Tom the Dancing Bug by Ruben Bolling for March 10, 2023

It’s also cheaper to buy politicians who block any regulations.

Except it’s not one town at risk, it’s every town or city or farm that has train tracks through it or near it.

What did they think would happen when the regulations were repealed?

The auto companies tried this with EPA emissions regulations in the 70’s & 80’s. They claimed car prices would increase by over $1000 (20-25% of the cost of a car then) and there would be massive lay-offs. The regulations were enacted, car prices increased only about 2% and thousands of jobs were created producing catalytic converters and other emissions control devices. By the 90’s most car companies realized that it was better to work with the regulators than fight them.

VW didn’t go that rout, they simply cheat the emissions tests. I don’t know why anyone would trust anything from that company.

Regulations and taxes are only for the Lucky Duckies. You can add in laws as well.

And No-F*** Southern just dropped ANOTHER train, this time into the New River in W. Virginia, WITH toxic chemicals…

Norfolk & Waypal!

The cost of the regulations that got rolled back were 1% of the amount the railroads spent on stock buybacks. Stock buybacks are primarily for the C-level types who get a large part of their compensation in stock options. They are in the position to spend any free cash on making their “100,000 shares at X” worth 2X instead of benefiting the business

This was not a regulation failure. This was a mechanical failure due to a bearing on one of the trucks. The real failure is the lack of information about a train’s cargo which should be regulated. Under Federal Motor Carrier regs a truck driver must have a list of his cargo and placards on hazardous materials. Railroads do not do this….tanks are placard but there is no manifest for first responders to access at the scene or even contacting the company. All they can tell you is the number of cars the train is pulling. They nothing as far as what are the contents of the train.

The drug cartel in Mexico, that kidnapped and killed some Americans, apologized faster than the railroad company that had the accident.

I flat out refuse to believe that lucky ducky would ever get a penny from houndsworth.

Don’t you just love capitalism? It’s the best economic system ever. In fact, it’s the only economic system that “works”. Prioritizing profits over LITERALLY anything else? What could go wrong?

……………………….Capitalism #%$*ing sucks.

Capitalism is probably the best way to go to encourage business development. The problem isn’t capitalism. The problem is UNREGULATED capitalism. If everyone is given as much incentive to get rich as possible, more money is going to get into the GNP. The problem is when a person wants money with no responsibility, and is able to use the money to buy votes that allow them to destroy whatever is in their path.

N&S should buy out anyone who wants to move from the region around the toxic crash at the pre-crash value of their home or business!

For-rent Repubs have been tearing down citizen protection for decades now. Why don’t we learn?

I wonder how many people in the U.S. don’t live within a mile of railroad tracks (as the crow flies.)

This is fine.

Not too far off reality, as far as the arguments from Robber Baron Hound. The US Dept of Labor, under Elaine Chao (back in late 2007 and 2008) proposed updating the value of a worker, based on age, income, etc. That was one time that the slow pace of regulation adoption was useful. Usually that slow pace just hurts people. The regulation character must be based on the economists and attorney at the Office of Management and Budget, which makes all agencies come up with cost and benefit data and then usually requires “fixes”.

Or they could have maintained the tracks and not kept the funding out of Ohio.

I think the deaths of more than 40,000 people from earthquake-related building collapse in Turkey should be a worldwide wakeup call that SAFETY IS NOT AN OPTIONAL AFTERTHOUGHT.

I really want Hollingsworth Hound’s last appearance to be a particularly unpleasant one for him.

A pitch like, “We WANT to make our service/product cheaper and safer, but all these dang REGULATIONS prevent it!” shouldn’t work on anyone over the age of six, but here we are.

Cannot see the cartoons from gocomics.