Republicans Criticize Biden for Visiting Ukraine Instead of Ohio Chemical Disaster Town
Meanwhile, DOT Sec. Buttigieg pens a sharply worded letter and EPA head Regan cancels glamor-filled climate trip to Africa to revisit Ohio.
Despite the mainstream media’s attempt to paint President Joe Biden as a hero of freedom on President’s Day, several Republicans blasted him for going to Ukraine before visiting the chemical disaster site in East Palestine, Ohio.
‘When our border is in crisis, Joe Biden goes home to nap in Delaware. When Ohio burns with toxic chemicals, Biden’s admin says everything is fine. So on Presidents’ Day, I’m not surprised that Biden is ditching America for Ukraine,’ Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz complained on Twitter. ‘He ditched America’s interests since the start of his presidency. They can keep him!”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene had a similar take.
‘Biden didn’t go to East Palestine, Ohio on President’s Day. He went to Ukraine, a NON-NATO nation, whose leader is an actor and is apparently now commanding our United States military to world war,’ Greene tweeted. ‘We must impeach this America Last fool before it’s too late.’
Other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggested Biden cared more about Ukraine’s borders than those between the United States and Mexico.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg penned a “sharply worded letter” to the rail operator at the center of a hazardous train derailment.
In a sharply worded, three-page letter sent Sunday to Norfolk Southern Railway president and CEO Alan Shaw, Buttigieg accused the Atlanta-based company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over safety — a problematic ethos within the larger transportation industry that the secretary said has contributed to a number of derailments over the years.
“The derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials near East Palestine, Ohio, has upended the lives of numerous residents, many of whom continue to worry about their immediate health and safety as well as the long-term effects of the dangerous materials released near their homes,” Buttigieg said. “They fear for their future, as do thousands of American communities and neighborhoods that sit along railway lines.”
“The future must not resemble the past when it comes to your company’s and your industry’s follow-through on support for stringent safety policies,” he added.
US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is heading back to East Palestine this week, as the agency assures everyone the water quality is fine…despite the fact Cincinnati has now joined Northern Kentucky in shutting off the intake from the Ohio River.
So far, air quality tests from more than 530 homes have not detected any dangerous levels of contaminants, and no results have exceed the limits of residential air quality standards, the EPA said. The EPA is offering indoor air screenings for any resident within the evacuation zone, the EPA spokesperson said.
As for the water, the EPA said Monday that municipal water sample results “show no water quality concerns” in East Palestine. No vinyl chloride has been detected in any down-gradient waterways near the train derailment, EPA official Tiffani Kavalec told CNN last week.
The state of Ohio is leading water sampling efforts, an EPA spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. The Columbiana County Health District is continuing to sample private water wells, the spokesperson added, and until results come back, the Ohio Department of Health continues to recommend residents use bottled water.
In the meantime, Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky utilities reopened water intakes from the Ohio River that were shut off Sunday “as a precautionary measure,” according to news releases from the Greater Cincinnati Water Works and Northern Kentucky Water District.
Regan apparently had to cancel a star-studded trip to Africa for a climate summit to go to Ohio, which was still slated as late as Feb. 16.
Good to see that Regan seems to want to assist Americans, which would be a welcome change from the priorities of the head of the current administration.
At least six class action suits have been filed against Norfolk Southern by impacted residents since the accident.
For the most part, those suing the company allege that they’ve lost income due to evacuations, were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals and no longer feel safe in their homes.
Norfolk Southern said it was “unable to comment directly on litigation.” But in a public update on Thursday, the company noted that in addition to its ongoing cleanup work, it was distributing more than $2 million in financial assistance to affected families and businesses to help with the costs of the evacuation, as well as creating a $1 million fund for the community.
A health clinic is being opened up in East Palestine for the residents. Reports indicate it will have registered nurses and mental health professionals.
A health clinic is set to open in East Palestine on Tuesday to assist residents following the train derailment earlier this month.
The clinic will be located at First Church of Christ on W. Martin Street and operated by the Ohio Department of Health. According to the health department, it will have two assessment rooms inside the building, as well as a mobile unit parked outside.
According to a news release, the site will have registered nurses and mental health specialists. Residents will also be able to speak to a toxicologist.
I sure hope the clinic will also have trained physicians and facilities to do blood and urine sampling and other health evaluations appropriate for those exposed to toxic chemicals.
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Oooh…a “sharply worded letter.” That’ll show them. I bet they’re quaking in their shoes.
Babylon Bee today: President Biden Arrives In Kyiv For His Performance Review
It only took the federal govt about 50 years to admit the severity of the poisoned water at Camp LeJeune. East Palastine needs independent testing done. Do not trust the EPA to give out the real findings.
Glad to see we have our “top” people on this.
Just a slight aside, but is it helpful for the LBGTQXYZ community to have Biden appoint members of their community that are such complete screwups?
At last night’s meeting of the MIT Free Speech Alliance, plans were discussed to hold a debate at MIT on the subject of “Diversity/Equity/Inclusion is not necessarily incompatible with Merit/Fairness/Equality.” Talk about baby steps.
Put this in perspective, With replacement theory, Americans are just a source of tax dollars, anyone can be taxed, Ukraine is where those dollars are laundered for personal use.
I posted this answer at another place, but thought it’d be applicable here too.
That particular regulation has little or nothing to do with this derailment.
The regulation in question is one that would have required electronic brakes on all rail cars. Electronic brakes do not prevent a derailment caused by what appears to be, in this case, an axle failure due to overheated bearings.
Here is why the train derailed:
I work for a different railroad, so I can’t speak of exactly what NS is or is not doing. But they all tend to copy each other so I will do some informed speculation.
Poor, deferred maintenance of rail cars. Cost cutting, to include cuts of personnel who maintain rail cars.
Shoddy, rushed inspections of rail cars. Cost cutting of the personnel who inspect rail cars and pressure to inspect more cars with less people. I’ve personally witnessed this. I’ve personally experienced trains that should never have been OKed to depart – get the go ahead – only to fail en route. This was a problem 20 years ago when I started. They fixed it. Then when they started the cost cutting – the problems have started appearing again.
The train in Ohio went over at least two “train defect detectors” that should have and are designed to detect the hot axle and hot bearings that caused the derailment.
Surveillance video: Ohio train ignited sparks ahead of derailment
https://www.politico.com/video/2023/02/17/surveillance-video-ohio-train-ignited-sparks-ahead-of-derailment-841743
The reports I’ve heard is that only one of the detectors announced the hot axle. The report also did not disclose whether that announcement was from the detector 20 miles prior to the derailment or 1 mile prior to the derailment.
Again, informed speculation.
At my company, these track defect detectors used to announce a “no defect” exit message if no defects were found. This is called the ‘exit message’. Slowly, the railroad has changed them so that not every detector has an exit message. They call them “talk on defect only”. The assumption is that if it doesn’t announce anything, then there are no defects. But that’s not really true. Sometimes your train will transit the detector and a little while later the dispatcher or someone from HQ will call on the radio and tell you that the detector found some defect.
In other words, the detector found a defect but didn’t announce it on the radio to the crew running the train. It alerted someone hundreds of miles away. Again, the assumption is that they will then – immediately – tell the crew.
Let me backtrack and explain what we do if we hear a defect from a detector. In our rules and policies there is a table that outlines what type of defect on what type of train requires what type of action. Some defects require the train to slow down to 30 mph until and unless the next detector reports the same defect, some require it to immediately stop and have a person inspect the cars around the reported defect. Sometimes you might be able to continue on at 30 mph, unless you would travel through a tunnel or over a truss structure bridge. There are a lot of different scenarios, but at the minimum anytime you have a defect the train is going to at least slow down to 30 mph.
So to get back to the detectors not audibly announcing to the train crews. Why would they do that? What purpose would there be in not having those defects announced to the actual crew running the train and instead have someone in headquarters as a middleman? My informed guess? So they can determine if it is “bad” enough to let the train keep going without slowing down. If it’s “bad” enough to keep the train going to the next siding so it doesn’t stop and inspect on the mainline. In other words, so they can keep both the affected train and the others around it moving. That’s been my guess for the several years this has been happening. In that same time I and my coworkers have been waiting for the headquarters people to decide one wasn’t that bad and have it fall off the rail and spill some bad hazmat all over some small town.
Any bets on whether that’s what happened here? I wouldn’t take odds against it.
https://www.quora.com/I-have-been-hearing-and-read-that-republican-deregulations-are-party-responsible-for-the-train-derailment-in-East-Palestine-Ohio-Why-has-President-Biden-not-been-able-to-put-the-regulations-back-in-place/answer/Richard-Alan-1?ch=10&oid=1477743642899240&share=98b45e33&srid=nBYT&target_type=answer
Thank you good information
Appreciate your boots-on-the-ground info.
Thank you for the very informative post!
Thank you for that. I don’t if I should feel relieved that it is now more unlikely to be terrorism.
That aside, my grandfather worked for Norfolk and Western (before they merged with Southern railways) and would have been very saddened to see that great company being destroyed by bean counters. He just walked down the train tracks at 14, got a job and worked his way up to Yard Agent. He retired after 50 years and 8 months of service.
“Other Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, suggested Biden cared more about Ukraine’s borders than those between the United States and Mexico.”
Had to dig deep to find that one. President Trump is going to East Palestinian tomorrow and I’m sure he will find more than”1 million dollars” to help these people… He’s going because he cares about the American people and our present illegitimate president is busy collecting his 10% in person in a foreign country, Ukraine…
Now if this was a black community, you wouldn’t be able to keep
Biden and all
The race mongers out of there and the railroad would be throwing hundreds of millions already to the residents and community’s way.
But poor white people, nah…These are exactly the forgotten people that President Trump remembered.
The press will try to make it purposely political but President Trump
Has a huge heart and he has seen the failure of the present administration to even visit much less help the residents.
By the way, netflix had a move out 9 months ago
‘”Art imitating life’: East Palestine resident was extra in train disaster film made in Ohio
2 days ago — In the film, a college professor who teaches in a fictionalized Ohio town must leave his home with his wife and parcel of kids after a train wreck
With dangerous chemicals, “White Noise”…
Some of the residents were extras in the film shot in East Palestinian
Also last year the city was “selected” to be part of a research on the health of its citizens through a voluntary “monitor” system,
Can’t make that up
Nah, Trump’s going because his advisors told him it would look good. And for a narcissistic, ego driven person such as Trump who has to be the center of all things that’s enough to get him to go.
He’ll go. Blab about Biden and the Biden regime. He’ll leave. And that will be it. Just another well timed publicity stunt
Oh Otto your tds is in full blast. You will eat your words
Oh gonzotx your Trump obsession is in full blast. You will be eating your words with crow.
“And for a narcissistic, ego driven person such as Trump….”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.
Trump was doing these type of things long before he ran for president. He didn’t need “advisors “
Ok, then. Doesn’t Biden have advisers? Anyone to do the thinking for him?
This disaster is significant enough that you don’t need someone to tell you to go. Or your Sec. of Transportation?
At least Pres. Trump made the effort.
Has The Squad and/or Bernie Sanders come out yet with a tweet saying this is “proof” we need to nationalize the railroads? Because putting Pete Buttigieg completely in charge would fix everything…we’d have no more derailments because the trains wouldn’t run at all.
Wait for it….
Doesn’t sound serious – more like a gaslighting op. Wonder if the shrinks will be armed with an “It’s all in your head” stamp?
As if anyone didn’t know where the pedophile’s priorites lay, gotta protect the bribery scam in Ukraine.
Oh, its just “mostly peaceful” burning cities vs. Jan 6 in DC. When they show you what’s important to them, and not, believe them.
The Federal Government, including the President, are supposed to deal with international issues not state issues. Biden shouldn’t be showing up for photo ops in East Palestine. Not showing up at the border is a much better comparison.
Well, he did neither. Say it ain’t so, Joe! (hat tip Sarah Palin)
dementiajoe is just there to pick up his 10%