A train derailment and chemical explosion that ripped through an Ohio town earlier this month have left locals feeling sick, angry—and completely abandoned.
How ungrateful are these people in East Palestine! Dont they know that Joe Biden is busy giving blank check to Ukraine, who elected him to represent their interests. Ungrateful Americans should know their place, that is to pay taxes and shut up.
Not without sarcasm, if anyone had any illusions, now little our politicians care about Americans, hopefully this illusion has been shattered last week. Entire administrations has been avoiding Ohio like it is infected with plague. Mayor Pete is nowhere to be seen. Jesus, did we ever hand such incompetent person in government?!? Kamala is missing in action last 2 years, when I thing, better to keep it that way, she is probably only person who is even more incapable than Mayor Pete.
But cherry on the cake was Joe Biden, to have audacity to go for Photoshoot to Ukraine, while we have disaster at home and people in need. He is American President. At this point, our congress will help everyone but not people at home.
Sometimes I think that we live under occupation, there is no other way in explaining, how little our politicians care for problems at home.
Yes, we all need to thank Bari. I became interested in her while watching Real Time and have followed her since then. Truly a bright light in the darkness of current journalism.
It’s not an either/or. Biden supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian imperialism has no impact whatsoever on whether the government in Ohio is responding appropriately to the train derailment in this mispronounced Ohio town.
If DeWine did drink tap water, how legitimate is the concern over water quality? I think you live under the occupation of a continuing civil war. The tribalism is remarkable.
The water is unsafe because the President is in Europe when he should be in America reassuring the children who are members of the other tribe.
President Trump, who was in fact a very good POTUS was relentlessly attacked throughout his Presidency because he is not a member of the tribe which dishonestly and stupidly controls the narrative.
After observing those attacks since 2016 I now see members of the Republican tribe, including those who work in the media, engaging in the same kind of dishonest, clueless and hysterical attacks on the leader of the Democrat tribe.
Yes Biden has been a disaster, but not everything he has done has been wrong.
Terrence, you're usually observant but really miss the point here. It isn't that Biden is in Ukraine but that his entire attention is focused there with no attention paid by his Clown Car Administration to a disaster in his own country. And the fact that the victims of the disaster in East Palestine are almost all white working class Americans only highlights why the Biden Cabal and its effete coastal and academic acolytes are reviled when the wave their little Ukrainian flags and shower Zelensky with untold amounts of borrowed cash. Add in the fact that Biden has incessantly attacked white, working class Americans as domestic terrorists and his predecessor maligned them as rubes who cling to guns and religion (along with the harridan who called them a "basket of deplorables) and you get a pretty good picture of how this cabal of jackals views their fellow Americans. Oh, we're fine to pay taxes to support their illegal human imports and indolent charges and to fight their wars, but actually provide help in a disaster? NFW! Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all working Americans that the leftist abomination that the Democrat Party has become is the implacable enemy of patriotic, working Americans, their children and their grandchildren. That's why people link Ukraine and East Palestine. Because the differences just could not be more stark or the reasons for the disparate treatment and attention more evident.
I don't think that his is a viable candidacy in 2024. However, I think NE would be an excellent choice for VP by President Trump, should be be the.nominee. Vic would be the antidote for age concerns for Trump. Should he unfortunately be incapacitated, Vic's presence could assure that his policies are continued. Not like that fake Christian, establishment worm, Pence, or any other currently. announced or anticipated candidate for the nomination.
And Fetterman became the senator for Pennsylvania after having suffered a bad stroke, and now he has checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression - one can’t make this crap up!
The compassionate unicorn and butterfly party proves they care more about the welfare of everybody except the legal citizens of the US. They care more about the welfare of the Ukraine and the welfare of undocumented Democrats than they do about us.
I'm still pissed off and will be for a long time about how that moron, the ever senile Joe shut the country down and made us wear masks in order to fight covid yet not only let in but promoted the flood and the release of 1.05 million of unvaccinated (Not just unvaccinated against covid but not vaccinated at all against other diseases.) undocumented Democrats into the country. He not only did that but dispersed them throughout the country. That could be considered gem warfare.
I will bet you money, he didn't ship any of them to Delaware.
In Canada thousands of truckers converged on Ottawa and not a single member of the federal government met with them to ask why they were there, our Prime Minister hid in an undisclosed location hurling insults at the protestors, and the main stream media wrote lots of stories but forgot to send reporters to actually interview a protestor or two.
You've described the crux of it. Biden didn't need to go there. But he did need to tell his cabinet minister, "Get your ass over there - it's your job" because evidentally he doesn't understand that or care. For appearances sake, even if there isn't much of anything they can do at this point. Because, the optics of what they are doing is sending the message that the don't care about areas that don't vote for their tribe. In other words, they don't represent the citizens of America, they only represent Democrats.
Trump understands this and is exploiting the hell out of it. Bringing in bottled water was very inexpensive campaigning - and probably makes no difference. Based on what I've read about the incident, it doesn't surprise me that well water is unaffected. Typically this comes from aquifers deep underground. The air and surface water issues are obviously a concern.
Yeah, that would be almost as bad as if there were a pandemic and someone "sliow walked" response, supplies, etc becausr it was only hitting the highly populated Blue States/cities.
If this happened in a black neighborhood you would be wearing a pimp hat with a feather in it and platform shoes and you would be whoring out the locals.
Why would I need to be wearing pimp clothes? Is that something people in the black neighborhood would respond to? Couldn't I just wear regular human clothes?
Pimping them out for what? Get them all uppitty and agitated about not having clean drinking water?
But I'll tell you what. I'll care just as much about this situation as you did about Flint, MI and all the other places not populated by people get to know the granular details of Mexican social, political and cultural dynamics by golfing in Cabo San Lucas. Deal?
The nitwits who ran the water system in Flint did it to themselves, switching a water source in violation of all normal water system water quality protocols in order to save money. Katrina was intentionally brewed up off the coast of Africa in order to devastate the black community in New Orleans. Didn't you know that? You're only defending the Dame of Chappaqua because she can sound so convincingly "black." Lol.
1. the elected officials of Flint changed water sources to save money which required an analysis of what the new water source would do to the old pipe, including the lead ones. That's basic water system health and safety protocols. But they ignored them. Bingo - lead contamination. Dummies.
2. I was being sarcastic. Sarcasm is beyond your meager abilities. Not my fault. Clearly, humans cannot (yet) orchestrate hurricanes, let alone target them at specific communities.
3. How exactly does one sound "black?" Ask Hillary. She did it. Perhaps we should term her the Ebonic Plague?
Bruce, I am as astute as ever. Respectfully, you miss the point that the world’s leading superpower can easily continue to offer limited non-combat military support to Ukraine and at the same time clean up the contamination from a railroad mishap. I don’t think your claim of racism is warranted. It’s a claim too easily made in America. By both tribes.
The linkage is not warranted. Americans spend more money on lotteries than has been spent assisting Ukraine defend against Russian imperialism. Most of America’s military spending since 1945 has been incurred to stop the spread of communism. The savings which will occur after Ukraine defeats Russia will be Yuge.
Of course we CAN do both: problem is that Biden and his cabal of nitwits cared F all about the Trump voters in East Palestine. I made no claim of racism. I made a claim of studied indifference toward the white working class that has built America, fought its wars and supported its moral compass. The Democrat coastal elites make no secret of despising those who cling to guns and religion. Only thing is, Biden has now doubled down, declaring us to be domestic terrorists and weaponizing his "Justice" Department to muzzle speech and dissent. Edging ever closer to a casus belli.
We can debate the money spent to defeat communism. Much was wasted on a detente until Reagan decided the end the charade. And take down the whole rotten edifice. Amusing that Biden's cabal is aping the Soviet Union in its last days: with lying media, corrupt hangers on and sclerotic leaders. With the same disgust for them by citizens.
As far as Ukraine beating Russia, don't be so sure. Both sides are taking heavy casualties and much of Ukraine is in ruins. If that's what victory looks like, I'd sure hate to contemplate defeat. Do I want Russia to lose? Yes I do. But I'd prefer a negotiated end to this madness and killing. And despite the proclamations of our liberal warrior class (a jibe), it is by no means clear that Russia is losing or will ultimately lose. And if we face the choice of having to insert our own combat forces to forestall that, heaven help us.
And if backed into much more of a corner will Russia deploy nukes? Is Putin an if-I-can't-have-her-nobody-can kind of guy? I know JB is an I'm-effing-her-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it
And what would happen if Democrats were to propose stricter safety regulations for railroads? Republicans would be on TV and social media crying about the government "wanting to control everything" and about "overregulation" and about how we need to trust companies to regulate themselves. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Well, actually Mayor Pete is calling for more regulations and I can't find a single story about Republicans doing anything like what you claim.
Here's the thing, if the cause was bad wheel bearing then this disaster was probably not preventable. Nothing Mayor Pete has called for would have changed it. What matters is the response, and if the locals feel like no one is helping them then it's probably because no one is helping them.
If DeWine drank one glass of tainted water, that is symbolic. In toxicology, “the dose makes the poison”. Let’s see him drink nothing but local well water from now on.
No actually the soul it doesn’t do a good job of filtering many organic contaminants…that’s why RCRA, Superfund cleanup occurred. After doing studies while working at US EPA of pesticides in groundwater and years of overseeing groundwater sampling in industrial & marine port cleanups & finding concentrations of nearly every of the 60-90 chemicals for which we tested…I gotta say you are dead wrong. There are thousands of pages is such data in the EPA archives. The people in this town deserve a lot better.
Should say the soil though the accidental typo of soul as in the souls of the matter is the issue here. For no good reason these people are being ignored.
This is a thoughtful fair response, and opened my eyes, so thank you. However, why did Biden go to Ukraine at all??! Doesn’t it only serve to escalate the war? I’m hearing through friends in gov that things are not good at all right now.
Exactly Cissy it’s called a number of things 1. electioneering, 2. Photoshoot and 3. Money laundering. It could be all 3, these dogs are making a fortune of money or it could be 1 of the 3, especially the 1st if they remain in power come 2025 they will continue on the same path making billions of $$$. This is an exceptionally greedy bunch of humans. We best all watch out and watch our backs the deep state is relentless.
The blame for this one is non-partisan: everyone gets some blame. As for your defense of Trump, remember that his deregulation of the railroads started this ball rolling. Biden and company deserve the criticism they are getting, but it burns me a bit to see Trump making political hay out of the consequences of his favoritism toward corrupt corporations.
Tried google and speculation is a bearing went out on a wheel. Next to impossible to prevent. No amount of regulation, short of regularly removing every wheel on a train and disassembling to inspect the bearings, could have caught it, and even then... Pete's calls for increased safety do nothing to address the actual cause of the derailment. I don't blame him personally, but his indifference and scholarly approach demonstrates what a terrible politician he is, and the residents of East Palestine are letting America know what they think about all of it. Good for them for sticking up for themselves when no one else seems willing.
I have read some talk that there were past proposals to have emergency brakes on all rail cars so that when triggered, it would at least limit the cascading effect of a derailment and keep more of the cars structurally intact. I can't tell how much progress was ever made on that -- it appears the railroad lobbyists spent a bunch of money to make sure it didn't happen. Page 14 here is relevant: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/PHMSA-2012-0082-2329
What will the consumer bear? In the past there has been discussion about simply slowing these trains down, but that reduces efficiency/increases cost per mile. Eventually all excess cost is pushed to customers.
One good thing that can be said about government in this case is that the NTSB will do a good job of figuring out the cause. They're definitely a Federal Agency that does its job and does it well. Probably because they're not super political--pretty much everyone can agree that we should determine the cause of serious transportation accidents.
Until 2020 I would have said the same thing about the CDC. Their recommendations affect hundreds of millions of lives in this country, and when we become the template, billions of lives.
The best thing about the NTSB is that their mission is to find the cause of accidents to effectuate safer transport and pipelines in the future. My experience is that they're not perfect but they generally do a creditable job.
The problem with this view is that government, media, and corporations have made it impossible to trust the government, media, or corporations. It may be objectively true that a wheel failed and that this derailment would not have been preventable. But how will we ever know? None of these organizations -- not the government, not the media, not the corporate railroad -- has any credibility left in the bank. Americans have seen truth too many times made a casualty to personal and corporate profiteering and to furthering political ambitions.
For example, the CDC, DEA, and politicians have taken adequate pain control away from innocent, legitimate pain patients in the name of repairing an opioid epidemic that has only skyrocketed in response to their unjustified prohibition. The experts who wrote the guidelines for the CDC calling for stripping down opioid prescriptions, EVEN FOR PEOPLE WHO LEGITIMATELY NEED THEM, turn out to have had all sorts of financial conflicts, including being positioned to make tons of money from anti-opioid activism. The result? States saw a huge opportunity to make money in lawsuits against drug manufacturers. But ordinary people are being given Tylenol now immediately following painful surgeries like knee replacements and bypasses. Cancer patients are not even getting adequate pain control anymore. Predictable, preventable suffering is widespread and ongoing. Ordinary, non-junkies are literally dying from untreated pain now -- from strokes, from heart attacks, from suicide, and from overdosing on the fentanyl-laced street drugs some turn to in desperation. Does anyone believe DEA members, CDC bigwigs, or our corrupted leaders can't get actual pain control when they or their loved ones need it? Of course not. Being punished simply for being in pain is for ordinary Americans with no voice and no connections.
In another example, back in 2015, the captured FAA and airlines imposed new, highly concentrated airplane routes on cities and neighborhoods around the country. These new routes were designed to save the airlines massive amounts of money in fuel costs by starting descents much further from the airport and to decrease spacing between landing planes so as to increase the number of flights that could be supported by the system. The result for some people on the ground was that airplane noise was massively increased in neighborhoods -- and not neighborhoods where people had knowingly bought homes near an airport, but neighborhoods an hour to an hour and a half away from airports. Where I live, about an hour and a half away from SFO in a once-peaceful mountain community we specifically moved to because of the quiet, we went from hearing planes four or five times a week to 300 planes a day. Sometimes, the noise from one plane is still audible when the next one starts. But the airlines, which lobbied the FAA hard for this change and which have profited from it, cannot be sued because they're only "flying where the FAA tells them to fly." And the FAA can't be sued because everything it does is for "safety" (you know, except when it comes to forcing airlines to provide leg space adequate to allow for fast deplaning in an emergency). The airlines profit enormously, and none of that profit is shared with the people who bear the brunt of the real cost. And FAA executives continue regularly to retire from their government jobs to walk into the waiting, very cushy, $400K-and-up jobs at the airlines they've "regulated."
And on and on and on and on.
So, if some government agency announced tomorrow that yes, indeed, it really WAS just a wheel bearing that caused this tragic train derailment, nothing anyone could have done, really, a tragedy but not a preventable tragedy, no need to blame the government or the corporation in this instance -- my immediate response would be cynical, whole-body skepticism. And that's not because I'm a conspiracy theorist: It's because I have learned from repeated experience that I cannot trust the government when it says anything -- even something that might be objectively true -- that is obviously in its own interest.
Trust is gone. I don't know how we'll ever get it back.
I don't know how we can, short of a country-wide, consolidated movement to entirely (or majority) replace the existing-party chokehold on representative government all at once. The system we have has efficiently separated us all into small, powerless silos where we have no power and no voice.
The visual image I have of this is of herds of cattle being broken up and driven into separated pens. We bleat and run around in the limited space we have, banging into each other. We aren't allowed out of our pens, just driven in chutes from one to the next, and we can make no headway and have no effect whatsoever on the cowboys sitting on the rails of the pens looking down on us in amusement.
Take my FAA example above ... as a "non-constituent," I'm not even allowed to send an email to the congresspeople who have actual power relating to the country's transportation regulations -- because even though I'm deeply and personally impacted by the laws they write, I don't live in their district. Gatekeepers refuse email access and strip out "geographically inappropriate" snail mail. I'm only allowed to communicate with the representative of my own very limited district/region (and, of course, not even really with her -- only with her underpaid assistants and computer algorithms that scan our letters for keywords and send pre-scripted responses that require no actual engagement, time, or even awareness from the person who supposedly represents us).
I think we'd have much more actually representative government if all of us could choose the person in Congress who represents us. If a Congress person from Florida represents my interests and my political views more closely than my own Congress person in California, I should be able to choose to be a constituent of the Congress person in Florida even though I live in California. The representatives with the most constituents should have more power than those who don't. This would help to keep our Congress people responsive to us rather than to lobbyists, corporations and government agencies we don't elect. But as things stand, the only way I can be represented by a Congress person who actually sees things the way I do or cares about the things I care about is move out of the tiny cattle pen with no reach that I'm already in to a different tiny cattle pen with no reach.
The system we have creates and maintains this insane, divisive, utterly unnuanced tribalism that is destroying us. And the parties we have want to keep it exactly as it is because they have learned how to game it to their exclusive advantage.
Barry -- That's true, but how many times have we never received any reliable evidence at all? I have not found a consistently credible source of information. Have you? As for the wreck, I "heard" from the TV that the bearing was showing fire well before East Palestine, that the central headquarters people were informed by their sensor system that that was happening, that those people instructed the engineers to keep going, and that virtually the same thing happened at another Ohio location a short time ago. We'll see whether all -- or any -- of that turns out to be true. But what is indisputable is that Trump deregulated the railroads, opening the door for this sort of thing.
What does "deregulation" mean? What specific policies were repealed, and how can anyone say they played a role here if we are not even sure what actually happened?
If the people operating the train knew there was a major problem and ignored it, it seems unlikely to me they were operating according to even whatever reduced safety standards may have been introduced by Trump.
It seems likely that Norfok Southern bears the primary responsibility here.
It's odd, I think, that the same people who would reflexively blame "corporations" for, well, everything, would here be defending them tacitly.
And it seems equally obvious that if this derailment had happened during the Trump Presidency YOU would be the first to be blaming the President for everything you could think of. Hell, you're blaming him here, even though he's been out of office for two years.
Somehow, you skipped over the portion of my comment that spread the blame around. I pointed to Trump because I was responding to the comment before mine that attempted to separate Trump from any blame. I don't see many innocent characters here, except the people of East Palestine. I know that there are "good" and "bad" corporations, but I believe that there are certain industries that have shown that they are not capable of handling the self-policing responsibilities that should accompany de-regulation.
Tort law has led to greater protection than government regulations by far. Sue the crap out of those responsible if it is due to some kind of negligence. And if they want to make one change to improve safety further it would be to be able to hold corporate officers personally liable for negligence. In my opinion that would make a world of difference. It would work better than any amount of government regulations which often just provide butt-cover when things fail; they say we followed the regulations and show where these were (inevitably) inadequate.
Jeff -- The problem is that tort litigation is enormously expensive, far too expensive for the average American. There is class action, but usually only the lawyers make out well.
If you have a strong case it's not that expensive at all - and usually contingency based. PI lawyers work that way all the time. I agree - class action lawsuits are a waste of time for everyone but the lawyers (both sides) and drive costs up for everyone else.
It is hard to appreciate anything he has done as right, when so much wrong overpowers it. Pete Buttigieg as already noted, has an elitist attitude and is hands off at 30,000 feet. Pete speaks well but it incompetent. Kamala speaks poorly and is laughably incompetent. We have got to get rid of this crew.
EPA and DOT arrived on site within hours, and are still there. The White House offered federal funding nearly immediately. Evacuation orders occurred. Homes and soils were and continue to be tested. In a situation like this, with potential disastrous consequences and a plethora of details to be addressed...no one will be satisfied. Is everyone satisfied, no. Did some things go wrong? Yes. Are people right to be upset? Yes. But this article and many comments here make it sound like no help was offered and the various level of governments have walked away. That is crazy. This simply further politicizes a terrible situation. These sorts of articles ought to outline what happened, EVERYTHING that has happened in response, and WHAT still needs addressed. Interviewing a few obviously, and rightly so, traumatized citizens without also including what is happening on the ground, is bait for those who want to further politicize and deepen the divides between us. One obvious failure of this sort of coverage is lack of mention of the lack of action in Congress for regulation (dirty word) and oversight (costs money...taxes) of these companies, which is way toooo leftist for many commenters here to stomach. Why not put Vance on the spot and ask him what his plans are to make the 1000s of derailments a year a thing of the past? Ask Trump why he lifted regs specific to rail safety during his tenure? And yes....absolutely press democratic legislators as well for comments and answers to these questions! This country’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for years while corporations using it continue to profit.
Thank you. i was going to post a similar comment but you covered it. "The Free Press" is mostly still just a commentary site, not "hard journalism". Running a piece like this that slants the viewpoint from the right and offers just about zero actual facts about the situation but just repeats claims about how the Biden Administration is "neglecting" East Palestine is not "journalism", it's commentary, and it's hard to see what the purpose of the piece is other than to inflame the partisan slant of the commentariat here.
I'm glad to see pushback against this narrative in some of the comments however. I think it's fair to criticize Pete B. for not being on site sooner as a symbolic visit, but being honest, that is just PR. Being "on site" doesn't mean there's no agency presence or coordination happening. And weighing Biden's trip to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war there, and the symbolism of NATO, as "proof" that Biden doesn't care about this town in a Red State is a pretty cheap shot. But if this site wants to be viewed as "journalism", they should try doing more actual "journalism" (aka 'factual reporting') versus "narrative commentary".
Oh so Bari Weiss is now just a right wing nut case? What's 'hard journalism" in your book? The laughably biased and mostly wrong NY Times? Bezos's establishment mouthpiece? Come on, do tell. And btw, we don't need the senile imbecile to "prove" he despises places such as East Palestine. He's told us so. And that white working class people in "flyover" country are nothing but domestic terrorists who want to torture and degrade black people. As much as I despise him, Biden is only a puppet, long into his decline. His supporters and apologists are much, much worse.
Good comment. Don't totally agree with your proposed solution, but I agree with your observations. I had the feeling while reading the article that it was one-sided - designed to stir me up without any balance for the kinds of things that are likely going on but not getting much notice. People want instant results like babies. It's a major accident and takes time to deal with it. The high profile agencies acted stupidly in terms of their appearance of inactivity and indifference. But mostly they just get in the way anyway. Remember all those stupid photo op visits to Katrina and even more recently Ft Myers? So they're damned if they don't and damned if they do. In the long run it's the lower level activities that count. That's what they should be reporting on. Maybe those are inadequate, but I didn't get the feeling from this article that they knew what was happening other than listening to MSM news and repeating it.
I agree with most of your comments. On the high-profile agencies….the DOT and EPA and FEMA are such agencies, I you’d agree. And on the ground stuff certainly gets things done. But these agencies are often highly involved on the ground, scientists and techs, in both determination of cause itself, and the ensuing cleanup. Any importantly, they fund these activities with federal dollars. Locals and States would rarely have needed expertise or funding. I think I get what you’re saying though, which is why all the hysteria over high-profile people (vs agencies) like Buttigieg and for sure Biden, not being there immediately bugs me. At their level it shows high level concern, which means a lot to people who are suffering. On the other hand…it is really a gesture that doesn’t mean much to the actual fix….those agency people working in the field. This not always true, but most often I’d think. I’m waiting to hear more before I criticize too loudly, the response by agencies.
Yeah we gotta give the agencies credit for being science but we also have to wait for them to do the science. Because it’s science and they have to press special buttons.
At no point should we question federal expertise. They are the science experts.
Hey…if you got an idea of how to get railroad corporations to play it straight…have at it Kevin! Heck! If you want to pitch in and run your municipal sewer district, go ahead. If you want to figure out how to remove the tumor from your neighbor’s stomach, more power to you. Want that gas and oil to keep your wheels turning, you don’t need help. if you want to develop a medicine for your dad’s heart troubles, why not? Who needs an expert? Who needs government ? Who needs science? This whole anti-science/education/ expert crap is absurd. No one suggested we never question expertise. In reality if these are things that interest you….go ahead. Study organic and inorganic chemistry, physics, calculus, engineering, hydrology, toxicology…stuff like that for 6 to 8 years and you could do any of the above, even help figure out how clean up East Palestine for the folks suffering there.
Really? How about the demented dwarf who brayed "oy represent soy-yence" and his Greek Chorus of moronic acolytes? No he doesn't represent science. Science involves constant questions. The science is never settled. A real scientist - not a fraud like Fauci - observed "We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.” Richard Feynman.
Sure they showed up. And then proceeded to engage in some of the most questionable, boneheaded and contradictory acts imaginable. So excuse me if I view you as a DNC apologist. This was a significant industrial catastrophe. I find it funny to recall the angst and wailing that arose over Bhopal but the sniggering indifference that affects a working class white community in "flyover country."
Of course. You’re the victim, persecuted by my words. You sound brainwashed and fed by your chosen echo chamber, unable to respond rationally or without insults to those who might disagree with you. Again, Congress (I think I mentioned both sides of isle) has the power to both fix this and prevent or reduce future tragedies in the future: pass and fund infrastructure bills and fund regulating agencies to enforce safety measures. That’s the only way capitalism can work. Every one of us needs to see the fundamental problem and vote to fix it.
The person you are referring to is not fed by the echo chamber, Ann - he feeds it. His last sentence above in his response to your previous post is his preferred comeback to anyone who is but a molecule left of his position. And his modus operandi of rabid riposte gives cover for other commenters to act the same..
Sure Kevin can be a bit rough at times. But his "rabid ripostes" (not bad) do serve to lay bare and ridicule the hypocrisy and lies of the left. Which makes him a favorite here.
I'm glad you liked that. I went into my thesaurus for that one..
Of course there's hypocrisy on the left, I try to fight it everyday - and of course Fox has that problem too.
The problem I have is that I know that Kevin is very smart and articulate as hell, if he wants to be. But that is not what he wants to project here. He chooses to use his skills (considerable) to attack and ridicule. That not only stifles meaningful debate to whom he's addressing, he's stifling himself, imo..
Exactly how do you regulate wheel bearings??? Btw, if your "vote to fix it" doesn't work, then what? Seems like one Party had all the power for the past 2 years and did squat with it. Republicans had no power to oppose Mayor Pete's calls for increased railroad safety regulation before the vote on the "Infrastructure" bill. Oh wait, he didn't make any.
In fact, you can regulate brakes on trains. In 2018, the DOT repealed a train safety rule established in 2015 that required installing electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on trains that carried highly flammable hazardous materials. These brakes safely stop trains much much faster than regular brakes. I do vote to fix things, and was happy Congress passed the Infrastructure bill during 2021. I would call that “squat” as you say. Whether or how it addresses rail lines I don’t know, but I do know it funds upgrades to airport safety systems and bridges, thank god. I won’t go into the partisan battles fought to pass it, but in the end it was passed with only 32 GOP supporters. I don’t know what was fought over, included, or thrown out. All that said, the brake legislation was repealed in 2018 by the Trump administration because costs were touted to outweigh benefits. I will add that this particular train in Ohio was not carrying “highly flammable hazardous materials”, by definition, 😳, so wouldn’t have been required to have ECP brakes. Well…That’s one hugely glaring problem I think we could agree on!! So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. Think about it. That’s the problem. The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation. We will see how the clean up goes as time goes by…it takes time to sort out these environmental disasters.
I said wheel bearings, not breaks. Trains could also just go slower, but whatever your preferred solution that is added cost that consumers will be made to bear.
"The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation." Says who? According to the Federal Register, 3000-4000 new rules and regulations are implemented every year.
"So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. "
In other words , a patent red herring and lying DNC talking point You, to your credit, have the honesty to concede that. The DNC flacks do not.
The only reason you would burn this, set this fire and attract all of this attention, is if it’s an absolute catastrophe when this eventually leeches into the groundwater.
Not exactly. The vinyl chloride can spontantously polymerize releasing a very significant amount of heat and produce numerous chlorinated aromatics, which are carcinogens and other chlorinated materials that are poisonous, not to mention hydrochloric acid. Burning it is terrible, but likely less dangerous than allowing it to react on its own. Either way is a catastrophe.
Burning it oxidizes the materials, so fewer noxious chemicals are produced., but certainly not zero. An uncontrolled polymerization could cause an explosion that would send out a lot of stuff over a much wider area. A controlled burn is likely one accepted method of destroying vinyl chloride.
I just learned that butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate were also on that train. These are also chemicals that polymerize and release heat, not to mention their extreme irritation to skin and eyes. Carcinogens as well.
Victor Orban has his issues, but at least he knows he's the President of Hungary and his job is to protect and defend and promote the interests of Hungarians.
President Biden seems to think he's President of the world. And he doesn't appear to even like most of his deplorable fellow Americans, let alone want to defend their interests.
I think he just likes to cut a figure, wherever the opportunity arises. He often has a totally genuine looking smile when capering about making an ass of himself. Very unique. Clownish.
That illusion was shattered when they mandated an experimental gene therapy on the population for profit and Lord knows why else. Our current leaders and the global elite that control them do not care about any human life but their own. We are being lead by crooks and demons. Most can't see it and those that do fear speaking it or they will get canceled. Anyone still under the illusion that our leaders care about us, well, they are living in a fantasy world.
It gets worse. The latest news is that we're handing over policy power to the WHO so they have total control over our country if (when) they declare pandemic again. We're watching our representatives hand our sovereignty and our democracy away to corrupt, unelected international organizations while they hardly even pay lip service to disasters at home. While Joe Biden declares that "democracy stands" because he's escalating the war in Ukraine.
That's the same WHO, btw, that said closing borders to the virus was racism.
This should be the biggest news in the country. It's their backdoor to global government whether we want it or not.
Joe Biden never stops talking about his son dying from ‘burn pits’ because his son was once in the same country as the alleged ‘burn pits’.
And now Joe Biden wants Americans to move back into a neighborhood with the world’s largest ever burn pit. Because of science. You can’t make this shit up.
This reminds me of when Democrats exploited a child with a speech impediment at the 2020 DNC to garner sympathy votes while Democrats nationally implemented masking policy that would create an epidemic of speech impediments.
I never tire of watching that corrupt, despicable imbecile falling UP the stairs. There have been presidents I have disliked over my lifetime but never one I have so despised and reviled. I cannot fathom what my fellow Americans were thinking when they voted for Biden - who was at least twice before laughably rejected by the public and was regarded as a corrupt and relatively stupid senator of little accomplishment. As I noted to a friend who announced before the election "If I had the choice to vote for Trump or a pile of shit on that table, I'd vote for the pile of shit" - Well you got your wish.
I don’t know how much suffering you are willing to endure to prove your friend wrong but I’m voting for Biden in 2024.
Even if you make DeSantis emperor, at this point, he can’t fix this. So it’s better to have a Democrat holding the steering wheel as Democrat policy bankrupts us.
I’m not joking. You look at what happened after Obamacare and voters are capable of getting it. But you first have to let Democrats rule……..so that they can fail.
Truth is I just don't know. The $31 trillion debt number is frightening. Will there be a sovereign debt default? Can we reverse this madness? Is America still a serious nation and is the rot too deep? I don't know. But I'd rather try to fix it than try to pick up the pieces after it all blows up.
I have to admit that the Biden pile on has been entertaining with all the usual suspects here involved. But in response to your debt number - it is frightening. I agree. But to put things in perspective, before the Covid shitshow our federal debt as a % of GDP was very close to the EU's. They have extremely high debt as well. Two wrongs don't make a right, but with the dollar still the reserve currency of the world economy and with investors still hankering for our Treasuries (debt limit increase lurking..), we're still the adult in the room (though that's not saying too much). Will things blow up with derivatives leading the way? Perhaps, but it won't be only us. The entire financial system (including China) will go down.
Strange point of view. Anyway, DeSantis has my vote. He did a great job with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. I feel confident he would have handled the East Palestine situation well.
You're expressing a rational concept, that Democrats would be rightly blamed for their failures. If 2022 proved anything its that Democrats don't care at all about the price of bread if the ability to kill the unborn is on the ballot.
Kevin I agree wholeheartedly. The Dem's, media, progressives have zero handle on the debt ceiling issue. The inflation caused by Biden (Oil prices spikes and the federal Money Orgy Acts that Joe, Nancy & Chuck signed) required the Fed to raise rates. We now have 31 trillion-dollar ARM adjustable-rate mortgage. The US Federal Government budget is just like an overbuilt subdivision outside of Vegas in 2008. Let them play how long can I stay in the house after foreclosure.
What’s going on in East Palestine follows the same script as most events that which occur that the government wants the public to ignore or forget about.
Step 1- Don’t acknowledge it happened
Step 2- If it gets traction in the public, ignore the event to the greatest extent possible and provide only limited information
Step 3- This will inevitably lead to people believing there is a cover-up of some kind and they will throw out a bunch of accusations...some right, some wrong
Step 4- Seize on the wrong ones and call those people conspiracy theorists who can not be trusted.
Step 5- If things don’t die down then, make the most modest appeal to make it seem like you care (ie- show up at an accident scene 3 weeks after the fact)
Step 6- Give the “what else do you wants us to do” shrug.
Well of course they are being ignored by Biden and the elites, they voted for the other guy! They are not American citizens, they are MAGA's and so too bad, the elites have other things to do for people who matter, like college professors and tech companies.
And they are right, the media will get bored and move on and that will be the end of that.
Then we can all get back to policing pronoun violations, canceling people for dead naming, and wearing pussy hats while calling for trans feminism. Really important stuff, ya know.
This is an accident that is a tragedy for East Palestine, but also one that has resonance for all Americans, because it is easy to imagine similar accidents and similar fallout happening almost anywhere.
It was a mistake of the Biden Administration not to show up. As well, the combination of Biden's trip to Ukraine plus his failure to show up in East Palestine does no favors for American support for Ukraine.
In another contrast, I find it absurd that we are not responding to this accident to figure out how to reduce the incidence of other climate ruining accidents while spending vast sums trying to lower global temperatures slightly many years from now. Like the Ukraine visit, doing both is fine, but doing one without the other is galling.
You're throwing allegations around like water. Pretty much like the other tribe does to Trump..
Saying that Biden blew up the pipeline would require proof (I know there's a story out there..). Is there actionable proof? Not yet.. Is there a cover-up? Who knows.
I think it's similar to saying that Trump orchestrated Jan 6 by his comments on stage, of which we all heard. But is there proof he intended those comments to be taken literally? No. Could it be simply freedom of speech? Could be.
Is there proof he orchestrated Jan 6 from behind the scenes prior? Not yet. Is there a cover-up? Who knows. Proof is needed.
He obviously believes his name carries a lot weight. Enough weight that sources need not be named. He's betting his reputation is enough to pull it off. I don't think he cares who he nails.
Where is the coverage of What Changed, or What didn't change but should. Railways are not new technology. There have been management metrics for decades on train composition, track maintenance, enroute monitoring, etc. Who owns the railroad and what has their ownership changed?
This whole disaster coverage seems to be tribal bickering. When will we see coverage of the details of who are the owners, what are their connections, what changed, and what needs to change. Railroads are going to run through untold thousands of East Palestines. What should be done to reduce this sort of problem? Having spent a life in tech, I see the explosion of low cost microprocessor technology that should be applied to monitor bearing temps, side loads indicating track problems, etc. I suspect that it is not being applied because of the Woke fixation and the incredible incompetence of the Boomer Democrat leadership in government and industry.
Obviously the first line of responsibility is the ownership. Who owns it, who is in charge of setting policy for managing this? There is almost zero coverage of that. I suspect there is a huge story of insider connections that should be reported.
Yes, 💯 agree. Jordan Peterson did a fascinating interview with Temple Grandin. In it she again and again touched on something I haven’t heard much about anywhere else that I believe could have relevance here: that the blue collar experts who run all of our infrastructure are graying and there is no one to replace them. We don’t and haven’t for a long time had much in the way of high school vocational training and everyone is pushed to go to college or give up. We aren’t training enough people to take over when the graying generation retires. My guess is that this is one component of the crash: not enough people are left to maintain the trains and tracks who really know what they are doing.
I’ve never thought about this, but it’s so true! As a former teacher, “college readiness” lingo begins in first grade…yes, you read that correctly. On the one hand we are to “teach to the individual need of each student”, yet at some point it’s easy to see that many students are just not interested in continuing their education beyond high school. Then what happens? They feel looked down upon because they’ve chosen not to go on the path they’ve been told is best for them. I love what Mike Rowe has done to encourage kids to go to trade school where they can have a successful and important profession with good pay. This constant push for college has become so hurtful and wrong.
Ironically, the return on a college education for the price continues to go lower and lower, except outside of certain fields that are certainly not suited for everyone.
BlackRock and Vanguard are two of the biggest investors in Norfolk Southern. They were also huge contributors to Biden. The people of East Palestine are fungible.
Uh, yes—but not in the way you're implying. In fact, BlackRock—like all big financial companies—plays both sides against the other and contributes hugely (to quote 45) to candidates on all sides of the political spectrum.
There should have been quality reviews after the first several derailment. Steps taken to determine the cause action steps to change/reduce such derailments, etc. if there had been, they would have shared those protocols with the public. At this point it is clear the RR has been ignoring a known defect/fault. This is unforgivable.
Dick, I humbly think the culprit here is as old as capitalism itself. Cost cutting. There was a railway catastrophe in Quebec a few years ago, taking the lives of forty or so people -mostly vaporized by the exploding petroleum in tanks when a train derailed in their town. What went wrong? The one man responsible (remember one man..!) for the seventy three car train had a sleep break in a hotel and idled the train with the brakes engaged. Well guess what, brakes failed, the train rumbled on the down slope into town, cars derailed, and the ensuing conflagration made the East Palestine fire look like a pop gun.
If there were other employees involved all of it would have been avoided.
East Palestine might not have happened if there were employees for the requisite mechanical train and track maintenance, it might have been avoided if other locomotives were involved so that the train could be decoupled. But that takes more employees to be hired.
It stands to reason that if railways continue to run trains with only one or two people in charge, they will be overwhelmed by events.
The problem is not capitalism, Kevin. Don't reveal yourself to be an idiot as well as insufferable. (Well, I'm sure if someone gets to know you you're okay. Does anyone know you?)
Capitalism is the only thing that works. I think you in a lucid moment would agree. But it does need to be guided. Are you happy with one or two engineers on a train? If so, buy a home near the tracks and wait for the fun to begin. There's only a thousand derailments a year in this country.
But then I do remember you thought it might be Putin behind all this..
An edit: Just to let you know, I did know Stalin in a prior life. He send his regards..
I agree. And the plane situation and airport/runway/FAA situation is scary. As are ships and ports. Makes me wonder what we are getting from a Department of Transportation if they just do the bidding of those they are to be regulating.
Yes on that. I guess it's the price we are paying for the religion of deregulation. Great for free market capitalism, but maybe not so great for safety..
I would say it is the price we pay for overregulation of minutiae to the extent that the stuff that matters falls through the cracks. We have been funding infrastructure since 2009. Where has all that money gone?
Railways have successfully lobbied for bare crews transporting volatile and toxic chemicals. The governments of either party have acceded to that. The stuff that matters has fallen through the cracks, but only because real people are not manning their posts. Because they are not being paid to. It's deregulation.
Coming soon - a commercial 200 passenger plane with one pilot. And after you and I are gone, no pilots.
It's not a problem with minutiae here (always liked that word..) - in my opinion it's the overview that's missing. Think of Tesla with its huge recall of its self driving system. Six years too late because there was no oversight on something clearly defective and misleading. That is the government's fault for letting us be guinea pigs.
I was going to expound but I am so weary of the Boomer hate. Do your own research. It is not simple though so I have no confidence in your ability to do so.
If you do your own research you will find that the Wokesters are driving the capable out of all positions of responsibility. They have taken over HR and have mastered screwing up meetings. They are a plague that is destroying competent management. They are cluelesss and seem incapable of self awareness. Virtue signalling has replaced decisiuon making.
I am uncertain how you define Wokesters but since your other comment specified Boomers it takes no research to know that they are being replaced as they are 58 - 80 years of age. It is a natural progression. If by Wokesters you mean hiring by checking boxes I agree. That does not require much research either.
In the past, the Republicans were often accused of being apathetic to the needs of the masses.
And then the Democrats looked at them and said, "Hold my expensive, limited edition, organic IPA."
Humor aside, I thought I couldn't hate an administration worse than I hated W's, but wow. From the top down, it's nothing but a bunch of incompetent, self-entitled a-holes, and worse of all, the media gives them coverage. If I have to see one more headline about how "brave" Biden was to go to Ukraine, I may need a new computer.
Excellent piece in DOOMBURG(another Substack that mostly deals with energy issues) on this disaster. We have a terrible infrastructure problem in America(wherever does that money go that the FEDS keep shoveling out????). It is disgusting thst we can blithely send 100 BILLION to Ukraine and do so little for OUR people.
Surely there are independent toxicologists who can assess the presence of toxic chemicals in water and soil and air. I hope they are running their labs at full tilt. We need to know the persistence of those chemicals and their breakdown products in the soil and water. The people of E. Palestine need data and a press conference, followed by lawyers. Oh, yes, they will be showing up. That might get people’s attention. Where is the Ohio AG?
What was the movie about a woman going after some company that inflicted environmental damage?
Yes but Erin Brockovich was a liberal Democrat and so, a heroine, in a different age when Democrats actually cared (or at least made a good show) about working class people and weren't in bed with the servile corporate class.
The residuals from the spill won't stay in East Palestine. What doesn't pond or seep into the ground will be washed away when it rains. Kinda like a giant shower for the town. In this case, the streams and larger waterways will be the drain. They really need to test beyond the spill/smoke plume area. I suspect if they do thorough testing they're likely to find lots of nasty stuff, a lot of it not even related to THIS accident.
The difference with Love Canal is that it was a big pit where all the chemicals remained, until they seeped into the groundwater and eventually residential basements. The best thing that could happen to East Palestine is a good rain. For folks downstream, not so much
This is not my bailiwick but from what I am reading out of my personal curiosity is that it will be a legal nightmare to determine liability. Not just as to causation but literally who owns what.
Where’s Greta Thunberg and the rest of the environmental chattering classes who want to control every aspect of our lives, but are nowhere to be found when the real stuff happens? Where is Canada’s virtue signalling prime minister Trudeau, and his environmental intelligentsia guru Steven Guilbault? Canada is just across Lake Erie from Ohio. Winds and currents surely have brought these dangerous chemicals into Canada already. The Liberal party in Canada is like the Democrats on steroids. The boss you around, control every aspect of your life, take your money and send it to their globalist friends in Davos and Kyiv political parties who are big on talk, and little on any action that actually matters to the hard working citizens, you know “those people” the ones WHO PAY THEIR SALARIES.
This disaster was the result of bipartisan incompetence and corruption. Nobody paid it much mind until they figured out the publicity angle, and once that's been spent the people of this town will be on their own. And corporate media can't fathom why people are angry and don't trust them or the government. I think CNN should send Don Lemon and have him report back to his co-hosts; they will get to the bottom of this mess.
This article is fundamentally dishonest. Biden didn't show up because he offered DeWine help and DeWine refused it. Also, the train derailed because Trump repealed a rule put in place by Obama that required better braking systems on trains carrying hazardous materials. That repeal happened because Norfolk Southern, among others, lobbied Trump and made big campaign contributions. That's the real story, not your republican talking point crap that ignores the truth and spins it to look like Trump is the white knight riding into town to save the poor damsels in distress.
I am sorry, Biden still can show up. Last time I checked he is still president of US, and doesn't need approval of DeWine to come to Ohio. Same goes for Kamala and Mayor Pete.
Biden had choice to go to Ohio or to Ukraine, he maid his choice.
Mayor Pete is scheduled to be there Thursday. Presidents usually don't go to disasters immediately afterwards because their presence, including their security details, put strain on local services which is detrimental to recovery efforts. EPA officials have been on the ground since day 1 and FEMA does not respond to man-made emergencies.
As a regular Twitter user, I find in impressive how whenever someone suggests that Mayor Pete isn’t doing a good job, eager defenders quickly show up to praise him. My instinct is always that these are paid posters, much like Meghan Markle’s paid defenders. What do you think?
Even if Bruce is a paid poster he's one of the most pathetic ones I've seen. These posts by Brucey are pure gold. He's living proof that Trump lives in his mind too.
It always nice to have some comedic relief in the comments section here.
Even the horrifically bad bush ii flew over hurricane devastation and was on the ground within a day or two. Biden not only didn’t show up he is telling another country America will pay their social security for them.
Thanks for the well reasoned, fact based discussion guys. Sure makes me have confidence that Free Press is solving the bias in journalism problem by letting the facts lead rather than the politics, and you commenters are really astute. Just gotta say it. Oh, and I am actually just a bot.
So should it be called the Federal Office of Natural Emergency Management?
And just to be clear, is it the case in your understanding that they would play no role in the event of nuclear or chemical weapons attacks, both of which are manmade?
This particular train was not affected by the rule change under the Trump administration.
The fact that Act Blue and other Democratic Party talking point distributors are pushing this “Trump’s fault!” falsehood reveals a fundamental dishonesty and inability to lead.
What problem in this country do Democrats not blame on Trump, or anyone else they think it might stick to? What Democrat in this country has EVER made a mistake about anything?
Biden is the President of the United States. Ohio is a state. He does not need DeWine accepting his help to do the right thing and at least show the hell up. It costs nothing. It requires no approval from the governor. What Trump did or did not do is meaningless to Biden getting off his ass and going to the scene. Nada.
And yeah, Trump showing up and Biden or any senior admin official not showing up, is precisely why Ohio will go republican again. If it does not happen in the Boston to DC corridor or in CA it just is not a priority for democrats.
No the state or local government must request it for a national emergency to be declared. The request for aid for NOLA was not made after Hurricane Katrina.
Lynne, DeWine did request that but that was not my point. My point is that there was and is nothing stopping Biden from visiting other than his own judgement.
Very true. But I am thinking that the optic of the self-avowed pro union President appearing at a significant train derailment less than two months after stuffing it to the rail union was too dismal for even him to deny.
Dewine not accepting Biden’s offer of help isn’t the same as the President not visiting a disaster site. Or the f-ing secretary of transportation. Reporting on Trump’s arrival isn’t talking point crap, it’s simply called news. Sorry, Trump not President for 3 years, this one’s on Biden administration.
Bruce, regardless of whether or not an overheated wheel bearing was the cause of this derailment, the 'Obama brakes' would have contributed *nothing* to the safe operation of this specific train. As Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, tweeted "The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars."
While they do need a stronger response to this toxic mess I agree the article was a bit more emotional then needed. Free Press is stronger with a more nuanced voice. The line about Biden “ never mentioning” paid leave again is misleading. That agreement was less then 2 weeks ago.
Tulsi Gabbard ? She is looking for the media angle. Now JF Vance is in office, he could do something
Biden does need to act or this will be his Katrina
A bit more emotional than needed? Good. So next time you’re credulously lapping up emotionally manipulative pro-Democrat propaganda, please try to notice this phenomenon. Thanks.
That agreement was signed on December 2 2022 a bit more than two weeks ago. Even this atrocity was more than two weeks ago. Nuance my aunt Fanny. That’s for journalists who are afraid to state facts.
I guess you want the soppy emotionalism in the Ukraine reporting.
From the video I have seen and the reports I have read, it was wheel bearings that overheated. There are actually sensor boxes along the tracks that look to catch that and are supposed to notify the train operator when it is detected. No idea why that system would appear to have failed.
I understand your frustration, but even though I often fail to practice his principles in my own life, my brain and experience tell me that Dale Carnegie was right about pretty much everything. He didn't describe the way things SHOULD be, but rather how they ARE.
Remember when both Biden and Harris dropped everything to visit Jacob Blake in hospital, a criminal who broke a restraining order, digitally raped his ex and then tried to resist arrest? East Palestine residents just need to orchestrate a white cop racist scenario and they’ll get all attention they desperately need.
How ungrateful are these people in East Palestine! Dont they know that Joe Biden is busy giving blank check to Ukraine, who elected him to represent their interests. Ungrateful Americans should know their place, that is to pay taxes and shut up.
Not without sarcasm, if anyone had any illusions, now little our politicians care about Americans, hopefully this illusion has been shattered last week. Entire administrations has been avoiding Ohio like it is infected with plague. Mayor Pete is nowhere to be seen. Jesus, did we ever hand such incompetent person in government?!? Kamala is missing in action last 2 years, when I thing, better to keep it that way, she is probably only person who is even more incapable than Mayor Pete.
But cherry on the cake was Joe Biden, to have audacity to go for Photoshoot to Ukraine, while we have disaster at home and people in need. He is American President. At this point, our congress will help everyone but not people at home.
Sometimes I think that we live under occupation, there is no other way in explaining, how little our politicians care for problems at home.
You clearly work for Russia I’m reporting you to Homeland Security for your Russianness.
Close, China is my main employer :D
🧐✍️
There should be a lol along w the like option. Cause...lol!
China a better choice at this stage
🤣🤣
Off Topic but this is why Bari founded Free Press:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-administration-accused-of-creating-gag-policy-for-scientific-research/ar-AA17Qmeu?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=dc435e3258fa4a1a8f2fc716743572bb&ei=54
I thought liberals were supposed to be, well, liberals. You know for free sepech.
Yes, we all need to thank Bari. I became interested in her while watching Real Time and have followed her since then. Truly a bright light in the darkness of current journalism.
Raziel
It’s not an either/or. Biden supporting Ukraine’s defense against Russian imperialism has no impact whatsoever on whether the government in Ohio is responding appropriately to the train derailment in this mispronounced Ohio town.
If DeWine did drink tap water, how legitimate is the concern over water quality? I think you live under the occupation of a continuing civil war. The tribalism is remarkable.
The water is unsafe because the President is in Europe when he should be in America reassuring the children who are members of the other tribe.
President Trump, who was in fact a very good POTUS was relentlessly attacked throughout his Presidency because he is not a member of the tribe which dishonestly and stupidly controls the narrative.
After observing those attacks since 2016 I now see members of the Republican tribe, including those who work in the media, engaging in the same kind of dishonest, clueless and hysterical attacks on the leader of the Democrat tribe.
Yes Biden has been a disaster, but not everything he has done has been wrong.
Terrence, you're usually observant but really miss the point here. It isn't that Biden is in Ukraine but that his entire attention is focused there with no attention paid by his Clown Car Administration to a disaster in his own country. And the fact that the victims of the disaster in East Palestine are almost all white working class Americans only highlights why the Biden Cabal and its effete coastal and academic acolytes are reviled when the wave their little Ukrainian flags and shower Zelensky with untold amounts of borrowed cash. Add in the fact that Biden has incessantly attacked white, working class Americans as domestic terrorists and his predecessor maligned them as rubes who cling to guns and religion (along with the harridan who called them a "basket of deplorables) and you get a pretty good picture of how this cabal of jackals views their fellow Americans. Oh, we're fine to pay taxes to support their illegal human imports and indolent charges and to fight their wars, but actually provide help in a disaster? NFW! Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all working Americans that the leftist abomination that the Democrat Party has become is the implacable enemy of patriotic, working Americans, their children and their grandchildren. That's why people link Ukraine and East Palestine. Because the differences just could not be more stark or the reasons for the disparate treatment and attention more evident.
Vivek Ramaswamy is from Ohio.
He hates big government incompetence and would fire people.
And Ukraine is not on the top of his foreign policy list.
I don't think that his is a viable candidacy in 2024. However, I think NE would be an excellent choice for VP by President Trump, should be be the.nominee. Vic would be the antidote for age concerns for Trump. Should he unfortunately be incapacitated, Vic's presence could assure that his policies are continued. Not like that fake Christian, establishment worm, Pence, or any other currently. announced or anticipated candidate for the nomination.
Vivek hates government period.
John Fetterman chased a black guy down the street with a shotgun and you are a Holocaust denier.
And Fetterman became the senator for Pennsylvania after having suffered a bad stroke, and now he has checked himself into a hospital for clinical depression - one can’t make this crap up!
The "professor" is a holocaust denier? I didn't hear that but it doesn't surprise me.
I knew men, honorable men, who liberated some of these death camps. These men are all dead now but they were eye witnesses of these death camps.
I know comprof is contemptable but not that contemplable.
I posted this yesterday in hopes the loony left (comprof an R T) would read it:
I have said this many times Biden doesn't know what planet he is on. This proves it:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/joe-biden-slammed-for-not-following-instructions-at-poland-event-dummy/ar-AA17MZo1?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=8efb5e6e70a04887a561aba5b8753f4e
Lol. I'm sure you left your evidence that I'm a Holicaust denier next to your Planned Parenthood evidence.
You know who is not being exploited? All the black people you claimed are stealing elections, right?
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichael's fan club member pretends to be upset about Fetterman.
Good for him
Once again Bruce you have nailed it.
The compassionate unicorn and butterfly party proves they care more about the welfare of everybody except the legal citizens of the US. They care more about the welfare of the Ukraine and the welfare of undocumented Democrats than they do about us.
I'm still pissed off and will be for a long time about how that moron, the ever senile Joe shut the country down and made us wear masks in order to fight covid yet not only let in but promoted the flood and the release of 1.05 million of unvaccinated (Not just unvaccinated against covid but not vaccinated at all against other diseases.) undocumented Democrats into the country. He not only did that but dispersed them throughout the country. That could be considered gem warfare.
I will bet you money, he didn't ship any of them to Delaware.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/is-biden-getting-new-neighbors-legislation-proposed-to-send-illegal-immigrants-to-delaware
It's much harder to launder money through campaign donations domestically.
Just ask hunter
That's what Ukraine is for.
Don't miss the interview with Ed Dowd on Tucker Carlson Today on excess deaths re the vaccines. Riveting.
In Canada thousands of truckers converged on Ottawa and not a single member of the federal government met with them to ask why they were there, our Prime Minister hid in an undisclosed location hurling insults at the protestors, and the main stream media wrote lots of stories but forgot to send reporters to actually interview a protestor or two.
I think Biden was taking notes.
The NYT sent Michelle Goldberg but the only person she seems to have interviewed was there "for the mushrooms". She was obviously nutpicking.
The NYT is populated with hard left numbskulls.
You've described the crux of it. Biden didn't need to go there. But he did need to tell his cabinet minister, "Get your ass over there - it's your job" because evidentally he doesn't understand that or care. For appearances sake, even if there isn't much of anything they can do at this point. Because, the optics of what they are doing is sending the message that the don't care about areas that don't vote for their tribe. In other words, they don't represent the citizens of America, they only represent Democrats.
Trump understands this and is exploiting the hell out of it. Bringing in bottled water was very inexpensive campaigning - and probably makes no difference. Based on what I've read about the incident, it doesn't surprise me that well water is unaffected. Typically this comes from aquifers deep underground. The air and surface water issues are obviously a concern.
Yeah, that would be almost as bad as if there were a pandemic and someone "sliow walked" response, supplies, etc becausr it was only hitting the highly populated Blue States/cities.
No, that would be the same thing.
I know, right? Did you opine on that?
1. According to the full, accurate quote, only some are in the basket of deplorables.
2. Flint, MI has something to say.
3. The train was INTENTIONALLY derailed because this communtity is all white working class. Discuss!
If this happened in a black neighborhood you would be wearing a pimp hat with a feather in it and platform shoes and you would be whoring out the locals.
Why would I need to be wearing pimp clothes? Is that something people in the black neighborhood would respond to? Couldn't I just wear regular human clothes?
Pimping them out for what? Get them all uppitty and agitated about not having clean drinking water?
But I'll tell you what. I'll care just as much about this situation as you did about Flint, MI and all the other places not populated by people get to know the granular details of Mexican social, political and cultural dynamics by golfing in Cabo San Lucas. Deal?
The nitwits who ran the water system in Flint did it to themselves, switching a water source in violation of all normal water system water quality protocols in order to save money. Katrina was intentionally brewed up off the coast of Africa in order to devastate the black community in New Orleans. Didn't you know that? You're only defending the Dame of Chappaqua because she can sound so convincingly "black." Lol.
Who were those nitwits?
Not surprised you believe a hurricaine was orchestrated by nature to attack the black community of New Orleans.
Much more plausible to believe white people blew up the levees in order to flood the area, because they've done it in the past.
Not defending anyone. Just correcting your ignorance. How exactly does one sound "black?"
OK to make it simple enough even for a dim Prof
1. the elected officials of Flint changed water sources to save money which required an analysis of what the new water source would do to the old pipe, including the lead ones. That's basic water system health and safety protocols. But they ignored them. Bingo - lead contamination. Dummies.
2. I was being sarcastic. Sarcasm is beyond your meager abilities. Not my fault. Clearly, humans cannot (yet) orchestrate hurricanes, let alone target them at specific communities.
3. How exactly does one sound "black?" Ask Hillary. She did it. Perhaps we should term her the Ebonic Plague?
By predecessor, you mean Obama? Worse than Biden, which says a lot about both of them. Throw out this crew!
Bruce, I am as astute as ever. Respectfully, you miss the point that the world’s leading superpower can easily continue to offer limited non-combat military support to Ukraine and at the same time clean up the contamination from a railroad mishap. I don’t think your claim of racism is warranted. It’s a claim too easily made in America. By both tribes.
The linkage is not warranted. Americans spend more money on lotteries than has been spent assisting Ukraine defend against Russian imperialism. Most of America’s military spending since 1945 has been incurred to stop the spread of communism. The savings which will occur after Ukraine defeats Russia will be Yuge.
Of course we CAN do both: problem is that Biden and his cabal of nitwits cared F all about the Trump voters in East Palestine. I made no claim of racism. I made a claim of studied indifference toward the white working class that has built America, fought its wars and supported its moral compass. The Democrat coastal elites make no secret of despising those who cling to guns and religion. Only thing is, Biden has now doubled down, declaring us to be domestic terrorists and weaponizing his "Justice" Department to muzzle speech and dissent. Edging ever closer to a casus belli.
We can debate the money spent to defeat communism. Much was wasted on a detente until Reagan decided the end the charade. And take down the whole rotten edifice. Amusing that Biden's cabal is aping the Soviet Union in its last days: with lying media, corrupt hangers on and sclerotic leaders. With the same disgust for them by citizens.
As far as Ukraine beating Russia, don't be so sure. Both sides are taking heavy casualties and much of Ukraine is in ruins. If that's what victory looks like, I'd sure hate to contemplate defeat. Do I want Russia to lose? Yes I do. But I'd prefer a negotiated end to this madness and killing. And despite the proclamations of our liberal warrior class (a jibe), it is by no means clear that Russia is losing or will ultimately lose. And if we face the choice of having to insert our own combat forces to forestall that, heaven help us.
Well said.
And if backed into much more of a corner will Russia deploy nukes? Is Putin an if-I-can't-have-her-nobody-can kind of guy? I know JB is an I'm-effing-her-what-are-you-going-to-do-about-it
kind of guy. Not good. Not good at all.
Not everything has been wrong. But this is.
And what would happen if Democrats were to propose stricter safety regulations for railroads? Republicans would be on TV and social media crying about the government "wanting to control everything" and about "overregulation" and about how we need to trust companies to regulate themselves. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
Well, actually Mayor Pete is calling for more regulations and I can't find a single story about Republicans doing anything like what you claim.
Here's the thing, if the cause was bad wheel bearing then this disaster was probably not preventable. Nothing Mayor Pete has called for would have changed it. What matters is the response, and if the locals feel like no one is helping them then it's probably because no one is helping them.
Bam!
If DeWine drank one glass of tainted water, that is symbolic. In toxicology, “the dose makes the poison”. Let’s see him drink nothing but local well water from now on.
It takes a long time for it to seep into the ground water. Come back in ten or twenty years and drink the water.
The ground does a pretty good job of filtering all but a few inorganic compounds and elements, fortunately.
No actually the soul it doesn’t do a good job of filtering many organic contaminants…that’s why RCRA, Superfund cleanup occurred. After doing studies while working at US EPA of pesticides in groundwater and years of overseeing groundwater sampling in industrial & marine port cleanups & finding concentrations of nearly every of the 60-90 chemicals for which we tested…I gotta say you are dead wrong. There are thousands of pages is such data in the EPA archives. The people in this town deserve a lot better.
Should say the soil though the accidental typo of soul as in the souls of the matter is the issue here. For no good reason these people are being ignored.
Exactly. Whether wells are impacted will be demonstrated in the long-term.
while pregnant!
Flint water crisis. Republican Governor. All over the media.
East Palestine. Democrat Governor. Crickets.
That Republican governor caused the Flint water crisis. He’s garbage.
No he didn't.
The Flint officials caused it because they were careless clowns.
Nowhere did I say he didn't. Just pointing out the obvious. Also Obama came and drank a glass of water and proclaimed it safe.
It’s been on MSM for days, all day on msnbc the day you commented.
Mike DeWine is a Republican Governor.
The obvious question is how Biden would be responding if this had happened in Illinois or New York. I think it would be quite different.
Biden has a hard time remembering what planet he's on and now I'm told he thinks his name is Brandon.
This is a thoughtful fair response, and opened my eyes, so thank you. However, why did Biden go to Ukraine at all??! Doesn’t it only serve to escalate the war? I’m hearing through friends in gov that things are not good at all right now.
Exactly Cissy it’s called a number of things 1. electioneering, 2. Photoshoot and 3. Money laundering. It could be all 3, these dogs are making a fortune of money or it could be 1 of the 3, especially the 1st if they remain in power come 2025 they will continue on the same path making billions of $$$. This is an exceptionally greedy bunch of humans. We best all watch out and watch our backs the deep state is relentless.
The Biden crime family is good at using their high office for skimming money.
Why I call Biden's family a crime family. Watch the video:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/deadline-for-hunter-james-biden-eric-schwerin-passes-to-provide-documents-to-house-oversight-committee/ar-AA17QTpn?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=10a7c32d15024647be0b97902844fbd8&ei=17
Even the despicable comprf can't palm this off.
He won't. He will just talk about Trump like he always does. Deflect deflect deflect.
I doubt he'll ever comment on this. He has a hard time with reality.
The blame for this one is non-partisan: everyone gets some blame. As for your defense of Trump, remember that his deregulation of the railroads started this ball rolling. Biden and company deserve the criticism they are getting, but it burns me a bit to see Trump making political hay out of the consequences of his favoritism toward corrupt corporations.
Do we even know what caused the crash? I haven't seen anything. The only claim I've seen made is that wheel failed somehow.
It's astonishing how quickly people jump to "circle the wagons and fight to the last bullet" conclusions without the least bit of EVIDENCE.
Tried google and speculation is a bearing went out on a wheel. Next to impossible to prevent. No amount of regulation, short of regularly removing every wheel on a train and disassembling to inspect the bearings, could have caught it, and even then... Pete's calls for increased safety do nothing to address the actual cause of the derailment. I don't blame him personally, but his indifference and scholarly approach demonstrates what a terrible politician he is, and the residents of East Palestine are letting America know what they think about all of it. Good for them for sticking up for themselves when no one else seems willing.
"scholarly" how about lazy?
Pete presents himself as the gay Obama - all style and no substance, but with a lot less style.
I have read some talk that there were past proposals to have emergency brakes on all rail cars so that when triggered, it would at least limit the cascading effect of a derailment and keep more of the cars structurally intact. I can't tell how much progress was ever made on that -- it appears the railroad lobbyists spent a bunch of money to make sure it didn't happen. Page 14 here is relevant: https://www.regulations.gov/comment/PHMSA-2012-0082-2329
What will the consumer bear? In the past there has been discussion about simply slowing these trains down, but that reduces efficiency/increases cost per mile. Eventually all excess cost is pushed to customers.
One good thing that can be said about government in this case is that the NTSB will do a good job of figuring out the cause. They're definitely a Federal Agency that does its job and does it well. Probably because they're not super political--pretty much everyone can agree that we should determine the cause of serious transportation accidents.
Until 2020 I would have said the same thing about the CDC. Their recommendations affect hundreds of millions of lives in this country, and when we become the template, billions of lives.
I will hope that you are right, though.
Right, a federal agency that is "not political" is just a federal agency that is not political *yet.*
Scott -- I'm glad to hear it. I didn't know that NTSB had that reputation.
The best thing about the NTSB is that their mission is to find the cause of accidents to effectuate safer transport and pipelines in the future. My experience is that they're not perfect but they generally do a creditable job.
The problem with this view is that government, media, and corporations have made it impossible to trust the government, media, or corporations. It may be objectively true that a wheel failed and that this derailment would not have been preventable. But how will we ever know? None of these organizations -- not the government, not the media, not the corporate railroad -- has any credibility left in the bank. Americans have seen truth too many times made a casualty to personal and corporate profiteering and to furthering political ambitions.
For example, the CDC, DEA, and politicians have taken adequate pain control away from innocent, legitimate pain patients in the name of repairing an opioid epidemic that has only skyrocketed in response to their unjustified prohibition. The experts who wrote the guidelines for the CDC calling for stripping down opioid prescriptions, EVEN FOR PEOPLE WHO LEGITIMATELY NEED THEM, turn out to have had all sorts of financial conflicts, including being positioned to make tons of money from anti-opioid activism. The result? States saw a huge opportunity to make money in lawsuits against drug manufacturers. But ordinary people are being given Tylenol now immediately following painful surgeries like knee replacements and bypasses. Cancer patients are not even getting adequate pain control anymore. Predictable, preventable suffering is widespread and ongoing. Ordinary, non-junkies are literally dying from untreated pain now -- from strokes, from heart attacks, from suicide, and from overdosing on the fentanyl-laced street drugs some turn to in desperation. Does anyone believe DEA members, CDC bigwigs, or our corrupted leaders can't get actual pain control when they or their loved ones need it? Of course not. Being punished simply for being in pain is for ordinary Americans with no voice and no connections.
In another example, back in 2015, the captured FAA and airlines imposed new, highly concentrated airplane routes on cities and neighborhoods around the country. These new routes were designed to save the airlines massive amounts of money in fuel costs by starting descents much further from the airport and to decrease spacing between landing planes so as to increase the number of flights that could be supported by the system. The result for some people on the ground was that airplane noise was massively increased in neighborhoods -- and not neighborhoods where people had knowingly bought homes near an airport, but neighborhoods an hour to an hour and a half away from airports. Where I live, about an hour and a half away from SFO in a once-peaceful mountain community we specifically moved to because of the quiet, we went from hearing planes four or five times a week to 300 planes a day. Sometimes, the noise from one plane is still audible when the next one starts. But the airlines, which lobbied the FAA hard for this change and which have profited from it, cannot be sued because they're only "flying where the FAA tells them to fly." And the FAA can't be sued because everything it does is for "safety" (you know, except when it comes to forcing airlines to provide leg space adequate to allow for fast deplaning in an emergency). The airlines profit enormously, and none of that profit is shared with the people who bear the brunt of the real cost. And FAA executives continue regularly to retire from their government jobs to walk into the waiting, very cushy, $400K-and-up jobs at the airlines they've "regulated."
And on and on and on and on.
So, if some government agency announced tomorrow that yes, indeed, it really WAS just a wheel bearing that caused this tragic train derailment, nothing anyone could have done, really, a tragedy but not a preventable tragedy, no need to blame the government or the corporation in this instance -- my immediate response would be cynical, whole-body skepticism. And that's not because I'm a conspiracy theorist: It's because I have learned from repeated experience that I cannot trust the government when it says anything -- even something that might be objectively true -- that is obviously in its own interest.
Trust is gone. I don't know how we'll ever get it back.
When will we, right, left, independent, INSIST on serious and far reaching measures to reduce, minimize the influence of money in politics?
I don't know how we can, short of a country-wide, consolidated movement to entirely (or majority) replace the existing-party chokehold on representative government all at once. The system we have has efficiently separated us all into small, powerless silos where we have no power and no voice.
The visual image I have of this is of herds of cattle being broken up and driven into separated pens. We bleat and run around in the limited space we have, banging into each other. We aren't allowed out of our pens, just driven in chutes from one to the next, and we can make no headway and have no effect whatsoever on the cowboys sitting on the rails of the pens looking down on us in amusement.
Take my FAA example above ... as a "non-constituent," I'm not even allowed to send an email to the congresspeople who have actual power relating to the country's transportation regulations -- because even though I'm deeply and personally impacted by the laws they write, I don't live in their district. Gatekeepers refuse email access and strip out "geographically inappropriate" snail mail. I'm only allowed to communicate with the representative of my own very limited district/region (and, of course, not even really with her -- only with her underpaid assistants and computer algorithms that scan our letters for keywords and send pre-scripted responses that require no actual engagement, time, or even awareness from the person who supposedly represents us).
I think we'd have much more actually representative government if all of us could choose the person in Congress who represents us. If a Congress person from Florida represents my interests and my political views more closely than my own Congress person in California, I should be able to choose to be a constituent of the Congress person in Florida even though I live in California. The representatives with the most constituents should have more power than those who don't. This would help to keep our Congress people responsive to us rather than to lobbyists, corporations and government agencies we don't elect. But as things stand, the only way I can be represented by a Congress person who actually sees things the way I do or cares about the things I care about is move out of the tiny cattle pen with no reach that I'm already in to a different tiny cattle pen with no reach.
The system we have creates and maintains this insane, divisive, utterly unnuanced tribalism that is destroying us. And the parties we have want to keep it exactly as it is because they have learned how to game it to their exclusive advantage.
Barry -- That's true, but how many times have we never received any reliable evidence at all? I have not found a consistently credible source of information. Have you? As for the wreck, I "heard" from the TV that the bearing was showing fire well before East Palestine, that the central headquarters people were informed by their sensor system that that was happening, that those people instructed the engineers to keep going, and that virtually the same thing happened at another Ohio location a short time ago. We'll see whether all -- or any -- of that turns out to be true. But what is indisputable is that Trump deregulated the railroads, opening the door for this sort of thing.
What does "deregulation" mean? What specific policies were repealed, and how can anyone say they played a role here if we are not even sure what actually happened?
If the people operating the train knew there was a major problem and ignored it, it seems unlikely to me they were operating according to even whatever reduced safety standards may have been introduced by Trump.
It seems likely that Norfok Southern bears the primary responsibility here.
It's odd, I think, that the same people who would reflexively blame "corporations" for, well, everything, would here be defending them tacitly.
And it seems equally obvious that if this derailment had happened during the Trump Presidency YOU would be the first to be blaming the President for everything you could think of. Hell, you're blaming him here, even though he's been out of office for two years.
Somehow, you skipped over the portion of my comment that spread the blame around. I pointed to Trump because I was responding to the comment before mine that attempted to separate Trump from any blame. I don't see many innocent characters here, except the people of East Palestine. I know that there are "good" and "bad" corporations, but I believe that there are certain industries that have shown that they are not capable of handling the self-policing responsibilities that should accompany de-regulation.
Tort law has led to greater protection than government regulations by far. Sue the crap out of those responsible if it is due to some kind of negligence. And if they want to make one change to improve safety further it would be to be able to hold corporate officers personally liable for negligence. In my opinion that would make a world of difference. It would work better than any amount of government regulations which often just provide butt-cover when things fail; they say we followed the regulations and show where these were (inevitably) inadequate.
Jeff -- The problem is that tort litigation is enormously expensive, far too expensive for the average American. There is class action, but usually only the lawyers make out well.
Let alone - it's after the fact. Companies regularly roll the dice on settling litigation over the cost of prevention/regulation.
If you have a strong case it's not that expensive at all - and usually contingency based. PI lawyers work that way all the time. I agree - class action lawsuits are a waste of time for everyone but the lawyers (both sides) and drive costs up for everyone else.
Yes, but having done a couple myself, I know that the cost of a lengthy class action to the plaintiffs is more than just financial.
It is hard to appreciate anything he has done as right, when so much wrong overpowers it. Pete Buttigieg as already noted, has an elitist attitude and is hands off at 30,000 feet. Pete speaks well but it incompetent. Kamala speaks poorly and is laughably incompetent. We have got to get rid of this crew.
I appreciate your thoughtful reply!
Hey. Mayor Pete can’t be bothered on his walk to answer a simple question. But at least he got a picture of the reporter.
EPA and DOT arrived on site within hours, and are still there. The White House offered federal funding nearly immediately. Evacuation orders occurred. Homes and soils were and continue to be tested. In a situation like this, with potential disastrous consequences and a plethora of details to be addressed...no one will be satisfied. Is everyone satisfied, no. Did some things go wrong? Yes. Are people right to be upset? Yes. But this article and many comments here make it sound like no help was offered and the various level of governments have walked away. That is crazy. This simply further politicizes a terrible situation. These sorts of articles ought to outline what happened, EVERYTHING that has happened in response, and WHAT still needs addressed. Interviewing a few obviously, and rightly so, traumatized citizens without also including what is happening on the ground, is bait for those who want to further politicize and deepen the divides between us. One obvious failure of this sort of coverage is lack of mention of the lack of action in Congress for regulation (dirty word) and oversight (costs money...taxes) of these companies, which is way toooo leftist for many commenters here to stomach. Why not put Vance on the spot and ask him what his plans are to make the 1000s of derailments a year a thing of the past? Ask Trump why he lifted regs specific to rail safety during his tenure? And yes....absolutely press democratic legislators as well for comments and answers to these questions! This country’s infrastructure has been deteriorating for years while corporations using it continue to profit.
Thank you. i was going to post a similar comment but you covered it. "The Free Press" is mostly still just a commentary site, not "hard journalism". Running a piece like this that slants the viewpoint from the right and offers just about zero actual facts about the situation but just repeats claims about how the Biden Administration is "neglecting" East Palestine is not "journalism", it's commentary, and it's hard to see what the purpose of the piece is other than to inflame the partisan slant of the commentariat here.
I'm glad to see pushback against this narrative in some of the comments however. I think it's fair to criticize Pete B. for not being on site sooner as a symbolic visit, but being honest, that is just PR. Being "on site" doesn't mean there's no agency presence or coordination happening. And weighing Biden's trip to Ukraine on the anniversary of the war there, and the symbolism of NATO, as "proof" that Biden doesn't care about this town in a Red State is a pretty cheap shot. But if this site wants to be viewed as "journalism", they should try doing more actual "journalism" (aka 'factual reporting') versus "narrative commentary".
Oh so Bari Weiss is now just a right wing nut case? What's 'hard journalism" in your book? The laughably biased and mostly wrong NY Times? Bezos's establishment mouthpiece? Come on, do tell. And btw, we don't need the senile imbecile to "prove" he despises places such as East Palestine. He's told us so. And that white working class people in "flyover" country are nothing but domestic terrorists who want to torture and degrade black people. As much as I despise him, Biden is only a puppet, long into his decline. His supporters and apologists are much, much worse.
Good comment. Don't totally agree with your proposed solution, but I agree with your observations. I had the feeling while reading the article that it was one-sided - designed to stir me up without any balance for the kinds of things that are likely going on but not getting much notice. People want instant results like babies. It's a major accident and takes time to deal with it. The high profile agencies acted stupidly in terms of their appearance of inactivity and indifference. But mostly they just get in the way anyway. Remember all those stupid photo op visits to Katrina and even more recently Ft Myers? So they're damned if they don't and damned if they do. In the long run it's the lower level activities that count. That's what they should be reporting on. Maybe those are inadequate, but I didn't get the feeling from this article that they knew what was happening other than listening to MSM news and repeating it.
I agree with most of your comments. On the high-profile agencies….the DOT and EPA and FEMA are such agencies, I you’d agree. And on the ground stuff certainly gets things done. But these agencies are often highly involved on the ground, scientists and techs, in both determination of cause itself, and the ensuing cleanup. Any importantly, they fund these activities with federal dollars. Locals and States would rarely have needed expertise or funding. I think I get what you’re saying though, which is why all the hysteria over high-profile people (vs agencies) like Buttigieg and for sure Biden, not being there immediately bugs me. At their level it shows high level concern, which means a lot to people who are suffering. On the other hand…it is really a gesture that doesn’t mean much to the actual fix….those agency people working in the field. This not always true, but most often I’d think. I’m waiting to hear more before I criticize too loudly, the response by agencies.
Yeah we gotta give the agencies credit for being science but we also have to wait for them to do the science. Because it’s science and they have to press special buttons.
At no point should we question federal expertise. They are the science experts.
Hey…if you got an idea of how to get railroad corporations to play it straight…have at it Kevin! Heck! If you want to pitch in and run your municipal sewer district, go ahead. If you want to figure out how to remove the tumor from your neighbor’s stomach, more power to you. Want that gas and oil to keep your wheels turning, you don’t need help. if you want to develop a medicine for your dad’s heart troubles, why not? Who needs an expert? Who needs government ? Who needs science? This whole anti-science/education/ expert crap is absurd. No one suggested we never question expertise. In reality if these are things that interest you….go ahead. Study organic and inorganic chemistry, physics, calculus, engineering, hydrology, toxicology…stuff like that for 6 to 8 years and you could do any of the above, even help figure out how clean up East Palestine for the folks suffering there.
"No one suggested we never question expertise."
Really? How about the demented dwarf who brayed "oy represent soy-yence" and his Greek Chorus of moronic acolytes? No he doesn't represent science. Science involves constant questions. The science is never settled. A real scientist - not a fraud like Fauci - observed "We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain.” Richard Feynman.
Sure they showed up. And then proceeded to engage in some of the most questionable, boneheaded and contradictory acts imaginable. So excuse me if I view you as a DNC apologist. This was a significant industrial catastrophe. I find it funny to recall the angst and wailing that arose over Bhopal but the sniggering indifference that affects a working class white community in "flyover country."
Who is sniggering?
Every coastal elite in corporate media looks down on and ridicules working Americans who live in the Heartland. Did you miss that?
Of course. You’re the victim, persecuted by my words. You sound brainwashed and fed by your chosen echo chamber, unable to respond rationally or without insults to those who might disagree with you. Again, Congress (I think I mentioned both sides of isle) has the power to both fix this and prevent or reduce future tragedies in the future: pass and fund infrastructure bills and fund regulating agencies to enforce safety measures. That’s the only way capitalism can work. Every one of us needs to see the fundamental problem and vote to fix it.
The person you are referring to is not fed by the echo chamber, Ann - he feeds it. His last sentence above in his response to your previous post is his preferred comeback to anyone who is but a molecule left of his position. And his modus operandi of rabid riposte gives cover for other commenters to act the same..
Oh well.
Sure Kevin can be a bit rough at times. But his "rabid ripostes" (not bad) do serve to lay bare and ridicule the hypocrisy and lies of the left. Which makes him a favorite here.
I'm glad you liked that. I went into my thesaurus for that one..
Of course there's hypocrisy on the left, I try to fight it everyday - and of course Fox has that problem too.
The problem I have is that I know that Kevin is very smart and articulate as hell, if he wants to be. But that is not what he wants to project here. He chooses to use his skills (considerable) to attack and ridicule. That not only stifles meaningful debate to whom he's addressing, he's stifling himself, imo..
Thank you Ann. Well said.
Exactly how do you regulate wheel bearings??? Btw, if your "vote to fix it" doesn't work, then what? Seems like one Party had all the power for the past 2 years and did squat with it. Republicans had no power to oppose Mayor Pete's calls for increased railroad safety regulation before the vote on the "Infrastructure" bill. Oh wait, he didn't make any.
In fact, you can regulate brakes on trains. In 2018, the DOT repealed a train safety rule established in 2015 that required installing electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes on trains that carried highly flammable hazardous materials. These brakes safely stop trains much much faster than regular brakes. I do vote to fix things, and was happy Congress passed the Infrastructure bill during 2021. I would call that “squat” as you say. Whether or how it addresses rail lines I don’t know, but I do know it funds upgrades to airport safety systems and bridges, thank god. I won’t go into the partisan battles fought to pass it, but in the end it was passed with only 32 GOP supporters. I don’t know what was fought over, included, or thrown out. All that said, the brake legislation was repealed in 2018 by the Trump administration because costs were touted to outweigh benefits. I will add that this particular train in Ohio was not carrying “highly flammable hazardous materials”, by definition, 😳, so wouldn’t have been required to have ECP brakes. Well…That’s one hugely glaring problem I think we could agree on!! So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. Think about it. That’s the problem. The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation. We will see how the clean up goes as time goes by…it takes time to sort out these environmental disasters.
I said wheel bearings, not breaks. Trains could also just go slower, but whatever your preferred solution that is added cost that consumers will be made to bear.
"The last decades have been increasingly anti fed regulation." Says who? According to the Federal Register, 3000-4000 new rules and regulations are implemented every year.
"So no, this train would not have been covered by that regulation anyhow, and more importantly we now know trains carrying even more dangerous flammables aren’t required to have these ECO brakes now either. "
In other words , a patent red herring and lying DNC talking point You, to your credit, have the honesty to concede that. The DNC flacks do not.
The only reason you would burn this, set this fire and attract all of this attention, is if it’s an absolute catastrophe when this eventually leeches into the groundwater.
That is the only reason you would burn it.
Not exactly. The vinyl chloride can spontantously polymerize releasing a very significant amount of heat and produce numerous chlorinated aromatics, which are carcinogens and other chlorinated materials that are poisonous, not to mention hydrochloric acid. Burning it is terrible, but likely less dangerous than allowing it to react on its own. Either way is a catastrophe.
Are you saying that by burning it those carcinogens were not created?
Burning it oxidizes the materials, so fewer noxious chemicals are produced., but certainly not zero. An uncontrolled polymerization could cause an explosion that would send out a lot of stuff over a much wider area. A controlled burn is likely one accepted method of destroying vinyl chloride.
I just learned that butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate were also on that train. These are also chemicals that polymerize and release heat, not to mention their extreme irritation to skin and eyes. Carcinogens as well.
A real witches' brew of crap.
**Flint, MI has entered the chat**
**exploiting Blacks to push your psychotic agenda has entered the chat**
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMichaels fan member pretends to be concerned about that.
John Fetterman saw a black man jogging and John Fetterman, a Democrat, grabbed his shotgun to chase said black man down the street.
He saw the black skin. He grabbed the shotgun. He chased him down.
It's cute that a Chauvin/McMicharls fanboy who can't even get the Emmett Till story right pretends to be upset about Fetterman.
Geez Compost - talk about a one-trick pony. I see raaaaaciissssssmmmm everywhere….
I am not pretending to be upset about Fetterman. I’m not upset about it at all.
Fetterman is an obese white skinhead who chased a black man down the street with his shotgun. You support him.
This is not about being upset. This is about what you support.
You support blacks being chased down the street by obese skinheads with shotguns.
Maybe they can give Palestine some advice on how to get Federal attention.
Flint, MI was and is an ongoing tragedy, caused by incompetent progressive government.
Uh. No. Might want to look into that.
Victor Orban has his issues, but at least he knows he's the President of Hungary and his job is to protect and defend and promote the interests of Hungarians.
President Biden seems to think he's President of the world. And he doesn't appear to even like most of his deplorable fellow Americans, let alone want to defend their interests.
I think he just likes to cut a figure, wherever the opportunity arises. He often has a totally genuine looking smile when capering about making an ass of himself. Very unique. Clownish.
That illusion was shattered when they mandated an experimental gene therapy on the population for profit and Lord knows why else. Our current leaders and the global elite that control them do not care about any human life but their own. We are being lead by crooks and demons. Most can't see it and those that do fear speaking it or they will get canceled. Anyone still under the illusion that our leaders care about us, well, they are living in a fantasy world.
It gets worse. The latest news is that we're handing over policy power to the WHO so they have total control over our country if (when) they declare pandemic again. We're watching our representatives hand our sovereignty and our democracy away to corrupt, unelected international organizations while they hardly even pay lip service to disasters at home. While Joe Biden declares that "democracy stands" because he's escalating the war in Ukraine.
That's the same WHO, btw, that said closing borders to the virus was racism.
This should be the biggest news in the country. It's their backdoor to global government whether we want it or not.
Joe Biden never stops talking about his son dying from ‘burn pits’ because his son was once in the same country as the alleged ‘burn pits’.
And now Joe Biden wants Americans to move back into a neighborhood with the world’s largest ever burn pit. Because of science. You can’t make this shit up.
This reminds me of when Democrats exploited a child with a speech impediment at the 2020 DNC to garner sympathy votes while Democrats nationally implemented masking policy that would create an epidemic of speech impediments.
I never tire of watching that corrupt, despicable imbecile falling UP the stairs. There have been presidents I have disliked over my lifetime but never one I have so despised and reviled. I cannot fathom what my fellow Americans were thinking when they voted for Biden - who was at least twice before laughably rejected by the public and was regarded as a corrupt and relatively stupid senator of little accomplishment. As I noted to a friend who announced before the election "If I had the choice to vote for Trump or a pile of shit on that table, I'd vote for the pile of shit" - Well you got your wish.
I don’t know if that’s fair! Shit can sometimes be used as fertilizer and has some use
I don’t know how much suffering you are willing to endure to prove your friend wrong but I’m voting for Biden in 2024.
Even if you make DeSantis emperor, at this point, he can’t fix this. So it’s better to have a Democrat holding the steering wheel as Democrat policy bankrupts us.
I’m not joking. You look at what happened after Obamacare and voters are capable of getting it. But you first have to let Democrats rule……..so that they can fail.
I take your point, Kevin but this is our country you're talking about.
Right. So net net what is the best approach? I think it’s better if Democrats are in charge when the collapse happens.
If you think we can avoid collapse that’s a different discussion. I don’t think it can be avoided.
Truth is I just don't know. The $31 trillion debt number is frightening. Will there be a sovereign debt default? Can we reverse this madness? Is America still a serious nation and is the rot too deep? I don't know. But I'd rather try to fix it than try to pick up the pieces after it all blows up.
The $32,000,000,000,000 debt coupled with high interest.
This is a fair point. It is a tough call. Rock bottom is a real thing and that’s what I think we need.
I can't help but jump in, Bruce.
I have to admit that the Biden pile on has been entertaining with all the usual suspects here involved. But in response to your debt number - it is frightening. I agree. But to put things in perspective, before the Covid shitshow our federal debt as a % of GDP was very close to the EU's. They have extremely high debt as well. Two wrongs don't make a right, but with the dollar still the reserve currency of the world economy and with investors still hankering for our Treasuries (debt limit increase lurking..), we're still the adult in the room (though that's not saying too much). Will things blow up with derivatives leading the way? Perhaps, but it won't be only us. The entire financial system (including China) will go down.
Strange point of view. Anyway, DeSantis has my vote. He did a great job with the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. I feel confident he would have handled the East Palestine situation well.
He is very well situated as a governor.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for. Powers greater than you or I will determine the outcome.
You're expressing a rational concept, that Democrats would be rightly blamed for their failures. If 2022 proved anything its that Democrats don't care at all about the price of bread if the ability to kill the unborn is on the ballot.
Things need to get so bad even the corporate DNC presstitutes can't ignore it.
That level of bad is impossible to imagine.
Kevin I agree wholeheartedly. The Dem's, media, progressives have zero handle on the debt ceiling issue. The inflation caused by Biden (Oil prices spikes and the federal Money Orgy Acts that Joe, Nancy & Chuck signed) required the Fed to raise rates. We now have 31 trillion-dollar ARM adjustable-rate mortgage. The US Federal Government budget is just like an overbuilt subdivision outside of Vegas in 2008. Let them play how long can I stay in the house after foreclosure.
They weren't voting for Biden. They were voting against Trump.
I'd almost feel sorry for him for elder abuse if he wasn't such a terrible person.
You can’t make this shit up!!!
What’s going on in East Palestine follows the same script as most events that which occur that the government wants the public to ignore or forget about.
Step 1- Don’t acknowledge it happened
Step 2- If it gets traction in the public, ignore the event to the greatest extent possible and provide only limited information
Step 3- This will inevitably lead to people believing there is a cover-up of some kind and they will throw out a bunch of accusations...some right, some wrong
Step 4- Seize on the wrong ones and call those people conspiracy theorists who can not be trusted.
Step 5- If things don’t die down then, make the most modest appeal to make it seem like you care (ie- show up at an accident scene 3 weeks after the fact)
Step 6- Give the “what else do you wants us to do” shrug.
Rinse and repeat.
You must have attended the seminar at the DNC convention. Its SOP for Donkeys.
Excellent post!
You forgot 1.5: create absurd news story as diversion.
“Spy balloons” my ass.
Agreed, Gordon. Though it suspiciously also sounds like Bush re Katrina in 2005.
Well of course they are being ignored by Biden and the elites, they voted for the other guy! They are not American citizens, they are MAGA's and so too bad, the elites have other things to do for people who matter, like college professors and tech companies.
And they are right, the media will get bored and move on and that will be the end of that.
Then we can all get back to policing pronoun violations, canceling people for dead naming, and wearing pussy hats while calling for trans feminism. Really important stuff, ya know.
The same people who wore N95s alone in their car are on here telling us vinyl chloride and phosphene gas - nO BiG DeAl —RIIIGGGHHTTT
Truth is what the government says it is, right?
I believe it's called democratspeak
This is an accident that is a tragedy for East Palestine, but also one that has resonance for all Americans, because it is easy to imagine similar accidents and similar fallout happening almost anywhere.
It was a mistake of the Biden Administration not to show up. As well, the combination of Biden's trip to Ukraine plus his failure to show up in East Palestine does no favors for American support for Ukraine.
In another contrast, I find it absurd that we are not responding to this accident to figure out how to reduce the incidence of other climate ruining accidents while spending vast sums trying to lower global temperatures slightly many years from now. Like the Ukraine visit, doing both is fine, but doing one without the other is galling.
Blowing up the Nordstream pipeline was a climate ruining intentional act by Biden. But oddly, no environmentalists seem to notice or care.
Amazingly ignored story. An act of war with no congressional input/oversight
Well, the powers that be are still denying it.
Who else could manage it so capably? The lack of reaction by the U.S. speaks volumes.
Well they would wouldn’t they! ( Mandy Rice Davis on the exposing of the Profumo scandal in Britain)
The fact that the corporate legacy press is so thoroughly ignoring the story lends to its credibility, in my view.
C'mon, it's clear that rail cars are safer than pipelines. What are you - a MAGA conspiracy nut?
Interesting comment, NC.
You're throwing allegations around like water. Pretty much like the other tribe does to Trump..
Saying that Biden blew up the pipeline would require proof (I know there's a story out there..). Is there actionable proof? Not yet.. Is there a cover-up? Who knows.
I think it's similar to saying that Trump orchestrated Jan 6 by his comments on stage, of which we all heard. But is there proof he intended those comments to be taken literally? No. Could it be simply freedom of speech? Could be.
Is there proof he orchestrated Jan 6 from behind the scenes prior? Not yet. Is there a cover-up? Who knows. Proof is needed.
Something to keep in mind..
Lee, take it up with Seymour Hersch. He says he has a deep throat source(s).
But does he have proof? And why would you take the word of an NYT alumni who's going for the big scoop?
It's like me taking the NYT's word there were Russian intelligence ties to the Trump campaign. Where's the proof?
Well you may ask. But would Hersh spoil his reputation to embarrass a fellow democrat?
He obviously believes his name carries a lot weight. Enough weight that sources need not be named. He's betting his reputation is enough to pull it off. I don't think he cares who he nails.
I was talking about the Keystone Pipeline
They all bullshit David!
Where is the coverage of What Changed, or What didn't change but should. Railways are not new technology. There have been management metrics for decades on train composition, track maintenance, enroute monitoring, etc. Who owns the railroad and what has their ownership changed?
This whole disaster coverage seems to be tribal bickering. When will we see coverage of the details of who are the owners, what are their connections, what changed, and what needs to change. Railroads are going to run through untold thousands of East Palestines. What should be done to reduce this sort of problem? Having spent a life in tech, I see the explosion of low cost microprocessor technology that should be applied to monitor bearing temps, side loads indicating track problems, etc. I suspect that it is not being applied because of the Woke fixation and the incredible incompetence of the Boomer Democrat leadership in government and industry.
Obviously the first line of responsibility is the ownership. Who owns it, who is in charge of setting policy for managing this? There is almost zero coverage of that. I suspect there is a huge story of insider connections that should be reported.
Yes, 💯 agree. Jordan Peterson did a fascinating interview with Temple Grandin. In it she again and again touched on something I haven’t heard much about anywhere else that I believe could have relevance here: that the blue collar experts who run all of our infrastructure are graying and there is no one to replace them. We don’t and haven’t for a long time had much in the way of high school vocational training and everyone is pushed to go to college or give up. We aren’t training enough people to take over when the graying generation retires. My guess is that this is one component of the crash: not enough people are left to maintain the trains and tracks who really know what they are doing.
I’ve never thought about this, but it’s so true! As a former teacher, “college readiness” lingo begins in first grade…yes, you read that correctly. On the one hand we are to “teach to the individual need of each student”, yet at some point it’s easy to see that many students are just not interested in continuing their education beyond high school. Then what happens? They feel looked down upon because they’ve chosen not to go on the path they’ve been told is best for them. I love what Mike Rowe has done to encourage kids to go to trade school where they can have a successful and important profession with good pay. This constant push for college has become so hurtful and wrong.
But extremely lucrative for progressive academia.
Ironically, the return on a college education for the price continues to go lower and lower, except outside of certain fields that are certainly not suited for everyone.
So, contrary to Dick Illyes and countless others opinions, Boomers provide a vital service in this arena?
BlackRock and Vanguard are two of the biggest investors in Norfolk Southern. They were also huge contributors to Biden. The people of East Palestine are fungible.
>>They were also huge contributors to Biden.<<
Uh, yes—but not in the way you're implying. In fact, BlackRock—like all big financial companies—plays both sides against the other and contributes hugely (to quote 45) to candidates on all sides of the political spectrum.
The Norfolk Southern Railroad Company owned the train.
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent piece on the company and the other train derailments it's been involved with here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/norfolk-southerns-train-derailment-in-ohio-damages-esg-credentials-esg-insight-eaf909d5
There should have been quality reviews after the first several derailment. Steps taken to determine the cause action steps to change/reduce such derailments, etc. if there had been, they would have shared those protocols with the public. At this point it is clear the RR has been ignoring a known defect/fault. This is unforgivable.
Dick, I humbly think the culprit here is as old as capitalism itself. Cost cutting. There was a railway catastrophe in Quebec a few years ago, taking the lives of forty or so people -mostly vaporized by the exploding petroleum in tanks when a train derailed in their town. What went wrong? The one man responsible (remember one man..!) for the seventy three car train had a sleep break in a hotel and idled the train with the brakes engaged. Well guess what, brakes failed, the train rumbled on the down slope into town, cars derailed, and the ensuing conflagration made the East Palestine fire look like a pop gun.
If there were other employees involved all of it would have been avoided.
East Palestine might not have happened if there were employees for the requisite mechanical train and track maintenance, it might have been avoided if other locomotives were involved so that the train could be decoupled. But that takes more employees to be hired.
It stands to reason that if railways continue to run trains with only one or two people in charge, they will be overwhelmed by events.
Cost cutting.
“The problem is capitalism we need even more power.”
-Lee and Stalin
The problem is not capitalism, Kevin. Don't reveal yourself to be an idiot as well as insufferable. (Well, I'm sure if someone gets to know you you're okay. Does anyone know you?)
Capitalism is the only thing that works. I think you in a lucid moment would agree. But it does need to be guided. Are you happy with one or two engineers on a train? If so, buy a home near the tracks and wait for the fun to begin. There's only a thousand derailments a year in this country.
But then I do remember you thought it might be Putin behind all this..
An edit: Just to let you know, I did know Stalin in a prior life. He send his regards..
I agree. And the plane situation and airport/runway/FAA situation is scary. As are ships and ports. Makes me wonder what we are getting from a Department of Transportation if they just do the bidding of those they are to be regulating.
Yes on that. I guess it's the price we are paying for the religion of deregulation. Great for free market capitalism, but maybe not so great for safety..
I would say it is the price we pay for overregulation of minutiae to the extent that the stuff that matters falls through the cracks. We have been funding infrastructure since 2009. Where has all that money gone?
Can't agree there. Though I respect your opinion.
Railways have successfully lobbied for bare crews transporting volatile and toxic chemicals. The governments of either party have acceded to that. The stuff that matters has fallen through the cracks, but only because real people are not manning their posts. Because they are not being paid to. It's deregulation.
Coming soon - a commercial 200 passenger plane with one pilot. And after you and I are gone, no pilots.
It's not a problem with minutiae here (always liked that word..) - in my opinion it's the overview that's missing. Think of Tesla with its huge recall of its self driving system. Six years too late because there was no oversight on something clearly defective and misleading. That is the government's fault for letting us be guinea pigs.
Same with railways. I'm ranting. Sorry, Lynne.
Rant away. But I think we do agree. Just because I am opposed to big government does not mean I want no government. I want effective government.
I was going to expound but I am so weary of the Boomer hate. Do your own research. It is not simple though so I have no confidence in your ability to do so.
If you do your own research you will find that the Wokesters are driving the capable out of all positions of responsibility. They have taken over HR and have mastered screwing up meetings. They are a plague that is destroying competent management. They are cluelesss and seem incapable of self awareness. Virtue signalling has replaced decisiuon making.
I am uncertain how you define Wokesters but since your other comment specified Boomers it takes no research to know that they are being replaced as they are 58 - 80 years of age. It is a natural progression. If by Wokesters you mean hiring by checking boxes I agree. That does not require much research either.
In the past, the Republicans were often accused of being apathetic to the needs of the masses.
And then the Democrats looked at them and said, "Hold my expensive, limited edition, organic IPA."
Humor aside, I thought I couldn't hate an administration worse than I hated W's, but wow. From the top down, it's nothing but a bunch of incompetent, self-entitled a-holes, and worse of all, the media gives them coverage. If I have to see one more headline about how "brave" Biden was to go to Ukraine, I may need a new computer.
💯
Excellent piece in DOOMBURG(another Substack that mostly deals with energy issues) on this disaster. We have a terrible infrastructure problem in America(wherever does that money go that the FEDS keep shoveling out????). It is disgusting thst we can blithely send 100 BILLION to Ukraine and do so little for OUR people.
Most of that money is going right into the pockets of our already wealthy, elite, deep state ruling class.
In.Their.Pockets.
Nailed it.
Surely there are independent toxicologists who can assess the presence of toxic chemicals in water and soil and air. I hope they are running their labs at full tilt. We need to know the persistence of those chemicals and their breakdown products in the soil and water. The people of E. Palestine need data and a press conference, followed by lawyers. Oh, yes, they will be showing up. That might get people’s attention. Where is the Ohio AG?
What was the movie about a woman going after some company that inflicted environmental damage?
Yes but Erin Brockovich was a liberal Democrat and so, a heroine, in a different age when Democrats actually cared (or at least made a good show) about working class people and weren't in bed with the servile corporate class.
Erin is showing up in Ohio. Brockovich brand is chemical disasters and more power to her and drawing media attention to this issue.
The residuals from the spill won't stay in East Palestine. What doesn't pond or seep into the ground will be washed away when it rains. Kinda like a giant shower for the town. In this case, the streams and larger waterways will be the drain. They really need to test beyond the spill/smoke plume area. I suspect if they do thorough testing they're likely to find lots of nasty stuff, a lot of it not even related to THIS accident.
Love Canal. When we all learned the word, “dioxin”
The difference with Love Canal is that it was a big pit where all the chemicals remained, until they seeped into the groundwater and eventually residential basements. The best thing that could happen to East Palestine is a good rain. For folks downstream, not so much
https://images.app.goo.gl/2u8T2ed8fV8K8CmJA
Nothing to worry about. Global warming, er climate change is the real threat.
This is not my bailiwick but from what I am reading out of my personal curiosity is that it will be a legal nightmare to determine liability. Not just as to causation but literally who owns what.
Where’s Greta Thunberg and the rest of the environmental chattering classes who want to control every aspect of our lives, but are nowhere to be found when the real stuff happens? Where is Canada’s virtue signalling prime minister Trudeau, and his environmental intelligentsia guru Steven Guilbault? Canada is just across Lake Erie from Ohio. Winds and currents surely have brought these dangerous chemicals into Canada already. The Liberal party in Canada is like the Democrats on steroids. The boss you around, control every aspect of your life, take your money and send it to their globalist friends in Davos and Kyiv political parties who are big on talk, and little on any action that actually matters to the hard working citizens, you know “those people” the ones WHO PAY THEIR SALARIES.
The elite class could care less for these people.
This disaster was the result of bipartisan incompetence and corruption. Nobody paid it much mind until they figured out the publicity angle, and once that's been spent the people of this town will be on their own. And corporate media can't fathom why people are angry and don't trust them or the government. I think CNN should send Don Lemon and have him report back to his co-hosts; they will get to the bottom of this mess.
This article is fundamentally dishonest. Biden didn't show up because he offered DeWine help and DeWine refused it. Also, the train derailed because Trump repealed a rule put in place by Obama that required better braking systems on trains carrying hazardous materials. That repeal happened because Norfolk Southern, among others, lobbied Trump and made big campaign contributions. That's the real story, not your republican talking point crap that ignores the truth and spins it to look like Trump is the white knight riding into town to save the poor damsels in distress.
I am sorry, Biden still can show up. Last time I checked he is still president of US, and doesn't need approval of DeWine to come to Ohio. Same goes for Kamala and Mayor Pete.
Biden had choice to go to Ohio or to Ukraine, he maid his choice.
Mayor Pete is scheduled to be there Thursday. Presidents usually don't go to disasters immediately afterwards because their presence, including their security details, put strain on local services which is detrimental to recovery efforts. EPA officials have been on the ground since day 1 and FEMA does not respond to man-made emergencies.
As a regular Twitter user, I find in impressive how whenever someone suggests that Mayor Pete isn’t doing a good job, eager defenders quickly show up to praise him. My instinct is always that these are paid posters, much like Meghan Markle’s paid defenders. What do you think?
Even if Bruce is a paid poster he's one of the most pathetic ones I've seen. These posts by Brucey are pure gold. He's living proof that Trump lives in his mind too.
It always nice to have some comedic relief in the comments section here.
It’d be funny if it wasn’t so utterly stupid
Agreed, Han
Shills.
Another fun experiment is to point out that the change in vaccine schedule is extremely closely correlated to the rise of autism.
Watch how instantly the pharma shills attack . Same thing happened with covid but of course they had government shilling for them on that one.
Derailment happened on February 3rd. Thursday is February 23rd. If he literally waked, he would arrived there in 3 days. If he took a car, 4 hours.
What was Mayor Pete doing 20 days????
Presidents do go to major disasters, literally every singe one has gone and visited place of major disasters in US.
Mayor Pete was busy fretting about the number of straight white men in construction.
He told a reporter yesterday that he was taking some personal time. This is what he’s excelled at in this position. The nerve…
What was Mayor Pete doing 20 days????
Washing diapers?
Maybe he’s still breastfeeding.
Probably still trying to get his breast pump to work.
Enjoying private time.
Joe Biden’s son died from burn pits.
In Iraq. lol
His son is a hero, Bruce. It’s like he is a son and he is shrrrmvkk and other hfshjsdhhb!!!
A real American hero, this guy.
Even the horrifically bad bush ii flew over hurricane devastation and was on the ground within a day or two. Biden not only didn’t show up he is telling another country America will pay their social security for them.
Thanks for the well reasoned, fact based discussion guys. Sure makes me have confidence that Free Press is solving the bias in journalism problem by letting the facts lead rather than the politics, and you commenters are really astute. Just gotta say it. Oh, and I am actually just a bot.
Is it fact based to assign blame for the crash when we don't know what the cause of the crash was?
And from what I read, Dewine did in fact request assistance and was turned down. You claimed the contrary.
Here is one link: https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/special-reports/train-derailment/train-derailment-east-palestine-ohio-governor-mike-dewine-federal-help-fema/95-cb611bd6-1b2d-4b26-95d1-e1d85856d4b8
"Mayor Pete is scheduled to be there Thursday"
You mean that Alfred E. Neuman looking "guy"? I heard he was busy doing photo shoots for the rebirth of Mad Magazine.
So should it be called the Federal Office of Natural Emergency Management?
And just to be clear, is it the case in your understanding that they would play no role in the event of nuclear or chemical weapons attacks, both of which are manmade?
This particular train was not affected by the rule change under the Trump administration.
The fact that Act Blue and other Democratic Party talking point distributors are pushing this “Trump’s fault!” falsehood reveals a fundamental dishonesty and inability to lead.
At this point, any time I see Twitter blame Trump I assume it's false.
Or think.
“Also, the train derailed because Trump repealed a rule put in place by Obama”
———————————————————-
Joe Biden is President. He could have reinstated this alleged rule, you moron.
Also, the train did not derail because of the brakes, you moron.
What problem in this country do Democrats not blame on Trump, or anyone else they think it might stick to? What Democrat in this country has EVER made a mistake about anything?
BULLSHIT........Just BULLSHIT.
Biden is the President of the United States. Ohio is a state. He does not need DeWine accepting his help to do the right thing and at least show the hell up. It costs nothing. It requires no approval from the governor. What Trump did or did not do is meaningless to Biden getting off his ass and going to the scene. Nada.
And yeah, Trump showing up and Biden or any senior admin official not showing up, is precisely why Ohio will go republican again. If it does not happen in the Boston to DC corridor or in CA it just is not a priority for democrats.
No the state or local government must request it for a national emergency to be declared. The request for aid for NOLA was not made after Hurricane Katrina.
Lynne, DeWine did request that but that was not my point. My point is that there was and is nothing stopping Biden from visiting other than his own judgement.
Very true. But I am thinking that the optic of the self-avowed pro union President appearing at a significant train derailment less than two months after stuffing it to the rail union was too dismal for even him to deny.
Dewine not accepting Biden’s offer of help isn’t the same as the President not visiting a disaster site. Or the f-ing secretary of transportation. Reporting on Trump’s arrival isn’t talking point crap, it’s simply called news. Sorry, Trump not President for 3 years, this one’s on Biden administration.
Maybe Dewine remembers Reagan's warning about the nine most terrifying words in the English language:
"I'm from the government and I'm here to help"
So that’s why everyone commenting is up in arms about Biden not visiting. Got it.
Is that the talking point you received this morning from the DNC? Or do you make up this delusional nonsense all on your own?
The train would not have been subject to the rule you cite and DeWine doesn't control Biden's actions. Or more important - inactions.
Why do Democrats lie incessantly? Well, like the scorpion - it's in their nature.
Bruce, regardless of whether or not an overheated wheel bearing was the cause of this derailment, the 'Obama brakes' would have contributed *nothing* to the safe operation of this specific train. As Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, tweeted "The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars."
In her tweet thread, which can be read here https://twitter.com/JenniferHomendy/status/1626379352215547906, she asks that people stop spreading *misinformation* about the Obama brakes.
Regardless, Joe and Pete have been in office more than 2-years now. They own it - East Palestine and ECP brakes - and no one else at this point.
Maybe YOU can finally enlighten me: what precisely happened to cause this train to derail? You must have access to information I haven't seen.
Also, DID Dewine refuse help? I haven't read that. A link would be very helpful.
While they do need a stronger response to this toxic mess I agree the article was a bit more emotional then needed. Free Press is stronger with a more nuanced voice. The line about Biden “ never mentioning” paid leave again is misleading. That agreement was less then 2 weeks ago.
Tulsi Gabbard ? She is looking for the media angle. Now JF Vance is in office, he could do something
Biden does need to act or this will be his Katrina
A bit more emotional than needed? Good. So next time you’re credulously lapping up emotionally manipulative pro-Democrat propaganda, please try to notice this phenomenon. Thanks.
That agreement was signed on December 2 2022 a bit more than two weeks ago. Even this atrocity was more than two weeks ago. Nuance my aunt Fanny. That’s for journalists who are afraid to state facts.
I guess you want the soppy emotionalism in the Ukraine reporting.
Do you think he even knows what Katrina is?
As much as I loathe Bush.
The same thing happened in Louisiana. Bush offered help and they turned him down. Who took the brunt of that decision?
I take your point but it is my understanding that brakes were not the cause of the derailment. If true to blame Trump for this is disingenious.
From the video I have seen and the reports I have read, it was wheel bearings that overheated. There are actually sensor boxes along the tracks that look to catch that and are supposed to notify the train operator when it is detected. No idea why that system would appear to have failed.
It's our decrepit infrastructure
Lynne!! Please. Of course the brakes aren’t to blame. Why do you ever listen to these people??
If they say it, it is a lie. Okay?
Oopsie. I forgot my place, didn't I?
Absolute shame on the 10 people who clicked ‘like’ on this transparent Act Blue talking point.
Shame on you, you disgusting subhuman scumbags.
I understand your frustration, but even though I often fail to practice his principles in my own life, my brain and experience tell me that Dale Carnegie was right about pretty much everything. He didn't describe the way things SHOULD be, but rather how they ARE.
Amen; thank you for this! What is happening in East Palestine is horrible; to say it’s Joe Biden’s fault is insanity.
Have you been drinking the East Palestine water?
"train was not considered to be carrying hazardous material"
Vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, and ethylhexyl acrylate are hazardous materials.
But I agree DeWine has been on this.
Also an Ohioan.
They are but are a lower class than the rule change would have impacted.
I get that; but manifestly those classifications need to be revisited.
Agreed.
Thank you FP for hosting Zito here. She channels the spirit of “Middle America” like no other. I love her stuff
Remember when both Biden and Harris dropped everything to visit Jacob Blake in hospital, a criminal who broke a restraining order, digitally raped his ex and then tried to resist arrest? East Palestine residents just need to orchestrate a white cop racist scenario and they’ll get all attention they desperately need.