Is the Ohio Toxic Train Derailment the Biden Administration’s Hurricane Katrina?
Between the slow, disinterested response by federal officials, and Americans’ burgeoning distrust of “experts”, this incident may eventually be known as the mushroom cloud that nuked Biden.
For over a week, the Biden administration, Ohio state officials, and most of the American media has been downplaying the magnitude of the environmental disaster that has arisen due to the response to the train derailment near East Palestine.
However, in the post-covid era, Americans are no longer willing to blindly believe what “experts” assert about the “science.” This is especially true when the realities run counter to the official narrative.
The EPA, with the Ohio National Guard and a Norfolk Southern contractor, also has collected air samples – checking for vinyl chloride, hydrogen chloride, carbon monoxide, phosgene and other compounds – in the East Palestine community, it had said. Air monitoring results posted Tuesday at the EPA’s website include more than a dozen instruments, each with four types of measures – and each stating its “screening level” had not been exceeded.
But when Velez returned Monday for a short visit to the neighborhood where his family has lived since 2014 to check his home and his business, he developed a nagging headache that, he said, stayed with him through the night – and left him with a nagging fear.
“If it’s safe and habitable, then why does it hurt?” he told CNN. “Why does it hurt me to breathe?”
Air contamination isn’t the only concern. There is plenty of evidence, based on 3,500 dead fish that the water is polluted with the by-products of igniting several industrial chemicals in the response. Towns downstream of East Palestine are monitoring their water…and are offering their own assurances about the safety levels.
But officials with the Louisville Water Co. and Air Pollution Control District say they are monitoring the situation and don’t anticipate any danger to local residents.
The violent 50-car Norfolk Southern train crash triggered evacuations for the small Ohio town on Feb. 3, as large quantities of vinyl chloride and other contaminants entered the environment. Since then, authorities have assured people near the crash site that it’s safe to return to their homes. A federal lawsuit has already been filed by residents over the event.
The lack of a cohesive, effective response to civic catastrophe calls to mind the criticism of former President George W. Bush and his administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. Many Legal Insurrection readers may recall Bush and his officials were criticized for being disinterested, slow, and needlessly unprepared for the Category 5 storm and its impact on New Orleans.
It was the “flood that sank Bush.”
We can now consider that Ohio’s toxic train derailment is Biden’s Katrina.
Clearly, Biden has not been mentioned as acting in any significant capacity for Americans dealing with this disaster. Even though the citizens of this region voted in significant numbers for President Donald Trump, they are still suffering a disaster that is truly worthy of full emergency management support.
Secretary of State Pete Buttigieg has been criticized for his tone-deaf response to the train derailment. In fact, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) has just called for Buttigieg’s resignation.
Buttigieg addressed the disaster Monday, over a week after the crash occurred on Feb. 3. Residents living in areas surrounding East Palestine, Ohio, were instructed to evacuate after 50 train cars derailed and subsequently caught fire, spewing vinyl chloride, phosgene, hydrogen chloride, and other gases into the air and water.
Biggs said the acknowledgment came “10 days too late,” echoing other Republicans such as Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) who were critical of the delay.
But I would like to draw some attention to the Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, who hasn’t gotten the scrutiny I think he deserves richly. Given the devastating environmental impact shown in videos, social media messages, and some serious reports by a few responsible journalists, you would think the EPA head would be front-and-center in the response.
However, Regan is showing up 13 days too late….and his officials are the ones who should be selecting the proper tests, conducting the complete analysis, and creating the mitigation plans.
Michael Regan, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, will visit East Palestine Thursday, 13 days after a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals derailed and caught fire in the village.
Regan announced the visit in a tweet on Wednesday, and shared a video from his interview with Fox News. Regan said he will hear from East Palestine residents in their homes, visit the derailment site and meet with emergency responders.
Regan was probably too busy pushing environmental justice programs.
And let’s not forget the EPA’s disastrous handling of the Animas River contamination, which resulted from that agency’s decisions regarding handling a mine’s waste stream.
Americans are clearly in no mood to trust “experts”, especially ones clearly not interested in anything that doesn’t push their narratives or agendas. I made this point in my recent appearance on Canto Talk.
I believe that we can consider that this incident may eventually be known as the mushroom cloud that nuked Biden.
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This administration could care less about Americans who live in flyover country because it is not their political base
Not just true, but they are motivated by hate to let it get worse.
If this is Biden’s “Katrina” what were the other ten disasters during his short time in office?
At least Bush didn’t CAUSE Katrina, unlike the disasters Biden caused PERSONALLY.
Bush’s Katrina was caused by idiots in Louisiana government; Bush was scape-goated by the howling media intentionally as a political stunt. There is no howling media in the Ohio spill
Agreed. We had Governor “Blankstare” Blanco at the helm (Let’s pray and make PBJs!-She actually said this) and “Nutty” Nagin at the N.O. level. They had ample opportunity to evacuate the population, but adequately failed to do so.
We evacuated to CA, where my MiL was, and one stranded dude I saw on TV made my blood boil when he said the following:
“Where am I supposed to go? My ride? My ride’s underwater!”
!*&%#!, you could have, I don’t know, LEFT when your ride WASN’T UNDERWATER.
The issue up in Ohio makes Katrina look like a birthday party. Far more damaging long term, in my opinion.
And those LA government idiots were Democrats to a one… grafting the levee maintenance funds to build big new fun marinas for their spiffy speedboats instead.
But everybody knows it was Donald J. Trump’s fault. His administration eased the regulations on braking systems on certain rail cars and then this happens.
Of course the brakes did not cause the derailment, it was an axle which broke. And IIRC, the type of car involved in the regulatory easing wasn’t part of this train either. But it’s the Orange Man’s fault because Orange Man Bad!
I read that the law came in in 2015.
Trump announced he’s making a visit there next week, prompting FEMA to backpedal now saying they will now offer aid. Trying to repairs the bad optics.
Never. The corporate media is there to act as this administration’s version of the alien encounter clean up crews as depicted in the movie “Men In Black”.
“I need a hundred yard splay burn, here, and here, and here”
Their tools are not exclusively limited to ‘pooper scoopers’
Not if the media discounts the story to dupe people yet again.
It is only a problem if the news talks about it over and over for weeks on end. So nothing that Joe does is ever a problem. The withdrawal from Afghanistan wasn’t in the news for more than a week or so and it was the single most ridiculous failure of a US administration since Jimmy send commandoes to Iran.
I thought the Afghanistan debacle was Biden*’s Katrina. Then it was rampant inflation that would sink Biden*.
Could it be the proles don’t have much of a say in the matter of who governs them, and that the Biden* junta has nothing to worry about?
Biden is America’s Katrina, multiplied by the power of 10.
Simply put: Biden is a kamikazee put in place to do the damage Obama didn’t dare do in the open.
Obama was too vain to be this overtly destructive. He wanted to me loved, adored, and worshiped.
“Between the slow, disinterested response by federal officials”
We’re still talking about a toxic train derailment, right? Or maybe a big fat spy balloon? A government-caused baby-food famine? An invasion of our southern border? A supply-chain breakdown? The political environment in this administration is so target-rich when it comes to nonfeasance that I get lost in the arcade.
How about a simple declarative statement from the Feds and the State which tells residents there is zero danger now, there was not any danger at the time residents were initially encouraged to return and that if these experts are wrong the Feds, State and Norfolk Southern will pay for all expenses arising from the incident.
Follow that with a complete list of what testing was conducted, which individual and combination of substances was tested for and what levels/amounts would cause a +/- result. Next submit protocols on cleanup for residents to get rid of accumulated particulate matter and provide resources required. Then explain, in detail, why scores of animals died and why the fish died, what that implies for ground water and private wells and why the Gov is cautioning folks to use bottled water.
Get all that out in the open along with the reasoning behind the decision for a controlled burn in place, all the data that went into that decision, who made it, who argued for it and who, if anyone argued against it and their reasoning. Submit all that in an open, transparent manner subject to scrutiny by the public and of course other experts who might find fault.
“It’s the Biden Administration’s Hurrican Katrina”
It’s his Camp Lejeune Toxic Water nightmare that will be killing people years from now.
Except that that criticism turned out to be unjustified.
One of the key incidents in that political debacle was Michael Browne’s press conference at which he was slammed for being unaware of the mayhem going on at the Superdome, All he could say was that his people on the ground were not reporting this to him, and the first he heard of it was on the TV news. That made him look like an idiot. Except that it turned out that the reason he was hearing it about it only from TV and not from his people on the grounds was because it wasn’t happening. The TV news made it up, and the news industry then slammed him for not knowing about it, when he had people on the spot telling him the truth, that nothing was going on there.
You know how to spin a good story Milhouse. Except it’s not a story. It’s the truth.
There was also a lot of theft around/in city. I know the feds large supply of water, food, shelters, and toiletries sent down river, because my father (GSA at the time) is the one that oversaw it being assembled and shipped. The boat arrived and was unloaded, but the supplies disappeared. This was on the day after the levee broke. Hard to have a faster response than that.
This is Biden’s Bophal, which is a great segue into a Nikki Haley candidacy.
Funny, reading your comment quickly, I thought you wrote “a great segue into Nikki Haley idiocy”.
You should have.
Has no one else seen reporting that it is not just fish dying, but also chickens and foxes? When it gets up to mammals, the safety claims are BS. Furthermore, the value of every home there is exactly zero – they are unmarketable – but not a peep from FJB on how these people are so screwed.
Exactly! It may be years before anybody thinks of moving to the area again unless those selling a property put it through the same extensive cleaning process a meth house has to go through to be put back on the market.
The simple answer is that this won’t be his Waterloo any more than the Afghanistan withdrawal or Hunter’s laptop or any of the other fiascoes of his presidency for a simple reason – he’s a Democrat.
I wish it were otherwise but that will likely be the case, especially with Dem control of the Senate.
EVEN IF the GOP controlled the Senate, McConnell is a quisling.
There is no Democrat crime so egregious that you won’t find some way to blame on a Republican.
There was a town hall held in East Palestine recently. Reps from Norfolk Southern were invited to attend but they declined: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-1ZBDhzdko
It would have been a media show trial. They lose either way, showing up or not.
Perhaps they could have reminded the town that the railroad was there first. They had the right of way and the town built themselves on both sides of the track for the town’s own convenience. So try to understand railroading instead of your own self-righteous position, if you’re going to build there.
Being there first does not absolve Norfolk Southern from responsibility for accidents that happen along their line, especially ones that impact a community, regardless of when it was built! And while I can understand being hesitant, perhaps fearful, to go there and face those affected by this disaster it certainly does not reflect well on N.S. to refuse to go.
They owe what’s legally required, not a show trial.
One of my self-righteous positions is that trains carrying toxic shit need a manifest that lists the toxic shit. What’s yours?
I bet Norfolk Southern is scheming to do a follow up screwing over people they have injured.
I think a probable scenario is N.S. making people an offer that seems good (but it’s really not) and tie it to a contract that prohibits those who take the deal from taking any further legal action against them.
If you mean something that the media hysterically blames Biden for that isn’t his fault, it’s his Katrina.
In both cases the administrations were victims of click-bait.
Bush’s Katrina was a local catastrophe and JournoListic event.
Check this out: Biden turns down Ohio’s request for disaster assistance!!
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-admin-turns-down-ohios-request-disaster-assistance-toxic-derailment
Who knew that the right was all welfare state all of a sudden. It must be low-IQ converts from the left, having grown disgusted with the left.
If you are arguing that that the Feds should have zero disaster assistance role then make the case.
There’s lots of liability for the railroad but not for the taxpayer.
Then why try and assert an equivalency between welfare state policies and Federal disaster relief for what is a disaster for the folks in that community?
Well, because technically, neither one is a federally delegated power, and we continue to handwave that away at our great peril.
“That will teach those stupid MAGA voters!” ~FJB
Oh dead God….
It certainly took DeWitt long enough to even apply but this is insane
Clearly, Biden has not been mentioned as acting in any significant capacity for Americans dealing with this disaster.
Biden doesn’t act with significant capacity – period. He is senile. He gets juiced up for a speech and then goes to bed. All decisions are made by a nameless faceless ad-hoc committee.
Buttedgeedge may the worst diversity hire ever, given that KJP still has her job.
Butthead has set back gay public relations 20 years.
The Katrina thing was not factual though
Maybe the word Katrina conjures up different images to the average voters than it does to me.
I see the image of elderly Patricia Konie being tackled to the floor of her own home by several burly men for legally possessing a small revolver, which the fascist NO police and California Highway Patrol(!) were unconstitutionally confiscating that day preparatory to unconstitutionally evicting these people from their own properties.
The very inept Pete Buttigieg would gladly skedaddle.
“More Train Derailments Increase Calls for Pete Buttigieg to Resign as Transportation Secretary”
The right is being viral-organized now exclusively by click-bait.
Think Wm. Buckley – he’d go for rule of law, not mob action and illogical organizing.
There are typically 3 for 4 derailments a day, if you divide it out. They’re set up to clean it up, open the tracks, and get rid of the debris, in very short order. The cost of that is balanced against the cost of keeping the tracks in good condition, the cost of rolling stock maintenance, and so forth.
It’s not Buttigieg’s fault. It just hadn’t been recognized as a news ratings grabber before, bringing in eyeballs to sell to advertisers.
Rule of law, people.
Rhhardin is correct on this point re frequency of derailment, cost benefit calculation and click bait.The right does have an unfortunate, IMO, habit of adopting people and issues as our own for political gain. We often get burned when more facts come out. In this instance with higher mammals dying it seems there is something more than click bait to this story.
I have a cynical suspicion that the actions taken to burn in place which spread the airborne particulates over a larger area was not quite as well thought out or as safe as those who recommended it claimed. Nor do I believe that the curiously worded safety statements are completely honest b/c there is no one making a definitive and unqualified statement that there was/is zero danger. It either is or is not safe. If not they need to specify what is not and what remedial actions should be done to fix it.
it’s his all over dereliction of duty, from the management of unloading supplies for the country, or lack there of, he was MIA there also apparently trying to breast feed his adopted children.
The airplane disruptions, multiple near misses, now train derailments and he doesn’t show up for almost 2 weeks, doesn’t speak to it, busy with his anti White male construction BS…
He’s in his job because he’s gay
He just happens to be stupid and uncaring
NeXT we’ll see him
Stealing luggage from the airports!
One would think that Amtrak Engineer Joe would be all over any train incidents like this
Didn’t he say he had ridden that route many times?
There were no underage girls present.
He hasn’t yet heard back from his lawyers that he dispatched to U Penn, his beach house, and his SCIF garage to find that damn key.
No It’s Biden’s Chernobyl.
You know what’s on Biden’s mind when he goes to sleep at night? – “Zzzzzzzzzz……”
What’s on Jill Biden’s mind? – “Imagine if I ran for president!…..”
It was the “flood that sank Bush.”,
A wholly-contrived MSM flood, from an MSM who hated Bush – not quite at the level that it did Trump, but it was a great practice run.
Bush’s disaster was self-made. He was too gutless to stand up to democrat propagandists. Yeah, right: he wanted to be “presidential”. Bullsh*t.
And of couse, he had a pathetic ass for an advisor in Karl Rove.
I thought it was the weird H. Ross Perot who sucked away enough Republican support to hand the election to Bill Clinton. It appeared to be intentional.
With the total disinterest it should be.
Unfortunately Democrats control all of the institutions so it isn’t possible for anything to become Biden’s Katrina (at least not unless the Democrats make a decision to drop him).
When the going gets tough, the tough get going: into a new land. Secession is our only hope for a future.
A better idea would be to use our power to lay total siege to the institutions.
Abandoning Bushism is a realistic cure that we are seeing in Florida delivers extraordinary results and does so quickly and effectively.
We have the Bush model (the model that saw the left take over literally every institution in the last 23 years) and the DeSantis model.
A 2nd American civil war would look like the Russian civil war if we are lucky but would likely be much worst because of the new technology introduced in the hundred years since the Russian Civil War.
“lay total siege to the institutions” yeah get back to me when you can suggest how to do that. We can’t even risk a protest march in DC regarding one of our institutions without risking getting sent to the dungeon.
We can’t even lay siege to “our own” Senate Republican Leader.
I just said the Florida model which Ron DeSantis is doing.
A march on D.C. is as stupid as it is counter productive and is an alternative to laying siege to the institutions.
Federalism. The States can get results in their own public institutions. FL is an example, AZ is another, VA is another all of whom had/have leadership that pushed/are pushing the education establishment of their States and are getting results.
Many States are going after ESG by refusing to invest State funds with financial companies pushing this. Some go further and are pushing consumer level protection so that a gun shop can’t be denied banking just b/c they are a gun shop.
I suspect something worse, not vinyl chloride or dioxin, something they don’t know to test for.
Norfolk Southern did not disclose that this train carried hazardous cargo, and they are supposed to before running it.
After the crash, the full list of contents has still not been disclosed. We’re guessing, just like we’re still guessing what is in Covid vaxes.
This smells like that same sort of op, dissemination of a bioweapon. Something that gives headaches and turns rivers green, that’s all I know about it.
I have a much simpler solution.
EPA was lying through it’s teeth when it claimed everything was fine.
Confessing that an American Chernobyl happened would make anyone look bad.
That avoids the important questions of what’s actually there, and intent.
We already know that, everything we saw is consistent with what we have been told was being carried.
What is likely is there was a lot more of it. Trains have been getting larger, and the employed workforce to work on them is getting smaller, and smaller trains are getting sent to scrap heaps.
The economic trends are for many fewer vastly larger trains that will make sure any mistake or crash is catastrophic.
Is it possible there was something else smuggled?
Yes but I think it is more likely that the EPA did a horrible job measuring what it claimed to be trying to detect, not that it was searching for the wrong chemical signature.
Ron DeSantis Wins the Coveted George Soros Endorsement – Describing DeSantis as “Shrewd, Ruthless and Ambitious”…
February 16, 2023 | Sundance | 308 Comments
Saying that DeSantis “is shrewd, ruthless, and ambitious”, George Soros delivers an endorsement of the Florida governor adding, “He is likely to be the Republican candidate.”
DeSantis model
When billionaire leftist and creepy globalist George Soros is complimenting your personality attributes, you just might be doing the whole Republican presidential candidate thing wrong. Just sayin’.
It wasn’t an endorsement and it wasn’t a compliment. Please stop spreading fake news claims from other websites in our comment section. You’re not doing Trump any favor and neither are those other people by making things up.
It would also be nice if the DeSantis zombies stopped repeating the establishment lies about Trump. Trump’s “baggage” are the lies that the Uniparty saddled him with even after they were all proven to be elaborate hoaxes. But that’s politics and…
“Politics is war without bloodshed and war is the continuation of those politics.”
Winston Churchill
If DeSantis is going to sleep with the RNC money whores, everyone better get ready for the baggage heading his way. So far, everything I have posted has been collaborated so his baggage is based on truth whereas Trump’s is based on lies. And so if our own “baggage handlers” would stop re=throwing all of the Uniparty’s mud at Trump, things would calm down around here. What did you expect?
“If you begin to begin to consider yourself solely responsible to a political party, you’re half-way to a dictatorship.”
DeSantis is backed by the traditional GOP dirty money which is what everyone was complaining about with Rona McDaniels. What makes you DeSantis worshipers believe that this time will be different just it is DeSantis accepting that money? Globalists don’t vote with their money, they take possession. The dirty money only wants one thing: get rid of Trump. DeSantis will be easy to dispose of should he accomplish this.
Give it a rest, Pasadena Pill. For maybe a day at least?
Repeating something over and over again is not going to turn something false into something true.
@JR: As soon as LI stops presenting Uniparty lies as “the baggage” and shows more honest coverage of DeSantis, I will back off. But right now, the traditional GOP dirty money is pooling with the Soros dirty money (Soros and Koch joining forces to restore the Iran deal is nothing?) to go after Trump and DeSantis is their man. Someone has to ask DeSantis WTF dude! Soros complimenting DeSantis isn’t a sign that he likes him but likely a message to any possible Trump donors that the globalists have united.
The problem with being an echo chamber is that very important issues do not get discussed and that leads to ignorance and bad decisions. As to the source of what I and GonzoTX posted, I am curious if the Professor chastising her comes at the instruction of the official LI lawyer Ron Coleman who has been having run-ins with Sundance at Conservative Treehouse lately? CT has been a very reliable source for the many years I have been visiting that site daily. Why does LI see any value in declaring on every page that “their lawyer” is a high profile lawyer for the RNC? That is what got me miffed in the first place. I feel like I’ve been had.
The way to deal with this inconvenient information would be to explain it away, not to tell people to shut up “just becuz”. That seems to be what is going on here. The RNC and dirty money wants DeSantis and LI is all onboard without any due diligence nor debate? Sounds like Twitter to me.
You are sinking deeper and deeper Phil, it’s sad to see, now accusing us of being part of a scheme against what’s-his-name. (Consider that a denial.) The claim that Soros “endorsed” DeSantis based on that video is simply false. It’s not a matter of opinion. Soros calling DeSantis “ruthless” is not a “compliment” in any rational sense of the word. And I find it odd that you attack Ron Coleman for being a lawyer for the RNC, when Trump endorsed the establishment RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel.
Phil, that’s just silly. But you probably noticed that your months’ long littering of our pages with your deranged screeds hasn’t changed a thing. You did notice, right? You have zero control over our opinions as writers or over whom we select to represent us, so your self-styled crusade against this site and our staff is already a failure. Maybe you can find a new hobby?
No, it’s not his katrina. It’s just another mess in the pedophiles parade of failures, there will be more.
It’s only not Katrina because the media refuses to even cover it
Because it’s not a Blue City.
“Did Warren Buffett contribute to Governor Dewine’s campaign? I’m trying to figure out why Gov Dewine hasn’t declare a disaster yet.”
Sorry, old information, he did amd the government turned them down
How ridiculous is that
Katrina was a natural disaster…East Palestine, OH was/is INTENTIONAL. Yet no enviro-religious screaming for heads to roll. And now two weeks after the fact FEMA denying aid is all the proof one needs, especially when gov’t brainiac’s drained the contents then lit it on fire spreading the toxins far and wide over 20 states for 20 years. Occum’s Razor.
Okay, (not that I really care) but what the hey, 2 down votes for what exactly?
This is truth. Ohio was intentionally done and the Feds and MSM nd screaming enviro’s are ignoring the created apocalypse at the hands of so-called officials who are trying to Pontius Pilate the disaster they created. The Federal government is at war with We the People.
“Ohio was intentionally done”
You’ve said it twice. Now support it with something other than a bare claim.
One was a natural event, the other generated by those supposedly in charge…they set this mess in motion. (Tucker covered much of the details)
The result speaks for itself. The level of incompetence in generating a toxic plume and the resultant health hazards – both water and soil – for miles while telling residents “everything is fine” is at best reprehensible. The EPA and rail company are working to spackle-over this disaster and didn’t even have the cajones to show up at the town meeting., on top of a two week response delay. And FEMA aid denied? The residents living with the aftermath are the ones saying these things.
Where is Erin Brockovitch when you need her?
This not Biden’s Katrina, simply because the media is on his side.
No biggie!
No, because “Katrina” was just the end-result bleat-word fodder curated to provision the drum they wanted to beat.
The problem isn’t feeding people haterade to get them all wee-wee’d up, it’s finding enough of the right targets to hate at.
Conveniently a derailment and chemical spill generated a whole flock of less than photogenic people from deplorable-land to run on the screens of the 2-minutes’ hate.