My granddaughter has, rightly, taken me to task for not giving more attention to the catastrophic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, just a few hundred miles from our home. But, try as I might, I have been unable to stay focused on it long enough to write a post. The disaster has become both a political football and a racial one, thanks to certain politicos, and I find myself growling and cursing every time I try to put fingers to keyboard. Jeff, however, has no such problem and has written a well-researched, timely, and passionate post about the disaster and the situation to date. Thank you, Jeff! I owe you one!
So Donald Trump visited East Palestine, Ohio, yesterday. Visiting the scene of the crime is what immediately came to mind when I saw him arrive in “Trump Force One.” But what I saw from many in that community was nothing of the sort. There were cheers, clapping, and fawning – something resembling a rock star coming back on stage for an encore.
What in the hell is wrong with these people?
I’m sorry. I do not mean to lump everyone in East Palestine into the same camp. Indeed there are folks there who despise the man. But let’s face it. Trump got over 70 percent of the vote in that area in 2020. Certainly, those are landslide numbers by any stretch of the imagination.
And what they do not know, at least most of them, is that when Trump came into office in 2017, he gutted scores of regulations spanning…
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The train derailment is so awful to read about and I’m surprised there aren’t more stories being amplified about the longer term impact of the residents who live in the area. And we can always count on politicians to milk a disaster for clout sadly!
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Part of the reason it hasn’t been in the news more, I think, is that the area affected is very small, in terms of population. Had it happened in a city, it would have certainly gotten more attention. And the other thing is that there is just so much happening these days, between the war in Ukraine, the fights here over education, book banning, LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, and political fights, that our attention is distracted. My biggest hope is that new regulations about the transport of hazardous chemicals will result. And that the Norfolk/Southern Railway will have to spend most of that $3.2 BILLION profit they made last year cleaning up after themselves, paying fines, and meeting new safety standards.
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Posted over there…
“A perfect comment on Robert Reich this am says it all. And it’s more of the same for the rhetoric in Ohio.
“Remember, though, that all of this is built on the MAGA voter base. The 15 rounds of voting for Speaker showed us just how weak McCarthy and the Republican party are, and how they have to pander to the crazies.
What the Dominion court case ultimately revealed by releasing the Fox News emails is that those same belligerently ignorant, conspiracy-addled voters call the tunes the Fox News piper plays.
The Republican party and Fox have spent decades cultivating the deplorables, and now they are captive to them.
Fox News is deathly afraid of being abandoned by its crazy viewers. The Republican leadership is deathly afraid of Trump and his deplorable mob. The deplorables demand to be fed all manner of stupid lies, and who will turn to whichever politicians and media outlets that meet their demands.”
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As always, Reich is spot-on!
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