Ed Gainey will (now officially) be Pittsburgh’s next mayor

benfell

Pandemic

Pennsylvania region

Mourn not these white supremacist gangsters. They are part of the problem and not only on COVID-19.[1] I hope that Mayor-elect Ed Gainey[2] keeps this in mind.

Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh police sergeant dies after covid complications,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-police-sergeant-dies-after-covid-complications/

Evictions

Pennsylvania region

Rich Lord, “Landlord-tenant cases inch up as eviction curbs end,” Public Source, November 1, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/developpghbulletins-pittsburgh-allegheny-county/

Gig economy

Electric vehicles

Anywhere from 50,000 to 150,000 of these Teslas that Hertz says it is purchasing are meant for Uber drivers.[3] Elon Musk criticizes the hype, denying that a deal has been made and pointing out that demand for Teslas already far outstrips his company’s ability to produce them,[4] but if Liam Denning is right, the hype is precisely what funds the purchase of these Teslas, via a stock market bubble.[5]

The rich play their games, even starting a space race to escape the planet they destroy.[6] The rest of us will be left with the resulting mess.

British Broadcasting Corporation, “Elon Musk says Tesla has not signed deal with Hertz,” November 2, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59132512

Liam Denning, “With Avis, Tesla’s Cars Now Buy Themselves,” Bloomberg, November 2, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-02/with-avis-and-hertz-tesla-s-electric-cars-now-buy-themselves

Right-wing militia

Kimberly Kindy, “Boosted by the pandemic, ‘constitutional sheriffs’ are a political force,” Washington Post, November 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/constitutional-sheriffs-elections-trump-pandemic/2021/11/01/4c14c764-368b-11ec-91dc-551d44733e2d_story.html

Ed Gainey

Now we shall see if Ed Gainey, who is all but certain to have won the race to be Pittsburgh’s next mayor,[7] delivers.

Julia Felton, “Ed Gainey declares historic victory with commanding lead in Pittsburgh mayoral race,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/gainey-grabs-early-lead-in-pittsburgh-mayoral-race/

Charlie Wolfson, “Pittsburgh elects its first Black mayor,” Public Source, November 2, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/gainey-pittsburgh-mayor-announces-victory-moreno/

Climate crisis

There is a new blog post entitled, “The very small chance to avert climate catastrophe.”

George Monbiot, “Surface Tension,” November 2, 2021, https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/02/surface-tension/

Election

It appears that Republicans have prevailed in statewide races in Virginia with voters citing what they call “critical race theory” (but really isn’t[8]) in education.[9] The theme appears elsewhere with voters wary of the caricature of critical race theory and of defunding white supremacist gangs.[10]

Gregory S. Schneider and Laura Vozzella, “Republican Glenn Youngkin wins Virginia governor’s race,” Washington Post, November 3, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-governor/2021/11/02/ba9c3ccc-36b2-11ec-91dc-551d44733e2d_story.html

  1. [1]Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh police lose 2nd officer to covid-19,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 21, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-police-lose-second-office-to-covid/; Megan Guza, “Pittsburgh police sergeant dies after covid complications,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/pittsburgh-police-sergeant-dies-after-covid-complications/↩
  2. [2]Julia Felton, “Ed Gainey declares historic victory with commanding lead in Pittsburgh mayoral race,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/gainey-grabs-early-lead-in-pittsburgh-mayoral-race/; Charlie Wolfson, “Pittsburgh elects its first Black mayor,” Public Source, November 2, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/gainey-pittsburgh-mayor-announces-victory-moreno/↩
  3. [3]Fred Lambert, “Tesla order could double to 200,000 Model 3s to satisfy deal with Uber, says Hertz CEO,” Electrek, October 28, 2021, https://electrek.co/2021/10/28/tesla-order-double-200000-model-3s-satisfy-deal-uber-hertz-ceo/; Joann Muller, “A big EV push for Uber drivers,” Axios, October 27, 2021, https://www.axios.com/a-big-ev-push-for-uber-drivers-358a720f-f1ba-4c28-9a83-1bb86061c9e4.html↩
  4. [4]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Elon Musk says Tesla has not signed deal with Hertz,” November 2, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59132512↩
  5. [5]Liam Denning, “With Avis, Tesla’s Cars Now Buy Themselves,” Bloomberg, November 2, 2021, https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-11-02/with-avis-and-hertz-tesla-s-electric-cars-now-buy-themselves↩
  6. [6]Christian Davenport, “Richard Branson and his Virgin Galactic crew are safely back from space, ushering in a new era,” Washington Post, July 11, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/11/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-live-updates/; Franklin Foer, “Jeff Bezos’s Master Plan,” Atlantic, November 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/what-jeff-bezos-wants/598363/; Adam Gabbatt, “Bezos blasted for traveling to space while Amazon workers toil on planet Earth,” Guardian, July 20, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/20/bezos-space-travel-blue-origin-amazon-criticism; Tristan Greene, “Here’s the stupid reason Elon Musk wants to nuke Mars,” Next Web, August 16, 2019, https://thenextweb.com/distract/2019/08/16/heres-the-stupid-reason-elon-musk-wants-to-nuke-mars/; Michael Hiltzik, “The Bezos-Branson-Musk space race is a huge waste of money and scientifically useless,” Los Angeles Times, July 6, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-07-06/jeff-bezos-richard-branson-elon-musk-space-race; Jasper Jolly and Gwyn Topham, “Richard Branson’s quest: to boldly go where no billionaire has gone before,” Guardian, July 10, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jul/10/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-flight-billionaire-space-tourism-race-jeff-bezos; Rafi Letzter, “Why NASA’s Annoyed About Elon Musk’s Giant Rocket,” Live Science, October 5, 2019, https://www.livescience.com/starship-crew-dragon-spacex-nasa-bridenstine.html; Samantha Masunaga and Andrew Mendez, “Jeff Bezos launches new era of space travel with Blue Origin ride,” Los Angeles Times, July 20, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-07-20/jeff-bezos-launches-blue-origin-new-shepard; George Monbiot, “Surface Tension,” November 2, 2021, https://www.monbiot.com/2021/11/02/surface-tension/; Daniel Oberhaus, “How did Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin fail to dominate the billionaire space race?” Guardian, October 16, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/16/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-billionaire-space-race-sexism-safety-concerns; Samantha Rolfe, “Elon Musk’s Starship may be more moral catastrophe than bold step in space exploration,” Science X, October 2, 2019, https://phys.org/news/2019-10-elon-musk-starship-moral-catastrophe.html; Joey Roulette, “Space tourism rivalry gets extremely petty ahead of Branson’s spaceflight,” Verge, July 9, 2021, https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/9/22570287/space-tourism-virgin-galactic-branson-blue-origin-bezos; Erik Shilling, “Richard Branson Didn’t Go To Space,” Jalopnik, July 12, 2021, https://jalopnik.com/richard-branson-didnt-go-to-space-1847274538; Shannon Stirone, “Mars Is a Hellhole,” Atlantic, February 26, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/02/mars-is-no-earth/618133/; Shannon Stirone, “Space Billionaires, Please Read the Room,” Atlantic, July 7, 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/space-billionaires-jeff-bezos-richard-branson/619383/; Derrick Bryson Taylor and Kenneth Chang, “Jeff Bezos Will Fly Aboard Blue Origin’s First Human Trip to Space,” New York Times, June 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/07/business/jeff-bezos-space.html; Sam Wolfson, “Metaverse, Mars, meditation retreats: billionaires want to escape the world they ruined,” Guardian, October 29, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/29/metaverse-zuckerberg-mars-billionaires-escape-world↩
  7. [7]Julia Felton, “Ed Gainey declares historic victory with commanding lead in Pittsburgh mayoral race,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/gainey-grabs-early-lead-in-pittsburgh-mayoral-race/; Charlie Wolfson, “Pittsburgh elects its first Black mayor,” Public Source, November 2, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/gainey-pittsburgh-mayor-announces-victory-moreno/↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Talking about critical theory—and critical race theory,” Not Housebroken, July 1, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/06/11/talking-about-critical-theory-and-critical-race-theory/↩
  9. [9]Gregory S. Schneider and Laura Vozzella, “Republican Glenn Youngkin wins Virginia governor’s race,” Washington Post, November 3, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-governor/2021/11/02/ba9c3ccc-36b2-11ec-91dc-551d44733e2d_story.html↩
  10. [10]David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick to The Morning list, “Good morning. Republicans had a very good election night,” New York Times, November 3, 2021, https://messaging-custom-newsletters.nytimes.com/template/oakv2?campaign_id=9&emc=edit_nn_20211103&instance_id=44456&nl=the-morning&productCode=NN&regi_id=97793637&segment_id=73373&te=1&uri=nyt%3A%2F%2Fnewsletter%2F65537957-40fd-5c7f-aa66-b34c91f85030&user_id=087ade925ce15f15a24824418c4789ce↩

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