Maddow at her most brilliant —
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
It’s about the lengths to which Republicans will go — including trashing the economy and opposing their own policies — to hurt the Obama Administration.
Elsewhere — Eric Cantor would reap a windfall from one of his investments if the U.S. goes into default.
I don’t believe I have purchased or consumed any product made by the Hormel Corporation in many years, but after I read this I checked the brand names listed at the corporate website to be sure. The company may be more humane to the animals it slaughters than to its workers.
I believe Smithfield is just as bad as Hormel.
I haven’t knowingly bought a Smithfield product in over a decade, once I found out how bad their labor practices were. Smithfield also has a restaurant chain that serves Southern staples, and co-workers were amazed when I refused to join them if that’s where they were going. I told them about their attrocious labor record – but, they went and had their beloved ribs, chops, BBQ anyway.
Smithfield has their own medical facilities at their plant in NC, so that any injuries, or other incidents, including exposure to harmful chemicals, can be handled there, and not taken to an emergency room – except under the most extreme circumstances. This way, they could under-report to any state (HA!) and federal agencies.
I used to drive by there frequently, whenever I had to go to Wilminton from Fayetteville. The stink was aweful. I always felt sorry for people whose circumstances forced them to work there.
I know someone who is suing them. Her husband had abandoned her and her young daughter, and she was desperate for a job, so she took one cleaning at the Smithfield plant. In less than 6 months, her lungs were ruined by the cleaning agents. And thought she kept complaining about difficulty breathing, they kept taking her to their facility at the plant and tellling her that there wasn’t anything wrong with her.
She now suffers from chronic and devastating lung disease, while trying to raise her daughter. Fortunately, last I heard (about 9 months ago) she still had a job at the telecommunications company that I worked for. She’s trying desperately to hold on to that job. I’ll have to give her a call to see how she’s doing.
There’s a reason why people of the Jewish and Muslim faiths follow Kosher and Halal diets which forbid pork – I believe originally it was the fear of trichinosis. Now, maybe we should avoid eating it due to ‘tricky’ labor practices.
I checked the Smithfield brand names. I don’t believe I have bought any Smithfield Foods products for a long time, either. However, Smithfield has a subsidiary that is a major supplier to U.S. agribusiness, so it’s impossible to get away from them entirely unless you are growing all of your own food. This is true even if you avoid meat.
It’s all true, of course. Anyone who has spent any time at all observing the doings of government, particularly federal government, but not exclusively, has to know this.
It’s all amazingly depressing. Somewhere I read today that liberals need their own tea party. Certainly, we need to think about doing something in addition to being agreeable and reaching across the aisle.
I think it summarizes everything awesome and horrifying about American industrial agriculture to think that a corporation has found a product in ‘pig brain slurry’, and is harming workers to produce it.
maha,
Yeah, I know. They do all sorts of things beyond pork.
That’s why I put “knowingly,” because, I think our banks and financial institutions learned a lot from the military and agri businesses, whose parts/ingedients are spread out all over the country, and then assembled somewhere else, frequently under many different alias’s.
You’re right though, you can’t avoid these companies unless you grow your own fruits and vegetables, and maybe take a goat off of ‘goatherd’ for the meat.
I just can’t see myself ever killing and butchering an animal for meat. That goat would just end up being the most spoiled and well-fed lawn-mower in history.
I see most of the comment thread is about meatpackers and their dubious products and practices; I would just like to talk about the first minute or so of Rachel’s video.
There are periods in history when the parties mostly work together, each being a kind of a loyal oppositio. There are other periods when comity is lost, and one party is plainly out to destroy the other, to grab all the marbles. We’re obviously in such a latter period. Sadly the Ds have either yet to realize this, or adopt tactics befitting this shift. The less a party is able to come to terms with this sea change, the more they risk becoming irrelevant and disappearing. It’s just the nature of the game.
Yes, moonbat, I think Rachel and Chris Hayes, had it right when they were saying that the Republicans have the safety net in their sights. I think they’re going after a big prize and if they get their way there’s going to be hell to pay.
Cundgulag– They do like to be well fed lawn mowers. –Also an acquaintance of mine had to cull her herd of sheep and contacted some “processors” who followed the strict Halal rules. She said that their methods seemed as humane as possible and that in the end she was certain that she had made a good decision. When they slaughter an animal it is supposed to suffer no fear or pain and is to have no inkling that it is going to die. I think Temple Grandin would probably approve. — As I get older I try to shift more toward a vegetarian diet, but, when I do eat meat, I’d like to think that the animal was not mistreated. (Yeah I know, good luck with that.)
I buy chicken and occasionally, meats from a grocery owned by a Mexican friend of mine. He buys from small local farms, so at least, they are not “factory farmed”. He always wants to buy some bucklings from me in kidding season. But, so far, I just can’t do it.
Remember that old East European joke? How do they slaughter chickens in the Soviet Union? They starve them to death.
goatherd,
LOL!
But don’t let Brezhnev hear that, or you’ll be in Siberia where there are plenty of ‘Three Goat Nights’ – and the goats you’ll need will be on some all-male collective farm dodging horny young kolhozniks.
goatherd – a friend of mine, living in the densely populated San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles wanted to buy a goat, to keep her lawn in check. She checked the ordinances, and found it was OK, if you had at least 17,000 sq ft of lawn (she didn’t). Apparently somebody did the math on how much these critters can eat. Incidentally, it’s OK to keep chickens here (and some people do).
After reading the piece about Hormel & QPP, I, after years of watching scumbag CEOs, still cannot comprehend how cruel and heartless an executive can be.