by Noah
There really should be a reality TV show called "America's Scummiest CEOs!" Think about the banks and lobby firms that would line up to advertise on it in support. I'd put that show on my TV network right in prime time, 7 days a week, followed by a new Reality TV version of "The Equalizer," of course.
Not so fun factoid: Norfolk Southern, the guilty party in the chemical bombing of East Palestine, Ohio is planning to spend $7.5 Billion, aka $7,500,000,000 to buy back stock in order to enrich its shareholders (That includes the executives, of course) but only $6.5 Billion to help their victims. I can't wait 'til we find out just where that money comes from, actual profits or taxpayer funded "stimulus legislation?" And what money did the K Street Bribery Squads pay Donald Trump (and a whole lotta congresspersons who backed the move) with when he decreed the removal of safety regulations that were designed to prevent the disaster? While you're thinking about the money changing hands, you might want to look into the issue of what is known as Precision Scheduled Railroading but let me make it short for you. Precision Scheduled Railroading or PSR is nothing but a fancy term that means gross maximizing profits by cutting payroll and safety. Public be damned, as usual.
So, wasn't it special how the scumbag CEO of Norfolk Southern, Alan Shaw, snuck into East Palestine, Ohio to, as they say, "have a nice visit" with some local officials and slithered right out again? He actually made two such quickie visits. My reaction to those went something like this: Whatsamatter Shaw? Don't wanna talk to the people you just poisoned? Don't wanna even personally lie to their faces about how much you care? Not even a "My work is done here?" Just a few $20,000 handshakes and out the door? Had to hurry back home to teach your nieces and nephews how to lace the drinks at their lemonade stand with cyanide? Then, he wrote the town a nice letter that was so soggy with insincerity that it just made his victims angrier. Eventually, though, Shaw was shamed into doing a nice controlled "Town Hall" mc'd by CNN's Jake Tapper. What a total farce!
Today's quiz: Is CEO Alan Shaw of Norfolk Southern really much different than someone who sells a gun to a lunatic mass shooter without even pretending to do a background check? Guns with 60 shot magazines without a background check or uninspected tank cars full of Norfolk Southern's burning cancer goo; either way, people die. It's just that Norfolk Southern's victims take longer. Or, look at it this way: Did bin Laden actually fly the planes? Alan Shaw is personally responsible but he'll get richer and he'll never pay the price.
Remember the name of Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw. It's important to remember the names of those directly responsible for disasters that lead to such human misery whether it's immediate or long range. A goon like Shaw can say all he wants that the land he bombed will be cleaned up but it never will and even if it was, what's he going to do about the lungs he burned, the kidneys that have been irreparably damaged, and the blood he has poisoned? Is he going to pay the medical bills? Is he going to donate his organs? Fuck this guy! Fuck him with a chainsaw! His board of directors, too! It's also important to never forget the lobbyists and politicians who, in an uber-cynical example of Washington bipartisanship, enable filth like Alan Shaw and protect them.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine says the air and water are fine. This clip says otherwise.