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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

As Pete Buttigieg Surveys East Palestine Train Derailment Even Fox News Admits Elaine Chao ‘Never’ Visited an Accident

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U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg Thursday traveled to East Palestine, Ohio, to visit the scene of the Norfolk Southern train derailment.

The attacks in recent months against Secretary Buttigieg  by Republicans and right-wing media figures have been almost relentless.

Within hours of the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) inspectors arrived at the scene. Also within hours the Biden administration sent officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Dept. of Transportation. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been coordinating with Ohio as well as federal officials. President Joe Biden spoke with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, offering assistance and support – which the Republican governor rejected.

Governor DeWine, up until just one week ago, had rejected additional federal assistance, and refused to declare the area a disaster. In fact, it was only after Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio issued a statement demanding Governor DeWine “officially declare a disaster in East Palestine and seek the full support of the federal government to bolster the state of Ohio’s ongoing clean-up efforts,” did the GOP governor do so.

Just one day earlier Gov. DeWine told MSNBC he did not see a need for additional federal assistance, even though President Biden had called him and offered it.

One day after Gov. DeWine finally requested federal assistance, the White House in a statement said, “the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced they are deploying a team of medical personnel and toxicologists to conduct public health testing and assessments. The team will support Federal, state, and local officials already on the ground to evaluate individuals who were exposed or potentially exposed to chemicals and help ensure timely communications to the public.”

President Biden again called Governor DeWine this week, from Poland, just after delivering a speech in Warsaw.

Despite all these efforts from the Biden administration and wider federal government, high-profile elected Republicans and right-wing media critics have gone so far as to attack Secretary Buttigieg. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has repeatedly attacked Buttigieg, even calling on him to resign over the Norfolk Southern train derailment. U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) called for Buttigieg to be impeached, simply for not going to the scene of the accident.

READ MORE: ‘Going for the Jugular’: Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump Subpoenaed by ‘Tenacious’ Special Counsel – Legal Experts Respond

MSNBC‘s Steve Benen earlier his week, reporting that there are around 1000 train derailments annually, noted that “politicians have not generally responded to any of these modern derailments by going after the U.S. secretary of Transportation, but in the wake of the Norfolk Southern freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, earlier this month, a striking number of Republicans have decided to blame the disaster on Pete Buttigieg.”

Indeed, perhaps the most critical has been Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly attacked Buttigieg over the Norfolk Southern train derailment. In this one short clip Carlson falsely claimed the water was not being tested (it was and is), made homophobic remarks – calling Buttigieg “flamboyantly incompetent” – and almost “evil.”

But even Fox News‘ morning crew, ahead of his visit to East Palestine this morning, defended Transportation Secretary Buttigieg – at least somewhat – by admitting that not once during her four years as Trump’s Secretary of Transportation did Elaine Chao ever visit the scene of an accident.

“During the Trump administration apparently even when there were derailments, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao never visited the sites,” Fox News host Steve Doocy pointed out. Moments later, Brian Kilmeade claimed, “There was nothing that equated to this during the Trump administration.”

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene: ‘Democrat’ Voters Should Be Banned from Voting If They Move to Red States (Video)

And earlier in the program Kilmeade, a top Trump supporter and top Biden critic, admitted he was “stunned” by the number of train derailments, previously “knew nothing” about them, and called for regulations – regulations that the Obama administration put in place that the Trump administration removed. Donald Trump personally bragged about removing regulations.

On Tuesday, another Fox News host, Bret Baier, also pointed out the discrepancy in how Republicans are attacking Buttigieg for not going to the derailment site earlier.

“There is this political moment and there is a lot of criticism of the Transportation Secretary,” Baier said, as Mediate reports. “Politico pointing out that Secretary Buttigieg will visit there… Quote, ‘He’s also expected to meet with DOT officials who arrived on the ground within hours of the derailment.’ They point out, ‘It is exceedingly rare for a transportation secretary to visit the site of a train derailment, especially one that resulted in no fatalities.’”

“There were train derailments in the Trump administration that actually had fatalities that didn’t have a visit by Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao,” Baier said. “But this seems to have some momentum about the administration and its reaction to this derailment in particular.”

Mediate notes that “Hume added that Biden’s trip to Ukraine is more than justified because it involves the security of the U.S. He said that ‘substantively, it doesn’t make much difference’ whether Biden visits the derailment site.”

Just this week Gizmodo published a list of “America’s Worst Toxic Train Disasters,” and a December 2020 accident in Washington made the list. That was during the Trump administration, and Elaine Chao was the Transportation Secretary.

 
This article has been updated to add reporting from Mediaite.

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law

Arkansas Senator Files Bill to Abolish State Library, Give Education Department Control

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The right-wing war on knowledge continues as an Arkansas state senator filed a bill Thursday to abolish the State Library as well as the library board.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Jonesboro), along with State Rep. Wayne Long (R-Bradford), filed Senate Bill 536 on Thursday. The bill would not just remove all references to the State Library from existing laws, but also put the state’s other libraries under the control of the Arkansas Department of Education.

A previous version of the bill, SB184, would have also shuttered the Arkansas Educational Television Commission, which oversees the state’s PBS stations, according to the Arkansas Advocate.

READ MORE: Clean Up Alabama Wants State to Dump ‘Marxist’ American Library Association

The Arkansas State Library is not just a regular library. In addition to providing information to state agencies and lawmakers, it also distributes funding to the other libraries around the state. Under SB536, the Department of Education would take on all its responsibilities. The State Library is officially a part of the Department of Education already, but it operates as an independent organization.

While the proposal may sound like a shuffling-around of duties, the main thrust of the bill is to allow more direct control over the Arkansas library system by controlling the purse strings. The bill would keep libraries from distributing “age-inappropriate materials” to those under 17 years old and sex education materials from those under 12. Libraries would also have to set up a system where those in the community could request that certain items be banned for minors, according to KARK-TV. Those that don’t meet these restrictions will have state funding pulled.

Earlier legislation filed by Sullivan and passed into law includes Act 242, which ended the requirement for library directors to have a master’s degree in library science, the Advocate reported.  Sullivan, however, was unsuccessful with a proposed amendment to another bill that would strip funding from libraries affiliated with the American Library Association—meaning most, if not all of them. That amendment was rejected this week over concerns the language in it was too broad, according to the Advocate.

The ALA has been a target of right-wing politicians and activists upset with its free speech stance and fights against censorship. Sullivan in particular has objected to a provision in the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights protecting library access for all ages, the Advocate reported. He also called for the state’s chapter of the ALA to be defunded—despite the fact that it receives no state funding.

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BIGOTRY

Texas to Investigate Anonymous Complaint Teachers Used Trans Student’s Pronouns

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After a Moms for Liberty member claimed that teachers at a Texas high school used a trans student’s new name and proper pronouns, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an investigation.

On February 13, Denise Bell of the right wing, anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty, addressed the Houston Independent School Board. She read a statement that she said came from the parents of a trans student at Bellaire High School. The parents were upset that teachers used the student’s new name and pronouns, according to Erin in the Morning. The anonymous statement Bell read said that the change happened without parental consent, and “goes against our Christian faith, the advice of [their] therapist and quite frankly common sense.”

Bell then claimed that the school district was “purposely and secretively transitioning minors.”

READ MORE: GOP Candidate Complaining She Wasn’t Allowed to ‘Have Kids Laugh At’ Transgender Students in Viral Video Draws Rebuke

State Representative Steve Toth—who represents a different district than the school is in—informed Abbott of the complaint in a letter on February 26. Two weeks later, Abbott replied to Toth’s letter, revealing he told the Texas Education Agency to investigate the Bellaire High School, accusing the teachers of helping “to ‘socially transition’ a student—violating the express wishes of the child’s mother,” which Abbott called “inappropriate and potentially unlawful.”

Abbott directed the TEA to not just determine whether or not the teachers did indeed use the trans student’s name and pronouns, but also open a full investigation into the school. TEA was told to find out if the school had also violated “policies concerning sexual education curriculum, parental consent for communications with students, mental health services or guidance to students, and parent grievances”; if any school employees had “engaged in misconduct”; and whether any student “has been subjected to abuse or neglect.”

That last one has a footnote on “abuse or neglect,” referring to a statement from President Donald Trump’s March 4 speech in front of a joint session of Congress:

“A few years ago, January Littlejohn and her husband discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband, while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns—‘they/them’ pronouns, actually—all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.”

This is not the first time Abbott and his administration have attacked the state’s trans community. In his “State of the State Address” this year, he said that teachers who discuss gender transition with students should be fired, according to KTRK-TV. Texas has also banned trans students from sports as well as the use of puberty blockers in cases of minors experiencing gender dysphoria, according to the Houston Chronicle.

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AMERICA FIRST?

Tim Walz: ‘Racism’ Motivates MAGA Movement to Pardon Derek Chauvin

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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz didn’t mince words when asked what the motivation was for the new movement among MAGA Republicans to convince President Donald Trump to pardon Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who killed George Floyd in 2020.

“Racism. It’s racist. OK? That’s what I believe,” Walz said in an interview with Semafor published Wednesday.

The calls to pardon Chauvin started with an online petition earlier this month, according to The Independent. The pardon push picked up steam this week when conservative commentator Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire launched a webseries, “The Case of Derek Chauvin.” Shapiro claims the officer was convicted on “extraordinarily scanty evidence,” saying Floyd did not die from having Chauvin’s knee on his neck for over nine minutes, but rather from drugs in Floyd’s system and heart disease.

READ MORE: Derek Chauvin Sentenced to 22-and-a-Half Years for Murder of George Floyd – Less Than Maximum Possible Sentence

Walz, however, disputes this interpretation of events.

“This was a man who murdered George Floyd on TV,” Walz said, adding that a pardon “would undermine the faith in the system.”

The White House, however, has denied that a Chauvin pardon is in Trump’s plans. Earlier this month, Trump said he hadn’t even heard about a push to pardon Floyd’s killer, and on Wednesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt repeated that a pardon is “not something he’s considering at this time,” according to The Grio.

However, some commentators, like The Hill’s Juan Williams are skeptical, pointing out that Trump has pardoned two police officers convicted of killing a Black man in the first days of his second term.

In 2020, after the killing, Trump condemned Chauvin.

“We all saw what we saw. It’s hard to conceive anything other than what we did see. It should have never happened,” Trump said.

If Trump were to pardon Chauvin, it would be largely moot. Presidents can only pardon those convicted on federal charges. Chauvin was convicted on both federal and Minnesota state charges. In the event Trump cleared the federal charges, the main thing that would happen is that Chauvin would be moved from the federal prison in Big Spring, Texas to a Minnesota state prison.

Minnesota sentenced Chauvin to 22 and a half years for murder; on the federal level, he was sentenced to 21 years for violating Floyd’s civil rights. Barring a federal pardon, the two sentences are running concurrently, not consecutively.

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