By: Dennis S
June 1, 2013
Doggone if this ain’t a great time to be rich and powerful. ‘Course
you can’t be one without the other. So for you “blessed” 2%, whatta time
to be alive and a God-fearing, patriotic ‘Merican’ (‘er, white
‘Merican).
In just the last few days, in reading and observing the print,
electronic and Online media, one example after another surfaced that,
jobless rate, starving children, people without health insurance,
stagnant wages, a couple of festering wars, an incendiary middle east,
few new revenues, massive services cuts, an idiotically recalcitrant
Republican party notwithstanding, none of these “conditions” have seemed
to impact the wealthy corporations or individuals in the least.
Take the local financial page headline that caught my eye. “U.S.
banks’ earnings skyrocket.” How’s that for rewarding probably the
sleaziest business sector in all the land for serial mortgage cheating
and lawbreaking during the housing bubble that nearly brought down the
U.S. economy. So while you’re yelling “2 Big Macs to go” just after
moving out of your foreclosed home, the bank big-wig who caused you the
misery of losing your home, is doubtless dining at a 3-star Michelin Red
Guide restaurant in some glamorous European destination instead of
sharing a prison cell with a heavily tattooed gang-banger. One final
thought. A former Federal Reserve Counsel observed, “The divide between
the bigs and everybody else is just enormous.”
“Am proud to be an ‘Merican (‘er, white ‘Merican).”
And for all that talk from low paid Tea Party goobers about how we
overtax the rich, this little two-paragrapher from the financial page:
Wealthier households benefit significantly more than lower earners from
big tax breaks for such deductions as mortgage interest and charitable
giving according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Of the 10 major tax breaks, the top one-fifth of the wealthiest U.S.
households get half of them. Another stat, the top 1% of earners rake in
17% of these breaks. “Am proud to be an ‘Merican (‘er, white
‘Merican).”
Looking at non-’Mericans, who should pop up than the Chinese.
Smithfield Foods Inc. a biggie U.S. pork producer has received a $4.72
billion purchase overture (pending federal review) from Shuanghui
Holdings Ltd. The majority shareholder of China’s largest meat
processor, Shuanghui, that has been in the food safety doghouse since
2011 when it sold pork containing clenbuterol, a chemical that can harm
humans. It’s an odd deal really. Smithfield insists it’s not about
importing the tainted reputation of Shuanghui Chinese pork, but about
exporting. “Yeah, that’s the ticket, we’ll just be exporting; exporting I
tell yuh!”
Smithfield is a beautiful fit with the Chinese, with its infamous
history of fines and questionable business practices. The consumer
friendly site, Food and Water Watch profiled Smithfield a few years ago.
It was a greedy acquisition machine that also sought cheap labor in
Poland and Romania. It is currently the largest hog producer and
processor in the world. At its Utah subsidiary, 500,000 hogs produce 8
times more excrement waste than the entire metro area of Salt Lake City.
At nearly 1,500 owned or contracted farm facilities in North Carolina
(40% of all state hog farmers) millions of gallons of waste have
contaminated area rivers and streams. On many farms, Hogs are kept in
the most inhumane conditions imaginable. They’re housed in brutal and
harmful gestation crates and huge warehouse buildings where the animals
never see the sun and most cannot even turn around.
It should come as no surprise that Smithfield was fined $12.6 million
in 1997 for violation of the Clean Water Act and another $5.4 in 2004.
There have been other fines levied and a recently settled 15-year labor
war. Degradation of the environment, animals and humans is just another
cost of doing business with this outfit.
In 2006, Smithfield attempted to purchase its largest competitor,
Premium Standard Farms. To his credit, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley
objected on antitrust grounds. The antitrust division of the G.W. Bush
Justice Department took up the question. Predictably, the fact that the
new acquisition would make Smithfield larger than the next 8 hog
producers combined was of little concern to the corporate-owned
administration. In 2007, Smithfield was given the green light with no
limitations, although the Obama DOJ ultimately did levy a $900,000
penalty for the action.
Here’s another corporate headline worthy of our attention.To wit:
“Plastics company picks Upstate.” There are about 280,000 solid citizens
in the 807 square mile county of my residence. Over 16% live below the
poverty line and the average per capita wage is in the neighborhood of
$22,000. The first line of the local newspaper account was “A
California-based plastics company is creating jobs in County.” Well,
yes; about 22 jobs over the next four years. And a plastics
manufacturing company? The company, headquartered in California, is
investing a piddling million bucks in the facility. That’s not much for a
manufacturing concern. I wonder how much taxpayer money went for
incentives?
Environmental Health News (EHN) has a wonderful report on the
potential dangers to humans and various species wrought from our huge
reliance on plastics.
EHN’s reports on outcomes of various human and animal studies of
plastic conducted worldwide are concerning. Among the findings is the
unalterable fact that chemicals added to plastics are absorbed by human
bodies and some of these chemicals are nothing to mess with.
Quoting EHN:
“Evidence is mounting that the chemical building blocks that make
plastics so versatile are the same components that might harm people and
the environment. And its production and disposal contribute to an array
of environmental problems, too. Plastic buried deep in landfills can
leach harmful chemicals that spread into groundwater.”
About 93% of you have detectable rates of the chemical bisphenol
(BPA) found in linings of food and beverage cans. BPA can lead to
increases in heart disease and diabetes according to studies cited by
EHN. Other chemicals in the plastic process can bring incalculable harm
to people (especially infants) and the environment. Of course the
goobers could give a s**t less until they’re hooked up to Oxygen and
sucking in 30 meds a day.
Not to worry, goobers; right-wing corporate-worshiping Republican
legislators will see to it that nothing happens to lessen the chemical
threats to the population from the plastics industry.
And finally, one more link in the endless chain of corporate
obscenities. Exxon CEO, Rex Tillerson (who made $35 million in 2011),
sneered at environmental activists who recently requested that the
company reduce emissions from its products. A later shareholder vote
reinforced the CEO’s “let ‘em breathe polluted air” mindset by rejecting
the activist’s environment and people-friendly proposal by a 3-1 vote.
There was another 4-1 vote that made the shareholders look like even
grander fools, but I don’t want to embarrass my fellow humans by making
it public.
And the beat of greedy, irresponsible and indifferent capitalists goes on!
Capitalism Could Use Some Tweaking Unless You Love Starving Children was written by Dennis S for PoliticusUSA.
© PoliticusUSA, Jun. 1st, 2013. All Rights Reserved
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