Good question

A select committee of mostly Republicans in the WV legislature have spent a good part of 2015 pondering state tax reform. It's pretty clear that what they'd like to do is further cut business taxes. But Gazette statehouse reporter Phil Kabler asks a good question: how does that plan play out when the state budget is going under?

COULD THERE BE A PATTERN HERE? In this piece, WV Public Broadcasting looks at the troubled history of safety violations at Upper Big Branch before the 2010 disaster.

Three for the road

It's late and it's been a long day, but here are three links in case you missed them.

FIRST, here's a call for the US to do right by WV coal miners in this difficult time.

SECOND, if I was Don Blankenship, I wouldn't want UBB to be discussed at my trial either. But it should be.

THIRD, here's a profile of a guitar playing friend of mine who offered me shelter from the storm years ago.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Five years out

Yesterday, April 5, marked the 5th anniversary of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine disaster which killed 29 miners. On the bright side, it looks like the families of those who lost loved ones might be a little closer to some kind of justice. On the other hand, as mine safety expert Davitt McAteer argues here, congress has yet to act on mine safety and the Republican WV legislature actually rolled back some mine safety regulations in the last session.

West Virginia's late great Senator Robert C. Byrd nailed it:

"First, the disaster. Then the weeping. Then the outrage. And we are all too familiar with what comes next. After a few weeks, when the cameras are gone, when the ink on the editorials has dried, everything returns to business as usual. The health and the safety of America's coal miners, the men and women upon whom the Nation depends so much, is once again forgotten until the next disaster..."

In case you missed it

The Sunday New York Times had a good piece about the indictment of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship on federal charges in the wake of the 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners. 

I especially like the first three paragraphs, which lay out just how historical this really is:

 On a memorial to West Virginia’s most recent mining disaster, the silhouettes of 29 figures are etched into black granite, men posed with arms around each another like teammates.

On the back of the solemn slab, the disaster is put in the context of the state’s long history of coal tragedies, including a 1968 explosion that killed scores, and a dozen other deadly events earlier in the century.

In not one of those cases did a coal mine owner face criminal charges for the loss of life. That history ended in November, with the indictment of Donald L. Blankenship, the chief executive whose company owned the Upper Big Branch mine near here, where an explosion of methane gas in 2010 spread like a fireball through more than two miles of tunnels, feeding on illegally high levels of coal dust.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: whatever happens, this sends a message to future CEOs that there are limits to the games they can play with the lives of other people in their search for profit.

One to watch

The latest legal developments in the case of former Massey CEO Don Blankenship are interesting. First, the gag order will make events a little hard to follow. The accused pleaded not guilty, which wasn't a surprise. I was a bit surprised to learn about the requirement for him to post a $5 million bond.

A friend of mine suggested that the judge might have been afraid of another Marc Rich incident. Rich was a financial speculator who fled abroad to avoid prosecution until pardoned by President Clinton for some ungodly reason during the final moments of his presidency. Ken Ward reports that the federal magistrate seems to be concerned about Blankenship's financial affairs as well.

The irony in all this is that Blankenship's legal troubles are occurring just as his political dreams for West Virginia have come true in the wake of the last election.

Light reading

If you are curious about the 43 page indictment of former Massey CEO Don Blankenship, you can read the whole thing here. There are 108 numbered sections, although I may not be using the right term.

THIS SHOULD BE EASY TO FIX. There's a lot of talk here and elsewhere about the need for economic transition in West Virginia. One thing that could easily help is more state investment in promoting WV tourism. Oh yeah, and it might help if we stop trashing and poisoning the place.

BIG DOGS TAKE AIM AT A GOOD POLICY. One policy idea long advocated here is the creation of a system of Voluntary Employee Retirement Accounts for workers without pensions. The financial industry, which so far hasn't stepped up to do squat for these people, is gunning to kill the idea.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Will justice be done?

The news of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's indictment on federal charges related to the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster has made national news. The show starts this week, but it looks like we won't see a lot of it unwind due to a gag order by the judge.

Meanwhile, as my friend Ken Ward reports, it looks like Blankenship's tendency to micromanage Massey operations provided an opening for prosecutors.

This NY Times editorial on the subject is worth a look. It both commends the investigation and condemns Congress for its failure to act in the wake of the deaths of 29 miners. Final paragraph:

The investigation is praiseworthy for seeking accountability for miners who should not have died. But the question of industrywide reform has been shamefully neglected by Congress in general and by industry allies in the Republican Party, like Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the incoming majority leader, in particular. The Upper Big Branch disaster continues to expose the need for stronger federal fines and for the authority to shut mines that are repeat offenders of safety rules and threaten the lives of their employees.

While we're at it, you can find my two cents near the bottom of this item from Desmogblog.com:

“I think the fact that these indictments have gone this far up the corporate ladder is truly historic,” said Rick Wilson, of the American Friends Service Committee's West Virginia Economic Justice Project, “and will send a message to future CEOs in coal and other industries that there are limits to the liberties that can be taken with the lives of other people.”

Maybe a little justice

These days, as the late great Lou Reed said, you need a busload of faith to get by. I got a bit of a boost yesterday when word came the former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship had finally been indicted on federal charges.  Federal prosecutor Booth Goodwin has been saying for a long time that more indictments were coming, but I'd almost given up hope of seeing this day. Not surprisingly, this news brought a measure of comfort to the families of the 29 miners who died in the April 5 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster.

When that disaster happened, I was in Okinawa at a karate seminar. It felt strange to be so far from home at a time like that, not that I could have done anything about it. What I did at the time was post this blog entry about the disaster and about my musings on the ancient Greek goddess Nemesis, she who renders what is due and punishes human hubris.

Looks like she stepped up.

Four years back

It's sad that four years after the worst coal mine disaster in 40 years, Congress has yet to act to improve coal mine safety. It's also sad that West Virginia's legislative response was as weak as it was. Here are Ken Ward's reflections from Coal Tattoo and a piece by WV Public Broadcasting.

It doesn't look like former Massey CEO Don Blankenship did himself a lot of favors with his release of a 51 minute video about the Upper Big Branch mine disaster. Several participants in the film say they were misled. The most prominent of these is WV Senator Joe Manchin, who said "I believe that Don has blood on his hands. And I believe that justice will be done."

More telling, families and friends of miners killed at Upper Big Branch protested the film at the federal courthouse in Charleston on Wednesday. This was was also a way of stating that they want criminal prosecutions for the disaster to go all the way up the corporate chain.

All of which is to say that there is ample reason behind my campaign to change the state motto of West Virginia from "Mountaineers are always free" to "You can't make this **** up."

With the old breed

The title of this post comes from a great World War II memoir by Eugene Sledge, who told his story of horrific battles in the Pacific Theater of that war, which was where my father and two uncles served. It came to mind today when I met a veteran of a different kind of struggle, although he was probably a military veteran as well.

The occasion was a small community forum on ending child poverty in a coal mining community in southern West Virginia. I was privileged to meet and talk briefly with one of the Old Breed of West Virginia coal miners, union men (they were mostly men) who know what it means not only to work hard in a dangerous calling but to stand together in solidarity and fight back against corporate greed.

In these sad days, when union membership has declined and CEOs pose as protectors of the workers (like weasels claiming to  protect chickens), such voices are hard to find and are all too seldom heard. I was glad to hear it again. I can't say how much I've missed hearing it. If only such voices were as common today as in the past...

Fittingly, the meeting took place near Cabin Creek, the site of a major episode in the WV mine wars of 100 years ago.

THERE'S STILL HOPE for more prosecutions in the wake of the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine disaster. May the goddess Nemesis be swift to render that which is due. And if she isn't swift, may she at least be sure.

A POSITIVE TREND. I mentioned in yesterday's post the WV is getting smarter about how it approaches criminal justice and prison issues. Here's an item that shows similar progress in dealing with school discipline problems.

ONE MORE THING. The Future Fund cleared another hurdle in the state senate. Now it heads to the floor. I want this one bad.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Here's a shock

Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship doesn't exactly take a lot of responsibility for the Upper Big Branch mine disaster that killed 29 West Virginia coal miners in 2010. Maybe he'll get some help in that department one of these days.

MINORITY HEALTH. The Affordable Care Act will have a big impact increasing coverage in WV's African American and Hispanic communities.

FOUNDING FATHERS AND MOTHERS. Here's some interesting DNA research about the earliest Americans.

NOTE: El Cabrero is rotating off the line for a few days. Blog posts may be erratic. Happy Thanksgiving!

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Rock on, Lou

I was saddened to learn of the death of rock legend (those words seem kind of trite here) Lou Reed. I must admit that I missed the whole Velvet Underground scene and only became aware of it much later.

But the Lou Reed that I remember most was the angry, prophetic voice behind his 1989 theme album New York, which denounced the greed, corruption, violence and indifference to the poor that characterized the country at the end of the Reagan era. The songs from that album permanently engraved themselves into my consciousness.

Today's song, Dirty Boulevard, is one of those. His words about "your hungry, your tired, your poor" have often gone through my mind when I witnessed the many degradations that poor people are still subjected to.

BAD MOON ON THE RISE. This news doesn't bode well for union miners.

BAD TASTE ON THE DECLINE. What was this Virginia amusement park thinking, anyway?

GET DOWN, DOG. Here's a look at why yoga is good for you.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Wrapping up a week

In case you missed it, Krugman was on again today, talking about growing inequality and a recovery that mostly benefits the rich.

STILL WAITING FOR JUSTICE. Here's my friend Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo musing on the ongoing federal criminal investigation of Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch disaster. I know where some of us would like to see that go.

NOT SURE THIS GUY MADE IT. NASA has confirmed that a frog somehow got into a photo of a launch last week. I wouldn't bet much on his well being.

UGLY ANIMAL CONTEST. My vote is definitely for the blobfish.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Signal or noise?

Like many people in WV and elsewhere, I've been eagerly following the federal investigation of Massey Energy's 2010 Upper Big Branch disaster which killed 29 coal miners. The latest development is a delay in sentencing for a former company official, David Hughart, who pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiring to violate safety standards and to covering up for them.Part of it may be due to summer scheduling, but it looks like ongoing cooperation between Hughart and federal prosecutors, who have signaled that charges may move up the corporate chain.

Would that it were so.

BAKER'S DUO. Economist Dean Baker takes another whack at austerity here and comments on the Affordable Care Act here.

URGENT WOOLLY MAMMOTH UPDATE here.

SOON TO BE A TWEET. On a road trip to WV's eastern panhandle, I had a WV town insight: Milton is the Anti-Shepherdstown.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

I had to ask

Today I attended a rally for union coal miners and retirees in danger of losing promised benefits from Patriot Coal. I'm proud that the American Friends Service Committee was one of many groups that signed on in support of those in danger of losing health benefits due to a corporate bankruptcy from a company that was set up to fail.

It so happened that I saw some old friends from my first big fight, the Pittston Coal strike. It turns out that one of the best union hell raisers I've ever known is now a preacher. For some reason this strikes me as a little weird, but it probably shouldn't. One former UMWA official told me a long time ago "Half our members are preachers."

 When I caught up with him he was busy preparing a sermon.

"What's it about?" I asked.

"Love," he said.

"For it or against it?" I responded.

"For it," he replied.

Just checking. You can't be too sure these days.

COVERAGE OF THE RALLY here.

POLITICAL? Meanwhile, former Massey CEO Don Blankenship claims that if he goes to jail for his role in the deaths of 29 miners at Upper Big Branch, it will be "political." I would have used a different word. Like maybe overdue.

TOLKIEN GEEKS, this link is just for you.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

From Vikings to Quakers

I've been amusing myself lately by blogging about the Vikings, those fun loving Norsemen of old who liked to swill mead and plunder monasteries. I was even more amused to learn a while back of a connection between Vikings and Quakers, two groups most people don't usually associate together.

It turns out that the North Midlands of England, where Quakerism was strong in its early years, was also the place with the most Viking colonists back in the day. In David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in American, the author quotes historian Hugh Barbour as saying,

"...in the central region of the North, the Pennine moorland, where Quakerism was strongest, the villages were mainly Norse in origin and name, and Norse had been spoken there in the Middle Ages. From the Norsemen came the custom of moots, or assemblies in the open at a standing stone or hilltop grave, which may have influenced the Quaker's love for such meeting places."

I enjoy the thought that the great great great....grandfather of an earnest Friend might have been a berserker back in the day. I guess it's more proof that Odin has a sense of humor.

POVERTY AS A CHILDHOOD DISEASE is discussed here.

TWO FROM COAL TATTOO. Here's a post from my friend Ken Ward about the future central Appalachian coal. along with one on the new book about Massey Energy and its former CEO Don Blankenship

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED
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A wild night and day

With headlines spilling over the media and web about the disaster in Texas and the chaotic times in Boston, I'm not even going to try to comment. I can't even keep up with events. My friend Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette made a couple good points on Twitter that can help put headlines in perspective. Here's one:

...Saw comparison of gun deaths vs terrorism deaths-30,000 gun deaths per year in US, 3,400 terror deaths since 1970.

Here's the accompanying link.

He added the following:

...Keep in mind: 4,500 deaths per year in workplace accidents, 50,000 per year from occupational diseases.

And here's that link.

Speaking of Twitter, when I first heard of it, it made no sense at all to me. However, when there's something going down that you want to follow, there's probably no quicker way to get information, even though some of it is going to be noise rather than signal.

Here's hoping for some slow news days. Meanwhile, here are some things to check out:

UPPER BIG BRANCH. Also from Ken Ward, here's an interesting article that suggests former Massey Energy executives and board members may be targets of criminal investigations.

A GOOD PIECE ON GUNS from someone who knows a thing or two about them here.

MEDICAID EXPANSION. It looks like Arkansas is going to do it, albeit with publicly subsidized private insurance. Better than nothing though. Still waiting to here about WV...

THAT "OBAMACARE" TRAIN WRECK dissected here.

ON A STRESSFUL DAY FOR THE COUNTRY AND WORLD, it might be good to look at some calming images. Check out these of bat-eating spiders! Who loves you?

DON'T EVEN ASK ABOUT THE GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL

A foolish consistency

I've been blogging the last stretch about the life and thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who exerted a huge influence on American literature during and after the 19th century. I have to fess up to a love/hate relationship with old Waldo. Sometimes he seems like a pompous windbag. Sometimes I have no idea what he's talking about. But sometimes he's right on. One such case in point is a passage from Self Reliance about the dangers of consistency. Sometimes we stick to a bad opinion or course of action just because we don't want to seem to change. His advice: get over it.

Here's a great passage with one of his more famous lines:

The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them. 

But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

SAD NEWS FROM WV. I'm in Vermont at the moment and was saddened and shocked by the news that Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was gunned down outside the county courthouse.

STILL SAD THREE YEARS LATER. Here's Ken Ward at Coal Tattoo on how we continue to fail coal miners by not enacting tougher safety regulations.

Poisson d'Avril

I think I've found the special purpose of my life. It will be to attempt to plant in West Virginia the French custom of "poisson d'Avril" or Fish of April. It is an April Fools Day prank which today involves sneaking a paper fish somewhere onto the body of unsuspecting people. 

Except I want to do it Old School style. That would involve sneaking real anchovies or sardines into the pockets, clothing, purses or other possessions of unsuspecting people. The smell would give away the prank sooner or later.

I can think of no greater contribution to the progress of the human race.

NOT A PRANK. Here's a great op-ed by Davitt McAteer and my co-worker Beth Spence about what has and hasn't happened in the wake of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster of April 5 2010.

PRISONS. And here's an op-ed by yours truly on WV prison crowding legislation.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED