by Noah
Ain't deregulation grand! Like all Republicans, Trump campaigned on loosening all sorts of regulations, including the safety regulations that are designed to protect us. He delivered. Republicans are so anti-regulation that they should just officially adopt "We don't need no stinkin' regulations" and put it on one of their stupid flags.
We've already had years of corporate wars on unions resulting in payroll cutbacks affecting efficiency and safety. Now the chickens of four years of Trump deregulations are coming home to roost. Norfolk Southern was allowed to build 2 mile long rail bombs and drive them through our towns. What we saw in East Palestine is just the beginning. Trump took the campaign donations and the K Street bribes and, as if by magic, Norfolk Southern was only required to spend 90 seconds (That's right, literally 90 seconds. Time's a wastin'!) inspecting the wheel sets on their highly flammable carcinogenic-loaded tank cars that travel through towns all across the country. Combine that with their deliberate orchestrations of worker shortages and there aren't enough people to do the safety jobs. Can you say "ticking time bomb?" How many more East Palestines are in our future? That's just trains. What about planes?
Corporate America pays a lot of money to a lot of politicians regardless of party affiliation and our federal, state, and local ones are most likely lining up at the trough like all pigs do. Too often, the objective is a "public be damned" compromise on your safety. What very preventable horrors await? As I write this, the contents of Norfolk Southern's rail bombs that didn't burn off and sear the lungs of the locals, are drip, drip, dripping into the local water table and their wells. Would it be cynical of me to wonder if Norfolk Southern is already investing in bottled water companies or maybe creating a Norfolk Southern bottled water division of its own? They'd see it as a win-win, creating a problem and supplying a solution for fun and profit.