Those damn public trains companies and their lack of safety regulations! /s
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Nope. This is “tell me you don’t know that the federal government does not override the will of the states in emergencies, without telling me…” I guess people really have not been following all of the outcry and undermining of federal authority since the pandemic started.
I’ve been really pissed about the press bending over backwards to keep Governor DeWine’s name out of this. Biden already offered to help, but DeWine, following the same GOP playbook as Governor Abbot in Texas, has not responded. That should be front-page news every 
day until DeWine caves, but no, the press falls into the same “let the disaster get worse so members of the GOP can blame Democrats for their own inaction” trap - every time:
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Ugh, can relate.
And with fresh UX from a few weeks ago.
But disaster capitalism works so well! It is demonization of enemies who must get blamed repeatedly and publicly no matter if they are responsible or not! It’s the old 1-2-3-profit! (Defund and maximize profit; create conducive conditions for a real catastrophe; when catastrophe inevitably happens, talk about how badly operated the defunded service is; then either leverage that catastrophe to benefit private equity or corporations with deregulation, or if the thing is publicly owned then just sell it all off to one’s corporate pals… but in the U.S. railroads and tracks are all privately owned anyway, so that option’s off the table).
Here’s what I’m worried about: Bad or Lunatic Leader Syndrome.
If Abbott, or DeWine, or any of the other redder-than-red gubners in our fine United States just decides to go it alone (no help from The Feds)–usually because they do not want to stop the corporate gravy train of megadonations to their political coffers–then its the people who suffer.
I am wrong, often. Like, more and more often.
If the federal government does not override the will of the states in emergencies, is it wrong to push public opinion to demand their stricken state get help by pushing their state government to do the sensible thing and get federal help?
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Exactly. It’s the bad combination of “the cruelty is the point” meeting voting against one’s own interest. Like Abbott, he was just re-elected last year. So, they are just getting started on new four-year terms. At least there are term limits in Ohio, so DeWine cannot run again immediately after his term is up. However, that’s not the case in Texas. 
Not at all. Senators Sherrod Brown and JD Vance, as well as Fox News are focusing on DeWine, but other outlets weren’t mentioning him much lately, if at all. Will they go after him for deliberately delaying and follow up on exactly what he’s getting (or other parties involved are gaining) from doing that? Time will tell.
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The ongoing issues are what alarms Candice Desanzo. Like many neighbors, she wants to leave, but her family does not have enough money. She fears for her children and husband who have developed rashes after bathing. As she discussed the plight on her front porch, her eyes were red and swollen, and one of her children had gone hoarse, symptoms she said developed after the wreck.
What do we know about the Ohio train derailment and toxic chemical leak?
“I can’t help but feel like I’m slowly poisoning my kids by staying,” she said.
Some suffering from symptoms are skeptical of local physicians’ diagnoses. They have been told they have eczema or a sinus infection, or have been given antibiotics. Some scientists have advised residents to call the Poison Control Center because family physicians are not trained to treat chemical exposure.
Crikey, “a sinus infection”?
What’s going on here? Proximate cause vs root cause?
Are the docs afraid of getting sued by the almighty railroad corporation if they say “you are / your child is clearly being poisoned, I prescribe GTFO and by the powers invested in me under the _______ Act and my sworn oath as an MD, I am writing you this Rx for free transport for you and your fam to [somewhere safe]”?
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Huh.
Outlawed by the Geneva Convention, eh?
The lawsuit claims the amount of that emission of the toxic chemical was more than two times the total amount of vinyl chloride released by all U.S. industries annually.
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Yes: questions.
So. Many. Questions.
(none of which 
will answer; but the media circus however should be… interesting, and after all that’s what really matters in show biz eh the U.S. news media cycle–please note that Erin Brockovich is already in the area, organizing)
Please pardon the wonky scrolldown from this link:
Trump to face questions on environmental record in visit to Ohio toxic train crash
Good morning, US politics blog readers. Donald Trump is today heading to East Palestine, Ohio, where a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month, causing an environmental disaster and an intensifying political firestorm. Trump wants to seize the initiative from Joe Biden, who Republicans have criticized for not visiting the Ohio town, though he did dispatch his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief. But Trump, who is running for president once again, may have questions of his own to answer in East Palestine. During his four years in the White House, he loosened up safety regulations for rail operators, and tried to curb the EPA’s powers.
Go Erin! Go grrrrl!
https://twitter.com/ErinBrockovich/status/1627815045882122243
ETA:
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Oh.
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I don’t know if we all saw the news about shipping some of the contaminated soil and water to two facilities in Michigan that some politicians stopped because they didn’t seek someones approval first but…
My very red county is very pretend angry at whoever authorized the licensed hauler to take the waste to licensed facilities in our state.
Now, all of a sudden my, still flying the last guy 2020 flags, county are very pretend upset that we don’t have the government regulating interstate commerce. Hazardous chemicals are on the highway every day but now they want to blame our governor and Biden for something no one cared about for years.
I welcomed them to our side but that didn’t go over well.
Go figure.
Karamo is the wackadoodle that the republican party of Michigan elected as their leader.
“The Michigan Republican Party is demanding, just like every other resident in Michigan irrespective of political affiliation, that we have clean air and clean water. This is not a partisan issue, this is a human rights issue,” Karamo said.
When did the republicans start caring about clean air and water let alone human rights?
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The answer is that it is exactly what Republicans fought for and won.
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Yep. When they demanded an end to “harmful and wasteful government regulation” - this is the result.
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Texas has an extremely “business-friendly” regulatory environment when it comes to protecting water, air and soil. Anyone who has spent any time along the Texas Gulf Coast near a refinery pretty much can see, smell and taste the results. Same for any other petroleum extraction or refining operation here.
Hey man, jack these dang barriers to commerce! Make the money! Nanny-state regulation is bad for bidness!1!!1!
/s
QED
ETA: word missing
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What the fuck?
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FTA:
Justin Long, general chairman of the American Rail System Federation, said one employee told Long that he had asked his supervisor if he could be transferred from the site because he was suffering nausea and migraines but he did not hear back, and that other workers received “little or no response” when they asked about the lack of PPE.
"Many other employees reported that they continue to experience migraines and nausea, days after the derailment, and they all suspect they were willingly exposed to these chemicals at the direction of [Norfolk Southern],” Long added.
Where TF is OSHA? Can’t someone call OSHA on their corporate NS railroad ass? What am I missing here?
Damn this is bad:
(I mean, it keeps getting worse, or is not on the way to being unbad.)
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This picture for the pod… says so much:
The position of the respirator.
The color of the shrub in the background.
The man’s eyes.
The name on his visor.
The orange whatever that, I am guessing, is attached to the visor, perhaps humorously.
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Given that it’s the railroads, I’m going to go out on a limb and guess there is a 19th-century law on the books that says that OHSA has no authority and the railroad companies are allowed to kill up to 12 workers a day through over work, exposure, or poison. Above that, and they will be fined $1 per death.
Seriously, we need to completely revamp all the laws that deal with railroads from the ground up. They still have most of the legal protection from when they could buy and sell presidents.
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Has a real Old Gods of Appalachia vibe…
(Not to make light of the real people suffering, but it just brings to mind the malignant evil in some of the story lines surrounding railroads etc.)
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Previously rejected headlines for this story, I imagine:
Plan to incinerate… ‘height of human stupidity’
Plan to incinerate… ‘proves that corporations and the pols who are paid by them don’t give. one. damn. about. you’
etc.
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