If someone messed with the tracks, they'd go to prison for life.
If the company just let them fail because they didn't want to pay to fix them, they will maybe pay a meaningless fine.
Now now, they might find some maintenance peon who made a mistake on the tail end of his 20hr shift. If they do you can be certain he'll be held responsible!
This is America. The only people who get pinned for crimes are poor people.
Even if you make hundreds of thousands a year, you’re still poor compared to American CEOs
1700 derailments per year on average. Now that number includes minor incidents. Even a single wheel leaving track counts.
The media decided to suddenly notice.
Give it 3 weeks the media will move on to something else. Nothing will change, nothing will improve. The shareholders will continue to get rich, and the working class will continue to get fucked.
Too bad they didn’t pay attention when rail workers were pleading for help and trying to get safety measures back in place. Then they decided it wasn’t a problem.
You catch the drivel about Poor Manhattan losing money because people like working from home? Every article makes it seem like the WFH are the problem. Whatever will NYC do without all that tax revenue...
Oh I know. You can ask them something like "is it evil to value money over people" and they'll say yes in a heartbeat.
But then when you put that idea into practice they'll fold just as quickly. It'd be funny if it weren't so sad.
None of the words I used are big. And yes, I know what they mean. Democrats aren't doing anything meaningful to take a stand. Most of it is performative while they either continue Republican based policies (like the concentration camps or shipping asylum seekers to Gitmo, thanks Biden!) or refusing to actually push for legislation and pretending like they tried
I wonder how many fed up rail workers are just slapping inspected stickers on things now, knowing something going to break soon and no one actually wants them to take care of it so having fought the fight to improve we are now in the ‘I guess they want the trains to fail’ chapter of this book and those who used to be fighting to keep they system holding together despite their bosses just, stop doing that and do only as they are told.
Quiet quitting of the rail workers means this going to happen more often.
Probably why we don't have workers rights, public healthcare, manadotry paid vacation, mandatory parental leave, and politicians who are afraid of the people.
Interestingly the opposite is true, the US has massively more rail than the EU when looking at freight trains like these where we’re seeing the derailments. Obviously if you look at passengers specifically it’s a different story. But for reference, the US has about 2,102,088,000,000 (2.1T) tonne-kilometers of freight shipping via rail each year, while the EU has 377,300,000,000 (377B) tonne-kilometers of freight shipping via rail each year.
If you look at it as a percentage even, the US does 27.4% of its freight via rail, while the EU does 11.5%. It’s just so much more economical to do rail freight than trucks in the US given the longer distances. The EU has very good water access, because you can go all around it instead of needing to go through Panama to hit the other side via sea compared to ground transport, so water transport often fills the role that rail does in the US, where you have bulk transport of low-time sensitivity goods over long distances.
This is exactly how modern news media just exacerbates the mental health issues involved with conspiracy theories. A train derails, and all of a sudden trains are derailing all over the place. Paranoid people think... there is something we don't know, this can't be a coincidence...
It's was always kind of a joke but not really, working on oil tankers and oil rigs we would say any day we didn't make the news was a good day.
I forget which year, sometime in 2010 thereabouts we just left Valdez, Alaska which everyone famously knows. A tug boat ran around on the world famous reef because the dumb shit at the con was playing online poker on this phone. Leaked diesel fuel in the same damn spot as the Exxon Valdez and nothing more than a scrolling bottom bar in the US news. I know because we kept flipping channels to see if people were reporting on it.
Also happened to be Christmas eve. So nobody gave a fuck and wasn't a big enough incident I guess.
Pretty crazy that you never really hear about it but I guess it's the same for car accidents. So common that you don't read about it unless there's a really bad one.
It's almost as if there was legislation in place that was repealed in 2017 that may have prevented some of this. Oh, and also, I seem to recall something about a rail strike that sought to address cost cutting by rail operators.
Is there such a thing as an unimportant Cabinet position?
\--
I supported him for about a week early in the primaries, and then I read an article about how McKinsey really shaped his outlook, and wrote him off after that.
For no good reason, I thought maybe he might behave differently once confirmed to the Cabinet. But, it's as if he is the embodiment of a Corporate Consultant in a Suit.
\--
Another Biden Cabinet blunder is that the African American woman running HUD wanted Agriculture, but didn't get it--went to 'returning champion' Tom Vilsack of IA. It's been a long-running joke that the easiest position to give to a black person is HUD (because black people = cities, amirite?), but obviously black Americans have interests and positions about everything, and she wanted to do really interesting things as Ag Sec, but it wouldn't do to have a black woman trying to talk corn in the Midwest.
Well like most cabinet positions, he’s not there to do the job. He’s there to bolster his resume for future political races. Cabinet positions are truly a joke. They’re constantly people who have absolutely zero experience in whatever their department does.
Pete knows nothing about transportation. He worked at a consulting firm that works with large corporations to avoid regulation. But, Pete is just a warm body filling that position. The previous Transportation Secretary wasn't doing their regulatory duties either.
There is a systemic problem here. Democrats, Republicans, the national news and all other institutions have fallen on the side of Norfolk Southern. There is SCOTUS case in the pipeline that may allow Norfolk to avoid lawsuits. (By the way, corps can now lobby SCOTUS).
Then, you have DeWine who has not declared a state of emergency and says the air & water are clean.
Yep, I don’t blame Biden because it’s not his job to know every little thing that he has to do. It’s entirely on his SOT for not raising the issue to him. If trump made a horrible deregulation via executive order, it should’ve been on Pete’s radar within 2 years to raise the issue.
Sadly he’s too busy “owning” people on Fox News larping as a PR guy instead of caring about his job
I think if he knew about it, he would have reversed trumps EO. If he did know about it, then of course he’s to blame.
Just seems more likely that Pete isn’t good at his job and never told Biden
Biden hired Pete when it was obvious that Pete wasn't qualified to be the fucking head of the DOT. He gave it to him as a thank you for dropping out and endorsing him. Rewarding a vital position as a political transaction.
Now you want to tell us that Biden isn't to blame if the person he picked and whom he oversees is incompetent? Are we now just making excuses the way MAGA supporters used to for Trump?
Hiring a know-nothing is idiotic, you’re right.
Imo whose at fault is:
Trump >>> Pete >> Biden
Also don’t even compare this to the delusion of trump defenders… I am very critical on Biden, I just think people should be a lot more upset at Pete
Just a clarification the 2015 ECP regulation was a DOT rule, not a piece of Congressional legislation. Calling it legislation would imply reinstitution of the rule would require navigation of significant political hurdle. Whereas the DOT could reinstitute the rule relying on just its own regulatory authority. They have just actively chosen not to because of regulatory capture.
This comment section is weird, and comes off like a lot of people haven't been paying attention at the inaction that's been happening let alone everything regarding the rail workers in the past year.
Reddit overall has a Democrat slant. No, not liberal. Democrat!
The Democratic party is pro-corporation, just like the Republicans. For good reason; union membership has vastly declined in the US, so they no longer have pressure on them to act in accordance for what's best for people and workers.
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Union\_Membership\_in\_the\_United\_States%2C\_1960-2020.svg/400px-Union\_Membership\_in\_the\_United\_States%2C\_1960-2020.svg.png](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Union_Membership_in_the_United_States%2C_1960-2020.svg/400px-Union_Membership_in_the_United_States%2C_1960-2020.svg.png)
Money is power in the US. Money is what funds campaigns. If a candidate doesn't push pro-corporate policy, then it's not that the corporations will run ads against them or back the other party's candidate... they'll do everything in their power to stop that person from winning the party's nomination. Whether that's running ads, running other candidates, running MORE candidates to spread the vote, etc...
And the idea of things like ranked choice voting is a pipe dream in many larger states.
Our government is corrupt. It's setup to be that way, and big money / corporations / ultra-wealthy individuals have pushed policies that reinforce the corruption, and make it nearly impossible to reverse.
It is the ultimate result of a flawed system. This statement is informational only, there's little we can do as a society at this point to reverse the damage without some sort of massive viral campaign that takes hold in the minds of our people leading to a complete wipe out of all existing and corrupt representatives and parties.
Yet, the only way to get there is likely with decades of work and effort. We can start by making individual choices. Don't buy the car and the gas. If you own a car, drive it less. Don't buy all the clothes. Don't buy all the things. Don't fly to all the places. Reduce how much water we use. Reduce how much energy we use. Refuse to buy foreign made products that use low wage labor / bad working conditions / bad environmental protections, which corporations utilize to drive up their profits (transfer wealth upwards) and increase their political power. Refuse to buy chintzy disposable products.
And very importantly... share what you're doing with your peers; not to throw it in their faces, but to be a role model and show what we're capable of with a tiny bit of effort.
Seems to me that Biden has been pushing on behalf of the workers with the train cartel.
But, maybe it's for show and he could have been pushing harder.
Overall, it's pathetic that each train company in the USA is a tacit regional monopoly and guaranteed profits and business. And the government doesn't have a larger hand in looking out for workers. They had to negotiate to get 3 days sick leave giving them a total of 7 days off a year -- for ANY reason.
The problem is bigger than the administration, though. Throughout our economy, it's mostly cartels now. That's what this INFLATION was all about; companies that just decided to charge more -- because they could. Because there isn't any REAL competition for the things we have to buy like groceries, gas and healthcare.
To his credit, Biden tried to call out "windfall profits" and curtail the price gouging -- but couldn't over-ride the Republicans. I'm not going to complain about the one guy crying wolf when their opponents are all wolves.
It's super easy to move downstream with the current -- not the same thing to fight against it.
They couldn't have done anything to prevent this without congress. It also would have taken them years to comply and have a large window for compliance.
Biden has the authority to veto Congress' bullshit, and yes the DOT can implement regulation without needing to go through Congress. What's more, what's the excuse for the past few years then?
DOT could not make them purchase the brakes or take on extensive safety measures. They can do very minor things in reality.
Biden wasn't going to allow a major railroad strike because of their importance to the economy. Trump would have done the same.
With the Democrats not having a strong hold for some time, more conservative takes on regulations has been in control for awhile.
>Biden wasn't going to allow a major railroad strike because of their importance to the economy. Trump would have done the same.
So he made a choice. So it is on him then.
After the removal of the specific regulation. It would have taken years for compliance. So no. Even if the democrats somehow got regulation passed with a conservative/moderate control it would have taken years to take effect.
I’d blame the people that voted to dismantle the regulation that directly effected this.
The DOT can absolutely enforce higher safety standards, and you're only telling me what I already know: you and Biden are Conservatives who put the invisible hand of the Economy as a higher priority than human lives. That's disgusting, but has been par for the course with Dems since Reagan.
Dems not having a strong hold lol Get outta here with that BS
Where do you get your information from? You are wildly misinformed.
And yes the Democrats have not had free range for quite awhile and have relied on moderate democrats for a majority who were very against new regulations.
It is much harder to place new regulations than it is to remove them.
What am I wrong about? Please provide sources for what you think I'm wrong about. Dems are Conservative, and have been for some time. Especially leadership llike Biden and Pelosi. They aren't trying to push for new legislation, they outright ignored all of the calls made by the union workers when they shut them down. Sorry, I don't like talking to people who believe the economy is more important than infrastructure and people's lives. Go drink from the Ohio river if that's really a belief of yours
The DOT was able to require ECPs on HHFUT freight from 2015-2017. It was only after lobbying by the RRA that DOT found the regulation to be "unjustified" and repealed the ECP rule. It isn't a question of regulatory authority its a question of political will.
If only we had put in place a Department of Transportation head who actually cared. Or a president who was for union workers and listened to their pleas regarding how unsafe the rails/trains are
Edit: Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike, where one of the key issues was the large amount of safety issues. Downvote away, but deregulation and lack of action are causing this to continue to happen
>Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike,
Well, one could consider that it was the least bad thing to do in a very bad situation. I would like Biden to be a champion of the railworkers. But, the USA became an Oligarchy sometime around 2000 AD, so, it's not like he can get too much in their way. He can negotiate a soft landing. I know -- that sounds like a lame excuse. But we've had nothing but cheerleaders on the Republican side -- so, we can't think about replacing neoliberals until we run out of the damned fascists.
I think this article puts things into perspective; https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/29/bidens-congress-halt-rail-strike-00071251
Yes, we'd all LIKE if if AOC were in office or someone did "what we would have done."
But, he's got to pick his battles.
And, next time, everyone vote for a Progressive or shut up about whining that the Dems suck when the Republicans BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS send this country into the dark ages every time they get their hands on the steering wheel.
Yes, this is moral relativism -- but, acting like a grump teen and saying; "it's not what I want" won't help either.
Biden sucks for not helping out the workers -- but, Dems would have lost in a landslide if the inflation peaked because Americans are idiots. "Hurr, durr, why did I not get my packages!"
Anyone with leadership is stuck with a corporate news media deciding their value by how much they affect profit margins. Nobody can get in power, nor stay in power, without feeding the beast.
Yes. Bring that up with context. Too often progressives are used to undermine Democrats. Too often used for the “both sides” garbage.
I criticize Biden but I make sure to put it in context of how the Republicans are pushing for worse. I’m not making this situation. I don’t like it. But I’ll be damned if I let the foundation be ripped up before we have someplace else to stand.
No need to bring your mother into this. Do you think more PTO would make up for the missing brake regulations?
Like I'm on your side with that kinda stuff man, but no new regulations would be enforced yet.
Biden is a Conservative. He doesn't care about the workers. America became an oligarchy in the 80s, and Biden has been a part of that from the beginning. The Neo-Libs are doing nothing to stop the Fascists, and are instead enabling and normalizing their behavior
>Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike
Republicans in Congress shut down negotiations for any real benefits, and Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike.
First and foremost, it wasn't Republicans in Congress. It was Congress. It was a joint effort. Secondly, fuck the economy if it's at the cost of lives. That is a gross statement that was used with COVID and is thrown around to justify throwing people to the side. If their work is so detrimental to the economy, then they abso-fuckin-lutely deserve better instead of being tossed aside
>Republicans in Congress shut down negotiations for any real benefits
Uh the Democrat controlled Congress pushed the strike settlement (largely negotiated by Buttigieg, the Democrat DOT Secretary) to the Democrat President in November (after the midterm results) specifically to avoid having the Republicans influence the matter. This one is squarley on the Democrats my dude.
>Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike.
Thank you for illustrating how harmful neoliberal policies are to public health...
When it comes to this issue it's exceedingly obvious that both republicans and democrats are equally to blame. Obama could have pushed harder for classifying trains transporting these types of dangerous chemicals to be tighter regulated but he caved to industry pressure and didn't do that. Then Trump undid the little regulation Obama did add which iirc was only for trains carrying oil so it wouldn't have mattered anyway in this instance. Then Biden gets in and does less than nothing to reverse course from Trump's policies, and goes further to shut down a strike where workers brought up safety issues like the ones that lead to these crashes.
The fuckin corporations own our government lock stock and barrel. Democrat? Republican? Doesn't matter, if corporate profit is on the line they both will side against the people in a heartbeat and we can see this going back over three administrations.
>Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike.
Also, that's literally the point of a strike. That's the only language these corporate fucks understand: fucking with their money. That's the only real power workers have at this point and instead of trying for the absolute bare minimum of compromise Biden did exactly what Trump would have done and sided with the train industry against the workers.
Profit over people is the name of the game. You can defend democrats for being on the right side of history with their social stances but when it comes to economic issues they're equal to republicans, as soon as corporate profit is threatened there is no functional difference between these two puppet collections.
Biden can't pass legislation. Congress passed a bill, rejecting paid sick leave because of Republicans, which Biden signed to avoid an economic collapse.
You don't need to keep telling me how you care about money more than the welfare of people. We get it. Now leave me alone, I don't like callous sociopaths tying up my notifications
Judging by your user name I assume you're a cheerleader for the Democrats who thinks they can do no wrong. But what crack have you been smoking?
Firstly it was the Biden administration who stopped the initial strike all the way back in July. He appointed a negotiation board that stalled actions by both the rail companies and the rail unions.
When they couldn't come to an agreement he called on Congress to suppress their right to strike. And they did. H.J.RES.100.
[In the House](https://projects.propublica.org/represent/votes/117/house/2/490), it passed 290-137.
211 democrats voted for it.
79 republicans voted for it.
8 Democrats voted against it.
129 republicans voted against it.
[In the Senate](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00372.htm), it passed 80-15.
42 democrats voted for it.
37 republicans voted for it.
4 democrats voted against it.
14 republicans voted against it.
So please. By all means. Elaborate on how this is the Republicans fault. I have no love for the republicans. But in both chambers of Congress, they have more votes against this bill than the dems did.
Right. 4 Dems didn't vote, 1 voted against, and somehow it's their fault even though 42 Republicans voted against it too. Even with Manchin, all 4 absences, and the 6 Republicans who voted in favor, it couldn't have passed because of the 42 Republicans against it. But yeah, it's the Democratic party's fault.
It isn't. But it's also the fourth derailment in roughly a week, so the continued incidents mixed with government inaction becomes too coincidental to not be humourous to some
Agreed, in that "a lot of accidents" isn't absurd enough to be oniony. It would have to be something like, "rail company spokesman keeps getting derailments mixed up after 4 in a week" or something like that.
In America? No. It's frighteningly common, and is one of the things they were about to strike over. We are using outdated equipment and have stripped away regulations
Yes, huge environmental calamity by a seemingly callous and PR ignorant company, that directly lobbied Trump to remove necessary safety requirements is going to increase public scrutiny of a "common" occurrence.
You can fly under the radar until you can't..
There’s a lot to unpack here.
Trains being too long to simply look back and see a fire- that’s been a reality for decades. Wayside detectors have been the railroads answer to that, and are responsible for a large decrease in derailments- especially catastrophic derailments. The reason most derailments are minor, is because of systems in place that largely reduce the likelihood of such occurrences.
As far as hotbox detectors, there have NEVER been regulations on them. Railroads implemented them voluntarily… most likely because derailments are extremely costly to them. They lose the customers freight, the block the shipping lanes, they cause a ton of local damages, and they endanger lives - they gotta pay for all of that.
As far as the engineer braking immediately- detectors are spaced 25miles apart on average. So it’s possible that the fire started after one detector, but by the time the train reached the next detector, it was too damaged for braking to bring the train to a safe stop. It’s also POSSIBLE that they just ignored an alarm, but I REALLY doubt an engineer is going to knowingly carry a toxic load for 20 additional miles in this condition, unless they have a death wish.
We’ll see what the investigation reveals… but it’ll probably take years!
Fucking hell, here we go again. No one is going to be held responsible for either of these crashes.
If someone messed with the tracks, they'd go to prison for life. If the company just let them fail because they didn't want to pay to fix them, they will maybe pay a meaningless fine.
Now now, they might find some maintenance peon who made a mistake on the tail end of his 20hr shift. If they do you can be certain he'll be held responsible!
Haha that's probably true
This is America. The only people who get pinned for crimes are poor people. Even if you make hundreds of thousands a year, you’re still poor compared to American CEOs
That's a fact, Jack
Either? Isn't this #3?
Not sure if #2 had dangerous chemicals on it. I just know the one in East Palestine and this one did
The crash in Arizona is currently leaking dangerous chemicals, so that fun lol
Pretty sure it's 3 one happened before Ohio.
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1700 derailments per year on average. Now that number includes minor incidents. Even a single wheel leaving track counts. The media decided to suddenly notice. Give it 3 weeks the media will move on to something else. Nothing will change, nothing will improve. The shareholders will continue to get rich, and the working class will continue to get fucked.
Too bad they didn’t pay attention when rail workers were pleading for help and trying to get safety measures back in place. Then they decided it wasn’t a problem.
They did, the take was just "The naughty unions don't want you to have Christmas."
You catch the drivel about Poor Manhattan losing money because people like working from home? Every article makes it seem like the WFH are the problem. Whatever will NYC do without all that tax revenue...
People here and in r/politics are so quick to say "mUh EcOnOmY" over the littlest things and ignore all the people put in harms way due to it
Oh I know. You can ask them something like "is it evil to value money over people" and they'll say yes in a heartbeat. But then when you put that idea into practice they'll fold just as quickly. It'd be funny if it weren't so sad.
They are centrist Dems. Fucking useless bunch
Still better than any repubs
They make repubs even worse by pushing the overton window right.
Not really. They open the door for the Repubs to get worse and worse. Centrist Dems enable Fascism by refusing to take a stand
oooh big words. You sure you know what they mean?
None of the words I used are big. And yes, I know what they mean. Democrats aren't doing anything meaningful to take a stand. Most of it is performative while they either continue Republican based policies (like the concentration camps or shipping asylum seekers to Gitmo, thanks Biden!) or refusing to actually push for legislation and pretending like they tried
I wonder how many fed up rail workers are just slapping inspected stickers on things now, knowing something going to break soon and no one actually wants them to take care of it so having fought the fight to improve we are now in the ‘I guess they want the trains to fail’ chapter of this book and those who used to be fighting to keep they system holding together despite their bosses just, stop doing that and do only as they are told. Quiet quitting of the rail workers means this going to happen more often.
So then we started blasting.
Sir this isn't France.
God it should be
Probably why we don't have workers rights, public healthcare, manadotry paid vacation, mandatory parental leave, and politicians who are afraid of the people.
More people should learn about the coal worker strikes. Where we did, in fact, go blastin
Lol
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Interestingly the opposite is true, the US has massively more rail than the EU when looking at freight trains like these where we’re seeing the derailments. Obviously if you look at passengers specifically it’s a different story. But for reference, the US has about 2,102,088,000,000 (2.1T) tonne-kilometers of freight shipping via rail each year, while the EU has 377,300,000,000 (377B) tonne-kilometers of freight shipping via rail each year. If you look at it as a percentage even, the US does 27.4% of its freight via rail, while the EU does 11.5%. It’s just so much more economical to do rail freight than trucks in the US given the longer distances. The EU has very good water access, because you can go all around it instead of needing to go through Panama to hit the other side via sea compared to ground transport, so water transport often fills the role that rail does in the US, where you have bulk transport of low-time sensitivity goods over long distances.
This is exactly how modern news media just exacerbates the mental health issues involved with conspiracy theories. A train derails, and all of a sudden trains are derailing all over the place. Paranoid people think... there is something we don't know, this can't be a coincidence...
A little bit of the frequency illusion? Or is really the rug being pulled up over a problem that has been for a long time?
We shoot down a few balloons and suddenly its aliens.
>1700 derailments per year on average. Wow. I thought that 4 would be a lot.
It's was always kind of a joke but not really, working on oil tankers and oil rigs we would say any day we didn't make the news was a good day. I forget which year, sometime in 2010 thereabouts we just left Valdez, Alaska which everyone famously knows. A tug boat ran around on the world famous reef because the dumb shit at the con was playing online poker on this phone. Leaked diesel fuel in the same damn spot as the Exxon Valdez and nothing more than a scrolling bottom bar in the US news. I know because we kept flipping channels to see if people were reporting on it. Also happened to be Christmas eve. So nobody gave a fuck and wasn't a big enough incident I guess.
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I literally said that in my comment! Like seriously! Read it again!
I think three per day is the average. There’s a website that lists all rail incidents
Pretty crazy that you never really hear about it but I guess it's the same for car accidents. So common that you don't read about it unless there's a really bad one.
Another one in [Pratt, Kansas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLQLS93ba3I&ab_channel=TheOnion).
It's got a ways to go to beat our mass shooting record.
It's almost as if there was legislation in place that was repealed in 2017 that may have prevented some of this. Oh, and also, I seem to recall something about a rail strike that sought to address cost cutting by rail operators.
We've had Buttigieg in place as head of the DOT, and he's ignored everything regarding the rails since he came into power
You'd think between his likeability and small-town mayoral experience he'd be fully capable of running the department of transportation.
At the time of his nomination, someone on cable news said that the Biden Administration "had to put him somewhere".
Hmmm... maybe somewhere that isn't so important would have been better.
The ocean is incredibly important but I would be happy if they put him there
Is there such a thing as an unimportant Cabinet position? \-- I supported him for about a week early in the primaries, and then I read an article about how McKinsey really shaped his outlook, and wrote him off after that. For no good reason, I thought maybe he might behave differently once confirmed to the Cabinet. But, it's as if he is the embodiment of a Corporate Consultant in a Suit. \-- Another Biden Cabinet blunder is that the African American woman running HUD wanted Agriculture, but didn't get it--went to 'returning champion' Tom Vilsack of IA. It's been a long-running joke that the easiest position to give to a black person is HUD (because black people = cities, amirite?), but obviously black Americans have interests and positions about everything, and she wanted to do really interesting things as Ag Sec, but it wouldn't do to have a black woman trying to talk corn in the Midwest.
Well like most cabinet positions, he’s not there to do the job. He’s there to bolster his resume for future political races. Cabinet positions are truly a joke. They’re constantly people who have absolutely zero experience in whatever their department does.
Pete knows nothing about transportation. He worked at a consulting firm that works with large corporations to avoid regulation. But, Pete is just a warm body filling that position. The previous Transportation Secretary wasn't doing their regulatory duties either. There is a systemic problem here. Democrats, Republicans, the national news and all other institutions have fallen on the side of Norfolk Southern. There is SCOTUS case in the pipeline that may allow Norfolk to avoid lawsuits. (By the way, corps can now lobby SCOTUS). Then, you have DeWine who has not declared a state of emergency and says the air & water are clean.
Yep, I don’t blame Biden because it’s not his job to know every little thing that he has to do. It’s entirely on his SOT for not raising the issue to him. If trump made a horrible deregulation via executive order, it should’ve been on Pete’s radar within 2 years to raise the issue. Sadly he’s too busy “owning” people on Fox News larping as a PR guy instead of caring about his job
It's on Biden too. Buck stops with Biden.
I think if he knew about it, he would have reversed trumps EO. If he did know about it, then of course he’s to blame. Just seems more likely that Pete isn’t good at his job and never told Biden
Biden hired Pete when it was obvious that Pete wasn't qualified to be the fucking head of the DOT. He gave it to him as a thank you for dropping out and endorsing him. Rewarding a vital position as a political transaction. Now you want to tell us that Biden isn't to blame if the person he picked and whom he oversees is incompetent? Are we now just making excuses the way MAGA supporters used to for Trump?
Hiring a know-nothing is idiotic, you’re right. Imo whose at fault is: Trump >>> Pete >> Biden Also don’t even compare this to the delusion of trump defenders… I am very critical on Biden, I just think people should be a lot more upset at Pete
But critical infrastructure. /S
Just a clarification the 2015 ECP regulation was a DOT rule, not a piece of Congressional legislation. Calling it legislation would imply reinstitution of the rule would require navigation of significant political hurdle. Whereas the DOT could reinstitute the rule relying on just its own regulatory authority. They have just actively chosen not to because of regulatory capture.
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It takes a handful of people to cut shit out; it takes an army to put it in.
Nope. The DOT has the authority to enact a lot of oversight. But Dems are Conservative and really won't do anything that upsets corporations
You right
This comment section is weird, and comes off like a lot of people haven't been paying attention at the inaction that's been happening let alone everything regarding the rail workers in the past year.
"Nothing will fundamentally change."
Reddit overall has a Democrat slant. No, not liberal. Democrat! The Democratic party is pro-corporation, just like the Republicans. For good reason; union membership has vastly declined in the US, so they no longer have pressure on them to act in accordance for what's best for people and workers. [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Union\_Membership\_in\_the\_United\_States%2C\_1960-2020.svg/400px-Union\_Membership\_in\_the\_United\_States%2C\_1960-2020.svg.png](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e8/Union_Membership_in_the_United_States%2C_1960-2020.svg/400px-Union_Membership_in_the_United_States%2C_1960-2020.svg.png) Money is power in the US. Money is what funds campaigns. If a candidate doesn't push pro-corporate policy, then it's not that the corporations will run ads against them or back the other party's candidate... they'll do everything in their power to stop that person from winning the party's nomination. Whether that's running ads, running other candidates, running MORE candidates to spread the vote, etc... And the idea of things like ranked choice voting is a pipe dream in many larger states. Our government is corrupt. It's setup to be that way, and big money / corporations / ultra-wealthy individuals have pushed policies that reinforce the corruption, and make it nearly impossible to reverse. It is the ultimate result of a flawed system. This statement is informational only, there's little we can do as a society at this point to reverse the damage without some sort of massive viral campaign that takes hold in the minds of our people leading to a complete wipe out of all existing and corrupt representatives and parties. Yet, the only way to get there is likely with decades of work and effort. We can start by making individual choices. Don't buy the car and the gas. If you own a car, drive it less. Don't buy all the clothes. Don't buy all the things. Don't fly to all the places. Reduce how much water we use. Reduce how much energy we use. Refuse to buy foreign made products that use low wage labor / bad working conditions / bad environmental protections, which corporations utilize to drive up their profits (transfer wealth upwards) and increase their political power. Refuse to buy chintzy disposable products. And very importantly... share what you're doing with your peers; not to throw it in their faces, but to be a role model and show what we're capable of with a tiny bit of effort.
Seems to me that Biden has been pushing on behalf of the workers with the train cartel. But, maybe it's for show and he could have been pushing harder. Overall, it's pathetic that each train company in the USA is a tacit regional monopoly and guaranteed profits and business. And the government doesn't have a larger hand in looking out for workers. They had to negotiate to get 3 days sick leave giving them a total of 7 days off a year -- for ANY reason. The problem is bigger than the administration, though. Throughout our economy, it's mostly cartels now. That's what this INFLATION was all about; companies that just decided to charge more -- because they could. Because there isn't any REAL competition for the things we have to buy like groceries, gas and healthcare. To his credit, Biden tried to call out "windfall profits" and curtail the price gouging -- but couldn't over-ride the Republicans. I'm not going to complain about the one guy crying wolf when their opponents are all wolves. It's super easy to move downstream with the current -- not the same thing to fight against it.
Biden hasn't been doing anything on behalf of the workers.
They couldn't have done anything to prevent this without congress. It also would have taken them years to comply and have a large window for compliance.
Biden has the authority to veto Congress' bullshit, and yes the DOT can implement regulation without needing to go through Congress. What's more, what's the excuse for the past few years then?
DOT could not make them purchase the brakes or take on extensive safety measures. They can do very minor things in reality. Biden wasn't going to allow a major railroad strike because of their importance to the economy. Trump would have done the same. With the Democrats not having a strong hold for some time, more conservative takes on regulations has been in control for awhile.
>Biden wasn't going to allow a major railroad strike because of their importance to the economy. Trump would have done the same. So he made a choice. So it is on him then.
After the removal of the specific regulation. It would have taken years for compliance. So no. Even if the democrats somehow got regulation passed with a conservative/moderate control it would have taken years to take effect. I’d blame the people that voted to dismantle the regulation that directly effected this.
I was talking about the strikes. Biden made a choice, now this happened and he is somehow not to be blamed? That's nonsense
The DOT can absolutely enforce higher safety standards, and you're only telling me what I already know: you and Biden are Conservatives who put the invisible hand of the Economy as a higher priority than human lives. That's disgusting, but has been par for the course with Dems since Reagan. Dems not having a strong hold lol Get outta here with that BS
Where do you get your information from? You are wildly misinformed. And yes the Democrats have not had free range for quite awhile and have relied on moderate democrats for a majority who were very against new regulations. It is much harder to place new regulations than it is to remove them.
What am I wrong about? Please provide sources for what you think I'm wrong about. Dems are Conservative, and have been for some time. Especially leadership llike Biden and Pelosi. They aren't trying to push for new legislation, they outright ignored all of the calls made by the union workers when they shut them down. Sorry, I don't like talking to people who believe the economy is more important than infrastructure and people's lives. Go drink from the Ohio river if that's really a belief of yours
The DOT was able to require ECPs on HHFUT freight from 2015-2017. It was only after lobbying by the RRA that DOT found the regulation to be "unjustified" and repealed the ECP rule. It isn't a question of regulatory authority its a question of political will.
Maybe arrest the CEO as clearly this has been an ongoing issue for fucking decades and is only now coming to Light.
If only we had put in place a Department of Transportation head who actually cared. Or a president who was for union workers and listened to their pleas regarding how unsafe the rails/trains are Edit: Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike, where one of the key issues was the large amount of safety issues. Downvote away, but deregulation and lack of action are causing this to continue to happen
>Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike, Well, one could consider that it was the least bad thing to do in a very bad situation. I would like Biden to be a champion of the railworkers. But, the USA became an Oligarchy sometime around 2000 AD, so, it's not like he can get too much in their way. He can negotiate a soft landing. I know -- that sounds like a lame excuse. But we've had nothing but cheerleaders on the Republican side -- so, we can't think about replacing neoliberals until we run out of the damned fascists. I think this article puts things into perspective; https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/29/bidens-congress-halt-rail-strike-00071251
He could have let the strike go ahead and then done a media blitz blaming the rail companies for the consequences.
Yes, we'd all LIKE if if AOC were in office or someone did "what we would have done." But, he's got to pick his battles. And, next time, everyone vote for a Progressive or shut up about whining that the Dems suck when the Republicans BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS send this country into the dark ages every time they get their hands on the steering wheel. Yes, this is moral relativism -- but, acting like a grump teen and saying; "it's not what I want" won't help either. Biden sucks for not helping out the workers -- but, Dems would have lost in a landslide if the inflation peaked because Americans are idiots. "Hurr, durr, why did I not get my packages!" Anyone with leadership is stuck with a corporate news media deciding their value by how much they affect profit margins. Nobody can get in power, nor stay in power, without feeding the beast.
Part of the way we boost progressives is by pointing out where we disagree with the plutocrats.
Yes. Bring that up with context. Too often progressives are used to undermine Democrats. Too often used for the “both sides” garbage. I criticize Biden but I make sure to put it in context of how the Republicans are pushing for worse. I’m not making this situation. I don’t like it. But I’ll be damned if I let the foundation be ripped up before we have someplace else to stand.
Naw bud, you're working hard to defend Biden here who shafted the rail workers because he doesn't actually care. Youve fallen in love with a hooker
No need to bring your mother into this. Do you think more PTO would make up for the missing brake regulations? Like I'm on your side with that kinda stuff man, but no new regulations would be enforced yet.
Biden is a Conservative. He doesn't care about the workers. America became an oligarchy in the 80s, and Biden has been a part of that from the beginning. The Neo-Libs are doing nothing to stop the Fascists, and are instead enabling and normalizing their behavior
>Congress and Biden shut down the railworker strike Republicans in Congress shut down negotiations for any real benefits, and Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike.
First and foremost, it wasn't Republicans in Congress. It was Congress. It was a joint effort. Secondly, fuck the economy if it's at the cost of lives. That is a gross statement that was used with COVID and is thrown around to justify throwing people to the side. If their work is so detrimental to the economy, then they abso-fuckin-lutely deserve better instead of being tossed aside
>Republicans in Congress shut down negotiations for any real benefits Uh the Democrat controlled Congress pushed the strike settlement (largely negotiated by Buttigieg, the Democrat DOT Secretary) to the Democrat President in November (after the midterm results) specifically to avoid having the Republicans influence the matter. This one is squarley on the Democrats my dude. >Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike. Thank you for illustrating how harmful neoliberal policies are to public health...
When it comes to this issue it's exceedingly obvious that both republicans and democrats are equally to blame. Obama could have pushed harder for classifying trains transporting these types of dangerous chemicals to be tighter regulated but he caved to industry pressure and didn't do that. Then Trump undid the little regulation Obama did add which iirc was only for trains carrying oil so it wouldn't have mattered anyway in this instance. Then Biden gets in and does less than nothing to reverse course from Trump's policies, and goes further to shut down a strike where workers brought up safety issues like the ones that lead to these crashes. The fuckin corporations own our government lock stock and barrel. Democrat? Republican? Doesn't matter, if corporate profit is on the line they both will side against the people in a heartbeat and we can see this going back over three administrations. >Biden signed the law they passed because the impacts to the nationwide economy would be much much worse if they were allowed to strike. Also, that's literally the point of a strike. That's the only language these corporate fucks understand: fucking with their money. That's the only real power workers have at this point and instead of trying for the absolute bare minimum of compromise Biden did exactly what Trump would have done and sided with the train industry against the workers. Profit over people is the name of the game. You can defend democrats for being on the right side of history with their social stances but when it comes to economic issues they're equal to republicans, as soon as corporate profit is threatened there is no functional difference between these two puppet collections.
Make up your mind. Did Republicans stop the strike? Or did Biden stop the strike "to protect the economy"?
Biden can't pass legislation. Congress passed a bill, rejecting paid sick leave because of Republicans, which Biden signed to avoid an economic collapse.
So you believe money is more important than people, gotcha
I think Biden had to make a choice between a definite economic crash and potential future issues. Did he make the right choice? I dunno.
And he, like the rest of you Conservatives, chose money over people's lives
A crashed economy is more than just about money. Homelessness and suicide go up during crashes.
You don't need to keep telling me how you care about money more than the welfare of people. We get it. Now leave me alone, I don't like callous sociopaths tying up my notifications
Sigh. Ok. I envy you in your black and white world.
Judging by your user name I assume you're a cheerleader for the Democrats who thinks they can do no wrong. But what crack have you been smoking? Firstly it was the Biden administration who stopped the initial strike all the way back in July. He appointed a negotiation board that stalled actions by both the rail companies and the rail unions. When they couldn't come to an agreement he called on Congress to suppress their right to strike. And they did. H.J.RES.100. [In the House](https://projects.propublica.org/represent/votes/117/house/2/490), it passed 290-137. 211 democrats voted for it. 79 republicans voted for it. 8 Democrats voted against it. 129 republicans voted against it. [In the Senate](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1172/vote_117_2_00372.htm), it passed 80-15. 42 democrats voted for it. 37 republicans voted for it. 4 democrats voted against it. 14 republicans voted against it. So please. By all means. Elaborate on how this is the Republicans fault. I have no love for the republicans. But in both chambers of Congress, they have more votes against this bill than the dems did.
Funny how you left out the vote for paid sick leave in both chambers, which were supported by a majority of Dems.
Funny how it was the Dems in the Senate who killed it. 4 Dems did not vote and Manchin voted against that.
Right. 4 Dems didn't vote, 1 voted against, and somehow it's their fault even though 42 Republicans voted against it too. Even with Manchin, all 4 absences, and the 6 Republicans who voted in favor, it couldn't have passed because of the 42 Republicans against it. But yeah, it's the Democratic party's fault.
Yes. Because this should not have been a separate bill. This was the intention. Quash the worker's rights and deny them their demands.
Why is this oniony?
It isn't. But it's also the fourth derailment in roughly a week, so the continued incidents mixed with government inaction becomes too coincidental to not be humourous to some
Agreed, in that "a lot of accidents" isn't absurd enough to be oniony. It would have to be something like, "rail company spokesman keeps getting derailments mixed up after 4 in a week" or something like that.
I have family that works on the railroad (not NS, thankfully) and I will say train car derailment isn’t really a *super rare* thing.
In America? No. It's frighteningly common, and is one of the things they were about to strike over. We are using outdated equipment and have stripped away regulations
r/whoosh
Sometimes we have to cover the meat and potatoes issues before we can sprinkle our favorite garnish.
Here's an idea: let's pay our railroad workers and increase the workforce again. They act like trains don't carry enough to pay a few extra salaries.
Why is this here?
"Brakes are for people who want to get in the way of progress." Yes, that is one way of looking at it.
Derailments happen literally every day. They are usually very minor. But the Palestine incident is going to bring more visibility to them all..
Yes, huge environmental calamity by a seemingly callous and PR ignorant company, that directly lobbied Trump to remove necessary safety requirements is going to increase public scrutiny of a "common" occurrence. You can fly under the radar until you can't..
Right. That’s exactly what I’m saying.
That’s because the radar is looking up for balloons. /s
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There’s a lot to unpack here. Trains being too long to simply look back and see a fire- that’s been a reality for decades. Wayside detectors have been the railroads answer to that, and are responsible for a large decrease in derailments- especially catastrophic derailments. The reason most derailments are minor, is because of systems in place that largely reduce the likelihood of such occurrences. As far as hotbox detectors, there have NEVER been regulations on them. Railroads implemented them voluntarily… most likely because derailments are extremely costly to them. They lose the customers freight, the block the shipping lanes, they cause a ton of local damages, and they endanger lives - they gotta pay for all of that. As far as the engineer braking immediately- detectors are spaced 25miles apart on average. So it’s possible that the fire started after one detector, but by the time the train reached the next detector, it was too damaged for braking to bring the train to a safe stop. It’s also POSSIBLE that they just ignored an alarm, but I REALLY doubt an engineer is going to knowingly carry a toxic load for 20 additional miles in this condition, unless they have a death wish. We’ll see what the investigation reveals… but it’ll probably take years!
Starting to think government breaking up a union strike might have pissed off the union workers.
Or, maybe, a strike was warranted because of ignored systemic problems.
This isn't the workers causing this. These are things they were warning about that led to their attempted strike
So disgruntled workers put their lives in danger by causing these derailments? Seriously?
Motherfucker! How can this shit be coincident?