Never since the Gilded Age of the early 20th century has the board game Monopoly
see more like real life than today and it doesn't look like the trend of
america's increasing corporatocracy is going anywhere especially after the
announcement last week that two of the world's largest seed and chemical
companies Dow and DuPont have decided to join forces the merger will create a new
company Dow DuPont original which will be worth a hundred and thirty billion
dollars and just how much of the global market is this new company going to
control according to recent estimates about 40 percent of America's corn seed
and soybean markets and 17 percent of the global pesticide market Monsanto
lookout already groups are decrying the merger as a terrible mood for the
American economy and one which anti-trust groups are gearing up to
resist critics are citing the potential loss of jobs that the merger will result
in as well as an increase in prices for food and a variety of other agricultural
and chemical products used by everyday Americans opponents also fear that the
merger will be a death knell for anti GMO movements as more and more of the
seed industry falls into a few pro GMO hands so all the merger goes through or
does our government still have a shred of independence from the corporate
juggernaut to talk to us about the merger and its consequences we are
joined from Florida by the co-host of the Ring of Fire Radio show Mike Papantonio
welcome Mike thank you so Mike I gotta ask you have a little bit of
history with these companies what do you think led to Down DuPont merging
I mean DuPont is over 200 years old Dow over a century old these companies have been
through all sorts of economic challenges what is it about today's economic
climate that would make these two giants joined together and create this tag team
corporate criminals are simply trying to get better that's the best way I
can put it Dow and DuPont collectively people realize they've been fined or
sued more almost more than any company operating in the United States on top of
that they control as you point out about 17 percent of the forty percent of the
soy and corn production with 17% of all global pesticides they basically run the
food supply for the industrialized world not just not just the U.S. the entire world
this merger is going to give him unprecedented power over our
way life which is going to allow them to get away with even more criminal activity I
i have gone head-to-head with them the first time I was on trial with them
the jury came back and hit him for three hundred million dollars because they had
killed so many people in West Virginia I mean trial with them right now the last
time we tried to the very first case was just a few about a month ago and the
jury came back against them again because DuPont had entirely devastated a
waterway by taking a toxin that they knew was toxic this is how
criminal this corporation is they took a toxin they knew was was was toxic they
knew would cause cancer and they dumped it into the Ohio River knowing it was
moving into people's drinking water
their documents were very clear that they understood every aspect of about it
and decided to do it anyway so I guess the quick answer is
criminals attract criminals and you have two criminal corporations that have been
crimes ranging from price-fixing tax evasion
environmental destruction OSHA violations of every kind that you can
imagine poisoning entire cities with their toxic waste that's just the short
list of crimes so it's the new it is the new American corporate mentality I guess
is the best way to put it it's pretty incredible and now I gotta ask you know as
these companies grow like this are they less and less able to be you know reigned
in by government or oversight or citizens like is there gonna
be any rules for them as they get this big is that is a brilliant question it
is right in point when we started hearing too big to fail
corporate America look at that as an invitation you had people like Eric
Holder who would not prosecute anybody dressed up in an Armani suit and so the
rest of the Corporation said we're white collar criminals too the
bigger we get the better it's going to be for us to less of a target we become
and these are people who understand their targets in the nineteen nineties
DuPont was hit with hundreds of lawsuits after a wave of reports that one of its
fungicides was causing widespread environmental damage and damage to people
the company had to take a product off the market they paid
more than five hundred million dollars in compensation and they were fined a
mere 115 million which was almost a month's worth of profit for that
particular product so your point is excellent the point is if they can it's
like a school of fish when you see fish school up they do that so they can look
bigger and it's it's more difficult to penetrate that school of fish and the
same thing is happening here first of all you have a Justice Department that
is absolutely set on prosecuting every damn body in the world who smokes we
smoked weed but on the other side is totally unwilling to go after white
cropped collar criminals DuPont has has been responsible for more toxic waste
dumping than any company in the nineteen eighties in 1991 DuPont was fined 1.9 million dollars
for dumping acids and toxic solvents into New Jersey and you
know how much they saved by merely paying that 1.9 million dollars they
saved billions because they passed the cleanup costs on to consumers it's
called it's called externalizing costs they don't pay for it they let they let
people pay for it by bad health and having to pay tax money to clean it up
DuPont and Dow operate exactly the same way in 2000 DuPont agreed to pay 1.5 million
to settle an EPA violation with a dump more than 23,000 gallons of
sulfuric acid into the air in Kentucky and put people in the hospital but we
have a Justice Department that doesn't look at a white in this Loretta Lynch is
no it was no better by the way everybody thinks all Loretta Lynn she's an
african-american woman she simply going to feel our pain no Loretta Lynch
comes from this same ilk she comes from the same corporate entities that do so
much harm to people every day in get away with it by paying a 1.5 million
dollar fine that's very typical today and your question is right on point I gotta
promise you something nobody else in the media is asking that question that you
just asked why did they do it
the question is why we're here watching the Hawks my so I got out
very quickly last question what is your are you if you're a betting man give me
the odds what's the likelihood that this merger will go through or will
anti-trust groups be able to push back i think is going to be a major push back
and I think the chances of that failing are great I think it is a line in
the sand where the activist groups must succeed otherwise we're going to be one
huge corporate entity North Pole to South Pole the entire planet is going to
be gobbled up the same way it's pretty incredible stuff especially when you see
these giant corporations join forces arm in arm and all for the sake of a buck
you know like you like you say you know that puts us the little guy you know at
the bottom of the list
man I wanna thank you very much for coming on today the co-host a Ring of Fire Radio
Mike Papantonio awesome awesome analysis as always my friend
thanks thanks for the invitation great show by the way I always thank you my
does not like we have a view on because of your brilliance not just because you
say good job all the time but thank you very much