So while we're busy defending Ukraine, Americans are being kidnapped right across the southern border

[scruffy]

We should send Operators in and wipe out the Cartel leaders and continue to do so every time another steps up until they get the message.

We tried that already.

Drug wars, remember?

The fuckers breed faster than we can kill them

 

[Smokin' OP]

Sheesh. I have condemned Trump for this one many times.

I understand few can understand the concept of blaming all for failures but a few will do it.
Huge Train accident in East Palestine

"It makes it Obama's, Trump's and Biden's fault. I've said that from the beginning".

Hold on, Obama put more safety regulations in place for trains.
Trump removed them, after a nice $6,000,000 tip from the train industry.
Obama shouldn't even been mentioned.

"Why does Biden deserve no blame for doing nothing for two years"?

Because, he didn't reverse Trump's deregulation in time?

 

[pknopp]

"It makes it Obama's, Trump's and Biden's fault. I've said that from the beginning".

Hold on, Obama put more safety regulations in place for trains.
Trump removed them, after a nice $6,000,000 tip from the train industry.
Obama shouldn't even been mentioned.

"Why does Biden deserve no blame for doing nothing for two years"?

Because, he didn't reverse Trump's deregulation in time?

Read what happened. Obama put a study in place to determine if it was needed. Trump decided it wasn't. There should have been no study. It should have simply been done. Even then it's reported it wouldn't even covered this train. A train carrying chemicals that can kill.

What do you need to study there? A train without the latest safety equipment 150 cars long carrying deadly chemicals should never have existed in the first place.

 

[LibertyKid]

Is this really a problem? I mean our illustrious President has been told about this, but his press secretary has declined to answer questions. Maybe President Joe will trade them some drug cartel members we have in exchange for those kidnapped Americans?

"The four Americans kidnapped in Mexico had crossed over the border to get medicine, the Mexican president revealed Monday, as new details emerged about the moment they were taken.

The US citizens came from Texas before they got caught in the crossfire and were abducted, officials said. At least one Mexican citizen was killed in the broad daylight shooting...

...The four were riding in a white minivan with North Carolina license before getting shot on Friday shortly after they entered the dangerous city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas from Brownsville, Texas, the FBI San Antonio Division office said Sunday...

..The identities of the four kidnapped victims were not revealed as of Monday afternoon, but a Mexican official told Reuters that three men and one woman were taken..."

Kidnapped Americans crossed border to buy medicine: Mexican president

The woman was looking to get a tummy tuck. In another article I read, one of the men stated they had bad feelings about driving to Mexico. Terrible this happened, but also terrible choice in driving to Mexico to try and get a medical procedure knowing the shit show that is Mexico.

 

[LibertyKid]

I'd ask why four Americans had to cross the border to get medicine, given how wonderful our health care system supposedly is.

But you go to another country, you take your chances.

She, wanted a tummy tuck from what I read this morning.

 

[LibertyKid]

They do, but they're probably cheaper right across the border.

They were from NC.

 

[LibertyKid]

So instead of looking to buy medicines they were looking to buy surgery... my original point still stands, actually. Why is our system so awful that ANYONE would to into gang infested lawless places to get treatment?

She wanted a tummy tuck. She wasn't trying to get treatment for an ailment of some kind.

 

[Smokin' OP]

Read what happened. Obama put a study in place to determine if it was needed.

No, he put in regulations.

Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains

A Rule by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration


AGENCY:

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION:​

Final rule.

SUMMARY:​

In this final rule, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), is adopting requirements designed to reduce the consequences and, in some instances, reduce the probability of accidents involving trains transporting large quantities of flammable liquids.
The final rule defines certain trains transporting large volumes of flammable liquids as “high-hazard flammable trains” (HHFT) and regulates their operation in terms of speed restrictions, braking systems, and routing.

The final rule also adopts safety improvements in tank car design standards, a sampling and classification program for unrefined petroleum-based products, and notification requirements. These operational and safety improvements are necessary to address the unique risks associated with the growing reliance on trains to transport large quantities of flammable liquids.
They incorporate recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and from the public comments, and are supported by a robust economic impact analysis.

DATES:​

Effective Date: This final rule is effective July 7, 2015.

Trump decided it wasn't.

No, Trump rescinded the above.

September 24 2018
The Trump administration on Monday repealed a mandate that would have required trains carrying crude oil to use special brakes with new technology.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said it undertook a congressionally mandated analysis of the provision in a 2015 regulation under which oil trains would have had to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

“The Department [of Transportation] determined that the expected benefits, including safety benefits, of implementing ECP brake system requirements do not exceed the associated costs of equipping tank cars with ECP brake systems, and therefore are not economically justified,” PHMSA said.

The mandate to phase out traditional air brakes for crude oil use was part of a comprehensive rule that the Obama administration wrote in 2015 to try to improve the safety of crude oil trains.

There should have been no study. It should have simply been done. Even then it's reported it wouldn't even covered this train. A train carrying chemicals that can kill.

Maybe, maybe not.

What do you need to study there? A train without the latest safety equipment 150 cars long carrying deadly chemicals should never have existed in the first place.

 

[pknopp]

No, he put in regulations.

Hazardous Materials: Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains

A Rule by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration


AGENCY:

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION:​

Final rule.

SUMMARY:​

In this final rule, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), is adopting requirements designed to reduce the consequences and, in some instances, reduce the probability of accidents involving trains transporting large quantities of flammable liquids.
The final rule defines certain trains transporting large volumes of flammable liquids as “high-hazard flammable trains” (HHFT) and regulates their operation in terms of speed restrictions, braking systems, and routing.

The final rule also adopts safety improvements in tank car design standards, a sampling and classification program for unrefined petroleum-based products, and notification requirements. These operational and safety improvements are necessary to address the unique risks associated with the growing reliance on trains to transport large quantities of flammable liquids.
They incorporate recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and from the public comments, and are supported by a robust economic impact analysis.

DATES:​

Effective Date: This final rule is effective July 7, 2015.


No, Trump rescinded the above.

September 24 2018
The Trump administration on Monday repealed a mandate that would have required trains carrying crude oil to use special brakes with new technology.

The Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) said it undertook a congressionally mandated analysis of the provision in a 2015 regulation under which oil trains would have had to use electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes.

“The Department [of Transportation] determined that the expected benefits, including safety benefits, of implementing ECP brake system requirements do not exceed the associated costs of equipping tank cars with ECP brake systems, and therefore are not economically justified,” PHMSA said.

The mandate to phase out traditional air brakes for crude oil use was part of a comprehensive rule that the Obama administration wrote in 2015 to try to improve the safety of crude oil trains.


Maybe, maybe not.

The Obama administration yesterday announced that it will scale back federal rail safety rules spurred by a Southern California train wreck in 2008 that killed 25 people and hurt 135 others.

Obama administration heeds industry call to ease rail safety rules

The Obama administration imposed tougher safety regulations Friday for trains carrying crude oil,

DOT issues final rules on flammable oil trains

Was Obama as bad as Trump? No, but that "as bad as Trump" should not be the standard.

What did Biden do? Nothing. This train should not have been running as it was running.

 

[Smokin' OP]

The Obama administration yesterday announced that it will scale back federal rail safety rules spurred by a Southern California train wreck in 2008 that killed 25 people and hurt 135 others.

Obama administration heeds industry call to ease rail safety rules

The Obama administration imposed tougher safety regulations Friday for trains carrying crude oil,

DOT issues final rules on flammable oil trains

Was Obama as bad as Trump? No, but that "as bad as Trump" should not be the standard.

NO.
The administration said it will slash by 10,000 miles the amount of railroad track that needs to be covered by systems that can override human error and automatically put the brakes on trains about to collide or derail.

Known as Positive Train Control, or PTC, the high-tech systems previously were projected to cover an estimated 70,000 miles of track used by trains carrying passengers or extremely hazardous materials such as chlorine. The safeguards, as FairWarning has reported, are due to be installed by the end of 2015 under legislation passed by Congress in response to the deadly head-on train crash in Chatsworth, Calif.


The administration said the exemption would apply only to track that will not be used to carry passengers or the most dangerous cargo. The rollback – which had been expected and was one of a package of regulatory breaks for business that the Obama administration announced this morning — was spurred by a legal challenge by the Association of American Railroads, which represents freight haulers and Amtrak.

What did Biden do? Nothing. This train should not have been running as it was running.

 

[pknopp]

NO.
The administration said it will slash by 10,000 miles the amount of railroad track that needs to be covered by systems that can override human error and automatically put the brakes on trains about to collide or derail.

Known as Positive Train Control, or PTC, the high-tech systems previously were projected to cover an estimated 70,000 miles of track used by trains carrying passengers or extremely hazardous materials such as chlorine. The safeguards, as FairWarning has reported, are due to be installed by the end of 2015 under legislation passed by Congress in response to the deadly head-on train crash in Chatsworth, Calif.


The administration said the exemption would apply only to track that will not be used to carry passengers or the most dangerous cargo. The rollback – which had been expected and was one of a package of regulatory breaks for business that the Obama administration announced this morning — was spurred by a legal challenge by the Association of American Railroads, which represents freight haulers and Amtrak.

This train should not have been running. The railroads employees have said they knew it was not safe. NOTHING was done to address that by any president.

 

[Smokin' OP]

This train should not have been running. The railroads employees have said they knew it was not safe. NOTHING was done to address that by any president.

Nor Norfolk-Southern.

Freight rail is generally held up as the safest way to transport massive amounts of hazardous material. It's a highly regulated form of transportation, and yet train derailments happen often in the U.S. In 2021 alone, there were 293 train derailments on, quote, "main lines," meaning not in work areas or in rail yards. Aaron Gordon is a senior writer at Motherboard, a part of Vice magazine, and he wrote about the increasing safety concerns of freight rail workers almost two years before the derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

So your reporting has been based on interviews with rail workers, union officials and independent experts, and they all kind of point to one clear reason why train safety is getting worse. Can you explain that central reason?

GORDON: So a lot of this boils down to a management philosophy called precision scheduled railroading, or PSR, as I'm going to refer to it.

And it has been adopted by almost all of the major freight rail companies in some way, shape or form.
And its proponents argue that it's essentially a way to make the railroads more efficient, to use modern technology to run more tonnage with, you know, fewer workers and improved efficiency. Now, its detractors say that what it basically requires is doing more with less, cutting everything to the bone and padding corporate profits to pay dividends to Wall Street investors.

GORDON: Well, industrywide, since 2016, according to government data, the workforce of the freight rail industry has been reduced by 30%. And, you know, the rail companies argue that they've been able to make up for this with process and technology improvements.
But I have not heard that from anyone who actually works on the railroads. Instead, what they tell me is they have less time and fewer resources to do their jobs.

Just to use one example, on Norfolk Southern, the company whose train derailed in East Palestine, workers used to have two to three minutes to inspect each railcar, and each railcar can be up to 100 feet long. They're inspecting more than 100 points on the train to make sure that it's safe to run. And now they have fewer than 90 seconds.

 

[pknopp]

Nor Norfolk-Southern.

Freight rail is generally held up as the safest way to transport massive amounts of hazardous material. It's a highly regulated form of transportation, and yet train derailments happen often in the U.S. In 2021 alone, there were 293 train derailments on, quote, "main lines," meaning not in work areas or in rail yards. Aaron Gordon is a senior writer at Motherboard, a part of Vice magazine, and he wrote about the increasing safety concerns of freight rail workers almost two years before the derailment and chemical spill in East Palestine, Ohio.

So your reporting has been based on interviews with rail workers, union officials and independent experts, and they all kind of point to one clear reason why train safety is getting worse. Can you explain that central reason?

GORDON: So a lot of this boils down to a management philosophy called precision scheduled railroading, or PSR, as I'm going to refer to it.

And it has been adopted by almost all of the major freight rail companies in some way, shape or form.
And its proponents argue that it's essentially a way to make the railroads more efficient, to use modern technology to run more tonnage with, you know, fewer workers and improved efficiency. Now, its detractors say that what it basically requires is doing more with less, cutting everything to the bone and padding corporate profits to pay dividends to Wall Street investors.

GORDON: Well, industrywide, since 2016, according to government data, the workforce of the freight rail industry has been reduced by 30%. And, you know, the rail companies argue that they've been able to make up for this with process and technology improvements.
But I have not heard that from anyone who actually works on the railroads. Instead, what they tell me is they have less time and fewer resources to do their jobs.

Just to use one example, on Norfolk Southern, the company whose train derailed in East Palestine, workers used to have two to three minutes to inspect each railcar, and each railcar can be up to 100 feet long. They're inspecting more than 100 points on the train to make sure that it's safe to run. And now they have fewer than 90 seconds.

Yes, I hope the company is sued into bankruptcy.

 

[pyetro]

Is this really a problem? I mean our illustrious President has been told about this, but his press secretary has declined to answer questions. Maybe President Joe will trade them some drug cartel members we have in exchange for those kidnapped Americans?

"The four Americans kidnapped in Mexico had crossed over the border to get medicine, the Mexican president revealed Monday, as new details emerged about the moment they were taken.

The US citizens came from Texas before they got caught in the crossfire and were abducted, officials said. At least one Mexican citizen was killed in the broad daylight shooting...

...The four were riding in a white minivan with North Carolina license before getting shot on Friday shortly after they entered the dangerous city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas from Brownsville, Texas, the FBI San Antonio Division office said Sunday...

..The identities of the four kidnapped victims were not revealed as of Monday afternoon, but a Mexican official told Reuters that three men and one woman were taken..."

Kidnapped Americans crossed border to buy medicine: Mexican president

This idiot is claiming that if we were not helping Ukraine, these four Americans wouldn't have felt like traveling to Mexico for a liposuction one of the women wanted.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

I have no sympathy for American tourists in Mexico

They are just begging for it

Today the way things are, I totally agree. I will never vacation there again.

 

[Markle]

Ever heard of Mark Kilroy?

He was kidnapped....about 40 years before Russia invaded the Ukrane. Damn Reagan!

 

[Markle]

Is this really a problem? I mean our illustrious President has been told about this, but his press secretary has declined to answer questions. Maybe President Joe will trade them some drug cartel members we have in exchange for those kidnapped Americans?

"The four Americans kidnapped in Mexico had crossed over the border to get medicine, the Mexican president revealed Monday, as new details emerged about the moment they were taken.

The US citizens came from Texas before they got caught in the crossfire and were abducted, officials said. At least one Mexican citizen was killed in the broad daylight shooting...

...The four were riding in a white minivan with North Carolina license before getting shot on Friday shortly after they entered the dangerous city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas from Brownsville, Texas, the FBI San Antonio Division office said Sunday...

..The identities of the four kidnapped victims were not revealed as of Monday afternoon, but a Mexican official told Reuters that three men and one woman were taken..."

Kidnapped Americans crossed border to buy medicine: Mexican president

I think there is a lot about this story that we don't yet know.

Who goes to one of the most violent towns in Mexico, with three male friends, for a tummy tuck? Or, as I believe the mayor said, "medicine".

 

[Markle]

The woman was there for a tummy tuck, I believe.

I think there is a lot more to this story than what we've been told. No surprise.

It almost sounds like one of the excuses given by a suspect on "COPS".

Officer: "The reason I stopped you was your right tail light is burned out. We also saw you coming out of that known drug house. What were you getting there?

Suspect: "DRUGS, I swear to god officer, I had no idea they had drugs! I heard they gave great tummy tucks there for great prices. Let me be totally honest with you officer, I just went there for a tummy tuck"!

 

[Markle]

I'd ask why four Americans had to cross the border to get medicine, given how wonderful our health care system supposedly is.

But you go to another country, you take your chances.

As you know, highest quality health care in the world.

 

[Markle]

There should be a cap on all medication.

Where would any new drugs, procedures, or technology originate?