4 ms·

Did it “stall?” Did they “blast the industry?” Because they cashed their checks. https://www.opensecrets.org/industries//summary?cycle=All&ind=m04 https://ww

• refulgentis 3y ago
  Who is they? Legitimately: I can't figure out if I'm accessing the links wrong on mobile, or if they shape shifts across the 3 links
  • rhcom2 3y ago
    Members of Congress
    • happytiger 3y ago
      Thanks. I’m not sure if the links are working properly. They are working for me but two of them as very slow loads on my mobile.
• tootie 3y ago
  FTA: "That sentiment, was echoed by U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who sponsored the Rail Safety Act in the Senate and held a virtual press conference this week to talk about the stalled legislation. Both Brown and Kaptur said lobbying groups and major rail companies continue to oppose the legislation, with the industry putting profits over public safety." I mean, you're not exposing some conspiracy. Several Republicans with key committee seats took a ton of money and are now opposing the bill. Voters know who they are and are free to vote them out of office, but they probably won't.
  • happytiger 3y ago
    Disagree. Lobby not party is the driving power here. You should really dig in to understand who’s sponsoring and what the hard issues are vs the soft issues. The bill has moved away from automation improvements and the original bearing failures from the out-of-service hot box monitor that caused the accident in the first place (which would have prevented the accident, there were three engineers on the train and plenty of staff to handle — they just didn’t know there was a problem until too late) and towards staffing improvements and handouts to the railroads vs handouts to railroad unions which is why it’s languishing. It’s very clear that two lobbies are at work here, as the stalemates on the bill have little to do with safety and everything to do with huge costs vs labor wants split right down party lines and exactly aligning to their respective donor interests. When you see the donors interests operate like a zipper on a jacket to split bills, it’s wise to recognize the influence of lobby and not pay too much creed to the color of the jacket, because the jacket pockets full of money are the point. And then add in the historical contexts of the railroad safety program hills of the pst and you can clearly see the outline of the conflict that’s presented is not what it’s about. The biggest biggest divide now is not between the Republicans and the Democrats: it's between the insane and the insufferable. Lubricating pockets makes further rail disasters an almost certainty, and those that hide in partisan politics (which is everyone involved in both parties on this one) are to blame.
• FemmeAndroid 3y ago
  When you filter by election cycle it looks like they aren’t making any huge donations compared to their baseline. Maybe the baseline donations stop things like this, but I don’t think I’d jump to that being the clear reason.
  • happytiger 3y ago
    https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics https://www.opensecrets.org/dark-money/basics I think the Panama papers did that for me. FTX also contributed. And there is plenty more. It’s not like we don’t have enough evidence. I would strongly suggest following the work of one of the last bastions of real independent journalism the ICIJ: https://www.icij.org/ https://www.icij.org/ They are a gift to society and deserve our deepest support.
• hanniabu 3y ago
  > Maybe someone else can provide more context? Corruption
• nitwit005 3y ago
  Corruption isn't exactly required. Congress essentially isn't passing any legislation of any sort.
  • happytiger 3y ago
    That’s super valid as an argument.