The only ethical choice the railroad has at this point is to buy every building in East Palestine at the price it would have fetched one week BEFORE the derailment, cover the costs of relocating residents and provide each household with a substantial (at least $20K per home) stipend to replace all items of upholstered furniture, clothing and anything else that cannot be reliably cleaned of airborne chemical toxins, and call the town a total loss. It won't happen, of course - that would cost the railroad real money, which is what they hope to avoid - but it's the only thing that would make the injured parties (basically every single person who lives or owns a business in East Palestine) anything close to whole. I'd love to see the entire town organize and push for exactly this and not allow the story to fade away.
I'm glad you covered this so well. I just don’t have the physical energy to write many pieces and I am focusing on the Climate Crisis. You nailed the essence of what's happening with the railroads.
I wrote about this last November when Biden and Pelosi blocked a railway workers strike in order to save Christmas shopping. I said the railway workers should "fuck Biden and fuck the Democrats" and strike anyway.
The billionaire class are "cashing in their chips" in industry after industry. They are sucking billions out of the economy in dividends and stock buy backs. They are running the industrial infrastructure into the ground.
They are acting like there is no tomorrow.
They have access to better Climate models and information than we do. The most informed are making moves and the "hangers on" are copying them.
It's already warm for this time of year. We are about to have a MASSIVE El Nino.
This November will feel like last July.
Global Agricultural Output is going to fall this year by 40%-50%. That's going to last for 4-6 years.
Things are really being held together by duct tape and prayers right now in the US. It's about to get much worse.
In addition to the Climate Crisis we are about to start experiencing an Infrastructure Crisis. All the things we have been warning people about are going to happen all at once.
Another toxic hazardous disaster happens in quiet mid America and the media kicks into high gear with a massive brain massage of stories how the danger is past and how some other naughty chemical railcars remained unscathed and were removed out of the danger zone. The point is if there was a positive spin to this disaster anywhere it was promoted to getting posted for public consumption. This adds up to the national disease known as public health is not as important as private profits. It's chronic in this country. From the top down to local government actors.
This Ohio train derailment encapsulates everything broken with America in 2023.
The rail lobby got Obama era regulators to reclassify what was considered “hazardous cargo.” And then under Trump the same lobbyists successfully fought off new standards for rail brakes.
So over worked rail workers hauling hazardous materials that are no longer classified as hazardous on crappy brakes have a very, very predictable accident.
And our mainstream media does everything it can to delete the lobbying/money part of the story.
All as our Secretary of transportation and President cower lest they inconvenience the rail barons or cost them one penny.
To call it all a “dumpster fire” is an insult to dumpster fires.
When I was a kid around 1960, one of the first issues I heard of was "featherbedding," by which the railroads complained that the unions would not allow them to lay off "unnecessary" workers like firemen, who were deemed unnecessary because most trains by then had transitioned to diesel engines. Of course, in the USA, the bosses won that.
I thought about this after the Amtrak crash in 2015 in Philadelphia, caused because Amtrak was following the same method of paring down the labor force. As the train rolled into Philly, there was a lot going on because there were kids throwing stones at it. This distracted the engineer, who then lost track of a speed limit change, which caused the crash. They arrested him and charged him with all sorts of things, but a jury acquitted him on all counts.
Companies love to talk about "lean management" which means they assume that any job, no longer how dangerous, requires only enough workers to handle a good situation. So this is how they staff. When an unusual situation arises, there's no one to handle it. This is how catastrophes arise. Almost everyone, workers and bystanders, pay the cost of this, while the moneybags get away with murder.
As others have pointed out, East Palestine only registers not because it is so big, but because of its immediacy. America is full of cancer hotspots--icily described by Chris Hedges as "economic sacrifice zones"--that are as bad as East Palestine. Louisiana's Cancer Alley comes to mind. But those places are full of poor, black and brown people. Of course they get incinerators and creaky, leaky plants. And nobody cares.
Now that this is too big to ignore...well, people know. But that's about the only difference. 40 years of neoliberalism has dynamited the foundations of civil society. There's nobody coming to the rescue.
A pity none of the train derailments happen where the rich folk & politicians live. I'm watching it unfold from Australia and it is heartbreaking to see the damage already done to the environment and the wildlife. It must be so exhausting living in the US right now, I get frustrated enough with our shitty, capitalist worshipping politicians, but our system isn't as rigged in their favour as yours is.
The movie White Noise was recently released on Netflix - the movie story is placed in Ohio. I actually saw the movie a day or two before the actual derailment, but the parallels were eerily creepy.
You are correct in that this is just a sign of the future of the United States and maybe all of North America as the Canadians are showing signs of unrest up north. The U.S. needs to figure this out or not. If not, just tell us that you don't care so we can prepare ourselves without government involvement. Instead, we are tearing ourselves apart from the inside out. Once enough seams have been torn in the clothes of North America, someone else will come waltzing across the border and it will be game over for all of us. The American continent will belong to someone else. Will they rebuild the infrastructure and get things going again? Maybe, but it will come at great expense to the once citizens of the American continent. Will we end up with a society like China's?
Yeah, we're pretty much cooked. Between that and all the killing and the liars, avoiders and people screaming at each other and watching old men yelling about nothing, we're living in a slow-motion apocalypse. We're killing ourselves and "Jesus," or Mohammod or The Flying Spaghetti Monster isn't going to 'save' us.
Here's a outline article of this disaster recently posted in the Washington Post which goes over the chemicals, fires, and leakages. Consumer tip: Stop fishing in the Ohio river for a long time?
Basically officials are saying Powell and Lake Mead have about a year left before they hit “dead pool” levels and stop producing power and yes, water.
It was odd how the story was placed on the news app. Very low in their layout and very small headline. Later I couldn’t find it on the main scroll at all.
The only ethical choice the railroad has at this point is to buy every building in East Palestine at the price it would have fetched one week BEFORE the derailment, cover the costs of relocating residents and provide each household with a substantial (at least $20K per home) stipend to replace all items of upholstered furniture, clothing and anything else that cannot be reliably cleaned of airborne chemical toxins, and call the town a total loss. It won't happen, of course - that would cost the railroad real money, which is what they hope to avoid - but it's the only thing that would make the injured parties (basically every single person who lives or owns a business in East Palestine) anything close to whole. I'd love to see the entire town organize and push for exactly this and not allow the story to fade away.
I'm glad you covered this so well. I just don’t have the physical energy to write many pieces and I am focusing on the Climate Crisis. You nailed the essence of what's happening with the railroads.
I wrote about this last November when Biden and Pelosi blocked a railway workers strike in order to save Christmas shopping. I said the railway workers should "fuck Biden and fuck the Democrats" and strike anyway.
The billionaire class are "cashing in their chips" in industry after industry. They are sucking billions out of the economy in dividends and stock buy backs. They are running the industrial infrastructure into the ground.
They are acting like there is no tomorrow.
They have access to better Climate models and information than we do. The most informed are making moves and the "hangers on" are copying them.
It's already warm for this time of year. We are about to have a MASSIVE El Nino.
This November will feel like last July.
Global Agricultural Output is going to fall this year by 40%-50%. That's going to last for 4-6 years.
Things are really being held together by duct tape and prayers right now in the US. It's about to get much worse.
In addition to the Climate Crisis we are about to start experiencing an Infrastructure Crisis. All the things we have been warning people about are going to happen all at once.
Another toxic hazardous disaster happens in quiet mid America and the media kicks into high gear with a massive brain massage of stories how the danger is past and how some other naughty chemical railcars remained unscathed and were removed out of the danger zone. The point is if there was a positive spin to this disaster anywhere it was promoted to getting posted for public consumption. This adds up to the national disease known as public health is not as important as private profits. It's chronic in this country. From the top down to local government actors.
This Ohio train derailment encapsulates everything broken with America in 2023.
The rail lobby got Obama era regulators to reclassify what was considered “hazardous cargo.” And then under Trump the same lobbyists successfully fought off new standards for rail brakes.
So over worked rail workers hauling hazardous materials that are no longer classified as hazardous on crappy brakes have a very, very predictable accident.
And our mainstream media does everything it can to delete the lobbying/money part of the story.
All as our Secretary of transportation and President cower lest they inconvenience the rail barons or cost them one penny.
To call it all a “dumpster fire” is an insult to dumpster fires.
It’s a toxic train wreck. Literally.
This plus the recent shooting at MSU has filled me with rage. I live in the Midwest; these two events hit too close to home. :/
When I was a kid around 1960, one of the first issues I heard of was "featherbedding," by which the railroads complained that the unions would not allow them to lay off "unnecessary" workers like firemen, who were deemed unnecessary because most trains by then had transitioned to diesel engines. Of course, in the USA, the bosses won that.
I thought about this after the Amtrak crash in 2015 in Philadelphia, caused because Amtrak was following the same method of paring down the labor force. As the train rolled into Philly, there was a lot going on because there were kids throwing stones at it. This distracted the engineer, who then lost track of a speed limit change, which caused the crash. They arrested him and charged him with all sorts of things, but a jury acquitted him on all counts.
Companies love to talk about "lean management" which means they assume that any job, no longer how dangerous, requires only enough workers to handle a good situation. So this is how they staff. When an unusual situation arises, there's no one to handle it. This is how catastrophes arise. Almost everyone, workers and bystanders, pay the cost of this, while the moneybags get away with murder.
These are exciting times for entropy fans.
As others have pointed out, East Palestine only registers not because it is so big, but because of its immediacy. America is full of cancer hotspots--icily described by Chris Hedges as "economic sacrifice zones"--that are as bad as East Palestine. Louisiana's Cancer Alley comes to mind. But those places are full of poor, black and brown people. Of course they get incinerators and creaky, leaky plants. And nobody cares.
Now that this is too big to ignore...well, people know. But that's about the only difference. 40 years of neoliberalism has dynamited the foundations of civil society. There's nobody coming to the rescue.
A pity none of the train derailments happen where the rich folk & politicians live. I'm watching it unfold from Australia and it is heartbreaking to see the damage already done to the environment and the wildlife. It must be so exhausting living in the US right now, I get frustrated enough with our shitty, capitalist worshipping politicians, but our system isn't as rigged in their favour as yours is.
The movie White Noise was recently released on Netflix - the movie story is placed in Ohio. I actually saw the movie a day or two before the actual derailment, but the parallels were eerily creepy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgwKZAMx_gM
NEOLIBERALISM SAYS STOCK BUYBACKS UBER ALLES WHEE
LETS POP SOME BALLOONS TO CELEBRATE AND OBFUSCATE
What an awful reality we’ve wrought.
You are correct in that this is just a sign of the future of the United States and maybe all of North America as the Canadians are showing signs of unrest up north. The U.S. needs to figure this out or not. If not, just tell us that you don't care so we can prepare ourselves without government involvement. Instead, we are tearing ourselves apart from the inside out. Once enough seams have been torn in the clothes of North America, someone else will come waltzing across the border and it will be game over for all of us. The American continent will belong to someone else. Will they rebuild the infrastructure and get things going again? Maybe, but it will come at great expense to the once citizens of the American continent. Will we end up with a society like China's?
I read White Noise a while back, but now plan to read it again. Thank you.
Yeah, we're pretty much cooked. Between that and all the killing and the liars, avoiders and people screaming at each other and watching old men yelling about nothing, we're living in a slow-motion apocalypse. We're killing ourselves and "Jesus," or Mohammod or The Flying Spaghetti Monster isn't going to 'save' us.
Here's a outline article of this disaster recently posted in the Washington Post which goes over the chemicals, fires, and leakages. Consumer tip: Stop fishing in the Ohio river for a long time?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/18/ohio-train-derailment-visual-timeline/
Did anyone happen to see this story in WaPo?
Basically officials are saying Powell and Lake Mead have about a year left before they hit “dead pool” levels and stop producing power and yes, water.
It was odd how the story was placed on the news app. Very low in their layout and very small headline. Later I couldn’t find it on the main scroll at all.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/05/colorado-river-drought-explained/