The editors of The New York Times recently
recited a litany of actions taken by the hirelings of Caesar
Disgustus “allowing self-regulation contrary to evidence and
experience.”
The editors noted that this maladministration “is
seeking to roll back some of the stringencies imposed on offshore oil
drilling after the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico in
April 2010. Before the blowout, which caused the largest maritime oil
spill in American history, the government allowed oil companies to
inspect and certify the safety of their own equipment. In the
aftermath, the Obama administration required the use of third-party
inspectors approved by the government. The proposed rule would let
companies choose their inspectors.
“Similarly, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted
this year to reverse some safeguards imposed on nuclear power plants
following the march 2011 tsunami that caused a meltdown at the
Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan. And Annie Caputo, a member of the
commission, told industry executives last month that she was open to
letting plants assume responsibility for some safety inspections.”
(1)
This comes on the heels of regulatory changes putting
lead back into bullets, re-introducing asbestos into the environment,
embracing coal and the fossil fuel industry generally, reversing
Obama-era regulations banning a chemical known to cause brain damage
in children in the popular weed-killer Round Up, relaxing
restrictions on off-shore oil drilling and, recently, lifting
environmental safeguards on over seven thousand miles of inland
rivers. These are just the tip of the iceberg, as the troglodytes
manning the 'ship of state' scour the decks seeking to destroy
anything that smacks of sound public policy. Now comes an attempt to
restore to the pork industry responsibility for monitoring the
slaughterhouses.
The editors note that the Clinton Administration
approved a pilot plan to allow five hog plants to implement
self-regulation, adopting a temporary experimental program that has
somehow lasted “two decades without proving that it works”.
(2)
Indeed, “(I)n 2013, the Agriculture Department's
inspector general reported that the pilot program had not
demonstrably improved food safety. In response, the government
defended the new system as no worse than the old one.
“But there is some evidence of increased risk. Last
year the nonprofit Food & Water Watch used the Freedom of
Information Act to obtain more recent inspection records for the
plants in the pilot program. It found 22 instances between 2012 and
2016 in which companies were cited by the remaining federal
inspectors for failing to identify and remove from the slaughter line
a hog carcass that could cause food poisoning” (3)
Removing federal inspectors will save an estimated 6.4
million dollars a year, according to The Times, with increased
profits accruing to the industry of an estimated 47.3 million. But
that's “because slaughterhouses would be allowed to move hogs
down the line at even higher speeds”, (4) making life more
difficult to those working in the slaughterhouses. Ghosts of Upton
Sinclair loom in the wings as we are once again approaching The
Jungle.
Welcome to the nineteenth century where every
Capitalist's wet dream is realized. A behavioral sink where
dog-eat-dog competition creates a race to the bottom in a
no-hold-barred struggle for existence with an eviscerated government
that cannot call the capitalist to account. This is where the
bastard populist is leading us as all the while he promises to defend
the middle class and 'Make America Great Again'.
An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh
Impeach and Imprison
______________________- Editors. “You Say Industry Can Regulate Itself? Prove it” The New York Times. Friday, April 12, 2019. Page A22.
- Ibid
- Ibid
- Ibid
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