moldyoldy

Meatpacking companies knew early on in the pandemic that their facilities were hot spots for the coronavirus, but rather than take safeguards to protect their workers, they instead pushed the Trump administration to limit local health requirements and insulate themselves from legal accountability.


A congressional select committee recently issued a report on COVID outbreaks in the meatpacking industry, and their investigation found that industry lobbyists ginned up bogus fears of meat shortages to keep their plants open and force workers back onto the job, despite the health risks, reported MSNBC.


“Now to get rid of those pesky health departments!” one lobbyist told a Koch Foods executive, according to the report.

The companies probably could have kept their facilities open without turning them into COVID factories, according to MSNBC columnist Ryan Cooper, but rather than take countervailing steps to improve ventilation or provide masks to workers, the industry successfully lobbied the Trump administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to overrule local regulations and shield companies from legal liability for worker deaths.


"Sure enough," Cooper wrote, "meatpacking facilities, where workers are commonly immigrants and about 69 percent are nonwhite, have been some of the deadliest places during the pandemic, and workers also spread the virus around their communities. One study found that the presence of a meatpacking plant increased case numbers in U.S. counties by about 160 percent."



Some of the protective measures might have been difficult to implement, although grocery store chains successfully pulled them off, but Cooper said the episode shows that American executives view their workers as "lazy rabble" who must be coerced into work and then discarded, and "pseudo-populists" like Trump help them get away with it.

"It’s an illustration of the fundamentally fraudulent nature of Trump-style 'populism,'" Cooper wrote. "He and his party might rail against 'globalist' bankers, corporate fat cats or slanted trade deals and occasionally might even make some token policy gesture in that direction. But when corporate profits — or capitalists’ control of their workforces, especially diverse ones — are on the line, then Donald Trump and his goons have their backs, always."

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

All of it true and verifiable-- let people do their own research-- look in the daily congressional record-- we all know the truth from bull dinky. You know-- snide comments and fanciful embellishments in addition to statements about the facts.

Bevvy

WHAT DID YOU SAY ABOUT BIDEN populism fraudulent

Justice101

Sonny Magoo Loc: Where pot pie is boiled in a kettle

The whole plandemic is blowing up.
Places that ignored the government and went about BUSINESS, got Covid-19 and spread it are done with it. It's now the common cold to them.
Look no further than the Pennsylvania Amish community.
Even Fraudulent Fauci has now admitted
"Everyone will get Covid-19 "
So get it and forget it.

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Where is a link proving what you say is true? Missing. The Left is famous for lying and half-truths. Especially your president and his followers. Plus he doesn't follow the Constitution as to religion, guns, free speech, or protecting our nation.

moldyoldy

Whose religion should dominate in America?

moldyoldy

Good link

Redfield was sitting in the White House when he instructed his staff to change a series of safety recommendations to suggestions, adding dozens of qualifiers such as “if feasible” and “not required.” He turned to a West Wing aide and told her the edits came directly from Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

***Trump populism fraudulent
>>>biden populism fraudulent, even more fraudulent, and really has no reason to exist even if it does.

LogicallyRight Loc: Chicago

MINE

moldyoldy

None

Strycker Loc: The middle of somewhere else.

Originally written by a MSNBC opinion contributor so of course it has to be true.

manning5 Loc: Richmond, VA

manning5 Loc: Richmond, VA

As an ordinary citizen, I cannot sort out anything but the number of people that contracted C-19, the number that died, that there is a shot that supposedly protects us yet may be even deadlier, that we are bombarded in all directions with does and don'ts, that many key national players have been at odds with each other as to what to do, and that blame-seekers are in full pursuit of targets for their ire. So is the common public, both from the left, center, and right.

The moving parts of this witch-hunt appear to be Trump, Pence, Fauci, Brix, Redfield, senior scientists at CDC, Biden, Harris, a gaggle of doctors with opposing opinions, and the partisan public. So:

Masks are good; masks are useless,
Social distancing is good; social distancing is useless,
Vaccines are good; vaccines are bad, bad, bad.
Isolation stops the spread; isolation has had no real effect and is horrible for the economy.
Trump is to blame say all lefties; Fauci is to blame say righties; Redfield is to blame along with Pence,
Doctors have been all over the place; this medicine is good; that medicine is bad; no, both are good; no, both are bad. Take this one early; no, take it late; no, don't take it!
Biden has been ineffective; Biden has been good. Harris has been(?), what?
Illegal immigrants, all two million of them are healthy; many of them are really sick and spread C-19 also. They should be stopped; no, let'em all come!
C-19 is waning; oh, but Omicron is waxing; nah! another variant is the real threat.

Now we have a resurgence of C-19 and have passed the one million deaths mark.
and on and on.
WTF?

The safest option seems to be to hide at home with a do not enter sign at the door! Then watch the economy and the nation come apart: no food, no production, no money, nothing but what you and I have in the house right now.

Coos Bay Tom Loc: coos bay oregon

Thanks for your vote of confidence. Your sarcasm is very apparent and your message most appreciated.