No Millers Were Harmed

I have the 9News Denver TV app on my phone, so I’ve been following an awful story from Greeley, where six farm workers died at a dairy farm. The story started with the Greeley fire department saying they had to perform a “confined spaces” rescue. Then, the report that the men all had high levels of hydrogen sulfide in their systems.

In case you can’t follow what would have killed these men, large animal operations have huge pools of manure that they store in some way. Apparently, a manure-laden pipe broke and the men suffocated or were poisoned by the gases from the shit.

Today, the names of the men were released:

• Jorge Sanchez Pena, 36, of Greeley

• Alejandro Espinoza Cruz, 50, of Nunn

• Oscar Espinoza Leos, 17, of Nunn

• Ricardo Gomez Galvan, 40, of Keenesburg

• Noe Montanez Casanas, 32, of Keenesburg

• Carlos Espinoza Prado, 29, of Evans

Oscar Espinoza Leos was described as a “high schooler” in early reports. I’m not sure if that’s because he was the right age to attend, or if he was attending classes at one of the local schools. Three other people survived.

The notion that there are a bunch of WASPs lining up to do these kinds of jobs is bullshit, and, frankly, anyone with a brain knows that. Greeley is in Gabe Evans’ district, which is one of the tightest districts in the US (PVI EVEN). I wish someone would ask him about his support for Trump’s ICE and the importance of immigrant labor to dairy farms in his district.