We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident, said the Norfolk Southern crew received an alert about an overheated wheel bearing and was trying to slow the train before it came off the tracks. From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident.
February 27, 2023
The Washington Post Fact Checker says: "So far, Trump’s rollback of regulations can’t be blamed for Ohio train wreck."
Glenn Kessler investigated Trump's statement "I had nothing to do with it."
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'So far...'
: )
They'll think of something...
So far.
The WaPo has a case of the sads, they can't blame Trump. Oh no!
"So far."
Keep looking! There's bound to be a puppy in there somewhere.
The fact that they even LOOKED to see if somehow, somewhere they could blame Trump for a retracted or loosened regulation cuasing the accident shows how derailed their own thinking is.
I can't wait for the corrections to this narrative...
"so far..."
(We'll keep on digging).
"So far, Trump's rollback...can't be blamed..."
Translation: We can't find evidence to blame Trump for this tragedy yet, but were working on it and will get back to you. Stay tuned.
We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump...
Maybe there's a journalist at the WaPoo who can look into what regulatory changes have been made since Trump left office just to you know, practice journalism, and actually determine what facts are relevant to the issue.
A small start. Although the "so far" is telling.
But:
El Predicto sez: This will NOT stop the left from repeatng the Trump killed the regulation drumbeat. (See, e.g. Charlottesville).
That will live ar beyond the single maybe-not from the WaPo.
If Democrats did not attack Trump every day, in every way they would shrivel up and die.
But we will sure as hell keep looking!
Progressive prices are equitable and inclusive. World War Springs attracts Chinese et al attention and threatens shared responsibility to debt sequestration, garnering social progress and catastrophic Choices... choices. A pipeline cancelled increases rail traffic and forward-looking risk.
"so far..."
Why put that qualifier in there? They said they reviewed all regulations. Is there some secret regulation rollback that nobody was privy to?
Jill Filopovic is still blaming Trump for telling the truth about covid, which is why THEY all lied about it. I hate the lying Media and their lying idiots who try to blame everything on Trump. The media should burn at the stake.
Jill Filipovic
@JillFilipovic
·
Feb 26
The best explanation I can come up with is that Trump's racist "China virus" bullshit, which resulted in lots of anti-Asian bigotry and attacks on Asian people, put liberals understandably on the defense against any theory that seemed to blame China for Covid.
Show this thread
6:51 AM · Feb 27, 2023
The Washington Post Fact Checker says: "So far, Trump’s rollback of regulations can’t be blamed for Ohio train wreck."
LOL
As if logic and reason have any role in this at all.
National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, who was appointed by Biden and unanimously confirmed by the Senate said in a Tweet thread on Feb 16:
·
Feb 16
THREAD on East Palestine derailment:
First, a message to the community…then a plea to those spreading misinformation.
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
To everyone affected: know that @NTSB
is working vigorously to understand what caused this train derailment — so it never happens again.
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
You have my personal commitment that the NTSB will CONTINUE to share all information publicly as soon as possible following our analysis. Here's a link to our Feb. 14 update:
https://ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20230214.aspx
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
Next: NTSB investigators will thoroughly examine the tank cars once decontaminated. As always, we’ll issue urgent safety recommendations as needed.
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
Urgent safety recommendations may be issued at any time; meaning, we don't wait until the end of our investigation if immediate safety action is warranted.
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
Nothing…nothing is more important than accuracy at a moment like this, which is why the NTSB is deliberate in our approach to investigations. Credibility is ESSENTIAL to our lifesaving mission. The NTSB process WORKS. See how here: https://ntsb.gov/investigations/process/Pages/default.aspx
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
That leads me to my last point: anyone speculating about what happened, didn’t happen, or should've happened is misleading a suffering community – PLEASE STOP SPREADING MISINFORMATION. For example…
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
·
Feb 16
Some are saying the ECP (electronically controlled pneumatic) brake rule, if implemented, would’ve prevented this derailment. FALSE – here’s why…
Jennifer Homendy
@JenniferHomendy
The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars.
John Henry
Does anyone else find it ironic that the Washington Post has a Fact Checker??
I mean......isn't fact checking the whole premise behind the newspaper business model??
Journalism, unless simply reprinting NTSB press releases, might include some digging into the records of accidents and regulations. Possibly even including before the Deluge (January 20, 2017). There's a hell of a lot more to train operations than a Hot Box.
This would have been helpful a week or two ago, when the Democrats decided on the narrative and stuck with it, despite it being complete BS. Unfortunately, we are now at the "at this point, what matter does it make" stage. We are going to be hearing the narrative for years to come from both politicians and journalists who supposedly should know better.
Glenn's fact checking is useless, even when it is accurate.
'So Far'... but of course, there's always hope. Such is the lot of the NYT's impartial, unbiased fact checker - who's never wrong..
They really try very hard to blame everything on Trump, don't they? Did they look back at changes enacted during the 8 years of Obama, too? Or is that Just Not Done.
Here's a thought: Biden is President. He is in charge. When things go wrong, they're on him, not anyone else.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is continuing their daily billion give away to Ukraine. How many billions will they hand over this week alone??
This is getting ridiculous. How many pensions are we paying for??
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/wth-janet-yellen-makes-surprise-visit-to-kiev-to-announce-another-1-25-billion-in-aid-to-ukraine/
Biden will blame it on Big Ball Bearing and Trump’s refusal to regulate the Ball Bearing Barons
Trump said something truthful?
What is this? Kessler is now endorsing Trump?
I’m calling for WaPo to cancel Kessler.
So Far?
They will find a reason to blame Trump that the loyal base will believe full heartedly.
The walls are closing in.
Also, DIEversity that places color judgments (e.g. racism, sexism) before competence.
If we can't blame Trump, then who's fault is it??
Praise The Lord. Maybe Trump isn't such a lying SOB all the time after all...
Shouldn't the "fact check" be on the affirmative assertion by the Biden administration, which has been in office for two years, that they had nothing to do with it, and that it was the Trump administration that did?
The WaPo actually committed an act of journalism. Hell must be freezing over.
"So far..."
Of course Biden and the Democrats broke a rail strike that threatened their prospects in the mid-terms, and we expect a detailed analysis of whether that action had any impact...
JKLOL!
Well that's nice. Of course, the "fact-checker" waited quite a while to "fact check" this lie. Gotta get the lie out, attack Trump, and THEN its "Oh Gosh, guess we were wrong. Shucks".
Anyway, it doesn't matter if the Trump administration changed the Train Regulation that caused the crash. There's no record of Biden OBJECTING at the time or during the 2020 campaign. And if the train regulation was so important, why didn't Buttigig or Biden CHANGE THE GODDAMN REGULATION BACK TO WHAT IT WAS?
Its been 2 years.
Frankly, the whole idea of Trump personally digging into the details of Freight Train Brake regulations, is rather silly. And this deregulation was supported by the Congressional R's and D's who both get massive financial contributions from the 2 Huge RR that dominate freight traffic. Where is Democrat Senator Brown? Where is Mike Dewine? Woops, looks like they both got massive RR contributions.
One reason you CANNOT get anything done to help US- the American people - is the fucking Leftist do not care. Its all about graft and following the party line. Even the Unions don't speak out. Or it they do, its in a whisper. So, they'll attack Trump and then go back to not caring.
Now Glenn needs to drill down on the Chinese and how the China virus happened. Did Fauci fund it? Were the Chinese grossly negligent?
Glenn Kessler produced an honest assessment of something related to Trump?
IT’S A SIGN OF THE APOCALYPSE!!!
Now that your paper is called The Washington Post-Democrat there’s no longer a market for that kind of story.
Mirabile dictu. A random act of journalism in the WaPo.
Nice. So far everyone's excitement to blame Trump has stopped them from examining the regs on how "hazardous" is defined. It sounds like it was a pretty high bar to clear.
Now's Bootyjudge's chance to shine. Update the regs.
Oh. Nos!
This article should have Althouse's "No shit, Sherlock" tag.
I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to blame the 2013 Lac Mégantic, Quebec rail disaster on Trump, though maybe that one was the lingering effect of something Reagan did.
"So far..." But they'll keep working on it.
“So far”, we can’t make our readers happy. We are trying. We don’t want to let Trump off the hook either. But, reality suggests all we can pin on Trump is handing out water with his name and likeness.
Most of the blaming of "Trump administration" changes that I've seen refers to the ECP braking rule.
I didn't spend too much time looking into it, but it wasn't the rule -- as it stands now -- all done-and-dusted aside from the completion of the notice-and-comment period before the Trump administration even ended office?
Facist
/sarc
"So far."
Perfectly encapsulates the TDS mentality--start with the presumption of guilt and proceed accordingly.
"so far" ... but they hold out hope.
Maybe they aren't trying hard enough. With the proper incentive, I'm sure they can find something.
Plus, that NTSB report is just preliminary. Who knows what might be in the conclusive report.
So far... Lol!
There is nothing else worth investigating than whether or not they can find a way to blame Trump. On anything.
If Biden's handlers stumble us into World War 3, as the sky lights up over DC, the most important question will be,"can we blame this on Trump?"
The WAPO commenters think that Glenn Kessler is in the tank for Trump. I'm sure a few of our finest commenters here are in agreement.
Disappointment.
Trump’s been out of office for 2 years. Maybe WAPO should fact check the Biden administration’s comments about this event.
And didn’t Biden/Harris undo all the Trump orders anyway? Pretty sure they claimed they did at least. So wouldn’t that mean any regulatory rollbacks under Trump have been “rolled forward” again ?
HAHAHAHAHA!
The Ohio trainwreck was just bad luck, catching fire and doing it in a town. Usually it's just a mess in the middle of nowhere that they clean up in three days, and they're very professional at it.
As a news business matter, it's good to stoke anxiety and ratings, and takes its place as the next discovered "public problem" that formerly was just a railroading problem. Wrecks cost money.
Sociologist Joseph Gusfield studied the discovery of new "public problems" as a route to political power. "Contested Meanings" was the book.
That will surely dismay the bug-eyed lefties. Kessler could find himself taking part in a struggle session.
- Krumhorn
The Trump Standard - Guilty even when proven innocent.
Train maintenance issue? Let's look through regulations to see how it could be Trump's fault.
At what point do you say: Biden and Pete B have been in place for 25 months, it's their rules.
Or, hell, why not look back at Obama's 8 years?
This seems to me like another reasonable WaPo/Glenn Kessler fact-check. Worth reading; hsould always be read carefully as criticism-of-criticism.
But in practically every other circumstance, Althouse, your commenters have loathed the Post and Fact Checker Glenn Kessler in particular. So much so, that this comments page is going to have to be an exercise in, "Well, occasionally he gets it right..."
As I write this, no comments have as yet been posted. I think it is even money that among the first dozen posts will be a comment saying, "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day."
I have no need to blame Trump for "deregulation that caused the accident." But holy shit, it is remarkable, the number of Republicans now on the line of, "Let's better regulate these trains... Let's get this heartless railway corporation... Let's get the EPA to get this toxicity cleaned up right now..."
Anybody know yet, what the House Freedom Caucus has planned for Earth Day 2023?
No check larry finks esg brand
Question to ponder on a slow afternoon: Does (big C) Chuck know or care how out-of-touch with reality his 1:39 comment looks? Does he hear voices in his head?
TreeJoe: "The Trump Standard - Guilty even when proven innocent."
There are indeed alot of admitted and proud smear merchants like LLR Chuck lurking about.
Too bad that Jeff Bezos has been banned by Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins) from purchasing the team. I say make a trade! Snyder takes over the Washington Post and Bezos assumes control of the Commanders. Snyder will reinstitute the old Sun Page 3 layout (it seems to fit with his interests) and Bezos has himself a loser football team that he can entertain on his mega-yacht! Bezos can take Kessler with him as the team's statistician. Lots of fact-checking in that business! And lots of room to shade the truth about how piss-poor the players and coaches are performing. Win Win!!
Chuck, a fact checker who is occasionally correct is useless. You may as well ask the opinion of the guy at the end of the bar who thinks he's an expert on everything. Might as well flip a coin.
We all know that Kessler's column is an opinion column that pretends to non-partisan and factual. It has no reason to exist other than for propaganda reasons.
"From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident."
Hey, WaPo, save yourself some time: "From our analysis, no Dem statements ever made about Trump or the Trump administration at this point can be cited as reflecting any cause of any disaster. From our analysis, it appears it's all BS all the time."
Keep hope alive, Chuck.
There's a special place in the LLR section of Heaven reserved just for you.
A real journalist would ask those blaming Trump: "If the reduced regulations needed to be changed, why was the Biden Administration so ignorant of needing them to be reinstated?"
This accident is about as close to 'act of God' as you can get without involving wind blowing or earth shifting. The cause, already identified by the NTSB, was the rapid catastrophic failure of one of the roller bearings supporting the axle of one of the train cars. The crew had been alerted to situation by a lineside detector and was in the process of stopping the train as already noted. It appears that the bearing may have failed more rapidly than expected since it passed at least one detector enroute without issuing an alert and then failed after the first indication of a problem. That might point to some failing in maintenance procedures or could simply be the bad luck that the bearing was riding just below the alerting temperature for a period of time before going bad in a hurry. Roller bearings are almost a century old and pretty well understood as railroad technology. Electronic brakes might have stopped the train quicker but stopping 100+ 100-ton cars is not something that happens rapidly without the potential for things to go from bad to worse just trying to get stopped. As far as hazardous materials, a sufficient quantity of plain old water in the wrong place at the wrong time can ruin your day.
What's noticable about ALL leftist and ALL Democrats is they DO NOT CARE. They aren't upset at the Train crash. they don't care about the people being poisoned. They don't care about Large Corporations scrimping on safety.
ALL care about is one thing: Getting their piece of the Graft and parroting the leftwing party line. That is it.
Some of them are so stupid and weird, they're not even getting some Graft! They're just weirdos who are NPCs. So they chant everything they hear from the MSM and foam at the mouth whenever someone says "Trump". And if "DeSantis" gets elected, they'll forget about Trump and start raging about "DeSantis".
We can't live with these insane hatefilled Leftists anymore. let them have their own country and we can have ours.
Poor "Chuck" has no excuse to blame Trump. Instead, as is so common, he blames Republicans who "pounce" on the WaPoo.
@JenniferHomendy
The ECP braking rule would’ve applied ONLY to HIGH HAZARD FLAMMABLE TRAINS. The train that derailed in East Palestine was a MIXED FREIGHT TRAIN containing only 3 placarded Class 3 flammable liquids cars.
Out of 20 tank cars containing hazardous or flammable cargo only three were placarded. Why not all 20? And how can a train whose consist includes 20 cars with hazardous or flammable be legally classified as “non-hazardous materials”? Why doesn’t the presence in the consist of even just one car with hazardous chemicals enough to get the entire train classified as “hazardous”?
So far , there are about 20 misrepresentations presented as facts checking Kessler hasn't retracted.
His Pinocchio nose must be gumming up his keyboard.
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response. So much to become upset over, I suppose…who knows?
Again I ask, if the rule was so damn important, why didn't the Biden Administration reinstate it?
We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact.
From our analysis, none of the regulatory changes made during the Trump administration at this point can be cited as contributing to the accident.
THAT, has GOT To BURN! I almost feel sorry for the WaPoo.. They examined EVERY Possible thing..
And they Couldn't Find a THING, to blame on Trump!
On Feb. 14, Secretary Pete tweeted:
"We’re constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation (like the braking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015), but we are using the powers we do have to keep people safe."
If Secretary Pete's to be believed, Trump enforced a law that was passed by Congress before he was elected to office.
Rhetorical question... Aren't presidents tasked with "taking care that the laws be faithfully executed"?
As is the case with most things that politicians touch, follow the money.
And fuck Kessler, he’s a dishonest purveyor of bullshit.
Did they ask Mayor Buttwhatever? He made the claim, I'm sure he can explain it to them. He's smarter than journalists.
"Does anyone else find it ironic that the Washington Post has a Fact Checker??"
No, not at all. It's entirely understandable.
"I mean......isn't fact checking the whole premise behind the newspaper business model??"
Yes...which is why the Washington Post (and other news organs) do (or should) employ fact checkers. (A lot of publishers--of books, magazines, etc., don't even seem to employ editors any more, given the misspellings and tortured sentences one so often sees.) This is not to say that errors don't get through, (or even outright lies or propaganda, another kind of problem), but it is entirely logical and necessary for them to employ fact checkers to verify (as well as possible) the accuracy of information contained in stories submitted by reporters.
Russia Collusion Truther and Hillary/FBI Hoax Dossier Dead Ender Inga: "It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response. So much to become upset over, I suppose…who knows?
LOL
What a dolt.
The lies blaming Trump required no "fact" check. The lies were just that pathetic. Per usual.
Next up for leftist partisan democratical "fact checker" Kessler: No evidence yet to support the claim Trump is responsible for supernovas in the Andromeda galaxy.....yet....
As Gomer Pyle used to say "SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE!"
Michael K: "Poor "Chuck" has no excuse to blame Trump. Instead, as is so common, he blames Republicans who "pounce" on the WaPoo."
Chuck did indeed blame Trump AND he defended Butt-a-judge-judge when Butt-a-judge-judge blamed Trump.
You are right though that the earlier lefty lies were never remotely supportable, per usual, so naturally a democratical partisan smear merchant like Chuck is going to flex to "republicans pounce!".
"Does anyone else find it ironic that the Washington Post has a Fact Checker??"
Robert Cook: "No, not at all. It's entirely understandable."
Well, it is understandable that leftist partisan hack "journalist" would-be-authoritarians would seek to establish new labels under which they can continue to push their leftist BS as "truth".
Every "fact checker" in the legacy media is simply a veteran legacy media lefty dem partisan.
The entire "fact checking" ruse has failed because of course it has. The new label cant remove the truth of who these dudes have always been.
Not to worry though lefties/LLR's(but I repeat myself)! Even though the "fact check" ruse has collapsed you cats have already invented a Brand New Fake Credential to advance your lefty beliefs: The "Disinformation" "Expert"!!!
And who are these "disinformation" "experts"? Lefties in the media who have been Mockingbird-laundered thru govt jobs!
So transparent. They dont even bother hiding it any longer.
Exhibit 'A' On Stupidity
But what we now know is that the progressive failure process was detected with plenty of time and reason to stop.
...
At the first sensor the temperature was 38F above ambient.
10.89 miles later it was at 103F above ambient, just below the "stop and inspect" threshold for a differential reading.
19.2 miles later it was well over the critical temperature at 253F.
Shortly after that the train derailed.
Anyone with a brain in their head had to know that if you are at 38F over ambient and ten miles later you're more than 100F over ambient you will exceed the "stop and inspect threshold" well before you reach the next detector in 20 more miles, and if the failure is progressive, and most failures are, you will be well over the critical threshold and on the verge of a catastrophic failure by the time you get there.
Robert Cook said...
but it is entirely logical and necessary for them to employ fact checkers to verify (as well as possible) the accuracy of information contained in stories submitted by reporters.
That description may be correct in some sense but is entirely beside the point because what Kessler does (and other Capital-F fact Capital-C checkers do) isn't primarily pointing out errors in what WaPo (and other) reporters write but what they claim to be misstatements by the subjects of the WaPo's own reporting.
Mason G said...
On Feb. 14, Secretary Pete tweeted:
Rhetorical question... Aren't presidents tasked with "taking care that the laws be faithfully executed"?
***************
Pshaw....you must be referring to a "confusing" doument that's 100 years old.
Today's New Fascisti don't believe any of that old-fashioned shit.
Now do Biden and the border propagandists.
Inga said...
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response.
Because a more truthful 'fact checker' would have called out Secretary of Transportation Pee Wee Herman/Mr. Bean's completely inaccurate claim that their response to this accident was in any way diminished by a law passed during the Obama administration.
"Inga said...
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response. So much to become upset over, I suppose…who knows?"
Maybe, because we know that fact-checkers are generally propagandists paid by Soros and his minions to promote the lies of the left, not to check facts.
Robert Cook said
....but it is entirely logical and necessary for them to employ fact checkers to verify (as well as possible) the accuracy of information contained in stories submitted by reporters.
*****************
Bullshit. If Trump had said what Mayor Pete did, WaPo would have simply swatted the remark aside, opening with "Trump claimed without evidence today...."
But WaPo didn't press Pete to back up his charge. Curious, no?
Bezos paid $250 million for the WaPo. Probably found the money under his sofa cushions.
Musk could probably find $300 or $350mm under his sofa cushions.
I say we start a petition for Musk to make Bezos an offer.
Twitter-WaPo has kind of a nice ring to it.
John Henry
Karl Denninger posted on this a few days ago and I have to agree with him. The cause for the derailment was stupidity. Remember when trains had cabooses? With the bay windows? The very important very dull job done in the cabooses was to look out those windows for a sign of hot bearings, or anything else that might be wrong, and signal the engineer to stop. The heat sensors alongside the track, and other technological marvels replaced those men. But like with any other system- if you don’t pay attention to what the instruments are telling you, something bad can happen. The information that something was wrong was available and not acted on. Why not? Karl says stupidity and it’s hard to disagree with his assessment. The root cause is way before that when the bearings were inadequately lubricated or lubricated with the wrong stuff.
His post: market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=248176
Is the right lubricant really that important? I got to replace a gear type coupling on a large pump one time. The gear teeth were floating around in the brown grease. I knew the root cause of the failure the moment I took the coupling cover off. The specified grease was red. I had done the maintenance in the past. The last person to do it apparently just grabbed a grease gun and injected whatever grease was in the gun into the coupling. Of course there was paperwork saying the coupling was greased properly at the correct intervals. Paperwork doesn’t protect you from careless/stupid/lazy people from doing stupid things. Looks like a number of people in this derailment were careless, stupid, lazy, or some combination of all of them.
Railroad Amazon those wheel bearings from China?
Get Al Gore on the line, here’s another inconvenient truth.
... We decided to examine every possible regulatory change made under Trump that could be related to the accident and assess whether it could have made an impact.
=======
curious about how many regulatory changes were made under Trump [*] and other Presidencies?
Trump [*] had 3 pyrsons in that position >> Michael Huerta Acting; Elaine Chao For Real; Steven G. Bradbury Acting
No, not at all. It's entirely understandable.
I disagree. We have parts of the paper with fact checking, and other parts of the paper without fact checking. It creates a double standard.
One of the intents behind the Professor Emerita's incessant posting of items from WaPo and NYT, I suspect, is to illuminate the deeply ingrained bias of these "news" organizations. These subtle send-ups seem to be as frequent as the morning photos across the lake, and they show the awkward shadows cast by writers and editors.
I second all the comments here that underscore the real message of "Sorry guys, we tried our best...we really did...but just can't seem to pin this one on Trump. We'll keep trying, though."
It's time to rewrite the lyrics of the song from "Allegro" (Rodgers & Hammerstein).
We have nothing to uncover, so far,
So far,
So far we can't say the fault was Trump's
So it's deep in the dumps
That we are...
I don't think this is just about Trump's deregulation. Instead, Trump used cost-benefit analysis to roll back a ton of regulations. And the Democrats are, as a matter of principle, against efficiency and cost-benefit comparisons for most environmental and safety laws. The Democrats see cost-benefit analysis as a serious barrier to, for example, any law addressing climate change. So these people tend to favor laws and regulations that intentionally exclude consideration of costs in their rules and regulations.
If it wasn't some change in safety regulations that Trump pushed through, then it must have been climate change.
Nine years ago, Big Oil, Big Chem, and Monopoly Railroads were hauling in monster profits from the wondrous crude coming from the Bakken field and WTF, mechanical brakes and faster speed worked well, so Congress went along with a weakened regulation that not only didn't fix the mechanical brake problem, it also didn't address the highly flammable mix of gases and oil in fracked crude.
So who cares that five trains carrying ND crude blew up in a year - nobody died, doncha know.
First Lie To The Headline wins!
Meanwhile Judicial Watch lawsuit cleaned 1.5 million names from L.A.'s voter rolls.
WaPo?
Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response.
Inga is amazed that we rightists do not drop to our knees in awe and adoration that a fact checker actually checked some facts, and, moreover he actually reported the facts straight up! We rightists are more used to articles by Kessler along the lines of “well, what Trump said is perfectly true, as far as it goes, but we’re going to give it some number of Pinocchios anyway because Trump said it.”
DeSantis must terrify a lot of people who work at 1301 K Street, NW, Washington, DC.
"Darkisland said...
Bezos paid $250 million for the WaPo. Probably found the money under his sofa cushions.
Musk could probably find $300 or $350mm under his sofa cushions.
I say we start a petition for Musk to make Bezos an offer.
Twitter-WaPo has kind of a nice ring to it."
Fairly certain Twitterwapo was Native American tribe wiped out by racist English settlers. Ask Glenn Kessler.
Kessler did not kill himself.
"Chuck is a sack of dogshit"
Fact Check- true.
Robert Cook said...
but it is entirely logical and necessary for them to employ fact checkers to verify (as well as possible) the accuracy of information contained in stories submitted by reporters.
Interestingly, in 2005 blogger Neo traced the use of anonymous sources as being legit in reporting. Used to be confirmation needed, not anymore.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2005/05/25/tracing-use-of-anonymous-source/?trashed=1&ids=628178
That such an investigation was undertaken by WaPo says everything--and none of it good--about the state of journalism at that sad, sad place.
They are literally admitting that they took the time to do this.
To try to find SOME WAY, HOWEVER PLAUSIBLE to pin this on Trump.
And they can't.
SO FAR.
Which means they're still looking.
Well, hmm... Maybe we should blame the Secretary of Transportation then?
Nah.
Imagine, if you will, that a similar incident had occurred in 2019, with a similar Trump administration response (not bloody likely, but whatever).
Do you think that a "fact check" looking for any possible connection of anything that the Obama Administration may have done to the cause of the incident would ever have been thought appropriate, let alone actually taken place?
Chuckie looking more like a pretzel than usual on this one. Must be over the target.
when dems overwhelmingly are the beneficiaries of norfolk southern when they cross every I and dot every t of the esg mandates of black rock and vanguard, one has to wonder why the dems acted with such indifference, we know why, this is the objective result,
gadfly said...
crude coming from the Bakken field and WTF, mechanical brakes and faster speed worked well, so Congress went along with a weakened regulation that not only didn't fix the mechanical brake problem, it also didn't address the highly flammable mix of gases and oil in fracked crude
Gee gadfly! If Only.. If Only there was SOME WAY, to transport oil from the Dakotas to the refineries, without using trains.. Some sort of a long tunnel or something that would go from the Dakotas, through iowa, and on down to the refineries...
Maybe something like, the Dakota Access Pipeline.. You know? that thing that YOUR People worked SO HARD to stop? That thing that Trump built ANYWAY? That thing that sends nearly a MILLION barrels a day underground? Sometimes, i think that You are mentally stupid
"Sometimes, i think that You are mentally stupid"
Just sometimes?
Late to the party, as usual, but I agree with the twenty or so commenters who correctly flagged "so far." Meaning: "We couldn't find anything against Trump on this first pass, but, by golly, we're gonna keep trying."
Does this strike anyone as a reasonable journalist's perspective? I understand that journalism's habitual attitude toward the government is oppositional, but (a) Trump isn't the head of government any more; and (b) Biden, who is, has been given a complete free pass on this question, as he has on innumerable other ones. There is no reason for this except partisan bias.
Cook,
I know you are not as crazy as Chuck nor as stupid as Inga, but your stereotypical NYC "liberalism" is becoming quite a joke.
take a drop of that same rigor and apply it to investigation of crook Biden family grifters.
Jersey Fled said...
If it wasn't some change in safety regulations that Trump pushed through, then it must have been climate change.
I blame the parents.
So Gadlfy and Chuck are liars.
We knew that already.
gilbar: "Sometimes, i think that You are mentally stupid"
There is a reason gadfly is called The Poor Man's LLR Chuck.
FullMoon said...
"Railroad Amazon those wheel bearings from China?"
Timkin tapered roller bearings are made in Canton Ohio. Rail car bearings can be rebuilt several times. That particular bearing lost lubrication.
WaPo and NYT used to have fact-checkers as part of their staff- they were called editors. Instead, editors now are paid to enforce on their writers the idea of subjective journalism- what ideology does the story promote- instead of objective journalism- can we reliably discern the facts of the story. 26% of people trust the truth of what they read. My question is, why so many?
It's like the old trope that Republicans are the cause of all deficits because they spent the money on something we didn't like, and all of the money we spent on stuff we do like had to be spent, and if it weren't for those Republicans spending our money while they were in power, there would be no deficits.
Regardless though, freight rail isn't sexy, but we need to fix ours. People like the Koch Brothers are against this kind of infrastructure spending, and Schumer and McConnell don't see enough graft in it, so there really is no good way for our democracy to address this problem.
We preferred to spend out "stimulus" money on teachers unions rather than addressing our infrastructure problems, which is not "crumbling roads," it's just that the roads people are better connected politically.
The walls are closing in!
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response
Two things, 1)the left, your response, is that Republicans 'pounced' 2) Kessler should be fact checking the people in power. ie, The Biden administration announcing the cause of the crash was deregulation at the hand of President Trump.
We all know that is exactly what would have happened if if were the Trump administration blaming Obama.
The amended fact check correctly rates the Biden administration claim, blaming Trump, with 4 Pinocchios.
We have to how this started. With the lie about deregulation.
Trump is to blame for ALL things - because people who HATE him, say so.
Good little Che's.
Michelle: "I understand that journalism's habitual attitude toward the government is oppositional ...."
"... traditional attitude ...." That was then. This is now. Now, journalism only opposes Republican government.
Inga - still waiting for you to admit you were lured in to a pile of lies regarding the Trump-Russia collusion BS.
"We have parts of the paper with fact checking, and other parts of the paper without fact checking. It creates a double standard."
How do you know parts of the paper have fact checking and other parts do not? Are you referring to a particular newspaper, or to all newspapers (and other news providers)?
It never ceases to surprise me that rightists can’t take even a positive fact check result about Trump without a negative response
It's interesting that you see the following course of events only as a "positive fact check":
1. A disaster happens.
2. The current administration fails to respond in timely or effective fashion and instead steps on its rhetorical and collective d*ck repeatedly.
3. The current administration blames the previous administration for the disaster.
4. WaPo's fact checker checks the current administration's claim, after weeks have passed.
5. The fact checker presents findings not in terms of whether the current administration was telling the truth, but in terms of whether the previous administration effed up. To their evident disappointment (the "so far" formulation), they can't find evidence that the proper administration is to blame. Darn it! They (we infer reluctantly, from the tone) award a bunch of Pinocchios to the claim, while keeping the rhetorical attention on the previous administration.
And as others have said, if this same disaster had happened during Trump's or Bush's or Reagan's administration, we know from sad experience, first, that the coverage would have been blistering from the start (have we seen any actually blistering coverage of the Biden administration's response?), and second, that if the Republican administration had tried to foist off blame on the prior Dem administration, they would have been universally lambasted for it (have we seen that happen in this case?).
"Cook,
"I know you are not as crazy as Chuck nor as stupid as Inga, but your stereotypical NYC 'liberalism' is becoming quite a joke."
I don't know what you're taking issue with.
They had multiple warnings. They chose to ignore them until it was too late. I suspect that if they had stopped the train they would have been there until the problem was resolved, so they were hoping to nurse it to the place where they could go home. Nobody in either administration is responsible for this. Most people in most administrations are not responsible for the things that happen. The measure is the response to the problem.
Bush was pilloried for his flyover of the Katrina disaster, when he, reasonably, did not want to disrupt everything that was happening on the ground. He assumed the press would understand, such a big mistake. Every time he opened his mouth he should have started with need to avoid interrupting the disaster efforts and that he would return on the ground when it would not cause a problem.
Biden admin, on the other hand, has a press disposed to the positive. All they had to do would be show a minimum of care. They couldn't even muster that.
The damned shutdown and the current RR worker problem are direct causes. And Biden's advisors know it, which is why they started deflecting early and often. I doubt Biden knows it, I suspect his level of awareness is only slightly above a turnip.
Once, twice, three times a baby. Good luck.
Our Administration is liars or they are ignorant of the difference between axle bearings and electronic brakes. It's always someone else's fault.
Our Administration is liars or they are ignorant of the difference between axle bearings and electronic brakes. It's always someone else's fault.
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