Down and Out in East Palestine
Better Trump Water Than Tap Water
Here are a few things that happened in the last couple weeks
Biden has made no public statement on the recent East Palestine derailment. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg waited days to acknowledge the disaster
Donald Trump went to East Palestine and handed out burgers and water
Libs are now making fun of Trump for giving out burgers and water
It’s like they WANT the Republicans to win the 2024 election
I understand why Biden travelled to Ukraine instead of East Palestine last week. I get it. That trip was probably months in the making, it takes a lot of coordination and secrecy and planning to get a President into a war zone and back safely, and Ukraine is important too. None of that explains why Biden didn’t go to East Palestine before his trip, or why he isn’t going now, or why Kamala Harris didn’t go, or why Mayor Secretary Pete took weeks to get there. For SURE Mayor Secretary Pete should have at least mentioned the derailment when he made the Sunday talk show rounds after the State of the Union address a week and a half after the derailment, grandstanding for Biden while the people of Ohio fled from a mushroom cloud of cancer.
Do yourself a favor. Go to The Lever and read/listen to their coverage of the East Palestine train disaster. You might as well hear it from them; as far as I can tell, they’re the ones driving all decent reporting on the issue, the'y’re the ones who’ve forced Mayor Secretary Pete to acknowledge the disaster at all. Normally I’d put a little “subscribe here” button below this paragraph but not today: subscribe to The Lever. Pay them if you’ve got money. They deserve it:
Here’s a story you might have heard elsewhere: in 2015, Obama (and Vice President Joe Biden) passed a regulation that required railroad companies to equip trains carrying hazardous and/or highly flammable cargo with Electronically Controlled Pneumatic brakes instead of the civil-war-era brakes most trains still use today. Then, when Trump took over, he got rid of that regulation. So really this is all Trump’s fault.
Except, actually, even if Trump had left that regulation in place, this specific train still would not have had electronic brakes, because Obama caved to the chemical lobby. Chemicals like Vinyl Chloride were exempt from the regulation. This train was never regulated. This was always going to happen eventually.
Put that aside. “Trump and his deregulations did this”—you realize that Biden has been in the White House for over 2 years, right? The only brake safety regulation change currently under consideration is a relaxation of brake safety protocol. When Mayor Secretary Pete finally broke his silence weeks after the catastrophe, he essentially wrung his hands and said that someone sure ought to do something, but it can’t be him, because he has no power.
“Trump is BAD” the Democrats tell us over and over again, and they’re not wrong, but when they fail to undo the terrible things he did, voters hear the unspoken second part of that sentence: “Trump is BAD and we are powerless.”
What is the pitch here? Why should voters help you get elected if you can’t do anything to help them?
To hear the Democrats tell it, if Trump (or whoever) gets elected in 2024 it will be the end of the world because he will have SO much power, but if Biden (or whoever) gets reelected their hands will still presumably be tied. We sure would love to do something but we just can’t. I’m sorry.
You know who did help? Donald J Trump. With hamburgers and Trump water. I understand that the water was expired, and I understand why that’s funny, but preliminary tests encouraging the people of East Palestine to drink their tap water were sponsored by by Norfolk Southern Rail Company and—surprise, surprise!—turn out to have been “sloppy.”
Meanwhile, the Democrats have jokes:
Considering the side effects of tap water are very likely CANCER: yes, they do.
You know what else won’t wash away moral stains? Biden’s inaction. At least Trump’s version of profiteering results in people getting water and hamburgers.
Libs, man. Libs, sitting in coastal cities tittering at the idea of giving people in Ohio something as gauche as Big Macs. A lot of people in the Midwest like Big Macs, and the fact that you think that’s funny is one reason the rust belt rusted redder.
Meanwhile, not only is the Liberal establishment showing their entire ass, they’re also giving Trump the exact kind of headlines that propelled him to victory in 2016: the ones where he’s doing something absurd but charming that people in middle America like. Bludgeon me into unconsciousness. Shoot me into the sun.
The Republicans are of course attacking the Democrats using nearly every talking point I’ve just used, which is very funny, because they are the party that advocates out loud for what the Democrats quietly do. I was on a radio show this morning (which will air Monday), and the host wondered aloud why people keep voting for the party of deregulation, then turning around and demanding more regulation. Here’s the unpleasant answer: it’s because the Democrats have billed themselves as the party of regulation, and you see how things turn out under their watch. They are just as much in bed with the oligarchs as the Republicans, the difference is that the Republicans are openly polyamorous while the Democrats keep claiming a monogamous relationship with the American People. This bedroom is dead and it has been for years. They don’t even buy us flowers anymore.
Go ahead, tell me that the Democrats are the party of unions: I’m old enough to remember when Joe Biden shut down the railroad strike that, among other things, demanded better safety regulations. Tell me the Democrats are the party of regulation when Mayor Secretary Pete came up as a business consultant with McKinsey & Company—you know, the consulting firm that helped Perdue pharma “turbocharge” Oxycontin sales.
You’re laughing. 45,000 animals have died because of this avoidable catastrophe and you’re laughing. At hamburgers.
A lot of people are probably going to die too—vinyl chloride causes cancer, especially when inhaled—but for some liberal ghouls that’s apparently a good thing, or at least a very funny thing:
If the fascists win I'll be extremely sad and/or dead, as will just about everyone I care about, but I will be comforted somewhat knowing that people like this got what they fucking deserved.
As currently constituted, the Democrats are no friend to the working man. You can yell at me until you’re blue in the face that Trump is Worse, but this core fact will not change. At a certain point, fear stops working. Around the time their state turns into a mushroom cloud, people start prefering hamburgers and vengeance to insufferable coastal-city Liberals who view them as expendable.
I didn't want to read this but I did,I don't want to acknowledge the truth but I will, this is correct and it makes me angry and upset.
Chapo pointed out that Mayor Secretary Pete's response was even worse- Biden spokespeople got out and said "train derailments happen all the time and nobody complained when Elayne Chao was in office". They're literally saying "Look we know you're in the middle of a cancer supersite but look how *bad* Mayo Pete has it".
And you don't get to make fun of big macs and bottled water unless you're *doing more to fix the situation*.
It's legitimately moments like this that make me stop and think "JFC we're doomed". The Democratic party is in a fucking rebuilding season that will last 20 years that we don't have. I don't know if Biden is a tyrant or if the Democrats are this spineless. Nobody in his administration seems to have any ambition or drive, except maybe ex-DOE scientist Sam Brinton who apparently is a compulsive luggage thief. Why do you even try to get to the top of the political mountain if you don't want to deal with stuff like this?
I get that it might be tough legislatively to get bills changed, especially with this congress, but you know what? The exectuive has the bully pulpit and if they can't do anything legislatively they should be out there vilifying the fuck out of Norfolk Southern Rail Company until Disney makes villains in their cartoons mimicking them. Audit the shit out of every single business decision they make that can be done.
I read that the chemical spill is now going to work it's way down to Texas. There will be a political bloodbath as that happens and the Democrats are going to go all pikachu face when it happens. And as it happens people and animals will die and water will become poisoned and NSRC will get off with a slap on the wrist.
I just... god damnit.