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CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

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Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#31

Post by noah_buddy »

mc32 wrote: post #3

That whole disaster was terribly handled. From The sec of transportation dragging his feel by weeks, to the president being dismissive and the train company saying no big deal... go back home, it's safe! I hope Erin can help to bring the attention and justice this disaster deserves. At least GWB, though a contemptible fellow otherwise, took his frat attitude up in a chopper to survey Katrina.

This is a rose tinted look at how GWB handled Katrina. He so bungled the response that people’s opinions of him dropped precipitously afterwards. The excuse for why he didn’t act sooner was that he was on a month long vacation. He was disconnected and praised FEMA which was universally considered to have bungled the recovery.

I mean, knowing nothing else, one of the most memorable pieces of pop culture in the last twenty years was “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#32

Post by serf »

anonymouskimmer wrote: post #24
mc32 wrote: post #3

That whole disaster was terribly handled. From The sec of transportation dragging his feel by weeks, to the president being dismissive and the train company saying no big deal... go back home, it's safe! I hope Erin can help to bring the attention and justice this disaster deserves. At least GWB, though a contemptible fellow otherwise, took his frat attitude up in a chopper to survey Katrina.

What's the last solely environmental catastrophe a president has visited? People died in Katrina. There were no immediate deaths from this environmental catastrophe.

How was Katrina not an environmental catastrophe -- the casual definition that I find repeatedly is "An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity."

Given that criteria, Katrina was most definitely an environmental catastrophe.

Now, if you mean "When was the last time a president visited a catastrophe that involved chemical/biological/radiological factors?" -- well, that's a bit more rare; but I presume that it's done not as a matter of appearing placid by the society at large, but as a form of damage mitigation before all the facts are presumed known.

it's essentially a rite of passage for the president to hug people in some tornado ravaged state for photos. I presume the risks outweigh the positive P.R. in actual danger zones.

tl;dr : it's easier to declare a hurricane or flood site to be safe enough for presidential passage, so it represents a fairly easy to coordinate photo-op. Things are shakier when the facts about the danger present are not done rolling in.

p.s. I feel the need to clarify something: what I mean to remind by calling Katrina an environmental catastrophe was the significant role that society had in amplifying the damage of the event through both careless engineering, careless maintenance, and careless planning -- which was then exacerbated by careless response.

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#33

Post by Spooky23 »

munk-a wrote: post #18
drewda wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USDOT does have an important role to play. But the link (which I admittedly didn't follow) has a headline about the CDC. EPA is also an important agency, maybe the most important one for this clean-up. All that to say I'm somewhat skeptical when criticism focuses on Pete Buttigieg in particular...

I think it's honestly quite fair. He was a presidential candidate and looks likely to run again in the next election - as a consolation prize he was appointed to the department that handles these things and absolutely failed to step up when a disaster directly in his domain happened. I think it's fair that he's held to a higher standard than Ellen Chao who was pretty much just a nepotism appointment and, as far as I'…

Lol.

So we’re supposed to show deference to an appointee whose a member of a family controlling a Chinese maritime shipping company who happens to be the wife of the Senate Majority leader, because she’s just a patronage appointee?

So many regulatory changes were made during the Trump administration that directly benefited shipping interests. Chao isn’t some Washington DC housewife!

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#35

Post by anonymouskimmer »

willcipriano wrote: post #30
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish we, as people, would pay less attention to figureheads and more attention to what's happening behind the curtain. I also wish said figureheads, and the media that comment on them, would report more of what does, doesn't, and should go on behind the curtain.

The media is the curtain.

No. They're the Munchkins.

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#36

Post by darth_avocado »

dmix wrote: post #29
hristov wrote: post #15

"Because the investigators' symptoms improved soon after they left the area, the incident was not reported to the public" .... This is a rather Orwellian statement. Don't worry everyone, the CDC workers symptoms improved as soon as they got the hell out of East Palestine, therefore East Palestine must be completely healthy.

People were evacuated for a reason?

And cleared to return? These people got sick doing door to door surveys, meaning people were back at home.

This is ridiculous. Even with the above, they are “unsure” if it was related to anything else like “fatigue”. Like come on.

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#37

Post by anonymouskimmer »

serf wrote: post #32
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the last solely environmental catastrophe a president has visited? People died in Katrina. There were no immediate deaths from this environmental catastrophe.

How was Katrina not an environmental catastrophe -- the casual definition that I find repeatedly is "An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity." Given that criteria, Katrina was most definitely an environmental catastrophe. Now, if you mean "When was the last time a president visited a catastrophe that involved c…

You read what I wrote too fast and missed, or misunderstood, at least one word ("solely").

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#38

Post by DSMan195276 »

mc32 wrote: post #17
drewda wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USDOT does have an important role to play. But the link (which I admittedly didn't follow) has a headline about the CDC. EPA is also an important agency, maybe the most important one for this clean-up. All that to say I'm somewhat skeptical when criticism focuses on Pete Buttigieg in particular...

I dunno, he's the face of the Feds. He sets the tone --this is his purview. He needed to go over there, check it out, figure out the magnitude on the ground and call in the cavalry (EPA, FEMA, etc.) as he saw necessary. But no, it took him two weeks to show his face.

Err that's not his job. Literally, the NTSB exists as an independent entity from the DOT and is tasked with investigating disasters like this one.

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#39

Post by SoftTalker »

serf wrote: post #32
anonymouskimmer wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the last solely environmental catastrophe a president has visited? People died in Katrina. There were no immediate deaths from this environmental catastrophe.

How was Katrina not an environmental catastrophe -- the casual definition that I find repeatedly is "An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity." Given that criteria, Katrina was most definitely an environmental catastrophe. Now, if you mean "When was the last time a president visited a catastrophe that involved c…

President Carter visited Three Mile Island.

Re: CDC team studying East Palestine train derailment fell ill during investigation

#40

Post by Mountain_Skies »

SoftTalker wrote: post #39
serf wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How was Katrina not an environmental catastrophe -- the casual definition that I find repeatedly is "An environmental disaster or ecological disaster is defined as a catastrophic event regarding the natural environment that is due to human activity." Given that criteria, Katrina was most definitely an environmental catastrophe. Now, if you mean "When was the last time a president visited a catastrophe that involved c…

President Carter visited Three Mile Island.

After his experience with Chalk River, Three Mile Island was like a trip to Disney World.
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