Absentee Secretary of Transportation Pete Bootyjudge Hits the Talk Show Circuit to Discuss the Shipping Crisis.
No Just Kidding, He Wants to Be Applauded for Ghosting His Job During a Crisis.

Pete Bootyjudge is freshly back at work after his secret two month paternity leave, and he's assigned himself a higher-level priority than unsnarling the shipping crisis: advocating for paid parental leave and attacking Tucker Carlson.

I want to stress that this was a secret paternity leave: he did not tell the public he was taking two months off from his job as Transportation Secretary during a transportation crisis.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is aiming to use the fierce criticism he faced from conservatives over taking paternity leave as a way to have a conversation about the issue, amid efforts from the White House to get paid family leave into a social spending bill pending in Congress.

"The negativity was unfortunate but, in a way, maybe some good comes out of it too because it's helped us have a conversation about parental leave," Buttigieg said this week.

Any way we might have a conversation about the shipping crisis? Or about government officials not taking time off during a crisis which they have direct authority over?

Buttigieg took shots for taking paternity leave during the supply chain crisis from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who criticized his absence from work.

...

Buttigieg, the first openly gay Cabinet official in U.S. history, and his husband announced the birth of twins Penelope Rose and Joseph August. Buttigieg reportedly started his leave in mid-August.

Again, reportedly, because he never officially announced this vacay. He just ghosted his job for (at least) two months.

We're guessing about when his vacay started.

Carlson's high-profile criticism drew attention to Buttigeig and the larger issue of paternity leave, something the Transportation secretary went on to discuss during a series of appearances.

During an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," Buttigeig said that "paid family leave is important" and noted that "it's not a vacation." Separately, on CNN's "State of the Union," he said it’s work that "every American ought to be able to do" when they have a new child.

He has stressed that paid leave is still work when asked on ABC's "The View" how to shed the stigma around paternity leave.

...

He also said that parents need to be supported when they take leave, regardless of gender.

Isn't that convenient? The guy who blew off work for at least two months wants to reduce the stigma of blowing off work for at least two months, and demand that people "support" him.

Simple question: Why was this secret? If he wanted to "reduce the stigma" of blowing off work during a crisis, why didn't he inform the press and the public he was doing so? Why did he pretend to be at work when in fact he was on Secret Leave?

The answer is obvious: because no person in a position of serious responsibility, who is serious about undertaking that responsibility, blows off his job during a crisis.

Especially when the other one of the kids' Two Gay Dads is available to take care of them.

Bootyjudge made two proclamations: First, that supply issues are not his fault, but due to The Regime's all-purpose excuse, the pandemic.

And he offered The Regime's all-purpose panacea: the shipping crisis will end... when we're all vaccinated.

He later added, "Look, the bottom line is that everything we're experiencing right now, from issues impacting the supply chain, to issues impacting the ability to travel right now, they're all driven by a pandemic that we need to put behind us. The pandemic ends when we get everybody vaccinated. It is our best tool to get that done, and it's one of the reasons why these vaccine requirements are so important and they work."

So we have to get everyone in America vaccinated to end the shipping crisis?

No, he's not saying that.

He's saying we have to get everyone in the world vaccinated before he can do his actual job.

On Wednesday's broadcast of CNBC's "Squawk Box," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said there are supply issues “that will persist as long as this pandemic continues," and that includes "things happening around the world. I mean, if a shoe factory closes in Vietnam in September for a COVID outbreak, you're going to see the effect of that at the mall in December or January."

Meanwhile, cargo companies warn that vaccine mandates -- and the inevitable loss of workers during a critical time these mandates will cause -- will deepen the crisis.

A trade association representing all of the major cargo companies in the United States is warning that if Joe Biden actively purses more vaccine mandates, it could further disrupt an already-weakened supply chain, according to Politico.

Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association (CAA) sent a letter to the Biden Administration expressing concern over an upcoming December 8th deadline.

"We have significant concerns with the employer mandates announced on September 9th, 2021," Alterman said, "and the ability of industry members to implement the required employee vaccinations by December 8th, 2021."

The firings will occur just weeks before Christmas.

Brilliant.

posted by Ace at 03:04 PM

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