On Your Own Governor!

The governor of Maryland, Republican Larry Hogan, obtained 500,000 coronavirus test kits from South Korea. Nothing surprising about that in this era of Trump. Trump has told the states that they are responsible for getting their own coronavirus stuff - tests (even though Trump lied when he said that anyone who wanted a test could get one), ventilators, personal protective equipment, and one imagines even toilet paper. Because, as the unelected Jared Kushner explained earlier in the thousand day month of April, the Federal Stockpile is not for the states but for “us.”  The “us” being the feds? Which is all of us, right? Or did he mean “us” as in just true believers of Trump?  

Well, in light of that comment, states started ignoring the Federal government and just went out and ordered their own stuff. Except, that wasn’t cool. The Feds didn’t like that so they started confiscating the stuff ordered by the states.  Wonderful. That’s why Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, my home state, had to get Robert Kraft to fly his own plane to China to get masks. Earlier, Baker had ordered a shit ton of masks but instead of getting those for his citizens, the masks were seized by the Feds. Noone really knows who, but many are guessing FEMA. Like the many people Trump is always referring to in support of one lie or another. Nobody really knows where those masks are now because there is no transparency with this administration despite the constant comments from Trump that his administration is the most transparent ever. I think he doesn’t know what transparent means. My guess is that FEMA took all the stuff and sent it to some red state instead of to Massachusetts, a blue state. 

Massachusetts and other blue states are kinda like Ukraine after all. If you want stuff from the Feds you gotta play nice with Trumpelstilzchen, who made this perfectly clear in a news conference yesterday. He told reporters that he would consider funding “Democrat states,” “if we do that we’re going to have to get something for it.” Now we know what President Zelensky had to deal with and Trump just reinforced the deep down truth that the Republicans refused to acknowledge in the impeachment hearings.  Thanks Susan Collins. 

Heck, we can’t say anyone didn’t warn us, can we Susan?  Stanford Law Professor Pamela Karlan did. 

“To see why, imagine living in a part of Louisiana or Texas that’s prone to devastating hurricanes and flooding,” Karlan said. “What would you think if, when your governor asked the federal government for the disaster assistance that Congress has provided, the President responded, ‘I would like you to do us a favor. I’ll meet with you and send the disaster relief once you brand my opponent a criminal?’”

So, with this in mind, back to Governor Hogan. At his press conference, he said it had taken about three weeks to get all his ducks in a row to get these masks, including having is wife, a Korean immigrant, play a key role in getting the tests. Tellingly, he said that instead of flying the first 5,000 of those test kits into Dulles International Airport, he had them flown into BWI Airport.  Never before had a South Korean passenger airliner landed at BWI.  Why? Because he didn’t want the Feds to confiscate the kits. When the passenger plane arrived at BWI, the Maryland National Guard and Maryland State Troopers were there to greet it and protect those test kits from Federal seizure. Later, Trump called Hogan stupid for spending 9 million dollars to get test kits when all he had to do was call Mike Pence.

Ha, that’s funny. Call Mike Pence? Nah, I think I’ll pass.

It's a Jungle Out There

“Here was a population, low-class and mostly foreign, hanging always on the verge of starvation, and dependent for its opportunities of life upon the whim of men every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as the old-time slave drivers; under such circumstances immorality was exactly as inevitable, and as prevalent, as it was under the system of chattel slavery. Things” 

― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

At first, President* Trump (I like that Charlie Pierce uses the * after President every time he refers to the poser in the White House) refused to use his powers under the Defense Production Act.  Finally, after much cajoling by Democratic lawmakers, in late March he invoked the Act to force General Motors, General Electric, Hilll-Rom, Medtronic, ResMed, Royal Phillips, Vyaire Medical, and 3M to ramp up production of protective gear needed by health professionals. It took him way too long. But, finally, he did something to help. From all the talk about the Act, you’d have thought, though, that he didn’t really like using that power. You’d have thought wrong. He actually has used it a lot. 

As the New York Times set forth here, the Trump Administration knew how to use the Act. It has used it to prioritize defense contracts. What does that mean? Well, the defense department can tell someone “Don’t build that thing you want to build for Client A, build my thing first.” The Department of Defense invoked the Act to obtain rare earth metals needed to build lasers and jet engines and armored vehicles. You know, the things of war. But, when the coronavirus came calling, Trump asked for volunteerism to lead the way. Why? I don’t know, but my guess is if Trump had invoked the Act that would have been recognizing the seriousness of the issue and heaven forbid he do that. Admit he might have screwed up.

Which makes his most recent use of the Act to designate meat-processing plants as critical infrastructure that must maintain operations during the pandemic a thing that is not like the others.  Why?  Well, many meat packing plants were closing because of the virus. Smithfield had closed plants in Wisconsin, Missouri, Illinois, and South Dakota. Tyson had closed plants down in Washington, Iowa, and Indiana. All these facilities it seems were hotspots for coronavirus. Well, let’s be completely honest, Smithfield only closed its South Dakota plant after Governor Kristi Noem formally requested that they suspend operations. Now, though, such a request from a governor would be illegal, as pointed out by Mother Jones. Trump’s invocation of the Act may limit meat processor liability from future lawsuits.  Maybe. Maybe not. But, the maybe will give the industry something to hang its hat on when a plaintiff comes complaining.

Highlights from the above Mother Jones article: 

“The food supply chain is breaking,” said John Tyson. You know, the Tyson of Tyson Foods. He took out a full page ad in the Times and Washington Post to warn of the impending shortages. Truly, his concern is for the country right, not his bottom line? In fact, when asked what he would do about the food supply concerns, Trump told a Bloomberg reporter that “he will do an executive order to help Tyson Foods with a ‘liability’ problem.” What liability might that be? Maybe the fact that 20 meatpacking workers have died already from the virus and 5,000 more have contracted the virus? One worker filed a lawsuit claiming that management was not sufficiently protecting workers from the virus. Heck, Walmart got sued for wrongful death of an employee who died of the virus.

Which brings me back to The Jungle, written in 1906. You read that right, more than 100 years ago, Upton Sinclair laid bare the horrible conditions in the Chicago meat industry. The book was rejected by five publishers because it was considered too shocking and horrific. You know the book is so old that its copyright expired and you can read it for free here.

I’m pretty confident that Tyson and Smithfield will put worker safety and health first and foremost, aren’t you? Of course not. Here is a quote from a Washington Post article:

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and OSHA released interim guidance for meatpacking and processing facilities. It outlined procedures for cleaning shared equipment and reconfiguring workstations. It also included information on how companies can use physical barriers to put at least six feet between employees, who typically stand shoulder to shoulder in the plants.

It also called for the use of personal protective equipment and revising attendance policies to ensure employees are not penalized for taking sick leave because of the coronavirus. But like previous CDC and OSHA guidance for workplaces during the pandemic, it is voluntary and not enforceable.

Yeah, I put that last part in bold. Voluntary. Not enforceable. Trump is not invoking the Act to protect workers. He is doing it to protect American corporations. He is telling his corporate donors to keep operating but pretty please put some safety measures in place that I won’t enforce. He is only following up on his previous actions toward meat packing workers. In 2019, the Trump Administration authorized faster “line speeds” for poultry plants. Worker protection, right? Nope. 

Back in 2006, PBS did a story on the meat packing industry. Back then it was the largest industry in the country, employed half a million workers and paid them about 30 percent less than the average manufacturing job. And guess who the industry mainly employed? Immigrant laborers.  But, we knew that right? 

Have things changed in the past 15 years? No. OSHA data from 2015-2017 showed an average of two amputations a week in the industry. Instead of cutting up meat, workers were cutting off their limbs. Immigrant workers were cutting off their limbs, to be precise. In August of 2019, ICE raided seven poultry packing plants in Mississippi. No, I didn’t mean the FBI raided the offices to arrest executives for flaunting immigration laws. I meant ICE. You see, ICE sent 600 agents to arrest 680 undocumented immigrants. Workers, who needs them? Well, it turns out, the meat packing industry and thus all of America needs them to put their limbs at the ready.

Toss the immigrants out! Make the immigrants work! Don’t let them sue! What a world.