February 2023
“We turn to the fallout from the disastrous toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, where at least 50 of 150 train cars carrying flammable vinyl chloride crashed. A chemical fireball forced residents to evacuate and induced mass wildlife death, and has left many townspeople concerned for the safety of their homes. The disaster was not helped by the Trump administration, which repealed a rule in 2018 that required some trains carrying hazardous materials to upgrade their braking systems, arguing that the cost of requiring said brakes was ‘not economically justified’. Give them a chance, now they have found a cheaper alternative – replacing all the dirt in Ohio.” —Stephen Colbert
“The Obama-era rule likely would not have prevented the derailment in East Palestine because, due to lobbying by Norfolk Southern and other railroad companies, a train is only considered hazardous if it’s going faster than 30mph with at least 70 tank cars loaded with highly flammable liquids. Seventy tanker cars full of vinyl chloride – a clear hazard. Sixty-nine is totally fine. I’m going to guess that one tanker car full of vinyl chloride is pretty dangerous. You shouldn’t put any hazardous chemicals on a train unless the brakes are working real good. The Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw, who said the plume of black smoke from the ‘controlled burn’ of vinyl chloride ‘told us that there was success’. Yes, we all know the famous saying: where there’s smoke, there’s success. I’d say the interview went off the rails, but for Norfolk Southern, that’s on brand.” —Stephen Colbert
https://idiocracy23.blogspot.com/2022/08/1001-ways-to-make-america-great-and.html
“A magisterial collection. A combination of Bukowski’s Last Night of the Earth
and Orwell’s 1984.”
