There are several lessons to be derived from the 4/1/19 TPP cover story, “Fixing our food system — and reviving rural America — means breaking up Big Ag”:
1) The story tells us “... it is little surprise that rural communities simmer with a resentment that contributed to the election of Donald Trump.” Later we learn that “The Obama administration tried to stand up to chicken monopolies by proposing new regulations to prevent abuse … And if the Democratic party ignored the concentration of power of the meat monopolies, the Republican party, particularly under Trump, has exploited and entrenched it.” So: voting for Trump unequivocally made the situation worse, yet these ignorant voters couldn’t or wouldn’t recognize what to most of us was an obvious con. Here in rural West Virginia a Republican candidate for governor was the same man (Don Blankenship) who criminally ignored mine ventilation standards that resulted in a major disaster. How dare such a man even presume to run? Why should we feel sorry for fools such as these? If they are intent on digging their own graves (in the case of the miners, quite literally) ... well, apparently, so it must be.
2) The story tells us that the Republicans “increased the caps for killing lines in slaughter houses, making dangerous work even more dangerous.” OK. I quite agree that this constitutes a significant and brutal danger for the workers. But what was not said was that this will also obviously create even more suffering for the animals. I am not a PETA bleeding heart but this is horrifying, for both species.
3) The story gives this situation an agricultural spin but, using the Starbucks coffee chain as an example of bad practices, makes it clear that the problems are universal. When I came to West Virginia there was not even one Starbucks. Now there are many and, yes, this soulless conglomerate is indeed driving out pleasant family-based coffee shop competitors.
So: the clueless proletariat is colluding in the process of their own immiseration and this has been happening at least since the Luddites protested the loss of family weaving to power looms. The Electoral College gives rural voters an edge and what have they done with this bit of a head start over those in the cities? They have made everybody’s situation worse! There are none so blind ...
John D. Palmer, Huntington, W.V.
In TPP, 3/1/19, Amy Goodman’s “Blackface: racism, politics and pain” and Connie Schultz’s “Betrayed in Virginia” came as a surprise to me. I flunked out of North Catholic High School (Pittsburgh) in 1952. It was an all-boys high school back then, with an enrollment of about 1,000. I recall that there was one tan-skinned boy.
The school put on a minstrel show every spring, consisting of chorus, soloists, band and end men in black face. I was oblivious to the racism of the end men, and I took the name of Otto B. Leftout. Another end man, Baldy Regan, took the name of Ebony Sacroiliac (i.e., “Black Ass”). Baldy went on to become a Pittsburgh pol.
We weren’t color blind back then, just blind as bats.
Bernard Berg, Easton, Pa.
It should never be forgotten that the most defining characteristic of Donald Trump and those who support him is cowardice. Bullies use bluster to mask their fear and inadequacy. They believe that by trying to appear tough and mean their real weakness will not be discovered. Often, they are correct, at least for a while. They attack the most vulnerable in order to assure themselves that they can be dominant. They need the validation of a sizable mob, because they know they’ll never win a fair fight. They demonize anything they perceive to be “the other” as a pre-emptive attack to weaken the opposition, before the opposition even knows they are in a fight.
The truth, of course, is that it isn’t brave to attack the weak. There is nothing courageous about preying on a lesser.
It isn’t strength to refuse to accept a truth when it proves you have been wrong. Never admitting to failure or weakness is, in fact, the most obvious sign that you are afraid of them. But being afraid is the most common human condition. We are always afraid because we never know when the end will come for us, but we know it will.
Real courage is accepting that condition, not trying to delay it. You can’t hide from it, and you can’t bluff your way out of it. No amount of bluster or posturing will change it.
Mark Ivan, Calexico, Calif.
I agree with Cameron MacLeish in his article “I am a Dumpster Diver …” (3/15/19 TPP) that too much food is thrown away and wasted. I am a wildlife rehabilitator depending on too few donations, and I have begun dumpster diving also, to feed my rabbits, squirrels and birds. The store was originally saving me their old produce and bread, but the new management decided to throw it away, not give it away. So I have to look in their trash (and other stores’) to find good and free food, and often I find great donuts, cereals and frozen foods that are one day past the sell date and are perfect for my own dinner table as well. It is true that there are better ways to get rid of the 40% of food that is wasted in this country.
Dr. Carol Miller, Ph.D., Licensed Rehabilitator and UT El Paso Communications Professor, El Paso, Texas
Good morning good people at TPP! I especially enjoyed the 3/15/19 edition. It addressed many facets of the problems we face today: environmental pollution and destruction particularly from [confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs)] entailing excessive antibiotic and medication use; economic imbalances, hence social instability and immigration; degenerating human health (not to mention extinction of other species); addiction and despair from lack of opportunity for meaningful work in our lives. All we need do now is connect the dots: local self-supporting communities comfortably producing enough to share and trade with neighbors but not so much it has to be aggressively marketed or stored, where the humans who live there mindfully tend the soil to grow nutrient dense food to nourish animals and themselves while replenishing and renewing the soil — thus sustaining the environment and enhancing the health of all, with time to enjoy & celebrate the cycles and dimensions of this inherently awesome organic system. The common factor seems to be to focus not on profits but on the human as a central participating component of it. Sounds like a plan.
Karen Lyke, Maumee, Ohio
This word “moderate” has many uses and meanings. It serves as a noun, an adjective (per my Webster’s—meaning #3—“mediocre”), and a verb. We know that, as noun, it usually refers to someone who used to be called a “Mugwump” (mug on one side of the fence, wump (rump) on the other.) I defy anyone to find common ground in the present political environment. We have to reclaim what’s left of our Democracy, and moderation will be steamrolled by the Reactionary Revolution we are living with.
There is an old saying that it takes one to know one, which means that without shared context, there is no communication. “Shared context” means that we agree on the definitions of the most important words. The current political climate is a textbook example. Words like “Socialism” and “Capitalism” are thrown back and forth, even though there is no agreement as to the meaning of either word.
Socialism originally called for the ownership of the means of production by the workers. Well, the means of production are rapidly becoming automated. We can only hope that advances in Artificial Intelligence don’t enable the robots to take complete control of the means of production. And the spectrum of workers is now so broad that organization (unions, anyone?) is virtually impossible. Of course, the democratic socialism being promoted by progressives is modeled after the Europeans (whose humane economics are now under severe threat from immigration and globalization).
As for capitalism, when Marx wrote his Manifesto, the only capitalism he knew was an unregulated predator, pretty much like what we have now in America. Several catastrophic attempts to eliminate capitalism in the last century make it clear that eliminating it (and private property) is a non-starter. What I call the Bourgeois Gene is so pervasive that even Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot couldn’t kill them all.
Clearly, the “moderate” response would be to provide serious, effective regulation of capitalism and to mandate that its fruits are equitably distributed. Given that pathological growth is a death sentence for the human race (if not the planet itself), we can allow reasonable profits, but require that they are all distributed as a universal dividend, thus solving the requirement for a universal income to ameliorate the inevitable loss of 50% of jobs to A.I.
Glad to be of service.
Shorey H. Chapman, San Francisco, Calif.
It took many years, but thanks to the dedication and hard work of animal activists, the wearing of furs is no longer fashionable. Of course not, who wants to dress with the skins of tortured creatures? So now, instead of a symbol of elegance, that practice is one of degenerate ostentation.
Re: “Factory Farms Pollute the Environment and Poison Drinking Water” by Daniel Ross [3/15/19 TPP], we must also be patient in our hope that factory farms will someday share the same history as the fur industry — again through the untiring efforts of animal activists who, although often ridiculed, deserve our praise and support.
Ironically, many people who say they love animals will continue to eat meat — but let’s hope that for their own health and the health of our planet, they’ll eat less. And let’s also hope the animals they eat will not suffer in chambers of torture; i.e., “Concentrated Animals Feeding Operations (CAFOs), that conceal the horror of the conditions under which they live until they are slaughtered.
David Quintero, Monrovia, Calif.
I have different priorities from those of most national Democrats as we move toward the 2020 elections. I want the party to focus on:
1. Advocating for the passage of a Canadian-style national health insurance program to cover all Americans.
2. Increasing Social Security Retirement Benefits by 20%.
3. The federal government supplementing the minimum wage and the pay of all full-time workers to bring all of them up to a living-wage which is above the official poverty line and the official near-poverty line (which is 100%-125% of the official poverty line).
I would pay for all of this by instituting a “National Wealth Tax” of 15% on all individuals with a net-wealth/net-worth of $10 million and higher.
I would also pay for all of this by abolishing/eliminating all “corporate welfare” and “business subsidies”.
The conservative-libertarian think-tank, “The Cato Institute”, noted in 2012 that our federal government spends $100 billion/year on corporate welfare, and they would like to see it abolished/eliminated. I rarely agree with them, but I do on this particular issue.
Stewart B. Epstein, Rochester, N.Y.
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2019
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