This is a more thorough and expert-level treatment of the East Palestine derailment than anything I would be able to muster.

Maintenance and systems control failures were my immediate assumptions.

Corollary - it is remarkably easy to induce the latter through SCADA attacks.

https://twitter.com/AnneNJunod/status/1625675148505530368

Another expert on the issue of supply chains, infrastructure, and national security - @JoshuaSteinman - frequently discusses the risk of covert or overt attacks on US logistics and energy infrastructure.

It also continues to be a leading concern of military/intel officials.

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧

The axis of the world turns upon control of four resources:

Protein
Water
Energy
Firepower

The first is the subject of this thread.

China's enormous population demands massive amounts of protein.

And a war is on for it.

1/ Christmas Eve 2013, panicked calls to logistics managers working in the grain industry began flooding in.

Without notice, China had banned the import of any corn or corn co-product that contained more than a tiny trace of Syngenta's MIR162 transgenic trait.

2/