In praise of corporate jackals

[GrpCaptMandrake]

As we pause to consider the 12 who died in Sago #1, let us also pause to consider the great man who brought it to us.

Wilbur Ross, Jr. is a billionaire.

In the last few years, he's made a hobby of acquiring bankrupt companies, demanding concessions of the workers and making a rat-kill fortune in the process.

He created International Steel Group from the ashes of the United Steel Workers and Bethlehem Steel. He made his money back 14 times over. Guess what?! Bethlehem Steel got sold to India. (B-T-W, he held ISG until the tariffs were taken down)

Damn you, Mr. Ross! It's not a GAME!

Having tidied up the steel market in the United States, he's moved into coal.

First, he partnered International Coal Group (ICG, no one ever accused Ross of being needlessly creative) with Massey Energy to purchase the bankrupt Horizon Energy. Then, he and Massey threw an entire UMWA workface into the streets, stripping both retirees and active miners of their pensions and healthcare.

Then ICG, it's chops wet and its fangs dripping, moved on. They "assimilated" Anker West Virginia Energy, owners of a little, ne'er do well operation called Sago, in Upshur County, West Virginia. In Tuesday's Charleston (WV) Gazette, Ross bragged "As you know, we have an extremely good safety record. We have gotten a lot of awards."

The Gazette puts the paper to bed by about 8 p.m. ET every night. When they went to press with Tuesday morning's Gazette, Ross had already said "We are doing everything we can to try to recover them as quickly as possible."

The folks who were nearest to 9/11 will recall that the first phase of the operation is "rescue," when there is still hope for the living. The next phase is "recovery," and all its attendant horror and grief.

In the wee small hours of Wednesday morning, about three hours after they were told their loved ones were alive, the families in the Church at Sago found out it was all a lie. The company had known since about 20 minutes after the first, happy, announcement. The next two hours and forty minutes were spent in "Holy hell, what do we do now" -mode.

And yet as early as Monday evening, Wilbur Ross was calling it a "recovery" effort.

By the way: did I mention that Wilbur Ross, Jr. calls himself a "Democrat?"