Railroad Campaigning – Bastards of Wall Street, Time to Pay Your Whores!
Norfolk, at the racetrack an injured horse doesn’t always return to the tracks. It ‘depends on the injury and the horse.’ Time to put injured horses out of their misery!
Forget not the ‘Oracle.’ Buffett’s BNSF ‘raked in $1.4 billion’ reports Jacobin, How? ‘Railroad Bosses Gave Millions to Congress to Defeat Their Workers.’
Berkshire Hathaway, appears this ‘wholly-owned subsidiary’ is making you look bad. As ‘Plug and Play,’ will you disassociate from them? The plug reportedly stopped playing with Norfolk.
NTSB investigators’ June board meeting in East Palestine was on the anniversary of a historical date. On June 25, 1992, facing a recession the country also faced a National Railroad Lockout.
Members of the Senate discussed the nationwide railroad labor dispute and took up a motion calling for an end to the rail shutdown.
“So let us be clear…it is a national railroad lockout…Their attitude is, profits first, workers last, and the economy be damned…The list of alternate carriers includes Norfolk Southern…. They could have taken the very merchandise that was to be shipped on CSX and carried it on their lines…Their strategy…to deprive workers of their principle economic weapon.” – Ted Kennedy and Howard Metzenbaum, respectively.
From rail shutdowns to derailments and “unnecessary” explosion of tank cars, this industry’s future is doomed to ‘crash and burn.’ Sound familiar Boe-Lock?
NTSB, will recommendations be enforced by Congress or will the “AAR gives Congress Rail Tech Lesson”?
“House of Representatives…elected officials and their staff…engaged in hands-on demonstrations and chatted with technology experts from BNSF, Canadian Pacific, CN, CSX, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific about the role of railroad technology.”
Railroads, still giving lessons and campaign funding to Congress? Recall my March 18, 2023 paper, “Treacherous Railroad Monopolies: All Deaths and Derailments Lead to U.S. Presidents and Congress”
No question Congress is ‘on the take.’ Motto: “We serve others best while at the same time we serve ourselves.” Looking to be a member of the Bob ‘Goldbar’ club? Be ready to meet his fate!
Self-righteous bastards and wenches. In the times of the Commodore, your heads would be served to the People.
“Gentleman and ladies: It is time to use the authority that is yours. The time for studies (as in the last spending bill) has passed. I ask you to take charge of this situation. If extreme greed is like an addiction, it is time for an intervention. If the SEC should have stopped Madoff; the STB and the FRA should stop Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR.” – Matthew DeLay, Class I Locomotive Engineer Ames, Iowa
STB and the FRA may not have stopped Precision Scheduled Railroading, PSR. But appears the Silicon Valley Plug and Play Tech Center stopped Norfolk. That is, removed them as a ‘Corporate Partner.’
Norfolk, No More ‘Plug and Play’ For You?
Norfolk, Clusterfuck in East Palestine get you dropped from ‘Plug and Play’? Under Supply Chain & Logistics you’re now nowhere to be found. BNSF, where did you go?
Right, ‘Plug and Play’ assures its Corporate Partners “You’ll be in good company.” I guess you no longer fit their idea of ‘good company.’
No team spirit? Appears you forgot words of Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO: “If you build your core [culture] and depend on each other in a way a football team does, it really is the way to win.” Not surprised, after that fiery fiasco what company would want to be associated with you?
American Railroad Association (ARA), you understand. Not all associations are created equal. Take the AMA, doctors don’t appear to compete with each other. They don’t look fondly of ‘second opinions.’
However, unlike other ‘associations’ the AMA does require their Docs to have a health check. But Docs don’t like it. In fact, some are in such a mess due to stress of medical student loans, dealing with patient health insurance paperwork, and their own pricey ‘medical malpractice’ insurance that it drives many to drink and/or prescribe themselves ‘happy pills.’
ARA, it begs the question, do you conduct a ‘health check’ of your members examining safety of tank cars and chemicals aboard? No? I imagine it must be like getting a colonoscopy for these old bastards 🙂
Military and National Security too has been following railroad incidents. Not the ‘burn pits’ of tank car explosions. But what they see as potential ‘tank bombs.’
Nationalizing the Rail?
John Nichols of The Nation makes a good point: “It’s Time to Talk About Nationalizing America’s Railroads.” Mr. Nichols, it’s HIGH TIME to talk about a lot of America’s industries and TAKE ACTION.
Regrettably, it’s too late for a whole lot of them. But’s let’s entertain this one.
I agree “Railroads are systematically destroying the freight rail system,” as noted by Ross Grooters, a railroad locomotive engineer.
Although Grooters argument is compelling, nationalizing railroads is not gonna happen for two reasons:
1. It’s not in Congress’ interest or Greedy Executives & Shareholders to walk away from easy money. These ‘powers that be’ would sooner ‘throw Mama from the train’ before handing over the reins to the public.
2. Liken to other blue collar and government jobs, locomotive as mechanical engineering is a dying profession with few replacements. Cities, for example, across the nation have outsourced key critical staff (i.e. Building Inspectors) to private contractors.
Sure, ‘interstate highway system is publicly owned’ but there’s no real money in it. Unless, you charge the public a ‘highway fee.’
Similar to cable industry, it leaves rail ‘customers having no other choice.’ And why ‘make investments in infrastructure’ when administrations are giving it away?
Just six months after Norfolk train crash, under the Biden Administration a “2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by Congress” awarded the rail companies $1.4B for infrastructure projects.
Transportation Secretary is either ignorant to the source of the problems or incompetent. Says Pete, “We are seeing far too many derailments on our freight lines.” Pete, didn’t you read the latest NTSB report?
Derailments are a result of far too many old tank cars and few workers hired to oversee them – not the tracks! Supply chains have had delays for over a decade. Again not ‘related to crumbling infrastructure’ or the pandemic but a cutthroat culture and safety deregulation.
In fact, a month BEFORE Joe called on both parties support, The Intercept reported, “Norfolk Southern Spent $1.9 Million in Washington as Congress Weakened Rail Safety Bill”
Damage control for these bastards means ‘unleashing the dogs’ to ‘spread money around Congress.’
NS, Is this Progress, Modernization and Innovation?
“When monopolies succeed, the people fail…when a legislature is bribed, the people are cheated.” – H. D. Lloyd
ARA, your June 5th 2018 article “6 Ways Freight Rail Gets Techie” comes to mind. Of course, we don’t see how it helped NS to “maximize the safety and efficiency of the nearly 140,000-mile rail network.”
Guess being techie is just for show. No. 3 in your ‘listicle’ got our attention.
3. Smart sensors keep wheels turning. [The Hell they did!]
“Smart sensors placed alongside track use a host of technologies — such as infrared and lasers — …Overheated wheel bearings can lead to train derailments…By paying attention to the acoustic bearing detectors, we can make sure our bearings never get too hot,” says Kyle Mulligan, an AVP of Operations Technology at Canadian Pacific.”
NS, unlike you, appears Canadians paid attention to ABDs.
Says NTSB, ‘overheated wheel bearings are a common cause of rail accidents’ adding as a safety issue ‘the continued use of DOT-111 tank cars.’
NS, old workhorse, no matter how young and ‘techie’ you wish to appear, bottom line is your DOT-111 tank cars are old. In fact, NTSB “is calling for an accelerated phaseout of DOT-111 tank cars in hazmat service.” Kinda makes the $1.4B for tracks and bridges pointless if still using the old tanks cars.
Pricey to replace. You think that’s expensive? Wait till you finally have to go electric to compete with the Europeans. To the Vectron and Victor go the spoils!
Norfolk, haven’t you heard?“Power of Electricity & Lithium – SIEMENS Vectron Leaves NS999 Locomotive in the Dust!”
Americans, when criticized for playing dirty politics and are compared to other nations, have a real stinking argument. But we’re the ‘Cleanest dirty shirt.’ Yanks, depends what you mean by dirty. Better to have dirt than bastards and whores’ cum.
It’s Election Year! Time for you Bastards of Wall Street to pay your Congress! Lobbyists, leaching for more PIMP favors?
Norfolk, how do you leach your way out? If you’re looking to fund more Politicians in exchange for more ‘slash-and-burn’ regulation, I remind you of Maersk IT systems. Operate new DOT tank cars OR rebuild your infrastructure?
NS, let’s face it, if you really wanted to be ‘innovative’ you would have gone electric with that NS 999 decades ago. But the Oil bastard fucked the Whores and your Horse!
Got your whores in your front pocket and hedged your bets in Presidential elections, but are you sure you’ve got the winning Puppet in your back pocket? 🙂