Curiouser and curiouser

Holy chaos theory, Batman! WV politics just got even weirder. It goes something like this:

1. WV state senator Daniel Hall once ran for the WV House as a Republican. He lost.

2. He then ran as a Democrat and won. Twice.

3. Then he was elected as a Democrat to the WV Senate.

4. After the 2014 elections, when the WV senate was tied 17-17, he switched back to being a Republican.

5. As of today, he announced his resignation from the senate in early 2016.

Y'all getting this so far?

So the question is, who gets to name his replacement? He was an R after the election but was elected as a D. State law seems to be a bit ambiguous, but it seems to me the fairest way is to honor the results of the last election.

This could potentially rewrite the landscape of the 2016 legislature. Or not.

This is yet another reason why I think the WV state motto should be changed from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up."

Read more here.

This will be one to watch.

Annals of Whack, continued

In happier days, Whackadoodleism was a fringe movement in WV politics. Now it's kind of in the saddle. The best example of legislative Whack I can think of, although the competition is fierce, is a bill that would make it a criminal felony to implement the Affordable Care Act.

As a compliment to this effort, I suggest bill supporters gather in a circle at night to foam at the mouth and howl at the moon.

As I've said here many times before, it's high time to change the state motto to "You can't make this **** up."

What he said

The Gentle Reader may be aware that Republicans now comprise the majority in the West Virginia legislature for the first time since the elections of 1932. It looks like one of the top items on the agenda will be eliminating state prevailing wage rules, which will mean lowering pay for construction workers. 

In the comment section of a newspaper, a friend of mine had this to say about that.

This sounds like a great idea!

WV is the second poorest in the nation, second only to Mississippi.

If we can pass prevailing wage law in WV and lower salaries for construction workers who have such easy jobs anyway then maybe we can lower the average salary and be the #1 lowest wage state in the country.

After all, low wages for workers equals prosperity right?? I mean drive around WV. We work cheaper than any other state but MS. You see how many fine houses, new cars and beautiful towns we have!

Pass repeal of prevailing wage! Make us #1 for low wages and we'll all be living great!!

(Yes, that was irony.)

Let the race to the bottom begin. God knows we're already pretty close.

Finally, an important news story

I was a bit surprised today when surfing the web to find a news story on NPR about how to tell whether one's goats are happy. According to the report, goats are in these days, with global population increasing from 600 million to 900 million since 1990.

Apparently, someone has actually studied how to tell whether goats are happy or unhappy. With ours, it's pretty easy to tell, but I'm guessing there may be a big difference between goats as productive livestock and goats as spoiled lawn ornaments who think their humans are stupid waiters.

ON A MORE SOMBER NOTE, it looks like WV's new political majority is planning anti-labor legislation for the 2015 session. That's no surprise.

Speaking some truth: WV poet on "Appalachian Blackface"

Crystal Good is an outstanding West Virginia Affrilachian (that would be African American Appalachian) poet, thinker and creative spirit. At the recent Race Matters in Appalachia Summit, she read an original poem that told the total truth about the 2014 elections. It's really worth a look. Fast forward about 20 minutes into this link to see her performance.

Sad to say, but she nailed it.

What she said

I want to give some props to a WV poet and artist I respect immensely, Crytal Good, a self-described Affralachian (African American Appalachian). She totally nailed it in this WV Public Broadcasting story on the 2014 elections. Title: "Appalachian Blackface."

I plan on giving her some backup, but I need to warm my metaphorical pen up in hell first.

What's next?

As you may know, West Virginia went through a bit of a political earthquake recently. Here's one take on what may happen from my friend Ted Boettner, aka Debbie Downer, at the WV Center on Budget and Policy. The good news is that it looks like Medicaid expansion may be relatively safe here, for the time being anyway.

Two for the road

 This explains a lot: a Princeton study suggests that the USA is no longer a democracy but rather an oligarchy, as in rule by the wealthy few. To some that might be a radical assertion; to others, it is stating the obvious. I tend to fall into the latter camp.

And then here are the post-election reflections of my friend Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo.

Cheers!

To use a movie cliche...

...here's a look at WV today:

Cliche: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. In that order.

THE GOOD. One WV bright spot is state Senate President Jeff Kessler's initiative to promote economic diversity and revival in the southern coalfields. Here's a supportive editorial from the Beckley WV newspaper.

THE BAD. God (and the gas industry) only know what kind of toxic crap is being generously shared in WV's northern gas lands. We owe our lack of knowledge of such things to that universally beloved benefactor of the human race, to wit, former vice president Dick Cheney.

THE UGLY. That's easy: WV elections, where truth is the first casualty.