While Americans were celebrating Thanksgiving in preparation for the upcoming Christmas rush, the busiest time of the year that account for 25% and sometimes more of the nation’s economic gains, a time when the trucks roll non-stop from place to place, a series of explosions took place at a major rubber plant in Texas responsible for producing a sizeable amount of the rubber for tires.
Several explosions rocked a TPC Group Southeast Texas chemical manufacturing plant in the hours leading up to Thanksgiving, which could have a profound effect on the production of synthetic rubber used primarily in the automotive industry heading into the end of the year.
There were zero fatalities, but more than 50,000 people within a 4 mile radius of the blast were ordered to evacuate, according to FreightWaves. The first explosion happened at about 1AM on the day before Thanksgiving, injuring three people.
TPC Group said on its website: “TPC Group – is working with the authorities and are forming a team to complete a full investigation and root cause examination once the event has been mitigated.”
There were 30 people at the plant when the first explosion occurred. Additional explosions continued throughout the afternoon of November 27 and fires continued to burn throughout Thanksgiving day. Local officials indicated they intended to let the fire burn out on its own.
Jefferson County (Texas) Judge Jeff Branick said at a press conference: “I don’t think the focus is on putting the fire out, but letting the materials in there burn themselves out.”
Jefferson County is located about 95 miles east of Houston and the plant is located at Port Neches. The city runs “along the Beaumont-Sabine Pass ship channel near the Gulf of Mexico.”
The 218 acre plant produces butadiene and raffinate, and stores a gasoline additive called methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE).
Butadiene is used in synthetic rubber used for tires and automobile hoses and the TPC plant produces about 16% of the continent’s supply. Among TPC’s customers are Firestone Tires, Goodyear Tires and Dow Chemical.
The company’s website says: “Combined production capacity for this facility is more than 900 million pounds per year [of butadiene and raffinate]. Logistics infrastructure capabilities [at the Port Neches site] include pipeline, barge, rail and tank car.”
“TPC has not yet determined the full impact on TPC’s plant, operations or financials. It is not clear at this time for how long the plant will be shut down,” the company concluded. (source)
Now I must be very clear, there is absolutely no proof that either the Chinese or Russians were involved in anything at the current time. I would be wrong to even suggest that there is a modicum of proof even indicating in the slightest that this is so. In fact, the only reason that I mention that the Chinese or Russians may be involved in this is because of the nature of the strike, that both the Chinese and Russians are known enemies of the US, that both would be capable of carrying out such an attack, and that it would serve their interests in doing so as they have already been engaging in military activities across the world. If the US is known to engage in activities in their nations, what is to say that they would not do the same for the US?
This factory, as the story notes, produces 16% of all of the synthetic rubber for North America. The most important use of synthetic rubber is in tires, and specifically, truck tires, which literally keep the trucking industry “rolling”.
The trucking industry is one of the most important industries in the US because while all countries rely on trucks, the US is of unique importance this way because given the road distributions- which were mapped with great efficiency and care when they were designed -are meant to permit for the fast, flexible delivery of goods by truck to all locations. This is what enables the US to have, economically speaking, a strong advantage over other nations such as Russia or China, where long-winding roads and confused laws force transportation either by other means such as rail, or take a long time to deliver by truck. What the Russian or Chinese may take weeks to do, the US can with the combination of roads and highly-organized logistical network do in a matter of hours to a few days.
Say for example there is a truck with a load that needs to get from Seattle to Miami. This is one of the longest driving distances by road in the US. A team of drivers (two people driving) could pick up a load and on their own power, assuming a mostly full drive clock (drivers by law have strict time limits they have to work within, including a reset period of 34 hours they must stop for after their “clock”,which is usually about 70 hours, “runs out” in a week), can get to Miami in two-and-a-half to three days, and a single driver in about five to six days. This assumes standard driving practices. If a skilled dispatcher or fleet manager is in charge, and depending on the size of the company (a mom-and-pop company versus a major trucking line such as JB Hunt or Swift), that dispatcher can “swap” loads with other trucks so to keep that load moving almost non-stop, and realisticially (NOT theoretically) get that same load to Miami in 40 to 50 hours.
Likewise, this does not assume “emergency” conditions, for if a truck is given an exemption from FEMA, drivers can drive beyond their “clock” limits as while drivers need to follow state laws, they are considered Federal Motor Carriers and so at any time, if they want to, the federal government can step in an “seize” control of a trucker’s instructions and tell him what he can and cannot do. This is because as noted above, trucks are considered a mission-critical asset to the US economy.
In fact, trucks are so important that there will never be a serious strike involving the trucking industry because a strike such as this is considered a threat to the economy. If it were to happen, first the government would attempt to force the drivers back to work, and if they did not listen, they would have no problem pulling the licenses of those who did not and then replacing them with the many soldiers who are trained also as truck drivers and have them take up the difference, noting that this is also why so many soldiers are able to drive trucks- because if such a strike were to happen, they would be the ones making deliveries in order to keep the economy in motion.
It is very strange that such a large series of explosions would just happen to take place at one of the most mission-critical factories were so many tires for the US trucking industry are made. This comes at a time when the US is stepping up operations against the Russians in Ukraine and also against China in Hong Kong.
Coincidence? You be the judge. Likewise, remember there is no proof to say that it was or was not any particular group. However, it is very suspicious that at such an economically important time of year, just as it is beginning to get started, and as tires are necessary for getting stuff from one place to another, that one of the largest rubber producers just happens to have not one, but a series of explosions take place at her causing massive fires.
However, one must ask, who would benefit from a strike like this? Certainly while the US is known to attack her own targets, it would not make sense for her to attack a mission-critical asset at a time when her own internal peace in conditional to her waging war against others.
One might say it was a “terrorist” group of people in the US, but for what purpose? Noting that most “terrorist” activity is orchestrated on behalf of governments, one would think such an act to be tied to a government. Likewise, if there really was a domestic group who did this, they likely would have already been identified to the media.
While there are other powerful nations- France, England, Germany, Turkey, India, and Japan -there is no clear reason why they would want to attack the US at all or at this moment. They have the means to do something like this, but it would not benefit them because they directly benefit from the US.
That leaves only two nations- China and Russia -who have the capability, desire, and reason to attack the US in such a way that could damage her mission long-term.
In September 2018, I reported on a series of explosions and fires in northern Massachusetts that was very odd. I noted that given the nature of this and the speed which discussion about it disappeared from social media, that it was possible it may have been an act of terrorism from a foreign government. However, this is only a speculation, as proof cannot be definitively ascertained in it.
As the conflict between the US/NATO-ish allies and Russia/China gets worse, one might expect to see more of such “incidents” take place in the US. They will likely be classified as “accidents”, but just as Jeffrey Epstein’s death was quickly ruled an “accident” even though a lot of people are asking a lot of questions rooted in sound logic and are not receiving any serious answers, so does it seem this will happen with events surrounding situations such as these, which only can bring one to conclude that most likely there is a lot more taking place “behind the scenes” here that suggest a real-time conflict between major world powers that is leading up to a major war.
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