The Holler

John’s Journal

This is where I scribble a little bit about what’s going on. Warning: may include righteous anger and typos.

Okay. This is overwhelming. I’m not going to lie. It’s also simultaneously the most exciting thing that’s happened in my work life in recent memory. And I once smashed a couple of Michelob Ultras with Elizabeth Warren in a Winnebago in the middle of Iowa. Might not be your idea of a great time, but if it isn’t, you’re a square. I said what I said.

I’m talking about East Palestine, of course. For those who are new around here, East Palestine is 20 miles away from my hometown and 60 miles away from where I live. I’ve followed this story since before it began.

I find out more and more each day, and I think it’s safe to say that this story deserves a long look. I intend to stick to it for a while. There are so many things I wish were produced right now, but I currently lack the people power to produce them rapidly… so stay tuned!

Any minute now, the NTSB will release its latest report where we’re likely to learn the official cause of this derailment. They’ve hinted that it was the wheel bearing on a train car that was captured burning gloriously on ring doorbell cameras up to 20 miles before the train derailed in East Palestine.

This will likely be deemed a simple mechanical failure, the kind of inconvenient accident that, if your luck is bad, can result in the derailment and subsequent detonation of a train full of hazardous chemicals in the middle of your town.

Our reporting would suggest that the probable origin of the mechanical failure is rooted in a constellation of reckless profiteering, affecting all sectors of railroad operation, on the part of major rail carriers. Getting struck by lightning is an accident. Dying in a fire because the landlord let the fire escape fall apart is different.

Another thing to note. Much is being made of the regulations that Trump rolled back on braking and hazardous material designations. While these regulations would have lessened the severity of this disaster, other factors are likely to be more causal. There’s a good chance that focusing on Trump’s regulatory rollbacks, as with everything Trump-related, will distract attention from important factors in this specific and… uniquely bad derailment.

More on that in my interview with The Lever below. And follow all my social accounts @heyjohnrussell as well as my collaborator @moreperfectunion.

Transcript of my interview with Frank Cappello of The Lever on Feb 21st.

Frank Cappello  44:25  

Okay, now for our bonus segment just for our paid subscribers. This week, we'll be sharing my interview with independent journalist John Russell, who has been on the ground in East Palestine for the last couple of weeks, speaking with the railroad workers and union leaders about this train derailment disaster.

John has been doing some really incredible reporting and is another great example of the importance of independent journalism. Thank you so so much for being a supporting subscriber and funding the work that we do here at the lever. Now, here's that bonus segment.

All right, I'm now joined by John Russell, an independent journalist who has been on the ground in East Palestine for the last couple of weeks. John, thank you so much for joining us on labor time today.

John Russell  45:08  

Yeah, thanks for having me, Frank. I'm really glad to be here and talk about it. 

Frank Cappello  45:11  

Alright, so as we mentioned, you've been in East Palestine on and off for the last couple of weeks. You were there only a few days after the train derailment actually happened and the ensuing chemical fire. So just for the audience, for our listeners, can you give me a little bit of the lay of the land? Like what is it looked like on the ground? What is the government response look like? What is the media response look like? And most importantly, what has been happening with the residents?

John Russell  45:38  

Yeah, I grew up in this county and I live close by, so this hits close to home. And unfortunately, this area, it's really important to know, is used to disasters by giant corporations. We're kind of under-covered in that respect.

The government response here has been bumbling at best. Immediately after the disaster, it appeared that even the highest ranking officials were not as aware of everything as the company was, you know, clearly didn't have information to work on that ended up coming out later, about what was on the train. 

In the town hall at the high school, residents were being reassured about their water, while the water fountains at the school were padlocked with, you know, red devices that had danger written all over them. Residents have been reporting all kinds of illnesses, and there are multiple reports of sick or dead livestock in the region immediately after the disaster. 

The media, there's there's every variety of media here now. But the line of questions have been mostly about how much cancer we're gonna get and when we're gonna get it, not why this disaster happened and what it could have to do with reckless profiteering by major rail carriers. I think you know, that's as important as anything around here, that's gone a little bit under covered.

Frank Cappello  47:05  

No, if anything is the one of if not the most important aspects of this story. So you were at that very, very first press conference, which was in East Palestine High School? Is that correct?

John Russell  47:19  

Yeah, not the high school, but at the elementary school. 

Frank Cappello  47:23  

So other than a few independent journalists like yourself, which other media outlets actually showed up for this first press conference?

John Russell  47:32  

Yeah, you know what I think this is a reflection of, you know, the media today that's especially been affected by consolidation.  

The notable thing at that first press conference that I went to, 10 days ago, was that the first outlets that showed up to cover this, most of them, and it's not all of them, but most of them were owned by really large conglomerates, like Sinclair or like NexStar. Sinclair and Nexstar both share similarities with Norfolk Southern in that they both have significant shares of their companies that are owned by the same large Wall Street private equity funds. That's an angle that's something to consider here, in the first response to disasters like this.

And you know, unsurprisingly, I think, that probably has to do a lot with the line of questioning focusing, you know, on how much cancer we're going to get, and when. That definitely needs to be covered, but not at the expense of corporate accountability, which I've seen less of. This sometimes falls into reporting as a freak accident. But a freak accident is being struck by lightning, which is different than dying in a fire because your landlord didn't maintain the smoke alarms.

Frank Cappello  48:45  

So you have been speaking with railroad workers, not only in the wake of this disaster, but you were also speaking with a lot of workers since the end of 2022, when the Biden administration and Congress forced a contract onto the railroad unions that they had not agreed to, which effectively broke a potential rail strike. Now you're here in East Palestine. You're speaking with rail union leaders after this derailment. So what have you been hearing? What is their take? What are the workers and the union leaders take on how and why this disaster occurred?

John Russell  49:22  

Yeah, this is kind of the incredible thing because rail workers have been warning about something like this for a very long time. I originally was reporting on the rail strike that never was. You mentioned how, you know, that was crushed by a bipartisan coalition of Congress and respective agencies that forced a contract on these workers. 

But seven weeks before this derailment I was speaking with union leaders about that strike, who warned me at the time that it was only a matter of time before something li…

Words From John

Happy Holidays n’at.

I’ll keep it short. This episode is all about the state of American rail. I traveled to Columbus, OH last week where the SMART (Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, Transportation) Union held a rally for railroaders.

Clyde Whitaker, a 22-year fourth-generation railroader and State Legislative Director for SMART, set me straight on what it’s like to work on the railroad right now. Short version: it’s bad.

The longer version is here in three forms: a thirteen-minute embedded audio track, a two-ish minute TikTok, and the full thirteen-minute interview transcript all the way at the bottom.

Before you dig in, a reminder. Trips to do these interviews only happen because of our paid subscribers. If you’re supporting The Holler right now, I really can’t thank you enough.

As far as I know, The Holler was the only media on-site doing interviews with workers. That’s the point of independent working-class supported media. Otherwise, these stories are never made.

If you want to ascend to a higher level of human experience and become a supporter of independent pro-working-class media, then please, read the next part…

Member-supported short video

The Holler is funded by people who want pro-working-class media to grow. Be a sustainer by subscribing for $5/mo ($60/yr) right now, please!

A 22-year railroader explains the state of rail. SMART rail rally, Columbus, OH.

Video Transcript:

John Russell 0:00

We're in Columbus, Ohio. We're going to talk to rail workers about the railroad situation. So let's go do that.

Clyde Whitaker 0:04

I'm a fourth-generation railroader. I've been here for 22 years. I've never seen it as tough.

John Russell 0:09

If the railroad shuts down, the whole country shuts down. We cannot live without it. It is so important that the United States Government prevents workers from going on strike without them getting involved first. So take a guess at how these essential workers are treated.

Clyde Whitaker 0:23

There's zero quality of life. One member called me last week, he can't take off for the funeral of his own mother. Our members are on call 24/7 365 days of the year. They don't have any sick days. If one of my members calls off sick, they're usually punished even if they have a doctor's excuse.

John Russell 0:44

Yeah. If you're the worker the entire country cannot live without, you're punished for going to a doctor, you have to miss your own mother's funeral for work, and forget about sick days because those are reserved for less important jobs - like senators.

Clyde Whitaker 0:56

I really think Congress though, missed the mark, especially the Senate. I mean, they get to work 108 days of the year. Unlimited sick time. And I got guys that are sick going to work and making other people sick.

John Russell 1:09

Running workers to the bone like this has a sleek corporate nickname, because of course, PSR or Precision Scheduled Railroading. They're cutting staff, making the trains longer, cutting safety, maintenance, and training, and making all the money like this while they can.

Clyde Whitaker 1:11

When I was hired on back in 2000, we had 26 weeks of training. Now you're getting six to eight weeks. They want to take the conductor off and go down to one-person crews. Canada's got a two-person crew after a train with a one-person crew wiped out an entire town. Another fell asleep at the throttle.

John Russell 1:43

Pay is going down, profits are going through the roof, and the billionaires that own rail companies are only getting richer.

Clyde Whitaker 1:48

I really think a lot of people are at their breaking point. And I've had guys from 20 years plus leave the industry.

John Russell 1:56

This is the corporate playbook. Run it fast and loose for all the short-term profit possible, forget workers, get the government to impose a contract before those workers can strike for themselves, and don't worry about a crash because if it happens, you can count on a taxpayer bailout.

Clyde Whitaker 2:11

These men and women work hard to move this country and the right thing needs to be done by them.

Transcript of the full 13-minute interview with Clyde Whitaker, State Legislative Director, SMART Transportation Division

John Russell 0:02

What's your name? What do you do? Why are we out here today?

Clyde Whitaker 0:11

My name is Clyde Whitaker. I'm with SMART Transportation Division, the Ohio state legislative board. I'm the Director and Chairman of that group.

And we push for safe working environment, and legislation to improve safety and quality of life. And today, we just settled a contract dispute that was on a national level. And we are trying to fight for a better quality of life. Our members are on call 24/7 365 days of the year, they don't have any sick days. If one of my members calls off sick, they're usually punished even if they have a doctor's excuse. This week, I've got phone calls from members that wanted to attend, but they're working. PSR (Precision Scheduled Railroading) cut the railroads to bare bones.

John Russell 1:04

Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and what that's been like for your members?

Clyde Whitaker 1:08

Yeah, PSR is Precision Schedule Railroading, which is anything short of that. Basically, it's a scheme to cut costs.

Right now, we have embargoes by various railroads in the country, and they can't handle the traffic, because they've ripped up all their infrastructure, and are just trying to run with bare bones.

Locomotives remain in storage. Our customers and the nation pay the price. Our citizens pay the price with higher cost of goods because we're not getting products to market. Like it should be.

John Russell 1:47

How has that made a difference in the lives of your members before that was implemented, and after?

Clyde Whitaker 1:52

PSR before, where normally a guy would have maybe one or two days off a week, you know, they're still on call. Yeah, the lifestyle is terrible, but it's made it much worse. Now I got guys working six, seven days a week.

For instance, one guy come home from a 12 hour run. He spends about an hour and a half, two hours in a taxi cab, he drives an hour home, spends about two three hours with the family sleeps for about eight hours. And he's right back to work.

John Russell 2:24

What you just told us is that the life that most railroad workers are living?

Clyde Whitaker 2:28

Right now, yes. There's zero quality of life. I've got members that can't even take time off for their family functions for anything.

When a member called me last week, he couldn't take off for a funeral for his own mother. That's not right. And the way the railroads are treating us, it's not good.

John Russell 2:49

And how are the railroads doing?

Clyde Whitaker 2:51

The railroads are making record profits. Even through the pandemic, their profits were through the roof.

John Russell 2:59

This fight has been brewing for a little bit. Can you give, you know, people watching a little bit of background of how we got to here today and what workers are really hoping... where they're hoping to go from here?

Clyde Whitaker 3:12

I think railroaders want a life. I mean, across all crafts, mostly the transportation engine guys, which are the engineers and conductors, they're the ones on call 24/7. Other crafts are too, but they normally have one or two days off and not away from home. So it's gotten a lot harder over the years. Like I said, I was expecting about 50-60 people, and I've got half that because they're all working now work and you can't get off.

Clyde Whitaker 3:45

And, you know, like, they can't even go to little Timmy's recital, you know? It's not right, what they're doing.

John Russell 3:54

Right. How do you feel about the contract, and in Congress using the 1920s era law to impose that?

Clyde Whitaker 4:07

I really can't talk much about the contract, because it's not my forte. I really think Congress, though, missed the mark, especially the Senate. The…

Full Audio Transcript

Joe Sudbay 00:01

Good afternoon. And welcome back to the Michelangelo Sinoreli show here on Sirius XM progress on this very historic day in just a couple hours, three hours from now the House Committee on the January 6, attack on the Capitol is going to hold its first public hearing. We've been talking a lot about that and we'll talk about it some more.

But right now we have a guest and you guys this is someone I have talked to on this channel before. I know he's talked to John Fugelsang on Tell Me Everything. And someone who really knows a lot about the politics of the upper Ohio Valley. Welcome back to Sirius XM, John Russell.

John Russell 00:48Well hey, Joe! Hello, everybody. I am very glad to be back and a warm welcome from that upper Ohio Valley.

Joe Sudbay 00:55You write a newsletter called The Holler that as you describe it, it's for rednecks and hippies worldwide.

John Russell 01:08

Yeah, that's an allusion to the Willie Nelson audience. I'm a massive country music fan. The newsletter is out of Bridgeport, Ohio, just a minute from Wheeling, West Virginia, this sister city to the Grand Old Opry. So we're going for those rednecks and hippies.

Joe Sudbay 01:25Well, it's interesting because you live in a congressional, it's something we've talked about before because I feel like, you know, obviously, the juxtaposition of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, we know Pennsylvania has a really important Senate race and a race for governor this year. We also know, you know, people look at West Virginia through the lens of Joe Manchin, but then I think what's happened, John, is a lot of people have just decided that Ohio is a red state. And there's not much we can do. But there's actually a very, very competitive United States Senate race in your state. And as you have told us before, and I hope you tell us again, that there are a lot of voters who actually are swinging in Ohio, talk a little bit about let's go to them in the background, and then we'll work our way into the Senate race.

John Russell 02:21

Yeah, you know, eastern Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, we're kind of our own little region, but it's politically fascinating. And that bears on what you're talking about with Ohio. You know, one thing that people might not know, is, that we have the river valley congressional district.

That's Ohio's sixth district, its spans, just south of Youngstown, all the way down to around Kentucky. But what's interesting about that, is it has had the quickest and most intense shift in the entire country of all the congressional districts from voting union working-class Democrat to one of the reddest, you know, MAGA districts in the country. Nowhere else has that shift been quicker, or more intense than in eastern Ohio.

So I look at it as a kind of lens to look through the rest of the country and understand what's shifting around. And bringing that back to the Senate race that we have... we have Tim Ryan from Youngstown, from that area just talking about going up against grifter in chief, JD Vance who I really cannot wait to talk about.

Joe Sudbay 03:40

Yeah. All right. Well, let's dive in. Because JD Vance is a rich guy, a very rich guy supported heavily funded by Peter Thiel supported by Donald Trump barely won the primary a couple of weeks ago, Republican primary, and he is extreme on many issues. I mean, and like you said, a grifter. I mean, this is a guy who wrote a book called Hillbilly Elegy. And, you know, the way he writes the way he describes the, you know, the way you think of Hillbilly Elegy, it's almost like a term of derision. Well, JD Vance, is he from your part of the state, John, because he's kind of a suburban guy, isn't he?

John Russell 04:30

You know, the thing to remember about JD Vance, is that he really changed himself for a chance that money and political power. He grew up in a very similar area to mine. Although it's a lot more south towards Kentucky, but you know, about a third of Ohio is Appalachian Ohio, and the culture there is very similar. I grew up in a place that might not be, you know, very close to JD Vance about four hours, but it's very cultural, culturally similar.

And the reason you know I want to talk about him so much is we actually traded emails. Back before Donald Trump was elected before Hillbilly Elegy became such a media spectacle to kind of explain Donald Trump, I reached out to him to find out why two guys who grew up in a really culturally similar area ended up on such different sides of the political spectrum. And what I noticed back then, is that's so stark right now is that he was willing back then before there's any shot of the Senate race or any prominence or any Netflix deals before anybody knew his book was gonna blow up, he was willing to have a good-faith exchange about that conversation. And that's just not the man he is today when he's so close to power, which is unfortunate and really important for all of us to realize, in this election.

Joe Sudbay 06:06

It's really a fascinating story to show just the lengths people will go to, for power. And just yeah, he didn't even like Donald Trump. That was one of his big issues going into this Republican primary, and it was hurting him until Trump endorsed him. He spoke out against Trump back when you when you were emailing him. And now he's like, you know, the best friend. It's such a transition. So it's a disturbing transition, it seems to raise a lot of questions about the character of the man.

John Russell 06:46

Oh, that's for sure. Well, let's talk about that a little bit. Because, you know, one of the really, I think under-covered parts of his campaign, is how it is being run. It's really unlike any other campaign in that it is so reliant, I mean, all campaigns are so reliant on on Super PAC money, on billionaire money, of course, tied to Citizens United, but there's none like JD Vance's campaign.

It really was dragged out of obscurity by a single billionaire, a right wing billionaire Peter Thiel, who's $15 million super PAC is really the only reason why he (Vance) is the candidate now. And just recently, there has been an FEC complaint about the coordination between that super PAC run by a billionaire and Vance's campaign. Of course, they're not supposed to coordinate, they do it through a wink and nod. But what happened was there was 175 Page opposition research document so that JD Vance could know all of his vulnerabilities, and how they communicated that to the campaign, since they can't do it directly, they buried it in a public blog post.

So actually, one of the things we're going to cover on The Holler here, that's the newsletter, is combing through that 175-page document. But it's just full of things that paint a picture of how this person changed as they got closer and closer to power.

You mentioned how he is a Never Trump guy. Just in the first page of this thing… Let me read a couple of quotes that are from Vance himself. This was before he was running for Senate it was before there was any chance of him going into Washington. Vance said he is, "A Never Trump guy." He "will never vote for Trump." He, "loathes Trump." He said Trump's election was "terrible for the country." He said he voted of course for Evan McMullen and even teased voting for Hillary Clinton if it looked like Trump would win. And even put a tweet out there that said, "what percentage of the American population has @realDonaldTrump sexually assaulted?"

Does that sound like the man who's cozying up to Trump today? It really does not. But it shows how much this man is willing to forget where he came from, forget the voters he grew up with, and really cozy up to a dangerous political movement.

Joe Sudbay 09:22

One of the things I had, I've looked at some of that, dropping that a lot of that information came out after the primary, and a lot of folks swarmed it and pulled through it. One of the things that seemed that he was most cynical about to me, there's a lot of cynical…

Hello Holler Nation.

This is the third and last installment of The Holler talking about content moderation on social platforms. For this particular story, we appeared on The Hill with Ryan Grim, Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM with John Fuselang, and now Appodlachia with Chuck Corra and John Isner. See previous shows in The Holler archives.

Stay tuned on Sunday for another Holler with regularly scheduled content. And stay *even more tuned* for a possible mid-week edition of The Holler for paid subscribers with interesting tales about life in the Ohio Valley - the kind of place where a rainbow-colored co-exist sticker can share real estate on the back of a rusted-out Dodge Durango with a collage of Insane Clown Posse stickers and a blue lives matter flag. The politics here are… complicated.

I think this column will be called Rat Tales. Like River Rats… because that’s what people who live on our slice of the river are called. But also like rat tails… because it’s a funny play on words and I had a massive rat tail when I was probably too old for that. Good name? Let me know in the comments.

Ok here’s the pod.

Full Podcast Transcript With Highlights

Chuck Corra (Appodlachia Host)

Our first interview of 2022. What a way to kick it off. We have another John first time that's ever happened. John Russell, who y'all may know of as The Holler, Ohio Valley, John's a progressive organizer, farmer, former candidate for Congress from Wellsville, Ohio, who previously worked for the Elizabeth Warren campaign, and as a Campaign Director for RuralVote.org. He's currently founder of The Holler Ohio Valley newsletter has a great TikTok following as well talking about wealth inequality and taxing the rich. We talked to him today about TikTok in fact, and censorship, and particularly of people on the left, progressive creators, even some of which are Appalachians. And what he's been doing with that he pitched a story to The Hill, it got picked up. It was a really great story. I'll put a link to it. But he talked to us about that, the kind of the stories he's been gathering, the people he's been talking to, and it's a really interesting conversation. John (Isner), I know that you joined us a little late, but look, looking forward to your thoughts on it as well.

John Isner (Appodlachia Host)

Look, I thought it was great. I mean, we luckily knock on wood. We haven't we've dealt with some weird shadow banning stuff. But we haven't really worried had to, like, see censorship as much as maybe some of these other people, which honestly is kind of surprising. But it's crazy to hear how much this is ramping up. And you'll hear from John's perspective, how he thinks that should be handled and where they can go from here.

Chuck Corra 

We get into a good conversation about censorship in general. And you know, how it relates to people on the left and the right and you know, what, what can actually be done about or what should be done about it. So, yeah, it was a good conversation. Hope you'll enjoy it.

First of all, you mentioned you're from... are you from Bridgeport, Ohio, or is that where you are right now?

John Russell (JR)

I am from Wellsville, Ohio. It is 45 minutes up the river from Bridgeport, Ohio. Wellsville, a town of 3500 people, is nobody knows where it is. But I always put it on the map with this. You know, Fiesta ware? Oh, yeah, okay. Yep. Fiesta Ware is made right across the river in West Virginia. Newell, West Virginia, but that is right across the river from where I grew up, which is Wellsville / East Liverpool.

Chuck Corra

Okay. Oh, East. Okay. East Liverpool, I believe. I know, East Liverpool because it always showed up on my TV for two-hour delays or for school closures when we got snow.

JR 

Yeah, exactly. That's kind of how you find out every other town in Ohio Valley but East Liverpool. 10, 15,000 people. Wellsville 3,500 folks. I left there 10 years ago. Came back. And I'm outside of Wheeling now but barely in Ohio.

Chuck Corra

Got it. Got it. Well, I know we have a lot to talk about. You have some really interesting reporting that you've been doing. But I did want to ask you a little bit about your background. Mostly for our audience's benefit. But also mine cuz I'm curious. What uh, you are a farmer. At one point you ran for office. Tell me a little bit about yourself first. Then we can jump into what you're working on now.

JR 

Yeah, longtime listener first-time caller to the Appodlachia show. So hi, listeners. I am John Russell. I grew up on a farm in Wellsville. That's where kind of where the farming comes in. Both my grandparents were dairy farmers. I did an ag degree and came back to Ohio but it was central Ohio. My brother bought some land there right outside of Columbus. And for about seven years, I did production agriculture on that I grew everything you can find in the grocery store produce aisle. I sold to farmers' markets, wholesale markets. Pro tip for listening public out there. If you're going to try to sell at an Amish produce auction, you will not beat them on price. So I learned that the hard way. 

Agriculture and politics have always kind of been a through-line in my life. And there's not a lot of agriculture, agriculturally based Democrats out there. And that's kind of what I fell into. So you mentioned a run for office there. I've always lived in rural areas. Nobody was gonna run for a State House seat in central Ohio that was very rural in 2016. So I bought an old Schwinn bike from the 70s and road it down dirt roads in Knox County and ended up knocking on 16,000 doors personally, and still getting crushed!

Chuck Corra

You hate it but I admire the dedication, the grit that's 16,000 doors is not an easy thing to do for anybody.

JR 

Yeah, yeah, you know, I, I'm an old soul at heart, I have always had a pair of made in America New Balances. I wore out a couple of those. But in you know, we should talk about at some point you running for those local offices, you know cuz that's even if people are doing that kind of really good work and getting crushed, I think it's really under-examined to make a good effort in those rural districts where it seems pretty hopeless, like if you're bringing out one, two, three thousand new voters that still and you know, everybody does that across the state and that's still really impactful. One of the reasons why I wanted to do that. So that was 2016, and then I kind of ended up accidentally running for Congress, if you can wrap your head around that. 

Chuck Corra

Yeah, why not just throw the hat in the ring? 

JR 

Well, what happened here was, I got a good name from working really hard for that district. Then me, and a lot of other people who really took this organization beyond what it was at the start, we started an Indivisible group after 2016. And pro trivia for any of the listening audience that remembers this. The Republicans at that time were going to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And they delegated Schlub in Chief Pat Tiberi, a Republican from Central Ohio, to do that. We started the Indivisible group, were a real pain in the ass there, we had "Flat Pat", a cardboard cutout of Pat, to take to his town halls since he wouldn't show up. But we did a number of these town halls, one of them got 1000 people out and ended up on MSNBC, and we really put pressure on this guy. And then out of nowhere, Pat stepped down. And that made one of five special elections across the country in 2018 that were going to be the first elections after the Trump years. And so at that point, I had a farm in the district, I put a lot of work for state rep, I, you know, had a role in starting and growing that Indivisible group, threw my hat in the ring into the primary, and was the was kind of the rural progressive candidate there, was endorsed by Justice Democrats, but same fate still got crushed! But you know, it's worth it to try sometimes.

Chuck Corra

You know, it's important to run in those areas, if for nothing else, and start building some infrast…

Full Podcast Transcript

T-M-E, you're listening to Tell Me Everything on Siri us XM, progress 127.

John Fugelsang

And welcome back. Sirius XM. I'm John Fugelsang saying happy 25th of January. It was on this date 61 years ago, 1961 that Bob Dylan hunted down his hero, Woody Guthrie, at Howard Beach, New York. And he taught Woody's son Arlo, a few chords on the guitar. That happened on this date in 1961. 

I'm John Fugelsang. I am so pleased to welcome our next guest. He is just so brilliant every now and then as a comedian or as a political guy who hollers a lot yet, you come across someone who raises your game and you say, goddamn, I wish I'd written that.

Well, John Russell was born and raised in Wellsville, Ohio. And between then and now he picked up an agricultural science degree. He farmed produce for seven seasons ran a side business grinding tree stumps in central Ohio. He's run for State Representative and Congress. He's worked for a major presidential campaign.

And he's the force behind a terrific, terrific site, The Holler, which is Appalachian based, it's independent. And it, well as he puts it, gets people ready for big political ideas with short, funny, plain-spoken videos. This is a substack. And it really, really serves politics up to voters in the upper Ohio Valley and the rest of the country. His videos are dynamite and gaining increasing attention. And he's really got a great way of doing something high energy and conversational and bringing to the hard-working people of America, how badly they're being fucked by the politicians and media that keep suckering them. What a pleasure to welcome John Russell to Sirius XM.

JR 

Thank you so much for having me, John. Excited to be here.

John Fugelsang

Thank you so much. Let me ask the obvious. First off, how did The Holler come to be?

JR 

Yeah, well, you know, I grew up in a really interesting part of the country, the Ohio Valley is kind of close to West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, all in the same place. But the story is really interesting with our Congressional District. I know we've got some well-informed listeners here.

So this is the Ohio 6th Congressional district that tracks the river. It's right next to West Virginia. The interesting thing about it - 15 years ago, it was as blue as it is red today.

And those were all working-class union voters. Through, you know, what's been happening with media, and consolidation, and especially big tech, social media platforms, it's undergone this massive evolution in opinion to where the 6th congressional district where I grew up, where Wellsville is, is now one of the reddest congressional districts in the country and has had the biggest shift to conservative voting of any district in the country. So I wanted to start a newspaper that was kind of a political home for working-class issues and advocate for working-class voters, no matter what their politics are. And we kind of explore that weekly.

John Fugelsang

Everyone's baffled at what's happened in the last 50 years how traditional Democratic congressional districts have gone red. And really, it began huge scale under Reagan, and the very people who are hurt by his efforts to de-unionize were going forward more and more. Now, there are a lot of different culprits, people point to the Fairness Doctrine. People point to Roe v. Wade, people point to, you know, liberal causes that really fought for the marginalized, like LGBT people. I know there's no one real answer, but what to what do you attribute the folks that the voting against our own interest belt becoming so much more powerful in our lifetimes?

JR 

Yeah, it's hard to pin down but you know, I think it's a combination of things over 50 years like you said. You could walk out of high school and into a factory and have a decent middle-class life here. And no matter what your race, sexuality, or anything else was, that was true for a long time. And then we had policies like NAFTA, we had that was, you know, ushered in by both parties.

We had just that the death of that possibility happen. And whenever a trauma like that happens to a community, people are vulnerable, they're hurt, they're looking for somebody to blame, and over 50 years, I think, you know, very cynically, but very smartly, to use words that maybe the former president would use,

the conservative apparatus plowed billions of dollars into media networks that go so much further beyond Fox. It's 24/7 and on every device, you know, as the steel mills closed, the local papers closed up, they were all replaced by, you know, Facebook groups of 5000 people in towns that nobody could name.

And these are the kind of places where I watch, you know, the moms that raised me who cut the crust off of my peanut butter and jellies get radicalized. I know them to be good people. I know them to hold, you know, to have tolerance and openness and everything else. But when you're being served up a consistent media diet, which by the way, is all stuff that kind of serves the owner-class interest. And when that's the only game in town, that inspires a political change, as we've seen. And so, you know, I think it's a combination of those factors. And it'll continue until we come up with a good answer for it. It's kind of why I moved back here and am trying to make media that fights back.

John Fugelsang

Yeah, I keep trying to find the answer. I mean, I keep thinking do we need a cabinet-level position in charge of disinformation? I mean, if we the people control if we the people own these public airwaves, if we the people own the infrastructure that created the information superhighway, why can't we have a say in regulating destructive lies and you know, your story is amazing because it is true, your district had the largest swing to conservatives of anywhere in the country, going from blue to red. But you've also said quite pointedly that the left has really failed to respond to online radicalization and his push towards the red. I agree. How do you suggest Democrats and progressives and moderates and anti-evil people respond to what's happening?

JR 

Thanks for teeing that up. I have my own magic wand solution here. You know, the main outlet that I put out, media on is TikTok. Which, by the way, is now the world's most popular web domain. It's surpassed Facebook and Google. You know, everybody thinks that the kids are on TikTok, that's true, but non-traditional folks you wouldn't think are on TikTok. I live above a bar where I bartend. A guy who's definitely not part of the resistance crowd, was like, "Hey, are you on Tik Tok?" And I'm like, "oh, yeah," you know, so a lot of people are on these platforms. 

But the good thing when it comes to fighting back with left media is this.

There are 1000s of small accounts of people with compelling stories that are putting out the exact kind of media that we need, all on their own. And I look at that, and then I look at, say, Democrats spending a billion dollars on five Midwestern Senate candidates, none of whom won, and all of whom packed up and that infrastructure kind of left. If we could divert some of this money to support the homegrown organic media network that is already out there thriving without anybody's help. Maybe that's not an answer, but it's definitely a start.

But then that gets into one of the things that this story that I was kind of talking about today of what gets censored on there. And what stays up.

John Fugelsang

Well, you were just part of a really interesting piece that Ryan Grim did about different influencers who have found themselves censored on TikTok, normally, we hear our right-wing friends all the time talk about censorship on Twitter, it's censorship on Twitter, and it's like, oh, you mean, your rights were taken away because you broke the terms and service of their free platform. I mean, if I had $1, for every person who doesn't understand the First Amendment in this country, that a private corporation is allowed to just as the bar can kick you out fo…

I was on my fourth re-heating of Christmas leftovers when a friend emailed me just in time for the gravy to explode and varnish the inside of my microwave. 

It was an invite from Joe Sudbay, Host of State of The States on Sirius XM Progress Channel 127, and co-host of Progress Presents on the same channel asking me to come on the show.

We talked about unions in Appalachia, fighting far-right disinformation with bubble gum, shoelaces, and bootstrap punky newsletters, and what politics looks like in Ohio (and other Missouri-esque states) for the midterms. It’s cool. Press play. Also, use the comment section. It’s why I switched to Substack. 

Happy New Year ya filthy animals.

Podcast Transcript

Joe Sudbay  

This is Progress Presents on Sirius XM Progress 127.

Joe Sudbay  

This is indeed Sirius XM Progress Progress Presents, my name is Joe Sudbay. Earlier today, More Perfect Union tweeted at their account More Perfect US. They tweeted a video about 2021. And the intro was 40 million workers quit. 100,000 plus on strike. 550 plus new unions. 2021 was the year of the worker. It really has been amazing. And there's even, I've tried to follow it pretty closely, there's even been more activity around the country than I even knew. And I'm really glad right now to be joined by John Russell, who writes The Holler. It's an Appalachian-based independent media newsletter. And John has been covering some of the union activity in the Upper Ohio Valley, and I'm so glad you could talk to us today. John, welcome to the show.

John Russell  

Hey, Joe, it's a pleasure to be here. Excited to be on, and thanks for having me.

Joe Sudbay  

Well, I'm glad you could. So The Holler is, you know, one of the things I love about finding new media sources is I find like it allows people to provide coverage that we have all otherwise missed. And you are really filling, in my opinion, filling a niche right here. One of the stories that really struck me, and you wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, was the strike in Huntington, West Virginia, at a place called Special Metals. And I'm reading and thinking, how did I not know about this? But tell us about it, John, because it's really fascinating in terms of what the company does, who owns it, and what's been playing out in Huntington.

John Russell  

Yeah, this is a really interesting story. I'm glad that strike-a-lachia is a thing that is happening and even more glad to be able to cover it. Before we get into that. I do want to shout out some other independent reporters who have made these trips really possible. I think your listeners would all love to check out Mike Elk of the Payday Report out of Pittsburgh, Mike and I traveled down to Huntington. And

Joe Sudbay  

Mike's a great friend. The PayDay Report does great work. And he's been having a rough time because he has COVID. He's got pretty bad asthma. So hopefully he's gonna be okay, cuz he's a yeah, he's valuable. 

John Russell  

He is. He is. One of the beautiful things about, you know, about reader and listener, supported media, I know a lot of people have stepped up from his audience to help him out with COVID. And sounds like he's getting better. And we all wish him a good recovery.

But Mike and I went down to Huntington, where 450 steelworkers are on strike at Special Metals like you outlined. Here's the interesting thing about that. The company is owned by Warren Buffett, of course, famous billionaire, also of note, a prominent Democratic donor, and the company, Special Metals - the workers went out on October 1, and the company was really driving hardline cuts in overtime pay, seniority, vacation days. But most of all, health care. They're looking at an increase as drastic as as $700 per month for every member.

So the workers are still out. We went down, and we and we talked to a lot of them who are taking the fight into their own hands and, and asking for a basic fair shake from a company that is owned, of course by Buffett's ownership group, which, by the way has put up, you know, over the quarter that they've been on strike about $6 billion dollars in profits. So certainly affordable. But one of the things I really wanted to get into on this story was who I met on the picket lines and wonder if I can go into that a little bit.

Joe Sudbay  

Sure. Please do. Please do, John. That's exactly why I wanted you to come on. Yeah, definitely.

John Russell  

Yeah, and this is something I really want to drive home, you know, to progressive listeners because here we are in Appalachia, and you know, I've went out to places like Iowa too, to cover the John Deere strikes, but these are working-class voters in now red areas of the country. But we really need to remember that forever, you know, West Virginia has been blue longer than it has been red. We have, of course, Senator Manchin elected from West Virginia. So I'm on the picket lines down there in Huntington. And of all the lines that have been on this year, there's only one politician that I have met, actually out on the lines with the workers. That was in Huntington, West Virginia. And was it Joe Manchin? It was not. Was it Democrat? It was not.

The only politician I've met on the strike lines was a Republican state representative, who came out to the workers in Huntington, this guy owns a hotdog stand, and he shows up with 300 hot dogs in hand, right? And he starts passing them out to workers, which I can attest, a hot dog in the freezing cold when you are striking for your rights, right around Christmas, is the kind of thing that you remember, it kind of hits different, right? And so, you know, is this Republican going to go hand out hot dogs, and then turn around, go to the statehouse, and gut labor rights? Yeah, probably. But one of the angles here, when it comes to politics, and media, and covering these strikes, especially for people who vote for Democrats like me, we have got to do a much better job, because who is going to tell those workers about the violations of labor rights by a Republican that might show up and handout hotdogs?

We don't really have a media network that's talking to these folks, we don't have a good party infrastructure in these places where we used to, and we're not even showing up on these lines, where workers are trying to take a fight into their own hands after being let down by other institutions. I think that's a really important angle that has emerged here, that also copies over in interesting ways, say to the Deere strikers in Iowa.

Because Iowa is one of those states that has the highest concentration of counties that went from voting Obama twice to voting for Donald Trump. You know? So we have these pockets of workers who are fighting for all of these priorities in the exact places where we need them. And in my opinion, we as Democrats, we're missing a big opportunity to show up and to talk about it and actually deliver.

Joe Sudbay  

It's really important. And showing up is part of it again, especially as you point out, people, Democrats have stopped showing up. Yeah, I do know, you know, and that's why it was really significant. I think with the Deere strike, it was the Secretary of Labor, Marty Walsh, who showed up and walked the picket line. That was, I think, a really important point. And Biden sent out a statement. And you know, the National Labor Relations Board is taking actions that are pro-labor. But we really need to make sure that workers know who's got their back. And I do think that there has just been, and John, you've been a candidate, you've worked on campaigns, you've been on the front lines, and have seen, you know, how often we can neglect that really important work. Talk about a little bit about that.

John Russell  

Yeah, and you know, I do want to credit... you know Manchin didn't show up in West Virginia, hasn't even made a statement yet. I do know, you know, a couple of candidates out in Iowa did show up, like you were recounting, the labor secretary. I know …