Who Went To East Palestine And Who Didn’t?

Although there were no fatalities, the East Palestine train derailment of February 3 is a major disaster. It is probably more accurate to say there have been no (human) fatalities YET, but with the pollution of local water sources, dead fish, and people reporting sundry medical conditions, it is too soon to state definitely that nobody died on account of it.

The Biden Administration largely ignored it, although that has now changed. Peter Buttigieg is the Transportation Secretary, and he was nowhere to be seen. One pundit said that in Britain, the relevant government official would have been sacked. The reason for the Administration’s disdain isn’t far to seek. East Palestine has a population of less than 5,000. It also has a Republican Mayor, is working class and overwhelmingly white. In short, they are what one apparatchik called the smelly Walmart people. Remember that one, and all the other insults that were lobbed at Trump voters during his turbulent Presidency?

One man who didn’t forget these people, be they Trump supporters or not, was the Don himself. On February 22, he turned up with not only an entourage but a massive supply of bottled water, and treated first responders to a McDonald’s. Trump remains a class act, now if he would only stop attacking Ron DeSantis!

That same night, Pete Buttigieg was buttonholed in the street by a reporter who was actually doing her job. His answers were dismissive and laced with sarcasm, but the next day he turned up at East Palestine, obviously having received a call from the White House or more likely one of his PR people telling him he was looking bad. 

Whether or not he was prompted by the White House, the same White House blamed – yes, you guessed it – Donald Trump for the derailment. This wasn’t quite a Republicans pounce! story but a straight case of passing the buck. You see, if Trump hadn’t deregulated the rail industry, safety standards wouldn’t have been so lax. This completely misses the point because Biden has now been in power for two full years and has been regulating every other industry to death, starting with the energy sector. Remember what he did his very first day in office? Where is Biden now though? He is making a surprise visit to Ukraine, probably to check on his family investments. 

While he was there, would you believe he and Ukrainian leader Zelensky took a calm stroll in public as air raid sirens blared? Dan Bongino wouldn’t, and he is a man who might just know about these things having served as a Secret Service agent under Obama between his first career as a New York police officer and his current one as a media pundit. This was staged, he said, because the President would never have been allowed to take such a walk if there was the slightest danger to him or his entourage. It remains to be seen if he will visit East Palestine; he still hasn’t visited the southern border yet, no matter how many times he says he has.