EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Freight Train Strike: The Biggest Looming Crisis You’ve Heard Almost Nothing About.

We live in a country where the (currently) ruling political party and most of the national media have a symbiotic relationship. (Jen Psaki started work at NBC News this week.) One of the problems with this dynamic is that when the ruling class decides something is important — say, emphasizing the issue of abortion as the midterm elections approach — it tends to squeeze out everything that the ruling party doesn’t want emphasized.

Don’t get me wrong; abortion is a hugely important issue to many Americans. You can read more about the abortion bill South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham proposed yesterday from Alexandra DeSanctis and Charlie Cooke and John McCormick and Kathryn Jean Lopez.

But there are a lot of other things going on in this world, and one issue that seems spectacularly under-covered — a ticking time bomb, if you will — is that starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, about a day and a half from now, if there isn’t a new labor deal between freight-rail unions and employers, the U.S. economy will be . . . derailed.

Maybe there will be an eleventh-hour deal; I suspect many casual observers simply assume that a deal will get done because the consequences of even a brief work stoppage would be so far-reaching. But freight companies are already halting certain shipments in preparation for a potential strike, so in some ways, the consequences of a strike are already here.

Don’t worry though — the DNC-MSM will hold our transportation secretary to the fire if there’s a strike. Or not: Why Buttigieg is sparking 2024 chatter.

UPDATE: Railroad Union Rejects Proposed Labor Deal as Strike Deadline Approaches.

UPDATE (3:05 PM): Amtrak cancels all long-distance routes as strike looms.

UPDATE (5:30 PM):

(Updated and bumped.)