#he hog the atomic pig

[randomthrills]

#he hog the atomic pig #spumco #john kricfalusi #lynne naylor

[sumu-samu]

Chapter Three

previous  next  masterlist Pairing: Bellamy Blake x OC

Genre: Fluff, angst, and everything in between

Warnings: curse words, death, blood, killing, gore, and some good old chaos

Summary: Xephyr Kane, Marcus’ adopted daughter, grew up on the Ark, but begged the council to lock her up in solitary after a traumatic experience involving her birth parents. Now, she’s being sent to the ground, on her own terms unlike the other 99 kids, in hopes to start new. But what happens when she gets down there, and nothing goes as planned? Throw in a hot headed “leader” that wasn’t supposed to be there and things get… difficult.

A/N: Chapter number three, took me a while to finally get this posted. I have all the chapters written already but I just didn’t post. I’m gonna try to post more often but in all honesty I don’t know how true that's going to be. But regardless here is the well overdue chapter three

That night's sleep wasn’t any different. Same nightmare over and over, only this time it wasn’t Clarke, it was Bellamy. 

When I woke up I decided I needed to find some food. I started to pack my things. 

“Where do you think you’re going?” Bellamy’s voice called.

“Finding my own food you ass.” He looked at my things.

“Can’t hunt without a weapon.” He folded his arms. 

“I’m not hunting, believe it or not, you can eat things other than animals.”  I picked all my things up.

“Here,” he held out his knife. I backed away and just looked at it. “Come on, you never know, you might be good.” He shrugged. 

“That’s what I'm afraid of.” I didn’t move until he put the knife away. 

“At least come with us, you’ll have protection and you can vegan out all you want.” 

“I’m not a vegan… I’m just not a hunter.” 

“Whatever, just come on. As long as you don’t slow us down.” I gave him an angry look.

“Fine.” I sighed. “But you’ll be the one slowing me down.” I walked past him slamming my shoulder into his. 

We were walking through the woods when we spotted a hog. There was a crack in the other direction and Bellamy turned and threw his axe. Next to the tree he threw it at was a girl, standing in fear. The other boys ran for the pig while Bellamy, Atom and I walked towards the girl.

“Who the hell are you?” He asked her. I wanted to punch him for being so rude.

“Charlotte.” She said dully 

“I almost killed you.”

“Why aren’t you back at camp?” I asked her softly. 

“W-well with that guy who was dying i just, i couldn’t listen anymore.” She looked to the ground.

“There’s grounders out here. It’s too dangerous for a little girl.” Atom told her.

“I’m not little.” Charlotte snapped back.

“Okay then,” Bellamy smiled at her. “But you can’t hunt without a weapon.” He said to her, just like he did me. He handed her the same knife he tried to give me. I just rolled my eyes. “Ever killed something before?” She shook her head, “who knows maybe you're good at it.” She gave a small smile. 

The boys continued to hunt. And I went along picking some berries and plants that were edible. Then we heard a horn sounding. And then a cloud of yellow fog rolled in. 

“Run!” Bellamy yelled. “Come on, the caves are this way.” We all followed Bellamy, Charlotte was behind him, I was behind her, and Atom behind me…. until he wasn’t. We made it to the caves when I heard Atom.

“Bellamy!” He called out.

“ATOM!” I went to run after him, I made it a few steps from the cave when I felt arms wrap around my waist. 

“Xephyr! No!” Bellamy pulled me back, I kicked and screamed, telling him to let me go. He set me down and my skin burned and stung, I coughed struggling to breathe, my eyes watered not only because of the pain but because Atom was still out there and I couldn’t do anything.. “Xephyr if you go out there you’ll die! Look, you’re already affected by what little exposure you had.” I continued to cough and wheeze. “Hey, hey.” He pulled me close, one hand on my back the other on my head. “Breath, it’s okay. Just breathe.” 

“He’s dead… no!” I cried. Bellamy didn’t say anything he just held onto me. 

Once I had calmed down we sat in the cave for shelter. Night had fallen and Charlotte had fallen asleep. 

“You should sleep.” Bellamy told me. I shook my head.

“I’ll sleep back at camp.” 

Somewhere in that time Bellamy had also fallen asleep. I stood as close as I could to the opening of the cave. Debating on whether i walk out or not.

“No!” Charlotte yelled. I ran back and saw she woke up Bellamy.

“Charlotte, wake up.” He looked at her with kind, worried,eyes. 

“I’m sorry.” She said softly

“Does it happen often?” She sighed in response. “What are you scared of?” She didn’t answer. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is what you do about it.” 

“But… I’m asleep.” She replied.

“Fears are fears.” He shook his head, “slay your demons when you’re awake, they won’t be there to get you when you sleep.” He smiled at her.

“Yeah, but… how?”

“You can’t afford to be weak, down here weakness is death, fear is death.” He said, making her even more scared. There was silence and then he said “let me see that knife i gave you.” She handed it over. “Now when you feel afraid, you hold tight to that knife and say, screw you, I'm not afraid” he handed her the knife back.

“Screw you. I’m not afraid.” She said forcefully. He tilted his head and gave her a look that told her to say it truthfully. “Screw you, I’m not afraid.” She said this time with more meaning. 

He smiled at her, “slay your demons kid. Then you’ll be able to sleep.” She lied back down going back to sleep. Bellamy turned and saw me watching.

“Where were you?” He asked coldly. 

“At the front.” I answered.

He shot up, “why?” He asked with concern.

“Looking to see if the fog had passed.” He nodded his head, not fully convinced. “You do that with Octavia?” I asked.

“Yeah, it was a little different but… yeah.” He too laid back down. “You really should go to sleep.” 

“No!” I shot back. 

“Whatever.” He scoffed.

When morning came I was tired, exhausted. But I didn't have any terrible nightmares. I woke up Bellamy and Charlotte.

We ran out and found some of the other people that were hunting. “Where’d you go?” Bellamy asked Jones.

“Into a cave down there. The hell was that?.” He answered.

“I don’t know. Where’s Atom?” Jones shrugged. We started looking for him when we heard a scream. 

“Charlotte!” I yelled. When we got to her we saw Atom's body covered in red welts and burns.  

“Kill me. Kill me.” He begged.

Charlotte walked forward and handed Bellamy the knife. “Go back to camp, you too Charlotte.” I stayed put.“Xephyr.” He looked at me.

“No.” I stood beside him. We both knelt down and Bellamy stared at the suffering man before us. 

“Bellamy, please.” He begged. I grabbed Bellamy's hand. 

“It’s okay.” Just then we heard footsteps behind us. We turned around and it was Clarke.

“I heard screams.” She said,

“Charlotte found him. Sending her back to camp.” Bellamy looked down. Atom kept begging for us to kill him. 

“Okay, I’m gonna help you.” She bent over humming a soothing tune. Bellamy handed her the knife, she took it and still humming the tune she dug it into Atom’s neck. And with that the light faded from his eyes. 

By the time we got back to camp, night had fallen. “Get Clarke whatever she needs.” Bellamy told a girl. 

Octavia came out of the drop ship and ran over to us. “Octavia, just stay there. Please, stay back.” Bellamy tried to push her away from Atom. She pushed him off her and walked over to him. When she pulled the jacket back she breathed out his name.

“There was nothing i could do-“

“Don’t!” She cut her brother off. She got up and walked away. I went after her. 

“Octavia!” I called after her. 

“Did you know?” She turned around sharply.

“I heard him yell, I went to go after him but Bellamy held me back. I tried, I tried to get him off but he wouldn’t… he wouldn’t let go. I’m so sorry.” 

Whatever.” She turned around.

#bellamy #the 100 bellamy #bellamyblake #x OC #octavia blake #clarke griffin #The 100 #jasper #monty green

[seeksstaronmewni]

What if Spümcø cartoons were distributed by Associated Artists Productions (A.A.P.), like Warner Bros. and Paramount’s Golden-Age-of-Hollywood cartoons?

I kind of think that Ren Höek chewing on a bone in place of a carrot is a bit of a cliche, though.

Dedicated to @akron-squirrel and the few Spmücø fans that remain in this world.

#spümcø #spumco #ren & stimpy #the ren & stimpy show #george liquor #he-hog #he-hog the atomic pig #stimpy #a.a.p. #associated artists productions #logo #logos #ren höek #ren hoek #stimpson j. cat #stimpson j cat #nick animation #nickelodeon animation #nickelodeon #fan art friday #fanart friday #fanart #fan art #fanartfriday #john kricfalusi #john k #john k. #cat #cats #dog

[inkdrinkershadowsinger]

Thoughts/ Background The Deathly Hallows Part Two

The introduction music is so haunting. The castle in all its glory is haunted by dementors and fog. Snape is solitary. Everything is singular and empty on the grounds. The only color we see at Hogwarts during this time is during the final battle when McGonagall pushes Harry out of the way, and we see that flash of fire from her wand. That’s when you know stuff is about to kick off.

Griphook sounds so lost as to why Harry would bury Dobby. The divide between creatures and wizards, between goblins and wizards has gotten so great that neither side even thinks to assume that the other possesses even the smallest hint of kindness or humility. This is a fic all in itself.

What are the goblins stake in the sword? What is with the mention of the tiara in the books? I feel like Rowling had more to say about this topic, but for some reason she didn’t.

I hate that Fleur seems to be so meek in this movie. I want her to be this badass fighter chick, the kind of person who the Goblet of Fire would chose once again to play one of the most challenging games ever, the kind of person who would leave her country and family for an amazing opportunity and adventure, but her character wasn’t given much time or space to be free to show itself in that manner.

Wandlore is super fascinating. Is there a book about wandlore? Like a companion book like Quidditch Through the Ages? I feel like there should be.

It looks like that is a quilt patch behind Harry’s head. It would have been a gift from Mrs. Weasley.

It always bothered me that Luna was just like, “Yeah, I’m going back to school.” They just locked her butt up in the dungeons, and then she decides to go back to a school where the people who locked her up are currently in power and could torture her for information about the whereabouts of Harry Potter, the person she literally just escaped with. I think, that’s why this scene was cut from the final cut of the basic DVD versions.

Ron is so quick here to be like, “They suspect us. They suspect us.” But the silence doesn’t go on for that long. It feels like someone with such an iron gut gets antsy really quickly, and not antsy like sweating a bit, but antsy like he’s about to start crying. It just seems weird. One of the basic security measures to the bank might be that they have like a gas that leaks through that makes people feel paranoid or something like that. You want to get 200 galleons out, but what happens if you get robbed on the way out the door? Better to only get 100, thus keeping money in the bank under the goblins eyes. It would help keep out thieves as well, petty and otherwise.

None of the other goblins think that something is off with the behavior of this one goblin who seems to be in a positon of authority?

Goblins are keyed into the various vaults? Which means that they could seal them at any time as well, right? Is this in the books?

Hermione, baby, your Gryffindor is showing, and it is SEXY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol

Those goblins are like, “Assume the fire breathing position.”

You can see how deep down they are. And I know this isn’t real, but to think that that dragon would have only had that small opening of real light shining down on it all that time is truly depressing.

Litearlly, they all deserve to bite it after what that dragon was put through.

“And he’s homicidal.”

“We plan, we get there, all hell breaks loose.” I feel that.

I always assumed that Voldemort when to Gringotts and killed the goblins. But no, he summoned them to Malfoy Manor, and then killed them. Why would he do it like that?

That mirror is rectangular, but I always envisioned the mirrors as being circular.

Why does Aberforth tell them that the Order is finished? He knows that it isn’t. This whole speech of his is very demoralizing. But Harry dgaf…..

This, “I trusted the man I knew” attitude is why Harry named one of his children Albus Severus.

Hermione is the one who asks questions of Aberforth, and yet, he directly responds to Harry. I always thought that was odd.

And Aberforth has been helping them the whole time? Then why the speech?

Neville badass Longbottom.

Another nod to the books.

I wanted some more information about what was going on in Hogwarts while Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on the run. I wanted to hear more about what Dumbledore’s Army were getting up to while the others were hunting horcruxes. There were tasters of it in the book, but I would have loved to have had more of it tbh.

Fact: Neville’s plant from five is the mascot for the Hogwart’s resistance.

“She gots lost of those, hasn’t she?” This line from Seamus at the very beginning of this movie just made it so perfect. This movie is a gosh dang masterpiece.

Snape had such a hard job. I mean, I know people hate on Snape, and I can understand their reasoning, but I have a soft spot for the man. Maybe I read too much fanfiction because fanfic!Snape and canon!Snape are two very different individuals.

Harry’s name among these students is the stuff of legend. The way they all look around and start talking carries that spark of hope that good rumors sometimes have.

Harry, “Perfect timing group.”

People back up when Harry faces Snape. People move the hell out of dodge when McGonagall draws her wand.

Snape takes out the two Carrows behind him before he apparates out of the school.

Padma gets zero dances at the Yule Ball, and then Voldemort invades her mind. Great.

Pansy, my darling, there is a time to speak and there is a time to stay silent. Read the room.

Filch, ditto.

Why do all of the magical, “evil” Slytherins allow Filch, a squib, to lock them up?

Even the portraits are getting out of there.

All the kids in the background are completely flummoxed.

“Boom!”

Say that five times fast. No, say it once without messing up and you get to be bff’s with Maggie Smith.

This spell is sick, this music is sick, McGonagall is a queen. When I saw this in theater, my skin got goose pimples. “Do your duty for our school!” It is just so amazing, and iconic. This whole scene makes me feel so empowered, and pumped like I’m about to head into battle, like I’m about to defend my home and my life.

My thoughts on the diadem and the other founders objects can be found in a post that I made. My thoughts are strong, and though they aren’t canon, they are still unspoken canon.

Voldemort is like, “I was about to monologue. Why you speaking to me?”

“You okay, Freddie?” Don’t come at me like that, writers.

We all died laughing in the theater when Ron said that. “Harry talks in his sleep.” Harry only speaking parseltongue when around snakes theory is still enforced when you think about the snake Pettigrew sneaking around the whole time.

Exactly why the fuck does Remus need Tonks more than her small child? I never understood this line, and I never liked them as a couple. Thought the book version was creepy, and the movie version unrealized.

Some movies really don’t need to be split into two for the ending *Divergent trilogy* but this one really benefitted from having two films. I wouldn’t want this huge battle scene and character plot and humor to be lost.

No one thinks to cast a spell to catch Neville??? This is like the first flying lesson all over again.

Go, Mr. Weasley, you are on fire.

Kingsley, whip their arses with that fancy shit. LET’S GO!!!!!!

Harry reached out to Ginny first. This movie is so lacking in any real chemistry between these two actors and characters that it is almost painful. This is one instance, that I never noticed before, that makes all of their other interactions less cringey to watch.

Neville almost died on that bridge. He might as well tell Luna how he feels. I love this and can fully ship canon book couples with canon movie couples at the same time. Thank you very much.

That kiss between them is so weird. I just can’t.

Hermione in this scene is proof that men rattle your brain with smooches. Lol

So, if you are using the room of requirement for something, and someone who already has been in that same room, and wants it for the same reason that you do, they can get in as well? But not if they want it for the same reason, which is why Umbridge couldn’t be get it in Order of the Phoenix.”

There are so many Easter eggs in this scene in the ROR. You can see a chess piece from 1, pixies from 2. It just enforces my headcanon that the house elves use the ROR as a sort of dumping ground for the random stuff that they find at the school.

Harry is so gosh dang blasé about seeing Draco again. He’s just like, “What’s up, dude?” He is not concerned in the slightest that he has three wands pointed at him right now. They are just causally chatting about whose wand each other has got.

The statue of the pig right behind Harry and Hermione. It would make sense Voldemort would try to totally remake Hogwarts, and I think that would go into removing those odd little things that make the castle a bit quirky. The castle looks bleak and unnaturally bland compared to the other movies. It would make sense that he would want statues of hogs also taken out.

You see the lanterns that Slughorn had at his Christmas party.

Why is the fire morphing into different animals? The phoenix attacks Draco, Blaise, and Goyle, the tiger chases Ron and Hermione, and then the snake goes after Harry. And then they all converge on the trio? Why make it animals? Is there any significance to this? I never noticed that they were actually animals before.

Finding the brooms perfect. Saving them perfect. Killing the horcrux then kicking it into the flames. Perfect.

The music while the trio are fighting to get to boat house is so haunting and lovely and it’s like it calls to every nostalgic atom in your body.

Really, death eater, you’ve got time to stop and cast the cruciatus on someone in the middle of this warzone?

I love that Hermione was the one to blast Fenrir away from Lavender. So touching.

Aberforth, Mr. IT IS ALL GOING TO END HORRIBLY WHY EVEN TRY, has enough hope and good memories to cast away that many dementors. Yeah, he’s fake.

Voldemort just doesn’t like that Snape is taller than him.

I just wanted a touch of the friendship that was expressed between Lily and Snape in the book. Harry understood it, and said it perfectly at the end of book seven. I wanted some of that to translate to screen. It wasn’t just because Snape had some weird crush on her it was because they were friends, best friends. Ron and Harry and Hermione friendship. The next time someone comes at me with that bull I’m just going to refer them back to the facts.

This is probably the first time that Snape had ever been allowed to really look at Harry as a person rather than someone who is supposed to hate him. It is the first time that he could be unguarded around him.

Snape hired more healers. Why else would they be there? He knew that with the group in charge that as in power, that they would be needed.

I can’t stand this barrage of lost souls. It is painful, and I get flashbacks from when I read the book for the first time, and the pages were covered in my tears.

It doesn’t look like Snape even has anything in this office. It looks barren. He knew he had no time to get comfortable in his position.

That tree is beautiful.

I love their friendship. I will always love their friendship.

Look at Snape and all those books. Lily and Snape, the studious, top of their year duo with the Marauders who eschew libraries but still manage to succeed. I don’t need to think hard to imagine the rivalry. In fact, I did imagine it, and wrote some down in the thing, message me if you would like part of the thing.

Hermione knew, or at least, strongly suspected that Harry was going to have to do what he sets off to accomplish, for sure.

I love that when Harry walked into the forest to face down death that he had these people, these guardians, these people who at one point or another swore to protect this boy with everything that they have get to be the ones that are with him at the end just like at the beginning. Things are different for them, and different from how they thought it would be when Harry was born into this world, but they still kept their promise.

“Does it hurt?” This is something that a child asks. We forget that Harry, here, is only supposed to be 17 years old, that’s a kid. Added to that, you have the very real

“We’re here, you see?” Perfect.

“Stay close to me?” “Always.”

My thoughts mean nothing in the perfection of this scene.

Hagrid is still looking out for Harry’s best interest. He is the only adult worth a flip in more than half of these films.

“The boy who lived come to die.”

I know Dumbledore is like, “The man” here, and the mentor or whatever, but I would have really have liked to have the person who met Harry at Kings Cross had been Snape especially after harry had just learned the truth. Way more dynamic.

Narcissa straight up lied to the most dangerous wizard ever. She deserved that pardon for her family. All she wanted was out, and to take care of her son, and I respect that. Don’t give a dang for the rest of the world when they would gladly let you burn. Take care of number one even when number one is a group instead of a single entity.

You hear that noise when Neville picks up the hat, and if you read the books, you know what he just found. He was out there preparing and scouting for another battle, and Hogwarts rewarded him.

Hagrid carrying in Harry’s body was so painful to watch. Visually, there little death parade plus the music just puts you in this anxious state. Pinpricks.

The acting by Bonnie Wright here is superb. The lack of chemistry is not equally weighted on her shoulders.

Luna looks at Draco like she is sick. Then like she is sad. I hate it. She was wishing for something else there for sure.

The way Dean Thomas looks at Voldemort in this scene is the way that I feel about that weird af hug.

Voldemort has to restrain himself from killing Neville on the spot for interrupting him.

Neville has never in the course of these movies failed to speak when needed. He stood up to the trio in 1, and he spoke up against Seamus and nearly everyone else in the common room in Ootp. Neville stands up for what is right.

All of those death eaters are like, “Fuck! This boy came back to life again? What are the Dark Lord’s AK’s broken? Nevermind, fuck this shit, I’m out.”

That music when Neville regains consciousness. YES!

See, if Voldemort didn’t play with his food, he might have won.

NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH!!!! When I say people cheered and screamed in the theater when Molly said and did this epic shit I ain’t kidding. IT WAS AND STILL IS ONE OF THE MOST ICONIC HP QUOTES OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE OF THE BEST, MOST EMPOWERING QUOTES!!!!!!! We all want Molly Weasley to have our backs like this.

The whole ending of this movie is LEGENDARY!!!! I went to the midnight showing for the release of this movie with a bunch of other diehards, and seeing Neville cut the head off of the snake, and watching Harry finally beat Voldemort with the elder wand. I mean, we were literally just in such a state of excitement and yes and hallelujah, it was insane.

Neville and Luna. I see y’all.

Percy is talking to Arthur, reconciling.

That guy behind Cho is definitely about to shoot his shot with someone.

Filch, bless his heart.

Ron and Hermione. Harry knows. Harry blesses this union. Harry has been the number one ship captain this whole time, and now he is rewarded.

I like that Harry snapped the wand in the movie. See, if book Harry had snapped the wand, the Cursed Child would have never graced our consciousness with its heteronormative agenda. Scorbus is life. Fight me.

This series has had such a serious impact on me. I love it. I spend hours upon hours inside of this universe every day as beloved fanfiction writers play inside of it’s territory. It made me a reader. It helped me when I wasn’t sure what was next for me in life. It gave me entertainment and enjoyment, and still does. I love it, and I hope that I always will. We cling to the thought of magic because we hope that it is really, we hope that like in this world where there is magic that cannot be easily be explained exists. We hope that in our world, too, there is that same kind of magic that can wrap itself around us.

I think that kind of magic is real. I just think that we have to look for it, remember it, talk about, cherish it, and spread it around for others who have forgotten to look for it themselves. And great literature, like this series, helps us to do that.

That is why it will be remembered for generations to come. At least, if I have anything to say about it.

#Harry Potter #Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part two #Harry Potter thoughts #Harry Potter anaysis #Harry Potter background #harry potter meta

[thedanasilvestri]

The whole Universe (and each of us) is governed by what is referred to as “ Nature’s Laws.” 🔥 There’s an intelligence that permeates every atom of matter and embraces every unit of energy perceptible. ⚛️ This intelligence converts acorns into oak trees, causes water to flow downhill in response to the law of Gravity, and follows night with day and winter with summer. 🌲 🌰 This intelligence is within everything and everyone; it’s known as mother nature or God. 🙌🏼 One of Nature's Laws is “Create or Disintegrate” everything, and everyone is either growing or dying, and nothing remains as is. If you look into Nature, you will see diversity and ecosystems. You will see trees and plants growing or dying in the forests; the same applies to humans! Growing up, I didn’t think much about Nature; It was just there until one summer, everything changed.🤷‍♂️ I visited my parent's house in Massachusetts, where I grew up. It was a bright and sunny day, one of those perfect summer days in New England. ☀️ Something caught my eye. I realized beautiful, vivid white flowers blooming in the bushes in front of my parents' house. 🌸 I said to my dad, “ Wow, these are beautiful. How long have these been here?”. My dad responded, “ They have always been here; you never noticed them.” Wow, I thought to myself. What he said made me think… It took me 26 years to notice the white flowers that have always been there? What else am I missing? I need to be more present in the moment and Nature. 😅 From that day forward, I never took nature for granted again.💪🏼 I love nature now; it’s one of the times I am genuinely away from business and people, and I can relax, unwind and connect with myself and God. Here are some pictures from Sedona this weekend. I stayed at an air b and b in the mountains with the rabbits, birds, and the Javelinas ( the pig hogs). 🐦 🐇 I will talk about these “ Nature’s Laws” throughout the next few weeks. Is it time for you to stop and cherish the present moment more with family, business, and Nature? So my question to you is, where do you like to go in Nature to get some time to disconnect and relax? Share below! ⬇️ (at Sedona, Arizona) https://www.instagram.com/p/CcORFXaPQjh/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[bktoons]

He Hog the Atomic Pig

#john kricfalusi #ren and stimpy #cartoon #90s

[deniscollins]

They Crossed an Ocean to Butcher Pigs. It Was No American Dream.

What would you do if you were an executive at Seaboard Triumph Foods, which employs 2,400 people and butchers about 21,000 pigs a day, and 200 Micronesians arrived after a company recruiter told them they would earn $15.95 an hour — nearly 10 times what they were making in Micronesia -- and get a one-way plane ticket, but then their pay was deducted to repay their $1,800 plane tickets: (1) pay their airfare, or (2) continue to deduct the plane cost from their pay? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

Anthony Pretrick was scraping by as a fisherman in his Pacific island homeland of Micronesia when he met a job recruiter with an irresistible offer: There was a fortune to be made slaughtering hogs in a faraway place called Iowa.

A new pork processing plant was hiring workers for $15.95 an hour — nearly 10 times what Mr. Pretrick, 26, made.  He would get a one-way plane ticket. A hotel room. Free meals. Cash to send home to his wife and two sons. Hundreds of other Micronesians had already signed up.

“It was big money for us,” Mr. Pretrick said. “We left.”

Poverty propelled the Micronesians to take jobs trimming pork carcasses, jobs that few Americans want in an era of record low unemployment. And a quirk of law made Micronesians like Mr. Pretrick uniquely valuable to employers who might be worried about becoming the next target of the Trump administration’s workplace immigration raids: They were legal, allowed to work in the United States without visas or green cards under decades-old agreements rooted in America’s atomic testing and military history in the Pacific.

But what unfolded after 200 Micronesians made the 7,000-mile journey over the past year to the cornfields and hog farms of western Iowa became a tangled migration saga of what the workers called mistreatment and broken promises.

The workers say their pay was siphoned off to repay their $1,800 plane tickets. They say a recruiter for the pork plant seized their passports and threatened to have the workers deported if they got sick or missed shifts. The workers struggled to find their footing in an unfamiliar city where they knew nobody, spoke little English and spent their days being shuttled back and forth between their hotel and 10-hour shifts at the pork plant.

“We were lost,” Mr. Pretrick said.

For decades, thousands of people from Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands have migrated to work in the United States at nursing homes, cleaning companies, coffee farms and food plants in Hawaii, Arkansas, Missouri and elsewhere. They arrive and can work legally under agreements called Compacts of Free Association, but they are usually ineligible for Medicaid or other federal benefits — an omission that advocates say leaves many islanders impoverished and sick in the United States.

Now, as the Trump administration slashes refugee admissions and arrests hundreds of immigrant workers in high-profile raids at meatpacking plants in Mississippi and Tennessee, the Pacific Islanders are becoming an increasingly attractive option for businesses searching for entry-level workers.

“These employers understand we’re legal residents,” said Jocelyn Howard, the program director for We Are Oceania, a Hawaii-based advocacy group. “For recruiters in America, it’s a good opportunity because we’re legal.”

The workers who landed in Iowa were recruited to work at a huge new pork plant operated by Seaboard Triumph Foods that employs 2,400 people and butchers about 21,000 pigs a day.

Seaboard Triumph touts its technological advances and community awards, but it is now facing an international public-relations mess after a video went viral showing one of the company’s recruiters yelling at workers in a hotel lobby and then grabbing for a woman who had been recording him.

The embassy of the Federated States of Micronesia sent the State Department a letter calling for an investigation. The union that represents most workers at the plant began looking into the allegations. Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa said the state would temporarily block millions of dollars in incentives for Seaboard Triumph.

A spokeswoman for Seaboard Triumph said the company followed all labor laws and had not forced or coerced the Micronesians to travel to Iowa. The company said it helped its Micronesian recruits adjust to life and work in the state by paying for temporary housing, meals and transportation after they arrived. It gave each worker a $100 gift card.

After the complaints erupted, Seaboard Triumph said it had suspended the recruiter who was seen on the video yelling at Micronesian workers and declaring that the female workers were “my women.” Last week, Seaboard sent a letter to its Micronesian employees saying it was canceling their obligations to repay their airfare.

“We’ll continue to support you as one of our valuable employees,” the letter said.

The Micronesian recruits who arrived over the past year, some with little more than shorts and flip-flops, said in interviews they had no problem with their working conditions at the plant.

The Micronesians were hardly the first immigrants to go to work in western Iowa’s packing plants. While much of the landscape is overwhelmingly white and conservative — voters here narrowly elected the anti-immigrant Rep. Steve King to a ninth term in 2018 — a more diverse future is taking shape in meatpacking towns like Storm Lake and Sioux City.

At factory shift changes, a polyphony of dialects from Central America, Africa and Myanmar floats through parking lots. The Virgin of Guadalupe hangs from some rearview mirrors; pastel leis dangle from others. On Saturday afternoons, Latino families line up for tangy mangonadas at La Palapa, a food trailer in Sioux City. The Hong Kong Food Store stocks its shelves with dried shrimp, spicy kimchi, taro, palm oil and other flavors of distant homes.

“We’re a meatpacking town,” said Mayor Bob Scott of Sioux City. “They came, they assimilated, they’re coaches in our schools.”

The Micronesian workers said their trouble began soon after they boarded flights from the island of Pohnpei for the two-day trek to Iowa. Many were nervous about traveling outside Micronesia for the first time, and they said that a guide who had been promised to them to navigate their airport transfers never showed up.

They landed at 3 a.m. for long layovers in Honolulu, often confused and hungry. Some did not have enough money for an airport meal. They were thirsty because they did not realize they could ask a flight attendant for more juice or soda. One worker kept visiting the airplane bathroom to refill a plastic water glass, said Mele Tataipu Arati, a Hawaiian-Samoan relative of some workers who lives in northern Iowa.

Ms. Howard, the Hawaii-based advocate, said that members of Oahu’s Micronesian diaspora began rushing to the airport with food and water for the arriving workers, and helped them connect to their mainland flights.

“These people were so hungry,” she said. “In our culture we’re so trusting and respecting and caring for each other. We expect the same. But in America it’s different. You’re on your own.”

Several workers said that a recruiter for the plant took their passports, ostensibly to verify their legal work status and get Social Security numbers, but then refused to return them. They said they did not have any other identification to cash checks, open bank accounts or wire money back home. Seaboard Triumph said it was not holding any employees’ passports.

Outside the plant one afternoon, Danifer Mark said he felt stranded. He was bewildered by America’s immigration bureaucracy, and was contemplating whether he should quit and try to move in with relatives in Cincinnati.

“How can I go back?” he asked. “I’m stuck. I don’t have money. What am I going to do?”

Curtis Weilbacher, a Micronesian citizen who helped hire many of the workers, attributed the problems to cultural divides, misunderstandings and misbehavior by workers who drank too much and caused trouble. (Mr. Weilbacher is not the recruiter who was suspended after being captured berating workers on the video)

“The mistake we made is we sent all of them at once,” Mr. Weilbacher said, as he headed into a workers’ meeting to discuss their grievances. “When you pick apples, the next day there are some rotten ones inside. You need to remove them.”

Some of the Micronesian workers said Seaboard and the local hotel that housed them had been fair and welcoming. The hotel provided dinners and karaoke nights and a free shuttle to take them to the plant. They said their countrymen and Micronesian officials had blown the complaints out of proportion on social media.

But others were adrift. They struggled to find apartments or come up with the advance rent and security deposits that American landlords required, and felt as though they had no option but to stay on at the downtown hotel that had initially put them up free.

“There’s three of us, and it’s $1,500 a month,” said Jowain Alexander, 34, who trims pork shoulders. “They told us they’d find a house for us. They didn’t. They said they’ll provide food. But now we have to pay for our own food. I don’t want to go out on the streets, sleeping under a bridge.”

Other workers had quit and had moved to Colorado, to other towns in Iowa, or even back home to jobs that pay $1.75 an hour.

“I’ll stay,” Mr. Alexander said. “My wife and my kids need money.”

#Migrants

[newstfionline]

Headlines

John Bolton is out as National Security Adviser (Bloomberg) U.S. President Donald Trump, smarting from the fallout over his cancelled Taliban summit at Camp David, tweeted Tuesday that he fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, unceremoniously ending the tenure of yet another senior administration official. But there’s a he said-he said problem: Bolton contends that he offered to resign yesterday, and Trump responded by telling him they would “‘talk about it tomorrow.’”

Evacuees from Bahamas Turned Away (Foreign Policy) Late Sunday, dozens of Bahamas residents seeking shelter in the United States after the devastation of Hurricane Dorian were removed from a Florida-bound ferry because they didn’t have valid U.S. visas. In the wake of the incident, Florida politicians on Monday called for U.S. President Donald Trump to grant the evacuees refuge. It remains unclear whether the Trump administration will do so. The visa problem presents yet another obstacle for evacuee families--many traveling with children--after the storm. Bahamas residents told Reuters that documents, including passports, had been lost to flooding. While many have already fled to the capital, Nassau, limited employment and housing options there could lead people to attempt to emigrate to the United States.

UK opposition rages at Johnson after he suspends Parliament (AP) Opposition politicians raged Tuesday at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s five-week suspension of Parliament before the deadline for Brexit, which drew angry and unprecedented protests in the House of Commons. Parliament has been prorogued--or suspended--at the government’s request until Oct. 14, a drastic move that gives Johnson a respite from rebellious lawmakers as he plots his next move as he tries to lead Britain out of the European Union by Oct. 31. Opposition lawmakers chanted “Shame on you” and held up signs reading “Silenced” as Parliament was formally shut down in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Poland’s minimum wage (Foreign Policy) Poland’s prime minister plans to dramatically increase the country’s minimum wage by the end of 2023--a significant shift in an economy historically reliant on low labor costs. The announcement comes just ahead of the country’s October elections. Adjusted for local prices, Poland’s minimum wage is close to those in Spain and the United States.

Soaring pork prices hog headlines and sow discontent in China (The Economist) African swine fever has wiped out a third of China’s pigs. What’s left is expensive. New data show that pork prices soared by 23% in August from July, the highest monthly jump on record. On an annual basis they were up by 47%. Officials are worried. China consumes about 55m tonnes of pork each year, as much as the rest of the world combined. Hu Chunhua, a vice-premier, said in August that the supply shortfall this year will be about 10m tonnes, more than the volume traded on international markets. So imports cannot plug the gap.

Hong Kong Protesters Hit Pause Button to Mark Sept. 11 (Reuters) Hong Kong activists called off protests on Wednesday in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and denounced a Chinese state newspaper report that they were planning “massive terror” in the Chinese-ruled city.

Canada Again Sails Warship Through Sensitive Taiwan Strait (Reuters) Canada has sailed a warship through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, the Canadian government said, three months after a similar operation and amid strained ties between Beijing and Ottawa.

North Korea conducts another test launch (Foreign Policy) Early Tuesday, North Korea launched two unidentified projectiles, according to South Korean military officials. The launch came hours after North Korea indicated that it would be willing to restart nuclear negotiations with the United States later this month and marks the eighth test since North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the border between the Koreas in June and agreed to resume the stalled talks.

South Korea Initiating WTO Complaint Over Japan Trade Curbs (AP) South Korea said Wednesday it will initiate a complaint to the World Trade Organization over Japan’s tightened export controls on key materials South Korean companies use to make computer chips and displays.

Japan’s Leader Taps New Cabinet Ministers to Freshen Image (AP) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shuffled his Cabinet on Wednesday, adding two women and a son of a former leader to freshen his image while maintaining continuity on U.S.-oriented trade and security policies.

Japan Regulator to Re-Investigate Fukushima Nuclear Disaster (Reuters) Japan’s nuclear regulator plans to reinvestigate the Fukushima disaster, in which three reactors at an atomic power plant run by Tokyo Electric Power melted down after an earthquake and tsunami eight years ago, it said on Wednesday.

Thousands Pray for Rain in Indonesia as Forests Go Up in Smoke (Reuters) Thousands of Indonesians prayed for rain in haze-hit towns on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo on Wednesday, as forest fires raged at the height of the dry season, the state Antara news agency reported.

Philippines’ Duterte Says Xi Offering Gas Deal if Arbitration Case Ignored (Reuters) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said his Chinese counterpart has offered Manila a controlling stake in a joint energy venture in the South China Sea, if it sets aside an international arbitral award that went against Beijing.

Three Australians Detained in Iran (Reuters) Three Australian citizens have been detained in Iran, the Australian government said on Wednesday, adding that it was helping the families of the three but gave no further details.

Rouhani Tells U.S. to End ‘Maximum Pressure’ on Iran: TV (Reuters) Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani urged the United States on Wednesday to end its policy of “maximum pressure” on his country, and said Tehran would cut its commitments to a 2015 nuclear deal further if necessary, state TV reported.

Netanyahu announces post-election plan to annex part of occupied West Bank (Reuters) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his intention on Tuesday to annex the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank if he wins next week’s general election.

Cameroon’s President Calls for National Dialogue, Surrender (AP) Cameroon’s president said during a public address Tuesday night that he is organizing a national dialogue for the end of the month on all the crises facing the country, including violence that has killed thousands in its Anglophone regions.

Ugandan Leader Calls for Eye-For-An-Eye-Style Sentences After Nephew Murdered (Reuters) Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said he wants courts to hand out eye-for-an-eye-style sentences for all murder convicts, to help stem soaring violent crime that claimed the life of his nephew last week.

#headlines