A report published today by Vox describes how the poultry giant Mountaire Corporation has effectively bribed right-wing politicians to fund its engine of animal cruelty.
This corruption is deep. And I had thought Warren had compassion, wrong. I was hoping Trump would defund the farm bill. This is why money has to be eliminated from politics. Overwhelmed
I think Warren has compassion. Like all of us, it is selective and context dependent. It's up to us to create a context where more people speak up for animals!
Amen! Super PAC corruption pre-dates Trump back to SCOTUS's 2010 Citizens United ruling, & both parties are guilty. But it's true that MAGA is now the chief enabler of the unfathomably horrific atrocities of Big Ag's factory farms. I see them as concentration camps torturing billions of sentient creatures in an Animal Holocaust (on an exponentially greater scale than the Nazis) funded by OUR tax dollars... & spreading worldwide. In the race to create the most diabolical Animal Hell, China plans to surpass the U.S. with factory farm SKYSCRAPERS.
As you ponder the archaeological aftermath of countless chicken skeletons, I'm reminded that chickens are direct descendants of T. rex. Animals merit respect & love - not a life of constant suffering only to end up with an unspeakably barbaric death. Will posterity ever forgive us when they dig up the trillions of bones?
But keeping billions of animals crammed together suffering in abject FILTH - where they'll never know a single moment of joy being outdoors with their families - isn't just sadistically cruel. It's a recipe for a pandemic. As the #1 nemesis of public health, Big Meat, Egg & Dairy are their own worst enemies & will eventually self-destruct. How? By causing Pandora's Pandemic 2.0:
It could be the bird flu, mutating to spread among humans like Covid. Or it could be a bacteria resistant to all antibiotics. Either way, the factory farmers & MAGA politicians - even HHS Sec RFK Jr - are ignoring the dire risks. Factory farms are not only the top source of foodborne illness, but due to 24/7 overuse of antibiotics, they're now the #1 cause of SUPERBUGS! (They're also top emitters of greenhouse gases & toxic pollutants, & the greatest threat to our waterways & water supply.)
There should be no forgiveness for the shameful depravity of Big Ag & their corrupt politician enablers. It shatters my heart that they show zero compassion for those helpless, innocent chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, lambs, the list goes on... If plant-based alternatives don't soon become the norm, ALL who callously allowed the Animal Holocaust to happen will be complicit - not just Big Ag's heinous monsters & their politician bedfellows.
This is such an informative article, thank you for sharing. It is important to bring this information to the light and I appreciate your efforts to do so!
These quid pro quo agreements between megalithic companies and political organizations, all on the DL, will ultimately doom anyone else who isn't willing to play the game. How can we raise the awareness that this tit for tat is going on, and how can it be stopped if it's legal?
Sorry, that answer I gave was not super helpful! My view of the situation is that the animal cruelty underlying the arrangement is illegal. Anyone funding that animal cruelty, and therefore violating state/federal law, is part of an illegal conspiracy and/or racketeering organization. So while the campaign contributions themselves might be legal, due to Citizens United, you are not allowed to pay for animal abuse. That is precisely what Trump and the federal government are doing, and that is a highly illegal arrangement!
The chickens we see when they arrive at the slaughterhouse often exhibit signs of having been pecked, some quite badly. Why would that be? Boredom? Overcrowding?
Richard Wolff runs down the 1930s pretty good in yesterday's youtube at Democracy At Work in a half hour talk-- https://x.com/democracyatwrk/status/1906768583310340165 . The part of religion in the turning a deaf ear to the outcry of factory farmed animals seems consonant with the rise of apocalyptic beliefs during the 19th century with the use of steam engines in gunboat diplomacy such as used by the British off the coast of Lebanon in 1840, written about by Andreas Malm for verso books in an essay last year, "The destruction of Palestine is the destruction of the Earth." He says an 'articulation' of destructive processes takes place in which the impacts of technics has a formative affect upon the users involved, that I'm guessing involves apathy crowding out other feelings which the human heart or brain might contain. And what seems to compensate for the loss is command of services which a money income ensures. Plus the ability, it seems, to be jocular about it all, sometimes.
My ❤️ reply is a Thank you for the education that is opening my/our eyes to the violent and unjust that was seeping right beneath and now so apparently right in front of us.
Thank you for keeping at it Wayne. I think focusing on practical policies in this area, and the entire spectrum of causes & results policies have, is good. There are several barriers layered here. A disastrous ingrained lack of empathy with victim species due to predatory heredity & customs; on top of that, the disastrous lack of wide scope regarding health factors shared by diverse species, causing "industries" to surge forward for "profit" despite the plethora of red flags; the generalized, generic "disappearing" of feeling from public life.
The precious invention of money as a facilitator of peace between diverse groups humans has to be followed by another facilitator of peace between humans and other species, and between humans and the system on which life depends. Money allowed for fellowship and development, but crowded out other issues.
The real "profit" of broad learning and convivial regard for ecological, pan-species health & sustainability needs to be brought into view. The story of human settlement of Earth will have to be explained far and wide. A way forward is starting from the feeling that better knowledge is needed and possible, including improved understanding of nutrition and corporeal existence. It is necessary to get from acquisition and exploitation to observation and explanation as a basic mode of survival.
This corruption is deep. And I had thought Warren had compassion, wrong. I was hoping Trump would defund the farm bill. This is why money has to be eliminated from politics. Overwhelmed
I think Warren has compassion. Like all of us, it is selective and context dependent. It's up to us to create a context where more people speak up for animals!
Amen! Super PAC corruption pre-dates Trump back to SCOTUS's 2010 Citizens United ruling, & both parties are guilty. But it's true that MAGA is now the chief enabler of the unfathomably horrific atrocities of Big Ag's factory farms. I see them as concentration camps torturing billions of sentient creatures in an Animal Holocaust (on an exponentially greater scale than the Nazis) funded by OUR tax dollars... & spreading worldwide. In the race to create the most diabolical Animal Hell, China plans to surpass the U.S. with factory farm SKYSCRAPERS.
As you ponder the archaeological aftermath of countless chicken skeletons, I'm reminded that chickens are direct descendants of T. rex. Animals merit respect & love - not a life of constant suffering only to end up with an unspeakably barbaric death. Will posterity ever forgive us when they dig up the trillions of bones?
But keeping billions of animals crammed together suffering in abject FILTH - where they'll never know a single moment of joy being outdoors with their families - isn't just sadistically cruel. It's a recipe for a pandemic. As the #1 nemesis of public health, Big Meat, Egg & Dairy are their own worst enemies & will eventually self-destruct. How? By causing Pandora's Pandemic 2.0:
It could be the bird flu, mutating to spread among humans like Covid. Or it could be a bacteria resistant to all antibiotics. Either way, the factory farmers & MAGA politicians - even HHS Sec RFK Jr - are ignoring the dire risks. Factory farms are not only the top source of foodborne illness, but due to 24/7 overuse of antibiotics, they're now the #1 cause of SUPERBUGS! (They're also top emitters of greenhouse gases & toxic pollutants, & the greatest threat to our waterways & water supply.)
There should be no forgiveness for the shameful depravity of Big Ag & their corrupt politician enablers. It shatters my heart that they show zero compassion for those helpless, innocent chickens, turkeys, pigs, cows, lambs, the list goes on... If plant-based alternatives don't soon become the norm, ALL who callously allowed the Animal Holocaust to happen will be complicit - not just Big Ag's heinous monsters & their politician bedfellows.
This is such an informative article, thank you for sharing. It is important to bring this information to the light and I appreciate your efforts to do so!
Thanks Clare!
Copiously shared.
Thanks!
Shared to Newsmedia
These quid pro quo agreements between megalithic companies and political organizations, all on the DL, will ultimately doom anyone else who isn't willing to play the game. How can we raise the awareness that this tit for tat is going on, and how can it be stopped if it's legal?
1. It's not legal!
2. We have something they don't have: people power, grounded in love!
I thought the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission made super PACs and the Mountaire type arrangements legal.
Sorry, that answer I gave was not super helpful! My view of the situation is that the animal cruelty underlying the arrangement is illegal. Anyone funding that animal cruelty, and therefore violating state/federal law, is part of an illegal conspiracy and/or racketeering organization. So while the campaign contributions themselves might be legal, due to Citizens United, you are not allowed to pay for animal abuse. That is precisely what Trump and the federal government are doing, and that is a highly illegal arrangement!
The chickens we see when they arrive at the slaughterhouse often exhibit signs of having been pecked, some quite badly. Why would that be? Boredom? Overcrowding?
Both, sadly. :(
Richard Wolff runs down the 1930s pretty good in yesterday's youtube at Democracy At Work in a half hour talk-- https://x.com/democracyatwrk/status/1906768583310340165 . The part of religion in the turning a deaf ear to the outcry of factory farmed animals seems consonant with the rise of apocalyptic beliefs during the 19th century with the use of steam engines in gunboat diplomacy such as used by the British off the coast of Lebanon in 1840, written about by Andreas Malm for verso books in an essay last year, "The destruction of Palestine is the destruction of the Earth." He says an 'articulation' of destructive processes takes place in which the impacts of technics has a formative affect upon the users involved, that I'm guessing involves apathy crowding out other feelings which the human heart or brain might contain. And what seems to compensate for the loss is command of services which a money income ensures. Plus the ability, it seems, to be jocular about it all, sometimes.
Interesting stuff, thanks for sharing James!
My ❤️ reply is a Thank you for the education that is opening my/our eyes to the violent and unjust that was seeping right beneath and now so apparently right in front of us.
Thank you for keeping at it Wayne. I think focusing on practical policies in this area, and the entire spectrum of causes & results policies have, is good. There are several barriers layered here. A disastrous ingrained lack of empathy with victim species due to predatory heredity & customs; on top of that, the disastrous lack of wide scope regarding health factors shared by diverse species, causing "industries" to surge forward for "profit" despite the plethora of red flags; the generalized, generic "disappearing" of feeling from public life.
The precious invention of money as a facilitator of peace between diverse groups humans has to be followed by another facilitator of peace between humans and other species, and between humans and the system on which life depends. Money allowed for fellowship and development, but crowded out other issues.
The real "profit" of broad learning and convivial regard for ecological, pan-species health & sustainability needs to be brought into view. The story of human settlement of Earth will have to be explained far and wide. A way forward is starting from the feeling that better knowledge is needed and possible, including improved understanding of nutrition and corporeal existence. It is necessary to get from acquisition and exploitation to observation and explanation as a basic mode of survival.
The line that shook me:
“When was the last time you saw a chicken… alive?”
We’ve not only normalized cruelty—we’ve made it invisible.
This piece doesn’t just expose a system. It demands a reckoning.