Some More News - SMN: Why All The Train Derailments?

Episode Date: April 12, 2023

Hi. In today's episode, we look at the response to the recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, how both Republicans and Democrats share in the blame, and how corporate greed increases the likelihood of disasters exactly like this. SOURCES: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fSgTS3_Mf9eZxfk8Rq9GgBrYmBzoLLdxNJ2csZC14JU/edit?usp=sharing Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews  Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949  SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh    Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229  Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1  Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news   Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  What's better than getting one pair of Shady Rays and not worrying if you break or lose them? Getting two! Go to https://shadyrays.com/morenews and use code morenews and for a limited time, when you buy one pair of Shady Rays, you'll get a second pair FREE.

. Hello, news chicklets. Chicklets, like the candy? Little chickens? Anyway, I'm a five-time Golden Necktie Award winner, Cody Johnston, a newsman, a man of the news, and welcome to Newsman. And here is some news, a train derailment.

No, not the recent Seminole Gulf Railway train derailment with propane, the recent Norfolk Southern train derailment. No, not the recent Seminole Gulf Railway train derailment with propane. The recent Norfolk Southern train derailment carrying hazardous materials. No, not the recent Norfolk Southern train derailment involving hazardous materials in Detroit. The recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio. Okay, damn it, all right.

No, not the recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio near Springfield. The recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio near Springfield. The recent Norfolk Southern train derailment in Ohio in East Palestine. Okay, there we go. Finally got there. My gosh, boy, that was a real, what's the word? Like when nothing goes right and it's a huge catastrophe.

A real plane wreck, that's the phrase. Anyway, East Palestine. Why? Hey, good, weirdly worded question. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about this one train derailment, even though there have been a ton more since it, including ones that happened

while we were writing this episode and presumably filming and editing this episode. So on February 3rd, 2023, a Norfolk Southern rail line in East Palestine, Ohio, derailed, throwing 38 cars off the track, where trains live, and into the grass, where plants and animals live. Of the roughly three dozen cars that derailed, 11 were carrying hazardous material and 12 caught on fire.

Investigations revealed that it was likely a malfunction of a wheel bearing overheating and failing that caused the derailment. While nobody was killed or injured during the derailment itself, the train cars were carrying a variety of flammable and toxic chemicals. But if you're worried that those chemicals

were accidentally released into the environment, allow me to calm those fears by assuring you that they absolutely were not accidentally released into the environment. They were intentionally released into the environment. Hooray, celebrate. We have balloons, we don't. Okay, on February 6th, there was a controlled release of toxic fumes from the burning train cars

by Norfolk Southern, which was done out of concern there would be an explosion. The presumably very smelly cloud included a laundry list of chemicals that sound like one of the Joker's gift receipts, stuff like vinyl chloride, butylacrylate, isobutylene ethyl-exylacrylate, ethylene glycol, monobutyl ether, and archaeus vaporien.

Last one's a Pokemon. But the rest of those that were pronounced correctly are very real chemicals that are arguably just as lethal as the most formidable Charizard. Toxic fumes, gotta catch them all. The EPA reported that five chemicals known to be toxic were released into the air, soil, and external bodies of water near East Palestine,

which again is the area where plants and animals live. Animals like puppies, scorpions, and also people like Firf Jenkins, East Palestine's veteran mail carrier. Now, I don't actually know anyone in East Palestine and therefore can't confirm whether Firf is still slinging mail or if he actually exists. I merely picked his name at random

to represent the people of East Palestine and underline the point that human beings live in the area where Norfolk Southern blew up their poison train, a thing they did not have to get permission from anyone to do, especially not FERF. One of the chemicals released, vinyl chloride has been linked to liver cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Additionally, when vinyl chloride burns, it becomes phosgene and hydrogen chloride, which are highly toxic gases. They're the super shredder to vinyl chloride's regular value meal shredder. And wouldn't you know it, government authorities identified phosgene and hydrogen chloride as fumes

that were produced by the train cars. For context, phosgene was responsible for most of the chemical weapons deaths in World War I. It is colorless with a strong odor that causes breathing problems and vomiting. Fun chemistry facts we discovered while dousing people with it in war's glorious name. Firf remembers the war, doesn't he?

He remembers what he did, doesn't he? And just in case you thought you'd seen the final escapee in this chemical jailbreak, butylacrylate was also released as a result of the derailment. According to the CDC, acute exposure to butylacrylate can cause irritation to the eyes, skin, and respiratory tract, including breathing problems. So bad, naughty stuff needs a spanking

these naughty chemicals do. Luckily, the town of East Palestine was evacuated in the immediate aftermath for five days. On February 8th, five days after the derailment and two days after the controlled release of the toxic fumes, residents were instructed by Republican governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, that it was safe to return.

But despite these assurances, residents weren't so convinced and didn't exactly trust Norfolk Southern or the local authorities after the train had just ripped a big toxic fart on their town. We have to have proper testing. We cannot get a two and a two three and in your papers say one. You're not satisfied with the testing that's been done at your house? No, and you're gonna smell it as soon as you go into my house. I don't feel safe taking my kids into town, especially to the house. Like my neighbor

right across the street from me literally got diagnosed yesterday with chemical pneumonia. What does the government do? Whose responsibility is it? Because I'm not quite sure that the, you know, Norfolk Southern is really doing much. Don't blame these people at all. Their concerns are pretty darn reasonable, given that the Chuchuca boom has been killing thousands of animals in the area. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources has estimated that over 43,000 aquatic animals have died following the derailment. And I may not be an ecologist,

but that seems like a lot of animals to poison all at once. Indeed, one might argue too many. If my math is right, that's roughly 425.7 metric Cruella de Ville's in one mass poisoning. People reported their pets getting sick or dying, including chickens, cats, and dogs. And although these reports haven't been officially quantified, once you start getting piles of dead frogs, I'm honestly gonna believe you about your dead chickens.

That's not a huge jump. Frogs are the chickens of the creek. Ah, I said jump like a frog. Hop a hop. Hop, hop! But seriously, many animals have died. And still, the information coming out of East Palestine has been confusing at best. Even though several photos and videos taken of the ongoing event have gone viral,

it's unclear what exactly they're depicting. Wow. Look at all that. Look at it. It's all in the bottom of the creek bed. That rainbow sheen could be chemicals forming a film on the water, but it could be wokeness run amok. It could also be biofilm,

an organic substance created by dead or decaying animals, which would make sense given the sheer number of the aforementioned deceased fish and frogs. So the water could just be filled with more dead animals in the back room of a pet store, rather than polluted with toxic chemicals. And wouldn't that be a relief?

So, okay, how polluted are things? Is it really safe for people to be going about their daily lives, swimming through that chemical cloud like they're conducting business on a foggy London morn? There's a lot of confusing information flying around, in addition to the toxic chemicals flying around, and distrust of officials is high for obvious reasons.

When you let railroad billionaires duke their dirty train poison all over town because corporate profits have more rights and power than the American people, your constituents are going to look at you, dare I say, askance. Ohio State and federal officials have said that they have not detected dangerous levels

of chemical substances in homes they have tested or in the municipal water. But these are the same officials that said it was safe for residents of East Palestine to come back into their homes, even as all the dogs and cats were dying in each other's arms, like the characters in Chernobyl, the HBO show.

And the real event, I guess. But mostly the HBO show. And true, it's not outrageous to believe that drinking water might be safe even if the surface waterways are polluted. But the water testing itself has been, you know, a little messy, a little sloppy, a little drunk at the Build-A-Bear workshop,

if you know what I mean, you know what I mean, you know what I'm talking about. Which is not generally the vibe you want during the aftermath of a catastrophic train derailment. While the Ohio EPA has been doing weekly tests of the water, Norfolk Southern has also been testing the water and has reportedly had issues in terms of sampling errors, such as air bubbles in the samples

or samples not being acidified correctly according to EPA guidelines. It doesn't mean that drinking water is necessarily unsafe, but it's weird to conduct your testing more loosely than a hungover driving instructor when you're trying to convince people that their drinking water isn't death elixir. Also, locals are still reporting symptoms like headaches,

fatigue, skin irritation, and anxiety, which could be caused by pollutants or by the overwhelming psychological trauma of a chemical explosion. Perhaps both, both sides. Because at Norfolk Southern, their motto is, "'Eat fistfuls of shit and fear, you peasants." It's not as catchy as it could be, but it's pretty close.

They should tweak it. Also their mascot is a railroad tycoon polishing his monocle behind the wheel of a locomotive riding along a track of human bones. It's captivating imagery. Can't you just see it on a T-shirt? Available for a reasonable price in a merch store, perhaps. Get them while they're definitely real.

To be clear, when we say that the symptoms some of the people of East Palestine are experiencing may be psychological, we don't mean that people are making up their symptoms or that their symptoms aren't real and serious. Psychogenic illness in response to anxiety over contamination is a real and documented thing. Physical symptoms can originate from mental distress.

So that's a possibility, but it's also very possible that people are having reactions to actual chemicals still left behind by the derailment. And I'm not a doctor, legally, but it seems like we should at the very least be taking these reported symptoms very seriously when the short and long-term health of the population of an entire town is on the line.

The EPA has conducted a number of air quality tests in the area and found that the 79 chemicals that they've been monitoring have been below levels of concern for short-term exposure and predict that the concentrations will dissipate. Texas A&M University researchers analyzed the EPA's data and while their testing mirrors the results of the EPA, the researchers noticed that there are significant amounts

of compounds that can cause headaches, eye and lung irritation, and in the long term, cancer. A particularly concerning chemical noted by the A&M analysis is acrolein, of which they found levels that were sometimes above the threshold for long-term health consequences to people's lungs. Texas A&M researchers acknowledged

that residents would have to be exposed for months or years to see some of these health issues. And the EPA contends that the concentration of the chemicals are likely to go down, meaning people wouldn't be exposed to high enough levels to pose a serious health risk. So basically the EPA is admitting that these chemicals can damage people's breathing

or even give them cancer, but because the levels are so low, maybe they won't. Like garnishing your macchiato with a light misting of arsenic, just enough to get the tongue numb. This probably, but probably and maybe actually aren't comforting words for residents who had a poison train explode in their backyards.

Also, as we noted at the top of this episode, this keeps happening. Just keeps happening. Trains apparently derail every damn day in America, and it's not comforting to know that it's not a major chemical disaster most of the time. Car accidents also happen every day, but you know, cars aren't on permanent tracks

and are kind of dependent on hundreds of people on the road driving safely. And if every 0.1% of the time a car crash created a TNT style explosion that wiped out a city block, we would find those odds unacceptable. Or like if hypothetically someone was manufacturing cars that would occasionally drive on their own and crash and then burst into flames,

that totally hypothetical scenario would be very concerning despite how rare it was. And so the chemical effects being temporary in this one event doesn't really calm the mind when it's part of a larger systemic issue. So what are we gonna do about this, if anything? And why did it happen? Why?

These are great questions. I am asking right now. I'm very smart at the questions and can juggle very well. And to answer those questions, I'm gonna need to take an ad break to charge my big juggler's brain, you see. So enjoy these advertisements as much as an advertisement can be enjoyed,

which is lots, lots of as much. Hey there news fans. You know what I love? Power, specifically the kind of power that can't be bought. A power that comes from within. I'm speaking of course about high voltage electricity. I once ran through an electrical substation and died, but you know what stayed intact?

My Shady Ray sunglasses. They're my power glasses you see. They make me feel powerful and they also are powerful in that every pair of Shady Rays is designed to be extra durable so you can take them everywhere you choose to explode. They're so confident that they will replace your pair if you lose or break them, which you won't.

You have too much power to break them. What's better than getting one pair of Shady Rays and not worrying if you break or lose them? Getting two pairs! Go to ShadyRays.com slash more news and use code more news. And for a limited time, when you buy one pair of Shady Rays, you'll get a second pair for free. That's S-H-A-D-Y-R-A-Y-S dot com slash more news. Code more news to get a second pair of Shady Rays for free.

ShadyRays.com slash more news. Code more news. Feel the exploding power of sunglasses and also an electrical substation. Hey, hello, hi, we're back. We were just discussing the Norfolk Southern train derailment and the effects it had on the local people and environment because we love fun.

And now it's time to sink our luscious sexy teeth into the consequences. What has been done? What could have been done? Has anyone gained superpowers from the chemicals where they turn invisible or at least have a bunch of spikes on them like that guy whose name I can't guess from X-Men 3?

To answer that last question first, no. And to guess, hug monster, you know, like watch out or he'll hug you and stick you with spikes at some point during the hug. X-Men 3, the best MCU movie that's in the MCU. Have fun in the comments. But the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern to test for toxic dioxins,

which the EPA said it will oversee. Great, that sounds reasonable and responsible. Unlike the plan to deal with said dioxins, which the EPA said it will oversee. Great, that sounds reasonable and responsible. Unlike the plan to deal with said dioxins, which is to send the contaminated soil around the derailment to a nearby incinerator and burn it. That plan has come under harsh criticism, including some from former EPA official Kyla Bennett, who has now become an environmental activist,

highly critical of the EPA. Her fear is that we don't actually know the extent of what chemicals may be in the soil and that burning them would just release whatever's in there into the air, which is way worse than just leaving it in the dirt where it is. Even the EPA itself has stated in the past

that burning chemical compounds found in the soil would be iffy, writing in a technical brief that the effectiveness of incineration to destroy certain compounds and the potential to create harmful byproducts in the process is not well understood. Even the incinerator itself is kind of shady. According to reporting by the Guardian, the Heritage Thermal Services incinerator burns

Department of Defense chemical waste, resulting in a federal lawsuit filed by local environmental groups. It was also the subject of the EPA investigation that found the facility had violated the Clean Air Act almost 200 times between 2010 and 2014, and has currently recorded violations in eight of the last 12 quarters.

So I'm not an incineration specialist, legally. But that facility seems like maybe not the best choice in this situation. Indeed, it kind of seems like the equivalent of a government mandated tire fire. But I guess it's not as if there are any great options after you crash a chemical train in a small town and then burn its contents to prevent a real disaster.

Crisis avert-ish. Another question is whether Norfolk Southern acted hastily in releasing the burning chemicals from the railway car. As we mentioned earlier, Norfolk contends this was done to prevent a possible explosion, but it turns out that not everyone was on board with the whole let's release chemicals into the air plan.

And that includes hazardous material specialist, Sil Caggiano, a retired Ohio fire chief, who was also a member of Ohio's Hazardous Materials Technical Advisory Committee. We basically nuked a town with chemicals so we could get a railroad open. And we're gonna be looking at this thing five, 10, 15, 20 years down the line

and wondering, gee, cancer clusters could pop up, well water could go bad. Mustache Sill claims that Norfolk Southern detonated the containers, quote, "'Because the alternatives to what they did "'would have taken too long and cost them too much money. "'If they had put the fire out, "'they would still have had to handle

"'every one of those containers and its content "'as hazardous waste, all non-marketable. And they would have to have gotten rid of all that contamination. This way they don't have contamination anymore. It burned up and it spread over God knows how much. They got off very cheap in my book.

But still Caggiano's just one mustache with a really cool name and a really cool mustache. What's one awesome name against the mighty Norfolk Southern? How many mustaches do they have? We don't know, we can't know, they will not tell us. But Pennsylvania Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro, whose name is markedly less cool, is also criticizing Norfolk Southern for their hastiness

in detonating the train containers. In a letter to the CEO of Norfolk Southern, Governor Shapiro claimed that Norfolk Southern didn't want to explore other possibilities and that their decision to burn the chemicals in order to clear the rail line more quickly, quote, "'Injected unnecessary risk and created confusion.'" However, when asked about this,

Norfolk Southern CEO, Alan Shaw rebutted by pointing out, quote, no, uh. Governor DeWine and Governor Shapiro and Mayor Conaway and Fire Chief Drabeck and the National Guard were all aligned that this was the right decision to make in terms of public safety. Ooh, I love a good he said, he said, especially when the wellbeing of thousands of people

are at stake. He said that we can't legally play this song. According to Governor Shapiro's letter, Norfolk Southern personnel acted on their own at the scene, separate from local agencies, which caused confusion. And at the time of this writing, at least 30 lawsuits have already been filed against Norfolk Southern,

alleging that both the initial derailment and the following planned detonation of chemicals was negligent. According to a lawsuit filed by Morgan and Morgan, the chemicals shouldn't have leaked out in the first place, not even after derailment. And the decision to dump over 1 million pounds of cancer causing vinyl chloride directly

into the environment was just the chemically burned cherry on top of the sundae of failure. Just a real hideous cherry, a real Phantom of the Opera looking piece of shit. Hell yeah, look at that little Phantom mask on him. It's adorable and sexy and hideous. Yum. So in other words, it seems like Norfolk Southern is doing its best to be recognized as the greatest threat

in Captain Planet's rogues gallery, right in front of Sludge Fuck and the Sweaty Oiler. If you're watching this and saying to yourself, man, it really seems like a potentially massive environmental disaster in small town America should be bigger news. You're absolutely right. Unfortunately, one of the initial issues

with the derailment was getting news stations to pay attention to it at all. In fairness, the country had something far more urgent to focus on at the time. The giant Chinese balloon that had been floating across parts of the United States has been shot down. Well, new details have emerged about the Chinese spy balloon investigation.

In February, a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over the United States. The Pentagon, as you may have heard, is now tracking a very high altitude Chinese spy balloon over the northern United States. Damn you, Sky Orb! And fuck you too! The sighting of the Chinese balloon was reported on February 2nd, and the East Palestine, Ohio derailment

occurred on February 3rd. Media Matters did an analysis of the balloon versus the train derailment coverage, and they found that from February 4th to the 13th, there were only two programs that bothered to discuss how weak our regulations for hazardous materials are, specifically due to rail lobbyists

that absolutely include people representing Norfolk Southern. They also found that exactly zero of the big corporate broadcasts discussed the lack of safety regulations. So even when it was being covered, nobody was really talking about the role deregulation and competence and plain old greed

had played in the disaster. So if you feel like the coverage of the Ohio derailment has been spotty and inconsistent, and took too long to trickle into the national discourse, you're probably not imagining things. An article by Molly Taft for Gizmodo reveals that there are only three newspapers in the county that contains East Palestine.

And all three of them are owned by the same company and have a tiny staff that includes zero environmental reporters. And the two local news outlets closest to East Palestine have of course suffered massive layoffs in recent years, as is the custom for journalism these days. This meant there were few resources to cover and disseminate news about the derailment.

In addition, a reporter who was trying to cover the catastrophe was arrested in a shocking response by law enforcement. Sorry, I meant a typical and routine response by law enforcement. Let's go, let's go. Please do not touch me. Out, out, please.

Do not touch me. Do not touch me. You're under arrest. I'm under arrest. Please get out of my house. Please get out of my house. Sir. Please get out of my house.

Oh my God. Apparently, if you want to be a hard-hitting reporter, you have to get hit hard by the police. The reporter, Evan Lambert of News Nation, was trying to cover a news conference on the derailment held by Ohio's Republican Governor, Mike DeWine. According to the Washington Bureau Chief of News Nation,

Mike Figuera, Lambert was quietly talking while setting up a live shot. Local law enforcement then confronted Lambert and said he was out of line for talking when the governor was talking. Apparently, talking while Mike DeWine is speaking is illegal because he is some sort of celestial emperor. Should have offered him cheese with that DeWine.

Waka waka, police brutality. After Lambert said he was just doing his job and hadn't broken any laws. They dragged him to the ground because this country rules and is totally normal. Charges against Lambert were ultimately dropped, although I can't imagine what the charges even were. Talking out of turn, I guess, because this is study hall? Anyway, Molly Taft, the Gizmodo writer I mentioned earlier,

contends that the lack of strong media coverage and investigative reporting, in combination with a weak response from the Biden administration, has helped to fuel right-wing talking points about a grand conspiracy to poison people. And she's super not wrong. If no one reliable is giving you any answers,

you are gonna turn to whoever is offering them. Like how I learned to build a shed through Pornhub comments after Home Depot banned me for sleeping in their gardening section. It's exactly like that thing I just described and there's no difference anyway. Because of these talking heads looking to make a buck off of hysteria,

vague conspiracies and overgeneralizations now surround the Ohio disaster. In between treatises over how much he wants teens to get married and pregnant and how trans people are womanhood vampires, professional creep and dead-eyed freak Matt Walsh found time to tweet some S-tier goofball shit about the derailment.

He wrote, "'Last week they wouldn't shoot down a spy balloon "'over Montana for fear of the impactailment. He wrote, last week, they wouldn't shoot down a spy balloon over Montana for fear of the impact on civilians. The week before, they blew up thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals and poisoned the air and water supply in order to clear a train derailment. Someone makes sense of this. Sure thing, Matt, I'll help you out.

So as we discussed earlier, the they that blew up the trains was Norfolk Southern, a private company that has control over a railway in our very capitalist and cool country, and was allegedly able to act independently during the response to the derailment, something you probably support since you hate the idea of government

when it's not catering to you. Meanwhile, the they that waited to explode a balloon while it hovered over populated areas was the US government and Pentagon. That's not to say the government doesn't bear responsibility for deregulating the rail industry or for their tepid response to the derailment, but the decision to burn a million pounds of poison

and the decision to spare a mysterious balloon were made by two completely different entities, and not a single they as implied by Matt's excellently baby brain tweet. Matt Walsh succumbs to wokeism, uses a pronoun. I don't wanna dwell on it, but it's kind of amazing how unserious Matt Walsh

and the other conservative pundits like him are. Like there are so many ways you can use the derailment news to point out why Biden sucks, as long as you're not beholden to pushing your political narrative at the same time. But since Walsh is a weird right-wing grifter and, oh yeah, dead-eyed freak, he certainly can't admit the role

that deregulation might play in this event. So instead he felt the need to try and mush together two talking points that have literally nothing to do with each other, implying that the Biden government is the sole reason behind this disaster and follow-up hazard. That said, it's not not the fault of the government, including Biden's administration.

They are after all in charge of like everything, but it's also not only Biden's administration. They are after all in charge of like everything, but it's also not only Biden's fault. It's more like a melange of fault, a fruit medley of blame swirling in your mouth and most of it's fucking melon. And in these partisan times, that mixture is often lost by a lot of people, but not us and our big hunky brains.

And so of course, it's now time to point some juicy fingers. Can you taste it? Can you taste my fingers? But first, we have to do an ad break. But when we come back, blame, blame, blame! You love it, you love blame. You sweet angel. Hello, Wormers, it's Cody. Ever since we introduced our hit character,

Fakie the Interdimensional Wormcomer, the world simply couldn't get enough. We make most of our profit from Fakie merchandise just in Sweden alone. Sweden loves the Wormcomer. That's just a fact. And here's another fact. You can get Fakie the Interdimensional Wormcomer. That's just a fact. And here's another fact. You can get Fakie the Interdimensional Wormcomer t-shirts

and onesies over at the Some More News merch store. Just look at this Fakie mug. That's a Wormcomer cup you can drink your morning tea out of. It's cum, yummers. I've also been told that we sell other things that aren't just a picture of a dog who cums worms. So there's that.

There's actual merch there too, and not just, you know, the cum shirt. So that's tpublic.com slash stores slash some more news for all your fakey merch. Once again, tpublic.com slash stores slash some more news, and you can be as cool as fakey. Who comes worms? We're back and it's fingy time.

Remember my finger juice promise from before the ads? Sweet, healing blame. Let's do it, starting with the big G. When I say the government bears some responsibility in this disaster, I don't just mean the Biden administration. There have been many hands contributing to this shit casserole, including the Trump administration

and Republican opponents to Obama era regulations. We'll dive into that shit casserole with more gusto later. But first let's talk about Joe Biden, or should I say job hiding, cause he's hiding from his job. Where is he? You know, fuck you. That was, It's fine.

Instead of quickly and decisively issuing a condemnation of Norfolk Southern and committing to strengthening regulations, the Biden administration has been frustratingly evasive about the whole train problem. In the immediate aftermath of the derailment, Biden made no public statements. On February 16th, 13 days after the derailment

and 10 days after the controlled release of the chemicals, the White House Press Secretary revealed that Biden had offered Ohio's governor federal assistance. You know, quietly and discreetly, because for some reason we didn't want to make a fuss about the president offering federal assistance to a small town besieged by toxic gas. And on February 17th, the White House released a fact sheet

indicating that they had deployed federal resources to East Palestine shortly after the derailment. Still, Biden himself hasn't deigned to actually visit the town or even give a public statement directly from his own mouth, which he likes to call the Joe hole. Finally, on February 21st, 19 days after the derailment, Biden tweeted about the ordeal

with some light criticism of Norfolk Southern saying, "'Today the EPA ordered the train company, Norfolk Southern, "'to pay for the cleanup and disposal "'of hazardous materials. "'This is common sense. "'This is their mess. "'They should clean it up.'" Which, sure, that's all well and good,

but it's hardly a fist pumping moment of justice. That's kind of the bare minimum, late. Obviously the people who own the poison train should be responsible for cleaning it up when it spills its poison everywhere. This gentlest of rebukes from the president just sounds like a tired substitute preschool teacher. Where's the cranky old popcorn fart who challenged a guy

from Iowa to a pushup competition and once punched malarkey in the dick so hard that there has been no malarkey since. But yeah, great. Norfolk Southern should clean up their mess. Good point from the Joe hole. Or rather it could have been because Biden's DOJ is siding with Norfolk Southern in the company's bid to block lawsuits

related to their reckless handling of hazardous materials. Specifically, they're doing this in a Supreme Court case that would stop a previous lawsuit that was brought by a rail worker who has cancer. The worker alleges that his cancer was caused by exposure to asbestos and other chemicals while working for Norfolk Southern. And that he was not provided PPE

or measures to protect himself. This suit predates the derailment, but if it is struck down, it would set a precedent that might make it more difficult for people affected by the derailment to sue Norfolk Southern, and in general would make it more difficult for people to get any justice when it comes to large corporations.

Nothing like some good old fashioned tort reform that protects weak and feeble corporations from the vicious claws of the people they've injured. Corporations are people. If a person had 5,000 lawyers. So yeah, Biden sucks. Sucks right from his Joe hole. Then of course, Pete Buttigieg took about 10 days

to tweet about the derailment, which isn't ideal given his position as Secretary of Transportation, and I'm almost certain and now told that a train does count as transportation. In a CBS interview, Buttigieg acknowledged that he could have spoken sooner about how strongly I felt about this incident,

and that's a lesson learned for me. Oh good, well, as long as he learned his lesson. Nevertheless, Buttigieg's people are frustrated at the heat he's getting and are quick to point out that Buttigieg did 23 interviews in the 10 days after the accident and was never asked about it. Of course, the argument they're making

is that it was the media's responsibility to bring up the derailment and not the Secretary of Transportation's duty to, I don't know, maybe mention it once over the course of two dozen interviews. The great communicator, tongue tied because he can't think of the incident he felt so strongly about.

And while it's not wrong to say that it was a failure of the media to not ask about it, it's an odd defense to say that it was a failure of the media to not ask about it, it's an odd defense to say that the government official responsible for every moving vehicle in the United States didn't have any responsibility to address the derailment on his own. But don't worry, Donald Darius Jefferson Trump

was ready to pick up the slack and visit East Palestine to pretend to be a hero. We're bringing thousands of bottle of water, Trump water actually, most of it. Some of it we had to go to a much lesser quality water. You wanna get those Trump bottles, I think, more than anybody else, but we're bringing a lot of water. Thanks for the water, you coo-having,

anthropomorphic casino rug, but because Democrats had bafflingly seeded the issue and stepped down from the ladder that was right next to the hoop, they could have just dropped the ball in. Daddy indictment was able to show up and lie as much as he wanted, uncontested. He claimed that Biden and FEMA said

they would not send federal aid to East Palestine under any circumstance, which is not true at all. Governor Mike, I need a bottle for all my dewine, has confirmed that the White House has offered help, but that he hasn't accepted the help. And when a reporter asked Trump about his administration killing an Obama era regulation that would have required trains carrying hazardous materials

to have more modern braking systems, Trump fell back on his battle-tested strategy of denying objective reality and somehow getting away with it. What do you make of Biden, or rather Buttigieg's criticism of you pulling back rail regulations? Do you think it would have made a difference?

No, it had nothing to do with it. Uh, yeah. You did have something to do with it. Like, objectively so. You did that thing. But even though Trump is lying about this, by filling a void left by the Biden administration's lack of response, he is able to quite effortlessly

win the optics game. I guess, is there anything that you'd wanna share with the folks who don't live here in East Palestine to kinda spread some message out to the rest of the people who might be watching about what's actually happening here? It's crazy and I think they should do more about it. All these little Trump burritos know is what their parents have told them and that a former president visited their little town and claimed he cared about them. Yes, he's lying to them, but if they feel like the government's abandoned them, what's stopping them from believing that lie?

Even if Biden quietly offered help to the governor of Ohio behind the scenes, which he did, he couldn't be bothered to come to East Palestine and let the residents know he's got their backs. Trump may be acting in grotesquely bad faith, but given the tepid response from Biden and Buttigieg, it does kind of seem like the White House doesn't care about them.

Buttigieg claimed in a tweet that he's constrained by Trump era deregulations, but critics say he does have the authority to expand the definition of high hazard trains to cover trains like the recently exploded one, which would then allow for greater regulation. Obviously, whether he's able to do it might involve courts or require legislation, but shouldn't they try?

Or at least make a show of trying. I mean, come on guys, how hard is it to impress a child? They're so gullible. Luckily, while the Biden administration's response has been limp and floppy, plenty of progressive politicians have been speaking out about the situation and either calling for action or taking direct action themselves. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown visited East Palestine Many of progressive politicians have been speaking out about the situation and either calling for action

or taking direct action themselves. Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown visited East Palestine and acknowledged locals' frustration, expressing a need for rail regulations, saying, I want to see rail safety legislation pass in the next few weeks. It didn't. Bop and Bernie Sanders is using the current scrutiny

on the rail industry to demand that Norfolk Southern cover sick leave for employees, a thing it is kind of weird they aren't already required to do. The progressive group River Valley Organizing is on the ground canvassing and holding public meetings, creating a list of demands they have of Norfolk Southern following the disaster,

as well as convening scientific and environmental experts to answer the questions that residents have over safety. All of this is good, but unfortunately, progressive efforts to take on this issue have already been undermined by the Biden administration's stance on the Railway Workers Union, when the administration prevented rail workers from striking and forced through a deal

for the Rail Workers Union that still didn't address their need for paid sick days. Rail workers have been complaining about companies putting profit over worker welfare and rail safety for a while now. Back in June of 2022, division president of the transportation communications union Dom Grissom warned,

"'The railroad business model and increased pressures "'from management have created a ticking time bomb "'on our nation's rails. And he wasn't the only guy who could see the future. Back in 2021, rail unions warned of precision scheduled railroading, a cost cutting method of decreasing the amount of time taken for operations.

The unions argued that this rigid time cutting scheduling makes it harder for workers to conduct safety checks. Time is money after all, in that both are fake. And if you make enough money, you can feel confident risking a chemical spill over a Midwestern town because you can afford the limited repercussions if any even exist. When your profits are in the billions,

fines for flagrantly endangering the public are just part of the cost of doing business. To wit, in 2022, Norfolk Southern's gross profit was $4.8 billion. Their initial response to the derailment was to offer a $25,000 payoff to East Palestine, as in the entire town and not individuals, before it was clear that the disaster

was going to receive any scrutiny and attention. That's less than pennies to them. Then they upped that to $6.5 million after all the press coverage, but that's just pennies to them, only a fraction of what they spend on stock buybacks. It's almost as if this company is so big that they can do whatever they want

because the repercussions are nothing to them. Go capitalism. Seriously, please leave. The Ohio Attorney General is suing Norfolk Southern over the derailment, but it's unclear whether Norfolk Southern will face any consequences for the disaster, which is a problem because while we can point

at the Biden administration's lackluster response and failure to support the rail union or the Trump administration's gutting of rail regulations, Norfolk Southern and the rest of the rail industry have fought hard to systematically push for deregulations for decades. In 2014, in response to an increase in train derailments, the Obama administration proposed to increase regulations

on trains carrying hazardous waste. But after pressure from the rail industry, the regulations only ended up focusing on crude oil transport rather than hazardous chemicals. You know, like the kind in the train we've been talking about. In addition, the train that derailed in East Palestine isn't classified as a high hazard flammable train.

See? In 2015, the National Transportation Safety Board argued that trains carrying chemicals like vinyl chloride should be considered high hazard flammable trains, even if they were smaller trains. But the Obama administration denied them that classification for some reason. They did require trains classified as hazardous

to upgrade to ECP brakes or electronically controlled pneumatic brakes, but Republicans delayed the requirement for years. Hey, here's a totally unrelated fact. In 2017, the rail industry donated $6 million to GOP campaigns, and after that, Trump and Senate Republicans rescinded the regulation that would force the rail industry

to update braking systems on trains carrying hazardous materials. Boy, that shouldn't be a thing that is true. And yet it is a thing that is true because of an abstract concept we invented to quantify purchasing power. For years and years, corporations like Norfolk Southern have fought tooth and rail to stop safety regulations

that could prevent disasters like what happened in Ohio. But the CEO of Norfolk Southern says he's deeply sorry. So I guess that's that. Nothing more to see here, folks. They said, sorry, let's pack it up. But before we go, maybe we should go through a history of how corporations like Norfolk Southern

have regularly gotten away with ecological and health disasters, you know, for funsies. Norfolk Southern's East Palestine derailment isn't our country's first time at the old train fuck rodeo. As I noted at the beginning of this, there are an average of 1,700 train derailments in the US every year, although most of them don't result in as spectacular

a chemical explosion as the East Palestine derailment. But in general, there have been many, many disasters, even bigger ones, where corporations get away with the devastating long-lasting impacts of their fuck up. There are so many of these examples, there's only one good way to go through them all, with a song. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, And socks in their father's mouth. Boy, that's a weird turn.

Okay, so just to recap my song. In 2005, a train derailment in Graniteville, South Carolina resulted in the deaths of nine people and a leak of 90,000 tons of liquid chlorine, which killed another person four months later. 15 years later, people were still coping with the health impacts, including decreased lung function, increased blood pressure, and PTSD.

The rail operator? Our friends at Norfolk Southern. In a lawsuit, Norfolk Southern was ordered to pay $2,000 to each person affected by the evacuation and $200 per person per day spent evacuating, which seems like kind of not a lot of money for being gassed with chlorine and enduring 15 years of potential health impacts.

That's 2K per Joker origin story. In total, Norfolk Southern spent around $10 million in settlements during which lawyers for the rail operator complained that the plaintiffs used unfair emotional appeals by talking about the deadly chemicals that killed those who could not outrun it, even though that seems to be exactly what happened.

On top of that, Norfolk Southern had to pay $4 million for the derailment. So roughly 14 or $15 million total for blasting a town with 90,000 tons of chlorine and oh right, also killing 10 people. Hey, remember earlier when I said that Norfolk Southern reported $4.8 billion in profit in 2022? Well, they reported $4.8 billion in profit in 2022? Well, they reported $4.8 billion in profit in 2022.

So that $14 million penalty for poisoning people to death with their train super fucking sucks. It's the monetary equivalent of a dunce cap, just the cost of doing business. It's literally baked into corporate budgets. Because these kinds of accidents are so common, there have been plenty of blink and you'll miss it disasters. Like the train that derailed in Northern Louisiana

on January 27th of 2023 and leaked propanoic acid forcing an evacuation of the area. But it's not just the trains that are to blame for dousing the American people with their deadly farts. A factory explosion that occurred on February 20th of this year, also in Ohio, has received almost no national attention. I hadn't even heard of it until just now

and I scrapbook corporate environmental disasters. It's a weird thing that I do. The explosion in Oakwood Village involved lead materials and locals weren't immediately informed of the potential danger of lead contamination. Incidentally, the community where the explosion occurred is two thirds black, which probably has nothing to do with the lack of attention they've received

compared to East Palestine. Oops, we just got banned by Florida's public school system. While it's true that hazardous train spills that result in disasters like the Graniteville chlorine spill or East Palestine explosion aren't too common, it seems that companies are often a little too relaxed about making sure their huge metal chemical buckets on wheels are safe.

Violations of regulations for hazardous cargo have been increasing, which could either be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. In the past five years, inspectors have seen a 36% increase in violations, but this could simply be the result of a 2016 audit by the Department of Transportation's Inspector General's Office

that cracked down on slackadaisical rail inspectors. So violations could either be increasing or we're just recording them more accurately because of the crackdown on inspections. But just in case you were worried, there aren't more examples of companies getting away with inflicting grievous harm on the general public. And if you were weird, don't fret, there's definitely more.

Perhaps one of the most flagrant cases of a CEO getting away with incredible and deadly corruption is Don Blankenship, former CEO of Massey Energy, and an aggressive lobbyist who ignored safety regulations in his coal operations. He was at the helm at Massey Energy in 2000 when a massive coal slurry leak poisoned the fresh waterways with 300 million gallons of coal sludge,

killing millions of fish, contaminating the water of tens of thousands of people, and making sludge fuck disgustingly horny. Fortunately, he went to jail for his crimes. I'm just kidding, sorry. I can't, I can't say it with a straight face. Hoo boy, the news is fun, gang. No, obviously Don Blankenship did not go to jail

because he makes too much money for too many powerful people. People like Mitch McConnell and Elaine Chao, who during the Bush administration helped ensure that the investigation into Martin County coal ended up closing with just a $5,600 fine. But I'm sure Blankenship learned his lesson, you know, which is what happens

when you suffer absolutely no consequences for your reckless behavior. I mean, what are we gonna do? Send him to prison? It's not like he went on to cause the death of 29 people in a mine explosion in 2010, except holy fucking shit, that's exactly what he did. Blankenship secretly conspired to violate safety regulations

for the upper big branch mine that he ran in West Virginia. And it turned out that those safety regulations were pretty important because the mine fucking exploded. For that, Blankenship did go to federal prison for 10 months, which doesn't seem like a lot for killing 29 people with your flagrant negligence. But hey, it's more than most former CEOs get. But despite his obvious ghoulish crime,

Blankenship refused to succumb to the woke mob and complained in an open letter to Trump that coal supervisors are not criminals and the laws they work under today are already frightening enough for them. See, the laws that he specifically ignored resulting in the deaths of 29 people were scary, you guys. At least as scary as a horrific mine explosion,

if not more so. Hasn't he already been punished enough? I'm so scared. Thankfully, Blankenship received a well-deserved reprieve from the tyranny of the consequences of his own actions when he scored $86 million in a payout after his company, Massey Energy, was bought out by Alpha Natural Resources.

What do you call a golden parachute for committing an atrocity? A parachute made of human screams? Look, prison sucks. It's a broken predatory system that runs on an engine of human suffering, just like corporate America. So you'll rarely hear me argue in favor

of longer prison sentences for anyone, unless it's for like a really sinister character, like Hitler on a motorcycle made up of tinier Hitlers. But the naked cynicism and disdain the justice system shows for people who have the audacity to be poor is staggering. Mandatory minimum sentencing for drug crimes, if death or serious injury results is 20 years. Blankenship violated safety regulations

and blew up 29 of his employees, landing him a body count higher than most serial killers. And he got 10 months. And this was after he already put people in danger 10 years prior. If our justice system has any point, shouldn't it be making sure that people don't keep doing bad things to other people?

And so why is it somehow different in Don Blankenship's case? I guess because he did it in the pursuit of corporate profits. It's somehow not the same as a drug dealer shooting someone or causing an overdose. Not only that, Blankenship managed to get $86 million from the very company he fatally mismanaged.

I'm not saying we should throw all CEOs in prison when their crimes kill people. I'm not only saying that, but we could at least be consistent on what the punishment for killing people is and not have the sentence be inversely proportional to your 401k. That shouldn't even be a controversial take, right?

If you purposefully ignore regulations that you know are there to protect lives and it results in people dying, you should be held accountable for it, the same as anyone else. You killed those people. So to answer what happened in East Palestine and why it happened, well,

it's kind of a failing of our criminal justice system. While our government goes after a disproportionate amount of offenses committed by the lower classes, these huge, terrible, disaster-causing corporate crimes are getting slaps on the wrist because these companies give our government money and handle our infrastructure. You know, like the mafia would.

It's a mob doing what it wants while working with the people who enforce the rules. And when they don't enforce the rules, then those rules are going to be broken a lot. And I think this is why mainstream Democrats like Biden have a lot of trouble addressing this stuff. Because in order to fix this, you'd have to take on corporations head on.

Corporations that are no doubt seen as vital to our infrastructure. By coming down hard on these CEOs, you'd be waging war with a huge part of capitalism. And by extension admitting the faults of that system, including the blood on our own government's hands. Meanwhile, Republicans can circumvent the issue by blaming the woke mob or whatever, whoever, whatever.

The wokes made me poison the people. That's the edge they have. They can make up a boogeyman, fire up their base, and still manage to avoid the actual hard conversation. I'm not even exaggerating. After seeing another Norfolk Southern train derailed this weekend, I was reminded of the fact that the company wrote to shareholders stating that it is focused on DEI. This administration's focus on DEI is forcing private companies to rethink their goals, and one has to wonder, was Norfolk Southern's DEI policies

are directing resources away from the important things like greasing wheel bearings. Extremely unserious stuff. Just honka honka clown shoes bullshit. It seems so overtly obvious that DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion has absolutely nothing to do with a train derailing or a bank failing for that matter. But if you're someone who's angry,

perhaps screwed over by a similar disaster or just tired of seeing corporations get away with so many crimes or misdeeds or who feels like the country is degrading and basic quality things like infrastructure or wages or whatever, well, you want someone to actually explain what's going wrong and how to fix that thing.

And if no one will actually admit to what the problem really is, or even recognize that there is a problem, it's easy to find yourself believing anyone offering answers even if the answer is, you know, silly and wrong. Like how isobutylene, one of these spilt chemicals, is also used for a process designed to detect and hunt boars. Whoa. Now, isobutylene, one of these spilt chemicals, is also used for a process designed

to detect and hunt boars. Just a coincidence. It's a coincidence. Like how Norfolk Southern ships to a place called the Wild Boar Mine? Seriously? Okay, calm down. Calm down, calm down, everyone.

Everyone be cool! Everyone be cool! Everyone be cool. I'm gonna go, I'm gonna do, I'm'm gonna do I'm gonna do like a little bit of I'm gonna do some research. Okay, no one freak out. No one freak out. No one's gonna no one's no one is freaking out. No one freak out because no one is freaking out. I'm gonna I'm gonna warn the country of the impending hog disaster. Fucking hell fuck. They have our trains. We're already dead okay bye We're already dead. news. We've got merch with stuff on the merchandise that you can get from links. We have a podcast called even more news, and we've also got this show as a podcast. It's called some more news. Check out. That's it.