This is from commenter El Cid:
Since the above open thread is about animal rescue, and the prior one not too different, this is very important. [NYT via DKos.]
In the first comprehensive state report on the 2010 coal mine disaster in West Virginia, an independent team of investigators put the blame squarely on the owner of the mine, Massey Energy, concluding that it had “made life difficult” for miners who tried to address safety and built “a culture in which wrongdoing became acceptable.”
[The report went on by] naming Massey as the culprit, using blunt language to describe what it said was a pattern of negligence that ultimately led to the deaths of 29 miners on April 5, 2010, in what was the worst American mining disaster in 40 years.
“The story of Upper Big Branch is a cautionary tale of hubris,” the report concluded. “A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk-taking.”
They better not do anything about it, because it may be seen as unfriendly to the coal mining industry, and this would mean they hate jobs.
GregB
I seem to recall that this was another case where the rightwingers knee jerkily defended the great and powerful Galtian owner as the good guy and the lazy and money grubbing union members as the villains.
Another meme fucked up by the untidy facts unearthed when an issue is looked at from a distance.
Brian R.
That last bit isn’t supposed to be blockquoted, I’m guessing.
But yeah: Fuck this asshole.
Culture of Truth
“A company that was a towering presence in the Appalachian coalfields operated its mines in a profoundly reckless manner, and 29 coal miners paid with their lives for the corporate risk- taking.”
“The company broke faith with its workers by frequently and knowingly violating the law and blatantly disregarding known safety practices.”
WaterGirl
Techie note for Kay: If you ever want multiple paragraphs in a single text box, just put “…” on the empty line between the paragraphs. (without the quotation marks)
kay
@Brian R.:
I was trying to get across that El Cid wrote it.
I see I was wildly successful.
khead
Cough
Put it in the wrong thread I guess.
kay
@WaterGirl:
I actually know how to do that, thanks to Anne Laurie.
I like it like this.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
Clearly the Unions bit the Invisible Hand of the Free Market, which was shielding the miners from disaster one too many times.
Ah fuck it. The Rapture is supposed to take place on Saturday, can we start the revolution today?
gex
Similar to what we heard about BP and about the Japanese nuclear company. Just as the libertarians would have it – corporations get to do what they want in pursuit of profits.
Martin
Someone needs to be reminded that lives > jobs. You don’t have the latter without the former.
kay
@WaterGirl:
Feel free to offer any help at any time, however :)
Safe bet I don’t know.
pragmatism
this profile of blankenship made me chuckle a bit. he sits in his palatial estate wondering why his fellow west virginians don’t seem to like him. get a clue hillbilly francisco d’antonia.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/from-the-archive-profile-of-massey-energy-ceo-don-blankenfein-20110405
Mnemosyne
@Martin:
Historically, not so much. If people are desperate enough, lives < jobs. Hence the Republicans' drive to return us to the halcyon days of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
LGRooney
@efgoldman: It’s called existential rotation and it’s good for the jobs numbers, i.e., lower population but the same number of jobs = lower unemployment rate.
Massey was just doing its part for the greater good, those lovable ol’ socialists.
gex
@Martin: People might see it that way, but capitalists don’t. We’re not “personnel” anymore. We are “human resources”. Just a input in the process of widget making.
Bulworth
I’m sure less gubmit and less regulation would have prevented this..
LGRooney
Why am I awaiting moderation? Something new I didn’t hear about?
Stooleo
So now that corporations have all the rights and privileges as real people (thank, Citizens United), can we charge it with murder and give it the death penalty?
Paul in KY
@Martin: That fucker Blankenship would have laughed and said there were many more lives than jobs. Person A gets killed, you go get Person B. Easy Peasy.
Brian R.
@kay:
Whoops. Sorry, I’m wildly tired.
LGRooney
@Paul in KY: It’s the Soviet method of war. Throw bodies at them.
Rick
@Stooleo
Of course not, that’s the “limited liability” part. Unlimited rights, limited liability.
The Moar You Know
@pragmatism: There is no way in hell that’s what he actually looks like. Just add a cigar and a top hat and you have every stereotypical cartoon of a big-money capitalist that’s been drawn for the last 100 years.
EDIT: It just occurred to me is that he looks EXACTLY like Pablo Escobar.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
i am glad the report didn’t equivocate, but annoyed that that is something to be happy about.
so, what now? how is massey going to be held accountable?
SFAW
Eric Holder will send him a sternly-worded letter.
pragmatism
@The Moar You Know: holy FSM you are totally right. escobar arguably treated his employees better than don the don.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@SFAW:
beer summit!
Paul in KY
@LGRooney: In his mind, people are cheap. Good analogy.
El Cid
1st & last paragraphs were mine.
Thanks for highlighting the issue Kay.
Roger Moore
@Martin:
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. People need to put a roof over their head and food on their
familytable, and that’s hard to do without a source of income. When the options are risky work or starvation, people tend to take the risky work- and our Galtian Overlords are trying to make sure that’s the choice we’re facing.El Cid
@khead: Sorry, I missed it too. Full credits to you. I should clarify that in general ‘credit’ has zero importance to me unless the discussion has to do with what I did or didn’t post. When I do the above, all I care about is that the articles or issues make it to the FP. Blog comments that are worth naming the source come from an individual’s analysis or recall, both for praise or for engagement.
El Cid
lives > jobs IF replace($life) < replace($employee) AND total($punishment) < [profit($total revenue + investment returns)] – [cost($total production)]
khead
@El Cid:
No problem at all. Usually I’m just one to lurk but for some reason I felt like being a total attention whore a while ago.
I blame the raccoons for waking me too early.
merrinc
@Martin:
Well, that’s a nice theory but it’s never been the reality in WVa when it comes to coal mining. Replacing dead miners is easy. Doesn’t matter how many of them get blown up, plenty will be happy to take their places. My friends and family will tell you proudly that “the mines pay good money.”
arguingwithsignposts
While it would be nice to see Blankenship headed to some hard time for his ways, we shouldn’t forget the numerous minions who helped him carry out his galtian excesses.
At some point, it would be nice to see something like a corporate death penalty for serial abusers like this.
pragmatism
@El Cid: garbage in garbage out
Villago Delenda Est
I believe a quotation from an obscure soshulist type is appropriate here:
“Our merchants and master-manufacturers complain much of the bad effects of high wages in raising the price, and thereby lessening the sale of their goods both at home and abroad. They say nothing concerning the bad effects of high profits. They are silent with regard to the pernicious effects of their own gains. They complain only of those of other people.”
mr. whipple
@merrinc:
Yes. Miners have always been expendable.
Mnemosyne
@arguingwithsignposts:
Since corporations are people, I don’t see what the problem would be with dissolving it in a case like this. If I killed 29 people, I’d be going to the gas chamber, so why should a corporation be allowed to get away with it.
Dissolve the company and sell off the assets. All managers from the previous company banned from employment with the new one.
ETA: Being a geek, I had to double-check and, yes, technically one could still be executed in the gas chamber in California, but you’d have to specifically pick it over lethal injection.
Steeplejack
@WaterGirl:
Better is to use two underscores. They don’t show up, and they don’t give the impression that some text has been deleted.
Should end up looking like this:
(h/t Monkeyboy © 2009)
Felanius Kootea (formerly Salt and freshly ground black people)
@Mnemosyne: Corporations are people only when they accrue some advantage from personhood, for example, exercising their freedom of speech through large cash donations to willing politicians. When it comes to taking responsibility for the consequences of corporate decisions however, corporations are not people and cannot be held accountable. It is never their fault. If [the government/regulators/the politicians they lobbied to get pesky regulations out of their way] had done their jobs properly, [insert mess here] could never have happen and so it is obviously the fault of [the government/regulators/the politicians they lobbied to get pesky regulations out of their way].
In other words, corporate personhood == sanctioned psychopathy.
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne: I could get behind some form of that. Maybe one where the actual people who caused the ‘corporate-person’ to take up a life of crime get sent to jail & are replaced in such a manner as to turn the company into a non-profit entity.
But what do I know, I’m a DFH ;-)
Roger Moore
@mr. whipple:
FTFY.
James E. Powell
I know, I’m Eeyore, but even if this story spreads wide, it will do nothing to convince the working class Republican voters that their corporate rulers do not care about the lives and health of their workers. Another isolated incident, nothing can be done, we are the hardy, Real Muricans, we don’t need no goddmam government.
shortstop
@gex: Actually, “human resources” has been out for a while. It’s mostly “talent” now, at least in the larger companies.
shortstop
I know West Virginia isn’t Kentucky, but I keep thinking about all those east Kentucky miners who voted for Rand Paul, who during his campaign was quite clear about his opposition to mine oversight and safety regulation.
You really have to hate people of color, women, gays and lesbians, atheists, hippies and immigrants a lot to love yourself so little in comparison.
El Cid
@Villago Delenda Est: Don’t you dare quote Adam Smith out of context. He never meant his words to mean what you think they say. They were not intended to be a factual statement.
James E. Powell
If there is another explanation for this voting behavior, I’m willing to listen. I have been lectured (on various blogs over the years) that it was my lack of understanding, my lack of sensitivity to the special concerns of such people, that drove them, reluctantly but nobly, to vote for the very right-wing corporate types who were getting rich off the destruction of their way of life.
kay
There’s that consensual accountability and personal responsibility thing they’re always yammering about, where the state works with industry in a partnership.
They don’t need regulation. Nah.
trollhattan
Nobody was happier to see Deepwater Horizon explode than Don Blankenship. But see, see how they unfairly punished him?
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/golden-parachute-don-blankenship-massey-energy/story?id=12333677
El Cid
@James E. Powell: I think it’s okay to see it both ways. By which I mean, and which I go through on a regular basis, on the one hand screaming at these fuckwits to stop their god-damn idiot bullshit love of medievalist klepto-fascists and declaring passively that ‘okay, here you go, this is what you wanted, hope you like it,’ which is my cynical and venting side…
…And on the other hand thinking that some sort of anthropological approach, bearing in mind a very typical screwing over by some sorts of forces including the well-intentioned making promises they can’t or won’t keep, might in some way theoretically help to change things.
As far as saying stuff out loud, I do the vent thing to friends etc who share my views and frustrations and fears and anger, and the other stuff I say in more ‘public’ discussions with people who are those people.
Unless they get to be real loudmouth ignoramus jerks, in which I’ll pull out some of the venting stuff just to piss them off and let them know that some left-liberals don’t give a shit about their tantrums, not even here in the gol-darn South where they’re comfortable that nearly any white guy they meet shares their right wing opinions.
tkogrumpy
@El Cid: Sorry, but I’m going to have to thank both of you for the heads up.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
As El Rushbo pointed out – where were the unions? This is clearly the fault of the unions
/snark
tkogrumpy
@El Cid: Jaysus can I ever relate to that!
Mouse Tolliver
Also, a majority of the miners killed in the explosion had black lung. And some of them were only in their twenties.