Joseph Sabino Mistick Columns
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Cruelty the theme of Trump administration
The signs were there back in November 2015 when candidate Donald Trump mocked a physically disabled reporter from the podium at one his rallies. Cruelty was being acted out on the main stage in American politics. New York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski, who has limited use of his arms, debunked...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: A good turn and a bad one from McCormick
Pennsylvania’s first-term U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick did a good turn for his adopted city of Pittsburgh when he hosted the energy summit at CMU last week. But if that was two steps forward in his desire to become a true Pittsburgher, he took one step back days later when he...
Joseph Sabino Misick: Competitive authoritarianism trickling in
The phrase “death by a thousand cuts” has come to describe the accumulation of a number of seemingly minor actions that combine to cause the death of a thing. And when it comes to our traditional form of American democracy, those seemingly minor actions are starting to add up. As...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Eradicating hate is a worthy cause
The Washington Examiner reported last week that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced she was terminating funding for a federal program that supports the Eradicate Hate Global Summit, which was started in Pittsburgh after the massacre of 11 Tree of Life synagogue worshippers in 2018, still the deadliest antisemitic act...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: In NY, another wild-card candidate challenges status quo
After last week’s primary election for mayor of New York City, President Donald Trump let loose with one of his trademark tirades on his Truth Social platform. “It’s finally happened, the Democrats have crossed the line. Zohran Mamdani, a 100% Communist Lunatic, has just won the Dem Primary, and is...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The American flag belongs to all of us
Two new American flagpoles were installed at the White House June 18 at a ceremony attended by President Donald Trump and the national media. What should have been an important expression of what our flag represents turned into a reminder that our relationship with the American flag is complicated. Trump...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Ike knew a thing or two about real leadership
“I like Ike” was Dwight David Eisenhower’s successful presidential campaign slogan in the 1950s. Nearly 75 years after he started his first run for the White House, there are still reasons to like Ike. Republican Eisenhower served two terms as president, and it was hard not to like the retired...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Bloomfield gym saving lives for 40 years
Mark “Marco” Machi will tell you that he is the richest man in Pittsburgh. Forty years ago, Marco and his wife Christine, both avid bodybuilders, had a chance to buy an empty industrial building on Liberty Avenue in Bloomfield. The money was going to be tight, but they bet on...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: America’s coming brain drain
Even in the old mill towns where I grew up, we occasionally had a kid go to Harvard or some other Ivy League school. They might catch some good-natured ribbing about suddenly being too good to hang with us — the kind of banter our fathers perfected in the mill...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Corey O’Connor must get ready to work
“Do the job you were hired to do or you’re fired” seems to be the message Pittsburgh voters sent on primary Election Day last week. For the second time in four years — with challenger Corey O’Connor’s defeat of sitting Mayor Ed Gainey — an incumbent mayor was denied reelection....
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pittsburgh picks a mayor
Let’s take a look at what the May 20 race for mayor of Pittsburgh is not about. Some people and groups are seeking to use this election to fight their own battles instead of looking out for what’s best for the people of Pittsburgh. This election is not about Donald...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pittsburgh needs its bridges
Everyone traveling into Downtown Pittsburgh from the East End through Schenley Park has been stopped in their tracks by a sign that has stood on the edge of the park for a good part of Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration. Against a bright orange background, it reads “All Bridges Closed Ahead.”...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Let’s make it easier, not harder, to raise our children
When President Donald Trump was recently asked about giving new mothers “some kind of bonus” to increase the declining birth rate in the United States, he said that it “sounds like a good idea to me.” Vice President JD Vance has endorsed a $5,000 child tax credit, saying, “I want...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The people’s pope’s Pittsburgh connection
It always seemed to me that Pope Francis was a Pittsburgh kind of guy. And it’s appropriate that the first time the public got to view the pope’s body in state was in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which was designed by Pittsburgh architect Lou Astorino. The story of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Americans deserve better
Surrounded by coal miners, Donald Trump recently announced that he is going to bring back the flagging coal industry, calling the signing of several executive orders “historic action to help American workers, miners, families and consumers.” “This is a very important day to me because we’re bringing back an industry...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pittsburgh mayor’s race is about change
The best part of American government and politics is that the people get a do-over every two to four years. The voters of Pittsburgh will have that chance in the upcoming election for mayor. Their rejection of Mayor Bill Peduto’s administration in 2021 was historic — the first ousting of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Standing up for our system of justice
The voters of Wisconsin stood up last week and showed the Elon Musks and Donald Trumps of the world the judicial branch of government is not as easily conquered as the executive and legislative branches. In the high-stakes race for a seat on the Wisconsin state supreme court, the Musk-backed...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The dignity of the American worker
As Donald Trump’s hatchet man, Elon Musk has embraced his assignment to fire government employees with gusto and bravado, even brandishing a chain saw for the media, as if this is somehow fun and entertaining. Musk’s utter coldness should surprise no one, since he has said, “The fundamental weakness of...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: How do we define American greatness?
Millions of Americans voted for Donald Trump because he promised to make America great again. It is already clear that the definition of American greatness has somehow changed for some Americans. We know how American greatness has looked and sounded in the past. During his inaugural address in 1961, President...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Don’t mess with the Strip
Pittsburgh’s Strip District is a treasure. This uniquely Pittsburgh neighborhood has flourished without government planning and is beloved by generations of Pittsburghers and hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration is about to permit the ruin of all that. You may have seen the billboards that say...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Ignoring concerns of the middle not working for Gainey
Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey held a newss conference last week that Grant Street scuttlebutt had billed as a game changer for his struggling campaign for reelection. It did not go as Gainey had hoped. Gainey accused his Democratic primary election opponent Corey O’Connor of taking campaign contributions from Republican donors...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: The power of faith, family and pierogi
Next week, as they have done nearly every week for decades, the women of St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church in McKeesport will gather around long tables in the church basement to make pierogi. Their fingers will move quickly and precisely, shaping small balls of potato and cheese, a...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Progressivism killing the party, the city
My late friend Jim Roddey always said that he moved to Pittsburgh because most big things arrive here years after they arrived everyplace else. That being the case, Jim joked, “I figure that I can live at least 10 years longer in Pittsburgh.” And it has been that way with...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Pennies, straws distract from Trump’s big news
I don’t use straws much, but I have to say President Donald Trump hit a home run last week with his executive order banning paper straws at all federal government facilities. Trump was right when he said they “don’t work.” “It’s a ridiculous situation. We’re going back to plastic straws,”...
Joseph Sabino Mistick: Strategies for Democrats to stay in the fight
Anyone who follows boxing has seen the guy who charges out of his corner at the sound of the first bell, arms flailing, fists flying wildly, striking his opponent everywhere at once. Think of what Donald Trump has done in the first weeks since his inauguration and you’ll get the...
