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Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

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Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#241

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Natsu wrote: post #225
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the methods might be new, but not the fact of it It’s a diplomatic escalation with global geopolitical ramifications. If you have any business or personal exposure to China, or anything in Southeast Asia, that’s directly relevant in a way lives in Ohio, unfortunately, are not. Also, Ohio is out of immediate crisis. Now is the time for investigation and litigation. The train has derailed. Yet balloons may keep comin…

For that last part, some people are worried it might not be. I don't claim to know enough about it to say who is right, but the people there are understandably concerned about what to watch for and want more info. Some of that might be worrying too much, but hey, a train full of hazardous chemicals did just explode out there. It's not like we can't point to a time when things were majorly screwed up in a way that did…

> some people are worried it might not be

Absolutely. But the problem is slow, silent and lurking in the dark. (It's also safely localized.)

I'm not saying this issue deserve eyeballs. Just that there is no evidence of a scheme to suppress. The cold, dark reality is most Americans aren't interested in the long-term health of a 5,000-strong Ohio town from an accident in which nobody died, for which there is no partisan bogeyman to blame.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#242

Post by Rebelgecko »

Izkata wrote: post #179
Rebelgecko wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What media? I saw it on CNN today. Fox News's website has multiple stories about this from the last hour. The only place where the train stuff seems underrepresented is on some of the big subreddits (which are echo chambers already, so not surprising)

> today > last hour It happened a week and a half ago, so...

Right. If they're STILL running multiple stories per hour after all this time, it must be a big deal, right? Seems to contradict the narrative that the media is now trying to hide what happened.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#243

Post by bsder »

weard_beard wrote: post #111
nilespotter wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> union workers warning about this 2 months ago First I've heard that, got a reference?

Union negotiations shut down by Biden and Congress included safety reforms regarding car length and working hours. Both were factors in this derailment: https://www.rutgers.edu/news/why-did-government-step-prevent...

It also included limits around the scheduling systems that are being used to overrun the infrastructure as well as maintenance requirements.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#244

Post by JumpCrisscross »

whatshisface wrote: post #125
freen wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Likely there is considerable overlap in ownership between the handful of railway companies that dominate the market and handful of media companies that dominate the market.

Plus advertisers (which could include chemical plants etc) are their clients.

> advertisers (which could include chemical plants etc) are their clients

The closest in the top 200 is Berkshire Hathaway [1], because they train. Also, this media hypothesis predicts Google, Pfizer, Amazon and Walmart are media darlings. (And that Apple is not.)

[1] https://advertisers.mediaradar.com/Top_Print_Advertisers

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#245

Post by mikrotikker »

btilly wrote: post #231
notch898a wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um if a person drives a car into an occupied structure with people is that not violent? If you drove into the police station the officers would say they feared for their lives and open fire.

Presumably they do it at night when nobody is around to be hurt. And hopefully nobody reports it to police in time.

You should enter the Olympics for those mental gymnastics.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#246

Post by Izkata »

Rebelgecko wrote: post #242
Izkata wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> today > last hour It happened a week and a half ago, so...

Right. If they're STILL running multiple stories per hour after all this time, it must be a big deal, right? Seems to contradict the narrative that the media is now trying to hide what happened.

> is now trying to hide

The story seems to be blowing up now, after people were saying last week it wasn't getting much attention.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#247

Post by mikrotikker »

salawat wrote: post #195
Izkata wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Biden decided the broader economy was a bigger priority than 100,000 freight rail workers having any paid sick leave in their next contract. After campaigning as the most pro-union presidential candidate in history, Biden signed into law a measure that makes a rail strike illegal. Forcing it like that is not capitalism.

...Sounds like a great opportunity for everyone to resign simultaneously. Sure be a pity if you couldn't find enough people to hire to do all that train work needing to be done. Not a strike if everyone just says "Fuck it" and leaves.

It would be catharthic but they might have children and mortgages

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#248

Post by mikrotikker »

Accujack wrote: post #181
refuse wrote: post #5

I've heard about this, but it is surprising how little coverage it gets compared to other things. If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda (you'd also have to weigh it against other stories developing at around the same time). I have to wonder why a story of environmental disas…

I wonder about who is pushing narratives about this vs. the balloons in an attempt to distract the public, but I can explain why the derailment isn't much of a story. It's because it's being handled fairly well. There is a cloud of smoke that's scaring people, but it's "ordinary" smoke. There's no environmental apocalypse that's going to make that town "uninhabitable". There will be after effects from everything asso…

You must be joking.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#249

Post by mikrotikker »

UtopiaPunk wrote: post #232
Accujack wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about who is pushing narratives about this vs. the balloons in an attempt to distract the public, but I can explain why the derailment isn't much of a story. It's because it's being handled fairly well. There is a cloud of smoke that's scaring people, but it's "ordinary" smoke. There's no environmental apocalypse that's going to make that town "uninhabitable". There will be after effects from everything asso…

There are various reports of animals in the area getting sick or dying in unnatural ways, so that is unsettling. And there's also the incident where a journalist who was trying to cover the incident was arrested. So it doesn't seem like it is being handled well, imo. Lots of discussion is occurring on Twitter, so people seem interested. The news coverage of it just seems superficial. Like, it's not zero, but they see…

The conspiracies serve to help the parties at fault.

Re: Ohio train derailment: environmental disaster quietly unfolding

#250

Post by naasking »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #144
pessimizer wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you were to tally up how much airtime each news story gets, plotted against the general tone of the coverage, you'd probably come up with something resembling the news room agenda It's not like it's subtle. There have been hundreds of Chinese weather balloon stories in the past week. Have there been hundreds of stories about this? US companies make money from stories about Chinese weather balloons. They lose mon…

> Have there been hundreds of stories about this? Chinese balloons are novel. This is not. It’s tragic. But its most memorable element seems to be the meta-debate around its coverage. That's boring.

It's not novel that a train derailed spilling toxic chemicals into a small town literally weeks after Congress forced a settlement on train workers who wanted to strike partly over safety concerns? On the facts it's frankly a huge scandal.

I think the coverage tells quite a different story though, namely distractions on external "enemies", like Chinese balloons, providing cover for corporate sponsors that fund the political parties and buy ads on the major networks. Unregulated capitalism at its finest.

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