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    Biden-Buttigieg put the brakes on 'Bomb Trains'

    Sarah Okeson, DCReport @ RawStory
    March 18, 2021

    Thanks for your support!

    This article was paid for by reader donations to Raw Story Investigates.

    Pretty brazen stuff': Email shows top Buttigieg fundraiser ...
    www.rawstory.com

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Sarah Okeson, DCReport @ RawStory

    President Joe Biden, known as "Amtrak Joe" for his train trips to Washington, D.C., as a Delaware senator, could reverse the Team Trump approval of "bomb trains" carrying liquefied natural gas.

    The Trump rule financially benefits an energy company tied to a hedge fund that loaned millions to the Trump Organization and the Kushner Companies. New York prosecutors are examining those financial ties to Trump.

    Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during his confirmation hearing that he planned to take a "hard look" at the rule.

    Liquefied natural gas is even more volatile than Bakken crude oil carried on trains like the one that derailed and caught fire on July 6, 2013, in Lac-Mégantic in Quebec, killing 47 people. Most of the victims had to be identified with DNA samples and dental records. The bodies of five of the people were never recovered.

    In April 2019, Trump called for federal rules to be rewritten so trains could carry liquefied natural gas. Drue Pearce, the political appointee who was the deputy administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, helped shepherd the regulation through the agency.

    The Biden administration asked a federal judge in February to put lawsuits challenging the rule on hold to give Biden regulators time to review Trump's rules that affect climate disruption. Biden issued an executive order the day after he was sworn in to review rules that may worsen greenhouse gas emissions.

    Earthjustice, one of the environmental organizations involved in the lawsuits, said the rule could bring LNG railroad cars through virtually all major U.S. cities and that a disaster could destroy an entire city.

    Vapor clouds from liquified natural gas that ignite can burn as hot as 2,426 degrees. Liquefied natural gas is odorless because ethyl mercaptan, the foul-smelling compound added to natural gas for residential use freezes above the boiling point for liquefied natural gas.

    On Oct. 20, 1944, liquefied natural gas leaked from a storage tank at East Ohio Gas Co. in Cleveland and got into the sewer lines, causing explosions over a square mile. The explosions and fires spread through 20 blocks, killing 130 people and destroying 79 homes and two factories in a neighborhood of Slovenian immigrants.

    The Trump regulation financially benefits New Fortress Energy, a publicly-traded company founded by billionaire Wes Edens. Fortress Investment Group, a New York City hedge fund co-founded by Edens, was part of a deal to loan the Trump organization $130 million to help build the Trump International Hotel and Tower Chicago in 2005.

    Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance Jr. has subpoenaed documents from Fortress about the deal.

    Trump couldn't pay the loan which ultimately grew to about $150 million, according to documents filed in the New York Supreme Court by New York Attorney General Letitia James. She is investigating possible fraud by the Trump Organization.

    James said that Fortress forgave more than $100 million of the loan, money that may have been taxable.

    Fortress also loaned$57 million in October 2017 to a Jersey City, N.J., real estate project owned by Kushner Companies. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, transferred his stake in the project to a family trust.

    SoftBank Group, a Japanese firm, bought Fortress Investment Group in 2017.

    This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.

    Enjoy good journalism?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we here at Raw Story believe in the power of progressive journalism. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and legal efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. And unlike other news outlets, we’ve decided to make our original content free. But we need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. Unhinged from corporate overlords, we fight to ensure no one is forgotten.

    We need your support in this difficult time. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click to donate by check.

    Value Raw Story?

    … then let us make a small request. The COVID crisis has slashed advertising rates, and we need your help. Like you, we believe in the power of progressive journalism — and we’re investing in investigative reporting as other publications give it the ax. Raw Story readers power David Cay Johnston’s DCReport, which we've expanded to keep watch in Washington. We’ve exposed billionaire tax evasion and uncovered White House efforts to poison our water. We’ve revealed financial scams that prey on veterans, and efforts to harm workers exploited by abusive bosses. We need your support to do what we do.

    Raw Story is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Invest with us in the future. Make a one-time contribution to Raw Story Investigates, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you.

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    Should Trump be allowed back on social media?

    Jimmy Kimmel steps up his mockery of Mike Lindell after MyPillow CEO agrees to come on his show

    Sarah K. Burris
    April 21, 2021

    Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel might actually welcome the MyPillow CEO onto his show next week, according to his opening monologue.

    Kimmel has been mocking Mike Lindell for several days.

    "[Lindell] started it off with a 48-hour 'frankathon,'" said Kimmel. "Which was basically him passionately ranting from 8:00 in the morning until 11:00 at night. He claimed that almost 92 million people tuned in to see this."

    Lindell seemed to freak out, ranting and raving in a way that many wondered if he was back on drugs. When Lindell learned that Kimmel had jokingly invited him onto the show, it turned into a whole different thing for the "frankathon."

    "I have to admit, I was glued to this," Kimmel said of the wacky video. "I want the frankathon to go on for a week. Mike Lindell is like Saul Goodman, from 'Better Call Saul,' you know? He had a funny supporting role in one of the most incredible dramas of all time, but now that he's got his own show you appreciate what a character he is."

    So Monday night, after Kimmel's show, where he attacked Lindell again, the frankathon people ran the transcript into him where Lindell read it live on the air.

    "That was weird. Me sitting in my kitchen while the MyPillow guy reads my jokes to his sidekick," confessed Kimmel. "And he's going like, I wonder if Jimmy is watching? Yes, Jimmy was watching. He told some people at a rally he would pray for me and I wondered if he really did."

    Lindell read aloud that Kimmel questioned whether Lindell really prays for him, which Lindell confirmed was true.

    "Okay, good, I'll take that. Even though I know when he prays, God is like, 'Okay! Okay! I get it, I get it, too loud!' I learned a lot from Mike Lindell last night including the fact that our paths have crossed before," said Kimmel.

    He played a clip of Lindell saying that the two saw each other at a Bob Seger concert.

    The whole thing was a bonkers back and forth between Kimmel and Lindell's video reading the transcript of the Kimmel show from the night before. At one point Monday, Kimmel mockingly invited Lindell onto his show where they could cozy up on a bed of goose pillows. That sent Lindell into a tizzy explaining why goose down isn't apparently a good move for pillows. He then plugged his product again.

    In the end, Kimmel made it clear that Lindell is happening, possibly next week.

    See the bizarre, yet oddly satisfying video below:


    Aides to members of Congress think Derek Chauvin verdict gets them out of passing police brutality legislation

    Sarah K. Burris
    April 20, 2021

    Aides to Republicans and Democrats told Axios that the conviction of Derek Chauvin takes the pressure off of them to pass police brutality legislation.

    The odd report explained, "Senior Democratic and Republican aides — who would never let their bosses say so on the record — privately told Axios the convictions have lessened pressure for change. They noted the aftermath of mass shootings: time and again, Congress has failed to pass gun control legislation, and the conversation ultimately moves on until another terrible event occurs."

    Unfortunately for the officials, moments before the Chauvin verdict was announced, Ohio teenager Makiyah Bryant called police for help and they shot and killed her. Just a few hours after the shooting, police were caught chanting "blue lives matter" behind the police tape at those gathering around them.

    Last week, police in Chicago killed a 13-year-old boy they swore had a gun. Bodycam videos revealed there was no gun and his hands were up as the police fired into him. Last year, a 13-year-old boy with autism was shot and killed by Salt Lake City Police. In 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was playing with a fake gun when the police arrived at the scene and immediately shot him. Those who called into the police indicated that it was "probably fake" and "he is probably a juvenile."

    Over and over again, police have shot unarmed people of color, many of who have been children and no justice has been delivered.

    "It just marks to me the first step, and I'm hoping that, having justice now might serve as a catalyst to really finish the bill," Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) told Axios.

    "I think the verdict just reinforces that our justice system continues to become more just," said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC).

    As many activists tweeted, and President Joe Biden explained, the demand for justice for those victims will not disappear. If those working inside the Washington Beltway think that not passing a bill is acceptable, they will likely learn that is offensive to activists calling for change.

    Read the full report at Axios.


    Former and current presidents celebrate justice for George Floyd — but with Donald Trump it's crickets

    Sarah K. Burris
    April 20, 2021

    President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the nation Tuesday in wake of the verdict in the Derek Chauvin case. Their words were sensitive to the fact that justice for George Floyd's family is just one of the many families who lack justice in their case.

    "It was a murder in the full light of day, and it ripped the blinders off for the whole world to see the systemic racism the Vice President just referred to -- the systemic racism that is a stain our nation's soul; the knee on the neck of justice for Black Americans; the profound fear and trauma, the pain, the exhaustion that Black and brown Americans experience every single day," said Biden.

    Former President Barack Obama also released a powerful statement but honestly said that there is still much that must be done.

    "In this case, at least, we have our answer. But if we're being honest with ourselves, we know that true justice is about much more than a single verdict in a single trial," the statement read.

    Former President Bill Clinton also agreed that justice was done with the verdict.

    "The color of a person's skin still determines far too often how they will be treated in nearly every aspect of American life. While the verdict won't bring George Floyd back, it can help us prevent more senseless deaths and hasten the day when we are all treated equally in all matters of life, liberty, dignity, respect, and opportunity," said Clinton.

    The jury made the right decision in convicting Derek Chauvin for murdering George Floyd. My full statement: https://t.co/Pt2aV8g4cT
    — Bill Clinton (@Bill Clinton)1618960258.0

    Both Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump were silent. In fairness to Bush, he very rarely releases statements commenting on current events. Neither man have made a statement about former Vice President Walter Mondale's death either.

     
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