Their entire strategy relies on convincing their base they are victims

An update on the train derailment and toxic spill in East Palestine, Ohio. A week ago Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported the crew spotted a problem and started stopping the train, but it was already too late. There are sensors along the tracks can detect the kind of problem – a hot wheel bearing – this train had. Fifty miles before the wreck the bearing was 38 degrees above air temperature. Forty miles before it was 103 degrees above, but still below the 170 degrees that would set the alarm. At twenty miles before the sensor detected 253 degrees above air temp and the alarm was triggered and the engineer began to slow the train. At that twenty mile sensor there was already a visible glow at the problem bearing. Clawson doesn’t get into this: I did the math. If the train was going 47 mph when the alarm went off it would take 25 minutes to go 20 miles, longer as the train slows. Does it really take more than 25 minutes to stop a train? Or did the alarm not prompt sufficient urgency? The train union workers say that the wayside sensors can supplement human inspections, but they’re being used to replace human inspections. Norfolk Southern, the rail company in this case, says its safety procedures are adequate. Rail may be the safest form of transportation, but that excuse shouldn’t block efforts to make it safer, though company action has been making it less safe. The Environmental Protection Agency has stepped in to ensure the cleanup is done properly. If NS doesn’t do it right the EPA will, then bill NS for up to three times the cleanup cost. Dartagnan of the Kos community reported that the nasty guy had shown up with his own brand of bottled water to make himself the center of attention. Also, Gov. Mike DeWine had at first rejected Biden’s offer of assistance. Then Dartagnan discussed:

Yet few have bothered to point out just how clearly this incident—and more importantly, its fallout—exemplifies the Republican Party’s attitude toward its own voter base. Because their real legislative aims—such as they are—are generally unpalatable to most voters, Republicans’ entire strategy towards their base now relies on convincing them that they are victims. Increasingly, this strategy seeks to portray red voters as victims of reverse racism. It’s a matter of insinuating that Democratic policies invariably favor those who Republican voters are taught to regard as undeserving: Black people, Latinos, the LGBTQ community, women, and undocumented immigrants, among others. But the reality, never acknowledged, is that GOP voters are more often than not victims of Republicans’ own policies, writ large over decades throughout American society—and now an especially permanent feature of the so-called “red state” rural landscape. ... The East Palestine disaster sits at the ugly intersection where the so-called “populism” of the Republican Party collides with the reality of their policies. Republicans who now belatedly point fingers at Norfolk Southern for the toxic train derailment—or worse, at the Biden administration for its response—have simply forfeited their credibility on such matters. In fact, they did so when they consciously elected to prioritize corporate interests and corporate profits over measures (through regulation and otherwise) that would protect American citizens. The only “abandonment” that happened in East Palestine is the conscious abandonment by the GOP of any interest in the general welfare of the American public, including any concerns for the health and safety of their own voter base. And that ship sailed a long, long time ago.

On reading a tweet by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that fumed that Biden went to Ukraine and not East Palestine, Kelly quoted Ron Filipkowski:

OHIO: GOP Gov GOP Senate GOP House Train derails in GOP county Train CEO is a GOP donor GOP Gov burns chems causing disaster GOP Gov initially refuses to declare disaster Republicans – It’s all Democrats fault.

Lalo Alcaraz of the Kos community posted a cartoon that includes smoke labeled “Trump era safety deregulation” coming from a train crash. A maiden is tied to the tracks looking up at the nasty guy saying, “Help has arrived” as he offers a roll of paper towels. In response to Tucker Carlson of Fox News saying “East Palestine is being neglected because they’re white,” Adam Zyglis tweeted a cartoon wondering, “How do these FOX pundits keep a straight face?” Beside Carlson and those words are two laughing black people, one wearing a New Orleans shirt, the other wearing a Flint, MI shirt. For many years I read the Dilbert comic strip written by Scott Adams. I worked in a corporate cubicle farm he wrote about. But after a while I got tired of his constant dreariness. I stopped reading when I heard he was strongly conservative. A week ago OK Dodo of the Kos community wrote that Adams, in his podcast, went on a racist rant. Included was Adams advising white people to get away from black people (using much stronger language). In the opinion of Mark Sumner of Kos the Dilbert strip hasn’t been funny in quite a while. And Adams has increasingly shown himself to be drifting further right, even becoming a strong supporter of the nasty guy. In that time papers starting dropping Dilbert. Then the day after Adams released his podcast a lot of newspapers and newspaper conglomerate companies dropped the strip. That essentially ended Dilbert. Oddball Longfellow tweeted:

Scott Adams Says cancellation of his cartoon strip Dilbert signals that free speech in America is under assault. No, Scott, your free speech rights aren't being violated. It's just that people think you're an asshole — and they're showing you the door.

Longfellow included an XKCD that amplifies that sentiment. Back at the 100th anniversary of the birth of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz near Thanksgiving I included the story that when Schulz introduced Franklin, a black boy, several papers asked him to change it and he refused, threatening to stop drawing the strip. Ted Littleford tweeted a cartoon in which Franklin has a few things to say to Dilbert:

You know how to define progress? When Charles Schulz drew me in 1968, newspapers threatened to drop “Peanuts” because they were racist. Today, newspapers are dropping you because you’re racist.

In the two years I lived in Germany I saw the Carnival parades can be quite political. These parades are held on Rose Monday, two days before Ash Wednesday. That is the start of Lent in which many believe frivolity should be set aside. So Carnival is one last big party before the long Lenten season. Deccan Herald has photos of this year’s Düsseldorf parade, which has the reputation for being strongest in mocking world political leaders. There is Putin in a bathtub of Ukrainian blood. Putin kissing the devil. Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group that has been attacking Bakhmut, finding Nazis all across Europe. Robert Habeck of the Green Party trying to swallow policies he would decry when in opposition. And a few more. Keefknight of Kos Comics tacked the saying “Racism will go away when all the old people die off!” It’s a sentiment I’ve heard a few times related to LGBTQ oppression. But racism (and oppression in general) is a systemic thing that outlives the folks who sustain and perpetuate it. So when he hears that statement he hears a person declaring they don’t want to be the one to do the work to change things. Joan McCarter of Kos wrote about Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Independent Angus King of Vermont supporting a Republican scheme to cut Social Security. This at a time when Biden has been criticizing Republicans use of false information in their efforts to cut the program. So why is Kaine on the side of Republicans? McCarter then took statistics from Americans For Tax Fairness:

As of Feb. 28, anyone making more than $1 million had paid all of their Social Security taxes for the year, because the payroll tax cap is set at $160,200. After someone earns that, everything else they earn for the whole year is exempted from payroll taxes. The rest of working Americans—94% of us—keep paying that 6.2% payroll tax the rest of the year. Because that is helping our retired loved ones live with at least of modicum of security and comfort. Do we need to look any further for ensuring the future of Social Security than making millionaires and billionaires actually pay their share? Why would we look any further than that?

Another stat: Billionaires stopped paying the first day of the year. Leah McElrath quoted a tweet from Steven Rattner, the former head of the Obama Auto Task Force and now a Morning Joe Economic Analyst. Rattner included a chart showing polling data back to 1984, saying:

71% of Americans think the US should spend more on "assistance to the poor" ... but call it "welfare" and that number drops to 30%

McElrath added:

Republicans have spent decades falsely characterizing social “welfare” programs as something used only by non-whites.

I’ve written about the number of books I read last year (46) and that I have a shelf in a closet full of books yet to read (I figure I’ll read them all by October, if I don’t buy more, which I will). So I am amused by a tweet McElrath quoted. It’s by Wendell Albright, and says:

Native English speaker but I love the Japanese word tsundoku, meaning acquiring books and letting them pile up without reading them.

That prompted Anne to respond:

I feel like I've suffered from a form of Tsundoku most of my life. For me, there's almost nothing worse than having nothing to read, so always having books to choose from soothes my soul. It's why I love libraries & bookstores. New worlds, new people, new adventures await!

I make sure I have books to read – and I read them (well, a few have been on the shelf for decades). Perhaps I should do something with the piles of books in my basement that I’ve read.