MSM talking point …
One point I would clarify …
Our tracks are sorry shape. Tracks are a multi-billion dollar problem … but it’s chump change to a Federal government hell-bent on creating trillions out of nowhere (I’m trying to be polite) …
As with so many problems – the railroads should fix the tracks and they receive a wide variety of subsidies and exemptions, which do not fully compensate for the regulatory sea in which they operate. …
… but yet the problem remains.
As an engineer I’ve seen this over and over and over … billions of dollars just disappear while
… yet people still don’t have the air, water, roads, and other infrastructure that they pay for – over and over and over again – with their taxes dollars that just vanish into a black hole.
Pardon the rant.
Everyone have a great weekend!
.
It was a good rant! 🙂
AGAERWHAHTGHAYRNJHYJYRKJHSZMHN
Of course it was a lie! The man is a habitual liar and has been for his entire life. Why would anyone believe word he spews? People can be really stupid based on their hate…nobody in their right mind voted for this moron, certainly not 80,000,000! This whole administration is a lie!
Quit trying to blame trump for Biden and old Butter Legs blundering the whole deal and blame Obama as well this whole thing was because of them cutting some corners and maybe pinching a few Pennies so they should send the money to Iran
Biden, his party, their handlers and influencers are the antithesis of everything that made this country great: hard work, personal responsibility, you get what you pay for, morality, and justice under the law. That is why that ilk hates American history and its founding principles. That all takes too much personal discipline and morality. They will have NONE of that.
Its the people of Palestine Ohio that deserve reparations. Enough to buy new homes and farms and businesses elsewhere, and free medical for life. And payment for suffering. Id say a minimum of 5 million each citizen.
Your sentiment is grounded in compassion, but it nurtures an evil that destroys constitutional government.
The government HAS taken their property and made it a toxic dump for public use. The law of Eminent Domain will require each landowner to be compensated for the fair market value of the properties thus destroyed – the value being set PRIOR to the taking.
Global payment of medical bills for life is too broad. They are entitled to the payment of expenses associated only with the injuries they have received that were the direct result (proximate cause) of their illness(es).
Please read this essay about the education of Davy Crocket on the matter of government payments to certain classes at the expense of other classes (welfare):
https://www.nhccs.org/crocket.html
The train derailment happened in East Palestine, Ohio at 8:55 PM EST on February the 3rd, 2023. The date of publication for the interview you linked to is Feb 2, 2023,10:57am EST. You’re blaming Buttigieg for not responding to events that hadn’t even happened yet.
You are a profoundly stupid person Greenfield.
Well, that your you have absolute contempt for those who read you blog post. What makes matters worse is you had this one teed up a la tee-ball. All you had to do was stick with reality and you would have had a scathing article.
Buttigieg has been a terrible Secretary of Transportation. You could have mentioned his industry ties and his history as a consultant for various scumbags. You could have written about how he’s been utterly incompetent when it comes to regulating the air line industry. Instead you wrote this. This. This thing. Maybe D.Hoe was on one of his office rampages and was screaming some racist tirade at you. Him standing over your should and screaming to the point his face turned purple would explain the incoherence of this blog post.
Even for you this is a bad effort. Previously, I called you out for being slothful and basically writing a paragraph with a couple video clips added. This is much worse though. It shows that when you really do try your work is terrible.
Buttigieg and Regan demonstrate that so called progressives have no empathy and indeed have contempt for anyone outside of their world view
For starters what about either of them was progressive to start with? Buttigieg was a consultant for the worst scum corporate America could offer.