The cost

[digitaldiscipline]

A friend ruminated Twitterwise about the wildly disparate social attention being paid two of the big news items this week: the Marathon bombing, and the explosion of a chemical plant in Texas (we won't get into the hushed, bipartisan passage of CISPA or the relaxing of transparency for congressional stock trades, because fuck those people).

We know the name(s) of at least one of the Chechen bomb suspects, but has anyone heard the name of the company that owns the chemical plant that killed ten times as many people? It was notably absent from the coverage I caught on my morning commute (NPR's Morning Edition, 715-745 EDT)

I have a theory. It comes back around to privilege, because of course it fucking does.

When the cause of a dramatic negative event is an individual or relatively powerless group, it is easy to vilify and persecute them and run them to ground.

When the cause is evidence that industry deregulation compounded by cavalier disregard for safety inspections, as seems to be the case with the plant explosions, nobody, especially proponents of the "free market" want to hear word one about it, and the myth of the "liberal media" is complicit in allowing this narrative to go unreported and unchallenged.

This is what freedom from government oversight results in: death and carnage as the byproducts of greed and obeisance to the almighty fucking god of profit at all costs.

THIS IS THE FUCKING COST.

Comments

[jola.livejournal.com]

AMEN (sadly).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who is busy inspecting videos of the explosion to find evidence that it's part of a government conspiracy.

I wish I were joking.

[emzebel.livejournal.com]

I wish I was surprised.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

It's the West Fertilizer Company (aka West Chemical and Fertilizer Company, aka Adair Grain, Inc.). I, too, was listening for the name of the company & had a hard time catching it. But I think it's because the name of the town is confusing right off the bat (see my confusion (http://angledge.livejournal.com/304505.html) over West, Texas vs. West Texas from long ago) & the story was about fertilizer in West. Things were described as "east of" and "west of" the plant. It's just a confusing language situation.

What I find more amazing is that this plant was allowed to file a Community Right-to-Know Plan (http://data.rtknet.org/rmp/rmp.php?facility_id=100000135597&database=rmp&detail=3&datype=T) that said there was no risk of an explosion. No risk? With ammonium nitrate? Doesn't anyone remember the Murrah Building (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_P._Murrah_Federal_Building)? Or better yet, the Texas City fertilizer explosion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Disaster), still the worst industrial accident ever in US history? I am disappointed - yet unsurprised - that they were allowed to get away with such a ridiculous RTK filing. And, as expected, it's the uninformed volunteer firefighters who paid the price for West Fertilizer Company's misinformation.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Just so. The ownership is being allowed to circle their wagons under the radar because small town pro business texas something something, instead of being marched to the town square and held to account.

Finding the people responsible should be trivial. Their name is on paperwork. Their negligence (at best), avarice, and lies (at worst) have killed dozens of people.

But instead, the nation focuses on the CSI episode rolling out of Massachusetts, because it's exciting and dramatic.

[angledge.livejournal.com]

Actually I just read their RMP filing & it doesn't even mention that there's ammonium nitrate at the facility. It focuses on anhydrous ammonia. That's just CRAZY.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose your department has a "flay" option?

[angledge.livejournal.com]

My department? I'm a consultant, not a regulator. We only flay clients who don't pay us.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

Well, dang.

[lil-m-moses.livejournal.com]

Well, FWIW, anhydrous ammonia is also some dangerous shit, and a lot less stable. It may not explode (or maybe it will...I'm not a chemist), but it'll kill you just as dead, and spread farther as a gas. Basically, it reacts very aggressively with all water it can find, like on all your mucus membranes, to form regular ammonia, which will chemically burn your eyes, nose, throat, and lungs. "Ammonia" is a dirty word at my workplace, and the safety people freak the fuck out if you're using it, even in small quantities in a lab, and even if it's not anhydrous and lower concentration than the stuff you can buy in the cleaning aisle in the grocery store.

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Yep. This is my surprised face.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

The fertiliser plant explosion was the main story on BBC Radio 4's Today programme the day it happened (the serious news nerd's start to the day). I'm not at my sharpest at that hour, but I don't think they named the company either.

[cheez-ball.livejournal.com]

I'll be in Waxahachie, TX this weekend so I'll be driving right past West. We usually stop there for kolaches because they are awesome.

The news here has been different. Everyone knows the name of West Fertilizer. Everyone knows the names of the schools and senior homes destroyed. They know because they're worried to death about their families and acquaintances there. They're still pulling the dead from the site. People are still missing (60, at last count). People are still in various hospitals.

The fact that the last OSHA inspection was 19-fricking-85!!!! is all over the news. So is the lack of sprinklers, alarms, levies, and other required safety features.

In addition to that we have the bloo-bloo-bloo'ers getting all 'Murika over immigration and saying that everyone in Boston needs a gun. Cause...'Murika.

AND we've got an anti-gubmint governor demanding emergency assistance for West.

It's probably a very good thing I'm super busy this week and next. No time to watch the news or spare much attention for facebook.

I'll say a couple of things for what's going on. Not necessarily the news coverage because I've got different sources that you're never going to see on the news.

1. Had DHS not existed and had we not done everything we did following 9/11 (particularly with the installation of security SOPs for large gatherings - NOT referring to the Patriot Act) I can only imagine how much worse the Boston bombings would be. 3 lives lost, all the instant the bombs went off, and more than 100 released from the hospital the next day. That is AMAZING with all things considered.

2. I'm kind of amazed the West explosion is getting so much less national news coverage. I guess to an outsider a big boom (there's video online) isn't as sensational as a shootout. But as of right now 12 people are dead. In a town with only 2,200 residents more than 100 are now homeless, including many elderly. And the entire thing happened as a direct result of negligence on the part of West Fertilizer, and deregulation, and loss of funding to the agencies responsible for overseeing this stuff. NOBODY, outside of the usual ones, is discussing that aspect here. However every single business is doing those percentage of proceeds and profit share things "for West".

[dawaioser.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Thank you.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

*nod*