• @Warl0k3
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    -102 months ago

    He was (famously) a fairly high-ranking McKinsey consultant, which is a bit old news but it still baffles me how openly corrupt our political situation is that he was afforded a cabinet position. But on a more recent note, his absolute failure to do anything, including public health announcements, for a full week after the East Palestine derailment. when his office knew there were serious public health concerns has directly lead to the death of a family member. Admittedly that family member was an idiot, but an idiot with fragile health due to an organ transplant. I don’t know if a prompt response would have convinced them to leave or wear a mask or something, but holy fuck is it inexcusable that Buttigieg waited so long to warn nearby residents of the danger.

    • @[email protected]
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      122 months ago

      He was (famously) a fairly high-ranking McKinsey consultant

      Lmao this was his first job after he graduated from Oxford, when he was 25. “Fairly high-ranking” my ass.

      He got a cabinet position because he was a popular candidate for the Democratic nomination in 2020 and he’s smart as a whip with a tongue to match. There are few people who are more competent the role, and whatever nefarious thing you think is happening is based entirely on your feelings.

      Also the US DOT doesn’t have the authority to issue health warnings, so your anger there is misplaced.

      • @Warl0k3
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        2 months ago

        Where are you getting the DOT thing from? DOT incident response is the group responsible for urgent public health announcements from transit related accidents. They may have been coordinating with the EPA, but even from the article the other user cited talks about what I’m saying happened here:

        The head of the National Transportation Safety Board said recently that her agency’s investigation showed that the vent and burn of the vinyl chloride was unnecessary because the company that produced that chemical was sure no dangerous chemical reaction was happening inside the tank cars. But the officials who made the decision have said they were never told that.

        I’m just so lost about where this is coming from.

        Edit: Seriously, this comment is just about citing the sources for my criticism of buttigieg. I’m so damn lost as to why it appears to be controversial.

    • EleventhHour
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      62 months ago

      The EPA is responsible for announcing environmental threats to public health, not the Department of Transportation. Buttigieg had nether the authority nor remit to make such an announcement.

      Place your blame where it belongs, and, in the meantime, educate yourself on the functions of our governmental departments.

      • @Warl0k3
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        2 months ago

        Okay, you can’t be serious with this one. DOT releases time-sensitive public health information all the time. The EPA is in no way the sole agency responsible for this - BLM, OSHA, 911 dispatch, hell even the parks department are empowered to give public warnings. He absolutely has the authority and remit to have made this announcement. His agency is specifically tasked with public health warnings for transit accidents. It’s literally their job. That’s what DOT placards are about.

          • @Warl0k3
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            -62 months ago

            I’m sorry but… That isn’t even slightly relevant here. That’s an article about an entirely separate agency, it’s got nothing to do with DOT incident response, it’s talking about community health reporting. It even brings up the issue of medical under-reporting being the used justification for not declaring a public health emergency in the aftermath.

            • EleventhHour
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              2 months ago

              This goes back to the problem of you only seeing what you wish to see, as I mentioned in an earlier comment.

              The article discusses who had authority and who didn’t and why. If you fail to comprehend that, that’s your own problem, but it doesn’t magically make you correct.

              • @Warl0k3
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                -42 months ago

                I’ve read the article though, and the only section discussing immediate incident response is about how the governor and fire chief claim they weren’t told that they didn’t need to burn it, which (if you believe them) supports what I’m saying.

                • EleventhHour
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                  32 months ago

                  This goes back to the problem of you only seeing what you wish to see, as I mentioned in an earlier comment.

                  The article discusses who had authority and who didn’t and why. If you fail to comprehend that, that’s your own problem, but it doesn’t magically make you correct.

                  • @Warl0k3
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                    2 months ago

                    But it… doesn’t talk about that at all? Seriously, you’re being a huge dick to me about all this, but once again it’s just not in there. The closest we get is this:

                    Officials also believed the agency had enough authority to respond to the derailment without declaring an emergency.

                    Which is discussing long term incident response, as clarified in another article on the same topic from The Independent:

                    The aftermath of last year’s fiery train derailment in eastern Ohio doesn’t qualify as a public health emergency because widespread health problems and ongoing chemical exposures haven’t been documented, federal officials said.

                    It doesn’t talk about the immediate incident response, the thing I’m criticizing Buttigieg for.

                • @Warl0k3
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                  -52 months ago

                  The rest of it is discussing aftermath management, which is reasonable to go through the EPA and is not at all what I have an issue with (though, I’d be very curious about the healthcare access for residents, as it would illuminate if the residents are simply attributing normal illness to the crash or if the EPA’s lack of a response due to medical under-reporting is a poor strategy to take in long term management of public health incidents like this)