Biden helps avert railway strike.

tstorm823

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Do you have a significant administrative role in an organisation?

I do. I pour hours into fixing things that don't work properly, or improving things that work okay but could be better: discussing, negotiating, working out what's possible and how to do it. No matter how much time and effort I put in, there's always something more to do. I know I'd be really pissed off with the unfairness of someone distilling all my time and efforts as "X didn't work, you suck". Thus I am inclined to extend some empathy towards people in a similar position, including politicians. Maybe they do suck. But the mere fact of something going wrong is not, per se, enough to prove that case.
Second all of this. My work is decidedly divided into immediate concerns, general timeline work, and "things that would be nice to get done but there's basically only time for them between Christmas and New Years."
 

tippy2k2

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How the fuck am I supposed to tie a damsel to that mess?!
That'll work to your advantage! When the mountie tries to run to save her, he's just as likely to get tripped up by the awful rails and you might take them BOTH out! Two Birds One Stone!
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Do you have a significant administrative role in an organisation?

I do. I pour hours into fixing things that don't work properly, or improving things that work okay but could be better: discussing, negotiating, working out what's possible and how to do it. No matter how much time and effort I put in, there's always something more to do. I know I'd be really pissed off with the unfairness of someone distilling all my time and efforts as "X didn't work, you suck". Thus I am inclined to extend some empathy towards people in a similar position, including politicians. Maybe they do suck. But the mere fact of something going wrong is not, per se, enough to prove that case.
I do.

If I had critical infrastructure fail because I failed to fix it I would be fired. There are some things that are so important they are not allowed to go wrong ever.

So yeah, when trains carrying toxic chemicals derail and poison the surrounding area I'm not going to go "wish that didn't happen, but I guess there were more important things to worry about." That's one of those things that ISN'T ALLOWED TO FAIL.
 

Dirty Hipsters

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Second all of this. My work is decidedly divided into immediate concerns, general timeline work, and "things that would be nice to get done but there's basically only time for them between Christmas and New Years."
In what world do you live where working railroads that don't cause massive toxic hazards is a "nice to have?"
 
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tippy2k2

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I do.

If I had critical infrastructure fail because I failed to fix it I would be fired. There are some things that are so important they are not allowed to go wrong ever.

So yeah, when trains carrying toxic chemicals derail and poison the surrounding area I'm not going to go "wish that didn't happen, but I guess there were more important things to worry about." That's one of those things that ISN'T ALLOWED TO FAIL.
My favorite part is when Rat Boy Pete said "There are over a thousand train derailments a year!" like somehow this was a point in his favor...
 

tstorm823

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In what world do you live where working railroads that don't cause massive toxic hazards is a "nice to have?"
You do remember we're talking about the entire government, right?

For the person specifically in charge of train maintenance, this is an immediate priority. For the President of the United States, there are factually more pressing issues.
 

Ag3ma

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If I had critical infrastructure fail because I failed to fix it I would be fired.
Sure: if you directly failed to fix something, you could indeed be responsible.

But that's not the position your national leaders are in. Joe Biden does not do maintenance on Ohio trains, nor is he anywhere in the management structure of the company that oversees maintenance on Ohio trains, nor does he carry out oversight of national train maintenance.

And not only that, but the Obama-era safety regulation that Trump scrapped and that the Democrats have not reinstated would have made no difference to this particular event anyway, because the train did not meet the hazard staus that required the additional brake technology.

There are some things that are so important they are not allowed to go wrong ever.

And it doesn't matter how much effort the politicians and companies put in, it just takes one engineer, driver etc. having an off-day or even an off-minute to end up with a crash. There are some things that will inevitably go wrong at some point, even if by sheer dumb bad luck. There are so many working parts, individuals and organisations involved in this sort of thing that you have to assume that accidents are inevitable. Occasionally, they are going to involve trains carrying toxic chemicals.

The role of government regulations is to find a reasonable middle point where safety meets a certain standard without incurring such high costs that the thing being regulated becomes economically unviable. Sure, the case may exist for more regulation, but that's not the same thing as the existing regulations being negligently inadequate.
 

Thaluikhain

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And it doesn't matter how much effort the politicians and companies put in, it just takes one engineer, driver etc. having an off-day or even an off-minute to end up with a crash. There are some things that will inevitably go wrong at some point, even if by sheer dumb bad luck. There are so many working parts, individuals and organisations involved in this sort of thing that you have to assume that accidents are inevitable. Occasionally, they are going to involve trains carrying toxic chemicals.

The role of government regulations is to find a reasonable middle point where safety meets a certain standard without incurring such high costs that the thing being regulated becomes economically unviable. Sure, the case may exist for more regulation, but that's not the same thing as the existing regulations being negligently inadequate.
While that is true, it would seem that the US (per capita) has a high number of rail accidents compared to, say, the UK or Australia. At least according to a very brief look, my data might be incomplete.
 

Phoenixmgs

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And not only that, but the Obama-era safety regulation that Trump scrapped and that the Democrats have not reinstated would have made no difference to this particular event anyway, because the train did not meet the hazard staus that required the additional brake technology.
Don't forget the Obama administration exempted trains carrying said chemicals from being classified as a high hazard flammable train.
 

Ag3ma

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Don't forget the Obama administration exempted trains carrying said chemicals from being classified as a high hazard flammable train.
I think you mean that the train did not meet the criteria for high hazard flammable under the Obama-era law. "Exempted" implies that it did meet the criteria, but was for some reason excused normal standards.
 

Ag3ma

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saw something relevant to the 'limited political capital' argument:
...
A Republican during the Trump administration proposed a bill to reinstate Obama administration rail safety rules.
Yes, thank you for demonstrating exactly what happens to bills without political capital: they die unfulfilled.
 

crimson5pheonix

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Today in "Why liberals are as bad as conservatives."
We always talk about "political capital", and I always wonder what people who think hard about this theory think about "how much of it" Biden squandered sidestepping Joe Manchin to give his war crime friend a job way at the start of his presidency.