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Ohio train disaster: the blame game takes a VERY strange twist
jonrappoport.substack.com ^ | Jon Rappoport

Posted on 03/01/2023 10:55:04 AM PST by Red Badger

“Hey, it wasn’t our fault! It was you!”

“That’s what you guys always say. You just want us to pay the damages.”

And around and around it goes.

Even assuming the Ohio train disaster was a terrorist attack, lurking in the background is the day-in day-out transport of highly dangerous chemicals by rail crisscrossing the country.

Who is responsible for THAT?

Here’s an excerpt of a vital article from Doomberg:

For its part, the freight rail companies are forced by the federal government to transport dangerous materials regardless of the peril such cargoes represent. In particular, they [the railroads] lament the substantial risk embodied by having to carry Toxic Inhalation Hazard (TIH) chemicals on their lines. Included on the TIH list are ammonia and chlorine, both of which are transported by rail in significant quantities. Here is how UP [Union Pacific Railroad] characterizes the situation from their perspective:

“Under the common carrier obligation, the federal government requires railroads to transport hazmat, whether they want to or not. Trucks and barges do not have this same obligation and may refuse to carry hazmat at their discretion. Union Pacific does not make Toxic Inhalation Hazard materials, own the tank cars that move TIH or decide the origin or destination to which it is shipped. However, the common carrier obligation requires Union Pacific to transport TIH.”

But wait. Are we really supposed to believe UP and other railroad giants would refuse to carry these chemical poisons if they could? And thereby sacrifice giant ongoing profits?

I don’t think so.

The railroads just want somebody to blame. And so does the federal government. And so do the chemical companies who manufacture the poisons and want them transported.

You could even say these three forces are doing THEATER. “You blame me and I’ll blame him and he’ll blame you.”

In my recent podcast about the Ohio Train Disaster, I emphasized the fact that most vinyl chloride is made at the same location where it is then turned into PVC pipe. But still, a great deal of the chemical is shipped long distances to the PVC factories.

Which should be forbidden. Which should be considered a crime.

However, the rail companies are pocketing major fees for carrying the chemical. The feds are mandating this transport. And the chemical companies want the vinyl chloride moved by rail. They’re all in it together.

Follow this bouncing ball: The braking systems for most of these huge freight trains are based on 19th century technology.

This means when the trains are suddenly stopped, the cars tend to bunch up, and you can get a derailment.

The new electronic braking systems avoid this horrendous problem.

The feds want all trains carrying highly hazardous materials to have the new braking system.

But during the Trump administration, federal regulators backed off and basically said: “If a train carries both safe and dangerous materials, we won’t classify the train as a hazard and we won’t demand the train has the new (and expensive) braking system.”

That piece of sly bullshit saved railroad companies a huge amount of money.

The chemical companies, as far as I can see, sat there and said nothing. “Hey, this isn’t our problem.”

We’ll see whether the “investigation” of the Ohio disaster pins blame on the train’s braking system. I’m not betting it does. But if it does, I’m sure Norfolk Southern Railway will find a way to squirm out of their problem by paying a large fine from the fund they’ve set side aside for just such “situations.”

The overriding principle here is: OUR CLOUD OF BULLSHIT HAS TO BE AS BIG AS THE TOXIC CLOUDS WE CREATED.

-- Jon Rappoport


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; History; Travel
KEYWORDS: blame; disaster; ohio; train
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1 posted on 03/01/2023 10:55:04 AM PST by Red Badger
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To: Red Badger

They could play the blame game all they want AFTER a state of emergency was declared by Ohio and FEMA evacuated the town, but they want everyone to breathe in the toxic fumes and die from cancer. DeWine is just as culpable as Biden.


2 posted on 03/01/2023 10:59:35 AM PST by Shadow44
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To: Red Badger

Everyone is blaming everyone the article states right before it blames Trump.


3 posted on 03/01/2023 11:00:34 AM PST by pas
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To: Red Badger

I have an idea: When the axle warnings go off, stop the train.


4 posted on 03/01/2023 11:04:02 AM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Red Badger

Trump’s fault.


5 posted on 03/01/2023 11:04:19 AM PST by FlingWingFlyer ("I may be a white boy but I'm not stupid". - FJB at Black "History" event. Tell 'em Jo Jo!)
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To: Red Badger
That "19th century braking system" works just fine. Brakes were not the problem in the Ohio incident. The derailment was caused by wheel bearing failure.

The trains have a modern 21st century hotbox alarm system, which alerts the engineers if something goes wrong with the wheel bearings.

In the Ohio incident, the hotbox system did in fact detect the problem in time to stop the train. The engineers had over 20 miles to do so after failed wheel bearings were detected. The alarms were either ignored or suppressed.

No, this was not the fault of President Donald Trump.

6 posted on 03/01/2023 11:09:13 AM PST by flamberge (We don't get the government we vote for. We get the government we will tolerate.)
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To: flamberge

It apparently wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just an accident...................


7 posted on 03/01/2023 11:11:33 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
The new electronic braking systems avoid this horrendous problem.

Maybe, maybe not. Increased reliance on technology often creates a false sense of security. According to the NTSB the Norfolk Southern crew ignored warning alarms prior to the accident. What is the purpose to have a crew if they don’t respond to alarms?

More highly automated systems should be approached with caution. We’ll soon hear a call for fully autonomous trains that leverage AI. If these reports about ChatGBT are true, then it is obvious that AI is nothing more than marketing fluff. Some snowflake programmer is coding it and garbage data are being input.

8 posted on 03/01/2023 11:12:56 AM PST by ConservativeInPA (Stupidly is a moral problem, not an intellectual problem. )
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To: Red Badger

They have these things which have gone out of style these days they were called pipelines and they could handle Hazmat very efficiently with little or no risk.

I’m not sure whatever happened to those pipelines but somebody has put it into the government’s head that pipelines are a bad idea.

This DISASTER is a prime example of why pipelines are NOT a bad idea.


9 posted on 03/01/2023 11:15:43 AM PST by Clutch Martin ("The trouble ain't that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain't distributed right." )
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To: Red Badger

I can totally believe the railroads would refuse to carry that stuff if they could. Transporting toxic chemicals comes with a lot of overhead. You’ve got to be licensed and certified both at the corporate and individual level. When you’ve got one of those loads you’ve got to have one of the certified people along to “ensure proper handling”. And you add the fact that government says they have to do it that’s probably going to reduce the revenue from it. When you have a trucking company that’s gone through the hoops they get to charge more in part because they’ve chosen to go through the hoops and some of their competition hasn’t, so there’s reduced competition for that freight and an innate understanding in the trade that this is a “premium service” with “premium fees”. When all of you competition not only does it, but is mandated to have to do it, it’s no longer a “premium service” and there goes your “premium fees”. If they weren’t mandated to do it probably only 1 of the major carriers would, and they’d charge 3 times as much. It almost certainly isn’t a profit center compared to “boring” freight.


10 posted on 03/01/2023 11:22:03 AM PST by discostu (like a dog being shown a card trick)
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To: Red Badger
The braking systems for most of these huge freight trains are based on 19th century technology.

So? Automobile disc brakes were invented in 1902.

11 posted on 03/01/2023 11:26:06 AM PST by FoxInSocks ("Hope is not a course of action." — M. O'Neal, USMC)
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To: Red Badger
It apparently wasn’t anybody’s fault. It was just an accident...................

Yeah! Thats the ticket! It was an accident!

I am going with "gross negligence" or "possible sabotage" as a preliminary assessment.

And a "controlled burn" of toxic materials in a ditch by the railroad tracks comes up as "felony-grade stupidity" deserving of capital punishment. You don't just get to walk away from contaminating millions of acres of prime farmland and subjecting tens of thousands of people to early death from cancer-causing substances.

12 posted on 03/01/2023 11:31:42 AM PST by flamberge (We don't get the government we vote for. We get the government we will tolerate.)
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To: flamberge

Somebody gave the order to set it on fire.

That part wasn’t an accident.

I’d like to know who said to themselves,”That sounds like a good idea to me.”.................


13 posted on 03/01/2023 11:38:33 AM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Jeff Chandler
"I have an idea: When the axle warnings go off, stop the train."

"Oh I'd keep playing - I don't think the heavy stuff is gonna' come down for quite a while..."

14 posted on 03/01/2023 11:44:12 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again" - J. Hendrix)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Libs say it was Trumps fault. Did he run the railroad? What about the tens of thousands of fentanyl deaths due to open borders? Not Trumps fault. Greatly exceeds gun deaths by a huge margin. Anything done about that? Nope.


15 posted on 03/01/2023 11:52:51 AM PST by BipolarBob (The rumor has not been confirmed until the FBI officially denies it.)
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To: BipolarBob

You got that right.


16 posted on 03/01/2023 12:05:59 PM PST by FlingWingFlyer ("I may be a white boy but I'm not stupid". - FJB at Black "History" event. Tell 'em Jo Jo!)
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To: Red Badger

Why is this instant expert talking about braking systems, when according to the NTSB the cause of the derailment was a failed wheel bearing.


17 posted on 03/01/2023 12:37:31 PM PST by hinckley buzzard ( Resist the narrative.)
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To: Red Badger

I passed a semi today with radioactive placards all over it.

You don’t see that very often.

US74 near Hamlet,NC


18 posted on 03/01/2023 12:40:59 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
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To: eyedigress

Was it glowing in the dark?................


19 posted on 03/01/2023 12:46:48 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegal aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

I just made sure to put down my biscuit.

It was not escorted.


20 posted on 03/01/2023 12:48:06 PM PST by eyedigress (Trump is my President!)
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