AND YET ANOTHER FORGOTTEN CAMPAIGN ISSUE...

       A little over a year ago, the Controlled Opposition Media was foaming with outrage over a railway disaster that occurred in East Palestine, Ohio. The issue disappeared before the off-year elections and hasn't been brought up since, although problems from the chemical spill still exist, and in fact, railway accidents on our freight lines have been on the increase; in fact, there was another spill into a major river just this week. Working conditions on our freight lines have gotten so bad that even the tepid, accommodating railroad workers' unions threatened a strike recently but were vetoed in their attempts by our Corporate-controlled government. Alan Shaw, the CEO of Norfolk Southern, the shipping cartel involved in both accidents received a substantial pay-raise, however.

      Even though both leading Presidential candidates did photo-ops in East Palestine, very little has been said about either the accidents or the massive lay-offs that are sweeping through the industry---at least the subject is not deemed as urgent as defending the shipping cartels' interests in the Red Sea. 

     The aforementioned Norfolk Southern is one of only six shipping monopolies in the United States dominating freight rail. All six have significant lobbying power inside the Beltway, to wit:

     1. Norfolk Southern: $2.4 million in lobbying dollars last year. They maintain 41 lobbyists, of whom 32 are revolving-door former federal bureaucrats, including former US Senators John Breaux and Trent Lott, as well as former Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania, Patrick Meehan. 

     2. Burlington Northern, which is owned by Berkshire Hathaway: $6.9 million spent on 79 lobbyists, 49 of whom are revolvers including former US Senators the aforementioned John Breaux and Tom Daschle, as well as former Republican Congressman from Kentucky, Ed Whitfield.

    3. CSX: $1.7 million, with 15 lobbyists, 13 of whom are revolving-door.

    4. Canadian National: $1.1 million with 20 lobbyists, 13 of whom are revolvers including former Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania Ron Klink and former RNC Chairman, Haley Barbour. 

    5. Canadian Pacific Kansas City: nearly $1 million with 23 lobbyists, 19 of whom are revolvers including former Democrat Congressman from Kansas Jim Slattery.

    6. Union Pacific: $3.3 million with 12 lobbyists, 9 of whom are former Beltway operatives, most prominent of whom is the shady Kirk Blalock. 

    

      Well with about $16 million in lobbying cash and 200 hired henchmen to spread it around, it's no wonder that the Political Class has lost interest in things like railway safety, substandard working conditions, and rising freight costs. On top of this distressing situation, consider that the freight cartels have considerably powerful stakeholders involved in the process too. Let's see:

     1. Norfolk Southern: top shareholders include WEF Top 100 Strategic Partners BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, and Lazard for a combined total of about 17%.

     2. Burlington Northern: is owned by WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner Berkshire Hathaway. Berkshire Hathaway is owned by Warren Buffet, co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

     3. CSX: About 10% is owned by WEF Top 100 Strategic Partners BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase and Merrill Lynch International, a subsidiary of WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner, Bank of America.

    4. Canadian National: top shareholder is the aforementioned Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (and WEF Top 100 Strategic Partner). Others include 'woke' NGO, the TCI Foundation, and the Royal Bank of Canada which played a major role in Tienanmen Trudeau's bloody suppression of the 2022 Truckers' Protest.

    5. Canadian Pacific Kansas City: about 10% is held by the aforementioned TCI group and the Royal Bank of Canada.

   6. Union Pacific: About 10% of stock is owned by BlackRock and BOA's subsidiary, Merrill Lynch.

  So, essentially, BlackRock's Larry Fink, British billionaire Chris Hohn, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jamie Dimon, and Justin Trudeau dominate North America's freight rail system and pay politicians to see to it that nobody gets in their way. One would think that this, too, would be a major campaign issue; but it doesn't appear that anything to do with railways---or infrastructure in general---is a very high priority with the American Electorate. It isn't like when we had a real Conservative movement which believed in free and fair competition and enforcing the law. The Dead White Males who were in charge back then produced a railway system that was the envy of the world with low freight costs and even a stellar passenger service. 

      Today, the massive job cuts, the Corporate looting, and 'woke' ideology has created an atmosphere where increased costs and higher accident rates are inevitable. But the important thing is that we all pretend that it isn't really happening: that farces like Super Tuesday really matter, and voting out the Democrats magically will fix everything.