By Earlier last month, political watchers mocked Wired magazine relentlessly for an over-the-top profile of Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The ion over-the-top praise of the former mayor of South Bend was compared to North Korean television.
Fox News noted, “The Wired story headlined “Pete Buttigieg Loves God, Beer, and His Electric Mustang” included lines from contributor Virginia Heffernan that had critics saying it was akin to North Korean state TV.”
Wired writer Virginia Heffernan could barely contain herself in the presence of such a great man. She wrote, “Even as he discusses railroads and airlines, down to the pointillist data that is his current stock-in-trade, the US secretary of transportation comes off like a Mensa black card holder who might have a secret Go habit or a three-second Rubik’s Cube solution or a knack for supplying, off the top of his head, the day of the week for a random date in 1404, along with a non-condescending history of the Julian and Gregorian calendars.
As Secretary Buttigieg and I talked in his underfurnished corner office one afternoon in early spring, I slowly became aware that his cabinet job requires only a modest portion of his cognitive powers. Other mental facilities, no kidding, are apportioned to the Iliad, Puritan historiography, and Knausgaard’s Spring—though not in the original Norwegian (slacker). Fortunately, he was willing to devote yet another apse in his cathedral mind to making his ideas about three mighty themes—neoliberalism, masculinity, and Christianity—intelligible to me.”
FNC gathered some of the funniest responses to the praise piece. “NewsNation reporter Zaid Jilani asked why the interview didn’t focus on Buttigieg’s job as Transportation secretary.
‘Why did someone interview the Secretary of Transportation and ask almost no questions about transportation?’ he asked.
Contributing editor at The Spectator, Stephen Miller, jokingly said Buttigieg was a ‘hyper brain intellect.’
‘His intellect is that of an autistic space alien. He is the flowers for Algernon of modern politics. We must bask in his hyper brain intellect. Also Joe Biden made fun of him during the campaign for not being able to fill pot holes, then made him choo choo train Secretary.’
His intellect is that of an autistic space alien. He is the flowers for Algernon of modern politics. We must bask in his hyper brain intellect.
Also Joe Biden made fun of him during the campaign for not being able to fill pot holes, then made him choo choo train Secretary. https://t.co/1BE4Rf7x3p
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 18, 2023
While liberal journalists continue to have to sit down in the presence of such a “cathedral mind,” the rest of us may once again see our lives impacted by “Secretary Pete’s” massive incompetence as his failures once again may put a bottleneck into America’s already struggling supply chain as yet another labor standoff on the West Coast threatens to crush normal Americans.
Over the past year a conflict has brewed between dockworkers and shipping port operators in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and Seattle. These ports serve as crucial points of entry for Asian imports.
The Washington Post reports, “The standoff, affecting operations responsible for shipping hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of cargo each year, has garnered attention from government officials concerned about its ramifications for the entire U.S. supply chain.
Since July, more than 22,000 dockworkers at nearly 30 ports across the West Coast have been working without a contract, causing occasional closures by not showing up to work.
The dockworkers are represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which is advocating better pay, additional benefits and protection from automation.
Since July, more than 22,000 dockworkers at nearly 30 ports across the West Coast have been working without a contract, causing occasional closures by not showing up to work.
The dockworkers are represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which is advocating better pay, additional benefits and protection from automation.
CNBC offered more details about the way that these labor actions have hurt maritime traffic in the western states.
“The ‘slow and go’ pace of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union workforce at West Coast ports has slowed ground port productivity to a crawl. As a result, supply chain intelligence company MarineTraffic data shows what it is calling a “significant surge” in the average number of containers waiting outside of port limits.
At the Port of Oakland, during the week of June 5, the average TEUs (ton equivalent units) waiting off port limits rose to 35,153 from 25,266, according to MarineTraffic. At the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, the average TEUs waiting off port limits rose to 51,228 from 21,297 the previous week, said a MarineTraffic spokeswoman.
The value of the combined 86,381 containers floating off the ports of Oakland, Los Angeles, and Long Beach reached $5.2 billion, based on a $61,000 value per container, and customs data.
According to data exclusively pulled for CNBC by Vizion, which tracks container shipments, the seven-day rate for a container cleared through the Port of Oakland is operating at 58%; at Port of Long Beach it is 64%; and at Port of Los Angeles it is 62%.”
Last Wednesday, the National Association of Manufacturers sent a letter to both President Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, saying that the current port conditions are “closed or significantly disrupted” up and down the West Coast. They have asked the the administration to do something to help break the logjam. The trade groups have warned of inflationary spikes from new supply chain hiccups.
While the port crisis may impact our lives, we know that broken supply chains do not concern Buttigieg, who has gotten in trouble for using private jets too often. In 2022, as COVID lockdowns crippled American shipping, the Secretary of Transportation took “paternity leave” following an adoption by he and his husband Chasten.
Nothing Pete Buttigieg does comes with urgency. When a train derailed, poisoning a town in Ohio, Buttigieg’s dawdling sparked called for him to be fired.
Now, his personal life may once again be getting in the way: last week his dog died, so he’ll probably be out for a month to grieve.
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