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ask_the_fisherman t1_j8pi30r wrote

It is the politically correct way of saying " we do not answer to peasants" We fucked you for life and you need to get over it.

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ManfredsJuicedBalls t1_j8rb8vx wrote

The French in the late 1700’s seemingly had a reply to that kind of comment

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drxdrg08 t1_j8sbes0 wrote

Before you go start revolutions I'll remind you that the Federal Railroad Administration, which sets safety regulations for trains, is under Democratic control. And has been for 10 out of the last 14 years.

So is the governorship in Pennsylvania, which can also regulate rail inside the state to an extent, has been Democratic for the last 8 years.

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eMPereb t1_j8sfzh6 wrote

Hah weren’t the railways deregulated? Didn’t they remove the rule to label/notify shipping manifests of “hazardous” materials due to it costing too much $$$ Yeah more 🤡💩GOPer horsehit

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drxdrg08 t1_j8sl35h wrote

> Yeah more 🤡💩GOPer horsehit

Did you miss the part where rail transport regulations are under Democratic control?

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eMPereb t1_j8t1yol wrote

Typical MAGA Azz hat wearing 🤡💩only believe what the imbecile tells you

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piratepowder t1_j8wzqru wrote

Truth and it started under Obama deregulating the railroads then furthered by Trump and Biden.

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MercyMe92 t1_j8t79ud wrote

What do you expect people to say? 'OH, the Democrats screwed up? Cool thanks I'm not mad anymore"? Not everyone's a hyper partisan nut job; you can still be critical of the same party member

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MercyMe92 t1_j8t7nja wrote

Also wasn't the rail industry deregulated in the 70s? And with precision scheduled railroading, it's wall street types that pushed their staff to the brink of exhaustion for the sake of the shareholders? You know, the free market? You must really think we're dumb to not see through your weird bad argument

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Dispatcher12 t1_j8pihf9 wrote

If they are too scared to land in person they could, I don't know.... Have a meeting the way the whole fucking world did for a couple of years recently?

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8pgt4v wrote

“Unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders, we have become increasingly concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties.” 

The company did not elaborate on the purported threats. 

Initially, the town hall would have allowed the public to ask questions of officials and the railroad, but the event was subsequently changed to “an open house with informational tables for residents,” WKBN-TV reported. It is unclear if that change was made because of Norfolk Southern’s decision to back out. 

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8pgwbz wrote

And just like that, the railroad execs found an excuse to not set foot in the toxic town they destroyed.

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SamuelDoctor t1_j8q70fu wrote

A lawsuit will oblige them to return sooner or later.

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gearheadsub92 t1_j8rmvy9 wrote

Representatives of the company, maybe.

Sure as fuck not the execs, though.

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creaky__sampson t1_j8xl1oe wrote

You gotta have some big balls to crash a poison train into a town and then claim it’s you who are unsafe

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drxdrg08 t1_j8sa1by wrote

> town they destroyed

It seems strange for them to want to crash the train they own. What did they do?

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8sw9se wrote

Successfully lobied against safety regulations and measures that would have avoided this, all so they could add ridiculous amounts of money to their already ridiculous stockpiles of wealth.

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chickenonthehill559 t1_j8pvhfm wrote

Don’t worry Mayor Pete is on his way.

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TurkeyBLTSandwich t1_j8q5ijs wrote

I don't get the downvotes?

The Biden literally forced the railworkers to "suck it up buttercup" and told them their concerns weren't valid.

A giant slap to the face of railworkers and as a whole bluecollar workers in general.

The stopping of the rail strike was one of the biggest set back in organized work for the current administration.

The Sec of Transportation hasn't made a major effort in curb stomping these rail giants and actually fining these terrible airlines. Like dude fine them into oblivion and start actually regulating them?

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chickenonthehill559 t1_j8q6ddr wrote

Current administration has done little or close to nothing to help with this situation.

Prior administration did little or next to nothing to prevent this situation.

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BenWallace04 t1_j8qfymf wrote

Because it is still a very much “one side is still worse than the other” situation.

https://apnews.com/article/wv-state-wire-north-america-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-2e91c7211b4947de8837ebeda53080b9mp-us-news-ap-top-news-transportation-1936e77a11924c909880f1ef014c7ca7

An Associated Press review of the department’s rulemaking activities in Trump’s first year in office shows at least a dozen safety rules that were under development or already adopted have been repealed, withdrawn, delayed or put on the back burner. In most cases, those rules are opposed by powerful industries. And the political appointees running the agencies that write the rules often come from the industries they regulate.

Dems instituted many rules and had many more on the table that were either rolled back or crushed under the Trump admin.

If you want to argue the Biden admin is a backed up toilet the Trump admin was a proverbial “toxic waste dump”. Rather fitting actually.

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Atrocious_1 t1_j8qr5xv wrote

"it's ok our guy is fucking up terribly, the previous guy fucked up even bigger!"

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BenWallace04 t1_j8qsi7i wrote

”Our guy fucked up”

How so? Dems passed the laws than Trump rolled it back while he had a majority in Congress.

No one said that it’s okay or that our system isn’t broken but, in the meantime, voting in Republicans is just going to expedite our race to the bottom.

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Atrocious_1 t1_j8qt9kc wrote

Buddy, Sec Pete is nowhere to be found, Biden is talking about Chinese balloons, and Norfolk's execs basically disappeared.

If this administration was half competent there'd be bills on the floor right now and an investigation. Moreso, Biden himself broke the rail strike when they were demanding better pay, more time off, and safer conditions.

Overworked, exhausted workers plus faulty equipment is what caused this. Rail workers wanted less of that, but Joe "nothing will fundamentally change" Biden said no.

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tyrael459 t1_j8rnvlp wrote

Why did Biden end the strike? Was he afraid of more severe inflation if the trains would stop running? Honest question. I didn’t quite get all of that when it was happening.

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the_propagandapanda t1_j8rp8n1 wrote

Yes, pretty much. Not so much specifically inflation but the US economy as a whole. The numbers change depending on what source you use but roughly it was estimated that 1-2 billion would have been lost per day if the rails shut down. Rail transports ~%40 of the nations long distance freight and ~%30 of exports.

It’s a lose-lose situation tbh. Either the rail workers strike and rail conditions get better (could have potentially prevented this derailment) or the already poor economic situation gets worse for a lot of people. Regardless the consistent issue is the rail company that refuses to take real responsibility for any of it.

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TurkeyBLTSandwich t1_j8rtnjz wrote

I saw someone else posted. But the Rail companies REFUSED to budge on some demands.

Rail Companies work on a random scheduling bases. Which means they don't move trains until they hit capacity. So train crews will often have to be on standby for 24/7 until they get a call. Which means they'll have to show up within the hour. Also note trains use to run on schedule and wouldn't leave at full capacity sometimes. Companies hated this so they changed it because 1 all scheduled trains would need crews and 2 they couldn't carry as much stuff if it was scheduled. So now they just say "these trains wont move unless we have them full of stuff"

The Rail workers were asking for UNPAID LEAVE APPROVAL FOR MEDICAL APPOINTMENTS. And this was denied because the rail workers staffing were stripped to skeleton crews. Literally the bare minimum to run the trains.

Biden stopped the strike for a multiple of reasons. One being the supply chain issue hasn't really solved itself just yet.

But also corporate interests demand that trains keep running in unsafe conditions. It's simple really, the rail lines should be nationalized and regulated by a government entity and ENFORCED. Also note it really grinds my gears because legally passenger rail has right of way for all rails. HOWEVER most of the time passenger rail has to heed to freight rail because rail is SO long that when they come by they usually block passenger rail physically. AND GUESS WHAT? THE FINES IF ANY ARE ALWAYS SO LOW THEY CONTINUE DOING IT.

It's really a companies don't want to "miss out on more profit" and the rail workers trying to get a semblance of basic necessity. And the Biden administration chose to side with the rail companies. The rail companies literally went on national tv and said "these rail workers are selfish and want to destroy the economy"

I have such a disdain for the current state of affairs of rail in America

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tyrael459 t1_j8sivjo wrote

Seriously, this stuff is so gross. The rich just keep getting richer.

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Zenith2017 t1_j8rn1tl wrote

Biden killed the railway strike. Open your eyes

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Mtts28 t1_j8quxoi wrote

None of those rules would have prevented this. This was caused by a broken axle. Simple as that. You’re trying to make this about politics and it’s not. It’s about a broken component on one rail car that rarely ever fails.

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mtnlife991 t1_j8r5dym wrote

This was not caused by a broken axle. The NTSB determined a "wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure" was the cause of the derailment. A very preventable issue with regular maintenance and inspection.

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Mtts28 t1_j8rknom wrote

Axle is an easier way of dumbing that down for people. My point remains. The rules which Ben posted still do not pertain to wheel bearings. Wheel bearings do fail at random times even with maintenance. We struggle with this in the rail industry and truck industry. It’s why you also see so many truck fires. It’s a cheap component prone to failure. I have seen ones with less than 5000 mi on them blow apart in wheels. It’s literally nothing new. Additionally I have not seen any reports yet that this train threw any hot boxes along the line so it likely happened at a rapid pace.

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8szo7y wrote

There's a video of it on fire in Salem, 20miles before the crash. There also seems to be a call made about the hot box, and an investigation is underway. If you're genuinely interested, you should google, there are a handful of media outlets covering this part of the story. I think I saw the hot box footage on a CBS report.

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Mtts28 t1_j8t8isj wrote

The media is covering it now? Only took 2 weeks. I gave up trying to find anything.

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Atrocious_1 t1_j8qr89v wrote

Thank goodness, but I don't know how fixing bread prices is going to prevent rail disasters

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all4whatnot t1_j8pmgkp wrote

Physical threat? You mean they didn’t want to go near the town out of fear of developing cancer?

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beanshaken t1_j8pl5tw wrote

WOW. Local government needs to call big government for this. How is this happening

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fancygiraffepants t1_j8q933x wrote

Big government literally called.

Local government said “nah, we’re good.”

‘Look, the president called me and said, “Anything you need.” I have not called him back after that conversation. We will not hesitate to do that if we’re seeing a problem or anything, but I’m not seeing it.’ — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine

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Alternative-Flan2869 t1_j8pnnto wrote

“Railroad Giant” should go live in that town the next year and experience the physical threats from the toxic chemicals set loose from his avoidable train wreck. So should trump who rolled back safety regulations on brakes that Obama installed that would have helped prevent this disaster.

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hahahoudini OP t1_j8pnuer wrote

That's innacurate, the bill Obama tried to pass would have allowed this situation, as there were less than 20 cars with hazardous materials, it would not have qualified as a hazardous train requiring the updated brakes in Obama's bill. Just putting out the facts.

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politehornyposter t1_j8py0y0 wrote

Good to know this information. What's more troubling is that our federal government has done nothing to regulate or reign in this industry. Maybe the state, if not the federal government could step in and buy up lines.

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aust_b t1_j8q0tut wrote

But of course ReGulaTion iS BaD until disasters like this happen

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tonkerthegreat t1_j8qwxv5 wrote

And then when it happens there's nothing to be done about it because it's too expensive

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HeyZuesHChrist t1_j8q11a0 wrote

Or just have stricter regulations. And then enforce them.

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politehornyposter t1_j8q1v4a wrote

This is a top-down solution, and you run into regulatory capture issues and companies looking for a corner to cut. Interestingly, before Norfolk S and CSX existed, their lines were owned by the federal government where it turned a profit which was then was promptly privatized by Reagan, lol. Private infrastructure is not great.

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jersey_viking t1_j8q5kwv wrote

Oh wow sheewww. I’m so glad these materials were allowed to be transported without that hazardous train designation. I hope the choo-choo execs saved a bunch of money on their car insurance.

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MathewMurdock2 t1_j8pzpw8 wrote

Coward. Dude could easily hire security, even bring in a metal detector and answer questions.

Or like do it online.

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Charirner t1_j8pnd18 wrote

Fucking cowards who don't want to face responsibility for their actions and greed.

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jarjarkinks4747 t1_j8qghgj wrote

You know what else is a physical threat? A massive ecological disaster.

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dippin20s t1_j8pneow wrote

they know they really fucked up on this one

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midcenelf t1_j8rrose wrote

I was watching John Russell stream this meeting. Their congressman showed up. Reassured everyone there are no contaminants. Afterwards, John interviewed him and asked about the $18,000 he accepted from Norfolk Southern. Congressman became immediately pissed, said he wouldn't discuss politics, police surrounded him and escorted congressman away. They've paid local government to lie for them.

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AbigailLilac t1_j8qglky wrote

Cowards! They can still communicate through Zoom where there's no risk of physical harm.

We can't change the past, but we need to ensure this never happens again. That involves rights for overextended employees, safety regulations, and steep penalties for unsafe practices. If a politician advocates against these things, you know they're on the side of poisoning towns.

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XBakaTacoX t1_j8u24it wrote

Why is is so hard to do the right thing? They screwed up really really bad, they need to own up to it.

This is a horrible wake up call, make changes, for God's sake...

FIX THIS CRAP.

It's sad that big companies refuse to acknowledge issues and won't make an effort to fix them.

I need to take a break from this topic, it's just making me mad and disappointed.

I feel for the people and environments affected by this disaster.

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AlteredCabron2 t1_j8r9e9v wrote

thoughts and prayers

they got what they wanted

less regulations 🤷‍♂️

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TS_SI_TK_ORCON t1_j8q2mb8 wrote

Will Secretary Pete be there? /s

I hear they got some great trains in Japan, South Korea, and China. And they partially use maglev, which uses electricity instead of fossil fuels, I believe Diesel. I think the only place you'll find maglev in America is the original Disney World in DeFascist Florida.

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Atrocious_1 t1_j8rw0w4 wrote

If those workers were so integral that the economy would collapse if they walked, then perhaps their demands should have been met.

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SkiG13 t1_j8rsi32 wrote

So they are saying “we were negligent and made your town uninhabitable boo boo have a nice day while we go play on our yachts.”

Honestly hope that every resident in that town gets a huge payday and doesn’t have to work for a long time.

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mynameisalso t1_j8uh6ie wrote

Can we just have the meeting at his place? BYOB guys.

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