Hey, remember all of last year when every time the report came out showing that inflation kept going up, we were treated to the damn jagged line graph of doom at the top of every news source, and no one would shut up about it for days, with every nattering pundit in a race to make the most dire projections of recession and ruin, and generally making sure everyone considered this issue the most uber-important thing facing all of the world, upon which all of our pasts, presents, and futures hinged, in each and every possible multiverse?
One would imagine the reversal of this trend would be celebrated with equal fervor! Anyway, the report showing the 7th month straight of declining inflation was released yesterday. It was the 101st headline on the Washington Post website (out of 112, yes I counted them all). It read: "Inflation eases again, but bringing prices further down will take work," was illustrated not with THE GRAPH but with a stock photo of shoppers' feet, and (understandably, I'm sure) sat below such other pressing items as "Star Wars script auction stopped after plea from Chewbacca actor’s widow," "Queen Consort Camilla will wear a recycled crown, without cursed diamond," "The clever trick that turns ChatGPT into its evil twin, DAN," "This snake can make babies without a mate," and "Advice: Complaining about your partner? It might be you." Perplexing!
The Guardian thought it more notable, putting "US inflation eases again for 7th consecutive month" as the 13th item for the morning, though come the evening it was gone entirely. Higher up yesterday morning, and still there: "Amazon deploys fleet of self-driving robotaxis, with employees as passengers." The New York Times, to their credit, put the one-would-assume-Earth-shattering-based-on-how-many-times-it-was-previously-made-to-seem-to-shatter-the-Earth news at #3 (#9 by evening), with THE GRAPH in tow, and the wait-is-this-good-or-still-yucky-I-can't-tell announcement, "Inflation Cooled Just Slightly, With Worrying Details."
What changed? It couldn't possibly be that the first midterm of a Democratic president just passed. No, it couldn't be that. Why, if it was - but it just couldn't be! - one would almost be tempted to undergo the revelation that the all-encompassing "liberal media" that conservatives seem so perpetually desperate to escape being brainwashed by is actually anything but, and that those conservatives are instead just paranoid crybabies on a cosmically hilarious scale.
Though, to be fair, there was this huge top headline in WaPo's Politics section: "Analysis: Democrats growing more comfortable with another Biden run." I have to admit, this does track pretty closely with my recently conducted study (rigorous and comprehensive, albeit sample size of one): "28-year old male Bay Area recent college grad growing more impatient by the day to keep world's most absurdly underestimated grandpa in the White House, and give him what he needs to finish off these pathetic charlatans and shove us fricking finally into the future."
P.P.P.P.S. It seems Nikki Haley (yeah, *her*) is running for President, claiming we need a "generational change." Yeah... but... just... gurl, you think that's you? Oh, honey. Bye.
I’m glad to see that someone else is frustrated by the gloom and doom headlines unlike those during 2020 when the economy was falling off a cliff. At best, they seem to be in the mold of “sure, things are better now, but the sky is about to fall”.
It's almost as if the people publishing the headlines are a buncha grumpsters that their predictions of economic disaster didn't happen. It's almost as if they are rooting for constant fighting and gridlock and instability, because that creates unnecessary drama that creates easier to sell stories to the easily distractible. It's almost as if voters beginning to consistently turn out for the actual party of the working class and democratic stability poses the biggest threat to the business model of concocting narratives around perpetual imminent demise. It's almost as if that is the case. So curious.
“my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
That’s the thing. JD Vance is not stupid. He’s calculating. He’s calculating that his supporters are stupid enough to continue to believe him and he’s likely right. Most of these Maga/Trumper politicians are not stupid. Well to be fair, some are, but most aren’t. They are however, master manipulators. They know how to push the emotional internal lizard brain section of humans by using fear and distrust to pit us “minions” against each other. Then they sit back and watch in amusement like the emperors of old watching the lions eat the gladiators. All the while filling their pockets and bank accounts with the gold earned from selling tickets to the spectacle. They create the spectacle. They get rich from the spectacle. And the poor suckers in the arena and the stadiums are left dying in the dirt and starving in the hovels they are thankful for because the emperor thinks so highly of them he invited them to his games. It disgusts me. And I truly don’t understand how people can’t see it for what it is. Best I can do is blame it on that lizard section in our brains. If we don’t evolve into higher thinking beings sometime very soon, the best we’ll be able to hope for in life is we get offered a ticket to attend the spectacle rather than being forced into the arena with the lions.
When I read "Hillbilly Elegy" I predicted that unless he got tons of professional psychological help he would be awful to live with. He's incredibly smart, and he grew up in circumstances that check all the boxes of childhood trauma, ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences. His most positive and "there for him" source of comfort and information was a truly bizarre grandmother who was, sadly, better than the others around him. His mother was an addict and a nurse. The part of the country where he grew up was full of very emotionally damaged people who fed on each other's opinions. He married a smart woman from another culture who although smart, learned to honor her husband and be subservient enough to be controlled. I worry about her. He has anger issues. Basically, he's still looking for acceptance and approval from others. Like all too many in this truly hurting land of ours. We need to continue our work to end generational trauma by supporting individuals and families from the start. Pie in the sky maybe, but we have to try.
The lies are never-ending! I surely hope that these lawsuits against FOX news continue to reveal the bottomless cynicism and contempt that the faux-reporters have for viewers.
I think you are right.Gloom and doom sells and the the media are in it for profits above all. Why they are not talking up Biden’s many positive actions is troubling.I am spending a week in Tennessee and am seeing many F Biden signs around.I was floored when I saw a black man with a 4 foot F Biden flag.That any persons of color, women, LGBTQ person,Hispanic etc could be for the Republican agenda is beyond me.
It is unfortunate that persons of color, women, LGBTQ, etc. are not immune from the ignorance, gullibility and often pure stupidity which fuels the Republican Party.
Could Al Gore win the TN Governor race today? A big transformation has happened to the southern states. Koch’s investments paying him dividends at democracy’s expense. Read Democracy in Chains’
I read it when it first came out and constantly refer to it. Shortly after I read it the first time I lent it to a republican politician friend of mine and after perhaps reading the introduction he returned it to me without comment.
Yes.It has to be that.More of the results of our dumbing down of America, these people are either uninformed or uneducated, under-educated ,saturated with Fox “news”and it is sad and infuriating.Defunding of public education and under paying our teachers is reaping what it has sown.
Actually, I'm hearing a lot of good news - substantiated by details - on MSNBC. At least they're asking good questions of experts in various fields. Meanwhile, Fox is often a one man/woman show of opinion without basis in fact or thought. Or are they just the 21st century's answer to Goebbels?
In comments I've made on previous LFAA articles, I've mentioned something similar, Will. Former journalist here, completely fed up virtually all media today. The most recent "last straw" was Judy Woodruff's interview of President Biden, in which she acted like a PR person for Republicans--questioning and challenging everything he said.
Judy Woodruff no longer appears to be bipartisan; it’s as if she goes out of her way to present the right wing point of view so that she can claim to be “balanced” while ignoring the viewpoint of the other side of the aisle.
I saw it that way, too. She asked something which forced him to say that he couldn’t answer her because the investigation was ongoing. She would have known that, or should have.
You just nailed it, Will (even though my response slotted in FAR below your post...way to go, Substack!). The media, Right AND (it seems) Left, thrive on drama, fighting, fear, turmoil, anger, negative, negative, negative...why?? Because, in their eyes, that generates interest in their stories and analysts. The more people read/click-on their stuff, the more $$ they make and the more revenue they earn (more ads). GOOD news, and an economy improving and puttering along, is B-O-R-I-N-G! Readership obviously stagnates when there's nothing spectacular grabbing the headlines. They had it good with "Old Yam Tits", because every day there was a mini-"scandal du jour" to keep the press salivating. It didn't matter that the country was being drug through the mud and our very democracy was in peril, THERE WERE STORIES TO REPORT!! I like to think we on here are just a bit more discerning and less apt to immediately swallow everything that is fed to us. For myself, I try to wait a bit after something breaks to let more information become apparent and see what is going on. I think HCR is as well, and it is to her credit that with her academic zeal, she cites her sources extensively. That, thereby, gives us on here the opportunity to "consider the source" and decide whether or not, in our view, it has merit. I think that's kind of where we find ourselves at the moment with the daily barrage of information that confronts us. One has to do some serious sifting through all the "stuff". (How many citizens in this country bother to do that now?) So many people just skim only the few lines of a story from one or two sources, or listen to abbreviated news stories, and then move on. Time is at a premium for us ALL and there's just not enough time in the day to plough through everything. So, a lot of people then end up depending on others to go through all the detritus of the day to pick out the stories that, in their view, we should centre on. Some are better at this than others. HCR's take on everything, using her historian's eye, is one that we on here tend to subscribe to and appreciate precisely because it does give us the opportunity to pursue things ourselves, should we desire. I find this page, and some others on Substack, a blissful, more sane respite from all the screaming headlines and biases of mainstream media. Here we tend to think through things a bit more, not always agreeing, but welcome to an adult space. Peace, y'all...
I do agree. I left to visit my daughter the day after the train wreck In Ohio. Didn’t have the time or energy for more bad news. Finally caught up with the story yesterday and I could read it more intelligently after a break. I think we need to teach ourselves how to take a step back and find one or two things t really focus on. Trying to take everything in at once is self-defeating and somewhat demoralizing.
Will Bad news sells, good news seems boring. One plane has trouble flying across the Atlantic gets headlines. 1000 planes safely crossed the Atlantic is on the cutting room floor.
I found in my Op-Ed writing days that newspaper headline writers must be a different department than the editors. I once got all sorts of grief from disabled rights advocates due to a letter I wrote disagreeing with a college newspaper that was against increasing penalties for Drunk Drivers. My letter described my experience as a Nursing Assistant caring for a quadriplegic man who was hit by a drunk driver. The headline "DRUNK DRIVERS NEED TO LEARN THAT LIVING IN A WHEELCHAIR IS HORRIBLE." NO, that wasn't the focus of my letter, which was to make driving drunk a more serious offense with real consequences.
Not almost. Is. It is about selling stories. To sell stories in a hyper competitive market headlines need a wide range, grab attention, and invoke emotion. Headlines are made to leverage the “attention” economy. New devices and technology make it possible to monetize the smallest micro second of everyone’s attention. Truth and reality have been subordinated to click bait.
Your comment is a reminder for me to update my subscription to Yes! I never have understood the logic of wanting to read bad news. https://www.yesmagazine.org/about
Amen. It’s like the kid in the courtyard getting two guys to fight so the crowd can watch at their bloodied expense. “ let’s you and him fight and I’ll sell tickets “
Instead of Doom & Gloom, for a laugh just check out Chelsea Handler's complete Take Down vid of *ucker Carlson's "Emergency Mtg of the Receding Hairline Society"
BK Hats off to Chelsea! Humor is a marvelous silver bullet and wooden spike against vicious bullies who are unable to take a punch. A catalogueof Trump’s humor should go into his book-less library. Even those idiots to listen to Tucker Carlson couldn’t miss the rapier humor of Chelsea.
I am reminded of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. His humor relegated Hitler to a puddle of slimy ooze. So let’s hit the humor button aimed at Gangrene Greene, Rock-and-Hard Place McCarthy, Turdy Trump, and Nobel Prize winner Santos.
It’s almost a shame that Giggles Giuliani is no longer in the top 100 hit list.
As many people have observed, doom and gloom sell better than sunny and bright. Do you pay more attention to the details of a weather forecast when a storm is coming than when the weather will be fair? Most of us do.
Will, from Cal, this has to be one of the most enjoyable readers’ comments to LFAA I’ve ever read: sagacious, cleverly organized content and impeccable punctuation. Bravo! 👏
Agreed! Well crafted single-sentenced first paragraph. I guess you’re either a journalist, an aspiring columnist, or a wonderfully delightful chatty bot. ;D
Thanks Will! I've been saying this for weeks. Before the mid-terms that was all we heard: inflation, inflation, inflation! Now that it's going down crickets. I'm sick of being sold soap and not getting anything of substance form them. I know all about the fact that someone was pregnant while preforming at the Super Bowl but when it comes to things that really matter I have to sift through all the bull shit to get to anything of real substance. -saw-
Will Some years ago there was a newspaper called the GOOD NEWS WEEKLY. It only published ‘good news’-(in the weekly magazine, THE WEEK, there is a quarter page section on ‘good news). The paper folded, because few people wanted to read boring, dull ‘good news.’
I remember when the three nightly CBS, NBC, ABC news shows actually focused on news—Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and other serious newsmen. Now it is entertainment and spot disasters, with scant serious journalism.
The challenge is to ‘sell’ good news.The country is in far better shape today that under Trump’s turdy turbulence.There’s no sustained interest in the fact that the Covid economy is emerging far better than the ‘experts’ had predicted, Biden administration legislation will pump major investment into American industry and climate change palliatives. We are again a leader in the world rather than being the pet dog of authoritarians.
Advertising is now brief spots with repetition on Tik Tok and other social media. Why not Dem vs. Rep?
One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark. Then have punchy content, with some humor and ridicule (of some of the greatest Republican absurdities).
Content—have you ever been involved in the ‘elevator game?’ This is when you are obliged who you are, what you want, or some other specific in an imagined 60 seconds when you meet the target in an elevator. Try it!!! Try to summarize something complex in 60 seconds where the target doesn’t turn blurry eyed in a few seconds.
It’s tough work, but I have seen this accomplished with dozens of bright foreign leaders who, initially, thought this would be simple. Sharp synthesis is not simple—it’s tough work.
Try crafting a 60 second elevator speech for one of Biden’s ‘hear’s the deal.’ An hour, a day, or a week later you may stumble on to a BINGO. Good luck.
"One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark." How about HERE'S THE WILL (from Cal)? The Will to speak truth in direct, accessible language with intelligent humor bringing home the zinger, obliterating any and all oppositional rhetoric.
In rural Maine we are seeing a really great paid ad on the positives the infrastructure bill brought to us giving credit to where the credit is due. It’s quite refreshing compared to all the lies we normally are saturated in from the Fascist Party. I tried to find a link to it but couldn’t.
Will I remember when that mean, incompetent President Biden was personally responsible for gas prices soaring to $5.00 in my neighborhood. Yesterday gas was $3.21. There were no headlines thanking President Biden for his sagacious leadership.
News editors pick what sells—as you so clearly illustrate. [Is your day job as a nightly news journalist who breathlessly spews forth buckets of sensation bad news? Even weather reports are now jazzed up with ‘bomb cyclones.’]
The extra hilarious thing about blaming the government, especially the President, for high gas prices is that the only solution they could theoretically take directly to ensure that never happens is mandating/fixing prices. You know, the central government controlling the business and overriding the free market. You know, like... what's the word for the system that allows for that... uh... oh, yeah...
Will, thank you for the best belly laugh I’ve had in weeks. Your analysis of the positioning of the headlines in some of the major news outlets is not only spot on, the “multiverse- ending-graph -of-doom” description had me nearly spitting coffee - which tends to aggravate whichever cat is flopped on my lap in the morning.
🐈⬛, 🐈 and I send our deepest gratitude for your analysis and support for the world’s most absurdly underestimated grandpa.
Add a laughing emoji to the heart in response to this post - but if only the the "liberal media" were "just paranoid crybabies" - this reader believes it to be more sinister.
J. D. Vance did not vote for the infrastructure bill and now is criticizing the Biden administration for not fixing all the infrastructure in a year? His ignorance of the fact that FEMA is not yet working on the accident is no surprise.
Luckily, some of the voting public is beginning to realize who has their back after the State of the Union address.
Anna Paulina Luna sounds like the name of a child in an old book of whimsical verse and cautionary tales, who gets punished in an over-the-top way for telling fibs to her elders. I'm just saying, it sounds made up. Oh God, what if it is?
Funny how when you start lying so much people can't be sure when it's stopped.
We have Chernobyl in Ohio and DeWine won’t even call in FEMA, but Vance is blaming Biden for Republican-led problems? “Intelligent Republican” has become an oxymoron. The good news about the economy will not continue with mushroom clouds. Climate science rules.
Sorry, dear friends, but we have to think globally every day and be grateful that we have a president with a fine backup team who thinks globally every day while trying to herd the local cats!
Herding cats is part and parcel of democracy, which makes it an easy target for charlatans and fools to criticism and offer the "efficiency" of despotic rule as the cure.
" I got the chance after I lost to John McCain last time, to go over to -- that was the good part of losing -- I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
"He [J. D. Vance] said here was no excuse for failing infrastructure after the passage last year of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill....". How many of those slack-jawed Fox viewers gave any thought to the fact that you don't implement a change to the infrastructure overnight?
JD Vance's contribution to the Ohio train wreck story reminds me of the old saw; "better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt".
Or care. The attacks are reflexive. You may recall the night that Obama was elected IIRC, Republicans whose "deregulation" ushered in the subprime collapse were talking about "the Obama Recession". If Biden cure cancer, you can be sure that Republicans would be finding fault with it. And why are there only deficits that matter when a Democrat in in the White House, even though the Democrats tend to be the ones that are cleaning them up?
Back when Bush signed a massive tax cut while declaring twin wars, some wag dubbed the policy "Spend but don't tax" ,though let out "and send somebody else the bill". Then they manufacture outrage that the bill is has not been paid for. Fiscal CON-servatives as the saying goes.
HCR has mentioned in the past that old school Republicans launched the first graduated federal income tax in order to (actually) pay for the Civil War.
Also taken from listening to the most recent podcast from a personal hero of mine, Jon Stewart. He spoke with Julia Rock, one of the journalists from The Lever.
I don’t recall... it seems much of the reporting about this incident has been questionable... my sympathies are entirely with that community who seem to have been thrown to the wolves by the train representatives and their own state.
I agree, Carla. When the news first came out, I noticed major network news repeatedly neglected to mention the name of the Ohio town (East Palestine) affected by the derailment and fires. For two days they merely reported it as a town in eastern Ohio. Why?
Perhaps improved braking would have helped prevent the accident. The immediate cause, at least being claimed at one point, was a seized bearing or something of the kind, and the bearing was said to be glowing red hot. It's what happens when you have a lot of force and a lot of friction, like a stick and bow used to start a fire, but on an industrial scale.
J.L., The railroaders call it a "hot box", and it used to be fairly common, so it's a plausible explanation for what happened. Would you call this something related to "infrastructure"? The rail people seem to have argued that these chemical transport cars are state-of-the-art. My first thought was human error. But the real issues here are 1) do we know the cause and could it have been prevented though better maintenance or operations and 2) why are these dangerous payloads allowed to pass through so many communities? Instead, Vance jumps on Biden as the culprit on Fox News, a venue not celebrated for its discerning audience. It's the same old blame game, and it's wearing thin.
Yessss! General American problem: it must happen fast if you put a few million into it. But no, it doesn’t. Think of the blueprints (CAD drawings), the engineers, the workmen, the materials that must be gathered. The millions or billions are only what put food on the table of all those people. Another reason we are lucky to have Joe Biden. Unlike the rich guys in politics, he understands that. I have a friend who doesn’t understand the importance of the president’s background (“He owns lots of houses,” so he’s rich). But he wasn’t born into lots of money, so understands what it takes to build.
It's not ignorance it's arguing in bad faith and being a dishonest grifter and liar. Vance isn't dumb he just knows that he was elected to take every opportunity to make government look bad, and whenever he gets called out he can just claim being a victim and throw out a buzzword to his followers. He's a former never Trumper who became a sellout. He could be using his platform to help Ohio but instead he is a standard rich libertarian who doesn't care about anything until it personally affects him. In the meantime he'll keep lying and stoking fears to distract from the fact he is useless.
You are correct Philly T, but you do not have recall the details of WWI to know that liquid phosgene quickly turns to a gas that sinks to the ground & moves downhill as it speads & lingers threatening anyone near the spill site ... make that Kill Site.
Vance is much worse than ignorant. He’s a low-life liar and opportunist who, as if that weren’t disgusting enough, is also obscenely obsequious to his wealthy patrons.
That's standard operating practice for the whole of modern Republican leadership. Recall Scott Walker panting like a puppy when a prankster managed to fool him into thinking he as talking to one of the Koch Brothers.
Worse than ignorant because we are all ignorant of many things, though expecting some level of due diligence for a capable person is reasonable. Ignorance can be cured, at least "good (well) enough" by a willingness to learn. Deliberate, weaponized deception is far more a matter of bad character and typically far more dangerous.
Correction: He didn't vote against the Infrastructure Act. But that is only because he literally just got there. And has no public service experience to speak of.
He's a pudgy ass-kisser and sellout who probably couldn't lift - nah, couldn't properly *hold* - the hammer that each union member building the new infrastructure weilds. Why anyone would consider this weapons-grade doofus for expert testimonial on any government business other than that of the Ministry of Farting-from-Your-Head-Hole is anyone's guess.
Me too. Ryan actually had lot's of legislative experience and spoke for the working poor. Ohio is a strange place. But hardly the only state loaded with idiots obsessed with culture wars while they ignore their own self interests.
Actually, Jeri, unless electing Ryan and only Ryan was your sole goal, your money was not at all down the loo. Ryan having such a sizeable campaign meant the Repubs had to divert money from elsewhere to counter it, so it helped indirectly in the other Senate races. And having such an energetic campaign at the top of the ticket had the very valuable coattail effect of bringing out enough voters that the Dems won ALL THREE House swing seats available to us in Ohio, a terrific boon.
And money will be needed to elect decent candidates AND we have to do something about the amount someone spends being a major factor in who is elected. It's just corruption by another name, and certainly outside of the mission of democracy.
We can't get all trace of plutocratic interference out of politics, just as we can't stop all highway accidents and still have a functional transportation system, but we can install some guardrails and regulate speed limits.
Ohio’s map was gerrymandered to insure victory for the Rs-their own courts said it was unfair but they ignored the courts. Then after the election they passed more laws to lock out democratic votes.
Mark Elias the lawyer who monitors and challenges these election issues is warning that the Rs are hijacking our election rules and systems. It’s the only way they can win.
Nikki Haley is reminding them that they’re not winning the popular vote. We may be heading toward the way elections work in places like Russia-a farce-not the will of the people.
Will, my internal junior high (current vernacular: middle school) self just laughed at "farting from your head hole". Thank you for both your incredible initial post and this one that tickled my funny bone.
Earthjustice.org has a detailed update on the OHIO-Tri-state flaming 🔥🔥railcars attack on justice for Earth & the people, fauna & flora on it. Lead Contact: Zahra Ahmed, Tel: 517-858-0924
Thank you for that, Sean. They are like the Southern Poverty Law Center is for civil rights but fighting earth's rights in massive ways, which of course, improves human's lives as well! Polluting corporations must hate them as much as white supremacists and fascists hate the SPLC!
Thank you for this information. I live in NWPA approximately 80 miles north of East Palestine, OH., an area not considered to be impacted by the train derailment. I have family living in Butler County, PA., parts of which are included in the impact area. The Norfolk-Southern train carrying the shipment of vinyl chloride was also carrying other toxic chemicals. As the saying goes, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Shell recently opened a cracker plant in Beaver County, Potter Township, PA. that is 23 miles from East Palestine. Since going on line, it has been cited for numerous EPA violations. Two days ago an equipment malfunction resulted in flaring that purportedly mitigates the release of harmful substances into the environment. So, not only are residents in the area being impacted by the train derailment, they are also living with the fall out from the cracker plant. A source of local information is https://triblive.com.
As someone who grew up three miles downstream from the Bruin Lagoon, at one time the number three site on the Superfund list behind Love Canal, this is personal to me. It should be personal to everyone. Thank you for highlighting Earthjustice.org. and the important work they're doing.
Here is an update regarding the train derailment. The train manifest, a public document, lists these substances being transported: vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene gylcol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, benzene, and petroleum. As a point of interest, Michael Stanley Regan, the head of the EPA, is visiting East Palestine today.
“(J. D. Vance) also issued a statement saying that ‘my office will continue to work with FEMA’ over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
JD Vance is a schmuck and I hope Ohioans are happy with their choice. He should have to sit downwind for a while, but I'd guess that would put him in Pennsylvania. Mean, these people ...
In the face of this dangerous situation, why would Mike DeWine not ask for a disaster declaration? In the past he would have done so. I lived in Ohio for 17 years and saw DeWine occupy numerous elected offices. He is a political opportunist who goes whatever way the wind blows. He's just being a performative republican of today.
Not that the pageantry of tyrants is the least bit new, but I think TV provides the golden opportunity to deliberately conflate stagecraft with statecraft, and way too many elected and appointed politicians are not real "public servants", they just play one on TV.
Working at a library in '16 & '17, I can attest that the book in question became the unmistakable book club pick du jour during that period, an absolutely necessary text for well-meaning people with masters degrees, who all got in line to be part of the solemn attempt to "reach out understand" the "economic despair" and "cultural alienation" that "drove people to" supporting tfg (as opposed to, you know, their own misused free will), as if each Hail Mary muttered over their hardback copy would form the mystic bond across space that would enable a Bible Belter to realize Hillary was better for them after all. "Have you read it yet?" reverberated in hushed tones near the New Books Lucky Day display every time that totem appeared.
No, I didn't freaking read it, because everything about it - from the too-precious title on down - reeked of opportunism, and your buying this won't make the racists more kumbaya, it just makes this one dude richer and more famous. Two midterms later, why yes I DO feel vindicated, thanks for asking.
Not a putz Bill, Dewine is a Sacammer. As the US population splits into self-segregating cohorts, those specific folks (believers in putz Dewine) make themselves marketable targets. Purchase of a book, film, song or downloads, "likes" & dislikes. whatever ... are a telling data points. That data can be exploited in some in ways that folks never considered.
I borrowed from library to read. I remember liking what I learned reading book. There was a fair amount of chatter at the time. Was he sincere when he wrote the book? I can't decide.
Senator Vance made his fortune in writing fiction. I don’t think he can be expected swiftly switch gears just because he’s been elected to the Senate; quite the contrary. Alas.
And I am certain that when the first new bridge is opened or new highway created in Ohio, JD will be present for a photo op smiling and giving a thumbs up, and claiming credit. What phony (and a dangerous one to boot).
I now can't recall which prominent Republican showed up at a charity soup kitchen to roll up his sleeves and wash dishes that had already been washed only so long as the photos were shot, and then packed up and split. It's part of their core M.O.
Senator J. D. Vance blamed failed infrastructure when in fact the train accident was caused by a failed journal bearing. Witnesses say they saw smoke and sparks coming from a wheel bearing and in fact a trackside detector know as a "Hot Box Detector" notified the train even as it went into emergency during the derailment that they had a hot journal. This accident could have been avoided if Norfolk Southern had more detectors installed trackside to warn of a hot journal. Something that seems a relatively cheap safety measure. Of note, had the train been equipped with a caboose the occupants would have smelled the smoke from the journal and could have stopped the train. Operating rules require those on the head end to look back for smoke, but with today's trains a mile or two long there is little ability to see smoke when the train is serpentining around multiple curves.
A well-written corporate tax code incentivizes expenditures that directly improve a business's actual operations - especially with regard to employee and community safety, and definitely including research & development. In the case in question, I see nothing wrong with the tax code allowing Norfolk Southern a deduction for more and better trackside hot box detectors plus developing practical on-board sensor systems. But buying back stock is a different matter. In the relatively few cases in which a stock buyback is a sound decision for growing and improving the business, the decision shouldn't require a tax break to make it pencil out.
We can no longer foot the bill for gargantuan corporate profit. No one benefits from deregulation, especially where environmental respect is thrown to the wind, where towns have been gutted by businesses who deserted them, by millions that are set aside when there are company lay-offs , and by those same corporate entities and owners who would shaft the Social Security/Medicare system by trying to privatize, diminish and throw away the hard working retirees, who's backs they've used to make over the top profits. It doesn't have to be this way in a democracy, but the wealthy corporations can pay the propaganda machine to make you think it's unAmerican, just like they did in order to get Reagan to slash their taxes and make us civil servants carry the burden.
For decades I have listened to the mantra of Republican politicians and their corporate supporters that regulations are bad for business... that if not for regulations, the economy would function perfectly, blah blah blah. I always want to ask, "WHICH regulations?" To them, it doesn't matter, but for workers, communities, the environment, etc., it certainly DOES matter. Unfortunately, it's not until an accident like the derailment in Ohio that people clamor for change to prevent this from happening again. Maybe the average American doesn't realize it, but many of the regulations that businesses complain about are designed to protect our health and safety.
Chemical, mining, and oil related industries are notorious polluters. They all kiss the gold ass, hoping American voter's attention will move on to the next shiny thing. We can't wait for them to fix it. Write, show up at city/county council meetings and stay connected at a local level. It takes us all doing a little, sometimes a lot, but at least you know where you stand. This is also a good way to meet good people that become good neighbors. Building trust in each other is paramount. We don't have to wait for a disaster
I live 66 miles from East Palestine and local news has daily in-depth reporting on the consequences of the train wreck. It's been reported today that 3,600 fish in the surrounding waterways have died. Veterinarians are seeing unexplained illness and death of companion animals. People are told it's safe to return home, but advised to drink bottled water.
There was a town hall meeting tonight and representatives of the railroad did not attend. Families are refusing to return to their homes, terrified the residual chemicals may be harmful to their children. This is shaping up to be the next Love Canal. Meanwhile, Governor DeWine declines federal assistance and resources. I predict the rates of various cancers will exponentially rise. The time to mitigate the anticipated outcomes is now.
"The time to mitigate the anticipated outcomes is now."
Actually, I can say with some confidence, as I spent half of my career as a Chemical Engineer, that the time to mitigate the outcomes is well in the past BEFORE the trains derailed.
Now? Once the chemicals, like those on that train enter the environment in high concentrations? Those chemicals will NOT degrade rapidly, will NOT be amenable to "clean up", will NOT "go away" in the next 400 years. Perhaps much longer.
Organic compounds with double bonds, like the stuff in those train cars, are profoundly stable compounds that even if exposed to sunlight for years do not "degrade".
Allowing hedge funds like Warren Buffet to buy up all the trains, then, force massive cuts onto the workforce to maximize their hedge fund profit is the fundamental, underlying cause of this train accident. Once Buffet's people took over the trains, any small cares about safety were tossed out in favor of totally maximizing profit at all costs. Because, THAT is what Hedge funds do!
Nobody is talking about that fact. Not one person in Congress is calling out the real cause of the crash.
Railroad safety is NOT the cause of the crash. Everyone knows how to make rail travel safe.
Rather, America and American's addiction to profit at all costs, regardless of environment, regardless of impact on people, regardless of impact on the long term health of the economic system, is the root cause of this train crash.
Until our representatives tee up laws that limit what Hedge Funds can do in this country and world wide, we will continue to suffer.
Houses will be 3X what they should be since Hedge Funds are now buying up all the single family homes WAY outcompeting our young people.
Manufacturing, already gone to China because of Hedge Funds will never return.
Our representatives, many of them bought and paid for by Hedge Funds, in a system that totally allows anyone to walk in and buy a representative through "lobbying" will NEVER tee up safety as long as, well, they are paid off by Hedge Funds.
Me? I am not optimistic. Reading about our history does NOT make me think our system of government can overcome this basic flaw of our courts and our representatives.
Taking money by our "elected" representatives, via "lobbying, and then prostrating themselves at the feet of Hedge Fund owners like Warren Buffet, or Fox News, or both does not appear to me at least, as ever being mitigated or eliminated.
Americans will continue, as has been the case since 1880, to be at the mercy of those (white) men, (mostly), who are willing to destroy everything around them to get money for themselves.
Slave Owners who have morphed into Corporate board members and Presidents of Corporations.
MAGA idiot, J.D. Vance, had little nothing to say about this horrid chemical spill in the state he purportedly represents until the magnitude of this very toxic chemical spill and subsequent burnoff was reported by The Lever, then other publications.
It is no coincidence that these carcinogenic leaks and spillages occur in working class areas of the U.S., like Love Canal, Three Mile Island, water poisonings in California and Detroit, Cancer Alley in Louisiana, and etcetera.
I've already read about the deaths of animals and the adverse health effects for people returning to their homes briefly for essential items.
Robber baron-owned railroads carrying carcinogenic chemicals is disaster capitalism in the making, as the owners have drastically cut their workforce to maximize profits, which is why these cowards refuse to attend a scheduled meeting with the townspeople and officials of Palestine, Ohio.
I sincerely hope the Biden Administration quickly restores the Obama Administration's rules for railroads.
Remember that railroad strike that didn't happen? We should have stood tall with those unions. Railroad personnel have been reduced by 90%. Two or three workers run trains (often exhausted due to a brutal schedule) - trains that are miles long.
The owners don't give a crap about safety unless it costs them money. This time it might. I suggest a whole region reaching into PA may sue their butts.
According to Judd Legum “ In March 2022, Norfolk Southern announced a plan to spend $10 billion on stock buybacks. In 2021, Norfolk Southern CEO James A. Squires received $14 million in total compensation. About $9 million of Squires' compensation was paid in stock awards and options — assets that will likely increase in value as Norfolk Southern repurchases its shares.”
“It’s a stark contrast to our Republican friends, who are doubling down on the same failed politics of the past. Top-down, trickle-down economics is not much trickle down…to most kitchen tables in America,”
The notion that those who have managed to hoover great piles of money from the public are society's natural leaders and "Job Creators" was bunk from the outset. It's the worn out argument of kings and feudal aristocrats that they are the ones who support society, and that without their wealth and superior leadership, the state would disintegrate. For all of their contractions, the founders came to set up a society that was controlled from the bottom up, not the top down, but some people still want an autocrat. Examine examples of top-down societies and observe that unsurprisingly, net wealth torrents decidedly up, with only minor spills along the way.
One more time, from Will Rogers on Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the need. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” These days, “Mr. Hoover” surely knows that money doesn’t trickle down, it stays in his stock portfolio. Same old scam, another generation buying the snake oil…. Where is our “free press.”
Unconscionable recklessness. Is there any other way to describe the current Republican Party and their oligarchical purse holders? Such a seditious s#%t show.
I applaud President Biden for his persistence in endeavoring to highlight what the Biden administration is doing to manage America through the Covid-induced economic crisis while investing in essential-good-job-producing physical infrastructure and addressing the core needs of the great majority of Americans.
What appalls me is that the Republican nihilists denigrate how Biden is positively leading our country out of the dreadful Trump trough and bloviates about such foo foo dust as ‘wokeness,’ book banning, and Congressional ‘weaponizing.’
I was impressed by President Biden’s State of the Union address in which he described solid achievements and tweaked the Republican dog-in-the-manger prattling. Sadly, for the great majority of Americans this was a ho hum moment barely noticed in the flow of daily ‘news.’
In the world of $7 million/30 second Super Bowl ads, how can the dichotomy between Democratic positive accomplishments be effectively contrasted with Republican frivolity?
I come from an advertising family—my father and grandfather were maestros in honing the message:
KEEP IT SIMPLE, CONSTANT REPETITION, WITH DOWN TO EARTH APPEAL.
The challenge is to ‘market the Biden message.’ Humor, simplicity, and repetition—-I relished some Lincoln Project ads.
I remember how the advertising industry got behind the war effort in World War II. Well, the Biden administration has a first class product in contrast to the blather of Republican charlatans. So let’s figure out how to communicate effectively with KISS (Keep it simple stupid).
What a difference, one party wants progress and prosperity for ordinary people, the other to squander the health and lives of American citizens to save a few more bucks to further fatten the pockets of wealthy people who can't even spend what they've already got, it's so much
I find it disturbing that increased retail spending is viewed as a key indicator of a country's economic health when in fact it is a bad sign for the health of a country's environment. When people buy more, they also throw away more, adding to the total environmental burden of discarded plastic, chemicals, and metals. Rather than people being encouraged to go out and buy, buy, buy, they should be encouraged to repair and reuse what they already have.
I agree., but have you read about how difficult it is to pass "right to repair" legislation so that consumers aren't at the mercy of manufacturers that make it impossible for them (or third parties) to diagnose and repair the products they buy?
Yes there is good news on the inflation front but those caveats should be there. The Goldilocks scenario will only come to pass if there are tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to offset the still rising cost of servicing the US debt. Not to mention that we are legitimately paying out lots of money to support Ukraine. That is not going to be easily offset by cost cutting in other areas of the military budget especially after the balloon scares.
Biden has to keep coupling the "pay their fair share" rhetoric with every " building the economy out" because you know the Republicans are going to use the rapidly rising debt in the debt ceiling showdown.
Can't wait to see who in the GOP takes the lead on that suicide mission on the debt ceiling... will McCarthy take it, or will McConnell? Oh, an idea: how about they put Vance out on point; that would be right and just.
I am glad you finished with a comment about FEMA. Every state has natural disasters that are predictable and industrial disasters that are not. FEMA should be eliminated and every state should self insure for these events.
Perhaps FEMA could exist as a federal lending agency to help areas recover from disasters? But the loans would have to be repaid before another could be made.
FEMA is the ultimate in welfare for states like Florida and Texas. It is time they step up to their cost of disasters.
Hey, remember all of last year when every time the report came out showing that inflation kept going up, we were treated to the damn jagged line graph of doom at the top of every news source, and no one would shut up about it for days, with every nattering pundit in a race to make the most dire projections of recession and ruin, and generally making sure everyone considered this issue the most uber-important thing facing all of the world, upon which all of our pasts, presents, and futures hinged, in each and every possible multiverse?
One would imagine the reversal of this trend would be celebrated with equal fervor! Anyway, the report showing the 7th month straight of declining inflation was released yesterday. It was the 101st headline on the Washington Post website (out of 112, yes I counted them all). It read: "Inflation eases again, but bringing prices further down will take work," was illustrated not with THE GRAPH but with a stock photo of shoppers' feet, and (understandably, I'm sure) sat below such other pressing items as "Star Wars script auction stopped after plea from Chewbacca actor’s widow," "Queen Consort Camilla will wear a recycled crown, without cursed diamond," "The clever trick that turns ChatGPT into its evil twin, DAN," "This snake can make babies without a mate," and "Advice: Complaining about your partner? It might be you." Perplexing!
The Guardian thought it more notable, putting "US inflation eases again for 7th consecutive month" as the 13th item for the morning, though come the evening it was gone entirely. Higher up yesterday morning, and still there: "Amazon deploys fleet of self-driving robotaxis, with employees as passengers." The New York Times, to their credit, put the one-would-assume-Earth-shattering-based-on-how-many-times-it-was-previously-made-to-seem-to-shatter-the-Earth news at #3 (#9 by evening), with THE GRAPH in tow, and the wait-is-this-good-or-still-yucky-I-can't-tell announcement, "Inflation Cooled Just Slightly, With Worrying Details."
What changed? It couldn't possibly be that the first midterm of a Democratic president just passed. No, it couldn't be that. Why, if it was - but it just couldn't be! - one would almost be tempted to undergo the revelation that the all-encompassing "liberal media" that conservatives seem so perpetually desperate to escape being brainwashed by is actually anything but, and that those conservatives are instead just paranoid crybabies on a cosmically hilarious scale.
Though, to be fair, there was this huge top headline in WaPo's Politics section: "Analysis: Democrats growing more comfortable with another Biden run." I have to admit, this does track pretty closely with my recently conducted study (rigorous and comprehensive, albeit sample size of one): "28-year old male Bay Area recent college grad growing more impatient by the day to keep world's most absurdly underestimated grandpa in the White House, and give him what he needs to finish off these pathetic charlatans and shove us fricking finally into the future."
P.P.P.P.S. It seems Nikki Haley (yeah, *her*) is running for President, claiming we need a "generational change." Yeah... but... just... gurl, you think that's you? Oh, honey. Bye.
I’m glad to see that someone else is frustrated by the gloom and doom headlines unlike those during 2020 when the economy was falling off a cliff. At best, they seem to be in the mold of “sure, things are better now, but the sky is about to fall”.
It's almost as if the people publishing the headlines are a buncha grumpsters that their predictions of economic disaster didn't happen. It's almost as if they are rooting for constant fighting and gridlock and instability, because that creates unnecessary drama that creates easier to sell stories to the easily distractible. It's almost as if voters beginning to consistently turn out for the actual party of the working class and democratic stability poses the biggest threat to the business model of concocting narratives around perpetual imminent demise. It's almost as if that is the case. So curious.
……and then they just lie….
“my office will continue to work with FEMA” over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
- J.D. Vance
He lies. But I also think he would be stupid enough to be unaware of DeWine's refusal of Federal assistance. Which was pretty stupid in itself.
That’s the thing. JD Vance is not stupid. He’s calculating. He’s calculating that his supporters are stupid enough to continue to believe him and he’s likely right. Most of these Maga/Trumper politicians are not stupid. Well to be fair, some are, but most aren’t. They are however, master manipulators. They know how to push the emotional internal lizard brain section of humans by using fear and distrust to pit us “minions” against each other. Then they sit back and watch in amusement like the emperors of old watching the lions eat the gladiators. All the while filling their pockets and bank accounts with the gold earned from selling tickets to the spectacle. They create the spectacle. They get rich from the spectacle. And the poor suckers in the arena and the stadiums are left dying in the dirt and starving in the hovels they are thankful for because the emperor thinks so highly of them he invited them to his games. It disgusts me. And I truly don’t understand how people can’t see it for what it is. Best I can do is blame it on that lizard section in our brains. If we don’t evolve into higher thinking beings sometime very soon, the best we’ll be able to hope for in life is we get offered a ticket to attend the spectacle rather than being forced into the arena with the lions.
Carey, what a colorfully accurate picture you paint!
Lizards, yes. Shape shifters as well. This could be the alien invasion we saw in the movies. I bet Vance was hatched from a pod.
When I read "Hillbilly Elegy" I predicted that unless he got tons of professional psychological help he would be awful to live with. He's incredibly smart, and he grew up in circumstances that check all the boxes of childhood trauma, ACES, Adverse Childhood Experiences. His most positive and "there for him" source of comfort and information was a truly bizarre grandmother who was, sadly, better than the others around him. His mother was an addict and a nurse. The part of the country where he grew up was full of very emotionally damaged people who fed on each other's opinions. He married a smart woman from another culture who although smart, learned to honor her husband and be subservient enough to be controlled. I worry about her. He has anger issues. Basically, he's still looking for acceptance and approval from others. Like all too many in this truly hurting land of ours. We need to continue our work to end generational trauma by supporting individuals and families from the start. Pie in the sky maybe, but we have to try.
They may not be stupid but they are EVIL.
I would say more voters are stupid than not because of the Republican votes! Especially if they rely on Fox "News".
Brilliant, Carey!
They could have had Tim Ryan.
Tim Ryan would be there.
We tried, honestly. But the Democratic Party didn't think Ohio was worth spending money on this election.
Stupidity is a hallmark of the Republican Party .... and most importantly, of many who vote for its candidates.
No one said Vance is/they are smart.
If you ask THEM, they will claim to be smart, and offer as evidence his defeating Ryan in 2022. But still, I agree that doesn't make them smart.
The lies are never-ending! I surely hope that these lawsuits against FOX news continue to reveal the bottomless cynicism and contempt that the faux-reporters have for viewers.
much better!!
I think you are right.Gloom and doom sells and the the media are in it for profits above all. Why they are not talking up Biden’s many positive actions is troubling.I am spending a week in Tennessee and am seeing many F Biden signs around.I was floored when I saw a black man with a 4 foot F Biden flag.That any persons of color, women, LGBTQ person,Hispanic etc could be for the Republican agenda is beyond me.
It is unfortunate that persons of color, women, LGBTQ, etc. are not immune from the ignorance, gullibility and often pure stupidity which fuels the Republican Party.
Any and all vulnerabilities can & will be exploited at every opportunity.
Could Al Gore win the TN Governor race today? A big transformation has happened to the southern states. Koch’s investments paying him dividends at democracy’s expense. Read Democracy in Chains’
I read it when it first came out and constantly refer to it. Shortly after I read it the first time I lent it to a republican politician friend of mine and after perhaps reading the introduction he returned it to me without comment.
Robert🙏
Victoria, Too stupid or ignorant to realize they've been taken?
Yes.It has to be that.More of the results of our dumbing down of America, these people are either uninformed or uneducated, under-educated ,saturated with Fox “news”and it is sad and infuriating.Defunding of public education and under paying our teachers is reaping what it has sown.
Agree 100%!
Actually, I'm hearing a lot of good news - substantiated by details - on MSNBC. At least they're asking good questions of experts in various fields. Meanwhile, Fox is often a one man/woman show of opinion without basis in fact or thought. Or are they just the 21st century's answer to Goebbels?
Murdoch has a Goebbels propaganda agenda for sure.
Not too curious, money not only talks, it screams
Will, from Cal....communicating truth.....really well written ....thanks! Also an excellent addition to Heather's letter.
In comments I've made on previous LFAA articles, I've mentioned something similar, Will. Former journalist here, completely fed up virtually all media today. The most recent "last straw" was Judy Woodruff's interview of President Biden, in which she acted like a PR person for Republicans--questioning and challenging everything he said.
Thank you for bringing this up, Ann. I felt the same while listening to Judy's interview. Fed up, angry and frankly sad.
Judy Woodruff no longer appears to be bipartisan; it’s as if she goes out of her way to present the right wing point of view so that she can claim to be “balanced” while ignoring the viewpoint of the other side of the aisle.
I agree with you, Mary.
I saw it that way, too. She asked something which forced him to say that he couldn’t answer her because the investigation was ongoing. She would have known that, or should have.
You just nailed it, Will (even though my response slotted in FAR below your post...way to go, Substack!). The media, Right AND (it seems) Left, thrive on drama, fighting, fear, turmoil, anger, negative, negative, negative...why?? Because, in their eyes, that generates interest in their stories and analysts. The more people read/click-on their stuff, the more $$ they make and the more revenue they earn (more ads). GOOD news, and an economy improving and puttering along, is B-O-R-I-N-G! Readership obviously stagnates when there's nothing spectacular grabbing the headlines. They had it good with "Old Yam Tits", because every day there was a mini-"scandal du jour" to keep the press salivating. It didn't matter that the country was being drug through the mud and our very democracy was in peril, THERE WERE STORIES TO REPORT!! I like to think we on here are just a bit more discerning and less apt to immediately swallow everything that is fed to us. For myself, I try to wait a bit after something breaks to let more information become apparent and see what is going on. I think HCR is as well, and it is to her credit that with her academic zeal, she cites her sources extensively. That, thereby, gives us on here the opportunity to "consider the source" and decide whether or not, in our view, it has merit. I think that's kind of where we find ourselves at the moment with the daily barrage of information that confronts us. One has to do some serious sifting through all the "stuff". (How many citizens in this country bother to do that now?) So many people just skim only the few lines of a story from one or two sources, or listen to abbreviated news stories, and then move on. Time is at a premium for us ALL and there's just not enough time in the day to plough through everything. So, a lot of people then end up depending on others to go through all the detritus of the day to pick out the stories that, in their view, we should centre on. Some are better at this than others. HCR's take on everything, using her historian's eye, is one that we on here tend to subscribe to and appreciate precisely because it does give us the opportunity to pursue things ourselves, should we desire. I find this page, and some others on Substack, a blissful, more sane respite from all the screaming headlines and biases of mainstream media. Here we tend to think through things a bit more, not always agreeing, but welcome to an adult space. Peace, y'all...
I do agree. I left to visit my daughter the day after the train wreck In Ohio. Didn’t have the time or energy for more bad news. Finally caught up with the story yesterday and I could read it more intelligently after a break. I think we need to teach ourselves how to take a step back and find one or two things t really focus on. Trying to take everything in at once is self-defeating and somewhat demoralizing.
Will Bad news sells, good news seems boring. One plane has trouble flying across the Atlantic gets headlines. 1000 planes safely crossed the Atlantic is on the cutting room floor.
I found in my Op-Ed writing days that newspaper headline writers must be a different department than the editors. I once got all sorts of grief from disabled rights advocates due to a letter I wrote disagreeing with a college newspaper that was against increasing penalties for Drunk Drivers. My letter described my experience as a Nursing Assistant caring for a quadriplegic man who was hit by a drunk driver. The headline "DRUNK DRIVERS NEED TO LEARN THAT LIVING IN A WHEELCHAIR IS HORRIBLE." NO, that wasn't the focus of my letter, which was to make driving drunk a more serious offense with real consequences.
Headline writers objective is to shock not to inform. Correct? Erghhh
Majority will not read the article, but only scan it, distracted by the next advertisement. It is like being trapped in a casino with no exit signs.
Not almost. Is. It is about selling stories. To sell stories in a hyper competitive market headlines need a wide range, grab attention, and invoke emotion. Headlines are made to leverage the “attention” economy. New devices and technology make it possible to monetize the smallest micro second of everyone’s attention. Truth and reality have been subordinated to click bait.
Car crashes sell, good news does not
Your comment is a reminder for me to update my subscription to Yes! I never have understood the logic of wanting to read bad news. https://www.yesmagazine.org/about
Curious indeed. Happy, hopeful, united people don’t make good Fascists.
Amen. It’s like the kid in the courtyard getting two guys to fight so the crowd can watch at their bloodied expense. “ let’s you and him fight and I’ll sell tickets “
Instead of Doom & Gloom, for a laugh just check out Chelsea Handler's complete Take Down vid of *ucker Carlson's "Emergency Mtg of the Receding Hairline Society"
https://www.thedailybeast.com/chelsea-handler-fires-back-at-crybaby-tucker-carlson
BK Hats off to Chelsea! Humor is a marvelous silver bullet and wooden spike against vicious bullies who are unable to take a punch. A catalogueof Trump’s humor should go into his book-less library. Even those idiots to listen to Tucker Carlson couldn’t miss the rapier humor of Chelsea.
I am reminded of Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. His humor relegated Hitler to a puddle of slimy ooze. So let’s hit the humor button aimed at Gangrene Greene, Rock-and-Hard Place McCarthy, Turdy Trump, and Nobel Prize winner Santos.
It’s almost a shame that Giggles Giuliani is no longer in the top 100 hit list.
Amen !!!
Rebekha You seem to be a fellow member of Flip Wilson’s Church of the Here and Now congregation.
Indeed !!!
Meh
As many people have observed, doom and gloom sell better than sunny and bright. Do you pay more attention to the details of a weather forecast when a storm is coming than when the weather will be fair? Most of us do.
True. But sunny and bright gets me outside and moving.
Thanks, Will from Cal. That was a nice lift full of accurate assessments and good humor to boot.
Will, from Cal, this has to be one of the most enjoyable readers’ comments to LFAA I’ve ever read: sagacious, cleverly organized content and impeccable punctuation. Bravo! 👏
Agreed! Well crafted single-sentenced first paragraph. I guess you’re either a journalist, an aspiring columnist, or a wonderfully delightful chatty bot. ;D
Rule #1 in the news media, info-tainment industry; bad news is good for business. Good news, not so much.
“If it bleeds, it leads” has been the mantra since the days of the town crier.
Thanks Will! I've been saying this for weeks. Before the mid-terms that was all we heard: inflation, inflation, inflation! Now that it's going down crickets. I'm sick of being sold soap and not getting anything of substance form them. I know all about the fact that someone was pregnant while preforming at the Super Bowl but when it comes to things that really matter I have to sift through all the bull shit to get to anything of real substance. -saw-
Thank you Will from Cal, that was a joy to read. And to use a nice English phrase, “spot on”!
Will Some years ago there was a newspaper called the GOOD NEWS WEEKLY. It only published ‘good news’-(in the weekly magazine, THE WEEK, there is a quarter page section on ‘good news). The paper folded, because few people wanted to read boring, dull ‘good news.’
I remember when the three nightly CBS, NBC, ABC news shows actually focused on news—Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, and other serious newsmen. Now it is entertainment and spot disasters, with scant serious journalism.
The challenge is to ‘sell’ good news.The country is in far better shape today that under Trump’s turdy turbulence.There’s no sustained interest in the fact that the Covid economy is emerging far better than the ‘experts’ had predicted, Biden administration legislation will pump major investment into American industry and climate change palliatives. We are again a leader in the world rather than being the pet dog of authoritarians.
Advertising is now brief spots with repetition on Tik Tok and other social media. Why not Dem vs. Rep?
One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark. Then have punchy content, with some humor and ridicule (of some of the greatest Republican absurdities).
Content—have you ever been involved in the ‘elevator game?’ This is when you are obliged who you are, what you want, or some other specific in an imagined 60 seconds when you meet the target in an elevator. Try it!!! Try to summarize something complex in 60 seconds where the target doesn’t turn blurry eyed in a few seconds.
It’s tough work, but I have seen this accomplished with dozens of bright foreign leaders who, initially, thought this would be simple. Sharp synthesis is not simple—it’s tough work.
Try crafting a 60 second elevator speech for one of Biden’s ‘hear’s the deal.’ An hour, a day, or a week later you may stumble on to a BINGO. Good luck.
"One thought is to run a Lincoln-Project-type series called HERE’S THE DEAL, which is a Biden trademark." How about HERE'S THE WILL (from Cal)? The Will to speak truth in direct, accessible language with intelligent humor bringing home the zinger, obliterating any and all oppositional rhetoric.
In rural Maine we are seeing a really great paid ad on the positives the infrastructure bill brought to us giving credit to where the credit is due. It’s quite refreshing compared to all the lies we normally are saturated in from the Fascist Party. I tried to find a link to it but couldn’t.
Christie Wahoo@
Will, this old dame loves you. Keep on posting, dearie.
Will This old curmudgeon loves you. I shan’t impose on dearie Linda’s turf.
This one does too! I actually came here to post that Kathy from OH loves Will from Cal but you said it better.
Excellent. Thank you.
Leigh McGowan, Politics Girl, with an in-depth look on her podcast as to what the heck is going on in Wisconsin.
https://youtu.be/ITCA7jsVxZk
Salud.
🗽
Bravo! Write more!
Will I remember when that mean, incompetent President Biden was personally responsible for gas prices soaring to $5.00 in my neighborhood. Yesterday gas was $3.21. There were no headlines thanking President Biden for his sagacious leadership.
News editors pick what sells—as you so clearly illustrate. [Is your day job as a nightly news journalist who breathlessly spews forth buckets of sensation bad news? Even weather reports are now jazzed up with ‘bomb cyclones.’]
The extra hilarious thing about blaming the government, especially the President, for high gas prices is that the only solution they could theoretically take directly to ensure that never happens is mandating/fixing prices. You know, the central government controlling the business and overriding the free market. You know, like... what's the word for the system that allows for that... uh... oh, yeah...
communism.
Will, thank you for the best belly laugh I’ve had in weeks. Your analysis of the positioning of the headlines in some of the major news outlets is not only spot on, the “multiverse- ending-graph -of-doom” description had me nearly spitting coffee - which tends to aggravate whichever cat is flopped on my lap in the morning.
🐈⬛, 🐈 and I send our deepest gratitude for your analysis and support for the world’s most absurdly underestimated grandpa.
Here, here. Agree with every word
❤❤❤❤😎 Will you're a fabulous writer. Thanks for the smile this morning!
Add a laughing emoji to the heart in response to this post - but if only the the "liberal media" were "just paranoid crybabies" - this reader believes it to be more sinister.
J. D. Vance did not vote for the infrastructure bill and now is criticizing the Biden administration for not fixing all the infrastructure in a year? His ignorance of the fact that FEMA is not yet working on the accident is no surprise.
Luckily, some of the voting public is beginning to realize who has their back after the State of the Union address.
Facts just get in the way for Republicans. Lying is quite easy once you drown your conscience in the bathtub.
Vivid image. Big giggle. Thank you
Reminds me of santos and anna paulina luna, the newest poster people for the gop.
Anna Paulina Luna sounds like the name of a child in an old book of whimsical verse and cautionary tales, who gets punished in an over-the-top way for telling fibs to her elders. I'm just saying, it sounds made up. Oh God, what if it is?
Funny how when you start lying so much people can't be sure when it's stopped.
We have Chernobyl in Ohio and DeWine won’t even call in FEMA, but Vance is blaming Biden for Republican-led problems? “Intelligent Republican” has become an oxymoron. The good news about the economy will not continue with mushroom clouds. Climate science rules.
Sorry, dear friends, but we have to think globally every day and be grateful that we have a president with a fine backup team who thinks globally every day while trying to herd the local cats!
Herding cats is part and parcel of democracy, which makes it an easy target for charlatans and fools to criticism and offer the "efficiency" of despotic rule as the cure.
" I got the chance after I lost to John McCain last time, to go over to -- that was the good part of losing -- I got to go to the Olympic Games in China. It's pretty impressive over there how quickly they can build things, how productive they are as a society. You should see their airport compared to our airports, their highways, their train systems. They're moving quickly in part because the regulators see their job as encouraging private people. It's amazing. The head of Coca-Cola said the business environment is friendlier in China than in America. And that's because of the regulators. That's because of government."
Or toilet 😈
"He [J. D. Vance] said here was no excuse for failing infrastructure after the passage last year of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill....". How many of those slack-jawed Fox viewers gave any thought to the fact that you don't implement a change to the infrastructure overnight?
JD Vance's contribution to the Ohio train wreck story reminds me of the old saw; "better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt".
🤣🤣🤣 Thank you Mr Kemalyan!
Or care. The attacks are reflexive. You may recall the night that Obama was elected IIRC, Republicans whose "deregulation" ushered in the subprime collapse were talking about "the Obama Recession". If Biden cure cancer, you can be sure that Republicans would be finding fault with it. And why are there only deficits that matter when a Democrat in in the White House, even though the Democrats tend to be the ones that are cleaning them up?
From Twitter (csd), years ago. “They piss themselves every presidency, while we “tax and spend” libs have to buy new sheets.” csd said it best…
Back when Bush signed a massive tax cut while declaring twin wars, some wag dubbed the policy "Spend but don't tax" ,though let out "and send somebody else the bill". Then they manufacture outrage that the bill is has not been paid for. Fiscal CON-servatives as the saying goes.
HCR has mentioned in the past that old school Republicans launched the first graduated federal income tax in order to (actually) pay for the Civil War.
Was it the tracks or something related to the brakes that caused the derailment?
From what I’ve read, it looks like it was a result of an axle issue combined with braking problems.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Ohio_train_derailment
Not that Wikipedia is always factual.
Also taken from listening to the most recent podcast from a personal hero of mine, Jon Stewart. He spoke with Julia Rock, one of the journalists from The Lever.
If we can believe the reporting, it was a bearing in the brakes.
Who reported it was brake related? Why is that source suspect?
I don’t recall... it seems much of the reporting about this incident has been questionable... my sympathies are entirely with that community who seem to have been thrown to the wolves by the train representatives and their own state.
I agree, Carla. When the news first came out, I noticed major network news repeatedly neglected to mention the name of the Ohio town (East Palestine) affected by the derailment and fires. For two days they merely reported it as a town in eastern Ohio. Why?
Perhaps improved braking would have helped prevent the accident. The immediate cause, at least being claimed at one point, was a seized bearing or something of the kind, and the bearing was said to be glowing red hot. It's what happens when you have a lot of force and a lot of friction, like a stick and bow used to start a fire, but on an industrial scale.
J.L., The railroaders call it a "hot box", and it used to be fairly common, so it's a plausible explanation for what happened. Would you call this something related to "infrastructure"? The rail people seem to have argued that these chemical transport cars are state-of-the-art. My first thought was human error. But the real issues here are 1) do we know the cause and could it have been prevented though better maintenance or operations and 2) why are these dangerous payloads allowed to pass through so many communities? Instead, Vance jumps on Biden as the culprit on Fox News, a venue not celebrated for its discerning audience. It's the same old blame game, and it's wearing thin.
There is video of the bottom of car on fire from a camera in Lisbon, Ohio, a town 10 or so miles away from East Palestine.
Some interesting details: https://www.levernews.com/rail-companies-blocked-safety-rules-before-ohio-derailment/
bad axle/ brakes that was recognized as an issue by some railworkers when the cars were coming from further west.
They said on the news tonight they thought it was something mechanical in the cars. You could possibly read that failure of the brakes.
Yessss! General American problem: it must happen fast if you put a few million into it. But no, it doesn’t. Think of the blueprints (CAD drawings), the engineers, the workmen, the materials that must be gathered. The millions or billions are only what put food on the table of all those people. Another reason we are lucky to have Joe Biden. Unlike the rich guys in politics, he understands that. I have a friend who doesn’t understand the importance of the president’s background (“He owns lots of houses,” so he’s rich). But he wasn’t born into lots of money, so understands what it takes to build.
Just corrected my comment. A reader just reminded me that JD Vance did vote for the infrastructure bill.
Vance wasn't in office when the infrastructure bill was adopted. He just took office in January.
You're right! I stand corrected.
It's not ignorance it's arguing in bad faith and being a dishonest grifter and liar. Vance isn't dumb he just knows that he was elected to take every opportunity to make government look bad, and whenever he gets called out he can just claim being a victim and throw out a buzzword to his followers. He's a former never Trumper who became a sellout. He could be using his platform to help Ohio but instead he is a standard rich libertarian who doesn't care about anything until it personally affects him. In the meantime he'll keep lying and stoking fears to distract from the fact he is useless.
Nailed him, $$$$$$$
You are correct Philly T, but you do not have recall the details of WWI to know that liquid phosgene quickly turns to a gas that sinks to the ground & moves downhill as it speads & lingers threatening anyone near the spill site ... make that Kill Site.
A card-carrying member in good standing of the Cult of Malignant Narcissism.
Vance is much worse than ignorant. He’s a low-life liar and opportunist who, as if that weren’t disgusting enough, is also obscenely obsequious to his wealthy patrons.
That's standard operating practice for the whole of modern Republican leadership. Recall Scott Walker panting like a puppy when a prankster managed to fool him into thinking he as talking to one of the Koch Brothers.
Worse than ignorant, describes every Repub in power these days
Worse than ignorant because we are all ignorant of many things, though expecting some level of due diligence for a capable person is reasonable. Ignorance can be cured, at least "good (well) enough" by a willingness to learn. Deliberate, weaponized deception is far more a matter of bad character and typically far more dangerous.
You putmuch too kind a face on him.
Watch his annual
financial state increase.
Correction: He didn't vote against the Infrastructure Act. But that is only because he literally just got there. And has no public service experience to speak of.
He's a pudgy ass-kisser and sellout who probably couldn't lift - nah, couldn't properly *hold* - the hammer that each union member building the new infrastructure weilds. Why anyone would consider this weapons-grade doofus for expert testimonial on any government business other than that of the Ministry of Farting-from-Your-Head-Hole is anyone's guess.
And I donated to his opponent ad nauseam, money down the toilet
Me too. Ryan actually had lot's of legislative experience and spoke for the working poor. Ohio is a strange place. But hardly the only state loaded with idiots obsessed with culture wars while they ignore their own self interests.
“The Working Poor”
Sorry for the musical diversion, but really isn’t that what’s at the heart of Biden’s focus?
Drew Nelson brings it home
https://youtu.be/N-upRd62PJI
Actually, Jeri, unless electing Ryan and only Ryan was your sole goal, your money was not at all down the loo. Ryan having such a sizeable campaign meant the Repubs had to divert money from elsewhere to counter it, so it helped indirectly in the other Senate races. And having such an energetic campaign at the top of the ticket had the very valuable coattail effect of bringing out enough voters that the Dems won ALL THREE House swing seats available to us in Ohio, a terrific boon.
And money will be needed to elect decent candidates AND we have to do something about the amount someone spends being a major factor in who is elected. It's just corruption by another name, and certainly outside of the mission of democracy.
We can't get all trace of plutocratic interference out of politics, just as we can't stop all highway accidents and still have a functional transportation system, but we can install some guardrails and regulate speed limits.
As did I.
Me too! I really hoped it would make a difference.
Ohio’s map was gerrymandered to insure victory for the Rs-their own courts said it was unfair but they ignored the courts. Then after the election they passed more laws to lock out democratic votes.
Mark Elias the lawyer who monitors and challenges these election issues is warning that the Rs are hijacking our election rules and systems. It’s the only way they can win.
Nikki Haley is reminding them that they’re not winning the popular vote. We may be heading toward the way elections work in places like Russia-a farce-not the will of the people.
Will, my internal junior high (current vernacular: middle school) self just laughed at "farting from your head hole". Thank you for both your incredible initial post and this one that tickled my funny bone.
Earthjustice.org has a detailed update on the OHIO-Tri-state flaming 🔥🔥railcars attack on justice for Earth & the people, fauna & flora on it. Lead Contact: Zahra Ahmed, Tel: 517-858-0924
Thank you for that, Sean. They are like the Southern Poverty Law Center is for civil rights but fighting earth's rights in massive ways, which of course, improves human's lives as well! Polluting corporations must hate them as much as white supremacists and fascists hate the SPLC!
Thank you for this information. I live in NWPA approximately 80 miles north of East Palestine, OH., an area not considered to be impacted by the train derailment. I have family living in Butler County, PA., parts of which are included in the impact area. The Norfolk-Southern train carrying the shipment of vinyl chloride was also carrying other toxic chemicals. As the saying goes, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Shell recently opened a cracker plant in Beaver County, Potter Township, PA. that is 23 miles from East Palestine. Since going on line, it has been cited for numerous EPA violations. Two days ago an equipment malfunction resulted in flaring that purportedly mitigates the release of harmful substances into the environment. So, not only are residents in the area being impacted by the train derailment, they are also living with the fall out from the cracker plant. A source of local information is https://triblive.com.
As someone who grew up three miles downstream from the Bruin Lagoon, at one time the number three site on the Superfund list behind Love Canal, this is personal to me. It should be personal to everyone. Thank you for highlighting Earthjustice.org. and the important work they're doing.
Here is an update regarding the train derailment. The train manifest, a public document, lists these substances being transported: vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate, ethylene gylcol monobutyl ether, isobutylene, benzene, and petroleum. As a point of interest, Michael Stanley Regan, the head of the EPA, is visiting East Palestine today.
Better way late than never. Seems like the feds from EPA shouldn’t need permission from the evil Governor when a public health crisis takes place?
Thank you Kamila, valuable data points.
“(J. D. Vance) also issued a statement saying that ‘my office will continue to work with FEMA’ over the issue, although FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has not been mobilized because Ohio governor DeWine has not requested a federal disaster declaration.”
But it makes him sound like a responsible guy. Or he might start trashing FEMA in the next breath, which is where doublethink comes in handy.
Vance is just a (yet another) low intelligence, Yale Party Boy who knows how to crawl on his lips for business interests.
Ouch
JD Vance is a schmuck and I hope Ohioans are happy with their choice. He should have to sit downwind for a while, but I'd guess that would put him in Pennsylvania. Mean, these people ...
This Ohioan isn't happy or mean....
In the face of this dangerous situation, why would Mike DeWine not ask for a disaster declaration? In the past he would have done so. I lived in Ohio for 17 years and saw DeWine occupy numerous elected offices. He is a political opportunist who goes whatever way the wind blows. He's just being a performative republican of today.
Not that the pageantry of tyrants is the least bit new, but I think TV provides the golden opportunity to deliberately conflate stagecraft with statecraft, and way too many elected and appointed politicians are not real "public servants", they just play one on TV.
I am sick that I paid for his book.
Me too. And I want the hour and 1/2 I wasted watching the film. But whodathunk he would turn into such a putz?
*raises hand*
Working at a library in '16 & '17, I can attest that the book in question became the unmistakable book club pick du jour during that period, an absolutely necessary text for well-meaning people with masters degrees, who all got in line to be part of the solemn attempt to "reach out understand" the "economic despair" and "cultural alienation" that "drove people to" supporting tfg (as opposed to, you know, their own misused free will), as if each Hail Mary muttered over their hardback copy would form the mystic bond across space that would enable a Bible Belter to realize Hillary was better for them after all. "Have you read it yet?" reverberated in hushed tones near the New Books Lucky Day display every time that totem appeared.
No, I didn't freaking read it, because everything about it - from the too-precious title on down - reeked of opportunism, and your buying this won't make the racists more kumbaya, it just makes this one dude richer and more famous. Two midterms later, why yes I DO feel vindicated, thanks for asking.
Thank you. I share your sentiments.
Not a putz Bill, Dewine is a Sacammer. As the US population splits into self-segregating cohorts, those specific folks (believers in putz Dewine) make themselves marketable targets. Purchase of a book, film, song or downloads, "likes" & dislikes. whatever ... are a telling data points. That data can be exploited in some in ways that folks never considered.
I borrowed from library to read. I remember liking what I learned reading book. There was a fair amount of chatter at the time. Was he sincere when he wrote the book? I can't decide.
I lean to yes.
Same here!
Senator Vance made his fortune in writing fiction. I don’t think he can be expected swiftly switch gears just because he’s been elected to the Senate; quite the contrary. Alas.
And I am certain that when the first new bridge is opened or new highway created in Ohio, JD will be present for a photo op smiling and giving a thumbs up, and claiming credit. What phony (and a dangerous one to boot).
I now can't recall which prominent Republican showed up at a charity soup kitchen to roll up his sleeves and wash dishes that had already been washed only so long as the photos were shot, and then packed up and split. It's part of their core M.O.
I wish
Thank God for direct communication. One would never realize it from the generalized media.
And when a big infrastrature project is eventually completed in OH, you bet good ole JD will take credit for it.
Senator J. D. Vance blamed failed infrastructure when in fact the train accident was caused by a failed journal bearing. Witnesses say they saw smoke and sparks coming from a wheel bearing and in fact a trackside detector know as a "Hot Box Detector" notified the train even as it went into emergency during the derailment that they had a hot journal. This accident could have been avoided if Norfolk Southern had more detectors installed trackside to warn of a hot journal. Something that seems a relatively cheap safety measure. Of note, had the train been equipped with a caboose the occupants would have smelled the smoke from the journal and could have stopped the train. Operating rules require those on the head end to look back for smoke, but with today's trains a mile or two long there is little ability to see smoke when the train is serpentining around multiple curves.
A well-written corporate tax code incentivizes expenditures that directly improve a business's actual operations - especially with regard to employee and community safety, and definitely including research & development. In the case in question, I see nothing wrong with the tax code allowing Norfolk Southern a deduction for more and better trackside hot box detectors plus developing practical on-board sensor systems. But buying back stock is a different matter. In the relatively few cases in which a stock buyback is a sound decision for growing and improving the business, the decision shouldn't require a tax break to make it pencil out.
Thank you, that made sense
We can no longer foot the bill for gargantuan corporate profit. No one benefits from deregulation, especially where environmental respect is thrown to the wind, where towns have been gutted by businesses who deserted them, by millions that are set aside when there are company lay-offs , and by those same corporate entities and owners who would shaft the Social Security/Medicare system by trying to privatize, diminish and throw away the hard working retirees, who's backs they've used to make over the top profits. It doesn't have to be this way in a democracy, but the wealthy corporations can pay the propaganda machine to make you think it's unAmerican, just like they did in order to get Reagan to slash their taxes and make us civil servants carry the burden.
I'm a retired teacher. Every penny counts.
For decades I have listened to the mantra of Republican politicians and their corporate supporters that regulations are bad for business... that if not for regulations, the economy would function perfectly, blah blah blah. I always want to ask, "WHICH regulations?" To them, it doesn't matter, but for workers, communities, the environment, etc., it certainly DOES matter. Unfortunately, it's not until an accident like the derailment in Ohio that people clamor for change to prevent this from happening again. Maybe the average American doesn't realize it, but many of the regulations that businesses complain about are designed to protect our health and safety.
Chemical, mining, and oil related industries are notorious polluters. They all kiss the gold ass, hoping American voter's attention will move on to the next shiny thing. We can't wait for them to fix it. Write, show up at city/county council meetings and stay connected at a local level. It takes us all doing a little, sometimes a lot, but at least you know where you stand. This is also a good way to meet good people that become good neighbors. Building trust in each other is paramount. We don't have to wait for a disaster
We need campaign finance reform.
We must end Citizens United.
I am, we are, sick of policies being bought by the highest bidder. Yeah, we will spend millions to save billions.
I want those millions to help people not another fatcat mofo who puts more energy into election than sane governance
My dream for decades
From your lips to....
I live 66 miles from East Palestine and local news has daily in-depth reporting on the consequences of the train wreck. It's been reported today that 3,600 fish in the surrounding waterways have died. Veterinarians are seeing unexplained illness and death of companion animals. People are told it's safe to return home, but advised to drink bottled water.
There was a town hall meeting tonight and representatives of the railroad did not attend. Families are refusing to return to their homes, terrified the residual chemicals may be harmful to their children. This is shaping up to be the next Love Canal. Meanwhile, Governor DeWine declines federal assistance and resources. I predict the rates of various cancers will exponentially rise. The time to mitigate the anticipated outcomes is now.
"The time to mitigate the anticipated outcomes is now."
Actually, I can say with some confidence, as I spent half of my career as a Chemical Engineer, that the time to mitigate the outcomes is well in the past BEFORE the trains derailed.
Now? Once the chemicals, like those on that train enter the environment in high concentrations? Those chemicals will NOT degrade rapidly, will NOT be amenable to "clean up", will NOT "go away" in the next 400 years. Perhaps much longer.
Organic compounds with double bonds, like the stuff in those train cars, are profoundly stable compounds that even if exposed to sunlight for years do not "degrade".
Allowing hedge funds like Warren Buffet to buy up all the trains, then, force massive cuts onto the workforce to maximize their hedge fund profit is the fundamental, underlying cause of this train accident. Once Buffet's people took over the trains, any small cares about safety were tossed out in favor of totally maximizing profit at all costs. Because, THAT is what Hedge funds do!
Nobody is talking about that fact. Not one person in Congress is calling out the real cause of the crash.
Railroad safety is NOT the cause of the crash. Everyone knows how to make rail travel safe.
Rather, America and American's addiction to profit at all costs, regardless of environment, regardless of impact on people, regardless of impact on the long term health of the economic system, is the root cause of this train crash.
Until our representatives tee up laws that limit what Hedge Funds can do in this country and world wide, we will continue to suffer.
Houses will be 3X what they should be since Hedge Funds are now buying up all the single family homes WAY outcompeting our young people.
Manufacturing, already gone to China because of Hedge Funds will never return.
Our representatives, many of them bought and paid for by Hedge Funds, in a system that totally allows anyone to walk in and buy a representative through "lobbying" will NEVER tee up safety as long as, well, they are paid off by Hedge Funds.
Me? I am not optimistic. Reading about our history does NOT make me think our system of government can overcome this basic flaw of our courts and our representatives.
Taking money by our "elected" representatives, via "lobbying, and then prostrating themselves at the feet of Hedge Fund owners like Warren Buffet, or Fox News, or both does not appear to me at least, as ever being mitigated or eliminated.
Americans will continue, as has been the case since 1880, to be at the mercy of those (white) men, (mostly), who are willing to destroy everything around them to get money for themselves.
Slave Owners who have morphed into Corporate board members and Presidents of Corporations.
Well said, sir. "Slave owners who have morphed onto Corporate board members and Presidents of Corporations" Spot on.
Great post, Mike.
Bravo. Preach Brother
So many repercussions, it is disheartening.
Excellent points, Mike!
Gov DeWine is riding the money train, it never derails…
MAGA idiot, J.D. Vance, had little nothing to say about this horrid chemical spill in the state he purportedly represents until the magnitude of this very toxic chemical spill and subsequent burnoff was reported by The Lever, then other publications.
It is no coincidence that these carcinogenic leaks and spillages occur in working class areas of the U.S., like Love Canal, Three Mile Island, water poisonings in California and Detroit, Cancer Alley in Louisiana, and etcetera.
I've already read about the deaths of animals and the adverse health effects for people returning to their homes briefly for essential items.
Robber baron-owned railroads carrying carcinogenic chemicals is disaster capitalism in the making, as the owners have drastically cut their workforce to maximize profits, which is why these cowards refuse to attend a scheduled meeting with the townspeople and officials of Palestine, Ohio.
I sincerely hope the Biden Administration quickly restores the Obama Administration's rules for railroads.
Remember that railroad strike that didn't happen? We should have stood tall with those unions. Railroad personnel have been reduced by 90%. Two or three workers run trains (often exhausted due to a brutal schedule) - trains that are miles long.
The owners don't give a crap about safety unless it costs them money. This time it might. I suggest a whole region reaching into PA may sue their butts.
I absolutely agree with you on all points.
Deborah...The Lever had this story yesterday:
https://www.levernews.com/buttigieg-pretends-hes-powerless-to-reduce-derailment-risks/
I tend to read many of the same sources as HCR.
I plan to look into this some more. I like Pete. So there may be more to this.
Thanks for the link! Interesting.
Buttigieg concerns me: he seems reluctant to hold both the airline and railroad executives accountable for their negligence.
✅
On NPR yesterday,people from the community were discussing their in-home air quality even days after the incident. It was heart- breaking.
According to Judd Legum “ In March 2022, Norfolk Southern announced a plan to spend $10 billion on stock buybacks. In 2021, Norfolk Southern CEO James A. Squires received $14 million in total compensation. About $9 million of Squires' compensation was paid in stock awards and options — assets that will likely increase in value as Norfolk Southern repurchases its shares.”
The legal scam that screws us all
“It’s a stark contrast to our Republican friends, who are doubling down on the same failed politics of the past. Top-down, trickle-down economics is not much trickle down…to most kitchen tables in America,”
The notion that those who have managed to hoover great piles of money from the public are society's natural leaders and "Job Creators" was bunk from the outset. It's the worn out argument of kings and feudal aristocrats that they are the ones who support society, and that without their wealth and superior leadership, the state would disintegrate. For all of their contractions, the founders came to set up a society that was controlled from the bottom up, not the top down, but some people still want an autocrat. Examine examples of top-down societies and observe that unsurprisingly, net wealth torrents decidedly up, with only minor spills along the way.
One more time, from Will Rogers on Nov 26, 1932. “The money was all appropriated for the top in the hopes that it would trickle down to the need. Mr. Hoover didn’t know that money trickled up. Give it to the people at the bottom and the people at the top will have it before night, anyhow. But it will at least have passed through the poor fellow’s hands.” These days, “Mr. Hoover” surely knows that money doesn’t trickle down, it stays in his stock portfolio. Same old scam, another generation buying the snake oil…. Where is our “free press.”
Pandora Papers, Paradise Papers, Bahamas Leaks, Panama Papers all got 15 minutes of fame. And now for something completely different.
Thank you Heather.
Unconscionable recklessness. Is there any other way to describe the current Republican Party and their oligarchical purse holders? Such a seditious s#%t show.
I applaud President Biden for his persistence in endeavoring to highlight what the Biden administration is doing to manage America through the Covid-induced economic crisis while investing in essential-good-job-producing physical infrastructure and addressing the core needs of the great majority of Americans.
What appalls me is that the Republican nihilists denigrate how Biden is positively leading our country out of the dreadful Trump trough and bloviates about such foo foo dust as ‘wokeness,’ book banning, and Congressional ‘weaponizing.’
I was impressed by President Biden’s State of the Union address in which he described solid achievements and tweaked the Republican dog-in-the-manger prattling. Sadly, for the great majority of Americans this was a ho hum moment barely noticed in the flow of daily ‘news.’
In the world of $7 million/30 second Super Bowl ads, how can the dichotomy between Democratic positive accomplishments be effectively contrasted with Republican frivolity?
I come from an advertising family—my father and grandfather were maestros in honing the message:
KEEP IT SIMPLE, CONSTANT REPETITION, WITH DOWN TO EARTH APPEAL.
The challenge is to ‘market the Biden message.’ Humor, simplicity, and repetition—-I relished some Lincoln Project ads.
I remember how the advertising industry got behind the war effort in World War II. Well, the Biden administration has a first class product in contrast to the blather of Republican charlatans. So let’s figure out how to communicate effectively with KISS (Keep it simple stupid).
Lincoln Project used to help keep me sane.
Love this, Dems need to read Frank Luntz epistle to repubs. A word master to rival Goebbels
What a difference, one party wants progress and prosperity for ordinary people, the other to squander the health and lives of American citizens to save a few more bucks to further fatten the pockets of wealthy people who can't even spend what they've already got, it's so much
Don't forget the "demean everyone who isn't white, Christian, cis-gendered and heterosexual" part.
I find it disturbing that increased retail spending is viewed as a key indicator of a country's economic health when in fact it is a bad sign for the health of a country's environment. When people buy more, they also throw away more, adding to the total environmental burden of discarded plastic, chemicals, and metals. Rather than people being encouraged to go out and buy, buy, buy, they should be encouraged to repair and reuse what they already have.
No brainer
I agree., but have you read about how difficult it is to pass "right to repair" legislation so that consumers aren't at the mercy of manufacturers that make it impossible for them (or third parties) to diagnose and repair the products they buy?
Love that killer closing sentence! Update in a nutshell.
Last four paragraphs should be blasted from every “news organization.”
Yes there is good news on the inflation front but those caveats should be there. The Goldilocks scenario will only come to pass if there are tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to offset the still rising cost of servicing the US debt. Not to mention that we are legitimately paying out lots of money to support Ukraine. That is not going to be easily offset by cost cutting in other areas of the military budget especially after the balloon scares.
Biden has to keep coupling the "pay their fair share" rhetoric with every " building the economy out" because you know the Republicans are going to use the rapidly rising debt in the debt ceiling showdown.
Can't wait to see who in the GOP takes the lead on that suicide mission on the debt ceiling... will McCarthy take it, or will McConnell? Oh, an idea: how about they put Vance out on point; that would be right and just.
I agree. However, the situation in Ukraine isn’t going away. What other actors are waiting in the wings, such as Belarus?
I am glad you finished with a comment about FEMA. Every state has natural disasters that are predictable and industrial disasters that are not. FEMA should be eliminated and every state should self insure for these events.
Perhaps FEMA could exist as a federal lending agency to help areas recover from disasters? But the loans would have to be repaid before another could be made.
FEMA is the ultimate in welfare for states like Florida and Texas. It is time they step up to their cost of disasters.
Punish the leaders, not the citizens