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Celerity

Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
April 3, 2019

Ebony Magazine: Is Pete Buttigieg Black Voters' 2020 Presidential Dark Horse?

The midwestern mayor has captured the attention of Black voters and David Axelrod, Obama’s former campaign manager.

https://www.ebony.com/exclusive/is-pete-buttigieg-black-voters-2020-presidential-dark-horse/

From Black women to Black LGBTQ millennials, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s messages on economic opportunity and gun violence are resonating with the Democratic Party’s base—Black voters.

The openly gay Democrat running the city of South Bend, Indiana, was a lesser-known 2020 presidential candidate until his acclaimed town hall performance on CNN on March 10. Since then, the midwestern mayor has captured the attention of Black voters and David Axelrod, the former campaign manager for Barack Obama.

https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/1104922963386630144

Buttigieg, 37, contends that every candidate “brings a different profile and a different life experience,” but the conversation around intersectionality and his personal experience as a member of a marginalized community helps him find “new sources of solidarity” across identity groups.

South Bend might not be known for having a large Black population. But, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Black community represents over a quarter of the city’s population.

Before “Pete for America” officially launched, Mark Meier ran the “Draft Mayor Pete” political action committee in an effort to bolster nationwide name recognition for the Afghanistan War veteran. Meier who like Buttigieg is a millennial member of the LGBTQ community, said on the PAC’s website that Buttigieg is a uniquely suited candidate to bring together Democrats from every part of our big tent party.”

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South Bend is overall 45% minority btw and Pete was re-elected with 80% of the vote

https://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Buttigieg-vies-for-second-term-as-South-Bend-mayor-340002362.html

During his 8 year tenure, African American wages, wealth, home ownership rates, and employment rates are all up, and although they still lag under the national average, but they were far worse before he was initially elected.

He also has dealt with a diverse South Bend City Council, and even often has gotten the Republicans (at present there is only one) to go along with the city's initiatives.

https://southbendin.gov/department/common-council/




here is his interview with Charlamagne Tha God and The Breakfast Club

Pete Buttigieg On Political Honesty, His Black Agenda, Open Homosexuality + More

April 2, 2019

PiS attacks LGBT+ rights in Poland, as elections loom

Amid simmering social discontent and with the Catholic Church wracked by sex-abuse scandals, Poland’s clerical-nationalist party is exploiting homophobia to drive a wedge into the opposition.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/pis-attacks-lgbt-rights-in-poland

In the run-up to this year’s European and national parliamentary elections, LGBT+ rights are dividing Polish politics. Speaking recently against their extension, the leader of the ruling, right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, said: “This is not about tolerance. This is about the affirmation of same-sex unions, about their marriage, and their right to adopt children. We want to say it clearly. We are saying No!, especially when it concerns children. Stay away from our children!’

This renewed campaign by PiS against LGBT+ rights was launched in the wake of the recent decision by the mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski—from the main opposition party, Citizens’ Platform (PO)—to sign a declaration protecting LGBT+ rights in the capital. The declaration guarantees the basic needs of Warsaw’s LGBT+ community and commits the local government to delivering such things as hostels, a crisis-intervention system and anti-discrimination education in schools.

The conservative right has responded by whipping up an atmosphere of homophobia and hostility towards the LGBT+ community. The public media (and those parts of the private media sympathetic to PiS) have engaged in a barrage of propaganda against the LGBT+ community. Demonstrations have been organised by the conservative and nationalist right outside the Warsaw local-government offices, in protest against the declaration, and banners with homophobic slogans have been displayed in football stadia.

‘Dangerous diseases’

The tactic of finding an enemy, against whom its supporters can unite, has been deployed before by PiS. During the 2015 parliamentary elections, the party ran a strongly negative campaign against refugees, with Kaczyński spreading fear that asylum-seekers could carry ‘very dangerous diseases long absent from Europe’ and that Poland might be forced to resettle more than 100,000 Muslims in the country. PiS argued that it was defending Poland against an attempt by the European Union to impose multicultural values and lifestyles upon it.

The party tried to repeat this strategy during last year’s local election campaigns, contending that PO would allow a wave of refugees to come into those areas where it won power. This negative propaganda resulted in a sharp increase in the number of those opposing Poland taking in refugees.

Such rhetoric is now being repeated against LGBT+ rights, with the conservative and nationalist right maintaining that they are protecting the traditional Polish family and values. A leading PiS candidate in the European elections has said: ‘I think that Poland will be a region free from LGBT. I hope so.’ Some on the right have even absurdly argued that Muslims and the LGBT+ community represent a combined threat: the editor of the right-wing weekly DoRzeczy has claimed that the west faces the choice between becoming a ‘caliphate or a homoland’.

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April 2, 2019

How This Tiny Dutch Restaurant Is Keeping Wendy's Out of Europe

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/wendys-locations-europe-netherlands-goes-restaurant



Frikandel Speciaal, Bitterballen, and something called “smulrol” are a few favorites on the menu at Wendy’s in the Dutch city of Goes. There are no 4 for 4€ deals, no Baconators or Son of Baconators, no Frostys to dip your fries. There’s not even an adorable, freckle-faced mascot. Instead, it’s the glorious mullet of the chain-smoking man behind the counter, Albert van der Hoek.

This is what Wendy’s looks like in Europe: A hole-in-the-wall chippie run by some brute Dutch sailors with a serious case of stick-it-to-the-man-itis. It’s the reason a certain billion-dollar, red-headed American fast food chain has been kicked off the continent.

From the corner of Koningstraat, a sign advertising the crispy chicken burger, chicken strips, and crispy hot wings stands among pristine cobblestone streets and gabled facades from the Dutch Golden Age. It’s a setting straight out of Amsterdam, except rather than museums, prostitutes, and panicked Brits on ‘shrooms, the town’s lure is a steam train that takes you… right out of the town.

Unlike most European cities, though, the romantic setting in Goes has yet to be infiltrated by commercial taste-buds. There’s no Burger King, no McDonald’s in the shadow of the town’s gothic cathedral De Grote Kerk. Instead of Starbucks, Old World cafes serve up unpronounceable delicacies like ontbijtkoek, or the unfortunately-named pastry “Zeeuwse Bolus.”

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April 1, 2019

TIME FOR WIG

https://www.triwa.com/us/page/TIME-WIG/



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Please sign up here to contribute to the fight against bad hair loss

March 30, 2019

Buttigieg: racist behaviors cannot be excused because they can be connected to economic issues

So many false memes floating out there all of sudden since his polling numbers have taken off (3rd in Iowa for example zero to 11 percent in a month or so) People take snippets and pull quotes (see here for instance https://www.democraticunderground.com/128733687 of a Twitter troll trying to do just that and Wonkette slapping them down) and try to turn it into some binary, simplistic misrepresentation or phoney 'gothcha' moment that dismisses even moderately deep thought and does nothing to advance our party in terms of drilling down to not only root problems, but intelligent solutions to those very problems as well. It turns into a food fight that does a disservice to everyone, not just Buttigieg.

Buttigieg: “I don’t want this to slide into the idea that some of these racist behaviors can be excused because they can be connected to economic issues.

How Democrats can defeat Trump and his ugly ideas, according to Pete Buttigieg

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/03/19/how-democrats-can-defeat-trump-his-ugly-ideas-according-pete-buttigieg/?utm_term=.3d338b3fbcea

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Plum Line: There’s a genre of half-baked punditry which holds that working-class whites supported Trump in part because they perceive immigrants as a threat to them, economically or culturally. Indiana is a major Trump state. What’s your perception of the view of immigrants in Trump country?


Buttigieg: You might have followed this widely publicized case involving a small-business owner from Granger, the next community over, very conservative. This guy was an important part of the community, undocumented, went in for an annual ICE visit and didn’t come back out. The fiercely protective response came mostly from white members of the community who were conservative and largely voted for Trump, but did not view what he was talking about as going against somebody like Roberto, who they loved. Yes, you have a lot of people in my part of the country who feel we’re spending too many resources on immigrants, even though that’s inaccurate and immigration subsidizes us. But it doesn’t necessarily apply to people you actually know and meet and see.

Plum Line: We’re seeing a rise in white nationalism and serious anti-immigrant fervor in some parts of the country, and also globally. Are you going to be addressing this in a comprehensive way? It occurs to me that the 2020 Democrats should go bigger on these issues.


Buttigieg: Absolutely. We need to recognize 21st-century threats. Cybersecurity, climate security and security in the face of white nationalism are all clear and present security threats that folks on the other side of the aisle either refuse to acknowledge or decline to do anything about. It’s extremely important for Democrats to very vocally talk about those threats.

Plum Line: How do you view white nationalism as a policy problem?


Buttigieg: In the narrow tactical sense, it’s something we need to stay ahead of and monitor the way you would any kind of violent radical movement from abroad. There’s a deeper phenomenon going on. As we see dislocation and disruption in certain parts of the country, from rural areas to my home in the industrial Midwest, and in the economy, this leads to a kind of disorientation and loss of community and identity. That void can be filled through constructive and positive things, like community involvement or family. And it can be filled by destructive things, like white identity politics. This is one thing well-intentioned job training programs often miss: If we’re not attending to that, then making sure somebody’s income is steady or replaced after their place in the economy is disrupted, that’s not really enough.

Plum Line: Can you talk about your broader sense of the role that this type of economic vulnerability plays in creating the conditions for the kind of communitarian collapse that creates an opening for sentiments like white nationalism to flourish?


Buttigieg: I don’t want this to slide into the idea that some of these racist behaviors can be excused because they can be connected to economic issues. But I do think it’s easier to fall into these forms of extremism when you don’t know where your place is. There’s this very basic human desire for belonging that historically has often been supplied by the workplace. It’s been based on the presumption of a lifelong relationship with a single employer. This isn’t just a blue-collar phenomenon. We’ve come to be pretty reliant on the way that your workplace explains who you are. That’s breaking down. That doesn’t have to be a soul-crushing thing, provided that there are alternate sources for community, identity, and purpose. In South Bend, we focus a lot on enlisting people in the project of the city itself. The sense of belonging can be very powerful, and we’re very fragile without it. It’s not accidental that some areas that have seen the most disruption in our social and economic life are those that are most likely to produce a lot of domestic extremists.


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Pete Buttigieg Is a Political Star. You Just Don't Know It Yet.

https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/03/pete-buttigigeg-has-a-better-chance-than-you-think.html


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Socialism vs. Capitalism. Buttigieg sidesteps this false choice: Like Elizabeth Warren, he believes in capitalism “as long as there’s a strong rule of law around it.” He’s said that “the biggest problem with capitalism is the way it has become intertwined with power… the growth of business is eroding our democracy. Capitalism without democracy is Russia.” Buttigieg is conscious of his youth in this regard, and points out “we’re dealing with a whole [older] generation that was really shaped by a Cold War environment where socialism was treated as the same thing as communism. And the opposite of that was democracy and capitalism. So to be for socialism was to be for communism and against democracy and capitalism. Now you see how these things are really shaking loose from each other in a lot of ways. They’ve become unbundled. The big question is what you prioritize, and I prioritize democracy. People are trying to make sense of the distance between socialism in Canada, say, and Denmark versus Venezuela. And the answer is democracy.”

“Economic anxiety” and the rise of white nationalism. This is perhaps where Buttigieg is at his most eloquent, turning a venomously and now murderously divisive issue into an opportunity for growth. The Post’s Greg Sargent tweeted of his interview with Buttigieg that “he talks about race and the economy in a way that gets beyond the tedious ‘LOL but economic anxiety’ versus ‘not everyone in Trump country is racist’ debate.” In his recent Morning Joe interview, Buttigieg connected white nationalism to the rise of AI and automation to national service, the military, marriage, and career-hopping in 90 seconds.

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Immigration. Buttigieg is staunchly pro-immigrant. He wants to roll back Trump’s policies and raise immigration caps across the board, but he also manages somehow to embrace possibilities for reconciling that position with the right wing’s obsessive and baseless xenophobia: “You might have followed this widely publicized case involving a small-business owner from Granger, the next community over, very conservative. This guy was an important part of the community, undocumented, went in for an annual ICE visit and didn’t come back out.

“The fiercely protective response came mostly from white members of the community who were conservative and largely voted for Trump, but did not view what he was talking about as going against somebody like Roberto, who they loved.
“Yes, you have a lot of people in my part of the country who feel we’re spending too many resources on immigrants, even though that’s inaccurate and immigration subsidizes us. But it doesn’t necessarily apply to people you actually know and meet and see.”

snip



March 29, 2019

Pete Buttigieg 3/28/2019 Inforum at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco (video)




Midwestern mayor Buttigieg wows progressive Dems in San Francisco

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/29/pete-buttigieg-san-francisco-1243203

Pete Buttigieg, the first openly gay major presidential candidate, took his campaign Thursday to San Francisco — a heartland of progressive gay politics — but said he is running “not to be a candidate for the LGBTQ community alone, or for any one group,’’ but to speak to all Americans.

“I’m proud of who I am, I am proud of my husband and our marriage,’’ said the Democratic mayor of South Bend, Ind., whose spouse, Chasten, sat nearby as he addressed reporters here prior to a sold-out speech before hundreds at the Commonwealth Club. “It might just be the most normal thing in my life.’’ His husband, Buttigieg said, will have a role in his upstart campaign for the White House because he is “somebody who’s passionate about education, passionate about family ... and his story is part of my story.’’

When asked how he will get past what many believe could be his greatest hurdle in running for the presidency — his status as a married gay man — Buttigieg told POLITICO, “I don’t know how it plays in San Francisco. But I can tell you I came out, during a reelection campaign, in Indiana, while Mike Pence was the governor. And I wound up winning reelection by 80 percent."

Buttigieg was greeted by a rousing standing ovation, whoops and cheers from the audience in the progressive bastion of San Francisco, the hometown of fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, who served as district attorney in the city before becoming the state’s attorney general.

Asked about competing with Harris, Buttigieg said, “I don’t think I’m running against any individual, especially when there’s like 20 of us. I admire a lot of the people in this process, but each of us has a different message.’’

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March 29, 2019

Intellectual potted plant Don Jr. on AOC: '3 weeks ago didn't know the three branches of government'

Can he just fuck right off!


https://twitter.com/erikapryan/status/1111401526738640902

Erika Ryan
@erikapryan

Ahead of Trump's rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Don Jr. told the crowd that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez "three weeks ago didn't know the three branches of government"
March 28, 2019

WaPo Op-Ed: America has already had a gay president

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/pete-buttigieg-wouldnt-be-americas-first-gay-president/2019/03/26/0b7b1eb4-41de-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3832be403b24

“If elected, you would be the first openly gay president of the United States,” Stephen Colbert said to Pete Buttigieg after the mayor of South Bend, Ind., declared his candidacy. While the characterization of being openly gay or “out” is relatively new, the fact is the United States has already had a gay president whose contemporaries knew it: James Buchanan. Indeed, the United States has also had a gay vice president and, maybe more surprisingly, a gay senator from Alabama.

If students taking U.S. history classes are taught anything about Buchanan, they learn that he was “our only bachelor president.” How quaint. But, by using euphemisms, we falsely educate students — indeed all Americans — about the realities of this country’s history. We also distort how and why Buttigieg’s sexual identity matters today.

Before becoming president in 1857, Buchanan openly lived with William Rufus King, who at various times served as senator from Alabama, ambassador to France and, finally, Franklin Pierce’s vice president. They met in Washington as young politicians, and lived together on and off for more than 16 years until King’s death from tuberculosis in 1853. Buchanan’s biographer, Jean H. Baker, believes that his relationship with the Southerner King partially explains why this Pennsylvanian was a “doughface,” a northerner who did not oppose slavery. Indeed, Buchanan explicitly urged the Supreme Court to deliver an expansive ruling in the Dred Scott case — which denied freed slaves American citizenship and forbade Congress from regulating slavery in U.S. territories — and lobbied Congress to admit Kansas as a slave state.

How do we know Buchanan and King were a couple? In 1844, after King assumed his posting in Paris, Buchanan wrote a letter to a friend, complaining about being alone and not being able to find the right gentleman partner:

“I am now ‘solitary and alone,’ having no companion in the house with me. I have gone a wooing to several gentlemen, but have not succeeded with any one of them. I feel that it is not good for man to be alone; and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection.”


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March 28, 2019

Stacey Abrams predicts female or minority candidate will prevail as Democratic presidential nominee

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/stacey-abrams-predicts-female-or-minority-candidate-will-prevail-as-democratic-presidential-nominee/2019/03/27/85d6340c-509b-11e9-8d28-f5149e5a2fda_story.html?utm_term=.4eaacdbbb099

Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat who narrowly lost her race for governor in 2018, said Wednesday she believes a woman or a minority candidate will win the Democratic presidential primary next year and said she is considering her own bid. Appearing on “CBS This Morning,” Abrams said the country needs to “start evolving what the face of leadership looks like.”

Her comments come amid speculation that she is being considered as a running mate for former vice president Joe Biden, a white male, who appears on the cusp of announcing his candidacy.

A Biden spokesman last week dismissed rumors of “a pre-cooked ticket” as false, and during Wednesday’s interview, Abrams said she and Biden had talked but that serving as his running mate “was not the core issue.”

Appearing later Wednesday morning on ABC’s “The View,” Abrams said she is “open to all options,” including her own White House bid.

“I do not know if I’m running. I’m thinking about everything,” Abrams said. She suggested that if she runs for president, it would not be with the aim of winding up as someone else’s choice for vice president. “I think you don’t run for second place,” Abrams said.

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related


Why The Joe Biden-Stacey Abrams Rumors Won’t Go Away

Abrams is testing her message nationally and plotting her next steps, and Abrams and Biden aides’ denials aren’t quieting the rumors of a team-up.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/darrensands/joe-biden-stacey-abrams-2020-rumors

What is Stacey Abrams going to do next?

It didn’t take long, after Abrams’ work to expand Georgia’s Democratic electorate translated to a near-miss campaign in the state’s gubernatorial election, for that question to loom over the early phase of the 2020 Democratic primary for president. The intrigue went into overdrive with a tweet suggesting she might seek the nomination herself, and with her team insisting that nothing, including a run for the US Senate seat occupied by Georgia Republican David Perdue, is off the table. On Wednesday, she did another round of TV to say again: Her options are open.

The possibility, though, that people are most obsessing over right now: whether or not she’s going to team up with Joe Biden. Rumors of Biden and Abrams talking about a joint ticket at the start of a potential Biden presidential campaign have been rampant over the last week, after the two met for lunch. Aides to both have publicly denied that a “grand plan” exists.

But the whispers haven’t died out. Two sources familiar with the matter say that, no matter what others say, Biden’s team has pitched Abrams on the idea of being Biden’s running mate at the outset of a 2020 campaign. Those sources said the idea was brought up to attract high-level operatives and donors. Neither source was aware of Abrams’ response, nor whether she was currently considering the proposition. Abrams on Wednesday told CBS News that she and Biden “talked about a lot of things,” but the vice presidency “was not the core issue.”

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