How To Stop Train Derailments - More Perfect Union

[TexasTowelie]

An unlikely coalition of Republicans and Democrats are taking on railroad companies’ greed. Workers are sounding the alarm, warning that railroads are running barebones crews and cutting corners on safety all to rake in more profits.

There are 4.5 train derailments every day. Recently, following a disastrous crash in East Palestine, OH, there has been increased attention on railroad safety — or lack thereof.

Senators JD Vance (R-OH) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) are leading an effort to protect communities like East Palestine. They introduced a bill that would ban 1-person crews, mandate new safety technology, and increase fines that railroads could pay for safety violations by 10,000%.

They face an uphill battle to get their bill passed. Railroad companies spent $25 million on lobbying last year alone.

[Warpy]

1. Corporate stock buybacks were wisely made illegal until 1982

when Ronald Reagan was fucking our economy up completely. They need to be made illegal again.

They're fattening executives and majority shareholders but they're stiffing every investor who is relying on dividends.

You see these massive profits these companies are generating by cutting corners and stiffing workers, that'w where they're going. The shareholders are seeing less and less income and are being told to be thrilled about the stock price increases.

Well, those only matter if you've got a lot of stock you're either using to leverage debt or are ready to sell, otherwise it's just a number on a piece of paper.

Fucking Reagan, he and his California buddies sure figured out how to screw us over.