Aspect of the meeting on the 15th between residents and authorities of the East Palestine, Ohio, city council to answer questions about the derailment on February 3 of a freight train belonging to the Norfolk Southern company that was transporting toxic substances.

Several unions had already warned about possible accidents, because while the profits of the railway companies increase, they reduce the personnel in charge of the management and safety of the trains.

Photo: AP.

There are explosions everywhere: toxic clouds, missiles, sabotage with explosives and news that should blow up and, balloons (yes, more balloons).

In a place called East Palestine, but not where explosions are common, but in Ohio, a freight train derailed, leading to explosions of toxic chemicals and the evacuation of hundreds of residents, while polluting water, land and air continues to spread.

It was an accident announced.

Unions and other sectors have been warning that this type of accident was about to happen, while the profits of the seven railway companies are increasing while reducing the staff in charge of the trains (by almost a third) ever longer (the that derailed in Ohio had 151 cars).

In fact, more than 1,000 trains derail each year, and the number is rising along with profits, as companies lobby to further loosen safety regulations.

The famous investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports that it was the United States that committed the sabotage against the Nord Stream gas pipeline, built to transport natural gas from Russia to Europe.

In September last year, gas pipelines were severely damaged by a series of underwater explosions in the Baltic Sea, and the United States and European countries accused Russia of damaging its own handiwork to make Europe suffer over the war in Ukraine (without mention that this would benefit gas exports and transportation from Ukraine).

Hersh claims the sabotage was carried out by the Navy, which planted explosives during NATO military exercises last year, in collaboration with Norway, in an operation authorized by President Joe Biden.

As always, the White House denied Hersh and accused him of fabricating pure fiction, a response much like Hersh's other reporting – including the most famous one on the My Lai massacre in Vietnam – over several decades, which later had to be accepted as truth by the authorities

Meanwhile, the balloon crisis continues – how times have changed, when before there was a missile crisis.

Okay, but the $400,000 missiles each were used to shoot down the dangerous balloons, one of which appears to have been a toy, worth $12.

As they like to say here: these are your taxes at work.

As if this were not enough, the United States, instead of promoting peace, continues to threaten its main geopolitical rival: China, not only accusing it of using balloons to spy on the United States and other countries (how dare they?), but also warning Beijing not to support Moscow, while accusing Russia of crimes against humanity – the rhetoric of war in the name of peace, again.

There are apparently no mirrors in the corridors of power in Washington.

At the same time, there were other things that should have triggered outbursts of anger.

For example, Senator Bernie Sanders' statistic that the 15 hedge fund managers

Wall Street make more money in a year than all the kindergarten teachers in the United States combined, more than 120,000 educators.

Or a piece published in the

with a recommendation: to save money, maybe you should skip breakfast.

Perhaps the richest country in the world should adopt the slogan of one of Lula's electoral campaigns, which was simply to declare three meals a day for everyone as the right.

The $400,000 missiles might be effective against balloons, but this country would be much safer if a little of that world-unmatched military budget of more than $800 billion were put toward its schools and teachers, the security and environmental protection in its transport systems, its basic infrastructure, labor and migration reforms and a health system for all.

(Taken from

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